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THE ITALIAN INFLUENCE IN ENGLISH POETRY FROM CHAUCER TO SOUTH WELL. By A. Lytton Sells. (George Allen and Unwin, 30s.)
THAT English poetry between Chaucer and Southwell was deeply influenced by Italy is not an arresting proposition, Professor Sells does not of course suppose that it is and his aim has been to provide a work of collation, one that gathered the scattered labours of scholar- ship and criticism into a comprehensive survey. He is obviously in love with his theme and he has read variously. The trouble is that critic- ally he belongs so much to a pre-Eliot period. He admires poems because they possess 'that touch of the master's hand that thrills us, we know not why.' This is in fact a perfectly reasonable way to approach a good deal of the poetry Professor Sells is concerned with. (Could Petrarch, or Politian, , be 'new criti- cised'? Nobody has yet shown how.) What does matter is that he seldom delves deep enough. What we wanted was not to be told which parts of Troilus and Criseyde or The Faerie Queene are of Italian provenance, but rather how Chaucer's or Spencer's sensibility was modified or enriched by their reading in Boacaccio or Ariosto. It is because such ques- tions are never fully enough answered that The Italian Influence in English Poetry is not more than a work of charming enthusiasm and con- siderable reading. The essential book has still
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