English Literature
History of the English Language; Greenough and Kittredge's Words and their
Ways in English Speech; Welsh's Development of English Literature and
Language.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS. 1. What did the Northmen originally have in common
with the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes? What brought about the remarkable
change from Northmen to Normans? Tell briefly the story of the Norman
Conquest. How did the Conquest affect the life and literature of England?
2. What types of literature were produced after the Conquest? How do they
compare with Anglo-Saxon literature? What works of this period are
considered worthy of a permanent place in our literature?
3. What is meant by the Riming Chronicles? What part did they play in
developing the idea of nationality? What led historians of this period to
write in verse? Describe Geoffrey's History. What was its most valuable
element from the view point of literature?
4. What is Layamon's _Brut?_ Why did Layamon choose this name for his
Chronicle? What special literary interest attaches to the poem?
5. What were the Metrical Romances? What reasons led to the great interest
in three classes of romances, i.e. Matters of France, Rome, and Britain?
What new and important element enters our literature in this type? Read one
of the Metrical Romances in English and comment freely upon it, as to
interest, structure, ideas, and literary quality.
6. Tell the story of _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_. What French and
what Saxon elements are found in the poem? Compare it with _Beowulf_ to
show the points of inferiority and superiority. Compare Beowulf's fight
with Grendel or the Fire Drake and Sir Gawain's encounter with the Green
Knight, having in mind (1) the virtues of the hero, (2) the qualities of
the enemy, (3) the methods of warfare, (4) the purpose of the struggle.
Read selections from _The Pearl_ and compare with _Dear's Lament_. What are
the personal and the universal interests in each poem?
7. Tell some typical story from the Mabinogion. Where did the Arthurian
legends originate, and how did they become known to English readers? What
modern writers have used these legends? What fine elements do you find in
them that are not found in Anglo-Saxon poetry?
8. What part did Arthur play in the early history of Britain? How long did
the struggle between Britons and Saxons last? What Celtic names and
elements entered into English language and literature?
9. What is a ballad, and what distinguishes it from other forms of poetry?
Describe the ballad which you like best. Why did the ballad, more than any
other form of literature, appeal to the common people? What modern poems
suggest the old popular ballad? How do these compare in form and subject
matter with the Robin Hood ballads?
CHRONOLOGY
=============================================================================
HISTORY | LITERATURE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
912. Northmen settle in Normandy |
1066. Battle of Hastings. William, |
king of England |
| 1086. Domesday Book completed
1087. William Rufus |
1093. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1094(_cir._). Anselem's Cur Deus Homo
1096. First Crusade |
1100. Henry I |
| 1110. First recorded Miracle play in
| England (see chapter on the
| Drama)
1135. Stephen |
| 1137(_cir_.). Geoffrey's History
1147. Second Crusade |
1154. Henry II |
1189. Richard I. Third Crusade |
1199. John |
| 1200 (_cir_.). Layamon's Brut
1215. Magna Charta |
1216. Henry III |
| 1225 (_cir_.). Ancren Riwle
1230 (_cir._). University of Cambridge |
chartered |
1265. Beginning of House of Commons. |
Simon de Montfort |
| 1267. Roger Bacon's Opus Majus
1272. Edward I |
1295. First complete Parliament |
| 1300-1400. York and Wakefield.
| Miracle plays
1307. Edward II |
| 1320 (_cir_.). Cursor Mundi
1327. Edward III |
1338. Beginning of Hundred Years' War |
with France |
| 1340 (?). Birth of Chaucer
| 1350 (_cir_.). Sir Gawain. The Pearl
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* * * * *
CHAPTER IV
THE AGE OF CHAUCER (1350-1400)
THE NEW NATIONAL LIFE AND LITERATURE
HISTORY OF THE PERIOD. Two great movements may be noted in the complex life
of England during the fourteenth century. The first is political, and
culminates in the reign of Edward III. It shows the growth of the English
national spirit following the victories of Edward and the Black Prince on
French soil, during the Hundred Years' War. In the rush of this great
national movement, separating England from the political ties of France
and, to a less degree, from ecclesiastical bondage to Rome, the mutual
distrust and jealousy which had divided nobles and commons were momentarily
swept aside by a wave of patriotic enthusiasm. The French language lost its
official prestige, and English became the speech not only of the common
people but of courts and Parliament as well.
