Minto’s Defoe (E.M.L.)

Dobson’s Samuel Richardson. (E.M.L.)

Dobson’s Henry Fielding. (E.M.L.)

Godden’s Henry Fielding, a Memoir.

Stephen’s Hours in a Library (Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding).

Thackeray’s English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century (Fielding,
Smollett, Sterne, Goldsmith).

Gosse’s Life of Gray. (E.M.L.)

Huxley’s Life of Hume. (E.M.L.)

Morrison’s Life of Gibbon. (E.M.L.)

Woodrow Wilson’s Mere Literature (Burke).

Boswell’s Life of Johnson.

Stephen’s Life of Johnson. (E.M.L.)

Macaulay’s Essay on Croker’s Edition of Boswell’s Life of Johnson.

Irving’s, Forster’s, Dobson’s, Black’s (E.M.L.), or B. Frankfort
Moore’s Life of Goldsmith.

SUGGESTED READINGS WITH QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

The Romantic Movement.—­In order to note the difference in feeling, imagery, and ideals, between the romantic and the classic schools, it will be advisable for the student to make a special comparison of Dryden’s and Pope’s satiric and didactic verse with Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Milton’s Il Penseroso, and with some of the work of the romantic poets in the next period.  What is the difference in the general atmosphere of these poems?  See if the influence of Il Penseroso is noticeable in Collins’s Ode to Evening (Ward[4], III., 287; Bronson, III., 220; Oxford, 531; Manly, I., 273; Century, 386) and in Gray’s Elegy (Ward, III., 331; Bronson, III., 238; Oxford, 516; Manly, I., 267; Century, 398).

What element foreign to Dryden and Pope appears in Thomson’s Seasons (Ward, III., 173; Bronson.  III., 179; Manly, I., 255; Century, 369-372).

What signs of a struggle between the romantic and the classic are noticeable in Goldsmith’s Deserted Village (Ward, III., 373-379; Bronson, III., 282; Manly, I., 278; Century, 463).  Pick out the three finest passages in the poem, and give the reasons for the choice.

Read pp. 173-176 of Ossian (Canterbury Poets series, 40 cents; Chambers, II.; Manly, II., 275), and show why it appealed to the spirit of romanticism.

For a short typical selection from Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, see
Chambers.  II.  Why is this called romantic fiction?

In Percy’s Reliques, read the first ballad, that of Chevy Chase, and explain how the age could turn from Pope to read such rude verse.

In place of Mallet’s Northern Antiquities, twentieth-century readers will prefer books like Guerber’s Myths of Northern Lands and Mabie’s Norse Stories Retold from the Eddas.

From Chatterton’s Aella read nine stanzas from the song beginning:  “O sing unto my roundelay.”  His The Bristowe Tragedy may be compared with Percy’s Reliques and with Coleridge’s The Ancient Mariner.  Selections from Chatterton are given in Bronson, III., Ward, III., Oxford, Manly, I., and Century.