1950/03/01 by Rossell Hope Robbins
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Studies of British Isles #Medieval Literature and History #Scottish History and National Identity
paper · doi:10.2307/459468
openalex publication_date 1950/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The poems of Humfrey Newton, printed herewith for the first time from his commonplace book (the Capesthorne MS., now Bodleian MS. Lat. misc. c 66), have lain disregarded for over four hundred years, known only in manuscript to his immediate descendants and to an occasional antiquary. Humfrey Newton is no more than a minor poet, but he is important for three reasons. Any writer about whom there exist biographical data is a welcome addition to the limited roster of known authors of the late fifteenth century. Secondly, Newton uses many Cheshire words, and his texts provide a large secondary source of dialect and provincial words, and examples of usages earlier than those hitherto recorded. Finally, Newton's original poems and those well-known texts he copied are an indication of the literary interests of the provincial reading public of about 1500.