Handbook of Universal Literature, From the Best and Latest Authorities Part 37

All the earliest relics of the Scotch Celts are metrical. The poems which bear the name of Ossian are professedly celebrations by an eye-witness of events which occurred in the third century. They were first presented to the world in 1762 by Macpherson, a Scotch poet, and represented by him to be translations from the ancient Gaelic poetry handed down by tradition through so many centuries and still found among the Highlands. The question of their authenticity excited a fierce literary controversy which still remains unsettled. By some recent English and German critics, however, Ossian's poems are considered genuine. The existence of bards among the Celtic nations is well established, and their songs were preserved with pride. The name of Ossian is mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis in the twelfth century, and that of Fingal, the hero of the legends, was so popular that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many bishops complained that their people were more familiar with Fingal than with the catechism. The Gaelic original of Ossian was published in 1807.

The literature of the Cymric Celts is particularly interesting, as affording those fragments of British poetry and history from which the magnificent legends were built up to immortalize King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. In the bardic songs and elsewhere, frequent allusion is made to this heroic prince, who with his warriors resisted the Saxon enemies of his country, and who, we are told, died by domestic treason, the flower of the British n.o.bles peris.h.i.+ng with him. His deeds were magnified among the Welsh Britons, and among those who sought refuge on the banks of the Loire. The chroniclers wove these traditions into a legendary history of Britain. From this compilation Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the twelfth century, constructed a Latin historical work; and the poets of chivalry, allured by the beauty and pathos of the tale, made it for ages the centre of the most animated pictures of romance.

Many ancient Welsh writings are extant which treat of a wonderful variety of topics, both in prose and verse. The singular pieces called the Triads show a marked character of primitive antiquity. They are collections of historical facts, mythological doctrines, maxims, traditions, and rules for the structure of verse, expressed with extreme brevity, and disposed in groups of three. Among the Welsh metrical remains, some are plausibly a.s.signed to celebrated bards of the sixth century. There is also a considerable stock of old Welsh romances, the most remarkable of which are contained in a series called the "Mabinogi," or Tales of Youth, many of which have been translated into English. Some of these stories are very similar to the older Norse Sagas, and must have sprung from traditions of a very rude and early generation.

2. LATIN LITERATURE.--The Latin learning of the Dark Ages formed a point of contact between instructed men of all countries. At first it was necessarily adopted,--the native tongues being in their infancy; and it was afterwards so tenaciously adhered to, that the Latin literature of the Middle Ages far exceeds in amount all other. Its cultivation in England arose out of the introduction of Christianity, and its most valued uses related to the church.

Almost all who cultivated Latin learning were ecclesiastics, and by far the larger number of those who became eminent in it were natives of Ireland. Amidst the convulsions which followed the fall of the Roman empire, Ireland was a place of rest and safety to fugitives from England and the Continent, and it contained for some centuries a larger amount of learning than could have been collected in all Europe.

With the introduction of the Christian faith each nation became a member of the ecclesiastical community, and maintained its connection with other nations and with Rome as the common centre; thus communication between different countries received a new impulse. The churches and schools of England received many distinguished foreigners, and many of the native churchmen lived abroad. Of the three scholars who held the highest place in the literature of this period--Bede (d. 735), Alcuin (d. 804), and Erigena (d. 884), (celebrated for his original views in philosophy)--the two last gave the benefit of their talents to France. The writings of the Venerable Bede, as he is called, exhibit an extent of cla.s.sical scholars.h.i.+p surprising for his time, and his "Ecclesiastical History of England" is to this day a leading authority not only for church annals, but for all public events that occurred in the earlier part of the Saxon period.

3. LITERATURE IN THE ANGLO-SAXON TONGUE.--The remains of Anglo-Saxon literature, both in prose and verse, differ essentially from the specimens of a similar age which come down to us from other nations. The ancestral legends, which were at once the poetry and history of their contemporaries, the Anglo-Saxons entirely neglected; they even avoided the choice of national themes for their poetry, which consisted of ethical reflections and religious doctrines or narratives. They eschewed all expression of impa.s.sioned fancy, and embodied in rough but lucid phrases practical information and every-day shrewdness.

