has left us, imperfect and unfinished as it is, is yet amongst the most admired monuments of our literature: but what adequately can be said, either of the versatility, or of the undaunted spirit of that genius, which, in solitude and adversity, could apply eloquence, long-known at the council-table, and love of enterprise long tried in foreign discovery, to a "History of the World.”

Over the whole circumstance and history of Chaucer's imprisonment, an impenetrable mystery is cast; and all that we can infer from his own expressions amounts to a proof that his intentions were just and honourable, while his actions were, in some measure, under the controul of others.

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CHAPTER VII.

ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER.

THE historian of English poetry, in one of those elegant passages with which the curious detail of his work is at once varied and embellished, has compared Chaucer to the appearance of a genial day in spring, preceded and followed by dark clouds and wintry blasts; and Denham, in his well-known and often-quoted lines, has presented to us nearly the same image. The works of John the Chaplain, Occleve, and Lydgate* (such at least of them as have appeared in print), will justify the gloomy character given by Warton, and by Denham, of the immediate succes

* For specimens of these poets, see Turner's History of England, pt. iv. ch. v.

sors of Chaucer. Lydgate, indeed, possesses one distinguished advocate*, in our celebrated lyric poet, Gray, who proceeded so far towards an intended history of English poetry, as to construct a general scheme, and to write some remarks upon Lydgate. In giving the character of Lydgate he says "I do not pretend to set him on a level with Chaucer, but he certainly comes nearest to him of any contemporary writer that I am acquainted with. His choice of expression, and the smoothness of his verse, far surpass both Gower and Occleve. He wanted no art in raising the more tender emotions of the mind, of which I might give several examples +.” Whatever may be said of the critical or historical qualities of Warton's great work, if the preceding passage is to be taken as a specimen of the discriminating powers of Gray, it is not to be expected that, in one department at least of the undertaking, the history of English poetry would

* By Mr. Campbell (Essay prefixed to Specimens), he is called the most respectable versifier of his age.

+ For these examples, see Matthias's Gray, vol. ii. p. 64.

have experienced, under his auspices, a better fate. The scheme which Gray had drawn out, as well as that of Pope, was communicated to Warton, but they were rejected by him as impracticable; and Warton's almost only guides into a region of literature hitherto unexplored, were the Treatises of Webbe, Sidney, or Puttenham. With such difficulties in his path, some few failings in the execution of his design are rather to be excused than censured; the work was one which, merely to have planned and undertaken, required talent, as well as courage; with all his inaccuracies, no single writer has advanced half so much that is true on the subject of his inquiries as himself; and to this sterling excellence he has added graces and ornaments, which only a rich and classic mind can impart to the driest details. While, therefore, we may in part condemn the work, we shall at least admire the author.

Between the age of Chaucer and that of Spenser, the history of English poetry, properly so called, is but a barren theme; but, in Scotland, poetry was continued during this period,

L

not without success, and in a language as similar to the southern dialect as it has been in almost any succeeding age. To Barbour, the contemporary of Gower and Chaucer, succeed Harry the Minstrel, James the First, Dunbar, Henryson, Bishop Douglas, Sir David Lyndesay, and the royal pupil of the "Lion King at Arms," James the Fifth. In England, during the age succeeding that of Lydgate, amidst numerous obscure versifiers, Hawes, Skelton the Laureate, and his rival Barclay, elevate themselves somewhat above the general throng. To these may be added a didactic versifier, rather worthy of notice from the popularity of her theme, than from the taste with which this theme is treated. Juliana Berners, or Barnes, prioress of Sopewell, wrote a book on the chase, partly in prose, partly metrical, and generally assigned to the reign of Henry the Sixth.

*

The principal work of Stephen Hawes, who be

Sometimes called the Book of St. Albans, from having been printed at St. Alban's Abbey. The verse portions are alliterative, though also in rhyme.