A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, Volume I


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The History of English Literature and Language may be recommended to the student as a guide always sure, and as satisfactory as its limits will admit, to the gathered harvest of a thousand years -- from ALFRED the Great to VICTORIA -- now existing in a language radically identical for the whole of that period, the common property of all who are born to its use, a personal endowment not to be limited by local accidents, but the rightful possession of those who "claim SHAKESPEARE's language for their mother tongue." As a writer, the principal characteristics of Mr. CRAIK are good sense and a command of ample information, derived usually from the original sources. He has not aimed a producing a brilliant book. From the number of topics necessary to be glanced at, much of it necessarily assumes the appearance of a brief catalogue; but the critical judgments of the writers, as they come under review, are unpretending and correct. - Summary from The New York Times, April 26, 1864.

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Preface 11:51 Read by Grant Hicks
1. Introductory. 1. Literature and Language. The Languages of Modern Europe 12:30 Read by Grant Hicks
1.2. Early Latin Literature in Britain 15:10 Read by Grant Hicks
1.3. The Celtic Languages and Literatures 20:37 Read by Grant Hicks
1.4. Decay of the Earliest English Scholarship 15:23 Read by Grant Hicks
1.5. The English Language 9:08 Read by Grant Hicks
1.6. Original English 27:52 Read by Jim Locke
2. The Norman Period. 1. The Norman Conquest. Arabic and the New Learning 32:17 Read by Jim Locke
2.2. Schools and Universities. Rise of the Scholastic Philosophy. John of Salisbury. Peter of Blois 24:52 Read by Jim Locke
2.3. Classical Learning. Mathematics. Medicine. Law. Books. The Latin Language. The Latin Poets. Mapes, etc 18:09 Read by Jim Locke
2.4. Latin Chroniclers. Ingulphus. William of Poitiers. Ordericus Vitalis. Gesta Stephani. William of Jumieges. Florence of Worcester. Matthew of Westminster. William of Malmesbury. Eadmer. Turgot and Simeon of Durham. John of Hexham and Richard of Hexham 34:19 Read by Jim Locke
2.5. Ailred. Geoffrey of Monmouth. Alfred of Beverley. Giraldus Cambrensis. Henry of Huntingdon. Roger de Hoveden. William of Newburgh. Benedictus Abbas. Ralph de Diceto. Gervase of Canterbury. Vinsauf. Richard of Devises. Joscelin de Brakelonda. Monastic Registers. Law Treatises. Domesday Book. Public Rolls and Registers 31:25 Read by Jim Locke
2.6. The French language in England. The Langue d'Oc and the Langue d'Oyl. Norman trouveurs. Duke Richard I. Thibaut de Vernon. Turold, or Theroulde. Chanson de Roland 25:32 Read by Jim Locke
2.7. Anglo-Norman Poets. King Henry I. His Queens, Matilda and Alice. Philip de Than. Geoffrey, Abbot of St. Albans. Pilgrimage of Saint Brendan. Charlemagne. Anglo-Norman Chronicles. Gaimar. David. Wace. Benoït. Everard. French Language in Scotland 29:37 Read by Jim Locke
2.8. Luc de la Barre. Guichard de Beaulieu. Arthurian Romance. The Saint Greal. Luc du Gast. Buron. Mapes. Roman du Roi Horn. Tristan or Tristrem. Guernes de Pont Sainte Maxence. Herman. Hugh of Rutland. Boson. Simon du Fresne. Cardinal Langton. King Richard Coeur-de-Lion 24:05 Read by Jim Locke
2.9. Vernacular Language and Literature: A.D. 1066-1216 26:15 Read by Jim Locke
2.10. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. Ascendancy of the Scholastic Philosophy. Mathematical and Other Studies. Roger Bacon. Robert Grosseteste. Alchemists. Universities and Colleges 21:30 Read by Jim Locke
2.11. Latin Historical Works of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. Use and Study of the Latin and Greek, the Hebrew and other Oriental Tongues. Last Age of the French Language in England 31:51 Read by Jim Locke
