CHAPTER XI 

THE VICTORIAN AGE (1850-1900) 

THE MODERN PERIOD OF PROGRESS AND UNREST 

When Victoria became queen, in 1837, English literature seemed to have entered upon a period of lean years, in marked contrast with the poetic fruitfulness of the romantic age which we have just studied. Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron, and Scott had passed away, and it seemed as if there were no writers in England to fill their places. Wordsworth had written, in 1835, 

Like clouds that rake, the mountain summits, Or waves that own no curbing hand, How fast has brother followed brother, From sunshine to the sunless land! 

In these lines is reflected the sorrowful spirit of a literary man of the early nineteenth century who remembered the glory that had passed away from the earth. But the leanness of these first years is more apparent than real. Keats and Shelley were dead, it is true, but already there had appeared three disciples of these poets who were destined to be far more widely, read than were their masters. Tennyson had been publishing poetry since 1827, his first poems appearing almost simultaneously with the last work of Byron, Shelley, and Keats; but it was not until 1842, with the publication of his collected poems, in two volumes, that England recognized in him one of her great literary leaders. So also Elizabeth Barrett had been writing since 1820, but not till twenty years later did her poems become deservedly popular; and Browning had published his _Pauline_ in 1833, but it was not until 1846, when he published the last of the series called _Bells and Pomegranates_, that the reading public began to appreciate his power and originality. Moreover, even as romanticism seemed passing away, a group of great prose writers--Dickens, Thackeray, Carlyle, and Ruskin--had already begun to proclaim the literary glory of a new age, which now seems to rank only just below the Elizabethan and the Romantic periods.  QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. What were the three "disciples" called?
2. What were the names of the three "disciples"?
3. 
Q2:
1. What was something Browning published?
2. Name one of Browning's tomes.
3. 
Q3:
1. What was something Tennyson and Barrett published?
2. What were the names of one of Tennyson and Barret's tomes?
3. 
Q4:
1. What era came before that of Tennyson, Browning, and Barrett?
2. What age of literature did Tennyson, Browning, and Barrett follow?
3. 
Q5:
1. Who was sad about the past?
2. Who complained about the way things used to be?
3. 
Q6:
1. What was Wordsworth's declaration regarding the past?
2. What did Wordsworth say about how things used to be?
3. 
Q7:
1. What kind of writing did Keats do?
2. What genre did Keats dabble in?
3. 
Q8:
1. Did Tennyson write at the same time as the older generation?
2. Was some of Tennyson's literature published at the same time as that of the old guard?
3. 
Q9:
1. Was Tennyson already famous in 1827?
2. Did lots of people already know about Tennyson in 1827?
3. 
Q10:
1. Was poetry as popular as prose in the 1820s?
2. Did writers of poetry have as much recognition as prose authors in the 1820s?
3. 
Q11:
1. Who made an impression with his originality?
2. Whose inventive writing struck a chord with people?
3. 
Q12:
1. What two periods of litearture were some of the highest quality?
2. What were some of the most wonderful ages of writing?
3. 
Q13:
1. Where did the Victorian Age get its name?
2. What was the Victorian Age named after?
3. 
Q14:
1. Who published something on the subject of sounds and fruits?
2. Whose work was titled Bells and Pomegranates?
3. 
