OF

ENGLISH POETRY,

FROM THE

CLOSE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY

TO THE

COMMENCEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED,

THREE DISSERTATIONS:

1. OF THE ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION IN EUROPE.

2. ON THE INTRODUCTION OF LEARNING INTO ENGLAND.
3. ON THE GESTA ROMANORUM.

BY

THOMAS WARTON, B.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, AND
PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

FROM THE EDITION OF 1824

SUPERINTENDED BY THE LATE

RICHARD PRICE, Esq.

INCLUDING THE NOTES OF MR. RITSON, DR. ASHBY, MR. DOUCE, AND MR. PARK.

NOW FURTHER IMPROVED BY THE CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS OF SEVERAL EMINENT ANTIQUARIES.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73 CHEAPSIDE.

CONTENTS.

VOL. III.

SECTION XXXVI.

Page

View of the Revival of Learning in England, continued. Reformation of

Religion. Its effects on Literature in England. Application of this di-

gression to the main subject

SECTION XXXVII.

Petrarch's sonnets. Lord Surrey. His education, travels, mistress, life,

and poetry. He is the first writer of blank-verse. Italian blank-verse.

Surrey the first English classic poet

SECTION XXXVIII.

Sir Thomas Wyat. Inferior to Surrey as a writer of Sonnets. His Life.

His Genius characterised. Excels in Moral Poetry...............

SECTION XXXIX.

The first printed Miscellany of English Poetry. Its Contributors. Sir

Francis Bryan, Lord Rochford, and Lord Vaulx. The First True Pas-

toral in English. Sonnet-writing cultivated by the Nobility. Sonnets

by King Henry the Eighth. Literary character of that king.

SECTION XL.

The Second Writer of Blank-verse in English. Specimens of early Blank-

1

21

41

51

Andrew Borde. Bale. Ansley.

Chertsey. Fabyll's Ghost, a poem.

The Merry Devil of Edmonton. Other minor Poets of the Reign of

Henry the Eighth

SECTION XLII.

John Heywood the Epigrammatist. His Works examined. Ancient un-

published burlesque Poem of Sir Penny

65

72

84