Produced by Ted Garvin, Marlo Dianne, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team INITIATION INTO LITERATURE By Émile Faguet Translated From The French By Sir Home Gordon, Bart. The Translator begs to acknowledge with appreciation the courtesy of the Author in graciously consenting to make some valuable additions, at his request, specially for the English version. PREFACE This volume, as indicated by the title, is designed to show the way to the beginner, to satisfy and more especially to excite his initial curiosity. It affords an adequate idea of the march of facts and of ideas. The reader is led, somewhat rapidly, from the remote origins to the most recent efforts of the human mind. It should be a convenient repertory to which the mind may revert in order to see broadly the general opinion of an epoch--and what connected it with those that followed or preceded it. It aims above all at being _a frame_ in which can conveniently be inscribed, in the course of further studies, new conceptions more detailed and more thoroughly examined. It will have fulfilled its design should it incite to research and meditation, and if it prepares for them correctly. E. FAGUET. CONTENTS CHAPTER I ANCIENT INDIA The Vedas. Buddhist Literature. Great Epic Poems, then very Diverse, much Shorter Poems. Dramatic Literature. Moral Literature. CHAPTER II HEBRAIC LITERATURE The Bible, a Collection of Epic, Lyric, Elegiac, and Sententious Writings. The Talmud, Book of Ordinances. The Gospels. CHAPTER III THE GREEKS Homer. Hesiod. Elegiac and Lyric Poets. Prose Writers. Philosophers and Historians. Lyric Poets, Dramatic Poets. Comic Poets. Orators. Romancers. CHAPTER IV THE LATINS The Latins, Imitators of the Greeks. Epic Poets. Dramatic Poets. Golden Age: Virgil, Horace, Ovid. Silver Age: Prose Writers, Historians, and Philosophers: Titus-Livy, Tacitus, Seneca. Decadence Still Brilliant. CHAPTER V THE MIDDLE AGES: FRANCE _Chansons de Geste: Song of Roland_ and Lyric Poetry. Popular Epopee: _Romances of Renard_. Popular Short Stories: Fables. Historians. The Allegorical Poem: _Romance of the Rose_. Drama. CHAPTER VI THE MIDDLE AGES: ENGLAND Literature in Latin, in Anglo-Saxon, and in French. The Ancestor of English Literature: Chaucer. CHAPTER VII THE MIDDLE AGES: GERMANY Epic Poems: _Nibelungen_. Popular Poems. Very Numerous Lyric Poems. Drama. CHAPTER VIII THE MIDDLE AGES: ITALY Troubadours of Southern Italy. Neapolitan and Sicilian Poets: Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio. CHAPTER IX THE MIDDLE AGES: SPAIN AND PORTUGAL Epic Poems: _Romanceros_. Didactic Books. Romances of Chivalry. CHAPTER X THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES: FRANCE