Backwardness of English Criticism not implying inferiority 144 Its cause 145 The influence of Rhetoric and other matters 146 Hawes 146 The first Tudor critics 147 Wilson: his _Art of Rhetoric_ 149 His attack on “Inkhorn terms” 149 His dealing with Figures 150 Cheke: his resolute Anglicism and anti-preciosity 151 His criticism of Sallust 152 Ascham 153 His patriotism 154 His horror of Romance 154 And of the _Morte d’Arthur_ 155 His general critical attitude to Prose 156 And to Poetry 156 The craze for Classical Metres 157 Special wants of English Prosody 157 Its kinds— (1) Chaucerian 158 (2) Alliterative 158 (3) Italianated 159 Deficiencies of all three 159 The temptations of Criticism in this respect 160 Its adventurers: Ascham himself 160 Watson and Drant 161 Gascoigne 162 His _Notes of Instruction_ 163 Their capital value 164 Spenser and Harvey 165 The Puritan attack on Poetry 169 Gosson 169 _The School of Abuse_ 170 Lodge’s _Reply_ 170 Sidney’s _Apology for Poetry_ 171 Abstract of it 172