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Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They LivedLong, William J. (William Joseph)

History

Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived

Name: Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived
Author: Long, William J. (William Joseph)

Long, William J. (William Joseph)

American literature -- History and criticism; English literature -- History and criticism

In these words of the Attendant Spirit in _Comus_ we seem to hear
Milton speaking to his readers. To such as regard poetry as the means of an
hour's pleasant recreation he brings no message; his "errand" is to those
who, like Sidney, regard poetry as the handmaiden of virtue, or, like
Aristotle, as the highest form of human history.

    LIFE. Milton was born in London (1608) at a time when Shakespeare
    and his fellow dramatists were in their glory. He grew up in a home
    where the delights of poetry and music were added to the moral
    discipline of the Puritan. Before he was twelve years old he had
    formed the habit of studying far into the night; and his field
    included not only Greek, Latin, Hebrew and modern European
    literatures, but mathematics also, and science and theology and
    music. His parents had devoted him in infancy to noble ends, and he
    joyously accepted their dedication, saying, "He who would not be
    frustrate of his hope to write well ... ought himself to be a true
    poem, that is, a composition and pattern of the best and
    honorablest things."

    [Sidenote: MILTON AT HORTON]

    From St. Paul's school Milton went to Christ's College, Cambridge,
    took his master's degree, wrote a few poems in Latin, Italian and
    English, and formed a plan for a great epic, "a poem that England
    would not willingly let die." Then he retired to his father's
    country-place at Horton, and for six years gave himself up to
    music, to untutored study, and to that formal pleasure in nature
    which is reflected in his work. Five short poems were the only
    literary result of this retirement, but these were the most perfect
    of their kind that England had thus far produced.

    Milton's next step, intended like all others to cultivate his
    talent, took him to the Continent. For fifteen months he traveled
    through France and Italy, and was about to visit Greece when,
    hearing of the struggle between king and Parliament, he set his
    face towards England again. "For I thought it base," he said, "to
    be traveling at my ease for culture when my countrymen at home were
    fighting for liberty."

    [Sidenote: HOME LIFE]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived

Long, William J. (William Joseph)

American literature -- History and criticism; English literature -- History and criticism

In these words of the Attendant Spirit in _Comus_ we seem to hear
Milton speaking to his readers. To such as regard poetry as the means of an
hour's pleasant recreation he brings no message; his "errand" is to those
who, like Sidney, regard poetry as the handmaiden of virtue, or, like
Aristotle, as the highest form of human history.

    LIFE. Milton was born in London (1608) at a time when Shakespeare
    and his fellow dramatists were in their glory. He grew up in a home
    where the delights of poetry and music were added to the moral
    discipline of the Puritan. Before he was twelve years old he had
    formed the habit of studying far into the night; and his field
    included not only Greek, Latin, Hebrew and modern European
    literatures, but mathematics also, and science and theology and
    music. His parents had devoted him in infancy to noble ends, and he
    joyously accepted their dedication, saying, "He who would not be
    frustrate of his hope to write well ... ought himself to be a true
    poem, that is, a composition and pattern of the best and
    honorablest things."

    [Sidenote: MILTON AT HORTON]

    From St. Paul's school Milton went to Christ's College, Cambridge,
    took his master's degree, wrote a few poems in Latin, Italian and
    English, and formed a plan for a great epic, "a poem that England
    would not willingly let die." Then he retired to his father's
    country-place at Horton, and for six years gave himself up to
    music, to untutored study, and to that formal pleasure in nature
    which is reflected in his work. Five short poems were the only
    literary result of this retirement, but these were the most perfect
    of their kind that England had thus far produced.

    Milton's next step, intended like all others to cultivate his
    talent, took him to the Continent. For fifteen months he traveled
    through France and Italy, and was about to visit Greece when,
    hearing of the struggle between king and Parliament, he set his
    face towards England again. "For I thought it base," he said, "to
    be traveling at my ease for culture when my countrymen at home were
    fighting for liberty."

    [Sidenote: HOME LIFE]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived

Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived

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