34. J. W. H. Atkins, English Literary Criticism: The Medieval Phase
Literary criticism in medieval England is a subject which would seem at first sight to admit the same terse treatment as the snakes of Iceland. Professor Atkins deserves our gratitude for having undertaken the long and unrewarding labour of extracting from many copious authors their rare (and often unilluminating) obiter dicta on literature. He has resisted the temptation to disguise the fact that most of what he finds is very small beer. He makes it abundantly plain that the history of criticism is at first merely the history of rhetoric – in particular that form of rhetoric which descends from the New Sophistic. In this context Boccaccio's De Genealogia Deorum occupies a more important position than I had suspected, and its allegorical and inspirational theory of poetry appears as a positively liberating influence. The most interesting part of Professor Atkins’ material is provided by the vernacular writers. Among these I think Barbour deserved mention, and I do not always agree with Professor Atkins’ interpretations of Chaucer. But perhaps after a few years I should not agree with my own.