English Literature
we are indebted for the first attempt at a systematic collection of the
folk songs and ballads which are counted among the treasures of a nation's
literature.[210] In 1765 he published, in three volumes, his famous
_Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_. The most valuable part of this work
is the remarkable collection of old English and Scottish Ballads, such as
"Chevy Chase," the "Nut Brown Mayde," "Children of the Wood," "Battle of
Otterburn," and many more, which but for his labor might easily have
perished. We have now much better and more reliable editions of these same
ballads; for Percy garbled his materials, adding and subtracting freely,
and even inventing a few ballads of his own. Two motives probably
influenced him in this. First, the different versions of the same ballad
varied greatly; and Percy, in changing them to suit himself, took the same
liberty as had many other writers in dealing with the same material.
Second; Percy was under the influence of Johnson and his school, and
thought it necessary to add a few elegant ballads "to atone for the
rudeness of the more obsolete poems." That sounds queer now, used as we are
to exactness in dealing with historical and literary material; but it
expresses the general spirit of the age in which he lived.
Notwithstanding these drawbacks, Percy's _Reliques_ marks an epoch in the
history of Romanticism, and it is difficult to measure its influence on the
whole romantic movement. Scott says of it, "The first time I could scrape a
few shillings together, I bought myself a copy of these beloved volumes;
nor do I believe I ever read a book half so frequently, or with half the
enthusiasm." Scott's own poetry is strongly modeled upon these early
ballads, and his _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_ is due chiefly to the
influence of Percy's work.
Besides the _Reliques_, Percy has given us another good work in his
_Northern Antiquities_ (1770) translated from the French of Mallet's
_History of Denmark_. This also was of immense influence, since it
introduced to English readers a new and fascinating mythology, more rugged
and primitive than that of the Greeks; and we are still, in music as in
letters, under the spell of Thor and Odin, of Frea and the Valkyr maidens,
and of that stupendous drama of passion and tragedy which ended in the
"Twilight of the Gods." The literary world owes a debt of gratitude to
Percy, who wrote nothing of importance himself, but who, by collecting and
translating the works of other men, did much to hasten the triumph of
Romanticism in the nineteenth century.
III. THE FIRST ENGLISH NOVELISTS
The chief literary phenomena of the complex eighteenth century are the
reign of so-called Classicism, the revival of romantic poetry, and the
discovery of the modern novel. Of these three, the last is probably the
most important. Aside from the fact that the novel is the most modern, and
at present the most widely read and influential type of literature, we have
a certain pride in regarding it as England's original contribution to the
world of letters. Other great types of literature, like the epic, the
romance, and the drama, were first produced by other nations; but the idea
of the modern novel seems to have been worked out largely on English
soil;[211] and in the number and the fine quality of her novelists, England
has hardly been rivaled by any other nation. Before we study the writers
who developed this new type of literature, it is well to consider briefly
its meaning and history.
MEANING OF THE NOVEL. Probably the most significant remark made by the
ordinary reader concerning a work of fiction takes the form of a question:
Is it a good story? For the reader of to-day is much like the child and the
primitive man in this respect, that he must be attracted and held by the
story element of a narrative before he learns to appreciate its style or
moral significance. The story element is therefore essential to the novel;
but where the story originates is impossible to say. As well might we seek
for the origin of the race; for wherever primitive men are found, there we
see them gathering eagerly about the story-teller. In the halls of our
Saxon ancestors the scop and the tale-bringer were ever the most welcome
guests; and in the bark wigwams of the American Indians the man who told
the legends of Hiawatha had an audience quite as attentive as that which
gathered at the Greek festivals to hear the story of Ulysses's wanderings.
To man's instinct or innate love for a story we are indebted for all our
literature; and the novel must in some degree satisfy this instinct, or
fail of appreciation.
The second question which we ask concerning a work of fiction is, How far
does the element of imagination enter into it? For upon the element of
imagination depends, largely, our classification of works of fiction into
novels, romances, and mere adventure stories. The divisions here are as
indefinite as the border land between childhood and youth, between instinct
and reason; but there are certain principles to guide us. We note, in the
development of any normal child, that there comes a time when for his
stories he desires knights, giants, elves, fairies, witches, magic, and
marvelous adventures which have no basis in experience. He tells
extraordinary tales about himself, which may be only the vague remembrances
of a dream or the creations of a dawning imagination,--both of which are as
real to him as any other part of life. When we say that such a child
"romances," we give exactly the right name to it; for this sudden interest
in extraordinary beings and events marks the development of the human
imagination,--running riot at first, because it is not guided by reason,
which is a later development,--and to satisfy this new interest the
romance[212] was invented. The romance is, originally, a work of fiction in
which the imagination is given full play without being limited by facts or
probabilities. It deals with extraordinary events, with heroes whose powers
are exaggerated, and often adds the element of superhuman or supernatural
characters. It is impossible to draw the line where romance ends; but this
element of excessive imagination and of impossible heroes and incidents is
its distinguishing mark in every literature.
