A HISTORY OF ENGLISH PROSODY
FROM THE TWELFTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT DAY
By DR. GEORGE SAINTSBURY
Three Vols. 8vo.
VOL. I. FROM THE ORIGINS TO SPENSER. 10s. net. VOL. II. FROM SHAKESPEARE TO CRABBE. 15s. net. VOL. III. FROM BLAKE TO SWINBURNE. 15s. net.
SOME PRESS OPINIONS OF VOLUME I.
_THE ATHENAEUM._--"A thing complete and convincing beyond any former workfrom the same hand. 'Hardly any one who takes a sufficient interest inprosody to induce him to read this book' will fail to find it absorbing,and even entertaining, as only one other book on the subject ofversification is: the _Petit Traite de poesie francaise_ of Theodore deBanville.... We await the second and third volumes of this admirableundertaking with impatience. To stop reading it at the end of the firstvolume leaves one in just such a state of suspense as if it had been anovel of adventure, and not the story of the adventures of prosody. 'Iam myself quite sure,' says Prof. Saintsbury, 'that English prosody is,and has been, a living thing for seven hundred years at least.' That hesees it living is his supreme praise, and such praise belongs to himonly among historians of English verse."
_THE TIMES._--"To Professor Saintsbury English prosody is a livingthing, and not an abstraction. He has read poetry for pleasure longbefore he began to read it with a scientific purpose, and so he haslearnt what poetry is before making up his mind what it ought to be. Itis a common fault of writers upon prosody that they set out to discoverthe laws of music without ever training their ears to apprehend music.They theorise very plausibly at large, but they betray their incapacityso soon as they proceed to scan a difficult line. Professor Saintsburynever fails in this way. He knows a good line from a bad one, and heknows how a good line ought to be read, even though he may sometimes bedoubtful how it ought to be scanned. He has, therefore, the knowledgemost essential to a writer upon prosody.... His object, as he constantlyinsists, is to write a history, to tell us what has happened to ourprosody from the time when it began to be English and ceased to beAnglo-Saxon; not to tell us whether it has happened rightly or wrongly,nor even to be too ready to tell us why or how it has happened."
Professor W. P. KER in the _SCOTTISH HISTORICAL REVIEW_.--"The historyof verse, as Mr. Saintsbury takes it, is one aspect of the history ofpoetry; that is to say, the minute examination of structure does notleave out of account the nature of the living thing; we are not kept allthe time at the microscope. This is the great beauty of his book; it isa history of English poetry in one particular form or mode.... Theauthor perceives that the form of verse is not separable from the soulof poetry; poetry 'has neither kernel nor husk, but is all one,' toadapt the phrase of another critic."
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH PROSODY
By DR. GEORGE SAINTSBURY
SOME PRESS OPINIONS OF VOLUME II.
_THE ATHENAEUM._--"We have read this volume with as eager an impatienceas that with which we read the first, for the author is in love with hissubject; he sees 'that English prosody is and has been a living thingfor seven hundred years at least,' and, knowing that metre, verse pureand simple, is a means of expressing emotion, he here sets out to showus its development and variety during the most splendid years of ournational consciousness."
_THE STANDARD._--"The second volume of Professor Saintsbury's elaboratework on English prosody is even more interesting than his former volume.Extending as it does from Shakespeare to Crabbe, it covers the greatperiod of English poetry and deals with the final development of theprosodic system. It reveals the encyclopaedic knowledge of Englishliterature and the minute scholarship which render the Edinburghprofessor so eminently suited to this inquiry, which is, we think, themost important literary adventure he has undertaken.... It is certainlythe best book on the subject of which it treats, and it will be longindeed before it is likely to be superseded."
_THE CAMBRIDGE REVIEW._--"It is the capacity of being able to departfrom traditional opinion, the evidence shown on every page ofindependent thought based upon a first-hand study of documents, whichmake the present volume one of the most stimulating that even ProfessorSaintsbury has written. The work, as a whole, is a fine testimony to hislack of pedantry, to his catholicity of taste, to his sturdy commonsense, and it exhibits a virtue rare among prosodists (dare we say amongscholars generally?)--courtesy to opponents."
_THE PALL MALL GAZETTE._--"This volume is even more fascinating than wasthe first. For here there are even greater names concerned--Shakespeareand Milton.... It appears to us that Professor Saintsbury hardly writesa page in which he does not advance by some degree his view of the rightlaws of verse. We cannot imagine any one seriously defending, after thismajestical work, the old syllabic notion of scansion.... The book iswritten with all the liveliness of style, richness of argument, andwealth of material that we expect. Not only is it a history of prosody;but it is full of acute judgments on poetry and poets."
OTHER WORKS
BY
DR. GEORGE SAINTSBURY
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH PROSE RHYTHM. 8vo. 14s. net
A HISTORY OF ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
A HISTORY OF NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE (1780-1900). Crown 8vo. 7s.6d.
A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. Also in fiveparts. 2s. each.
HISTORICAL MANUAL OF ENGLISH PROSODY. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
A FIRST BOOK OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Globe 8vo. 1s. 6d.
DRYDEN. Library Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. net. Popular Edition, Crown 8vo,1s. 6d. Sewed, 1s. Pocket Edition, Fcap. 8vo, 1s. net. [_English Men ofLetters._
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
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