The author desires to thank the large number of teachers who have aided him by their criticism. Miss Elizabeth Howard Spaulding and Miss Sarah E. Simons deserve special mention for valuable assistance. The entire treatment of Rudyard Kipling is the work of Miss Mary Brown Humphrey. The greater part of the chapter, _Twentieth-Century Literature_, was prepared by Miss Anna Blanche McGill. Some of the best and most difficult parts of the book were written by the author's wife. R.P.H. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION--LITERARY ENGLAND CHAPTERS: I. FROM 449 A.D. TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066 II. FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066, TO CHAUCER'S DEATH 1400 III. FROM CHAUCER'S DEATH 1400, TO THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH, 1558 IV. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH 1558-1603 V. THE PURITAN AGE, 1603-1660 VI. FROM THE RESTORATION, 1660, TO THE PUBLICATION OF PAMELA, 1740 VII. THE SECOND FORTY YEARS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 1740-1780 VIII. THE AGE OF ROMANTICISM, 1780-1837 IX. THE VICTORIAN AGE, 1837-1900 X. TWENTIETH-CENTURY LITERATURE SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF AUTHORS AND THEIR CHIEF WORKS INDEX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS: 1. Woden. 2. Exeter Cathedral. 3. Anglo-Saxon Gleeman. (From the tapestry designed by H.A. Bone). 4. Facsimile of beginning of Cotton MS. of Beowulf.(British Museum). 5. Facsimile of Beginning of Junian MS. of Caedmon. 6. Anglo-Saxon Musicians. (From illuminated MS., British Museum). 7. The Beginning of Alfred's Laws. (From illuminated MS., British Museum). 8. The Death of Harold at Hastings. (From the Bayeux tapestry). 9. What Mandeville Saw. (From Edition of 1725). 10. John Wycliffe. (From an old print). 11. Treuthe's Pilgryme atte Plow. (From a MS. in Trinity College, Cambridge). 12. Gower Hearing the Confession of a Lover. (From Egerton MS., British Museum). 13. Geoffrey Chaucer. (From an old drawing in the MS. of Occleve's Poems, British Museum). 14. Canterbury Cathedral. 15. Pilgrims Leaving the Tabard Inn. (From Urry's Chaucer). 16. Facsimile of Lines Describing the Franklyn. (From the Cambridge University MS.). 17. Franklyn, Friar, Knight, Prioress, Squire, Clerk of Oxford. (From the Ellesmere MS.). 18. Morris Dancers. (From MS. of Chaucer's Time). 19. Henry VIII, giving Bibles to Clergy and Laity. (From frontispiece to Coverdale Bible). 20. Book Illustration, Early Fifteenth Century. (British Museum). 21. Facsimile of Caxton's Advertisement of his Books. (Bodleian Library, Oxford). 22. Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_. (From DeWorde's Edition, 1529). 23. Early Title Page of _Robin Hood_. (Copland Edition, 1550). 24. William Tyndale. (From an old print). 25. Sir Thomas Wyatt. (After Holbein). 26. Facsimile of Queen Elizabeth's Signature. 27. Sir Philip Sidney. (After the miniature by Isaac Oliver, Windsor Castle). 28. Francis Bacon. (From the painting by Van Somer, National Portrait Gallery). 29. Title page of _Bacon's Essays_, 1597.