(1759–1805)
Schiller, the most beloved of German poets, was a native of the Duchy of Würtemberg. Abandoning the study of the law for that of medicine, he gave vent to his literary powers by writing the romantic drama of "The Robbers," produced in 1782. Meanwhile he had become regimental surgeon and was obliged to leave his regiment without permission in order to witness the performance. As a result he was put under arrest and involved in further trouble, fleeing at last into hiding, under a false name.
Drifting through the literary centers of Germany, studying history and writing drama the while, he came in 1787 to Weimar, where he was received kindly by the duke, Goethe's patron and friend, and soon after met Goethe himself. Through the latter's influence Schiller received a post at the University of Jena as professor of history, and devoted himself to that subject; his "History of the Thirty Years' War" belongs to this period.
By 1795 he had become intimate with Goethe and renewed his poetic work, his principal dramas and "The Song of the Bell," all belonging to this period. Of the former, "Maria Stuart" and "The Maid of Orleans" deserve high praise beside his masterpieces, the "Wallenstein" trilogy, and "Wilhelm Tell," his last and most popular play.
His character was noble and lovable, and his work possesses a high finish in style and a lofty vein of idealism which gives it a resemblance to those passages and plays of Shakespeare in which princes and potentates appear. He was a lover of the Bard of Avon and translated several of his plays into German. But Schiller did not attempt the many-sided portrayal of life that was Shakespeare's forte; for him the presentation of high ideals and a majestic plot involving the great motives of human action was sufficient.
Yet his thought is not so profound as Goethe's, and its expression, on the other hand, is not so simple. The story of Margaret's tragedy, in "Faust," is bare as compared withthe plots of "Tell" or "Maria Stuart" and the character development therein; but the lesson which Goethe drove home to the hearts of men was more forcible than any of Schiller's.
THE MAN
1. What terms of intimacy existed between Goethe and Schiller? VIII, 182.
2. Was his education calculated to fit him for the calling of a poet?
3. Was Jean Paul Richter right in supposing Schiller to be of a strong nature? VIII, 175.
4. What was the nature of his connection with Jena?
5. In what respect did he resemble Shelley? VII, 222.
6. Where, and in whose company, were his latter years spent?
7. Compare Goethe and Schiller in character and in work.
STYLE AND WORKS
1. In what two departments of literature did Schiller attain eminence?
2. Which works treat of scenes outside of Germany?
3. Name his four greatest dramas.
4. Which of these is esteemed the masterpiece?
5. Which first brought him to public notice?
6. For what two great historical works are we indebted to him?
FROM "WILHELM TELL"
1. What are the social and political conditions in Switzerland at the beginning of the play? How did they compare with those of other lands?
2. From what class in society do the characters come? Is their style of speech consistent with their social position? Is absolute adherence to realism desirable? Why, and also why not?
3. What is the date of this play and what great social upheavals had recently taken place?
4. Why is Tell's son introduced?
5. Is the character of Gessler too harshly drawn?
6. The scene on p. 363 occurs at the close of the play; meanwhile previous acts have shown the development of the spirit of freedom in the hearts of the people and the determination to do away with tyranny. Does this justify Tell's act?
7. "The Robbers" was one of the first products of Romanticism; is "Tell" also a good example of this age?
8. Compare the style in "Tell" with that of Shakespeare and Goethe, making allowance for loss in translation.
FOR REFERENCE
"Life of Friedrich Schiller."—Carlyle.
"Biographical Essays."—De Quincey.
"Goethe and Schiller."—Boyesen.
(1812–1870)
Charles Dickens was born at Portsmouth, England. His parents were poor and luckless. His early years were spent in moving from place to place, and as a boy he performed the services of a drudge and was rewarded with a mere pittance. Such education as he received was gained in the severe school of experience.
Hence it is not surprising that, after having been connected with various newspapers in a subordinate capacity, when he finally tried his hand at serial fiction he astounded the world in "Pickwick Papers" by his wonderful descriptions of middle and lower class English life; a work also unexcelled in its good-natured merriment.
"Pickwick Papers" and its successors were among the first of those social novels which form so marked a feature of modern literature. They waged open and successful warfare against many of the crying evils of the day, such as the work-houses, the barbarous school system in vogue, and the legal and prison systems.
