THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE

Volume VIII: English
THE AGE OF DRYDEN


Edited by A. W. Ward & A. R. Waller

CONTENTS
    Prefatory Note
    Table of Principal Dates
  
Chapter I. Dryden
  By A. W. WARD, Litt.D., P.B.A., Master of Peterhouse
  1. Dryden and his Age
  2. His Parentage and Education
  3. Heroick Stanzas on Cromwell
  4. Astraea Redux and other Panegyrics
  5. Annus Mirabilis
  6. Dryden’s Productivity as a Dramatist
  7. Influence of French Tragicomedy and Romance
  8. The Wild Gallant and other Comedies: The Spanish Fryar
  9. The Heroic Couplet in Drama
  10. Dryden and the Heroic Play: The Conquest of Granada
  11. The Satire of The Rehearsal
  12. Essay Of Heroick Plays
  13. Aureng-Zebe
  14. Dryden’s Adaptation of Shakespearean Plays and Themes
  15. The Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy
  16. His Later Plays: Don Sebastian and Cleomenes
  17. Dryden’s Work as a Dramatist
  18. Prologues and Epilogues
  19. Dryden Poet Laureate
  20. The “Rose-alley ambuscade
  21. Political Satire: Absalom and Achitophel, Part I
  22. The Medal
  23. Mac Flecknoe
  24. Absalom and Achitophel, Part II
  25. Didactic Poetry: Religio Laici
  26. Death of Charles II and Accession of James II: Threnodia Augustalis and Britannia Rediviva
  27. Conversion to the Church of Rome
  28. The Hind and the Panther
  29. Various Later Work in Verse and Prose: Miscellanies
  30. Translations: Fables Ancient and Modern
  31. Preface to the Fables
  32. Odes, Songs and Hymns
  33. Dryden’s Enemies and Younger Literary Friends
  34. His Great Qualities as a Writer of Verse and Prose
  35. His Excellence in Various Literary Species
  36. His Originality that of Treatment
  37. The Eminence of his Genius
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
II. Samuel Butler
  By WILLIAM FRANCIS SMITH, M.A., Fellow of St. John’s College
  1. Ancient and Modern Satire
  2. Influence of Le Roman de la Rose, The Ship of Fools, Erasmus and Rabelais
  3. Butler’s Life before and after the Restoration
  4. Butler in the Employ of Sir Samuel Luke and the Earl of Carbery
  5. Penury of his Later Days
  6. His Learning in Letters and Law
  7. Imitations of his Prose and Verse: The Posthumous Works
  8. Contents of The Genuine Remains: Characters
  9. Hudibras and its Models
  10. Course of Part I
  11. Course of Part II
  12. Difference of Treatment in Part III
  13. The Methods in the Composition of the Work
  14. Metre of Hudibras
  15. Main Purpose of the Satire
  16. Butler’s Gifts and Powers
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
III. Political and Ecclesiastical Satire
  By C. W. PREVITÉ-ORTON, M.A., Fellow of St. John’s College
  1. Causes of the New Development of Satirical Literature on Political Subjects in the Period following the Restoration
  2. Denham and Marvell
  3. The Popish Plot Panic: Oldham
  4. His Satyrs Upon the Jesuits
  5. His Powers and Influence as a Satirist
  6. Lesser Satires of this and the Following Period: Poems on Affairs of State
  7. Advices to a Painter
  8. The Ghost and Last Will Motives
  9. Dialogues
  10. Ballads
  11. Litanies
  12. D’Urfey
  13. Lilliburlero
  14. Prose Satires: The Rehearsal Transpros’d
  15. Satirical Narratives and Dialogues
  16. Low Literary Quality of these Satires as a Whole
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
IV. The Early Quakers
  By EDWARD GRUBB, M.A.
  1. George Fox and the Rise of the Quaker Movement in England
  2. The Purpose of Early Quaker Writings not Literary
  3. George Fox’s Journal
  4. Thomas Ellwood’s History of his Life
  5. Other Quaker Journals and Memoirs
  6. William Penn, and his No Cross No Crown
  7. Isaac and Mary Penington
  8. James Nayler
  9. Early Attacks upon the Quakers, and their Replies
  10. Samuel Fisher
  11. Barclay’s Apology
  12. More purely Literary Efforts: Penn’s Some Fruits of Solitude
  13. Ellwood’s Collection of Poems on Various Subjects
  14. Mary Mollineux’s Fruits of Retirement
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
V. The Restoration Drama, I
  By Professor FELIX E. SCHELLING, University of Pennsylvania
  1. Players and Plays after the Closing of the Theatres
  2. Drolls
  3. Relaxation of the Laws against Dramatic Entertainments towards the Close of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate; Sir William D’Avenant’s Entertainments: The Siege of Rhodes
  4. Dramatic Companies Formed immediately before the Restoration
  5. The King’s and the Duke of York’s Companies “Created” after it
  6. Thomas Killigrew’s and Sir William D’Avenant’s Later Plays
  7. Old Masterpieces Revived
  8. Comedies reflecting the Political Reaction: The Rump and Cutter of Coleman Street
  9. Tatham
  10. John Wilson
  11. Stapylton
  12. The Duke of Newcastle
