THE

HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY,

FROM THE

CLOSE OF THE ELEVENTH

TO THE

COMMENCEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED,

THREE DISSERTATIONS:

1. OF THE ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION IN EUROPE.

2. ON THE INTRODUCTION OF LEARNING INTO ENGLAND.
3. ON THE GESTA ROMANORUM.

BY

THOMAS WARTON, B.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, AND LATE
PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

A NEW EDITION

CAREFULLY REVISED,

WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE LATE MR. RITSON,
THE LATE DR. ASHBY, MR. DOUCE,

MR. PARK, AND OTHER EMINENT ANTIQUARIES,

750

CONTENTS.

VOL. II.

SECTION V.

SPECIMENS of other popular metrical romances which ap-

peared about the end of the thirteenth century. Sir Guy. The

Squier of Low Degree. Sir Degore. King Robert of Sicily.

The King of Tars. Ippomedon. La Mort Arthure. Subjects

of antient tapestry....

SECTION VI.

Adam Davie flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century.

Specimens of his poetry. His Life of Alexander. Robert

Baston's comedies. Anecdotes of the early periods of the

English, French and Italian drama

SECTION VII.

Character of the reign of Edward the Third. Hampole's Pricke

of Conscience...

SECTION VIII.

Pierce Plowman's Visions. Antient state and original institution

of Fairs. Donat explained. Antichrist

SECTION IX.

Pierce the Plowman's Crede. Constitution and character of the

four orders of mendicant friars. Wickliffe

SECTION X.

Page.

Various specimens of alliterative poetry. Antient alliterative

hymn to the Virgin Mary

SECTION XI.

John Barbour's History of Robert Bruce, and Blind Harry's Sir

William Wallace. Historical romances of recent events com-

mence about the close of the fourteenth century. Chiefly

composed by heralds. Character and business of antient

heralds. Narratives written by them. Froissart's History

His life and character. Retrospective views of manners

1

47

86

101

123

145

154

A Greek poem on that subject. Tournaments at Constanti-

nople. Common practice of the Greek exiles to translate the

popular Italian poems. Specimens both of the Greek and

Italian Theseid. Critical examination of the Knight's Tale.. 176

SECTION XIII.

The subject of Chaucer continued. His Romaunt of the Rose.

William of Lorris and John of Meun. Specimens of the French

Le Roman de la Rose. Improved by Chaucer. William of

Lorris excells in allegorical personages. Petrarch dislikes this

poem

SECTION XIV.

Chaucer continued. His Troilus and Cresseide. Boccacio's

Troilo. Sentimental and pathetic strokes in Chaucer's poem.

House of Fame. A Provencial composition. Analysed.

Improperly imitated by Pope....

SECTION XV.

Chaucer continued. The supposed occasion of his Canterbury

Tales superior to that of Boccacio's Decameron. Squire's Tale,

Chaucer's capital poem. Origin of its fictions. Story of Patient

Grisilde. Its origin, popularity, and characteristic excellence.

How conducted by Chaucer

SECTION XVI.

Chaucer continued. Tale of the Nun's Priest. Its origin and

allusions. January and May. Its imitations. Licentiousness

of Boccacio. Miller's Tale. Its singular humour and ridi-

culous characters. Other Tales of the comic species. Their

origin, allusions, and respective merits. Rime of Sir Thopas.

Its design and tendency.

SECTION XVII.

Chaucer continued. General view of the Prologues to the Can-
terbury Tales. The Prioresse. The Wife of Bath. The Fran-
kelein. The Doctor of Physicke. State of medical erudition
and practice. Medicine and astronomy blended. Chaucer's
physician's library. Learning of the Spanish Jews. The
Sompnour. The Pardonere. The Monke. Qualifications of

204

220

232

253

an abbot. The Frere. The Parsoune.

crusades into Lithuania. The Reeve.

The Squire. English

The Clarke of Oxen-

Page.

ford. The Serjeaunt of Lawe. The Hoste. Supplemental

Tale, or History of Beryn. Analysed and examined........ 270

SECTION XVIII.

Chaucer continued. State of French and Italian poetry and

their influence on Chaucer. Rise of allegorical composition in

the dark ages. Love-courts, and Love-fraternities, in France.

Tales of the troubadours. Dolopathos. Boccacio, Dante, and

Petrarch. Decline of Provencial poetry. Succeeded in France

by a new species. Froissart. The Floure and the Leafe.

Floral games in France. Allegorical beings...

SECTION XIX.

His Con-

John Gower. His character and poems. His tomb.

fessio Amantis. Its subject and plan. An unsuccessful imi-

tation of the Roman de la Rose. Aristotle's Secretum Secre-

torum. Chronicles of the middle ages. Colonna. Romance

of Lancelot. The Gesta Romanorum. Shakespeare's caskets.

Authors quoted by Gower. Chronology of some of Gower's

and Chaucer's poems. The Confessio Amantis preceded the

Canterbury Tales. Estimate of Gower's genius.

SECTION XX.

Boethius. Why, and how much, esteemed in the middle ages.

Translated by Johannes Capellanus, the only poet of the reign

of king Henry the Fourth. Number of Harpers at the coro-

nation feast of Henry the Fifth. A minstrel-piece on the

Battayle of Agynkourte. Occleve. His poems. Egidius de

Regimine Principum, and Jacobus of Casali De Ludo Scacco-

rum.

Chaucer's picture. Humphrey duke of Gloucester.

Sketch of his character as a patron of literature. Apology for

the gallicisms of Chaucer, Gower, and Occleve..

SECTION XXI.

Reign of Henry the Sixth. Lydgate. His life and character.

His Dance of Death. Macaber a German poet. Lydgate's

poem in honour of Saint Edmund. Presented to Henry the

Sixth, at Bury-abbey, in a most splendid manuscript, now re-

maining. His Lyf of our Lady. Elegance and harmony of his

stile and versification...

292

305

342

361