Handbook Of Universal Literature From The Best And Latest Autho

Since the first publication of this work in 1860, many new names have appeared in modern literature. Japan, hitherto almost unknown to Europeans, has taken her place among the n...

PERIOD THIRD.--1. _Age of the Reformation_ (1509-1558). Classical, Theological, and Miscellaneous Literature: Sir Thomas More and others. Poetry: Skelton, Surrey, and Sackville;...

3. THE WRITING.--There is an essential difference between the Chinese language as spoken and written, and the poverty of the former presents a striking contrast with the exubera...

4. HISTORY.--The earliest extant Japanese record is a work entitled "Kojiki," or book of ancient traditions. It treats of the creation, the gods and goddesses of the mythologica...

The Mahabharata (the great Bharata) has nearly the same antiquity as the Ramayana. It describes the greatest Avatar of Vishnu, the incarnation of the god in Krishna, and it pres...

In the reign of Sardanapalus (660-647 B.C.) Assyrian art and literature reached their highest point. In the ruins of his palace have been found three chambers the floors of whic...

Jami (d. 1492) was born in Khorassan, in the village of Jam, from whence he is named,--his proper appellation being Abd Arahman. He was a Sufi, and preferred, like many of his f...

The internal evidence derived from the peculiar character of each of the historical books is decisive of their genuineness, which is supported above all suspicion of alteration...

The history of Mohan (by some thought to be Moses) has been called the Egyptian Odyssey, in contrast to the preceding. Mohan was a high official, and this narrative describes hi...

2. POEMS OF HOMER.--Although seven cities contended for the honor of giving birth to Homer, it was the prevalent belief, in the flourishing times of Greece, that he was a native...

Stesichorus (fl. 611 B.C.) lived at a time when the predominant tendency of the Greek mind was towards lyric poetry. His special business was the training and direction of the c...

Solon, the great lawgiver, arose to combine moral strictness and order with freedom of action. After Solon came the dominion of the Pisistratidae, which lasted from about 560 to...

5. COMEDY.--Greek comedy was distinguished as the Old, the Middle, and the New. As tragedy arose from the winter feast of Bacchus, which fostered an enthusiastic sympathy with t...

1. ORIGIN OF THE ALEXANDRIAN LITERATURE.--As the literary predominance of Athens was due mainly to the political importance of Attica, the downfall of Athenian independence brou...

The imperial family of the Comneni, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the Palaeologi, who reigned from the thirteenth century to the end of the eastern empire, endeavor...

An example of the oldest Latin extant is contained in the sacred chant of the Fratres Arvales. These were a college of priests, whose function was to offer prayers for plenteous...

Among the causes which prevented tragedy from flourishing at Rome was the little influence the national legends exerted over the people. These legends were more often private th...

2. MIMES, MIMOGRAPHERS, AND PANTOMIME.--Amidst all the splendor of the Latin literature of this period, dramatic poetry never recovered from the trance into which it had fallen,...

The place which Cicero occupies in the history of Roman literature is that of an orator and philosopher. The effectiveness of his oratory was mainly owing to his knowledge of th...

3. SATIRE AND EPIGRAM.--Roman satire, subsequently to Horace, is represented by Persius and Juvenal. Persius (34-62 A.D.) early attached himself to the Stoic philosophy. He was...

"It is my constant practice, sire, to refer to you all subjects on which I entertain doubt. For who is better able to direct my hesitation, or to instruct my ignorance? I have n...

10. ROMAN JURISPRUDENCE.--In the period which followed, from the death of Augustus to the time of the Antonines, Roman civilians and legal writers continued to be numerous, and...

4. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARABIAN LITERATURE.--The literature of the Arabians has, properly speaking, but one period; although from remote antiquity poetry was with them...

Such, then, was the brilliant light which literature and science displayed from the ninth to the fourteenth century of our era in those vast countries which had submitted to the...

4. PETRARCH.--Petrarch (1304-1374) belonged to a respected Florentine family. His father was the personal friend of Dante, and a partaker of the same exile. While at Avignon, th...

3. ROMANTIC EPIC POETRY.--The romances of chivalry, which had been thus versified by Pulci and Boiardo, were elevated to the rank of epic poetry by the genius of Ariosto (1474-1...

The story-tellers of the sixteenth century are numerous. Sometimes they appear as followers of Boccaccio; sometimes they attempt to open new paths for themselves. The class of p...

Filicaja (1642-1709) stands at the head of the lyric poets of the seventeenth century. His inspiration seems first to have been awakened when Vienna was besieged by the Turks in...

The poetical writings of Pindemonte (1753-1828) are stamped with the melancholy of his character. Their subjects are taken from contemporary events, and his inspiration is drawn...

PERIOD THIRD.--1. The Dawn of Skepticism: Bayle, J. B. Rousseau, Fontenelle, Lamotte.--2. Progress of Skepticism: Montesquieu, Voltaire. --3. French Literature during the Revolu...

