CHAPTER XI

THE VICTORIAN AGE

TIME-CHART OF THE CHIEF AUTHORS

_The thick line represents the period of important literary work._

1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 | | | | | | | | | | | ║[215] | | | | | | ║ | Tennyson |........|.║======================================================║ | (1809–1892) | | | | | | | | | | | ║[216] | | | | | ║ | | Browning |........|.║=================================================║ | | (1812–89) | | | | | | | | | | | ║[217]| | | | ║ | | | Dickens |........|..║==================================║ | | | (1812–70) | | | | | | | | | | | |║ ║[218]| | ║ | | | | Thackeray |........|........|║=║=================║ | | | | (1811–63) | | | ║ | | | | | | | ║ | | | ║[219]| | | | ║ | Meredith | ║..|........|........|...║===================================║....| (1828–1909) | | | | | | | | | | | ║[220] | | | ║ | | ║ | | Carlyle |........|.║============================║....|........|..║ | | (1795–1881) | | | | | | | | | | ║[221]| | | ║ | | | | | Macaulay |..║==============================║ | | | | | (1800–59) | | | | | | | | | | | | ║[222]| | | | | ║ |║ Ruskin |........|........|...║===========================================║.....|║ (1819–1900) | | | | | | | | |

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

=1. An Era of Peace.= The few colonial wars that broke out during the Victorian epoch did not seriously disturb the national life. There was one Continental war that directly affected Britain--the Crimean War--and one that affected her indirectly though strongly--the Franco-German struggle; yet neither of these caused any profound changes. In America the great civil struggle left scars that were soon to be obliterated by the wise statesmanship of her rulers. The whole age may be not unfairly described as one of peaceful activity. In the earlier stages the lessening surges of the French Revolution were still left; but by the middle of the century they had almost completely died down, and other hopes and ideals, largely pacific, were gradually taking their place.

=2. Material Developments.= It was an age alive with new activities. There was a revolution in commercial enterprise, due to the great increase of available markets, and, as a result of this, an immense advance in the use of mechanical devices. The new commercial energy was reflected in the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was greeted as the inauguration of a new era of prosperity.

=3. Intellectual Developments.= There can be little doubt that in many cases material wealth produced a hardness of temper and an impatience of projects and ideas that brought no return in hard cash; yet it is to the credit of this age that intellectual activities were so numerous. There was quite a revolution in scientific thought following upon the works of Darwin and his school, and an immense outburst of social and political theorizing which was represented in England by the writings of men like Herbert Spencer and John Stuart Mill. In addition, popular education became a practical thing. This in its turn produced a new hunger for intellectual food, and resulted in a great increase in the productions of the Press and of other more durable species of literature.

LITERARY FEATURES OF THE AGE

The sixty years (1830–90) commonly included under the name of the Victorian age present many dissimilar features; yet in several respects we can safely generalize.

=1. Its Morality.= Nearly all observers of the Victorian age are struck by its extreme deference to the conventions. To a later age these seem ludicrous. It was thought indecorous for a man to smoke in public and (much later in the century) for a lady to ride a bicycle. To a great extent the new morality was a natural revolt against the grossness of the earlier Regency, and the influence of the Victorian Court was all in its favor. In literature it is amply reflected. Tennyson is the most conspicuous example in poetry, creating the priggishly complacent Sir Galahad and King Arthur. Dickens, perhaps the most representative of the Victorian novelists, took for his model the old picaresque novel; but it is almost laughable to observe his anxiety to be “moral.” This type of writing is quite blameless, but it produced the kind of public that denounced the innocuous _Jane Eyre_ as wicked because it dealt with the harmless affection of a girl for a married man.

=2. The Revolt.= Many writers protested against the deadening effects of the conventions. Carlyle and Matthew Arnold, in their different accents, were loud in their denunciations; Thackeray never tired of satirizing the snobbishness of the age; and Browning’s cobbly mannerisms were an indirect challenge to the velvety diction and the smooth self-satisfaction of the Tennysonian school. As the age proceeded the reaction strengthened. In poetry the Pre-Raphaelites, led by Swinburne and William Morris, proclaimed no morality but that of the artist’s regard for his art. By the vigor of his methods Swinburne horrified the timorous, and made himself rather ridiculous in the eyes of sensible people. It remained for Mr. Hardy (whom we reserve for the next chapter) to pull aside the Victorian veils and shutters and with the large tolerance of the master to regard men’s actions with open gaze. To the present day, sometimes wisely, often unwisely, poet and novelist have carried on the process; and the end is not yet.

=3. Intellectual Developments.= The literary product was inevitably affected by the new ideas in science, religion, and politics. _The Origin of Species_ (1859) of Darwin shook to its foundations scientific thought. We can perceive the influence of such a work in Tennyson’s _In Memoriam_, in Matthew Arnold’s meditative poetry, and in the works of Carlyle. In religious and ethical thought the “Oxford Movement,” as it was called, was the most noteworthy advance. This movement had its source among the young and eager thinkers of the old university, and was headed by the great Newman, who ultimately (1845) joined the Church of Rome. As a religious portent it marked the widespread discontent with the existing beliefs of the Church of England; as a literary influence it affected many writers of note, including Newman himself, Froude, Maurice, Kingsley, and Gladstone.

=4. The New Education.= The Education Acts, making a certain measure of education compulsory, rapidly produced an enormous reading public. The cheapening of printing and paper increased the demand for books, so that the production was multiplied. The most popular form of literature was the novel, and the novelists responded with a will. Much of their work was of a high standard, so much so that it has been asserted by competent critics that the middle years of the nineteenth century were the richest in the whole history of the novel.

=5. International Influences.= During the nineteenth century the interaction among American and European writers was remarkably fresh and strong. In Britain the influence of the great German writers was continuous, and it was championed by Carlyle and Matthew Arnold. Subject nations, in particular the Italians, were a sympathetic theme for prose and verse. The Brownings, Swinburne, Morris, and Meredith were deeply absorbed in the long struggle of the followers of Garibaldi and Cavour; and when Italian freedom was gained the rejoicings were genuine.

=6. The Achievement of the Age.= With all its immense production, the age produced no supreme writer. It revealed no Shakespeare, no Shelley, nor (in the international sense) a Byron or a Scott. The general literary level was, however, very high; and it was an age, moreover, of spacious intellectual horizons, noble endeavor, and bright aspirations.

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809–92)

=1. His Life.= Alfred Tennyson, the son of a clergyman, was born at his father’s living at Somersby in Lincolnshire. After some schooling at Louth, which was not agreeable to him, he proceeded to Cambridge (1828). At the university he was a wholly conventional person, and the only mark he made was to win the Chancellor’s Prize for a poem on Timbuctoo. He left Cambridge without taking a degree; but before doing so he published a small volume of mediocre verse. During the next twenty years he passed a tranquil existence, living chiefly with his parents, and writing much poetry. Pleasant jaunts--to the Lake District, to Stratford-on-Avon, and other places--varied his peaceful life, and all the while his fame as a poet was making headway. In 1844 he lost most of his small means in an unlucky speculation, but in the nick of time (1845) he received a Government pension. He was appointed Poet Laureate (1850) in succession to Wordsworth, married, and removed to Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, which was his home for the next twenty years. In his later years recognition and applause came increasingly upon him, and he was regarded as the greatest poet of his day. In 1884 he was created a baron, sat in the House of Lords, and for a time took himself rather seriously as a politician, falling out with Gladstone over the Irish question. He died at Aldworth, near Haslemere, in Surrey, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

=2. His Poetry.= When he was seventeen years old Tennyson collaborated with his elder brother Charles in _Poems by Two Brothers_ (1826). The volume is a slight one, but in the light of his later work we can already discern a little of the Tennysonian metrical aptitude and descriptive power. His prize poem of _Timbuctoo_ (1829) is not much better than the usual prize poem. His _Poems, Chiefly Lyrical_ (1830), published while he was an undergraduate, are yet immature, but in pieces like _Isabel_ and _Madeleine_ the pictorial effect and the sumptuous imagery of his maturer style are already conspicuous.

His volume of _Poems_ (1832) is of a different quality, and marks a decided advance. In this book, which contains _Mariana in the South_ and _The Palace of Art_, we see the Tennysonian features approaching perfection. _Poems_ (1833), with such notable items as _Œnone_ and _The Lotos-Eaters_, advances still further in technique. Then in 1842 he produced two volumes of poetry that set him once and for all among the greater poets of his day. The first volume contains revised forms of some of the numbers published previously, the second is entirely new. It opens with _Morte d’Arthur_, and contains _Ulysses_, _Locksley Hall_, and several other poems that stand at the summit of his achievement.

The later stages of his career are marked chiefly by much longer poems. _The Princess_ (1847) is a serio-comic attempt to handle the theme that was then known as “the new woman.” For the sake of his story Tennyson imagines a ladies’ academy with a mutinously intellectual princess at the head of it. For a space a tragedy seems imminent, but in the end all is well, for the Princess is married to the blameless hero. The poem is in blank verse, but interspersed are several singularly beautiful lyrics. The humor is heavy, but many of the descriptions are as rich and wonderful as any Tennyson ever attempted.

_In Memoriam_ (1850) caused a great stir when it first appeared. It is a very long series of meditations upon the death of Arthur Henry Hallam, Tennyson’s college friend, who died at Vienna in 1833. Tennyson brooded over the subject for years; and upon this elegiac theme he imposed numerous meditations on life and death, showing how these subjects were affected by the new theories of the day. To a later generation his ideas appear pallid enough; but at the time they marked a great advance upon the notions of the past. The poem is adorned with many beautiful sketches of English scenery; and the meter--now called the _In Memoriam_ meter--which is quite rare, is deftly managed.

_Maud and Other Poems_ (1855) was received with amazement by the public. The chief poem is called a “monodrama”; it consists of a series of lyrics which reflect the love and hatred, the hope and despair, of a lover who slays his mistress’s brother, and then flies broken to France. The whole tone of the work is forced and fevered, and it ends in a glorification of war and bloodshed. It does not add to Tennyson’s fame.

Beginning in 1859, Tennyson issued a series of _Idylls of the King_, which had considered and attempted a great theme that Milton abandoned--that of King Arthur and the Round Table. Many doting admirers saw in the _Idylls_ an allegory of the soul of man; but in effect Tennyson drew largely upon the simple tales of Malory, stripping them of their “bold bawdry” to please his public, and covering them with a thick coating of his delicate and detailed ornamentation. It is doubtful if this unnatural compound of Malory-Tennyson is quite a happy one, but we do obtain much blank verse of noble and sustained power.

The only other poem of any length is _Enoch Arden_ (1864), which became the most popular of all, and found its way in translation into foreign languages. The plot is cheap enough, dealing with a seaman, supposedly drowned, who returns and, finding his wife happily married to another man, regretfully retires without making himself known. The tale, as ever, is rich with Tennysonian adornment. In particular, there is a description of the tropical island where Enoch is wrecked that is among the highest flights of the poet:

The mountain wooded to the peak, the lawns And winding glades high up like ways to Heaven, The slender coco’s drooping crown of plumes, The lightning flash of insect and of bird, The lustre of the long convolvuluses That coiled around the stately stems, and ran Even to the limit of the land, the glows And glories of the broad belt of the world, All these he saw; but what he fain had seen He could not see, the kindly human face, Nor ever hear a kindly voice, but heard The myriad shriek of wheeling ocean-fowl, The league-long roller thundering on the reef.

His last poems contain a harsher note, as if old age had brought disillusion and a peevish discontent with the pleasant artifices that had graced his prime. Even the later instalments of the _Idylls of the King_ contain jarring notes, and are often fretful and unhappy in tone. Among the shorter poems, _Locksley Hall Sixty Years after_ (1885) and _The Death of Œnone_ (1892) are sad echoes of the sumptuous imaginings of the years preceding 1842.

=3. His Plays.= Tennyson’s dramas occupied his later years. He wrote three historical plays--_Queen Mary_ (1875), _Harold_ (1877), and _Becket_ (1884). The last, owing chiefly to the exertions of Sir Henry Irving, the actor-manager, was quite a stage success. None, however, ranks high as a real dramatic effort, though all show much care and skill. _The Falcon_ (1879) is a comedy based on a story from Boccaccio; _The Cup_ (1880) is based on a story from Plutarch, and scored a success, also through the skill of Irving. _The Foresters_ (1892), dealing with the familiar Robin Hood theme, was produced in America.

=4. His Poetical Characteristics.= (_a_) _His Craftsmanship._ No one can deny the great care and skill shown in Tennyson’s work. His method of producing poetry was slowly to evolve the lines in his mind, commit them to paper, and to revise them till they were as near perfection as he could make them. Consequently we have a high level of poetical artistry. No one excels Tennyson in the deft application of sound to sense and in the subtle and pervading employment of alliteration and vowel-music. Such passages as this abound in his work:

Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro’ the lawn, The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees. _The Princess_

This is perhaps not the highest poetry, but shows only a kind of manual, or rather aural, dexterity; yet as Tennyson employs it, it is effective to a degree.

His excellent craftsmanship is also apparent in his handling of English meters, in which he is a tireless experimenter. In blank verse he is not so varied and powerful as Shakespeare, nor so majestical as Milton, but in the skill of his workmanship and in his wealth of diction he falls but little short of these great masters.

(_b_) _His Pictorial Quality._ In this respect Tennyson follows the example of Keats. Nearly all of his poems, even the simplest, abound in ornate description of natural and other scenes. His method is to seize upon appropriate details, dress them in expressive and musical phrases, and thus throw a glistening image before the reader’s eye:

The silk star-broider’d coverlid Unto her limbs itself doth mould Languidly ever; and, amid Her full black ringlets downward rolled, Glows forth each softly-shadowed arm With bracelets of the diamond bright: Her constant beauty doth inform Stillness with love, and day with light. _The Sleeping Beauty_

Till now the doubtful dusk reveal’d The knolls once more where, couched at ease, The white kine glimmered, and the trees Laid their dark arms about the field:

And sucked from out the distant gloom A breeze began to tremble o’er The large leaves of the sycamore, And fluctuate all the still perfume. _In Memoriam_

Such passages as these reveal Tennyson at his best; but once again the doubt arises as to whether they represent the highest poetry. They show care of observation and a studious loveliness of epithet; but they lack the intense insight, the ringing and romantic note, of the best efforts of Keats.

