Transcriber's Notes: To improve readability, dashes betweenentries in the Table of Contents and in chapter subheadings have beenconverted to periods.
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EDITED BY
"The criticism which alone can much help us for the futureis a criticism which regards Europe as being, forintellectual and spiritual purposes, one greatconfederation, bound to a joint action and working to acommon result."
—Matthew Arnold.
In 12 Crown 8vo Volumes. Price 5s. net each.
| The DARK AGES | Professor W.P. Ker. |
| The FLOURISHING OF ROMANCE AND THE RISE OF ALLEGORY | The Editor. |
| The FOURTEENTH CENTURY | F.J. Snell. |
| The TRANSITION PERIOD | |
| The EARLIER RENAISSANCE | |
| The LATER RENAISSANCE | David Hannay. |
| The FIRST HALF of 17th CENTURY | |
| The AUGUSTAN AGES | Oliver Elton. |
| The MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY | |
| The ROMANTIC REVOLT | Edmund Gosse. |
| The ROMANTIC TRIUMPH | Walter H. Pollock. |
| The LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY | The Editor. |
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, Edinburgh and London.
THE
AND THE
BY
PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCXCVII
As this volume, although not the first in chronological order, islikely to be the first to appear in the Series of which it forms part,and of which the author has the honour to be editor, it may be well tosay a few words here as to the scheme of this Series generally. Whenthat scheme was first sketched, it was necessarily objected that itwould be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain contributors whocould boast intimate and equal knowledge of all the branches ofEuropean literature at any given time. To meet this by a simple denialwas, of course, not to be thought of. Even universal linguists, thoughnot unknown, are not very common; and