GIFT OF
JANE K.SATHER

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PUBLISHED ON THE FOUNDATION
ESTABLISHED IN MEMORY OF

HENRY WELDON BARNES

OF THE CLASS OF 1882, YALE COLLEGE

ENGLISH LITERATUEE

FROM WIDSITH TO THE
DEATH OF CHAUCER

A SOURCE BOOK

ALLEN ROGERS BENHAM, A.M., Ph.D.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY

MDCCCCXVI

First published, June, 1916

^\^(A

THE HENRY WELDON BARNES MEMORIAL
PUBLICATION FUND

The present volume is the fourth work published by the Yale
University Press on the Henry Wei don Barnes Memorial Publica-
tion Fund. This Foundation was established June 16, 1918, by a
gift made to Yale University by William Henry Barnes, Esq., of
Philadelphia, in memory of his son, a member of the Class of 1882,
Yale College, who died December 3, 1882. While a student at
Yale, Henry Weldon Barnes was greatly interested in the study of
literature and in the literary activities of the college of his day, con-
tributing articles to some of the undergraduate papers and serving
on the editorial board of the Yale Record. It had been his hope
and expectation that he might in after-life devote himself to liter-
ary work. His untimely death prevented the realization of his
hopes, but by the establishment of the Henry W^eldon Barnes
Memorial Publication Fund his name will nevertheless be forever
associated with the cause of scholarship and letters which he
planned to serve and which he loved so well.

MY FATHER

AND THE MEMORY OF

MY MOTHER

PREFACE

" Literature is for the most part history or history at one remove, and what
is culture but a mold of interpretation into which new things are thrust,
a collection of standards, a sort of bed of King Og, to which all new ex-
pressions must be lopped or stretched." H. G. Wells, The Discovery of
the Future, p. 19.

The title of this venture is to be taken seriously; the
work is a source-book, not an anthology nor a text-book; it
exemplifies and urges in literary history the same methods
that have long been successfully used in constitutional or
political history. The differentia of anthology, text-book,
and source-book merit further consideration.

I take the anthology first; because, since this volume is
a collection of quotations, it may most easil}^ be confused
therewith. But to point out the difference between them is
not difficult. The object of an anthology is to present to
a reader, who perhaps has neither time nor inclination to
examine the whole product, samples of the best literary
product of an epoch or of a nation — best in technique and
in content, appealing to the taste which every cultivated
person aspires to have. The object of a source-book is to
present to a reader, who has perhaps little leisure and meager
library resources at his disposal, such documents from an
age as fundamentally explain the life, ideals, and spirit
thereof. An anthology aims to form taste; a source-book,
to train judgment. The former is a means to appreciation;
the latter, to scholarship.

What is the aim of a text-book in English literary history?
The question can best be answered in a paraphrase of the

X PREFACE

words of a current manual; thus: the purpose of this work
is threefold; to induce people personally to know and desire
the best books, to see that they are the representatives of
different ages as well as of different authors, and to appre-
ciate the development of English literature from simplicity
to complexity. So far, so good; but the means adopted to
attain these worthy ends is characteristic of nearly all the
text-books that I have seen: to arrange in chronological
order the author's more or less personal opinions of English
writers. The chronological order is almost always the sole
historical brand on the book.

But chronology is merely the skeleton of history, and,
important as a skeleton is, it can hardly serve as the whole
body. Other elements must be found in a body and these
are but ill-supplied in the ordinary text-book; for in the
latter, to drop the figure, the reader gets a second- or
third-hand view of the primary facts; he feels no contact
with the men and movements that were the original active
agents. This contact he does get, however, in the source-
book, which "shows the very age and body of the time his
form and pressure."

From an anthology, then, my book differs in that it
concerns judgment and scholarship rather than taste and
appreciation, though these last may be the most precious
by-products of the method it exhibits. From a text-book
it differs in that it gives a direct rather than an indirect
report of its field.

We are coming to realize that literary history, like other
sorts, is a matter of reports or documents. But in literary
history our difficulty has been that we have two sets of
documents to deal with; while in political history, for
instance, we have but one. Thus, for the age of Chaucer
in literary history we have both Chaucer's works and
contemporary comment thereon; whereas for the polit-

PREFACE xi

ical history of the same age we have but the surviving
memorials.

These are classified by historical science as conscious or
unconscious memorials; most weight is given to the former,
and only when they fail are the latter used. Current text-
books, however, have been too prone to describe the un-
conscious memorials only, and have thus lost their right to
be considered history. I feel that my method is scientifically
sound, because I have quoted generously from the extant
criticism and biography which are the conscious literary
memorials of our Old and Middle English periods.

But literature is not produced in a vacuum; it is a social
institution in a real world, affecting and picturing men who
have real problems and real outlooks which we must see if
we are to draw sound conclusions. Hence, most of the space
in this book is given to the backgrounds, — political, social,
industrial, and cultural, — which largely determine the liter-
ary output.

Literature has an instrument, the nature and possibilities
of which must in some degree be sensed, if, again, we are to
draw sound conclusions. Hence, notice is taken here of the
linguistic background, completing the plan.

The material quoted is thus classified in six divisions:
namely, political background, social and industrial back-
ground, cultural background, linguistic background, literary
characteristics, and representative authors.

Ill
To the following authors and publishers I wish to record
my thanks for permission to quote from works written or
published by them: Professor F. M. Anderson of Dart-
mouth College, the version of the Charter of Winchester in
Outlines and Documents of English Constitutional History
during the Middle Ages; Messrs. Chatto and Windus, pas-
sages from the King's Classics Series; Messrs. Constable

xii PREFACE

and C\)nii)aiiy and Mr. G. G. Coulton, passages from A
Medieval Garner; Messrs. E. P. Dutton and Company,
passages from the Everyman s Library and the Temple
Classics: Messrs. Ginn and Company and Professor
E. P. Cheyney, passages from Readings in English History;
Messrs. Ginn and Company and Professors Cook and
Tinker, passages from Select Translations from Old English
Prose; INIessrs. Ginn and Company and Professors Tuell
and Hatch, passages from Selected Readings in English
History: Lieutenant Colonel L. H. Holt, his version of
Cynewulf's runic signature from the Elene; Messrs. The
INIacmillan Company, Lord Tennyson's translation of the
Battle of Brunanburh, passages from Mr. G. C. Macaulay's
edition of the Chronicles of Froissart, from BelTs Eng-
lish History Source Books, from Mr. E. F. Henderson's
Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, and from
the Select Documents of English Constitutional History of
Professors Adams and Stephens; the Oxford University
Press, passages from several of its publications; Messrs.
G. P. Putnam's Sons, passages from Professor Ashley's
Edward III and His Wars and Mr. A. F. Leach's Educa-
tional Charters and Documents; Messrs. Charles Scribner's
Sons, passages from Dean A. F. West's Alcuin; the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, passages from the Pennsylvania
Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of
European History.

It remains to express my thanks to those who have
helped me in my work in various ways; in particular, my
colleagues in the English department at the University of
Washington, Professors Frederick Klaeber, Hardin Craig,
and Joseph W. Beach of the University of Minnesota,
Albert S. Cook of Yale University, Charles G. Osgood of
Princeton T^niversity, Felix E. Schelling of the University
of Pennsylvania, and John M. Manly of the University of
Chicago deserve my gratitude. Professor David Thomson

PREFACE xiii

of the University of Washington did me the great service of
reading all the proofs; I can hardly repay the debt. But,
though many have helped me, I am ultimately responsible
for the contents of this volume, and its failings and peculi-
arities must be charged directly to my account.

Seattle, May 5, 1916. ALLEN R. BENHAM.

CONTENTS AND LIST OF CITATIONS

Chapter I
FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST

PAGE

I. THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND.

1. Bede's Account of the Coming of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes to

Britain. Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, I, 15. Tr. J. A.
Giles. (Bohn Antiquarian Library, Geo. Bell & Sons, 1847.) ... 2

2. Nennius on the Exploits of Arthur against the Saxons. History of the

Britons, 50. Tr. J. A.Giles, Six Old English Chronicles. (Ibid.) . . 4

3. Northumbria the Leading English Kingdom. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Tr. J. A. Giles. Entry for the Year 617. {Bohn Antiqimrian Li-
brary.) ■ 5

4. Wessex the Leading English Kingdom. Ibid. Entry for the Year 827. 5

5. Danish Operations for the Year 870. Ibid. Entry for that Year. . 6

XL SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND.

1. Tacitus on the Life and Customs of the Early Germans. Selected

Chapters from the Germania. Tr. Thomas Gordon. (Camelot ed.
Walter Scott.) 8

2. Labor and Reading in a Monastery. The Rule of St. Benedict, 48. Tr.

A. S. Cook in Cook and Tinker, Select Translations from Old English
Prose, p. 282. (Ginn & Co., 1908.) " . . 19

3. Artificers in a Monastery. Ibid., 57. Ibid., p. 284 21

4. Selections from the Laws of Alfred the Great. Ancient Laws and In-

stitutes of England, Ed. Thorpe, I, pp. 44-101 22

5. iEIfric on the Occupations of the People in the Tenth Century. Colo-

guium. Tr. W. F. Parish from the Text in Thorpe, Analecta Saxo-
nica 26

III. THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND.

1. Early English Ideals of Life.

(A) Beowulf's Account of His Own Life. Tr. the Editor from the
Text of A. J. Wyatt, 11. 2724-2751. (Cambridge University
Press, 1901.) 34

(B) Beowulf's Words of Counsel to Hrothgar on the Death of a Thane.
Ibid.,\\. 1384-1389 35

cit., II, 13 36

2. Foreign Influences.

(A) The Introduction of Christianity.

(a) The Passion of St. Alban and His Companions. Ibid., I, 7. . . 39

xvi CONTENTS

(b) Gregory the Great and the English Slave Boys. Ibid., II, 1 . 43

(e) Augustine's Mission to Britain. Ibid., I, 25, 26 44

(d) The Life of Bishop Aidan. Ibid., Ill, 5 47

(e) The Controversy about the Time of Keeping Easter. Ibid., Ill,

25 49

(f) Christian Art in England. Bede, The Lives of the Holy Abbot.i of
Wcrcmouth and Jarrow. Tr. in Everyman's Library Ed., pp. 350-
:{5.'{; .'$55, 350. (E. P. Dutton and Co.) 56

(B) Danish Influences.

(a) Alcuin on the Danish Peril. Letter to the People of Kent. Tr. in
E. P. Cheyney, Readings in English History, pp. 57, 58. (Ginn

& Co.) .' 60

(b) A Brother's Remonstrance. Tr. the Editor from Text in E7ig-

li.sche Studien, VIII, p. 62 61

3. Learnixg in Old England.

(A) The Testimony of Bede. The Ecclesiastical History, etc., IV, 2.
Tr.cit 62

(B) The Testimony of Alcuin.

(a) His Account of Studies at York. Versus de Sanctis Eboracensis
Ecclesice, 11. 1430 seq. From A. F. West, Alcuin, p. 32, (Chas.
Scribner's Sons, 1892.) ....*... 63

(b) His Catalog of the Library at York. Op. cit., 11. 1535-1561.
Ibid., p. 34 63

(c) His Comparison of Conditions in England with Those in the
Empire of Charlemagne. Letter to Charlemagne. Tr. A. S.
Cook, op. cit., p. 272 68

4. Book-making in Early England.

(A) The Riddle on the Manuscript of the Bible. Tr. the Editor from
the Text of Tupper, The Riddles of the Exeter Book. (Ginn & Co.,
1910.) 69

5. The Position of the Poet in the Earliest England.

(A) Widsith, 11. 1-5; 50-56; 135-143. Tr. in Morley, English
rTViVer^ (CasscU and Co. Ltd., 1888), II, pp. 1-11 71

(B) The Scop in Beowulf. Tr. the Editor from op. cit., 11. 86-94 . . 72

(C) Dears Lament. Tr. R. M. Garrett from the Text of Wiilcker in
Die Deutsche Ileldensage im Angel sdchsischen {The German Hero-
Tale among the Anglo-Saxons), pp. 12, 13 72

IV. THE LIXGITSTIC BACKGROUND.

1. Bede on the Languages of England. Op.cit.,\,\. Tr.cit 74

2. English and Other Early Teutonic Languages.

(A) The Lord's Prayer in Gothic, Old High German, Old English and

Old Xor.se. (Texts of Wright, Bright, Vigfusson and Powell. . . 75

3. Specimens of the Old English Dialects with Translations.

(A) Ccedmons Hymn in Northumbrian. Text of Sweet, An Anglo-
Saxon Reader, p. 175. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1904.). ... 76

(B) The First Vespasian Hymn in Mercian. Ibid., p. 186 76

(C) A Ninth-century Bequest in Kentish. Text of Sweet, Second
Anglo-Saxon Reader, p. 98. Tr. the Editor. (Oxford, Clarendon
Press, 1887.) 77

CONTENTS xvii

(D) CcBdmons Hymn in West Saxon. Text of Bright, Anglo-Saxon

Reader. (Henry Holt and Co., 1899.) 79

4. The Old English Alphabet.

(A) The Runic Signature of Cynewulf in the Elene. Tr. L. H. Holt

from the T^xt of Kent in Yale Studies in English, XXI, p. 40. . 80

V. LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS.

1. The Spirit of Early English Literature.

(A) The Battle of Brunanbnrh. Tr. Alfred Lord Tennyson, Works,

p. 523 (The Macmillan Co., 1913.) 83

(B) The Wanderer. Tr. Emily H. Hickey in Academy, XIX, p. 355. . . 87

2. Literary Types.

(A) The Homily.

(a) iElfric on the False Gods. Tr. Mary W. Smyth in Cook and

Tinker, op. cit., p. 186 92

(B) The Saint's Life.

(a) iElfric's Life of St. Oswald. Tr. W. W. Skeat in the Early Eng-
lish Text Society ed.. Original Series, 82, pp. 125-143. (With
some changes by the Editor.) 95

(a) The Winchester Easter Trope. Tr. the Editor from the Text of
J. M. Manly, Specimens of Pre-Shakesperean Drama, I, pp.
xix-xx. (Ginn and Co., 1900.) 102

VI. REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS.

1. Bede's Account of Csedmon. Op. cit., IV, 24. Tr. in Cook and

Tinker, op. cit., p. 54 104

2. The Life and Work of Bede.

(A) Bede's Account of His Historical Method. Ibid., Preface, Ibid. . 108

(B) Bede's Account of His Education and His List of His Works. Op.

cit.. Concluding Words. Tr. J. A. Giles Ill

in Cook and Tinker, op. cit., p. 255 114

3. The Life and Work of Alfred the Great.

(A) Selected Chapters from Asser's Life of x\lfred. Tr. J. A. Giles, Six

Old English Chronicles 118

(B) Alfred's Preface to His Translation of Gregory's Cura Pastoralis.

Tr. A. S. Cook in Cook and Tinker, op. cit., p. 101 129

(C) His Preface to His Translation of Boethius, On the Consolation of
Philosophy. Tr. J. S. Cardale. (With some changes by the Editor.) 131

(D) His Concluding Prayer to The Same. Ibid 132

4. The Life and Work of ^Elfric:

(A) His Preface to Homilies II, Tr. Mary W. Smyth in Cook and
Tinker, op. cit., p. 154 133

(B) His I'reface to His Latin Grammar. Tr. the Editor from the Text of
Ziipitza, Sammlung Englischer Denkmdler {Collection of English
Monuments), I, B(<rlin. 1880 134

. K

xviii CONTENTS

Chapter II
FRO}f Till: SORMAS CONQUEST TO THE DEATH OF CHAUCER

I. THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND.

L Accounts of the Conquest.

