The Lives Of The English Poets Vol 2 Of 2 Classic Reprint

Author : Thomas Warton
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781331351054
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

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Download or read book The History of English Poetry, Vol. 2 written by Thomas Warton and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-07-13 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The History of English Poetry, Vol. 2: From the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century, to Which Are Prefixed Two Dissertations His language is tolerably perspicuous, and his versification often harmonious: but his poetry is of a grave and sententious turn. He has much good sense, solid reflection, and useful observation. But he is serious and didactic on all occasions: he preserves the tone of the scholar and the moralist on the most lively topics. For this reason he seems to have been characterised by Chaucer with the appellation of the Morall Gower. But his talent is not confined to English verse only. He wrote also in Latin; and copied Ovid's elegiacs with some degree of purity, and with fewer false quantities and corrupt phrases, than any of our countrymen had yet exhibited since the twelfth century. Gower's capital work, consisting of three parts, only the last of which properly furnishes matter for our present enquiry, is entitled Speculum Meditantis, Vox Clamantis, Confessio Amantis. It was finished, at least the third part, in the year 1393. The Speculum Meditantis, or the Mirrour of Meditation, is written in French rhymes, in ten books. This tract, which was never printed, displays the general nature of virtue and vice, enumerates the felicities of conjugal fidelity by examples selected from various authors, and describes the path which the reprobate ought to pursue for the recovery of the divine grace. The Vox Clamantis, or the Voice of one crying in the Wilderness, which was also never printed, contains seven books of Latin elegiacs. This work is chiefly historical, and is little more than a metrical chronicle of the insurrection of the commons in the reign of king Richard the second. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.