Swinburne"s _A Study of Ben Jonson_.
Shakespeare
Lee"s _A Life of William Shakespeare_.
Furnivall and Munro"s _Shakespeare: Life and Work_.
Harris"s _The Man Shakespeare and his Tragic Life Story_.
Halliwell-Phillipps"s _Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare_.
Raleigh"s _Shakespeare_.(E.M.L.)
Baker"s _The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist_.
MacCracken, Pierce, and Durham"s _An Introduction to Shakespeare_.
Bradley"s _Shakespearean Tragedy_ (excellent).
Bradley"s _Oxford Lectures on Poetry_.
Dowden"s _Shakespeare, His Mind and Art_.
Coleridge"s _Lectures on Shakespeare_ (pp. 21-58 of Beers"s _Selections from the Prose writings of Coleridge_).
Lowell"s _Shakespeare Once More_, in _Among My Books_.
Wallace"s _Shakespeare, the Globe, and Blackfriars_.
_How Shakespeare"s Senses were Trained_, Chap. X. in Halleck"s _Education of the Central Nervous System_.
Rolfe"s _Shakespeare the Boy_.
Boswell-Stone"s _Shakespeare"s Holinshed_.
Brooke"s _Shakespeare"s Plutarch_, 2 vols.
Madden"s _The Diary of Master William Silence: A Study of Shakespeare and of Elizabethan Sport_.
Winter"s _Shakespeare on the Stage_.
SUGGESTED READINGS WITH QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Elizabethan Prose.--Good selections from Ascham, Hakluyt, Raleigh, Holinshed, Stow, Camden, North, Sidney, Foxe, Hooker, Lyly, Greene, Lodge, and Nashe are given in Craik, I.[31] Chambers, I. and Manly, II. also give a number of selections. Deloney"s _The Gentle Craft_ may be found in the Clarendon Press edition of his _Works_. For Bacon, see Craik, II.
These selections will give the student a broader grasp of the Elizabethan age. The style and subject matter of Lyly"s _Euphues_, Sidney"s _Arcadia_, Hooker"s _Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity_, and Bacon"s _Essays_ should be specially noted. Which one of these authors exerted the strongest influence on his own age? Which one makes the strongest appeal to modern times? In what respects does the style of any Elizabethan prose writer show an improvement over that of Mandeville and Malory?
Lyrics.--For specimens of love sonnets, read Nos. 18, 33, 73, 104, 111, and 116 of Shakespeare"s _Sonnets_. Compare them with any of Sidney"s Spenser"s sonnets. Other love lyrics which should be read are Spenser"s _Prothalamion_, Lodge"s _Love in My Bosom Like a Bee_ and Ben Jonson"s _To Celia_. Among pastoral lyrics, read from Spenser"s _Shepherd"s Calendar_ for August, 1579, Perigo and Willie"s duet, beginning:--
"It fell upon a holy eve,"
and Marlowe"s _The Pa.s.sionate Shepherd to His Love_. The best pastoral lyrics from the modern point of view are Shakespeare"s two songs: "Under the Greenwood Tree" (_As you like it_) and "When Icicles Hang by the Wall" (_Love"s Labor"s Lost_). The best miscellaneous lyrics are the songs in Shakespeare"s _Cymbeline_, _The Tempest_, and _As You Like It_. Drayton"s _Ballad of Agincourt_ and _Sonnet 61_ are his best lyrical verse. Read Ben Jonson"s _An Epitaph on Salathiel Pavy_ and, from his Pindaric Ode, the stanza beginning:--
"It is not growing like a tree."
From John Donne, read either _The Funeral_, _The Canonization_, or _The Dream_.
Good selections from all varieties of Elizabethan lyrics may be found in Bronson, II., Ward. I., _Oxford, Century_, Manly, I. Nearly all the lyrics referred to in this list, including the best songs from the dramatists, are given in Sch.e.l.ling"s _Elizabethan Lyrics_ (327 pp., 75 cents). This work, together with Erskine"s _The Elizabethan Lyric_ and Reed"s _English Lyrical Poetry from its Origins to the Present Time_, will serve for a more exhaustive study of this fascinating subject.
From your reading, select from each cla.s.s the lyric that pleases you most, and give reasons for your choice. Which lyric seems the most spontaneous? the most artistic? the most inspired? the most modern?
the most quaint? the most and the least instinct with feeling?
Edmund Spenser.--The _Faerie Queene_, Book I., Canto I., should be read. Maynard"s _English Cla.s.sic Series_, No. 27 (12 cents) contains the first two cantos and the _Prothalamion_. Kitchin"s edition of Book I. (Clarendon Press. 60 cents) is an excellent volume. The Globe edition furnishes a good complete text of Spenser"s work. Ample selections are given in Bronson, II., Ward, I., and briefer ones in Manly, I., and _Century_.