Among the Anglo-Saxon metrical monuments three historical poems are still preserved, which embody recollections of the Continent, and must have been composed long before the emigrations to England; of these the most important is the tale of "Beowulf," consisting of six thousand lines, which is essentially a Norse Saga.

After the introduction of Christianity there appeared many hymns, metrical lives of the saints, and religious and reflective poems. The most remarkable relics of this period are the works attributed to Caedmon (d.

680), whose narrative poems on scriptural events are inspired by a n.o.ble tone of solemn imagination.

The melody of the Saxon verse was regulated by syllabic accent or emphasis, and not by quant.i.ty, like the cla.s.sical metres. Alliteration, or the use of several syllables in the same stanza beginning with the same letter, takes the place of rhyme. The alliterative metres and the strained and figurative diction common to the Anglo-Saxon poets was common to the Northmen, and seems to have been derived from them.

Anglo-Saxon prose was remarkable for its straightforward and perspicuous simplicity, and, especially after the time of Alfred, it had a marked preference over the Latin. Translations were early made from the Latin, particularly versions of parts of the Scriptures, which come next, in point of date, to the Moeso-Gothic translation of Ulphilas, and preceded by several generations all similar attempts in any of the new languages of Europe.

The most important monument of Saxon prose literature is the series of historical records arranged together under the name of "The Saxon Chronicle," which is made up from records kept in the monasteries, probably from the time of Alfred, and brought down to the year 1154.

The ill.u.s.trious name of Alfred (849-900) closes the record of Anglo-Saxon literature. From him went forth a spirit of moral strength and a thirst for enlightenment which worked marvels among an ignorant and half- barbarous people. Besides his translations from the Scriptures, he made selections from St. Augustine, Bede, and other writers; he translated "The Consolations of Philosophy," by Boethius, and he incorporates his own reflections with all these authors. It is impossible, at this time, to estimate justly the labors of Alfred, since the obstacles which in his time impeded the acquisition of knowledge cannot even now be conceived. "I have wished to live worthily," said he, "while I lived, and after my life, to leave to the men who should come after me, my remembrance in good works."

PERIOD SECOND.

FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. (1066-1509).

1. LITERATURE IN THE LATIN TONGUE.--The Norman Conquest introduced into England a foreign race of kings and barons, with their military va.s.sals, and churchmen, who followed the conqueror and his successors. The generation succeeding the Conquest gave birth to little that was remarkable, but the twelfth century was particularly distinguished for its cla.s.sical scholars.h.i.+p, and Norman-French poetry began to find English imitators.

The thirteenth century was a decisive epoch in the const.i.tutional as well as in the intellectual history of England. The Great Charter was extorted from John; the representation of the commons from his successors; the universities were founded or organized; the romantic poetry of France began to be transfused into a language intelligible throughout England; and above all, the Anglo-Saxon tongue was in this century finally transformed into English. Three of the Crusades had already taken place; the other four fell within the next century; and these wars diffused knowledge, and kindled a flame of zeal and devotion to the church.

The only names which adorned the annals of erudition in England in the latter half of the eleventh century were those of two Lombard priests-- Lanfranc (d. 1089) and Anselm (d. 1109). They prepared the means for diffusing cla.s.sical learning among the ecclesiastics, and both acquired high celebrity as theological writers. Their influence was visible on the two most learned men whom the country produced in the next century--John of Salisbury (d. 1181). befriended by Thomas a Becket, and Peter of Blois, the king's secretary, and an active statesman.

In the thirteenth century, when the teachings of Abelard and Rosellinus had made philosophy the favorite pursuit of the scholars of Europe, England possessed many names which, in this field, stood higher than any others--among them Alexander de Hales, called "the Irrefragable Doctor,"

and Johannes Duns Scotus, one of the most acute of thinkers. In the same age, while Scotland sent Michael Scott into Germany, where he prosecuted his studies with a success that earned for him the fame of a sorcerer, a similar character was acquired by Roger Bacon (d. 1292), a Franciscan friar, who made many curious conjectures on the possibility of discoveries which have since been made.

