TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE * THE pathetic circumstances connected with the publication of the Second Volume of Ten Brink's "History of English Literature" naturally cast a deeper shadow still over the last part of his work. The First Part of the Second Volume had at least passed through the press under his supervision and had received his latest corrections. This Second Part was, however, still in the author's hands awaiting his final touches when he was suddenly struck down by death in the prime of life on the 29th of January, 1892. Ten Brink's death is a lamentable loss to students of English literature, for with the appearance of the First Volume of his "History"-as far back as 1877-he was at once recognized by scholars to be one of the leading authorities in all that concerned the earliest period of English literature, and his subsequent treatment of Chaucer is admitted on all hands to stand wellnigh unrivalled. Dr. Alois Brandl, who succeeded Ten Brink in the Chair of English Philology in Strassburg, was appointed one of his literary executors, and entrusted with the MS. material left by the eminent Dutch scholar. Dr. Brandl devoted himself to his task with so much zeal and assiduity that before the close of the year (1892) the present volume was in the hands of his German readers. In his Preface, *It has been found more convenient to issue the translation of the two Parts as Volume II. and Volume III. Dr. Brandl tells us that up to the end of Chapter IV. of Book VI. he found all practically ready for the press, the pages numbered and evidently finally revised by the author. The remainder of the MS., although carefully arranged, was unpaged, yet without gaps, beyond two blank leaves which Dr. Brandl has filled in to the best of his ability (this passage occurs in our volume on p. 211, 1. II, to the end of the chapter). Of the Appendix, which had been referred to by the author as far back as 1889, only a few pages were to be found, and although some of the promised notes are wanting, we have others which had not been looked for. This is a further proof of the method Ten Brink is said to have adopted in work, viz. of taking up his subjects as the spirit moved him, and this may possibly also account for the omission in this volume of some writers whom Ten Brink may have intended to deal with in their turn before finally arranging his material for publication. His "History" remains unfinished, in any case, and this is the more to be regretted as the next volume would have presented the more serious discussion of the Elizabethan era, a subject which he had already made a part of his University lectures, and by which he had attracted students from all parts of the world. Ten Brink's last words in this volume, on the untimely death of the Earl of Surrey, Dr. Brandl very appropriately quotes in connection with Ten Brink's own sad fate: "Great things he might still have accomplished, but what he did accomplish has not been lost to posterity." May, 1896. L. DORA SCHMITZ. CONTENTS VOLUME III-BOOK V. (Continued.) LANCASTER AND YORK. IX. (continued).-Legend of The Three Kings. Life of Adam and Eve; St. Jerome; Christina Mirabilis; and St. Catherine of Siena. Festial by John Mirkus. Translation of the Legenda Aurea; the Pèlerinages of Guillaume Deguileville; the Horologium Sapientia of Heinrich Suso. Prose-versions of King Ponthus of Galicia; of Ipomedon; Merlin; and the Gesta Romanorum. Le livre du Chevalier de la Tour-Landry. Maundeville's Travels. Informacōn for Pylgrimages to the Holy Londe. Translation of Vegetius and Ægidius Romanus X.-John Capgrave's Chronicle of England. His Legends. His Book of the Illustrious Henries. Development of Political Prose. The Commodytes of England. Sir John Fortescue's De Natura Legis Natura; his Commendation of the Laws of England; Articles addressed to the Earl of Warwick. Fortescue's struggle for the Lancastrians becomes useless; is pardoned by Edward IV.; his Declaration; his treatise on the Difference between Absolute and Limited Monarchy. His Dialogue between Understanding and Faith. A great reader. William Caxton, an apprentice in London. Governor of the English Merchants in Bruges. The_Bur- gundian Court. His Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. Caxton learns the art of printing. He translates and prints The Game and Playe of the Chesse; the Dictes and Sayenges of the Philosopheres; the Lyf of Jason; the Lyf of Charles the Grete; the Four Sonnes of Aymon; the story of the Knyghte Parys and the fayr Vyenne; Blanchardyne and Eglantyne; Reynart the Foxe; Godefroy of Boloyne; the XI.-Scotland. The war of independence. Huchown of the awle ryale; his Legend of the Chaste Susannah; and Gest of THE RENAISSANCE UP TO SURREY'S DEATH. I.-William Dunbar. The court of James IV. The Tod and II.-Stephen Hawes at the court of Henry VII. His Pastime of Pleasure. Influence of Chaucer and Lydgate. Alexander Barclay. Translation of Ship of Fools. Eclogues. Minor works by Barclay; his Boke against Skelton. Erasmus in England and the Oxford Humanists. John Skelton. youthful works. Boke of Philip Sparowe; Skeltonian metre ; Bouge of Court. Satires on Cardinal Wolsey: Colin Clout; III.—Appearance of professional actors since the days of Henry VI. The Moral Play or Interludium in its full de- velopment. Nature by Henry Medwall. The Worlde and the Chylde. Hycke Scorner. Nature of the Four Elements. Skelton's Necromancer and his Magnificence. Masques at the court of Henry VIII.; Mummings; Disputations. Latin Moral-play of Luther and his Wife. John Heywood and his Interludes: Dialogue on Wit and Folly; Play of Love; Play of the Wether; The Four PPs; Pardoner, Friar, Curate, and Neybour Pratte; Johan the Husbande, Tyb his wife, and Sir Jhan the Priest; Thersites and the miles gloriosus. Translation of the Celestina of Rodrigo de Cota 122-144 IV. Sir Thomas More. His maiden-speech against Henry |