statement I mean Nature in her extrinsic as well as her intrinsic manifestations and influence.

Nor must we overlook Cowper's importance in the matter of form. In the use of unusual and often awkward words, he set classical rules at defiance; he gave an air of spontaneity to all he wrote, narrated fluently, described vividly and exactly; his diction is decidedly various. "As regards skill in adapting his metre to his theme, Cowper", says Mr. Seccombe, "has rarely been surpassed; and one knows not whether to admire most his handling of the trochaics in "Boadicea", of the anapaests in "The Poplars are Fell'd", or "I am Monarch of all I survey", or the iambics in "Toll for the Brave", or " The Nightingale and the Glow-worm". He wrote few sonnets, but one "To Mrs. Unwin" is an acknowledged masterpiece" and in blank verse "he rose at times to complete mastery" The influence of Shakespeare, Milton, and Thomson appears definitely in his blank verse: Shakespeare he imitated very cleverly in the lines "Trust me, the mead of praise, dealt thriftily. From the nice scales of judgment", etc ; from Milton, "whose genius had angelic wings", he reproduced numerous cadences in "The Task"; Thomson, whom he admired, gave him hints in theme and manner.

Thomson, Cowper and Crabbe stand out as by far the most important of the moral describers of Nature, and the two later poets marked a step in advance with them the blending of Nature and morality was complete and always spontaneous, while Thomson seemed at times to superimpose his moral interpretation upon his aesthetic description. Their work was continued and, just occasionally, glorified by Wordsworth, who certainly owes to all three an immense debt.

The Moral Describers, then, had much to do with the evolution of English Romanticism; they set afoot the Nature-movement, which became in the Nineteenth Century more lyrical; towards the treatment of Nature in lyrics, Ramsay, Collins, Gray, and Burns also greatly contributed. That is what the Lyrical Writers, the Scottish Poets, and the Moral Describers of the Eighteenth Century had especially in common.

CHAPTER 6.

THE MEDIAEVALISTS.

Romantic Fancy still, that lov'd to roam
Thro' the drear desert, and enchanted dome,
To view the perils of adventurous Knight
In stately tournament, or hardy fight,

To hear the Giants gorg'd with human blood,
Of Dragon's lurking in the charmed wood,
Of Paynim-Foes in sable steel arrayed,
The Dwarf attendant, and the Warrior-Maid,
Of herbs unblest that drug the witching bowl,
And talismans that earth and air control,
Oh crystal globes which future fates unfold,
And amber streams that roll o'er sands of gold,
Of fragrant isles which diamond rocks surround,
Of wailing Ghosts in iron durance bound,

Of fiery walls to Demon-Guards assign'd,

Of labouring Fiends to hollow mines confin'd,

Of warning voices sent from opening graves,

Of gaudy pageants seen in twilight caves,

Of viewless harps that breathe from airy bowers,

Of golden bridges rais'd by Goblin-Powers,

Of winged steeds thro' fields of air that soar,

And magic marks that speed from shore to shore.

So wrote Thomas Russell in his poem "To Cervantes", composed in the Seventeen-eighties: this list of themes beloved by "romantic Fancy" describes admirably the heroic and the magical elements contained in the "Mediaeval" productions and the collections of old English literature that appeared in England in the Eighteenth Century.

The Mediaevalists, seemingly easy to treat, require careful handling. Various streams, commencing at points isolated enough, showed a tendency to join other streams; and it was only in the Seventeen-sixties that the many tributaries united to form the broad, strong river of Mediaevalism.

In 1706-11 Watson issued his "Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scottish Songs"; this work indicated one of the most important lines on which Mediaevalism was actively to operate folk-songs. In the "Spectator" Addison wrote an essay on "Chevy Chase" and the Border Ballads. On the influence exerted by this favourable notice, Arrmstrong's "Taste”, printed in 1753, supplies an interesting commentary (the scorn with which the couplet is ushered-in attests the value of the evidence) :

Thanks to heaven and Addison's good grace,
Now every fop is charmed with Chevy Chase.

In 1716 Hearne commenced publishing a series of English chronicle histories, which helped to lend reality to the ballads that were rapidly coming to be widely read. About the same time appeared "Colin and Lucy", long the most popular production of Tickell. This ballad was followed in 1721 by Parnell's "Fairy Tale", in 1724 by Mallet's ballad "William and Margaret" and by Lady Wardlaw's "Hardyknute", which figured in Ramsay's "Ever Green". "Ever Green”, like the "Tea-Table Miscellany" of the same year, collected much of the wealth of song and ballad scattered throughout Scotland; the "Miscellany" contained also English verse, and attained its twelth edition before the author's death in 1758 Ramsay, then, had, as an editor, much to do with the growing interest in early times and mediaeval literature. While all these works were gradually influencing the minds of the educated, there appeared in 1737 the "Muses Library", which contained old verse. In 1742 Shenstone brought out "The Schoolmistress", with diction and metric imitated from Spenser, and thus he bagan that group of Spenserian poems which, by the old-world look of the language and the attempt at reproduction of bygone sentiments, contributed in a small way in the matter of themes, and to a considerable extent by the literary authority authority of their authors, to the mediaeval revival in our literature we must specially note Thomson's "Castle of Indolence" in 1748 and Beattie's "Minstrel" in 1771-4, while Mickle's "Concubine" (1767) also deserves notice. Soon after the appearance of "The Schoolmistress", Dodsley by publishing his "Select Collection of Old Plays" provided an easy transition between

