1. in_ernet_dli_2015_52016_2015_52016_The-Beginnings-Of-English-Literature-To-Skelton1939

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INTRODUCTIONS TO ENGLISH LITERATURE

GENERAL EDITOR: BONAMY Dobrée

VOLUME I

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE TO SKELTON 1509

THE BEGINNINGS

OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE

TO SKELTON

1509

By

W. L. RENWICK

Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, University of Edinburgh

And

HAROLD ORTON

Professor of English Language, University of Leeds

THE CRESSET PRESS

LONDON

First Published 1939

Second (revised) edition 1952

Reproduced by photo-lithography in Great Britain at the Pitman Press, Bath

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PAGE

Editor's Preface

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11

Preface

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19

I

Introduction

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21

List of Abbreviations

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127

II

General Bibliographies of Old and Mediaeval English Language and Literature

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133

III

Old English Period—People, Institutions, Language

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135

IV

Old English Literature—General

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150

V

Old English Literature—Poetry

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154

VI

Old English Literature—Prose

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227

VII

Mediaeval Period—People, Institutions, Language

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261

VIII

Mediaeval English Literature—General

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269

IX

Mediaeval Period—Individual Authors and Texts

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275

X

Mediaeval Period—Other Texts

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315

XI

Scottish Literature

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406

XII

The Arts

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425

Index

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443

EDITOR'S PREFACE

IF there is a danger of literature becoming separated from

life, and at times the danger becomes actuality, there is a

still greater one of the same thing happening in the study of

literature. For one thing, it is apt to become that most arid of

studies, literary history, in which history is largely, and

literature, in any real meaning of the word, entirely ignored.

The literature of the past is only of value in so far as it has

significance to-day, just as history is only of use if it can throw

a light upon the contemporary scene. But in the same way as

history becomes illuminating by study, by finding out not

only what people did, but why they did it, what circum-

stances, thoughts and emotions brought them to act, so we

enlarge the boundaries within which the literature of the past

has value if we gain an insight into the circumstances,

thoughts and feelings which produced not only the writers,

but also the readers of any particular period.

People of different ages speak different languages; not that

the words are necessarily different, but the implications are.

We of the twentieth century mean very little when we speak

of the "social virtues", whereas to an eighteenth-century

writer the phrase implied a whole philosophy of civilisation.

For us to understand what Donne meant when he wrote:

On man heavens influence works not so,

But that it first imprints the ayre,

Soe soule into the soule may flow. . . .

we have to be at least aware of a whole body of philosophic

thought, we might say of philosophic apprehension, to which

most of us are likely to be strangers, but which was common

at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Thus one of the

objects of literary study should be to enable us to translate the

II

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

language of another day into that of our own, which we can

only do if we realise that these divergencies of expression are

not merely a question of literary allusion, but of what entered

the minds of educated people every day, coloured the spec-

tacles through which they looked at life, and moulded the

form in which they uttered their feelings. Thus it is not

altogether idle to ponder why Ben Jonson should have

written:

What beckoning ghost besprent with April dew

Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew

(Elegy on Lady Jane Pawlett)

while Pope should have preferred:

What beckoning ghost athwart the moonlit glade

Invites my steps, and points to yonder shade

(In Memory of an Unfortunate Lady)

for there is a reason which lies deeper than personal idio-

syncrasy.

It has become a platitude to say that an age is reflected in

its literature, and like all platitudes the saying has ceased to

have any force. Moreover, an age is often much better

represented by what is no longer read, than by the works

which we still take from our shelves. If, for instance, we try

to reconstruct the Restoration period from the plays of the

time, we shall get a view which is, to say the least of it, mis-

leading: the age is far better represented by the turgid flood

of pamphlets which issued from the inkpots of Penn and

Muggleton, Thomas Hicks, John Faldo, and a dozen other

forgotten and vituperative sectarians. We tend to read

Dryden's plays, or certain of the satires, in preference to his

other work, but he is far nearer his age in Religio Laici

and The Hind and the Panther than in his now more popular

writings. And if each age brings forth its own recognisable

progeny, how is it that Milton and Etheredge appeared to-

gether? or 'Thomas Hardy and Max Beerbohm? Each age

has so many facets, that it is difficult to pitch on any as being

12

EDITOR'S PREFACE

its outstanding mirror though each age will have certain peculiarities not shared by the others. But these peculiarities are often merely the surface of fashion, accidental rather than essential, and until we know something of the age, we cannot tell which peculiarity, when explained, can have any significance for us.

Yet, if it is dangerous to regard literature as the looking-glass of its time, every age has certain problems which seem to it to be of major urgency. In the Shakespearean age it was to incorporate the "new learning" into life; later in the seventeenth century, the politico-religious issue was the important one; the eighteenth century, again, was lured by a vision of civilised man. That is to say that each age has its philosophy, its scale of values. But philosophy, which to some extent conditions literature, is itself conditioned, partly by the way people live, and partly by the influx of thought from foreign countries, though it is as well to remember that such thought will only penetrate or take root in a country already prepared for it. Therefore, the way people live, their social and political grouping, their economic formation, to some extent determine the way they write. Much has lately been made of the influence of economics: too much, for Marx cannot account for Milton, and it is as easy to argue that the economic development of the eighteenth century was due to the idea of the universe as defined by Newton as that "Dutch finance", commercialism, and the expansion of trade, gives a clue to the philosophy of history which runs through Gibbon's Decline and Fall. Yet economics have an effect on literature; we can see it to some extent in Piers Plowman, and without the rise of the middle classes at the end of the seventeenth century we could not have had Defoe, Steele, or Addison; the polite essayist could not have come into being, quite apart from whether or not he preached the bourgeois virtues.

The influence of foreign thought is a subject that has loomed too large, perhaps, in most histories of literature, mainly because literature has on the whole been treated as separate from life. The influence of something on somebody has been a favourite subject for theses, and the answers have

13

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

been as dubious as the theme has been ill-defined. Because

Chaucer, having read Dante's

Quali i fioretti di notturno gelo

chinati e chiusi, poi che il sol gl'imbianea,

si drizen tutti apetti in loro stelo;

tal mi fec'io. . . .

(Inferno II, 127. . . .)

or, more probably, the corresponding lines in the Filostrato

of Boccaccio, proceeded to sing

But right as floures, thorugh the colde of night

Y-closed, stoupen on hir stalkes lowe,

Redressen hem a-yein the sonne bright,

And spreden on hir kinde cours by rowe:

Right so gan. . . .

. . . .Troilus. . . .

(Troilus and Criseyde, II St. 139)

that is not to say that Chaucer was influenced by Dante or by

Boccaccio; indeed no prettier contrast to the Divina Commedia

could be found than The Canterbury Tales, though it is clear

that there is some connection between them and the Deca-

meron. No one really familiar with the comedy of France and

England in the seventeenth century, with an understanding

of what they were up to, can believe that the English were

influenced by the French to more than a superficial degree.

Nevertheless, the thought of one country, or of one individual,

can very profoundly affect a period, and the scepticism of

Montaigne is apparent throughout the seventeenth century

from Shakespeare to Halifax. In the same way, German

thought obscured the clarity of Coleridge, and puffed the

thought and style of Carlyle to an almost intolerable smoki-

ness.

The writer, therefore, is, besides being a unique individual,

the product of the forces of his time. However much we

may regret it, we have to abandon Shelley's contention that

I4

“poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world”, though we need not altogether throw over the position; for though, no doubt, thought does sometimes influence action, it is more usually the successor of deeds, and it will not be denied that Locke is a child of the Revolution just as Hobbes was of the Great Rebellion. It is truer to say with Arnold that poetry is a criticism of life, though not quite true, for literature is, rather, a growth from life itself, a part of life, not its harvest only. We can go further and say that it is so ravelled with life that it can be described also as the soil and the seed. But that a metaphor should lead to such confusion is enough to indicate how closely tangled with life literature is, how complex the relation between them, and how impossible it is to separate one from the other.

The object of the Introductions in this series is to give the student some idea of the soil out of which the works of literature grew, so as to be able to grasp with fuller understanding the books mentioned in the Bibliographies. This, then, is not yet another History of English Literature, but rather, to exaggerate a little, a History of England in which not kings, battles, diplomatic or constitutional struggles, nor even economic development, are given pride of place, but literature. As is suitable to our age in which economics have come to be given a high place as determinants not only of our lives, but of our manner of thinking and feeling, and even of our religion, economics will be given more stress than they have hitherto been allowed in books on literature, but not, as some would no doubt wish, to the exclusion of everything else. For instance, though the question of the control of money no doubt played a larger part in the Great Rebellion than we were most of us brought up to believe, it would be absurd to neglect the religious elements in the struggle: indeed, as Professor R. H. Tawney has shown, it was religion itself that largely determined the economic trend of the eighteenth century. The effect of religion on literature is more easily traceable; it begins with Beowulf and runs through the whole, most markedly in the periods where the Church to a large extent stamped the nature of society, or when controversy

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

raged high, as it did from the Reformation—or at least from

the time of the Marprelate Tracts—to the foundation of the

Bank of England. Philosophy also plays an important part,

not only as being the matter of much admirable writing, but

also in the general attitude towards life exhibited by writers

who unconsciously, rather than in full awareness, absorbed

the ideas of their time. But philosophy again is affected by

economics, for no one can doubt that the individualism of the

nineteenth century was largely the result of the Industrial

Revolution, and that Carlyle's Cromwell must own as fore-

bears Adam Smith and James Watt. Science also can affect

literature, and without Huxley there would probably have

been a different Hardy.

Another addition to the view of literature is made in these

volumes by giving due place to the sister arts where they rose

to any height, or seem to have importance with respect to

writing. Thus music had an effect on poetry in the seven-

teenth century, while painting and architecture affected the

poetry, and perhaps the prose, of the eighteenth. Wherever,

in short, the literary "movement" of a time seems congruous

with that of the other arts, they are included in the survey.

Most important of all, however, is the social background, the

changes of milieu indicated, say, by the decay of the guilds or

the rise of nationalism; for these are the things which most

affect the way people live, and therefore what they will most

wish to write and to read.

The Bibliographies which form the major part of each

volume are designed to give the reader a detailed view of the

literature of each period, and being classified and com-

mented will enable him to study or to enjoy either any special

branch, or the whole literature of the period. Only the

specialist can read everything; but the aim of this series is to

enable anyone who so wishes, to get a clear idea of any one

period by reading with a certain degree of fervour for a year,

a clear notion not only of what was written, but, so to speak,

of why and how, from what impulses, with what objects, and

in what conditions morally speaking. It is hoped by this

method to integrate literature with life, and so give the writ-

ings of the past that meaning without which to read is to be

16

baffled, and to miss that greatest of all pleasures, a sense of

unity of feeling with the writer of any work. Lacking this,

literature is too far separated from living, and can have but

little value.

The manner in which English literature has been split up

in this series no doubt demands an explanation. There are

many ways in which it can be split up. This has been done

variously, sometimes rather arbitrarily by centuries or

other irrelevant measuring rods, more often by grouping it

around great figures: The Age of Wordsworth and so on: or

by literary movements: The Romantic Revival, for instance.

These divisions have their uses, but for our purpose here they

tend to subordinate life to literature. It is admitted that there

is an element of arbitrariness in the present divisions also,

but the object is to relate literature to life, disregarding

movements, which may only be different aspects of the same

thing. The divisions here correspond in the main with social

sense; roughly indeed, with what reservations you will, and

with contradictions of a rule which cannot be rigid, since

human nature refuses to fit into compartments.

In the first period, after the Conquest, you can say with

some plausibility (though it is in this period that our structure

is weakest) that literature was much more diffused among

different classes; it was written for no particular brand of

person. Everyone would read Piers Plowman, or applaud the

miracle plays. There is, it is true, much that is courtly about

Chaucer, but there is much that is not. When we get to

Spenser, say, we feel that literature is being written for an

aristocracy: the drama still maintained its general appeal

(though even as early as the moralities and interludes there is

a shift away from the people), but it became more and more

aristocratic, till under Charles II it was entirely courtly. This

period, then, we can describe as the aristocratic period:

Donne, Jeremy Taylor, Sir Thomas Browne, Milton, are

writers for an aristocracy, and this social sense we may say

was established by the Tudors, and exploited by the Stuarts,

till it came to an end at the Revolution of 1688. Then, with

great suddenness, there appeared a literature written by the

middle class, of the middle class, and for the middle class:

17

B

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

the pamphleteers, the essayists, and soon Defoe and the novelists. Even the drama changed with startling rapidity, with the anti-aristocratic satire of Farquhar, and the sentimental comedy of Steele.

The ideas of the middle class, with its strong sense, as it then had, of an organised society, gave place in the last century to the idea of individualism, due partly to the French, and partly to the Industrial Revolution. It had been begun by the romantic poets, with their break-away from the idea of "society" so dear to the eighteenth century. It might grieve Shelley to think that he was the forerunner of the excellent Dr. Smiles, but so it is. At all events, individualism dominated literature until the War. But even before that it was breaking down (having somewhat oddly consorted with a blatant imperialism), as can be seen from the plays of Mr. Bernard Shaw, and still more, perhaps, from the novels of Mr. E. M. Forster. The post-War period has its own characteristics; a new twist has been given to our view by the recent investigations into psychology, ethnology, physics, and by the Russian Revolution.

There are, of course, several objections to this sort of division: odd elements appear everywhere: you cannot, for instance, rank Bunyan among aristocratic writers. But some division has to be made along chronological lines. It may be objected that the first period needs at least two volumes: it is so long and so varied. That is true, but the number of works which remain which can be of interest to the general reader are comparatively few, and it was thought better to devote more space to our more recent heritages, as being both fuller of works we are likely to read, and as having a closer influence upon our present day approach to living.

BONAMY DOBRÉE

18

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

THE method of this volume differs perforce from that of

the rest of this series, for any reader will require more

and more varied help here than in later periods. It does

not follow that every reader will need everything. We have

tried to point out to the general reader the most helpful

studies of each work listed, to give a little more guidance

to any reader who has special interest in any one, and to

show where more may be found. No one need be afraid of

long lists, but must pick what he himself needs out of them.

The method varies within the volume, according to a

rough judgment of the difficulty and the importance of

the subject. Thus the pre-Conquest literature is treated

more systematically than the later mediaeval because of its

greater technical difficulty. We have tried to bear in mind

both the average reader with a general interest in life and

literature and the serious student of what is called “Old and

Middle English”. It will be obvious that the volume is a

mixed effort by one of each; and that the former is solely

responsible for the opinions expressed in the introduction.

1939

W. L. R.

H. O.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

IN the decade that has elapsed since the publication of

this book, few works of the first importance have appeared,

for the War and its complications have inevitably absorbed

much of the time and energy of many of those whose con-

tributions would have rightfully secured mention in this

Second Edition. In consequence we have not found it

necessary to add much in our endeavour to bring the book

up to date. We have, however, tried to correct errors in the

First Edition, and in doing so, we have been much helped

by information received from Professor F. W. Baxter, Professor

Bruce Dickins and Mr. W. A. G. Doyle-Davidson, to each of

whom we now express our grateful thanks. The introduction

is untouched.

1952

W. L. R.

H. O.

19

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH

LITERATURE TO SKELTON 1509

INTRODUCTION

I

THE terms Ancient, Mediaeval, Modern, are useful as chronological references or compendious mnemonic labels. They have no critical value, for there is no Time-Factor in art. What matters is experience, which is the whole content of knowledge, however acquired and however retained, present in consciousness or latent in the mysterious reserves of the mind. It may be argued that knowledge is cumulative and so the later ages have more experience than the earlier, but, though individual ability varies indefinitely, even the greatest can use only part of a limited experience; and for all its complexity, art depends upon the emotions, and they are few and common. The scale of experience matters not at all. Emotions are not to be measured statistically, and our judgments—which are our registration of emotional contacts—are qualitative, not quantitative. A clachan in Glencoe went up in flame one snowy night in 1692, and the pibroch Muinntir a Glinne so is a greater work of art than the Great War produced in ten nations. And man has a pitiful and merciful capacity for forgetting. We can be carried to Australia in five days, but how many of us (I write on the Border) could ride forty miles across difficult country in misty weather and bring back a dozen cows in the face of an armed population?

Yet I am not sure but that we might speedily recover that craft, if the immediate value of solid edible cows

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

became more pressing than the clipping of the Australian

record. So--returning to the arts with which we are here

concerned--I conjure the reader to abolish from his mind

the notion that "old" means "dead". The dead is the

superseded. Old text-books are dead, but not old poems, old

sermons, old philosophies (for philosophy also is a creative

art), so long as they are what we call "good"--that is, so long

as we find or divine in them some emotional power or inteilec-

tual interest--which is also an emotion--so long as they

attach themselves to our experience, in prospect as addition

to experience or in retrospect of memory recalled. Some

things may have been done better since they were done

first. It is interesting to watch men improving on their

predecessors. But we must keep our chronology innocent of

the flattering concept of "progress". And above all we must

eschew the metaphor "evolution", for poem does not beget

poem nor play give birth to play. Such things are made

by wilful men wilfully, as well as they know how, for their

present ends, and the discussion of epic and drama as if

they were strains of moths or primulas is on a level with

the treatment of political history as the Acts of an anthro-

pomorphic Providence or a demonic Financier. On the other

hand, there is no great point in nostalgia. Those who look

back with longing to a Golden Age unconsciously identify

themselves with a Golden Class; but Mr. Yeats in ninth-

century Ireland may not have been a bard, William Morris

may have been a thrall in Iceland, and it might be our

cattle that were lifted.

In this essay--or, rather, this series of hints and glimpses--

we wish to be there or thereabouts, not here and now

patronising our rude forefathers or dramatising ourselves in

hauberks and chasubles; still less should we treat the visions

and designs of our forebears as if we had dug them out of a

quarry. In so far as we succeed in remembering that these

books were written by people, about people and for people, we

shall find ourselves among people, men and women, artists

and thinkers. It is difficult. The content of daily life, from

which we draw the imagery that is the medium of expres-

sion, has changed--not only the clothes and the buildings,

22

INTRODUCTION

but the familiar avocations. How many of us have seen the potter's thumb, the beggar's dish, "the dyer's hand subdued to what it works in"? To most of us these are intellectual concepts; not so long ago they were daily things in every village, and directly visual. We can still say "swift as an arrow", but only members of certain clubs know just how swift that is. So also the content of education—that is, of deliberately acquired experience—has changed. Our history shows Venus and Hercules and Cæsar usurping the place in men's thoughts and dreams once held by Isoude and Lancelot and Gawaine, who ousted Brynhild and Offa and Hrothgar—not only as stories, but as images, subjects for comparison and standards of social and moral judgment, and spells to call up specific memories and emotions in the mind. For the most part they have lost their powers, yet each was relevant, proper, modern, in its time, and may be recovered.

Bede is simple, because he represents, and very purely, two things that have lasted to this day, the Latin language and the Latin Church; but for our generation, now that the dangerous times are back, even his lay contemporary is not so very difficult. In the year 1912, after several peaceful generations, Professor W. Macneile Dixon prefaced his English Epic and Heroic Poetry with a good sonnet which closed thus:

Wiglaf is dead, and Hrothgar long ago

At the last rampart met the stroke of fate.

No journeys now the byrnie by his side

Makes with the earl or atheling lying low;

Nor thee a second time can time create,

Viking and kinsman, in thy mournful pride.

Three years, and a young London scholar engraved on the wall of his earth-house the refrain of Deor,

þæs ofereode: þisses swa mæg—

and a year after—though the Ordnance Corps did not persevere with their adaptation of the byrnie—a helm-bearer,

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Robert Graves, was going behind his Cavalier reminiscence to discover a pure Anglian sentiment:

It is no courage, love or hate

That lets us do the things we do;

It's pride that makes the heart so great;

It is not anger, no, nor fear-

Lucasta, he's a Fusilier,

And his pride keeps him here.

Another year, and the war-leader of the Angle-kin said to his warriors: "Our backs are to the wall, let us stand and fight it out"-which is very much what one Byrhtnoth, according to the poet, said at Maldon in 991. Such things are neither ancient nor modern, and may be dismissed only when staunchness and self-respect and sacrifice cease to be virtues. And vices are as eternal as virtues. Things are being done in our Europe which Froissart would understand much better than most of our publicists; Robin Hood with an automatic pistol is the same Robin Hood who made himself a public nuisance with the long-bow, and the Black Prince was not the last hero to perpetrate a massacre.

Yet the stubborn fact of change confronts us still. The change of speech matters little: the oldest English is easier than any foreign language. The change of tradition matters a great deal, for value in any art depends on the interaction of an individual creative will and a valid tradition of thought, imagery, and technique. Technique can be learned, but three-quarters of our study must always be the attempt to reacquire the traditional content of the imagination. This is true at all times, in the study of Dryden and Wordsworth as in that of Cynewulf. The translucent medium of expression must become transparent to us, at least in patches, before we can see the individual whose emotions, thanks to some miracle of art, we share; and though the medium of the older artists can never come quite clear, if we will take a little pains it need not be quite opaque. Or if in another phase of criticism we regard the artist as maker and his work as an

24

objet d'art for inspection, then we are equally bound to examine the material and the process before we can enjoy aught but a vague pleasure and a gaping wonder. In Widsith, for instance, the oldest of our poems, we meet at once this primary difficulty of imaginative content, for Widsith is a sort of catalogue of Germanic tribes and chieftains, some of whom we cannot even identify or locate, but all of whom carried, for the poet and the audience he wrote for, an image, a story, and an appropriate emotion. We have lost touch, because the tradition is that of the Germanic confederacy and the great migrations, yet before we dismiss it as dead we should realise that these names are but the strings of a harp whose fingering is forgotten—and whose tones, though roused only by wandering winds of romanticism, have revived their power in Germany.

Widsith, then, presents, in a sort of catalogue and therefore with tantalising aridity, some of the inherited experience, charged with imaginative and emotional power, that the English brought to England. As we have it—for what we have is probably a late and revised edition—it shows also contact with a force which was eventually hostile to the tradition it represents, the Roman Church, for among the tribes of his world the poet numbers the Israelites, the Assyrians, the Hebrews, the Jews and the Egyptians, names manifestly gathered from biblical instruction. The advent of Christianity need not have harmed the native literature, as the examples of Ireland and Scandinavia prove. A monotheistic religion, of course, entails a notion alien to polytheism, the notion of heresy, but the extent to which the missionary feels bound to change the imaginative content of his people depends on the range and intensity of his desire for orthodoxy as well as upon their affection for their own legendary. The Irish contrived to be Christians without giving up their heroes or even forgetting their gods. The Scandinavians had learned how to preserve their stories before the missionaries made them disreputable as relics of heathendom. In England, Augustine confined himself to a Kentish tribe whose whole importance was its strategic position, but if Paulinus had stayed away from York for another century, or, better still,

25

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

had left the North to Lindisfarne, early English literature

would be much more interesting.

The question is, when a new body of imaginative ex-

perience arrives, whether it is to be assimilated or whether it

is to supersede the old. So much of our early literature is lost

that it is difficult to make out a history, but Beowulf at least

remains to us. The Christian infiltration into this piece of

Germanic legendary has long been recognised, but it is

another matter to say that the Christian notions were the

poet's main object and the legendary was but the vehicle.

There is a tendency to suggest that a reference to Cain and a

hint of gentle righteousness prove that the author was a

priest,1 but that does poor justice to the missionaries on one

hand and to the poet's nose for a good story on the other; nor

need we assume that the righteous heathen is an impossibility.

Beowulf reads to me like a secular poem, written by a culti-

vated layman, who though a Christian, had a pious and

proper respect for the tradition of his own people—not only

the traditional stories, but the moral and social tradition; for

Beowulf belongs to a settled and civilised society with clear

notions of ethics and behaviour, and possessed of culture,

different indeed from the composite civilisation and com-

posite culture that have supplanted those of the seventh

century, but none the less authentic and influential, and

contributory to the ordinary ideas of life and conduct by

which we are still governed. Certainly it is far removed

from monkishness.2

We cannot tell whether Beowulf represents its age exactly:

but if Gibbon had been luckier at Oxford he might have met

those who could have taught him that it is not quite true that

"All beyond Cæsar and Tacitus is darkness or fable in the

antiquities of Germany". First, however—though Gibbon

would have found it difficult—we must rid our minds of the

1 Mr. Kemp Malone even argues that the references in Widsith are only

possible to a priest, but I think my point holds there even more firmly.

2 For a brief example of what monkishness means, see the Narratio de

Uxore Aernulfi appended (from a thirteenth-century MS.) to Gaimar's

History: Rolls Series, Vol. I. The same mentality may be studied in some

Communist criticism.

26

notion that Latin culture is the only culture, and a knowledge of Latin synonymous with education. The Roman missionaries did not arrive among a mindless people. They brought a new culture with different racial and geographical connections, and the two existed for a time side by side. Bede, whose orthodoxy imbued even mathematics with emotion, was "skilled in the native minstrelsy", and, as he closed his lifetime of service to the Roman Church, sang on his deathbed in his native strains. The fact that his Historia Ecclesiastica was translated into English proves that his Latin was a hindrance to some, but it proves also that there were men who could read English, and who cared to know. The native ability was there, or Lindisfarne, Monkwearmouth, and the schools of York that bred the teachers of Charlemagne's clerks, would never have come into being; nor is it possible to assume that the ability was lying fallow until it yielded such marvellous crops under the Roman plough.

It may be asked, then, if cultivation existed apart from the churches, what became of it? The answer can never be complete, but some reasons may be found for the loss of so many of its monuments.1 First, the Viking invasions of the ninth century destroyed the books along with the society that made them. Northumbrian poetry survives only in transcripts adapted to the dialects of happier and safer districts, and there was no more chance of a literature to correspond to the art of the manuscripts and crosses, bred between the Anglian tradition, the Irish instruction, and the Roman importation. Of the culture of the Scandinavian settlers themselves little is known. It would seem as if the best-bred of these tough-minded races had gone to Iceland to work out their own freedom far from settled lands, and with it their own inimitable literature; but those who settled in England cannot have lacked their share of the tradition and the brains. They correspond indeed to the English of some three centuries earlier, only with a greater knowledge of the world, and they had their influence on law. There was barely time, however,

1 The loss has been so admirably expressed by Professor R. W. Chambers that I need only refer to his paper The Lost Literature of Mediaeval England in The Library, 4th ser., 5 (1925).

27

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

for anything to come of those new-settled regions before the

Norman Conquest changed the whole situation, and the

Conqueror's devastations threw them back once more. The

story of Havelok, and a few late ballads, alone testify to

possibilities, for by the time the Scandinavian districts had

consolidated themselves, the Germanic tradition had lost its

prestige and was reduced to a folk-lore.

The mechanical factor of destruction certainly operated,

but another, also mechanical, was operating continuously.

We must not confuse Latin and culture; we must not confuse

culture and literacy. Reading and writing are useful accom-

plishments, but as the cinema and radio are showing us, they

are not identical with, nor even essential to, intellectual and

emotional cultivation. The illiterate chieftain or baron who

listened to scop or jongleur instead of reading in a book might

be more cultivated in person, behaviour, and imagination

than most products of our public and secondary schools. As

Professor Chadwick has pointed out,1 the first things men

need to write down are laws and the boundaries of lands,

because these must be fixed and precise, and must be

preserved intact. Literacy is useful up to that point, but so

long as each party to a dispute can produce a reader, literacy

need be spread no wider. Men write down what is useful to

themselves. The clerics in their turn wrote down, not all they

knew, but what they required—their own history, and the

dogma which also must be preserved intact and precise as a

safeguard against heresy. The writing of what early English

poetry remains was probably done by ecclesiastics who were

interested in poetry but whose memories were spoiled by

books, who had changed from oral learning to book learning

and needed their literature in that form.

Quite apart from any question of literacy, again, men

regard things differently out of habit. There are the things

that are in books and the other things that are not. Bede did

not write down the native minstrelsy he knew; he sang it.

The monks of Lindisfarne could certainly write, and that

magnificently; they knew poems about Ingeld, for in an

often-quoted letter Alcuin rebuked them for their taste for

1 The Growth of Literature, Vol. I, Chap. XVI.

28

INTRODUCTION

such heathen things; but so far as we know they kept their skill for the place to which it was appropriate, the service-books of the church. King Alfred is witness that St. Aldhelm was versed in English song, but—though we would gladly exchange all we have of the abominable Latin that Aldhelm learned in the Celtic schools for one leaf of what he sang in the streets—Alfred, himself a lover of English poetry, did not think fit to record one line. It probably never occurred to him. So likewise, at the end of the Middle Ages, Caxton printed what suited his serious courtly clientèle, but not the lyric and dramatic masterpieces of his own time. He did not necessarily despise them; he left them where they belonged, in the taverns, at the cross-roads, in ladies' bowers and in the church-yards. This habit of mind persists into the nineteenth century, and we have only hints of what it has lost us. To take one example: from the twelfth century to the late fourteenth we have allusions to a hero called Wade,1 but what must have been a familiar and persistent image has dropped clean out of the imaginative experience of the English. One can hardly even complain.

An unwritten literature, again, is not necessarily uncritical. "Folk" song and "art" song differ only in obeying different rules, and our illiterate chieftain—or the illiterate rustic—though he might not check at textual niceties, knew how a poem or a story ought to go, and paid for a good one when he heard it: both of which are more important. The cleric also, who wrote down those fragments which seemed not unedifying or appealed to some personal sentiment, knew the rules and encouraged their application to his own purposes. Beowulf is anonymous, but we are told about Cædmon, because he marks a stage at which the tradition was made serviceable to the Church. People were singing songs, and Cædmon was inspired by a new subject. The old subjects were superseded by the new, the Old Testament stories and the Lives of the Saints, matter of instruction and edification expressed in the imagery and rhetoric of the secular tradition and deriving—for us at least—what interest they possess

1 Walter Map, de Nugis Curialium, II. xvii, to Chaucer, Merchant's Tale 179. See Skeat's note on the latter.

29

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

largely from the reminiscences of that tradition which they

contain. The use of the local tradition to make men listen to

scriptural instruction instead of heathen legends is good mis-

sionary technique. The content of the imaginative experience

is most easily changed in such a fashion, so that the hymning

of Christ in terms proper to a Germanic hero would induce

hearers of The Dream of the Rood to accept Him into their

imaginations as something familiar and admirable. It is also

true to say that the poet of Genesis B who sees Abraham as

another Hrothgar or Offa, and the poet of Andreas, who sees

the apostle as another Beowulf, are at exactly the same stage

imaginatively and culturally as the fifteenth-century writers

who told the stories of the good knight Sir Jason and his

friend Sir Hercules.

In the work of King Alfred we can recognise another

attempt at assimilation, this time at a more advanced posi-

tion than that of the missionaries. Alfred deplored the low

estate of learning,1 but he must have had some faith both in

the literacy and in the intelligence of his people, or the mere

translation of useful books would have been pointless. But

however sound his plans and methods, this second Beowulf

stage, this second chance for a native culture strengthened

and refined by foreign contacts, did not last long. The

Danish wars and dynastic troubles gave the English little

time or peace for study, and it was a makeshift at best. Nor

could the Church at large or at headquarters take very

seriously this concession to local weakness. Once, and in the

North, there had been men like the Northumbrian king of

Bede's youth, Aldfrith, "well skilled in holy Scripture", who

gave eight hides of land for a book of Geography,2 pupils of

the Irish heretics whom Bede fought with all his theological

and mathematical resources, but that chance was lost, while

the power of Rome pressed steadily towards uniformity. The

content of the mind had to be controlled. Any modification

or eccentricity in this remote and barbarous province would

be suspect; if it proved harmless it would meet indifference

1 Preface to translation of the Cura Pastoralis.

2 Bede, Life of Abbot Ceolfrid.

30

INTRODUCTION

at best. Successive clerical reformers, already associated in

English minds with the export of bullion but accepted in

simple docility, checked any prospect of a true assimilation,

and with it any prospect of an original English contribution

to European thought.

Whether the English aspired greatly to any such contribu-

tion is doubtful. Then as ever an odd mixture of conservatism

and docility, ready to be impressed by any foreigner who

arrived with a sufficient display of authority, the simple

Oswys were no match for the Wilfrids. A stiffer-backed race

might have upheld their traditions in spite of the priests, but

the power of institutions must be reckoned with, and also

their attraction. Wilfrid broke with his Celtic teachers for the

sake of the wider Roman opportunities and the stronger

Roman power. Alcuin, whose school at York might have

been such a centre of intellect in England as the school of

Chartres became in France, was tempted away to the

Carolingian empire. And, when all external influences are

allowed for, the fact remains that the Anglian tradition was

not advancing. It was already a fully-developed tradition

when the English brought it to England, and no later poet

achieved the stylistic security, any more than the grave

dignity, of Beowulf, or its clear pictures of sea and shore and

moorland. So much is lost that we cannot dogmatise, but the

sailorman who loves and curses the sea, the Seafarer, appears

as unique in Old English as in early European poetry.

Cynewulf is indubitably a great religious poet; seventy

years before the Conquest, someone could write a good poem

on the battle of Maldon; but slackening of the verse and

stiffening of the style betray a tradition on the down grade,

and it may be that little of value was being done when the

Normans landed. That does not mean that the poetic

tradition was destroyed—as we shall see in another connex-

ion, its shadow stretches right down into the sixteenth

century—but it could not compete with the new tradition

that was growing up, the third great European tradition in

which we still work, the tradition of France.

31

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

II

We must not imagine, however, that the Norman Conquest meant the introduction into England of the French tradition, for the simple reason that that tradition was not yet made. If Taillefer the jongleur did indeed sing the Chanson de Roland before Senlac, he sang something—glorious as it is—more primitive than the English had sung round their watch-fires the night before—more primitive, in all likelihood, than the scops sang to Hengist and Horsa while Rowena, after the old English custom, carried round the wine-cup. In any case, the Normans were not missionaries of culture. They were keen business men like their Viking ancestors, from whom they inherited a gift of discipline and a power of organisation which the needs of settled life and the revelation of Continental régimes fostered into political genius. It is assumed by some historians that the Normans brought a new gaiety and liveliness to the melancholy English, but the English melancholy is a generalisation from the scanty relics of the selection made by clerics who were continually upbraiding their countrymen for their love of women and feasting and general frivolity, and who were themselves taken to task by reformers for their own love of gaudy clothes and bright ornaments. The Normans brought better architecture—or, what is perhaps even more important, better building—but beyond that their direct effect on art in England was negligible, and even depressing.

On the other hand, the indirect effects are almost incalculable. The Normans brought discipline and organisation into a land that was in some need of both, and since they appreciated the discipline and organisation of the Roman Church, they drew upon it at once for reinforcement of their secular rule. The stiffening of Roman uniformity accompanied the new system. Though they had little or nothing to put in place of the English literary tradition which they reduced along with the language to political and social inferiority, they reoriented the English outlook, for they abolished the Channel as a political frontier, and closed the

32

INTRODUCTION

northern seas. It was not that the Channel had ever been

an impassable barrier to the English. English mercenaries

mounted guard in Constantinople. English scholars attended

the schools of France, and English missionaries converted

Germany and Sweden from heathenism. Alfred recorded the

voyages of his merchants, and encouraged the old habit of

the Roman pilgrimage. We hear much of the travels of the

Irish monks: a people whom one of their countrymen, the

apostle of Germany, reproached because "There are few

cities in Lombardy or Francia or Gaul in which there is not

a harlot of English race"1 might not feel such pride in its

exports—and its religious enthusiasms, since this was one

outcome of the Roman pilgrimage—but it could not be des-

cribed as cloistered in its island. The new political situation,

however, ended the old cultural situation. The English had

looked east, west, and south: east to their ancestral tradition,

west to Ireland, and south to Rome. Now they looked only

south, to Rome and to France, and there began, for one

thing, the drain of intellect to the south-east which made

impossible an intellectual centre in the north to succeed

Alcuin's school, and for another, more direct contact with

the French thought and art that were rising so rapidly and to

such brilliance during those first two or three generations

after the Conquest. And this contact was possible not only

to those who sought the schools of Chartres and Paris: thanks

to the southern queens and to the family relations of the

third and later generations with central and southern

France, French poets as well as French theologians and

administrators came into England. It took time, but in

Henry I's reign the contact was clearly established, and by

Henry II's it was strong.

Henceforth there were three traditions, three bodies of

thought and imagination articulate and inarticulate, each

possessing its own appropriate matter, language, and

technique: the Latin, the French, and the English. The

relations between them are not easy to disentangle. To set

down Latin as the language of the clerks, French as that of

the governing classes, and English as that of the labourers,

1 Quoted by Hodgkin, History of the Anglo-Saxons, II, 419.

33

c

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

would look neat and systematic; it might even be roughly

true. The implied negative, however, would be quite untrue.

Of the three tongues, two were maternal and one merely

professional. Any man who knew Latin must know at least

one of the others. If English was his mother tongue he would

almost certainly know French as well, and many French

speakers must have found English necessary to their business.

It is essential that the student should appreciate the fact that

mediaeval England had two vernaculars plus one habitual

language; that though French was shared with a pre-

ponderant body overseas and Latin with all Europe, each

passed current in England by full right of citizenship; and

that all three must be taken into account.1 Thereafter he must

realise that the three tongues were not insulated one from

another. Even in the early generations the two races were

intermarrying, and the three languages were intermarrying.

The presence of both French and English songs in the manu-

script from which Wright printed his Specimens of Lyric

Poetry,2 the presence there and elsewhere3 of bilingual and

macaronic poems, prove that there were people round about

the year 1300 who could appreciate both tongues, for the

game of playing with two languages at once—and occasion-

ally with three—is a sophisticated pastime. The audience

which was amused by such things as

Cest est ma volunte

That I mighte be with thee

Ludendo.

Vostre amour en moun qoer

Brenneth hote as the fyr

Cressendo . . .4

was composed neither of Saxon yokels nor of race-arrogant

Normans. It was perhaps a specialised audience, but it was

the kind of specialised audience by which literature is made

and fostered.

1 Lest some be discouraged let me add that the crucial documents have all

been translated either then or since. See the bibliography.

2 MS. Harleian 2253; Percy Society, Vol. IV, 1842.

3 As in Wright's Political Songs, in the Rolls Series.

4 Chambers and Sidgwick, Early English Lyrics, p. 16.

34

INTRODUCTION

An elementary difficulty indeed confronts the literary historian—that is, anyone who attempts to assess the intellectual and imaginative experience of those who walked the English soil: how to construe the term “English Literature”.

If we confine ourselves to things written in the English tongue we do not only obtain a distorted view of the Middle Ages, but make incomprehensible the later history of things written in the English tongue. If we include all subjects of the Kings of England, we not only include half France, but make a false unity between groups whose only relationship was that they owed political allegiance to the same person.

If we define English literature as anything written in England, we saddle ourselves not only with various latinists who were here on purely professional business, but with one or two learned Hebrews, and we might disturb the shades of some others, like Garnier of Pont-Sainte-Maxence, who wrote of his Vie de S. Thomas in the late twelfth century:

Ainc mes mieldre romanz ne fu fez ne trovez:

A Cantobire fut et fet et amendez . . .

Mes languages est buens, car en France fui nez . . . 1

for when Garnier says “France”, he means the royal kingdom, not Normandy, and he means us to notice the difference.

Not all the latinists can be disregarded, by any means. At certain times, official, ecclesiastical, and learned works in Latin, and even frivolities and psalmodies, might be set aside as extremely important indeed, but not central to our present purpose. But when we turn to the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, where there is something in English but nothing vital—Anglo-Norman never did produce anything very exciting—we find a notable body of Latin writings: Walter Map and Giraldus Cambrensis, as lively a pair of characters as any age brought forth; John of Salisbury, a remarkable intellect; a whole group of historians who on occasion are as living writers as any historian need be: and Geoffrey of Monmouth, author of one of the main source-

1 Quoted by Vising, Anglo-Norman Literature, p. 80.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

books of European literature. They were all churchmen, but

that means little. They vary indefinitely between courtier,

civil servant, don, philosopher, humorist; nor is “monk” a

sufficient pigeon-hole for Matthew Paris, historian, calli-

grapher, traveller, artist, and man of business. These men

were not divorced from the life of their country and of

Europe, from the common speech or the tales and songs

of the people.

There is no complete solution, yet by following his own

interests and trusting to his own intelligence the student may

pick his way. If Gerald de Barri, half Norman, half Welsh,

and writing in Latin, does not belong to us, to whom do the

descriptions of his tours belong? John of Salisbury, on the

other hand, is ours by the local and personal reminiscences

which help us to understand what twelfth-century men were

like; but when we attempt to trace his intellectual affilia-

tions, to define his contribution to intellectual life, or to

assess his intellectual quality, we become involved in inter-

national (or supra-national) institutions, the Church and the

University, since much of his working life was spent in

Chartres where he was Bishop, and Paris where he taught.

If we were to try to deal exhaustively with the history

of the mind in England, we should have to follow the

philosophical and scientific adventures of Western Europe;

which would lead us from ancient Athens to Syria, Bagdad,

along North Africa with the Moslem cavalry into Spain, and

north again to Paris, fleeting Arab physicians and Jewish

rabbis and French logicians, and one Atheihead of Bath, a

remarkable person. It is too long a journey, and we must

leave it to the historians of philosophy and science—always

remembering that it is there, and that it matters.

Even cutting free from that busy and fascinating society,

we are left with a sufficient tangle of peoples and tongues.

One, though far from irrelevant, we may dismiss: the con-

solidation of Scandinavian tradition that coincided in time—

though in little else apart from a tincture of Latin—with the

flourishing of the new French school, and thanks to which

the allusions of our early poets are less of a puzzle than they

might be. In its place there appears another tradition, the

36

Celtic. After all, the Norman Conquest was crucial, and to other literatures as well as to English. It is amusing, if impractical, to speculate on what might have been, had that strong man Harold Godwinsson broken William the Bastard at Senlac–English, a sermo regius, its tradition refreshed from Scandinavia, enriched in content by continuing connections with the Latin world and in technique by relations (already opened under the Confessor) with the new arts of France, hospitable to the Irish arts and scholarship, and controlling all with its own sober good taste, might have reached earlier and more naturally a fuller synthesis than that which appears only in Chaucer's time: or it might not. What did happen is still more curious. After the English settlement, such Britons as retained some political cohesion shut themselves up in the west, refusing even to share the true religion with their supplanters. Christianity, and along with it some mixed intellectual and artistic cultivation–certain in fact though disputable in amount1–came to northern England through the Gaelic branch, and apart from incidents like the recruiting of Asser to assist Alfred's latinity, the relations between Briton and Saxon remained, at best, distant. The Normans, however, overran the English bounds into South Wales, where de Clares, de Barris and the like, formed a narrow line of connection.

In time, the adaptable stock from northern France threw roots in the island, and the natural and normal first leafage appears in their growing interest in the past of their new land, which was not merely annexed to the Duchy of Normandy but held—and most importantly reflected on them—the higher status of a kingdom. There was wherewith to feed that interest. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was continued for some eighty years after the Conquest in the strength of Alfred's organisation of it; and as it failed, William of Malmesbury, a scion of mixed Norman and English stock who died about 1143, was writing de Gestis Regum Anglorum, out of a desire to preserve for posterity what could be sought

1 The distribution through north-west Europe of techniques and decorative motives—quaere, from Scythia?—awaits investigation and co-ordination by impartial archaeologists.

37

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

out de nostra gente, and supplementing the Chronicle from

other histories, monastic files, lives of saints and kings, the

reminiscences of Norman officials, and the tales and ballads

of the countryside. At the same time or little later, Geoffrey

Gaimar, a Norman poet domiciled in Lincolnshire, wrote

Lestorie des Engles, of which the extant second Book is solidly

based on the Chronicle, filled out from local memory and

including the deeds of Hereward and the Danish tale of

Haveloc. But here enters the new factor. For the British part

of the story, if anyone cared to include it, there had been

available the eighth-century Historia Britonum of Nennius and

the sixth-century de Excidio Britanniæ of Gildas; but Gaimar's

lost First Book contained British history, and he lists among

his sources a Welsh book translated by order of Robert Earl of

Gloucester, the son of Henry I, and borrowed for his use

from Walter Espec, the Norman lord of Helmsley. He also

mentions

Le bon liuere de Oxenford

Ki fust Walter l'arcediaen.1

Now it was on "a very ancient book in the British tongue"

lent him by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, that Geoffrey of

Monmouth, according to his dedication to the same Earl of

Gloucester, based his History of the Britons. Whether there

ever was such a book-for Gaimer was probably referring to

Geoffrey's work-to what extent Geoffrey reproduced it,

whether his is an inflated version of misunderstood history or

(as his younger contemporary and fellow Cambro-Norman

Gerald insisted) a pack of lies of his own invention, no man

can tell. But the thing was launched. The Britons had their

revenge. The British tradition became the tradition of

England.

Thus when a good poet of King John's time, Layamon2

of Worcester, an Englishman and son of an Englishman,

was moved, about the year 1200, to write a history of the

English-

1 Ed. Hardy and Martin, Rolls Series, Lines 6465-6.

2 I use the form that has become familiar. The historical forms are Lazamon

and Laweman. Lawman is the correct modernising.

38

INTRODUCTION

Hit com him on mode and on his mern ponke

pet he wolde of Engle pa ædelæn tellen,

Wat heo ihoten weoren and wonene heo comen

pa Engleme londe ærest ahten—

he paid lip-service to the historical reputation of Bede, but himself produced a version, in form and style derived from the Anglo-Saxon poetic tradition, of the version in eight-syllable Norman verse which Wace the Jerseyman had made of Geoffrey's Historia Britonum. So it goes on, through Robert of Gloucester and Mannying of Bourne a hundred years after Layamon, until it is almost accepted into serious history. Almost, not quite. Henceforth historians might be divided into those—headed by William of Malmesbury—who held that all beyond Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was darkness or fable in the antiquities of England, and those who, like Gray in later years, were attracted by darkness and fable. Verse is the badge of this latter tribe; and history in verse denotes a transference of artistic (that is imaginative) allegiance from the grave English tradition to the less mature but more exciting fashions of the French.

Geoffrey's success, however, does not explain the concentration upon Arthur. There were other stories in the Historia Britonum, but Lear and Cymbeline had to await their poet. Research into the origins of the Arthurian legend is of little avail. There are the meagre annals of a Romano-British chieftain who fought against the English; primitive folk-tales of uncertain antiquity about which Celtic scholars are not agreed—and when Celts fall out other races do well to stand by; triads little more revealing than Widsith; solar, oceanic, and vegetation myths once fashionable among the learned. There is Geoffrey's setting-out of the main lines. And there are the Anglo-Norman and French poems in which we first meet the tales cherished ever since in the imagination of Europe. It is not so much a matter of historical veracity as one of literary psychology. How did it happen? It has long been accepted that generations of Welsh bards and Breton harpers carried the perfect tales of their tribes-men to Norman and Angevin courts, but no one has traced

39

the process much beyond the assertions of Gaston Paris,

whose parallel theories about the origins of the Charlemagne

cycle have been shown by M. Bédier to be illusory. We can

be sure of this, that Celticism had a success among the

Normans of the twelfth century and—still more, perhaps—

among their wives. The legend is removed from Armorican

mists to the daylight of a shrewd and mundane generation.

As part of the island tradition, Arthur possessed the negative

advantage as against Anglo-Saxon heroes such as Offa,

Athelstan, and Alfred, and against British heroes like

Cadwalla, of arousing no inconvenient emotional impli-

cations. The Normans, again, coveted Brittany. Henry II

thrust his son Geoffrey into the dukedom, and counter-

attacked the Bretons' belief in the return of Arthur by the

"discovery" of his tomb at Glastonbury and the naming of

Geoffrey's unlucky son who fell a victim to King John. The

Arthurian legend had political value. An appeal was made

to the imagination for specific temporary ends; and an

effective addition was made to the content of the imagination

which endured for centuries.

Once launched, the thing succeeded by its own merits. It

suited the new mixed Angevin civilisation that was growing

out of the Norman grimness. And it was a good story, a unity

from the mysterious birth to the tragic close, a nebula

whose perfect form attracted innumerable wandering tales

and became the nucleus and shell of an imaginative cosmos.

When all the suppositionſ and presumptions are laid out on

the board—Celtic legends, Celtic bards, mythologies, archi-

diaconal libraries—there is another to put beside them: the

presumption that professional men of letters know their

trade. At the Angevin courts of the twelfth century Wales and

Brittany were "news". Also, an initial success, whatever its

reasons and motives, is sure to be exploited. Again, a story

has to have its appropriate setting, as every gossip-writer

knows, so that this kind of story, wherever it be collected or

invented, had to be told of Brittany or Cornwall, that of

Moslem Spain, the other of Trebizond or Babylon; and a

setting may be valued according to the readiness with which

it will receive new accretions. Wace wrote a Roman de Rou

40

INTRODUCTION

which was a history of the Normans from Rollo down. He

enlivened it with speeches and picturesque details of his own

invention-the trick has been rediscovered of late years-just

as Layamon added to his Brut, and every mediaeval quasi-

historian after him, but there were limits: he could not

engraft irrelevant fairy-tales into the annals of Duke Richard

or Duke William without question or explanation, and his

scene was Normandy and its borders. The figure of Charles

the Great, again, however fantasticated by successive

romancers, had behind it a material historical personage; and

however it may wander into the marvellous lands of the

paynim, is sited centrally on the map of Europe. But Arthur

was always the shadow of a shade, hovering in a topography

which, despite efforts to identify and familiarise it, remained

as vague as the strange creatures that inhabited it-a shadow

that stimulated the imagination by offering certain decorative

motives and throwing the mind into a certain attitude, and

then left it free to create what it created or what the owner's

will required.

Personality and topography cease to have any significance.

Anything could go into the story of Arthur-fairy-tale,

mystical symbolism, straight poetry, courtly sentiment,

social instruction-with only the barest reference to legitimise

it. It was in other ways than as history that it became a useful

part of the imaginative inheritance of Europe. As the cycle

widened, and as it became a common possession of all

Europe from Dante to the Wife of Bath, the principal figures

took on an heraldic precision and expressiveness. Their names

recalled the stories, the appropriate emotions, and the social

ideals over which they came to preside, while the historical

significance disappeared with the temporary political use

that had called it up, except in so far as Englishmen took

pride in their ownership of one of the Nine Worthies. The

common position was probably that of the worthy Caxton1,

who doubted whether Arthur had ever lived, but was very

ready to be convinced, for the honour of England and

because the stories were such good stories and so full of

lessons of conduct. But even Caxton-even Manning of

1 Preface to Malory's Morte Darthur.

41

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Bourne—understood well enough that an historical Arthur was one thing and the poets' tales another. It was only in the nineteenth century that another kind of historical inquiry began, and it was understood that the Celts invented love and song, beauty and adventure—the French, gaiety, story-telling, and manners—and the English nothing. We must read our Renan and Matthew Arnold, however, with the clarity of mind they recommend. If we had The Wife's Complaint1 only in an Anglo-Norman version, the critical experts would doubtless acclaim its Celtic strangeness and Celtic force of emotion. And some of the most delicate of the Arthurian versions are German. The gulf between Arthurian origins and the matière de Bretagne is a passage perilous. As the mathematicians say, there are too many variables; for we are confronted not only with an historical problem and the migration of folk-tales, but with the social experience of a dozen generations and the wilfulness of a hundred artists.

Meanwhile, events had filled the imagination with new images and called it into the service of new desires, and the French genius responded as brilliantly. When Christendom began to counter-attack the Moslem, men looked back to the great leaders of the defence, and the cause received its imaginative embodiment in the matière de France. In England, the Charlemagne cycle has not had the continuous success of the Arthurian cycle. With the disappearance of the European unity, the European cause lost its emotional value along with its activity. From the 1090's till the 1490's—from the First Crusade to the reconquest of southern Spain, from the aftermath of Pope Gregory's triumph to the childhood of Luther—Christian Europe had a common enemy, the Saracen, in whose likeness all the foes of religion could be portrayed, as were the Norsemen in the French romance of Gurmand et Isembard. But when the national cause was more important in men's eyes than the European, when irreligion was identified with other Christians—heretic or papist—

1 I use the customary title. Given the moral code of early Germanic poetry, which escaped mediaeval and modern conventions, it may be correct: but some difficulties of interpretation would disappear if marriage were not assumed. Either way, this Anglian fragment could be made the nucleus of a romance.

42

INTRODUCTION

Roland and Oliver became mere subjects of amusement to Ariosto, and, even in those parts which had best reason to retain some emotion against the Saracen, dwindled into Sicilian marionettes. Political and religious nationalism made them of little force in the new England of Spenser and Shakespeare, and the new criticism, which grew out of national feeling as much as out of classical precedent, prescribed the national legend as the proper subject of great poetry. One greater power existed to carry the Arthurian legend over the transition and to fix it in the English imagination: while chivalry was yet a living emotion and a social code, but the language had changed enough to be intelligible to later readers without philological preparation, there had appeared one Thomas Malory, endowed (by some accident inscrutable to all our sciences from Mendelian genetics to Marxian economics) with a prose style incomparably suited to the subject, in whose strength all our later romancers have carried on.

The Charlemagne cycle, however, was by no means neglected in England. There was room for both Arthur and Charles, because they did not cover the same emotional field: Arthur stands for fighting and society, Charlemagne for fighting and religion. Religion, of course, comes into the Arthurian cycle with the Grail, but it is just in these symbols that the difference of tone is clearly felt. In the Arthurian tales the relics of the Passion are mysterious and magical treasures, laid up in strange castles in sunset lands, revealed in vision or ritual to the elect initiate Their appearance in the Charlemagne cycle commemorates the historical fact that Charles, who had a cult of relics, brought many into France: the relics are brought from Rome, lost and regained in the ordinary course of warfare; they are the sort of relics one might see in any great church, and if they work miracles, they work honest miracles such as a man might hear in any saint's-day sermon. So it is also with the people. When Sidney Lee claimed for the Arthurian tales, among other virtues, a "greater abundance of human interest"1 he was thinking no doubt of such things as the tragedy of Balin and Balan and the immortal tale of Tristram, and

1 Introduction to Huon of Bordeaux, E.E.T.S., 1882, p. xviii.

43

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

indeed there is nothing in all the Charlemagne stories

so penetrating as the picture of Lancelot in what should

have been a moment of triumph: "Thenne kyng Arthur

and alle the kynges and knyghtes kneled doune and gaf

thankynges and louynges vnto god and to his blessid

moder. And euer syre Launcelot wepte as he had ben a

child that had ben beten."1 But when on Loch Lomond side

King Robert the Bruce

merely

Red to thaím that war him by

Romanýs off worthi Ferumbrás .2 .

And made them gamyn and solas,2

he read them something livelier and heartier than any

Arthurian tale. If the anecdote is of Barbour's invention it

is well invented, and it shows also where Barbour learned

something of his own splendid way. Only once in all Malory's

book do we hear the authentic voice of the fighting man-at-

arms: "And so syre launcélot passed on a paas and smyled

and said god gyue him ioye that this spere made, for there

came neuer a better in my hand."3 But I dare undertake

(in the words of Sir Philip Sidney) honest Sir Oliver will

never displease a soldier—who, when the hungry douzepers

were beaten off a convoy they had captured,

him be-thou3th as man that hadde nede.

Sone he rau3t to hym a pece ful of wyn,

And to swannes that were y-bake wel and fyn,

ffyue white louves; and turned hys destrer.4

The one woman in all Malory who has any individuality—

for even Isoude is only fair and faithful—is Enid, and she

(as Tennyson felt) is dropped for the sake of a negative female

1 Malory, Morte Darthur, XIX, xii.

2 Barbour,'The Bruce, III, 435-7, 465.

3 Morte Darthur, Book VI, Chap. XIII.

4 Firumbras, ed. O'Sullivan, E.E.T.S., 1935, 459-62. I quote the Filling-

ham version because it seems to me livelier here.

44

of higher financial standing. But one would like to see Tennyson confronted with that forth-coming damsel Floripas the Emir's daughter, who rescued the knights for love of Sir Guy whom she had seen perform in a tournament long before, and encouraged them when (like human beings but not like the Round Table) they were disheartened:

"Lordynges", sayde floryp, "ne haue 3e no doute:

The tour hys strong y-now, with-Inne and with-oute.

There whyle pat 3e hit hald, schal no man it wynne.

Take we it alle in myrpe pat we haue here-Inne!

ffyftene maydenes we be3t now here.

Eche man chese hym a mayde pat hym lyketh to fere!

y haue y-chose pere me lykep, my lemman Gy."1

pan gan Florippe pat ientail maide Gyon hure lef a-scrye;

"Kys me, gode lef," panne sche sayde, "ones for al pys nuye."

Al y-armed as pay wer pan, a kuste hure as a my3te:

"Grant mercy," said sche, "swete lemman; now am y prest to fi3te."2

I have tried to translate the princess into Malorian prose, but it cannot be done. Sir Oliver, however, runs easily into Elizabethan: " 'There is none of us all,' said Roland, 'so valiant but he will lose his strength if meat fail.' 'Lordings,' said Oliver, 'let be your complaining. For a dinner I am the first man in the world.' With that he plucks forth his prey and lets them all see. . . ."3

The douzepers are more like people, just as the issues are more real, the wandering and fighting more intelligible than the motiveless jousting and knight-errantry of the Round Table. The sentiments are not delicate, but they are not entangled with a social code, and grow naturally out of permanent humanity. Anyone can sympathise with Sir Richard as he casts loose his wounded horse:

1 Ib., 853-9.

2 Bodleian version, ed. Herrtage, E.E.T.S., 1879, 3237-40.

3 Fillingham version, 502-6.

45

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Well sore he syked and sayde, "stede, thou were myn.

By god," he sayd, "thou art a noble stede,

And ofte thou haste me holpe at my nede.

Nowe thou schalt brydeles away fro me reche.

[To] Ihesu crist of hewn y the by-teche!"

he blessyd hys stede, and aftyr let hym go;

the terys of hys ey3en ronne to his to.1

I have quoted Ferumbras because it was popular, because King Robert the Bruce—or John Barbour—is good enough authority for anyone, because it is enjoyable, but also because it succeeded and succeeds by its natural human quality, for it draws comparatively little of its force from the memory of European crisis, depends less on an historical background than even the Chanson de Roland.

It has none of the vague attraction that the aura of Celtic prestige lends, for many readers, to the Arthurian stories, for it is a straightforward piece of book-making, manufactured, as M. Bédier has shown,2 to advertise the relics kept at S. Denis and to exploit the crowds that attended a religious fair.

The seriousness of the old chansons de geste may have disapeared, but its place is taken by the keenness with which the poet identifies himself with the persons of his poem, their dangers and their feelings.

Well read or recited, with those lines to throw straight at the audience:

Now prey we for Gy that god be hys waraunt,

That ys blyue fecched before the amaraunt!

Now speke we of balam, that wicked thef,

That was in gret yre,—god 3eue hym euil pref!—

it must have been exciting: it is still better than Zane Grey and even Stanley Weyman.

This normality of sentiment in the Charlemagne cycle makes it able to recieve even comedy.

There is no drastier jester in English literature than Sir

1 Ib., 923–9. I have added the word To in the fifth line, and removed the editor's exclamation mark after hewn.

2 Les Legendes Epiques, IV.

46

INTRODUCTION

Dinadan, but Rauf Coilyear is comedy well handled and zestfully enjoyed by its author.1 Incidentally it is the one addition to the cycle for which there is no French original: it is claimed for Scotland, and whatever the philologists decide about the dialect, the story of Charlemagne and the charcoal-burner is the sort of story men told about the Stewart kings. It is not parody, of which there is no lack elsewhere. Roland, as he appears on the road to meet the collier, is a figure to take the eye, and neither Charlemagne nor Rauf is diminished in stature by their encounter. It is as if a fabliau of the less scurvy type had crossed the border-line between simple and gentle, or a poet of chansons de geste had suddenly developed that peculiar kind of wisdom we call a sense of humour.

Perhaps that could have happened only in this illogical island; but it is a mistake to think in diagrams. In the Middle Ages there was free trade in stories, and in the Norman world, which touched the Celtic lands in the west, shared a language with the French kingdoms and a country with the English, and reached out to Sicily, southern Italy, Greece, and Jerusalem, stories and ideas could travel far and easily. A Persian story of two lovers might drift through by Bagdad and Constantinople; it does not follow that every mediaeval story about an Emir's son or a Sultan's daughter is of oriental origin, or that we solve a problem at every turn by invoking ethnology or history. In our own time Mr. James Bridie, having served in the North Persia Expeditionary Force, put a bit of that experience into a play; the critics damned Marriage is No Joke for its impossibly fantastic William le Queux second act; and the fantastic touch in Mr. Bridie might be traced quite seriously to his Scottish descent. It does not follow that the next playwright who introduces us to an exotic lady in a trans-Caspian setting is a Scot, or has read William le Queux, or has served in a North Persia Expeditionary force, or is writing history. But we can be sure that a mediaeval audience would recognise in Mr.

1 The original poem, that is, before some heavy-handed rhymester pinned on a conventional sequel to it. We are dependent on a late text, printed in Edinburgh in 1572.

47

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Bridie's play something of the fabliau setting, of romance of the Charlemagne or Alexander type, and of the difficult jeunesse of a hero. Some might criticise his restraint, and others, with minds trained on Aristotelian logic though unclouded with the Poetics, might criticise the mixing of social genres, but they would know what had happened to Mr. Bridie, and receive his images willingly into an imaginative experience that contained many more of the same kind.

III

The separation of social classes, and still more the separation of class literatures—fabliau for bourgeois, romance for knightly circles—was not so rigid in practice as in theory. Schematic political diagrams constructed on the artificial or sentimental "class" basis, whether mediaeval or modern, are bound to break down before natural ability—especially if it be perpetuated in a natural group such as the family—and before the need of a political society for certain kinds of ability. The history of families like the Pastons, the de la Poles, the Chaucers, shows it clearly, and if Professor Manly is right in insisting that Chaucer wrote for "a handful of courtiers, gentlemen, churchmen, professional men, officials, and city merchants",1 then we must believe that they shared the same tastes, that the knight appreciated a lively fabliau and the merchant a chivalric romance, or Chaucer would not have mixed them. That indeed might be expected, for a good story contains something for everybody. Human nature overrides class, and no class is self-contained either economically, emotionally, or intellectually.

Yet there is one separation that is vitally important to our understanding of the Middle Ages: the separation of the clerk from the layman. That separation allowed mediaeval learning to develop its peculiar character, its special triumphs and its special vices. The Church took learning to be her province, but unfortunately attempted to preserve it as her exclusive province. It was necessary that clerics should be

1 Some New Light on Chaucer, p. 76. I fancy Dr. Manly exaggerates a little the natural circumstances of authorship, but his point is good.

INTRODUCTION

educated, and the converse was accepted, that laymen need not be educated. This set a dangerous distance between ecclesiastical and lay thought. Learning was professionalised, and so was the Church. Little attention was paid to aught but what immediately concerned clerics, so that the Universities lacked the useful pressure of lay opinion and lay requirements. The intellectual professionals exercised their minds within the closed circle of their own speculations; and the Church saw to it that those speculations should be kept within the bounds of orthodoxy. Orthodoxy depends on authority, and, though new authority was cautiously admitted at intervals—once the Church had accepted what was known of Aristotle, other parts of his work, filtering through Arab scientists, were covered more or less by the same acceptance—the content of knowledge on the whole was little increased, and too much deference was paid to what had once been accepted. Inquiry was discouraged, partly because departure from authority is heresy, and partly because the Church, whose only concern was with the human soul, forbade undue interest in the things of this miserable and transitory world.