2. THE TROUVÈRES.--While the Provençal was thus relapsing into a mere dialect, the north of France was maturing a new language and literature of an entirely different character....

As Rabelais was the leading type of the Renaissance, so was Calvin (1509- 1564) of the Reformation. Having embraced the principles of Luther, he went considerably farther in his...

7. TRAGEDY.--The first dramas of Racine (1639-1699) were but feeble imitations of Corneille, who advised the young author to attempt no more tragedy. He replied by producing "An...

Considerable interest attaches also to the letters of Madame de Maintenon (1635-1719), a lady whose life presents singular contrasts, worthy of the time. To her influence on the...

The declining years of Voltaire and Rousseau witnessed no rising genius of similar power, but some authors of a secondary rank deserve notice. Marmontel (1728-1799) is distingui...

Since 1830 the tendency has been towards novels of contemporary life. The two great masters of the novel of character and manners, as opposed to that of history and incident, ar...

Juan Ruiz, arch-priest of Hita (1292-1351), was a contemporary of Don Manuel. His works consist of nearly seven thousand verses, forming a series of stories which appear to be s...

The prose writers of the fifteenth century deserve mention chiefly because they were so much valued in their own age. Their writings are encumbered with the bad taste and pedant...

Another element which he established in the Spanish drama, was the comic under-plot, and the witty _gracioso_ or droll, the parody of the heroic character of the play. Much of h...

In the early part of the seventeenth century there arose a sect who attempted to create a new epoch in Spanish poetry, by affecting an exquisite refinement, and who ran into the...

Although the literature of Portugal, like the character of its people, is marked by excessive softness, elegiac sentimentality, and an undefined melancholy, it affords little or...

The Finns at an early period had attained a high degree of civilization, and they have always been distinguished for their love of poetry, especially for the melancholy strains...

Peter the Great laid the corner-stone of a national literature, but the temple was not reared above the ground until the reign of Elizabeth and of Catharine II. Lomonosof (1711-...

The literary history of Poland begins, like that of Bohemia, at the epoch of the introduction of Christianity. In the year 965, Miecislav, Duke of Poland, married the Bohemian p...

Menno van Coehorn (1641-1704) was a general and engineer distinguished for his genius in military science; his great work on fortifications has been translated into many foreign...

1. INTRODUCTION.--It is a singular fact that the progressive and expanding spirit which characterizes the English race should be so universally referred to their Anglo-Saxon blo...

The remaining songs of the first part of the Edda relate chiefly to the exploits, wanderings, and love adventures of the gods. The "Sun Song," with which it concludes, is believ...

During the eighteenth century, French taste prevailed all over Europe; not only the manners, etiquette, and toilets of France were imitated, the fashion of its literature was al...

According to the Edda, the Dwarfs were formed by Odin from the dust. They were either _Cobolds_--house spirits who attach themselves to the fortunes of the family, and, if well...

While the early Mastersingers were pouring forth their strains with undiminished confidence in their own powers, a new species of poetic literature was growing up beside them in...

Many of the followers of Gottsched, disgusted with his pedantry, finally separated themselves from him and formed a new poetical union, called the Second Saxonic School. They es...

In his dramatic, as in all his other works, the only end and aim of Goethe was to carry to perfection the art in which he was so great a master. Virtue and vice, truth and false...

The popular legends of Germany are numerous and characteristic of the country. These narratives are either legends of local interest, associated with old castles, or other antiq...

Spenser and Shakspeare were both possessed of thoughts, feelings, and images, which they could not have had if they had lived a century later, or much earlier; and, although the...

The introduction of French words began with the Conquest, when the political condition of the country made it imperative that many words should be understood. The second stage b...

In poetical literature, "The Vision of Piers Plowman," written (1362) by a priest named Robert Langland, is one of the highest works in point of genius and one of the most curio...

In the collection of materials for national history the period was exceedingly active. Camden and Selden stand at the head of the band of antiquaries. Hobbes wrote in his old ag...

In other kinds of poetry we find similar changes of taste which affected the art injuriously, although the increased attention paid to correctness and refinement was a step in i...

The only tragedy that has survived from these last forty years of the eighteenth century is the "Douglas" of Home, whose melody and romantic pathos lose much of their effect fro...

Among the earlier novels of the time, those of Bulwer had more decidedly than the others the stamp of native genius. Though not always morally instructive, they have great force...

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was equally illustrious in statesmanship and philosophy. The style of his political and philosophical writings is admirable for its simplicity, cle...

3. FICTION.--Romantic fiction found its first national development in the writings of James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), and through his works American literature first became w...

The Dictionary of Noah Webster (1778-1843), an elaborate and successful undertaking, has exercised an influence over the English language which will probably endure for generati...

The question here naturally arises as to whether the human mind has now reached its highest development in this direction, whether it is henceforth to retrograde or to advance....