Very few of the historical works of this period possess any merit, except as curious records of fact. Chronicles were kept in the various monasteries, which furnish a series extending through the greater part of the Middle Ages. Among these historians are William of Malmesbury, who belonged properly to the twelfth century; Geoffrey of Monmouth, who preserved for us the stories of Arthur, of Lear, and Cymbeline; Gerald de Barri, or Giraldus Cambrensis; Matthew Paris, a Benedictine monk, of St.

Albans; Henry of Huntingdon; Gervase of Tilbury; and Roger de Hoveden.

The spirit of resistance to secular and ecclesiastical tyranny, which now began to show itself among the English people, found also a medium of expression in the Latin tongue. The most biting satires against the church, and the most lively political pasquinades, were thus expressed, and written almost always by churchmen. To give these satires a wider circulation, the Norman-French came to be frequently used, but at the close of the period the English dialect was almost the only organ of this satirical minstrelsy.

The Latin tongue also became the means of preserving and transmitting an immense stock of tales, by which the later poetry of Europe profited largely. One of these legends, narrated by Gervase of Tilbury, suggested to Scott the combat of Marmion with the spectre knight.

A series of fictions called the "Gesta Romanorum" attained great celebrity. It is composed of fables, traditions, and familiar pictures of society, varying with the different countries it pa.s.sed through. The romance of Apollonius, in the Gesta, furnished the plot of two or three of Chaucer's tales, and of Gower's most celebrated poem, which again gave the ground-work of Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The Merchant of Venice, the Three Black Crows, and Parnell's Hermit, are indebted also to the Gesta Romanorum.

4. LITERATURE IN NORMAN-FRENCH.--From the preference of the Norman kings of England for the poets of their own country, the distinguished literary names of the first two centuries after the Conquest are those of Norman poets. One of the chief of these is Wace (fl. 1160), who composed in French his "Brut d'Angleterre" (Brutus of England), the mythical son of Aeneas and founder of Britain. The Britons settled in Cornwall, Wales, and Bretagne had long been distinguished for their traditionary legends, which were at length collected by Geoffrey of Monmouth (fl. 1138), and gravely related by him in Latin as serious history. This production, composed of incredible stories, furnished the ground-work for Wace's poem, and proved an unfailing resource for writers of romantic narration for two centuries; at a later period Shakspeare drew from it the story of Lear; Sackville that of Ferrex and Porrex; Drayton reproduced it in his Poly-Olbion, and Milton and other poets frequently draw allusions from it. The Romances of chivalry, drawn from the same source, were composed for the English court and n.o.bles, and the translation of them was the most frequent use to which the infant English was applied. They imprinted on English poetry characteristics which it did not lose for centuries, if it can be said to have lost them at all.

A poetess known as Marie of France made copious use of British materials, and addressed herself to a king, supposed to have been Henry VI. Her twelve lays, which celebrate the marvels of the Round Table, are among the most beautiful relics of the Middle Ages, and were freely used by Chaucer and other English poets.

The romances are, many of them, in parts at least, delightfully imaginative, spirited, or pathetic, and their history is important as ill.u.s.trating mediaeval manners and customs, and for their connection with early English literature. Among the oldest of these romances is "Havelok,"

relating to the early Norse settlement in England, the "Gest of King Horn," and "Guy of Warwick."

But of all the French romances, the most interesting by far are those that celebrate the glory and fall of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The order in which they were composed seems to have been the same with that of the events narrated.

First comes the romance of "The Saint Graal," relating the history of this sacred relic which was carried by Joseph of Arimathea or his descendants into Britain, where it vanished for ages from the eyes of sinful men.

Second, the romance of "Merlin," which derives its name from the fiend- born prophet and magician, celebrates the birth and exploits of Arthur, and the gathering round him of the Knights of the Round Table. The historic origin of this story is from Geoffrey of Monmouth, though it is disguised by its supernatural and chivalrous features.

In the third romance, that of Launcelot, the hero nurtured by the Lady of the Lake in her fairy realm beneath the waters, grows up the bravest champion of chivalry, admired for all its virtues, although guilty of treachery to Arthur, and from his guilt is to ensue the destruction of the land.

Fourth, the "Quest of the Saint Graal" relates the solitary wanderings of the knights in this search, and how the adventure is at last achieved by Sir Gallahad, who, while the vision pa.s.ses before him, prays that he may no longer live, and is immediately taken away from a world of calamity and sin.

