in the heart, another confirmation of that feeling which makes him so
often complain, "Roll on, ye dark brown years, ye bring no joy on your
wing to Ossian!"




LECTURE II.
ON CHAUCER AND SPENSER.


Having, in the former Lecture, given some account of the nature of
poetry in general, I shall proceed, in the next place, to a more
particular consideration of the genius and history of English poetry. I
shall take, as the subject of the present lecture, Chaucer and Spenser,
two out of four of the greatest names in poetry, which this country has
to boast. Both of them, however, were much indebted to the early poets
of Italy, and may be considered as belonging, in a certain degree, to
the same school. The freedom and copiousness with which our most
original writers, in former periods, availed themselves of the
productions of their predecessors, frequently transcribing whole
passages, without scruple or acknowledgment, may appear contrary to the
etiquette of modern literature, when the whole stock of poetical
common-places has become public property, and no one is compelled to
trade upon any particular author. But it is not so much a subject of
wonder, at a time when to read and write was of itself an honorary
distinction, when learning was almost as great a rarity as genius, and
when in fact those who first transplanted the beauties of other
languages into their own, might be considered as public benefactors, and
the founders of a national literature.--There are poets older than