HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS

CY

THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL
OF YALE UNIVERSITY

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAUCER IN LITERARY HISTORY

I.

His position among English poets, 3, 4; vicissitudes in his rep-

utation, 4, 5; difficulty of the investigation, 5-7; continuous

popularity of great writers, 7-9; Chaucer no exception, 9, 10;

recognition by contemporaries, 10-15; by Gower, Scogan, and

the author of the 'Testament of Love,' 10, 11; by Occleve and

Lydgate, 11, 12; imitation by Froissart, 13; tribute of Eustache

Deschamps, 13-15; early popularity in Scotland, 15-18; imi-

tated by James I., Henryson, Dunbar, and Gawin Douglas, 18-

22; popularity in the fifteenth century, 22-33; Occleve and

Lydgate and their tributes, 22-27; sterility of the century, 27–

30; mentioned constantly with Gower and Lydgate, 30-33;

invention of printing followed by numerous editions of Chau-

cer's works, 33; popularity in the sixteenth century, 33-72;

number of editions issued, 33. 34; popularity with the Puri-

tans, 34-41; admiration expressed by writers of the time, 41,

42; by Spenser, 42-46; literary controversies in the sixteenth

century as related to Chaucer, 46-65; conflict of the classical

and the modern movement, 46-48; the controversy about ver-

sification, 48-51; supposed irregularity of Chaucer's versifica-

tion, 51-54; sixteenth-century pronunciation of Chaucer, 54–

58; controversy as to the diction of poetry, 58, 59; revival of

Chaucer's words, 59-65; blunders as to his reputation in the

Elizabethan age, 65-67; Chaucer and the drama, 67–70;

Gower's recognized inferiority, 70-72; Chaucer's reputation

touches its lowest point in the seventeenth century, 73; Earle's

remark, 74; admiration expressed by Milton, 74-76; Kynas-

ton's Latin translation, 76-82; desirability then felt of trans-

lating English works into Latin, 82-84; comments and views

of Pepys and Mennis on Chaucer, 84-88; Braithwaite's com-