modern and mediaeval literature. In 1754 Thomas Warton materially assisted the advance of Mediaevalism with his "Observations on the Faerie Queene". The following year, Paul Henri Mallet issued his "Introduction à l'histoire de Dannemarc", which, dealing in part with northern mythology and the Eddaic writtings, marked an epoch in European literature and powerfully influenced Gray and his disciples: in 1760, Macpherson published the "Fragments of Ancient Poetry", supposed to be drawn from Erse; in 1761 came his "Fingal", in 1763 his "Temora", and two years later the collected "Poems of Ossian”; while in 1763 Percy brought out "Five Pieces of Runic Poetry, translated from the Islandic", and a year later Evan Evans issued his "Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh”. Balladry also, during these years, took an upward leap in 1762 appeared Hurd's "Letters on Chivalry and Romance", which, moreover, greatly affected Mediaevalism as a whole; and in 1765, Percy's "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry"-the work most important for English "Mediaevalism". By its variety of theme and quality and date it summarised and brought to a head the previously separate and indeterminate trends caused by the study of old English history and literature. Balladry exercised a more lasting influence on Romanticism than did the "Northern" mythology and writings, and to balladry Percy was, historically and for literature, a more significant contributor than Pinkerton, Ritson, and Scott. The worthy bishop, besides, by reprinting "The Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland in 1512", provided a very valuable commentary on the domestic life of a period that stood, for Eighteenth-century writers, as late Mediaeval. In the second edition of "The Vicar of Wakefield", a year after the "Reliques", was published Goldsmith's "Edwin and Angelina" (or "The Hermit"). In 1773 Grose issued his "Antiquities of England and Wales"; the following year saw the first volume of Thomas Warton's "History of English Poetry", which, completed in 1781, threw open much hitherto neglected literature,-literature that made for Romanticism in general and Mediaevalism in particular. In 1775 Tyrwhitt gave to the world his carefully-edited text of Chaucer, and two years later rendered to English literature an almost inestimable service by publishing Chatterton's "Rowley Poems", which probably more than any other original "Mediaeval" work: of the Eighteenth Century influenced the post-1798 Romantic

poets. From the publication of the "Rowley Poems" until the close of our period, no outstanding original "Mediaeval" poetry made its appearance but the last quarter of the Eighteenth Century abounded in collections of old literature and in other works that furthered "Mediaevalism". An exotic atmosphere had come with Hoole's "Version of Tasso" in 1763, and was strengthened by Mickle's translation of Camoen's "Lusiad" in 1775 and Hoole's "Ariosto" in 1783; the Gothic novel represented an outside stimulus; old songs and ballads constituted in some cases all, in other cases much, of the material presented by Thomas Evans' "Old Ballads... with some of Modern Date" in 1777, Pinkerton's three works-"Scottish Tragic Ballads” in 1781, "Select Scottish Ballads" two years later, and "Ancient Scottish Poems" in 1786, three important anthologies edited by Ritson-"Select Collection of English Songs" in 1783, “Northern Garlands" (1783-1793), and "Robin Hood Ballads" in 1795; Johnson's valuable "Scot's Musical Museum" in 1787; nor must we forget Ellis's "Specimens of Early English Poets”, which was popular enough to necessitate a second edition in 1801, and Grose's "Antiquities of Scotland" in 1791.

Thomas Tickell (1686-1740) has his very small place in early Romanticism by reason of this ballad "Colin and Lucy", which, simple in language and pathetic in theme, was once famous; Goldsmith and Gray praised it very highly. The forsaken maid vows on her death-bed that her corpse will meet the faithless bridegroom a suitable ballad subject, effectively handled.

In Pope's selection of Parnell's verse (1721) was included "A Fairy Tale". It has its significance: it was an original ballad, written a little before the 1719 publication of old Scottish poetry and nearly fifty years before the appearance of the "Reliques"; it tells of fairies and magic; the old ballad manner is obtained with considerable skill; the spelling, though open to the reproach of pedants, has a real Mediaeval air. This poem, too, appealed to Goldsmith.

In 1724 David Mallet (or Malloch) saw his ballad "William and Margaret" issued in Ramsay's "Tea-Table Miscellany". This was the best piece by Mallet, who produced several other ballads (e.g. the well-known "Edwin and Emma"), none, however, approaching the "William and Margaret", a poem of con