'huchown of the Awle Ryale', the Alliterative Poet A Historical Criticism of Fourteenth Century Poems Ascribed to Sir Hew of Eglintoun (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from 'Huchown of the Awle Ryale', The Alliterative Poet: A Historical Criticism of Fourteenth Century Poems Ascribed to Sir Hew of Eglintoun
When, more than a couple of years ago, my previous general interest in the alliterative problems was suddenly roused to an acute pitch by the discovery of the importance of a manuscript in the Hunterian Library, a condition of nescience and chaos prevailed among the critics. That very many lines were common to certain of the poems had of course all along been seen, though the tendency had grown to account for this very lamely by contradictory processes. The great lead given by Sir Frederick Madden in the recognition of a group as the work of 'Huchown of the Awle Ryale, had been for the most part set aside on grounds of dialect and grammar, on which the doctors themselves were at sixes and sevens. Methods of analysis had gained currency founded on the false notion that a poets vocabulary must be constant whether his theme is of war or of love, whether he is singing free or is translating, whether he narrates or moralizes. Too large allowance had been made for scribal variation to prove changes in the dialect of scribes; too little when to discuss unity. The terrible uncertainty of inferences merely philological had been forgotten, and overweening Philology had betrayed its trust The more the objections to a great poetic unity were considered on a re-approach to the question, the less did they satisfy the logic of a broad and rational historical criticism, especially as they were found to embody so much argument on discrepancies in style and subject, which would assuredly make it difficult to accept the common authorship of such works as Hamlet and Midsummer Nights Dream, as the 'Cottar's Saturday Night' and 'Holy Willie's Prayer, ' or as 'In Memoriam' and the 'Charge of the Light Brigade.'
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.