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 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 Chaucer continued. His Troilus and Cresseide. Boccacio's Troilo. Sentimental and pathetic strokes in Chaucer's poem. 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. 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. Chaucer continued. General view of the Prologues to the Can- an abbot. The Frere. The Parsoune. The Squire. English crusades into Lithuania. The Reeve. The Clarke of Oxen- ford. The Serjeaunt of Lawe. The Hoste. Supplemental Tale, or History of Beryn. Analysed and examined........ 270 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 John Gower. His character and poems. His tomb. His Con- 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 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 Chaucer's picture. Humphrey duke of Gloucester. Sketch of his character as a patron of literature. Apology for Lydgate continued. His Fall of Princes, from Laurence Pre- mierfait's French paraphrase of Boccace on the same subject. Nature, plan, and specimens of that poem. Its sublime alle- gorical figure of Fortune. Authors cited in the same. Boc- cace's opportunities of collecting many stories of Greek original, now not extant in any Greek writer. Lydgate's Storie of Thebes. An additional Canterbury Tale. Its plan, and ori- ginals. Martianus Capella. Happily imitated by Lydgate. Lydgate's Troy-Boke. A paraphrase of Colonna's Historia Trojana. Homer, when, and how, first known in Europe. Lydgate's powers in rural painting. Dares and Dictys. Feudal manners, and Arabian imagery, ingrafted on the Trojan story. Anecdotes of antient Gothic architecture displayed in the structure of Troy. An ideal theatre at Troy so described, as to prove that no regular stage now existed. Game of chess invented at the siege of Troy. Lydgate's gallantry. His anachronisms. Hector's shrine and chantry. Specimens of Reign of Henry the Sixth continued. Hugh Campeden translates the French romance of Sidrac. Thomas Chestre's Sir Launfale. Metrical romance of the Erle of Tholouse. Analysis of its Fable. Minstrels paid better than the clergy. Reign of Edward the Fourth. Translation of the classics and other books into THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY. SECTION V. THE romance of SIR GUY, which is enumerated by Chaucer among the "Romances of pris," affords the following fiction, not uncommon indeed in pieces of this sort, concerning the redemption of a knight from a long captivity, whose prison was inaccessible, unknown, and enchanted". His name is Amis of the Mountain. a The Romance of Sir Guy is a considerable volume in quarto. My edition is without date, "Imprinted at London in Lothburye by Wyllyam Copland." with rude wooden cuts. It runs to Sign. S. ii. It seems to be older than the Squyr of lowe degree, in which it is quoted. Sign. a. iii. Or els so bolde in chivalrie As was syr Gawayne or syr GIE. The two best manuscripts of this romance are at Cambridge, MSS. Bibl. Publ. Mor. 690. 33. and MSS. Coll. Caii, A. 8. [An analysis of this romance will be found in the "Specimens" of Mr. Ellis, who is of opinion that "the tale in its present state has been composed from the materials of at least two or three if not more romances. The first is a most tiresome love story, which, it may be presumed, originally ended with the mar riage of the fond couple. To this it should seem was afterwards tacked on a series of fresh adventures, invented or compiled by some pilgrim from the Holy Land; and the hero of this legend was then brought home for the defence of Athelstan, and the destruction of Colbrand." Mr. Ritson in opposition to Dugdale, who regarded Guy as an undeniably historical personage, has laboured to prove that "no hero of this name is to be found in real history," and that he was "no more an English hero than Amadis de Gaul or Perceforest. Mr. Ellis, on the other hand, conceives the tale "may possibly be founded on some Saxon tradition," and that though the name in its present form be undoubtedly French, yet as it bears some resemblance to Egil, the name of an Icelandic warrior, who "contributed very materially to the important victory gained by Athelstan over the Danes and "Here besyde an Elfish knyhte b And hath him ledde with him away "Was Amis," quoth Heraude, "your husbond? A doughtyer knygte was none in londe." He blissed hym, and rode in thereat. He saw no light that came of daie, their allies at Brunanburgh;" he thinks "it is not impossible that this warlike foreigner may have been transformed by some Norman monk into the pious and amorous Guy of Warwick." This at best is but conjecture, nor can it be considered a very happy one. Egil himself (or his nameless biographer) makes no mention of a single combat on the occasion in which he had been engaged; and the fact, had it occurred, would have been far too interesting, and too much in unison with the spirit of the times, to have been passed over in silence. In addition to this, the substitution of Guy for Egil is against all analogy, on the transformation of a Northern into a French appellation. The initial letters in Guy, |