ENGLISH JOURNALISM.
Roman News Letters. The Gazette. The Civil War. Later Divisions. The
Reviews. The Monthlies. The Dailies. The London Times. Other
Newspapers.
ROMAN NEWS LETTERS.--English serials and periodicals, from the very time
of their origin, display, in a remarkable manner, the progress both of
English literature and of English history, and form the most striking
illustration that the literature interprets the history. In using the
caption, "journalism," we include all forms of periodical
literature--reviews, magazines, weekly and daily papers. The word
journalism is, in respect to many of them, a misnomer, etymologically
considered: it is a French corruption of _diurnal_, which, from the Latin
_dies_, should mean a daily paper; but it is now generally used to include
all periodicals. The origin of newspapers is quite curious, and antedates
the invention of printing. The _acta diurna_, or journals of public
events, were the daily manuscript reports of the Roman Government during
the later commonwealth. In these, among other matters of public interest,
every birth, marriage, and divorce was entered. As an illustration of the
character of these brief entries, we have the satire of Petronius, which
he puts in the mouth of the freed man Trimalchio: "The seventh of the
Kalends of Sextilis, on the estate at Cumæ, were born thirty boys, twenty
girls; were carried from the floor to the barn, 500,000 bushels of wheat;
were broke 500 oxen. The same day the slave Mithridates was crucified for
blasphemy against the Emperor's genius; the same day was placed in the
chest the sum of ten millions sesterces, which could not be put out to
use." Similar in character were the _Acta Urbana_, or city register, the
_Acta Publica_, and the _Acta Senatus_, whose names indicate their
contents. They were brief, almost tabular, and not infrequently
sensational.
THE GAZETTE.--After the downfall of Rome, and during the Dark Ages, there
are few traces of journalism. When Venice was still in her palmy days, in
1563, during a war with the Turks, printed bulletins were issued from time
to time, the price for reading which was a coin of about three farthings'
value called a _gazetta_; and so the paper soon came to be called a
gazette. Old files, to the amount of thirty volumes, of great historical
value, may be found in the Magliabecchian Library at Florence.
Next in order, we find in France _Affiches_, or _placards_, which were
soon succeeded by regular sheets of advertisement, exhibited at certain
offices.
As early as the time of the intended invasion of England by the Spanish
Armada, about the year 1588, we find an account of its defeat and
dispersion in the _Mercurie_, issued by Queen Elizabeth's own printer. In
another number is the news of a plot for killing the queen, and a
statement that instruments of torture were on board the vessels, to set up
the Inquisition in London. Whether true or not, the newspaper said it; and
the English people believed it implicitly.
About 1600, with the awakening spirit of the people, there began to appear
periodical papers containing specifically news from Germany, from Italy,
&c. And during the Thirty Years' War there was issued a weekly paper
called _The Certain News of the Present Week_. Although the word _news_ is
significant enough, many persons considered it as made up of the initial
letters representing the cardinal points of the compass, _N.E.W.S._, from
which the curious people looked for satisfying intelligence.
THE CIVIL WAR.--The progress of English journalism received a great
additional impetus when the civil war broke out between Charles I. and his
Parliament, in 1642. To meet the demands of both parties for intelligence,
numbers of small sheets were issued: _Truths from York_ told of the rising
in the king's favor there. There were: _Tidings from Ireland_, _News from
Hull_, telling of the siege of that place in 1643; _The Dutch Spy_; _The
Parliament Kite_; _The Secret Owl_; _The Scot's Dove_, with the
olive-branch. Then flourished the _Weekly Discoverer_, and _The Weekly
Discoverer Stripped Naked_. But these were only bare and partial
statements, which excited rancor without conveying intelligence. "Had
there been better vehicles for the expression of public opinion," says the
author of the Student's history of England, "the Stuarts might have been
saved from some of those schemes which proved so fatal to themselves."
In the session of Parliament held in 1695, there occurred a revolution of
great moment. There had been an act, enforced for a limited time, to
restrain unlicensed printing, and under it censors had been appointed;
but, in this year, the Parliament refused to re-enact or continue it, and
thus the press found itself comparatively free.
