Saxon and Middle-English poetry, and his information was helpful
in enlarging Scott's outlook. Scott's own knowledge of Anglo-Saxon
literature did not amount to enough to be of importance by itself, but
it served perhaps to fortify the basis of his generalizations about all
early poetry.

A review of the _Life and Works of Chatterton_ gave Scott an opportunity
to discuss the characteristics of Middle-English poetry, but his general
thesis, that the Rowley poems exhibit graces and refinements which are
in marked contrast to the tenuity of idea and tautology of expression
found in genuine works of the period, is supported by an argument which
seems to be based on a characterization of the romances rather than on a
close acquaintance with other Middle-English poetry. We notice a similar
quality in what Scott says elsewhere concerning Frere's translation into
Chaucerian English of the _Battle of Brunanburgh_: "This appears to us
an exquisite imitation of the antiquated English poetry, not depending
on an accumulation of hard words like the language of Rowley, which in
everything else is refined and harmonious poetry, nor upon an
agglomeration of consonants in the orthography, the resource of later
and more contemptible forgers, but upon the style itself, upon its
alternate strength and weakness, now nervous and concise, now diffuse
and eked out by the feeble aid of expletives."[99] Of Middle-English
poets other than Chaucer and the author or translator of _Sir Tristrem_,
Laurence Minot was the one to whom Scott alluded most frequently,
doubtless because in Ritson's edition of Minot that poet had become more
accessible than most of his contemporaries. Whatever detailed work Scott
did on the poetry of this period was chiefly in connection with _Sir
Tristrem_, which has naturally been considered in relation with his
other studies in romances.

Scott's familiarity with Chaucer appears in his numerous quotations from
that poet, but usually the passages are cited to illustrate mediaeval
manners rather than for any specifically literary purpose. Yet there are
Chaucer enthusiasts among the characters of _Woodstock_ and _Peveril of
the Peak_.[100] Chaucer's fame was well enough established so that Scott
seems on the whole to have taken his merit for granted, and not to have
said much about it except in casual references.[101] Among general
readers he must have been comparatively little known, however,
notwithstanding the respect pa