INTRODUCTION.

It is felt by the writer of the following chapters, that some apology may be required for a publication on subjects which have engaged the attention of

mány able authors, as well of the present, as of the preceding age. The choice of so beaten a track, necessarily implies one of two intentions; either that of supplying the deficiencies of previous writers, or that of selecting from well-known works, such matter as may lead the minds of those who have less leisure than inclination for the study of literary history, to a consideration of some of the more material topics which the pursuit may offer to them. This little work, undertaken with the latter object only, necessarily assumes, in some

measure, the character of a compilation from easily accessible volumes. In such a case, it is clear that no pretension to literary merit can exist; and the only excuse for the publication of the present volume, must consist in apparent, or possible, utility. The well-informed reader, who has already been abundantly supplied with works of professed antiquaries, scholars, or critics, will discover in the following pages little either of novelty or interest. It is, therefore, the author's desire, that these pages should be received, not as intended for the scholar, or the man of letters, but as originating from a belief that some elementary knowledge on early English literature might be imparted to the young and unpractised student, in a more compendious form than has hitherto been adopted.

The advantages of literary history, as a branch of education, have scarcely been sufficiently appreciated. The improvement to be derived from such a study is two-fold on the one hand, the

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taste and imagination are cultivated by selections from authors otherwise prolix, or occasionally even impure; on the other, the mind of the reader is awakened to one, at least, of the most important branches of history-the moral and intellectual history of mankind. In the pursuit of this latter subject of inquiry, the most trivial, as well as the most sublime, authors, have their value; and brief accounts, or short abstracts, are often equivalent to the study of entire volumes. Sometimes, the intellectual character of a particular period is to be collected from the nature and subject matter of the works themselves; in other instances, those very works undesignedly occupy the province of history, and exhibit to us a curious portraiture of contemporary manners: and in this view the mediæval poets of Europe are especially valuable. In point of originality, and as gifted with an apparently intuitive perception of the just and the sublime, the poets of ancient Greece stand preeminent

above those of all other ages and countries, as do their Roman imitators in delicacy of sentiment, and in elegance of style. But as affording illustrations of the mind of their day, a mind almost entirely distinct from that of the ancient classic ages, the vernacular and mediæval poets of Europe rank next, at least, in importance, if they are not altogether equal, to those of Ionia, Athens, or Sicily.

In this kind of historical interest our own early literature is peculiarly rich and fertile; and, owing to the attention which men of fortune, as well as of high literary attainment, have long bestowed upon this subject, metrical romances, satirical tracts, old plays, and the works of old prosewriters as well as poets, have been selected from the manuscripts or scarce volumes of our great national libraries, and placed, in the form of accurately edited and neatly printed publication's, within the reach of all who possess collections of