63 
The English Novel — Its History and 
Development up to Sir Walter Scott. 
By Mrs. W. BRITTAIN, L.L.A. 
Reap BeFore THE LITERARY Section, January 127, 1909. 
The principle of action and reaction is responsible for the 
changes in form which the novel has undergone during its develop- 
ment. Being by nature both realists and idealists, we delight 
equally in the portrayal of life as it is, and as it is only in dreams. 
Art ministers to both these needs, but sometimes realism will be in 
the ascendency, sometimes idealism. When the former has shocked 
by its cynicism, the pendulum will swing towards the latter. The 
extravagance of that will cause a reaction again in favour of realism. 
But there is never a full return to the. past. The old style always 
reappears with modification, and in this way literature is constantly 
moving on to a future that cannot precisely be predicted. 
The two terms “romance” and “ novel” are in themselves a 
summary of these two conflicting aims in fiction. The former was 
in use in English as early as the 14th century, and then meant a 
highly idealised verse narrative translated from a romance language. 
For a verse narrative approaching more nearly to the manners of 
real life the word “‘ novas” had been employed for a similar short 
narrative in prose. Boccaccio and his contemporaries used the 
word “novella.” Stories of this type written in English in the 14th 
century were called “Tales” (a name used by Chaucer to designate 
all kinds of verse stories). During the two centuries following 
Boccaccio, great numbers of these “ novelle” were composed by 
Italians, and shoals of them came into English in the age of 
