NOTICE. THIS is the first of a Series which may be continued occasionally in the Weekly Volumes. The great writers are the best describers of National Manners in periods which are past. Those who are familiar with our Literature have keys to History which cannot be acquired by the perusal of the mere chronicles. What annalist of the stirring times of the Plantagenets can show us the inner life of the English people, as Chaucer shows us? Who has caught the spirit of the early days of the Reformation to be compared with Skelton? How much more from Ben Jonson and Dekker and Massinger, and the crowd of Dramatists of that age, do we know of the peculiarities of the times of Elizabeth and James than from Camden and Wilson. Pepys and Evelyn disclose to us very curious secrets of the days after the Restoration. Defoe is the painter of the Manners of the common people in the times of William and Anne. Congreve |
