[13.] JOHN GOWER.—A contemporary of Chaucer was John Gower, a gentleman of Kent. The date of his birth is not known; but he survived Chaucer eight years, dying in 1408. He wrote the Lover’s Confession in English verse; the Mirror of the Meditative Man in French verse (lost); the Voice of one crying, in Latin. His style was heavy and prosaic. Chaucer called him the ‘moral Gower.’
[14.] JOHN BARBOUR.—Another eminent contemporary of Chaucer was John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, who wrote in the Scottish, or Northern English, form of our tongue. He was a learned man, and a man of the world, who filled important office in the employment of the Scottish king. His great work was a narrative poem, The Bruce, giving an account of the life and adventures of the great Bruce. It is valuable both as a monument of our language and a storehouse of historical incident. Barbour died about 1395. The literature of Scotland was worthily continued by the royal poet, James I. (1394-1437), brought up as a prisoner in England, and well educated. His great work was the King’s Quhair (or book), a poem in the style and in one of the metres of Chaucer.
[15.] SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE.—Sir John Mandeville is the first writer of the new English prose—the prose with a large addition of French words. He is sometimes called the Father of English Prose. He was born at St Albans, in Hertfordshire, in 1300, and died at Liège, in 1372. He was a great traveller, soldier, and physician; travelled through the Holy Land, served under the Sultan of Egypt and the Great Khan of Cathay (the old name for China); and wandered through almost all the then known parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. He wrote his travels in three languages—first in Latin for the learned; then in French for the Norman-French; and lastly in English, ‘that every man of the nation might understand them.’ The following is a specimen of his prose:
And 2 myle from Ebron (Hebron) is the grave of Lothe (Lot) that was Abrahames brother. And a lytille fro Ebron is the mount of Mambre, of the whiche the valeye takethe his name. And there is a tree of oke, that the Sarazinis clepen (call) Dirpë, that is of Abrahames tyme, the whiche men clepen the drye tree. And thei saye, that it hathe ben there sithe the beginnynge of the world, and was sumtyme grene, and bare leves, unto the tyme that oure Lord dyede on the cros; and thanne it dryede, and so dyden alle the trees, that weren thanne in the world.
This is almost quite like modern English—with the exception of the spelling;
[16.] JOHN WICLIFFE.—John Wicliffe,* or John de Wycliffe, was born at the village of Hipswell, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, in the year 1324. He died at the vicarage of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, in the year 1384, at the age of sixty. He was the first Englishman who attempted to make a complete translation of the Scriptures. Of this work, however, the Gospels alone can be certainly identified as the work of Wicliffe himself. The Old Testament and apocryphal books were translated principally by Nicolas de Hereford, and it is supposed that his work was interrupted in 1382, and that the Bible was completed about that time by extracting the text of the gospels from Wicliffe’s commentary on the gospels (written in 1360), and adding to it a new translation of the rest of the New Testament. A later version was finished by Wicliffe’s friend, John Purvey, about 1388, and appears to be mainly a revision of the work of Hereford and Wicliffe. The later is a less close and literal version than the former, and is expressed in more idiomatic and less laboured English.
