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Studies in American Literature; A Text-Book for Academies and High Schools
Studies in American Literature A TextBook for Academies and High Schools Author:Charles Noble General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1898 Original Publisher: The Macmillan Company Subjects: American literature Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / American / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. ... more »When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: PART ONE ORIGIN AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT 1607-1800 THE GENERALL HLSTORIE Virginia, New-Engbjid, and the Summer Ifles whhthe names of the Adventurers, Flamers, and Governours from cheir irft beginning An' T. j 4 to this O f O - prelent i 63.6 AlfotlieAtapj Countries, til eir Commoaiucs, peopl c yet knowne . Divided Into Ske. booxes Printed bylD I. Hfoir. EA-wrl . BlacVmore j f 5 a CHAPTER I Period Of Preparation. 1607-1765 Oliver Wendell Holmes says somewhere that a true biography must begin one hundred years before the subject's birth. So, to get a true idea of American Literature, we must begin before the beginning. We have to take for granted the ancestry of our Literature in that of Great Britain, and begin at the point when there began to be an American people; when the English settlers first came to this continent. The settlement of European countries is hidden in the mists of antiquity. But our country was settled in a time of enlightenment and of great intellectual activity. The early settlers of England, of Saxon race, were savage pirates, ignorant and wild; and no contemporary records of their life remain. The early settlers of America were cultivated and highly civilized. So there are abundant records of their life. On the other hand, in the dim antiquity of early English History we find some great literary monuments, as the Epic poem, "Beowolf," and the writings of Csedmon and Cynewulf. There is nothing like these in American Hist...« less