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СКАЧАТЬ Literature Series (Houghton), and Earle's The Deeds of Beowulf (Clarendon Press).

      Anglo-Saxon Poetry. The Seafarer, The Wanderer, The Husband's Message (or Love Letter), Deor's Lament, Riddles, Battle of Brunanburh, selections from The Christ, Andreas, Elene, Vision of the Rood, and The Phoenix—all these are found in an excellent little volume, Cook and Tinker, Translations from Old English Poetry (Ginn and Company).

      Anglo-Saxon Prose. Good selections in Cook and Tinker, Translations from Old English Prose (Ginn and Company). Bede's History, translated in Everyman's Library (Dutton) and in the Bohn Library (Macmillan). In the same volume of the Bohn Library is a translation of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Alfred's Orosius (with stories of early exploration) translated in Pauli's Life of Alfred.

      Norman-French Period. Selections in Manly, English Poetry, and English Prose (Ginn and Company); also in Morris and Skeat, Specimens of Early English (Clarendon Press). The Song of Roland in Riverside Literature Series, and in King's Classics. Selected metrical romances in Ellis, Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances (Bohn Library); also in Morley, Early English Prose Romances, and in Carisbrooke Library Series. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, modernized by Weston, in Arthurian Romances Series. Andrew Lang, Aucassin and Nicolette (Crowell). The Pearl, translated by Jewett (Crowell), and by Weir Mitchell (Century). Selections from Layamon's Brut in Morley, English Writers, Vol. III. Geoffrey's History in Everyman's Library, and in King's Classics. The Arthurian legends in The Mabinogion (Everyman's Library); also in Sidney Lanier's The Boy's King Arthur and The Boy's Mabinogion (Scribner). A good single volume containing the best of Middle-English literature, with notes, is Cook, A Literary Middle-English Reader (Ginn and Company).

      BIBLIOGRAPHY. For extended works covering the entire field of English history and literature, and for a list of the best anthologies, school texts, etc., see the General Bibliography. The following works are of special interest in studying early English literature.

      HISTORY. Allen, Anglo-Saxon Britain; Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons; Ramsay, The Foundations of England; Freeman, Old English History; Cook, Life of Alfred; Freeman, Short History of the Norman Conquest; Jewett, Story of the Normans, in Stories of the Nations.

      LITERATURE. Brooke, History of Early English Literature; Jusserand, Literary History of the English People, Vol. I; Ten Brink, English Literature, Vol. I; Lewis, Beginnings of English Literature; Schofield, English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer; Brother Azarias, Development of Old-English Thought; Mitchell, From Celt to Tudor; Newell, King Arthur and the Round Table. A more advanced work on Arthur is Rhys, Studies in the Arthurian Legends.

      FICTION AND POETRY. Kingsley, Hereward the Wake; Lytton, Harold Last of the Saxon Kings; Scott, Ivanhoe; Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill; Jane Porter, Scottish Chiefs; Shakespeare, King John; Tennyson, Becket, and The Idylls of the King; Gray, The Bard; Bates and Coman, English History Told by English Poets.

CHAPTER III

       Table of Contents

      THE AGE OF CHAUCER AND THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING (1350–1550)

      For out of oldë feldës, as men seith,

       Cometh al this newë corn fro yeer te yere;

       And out of oldë bokës, in good feith,

       Cometh all this newë science that men lere.

      Chaucer, "Parliament of Foules"

      SPECIMENS OF THE LANGUAGE. Our first selection, from Piers Plowman (cir. 1362), is the satire of Belling the Cat. The language is that of the common people, and the verse is in the old Saxon manner, with accent and alliteration. The scene is a council of rats and mice (common people) called to consider how best to deal with the cat (court), and it satirizes the popular agitators who declaim against the government. The speaker is a rat, "a raton of renon, most renable of tonge":

      "I have y-seen segges," quod he,

       "in the cite of London

       Beren beighes ful brighte

       abouten here nekkes. …

       Were there a belle on here beighe,

       certes, as me thynketh,

       Men myghte wite where thei went,

       and awei renne!

       And right so," quod this raton,

       "reson me sheweth

       To bugge a belle of brasse

       or of brighte sylver,

       And knitten on a colere

       for owre comune profit,

       And hangen it upon the cattes hals;

       than hear we mowen

       Where he ritt or rest

       or renneth to playe." …

       Alle this route of ratones

       to this reson thei assented;

       Ac tho the belle was y-bought

       and on the beighe hanged,

       Ther ne was ratoun in alle the route,

       for alle the rewme of Fraunce,

       That dorst have y-bounden the belle

       aboute the cattis nekke.

      "I have seen creatures" (dogs), quoth he,

       "in the city of London

       Bearing collars full bright

       around their necks. …

       Were there a bell on those collars,

       assuredly, in my opinion,

       One might know where the dogs go,

       and run away from them!

       And right so," quoth this rat,

       "reason suggests to me

       To buy a bell of brass

       or of bright silver,

       And tie it on a collar

       for our common profit,

       And hang it on the cat's neck;

       in order that we may hear

       Where he rides or rests

       or runneth to play." …

       All this rout (crowd) of rats

       to this reasoning assented;

       But when the bell was bought

       and hanged on the collar,

       There СКАЧАТЬ