Studies in Literature

Swift's Gulliver's Travels shows this type of story adapted to purposes of satire.

The Love Story. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) was the first great writer of love stories. He was minute in the analysis of character, developed carefully the idea of plot, and emphasized sentiment. He began as a letter writer. One of his diversions as a young man was to write love letters for the young women of his neighborhood, all of whom seem to have made him their confidant in love affairs. Indeed he made a specialty of the feminine heart. His most famous book, Clarissa Harlowe, is a love story in the form of letters. It is most elaborately analytical. Every movement of Clarissa's mind, every flutter of her heart, is subjected to the most searching analysis and then discussed and rediscussed from every conceivable point of view. The plot movement is slow, but it is constant, and is developed to a high tension at the climax. In scenes of intense passion Richardson is at his best. His other stories are Pamela and Sir Charles Grandison.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was a more genuine realist than Richardson. He knew more of life, and he knew it better. He began novel writing in protest against the moral pretensions and sentimentality of Richardson. The contrast is therefore marked. Richardson's novels are of the hothouse variety; Fielding's have the vigor of the sunshine and the air.

Tom Jones is Fielding's most famous book. The story opens with the discovery of the hero as a new-born babe in the house of a virtuous gentleman, Mr. Allworthy. Here he grows up with Allworthy's nephew Blifel, who out of jealousy ruins Tom's reputation with his benefactor, and gets him turned out into the world. Meanwhile Tom has fallen in love with the daughter of a neighbor, Miss Sophia Western, who returns his love in spite of the opposition of

her father. Tom travels to London, with many wayside adventures; he passes, not unscathed, through various temptations; and finally, by the discovery of the secret of his birth and the revelation of Blifel's villainy, he is advanced to his happy fortune, the favor of Allworthy, and marriage with Sophia. The structure of the story is particularly noteworthy. The secret of Jones's parentage is skillfully kept from the reader till the end and then disclosed in a natural way. Cheap devices of plot, based on pure chance, are avoided. Conversations are direct, not reported. The scenes are localized and given a real background. Character and incident are equalized.

Other novels by Fielding are Joseph Andrews, Jonathan Wild, and Amelia. Fielding's work is often coarse, and his point of view worldly like the age. And since he cared nothing for spiritual things, his ideals are not high. Still he is always direct and sincere. His novels display genuine humanity.

Smollett and Sterne. Two other stories of wide reputation are Smollett's Humphrey Clinker and Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Humphrey Clinker is haphazard in plot and full of unpleasant incidents. The humor is of a savage sort, consisting largely of cruel practical jokes. The method of treatment is far less sympathetic than Fielding's. As a record of contemporary life and manners, however, the book has decided interest. Tristram Shandy can hardly be called a novel. It has no plan; no beginning, no progress, no conclusion. Sterne says, "I began it with no clear idea of what it was to turn out, only a design of shocking people and amusing myself." Sterne had absolutely no sense of propriety; and since his mind was incongruous and thoroughly sentimental, he naturally wrote a whimsical and immoral book. The characters, however, are so very real and have such distinc

tively human charm that the book is still read with interest in spite of its obvious faults.

Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield." One of the most delightful books of the period is Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. The plot is artlessly absurd, the situations comical, the humor delightful, the style graceful. The wholesome optimism of the book is in marked contrast with the work of Sterne and of Swift, and not altogether characteristic of classicism. Goldsmith is not a realist; he does not accept the world as it is; he insists upon idealizing it. Nor does his story have to do with the social life of cities. It is an account of simple family life, and treats "the out-of-doors" with real feeling. Indeed Goldsmith has much in common with the new romantic tendencies. The Vicar of Wakefield belongs to the literature of transition.

(e) CRITICISM

Criticism. - The ideas of the classicists about literature are expressed in their critical writings. The earliest important work is Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy. In his defense of contemporary English writers, he takes for granted that they are to be judged in general by the classical rules formulated by the French. Reference is made to Shakespeare, and his genius commended; but as a technical artist Ben Jonson is considered his superior. The argument is that Jonson and those who have followed his example in English have conformed to the classical standards quite as rigidly as the great French dramatists. Dryden argues also for the heroic couplet as the most satisfactory verse form for tragedy. A few years later, Pope put the classical ideas into poetic form in his Essay on Criticism. A few quotations will illustrate its prevailing ideas the dependence on rules, the emphasis upon form, the appeal to reason and restraint:

"Be Homer's works your study and delight:
Read them by day, and meditate by night."
"Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem;
To copy nature is to copy them."

"Those rules of old discovered, not devised,
Are nature still but nature methodized."
"True wit is nature to advantage dress'd:

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed."
"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance."
"Be not the first by whom the new are tried
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside."

"A Boileau still in right of Horace sways."

Later Criticism. Addison's critical essays in The Spectator follow the same lines, though he departed from conventional notions in praising Milton, whom the classicists, in general, neglected, and especially in commenting with favor on the old ballad literature as illustrated in Chevy Chace. As the century advanced the critical formulas became less rigid. Dr. Johnson praised Shakespeare, and refused strict adherence to the rules for the three dramatic unities. A little later Thomas and Joseph Warton paid tribute to Spenser, the greatest of early romanticists, in their Observations on the Faerie Queene. This book led the critical revolt against classicism. The last important critical work of the classicists was Burke's Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and the Beautiful.

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