(A) From the Worcester MS. of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Tr. Giles,

op. rj/., pp. 439-442 140

(B) From WiUiam of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum {Deeds of
the Kings of the English, tr. as Chronicle of the Kings of England).

Tr. Giles (Bohn Antiquarian Library), pp. 253-257; 271-280 . . 144

2. The Reign of Henry II.

(.\) Peter of Blois on the Character of Henry. Letters, tr. in Tuell and
Hatch, Selected Readings in English History, pp. 55-59. (Ginn
and Co., 1913.) 157

(B) Grim's Account of the Murder of Becket. Tr. in Cheyney, Read-
ings in English History, pp. 155-158. (Ginn and Co., 1908.) . . 163

3. The Winning of the Great Charter.

(A) The Account by Roger of Wendover, Flowers of History, II, pp.

304-309. Tr. Giles. {Bohn Library, 1849.) 167

4. The Beginnings of Parliament.

(A) Summons of a Bishop, a Baron and Representatives of the Towns
and Counties to Parliament. Tr. in Pennsylvania Translations
and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, I, 6,
pp. 33, 34, 35 173

5. Campaigns Against the Scots.

(A) Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbrooke's Account of the Battle of Ban-
nockbum. Tr. in Cheyney, op. cit., p. 232 175

(B) Froissart on Scotch Military Customs. Chronicles of England,
France and Spain. Tr. Johnes. World's Great Classics Ed., I, pp.

5-7 176

(C) Lawrence Minot's Poem on the Battle. Tr. W. F. Parish from
the Text of Hall, The Poems of Lauyrence Minot. (Oxford, Claren-
don Press, 1897.) 179

6. The Hundred Years' War Against France.

(A) Froissart on the Beginning of the War. Op. cit., tr. Berners.

Ed. G. C. Macaulay, pp. 3, 4. (The Macmillan Co., 1895.) . . 180

(B) Froissart on the Battle of Crecy. Ibid., pp. 104 seq 181

7. The P^nd of the Plantagenet Dynasty.

(A) Richard the Redeless on the Downfall of Richard II. Tr. the Editor
from the Text of Skeat, William Langland's Vision of William con-
cerning Piers the Plowman and Richard the Redeless, I, pp. 603-628.
(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1886.) 185

II. THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND.

1. Dcx'UMKNTH Relating to the Feudal System.

(.\) General SUitement of the Duties of Lords and Vassals. Tr. the
Editor from Laws of Henry I, LXXXII and LV, from Text in
Thorpe, A ncient Laws and Institutes of England, I, pp. 552 and 590. 201

CONTENTS xix

(B) The Chronicle on the Salisbury Oath. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
Entry for the Year 1086. Tr. cit 202

(C) The Coronation Charter of Henry I. Tr. in Pennsylvania Transla-
tions and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History,

I, 6, pp. 3-5 203

(D) The Chronicle on Feudal Anarchy in the Time of King Stephen.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Entries for the Years 1135 and 1137. Tr.

eit 205

(E) The Reforms of Henry II.

(a) William of Newburgh on Henry's General Policy. History of
English Affairs, Book II, Chapters 1 and 2. Tr. Joseph Steven-
son, Church Historians of England, IV, Part 2, pp. 444, 445 . . 209

(b) The Assize of Clarendon. Tr. in Pennsylvania Translations, etc.

I, 6, pp. 22-26 212

(F) Life on a Feudal Manor.

V (a) Extent of the Manor of Werminton, 1125. Tr. ibid.. Ill, 5, p. 4. 217
X (b) Description of a Thirteenth-century Manor House. Tr. ibid.,

p. 30 217

(d) Extent of the Manor of Borley. Tr. in Cheyney, op. cit., pp.
212-215 ' 223

(e) Certificate of Manumission to a Villein. Tr. in Pennsylvania .

Translations, etc., Ill, 5, p. 31 226

2. Documents Relating to the Gilds and Trade.

(A) The Gilds.

(a) Ordinances of the Spurriers of London. Tr. ibid., II, 1, pp. 21-23. 229

(b) Chaucer's Description of Five Members of a Gild. Prolog to the
Canterbury Tales, 11. 361-378. Tr. the Editor from the Text of
Skeat. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1894.) 230

mingham. Toulmin Smith, English Gilds, pp. 244, 245. {Early
English Text Society, Original Series, XL.) 231

(d) Ordinances of the Gild of St. Mary, Beverly. Ibid., pp. 149, 150. 233

(e) Ordinances of the Gild of the Lord's Prayer, York. Ibid., pp. 137-

140 234

(f) The Order of the Pageants of the Play of Corpus Christi at York.

Tr. in Pennsylvania Translations, etc., II, 1, pp. 29-32. . . . 237

(B) Commercial Types and Practices.

(a) Chaucer's Description of a Merchant. Op. cit., 11. 270-284.

Tr. Editor from Text cit 241

(b) The Confession of Avarice from the Vi.non of William concern-
ing Piers the Plowman, B Version, V, U. 188-303. Tr. Burrell

in Everyman s Library Ed 242

Man), 11. 25, 213-25, 500; 26,077-26, 136. Tr. the Editor from
the Text of Macaulay, Complete Works of John Gower (Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1899-1902), 1 248

(a) Langland (?) on the Genealogy of Money Power. Op. cit., C

Version, III, II. 116-126. Tr. the Editor from Text cit. ... 255

XX CONTENTS

(b) Dan Michel on rsury. Aycnbitc of Inwyf, pp. 35-37, 44, 45;
(Ed. Morris, Earli/ English Text Society, Original Scries, XXIII).
Tr. in Ashley, Edward III and His Wars, pp. G8-70; 70-71.
{English Uistonj by Contemporaries, (i. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887). • 258

Book XII, (^hapterLIV. Tr. Ashley, op. r//., pp. 95, 9G . ... 261

3. Documents Rel.\ting to the Religious Orders

(A) The Monks.

(a) Ctesarius of Ileisterbach on the Monastic Ideal. Dialogus
Miracnlornm {Dialog of Miracles), Works, I, p. 282. Tr, in
Coulton, A Medieval Garner, pp. 220-225. (Constable &

Co., Ltd., 1910.) 263

I (b) Abbot Samson and His Management of the Abbey of St. Ed-
mund. Jocelin of Brakelond, Chronica {Chronicle), Camden
Society's Publications, XIII. Tr. Jane {King's Classics Series,
Chatto and Windus, 1907), pp. 1-6; 11, 12; 16-20; 40, 41;

52-54; 73, 74; 80-85; 119-123; 137-144 268

11. 118-162; 165-207. Tr. the Editor from Text cit. ... 287

(B) The Friars.

(a) The Ride of St. Francis. Tr. the Editor from a Fifteenth-cen-
tury English Text in Brewer, Monumenta Franciscana {Fran-
ciscan Momtments), II, pp. 65-78. {Rolls Series, IV, 1858.) . . 290

(b) The Franciscans Come to England. Thomae de Eccleston,
Liber de Adventu Minorum in Angliam (Thomas of Eccleston,
Book of the Arrival of the Minorites in England), Ibid., I, p. 5
seq. Tr. in Robieson, The Growth of Parliament and the W^ar
with Scotland (1216-1307), pp. 10-13. {Bell's English History
Source Books, Geo. Bell and Sons, 1914.) 294

(c) A Fourteenth-century Song Against the Friars. Tr. the Edi-
tor from the Text of Wright, Political Poems and Songs Relat-
ing to English History. . . . Edward III to . . . Richard III,

I, pp. 263-268. {Rolls Series, XIV, 1859.) 297

4. Documents Relating to City Life

(A) Town Customs.

(a) Customs of Chester. Tr. in Pennsylvania Translations, etc.,

II, 1, pp. 2-5 302

(b) Customs of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Tr. Ibid., pp. 5, 6 ... 305

(B) Town Charters.

(a) Charter of Henry II to the City of Lincoln. Tr. Ibid., pp. 7, 8. 307

(b) Charter of Richard I to the City of Winchester. Tr. in Wells
and Anderson, Outlines and Documents of English Constitu-
tional History during the Middle Ages, pp. 26, 27 (Minneapolis,

The University Book Store, 1895.) 308

(C) Fitzstephen, Descriptio Nobilissimoe Ciritatis Londoner {Descrij)-
tion of the Most Noble City of London) from His Life of Thomas a
Bccket. {Rolls Series, LXVII, Part 3, 1877. Ed. Robertson.)
Tr. in Stowe, Survey of London, ed. Wheatley in Everyman' s
Library, pp. 500-509 309

CONTENTS xxi

(D) The Fir.st Petition in English to Parliament. Tr. the Editor from
the Text in Emerson, A Middle English Reader, pp. 232-237.
(The Macmiilan Co., 1905.) 320

5. Labor Conditions in the Fourteenth Century.

(A) Knighton's Description of the Black Death and Its Relation to
Labor. Chronicon {Chronicle), 2599. Tr. in Ashley, op. cit.,

pp. 122-127 324

(B) The Royal Ordinance on Laborers. Statutes of the Realm, I, p. 307.

Tr. in Pennsylvania Translations, etc., II, 5, pp. 3-5 327

6. Protests against the Medieval System.

(A) Froissart on the Peasants' Rebellion of 1381. Op. cit. Tr.
Johnes, Book II, Chapters 73-76 inclusive. (Ed. Pub. by Wil-
liam Smith, 1839, I, pp. 652-664.) 330

(B) The London Lijckpermy. Text of W. C. Bronson, English Poem^s,

I, pp. 166-169. (The University of Chicago Press, 1910.) ... 351

m. THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND.

1. Ideals of the Period.

(A) The Ascetic Ideal

(a) The Debate betioeen the Body and the Soul. Tr. W. F. Parish from

the Text of Emerson, op. cit. , pp. 47-64. Abridged by the Editor. 355

(B) TIte Chivalric Ideal.

(a) Sir Hugh of Tabarie. Tr. from the Old French by Eugene Ma-
son in Aucassin and Nicolette and Other Medioeval Romances and
Legends. {Everyman s Library.) 364

(b) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 11. 500-669. Tr. W. F. Parish
from the Text of Morris in the Early English Text Society,
Original Series, IV (1864), Revised Ed., 1897. Tr. Revised by
the Eflitor 368

(c) Edward HI Founds the Order of the Garter. Adam of Muri-
rauth, Continuatio Chronicarum {Continuation of the Chronicles),
pp. 155, 156. {Rolls Series, Ed. Thompson, XCIII, 1889.) Tr.
in Che>Tiey, op. cit., pp. 246-247 373

(d) Malmesbury Describes the Enthusiasm Aroused by the First
Crusade. Op. e^ ^r. eiY., pp. 356, 364 375

(e) Robert of Normandy Moftgages His Duchy in order to Go on
Crusade. Florence of Worcester, Chronicon {Chronicle). Tr.
Forester, p. 202. {Bohn Antiquarian Library, George Bell and
Sons, 1854.) 378

(f) The Prowess of Richard I at the Siege of Joppa. Itincrarium
Peregrinatorum {The Journey of the Pilgrims), Book \T, Chap-
ter 15. Tr. in Chronicles of the Crusades, pp. 316-318. {Bohn
Lil/rary, 1842.) Revised by the Editor 378

(g) A Character Sketch of King Richard. Ibid., Book II, Chapter
5. Tr. ibid., pp. 155, 156. Revised by the Editor 380

2. Foreign Influence.
(A) Giraldus Cambrensis Describes His Education in Paris. Works,

Ed. Blower, Dinock and Warner (8 vols. 1861-1891). Rolls Series,
XXI, Part 1, pp. 21 seq. Tr. in Chcyney, op. cit., pp. 164-166.
(Slightly Revised by the Editor.) 383

xxii CONTENTS

3. Learning in the Period.

(A) In General.

(a) Abelard on the Current Enthusiasm for Learning. Opera

(iror/.A), Ed. Cousin d. al. (Paris, Durand, 1849), I, pp. 25-27.

Tr. in Coulton, op. cit., pp. 89-91 •. . 387

(b) A Wandering Scholar's Petition. Medieval Student's Song from
Carmina Burana (Stuttgart, 184.7), p. 50. Tr. Symonds, Wine,
Women and Song {King's Classics Series, Chatto and Windus,
1907), pp. 59, GO 389

the Editor from the Text of Skeat (Oxford, Clarendon Press,
1906), 11. 744-704 391

(d) Roger Bacon's Complaints about the Obstacles in the Way
of Productive Scholarship. Bacon, Compendium Studiornm
Primer of Science), Chapter VIII, pp. 471, 472; 469; 474; 475;
Chapter V, pp. 425-427; Opus Tertium {Third Work), pp. 55;
34-38. Ed. Brewer, Rolls Series, XV, 1859. Tr. the Editor on
the Basis of Tr. by Brewer in His Preface, pp. lix, Ixiii,
lxxv-bDiviandbyCoulton,op.C2/., pp. 344,345; 342-344 ... 392

(e) The Purpose of a Medieval Encyclopedia. Translator's Prolog

to His Version of Bartholomseus Anglicus, De Proprietatibus
Rerum {On the Properties of Things). Tr. Robert Steele in Medi-
eval Lore. {King's Classics Series, Chatto and W' indus, 1907.) . 401

(f) Chaucer on the Great Literary Lights of the Past. Hous{e) of
Fame, Book HI, 11. 365-422. Tr. the Editor from the Text of
Skeat. {Ed. cit.) 403

(B) Schools and Universities.

(a) Lydgate's Picture of Himself as a Schoolboy. Lydgate, The

Testament of Dan John Lydgate, U. 607-655. Tr. the Editor
from the Text of MacCracken, pp. 351-353. {Early English
Text Society, Original Series, 1911.) 405

(b) Chaucer's Description of Primary Education. The Prioress's

Ta/r, 11. 36-84. Tr. the Editor from the Text of Skeat. {Ed. cit.) 407

Christian Schools. Text and Tr. in Leach, Educational Charters
and Documents, 598-1909, pp. 314, 317. (Cambridge University
Press, 1911.) 408

(d) Rules of Oxford in 1292 and the Curriculum in 1267. Munimenta

Academica Oxonica {Oxford Academic Record.s), Rolls Series, L,
Part 1, pp. 58 seq., 34. (Ed. Anstey, 1868.) Tr. in Cheyney, op.
eii., pp. 188-190. (With Some Changes by the Editor.) ... 409

(e) The Plea of the Bishop of Carlisle for Oxford. Letters from North-

ern Registers, p. 122. {Rolls Series, LXI, ed. Raine, 1873.) Tr.

in Cheyney, op. cit., pp. 194, 195 412

(f) A Merton "Scrutiny" in 1339. Tr. in Rogers, History of Agri-

culture and Prices, II, p. 672. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1866-
1902.) 413

(g) The Oxford Secession of 1209. Roger of Wendover, Chronicon

{Chronicle), p. 51. {Rolls Series, LXXXIV, Part 2, j). 51; Ed.

Hewlett, 1806 ) Text and Tr. in Leach, op. cit., pp. 140-

143 415

CONTENTS xxiii

(h) The Stamford Decree of 1344. Rymer, Foedera, II, p. 891. Tr.

in Ashley, op. cit., pp. 34-35 416

4. Books and Their Place in Culture.

(A) Richard of Bury on the Love of Book.s. Philohihlon {Love of Books),
Chapters 3, 5, G and 12. Tr. E. C. Thomas in King's Classics Series.
(Chatto and Windus, 1907.) 417

(B) The Catalog of the Library at the Monastery at Rievaux. Tr. the
Editor from Text in Halliwell and Wright, Reliquioo Antiqvae
{Ajicient Monuments) (London, Pickering, 1843), II, pp. 180-189. 430

(C) The List of Books Bequeathed to Bordesley Abbey in 1315 by
Guy Beauchamp Earl of Warwick. Tr. the Editor from the Text
in Edwards, Memoirs of Libraries (Triibner and Co., 1859), I, pp.
375-377 442

(D) Prices of Books as Compared with Other Prices.