[17.] OUR ENGLISH BIBLE AND ITS HISTORY.—The first fresh translation from the original sources was that of William Tyndale. His New Testament, printed at Cologne and at Worms, reached the English shores in 1526, and was followed three years later by the Pentateuch. To this translation our authorised version owes much of its peculiar force and beauty. The first complete English Bible was that of Miles Coverdale, which appeared in 1535. In April 1539 appeared the Great Bible (so called from its large size), prepared by Coverdale at Paris, but completed in London under the patronage of Thomas Cromwell. The translation of the psalms in the Great Bible has remained, without alteration, the Psalter in the Book of Common Prayer. During the last year of Mary’s reign and the beginning of Elizabeth’s, the English refugees at Geneva completed a fresh revision of the Great Bible, which was published in 1560, in a handy size, with a marginal commentary, and the chapters divided into verses. The Genevan version (sometimes called the Breeches Bible), became popular with the Puritans, and more than two hundred editions of it were published, and it gave way slowly before the present authorised version. Soon after Elizabeth’s accession, Archbishop Parker organised a revision of the Great Bible of 1539, which was published in 1568, and became known as the Bishops’ Bible. During Elizabeth’s reign, the Popish exiles at Rheims produced a new version from the Vulgate, which was printed at Douay in 1609, and is known as the Douay Bible. The English Bible which is now recognised as the ‘authorised version’ wherever the English language is spoken, is a revision of the Bishops’ Bible, begun in 1604 and finished in 1611. Of this noble version many millions have been printed, and its general acceptance by all English-speaking people is the best testimony to its excellence. No book has had so great an influence on our language and literature; its words and phrases have been preserved in our vocabulary, and are the most familiar to our ears, consecrated as they are with the associations of two hundred and seventy years. A revision of our version by the most eminent scholars is now in progress, and the revised New Testament was published, May 17, 1881. Appended is a passage from Romans (xii. 6-8), as it appears in Wicliffe’s, Tyndale’s, the Great Bible, the Genevan Bible, the Bishop’s Bible, and our Authorised Version:
| 1. WICLIFFE. 6 Therfor we that han yiftis dyuer-synge, aftir the grace that is youun to vs, ethir prophecie, aftir the resoun of feith; 7 ethir seruise, in mynystryng; ethir he that techith, in techyng; 8 he that stirith softli, in monestyng; he that yyueth, in symplenesse; he that is souereyn, in bisynesse; he that hath merci, in gladnesse. | 2. TYNDALE. 6 Seyinge that we have divers gyftes accordynge to the grace that is geven vnto vs, yf eny man have the gyft off prophesy lett hym have it that itt be agreynge vnto the fayth. 7 Let hym that hath an office, wayte on his office. Let hym that teacheth take hede to his doctryne. 8 Let hym that exhorteth geve attendaunce to his exhortacion. Yf eny man geve, lett hym do it with singlenes. Let hym that rueleth do it with diligence. Yf eny man shewe mercy lett hym do itt with cherfulnes. |
| 3. GREAT BIBLE. 6 Seynge that we haue dyuers gyftes accordynge to the grace that is geuen vnto vs: yf any man haue the gyfte of prophecy let him haue it that it be agreing vnto ye fayth. 7 Let hym that hath an office wayte on hys office. Let hym that teacheth take hede to hys doctrine. 8 Let hym that exhorteth geue attendaunce to his exhortacion. If any man geue, let hym do it wyth synglenes. Let hym that ruleth do it with diligence. If any man shewe mercy, let him do it with cherfulnes. | 4. GENEVAN BIBLE. 6 Seeing then that we haue giftes that are diuers, according to the grace that is giuen vnto vs whether we haue prophesie, let us prophesie according to the proportion of faith: 7 Or an office let vs waite on the office: or hee that teacheth on teaching. 8 Or he that exhorteth on exhortation: hee that distributeth let him do it with simplicitie: he that ruleth with diligence: hee that sheweth mercie with chearefulnes. |
| 5. BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 6 Seeing that wee haue diuers giftes according to the grace that is giuen vnto vs eyther prophecie, after the measure of fayth. 7 Eyther office, in administration: or he that teacheth, in teaching. 8 Or he that exhorteth, in exhorting: he that giueth in singlenesse, he that ruleth in diligence: hee that is mercyfull in chearefulnesse. | 6. AUTHORISED VERSION. 6 Hauing then gifts differing according to the grace that is giuen to vs, whether prophecie, let vs prophecie according to the proportion of faith. 7 Or ministery, let vs wait, on our ministring: or hee that teacheth on teaching. 8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giueth let him doe it with simplicite: hee that ruleth, with diligence: hee that sheweth mercy with cheerefulnesse. |