The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare   By: Jean J. Jusserand (1855-1932)

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

=SHAKESPEARE IN FRANCE.= Illustrated. Demy 8vo, cloth, 21s. Also 20 Copies on Japan paper, signed, £2 2s.

=ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES (XIVth CENTURY).= Fourth and Revised Edition. Illustrated. Large crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.

"A handsome volume, which may be warmly recommended to all who wish to obtain a picture of one aspect of English life in the fourteenth century." Academy.

"An extremely fascinating book." Times.

=A FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT THE COURT OF CHARLES II. (LE COMTE DE COMINGES).= From his Unpublished Correspondence. Ten Portraits. Large Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.

"Is sure to interest any one who takes it up." Speaker.

"The whole book is delightful reading." Spectator.

=ENGLISH ESSAYS FROM A FRENCH PEN.= Photogravure Frontispiece and 4 other Full page Illustrations. Large Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.

=PIERS PLOWMAN, 1362 1398: A Contribution to the History of English Mysticism.= With a Heliogravure Frontispiece and Twenty three other Engravings. Demy 8vo, cloth, gilt top, 12s.

"M. Jusserand has once more made English literature his debtor by his admirable monograph on Piers Plowman.... It is a masterly contribution to the history of our literature, inspired by rare delicacy of critical appreciation." Times.

"The work is marked by the felicitous insight and vivid suggestiveness that charm us in previous writings by the same author." Saturday Review.

=A LITERARY HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE: From the Origins to the Renaissance.= Demy 8vo, cloth, 12s. 6d. nett.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN

[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH.]

THE

ENGLISH NOVEL

IN THE

TIME OF SHAKESPEARE

BY

J. J. JUSSERAND

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY

ELIZABETH LEE

REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR

NEW IMPRESSION

London T. FISHER UNWIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE MDCCCXCIX

First Edition, May, 1890. Reprinted November, 1895. Reprinted March, 1899.

[ All rights reserved. ]

The work here presented to English readers was published in French three years ago in an abbreviated form. Worthy of attention as are the older novelists of Great Britain, it was not to be expected that details about Chettle, Munday, Ford, or Crowne, would prove very acceptable south of the Channel, especially when it is remembered that the history of French fiction, not an insignificant one, from "Aucassin" to "Jehan de Saintré," to "Gargantua," and to "Astrée," still remains to be written. A compressed account of the subject, amounting to scarcely more than a hundred pages of the present volume, was therefore deemed sufficient to satisfy such craving as there was for information concerning Nash, Greene, Lodge, and the more important among their peers. According to the publishers of the book this estimate was not fallacious, and there were no complaints of omission.