(a) Prices of Food under Edward II, 1315. De Pretio Victualium

{On the Price of Victuals). Tr. in Somers Tracts, I, p. 6 . . . . 445

(b) Items from the Account Books of Merton College Grammar
School for 1307, 1308 and 1347, 1348. Text and Tr. in Leach,

o/>. cz7., pp. 220, 221; 300,301 446

5. The Position of the Poet and Literary Man.

(A) The Story of the Fate of an Impious Minstrel and of Robert Bishop
of Lincoln. Robert Mannyng, Handlyng Synne, 11. 4631-4774.
Tr. the Editor from the Text of Furnivall {Early English Text So-
ciety, Original Series, CXIX, CXXIII, 1901), pp. 154-159 .... 448

6. Wiclif's Protests against the Medieval System.

(A) Wlclif on the Gospel in English. Tr. the Editor from the Text in
Arnold, Select Works of John Wyclif (Oxford, Clarendon Press,
1869-1871), I, p. 209 451

(B) W'iclif on the Contemplative Life. Tr. the Editor from the Text
in F. D. Matthew, The Etiglish Works of John Wyclif, Hitherto
Unprinted {Early English Text Society, Original Series, LXXIV,
1880), pp. 188, 189 • . . . 452

^ (C) Wiclif on the Abuse of the Confessional. Ibid., pp. 331, 337 . . 452

(D) W'iclif on Ecclesiastical Secular Power. Ibid., p. 372 453

(E) WlcIif on Ecclesiastical Property. Ibid., p. 384 453

(F) Wiclif's Theological Theses. Fa.sciculi Zizaniorum {Bundles of
Tares), pp. 277-282. {Rolls Series, Ed. Shirley, 1858.) Tr. in
Pennsijlvania Translations, etc., II, 5, pp. 9-11 454

7. The Growth of a Feeling of Nationality.

(A) The Will of William the Conquoror. Henry of Huntingdon, Hi,s-
toria Anglomm {History of the English). Tr. Forester {Bohn Li-
brary, 1853), p. 219 456

(B) Henry of Huntingdon on the Battle of Tenchcbrai. Ibid., p. 242. 456

(C) English and Normans in 1178. Richard Filzneale, Dialogus de
Scaccario {Dialog on the Exchequer). Tr. in Henderson, Select
Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (Geo. Bell and wSons, 1892),

j)I). 66-68 457

(D) The Treatment of the Jews at the Coronation of Richard I.

(a) William of Xewburgh's Account. Op. ct tr. cit., p\). 555-557 . . 462

xxiv CONTENTS

(b) Roger of Hoveden's Account. Chronica {Chronicle), Entry for

the Year 1190. Tr. Riley, II, pp. 137, 138. {Bohn Library, 1853) 464

(E) Indignation at King John for His Loss of Lands. Provengal Poem.
Text and Tr. in Wright, The Poliiical Songs of England from the
Reign of King John to that of Edward II, p. 3 seq. {Publications of

the Catnden Society, 1839.) 465

(F) The Reign of Henry III.

(a) Norman Barons Dispossessed of Their English Lands. Matthew

Paris, Ilistoria Major {Greater History). Tr. as Matthew Paris'
English History, Giles {Bohn Library, 1852-1854), I, pp. 481, 482. 468

(b) The English Protest to the Pope against the Extortions of Italian
Prelates in England. Ibid., II, pp. 74, 75 468

(d) "How the King Distributed the Vacant Revenues amongst
Unworthy Persons." Ibid., pp. 522, 523 470

(e) The Principles Involved in the Nationalist Struggle. The Song

of Leaves, 11. 65-416. Text and Tr. in Wright, op. cit. pp. 71-120. 472

(G) The Reign of Edward III.

(a) A Royal Bill of Protection to a Flemish Weaver, 1331. Rymer,

op. cit., II, p. 823. Tr. in Ashley, op. cit., p. 29 480

(b) Prohibition of the Export of Wool. Adam of Murimuth, op. cit.,

p. 81. Tr. Ibid., p. 38 - . . . 481

IV. THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND.

1. The Status of the Language.

(A) The Testimony of Robert of Gloucester in 1300. Chronicle, 11.
7502-7513. Tr. the Editor from Text in Emerson, op. cit., p. 210. 482

(B) The Testimony of the Cursor Mundi {Overrunner of the Earth) in
1310. Cursor Mundi, U. 236-249. Tr. the Editor from Text,
ibid., p. 133 482

(C) The Statute of 1362. Statutes of the Realm, I, p. 371 . Tr. in Adams
and Stephens, Select Documents of English Constitutional History.
(The Macmillan Co., 1902), pp. 129, 130 483

(D) John of Trevisa on Linguistic Conditions in 1385. Tr. of Higden,
Polychronicon, I, p. 59. {Rolls Series, XLI. Ed. Lumby.) Tr. the
Editor from Text in Emerson, op. cit., pp. 224, 225 484

(E) Thomas Usk {?) on Latin, French and English. The Testament of
Love. Tr. the Editor from the Text of Skeat {Oxford Chaucer,
VII), pp. 1, 2 486

2. Specimens of the Middle English Dialects with Translations.

(A) The Northern Dialect. Robert Bruce Crossing Loch Lomond.
John Barbour, Bruce, III, 11. 435-466. Tr. W. F. Parish, from
Text in Ed. of W. M. Mackenzie (The Macmillan Co., 1909.) . . 487

(B) The Midland Dialect. Dedication of the Ormulum. Tr. the Editor
from the Text in Emerson, op. cit., pp. 8-13 489

(C) The Southern Dialect. Layamon on the Founding of the Round
Table. Brut, 11. 11,368-11,498. Text and Tr. (Slightly Revi.sed .
by the Editor) in Madden, Layamon s Brut, etc. (Published by

the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1847), II, p{). 532-543. . . 493

CONTENTS XXV

(D) The Kentish Dialect. Postscript to Dan Michel's Ayenhite of
Inicyt (Remorse of Conscience). Tr. the Editor from the Text in
Morris Ed., p. 262. (Early English Text Society, Original Series,
XXIII, 18G6. ) 502

(E) The London Dialect. The English Proclamation of Henry III. Tr.
theEditorfrom the Text of Emerson, 0/). ciY., pp. 226, 227 .... 503

The Written Language,

(A) Chaucer on the Difficulty of Getting a Text Copied Accurately.
Troilus and Criseyde, Book V, 11. 1786-1797; Wordes unto Adam,
His Owne Scriveyn. Tr. the Editor from the Text of Skeat. (Ed.
cit.) 505

V. LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS.

1. The Spirit of Literature, 1066-1400.

(A) The Didactic Spirit. Proem to Ancren Riivle (Rule for Anchores,ses).
Text and Tr. in Ancren Riwle, Ed. James Morton, pp. 3-15. (Pub-
lications of the Camden Society, LVII, 1853.) 506

(B) The Cheerful Romantic Spirit. Chaucer's Knight Criticizes the
Monk's Tale. Canterbury Tales B, 11. 3957-3994. Tr. the Edi-
tor from the Text of Skeat. (Ed. cit.) 512

(C) The Coarse Satirical Spirit. Chaucer's Apology for His Realism.
Prolog to the Canterbury Tales, 11. 725-746. Tr. the Editor from

the Text of Skeat. (Ed. Cit.) 513

(D) The Persistence of the Feeling for Poetry. Medieval Student's
Song. Tr. Symonds, op. cit., p. 162 514

2. Literary Technique.

(A) The Difficulties of Rimed Verse. Robert Mannviig of Brunne,
The Story of England, 11. 71-135. Tr. the Editor from the Text

of Furnivall (Rolls Scries, LXXXVII, Part 1, 1887), I, pp. 3-5. . 515

(B) A Monk's Definition of Tragedy. Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
B, 11. 3163-3172. Tr. the Editor from the Text of Skeat. (Ed.

cit.) 516

^ 3. The Popular Literary Types.
___^^ (A) The Romance.

^^ (a) The Testimony of the Cursor Mundi, Prolog, 11. 1-26. Tr.

the Editor from op. cit., pp. 126, 127 518

(b) The Testimony of Ywain and Gawain, 11. 3081-3094. Tr. the
Editor from the Text in Ritson, Ancient English Metrical Ro-
mances; I, pp. 129, 130. (London, Nicol, 1802.) 518

(B) The Drama.

(a) Proclamation of the Corpus Christi Eestiral at York in 1391^. Tr.

the Editor from the Text in Lucy Toulmin Smith, The York
Mystery Plays, p. xxxiv. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1885.) . . 520

(b) The Cost of the Corpus Christi Play at York in 1397. Cham-
berlains' Acc-ounts. Tr. the Editor from the Text in E. K.
Chambers, The Mediceval Stage (Oxford, (larendon Press, 1903),

II, p. 402 521

tial. Tr. the Editor from the Text, //>a/., p. 262 521

xxvi CONTENTS

(d) The Durham Burial and Resurrection of the Crucifix. A De-
scription or liriefc Declaration of All the Ancient Monuments,
Riics and Custotnes helonginge or beinge within the Monastical
Church of Durham before the Suppression, Ed. J. Raine, pp. 9,

2G. (Publications of the Surtees Society, X\,ISU.) 523

(e) The Grounds of Clerical Opposition to Miracle Plays. A Homily
from a MS. Volume of English Sermons, Written at the Latter End
of the Fourteenth Century, and now Preserved in the Library
of St. Martins-in-the-Ficlds, London. Tr. the Editor from
the Text in Wright and HaUiwell, Reliquiw Antique, II,

pp. 42-57 525

(a) The Prefatory Material to William of Newburgh, op. cit., tr. et

ed. cit., pp. 397-402 544

VI. REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS.

1. Marie de France. Preface to Her Lais. Tr. Eugene Mason in French

Medioeval Romances. (Everyman's Library.) 551

2. Henry of Huntingdon's View of History. Op. et tr. cit.. Preface,

pp. xxv-xxvii 553

3. William of Malmesbury's Zeal for Study. Op. et tr. cit., pp. 93, 94;

407; 476 555

4. Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Ancient Book in the British Tongue.

Historia Regum Briianniae (History of the Kings of Britain), I, 1;
XII, 20. Tr. Sebastian Evans, pp. 3-5; 325, 326. (Temple Classics
ed., E. P. Dutton and Co.) 557

5. The Autobiography of Wace. Roman de Ron (Romance of Rollo), 11.

10,440 seq. Tr. Eugene Mason in Arthurian Tales and Chronicles,

p. viii. (Everyman s Library.) 559

6. John of Salisbury's Studies in Paris and His Dislike of Mountaineer-

ing. Metalogicus, II, X. Tr. Giles in Preface to His 1848 Ed.
of Salisbury's Works (Slightly Altered by the Editor) ; Passage from
a Letter Quoted in Tr. in Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of
Medieval and Modern History. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1886),
p. 128 559

7. GiRALDUs Cambrensis.

(A) His Account of Reciting His Topography of Ireland at Oxford.
Autobiography, Book 2, Chapter 16. Tr. Editor from the Text in
irorA-.y, I, pp. 72, 73. (Rolls Series, Y.d.BTe\\er,\m\.) 564

(B) His Defense of His Topography of Ireland on the Charge of In-
cluding Fabulous Stories. First Preface to the History of the Con-
quest of Ireland. Tr. Forester, pp. 165-167. (Bohn Library, 1863.) 565

8. Walter Mapes or Map. Passages from De Nugis Curialium (Cour-
tier.s Trifle.'!). Tr. the Pxlitor from the Text of W^right, pp. 1, 2; 41-

43; 64, 65; 195, 196. (Publications of the Camden Society, L, 1850). 574

9. Layamon's Autobiography. Brut, II. 1-33. Tr. in Madden, op.

cit., I, pp. 1-4 579

10. Robert Manny ng of Brunne. Autobiographic Passages from The
Story of England, I, 11. 135-144; Ilandlyng Synne, 11. 57-76; The

CONTENTS xxvii

Story of England, II {Hearnes Langtojt, pp. 336, 337); I, 11.
16, 689-17,730; Ilandhjng Synnc, 11. 43-52; The Story of England,
11. 1-20; 57-70. Tr. the Editor from Texts in op. e< erf. ci7 580

11. Richard Rolle of Hampole. Officium et Legenda de Sando Ricardo
hercmiia postquam fuerit ab ecdesia canonizatus {Office and Legend of
St. Richard the Hermit after He Shall Have Been Canonized by the
Church), etc. Tr. the Editor from the Text in Engli.sh Prose Trea-
tises of Richard Rolle de Hampole, pp. xv-xxxiii. (Ed. Perry, Early
English Text Society, Original Series, XX, 1866.) 582

12. Pseudo-John Mandeviile. Prolog to The Voyage and Travel. Tr. the
Editor from the Text in Ed. of J. O. Halliweli. (London, Reeves

and Turner, 1883.) 585

13. John Wiclif.

(A) Wiclif in 1377. Harleian MS. 2261, Folios 399, 399b. Tr. in
Locke, War and Misrule, pp. 67, 68. {BeWs English History Source
Books, 1913.) 588

(B) Wiclif's Followers. Chronicle of Adam of Usk, Ed. and tr. by Sir
E. Maunde Thompson (1904), pp. 140, 141. (Quoted Ibid., pp. 77,

78.) 589

(C) The Bull of Gregory XI against Wiclif. Fasciculi Zizaniarum {Ed.
cit.), pp. 242-244. Tr. in Pennsylvania Translations, etc., II, 5,

pp. 11, 12 590

(D) Wiclif's Reply. Arnold, op. cit.. Ill, pp. 504-506. In Modernized
English Spelling, Ibid., pp. 13, 14 592

(E) Knighton on W'iclif and the Bible. Chronicon, pp. 151, 152.
{Rolls Series, XCII, Part 2, Ed. Lumby, 1889-00.) Tr. in Chey-
ney, op. cit., p. 267 594

(F) Capgrave on the Death of Wiclif. Chronicle of England, p. 240.
(/Jo//5Sm>5, Ed. Hingeston, 1858.) 594

14. W'illiam Langland {?) Traditional Autobiography from the Vision of
William concerning Piers the Plowman, C Text, VI, 11. 1-108. Tr.
Burrell in Everyman's Library, pp. 63-66 595

15. John Gower.

(A) His Marriage License. Statement in Macaulay, Works of Johti
Gower (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1902), IV, p. xvii 599

(B) Opening W^ords of Gower's Epistle Dedicating Vox Clamantis
(Voice of One Crying) to Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury. Tr.

the Editor from the Text, Ibid., p. 1 599

(C) The Origin of the Confessio Amantis {Confession of One Loving).
Prolog, II. 1-25; Earlier Form, 11. 24-75. Tr. the Editor from

the Text, Ibid., II, pp. 1-5 599

(D) Dedication of His Ballades to Henry IV, 11. 15-21. Tr. the Editor
from the Text, Ibid., I, p. 335 601

(E) Gower's Apology for Writing in Frencii. Traitie, XVIII, 11. 22-

27. Tr. the Editor from the Text, Ibid., p. 391 001

(F) Gower's Survey of His Own Literary Career. Tr. Editor from the
Text, Ibid., Ill, pp. 479, 480 601

(G) Mr. Macaulay's Version of Gower's Will. Ibid., I, pp. xvii,
xviii 602

(H) John Stow's Description of Gower's Tomb. Op. et ed. cit., p. 363. 604

XXVlll

CONTENTS

16. Geoffrey Chaucer.

(A) His Appearance. Canterbury Tales B, 11. 1881-1901. Tr. the
Editor from the Text of Skeat. {Ed. cit.) 605

(B) His Delight in Books and Nature. Parlemeiit of Foules, 11. 15-

!28; Prolofi to Legend of Good IVomen, B Version, 11. 25-39. Id. 605

(D) His References to Dante. Canterbury Tales B, 11. 3648-3652.

