---- Rectory, Hereford.
_Chaucer's Knowledge of Italian_ (Vol. vii., p. 517.).--To the proofs that
Chaucer was well acquainted with Italian literature, brought forward in "N.
& Q." by J. M. B., it may seem {585} unnecessary to add any more. Yet, if
it were only for the purpose of recalling your readers' attention to the
elegant and instructive _Dissertation on the State of English Poetry before
the Sixteenth Century_, by the late Dr. Nott, of All Souls' College, will
you permit me to adduce that learned writer's authority, in opposition to
the opinion of Sir Harris Nicolas, that Chaucer was not versed in Italian
literature? Dr. Nott's Dissertation is entombed in the two quarto volumes
of his edition of the _Works of Surrey and Wyatt_ (London, 1815); and it is
much to be wished that it were reprinted in a separate and more accessible
form.