the language. The principal poem of the Carlovingian cycle is the "Chanson de Roland," an epic of four thousand lines, filled with chivalrous spirit and heroic deeds. The historic event which it commemorates was the invasion of Spain by Charlemagne in the eighth century. On the emperor's return, his rear-guard, under the command of Roland, one of his principal paladins, was treacherously attacked in the passes of the Pyrenees and slain. But before he died Roland sounded his miraculous horn, and Charlemagne, who was thirty leagues in advance, returned and avenged his death. The poem dates from the eleventh century; and, according to an old chronicle, the minstrel Taillefer rode in front of the Norman line at the battle of Hastings, and, while he tossed his sword in the air and caught it again, he sang the song of Roland. The following lines, describing Roland's death, will serve for illustration: "Count Roland lies beneath a pine, His pallid face is turned to Spain. His memory reverts unto the past, And Frenchmen loyal unto him. He cannot keep from sighs and tears, But not forgetful of himself, He begs forgiveness of his Lord.” 1 The Arthurian cycle is still more important for EngNear the middle of the twelfth century, lish literature. 1 "Li quens Rollanz se jut desuz un pin: Envers Espaigne en ad turnet sun vis. De plusurs choses à remembrer li prist, " etc. Lines 2375-2384. Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh priest, wrote in Latin what purported to be a history of Britain from the days when Brut, the grandson of Æneas, landed on its shores, down to the death of Cadwallo in 689. It contains the story of the Celtic king, Arthur, and his Round Table. It crossed the Channel, where Norman trouvères expanded and completed the Arthurian legends. Returning to Eng land, these legends, as we shall see, were embodied in a long and popular Middle English or semi-Saxon epic, containing the characters and incidents rendered familiar in Tennyson's "Idyls of the King." Italy exerted an influence scarcely less than that of France upon the development of English literature. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Italy was in advance of the rest of Europe in intellectual culture. Before Chaucer was born, Dante had written the "Divina Commedia," one of the world's imperishable poems. Petrarch, whose life covers the first three-quarters of the fourteenth century, was an enthusiastic student of the ancient classics. He may justly be regarded as the forerunner of the humanists, who in the following century brought about the great intellectual movement known as the revival of learning. Boccaccio, his great contemporary, gave himself likewise to the study of antiquity. He translated the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey"; but his principal work was the "Decameron," a collection of a hundred stories, to which, as will appear later, our literature is considerably indebted. The culture of Italy not only stimulated intellectual activity in England, but also furnished models and materials for literary work. During the period under consideration, the course of English literature follows three principal streams,-history, romance, and religion. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," which contains the history of Britain from the invasion of Cæsar, was completed in 1154. Written in the form of brief annals, it is the work of many successive hands. King Alfred edited and expanded it. It is the earliest history of any Teutonic people in their own language. "From Alfred's time," says Freeman, "the narrative continues, sometimes, full, sometimes meagre, sometimes a dry record of names and dates, sometimes rising to the highest flights of the prose picture or the heroic lay; but in one shape or other never failing us, till the pen dropped from the hand of the monk of Peterborough, who recorded the coming of Henry of Anjou." It contains, among other poems, "The Battle of Brunanburh," under date of 937, commemorating a Saxon victory over the Northmen : "There was made flee the Northmen's chieftain, By need constrained, to the ship's prow With a little band. The bark drove afloat; The king departed on the fallow flood, His life preserved." Among other chronicles, which here require no further mention, are the Latin works of William of Malmesbury in the twelfth, and of Matthew Paris in the thirteenth century. Lyrical poems of adventure and sentiment, in which the influence of the troubadour may perhaps be traced, are not unknown. Robin Hood ballads were popular. The earliest English love-song that has been preserved was written about the year 1200. The following extract is modernized in spelling: "Blow, northern wind, send Thou me my sweeting; blow Northern wind, blow, blow, blow. She is coral of goodness, She is ruby of rich fulness, She is crystal of clearness, And banner of beauty." The following poem on spring, which was written near the beginning of the thirteenth century, is full of blithe poetic feeling: "Sumer is i-cumen in Lhude1 sing, cuccu; Groweth sed, and bloweth med, And springeth the wde2 nu. Sing, cuccu, cuccu, Awe bleteth after lamb, Louth after calve cu, Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth: Murie sing, cuccu, Well sings the cuccu, Ne swik thou never nu. Sing, cuccu, nu, Layamon's "Brut," or Chronicle of Britain, a poem of thirty-two thousand lines, is a paraphrase of Wace's French version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Chronicle, or "Historia Britonum." It dates near the beginning of the thirteenth century. It retains the Anglo-Saxon or Old English vocabulary in its purity, less than fifty French words appearing in the whole poem. Its grammatical forms are known as semi-Saxon, and its verse wavers between the Old English alliteration and French rhyme and metre. All that is known 1 Loud. 2 Wood. 3 Runneth. 4 Nor such. of the author is contained in the opening lines, in which he gives an account of himself and his patriotic purpose. "A priest was in the land, He was Leovenath's son: Gracious to him be the Lord! He dwelt at Earnley, Where are noble churches, On the Severn's bank: It came in mind to him, There are two other metrical chronicles which are in teresting and valuable as showing the gradual change of the language during the Formative Period. Robert of 1 "An preost wes on leoden, He was Leouenathe's sone: He wonede at Ernleye, Sel thar him thuhte, On fest Radestone, Ther he bock radde. Hit com him on mode And on his mern thonke," etc. (Cir. 1205.) |