Id. 607

(E) His References to Petrarch. Ibid., E, 11. 26-33. Id 608

(F) GoAver's Remarks on Chaucer. Confessio Amantis (Earlier Ver-
sion), Book VIII, 11. 2941-2957. Tr. the Editor from the Text

of Macaulay, III, p. 466 608

(G) A Poem on Chaucer by Eustache Deschamps (1340-1410). Tr. the
Editor from the Text in Wright, Anecdota Literaria (Anecdotes of
Literature), pp. 13, U. (London, John Russell Smith, 1844.) . . . 609

(H) Chaucer, To His Empty Purse. Tr. the Editor from the Text of

Skeat. (Ed. cit.) 610

(I) The King's Reply. Letter of Henry IV. Tr. in King's Letters, I,
p. 112. (King's Classics Series, Ed. Robert Steele. Chatto and
Windus, 1907.) 610

(J) Chaucer's Retractions. Paragraph 104 of the Parson s Tale. Tr.

the Editor from the Text of Skeat. (Ed. cit.) 611

Index 615

ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM WIDSITH
TO THE DEATH OF CHAUCER

ENGLISH LITERATUEE

FROM WIDSITH TO CHAUCER: A SOURCE-BOOK

CHAPTER I

FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST

I. The Political Background

Though modern scholarship ^ is agreed that the migra-
tion to Britain began some time before, the year 449 is
the traditional date of the arrival of the Jutes, the earliest
of the Teutonic tribes to seek the shores of England.
Later came the Angles and Saxons, considerably extending
the period of settlement. As we have no record of these
events before the middle of the sixth century, it is clear
that many particulars, perhaps important particulars, will
never be known. The earliest extant accounts are, in
chronological order: Gildas, On the Downfall of Britain,'^
Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation,^
and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ^ by an unknown compiler.
As the Venerable Bede (673-735) is a medieval historian
of the best type, I give his account, with which the two
others are in substantial agreement.

^ See Hodgkin, The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Norman
Conquest (Hunt and Poole, The Political History of England, Longmans, Green and
Co., 1906 I), pp. 81 seq. This gives the latest views of the English conquest of
Britain and the latest estimate of the source authorities.

^ This work is accessible in translation in Giles, Six Old English Chronicles.
{Bohn Antiquarian Library.)

^ The best edition of Bede's historical works in Latin is the one by Plummer
(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1890). The best edition of the Old English translation
of Bede's Ecclesiastical History is the one in the Early English Text Society's
Publications (E. E. T. S.) by Miller, 1890-98.

4 The best edition is by Plummer (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1892-99).

2 ENGLISH LITERATURE

In the year of our Lord 449, ]\Iartian being made emperor
with Valentinian, and the forty-sixth from Augustus, ruled the
empire seven years. Then the nation of the Angles, or Saxons,
being invited by the aforesaid king,^ arrived in Britain with three
long ships, and had a place assigned them to reside in by the
same king, in the eastern part of the island, that they might
thus appear to be fighting for their country whilst their real
intentions were to enslave it. Accordingly they engaged with
the enemy,^ who were come from the north to give battle, and
obtained the victory; which, being known at home in their
own country, as also the fertility of the country, and the cow-
ardice of the Britons, a more considerable fleet was quickly sent
over, bringing a still greater number of men which, being added
to the former, made up an invincible army. The newcomers re-
ceived of the Britons a place to inhabit, upon condition that
they should wage war against their enemies for the peace and
security of the country, whilst the Britons agreed to furnish
them with pay. Those who came over were of the three most
powerful nations of Germany — Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From
the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of
Wight, and those also in the province of the West-Saxons who
are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight.
From the Saxons, that is, the country which is now called Old
Saxony, came the East-Saxons, the South-Saxons, and the West-
Saxons. From the x\ngles, that is, the country which is called
Anglia, and which is said, from that time, to remain desert to
this day, between the provinces of the Jutes and the Saxons,
are descended the East-Angles, the ]Midland-Angles, Mercians,
all the race of the Northumbrians, that is, of those nations that
dwell on the north side of the river Humber, and the other na-
tions of the English. The two first commanders are said to have
been Hengist and Horsa. Of whom Horsa, being afterwards
slain in battle by the Britons, was buried in the eastern parts
of Kent, where a monument, bearing his name, is still in exist-
ence. They were the sons of Victgilsus, whose father was
Vecta, son of Woden; ' from whose stock the royal race of many

^ Vortigem, King of the Britons. ® The Picts.

' A god, from whose name we get Wcdnetiday.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 3

provinces deduce their original. In a short time, swarms of the
aforesaid nations came over into the island, and they began to
increase so much, that they became terrible to the natives
themselves who had invited them. Then, having on a sudden
entered into league with the Picts, whom they had by this time
repelled by the force of their arms, they began to turn their
weapons against their confederates. At first, they obliged them
to furnish a greater quantity of provisions; and, seeking an
occasion to quarrel, protested, that unless more plentiful supplies
were brought them, they would break the confederacy, and rav-
age all the island; nor were they backward in putting their
threats in execution. In short, the fire kindled by the hands of
these pagans, proved God's just revenge for the crimes of the
people; not unlike that which, being once lighted by the Chal-
deans, consumed the walls and city of Jerusalem. For the bar-
barous conquerors acting here in the same manner, or rather the
just Judge ordaining that they should so act, they plundered all
the neighbouring cities and country, spread the conflagration
from the eastern to the western sea, without any opposi-
tion, and covered almost every part of the devoted island.
Public as well as private structures were overturned; the
priests ^ were everywhere slain before the altars; the prelates
and the people, without any respect of persons, were destroyed
with fire and sword; nor was there any to bury those who had
been thus cruelly slaughtered. Some of the miserable remainder,
being taken in the mountains, were butchered in heaps. Others,
spent with hunger, came forth and submitted themselves to the
enemy for food, being destined to undergo perpetual servitude,
if they were not killed even upon the spot. Some, with sorrow-
ful hearts, fled beyond the seas. Others, continuing in their
own country, led a miserable life among the woods, rocks, and
mountains, with scarcely enough food to support life, and ex-
pecting every moment to be their last.

The Teutonic conquest of Britain, however, was not so
easy as Bede suggests; British resistance was stubborn
and determined,^ and it was in the midst of these troubled

8 Britain, before this, had been Christianized; of. post, p. 39. ^ Cf. post, p. 96.

4 ENGLISH LITERATURE

times that one of the world's great stories found its birth.
This story centers about the hero now known as King
Arthur. Gildas, Bede, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle make
no mention of him as king, or even as leader. Nennius,
an obscure author of the eighth or ninth century, is the
first to mention his name. English advances in Britain
were brought to a standstill, apparently, for a half cen-
tury after 500 and it is in this period that Nennius places
Arthur. Nennius ^^ tells of Arthur's exploits as follows:

Then it was that the magnanimous Arthur, with all the kings
and military force of Britain, fought kgainst the Saxons. And
though there were many more noble than himself, yet he was
twelve times chosen their commander, and was as often con-
queror. The first battle in which he was engaged was at the
mouth of the river Gleni. The second, third, fourth, and fifth,
were on another river, by the Britons called Duglas, in the
region Linuis. The sixth, on the river Bassas. The seventh in
the wood Celidon, which the Britons call Cat Coit Celidon. The
eighth was near Gurnion castle, where Arthur bore the image
of the Holy Virgin, mother of God, upon his shoulders, and
through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the holy Mary,
put the Saxons to flight, and pursued them the whole day with
great slaughter. The ninth was at the City of Legion, which is
called Cair Lion. The tenth was on the banks of the river
Trat Treuroit. The eleventh was on the mountain Breguoin,
which we call Cat Bregion. The twelfth was a most severe con-
test, when Arthur penetrated to the hill of Badon. In this en-
gagement, nine hundred and forty fell by his hand alone, no one
but the Lord affording him assistance. In all these engagements
the Britons were successful. For no strength can avail against
the will of the Almighty. ^^

^^ Accessible in Giles, Six Old English Chronicles.

^^ It is clear that no very important historical inferences can be drawn from
these statements of Nennius. But Arthurian scholarship is agreed that here is the
historical kernel of the story of Arthur. Cf. Maynadier, The Arthur of the English
Pods (Houf,'ht()n, Mifflin & Co., 1907), Chap. 2. Practically all the materials for
a careful stutly of the earlier forrus of the Arthurian story are now available in the

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 5

We cannot say to a certainty when the Teutonic con-
quest of Britain was complete, nor is it germane to our
present purpose to investigate the question. But when it
was ended, the conquerors in their restless military spirit
turned to contests for the mastery among themselves, and
these intertribal wars lasted down into the ninth century.
So far as the history of English culture is concerned,
Northumbria, the Anglian kingdom north of the Humber,
as its name indicates, w^as the first to gain leadership.
Northumbrian writers, scribes and monks won an Euro-
pean reputation, but there is no hint of this cultural
eminence in the following brief record of Northumbrian
supremacy in the entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
for the year 617:

This year Ethelfrid king of the North-humbrians was slain by
Redwald king of the East- Angles, and Edwin ^^ the son of Alia
succeeded to the kingdom, and subdued all Britain, the Kentish-
men alone excepted. iVnd he drove out the ethelings, sons of
Ethelfrid; that is to say, first Eanfrid, Oswald, and Oswy,
Oslac, Oswudu, Oslaf, and Offa.

Almost equally brief and barren of suggestion is the fol-
lowing entry in the same compilation for the year 8''27,
though the event there recorded is of immense signifi-
cance for our literary history, since it is in the West-Saxon
dialect that most of our extant Old English literature is
written :

This year the moon was eclipsed on the massnight of mid-
winter. And the same year king Egbert conquered the kingdom
of the Mercians, and all that was south of the Humber; and
he was the eighth king who was Bretwalda. Ella king of the

Everyman s JAhrary scries. The story, as is the case with all the medieval romances
extant in earlier and later forms, becomes more and more complex as time goes on.
E.g. with the bare narrative of our text compare the more detailed story given in
Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain, Book IX, Chaps. 3 and 4.

^2 The story of Edwin's conversion to Christianity is given yost, pp. 36-38.
His death is referred to post, p. 90.

6 ENGLISH LITERATURE

South-Saxons was tlie first who had thus iiiiich dominion; the
second was Ceawlin king of the West-Saxons; the third was
Ethelhert king of the Kentish-men; the fourth was Redwald
king of the East-Angles; the fifth was Edwin king of the North-
humbrians; the sixth was Oswald who reigned after him; the
seventh was Oswy, Oswald's brother; the eighth was Egbert
king of the West-Saxons. And Egbert led an army to Dore
against the North-humbrians, and they there offered him obedi-
ence and allegiance, and with that they separated.'^

The last event, or series of events, in the political field,
that we need record here is the invasion of the heathen
Danes, which began, according to the Chronicle, in the
year 787. These people, of various Scandinavian origin,
had apparently little appreciation of the rather high type
of civilization that had been evolved in England; and their
career of burning and harrying undid a good deal of slow
and painful work. During the reign of Alfred the Great
(871-901) the Danes became an integral part of the Eng-
lish nation and in the early eleventh century furnished
kings for the English throne. A typical year in their
earlier career of devastation, however, is described in the
following entr}^ from the Chronicle for the year 870:

This year the army '^^ rode across Mercia into East-Anglia,
and took up their winter quarters at Thetford: and the same
winter king Edmund fought against them, and the Danes got
the victory, and slew the king, and subdued all the land, and de-
stroyed all the minsters which they came to. The names of
their chiefs who slew the king were Hingwar and Hubba. At
that same time they came to Medeshamstede, and burned and
beat it down, slew abbot and monks, and all that they found
there. And that place, which before was full rich, they reduced
to nothing. And the same year died archbishop Ceolnoth.
Then went Ethelred and Alfred ^^ his brother, and took Athel-

'^ On some incidents in one of these intertribal wars, cf. 'post, p. 99.
" I.e. the Danish army; the Chronicle is very careful to use one word through-
out where referring to this army and another when referring to the English forces.
^* I.e. later Alfred the Great.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 7

red bishop of Wiltshire, and appointed him archbishop of Can-
terbury, because formerly he had been a monk of the same
minster of Canterbury. As soon as he came to Canterbury,
and he was stablished in his archibishopric, he then thought
how he might expel the clerks who (were) there within, whom
archbishop Ceolnoth had (before) placed there for such need
... as we shall relate. The first year that he was made arch-
bishop there was so great a mortality, that of all the monks whom
he found there within, no more than five monks survived. Then
for the ... he (commanded) his chaplains, and also some priests
of his vills, that they should help the few monks who there sur-
vived to do Christ's service, because he could not so readily
find monks who might of themselves do the service; and for
this reason he commanded that the priests, the while, until God
should give peace in this land, should help the monks. In that
same time was this land much distressed by frequent battles,
and hence the archbishop could not there effect it, for there was
warfare and sorrow all his time over England; and hence the
clerks remained with the monks. Nor was there ever a time
that monks were not there within, and they ever had lordship
over the priests. Again the archbishop Ceolnoth thought, and
also said to those who were with him, "As soon as God shall
give peace in this land, either these priests shall be monks,
or from elsewhere I will place within the minster as many
monks as may do the service of themselves: for God knows
that I . . ." ''

II. The Social and Industrial Background

The Roman historian Tacitus gives, in the Germania,
the first extended account of Teutonic social and indus-
trial life. Though we do not know the sources of his
knowledge or his motive in writing this book; though he
makes no mention of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, whom
apparently he did not visit; though he wrote at the close
of the first century, or early in the second; the Germania

^^ The manuscript is defective.

8 ENGLISH LITERATURE

must yet be the })asis on wliieli our knowledge of early
Germanic life rests, because it is all we have. The state-
ments of Tacitus are borne out in a great numVjer of
cases by the literature extant in the early Teutonic lan-
guages. This fact increases our confidence in his work.
The following chapters give the essential features of Taci-
tus' description.^

For myself, I concur in opinion with such as suppose the
people of Germany never to have mingled by inter-marriages
with other nations, but to have remained a people pure, and
independent, and resembling none but themselves. Hence,
amongst such a mighty multitude of men, the same make and
form is found in all, eyes stern and blue, yellow hair, huge bodies,
but vigorous only in the first onset. Of pains and labor they
are not equally patient, nor can they at all endure thirst and
heat. To bear hunger and cold they are hardened by their
climate and soil.

Neither in truth do they abound in iron, as from the fashion
of their weapons may be gathered. Swords they rarely use,^
or the larger spear. They carry javelins or, in their own lan-
guage, framms,^ pointed with a piece of iron short and narrow,
but so sharp and manageable, that with the same weapon they
can fight at a distance or hand to hand, just as need requires.
Nay, the horsemen also are content with a shield and a javelin.
The foot throw likewise weapons missive, each particular is
armed with many, and hurls them a mighty space, all naked
or only wearing a light cassock. In their equipment they
show no ostentation; only that their shields are diversified and
adorned with curious colors.^ With coats of mail very few are
furnished, and hardly upon any is seen a headpiece or helmet.
Their horses are nowise signal either in fashion or in fleetness;

1 It should be remembered that Tacitus was not in sympathy with the lax
morality of his time in Rome and that he may be idealizing conditions among the
Germans. We should also keep in mind the fact that those features of life in which
Germans most differed from Romans would impress him most deeply.