Nor was the balance redressed by the one province of learning which escaped the rigid control of Rome. The Common Law also required, and trained, well-educated practitioners, but here also, though a certain literary training was given and became a tradition in the Inns of Court, the primary purpose of study was professional, and it too rested upon authority. Young men, certainly, attended the Inns merely for the sake of a general training in administration, without binding themselves to the lifelong obedience required of the cleric, and the conflict of lay and ecclesiastical authority is conspicuous in the history of England; but the habits of mind induced by the methods of study were not so very different. Even the empirical Common Law confuses precedent with authority, and is entangled in the same processes of distinction, definition, and interpretation which were the staple activity of the civilians and the philosophers. Beyond this one restricted—and jealously watched—province, thought was exercised only within the forms of

49

D

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

deductive logic, a machine of extraordinary power and

accuracy which was so highly regarded as the one producer

of intellectual conclusions that it was kept turning after

conclusions had been reached, and was either applied to

problems for which it was unsuited or prevented any discus-

sion of them, until the inductive methods which should have

been its complement became its enemy perforce, and,

triumphing, shackled thought in its turn to the laboratory

practice which is to-day producing even worse results.

We must not make the mistake, however, of regarding

mediaeval thought as existing within watertight compart-

ments; the organic metaphor of differentiation of functions is

nearer the truth. The very fact that the Church did interfere

shows that the Church recognised the close relations that

exist between all forms of knowledge. In all the wars down to

those of Huxley, science lost little, and the Church gained by

being forced to review the premises upon which her deductive

dogmas rested; and it is uncertain whether the equanimity

with which modern churchmen have viewed the theories of

Dr. Einstein and other physicists is due to caution, indiffer-

ence, or inability to recognise the theological implications.

In any case, absolute stability and complete separation, how-

ever desirable from the Roman point of view and convenient

for the political diagram called "Respublica Christiana",

were impossible to human nature. The clerk was employed

in secular business, and small wonder if he developed social

usefulness and social ambitions, especially as his quality

exempted him from the long absences of the fighting man and

left him available for the amusement of the ladies.

Story-telling is the basis of literature, but there are always

those to whom dynamic imagery is a distraction, who prefer

to dwell upon states of mind and discriminations of emotion,

to treat of such things, like Henry James, by direct analysis,

and, though they may find some story necessary, accept the

necessity as Mr. E. M. Forster does, with regret.1 Inherited

legend, physical experience, and far fetched tale are not the

only sources of the imaginative medium. Intellectual habits

as well as intuitive observation come into play when the

1 Aspects of the Novel, Chap. II.

50

INTRODUCTION

clerk occupies himself with the pastimes as well as the office-

work of the world. For long he had had his own pastimes in

his own professional Latin, and they have their place in

literary history, though too little vernacular poetry of the

lesser forms has survived for us to dogmatise about their

relationships. When in the fourteenth century or so he brought

his training into society, he united the two important

extremes, the University and the ladies' bower; and there

were clever people in both.

Since the intellectual habits of the clerk were induced by

the methods of philosophy, and since that philosophy was

strictly metaphysical, the clerkly poet was put to considerable

strain. It is not that the philosopher cannot be an artist: the

theological metaphysician may have as much regard for the

elegance of his demonstration as the metaphysician of

number; but the elegance of theologian and mathematician

is a specialised elegance, an extreme example of functional

beauty. The poet, who, like the painter, works through his

senses as well as through his intellect, has to embody the

universal entities of the metaphysician before he can make

anything of them. Hence grew the habit of allegory, which is

the treatment of intellectual universals as if they had physical

individuality, the appearances and actions of which are to be

understood as purely intellectual or emotional activities. The

thing is ancient, and the example of Boethius—the junction-

point of classical and Christian worlds, acceptable to both—

may have suggested or assisted the vogue. That poets should

be infected by the habit of the thinkers is nothing surprising:

the allegorical school is the contribution of the clerks to

secular poetry. From the fourteenth century, and especially

through the enormously successful Roman de la Rose, the

poetic imagination had another set of figures to work or play

with.

These allegorical figures appear in painting as well as in

poetry, and though the poets were free as the painters were

not, it is possible that their use of them was suggested by

pictures and tapestries. There is a continuous cross-influence

between literature and painting—despite all theories, it is

inescapable. The decorators of churches and cloisters worked

51

to the dictation of ecclesiastics trained in metaphysical thinking, who would demand figures of the Theological Virtues and so on, just as the baron might order a Tristram or a Lancelot, for men surround themselves with the images of their preoccupations. The poets would see the pictures as well as hear the arguments, were perhaps more interested in them, and would receive from them images which they could use immediately. The opening of the Roman de la Rose certainly suggests it, and since that opening became a common convention, it must have been an easily assimilated and therefore a usual experience. In a dream, which removes the mind from mundane physical fact, the poet sees certain figures painted on the walls of a garden—an enclosed place, not a plain or greenwood—then meets others, and even some that were at first only painted, in human form walking and talking. It is as if the figures stepped down off the wall; and that is in effect what happened.

There are, of course, many modes of allegory: parable and exemplum, collected for the use of preachers in the Gesta Romanorum; symbolism that attempts to express the inexpres- sible, a very ancient resource for a religion that includes its share of mysticism and one that became a vice in the fifteenth century; the heraldic allegory which is taken straight out of social custom, and of which Chaucer's Parlement of Foules is a prime example. The method of the Rose is partly symbolic, but largely it is an elaborate series of personifications, an affair of the intellect. The conception of love taught in this Lovers' Manual corresponds with its method: the poem is quite unmoral, unphilosophical, unspiritual, entirely mundane and social in its judgments, concerned with the conduct of leisurely flirtation rather than with the communion of souls. The method suits only certain subjects and moods. It is sophisticated and deliberately decorative, meditative rather than active. Its value is, that it can discourse of states of mind and emotion directly, without much need of narrative relation between the delicate movements of sentiment which are its true subject. It may be put to the credit of Guillaume de Lorris that he invented a way of such discourse, and it may be observed that his success

52

INTRODUCTION

proves the existence of a settled, sophisticated, and imaginative society. Thanks to him, the poets of the fourteenth and

fifteenth centuries had another imaginative tradition to draw upon. There were the two ways: one could tell a story about

Gawaine to illustrate or teach courtesy, or one could picture forth a decorative Courtesy which might or might not

remind the audience of Gawaine, but could teach directly.

The imagination now held the figures of Fair-Welcome and

Evil-Speech, Friendship and Danger, along with Gawaine and Kay, Bedwar and King Mark, and gave them up—and

even then not entirely, as Spenser proves—only when their place was taken by the greater figures of the reborn Gods.

Somewhat the same process may be observed in drama.

The Mystery is a story, first and last, more serious than the Romance but concerned like it with life and conduct. The

Morality grows out of the methods of the Schools. In essence it is a disputation between the personified metaphysical

entities themselves instead of one between a group of scholars about those entities. The story is trivial; the real business lies

in the speeches. Thus young Thomas More, according to a well-known anecdote, was able to break into the acting in

hall. He did not need to know the plot, for the plot was the speeches, and the speeches ran on the well-understood logical

principles. Here also there was a connection between poet and painter. The painter was employed in scenic design,

costume and property-making. He and the poet worked together: the dramatic scene taught the painter some of the

tricks of composition, as the arrangement of figures in many early pictures proves,1 and the poet's eye was filled with

clear and precise images. The necessary team-work between poet, painter and musician must have helped all three. In

drama, above all, the connection between notions and images is most easily made. Anyone who has seen—or, better

still, acted in—a Mystery knows that it is not a mere antiquarian curiosity or primitive precursor of Shakespeare, but

something in itself, having value and interest of its own without reference to anything else. The Morality, on the other

1 See two suggestive if over-emphatic articles by Oskar Fischel, Art and the Theatre, in The Burlington Magazine, Vol. LXVI, Jan. and Feb. 1935.

53

hand, succeeds only when the thesis concerns permanent

human emotions as in Everyman, or when it is enlivened with

humorous realism. Like other allegories, it depended on

accidentals or on intellectual lucidity, for the original

interest lay in the proper conduct of the disputation, and

when that academic habit was superseded—let some of us

take heed!--the real point of the affair disappeared.

The Roman de la Rose, however, is really two poems. The

first, that of Guillaume de Lorris, is a chivalric allegory of

mid-thirteenth-century sentiment: into the second, Jean de

Meung fifty years later poured the whole bucket of social

satire and miscellaneous information. Satire is endemic, and

can be discussed at a more appropriate point; the geography,

natural history, ethnology which were current in the later

Middle Age came from these same clerks. For though the

Church might deprecate inquiry, people like miscellaneous

information. Fortunately, few people are equally anxious

about the strict accuracy of that general knowledge whose

value is its intrinsic interest and not its technical utility, and

fewer still make the awkward correlations that lead to heresy.

Nor did the Church ban what was already current. Con-

sequently, as literacy grew more common to answer the

needs of international trade and the complications of politics,

more and more laymen demanded miscellaneous informa-

tion. The most delicate gift of the clerk to the lay mind had

been the sentimental, decorative poetry of Ovid; the heaviest

was the congeries of facts and fancies gathered from Pliny

and Isidore and who-knows-where that swelled the encyclo-

pædia of Bartholomew the Englishman.

It has often been remarked, and with reason, that the

same fund of information satisfied the Middle Ages from

first to last. Bartholomew compiled his de Proprietatibus

Rerum about 1250 from collections already six to twelve

centuries old. It was translated by Trevisa about 1398,

printed about 1470 in Latin, about 1495 in English, and was

still worth printing in 1535, and even, in selection, in 1582.

Dullness of mind is no explanation of such complacency,

for men were no duller then than now; but under the intel-

lectual régime we have indicated, the facts that were raised

54

INTRODUCTION

to the level of knowledge existed as professional knowledge

restricted to the professionals who required them, and much

remained at the level of information, which exists as imagery.

Accuracy was irrelevant, and the imagination was the judge

of value: the state of mind is common still, as every shrewd

journalist knows. It seems to be intensified, even, as the

generation passed. King Alfred noted down the narratives

of Ohtheie and Wulfstan, whi h Hakluyt quite properly

included among The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and

Discoveris of the English Nation for the same reason as Alfred

wrote them: they were intelligent comples rendus of practical

work by honest merchant sailors. The travels attributed to

the mythical Mandeville are quite another matter. They

stimulate the imagination, which is all that any modern

travel-book does to the stay-at-home. We demand a show of

accuracy nowadays, but that is merely because our palate is

tickled with different spices.

The ecclesiastical authorities were wise in their generation,

for by maintaining general knowledge at the level of imagery

they kept it from usurping in men's lives the preponderance

enjoyed by religion. Whereas in the nineteenth century the

intellectual position of the clerics was challenged by the

scientists in the name of truth, in the Middle Ages the

intellectual position of the scientists–for they did exist–

was denied by the Church in the name of salvation. It was

one of the experiments Europe has made. The Greeks

measured all things by the scale of man, but their system

broke down under a wave of otherworldliness. The medi-

aeval Church measured all things by what it conceived to be

the purposes of God, but broke down under a new wave of

interest in what Bacon called "the book of God's works".

The eighteenth century measured by the needs and nature of

civilised society. Nowadays both God and man are aban-

doned, and all studies hanker after the blessed irrespon-

sibility of science. Everywhere there is a lack of balance, and

no century may justly blame the others. So the visitor to the

Zoo who fails to observe the pelican in her piety need not

despise his mediaeval ancestor who was less concerned with

the physiology of Pelecanus onocrotalus than with the love of

55

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

God for His creatures. Once that is clear, understanding will follow. For Urbs Syon aurea, patria, cive decora and the streamlined shape of Things to Come are dreams alike, however variable the imagery: human dreams that rest on faith —and the prospect of whose reality promises only boredom to the Aucassins of every age.

IV

The protest of Aucassin might almost be held to symbolise the radical separation of mundane and clerical thought in the Middle Ages: "For to Hell go the fine clerks and the fine knights who have died in tourneys and in rich wars, and the brave soldiers and the free-born men. With those will I go. And there too go the gracious ladies who have two friends or three beside their lords; and there go the gold and silver, and the vair and the gris; and there too go harpers and minstrels and the kings of the world. . . ." Let it remind us at least that the secular mind existed. The domination of religion in the "Age of Faith" is exaggerated by writers who fail to balance the breviaries with the romances, the love-allegories, the witchcraft that may be the survival of the older cults, the curiosity of alchemists, and the common recalcitrance of human nature. They see how the churchspire dominates the village, and forget in the first place the castle, which has disappeared not merely through the hates of the Roses, the prudence of Henry VII and the strategy of Cromwell, but through the changes of society and the changes of fashion; and in the second place they forget the tavern, which has not disappeared at all.

We must remember also that the organised Church supplied moral, intellectual and social needs which other agencies, from the Rural District Council to the Registrar-General, have gradually taken over. The student of literature must try to discriminate between spiritual enlightenment and the organisation of life under religious sanctions. Joshua's Camp Standing Orders are sanitary regulations though they appear in the Bible, and much that is discussed in chapters on The Religious Life of the Middle Ages has the

56

same practical motive as led a modern Highland minister to

fiddle at village dances—it gave an outlet for the natural

desire for amusement and enabled him to keep an eye on the

morals of his young parishioners at the same time. We have

little trace in England of the complementary process, so

obvious in southern Europe and even in Ireland, by which

the Church sanctified the places and festivals of pagan cults

and superstitions. The British Church may have done so, but

the English had not been long enough in England, perhaps,

for true local observances to have grown up so strongly as to

require careful handling, and the ease with which the

English accepted Christianity suggests that their own religion

was already decadent and discredited. Foreign reformers

found things to reform, of course, but since religious obser-

vance was of the official kind, it was on the whole reasonably

correct, and easily brought to uniformity without much need

for compromise or syncretism. On the other hand the

magical element in ritual objects and in the sub-religious

notions and customs that gather round the Church or are

carried over from the elder religions seems to flourish but

little in England. The three horse-skulls built into the church-

tower of Elsdon in Northumberland may be relics of a pagan

survival, but if so they are its only relics: there exists neither

legend, proverb, nor custom to explain their mysterious

presence there. Nor do we advance the claims of a liqueur or

a tooth-paste, as in France, by appealing to the notion of a

body of secret knowledge held by old Curés.

Yet Aucassin is not everybody. The Church did bulk large

in mediaeval life, and, though variably in time and place,

religion occupied much of the mediaeval mind. Indeed the

only periods at which true religious literature has appeared

in English in any quantity were the central Middle Age and

the seventeenth century. On the whole, the seventeenth-

century poetry is the better. Ineffable experience requires for

its expression some intellectual material—sand-grains round

which the surcharged emotion may crystallise. Thus Dante

could go far beyond St. Catherine of Siena not only because

he was a great literary artist, but because he had the intel-

lectual system of St. Thomas Aquinas for a medium of

57

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

expression, and so also Donne and Vaughan and Herbert—

to vary the metaphor—were able to reflect from their

philosophical, scientific, and social knowledge some broken

rays of the great Light which otherwise would have dispersed

invisible in daylight or spread blindingly upon the mist.

Otherwise, beyond the description of equivocal physical

symptoms and inarticulate impulses such as made Margery

Kempe such a nuisance to her neighbours and travelling

companions,1 the divine visitation can be recorded only in

symbols which only the initiate can really interpret, or by

analogies of light, sweetness, fire, love, the reiteration of which

may help such as recognise in those terms a known experience

but does not elucidate it to the profane, and though it may

produce a kind of hypnosis in minds willing to surrender,

may only weary—and, from the lesser erotic symbolists,

disgust—the serious inquirer.

Of the splendour and importance of these mystics, and

especially those who wrote in prose, others have treated in a

magistral fashion, with a knowledge and an insight to which

I can lay no claim.2 It is to be observed, however, that the

mystical writers are as rare as they are precious. They were

English eccentrics whom the Roman Church was chary of

encouraging, perhaps because their English language and

style were unofficial, perhaps from a sound general notion

that eccentricity and heresy are near neighbours, perhaps

from a not ill-founded suspicion of those uncouth and un-

disciplined islanders. The Latin mind seems uncomfortable

unless it can rest upon a complete and closed intellectual

system: it was an Italian that produced the Summa Theologiæ

accepted by the Church, and an Italian that was inspired by

its intellectual grandeur to the mystical ecstasy of the

Paradiso. Such a system, however, is apt to cause only dis-

comfort to the English mind, so much less logical and so

much surer and more sensitive in intuition. In religion as in

society, the English temper is at once more sedate and less

conformist. England has always produced—and, within

1 See The Book of Margery Kempe.

2 e.g., R. W. Chambers, The Continuity of English Prose, Miss Emily Hope Allen, etc.

58

limits, permitted—her eccentrics, and it is not without

reason that we can trace a resemblance between Margery

Kempe and George Fox: they are products of the same

social and intellectual complex. For though religion may

be the same in any clime, its outward manifestations are

moulded in different regions by social habit and by the

imaginative inheritance, and that so deeply that one

does not always find theologians capable of making the

distinction.

The Church is a Mediterranean institution, which

inherited, for instance, along with Greek mystery and Roman

organisation, the Greek and Roman notions of the position

of women. Asceticism may have strengthened the disapproval

with which orthodox Mediterranean ecclesiastics regarded

the married secular clergy of England as an heretical abuse to

be reformed at once; but their predecessors must merely have

been astonished at the existence of double monasteries,

celibate indeed but linked, such as the Abbess Hilda ruled

with notable success at Whitby. Such a thing was possible to

those who inherited the social habit, the morals, of the

northern barbarians. It seems to have worked as well as any

other monastic plan. But to the Mediterranean theologians it

was impossible. The steadiness of temper which made such

institutions possible in England has ensured also her freedom

from the excesses of asceticism. The one English rule of

religious life, laid down about 1130 by St. Gilbert of Sem-

pringham, is notable in its sobriety. The English Rule of

Anchoresses is inspired with common sense and kindliness as

well as with holiness. Even a mystical eccentric like Richard

Rolle is very far from the extreme practices of the Irish

anchorites—anything like the enthusiastic asceticism of the

Thebaïd is as inconceivable in England as the enthusiastic

discipline of the Spanish Inquisition—and the devoted

solitaries seem to have had their place and even their

function in the community around their hermitages.

In England, indeed, religious literature has usually been

marked by reflective piety rather than enthusiasm. The best

mediaeval poems of religious sentiment are those which

sublimate normal human emotion, like those colloquies of

59

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

the Saviour on the Cross and his Mother.1 In these poems of the cloister, theology adds the tremendous weight of its universality to emotions isolated and concentrated in the silent meditations on set themes at set hours prescribed by monastic rule. These formal meditations on the Seven Sorrows or the Five Joys of Our Lady, or on the incidents of the Passion, can be monotonous enough, and their conformity to direction emphasises their obvious inequality in value—they may have been of equal spiritual value to their makers at the time, but are not to us now. Let us remember once more how subject our study is to accidents of survival. If we had more of this poetry, we might find more to associate with that grand fragment—if fragment it be, and not an inspired ejaculation—written about 1240:

Nou gop sonne vnder wod,— me reweþ, marie, þi faire Rode.

Nou gop sonne vnder tre,— me reweþ, marie, þi sone and þe.2

From what cloister-garth in what green valley that sunset was seen in the evening hour of meditation, we do not know. Part of its strength lies in its power to conjure up a situation, as the writer has been tempted to hint in the last sentence. It has all the emotional intensity of the set theme, and, with that, something else—a thing seen at that moment of concentration, which suddenly and completely fuses with it and extends its power. Perhaps it was a breach of discipline. The eyes should not have strayed beyond the cloister cross. Would it be presumptuous to claim as peculiarly English this complete fusion of the natural observation and the brooding thought? The sun dipping behind the wooded hill, the meanest flower that blows, become so naturally for our poets the origin and vehicle of universal sorrow and universal joy. The unknown monk and the Wordsworth of Tintern Abbey had

1 e.g., in Carleton Brown's English Lyrics of the XIII Century, No. 49. I quote lyrics where possible from Dr. Carleton Brown's excellent collections, for economy's sake.

2 Carleton Brown, XIII Century Lyrics, No. 1.

60

INTRODUCTION

something of the same experience, however different their

terms and images, and it is a humane sorrow, a humane pity

that is made universal—divine—in their meditation.

Critical reading among such works resolves itself into the

selection of the best of each kind—the most convincing of the

confessions of sin, the grimmest of the admonitions of death

and doom,1 the neatest of the poor translations of well-

known Latin hymns, the least offensive of the erotic-mystical

imitations of Thomas of Hales’ Love Ron. Many of these

religious hymns are eternally valid—prayers for forgiveness

or intercession, for help in trouble and in the hour of death,

and preachings of holy living or, on the borderland of

religion and ethics, injunctions for the regulation of conduct

like the well-known and admirable Moral Ode. Yet a layman

may confess to a certain sense of relief on coming across a

religious poem done ad hoc and not in the way of custom and

duty, as when a cynical satire on the times provokes a

religious rejoinder.2 Here we are freed from the routine of

institutions and touch the world’s life directly. We gain

touch again, less directly, when we find the professional man

of religion setting himself to adapt the themes, phrases, or

forms of secular lyric. Religious parody of popular song is a

common technical device of evangelists at all times, but

desperately precarious. With all respect for motives, good

poets are rarer than good Christians, and to have a first-rate

human love-song to sing might, we feel, do us more good

than a clumsy perversion of it into the conventional terms of

religiosity.3 The pious intentions of The Gude and Godlie

Ballads are frustrated as we read

Quho is at my windo? quho, quho?

Go from my windo, go, go!

Quho callis thair, sa lyke a strangair?

Go from my windo, go!4

1 XIV Century Religious Lyrics, 28–30, 48.

2 Carleton Brown, XIV Century Religious Lyrics, No. 120, answering No.

103, which does not read to me like a specifically religious poem.

3 Ib., e.g., Nos. 73, 132: probably 9, 10, 69.

4 Ed. Laing, 1867, p. 116. This is late (1542), but mediaeval things stayed

long in Scotland: vide infra.

61

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Burns wrote a good set of verses for it, but despite the Wedderburns' sincerity and their real gifts, we wonder what people were singing in sixteenth-century Aberdeen to that lovely tune. Such things depend too on our knowing the original: without that, much of the force is lost. Whatever our religious opinions, we are less apt to regret the original when the adaptation has such authentic, self-generated force as the joyous, ribald triumphing of

The Paip, that pagane full of pryde,

He hes vs blindit lang;

For quhair the blind the blind dois gyde,

Na wonder thay ga wrang:

Lyke prince and king he led the ring

Of all iniquitie:

Hay trix, tryme go trix,

Vnder the grene wod tree . . .

The blind Bischop he culd nocht preiche,

For playing with the lassis;

The syllie Freir behuffit to fleiche,

For almous that he assis;

The Curat his creid he culd nocht reid,

Schame fall the cumpanie:

Hay trix, tryme go trix,

Vnder the grene wod tree.1

So when we are jerked back from the springtime meadows to hearken to the conventional drone of the preacher, we are not so grateful as perhaps we ought to be.2 We are very ready to be "thankful were it but for this fair day and the fine weather for the lambs", and feel thankfulness easier out of dor's. Nor is it in a gracious mood that, having paused to hear the minstrel singing his goodnight verse, we wonder whether the comedian is putting on a pietistic snuffle or whether it is only a parson trying to jockey us into his

1 Ib., p. 178.

2 Carleton Brown, XIII Century Lyrics, No. 63; Lydgate, ed. MacCracken, Part I, No. 12.

62

church.1 Religious sentiment, like any other, must spring

direct from the fountain. Only rarely—much less frequently

than in the mysteries where form and inspiration are fresh

and local—are our emotions touched as when Bach lets us

hear, between the pious phrases of the chorale, the echo of

the shepherds' piping.

We take pleasure indeed in those secular refrains, however

mishandled by well-meaning evangelists, but the pleasure

is not always what the evangelists intended. Yet they too may

have enjoyed their excursions in unregenerate motifs. They

were doing in verse somewhat as their musical colleagues

were doing when they used secular tunes as canti fermi in

their Church services2—a custom condemned by the Council

of Trent but not so easily broken. This dubious usage of the

musicians was an instinctive (or—who knows?—deliberate)

escape from their own elaborate conventions as well as from

the restrictions imposed upon them by ecclesiastical

authority. The musicians were restricted to the fixed words

of the Canon—that is, to fixed forms, rhythms, and emotions.

They could progress only in pure musical form, and any

elaboration or constructional alteration had to be a logical

development, not too violent an innovation to be impossible

of performance by choirs who sang by theory as much as by

notation, or to be alarming to the temperamental and

theological conservatism of the authorities. Musical skill and

enthusiasm, canalised by their function, wrought marvels in

their fight for their art, so that they had to be called to order

at intervals. Meanwhile, secular music renewed itself by its

constant alliance with free poetic change, with dance and

labour and fashion. A whole world of varied movement was

denied to the Church musician who elaborated his art in the

isolation of the sanctuary, until he contrived to inlay those

fragments of it into his professional practice. So also the

religious poet may have tried to refresh himself and his

tradition; but his problem was more complex.

There was—and is—more possibility of refreshment in

1 Ib., No. 97. Compare also the Latin hymn written to Somer is i-cumen

in; though that is perhaps nearer the device noted in the next paragraph.

2 The Westerne Wind Mass is the most famous English example.

63

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

hymn and sequence, where more variation of form, though still within limits, was permissible. In these, original inspiration is needed rather than recapitulation or contrapuntal elaboration, and their popularity among folk proves that they were singable as well as spiritual.1 Full freedom comes with the expression of religious sentiment in the secular tradition. The makers of carols were free of emotion, phrase, metre, rhythm, form, alike and together. It is not that secular music was unprincipled or accidental: it was the work, once more, of the cultivated layman, who is not necessarily irreligious. He might indeed be in holy orders but learned, like Bede before him, in the native minstrelsy; or he might be a layman not unacquainted with the hymnal tradition of the Church: the point is that he worked outside the ceremonial tradition, the cloister, in the freedom of daily life.

This refreshing inflow of secular forms is the more welcome that the cloister-poets, unlike the church musicians, have obvious artistic limitations. A rapid survey would suffice to show that, so far from developing poetic form or style, or forming new schools of religious art, the fourteenth and fifteenth century men were, if anything, duller and less competent than their elders: which is not surprising, considering their circumstances. Interest revives, however, when among the anonymous crowd we meet a recognisable personality like John Lydgate. Not that Lydgate's is a particularly fascinating personality, but at least we have it at full length. Lydgate was a professional poet with a large practice, and from his religious poems we can gather what forms of religious poetry commended themselves or prescribed themselves to a Monk of Bury. And since we have enough and to spare of Lydgate's output—the term is used advisedly—we can attempt to gauge and assess the quality of a sober discreet man of professed religion in the early fifteenth century. Routine work preponderates: versions of psalms, hymns, and portions of services with glosses on the same, legends of the Saints and invocations to them, poems to Our Lady, original

1 The sequence Angelus ad Virginem, which Chaucer's Nicholas sang, is No. 52 in The Oxford Carol Book.

64

and translated; three edifying tales, a couple of spiritualised courtly motives, and so on. None of this is very original. There is more fresh interest in the half-dozen occasional pieces; a Corpus Christi procession which is the religious counterpart of his secular Mummings and “Soteltyes”—a commission from the Prior instead of from the King—a prayer for King, Queen and People that links him with political events, and four poems which commemorate happenings within the Abbey.1

These last may remind us of another artistic relationship, already touched upon: that of poetry with the plastic arts; for the events commemorated are the setting up of pictures and sculptures. The evidence for mediaeval painting in England is as fragmentary as that for poetry and music. Secular examples have practically disappeared; of church painting, damaged examples remain, long neglected, lately recovered, surprising in their quantity and sometimes too in their quality, enough to prove the ubiquity and the occasional power `of church decorators in both town and village. Although Lydgate is no art critic—it might be as injudicious for the disciplined cleric to criticise the res dedicata (not to mention the res consecrata) as for the courteous beneficiary to criticise the gift made to his Abbey—there is a social interest in these occasional poems from the community at Bury.2

And there is something more. Lydgate never reveals the power of the handmaid of religion with the intensity of Villon in the Ballade feist à la requeste de sa mère pour prior Nostre Dame. He was not a great poet, nor was he a poor old woman in whom the pictures of the parish church struck fear and hope, but a sedate churchman to whom such things were a daily environment. But he was by no means insensitive, and in his poems on the Passion, for instance, he does feel, and make us feel, the force of the visual impression.3 In the most

1 Ed. MacCracken (E.E.T.S. CVII), Nos. 11, 41, 47, 48, 56, 62.

2 Ed. MacCracken, No. 56, on a picture of Our Lady set up by Ralph Gelebronde.

3 Ib., No. 47, on a Pietà; 62, on the same. I take No. 48 to be inspired by a picture or crucifix. Cf. Wright, Political Poems (Rolls Ser.) I, p. 268, where the writer remembers (to very different purpose) pictures of the miracles of St. Francis.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

personal of his religious poems, indeed—one hesitatès to say

the truest, for sincerity is a different question and a difficult

one—the force of that art is felt as it rarely is in English

poetry. The poem, or, rather, series of poems, called The

Testament of Dan John Lydgate1 might be taken as the sampler

of his religious verse. His special devotion (as a monk of

Bury) to Our Lady does not appear clearly in it, but the

prayers to Jesus are religious of the heart, the allegory after

the fashionable manner of the Rose and the recurrence of the

spring-song relate it to his secular poetry, and among the

personal reminiscences in the fourth section he tells how his

careless and boisterous childhood was rebuked:

Wythinне .X.V. holdying my passage

Myd of a cloyster, depicte vpon a wall,

I saugh a crucifix, whos woundes were not smalle,

With this (word) "Vide" wrete there besyde,

"Behold my mekenesesse, O child, and leve thy pryde."

But in the last resort Lydgate, however practised in his

profession, was always a churchman, subject to a church-

man's restraints; and, however genuine in feeling, he is

never more than an estimable poet. There is a world of

difference between him and his anonymous fourteenth-

century predecessor who wrote Cleanness, Patience, Pearl, and

Gawain and the Green Knight.

Lydgate can be discerned in isolation as the producer of a

received corpus of works, but he stands out only in low relief

from the common background of cloister poets. The Gawain

poet is a distinct personality: a layman, a poet of original

power, and one of the most accomplished technicians that

ever wrote verse in English. This last point is of more impor-

tance than some clerical writers seem to suspect. In the

desperate battle for expression, technique is as valuable as

knowledge. It is by his carillon of rhymes that Dunbar, a

magnificent craftsman, informs the liturgical Hail, sterne

superne with mystical feeling, which distils from the hypnotic

repetition of sounds while the sense flows forward; it is by the

1 Ed. MacCracken, No. 68.

66

skilful shaping and disposition of the phrases that he creates the reverent joy of Christmas in Rorate Coeli desuper. So Milton in the Nativity ode. So too the nameless poet in The Pearl. To convey personal sorrow and theological consolation he devised an allegory wherein emotion and intellect could interfuse, and he enshrined it cunningly in recurrent alliteration and the interplay of interlacing rhymes. It is not a question of personal emotion, which some critics are unable to feel, plus theological argument, over whose orthodoxy learned heads have shaken, plus a clever layman's trick of juggling with words. The elaborate craftsmanship may have been itself a beguilement of sorrow; but the artificer may well be praised who spends his most accomplished handiwork for the thing he loves. Any tin pot will hold the consecrated wine at need, and be consecrated by its service; but if we are to have a golden chalice, it is all the better if it be a goldsmith's masterpiece.

Craftsmanship, however, is not this poet's only gift. Cleanliness and Patience contain Bible stories, and here the literary tradition of the Lives of the Saints may have helped. The Saints are intermediaries between earth and heaven, and in their stories human pity and terror and admiration may rightly mingle with spiritual awe and jubilation and devotion: Juliana and St. Margaret and St. Erconwald may serve as English examples. Here the poet's distance from his subject is much the same: these are biblical tales and therefore charged with divine spirit, but the protagonists are human beings. What is more, the Saints' Lives preserved, while French example dwindled into prettiness and triviality, an inherited portion—little enough sometimes, but genuine —of the grand style of the Old English heroic poets. In the hands of a poet who possessed the sense of magnificence and the sentiment of grandeur, the tradition revived. Here was a poet whom wind and rain elated, who knew the strength of the seas and the pride of kings, and who believed in God. He was not the professional preacher who tells an impressive tale and appends a lucid moral: he was a poet like Spenser and Milton and Wordsworth, a poet of wide powers and wide knowledge, guiding his fellow-men in the way of

67

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

good, seeking purity of heart and submission to the divine will.

This poet is an individual—that is, one whose habits of feeling and observation, intellectual interests, and artistic tastes can be distinguished from the common run of his kind. For the religion of the ordinary man in town and village we may turn to The Lay Folk's Mass Book, The Prymer, the legends of the saints and the more familiar homilies; to the instructional writings of John Myrc, from which we may gather some notion of the daily work of the village priest and the religious duties the ordinary man was expected to observe; and, best of all in some ways, to the fifteenth-century Miracles. Here we have best exemplified the interpenetration of secular life and religion, and the intimate mingling of familiarity and awe which is possible only to implicit faith. The scenes in which a scriptural episode is doubled with a realistic episode of contemporary life may be regarded in various ways. No doubt Noah and his wife, the shepherd complaining of the oppressiveness of barons' retainers, the tricks of Mak the sheepstealer, had "entertainment value", and worked the audience's imagination into the action, and, in the better moments—and with the best performers—lifted its emotion from earth to heaven. But such scenes are more than naïve accidents. The miracle-writers knew the value of contrast, and of what we can only call parody—the tricks Shakespeare used throughout Henry IV. Falstaff's diatribe against honour does not cancel Prince Henry's aspiration or Hotspur's high-mindedness, because both author and audience believe in honour. So the scenes of realistic comedy act as a foil to the serious and undisturbed religion of the rest. Further, both writers and audience were well drilled in symbolism. The linked Old and New Testament "types" appear together in church paintings, block-books, and drama; the symbolic use of realistic scenes is carrying the method only a little further. Noah's recalcitrant wife is a comic figure from the street where the audience are standing. She heightens the terror of the flood that God sent upon a generation busy with its own affairs, like this one, and she is a foil to the saving faith of Noah. And she

68

INTRODUCTION

is the recalcitrant human soul that will not believe in the

wrath to come and the means of salvation. How it was

gradually built up, and to what extent each individual in

the crowd appreciated its full significance, is another matter.

Serious-minded priests must sometimes have watched

anxiously to see that the balance was preserved. But the

significance was there, and would no doubt be expounded

when necessary for the instruction of the simple.

Somewhat the same justification might be found for the

innumerable anachronisms. We feel it incongruous that

Old Testament characters should swear by St. Peter or

Our Lady of Walsingham. But again, when Old and New

are painted on the same panel, they exist together. The

concepts of time and space had not the hold over mediaeval

minds that they have over ours. The learned dealt in ab-

stract universals, and the unlearned dealt only in the particu-

lars of their own surroundings. To most people, after all,

55 B.C. and A.D. 1066, Madagascar and Timbuctoo, are

not far apart. They exist together in the modes of "long-ago"

and "far-away". If that is so, after many generations of

scientific method—that is, of history and measurement—

how much more for our ancestors? They did not begin a

mental process from given points of time and space, but from

concepts presented to them by metaphysical theologians. In

their dogmatic theology there is no then and now, here and

there. God the Spirit exists from eternity and to eternity,

and in Him all things are comprised and co-exist. Thanks

to the psychologists and the physicists, we are arriving

again at some comprehension of such a condition, though

neither state their conclusions in religious terms and though

the corresponding art ends in romantic individualism rather

than in any universal understanding such as embraced those

whose thought was based on God and the Church quod

semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. The condition was not,

of course, consciously present to the audience, though it

was the justification of the learned writer. To the crowd it

was a necessary and unremarked premise. The ordinary lay-

man would have found our explanation hard to under-

stand—as hard to understand as our difficulty.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

This much would be clearly present in his mind: this was a religious affair, and it was his affair. A priest no doubt wrote it down in the beginning, and perhaps rehearsed it—that is one of the things priests are for, writing things down—but now it was his, the Butcher's, the Shipwright's, or whatever his trade was. It was part of the activity of the guild, like admitting apprentices or fixing the minimum scantlings for deck-beams, and it was part of his duty as a guildsman to pay, to help, to act if need be, and at least to see that it was done well, for the honour of the guild, the town, and Holy Church. The order in which these three came in his mind altered as time went on, and this is worth notice, for the end of a phenomenon may be as significant as its origins, and is usually less conjectural. From our logical diagram: Miracle begat Morality which begat Elizabethan Drama. They were not of course disassociated, but their ends betray the essential difference between them. The Miracle dwindled into local observance or festival custom, into procession or disguising. The Morality died when the new learning drove the meaning out of the time-honoured disputation in the schools and the new humanism displaced the old metaphysical entities with human values. The point is reinforced, that the Miracle was a local observance, a regulated custom of the lay organisations; and it was a religious observance. So we find in it the common mind, inconsequent, vague, tender and pitiful and comic and ready to give worship where it is due. It is not perhaps an uncontaminated spiritual exercise—we cannot tell, for instance, from what ancient store of superstition is derived that northern eccentricity, the comic Devil, who may be Loki himself, exiled from Asgard—but it is a very human mixture, and perhaps all the truer religion in consequence.

At this point—since we have drifted towards the subject—we may break off to remind ourselves of the importance of technique: that is, first, of verse and rhetoric. Every real

70

INTRODUCTION

artist has his own technique, by which his work is recognis-

able. That technique is his selection, variation, and invention

within a body of knowledge and skill which is traditional

and common, concerned with the overcoming of difficulties

and the exploitation of qualities inherent in his material.

'Thus the poet has at his disposal a language held in common

with his fellow-countrymen, and certain ways of arranging

that language which have been found valuable by his

elders-ways which, to begin with at all events, he is apt

to accept as natural. He may argue interminably over

details-all controversies between artists are either technical

or irrelevant-but it is only rarely, when some violent

contrast or contradiction strikes him, that he will question

the fundamentals.

There have been in our Europe three great traditions of

verse-making: the Graeco-Roman, the Germanic, and the

French; and it is no small proof of the capabilities of our

language that English verse can be written according to

all three. The first, though it has always been influential

because it was clearly formulated, and though it has been

usefully practised as a scholarly exercise, we may leave

aside as an affair of the intellect. The other two are in our

blood and nerves-and on our tongues, for, as M. Emile

Legouis says, in the wisest words ever written on this thorny

subject: "Les sonorités d'une langue sont sa plus intime et

plus essentielle poésie. La prosodie et la versification s'organi-

sent spontanément autour des vertus élémentaires contenues

dans les vocables."1 That is to say, the song-smiths in their

working generations hammer out the shapes that will best

exploit and display the qualities of their metal. But crafts-

men like to examine each other's work, and when the

English iron-workers met the bronze-workers of France,

they learned something of their methods; and with good

reason, for beyond all questions of fashion and prestige

there lay the sheer hard fact that their iron was changing

its crystals. To set metaphor aside: throughout the Middle

Ages the accident of the English language was changing

and simplifying itself, so that about Chaucer's time it had

1 Défense de la Poésie Française (Constable, 1922), p. 39.

71

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

reached, roughly speaking, the stage at which French had

arrived about the time of the Norman Conquest. French

versification, the youngest of the three traditions, would have

been of little use to Cynewulf; it helped to solve difficulties

for later generations who worked out the shapes, finally

polished by the Elizabethans, which still hold good. For

even those moderns who most loudly protest their inde-

pendence and proclaim the downfall of traditions have

invented no new principle: they are but searching for new

effects, and more than half their success, when they do

succeed, is that we find the new tunes make a pleasant

counterpoint with the old tunes we have in our ears.

In dealing with language, and with the organisation of

language, we are concerned not merely with sounds, but

with meanings; and meanings are made clear not only by

words, but by the connexions between them. As English

first modified its inflexions and then shed most of them—

the great change that differentiates Old from Middle and

Middle from Modern English—word-order largely took

their place as a method of expressing the connexion between

words, and thus word-order became less variable. The

Latin poet is free to display his words in the best rhythmical

and rhetorical relationship to one another, while the in-

flexions continue to declare their grammatical relationships:

only his prepositions are invariable in position, and they

are fewer than ours. The Old English poets—that is, those

late ones whose works we have—never exploited this free-

dom as, say, Horace did, but the possibility was there and

was used, and as inflexions were lost it disappeared. The

modern English poet has to work with longer, more complex

and less tractable rhythm-units than the Latin: his unit

is not the word, but the phrase. Thus the shedding of in-

flexions changed the shapes and sizes of the rhythm-units

which the poets had to fit together to make their verses.

The variable syllables at the ends of nouns and adjectives

were removed, interstices filled up with prepositions, the

articles became essential, the usage of auxiliary verbs

extended, and so on; the cadence and the incidence of

accentuation altering perforce.

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This second change must have troubled the English poets,

for of all phenomena of language accent is the most con-

spicuous. It is precisely the difference between English and

French that the accentuation of English words is so much

more marked, that there is such a difference between the

heaviest and the lightest accents, and such an infinite range

of intermediates between them, compared with the com-

paratively level accentuation of French. The main result,

for our present purpose, is that English verse has always

been controlled by the incidence of heavy accents, while

French poets have to reckon their syllables. The Old

English poets organised les sonorités by organising the heavily-

accented syllables, emphasising and connecting them, since

they were normally the first syllables of important words,

by alliteration; the French counted off their syllables in

groups, and emphasised and connected the groups with

rhyme, which they could do the more easily because they

had comparatively few inflexions left. There are of course

other phenomena, but this is not a treatise on comparative

versification: suffice it that quantity in English and accent

in French are of roughly equivalent importance; and that

the student of Old English poetry must not be dismayed

by the lists of verse-types, A. B. C. and so on, compiled by

German scholars. These are quite correct, but they are only

statistical formulas and have nothing to do with the principle

of beauty, which is, then as now, the principle of controlled

variation. Let the student mark the alliterated syllables

upon which the line depends, and trust his native ear. If

he is in difficulties with any particular line, then he may

consult the type-formulas.

The change of versification is clearly marked in Layamon's

Brut. Just as Layamon accepted the new imaginative

tradition, so he experimented in the new French verse. It

may be that as he worked over the lines of Wace his ear

became attuned to the new cadence. It may be that like a

good craftsman he tried to reproduce the form as well as

the meaning of his original; or perhaps he realised as he

went on that this French system really suited his English

speech. All these may have been in his mind, but we need

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

not attempt to make out what at best would be a disjointed

history. English verse as practised by Gower and Chaucer,

and by all English poets since, has been a compromise or

reconciliation between the two systems. Gower, indeed, a

highly respectable poet in each of the three tongues, is

almost symbolic of English culture in the fourteenth century.

There is a regrettable sedateness about Gower. He has a

gift of quiet expressiveness to which justice has scarcely

been done, but he never attempts a broad effect. To him,

it would seem, verse was just an efficient way of telling

stories, rather than the best way of infecting his reader

with varied emotion or achieving the mimesis of vision and

passion. So he remains the respectable Gower, whom no

one can neglect, who is full of felicities but excites us little

about either his own world or ours. His very success in the

three tongues damns him as "accomplished". Yet he proved

one point very clearly and finally: that French verse could

be written in English. The proof exists only in the eight-

syllable couplet, but it is complete.

Chaucer on the other hand attempted more, had his

greater successes and those in many verse-forms, but was

never so completely secure as Gower. Ten Brink and others

have worked out his type-formulas. Here again let the

student use his ear, speak the verse aloud as if it were French

rather than English, and consult the formulas only when he

sticks completely. The verse goes to a lighter run of accent

than most English verse, but the tune is familiar, and where

a reasonably sensitive and experienced modern Englishman

sticks in the reading, it is highly probable that Chaucer

stuck in the writing. He was not a miraculous earth-born

virtuoso. On the contrary, he was one of those poets like

Drayton and Keats, who have to work for their mastery,

whom we can watch improving and who keep on improving.

He knew it himself, for he knew what he was trying to do,

which was to write, in English, verse after the manner of the

fashionable court school of French poets, of Eustache

Deschamps, Otes de Granson, Jean Froissart, his con-

temporaries and acquaintances with whom French poetry

was decaying, as French movements decay, in elegant

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INTRODUCTION

doctrinaire rigidity. This formalism was no great harm: English and French vices tend to counteract one another, the fresh language made excessive formalism unlikely, and Chaucer was all the better for bracing himself to a high standard of formal precision, even if it was too high for him. The versifier who could spin the catherine-wheel at the end of The Clerk's Tale—is it a sign of graceless relief at seeing the last of Griselda?—was the better able to write Troilus and Criseyde.

It is doubtful whether Chaucer learned anything of verse from those other pupils of the French, Dante and Boccaccio. He knew the sonnet, but translated Petrach without trying to reproduce his form as he reproduced the French rondel. Indeed there were—and are—few technical lessons to be learned from Italian versification compared with those to be learned from French. To carry over the latter into English was task enough for one man, and was perhaps the most useful thing Chaucer could have done. Yet his restriction to a highly-specialised school, however natural to a man who belonged to another branch of the same society that produced it, was a restriction; and however praiseworthy the determination that made him force English to purposes which would doubtless have been easier to accomplish in French and Latin, however admirable his modernism, those very virtues entailed some neglect of the possibilities of English. There were things to be learned on this side of the Channel that Chaucer did not learn.

The alliterative verse of Piers Plowman is indeed symbolic of opposition to the society and politics of which Chaucer was an apparently contented part. It may have been chosen for that symbolic purpose by a poet who wrote to recall Englishmen to pristine virtue, but in fact the old English way of writing did not die when Layamon discovered the new. More or less ably adapted to the new accidence, more and more thrust into the background by French fashion, it lingered in the uplands of the west and north, and that as late as 1513, when an unknown bard in Cheshire or Lancashire celebrated Flodden and the Stanleys in Scotish Field. Lang-land's great poem was not a solitary phenomenon, nor a

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

piece of artificial archaism, but grew out of a habit of verse,

well understood, and admirably suited to its purpose. If we

compare Langland's verse with Gower's—which might be

within the competence of more men than the court verse of

Chaucer—we appreciate more fully its gravity, its strength,

its capacity for adaptation to a language more purely

English than Chaucer's, its capacity for variation to suit the

theme and especially for the emphatic lyrical declamation

for which the English poets have such a peculiar genius. It is

perhaps well that Chaucer kept to his own task, for the

virtues and devices he neglected are endemic in the English

language, and were instinctively engrafted into his forms by

later poets. It is well also that another great poet should have

arisen with him to reinforce those virtues and devices by his

example.

The synthesis made by Gower and Chaucer was the

synthesis of French verse and style with English words and

grammar, but before the Elizabethans made the final

synthesis, there was another intermediate—a combination

rather than a true synthesis of French and English versification.

The alliterative poets of the fourteenth and fifteenth

centuries were not ignorant of the other schools. They took

the laisse, the long stanza of the French romancers, and

wrote it with alliteration, sometimes with and sometimes

without rhyme. The greatest artist in this school was the

unknown fourteenth-century Midlander who wrote Cleanness,

Patience, Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Pearl. The skill

displayed is astonishing, whether in plain alliteration or in

the rhymed and alliterated stanzas, intricately connected by

repetition, of The Pearl. But it was achieved at a cost, for it

demanded a rich vocabulary, and this poet's, especially in

Gawain and the Green Knight, is so extensive and peculiar as to

make his poem extraordinarily difficult—a grave pity, since

The Green Knight is the best romance there is. If Gower

represents the trilingualism of fourteenth-century England,

Gawain and the Green Knight is an exaggeration of the fusion of

English, French, Danish, Norse, Latin, that was producing

modern English. It has been conjectured that it was written

for a feast of St. George at Windsor, but no poet in his senses

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INTRODUCTION

would offer a poem of such difficulty on an official occasion

and to such an audience.

Since alliteration requires a rich vocabulary, the exploita-

tion of vocabulary was a great part of Old English rhetoric.

The inflected language made possible a rhetoric of parallelism

which is difficult to translate into our uninflected English.

The effect seems monotonous, but the monotony is due

largely to our ignorance of the imaginative heraldry as well

as of the imaginative processes of our forefathers. The

so-called synonyms of Old English poetry are concise

descriptions or allusions, and their choice and their placing

in relation to one another can be made to yield expressive

variety of tone and that counterpoint of meanings by which

figures of rhetoric enrich the sense with cross-lights and

superimposed images. We may take it that there are extremes:

that for the sake of his alliteration the most careful poet was

sometimes forced to use a synonym whose variation (the

thing that first brought it into being or made it into a

synonym) did not add to his image, and that the least careful

would at least avoid incongruities of allusion. Even the least

careful, again, must arrange his synonyms in some order. To

say "The sun rose, God's candle" is good; to say "God's

candle rose, the sun" is weak. To say "The man spoke,

poured forth the treasures of his speech, the warrior wise in

council" is good rhetorical development;1 to say "The

warrior wise in council poured forth the treasures of his

speech, the man spoke" is merely futile explanation.

The system makes at least for conciseness, economy, and

precision. It demands a certain quickness of apprehension

in the hearer, and creates a compressed and masculine

style. A Tennyson might spend a page on describing the sea,

but in a few phrases the old poets could call up sharply the

one or two images required to effect their purposes. "The

whale's road", "the gannet's bath"—there are the shapes and

movements of the sea-creatures, and the open space of the sea

surrounds them. Such observation is at first individual.

It is ever renewed, but ever tending to fixity under the

impulsion of powerful individuals. The great artists teach us

1 Though spoiled by modern grammar: the original would be in six words.

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to see and to express our seeing, so that to see things afresh, and to record them afresh, requires a violent breach of habit; and vision and technique, acquired together from their example, interact to the reinforcement of habit when our seeing has to be set down in words or paint. Thus like all technical systems the Old English rhetoric became fixed, the images became stock properties, the legendary allusions (so far as we can judge) were introduced out of custom or to meet the exigencies of the verse. Such degeneration may have set in before the English language and its poetic art came to the western island. It is perhaps well that the new subjects and the new schools intervened before that art could stiffen into the mere learned ingenuity that mars the later Norse poetry.

The cultivated Old English prose was a greater loss than the rhetoric of Old English poetry, yet it must be observed that centuries had to pass before the English poets contrived to combine the gravity of the native school with the speed and lightness of the French, and invent another medium of continuous verse suited to the qualities of the language and to the native temperament. Drama seems to have grown out of music as well as out of story-telling, but no such history is required to account for the semi-lyrical stanzas in which the writers of Miracles framed the speeches of their characters. They accepted the French formulas, and, however well adapted the stanzas are to certain emotional passages and metaphysical entities, they do not make a true dramatic speech-verse in English, and the formulas cramp the expression in the realistic scenes. Association with music no doubt helped to carry forward the long romances, but the time had to come for that association to be broken, for speech to become speech and song, song. The French learned that naturally; the lesson, for some reason, seems harder for the English, who sing by nature and, until eighteenth-century snobbery nearly destroyed it, had the oldest tradition of part-song in all Europe.

In musical matters there is little help available to the amateur. The historians of music in England confine themselves to church music, where a continuous history is traceable in purely musical idiom, and rarely risk a remark

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INTRODUCTION

upon the scattered relics of the flourishing but less calculab..

music of the world at large. In our present state of knowledge,

the formation of the lyrical measures is a mystery. The

origins will be traced to whatever source is fashionable at the

moment—the Palermo of Frederick Barbarossa, the Milan

of St. Ambrose, Provence, or Ireland. If, as Saintsbury

insisted, the origins are to be found in Latin hymnology,

what made a change like this?

Solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni

Trahuntque siccas machinae carinas;

Ac neque iam stabilis gaudet pecus aut arator igni,

Nec prata canis albicant pruinis . . .

Levis exsurgit Zephyrus

et sol procedit repidus;

iam terra sinus aperit,

dulcore sus diffluit . . .

The influence of the Church is too simple an explanation.

The hymn of Lucretius

Æneadum genetrix, hominum divumque voluptas,

Alma Venus . . .

may well be superseded in doctrine by

Veni, Sancte Spiritus,

Et emitte coelitus

Lucis tuæ radium.

Veni, pater pauperum,

Veni dator munerum

Veni lumen cordium . . .

but where in Gospel or in Fathers is the change of form

dictated? The Church may have provided an energetic,

though not the unique, vehicle of transmission: to explain

the formation would require the analysis and re-synthesis of

a linguistic complex and of a world of social habit and of

1 Horace, Od. I, iv, and The Cambridge Songs, ed. K. Breul, p. 60.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

instinctive biological response to stimulus. There are life-

times of fascinating work in it for well-equipped students, for

there is no single answer. Calling a truce to speculation, let

me hazard one suggestion: where the tune is discoverable, it

is the clue to reality—that is, to how the thing sounded to the

people who made it—and when the tune is lost—or, by the

indifference of our musicians, not available—the verse may

be tested by trying to fit it to known tunes, especially to the

tunes of nursery rhymes and to traditional hymn and carol

tunes which descend from the metrical habits of the Middle

Ages. It will be noticed that the best secular lyrics demand

each a tune for itself, and that is evidence of long and high

cultivation.

If we knew how Old English poetry was recited it would

help our understanding of it more than all the metrical

tables in Germany. The technical term was singan ond secgan,

to sing and say, and we know that the harp was used to

accompany the voice—“the clear sound of the harp” is in

Beowulf and elsewhere a symbol of cheerful human com-

panionship that mocked the outcast and the exile—but

whether in recitation of the heroic poem we do not know,

though one can imagine it used most effectively. By what

dramatic arts the professional reciters enforced the excite-

ment of the romances we cannot tell, nor how gesture and

music seconded the modulation of the voice. The Latin

writers use the term cantare, to sing, when speaking of the

recitation of tales,1 but mediaeval Latin is too fluid a

language to allow of precise deduction from a single word,

and those who recite ballads learned by heart, and have not

suffered from the good intentions of elocution-teachers, fall

naturally into a strong and very effective cadence which

approaches plainsong. Many ballads, of course, have their

own tunes. W. P. Ker showed clearly the place of the French

carole in the formation of the ballad,2 and one can under-

stand it in things like Binnorie, but did the historical ballad

begin in the same way? Or did it merely take over a habit

1 See, e.g., the remarks of Thomas of Cobham in Chambers, Mediaeval

Stage, II, App. G.

2 Collected Essays, XXXII, XXV-XXVI; Form and Style in Poetry.

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INTRODUCTION

which at first sight seems a hindrance? Or is it a different inheritance that makes Sir Patrick Spens so impressive when it is carried on that thin air like the wind in the rigging, and makes Hobbie Noble ride to its tune at a livelier canter? My mother used to tell us how in her girlhood an aunt, born at the opening of the nineteenth century when tradition was still active, had store of ballads. One1 ended somewhat thus:

"Ye're welcome to me", said Captain Ogilvy,

"Ye're welcome, thrice welcome to me.

Ye're welcome, thrice welcome", said Captain Ogilvy,

"The Duchess of Northumberland to be".

And as Auntie Jean pronounced the last emphatic line, she rose from her stool, took her skirts in her hands, and swept a full curtsy to the floor. It might be a personal idiosyncrasy, or a reminiscence of the sole Scottish dramatic custom, the custom of competitive performance of The Gentle Shepherd which she knew well; or it might, in that odd corner of the Lowlands, be a lingering relic of the proper way to "produce" a ballad. However such speculations may one day be resolved, we should at least remember that when we read Beowulf or Ferumbras or Clerk Saunders in our scholarly edition with the textual footnotes we are doing something eccentric, like examining cinema "stills" with a magnifying glass, that we are adding to our imaginative experience something incomplete and exanimate, and that it behoves us the more to keep awake what imagination we have. Here again, as in other technical difficulties, reading aloud is the best specific.

Beyond the insuperable difficulty of recovering the poems as they were recited–there is still hope of hearing a few sung -there is another, more easily removed: that of seeing them as they were seen. Not that we can see them with the same eyes. In five hundreds years we have acquired the habit of reading type, learning meanwhile to appreciate the austere beauty of black and white. We have lost the elasticity of spelling and word-form, and the tricks of abbreviation.

1 A version of The Duke of Gordon's Daughter, No. 237 in Childs Collection.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Reading is made too easy for us, so that we approach the deciphering of a mediaeval manuscript as a task, and one not lightened by scholarly demands for precision.

Here also we must allow for losses, and for presuppositions. When it is assumed that literacy was confined to Churchmen, then our notion of book-production and circulation imposes the cloister on our historical imagination. Legend and the museum-cases, again, impose the notion that monastic books were invariably noble masterpieces of illumination. Such masterpieces, however, were not the staple product—much less the only product—of the scriptoria. Many manuscripts dissolved, but, as we may judge from catalogues and from survivals, the monastic libraries contained, for the most part, text-books and treatises—theological, philosophical, medical, and even scientific—written in economically crabbed hands.

To imagine otherwise is to do less than justice to those monasteries which were centres of learning, and could not afford to provide editions de luxe for study any more than the mediaeval or modern colleges which have taken over their task. We must allow also for the professional “stationers” like Chaucer's Adam Scrivener, who produced books for students and for amateurs of literature, not all of whom could indulge in such splendid volumes as are the pride of the British Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale. We must remember the jongleur who occasionally wrote out his repertory to save his memory, and also the amateurs themselves like Robert Thornton and a dozen anonymous compilers.

There is yet another, though minor, artificial obstacle. Early and mediaeval literature are presented to us as “texts”, isolated or classified. That is not how they appeared in the book-chests of mediaeval readers. We have of late been given the opportunity of seeing the great Old English poetic collections complete, and, at the other end of our period, the Scottish Text Society have done good service by publishing Bannatyne's and Maitland's manuscripts as they stand. But to gather some idea of the tastes and habits of the intermediate years we must turn to such catalogues as that of the Harleian collection and study the contents of such collections

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INTRODUCTION

as No. 2253. So doing—thanks to the excellent Humphrey Wanley and his successors it can be done very well—we find a variety and comprehensiveness for which our common notions of the Middle Ages prepare us as little as our formal studies. Or if we take, say, the Auchinleck Manuscript in the Scottish National Library, we find its owner had a similarly wide taste both in English and French. He collected together forty-three pieces: seventeen romantic, ten religious and moral, seven saints' lives and the like, five miscellaneous and two historical works, and did not classify them. The manuscript is a little library of mixed reading, testimony to the mixed interests of a moderately serious general reader, and also, like the Thornton Manuscript in Lincoln Cathedral, to the free circulation of copies throughout the island. If the good student will remember a little of the many kinds of mediaeval book he will have a better notion of the Middle Ages than the best-recognised authority on one, and if he will compare catalogues he will gather the relative popularity and importance of different books and authors. Confining himself for the time being to English poetry he will realise, by that most practical test, the paramount importance of Chaucer.

VI

Among the individual poets of the European Middle Ages, two stand out: Dante and Chaucer. Strictly speaking, they are incomparable. Intellectually, Chaucer is tentative, inquisitive, where Dante, resting on the closed system of St. Thomas Aquinas, is magnificently certain. On the other hand, though Dante inhabits heights and abysses to which Chaucer never even aspired, his range on earth is the more restricted of the two, and however incapable Chaucer might be of the rapture and glory and scorn, the desperate intensity of Dante, his feelings were not circumscribed by a political party. Incomparable or not, we can think of them together: we are rarely tempted to group Chaucer with the French masters from whom he learned his trade of poetry. They are final: when they had done their work, that kind of work was

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done for good. So also, for very different reasons and to very different purpose, Dante is final. Chaucer is a link in a chain. He leads us back to the old world whose unmoved ghosts haunt manuscripts and tapestries, and he leads forward to Shakespeare and Smollett and Dickens, and can never be final while men walk and talk.

Chaucer, the first poet since Horace who was a man of the world and made poetry out of it, touched life at more points than the average man in any age, and at more than a mediaeval man could normally expect. Not that mediaeval society was quite such a system of insulated compartments as the mediaeval mind makes it appear, but Chaucer had unusual opportunities. A London merchant's son enjoyed more freedom than anyone, for, unlike both squire and serf, he was not bound to one piece of land, and he had his choice of occupations. As a layman, he was not subject to a cleric's restrictions either intellectual or physical. The fact that he acquired somehow and somewhere a useful acquaintance with Latin literature, with philosophy, and with astronomy, suggests that lay education was not so backward as we are sometimes told, and that it was available to him. Trained in a princely household, in the conventions of chivalry and among the arts to which feudal society gave both form and meaning, he knew the veterans of Edward III's wars as Sterne knew those of Marlborough's, and better than Scott knew those of the '45; he himself had experience, though it was short and unlucky, of real warfare; employment on three embassies showed him foreign lands and foreign potentates, and something of government and diplomacy, without hedging him in, as a great place would, with dignity. Then he settled down to a busy official life, and that in the Customs, a service that meant dealings with merchants, shipmasters, warehousemen, between the variegated life of a busy seaport on one hand and the machinery—and the accidents—of government on the other. And in all these various activities he was more than a looker-on. He was part and parcel of them, considered, so far as we can see, useful and efficient. With all his attitude (in later life at any rate) of the detached and amused observer, with all his consuming

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INTRODUCTION

love for books, he was never a mere bookman or promeneur solitaire, but one who, like Fielding and William de Morgan, learned the world in the course of his business and so learned it naturally and truly.

Of Chaucer's view of the world, what can one do but quote Dryden and say "Here is God's plenty?" Yet the pleasure of writing about Chaucer is too great to be forgone, and—since this essay is already desultory enough—we may be allowed some desultory remarks. Desultory, because any real study of Chaucer would have to cover his own range. That range is important. The difference between Chaucer and Chrestien de Troyes is that Chaucer wrote fabliaux as well as romances; between Chaucer and Otes de Granson, that Chaucer wrote an astronomical text-book as well as courtly poems; between Chaucer and John Holywood, that Chaucer wrote courtly poems as well as an astronomical text-book; and so on. The neat phrase that "Chaucer was the half-disillusioned child of the Middle Ages" is quite beside the mark: Chaucer was the child of the XIV century, and enjoyed it so much that he was in touch with everything that men were doing in his time, and tried his hand at most of them. He was not, of course, a miraculous intellect embracing the human universe with equal sympathy and equal understanding: he was Geoffrey Chaucer, not Buddha. But he looked out very frankly on so much of the world as chanced to present itself before his friendly eyes.

Friendly, but not uncritical: when Matthew Arnold found fault with Chaucer for lack of seriousness, he was forgetting—perhaps he never realised—what a various and insidious thing "humour" is. The humorist enjoys things as they are, gets most of his fun out of life by watching the differences between people and watching each behave so like himself. But what of the effect on his reader? Is he entirely unconscious of it, entirely without motive or intention? Browning, another humorist, has stated the case for art:

For, don’t you mark, we’re made so that we love First when we see them painted, things we’ve seen Perhaps a thousand times nor cared to see.

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The artist, as Wordsworth maintained, makes us see things afresh. Then we can love them—or not. The Wife of Bath is accepted for her sheer Rabelaisian vitality. The Doctor and the Lawyer pass, with a touch of traditional satire. The townsmen are perceived to be rather self-important and rather dull. It is a different matter when we look with Chaucer’s eyes at the ecclesiastics.

