With this scheme Gray was so much pleased, that, under the promise of assistance from his friend Mason, he began seriously to meditate a History of English Poetry; and so far advanced, indeed, as to have made many elaborate disquisitions for the purpose, into the origin of rhyme and metre, and to have executed also, for the same

end, his admirable imitations of Norse and Welch poetry. Deterred, however, from the prosecution of the design, by the labour and research attending it, and learning, likewise, that Mr. Warton had engaged in a similar work, he kindly communicated, at the request of our author, the improvements which he had made on the plan of Pope. His letter to Warton, a literary curiosity of much value, is thus preserved in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1783.

"Sir,

"Our friend, Dr. Hurd, having long ago desired me in your name to communicate any fragments, or sketches, of a design, I once had, to give a History of English Poetry, you may well think me rude or negligent, when you see me hesitating for so many months, before I comply with your request. And yet, believe me, few of your friends have been better pleased than I, to find this subject, surely neither unentertaining nor unuseful, had fallen into hands so likely to do it justice; few have felt a higher esteem for your talents, your taste and industry. In truth, the only cause of my delay has been a sort of diffidence, that would not let me send you any thing so short, so slight, and so imperfect, as the few materials I had begun to collect, or the observations I had made on them. A sketch of the divi

sion or arrangement of the subject, however, I venture to transcribe; and would wish to know, whether it corresponds in any thing with your own plan. For I am told your first volume is in the press.

"INTRODUCTION.

"On the Poetry of the Galic, or Celtic, nations as far back as it can be traced.---On that of the Goths, its introduction into these islands by the Saxons and Danes, and its duration.-On the Origin of Rhyme among the Franks, the Saxons, and Provençaux. Some account of the Latin rhyming Poetry, from its early origin down to the fifteenth century.

"PART I.

"On the school of Provence, which rose about the year 1100, and was soon followed by the French and Italians. Their heroic poetry, or Romances in verse, Allegories, Fabliaux, Syrvientes, Comedies, Farces, Canzoni, Sonnets, Balades, Madrigals, Sestines, &c. of their imitators the French; and of the first Italian school, commonly called the Sicilian, about the year 1200, brought to perfection by Dante, Petrarch, Boccace, and others.-State of Poetry in England from the Conqucst, 1066, or rather from Henry

the Second's time, 1154, to the reign of Edward the Third, 1327.

"PART II.

"On Chaucer, who first introduced the manner of the Provençaux, improved by the Italians, into our country; his character and merits at large: the different kinds in which he excelled. Gower, Occleve, Lydgate, Hawes, Gawen Douglas, Lyndesay, Bellenden, Dunbar, &c.

"PART III.

"Second Italian school, of Ariosto, Tasso, &c. an improvement on the first, occasioned by the revival of letters, the end of the fifteenth century. The Lyric Poetry of this and the former age, introduced from Italy by Lord Surrey, Sir T. Wyat, Bryan, Lord Vaulx, &c. in the beginning of the sixteenth century.

"PART IV.

"Spenser, his character: subject of his poem, allegoric and romantic, of Provençal invention; but his manner of tracing it borrowed from the second Italian school.-Drayton, Fairfax, Phineas Fletcher, Golding, Phaer, &c. This school ends in Milton.-A third Italian school, full of conceit, begun in Queen Elizabeth's reign, conti

nued under James and Charles the First, by Donne, Crashaw, Cleveland, carried to its height by Cowley, and ending perhaps in Sprat.

"PART V.

"School of France, introduced after the Restoration-Waller, Dryden, Addison, Prior, and Pope, which has continued to our own times.

"You will observe that my idea was in some measure taken from a scribbled paper of Pope, of which I believe you have a copy. You will also see I had excluded Dramatic Poetry entirely; which if you have taken in, it will at least double the bulk and labour of your book. I am, Sir, with great esteem,

"Your most humble and obedient servant, Pembroke Hall, Apr. 15th, 1770. "Thomas Gray."

Another attempt has been very lately made to illustrate the annals of our poetry by a division into schools; it is from the pen of Dr. Sayers, who constitutes eight eras; thus, the AngloSaxon school, commencing with the poet Cadmon; the Pure Norman school, commencing with the reign of Henry the First; the Anglo-Norman school, commencing with the poet Lazamon; the English school, commencing with Chaucer; the Italian school, commencing with Spenser; the French school, commencing with Dryden; the Greek