The above four lines of the Introduction contain four French words! The Chronicle of the monk ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER (the commencement of the fourteenth century), a history of the English people from the time of the Trojan Wars to the reign of Henry III., is highly interesting from a linguistic point of view and in reference to the history of civilisation. The Chronicle is written in long rhymed lines with six to seven accents, and possesses no value as poetry. The language shows but little trace of Norman influences. The work is noteworthy as being one of the oldest sources of the story of King Lear and his three daughters, which is told in the insipid style of a wandering minstrel. The conquest of England by William of Normandy and the death of the last Saxon king Harold are described with a certain amount of liveliness and vigour. The Chronicle tacks on the following general remarks upon the relation of French to English : Thus come, lo! Engelonde into Normannes honde And the Normans ne couthe speke tho bote her owe speche, And speke French as dude atom, and here chyldren dude al so teche, So that hey men of thys lond, that of her blod come, Holdeth alle thulke speche that hii of hem nome, Vor bote a man couthe French, me tolth of hym well lute, Ac lowe men holdeth to Englyss and to her kunde speche yute. Ich wene ther be ne man in world contreyes none That ne holdeth to her kunde speche, but Engelonde one. [Thus came, lo! England into Normans' hand: And the Normans could speak then but their own speech, And spake French as they did at home and their children did also teach; So that high men of this land, that of their blood came, Hold all the same speech that they of them took : For but (except) a man French know, men tell of him well little; For low men hold to English and to their natural speech yet. I ween there not be man in world countries none That not holdeth to their natural speech but England alone. Translation in CHAMBERS's English Literature.] Although middle-English prose produced no works of art, it gives ample proof of a certain knack of expression. To the first half of the thirteenth century belongs the Ancren Riwle (Ancren Rules, Rules of life for Anchoresses), written by a bishop for the inmates of a nunnery; containing instructions for a devout life. The following extract will show the state of development of the English language of the period: Sum ancre maketh hire bord mid hire gistes withuten. Thet is to muche ureondschipe, uor, of alle orders theonne is hit unkuindelukest and most ayean ancre ordre, thet is al dead to the worlde. Me hauveth i-herd ofte siggen, thet deade men speken mid cwike men; auh that heo eten mid cwike men ne uond ich neuer yete. [There are anchoresses who make their meals with their friends outside the convent. That is too much friendship, because, of all orders, then is it most ungenial, and most contrary to the order of an anchoress, who is quite dead to the world. We have often heard it said that dead men speak with living men: but that they eat with living men, I have never yet found. (Translation by J. MORTON, in the Camden Society's works.)] Middle English, as spoken, had much more resemblance to modern English than the uncouth spelling would lead us to suspect. In the fourteenth century, we have the English translation of a universal history that enjoyed a high reputation at that time, the Polychronicon (1361) of the Benedictine monk RALPH HIGDEN. John Trevisa, a north of England clergyman, translated this voluminous historical work into very flat but intelligible English (about 1387). It relates the history of the world from the Creation to the reign of Edward III., ending with the year 1342. The history of England, descriptions of lands and peoples, and the linguistic relations before and after the Norman Conquest are portrayed with a wealth of detail which is evidently a labour of love. The Voyage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville (about 1360) is of more value from a literary point of view. The work was written in Latin and translated into English from a French version at the beginning of the fifteenth century. This adventurous knight (born about 1300), when twenty-two years of age, commenced his journeys to the East, which led him to India, perhaps even as far as China. These journeys, lasting more than thirty years, and from which he returned much against his will, are described by him in a work originally written in Latin and afterwards translated through French into English. Sir John died about 1371, so that he may be considered a contemporary of Chaucer (1340-1400). His agreeable, gossipy prose even reminds us of the style of the poet. The noble knight jumbles truth and fiction together, and the naive credulity with which he repeats the most impossible travellers' lies, renders him worthy to be called the Herodotus of the Middle Ages, although he lacks the latter's graceful style. Maundeville is a romantic figure: a simple knight, he sets out, in genuine Germanic fashion, for the wide and unknown world, fights for the "Sultan of Egypt," but refuses his daughter's hand and the governorship of a province, which would have involved the abandonment of the Christian faith. Maundeville may have been acquainted with Marco Polo's Travels, at least with his description of Cathay (China). He gives a vivid account of his own personal experiences, his stay at Jerusalem, the production of cotton, artificial incubation at Cairo. He is acquainted with the compass-needle, speaks of the spherical form of the earth, of the Antipodes, and is in advance of his age generally as a traveller and man of learning. The mixture of English and French elements which characterises his diction leads us to the period of modern English, on the threshold of which stands Chaucer, the great creator of language. Maundeville, who, at the commencement of his