CHAP. VIII.

REIGN OF EDWARD III. CONTINUED.

Geoffrey Chaucer-Specimens.

CHAP. IX.

SAME PERIOD CONTINUED.

199

John Barbour.-Remarks on the Language of Scotland at this Period-Sketch of the Bruce.-Extracts from that Poem.

228

CHAP X.

REIGN OF HENRY IV.

Andrew of Wyntown-Extracts from his Chronicle of Scotland.-Thomas Hoccleve.-- Anonymous English Poetry.

CHAP XI.

249

REIGN OF HENRY V.

Life of Lydgate-Character of his Writings-Specimen of his Troy Book.

CHAP XII.

REIGN OF HENRY V. CONTINUED.

276,

James I. King of Scotland-Extract from the King's

Quair.

299

CHAP. XIII.

REIGN OF HENRY VI.

Digression on the Private Life of the English. 316

CHAP. XIV.

REIGN OF HENRY VI. CONTINUED. Hugh de Campeden.-Thomas Chestre.-Scotish Poets-Clerk of Tranent.-Holland. Henry the Minstrel-Extracts.-REIGNS OF EDWARD IV.

and V.-Harding-Scogan.-Norton.-Ripley. -Lady Juliana Berners-Specimen from the Book of Hawking and Hunting-William of Nassyngton. Lord Rivers.-Scotish Poets.Robert Henrysoun—Specimens.—Patrick Johnstoun-Specimen.-Mersar-Specimen.

CHAP. XV.

REIGN OF HENRY VII.

350

William Dunbar-Extracts.--Gawin DouglasAccount of his Works, and Extracts from the Prologues to his Virgil.-Minor Poets of this Reign.-Alexander Barclay-Stephen HawesSpecimens.

377

Additional Extract from Robert de Brunne.

417

HISTORICAL SKETCH, &c.

CHAPTER I.

Introductory Remarks on Language.—On the Poetry of the Anglo-Saxons.-Specimen of Saxon Poetry.

THERE is, perhaps, no species of reading so popular as that which presents a description of manners and customs considerably different from our own; and it is the frequency of such pictures, interspersed in the relations of voyages and travels, that principally recommends them to notice, and explains the avidity with which they are usually received by the public. But, as the pleasure we derive from this source must be proportionate to the degree of interest which we take in the persons described, it

is probable that a series of the works of our own ancestors, and particularly of their poetry, which, whatever may be its defects, is sure to exhibit the most correct and lively delineation of contemporary manners, would attract very general notice, if it were not considered, by the greater number of readers, as a hopeless attempt, to search for these sources of amusement and information, amidst the obscurity of a difficult and almost unintelligible language.

To appreciate this difficulty is one of the objects of the present sketch: it may, therefore, be proper, for the benefit of the unlearned reader, to preface it by a few general remarks on this part of the subject.

It is well known that our English is a compound of the Anglo-Saxon, (previously adulterated with a mixture of the Danish,) and of the Norman-French: but the proportion in which these elements were combined, at any period of our history, cannot be very easily ascertained. Hickes is of opinion, that no less than nine-tenths of our present English words are of Saxon origin; as a familiar proof of which he observes, that there are in the Lord's Prayer only three words of French or Latin extraction. On the other hand, Mr Tyrwhitt contends that, about the time of Chaucer, "though the

form of our language was still Saxon, the matter was, in a great measure, French." These opinions, indeed, relate to such different periods, that they are not, strictly speaking, capable of being opposed to each other; but it is nearly evident that both are exaggerated: Dr Hickes having probably imagined that he saw traces of a Gothic etymology in words which were, in fact, purely French; while Mr Tyrwhitt, being misled by his own glossary of obsolete words, (in which the two languages are pretty nearly balanced,) has neglected to observe that the greater part of his author's text, which required no explanation, was almost solely derived from the Saxon. But, be the proportion what it may, it should seem that we ought to possess in the various existing glossaries of the Gothic and Romance dialects, the means of recovering nearly all the original materials of our language.

It is true that these materials, in passing from the parent tongues into English, are likely to have undergone considerable changes in their appearance: it may, therefore, be worth while to examine for a moment the probable nature and extent of these alterations.

Dr Adam Smith, in his very ingenious essay on the formation of languages, has observed, that the order in which the several kinds of words (or parts