We have already referred to the powerful influence of the essayists in
_The Tatler_, _Spectator_, _Guardian_, and _Rambler_, which may be called
the real origin of the present English press.
LATER DIVISIONS.--Coming down to the close of the eighteenth century, we
find the following division of English periodical literature:
_Quarterlies_, usually called _Reviews_; _Monthlies_, generally entitled
_Magazines_; _Weeklies_, containing digests of news; and _Dailies_, in
which are found the intelligence and facts of the present moment; and in
this order, too, were the intellectual strength and learning of the time
at first employed. The _Quarterlies_ contained the articles of the great
men--the acknowledged critics in politics, literature, and art; the
_Magazines_, a current literature of poetry and fiction; the _Weeklies_
and _Dailies_, reporters' facts and statistics; the latter requiring
activity rather than cleverness, and beginning to be a vehicle for
extensive advertisements.
This general division has been since maintained; but if the order has not
been reversed, there can be no doubt that the great dailies have steadily
risen; on most questions of popular interest in all departments, long and
carefully written articles in the dailies, from distinguished pens,
anticipate the quarterlies, or force them to seek new grounds and forms of
presentation after forestalling their critical opinions. Not many years
ago, the quarterlies subsidized the best talent; now the men of that class
write for _The Times_, _Standard_, _Telegraph_, &c.
Let us look, in the order we have mentioned, at some representatives of
the press in its various forms.
Each of the principal reviews represents a political party, and at the
same time, in most cases, a religious denomination; and they owe much of
their interest to the controversial spirit thus engendered.
REVIEWS.--First among these, in point of origin, is the _Edinburgh
Review_, which was produced by the joint efforts of several young, and
comparatively unknown, gentlemen, among whom were Francis (afterwards)
Lord Jeffrey, Lord Murray, Mr. (since Lord) Brougham, and the Rev. Sydney
Smith. The latter gentleman was appointed first editor, and remained long
enough in Edinburgh to edit the first number. Thereafter Jeffrey conducted
it. The men were clever, witty, studious, fearless; and the Review was not
only from the first a success, but its fiat was looked for by authors with
fear and trembling. It became a vehicle for the efforts of the best minds.
Macaulay wrote for it those brilliant miscellanies which at once
established his fame, and gave it much of its popularity. In it Jeffrey
attacked the Lake poetry, and incurred the hatred of Byron. Its
establishment, in 1803, was an era in the world of English letters. The
papers were not merely reviews, but monographs on interesting subjects--a
new anatomy of history; it was in a general way an exponent, but quite an
independent one, of the Whig party, or those who would liberally construe
the Constitution,--putting Churchmen and Dissenters on the same platform;
although published in Edinburgh, it was neither Scotch nor Presbyterian.
It attacked ancient prescriptions and customs; agitated questions long
considered settled both of present custom and former history; and thus
imitated the champion knights who challenged all comers, and sustained no
defeats.
Occupying opposite ground to this is the great English review called the
_London Quarterly_: it was established in 1809; is an uncompromising
Tory,--entirely conservative as to monarchy, aristocracy, and Established
Church. Its first editor was William Gifford; but it attained its best
celebrity under the charge of John Gibson Lockhart, the son-in-law of Sir
Walter Scott, a man of singular critical power. Among its distinguished
contributors were Southey, Scott, Canning, Croker, and Wordsworth.
The _North British Review_, which never attained the celebrity of either
of these, and which has at length, in 1871, been discontinued, occupied
strong Scottish and Presbyterian ground, and had its respectable
supporters.
But besides the parties mentioned, there is a floating one, growing by
slow but sure accretion, know as the _Radical_. It includes men of many
stamps, mainly utilitarian,--radical in politics, innovators, radical in
religion, destructive as to systems of science and arts, a learned and
inquisitive class,--rational, transcendental, and intensely dogmatic. As a
vent for this varied party, the _Westminster Review_ was founded by Mr
Bentham, in 1824. Its articles are always well written, and sometimes
dangerous, according to our orthodox notions. It is supported by such
writers as Mill, Bowring, and Buckle.