Where the novel begins it is likewise impossible to say; but again we have
a suggestion in the experience of every reader. There comes a time,
naturally and inevitably, in the life of every youth when the romance no
longer enthralls him. He lives in a world of facts; gets acquainted with
men and women, some good, some bad, but all human; and he demands that
literature shall express life as he knows it by experience. This is the
stage of the awakened intellect, and in our stories the intellect as well
as the imagination must now be satisfied. At the beginning of this stage we
delight in _Robinson Crusoe;_ we read eagerly a multitude of adventure
narratives and a few so-called historical novels; but in each case we must
be lured by a story, must find heroes and "moving accidents by flood and
field" to appeal to our imagination; and though the hero and the adventure
may be exaggerated, they must both be natural and within the bounds of
probability. Gradually the element of adventure or surprising incident
grows less and less important, as we learn that true life is not
adventurous, but a plain, heroic matter of work and duty, and the daily
choice between good and evil. Life is the most real thing in the world
now,--not the life of kings, or heroes, or superhuman creatures, but the
individual life with its struggles and temptations and triumphs or
failures, like our own; and any work that faithfully represents life
becomes interesting. So we drop the adventure story and turn to the novel.
For the novel is a work of fiction in which the imagination and the
intellect combine to express life in the form of a story and the
imagination is always directed and controlled by the intellect. It is
interested chiefly, not in romance or adventure, but in men and women as
they are; it aims to show the motives and influences which govern human
life, and the effects of personal choice upon character and destiny. Such
is the true novel,[213] and as such it opens a wider and more interesting
field than any other type of literature.
PRECURSORS OF THE NOVEL. Before the novel could reach its modern stage, of
a more or less sincere attempt to express human life and character, it had
to pass through several centuries of almost imperceptible development.
Among the early precursors of the novel we must place a collection of tales
known as the Greek Romances, dating from the second to the sixth centuries.
These are imaginative and delightful stories of ideal love and marvelous
adventure,[214] which profoundly affected romance writing for the next
thousand years. A second group of predecessors is found in the Italian and
Spanish pastoral romances, which were inspired by the _Eclogues_ of Virgil.
These were extremely popular in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and
their influence is seen later in Sidney's _Arcadia_, which is the best of
this type in English.
The third and most influential group of predecessors of the novel is made
up of the romances of chivalry, such as are found in Malory's _Morte
d'Arthur_. It is noticeable, in reading these beautiful old romances in
different languages, that each nation changes them somewhat, so as to make
them more expressive of national traits and ideals. In a word, the old
romance tends inevitably towards realism, especially in England, where the
excessive imagination is curbed and the heroes become more human. In
Malory, in the unknown author of _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_, and
especially in Chaucer, we see the effect of the practical English mind in
giving these old romances a more natural setting, and in making the heroes
suggest, though faintly, the men and women of their own day. The
_Canterbury Tales_, with their story interest and their characters
delightfully true to nature, have in them the suggestion, at least, of a
connected story whose chief aim is to reflect life as it is.
In the Elizabethan Age the idea of the novel grows more definite. In
Sidney's _Arcadia_ (1580), a romance of chivalry, the pastoral setting at
least is generally true to nature; our credulity is not taxed, as in the
old romances, by the continual appearance of magic or miracles; and the
characters, though idealized till they become tiresome, occasionally give
the impression of being real men and women. In Bacon's _The New Atlantis_
(1627) we have the story of the discovery by mariners of an unknown
country, inhabited by a superior race of men, more civilized than
ourselves,--an idea which had been used by More in his _Utopia_ in 1516.
These two books are neither romances nor novels, in the strict sense, but
studies of social institutions. They use the connected story as a means of
teaching moral lessons, and of bringing about needed reforms; and this
valuable suggestion has been adopted by many of our modern writers in the
so-called problem novels and novels of purpose.
Nearer to the true novel is Lodge's romantic story of _Rosalynde_, which
was used by Shakespeare in _As You Like It_. This was modeled upon the
Italian novella, or short story, which became very popular in England
during the Elizabethan Age. In the same age we have introduced into England
the Spanish picaresque novel (from _picaro_, a knave or rascal), which at
first was a kind of burlesque on the mediæval romance, and which took for
its hero some low scoundrel or outcast, instead of a knight, and followed
him through a long career of scandals and villainies. One of the earliest
types of this picaresque novel in English is Nash's _The Unfortunate