A history of English literature

by Edward Albert

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY FORMS

1. Poetry. (a) Meter. The most interesting feature of this period is the development of the modern system of rhymed meters, which displaced the Old English alliterative measures. Between the Old English poems of Cynewulf (about 950) and the Middle English Brut (about 1205) there is a considerable gap both in time and in development. This gap is only slightly bridged by the few pieces which we proceed to quote.

A quatrain dated at about 1100 is as follows:

Merrie sungen the muneches binnen Ely,

Tha Cnut chining[3] reu[4] ther by;

“Roweth, cnichtes, noer the land,

And here we thes muneches sang.”

In this example we have two rough couplets. The first pair rhyme, and in the second pair there is a fair example of assonance. The meter, as far as it exists at all, is a cross between octosyllables and decasyllables.

A few brief fragments by Godric, who died in 1170, carry the process still further. The following lines may be taken as typical:

Sainte Nicholaes, Godes druth,

Tymbre[5] us faire scone[6] hus,

At thy burth,[7] at thy bare,[7]

Sainte Nicholaes, bring us wel thare.

These lines are almost regular, and the rhyme in the second couplet is perfect.

The Brut, with its ragged four-accented and nearly rhymeless lines, shows no further advance; but the Ormulum, though it does without rhyme, is remarkable for the regularity of its meter. Then during the thirteenth century there comes a large number of poems, chiefly romances and homilies. Much of the verse, such as in Horn, Havelock the Dane, and the works of Manning, is in couplet form. It is nearly doggerel very often, and hesitates between four and five feet. This is the rough work that Chaucer is to make perfect. The following example of this traditional verse should be carefully scanned:

For Engelond ys ful ynow of fruyt and of tren,

Of wodes and of parkes, that joye yt ys to sen.

Of foules and of bestes of wylde and tame also.

Of salt fysch and eche fresch, and fayr ryueres ther to.

Of welles swete and colde ynow, of lesen and of mede.

Of seluer or and of gold, of tyn and of lede.

Robert of Gloucester

During the fourteenth century, with the increase of dexterity, came the desire for experiment. Stanzas in the manner of the French were developed, and the short or bobbed line was introduced. The expansion of the lyric helped the development of the stanza. Thus we pass through the fairly elaborate meters of Minot, the Proverbs of Hendyng, and the romances (like The King of Tars) in the Romance sestette, to the extremely complicated verses of Sir Tristrem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Pearl. We add a specimen of the popular Romance sestette, and a verse from a popular song of the period.

(1) The King of Tars came also

The Soudan battle for to do,

With many a Christian Knight;

Either host gan the other assail,

There began a strong battail

That grisley was of sight.

The King of Tars

(2) Sitteth alle stille, ant herkneth to me:

The kyn of Alemaigne,[8] bi mi leaute[9]

Thritti thousent pound askede he

For te make the pees[10] in the countre

Ant so he dude more.

Richard, thah thou be euer trichard,[11]

Trichten shalt thou neuer more.

(b) The Lyric. The most delightful feature of the period is the appearance of the lyric. There can be little doubt that from Old English times popular songs were common, but it is not till the thirteenth century that they receive a permanent place in the manuscripts. We then obtain several specimens that for sweetness and lyrical power are most satisfying.

Apart from its native element, the lyric of the time drew its main inspiration from the songs of the French jongleurs and the magnificent, rhymed Latin hymns (such as Dies Iræ and Stabat Mater) of the Church. These hymns, nobly phrased and rhymed, were splendid models to follow. Many of the early English lyrics were devoutly religious in theme, especially those addressed to the Virgin Mary; a large number, such as the charming Alysoun, are love-lyrics; and many more, such as the cuckoo song quoted below (one of the oldest of all), are nature-lyrics. In the song below note the regularity of the meter:

Sumer is i-cumen in,	Summer is coming,
Lhude sing cuccu:	Loud sing cuckoo:
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,	Groweth seed and bloweth mead,
And springth the wde nu.	And springeth the wood now.
Sing cuccu, cuccu.	Sing cuckoo, cuckoo.
Awe bleteth after lombe,	Ewe bleateth after lamb,
Lhouth after calue cu;	Loweth after calf the cow;
Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth;	Bullock starteth, buck verteth[12]
Murie sing cuccu,	Merry sing cuckoo:
Cuccu, cuccu.	Cuckoo, cuckoo.
Wel singes thu, cuccu;	Well sing’st thou, cuckoo;
Ne swik thu nauer nu.	Nor cease thou ever now.
Sing cuccu nu,	Sing cuckoo now,
Sing, cuccu.	Sing, cuckoo.

(c) The Metrical Romances. A romance was originally a composition in the Romance tongue, but the meaning was narrowed into that of a tale of the kind described in the next paragraph. Romances were brought into England by the French minstrels, who as early as the eleventh century had amassed a large quantity of material. By the beginning of the fourteenth century the romance appears in English, and from that point the rate of production is great. Romantic tales are the main feature of the literature of the time.

TABLE TO ILLUSTRATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY FORMS

YEAR	POETRY			PROSE
	Lyrical	Narrative	Didactic	Narrative	Didactic
		Beowulf
700		Cædmon
800
900					Alfred
				A.S.
		Cynewulf		CHRONICLE
1000					Ælfric
					Wulfstan
1100
			Ormulum
1200
		Brut			AncrenRiwle
1300			Manning
	Alysoun,	THE	Hampole
	etc.	ROMANCES
1400		Cursor Mundi

The chief features of the romance were: a long story, cumulative in construction, chiefly of a journey or a quest; a strong martial element, with an infusion of the supernatural and wonderful; characters, usually of high social rank, and of fixed type and rudimentary workmanship, such as the knightly hero, the distressed damsel, and the wicked enchanter; and a style that was simple to quaintness, but in the better specimens was spirited and suggestive of mystery and wonder. In meter it ranged from the simple couplet of The Squire of Low Degree to the twenty-lined stanza of Sir Tristrem. In its later stages, as Chaucer satirized it in Sir Thopas, the romance became extravagant and ridiculous, but at its best it was a rich treasure-house of marvelous tales.

2. Prose. The small amount of prose is strictly practical in purpose, and its development as a species of literature is to come later.