Contents: Vol. 1. I. The preliminaries of English literature: 1. The earliest Anglo-Saxon poetry. 2. Caedmon, Cynewule and those about them. 3. Anglo Saxon prose. 4. The decadence of Anglo-Saxon. II. The making of English literature: 1. The transition. 2. First middle English period (1200-1250). 2. Second middle English period (1300-1360). 4. Early romances-metrical. 5. Early romances--alliterative. III. Chauser and his contemporaries: 1. Chauser's life and poems. 2. Langland and gower. 3. Chaucer's prose--Wyclif, Trevisa, Mandevile. IV. The fifteenth century: 1. The English Chaucerians - Lydgate to Skelton. 2. The Scottish poets--historical political and minor. 3. The four great Scottish poets. 4. Later romances in prose and verse. 5. Minor poetry and ballads. 6. Miscellaneous prose. V. Elizabethan literature to the death of Spenser: 1. Preliminaries--drama. 2. Preliminaries--prose. 3. Preliminaries--verse. 4. Spenser and his contemporaries. 5. The university wits. 6. Lyly and Hooker--the translator pamphletters, and critics. VI. Later Elizabethan and Jacobean literature: 1. Shakespeare. 2. Shakespeare's contemporaries in drama. 3. The schools of Jacobean poetry. 4. Jacobean prose-secular. 5. The golden age of the English pulpit-I.

Vol. 2. VII. Caroline literature: 1. Blank verse and the new couplet. 2. The metaphysicals--the lyric poets--miscellanists, etc. 3. The drama till the closing of the theatres. 4. The golden age of the English pulpit-II. 5. Miscellaneous prose. 6. Scots poetry and prose. VIII. The Augustan ages: 1. The age of Dryden-poetry. 2. The age of Dryden-drama. 3. The age of Dryden-prose. 4. Queen Anne prose. 5. Pope and his elder contemporaries in verse. IX. Middle and later eighteenth century literature: 1. The poets from Thomson to Crabbe. 2. The eighteenth century novel. 3. Johnson, Goldsmith and the later essayists. 4. The Garver prose. 5. Eighteenth century drama. 6. Miscellaneous writers. X. The triumph of romance: 1. The poets from Coleridge to Keats. 2. The novel Scott and Miss Austen. 3. The new essay. 4. The last Georgian prose. 5. The minor poets of 1800-1830. XI. Victorian literature: 1. Tennyson and browning. 2. The Victorian novel. 3. History and criticism. 4. Poetry since the middle of the century. 5. Miscellaneous. Conclusion. Index