Warton's History and Early English Poetry.

Author / Editor
Kinghorn, A. M.

Title
Warton's History and Early English Poetry.

Published
English Studies 44 (1963): 197-204.

Description
Commends Thomas Warton for his appreciation of Chaucer in his "History of English Poetry from the Twelfth to the Close of the Sixteenth Century" (1774-81), acknowledging that the critic largely ignored Old English, denigrated much Middle English literature, and treated the CT "more as an important document of social history than as a subject for the literary critic." Yet he was also "more responsive to the rhythms and cadences of Chaucer's verse" than were earlier critics.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion
Style and Versification