for each week will be found at the end of the syllabus.
Any persons attending the lectures are invited to send
written answers; they should be addressed to Prof. Albert
H. Smyth, Central High School, Philadelphia, and should
arrive fully forty-eight hours before the following lecture.
Some signature, together with the name of the lecture-
centre to which the exercise is to be returned, should be
placed at the top of the first page. They will be returned,
with comments, at the "Class," when further explanations
on the general subject will be made. All are invited to the
class whether they have sent exercises to the lecturer or not.

Copyrighted, 1891, by

The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching,
1602 Chestnut St., Philadelphia,

LECTURE I

OLD ENGLAND.

Celtic Britain. The Celtic element in English. Traces of the Roman invasion and occupation. Origin of the English people, their habits and traditions. The first impact of the nations of Teutonic race upon Celtic Britain. Consequences of the English conquest.

The position of the scop, or poet, in old English society. First forms of verse. "Beowulf"-the first poem, its historical basis, its mythological structure, how it illustrates English civilization. The laws of old English verse—alliteration, repetition, parallel expressions. Other war poems -Battle of Brunanburh, Battle of Malden, etc.

Introduction of Christianity. Conflict between the Irish Church and the Roman Church. Caedmon's life and work. Beda and his pupils. Literature transferred to the south of England by King Alfred-his care for learning -his translations.

The Norman Conquest. The rise of romantic literature. Geoffrey of Monmouth and the growth of the legends of King Arthur. Monasticism and the multiplication of books.

LECTURE II.

CHAUCER TO SHAKESPEARE.

Prose writers of the fourteenth century-Mandeville, Wyclif-Langland and the Vision of Piers Ploughman— Geoffrey Chaucer-the three periods of his life; the Canterbury Tales. Gower and Froissart. Caxton introduces printing. Chevy Chace and the Ballads.

LECTURE III.

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND.

Great forces were operating in the sixteenth century —(1) the revival of learning, (2) the Reformation, (3) the contact with Italian culture, (4) the definition of English nationality against Spain and Rome.

The personality of the Queen. Edmund Spenser, "The Faery Queen." Sir Philip Sidney, the "Arcadia." Lyly and Euphuism. Bacon and Hobbes.

The dramatists. The evolution of the drama. Marlowe's part in the work.

Shakespeare.

LECTURE IV.

FROM ELIZABETH TO ANNE.

King James and the literature of his court. The postElizabethan singers-Robert Herrick, George Herbert, Wotton and Walton.

Royalists and Puritans. The Puritan influence in English letters. Marvell and Lovelace and Butler. Miltonhis education; life at Horton; writing the minor poems; political service, "Paradise Lost."

"Glorious John Dryden." The broad, full stream of Elizabethan verse, pent in the narrow limits of the classical couplet. The development of lucid prose-Addison and Steele.

LECTURE V.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

The influence of the French Revolution upon English writers. The eighteenth century a progress toward that event. From Pope to Gray, and from Gray to Burns.