(_c_) Tennyson’s _lyrical quality_ is somewhat uneven. The slightest of his pieces, like _Blow, bugle, blow_, are musical and attractive; but on the whole his nature was too self-conscious, and perhaps his life too regular and prosperous, to provide a background for the true lyrical intensity of emotion. Once or twice, as in the wonderful _Break, break, break_ and _Crossing the Bar_, he touches real greatness:

Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me.

O well for the fisherman’s boy, That he shouts with his sister at play! O well for the sailor lad, That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill; But O for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break, At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me.

This lyric has a brevity, unity, and simple earnestness of emotion that make it truly great.

(_d_) The extracts already given have sufficiently revealed the qualities of his _style_. It can be quite simple, as in _The Brook_ and _Will Waterproof’s Lyrical Monologue_; but his typical style shows a slow and somewhat sententious progress, heavy with imagery and all the other devices of the poetical artist. In particular, he is an adept at coining phrases--“jewels five words long,” as he himself aptly expressed it; and he is almost invariably happy in his choice of epithet.

(_e_) His _reputation_ has already declined from the idolatry in which he was held when he was alive. He himself foresaw “the clamour and the cry” that was bound to arise after his death. To his contemporaries he was a demigod; but younger men strongly assailed his patent literary mannerisms, his complacent acceptance of the evils of his time, his flattery of the great, and his somewhat arrogant assumption of the airs of immortality. Consequently for twenty years after his death his reputation suffered considerably. Once more reaction has set in, and his detractors have modified their attitude. He is not a supreme poet; and whether he will maintain the primacy among the singers of his own generation, as he undoubtedly did during his lifetime, remains to be seen; but, after all deductions are made, his high place in the Temple of Fame is assured.

ROBERT BROWNING (1812–89)

=1. His Life.= Browning was born at Camberwell, his father being connected with the Bank of England. The future poet was educated semi-privately, and from an early age he was free to follow his inclination toward studying unusual subjects. As a child he was precocious, and began to write poetry at the age of twelve. Of his predecessors Shelley in particular influenced his mind, which was unformed and turbulent at this time with the growing power within. After a brief course at London University, Browning for a short period traveled in Russia (1833); then he lived in London, where he became acquainted with some of the leaders of the literary and theatrical worlds. In 1834 he paid his first visit to Italy, a country which was for him a fitful kind of home. In 1845 he visited Elizabeth Barrett, the poetess, whose works had strongly attracted him. A mutual liking ensued, and then, after a private marriage, a sort of elopement followed, to escape the anger of the wife’s stern parent. The remainder of Browning’s life was occupied with journeys between England and France and Italy, and with much poetical activity. His wife died at Florence in 1861, leaving one son. Browning thereupon left the city for good and returned to England, though in 1878 he went back once more to Italy. His works, after suffering much neglect, were now being appreciated, and in 1867 Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L. He died in Italy, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

=2. His Poems and Plays.= His first work of any importance is _Pauline_ (1833). The poem is a wild imitation of the more extravagant outbursts of Shelley, whom it praises effusively. The work is crude and feverish, and at the time it attracted little notice. _Paracelsus_ (1835) reveals Browning’s affection for unusual subjects. The poem, a very long one, is composed largely of monologues of the medieval charlatan whose name forms the title. The work gave the public its first taste of Browning’s famous “obscurity.” The style is often harsh and rugged, but the blank verse contains many isolated passages of great tenderness and beauty. There are in addition one or two charming lyrics that are as limpid as well-water:

Thus the Mayne glideth Where my love abideth. Sleep’s no softer: it proceeds On through lawns, on through meads, On and on, whate’er befall, Meandering and musical, Though the niggard pasturage Bears not on its shaven ledge Aught but weeds and waving grasses To view the river as it passes, Save here and there a scanty patch Of primrose too faint to catch A weary bee.

His next effort was the play _Strafford_ (1837), which was written at the suggestion of the actor Macready, and was fairly successful. _Sordello_ (1840) established Browning’s reputation for obscurity. The poem professes to tell the life-story of a Mantuan troubadour, but most of it is occupied with long irrelevant speeches and with Browning’s commentary thereon. _Pippa Passes_ (1841) is in form a drama. In plot it is highly improbable, as it is based on several coincidences that all happen in one day. The work is rather more terse than its predecessors, and the purple patches are more numerous. Pippa’s songs, moreover, are often of great beauty. In _Dramatic Lyrics_ (1842) there are many examples of clear and forcible work, including his Cavalier lyrics and such well-known pieces as _Home Thoughts from Abroad_. Other works of this period include _The Return of the Druses_ (1843), a play; _Dramatic Romances_ (1846), which shows the Browning obscurity and virility at their best and worst; _Luria_ (1846), perhaps the weakest of his tragedies, resembling _Othello_ in some respects; _Men and Women_ (1855), consisting of dramatic monologues, some of great power and penetration; _Dramatis Personæ_ (1864), containing more monologues; _Balaustion’s Adventure_ (1871), a transcript from Euripides; and the longest of all his works, _The Ring and the Book_ (1868–69), with which the period closes.

_The Ring and the Book_ is (the word is so apt as to be inevitable) a literary “stunt.” It is the story of the murder of a young wife, Pompilia, by her worthless husband, in the year 1698, and the same story is told by nine different people, and continues for twelve books. The result is a monument of masterly discursiveness.

In the later stages of his career Browning’s mannerisms are accentuated in the dreary wildernesses of _Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau_ (1871), _Red Cotton Night-Cap Country_ (1873), _The Inn Album_ (1875), and _La Saisiaz_ (1878). It is difficult to understand the use of such poems, except to give employment to the Browning Societies that were springing up to explain them. But his better qualities are shown in _Fifine at the Fair_ (1872), which is still too long; _Dramatic Idylls_ (1879–80); _Jocoseria_ (1883); _Ferishtah’s Fancies_ (1884); and _Parleyings with Certain People_ (1887). His long life’s work has a powerful close in _Asolando_ (1889), which, along with much of the tired disillusion of the old man, has in places the firmness and enthusiasm of his prime. The last verses he ever wrote describe himself in the character he most loved to adopt:

One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake.

No, at noonday in the bustle of man’s worktime Greet the unseen with a cheer! Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, “Strive and thrive!” cry, “Speed,--fight on, fare ever There as here!”

=3. Features of his Work.= (_a_) _His Style._ Browning’s style has been the subject of endless discussion, for it presents a fascinating problem. Within itself it reveals the widest range. Its famous “obscurity” was so pronounced that it led to the production of “Browning dictionaries” and other apparatus to disclose the deep meanings of the master. This feature of his work is partly due to his fondness for recondite subjects, to his compression and also to his diffuseness of thought and language, and to his juggling with words and meters. It often leads to such passages as the following, which is nothing less than jockeying with the English language:

Now, your rater and debater Is baulked by a mere spectator Who simply stares and listens Tongue tied, while eye nor glistens Nor brow grows hot and twitchy, Nor mouth, for a combat itchy, Quivers with some convincing Reply--that sets him wincing? Nay, rather, reply that furnishes Your debater with what burnishes The crest of him, all one triumph, As you see him rise, hear him cry “Humph! Convinced am I? This confutes me. Receive the rejoinder that suits me! Confutation of vassal for prince meet-- Wherein all the powers that convince meet, And mash my opponent to mincemeat!” _Pacchiarotto_

In contrast with this huddle of words, Browning can write clearly and with perfect cohesion and directness, as may easily be seen in such well-known poems as _How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix_, _Time’s Revenges_, and _The Glove_. His middle style, common in his blank verse and his lyrics, is somewhat like that of Byron in its fine prosaic aptness:

This flower she stopped at, finger on lip, Stooped over, in doubt, as settling its claim; Till she gave me, with pride to make no slip, Its soft meandering Spanish name:

What a name! Was it love or praise? Speech half-asleep or song half-awake? I must learn Spanish, one of these days, Only for that slow sweet name’s sake. _Garden Fancies_

(_b_) _His Descriptive Power._ In this respect Browning differs widely from Tennyson, who slowly creates a lovely image by careful massing of detail. Browning, however, makes one or two dashing strokes, and, by his complete mastery of phrase, the picture is revealed:

Yon otter, sleek-wet, black, lithe as a leech; Yon auk, one fire-eye in a ball of foam, That floats and feeds; a certain badger brown He hath watched hunt with that slant white-wedge eye By moonlight; and the pie with the long tongue That pricks deep into oakworts for a worm, And says a plain word when she finds her prize. _Caliban upon Setebos_

This love for the picturesque leads him into many crooked byways of life, manners, and history, often with results that dismay his warmest admirers. Frequently, however, the stubborn thistle of his style blossoms into glossy purples. For example, in _The Ring and the Book_, we often light upon a tender passage like the following, which refreshes the whole arid page around it:

So, when the she-dove breeds, strange yearnings come For the unknown shelter by undreamed-of shores, And there is born a blood-pulse in her heart To fight if needs be, though with flap of wing, For the wool-flock or the fur-tuft, though a hawk Contest the prize.

(_c_) _His Teaching._ Much play has been made with this side of his writings. But, after analysis, his teaching can with fairness be summed up in the simple exhortation to strive, hope, and fear not. A fair proportion of his poems are inspired with the facile optimism that led him to cry,

God’s in his heaven, All’s right with the world,

but his sager mind let him perceive that much of the world was wrong. He had generous enthusiasms, such as that for the cause of Italian liberty; several strong prejudices, such as that against spiritualism; but on the whole his is a fair reflex of the average mind of his day, with the addition of much reading and observation and the priceless boon of genuine poetical genius.

(_d_) _His Reputation._ Recognition was slow in coming, but like Wordsworth he lived to see his name established high among his fellows. He wrote too freely, and often too carelessly and perversely, and much of his work will pass into oblivion; but the residue will be of quality high enough to make his fame secure.

OTHER POETS

=1. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61)=, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Barrett, was the daughter of a West India planter, and was born at Durham. She began to write poems at the age of eight; her first published work worth mentioning was _An Essay on Mind_ (1826), which is of slight importance. When she was about thirty years old delicate health prostrated her, and for the rest of her life she was almost an invalid. In 1846, when she was forty, she and Robert Browning were married, and stole off to Italy, where they made Florence their headquarters. She was a woman of acute sensibilities, and was fervid in the support of many good causes, one of which was the attainment of Italian independence. On the death of Wordsworth in 1850 it was suggested that the Laureateship should be conferred upon her, but the project fell through. After a very happy married life she died at Florence.

Only the chief of her numerous poetical works can be mentioned here. After her first work noted above there was a pause of nine years; then appeared _Prometheus Bound_ (1835). Other works are _The Seraphim_ (1838), _Sonnets from the Portuguese_ (1846), _Casa Guidi Windows_ (1851), _Aurora Leigh_ (1857), an immense poem in blank verse, and _Last Poems_ (1861). She wrote many of her shorter pieces for magazines, the most important contributions being _The Cry of the Children_ (1841) for _Blackwood’s_ and _The Great God Pan_ (1860) for the _Cornhill_. As a narrative poet Mrs. Browning is a comparative failure, for in method she is discursive and confused, but she has command of a sweet, clear, and often passionate style. She has many slips of taste, and her desire for elevation sometimes leads her into what Rossetti called “falsetto masculinity,” a kind of hysterical bravado.

=2. Matthew Arnold (1822–88)= was a writer of many activities, but it is chiefly as a poet that he now holds his place in literature. He was the son of the famous headmaster of Rugby, and was educated at Winchester, Rugby, and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he gained the Newdigate Prize for poetry. Subsequently he became a Fellow of Oriel College (1845). In 1851 he was appointed an inspector of schools, and proved to be a capable official. His life was busily uneventful, and in 1886 he resigned, receiving a pension from the Government. Less than two years afterward he died suddenly of heart disease.

His poetical works are not very bulky. _The Strayed Reveller_ (1848) appeared under the _nom de plume_ of “A”; then followed _Empedocles on Etna_ (1853), _Poems_ (1854), and _New Poems_ (1868). None of these volumes is of large size, though much of the content is of a high quality. For subject Arnold is fond of classical themes, to which he gives a meditative and even melancholy cast common in modern compositions. In some of the poems--as, for example, in the nobly pessimistic _Scholar-Gipsy_--he excels in the description of typical English scenery. In style he has much of the classical stateliness and more formal type of beauty, but he can be graceful and charming, with sometimes the note of real passion. His meditative poetry, like _Dover Beach_ and _A Summer Night_, resembles that of Gray in its subdued melancholy resignation, but all his work is careful, scholarly, and workmanlike.

His prose works are large in bulk and wide in range. Of them all his critical essays are probably of the highest value. _Essays in Criticism_ (1865) contains the best of his critical work, which is marked by wide reading and careful thought. His judgment, usually admirably sane and measured, is sometimes distorted a little by his views on life and politics. Arnold also wrote freely upon theological and political themes, but these were largely topics of the day, and his works on such subjects have no great permanent value. His best books of this class are _Culture and Anarchy_ (1869) and _Literature and Dogma_ (1873).

=3. Edward Fitzgerald (1809–83)=, like Thomas Gray, lives in general literature by one poem. This, after long neglect, came to be regarded as one of the great things in English literature. He was a man of original views and retiring habits, and spent most of his life in his native Suffolk. In 1859 he issued the _Rubáiyát_ of the early Persian poet Omar Khayyám. His version is a very free translation, cast into curious four-lined stanzas, which have an extraordinary cadence, rugged yet melodious, strong yet sweet. The feeling expressed in the verses, with much energy and picturesque effect, is stoical resignation. Fitzgerald also wrote a prose dialogue of much beauty called _Euphranor_ (1851); and his surviving letters testify to his quiet and caustic humor.

