Walter Map Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Thomas Wright

Critical Essay by Thomas Wright

SOURCE: An introduction to The Latin Poems Commonly Attributed to Walter Mapes, edited by Arthur Wright, AMS Press, 1841, pp. v-xxviii.

In the following essay, Wright introduces a collection of poems in Latin which he has grouped under Map's name. He asserts that, while they probably do not belong to Map, they either conform to the style of Map's known works, or they have been attributed to Map or to his supposed pseudonym, "Golias. "

The great popular movements in England during the end of the twelfth and the earlier half of the thirteenth centuries, gave rise to a numerous class of Latin poems of a very peculiar character, remarkable chiefly for pungency of satire, or sprightliness of composition. The remains of this poetry, which we have long been in the habit of attributing to Walter Mapes, appear to be of sufficient interest and importance to be collected into a...
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