  13. Early Spanish Influences in English Drama
  14. Spanish Personages in English Plays
  15. The Indebtedness of Beaumont and Fletcher, and of other Dramatists, before and after the Restoration, to Spanish Novels, and to Spanish Plays, Examined and Summarised
  16. Influence of French Literature on the Restoration Drama
  17. Molière and Restoration Comedy
  18. Influence of French Opera
  19. Etherege and his Place in the History of Restoration Drama
  20. Sir Charles Sedley
  21. Lacy
  22. Aphra Behn
  23. Wycherley
  24. The Plain Dealer
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
VI. The Restoration Drama, II.
CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, FARQUHAR, ETC.
  By CHARLES WHIBLEY, Jesus College
  1. Congreve
  2. The Old Bachelor
  3. The Double-Dealer
  4. Love for Love
  5. The Mourning Bride
  6. The Way of the World
  7. Congreve and the Comedy of Manners
  8. His Comic Art
  9. His Diction
  10. His Friends and Way of Life
  11. Vanbrugh’s Life and Character
  12. The Relapse
  13. The Provok’d Wife
  14. The Confederacy
  15. Vanbrugh and Perrault
  16. Earlier Attacks in this Period on the Stage: Rymer’s Short View of Tragedy
  17. Jeremy Collier’s Short View
  18. Its Invective and its Fallacies
  19. Replies to Collier by Vanbrugh, Farquhar, Dryden, D’Urfey and Dennis
  20. Farquhar as a Comic Dramatist
  21. Love and a Bottle; The Constant Couple; The Recruiting Officer; the Beaux’ Stratagem
  22. Shadwell
  23. D’Urfey
  24. Colley Cibber’s Earlier Plays
  25. His Apology for his Life
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
VII. The Restoration Drama, III.
TRAGIC POETS
  By A. T. BARTHOLOMEW, M. A., Peterhouse, and of the University Library
  1. Characteristics of Lesser Restoration Tragedy
  2. Public Interest in Acting
  3. The Operatic Element
  4. The Heroic Play
  5. French Influence on Restoration Tragedy
  6. Translations of Corneille
  7. Influence of Racine
  8. Revived Influence of Earlier English Work
  9. Otway and his Career as a Dramatist
  10. The Orphan and Venice Preserv’d
  11. Their Enduring Popularity
  12. Nathaniel Lee
  13. Characteristics of his Plays
  14. The Rival Queens
  15. Crowne
  16. Sir Courtly Nice
  17. His Tragedies
  18. Southerne
  19. The Fatal Marriage and Oroonoko
  20. Settle
  21. Dennis
  22. Banks
  23. Hughes
  24. Lansdowne
  25. Ravenscroft
  26. Nicholas Rowe as a Link between the Later Restoration Drama and that of the Augustan Age
  27. The Fair Penitent
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
VIII. The Court Poets
  By CHARLES WHIBLEY
  1. The Lives and Writings of the Court Poets as a Protest against the Puritan Domination
  2. The Circle of Whitehall
  3. The Pranks of the Wits
  4. The Court Poets as Men of Action: Rochester, Buckhurst and Mulgrave
  5. The Mark of the Amateur on their Writings
  6. Dryden’s Flattery of them
  7. Rochester’s Life and Character
  8. His Quarrel with Mulgrave and Dryden
  9. Rochester as a Satirist: The Satire against Mankind
  10. Sir Charles Sedley
  11. His Songs
  12. Buckhurst: To all you Ladies now at Land
  13. Mulgrave’s Essay upon Poetry
  14. Roscommon’s Essay on Translated Verse
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
IX. The Prosody of the Seventeenth Century
  By GEORGE SAINTSBURY, M.A., F.B.A., LL.D., D.Litt., Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the University of Edinburgh
  1. The Spenserian Era of English Versification
  2. Loss of Elasticity and Diversity
  3. Variations of the Iambic Line
  4. Insufficient Understanding as to Equivalence in Feet
  5. Decline of Blank Verse; the Redundant Syllable and other Means of Varying the Measure
  6. The Battle of the Couplets”: Waller and Cowley
  7. Miscellaneous Metric: Jonson and Others
  8. Milton’s Metrical Development
  9. The Anapaest as the Chief Base-foot of Metre
  10. The Octosyllabic Couplet
  11. The “Pindaric” of Cowley and his Followers
  12. Dryden and the Heroic Couplet
  13. Perceptive Prosody: Jonson and Dryden
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
X. Memoir and Letter Writers
  By HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A. EVELYN AND PEPYS
  1. Diaries of Evelyn and Pepys Published as Written
  2. Narcissus Luttrell’s Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs
  3. Evelyn’s and Pepys’s Diaries Compared
  4. Evelyn’s Father, Younger Days, Travels and Marriage
  5. His Later Life and Activities
  6. Evelyn and the Royal Society
  7. His Love of Planting: Sylva
  8. His Public Services
  9. His Life of Mrs. Godolphin
  10. Pepys’s Early Life and Marriage
  11. Pepys on the Naseby
  12. His Service in the Navy Office
  13. His Blindness and the Closing of the Diary
  14. Pepys and the Popish Plot
  15. His Later Years
  16. Character and Charm of the Diary