=4. Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–61)= was born at Liverpool, and educated at Rugby, where Dr. Arnold made a deep impression upon his mind. He proceeded to Oxford, where, like his friend Matthew Arnold, he later became a Fellow of Oriel College. He traveled much, and then became Warden of University Hall, London. This post he soon resigned, and some public appointments followed. He died at Florence, after a long pilgrimage to restore his failing health. His death was bewailed by Arnold in his beautiful elegy _Thyrsis_.

Clough’s first long poem was _The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich_ (1848), which is written in rough classical hexameters and contains some fine descriptions of the Scottish Highlands. He wrote little else of much value. His _Amours de Voyage_ (1849) is also in hexameters; _Dipsychus_ (1850) is a meditative poem. His poetry is charged with much of the deep-seated unrest and despondency that mark the work of Arnold. His lyrical gift is not great, but once at least, in the powerful _Say not the Struggle Naught Availeth_, he soared into greatness.

=5. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82)= was the eldest of the Pre-Raphaelite school of artists and poets. He himself was both artist and poet. He was the son of an Italian refugee, and early became an artist. In art, as in poetry, he broke away from convention when he saw fit. His poetical works are small in bulk, consisting of two slight volumes, _Poems_ (1870) and _Ballads and Sonnets_ (1881).

Of the high quality of these poems there can be little question. With a little more breadth of view, and with perhaps more of the humane element in him, he might have found a place among the very highest. For he had real genius, and in _The Blessed Damozel_ his gifts are fully displayed: a gift for description of almost uncanny splendor, a brooding and passionate introspection, often of a religious nature, and a verbal beauty as studied and melodious as that of Tennyson--less certain and decisive perhaps, but surpassing that of the older poet in unearthly suggestiveness. In his ballads, like _Rose Mary_ and _Troy Town_, the same powers are apparent, though in a lesser degree; these have in addition a power of narrative that is only a very little short of the greatest. An extract appears on p. 515.

=6. Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–94)= was a younger sister of the poet last named, and survived him by some years. Her life was uneventful, like her brother’s, and was passed chiefly in London.

Her bent was almost entirely lyrical, and was shown in _Goblin Market_ (1862), _The Prince’s Progress_ (1866), _A Pageant_ (1881), and _Verses_ (1892). Another volume, called _New Poems_ (1896), was published after her death, and contains much excellent early work. Her poetry, perhaps less impressive than that of her brother in its descriptive passages, has a purer lyrical note of deep and sustained passion, with a somewhat larger command of humor, and a gift of poetical expression as noble and comprehensive as his own. They resemble each other in a curious still undertone of passionate religious meditation joined to a fine simplicity of diction.

=7. William Morris (1834–96)= produced a great amount of poetry, and was one of the most conspicuous figures in mid-Victorian literature. He was born near London, the son of a wealthy merchant, and was educated at Marlborough and Oxford. His wealth, freeing him from the drudgery of a profession, permitted him to take a lively and practical interest in the questions of his day. Upon art, education, politics, and social problems his great energy and powerful mind led him to take very decided views, sometimes of an original nature. Here we are concerned only with his achievement in literature.

At an early period he was drawn into the Pre-Raphaelite movement, for he was keenly alive to its studied beauty and rather extreme medievalism. _The Defence of Guenevere_ (1858), written in this manner, was received with neglect. The poems are laboriously fantastic, but they show great beauty and a sense of restrained passion. _The Life and Death of Jason_ (1866) is a long narrative poem on a familiar theme, written in the heroic couplet in a manner suggestive of Chaucer, but easy and melodious to an extent that makes the tale almost monotonous. _The Earthly Paradise_ (1868–70) develops this narrative method still further, and is a collection of twenty-four tales on various subjects of classical and medieval origin. In meter the poems vary, but the couplet is prominent. In range and vivacity the work is extraordinary, and the framework into which the tales are set is both ingenious and beautiful. _Poems by the Way_ (1891) contains some fine miscellaneous pieces. A brief extract from his poems will be found on p. 514.

Morris also busied himself with the composition of long prose tales, produced in great quantity during the later years of his life. The tales are written in a curious headlong, semi-rhythmical, semi-archaic style. Much reading of it tends to give the reader mental indigestion, but the vigor and skill of the prose are very considerable. Some of the tales are _The House of the Wolfings_ (1889), _The Roots of the Mountains_ (1890), _The Story of the Glittering Plain_ (1891), and _The Sundering Flood_ (1898).

=8. Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)= had a long life and his poetical work was in proportion to it. Of aristocratic lineage, he was educated at Eton and Oxford. He left Oxford (1860) without taking a degree, and for the rest of his life wrote voluminously, if not always judiciously. He was a man of quick attachments and violent antagonisms, and these features of his character did much to vitiate his prose criticisms, of which he wrote a large number. In his later years, from 1879 onward, he lived with his friend Theodore Watts-Dunton at Putney Hill, where he died.

_Atalanta in Calydon_ (1865), an attempt at an English version of an ancient Greek tragedy, was his first considerable effort in poetic form, and it attracted notice at once. At a bound the young poet had attained to a style of his own: tuneful and impetuous movement, a cunning metrical craftsmanship, and a mastery of melodious diction. The excess of these virtues was also its bane, leading to diffuseness, breathlessness, and incoherence. _Poems and Ballads_ (1866), a second extraordinary book, was, owing to its choice of unconventional subjects, criticized as being wicked. In it the Swinburnian features already mentioned are revealed in a stronger fashion. Only a few of his later poetical works can be mentioned here: _Songs before Sunrise_ (1871), a collection of poems chiefly in praise of Italian liberty, some of them of great beauty, but marred by his reckless defiance of the common view; _Erectheus_ (1876), a further and less successful effort at Greek tragedy; and _Tristram of Lyonesse_ (1882), a narrative of much passion and force, composed in the heroic couplet. Some of his shorter poems were reproduced in two further series of _Poems and Ballads_ in 1878 and 1889, but they are inferior to those of his prime.

Swinburne wrote a large number of plays, of which the most noteworthy are _The Queen Mother and Rosamond_ (1860), with which he began his career as an author; three plays on the subject of Mary Queen of Scots, called _Chastelard_ (1865), _Bothwell_ (1874), and _Mary Stuart_ (1881); _Locrine_ (1887); and _The Sisters_ (1892). The gifts of Swinburne are lyrical rather than dramatic, and his tragedies, like those of most of his contemporaries, are only of literary importance. His blank verse is strongly phrased, and in drama his diffuseness--that desire for mere sound and speed which was his greatest weakness--has little scope.

=9. Arthur Edward O’Shaughnessy (1844–81)= was born in London, of Irish descent. In 1861 he joined the staff of the British Museum Library, where a promising career was cut short by his early death. He wrote little, and his books came close upon each other: _The Epic of Women_ (1870), _Lays of France_ (1872), _Music and Moonlight_ (1874), and _Songs of a Worker_ (1881), the last appearing after his death. His longer poems have a certain haziness and incoherence, but the shorter pieces have a musical and attractive style and a certain half-mystical wistfulness. His ode beginning “We are the music-makers” is often quoted, and other poems quite as good are _A Neglected Heart_ and _Exile_.

CHARLES DICKENS (1812–70)

=1. His Life.= Dickens was born near Portsea, where his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. Charles, the second of eight children, was a delicate child, and much of his boyhood was spent at home, where he read the novels of Smollett, Fielding, and Le Sage. The works of these writers were to influence his own novels very deeply. At an early age also he became very fond of the theater, a fondness that remained with him all his life, and affected his novels to a great extent. In 1823 the Dickens family removed to London, where the father, an improvident man of the Micawber type, soon drew them into money difficulties. The schooling of Charles, which had all along been desultory enough, was temporarily suspended. The boy for a time worked in a blacking factory while his father was an inmate of the debtors’ prison of the Marshalsea. After a year or so financial matters improved; the education of Charles was resumed; then in 1827 he entered the office of an attorney, and in time became an expert shorthand-writer. This proficiency led (1835) to an appointment as reporter on the _Morning Chronicle_. In this capacity he did much traveling by stage-coach, during which a keen eye and a retentive memory stored material to exploit a greatness yet undreamed of. Previously, in 1833, some articles which he called _Sketches by Boz_ had appeared in _The Monthly Magazine_. They were brightly written, and attracted some notice.

In 1836 Messrs. Chapman and Hall, a firm of publishers, had agreed to produce in periodical form a series of sketches by Seymour, a popular black-and-white artist. The subjects were of a sporting and convivial kind, and to give them more general interest some story was needed to accompany them. Dickens was requested to supply the “book,” and thus originated _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836). Before the issue of the second number of the prints Seymour committed suicide, and Hablot K. Browne, who adopted the name of “Phiz,” carried on the work. His illustrations are still commonly adopted for Dickens’s books.

_The Pickwick Papers_ was a great success; Dickens’s fame was secure, and the rest of his life was that of a busy and successful novelist. He lived to enjoy a reputation that was unexampled, surpassing even that of Scott; for the appeal of Dickens was wider and more searching than that of the Scottish novelist. He varied his work with much traveling--among other places to America (1842), to Italy (1844), to Switzerland (1846), and again to America (1867). His popularity was exploited in journalism, for he edited _The Daily News_ (1846), and founded _Household Words_ (1849) and _All the Year Round_ (1859). In 1858 Dickens commenced his famous series of public readings. These were

## actings rather than readings, for he chose some of the most violent or

affecting scenes from his novels and presented them with full-blown histrionic effect. The readings brought him much money, but they wore him down physically. They were also given in America, with the greatest success. He died in his favorite house, Gad’s Hill Place, near Rochester, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

=2. His Novels.= _Sketches by Boz_ (1833), a series dealing with London life in the manner of Leigh Hunt, is interesting, but trifling when compared with _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836), its successor. The plot of the latter book is rudimentary. In order to provide an occasion for Seymour’s sketches Dickens hit upon the idea of a sporting club, to be called the Pickwick Club. As the book proceeds this idea is soon dropped, and the story becomes a kind of large and genial picaresque novel. The incidents are loosely connected and the chronology will not bear close inspection, but in abundance of detail of a high quality, in vivacity of humor, in acute and accurate observation, the book is of the first rank. It is doubtful if Dickens ever improved upon it. Then, before _Pickwick_ was finished, _Oliver Twist_ (1837) appeared piecemeal in _Bentley’s Miscellany_; and _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838) was begun before the second novel had ceased to appear. The demand for Dickens’s novels was now enormous, and he was assiduous in catering for his public. For his next novels he constructed a somewhat elaborate framework, calling the work _Master Humphrey’s Clock_; but he sensibly abandoned the notion, and the books appeared separately as _The Old Curiosity Shop_ (1840), which was an immense success, and _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841), a historical novel. In 1842 he sailed to America, where his experiences bore fruit in _American Notes_ (1843) and _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1843). These works were not complimentary to the Americans, and they brought him much unpopularity in the United States. _A Christmas Carol_ (1843) and _Dombey and Son_ (1848) appeared next, the latter being written partly at Lausanne. Then in 1849 he started _David Copperfield_, which contains many of his personal experiences and is often considered to be his masterpiece, though for many critics _The Pickwick Papers_ retains its primacy.

From this point onward a certain decline is manifest. His stories drag; his mannerisms become more apparent, and his splendid buoyancy is less visible. _Bleak House_ (1852) and _Hard Times_ (1854) were written for his _Household Words_; _Little Dorrit_ (1856) appeared in monthly parts; _A Tale of Two Cities_ (1859) and _Great Expectations_ (1860) were for _All the Year Round_. After producing _Our Mutual Friend_ (1864) he paid his second visit to America, and was received very cordially. He returned to England, but did not live to finish _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, which was appearing in monthly parts when he died.

=3. Features of his Novels.= (_a_) _Their Popularity._ At the age of twenty-six Dickens was a popular author. This was a happy state of affairs for him, and to his books it served as an ardent stimulus. But there were attendant disadvantages. The demand for his novels was so enormous that it often led to hasty and ill-considered work: to crudity of plot, to unreality of characters, and to looseness of style. It led also to the pernicious habit of issuing the stories in parts. This in turn resulted in much padding and in lopsidedness of construction. The marvelous thing is that with so strong a temptation to slop-work he created books that were so rich and enduring.

(_b_) _His Imagination._ No English novelist excels Dickens in the multiplicity of his characters and situations. _Pickwick Papers_, the first of the novels, teems with characters, some of them finely portrayed, and in mere numbers the supply is maintained to the very end of his life. He creates for us a whole world of people. In this world he is most at home with persons of the lower and middle ranks of life, especially those who frequent the neighborhood of London.

(_c_) _His Humor and Pathos._ It is very likely that the reputation of Dickens will be maintained chiefly as a humorist. His humor is broad, humane, and creative. It gives us such real immortals as Mr. Pickwick, Mrs. Gamp, Mr. Micawber, and Sam Weller--typical inhabitants of the Dickensian sphere, and worthy of a place in any literary brotherhood. Dickens’s humor is not very subtle, but it goes deep, and in expression it is free and vivacious. His satire is apt to develop into mere burlesque, as it does when he deals with Mr. Stiggins and Bumble. As for his pathos, in its day it had an appeal that appears amazing to a later generation, whom it strikes as cheap and maudlin. His devices are often third-rate, as when they depend upon such themes as the deaths of little children, which he describes in detail. His genius had little tragic force. He could describe the horrible, as in the death of Bill Sikes; he could be painfully melodramatic, as in characters like Rosa Dartle and Madame Defarge; but he seems to have been unable to command the simplicity of real tragic greatness.

