Gower, 1325(?)1408. Lerned at Padowe of a worthy clerk, 1 As preved by his wordes and his werk: As Linian 3 did of philosophye, Or lawe, or other art particuler But deeth, that wol nat suffre us dwellen heer But as it were a twinklyng of an eyë, Hem bothe hath slayn, and alle shall we dyë." OTHER WRITERS OF THIS PERIOD Contemporary with Chaucer lived another poet of the upper classes, John Gower, so vastly inferior to him in literary interest that he is valuable chiefly as showing that respectable dullness is as successful in one age as in another. His poems "Vox Clamantis," "Speculum Meditantis," and "Confessio Amantis," written respectively in French, Latin, and English, show that the three languages were contemporaneous. French as a written language was soon disused, but Latin remained the principal medium for serious writing for many years; indeed, was the scholar's language down to Milton's day in the seventeenth century. Another poet who has claims to earnestness and power wrote in the vernacular in Chaucer's day. This was Langland, 1332(7)1400(?). William Langland, whose poem, the "Vision of Piers Plowman" or the "Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman," has been preserved in a number of manuscripts some thirty; a fact 1 Proved. 2 Was called. 3 A great lawyer of the fourteenth century. 4 Them. which attests its ancient popularity. Its subject is an allegorical presentation of the world of men, "all the wealth of the world and the woe both," as a vast plain “full of all manner of folks "-laborers, gluttons, idlers, minstrels, beggars, friars, palmers, and the rest. Among these move embodiments of the moral forces-Conscience, Kindwit, Knighthood; and the evil forces-Falseness, Flattery, Envy, Greediness, Pride, and many others. In fact, life is viewed as a conflict and largely as a tragedy, for Langland regards the world from the moral rather than from the artistic standpoint, and his picture is not wanting in elements of powerful satire. It testifies to the presence in the English people from the earliest times of the serious thought of the best type of the Puritans of a later day. It is marked by the gravity and the sobriety which come from a deep sense of the supremacy of the moral law. Righteousness no less than beauty lies at the bottom of English literature, though strength of conviction sometimes is divorced, as in Carlyle, from appreciation of form. From the tone of the thought we should expect that the form would also be, as it is, Anglo-Saxon. The "Vision" is written in a modification of the Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse of four accents, dividing by a marked cæsura into two short lines-a rugged and powerful form in which grace and harmony are sacrificed to force. It is about the last appearance of this ancestral music in a sustained composition, but the love for vigor as opposed to melody still persists in the spirit of our race, as is illustrated by the popularity of Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade." As will be seen from the subjoined extract, Langland's diction presents more difficulties than Chaucer's, and con tains but few words of French origin. It must be borne in mind that Langland wrote in a period of great social discontent and distress, and his poem is the first expression in our language of the sufferings of the poor, and of indignation at the injustice and inequalities of society. The poet says that "on a May morning when the sun was pleasant" he lay down by the side of a brook and falling into slumber saw a marvelous vision. I began to dream, he says, 1 Saw. "That I was in a wilderness, Wist I never where: And, as I beheld into the east I seigh1 a tower on a toft 2 A deep dale beneath, A donjon therein, With deep ditches and dark, A fair field full of folk Found I there between, Of all manner of men, The mean and the rich, As the world asketh. 2 An elevated ground. 8 Handsomely built. 4 Put them. 5 Played full seldom. 6 Laboured. 7 Won that which spendthrifts with gluttony destroy. In countenance of clothing In prayers and penances All for the love of our Lord In hope to have after Heaven-riche bliss ; 4 As anchors and heremites 5 That holden hem in hir6 cells, To carryen about, For no likerous liflode Hir likame to please? And some chosen chaffer 8: They cheveden 9 the better, As it seemeth to our sight That swich men thriveth.10 And some murths to make As minstralles con,11 And geten gold with hir glee." John Wycklif 12 was born in Yorkshire about the year 1324, and died on the last day of the year 1384. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and his life was principally spent at the university or at Fillingham in Lincolnshire, a college living John Wycklif, 1324(?)1384. 1 Came disguised. 2 Many put them, applied themselves to, engaged in. 3 Lived full strictly. 4 The bliss of the kingdom of heaven. 5 Anchorites and eremites or hermits. 6 Hold them in their cells. 7 By no likerous living their body to please. 8 Merchandise. 9 Achieved their end. 10 That such men thrive. 11 And some are skilled to make mirths, or amusements, as minstrels. 12 The name is spelled in various ways by the chroniclers, either with an i, a y, a ck, a ff, or a ffe. The modern fashions are as above, adopted by "the Wycklif Society," or Wyckliffe, as preferred by the editors of the Wyckliffe Bible. which he accepted in 1361. Previous to entering on the duties of his rectorship he had been elected Master of Balliol, and after doing so he continued to spend a large part of his time at Oxford. In 1374 he was presented by the king to the rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire. This he held till his death. There was another John Wycklif, a contemporary of the great Wycklif, a fellow of Merton College in 1356, and the identity of name has led to some confusion about minor events in the reformer's life. Wycklif had publicly acted with those in England who resisted the civic encroachments of the papal power. As early as 1366 he wrote a Latin tract entitled “Determinatio quaedam de Domino," in support of the repudiation of the tribute due the Pope, and soon he passed from political to dogmatic opposition. His abilities as a writer and preacher commended him to John of Gaunt. In 1377 he was summoned to appear before the Bishop of London to answer certain charges, but the proceedings came to nothing, as the court was broken up by a riot. Soon after this the Pope issued bulls against him, addressed to the University of Oxford, the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London. The university was to arrest him and send him to the prelates, who were to try him, but the death of the king and the favor of the university and the government rendered these proceedings also nugatory. At a later date, 1382, although an ecclesiastical council condemned Wycklif's works and brought about the imprisonment and recantation of some of his followers, his popularity saved him from personal punishment. In 1384 he was cited by Pope Urban to appear at Rome, but did not go, and in the same year was seized with paralysis while hearing mass at Lutterworth, and died two years later. Forty-one years later he |