Handbook of Universal Literature, From the Best and Latest Authorities

by Anne C. Lynch Botta

Sixth, "The Adventures of Tristram," or Tristan, is a repetition of those which had been attributed to Launcelot of the Lake.

These six romances of the British cycle, the originals of all others, were written in the latter half of the twelfth century for the English court and nobles, some of them at the suggestion of king Henry II. Although, composed in French, the authors were Englishmen, and from these prose romances the poets of France constructed many metrical romances which in the fifteenth century reappeared as English metrical romances.

5. SAXON ENGLISH.—The Saxon tongue of England decayed, but like the healthy seed in the ground it germinated again. The Saxon Chronicle which had been kept in the monasteries ceased abruptly on the accession of Henry II., 1154, and at the same period the Saxon language began to take a form in which the beginning of the present English is apparent.

During the thirteenth century appeared a series of rhyming chroniclers, the chief of whom were Layamon and Robert of Gloucester. All the remains of the English tongue, in its transition state, are chiefly in verse; among them are the "Ormulum" (so called from the name of the author, Ormin), which is a metrical harmony of passages from the gospels contained in the service of the mass, and the long fable of "The Owl and the Nightingale," one of the most pleasing of these early relics. "The Land of Cockayne," a satirical poem, said to have been written by Michael of Kildare, belongs also to the thirteenth century, as well as many anonymous poems, both amatory and religious.

The old English drama was almost contemporaneous with the formation of the Old English language; but all dramatic efforts previous to the sixteenth century were so rude as to deserve little notice.

6. LITERATURE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.—The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the afternoon and evening of the Middle Ages, are the picturesque period in English history. In the contemporary chronicle of Froissart, the reign of Edward III. shines with a long array of knightly pageants, and a loftier cast of imaginative adornment is imparted by the historical dramas of Shakspeare to the troubled rule of the house of Lancaster and the crimes and fall of the brief dynasty of York.

The reign of Edward II. was as inglorious in literature as in the history of the nation. That of his son was not more remarkable for the victories of Poictiers and Cressy than for the triumphs in poetry and thought. The Black Prince, the model of historic chivalry, and Occam, the last and greatest of the English scholastic philosophers, lived in the same century with Chaucer, the father of English poetry, and Wickliffe, the herald of the Reformation.

The earlier half of the fourteenth century, in its literary aspects, may be regarded as a separate period from the later. The genius of the nation seemed to sleep. England, indeed, was the birth-place of Occam (1300- 1347), but he neither remained in his own country, nor imparted any strong impulse to his countrymen. Educated abroad, he lived chiefly In France, and died in Munich. While the writings of his master, Duns Scotus (d. 1308), were the chief authorities of the metaphysical sect called Realists, Occam himself was the ablest and one of the earliest writers among the Nominalists. While the former of these sects was held especially favorable to the Romish Church, the latter was discouraged as heretical, and Occam was persecuted for enunciating those opinions which are now held in one form or another by almost all metaphysicians. No eminent names appear in the ecclesiastical literature of this period, nor in that of the spoken tongue; but the dawn of English literature was close at hand.

The latter half of this century was a remarkable era in the ecclesiastical and intellectual progress of England. Many colleges were founded, and learning had munificent patrons. The increase of papal power led to claims which were resisted by the clergy as well as by the parliament. Foremost among those who called for reform was the celebrated John Wickliffe (1324- 1384). A priest of high fame for his knowledge and logical dexterity, he was placed at the head of several of the colleges of Oxford, and there, and from the country parsonages to which he was afterwards compelled to retreat, he thundered forth his denunciations against the abuses of the church, attacked the papal supremacy, and set forth doctrinal views of his own nearly approaching to Calvinism. Although repeatedly called to account for his opinions he was never even imprisoned, and he enjoyed his church- livings to the last. But the church was weakened by the Great Schism, and he was protected by powerful nobles. Soon after his death, however, a storm of persecution burst on his disciples, which crushed dissent till the sixteenth century. We owe to Wickliffe the earliest version of the Scriptures into English, which is among the first prose writings in the old tongue.

The very oldest book in English prose, however, is the account given by Sir John Mandeville of his thirty-three years' travel in the East, from which he returned about 1355. It is an odd and amusing compound of facts and marvelous stories. But the best specimens of English prose of this period are Chaucer's translation of Boethius, his "Testament of Love," and two of his Canterbury Tales.