Besides these there are numerous quarterlies of more or less limited
scope, as in science or art, theology or law; such as _The Eclectic, The
Christian Observer, The Dublin_, and many others.
THE MONTHLIES.--Passing from the reviews to the monthlies, we find the
range and number of these far greater, and the matter lighter. The first
great representative of the modern series, and one that has kept its issue
up to the present day, is Cave's _Gentleman's Magazine_, which commenced
its career in 1831, and has been continued, after Cave's death, by Henry &
Nichols, who wrote under the pseudonym of _Sylvanus Urban_. It is a strong
link between past and present. Johnson sent his _queries_ to it while
preparing his dictionary, and at the present day it is the favorite
vehicle of antiquarians and historians. Passing by others, we find
Blackwood's _Edinburgh Magazine_, first published in 1817. Originally a
strong and bitter conservative, it kept up its popularity by its fine
stories and poems. Among the most notable papers in Blackwood are the
_Noctes Ambrosianæ_, in which Professor Wilson, under the pseudonym of
_Christopher North_, took the greater part.
Most of the magazines had little or no political proclivity, but were
chiefly literary. Among them are _Fraser's_, begun in 1830, and the
_Dublin University_, in 1832.
A charming light literature was presented by the _New Monthly_: in
politics it was a sort of set-off to Blackwood: in it Captain Marryat
wrote his famous sea stories; and among other contributors are the ever
welcome names of Hood, Lytton, and Campbell. The _Penny Magazine_, of
Knight, was issued from 1832 to 1845.
Quite a new era dawned upon the magazine world in the establishment of
several new ones, under the auspices of famous authors; among which we
mention _The Cornhill_, edited by Thackeray, in 1859, with unprecedented
success, until his tender heart compelled him to resign it; _Temple Bar_,
by Sala, in 1860, is also very successful.
In 1850 Dickens began the issue of _Household Words_, and in 1859 this was
merged into _All the Year Round_, which owed its great popularity to the
prestige of the same great writer.
Besides these, devoted to literature and criticism, there are also many
monthlies issued in behalf of special branches of knowledge, art, and
science, which we have not space to refer to.
Descending in the order mentioned, we come to the weeklies, which, besides
containing summaries of daily intelligence, also share the magazine field
in brief descriptive articles, short stories, and occasional poems.
A number of these are illustrated journals, and are of great value in
giving us pictorial representations of the great events and scenes as they
pass, with portraits of men who have become suddenly famous by some
special act or appointment. Their value cannot be too highly appreciated;
they supply to the mind, through the eye, what the best descriptions in
letter-press could not give; and in them satire uses comic elements with
wonderful effect. Among the illustrated weeklies, the _Illustrated London
News_ has long held a high place; and within a short period _The Graphic_
has exhibited splendid pictures of men and things of timely interest. Nor
must we forget to mention _Punch_, which has been the grand jester of the
realm since its origin. The best humorous and witty talent of England has
found a vent in its pages, and sometimes its pathos has been productive of
reform. Thackeray, Cuthbert Bede, Mark Lemon, Hood, have amused us in its
pages, and the clever pencil of Leech has made a series of etching which
will never grow tiresome. To it Thackeray contributed his _Snob Papers_,
and Hood _The Song of the Shirt_.
THE DAILIES.--But the great characteristic of the age is the daily
newspaper, so common a blessing that we cease to marvel at it, and yet
marvellous as it is common. It is the product of quick intelligence, of
great energy, of concurrent and systematized labor, and, in order to
fulfil its mission, it seems to subsidize all arts and invade all
subjects--steam, mechanics, photography, phonography, and electricity. The
news which it prints and scatters comes to it on the telegraph; long
orations are phonographically reported; the very latest mechanical skill
is used in its printing; and the world is laid at our feet as we sit at
the breakfast-table and read its columns.
