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The Prose Dialogue of the Commonwealth and the Restoration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Bartholow V. Crawford
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Extract

Literary historians, in characterizing the pamphlet literature of the English Civil War and the early years of the Restoration have, as a rule, contented themselves with the statement that much of the prose of the period was written in dialogue. It is the purpose of this paper to give some idea of the varying popularity of the dialogue during the period from 1640 to 1700, to characterize the commonest type more precisely than has been customary, and briefly to suggest its possible relation to English predecessors and to foreign works, ancient and contemporary.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , 1919 , pp. 601 - 609
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1919

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References

1 Allowance must, of course, be made for lack of continuity in our sources of information. The superior thoroughness of the Thomason Catalogue (1640-1661) and the Term Catalogue (1668-1709) as compared to the Stationers' Register, which covers the entire period from 1554-1708, makes natural some increase in the totals for the years which they cover. It is not surprising to see a sharp advance from 1640 to 1645, and a sharp decline from 1660 to 1665. But not all the irregularities can be thus accounted for. From 1645 to 1655 there is a decided falling off, and in the following half decade a considerable revival of production, all in the Thomason period; while the whole record of the second hurst of popularity can be traced strictly within the limits of the Term Catalogue.

2 The facts presented in this paper are drawn from the first three chapters of my dissertation, “The Non-dramatic Dialogue in English Prose before 1750,” offered in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Harvard University, June, 1918.