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

George Lillie Craik (1798 - 1866)

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.

Genre(s): Writing & Linguistics

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Preface Grant Hicks
00:11:51
Play 01 1. Introductory. 1. Literature and Language. The Languages of Modern Europe Grant Hicks
00:12:30
Play 02 1.2. Early Latin Literature in Britain Grant Hicks
00:15:10
Play 03 1.3. The Celtic Languages and Literatures Grant Hicks
00:20:37
Play 04 1.4. Decay of the Earliest English Scholarship Grant Hicks
00:15:23
Play 05 1.5. The English Language Grant Hicks
00:09:08
Play 06 1.6. Original English Jim Locke
00:27:52
Play 07 2. The Norman Period. 1. The Norman Conquest. Arabic and the New Learning Jim Locke
00:32:17
Play 08 2.2. Schools and Universities. Rise of the Scholastic Philosophy. John of Salisbury. Peter of Blois Jim Locke
00:24:52
Play 09 2.3. Classical Learning. Mathematics. Medicine. Law. Books. The Latin Language. The Latin Poets. Mapes, etc Jim Locke
00:18:09
Play 10 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 Jim Locke
00:34:19
Play 11 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 Jim Locke
00:31:25
Play 12 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 Jim Locke
00:25:32
Play 13 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 Jim Locke
00:29:37
Play 14 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 Jim Locke
00:24:05
Play 15 2.9. Vernacular Language and Literature: A.D. 1066-1216 Jim Locke
00:26:15
Play 16 2.10. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. Ascendancy of the Scholastic Philosophy. Mathematical and Other Studies. Roger Bacon. Robert Grosseteste. Alchemists. Universities and Colleges Jim Locke
00:21:30
Play 17 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 Jim Locke
00:31:51
Play 18 2.12. Anglo-Norman Poets. French Prose Romances. Froissart. Resurrection of the English Language Jim Locke
00:23:42
Play 19 3. Second English. 1. St. Godric. The Here Prophecy Jim Locke
00:13:27
Play 20 3.2. The Brut of Layamon Jim Locke
00:30:38
Play 21 3.3. The Ormulum. The Ancren Riwle Jim Locke
00:36:51
Play 22 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 Jim Locke
00:20:40
Play 23 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 Jim Locke
00:23:04
Play 24 3.6. Alliterative Verse: Piers Ploughman. Piers Ploughman's Creed. Jim Locke
00:31:33
Play 25 4. Third English (mixed or compound English). 1. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 1 Jim Locke
00:31:43
Play 26 4.2. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 2 Jim Locke
00:29:23
Play 27 4.3. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 3 Jim Locke
00:31:32
Play 28 4.4. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 4 Jim Locke
00:27:37
Play 29 4.5. Geoffrey Chaucer, Part 5 Jim Locke
00:21:38
Play 30 4.6. John Gower Jim Locke
00:22:40
Play 31 4.7. Barbour Jim Locke
00:30:16
Play 32 4.8. Compound English Prose: Mandevil and Trevisa Jim Locke
00:37:24
Play 33 4.9. Compound English Prose: Wycliffe and Chaucer Jim Locke
00:31:59
Play 34 4.10. Literature and Learning in the Fifteenth Century Universities. Revival of Letters. Invention of Printing. Printing in England. Caxton. Books and Libraries Jim Locke
00:38:43
Play 35 4.11. Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. Woodville, Earl Rivers. Science in England. Alchemists. Latin Chroniclers. French Chroniclers. English Chroniclers. Bishop Pecock. Fortescue. Malory Jim Locke
00:34:19
Play 36 4.12. English Poets. Occleve, Lydgate. Scottish Poets. Wynton, James I, Henryson, Holland, Blind Henry. First Half of the Sixteenth Century. Colleges Founded Jim Locke
00:34:37
Play 37 4.13. Classical Learning Jim Locke
00:41:34
Play 38 4.14. Prose Writers. More, Elyot, Tyndal, Cranmer, Latimer Jim Locke
00:30:23
Play 39 4.15. Scottish Prose Writers. English Poets: Hawes, Barklay. Skelton. Roy, John Heywood. Scottish Poets: Gawin Douglas, Dunbar, Lyndsay. Surrey, Wyatt Jim Locke
00:34:46
Play 40 4.16. The Elizabethan Literature. The Mirror for Magistrates. Origin of Regular Drama. Interludes of John Heywood. Udall's Ralph Roister Doister Jim Locke
00:25:04
Play 41 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 Jim Locke
00:35:20
Play 42 4.18. Marlow. Lyly, Kid, Lodge. Earlier Elizabethan Prose. Lyly, Sidney, Spenser, Nash, etc. English Hexameter Verse Jim Locke
00:39:09
Play 43 4.19. Edmund Spenser, Part 1 Jim Locke
00:26:46
Play 44 4.20. Edmund Spenser, Part 2 Jim Locke
00:31:09
Play 45 4.21. Edmund Spenser, Part 3 Jim Locke
00:36:26
Play 46 4.22. Other Elizabethan Poetry. Warner Jim Locke
00:23:31
Play 47 4.23. Daniel. Drayton. Joseph Hall Jim Locke
00:29:12
Play 48 4.24. Sylvester. Chapman's Homer. Harington; Fairfax; Fanshawe. Drummond. Davies. Donne Jim Locke
00:35:39
Play 49 4.25. Shakespeare's Minor Poems. Shakespeare's Dramatic Works Jim Locke
00:18:57
Play 50 4.26. Chapman, Webster, Middleton, Decker, Chettle, Marston, Tailor, Tourneur, Rowley, Thomas Heywood. Beaumont and Fletcher. Jonson. Massinger, Ford Jim Locke
00:31:54
Play 51 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 Jim Locke
00:37:05