I shall not go back to the origin of printing, to show the great progress
that has been made in the art from that time to the present; nor shall I
attempt to explain the present process, which one visit to a press-room
would do far better than any description; but I simply refer to the fact
that fifty years ago newspapers were still printed with the hand-press,
giving 250 impressions per hour--no cylinder, no flying Hoe, (that was
patented only in 1847.) Now, the ten-cylinder Hoe, steam driven, works off
20,000 sheets in an hour, and more, as the stereotyper may multiply the
forms. What an emblem of art-progress is this! Fifty years ago
mail-coaches carried them away. Now, steamers and locomotives fly with
them all over the world, and only enlarge and expand the story, the great
facts of which have been already sent in outline by telegraph.
Nor is it possible to overrate the value of a good daily paper: as the
body is strengthened by daily food, so are we built up mentally and
spiritually for the busy age in which we live by the world of intelligence
contained in the daily journal. A great book and a good one is offered for
the reading of many who have no time to read others, and a great culture
in morals, religion, politics, is thus induced. Of course it would be
impossible to mention all the English dailies. Among them _The London
Times_ is pre-eminent, and stands highest in the opinion of the
ministerial party, which fears and uses it.
There was a time when the press was greatly trammelled in England, and
license of expression was easily charged with constructive treason; but at
present it is remarkably free, and the great, the government, and existing
abuses, receive no soft treatment at its hands.
_The London Times_ was started by John Walter, a printer, in 1788, there
having been for three years before a paper called the _London Daily
Universal Register_. In 1803 his son, John, went into partnership, when
the circulation was but 1,000. Within ten years it was 5,000. In 1814,
cleverly concealing the purpose from his workmen, he printed the first
sheet ever printed by steam, on Kœnig's press. The paper passed, at his
death, into the hands of his son, the third John, who is a scholar,
educated at Eton and Oxford, like his father a member of Parliament, and
who has lately been raised to the peerage. The _Times_ is so influential
that it may well be called a third estate in the realm: its writers are
men of merit and distinction; its correspondence secures the best foreign
intelligence; and its travelling agents, like Russell and others, are the
true historians of a war. English journalism, it is manifest, is eminently
historical. The files of English newspapers are the best history of the
period, and will, by their facts and comments, hereafter confront specious
and false historians. Another thing to be observed is the impersonality of
the British press, not only in the fact that names are withheld, but that
the articles betray no authorship; that, in short, the paper does not
appear as the glorification of one man or set of men, but like an
unprejudiced relator, censor, and judge.
Of the principal London papers, the _Morning Post_ (Liberal, but not
Radical,) was begun in 1772. The _Globe_ (at first Liberal, but within a
short time Tory), in 1802. The _Standard_ (Conservative), in 1827. The
_Daily News_ (high-class Liberal), in 1846. The _News_ announced itself as
pledged to _Principles of Progress and Improvement_. _The Daily Telegraph_
was started in 1855, and claims the largest circulation. It is also a
_Liberal_ paper.
INDEX OF AUTHORS
Addison, Joseph, 258.
Akenside, Mark, 351.
Alcuin, 40.
Aldhelm, Abbot, 40.
Alfred the Great, 42.
Alfric, surnamed Germanicus, 40.
Alison, Sir Archibald, 447.
Alured of Rievaux, 49.
Arbuthnot, John, 252.
Arnold, Matthew, 438.
Arnold, Thomas, 448.
Ascham, Roger, 103.
Ashmole, Elias, 232.
Aubrey, John, 232.
Austen, Jane, 411.
Bacon, Francis, 156.
Bacon, Roger, 59.
Bailey, Philip James, 437.
Baillie, Joanna, 368.
Barbauld, Anne Letitia, 359.
Barbour, John, 89.
Barclay, Robert, 228.
Barham, Richard Harris, 437.
Barklay, Alexander, 102.
Barrow, Isaac, 230.
Baxter, Richard, 226.
Beattie, James, 356.