Dickens was too kind-hearted to sneer, but his mocking humor was quite as effective. He won the hearts of high and low alike, and the sale of his novels was phenomenal.
In addition to rollicking humor, touches of satire and a pronounced tendency toward exaggerated pathos appear in his work, the latter quality especially in "The Old Curiosity Shop" and "Dombey and Son."
His creative powers were immense, the numbers of his characters running into the hundreds. Though some of these serve the purpose of lay figures, yet they are redeemed from mere puppetry by some whimsical oddity that stamps the character indelibly on one's mind. "David Copperfield," "Bleak House," and "Pickwick Papers" are usually held to be the best of his work.
THE MAN
1. Where did Dickens receive his education? Compare it with that of other novelists.
2. Give the sources of his intimate acquaintance with conditions among the lower class.
3. What moral characteristic of the man took the sting out of his satire?
4. What great quality will ever endear him to the public?
5. Where did Dickens make his home after his reputation had become established? V, 220.
6. What was his attitude toward the poor after he had become a man of substance?
7. Have social conditions in England improved since his day? In what lines and how?
STYLE AND WORKS
1. In what is Dickens related to the period of Romanticism? Is he characteristically English? Compare him with Dumas, Daudet, and Harte.
2. What beneficial effect has the reading of his novels had on everyday life?
3. Explain his custom of running several stories at the same time in a novel. III, 254, 259.
4. What is the true secret of his popularity? III, 250.
5. Whence did Dickens obtain the numerous characters that crowd his pages?
6. What art lies at the bottom of his comic masterpiece? III, 258.
7. To what extent have Dickens's characters become common property of the race? III, 248.
8. How does Dickens compare with the other novelists of the nineteenth century? III, 264.
9. Does Dickens's continued popularity prove the contention that the public likes bad literature? III, 252.
10. Which novel will endure the longer, that in which the characters are exaggerated and impossible, as his often are, or that in which the characters are carefully and realistically drawn? III, 266.
11. Which is more popular at the present time, Dickens or Kipling? III, 249.
12. What work brought Dickens into public notice?
13. Name three novels in which pathos predominates.
14. Which is considered his greatest work?
15. Dickens and Hood were masters of both humor and pathos, the one as a novelist, the other as a poet. Compare them in these qualities.
FROM "PICKWICK PAPERS"
1. Is this style clear and forcible? Why?
2. Is Mr. Magnus a common character of to-day whom one may meet while traveling?
3. Would you expect to see the White Horse Inn at Ipswich if you were in England?
4. Draw a character sketch of Mr. Pickwick.
5. When reading a story is it more effective when dialect is introduced? How far may the use of dialect be carried?
6. Do you notice any exaggeration in incident or description? If so what purpose does it serve?
7. Contrast the description of the temperance meeting with Dickens's attitude on other social reforms.
8. Is this satire justified on any grounds then or now?
FOR REFERENCE
"The Life of Charles Dickens."—Forster.
"Charles Dickens."—Chesterton.
"Life of Charles Dickens as Revealed in his Writings."—Fitzgerald.
"Great English Novelists."—Dawson.
"Charles Dickens and His Girl Heroines."—Moses.
"Dickens" ("English Men of Letters").—Ward.
"Masters of the English Novel."—Burton.
(1811–1863)
The novelist was born in Calcutta, India; he was sent to Cambridge University. Here he was an intimate friend of Tennyson and Fitzgerald (translator of the "Rubáiyát"). After losing his money in various newspaper deals, he settled down in London as a literary hack. His genius soon attracted the attention of "Punch," which welcomed his sketches and satires against snobbery.
"Vanity Fair" in 1847 finally raised him to the highest rank among writers of fiction. "Pendennis" followed, and a little later "Henry Esmond," the equal of "Vanity Fair." Its sequel, "The Virginians," was not so powerful.
Thackeray came to the United States in 1852 and delivered his lectures on "The English Humorists." So pleased was he with the country that he returned again three years later and lectured on "The Four Georges." During these trips he became acquainted with the leading American writers of the day.
