v. 1. The Middle Ages: influence of the Roman Empire, the encyclopædic education of the church, the feudal system.
v. 2. The Renaissance and the Reformation: influence of the court and the universities.
v. 3. The intellectual conflict of the seventeenth century: decadent influence of the feudal monarch, growth of the national genius.
v. 4. Development and decline of the poetic drama: influence of the court and the people.
v. 5. The constitutional compromise of the eighteenth century, effects of the classical renaissance; its zenith and decline; the early romantic renaissance.
v. 6. The romantic movement in English poetry, effects of the French revolution.