OF THE Early English Poets, TO WHICH IS PREFIXED AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH POETRY AND LANGUAGE; IN THREE VOLUMES. BY GEORGE ELLIS, ESQ. THE THIRD EDITION CORRECTED. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED BY W. BULMER AND CO. AND J. HATCHARD, PICCADILLY. 1803. ERRATA. Page 32, note 1, for sellie, read sellic. 77, line 7, for reuk, read renk. 129, running title, for Alexander Scot, read Clapperton. 135, line 6, for Rhetoricque, read Rhetorique. 167, 171, 174, 180, 1, for fourteenth, read seventeenth. This error was occasioned by too implicit a reliance on the accuracy of Mr. Ritson. Vide Bibliographia Poetica, p. 381. 12, for Herebach's, read Heresbach's. 3, for 1577, read 1578, according to Wood. But vide Ritson's Bibliographia. 12, for 1594, read 1567. ult. after nightingale, instead of a comma, place a colon. 257, 8, for 1596, read 1598. 12, for her, read her. 10, for affection, read infection. 15, for greatest, read greater. 15, place 3 (the reference to the note), after is instead of alack! HISTORICAL SKETCH, &c. CHAPTER XVI. Reign of Henry VIII.-John Skelton.William Roy.-John Heywood.-Sir David Lindsay.-The Mourning Maiden. THE HE accession of Henry VIII. could not fail to promote the progress of elegant literature in England. His title to the crown was so undoubted that it left him no apprehension of a rival, and fully secured his subjects against the recurrence of those sanguinary civil wars which had so long desolated the country. He was young, handsome, ? accomplished, wealthy, and prodigal; and the nobility, effectually humbled by the policy of his father, crowded round his person, with no higher ambition than that of gaining his favour and sharing his profusion, which was exhibited in fre |