Retrospective survey of the period covered in the volume. Gradual fusion between the civilisation of the Roman decadence and the institutions of the Barbarians. Fusion between the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. Characteristics of the composite imagination of the period illustrated in CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY-THE SCOPE AND NATURE OF THE SUBJECT I HOPE to be able to complete in the following pages the History of the Art of English Poetry from the time of Chaucer to the time of Scott. By English Poetry I mean metrical compositions, written in our language from the period at which it becomes fairly intelligible to readers of the present day. By the Art of English Poetry I mean all characteristic writing of a metrical kind that can be classified under any of the recognised forms of composition,-epic, dramatic, lyrical, or didactic. And by the History of the Art of English Poetry I mean, not simply an appreciation of the motives by which each individual poet seems to have been consciously inspired, but also an inquiry into those general causes which have unconsciously directed imagination in this country into the various channels of metrical composition. Before embarking on a long and laborious task, I feel it expedient to deal with a doubt that may be raised, whether the subject is one that really possesses the unity and consistency I have claimed for it. For it is no doubt the case that what is often meant by a History of English Poetry is merely an account of the lives of the English poets, and such an estimate of their works as may be formed by the judgment of the particular historian. The very essence of poetry is supposed to lie in the inspiration of the individual poet, the sources of which are beyond the reach of critical investigation. VOL. I B |