Outlines of English and American Literature. William J. Long

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      One of the best of the metrical romances is "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," which may be read as a measure of all the rest. If, as is commonly believed, the unknown author of "Sir Gawain" wrote also "The Pearl" (a beautiful old elegy, or poem of grief, which immortalizes a father's love for his little girl), he was the greatest poet of the early Middle-English period. Unfortunately for us, he wrote not in the king's English or speech of London (which became modern English) but in a different dialect, and his poems should be read in a present-day version; else will the beauty of his work be lost in our effort to understand his language.

      Other types of early literature are the riming chronicles or verse histories (such as Layamon's Brut, a famous poem, in which the Arthurian legends appear as part of English history), stories of travel, translations, religious poems, books of devotion, miracle plays, fables, satires, ballads, hymns, lullabies, lyrics of love and nature—an astonishing collection for so ancient a time, indicative at once of our changing standards of poetry and of our unchanging human nature. For the feelings which inspired or gave welcome to these poems, some five or six hundred years ago, are precisely the same feelings which warm the heart of a poet and his readers to-day. There is nothing ancient but the spelling in this exquisite Lullaby, for instance, which was sung on Christmas eve:

      He cam also stylle

       Ther his moder was

       As dew in Aprylle

       That fallyt on the gras;

       He cam also stylle

       To his moderes bowr

       As dew in Aprylle

       That fallyt on the flour;

       He cam also stylle

       Ther his moder lay

       As dew in Aprylle

       That fallyt on the spray.

      [Footnote: In reading this beautiful old lullaby the e in "stylle" and "Aprylle" should be lightly sounded, like a in "China."]

      Or witness this other fragment from an old love song, which reflects the feeling of one who "would fain make some mirth" but who finds his heart sad within him:

      Now wold I fayne som myrthis make

       All oneli for my ladys sake,

       When I hir se;

       But now I am so ferre from hir

       Hit will nat be.

      Thogh I be long out of hir sight,

       I am hir man both day and night,

       And so will be;

       Wherfor, wold God as I love hir

       That she lovd me!

      When she is mery, then I am glad;

       When she is sory, then am I sad,

       And causë whi:

       For he livith nat that lovith hir

       So well as I.

      She sayth that she hath seen hit wreten

       That 'seldyn seen is soon foryeten.'

       Hit is nat so;

       For in good feith, save oneli hir,

       I love no moo.

      Wherfor I pray, both night and day,

       That she may cast al care away,

       And leve in rest

       That evermo, where'er she be,

       I love hir best;

      And I to hir for to be trew,

       And never chaunge her for noon new

       Unto myne ende;

       And that I may in hir servise

       For evyr amend.

      [Footnote: The two poems quoted above hardly belong to the Norman-French period proper, but rather to a time when the Anglo-Saxon had assimilated the French element, with its language and verse forms. They were written, probably, in the age of Chaucer, or in what is now called the Late Middle-English period.]

      * * * * *

      SUMMARY OF BEGINNINGS. The two main branches of our literature are the Anglo-Saxon and the Norman-French, both of which received some additions from Celtic, Danish and Roman sources. The Anglo-Saxon literature came to England with the invasion of Teutonic tribes, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes (cir. 449). The Norman-French literature appeared after the Norman conquest of England, which began with the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

      The Anglo-Saxon literature is classified under two heads, pagan and Christian. The extant fragments of pagan literature include one epic or heroic poem, Beowulf, and several lyrics and battle songs, such as "Widsith," "Deor's Lament," "The Seafarer," "The Battle of Brunanburh" and "The Battle of Maldon." All these were written at an unknown date, and by unknown poets.

      The best Christian literature of the period was written in the Northumbrian and the West-Saxon schools. The greatest names of the Northumbrian school are Bede, Cædmon and Cynewulf. The most famous of the Wessex writers is Alfred the Great, who is called "the father of English prose."

      The Normans were originally Northmen, or sea rovers from

       Scandinavia, who settled in northern France and adopted the

       Franco-Latin language and civilization. With their conquest of

       England, in the eleventh century, they brought nationality into

       English life, and the spirit of romance into English literature.

       Their stories in prose or verse were extremely fanciful, in marked

       contrast with the stern, somber poetry of the Anglo-Saxons.

      The most notable works of the Norman-French period are: Geoffrey's History of the Kings of Britain, which preserved in Latin prose the native legends of King Arthur; Layamon's Brut, a riming chronicle or verse history in the native tongue; many metrical romances, or stories of love, chivalry, magic and religion; and various popular songs and ballads. The greatest poet of the period is the unknown author of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (a metrical romance) and probably also of "The Pearl," a beautiful elegy, which is our earliest In Memoriam.

      SELECTIONS FOR READING. Without special study of Old English it is impossible to read our earliest literature. The beginner may, however, enter into the spirit of that literature by means of various modern versions, such as the following:

      Beowulf. Garnett's Beowulf (Ginn and Company), a literal translation, is useful to those who study Anglo-Saxon, but is not very readable. The same may be said of Gummere's The Oldest English Epic, which follows the verse form of the original. Two of the best versions for the beginner are Child's СКАЧАТЬ