Beaumont, Francis, 154.
Beckford, William, 412.
Bede the Venerable, 37.
Benoit, 52.
Berkeley, George, 278.
Blair, Hugh, 369.
Blind Harry, 89.
Bolingbroke, Viscount, (Henry St. John,) 278.
Boswell, James, 321.
Browne, Sir Thomas, 225.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 432.
Browning, Robert, 434.
Buchanan, George, 126.
Buckle, Henry Thomas, 447.
Bulwer, Edward George Earle Lytton, 450.
Bunyan, John, 228.
Burke, Edmund, 369.
Burnet, Gilbert, 231.
Burney, Frances, 368.
Burns, Robert, 397.
Burton, Robert, 125.
Butler, Samuel, 198.
Byron, Rt. Hon. George Gordon, 384
Caedmon, 34.
Cambrensis, Giraldus, 49.
Camden, William, 126.
Campbell, Thomas, 401.
Carlyle, Thomas, 444.
Cavendish, George, 102.
Caxton, William, 92.
Chapman, George, 127.
Chatterton, Thomas, 340.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 60.
Chillingworth, William, 222.
Coleridge, Hartley, 427.
Coleridge, Henry Nelson, 427.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 424.
Collier, John Payne, 153.
Collins, William, 357.
Colman, George, 366.
Colman, George, (The Younger,) 366.
Congreve, William, 236.
Cornwall, Barry, 436.
Colton, Charles, 205.
Coverdale, Miles, 170.
Cowley, Abraham, 195.
Cowper, William, 353.
Crabbe, George, 400.
Cumberland, Richard, 363.
Cunningham, Allan, 412.
Daniel, Samuel, 127.
Davenant, Sir William, 205.
Davies, Sir John, 127.
Defoe, Daniel, 282.
Dekker, Thomas, 154.
De Quincey, Thomas, 468.
Dickens, Charles, 452.
Dixon, William Hepworth, 449.
Donne, John, 127.
Drayton, Michael, 127.
Dryden, John, 207.
Dunbar, William, 90.
Dunstan, (called Saint,) 41.
Eadmer, 49.
Edgeworth, Maria, 410.
Erigena, John Scotus, 40.
Etherege, Sir George, 238.
Evelyn, John, 231.
Falconer, William, 357.
Farquhar, George, 238.
Ferrier, Mary, 411.
Fielding, Henry, 288.
Fisher, John, 102.
Florence of Worcester, 49.
Foote, Samuel, 363.
Ford, John, 154.
Fox, George, 226.
Froissart, Sire Jean, 58.
Fronde, James Anthony, 448.
Fuller, Thomas, 224.
Gaimar, Geoffrey, 52.
Garrick, David, 361.
Gay, John, 252.
Geoffrey, 52.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 48.
Gibbon, Edward, 317
Gillies, John, 441.
Goldsmith, Oliver, 301.
Gowen, John, 86.
Gray, Thomas, 351.
Greene, Robert, 136.
Greville, Sir Fulke, 127.
Grostête, Robert, 59.
Grote, George, 440.
Hakluyt, Richard, 126.
Hall, Joseph, 221.
Hallam, Henry, 448.
Harvey, Gabriel, 110.
Heber, Reginald, 436.
Hemans, Mrs. Felicia Dorothea, 409.
Henry of Huntingdon, 49.
Hennyson, Robert, 90.
Herbert, George, 203.
Herrick, Robert, 204.
Heywood, John, 131.
Higden, Ralph, 50.
Hobbes, Thomas, 125.
Hogg, James, 412.
Hollinshed, Raphael, 126.
Hood, Thomas, 467.
Hooker, Richard, 125.
Hope, Thomas, 412.
Hume, David, 311.
Hunt, Leigh, 411.
Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, 205.
Ingelow, Jean, 437.
Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, 49.
Ireland, Samuel, 153.
James I, (of Scotland,) 89.
Johnson, Doctor Samuel, 324.
Jonson, Ben, 153.
Junius, 331.
