rous and remarkable than that of its politics; and to a brief general summary of these, I propose to confine myself in this Introductory Lecture. I shall afterwards take a more detailed review of the merits of the individual Authors, who distinguished themselves at various periods; and in drawing your attention to particular passages in their works, I shall select from such writers as are least extensively known.

English Poetry may be said to have been born in the reign of Edward the Third. The Monkish rhymes, the Troubadour Poems, the Metrical Romances of Thomas the Rhymer, Piers Plowman, and others, and the clumsy Translations from the Latin and the French, which were produced prior to that period, have but slender claims upon our attention; except as affording, by their dulness and their gloom, a contrast to the extraordinary blaze of light which succeeded them, when Chaucer appeared in the Poetical hemisphere. At that period, the eyes of all Europe were turned towards England, who, perhaps, never in any age more highly distinguished herself. She then produced a Monarch who was the greatest States

man and Warrior of his age, and to whom we are indebted for the foundation of many of the most important of the free Institutions, under which we now flourish; she produced a Divine, who had the boldness to defy the spiritual and temporal authority of Rome, and who struck the first blow at that colossal power,- -a blow, from the effects of which we may say that she has never yet recovered; and now she produced a Poet, of whom it is scarcely too much to assert, that he was the greatest who had then appeared in modern Europe.

Chaucer's genius was vast, versatile, and original. He seems to have been deeply versed in classical, in French, and in Italian Literature; as well as in the Sciences, so far as they were known in his day, and in the polemical and theological questions which were then the favourite and fashionable studies. His knowledge of human nature was profound. The Knights, the Monks, the Reves, the Prioresses, which he has painted, have long since disappeared; but whenever we look around, we recognise the same passions, and feelings, and characters: the features remain, although the costume is altered; manners vary, but man remains the

same ; Human nature, however changeable in fashion, opinion, and outward appearance, is immutable in its essence. Such as is the Monarch on his throne, such is the peasant in his cottage; such as was the ancient Egyptian wandering among the Pyramids, such is the modern Englishman making the tour of Europe; and the Poet, who "dips"-as Garrick said of Shakspeare-" his pencil in the human heart," will produce forms and colours, the truth and beauty of which will be recognised, wherever such a heart beats. Chaucer's versatility was most extraordinary. No English Poet, Shakspeare alone excepted, exhibits such striking instances of Comic and Tragic powers, united in the same mind. His humour and wit are of the brightest and keenest character; but then his pathos is deeply affecting, and his descriptive powers are of the highest order.

His diction and versification must be looked at with reference to the age in which he lived, and not to the splendid models which we now possess. He has been much censured by modern critics for a too liberal use of French and Norman words in his Poems; but Mr. Tyrwhitt, in his learned dissertation on the subject, has

shown most satisfactorily, that, as compared with his contemporaries, his diction is remarkably pure and vernacular; and Spenser has emphatically called him "a well of English undefiled." His verses have also been said to be imperfect, and sometimes to consist of nine syllables, instead of ten. This is, I think, an equally unfounded accusation; and, if the Reader will only take the precaution to make the e final, whenever he meets with it, he will find few lines in Chaucer which are not harmonious and satisfactory to the ear.

I have, perhaps, spoken more at large of the merits of Chaucer than is consistent with my plan in this Introductory Lecture, but his writings form so important an era in the history of English Poetry, that I feel myself justified in making an exception in his favour. Chaucer died, and left nothing that resembled him behind him. Those Authors who formed what is called the School of Chaucer, are in no particular entitled to the name, excepting that they professed and entertained the most profound veneration for their illustrious Master. Gower, although senior both in years and in

authorship to Chaucer, and although he claims

the latter as his scholar,

"Grete well Chaucer, when ye mete,

As my disciple and Poete,'

did not begin to write English Poetry until after him, and is therefore placed in his School. He is a tame and mediocre writer, but every page displays his erudition, and shews that he possesses all the learning and accomplishments of his age. Neither can much be said in favour of Occleve, or of Lydgate. The former, perhaps, possessed more imagination, and the latter was the better versifier; but both are remembered only in the absence of superior talent.

From the death of Chaucer to the middle of the reign of Henry the Eighth, the history of English Literature is one dull and gloomy blank. The civil disturbances by which the kingdom was then convulsed, are probably the principal cause of this. While men were trembling for their lives, they were not likely to occupy themselves greatly either in the production, or the perusal, of Literature. The sceptre first passed from the strenuous grasp of Edward the Third into the feeble hands of