(_d_) His _mannerisms_ are many, and they do not make for good in his novels. It has often been pointed out that his characters are created not “in the round,” but “in the flat.” Each represents one mood, one turn of phrase. Uriah Heep is “’umble,” Barkis is “willin’.” In this fashion his characters become associated with catch-phrases, like the personages in inferior drama. Dickens’s partiality for the drama is also seen in the staginess of his scenes and plots.

(_e_) In time his _style_ became mannered also. At its best it is not polished nor scholarly, but it is clear, rapid, and workmanlike, the style of the working journalist. In the early books it is sometimes trivial with puns, Cockneyisms, and tiresome circumlocutions. This heavy-handedness of phrase remained with him all his life. In his more aspiring flights, in particular in his deeply pathetic passages, he adopted a lyrical style, a kind of verse-in-prose, that is blank verse slightly disguised. We add a passage of this last type. It can be scanned in places like pure blank verse:

For she was dead. There, upon her little bed, she lay at rest. The solemn stillness was no marvel now.

She was dead. No sleep so beautiful and calm, so free from trace of pain, so fair to look upon. She seemed a creature fresh from the hand of God, and waiting for the breath of life; not one who had lived and suffered death.

Her couch was dressed with here and there some winter berries and green leaves, gathered in a spot she had been used to favour. “When I die, put near me something that has loved the light, and had the sky above it always.” Those were her words. _The Old Curiosity Shop_

We give also a specimen of the typical Dickensian style. The reader should observe in it the qualities of ease, perspicuity, and humor:

The particular picture on which Sam Weller’s eyes were fixed, as he said this, was a highly coloured representation of a couple of human hearts skewered together with an arrow, cooking before a cheerful fire, while a male and female cannibal in modern attire: the gentleman being clad in a blue coat and white trousers, and the lady in a deep red pelisse with a parasol of the same: were approaching the meal with hungry eyes, up a serpentine gravel path leading thereunto. A decidedly indelicate young gentleman, in a pair of wings and nothing else, was depicted as superintending the cooking; a representation of the spire of the church in Langham Place, London, appeared in the distance; and the whole formed a “valentine,” of which, as a written inscription in the window testified, there was a large assortment within, which the shopkeeper pledged himself to dispose of, to his countrymen generally, at the reduced rate of one and sixpence each. _The Pickwick Papers_

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811–63)

=1. His Life.= Thackeray was born at Calcutta, and was descended from an ancient Yorkshire family. His father having died in 1816, the boy was sent to England for his education; and on the voyage home he had a glimpse of Napoleon, then a prisoner on St. Helena. His school was the Charterhouse, and his college was Trinity College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1829. Both at school and college he struck his contemporaries as an idle and rather cynical youth, whose main diversions were sketching and lampooning his friends and enemies. For a time Thackeray had some intention of becoming an artist, and studied art in Paris. Then the loss of his entire fortune drove him into journalism for a living. He contributed both prose and light verse to several periodicals, including _Punch_ and _Fraser’s Magazine_, winning his way slowly and with much difficulty, for his were gifts that do not gain ready recognition. It was not till nearly the middle of the century that _Vanity Fair_ (1847) brought him some credit, though at first the book was grudgingly received. Thenceforward he wrote steadily and with increasing favor until his death, which occurred with great suddenness. Before his death he had enjoined his executors not to publish any biography, so that of all the major Victorian writers we have of him the scantiest biographical materials.

=2. His Novels.= For a considerable number of years Thackeray was groping for a means of expression, and wavered between verse, prose, and sketching. His earliest literary work consisted of light and popular contributions to periodicals. The most considerable of these are _The Yellowplush Papers_ (1837), contributed to _Fraser’s Magazine_ and dealing with the philosophy and experiences of Jeames, an imaginary footman, and _The Book of Snobs_ (1846), which originally appeared in _Punch_ as _The Snob Papers_. Snobs, who continued to be Thackeray’s pet abhorrence, are defined by him as those “who meanly admire mean things,” and in this early book their widespread activities are closely pursued and harried. _The History of Samuel Titmarsh_ (1841), _The Great Hoggarty Diamond_ (1841), and _The Fitzboodle Papers_ (1842) appeared first in _Fraser’s Magazine_. They are deeply marked with his biting humor and merciless observation of human weaknesses, but they found little acceptance. _The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon_ (1842) is a distinct advance. It is a species of picaresque novel, telling of the adventures of a gambling rascal, an amiable scapegrace who prowls over Europe. In range the book is wider, and the grasp of incident and character is more sure. In _Vanity Fair_ (1847) the genius of Thackeray reaches high-water mark. In theme it is concerned chiefly with the fortunes of Becky Sharp, an adventuress. In dexterity of treatment, in an imaginative power that both reveals and transforms, and in a clear and mournful vision of the vanities of mankind the novel is among the greatest in the language. _Pendennis_ (1848) continues the method of _Vanity Fair_. Partly autobiographical, it portrays life as it appears to the author. Thackeray refuses to bow to convention and precedent, except when these conform to his ideals of literature. In this book Thackeray openly avows his debt to Fielding, the master whom he equals and in places excels. _Henry Esmond_ (1852) is a historical novel of great length and complexity, showing the previous excellences of Thackeray in almost undiminished force, as well as immense care and forethought, a minute and accurate knowledge of the times of Queen Anne, and an extraordinary faculty for reproducing both the style and the atmosphere of the period. By some judges this book is considered to be his best. His novel _The Newcomes_ (1854) is supposed to be edited by Pendennis. In tone it is more genial than its predecessors, but it ends tragically with the death of the aged Colonel Newcome. With _The Virginians_ (1857) the list of the great novels is closed. This book, a sequel to _Henry Esmond_, is a record of the experiences of two lads called Warrington, the grandsons of Henry Esmond himself. In the story, a pale shadow of her former self, appears Beatrix Esmond, the fickle heroine of the earlier book.

In 1860 Thackeray was appointed first editor of _The Cornhill Magazine_, and for this he wrote _Lovel the Widower_ (1860), _The Adventures of Philip_ (1861), and a series of essays, charming and witty trifles, which were reissued as _The Roundabout Papers_ (1862). Both in size and in merit these last novels are inferior to their predecessors. At his death he left an unfinished novel, _Denis Duval_.

Like Dickens, Thackeray had much success as a lecturer on both sides of the Atlantic, though in his methods he did not follow his fellow-novelist. Two courses of lectures were published as _The English Humourists_ (1852) and _The Four Georges_ (1857). All his life he delighted in writing burlesques, the best of which are _Rebecca and Rowena_ (1850), a comic continuation of _Ivanhoe_, and _The Legend of the Rhine_ (1851), a burlesque tale of medieval chivalry.

=3. His Poetry.= On the surface Thackeray’s verse appears to be frivolous stuff, but behind the frivolity there is always sense, often a barb of reproof, and sometimes a note of sorrow. _The Ballads of Policeman X_ is an early work contributed in numbers to _Punch_. Others, such as _The White Squall_ and _The Ballad of Bouillabaisse_, have more claim to rank as poetry, for they show much metrical dexterity and in places a touch of real pathos.

=4. Features of his Works.= (_a_) _Their Reputation._ While Dickens was in the full tide of his success Thackeray was struggling through neglect and contempt to recognition. Thackeray’s genius blossomed slowly, just as Fielding’s did; for that reason the fruit is more mellow and matured, and perhaps on that account it will last the longer. Once he had gained the favor of the public he held it, and among outstanding English novelists there is none whose claim is so little subject to challenge.

(_b_) _His Method._ “Since the writer of _Tom Jones_ was buried,” says Thackeray in his preface to _Pendennis_, “no writer of fiction among us has been permitted to depict to the best of his power a MAN. We must shape him and give him a certain conventional temper.” Thackeray’s novels are a protest against this convention. He returns to the Fielding method: to view his characters steadily and fearlessly, and to set on record their failings as well as their merits and capacities. In his hands the results are not flattering to human nature, for most of his clever people are rogues and most of his virtuous folk are fools. But whether they are rogues, or fools, or merely blundering incompetents, his creations are rounded, entire, and quite alive and convincing.

(_c_) _His Humor and Pathos._ Much has been made of the sneering cynicism of Thackeray’s humor, and a good deal of the criticism is true. It was his desire to reveal the truth, and satire is one of his most potent methods of revelation. His sarcasm, a deadly species, is husbanded for deserving objects, such as Lord Steyne and (to a lesser degree) Barnes Newcome. In the case of people who are only stupid, like Rawdon Crawley, mercy tempers justice; and when Thackeray chooses to do so he can handle a character with loving tenderness, as can be seen in the case of Lady Castlewood and of Colonel Newcome. In pathos he is seldom sentimental, being usually quiet and effective. But at the thought of the vain, the arrogant, and the mean people of the world Thackeray barbs his pen, with destructive results.

(_d_) His _style_ is very near to the ideal for a novelist. It is effortless, and is therefore unobtrusive, detracting in no wise from the interest in the story. It is also flexible to an extraordinary degree. We have seen how in _Esmond_ he recaptured the Addisonian style; this is only one aspect of his mimetic faculty, which in his burlesques finds ample scope. We add a typical specimen of his style:

As they came up to the house at Walcote, the windows from within were lighted up with friendly welcome; the supper-table was spread in the oak-parlour; it seemed as if forgiveness and love were awaiting the returning prodigal. Two or three familiar faces of domestics were on the look-out at the porch--the old housekeeper was there, and young Lockwood from Castlewood in my lord’s livery of tawny and blue. His dear mistress pressed his arm as they passed into the hall. Her eyes beamed out on him with affection indescribable. “Welcome,” was all she said: as she looked up, putting back her fair curls and black hood. A sweet rosy smile blushed on her face: Harry thought he had never seen her look so charming. Her face was lighted with a joy that was brighter than beauty--she took a hand of her son who was in the hall waiting his mother--she did not quit Esmond’s arm. _Henry Esmond_

GEORGE MEREDITH (1828–1909)

Of the later Victorian novelists Meredith takes rank as the most noteworthy.

=1. His Life.= The known details of Meredith’s earlier life are still rather scanty, and he himself gives us little enlightenment. He was born at Portsmouth, and until he was sixteen he was educated in Germany. At first he studied law, but, rebelling against his legal studies, took to literature as a profession, contributing to magazines and newspapers. Like so many of the eager spirits of his day, he was deeply interested in the struggles of Italy and Germany to be free. For some considerable time he was reader to a London publishing house; then, as his own books slowly won their way, he was enabled to give more time to their composition. In 1867 he was appointed editor of _The Fortnightly Review._ He died at his home at Boxhill, Surrey.

=2. His Poetry.= During all his career as a novelist Meredith published much verse. _Chillianwallah_ (1849), his first published work, contains much spirited verse; other works are _Modern Love_ (1862), _Ballads and Poems_ (1887), and _Poems_ (1892). Like his novels, much of Meredith’s poetry is almost willfully obscure, as it undoubtedly is in _Modern Love_; but in the case of such poems as _The Nuptials of Attila_ he is clear and vigorous. He loved nature and the open air, and in poems like the beautiful _Love in the Valley_ such affection is brightly visible. Like Swinburne, he was always eager to champion the cause of the oppressed.

=3. His Novels.= Meredith’s first novel of importance is _The Ordeal of Richard Feverel_ (1859). Almost at one stride he attains to his full strength, for this novel is typical of much of his later work. In plot it is rather weak, and almost incredible toward the end. It deals with a young aristocrat educated on a system laboriously virtuous; but youthful nature breaks the bonds, and complications follow. Most of the characters are of the higher ranks of society, and they are subtly analyzed and elaborately featured. They move languidly across the story, speaking in a language as extraordinary, in its chiseled epigrammatic precision, as that of the creatures of Congreve or Oscar Wilde. The general style of the language is mannered in the extreme; it is a kind of elaborate literary confectionery--it almost seems a pity on the part of the hasty novel-reader to swallow it in rude mouthfuls. Nevertheless, behind this appearance of artificiality there ranges a mind both subtle and sure, an elfish, satiric spirit, and a passionate ideal of artistic perfection. Such a novel could hardly hope for a ready recognition; but its ultimate fame was assured.

The next novel was _Evan Harrington_ (1860), which contains some details of Meredith’s own family life; then followed _Emilia in England_ (1864), the name of which was afterward altered to _Sandra Belloni_, in which the scene is laid partly in Italy. In _Rhoda Fleming_ (1865) Meredith tried to deal with plebeian folks, but with indifferent success. The heroines of his later novels--Meredith was always careful to make his female characters at least as important as his male ones--are aristocratic in rank and inclinations. _Vittoria_ (1867) is a sequel to _Sandra Belloni_, and contains much spirited handling of the Italian insurrectionary movement. Then came _The Adventures of Harry Richmond_ (1870), in which the scene is laid in England, and _Beauchamp’s Career_ (1874), in which Meredith’s style is seen in its most exaggerated form. In _The Egoist_ (1879), his next novel, Meredith may be said to reach the climax of his art. The style is fully matured, with much less surface glitter and more depth and solidity; the treatment of the characters is close, accurate, and amazingly detailed; and the Egoist himself, Sir Willoughby Patterne--Meredith hunted the egoist as remorselessly as Thackeray pursued the snob--is a triumph of comic artistry. The later novels are of less merit. _The Tragic Comedians_ (1880) is chaotic in plot and over-developed in style; and the same faults may be urged against _Diana of the Crossways_ (1885), though it contains many beautiful passages; _One of our Conquerors_ (1890) is nearly impossible in plot and style, and _The Amazing Marriage_ (1895) is not much better.

We add a short typical specimen of Meredith’s style. Observe the studied precision of phrase and epithet, the elaboration of detail, and the imaginative power.