THE DRAMA
The Best Volumes of Selections.--The least expensive volume to cover nearly the entire field with brief selections is Vol. II. of _The Oxford Treasury of English Literature_, ent.i.tled _Growth of the Drama_ (Clarendon Press, 412 pp., 90 cents). Pollard"s _English Miracle Plays, Moralities, and Interludes_ (Clarendon Press, 250 pp., $1.90) is the best single volume of selections from this branch of the drama.
_Everyman and Other Miracle Plays_ (Everyman"s Library, 35 cents) is a good inexpensive volume. Manly"s" _Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama_ (three volumes, $1.25 each) covers this field more fully.
Morley"s _English Plays_ (published as Vol. III. of Ca.s.sell"s _Library of English Literature_, at eleven and one half shillings) contains good selections from nearly all the plays mentioned below, except those by Shakespeare and Jonson. Williams"s _Specimens of the Elizabethan Drama, from Lyly to Shirley_, 1580-1642 (Clarendon Press, 576 pp., $1.90) is excellent for a comprehensive survey of the field covered. Lamb"s _Specimens of English Poets Who Lived about the Time of Shakespeare_ (Bohn"s Library, 552 pp.) contains a large number of good selections.
Miracle Plays.--Read the Chester Play of _Noah"s Flood_, Pollard,[32] 8-20, and the Towneley _Play of the Shepherds_, Pollard, 31-43; Manly"s _Specimens_, I, 94-119; Morley"s _English Plays_, 12-18. These two plays best show the germs of English comedy.
Moralities.--The best _Morality_ is that known as _Everyman_, Pollard, 76-96; also in _Everyman"s Library_. If _Everyman_ is not accessible, _Hycke-Scorner_ may be subst.i.tuted, Morley; 12-18; Manly"s _Specimens_, I., 386-420.
Court Plays, Early Comedies, and Gorboduc.--The best _Interlude_ is _The Four P"s_. Adequate selections are given in Morley, 18-20, and in Symonds"s Shakespeare"s _Predecessors in the English Drama_, 188-201.
Pollard and Manly give several good selections from other _Interludes_.
_Ralph Royster Doyster_ may be found in Arber"s _Reprints_; in Morley"s _English Plays_, pp. 22-46; in Manly"s _Specimens_, II., 5-92; in _Oxford Treasury_, II., 161-174, and in _Temple Dramatists_ (35 cents).
_Gorboduc_ is given in _Oxford Treasury_, II. pp., 40-54 (selections); Morley"s _English Plays_, pp. 51-64; and, under the t.i.tle of _Ferrex and Porrex_, in Dodsley"s _Old Plays_.
What were some of the purposes for which _Interludes_ were written?
How did they aid in the development of the drama?
In what different forms are _The Four-P"s, Ralph Royster Doyster_, and _Gorboduc_ written? Why would Shakespeare"s plays have been impossible if the evolution of the drama had stopped with _Gorboduc_?
Pre-Shakespearean Dramatists.--Selections from Lyly, Peele, Green, Lodge, Nashe, and Kyd may be found in Williams"s _Specimens_. Morley and _Oxford Treasury_ also contain a number of selections. Peele"s _The Arraignment of Paris_ and Kyd"s _The Spanish Tragedy_ are in _Temple Dramatists_. Greene"s best plays are in _Mermaid Series_.
What are the merits of Lyly"s dialogue and comedy? What might Shakespeare have learned from Lyly, Peele, Greene, and Kyd? In what different form did these dramatists write? What progress do they show?
Marlowe.--Read _Dr. Faustus_, in _Masterpieces of the English Drama_ (American Book Company) or in _Everyman"s Library_. This play may also be found in Morley"s _English Plays_, pp. 116-128, or in Morley"s _Universal Library_. Selections from various plays of Marlowe may be found in _Oxford Treasury_, 61-85, 330-356; and in Williams"s _Specimens_, 25-34.
Does _Dr. Faustus_ observe the cla.s.sical unities? In what way does it show the spirit of the Elizabethan age? Was the poetic form of the play the regular vehicle of dramatic expression? In what does the greatness of the play consist? What are its defects? Why do young people sometimes think Marlowe the greatest of _all_ the Elizabethan dramatists?
Shakespeare.--The student should read in sequence one or more of the plays in each of Shakespeare"s four periods of development (pp. 185, 188), such as _A Midsummer Night"s Dream_ and _Romeo and Juliet_, for the first period; _As You Like It_ and _The Merchant of Venice_, for the second; _Hamlet_ and _King Lear_ or _Macbeth_ or _Julius Caesar_, for the third; and _The Winter"s Tale_ and _The Tempest_, for the fourth.
Among the many good annotated editions of separate plays are the Clarke and Wright, Rolfe, Hudson, Arden, Temple, and Tudor editions.
Furness"s _Variorum Shakespeare_ is the best for exhaustive study. The best portable single volume edition is Craig"s _Oxford Shakespeare_, India paper, 1350 pages.