19 AUGUST 1837, Page 19

Chapters on Early English Literature, by J. H. HIPPESLEY, N.,

M.A., is a well-intentioned, pleasant, gossipy volume, about -the rise and progress of the English language; the life and literary character of CHAUCER, his works, and those of his con- temporaries and successors as far down as the TUDORS; with occa- sional digressions to Greece, Rome, and the Continent. The writer pretends to no far research or new discoveries; nor does he exhibit depth or acumen enough in his commentaries to impart the character of originality to compilation ; but his volume, while pleasantly fiiling up a vacant hour, will give the general reader some useful information, scholarly expressed, about our earlier literature,—though it may not excite him to its study, which was Mr. HIPPESLEY'S object in printing his production.