There is nothing fortuitous about the tradition of Chaucer’s anticlericalism. Professor Manly has shown that the old story that Chaucer got into trouble for beating a friar in Fleet Street, though now impossible to verify, rests upon good authority.1 In any case it should be kept for its symbolic value, for however freely Chaucer may have accepted the generality of mankind, he is frankly critical of the Church; and his criticism, however humorously conveyed, is serious. The one ecclesiastic who is anything but a comic figure is the Parson, and he is set up in contrast to the rest. It may be that Chaucer was merely taking the popular English side in the long quarrel between the seculars and the regulars. It may be that he merely shared the old endemic English dislike of the proud prelate, a dislike that may go back to the Norman Conquest if not further, and was connected with the steady opposition to the foreign beneficiaries who drew such a handsome revenue out of England. Both of these motives count for much; yet surely it was something more than a party quarrel or a common prejudice that made Chaucer so comprehensive in his criticism, and made his criticism so much the more dangerous that it was so varied and so deadly good-humoured. The Pardoner and the Somnour are plain rascals; that was nothing new, and Chaucer handles them as roughly as they deserve. The Prioress on the other hand, he treats with all courtesy, and what are we left with when he has finished? A slip of provincial over-refinement, a gentlewoman from Cranford; and there is one elevated ecclesiastical figure reduced to charming insignificance. There are more ways of killing a cat than drowning it in cream, but a cat drowned in cream is a dead cat all the same. His treatment of the Monk is even more devastating.

1 New Light on Chaucer.

86

And I sayde his opinion was good.

What sholde he studie and make him selven wood

Upon a book in cloistre alwey to poure

Or swinken with his handes and laboure

As Austin bit? How shall the world be served.1

One does not quarrel with people one meets in a railway-

carriage, or on a pilgrimage. One does not even denounce

them; it is not worth while. Our easy-going Chaucer shows

us this plump and comfortable sportsman-and that, ladies

and gentlemen, is what monks are like nowadays. The

calmness with which the English accepted the dissolution of

the monasteries a few generations later can be accounted for

by this, that Chaucer's Prioress and Monk were portraits

true enough to be recognised as typical; and perhaps

Chaucer's portraits helped to impose these images on the

English habit of mind. There is no harm in these people;

they are quite amusing; but they are not worth their place

or their price: and so they were dismissed, with consideration

and without the dignity even of a fight.

A little further search for motives may shed a little more

light on Chaucer. This "fundamentally unserious" poet

seems to have been much concerned over the philosophical

question of freewill, which is the basic question in all ethics.

The Church has a theological answer, but it is obscure, much

debated, and in practice apt to mean that the layman can

only submit his conduct-which is the thing Chaucer was

interested in-to her control. But, again in practice, what

control did that mean? The Parson's? Well and good, but the

problems of a Chaucer stood little chance of convincing

solution by that good simple soul. The Prioress's?

The Monk's? The question is not worth asking. Judging by the

Pardoner and the Somnour, the Church did pretty well out

of patching and cobbling at the other end of the sinful

process that began-if it did-in freewill. There was little

help or hope in that set. And their pretensions were annoying.

Chaucer knew the world and men. His strength lies in his

combination of scholarly attainment and worldly judgment.

1 Prologue, 183-7.

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He remains alive, appreciated with almost unique continuity from his own day to this, because he was an individual and judged life by the permanent individual values and not on any institutional or "class" scale, which varies from age to age and is largely accidental at best. Among the clerics he found many—and the regular clergy en bloc, if we may judge by The Canterbury Tales—whom he could not respect and who yet demanded not only respect but submission, by virtue of their belonging to an institution. It is a common human failing; in so serious a connexion it is a serious failing, and Chaucer dealt with it faithfully, in the scurviest of his scurvy tales. The tale is told by the Somnour, a scurvy fellow, but it is Chaucer who inserts this, the wickedest hit of all:

"Sire" quod this frere, "an odious meschief This day bitid is to myn ordre and me, And so per consequens to ech degree Of holy chirche. . . ."

The discomfited professional is attempting to recover himself by grasping at professional dignity: a masterstroke of comic observation. But the gap is too wide. If Holy Church is mischiefed by such a business, the less a thing Holy Church. We are not yet arrived at the violent diatribes of John Skelton, but The Ploughman's Tale, a frontal attack on the clergy widely read and long remembered, will soon be tacked on to Chaucer's own poems, printed with them for young Puritans like Edmund Spenser to read. This non-political poet again, is not out of sight of the long standing feud between monarchy and Church over the bodies of criminous clerks. That feud centres round the nature of the priesthood; so does the Reformation. Chaucer's feelings, if not his philosophical conclusions, are clear. He was not a heretic, but he was sceptical. He did not bring any new doctrine to bear upon the Church, but he undermined the clerical position by his humour.

His views on the other great institution, the social institution of chivalry, seem, at first, curiously difficult to find.

1 Somnour's Tale, 482–5–

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INTRODUCTION

Quite clearly, he must have approved of an institution that produced types he admired, and the only people (except the Parson and his obscure brother) whom Chaucer treats with serious respect are the Knight, the Squire, and the Yeoman. The Yeoman is conclusive, for here no "class feeling" can enter, and if Chaucer had wanted to include an Ancient Pistol or an Old Bill, there was nothing to stop him: he cannot have lacked the knowledge, and he certainly had the skill. To describe the Knight as a "chivalric" figure might be misleading to some people, but we must guard against our own preconceptions, and avoid confusing "chivalry" with "knight-errantry". That we are apt to do so is natural enough, for there did exist a highflown theoretical "chivalry" which is demonstrated in some of the best and some of the worst romances, which was a power for good in men's minds, brought disaster to Scotland at Flodden, and died of a cold fever in the works of Cervantes, of arthritis in those of La Calprenedé, and of the vapours with Margaret Duchess of Newcastle. That it survives (to our confusion of mind) is a tribute to Malory, to literature which remains intact when political issues, social needs, and the notions bred of them, have disappeared from the common memory of every day. Chaucer's Knight is chivalric, but not theoretical. He comes out of Froissart, not out of Malory, and it is an unlucky battalion that has not had him in its Mess.

The Knight's Tale must be read candidly. It is not a love-story, but the story of two friends who behave like gentlemen. So far as character is concerned, the one character in it—and it is a brilliant one—is that of Theseus. Theseus is a Duke, not a Knight; a chivalric figure, but not an irresponsible Lancelot. Rather he is a Chandos or a Talbot, a General Officer Commanding who is confronted with a serious breach of military law and discipline, takes prompt action, and, when things are explained to him, is sympathetic enough to reprieve the culprits on condition that their affair is settled decently and in order, to ensure which he takes charge of it himself. Given the articles of war and the duelling code, the whole business is entirely correct, and Theseus is neither shadowy nor diagrammatic.

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He does not "represent" a social order, but belongs to a type moulded by circumstance. His best battalion was doubtless commanded by the Knight of the Prologue, and his Army Corps was happy and efficient. Chaucer knew them both, and so did I. And by a further stroke of genius, he has endowed his Duke with a sense of humour. To this experienced soldier the high romantic vein of Palamon and Arcite is funny. Yet he is experienced enough to know that it is real and natural—youthful and foolish, but right and fitting in foolish youth, like the Squire's taste in clothes, to be regarded with all sympathy by men of the world like Theseus and Chaucer, who have been through it in their time:

Al moot been assayed, hoot or cold;

A man moot ben a fool or yong or old;

I woot it by my-self ful yore agoon.1

After all, Palamon and Arcite were actuated by love and honour, and neither Theseus nor Chaucer were men to laugh at those motives. The tale goes on, neither made ridiculous by the jest of Theseus nor refuting it: but it has been set in perspective.

This art of perspective is one of the things Chaucer had learned while writing Troilus and Criseyde. Any story exists in three planes: that of the writer, that of the characters, and that of the reader. The writer may lean across, as Thackeray does and Chaucer himself sometimes, to comment for the reader's benefit upon what is happening on the plane of the characters, but he is apt to get in the way or to distract attention. In the character of Pandarus Chaucer invented a fourth plane, and was able to keep out of his reader's way in confidence that the stereoscopic effect was there. He repeated it in Theseus, and Shakespeare picked up—or re-invented—the device in Enobarbus and Menenius and (tilting the plane a little) in Falstaff. Beside the heroes of romance is set a man of the world. The heroes are not belittled by his presence. He serves like a portrait-painter's mirror, to cast a reflected light that shows them in the round

1 Knight's Tale, 953-5.

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—the light of all the facts and all the values to which they are blinded. Chaucer did not learn this from Boccaccio or any other Italian. It is just the thing we miss in the Clerk's Tale, which he took over complete, and reverently, from Petrarch; it makes just the difference between the setting and conversations of the Decameron, which are on the same plane with the stories, and those of The Canterbury Tales, which are on the fourth plane. The Pandarus-figure might be likened to the Greek chorus, intermediate between the audience and the tragedy, but it is not the same, for it is part of the tragedy; not on the picture-frame but well within it. And it is a humorous figure.

It makes Chaucer's attitude to romantic chivalry seem rather equivocal. Romantic chivalry seems an affair for the young. The Squire is given a marvellous romantic Tale—and Chaucer did not finish it. He did finish the story of Beauty and the Beast as it was caught up in the Gawain cycle and made to illustrate Gawain's traditional virtue of courtesy; but whether the Wife of Bath's Tale is a comment on her Prologue, or her Prologue a comment on the tale, or whether Chaucer kept them quite separate in his mind, are questions no man can answer. He left unreported the remarks of the Host on the Franklin's Tale; nor is it easy to pronounce dogmatically, when one has allowed that The Rime of Sir Thopas is a satire on a debased form of literature, whether Chaucer wrote it because he despised those who had debased the form, or despised the form because it was debased. A reasonable conclusion might be, that he enjoyed the knightly romance, but admired the knightly reality whose fundamentals he defined in one noble line:

he loved chivalrye,

Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisye.

This divorce from romance need not be regarded as entirely congenital idiosyncrasy in Chaucer. His earlier work shows how completely he accepted the sophisticated society in which he was brought up, and though in later work he overstepped its restrictions, he could not rid himself of its

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sophistication. He could make delightful things out of

classical legend as it appeared to the medieval imagination

and out of philosophy as it interested a clever amateur

whose humour would keep breaking in; he could rhyme

his wise, dry conversation with his friends; above all, he

could turn Troilus and Criseyde into something infinitely

greater than the sentimental labyrinth in which it began.

But neither in earlier days when he inhabited the courtly

world of Deschamps and Granson, nor later, when he had

moved towards a wider reality, could he go back to the

generous simplicities of romance. Old stories like the Wife

of Bath's Tale and the Franklin's Tale, which carried a

plain moral of universal application, had some value for

him, but he was too civilised for irrational adventures.

Gawain and the Green Knight, if he knew it, probably seemed

to him as rough and provincial in subject as in form. The

advance is obvious, the gain is great, but something too is

lost. The vocational chivalry which gave contemporary—

and for us antiquarian—interest to the Gawain-poet's pre-

cise descriptions of knightly equipment was not in the

inheritance of the emancipated bourgeois Chaucer, and

that was a small loss, compensated and more in The Hous

of Fame and The Knight's Tale. The loss of the “romantic”

landscape and the “romantic” atmosphere is more serious,

for these exercise powerful and permanent influences on

the English mind.

Chaucer was a Londoner, who walked for pleasure in

the daisied meadows, or in formal gardens enclosed after

the French mode. What would he be doing in a Cumber-

land glen among the snow-wreaths, or on the misty shores

of the Tarn Wathelin?1 Yet to so many Englishmen, even be-

fore Cynewulf and even after Meredith, the enclosed garden

would be an exile indeed, were they never to feel that cold

wind on their faces. What, again, would our plump official,

who had so keen an eye for the human spectacle—Troilus

riding through the streets with the dust of fighting on him,

the face of the criminal led to the gallows, the Man in Black

bearing his sorrow about with him—what would he do at

1 Gawain and the Green Knight; The Awntyrs of Arthur.

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INTRODUCTION

a three days' hunting of hart and boar and fox?1 Watch hounds at work, with Shakespeare? Ride the hill with Scott and screech with Surtees? That was not his game, though the four of them would agree admirably over the evening tankard afterwards; and though he might rise politely with the rest to toast the Unknown as the master huntsman among poets, he might be a little bored if they discussed the day's run too long. So there is little landscape in Chaucer, and no weather except the winter that keeps him indoors and the spring that lets him out for his walk. It was not from him that his disciple Gavin Douglas learned to see the light in the northern sky, or his later disciple Spenser to love running water. He was a townsman, and—though he had an eye for a horse—his business was with men and books. And he comes in an imaginative interregnum between belief and the willing suspension of unbelief. Before Gawain could “come ageyn out of Faerye”,2 the garden where Chaucer read to Richard II had to be broken down. A wilder, ruder life had to bring fresh adventure into England, and men arrive to whom the free play of fancy was as dear as the exercise of the observant humour.

The ballade on Lak of Steadfastness shows that he was not unobservant of the political faults that3 brought about the tragic change, but of all great poets he was the least of a politician. When Sir Walter A. Raleigh wrote of Shakespeare that "he is worlds removed from Chaucer, who understands social differences as Shakespeare never did, and to whom, therefore, social differences count less",3 he was remarking upon social history as much as on individual character. Though the rigidity of mediaeval society must not be exaggerated, it was a more definite organisation than any that followed until the invention of Soviet Russia. To Chaucer, as to Langland, social differences were differences of function. He could not foresee the confusion of function to be caused by pestilence and civil war, still less the social

1 Gawain and the Green Knight. The hunt in The Boke of the Duchesse is seen as by a visitor at the meet, not by a hunter.

2 The Squire's Tale, 96.

3 Shakespeare (English Men of Letters), p. 193.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

revolution of the new Tudor monarchy or the new alignments of sentiment that were to arise out of the Reformation.

The bourgeois Chaucer about 1390 could take for granted social differences which by 1590 had become precarious and were therefore more to be insisted on by the bourgeois Shakespeare.

It is not entirely a question of date, however. Chaucer took less heed of the social order than Langland, whose subject indeed is just that.

As a result, he misses what Langland expresses so strongly, the sense of the dignity of the poor man—not a personal dignity maintained in spite of his poverty, but a dignity held by right of his function.

A northern peasant like Burns could proclaim his independence— independence, not revolt—but again that is something different.

The southern Chaucer could view his Plowman sympathetically enough, but he does not suggest that the Plowman had any status at all.

The Miller is a comic figure, and the comic description removes him from consideration.

Chaucer could not imagine that the strength that could break a barn door might one day help to break a Cavalier charge.

What is more to the point, he did not perceive, as Langland would, that a miller was an important person in a village community and therefore weighted with responsibility.

With all his force, the Miller does not matter, for by that dangerous English trick of humour which works not indeed to destroy but, by its very tolerance, to weaken, the drunken bully is rendered harmless.

Chaucer, in short, takes little heed of function or status. In the same way, he takes little interest in passion as a force in the soul: that is how Troilus and Criseyde differs from Il Filostrato on which it is based.

What is best, and is new, in Chaucer’s judgment is that it is aesthetic, concentrated on the value of the appearance as appearance, not on its cause or its end.

For a parallel we must go back to Homer—beyond Virgil, who was thinking always of imperial Rome—or to Beowulf.

Chaucer sees values like Scott, who wrote of the ruffian he sentenced: “This is a turbulent fierce fellow.

Some of his attitudes were good during the trial.”1 Chaucer may not have thought the matter out as

1 Journal, Aug. 20, 1827.

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INTRODUCTION

Keats was trying to do when he wrote: “Though a quarrel in the Streets is a thing to be hated, the energies displayed in it are fine; the commonest Man shows a grace in his quarrel”1—but he would doubtless have agreed with the notion.

It is this mode of judgment that incapacitates him, as has so often been observed, for tragedy. The silent films showed this fundamental difference between comedy and tragedy, that appearance can be funny in itself, but not tragic. Chaucer, like Charlie Chaplin, can achieve pathos, but not tragedy: for tragedy, appearance is not enough. Nor is it enough for politics. Chaucer never had a vision of the face of England as the Gawain-poet saw it, but his knowledge of men and his emancipation from theoretical judgment saved him from the weakness of Gawain and the Green Knight, wherein the motive is too special and too artificial to balance the grandeur of the imagery. He never had a vision of the people of England as Langland saw them, and that might have been more serious. Chaucer saw people one at a time, not in groups and kinds like Langland. Langland was saved from mere schematism by the peculiar nature of his vision. For allegory is not a single or a simple thing: there are varieties. A metaphysical allegory like The Romance of the Rose depends upon the reader’s intellectual appreciation of the abstractions of which it is made; an allegory like Piers Plowman is made of human life, and its success depends on the reader’s knowledge of life and the writer’s ability to create types which, though stripped of the accidents of individuality, are yet alive. Piers Plowman gives an accurate picture (so far as we can judge) of the ordinary human scene in the fourteenth century, just as The Pilgrim’s Progress gives one of England in the seventeenth. Chaucer indeed selected his pilgrims with care and economy to cover the larger part of society. If he had gone higher than the Knight, or lower than the Plowman, he would have been forced into political problems. As it is, he restricted himself entirely to the social and casual relations of people. Time takes queer revenges. The real purpose and aim of Langland, the attempt

1 Letter to George Keats, March, 1819.

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to cure the woes of England by recalling each class to the conscientious discharge of its function, is dead, for it was only temporary. Politics is "the endless adventure", and any fixed system will serve only for a little. People are eternal. Historians read Piers Plowman for its exposition of feudal theory; others besides historians may read it for its pictures of the street, the London tavern, the cleric dodging parish duty for the sake of a salaried post, the judges on circuit—and for the sake of one most valuable thing, the acquaintance of an honest man of God, William Langland. But the reader will not judge the people he finds there. He cannot help judging Chaucer's, for the aesthetic judgment, the innate gift which the artist cannot but use, to whatever end he use it, is the lasting judgment, for it demands the reader's confirmation. So Chaucer is justified in his work; and so we may say "Here is God's plenty" and read him again.

VII

One thing is certain: after such a master used it, English could no longer be regarded as a subordinate language. At what date it can be said to have prevailed over French is difficult to determine, for the two quotable events, John Cornwall's substitution of English for French as the official medium of instruction in schools1 and the statute of 1362 permitting the use of English in law courts, must be understood as terminal rather than crucial points in the process, for it is highly improbable that such conservatives as schoolmasters and lawyers were anticipating a future situation. Cornwall was merely recognising the fact that French was a foreign language to be studied as such—unless this was a fact, why did men translate so many romances from French into English? The lawyers were merely recognising the fact that witnesses were appearing in court who could give lucid evidence only in English and yet were too reputable and responsible to be spoken for like Saxon day.

1 Recorded by Trevisa, 1385, as the beginning of a custom universal in his day.

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INTRODUCTION

serfs to whom Norman courts were foreign. How exactly the

fait accompli was established cannot be traced in detail:

political feeling, the needs of daily business on the land,

habits caught from nurses and servants, intermarriages—all

these might be invoked, or deduced from the fuller evidence

as to the prevalence of Gaelic among the Anglo-Irish.

Behind them all lies the dominant condition, that the low

estate of English was a purely political circumstance which,

however important and influential, could not destroy the

innate strength of the language nor efface the cultural

tradition embodied in it, whereas Anglo-Norman was a

dialect separated from its parent stock, not in itself strong

enough to develop a separate culture and always over-

shadowed by the French of France. The wars must have

made it plain to many a simple knight that Anglo-Norman

"after the scole of Stratford-atte-Bowe" had become an out-

lying patois, and the discovery would be enough to throw

the weight of amour propre to the side of the language which

could assert itself a sermo regius and therefore at least the

political equal of the French of Paris. At worst it stamped

the speaker as a foreigner, which is better than being treated

as an uneducated and boorish provincial. In the immediate

entourage of kings of England who were also sovereigns of

parts of France, French was obviously necessary, and no

one could escape the dominance of French culture. Else-

where in England, the English language seems to have

been accepted during the fourteenth century as the natural

tongue. It is part of Chaucer's greatness, and of the service

he rendered to England, that he recognised the new status

of English, and, realising also its artistic possibilities, wrote

in English on subjects that might be considered to belong

rather to Latin and French, and so gave to the English

language a cultural status (in England at least, where it

mattered most) to correspond with social habit and political

development.

That political development must be traced within England

as well as in the international relations of which it becomes

possible to speak. National consciousness grew as local an-

tagonisms and dynastic quarrels hardened the frontiers of

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G

the new nations, but within the boundaries of the narrow

seas it is possible also to observe some signs of social con-

sciousness, and even, with that development known to

historians as "the rise of the middle classes", of something

like a body of public opinion. Social consciousness, indeed—

the appreciation of the varied social scene and the sense

of being part of it—is the new inspiration of The Canterbury

Tales. Chaucer set the example of its expression, and if,

as Dr. Manly says, he wrote first for a small audience, the

number of existing manuscripts shows that it was soon a

large one. And the example was followed. The anonymous

continuator of The Canterbury Tales cannot be dismissed as

a mere imitator, for an observer so shrewd and so apprecia-

tive was certainly inspired by his model's humane interest

as well as by his success. Those others who wrote London

Lickpenny—now denied to Lydgate, to the no small im-

poverishment of his reputation—and The Voyage to Compo-

stella had also found out that the contemporary scene is

lively and amusing in itself. These men differ from Langland

and resemble Chaucer in that their satire has its end in enjoy-

ment, not in change or reformation. They tell much, and

advocate nothing. They can see themselves along with their

neighbours in one picture, with no other criticism than a

comic ruefulness that reflects enjoyment of the picture

rather than any moral notions about it. Of these poets of

the social scene the one identifiable personality is Hoccleve,

who tells us too much about himself to be lost in the crowd.

Hoccleve was a poor creature at best, and, despite his

clingling to the skirts of Chaucer, no great poet; but he is a

recognisable individual, and he provides firsthand evidence

that some sort of society had formed in London before

1450, and even before 1400. In the first place, he was that

well-known figure, the civil servant of literary tastes. An

enlarged royal service, less personal to the monarch and

seated in permanent offices, might be expected to breed, or

attract, intelligent and articulate men of education with no

special professional or clerical bent, and to stimulate gre-

garious habits in them. The later history of the civil service

warrants the supposition, and Hoccleve allows us glimpses

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INTRODUCTION

of a society for which at least we have no earlier evidence

but whose character is familiar to later generations. For, in

the second place, Hoccleve was a clubman, and so ranks

as a social phenomenon with Pope and Dr. Johnson and

Thackeray. To write versified epistles to friends is one

thing, to write to fellow-members is in a different range of

relationship and of feeling, and to include the epistles among

one's works involves the assumption that there are others,

outside the immediate circle in which they were written,

who will understand and appreciate that relationship and

the tone and feeling appropriate to it. Hoccleve's "Board of

Green Cloth" did not centre round a tribal chieftain or a

church or a king. The members were not of equal rank,

and their bond of relationship was just their membership

of an organisation that existed for its own sake, for no other

purpose than the association of its members. Thus the

London of Prince Hal's riotous youth knew the meaning,

if it had not the word, of "clubbability". Now the great

ages of the clubs are the reigns of Queen Anne, of George

III, and Victoria, and it is fair to reason that the appearance

of the social club is an indication of social stability. It did

not last long, but it did exist.

Hoccleve's habit of personal revelation is of the same

nature and growth. Chaucer had it, and for the same reason,

though Chaucer did not exaggerate it. A man who has no

adventures to relate, either of soul or body or mind, and who

has no definite doctrine to promulgate, does not make his

own ordinary self the subject of his art unless he is aware of

a society of men like himself, and thinks it is large enough,

and will last long enough, to make the revelation even of

weaknesses and defects likely to meet with sympathetic

fellow-creatures. There must be an audience, and one

interested in character for its own sake without regard to

its moral or intellectual value or its effect on others. And

there must be time for it, since self-revelation, whether naïve

or romantic, is the fruit of leisure. This society of the years

round 1400 was not yet fully formed, and was soon to break

up. Hoccleve is only a rudimentary Boswell without a John-

son-if only he had Boswellised Chaucer instead of merely

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eulogising him!-but he, like Boswell, introduces us into a

social circle which was the happiest thing in his life, and

expects us to take pleasure in it. And, like Boswell, he was

interested in himself and his own frailties. Behind both

there lies a general interest in human behaviour which is

the growth of a settled society conscious of itself and its

varieties.

It might be argued that this pleasure in mere existence

legitimises also the nonsense poem, of which a much earlier

period produced an admirable example in The Land of

Cockaigne. This has been read as a satire on the monasteries,

but no such explanation is required. It is just comic non-

sense, a thing with many variants in many languages, but

of a kind perhaps best preserved in the old-established

society of England. How old the nonsense poem is, as a

genre, we cannot tell, but one admirable example, The Man in the Moon,1 dates from before 1300. Here is a daft

little poem which is neither satire nor sentiment nor religion

nor morals nor philosophy nor incantation: it is plain non-

sense and the most English thing in all mediaeval literature.

But nonsense is possible only when a common understanding

can be assumed, and that is as much social as intellectual.

You cannot play games with reason or religion unless you

believe in them. Without the ground of faith to play on,

the games are meaningless-and, which is worse, dangerous.

The ground of common understanding may be small, but

it must be there, and the significance of The Man in the Moon and The Land of Cockaigne, for our present argument, is

that they rest on the widest ground. The Reformation

killed ecclesiastical nonsense like the Boy Bishop and the

Litany of the Ass, because it was safe only when faith was

unshaken. Only the clerks of the universities could appreciate

the excellent academic nonsense of some of the student

songs. But The Land of Cockaigne is a matter of food and drink

and laziness, and the kindly, muddled, half-intelligence of

The Man in the Moon is equally within the competence of

anyone with a sense of humour. These are social poems,

written for an unspecialised society. But they are not written

1 Carleton Brown, XIIIth Century Lyrics, No. 89.

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INTRODUCTION

in such specificaly social terms as the fifteenth-century

poets used.

The appearance of stability, however, which is suggested

by the very grouping of named and recognised poets round

the year 1400, was temporary and insecure. The fifteenth

century was soon occupied with changes in every department

of life-changes whose early stages Chaucer saw and whose

discords were resolved for English poetry only by Spenser.

Chaucer's linguistic and cultural synthesis provided the

basis upon which later poets rested, but linguistic change

destroyed his versification, religious and political difficulties

unsettled men's minds and drove them into hostile parties,

and finally the great shift of thought and desire which we

call the Renaissance re-oriented the whole content of

mind and imagination. The literary results of these move-

ments lie for the most part beyond our scope. The general

turbulence settles down into a rhythm only in the latter part

of Henry VIII's reign, and no clear history of the interim

can be made out. The court tradition was carried on with

varying success. It seems to grow less and less valid as the

century proceeds, until in Stephen Hawes it is swamped

in erudition and morality, redeemed only by occasional

neatness of phrase and one famous couplet.1 The critic finds

himself reduced to the reviewing of single, and usually

anonymous poems, many of them, like that graceful piece

The Flower and the Leaf, far from devoid of merit. But for

the philologists he could quite well include a review, say,

of The Owl and the Nightingale, which belongs to the early

thirteenth century, for its prettiness and its touch of humour

were not beyond the scope of the fifteenth, and its methods

and ideals are not recognisably alien. There is a slightly

faded charm in these things, but they are only continua-

tions with little variation; and the current was running into

other channels. Only John Lydgate stands up, were it but

by sheer bulk.

The great reputation enjoyed by this very mediocre poet

seems extraordinary to a later age, and explicable only by

1 See The Oxford Book of Verse, No. 33, for the only living fragment of

Hawes.

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the hypothesis that the others were worse, which is not

quite true. Lydgate wrote a great deal, wrote it in competent

verse, and wrote for a notable clientèle, something of whose

prestige reflected, as is usual, on himself. But that is not

enough to create quite such a reputation. When a writer

seems to have been heavily over-praised, it is safe to con-

clude that the reasons lie outside the aesthetic values in his

work, and that he represents in a high degree the interests

of his time. We have a useful check on fifteenth-century

interests in the catalogue of Caxton's publications, and if

we analyse the work of Lydgate, it presents much the same

mixture-so many religious poems, so many moral, so

many recreative. If we add the works of Hoccleve (omitting

his most personal poems) the general effect is unaltered.

Apparently this was the taste of the upper and upper-middle

classes: respectable, sedate, rather old-fashioned and solid-

the taste of that thriving family the Pastons, of Caxton's

noble and ecclesiastical patrons, of the royal circle itself.

Which is perhaps what one might expect. Lydgate's later

reputation has not benefited by the citation in every primer

of the titles only of his two unconscionable masterpieces

The Troy Book and The Falls of Princes, which between them

account for 66,433 lines out of the 145,500 with which he

is credited.1 The short poems contain all the quality

which a facile versifier untrammelled by an artistic

conscience could muster, and the long ones are only skilled

labour.

Verse was too easy, and prose too difficult. It was difficult

even for Chaucer, who could write such distinguished verse

and such undistinguished prose. In the Middle Ages nobody

needed prose very much. The learned wrote their treatises

in Latin, the lawyers drafted their documents according

to their Latin or French formularies, and the men of letters

followed the French fashion, which concentrated mainly

on verse, except for memoirs such as those of Joinville and

Villehardouin, written in that style of gentlemanly discourse

which is a peculiar national possession of the French and

had never an English counterpart, except perhaps in Halifax

1 Dr. MacCracken's calculation; I have not counted them myself.

102

and Sir William Temple. This state of affairs is a sad degeneration from the days of Alfred, but in the fifteenth century prose began to revive. How Sir Thomas Malory, who seems to have been an ordinary unscrupulous man-at-arms fighting in a most unchivalrously-conducted war, was inspired to produce the first monument of artistic prose since the days of Ælfric is (as we have said) a mystery. It was one of those happy accidents that occur to men of genius like Sidney and Fielding and Walpole. This we can say, however, that the new qualities that come into Malory's prose come from his working over poetic originals. These new qualities are harmony of rhythm and emotional power, qualities neglected by men whose only use for prose was exposition, but so vital to the poets that they infected the translator and informed his prose with their power and grace, just as the great, grave tradition of liturgical Latin was to infuse its qualities into the Bible of Tyndale and the Prayerbook of Cranmer. But that assumes that Malory could feel and appreciate the qualities of his originals, and it merely defines, without explaining, his achievement of a new art, "the other harmony of prose".

Of such an art Lydgate had no conception. That is why The Troy Book and The Falls of Princes are dead. For the same reason, Hoccleve's less enormous Regiment of Princes is dead. Yet they were successful in their time, because they contained the kind of material the age desired. To us, who have forgotten the conception that verse is the finest vehicle for the general purposes of vernacular writing, it seems stupid to translate Boccaccio's quite adequate Latin prose into slack English verse; it was more important at the time that Boccaccio's compilation should be made available to Englishmen somehow, and verse came natural to Lydgate and to his readers. In that they were really behind the times. Laurent de Premierfait, who translated Boccaccio's de Casibus Virorum Illustrium into French, did not make that mistake, and if Laurent's style was no great model, Froissart, the stiffest of versifiers, had adapted the memoir style to history, so that there were French examples if they had been heeded. It was the incentive that was lacking. I fancy

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that the secret of Malory was just this, that in the weariness

of prison he desired to write, but thought he could not write

verse (which was probably true) and set himself to write

as he could, with poetry in his mind and no preconceptions

about prose.

Others, however, had other incentives. Dr. R. W.

Chambers has pointed out very admirably and forcibly that

a continuous tradition of English prose exists among the

writers of religious meditation.1 His case is complete, but

two remarks fall to be made. Behind the prose of Dame

Juliana and the other fifteenth-century mystics there lie

not only the prose of Richard Rolle and other predecessors,

but for one thing the echo of liturgy and plainsong, and for

another, the natural rhythms into which the musing mind

naturally falls. These arise eventually from physical facts—

heard, the cadences inevitable in the frequent repetition

of identical phrases, and the nervous reactions of solitude.

Again, it must be allowed that this continuity is along a

narrow and specialised line. "How shall the world be served?"

Even in the religious sphere something more was done.

With the Reformation we have little to do, for Lollardy

was apparently suppressed. It did not produce, on either

side, any great literary monument. Wyclif's own works are

readable only by theological historians, and would be

easier as well as comelier in the academic Latin in which

they were begotten. But however difficult it be to assess

its effects, a movement cannot be ignored which created so

much stir, which numbered adherents from Kent to Ayrshire

and which tried to enlist non-professional interest in theo-

logical disputation by spreading abroad theological treatises

in English and (what might have been more important if it

had been better done) an English Bible. Lollardy created

at least a public opinion. It was its whole basis that the

public should have an opinion.

For the time being, however, the political movement was

both more urgent and more productive. Signs of anxiety

1 The Continuity of English Prose, introductory to Harpsfield's Life of Sir

Thomas More, E.E.T.S., and separately.

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INTRODUCTION

appear along with the signs of social consolidation, and the

two are not unconnected. Chaucer's Merchant who

Wolde the see were kept for any thing

Bitwixe Middelburgh and Orevelle.1

had many brethren, and more than one expressed the same

wish in prose and in verse.2 Good police at sea was a test of

good government, and the merchant, who was strong enough

to make himself heard, was not inclined to waste his time and

goods in fighting. Casual verses on contemporary affairs—the

cry of the oppressed commons, and the song of exultation

over fallen enemies—may be expected at any time. There are

few better than those of that fourteenth-century journalist

Laurence Minot, and his best is no better than the song of

Lewes made in 1264, years before he was born, and both are

better than Skelton's song on Flodden. The significant thing

in the fifteenth century is the number of treatises on govern-

ment, ranging from the commercial disquisition—a very

interesting one—called A Libel of English Polic3 to Fortescue's

legal and constitutional Monarchia. The troubles of Richard

II's reign, the usurpation of Henry IV, the foreign wars, the

minority of Henry VI, the Wars of the Roses, coincide not

only with notable poems like Piers Plowman and Mum and the

Sothsegger, but also with treatises on political morality which

occupy the place held in our own troubled times by treatises

on political science. Whether the change from moral responsi-

bility to scientific irresponsibility is a sign of human progress,

and whether either does more than provide phrases for

practical politicians, are not questions to be debated here.

The point is, that men were thinking about the technique

and the ethics of government, and trying to influence others,

creating the rudiments of a public opinion.

Hoccleve's own Regiment of Princes is (in every sense) a

weighty example. Except for the personal reminiscences in

the long prologue, which is now the interesting part of the

1 Prologue to Canterbury Tales, 276–7.

2 e.g., Wright, Political Songs, Vol. II, Of Keeping the Seas.

3 Wright. Political Songs, Vol. II.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

book, it is by no means original, but there is surely some significance in its appearance so soon after a lineal succession

of seven kings had been violently broken by the father of the Prince Henry to whom it is dedicated, when merchants and

people alike were calling for better government. Originality or translation does not matter. When three men in three

parts of the realm1 set themselves to translate the treatise Secreta Secretorum, it means that men were worrying about

government. Other works besides those bearing directly on government might be taken as issuing from the same habit

of mind. The Faits and Gestes of Chivalry and still more The Order of Chivalry printed by Caxton deal with the law as well

as the conduct of war, and with international law as well as personal conduct. Again these authors draw on ancient

authority, but they give their contemporaries the precedents and the principles by which opinion is formed. Nor are they

unenlightened. According to The Order of Chivalry, for instance, "enemy alien" undergraduates are not only to

continue their studies unmolested, but are to receive supplies from home and even, in emergency, visits from specified

relatives. Whether such excellent rules were observed in practice may be doubtful, but what chance would even the

proposal stand with any modern government? Such cases were thought out, and Caxton laid them before Englishmen

in their native language. Even the Morte Darthur itself might well have been intended as Caxton read it, like Piers Plowman,

to remind men of the pristine virtues that were conspicuously absent from the Wars of the Roses.

The popularity of history is a more direct symptom of the same state of mind. The writing of chronicles was indeed the

oldest literary tradition in England, and in the monastery of St. Albans particularly, a strong tradition and, in the hands

of such men as Matthew Paris and Thomas Walsingham, productive of admirable work. The monastic tradition, however,

ever since the days of William of Malmesbury, was a Latin tradition. In the late fourteenth century, and still more in the fifteenth, it was not confined to the monasteries

1 Including Ireland, which otherwise scarcely comes into our story. See the edition by Robert Steele, E.E.T.S.

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INTRODUCTION

nor to Latin. Here again originality is of less account than

the desire to know. Capgrave of Norfolk, a monk and a man

of some note, provides a more useful source-book for

historians, but the men for whom Trevisa translated Higden's

Polychronicon into a lively colloquial prose that makes

Lydgate's instructional verse seem more old-fashioned than

ever, the men who compiled or adapted a Brut, were feeling

a need which betrays the effort—perhaps only half-conscious

—to understand vaguely-felt difficulties and to look for help

in the past. It is in time of trouble that history becomes

useful.

All these things have their interest, though few of them

could be claimed as literature of the highest class. Again we

must make the sorrowful comment that the things that last

are not always those that are most conspicuous and most

urgent at the time, and the judgments that remain are not

necessarily those of the most honest mind or of the most

serious import. Human sympathies and intrinsic beauty are

the only preservatives. The letters of the Paston family and

the merchant house of Cely remain when even the treatises

of Pecock, who really could write English prose—why do

heretics so often write better than the orthodox?—are

relegated to the specialists. The two literary products which

(along with the Morte Darthur) are the glory of the fifteenth

century are those that were not printed till the nineteenth1

—the Miracles, and the century's brilliant share in the most

continuous of English literary traditions, the song.

If it could be proved that Lydgate, who devised entertain-

ments for the court and for the city of London, had a hand

also in any of the Miracles, he would look less like a stranded

log. But an annual output of over 20,000 lines during his

working life was probably occupation enough, and so con-

spicuous a name could scarcely fail to remain attached to

any work of the magnitude of a play. The suggestion

emphasises the contrast between the official poetry of the

schools and the forms which grew in close contact with

ordinary life, the drama which drew its vitality from the

everyday scene of town and countryside no less than from

1 Except for a few songs printed in the Catalogue of the Harleian MSS,

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

religious feeling, and the song which, however elaborate its

artistic cultivation, arises always from the simpler emotions.

To these may be added the ballad, the intermediate form

which is supposed to have taken its shape in the fifteenth

century. Much theorising and more contention have been

spent on its nature and history. W. P. Ker derived it from the

carole, the dance-song which spread as a social fashion from

France, and so partly solved the mystery of the appearance

of the same ballad in different countries. Professor Gummere

argued the theory of "communal authorship", which, if it

means anything, means simply that textual accuracy was not

considered a virtue, and that any reciter could adapt or

improve, or patch where his memory failed: which is not

astonishing to anyone who thinks in terms of people rather

than of theories. It has been lauded as "folk-art" and slighted

as "the débris of romance". All these notions are probably

correct. There are ballads that are caroles and ballads that

are simplified popular recensions of romantic tales, and

ballads that relate stories and superstitions preserved among

the most conservative and least distracted portions of the

community, and there is constant interchange between the

professional and the amateur, the product of the schools and

the product of the fields and workshops. The soldier songs

of the last war are good evidence of how some things of the

kind arise, bred between the events, feelings and humour of

the community, the professional—in this case the music-hall

jongleur—and the floating memory of evangelistic hymns and

schoolroom lessons. Again, it is a tradition well understood

in all sections of the community that notable events ought to

be celebrated in rhymes. The rhymer does it in the way he

knows best, as well as he can. Once a form is established, and

familiarity gives some ease in the handling, the result may

be good. Ballads are still produced and sold to the crowd.

They may not be very good, but they are not always bad;

and we do not know how many bad ballads have been luckily

forgotten. The ballad is best regarded as a thing of diverse,

natural, social, and cultural origins, which grew into a recog-

nised form which was then exploited with varying success.

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INTRODUCTION

Nothing is gained by attempting close definition of a variable form. The best are the best-remembered, possibly also those that were made in circles where the art was well and critically appreciated either through high cultivation or through the absence of competing artistic ideals. The best examples arrive when the form was disentangled from its origins and established as a thing having its own ideal; and that was probably later than the fifteenth century.

After we have noted these genuine glories of the century, we are faced with the fact of decline, not only in literature, but in other arts. The first part of the century, in which the best of its literature was written, saw the church-building which was financed by the wool trade and the new weaving industry, but when all has been allowed for–civil and foreign war, religious unrest, linguistic change, agrarian and commercial difficulties–there was an artistic and intellectual collapse, an emptiness which goes far to explain the eager welcome given a little later to the revived classics, and the intellectual refreshment and the renewal of artistic enterprise that followed the revival. Music may have enjoyed continuous development from John Dunstable's school in the first half of the century, and, as we have said, the history and criticism of lyric poetry would be easier if we knew more of secular music; but music, like embroidery (the other art for which England was famous and whose activity is continuous) is comparatively independent. The arts that depend more upon society and upon intellectual collaboration, and notably painting, seem to have all but died. It is not through mere carelessness that we are only now coming to understand that England had valuable schools of wall-painting, nor is the Reformation a sufficient explanation of the loss of tradition and technique; for before the old liturgical and theological customs were abandoned there was a lively outburst of secular building to employ decorative artists if they still existed in any activity or had vitality enough to adapt themselves to the demand. Fashion changes; and the most important oversea connexions of England both in trade and in politics were with the Low Countries–which might explain some deficiencies, for, as has been

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

suggested, contact with France is most valuable to England if only because of their differences-but if the French "primitives" were to have little influence, why did not the English painters learn from the school of the van Eycks? The skill of the alabaster-carvers survived to build fine monuments for sixteenth-century worthies, but was it only the prestige of Italian art that led Henry VII to put Torrigiano in charge of his works at Westminster? The decline in heraldic design alone would prompt the question.

The whole condition can be observed at once in the history of English printing. Caxton's venture has all the casual amateurism that, if we like, we can call typically English. The new art was introduced not by Stationers, whose business was the making of books, but by a middle-aged Mercer who came to it by accident. Nor do we find English calligraphers exchanging into print as a later generation of sailors "changed into steam", for Caxton's immediate successors, Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson, were foreigners.1 They did not realise, apparently, the importance of the new craft, nor-what is more to the point-the relation of the new technique to the old, or how little they had to learn. Thus England, with a manuscript tradition unsurpassed anywhere and equalled only in those parts of France which shared the same civilisation, produced books artistically worthless beside the contemporary masterpieces of Venice and Paris. Caxton knew how to set type and make-up formes, but the inherited craft of lettering died without translation into type, so that England depended on foreign supplies based on foreign penmanship; and what was perhaps worse, the inherited craft of layout, spacing, all that makes for beauty in a book, died without passing on its secrets to the amateur Caxton and his followers. The same helplessness is even more obvious when we study the decoration of books. England, which had bred the great schools of Lindisfarne, Jarrow, Winchester, St. Albans, Canterbury, East Anglia, and had bred woodworkers of incomparable skill, was apparently unable to grasp the notion of the wood-block.

1 An attempt was made in that home of good writing, St. Alban's, but it was so evanescent that it merely emphasises the point.

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INTRODUCTION

What cuts were produced in England were wretched imitations of foreign work. Except for a few antiquarian experiments by John Day, late in the sixteenth century, the English presses for three hundred years produced nothing better than the commonplace and second-rate. Conservatism does not explain the failure, for no good manuscripts were produced either. Such inertia proves that the great tradition of book-making was dead, for–though the English have an extraordinary trick of abandoning their own achievements–sheer necessity might have driven intelligent stationers into the new branch of their trade.

The necessity, however, does not seem to have existed. Caxton's patrons were an intelligent aristocracy, lay and ecclesiastical, and their demands were simple. There was no scholarly demand for his services. In the first half of the fourteenth century William of Ockham had called a halt to the extravagances of metaphysics, and no comparable thinker arose to continue his work. Philosophy was waiting for the new content which it was one special function of the Renaissance to recover from Cicero and Plato and Lucretius, and for the new method which Roger Bacon had been unable to force on the orthodox schools. In the great revival which was the vital thing in fifteenth-century Europe, England had no part. Thus no English printing-house ever became a centre of intellectual activity and a source of intellectual sustenance like those of Aldus and Froben and Plantin, or bred a family like the Estiennes. The custom of the English printers remained what Caxton's amateur initiative could compass, serving the desires of the casual reader as well as might be–valuable, no doubt, but serving neither scholarship and philosophy nor their own art. One can only conclude that art and scholarship and philosophy were not there, and meanwhile the continental printers went so far ahead that the next generation were content to import what they needed. There are many reasons why Italy, the former home of the oldest and greatest of the three European traditions and the latest to develop a vernacular literature, should be first to recover that tradition and to fuse it into her still malleable arts, but the history of the Parisian book-trade

III

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

shows that the same city could contain the strongest intrenchment of mediaeval dogmatism and a lively centre of the new art and the new learning at the same time.

Returning to literature, we can see how difficulties surrounded such an energetic mind as that of John Skelton, who was training in Oxford in the 1480's. Classical scholarship was in the air. The embroidery of poetry now had to be classical. Yet the classical material is only applied, not of the stuff. Except that as a professional scholar Skelton used it more heavily than the amateur Chaucer, he used it in exactly the same way, though he lived to see the new humanism firmly established. As we have seen, Chaucer's imagination was comparatively little excited by romance. In Skelton, romance disappears, or, to be more precise and even more conclusive, romantic allusion is used only as invective against Garnesche. On the other hand he retained, as Chaucer did not, the academic invention of metaphysical personification—of all mediaeval traditions the least generative, and the one which gave least control and direction to the user. Classical learning weighted his mind without revitalising his imagination or forcing him to revalue his artistic ideals, for Skelton came at the dead centre of the movement, after the wheel had spent its momentum and before it turned over, with ever-increasing speed, toward the new learning and the new poetry. Boccaccio had abandoned his Tuscan verse and prose to supply the age with less attractive but very useful Latin books of reference. We regret it, but it was the result of a complete conversion from mediaeval to classical, and an honest man's conscientious attempt to advance the studies he believed in. Caxton translated from Raoul le Fevre the stories of the Æneid and of Jason, in which the classical tales were adapted for pastime to chivalric convention without any attempt to change mediaeval ideas or ideals, producing a bastard form of romance which to us seems merely incongruous. Skelton could do neither. His times gave him a wide but uncritical reading in Latin authors, a text-book training in deductive logic that was more formal than practical, in rhetoric as it was understood before the rediscovery of Cicero, and in philosophy

112

INTRODUCTION

that was mere dogmatic metaphysics; gave him Gower and

Chaucer and Lydgate as masters of English poetry1 and at the

same time a speech that differed from theirs; and gave him

the habit of personified abstraction as a means of imaginative

expression.

Nature, however, gave him a great deal more, and I

cannot but feel that he was himself dissatisfied with his

equipment. Not that he did not believe in it; on the contrary,

he belonged, by chance or temperament, to the conservative

group at Oxford as against his contemporaries Grocyn,

Linacre, Colet. He mocked the new fashion of learning

Greek, and complained, like any member of any old school,

that the young were no longer being thoroughly grounded

before they proceeded to the higher studies. But the informal

rush of his verse betrays the impatience of a temper too

energetic for the slow procedure imposed by the allegory of

abstraction to which he was thirled, and desiring also a more

forcible means of expression, some medium less sober than

Gower's, less equable than Chaucer's, lighter and swifter

than Lydgate's. So he hammered at alliteration, used rhyme

like a clapper, loaded his diction with aureate terms and

Latin tags. There is nothing in Skelton that is new, whether

it be among his religious poems which only continue the

custom of earlier ecclesiastical poets, or among his invectives.

In poetry as in scholarship he looks back rather than forward.

There is nothing in Skelton which we cannot find better done

elsewhere. Except for the venom of its personal attack on

Wolsey, Colin Clout is not so good as The Plowman's Tale

before him or the comparable sections of The Shepheardes

Calender after him; The Garlande of Laurell is not so good as

The House of Fame; even Phyllyp Sparowe is not so good as

Joachim du Bellay's epitaphs on his dog and his cat, or

Elinour Rummyng so good as Gammer Gurton; in "flyting" and

in grotesque description Dunbar is his superior. Yet we feel

that Skelton is an original, and that he is indispensable.

Skelton is a person. He exists in three, even four dimensions.

We can see him and know him as we can see and know few

men before him--perhaps only one, Chaucer himself. He

1 See The Garlande of Laurell.

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H

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

was himself intensely self-conscious, even self-centred. It is

small wonder that this exuberant, violent, frustrated

character that sweetens at times into tenderness, this powerful

wit untempered by self-embracing humour but plumed with

a flying fancy, should fascinate some modern minds. It is

small wonder that in his own day this insubordinate cleric

and uncelibate priest, this reckless satirist and fearless in-

veigher against prelatlc abuses, should live and die in

trouble. The difficulty for most of us is the obstinate doubt

whether the immense research required for the understanding

of Skelton's allusions, and even his phrases, will be repaid.

His mind, too rapid for the heavy material of expression—

much of which was intellectual accretion rather than a true

imaginative content—ejected lumps of crabbed allusion,

enigmas whose complete solution would require a fifteenth-

century educational curriculum as well as a knowledge of

history and gossip. We feel they are rather like the pellets

under an owl's perch. Yet we are always tempted back. We

want to know more, if only to identify the mice and beetles

that have been crushed in that powerful beak and claws. So

too his mind was too agile for the verse and language he

inherited, and too impatient—even if the time had come,

which was not yet—to labour over the rehandling of them.

His charming pictures of young women—Jane Scrope, the

group of ladies in the Countess of Surrey's household—begin

with the precision of Holbein drawings and then are tagged

with trails of embroidered allusion. Yet the phrases have a

poise or a perfume which cannot fail of effect, the manner of

approach is perfect and the distances are kept exactly. In

these we feel what we miss in The Tunnyng of Elinour Rum-

myng, which is purely objective, without either Chaucer's

humorous reality or Langland's moral strength or Hoccleve's comic attitudes. Yet the vigour with which the crude

colours are handled is enough to justify it. There is authentic

value in the strong strokes of the brush—or, rather, the

palette-knife—over the rough texture of the canvas. We are

best to read Skelton as we can: to take what we want from

Dyce's notes and supplement them if we care to go further;

to let the colours blur and come clear as they will. There is

114

refreshment and enjoyment enough, in this academic priest, the last of the mediaeval English poets.

VIII

It is of course quite wrong to separate Scottish from English literature. They use the same language, and they belong to the same European tradition. Yet there are differences to be observed. One of these differences we cannot estimate—the extent to which the character of Scottish literature is affected by Gaelic. At present the tendency is to emphasise Scottish Celticism, but nothing can be proved, and the question must be left as it is, subject to the waves and currents of general feeling, influenced more by sentiment, politics and economics than by ethnology or solid cultural history.

Existing Gaelic literature itself lies outside my competence, and identifiable Gaelic influences, which are not (as yet) very important at best, come into the story much later than this volume can reach. Our subject is that northern branch of English literature whose differences from the southern largely originated in the castle hall of Norham, on a day in 1292 when Edward I gave a palmary example of the English politician at his worst. All we have from Scotland before that is the scrap of verse—by no means devoid of rhythmical art —which laments the unhappy change that befell When Alisandre our King wes deid and Edward rent this friendly island in twain and created, in his own despite, the first self-conscious nation in Europe. The next generation saw its proud isolation embodied in and stimulated by the first great Scottish poem, John Barbour's The Bruce. Henceforth, every motive and every condition of literature was set in a new way, local differences of language were accentuated, and the relations of the two island groups with the continental part of the European tradition differed along with their different political alignments. However ethnographers may speculate, the political situation, and it alone, need be invoked to explain the literary differences that can be summed up in the primary facts that the Tweed is a frontier

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

and that the average Scot is more at home in Bordeaux or

Auxerre than in Dorset or Sussex.

Except, however, for local linguistic habits—much less

different from those of northern England than those of

northern England from southern—and for local peculiarities

of spelling—which have nothing to do with language at all—

Barbour's poem falls entirely within the bounds of the

secular literature we have been discussing. One new value

has arisen: national feeling accompanies such general

European traditions as the religious feeling of the Charle-

magne romances; the Southron as well as the Saracen is an

object of execration. Otherwise the moral values are those of

the rest of Europe, and so are the aesthetic values. The Brus

can be placed with Wace's Roman de Rou, as history written

in the technique of romance. In the next century, Sir David

Lyndsay did the same thing with biography in Squire

Meldrum, the life of one of his friends which the Early English

Text Society classifies, by some inexplicable failure of

"Burlesque Romance", but which is just a

stylised biography, lacking the olympian acidity of Lytton

Strachey and more competent than Herr Ludwig's. Blind

Harry's1 Wallace is in the lower grade of the same kind, more

given to marvels and vituperation—a typical gund school-

work. Both have in full measure the essential virtue of gusto.

They believe in their subject, and drive on with it. Each

achieves the effect he aims at, and if Barbour is the greater it

is because he aims at the greater effect. His is a book to read,

for its variety of scene, adventure, and feeling, and for its

clear presentation of the many details by which Barbour

builds up his picture of the king who found himself. But no

one can listen to Henry the Minstrel without catching some

excitement and exhilaration from his violent tale.

It is just this strength of pervading sentiment, this fierce

1 "Blind Harry", as who should say "Homer". Whether he was blind,

whether he had any other name, whether the name is generic and not par-

ticular, are questions whose importance has not been demonstrated. No one

as yet has resolved him into a syndicate, and for me "Blind Harry" means

"the man who wrote The Life and Acts of the Most Famous and Valiant

Champion Sir William Wallace, Knight of Ellerslie; Maintainer of the Liberty

of Scotland".

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INTRODUCTION

faith, that we miss in the romances which have—perhaps by

a not unprecedented national possessiveness—been claimed

for Scotland: Sir Eger, Sir Grime, and Sir Graysteele, The Awntyrs

of Arthur, and so on. They certainly were known in Scotland,

but whether they were written there is another story: they

provide indeed a prime example of that island unity at

which we have already glanced. Rauf Coͤlzeͤar is the only

beast out of the herd—home-bred or raided—that Scotland

need be anxious to earmark. They are very readable,

however, and without them we should lack not only a clue

to the Scotland of the Stewarts, but some understanding of

the course of literature, since these arc of the same school as

Gawain and the Green Knight—which without them would

appear an isolated phenomenon—and since they gave to the

Scottish poets certain habits of verse and style that continued

in vogue for generations. It is thanks to these northern poets

that we can trace a continuous history of verse-forms from

the Old English poets on one hand and the troubadours on

the other, down to Burns himself, for in the north the two

great innovators Chaucer and Spenser, however influential,

were not so completely victorious as in the south.

The influence of Chaucer is, of course, more than obvious;

it was acclaimed, with pride and with humility, by the

Scottish poets themselves. And they are not unworthy of

their master. For one thing, they were less troubled by basic

technical problems than their southern contemporaries.

James I could write better Chaucerian verse than Hoccleve,

because he learned the language along with the style and the

verse, and could keep it, an artificial accomplishment,

uncontaminated by later developments. Henryson, Dunbar

and the rest, who did not write Chaucerian English, had a

dialect to write in that was reasonably fixed and settled in its

forms, and whose variations were trifling compared with

those that worried Caxton.1 Fifteenth-century Scots is

nearer modern Scots than fifteenth-century English is to

modern English; there have been changes indeed, but apart

from vocabulary its main difficulty arises from the fact that

1 The problem of language arose a hundred years later and became acute

after 1603; and even then it was a different problem.

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our modern spelling is the creation of London printers. To

this fundamental linguistic security we may attribute, to some

extent at least, the greater skill of the Scottish poets, and

even their greater show of personality. They could concen-

trate on the style and spirit of Chaucer without being

tempted to reproduce a versification which was impossible

in their dialect. For them, the great lesson of Chaucer was

freedom. He was not their only teacher, but he freed them

from slavery to alliteration or to the eight-syllable verse, and

he, and still more his English disciples, taught them—a more

perilous lesson—the trick of allegory.

His broad humanity he could not teach them, for that

grows from experience as well as temper, and each man

must gain his own experience; but he gave the salutory

example of personality in poetry, so that Henryson could

allow his own very different humour and sentiment to have

free play in his Fables, and even to differ from the master

himself in The Testament of Cresseid, the one poem—since The

King's Quair is so imitative—worthy to be bound up with

The Canterbury Tales. So strong, and so self-possessed, is

Henryson's personality, that the title of “Scottish Chauce-

rian” seems unnecessary. He exists in his own right, sober,

devout, quietly observant of beasts and people. Both his

meditative sadness, as in The Abbey Walk, and his humour, as

in that admirable “pastourelle”1 Robyn and Makyn and in the

Fables, seem restful in comparison with the black melancholy

and the noisy rough-and-tumble of his compatriots. These

quiet traits are indeed Scottish, but they stand outside the

common literary habit that was handed down to Burns; and

they are more difficult of expression. Whether Dunbar

needed any encouragement to express his individuality may

be doubted, but his expressed admiration proves that it was

from Chaucer that he too learned to reproduce in his Scots

the graces of the French school. It is not, however, The

Thrissill and the Rois or any other allegory, however graceful

and well-wrought, that gives Dunbar his high place among

his country's poets, but the revelation of a mortal man.

1 The French term is used of set purpose; the poem is not a “pastoral” in

the classical or Renaissance sense.

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INTRODUCTION

It is pleasant to trace the things Dunbar and Chaucer had in common, and how, even in these, they differed. The difference is almost climatic—between the Thames-side garden and the bleak ridges of Edinburgh and Stirling. Both men disliked the regular orders of clergy: compare The Somnour's Tale and How Dunbar was desierit to be a Frier. Both were much about courts: compare any of Chaucer's polite, composed court-poems with The Dance in the Queen's Chalmer. Both had fits of melancholy: compare the Envoy to Scogan with Timor Mortis Conturbat Me. Comparison comes to a speedy end. Troilus and Criseyde stands clear of all comparisons, then or afterwards. The Parliament of Foules should be compared with Holland's Buke of the Howlet—both poems come out of it honourably, by virtue of very different qualities—rather than with anything in Dunbar. Dunbar took warning, if he needed it, not to begin anything like The Legend of Good Women or The Monk's Tale; he was incapable of anything like the Prologue to the Legend, or, for that matter, the Prologue to the Tales. On the other hand he could manage a fabliau with anybody; and he was possessed of a riotous and fantastic devil that never haunted Chaucer or the banks of Thames. It is a familiar spirit of the north, lewd, foul, comic both in joy and in despair, infinitely vigorous. Skelton knew it, but Skelton's is a ragged double-shuffle compared with the accurately-executed enormities of Dunbar when he set himself capering. It is not satire, nor burlesque, but something on the far and windy side of both. Turn the page, and in Suete Rois of Virtew5, or Rorate Coeli Desuper, the torch-flare changes to cool summer morning or the light of altar-candles. Dunbar's moods are as incalculable as his attitudes: aristocrat, sinner, worshipper at the feet of Our Lady, painter by turns in the school of Hieronymus Bosch and Holbein, he postures, kneels—and disappears. If there are two men to study in all our history from Beowulf to Skelton, they are Chaucer and Dunbar.

Dunbar, so intimately related to that typical Renaissance monarch James IV, might be thought to lead us beyond the Middle Ages. Yet we must continue even further forward, since mediaeval habits of feeling and of technique remained

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active in Scotland so much longer than in England--if indeed they have quite died. The debate-form, for instance, a clerkly trick from France which produced in England two admirable poems in The Owl and the Nightingale and The Flower and the Leaf, is found more freely in Scotland, down to Burns's Twa Dogs and Twa Brigs. To explain this would mean writing a history of Scotland; but here we may note this difference, that the old Church in Scotland bred no group of humanists like the More-Colet group in England, to establish the New Learning, with all it implied of a breach with the past as well as a hope for the future, before the entangled domestic and religious troubles began. The Scottish humanists came later, and coincided with the time of civil strife, whereas the English had coincided with a period of political settlement. They were of the reforming party, and both ecclesiastical and civil politics made such claims upon them that the scholarship even of a Melville or a Buchanan, valuable as it was to the universities, had little chance to ripen and spread, still less to influence the vernacular literature. Thus while Scotland under James IV and James V was in advance of contemporary England in some respects, the artistic and scientific culture of the sixteenth century was but sporadic, lacking a philosophic nexus and a critical discipline, such as England, with a richer society, more leisured scholarship, and political stability, was in process of developing. The breach of continuity came later, after the Stewart poets, and was indeed a violent attenuation rather than a complete breach. As there was no hiatus, so there was no New Poetry. Even Hume, Drum-mond, and their generation, which learned the new art from England and Italy and France, retain some memory of the older Scotland and the Middle Ages.

A successful translation of Virgil might well entitle Gavin Douglas to inclusion among the poets of the new Renaissance, and indeed it is a world away from the chivalric travesty Caxton had printed in Douglas's childhood. But Douglas wrote also King Hart and The Palice of Honour, as typical fifteenth-century allegories as need be, though fuller of noise and movement than their southern congeners. This

120

INTRODUCTION

touch of rough vitality which he contrives to impart into a somewhat lifeless form is the sign of his nationality, and also of the originality of feeling and vision that gives value to-and has earned recognition for-the prologues to his Æneados, and it saves the translation itself from the over-smoothness that comes of too much academic respect for Virgil. In Sir David Lyndsay the same quality and the same originality are not only displayed, but cultivated. If not the greatest poet to be mentioned in this survey, he is certainly the most original; and his abiding popularity among his own people testifies to his integral Scotticism. With Lyndsay we have reached the Reformation—and The Satyre of the Three Estaitis goes far to explain the course it took in Scotland—but he remains within the mediaeval tradition, “aureate” in diction, romantic in feeling, and undisciplined in construction.

Lyndsay, however, is rarely dull. The headstrong verse does not degenerate through loss of control, for he has all the native delight in ingenious rhyming. And in speaking his mind plainly to his master, the good servant of James V spoke for all conditions of the Scottish people. Had he been listened to, the history of Scotland would have been happier. Perhaps it was too much to expect men to listen to the whole of A Dialogue betwix Experience and ane Courteour. The whole history of the early world, continuously moralised and applied to contemporary conditions, is a heavy lesson despite its shrewdness. But at least Lyndsay, unlike Hawes, saw the danger, and saved his poem from some of the deadlier kinds of dullness by variations of metre which admit—or perhaps intentionally invite—its absorption in small doses. Even here, where it is more difficult than in his shorter works, he continues to combine an earnest character and a lively mind.

Small doses of this salt meat might be recommended, and most of this Scottish poetry is highly flavoured. Yet though it smell rank at times, it is with the honest effluvia of the stable and the farmyard. Aristocrat as he was, Lyndsay understood and thought for the plain folk. None of these court poets, indeed, are confined to a court circle or a courtly convention. James I is credited with The Kingis

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Quair, but shares also with James V the credit of Christis Kirk on the Grene: if both attributions are false, the legends do not lose significance. The noisy rough-and-tumble was not a class-character, but the expression of something national. Our weaker-headed generation may weary of it in the unrelieved length of Christis Kirk and Peblis to the Play and Cokilby's Sow, and may even regret the convention they created for later Scottish poets who imitated the rowdiness without learning either the high skill of verse or the finer temper that accompanied it; yet it may be argued that it was just that coarse fibre that gave life and strength to the whole, and kept it alive, under the worst conditions, when the southern branch died of inanition and good manners. At least it testifies to some force and liveliness, and its comic inconsequence is part of the Scottish birthright—a spirit that invades even the serious historians and makes Pitscottie, for instance, the best reading of any historian since Giraldus Cambrensis. And some day Scotland may remember the art and the music that those same generations made, and may set this part of her tradition in its place when she rebuilds.

