SECTION I.--The Man--His Life SECTION II.--His Freedom and Precision of Style SECTION III.--The Dramas Catiline and Sejanus SECTION IV.--Comedies SECTION V.--Limits of Jonson's Talent--His Smaller Poems--His Masques SECTION VI.--General Idea of Shakespeare CHAPTER FOURTH Shakespeare SECTION I.--Life and Character of Shakespeare SECTION II.--Shakespeare's Style--Copiousness--Excesses SECTION III.--Shakespeare's Language And Manners SECTION IV.--Dramatis Personæ SECTION V.--Men of Wit SECTION VI.--Shakespeare's Women SECTION VII.--Types of Villains SECTION VIII.--Principal Characters SECTION IX.--Characteristics of Shakespeare's Genius INDEX [Illustration: HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE PAINE. _Photogravure from an engraving._ This picture shows the eminent French critic as he appeared thirty years ago. At that period his fame as a literary savant was spreading to the four quarters of the world, and he was lecturing daily to the crowds of students who had flocked to Paris to study literature under his guidance. In personal appearance he was unlike the traditional scholar, but resembled, in his quick, nervous energy and plain business-like ways, a keen-witted man of affairs. He was simple in dress, as the picture shows, and it is a noteworthy fact that the honors he received never caused him to lose his self-poise, or to cease his severe studies, which he carried on with diligence to the very day of his death. His face denotes the cool, critical, and well-balanced scholar, with the initiative to enter new fields of thought, and the will-power to impress his opinions upon others.] ILLUSTRATIONS SHAKESPEARE BEFORE SIR THOMAS LUCY Photogravure from the original painting ADOLPHE HIPPOLYTE TAINE Photogravure from an engraving GEOFFREY CHAUCER Photogravure from an old engraving THE NEW PSALTER OF THE VIRGIN MARY Fac-simile example of Printing and Engraving in the Fifteenth Century TITLE-PAGE OF THE HYPNEROTOMACHIA Fac-simile example of Printing and Engraving in the Sixteenth Century HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE INTRODUCTION I. Historical documents serve only as a clue to reconstruct the visible individual History, within a hundred years in Germany, and within sixty years in France, has undergone a transformation, owing to a study of literatures. The discovery has been made that a literary work is not a mere play of the imagination, the isolated caprice of an excited brain, but a transcript of contemporary manners and customs and the sign of a particular state of intellect. The conclusion derived from this is that, through literary monuments, we can retrace the way in which men felt and thought many centuries ago. This method has been tried and found successful.