Introductory—Mediæval romance and lyric—The fourteenth century—Maerlant and other didactic poets—Dirk Potter—Fifteenth century—The Chambers of Rhetoric—Anna Bijns—Renaissance—Marnix and Coornhert—Spieghel and Roemer Visscher—The "Eglantine" or "Oude Kamer"—Hooft—Song-books—Brederoo and Starter—Vondel—Life and work—Criticism—Literature outside Amsterdam—The Hague: Huyghens—Zeeland: Jacob Cats—Camphuyzen—Stalpert van der Wiele—Followers of Vondel and Hooft—Latin prose and verse—Heinsius and Grotius—Dutch prose—Hooft—Brandt.
Introductory—Mediæval drama—Problem connected therewith—The Moralities, Histories, and Farces of the Chambers—Renaissance secular drama—The "Eglantine"—Coster and Rodenburg—Brederoo—Hooft—"Quarrel of the Players"—Coster's Academy—The "Amsterdamsche Kamer" and new theatre—Vondel—Development of his drama—Individual tragedies—Characterisation and criticism—Failure of the romantic and classical drama—Jan Vos's Aran en Titus—Later plays.
Introductory—George Chapman—Ben Jonson—His theory of comedy—Earlier comedies—Tragedies—Mature comedies—Last plays—Masques—Sad Shepherd—Achievement—Marston—Dekker—Middleton—Heywood—Webster—His two tragedies—Tourneur—Beaumont and Fletcher—Last phase of Elizabethan drama—Sentimental tragedy and romance—Comedy of incident and manners—Massinger—Ford—Shirley—Lesser dramatists—Conclusion
Introductory—George Chapman—The younger Spenserians—Protestant and bourgeois—The Fletchers—Browne and Wither—Quarles, More, Beaumont, &c.—Drummond and Sir John Beaumont—Donne and Jonson—Characteristics and influence—Caroline courtly poetry, religious and secular—Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw, and Traherne—Carew, Lovelace, Suckling, Herrick—Andrew Marvell—Milton's life and early poems—Poetry of the Commonwealth—Waller and Denham—Davenant and Chamberlayne—Cowley—Milton's later poems—Paradise Lost—Paradise Regained—Samson Agonistes—Conclusion
Waning of the Pleiad. Malherbe—Purity and correctness—Verse. Disciples—Maynard—Racan. Social forces—Hôtel de Rambouillet—Academy. Independents—Théophile de Viau—Saint-Amant—Mlle. de Gournay and Mathurin Régnier. Vincent Voiture. Heroic poems. Prose-romances—D'Urfé—L'Astrée; Camus—Exemplary tales; Heroic romance—Gombauld's Endymion—Gomberville's Polexandre—La Calprenède—Elimination of the marvellous—Romantic history—Madeleine de Scudéry—Culmination of "Préciosité"—Boileau's dialogue Les Héros de Roman. Realism and burlesque in romance—Sorel—Le Berger Extravagant—Francion—Lannel—Cyrano—Scarron. Shapers of modern French prose—Balzac and the cult of style; Descartes—Rationalism and lucidity; Pascal—The way of the intellect and the way of the heart. The Memoirs—De Retz and La Rochefoucauld—Philosophy of the Fronde—Les Maximes.
The formation of French tragedy and comedy—Sixteenth-century drama—Larivey and Montchrestien—The popular drama—Experiments in the provinces—Hardy and Valleran Lecomte—Hardy's tragedies, tragi-comedies, pastorals, and mythological plays—Beginning of polite drama—Théophile and
Racan—Influence of Italian pastoral, and of Spanish tragi-comedy—Mairet—The Unities—Sophonisbe and the revival of tragedy—Corneille—Mélite and the development of comedy—Early plays—The Cid and the flowering of tragedy—Battle of the Cid—Triumph of the Unities—Corneille's great tragedies—Le Menteur—Comedy under Spanish influence— Corneille's last plays—Relation of French tragedy of Corneille and Racine to Greek tragedy and to romantic tragi-comedy—Rotrou—Burlesque comedy—Les Visionnaires
"Secentismo." Marino—La Lira—L'Adone. Followers. Chiabrera—The Italian canzone and the classical ode—Bernardo Tasso—Chiabrera's Pindarics and canzonette. Testi. Tassoni—Criticism of Aristotle and Petrarch—La Secchia Rapita—Prose—Galileo—D'Avila—Bentivoglio. Germany—Late influence of Renaissance. Precursors. Opitz—Theory and practice. Followers—Fleming. Hymns. Drama—Gryphius. Satire—Logau
