English Writers. By Henry Morley. Vol. VI. (Cassell and Co.)
—Professor Morley's sixth volume takes in a variety of English writers (a term which includes authors born north of the Tweed) from "Chaucer to Caxton." The first name is John Barbour, a poet contemporary with Chaucer, and indeed a little earlier. His chief poem was "The Bruce," the hero of which was King Robert, of Bannockburn fame. John of Fordoun and Andrew of Wyn.toun are the subjects of the next chapter, and the " Romances " of the third. Piers the Plowman, Lydgate, the Chroniclers,. among these Capgrave and John Harding, and a number of minor poets, of whom James I. of Scotland is the best known, Pecock, and others bring us to the ballad time. The Paston Letters are the subjects of a separate chapter. Then comes the invention of printing, and finally Caxton. If, with the exception of the great printer, there is no person of the first eminence in the long list of names, yet the volume is one of very large and varied interest.
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