Devoted, however, as he was to these pursuits, James
appears to have given his mind with a still stronger bias to the study
of English poetry, choosing Chaucer and Gower for his masters in the
art, and entering with the utmost ardour into the great object of the
first of these illustrious men,--the improvement of the English
language, the production of easy and natural rhymes, and the
refinement of poetical numbers, from the rude compositions which had
preceded him.[23] In the concluding stanza of the King's Quair, a work
composed by the Scottish King shortly before his return to his
kingdom, he apostrophizes Gower and Chaucer as his dear masters, who
sat upon the highest steps of rhetoric, and whose genius as poets,
orators, and moralists, entitled them to receive the most exalted
honour.
[23] Ellis's Specimens, vol. i. p. 205.
Unto the hymis of my maisteris dere,
Gowere and Chaucere, that on steppis satt
Of rhetorick, quhill thai war lyvand here,
Superlative as poets laureate,
In moralitee and eloquence ornate,
I recommend my buik in lynis seven,
And eke their saulis unto the blisse of hevin.
* * * * *
THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.
(_From the Private Correspondence of a Woman of Fashion.
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