Second Edition, in crown Svo, price 7s. 6e?., clot ft. 



PROFESSOR CRAIK'S 



MANUAL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 



THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

 FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 



iiumeroug Specimen*. 



CONTENTS : 



Introduction The Languages of Mo- 

 dern Europe Original English (Saxon 

 or Anglo-Saxon) Second English (Semi- 

 Saxon) Third English (Mixed or Com- 

 pound English) Chaucer, Spenser, 

 Shakespeare, &c., &c. Middle and Lat- 

 ter Part of the Seventeenth Century; 

 Milton, Butler, Dryden, &c. The Cen- 



and the French Revolution : Swift, 

 Pope, Addison, Defoe, Goldsmith, John- 

 son, &c., &c. The Latter Part of the 

 Eighteenth Century; Cowper, Burns, 

 &c. The Nineteenth Century ; Words- 

 worth, Scott, Shelley, Byron, Crabbe, 

 &c., &c. Literature of the Present 

 Day ; Browning, Tennyson, Hood, &c. 



tury between the English Revolution 



In this volume, and in the larger work of which it is an abridgment, an 

 attempt has been made to interweave with the history of our national Litera- 

 ture such an exposition of the revolutions and more gradual changes which 

 the Language has undergone as may suffice to present at least a correct general 

 view of the subject. It is shown that the English Language has assumed 

 successively only three distinct constitutions or forms ; and while each of them 

 is precisely defined both in the principle of its structure and in its limits as 

 to time, the simplest explanation is given of the causes which appear to have 

 produced the conversion of the first into the second and of the second into 

 the third. 



In the survey that is taken of our Literature, it is believed that no writer 

 of any considerable note has been passed over, and as full accounts have been 

 given as the space at command would permit of all those of the highest rank, 

 and of their lives as well of their works, from Chaucer down to our own day. 

 Many more names, indeed, have been introduced than can, on the most liberal 

 construction, be held to belong to what is properly to be called the Literature 

 of the language ; but much necessarily enters into the history of every thing 

 which makes no part of the thing itself. All care has been taken throughout 

 to be accurate in the important point of dates. Nor in the critical apprecia- 

 tion of the authors that come under review will there be found, it is hoped, 

 any want of a sufficiently catholic spirit. Finally, large extracts have been 

 given from many of our great writers both in verse and in prose ; and here 

 every possible aid has been contributed by glossarial foot-notes to the easy 

 understanding of all obsolete or dialectic words and forms. 



The Spectator says, " The present volume is particularly adapted for the use of 

 Students going up to competitive examinations. Numerous illustrations of the 

 progress and development of the English Language are introduced, beginning with 

 King Canute and ending with Thomas Hood." 



The Saturday Review says, " Professor Craik is always clear and straightforward, 

 and deals not in theories but in facts ; all that he says is sound and practical and 

 eminently distinguished by good sense. We have philological books treating of our 

 earliest Literature, and we have critical books treating of our latest Literature, but 

 we do not know of any book which, like the present, embraces both." 



CHARLES GRIFFIN & COMPANY, LONDON. 



