English Literature
Webster, John
Wedmore, Treaty of
_Westward Ho_
Whigs and Tories
Whitby (hwit'b[)i])
_Widsith_ (vid'sith)
Wiglaf (vig'läf)
Wilson, John (Christopher North),
Wither, George
Women, in literature
Wordsworth,
life,
poetry,
poems of nature,
poems of life,
last works
Wordsworth, Dorothy
_Worthies of England_
_Wuthering Heights_ (wuth'er-ing)
Wyatt (w[=i]'at), Thomas
Wyclif (wik'lif)
Wyrd (vird), or fate
York plays
Footnote 1: From _The Bard of the Dimbovitza_, First Series, p. 73.
Footnote 2: There is a mystery about this old hero which stirs our
imagination, but which is never explained. It refers, probably, to some
legend of the Anglo-Saxons which we have supplied from other sources, aided
by some vague suggestions and glimpses of the past in the poem itself.
Footnote 3: This is not the Beowulf who is hero of the poem.
Footnote 4: _Beowulf_, ll. 26-50, a free rendering to suggest the
alliteration of the original.
Footnote 5: Grendel, of the Eoten (giant) race, the death shadow, the
mark stalker, the shadow ganger, is also variously called god's foe, fiend
of hell, Cain's brood, etc. It need hardly be explained that the latter
terms are additions to the original poem, made, probably, by monks who
copied the manuscript. A belief in Wyrd, the mighty power controlling the
destinies of men, is the chief religious motive of the epic. In line 1056
we find a curious blending of pagan and Christian belief, where Wyrd is
withstood by the "wise God."
Footnote 6: Summary of ll. 710-727. We have not indicated in our
translation (or in quotations from Garnett, Morley, Brooke, etc.) where
parts of the text are omitted.
Footnote 7: Grendel's mother belongs also to the Eoten (giant) race. She
is called _brimwylf_ (sea wolf), _merewif_ (sea woman), _grundwyrgen_
(bottom master), etc.
Footnote 8: From Garnett's _Beowulf_, ll. 1384-1394.
Footnote 9: From Morley's version, ll. 1357-1376.
Footnote 10: _Beowulf_, ll. 2417-2423, a free rendering.
Footnote 11: Lines 2729-2740, a free rendering.
Footnote 12: Morley's version, ll. 2799-2816.
Footnote 13: Lines 3156-3182 (Morley's version).
Footnote 14: Probably to the fourth century, though some parts of the
poem must have been added later. Thus the poet says (II. 88-102) that he
visited Eormanric, who died _cir_. 375, and Queen Ealhhild whose father,
Eadwin, died _cir_. 561. The difficulty of fixing a date to the poem is
apparent. It contains several references to scenes and characters in
_Beowulf_.
Footnote 15: Lines 135-143 (Morley's version).
Footnote 16: A lyric is a short poem reflecting some personal emotion,
like love or grief. Two other Anglo-Saxon poems, "The Wife's Complaint" and
"The Husband's Message," belong to this class.
Footnote 17: First strophe of Brooke's version, _History of Early English
Literature_
Footnote 18: _Seafarer_, Part I, Iddings' version, in _Translations from
Old English Poetry._
Footnote 19: It is an open question whether this poem celebrates the
fight at which Hnæf, the Danish leader, fell, or a later fight led by
Hengist, to avenge Hnæf's death.
Footnote 20: Brooke's translation, _History of Early English Literature_,
For another early battle-song see Tennyson's "Battle of Brunanburh."
Footnote 21: William Camden (1551-1623), one of England's earliest and
greatest antiquarians. His first work, _Britannia_, a Latin history of
England, has been called "the common sun whereat our modern writers have
all kindled their little torches."
Footnote 22: From Iddings' version of _The Seafarer_.
Footnote 23: From _Andreas_, ll. 511 ff., a free translation. The whole
poem thrills with the Old Saxon love of the sea and of ships.
Footnote 24: From _Beowulf_, ll. 1063 ff., a free translation.
Footnote 25: Translated from _The Husband's Message_, written on a piece
of bark. With wonderful poetic insight the bark itself is represented as
telling its story to the wife, from the time when the birch tree grew
beside the sea until the exiled man found it and stripped the bark and
carved on its surface a message to the woman he loved. This first of all
English love songs deserves to rank with Valentine's description of Silvia:
Why, man, she is mine own,
And I as rich in having such a jewel
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
The water nectar and the rocks pure gold.
_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, II, 4.
Footnote 26: From the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, record of the year 457.
Footnote 27: According to Sweet the original home of the Aryans is placed
in central or northern Europe, rather than in Asia, as was once assumed.
See _The History of Language_, p. 103.
Footnote 28: "Cædmon's Hymn," Cook's version, in _Translations from Old
English Poetry_.
Footnote 29: _Ecclesiastical History_, IV, xxiv.
Footnote 30: Genesis, 112-131 (Morley).
Footnote 31: Exodus, 155 ff. (Brooke).
Footnote 32: Runes were primitive letters of the old northern alphabet.
In a few passages Cynewulf uses each rune to represent not only a letter
but a word beginning with that letter. Thus the rune-equivalent of C stands
for _cene_ (keen, courageous), Y for _yfel_ (evil, in the sense of
wretched), N for _nyd_ (need), W for _ivyn_ (joy), U for _ur_ (our), L for
_lagu_ (lake), F for _feoh_ (fee, wealth). Using the runes equivalent to
these seven letters, Cynewulf hides and at the same time reveals his name
in certain verses of _The Christ_, for instance:
Then the _Courage-hearted_ quakes, when the King (Lord) he hears
Speak to those who once on earth but obeyed Him weakly,
While as yet their _Yearning fain_ and their _Need_
most easily Comfort might discover.... Gone is then the _Winsomeness_
Of the earth's adornments! What to _Us_ as men belonged
Of the joys of life was locked, long ago, in _Lake-flood_.