2 Swords were named among the Germans and handed down as heirlooms.

3 This word was adopted into Latin by late Latin writers.
'' Perhaps the origin of coals of arms.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 9

nor taught to wheel and bound, according to the practice of
the Romans: they only move them forward in a line, or turn
them right about, with such compactness and equality that no
one is ever behind the rest. To one who considers the whole
it is manifest, that in their foot their principal strength lies, and
therefore they fight intermixed with the horse: for such is their
swiftness as to match and suit with the motions and engage-
ments of the cavalry. So that the infantry are elected from
amongst the most robust of their youth, and placed in front of
the army. The number to be sent is also ascertained, out of
every village an hundred, and by this very name they continue
to be called at home, those of the hundred band: thus what
was at first no more than a number, becomes thenceforth a title
and distinction of honor. In arraying their army, they divide
the whole into distinct battalions formed sharp in front. To
recoil in battle, provided you return again to the attack, passes
with them rather for policy than fear. Even when the combat
is no more than doubtful, they bear away the bodies of their
slain. The most glaring disgrace that can befall them, is to have
quitted their shield; nor to one branded with such ignominy
is it lawful to join in their sacrifices, or to enter into their as-
semblies; and many who had escaped in the day of battle, have
hanged themselves to put an end to this their infamy.

In the choice of kings they are determined by the splendor
of their race, in that of generals by their bravery. Neither is
the power of their kings unbounded or arbitrary: and their
generals procure obedience not so much by the force of their
authority as by that of their example, when they appear enter-
prising and brave, w^hen they signalise themselves by courage
and prowess; and they surpass all in admiration and pre-emi-
nence, if they surpass all at the head of an army. But to none
else but the Priests is it allowed to exercise correction, or to
inflict bonds or stripes. Nor when the Priests do this, is the
same considered as a punishment, or arising from the orders of
the general, but from the immediate command of the Deity,
Him whom they believe to accompany them in war. They
therefore carry with them when going to fight, certain images and
figures taken out of their holy groves. What proves the })rin-

10 ENGLISH LITERATURE

cipal incentive to tlieir valor is, that it is not at random nor by
the fortuitous conflux of men that their troops and pointed bat-
talions are formed, but by the conjunction of whole families,
and tribes of relations. Moreover, close to the field of battle
are lodged all the nearest and most interesting pledges of nature.
Hence they hear the doleful bowlings of their wives, hence the
cries of their tender infants. These are to each particular wit-
nesses whom he most reverences and dreads; these yield him the
praise which affects him most. Their wounds and maims they
carry to their mothers, or to their wives, neither are their
motliers or wives shocked in telling, or in sucking their bleeding
sores. Nay, to their husbands and sons whilst engaged in battle,
they administer meat and encouragement.

In history we find, that some armies already yielding and
ready to fly, have been by the women restored, through their
inflexible importunity and entreaties, presenting their breasts,
and showing their impending captivity; an evil to the Germans
then by far most dreadful — when it befalls their w^omen. So
that the spirit of such cities as amongst their hostages are en-
joined to send their damsels of quality, is always engaged more
effectually than that of others. They even believe them en-
dowed with something celestial and the spirit of prophecy.
Neither do they disdain to consult them, nor neglect the re-
sponses which they return. In the reign of the late Vespasian,
we saw Veleda ^ for a long time, and by many nations, esteemed
and adored as a divinity. In times past they likewise wor-
shipped Aurinia ^ and several more, from no complaisance or
effort of flattery, nor as deities of their ow^n creating.

Affairs of smaller moment the chiefs determine: about mat-
ters of higher consequence the whole nation deliberates; yet
in such sort, that whatever depends upon the pleasure and de-
cision of the people, is examined and discussed by the chiefs.

^ Furneaux says this was the name of a prophetess among the Bructeri, one of
the German tribes. See Gcrmauia of Tacitus, ed. Henry Furneaux (Oxford, Claren-
don Press, 1894), p. 54.

^ Furneaux reatls Alhrnna and exphiins the name as that of one who was skilled
in witchcraft and who interpreted the runes. For the latter, see post, pp. 77-82.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 11

Where no accident or emergency intervenes, they assemble
upon stated days, either when the moon changes, or is full:
since they believe such seasons to be the most fortunate for
beginning all transactions. Neither in reckoning of time do they
count, like us, the number of days but that of nights.'^ In
this style their ordinances are framed, in this style their diets
appointed; and with them the night seems to lead and govern
the day. From their extensive liberty this evil and default
flows, that they meet not at once, nor as men commanded and
afraid to disobey; so that often the second day, nay often the
third, is consumed through the slowness of the members in
assembling. They sit down as they list, promiscuously, like a
crowd, and all armed. It is by the Priests that silence is en-
joined, and with the power of correction the Priests are then
invested. Then the King or Chief is heard, as are others, each
according to his precedence in age, or in nobility, or in warlike
renown, or in eloquence; and the influence of every speaker
proceeds rather from his ability to persuade than from any
authority to command. If the proposition displease, they
reject it by an inarticulate murmur: if it be pleasing, they
brandish their javelins. The most honorable manner of
signifying their assent, is to express their applause by the
sound of their arms.

In the assembly it is allowed to present accusations, and to
prosecute capital offences. Punishments vary according to the
quality of the crime. Traitors and deserters they hang upon
trees. Cowards, and sluggards, and unnatural prostitutes they
smother in mud and bogs under an heap of hurdles. Such di-
versity in their executions has this view, tbat in punishing of
glaring inicjuities, it behoves likewise to display them to sight;
but effeminacy and pollution must be buried and concealed.
In lighter transgressions too the i)enalty is measured by the
fault, and the delincjuents upon conviction are condemned to
pay a certain number of horses or cattle. Part of this mulct
accrues to the King or to the comnuniity, ])art to him whose
wrongs are vindicated, or to his next kindred. In the same

^ Cf. the modern expression /or/// /y/i/.

12 ENGLISH LITERATURE

assemblies are also chosen their chiefs or rulers, such as adminis-
ter justice in their villages and boroughs. To each of these are
assigned an hundred j)ersons chosen from amongst the })oi)ulace,
to accompany and assist him, men who help him at once with
their authority and their counsel.

Without being armed they transact nothing, whether of public
or })rivate concernment. But it is repugnant to their custom
for any man to use arms, before the community has attested
his capacity to wield them. L^pon such testimonial, either one
of the rulers, or his father, or some kinsman dignify the young
man in the midst of the assembly, with a shield and javelin.*
This amongst them is the manly robe, this the first degree of
honor conferred upon their youth. Before this they seem no
more than part of a private family, but thenceforward part of
the Commonweal. The princely dignity they confer even
upon striplings, whose race is eminently noble, or whose fathers
have done great and signal services to the State. For about
the rest, who are more vigorous and long since tried, they crowd
to attend: nor is it any shame to be followers, higher or lower,
just as he whom they follow judges fit. Mighty too is the
emulation amongst these followers, of each to be first in favor
with his Prince; mighty also the emulation of the Princes, to
excel in the number and valor of followers. This is their prin-
cipal state, this their chief force, to be at all times surrounded
with a huge band of chosen young men,^ for ornament and glory
in peace, for security and defence in war. Nor is it amongst
liis own peojile only, but even from the neighboring communi-
ties, that any of their Princes reaps so much renow^n and a
name so great, when he surpasses in the number and magnanim-
ity of his followers. For such are courted by Embassies, and
distinguished with presents, and by the terror of their fame alone
often dissipate wars.

In the day of battle, it is scandalous to the Prince to be
surpassed in feats of bravery, scandalous to his followers to fail
in matching the bravery of the Princes. But it is infamy during
life, and indelible reproach, to return alive from a battle where

8 Cf. the later ceremony of conferring knighthood.
^ Cf. the later relation of lords and vassals.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 13

their Prince was slain. ^*^ To preserve their Prince, to defend him,
and to ascribe to his glory all their own valorous deeds, is the
sum and most sacred part of their oath. The Princes fight for
victory; for the Prince his followers fight. Many of the young
nobility, when their own community comes to languish in its
vigor by long peace and inactivity, betake themselves through
impatience to other States which then prove to be in war. For,
besides that this people cannot brook repose, besides that by
perilous adventures they more quickly blazon their fame, they
cannot otherwise than by violence and war support their huge
train of retainers. For from the liberality of their Prince, they
demand and enjoy that war-horse of theirs, with that victori-
ous javelin dyed in the blood of their enemies. In the place of
pay, they are supplied with a daily table and repasts; though
grossly prepared, yet very profuse. For maintaining such liber-
ality and munificence, a fund is furnished by continual wars and
plunder. Nor could you so easily persuade them to cultivate the
ground, or to await the return of the seasons and produce of the
year, as to provoke the foe and to risk the wounds and death:
since stupid and spiritless they account it, to acquire by their
sweat what they can gain by their blood.

Upon any recess from war, they do not much attend the chase.
Much more of their time they pass in indolence, resigned to
sleep and repasts. x\ll the most brave, all the most warlike,
apply to nothing at all; but to their wives, to the ancient men,
and to every the most impotent domestic, trust all the care of
their house, and of their lands and possessions. They them-
selves loiter. Such is the amazing diversity of their nature,
that in the same men is found so much delight in sloth, with
so much enmity to tranquillity and repose. The communities
are wont, of their own accord and man by man, to bestow upon

^° Cf. the conclusion of the Old English Beowulf, when Wiglaf reproaches the
thanes of Ikunvulf for deserting and surviving their lord. See also the entry in
the Chronicle for the year 755, often called the oldest extant piece of prose narra-
tive in a P^uropean vernacular. It is thought by some to be a prose version of an
earlier ballad. The Old English poem The Baffle of Maldon also exhibits this no-
tion of the duty of retainers to their lord in the day of battle. In later times Frois-
sart gives many instances in his Chronicles of England, France and Spain.

14 ENGLISH LITERATURE

their Princes a certain number of beasts, or a certain portion of
grain; a contribution which passes indeed for a mark of reverence
and honor, but serves also to supply their necessities. They
chiefly rejoice in the gifts which come from the bordering coun-
tries, such as are sent not only by particulars but in the
name of the State; curious horses, splendid armor, rich har-
ness, with collars of silver and gold. Now too they have
learnt, what we have taught them, to receive money.

That none of the several people in Germany live together in
cities, is abundantly known; nay, that amongst them none of
their dwellings are suffered to be contiguous. They inhabit
apart and distinct, just as a fountain, or a field, or a wood
happened to invite them to settle. They raise their villages in
opposite rows, but not in our manner with the houses joined one
to another. Every man has a vacant space quite round his
own, whether for security against accidents from fire, or that
they want the art of building. With them in truth, is unknown
even the use of mortar and of tiles. In all their structures they
employ materials quite gross and unhewn, void of fashion and
comeliness. Some parts they besmear with an earth so pure
and resplendent, that it resembles painting and colors. They
are likewise wont to scoop caves deep in the ground, and over
them to lay great heaps of dung. Thither they retire for shelter
in the winter, and thither convey their grain: for by such close
places they mollify the rigorous and excessive cold. Besides,
when at any time their enemy invades them, he can only ravage
the open country, but either knows not such recesses as are
invisible and subterraneous; or must suffer them to escape him,
on this very account that he is uncertain where to find them.

. . . The laws of matrimony are severely observed there; nor
in the whole of their manners is there aught more praiseworthy
than this: for they are almost the only barbarians contented
with one wife, excepting a very few amongst them; men of
dignity who marry divers wives, from no wantonness or lubricity,
but courted for the luster of their families into many alliances.

To the husband, the wife tenders no dowry; but the husband
to the wife. The parents and relatives attend and declare their
approbation of the presents, not presents adapted to feminine

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 15

pomp and delicacy, nor such as serve to deck the new married
woman; but oxen and horse accoutered, and a shield, with a
javelin and sword. By virtue of these gifts she is espoused. She
too on her part brings her husband some arms. This they
esteem the highest tie, these the holy mysteries, and matrimonial
gods. That the woman may not suppose herself free from the
considerations of fortitude and fighting, or exempt from the
casualties of war, the very first solemnities of her wedding serve
to warn her, that she comes to her husband as a partner in his
hazards and fatigues, that she is to suffer alike with him, to
adventure alike, during peace or during war. This the oxen
joined in the yoke plainly indicate, this the horse ready equipped,
this the present of arms. 'Tis thus she must be content to live,
thus to resign life. The arms she then receives she must pre-
serve inviolate, and to her sons restore the same, as presents
worthy of them, such as their wives may again receive, and
still resign to her grandchildren.

They therefore live in a state of chastity well secured; cor-
rupted by no seducing shows and public diversions, by no
irritations from banqueting. Of learning and any secret inter-
course by letters, they are equally ignorant, men and women.
Amongst a people so numerous, adultery is exceedingly rare; a
crime instantly punished, and the punishment left to be in-
flicted by the husband. He, having cut off her hair, expells
her from his house naked, in presence of her kindred, and pur-
sues her with stripes throughout the village. For, to a woman
who has prostituted her person, no pardon is ever granted.
However beautiful she be, however young, however abounding
in wealth, a husband she can never find. In truth, nobody
turns vices into mirth there, nor is the practice of corruj)ting
and of yielding to corruption, called the custom of the age.
Better still do those communities, in which none but virgins
marry, and where to a single marriage all their views and in-
clinations are at once confined. Thus, as they have but one
body and one life, they take but one husband, that beyond
him they may have no thought, no further wishes, nor love him
only as their husband but as their marriage. To restrain
generation and the increase of children, is esteemed an aboniin-

16 ENGLISH LITERATURE

able sin, as also to kill infants newly born. And more power-
ful with them are good manners, than with other people are
good laws.

In all their houses the children are reared naked and nasty;
and thus they grow into those limbs, into the bulk, which marvel
we behold. They are all nourished with the milk of their o^\ti
mothers, and never surrendered to handmaids and nurses. The
lord you cannot discern from the slave, by any superior delicacy
in rearing. Amongst the same cattle they promiscuously live,
upon the same ground without distinction lie, till at a proper
age the free-born are parted from the rest, and till their bravery
recommend them to notice. Slow and late do the young men
come to the use of women, and thus ver^' long preserve the vigor
of youth. Neither are the virgins hastened to wed. They must
both have the same sprightly youth, the like stature, and marry
when equal and able-bodied. Children are held in the same es-
timation by their mother's brother as by their father. Some
hold this tie of blood to be most inviolable and binding,^^ and
in recei\'ing of hostages, such pledges are most considered and
claimed, as they who at once possess affections the most unalien-
able, and the most diffuse interest in their family. To every
man, however, his own children are heirs and successors: wills
they do not make; for want of children his next kin inherits;
his own brothers, those of his father, or those of his mother.
To ancient men, the more they abound in descendants, in rela-
tives and kinsfolk, so much the more reverence accrues.

All the enmities of your house, whether of your father or of
your kindred, you must necessarily adopt; as well as all their
friendships. Neither are such enmities unappeasable and per-
manent; since even for so great a crime as homicide, compensa-
tion is made V)y a fixed number of sheep and cattle,^- and by
it the whole family is pacified to content. A temper this,
wholesome to the State; because to a free nation, animosities

" Probably a remnant of the method of tracing descent through the mother,
knoi*-n as the matriarchate.

