I need not say that the translator of the portions written originally in French took the trouble to overlook my additions, and to revise my revisions. I need say that my heartiest thanks are due also to the well-known Elizabethan scholar, Mr. A. H. Bullen, who, putting aside for a while much more important work, has shown me the great kindness of reading the proofs of this volume. J._ SAINT HAON-LE-CHATEL, _Nov., 1890_. CONTENTS. PAGE TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 11 INTRODUCTION 23 CHAPTER I. _BEFORE SHAKESPEARE_ 31 I. Remote origin of the novel--Old historical romances or epics--Beowulf. The French conquest of England in the eleventh century--The mind and literature of the new-comers--Their romances, their short tales 31 II. Effects of the conquest on the minds of the English inhabitants--Slow awakening of the native writers--Awakening of the clerks, of the translators and imitators--The English inhabitants connected through a literary imposture with Troy and the classical nations of antiquity--Consequences of this imposture. Chaucer--His lack of influence on later prose novelists--The short prose tales of the French never acclimatized in England before the Renaissance--More's Latin "Utopia" 37 III. Printing--Caxton's _role_--Part allotted to fiction in the list of his books--Morte Darthur. Development of printing--Mediaeval romances set in type in the sixteenth century 52 CHAPTER II. _TUDOR TIMES--THE FASHIONS AND THE NOVEL_ 69 I. The Renaissance and the awakening of a wider curiosity--Travelling in Italy--Ascham's censures 69 II. Italian invasion of England--Italian books translated, Boccaccio, Ariosto, Tasso, &c. English collections of short stories imitated from the French or Italian--Separate short stories--Lucrece of Sienna--A "travelling literature" 74 III. Learning--Erasmus' judgment and prophecies--The part played by women--They want books written for themselves--Queen Elizabeth, her talk, her tastes, her dress, her portraits--The "paper work" architecture of the time 87 CHAPTER III. _LYLY AND HIS "EUPHUES"_ 103 I. "Euphues," a book for women 103