Fifth, "The Mort Artus," or Death of Arthur, winds up with supernatural horrors the tale into which the fall of the ancient Britons had been thus transformed. Arthur, wounded and dying, is carried by the fairy of the lake to the enchanted island of Avalon, there to dream away the ages that must elapse before his return to reign over the perfected world of chivalry.

Sixth, "The Adventures of Tristram," or Tristan, is a repet.i.tion of those which had been attributed to Launcelot of the Lake.

These six romances of the British cycle, the originals of all others, were written in the latter half of the twelfth century for the English court and n.o.bles, some of them at the suggestion of king Henry II. Although, composed in French, the authors were Englishmen, and from these prose romances the poets of France constructed many metrical romances which in the fifteenth century reappeared as English metrical romances.

5. SAXON ENGLISH.--The Saxon tongue of England decayed, but like the healthy seed in the ground it germinated again. The Saxon Chronicle which had been kept in the monasteries ceased abruptly on the accession of Henry II., 1154, and at the same period the Saxon language began to take a form in which the beginning of the present English is apparent.

During the thirteenth century appeared a series of rhyming chroniclers, the chief of whom were Layamon and Robert of Gloucester. All the remains of the English tongue, in its transition state, are chiefly in verse; among them are the "Ormulum" (so called from the name of the author, Ormin), which is a metrical harmony of pa.s.sages from the gospels contained in the service of the ma.s.s, and the long fable of "The Owl and the Nightingale," one of the most pleasing of these early relics. "The Land of c.o.c.kayne," a satirical poem, said to have been written by Michael of Kildare, belongs also to the thirteenth century, as well as many anonymous poems, both amatory and religious.

The old English drama was almost contemporaneous with the formation of the Old English language; but all dramatic efforts previous to the sixteenth century were so rude as to deserve little notice.

6. LITERATURE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.--The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the afternoon and evening of the Middle Ages, are the picturesque period in English history. In the contemporary chronicle of Froissart, the reign of Edward III. s.h.i.+nes with a long array of knightly pageants, and a loftier cast of imaginative adornment is imparted by the historical dramas of Shakspeare to the troubled rule of the house of Lancaster and the crimes and fall of the brief dynasty of York.

The reign of Edward II. was as inglorious in literature as in the history of the nation. That of his son was not more remarkable for the victories of Poictiers and Cressy than for the triumphs in poetry and thought. The Black Prince, the model of historic chivalry, and Occam, the last and greatest of the English scholastic philosophers, lived in the same century with Chaucer, the father of English poetry, and Wickliffe, the herald of the Reformation.

The earlier half of the fourteenth century, in its literary aspects, may be regarded as a separate period from the later. The genius of the nation seemed to sleep. England, indeed, was the birth-place of Occam (1300- 1347), but he neither remained in his own country, nor imparted any strong impulse to his countrymen. Educated abroad, he lived chiefly In France, and died in Munich. While the writings of his master, Duns Scotus (d.

1308), were the chief authorities of the metaphysical sect called _Realists_, Occam himself was the ablest and one of the earliest writers among the _Nominalists_. While the former of these sects was held especially favorable to the Romish Church, the latter was discouraged as heretical, and Occam was persecuted for enunciating those opinions which are now held in one form or another by almost all metaphysicians. No eminent names appear in the ecclesiastical literature of this period, nor in that of the spoken tongue; but the dawn of English literature was close at hand.

The latter half of this century was a remarkable era in the ecclesiastical and intellectual progress of England. Many colleges were founded, and learning had munificent patrons. The increase of papal power led to claims which were resisted by the clergy as well as by the parliament. Foremost among those who called for reform was the celebrated John Wickliffe (1324- 1384). A priest of high fame for his knowledge and logical dexterity, he was placed at the head of several of the colleges of Oxford, and there, and from the country parsonages to which he was afterwards compelled to retreat, he thundered forth his denunciations against the abuses of the church, attacked the papal supremacy, and set forth doctrinal views of his own nearly approaching to Calvinism. Although repeatedly called to account for his opinions he was never even imprisoned, and he enjoyed his church- livings to the last. But the church was weakened by the _Great Schism_, and he was protected by powerful n.o.bles. Soon after his death, however, a storm of persecution burst on his disciples, which crushed dissent till the sixteenth century. We owe to Wickliffe the earliest version of the Scriptures into English, which is among the first prose writings in the old tongue.