IX

The stage is now set for the new generation and the new literature. Many of the new stories have arrived, sometimes in strange guises. The new learning has come with Linacre and a new type in that scholarly butcher Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. Feudalism has expired in a flurry of unchivalric throat-slitting, the Church is under a cloud, scholastic logic is spinning more and more mechanically, a mill without grist. Men's speech has changed, the content of the imagination has changed. The economics of the manor have changed. Europe is organising itself in nations under despotic kings, and the pious voyages to Jerusalem will soon be forgotten in the material excitements of the Indies. The world is new.

One vital thing has still to come: the new criticism. How that is to affect politics, religion, and society is not our affair, but a glance forward helps to define the literary weakness that inevitably reflects the decline of the Middle Ages.

122

INTRODUCTION

After a generation of humanist discipline men will learn to use prose for every purpose. What is more easily remarked, English poets were to become conscious of form, the great lesson of classicist criticism. Chaucer learned it for himself, by hard experience. We can see him learning as Troilus and Criseyde changes from the leisurely manner of the first three Books, full of digressions and pauses, to the swifter economy of the last two. We can see it better as we compare the elaborate entry into The Boke of the Duchesse with the Canterbury prologues. Other men never learned. It takes Hoccleve 1200 lines of introduction, duplicating his effects and hovering about, before he gets down to the business of The Regiment of Princes. Hawes is as bad. Skelton, having abandoned the discipline of narrative, finds no other guide to the conduct of his matter. Spenser, when the time comes, “thrusteth into the middest” as no medieval poet dared, because he knows—only too well—the rules of the epic game. The dramatists, though less subservient to the new legislation, learn how to lay out and carry through a complex structure.

But it is not our duty in the close to draw conclusions or present a balance-sheet of profit and loss. In the following pages we try to help our fellow-student to find the most useful material from which to make up his own mind. If in the foregoing we have started some hares for him to keep or kill—provoked an idea or two for him to clarify, complete, or disprove—then we have done what we intended.

If he is bound to some curriculum of study, we hope to be useful to him. If he is in the more fortunate position of being able to follow his fancy, we say follow it, without caring where it leads, but follow a line. If one piece of advice to the free student be permitted, it would be this. In order to gain some acquaintance with the general average content of mediaeval life, he could make an intensive study of a small area he knows. There is enough to form a nucleus in innumerable villages in England, and in more Scottish ones than appears at first sight. The church can be taken as an instrument of ritual worship. If one will study the uses of the various parts, then such accidents as chantries and tombs, the exact

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meaning of decorative carving, glass and painting, then,

with such elders to help him as John Myrc and such moderns

as Professor Hamilton Thompson, and with (above all) the

service-book, he will learn about mediaeval notions of

religion and legendary naturally, as his ancestors learned

them. He will soon discover the significance of its status as

parish, collegiate, or monastic church, may take up the

aesthetics of architecture and decoration, the economics and

organisation of its building, its founders and benefactors,

and so on. Lay monuments—castle, manor-house, almshouse

—will serve in the same way, the student always remembering

that secular life leaves few traces compared with religious

observance—that the best-preserved castle preserves less

than the most pillaged and restored church. The publications

of the local archaeological society are usually full of frag-

ments, and also of useful references.

Along with these studies, the student will read the poetry

and prose which were arts contemporary with the buildings,

which thrilled and amused the people who lived in them.

Thus a fourteenth-century chantry will remind him that

Langland denounced the abuse of chantries—Piers Plowman

will remind him of chantry-chapels he has seen in his

churches. The vogue of chantries, thoughtfully ruminated in

the study or in the church, will reveal one prevalent emotion

in the fourteenth-century mind, which will lead him perhaps

to The Monk's Tale and Lydgate, and to salutary meditation

on death and the soul. In those ruins, again, he may trace

hall and bower. In this soler they read Chaucer and Emare—

wearing what clothes? In this cloister they transcribed

Roger of Wendover, thinking what thoughts, and poring

over what technique? Refurnish Tattersall, that stands bare,

with songs and arguments as well as with tapestries and

armours. Read the legend and the truth of Warwick. Or

begin with a poem or a story, and follow it back. Anything

will do for a starting-point, but follow your fancy; and

follow up the references, for there is no knowing where they

may lead. We can promise you some labour and much

delight.

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STUDENTS’ GUIDE

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Angl.—Anglia, Zeitschrift für Englische Philologie, Halle, 1877—.

Angl. B-bl.—Beiblatt zur Anglia, Halle, 1890—.

Archiv.—Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprache und Literaturen, ed. Herrig et al., Brunswick, 1846—.

Billings.—A Guide to the M.E. Metrical Romances by A. H. Billings, New York, 1901.

Bonner Beitr.—Bonner Beiträge zur Anglistik, Bonn, 1898–1908.

Brandl.—Geschichte der altenglischen Literatur, by A. Brandl, Strassburg, 1908.

Brandl-Zippel.—Mittelenglische Sprach und Literaturproben, by A. Brandl and O. Zippel, Berlin, 1917, etc.

B.M.—British Museum.

C.B.E.L.—The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, 4 vols., London, 1941.

C.H.E.L.—The Cambridge Hist. of Engl. Lit., C.U.P., 1907–26.

Chambers, Beow.—Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment, ed. A. J. Wyatt, rev. with Introduction and Notes by R. W. Chambers, C.U.P., 1914, etc.

Chambers, Beow. Introd.—Beowulf, an Introduction to the Study of the Poem, by R. W. Chambers, 2nd ed., C.U.P., 1932.

Chambers, Eng. Norm. Con.—England before the Norman Conquest, by R. W. Chambers, London, 1926.

Clarke, Sidelights.—Sidelights on Teutonic History during the Migration Period, by M. G. Clarke, C.U.P., 1911.

Classen-Harmer. — An Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. E. Classen and F. E. Harmer, Manchester, 1926.

Cockayne, Leechdoms.—Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, 3 vols., by O. Cockayne, London, 1864–6.

Cook, Elene.—The Old English Elene, Phoenix and Physiologus, by A. S. Cook, New Haven, 1919.

Craigie, Specimens.—Specimens of A.S. Poetry, 3 vols., ed. W. A. Craigie, Edinburgh, 1923–31.

Dickins, Run. Poems.—Runic and Heroic Poems, by B. Dickins, C.U.P., 1915.

D.N.B.—Dictionary of National Biography, London, 1885—.

Earle-Plummer, Sax. Chron.—Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, 2 vols., ed. C. Plummer, Oxford, 1892–9.

E.E.T.S. (O.S./E.S.).—Publications of the Early English Text Society (Original Series/Extra Series).

Encycl. Brit.—Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed.

Engl. Hist. Rev.—English Historical Review, London, 1886—.

E.L.H.—A Journal of English Literary History, Baltimore, 1933—.

English Studies.—A Journal of English Letters and Philology, Amsterdam, 1936—.

Essays and Studies.—Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, Oxford, 1910—.

E.St.—Englische Studien, Organ fur englische Philologie, Leipzig, 1877—.

Ev. Lib.—Everyman's Library.

French and Hale.—Middle English Metrical Romances, ed. by W. H. French and C. B. Hale, New York, 1930.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry.—Anglo-Saxon Poetry, tr. by R. K. Gordon, Ev. Lib., 794.

Grein-Wül(c)ker, Poesie.—Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie, 3 vols., 127

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

ed. C. W. M. Grein and R. P. Wül(c)ker, Cassel, 1883–98.

Grein-Wül(c)ker, Prosa.—Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa, ed. C. W. M. Grein, R. Wül(c)ker, H. Hecht, Cassel, 1872–.

Hall. Beow.—Beowulf and the Finns-burg Fragment, tr. J. R. C. Hall. New ed. rev. C. L. Wrenn and J. R. R. Tolkien, London, 1950.

Hall, Sels.—Selections from Early Middle English, 2 vols., ed. J. Hall, Oxford, 1920.

Hall, Jud. Phoen.—Judith, Phoenix and other Anglo-Saxon Poems translated, by J. L. Hall, London, 1902.

H. and B.—A Bibliographical Guide to Old English, by A. H. Heusinkveld and E. J. Bashe, Iowa, 1931.

Hibbard, Med. Rom.—Medieval Romance in England, by L. A. Hibbard, Oxford, 1924.

Hoops, Reallexikon.—Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, 4 vols., ed. J. Hoops, Strassburg, 1911–19.

Horstmann, A.E.Leg.—Altenglische Legenden, ed. C. Horstmann Pader-born, 1875.

Horstmann, A.E.Leg. 1878.—Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden, ed. C. Horstmann, Heilbronn, 1878.

Horstmann, A.E.Leg. 1881.—Altenglische Legenden, neue Folge, ed. C. Horstmann, Heilbronn, 1881.

Huchon, Hist. Lang. Angl.—Histoire de la Langue Anglaise, 2 vols., by R. Huchon, Paris, 1923–30.

Jansen.—Die Cynewulf-forschung, by K. Jansen, Bonn, 1906.

J.(E.)G.Ph.—Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Evanston, later Urbana, 1897–.

Kennedy, Cynewulf.—The Poems of Cynewulf, by C. W. Kennedy, London, 1910.

Kershaw.—Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems, by N. Kershaw, C.U.P., 1922.

Klaeber, Beow.—Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. F. Klaeber, 3rd ed., London, 1941.

Kölbing, A. E. B.—Altenglische Bibliothek, ed. E. Kölbing, Heilbronn, 1883–.

Liebermann, Gesetze.—Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols., ed. F. Liebermann, Halle, 1903–16.

Medium Ævum.—Medium Ævum, Oxford, 1932–.

M.L.N.—Modern Language Notes, Baltimore, 1886–.

M.L.R.—Modern Language Review, C.U.P., 1905–.

M.Ph.—Modern Philology, Chicago, 1903–.

Morris (and Skeat), Specimens.—Specimens of Early English, Pt. I, ed. R. Morris, rev. Mayhew and Skeat, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1898. Pt. II, ed. Morris and Skeat, 4th ed., Oxford, 1898.

Neilson and Webster, Ch.—Chief British Poets of the 14th and 15th Centuries, ed. W. A. Neilson and K. G. T. Webster, Boston, 1916.

Oakden, Allit. Poetry.—Alliterative Poetry in Middle English; The Dialect and Metrical Survey, by J. P. Oakden, Manchester University Press, 1930.

Owst, Lit. Pul.—Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England, by G. R. Owst, C.U.P., 1933.

Palaestra.—Palaestra, Untersuchungen und Texte, Leipzig, Berlin, 1898.

Phil. Quart.—Philological Quarterly, Iowa, 1922–.

P.M.L.A.—Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Baltimore, 1884–.

R.E.S.—The Review of English Studies, London, 1925–.

Rickert, Rom. Friendship.—Romances of Friendship, vol. I of Early English Romances in Verse, by E. Rickert, London, 1908.

Rickert, Rom. Love.—Romances of Love, vol. 2 of Early English Romances in Verse, London, 1908.

Ritson, A.E.M.R.—Ancient English Metrical Romances, ed. J. Ritson, London, 1802.

S.A.T.F.—Publications de la Société des anciens Textes Français, Paris, 1875–.

Sedgefield, Bk. A.S. V.P.—An A.S. Book of Verse and Prose by W. J. Sedgefield, Manchester, 1928.

128

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Sedgefield, Maldon.—The Battle of Maldon and Short Poems from the Saxon Chronicle, ed. W. J. Sedgefield, London, 1904.

Shackford, Leg. Sats.—Legends and Satires from Medieval Literature, by M. H. Shackford, Boston, 1913.

Sisam.—Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose, ed. K. Sisam, Oxford, 1921.

Smithson, Christian Epic.—The O.E. Christian Epic, by G. A. Smithson, Berkeley, 1910.

S.P.E.—Society for Pure English.

Speculum.—The Speculum, a Journal of Medieval Studies, Boston, 1926—.

S.T.S.—Publications of the Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh, 1884—.

Thomas, Engl. Lit.—English Literature before Chaucer, by P. G. Thomas, London, 1924.

Thorpe, A.S.C.—The A.S. Chronicle, ed. B. Thorpe, London, 1861.

Trounce, Engl. Tail Rhyme.—“The English Tail-Rhyme Romances”

by A. McI. Trounce in Medium Ævum, Oxford, 1932-3.

Wardale.—Chapters on O.E. Literature, by E. Wardale, London, 1935.

Weber, Metr. Rom.—Metrical Romances of the XIII, XIV and XV Centuries, ed. H. Weber, Edinburgh, 1810.

Wells, (Manual).—A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, by J. E. Wells. With Eight Supplements. New Haven, 1916—.

Weston, Ch.M.E.P.—The Chief M.E. Poets, by J. L. Weston, Boston, 1914.

Weston, Rom. Vis. Sat.—Romance, Vision and Satire, by J. L. Weston, Boston, 1912.

Williams, Gnomic Poetry.—Gnomic Poetry in A.S., by B. C. Williams, New York, 1914.

Z.f.d.A.—Zeitschrift für Deutsche Alterthum und Deutsche Litteratur, Leipzig, 1841—.

129

I

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PAGE

II General Bibliographies of Old and Mediaeval English Language and Literature - 133

III Old English Period-People, Institutions, Language - - - - - 135

IV Old English Literature-General - - 150

V Old English Literature-Poetry - - 154

VI Old English Literature-Prose - - 227

VII Mediaeval Period-People, Institutions, Language - - - - - - 261

VIII Mediaeval English Literature-General - 269

IX Mediaeval Period-Individual Authors and Texts - - - - - - - 275

X Mediaeval Period-Other Texts - - 315

XI Scottish Literature - - - - 406

XII The Arts - - - - - - 425

131

CHAPTER II

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF

OLD AND MEDIAEVAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

The following bibliographical items will be found useful.

For others, especially German bibliographies, see Heusinkveld and Bashe below.

Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature. Ed. for the

Modern Humanities Research Association. Cambridge, 1921-.

American Bibliography for 1921-, in Publications of the Modern

Language Association of America, Baltimore, 1884-. [See the

March number.]

Brandl, A. Geschichte der altenglischen Literatur. Strassburg.

1908. [Offprint from Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie. Passim.]

Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, ed. F. W. Bateson,

4 vols. London, 1941. [This supersedes the bibliographies

contained in C.H.E.L.]

The Cambridge History of English Literature, edited by A. W. Ward

and A. R. Waller, C.U.P., 1907-1926. See 1.446 ff., and

2.432 ff. [A cheap reprint, omitting the bibliographies, was

published in 1932.]

Cross, T. P. Bibliographical Guide to English Studies. 9th ed.

Chicago, 1947.

Edwardes, M. A Summary of the Literatures of Modern Europe

(England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) from the Origins to 1400.

London, 1907. [A useful guide, with summary lives of

authors, synopses of writings, and select bibliographies.]

Gayley, C. M., and Kurtz, B. P. Methods and Materials of Literary

Criticism—Lyric, Epic, and Allied Forms of Poetry. Boston and

New York, 1920.

Gross, C. The Sources and Literature of English History from the

Earliest Times to about 1485. 2nd ed. London, 1915.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Heusinkveld, A. H., and E. J. Bashe. A Bibliographical Guide to Old English. A Selective Bibliography of the Language, Literature, and History of the Anglo-Saxons. Iowa, 1931. [Excellent.]

Kennedy, A. G. A Bibliography of Writings on the English Language from the Beginning of Printing to the End of 1922. Cambridge (Mass.), 1927. [Indispensable for advanced study.]

Kennedy, A. G. A Concise Bibliography for Students of English. 2nd ed. O.U.P., 1946.

Lawrence, W. W. Selected Bibliography of Mediaeval Literature in England. New York, 1930. [Useful for beginners.]

Modern Language Notes. Baltimore, 1886-. [Each number lists recently published books.]

The Modern Language Review. Cambridge, 1905-. [Lists new books quarterly.]

Northup, C. S. A Register of Bibliographies of the English Language and Literature. New Haven, 1926. [New ed. in preparation.]

P.M.L.A. [Includes annual lists of new American publications.]

R.E.S. [Contains quarterly summaries of periodical literature.]

Schofield, W. H. English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer. London, 1914. [See pp. 466–86.]

Van Patten, N. An Index of Bibliographies and Bibliographical Contributons Relating to the Work of British and American Authors, 1923–32. London, 1934.

Wells, J. E. A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050–1400. With eight supplements. New Haven, 1916-. [A handbook to all the extant writings in print composed in England. It “groups each piece with the others of its kind; indicates its probable date, or the limitations as to its date, its MS. or MSS., the probable date of its MS. or MSS., its form and extent, commonly the dialect in which it was first composed and its source or sources when known; presents comments on each longer production, with an abstract of its contents; and supplies a bibliography for each composition.” Invaluable and indispensable.]

The Year's Work in English Studies. Published by The English Association, Oxford, 1921-. [A valuable critical review of current publications.]

134

CHAPTER III

OLD ENGLISH PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

1. PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS

For excellent résumés of current knowledge about persons, peoples, places, institutions, customs, etc., see the Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th ed.). For articles on individuals see the Dictionary of National Biography. The Cambridge Medieval History (Cambridge, 1911–1936) should also be regularly consulted.

A. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Guide to Historical Literature. Compiled by G. M. Dutcher, H. R. Shipman, S. B. Fay, A. H. Shearer, W. H. Allison. New York, 1931.

Gross, C. The Sources and Literature of English History, from the Earliest Times to about 1485. 2nd ed. London, 1915. [An invaluable annotated bibliography of English historical writings. Indispensable.]

Paetow, L. Guide to the Study of Medieval History. 2nd, rev. ed. London, 1931. [Not confined to English History.]

Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, ed. for the Modern Humanities Research Association. Cambridge, 1921– . [Contains sections devoted to historical topics.]

The English Historical Review. London, 1886– . [A quarterly journal, the July number of which includes a bibliography of books published during the year.]

B. ETHNOLOGY

Beddoe, J. The Races of Britain. Bristol, 1885. [See Chaps. V (Anglo-Saxon Period and Conquest), VII (Danish Period), VIII–XI (Normans)].

Chadwick, H. M. The Origin of the English Nation. 2nd ed. C.U.P., 1924. [Based upon “all branches of ethnological

135

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

study—history, tradition, language, custom, religion and antiquities”. Does not accept Bede's distinction of Angles and Saxons.]

Chadwick, H. M. and N. K. The Growth of Literature. 3 vols. C.U.P., 1932–9. See in particular, Vol. I.

Chambers, R. W., ed. Widsith. C.U.P., 1912.

Fleure, H. J. The Peoples of Europe. London, 1922. [Useful introd.]

Fleure, H. J. “Distribution of Races and Languages” in Vol. I of the Oxford Survey of the British Empire. Oxford, 1914.

Fleure, H. J. The Races of England and Wales: a Survey of Recent Research. London, 1923.

Hoops, J. Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde. 4 vols. Strassbourg, 1911–19.

Jolliffe, J. E. A. Pre-Feudal England. The Jutes. London, 1933.

Peake, H. J. “The English Village” in Vol. I of the Oxford Survey of the British Empire. Oxford, 1914.

Ripley, W. Z. The Races of Europe: A Sociological Study. London, 1913. [First pub. New York, 1899. Standard work. See especially Chap. XII on the peoples of the British Isles.]

Schütte, G. Our Forefathers: The Gothonic Nations. A Manual of the Ethnography of the Gothic, German, Dutch, Anglo-Saxon, Frisian and Scandinavian Peoples. 2 vols. Trans. from the Danish by J. Young. Cambridge, 1929–33. [A standard work. Indispensable.]

Wadstein, E. On the Origin of the English. Upsala, 1927.

Weldon, B. de W. The Origin of the English. London, 1928.

C. SOCIAL HISTORY

Allison, T. Pioneers of English Learning. Oxford, 1932.

Andrews, C. McL. The Old English Manor. Baltimore, 1892.

Benham, A. R. English Literature from Widsith to the Death of Chaucer. A Source Book. London, 1916. [A comprehensive collection of extracts in translation illustrating the political, industrial and cultural backgrounds of the period.]

Browne, G. F. The Importance of Women in Anglo-Saxon Times; and other Addresses. London, 1919.

Collingwood, R. G. Roman Britain. O.U.P., 1924. [An excellent introd.]

Chadwick, H. M. Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions. Cambridge, 1905. [Brilliant survey. Indispensable.]

136

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Chadwick, H. M. The Heroic Age. Cambridge, 1912, 1926. [See especially Chaps. XVI-XVIII.]

Files, G. T. The Anglo-Saxon House. Leipsic. 1893.

Gramm, W. Die Körperpflege der Angelsachsen. Eine Kulturgeschichtlich-etymologische Untersuchung. Heidelberg. 1938.

Gummere. F. B. Founders of England, With Supplementary Notes, by F. P. Magoun. New York, 1930. [A new and improved ed. of Germanic Origins: a Study in Primitive Culture.]

Haverfield, F. J. The Roman Occupation of Britain. Revised by G. Macdonald. Oxford, 1924. [See pp. 261–8 on “Roman Britain and Saxon England”.]

Hodgkin, R. H. A History of the Anglo-Saxons. 2 vols. Oxford, 1935. [Contents:—Vol. I: The Angles and Saxons in Germany, The End of the Roman Period, The Conquest of Kent, The First Stage of the Saxon and Anglian Conquest, General Character of the Saxon Conquest, The Second Stage of the Conquest, Heathen Society, The Conversion, The Golden Age. Vol. II: The Struggle for Supremacy, The Church in the Century after Bede, The Results of Christianity, The Vikings, The Coming of the Great Army, The Danish Wars [871–8], War and Peace [878–92], The Restriction of Order of Learning, Alfred’s Foreign Policy, Alfred’s Last War, and Alfred, the Man and his Message. An excellent “attempt to adjust the new views and the old”. Non-partizan and well-illustrated. Indispensable.]

Leach, A. F. The Schools of Medieval England. London, 1915. [See especially Chaps. III–VI.]

Leeds, E. T. The Archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon Settlements. Oxford, 1913. [Standard.]

Maitland, F. W. Domesday Book, and Beyond. Cambridge, 1907. [See Essay 2 on “England before the Norman Conquest”.]

Parry, A. W. Education in England in the Middle Ages. London, 1920. [Bk. I (pp. 3–30) deals with the A.S. period. Excellent.]

Pfändler, W. “Die Vernügungen der Angelsachsen” in Angl., 29.417–526. 1906.

Philippson, E. Germanisches Heidentum bei den Angelsachsen. Leipzig, 1929.

Quennell, M. and C. H. B. Everyday Life in Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman Times. London, 1926. [A concise, popular account, well illustrated.]

Rösler, M. “Erziehung in England vor der normannischen Eroberung” in E. St., 48.1–114. 1915. [A well-documented and comprehensive account.]

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, 1943. [Vol. 2 of the Oxford History of England. Indispensable.]

Strutt, J. Glig-gamena Angel-ðeod. The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. New ed., enlarged by J. C. Cox. London, 1903. [Detailed description, with excellent illustrations, of pastimes of the people and an account of their origin. Very good reading-matter.]

Traill, H. D. Social England. A Record of the Progress of the People in Religion, Laws, Learning, Arts, Industry, Commerce, Science, Literature and Manners by various writers. Illustrated ed. [revised] by H. D. Traill and J. S. Mann. 6 vols. London, 1901–4.

Vinogradoff, P. The Growth of the Manor. 2nd ed. London, 1911. [Contents: Chaps. on Celtic Tribal arrangements, Roman influence, the English Conquest, the grouping of the folk, the shares in the township, the open field system, the history of the holding, Manorial origins, the principles of the Domesday Survey, ownership and husbandry, and social classes. See especially Bk. II (pp. 117–287) on the O.E. Period.]

Vinogradoff, P. English Society in the Eleventh Century. Oxford, 1908. [Account of military organisation, jurisdiction, taxation, government and society, land tenure, rural organisation, social classes, land and people. Standard.]

Wingfield-Stratford, E. C. The History of British Civilisation. 2nd ed. London, 1930. [See Chaps. I–III.]

Wright, T. The Homes of Other Days. A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England. London, 1871.

D. POLITICAL HISTORY

Bense, J. F. Anglo-Dutch Relations. O.U.P., 1925. [Surveys from the earliest times to the death of William III. Forms an introduction to the author's Dictionary of the Low Dutch Element in the English Vocabulary (see p. 146)].

Chambers, R. W. England before the Norman Conquest. London, 1926. [Source book of English History from Teutonic times to 1066. Excellent reading-matter.]

Collingwood, W. G. Scandinavian Britain. London, 1908. [A comprehensive survey.]

Collingwood, R. G., and Myers, J. N. L. Roman Britain and the English Settlements. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1937. [Bks. I–IV, by Collingwood, on Roman Britain. Chaps. XIII (Romano-British Agriculture), XV (Romano-British Art), XIX

138

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(Britain in the fifth century) may be noted. Interesting suggestions as to Arthur on pp. 320-4. Bk. V, by Myers, on the English Settlements. Not such smooth reading as Bks. I-IV, but the better for its lesser degree of conjecture, frank acknowledgment of paucity of evidence and avoidance of dogmatic conclusions. Valuable use of archaeology.]

Ekwall, E. Scandinavians and Celts in the North-West of England. Lund, 1918. [Study of Goidelic influence on local and personal nomenclature of North-West England.]

Freeman, E. A. History of the Norman Conquest: its Causes and Results. 6 vols. Oxford, 1867-79; 2nd ed. of Vols. I-IV, 1870-6; 3rd ed. of Vols. I and II, 1877. [Standard.]

Hodgkin, T. The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest. London, 1906. [Standard.]

Hoops, J. Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde. 4 vols. Strassburg, 1911-19. [An indispensable reference book for more advanced studies. See I, 593-613 on A.S. Settlements, and IV, 529-53 on the Vikings.]

Kemble, J. M. The Saxons in England. 2nd ed. by W. de G. Birch. London, 1876. [Still useful.]

Kendrick, T. D. A History of the Vikings. London, 1930. [For advanced students particularly.]

Levison, W. England and the Continent in the Eighth Century. Oxford, 1946. [Erudite and authoritative.]

Lappenberg, J. M. History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. Translated by B. Thorpe. Rev. ed. 2 vols. London, 1881. [Still useful.]

Mawer, A. The Vikings. Cambridge, 1913. [An excellent introductory survey.]

Oman, C. England before the Norman Conquest. Being a History of the Celtic, Roman and Anglo-Saxon Periods down to the Year A.D. 1066. London, 1910. [Authoritative.]

Ramsay, J. H. The Foundations of England, or Twelve Centuries of British History, 55 B.C.-A.D. 1154. 2 vols. London, 1898. [See especially Vol. I, Chaps. X, XXV, XXXI.]

Sayles, G. O. The Medieval Foundations of England. London, 1948. [A history of ideas in action.]

Shetelig, H. and Falk, H. Scandinavian Archaeology. Translated by E. V. Gordon. Oxford, 1937. [A summary of the whole of the pre-history and early history of the Scandinavian countries from the Stone Age to the end of the Viking period. Excellently illustrated. The best book in English on this subject.]

139

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Stenton, F. M. Documents Illustrative of the Social and Economic History of the Danelaw. Oxford, 1920.

Stenton, F. M. "The Danes in England" in Proc. of the B.A., XIII, 203–46. 1927. [Surveys relations between Danes and English in the tenth century.]

Stephenson, C. Borough and Town. Camb. (Mass.), 1933. [Study of beginnings of town life in England.]

Tait, J. The Medieval English Borough. Studies on its Origin and Constitutional History. Manchester U.P., 1936.

Williams, M. W. Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age. New York, 1920.

Young, G. M. The Origin of the West Saxon Kingdom. O.U.P., 1934.

E. LAW, CONSTITUTION

Darlington, R. R. A Constitutional History of England: From Anglo-Saxon England to 1066. [In preparation. Methuen.]

Holdsworth, W. S. A History of English Law. 12 vols. London, 1922–38. [See Vol. II, Bk. II, on Anglo-Saxon Antiquities.]

Jenks, E. A Short History of English Law. 4th ed. London, 1938. [See Chap. I.]

Liebermann, F. Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen. 3 vols. Halle, 1903–16. [1. Text and German Translation. 2. Glossaries. 3. Introductions and Notes to each. A monumental edition. "For those who desire to make a study of the texts and their history, or to enter into a full discussion either of the Laws themselves or of the terms which are employed therein (this edition) is indispensable", Attenborough, Laws of the Earliest English Kings, Preface, C.U.P., 1922.]

Morris, W. A. The Constitutional History of England to 1216. New York, 1930.

Pollock, F. "English Law before the Norman Conquest," in A. Bowker's Alfred the Great. London, 1899, pp. 209–39. [Useful introd.]

Pollock, F. and Maitland, F. W. The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. 2 vols. 2nd ed. Cambridge, 1911. [See especially Vol. I, Chap. I (The Dark Age in Legal History) and Chap. II (Anglo-Saxon Law).]

Stubbs, W. The Constitutional History of England. 3 vols. Oxford 1874–8. [Often reprinted. Standard work.]

Taswell-Langmead, T. P. English Constitutional History. [9th ed. by A. L. Poole.] London, 1929. [See Chap. I, "From the Teutonic Conquest of Britain to the Norman Conquest of England."]

140

OLD ENGLISH PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

F. THE CHURCH

Allison, T. English Religious Life in the Eighth Century. London, 1929.

Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation. Translated by A. M. Sellars. Also translated by J. E. King. 2 vols. London, 1930. [The latter gives Latin text.]

Bright, W. Early English Church History. Oxford, 1897. [Standard.]

Deanesly, M. A History of the Medieval Church, 590–1500. London, 1925. [Deals with Church as a whole.]

Duckett, E. S. Anglo-Saxon Saints and Scholars. London, 1947. [A safe guide for students of 7th and 8th century England.]

Duke, J. A. The Columban Church. O.U.P., 1932.

Encycl. Brit. sub. England, The Church of.

Howorth, H. H. The Golden Days of the Early English Church from the Arrival of Theodore to the Death of Bede. 3 vols. London, 1917.

Hunt, W. The English Church (597–1066). London, 1901. [Standard.]

Knowles, D. The Monastic Order in England: a History of its Development from the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 943–1216. C.U.P., 1940.

Mills, J. S. The Great Days of Northumbria. London, 1911.

Plummer, A. The Churches in Britain before A.D. 1000. Vols. I and II. London, 1911–12. [Standard.]

Robinson, J. A. The Times of St. Dunstan. Oxford, 1923. [Studies of Athelstan, Dunstan, Ethelwold and Oswald. Standard.]

Ryan, A. M. A Map of Old English Monasteries and Related Ecclesiastical Foundations. A.D. 400–1066. London, 1939.

Tidball, T. A. The Making of the Church of England A.D. 597–1087. Boston, 1919.

Wall, J. C. The First Christians of Britain. London, 1907.

Williams, H. Christianity in Early Britain. Oxford, 1912. [Standard.]

2. GENERAL HISTORY OF LANGUAGE

Bloomfield, L. Language. London, 1935. [A revised version of the author's Introduction to the Study of Language, 1914. Intended for the general reader, and for those who are beginning their linguistic studies. Excellent.]

De Laguna, G. A. Speech: Its Function and Development. London, 141

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

1927. [Inquiry into the origin and function of speech and its relation to thought and other human activities.]

Gardiner, A. H. Speech and Language. Oxford, 1932. [Outlines a "general theory of speech and language, and deals with the sentence, both form and substance, in some detail. The author is chiefly concerned with the function of speech as an instrument for conveying meaning", Preface, 13.]

Graff, W. L. Language and Languages. New York, 1932. [A general introd. to linguistic science, and a survey of modern knowledge.]

Gray, L. H. Foundations of Language. New York, 1939.

Jespersen, O. Language, Its Nature, Development, and Origin London, 1922, etc. [Bk. I deals with the history of linguistic science; Bk. II, with the speech of the child; Bk. III, with the individual and the world; Bk. IV, with the development of language. Excellent.]

Jespersen, O. The Philosophy of Grammar. London, 1924.

Meillet, A. and Cohen, M. Les Langues du Monde. Paris, 1924. [Its linguistic maps are excellent. New edition in preparation.]

Palmer, L. R. An Introduction to Modern Linguistics. London, 1936.

Paget, R. Human Speech. Some Observations, Experiments, and Conclusions as to the Nature, Origin, Purpose and Possible Improvement of Human Speech. London, 1930. [An extremely interesting book which others besides the general reader, for whom it is intended, will appreciate.]

Pederson, H. Linguistic Science in the Nineteenth Century. Translated by J. W. Spargo. O.U.P., 1931. [A most stimulating book, as well as a useful guide.]

Pillsbury, W. B. and Meader, C. L. The Psychology of Language. London, 1928. [Designed to "give a general survey of the facts of language and a psychological interpretation of those facts" for students of both language and psychology.]

Sapir, E. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. London, 1921. [Attempts to show the variability of language in point of place and time and its relationship to other fundamental human interests.]

Schlauch, M. The Gift of Tongues. London, 1942. [Illustrated from English.]

Schmidt, P. W. Die Sprachfamilien und Sprachenkreise der Erde. Heidelberg, 1926.

Scott, H. F., Carr, W. L. and Wilkinson, G. T. Language and its Growth. An Introduction to the History of Language. Chicago, 1935.

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OLD ENGLISH PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

Sturtevant, E. H. Linguistic Change. An Introduction to the Historical Study of Language. Chicago, 1917.

Sturtevant, E. H. An Introduction to Linguistic Science. Oxford, 1947.

Sweet, H. The History of Language. London, 1900.

Vendryes, J. Language: A Linguistic Introduction to History. Translated by P. Radin. London, 1925. [Deals with the origin of language, sounds, grammar, vocabulary, structure of languages, writing and the progress of language.]

Wyld, H. C. The Historical Study of the Mother Tongue. An Introduction to Philological Method. London, 1906, etc. [Includes chapters on the aims of historical linguistic study, the sounds of speech, how language is acquired and handed on, sound change, the development of dialects, linguistic contact, analogy, methods of comparison and reconstruction, the Aryan mother-tongue and the derived families of languages, the Germanic languages, the history of English during the O.E., M.E. and Modern Periods. An excellent introductory book.]

3. A GENERAL HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Alexander, H. The Story of Our Language. Toronto, 1940. [A thoroughly sound and comprehensive introduction.]

Armour, J. S. The Genesis and Growth of English: an Outline of Philology for Students. O.U.P., 1935.

Baugh, A. C. A History of the English Language. London, 1935 [Includes a good account of the relationship between the French and English languages in England during the M.E. period. Useful reading-lists end each chapter. A very readable book.]

Bradley, H. The Making of English. London, 1904, etc. [Primarily intended to "give educated readers, unversed in philology some notion of the causes that have produced the excellences and defects of modern English as an instrument of expression". Includes chapters on the making of English Grammar, foreign elements, word-making, changes of meaning, and some makers of English. A classic, introductory survey.]

Brunner, K. Die Englische Sprache, ihre Geschichtliche Entwicklung. Erster Band, Allgemeines, Lautgeschichte. Halle, 1950. [A handbook dealing with origins, records and distribution, the development of vowels in both stressed and unstressed syllables, and the consonants. A second volume on

143

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

inflexions and on English outside Europe is ready for the press.]

Classen, E. Outlines of the History of the English Language. London

1919, etc. [Contains chapters on the ancestry of English,

syntax, vocabulary, development of meaning, word-forma-

tion, accidence, development of sounds, standard English,

and the history of English spelling. A useful, but somewhat

unconventional book.]

Emerson, O.F. The History of the English Language. London, 1894.

Reprinted, 1924. [Contains five main sections. 1: The

Relativity of English to other Languages. 2: The Standard

Language and the Dialects. 3: The English Vocabulary.

4: The Principles of English Etymology. 5: The History of

English Inflections. Valuable.]

Huchon, R. Histoire de la Langue Anglaise. Tome I: Des Origines

à la Conquête Normande. Tome II: De la Conquête Nor-

mande à l'Introduction de l'Imprimerie. Paris, 1923–30.

[Vol. I deals with the Indo-Germanic and Germanic periods,

primitive O.E., O.E. morphology, the vocabulary, dialects,

and the characteristics of both prose and poetry. Vol. II:

the Transition Period, the dialectal literature of the

thirteenth century, the origin of the Standard Language,

and includes a chapter on the origin of Scots.]

Jespersen, O. Growth and Structure of the English Language.

8th ed. London, 1935. [Particularly useful for the foreign

elements in the English vocabulary.]

Jespersen, O. A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles.

Parts I–VII, 1922–49. [Pts. I—IV, publ. Heidelberg. Pts.

V–VII, publ. London, 1946–9. Pt. I: Sounds and Spellings.

Pts. II–V: Syntax. Pt. VI: Morphology. Pt. VII: Syntax.]

Krapp, G. P. Modern English, Its Growth, and Present Use. New

York, 1909.

Lindelöf, U. Elements of the History of the English Language.

Translated by R. M. Garrett. Seattle, 1911. [Good introd.]

Lounsbury, T. R. English Spelling and Spelling Reform. London,

Lounsbury, T. R. History of the English Language. New York.

Luick, K. Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache. Leipzig,

1914–29. [The most detailed study of the phonological

development of English, including the dialects. Includes

valuable bibliographical information about texts and

monographs. Indispensable for the philologist.]

144

OLD ENGLISH PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

Marckwardt, A. H. An Introduction to the English Language. O.U.P., 1942. [Starts from a study of the living language and works backwards to O.E.]

Mathews, M. M. A Summary of English Dictionaries. Oxford, 1933. [A brief but stimulating account of English lexicography, with an indication of the characteristic features of English and American dictionaries now in use.]

McKnight, G. H. and Emsley, B. Modern English, in the Making. New York, 1928. [Designed to "show the principal changes that have taken place in the English language since the adoption, in the fourteenth century, of the East Midland dialect as the standard form of English". Much attention is given to the influence of classicism.]

Moore, S. Historical Outlines of English Phonology and Middle English Grammar. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1919, etc.

Mossé, F. Esquisse d'une Histoire de la Langue Anglaise. Lyons, 1947. [A first-rate survey of the external history of the language from prehistoric times to the present day. Specially interesting on French influence on English. Gives useful reading-lists.]

Onions, C. T. An Advanced English Syntax. London, 4th ed., rev. and enlarged, 1927, etc. [Includes an "account of some notable archaic and obsolete constructions" intended for students of early Modern English.]

Robertson, S. The Development of Modern English. London, 1936, etc. [The emphasis has throughout been placed on present-day English, especially American English. Contains chapters on the nature and origin of Language, the ancestry of English, Old and Middle English, Modern (British and American) English, English Inflexions, English sounds and their history, contemporary pronunciation, spelling and spelling reform, sources of the vocabulary, the making of words, the changing meanings and values of words, and syntax and usage. At the end of each chapter is a selection of books recommended for further study A useful and readable book.]

Smith, L. P. The English Language. London, 1912, etc. Home Univ. Lib. [Includes chaps. on origins, foreign elements, modern English, word-making, historical development. Good introd.]

Sweet, H. A Short Historical English Grammar. (Corrected Impression), Oxford, 1924. [Abridged from the historical parts of the author's New English Grammar.]

145

K

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Thomas, P. G. An Introduction to the History of the English Language. London, 1920.

Toller, T. N. Outlines of the History of the English Language. Cambridg̸e, 1900. [A useful, elementary account of the changes in vocabulary, grammar and prose style, chiefly of the earliest periods.]

Weekley, E. The English Language. London, 1928, etc. 80 pp. [Benn's Sixpenny Library, 35.] [An excellent introductory sketch.]

Wrenn, C. L. The English Language. London, 1949. [Discusses relationships, origin of vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation, making and ordering of words, development of meaning, influence of important individual writers and works, the language today. A lively introduction for the serious student.]

Wyld, H. C. A Short History of English, with a Bibliography of Recent Books on the Subject, and Lists of Texts and Editions. 3rd ed. London, 1927. [Includes chapters on the sounds of speech, the general principles of the history of language, the history of English sounds in the O.E. period, etc. It also contains useful bibliographical information, and its phonetic explanations, a feature of the book, are particularly helpful. Indispensable.]

Wyld, H. C. A History of Modern Colloquial English. 3rd ed. Oxford, 1936. [While its chief aim is to give an account of the history of English pronunciation from the early fifteenth century to beginning of the nineteenth century, it describes the salient features of M.E. phonology. Based on the "occasional-spelling" method. Most stimulating.]

Wyld, H. C. Studies in English Rhymes from Surrey to Pope. London, 1923, etc. [Intended primarily for those interested in the study of literature. Phonetic symbols purposely omitted.]

3. B. SEPARATE STUDIES OF THE VOCABULARY

Behrens, D. Französische Elemente im Englischen. In Paul's Grundriss, I.2. Strassbourg, 1901.

Bense, J. F. A Dictionary of the Low-Dutch Element in the English Vocabulary. The Hague, 1926-39. [Standard.]

Bentley, H. W. A Dictionary of Spanish Terms in English, with Special Reference to the American Southwest. Oxford, 1932.

Björkman, E. Scandinavian Loanwords in Middle English. Halle 1900-2. [Standard.]

Carr, C. T. The German Influence on English Vocabulary. S.P.E., Tract 42. Oxford, 1934. [Valuable.]

146

OLD ENGLISH PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

Clark, G. N. The Dutch Influence on the English Vocabulary. S.P.E.,

Tract 44. Oxford, 1935.

Dellit, O. Über lateinische Elemente im Mittelenglischen. Mar-

burg, 1905.

Förster, M. Keltisches Wortgut im Englischen. Halle, 1921.

[Standard.]

Funke, O. Die gelehrten lateinischen Lehn- und Fremdwörter in der

altenglischen Literatur. Halle, 1914.

Greenough, J. B. and Kittredge, G. L. Words and their Ways in

English Speech. London, 1902. [Includes accounts of origin

of language, learned and popular words, class dialects,

historical development, the vocabulary, development of

words, change in meaning, etc.]

Holthausen, F. Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidel-

berg, 1934. [Unique and invaluable.]

Johnson, E. L. Latin Words of Common English. New York, 1931.

Jordan, R. Eigentümlichkeit des englischen Wortschatzes. Heidel-

berg, 1906. [Important for the study of word-distribution

in O.E.]

Keiser, A. The Influence of Christianity on the Vocabulary of Old

English Poetry. Urbana, 1919.

Llewellyn, E. C. The Influence of Low Dutch on the English Voca-

bulary. O.U.P., 1936. [Excludes words used only in dialectal

English, but includes words that have been borrowed in

South Africa, North America, the East and West Indies,

Guiana, and the West Coast of Africa. The words are classi-

fied according to the probable "channels of entry" (e.g.

warfare, trade, fishing, land-drainage, industry, and the

arts), and each group is prefaced by an account of the

historical and economic relations between England and the

Low Dutch countries concerned.]

Luick, K. "Zu den lateinischen Lehnwörtern im Altenglischen" in

Archiv, 126, 1911.

MacGillivray, H. S. The Influence of Christianity on the Vocabulary

of Old English. Halle, 1902.

Mettig, R. "Das französische Element im Alt- und Mittel-englischen"

in E. St., 41.177-252. 1910.

Pogatscher, A. Zur Lautlehre der griechischen, lateinischen und

romanischen Lehnwörter im Altenglischen. Strassburg, 1888.

Praz, M. "The Italian Element in English" in Essays and Studies,

15. Oxford, 1929.

Rasner, F. Die französische Lehnwörter im Frühneuenglischen. Mar-

burg, 1907.

147

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Serjeantson, M. S. A History of Foreign Words in English. London, 1935. [Indispensable.]

Skeat, W. W. Principles of English Etymology. 2nd series. The Foreign Element. Oxford, 1891.

Smock, J. C. The Greek Element in English Words. Edited by P. W. Long. London, 1931.

Taylor, W. Arabic Words in English. S.P.E., Tract 38. Oxford, 1933.

Toll. J. M. Niederländisches Lehngut im Mittelenglischen. Halle, 1926.

4. OLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR, PHONOLOGY, SYNTAX

(Since English provides unrivalled documentation throughout twelve centuries of change, it is the predestined prey of philologists; and since change is continuous and drastic, linguistic study must be historical, so the innocent student who asks the librarian for a grammar of early English may be confronted with something more scientific, complete, and alarming than the tabulated dogma presented as standard Latin or French grammar. If his bent is that way, he will find no better philological pabulum than the works of Sievers, Luick, Morsbach, and so on. If he merely wishes to be able to read intelligently, he must not allow them to frighten him off. Old English is about as difficult to a modern Englishman as Italian is to one who knows Latin and French—that is, after a preliminary acquaintance with the principal forms, he will soon learn to allow for the differences. Early acquaintance with any local dialect is no disadvantage. The West Saxon of King Alfred is a useful fixed medium for the learning of the forms, and a comparatively slight knowledge of the principles will enable the student to recognise them in other periods and dialects. W.L.R.)

Andrew, S. O. "Some Principles of O.E. Word Order" in Medium Ævum, 3. 167–88, 1934.

Andrew, S. O. Syntax and Style in Old English. C.U.P., 1940. [A sketch.]

Bright, J. W. An Outline of Anglo-Saxon Grammar. New and rev. ed. by J. R. Hulbert. London, 1936.

Brunner, K. Altenglische Grammatik nach der Angelsächsischen Grammatik von Eduard Sievers. Halle, 1942. [Authoritative.]

Bülbring, K. Altenglisches Elementarbuch. I Teil: Lautlehre. Heidelberg, 1902. [Standard book on O.E. phonology.]

Cook, A. S. A First Book in Old English: Grammar, Reader, Notes

148

OLD ENGLISH PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

and Vocabulary. 3rd ed. London, 1903. [Useful introd.

especially for the private student.]

Girvan, R. Angelsaksisch Handboek. Haarlem, 1931.

Huchon. Hist. Lang. Angl., I, 193-270. [Syntax.]

Luick. Hist. Gram. [Indispensable for philologists.]

Moore, S., and Knott, T. A. The Elements of Old English.

5th ed. Ann Arbor, 1927.

Ross, A. S. C. The Essentials of Anglo-Saxon Grammar. Cambridge,

Sedgefield, W. J. A Skeleton Outline of Old English Accidence.

Manchester, 1917, etc. [Easily memorised.]

Sievers, E. An Old English Grammar (translated and edited by

A. S. Cook). 3rd ed. Boston, 1903. [Scarcely for beginners.

Use, if possible, the new, thoroughly revised German

edition by Brunner, mentioned above.]

Wardale, E. E. An Old English Grammar. 4th ed. London, 1938.

[Intended as an introd. to the "standard works of Sievers

and Wright".]

Wright, J. and E. M. An Elementary Old English Grammar.

Oxford, 1923.

Wright, J. and E. M. Old English Grammar. 3rd ed. Oxford,

1925. [Standard.]

Wülfing, J. E. Die Syntax in den Werken Alfreds des grossen. Bonn,

1894-1901. [The only extensive work on O.E. syntax.]

Wyatt, A. J. An Elementary Old English Grammar. (Early West-

Saxon.) Cambridge, 1897.

Wyld. Short Hist. [Chap. V, on O.E. phonology.]

N.B. Useful outlines of O.E. grammar will be found in the

Readers of Anderson and Williams, Bright, Flom, Krapp and

Kennedy, Sweet, and Turk (see pp. 152-3).

5. OLD ENGLISH DICTIONARIES

Bosworth-Toller. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary based on the Manuscript

Collections of the late Joseph Bosworth . . . edited and enlarged

by T. N. Toller. Oxford, 1882-98. Supplements, by T. N.

Toller. Oxford, 1908-20. [The best.]

Grein, C. W. M. Sprachschatz der angelsächsischen Dichter. New

edition by J. Köhler and F. Holthausen. Heidelberg, 1912-

14. [Complete for poetic monuments.]

Hall, J. R. C. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary for the Use of

Students. 3rd ed. Cambridge, 1931. [Reliable working

dictionary.]

Sweet, H. The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon. London, 1911.

149

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE–GENERAL

A. HISTORY AND CRITICISM

Anderson, G. K. The Literature of the Anglo-Saxons. O.U.P., 1949. [A descriptive history. The bibliographical notes should be treated cautiously.]

Baldwin, C. S. Three Mediaeval Centuries of Literature in England. 1100–1400. Boston [U.S.A.], 1932. [See Chaps. I–II. Designed as a “compact guide-book”, and intended specially for those who wish to study privately.]

Baugh, A. C., and others. A Literary History of England. London, 1948. [Comprehensive and authoritative.]

Brandl, A. Geschichte der altenglischen Literatur. Strassburg, 1908. [Offprint from Paul’s Grundriss der germanischen Philologie. Excellent.]

Brooke, S. A. The History of Early English Literature. 2 vols. London and New York, 1892 [reprinted 1914]. [Literary criticism is specially valuable.]

Brooke, S. A. English Literature from the Beginning to The Norman Conquest. London, 1898, etc. [Noteworthy literary criticisms. Fine verse translations of O.E. poetry.]

C.H.E.L., Vol. I, 1907. [Indispensable.]

Chadwick, H. M. and N. K. The Growth of Literature. Vol. I. Cambridge, 1932.

Chambers, R. W. “The Lost Literature of Mediaeval England” in The Library, 4th Ser. 5.293–321. London, 1925. [Summarises the sources of our knowledge of O.E. literature.]

Courthope, W. J. A History of English Poetry. 6 vols. London, 1895–1910. See Vol. I, 1895. [Chap. III deals with A.S. poetry.]

Earle, J. Anglo-Saxon Literature. London, 1884. [Useful guide.]

Harvey, P. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 3rd ed. Oxford, 1946. [Passim.]

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed.

Jusserand, J. J. A Literary History of the English People.

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—GENERAL

London, 1905. [See particularly, Chaps. III and IV on A.S. literature.]

Ker, W. P. English Literature, Medieval. London, 1912. Home Univ. Lib. 43. [See Chap. I.]

Ker, W. P. The Dark Ages. Edinburgh, 1904. [A classic. See especially Chap. IV on the literature of the Teutonic languages.]

Legouis, E., and Cazamian, L. A History of English Literature, 650-1914. Translated by H. D. Irvine and W. D. MacInnes. 2 vols. London, 1926-7. [A translation with revised select bibliographies of the authors' Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise. Paris, 1924. Chap. I. (pp. 3-54.) deals with O.E. literature, but rather unsympathetically.]

Legouis, E. A Short History of English Literature. Translated by V. F. Boyson and J. Coulson. Oxford, 1934. [Chap. I (pp. 1-15) devoted to A.S. literature.]

Martin-Clarke, D. E. Culture in Early Anglo-Saxon England. London, 1947.

Sampson, G. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature. C.U.P., 1941. [A free summary of the 14 vols. of C.H.E.L., but brought up to date.]

Schirmer, W. F. Geschichte der englischen Literatur von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Halle, 1937.

Snell, F. J. The Age of Alfred, 664-1154. London, 1912. [A useful elementary study.]

Stephen, L. and Lee, S. Dictionary of National Biography. London, 1885-. [Indispensable.]

Ten Brink, B. Early English Literature. Translated by H. M. Kennedy. London, 1883. [This is translated from the first edition of the author's Geschichte der englischen Litteratur, Vol. I. Berlin, 1877. A second ed. of the latter, revised by A. Brandl, was published in Strassburg, 1899. Indispensable.]

Thomas, P. G. English Literature before Chaucer. London, 1924. [A summary sketch, but reliable.]

Wardale, E. E. Chapters on Old English Literature. London, 1935. [Sound, though conservative. Contains many excellent translations, chiefly of poetical passages.]

Wilson, F. P., and Dobrée, B. (eds.). The Oxford History of English Literature. 3 of the 12 vols. already published. O.U.P., 1944-. [See Vol. II, Part I: Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century, by H. S. Bennett; and Part II: The Close of the Middle Ages, by E. Chambers.]

Wright, C. E. The Cultivation of Saga in Anglo-Saxon England. 151

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Edinburgh, 1939. [Demonstrates the existence of a fairly well developed oral literature.]

B. BOOKS OF OLD ENGLISH SELECTIONS

Anderson, M. and Williams, B. C. Old English Handbook. A Grammar with a Reader Prepared from Actual Manuscripts. London, 1938.

Bright, J. W. An Anglo-Saxon Reader, with Notes, a complete Glossary, a Chapter on Versification and an Outline of Anglo-Saxon Grammar. Revised and enlarged by J. R. Hulbert. New York, 1935, etc. [Chapter on versification is brief but excellent.]

Cook, A. S. A First Book in Old English, Grammar, Reader, Notes and Vocabulary. 3rd ed. London, 1903. [The prose, but not the poetical extracts, are normalised to an early W.S. basis. Includes a brief but useful bibliography and appendices containing short specimens of non-W.S. and Old Germanic dialect.]

Craigie, W. A. Easy Readings in Anglo-Saxon. Edinburgh, 1927. [An excellent introduction to early English.]

Craigie, W. A. Specimens of Anglo-Saxon Prose. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1923-9. [Useful and cheap collections of extracts, with vocabularies.]

Craigie, W. A. Specimens of Anglo-Saxon Poetry. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1923-31. [Handy collections.]

Flom, G. T. Introductory O.E. Grammar and Reader. Boston, 1930. [Designed for beginners. Includes a good variety of selections both W.S. and non-W.S. The brief account of versification is very helpful.]

Krapp, G. P. and Kennedy, A. G. An Anglo-Saxon Reader. New York, 1929.

Mossé, F. Manuel de l'anglais du moyen age des origines au XIVe siècle. I. Vieil-anglais. Tome premier: Grammaire et textes. Tome second: Notes et glossaire. Paris, 1945. [An excellent text-book. Has a useful account of syntax.]

Sedgefield, W. J. An Anglo-Saxon Book of Verse and Prose. Manchester, 1928. ["In the present volume are bound up the [author's] Anglo-Saxon Verse-Book and the Anglo-Saxon Prose-Book, each of which is published separately." Excellent.]

Sweet, H. A Second Anglo-Saxon Reader. Archaic and Dialectal. Oxford, 1887. [Provides linguistic material from the non-West Saxon dialects for advanced students. A "cheap and

152

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—GENERAL

handy abridgement of Sweet's Oldest English Texts". Consists largely of glosses.]

Sweet, H. An Anglo-Saxon Primer, with Grammar, Notes and Glossary. 8th ed., rev. Oxford, 1905. [Spelling of texts is normalised on an Early W.S. basis.]

Sweet, H. An Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse, with Grammatical Introduction, Notes and Glossary. 10th ed., revised by C. T. Onions. Oxford, 1946. [A classic.]

Turk, M. H. An Anglo-Saxon Reader. Rev. ed. New York, 1930.

Williams, O. T. Short Extracts from Old English Poetry, chiefly for Unseen Translations. Bangor, 1909.

Wyatt, A. J. An Elementary Old English Reader. [Early West Saxon.] Cambridge, 1901.

Wyatt, A. J. An Anglo-Saxon Reader, edited with Notes and Glossary. Cambridge, 1919, etc. [Contains good collection of extracts, but is deficient in illustrative non-W.S. material. The notes are excellent.]

Wyatt, A. J. The Threshold of Anglo-Saxon. Cambridge, 1926. [Normalised texts.]

153

CHAPTER V

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

1. Modern Collections

2. Books of Translations

3. History and Criticism

4. Versification

5. Authors, Texts and Manuscript Collections

6. MODERN COLLECTIONS

Craigie, W. A. Specimens of Anglo-Saxon Poetry. I: Biblical and Classical Themes. II: Christian Lore and Legend. III: Germanic Legend and Anglo-Saxon History and Life. Edinburgh, 1923–31. [Intended for students of O.E. literature. Short bibliographies, but no apparatus. Cited as Craigie, Specimens I, II and III.]

Dickins, B. Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples. Cambridge, 1915. [With full critical apparatus and translations. Contains Runic Poem, Waldere, Fight at Finnsburg and Deor.]

Grein, C. W. M. Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie. Neu bearbeitet, vermehrt und nach neuen Lesungen der Handschriften. Ed. R. P. Wül(c)ker. 3 vols. Cassel, 1883–98. [Almost complete collection of poetical texts. Indispensable. Cited as Grein-Wülker, Poesie I, II and III. Vol. III is in two parts (IIIa and IIIb) paginated separately.]

Holthausen, F. “Kleinere altenglische Dichtungen” in Angl., 41.400–4. 1917. [Contains texts not printed by Grein-Wülker, above.]

Kershaw, N. Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems. Cambridge, 1922. [Contains Wanderer, Seafarer, Wife's Lament, Husband's Message, Ruin and Battle of Brunanburh. With full critical apparatus and translations.]

Krapp, G. P. (and Dobbie, E. v. K.). The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. I: The Junius Manuscript, ed. Krapp. II: The Vercelli

154

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

Book, ed. Krapp. III: The Exeter Book, ed. Krapp and Dobbie · IV: The Beowulf Manuscript, in preparation. V: The Paris Psalter and the Meters of Boethius, ed. Krapp. VI: The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, ed. Dobbie. London, 1931– . [Excellent critical apparatus. Indispensable. Cited under name of editor(s).]

Schücking, L. L. Kleines angelsächsisches Dichterbuch. Lyrik und Heldenepos. Cöthen, 1919. [With full apparatus.]

Sedgefield, W. J. An Anglo-Saxon Book of Verse and Prose. Manchester, 1928. [A complete volume comprising the author's Anglo-Saxon Verse Book and Anglo-Saxon Prose Book, each published separately. Good apparatus.]

Note. See also the Readers and anthologies mentioned above (pp. 152–3).

2. BOOKS OF TRANSLATIONS

Cook, A. S., and Tinker, C. B. Select Translations from Old English Poetry. Rev. ed. London, 1926. [Compiled from various authors. Prose and verse.]

Faust, C., and Thompson, S. Old English Poems. Chicago, 1918.

Gordon, R. K. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. London, 1927. Ev. Lib., 794. [A sound and usually reliable prose translation.]

Gummere, F. B. The Old English Epic: Beowulf, Finnsburg, Waldere, Deor, Widsith and the German Hildebrand. New York, 1909. [In the original metre.]

Hall, J. L. Judith, Phoenix and Other Anglo-Saxon Poems. London, 1902. [Verse form.]

Kennedy, C. W. Old English Elegies. Translated into Alliterative Verse with a Critical Introduction. London, 1936.

Spaeth, J. D. Old English Poetry. Princeton, 1922. [In alliterative verse, with useful bibliography, introduction and notes.]

Williams, M. Word-Hoard. London, 1946. [Contains useful translations of many passages of O.E. literary monuments, as well as much background material presented agreeably and simply.]

3. HISTORY AND CRITICISM

Chadwick, H. M. The Heroic Age. Cambridge, 1912.

Dixon, W. M. English Epic and Heroic Poetry. London, 1912.

Hanscom, E. D. "The Feeling for Nature in O.E. Poetry" in J.E.G.Ph., 5.439–63. 1905.

Keiser, A. The Influence of Christianity on O.E. Poetry. Urbana, 1918.

155

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Kennedy, C. W. The Earliest English Poetry: A Critical Survey of the Poetry written before the Norman Conquest, with Illustrative Translations. O.U.P., 1943. [Scholarly and indispensable.]

Ker, W. P. Epic and Romance. Essays on Mediaeval Literature. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1908.

Marquardt, H. Die altenglischen Kenningar: ein Beitrag zur Stil-kunde altgermanischer Dichtung. Halle, 1938. [An original survey of the whole corpus of O.E. poetry.]

Mead, W. E. "Color in O.E. Poetry" in P.M.L.A., 14.169–206. 1899.

Pons, E. Le Thème et le Sentiment de la Nature dans la Poésie Anglo-Saxonne. Strassburg, 1925.

Rankin, J. W. "A Study of the Kennings in A.S. Poetry" in J.E.G.Ph., 8.357–422, 9.49–84. 1909–10.

Routh, H. V. God, Man and Epic Poetry. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1927.

Scholz, H. v.d. M. The Kenning in A.S. and O.N. Poetry. Utrerht, 1927.

Sieper, E. Die altenglische Elegie. Strassburg, 1915.

Skemp, A. R. "The Transformation of Scriptural Story, Motive and Conception in A.S. Poetry" in M.Ph., 4.423–70. 1906–7.

Smithson, G. A. The O.E. Christian Epic: a Study of the Plot Technique of the Juliana, the Elene, the Andreas and the Christ, in comparison with the Beowulf and with the Latin Literature of the Middle Ages. Berkeley, 1910.

Thomas, W. L'Epopee Anglo-Saxonne. Paris, 1924.

Wyld, H. C. "Diction and Imagery in A.S. Poetry" in Essays and Studies, xi.49–91. 1925.

4. VERSIFICATION

Bright, J. W., "Anglo-Saxon Versification", Appendix II, pp. 229–40, in A.S. Reader. [An excellent guide.]

Kaluza, M. Der altenglische Vers: eine metrische Untersuchung. Berlin, 1894. [Part I reviews the various theories and endeavours to "reconcile the four-accent theory with Siever's types" (Klaeber); Part II deals with the metre of Beowulf and scans the first 1,000 lines.]

Kaluza, M. A Short History of English Versification. Translated by A. C. Dunstan. London, 1911. See pp. 1–126. [Contains a useful summary of existing theories. Translates the author's Englische Metrik in historischer Entwicklung dargestellt. Berlin, 1909.]

156

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

Schipper, J. A History of English Versification. Oxford, 1910. [Comprehensive and extremely detailed, with abundant illustrative material. Indispensable. Translates author's Grundriss der englischen Metrik. Vienna, 1895.]

Setzler, E. B. On Anglo-Saxon Versification from the Standpoint of Modern English Versification. Baltimore, 1904. [A simple explanation of Siever's system intended for students.]

Sievers, E. Zur Rhythmik des germanischen Alliterationsverses. Anastatic reprint, New York, 1909. [S. here explains his system of verse types. Of fundamental importance.]

Sievers, E. Altgermanische Metrik. Halle, 1893. [A standard work. An abridgment is contained in Paul's Grundriss, 2nd ed., Vol. IIb, 1–38, 1905.]

Note.—Useful short accounts of O.E. verse are accessible in Flom. O.E. Reader, Krapp and Kennedy, A.S. Reader, Sedgefield, Beowulf, Spaeth, O.E. Poetry, and Sweet, A.S. Reader, see above. pp. 152–3.

Two of the undermentioned items explain in German the newer ideas on Anglo-Saxon (and Old Teutonic) versification more recently elaborated by E. Sievers and A. Heusler in Ger-many. These differ considerably from those that have resulted in the widely accepted "Five-Types" scheme earlier proposed by Sievers himself. More recently still, J. C. Pope's The Rhythm of Beowulf has been published reviewing these newer theories, and proposing still another. Until, however, these new theories gain sufficient acceptance to appear in English handbooks, the student who knows no German may well content himself with the older system of scansion.

Sievers, E. "Zu Cynewulf" in Neusprachliche Studien, Festgabe für Karl Luick, Marburg, 1925, pp. 60–81. [Sievers "recognizes the musical element of regularly recurring measures, rejects the dynamic basis of alliteration, admits deviations from the normal (prose) accentuation, relies on his feeling for speech melody. The theory that alliteration is not confined to rhythmically accented syllables, raises serious doubts", see Klaeber, Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, 3rd ed., Boston, 1941, p. clxxiv.]