THE MAN
1. With what noted English periodical was he connected?
2. Did he soon show an aptitude for fiction?
3. What authors were numbered among his most intimate friends?
4. What other eminent English writer was born in India? VIII, 3.
5. Describe his American visits.
6. Is the vein of cynicism which runs through his writings indicative of his real character?
STYLE AND WORKS
1. Was Thackeray a realist? III, 266, 267.
2. Upon what was his creation of character based?
3. What great service did he render English society?
4. Which of his works were delivered in America in the form of lectures?
5. Which were particularly aimed at British snobbery?
6. Why is Dickens more popular than Thackeray? III, 248.
7. For which may we expect the more enduring fame? III, 264.
8. Read his metrical translations from Beranger. I,428-431.
9. Which two novels are considered his masterpieces?
10. Was his work characteristically English, as contrasted with that of other nations?
"CLUB SNOBS"
1. Why should bachelors be excluded from the luxuries of Clubs?
2. To whom should the privilege of attending these institutions be given and during what hours?
3. What evils are attributed to these institutions; wrongly or otherwise?
4. In general do women's clubs or men's clubs exert a more beneficial influence on the surrounding community?
5. How serious is the author?
"THE SNOB ROYAL"
1. What queen of England is alluded to by "her present Majesty"? (See the dates of Thackeray's life.)
2. How does Thackeray's definition of a "Snob" compare with your conception of this type of person?
3. From your own knowledge of Charles II, do you consider him worthy of the title "snob"?
4. Compare Chesterfield's ideas of a gentleman with Thackeray's. III, 240-247.
5. Thackeray wrote several parodies of successful novels; which type does he satirize in the opening paragraph of this essay?
6. 'The Baron of Bradwardine' refers to Scott; do you agree with Thackeray's condemnation of Scott's conduct? Why? Why not?
FOR REFERENCE
"Life of Thackeray."—Benjamin.
"Thackeray."—Chesterton.
"Great English Novelists."—Jackson.
"Literary Studies."—Bagehot.
"The Thackeray Country."—Benjamin.
"Victorian Prose Masters."—Brownell.
"Thackeray's Haunts and Homes."—Crowe.
"With Thackeray in America."—Crowe.
(1709–1784)
Johnson was born at Lichfield, Staffordshire, and studied at Oxford. His early years were one continuous struggle with poverty, first as a teacher at Lichfield and other places and afterwards as a hack writer in London. During the latter period, besides his ordinary duties as an editor of various magazines, he found time to turn his hand to the most diverse forms of literature. He wrote poems, "London" and the "Vanity of Human Wishes"; a drama, "Irene"; a philosophic romance, "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia"; two series of essays, the "Rambler" and the "Idler," after the model ofAddison's "Spectator"; and prepared the first English dictionary.
In 1862 he was granted a pension of £300 by Lord Bute, from which time dates his literary dictatorship. His only subsequent works of importance were his "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland" and his "Lives of the Poets." The latter is his best work and one of the monuments of English criticism in spite of its prejudiced tone.
During the latter half of his life he gathered about him a coterie of the most intellectual men of the day, nearly all of whom belonged to the literary society known as the Club. Burke, Goldsmith, Gibbon, Garrick, Reynolds, and Boswell were among his intimates.
THE MAN
1. To see Johnson, the thinker and the man, read Boswell's "Life," II, 100 ff., and then take up the following questions:
2. What attitude did Johnson maintain toward religious questions?
3. Quote Goldsmith on his roughness of manner.
4. What was Johnson's opinion of the married state?
5. Would you judge him to have been of a harsh or tender disposition?
6. See Frances Burney's account of his sociability. II, 339 ff.
7. In what respect was the Doctor a typical Anglo-Saxon? VIII, 259.
8. What distinguishes Boswell from most biographers? II, 100.
9. Where did Johnson win his fame, in writing, or in society?
10. Is he a true follower of the spirit of Classicism?
STYLE AND WORKS
1. What peculiar position did Johnson occupy in the literary world of his day?
2. If Johnson is to be called heroic for having kept at his dictionary until its completion, why should not the term beapplied to later lexicographers, whose dictionaries are much more extensive?