2.12. Anglo-Norman Poets. French Prose Romances. Froissart. Resurrection of the English Language 23:42 Read by Jim Locke
3. Second English. 1. St. Godric. The Here Prophecy 13:27 Read by Jim Locke
3.2. The Brut of Layamon 30:38 Read by Jim Locke
3.3. The Ormulum. The Ancren Riwle 36:51 Read by Jim Locke
3.4. Metrical Legends. Land of Cokayne. Guldevord. Wille Gris. Early English Songs. Early English Metrical Romances. Publications of Percy, Warton, Tyrwhitt, Pinkerton, Herbert, Ritson, Ellis, Scott, Weber, Utterson, Laing, Hartshorne, The Boxburghe Club, The Bannatyne, The Maitland, The Abbotsford, The Camden Society 20:40 Read by Jim Locke
3.5. History of the English Metrical Romance. Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester. Robert Mannyng, or De Brunne. Rolle, or Hampole. Davie. Lawrence Minot 23:04 Read by Jim Locke
3.6. Alliterative Verse: Piers Ploughman. Piers Ploughman's Creed. 31:33 Read by Jim Locke
4. Third English (mixed or compound English). 1. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 1 31:43 Read by Jim Locke
4.2. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 2 29:23 Read by Jim Locke
4.3. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 3 31:32 Read by Jim Locke
4.4. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 4 27:37 Read by Jim Locke
4.5. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 5 21:38 Read by Jim Locke
4.6. John Gower 22:40 Read by Jim Locke
4.7. Barbour 30:16 Read by Jim Locke
4.8. Compound English Prose: Mandevil and Trevisa 37:24 Read by Jim Locke
4.9. Compound English Prose: Wycliffe and Chaucer 31:59 Read by Jim Locke
4.10. Literature and Learning in the Fifteenth Century Universities. Revival of Letters. Invention of Printing. Printing in England. Caxton. Books and Libraries 38:43 Read by Jim Locke
4.11. Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. Woodville, Earl Rivers. Science in England. Alchemists. Latin Chroniclers. French Chroniclers. English Chroniclers. Bishop Pecock. Fortescue. Malory 34:19 Read by Jim Locke
4.12. English Poets. Occleve, Lydgate. Scottish Poets. Wynton, James I, Henryson, Holland, Blind Henry. First Half of the Sixteenth Century. Colleges Founded 34:37 Read by Jim Locke
4.13. Classical Learning 41:34 Read by Jim Locke
4.14. Prose Writers. More, Elyot, Tyndal, Cranmer, Latimer 30:23 Read by Jim Locke
4.15. Scottish Prose Writers. English Poets: Hawes, Barklay. Skelton. Roy, John Heywood. Scottish Poets: Gawin Douglas, Dunbar, Lyndsay. Surrey, Wyatt 34:46 Read by Jim Locke
4.16. The Elizabethan Literature. The Mirror for Magistrates. Origin of Regular Drama. Interludes of John Heywood. Udall's Ralph Roister Doister 25:04 Read by Jim Locke
4.17. Gammer Gurton's Needle. Misogonus. Chronicle Histories. Bale's Kynge Johan, etc. Tragedy of Gorboduc. Blank Verse. Other Early Dramas. Second Stage of the Regular Drama. Peele, Greene 35:20 Read by Jim Locke
4.18. Marlow. Lyly, Kid, Lodge. Earlier Elizabethan Prose. Lyly, Sidney, Spenser, Nash, etc. English Hexameter Verse 39:09 Read by Jim Locke
4.19. Edmund Spenser, Part 1 26:46 Read by Jim Locke
4.20. Edmund Spenser, Part 2 31:09 Read by Jim Locke
4.21. Edmund Spenser, Part 3 36:26 Read by Jim Locke
4.22. Other Elizabethan Poetry. Warner 23:31 Read by Jim Locke
4.23. Daniel. Drayton. Joseph Hall 29:12 Read by Jim Locke
4.24. Sylvester. Chapman's Homer. Harington; Fairfax; Fanshawe. Drummond. Davies. Donne 35:39 Read by Jim Locke
4.25. Shakespeare's Minor Poems. Shakespeare's Dramatic Works 18:57 Read by Jim Locke
4.26. Chapman, Webster, Middleton, Decker, Chettle, Marston, Tailor, Tourneur, Rowley, Thomas Heywood. Beaumont and Fletcher. Jonson. Massinger, Ford 31:54 Read by Jim Locke
4.27. Later Elizabethan Prose Writers. Translation of the Bible. Theological Writers. James I., Bishop Andrews, Donne, Hall, Hooker. Bacon. Burton. Historical Writers. Classical Learning 37:05 Read by Jim Locke