It thus becomes clear that we must, during
the fifteenth century, treat the Northumbrian of England and that of
Scotland separately. Let us first investigate its position in England.
But before this can be appreciated, it is necessary to draw
attention to the fact that the literature of the fifteenth century,
in nearly all the text-books that treat of the subject, has been most
unjustly underrated. The critics, nearly all with one accord, repeat
the remark that it is a "barren" period, with nothing admirable about
it, at any rate in England; that it shows us the works of Hoccleve
and Lydgate near the beginning, _The Flower and the Leaf_ near the
middle (about 1460), and the ballad of _The Nut-brown Maid_ at the
end of it, and nothing else that is remarkable. In other words, they
neglect its most important characteristic, that it was the chief
period of the lengthy popular romances and of the popular plays out of
which the great dramas of the succeeding century took their rise. To
which it deserves to be added that it contains many short poems of a
fugitive character, whilst a vast number of very popular ballads were
in constant vogue, sometimes handed down without much change by a
faithful tradition, but more frequently varied by the fancy of the
more competent among the numerous wandering minstrels.
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