Keats, John, 407.
Keble, John, 437.
Knowles, James Sheridan, 436.
Kyd, Thomas, 136.
Lamb, Charles, 466.
Landon, Letitia Elizabeth, 410.
Langland, 56.
Latimer, Hugh, 102.
Layamon, 53.
Lee, Nathaniel, 240.
Leland, John, 102.
Lingard, John, 446.
Locke, John, 231.
Lodge, Thomas, 135.
Luc de la Barre, 52.
Lydgate, John, 90.
Lyly, John, 136.
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 441.
Mackay, Charles, 437.
Mackenzie, Henry, 307.
Macpherson, Doctor James, 336.
Mahon, Lord, 447.
Mandevil, Sir John, 58.
Manning, Robert, 59.
Marlowe, Christopher, 134.
Marston, John, 136.
Massinger, 154.
Matthew of Westminster, 49.
Mestre, Thomas, 32.
Milton, John, 174.
Mitford, William, 444.
Moore, Thomas, 390.
More, Hannah, 367.
More, Sir Thomas, 99.
Napier. Sir William Francis Patrick, 447.
Nash, Thomas, 136.
Newton, Sir Isaac, 278.
Norton, Mrs. Caroline Elizabeth, 410.
Occleve, Thomas, 89.
Ormulum, 54.
Otway, Thomas, 239.
Paley, William, 370.
Paris, Matthew, 49.
Parnell, Thomas, 252.
Pecock, Reginald, 102.
Peele, George, 136.
Penn, William, 227.
Pepys, Samuel, 232.
Percy, Dr. Thomas, (Bishop,) 358.
Philip de Than, 52.
Pollok, Robert, 411.
Pope, Alexander, 241.
Prior, Matthew, 251.
Purchas, Samuel, 126.
Quarles, Francis, 203.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 126.
Richard I., (Cœur de Lion,) 52.
Richardson, Samuel, 285.
Robert of Gloucester, 55.
Robertson, William, 315.
Roger de Hovedin, 49.
Rogers, Samuel, 403.
Roscoe, William, 413.
Rowe, Nicholas, 240.
Sackville, Thomas, 127.
Scott, Sir Michael, 59.
Scott, Walter, 371.
Shakspeare, William, 137.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 405.
Shenstone, William, 357.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 364.
Sherlock, William, 230.
Shirley, 154.
Sidney, Sir Philip, 107.
Skelton, John, 95.
Smollett, Tobias George, 292.
South, Robert, 230.
Southern, Thomas, 240.
Southey, Robert, 421.
Spencer, Edmund, 104.
Steele, Sir Richard, 264.
Sterne, Lawrence, 296.
Still, John, 132.
Stillingfleet, Edward, 230.
Stow, John, 126.
Strickland, Agnes, 447.
Suckling, Sir John, 204.
Surrey, Earl of, 98.
Swift, Jonathan, 268.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 437.
Tailor, Robert, 136.
Taylor, Jeremy, 223.
Temple, Sir William, 277.
Tennyson, Alfred, 428.
Thackeray, Anne E., 465.
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 459.
Thirlwall, Connop, 441.
Thomas of Ercildoun, 59.
Thomson, James, 347.
Tickell, Thomas, 252.
Tupper, Martin Farquhar, 437.
Turner, Sharon, 448.
Tusser, Thomas, 102.
Tyndale, William, 169.
Tytler, Patrick Frazer, 446.
Udall, Nicholas, 132.
Vanbrugh, Sir John, 237.
Vaughan, Henry, 205.
Vitalis, Ordericus, 49.
Wace, Richard, 51.
Waller, Edmund, 204.
Walpole, Horace, 321.
Walton, Izaak, 202.
Warton, Joseph, 368.
Warton, Thomas, 368.
Watts, Isaac, 252.
Webster, 154.
White, Henry Kirke, 358.
Wiclif, John, 77.
William of Jumièges, 49.
William of Malmsbury, 47.
William of Poictiers, 49.
Wither, George, 203.