Heusler, A. Deutsche Versgeschichte mit Einschluss des altenglischen und altnordischen Stabreimverses. 2 vols. Berlin and Leipzig, 1925. ["The different forms of verse (half-line) are viewed as variations of the general rhythmical type of two bars . . . | ´xxxxx | ´xxxx, freely admitting, however, pauses in place of speech material. The 'swelling' lines are not 'hypermetrical' ",

157

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

cf. Klaeber, ibid. Later, on p. 282, Klaeber gives a few specimens of Heusler's system of scansion.]

Pope, J. C. The Rhythm of Beowulf. O.U.P., 1942. [An important and elaborate study setting out a new theory for reading O.E. poetry, though it accepts the descriptive part of Sievers' work as being fundamentally sound.]

Daunt, M. "Old English Verse and Speech Rhythm" in Trans. of the Philological Society, 1946. [Suggests a new approach to the question of O.E. verse, which may be regarded as "conditioned prose", i.e. spoken language specially arranged with alliteration.]

Baum, P. F. "The Meter of the Beowulf" in M. Ph., 46. 73–91 and 145–162. 1948–9. [Advocates greater freedom of interpretation and admits occasional half-lines of three stresses.]

5. AUTHORS, TEXTS, MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS

Almost all the extant O.E. poems are contained in the following four MSS. collections, the Exeter Book (Codex Exoniensis), the Junius MS. (Junius XI), the Vercelli Book (Codex Vercellensis), and the Beowulf MS. (MS. Cotton Vitellius A 15). A brief account of each is given below in alphabetical order (pp. 173ff, 199ff, 210ff, 156ff, respectively). Their contents are treated separately, under the relevant MS. title and according to their position in the MS. The poems of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are dealt with chronologically under this title. The other texts are arranged in alphabetical order of titles. Each item is followed by a separate bibliography. When using this, reference should also be made to the bibliography under the group heading, if any.

BEDE'S DEATH SONG

The 5 ll. of this simple Death Song, on caring for the needs of the soul, have the additional interest of being the only surviving example of Bede's English compositions. The text, in the Northumbrian dialect, is found solely in Cuthbert's letter to Cuthwin, describing Bede's last moments, of which there are apparently three closely similar recensions, contained in several continental and English MSS. of the Latin text of Bede's Ecclesiastica Historia, the oldest being the ninth-century St. Gall Codex 254, as well as in Symeon of Durham's Historia Dunelmensis (written 1104–9).

158

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.80.

H. & B., 55.

Smith, A. H. Three Northumbrian Poems. London, 1933. Methuen's

O.E. Library. [Pp. 48–50. An excellent ed. with full appa-

ratus.]

Facsimile.

Brotanek, R. Texte und Untersuchungen zur altenglischen Literatur

und Kirchengeschichte. Halle, 1913.

Editions.

Sedgefield, Bk. A.S. V.P., 81; Smith (above).

Translations.

Sedgefield, Bk. A.S. V.P., 174; Wardale 28.

Discussion.

Dobbie, E. v. K. The Manuscripts of Cædmon's Hymn and Bede's

Death Song. New York, 1937.

Smith (above).

BEOWULF MS. (COTTON VITELLUUS A XV)

This vellum MS., forming part of the Cotton Collection in

the British Museum, comprises two separate codices, which

were arbitrarily bound together in the sixteenth century. The

first codex, fol. 4a–93b (present numbering), written by two

main hands in the twelfth century, contains four prose works only,

viz., Alfred's Blooms (fol. 4a–59), Gospel of Nicodemus (60a–84a),

Dialogue between Solomon and Saturn (84b–93a) and a fragment on

martyrs (93b). The second codex (fol. 94a–209b), in the hand-

writing (c. 1000) of only two scribes, preserves five texts, the last

two being in verse. These are:-(fragmentary) Life of St. Chris-

topher (fol. 94a–8a), Wonders of the East (98b–106b), Letter of

Alexander the Great to Aristotle (107a–31b), Beowulf (132a–201b)

and the Judith fragment (202a–9b).

At the top of the first page of the MS. is the name Lawrence

Nowell (a pioneer student of O.E.) and the date 1563. In 1731,

the MS. suffered much damage from the disastrous fire that

injured or destroyed many MSS. of Sir Robert Cotton's (see

D.N.B. s.n.) Collection at Ashburnham House, Westminster.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.63.

H. and B., 47–48.

159

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Discussion

Förster, M. Die Beowulf-handschrift. Berichte über die Verhand-lungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Vol. 71, No. 4. Leipzig, 1919. [Full investigation.]

Klaeber. Beow., xcvii-civ; cxxiii; clv; 413. [Special reference to Beowulf text.]

Rypins, S. I. (i) "The Beowulf Codex" in M.Ph., 17.13-9, 1920. (ii) "A Contribution to the Study of the Beowulf Codex" in P.M.L.A., 36.167-85, 1921. [Investigation of Beowulfian scribes' orthography.]

Rypins, S. Three Old English Prose Texts in MS. Cotton Vitellius A XV. E.E.T.S., 1924. [For Rypins' latest opinions on the orthography of the two Beowulfian scribes, see pp. i-xxix.]

Sisam, K. "The Beowulf Manuscript" in M.L.R.. 11.335-7, 1916. [Note on scribes and articles.]

Zupitza. Beow., below.

1. BEOWULF

Beowulf, a poem of 3182 ll., is the most valuable literary document in any early Germanic language. Although the main story is fantastic fiction—pure folk-tale—most of the principal characters are historical and are Scandinavians known to us from Scandinavian and Continental records; but the chief personage, Beowulf, remains unidentified. Many of the events as well have an historical foundation. The scene is laid in Denmark and Southern Sweden; England is never mentioned. Yet despite all this, the author was undoubtedly an Englishman, one that probably wrote c. 700. As might be expected, the genesis of the poem presents many interesting, but bewildering problems. So, too, does the Christian element, for it is remarkable that while the sentiment is largely Christian, the customs and ceremonies are consistently pagan. The language is predominantly L.W.S., with a sprinkling of Non-W.S., chiefly Anglian forms.

Briefly the poem relates the deeds of Beowulf, a valiant warrior of the people of the Geats in Southern Sweden, who sails from his homeland to help the King of the Danes, Hrothgar, whose royal hall, Heorot, is being regularly ravaged by a murderous, cannibalistic, human monster named Grendel. This fiend is overcome by Beowulf in a memorable encounter, but escapes, only to die from his grievous injuries in his mother's cave-dwelling under the waters of a lake. The mother carries on the depredations, but is pursued to her lair and there slain by the hero. Then Beowulf returns home to Sweden and is subsequently proclaimed King of

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

the Geats. After a glorious reign of fifty years, he is mortally wounded in his successful attack upon the guardian of a treasure-

hoard, a fire-breathing dragon that had been devastating the countryside. The poem ends with the burning of Beowulf's body

and the treasure on a funeral pyre on a headland, where, amid the lamentations of his people, a monumental barrow is built to

perpetuate his memory.

The text, probably complete, is extant in a unique copy on fol. 132a–201b (present foliation) of the MS. and was written by

two scribes, the second beginning at moste, l. 1939, and writing a thicker, rougher [though clear] and old-fashioned hand. Follow-

ing current practice, the text, in the main quite legible, is written continuously like prose and divided, sometimes arbitrarily, into

forty-three sections. The punctuation is "meagre and unreliable", the spelling inconsistent, vowel length indicated only some 120

times, and the hyphen is never used.

Before anyone had transcribed it, the MS. was damaged in the Cottonian fire of 1731. The edges and margins were charred by

the heat and have often subsequently crumbled away. It was first described by H. Wanley in the Librorum Septentrionalium . . .

Catalogus which he contributed to G. Hickes' Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archaeologicus, Oxford,

1703–5. But Wanley thought that the poem was an account of a war waged by Beowulf, a Dane, against the Kings of Sweden.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.63–8.

Chambers. Beow. Introd. [Very full.]

H. and B., 56–61.

Klaeber. Beow. (below.) [Very full.]

Lawrence. Beow. Ep. Trad., 295–301. [Specially selected for beginners.]

Manuscript.

Thorkelin, G. J. (A) Poema anglosaxonicum de rebus gestis Danorum ex membrana bibliothecae cottonianae . . . fecit exscribi Londini

A.D. 1787 Grimus Johannis Thorkelin, L.L.D. (B) Poema anglosaxonicum . . . exscripsit Grimus Johannis Thorkelin.

Londini anno 1787. [These are the famous Thorkelin transcripts. Both copies, which, because made when the

edges of the parchment were better preserved than they are to-day, have enhanced value, are in the Royal Library

at Copenhagen. Thorkelin spent some twenty years on

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

preparing an edition of the poem, but, when nearing

completion in 1807, his translation and notes were destroyed

during the English bombardment of Copenhagen. Not till

1815 did his edition finally appear.]

Facsimile.

Zupitza, J. Beowulf. Autotypes of the Unique Cotton MS. Vitellius

A XV in the British Museum with a Transliteration and Notes.

E.E.T.S., 77. London, 1882. ["Almost of equal value with

the MS." The transliteration aims at reproducing the prob-

able text of a century earlier and must therefore be used

cautiously.]

Editions.

Heyne, M. Beowulf. Mit ausführlichen Glossar hrsg. Bearbeitet von

L. L. Schücking. 13th ed. Paderborn, 1929. [Reliable.]

Holthausen, F. Beowulf nebst den kleineren Denkmälern der Helden-

sage, mit Einleitung, Glossar und Anmerkungen. Teil I: Texte und

Namenverzeichniss, 6. verbesserte Auflage. Teil II: Einleitung,

Glossar, und Anmerkungen, 5. verbesserte Auflage. Heidelberg,

1929. [Glossary excellent. Brief introd. and notes.]

Klaeber, F. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, edited with

Introduction, Bibliography, Notes, Glossary and Appendices. London,

1922. 2nd ed., 1928. 3rd ed., 1936, 1941 (with Supplement).

[The introd. discusses the argument of the poem, the fabulous

or supernatural elements, the historical colouring, the struc-

ture, tone, style and metre, the language and manuscript,

and the genesis of the poem. The very valuable bibliography,

which is slightly annotated and mentions reviews, is selective,

but very comprehensive to date. The notes are excellent.

The appendices contain·Parallels (viz., analogues and illus-

trative passages), Antiquities (index of subjects pertaining to

Old Germanic life), textual criticism (specific grammatical

and metrical notes), and the text of Waldere, Deor, and

selected passages from Widsith. Includes two pages of fac-

similes, five plates, and a sketch map showing the geography

of Beowulf. The best working edition of the poem. The

Glossary is excellent.]

Sedgefield, W. J. Beowulf, edited with Introduction, Bibliography,

Notes, Glossary and Appendices. 3rd ed., Manchester, 1935.

[Also contains the Finnsburg Fragment, Widsith, Waldere and

Deor. The excellent introd. discusses the MS., language, tone,

style and vocabulary, composition and structure, subject-

162

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

matter, origin, authorship and date, and the relationship of

Beowulf to other Old English poetry. Glossary invaluable.]

Wyatt, A. J. Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment. Revised with

Introduction and Notes, by R. W. Chambers. Cambridge, 1914.

3rd impression, 1925. [Contains, besides facs. of two pages

of MS. illustrating the handwriting of each scribe, a facs.

page of each of Thorkelin's transcripts. The text is very con-

servative, the textual notes at the foot of each page are excel-

lent and there is a most useful index of persons and places.

A fine edition.]

Translations.

Child, C. G. Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment Translated.

London. 1904. [A good prose translation, with useful introd.

and notes.]

Crawford, D. H. Beowulf, translated into English Verse, with an

Introduction, Notes and Appendices. London, 1926. [Apparatus

good.]

Gordon, R. K. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. London, 1927. Fn. Lib., 794.

Pp. 4-70. [A useful, working, prose translation.]

Gummere, F. B. The Oldest English Epic. New York, 1909.

["Translated in the original metres." Good notes and introd.]

Hall, J. R. Clark. Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment. A Transla-

tion into Modern English Prose. New ed. rev. by C. L. Wrenn

and prefatory remarks by J. R. R. Tolkien, London, 1940.

[An excellent translation with helpful introductions to the

study of the poem and its metre.]

Hall, J. R. Clark. Beowulf, a Metrical Translation into Modern

English. Cambridge, 1914.

Kennedy, C. W. Beowulf: The Oldest English Epic. Translated

into Alliterative Verse, with a Critical Introduction. O.U.P., 1940.

Leonard, W. E. Beowulf, a New Verse Translation. London, 1923.

Strong, A. Beowulf, translated into Modern English Rhyming Verse,

with Introduction and Notes; with a Foreword on "Beowulf and

the Heroic Age" by R. W. Chambers. London, 1925.

Concordance.

Cook, A. S. A Concordance to Beowulf. Halle, 1911.

Discussion.

Blackburn, F. A. "The Christian Coloring in the Beowulf" in

P.M.L.A., 12.205-25, 1897.

Bonjour, A. The Digression in Beowulf. Oxford, 1950.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Bradley, H. "Beowulf," in Encycl. Brit., 14th ed.

Chadwick, H. M. The Heroic Age. Cambridge, 1912. [Includes a comparison of Germanic and Greek heroic poetry.]

Chambers, R. W. Widsith: A Study in O.E. Heroic Legend. Cambridge, 1912. [Invaluable for study of heroic legend and period.]

Chambers, R. W. Beowulf. An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn. 2nd ed. Cambridge, 1932. [Comprehensive survey of all the literary and historical problems. Indispensable.]

Chambers, R. W. Man's Unconquerable Mind. London, 1939. [Discusses the Heroic Age in England.]

Girvan, R. Beowulf and the Seventh Century. London, 1935. Methuen's O.E. Library, C.I. [Contains chapters on the language, the background and the legendary and historical matter. Stimulating.]

Gummere, F. B. Founders of England, New York, 1930.

Hamilton, M. P. "The Religious Principle in Beowulf" in P.M.L.A., 61.399–330, 1946. [Useful information.]

Hoops, J. Kommentar zum Beowulf. Heidelberg, 1932. [A very thorough, conservative and scholarly line-by-line commentary. Excellent in every sense, and indispensable.]

Hoops, J. Beowulf Studien. Heidelberg, 1932. [Contains detailed discussions of several difficult problems.]

Hulbert, J. R. "Beowulf and the Classical Epic" in M. Ph., 44.65–75, 1946.

Ker, W. P. Epic and Romance. London, 1897.

Klaeber, F. "Die christlichen Elemente in Beowulf" in Angl., 35.111–136, 249–270, 453–482 [1911], and 36.169–99 [1912] [Important Survey.]

Lawrence, W. W. Beowulf and Epic Tradition. Cambridge (Mass.), 1928. [An excellent summary of modern views on the subject-matter of Beowulf, intended for those who have little or no knowledge of O.E.]

Malone, K. "Beowulf" in English Studies, XXIX, pp. 161–172. [Studies content.]

Morsbach, L. "Zur Datierung des Beowulfepas" in Nachrichten der K. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-historische Klasse, 1906. Pp. 251–77. [A linguistic discussion.]

Olrik, A. The Heroic Legends of Denmark. Translated and rev. with the Collaboration of the Author, by L. M. Hollander. New York, 1919. [Important for legendary background.]

164

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

Phillpotts, B. S. “Wyrd and Providence in Anglo-Saxon Thought” in Essays and Studies, 13.7–27. 1928.

Schücking, L. “Das Königsideal im Beowulf” in E. St., 67.1–14. 1932.

Stjerna, K. Essays on Questions connected with the Old English Poem of Beowulf. Translated and edited by J. R. C. Hall. Coventry, 1912. [Includes interesting and important articles on archaeological matters in the poem.]

Tolkien, J. R. R. “Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics” in Proc. of the British Academy. London, 1936. [Stimulating article of literary criticism.]

Woolf, H. B. “On the Characterisation of Beowulf” in E.L.H., 15.85–92. 1948.

2. JUDITH

Only the concluding portion, totalling 350 ll, and perhaps representing only one quarter of the original, of this late Christian epic has survived. The fragment, divided into Fittes, is found, in the W.S. dialect, on ff. 202a–209b of the MS., and was written by the second scribe of the immediately preceding Beowulf. The theme is the slaying (scarcely “murder”) of Holofernes, leader of Nebuchadnezzar's Assyrian hosts investing the Jewish city of Bethulia, by the beautiful Jewess, Judith, and the subsequent raising of the siege and defeat of the invaders. The source is the Latin version of the apocryphal Book of Judith, but there is much amplification.

Although the subject-matter is Christian (in the Old-Testament sense), the treatment is pagan: no O.E. Christian poem is so essentially heroic. The author is partially successful in his portrayal of character (e.g., Judith and Holofernes), but much more so in point of emotions (e.g., the hesitancy of Holofernes's retinue, ll. 246–84), actions (e.g., the homicide, 73b–121), and scenes (e.g., the carousal, 15–34a). He also clearly reveals his power over his medium, particularly in his effective and contrasting use of passages in long and short lines. End-rhyme, too, is rather frequent. Late as is the date of composition (probably tenth century), the diction compares most favourably with that of the earlier epics. Lastly, the fragment is ably constructed and throughout highly dramatic.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.78–9.

H. & B., 83.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Text.

Cook, A. S. Judith, an Old English Epic Fragment. Boston, 1904.

[With full apparatus and a tr.]

Grein-Wülker, Poesie II, 294–314.

Translations.

Gordon, A. S. Poetry, 352–8.

Discussion.

Förster, M. Die Beowulf-Handschrift. Leipzig, 1919.

Forster, T. G. Judith: Studies in Metre, Language and Style. Strass-burg, 1892.

Rypins, S. I. “A Contribution to the Study of the Beowulf Codex” in P.M.L.A., 36.167–85. 1921. [A study of the ortho-graphy of the two scribes.]

Sisam, K. “The Beowulf Manuscript” in M.L.R., 11.335–7. 1916. [Important note on the scribes and their work.]

Tupper, F. “Notes on Old English Poems” in J.E.G.Ph., 11.82–9. 1912. [On the home of the Judith.]

METRES OF BOETHIUS

The De Consolatione Philosophiae (522–5) of Boethius consists of alternate Prosae and Metra. The latter have come down to us, indirectly, in an A.S. metrical redaction, which, in Krapp’s recent edition (below), comprises thirty-one irregular sections, amounting to just over 1750 ll. of verse.

It is generally agreed that Boethius’s famous work was trans-lated (with several omissions) by K. Alfred into prose and his rendering is to-day represented by MS. Bodley 180, dating from the beginning of the twelfth century. Later on it appears that those passages which in Alfred’s prose translation corresponded to the Metra were turned into verse, very probably by Alfred himself, whereupon the verses were introduced into the A.S. translation as substitutes for their prose counterparts. Hence there came into existence a new “composite text of the Anglo-Saxon prose, as in the older version, and the Latin Meters represented by Anglo-Saxon verse” (Krapp, ib., xxxvi). This redaction survives in the B.M. MS. Cotton Otho A.VI (c. 970), which was badly damaged in the Cottonian fire of 1731. Fortunately, however, Junius (p. 205, below), in the seventeenth century made a manu-script copy of the Bodl. MS. that is still extant in the Bodleian and known as MS. Junius 12. Into this he inserted, at the appro-priate places, copies of several metres from the Cotton MS. A

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

number of these insertions, all of which were pasted in on odd

sheets, now have the additional value of being the sole authority

for the text, because many leaves of the Cotton MS. are either

in fragments or otherwise illegible.

If the Metres were written by Alfred, they may have been com-

posed about 897, or shortly afterwards. Several critics, however,

consider they are of too inferior quality to come from the hand of

the king.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.87.

H. & B., 62.

Krapp, G. P. The Paris Psalter and the Metres of Boethius. London,

1933. Pp. li-lv. [Indispensable ed., with valuable introd. and

notes.]

Editions.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIb, 1–57.

Krämer, E. Die altenglischen Metra des Boetius. Bonner Beitr. VIII.

Bonn, 1902. [With full apparatus.]

Krapp (above).

Sedgefield, W. J. King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius De

Consolatione Philosophiae. Oxford, 1899.

Translations.

Sedgefield, W. J. King Alfred's Versions of the Consolations of

Boethius, done into Modern English, with an Introduction. Oxford,

Discussion.

Browne, G. F. King Alfred's Books. London, 1920. Pp. 263–390.

CÆDMON (d. 680–80)

The sole original authority for our knowledge of Cædmon, the

first English poet, is Bede (Ecclesiastical History, translated by

A. M. Sellar, Bk. IV, Chap. XXIV; q.v.). Very briefly we are told

that Cædmon was an untaught herdsman at the monastery at

Streoneshalh (present-day Whitby) under the rule (657–80) of the

Abbess Hild, and that one night in his later years he had a dream

during which he was divinely inspired to compose a poem on the

Creation. Bede then gives us a paraphrase of it. Versions of it still

survive. It is universally known as Cædmon's Hymn. Hild then

received him into the monastery and had him instructed in the

Old and New Testaments. All that he here learned, he turned

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

into verse. "He sang the creation of the world, the origin of man,

and all the history of Genesis, the departure of the children of

Israel out of Egypt, their entrance into the promised land, and

many other histories from Holy Scripture; the Incarnation,

Passion, Resurrection of our Lord, and His Ascension into

Heaven: the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the teaching of the

Apostles; likewise he made many songs concerning the terror of

future judgment; besides many more about the blessings and the

judgments of God, by all of which he endeavoured to draw men

away from the love of sin, and to excite in them devotion to well-

doing and perseverance therein." Now there exists in the Junius

MS. a series of four poems, the first three of which (viz., Genesis,

Exodus and Daniel) are certainly not only narratives, but also

didactic in tone. The fourth and last, Christ and Satan, however,

is very different. Whether it be a unity or a group of three dis-

tinct poems, all will agree that it is unlike the other pieces in the

MS. in point of theme, style and diction; and further, that it is

not narrative, but rather lyrical in treatment. In 1655, in the

first edition of the Junius MS., Franciscus Junius or Duion,

struck by the correspondence of the subject-matter of its contents

with the topics of the (unnamed and unspecified) poems credited

to Cædmon by Bede, had no hesitation in allotting all four poems

to Cædmon. Although with the exception of Gollancz (Cædmon

Manuscript [below], lx), modern critics seem unwilling to accept

Cædmon's authorship, the MS. is still often referred to as the

"Cædmon MS.", and the poems, as the "Cædmon Poems"

Indeed, the only poem universally attributed to him to-day is

the above-mentioned Hymn. For an account of this, see p. 169, and of

the four poems of the Junius MS., see pp. 207–10.

M. Förster (Keltisches Wortgut im Englischen, Halle, 1921, p.

179. derives Cædmon's name from British Catumannos.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.73.

H. & B., 63.

Kennedy, C. W. The Cædmon Poems, translated into English Prose.

London, 1916. Pp. 252–3.

Discussion.

Consult the more recent histories of literature. See also Encycl.

Brit., and especially D.N.B. (article by H. Bradley) for a

summary discussion of the poet and his authorship.

Wrenn, C. L. The Poetry of Cædmon. London, 1947.

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

CÆDMON'S HYMN

Cædmon's Hymn, the only poem now universally acknowledged to be the work of the Northumbrian poet (d. 670–80, see further, p. 167), contains only 18 half ll. Although nine of these are recorded elsewhere in O.E. verse, it must be remembered that "in Cædmon's time when Northumbria had been converted to Christianity for only half a century these phrases belonging to Christian poetry could scarcely have become conventional, as they certainly were in later Old English" (Smith, ed. below, 15). Short as it is, the piece contains eight synonyms for God.

The Hymn is embodied in the text of nine MSS. of the O.E. version of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, four of which preserve a Northumbrian version and the other five a later, W.S. version. The seven MSS. (one now lost, and the two earliest dating from c. 740) of the Latin version of the Historia do not, however, contain the Hymn as an integral part of the text, but only as an entry in the margin or at the foot of the page. The Latin text, indeed, includes only a paraphrase of the Hymn, followed by an explanatory note on this paraphrastic rendering and on translation. Naturally this note has been omitted from the O.E. MSS. as being irrelevant.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.73.

H. & B., 63–4.

Smith, A. H. Three Northumbrian Poems, Cædmon's Hymn, Bede's Death Song, and the Leiden Riddle. London, 1933. Methuen's Old English Library A 1. Pp. 48–50. [Gives both Northumbrian and West Saxon versions, with complete apparatus. Excellent.]

Facsimiles.

Cædmon's Hymn (Moore MS.): Palaeographical Society, First Series, Vol. II, Plate 140. London, 1879.

"Cædmon's Hymn (Leningrad MS.)" in Speculum, 3.316. 1928.

Editions.

Dobiarhe-Rojdestvensky (above).

Frampton, M. G. "Cædmon's Hymn" in M.Ph., 22. 1–15. 1924. [Valuable account of relationships of the various versions.]

Gollancz, Cædmon MS., xi.

Sedgefield. Bk. A.S.V.P., 80–1.

Smith (above).

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Wuest, P. Z. f. d. A., 48.205 ff. 1904. [With important textual discussion.]

Translations.

Cook and Tinker, Trans. O. E. Poetry, 77; Gordon, A.S. Poetry, x; Kennedy, Cædmon's Poems, 3; Wardale, 113.

Discussion.

Dobbic, E. v. K. The Manuscripts of Cædmon's Hymn and Bede's Death Song. New York, 1937.

Pound, L. "Cædmon's Dream Song" in Studies in English Philology presented to F. Klaeber. Minneapolis, 1929.

Sievers, E. "Cædmon und Genesis" in Britannica, Max Förster zum 60. Geburtstage. Leipzig, 1929.

Note also Frampton, Gollancz, Smith and Wuest, above.

CHARMS

Preserved in unique copies and distributed over several MSS., eight metrical Charms constitute the sole relics of the religious poetry of the pagan period. In primitive times, charms were widely used with the intention of promoting fertility and prosperity and of averting evil in any shape or form. The surviving O.E. examples display such a remarkable confusion of Christian and heathen elements—in the main the procedure is heathen and the incantation Christian—that they can only have been written down late in the O.E. period. Their contents, not their literary qualities, render them valuable.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.98.

H. & B., 67–8.

Text.

Cockayne, Leechdoms, 1.384–405, 3.286–91 and 294–5. [With translation.]

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 312–30.

Grendon, F. Anglo-Saxon Charms. New York, 1931. [With Bibliography, Introduction and critical apparatus. Authoritative and indispensable.]

Storms, G. Anglo-Saxon Magic. The Hague, 1948. [Pt. I discusses general problems; Pt. II contains texts of 86 charms, with translation and detained analysis.]

Translations.

Cook and Tinker, Trans. O. E. Poetry, 164–71; Gummere, O.E. Epic. 170

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

Discussion.

Payne, J. F. English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times. Oxford, 1904.

Skemp, A. R. “The Old English Charms” in M.L.R., 6.289–301. 1911. [Interpretative, textual and metrical notes.]

Singer, C. From Magic to Science. London, 1928. [See Chaps. II–IV.]

ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE

Embedded in the annals of the various MSS. of the Chronicle are seven commemorative poems or lays of varying length.

By far the most successful is the stirring piece known as the Battle of Brunanburh, which in respect of diction is occasionally reminiscent of the Judith fragment (p. 165).

Of the others, all unpretentious, some are noteworthy as evidencing the growing interest in rhythmical verse linked by rhyme and assonance.

It should be noted that the Chronicle also contains several passages of “sung verse”, the first, and best, of these occurring in the Laud MS., s.a. 959.

They may, however, be more suitably regarded as pieces of “poetical prose”. See further Sedgefield, Maldon, xx–xxi, C.H.E.L., 1.137–41, and Brandl §§ 86–8.

The poems dealt with below comprise the Battle of Brunanburh (s.a. 937), Liberation of the Five Boroughs (942), Coronation of Edgar (973), Death of Edgar (975), Alfred's Capture and Death (1036), Death of Edward the Confessor (1065), and William the Conqueror (1087).

1. THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH

In 937, at Brunanburh, possibly the modern Burnswark, near Dumfries, King Athelstan and all the might of England won a notable victory over Anlaf and Olaf Guthfrithson, King of Dublin and claimant to the throne of York, and his allies, Constantine II, King of the Scots, and Owen, King of the Strathclyde Britons.

Shortly afterwards, an anonymous poet, perhaps a native of the Danelaw, composed this spirited song of triumph.

The poem, 74 ll. in all, is preserved in 5 MSS. of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 937, and is the first of its seven versified annals.

Curiously, perhaps, the writer names none of the warriors, only the leaders; neither does he report the details of the battle or any speeches.

Presumably he was not an eye-witness.

Nor in this connexion is there any significance in the specific reference to the presence of the raven, the eagle and the wolf, which feed upon the slain: these are

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the conventional attendants of the battlefield in A.S., as well as in O.N., poetical literature. Another traditional feature is the diction: "nearly one-half of its half-lines have been found in earlier A.S. poetry" (Wyatt, 277). A new note, however, is struck by the element of patriotism (cf. The Battle of Maldon, p. 212, below), as well as the depth of feeling.

Controversy still centres round the site of the battle-ground.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.84.

H. & B., 63.

Editions.

Campbell, A. The Battle of Brunanburh. London, 1938. [With full critical apparatus.]

Crow, C. L. Maldon and Brunanburh. Boston, 1897.

Kershaw, 66–70 (with translation, as well as useful introductory matter and bibliography, pp. 59–65).

Sedgefield, W. J. The Battle of Maldon and Short Poems from the Saxon Chronicle. London, 1904. [Full apparatus.]

N.B. Several anthologies include the text and useful notes.

Translations.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 359–60; Hall, Jud. Phoen. Mald., 57–9.

Discussion.

Angus, W. S. "The Battlefield of Brunanburh" in Antiquity, 11.283–93. 1937. [Assigns to Brunswark.]

Klaeber, F. "A Note on the Battle of Brunanburh" in Palaestra, Vol. CL, pp. 1–7. 1925. [Literary criticism.]

Smith, A. H. "The Site of the Battle of Brunanburh" in London Medieval Studies. Vol. I, Part I, 56–9. [Presses claims of Bromborough in Cheshire, but does not rule out Brunswark.]

2. LIBERATION OF THE FIVE BOROUGHS

In 14, metrically correct, but mainly unpoetical lines, this poem with patriotic fervour celebrates the over-running of Mercia by Edmund, England peoden, and his (only temporary) relief of the Five Boroughs from the oppression of the Norsemen. The text forms part of the entry for 942.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.84.

H. & B., 80.

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Text.

Classen-Harmer, 46–7.

Craigie. Specimens III, 30.

Earle-Plummer. Sax. Chron., I.110.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 380–1.

Mawer, A. "The Redemption of the Five Boroughs" in E.H.R., 38.551–7, 1923. [With translation and important historico-linguistic discussions.]

Sedgefield. Maldon, 20–1. [An ed. with full apparatus.]

Translations.

Chambers, Engl. Norm. Con., 240; Mawer (above).

3. CORONATION OF EDGAR

Under the year 973, the Chronicle commemorates King Edgar's Coronation at Bath with a poem of 20 ll. What seemed to give the author most pleasure, however, was the presence there of a large body of clerics and the fact that with the lapse of 27 years. it would be A.D. 1000 (the expected end of the World).

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.84.

H. & B., 77.

Text.

Craigie. Specimens III, 30.

Earle-Plummer. Sax. Chron., 1.118.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 381–2.

Sedgefield. Maldon, 21–2. [Full apparatus.]

Translation.

Wardale, 228.

4. DEATH OF EDGAR

The whole of the entry for 975 in the Parker MS. is made up of 37 ll. of verse, which, though undoubtedly from a monkish pen, preserve several reminiscences of the traditional epic diction. The poem records the deaths of King Edgar and Bishop Cyneward (ll. 1–15), the decline of religion in Mercia, the banishment of Earl Oslac, the appearance of a comet, and lastly the prevailing famine. Lines 16 to the end form the more spirited portion of the poem.

Bibliography.

H. & B.. 77.

Text.

Classen-Harmer, 50; Craigie, Specimens III, 31; Earle-Plummer, 173

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Sax. Chron., 1.118-22; Sedgefield, Maldon, 22-4 (with apparatus).

Translations.

Thorpe, A.S.C., 2.97-8.

5. ALFRED'S CAPTURE AND DEATH

The 20 ll. of this poem forming part of the entry for 1036 and notable for the absence of alliteration and the frequency with which the half-lines are linked by rhyme and assonance—conclusive evidence of the growing interest in rhymed verse—tell of Godwine's savage treatment, and the subsequent death, of Alfred, the son of King Aethelred.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.84.

H. & B., 54.

Text.

Classen-Harmer, 70-1; Craigie, Specimens III, 32; Earle-Plummer, Sax. Chron., 1.158-60; Grein-Wülker, Poesie I, 384-5; Sedgefield, Maldon, 24-6 (full apparatus).

Translations.

Chambers, Engl. Norm. Con., 286-7; Thorpe, A.S.C., 2.129-30.

6. DEATH OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR

This poem of 34 ll. is the last example in the Chronicle of the old alliterative measure. It records the death of Edward the Confessor, lauds his glorious reign and tells of his exile (necessitated by King Cnut) and welcome return, the loyalty of his subjects, and finally of how he had settled the kingdom upon his trusty subject, Harold.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.84.

H. & B., 77-8.

Text.

Classen-Harmer, 84-5; Craigie, Specimens III, 32-3; Earle-Plummer, Sax. Chron., Vol. I, 192-5; Grein-Wülker, Poesie I, 386-8; Sedgefield, Maldon, 26-7, (with apparatus); Sedgefield, Bk. A.S. V.P., 121-2.

Translations.

Thorpe, A.S.C., Vol. II, 164.

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7. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR

This poem tells of William's greed and his cruel game-laws. Its main interest, however, lies in the author's employment of a "rugged metre" for his 22 ll., which, while here and there interrupted by one or two lines of prose, rhyme in pairs.

Bibliography.

H. & B., 93.

Text.

Earle-Plummer, Sax. Chron., Vol. I, pp. 220–1; Sedgefield, Bk. A.S. V.P., pp. 123–4; Sedgefield, Maldon, pp. 30–1.

Translations.

Thorpe, A.S.C., 2.189–90.

CYNEWULF

Very little is known of the poet Cynewulf apart from either what he himself tells or what can be deduced from his four signed poems. None of these, like the earlier Christian poetry (e.g., Genesis, Exodus and Daniel), are mere metrical narratives based on the Bible, but rather connected with events celebrated in the Church Calendar. The poems comprise in the probable order of composition, Juliana, the Fates of the Apostles, Elene, and the Ascension, the middle one of the 3 poems often conveniently called Christ. All of these are extant in unique (pre-dominantly W.S.) transcripts (see further pp. 183, 219, 223, 179 respectively).

At one time or another, almost all the notable O.E. poems that could not reasonably be ascribed to Cædmon, have been allotted to Cynewulf. The proof of his authorship, however, is contained in the personal passages at the conclusion of all four poems. Into each of these epilogues he has introduced a set of runes which together spell out Cyn(e)wulf. From the authographical form of the name it has been inferred that its owner wrote in the ninth century. Again, metrical (evidence of rhyme in Elene, 1241) and linguistic considerations presuppose that he was an Anglian. His Latin sources, as well as his religious themes, adequately testify to competent scholarship, and also to his ecclesiastical vocation. From the longest and much the most informative of all the personal passages, viz., Elene, 1237–57, we learn of "his conversion to a life of religious contemplation, his learning which he employs in searching out and piecing together the true tale of the cross, which he has just narrated,

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

his poetic powers which find their spring in religious thought,

and finally old age pressing hard upon him with sorrow and

decay" [Kennedy, Cædmon, 11–12].

Although his poems are structurally loose and never sustained

upon a high level, he often writes with fine imaginative power:

he excels in portraying scenery, especially (though perhaps

without actual experience) sea and storm. On the other hand,

his battle scenes are only conventional. "The subjective note

is everywhere prominent and the poet is interested, first and

foremost, in ideas and emotions" (Thomas, Engl. Lit., 22). The

style is that of a "man trained to read and write Latin, to admire

the orderly progress of a Latin sentence, and to prefer its clarity

to the tangled profusion of the native style" [Sisam (below), 15].

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.75–6.

H. & B., 68–9.

Discussion.

Brown, C. F. "Cynewulf and Alcuin" in P.M.L.A., 18.308–34. 1903.

Brown, C. F. "The Autobiographical Element in the Cyne-

wulfian Rune Passages" in E.St., 38.196–233. 1907.

Brown, C. F. "Irish-Latin Influence in Cynewulfian Texts"

in E.St., 40.1–29. 1909.

Das, S. K. Cynewulf and the Cynewulf Canon. Univ. of Calcutta, 1942.

Jansen, K. Die Cynewulf-forschung von ihren Anfängen bis zur

Gegenwart. Bonn, 1908. [Discussion of Cynewulfian studies.

Bibliography to date excellent.]

Kennedy, C. W. The Poems of Cynewulf, translated into English

Prose. London, 1910. [Includes both signed poems and

allegedly Cynewulfian poems, together with a valuable

introductory account of each and their authorship. Full,

but selective bibliography.]

Sisam, K. "Cynewulf and his Poetry" in Proc. of Brit. Acad.,

Vol. XXVIII, 1932. [An excellent survey of the canon and

of the runic signature. Indispensable.]

Trautmann, M. Kynewulf, Der Bischof und Dichter. Bonn, 1898.

Tupper, F. "The Philological Legend of Cynewulf" in

P.M.L.A., 26.235–79. 1911.

IN PRAISE OF DURHAM

Specially noteworthy as the latest surviving example (composed

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

shortly after 1104 and before 1109, hence, in point of time, M.E.)

of the traditional alliterative poetry, this poem of 21 ll. (preserved

in 2 MSS.) firstly (ll. 1–8) praises Durham's lofty site, encircled

by the Wear, and the abundance both of fish in the river and

of wild animals in the neighbouring forests and, secondly, men-

tions that in the monastery are preserved relics of the Northern

saints, Cuthbert, Aidan, Eadberht, Eadfrith, Aethelwold, Bede

and Boisil. The author was certainly a monk.—See also Wells,

X [25].

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.84.

H. & B., 77.

Text.

Craigie. Specimen III, 42.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 389–92.

Discussion.

Schlauch, M. “An O.E. Encomium Urbis” in J.E.G.Ph., Jan.,

1941. [Refers back to classical prototypes and discusses

parallels.]

Oakden, Allit. Poetry, 41–2, 136. [Metre.]

THE EXETER BOOK

The Exeter Book (or Codex Exoniensis, or Liber Exoniensis), the

largest of the four great MSS. collections of O.E. poetry, is pre-

served in the Library at Exeter Cathedral, to which, so we may

believe, it was presented, with others, by Leofric, the first bishop

of Exeter, who died in 1072. It now consists of 131 parchment

leaves, but the first eight (for contents see The Exeter Book of Old

English Poetry [below] 44–54), were added not earlier than the

sixteenth century. The folios were numbered 1 to 130, the first,

on which there is no text, not being counted. The last fourteen

folios have been damaged by a long diagonal burn, which, be-

ginning on the last folio, where there is a resultant gap almost

three inches across at its widest point, is traceable as far forward

as fol. 117a. As a consequence lacunæ begin to appear in the text

at 117b, and become increasingly numerous towards the end of the

MS. Folios 8–130 contain the Exeter Book proper. It was written

(without ornamentation of any kind) in a monastery “in the West

Country early in the period 970–90” (ib., 90), perhaps by only

one scribe. The dialect is L.W.S. with an Anglian colouring. The

magnificent photographic facs. of the Book published (1933)

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

by the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral (see below), provides the student with an excellent opportunity of studying a noble Old English "manuscript".

The texts included in the Book comprise the following, the titles as well as the line references below being taken from the recent edition of Krapp and Dobbie (below):-Christ, Guthlac, Azarias, The Phoenix, Juliana, The Wanderer, The Gifts of Men, Precepts, The Seafarer, Vainglory, Widsith, The Fortunes of Men, Maxims I, The Order of the World, The Riming Poem, The Panther, The Whale, The Partridge, Soul and Body II, Deor, Wulf and Eadwacer, Riddles 1–59, The Wife's Lament, The Judgment Day I, Resignation, The Descent into Hell, Alms-Giving, Pharaoh, The Lord's Prayer I, Homiletic Fragment II, Riddle 30b, Riddle 60, The Husband's Message, The Ruin, Riddles 61–95. All these texts are anonymous unless a statement is made to the contrary in the discussions below.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.62.

Krapp, G. P., and Dobbie, E. v. K. The Exeter Book. London, 1936. Pp. lxxxix-cxvii. [The Bibliography is to some extent selective, but entirely adequate. Text based on facs. ed. (below). Also contains valuable intros. and notes. Indispensable.]

The Exeter Book of Old English Poetry, with Introductory Chapters, by Chambers, R. W., Förster, M., and Flower, R. Printed and published for the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral. London, 1933. [For a bibliography of the standard editions in which the various poems are to be found, see 37–43. Chapters:-The Exeter Book and its Donor Leofric, by Chambers, 1–9; The Donations of Leofric to Exeter, by Förster, 10–32; Modern Study of the Poetry of The Exeter Book, by Chambers, 33–43; The Preliminary Matter of The Exeter Book, by Förster, 44–54; General Description of the Manuscript, by Förster, 55–67; Transcription of the Damaged Passages of The Exeter Book, by Chambers and Flower, 68–82; The Script of The Exeter Book, Notes on the Sixteenth-Century Glosses, and on The Strips from the Binding, by Flower, 83–94.]

Complete Editions.

Gollancz, I. The Exeter Book—edited from the Manuscript with a Translation, etc. Part I. Poems I-VIII. London, 1895. E.E.T.S., 104. [Continued by Mackie's ed. (below). No apparatus.]

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Krapp and Dobbie (above). [Also lists anthologies containing separate poems and partial texts, xc-xcvi.]

Mackie, W. S. The Exeter Book. Part II. Poems IX–XXXII. London, 1934. E.E.T.S., 194. [With two reduced facs., trans-lation facing each page of text. Text based on MS., collated with facs., ed., above. No apparatus.]

Thorpe, B. Codex Exoniensis. London, 1842. [With translations. Omits Riddles 67, 78, 82, 89, 92, 94.]

Translations.

Gollancz (above); Gordon, A.S. Poetry, passim; Mackie (above); Thorpe (above).

Discussion.

See especially the introductory chapters by Chambers, Förster and Flower in The Exeter Book of Old English Poetry (above). Consult, too, the excellent bibliography in Krapp and Dobbie's ed. (above), pp. xcix-cxvii.

1. CHRIST (fol. 8a-32a)

Christ is the conventional title of the first 1664 ll. of The Exeter Book proper. The first folio of the original text has apparently been lost. The MS. seems to divide the text inten-tionally into three parts, viz., ll. 1–439, 440–866 and 867–1664.

Part I comprises twelve short passages, hymnic in tone, on the Nativity and chiefly based on a series of ecclesiastical Antiphons for Advent; Part II is a narrative of the Ascension, founded in the main on a sermon on the Ascension by Pope Gregory the Great; Part III, derived from a variety of sources, is concerned with the Day of Judgment. Hence the respective titles: Advent, The Ascen-sion, and Judgment Day.

Whether we have here to deal with three poems or one, and with triple or single authorship, is still in dispute. Since, however, Cynewulf's runic signature occurs in ll. 800–7 in Part II, the authorship of at least this section seems beyond doubt. Note that Sisam is fully convinced that the Parts form separate poems, and that Cynewulf may possibly be the author of Advent, but certainly not of Judgment Day.

There are many first-rate passages, e.g., ll. 604–11 on the gifts of Nature and ll. 850–66 on the perils of the sea.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.76.

Cook, A. S. The Christ of Cynewulf, with Introduction, Notes and Glossary. Boston, 1900. Pp. 295 ff.

H. & B., 70.

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Separate Editions.

Cook (above). 1-64.

Gollancz, I. Cynewulf's Christ, with a Modern Rendering. London, 1892.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie III, 1-54.

Translations.

Gordon, A. S. Poetry, 147-81; Kennedy (above), 153-204; Whitman, C. H., The Christ of Cynewulf, Boston, 1900.

Discussion.

Blackburn, F. Ā. "Is the Christ of Cynewulf a single poem?" in Angl., 19.89-98. 1897. [Believes that the three parts are separate poems.]

Gerould, G. H. "Studies in the Christ" in E.St., 41.1-19. 1909 [Not convinced that there are three separate poems. Ascribes the whole to Cynewulf.]

Jansen, 70-7.

Kennedy. Cynewulf, 27-34.

Mildenberger, K. "The Unity of Cynewulf's Christ in the Light of Iconography" in Speculum, 23.426-431. 1948. [Claims unity of the three parts.]

Moore, S. "The O.E. Christ. Is it a Unit?" in J.E.G.Ph., 14. 550-67. 1915. [Considers Parts I and II are integrants, but is doubtful of unity of II and III.]

Philip, A. "The Exeter Scribe and the Unity of the Christ" in P.M.L.A., 50.903-909. 1940. [Believes the three parts are separate poems.]

Sisam, K. Cynewulf and His Poetry, Oxford, 1932. 9-11.

2. GUTHLAC (fol. 33a-52b)

Guthlac, the life of the Mercian saint, Guthlac, in 1,379 ll. of verse, is usually regarded as being two poems by different authors. though this is still disputed. The first twenty-nine lines may be part of the Christ, which precedes it in the MS., or even a separate work, and editors' line-numbers vary accordingly. The next section of 789 ll., telling of Guthlac's adventurous youth, con-version, and life in his hermitage at Croyland, is apparently by a contemporary and based on oral tradition, though it may be from the Latin Life written (747-9) by Felix, monk of Croyland, used by the author of Part II, the theme of which is the death of Guthlac. This begins at line 819 and is defective at the end. It may be Cynewulf's, and is in any case a more artistic poem-

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note especially the description of night, ll. 1278–95, and Guthlac's entry into heaven, 1305–30. The eleventh century W.S. prose Life, edited by P. Gonser, Heidelberg, 1909, derives also from Felix, but not from the poem or poems.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.78.

H. & B., 72–3.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 55–94.

Translations.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 284–309; Kennedy, Cynewulf, 264–305.

Discussion.

Forstmann, H. Untersuchungen zur Guthlac-legende. Bonn, 1902. [Pp. 1–40.]

Geroüld, G. H. "The Old English Poems on St. Guthlac and their Latin Source," in M.L.N., 32.77–89. 1917.

Jansen, 99–105.

Kurtz, B. P. From St. Anthony to St. Guthlac. A Study in Biography. Berkeley (U.S.A.), 1925–6.

3. AZARIAS (fol. 53a–55b)

In its present version, Azarias (191 ll.) contains the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Children set in a narrative framework. One or more sections at the beginning are missing. The first 75 ll. (i.e., the initial portion) of the Prayer correspond fairly closely with ll. 279–356 (also containing Azariah's Prayer) of the Daniel (p. 209), thus giving rise to various conjectures about their mutual relationship.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.74.

H. & B., 55

Separate Editions.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 491–7, 516–20.

Schmidt, W. Die altenglischen Dichtungen "Daniel" und "Azarias". Bonn, 1907. Pp. 40–8. [Bibliography, text and notes.]

Translations.

See editions of Ex. Bk.

Discussion.

Brandl, §41.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Craigie, W. A. Philologica, 2.11 ff.

Gollancz, Cædmon MS., lxxxvi-lxxxvii.

Hofer, O. "Uber die Entstehung des angelsächsischen Gedichtes Daniel" in Angl., 12.158–204. 1889. [Pp. 184–91 analyse in detail the relationship of Azarias to Daniel.]

4. THE PHOENIX (fol. 55b–65b)

The Phoenix, a complete poem of 677 ll. without problems of transposition or interpolation, divides naturally at l. 381. Part I freely paraphrases the Latin poem De Ave Phoenice (of 170 hexameters) attributed to Lactantius (early Christian writer, ob. c. 340). It first tells of the Happy Land, the home of the Phoenix (ll. 1–84—a memorable passage), after which the poet describes the bird's beauty, its journey, in old age, to Syria in order to renew its youth, and the actual process of its rebirth. Part II is a homiletic interpretation (source unknown) of the theme of Part I, in which the Phoenix is made to symbolise, firstly, the life of the Christian and his preparation for the Life Eternal, and secondly, the figure of Christ. The concluding eleven lines are macaronic, each combining half a line of O.E. with half a line of Latin, linked by alliteration conventionally. The authorship is often, though purely on stylistic grounds, attributed to Cynewulf or to one of his school.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.77–8.

H. & B., 73–4.

Editions.

Bright, A.S. Reader, 165–88.

Cook, A. S. The Old English Elene, Phoenix and Physiologus. New Haven, 1919. Pp. 47–73.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 95–116.

Schlotterose, O. Die altenglische Dichtung "Phoenix". Bonn, 1908. [With German translation and full apparatus.]

Translations.

Cook and Tinker, Trans. O.E. Poetry, 144–63; Hall, Jud. Phoen. Mald., 19–42; Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 265–79; Kennedy, Cynewulf, 312–32.

Discussion.

Cook (above), xxv–lvi. [Assigns preferably to Cynewulf, or else to one of his school.]

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Emerson, O. F. "Originality in O.E. Poetry", in R.E.S., 2. 18–31. 1926. [Careful and authoritative study of poet's treatment of his sources.]

Jansen, 105–8

Schlotterose (above), 78–92.

5. JULIANA (fol. 65b–76a)

Juliana is a poem on the life of the saint in 731 ll. Owing to the loss of certain folios, there are two large gaps at ll. 288 and 558. It is usually regarded as an early, if not the earliest, work of Cynewulf's—his runic signature is contained in ll. 703–09. The source is identical with, or similar to, the Latin life in the Bollandist (see Encycl. Brit., s.v.) Acta Sanctorum.

The story in brief is as follows. In the reign of Maximilian (308–14), Juliana, a maiden of Nicomedia and a daughter of Africanus, a persecutor of Christians, is wooed by the Roman Prefect Eleusius. When she rejects his love because of his refusal to accept Christianity, Eleusius, with her father's approval, endeavours to break down her opposition by incredible tortures. But Juliana's faith and fortitude are proof against all such persuasion, as well as sundry temptations by the devil. She is therefor slain with the sword. Shortly after, Eleusius is drowned at sea with all his retinue, thus receiving his due reward.

The poem is a good example of O.E. religious poetry in that it applies to sacred and saintly personages the old warlike epithets of the earlier heroic poetry. The treatment is undramatic and bookish, and the dialogue is dull.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.76–7.

H. & B., 73.

Editions.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 117–39.

Strunk, W. Juliana. Boston, 1904. [Excellent apparatus. Includes the Latin Acta S. Julianae.]

Translations.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 182–96; Kennedy, Cynewulf, 129–152; Murch, H. S., J.E.G.Ph., 5.303–19 (1904).

Discussion.

Kennedy, Cynewulf, 21–7.

Smithson, Christian Epic, passim.

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6. THE WANDERER (fol. 76b–78a)

The theme of the first part of this very fine, elegiac poem of 111 ll. is the sorrow and sufferings of a homeless man who has been deprived of his lord. The remainder, beginning at l. 58 and gnomic in tone, is mainly concerned with the vicissitudes of life, suggested by contemplation of a ruined building. Both the first and last sections of 5 ll. (the latter are long) have a distinctly Christian flavour.

Structurally, the poem invites comparison with the Seafarer (p. 185): both begin with the treatment of a specific topic and conclude with sententious moralising on human life in general. The old theory of composite origin now seems to be in disfavour.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., i.70.

H. & B., 91

Editions.

In various books of selections.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 284–9.

Kershaw, 7–15. [With tr., also an excellent introd., 1–7.]

Sedgefield. Bk. A.S. V.P., 28–31.

Wyatt. A.S. Reader, 144–7.

Note.—An edition by J. R. R. Tolkien and the late E. V. Gordon is to appear in Methuen's O.E. Library series.

Translations.

Cook and Tinker, Trans. O.E. Poetry, 50–5; Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 81–3.

Discussion.

Lawrence, W. W. “The Wanderer and the Seafarer,” in J.E.G.Ph., 4.460–80. 1902.

Williams, B. C. Gnomie Poetry in Anglo-Saxon Verse. New York, 1914. Pp. 42–7.

7. THE GIFTS OF MEN (fol. 78a–80a)

This poem of 113 ll. opens with a passage (1–29) on God's bountifulness in so richly and circumspectly conferring his gifts upon men, and thereupon proceeds to the enumeration of the various gifts in considerable, but haphazard, detail. Though of no particular literary merit, the wide range of its vocabulary is a point in its favour. In connexion with the Gifts of Men, the student

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should note the existence, in different parts of The Exeter Book, of

the four following short poems :-Vainglory, the Fortunes of Men,

the Order of the World and the Judgment Day I (see below). Some

authorities regard these five as forming "a highly homogeneous

collection of didactic or homiletic verse" (Krapp and Dobbie,

above, xxxix). In each case, metre and language presuppose an

early date of composition, either the end of the eighth, or at latest

the beginning of the ninth century (ib., xlii).

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., i.81.

H. & B., 61.

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens, III, 64–6.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 140–3.

Sedgefield. Bk. A.S. V.P., 106–9.

Translation.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 348–9.

8. PRECEPTS (A FATHER'S INSTRUCTIONS ; fol. 80a–81a)

This poem of 94 ll. comprises a series of ten admonitions on

morals and manners addressed by a father to his son. A possible

source is the Proverbs of Solomon. Essentially Christian in mood,

the poem may have been written with didactic intentions by a

cleric.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., i.81.

H. & B., 78.

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens III, 51–3.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 353–7.

Sedgefield. Bk. A.S. V.P., 109–11.

9. THE SEAFARER (fol. 81b–83a)

The Seafarer (124 ll.) resembles The Wanderer (p. 184) in struc-

ture: both begin by treating a single theme and conclude with a

moralising epilogue that is Christian in tone; and both have pro-

voked critics to doubt their structural homogeneity. In vocabulary

and phraseology, too, there are resemblances; but in matter and

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style they are very different-the atmosphere of The Wanderer is

one of unrelieved gloom, whereas The Seafarer "breathes the true

spirit of adventure" (Wardale, 43).

The first 64 ll. of The Seafarer-it contains passages of rare

beauty-contrasts the hardships of the seafaring life with its joys.

Some regard this part as a dialogue between an old sailor and

a young one, but are unable to agree about the division of the

speeches. Others, again, consider it a monologue spoken by an

old sailor. From 64b to the end, the poem is concerned both with

the transitoriness of earthly life and the vanity of its glories, and

with the "eternal rewards of religion". Although it was formerly

widely assumed that this second part was a later addition, modern

opinion is inclined to the view that except for the last 21 ll.,

which is an undoubted Christian appendage, the poem as it now

stands is essentially preserved in its original form.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.70-1.

H. & B., 89.

Editions.

Craigie, Specimens III, 45-7.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 290-5.

Kershaw, 20-6. [With tr.]

Sedgefield. Bk. A.S. V.P., 32-4.

An edition by the late E. V. Gordon and J. R. R. Tolkien

will appear in Methuen's Old English Library series.

Translations.

Bone, G., The Seafarer, in Medium Aevum, Vol. III (1934);

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 84-6.

Discussion.

Anderson, O. S. The Seafarer: an Interpretation. Lund, 1937.

[An important and stimulating study, with translation and

notes.]

Ferrell, C. C. "Old Germanic Life in the A.S. Wanderer and

Seafarer" in Z.f.d. Ph., 35.1-28. 1894.

Kershaw. 16-19.

Lawrence, W. W. The Wanderer and the Seafarer, in J.E.G.Ph.,

4.460-80. 1902.

Williams. Gnomie Poetry, 47-9.

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10. VAINGLORY (A WARNING AGAINST PRIDE ; fol. 83a-84b)

This is a short poetical homily of 84 ll. against arrogance, and partly against drunkenness. It has an autobiographical introduction of 8 ll. No single source for the poem has been detected. Additional variant titles are The Spirit of Men, The Mind of Man and Bi Manna Mode.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.82.

H. & B., 61.

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens III, 53-5.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 144-7.

11. WIDSITH (fol. 84b-87a)

Widsith, apparently composed in the later part of the seventh century, is probably the oldest poem in English. A relic of heathendom, it is a lyric based upon epic tradition. Critics no longer consider it an autobiography, but rather an account of the wanderings of the ideal scop, Widsith (i.e., "Far-way", or "Far-travelled"). The gleeman here catalogues both the peoples he has visited—some seventy in all, inhabitants of territory stretching from Britain to India—and the (sixty-nine, mostly Germanic) chieftains he has known. Between them, the latter cover a period extending from the third to the sixth century. Short as it is (143 ll.), the poem bristles with ethnological, historical and structural problems. For the history of the migration period, it is a document of the utmost value. So too is it as a revelation of "the stock-in-trade of the old Anglian bard". But the many allusions to the heroes and peoples of the distant past—formerly no doubt the chief attraction of the poem—render it difficult for the modern reader to appreciate its intrinsic poetic merit. Nevertheless the tale is told simply and straightforwardly.

Structurally the poem is highly complex. Earlier critics have therefore been prone to detect in it numerous interpolations; but the theory that the chronological discrepancies arise from extensive interpolation has now fallen into disfavour. Its most recent editor, K. Malone (see below), whose analysis is at once elaborate and ingenious, as well as rather flattering to the (unknown) poet, believes that only eight ll. (as against Chambers 46, cf. ed., below, p. 152) are not original.

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Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.67–70.

Chambers, R. W. Widsith: A Study in Old English Heroic Legend.

C.U.P., 1912. [A monumental study of the poem in all its

aspects. Includes text based on the MS. with very full notes

and translation. Indispensable. Bibliography, 225–35.]

H. & B., 92–3.

Malone, K. Widsith. London, 1936. Methuen's Old English

Library, A. 5. [An excellent ed., with copious notes and a

particularly valuable Glossary of Proper Names. Text based

on own typescript, collated with facs. edd., as well as previous

printed edd. For a very fine bibliography (exhaustive of

treatises devoted specifically to Widsith), see pp. 98–113.]

Editions.

Chambers (above), 187–224.

Flom, O.E. Reader, 1–56.

Grein-Wülker, Poesie I, 1–6.

Malone (above), 61–97.

Sedgefield, Bk. A.S. V.P., 1–5.

Translations.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 75–8; Gummere, O.E. Epic, 191–200.

Discussion.

Hoops, J. Waldbäume und Kulturpflanzen im germanischen Altertum.

Strassburg, 1905. See pp. 566–89.

Jordan, R. "Widsith" in Hoops's Reallexikon, 4.520–6. 1918.

Langenfelt, G. "Notes on the Anglo-Saxon Pioneers" in E.St.,

66.101–248. 1931. [Important section on Widsith Folk-

names, pp. 213–316.]

Van Grienberger, T. "Widsio" in Angl., 46.347–82. 1922.

[Valuable line by line commentary.]

12. THE FORTUNES OF MEN (FATES OF MEN ; fol. 87a–8b)

This short poetical homily of 98 ll. falls into two main sections,

the first of which (ll. 10–63) is a gloomy and realistic account

of the dangers that may beset a man during his lifetime, and the

second (ll. 64–92), strongly reminiscent of the Gifts of Men,

surveys the happier destinies of men. In ll. 85–92 there is an

interesting reference to a method of taming the hawk.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.82.

H. & B., 62.

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE–POETRY

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens III, 67–9.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 148–51.

Sedgefield, Bk. A.S. V.P., 45–48.

Translations.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 350–1.

13. MAXIMS I (Gnomic Verses ; fol. 88b–92b)

Maxims I, so titled in order to distinguish them from a similar though less diverse series in the B.M. Cott. Tib. B.I. entitled Maxims II, sometimes, is a set of 204 ll. of verse usually arranged, following indications in the MS., in three sections, viz., 1–70, 71–137 and 138–204, comprising a heterogeneous collection of trite sayings, expressing moral truths, and commonplace facts about nature and everyday life. "The entire text gives the impression of a mass of unrelated materials gathered from a number of sources [including Christian and pagan], and assembled by the compiler more or less mechanically, with no attempt at selection or logical arrangement" (Krapp and Dobbie, xlvi–xlvii). Not only attractive on account of the proverbial wisdom it contains, the poem (or poems) is of special interest because it sheds light upon earlier beliefs and practices.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.83.

H. & B., 80–1.

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens III, 57–63.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 341–52.

Williams, B. C. Gnomic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon. New York. 1914.

[Indispensable. Contains a good general introd. to the genre, text and a detailed analysis of the subject-matter.]

Discussion.

Krüger, C. Beiträge zur gnomischen Dichtung der Angelsachsen, Halle, 1924.

Translation.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 341–7 (selections only).

14. THE ORDER OF THE WORLD (fol. 92b–4a)

Better known as The Wonders of Creation, this loosely constructed poem (102 ll.), comprises four sections: an autobiographical

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

passage of 37 ll. serving "merely to indicate a fictitious situation

or occasion for the material which follows", a description of the

Creation (ll. 38-89), a brief allusion to the joys of the saints in

Heaven (ll. 90-7), and, finally, a moralising passage of 4 lines.

In ll. 76-81, there is a reference to one of the shortcomings of

current astronomical knowledge.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.80.

H. & B., 94.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 152-5.

15. THE RHYMING POEM (RHYMING SONG ; 94a-5b)

Unique in O.E. poetry because of its rhyming scheme, which

is superimposed upon the conventional alliterative line, the

Rhyming Poem of 87 ll., probably written in the eighth century,

resembles the Wanderer and the Seafarer in point of its melancholic

themes, namely the speaker's regret for former happiness, his

present misery, the transitoriness of human life and the bliss

of Heaven. The two halves of each line normally rhyme, and

many of the imperfect rhymes of the extant text become regular

if they are switched into their cognate Anglian forms. In addition,

and especially at the beginning of the poem, four, and sometimes

even eight, successive half-lines rhyme. Not unexpectedly,

meaning is occasionally sacrificed to metrical requirements.

Nevertheless, since rhyme in O.E. (and in old Germanic) poetry

was a rarity, the poem must be acclaimed as a distinct achieve-

ment. Whether the author found his model in O. Norse or in

Latin verse, or whether, again, he was merely experimenting,

are unsolved problems; but O. Norse influence seems extremely

unlikely.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.84-5.

H. & B., 87.

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens III, 73-5.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 156-63.

Mackie, W. S. "The Old English Rhymed Poem" in J.E.G.Ph,

21.507-19. 1922. [With bibliography, translation and notes.]

Holthausen, F. "Das altenglische Reimlied" in E.St., 65.181-

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16. THE PANTHER (PHYSIOLOGUS I; fol. 95b-6b)

This is a poem of 74 ll. containing a description of the panther's

appearance and habits, the latter then being allegorically inter-

preted, with Christ as the panther. Together with the Whale

and the Partridge (see below), which immediately follow it in

that order, it was formerly thought to represent merely a small

part of an extensive O.E. Physiologus (on the genre, see Encycl.

Brit., s.v.). Yet modern opinion, relying upon the evidence of

the MS., is inclined to regard the trilogy as constituting the

entire cycle, although, be it noted, the major portion (all of one

folio) of the third poem is now lost.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.78.

H. & B., 74–5.

Editions.

Cook, A. S. Elene.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 164–6.

Translations.

