and quotations in other writings, has come to light. In recent years scholars have been better able than ever before to handle these, owing to more exact knowledge of ancient languages, and greater skill in textual analysis. Furthermore, many words and expressions in the old version have become obsolete or have changed in meaning since 1611. Early in 1870, the desirability of revising the King James Version was taken up by the English church; and later in the same year a company of scholars began the work of revision, which they finished in 1885. Before the revised form was published a company of American scholars was called upon for suggestions. About fifteen years later these men issued an American Revised Version, embodying the readings that they had suggested to the British committee and such other improvements as had occurred to them in the interval. This version, the Revised Version, is undoubtedly a closer translation of the original than the Authorized Version; but the revisers have been accused of sacrificing smoothness and beauty of expression for accuracy of translation. Other advantages of this version are the grouping of the text into paragraphs according to subjects and the printing of poetry in metrical form. Notwithstanding its advantages and its deserved popularity, it is not likely to supplant in the hearts of this generation the old version either as literature or as the Bible of the people. Influence of Early IV. The Bible and English Literature As this brief account of English versions indicates, the influence of the Bible on the English language and literature is almost incalculable. The histories of vernacular speech and of Biblical translations have run side Translation by side since the time of Augustine. By far the larger part of Anglo-Saxon literature that has come down to us is eminently Biblical. In fact, nearly all the chief writers before the Norman Conquest were, in some sense, translators of the Bible. The names of Caedmon, Bede, Alfred, and Aelfric are inseparably connected with the translation of the scriptures; and Cynewulf's "Christ" can hardly be denied the privilege of being a paraphrase. It is said that Aelfric, in preparing manuals for the schools, was careful to translate portions of the scripture for daily use in order to keep the language free from the influence of foreign tongues. Thus not only did Biblical English leaven the speech and writings of literary men, the church book of ceremonies, and the homilies of the priest, but it also shaped and guided the thought and speech of children in school and at home. Wycliffe's In the turmoil of the years following the Norman Conquest the metrical versions of Orme and Hampole, like Caedmon's Paraphrases, kept fresh for the subjugated Saxon Biblical truth in his native tongue. Then followed Wycliffe's translations, containing over ninety per cent of native English words. It is said that these versions "did more to maintain and diffuse the language in its purity than all other agencies combined," and "that they exerted a decided influence in developing that particular dialect of English, the East-Midland, which became the literary form of the language; that they tended to prepare the way for Chaucer, who was personally indebted to these translations for much of the wealth and beauty of his diction." English was now undergoing its evolution from an inflectional language, like German or Latin, to a language with a much greater freedom of form. Wycliffe's Bible, and later Tyndale's, not only recorded the progress of this great change and popularized the forms as they were established, but also preserved the language of the common people as the literary language. Because of his learning, his devotion, and his avowed aim to make a Bible for the ploughboys of England, Tyndale's influence, coming, as it did, on the heels of this great evolution and in the early youth of the art of printing, was especially far-reaching and fortunate. During a very critical period in linguistic development, it saved the English idiom unimpaired by any foreign mixture. Coming to the King James Version, we find that in literary excellence, as a specimen of either theological or common The English, it has never been surpassed. Preserving Cumulative what was best in the old versions, it is from one Version point of view a cumulative product; yet, it is the purest and best example of Elizabethan English. Since the growth of the language required revised versions from time to time, and since each version is a good specimen of the language of its period, the history of the Bible in English is inseparably bound up with the history of the language. The Bible, having in all times been translated into the vernacular and being the book most generally read, wielded a powerful influence upon the speech of the people. Chaucer and the Bible It is perfectly natural for priests to speak in the language of the Bible and to acquire some of its excellence and grandeur of style. It is easy to see why people talk in Biblical phraseology who live daily with the Bible as almost their only book. But has the Bible had a truly effective influence upon our greatest writers? Chaucer, "the father of English poetry," was a man of the world, a courtier, a minister of state, a business man, and a student. He had extraordinary powers of observation, was interested in the many forms of life about him, and insisted on seeing men and nature from new points of view. Still, if we judge from the quotations he puts in the mouths of the Parson, the Summoner, the "Frere," and other characters of his Canterbury Tales, his familiarity with the Bible was not inconsiderable. The Prioress begins the prologue of her tale with a quotation from the Psalms: "O Lord, our Lord, Thy name how marvellous Is in this large world y-sprad,' - quod she." The Nun's Priest, in concluding his interesting story with a moral, says: "For seint Poul saith, that al that writen is, To oure doctrine it is i-write iwys. Taketh the fruit, and let the chaf be stille." Five of the seventeen famous people whose rise to great estate and consequent fall is related in the Monk's Tale are Bible characters. The Parson's Tale is a compendium of warnings profusely illuminated with scriptural condemnation of sin. In "Good Counseil," one of his best known lyrics, we have this: "Do wel thy-self that other folk canst rede, And trouthe thee shal delyver, hit ys no drede." Besides these two evident paraphrases of Biblical statements, there are several others in the poem. If Langland, the preacher and moralist, whose "Vision of Piers Plowman" is clothed in the language of the Bible, had written these lines we would regard their spiritual intensity as only natural. But Chaucer, the courtier and man of the world, also knew his Bible. Bacon and the The student can trace in the masterpieces of Elizabethan literature the same influence on language, imagery, and thought. Wyatt, Surrey, Spenser, Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke, Queen Elizabeth, James I, Phinehas Fletcher, Bacon, and George Herbert, besides others less eminent, were versifiers of the Psalms. In commenting on Psalm 101 to the Duke of Buckingham about Bible advancing courtiers, Bacon wrote, "In these the choice had need be of honest, faithful servants, as well of comely outsides who can bow the knee and kiss the hand. King David propounded a rule to himself for the choice of his courtiers. He was a wise and good king, and a wise and good king shall do well to follow such a good example; and if he find any to be faulty, which perhaps cannot suddenly be discovered, let him take on him this resolution as King David did, "There shall no deceitful person dwell in my house.' In his essay "On Atheism," he comments on the shallowness of the fool who said in his heart, "There is no God." In "Of Riches," he says, "Usury is one of the certainest means of gain, though one of the worst; as that whereby a man doth eat his bread in the sweat of another's brow." Bacon quotes very frequently from the Bible, exhibiting an acquaintance with it almost equal to that of Shakespeare. Though Shakespeare is usually heralded as the chief flower of the pagan Renaissance, no other book was better known to him than the Bible. When Adam in "As You speare and Like It" prays, Shake the Bible "He that doth the ravens feed, or when the King in "Hamlet" asks, "What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, or when Helena in "All's Well" says, "He that of greatest works is finisher |