She had the mouth that smiles in repose. The lips met full on the centre of the bow and thinned along to a lifting dimple; the eyelids also lifted slightly at the outer corners and seemed, like the lip into the limpid cheek, quickening up the temples, as with a run of light, or the ascension indicated off a shoot of colour. Her features were playfellows of one another, none of them pretending to rigid correctness, nor the nose to the ordinary dignity of governess among merry girls, despite which the nose was of fair design, not acutely interrogative or inviting to gambols. Aspens imaged in water, waiting for the breeze, would offer a susceptible lover some suggestion of her face; a pure smooth-white face, tenderly flushed in the cheeks, where the gentle dints were faintly intermelting even during quietness. Her eyes were brown, set well between mild lids, often shadowed, not unwakeful. Her hair of lighter brown, swelling above her temples on the sweep to the knot, imposed the triangle of the fabulous wild woodland visage from brow to mouth and chin, evidently in agreement with her taste; and the triangle suited her; but her face was not significant of a tameless wildness or of weakness; her equable shut mouth threw its long curve to guard the small round chin from that effect; her eyes wavered only in humour, they were steady when thoughtfulness was awakened; and at such seasons the build of her winter-beechwood hair lost the touch of nymph-like and whimsical, and strangely, by mere outline, added to her appearance of studious concentration. Observe the hawk on stretched wings over the prey he spies, for an idea of this change in the look of a young lady whom Vernon Whitford could liken to the Mountain Echo, and Mrs Mountstuart Jenkinson pronounced to be “a dainty rogue in porcelain.” _The Egoist_

OTHER NOVELISTS

=1. Charlotte Brontë (1816–55)= is the most important of three sisters, the other two being =Emily Brontë (1818–48)= and =Anne Brontë (1820–49)=. They were the daughters of an Irish clergyman who held a living in Yorkshire. Financial difficulties compelled Charlotte to become a schoolteacher and then (1832) a governess. Along with Emily she visited Brussels in 1842, and then returned home, where family cares kept her closely tied. Later her books had much success, and so she was released from many of her financial worries. She was married in 1854, but died in the next year. Her two younger sisters, brilliant but erratic creatures, had predeceased her.

The three sisters began their career jointly with a volume of verse, in which they respectively adopted the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. The poems, which appeared in 1846, are unusually fine in parts, especially the pieces ascribed to Emily. Charlotte’s first novel, _The Professor_, which was written before the poems were published, had no success, and was not published till after her death. _Jane Eyre_ (1847), which was given to the world after _The Professor_ had failed to find a publisher, created a stir by its unusual candor, passion, and power. It was based on the work of Thackeray, whom Miss Brontë, in the second edition of the book, acknowledged as her Master in the art of fiction. Her other novels were _Shirley_ (1849) and _Villette_ (1853).

The truth and intensity of Charlotte’s work are unquestioned: she can see and judge with the eye of a genius. But these merits have their disadvantages. In the plots of her novels she is largely restricted to her own experiences; her high seriousness is unrelieved by any humor; and her passion is at times overcharged to the point of frenzy. But to the novel she brought an energy and passion that gave to commonplace people and actions the wonder and beauty of the romantic world.

Emily wrote a novel, _Wuthering Heights_ (1847), a wild effort, hit or miss, at the tragical romance. Where she is successful she attains to a tragical emphasis that is almost sublime; but as a whole the book is too unequal to rank as very great.

The third sister, Anne, in her short life wrote two novels, _Agnes Grey_ (1847) and _The Tenant of Wildfell Hall_ (1847). They are much inferior to the novels of her sisters, for she lacks nearly all their power and intensity.

=2. Charles Reade (1814–84)= was born in Oxfordshire, being the youngest son of a squire. He was educated at Iffley and Oxford, and then, entering Lincoln’s Inn, was called to the Bar. He was only slightly interested in the legal profession, but very fond of the theater and traveling. After 1852 he settled down to the career of the successful man of letters. He died at Shepherd’s Bush.

He began authorship with the writing of plays. As a playwright he had a fair amount of success, his most fortunate production being _Masks and Faces_ (1852), written in collaboration with Tom Taylor. _Peg Woffington_ (1853) was his first novel, and was followed by _Christie Johnstone_ (1853), which deals with Scottish fisherfolk. _It’s Never too Late to Mend_ (1856), sometimes considered to be his masterpiece, treats of prisons and of life in the colonies. _The Cloister and the Hearth_ (1861), one of his best novels, is a story of the later Middle Ages, and shows the author’s immense care and knowledge; _Hard Cash_ (1863) is an attack upon private lunatic asylums; and _Griffith Gaunt_ (1866), _Foul Play_ (1869), and some other inferior books are in the nature of propaganda against abuses of the time.

When he is at his best Reade tells a fine tale, for he can move with speed and describe with considerable power. But he tends to overload his narrative with historical and topical detail, of which he collected great masses. His style, too, is frequently marred by annoying tricks of manner, such as over-emphasis and mechanical repetition. Since his own day his reputation has declined.

=3. Anthony Trollope (1815–82)= is another Victorian novelist who just missed greatness. The son of a barrister, he was born in London, educated at Harrow and Winchester, and obtained an appointment in the Post Office. After an unpromising start he rapidly improved, and rose high in the service.

In all Trollope wrote over fifty novels, the best of which are _The Warden_ (1855), _Barchester Towers_ (1857), _Doctor Thorne_ (1858), _Framley Parsonage_ (1861), and _The Last Chronicle of Barset_ (1867). He is at his best when he deals with the lives of the clergymen of the town that he calls Barchester, which has been identified with Salisbury. His novels, owing to the rapidity of their output, tend to become mechanical and ill constructed; but he has a genial humor, a lively narrative method, and much shrewd observation. _Barchester Towers_ contains several characters not unworthy of Dickens.

=4. Wilkie Collins (1824–89)= is considered to be the most successful of the followers of Dickens. At one time, about 1860, his vogue was nearly as great as that of Dickens himself. Collins was born in London, and was a son of a famous painter. After a few years spent in business he took to the study of the law, but very soon abandoned that for literature. He was a versatile man, dabbling much in journalism and play-writing.

Collins specialized in the mystery novel, to which he sometimes added a spice of the supernatural. In many of his books the story, which is often ingeniously complicated, is unfolded by letters or the narratives of persons actually engaged in the events. To a certain extent this method is cumbrous, but it allowed Collins to draw his characters with much wealth of detail. His characters are often described in the Dickensian manner of emphasizing some humor or peculiarity. He wrote more than twenty-five novels, the most popular being _The Dead Secret_ (1857), _The Woman in White_ (1860)--the most successful of them all--_No Name_ (1862), and _The Moonstone_ (1868). _The Moonstone_ is one of the earliest and the best of the great multitude of detective stories that now crowd the popular press. Collins was in addition one of the first authors to devote himself to the short magazine story; After Dark is a little masterpiece.

=5. George Eliot=--the pen name of =Mary Ann Evans (1819–80)=--was during her lifetime reckoned to be among the greatest authors, but time has dealt rather unkindly with her reputation. Even yet, however, she ranks among the greatest of women novelists. The daughter of a Warwickshire land-agent, she was born near Nuneaton, and after being educated at Nuneaton and Coventry lived much at home. Her mind was well above the ordinary in its bent for religious and philosophical speculation. In 1846 she translated Strauss’s _Life of Jesus_, and on the death of her father in 1849 she took entirely to literary work. She was appointed assistant editor of the _Westminster Review_ (1851), and became the center of a literary circle. In later life she traveled extensively, and married (1880) Mr. J. W. Cross. She died at Chelsea in the same year.

Her first fiction consisted of three short stories published in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ and reissued under the title of _Scenes from Clerical Life_ (1857). _Adam Bede_ (1859), her second book, was brilliantly successful. It is a story of country life, subtly yet powerfully told. To this succeeded _The Mill on the Floss_ (1860),

## partly autobiographical. This book is longer and heavier than its

predecessor, but it has much tragic force and acute observation, and a placidly caustic humor. _Silas Marner_ (1861) is shorter, crisper, and exceedingly effective, but _Romola_ (1863), a laborious story of medieval Florence, is overweighted with learning and philosophizing. After this point the decline is rapid in _Felix Holt_ (1866), _Middlemarch_ (1872), _Daniel Deronda_ (1876), and _The Impressions of Theophrastus Such_ (1879).

In some respects George Eliot is first rate: in humorous observation of country folk, in keen analysis of motive, and in a curious kind of grim subdued passion. But she lacks fire and rapidity, and is deficient in the warmer kind of humanity. The consequence is that, especially in the later books, when the heart became subordinated to the head, her people are icily unreal. In these last books, moreover, she allowed her religious, racial, and political theories to run away with her, and thus to ruin her work as artistic fiction.

=6. Charles Kingsley (1819–75)= was a Devonshire man, being born at Holne and brought up at Clovelly. He completed his education at Oxford (1842), where he was very successful as a student, and took orders. During his early manhood he was a strenuous Christian Socialist, and for the first few years of his curacy he devoted himself to the cause of the poor. All his life was spent, first as curate and then as rector, at Eversley, in Hampshire. In the course of time his books brought him honors, including the professorship of history at Oxford and a chaplaincy to the Queen.

His first novels, _Alton Locke_ (1849) and _Yeast_ (1849), deal in a robust fashion with the social questions of his day. They are crude in their methods, but they were effective both as fiction and social propaganda. _Hypatia_ (1853) has for its theme the struggle between early Christianity and intellectual paganism; in workmanship it is less immature, but the cruelly tragic conclusion made it less popular than the others. _Westward Ho!_ (1855), a tale of the good old days of Queen Elizabeth, marks the climax of his career as a novelist. At first the book strikes the reader as being wordy and diffuse, and all through it is marred with much tedious abuse of Roman Catholics; but once the tale roams abroad into exciting scenes it moves with a buoyant zest, and reflects with romantic exuberance the spirit of the early sea-rovers. _Two Years Ago_ (1857) and _Hereward the Wake_ (1866) did not recapture the note of their great predecessor.

Kingsley excels as the manly and straightforward story-teller. His characters, though they are clearly stamped and visualized, lack delicacy of finish, yet they suit his purpose excellently. In treatment he revels in a kind of florid description which is not always successful.

As a poet Kingsley achieved some remarkable results, especially in his short poems. Of these a few, including the familiar _Sands of Dee_, _The Three Fishers_, and _Airly Beacon_, are of the truly lyrical cast: short, profoundly passionate, and perfectly phrased. His longer poems, such as _The Saint’s Tragedy_ (1848), are not nearly so good. Kingsley could write also a rhythmic semi-poetical prose, as is seen in his book of stories from the Greek myths called _The Heroes_ (1856) and to a less degree in his delightful fantasy _The Water Babies_ (1863).

=7. Walter Besant (1836–1901)= is a good example of the class of light novelist that flourished in the later Victorian epoch. He was born at Portsmouth, educated at London and Cambridge, held a professorship in Mauritius, and then, returning to England (1868), settled down to the life of a novelist. Along with =James Rice (1844–82)= he wrote many novels, including _Ready-Money Mortiboy_ (1872) and _The Golden Butterfly_ (1876). These books do not aspire to be great literature, but they are healthy and amusing productions.

=8. George Borrow (1803–81)= had a curious career which did not lose its interest from his method of telling its story. He was born in Norfolk, and was the son of a soldier. From his earliest manhood he led a wandering life, and consorted with queer people, of whose languages and customs he was a quick observer. At one stage of his career he was a colporteur for the Bible Society, visiting Spain and Morocco (1835–39). Then he married a lady with a considerable income, and died a landed proprietor in comfortable circumstances.

His principal books were _The Bible in Spain_ (1843), telling of his adventures as an agent of the Bible Society; _Lavengro_ (1851) and _The Romany Rye_ (1857), dealing with his life among the gypsies; and _Wild Wales_ (1862). His books are remarkable in that they seriously pretend to tell the actual facts of the author’s life, but how much is fact and how much is fiction will never be accurately known, so great is his power of imagination. Taken as mere fiction, the books exert a strong and strange fascination on many readers. They have a naïve simplicity resembling that of Goldsmith, a wry humor, and a quick and natural shrewdness. As a blend of fact and fiction, of hard detail and misty imagination, of sly humor and stockish solemnity, the books stand apart in our literature.

=9. Richard D. Blackmore (1825–1900)= was born in Berkshire, and educated at Tiverton and Oxford. He was called to the Bar, but forsook the law for the occupation of a farmer, which suited him much better. He died at Teddington-on-Thames.

He began authorship by writing verse of little value; then turned to writing novels, which are much worthier as literature. The best of these are _Lorna Doone_ (1869), an excellent historical romance of Exmoor, _The Maid of Sker_ (1872), and _Cripps the Carrier_ (1876). Blackmore had little skill in contriving plots, and many of his characters, especially his wicked characters, carry little conviction. Yet he has a rare capacity for tale-telling, a real enthusiasm for nature, and a romantic eloquence of style that falls little short of greatness. _Lorna Doone_ stands high among historical novels.

=10. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94)= was born at Edinburgh, and was called to the Scottish Bar. He had little taste for the legal profession, and a constitutional tendency to consumption made an outdoor life necessary. He traveled much in an erratic manner, and wrote for periodicals. Then, when his malady became acute, he migrated to Samoa (1888), where the mildness of the climate only delayed a death which came all too prematurely. He lies buried in Samoa.

His first published works were of the essay nature, and included _An Inland Voyage_ (1879), _Travels with a Donkey_ (1879), and _Virginibus Puerisque_ (1881). His next step was into romance, in which he began with _The New Arabian Nights_ (1882), and then had real success with _Treasure Island_ (1883), a stirring yarn of pirates and perilous seas. Then came _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ (1886), a fine example of the terror-mystery novel, and several historical novels: _Kidnapped_ (1887), _The Black Arrow_ (1888), _The Master of Ballantrae_ (1889), and _Catriona_ (1893), which was a sequel to _Kidnapped_. With the exception of _The Black Arrow_, the historical novels deal with Scotland in the eighteenth century. At his death he left a powerful fragment, _Weir of Hermiston_.

