Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XINTRODUCTION.English Poetry' are occasionally of a serious character, andonly to be accounted for by supposing that he had no exactknowledge of our language in its earliest stages. Even Warton'sHistory of English Poetry/ which will probably long'continue to be a standard work, is by no means free fromcurious errors of this kind, as indicated in the Notes toGawin Douglas ;see pp. 414-416 of this volume.§ 2. It is most important to observe that there is nowhereany real or considerable break in our literature. Thechanges in the language between the reigns of Alfred andVictoria have been gradual, not violent, and our presentspeech differs from the Oldest English (generally called'Anglo-Saxon') chiefly by reason of the alterations which along lapse of time naturally and imperceptibly introduces.Hence theparticular period of our Hterature here illustratedis determined by arbitrary boundaries. I begin with anextract from the ' Crede,' because the volume of Specimens'of English,' by Dr. Morris, published in 1867, terminateswith an extract of a slightly anterior date ; and I leave offwith the year 1579, because it was remarkable for the publicationof Lily's Euphues ' ' and Spenser's Shepheardes'Calender,' and because it was about this time that a markedrevival in English letters took place. A glance at ProfessorMorley's 'Tables of English Literature' will shew that, whilsttheimportant works published between 1560 and 1580 arenot very numerous, those published soon after 1580 aremany and valuable.Before the end of the century we meetwith such standard works as Marlowe's Plays, Fairfax's*Tasso,' Daniel's Poems, Sidney's * Arcadia,' and, still better