_Cambridge History of English Literature_, 14 vols. Garnett and Gosse's _English Literature_, 4 vols. Morley's _English Writers_, 11 vols. Jusserand's _Literary History of the English People_. Taine's _English Literature_. Courthope's _History of English Poetry_, 6 vols. Stephens and Lee's _Dictionary of National Biography_ (dead authors). _New International Cyclopedia_ (living and dead authors). _English Men of Letters Series_ (abbreviated reference, E.M.L.) _Great Writers' Series_ (abbreviated reference. G.W.). Poole's _Index_ (and continuation volumes for reference to critical articles in periodicals). _The United States Catalogue_ and _Cumulative Book Index_. SELECTIONS FROM ENGLISH LITERATURE[2]: *Pancoast and Spaeth's _Early English Poems_. (P. & S.)[3] *Warren's _Treasury of English Literature, Part I_. (Origins to Eleventh Century: London, One Shilling.) (Warren.) *Ward's _English Poets_, 4 vols. (Ward.) *Bronson's _English Poems_, 4 vols. (Bronson.) _Oxford Treasury of English Literature_, Vol. I., _Beowulf to Jacobean_; *Vol. II., _Growth of the Drama_; Vol. III., _Jacobean to Victorian_. (Oxford Treasury.) *_Oxford Book of English Verse_. (Oxford.) *Craik's _English Prose_, 5 vols. (Craik.) *Page's _British Poets of the Nineteenth Century_. (Page.) Chambers's _Cyclopedia of English Literature_. (Chambers.) Manly's _English Poetry_ (from 1170). (Manly I.) Manly's _English Prose_ (from 1137). (Manly II.) _Century Readings for a Course in English Literature_. (Century.) CHAPTER I: FROM 449 A.D. TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066 Subject Matter and Aim.--The history of English literature traces the development of the best poetry and prose written in English by the inhabitants of the British Isles. For more than twelve hundred years the Anglo-Saxon race has been producing this great literature, which includes among its achievements the incomparable work of Shakespeare. This literature is so great in amount that the student who approaches the study without a guide is usually bewildered. He needs a history of English literature for the same reason that a traveler in England requires a guidebook. Such a history should do more than indicate where the choicest treasures of literature may be found; it should also show the interesting stages of development; it should emphasize some of the ideals that have made the Anglo-Saxons one of the most famous races in the world; and it should inspire a love for the reading of good literature. No satisfactory definition of "literature" has ever been framed. Milton's conception of it was "something so written to after times, as they should not willingly let it die." Shakespeare's working definition of literature was something addressed not to after times but to an eternal present, and invested with such a touch of nature as to make the whole world kin. When he says of Duncan:-- "After life's fitful fever he sleeps well,"