Cook, A. S. The Old English Physiologus. New Haven, 1921.

Yale Studies, 63. [Includes text.]

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 280–2.

Discussion.

Peebles, R. J. “The Anglo-Saxon Physiologus”, in M.Ph.,

8.571–9. 1911.

Tupper, F. “The Physiologus of the Exeter Book”, in J.E.G.Ph.,

11. 89–91. 1912.

Wellman, M. Der Physiologus. Eine religionsgeschichtlichna-

turwissenschaftliche Untersuchung. Leipzig, 1930.

17. THE WHALE (PHYSIOLOGUS II; fol. 96b–7b)

In the 89 ll. of this interesting poem, the habits of the whale,

here depicted as a particularly deceitful creature, are described

and then interpreted allegorically with reference to the Devil.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 167–9.

Translation.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 282–3.

For other bibliographical items, see the Panther (above).

191

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

18. THE PARTRIDGE (PHYSIOLOGUS III ; fol. 97b-8a)

Only 16 ll., the beginning and end, of this poem now survive, a complete folio apparently having been lost from the MS.

Very likely the original totalled some 80 ll. The identity of the bird, the theme of the poem, cannot be determined from the extant text, which in the main comprises merely the concluding part of the allegorical section. But the evidence of the corresponding Latin Physiologus suggests the Partridge.

Ed., Grein-Wülker, Poesie IIIa, 170. Bibliographical material as for the Panther (above).

19. SOUL AND BODY II (ADDRESS OF THE SOUL TO THE BODY; fol. 98a-100a)

Following K rapp and Dobbie, the above title is here used to differentiate this macabre piece from the similar, but longer, Soul and Body I of the Vercelli Book (see p. 220). In 79 of the 121 ll. of the poem, the Body is fiercely denounced by the Soul for failing during this earthly life to safeguard its eternal welfare.

The earlier lines inform us that the Soul will continue to do this every seventh night for 300 years, unless in the meantime God should bring the World to an end. The source of both Exeter and Vercelli poems is apparently the full Latin version of the Apocalypse of St. Paul as represented by MS. Nouv. acq. Lat. 1631 of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (see Willard below). The theme of the Soul and the Body has been frequently treated in our early literature. For M.E. examples, see pp. 333-4.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.79.

H. & B., 89.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 92–107. [Prints Ex. Bk. and Verc. Bk. texts on opposite pages.]

Discussion.

Willard, R. “The Address of the Soul to the Body” in P.L.M.A., 50.957–983 (1935). [Prints two hitherto unpublished specimens, and discusses the nature and sources of the genre.]

20. DEOR (DEOR'S LAMENT; fol. 100a-100b)

This poem of 42 ll. in 7 unequal sections is one of two (the

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

other being Wulf and Eadwacer, the next item in the MS.), with a stanzaic structure and a refrain (occurring 6 times). The stanzas are unequal in length, which is dependent upon matter, not form.

Very briefly, the poem, besides animadverting on adversity generally (ll. 28–34; yet they are often condemned as an interpolation), mentions six examples of misfortune outlived, the last being attributed to himself. “After each example he points the moral: that passed; this will pass too. The first five examples are taken from heroic tradition, and the sixth, the misfortune which befell the poet himself, is given an heroic setting. In other words, the poem, though lyric in form and tone, depends on the Heroic Age for its matter” (K. Malone, ed. [below], p. 1).

Some authorities believe that the poem was written to cheer up someone burdened by depression and that the tale of the poet’s own trouble is to be regarded as fictitious (ib., p. 16 and ref.). In the section concerned, Deor, the scop of the Heodenings, laments that after many years in the service of a lord, he was supplanted by another bard named Heorrenda (ll. 35–42). Again, others consider it the (misplaced) introduction to the poem, which is “possibly autobiographical” (cf. Wardale, 32–3). The poem is a document of very great historical interest, but still presents several unsolved problems.

Bibliography.

G.B.E.L., 1.68–9.

H. & B., 76.

Malone, K. Deor. London, 1933. Methuen’s Old English Library, A.2. Pp. 28–31. [The first complete ed. Contains a comprehensive account of the historical background, and several new interpretations.]

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens III, 5–6.

Dickins, B. Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples. Cambridge, 1915. Pp. 70–7. [With translation and full notes.]

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 278–80.

Sedgefield, Bk. A.S. V.P., 8–9.

Wyatt, A.S. Reader, 140–1.

Translation.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 79–80.

Discussion.

Clarke, M. G. Sidelights on Teutonic History. Cambridge, 1911. Pp. 188–208.

193

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Lawrence, W. W. "The Song of Deor" in M. Ph., 9.23-45. 1911.

Norman, F. " 'Deor'; A Criticism and an Interpretation" in M.L.R., 32.374-81. 1937.

21. WULF AND EADWACER (EADWACER; fol. 100b-101a-)

This very controversial, and rather obscure poem of only 17 ll. (though the last two are abnormally long ones, and are often printed as 4) has been variously interpreted as a riddle (and even called the First Riddle - note that it immediately precedes the Riddles), a lyric fragment, and a dramatic lyric. The last interpretation seems to secure widest acceptance. The piece, which was formerly, though only on somewhat fanciful evidence, attributed to Cynewulf, is cast in the form of a monologue, in which a woman, apparently the wife of Eadwacer, and a captive in some foreign land, speaks of the plight of herself and of her absent, outlawed lover, Wulf, for whom she expresses her longing. A refrain (compare in this respect Deor, p. 192), Ungelic(e) is us. "Our lots are different", occurs twice.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.72.

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens III, 50.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 183-4.

Sedgefield, Bk. A.S. V.P., 39-40.

Tupper, F. The Riddles of the Exeter Book. Boston, 1910.

Trautmann, M. Die altenglischen Rätsel. Heidelberg, 1915.

Wyatt, A. J. Old English Riddles. London, 1912. P. xxi. [Pn. xx-xxviii contain a valuable historical summary and criticism of the theories about the authorship of this "Quondam First Riddle"].

Translations.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 91; Wyatt (above), xxi-xxii.

Discussion.

Bradley, H. See Academy, 33.197 ff.

Imelmann, R. Die altenglische Odoaker-Dichtung. Berlin, 1907. ["Proposes the theory that the 'First Riddle', Wife's Lament and Husband's Message form a trilogy connected with the Odoaker Legend", H. & B., 50.]

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

Imelmann, R. Forschungen zur altenglischen Poesie. Berlin, 1920. [Elaborates the theory proposed above.]

Lawrence, W. W. "The First Riddle of Cynewulf" in P.M.L.A., 17.247-61. 1902. [Suggests that the poem is a translation from O.Norse. An important article on the poem's structure, refrain, and peculiarities of diction.]

Schofield, W. H. "Signy's Lament" in P.M.L.A., 17.262-95. 1902. [Supports Lawrence's opinion above, and identifies the poem with an ancient Norse lay of the Volsungs, which may properly be entitled "Signy's Lament".]

Sieper, E. Die altenglische Elegie. Strassburg, 1915. Pp. 169-82. Whitbread, L. "A Note on Wulf and Eadwacer" in Medium Ævum, 10.150-4. 1941. [Interpretation.]

22. RIDDLES 1-59 (fol. 101a-115a)

Under this heading it is convenient also to treat Riddles 30b and 60, and Riddles 61-95 (items 31 and 34 respectively, below). These poems, of very unequal quality, though some are first-rate, vary in length from 1 to 108 ll., the average length being about 15. Each personifies some object, which describes itself, though often deliberately and tantalisingly obscure. Since the themes include birds, beasts, animals, the elements, musical instruments, weapons and armour, as well as tools and implements used in daily life, we sometimes obtain intimate glimpses of life in Anglo-Saxon times. The Riddles, however, are not "riddles in the modern sense of the word, but enigmas, descriptions of an object which are intended to be once accurate and misleading; the more misleadingly accurate and accurately misleading, the better" (Wyatt, ed. below, xxviii). The authorship of the three groups is still unascertained: no longer are they regarded as a "single and homogeneous collection", the work of Cynewulf; they are, it appears, a very miscellaneous collection, written by several authors, including perhaps Cynewulf.

The sources are diverse, and a "general statement is hardly possible. Many of the riddles show strong resemblances, both in subject matter and in style of treatment, to the Latin riddles of the Middle Ages, especially to the hundred Latin riddles of uncertain date, associated with the names of Symphosius (see Encycl. Brit. s.v.) and to the three collections of Latin riddles ascribed to Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne (640?-709), to Tatwine, archbishop of Canterbury (d. 734), and to one Eusebius, who has been generally identified with Hwætberht, abbot of Wearmouth

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

(c. 680-c. 747), a friend of Bede. But in most cases it is impossible

to tell whether similarity between an Exeter Book riddle and a

Latin riddle, rests upon conscious imitation of the Latin riddle,

or upon the use of the same traditional material" (Krapp and

Dobbie, lxvi-lxvii).

Many of the Riddles may perhaps date from the early eighth

century "when Englishmen were most active in the composition

of Latin riddles" (ib.), but in view of the doubt attending their

unity and authorship, as well as of the mystery of their occurrence

and grouping in the MS., the date of composition is still obscure.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.72.

H. & B., 75.

Editions.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 184–218.

Trautmann, M. Die altenglischen Rätsel. Heidelberg, 1915.

Tupper, F. The Riddles of the Exeter Book. Boston, 1910. [Stan-

dard ed., the apparatus and introd. being excellent.]

Wyatt, A. J. Old English Riddles. London, 1912. [A reliable ed.]

Discussion.

Trautmann, M. "Quellen der altenglischen Rätsel. Sprache

und Versbau der altenglischen Rätsel. Zeit, Heimat und

Verfasser der altenglischen Rätsel," in Angl., 38.349–73.

Translation.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 320–40. [Many not included.]

23. THE WIFE'S LAMENT (THE WIFE'S COMPLAINT; fol.

115a–115b)

Certain difficulties in point of structure, matter and interpreta-

tion are provided by this touching lyric of 53 ll. Several critics

consider it complete in itself, while others have attempted to

connect it with the poem entitled The Husband's Message (p. 200)

from which it is separated in the MS. by 7 fols. But the relation-

ship is by no means established. Others again regard it as an

incident in some cycle of Germanic legend, but disagree about

the cycle.

The one speaker in the poem, a woman, complains of her

misfortune in being parted from her husband (or lover) who has

left the country, and subsequently, through the action of his

kinsmen, become estranged from her. In the rather obscure

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

final portion beginning at line 42, she roundly curses a young

man, who is perhaps the cause of her present misery.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.71.

H. & B., 93.

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens III, 47-8.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 302-5.

Kershaw, 32-4. [With translation. Note also the valuable introd.,

pp. 28–31.]

Sedgefield. Bk. A.S. V.P., 35–6.

Translations.

Cook and Tinker. Trans. O.E. Poetry, 64–6.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 87–8.

Discussion.

Imelmann, R. Die altenglische Odoaker-dichtung. Berlin, 1907.

[Regards Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife's Lament and The

Husband's Message as a trilogy connected with the Odoacer

legend.]

Imelmann, R. Forschungen zur altenglischen Poesie. Berlin, 1920.

[Elaborates theory proposed in preceding item.]

Lawrence, W. W. "The Banished Wife's Lament" in M.Ph.,

5.387–405. 1908.

Schücking, L.L. "Das angelsächsische Gedicht von der Klage

der Frau" in Z.f.d.A., 48.436 ff. 1906.

Sieper, E. Die altenglische Elegie. Strassburg, 1915.

Stefanović, S. "Das angelsächsische Gedicht 'Die Klage der

Frau' " in Angl., 32.399–433. 1909.

Trautmann, M. "Zur Botschaft des Gemahels" in Angl., 16.

207–25. 1894. [Argues for unity of Wife's Lament and Hus-

band's Message.]

24. JUDGMENT DAY I (THE LAST JUDGMENT; fol. 115b–17b)

This is a somewhat dull, homiletic poem of 119 ll., also called

Doomsday. It foretells what is to happen at the end of the world,

and describes the Second Coming, the terrors of the damned

and the joys of the blessed. It has been confused with the infinitely

superior poem on the same subject variously entitled Judgment

Day II, Be Domes Dæge and Doomsday, extant in the Cambridge

C.C.C. MS. 201 (see p. 204).

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Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.79.

H. & B., 83.

Separate Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 171–4.

Translation

Thorpe, Cod. Ex., 445–52.

Discussion.

Deering, R. W. The Anglo-Saxon Poets on the Judgment Day.

Halle, 1890.

Menner, R. J. "The Vocabulary of the O.E. poems on Judgment Day" in P.M.L.A., 62.583–597. 1947. [Claims Anglian origin.]

25. RESIGNATION (A PRAYER; fol. 117b–19b)

This is a poem of 118 ll. in which a penitent sinner first prays to God for forgiveness and then expresses resignation to his lot.

In it "we find a subjectivity and a preoccupation with abstract ideas which is quite foreign to the older lyrics" (Krapp and Dobbie [above], x). Judging by the extent of the Biblical influence observable in it, as well as its versification and diction, the poem is a late composition, dating perhaps from the late ninth or tenth century.

This is the first text to exhibit lacunae resulting from the burn which damaged the last 14 folios of the MS.

Edition.

C.B.E.L., 1.80.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 217–23.

Discussion.

Sieper, E. Die altenglische Elegie. Strassburg, 1915. Pp. 253–7.

26. THE DESCENT INTO HELL (CHRIST'S DESCENT INTO HELL; fol. 119b–21b)

This somewhat uninspiring poem of 137 ll., probably compiled about 800, falls naturally into two parts. The first, ll. 1–23a, deals with the visit of the two Marys to the Sepulchre of Jesus, and the Resurrection, and the second, ll. 23b to the end, comprises a description of Christ's Descent into Hell and His reception there by John the Baptist and Patriarchs, as well as Adam's welcoming speech. There are several lacunae in four separate

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passages. No precise literary source has been traced; but the

first part corresponds in general with the New Testament

accounts, particularly St. Matthew's, and the second ultimately

derives from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (a (?) tenth-

century version of which is edited by W. H. Hulme, P.M.L.A.,

13.457-542). Most likely, however, the author, apparently not

Cynewulf himself, though one of his school, relied entirely upon

Christian tradition.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.78 (sub Harrowing of Hell).

H. & B., 76.

Editions.

Cramer, J. "Quelle, Verfasser und Text des altenglischen

Gedichtes 'Christi Höllenfahrt' " in Angl., 19.137-74.

1897. [Detailed Study.]

Crotty, G. "The Exeter Harrowing of Hell" in P.M.L.A., 54.349-

58. [Sources and identity of speaker in latter part of poem.]

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 175-80.

27. ALMSGIVING (ALMS; fol. 121b-2a)

Amounting to only 9 ll. on the subject of the Christian's

reward for generous giving of alms, this is the first of a sequence

of four short, simple, religious poems of no special literary merit.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.82.

H. & B., 54.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 181.

28. PHARAOH (fol. 122a)

The theme of this dialogue poem of 8 ll. (in part mutilated)

is the size of Pharaoh's army destroyed whilst pursuing the

Children of Israel.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.82.

H. & B., 85.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 182.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

29. THE LORD'S PRAYER I (PȦTERNOSTER; fol. 122a)

This poetic rendering of the Lord's Prayer in 11 lines is the

shortest and perhaps earliest of three A.S. versions, the others

being extant in C.C.C. Cambridge MS. 201 and the Junius MS.

(see p. 205) respectively. For a bibliography of all three, see

H. and B., 85.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.81.

H. & B., 85.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 227-8.

30. HOMILETIC FRAGMENT II (FRAGMENTS OF MAXIMS;

fol. 122a-122b)

This (?) tenth-century poem of 20 ll., its opening apparently

missing, and at the end certainly incomplete, constitutes a con-

solatory admonition addressed to someone in trouble. It contains

a gnomic passage; and the concluding mutilated portions treat

of the Nativity. For Fragment I, see p. 221.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.82.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 280-1.

31. RIDDLE 30b, RIDDLE 60 (fol. 122b-3a)

The first of the above (9 ll. in all) is another version with but

unimportant differences, of Riddle 30 and of the same length.

A satisfactory solution has still to be suggested. Riddle 60, amount-

ing to 17 ll. (on the Reed-pipe), in the opinion of some, is to be

regarded as the opening of The Husband's Message (q.v.), the next

piece in the MS. (see F. A. Blackburn, J.E.G.Ph., 3.1–13 [1901]).

For discussion and bibliography, see item 22 above.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 202, 218-19.

32. THE HUSBAND'S MESSAGE (fol. 123a-123b)

Taken at its face value, this piece is a charming love message

evidently delivered by a staff upon which it is carved, from a man,

apparently in exile across the sea, to a royal lady who is either his

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

wife or lover. In it he recalls their former vows of devotion to each other, bids her, now that his troubles are past, join him as soon as she hears the sad notes of the cuckoo in the wood, and goes on to promise happiness and wealth in his new abode.

The alleged organic connexion between this poem and the Wife's Lament (item 23 above) resting chiefly upon the similarity of theme and situation and their presence in the same MS., still requires substantiation.

In its usual printed form, the poem amounts to just over 50 ll., the numbering varying in existing editions according to their authors' different estimates of the length of the two passages, at the beginning and middle, mutilated by the burn. Several scholars, however, regard the 17 ll. of Riddle 60, the preceding item in the MS., as the real opening portion of the poem (cf. Blackburn below). Yet the theory is not without serious objections. The last few lines, too, present difficulty because of the doubtful interpretation of the five runes at ll. 49–50.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.82.

H. & B., 82.

Editions.

Blackburn, F. A. "The Husband's Message and the accompanying Riddles of The Exeter Book," in J.E.G.Ph., 3.1–13. 1901. [Includes a tr. Integrates the poem with Wulf and Eadwacer, item 21 above.]

Craigie. Specimens III, 49–50.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 306–11.

Kershaw. 44–9. [With tr. Note the useful introductory matter. pp. 37–43.]

Sedgefield. Bk. A.S. V.P., 36–9.

Wyatt. A.S. Reader, 142–3. [Mutilated passages omitted.]

Translation.

Cook and Tinker, Trans. O.E. Poetry, 62–3; Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 89–90.

Discussion.

Imelmann, R. Die altenglische Odoaker-dichtung. Berlin, 1907. [Suggests Wulf and Eadwacer, the Wife's Lament and The Husband's Message form a trilogy belonging to the Odoacer legend.]

Imelmann, R. Forschungen zur altenglischen Poesie. Berlin 1920. [Elaborates theory proposed in preceding item.]

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Sieper, E. Die altenglische Elegie. Strassburg, 1915. [Opposes Blackburn's unity-theory. Includes text.]

Trautmann, M. "Zur Botschaft des Gemahls" in Angl., 16.207–25. 1894. [Supports unity of Husband's Message and Wife's Lament.]

33. THE RUIN (fol. 123b–4b)

Unlike other A.S. poems, the 49 ll. of this elegy, much mutilated in two passages, are concerned with the concrete: the subject is a scene. The author here contemplates the ruins of an ancient stone-built city, and contrasts its former splendour with its existing desolation. Its mention of baths and hot springs has inevitably prompted critics to identify the derelict buildings with the former Roman city of Bath, without, however, obtaining general approval. Maybe the poet had no particular ruin in mind.

The reader will note several internal rhymes, many peculiar words, some of which are not elsewhere recorded, two or three unusual compounds, and certain references to specific colours, the latter feature being rare in A.S. poetry.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.71.

H. & B., 87–8.

Editions.

Craigie. Specimens III, 76–7.

Earle, J. An Ancient Saxon Poem of a City in Ruins supposed to be Bath. Bath, 1872.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie I, 296–301.

Kershaw. 54–6. [With brief discussion and bibliography, 51–3, and tr.]

Translation.

Cook and Tinker, Trans. O.E. Poetry, 56–7 (obscure lines omitted); Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 92–3.

Discussion.

Sieper, E. Die altenglische Elegie. Strassburg, 1915. Pp. 226–33.

34. RIDDLES 61–95 (fol. 124b–30b)

This group of riddles forms the last entry in the MS. As a result of the burn, the text contains very many lacunae.

Edition.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIa, 219–38. [Riddles 62–85 only.] See further item 22 above.

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THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURG

In his Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus (1705), the antiquary Hickes, from a single leaf of a MS. (now lost) in the Lambeth Library, printed a very corrupt text of a metrical fragment of 48 ll. connected with the tale recited by the minstrel in Beowulf, ll. 1069–1159a, and now known as the Finn Episode. Lacking both beginning and end, this tragic Fragment tells how a young king at night in a hall rouses his sixty warriors to warn them of the approach of an enemy, and bids them be resolute. Thereupon five of them, all named, man the two doors. One of the foes coming near, inquires who guards the door and receives a reply, couched in the accepted epic style, giving the speaker's name and lineage as well as a challenge. The fight then begins, and continues for five days. But the attackers are driven off, with the loss of their leader. The Fragment then breaks off with the (?)attackers' leader asking for a casualty report.

The narrative itself is told briskly and dramatically, and in the main fairly clearly. Yet the lay as a whole only begins to be really intelligible when considered along with the Episode, which is much the more informative. Even then, however, critics disagree both about the identity of the personages and the course of events prior to, during, and after the fight. Indeed the relationship of the Fragment to the Episode is the crucial problem of the lay. In the past, perhaps because there are no discrepancies in subject-matter between them, they have often been looked upon as a sequence. The prevailing tendency, however, is to regard them as independent versions, the Fragment as a portion of a short heroic lay, and the Episode as an abbreviated account of such a lay (cf. Klaeber, Beow., 224, and Hoops, Kommentar, 134).

Bibliography.

C.R E.L., I.63–8.

H. & B., 78–80.

Chambers. Beow., 387–413, passim. [Annotated.]

Klaeber. Beow., 227–30. [Standard edition with full and excellent apparatus, and Hickes' text.]

Text.

Dickins. Run. Poems, 64–9. [With bibl., introd., notes and tr.]

Klaeber (above).

"The Fight at Finnsburg" in J.E.G.Ph., 16.250–73. 1917. [With introductory and textual notes.]

Mackie, W.S.

Note.—The text is printed in many anthologies.

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Translations.

Dickins (above); Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 71–2; Gummere, O.E. Epic, 160–3; Hall, Beow., 156–9.

Discussion.

Ayres, H. M. “The Tragedy of Hengest in Beowulf” in J.E.G.Ph., 16.282–95, 1917. [Valuable.]

Brandl, § 23.

Chambers. Beow. Introd., 245–89. [Full survey of Finn legend. Indispensable.]

Girvan, R. “Finnsburguh” in Proc. of Brit. Acad., 26. 1942. [Interpretation and date.]

Klaeber (above), 219–26. [Indispensable.]

Klaeber, F. “Beowulfiana” in Angl., 50. 1926. See pp. 224–33.

Lawrence, W. W. “Beowulf and the Tragedy of Finnsburg” in P.M.L.A., 30.372–431. 1915. [Indispensable.]

Lawrence. Beow. Ep. Trad., 107–28.

Mackie (above).

Malone, K. “The Finn Episode in Beowulf” in J.E.G.Ph., 25.157–72. 1926.

Trautmann, M. Finn and Hildebrand. Bonner Beitr. VII. 1903. Pp. 3–64.

JUDGMENT DAY II

This poem (MS. C.C.C. Camb., 201), which should be distinguished from the very inferior Judgment Day I (119 ll.) treated above (p.197) translates, and at the same time expands, the 157 ll. of the Latin poem De Die Judicii, attributed to either Bede or Alcuin. “The translation is one of the finest in Old English” (C.H.E.L., 1.146). Alternative titles are Doomsday and Be Domes Dage.

In the opening lines—a beautiful nature passage—the author tells how he sat in a woodland bower by murmuring streams, reflecting upon Death and Doomsday. The bulk of the poem is taken up with his musings on the events of that Day. Judging from the alliterative licences and end-rhymes, the poem must be a latish composition, but not later than the beginning of the eleventh century, because its diction is closely similar to and often identical with that of a Homily attributed to Wulfstan and extant in a MS. dating from the middle of that century (cf. Brandl., § 98).

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Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.78.

H. & B., 55–6.

Text.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 250–72. [Gives relevant text of the Wulfstanian Homily.]

Löhe, H. Be Domes Daege. Bonner Beitr. XXII, 1907. [Text, German translation, Latin original, notes on text, metre, account of relationship to Latin source and Homily, and a glossary with German meanings. Valuable.]

Lumby, J. R. Be Domes Daege. E.E.T.S., 65. 1876. [Text, tr., Latin source and Notes.]

Translation.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 314–19; Lumby (above).

Discussion.

Deering, R. W. The Anglo-Saxon Poets on the Judgment Day. Halle, 1890.

Menner, R. J. "The Vocabulary of the O.E. poems on Judgment Day" in P.M.L.A., 62.583–597. 1947. [Claims Saxon origin.]

THE JUNIUS MANUSCRIPT

This MS. takes its name from its former owner, the pioneer A.S. scholar, Franciscus Junius or Dujon (b. 1589 at Heidelberg, d. 1678). Brought up in Holland, Junius in 1620 crossed to England and became Librarian to the Earl of Arundel. Receiving the MS. from Archbishop Ussher (1581–1656), the Irish Primate, Junius had it printed at Amsterdam in 1655, attributing, without any MS. authority whatsoever, all the contents to Cædmon (q v.) —hence the variant title the Caedmon MS.—and later bequeathed it to Oxford University. It is now preserved in the Bodleian Library as MS. Junius XI.

Although controversy has since raged round the question of the authorship of the four poems, the sole contents of the MS., Cædmon's claim seems to rest merely upon this perhaps flimsy basis: these authorless poems correspond in theme, a biblical one, to those that Bede credited to Cædmon. With the exception of Gollancz (Cædmon MS., lx), modern critics seem inclined neither to accept them as Cædmon's nor to regard them as the work of only a single poet.

The text of this West-Saxon MS., which contains 116 folios

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numbered 1-229 by a later hand beginning at 2a, was written

c. 1000 by four different scribes. The first wrote the whole of

pp. 1-212, i.e., the first three poems, Genesis (pp. 1-142), Exodus

(pp. 143-71), and Daniel (pp. 173-212); the other three copyists

were responsible for the fourth and last poem, Christ and Satan

(pp. 213-19), the task being broken up as follows:—pp. 213-15,

216-18, and 219. There is MS. authority for calling the portion

written by the three scribes Liber II. The first three poems pre-

sumably form Liber I. 'Besides these scribes, account must be

taken also of other hands which appear in many corrections,

additions and alterations in the MS., in the drawing of ornamental

capitals, in the drawing of numerous illustrations accompanying

the text, and in comments on these, and in a few marginal

notations of a casual nature (Krapp, Junius Manuscript (below),

x). The crude illustrations (conveniently accessible in Kennedy,

Caedmon Poems [below], 197-248) are numerous up to p. 96,

after which there is only one more (p. 225), though it is un-

finished and apparently wholly irrelevant to the text.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.62-3.

H. and B., 46-7.

Krapp, G. P. The Junius Manuscript. London, 1931. Pp. xlv-

lviii. [Standard ed., with excellent intros., bibl. and notes.

Indispensable.]

Manuscripts and Reproductions.

Gollancz, I. The Caedmon Manuscript of Anglo-Saxon Biblical

Poetry, Junius XI in the Bodleian Library. Oxford, 1927. [Full-

sized facs. ed. with invaluable introd. Indispensable.]

Stoddard, F. H. 'The Caedmon Poems in MS. Junius XI' in

Angl., 10.157-67. 1888. [Full description of MS.]

Kennedy, C. W. The Caedmon Poems, translated into English Prose.

London, 1916. [See pp. 197-248 for facs. of illustrations,

which are discussed in a separate chapter by C. R. Morey,

pp. 177-95.]

Editions.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 318-562.

Krapp (above; also lists anthologies containing poetical texts,

xlviii-xlix).

Translations.

Kennedy (above). Note also refs. under separate items below.

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I. GENESIS

Genesis is the title assigned to a metrical paraphrase in 2936 ll. of Chaps. I–XXII of the Book of Genesis. At least two poets contributed to the existing version. As long ago as 1875 the German scholar Sievers, impressed not only by certain peculiarities in point of metre (viz., long lines), style and diction (viz., rare, or otherwise [except in O.S.] unknown words), but also by several resemblances to the ninth century O.S. poem (on the New Testament) now entitled Heliand ("Redeemer"), expressed his conviction that ll. 235–851 in reality constituted an interpolation that was a translation from an O.S. original. In 1894 his opinion was adequately substantiated by the discovery in the Vatican Library of an O.S. fragment (25 ll.) of a poem on Genesis that corresponded closely to ll. 791–817 of the A.S. text. This interpolation is regularly known as Genesis B, and the remaining portions as Genesis A. The former is usually thought to date from the early part of the ninth century, and the latter, possibly composed by a monk in a Northern monastery, from the period about 700.

Genesis A opens with a prologue on the Revolt and Fall of the Angels and then fairly closely follows the biblical account from the Creation up to the Sacrifice of Isaac. A typical A.S. religious poem, attractive but never inspired, it reveals the customary blend of heathen and Christian ideas. On the other hand, Genesis B, which repeats the narrative of the previous sections on the Fall, is in parts magnificent: e.g., the character of Satan, portrayed as a hero, and the resounding call to action (ll. 356–440) addressed by Satan to his followers. [Readers will note the similarities between the B-portion and Milton's Paradise Lost.] In addition to his biblical source, the poet derived ideas from a Latin poem by Alcimus Avitus, bishop of Vienne, c. 500.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.74.

H. & B., 66–7.

Editions.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 318–444.

Holthausen, F. Die altere Genesis. Heidelberg, 1914. [An ed. of Genesis A, with full apparatus and Latin source. Addenda and errata in Angl., 46.60–2. (1922).]

Klaeber, F. The Later Genesis and Other Old English and Old Saxon

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Texts relating to the Fall of Man. Heidelberg, 1913. New ed. (with supplement), 1931. [Ed. of Genesis B, with complete apparatus.]

Translations.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 105–22; Kennedy, Cædmon Poems, 7–96; Mason, L., Genesis A, translated from the Old English, New York, 1915.

Discussion.

Berthold, L. “Die Quellen für die Grundgedanken von V. 235–851, der altsächsisch-angelsächsischen Genesis,” in Germanica, Edward Sievers zum 75. Geburtstage, Halle, 1925, pp. 380–401.

Bradley, H. The “Cædmonian” Genesis, in Essays and Studies, 6.7–29. 1920. [Appreciation of Gen. B.]

Geroüld, G. H. “The Transmission and Date of Genesis B,” in M.L.N., 26.129–33, 1911.

Jovy, H. Untersuchungen zur altenglischen Genesisdichtung. Bonner Beitr. V, 1–32. 1900. [With discussion of author, locality and date. Textual notes, 22–32.]

Kennedy. Cædmon Poems, xxiii–l. [Good literary criticism.]

Sievers, E. “Cædmon und Genesis” in Britannica, Max Förster, zum 60. Geburtstage, Leipzig, 1929, pp. 57–84. [On authorship.]

2. EXODUS

Unlike Genesis A, Exodus is no mere biblical paraphrase, but rather an epic narrative (in 590 ll., but incomplete) of the Departure of Israel from Egypt, their passage of the Red Sea, and the Destruction of the Host of the Egyptians. In the main it is based on Chaps. XIII and XIV of the Book of Exodus. Certain of its passages have given the critics cause for speculation. Some condemn, as an interpolation, ll. 362–446, which contain a brief reference to Noah and the Flood, followed by a lengthy account of the Sacrifice of Isaac. Others, again, would rearrange the final portion, beginning at l. 515, because of its alleged inconsequentiality. However, Krapp (Junius Manuscript, above, xxvii–xxxi), ably defends the unity of the present version.

The poem appears to have been composed about 700 by an unknown author, who, though certainly a churchman, was steeped in the old pre-Christian tradition. Possessed of a good eye for detail, he obviously revels in battle scenes. His description of the Drowning of the Egyptians (ll. 447–515) is a tremendously

208

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powerful piece of composition, as vigorous and realistic as anything in O.E. Literature.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.74–5.

H. & B., 65–6.

Editions.

Blackburn, F. A. Exodus and Daniel. London, 1907. [Reliable, and with good apparatus.]

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 445–75.

Translations.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 123–32 (omits ll. 307–446).

Johnson, W. S. "Translation of the Old English Exodus" in J.E.G.Ph., 5.44–57 (1903).

Kennedy. Cædmon Poems, 99–118.

Discussion.

Bright, J. W. "On the Anglo-Saxon Poem Exodus" in M.L.N., 27.13–19. 1912. [Textual notes.]

Clubb, M. D. "The Second Book of the Cædmonian Manuscript" in M.L.N., 43.304–6. 1928.

Kennedy. Cædmon Poems, i–ix. [Structural and literary criticism.]

Klaeber, F. "Concerning the Relation between Exodus and Beowulf" in M.L.N., 33.218–24. 1918. [Considers Exodus older than Beowulf.]

Moore, S. "On the Sources of the Old-English Exodus" in M.Ph., 9.83–108. 1911.

Mürkens, G. Untersuchung über das altenglische Exoduslied. Bonner Beitr. II, 62–117. 1899.

3. DANIEL

This homiletic, episodic, metrical narrative of 764 ll. is based, excluding, however, the introductory matter, on Chaps. I–V of the Vulgate Book of Daniel. Prefaced by an account of the Jews of Jerusalem, and of that city's fall, the poem tells of Nebuchadnezzar's first dream and its interpretation, the Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace, Nebuchadnezzar's second dream and its interpretation, his consequent exile and subsequent return, and Belshazzar's Feast. Here it breaks off. Naturally Daniel is the central theme of each episode.

Ll. 279–439, however, seem to be an interpolation involving

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peculiar difficulties. This portion of the poem comprises two

lyrical passages, which are conventionally known as the Prayer

of Azarias(11. 279-356) and the Song of the Three Children (11. 362-

408), together with their several links. Now in The Exeter Book we

find in the poem called Azarias (see p. 181) another version of the

Prayer, the first 75 ll. of which correspond so closely to the Daniel

text as to warrant the supposition that we have actually to deal

with variants of the same original. Nevertheless, the precise nature

of their mutual relationship, and the explanation of the presence

of the Prayer in Daniel, still remain unsolved problems. Further,

the second part of Azarias in The Exeter Book also contains a version

of the Song of the Three Children (see p. 181). But the important

differences between this and the Daniel text clearly imply that

they are separate renderings of the same material. Once again the

problems of relationship and date are unsolved. Both Songs, how-

ever, depend upon a Canticle version of the Benedicite that to

some extent differed from the Vulgate version. (A Latin copy of

this Canticle, with an O.E. interlinear gloss., is printed by Sweet,

Oldest English Texts, 414-15.) The Song in Daniel is undoubtedly

the best part of the poem.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.75.

H. & B., 65.

Editions.

Blackburn, F. A. Exodus and Daniel. London, 1907. [Standard.]

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 476-515.

Schmidt, W. Die altenglischen Dichtungen Daniel und Azarias.

Bonner Beitr. Vol. XXIII, 1-84. 1907. [With full apparatus].

Translations.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 133-9 [omits ll. 46-223 and 489-end.]

Kennedy. Cædmon Poems, 121-45.

Discussion.

Hofer, O. “Uber die Entstehung des angelsächischen Exodus”

in Angl., 12.158-204. 1889.

Kennedy. Cædmon Poems, lx-lxiv.

4. CHRIST AND SATAN

Although this somewhat unimportant piece of 729 ll. is often

thought to comprise three poems in one, viz., ll. 1-364, The

Lament of the Fallen Angels (with Satan depicted as a miserable

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE–POETRY

self-pitying wretch), ll. 365–662, The Harrowing of Hell, and ll.

663–729, The Temptation (incomplete), the assumption is con-

firmed neither by the arrangement of the text in the MS. nor by

any differences in style or diction detectable throughout the poem.

The chief reason for suspecting its unity is the “vague continuity

of the narrative or structural interest” (Krapp, Junius Manuscript

[above], xxxiv). It is “not primarily a narrative poem . . .

(but) . . . a set of lyric and dramatic amplifications of a number of

Biblical and legendary themes of a familiar character” (ib.,

xxxiv–xxxv). Other modern critics, however, seem con-

tent to regard it as a “unity with three divisions” and the work of

a single author writing in the Cynewulfian tradition.

No basis for the poem as a whole has been discovered. The

source of Part I seems to be legendary matter and certain hints

from the Old Testament; of Part II, perhaps an Easter homily;

and of Part III (ll. 689–709 of which are majestic), the writer’s

own, but not specially accurate knowledge of the Bible. The poem

may have been written in the eighth century.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.75.

H. & B., 64.

Editions.

Clubb, M. D. Christ and Satan: an Old English Poem. New Haven,

1925. [With full apparatus. Excellent.]

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 521–62.

Translations.

Kennedy, Cædmon Poems, 149–73; Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 140–

6 (ll. 1–223, 265–467 only.)

Discussion.

Frings, T. “Christ and Satan” in Z.f.d.Ph., 45.216–36. 1913.

[On date and authorship.]

Kennedy. Cædmon Poems, lxiv–lxx. [Literary criticism.]

LEYDEN RIDDLE

The Latin Riddle De Lorica of Bishop Aldhelm (c. 639–708; see

further, p. 195) has come down to us in two independent O.E.

versions, the later, in the W.S. dialect, being found on fol. 109a

and b of the Exeter Book (see No. 35 in Wyatt’s Old English Riddles).

The earlier version, written in the Northumbrian dialect, is

preserved in a unique copy in the ninth century MS. Voss 106

in Leyden University Library. Hence the name “Leyden Riddle”.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Separate Edition.

Smith, A. H. Three Northumbrian Poems. London, 1933. Matthew's O.E. Library. [Prints both versions. An excellent edition with complete apparatus. Bibliography, 48–50.]

THE BATTLE OF MALDON (BYRHTNOTH'S DEATH)

This very fine, though incomplete, poem of 325 ll. (with beginning and ending lost) celebrates the death of the famous Alderman Byrhtnoth at the historically unimportant battle that was fought on Aug. 11th, 991, at Maldon, between the fyrd of the East Saxons under Byrhtnoth, accompanied by his household troop, and the Vikings, who were mainly Norwegians. Hitherto the latter were supposed to have been led by the great Olaf Tryggvason, but modern opinion disagrees (cf. e.g., Gordon. ed. below, 10–15).

The (late 11 c.) MS. of the poem was almost completely destroyed by the fire in the Cotton Library in 1731, only a few charred fragments now surviving. Fortunately some few years before it had been transcribed by the Library's under-keeper, John Elphinston. This transcript, which has only recently been found by N. R. Ker, passed into the hands of Thomas Hearne, who in 1726 printed it as an appendix to his edition of John of Glastonbury's Chronicle. Up to 1937, when Professor E. V. Gordon published his excellent edition (below) of the poem, Hearne's print was the sole authority for the text. Gordon believes that Elphinston, though knowing little O.E., was a fairly accurate copyist, and also that Hearne's copy is remarkably correct.

The poem was composed soon after the battle while the events were still fresh in the memory; but the poet (still unidentified) seems to have been writing from hearsay. "The aristocratic quality of Maldon is evident both in the glorification of the military ideals of the comitatus and in the close kinship in art and sentiment with other Old English court poetry. Maldon is of the same school as Beowulf and nearer to Beowulf in heroic art and social feeling than any other Old English poem" (Gordon, ed., p. 23). Again it is even "more directly in the heroic tradition than Beowulf; it is indeed the only purely heroic poem extant in Old English; since Finnesburh and Waldere are too fragmentary for their general scope and quality to be gauged. Beowulf, usually accounted primarily heroic and epic, is in its ultimate aim elegiac" (ib., 24).

After years of controversy, the site of the battle was finally 212

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

determined by E. D. Laborde in 1925 (see article below). It was

the mainland immediately opposite Northey Island in the estuary

of the River Blackwater in Essex. The bricg and ford of the poem

refer to the causeway some eighty yards long that still links the

mainland with the island.

Bibliography.

Ashdown, M. English and Norse Documents relating to the Reign

of Ethelred the Unready. Cambridge, 1930. Passim. [A valuable

ed. with a serviceable tr. Contains appendices on the metre

and language, and much excellent material in the indexes

of peisonal names, place-names and names of people.]

C.B.E.L., 1.83–4.

Gordon, E. V. The Battle of Maldon. London, 1937. Methuen's

O.E. Library, A, 6. Pp. 63–5. [An excellent ed. of Elphin-

stone's transcript, with full apparatus, photograph of the

causeway at Northey and a sketch map of the battlefield.]

H. & B., 84.

Laborde, E. D. Byrhtnoth and Maldon. London, 1936. Pp. 162–

6. [Comprehensive, but much stronger historically than

linguistically. See especially pp. 9–49 (on persons mentioned

in the poem, the site of the battle, Olaf Tryggvason and the

"Wickings"). Includes photographs of the causeway and the

battlefield, as well as a map of the latter.]

Editions.

Ashdown (above), 22–37. [Tr. facing each page. Very full notes,

72–90.]

Gordon (above).

Laborde (above).

Sedgefield. Bk. A.S. V.P., 70–9.

Wyatt. A.S. Reader, 188–97.

Translations.

Ashdown (above).

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 361–7.

Ker, W. P. On pp. 260–7 of R. W. Chambers' England before

the Norman Conquest. Tr. 1887.

Discussion.

Gordon, E. V. "The Date of Aethelred's Treaty with the

Vikings: Olaf Tryggvason and the Battle of Maldon," in

M.L.R., 32.24–32. 1937.

Ker, W. P. Epic and Romance. London, 1922. Pp. 55–7.

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Laborde, E. D. "The Style of the Battle of Maldon" in M.L.R., 19.401–17. 1924. [Detailed study.]

Laborde, E. D. "The Site of the Battle of Maldon" in Engl. Hist. Rev., 40.161–73. 1925.

Phillpotts, B. S. "The Battle of Maldon; some Danish Affinities" in M.L.R., 24.172–90. 1929. [Assumes the Maldon poet knew Danish poems and was under their influence. See, however, Gordon (ed. above), 25.]

MENOLOGIUM

Prefixed to the Abingdon MS. of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a versified calendar of 231 ll., probably composed towards the end of the tenth century. It is a "survey of the progress of the year, with special mention of the Saints' days observed by the church . . . and retaining traces of heathen times, though the whole is Christian in basis" (C.H.E.L., 1.145). Happily several poetical passages referring to nature relieve this somewhat drab piece of verse.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.79.

H. & B., 85.

Text.

Earle-Plummer. Sax. Chron., 1.273–80.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 282–93.

Imelmann, R. Das altenglische Menologium. Berlin, 1902. [With comprehensive discussion.]

METRICAL PSALMS (PARIS PSALTER)

A West-Saxon metrical version of Ps. 51, v. 7, to Ps. 150, v. 3, is preserved with the corresponding Latin text on fol. 64a–175b of the early eleventh century Paris Psalter, where it follows a prose version of Ps. 1–50 in the same hand (see p. 257). Apparently the poetical and prose versions originated independently. Possibly, too, the original Versified Psalter included all the psalms.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.80.

H. & B., 86–7.

Krapp, G. P. The Paris Psalter and the Meters of Boethius. London, 1933. Pp. xxxiii–xxxv. [An indispensable ed., with excellent introd. and notes.]

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Editions.

Grein-Wülker, Poesie IIIb, 86–230; Krapp (above).

Discussion.

Bartlett, H. The Metrical Division of the Paris Psalter. Baltimore, 1896.

Bruce, J. D. "The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Book of Psalms commonly known as the Paris Psalter" in P.M.L.A., 9.43–64. 1894.

Brüning, E. Die altenglischen metrischen Psalmen in ihrem Verhältnis zur lateinischen Vorlage. Königsberg, 1921. [Abstract of dissertation.]

Cook, A. S. Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose Writers. London, 1898. [See xxxiv-xliii.]

Förster, M. "Die altenglischen Texte der Pariser Nationalbibliothek," in E.St., 62.113–31. 1927.

RUNIC POEM

The MS. (eleventh century or later) of the 94 ll. of this (?) monic poem was destroyed in the Cotton Fire of 1731, but happily the text had been printed earlier by Hickes in his Thesaurus (1705). Each of the twenty-nine runes is here mentioned in turn and the animate or inanimate object of which it is the name is then described in usually 3 or 4 ll. Naturally the poem, which has Scandinavian analogues, is of value for its information upon the O.E. runic alphabet.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., i.84.

H. & B., 88.

Arntz, H. Handbuch der Runenkunde. Halle, 1935. Pp. 114–6. [With German tr.]

Text.

Dickins. Run. Poems, 12–22. [With bibl., introd., notes and tr.]

Discussion.

Dickins, ibid.

Keller, W. "Zum altenglischen Runengedicht" in Angl., 60.141 9. 1936. [On the origin of the rune names.]

Von Grienberger, T. "Das angelsächsische Runengedicht" in Angl., 45.201–20. 1921. [Textual notes.]

DIALOGUE OF SALOMON AND SATURN

This Dialogue is extant in two metrical versions, both found in

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the same tenth-century MS. in C.G.C. Library, Cambridge. The

first version, containing 179 ll., exclusive of the first thirty which

are now illegible, is interrupted at l. 170 by a lengthy passage in

prose. Happily ll. 1–94 are also preserved in a fragmentary ver-

sion in another MS. (late eleventh century) in the same Library.

This version deals with the efficacy of prayer. The much more in-

teresting second version (325 ll.), gnomic and riddle-like in treat-

ment, is concerned with moral and theological subjects. It also

more clearly represents a literary genre that was widespread in

Europe and may be very old. This literary form is essentially a

contest of wits between Salomon representing Christianity and

another disputant representing the wisdom of the East. Both

dialogues were probably composed in the Anglian area in the

tenth century. Note the alliterative licences in both and the occa-

sional rhymes in the first.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.82–3.

H. & B., 88.

Text.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie IIIb, 58–82.

Kemble, J. M. The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus, with an His-

torical Introduction. London, 1848. [With tr.]

Discussion.

Menner, R. J. “The Vasa Mortis passage in the Old English

Salomon and Saturn” in Studies in English Philology, A Mis-

cellany in Honor of F. Klaeber. Minneapolis, 1929. Pp. 240–57.

[Study of genesis of story.]

Menner, R. J. The Poetical Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn.

O.U.P., 1941. [With full apparatus. Authoritative edition.]

Von Vincenti, A. R. Die altenglischen Dialogue von Salomon und

Saturn. Leipzig, 1904. [Study of relationship to Oriental

legend and to later mediaeval versions.]

THE VERCELLI BOOK

This well-preserved, well-written and easily legible West-Saxon

MS. is now in the Chapter Library of the Cathedral at Vercelli

in Northern Italy. Hence its titles, Vercelli Book or Codex, and

Codex Vercellensis. How and when it found its way there is a

mystery. Most likely the MS. was a compilation of the tenth

century (second half), written and produced in England, and the

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work of a single scribe. It contains 137 folios, without ornamentation, except for a small animal figure on fol. 49a. The first is now illegible on both sides, the last two are blanks, and several are missing. Many of the leaves are only partly filled up.

The Book seems to be no haphazard collection: it was apparently designed to contain in one volume a number of prose homilies and legendary and homiletic poems that could be used "to supplement and lighten the formal offices of the service" (Krapp, The Vercelli Book [below] Preface). The contents are as follows the several titles.

Contents of the Vercelli Book (after Krapp, ib., xviii-xx).

fol. 1a–9a Homily on the Passion.

fol. 9b–12a Homily on the Last Judgment.

fol. 12b–16a Homily on Christian Virtues.

fol. 16b–24b Homily on Penance.

fol. 25a–29a Homily on Birth of Christ.

fol. 29b–52b Andreas.

fol. 52b–54a The Fates of the Apostles.

fol. 54b–56a Homily on the Miracles preceding the Birth of Jesus and the Flight into Egypt.

fol. 56b–59a Homily on Extravagance and Gluttony.

fol. 59a–61a Homily on the Last Judgment and Hell Torment.

fol. 61a–65a Homily on the Terrors of Death.

fol. 65a–71a Homily on the Transitoriness of the World and its Joys.

fol. 71b–73b Homily for the First Rogation Day.

fol. 73b–75b Homily for the Second Rogation Day.

fol. 75b–76b Homily for the Third Rogation Day.

fol. 76b–80b Homily (for general use).

fol. 80b–85b Homily on the Day of Judgment.

fol. 85b–90b Homily on the Epiphany.

fol. 90b–94b Homily on the Purification.

fol. 94b–101a Homily on St. Martin.

fol. 101b–103b Soul and Body I.

fol. 104a–104b Homiletic Fragment I.

fol. 104b–106a Dream of the Rood.

fol. 106b–109b Homily on the Creation.

fol. 109b–112a Homily on the Deadly Sins.

fol. 112a–116b Homily on Duty to God.

fol. 116b–120b Homily on the Christian Virtues. Elene.

fol. 121a–133b

fol. 133b–135b Prose Life of St. Guthlac.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.63.

H. & B., 47.

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Krapp, G. P. The Vercelli Book. London, 1932. [Contains only the poems. An excellent ed., the text being based on the photographic reprints of Wülker and Förster (below). The introductory matter, bibliography (lxxxi-xciv) and notes are first-rate. Standard ed. Indispensable.]

Manuscript and Reproductions.

Förster, M. Der Vercelli-Codex CXVII nebst Abdruck einiger altenglischen Homilien der Handschrift. In Fest-schrift fur Lorenz Morsbach, Halle, 1913, pp. 20–179.

Förster, M. Il Codice Vercellese con Omelie e Poesie in Lingua Anglo-sassone. Rome, 1913.

Wülker, R. Codex Vercellensis. Die angelsächsische Handschrift zu Vercelli in getreuer Nachbildung. Leipzig, 1894. [Contains only the poetry.]

Editions.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 1–201.

Kemble, J. M. The Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis, with an English tr. Published for the Aelfric Society. London, 1843–56. Krapp (above; with list of edd. of poetical texts, lxxiii–lxxxiv).

Translations.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry. [Contains all except Homiletic Fragment I.] N.B.—See below for tr. of the individual poems.

1. ANDREAS (fol. 29b–52b)

Closely similar to Beowulf in point of structure and diction, the Andreas, "The Christian Beowulf", is a stirring romantic poem of 1722 ll. recounting legendary episodes in St. Andrew's missionary life in Mermedonia. While owing all these various incidents to the source-book, viz., a lost Latin version of the Greek Acts of Andrew and Matthew (ed. Bonnet, Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, 1.2, 65–116 [1898]), the poet has greatly elaborated upon them, especially in his depiction of scenes. This "romance of the seas" is in fact notable for the magnificence of its descriptions of the raging storms (cf. ll. 369 ff., 435 ff., 489 ff., 511 ff.). Also the poem affords an excellent illustration of the blend of the old and the new: the relationship of Christ and His Apostles is simply that of lord and comitatus. Indeed the whole background is permeated with heroic ideas. (The existence of an independent A.S. prose version [2 MSS.] of the life of St. Andrew, from the same ultimate origin, may also be noted, see pp. 243–4 below.)

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In the past, critics have been tempted to regard the Andreas and the next poem in the MS., viz., the Fates of the Apostles (below), as forming a single poem, but Krapp (q.v. below) opposes the full weight of his immense authority to this supposition, pointing out that there is no MS. justification for it, and that the Fates is clearly based upon an entirely different, though undiscovered, source.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.77.

H. & B., 69.

Editions.

Baskervill, W. M. Andreas: A Legend of St. Andrew. Boston, 1885. [2nd ed., 1891.]

Krapp, G. P. Andreas and the Fates of the Apostles. London, 1906. [Excellent in every way. Standard.]

Translations.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 200–33; Hall, Jud. Phom. Mald., 62–119. Kennedy. Cynewulf, 211–63. Also Root, R. K., Andreas: The Legend of St. Andrew, translated from the Old English, with an Introduction. (Yale Studies, VII, 1899.)

Discussion.

Bourauel, J. Zue Quellen und Verfasserfrage von Andreas, Crist und Fata. Bonn, 1901.

Cook, A. S. “The Authorship of the O.E. Andreas” in M.L.N., 34.418–19. 1919.

Cook, A. S. “The Old English Andreas and Bishop Acca of Hexham” in Trans. Connecticut Academy, 26.245–332. 1924.

Hamilton, G. L. “The Sources of the Fates of the Apostles and Andreas” in M.L.N., 35.385–95. 1920.

Kennedy. Cynewulf, 42–51. [Summary of theories of authorship.]

Smithson. Christian Epic, passim.

2. THE FATES OF THE APOSTLES (fol. 52b–4a)

This (superficially complete) poem of 122 ll. briefly tells of the lives and deaths of the Twelve Apostles, the source apparently being some undiscovered “Latin list of the Apostles, their missions and passions, of a type commonly current at the time the Anglo-Saxon poem was written, and possibly of Irish origin” (Krapp 219

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Vercelli Book [above], xxxvii). Several critics have (unconvincingly) connected it with the preceding poem in the MS., viz., the Andreas (q.v.), while yet others would detach from it the last 27 ll. beginning at l. 96. This part not only comprises all of the text on fol. 54a, but contains Cynewulf's runic signature. The supposition is that the poem as it stands is too slight to be the work of such a practised hand and that the folio in question is out of its proper place, viz., the end of the Andreas. While the inferiority is readily admitted, apart from the fact (a mere coincidence) mentioned above, the evidence of the MS. points entirely to the unity of the existing version of the poem.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., i.77.

H. & B., 72.

Editions.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 87–91.

Krapp, G. P. Andreas and the Fates of the Apostles. London, 1906.

Translations.

Gordon, A.S. Poetry, 197–9; Kennedy, Cynewulf, 205–8.

Discussion.

See under the Andreas.

Jansen, K. Die Cynewulf-forschung von ihren Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Bonn, 1908. See pp. 77–90.

Kennedy. Cynewulf, 40–2, and refs.

Perkins, R. "On the Sources of the Fates of the Apostles" in M.L.N., 32.159–61.

Sisam, K. "Cynewulf and his Poetry" in Proc. of the Brit. Acad., Vol. XXVIII, 1932. Pp. 8–9.

3. SOUL AND BODY I (fol. 101b–103b)

The Soul and Body I, so called in order to distinguish it from the shorter and very similar Soul and Body II of The Exeter Book (see p. 192), now has 166 ll., but suddenly breaks off in the middle of a sentence at the bottom of fol. 103b. It contains two distinct parts, ll. 1–126, and ll. 127 to the end. In the first, a former sinful body is angrily reviled by its soul, which may repeat the reproaches every seventh night for 300 years, unless the end of the world should intervene. It is a grim denouncement. The second part, however, comprises the address of a soul in bliss to its body but the quality of the poet's exultation scarcely equals the ferocity of his castigation. Possibly we should have come to

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some other opinion after reading the concluding parts of the

poem that have been lost with one or two folios now missing

from the MS. between fol. 103 and fol. 104. For M.E. examples

see pp. 333-4.

Text.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 92-107. [Prints both Vercelli and

Exeter Book texts.]

Translation.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 310-13.

Discussion.

Willard, R. "The Address of the Soul to the Body" in P.M.L.A.,

50.957-983. 1935. [On nature and sources of the genre.]

4. HOMILETIC FRAGMENT I (fol. 104b-6a)

This Fragment (for Fragment II, see Item 30 of Ex. Bk.) of 47 ll.

is a rather loose expansion of the last 7 of the 9 verses of Psalm 28.

The initial portion, doubtless corresponding to the first two

verses, has been lost with the preceding folio, presumably

missing.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.82.

H. & B., 61. (See Bi Manna Lease.)

Text.

Grein-Wülker. Poesie II, 108-10.

Williams, O. T. Short Extracts from Old English Poetry. Bangor,

Translation.

Kemble. Poetry of Cod. Verc. above, 79-82.

5. THE DREAM OF THE ROOD (fol. 104b-6b)

The most complete text of this lovely dream-poem, unique

in pre-Conquest poetry, is contained in the Vercelli Book and totals

156 ll. A shorter mutilated (North Northumbrian) version,

comprising three passages, corresponding to perhaps 15 ll. in the

Vercelli text, is also carved in runes on the famous Ruthwell

Cross (which Dickins and Ross [ed. below] assign to the eighth

century, see 1-13), but its precise relationship to the longer text

is still controversial: "it might (herewith) be suggested that

an original poem, selections from which appear on the Ruthwell

Cross, was later expanded and added to. From this expanded

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version of sporadic Anglian forms in the latter .................. we

may assume that this expanded version was written in an Anglian

dialect" (ib., 18). Further, two lines (in late West Saxon)

inscribed on the silver work of the Brussels Cross, a supposed

fragment of the True Cross now preserved in Brussels Cathedral,

appear to be reminiscent of the poem (ib., 13-15). The source

and authorship of the poem are both unknown. The older

ascription to Cynewulf (cf. e.g. Cook, ed. below, xvii-xli), based

on general and circumstantial evidence, is unacceptable to

recent editors.

Very briefly, the theme is the Crucifixion, the story of which

is told by the Cross to the poet as he dreamt at midnight.

Peculiarly interesting is the representation of Christ as a native

chieftain, and of his disciples as his thanes. Similarly striking,

because reminiscent of primitive burial custom, is the singing

of a dirge by the disciples before leaving the sepulchre in the

evening (ll. 67-8). Although the critics have not failed to regard

the poem as an object worthy of dissection (e.g. most would

willingly dispense with the last 10 ll. as an accretion), all accord it

the very highest praise.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.78.

Dickins, B., and Ross, A. S. C. The Dream of the Rood. London,

1934. Methuen's O.E. Library, A. 4. Pp. 36-9. [A first-rate

ed. Note the description of the Ruthwell Cross, with figures

showing the runes in situ and the fuporc (runic alphabet)

used thereon. Reproduces the text of all three sources.]

H. & B., 71.

Facsimiles.

Bütow, H. Das altenglische "Traumgesicht vom Kreuz", textkritisches,

literaturgeschichtliches, kunstgeschichtliches. Heidelberg, 1935.

Pp. 4-38. [Full, annotated bibliography. An excellent ed.,

containing a comprehensive survey of all the problems,

including the text of the Ruthwell Cross.]

Editions.

Bütow (above).

Cook, A. S. The Dream of the Rood. Oxford, 1905. [Partly

superseded by ed. of Dickins and Ross (above). See, however,

pp. xli-lvii on the poem's literary characteristics. Very

full notes.]

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—POETRY

Dickins and Ross (above).

Sweet. A.S. Reader (ll. 1–94, 131–48 and 154–8 only).

Wyatt. A.S. Reader, 170–2 (ll. 88–129 only).

Translations.

Brooks, H. F. The Dream of the Rood. Dublin, 1942.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 261–4.

Kennedy. Cynewulf, 306–11.

Discussion.

Brandl, A. “On the Early Northumbrian Poem ‘A Vision of the Cross of Christ’ ” in Scottish Hist. Rev., 9.139–47 [1912].

[Summary and discussions of date and occasion of poem.]

Brown, G. Baldwin. The Arts in Early England: Vol. 5, The Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses, London, 1921. [Chaps. IV–XII (pp. 102–317) Indispensable.]

Collingwood, W. G. Northumbrian Crosses of the Pre-Norman Age. London, 1927. Passim.

Cook, A. S. “The Date of the Old English Inscription on the Brussels Cross” in M.L.R., 10.157–61. 1915.

Kennedy. Cynewulf, 62–8.

Logeman, H. L’Inscription anglo-saxonne du reliquaire de la vraie Croix au trésor de l’église des SS. Michel-et-Gudule à Bruxelles. 1891.

Patch, H. R. “Liturgical Influence in the Dream of the Rood” in P.M.L.A., 34.233–57. 1919.

Ross, A. S. C. “The Linguistic Evidence for the Date of the Ruthwell Cross” in M.L.R., 28.146–55. 1933.

Vietor, W. Die nordhumbrischen Runensteine: Beiträge zur Textkritik: Grammatik und Glossar. Marburg, 1895. Pp. 2–13.

6. ELENE (fol. 121a–33b)

The theme of this long and complete poem of 1321 ll., universally acknowledged as Cynewulf’s masterpiece, is the successful search for the True Cross by St. Helena undertaken at the instigation of her son, Constantine the Great. So far the source remains untraced, but it may have been a Latin version, which, differing but slightly from that in the Acta Sanctorum for May 4th, was made in Ireland from a Greek original.

The poem contains 15 numbered Sections. But the narrative properly ends with Section 14 at l. 1235, the last word of which is Finit. The remaining Section, which contains Cynewulf’s runic signature as well as autobiographical information of the

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highest importance, constitutes an appendix so different stylistically from the earlier portions that it "would seem to have been

composed as an entirely independent effort" (Krapp, Vercelli Book, xl). Nevertheless, the unity of the whole is in no doubt.

Like the Andreas, the Elene is cast in the heroic mould. "It is written in a simple, dramatic style, interspersed with imaginative

and descriptive passages of great beauty. The glamour and pomp of war, the gleam of jewels, the joy of ships dancing on the

waves, give life and colour to a narrative permeated by the deep and serious purpose of the author (C.H.E.L., i.56). Some of the

notable passages are ll. 109–37 (battle-scene), 225–55 (sea-voyage), and the whole of Section 15.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., i.76.

H. & B., 71–2.

Editions.

Cook, A. S. The Old English Elene, Phoenix and Physiologus. New Haven, 1919.

Holthausen, F. Cynewulf's Elene. 3rd ed. Heidelberg, 1914. [Excellent.]

Kent, C. W. Elene, an Old English Poem. 2nd ed. London, 1903.

Translations.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 234–60.

Kennedy. Cynewulf, 87–128.

Discussion.

Holthausen, F. "Zur Quelle von Cynewulfs Elene" in Z.f.d. Ph., 37.1–19. 1905.

Holthausen, F. "Zur Quelle von Cynewulfs Elene" in Archiv., 125.83–8. 1910.

Kennedy. Cynewulf, 34–40.

Smithson. Christian Epic, passim.

WALDERE

All that survives of this epic poem is found on two separate vellum folds, conveniently termed Fragments I and II, that

were discovered in 1860 in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. They were apparently written about 1000, or possibly earlier,

maybe by a Northumbrian scribe who was attempting to write "Standard" Old English, cf. p. 7 of F. Norman's excellent ed.

(below), upon which the following account relies. The folds, each of which has had most of one leaf cut away leaving a narrow

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strip containing only parts of words, can be shown to be adjacent

folds (II being the outer) in the original MS., and further,

to have occurred in the order I, II (not II, I, as many earlier

scholars have supposed). Between them, there is a gap of one

whole leaf—i.e., at least 30 ll. The whole poem probably totalled

over 1,000 ll. Only some 53 ll. now remain.

In Fragment I (32 ll.), a hero, Waldere, is encouraged by

somebody, apparently his betrothed, Hildegyd (though she is

nowhere mentioned in the text), to continue a fight. In II (31 ll.),

somebody else (Norman argues that it was Waldere—earlier

authorities suggest Guðhere or Hagena) praises a sword, Waldere

extols his armour and challenges another hero, Guðhere, to battle.

A fuller, but later, and in several respects different version

of the epic is extant in a Latin poem Waltharius, written about

930 by Ekkehard (d. 973), a monk of St. Gall, Switzerland

(for a résumé, see Norman, p. 7). (Still later allusions occur

in O.H.G., M.H.G., Norwegian and Polish texts, ib., 8–12.)

