beginning to be studied seriously. Pope and
Warburton and Johnson had all edited Shakespeare; Garrick had given him
fresh popularity, and the first edition of _Old Plays_ by Dodsley
appeared in 1744. Similar studies were extending in many directions.
Mallet in his work upon Denmark (1755) gave a translation of the _Eddas_
which called attention to Scandinavian mythology. Bodmer soon
afterwards published for the first time the _Nibelungen Lied_.
Macpherson startled the literary world in 1762 by what professed to be
an epic poem from the Gaelic. Chatterton's career (1752-1770) was a
proof not only of unique poetical precocity, but of a singular facility
in divining the tastes of the literary world at the time. Percy's
_Reliques_ appeared in 1765. Percy, I may note, had begun oddly enough
by publishing a Chinese novel (1761), and a translation of Icelandic
poetry (1763). Not long afterwards Sir William Jones published
translations of Oriental poetry. Briefly, as historical, philological,
and antiquarian research extended, the man of letters was also beginning
to seek for new 'motives,' and to discover merits in old forms of
literature. The importance of this new impulse cannot be over-estimated,
but it may be partly misinterpreted. It is generally described as a
foretaste of what is called the Romantic movement. The word is no doubt
very useful--though exceedingly vague. The historian of literature is
sometimes given to speak as though it meant the revelation of a new and
definite creed. He speaks, that is, like the historian of science, who
accepts Darwinism as the revelation of a new principle transfusing the
old conceptions, and traces the various anticipations, the seminal idea;
or like the Protestant theologian who used to regard Luther as having
announced the full truth dimly foreseen by Wicliff or the Albigenses.
Romanticism, that is, is treated as a single movement; while the men who
share traces of the taste are supposed to have not only foreseen the new
doctrine but to have been the actual originators. Yet I think that all
competent writers will also agree that Romanticism is a name which has
been applied to a number of divergent or inconsistent schools. It seems
to mean every impulse which tended to find the old clothing inadequate
for the new thoughts, which caused dissatisfaction with the old
philosophical and religious or political systems and aspirations, and
took a corresponding variety of literary forms. It