In the novel Stevenson carries on the tradition of George Meredith. He applies to the novel a cultivated style and a laborious craftsmanship. These features would in themselves have made his novels unattractive, but to them he added a pawky sense of humor, a swift and brilliant descriptive faculty, and a wide knowledge of and a deep regard for the lore of his native land. Compared with Scott he seems cramped and finicking in his methods, and his outlook is sometimes crude and juvenile, but his finer qualities more than atone for his shortcomings.

Stevenson’s poetry is charming and dexterous, excelling in its treatment of child-nature. His best volumes are _A Child’s Garden of Verses_ (1885), _Underwoods_ (1887), and _Ballads_ (1889).

=11. Samuel Butler (1835–1902)= was born in Nottinghamshire, and educated at Shrewsbury and Cambridge. In 1860 he emigrated to New Zealand, where a few years’ successful sheep-farming allowed him to return to England and live a modest literary life. Butler was a man who harbored unusual ideas on music, art, education, and social conditions in general. His mind was at once cultured and credulous; and his gift of pungent language gave him much influence among the more ardent and advanced minds of his day.

His first work, _Erewhon_ (1872), appeared originally in a newspaper in New Zealand. It is a combination of _Gulliver’s Travels_ and _Utopia_ adapted to modern life, and full of Butler’s odd prejudices and sardonic wit. Its acute thinking and solid narrative gifts are also very apparent. His great novel _The Way of All Flesh_ was published posthumously in 1903. It is modern enough in its keen satire upon conventional education and parental methods of control and in its candid personal disclosures. As time goes on the work will probably take its place as one of the outstanding novels of the period.

THOMAS CARLYLE (1795–1881)

=1. His Life.= Carlyle, who was born at Ecclefechan, in Dumfriesshire, was the son of a stonemason. He was educated at Annan and at Edinburgh University, and, giving up his intention of entering the Church, became for a time a schoolteacher in Kirkcaldy. After a few years’ teaching, during which he saved a little money, he abandoned the profession and removed to Edinburgh, where he did literary hack-work for a living. At this time (1818) he was poor in means and wretched in health, and his spiritual and bodily torments are revealed in _Sartor Resartus_. In 1828 he married Jane Welsh, an able woman who possessed a little property of her own; and after a brief spell of married life in Edinburgh they removed to Craigenputtock, a small estate in the wilds of Dumfriesshire owned by Mrs. Carlyle. Here they lived unhappily enough, but here Carlyle wrote some of his best-known books. In 1834 they removed to London, and settled permanently in Chelsea. Carlyle’s poverty was still acute, and as a means of alleviating it he took to lecturing. He was moderately successful in the effort. Then his books, at first received with complete indifference or positive amazement and disgust, began to find favor, and for the last twenty years of his life he was prominent among the intellectual leaders of the time. His wife died in 1866, and in his latter years he was much afflicted with illness and by his deep concern for the state of public affairs. He died at Chelsea, and was buried among his own people at Ecclefechan.

=2. His Works.= Carlyle’s earliest work consisted of translations, essays, and biographies. Of these the best are his translation of Goethe’s _Wilhelm Meister_ (1824), his _Life of Schiller_ (1825), and his essays on Burns and Scott. Then _Sartor Resartus_ (1833) appeared piecemeal in _Fraser’s Magazine_. It is an extraordinary book, pretending to contain the opinions of a German professor; but under a thin veil of fiction Carlyle discloses his own spiritual struggles during his early troubled years. The style is violent and exclamatory, and the meaning is frequently obscured in a torrent of words, but it has an energy and a rapturous ecstasy of revolt that quite take the breath away. Carlyle then turned to historical writing, which he handled in his own unconventional fashion. His major historical works are _The French Revolution_ (1837), a series of vivid word-pictures rather than sober history, but full of audacity and color; _Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches_ (1845), a huge effort relieved from tedium only by Carlyle’s volcanic methods; _The Life of John Sterling_ (1851), a slight work, but more genial and humane than his writing usually is; and _The Life of Frederick II_ (1865), enormous in scale and heavy with detail. His works dealing with contemporary events are numerous, and include _Chartism_ (1839), _Past and Present_ (1843), and _Latter-day Pamphlets_ (1850). The series of lectures he delivered in 1837 was published as _Heroes and Hero-worship_ (1840).

=3. Features of his Works.= (_a_) _His Teaching._ It is now a little difficult to understand why Carlyle was valued so highly as a sage in moral and political affairs. Throughout his works there is much froth and thunder, but little of anything that (to a later age) is solid and capable of analysis. Carlyle, however, was a man of sterling honesty, of sagacious and powerful mind, which he applied without hesitation to the troubles of his time. His influence, therefore, was rather personal, like that of Dr. Johnson, and cannot be accurately gauged from his written works. His opinions were widely discussed and widely accepted, and his books had the force of _ex cathedra_ pronouncements. In them he sometimes contradicted himself, but he did great service in his denunciation of shams and tyrannies, and in his tempestuous advocacy of hard work and clear thinking.

(_b_) _His Historical Method._ Carlyle’s method was essentially biographical--he sought out the “hero,” the superman who could benevolently dominate his fellows, and compel them to do better. Such were his Cromwell and his Frederick. His other aim was to make history alive. He denounced the “Dryasdust” who killed the living force in history. To achieve his purpose he sought out and recorded infinite detail of life and opinion, and by means of his own masculine imagination and pithy style he brought the subject vividly before his reader’s eye.

(_c_) His _style_ is entirely his own. At the first glance a typical passage seems rude and uncouth: with many capital letters in the German fashion, with broken phrases and ejaculations, he proceeds amid a torrent of whirling words. Yet he is flexible to a wonderful degree: he can command a beauty of expression that wrings the very heart: a sweet and piercing melody, with a suggestion, always present, yet always remote, of infinite regret and longing. In such divine moments his style has the lyrical note that requires only the lyrical meter to become great poetry.[223]

The following are two specimens of his style. The first, based on German models, is in his cruder early manner; the second is more matured and restrained. Note in this the quizzical humor.

(1) “_Es leuchtet mir ein_, I see a glimpse of it!” cries he elsewhere: “there is in man a HIGHER than Love of Happiness: he can do without Happiness, and instead thereof find Blessedness! Was it not to preach-forth this same HIGHER that sages and martyrs, the Poet and the Priest, in all times, have spoken and suffered; bearing testimony, through life and through death, of the Godlike that is in Man, and how in the Godlike only has he Strength and Freedom? Which God-inspired Doctrine art thou also honoured to be taught; O Heavens! and broken with manifold merciful Afflictions, even till thou become contrite, and learn it! O, thank thy Destiny for these; thankfully bear what yet remain: thou hadst need of them; the Self in thee needed to be annihilated. By benignant fever-paroxysms is Life rooting out the deep-seated chronic Disease, and triumphs over Death. On the roaring billows of Time, thou art not engulfed, but borne aloft into the azure of Eternity. Love not Pleasure; love God. This is the EVERLASTING YEA, wherein all contradiction is solved: wherein whoso walks and works, it is well with him.” _Sartor Resartus_

(2) The good man,[224] he was now getting old, towards sixty perhaps; and gave you the idea of a life that had been full of sufferings; a life heavy-laden, half-vanquished, still swimming painfully in seas of manifold physical and other bewilderment. Brow and head were round, and of massive weight, but the face was flabby and irresolute. The deep eyes, of a light hazel, were as full of sorrow as of inspiration; confused pain looked mildly from them, as in a kind of mild astonishment. The whole figure and air, good and amiable otherwise, might be called flabby and irresolute; expressive of weakness under possibility of strength. He hung loosely on his limbs, with knees bent, and stooping attitude; in walking, he rather shuffled than decisively stept; and a lady once remarked, he never could fix which side of the garden walk would suit him best, but continually shifted, in cork-screw fashion, and kept trying both. A heavy-laden, high-aspiring, and surely much-suffering man. His voice, naturally soft and good, had contracted itself into a plaintive snuffle and sing-song; he spoke as if preaching,--you would have said, preaching earnestly and also hopelessly the weightiest things. I still recollect his “object” and “subject,” terms of continual recurrence in the Kantean province, and how he sang and snuffled them into “om-m-mject,” “sum-m-mject,” with a kind of solemn shake or quaver, as he rolled along. No talk, in his century or in any other, could be more surprising. _The Life of John Sterling_

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY (1800–59)

=1. His Life.= Macaulay was born in Leicestershire, his father being Zachary Macaulay, the earnest upholder of negro emancipation. Macaulay was educated privately, and then at Cambridge. From his infancy he was remarkable for his precocity and his prodigious memory. At Cambridge he twice won the Chancellor’s Medal for English verse; and after taking high honors he was called to the Bar. By this time his father’s business had collapsed, and Macaulay had to depend partly upon his pen for a living. At first he contributed to _Knight’s Quarterly_, but later he began writing his famous essays for _The Edinburgh Review_. Having entered Parliament as a Whig (1830), a very promising political career seemed to be opening before him when he accepted a lucrative legal post in India. He was in India for four years; then, returning to England, he re-entered political life, and became in turn Secretary of State for War and Paymaster of the Forces. In 1857 he was raised to the peerage, and died when he was still busy with his _History_.

=2.= His =poetry= was nearly all written early in his career, and most of it is included in his _Lays of Ancient Rome_ (1842). In style the poems resemble the narrative poems of Scott, and in subject they are based upon the legends of early Rome, the best-known dealing with the story of Horatius. His verse is virile stuff, moving with vigor and assurance, and is full of action and color. Like his prose, however, it is hard and brassy, and quite lacking in the softer qualities of melody and sweetness and in the rich suggestiveness of the early ballad. It is not great poetry, but it will always be popular with those who like plenty of action and little contemplation.

=3. His Prose Works.= Before he left for India Macaulay had written twenty-two essays for _The Edinburgh Review_; he added three during his stay in India, and finished eleven others after he returned to England. With the five biographies that he contributed to _The Encyclopedia Britannica_, these include all his shorter prose works. The essays are of two kinds--those dealing with literary subjects, such as those on Milton, Byron, and Southey, and the historical studies, including the famous compositions on Warren Hastings and Lord Clive. His method of essay-writing was as follows: he brought under review a set of volumes that had already been published on the subject, then, after a survey, long or short as the case might be, of these volumes, gave his own views at great length. His opinions were often one-sided, and his great parade of knowledge was often flawed with actual error or distorted by his craving for antithesis and epigram; but the essays are clearly and ably written, and they disclose an eye for picturesque effect that in places is almost barbaric.

His _History of England_, the first volume of which was published in 1849, was unfinished at his death. After two long preliminary chapters, it began with the Whig revolution of 1688, and Macaulay intended to carry the story down to his own time. But he managed to compass within the three completed volumes only the events of a few years. His historical treatment is marked by the following features: (_a_) There are numerous and picturesque details, which retard his narrative while they add to the general interest. (_b_) The desire for brilliant effect resulted in a hard, self-confident manner, and in a lack of broader outlines and deeper views. These defects have deprived his _History_ of much of its permanent value. (_c_) To this he added such a partiality for the Whig point of view that his statements, though they are always interesting and illuminating, are generally distrusted as statements of fact. To sum up, he said, “I shall not be satisfied unless I produce something which shall for a few days supersede the last fashionable novel on the tables of young ladies.” He had full reason to be satisfied; his book had an instant and enormous success, which, however, has been followed by distrust and neglect.

The extract given below gives some idea of his style. It is entirely direct and clear, and free from any shade of doubt and hesitancy. Observe the use of the short detached sentence, and the copious and expressive vocabulary:

Then was committed that great crime, memorable for its singular atrocity, memorable for the tremendous retribution by which it was followed. The English captives were left at the mercy of the guards, and the guards determined to secure them for the night in the prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fearful name of the Black Hole. Even for a single European malefactor, that dungeon would, in such a climate, have been too close and narrow. The space was only twenty feet square. The air-holes were small and obstructed. It was the summer solstice, the season when the fierce heat of Bengal can scarcely be rendered tolerable to natives of England by lofty halls and by the constant waving of fans. The number of the prisoners was one hundred and forty-six. When they were ordered to enter the cell, they imagined that the soldiers were joking; and, being in high spirits on account of the promise of the Nabob to spare their lives, they laughed and jested at the absurdity of the notion. They soon discovered their mistake. They expostulated; they entreated; but in vain. The guards threatened to cut down all who hesitated. The captives were driven into the cell at the point of the sword, and the door was instantly shut and locked upon them. _Essay on Clive_

JOHN RUSKIN (1819–1900)

=1. His Life.= Ruskin was born in London, of Scottish parentage, and was educated privately before he went to Oxford. During his boyhood he often traveled with his father, whose business activities involved journeys both in England and abroad. After leaving the university Ruskin, who did not need to earn a living, settled down to a literary career. He was not long in developing advanced notions on art, politics, economics, and other subjects. In art he was in

## particular devoted to the cause of the landscape-painter Turner, and

in social and economic theories he was an advocate of an advanced form of socialism. To the present generation his ideas appear innocuous, or even inevitable, but by the public of his own day they were received with shocked dismay. At first the only notice he received was in the jeers of his adversaries; but gradually his fame spread as he freely expounded his opinions in lectures and pamphlets, as well as in his longer books. In 1869 he was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Oxford. Illness, however, which was aggravated by hard work and mental worries, led him to resign (1879) after a few years; and though shortly afterward (1883) he resumed the post, it had at last to be abandoned. He retired to Brantwood, on Coniston Water, in the Lake District, where he lived till his death, his later years being clouded by disease and despair.

