*_Oxford Book of English Verse_. (Oxford.)

*Craik's _English Prose_, 5 vols. (Craik.)

*Page's _British Poets of the Nineteenth Century_. (Page.)

Chambers's _Cyclopedia of English Literature_. (Chambers.)

Manly's _English Poetry_ (from 1170). (Manly I.)

Manly's _English Prose_ (from 1137). (Manly II.)

_Century Readings for a Course in English Literature_. (Century.)


CHAPTER I: FROM 449 A.D. TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066

Subject Matter and Aim.--The history of English literature traces
the development of the best poetry and prose written in English by the
inhabitants of the British Isles. For more than twelve hundred years
the Anglo-Saxon race has been producing this great literature, which
includes among its achievements the incomparable work of Shakespeare.

This literature is so great in amount that the student who approaches
the study without a guide is usually bewildered. He needs a history of
English literature for the same reason that a traveler in England
requires a guidebook. Such a history should do more than indicate
where the choicest treasures of literature may be found; it should
also show the interesting stages of development; it should emphasize
some of the ideals that have made the Anglo-Saxons one of the most