shows no trace of the felicitous combination of robustness and poetical grace, which makes Luther's translation an inexhaustible mine of German speech; as a rule it is flat and awkward, although it exhibits, in individual passages, great vigour and originality. The sixth chapter of Matthew (verses 1-13) may serve as a specimen :

Take ye hede lest ye don your rightwisnesse before men, that ye be seen of hem, ellis ye shule not han meed at youre fadir that is in hevenes. Therefor when thou dost almesse, nyle thou sing before thee in a trumpe, es ypocritis don in synagogis and streetis, that thei ben made worshipful of men; forsoth I saye to you, thei han resceved her meede. But thee doynge almesse, knowe not the left hond what thi right hond doth, that thi almes be in hidlis, and thi fadir that seeth in hidlis, shal yelde to thee. And when ye shuln preye, ye shuln not be as ypocritis, the which stondinge loven to preye in synagogis and corners of streetis, that thei be seen of men; trewly I say to you, thei han resceved her meede. But whan thou shalt preye, entre in to thi couche, and the dore shut, preye thi fadir in hidlis, and thi fadir that seeth in hidlis, shal yelde to thee. Sothely preyinge nyle ye speke moche, as hethen men don, for thei gessen that thei ben herd in theire moche speche. Therfore nyl ye be made like to hem, for youre fadir woot what is need to you, before that ye axen hym. Forsoth thus ye shulen preyen: Oure fadir that art in hevenes, halwid be thi name. Thi Kyngdom cumme to; be thi wille don as in heven and in erthe. Gif to us this day oure breed or other substaunce; and forgeve to us oure dettis, as we forgeve to oure dettours; and leede us not in to temptacion, but delivere us fro evil. Amen!

Religious enthusiasm and the spirit of reform, awakened in England by the struggle between the Pope and King and Parliament, are responsible for a remarkable poem, entitled The Vision of Piers the Ploughman, which first became known about the year 1362. A revised edition appeared in 1377. WILLIAM LANGLAND, a contemporary of Chaucer, and Wiclif, is supposed to be the author of this poetic vision. Practically nothing is known of him, but he must have had a learned education, for he introduces all kinds of Latin expressions. The poem consists of more than seven thousand long lines with three accents, and is entirely alliterative, thus affording a striking deviation from the rhyming verse that had long since become naturalised in England. It is divided into twenty separate Visions, called Passus (sections or cantos). In these visions the vices and imperfections of the age (especially those connected with the Church) present themselves in repulsive embodiments to the poet slumbering on the Malvern Hills; virtue and divine justice finally gain the victory. While not opposed to the Catholic Church as an essential institution, Langland attacks its excrescences, avoiding all theological subtleties and rather displaying a strong spirit of patriotic and popular indignation. The title Piers (Peter) the Ploughman indicates the poet's intention to champion the third order of the people, in the struggle between State and Church. In the Plowman's Tale in the Canterbury Tales, which also attacks the vices of the clergy, Chaucer

(if the "tale" be really by him) was probably influenced by Langland's poem.

Piers the Ploughman has nothing in common with the elegant poetastry of the fourteenth century, which Chaucer's first poems had made fashionable. Just about the time when foreign influences began to exercise a powerful effect upon English poetry, this poem once more emphatically gave expression to the Saxon national spirit in opposition to the Norman. In form, also, Langland is the last poet of importance who, in the fourteenth century, disdainfully rejected rhyme and attempted to revive the old alliterative poetry that had long fallen into disuse. In this he intentionally opposed the spirit of French poetry, which demanded rhyme as a matter of course. In one respect only did he allow French influences to prevail: he borrowed the allegorical framework of his poem from the Roman de la Rose, but only as far as form was concerned, for his visions are impressive in their reality, and, in their simplicity of language, frequently remind us of Dante and Caedmon.

We may take as a specimen the opening, which describes the surroundings of the Vision:

The parable of The Mice, the Rats, and the Cat is remarkable as indicating the poet's sound monarchico-democratic views: the mice prefer the direct dominion of a cat (the king), under whom it might be possible to live comfortably, to that of a number of rats (the nobility). Speaking generally, William Langland, as contrasted with Chaucer, who thoroughly enjoyed life, represents the current of sullen, censorious

Puritanism which at all times has pervaded English literature, though not always to the same extent. It is remarkable how soon this tendency to pietism showed itself.

The poem enjoyed great popularity, especially amongst the middle classes: an imitation and continuation of it, entitled Piers the Ploughman's Creed, appeared at the end of the fourteenth century. It attacked the Papacy and clergy with even greater energy, and met with an equally friendly reception; but it was not the work of Langland. The original poem, after the lapse of two centuries, was reinstated in public favour during the Reformation, when it was published as a Protestant polemical treatise. In more modern times, Lord Byron, who, strange to say, found little pleasure in Chaucer, expressed great admiration of Langland's Vision.

The wars of King Edward III. (1327-1377) developed the oldest political lyric poetry of England. LAWRENCE MINOT, a wandering minstrel, of whose personality nothing is known, composed vigorous poems on the victories of the English over the Scotch, French, and Spaniards-the battles of Halidon Hill (1333) and Crécy (1346), the Siege of Calais in the same year and the defeat of a Spanish fleet (1350). Minot's poems are written in a popular style, and read like real songs sung by soldiers on the march: they are pervaded by such self-conscious patriotism and hatred of the French as has only been equalled in the eighteenth century. Although the lines rhyme throughout, alliteration is sometimes noticeable; in other respects also these political gleeman's songs exhibit many ancient characteristics. In Lawrence Minot there is none of the affected elegance of Chaucer and the other artificial poets of the fourteenth century. One of his battle songs begins :

Edward, owre comely King
In Braband has his woning1
With many comely knight;
And in that land, truely to tell
Ordains he still for to dwell

To time he think to fight.

