American Literature (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from American Literature

England at the time of the dawn of American literature was enjoying a period of great prosperity and influence, thanks to the genius and wisdom of Queen Elizabeth, who had lived till four years before the landing at Jamestown. James I, as king of England and Scotland, had united the crowns of the two countries. He was encouraging the expansion of British trade and the extension Of the British domain by subsidizing exploration, and by granting royal patents to his noble friends for the colonizing of America.

Englishmen of this happy period possessed a rich heritage of literature, including the works of Chaucer, Malory, Speu ser, and Marlowe. They were enjoying the companionship of such immortals as Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Bacon, and Shakspere. Under the direction Of the authors themselves they saw acted those great dramas that will be the delight and inspiration of millions so long as the English language shall exist.

When our forefathers sailed away from the shores of England to Virginia and to Massachusetts, they carried with them, as Englishmen, an interest in this priceless heritage. As we trace the growth of literature in America we shall Observe that the literary dependence of America on England gradually became less in the same way and for much the same reason as did the political dependence. As America became settled and her men and women found time for self-culture and contemplation, she became less de pendent ou the mother country for literary inspiration; and with nationality came literature in its more restricted sense, a literature permeated with the freshness and the vigor of the land that gave it birth.

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