English Literature
"apology," a very widespread dissatisfaction over the neglect of native
literature when he says, "And as for ye Latin or greke tongue, every thing
is so excellently done in them, that none can do better: In the Englysh
tonge contrary, every thinge in a maner so meanly, both for the matter and
handelynge, that no man can do worse."
On the Continent, also, this new interest in the classics served to check
the growth of native literatures. In Italy especially, for a full century
after the brilliant age of Dante and Petrarch, no great literature was
produced, and the Italian language itself seemed to go backward.[107] The
truth is that these great writers were, like Chaucer, far in advance of
their age, and that the mediæval mind was too narrow, too scantily
furnished with ideas to produce a varied literature. The fifteenth century
was an age of preparation, of learning the beginnings of science, and of
getting acquainted with the great ideals,--the stern law, the profound
philosophy, the suggestive mythology, and the noble poetry of the Greeks
and Romans. So the mind was furnished with ideas for a new literature.
With the exception of Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_ (which is still mediæval in
spirit) the student will find little of interest in the literature of this
period. We give here a brief summary of the men and the books most "worthy
of remembrance"; but for the real literature of the Renaissance one must go
forward a century and a half to the age of Elizabeth.
The two greatest books which appeared in England during this period are
undoubtedly Erasmus's[108] _Praise of Folly_ (_Encomium Moriae_) and More's
_Utopia_, the famous "Kingdom of Nowhere." Both were written in Latin, but
were speedily translated into all European languages. The _Praise of Folly_
is like a song of victory for the New Learning, which had driven away vice,
ignorance, and superstition, the three foes of humanity. It was published
in 1511 after the accession of Henry VIII. Folly is represented as donning
cap and bells and mounting a pulpit, where the vice and cruelty of kings,
the selfishness and ignorance of the clergy, and the foolish standards of
education are satirized without mercy.
More's _Utopia_, published in 1516, is a powerful and original study of
social conditions, unlike anything which had ever appeared in any
literature.[109] In our own day we have seen its influence in Bellamy's
_Looking Backward_, an enormously successful book, which recently set
people to thinking of the unnecessary cruelty of modern social conditions.
More learns from a sailor, one of Amerigo Vespucci's companions, of a
wonderful Kingdom of Nowhere, in which all questions of labor, government,
society, and religion have been easily settled by simple justice and common
sense. In this _Utopia_ we find for the first time, as the foundations of
civilized society, the three great words, Liberty, Fraternity, Equality,
which retained their inspiration through all the violence of the French
Revolution and which are still the unrealized ideal of every free
government. As he hears of this wonderful country More wonders why, after
fifteen centuries of Christianity, his own land is so little civilized; and
as we read the book to-day we ask ourselves the same question. The splendid
dream is still far from being realized; yet it seems as if any nation could
become Utopia in a single generation, so simple and just are the
requirements.
Greater than either of these books, in its influence upon the common
people, is Tyndale's translation of the New Testament (1525), which fixed a
standard of good English, and at the same time brought that standard not
only to scholars but to the homes of the common people. Tyndale made his
translation from the original Greek, and later translated parts of the Old
Testament from the Hebrew. Much of Tyndale's work was included in Cranmer's
Bible, known also as the Great Bible, in 1539, and was read in every parish
church in England. It was the foundation for the Authorized Version, which
appeared nearly a century later and became the standard for the whole
English-speaking race.
WYATT AND SURREY. In 1557 appeared probably the first printed collection of
miscellaneous English poems, known as _Tottel's Miscellany_. It contained
the work of the so-called courtly makers, or poets, which had hitherto
circulated in manuscript form for the benefit of the court. About half of
these poems were the work of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542) and of Henry
Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517?-1547). Both together wrote amorous sonnets
modeled after the Italians, introducing a new verse form which, although
very difficult, has been a favorite ever since with our English poets.[110]
Surrey is noted, not for any especial worth or originality of his own
poems, but rather for his translation of two books of Virgil "in strange
meter." The strange meter was the blank verse, which had never before
appeared in English. The chief literary work of these two men, therefore,
is to introduce the sonnet and the blank verse,--one the most dainty, the
other the most flexible and characteristic form of English poetry,--which
in the hands of Shakespeare and Milton were used to make the world's
masterpieces.
MALORY'S MORTE D'ARTHUR. The greatest English work of this period, measured
by its effect on subsequent literature, is undoubtedly the _Morte
d'Arthur_, a collection of the Arthurian romances told in simple and vivid
prose. Of Sir Thomas Malory, the author, Caxton[111] in his introduction
says that he was a knight, and completed his work in 1470, fifteen years
before Caxton printed it. The record adds that "he was the servant of Jesu
both by day and night." Beyond that we know little[112] except what may be
inferred from the splendid work itself.