Probably both O.E. and Latin poems originate from the same

source, which may have been a lay created shortly after 600

by an unknown Bavarian poet (ib., 34).

Both the author and the date of composition are still undeter-

mined, but Norman considers that the poem was very likely a

"book-epic" written by a cleric not earlier than the middle

of the eighth century.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.69.

H. & B., 90.

Norman, F. Waldere. London, 1933. Methuen's Old English

Library, A. 3. Pp. 44–8. [Very valuable ed., with excellent

accounts of the manuscript and its foliation, as well as of the

story in all its various forms.]

Facsimiles.

Holthausen, F. Die altenglischen Waldere-Bruchstücke. Mit vier

Autotypien. Gothenburg, 1899.

Editions:

Dickins, B. Runic and Heroic Poems. Cambridge, 1915. [Text,

with notes, pp. 56–63. Translation facing each page of text.]

Sedgefield. Bk. A.S. V.P., 6–8.

Wyatt. A.S. Reader, 148–9.

225

P

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Translations.

Clarke. Sidelights, 219 ff.

Dickins (above), 57–63.

Gordon. A.S. Poetry, 73–4.

Gummere. O.E. Epic, 167–70.

Discussion.

Chadwick. The Heroic Age, passim.

Clarke. Sidelights, 209 ff.

Dickins (above), 37–43.

Heusler, A. "Walther und Hildegund" in Hoops's Reallexikon, 4.476–7. 1919. [Summary survey of the legend.]

Schücking, L. "Waldere und Waltharius" in E.St., 60.17–36. 1925–6. [On relationship of the two stories.]

Wolff, L. "Zu den Waldere Bruchstücken", in Z.f.d.A., 62. 81 ff. 1925.

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CHAPTER VI

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

1. MODERN COLLECTIONS.

Cockayne, Leechdoms. [For list of contents, see p. 253 below.]

Craigie, W. A. Specimens of Anglo-Saxon Prose. Edinburgh, 1923-9. [Handy, cheap collections of extracts, with short vocabularies.]

Grein, C. W. M., and Wülker, R. Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa. Cassel, 1872-. [Now under the editorship of H. Hecht. To date 13 vols. of this excellent series have been issued.]

Sedgefield, W. J. Anglo-Saxon Prose Book. Manchester, 1928. Series of extracts, with notes and vocabulary, also published in the ed.'s Bk. A.S. V.P.]

Note. Prose extracts are included in the various anthologies and Readers listed on pp. 152–3 above.

2. TRANSLATIONS

Chambers. Engl. Norm. Con. [Includes translations of much A S. prose of historical interest.]

Cook, A. S., and Tinker, C. B. Select Translation from O.E. Prose. Boston, 1908.

Sampson, G. (ed.). The Cambridge Book of Prose and Verse. C.U.P., 1924. [Designed to illustrate C.H.E.L., Vol. I, for the ordinary reader.]

3. HISTORY AND CRITICISM

Chambers, R. W. On the Continuity of English Prose from Alfred to More and his School. London, 1932. [An extract from the Introduction to Nicholas Harpsfield's life of Sir Thomas More, edited by E. V. Hitchcock and R. W. Chambers.]

Earle, J. English Prose, its Elements, History and Usage. 1890, 1903.

Krapp, G. P. The Rise of English Literary Prose. Oxford, 1916.

Smith, C. A. "The Order of Words in Anglo-Saxon Prose"

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in P.M.L.A., 8.210–42. 1893. [Based on a study of Alfred's

Orosius and Aelfric's Homilies.]

Saintsbury, G. A History of English Prose Rhythm. London, 1912.

[Reprinted, 1922.]

Tupper, J. W. Tropes and Figures ir: Anglo-Saxon Prose. Baltimore,

See also the books of literary criticism mentioned above,

pp. 150–1.

2. AUTHORS AND TEXTS

AELFRIC (c. 955–c. 1020)

One of the most prominent literary figures of his time and

undoubtedly the most accomplished prose writer of the O.E.

period, Aelfric, now often called Grammaticus (note his Latin

Grammar) thus distinguishing him from several other ecclesiastics

of the same name, including e.g. his pupil Aelfric Bata (fl. 1005)

and especially Aelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1005),

was educated at the famous monastic school at Winchester under

the care of Bishop Aethelwold (c. 908–84), and then in 987,

as a priest, became novice-master at the restored Benedictine

monastery at Cernel (Cerne Abbas) in Dorsetshire. In 1005

he became the first abbot of Eynsham Abbey, Oxfordshire.

A good classical scholar, equally facile in both Latin and O.E.,

Aelfric wrote homilies, legends, theological commentaries,

translations from the Old Testament, pastoral letters, works on

monastic customs, grammar and mathematics, as well as a Latin

life of his best friend, Bishop Aethelwold. His theological writings,

though chiefly derivative, are of special interest because they shed

much light upon contemporary Christian beliefs and practices

(see Gem [below], 66–165). In particular, he vigorously opposed

the doctrine of transubstantiation (see “A Sermon on the Sacrifice

on Easter Day”, Thorpe [below], 2.263–83), for which

reason several of his writings were printed as early as the sixteenth

century (cf. D.N.B.). Right from the first Aelfric proved himself

able to write clearly and attractively (e.g., the first series of

Homilies), but he soon developed an ornateness (alliteration and

rhythm) that is over-elaborate (cf. e.g., The Lives of Saints; but

this feature is already observable in the second series of Homilies).

Gerould (below) convincingly argues that Aelfric was here

“following and adapting what he must have believed the best

Latin style” and that “he was trying to give his English readers

the equivalent of the rhymed [Latin] prose in which men of taste

found pleasure for a great many centuries”.

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Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.89–92.

H. & B., 96–102.

Discussion.

Dietrich, E. Abt Aelfric. Zur Literaturgeschichte der angelsächsischen Kirche in Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie, 25.487–594

[1855], and 26.163–256 [1856]. Gotha. [A standard work. “Much of it is translated in White”, H. & B.; summarised by Skeat (below). Contains four sections on Aelfric's writings, the doctrine of the A.S. Church according to Aelfric, his education and character, and his life.]

Dubois, M.-M. Aelfric, Sermonnaire, Docteur et Grammairien. Paris, 1943. [Indispensable.]

Gem, S. H. An Anglo-Saxon Abbot: Aelfric of Eynsham. Edinburgh, 1912. [Useful survey of life and doctrines intended for the general reader. With translations of the Life of St. Aethelwold and the Colloquium.]

Geroald, G. H. “Abbot Aelfric's Rhythmic Prose” in M. Ph., 22.353–66. 1925.

Skeat, W. W. Aelfric's Lives of the Saints, being a set of Sermons on Saints' Days formerly observed by the English Church. 2 vols. E.E.T.S., 76, 82, 94, 114. 1881–1900. [With translation facing text. Vol. II gives an account of the MSS. of the Lives and of Aelfric's life and authorship, the latter being a useful summary of Dietrich (above).]

White, C. L. Aelfric: A New Study of his Life and Writings. Boston, 1898. [Based on Dietrich's monumental work (above), parts being simply translations, and supplemented by results of investigation to date. Includes a full chronological bibliography. Appendices summarise important Aelfrician studies. Indispensable.]

Aelfric's writings fall into two groups, those he wrote while still a monk, and those he wrote after becoming an abbot (i.e. from 1005 onwards). The following is a chronological list of his chief works, the most important being discussed in some detail. All are in English unless the contrary is stated.

1. CATHOLIC HOMILIES (991–2).

These homilies consist of two series, each provided not only with a Latin Preface addressed to Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury 989–95, but also with an English preface (composed after 1016) stating, in the first, Aelfric's reason for translating them from

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Latin into English and, in the second, the plan and (broadly) the sources. Aelfric's intention was that each series should contain forty sermons, to cover the whole of the church year. The first actually does so, but until recently the second was commonly assumed to contain forty-five, the last six being supposedly a later accretion. But Sisam's brilliant studies of the Bodley MSS. 340 and 342 (refs. below) have disposed of the difficulty; the sermons are to be reckoned not according to the items, but, as in the first series, according to the days which they were designed to serve. "Thus Thorpe's 39 sermons before the Apology [giving reasons for omitting the story of St. Thomas of India] cover only 34 feast-days and when the 6 sermons after the Apology are added we get the exact number 40 that Aelfric promised" (Sisam, ib.). The "issue of both [series] may be assigned to the years 991–2" (Sisam, ib.). The first are "simple, doctrinal and instructive, the second discursive, historical and more elaborate, with much narrative" (C.H.E.L., I. 117).

In his Latin Preface to the first series, Aelfric mentions several sources, the better-known being St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Gregory and Bede. But he must have used others, including Alcuin, Gregory of Tours and Rufinus. St. Gregory, however, seems to be the principal source.

For excellent illustrations of Aelfric's lucid style, see the English Prefaces. A masterly exposition of a difficult theme will be found in the "Sermon on the Sacrifice on Easter Day" (Thorpe, below, 2.263–83). This, perhaps the most notable of all, has given rise to considerable theological controversy.

The MSS. seem to fall into three groups, the chief differences being the following. In the first (represented by Thorpe's ed. (below) of Camb. Univ. Lib., MS. Gg. 3. 28), the two series of homilies are kept distinct and the prefaces retained. In the second (cf. C.C.C.C. MS. 188, ? 1007–20), the second series and all the prefaces are omitted. The third group comprises several MSS. "in which both [series] are recast together in the order of the church year" (C.H.E.L., I.117).

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.89–90.

H. & B., 99–101.

White, 211–12.

Text.

Assman, B. Angelsächsische Homilien und Heiligenleben. Cassel, 1889. [Prosa, III.]

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Sweet, H. Selected Homilies of Aelfric. Oxford, 1885, etc. [Texts from Thorpe's ed., below.]

Thorpe, B. The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church. 2 vols. London, 1844-6. [Containing both series. this is a complete ed., with notes and translation, but no glossary, of Camb. Univ. Lib. MS. Gg. 3. 28. The precise significance of “Part I” of the sub-title is obscure; no Part II was ever published.]

Warner, R. D-N. Early English Homilies from the Twelfth Century MS. Vesp. D. XIV. Part I, Text. E.E.T.S., 152. 1917. [Mainly Aelfric's. Part II containing an Introd., Notes and Glossary promised, but not yet issued. An admirable description of the contents of this MS. has been given by M. Förster in E.St., 54. 46-68.]

Note.—The E.E.T.S. promise another ed. of Aelfric's Homilies by Dr. A. Pope.

Discussion.

Förster, M. Ueber die Quellen von Aelfrics Homiliae Catholicae, I Legenden. Berlin, 1892. [Continued in Angl., 16.1–61 (1894), under the title of “Ueber die Quellen von Aelfrics exegetischen Homiliae Catholicae”.]

Sisam, K. “MSS. Bodley 340 and 342: Aelfric's Catholic Homilies” in R.E.S., 7.7–22 (1931), 8.51–68 (1932) and 9.1–12 (1933). [A most valuable and definitive article on date, composition, and arrangement.]

2. DE TEMPORIBUS ANNI (992)

Extant in several MSS., four being in the Cotton Collection (B.M.), this scientific treatise, recently assigned unquestioningly to Aelfric by Sisam (R.E.S., 8.52) and variously entitled De Temporibus, De Computo and De Primo Die Saeculi, discusses firstly and secondly the division of time and of the solar year, and lastly astronomy and the phenomena of the atmosphere. While claiming dependence upon Bede (viz., De Temporibus Ratione, De Temporibus and De Natura Rerum, the first two being manuals on the calculation of respectively ecclesiastical festivals and Easter, and the third a text-book of cosmography) it apparently includes much original information.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L.. 1.97.

H. & B., 99.

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Text.

Cockayne. Leechdoms, 3.232-83. ["A Treatise on Astronomy and Cosmogony"; with tr.]

Henel, H. Aelfric, De Temporibus Anni. E.E.T.S., 213. London, 1942 (for 1940). [Authoritative.]

Wright, T. Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages. London, 1841; Pp. 1-19. [With tr.]

3. LATIN GRAMMAR (995)

Extant in fifteen MSS., pointing to its popularity, the Grammar is a tr. from the Latin Grammar of Priscian (fl. 500), the favourite class-book of the mediaeval schools. Edited by J. Zupitza: Aelfrics Grammatik und Glossar, Berlin, 1880.

4. LIVES (PASSIONS) OF SAINTS (996-7)

The Lives comprise a third series of homilies, arranged according to the church calendar and intended for reading to laymen at monastic services. They include two prefaces, one in Latin stating the purpose and source (Vitae Patrum) of the book, the other in English and cast in the form of a letter to Alderman Aethelweard1, stating that the series had been specially written at the request of himself and of his son Aethelmaer (founder of Cerne Abbey). 'Though in the Latin Preface Aelfric quotes Vitae Patrum as his sole source, in the text he mentions several of the Early Fathers as his authorities (see further Skeat, above, 2.xlvii-xlviii, and 446–56). The best MS. (B.M.) Cotton Julius E. VII) "contains thirty-three lives, six general homilies and a narrative without title on the legend of Abgarus, thus, like the two previous series [Homilies, v.p. 229], comprising forty sermons in all", C.H.E.L., 1.20—all the extant MSS. are mentioned by Skeat, above, 2.445.

Except for the first on the Nativity—in ordinary prose—these homilies illustrate Aelfric's characteristic alliterative, rhythmical prose at its best. At the same time, being narratives, they are all intrinsically interesting, especially so the accounts of the English saints, Oswald, Swithin and Edmund. The Life of the latter is of particular importance as a revelation of the ardour of Aelfric's patriotism and of his conception of the ideal king.

1 On Aethelweard and Aethelmaer, see White, 47–50, et passim. It was Aethelweard who appears to have inspired Aelfric to write the Catholic Homilies and to begin his version of the Bible. Certainly Joshua and Judges were written at his request. Aethelmaer, too, promoted Aelfric's work. See further The Exeter Book of Old English Poetry, London, 1933, pp. 87–90.

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Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.89.

H. & B., 101.

Text.

Skeat, W. W. (above).

5. INTERROGATIONS (QUESTIONS) OF SIGEWULF THE PRIEST

This work is appended to the best MSS. of the Lives of the Saints, of which it probably forms a part. It consists of a series of catechetical answers to questions on Genesis and is based on the Latin Handbook upon Genesis written at the end of the eighth century by the celebrated English scholar Alcuin (735-804) and dedicated to his inseparable pupil and friend, the priest Sigewulf. Edited by Maclean, G. E., "Aelfric's Version of Alcuini Interrogationes Sigewulfi in Genesin" in Angl., 6.425–73 (1883), 7.1–59 (1884), with Latin and O.E. texts.

6. LATIN-ENGLISH GLOSSARY (997-9)

Seven of the fifteen MSS. of the Grammar contain the Glossary as an appendix to the Grammar. It consists of an English dictionary of Latin nouns and adjectives classified according to subject. Bibl.: H. & B., 99. Edited by T. Wright: Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, 2 vols., 2nd ed., edited and collated by R. P. Wülcker, London, 1884; see 2.306–36. Do not confuse this Glossary with the text called "Archbishop Aelfric's Vocabulary", ib., pp. 104–91, which is apparently not the work of Aelfric, cf. White above, 121.

7. COLLOQUIUM (995–1005)

A Latin dialogue intended to help the novices at Winchester to speak correct Latin. Extant in two MSS., it consists of entertaining conversations between a teacher, a novice, and single representatives of various occupations and trades. Each describes his daily duties. The work therefore adds considerably to our knowledge of A.S. daily life, especially that in the monastery. MS. Cott. Tib., A. 3 is furnished with a running O.E. interlinear gloss, of unknown authorship. The MS. in St. John's College, Oxford, contains only a few glosses.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.92.

H. & B., 98.

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Editions.

Thorpe, B. Analecta Anglo-Saxonica, 2nd ed. London.1846. Pp. 18–36.

Wright, T. Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabulaires. 2 vols. 2nd ed. Edited and collated by R. P. Wülcker. London, 1884. See 1.89–103.

Stevenson, W. H. Early Scholastic Colloquies. Oxford, 1929. [Prints the glosses of the Cotton MS., and occasional ones, at the foot of the page, from the Oxford MS.]

Garmonsway, G. N. Aelfric's Colloquy. London, 1939. Methuen's O.E. Library. [With full critical apparatus.]

Translation.

Gem (above), 183–95.

Discussion.

Schroeder, E. "Colloquium Aelfrici" in Z.f.d.A., 41.282–90. 1897.

Zupitza, J. "Die Ursprungliche Gestalt von Aelfric's Colloquium" in Z.f.d.A., 31.32–45. 1887.

8. PENTATEUCH AND JOSHUA (c. 997)

These are partly translated and partly abridged from the books of the Pentateuch and of Joshua, and are apparently not all from Aelfric's hand. First printed by Thwaites (1698), who added Aelfric's translations from the books of Judges and of Job. As a convenient name for the Pentateuch, together with the books of Joshua and Judges, Thwaites invented the term Heptateuch, which is used by its most recent editor, S. J. Crawford (The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, E.E.T.S., 160. [1922]. With Latin text of the Vulgate). Also edited by C. W. M. Grein, Aelfrik de vetere et novo Testamento Pentateucl. Isua, Buch der Richter und Hiob, Cassel, 1872. (Prosa I.). Crawford (above) points out that this is a reprint, with emendations, of the edition of the Heptateuch by E. Thwaites (Oxford, 1698) and of W. L'Isle's edition (1623) of Aelfric's treatise, On the Old and New Testaments. Apparently Grein never kept the promise made in his Preface to publish a collation of his editions with the MSS. Nor was it included in the 1921 anastatic reprint of Grein, despite the existence of such a collation prefixed to J. Wilke's Lautlehre zu Aelfric's Heptateuch und Buch Hiob, Bonn, 1905. Aelfric's version of the Bible was 'essentially meant to be preached rather than

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read; he wrote for those who should teach the as yet unlettered people", C.H.E.L., 1.122. See also White (above), 146–9.

9. JUDGES (997–8)

A translation from the biblical book of that name. Skeat (above, p. xxix) regards this as "a distinct work . . . to be considered as a metrical (or alliterative) Homily". It was arranged by Grein as verse (480 ll.) and printed after his death by R. Wülcker, Angl., 2.141–5.

10. JOB, ESTHER AND JUDITH (997–8)

The first is an epitome of the Book of Job, the others are translations of the biblical books of the same names. Job is edited by Grein (Prosa I, 265–72); for Esther and Judith, see B. Assmann, Prosa III, 92–101 and 102–16 respectively.

11. HEXAMERON (possibly 991–8)

In the main this is translated from the Latin Hexameron of St. Basil, and partly from Bede's Commentary on Genesis. It "contains an introductory address to the reader; an account of the works of each of the six days of creation; of the fall of the angels before the creation of man; of the seventh day of rest; of the temptation and sin of man; of his expulsion from Paradise; and of his redemption through Christ", cf. White, above, 116–17. Edited by S. J. Crawford: Exameron Anglice or the Old English Hexameron. With an Introduction, a Collation of all the Manuscripts, a Modern English Translation, Parallel Passages from the Other Works of Aelfric and Notes on the Sources, Cassel, 1921 (Prosa X). Also edited (with tr.) by H. W. Norman: The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Hexameron of St. basil, London, 1849.

12. CANONS (? 998)

This work consists of a pastoral letter written at the request of Wulfsige, Bishop of Sherbourne (993–1001), for the use of the clergy in his diocese. Prefaced with a short personal letter to Wulfsige, its subject is priestly duties. A summary of its thirty-five sections (in two parts ) is given by White, above, 135–9. It has been edited, with tr., by B. Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes, London, 1840 (pp. 441–51).

13. BENEDICTINE RULE (c. 1005)

This is a Latin abridgement of the De Consuetudine Monachorum by

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Bishop Aethelwold of Winchester. It was specially written for the monks of Eynsham (Oxfordshire), of which monastery Aelfric had become Abbot in 1005 or the previous year. Edited by A. Schröer, "De Consuetudine Monachorum" in E. St., 9.294–6 (1886).

14. ADVICE TO A SPIRITUAL SON (after 1005)

This incomplete and unique version of St. Basil's Admonitio ad Filium Spiritualem was written for Benedictine monks. Edited by Norman with tr. (see item 11 above).

15. HOMILY ADDRESSED TO WULFGEAT (1005-6)

This is "a discourse in two parts, which is in substance, first, a summary of Christian doctrine, and second, a sermon". Wulfgeat was, until disgraced in 1006, a favourite thane of Æthelred II. Edited by Assmann, Prosa III, 1–12.

16. LIFE OF ST. AETHELWOLD (1006)

This work is in Latin and dedicated to Kenwulf, Bishop of Winchester, edited by J. Stevenson, Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, 2 vols., Rolls Series, London, 1858 (see 2.255–66). Translated Gem (above), 166–80.

17. INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS (?1006–8)

This was written at the request of a certain Sigwerd. "The work as a whole is a practical, historical introduction to the Holy Scriptures" and is designed for laymen, the chief sources being St. Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana and Isidore's In Libros Veteris ac Novi Testamenti Proemia (itself based on the former), cf. White (above), 66–7, 152–5. Edited (with tr.) by S. J. Crawford, The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, E.E.T.S., 160 [1922], pp. 15–75.

18. HOMILY FOR THE BIRTHDAY OF A CONFESSOR (c. 1008)

Shows the "forbearance of God by many instances", see White (above), 108–10. Edited by Assmann [Prosa III, 49–64].

19. A HOMILY ON THE SEVENFOLD GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (1000–8)

For text, see Napier, A.S., Wulfstan, Berlin, 1883, pp. 56–60.

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20. PASTORAL LETTERS (1005)

Written for Wulfstan (Archbishop of York, 1003–23), the themes being clerical chastity and the use of holy oil. Edited, with tr., by B. Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, London, 1840, pp. 452–65.

21. HOMILY ON THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN (date undetermined)

This is an elaborate plea for celibacy. Edited by Assmann, Prosa III, 24–48.

22. A LETTER (after 1005)

Written to Sigferth on the celibacy of the clergy (C.H.E.L., I. 126); but entitled "Of Holy Chastity" by White (above; p. 110), and "Purity" by Skeat (above; p. xxxix). Extant in 4 MSS. Edited by Assmann, Prosa III, 13–23.

ALEXANDER'S LETTER TO ARISTOTLE

Immediately preceding, and in the script of the first hand of, the Beowulf MS. (Cotton Vitell. A XV, c. 1000) is this unique prose version of the famous, though spurious, Latin Epistola Alexandri describing the wonders of India. The Epistola circulated independently in the Middle Ages, but was ultimately based on the early Greek work (c. A.D. 200) of an unknown author commonly called Pseudo-Callisthenes.

The O.E. version, in W.S. tinged by Anglian, contains many rare words. Historically it is important because it shows that long before the Conquest the Anglo-Saxons found entertainment in the exotic romanticism of the East. [Cf. in the same respect Wonders of the East (p. 259) and Apollonius of Tyre (p. 244).]

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.94.

H. & B., 102–3.

Text.

Rypins, S. Three Old English Prose Texts in MS. Cotton Vitellius A XV, edited with an Introduction and Glossarial Index. E.E.T.S., 161. London, 1924. [With one facs. page and Latin text. Contains also Wonders of the East and Life of St. Christopher, pp. 259, 247.]

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ALFRED (849-901)

Alfred's literary activities arose out of his determination to restore education to his kingdom of Wessex. Almost all of his known writings are translations from notable Latin books, which were either philosophical or else purely factual. In the main their chronology can be determined only from internal evidence, from their literary style or the closeness of the reproduction.

His first work, the Handbook, begun in 887, is untraced. It was apparently a mere collection of extracts from the Latin Bible and the Early Fathers. His next was a close translation of the Cura Pastoralis of Gregory the Great. In his Preface—the first important piece of English prose—written, so it seems, as an introduction to the whole series of his translations, Alfred notes the decline of learning in England and announces his intention of reforming the system of public education. Following upon this, and with the idea of providing his people with a compendium of world history, he translated the famous Historia adversus Paganos of Orosius. Into this, he incorporated an account of Germania, as well as the narratives of the celebrated voyages of Ohthere to the White Sea and Wulfstan to the Baltic. The latter are accessible in most Readers. How far Alfred composed the O.E. version of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica is still undetermined. External evidence, including the testimony of Aelfric, certainly points to his authorship. The translation is far too close to be entirely successful. In addition there are numerous omissions.

Alfred next turned his attention to the law, and produced, perhaps c 893, a legal code of a rather composite character. Besides elements from the Mosaic law, it contained material from the laws of earlier A.S. Kings, viz., Ine, Offa and Aethelred. Some time after 897, Alfred completed a somewhat free rendering of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae, to which he made many additions. He seems to have ended his translating career with a version of St. Augustine's Soliloquiae, which becomes freer as the book proceeds.

The above probably represent the sum total of Alfred's own literary productions. He also partly inspired the literary achievements of others, including the writers of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It was at his command, too, that Bishop Werferth translated Gregory's Dialogues (see p. 258).

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., i.85-8.

H. & B., 103-8.

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

General.

Borenski, L. Der Stil König Alfreds. Eine Studie zum Psychologie der Rede. Leipzig, 1934. [See especially pp. 288–310 for a discussion of the special characteristics of Alfred's style. An important book on the psychology of literary expression.]

Bowker, A. (ed.). Alfred the Great, containing Chapters on his Life and Times. London, 1899. [Contains essays by various authors of repute.]

Hodgkin, R. H. History of Anglo-Saxons. [See Vol. II, Chaps. XIV–XX, particularly XVII (on “Restoration of Order and of Learning”) and XX (on “Alfred the Man and his Message).]

Lees, B. A. Alfred the Great, the Truthteller, Maker of England. New York, 1915. [An excellent biography. Contains some fifty illustrative plates. Very useful for the history of the period.]

Plummer, C. The Life and Times of Alfred the Great. Oxford, 1902. [See especially 140–96. Authoritative and indispensable.]

Stevenson, W. H. (ed.). Asser's Life of King Alfred, together with the Annals of St. Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser. Oxford, 1904. [Standard ed. of the Latin text. A tr. with valuable introd. and notes by L. C. Jane was pub. (London, 1908) under the title of Asser's Life of Alfred.]

Thorpe, B. The Life of Alfred the Great, translated from the German. Bohn Library, London, 1902. [Tr. from R. Pauli's famous König Alfred. Berlin, 1851.]

Translation.

Giles, J. A. (ed.). The Whole Works of King Alfred the Great, with Preliminary Essays illustrative of the History, Arts and Manners of the Ninth Century. Jubilee Ed. Oxford and Cambridge, 1858.

1. GREGORY'S CURA PASTORALIS

The following MSS. are extant:–(i) Bodl. Hatton 20. Contemporary. (ii) B.M. Cotton Tiberius B. 11. Contemporary. Injured in the Cotton Fire and now a collection of fragments. (iii) Bodl. Junius 53. Copied from preceding MS. Cott. Tib. (iv) B.M. Cotton Otho B.2, and 3 MSS. at Cambridge in C.C.C. Trin. and the Univ. Lib. There is also a leaf out of another at Cassel.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Editions,

Sweet, H. (ed.). King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's

Pastoral Care, with an English translation, the Latin Text, Notes

and an Introduction. E.E.T.S., 45, 50. 1871-2. [Contains full

text of Hatton and Cott. Tib. MSS., the latter from Junius's

copy in the Bodleian [MS. Jun. 53]. Variant readings are

supplied from Cott. Otho B. 21. The Latin text is not

included.]

Discussion.

Klaeber, F. "Zu König Alfreds Vorrede zu seiner Übersetzung der

Cura Pastoralis" in Angl., 47.53-65. 1923. [Throws light on

Alfred's personality and reading.]

2. OROSIUS'S HISTORIA

The extant MSS. comprise:-(i) Lauderdale (Helmingham

Hall, Suffolk). Contemporary but defective. (ii) Cotton Tiberius

B.I. Tenth or eleventh century. (iii) Transcript of Cotton MS. by

Junius. (iv) Transcript of Junius by Elstob and Ballard.

Edition.

Sweet, H. King Alfred's Orosius. E.E.T.S., 79. London, 1883.

[Contains the Latin original. Standard.]

Selections.

Schram, O. K. The Old English Orosius. In preparation for

Methuen's Old English Library series.

Sweet, H. Extracts from Alfred's Orosius. Oxford, 1885, etc.

80 pp. [Contains selections from Lauderdale MS. and is

intended to supplement the editor's A.S. Reader.]

Discussion.

Ekbloni, R. "Alfred the Great as Geographer," in a Philological

Miscellany presented to E. Ekwall. Uppsala, 1942. [Shows that

Alfred used two systems of orientation.]

Geidel, H. Alfred der Grosse als Geograph. In Münchener Geogra-

phische Studien, No. 15. 1904.

Hampson, R. T. "On the Geography of King Alfred the Great"

in Giles's The Whole Works of King Alfred (above), 3.11-63.

See also 2.10-17, by J. Bosworth.

Hübener, G. König Alfred und Osteuropa in E.St., 60.35-57.

Malone, K. "King Alfred's Geographical Treatise" in Speculum,

[Jan.] 1933.

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

Markham, C. “Alfred as a Geographer” in Bowker's Alfred the Great (above), 151–67. [Mainly summarises Alfred's three original contributions to the Orosius, viz., the account of Central and Northern Europe, and the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan.]

Nansen, F. In Northern Mists. Arctic Exploration in Early Times. Translated by A. G. Chater. 2 vols. New York. 1911. See 1.169–81. [A geographical study of Ohthere's narrative.]

Ross, A. S. C. The “Terfinna” and “Beormas” of Ohthere. Leeas School of English Language. Kendal, 1940.

3. BEDE'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

The text is extant in the following MSS.:— (i) Oxford Bodl. Tanner 10. Oldest and best. (ii) Corpus Christi College 41, Cambridge. (iii) Otho, B. II, Brit. Mus. Fragments only. (iv) Corpus Christi College 279, Oxford. (v) Cambridge Univ. Library kk. 3.18.

Editions.

Miller, T. The Old English Version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. E.E.T.S., 95, 96, 111. 1890–8. [Standard. With translation.]

Schipper, J. König Alfreds Ubersetzung von Bedas Kirchengeschichte. Leipzig, 1879. (Prosa 4.)

Discussion.

Hart, J. M. “Rhetoric in the Translation of Bede” in An English Miscellany. Oxford, 1901.

Potter, S. On the Relation of the O.E. Bede to Werferth's Gregory and to Alfred's Translations. Prague, 1930.

Thompson, A. H. [ed.]. Bede: his Life, Times and Writings, Essays in Commemoration of the Twelfth Centenary of his Death. Oxford, 1935. [Contents: The Life of the Venerable Bede, the Age of Bede, Northumbrian Monasticism, Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, Bede as Historian, Bede as Exegete and Theologian, Bede's Miracle Stories, The Manuscripts of Bede, The Library of the Venerable Bede.]

van Draat, P. F. “The Authorship of the Old English Bede” in Angl., 39.319–47. 1916. [“A Study in Rhythm.” Argues against Alfredian authorship.]

4. LAWS

For complete list of the MSS., see Liebermann, F., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 1.xviii–lxii.

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Editions.

Attenborough, F. L. The Laws of the Earliest English Kings. Cambridge, 1922. pp. 62–93. [With translation opposite each page of text.]

Liebermann. Gesetze, 1.16–88.

Turk, M. H. The Legal Code of Alfred the Great. Halle, 1893. [With full critical apparatus.]

Translation.

Attenborough (above).

Discussion.

Liebermann. Gesetze, 3.30–86.

Pollock, F. “English Law before the Norman Conquest” in Bowker's Alfred the Great, 209–39.

5. BOETHIUS' DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE

The text is preserved in the following MSS.:—(i) B.M. Cotton, Otho A. vi. Early 10th C. or 906–70. Injured in Cotton Fire of 1731. Metra in Verse. (ii) Bodl. MS. 180, Oxford. Early twelfth century. The most complete. Metra in prose. (iii) Fragment forming the last leaf of Bodl. MS. 86, from second half of tenth century. A transcript of the Cotton MS. was made by Junius.

Edition.

Sedgefield, W. J. King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiae, edited from the MS. with Introduction, Critical Notes and Glossary. Oxford, 1899. [Standard].

Translation.

Sedgefield, W. J. King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius. Done into Modern English, with an Introduction. Oxford, 1900. [A handy literal rendering. “The passages . . . which do not occur in the Latin original are printed in italics”, (Preface). The Metra are translated into the metre of O.E. verse, without, however, sacrificing literalness.]

Discussion.

Fehlauer, F. Die englischen Übersetzung von Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae. Berlin, 1909.

James, H. R. The Consolation of Philosophy. London, 1907. [Translation of Latin text into English prose and verse.]

Patch, H. R. The Tradition of Boethius: A Study of his Importance in Medieval Culture. Oxford, 1935.

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Schmidt, K. H. König Alfreds Boethius-Bearbeitung. Göttingen, 1934. [Considers that Alfred was much indebted to the commentary on the Consolation by his contemporary Remigius of Auxerre (d. 908). Analyses the prose and metrical versions and provides notes on commentary.]

Stewart, H. F. Boethius, An Essay. Edinburgh, 1891. [Pp. 170-8.]

6. ST. AUGUSTINE'S SOLILOQUIAE [THE BLOOMS]

There are two MSS., viz.:—(i) Cotton Vitellius A. 15, B.M., twelfth century, and (ii) transcript of same by Junius, Jun. 70. I. Oxford.

Editions.

Cockayne, T. O. The Shrine. A Collection of Occasional Papers on Dry Subjects. London, 1864-9.

Endter, W. [ed.]. König Alfred der Grosse: bearbeitung der Soliloquien des Augustines, Hamburg, 1922. [Prosa 11. The best ed. A conservative text with good notes. Introd. brief but useful; good bibliography. A Latin version is printed on lower half of each page.]

Hargrove, H. L. King Alfred's Old English Version of St. Augustine's Soliloquies, edited with Introduction, Notes and Glossary. New York, 1902. [Though the best ed. in English, is far from satisfactory, see Holthausen's review, Angl. B. Bl., 15.321-8.]

Hulme, W. H. “‘Blooms’ von König Alfred” in E.St., 18.332-56. 1893. [Corrections in E.St., 19.470, 1894. A much criticised ed.]

Translation.

Hargrove, H. L. King Alfred's Old English Version of St. Augustine's Soliloquies, turned into Modern English. New York, 1904.

Discussion.

Hubbard, F. G. "The Relation of the Blooms of King Alfred to the Anglo-Saxon translation of Boethius" in M.L.N., 9.321-42. 1894. [Demonstrating identity of authorship.]

Jost, K. “Zu Textkritik der altenglischen Soliloquienbearbeitung” in Angl. B. Bl., 31.259–72 and 280–90 (1920), and 32.8–16 (1921). [An important article on textual criticism and interpretation.]

LEGEND OF ST. ANDREW

This short and unpretentious version of the legendary adventures of St. Andrew found both in C.C.C.C. MS. 198, and as the 243

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

nineteenth homily of the Blickling Homilies (see p. 245), recounts

the saint's missionary activities in Mermedonia. Like the infinitely

superior metrical rendering known as the Andreas (see p. 218),

it is based upon a lost Latin redaction of the Greek Acts of Andrew

and Matthew.

Bibliography.

H. & B., 108.

Editions.

Bright. A.S. Reader, 113–28.

Craigie. Prose Specimens II, 32–42.

Goodwin, C. W. The Anglo-Saxon Legends of St. Andrew and

St. Veronica. London, 1851. [With translation.]

Morris, R. The Blickling Homilies. E.E.T.S. London, 1880.

Pp. 228–49. [With translation.]

Discussion.

Krapp. Andreas and the Fates of the Apostles. London. 1906.

[See pp. xxi–xxix. On source.]

APOLLONIUS OF TYRE

The story of Apollonius of Tyre seems to have been put together

by a Greek author in the third century. However the eleventh

century O.E. version (C.C.C.C. MS. 18), unfortunately only

extant in a fragment containing the first half and the concluding

portion, is directly based upon a lost (undated) Latin recension.

"It tells of the wooing of the King of Antioch's daughter by

Apollonius of Tyre, and how her father, to prevent her marriage,

required her suitor to solve a riddle or to be beheaded,"

C.H.E.L., 1.135.

Two reasons make this very readable narrative specially

noteworthy: its evidence of A.S. interest in legends of the East;

and again, it is prose fiction unprompted by clerical didacticism.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.94–5.

H. & B., 108–9.

Text.

Thorpe, B. The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Story of Apollonius of

Tyre. London, 1834. [With translation.]

Zupitza, J. "Die altenglische Bearbeitung der Erzählung von

Apollonius von Tyrus" in Archiv., 97.17–34. 1896.

244

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

Selection.

Cook. First Bk. O.E., 164–88. [With apparatus.]

Translation.

Thorpe (above).

BLICKLING HOMILIES

In a much mutilated MS. (written by two hands) formerly preserved at Blickling Hall, Norfolk, is a collection of 19 homilies composed about the seventies of the tenth century. Some of them are incomplete, and several only fragmentary. The earlier ones are genuine sermons, the later, narratives concerned with Christian legend.

In style, these Homilies occupy a position intermediate between Alfred and Aelfric. While the syntax is often awkward, the descriptions are usually meritorious, and several, excellent (cf. e.g., [On Ascension Day] and the picture of Doomsday in No. VII [On Easter Day]. Noteworthy, too, is the frequent use of similes, many poetical.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.93.

H. & B., 110–1.

Edition.

Morris, R. The Blickling Homilies of the Tenth Century. E.E.T.S., 58, 63, 73. London, 1874–80. [With translation opposite text, and glossary.]

Note.—Homily XIX, on St. Andrew, is treated above, p. 243.

BYRHTFERTH'S MANUAL

This Manual, also called Enchiridion, þet ys manualis on Lyden ] handbóc on Englisc [Crawford, infra, 132] is found in a single late-tenth century Bodl. MS. (Ashmole, 328), with numerous and often intricate illustrations. The author was Byrhtferth (fl. 990–1000), a monk of Ramsey Abbey and head of its school, who also wrote Latin commentaries on four of the writings of his hero, þes eadigan weres . . . Bedan, þes ædelan boceres (ib. 72).

This scientific manual is sure to appeal to students of early astronomy, which subject, together with mathematics, receives the bulk of the attention. It “treats, for instance, of the signs of the zodiac and the length of the sun's course through each; of the

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method for finding Easter; the symbolic properties of certain

numbers and the correspondence between the four ages of man,

the four seasons, the four elements, the four humours (choler,

melancholy, etc.), and the four qualities, dry, moist, cold and

hot" (Wardale, 288–9). Despite the inherent difficulties of the

subject, Byrhtferth's lucid, stimulating and intimate handling

of his themes will not fail to impress the reader.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.97.

H. & B., 111.

Text.

Crawford, S. J. Byrhtferth's Manual (A.D. 1011). Vol. I (contains

text and an excellent translation). E.E.T.S., 177, 1929.

[A second vol., containing an introd. and a vocabulary, is

promised for the same series.]

Discussion.

Classen, K. M. Über das Leben und die Schriften Byrhtferths, eines

angelsächsischen Gelehrten und Schriftstellers um das Jahr 1000.

Dresden, 1896.

Forscy, G. F. "Byrhtferth's Preface" in Speculum, 3.505–22.

1928. [General discussion.]

Singer, C. & D. An Unrecognised Anglo-Saxon Medical Text.

New York, 1921.

CHARTERS

Under this heading may be conveniently grouped a great

variety of most interesting and historically invaluable documents

that shed a flood of light upon life in Anglo-Saxon times. Some

of them are muniments relating to grants of land—some for-

geries—which are of the greatest assistance to students of place-

names. Others are wills, heriots, marriage settlements, leases,

mortgages, market and toll rights. Others again concern constitu-

tional law and the law of the courts. There are manumissions too.

The Charters are in fact the documentary annals of Pre-Conquest

England.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.96–7.

H. & B., 134–5.

Text.

Birch, W. de G. Cartularium Saxonicum. 3 vols. London, 1885–93.

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

Earle, J. A Handbook to the Land Charters and other Saxonic Documents. Oxford, 1888.

Harmer, F. E. Select English Historical Documents of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. C.U.P., 1914. [With translation and notes.]

Kemble, J. M. Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici. 6 vols. London, 1839–48.

Napier, A. S, and Stevenson, W. H. The Crawford Collection of Early Charters and Documents now in the Bodleian Library. Oxford, 1895.

Robertson, A. J. Anglo-Saxon Charters, edited with Translation and Notes. C.U.P., 1939. [Prints 135 documents, with comprehensive apparatus. A first-rate source book for historical studies.]

Thorpe, B. Diplomatorium Anglicum Aevi Saxonici. London, 1865. [With translation.]

Whitelock, D. Anglo-Saxon Wills. C.U.P., 1930. [Wills from middle of tenth century to end of A.S. period, edited with translations and notes.]

LIFE OF ST. CHRISTOPHER

This unique text, opening defective and much mutilated through the Cotton Fire, forms the beginning of the second codex of the Beowulf MS. and is in the handwriting of the first scribe of the Beowulf. It translates, in the main fairly closely, the Acta Sanctorum for July 25th (Vol. XXXIII, pp. 148 ff.).

Bibliography.

H. & B., 112.

Edition.

Rypins. E.E.T.S., 161. [With introd., Latin text, and glossary.]

ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE

This Chronicle, the greatest prose work of the O.E. period, was probably initiated by King Alfred about 890, perhaps at Winchester. It was almost certainly copied from an earlier W.S. chronicle, which in its turn was based upon records made at various times by monks in order to distinguish the passing years by events of note. Copies of the Alfredian redaction then appear to have been dispatched to monasteries in various parts of the country, where they were first revised to include incidents of regional importance and thereafter kept up to date with material supplied from some official source, supplemented by local information.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

In one version or another, the Chronicle records matters of fact right from the beginning of the Christian era and continues for 250 years after Alfred's death. It is accordingly one of our primary sources of historical knowledge. Because original and uninfluenced by any Latin prototype, its narratives, almost wholly impersonal, enable us to obtain a complete conspectus over the development of O.E. prose from Alfred's period onvards. In view of the circumstances governing its composite authorship, literary inequalities are only to be expected. There are several notable passages—accessible in most Readers—e.g., the annals for 755 (Murder of Cynewulf), 893–7, and 994–1010. In the middle quarters of the tenth century, the unusually arid entries are relieved by several poetical and patriotic passages, one, the spirited Battle of Brunanburh, being an undoubted achievement, see further pp. 171–5 above.

Four distinct recensions of the Chronicle, differing only in matters of detail, have come down to us in seven different MSS., as follows.

MS. A. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The “Parker” MS. Written by one scribe to A.D. 891; thereafter (? at Winchester) by seven scribes in succession to 923; so also from 955–1001; then at Canterbury, 1005 to 1070. Bequeathed to C.C.C. by Archbishop Parker in 1575. A copy made c. 1025 was burned in the fire which damaged the Cotton Collection (1731); but a transcript (abbreviated) made by Lambard in 1564, is in Trinity College, Dublin; and it had been printed by Wheloc in 1643.

MS. B. Brit. Mus. Cotton Tiberius A. 6. Written c. 1000; stops at 977.

MS. C. Brit. Mus. Cotton Tiberius B. 1. Written by various scribes c. 1055 at Abingdon. Copied from B. down to 977 and continued to 1066. Contains also copy from Mercian Chronicle of events in years 902–24.

MS. D. Brit. Mus. Cotton Tiberius B. 4. The “Worcester Chronicle”. Written c. 1100; closes 1079. Includes some Northumbrian annals of 733–806 and excerpts from Bede, also the Mercian annals.

MS. E. Bodl. Laud Misc. 636. The “Peterborough Chronicle”. Written in various hands, 1121–54. Close to D. with local interpolations, copy of a Canterbury original.

MS. F. Brit. Mus. Domitian A. 8. Written in Canterbury c.

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

1090. Copy of archetype of E, abbreviated, with local interpolations and translations into Latin.

The following table from C.H.E.L., I.112, shows the relationship of the various MSS.

Original Winchester

(A) Winchester

Original Abingdon

(B) (shorter) Abingdon (C) (longer) Abingdon Original Worcester

(D) Worcester

Lost Kentish

Lost enlarged Kentish (F) MS. Cotton Dom. A. viii, 2

(E) Peterborough

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.88–9.

H. & B., 112–13.

Hoffmann-Hirtz, M. Une Chronique Anglo-Saxonne traduite d'après le Manuscrit 173 de Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Strasbourg, 1933. Pp. 133–43.

Smith (below) 53–5.

Editions.

Classen, E., and Harmer, F. E. An Anglo-Saxon Chronicle from the British Museum, Cotton MS. Tiberius B. IV, edited with a Glossary, Manchester, 19*?. [MS. D.]

Earle, J. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, with Supplementary Extracts from the Others, edited with Introduction, Notes and a Glossarial Index. Oxford, 1865. (The introd. is still valuable.)

Plummer, C. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, with Supplementary Extracts from the Others: a Revised Text edited with Introduction, Notes, Appendices and Glossary, on the Basis of an Edition by John Earle. 2 vols. Oxford, 1892–9. [Standard ed. Indispensable.]

Thorpe, B. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 2 vols. [Rolls Series], 1861. [Vol. I, text; Vol. II (composite) tr.]

Note.—Selections are printed in many Readers and anthologies. Note especially the ed. (with tr.) of the annals for 978–1017

249

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

(M.S. C.) in M. Ashdown's English and Norse Documents, Cambridge, 1930. Pp. 38–71.

Facsimile.

Flower, R., and Smith, H. The Parker Chronicle and Laws. A Facsimile. O.U.P. (for E.E.T.S.), 1941.

'Translations.

Chambers. Engl. Norm. Con., passim. [Translates numerous annals.]

Gomme, E. E. C. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, edited from the Translation in Monumenta Historica Britannica and Other Versions by the late J. A. Giles. London, 1909.

Hoffmann-Hirtz (above). [The sole complete translation of MS. A.]

Thorpe (above).

Discussion.

Chambers. Engl. Norm. Con., xii–xx, et passim.

Donald, G. C. Zur Entwicklung des Prosastils in der Sachsenchronik. Marburg, 1914.

Galbraith, V. H. The Historia Aurea of John, Vicar of Tynemouth in Essays . . . presented to Reginald Lane Poole. Oxford, 1927.

Mawer, A. "Some Place-name Identifications in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles", Palaestra 147. Berlin, 1925.

Poole, R. L. Chronicles and Annals: A Brief Outline of their Origin and Growth. Oxford, 1926. [Attempts to "trace in outline the manner in which the elements of the medieval chronicle were inserted in tables designed for the calculation of the date of Easter and to show how, in course of time, they developed". See especially pp. 41–9.]

Smith, A. H. The Parker Chronicle [832–900]. London, 1935. Methuen's O.E. Library, B.I. [An excellent ed. with full apparatus. Valuable introd. and bibl.]

Stenton, F. M. "The South-Western Element in the Old English Chronicle" in Essays in Medieval History presented to T. F. Tout. Manchester, 1925.

GOSPELS

The four Gospus nave been preserved in a W.S. version extant in six MSS. These are (1) C.C.C.C. 160, c. 1000; (2) Camb. Univ. Lib. MS. Ii. 2. 11, c. 1050; (3) Bodl. MS. 441, after 1000; (4) B.M. Cotton Otho C. I, c. 1000; (5) Bodl. Hatton MS. 38,

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

temp. Henry II, and (6) B.M. Royal MS. I, A. xvi, temp. Stephen. No. 5 is copied from 6, which itself is a copy of 3. Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all from the same lost original.

Besides the above W.S. version, two separate interlinear glosses of the four Gospels have been preserved, one (c. 950), in the North Northumbrian dialect of Durham, in the magnificently illuminated Lindisfarne MS. (B.M. Cotton Nero, D. 4), and the other (latter half of tenth century), written by two glossators, in the Rushworth MS. (Bodl. MS. Auct. D. ii. 19). The first glossator wrote St. Matthew and St. Mark up to Chap. II, v. 15, in the Mercian dialect. These glosses are of the highest importance to philologists.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., i.95.

H. & B., ii5–16.

Text.

Bright, J. W. The Gospel of St. Luke in Anglo-Saxon. Oxfortd, 1893.

Bright, J. W. The Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. John in West Saxon. 3 vols. Boston, 1904.

Discussion.

Harris, L. M. Studies in the Anglo-Saxon Version of the Gospels. Baltimore, 1901.

Skeat, W. W. The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian, and Old Mercian Versions, synoptically arranged. C.U.P., 1871–87. [Standard. Note important intros.]

The Lindisfarne Gospels. Printed by Order of the Trustees of the British Museum. London, 1924. [Contains reproductions of the decoration of the MS., also an introd. on the history of the MS., and a description of its contents and writing.]

LAWS

In the main, A.S. law was purely Teutonic, owing nothing to Celtic practice. Although a considerable amount has come down to us, the earliest codes being preserved in late MSS., this can only represent a small part of the whole. What has been committed to writing really implies a mass of oral custom. Its historical importance cannot be over-estimated.

The actual laws themselves can be grouped into three main codes:—

(1) The laws of the Kentish kings, viz., Aethelbert (596), Hlothere and Eadric (685–6) and Wihtred (690–6).

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(2) The W.S. codes. The earliest are the laws of Ine (688–725), and the most important, those of Alfred (v. p. 241 above). The latter were added to by later kings of Wessex as the need arose.

(3) Laws of Cnut. These formed a comprehensive code for Saxon and Dane. Cnut was the last great law-giver of the A.S. kings.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.96–7.

H. & B., 120–1.

Text.

Attenborough, F. L. The Laws of the Earliest English Kings. C.U.P., 1922. [With (brief) introductory notes, tr., and textual and historical notes.]

Liebermann. Gesetze. [Indispensable for complete study. But the complementary edd. of Attenborough (above) and Robertson (below) are sufficient for ordinary purposes.]

Robertson, A. J. The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I. C.U.P., 1925. [With (brief) introd., tr., and textual and historical notes.]

Translation.

Attenborough and Robertson (above).

Discussion.

Bethurum, D. "Stylistic Features of the O.E. Laws" in M.L.R., 27.263–9. 1932.

Whitlock, D. E. "Wulfstan and the Laws of Cnut" in Engl. Hist. Rev., 63.433–452. 1948. [Favours Wulfstan's authorship.]

MARTYROLOGY

Amateur hagiologists will know how to appreciate this interesting Martyrology, a calendar of lives of saints and martyrs intended to perpetuate their memory among, and inculcate their example upon, the faithful. Monastic custom in the A.S. period was that the appropriate extract from such a collection should be read to the monks assembled in the Chapter-house after Prime.

The text is preserved in four MSS., viz. (A) B.M. Addit. 23211, a mere fragment of two leaves from the latter half of the ninth century; (B) B.M. Cott. Julius A X, fol. 44–175, from the second half of the tenth century; (C) C.C.C.C. 196, fol. 1–110, from the beginning of the tenth century; and (D) C.C.C.C 41, fol. 122b–22a. MS. A is nearest to the archetype, then B.

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

The O.E. version, which was perhaps composed about 850, derives, whether it be a translation or an abridgement, from an unknown Latin original. It covers the period from Dec. 25th to Dec. 21st, and as a rule gives only an outline of the various legends. The author of the Latin original used various sources including Bede, who himself compiled a (Latin) martyrology, Aldhelm, Gregory, Adamnan and other early Fathers.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.88.

H. & B., 123–4.

Edition.

Herzfeld, G. An Old English Martyrology. E.E.T.S., 116. London, 1900. [With full critical apparatus and tr.]

MEDICAL LITERATURE

About a score of MSS. containing medical, or rather pseudo-medical, literature, survive from the period 900–1100, most of the documents being printed in Cockayne's Leechdoms (below). There is no separate work on surgery, although there were probably surgeons in England from the seventh century onwards (Payne, English Medicine, 83, below). The chief documents, discussed below, are collections of prescriptions, of which herbs and the parts of animals form the main ingredients. Depending largely upon Latin source-books, these works cannot be uncritically relied upon to provide evidence as to the life and thought of the period. Nevertheless as human documents they are of very considerable interest and ought certainly to be examined. Moreover, they make a valuable contribution to the stock of O.E. words, especially plant-names. The following books should be consulted:

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.97.

Texts.

Cockayne, O. Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England. 3 vols. Rolls Series, London, 1864–6. [Vol. I:—(Introductory) Preface, Herbarium, Medicina de Quadrupedibus, Leechdoms from Fly-Leaves of MSS., Charms. Vol. II:—(Introductory) Preface, Leechbooks I–III. Vol. III:—Lacnunga, Remedies Birth-forecasts, Prognostics, De Temporibus, Cherins, Durham Glossary of Plant Names, Collection of Saxon Names of Plants and

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Trees, and Historical Fragments. Translations face each page of text.]

Leonhardi, G. Kleinere Angelsächsische Denkmäler I. Hamburg, 1905. (A.S. Prosa, 6.) [Contains Leechbook, Lacnunga, Lorica Hymn, and Lorica Prayer. To each monument, there is a bibl. and brief notes on contents, dialect and MSS., but no glossary.]

Discussion.

Cockayne (ib.). [See prefaces.]

Payne, J. F. English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times. Oxford, 1904. [Note especially the chapters entitled History of A.-S. Medicine, The A.-S. Medical Literature, The Herbarium of Apuleius, A.-S. Surgery, Charms and Superstitious Medicine. A valuable book, with excellent illustrations reproduced from the MSS., as well as translations of excerpts from the texts.]

Singer, C. From Magic to Science, Essays on the Scientific Twilight. London, 1928. [In particular, see pp. 133-67 on "Early English Magic and Medicine" (this being a "somewhat abbreviated" rearrangement of the author's chapter "Early English Magic and Medicine" in Proc. of the British Academy, 1919-20, 9.34I-74).]

1. LEECH BOOK

As printed by its first editor, Cockayne, the Leech Book consists of three sections or books, all from a single B.M. MS., Reg. 12, D, XVII (second half of tenth century). The first two, forming a whole, often nowadays referred to as the Leech Book of Bald (the owner, apparently an A.S. leech who authorised a certain cild to copy or write the MS.), constitute a treatise on medicine in altogether 155 chapters, each devoted to a particular malady. The third part, a scribal addition of similar content, but having really nothing to do with the former (Payne [above], 36) contains seventy-three chapters of leechdoms or prescriptions. The original exemplum apparently dates from 900–50. Bald's "text-book of medicine" seems to include a certain amount of original knowledge of native plants and herbs, classical lore chiefly from Latin versions of Greek authors, superstitious matter (charms and rites) from Greek and Latin medicine, ecclesiastical formularies and possibly Teutonic and Celtic folklore (Payne [above], 61–2).

Bibliography.

H. & B., 121.

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

Text.

Cockayne. Leechdoms, 2.2–364.

Leonhardi (above), 1–112.

Discussion.

Cockayne. Leechdoms, 2.xx–xxxiii.

Payne (above), 39–62, 154–7. (Excerpts in translation.)

2. THE HERBARIUM

Extant in 4 MSS., the Herbarium, a pseudo-scientific treatise on the medicinal properties and uses of 185 plants, consists of two parts: the first, a translation of the (very popular) Latin Her-barium of Apuleius (an unidentified Latin naturalist apparently of the fourth or fifth century A.D.), while the second is based on the On Materia Medica of Dioscorides, a Greek physician (fl. c. A.D. 60), whose work, translated into Latin in the sixth century, is assumed to be the primary source of that of Apuleius. The earliest and best MS., B.M. Cotton Vitellius C III (1000–50), “though sadly damaged (by the fire in the Cotton Library) must have once been a splendid volume, beautifully written, and decorated with a large number of coloured figures of plants and animals” (Payne [above], 62). But the figures themselves are merely traditional (ib., 76). Of little value, because derivative, as a guide to A.-S. customs and folklore, the Herbarium is mainly of interest, apart from its vocabulary, as evidence of the astonishing claims and beliefs of Pre-Conquest drug-mongers. For a M.E. version, see Wells X [15].

Bibliography.

H. & B., 117.

Text.

Cockayne. Leechdoms, 1.2–325.

Discussion.

Cockayne. Leechdoms, 1.ix–cv.

Flom, G. T. “The O.E. Herbal of Apuleius Vitellius C III” in J.E.G.Ph., (Jan.) 1941. [Contents and state of MS.]

Payne (above), 62–82.

Singer (above), 164, 168–98.

3. LACNUNGA (HEALINGS)

A further series of prescriptions, conventionally designated 255

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

(though without textual justification) Lacnunga, survives in B.M. MS. Harl. 585 (late eleventh century). It includes several charms in verse as well as nostrums and prayers in Latin. Some of its formulas include Greek and Hebrew words.

Bibliography.

H. & B., 120 (who state that a new ed., with notes and translations, by C. Singer and J. H. G. Grattan, is promised). Leonhardi (above), 157.

Editions.

Cockavne. Leechdoms, 3.2–80. Leonhardi (above), 122–55. [With an analysis of the phonology, 160–74.]

4. PERI DIDAXEON (OF SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE)

Another series of Leechdoms is contained in Peri Didaxeon, which in the main translates the works of certain eleventh-century Salernitan writers, in particular the Practica of Petrocellus or Petronius. (For a brief account of the Medical School at Salerno, see Payne [above], 144 ff.) Actually the title is relevant only to the first chapter, the other sixty-five being prescriptions. These differ from all other A. S. nostrums in being wholly free from magic and superstition.—AM.E. -ersion is noted by Wells, X [3].

Bibliography.

H. & B., 126.

Editions.

Cockayne. Leechdoms, 3.82–145. Löweneck, M. Peri Didaxeon, eine Sammlung von Rezepten in englischen Sprache aus dem 11/12 Jahrhundert. Erlangen, 1896.

Discussion.

Payne (above), 143–57. Singer (above), 148.

5. MEDICINA DE QUADRUPEDIBUS OF SEXTUS PLACITUS

This work, extant in the same 4 MSS. as the Herbarium, is a translation of the Latin treatise on remedies obtainable from animals that is attributed to Sextus Placitus, a shadowy figure of either the fourth or the sixth century. Incredible curative virtues are claimed for the parts of thirteen quadrupeds, but astonishment is soon replaced by pity for the wretches who may have had to swallow such nauseating nostrums. The ultimate source is Plinv.

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An E.M.E. version from MS. Harleian 6258 (c. 1150) was edited with introduction, notes, translation, and glossary by J. Delcourt.

(Medicina de Quadrupedibus. Heidelberg, 1913.) See also Wells, X [4].

Bibliography.

H. & B., 124.

Text.

Cockayne. Leechdoms, 1.326–73.

Discussion.

Cockayne. Leechdoms, 1.lxxxix ff.

Payne (above), 64–5.

NICODEMUS, GOSPEL OF

The complete form of this gospel, which can be traced back to A.D. 400, comprises the Acti Pilati and the Descensus Christi ad Inferno, is notable for its tremendous influence upon mediaeval religion, art and drama. For M.E. versions, see pp. 342–3.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.93.

H. & B., 125.

Editions.

Crawford, S. J. The Gospel of Nicodemus. Edinburgh, 1927.

Hulme, W. H. “The O.E. Version of the Gospel of Nicodemus” in P.M.L.A., 13.457–542. 1898. [Text of MS. Cbg. Univ. Lib. Ii, 2, 11, and B.M. Cott. Vitell. A, XV, with apparatus.]

Hulme, W. H. “The O.E. Gospel of Nicodemus” in M.Ph., 1.579–614. 1904. [Text of a L.O.E. version from Cott. Vitell. A. XIVV.]

PROSE PSALMS (PARIS PSALTER)

A West-Saxon prose rendering of Ps. 1 to 50, v. 8, is the first entry (fol. 1a–63b), and immediately precedes a metrical version of Ps. 51, v. 7, to 150, v. 3 (fol. 64a–175b; see p. 214), in the Paris Psalter, a manuscript of 186 folios, all written by the one hand in the first half of the eleventh century, and to-day preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The MS. is written in double columns with the O.E. text on the right and the corresponding Latin text on the left. The prose version may be connected with King Alfred, who, according to William of Malmesbury, began but did not complete a translation of the Psalter.

257

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Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.95-6.

H. & B., 129–30.

Editions.

Bright, J. W., and Ramsay, R. L. Liber Psalmorum: The West Saxon Psalms. Boston, 1907. Grein-Wülker, Prosa 7.

Discussion.

Bruce, J. D. “The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Book of Psalms commonly known as the Paris Psalter” in P.M.L.A., 19.43–

Cook, A. S. Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose Writers. London, 1898. [Pp. xxxiv-xliii.]

Förster, M. “Die altenglischen Texte der Pariser National Bibliothèque” in E.St., 62.113–31. 1927.

Krapp. Paris Psalter, viii-xxi. [Discussion of MS.]

The first eight of these homilies were edited (with variant readings from the other MSS., and textual notes) by M. Förster

in the first volume of his Die Vercelli-Homilien. Hamburg, 1932 (Grein-Wülker, Prosa 12). A complete edition is also in course of preparation by R. Willard.

WERFERTH'S TRANSLATION OF GREGORY'S DIALOGUES

It was probably between 880 and 885 that Werferth, bishop of Worcester 873–915, at the king's request translated the Dialogues

of Pope Gregory the Great (590–604). This famous work, actually only partly in dialogue form, is a series of legends about martyrs

and saints in Italy, told by Gregory to Peter the Deacon in order to distract his own mind from the burden of his pastoral duties.

Containing four books, the second being wholly concerned with St. Benedict, it is certainly an entertaining collection of stories,

fully meriting its mediaeval popularity that led to translation into almost every European language. Werferth's rendering is rugged

and simple, and will be read with ease.

Three texts have come down to us, all in MSS. of the earlier nalf of the eleventh century, viz. (C) C.C.C.C. MS. 332; (O) B.M.

Cotton Otho C I, and (H) Bodleian Hatton 76. All are from a common source, MS H being closest to the original version.

Both C and H begin with a short prose preface by King Alfred, while O has a slightly longer metrical preface. This was written,

so it states, by Bishop Wulfstan—possibly the cleric consecrated to the See of Worcester in 1063.

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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE—PROSE

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.88.

H. & B., 132.

Text.

Hecht, H. Bischofs Waerferth von Worcester Ubersetzung der Dialogue Gregors des Grossen. Leipzig, 1900–7. [A.S. Prosa 5. Standard ed. of all three texts, with valuable introd.]

Discussion.

Potter, S. On the Relation of the O.E. Bede to Werferth's Gregory and to Alfred's Translations. Prague, 1930.

Timmer, B. J. Studies in Bishop Werferth's Translation of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great. Wageningen, 1934. [On word-order and use of prepositions.]

Of special importance because it testifies to the interest of the Anglo-Saxons in the Orient, the Wonders of the East is preserved in two short O.E. versions, one, the briefer, in the second part, and in the same hand as the first scribe, of the Beowulf MS. (Cott. Vitell. A, XV; c. 1000) and the other, somewhat later, in MS. Cotton Tiberius B.V. The latter also contains, in parallel, the unique Latin recension, though this is the source of neither. The remote ancestor seems to be a lost Latin compilation of the fabulous elements in classical literature.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.94.

H. & B., 133

Text.

Rypins: E.E.T.S. 161. [With introd., Latin text, and glossary. Standard.]

WULFSTAN (d. 1023)

Wulfstan was Archbishop of York from 1002–23 and part of this time (1002–16) was Bishop of Worcester as well. During his tenure of the Sees, the ravages of the Vikings were at their worst.

