Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE III. (Khauwr. THE DAWN OF ENGLISH POESY—DIFFICULTIES OF DESCRIBING IT—OBSOLETE LAN- GUAGE—CHAUCER THE FATHER OF ENGLISH POETRY—LATIN POETRY—REVIVAL OF LEARNING—ENGLISH LANGUAGE—ITS TRANSITION—STATUTES OF EDWARD THE THIRD—GOWER—AGE OF CHIVALRY—INVASION OF FRANCE—CRESSY AND POITIERS—THE BLACK PRINCE—THE CHURCH—WICLIF—CHAUCER'S BIRTH, A.D. 132B—FRIENDSHIP WITH GOWER—TASTE FOR NATURAL SCENERY—THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF—BURNS'S DAISY—ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE—CANTERBURY TALES— ITS OUTLINE—HIS RESPECT FOR THE FEMALE SEX—CHAUCER'S INFLUENCE ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE—" THE WELL OF ENGLISH UNDEFILED "—HIS VERSI- FICATION—HIS DEATH, A. D. 1400. fTIHE era of English poetry may be described as a period of about five l hundred years. At the remote point of time forming the distant boundary of those five centuries stands a name illustrious enough to justify the usage of placing it at the head of the English poets when they are considered chronologically. A great living poet closes the catalogue. It is a consideration of some interest that the calendar which opens so nobly with the name of Chaucer closes worthily in our day with that of Wordsworth. It is a gratification to. the literary student to know that, when he seeks acquaintance with the earliest English poets, he will encounter, not the feeble and dull productions of rudeness and mediocrity, but works belonging to the higher order of the art; and also that, when he brings down the study to the literature of the present time, he will not have occasion to mourn over the degeneracy of modern inspiration. Upon each frontier of those five hundred years stands the landmark of high poetic genius. It is also worthy of remark that the history of English poetry is contemporaneous with that of the language. Almost as soon as the language spoken... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.