The second movement is social; it falls largely within the reign of
Edward's successor, Richard II, and marks the growing discontent with the
contrast between luxury and poverty, between the idle wealthy classes and
the overtaxed peasants. Sometimes this movement is quiet and strong, as
when Wyclif arouses the conscience of England; again it has the portentous
rumble of an approaching tempest, as when John Ball harangues a multitude
of discontented peasants on Black Heath commons, using the famous text:
When Adam delved and Eve span
Who was then the gentleman?
and again it breaks out into the violent rebellion of Wat Tyler. All these
things show the same Saxon spirit that had won its freedom in a thousand
years' struggle against foreign enemies, and that now felt itself oppressed
by a social and industrial tyranny in its own midst.
Aside from these two movements, the age was one of unusual stir and
progress. Chivalry, that mediæval institution of mixed good and evil, was
in its Indian summer,--a sentiment rather than a practical system. Trade,
and its resultant wealth and luxury, were increasing enormously. Following
trade, as the Vikings had followed glory, the English began to be a
conquering and colonizing people, like the Anglo-Saxons. The native shed
something of his insularity and became a traveler, going first to view the
places where trade had opened the way, and returning with wider interests
and a larger horizon. Above all, the first dawn of the Renaissance is
heralded in England, as in Spain and Italy, by the appearance of a national
literature.
FIVE WRITERS OF THE AGE. The literary movement of the age clearly reflects
the stirring life of the times. There is Langland, voicing the social
discontent, preaching the equality of men and the dignity of labor; Wyclif,
greatest of English religious reformers, giving the Gospel to the people in
their own tongue, and the freedom of the Gospel in unnumbered tracts and
addresses; Gower, the scholar and literary man, criticising this vigorous
life and plainly afraid of its consequences; and Mandeville, the traveler,
romancing about the wonders to be seen abroad. Above all there is
Chaucer,--scholar, traveler, business man, courtier, sharing in all the
stirring life of his times, and reflecting it in literature as no other but
Shakespeare has ever done. Outside of England the greatest literary
influence of the age was that of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, whose
works, then at the summit of their influence in Italy, profoundly affected
the literature of all Europe.
CHAUCER (1340?-1400)
'What man artow?' quod he;
'Thou lokest as thou woldest finde an hare,
For ever upon the ground I see thee stare.
Approchë neer, and loke up merily....
He semeth elvish by his contenaunce.'
(The Host's description of Chaucer,
Prologue, _Sir Thopas_)
ON READING CHAUCER. The difficulties of reading Chaucer are more apparent
than real, being due largely to obsolete spelling, and there is small
necessity for using any modern versions of the poet's work, which seem to
miss the quiet charm and dry humor of the original. If the reader will
observe the following general rules (which of necessity ignore many
differences in pronunciation of fourteenth-century English), he may, in an
hour or two, learn to read Chaucer almost as easily as Shakespeare: (1) Get
the lilt of the lines, and let the meter itself decide how final syllables
are to be pronounced. Remember that Chaucer is among the most musical of
poets, and that there is melody in nearly every line. If the verse seems
rough, it is because we do not read it correctly. (2) Vowels in Chaucer
have much the same value as in modern German; consonants are practically
the same as in modern English. (3) Pronounce aloud any strange-looking
words. Where the eye fails, the ear will often recognize the meaning. If
eye and ear both fail, then consult the glossary found in every good
edition of the poet's works. (4) Final _e_ is usually sounded (like _a_ in
Virginia) except where the following word begins with a vowel or with _h_.
In the latter case the final syllable of one word and the first of the word
following are run together, as in reading Virgil. At the end of a line the
_e_, if lightly pronounced, adds melody to the verse.[70]
In dealing with Chaucer's masterpiece, the reader is urged to read widely
at first, for the simple pleasure of the stories, and to remember that
poetry and romance are more interesting and important than Middle English.
When we like and appreciate Chaucer--his poetry, his humor, his good
stories, his kind heart---it will be time enough to study his language.
LIFE OF CHAUCER. For our convenience the life of Chaucer is divided into
three periods. The first, of thirty years, includes his youth and early
manhood, in which time he was influenced almost exclusively by French
literary models. The second period, of fifteen years, covers Chaucer's
active life as diplomat and man of affairs; and in this the Italian
influence seems stronger than the French. The third, of fifteen years,
generally known as the English period, is the time of Chaucer's richest
development. He lives at home, observes life closely but kindly, and while
the French influence is still strong, as shown in the _Canterbury Tales_,
he seems to grow more independent of foreign models and is dominated
chiefly by the vigorous life of his own English people.
Chaucer's boyhood was spent in London, on Thames Street near the river,
where the world's commerce was continually coming and going. There he saw
daily the shipman of the _Canterbury Tales_ just home in his good ship
Maudelayne, with the fascination of unknown lands in his clothes and