A History of English Literature

The priorities of a history may be deduced from its allocation of space. Yet space

has also to be given to the historically symptomatic. Thus, Thomas Gray’s Elegy writ-

ten in a Country Churchyard (1750) is treated at length since it shows a century turn-

ing from the general to the personal. This does not mean that the Elegy is worth

more than the whole of Old English prose or of Jacobean drama, which are summar-

ily treated, or than travel writing, which is not treated at all. Much space is given to

Chaucer and Milton, poets whose greatness is historical as well as personal. Where

there is no agreement (as about Blake’s later poetry), or where a personal view is

offered, this is made clear.

In a History, the order in which authors and works are discussed is chrono-

logical. But comparisons can be fruitful and in this History they are often offered –

sometimes on pages remote from the original discussion. Readers will, I hope, take

advantage of the much fuller Index which I have compiled for this History's third

edition.

Texts

The best available texts are followed. These may not be the last text approved by the

author. Line references are not given, for editions differ considerably. Some titles,

such as Shake-speares Sonnets, and Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe, keep their original forms;

and some texts are unmodernized. But most are modernized in spelling and repunc-

tuated by their editors. Variety in edited texts is unavoidable, for well-edited texts can

be edited on principles which differ widely. This inconsistency is a good thing, and

should be embraced as positively instructive.

nFurther reading

Pr imary texts

Blackwell’s Anthologies of Verse.

Longman’s Annotated Anthologies of Verse.

Penguin English Poets, and Penguin Classics as a whole.

Oxford Books of Verse.

Oxford, Cambridge, and Arden editions of Shakespeare.

Oxford University Press’s World’s Classics.

Secondary texts

Birch, Dinah (ed.),The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 7th edn (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2009). The standard work of reference.

Jeffares, A. N. (general ed.),The Macmillan History of English Literature (1982–85) covers

English literature in eight volumes. Other volumes cover Scottish, Anglo-Irish, American and

other literatures.

Rogers, P. (ed.),The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature(Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1987; paperback, 1990). Well designed; each chapter is by an expert

scholar.

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