The Rise of the Scottish Chaucerians

Inglis, W. B (1930) The Rise of the Scottish Chaucerians. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

In the following pages an account is given of the Rise of the Scottish Chaucerians differing in many respects from those provided by writers of literary histories. Too frequently the great makars of the fifteenth century have been regarded as the intimate followers of Southern poets and the period of their literary activity explained- by appeal to Chaucerian imitation. An attempt is here made to relate their work to the preceding and accompanying poetry of Scotland and to the development of national consciousness which shows a striking parallelism with the poetic movement. It is only fair to say that the writer is fully aware of the indebtedness of the Scottish Ghaucerians to the great English master, especially in matters prosodic. The main contention of this thesis was forced on him when preparing a short course of lectures as holder of a Glark Scholarship at Glasgow University in 1924. Although these discourses were aimed at upholding Chaucerian inspiration as the cause of the Northern movement they led to the conviction that the account was not complete when a full statement had been made of Southern influence. The present study does not oppose the traditional exposition but seeks to supplement it by indicating at least one other force which was acting on these poets. The general thesis has not been presented by any writer on Scottish Literature but several have provided evidence on specific points necessary for its establishment. In quoting from these critics an effort has been made to avoid wrong impressions which might arise through the absence of context; unfortunately it is not to be assumed that they subscribe to the theory presented in the following discussion.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Education history, British & Irish literature, Language arts
• Date of Award: 1930
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1930-80205
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 02 Mar 2020 21:27
• Last Modified: 02 Mar 2020 21:27
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/80205