Scotland has always exercised on English literature. The names of Barbour, Ramsay, Macpherson, Hume, Burns, Scott and Carlyle serve to give an idea of the revolutionary power with which Scottish genius has, in various departments of literature, invested that of English authors.

We have still to mention two other popular Scotch poets, who followed in Burns's footsteps, as far as it lay in their power to do so. JAMES HOGG, the "Ettrick Shepherd" (1770-1835), was a genuine shepherd, and, like Burns, was really a peasant. He did not confine himself to the mere writing of songs; on the contrary, he celebrated his chief triumph in a collection of poetical tales, entitled The Queen's Wake, the Queen being Mary Stuart. This is one of the best literary productions with which the good Scottish muse has inspired a son of the soil. But the shepherd-poet has also produced many a fine ballad: his Wee Hausie is a very sweet piece of pathetic lyric poetry. In force of language, and in depth of feeling, Hogg is not the equal of Burns; but as regards imagination, he is not far behind him.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM (1784-1842) was born near Dumfries, where Burns died. In his young days he was a journeyman bricklayer, and was afterwards employed as assistant to the sculptor Chantrey. He was indebted for many advantages to his superior education, which, however, did not deprive his poems of their force as representative national pieces. Some of his songs ran much like those of Burns, especially She's gane to dwall in Heaven, which is the best known.

Both Hogg and Cunningham owed their inspiration to Burns's songs. Besides them there were many other Scotch poets; but none of them was their equal, nor did any one of them come near Robert Burns. He was indeed unrivalled.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Most complete editions by Blackie, Scott Douglas; G. Chambers, The Life and Works of Robert Burns (best edition, revised by W. Wallace); J. G. Lockhart, Life of Robert Burns; T. Carlyle, biographical essay; The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, A. Lang and W. A. Craigie.

BOOK VI

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

I. THE POETS

I'

CHAPTER I

LORD BYRON

N none of the great European literatures do we find a century as a sharply-defined period with a character of its own. Think

of the seventeenth century in England, with Shakespeare, Milton, and Bunyan, and of the eighteenth, with Pope, Chatterton and Burns! The nineteenth century, too, so far as its own children are capable of forming an opinion, has produced in England very different currents at different periods. There is the purely poetical period, which lasted till about the accession of Queen Victoria (1837); and that in which prose, science, and social movements came to the front, comprising the later and longer half of the century.

The most splendid period for poetry is in the former; the time of Byron and Shelley. English romance, also, into which Sir Walter Scott introduced a new style, belonged at that time to the department of poetry, and treated entirely of poetical subjects. With the change of social relations, arising out of the factory system, railways, and all the inventions of modern times, and especially the democratisation of the masses, the literature of England, like that of all other nations took that particular course which may be described as a tendency towards the spirit of the times, and which it has followed with increasing force till the present day. Even a poet like Tennyson could not altogether withdraw himself from that new spirit of poetry. Especially in the novels of the great authors Thackeray, Dickens, and George Eliot, do we observe, in contrast to the romances of the eighteenth century and those of Sir Walter Scott, that both the world and literary men contemplate things from a new point of view. No longer do they see mere individuals and create characters accordingly, but they see and create with eyes which contemplate the connexions between the individual and society. Whether this new mode of investigation will produce such great and enduring masterpieces as did the old, the literary historian of about the middle of the twentieth century will perhaps be able to judge. At the present date, this much

only can be said: the second half of the nineteenth century has not produced any great poetical works worthy to be compared with those of the first half.

To describe the literature of the important epoch, called the nineteenth century, with a division such as we have alluded to, is unfortunately hardly practicable, as it would fail to show the gradual developments of the two chief branches of literature. It is especially with reference to prose romance that we should find such a severance into periods confusing. Scott certainly leads up to Bulwer (see his Last Days of Pompeii), and even to Thackeray (Esmond), and G. Eliot (Romola). In poetry no strict periodical boundary-line can be drawn between Byron, Moore, Tennyson and Swinburne; and the very newest phase of English lyric poetry is connected with that of the beginning of the century, because it is itself free from the tendencies of the times, and aims at being pure poetry. Therefore we have thought fit to separate poetry and prose.

The French Revolution, the wars between the French Republic and monarchical Europe, and the dazzling career of Napoleon, had caused such a powerful change in men's views, as well as in all institutions, as had never been experienced since the commencement of the Christian era. And with regard to poetry, more perhaps than anything else that engages men's attention, the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century marks a radical transformation. With the dawn of the new period, the more important poets appear to us as powerful personalities, each having his own clearly-defined characteristics. They do not occupy themselves with poetry as a mere work of art, only in order to produce a beautiful picture; their aim is to present themselves in an artistic form and as creatures of a powerful presence. "Byron," says Goethe, "is neither antique nor romantic, but he is like the present day itself." A warmer and fuller flow of blood has permeated English poetry since the beginning of the century, or indeed since the lyric poems of Burns appeared.

It was Burns who gave a foretaste of the springtime of poetry which bourgeoned throughout the world at the beginning of the nineteenth century with irresistible impulse; he was like a forerunner of the spring after the long sleep of winter. In Byron we see that spring in its full beauty, with almost overpowering fragrance, lavish with its gifts, passionately beautiful yet not without sorrow, the sign of early decay on its brow; the most memorable period of the whole century.

Byron's poems are necessarily the starting-point for every complete study of the poetry of the nineteenth century. All the important French romancists, nay, even many unimportant ones, have derived