The Victorian age may justly be called great in history, philosophy,
biography, fiction, and poetry. Macaulay, in the earlier half of the
Victorian period, illumined history by the brilliant glow of his
imagination; while in the latter half Carlyle was not only his equal in
history, but the first man of letters of his time. In his prose epic,
_The French Revolution_, there was the vigor of a Rembrandt; biography
was ennobled by his _Cromwell_; while throughout all his works--from
_Sartor Resartus_ to the latest of his utterances--he upheld the dignity
of labor, and the sacredness of duty.
English history in all periods, and the progress and growth of the
constitution, found brilliant chroniclers or scholarly interpreters in
Hallam, Freeman, Froude, Green, Stubbs, Brewer, and Gardiner; while the
philosophical aspects of history have been vividly presented by Buckle
and Lecky. Rome lived again in the pages of Merivale; the Jewish race in
those of Milman; and Greece in those of Grote and Thirlwall.
Turning to philosophy and science, John Stuart Mill exercised a profound
influence upon the age as metaphysician, logician, politician, and
moralist. Charles Darwin revolutionized scientific thought by
promulgating the theory of evolution, which Herbert Spencer, its most
conspicuous philosophical exponent, applied to psychology, morals, and
politics. Logic and science had other exponents in Brewster, Whately,
Bain, Hugh Miller, John Tyndall, T. H. Huxley, T. G. Tait, and W. K.
Clifford. John Ruskin has eloquently wedded art and morality, while
biography and criticism have found representative writers in Lockhart,
Forster, De Quincey, Masson, Arnold, “Christopher North,” Lewes, Helps,
Trevelyan, John Morley, and others. Religious thought was deeply
impressed by the school of religious literature which arose with the
Oxford movement. In poetry, its greatest result was Keble’s _Christian
Year_, while its greatest product in prose was the beautiful and
haunting style of Cardinal Newman, best shown in his _Apologia_.
Pusey, Arnold, Maurice, Robertson, Stanley, Liddon, Martineau,
Gladstone, Spurgeon, and many more of all creeds contributed in a lesser
degree.
[Illustration: =ALFRED TENNYSON’S BEAUTIFUL “LADY OF SHALOTT”=
From the exquisite painting of J. W. Waterhouse, who has interpreted for
us in flesh and blood Tennyson’s far-famed poem. This is the dramatic
moment when the curse is falling upon the lady of the silent isle.]
The literature of fiction was surprising in its growth, and practically
limitless in its variety. Thackeray showed to what a pitch of literary
excellence and finish the novel might attain, and also demonstrated its
power as a moral scourge. Dickens, the Hogarth of modern novelists,
evoked smiles and tears in myriads of homes by his vivid pictures of
life; and George Eliot reflected much of the sadness and unrest of the
time in her searching and minutely conscientious works. Charlotte Brontë
uttered a passionate note on behalf of her suffering sisters; and Mrs.
Gaskell proved herself a genuine artist in the delineation of human
life.
Of later women writers, mention must be made of Mrs. Oliphant, Miss
Braddon, Mrs. Henry Wood, and “Ouida”--all different in style, yet all
equally prolific. Marryat, James, Ainsworth, Warren, and others still
find readers.
Charles Kingsley struck a sympathetic human note in his fictions;
Anthony Trollope was the most interesting even of all his brethren;
Wilkie Collins was a master of mystery; Richard Jefferies was the
interpreter of nature; Charles Reade was an intense moral reformer;
George Meredith has delighted and puzzled his admirers by his brilliant
powers and genius; Lord Lytton is still read for two or three of his
healthiest works; and Lever and Lover for their rollicking Irish wit.
It would be invidious to attempt to give a catalogue of all contemporary
novelists worthy of mention; but in addition to those already mentioned
the names will occur of R. D. Blackmore, Thomas Hardy, Robert Buchanan,
George Macdonald, and William Black--all widely different in their gifts
and work, but all imbued with a sense of the dignity of the novelist’s
art. Newer writers of imaginative and adventurous fiction have sprung up
in Hall Caine, J. M. Barrie, Rider Haggard, R. L. Stevenson, and Rudyard
Kipling.
TENNYSON AND OTHER POETS.--In poetry two names stand out above the rest
through the Victorian age. Tennyson, the most artistic of all poets,
deservedly occupies the first place from the breadth of his range. His
lyrics are the finest since Shelley; his _Idylls of the King_ deserve
the name of epic poetry; his dramas are finely conceived; and his _In
Memoriam_ sums up the religious aspirations of the time.
Robert Browning, massive and profound in thought, was of all modern
poets the most full of pith, energy, and moral aspiration. Mrs. Browning
may well be called the daughter of Shakespeare, for never did poet play
more divinely upon the Æolian harp of the human heart. Walter Savage
Landor exhibited the classical spirit, and Matthew Arnold had an
unbroken elevation in his verse. Swinburne is a master of music and
rhythm, Rossetti is a perfect artist in construction, while William
Morris is a Spenserian singer cast upon a later age.
Among later poets of undoubted gifts are Alfred Austin, William Watson,
Clough, Christina Rossetti, Coventry Patmore, and Sir Lewis Morris.
The dramas of Talfourd, Sheridan Knowles, R. H. Horne, Lord Lytton, and
Sir Henry Taylor exhibited striking but widely varying merits.
The minor poetic singers and writers of fugitive verse of both sexes are
too numerous for particularization.