Wolcot, John, 367.
Wordsworth, William, 415.
Wyat, Sir Thomas, 97.
Wycherley, William, 235.
Young, Edward, 253.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES
[1] His jurisdiction extended from Norfolk around to Sussex.
[2] This is the usually accepted division of tribes; but Dr. Latham denies
that the Jutes, or inhabitants of Jutland, shared in the invasion. The
difficult question does not affect the scope of our inquiry.
[3] Gibbon's Decline and Fall, c. lv.
[4] H. Martin, Histoire de France, i. 53.
[5] Vindication of the Ancient British Poems.
[6] Craik's English Literature, i. 37.
[7] Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons, book ix., c. i.
[8] Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.
[9] Kemble ("Saxon in England") suggests the resemblance between the
fictitious landing of Hengist and Horsa "in three keels," and the Gothic
tradition of the migration of Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidæ to the
mouth of the Vistula in the same manner. Dr. Latham (English Language)
fixes the Germanic immigration into Britain at the middle of the fourth,
instead of the middle of the fifth century.
[10] Lectures on Modern History, lect, ii.
[11] Sharon Turner.
[12] Turner, ch. xii.
[13] For the discussion of the time and circumstances of the introduction
of French into law processes, see Craik, i. 117.
[14] Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, i. 199. For an admirable
summary of the bardic symbolisms and mythological types exhibited in the
story of Arthur, see H. Martin, Hist. de France, liv. xx.
[15] Craik says, (i. 198,) "Or, as he is also called, _Lawemon_--for the
old character represented in this instance by our modern _y_ is really
only a guttural, (and by no means either a _j_ or a _z_,) by which it is
sometimes rendered." Marsh says, "Or, perhaps, _Lagamon_, for we do not
know the sound of _y_ in this name."
[16] Introduction to the Poets of Queen Elizabeth's Age.
[17] So called from his having a regular district or _limit_ in which to
beg.
[18] Spelled also Wycliffe, Wicliff, and Wyklyf.
[19] Am. ed., i. 94.
[20] Wordsworth, Ecc. Son., xvii.
[21] "The Joyous Science, as the profession of minstrelsy was termed, had
its various ranks, like the degrees in the Church and in chivalry."--_Sir
Walter Scott_, (_The Betrothed_.)
[22] 1st, the real presence; 2d, celibacy; 3d, monastic vows; 4th, low
mass; 5th, auricular confession; 6th, withholding the cup from the laity.
[23] "The Earl of Surrey is said to have translated one of Virgil's books
without rhyme, and, besides our tragedies, a few short poems had appeared
in blank verse.... These petty performances cannot be supposed to have
much influenced Milton; ... finding blank verse easier than rhyme, he was
desirous of persuading himself that it is better."--_Lives of the
Poets--Milton_.
[24] From this dishonor Mr. Froude's researches among the statute books
have not been able to lift him, for he gives system to horrors which were
before believed to be eccentric; and, while he fails to justify the
monarch, implicates a trembling parliament and a servile ministry, as if
their sharing the crime made it less odious.
[25] The reader's attention is called--or recalled--to the masterly
etching of Sir Philip Sidney, in Motley's History of the United
Netherlands. The low chant of the _cuisse rompue_ is especially pathetic.
[26] This last claim of title was based upon the voyages of the Cabots,
and the unsuccessful colonial efforts of Raleigh and Gilbert.
[27] Froude, i. 65.
[28] Introduction to fifth canto of Marmion.
[29] Froude, i. 73.
[30] Opening scene of The Merry Wives of Windsor.
[31] Rev. A. Dyce attributes this play to Marlowe or Kyd.
[32] The dates as determined by Malone are given: many of them differ from
those of Drake and Chalmers.
[33]
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.
_Pope, Essay on Man_.
[34] Life of Addison.
[35] Macaulay: Art. on Warren Hastings.
[36] The handwriting of Junius professionally investigated by Mr. Charles
P. Chabot. London, 1871.
[37] H. C. Robinson, Diary II., 79.