=2. His Works.= Ruskin’s works are of immense volume and complexity. They were often issued in a haphazard fashion, and this makes it all the more difficult to follow the order of their publication. For a start he plunged into what turned out to be the longest of his books, _Modern Painters_, the first volume of which was issued in 1843 and the fifth and last in 1860. This work, beginning as a thesis in defense of the painting of Turner, develops Ruskin’s opinions on many other subjects. The first volume was not long in attracting notice, chiefly owing to its sumptuous style, which was of a kind unknown in English for centuries. _The Seven Lamps of Architecture_ (1849) is a shorter and more popular work, which once again expounds his views on artistic matters. _The Stones of Venice_ (1851–53), in four volumes, is considered to be his masterpiece both in thought and style. It is less diffuse than _Modern Painters_; there is a little more plan in the immense array of discursive matter; and the luxuriance of the style is somewhat curtailed. His other writings are of a miscellaneous kind, and comprise _The Two Paths_ (1859), a course of lectures; _Unto this Last_ (1860), a series of articles on political economy which began to appear in _The Cornhill Magazine_, but were stopped owing to their hostile reception; _Munera Pulveris_ (1862), also an unfinished series of articles on political economy, published in _Fraser’s Magazine_, and also withdrawn owing to their advanced views; _The Crown of Wild Olive_ (1864), a series of addresses; _Sesame and Lilies_ (1865), a course of three lectures, which is now the most popular of his shorter works; and _Præterita_, which first began to appear in 1855, and which is a kind of autobiography.

=3. His Style.= Ruskin himself often deplored the fact that people read him more for his style than for his creed. His views, which he argued with power and sincerity, must in time give way to others; many of them are now self-evident, so rapid sometimes is the progress of the human intellect; but his prose style, an art as delicate and beautiful as any of those he spent his life in supporting, will long remain a delectable study. For its like we must return to the prose of Milton and Clarendon, and refine and sweeten the manner of these early masters to reproduce the effect that Ruskin achieves. In its less ornate passages Ruskin’s diction is marked by a sweet and unforced simplicity; but his pages abound in purple passages, which are marked by sentences of immense length, carefully punctuated, by a gorgeous march of image and epithet, and by a sumptuous rhythm that sometimes grows into actual blank verse capable of scansion. In his later books Ruskin to a certain extent eschewed his grandiose manner, and wrote the language of the Bible, modernized and made supple; but to the very end he was always able to rise to the lyrical mood and fill a page with a strong and sonorous sentence.

The paragraph given below, it will be noticed, is one sentence. Observe the minute care given to the punctuation, the aptness of epithet, and the rhythm, which in several places is so regular that the matter can be scanned like poetry.

Then let us pass farther towards the north, until we see the orient colours change gradually into a vast belt of rainy green, where the pastures of Switzerland, and poplar valleys of France, and dark forests of the Danube and Carpathians stretch from the mouths of the Loire to those of the Volga, seen through clefts in gray swirls of rain-cloud and flaky veils of the mist of the brooks, spreading low along the pasture lands: and then, farther north still, to see the earth heave into mighty masses of leaden rock and heathy moor, bordering with a broad waste of gloomy purple that belt of field and wood, and splintering into irregular and grisly islands amidst the northern seas, beaten by storm, and chilled by ice-drift, and tormented by furious pulses of contending tide, until the roots of the last forests fall from among the hill ravines, and the hunger of the north wind bites their peaks into barrenness; and, at last, the wall of ice, durable like iron, sets, deathlike, its white teeth against us out of the polar twilight. _The Stones of Venice_

OTHER WRITERS OF MISCELLANEOUS PROSE

=1. John Addington Symonds (1840–93)= was among the foremost of the literary critics who flourished after the middle of the century. He was the son of a Bristol physician, and was educated at Harrow and Oxford. A tendency to consumption checked whatever desire he had to study the law, and much of his life was spent abroad.

A large proportion of his work was contributed to periodicals, and was collected and issued in volume form. The best collection is _Studies of the Greek Poets_ (1873). His longest work is _The Renaissance in Italy_ (1875–86), in which he contests Ruskin’s views on art. In style he is often ornate and even florid, and in treatment he can be diffuse to tediousness; but as a critic he is shrewd and well informed.

=2. Walter Horatio Pater (1839–94)= was, both as a stylist and as a literary critic, superior to Symonds. Born in London, he was educated at Canterbury and Oxford, becoming finally a Fellow of Brasenose. He devoted himself to art and literature, producing some remarkable volumes on these subjects.

His first essays appeared in book-form as _Studies in the History of the Renaissance_ (1878), and were concerned chiefly with art; _Marius the Epicurean_ (1885) is a remarkable philosophical novel, and is the best example of his distinguished style; _Imaginary Portraits_ (1887) deals with artists; and _Appreciations_ (1889) is on literary themes, and is prefaced by an important essay on style.

Pater’s individual style is among the most notable of the latter part of the century. It is the creation of immense application and forethought; every word is conned, every sentence proved, and every rhythm appraised, until we have the perfection of finished workmanship. It is never cheap, but firm and equable, with the strength and massiveness of bronze. Its very perfections are a burden, especially in his novel; it tends to become frigid and lifeless, and the subtle dallyings with refinements of meaning thin it down to mere euphuism. In the novel the action is chilled, and the characters frozen until they resemble rather a group of statuary than a collection of human beings.

=3. James Anthony Froude (1818–94)= was born near Totnes, where his father was archdeacon. After three years at Westminster School he proceeded to Oxford, where he was not long in feeling the effects of the High Church movement led by Newman. From this he afterward broke away, and was elected to a fellowship at Exeter College. He toiled ardently at literary work, contributing freely to _The Westminster Review_ and other magazines. In 1860 he became editor of _Fraser’s Magazine_.

Froude was a man of strong opinions, to which he gave free expression both by voice and pen, and his career was often marked with controversy. His handling of the life of Carlyle provoked much angry comment. In the course of time his true merits came to be valued adequately, and after being appointed to several Government commissions he was elected (1892) Regius Professor of History at Oxford.

Froude’s miscellaneous work was published in four volumes called _Short Studies on Great Subjects_ (1867–83). His _History of England_ (1856–69) was issued in twelve volumes. In period it covers the time of the Reformation, and in method it follows the lead of Carlyle in its great detail and picturesque description. In its general attitude it is an indirect, and therefore an unfair, attack upon the High Church views of Newman. The work, nevertheless, is composed with much vigor, and is in the main accurate, though slightly lax in detail. Other books are _The English in Ireland_ (1871–74), _Cæsar_ (1879), _Oceana_ (1886), and an Irish novel, _The Two Chiefs of Dunboy_ (1889). His biography of Carlyle was issued during the period 1882–84.

=4. The Historians.= The nineteenth century produced many historical writers, of whom only a very few can find a place here.

(_a_) =Alexander Kinglake (1809–91)= was born near Taunton, and educated at Eton and Cambridge. He was called to the Bar, and practiced with some success, but in 1856 he retired to devote himself to literature. He saw much of the world, and watched the progress of the war in the Crimea. In 1857 he became Member of Parliament for Bridgwater.

His _History of the Crimean War_ (1863–87) is enormously bulky and full of detail. In attitude it is too favorable to the British commander, Lord Raglan, and in style it is tawdry; at its best, however, it is a picturesque narrative. His other work of note is _Eothen_ (1844), a clever account of Eastern travel.

(_b_) =John Richard Green (1837–83)= was born and educated at Oxford, and became a curate in the East End of London. He was delicate in health, and was compelled to retire from his charge in 1869. His last years were spent in writing his historical works.

Of these works the best is _A Short History of the English People_ (1874), which at once took rank as one of the few popular text-books which are also literature. It is devoted to the history of the _people_ and not to wars and high politics. It is told with a terse simplicity that is quite admirable. _The Making of England_ (1882) and _The Conquest of England_ (1883) are the only two other works he lived to finish.

(_c_) =Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–92)= was celebrated as the chief opponent of Froude. He was educated privately, and then at Oxford, where he became a Fellow of Trinity College and Regius Professor of Modern History (1884). He wrote many historical works, the most valuable of which are _The History of the Norman Conquest_ (1867–79) and _The Reign of William Rufus_ (1882). Freeman specialized in certain periods of English history, which he treated laboriously and at great length. This, as well as his arid style, makes his history unattractive to read, but he did much solid and enthusiastic work for the benefit of his students and successors.

=5. The Scientists.= The nineteenth century beheld the exposition of scientific themes raised to the level of a literary art.

(_a_) =Hugh Miller (1802–56)= was a natural genius, self-taught and self-inspired. He was born at Cromarty, in the north of Scotland, and became a stonemason, in which capacity he studied geology. In 1835 he became an accountant in a bank. He wrote much for the periodical press, and his writing attracted considerable notice. Latterly he suffered from mental disorder, and in the end committed suicide.

_The Old Red Sandstone_ (1841) contains much patient observation of geological fact, and is still regarded as a valuable contribution to the subject; _The Testimony of the Rocks_ (1857) appeared after his death. He wrote a little fiction of mediocre quality, published as _Tales and Sketches_ (1863). Miller’s style is unforced and often impressive, and for sincerity, piety, and homely wisdom his books leave little to be desired.

(_b_) =Charles Darwin (1809–82)= is one of the greatest names in modern science. He was born at Shrewsbury, where he received his early education, passing later to Cambridge. In 1831 he became naturalist in _The Beagle_, a man-of-war that went around the world on a scientific mission. This lucky chance determined his career as a scientist. The remainder of his life was laboriously uneventful, being devoted almost wholly to biological and allied studies.

His chief works are _The Voyage of the Beagle_ (1836), a mine of accurate and interesting facts; _The Origin of Species_ (1859), which is to modern science what _The Wealth of Nations_ is to modern economics--the foundation of belief; and _The Descent of Man_ (1871). We cannot discuss his theories of evolution, but as general literature his books possess a living interest owing to their rich array of garnered evidence and their masterly gifts of exposition and argument.

(_c_) =Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)= was one of the ablest and most energetic of Darwin’s supporters. He was born at Ealing, and became a surgeon in the Navy. His first post was on Nelson’s _Victory_. Like Darwin, he traveled abroad on a warship, _The Rattlesnake_, and during these four years (1846–50) he saw and learned much. Retiring from the Navy, he took enthusiastically to scientific research, and became President of the Royal Society and a prominent public figure in the heated discussions concerning the theories that were then so new and disturbing.

Huxley produced no work in the same class as _The Origin of Species_. His work consisted of lectures and addresses, which were issued in volume form as _Man’s Place in Nature_ (1863), _Lay Sermons and Addresses_ (1870), and _American Lectures_ (1877).

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY FORMS

The Victorian epoch was exceedingly productive of literary work of a high quality, but the amount of actual innovation is by no means great. Writers were as a rule content to work upon former models, and the improvements they did achieve were often dubious and unimportant.

=1. Poetry.= (_a_) The _lyrical_ output is very large and varied, as a glance through the works of the poets already mentioned will show. In form there is little of fresh interest. Tennyson was content to follow the methods of Keats, though Browning’s complicated forms and Swinburne’s long musical lines were more freely used by them than by any previous writers.

(_b_) In _descriptive and narrative poetry_ there is a greater advance to chronicle. In subject--for example, in the poems of Browning and Morris--there is great variety, embracing many climes and periods; in method there is much diversity, ranging from the cultured elegance of Tennyson’s English landscapes to the wild impressionism of Whitman in America. The Pre-Raphaelite school, also, united several features which had not been seen before in combination. These were a fondness for medieval themes treated in an unconventional manner, a richly colored pictorial effect, and a studied and melodious simplicity. The works of Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne provide many examples of this development of poetry. On the whole we can say that the Victorians were strongest on the descriptive side of poetry, which agreed with the more meditative habits of the period, as contrasted with the warmer and more lyrical emotions of the previous age.

There were many attempts at purely narrative poetry, with interesting results. Tennyson thought of reviving the epic, but in him the epical impulse was not sufficiently strong, and his great narrative poem was produced as smaller fragments which he called idylls. Browning’s _Ring and the Book_ is curious, for it can be called a psychological epic--a narrative in which emotion removes action from the chief place. In this class of poetry _The Earthly Paradise_ of William Morris is a return to the old romantic tale as we find it in the works of Chaucer.

=2. Drama.= Nearly all the major poets of the period wrote tragedy on the lines of the accepted models. Few of these attained to real distinction; they were rather the conscientious efforts of men who were striving to succeed in the impossible task of really reviving the poetical drama. Of them all, Swinburne’s tragedies, especially those concerned with Mary Queen of Scots, possess the greatest warmth and energy; and Browning’s earlier plays, before he over-developed his style, have sincerity and sometimes real dramatic power. As for comedy, it was almost wholly neglected as a purely literary form.

A development to be noticed is the popularity of the _dramatic monologue_. In _Ulysses_, _Tithonus_, and other pieces Tennyson achieved some of his most successful results; and Browning’s host of monologues, wide in range and striking in detail, are perhaps his greatest contribution to literature. The method common to this kind of monologue was to take some character and make him reveal his inmost self in his own words.

=3. Prose.= (_a_) By the middle of the nineteenth century the _novel_, as a species of literature, had thrust itself into the first rank. We shall therefore consider it first.

In the novels of Thackeray and Dickens the various qualities of the domestic novel are gathered together and carried a stage forward. Dickens did much to idealize the England of his day, and to depict the life of the lower and middle classes with imagination and humor. As a satirist and an observer of manners Thackeray easily excels his contemporaries. The other novelists were to a great extent gleaners in the spacious field that was reaped by the two greater writers. Charlotte Brontë supplied a somber passion that colored the drabness of her life; Trollope specialized with his parsons; Collins wrote mystery stories. Of the rest, George Eliot showed a closeness of application to the mental process of her characters that was carried further in the work of Meredith, and has led to the “psychological” novels of the present day.

In _Esmond_ the historical novel made an advance. Here Thackeray was not content to master the history of the period he described; he sought to reproduce also the language and atmosphere. This is an extremely difficult thing to achieve, and is possible only in novels dealing with a limited period of time, but Thackeray scored a remarkable success.

(_b_) The development of the _Short story_, as a separate species of literature, will be touched upon in the next chapter.