Of the fifty-three homilies preserved in Bodl. MS. Jun. 99 (after 1050) and attributed to Wulfstan in an entry at the beginning of the first, only four are undoubtedly his. All these contain his Latin signature Lupus. Parts of a fifth are also allotted to him.

The most important and impressive of the acknowledged four is that which is described in one of the other four extant MSS. as Sermo Lupi ad Anglos and dated 1014. In it Wulfstan vehemently

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

denounces the depravity of the English, vividly portrays the affliction caused by the Danes and regarded by him as divine punishment for the sins of his countrymen, and scourges his hearers for their cowardice in face of the invaders. He ends with a moving call to repentance. It is easily the most forceful piece of prose in O.E. Yet it is scarcely prose. It is oratory, and all the artifices of the accomplished orator are employed: rhythm, repetition of ideas by synonyms, enumeration, balanced epithets and clauses, startling and effective diction, as well as rhyme within the phrase, assonance and alliteration. The whole homily is skilfully calculated to rouse his hearers by appealing to their hearts rather than their heads; and no doubt its purpose was achieved.

Lastly, there are certain correspondences in phraseology between this homily and the O.E. version of the laws of Aethelred drawn up at Eynsham in 1014. Since Wulfstan admitted to the authorship of the extant Latin text of these laws, very likely he wrote the English one too.

Bibliography.

Becker, R. Wulfstans Homilien. Leipzig, 1910. ["A very good bibliography. Gives a brief statement of the content of each homily," H. & B., 133.]

C.B.E.L., 1.92.

H. & B., 133.

Editions.

Napier, A. S. Wulfstan. Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien nebst Untersuchungen über ihre Echtheit. Berlin, 1883. [Standard.]

Whitelock, D. Sermo Lupi ad Anglos. London, 1939. Methuen's O.E. Library. [Includes discussion of the canon of W's works.]

Discussion.

Jost, K. "Wulfstan und die angelsächsische Chronik" in Angl., 47.105–23. 1923. [Assigns poetical entries for 959 and 975 in MS. D to Wulfstan.]

Kinard, J. P. A Study of Wulfstan's Homilies; their Style and Sources. Baltimore, 1897.

Napier, A. S. Uber die Werke des altenglischen Erzbischofs Wulfstan. Weimar, 1882.

Whitelock, D. E. "Archbishop Wulfstan, Homilist and Statesman", in Trans. of Royal Hist. Soc., 1942.

Whitelock, D. E. "Wulfstan and the Laws of Cnut" in Engl. Hist. Rev., 63, 433–452. 1948.

260

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MEDIAEVAL PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

I. PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS

A. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

See the items mentioned under this heading on p. 135 above.

B. POLITICAL HISTORY

Adams, G. B. The Political History of England (1066–1216). Rev. ed. London, 1935.

Bense, J. F. Anglo-Dutch Relations. Oxford, 1925.

Davis, H. W. C. England under the Normans and Angevins, 1066–1272. London, 1905, etc. [Students of literature will be specially interested in Chaps. II, VI, and XIX, entitled respectively, The Reorganisation of England, 1072–1087; The Old Order and the New, 1000–1154; and England in De Montfort's Day, 1216–1271.]

Haskins, C. H. The Normans in European History. London, 1916. [Chap. III: Normandy and England.]

Oman, C. The Political History of England (1377–1485). London, 1906.

Stenton, F. M. The First Century of English Feudalism. Oxford, 1932.

Tout, T. F. The Political History of England (1216–1377). London, 1905.

Vickers, K. H. England in the Later Middle Ages (1272–1485). Sixth ed. London, 1938.

C. SOCIAL HISTORY

Abram, A. Social Life in the Fifteenth Century: a Study of the Effects of Economic Conditions. London, 1909.

261

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Abram, A. English Life and Manners in the Later Middle Ages. London, 1913.

Bateson, M. Medieval England, 1066-1350. London, 1903. [A brief but valuable account of all classes of society in mediaeval England, illustrated from contemporary accounts. Note especially Chap. IV entitled Learning, Art and Education, and Chap. X on the Church, Education and Learning.]

Bennett, H. S. The Pastons and their England. C.U.P., 1922.

Bennett, H. S. Life on the English Manor. A Study of Peasant Conditions, 1150–1400. C.U.P., 1937.

Chadwick, D. Social Life in the Days of Piers Plowman. Cambridge, 1922. [On peasant life and agricultural conditions. A sort of digest of Piers Plowman considered as a document for contemporary society.]

Chambers, E. K. The Medieval Stage. 2 vols. Oxford, 1903. [Minstrelsy and the Drama.]

Coulton, G. G. Chaucer and his England. London, 1908, etc.

Coulton, G.G. Medieval Studies. Rev. ed. London, 1915.

Coulton, G. G. Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation. Cambridge, 1918. Rev. ed., 1921. [Source book, containing extracts from contemporary writers.]

Coulton, G. G. The Medieval Village. Cambridge, 1925. [On agricultural conditions and life of peasants. Contains extracts from contemporary writers to the Reformation, not chosen to represent the Middle Ages as a Golden Age; full of queer information.]

Coulton, G. G. Life in the Middle Ages. 4 vols. Cambridge, 1928-30. [1: Religion, Folklore, Superstition. 2: Chronicles, Science and Art. 3: Men and Manners. 4: Monks, Friars and Nuns. A source-book.]

Coulton, G. G. Medieval Panorama; the English Scene from Conquest to Reformation. C.U.P., 1938.

Cutts, E. L. Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages. Fifth ed. London, 1925. [A most interesting and well illustrated book containing a “series of sketches of medieval life and medieval characters, looked at especially from the artist’s point of view”.]

Davis, H. W. C. Medieval England. Being a new ed. of Barnard's Companion to English History. Oxford, 1924. [The chapter headings alone suffice to show the value of this excellent book. They are: Ecclesiastical Architecture; Domestic Architecture; War; Costume, Civil; Costume, Military; Heraldry; Shipping; Town Life; Country Life; The Monks,

262

MEDIAEVAL PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

the Friars and the Secular Clergy; Learning and Education;

Art; Coinage; Trade and Commerce. Indispensable.]

Davies, R. T. Documents Illustrating the History of Civilisation in

Mediaeval England [1066–1500]. London, 1926.

Gretton, R. H. The English Middle Class, 1917. [Chaps. II to

V give a useful summary of the rise in power of the

merchants.]

Hall, H. Court Life under the Plantagenets. Second ed. 1899. [A

description of English country life and the court of Henry II

in the form of a narrative. An appendix contains a full

discussion of the court's organisation.]

Hartley, D. and Elliot, M. M. Life and Work of the People of

England. A Pictorial Record. The eleventh to the thirteenth Centuries.

London, 1931.

Holmes, M. R. Medieval England. London, 1924.

Homans, G. C. English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century. Harvard

U.P., 1942. [A picture of social life in the open-field villages.]

Hunt, W. Medieval Studies. London, 1933. [A popular account of

various aspects of English life and institutions between the

eleventh and fifteenth centuries.]

Jusserand, J. J. Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages. Translated by

L. T. Smith. London, 1889, etc. Often reprinted.

Mead, W. E. The English Medieval Feast. London, 1931.

[Concerned with the distinctive features of the mediaeval

cuisine, based upon contemporary material. Good reading-

matter, illustrated with photographic reproductions from

MSS.]

Power, E. Medieval People. London, 1924. (Pelican Books, 1937.)

[Designed to illustrate various aspects of social life in the

Middle Ages.]

Powicke, F. M. Medieval England, 1066–1485. Home Univ. Lib.

London, 1931.

Quennell, M., and C. H. B. Everyday Things in England from

1066–1499. London, 1918, etc.

Rickert, E., and others. Chaucer's World. Ed. by C. C. Olson and

M. M. Cross. Illustrations selected by M. Rickert. New

York, 1948. [An anthology of excerpts from documents

illustrating the life of a typical fourteenth-century person.]

Salzman, L. F. English Life in the Middle Ages. London, 1926.

[Contains many excellent (chiefly contemporary) illustra-

tions. Deals with life in country, town and the home; with

the church and religion, education, literature (though only

cursorily), art and science, warfare, law and order, industry,

263

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

trade and finance, women, and warfarig. With a good

selective bibliography.]

Seebohm, F. The English Village Community. C.U.P., 1896.

Traill, H. D., and Mann, J. S. (eds.). A Record of the Progress of

the People in Religion, Laws, Learning, Arts, Industry, Commerce,

Science, Literature and Manners. 6 vols. London, 1912.

Trevelyan, G. M. England in the Age of Wycliffe. London, 1899.

Trevelyan, G. M. English Social History: Chaucer to Queen Victoria.

London, 1944.

Tupper, F. Types of Society in Medieval Literature. New York,

Vinogradoff, P. The Growth of the Manor, 2nd rev. ed. London,

1911, etc. [Pp. 291 ff. Feudal period.]

Wright, T. The Homes of Other Days. A History of Domestic Manners

and Sentiments in England. London, 1871.

D. ECONOMIC HISTORY

Ashley, W. J. An Introduction to English Economic History and

Theory. 2 vols. London, 1888–93.

Ashley, W. The Bread of our Forefathers. Oxford, 1928.

Bland, A. E., Brown, P. A., and Tawney, R. H. English Economic

History: Select Documents. London, 1914. [Illustrates various

aspects of the economic structure.]

Cunningham, W. The Growth of English Industry and Commerce

during the Early and Middle Ages. Cambridge, 1890–3, etc.

[Standard.]

Fisher, H. A. L. (Mrs.). Life and Work in England. A Sketch of Our

Social and Economic History. London, 1934.

Gibbins, H. de B. The Industrial History of England. Completely

revised by J. F. Rees. London, 1926.

Gras, N. S. B. and Gras, E. C. The Economic and Social History of

an English Village (Crawley Hampshire) A.D. 909–1928. Cam-

bridge, 1930.

Knoop, D. and Jones, G. P. The Medieval Mason. An Economic

History of English Stone Building in the Later Middle Ages and

Early Modern Times. Manchester, 1934.

Lipson, E. An Introduction to the Economic History of England.

Vol. I. The Middle Ages. London, 1915, etc.

Rogers, J. E. T. A History of Agriculture and Prices in England,

1259–1793. 7 vols. Oxford, 1866–1902. [Economists have

abandoned the conclusions, but the facts are there, and are

more useful to us.]

264

MEDIAEVAL PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

Orr, J. A Short History of British Agriculture. Oxford, 1922.

Salzman, L. F. English Industries of the Middle Ages. London, 1923.

Salzman, L. F. English Trade in the Middle Ages. Oxford, 1931.

Waters, C. M. An Economic History of England. O.U.P., 1925.

E. LAW AND CONSTITUTION

See "Law and Constitution" for the O.E. period, p. 140

Note also the following:-

Jenks, E. Law and Politics in the Middle Ages. 2nd ed. London, 1913.

Treharne, R. F. A Constitutional History of England from 1066-1399. In preparation.

F. THE CHURCH

Bland, C. C. S. Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary. London, 1928.

Byrne, M. The Tradition of the Nun in Medieval England. Washington, 1932.

Capes, W. W. The English Church in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. London, 1900. [Standard.]

Coulton, G. G. Five Centuries of Religion. Vol. II: The Friars and the Dead Weight of Tradition. 1200-1400. Cambridge, 1927.

Cranag, D. H. S. The Home of the Monk. An account of English Monastic Life and Buildings in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. C.U.P., 1934.

Crossley, F. H. The English Abbey. Its Life and Work in the Middle Ages. London, 1935. [Beautifully illustrated with photographs, and sketches. Indispensable.]

Cutts, E. L. Parish Priests and their People in the Middle Ages in England. London, 1898. [A mine of interesting information, copiously illustrated with photographic reproductions of manuscript illuminations. A useful, popular book.]

Cutts, E. L. A Dictionary of the Church of England. New ed. London, 1913.

Deanesly, M. History of the Medieval Church, 590-1500. London, 1925, etc.

Gasquet, F. A. English Monastic Life. 6th ed. London, 1936.

Gasquet, F. A. Parish Life in Medieval England, 6th ed. London, 1936.

Gwynn, A. The English Austin Friars in the Time of Wyclif. London, 1940.

265

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Jessop, A. The Coming of the Friars. London, 1889, etc. [A good popular account of the friars.]

Jessop, A. Before the Great Pillage. London, 1901.

Kempe, Marjory. The Book of Marjory Kempe is a unique auto-biography of a fifteenth-century woman of religious type, pub. in modern form; an ed. of the original has been edited for E.E.T.S. by S. B. Meech and H. E. A. Allen (No. 212, 1940).

Knowles, D. The Religious Houses of Medieval England. London, 1940.

Makower, F. The Constitutional History and Constitution of the Church of England. London, 1895, etc.

Ollard, S. L., and Crosse, G. A Dictionary of English Church History. London, 1912.

Owst, G. R. Preaching in Medieval England. C.U.P., 1926. [Based upon the study of the more important sermon MSS. of the period c. 1350–1450.]

Owst, G. R. Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England. C.U.P., 1933. [Full of interesting material connected with mediaeval preaching.]

Power, E. Medieval English Nunneries. Cambridge, 1922.

Stephens, W. R. W. The English Church, 1066–1272. London, 1901. [Standard.]

Thompson, A. H. English Monasteries. C.U.P., 1913. [With a useful selective bibliography, 143–8.]

Wakeman, H. O. An Introduction to the History of the Church of England. London, 1908, etc.

Wall, J. C. Shrines of British Saints. London, 1905.

Wood-Leigh, K. L. Studies in Church Life in England under Edward III. C.U.P., 1934.

G. SCIENCE

Dampier-Whetham, W. C. D. A History of Science and its Relations with Philosophy and Religion. C.U.P., 1929, etc. [See especially Chaps. II and III on, resp., "The Middle Ages" and "The Renaissance" .]

Steele, R. Medieval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus. (Medieval Library 20.) King's Classics. London, 1905. [Gives a useful sample of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum (1220–50) in modernised form.]

Steele, R. (ed.). The Earliest Arithmetics in English. E.E.T.S., 118. 266

MEDIAEVAL PERIOD—PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, LANGUAGE

Steele, R. “Roger Bacon and the State of Science in the Thirteenth Century”, being Chap. III of Vol. II of Studies in the History & Method of Science, edited by C. Singer, Oxford, 1921.

Moore, N. History of the Study of Medicine in the British Isles. Oxford, 1908.

Payne, J. F. English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times. Oxford, 1904. [Authoritative.]

Read, J. An Outline of Alchemy, its Literature and Relationships. London, 1936.

Riesman, D. The Story of Medicine in the Middle Ages. New York, 1935.

Rohde, E. S. The Old English Herbals. London, 1922. [Illustrated.]

Singer, C. A Review of the Medical Literature of the Dark Ages. London, 1917. [Valuable.]

Singer, C. (ed.). Studies on the History and Method of Science. Oxford, 1921.

Singer, C. Early English Magic and Medicine. Proc. of Brit. Acad., 1919-20. 9.341-74. London, 1924.

Singer, C. From Magic to Science. Essays on the Scientific Twilight. London, 1928.

Singer, C. A Short History of Medicine. Oxford, 1928. [See particularly the first 3 chapters dealing with Greece, Rome and the Middle Ages.]

Sarton, G. Introduction to the History of Science. 2 vols. Baltimore, 1927-36. [A complete guide to early, universal, scientific knowledge.]

Thorndike, L. A History of Magic and Experimental Science during the First Thirteen Centuries of our Era. See Vols. 3 and 4, publ. Oxford, 1934.

Walsh, J. J. Medieval Medicine. London, 1920.

Wedel, T. O. The Mediaeval Attitude towards Astrology, particularly in England. New Haven, 1921.

2. HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE

Books relating to the Mediaeval Period will be found in the lists on pp. 143-8, above.

3. GRAMMARS, PHONOLOGY

Huchon Hist. Lang. Angl. See Tome 2.

Jordan, R. Handbuch der mittelenglischen Grammatik. I Teil: 267

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Lautlehre. 2nd ed. revised by H. C. Matthes. Heidelberg, 1934. [Phonology only.]

Luick. Hist. Gram. d. engl. Sprache.

Sisam, K. Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose. Oxford, 1921.

[The Appendix, pp. 264–92, on “The English Language in the Fourteenth Century” is excellent.]

Wardale, E. E. An Introduction to Middle English Grammar. London, 1937.

Wright, J. and E. M. An Elementary Middle English Grammar. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1928.

Wyld. Short Hist. [Phonology.]

4. DICTIONARIES

Most editions of M.E. texts have Glossaries.

Mayhew, A. L. and W. W. Skeat. A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150–1580. Oxford, 1888.

Oxford English Dictionary. 13 vols. Oxford, 1933.

Stratmann, F. H. A Middle-English Dictionary. Revised and enlarged by H. Bradley. Oxford, 1891.

A Middle English Dictionary is being prepared by the Modern Language Association of America.

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A. HISTORY AND CRITICISM

Atkins, J. W. H. English Literary Criticism: The Mediaeval Phase. C.U.P., 1943.

Baldwin, C. S. Three Mediaeval Centuries of Literature in England 1100–1400. Boston (U.S.A.), 1932. [Intended as a compact guide book for those who wish to study the period for themselves. Useful, especially for the romances, which have received most attention. Supersedes the same writer's Introduction to English Mediaeval Literature. New York, 1914.]

Bennett, H. S. Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century. (Oxford History of English Literature, Vol. II, Pt. I.) Oxford, 1947. [Indispensable.]

Brown, C., and Robbins, R. H. The Index of Middle English Verse. New York, 1943.

Brandl, A. Mittelenglische Literatur, in Paul's Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie. 1st ed. Strassburg, 1893. Vol. II (1), 609–736. Index, Vol. II (2), pp. 345 ff. C.H.E.L., Vols. I and II.

Chambers, Sir E. K. English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages. (Oxford History of English Literature, Vol. II, Pt. II.) Oxford, 1945, 1947 (with corrections). [An erudite compendium. Each essay has an excellent bibliography.]

Chambers, Cont. Engl. Prose.

Courthope, W. J. A History of English Poetry. 6 vols. London, 1895–1910. [See Vol. I.]

Craik, G. L. A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language from the Norman Conquest. 2 vols. 1869. [A compact working manual in chronological order. Contains interesting sections on topics not usually found in histories of literature (e.g., Arabic learning, scholastic philosophy). An abridgment is included in Everyman's Library, entitled Manual of English Literature. London, 1909.]

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Elton, O. The English Muse. London, 1933. [See Chaps. I-V. Good descriptions.]

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed.

Jusserand, J. J. Literary History of the English People, from the Origins to the Renaissance. London, 1895. [A standard work, trans. of Histoire Littéraire du Peuple anglais. Vol. I. Des Origines à la Renaissance, 2e éd. Paris, 1896.]

Ker, W. P. English Literature, Medieval. London, 1912. Home Univ. Lib. 43. [A stimulating introductory book.]

Krapp, G. P. The Rise of English Literary Prose. O.U.P., 1916. [See particularly the Introduction (on fourteenth century prose), and the chapters on Wiclif, Controversy and Free Speech and the Pulpit. Krapp considers that O.E. prose is "in no sense the source from which modern English prose has sprung", and, further, that Wiclif was not only "the first Englishman clearly to realise the broad principles which underlie prose expression", but also the first intelligent writer of English prose, a discovery in the truest sense of the word" (Preface). These opinions have been controverted, however, by R. W. Chambers, On the Continuity of English Prose. London, 1932.]

Lawrence, W. W. Medieval Story. Rev. ed. New York, 1926.

Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love: a Study in Medieval Tradition. O.U.P., 1936.

Oakden, J. P. Alliterative Poetry in M.E.: the Dialectal and Metrical Survey. Manchester Univ. Press, 1930. [Invaluable.]

Oakden, J. P., with the assistance of E. R. Innes. Alliterative Poetry in M.E.: A Survey of the Traditions. Manchester U.P. 1935. [Pt. I, publ. separately as The Poetry of the Alliterative Revival (1937) is a valuable seriatim account of the M.E. alliterative texts.]

Russell, J. C. Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth-Century England. London, 1936. [Emphasis on lives, rather than writings.]

Saintsbury, G. A History of English Prosody. Vol. I. London, 1906.

Saintsbury, G. The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory. Edinburgh and London, 1907. [Concerned with European Literature.]

Saintsbury, G. A Short History of English Literature. London, 1897.

Schofield, W. H. English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer. London, 1906. [An excellent survey of the period, comprehensive and reliable. Noteworthy are the chapters

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on Anglo-Latin literature, and Anglo-Norman and Anglo-French Literature.]

Snell, F. J. The Fourteenth Century. London, 1899.

Snell, F. J. The Age of Chaucer [1346–1400], with an introd. by J. W. Hales, London, 1901, etc.

Stephen, L., and Lee, S. Dictionary of National Biography. London, 1885–. [Indispensable.]

Ten Brink, B. Early English Literature, translated by H. M. Kennedy. London, 1883. [Excellent criticism.]

Warton, T. History of English Poetry. Ed. W. C. Hazlitt. London, 1871. [Useful criticism.]

Wells. Manual. [The references to Wells under the heading Discussion in the book-lists of Chapters IX and X are intended to direct the reader not only to the “Text” of the Manual, but also to the invaluable “Bibliographical Notes”. Strictly speaking, such references should have been repeated under the heading Bibliography.]

Wilson, R. M. Early Middle English Literature. London, 1939. [A valuable handbook for the student of the literature composed between 1066 and 1300.]

Note also the items on pp. 150–1.

B. BOOKS OF SELECTIONS

Brandl, A., and O. Zippel. Mittelenglische Sprach- und Literaturproben, mit etymologischem Wörterbuch. Berlin, 1917, etc. [A valuable collection of specimens predominantly in rhymed verse and often with parallel texts from several MSS. Good glossary with meanings in English and German. Designed for philological study.]

Cook, A. S. A Literary Middle English Reader. Boston, 1915. [A good collection of representative texts designed for the reader’s literary enjoyment and profit. Contains no separate vocabulary or corpus of notes, but the meanings of difficult words are provided in abundance at the foot of each page.]

Dickins, B., and Wilson, R. M. An Early Middle English Reader. Cambridge, 1951. [This excellent reader, which bridges the gap between O.E and Sisam’s Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose, contains a wide variety of representative texts collated with the manuscripts and carefully edited. The notes and glossary are first-rate. The book is an invaluable introduction to a close study of the literature and language of the period.]

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Emerson, O. F. A Middle English Reader, edited with grammatical Introduction, Notes and Glossary. New York, 1905, etc. [Intended "to serve as an introduction to the language and literature of the period . . . between 1100 and 1500", the book is designed for those who are already acquainted with O.E. The Notes (pp. 247–318) and the Glossary (319–468) are good. There is a useful account of M.E. (chiefly Midland) grammar.]

French, W. H., and Hale, C. B. (edd.). Middle English Metrical Romances. New York, 1930. [Specially intended for classroom use, contains a most comprehensive selection of texts. Each piece is furnished with a brief introductory note on MS., dialect, theme, etc. Difficult words and phrases are glossed at the foot of the page, where too, are provided explanations of the more obscure allusions. The vocabulary includes only the commoner words, with etymologies.]

Hall, J. Selections from Early Middle English, 1130–1250, edited with Introduction and Notes. Oxford, 1920. [Part I: Texts. Part II (pp. 223–675), contains the Notes, which provide invaluable material for the understanding and elucidation of the texts. The editor here gives full information about the MSS., facsimiles, editions, literature, sources and illustrations, phonology, accidence, vocabulary, dialect, and metre or style, and an introduction to each text, as well as copious notes, with a wealth of illustration, on passages containing difficulties or topics of peculiar interest. A monument of scholarship, although it lacks a glossary.]

Morris, R. Specimens of Early English, with Introduction, Notes and Glossarial Index. Part I, 1150–1300. 2nd ed., revised by A. L. Mayhew and W. W. Skeat. Oxford, 1898. [Contains a grammatical introduction to M.E., and 17 selections. The whole book requires thorough revision.]

Morris, R., and Skeat, W. W. Specimens of Early English with Introduction, Notes and Glossarial Index. Part II, 1298–1393. 4th ed. Oxford, 1898. [Contains a brief grammatical introduction to the language of the period and 22 selections. The apparatus is out of date.]

Mosse, F. Manuel de l'anglais du moyen âge des origines au XIVe siècle. II, Moyen anglais. Tome premier: Grammaire et Textes. Tome second: Notes et Glossaire. Paris, 1949. [An excellent manual, with an instructive account (in 50 pp.) of ME syntax.]

Sampson, G. The Cambridge Book of Prose and Verse, in Illustration

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of English Literature from the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.

Cambridge, 1924. [Contains a selection of passages illustrat-

ing C.H.E.L., Vol. I. As the book is primarily intended for

the "plain man who wants to read" rather than the philolo-

gist, all except two of the pre-thirteenth century specimens

are represented by translations. Each extract is prefaced

by an introductory note on its literary interest, and at the

foot of each page is a running glossary. Excellent for the

purposes in view.]

Segar, M. G. Some Minor Poems of the Middle Ages. London, 1917.

Sisam, K. Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose. Oxford, 1921.

A Vocabulary to same, by J. R. R. Tolkien, Oxford, 1922,

pub. separately and combined. [A fine collection of represen-

tative texts. The book also includes an Introduction to the

period, copious notes on the texts, and Appendix on the

English Language in the Fourteenth Century. A model book

of selections.]

Skeat, W. W. Specimens of Early English. Part III, 1394–1579.

6th ed., Oxford, 1892.

C. COLLECTIONS OF TRANSLATIONS

Adamson, M. R. A Treasury of Middle English Verse, selected and

rendered into Modern English. London, 1930.

Benham, A. R. English Literature from Widsith to the Death of

Chaucer. O.U.P., 1916.

Darton, F. J. H. Wonder Book of Old Romance. New York, 1907.

Geroould, G. H. Old English and Medieval Literature. Rev. and

enlarged ed. New York, 1934.

Loomis, R. S., and Ward, R. (eds.). Medieval English Verse and

Prose in Modernised Versions. New York, 1948.

Neilson, W. A., and Webster, K. G. T. Chief British Poets of the

Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Selected Poems, edited with

Explanatory and Biographical Notes. Boston, 1916.

Pancoast, H. S., and Spaeth, J. D. E. Early English Poems.

New York, 1911.

Reinhard, J. R. Medieval Pageant. New York, 1939.

Segar, M. G. A Medieval Anthology, being Lyrics and Other Short

Poems, Chiefly Religious. London, 1916.

Rickert, E. Early English Romances in Verse: Romances of Friend-

ship, Vol. I; Romances of Love, Vol. II. London, 1908.

Schlauch, M. Medieval Narrative. A Book of Translations. New

York, 1928.

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Shackford, M. H. Legends and Satires from Medieval Literature. Boston, 1913.

Weston, J. L. Romance, Vision and Satire, English Alliterative Poems of the Fourteenth Century. Boston, 1912.

Weston, J. L. The Chief Middle English Poets. Selected Poems newly rendered and edited, with Notes and Bibliographical References. Boston, 1914.

D. EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

See Tucker and Benham, A Bibliography of Fifteenth Century Literature, Univ. of Washington Publ., Vol. II, No. 3, Seattle, 1928.

The most representative selections are: W. W. Skeat, Specimens of Early English, Vol. III, 6th ed., 1892; Eleanor P. Hammond, English Verse from between Chaucer and Surrey, Durham, N. Carolina, 1927, limited deliberately to "conventional secular poetry" and so less interesting, but with thorough notes and full bibliography; W. A. Neilson and K. G. T. Webster, The Chief British Poets of the 14th and 15th Centuries. Boston, 1936, an anthology whose scope is indicated in the title: the apparatus is small. A. F. Pollard, Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, in the re-issue of Arber's Scholar's Library, 1903, gives good mixed reading in modernised spelling. Percy's Reliques is of course to be seen, especially ed. H. B. Wheatley, 1891, the Percy Folio MS., ed. F. J. Furnivall and J. W. Hales, 3 vols. and supplement, 1867. W. C. Hazlitt, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, 1864, is a valuable collection of material of all sorts. Other collections are mentioned in their places-e.g., Lyric, Political Poetry, etc.

R. W. Chambers and Marjorie Daunt, A Book of London English, 1384-1425, Oxford, 1931, is a text-book for the study of London English. An appendix, "a descriptive list of English MSS. in the Public Record Office", catalogues most of the documents written in English up to 1425. This is better reading than some more pretentious literature.

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The authors and texts discussed below comprise the under-

mentioned:—

Ancren Riwle.

Andrew of Wyntoun.

Ayenbite of Inwyt.

Hector Boece.

Nicholas Bozon.

Charles d'Orleans.

Geoffrey Chaucer.

Sir Thomas Clanvowe.

Cursor Mundi.

John Gower.

Robert Grosseteste.

Handlyng Synne.

Stephen Hawes.

Walter Hilton.

John Hoccleve.

John Lydgate.

Sir Thomas Malory.

Sir John Mandeville's Travels.

Laurence Minot.

John Mirk.

The Pearl Poet.

Reginald Peacock.

The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman.

Poema Morale.

Prick of Conscience.

Richard Rolle.

Sir Richard Ros.

John Skelton.

William of Shoreham.

John Wycliffe.

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ANCREN RIWLE (The Nuns' Rule)

The most important prose work of its period and moreover one of the most charming pieces in the whole of M.E. literature, the Riwle must certainly be read. It is a devotional manual, originally composed, perhaps c. 1200, for the guidance and profit of three young ladies who had withdrawn from the world in order to live as anchoresses close by a church. Two MSS., viz., Cott. Nero A. 14 (1230-50) and Cott. Tib. D 18 (1230-50), preserve the text in full, whilst extracts are contained in MS. Caius Coll. Cbg. 234 (thirteenth century). About 1250, however, the Riwle was revised for more general application, which version is now customarily referred to as Ancrene Wisse ("The Nuns' Guide"). This revised recension is preserved in only one MS., viz., C.C.C.C. 402 (1230-50). "All our other manuscripts, and the Latin and French versions, go back to the older stage of the Rule as written for three recluses only" (Chambers, Cont. Engl. Prose, xcvii).

After long neglect by critics, this treatise is now being intensively studied by some of our foremost scholars, and we may look forward to receiving precise information about the problems of authorship, date and occasion of composition, the identity of the ladies, and the dialect of the various texts. Meanwhile the reader may to some extent follow the course of these interesting investigations by consulting the articles of Miss Allen and Professors Chambers and Tolkien mentioned below.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., I.179-80.

Editions.

Morton, J. The Ancren Riwle. Camden Soc. 1853. [An ed. of MS. Cott. Nero, with translation. The latter, with slight changes, and prefaced by an introd. by Abbot Gasquet, was issued in book-form as Vol. XVIII of the Medieval Library, under the title of The Nuns' Rule. London, 1926.] Pahlson, J. The Recluse: A Fourteenth-Century Version of the A.R. Lund, 1918. [Ed. of Magd. Coll. Cbg. Pepys 2498 (fourteenth century).]

N.B.—E.E.T.S. has edd. of all extant texts at Press.

Discussion.

Allen, H. E. (1) "The Origin of the A.R." in P.M.L.A., 33.474-546. 1918. [Identification of the three ladies.] (2) "The

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‘A.R.’ and Kilburn Priory" in M.L.R., 16.316–22. 1921.

(3) "Some Fourteenth Century Borrowings from the A.R." in M.L.R., 18.1–8. 1923. [Showing the popularity of the A.R. during the period.]

(4) "Further Borrowings from A.R." in M.L.R., 24.1–15. 1929. [Concludes that the A.R. enjoyed a prodigious popularity in mediaeval England for at least 300 years.]

(5) "On the Author of the Ancren Riwle" in P.M.L.A., 44.635–80. 1929. [Identifies the author with Godwin, hermit of Kilburn, and master of the anchoresses.]

Bethurum, D. "The Connexion of the Katherine Group with O.E. Prose" in J.E.G.Ph., 34.553 ff.

Bøgholm, N. "Vocabulary and Style of the M.E. Ancren Riwle" in English Studies, 19.133 ff.

Chambers. Cont. Engl. Prose, xcvi ff.

Chambers, R. W. "Recent Research upon the A.R." in R.E.S., 1.4–23. 1925. [Accepts the theory of an English original.]

Dymes, D. M. E. "The Original Language of the A.R." in Essays and Studies, 9.31–49. 1923. [Argues that the original language was English, not French.]

Hall. Sels., 354–407. [MSS., bibl., language, style, authorship.]

Macaulay, G. C. "The A.R." in M.L.R., 9.63–78, 145–60, 324– 31, 463–74. 1914. [Collation of C.C.C.C. with Morton’s text; discussion of relationship of A.R. to existing French and Latin versions.]

Tolkien, J. R. R. "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad" in Essays and Studies, 14.104–26. 1929. [Linguistic survey.]

Wells. VI [40].

ANDREW OF WYNToun, c. 1350–c. 1425

Wyntoun, an Augustinian Canon of St. Andrew’s and prior of St. Serf’s monastery in Lochleven, wrote The Oryginalle Cronycle —“original” because it begins at the beginning—in ten Books.

With Bk. VI he arrives at reasonably historical times, and continues the history of Scotland down to James I. His use of the 8-syllable couplet indicates his affiliation, and he cites Barbour frequently. He is not an emotional romancer, but a serious and cultivated person interested in history, of some value as evidence for the later times. Nine MSS. exist, representing three recensions of the text. The first ed. was by David Macpherson, 1795; it was revised by Laing for the Historians of Scoiland series, 1872–9. The best ed. is by F. J. Amours, in 6 vols., S.T.S., 50, 53–4, 56–7, 63, 1902–5, 1914. In Vols. II–VI the text of the MS. in Wemyss

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Castle, supplemented by MS. T.T.6.6. in St. Andrew's University Library, is printed parallel with that of MS. Cotton Nero D.XI. in the British Museum. Vol. I contains life, bibliography, etc., and notes. See also Sir Herbert Maxwell, The Early Chronicles relating to Scotland. Glasgow, 1912, and F. Brie, Die Nationale Literatur Schottlands, Halle, 1937.

AYENBITE OF INWIT ("Remorse of Conscience")

The chief merit of this long and dreary moral treatise, which the Canterbury monk, Dan Michel of Northgate, despite his inadequate French scholarship translated—fairly closely but with innumerable errors—from Friar Lorens' Le Somme des Vices et des Vertues, is this: it survives in the author's own MS., Arundel 57, is dated 1340, and claims to be written in the Kentish dialect. Hence, philologically, the document is priceless.

Its contents include expositions of the Commandments and the Creed, an interpretation of St. John's Vision, and expositions of the Pater Noster and of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., 1.184–5.

Edition.

Stevenson, Roxburgh Club, 1855.

Morris, R. Dan Michel's Ayenbite of Inwyt. E.E.T.S., 23.

Discussion.

Wallenberg, J. K. The Vocabulary of Dan Michel's Ayenbite of Inwyt. A Phonological, Morphological, Etymological, Semasiological and Textual Study. Uppsala, 1923. [Invaluable.]

Wells. VI [4].

HECTOR BOECE (?1465–1536).

A Scot of Angus, professor in Paris and Principal of King's College, Aberdeen, is to be mentioned, since it was his chronicle that more than any other gave form and currency to the legends of the early Scottish people and kings. It was published in Paris, 1526, translated by John Bellenden (?1490–1550) and again by Harrison in Holinshed's Chronicle, where Shakespeare found it.

Chroniklis of Scotland with the cosmography and dyscription thairof. Compilit be the noble clerk maister Hector Boece, channoun of Aberdene. Translatit laitly in our vulgar and common language be

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MEDIAEVAL PERIOD—INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS AND TEXTS

maister John Bellenden, Archdene of Murray. Originally published. Edinburgh, ?1540. Edition: Chambers, R. W., Batho, E., and Husbands, W. S.T.S. 1938-41. See F. Brie, Die nationale Literatur Schottlands, Halle, 1937. He wrote also an ecclesiastical history: Episcoporum Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium per Hectorem Boetium Vitae. Paris, 1522. Bannatyne Club, 1825.

NICHOLAS BOZON

Nothing is known of him, except that he was a Franciscan and lived round about 1300. His Anglo-Norman Contes Moralisés, ed. from two MSS. by Lucy Toulmin Smith and Paul Meyer, Soc. des Anciens Textes Francais, 1889, are drawn from Bartholomeus Anglicus and the Aesopic tradition, and though written down in French have a perceptible background of English anecdote, phrase, and detail. Besides this collection of exempla for sermons some scattered poems remain; see the introd. to ed. above, and Vising, Anglo-Norman Language and Literature.

CHARLES D'ORLEANS, 1391-1455.

Nephew of Charles VI of France, he was captured at Agincourt, 1415 and remained prisoner in England till 1440. He learned English—with a slight Northern accent, and, according to courtly tradition, from a lady—and among his French poems are some in English. His poetry is slight, elegant and charming. For his life, see P. Champion, Vie de C. d'O., Paris, 1911. Two editions of his complete works appeared in Paris, 1842, by L. Champollion-Figeac and J. M. Guichard. The ed. by P. Champion, Classiques Français du Moyen Age, Paris, 1923, lacks the English poems, which may be found in Miss Hammond, English Verse. The illumination in MS. Royal 16. F. II (B.M.), showing Charles in the Tower, is often reproduced, though it was made c. 1500. There are also English versions of 77 of Charles's French poems in MS. Harleian 682, of which Miss Hammond prints a selection: see P. Sauerstein, C. d'O. und die englische Ubersetzung seiner Dichtungen, Halle, 1899. Dr. Steele believes them to be Charles's own, and credits him with 121 English poems; which makes him much more important than he seemed.

Edition.

Steele, R. E.E.T.S. 1941.

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GEOFFREY CHAUCER, 1340?-1400

Life

The documents are collected in the Chaucer Society’s Life Records, 1875-1900: Parts I and III by W. W. Selby, Part II by F. J. Furnivall, Part IV by R. E. G. Kirk (with a good summary prefixed); index by E. P. Kuhl in Mod. Phil. X (1913). Besides the usual encyclopaedias, see the Lives in Ward, French, Hadow, Legouis and Ten Brink below, and in the editions. For later additions and criticisms see Brusendorff (below), Chap. I, J. R. Hulbert, Chaucer’s Official Life, 1912, and especially J. M. Manly, Some New Light on Chaucer, New York, 1926. M. H. Spielman, The Portraits of Chaucer, Ch. Soc. 31, 1900, may be noted here. A. A. Kern, The Ancestry of Chaucer, 1906 and R. Krauss, Chaucerian Problems (concerned especially with his descendants) in Three Chaucer Studies, New York, 1932, shed little light on Chaucer, but include useful references to contemporary figures: see also J. M. Manly’s criticism of the latter in R.E.S. X, 1934. For Chaucer’s literary life, see G. A. Plimpton, The Education of Chaucer, O.U.P., 1935; J. S. P. Tatlock, The Development and Chronology of Ch.’s Works, Ch. Soc. 37, 1907; W. W. Skeat, The Chaucer Canon, Oxford, 1900; and Brusendorff, Chap. I and passim. There are, of course, still differences of opinion as to the dates and occasions of some poems: for a useful summary of the various attempts, see Wells, Manual, p. 623-8.

Bibliography

Eleanor P. Hammond, Chaucer, a Bibliographical Manual, New York, 1908 (reproduced 1933), is the necessary basis for solid study, not only as an indispensable list of publications up to its date, but as a summary collection of facts. Continuations to 1924, by D. D. Griffith, Univ. of Washington Press, 1926, and from 1924 to 1933 by W. E. Martin, Duke Univ. Press, 1935, are more strictly lists of books and papers. J. Koch, Der gegenwärtige Stand der Chaucerforschung, in Anglia 49 (n.f. xxxvii, May, 1925) reviews work between 1908 and 1925. These, or Wells, Manual, Chap. XIV, the Mod. Hum. Annual Bibliographies, the Year’s Work in English Studies, and Kennedy, will enable the student to trace general and special studies, but he may find enough in the lists in French, Handbook (below) and the edd., notably Robinson’s. Charlotte F. E. Spurgeon, 500 Years of Chaucer Criticism and

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Allusion, 3 vols., 1925 (collecting work in Ch. Soc. 48–56), more inclusive and more "literary", gives an interesting survey of Chaucer's reputation; her conclusions being drawn in Chaucer devant la critique, Paris, 1911. There is a Concordance by J. S. P. Tatlock and A. G. Kennedy, Carnegie Institute, Washington, U.S.A., 1927, and an Index to Proper Names, etc., by H. Corson, New York, 1911.

Chaucerian Studies

The beginner will do well to possess A. W. Pollard's Chaucer, 1893, and reprints, in Macmillan's series of Primers; though it requires revision and supplement, and stereotyped the unhappy division into "periods", the gist of the matter is there. R. D. French, A Chaucer Handbook, 2nd ed., New York, 1947, has the advantage of recent research, but wastes time on analysis of poems which the student reads for himself. Other useful introductions are: G. H. Cowling, Chaucer, 1927; D. Martin, A First Book about Chaucer, 1927; Grace E. Hadow, Chaucer and his Times (Home Univ. Lib.), 1927, and reprints; A. W. Ward, Chaucer, English Men of Letters Series, 1880 and reprints; N. Coghill, The Poet Chaucer (Home Univ. Lib.), 1949. More advanced works are: R. K. Root, The Poetry of Chaucer, revised edition, 1934, and G. L. Kittredge, Chaucer and his Poetry, 1925: both excellent. M. Kaluza, Chaucer Handbuch für Stüdierende, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1927, is still more complete. Advanced study will be based on Hammond's Manual (above). B. Ten Brink, Chaucer Studien, Munster, 1870, was a great contribution. T. R. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, 3 vols., 1892, contains much sound and valuable stuff, somewhat smothered in words. J. Livingston Lowes' Geoffrey Chaucer, 1934, is admirable for those who already know something about Chaucer, especially in the brilliant Chapters I-III, on Backgrounds and Horizons, The World of Affairs, and The World of Books, and for its good sense throughout. Aage Brusendorff, The Chaucer Tradition, Copenhagen and London, 1925, is decidedly not for beginners, but contains good mixed matter and a correct critical attitude to uncertain and difficult questions. G. G. Coulton, Chaucer and His England, will help with "background". Hérrancourt, W., Die Wertwelt Chaucers, die Wertwelt einer Zeitwende, Heidelberg, 1939, is a dull but valuable examination of C.'s ethical ideas.

Such collections as O. F. Emerson, Chaucer Essays and Studies. Cleveland, Ohio, 1930, and the Essays published by the Chaucer

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Soc. are very variable, and each paper must be taken on its merits.

Of more specifically literary studies Dryden's Preface to the Fables (edited by Ker, Vol. II) is the backbone of all, and Lowell's essay in My Study Windows is still worth reading. G. K. Chesterton, Chaucer, 1932, and reprints, is refreshing and characteristic. J. Livingston Lowes, The Art of G.C., Proc. British Academy, 1931, J. M. Manly, Chaucer and the Rhetoricians, British Academy Warton Lecture, 1926, and John Masefield's Leslie Stephen Lecture, Cambridge, 1931, are brief but admirable. L. Cazamian, The Development of English Humour, Vol. I, New York, 1930, Chap. IV., E. F. Shannon, Ch. and the Roman Poets, Cambridge, Mass., 1929; W. C. Curry, Ch. and the Mediaeval Sciences, New York, 1926, and C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love, Oxford, 1936, Chap. IV, attack from special angles, but such as contribute importantly to general views. But Chaucer's best modern critics are E. Legouis, whose Chaucer (translated by L. Lailavoix, 1913 and 1928, but best in the original French) contains true "genial" criticism and is also corrective of the over-emphasis on Italian noticeable, e.g., in Miss Hammond; and W. P. Ker, whose ripe understanding illuminates his English Literature, Mediaeval (Home Univ. Lib.), Chap. IX, Essays on Mediaeval Literature, 1905, and Form and Style in Poetry, 1928, pp. 49-79. Thomas Warton's History of English Lit., Vol. I, sect. xii ff., as purged by W. C. Hazlitt, is not to be neglected, nor J. J. Jusserand, Literary History of the English People, I, ii. Courthope, Saintsbury, and the historians will naturally be consulted, and Saintsbury's chapter in C.H.E.L., Vol. II, Chap. VII

The Chaucer Society was founded by the indefatigable Furnivall in 1868, and has completed its task, which was in two parts: first, to print texts as they appear in the MSS., and second, to publish certain studies. The most important are noted in their places here; for a complete list see the catalogue of the Oxford Univ. Press.

Language and Metre

The standard work is B. ten Brink, Chaucers Sprache und Vers-kunst, Leipzig, 1884, and reprints, revised by F. Kluge, translated by M. Bentinck Smith, 1901. Good brief outlines are given in French, Handbook (above), in Skeat's ed. of C.T. in the school editions which see under C.T. below, and in S. Moore, Historical

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MEDIAEVAL PERIOD—INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS AND TEXTS

Outlines of English Phonology and Morphology, Ann. Arbor, Mich., 1925, Part V. J. Mersand studies an important aspect in Chaucer's Romance Vocabulary, New York, 1939. For metre, see Schipper, Englische Metrik, Bonn, 1888; Ten Brink, Chap. III; Saintsbury, History of English Prosody, 1906, Vol. I, and the apparatus in editions.

Collective Editions

The first was edited by William Thynne, 1532 (facs. ed. W. W. Skeat, Oxford, 1905), and was reprinted in 1542, 1546, 1555 and 1561, the last being edited by John Stowe. In 1598 Thomas Speght produced an ed. with brief glossary and notes criticised by Francis Thynne (son of William) in Animadversions, ed. from MS. by F. J. Furnivall, E.E.T.S. 9, 1865, and Chaucer Soc. 13, 1875. Thynne helped with Speght's second ed., 1602, which was the basis for editions until John Urry's, 1721. Tyrwhitt (see under C.T.) showed the need for a new approach, but no ed. matters until W. W. Skeat's in 7 vols., Oxford, 1894-7, and this is still the most fully-annotated ed. Vol. I contains Life of G.C.; II–V, texts and apparatus; VI, notes on C.T.; VII, non-Chaucerian poems printed in early editions. One-vol. editions are edited by Skeat, Oxford, 1895, and since; Pollard, Heath, Liddell and McCormick, the "Globe" ed., 1898, and reprints; H. M. MacCracken, "College Chaucer", Yale Univ. Press, 1913, a very useful ed.; and F. N. Robinson, Boston and Oxford 1933, with good introd. and excellent notes, full of bibliographical help, and a rather less satisfactory account of G.C.'s language. Besides profiting by another generation of scholarship, the American editions have the advantage of more legible printing. There are editions also in the World's Classics (Skeat's text), Everyman Lib., etc.

The Canterbury Tales

Some eighty-three MSS. exist: see the complete list in Robinson's ed., p. 1001, and descriptions (though the list is incomplete) in Hammond, Chaucer Manual, p. 163. Eight, the most important, are printed by the Chaucer Soc. In the Six-Text Edition, edited by Furnivall, with Index by H. Corson, are parallel texts of the Ellesmere (now in the Huntington Library, California), Hengwrt (now in the National Library of Wales), Cambridge Univ. Lib. Gg. 4.27, Corpus Christi Coll. (Oxford), Petworth (privately owned), Lansdowne (B.M.). The separate texts are also available. The Society also printed Harleian 7334 (B.M.) and C.U.L. Dd. 4.24 completed by Egerton 2726 (B.M.); and, as specimens, the

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Doctor-Pardoner Link and Pardoner's Prologue and Tale from forty-three MSS. and Caxton's (two) and Thynne's prints, the Pardoner's Prologue and Tale from Hodson 39 (now John Rylands Lib., Manchester, Engl. 113), and the Clerk's Tale from 8 MSS., with separate introd. by J. Koch, No. 97. See also notes and corrections, Nos. 47 and 49. For the physical appearance of MSS., see the Autotype Facsimiles, Ch. Soc. 48, 56, 62, 74 (1876-85): that of the Ellesmere MS., which is the basis of all modern texts, and notable for its illustrations, is No. 74: a better facs. was publ., Manchester, 1911. For descriptions and discussion see, besides editorial matter in the above, Brusendorff, 11.2, and especially W. S. MacCormick and J. Heseltine, The MSS. of the Canterbury Tales, Oxford, 1933. All known MSS. are collated in The Text of the Canterbury Tales, by J. M. Manly and Edith Rickert, Chicago, 1940. Muriel Bowden, A Commentary on the Canterbury Tales, New York, 1948, is valuable.

Printed texts begin in 1478 with Caxton (see p. 432), whose second edition (1484) was reprinted by de Worde and Pynson, and incorporated in the tradition of the collected works until Thomas Tyrwhitt began the modern study of Chaucer in his edition of the Tales, 1775-8, reprinted 1798, 1822, and in later collective editions. The (separate) edition by J. M. Manly, Chicago, 1929, is bowdlerised, or, rather, selected, but contains most valuable introd., notes, glossary, etc. There are many school editions of the Prologue and various tales, of which note M. Bentinck Smith, Prol. and Knight's Tale, Cambridge, with lucid introd. based on Ten Brink; A. J. Wyatt, Prol. and Nuns' Priest's Tale, Univ. Tutorial Press, 1930; K. Sisam, Nuns' Priest's Tale and Clerk's Tale; A. J. Wyatt, The Links of the C.T., unex-pectedly interesting by themselves.

The question of the order of the tales, which imposes itself for both textual and critical reasons, is discussed by C. Robert Kase in Three Chaucer Studies, New York, 1932, wherein are references to earlier discussions: see J. M. Manly on this in R.E.S. x, 1934. Modern editors accept the order of the Ellesmere MS., since it is clear that Chaucer had not revised certain discrepancies out of his unfinished book. Henry Littlehales, Some Notes on the Road from London to Canterbury in the Middle Ages, Ch. Soc. 30 (1898) helps the broad understanding of the plan. The reader will find enough guidance as to sources and studies thereon among Robinson's notes, but may be amused by Originals and Analogues of some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, ed. Furnivall, Brock, and Clouston, Ch. Soc. 7, 10, 15, 20, 22 (1872-87; index in Part V).

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Troilus and Criseyde

There are 16 MSS. and some fragments: see R. K. Root, The Troilus MSS., Ch. Soc. 98 (1914) for descriptions and fac-

similes. The text-material is given in Three Parallel-Texts and Three More Parallel-Texts, Ch. Soc. 63, 64, 87, 88 (1881–95), and

Specimen Extracts, ed. McCormick and Root, Ch. Soc. 89 (1914); for discussion, see Root, The Textual Tradition of Troilus, Ch. Soc.

99 (1916), Brusendorff, Ch. III, sect. 3, and the editions.

The relation of T. and C. to its source, Boccaccio's Il Filostrato can be grasped from W. M. Rossetti's comparison, Ch. Soc. 44,

65 (1875–83) and is traced in detail by Karl Young, The Origin and Development of the Story of T. and C., Ch. Soc. 40 (1914).

See also N. E. Griffin and A. B. Myrick's translation, The Filostrato of Boccaccio, Philadelphia, 1927, with introd. There is

valuable material in G. L. Kittredge, The Date of Chaucer's Troilus and other Chaucer Matters, Ch. Soc. 42 (1909); C. S. Lewis,

The Allegory of Love, Oxford, 1936, pp. 176–97 and What Chaucer Really did to Il Filostrato. Engl. Ass. Essays and Studies, xvii,

1932; and W. P. Ker's brilliant appreciation in English Literature: Medieval (Home Univ. Lib.), Ch. IX.

Minor Poems in Alphabetical order

For discussion of provenance of texts, etc., see A. Brusendorff, The Ch. Tradition, Chaps. III and IV; Skeat, The Ch. Canon

and editions. The number of MSS. is mentioned, to suggest the relative circulation before the printed collective editions.

An ABC: 13 MSS.: an early work, translated from a passage in G. Deguileville, Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine, being a prayer

to Our Lady, each stanza beginning with a letter of the alphabet in sequence.

Anelida and Arcite: 8 MSS. and 4 partial MSS.: printed by Caxton, 1477–8. A court poem after the French manner, with

suggestions from Boccaccio's Teseide (cf. Knight's Tale), being a complainte with a story-setting in quasi-epic style.

Unconvincing attempts have been made to prove a personal allegory. Ch. may have thought of an elaborate sequence—a

story with elaborate lyrical passages inset, and left it unfinished, like others.

The Book of the Duchess: 3 MSS. An elegy on Blanche, First wife of John of Gaunt, who died 1369, in courtly allegory.

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A Complaint to Pity: 9 MSS.; A Complaint to his Lady: 2 MSS. These are early exercises in a fashionable French form.

The Complaint of Mars: 8 MSS.; printed by Julian Notary, ?1500. A proem, astronomical story, second proem and 5 lyrical pieces. Allegorical explanations have been suggested even by Shirley, the early fifteenth-century copyist; but none are sure.

The Complaint of Venus: 8 MSS.; and Julian Notary's print. This set of ballads is not connected with Mars, is much later, and a version of a poem by Otes de Granson.

A Complaint to his Purse: 8 MSS.; printed by Caxton, 1477-8. This is not a conventional poem like the above, but a personal address to Henry IV, and therefore to be dated in 1399, at the end of Ch.'s life.

The Former Age: 2 MSS.; a moral ballade perhaps on a suggestion from Boethius, but on a theme that goes back to Ovid and further.

Fortune: 10 MSS.; printed by Caxton, 1477. Three "ballades de visage sanz peinture": the third a "debate". Written ?1390.

Gentilesse: 9 MSS.; printed by Caxton. A moral ballade, on the theme developed by the Wife of Bath.

The House of Fame: 3 MSS.; printed by Caxton, 1483. Unfinished. The attempts to find personal allegories may be disregarded. See W. O. Sypherd, Studies in Ch.'s H. of F., Ch. Soc. 39, 1907; Brusendorff, Ch. III, I.

Lak of Stedfastness: 12 MSS. A ballade, with envoy to Richard II, on the times.

The Legend of Good Women: 12 MSS. There are two versions of the Prologue; most editors print both. Ed. W. W. Skeat, Oxford. See Amy, The Text of Ch.'s L.G.W., Princeton, 1918; Brusendorff, Chap. III, I.

Lenvoy to Scogan: 3 MSS. A friendly epistle to Henry Scogan, poet and disciple, tutor to Henry IV's sons. Written ?1393.

Lenvoy to Bukton: 1 MS.; printed by Julian Notary. A letter of advice to Sir Peter or Sir Robert B.—opinion is divided, and it might be to either: a late work, on internal evidence.

Lines to Adam Scriveyn: 1 MS. Admonition to his copyist.

The Parliament of Fowls: 3 MSS.; printed by Caxton, 1483, under title of The Temple of Bras. There is much controversy about the occasion of composition, for it looks like a courtly allegory: a late specimen, containing full references to earlier views, is by Haldeen Braddy, No. III in Three Chaucer Studies, New York, 1932, J. M. Manly (Kittredge Anniv. Vol.)

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denies all allegory. We may agree with J. L. Lowes (Chaucer,

p. 125) that results have not justified the expense of

argument and research.

The Romaunt of the Rose: 1 MS. In L.G.W., prol. 328–31, Ch. avows

a translation of Le Roman de la Rose, by G. de Lorris and J. de

Meung; much argument has been expended on whether this

is it. M. Kaluza broke it in three (see Ch. und der Rosenroman,

Berlin, 1893), and the conclusion at present, if any, is that

A is Ch.'s, B is not, C may be. Its importance is symbolic:

the Rose was one of the great influences in his work: see

D. S. Fansler, Ch. and the R. de la R., New York, 1914. The

best ed. of the original is by Langlois, Soc. des Anciens

Textes Français; there is a good verse translation by F. S.

Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900.

Truth: 22 MSS.; printed by Caxton, 1477. A “balade de bon

conceyl”, addressed to Sir Peter de la Vache, according to

Miss Edith Rickert, Mod. Phil., XI.

Womanly Noblesse: 1 MS. A complaint to a lady.

Prose Works

Boece: 10 MSS.; printed by Caxton, 1475. This is a free translation

of the Consolatio Philosophiae of A. M. S. Boethius (c. 470–

525), one of the capital books throughout the Middle Ages.

Ch. translates both prosae and metra into prose. For the

original, the Loeb ed. and translation by H. F. Stewart

and E. K. Rand, 1918, are convenient. See H. F. Stewart,

Boethius, Edinburgh, 1891; B. L. Jefferson, Ch. and the

Consolation of Philosophy of B., Princeton, 1917.

A Treatise of the Astrolabe: 22 MSS. Skeat’s notes are most

helpful. See R. T. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, Oxford,

1921–3.

Poems of Uncertain Attribution.

Usually included by modern editors: their relation in kind to

accepted poems is clear.

Against Women Unconstant: 3 MSS.

Compleynt d’Amours: 3 MSS.

Merciles Beauty: 1 MS.

A Balade of Complainte: 1 MS.

Proverbs: 3 MSS.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

SIR THOMAS CLANVOWE, fl. 1394–1404

A Hereford man, and one of the society centring in Prince Hal, he is credited with The Cuckoo and the Nightingale (see p. 333), one of the prettiest things in Mediaeval English, in the estrif or disputation form. There are six MSS., and Thynne printed it in his ed. of Chaucer, 1532. Wordsworth modernised it pleasantly in 1801. It it most accessible in Skeat's Chaucer, Vol. VII.

CURSOR MUNDI

The text of this metrical “encyclopædia” of Bible stories, comprising some 30,000 ll. and composed in the North c. 1300–25, is preserved in seven MSS.; Cott. Vesp. A III (c. 1340; 29,547 ll.); Göttingen Univ. Lib. Theol. 107 (14th c.; 25,766 ll.); Trin. Coll. Cbg. R, 3, 8 (15th c.; 23,898 ll.); Fairfax 14 (15th c.; 27,899 ll.; with many gaps); B.M. Add. 36,983 (15th c.; 22,004 ll.); Laud 416 (15th c.; 23,898 ll.); College of Arms 57 (c. 1450; ll. 153–23,898). Moreover, fragments are found in several others.

Chiefly in octosyllabic couplets, the poem consists of a prologue and seven parts, as well as four appendices, with, all told, four appendages, not all of which occur in the same MS. Apparently designed both to instruct and to entertain, its many merits (in point of diversity of contents [betokening wide reading], its structure and writing, the regularity of its verse, its direct language, and the author's sympathetic attitude) clearly achieved its purpose—witness the number of extant MSS.

Bibliography.

C.B.E.L., i.182.

Text.

Morris, R. The “Cursor Mundi”. E.E.T.S., 57, 59, 62, 66, 68, 99. [With apparatus.]

Discussion.

Hupe, H. Cursor Mundi. E.E.T.S., 101. [Essay on the MSS., their dialects.]

Wells. VI [1].

JOHN GOWER, c. 1330–1408

A Kentish squire, he seems to have lived in London and in touch with the court, was a partizan of Henry IV, died in the Priory of St. Mary Overy and was buried in its church (now

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MEDIAEVAL PERIOD—INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS AND TEXTS

Southwark Cathedral) where his tomb still is. For bibliography see Wells, Ch. XV. 2. For life, MSS., etc., Macaulay's intros.

(below) are standard. For criticism, see the histories, and W. P. Ker, Essays, and Eng. Lit. Med.; W. G. Dodd, Courtly Love

in Gower and Chaucer, Boston, 1913; and especially C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love, 1936, Ch. V. The one collective ed. is by

G. C. Macaulay, 4 vols., Oxford, 1899–1902; Vol. I, French works; II–III, English; IV, Latin; with introd. and apparatus

in each, Life in Vol. IV.

(a) French works: Speculum Meditantis (the title in a Latin note in some MSS. of V.C., below) or Le Mirour de l'Ommre (the title

in the MS.) is a moral work, in some 30,300 lines in 12-line stanzas, written 1376–9, on the effects of sin on society. Long

lost, a MS. was found in 1895, now Addit. 3035 in Univ. Lib., Cambridge. See R. Elfreda Fowler, Une Source Française des

Poèmes de G., Paris, 1905; the analysis is useful, and relates G. to the body of Summae of virtues and vices which took the place

of ethical philosophy. Traitié pour essampler les amantz mariez, written 1397, before his marriage late in life; 10 MSS. Cinkante

Ballades, 51 attractive love poems, one to the B.V.M. and two of dedication to Henry IV, probably collected 1399 but may

include early work; 1 MS.

(b) Latin works: Vox Clamantis, in some 10,000 Latin elegiacs, first written c. 1382 but altered later, denouncing political and

social conditions under Richard II; 10 MSS., of which Cotton Tiberius A. iv (in B.M.) and Hunterian T. 2.17 (Glasgow Univ.)

contain "portraits" of G. aiming an arrow at the globe. Cronica Tripartita, in leonine hexameters, describes the last 12 years of

Richard II from a hostile position; 1 MS., printed by T. Wright in Political Poems, Rolls Ser., 1859–61. Macaulay adds 10 minor

poems, mainly political, in Vol. IV.

(c) English works: Confessio Amantis, Prologue and 8 Books in 33, 444 8-syllable lines, written 1390 and revised 1393, is a treatise

on love, morality, and learning. The scheme is a religious parody, a confession to Venus's priest Genius on the lines of a summa

(see S.M. above) and illustrated with over 100 tales; but general morality and learning through the last 4 Books out of proportion.

There are some 40 MSS., a print by Caxton, 1483, and two by Berthelet. Ed.: R. Pauli, 1857, from Berthelet's print of 1532;

G. C. Macaulay, E.E.T.S. LXXXI–II, 1900–1. Macaulay ed. an ample selection, Oxford, 1903. In Praise of Peace, addressed

to Henry IV on his accession, was included in Thynne's Chaucer, 1532 (Skeat, Vol. VII), T. Wright, Political Poems, Vol. I; 1 MS.

289

T

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

ROBERT GROSSETESTE, d. 1253

A Suffolk man of humble origin, an Oxford scholar acquainted

with Greek and Hebrew, science and medicine, the first Chan-

cellor of the University, 1214, and Bishop of Lincoln, 1235,

he was often called Saint Robert after his death. For this most

remarkable man, see F. S. Stevenson, R.G., 1899. He left many

sermons, and treatises on theology, mathematics, estate manage-

ment (see under Agriculture, p. 441). His Epistolae, ed. H. R.

Luard, Rolls Ser., 1861, show his emphasis on scripture against

tradition and his opposition to foreign prelates. Le Chasteau

d'Amour, a mystical-homiletic work in irregular 8-syllable verse,

(ed. J. Murray, Paris, 1918) was influential; there are some

15 MSS., and must have been many more. There are several

translations, for which see F. K. Haase in Anglia, XII, 1890, and

Hupe, ib., XIV, 1892, who prints a fifteenth-century verse

translation from MS. Egerton 927 in the B.M.

HANDLYNG SYNNE

Despite its somewhat repellent title, Robert Mannyng's (see

p. 324) most interesting poem of 12,630 four-beat ll. in couplets,

with its wealth of illustrative stories, will amply repay the reader's

time and attention. Preserved in four MSS., viz., Harley 1701

(c. 1360) and Bodley 415 (c. 1400), the fifteenth-century Cbg.

Univ. Lib. Ii IV 9 (lacks prologue), and Dulwich Coll. XXIV

(2,897 ll.), the poem was adapted from William of Wadington's