" Cattle were the medium of exchange; thus the Old English word feoh means
both coir and money; it is our modem v>ordfec. Cf. the Latin pccus and pecunia,
whence pecuniary.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 17

and faction are always more menacing and perilous. In social
feasts and deeds of hosi)itality, no nation upon earth was ever
more liberal and abounding. To refuse admitting under your
roof any man whatsoever, is held wicked and inhuman. Every
man receives every comer, and treats him with repasts as large
as his ability can possibly furnish. When the whole stock is
consumed, he who had treated so hospitably guides and accom-
panies his guest to a new scene of hospitality; and both proceed
to the next house, though neither of them invited. Nor avails
it, that they were not; they are there received, with the same
frankness and humanity. Between a stranger and an acquaint-
ance, in dispensing the rules and benefits of hospitality, no
difference is made. Upon your departure, if you ask anything,
it is the custom to grant it; and with the same facility, they ask
of you. In gifts they delight, but neither claim merit from
what they give, nor own any o}>ligation for what they re-
ceive. Their manner of entertaining their guests is familiar
and kind.

For their drink, they draw a liquor from barley or other grain;
and ferment the same, so as to make it resemble wine. Nay,
they who dwell upon the bank of the Rhine deal in wine. Their
food is very simple: wild fruit, fresh venison, or coagulated
milk. They banish hunger without formality, without curious
dressing and curious fare. In extinguishing thirst, they use
not equal temperance. If you will but humor their excess in
drinking, and supply them with as much as they covet, it will
be no less easy to vanquish them by vices than })y arms.

Of public diversions they have but one sort, and in all tluir
meetings the same is still exhibited. \'c)ung men, such as make
it their pastime, fling themselves naked and dance amongst
sharp swords and the deadly points of javelins. From hal)it
they acquire their skill, and from their skill a graceful manner;
yet from lience draw no gain or hire: though this adventurous
gaiety has its reward, namely, that of pleasing the spectators.
What is marvellous, i)laying at dice is one of their most serious
employments; and even sober, they are gamesters: nay, so
desperately do Ihey venture upon chance of winning or losing,
that when their whole substance is played away, they stake

18 ENGLISH LITERATURE

their liberty and their persons upon one and the last throw.
The loser goes calmly into voluntary bondage. However younger
he be, however stronger, he tamely suffers himself to be bound
and sold by the winner. Such is their perseverance in an evil
course: they themselves call it honor.

Slaves of this class, they exchange away in commerce, to
free themselves too from the shame of such a victory. Of their
other slaves they make not such use as we do of ours, by dis-
tributing amongst them the several offices and employments
of the family. Each of them has a dwelling of his otvti, each a
household to govern. His lord uses him like a tenant, and
obliges him to pay a quantity of grain, or of cattle, or of cloth.
Thus far only the subserviency of the slave extends. All the
other duties in a family, not the slaves, but the wives and
children discharge. To inflict stripes upon a slave, or to put
him in chains, or to doom him to severe labor are things
rarely seen. To kill them they sometimes are wont, not through
correction or government, but in heat and rage, as they would
an enemy, save that no vengeance or penalty follows. The
freedmen very little surpass the slaves, rarely are of moment in
the house; in the community never, excepting only such na-
tions where arbitrary dominion prevails. For there they bear
higher sway than the freeborn, nay, higher than the nobles.
In other countries the inferior condition of freedmen is a proof
of public liberty.

To the practice of usury and of increasing money by interest,
they are strangers; and hence is found a better guard against
it, than if it were forbidden. They shift from land to land; and,
still appropriating a portion suitable to the number of hands for
manuring, anon parcel out the whole amongst particulars accord-
ing to the condition and quality of each. As the plains are
very spacious, the allotments are easily assigned. Every year
they change, and cultivate a fresh soil; yet still there is ground
to spare. For they strive not to bestow labor proportionable
to the fertility and compass of their lands, by planting orchards,
by enclosing meadows, by watering gardens. From the earth,
corn only is exacted. Hence they quarter not the year into so
many seasons. Winter, Spring, and Summer, they understand;

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 19

and for each have proper appellations. Of the name and bless-
ings of Autumn, they are equally ignorant.

In conducting their funerals, they show no state or vain-
glory. This only is carefully observed, that with the corpses
of their noted men certain woods are burned. Upon the funeral
pile they accumulate neither apparel nor perfumes. Into the
fire, are always thrown the arms of the dead, and sometimes his
horse. With turf only the sepulcher is raised. The pomp of
tedious and elaborate monuments they contemn, as things griev-
ous to the deceased. Tears and wailings they soon dismiss:
their affliction and woe they long retain. In women, it is reck-
oned becoming to bewail their loss; in men to remember it.^^

Doubtless this is a reasonably accurate picture of very
early English life,^^ but migration to insular Britain, by
giving the Teutons a chance to develop the arts of peace,
of which, according to Tacitus, they knew so little, pro-
foundly modified their mode of life. Now one of the main
agencies in this social and industrial transformation was
the monastery. The following section from the Rule of
St. Benedict, sl document perhaps as influential as any
political constitution ever written, will set forth the mo-
nastic attitude toward labor and a typical daily program
of labor and study:

Idleness is the enemy of the soul. And therefore, at fixed
times, the brothers ought to be occupied in manual labor; and
again, at fixed times, in sacred reading. Therefore we believe
that, according to this disposition, both seasons ought to be
arranged; so that, from Easter to the Calends of October,
going out early, from the first until the fourth hour they shall

^^ Cf. post, p. 35, the quotation from Beowulf. The most useful systematic
commentary upon these selections from Tacitus is Professor Gummere's Germanic
Origins (Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1892). Professor George Burton Adams' Civiliza-
tion in Europe during the Middle Ages, Chaps. 2, 4, 5 should also be mentioned
(Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1901).

'^ But see Christabel F. Fiske, Old English Modifications of Teutonic Racial
Conceptions in Studies in Language and Literature in Honor of J. M. Hart (Henry
Holt & Co., 1910).

20 ENGLISH LITERATURE

do what labor may be necessary. Moreover, from the fourth
hour until about the sixth, they shall be free for reading. After
the meal of the sixth hour, moreover, rising from table, they
shall rest in their beds with all silence; or, perchance, he that
wishes to read may so read to himself that he do not disturb
another. x\nd the nona (the second meal) shall be gone through
with more moderately about the middle of the eighth hour; and
again they shall work at what is to be done until Vespers. But,
if the exigency or poverty of the place demands that they be
occupied by themselves in picking fruits, they shall not be
dismayed: for then they are truly monks if they live by
the labors of their hands; as did also our fathers and the
apostles. Let all things be done with moderation, how^ever, on
account of the faint-hearted. From the Calends of October,
moreover, until the beginning of Lent they shall be free for
reading until the second full hour. At the second hour the
tertia (morning service) shall be held, and all shall labor at the
task which is enjoined upon them until the ninth. The first
signal, moreover, of the ninth hour having been given, they
shall each one leave off his work; and be ready when the second
signal strikes. Moreover after the refection they shall be free
for their readings or for psalms. But in the days of Lent, from
dawn until the third full hour, they shall be free for their read-
ings; and, until the tenth full hour, they shall do the labor that
is enjoined upon them. In which days of Lent they shall all
receive separate books from the library; which they shall read
entirely through in order. These books are to be given out on
the first day of Lent. Above all there shall certainly be ap-
pointed one or two elders, who shall go round the monastery
at the hours in which the brothers are engaged in reading, and
see to it that no troublesome brother chance to be found who is
open to idleness and trifling, and is not intent on his reading;
being not only of no use to himself, but also stirring up others.
If such a one — may it not happen — be found, he shall be
admonished once and a second time. If he do not amend, he
shall be subject under the Rule to such punishment that the
others may have fear. Nor shall brother join brother at unsuit-
able hours. Moreover on Sunday all shall engage in reading:

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 21

excepting those who are deputed to various duties. But if any-
one be so negligent and lazy that he will not or cannot read, some
task shall be imposed upon him which he can do; so that he be
not idle. On feeble or delicate brothers such a labor or art is
to be imposed, that they shall neither be idle, nor shall they be
so oppressed by the violence of labor as to be driven to take
flight. Their w^eakness is to be taken into consideration by the
abbot.

The economic function of monasteries is suggested by
this additional chapter from the same document:

x\rtificers, if there are any in the monastery, shall practise
with all humility their special arts, if the abbot permit it. But
if any one of them becomes inflated with pride on account of
knowledge of his art, to the extent that he seems to be conferring
something on the monastery: such a one shall be plucked away
from that art; and he shall not again return to it unless the
abbot perchance again orders him to, he being humiliated. But,
if anything from the works of the artificers is to be sold, they
themselves shall take care through whose hands they (the w^orks)
are to pass, lest they (the intermediaries) presume to commit
some fraud upon the monastery. They shall always remember
Ananias and Sapphira; ^'^ lest, perchance, the death that they
suffered with regard to the body, these, or all those who have
committed any fraud as to the property of the monastery, may
suffer with regard to the soul. In the prices themselves,
moreover, let not the evil of avarice crop out: but let the
object always be given a little cheaper than it is given by
other and secular persons; so that, in all things, God shall
be glorified. ^^

The following selections are from la\vs ascribed to
Alfred the Great. But, since law is always and every-
where conservative, they embody much of primitive Teu-

15 Cf. Acts 5:1-5.

i" For a modem writer's estimate of the economic service of monasteries, see
William Cunningham, An Essay on Western Ciinlization in Its Economic Aspects
{Medieval and Modern Times), pp. 35-40 (Cambridge Universitv Press, 1900).

22 ENGLISH LITERATURE

tonic procedure and much of English custom prior to the
time of Alfred. They, therefore, serve to reveal in its
general outlines the structure of Old English social life
and furnish an accurate index of social conditions. Inci-
dentally, they show the nature of law in early England.

I, then, Alfred, king, gathered these together, and commanded
many of those to be written which our forefathers held,^^ those
which to me seemed good; and many of those which seemed to
me not good I rejected, by the counsel of my witan,^^ and in
otherwise commanded them to be holden; for I durst not ven-
ture to set down in writing much of my own, for it was un-
known to me what of it would please those who should come
after us. But those things which I met with, either of the days
of Ine my kinsman, or of Offa, king of the Mercians, or of
Ethelbert, who first among the English race received baptism,
those which seemed to me the rightest, those I have here gath-
ered together, and rejected the others.

I, then, Alfred, king of the West Saxons, showed these to all
my witan, and they then said that it seemed good to them for
all these to be holden.

At the first we teach that it is most needful that every man
warily keep his oaths and his pledges. If any one be constrained
to either of these wrongfully, either to treason against his lord
or to any unlawful aid, then it is juster to belie than to fulfil.
But if he pledge himself to that which is lawful to fulfil, and in
that belie himself, let him submissively deliver up his weapon
and his goods to the keeping of his friends, and be in prison forty
days in a king's town: let him there suffer whatever the bishop
may prescribe to him; and let his kinsmen feed him, if himself
he have no food. . . .

If any plot against the king's life, of himself, or by harboring
exiles, or by his men, let him be liable in his life and in all that
he has. . . .

We also ordain to every church that has been hallowed by a
bishop this right of peace, if a man in a feud flee to or reach one,

^"^ The conservative and traditionary character of law is well indicated here.
^* I.e. council of wise men.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 23

that for seven days no one drag him out. ... He who steals
on Sunday or at Christmas or at Easter or on Holy Thursday
or on Rogation days, for each of these we will that the fine be
twofold, as during the Lenten fast. . . .

If any one fight in the king's hall, or draw his weapon, and
he be taken, be it the king's doom, either death or life, as he
may be willing to grant him. If he escape, and be taken again,
let him pay for himself according to the value of his life. . . .

If a man fight before an archbishop or draw his weapon, let
him make amends with one hundred and fifty shillings. If be-
fore another bishop or an ealdorman this happen, let him make
amends with one hundred shillings.

If any one smite his neighbor with a stone or with his fist,
and he nevertheless can go out with a staff; let him get him a
leech, and work his work the while that himself may not.

If an ox gore a man or a woman so that they die, let it be
stoned, and let not its flesh be eaten. The lord shall not be
liable, if the ox were wont to push with its horns for two or three
days before, and the lord knew it not; but if he knew it, and
he would not shut it in, and it shall then have slain a man or a
woman, let it be stoned; and let the lord be slain, or the man
be paid for, as the witan decree to be right. If it gore a son or
a daughter, let him be subject to the like judgment. But if it
gore a servant or slave, let thirty shillings of silver be given to
the lord, and let the ox be stoned.

If a man, kinless of paternal relatives, fight, and slay a man,
and then if he have maternal relatives, let them pay a third of
the price of the slain man's life; his gild-brethren a third part;
for a third let him flee. If he have no maternal relatives, let
his gild-brethren pay half, for half let him flee.

Injure ye not the widows and the step-children, nor hurt them
anywhere: for if ye do otherwise, they will cry unto me, and I
will hear them, and I will then slay you with my sword; and I
will so do that your wives shall be widows, and your children
shall be step-children.

If thou give money in loan to thy fellow who willeth to dwell
with thee, urge thou him not as a slave, and oppress him not
with the increase.

24 ENGLISH LITERATURE

If a man have only a single garment wherewith to cover him-
self, or to wear, and he give it (to thee) in pledge; let it be re-
turned before sunset. If thou dost not so, then shall he call
unto me, and I will hear him; for I am very merciful.

We also command: that the man who knows his foe to be
home-sitting fight not before he demand justice of him. If
he have such power that he can beset his foe, and besiege him
within, let him keep him within for seven days, and attack him
not, if he remain within. And then, after seven days, if he will
surrender, and deliver up his weapons, let him be kept safe for
thirty days, and let notice of him be given to his kinsmen and
his friends. If, however, he flee to a church, then let it be ac-
cording to the sanctity of the church; as we have before said
above. But if he have not sufficient power to besiege him within,
let him ride to the ealdorman, and beg aid of him. If he will
not aid him, let him ride to the king before he fights. In like
manner also, if a man come upon his foe, and he did not before
know him to be home-staying; if he be willing to deliver up his
weapons, let him be kept for thirty days, and let notice of him
be given to his friends; if he will not deliver up his weapons,
then he may attack him. If he be willing to surrender, and to
deliver up his weapons, and any one after that attack him, let
him forgo all claim to the aid of his relatives. We also declare,
that with his lord a man may fight without being liable to the
charge of homicide, if any one attack the lord: thus may the
lord fight for his man. After the same fashion, a man may fight
with his blood relative, if a man attack him wrongfully, except
against his lord; that we do not allow. . . .

Judge thou evenly: judge thou not one doom to the rich, an-
other to the poor; nor one to thy friend, another to thy foe,
judge thou. . . .

If (one's) hearing be impaired (by assault), so that he cannot
hear, let sixty shillings be paid as amends. A man's grinder is
worth fifteen shillings.

A man's chin bone, if it be cloven, let twelve shillings be paid
as compensation.

If a man be wounded on the shoulder so that the joint-oil
flow out, let amends be made with thirty shillings.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 25

If the arm be broken above the elbow, there shall be fifteen
shillings as compensation.

If the forearm be broken, the compensation is thirty shillings.

If the thumb be struck off, for that the amends shall be thirty
shillings.

If the nail be struck off, the compensation shall be five
shillings.

If the shooting (i.e. index) finger be struck off, the compensa-
tion is fifteen shillings; for its nail, four shillings.

If the middle finger be struck off, the compensation is twelve
shillings; and its nail, is two shillings. . . .

If a man's thigh be pierced, let thirty shillings be paid him
as compensation; if it be broken, the compensation is likewise
thirty shillings.

If the great toe be struck off, let twenty shillings be paid as
amends; if it be the second toe, let fifteen shillings be paid. . . .

If a man maim another's hand outwardly, let twenty shillings
be paid him as amends, if it can be healed; if it half fly off,
then shall the amends be forty shillings.

He who smiteth his father or his mother shall perish by
death.