(_c_) In the case of the _essay_ we have to note the expansion of the literary type into the treatise-in-little. This method was made popular by Macaulay, and continued by Carlyle, Symonds, Pater, and many others. Of the miscellaneous essayists, both Dickens, in some parts of _The Uncommercial Traveller_, and Thackeray, in _The Roundabout Papers_, successfully practiced the shorter Addisonian type; and this again was enlarged and made more pretentious by Ruskin, Pater, and Stevenson.

(_d_) The _lecture_ becomes a prominent literary species for a time. Carlyle, Thackeray, Dickens, and many others both in England and America published lectures in book-form. Earlier critics like Hazlitt and Coleridge had done so; but, almost for the first time, Ruskin gave a distinct style and manner to the lecture.

(_e_) The _historians_ are strongly represented. Carlyle and Macaulay, in spite of their great industry and real care for history, have now fallen behind in the race as historians, and survive chiefly as stylists. The new method that arose was typified in the solid and valuable work of =William Stubbs (1825–1901)=, =Edward A. Freeman (1823–92)=, and =Samuel R. Gardiner (1829–1902)=. These historians avoided the charms of literary style, concentrated upon some aspect of history, and, basing their results upon patient research into original authorities, produced valuable additions to human knowledge.

(_f_) We have already noticed that in this period the _scientific treatise_ attained to literary rank. We may mention as early examples of this type Sir Thomas Browne’s curious treatise on _Urne Buriall_, Burton’s _Anatomy of Melancholy_, and the graceful essays of Berkeley.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY STYLE

With such an amount of writing as characterizes this age it is quite certain that both in prose and poetry a wide range of style will be observable.

=1. Poetry.= In the case of poetry the more ornate style was represented in Tennyson, who developed artistic schemes of vowel-music, alliteration, and other devices in a manner quite unprecedented. The Pre-Raphaelites carried the method still further. In diction they were simpler than Tennyson, but their vocabulary was more archaic and their mass of detail more highly colored. The style of Browning was to a certain extent a protest against this aureate diction. He substituted for it simplicity and a heady speed, especially in his earlier lyrics; his more mature obscurity was merely an effect of his eager imagination and reckless impetuosity. Matthew Arnold, in addition, was too classical in style to care for over-developed picturesqueness, and wrote with a studied simplicity. On the whole, however, we can say that the average poetical style of this period, as a natural reaction against the simpler methods of the period immediately preceding, was ornate rather than simple.

=2. Prose.= With regard to prose, the greater proportion by far is written in the middle style, the established medium in journalism, in all manner of miscellaneous work, and in the majority of the novels. Outside this mass of middle prose, the style of Ruskin stands highest in the scale of ornateness; of a like kind are the scholarly elegance of Pater and the mannered dictions of Meredith and Stevenson. The style of Carlyle and that of Macaulay are each a peculiar brand of the middle style, Macaulay’s being hard, clear, and racy, and Carlyle’s gruff and tempestuous, with an occasional passage of soothing beauty.

Of the simpler writers there is a large number, among whom many novelists find a place. We have space here to refer only to the easygoing journalistic manner of Dickens and to the sub-acid flavor of the prose of Thackeray.

We add a specimen of Stevenson’s prose style. This style, which in its mannered precision is typical of many modern prose styles, is noteworthy on account of its careful selection of epithet, its clear-cut expressiveness, and its delicate rhythm.

But Hermiston was not all of one piece. He was, besides, a mighty toper; he could sit at wine until the day dawned, and pass directly from the table to the Bench with a steady hand and a clear head. Beyond the third bottle, he showed the plebeian in a larger print; the low, gross accent, the low, foul mirth, grew broader and commoner; he became less formidable, and infinitely more disgusting. Now, the boy had inherited from Jean Rutherford a shivering delicacy, unequally mated with potential violence. In the playing-fields, and amongst his own companions, he repaid a coarse expression with a blow; at his father’s table (when the time came for him to join these revels) he turned pale and sickened in silence. Of all the guests whom he there encountered, he had toleration for only one: David Keith Carnegie, Lord Glenalmond. Lord Glenalmond was tall and emaciated, with long features and long delicate hands. He was often compared with the statue of Forbes of Culloden in the Parliament House; and his blue eye, at more than sixty, preserved some of the fire of youth. His exquisite disparity with any of his fellow-guests, his appearance, as of an artist and an aristocrat stranded in rude company, rivetted the boy’s attention; and as curiosity and interest are the things in the world that are the most immediately and certainly rewarded, Lord Glenalmond was attracted to the boy. _Weir of Hermiston_

TABLE TO ILLUSTRATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY FORMS

+-------------+-----------------------------+---------------------+------------------------------------+ | | POETRY | DRAMA | PROSE | | |--------------+--------------+------------+--------+------------+---------+-------------+ | DATE | Lyrical | Narrative- | Tragedy | Comedy | Novel | Essay |Miscellaneous| | | | Descriptive | | | | | | +-------------+--------------+--------------+------------+--------+------------+---------+-------------+ | | | | | | |Carlyle |Macaulay | | |Tennyson[225] | | | | | | | | | |Tennyson[226] | | | | |Carlyle[227] | | | |Browning[228] | | | | | | | | | | | |Dickens[229]|Macaulay | | |1840 |E.B. Browning |E.B. Browning | | | | | | +-------------+--------------+--------------+------------+--------+------------+---------+-------------+ | |Browning[230] | | | |Thackeray[231]| |Ruskin[232] | | | | |Browning[233]| | | | Borrow | | | |Clough | | | | | | | |M. Arnold |M. Arnold | | |C. Brontë | | | |1850 | | | | |Kingsley | | | +-------------+--------------+--------------+------------+--------+------------+---------+-------------+ | | | | | |Borrow | | | | | | | |C. Reade| | | | | | | | | |C. Reade | | | | | | | | |Trollope | | | | | | | | |Collins | | | | |W. Morris |W. Morris | | |G. Eliot | | | |1860 | |Fitzgerald | | |Meredith[234]| | | +-------------+--------------+--------------+------------+--------+------------+---------+-------------+ | |C. G. Rossetti| | | | |Thackeray| | | | |Swinburne |Swinburne[235]| | | | | | | | | | | |Froude |Froude | |1870 | | | | |Besant | | | +-------------+--------------+--------------+------------+--------+------------+---------+-------------+ | |D. G. Rossetti|D. G. Rossetti| | | | | | | | | | | |Butler | | | | | | | | | |Symonds | | | | | |Tennyson[236]| | | |Symonds | |1880 | | | | | |Stevenson| | +-------------+--------------+--------------+------------+--------+------------+---------+-------------+ | | | | | |Stevenson | | | |1890 | | | | | | | | +-------------+--------------+--------------+------------+--------+------------+---------+-------------+

EXERCISES

1. The following are brief extracts from dramatic monologues by Tennyson, Browning, and William Morris. Compare them with regard to subject, point of view, and style. How far does each reflect the character of the author?

(1) There lies the port: the vessel puffs her sail: There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners, Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me-- That ever with a frolic welcome took The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed Free hearts, free foreheads--you and I are old; Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. TENNYSON, _Ulysses_

(2) First, every sort of monk, the black and white, I drew them, fat and lean: then, folk at church, From good old gossips waiting to confess Their cribs of barrel-droppings, candle-ends,-- To the breathless fellow at the altar-foot, Fresh from his murder, safe and sitting there With the little children round him in a row Of admiration, half for his beard, and half For that white anger of his victim’s son Shaking a fist at him with one fierce arm, Signing himself with the other because of Christ (Whose sad face on the cross sees only this After the passion of a thousand years). BROWNING, _Fra Lippo Lippi_

(_Guenevere speaking._)

(3) And every morn I scarce could pray at all, For Launcelot’s red-golden hair would play, Instead of sunlight, on the painted wall, Mingled with dreams of what the priest would say;

Grim curses out of Peter and of Paul; Judging of strange sins in Leviticus; Another sort of writing on the wall, Scored deep across the painted heads of us.

Christ sitting with the woman at the well, And Mary Magdalen repenting there, Her dimmed eyes scorched and red at sight of hell So hardly ’scaped, no gold light on her hair. MORRIS, _King Arthur’s Tomb_

2. In the following extracts point out the features of subject and style that are characteristic of their respective authors. In each case say how far the style suits the subject.

(1) Day has bent downwards. Wearied mortals are creeping home from their field labour; the village artisan eats with relish his supper of herbs, or has strolled forth to the village street for a sweet mouthful of air and human news. Still summer-eventide everywhere! The great sun hangs flaming on the utmost Northwest; for it is his longest day this year. The hill-tops rejoicing will erelong be at their ruddiest, and blush Good-night. The thrush, in green dells, on long-shadowed leafy spray, pours gushing his glad serenade, to the babble of brooks grown audibler; silence is stealing over the Earth. CARLYLE, _The French Revolution_

(2) Monmouth was startled by finding that a broad and profound trench lay between him and the camp which he had hoped to surprise. The insurgents halted on the edge of the rhine and fired. Part of the royal infantry on the opposite bank returned the fire. During three-quarters of an hour the roar of the musketry was incessant. The Somersetshire peasants behaved themselves as if they had been veteran soldiers, save only that they levelled their pieces too high. MACAULAY, _The History of England_

(3) We may not measure to the full the depth of this heavenly gift, in our own land; though still, as we think of it longer, the infinite of that meadow sweetness, Shakespeare’s peculiar joy, would open on us more and more, yet we have it but in part. Go out, in the spring time, among the meadows that slope from the shores of the Swiss lakes to the roots of their lower mountains. There, mingled with the taller gentians and the white narcissus, the grass grows deep and free; and as you follow the winding mountain paths, beneath arching boughs all veiled and dim with blossom--paths that for ever droop and rise over the green banks and mounds sweeping down in scented undulation, steep to the blue water, studded here and there with new-mown heaps, filling all the air with fainter sweetness--look up towards the higher hills, where the waves of everlasting green roll silently into their long inlets among the shadows of the pines; and we may, perhaps, at last know the meaning of those quiet words of the 147th Psalm, “He maketh grass to grow up on the mountains.” RUSKIN, _Modern Painters_

(4) Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats, And bit the babies in the cradles, And ate the cheeses out of the vats, And licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladles, Split open the kegs of salted sprats, Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats, And even spoiled the women’s chats, By drowning their speaking With shrieking and squeaking In fifty different sharps and flats. BROWNING, _The Pied Piper of Hamelin_

3. The two extracts given below are typical of the Pre-Raphaelite school. Point out the features in style and subject common to both. Write a brief appreciation of this style of poetry.

(1) The banners seemed quite full of ease, That over the turret roofs hung down; The battlements could get no frown From the flower-moulded cornices.

Who walked in that garden there? Miles and Giles and Isabeau, Tall Jehane du Castel Beau, Alice of the golden hair,

Big Sir Gervaise, the good knight, Fair Ellayne le Violet, Mary, Constance fille de fay, Many dames with footfall light. MORRIS, _Golden Wings_

(2) “We two,” she said, “will seek the groves Where the lady Mary is, With her five handmaidens, whose names Are five sweet symphonies, Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen, Margaret and Rosalys.

“Circlewise sit they, with bounds locks And foreheads garlanded; Into the fine cloth white like flame Weaving the golden thread, To fashion the birth-robes for them Who are just born, being dead.

“He shall fear, haply, and be dumb: Then will I lay my cheek To his, and tell about our love, Not once abashed or weak: And the dear Mother will approve My pride, and let me speak.

“Herself shall bring us, hand in hand, To Him round whom all souls Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads Bowed with their aureoles: And angels meeting us shall sing To their citherns and citoles.” D. G. ROSSETTI, _The Blessed Damozel_

4. From a consideration of the specimens given below, and of other examples that occur to you, write a brief essay on the Victorian lyric.

(1) Say not the struggle naught availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; It may be, in yon smoke concealed, Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers, And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, Seem here no painful inch to gain, Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light, In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly! But westward, look, the land is bright! CLOUGH

(2) Oh, to be in England Now that April’s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England--now! And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows! Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge Leans to the field and scatters on the clover Blossoms and dewdrops--at the bent spray’s edge-- That’s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture! And though the fields look rough with hoary dew, All will be gay when noontide wakes anew The buttercups, the little children’s dower --Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower! R. BROWNING

(3) Strew on her roses, roses, And never a spray of yew! In quiet she reposes; Ah, would that I did too!

Her mirth the world required; She bathed it in smiles of glee. But her heart was tired, tired, And now they let her be. MATTHEW ARNOLD

5. Compare the novels of Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot, the chief women novelists of the middle of the nineteenth century.

6. Trace the development of the historical novel from the death of Scott to the death of Stevenson.

7. Write a brief account of the drama of this period.

8. Who are the principal prose stylists of the period? Write a note on the style of each, quoting whenever you can.

9. “The characteristic of the novel, as it was reconstituted towards the middle of the century, was the preference for strictly ordinary life.” (Saintsbury.) Examine this statement.

10. “Prose style in our day is a complex matter.” (Craik.) Expand this statement, pointing out the wide range of style necessary to meet modern requirements.

11. “Men of genius may be divided into regular and irregular.” Bagehot, who makes this remark, calls Dickens an irregular genius. Suggest some of his reasons for doing so.

12. “Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning represent respectively the pure, ornate, and grotesque in poetry.” (Bagehot.) What justification is there for such a statement?

13. “Tennyson’s poetry undoubtedly represents the ideas and tastes, the inherited predilections, the prevailing currents of thought, of Englishmen belonging to his class and generation.” (Sir A. Lyall.) Write a brief essay on this statement.

14. “Thackeray’s manner was mainly realistic.” (Trollope.) How far was Thackeray a realist? How far did he describe persons and actions as they really were? Quote examples from his novels. Compare him in this respect with Dickens.

15. “The novel has supplanted the sermon, the essay, and the play in the place which each at different times held as the _popular_ form of literature.” (Saintsbury.) Expand and comment upon this quotation.

16. In what respects did the spread of popular education affect the literary production of the period?

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