| CHAPTER I | |
| FROM TOTTEL'S MISCELLANY TO SPENSER | |
| The starting-point—Tottel's Miscellany—Its method and authorship—The characteristics of its poetry—Wyatt—Surrey—Grimald—Their metres —The stuff of their poems—The Mirror for Magistrates—Sackville—His contributions and their characteristics—Remarks on the formal criticism of poetry—Gascoigne—Churchyard—Tusser—Turberville—Googe— The translators—Classical metres—Stanyhurst—Other miscellanies | Pages 1-27 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| EARLY ELIZABETHAN PROSE | |
| Outlines of Early Elizabethan Prose—Its origins—Cheke and his contemporaries —Ascham—His style—Miscellaneous writers—Critics—Webbe—Puttenham —Lyly—Euphues and Euphuism—Sidney—His style and critical principles —Hooker—Greville—Knolles—Mulcaster | 28-49 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| THE FIRST DRAMATIC PERIOD | |
| Divisions of Elizabethan Drama—Its general character—Origins—Ralph Roister Doister—Gammer Gurton's Needle—Gorboduc—The Senecan Drama— Other early plays—The "university wits"—Their lives and characters— Lyly (dramas)—The Marlowe group—Peele—Greene—Kyd—Marlowe | 50-81 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| "THE FAËRIE QUEENE" AND ITS GROUP | |
| Spenser—His life and the order of his works—The Shepherd's Calendar—The minor poems—The FaËrie Queene—Its scheme—The Spenserian stanza— Spenser's language—His general poetical qualities—Comparison with other English poets—His peculiar charm—The Sonneteers—Fulke Greville— Sidney—Watson—Barnes—Giles Fletcher the elder—Lodge—Avisa— Percy—Zepheria—Constable—Daniel—Drayton—Alcilia—Griffin— Lynch—Smith—Barnfield—Southwell—The song and madrigal writers— Campion—Raleigh—Dyer—Oxford, etc.—Gifford—Howell, Grove, and others—The historians—Warner—The larger poetical works of Daniel and Drayton—The satirists —Lodge—Donne—The poems of Donne generally—Hall—Marston—Guilpin—Tourneur | 82-156 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| THE SECOND DRAMATIC PERIOD—SHAKESPERE | |
| Difficulty of writing about Shakespere—His life—His reputation in England and its history—Divisions of his work—The Poems—The Sonnets—The Plays—Characteristics of Shakespere—Never unnatural—His attitude to morality—His humour—Universality of his range—Comments on him— His manner of working—His variety—Final remarks—Dramatists to be grouped with Shakespere—Ben Jonson—Chapman—Marston—Dekker | 157-206 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| LATER ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN PROSE | |
| Bacon—Raleigh—The Authorised Version—Jonson and Daniel as prose-writers —Hakluyt—The Pamphleteers—Greene—Lodge—Harvey—Nash—Dekker —Breton—The Martin Marprelate Controversy—Account of it, with | 207-252 |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| THE THIRD DRAMATIC PERIOD | |
| Characteristics—Beaumont and Fletcher—Middleton—Webster—Heywood— Tourneur—Day | 253-288 |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| THE SCHOOL OF SPENSER AND THE TRIBE OF BEN | |
| Sylvester—Davies of Hereford—Sir John Davies—Giles and Phineas Fletcher —William Browne—Wither—Drummond—Stirling—Minor Jacobean poets—Songs from the dramatists | 289-314 |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| MILTON, TAYLOR, CLARENDON, BROWNE, HOBBES | |
| The quintet—Milton's life—His character—His periods of literary production —First Period, the minor poems—The special excellences of Comus— Lycidas—Second Period, the pamphlets—Their merits and defects— Milton's prose style—Third Period, the larger poems—Milton's blank verse—His origins—His comparative position—Jeremy Taylor's life—His principal works—His style—Characteristics of his thought and manner— Sir Thomas Browne—His life, works, and editions—His literary manner— Characteristics of his style and vocabulary—His Latinising—Remarkable adjustment of his thought and expression—Clarendon—His life—Great merits of his History—Faults of his style—Hobbes—His life and works— Extraordinary strength and clearness of his style | 315-353 |
| CHAPTER X | |
| CAROLINE POETRY | |
| Herrick—Carew—Crashaw—Divisions of Minor Caroline poetry—Miscellanies— George Herbert—Sandys—Vaughan—Lovelace and Suckling—Montrose— —Chamberlayne—Benlowes—S |
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