He who stealeth a freeman and selleth him and it be proved
against him so that he cannot clear himself, let him perish by
death. . . .

If a thief break into a man's house by night and he be there
slain, the slayer shall not be guilty of manslaughter. But if
he do this after sunrise he shall be guilty of manslaughter, and
then he himself shall die, unless he were an unwilling agent. . . .

Swear ye never by heathen gods, nor cry ye unto them for any
cause.

An attractive and, at the same time, accurate repre-
sentation of domestic and industrial life in eleventh-cen-
tury England is given in a dialog between master and
pupil, designed to familiarize boys with Latin. yElfric,
monk and abbot, best extant example of the culture of
his day, is the author of this primitive imaginary conver-
sation.

26 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Pupil. We children beg you, teacher, to teach us how to
speak Latin correctly, for we are very ignorant and make mis-
takes in our speech.

Teacher. What do you want to talk about .^

Pi piL. What do we care what the subject is, provided the
language be correct, and the discourse be useful, not idle and
base?

Teacher. Do you desire to be flogged in your learning?

Pupil. We had rather be flogged for learning's sake than be
ignorant; but we know that you are kind and will not inflict
blows upon us unless we force you to do so.

Teacher. I ask an answer to this: What is your work at
present?

Pupil. I am a monk by profession and I sing every day the
seven services of the hours with my brethren and am occupied
with reading and singing, but nevertheless I should like, be-
tween times, to learn Latin.

Teacher. What do these your comrades know?

Pupil. Some are plowmen, some shepherds, some oxherds;
and some are hunters, some fishermen, some fowlers, some mer-
chants, some shoemakers, some salters, and some bakers.

Teacher. Plowman, what can you say for yourself? How
do you do your work?

Plowman. O, dear master, I work very hard; I go out at
daybreak, drive the oxen to the field and yoke them to the plow.
Never is winter weather so severe that I dare to remain at home;
for I fear my master. But when the oxen are yoked to the plow
and the share and coulter fastened on, every day I must plow a
full acre or more.

Teacher. Have you any one to help you?

Plowman. I have a boy who urges on the oxen with a goad.
He is now hoarse from cold and shouting.

Teacher. Do you do anything else in the course of a day?

Plowman. I do a great deal more. I have to fill the bins of
the oxen v^ith hay and water them and clean their stalls.

Teacher. Oh ! Oh ! that is hard work !

Plowman. The labor is indeed great, because I am not
free.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 27

Teacher. What is your work, shepherd, have you anything
to do?

Shepherd. Yes indeed, master, I have. In the early morn-
ing I drive my sheep to their pasture and stand over them in
heat or cold with dogs lest wolves devour them. I lead them
back to their folds and milk them twice a day. In addition I
move their folds, make cheese and butter and am faithful to
my master.

Teacher. Well, oxherd, what is your work.^^

Oxherd. O my master, my work is very hard. When the
plowman unyokes the oxen, I lead them to pasture and all night
I stand over them and watch for thieves. Then in the early
morning I turn them over to the plowman after I have fed and
watered them.

Teacher. Is this one of your friends.^

Oxherd. Yes, he is.

Teacher. Can you do anything?

Hunter. I know one craft.

Teacher. What is it?

Hunter. I am a hunter.

Teacher. Whose?

Hunter. The king's.

Teacher. How do you carry on your work?

Hunter. I weave my nets and put them in a suitable place,
and train my dogs to follow the wild beasts until they come un-
expectedly to the nets and are entrapped. Then I kill them in
the nets.

Teacher. Can't you hunt without nets?

Hunter. Yes, I can hunt without them.

Teacher. How?

Hunter. I chase wild beasts with swift dogs.

Teacher. What wild beasts do you catch?

Hunter. Harts, boars, does, goats and sometimes hares.

Teacher. Did you go out to-day?

Hunter. No, because it is Sunday; but I was out yesterday.

Teacher. What luck did you have?

Hunter. I got two harts and a boar.

Teacher. How did vou catch them?

28 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Hunter. The harts I took in a net and the boar I slew.

Teacher. How did you dare to kill a boar.'^

Hunter. The dogs drove him to me, and I, standing opposite
to him, slew him suddenly.

Teacher. You were very brave.

Hunter. A hunter should not be afraid; for many kinds of
wild beasts live in the woods.

Teacher. What do you do with your game?

Hunter. I give the king what I take because I am his hunter.

Teacher. What does he give you?

Hunter. He clothes me well and feeds me. Occasionally he
gives me a horse or a ring that I may pursue my craft more
willingly.

Teacher. What craft do you follow?

Fisherman. I am a fisherman.

Teacher. What do you gain by your craft?

Fisherman. Food and clothes and money.

Teacher. How^ do you catch your fish?

Fisherman. I go out in my boat, throw my net in the river, cast
in my hook baited and take in my creel whatever comes to me.

Teacher. What if they are unclean fish?

Fisherman. I throw the unclean ones back and keep the
clean for meat.

Teacher. Where do you sell your fish?

Fisherman. In the city.

Teacher. Who buys them?

Fisherman. The citizens; I do not catch as many as I could
sell.

Teacher. What sorts of fish do you catch?

Fisherman. Eels and pike, minnows and turbots, trout and
lamphreys; in short, whatever swims in running water.

Teacher. Why don't you fish in the sea?

Fisherman. Sometimes I do; but seldom; because a large
boat is needed for sea-fishing.

Teacher. Wliat do you catch in the sea?

Fisherman. Herring and salmon, dolphins and sturgeons,
oysters and crabs, mussels, periwinkles, cockles, flounders, sole»
lobsters and many others.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 29

Teacher. Wouldn't you like to catch a whale?

Fisherman. No.

Teacher. Why not?

Fisherman. Because it is a dangerous thing to catch a whale.
It is safer for me to go to the river with my boat than to go
with many ships to hunt whales.

Teacher. W^hy so?

Fisherman. Because I prefer to take a fish that I can kill
than one that with a single blow can swallow not only me but
my companions also.

Teacher. Yet, many catch w^hales without danger and get
a good price for them.

Fisherman. I know it, but I do not dare; for I am very
timid.

Teacher. What have you to say, fowler? How do you catch
the birds?

Fowler. I entice them in many ways, sometimes with nets,
sometimes with nooses, sometimes with lime, sometimes by
whistling, sometimes with a hawk and sometimes with traps.

Teacher. Have you a hawk?

Fowler. Yes.

Teacher. Can you tame it?

Fowler. Yes; what good would it be to me, if I could not
tame it?

Hunter. Give me a hawk.

Fowler. I will gladly, if you will give me a swift dog.
Which hawk do you prefer, the larger or the smaller?

Hunter. Give me the larger one.

Teacher. How do you feed your hawks?

Fow^LER. They feed themselves and me in the winter and in
the spring I let them fly in the woods. In the autumn I take
the young birds and tame them.

Teacher. And why do you let the tame ones go?

Fowler. Because I don't want to feed them in the summer,
since they eat a good deal.

Teacher. Many people feed those that they have tamed,
even through the summer, that they may have them ready
again.

30 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Fowler. Yes, so they do; but I do not take so much trouble
for them, because I can get others, not one only, but many
more.

Teacher. What can you say, merchant.'^

Merchant. I say that I am useful to the king and to the
magistrates and to the wealthy and to all the people.

Teacher. How is that?

Merchant. I go aboard my ship with my goods and row
over parts of the sea, sell my things and buy precious treasures
that are not produced in this country. These latter I bring
here with great peril from the sea. Sometimes I suffer ship-
wreck and lose all my wares, hardly escaping with my life.

Teacher. What do you bring us.^

Merchant. Purple goods and silk, precious gems and gold,
strange raiment and spices, wine and oil, ivory and brass, cop-
per and tin, sulphur and glass, and the like.

Teacher. Do you sell your goods for the same price for which
you bought them.^

Merchant. No; what profit would I then have from my
labor. ^ But I sell them dearer than I bought them, that I may
make a profit. Thus I feed myself, my wife and my son.

Teacher. And you, shoemaker, what do you do that is use-
ful for us.^

Shoemaker. My craft is a cunning one and very useful to
you.

Teacher. How?

Shoemaker. I buy hides and skins and prepare them by my
art and make of them various kinds of footwear — slippers,
shoes and gaiters; bottles, reins and trappings; flasks and lea-
thern vessels; spurstraps and halters; purses and bags. None of
you could pass a winter without the aid of my craft.

Teacher. Salter, how is your craft useful to us?

Salter. Who of you would relish his food without the savor
of salt? Who could fill either his cellar or his store-room with-
out the aid of my craft? behold, all butter and cheese would
you lose, nor would you enjoy even your vegetables, without me.

Teacher. And what do you say, baker? Does any one need
your craft, or could we live without you?

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 31

Baker. Life might be sustained for a while without my craft,
but not long nor well. Truly, without my skill, every table
would be empty. Without bread all food would cause sickness.
I strengthen the heart of man. I am the strength of men and
few would like to do without me.

Teacher. AYhat shall we say of the cook.^^ Do we need his
skill for anything.'^

The Cook says: If you should send me away from your
midst, you would be compelled to eat your vegetables green and
your meat uncooked, and you could have no nourishing broth
without my skill.

Teacher. We do not need your skill, nor is it necessary to
us; for we ourselves could cook the things which should be
cooked and roast the things that should be roasted.

The Cook says: If you send me away, that is what you will
have to do. Nevertheless, without my skill, you cannot eat.

Teacher. Monk, you who are talking with me, I have per-
suaded myself that you have good comrades and that they are
very necessary. Now, who are these .^^

Pupil. I have smiths — a blacksmith, a goldsmith, a silver-
smith, a coppersmith, a carpenter and many other workers at
various trades.

Teacher. Have you any wise counselor?

Pupil. I certainly have. How could our community be ruled
without a counselor .f^

Teacher. What would you say, wise man? Among these
crafts which seems to you the greatest?

Counselor. I tell you that among all these occupations the
service of God seems to me to hold the first place; for thus it
is written in the Gospels: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you."

Teacher. And among the worldly crafts which seems to you
to be first?

Counselor. Agriculture, because the farmer feeds us all.

The Blacksmith says : Where would the farmer get his plow-
share, or mend his coulter when it has lost its point, without my
craft? Where would the fisherman get his hook, or the shoe-
maker his awl, or the tailor his needle, if it were not for my work?

32 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The Counselor responds: Verily, you speak the truth; but
we prefer to live with the farmer rather than with you; for the
fanner gives us food and drink. What you give us in your shop
is sparks, noise of hammers and blowing of bellows.

The Carpenter speaks: How could you spare my skill in
building houses, in the use of various tools, in building ships and
in all the things I make?

The Counselor says: O comrades and good workmen, let
us quickly settle these disputes, and let there be peace and har-
mony among us. Let each one benefit the others with his craft
and agree always with the farmer who feeds us and from whom
we get fodder for our horses. And this advice I give to all
workers, that each one shall follow his own craft diligently, for
he who forsakes his craft shall be himself forsaken by his craft.
Whoever you are, priest or monk or layman or soldier, exercise
yourself in this. Be satisfied with your office; for it is a great
disgrace for a man to be unwilling to be what he is, and what
it is his duty to be.

Teacher. Well, children, how have you enjoyed this conver-
sation?

Pupil. Pretty well, but you speak profoundly and beyond our
age. Speak to us according to our intelligence that we may
understand what you say.

Teacher. Here is a simple question for you: why are you so
eager to learn?

Pupil. Because we do not wish to be like stupid animals that
do not know^ anything but grass and water.

Teacher. And what is your wish?

Pupil. We wish to be wise.

Teacher. In what wisdom? Do you w^ish to be crafty or to
assume a thousand shapes, skilful in deceiving, astute in speak-
ing, graceful, speaking good and thinking evil, using soft words,
feeding fraud within, like a whited sepulcher, beautiful without,
but full of corruption?

Pupil. We do not wish for this kind of wisdom; for he is not
wise who deceives himself with pretenses.

Teacher. But how would you be wise?

Pupil. We wish to be simple without hypocrisy, and wise

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 33

that we may turn from evil and do good. But you are speaking
to us of matters deeper than we are able to understand on ac-
count of our years. Speak to us in our own way and not so
profoundly.

Teacher. I will do as you ask. ^ly boy, what did you do
to-day?

Pupil. I did many things. In the night, when I heard the
bell, I arose from my bed and went to church. After that we
sang of all the saints and morning praise songs, and after that
prime and seven psalms with the litany and the first mass. Then
we sang terce and did the mass of the day. After this we sang
sext and ate and drank and slept. Again we rose and sang nones
and now we are before you ready to hear whatever you may say
to us.

Teacher. When will you sing vespers or evensong?

Pupil. AVhen it is time.

Teacher. Were you flogged to-day?

Pupil, No; because I conducted myself carefully.

Teacher. And what of your companions?

Pupil. Why do you ask me that? I do not dare to tell you
our secrets. Each one knows whether he was flogged.

Teacher. What do you eat during the day?

Pupil. As yet I eat meat, for I am a child kept under the rod.

Teacher. What else do you eat?

Pupil. Herbs, eggs, fish, cheese, butter, beans and all clean
things I eat with great thankfulness.

Teacher. You are very voracious, because you eat every-
thing that is set before you.

Pupil. I am not so greedy as to eat all kinds of food at one
meal.

Teacher. Then how?

Pupil. Sometimes I eat one kind of food at one meal and
sometimes another; but always with moderation as it becomes a
monk; and not greedily; for I am no glutton.

Teacher. And what do you drink?

Pupil. Ale, if I can get it; water, if I have no ale.

Teacher. Don't you drink wine?

Pupil. I am not rich enough to buy wine for myself and

34 ENGLISH LITERATURE

wine is not a drink for children or the foolish but for the old
and wise.

Teacher. Where do you sleep .^

Pupil. In the dormitory with the brethren.

Teacher. Who wakes you for the night songs?

Pupil. Sometimes I hear the bell and rise; sometimes the
master rouses me sternly with the rod.

Teacher. O good children and winsome pupils, I, your mas-
ter, exhort you to be obedient to the divine command and keep
yourselves pure in all places. Rise immediately at the sound of
the church-bell and go into the oratory. Bow humbly before the
holy altars, stand meekly and sing in accord. Pray for the err-
ing ones and go out without haste into the cloister or the school.

III. The Cultural Background

Our problem here is to try to understand and appreci-
ate the less mechanical phases of Old English life which
affected and colored literature; the aims and temper of the
people, the foreign influences upon them, their art and
learning, the status of poets among them.

1. Early English Ideals and Temper. — Tacitus has al-
ready suggested at long range what these were, but we
need the closer view to be gained from English literature
itself. The first illustrative passage chosen is the account,
in the earliest Teutonic epic extant, the English Beowulf,^
of the death of the hero. Beow^ulf has ruled his people for
fifty winters after a youth spent in deeds of warlike daring
and generous aid to others, truly called chivalric. Feeling
his end near, he reviews his life in words which reveal his
aims and ideals.^

Beowulf discoursed, spoke notwithstanding his wound, his
piteous deadly hurt; he was fully conscious that he had lived
out his allotted day of earthly joy, that the whole of his destined

^ On Beowulf as a typical Teutonic hero, see E. Dale, National Life and Char-
acter in the Mirror of Early English Literature, pp. 23-27 (Cambridge University
Press, 1907).

