MAIN CURRENTS IN NINETEEN CENTURY LITERATURE BY GEORGE BRANDES IN SIX VOLUMES VOLUME IV. NATURALISM IN ENGLAND NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1906 [Illustration: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH] CONTENTS I. COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERIOD II. NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS III. THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND IV. THE BEGINNINGS OF NATURALISM V. STRENGTH AND SINCERITY OF THE LOVE OF NATURE VI. RURAL LIFE AND ITS POETRY VII. NATURALISTIC ROMANTICISM VIII. THE LAKE SCHOOL'S CONCEPTION OF LIBERTY IX. THE LAKE SCHOOL'S ORIENTAL ROMANTICISM X. HISTORICAL NATURALISM XI. ALL-EMBRACING SENSUOUSNESS XII. THE POETRY OF IRISH OPPOSITION AND REVOLT XIII. EROTIC LYRIC POETRY XIV. THE BRITISH SPIRIT OF FREEDOM XV. REPUBLICAN HUMANISM XVI. RADICAL NATURALISM XVII. BYRON: THE PASSIONATE PERSONALITY XVIII. BYRON: THE PASSIONATE PERSONALITY--(CONTINUED) XIX. BYRON: HIS SELF-ABSORPTION XX. BYRON: THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT XXI. COMIC AND TRAGIC REALISM XXII. CULMINATION OF NATURALISM XXIII. BYRON'S DEATH XXIV. CONCLUSION LIST OF PORTRAITS WORDSWORTH COLERIDGE SCOTT KEATS MOORE SHELLEY BYRON "_I am as a spirit who has dwelt_ _Within his heart of hearts; and I have felt_ _His feelings, and have thought his thoughts, and known_ _The inmost converse of his soul, the tone_ _Unheard but in the silence of his blood,_ _When all the pulses in their multitude_ _Image the trembling calm of summer seas._ _I have unlocked the golden melodies_ _Of his deep soul as with a master-key,_ _And loosened them, and bathed myself therein--_ _Even as an eagle in a thunder-mist_ _Clothing his wings with lightning_." --SHELLEY (Fragment). INTRODUCTION It is my intention to trace in the poetry of England of the first decades of this century, the course of the strong, deep, pregnant current in the intellectual life of the country, which, sweeping away the classic forms and conventions, produces a Naturalism dominating the whole of literature, which from Naturalism leads to Radicalism, from revolt against traditional convention in literature to vigorous rebellion against religious and political reaction, and which bears in its bosom the germs of all the liberal ideas and emancipatory achievements of the later periods of European civilisation.