OTHER WRITERS OF MEMOIRS AND LETTERS
  1. Anthony Hamilton’s Mémoires de la Vie du Comte de Gramont
  2. Question of the trustworthiness of these Memoirs
  3. The writer and his work
  4. Memoirs of Sir John Reresby

By A. W. WARD, Litt.D.
  1. Letters and Memoirs of Sir Richard Bulstrode
  2. Diary of Henry Sidney (Earl of Romney)
  3. Diary of Lady Warwick
  4. Her Occasional Meditations
  5. Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe
  6. Letters of Rachel Lady Russell
  7. Memoirs of Queen Mary II
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
XI. Platonists and Latitudinarians
  By J. BASS MULLINGER, M.A., formerly librarian of St. John’s College
  1. Distinction between the Cambridge Platonists and the Latitudinarians
  2. Benjamin Whichcote
  3. His Position as Defined by Himself
  4. His Aphorisms and Sermons
  5. Whichcote not a Platonist
  6. Henry More
  7. His Life and Habits
  8. Cudworth and his Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality
  9. More’s Song of the Soul
  10. Joseph Beaumont’s Psyche
  11. More’s Immortality of the Soul, Grand Mystery of Godliness and Mystery of Iniquity
  12. His Divine Dialogues
  13. Cudworth’s True Intellectual Systems of the Universe; More and Cudworth Compared
  14. John Smith’s Select Discourses
  15. John Smith and Henry More Contrasted
  16. Culverwel’s Light of Nature
  17. George Rust (Bishop of Dromore)
  18. Glanvill’s Lux Orientalis
  19. His Controversy with Henry Stubbs
  20. Richard Cumberland (Bishop of Peterborough) and other Contributors to the Latitudinarian Movement
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
XII. Divines of the Church of England
1660–1700
  By the Ven. W. H. HUTTON, B.D., Archdeacon of Northampton, Canon of Peterborough and Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford
  1. Old and New Influences on the Style of the English Pulpit in the Period Following the Restoration
  2. Gradual Transition
  3. Herbert Thorndike, John Cosin and George Morley
  4. Isaac Barrow: his Sermons and his Treatise On the Pope’s Supremacy
  5. Pearson’s Exposition of the Creed
  6. John Wilkins as a Link with the Later Generation
  7. Robert Leighton and his Preaching
  8. Burnet as a Theologian
  9. His Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles and Pastoral Care
  10. Stillingfleet and Patrick
  11. Fashionable Preachers of the Age
  12. Extempore Preaching begins to be Popular
  13. Tillotson
  14. South and the Controversial Style
  15. Sherlock
  16. Samuel Parker’s Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity
  17. Henry Compton’s Episcopalia
  18. George Bull
  19. Sancroft’s Fur Praedestinatus
  20. Henry Wharton
  21. Non-jurors: Ken, Kettlewell, Dodwell and Hickes
  22. Robert Nelson’s Companion for the Festivals and Fasts
  23. Influence of Foreign, and especially of French, Culture upon English Divines
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
XIII. Legal Literature
  
