Studies in early Tudor English criticism, linguistic and literary

Abstract

These studies are intended to trace the early indications in England of a critical attitude towards literature and language which prepares for the appearance of formal critical documents in the Elizabethan period such as those edited by G. Gregory Smith in Elizabethan Critical Essays. (2 vols.1904). Aspects of various intellectual activities of the Early Tudor period up to 1558 have been considered for their bearing upon this subject, in so far as they provide opportunity for, or stimulus to, the operation of the critical faculty. This collection of evidence is intended as a preliminary survey of a wide field of study, to define its extent for further work upon separate topics which may be supplemented and illustrated by the editing of selected texts.