LITERARY CRITICISM LYRIC, EPIC, AND ALLIED FORMS BY CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY, LITT.D., LL.D. PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY AND BENJAMIN PUTNAM KURTZ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 520.5 52718268 The Athenæum Press GINN AND COMPANY PRO- 638 REC MAIN PREFACE This book is the second of a series entitled Methods and Materials of Literary Criticism, the volumes of which, though contributory to a common aim, are severally independent. The first volume (Gayley and Scott, 1899) was an introduction to the bases in aesthetics and poetics, theoretical and historical. The present volume applies the methods there developed to the comparative study of the lyric, the epic, and some allied forms of poetry. A third volume, approaching completion, will present tragedy, comedy, and cognate forms. Obviously imperfect as it is, this introduction to the study of the lyric and epic kinds goes forth in the persuasion that it may be of use to those who desire orientation, a systematic statement of the more general problems to be solved, a quick access to the information available for the process. Those who would naturally be interested are the college student and the teacher of literature, the investigator of literary history and theory, the reviewer,those, in short, who make of criticism a discipline, an aim, or a profession. The work, though voluminous, is one of first aid only; it has not the effrontery to pretend to exhaustiveness. The arrangement of subjects, the problems proposed, the means suggested for their solution, the running discussion, are for practical convenience in opening up investigation rather than for the advocacy of method or the formulation of conclusions, both of which must depend upon the scholarship and mature deliberation, the judgment and skill, of the individual. The citation of references is nowhere as complete as the compilers would wish. The same may be said of summaries of periods and movements. In particular, the period from 1850 to the present has perforce been treated all too briefly, — it demands iii a book to itself. To accord the minor types or varieties, such as elegy, epigram, ode, song, sonnet, idyl, or ballad, full measure of definition and outline would swell the volume out of all proportion to its intent— irrespective of the practicality of publishers, the pocketbook of purchasers, and the annos labentes of the authors. A detailed account of the prosody of the different types has not been included because that aspect of the study has been already considered in the first volume of the series. Following the arrangement adopted for convenience and comprehensiveness in the former volume, each literary type or species has been considered in a twofold aspect, theoretical and historical. In each of these subdivisions the first section presents an analysis of the subject under discussion and a statement of the problems involved, with indication of the authorities most necessary to be consulted; the second section consists of a bibliography, alphabetically arranged and accompanied by annotations which aim to give the student or the prospective buyer some idea of the content and value of the work in its bearing upon the subject; and the third section supplies in outline the theory, or history, as the case may be, of the type or form under consideration as developed in various national literatures, and cites specific authorities for periods, movements, and germinative influences in poetry and criticism. Especial attention must be called to the fact that continual repetition of the more general literary histories, bibliographies, reviews, and journals has been avoided by gathering all such works into an Appendix. Since it is too late to insert the statement in the proper place, the authors take this opportunity to say that Gayley's Principles of Poetry, occasionally cited in the text as included in Gayley and Young's English Poetry, can be found only in the editions of that volume published between 1904 and 1919. The essay will shortly be republished in an enlarged and separate form. Doubtless some students will object to the arrangement of materials here by types as begging the question of literary classification. A preface is no place for discussing this objection. The authors can only say that they believe that types of a sort do exist, subject to gradual variation. By a constant factor are fixed the only possible moulds or channels of communication and, therefore, the primary types,-as for instance within the realm of poetry, the lyric, narrative, and dramatic. By the presence of other factors, both inconstant, namely, environment, antecedent and contemporary, and the associational congeries called the poet, these types are themselves liable to modification. The idea of a process by evolution may be unproved; but that some process, as by permutation, must obtain is recognized. The traditional terminology of literary criticism tends, indeed, to disguise, hybridize, or otherwise confuse the subtypes or species. But the authors trust that such indication of materials for further study as is given here under the traditional headings may be of assistance toward a clearer determination of species, historically as well as logically documented, and the invention for them of a more definite terminology than we now possess. Considerable headway had been made with the writing of this book fully fifteen years ago, but it was still far from completion. For its furtherance during the last ten years the originator of the enterprise, embarrassed by the growing burden of other literary obligations and latterly of administrative duties, has been compelled to lean heavily upon the coöperation of his former pupil, present colleague, and ever present friend, Professor B. P. Kurtz. Had it not been for the scholarship and indefatigable industry of the latter, the manuscript might not have seen print for another ten years. This is but a grateful expression of indebtedness and esteem. BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA NOVEMBER II, 1919 CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY |
