40978187 repla 5.16-02 Repl PREFATORY NOTE THE editors of The Cambridge History of English Literature are glad to find by the welcome extended to their first volume that the work apparently goes some way towards meeting the needs of those for whose use it was undertaken. They are very sensible of the kindness of those critics who have pointed out where it was thought that improvements could be made; and, in several cases, they have been able to avail themselves of these suggestions. The editors are especially pleased to find that the purpose of the short editorial sections included in the text has been generally understood, and that the notes attached to the bibliographies have been found to be useful. Simultaneously with the printing of the second volume, it has been found necessary to prepare a second impression of the first; and advantage has been taken of this occasion to correct a few misprints and errors and to add one or two notes. In order that purchasers of the first impression may not be placed at any disadvantage in this respect, a printed slip, setting forth corrections of importance that have been made in the first volume, is inserted in all copies of the second volume. Pressure of material, and the desire to consult the convenience of students, have prevented the editors from dealing in the present volume with the beginnings of the English drama. The chapters concerned with the early religious plays have been transferred to the earlier of the two volumes which will deal consecutively with the general history of the English drama from its beginnings to the closing of the theatres under the Puritan régime. It is not necessary to remind the student that, in any collective estimate of the English literature of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with which the present volume is chiefly concerned, the miracle plays must be regarded as of the greatest importance. The third volume, Renascence and Reformation, is in the press. It deals with Erasmus and More, Barclay and Skelton, Lindsay and Knox; with the poetry (other than dramatic) as well as the prose of the earlier Tudor age; and it contains chapters, in sequence to those in volume I, concerning changes in language and prosody to the days of Elizabeth. The editors hope that it may be in their power to publish this third volume before the close of the present year; should they find it impossible to accomplish this task, they desire that the blame may be imputed not to the contributing authors, whose aid throughout has been generous and ungrudging, but to editorial difficulties, into the details of which it would be wearisome to enter here. A. W. W. CAMBRIDGE, 20 March 1908. A. R. W. CONTENTS The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman. Form of the poems. Theories concerning authorship. The three texts. The crowd in the valley. The tower of Truth. Holy Church. The court at Westminster. Meed. Reason. The first vision. The second vision. The way to truth. Piers and his pilgrims at work. Piers' pardon. The scene in the ale-house. The third vision. The search for Do-well, Do-better and Do-best. John But. B-text. B's continuation of the poems. The merits of B's work. The author of the C-text. Conclusion assumed that the poems are not the work of a single author. Differences in the three texts. Parallel passages. William Langland. John But. Mum, Sothsegger. Wynnere and Wastoure. The Parlement of the Thre Ages. Letters of the insurgents of 1881. Peres the Ploughmans Crede. The Ploughman's Tale. Jacke Upland. The Crowned RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY RICHARD ROLLE. WYCLIF. THE LOLLARDS By the Rev. J. P. WHITNEY, B.D., King's College. Richard Rolle of Hampole. Rolle's mysticism. William Nassyngton. Rolle and religion. The Pricke of Conscience. Wyclif's early life. Wyclif and scholasticism. Wyclif's earlier writings. Attack on Wyclif. The papal schism. The poor priests. The Bible in English. Nicholas Hereford and John Purvey. Wyclif and popular movements. Wyclif's views on the Eucharist. Wyclif's later works. Wyclif's later life. The Lollards. Wyclif's per- Early English prose. Early translations. John Trevisa. Polychronicon. Bartholomaeus. The travels of Sir John Mandeville. d'Outremeuse. Mandeville manuscripts. Mandeville's style. Man- By G. GREGORY SMITH, M.A., Balliol College, Oxford, Professor of English Literature in Queen's College, Belfast. 'Scots' and 'Ynglis.' Early Scots. Middle Scots. Southern influence THE EARLIEST SCOTTISH LITERATURE BARBOUR, BLIND HARRY, HUCHOUN, WYNTOUN, HOLLAND By PETER GILES, M.A., Hon. LLD. Aberdeen, Fellow of Emmanuel College and Reader in Comparative Philology. Early fragments. John Barbour. The Bruce. Blind Harry's Wallace. Holland's Howlat. Huchoun of the Awle Ryale. Morte Arthure. The Epistill of Suete Susane. The Awntyrs of Arthure. Golagros and Gawane. Rauf Coilsear. Colkelbie's Sow. Lives of the Saints. Gray's Scalacronica. Fordun and Bower's Scoti- |