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ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION.

In the present edition, the introductory view of the progress of English Sacred Poetry has been expanded and improved; memoirs of Sandys and Davies have also been added; one, the most harmonious versifier of the Psalms,-the other, the author of the earliest philosophical poem in our language. The lives of Fletcher and Wither have undergone revision; and some additions have been made to the poetical specimens of Quarles. In dismissing the volume, it only remains for the Writer to express the lively gratification he has derived from the success of his appeal, in behalf of some of the sweetest minor poets of his country.

KENSINGTON,
May 31, 1839.

LIVES OF SACRED POETS.

INTRODUCTION.

THE first book that issued from a printing press was the Bible; and the earliest notes of reviving poetry were inspired by religion. For the origin of the Christian. drama two causes have been usually assigned: a desire to oppose the classic theatre; and a hope of superseding the profane licence of the ancient fairs. Sismondi, on the other hand, supposes it to have been introduced into Europe by Pilgrims returning from the Holy Land. From France it is conjectured that the new system of scenical narrative spread into England, Italy, Spain, and Germany. A Miracle is, indeed, mentioned by Matthew Paris to have been performed at Dunstable at the beginning of the twelfth century; but a French Mystery, written in the middle of the eleventh century, is noticed by Le Bouf*. It was not, however, until the close of the fourteenth century that Paris witnessed the establishment of a company of actors, who derived their appellation from the performance of the Mystery of our Lord's Passion. In Italy, a society del Gonfalone had been founded in 1264, with a similar motive; and the martyrdom of two saints was dramatized by Lorenzo de' Medici. A German Mystery of the thirteenth century is mentioned by Bouterweck; and at a later period, a writer of very fertile and vigorous genius, Lope de Vega, delighted his countrymen with a series of

* Quoted by Hallam in the Introduction to the Literature of Europe.

VOL. I.

B

Divine Comedies, not only of a higher mood in every element of poetry, but interesting as delineations of religious manners, and records of the spectacles previously exhibited in Spanish monasteries.

Of the English Miracle-plays three separate series exist; the Chester, the Townley, and the Coventry. Some of these have been examined by Mr. Collier, and present a curious picture of the habits of our early ancestors. They constituted the popular amusements of the age at all the great festivals of the church. Allusions to them are found in Gower and Chaucer, who describes the Wife of Bath recreating herself with them in Lent.

From Chester, after an interval of more than a hundred years, the Miracle-play obtained admission into the metropolis; and it has been shown that in 1378, the scholars, or choristers of St. Paul's, petitioned Richard the Second to prohibit the representation of the Mystery of the Old Tes tament; the clergy of that cathedral having devoted a large sum of money to the preparation of plays for the following Christmas. The simple narrative of Scriptural events, or the legend of a saint, as it received the embellishment of allegory, gave birth to the Moral; and in the course of time, as the allegorical character became tinctured with natural feelings and contemporary allusions, the Moral, in its turn, expanded into the tragedy and comedy of real life*. Thus and the analogy deserves attention-as the cart of Thespis was soon lost in the pomp of the Attic theatre; so the coarse humour and unpicturesque extravagance of the English Mystery, gradually glimmered into that sublime drama which rose with Shakspeare.

Without lingering upon Richard Hampole who flourished in 1349, and who partially paraphrased the Book of Job, and wrote a poem entitled the Pricke of Conscience, we

Collier's History of Dramatic Poetry, vol. i. p. 17; and Malone's Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol iii. p. 24.

may proceed to that extraordinary composition, the Visions of Pierce Plowman, in which a modern writer discovers the commencement of our poetry.

The reputed author was Robert, or William Langland, a secular priest and fellow of Oriel College: of the place of his birth or the period of his death no information has been obtained; but Dr. Whitaker conjectures him to have been a native of one of the midland counties. Tyrwhitt has ascertained from internal evidence that the Visions were composed in 1362. At that time Chaucer was thirtyfour years old, and although some of his minor works may have been written, the publication of the Canterbury Tales has been assigned to 1381. Whitaker, therefore, controverting the opinion of Warton, and arguing that the Vision of Pierce Plowman preceded the great poems of Chaucer more than twenty years, claims for Langland, if that be the author's name, the venerable title of the Father of English Poetry*. He has been imitated by Drayton and Spenser; Selden acknowledged the healthy spirit of his invective; Warton calls him an allegorical satirist, abounding in humour, spirit, and fancy, though obscured by harsh versification and obsolete diction; and Ellis regards the Visions as moral and religious discourses, full of piety and good sense; neither deficient in the interest of incident, nor the graces of natural description.

Whitaker, whose opinion, from his diligent study of the author, is entitled to more than common respect, says that his conscience held the torch to his understanding; that his imagination might have supplied subjects to the pencil of Fuseli; and that his eloquence, when inspired by the sacred mysteries of Revelation, frequently rises to the moral dignity of Cowper. A very striking picture of

See his Introductory Discourse, p. 46. Drayton has introduced into his legend of the Great Cromwel, a passage from the Passus Vicesimus of Plowman's Vision. Collier's Bibliographical Catalogue of Early English Literature in the library of Bridgewater House.

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