Malory groups the legends about the central idea of the search for the Holy
Grail. Though many of the stories, like Tristram and Isolde, are purely
pagan, Malory treats them all in such a way as to preserve the whole spirit
of mediæval Christianity as it has been preserved in no other work. It was
to Malory rather than to Layamon or to the early French writers that
Shakespeare and his contemporaries turned for their material; and in our
own age he has supplied Tennyson and Matthew Arnold and Swinburne and
Morris with the inspiration for the "Idylls of the King" and the "Death of
Tristram" and the other exquisite poems which center about Arthur and the
knights of his Round Table.
In subject-matter the book belongs to the mediæval age; but Malory himself,
with his desire to preserve the literary monuments of the past, belongs to
the Renaissance; and he deserves our lasting gratitude for attempting to
preserve the legends and poetry of Britain at a time when scholars were
chiefly busy with the classics of Greece and Rome. As the Arthurian legends
are one of the great recurring motives of English literature, Malory's work
should be better known. His stories may be and should be told to every
child as part of his literary inheritance. Then Malory may be read for his
style and his English prose and his expression of the mediæval spirit. And
then the stories may be read again, in Tennyson's "Idylls," to show how
those exquisite old fancies appeal to the minds of our modern poets.
SUMMARY OF THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING PERIOD. This transition period is at
first one of decline from the Age of Chaucer, and then of intellectual
preparation for the Age of Elizabeth. For a century and a half after
Chaucer not a single great English work appeared, and the general standard
of literature was very low. There are three chief causes to account for
this: (1) the long war with France and the civil Wars of the Roses
distracted attention from books and poetry, and destroyed of ruined many
noble English families who had been friends and patrons of literature; (2)
the Reformation in the latter part of the period filled men's minds with
religious questions; (3) the Revival of Learning set scholars and literary
men to an eager study of the classics, rather than to the creation of
native literature. Historically the age is noticeable for its intellectual
progress, for the introduction of printing, for the discovery of America,
for the beginning of the Reformation, and for the growth of political power
among the common people.
In our study we have noted: (1) the Revival of Learning, what it was, and
the significance of the terms Humanism and Renaissance; (2) three
influential literary works,--Erasmus's _Praise of Folly_, More's _Utopia_,
and Tyndale's translation of the New Testament; (3) Wyatt and Surrey, and
the so-called courtly makers or poets; (4) Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, a
collection of the Arthurian legends in English prose. The Miracle and
Mystery Plays were the most popular form of entertainment in this age; but
we have reserved them for special study in connection with the Rise of the
Drama, in the following chapter.
SELECTIONS FOR READING. Malory's Morte d'Arthur, selections, in Athenaeum
Press Series, etc. (It is interesting to read Tennyson's Passing of Arthur
in connection with Malory's account.) Utopia, in Arber's Reprints, Temple
Classics, King's Classics, etc. Selections from Wyatt, Surrey, etc., in
Manly's English Poetry or Ward's English Poets; Tottel's Miscellany, in
Arber's Reprints. Morris and Skeat's Specimens of Early English, vol. 3,
has good selections from this period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.[113]
_HISTORY. Text-book_, Montgomery, pp. 150-208, or Cheyney, pp. 264-328.
Greene, ch. 6; Traill; Gardiner; Froude; etc.
_Special Works_. Denton's England in the Fifteenth Century; Flower's The
Century of Sir Thomas More; The Household of Sir Thomas More, in King's
Classics; Green's Town Life in the Fifteenth Century; Field's Introduction
to the Study of the Renaissance; Einstein's The Italian Renaissance in
England; Seebohm's The Oxford Reformers (Erasmus, More, etc.).
_LITERATURE. General Works_. Jusserand; Ten Brink; Minto's Characteristics
of English Poets.
_Special Works_. Saintsbury's Elizabethan Literature; Malory's Morte
d'Arthur, edited by Sommer; the same by Gollancz (Temple Classics);
Lanier's The Boy's King Arthur; More's Utopia, in Temple Classics, King's
Classics, etc.; Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More, in King's Classics, Temple
Classics, etc.; Ascham's Schoolmaster, in Arber's English Reprints; Poems
of Wyatt and Surrey, in English Reprints and Bell's Aldine Poets; Simonds's
Sir Thomas Wyatt and His Poems; Allen's Selections from Erasmus;
Jusserand's Romance of a King's Life (James I of Scotland) contains
extracts and an admirable criticism of the King's Quair.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS. 1. The fifteenth century in English literature is
sometimes called "the age of arrest." Can you explain why? What causes
account for the lack of great literature in this period? Why should the
ruin of noble families at this time seriously affect our literature? Can
you recall anything from the Anglo-Saxon period to justify your opinion?
2. What is meant by Humanism? What was the first effect of the study of
Greek and Latin classics upon our literature? What excellent literary
purposes did the classics serve in later periods?
3. What are the chief benefits to literature of the discovery of printing?
What effect on civilization has the multiplication of books?
4. Describe More's _Utopia_. Do you know any modern books like it? Why
should any impractical scheme of progress be still called Utopian?
5. What work of this period had the greatest effect on the English
language? Explain why.
6. What was the chief literary influence exerted by Wyatt and Surrey? Do
you know any later poets who made use of the verse forms which they
introduced?
7. Which of Malory's stories do you like best? Where did these stories