The very oldest book in English prose, however, is the account given by Sir John Mandeville of his thirty-three years' travel in the East, from which he returned about 1355. It is an odd and amusing compound of facts and marvelous stories. But the best specimens of English prose of this period are Chaucer's translation of Boethius, his "Testament of Love," and two of his Canterbury Tales.

In poetical literature, "The Vision of Piers Plowman," written (1362) by a priest named Robert Langland, is one of the highest works in point of genius and one of the most curious as ill.u.s.trating manners and opinions.

The poet supposes himself falling asleep on Malvern Hills, and in his vision he describes the vices of the times in an allegorical form, which has been compared to "The Pilgrim's Progress." The poetical vigor of many pa.s.sages is extraordinary.

John Gower (d. 1408), a contemporary and friend of Chaucer, is chiefly remembered for his "Confessio Amantis," or Lover's Confession, a long English poem, containing physical, metaphysical, and ethical reflections and stories taken from the common repertories of the Middle Ages. It is tedious, and often feeble, but it has many excellences of language and description.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400) was born in London. He was early thrown into public life and intimacy with men of high rank. John of Gaunt was his chief patron, and he was several times employed in emba.s.sies to France and Italy. A very large proportion of Chaucer's writings consists of free versions from the Latin and French, and perhaps also from the Italian; but in some of these he has incorporated so much that is his own as to make them the most celebrated and valuable of his works. His originals were not the chivalrous romances, but the comic Fabliaux, and the allegorical poetry cultivated by the Trouveres and Troubadours. Three of his largest minor works are thus borrowed; the "Romance of the Rose," from one of the most popular French poems of the preceding century; "Troilus and Cressida," a free translation, probably, from Boccaccio; and the "Legend of Good Women," founded on Ovid's Epistles. The poetical immortality of Chaucer rests on his "Canterbury Tales," a series of stories linked together by an ingenious device. A party of about thirty persons, the poet being one, are bound on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Thomas a Becket, at Canterbury; each person is to tell two tales, one in going, and the other in returning. Twenty-four only of the stories are related, but they extend to more than 17,000 lines. In the prologue, itself a poem of great merit, the poet draws up the curtain from a scene of life and manners which has not been surpa.s.sed in subsequent literature, a picture whose figures have been studied with the truest observation, and are outlined with the firmest, yet most delicate pencil. The vein of sentiment in these tales is always unaffected, cheerful, and manly, the most touching seriousness varying with the keenest humor. In some the tone rises to the highest flight of heroic, reflective, and even religious poetry; while in others it sinks below coa.r.s.eness into positive licentiousness of thought and sentiment.

LITERATURE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.--The fifteenth century, usually marked in continental history as the epoch of the Revival of Cla.s.sical Learning, was not in England a period of erudition or of original invention. The unwise and unjust wars with France, the revolts of the populace, and the furious struggles between the partisans of the rival houses desolated the country, and blighted and dwarfed all intellectual growth. For more than a hundred years after the death of Chaucer, scarcely any names of mark distinguish the literary annals of England, and the poetical compositions of this period are princ.i.p.ally valuable as specimens of the rapid transition of the language into modern English. Almost all the literary productions previous to the time of Chaucer were designed only for a limited audience. Neither comprehensive observation of society nor a wish to instruct or please a wide circle of readers was observable before this period. Chaucer was indeed a national poet, an active and enlightened teacher of all cla.s.ses of men who were susceptible of literary instruction.

John Lydgate (d. 1430), a Benedictine monk, the best and most popular poet of the fifteenth century, began to write before the death of Chaucer, but in pa.s.sing from the works of the latter to those of Lydgate, we seem to be turning from the open highway into the dark, echoing cloisters. If he was the pupil of Chaucer in manner and style, his masters in opinion and sentiment were the compilers of the "Gesta Romanorum."