3. Under what circumstances does Johnson justify dissimulation?
4. Was his criticism of Milton fair? VIII, 350.
5. Why was he a poor critic of the Latin productions of modern writers? VIII, 354.
6. Give Johnson's view of death.
7. By what works is he best known?
8. Is he comparable with Addison as an essayist in your opinion? Why?
"THE VALLEY OF HAPPINESS"
1. 'The father of waters' is an appellation applied to what African stream?
2. Can man be truly happy with luxury alone?
3. What occupations give the greatest pleasure to the normal person?
4. How long is the active life of the average man or woman?
5. The power to enjoy our blessings is enhanced by what knowledge or experience?
6. In the description of the Valley of Happiness, find some combinations of setting which would not hold in real life.
7. Judging from this selection, would the human race be contented in utter idleness?
8. What moral did Johnson wish to teach by this piece?
9. Would Johnson deserve immortality simply on the merits of this, one of his best pieces of literary work?
FOR REFERENCE
"Life of Johnson."—Boswell.
"Dr. Johnson" ("Bell's Miniature series").—Dennis.
"Life of Johnson."—Macaulay.
"Six Essays on Johnson."—Raleigh.
"Doctor Johnson and Mrs. Thrale."—Broadley.
"Essay on Boswell's Johnson."—Carlyle.
(1728–1774)
Goldsmith was born in central Ireland, where his father was a clergyman of the Established Church of England. His youth gave little promise of future eminence. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, after various escapades he was sent by his uncle to study medicine in Edinburgh. After a few months of study he started on a four years' vagabond trip, during which he made the tour of Western Europe on foot, paying his way with his flute.
Returning to England he was by turns a physician, proofreader, teacher, and hack writer. In the latter capacity he came in contact with Dr. Johnson, and was one of the nine charter members of the Club, a literary society over which Johnson held genial sway. The next year appeared his first work of any value, the poem, "The Traveler." A year later he published his only novel, "The Vicar of Wakefield," still one of the most popular of stories. From this he turned to the drama and produced "The Good-Natured Man," and "She Stoops to Conquer," the latter unsurpassed among later English comedies. At some time prior to this appeared his greatest poem, "The Deserted Village."
In character he was a strange mixture of generosity and vanity; the butt and yet the envy of his many friends, uncouth in appearance and yet gifted with so lucid a style.
THE MAN
1. Goldsmith was educated at the same college as Burke: did he benefit as greatly?
2. Under what circumstances did he make the tour of the Continent?
3. Were his habits of dress eccentric? II, 115.
4. He was a member of what celebrated literary coterie?
5. What were his principal traits?
6. What was his opinion of his friend Johnson? II, 110, 122.
STYLE AND WORKS
1. Give Johnson's estimate of the "Good-Natured Man." II, 103.
2. Was Goldsmith a productive poet? See Goethe's statement to Eckermann. IV, 393.
3. Name the principal prose writers of his time. II, 100, 331; V, 193, 406; VII, 334; XI, 294.
4. What other poet wrote at this period? VI, 106.
5. The style of Goldsmith is in imitation of what poet? X, 64.
6. What defects mar his writings?
7. Name three of his works in different departments of literature, any one of which would have served to establish his reputation.
8. What poem brought him into public notice?
"THE DESERTED VILLAGE"
1. What is the economic effect on a community when one large landholder possesses the entire land?
2. The "bold peasantry" of England are similar to what class in America?
3. What was Goldsmith's ideal of a happy old age?
4. To what qualities of character was the attracting power of the village preacher due?
5. What were the qualifications of a rustic school teacher in Goldsmith's time?
6. Why is wealth a barren possession?
7. Name some of the disagreeable surroundings of a life in the tropics.
8. What plan does Goldsmith recommend to remedy the evils of the present social system?
9. What is your judgment of the style of this poem?
10. Does Goldsmith's description ring true?
11. As an example of the influence of Classicism, compare it with Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," IX, 110, of the Renaissance, and "The Cotter's Saturday Night," II, 343, of the Romantic Period.
FOR REFERENCE
"Goldsmith" ("English Men of Letters").—Black.
"Oliver Goldsmith" ("Bell's Miniature Series").—Buckland.
"Biographical Essays."—Macaulay.
"Story-Lives of Great Authors."—Rowbotham.
"Essays on the Poets."—De Quincey.
"A Paladin of Philanthropy."—Dobson.