All the _Fee_ on earth.
See Brooke's _History of Early English Literature_, pp. 377-379, or _The
Christ of Cynewulf_, ed. by Cook, also by Gollancz.
Footnote 33:
My robe is noiseless while I tread the earth,
Or tarry 'neath the banks, or stir the shallows;
But when these shining wings, this depth of air,
Bear me aloft above the bending shores
Where men abide, and far the welkin's strength
Over the multitudes conveys me, then
With rushing whir and clear melodious sound
My raiment sings. And like a wandering spirit
I float unweariedly o'er flood and field.
(Brougham's version, in _Transl. from Old Eng. Poetry_.)
Footnote 34: The source of _Andreas_ is an early Greek legend of St.
Andrew that found its way to England and was probably known to Cynewulf in
some brief Latin form, now lost.
Footnote 35: Our two chief sources are the famous Exeter Book, in Exeter
Cathedral, a collection of Anglo-Saxon poems presented by Bishop Leofric
(_c_. 1050), and the Vercelli Book, discovered in the monastery of
Vercelli, Italy, in 1822. The only known manuscript of _Beowulf_ was
discovered _c_. 1600, and is now in the Cotton Library of the British
Museum. All these are fragmentary copies, and show the marks of fire and of
hard usage. The Exeter Book contains _the Christ, Guthlac, the Phoenix,
Juliana, Widsith, The Seafarer, Deor's Lament, The Wife's Complaint, The
Lover's Message_, ninety-five Riddles, and many short hymns and
fragments,--an astonishing variety for a single manuscript.
Footnote 36: From Alfred's _Boethius_.
Footnote 37: It is not certain that the translation of Bede is the work
of Alfred.
Footnote 38: See _Translations from Old English Poetry_. Only a brief
account of the fight is given in the _Chronicle_. The song known as "The
Battle of Maldon," or "Byrhtnoth's Death," is recorded in another
manuscript.
Footnote 39: This is an admirable little book, containing the cream of
Anglo-Saxon poetry, in free translations, with notes. Translations from
_Old English Prose_ is a companion volume.
Footnote 40: For full titles and publishers of general reference books,
and for a list of inexpensive texts and helps, see General Bibliography at
the end of this book.
Footnote 41: The chief object of these questions is not to serve as a
review, or to prepare for examination, but rather to set the student
thinking for himself about what he has read. A few questions of an advanced
nature are inserted which call for special study and research in
interesting fields.
Footnote 42: A Romance language is one whose basis is Latin,--not the
classic language of literature, but a vulgar or popular Latin spoken in the
military camps and provinces. Thus Italian, Spanish, and French were
originally different dialects of the vulgar Latin, slightly modified by the
mingling of the Roman soldiers with the natives of the conquered provinces.
Footnote 43: See p. 51.
Footnote 44: It is interesting to note that all the chroniclers of the
period, whether of English or Norman birth, unite in admiration of the
great figures of English history, as it was then understood. Brutus,
Arthur, Hengist, Horsa, Edward the Confessor, and William of Normandy are
all alike set down as English heroes. In a French poem of the thirteenth
century, for instance, we read that "there is no land in the world where so
many good kings and saints have lived as in the isle of the English ...
such as the strong and brave Arthur, Edmund, and Cnut." This national poem,
celebrating the English Edward, was written in French by a Norman monk of
Westminster Abbey, and its first heroes are a Celt, a Saxon, and a Dane.
(See Jusserand, _Literary History of the English People_, I, 112 ff.)
Footnote 45: _English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer_.
Footnote 46: Anselm was an Italian by birth, but wrote his famous work
while holding the see of Canterbury.
Footnote 47: During the Roman occupancy of Britain occurred a curious
mingling of Celtic and Roman traditions. The Welsh began to associate their
national hero Arthur with Roman ancestors; hence the story of Brutus,
great-grandson of Aeneas, the first king of Britain, as related by Geoffrey
and Layamon.
Footnote 48: Probably a Latin copy of Bede.
Footnote 49: Wace's translation of Geoffrey.
Footnote 50: Only one word in about three hundred and fifty is of French
origin. A century later Robert Mannyng uses one French word in eighty,
while Chaucer has one in six or seven. This includes repetitions, and is a
fair estimate rather than an exact computation.
Footnote 51: The matter of Britain refers strictly to the Arthurian, i.e.
the Welsh romances; and so another division, the matter of England, may be
noted. This includes tales of popular English heroes, like Bevis of
Hampton, Guy of Warwick, Horn Child, etc.
Footnote 52: According to mediæval literary custom these songs were
rarely signed. Later, when many songs were made over into a long poem, the
author signed his name to the entire work, without indicating what he had
borrowed
Footnote 53: An English book in which such romances were written was
called a Gest or Jest Book. So also at the beginning of _Cursor Mundi_
(_c_. 1320) we read:
Men yernen jestis for to here
And romaunce rede in diverse manere,
and then follows a summary of the great cycles of romance, which we are
considering.
Footnote 54: Tennyson goes farther than Malory in making Gawain false and
irreverent. That seems to be a mistake; for in all the earliest romances
Gawain is, next to Arthur, the noblest of knights, the most loved and
honored of all the heroes of the Round Table.
Footnote 55: There were various French versions of the story; but it came
originally from the Irish, where the hero was called Cuchulinn.