3

Now God, that is of mightés mast,3
Grant him grace of the Holy Ghast
His heritage to win;
And Mary Moder, of mercy free,
Save our King and his meny
Fro sorrow, shame and sin.

4

Artistic poetry found another representative, besides Chaucer, in JOHN GOWER (born about 1338, died 1408). Compared with his great contemporary, however, Gower (who is generally mentioned with Chaucer) was nothing but a tedious versifier. Chaucer, with the best intentions, called him the "moral Gower" in the dedication of his Troilus and Cressida, and even at the present day in England his name is mentioned with a certain amount of respect, although no one reads his works. The honourable title of "moral" is no adequate proof

1 1 Dwelling. 2 Until. 3 Greatest in might. 4 Company, followers.

of his poetical talents. He rather serves as a dull background, from which the brilliant figure of Chaucer stands out conspicuously. Curiously Shakespeare introduces Gower as the speaker of the Prologue to Pericles, a proof that he was read as late as the sixteenth century.

Gower wrote three books: Speculum Meditantis (in Latin), now lost; Vox Clamantis (also in Latin); and the best known, Confessio Amantis, written in English rhymed verse about the same time as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1393). The Confessio Amantis consists of a very long and tedious prologue and eight books; it describes the conversations between a lover and his confessor, Genius, a priest of Venus. Before the former receives absolution, he is obliged to listen to the most edifying advice and a number of tales. Gower only employed this environment of pietism and earthly pleasure combined for the purpose of uniting, like Boccaccio, a considerable number of stories in a single whole: but how wooden is his framework and narrative power, compared with the delightful art of Chaucer! The only spark of wit in this endless confession is the conclusion. After Genius, by means of his beautiful examples, has succeeded in making the lover a pattern of virtue, the latter declares that he is too old to rejoice in his victory over the infirmities of love.

THOMAS OCCLEVE (born about 1370, died about 1420) owes his reputation not so much to his lengthy poem, The Governail of Princes (founded on a Latin work called De Regimine Principum) as to the portrait of the author's beloved master, Chaucer, which is contained in the MS. of his work. Unfortunately, Occleve learnt nothing from Chaucer in the matter of poetry; his verses are no better than rhymed prose. In one passage, however, he shows a certain vigour, where he speaks of Chaucer :

But wele awaye, so is myn hertë wo

That the honour of English tounge is deed,

Of which I was wonte have counseil and rede.

O maister dere and fadir reverent,

My maister Chaucer! floure of eloquence,
Mirrour of fructuous entendement,

O universal fadir in science!

The name of JOHN LYDGATE (1370-1450), "the monk of Bury," would never have survived, had not the dearth of English poetry during the Wars of the Two Roses gained for the few verse-writers at the commencement of the fifteenth century the title of poets. His long epic poems, The Falls of Princes (a version of Boccaccio's De casibus virorum illustrium), the Storie of Thebes and the Troy Book are so wearisome as to be unreadable. On the other hand, the smaller rudely comic poems of the monk of Bury, London Lickpenny1

1 Also called London Lackpenny.

and the Prioresse and her three Lovers, are full of genuine popular humour. London Lickpenny, written in ballad style, contains the complaint of a litigant who comes to London to get justice, but fails from want of funds. Its rugged description of the London of the period invests it with a certain amount of interest.

In the Falls of Princes, a long literary-historical discussion in rhyme, of Chaucer's poems deserves notice.

The only English poets of the fifteenth century worth mentioning were born and educated in the fourteenth. The fifteenth century itself need not be mentioned in connexion with English poetry. It is very remarkable that, just at the time when English literature had sunk to its lowest level, printing was introduced into England.

WILLIAM CAXTON (1412-1491) printed his first English book about the year 1477 at Cologne (or Bruges?); it was after this that he migrated to England. In order to keep his presses busy, he set to work himself to make translations from French, Latin, and Dutch. His first book was a translation from a French work by Raoul de Fevre, Le Recueil des histoires de Troie. Editions of Chaucer and Gower were amongst the first works issued by Caxton. Altogether, in some fifteen years, he printed more than eighty books, about twenty of which were translations from the French by himself. Apart from the importance of his art to the intellectual development of England, it was Caxton who first made Chaucer accessible to a wider circle of readers, and thereby helped to prepare the way for the revival of English poetry in the sixteenth century.

It is self-evident that in England, as everywhere else, the introduction of printing essentially contributed to the settlement of the entirely arbitrary orthography of the language. Even if different printing houses did not always follow the same rules,

they did not produce From the close of the

so many variations in spelling as the copyists. fifteenth century, English also becomes more settled in form and rapidly approximates to the modern language. A language that is fixed by printing does not alter nearly so rapidly as one that is merely spoken and written.

While no poet of lasting importance appeared in England (if we except Chaucer's unpoetical camp-followers), Scotland can show a better record. Linguistically, the development of Scotland was in the main similar to that of England,-at least, in the fusion of its language with the Norman. In other respects, the old Scotch exhibits the same well-known peculiarities of dialect as are found, e.g., in the works of Robert Burns: the predominance of a in place of o (lang for long), and the dropping of many final consonants (a' for all, mays for makes, and the like).