The Oxford History of Poetry in English

Abstract

This volume is the third in the series and covers verse written in the period 1400 to 1500. The volume is organized in four sections: Contexts (Chapters 1–7), Transmission (Chapters 8–10), Topics and Genres (Chapters 11–23), and Poets (Chapters 24–28). The opening section, after an introductory chapter, considers the various historical contexts relevant to poetry (Chapter 2), literary traditions (Chapter 3), translation (Chapter 4), literary language and verse forms (Chapters 5–6) and authorship (Chapter 7). The section on transmission examines poetic manuscripts (Chapter 8), poetry in print (Chapter 9) and verse outside books (Chapter 10). The following section considers various forms of religious verse (Chapters 11–14), practical and conduct verse (Chapters 15–16) and the depiction of love (Chapter 17). The next cluster of chapters considers forms of chronicle and history (Chapters 18–20). There follow chapters on different aspects of fiction (Chapters 21–23). Finally there is a series of chapters on individual authors (Chapters 24–27), Lydgate, Hoccleve, Henryson, and Dunbar, and a concluding one (Chapter 28) pointing to those poetic tendencies that can be linked to sixteenth-century verse writing.