travels, expressly says that he has written it so "that every man of my nation may understand it," is, like Chaucer, an excellent example of the spoken English of the fourteenth century. The following extract is an account of Mahomet's first miracle: And yee schulle understonde, that Machamote was born in Arabye, that was first a pore knave, that kepte cameles, that wenten with marchantes for marchandise; and so befelle that he wente with the marchantes in to Egypt; and thei weren thanne cristen, in tho partyes. And at the desertes of Arabye, he wente into a chapelle, where a Eremyte dwelte. And when he entered into the chapelle, that was but a lytille and a low thing and hat but a lytyl dore and a low, than the entree began to wexe so gret and so large and so high, as though it hadde ben of a gret mynstre, or the yate of a paleys. And this was the firste myracle, the Sarazins seyn, that Machamote dide in his youthe. In the case of one Englishman of this period, we must make an exception to the rule of discussing only such works as are written in English: we refer to ROGER BACON (1214-1294). Although all his works were written in Latin, since he appealed to a public that included the learned world of all Europe, he nevertheless must be conceded a prominent place in the history of the intellectual development of England. During the three centuries that elapsed between the bold and learned Franciscan, whose thirst for knowledge was insatiable, and his namesake Francis Bacon (1561-1626), England produced no thinker who penetrated so deeply into the nature of things. His principal work, the Opus Majus (1267), dedicated to Pope Clement VI., was the death-blow of the dry scholasticism of the Middle Ages, which devoted itself to the husk instead of the kernel of mental culture. The Opus Majus certainly is full of all sorts of superstitions concerning tame dragons, the dreams of alchemists and the like; but it furnishes us, for the first time in the history of the human intellect, with an exhaustive discussion of the necessity for an investigation of nature based upon exact and scientific research instead of chimerical fancies. Roger Bacon is the oldest pioneer of modern natural philosophy. His own attempts led him to anticipate many discoveries which were only made centuries later: he invented a kind of gunpowder, wrote about various gases, made microscopes and telescopes, and even predicted that ships would one day travel without sails and carriages without horses. As "Doctor mirabilis," he was revered by his learned contemporaries; as "Friar Bacon," he was regarded by the ignorant as a mighty wizard, and as such he was represented on the stage in the sixteenth century. E BIBLIOGRAPHY. HISTORY.-Thierry, Histoire de la conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands; E. A. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest of England; Lappenberg-Pauli, Geschichte von England, vols. ii. and iii.); Macaulay's History of England (chapter 1). COMPILATIONS.-Above all, the volumes of the Early English Text Society, which contain all the important and many unimportant works of this period; Mätzner, Altenglische Sprachproben; R. Morris, Specimens of Early English; Old English Miscellany (vol. xlix. of the Early English Texts); Zupitza's Sammlung englischer Denkmäler. LAYAMON.-Edited by Sir F. Madden. ORMULUM.-Edited by White and Holt. The Owl and the NightingaLE.-Edited by Stratmann. Robert of GLOUCESTER.-Edited by Hearne. METRICAL ROMANCES.-Most of them in the Early English Texts. Also Octavian, by Sarrazin, Halliwell; The Seven Sages, by Thomas Wright. ANCREN RIWLE.-Edited by J. Morton. MAUNDEVILLE.-Edited by Halliwell. ROGER BACON.-Opus Majus, edited by Jebb (1733); Charles, Roger Bacon, sa vie, ses ouvrages, ses doctrines; L. Schneider, Roger Bacon. T CHAPTER IV GEOFFREY CHAUCER HE more closely we study the English language and literature of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, the greater is our astonishment at the unique figure of Chaucer, whether we consider him as a poet or a creator of language. His Canterbury Tales, which no earlier work of equal attractiveness had led us to expect, written at the end of the fourteenth century, held the field without a rival for two hundred years (until the appearance of Edmund Spenser in the world of literature), and their fundamental and important services to the language of English poetry are not even surpassed by the Fairy Queen. During the last century, both in England and Germany, special attention has been devoted to Chaucer. Texts with copious notes have been published by a "Chaucer Society"; all the aids of learning have been requisitioned for a thorough understanding of Chaucer in detail; but a satisfactory explanation of this poetical figure, so remarkable and complete in himself, who suddenly appeared like a brilliant celestial phenomenon, has never yet been given. The sources of his Canterbury Tales have been investigated; but the springs of Chaucer's poetical talent are concealed in hidden depths, which the mere eye of the philologist can never fathom. If Chaucer's unique figure as a poet excites astonishment, he is equally remarkable as the creator of the language of his people. By the common consent of posterity, he has been recognised as the first great writer who indicated the future path of the English language. J. L. Klein happily calls Chaucer's works "the Magna Charta of the English language." Chaucer's successors at once recognised his incomparable services in settling the standard of literary English, which almost equalled his poetical genius. Occleve (born 1370), his enthusiastic pupil and imitator, styled him "the first finder of our fair language"; Lydgate (born 1373) revered him as "the guiding star of language," "the chief poete of Britayne," and sang his praises as the poet That made first to distil and rain The gold dew-drops of speech and eloquence |