By F. J. C. HEARNSHAW, M.A., LL.D., formerly scholar of Peterhouse, Professor of Modern History in Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, University of Durham
  1. The Beginnings of English Legal Literature
  2. The Laws of Ethelbert of Kent and other Early Kings
  3. The Era of the Capitularies
  4. Complications Introduced by the Norman Conquest
  5. English Common Law in the Twelfth Century
  6. New Type of Legal Writings: Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus R. Angliae, called by the Name of Ranulf de Glanvil
  7. Bracton’s Treatise Bearing the Same Title
  8. Fleta and Britton
  9. The Year Books and their Value
  10. Fortescue’s De Laudibus Legum Angliae and Littleton’s Tenures
  11. Early Printed Law Books
  12. Law Reports
  13. Equity and Common Law: Bacon and Cowell; Coke
  14. Selden and his Legal Works
  15. English as the Language of the Law
  16. Sir Matthew Hale
  17. Revival of the Common Law, and of the Use of Latin and French
  18. Sir William Dugdale and William Prynne
  19. Hobbes and the Advent of a New Era

SELDEN’S Table-Talk
By A. W. WARD, Litt.D.
  1. Predecessors of Selden’s Table-Talk
  2. Authenticity of the Book
  3. Scanty References to Personal Experiences
  4. Chief Political and Religious Topics
  5. Selden’s Wit and Wisdom
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
XIV. John Locke
  By W. R. SORLEY, Litt.D., F.B.A., Fellow of King’s College, Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy
  1. Locke the Most Important Figure in English Philosophy
  2. His Personal and Literary Life
  3. Controversy with Stillingfleet
  4. The “New Way of Ideas” Opened by Locke
  5. Plan of An Essay concerning Human Understanding
  6. Locke’s Doctrine of Knowledge
  7. Its Nature and Extent
  8. The Twilight of Probability.” Two Treatises of Government
  9. Economic Writings
  10. Economists Contemporary with Locke: Sir William Petty
  11. Letters concerning Toleration
  12. Earlier Pleas
  13. Locke’s Views on Church and State
  14. Thoughts concerning Education; Locke’s Theory
  15. His Critics and Followers
  16. Richard Burthogge
  17. John Norris and his Ideal World
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
XV. The Progress of Science
  By A. E. SHIPLEY, Sc.D., F.R.S., Master of Christ’s College
  1. Lateness of the Scientific Reawakening
  2. Outburst of Scientific Enquiry in the Seventeenth Century and its Causes
  3. The Heritage of Bacon
  4. Milton and Scientific Enquiry
  5. Lord Herbert of Cherbury
  6. His Knowledge of Medicine and Allied Subjects
  7. Evelyn and Pepys
  8. Witches, Astrologers and Alchemists
  9. Intelligence of the Stewarts in Matters Scientific: Charles II and Prince Rupert
  10. The Marquis of Worcester
  11. Sir Kenelm Digby
  12. Mathematics: John Wallis and Seth Ward; Newton
  13. Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood
  14. Other Great Physiologists and Physicians: Sir Theodore de Mayerne; John Mayow; Thomas Sydenham; Francis Glisson
  15. Robert Boyle
  16. Origin and Beginnings of the Royal Society
  17. Contemporary Poets and Scientific Research: Cowley, Donne, Butler
  18. Political Economists of the Seventeenth Century: Sir William Petty and Locke
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
XVI. The Essay and the Beginning of Modern English Prose
  By A. A. TILLEY, M.A., Fellow of King’s College
  1. The New Prose and its Causes
  2. Interest in Science and Demand for Clearness of Style
  3. Growing Plainness and Simplicity of Pulpit Oratory
  4. The Style of Dryden and its Conversational Character
  5. Early Beginnings of French Influence on English Literature; its Increase under Charles I; English Exiles in France: D’Avenant, Cowley and Others
  6. French Influence through Translations; Heroic Romances
  7. Urquhart’s Rabelais; Pascal; Descartes; Corneille, Racine and Molière
  8. Boileau
  9. Influence of French Criticism: Chapelain, Le Bossu and Dacier
  10. Evidence of Dryden, Rapin and Rymer
  11. Saint-Evremond and the Renewal of the Popularity of Montaigne in England
  12. Francis Osborne
  13. Cowley’s Essays
  14. Sir William Temple, Dorothy Osborne and Lady Giffard
  15. Temple’s Letters and Memoirs
  16. His Miscellaneous Works: Essays
  17. Influence of Montaigne
  18. Halifax’s Miscellanies: The Character of a Trimmer; A Letter to a Dissenter
  19. Clarendon’s Essays
  20. Dryden’s Influence on English Style; the Preface to the Fables
BIBLIOGRAPHY