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND, 35

time was measured, (that) death was very near; "Now would I
bestow my war-gear on my son, had any heir sprung from my
body been given me to come after me. I have guided this people
fifty years, nor has there been any folk-king among my neigh-
bors, no not one, who durst attack me in war, grievously oppress
me. I awaited on earth my appointed time, guarded well my
own, sought no cunning wiles, nor swore many false oaths.
Hence, though stricken with deadly wounds, I may rejoice, because
the Warden of men cannot lay the murder of kinsmen to my
charge when my life parts from my body. Do thou, dear Wig-
laf,' go quickly to see the treasure beneath the hoary stone, since
the dragon ^ lies slain, sleeps sorely wounded, bereft of treasured
life. Hasten, that I may look upon the ancient stores of golden
wealth, closely examine the bright gems, that I may the more
easily thereafter leave my life and the realm which I have long
ruled."

The first 2200 lines of the poem Beowulf tell the story
of Beowulf's adventures in behalf of Hrothgar, king of the
Danes, whom Beowulf comes over the sea to help in his
efforts to free his land and people of the monster Grendel.
On the death of one of Hrothgar's thanes at the hands of
Grendel's mother, Beowulf gives the following advice,
which may be compared with the w^ords of Tacitus already
cited: ^

Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, spoke:

"Sorrow not, wise man; to avenge one's friend is better than
Lo mourn much. Each one of us must stay for the end of his
life in this world; (therefore) let him who may, do his work of
glory before death; this will have been the best course for a
hero whose life is done."

No one knows just when the poem Beoivulf was com-
posed and so the time which elapsed between the date of
our first illustration and that of the last must for us be

^ One of IJeowulf s most trusted companions.

3 The monster in conflict witli which Beowulf got his death- wound.

* Cf. ante., p. 1<).

36 . ENGLISH LITERATURE

unmeasured. But in the interim Christianity has been
introduced among the Enghsh and they are to have the
chance of contact with the main stream of world civiHza-
tion. Later documents will deal more fully with the intro-
duction of Christianity, but here our attention should
center on the glimpses we get of traits easily recognized
as English to-day; such as, in the story to be quoted, the
almost commercial common sense of the priest Coifi, and
the reflective sensitiveness of the still pagan nobleman
whose unknown name deserves record.

For one's appreciation of the following story, he should
know that Bishop Paulinus of York has had one interview
with King Edwin of Northumbria regarding the accept-
ance of Christianity by the latter, and that, using as a
means of approach a mystic sign which had been revealed
to the king in a vision, the bishop has now come to claim
the royal convert.

The king,^ hearing these words, ^ answered, that he was both
-^dlling and bound to receive the faith which he taught; but that
he would confer about it with his principal friends and counsellors,
to the end that if they also were of his opinion, they might all
together be cleansed in Christ the Fountain of Life. Paulinus con-
senting, the king did as he said; for, holding a council with the
wise men, he asked of every one in particular what he thought
of the new doctrine, and the new worship that was preached? To
which the chief of his own priests, Coifi, immediately answered,
*'0 king, consider what this is which is now preached to us; for
I verily declare to you, that the religion which we have hitherto
professed has, as far as I can learn, no virtue in it. For none
of your people has applied himself more diligently to the wor-
ship of our gods than I; and yet there are many who receive
greater favors from you, and are more preferred than I, and are
more prosperous in all their undertakings. Now if the gods were
good for any thing, they would rather forward me, who have

5 Edwin of Northumbria (585?-633, a.d.)
® Cf. Bishop PauHnus of York (died 64-i a.d.)

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 37

been more careful to serve them. It remains, therefore, that if
upon examination you find those new doctrines, which are now
preached to us, better and more efficacious, we immediately
receive them without any delay."

Another of the king's men, approving of his words and ex-
hortations, presently added: "The present life of man, O king,
seems to me, in comparison with that time which is unknown to
us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein
you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers,
and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow
prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and
immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the
wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he imme-
diately vanishes out of sight, into the dark winter from which he
emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of
what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant.
If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain,
it seems justly to deserve to be followed." The other elders
and king's counsellors, by Divine inspiration, spoke to the
same effect.

But Coifi added, that he wished more attentively to hear
Paulinus discourse concerning the God whom he preached; which
he having by the king's command performed, Coifi, hearing his
words, cried out, "I have long since been sensible that there was
nothing in that which we worshipped; because the more dili-
gently I sought after truth in that worship, the less I found it.
But now I freely confess, that such truth evidently appears in
this preaching as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation,
and of eternal happiness. For which reason I advise, O king,
that we instantly abjure and set fire to those temples and altars
which we have consecrated without reajiing any benefit from
them." In short, the king publicly gave his licence to Paulinus
to preach the Gospel, and renouncing idolatry, declared thai lie
received the faith of Christ: and when he inquired of tlie liigh
priest who should first profane the altars and temples of their
idols, with the enclosures tluit were about them, he answered,
"I; for who can more properly than myself destroy those things
which I worshipped through ignorance, for an example to all

38 ENGLISH LITERATURE

others, through the wisdom which has been given me by the true
God?" Then ininiediately, in contempt of his former supersti-
tions, he desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stal-
Hon; and mounting the same, he set out to destroy the idols;
for it was not la^^'ful before for the high priest either to carry
arms, or to ride on any but a mare. Having, therefore, girt a
sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he mounted the king's
stalHon and proceeded to the idols. The multitude, beholding
it, concluded he was distracted; but he lost no time, for as soon
as he drew near the temple he profaned the same, casting into it
the spear which he held; and, rejoicing in the knowledge of the
worship of the true God, he commanded his companions to de-
stroy the temple, with all its enclosures, by fire.^ This place
where the idols were is still shown, not far from York, to the east-
ward, beyond the river Derwent, and is now called Godmunding-
ham, where the high priest, by the inspiration of the true God,
profaned and destroyed the altars which he had himself conse-
crated.^

2. Foreign Influences. — Were we to take in chronologi-
cal order the foreign influences on the Teutons after their
arrival in Britain, the first to be mentioned would be that
of the Celts who invited them into the island and who
finally gave way before them. But the conclusions of
modern scholarship are that the Celts exercised little if
any immediate influence upon the English.^ Passing them
by, therefore, the next foreign influence is that of Chris-
tianity. This was, as the sequel will show, much more
than a narrowly religious influence. Contact with Chris-
tianity in the sixth century of our era meant contact with
the highest and best in civilization. This will be abun-
dantly evident in the documents which follow. Here,

^ Cf. the advice given by Bishop Daniel of Winchester to St. Boniface in his
labors among the heathen. English Correspondence of St. Boniface, pp. 51 seq.
(King's Classics edition, Chatto and Windus, 1911.)

^ For a further reference to King Edwin, cf. post, p. 99.

^ Cf . Cambridge History of English Literature, I, pp. 305-7 and bibliography to
Chap. XII.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 39

however, our primary interest is in the introduction of Chris-
tianity. It was first brought to Britain, apparently, before
it became the authorized state rehgion of the Roman
Empire and experienced the fortunes and misfortunes of
general Christianity in the pagan w^orld. Our first docu-
ment will illustrate this pre-German Christianity by pic-
turing the martyrdom of St. Alban. The chronological
difficulties in the way of our accepting Bede's statements
as he makes them, need not interfere with our getting real
information in a general way on religious conditions in
pagan Roman Britain.

At that time ^^ suffered St. Alban, of whom the priest Fortuna-
tus,^^ in the Praise of Virgins, where he makes mention of the
blessed martyrs that came to the Lord from all parts of the
world, says:

In Britain's isle was holy Alban born.

This Alban, being yet a pagan, at the time when the cruelties
of wicked princes were raging against Christians, gave enter-
tainment in his house to a certain clergyman, flying from the
persecutors. This man he observed to be engaged in continual
prayer and watching day and night; when on a sudden the
Divine grace shining on him, he began to imitate the example of
faith and piety which was set before him, and being gradually
instructed by his wholesome admonitions, he cast off the dark-
ness of idolatry, and became a Christian in all sincerity of heart.
The aforesaid clergyman having been some days entertained by
him, it came to the ears of the wicked prince, that this holy
confessor of Christ, whose time of martyrdom had not yet come,
was concealed at Alban 's house. Whereupon he sent some sol-
diers to make a strict search after him. When they came to
the martyr's house, St. Alban immediately presented himself to
the soldiers, instead of his guest and master, in the habit or long
coat which he wore, and was led bound before tlie judge.

It happened that the judge, at the time when Alban was

^^ 305 A.D. during the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian.
^^ Cf. jjost, J). G7 and note.

40 ENGLISH LITERATURE

carried before him, was standing at the altar, and offer-
ing sacrifice to devils. When he saw Alban, being much en-
raged that he should thus, of his own accord, put himself into
the hands of the soldiers, and incur such danger in behalf of
his guest, he commanded him to be dragged up to the images of
the devils, before which he stood, saying, "Because you have
chosen to conceal a rebellious and sacrilegious person, rather than
to deliver him up to the soldiers, that his contempt of the gods
might meet with the penalty due to such blasphemy, you shall
undergo all the punishment that was due to him if you abandon
the worship of our religion." But St. iVlban, who had volun-
tarily declared himself a Christian to the persecutors of the faith,
was not at all daunted at the prince's threats, but putting on the
armor of spiritual warfare, publicly declared that he would not
obey the command. Then said the judge, "Of what family or
race are you.'*" — "What does it concern you," answered Alban,"
"of what stock I am? If you desire to hear the truth of my
religion, be it known to you, that I am now a Christian, and
bound by Christian duties." — "I ask your name;" said the
judge, "tell me it immediately." "I am called Alban by- my
parents," replied he; "and I worship and adore the true and
living God, who created all things." Then the judge, inflamed
with anger, said, "If you will enjoy the happiness of eternal life,
do not delay to offer sacrifice to the great gods." Alban rejoined,
"These sacrifices, which by you are offered to devils, neither can
avail the subjects, nor answer the wishes or desires of those that
offer up their supplications to them. On the contrary, whoso-
ever shall offer sacrifice to these images shall receive the ever-
lasting pains of hell for his reward."

The judge, hearing these words, and being much incensed,
ordered this holy confessor of God to be scourged by the execu-
tioners, believing he might by stripes shake that constancy of
heart, on which he could not prevail by words. He, being most
cruelly tortured, bore the same patiently, or rather joyfully, for
our Lord's sake. When the judge perceived that he was not to
be overcome by tortures, or withdrawn from the exercise of the
Christian religion, he ordered him to be put to death. Being
led to execution, he came to a river, which, with a most rapid

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 41

course, ran between the wall of the town and the arena where he
was to be executed. He there saw a multitude of persons of
both sexes, and of several ages and conditions, who were doubt-
less assembled by Divine instinct, to attend the blessed con-
fessor and martyr, and had so taken up the bridge on the river,
that he could scarce pass over that evening. In short, almost all
had gone out, so that the judge remained in the city without
attendance. St. Alban, therefore, urged by an ardent and devout
wish to arrive quickly at martyrdom, drew near to the stream,
and on lifting up his eyes to heaven, the channel was immediately
dried up, and he perceived that the water had departed and made
way for him to pass. Among the rest the executioner, who was
to have put him to death, observed this, and moved by Divine
inspiration hastened to meet him at the place of execution, and
casting down the sword which he had carried ready drawn, fell
at his feet, praying that he might rather suffer with the martyr,
whom he was ordered to execute, or, if possible, instead of him.
Whilst he thus from a persecutor was become a companion in
the faith, and the other executioners hesitated to take up the
sword which was lying on the ground, the reverend confessor,
accompanied by the multitude, ascended a hill, about five hun-
dred paces from the place, adorned, or rather clothed w4th all
kinds of flowers, having its sides neither perpendicular, nor
even craggy, but sloping down into a most beautiful plain, worthy
from its lovely appearance to be the scene of a martyr's suffer-
ings. On the top of this hill, St. Alban prayed that God would
give him water, and immediately a living spring broke out before
his feet, the course being confined, so that all men perceived that
the river also had been dried up in consequence of the martyr's
presence. Nor was it likely that the martyr, who had left no
water remaining in the river, should want some on the top of the
hill, unless he thought it suitable to the occasion. The river
having performed the holy service, returned to its natural course,
leaving a testimony of its obedience. Here, therefore, the head
of our most courageous martyr was struck off, and here he re-
ceived the crown of life, which God has promised to those who
love Him.^- But he who gave the wicked stroke, was not per-

12 Cf. James 1: 12.

42 ENGLISH LITERATURE

mitted to rejoice over the deceased; for his dropped upon the
ground together with the blessed martyr's head.

At tlie same time was also beheaded the soldier, who before,
through the Divine admonition, refused to give the stroke to the
holy confessor. Of whom it is apparent, though he was not re-
generated by baptism, yet he was cleansed by the washing of
his own blood, and rendered worthy to enter the kingdom of
heaven. Then the judge, astonished at the novelty of so many
heavenly miracles, ordered the persecution to cease immediately,
beginning to honor the death of the saints, by which he before
thought they might have been diverted from the Christian faith.
The blessed Alban suffered death on the twenty-second day of
June, near the city of Verulam, which is now by the English
nation called Verlamacestir, or Varlingacestir, where afterwards,
when peaceable Christian times were restored, a church of won-
derful workmanship, and suitable to his martyrdom, was erected.
In which place, there ceases not to this day the cure of sick
persons, and the frequent workings of wonders.

At the same time suffered Aaron and Julius, citizens of Chester,
and many more of both sexes in several places; who, when they
had endured sundry torments, and their limbs had been torn
after an unheard-of manner, yielded their souls up, to enjoy in
the heavenly city a reward for the sufferings which they had
passed through.

These untoward conditions did not last long, however,
after the time of Alban's martyrdom; for in 312 or 313
Constantine put Christianity on the same basis as other
religions in the Empire and the Church doubtless pros-
pered in Britain as did other things Roman. But on the
withdra\val of the legions early in the fifth century troub-
lous times came on again and Christian priests were not
spared as the pagan Teutons swept in conquest over the
island. Britain returned to paganism — this time of a
Teutonic type — for about a century and a half and then
a process of re-Christianization began. One Gregory, after-
wards Pope Gregory I, surnamed the Great, is, according
to Bede, responsible for beginning this missionary work

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 43

among the English. How Gregory became interested in
the EngHsh is told by Bede as follows:

It is reported, that some merchants, having just arrived at
Rome on a certain day, exposed many things for sale in the
market place, and abundance of people resorted thither to buy:
Gregory ^^ himself went with the rest, and among other things,
some boys were set to sale, their bodies white, their counte-
nances beautiful, and their hair very fine. Having viewed them,
he asked, as is said, from what country or nation they were
brought? and was told, from the island of Britain, whose inhab-
itants were of such personal appearance. He again inquired
whether those islanders were Christians, or still involved in the
errors of paganism? and was informed that they were pagans.
Then fetching a deep sign from the bottom of his heart, "Alas !
what pity," said he, "that the author of darkness is possessed
of men of such fair countenances; and that being remarkable for
such graceful aspects, their minds should be void of inward
grace." He therefore again asked, what was the name of that
nation? and was answered, that they were called Angles. " Right,"
said he, "for they have an Angelic face, and it becomes such to
be coheirs with the Angels in heaven. What is the name,"
proceeded he, "of the province from which they are brought?"
It was replied, that the natives of that province were called
Deiri. "Truly are they De ira,'' said he, "withdrawn from the
wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ. How is the king of
that province called?" They told him his name was Ella: and
he, alluding to the name, said, "Hallelujah, the praise of God the
Creator must be sung in those parts."

Then repairing to the bishop of the Roman aposotolical see
(for he was not himself then made pope), he entreated him to
send some ministers of the word into Britain to the nation of the
English, by whom it might be converted to Christ; declaring
himself ready to undertake that work, by the assistance of God,
if the apostolic pope should tliink fit to have it so done. Whicli
not being then able to perform, because, though the pope was
willing to grant his request, yet the citizens of Rome could not

^^ Al this liiiu> ;i <l('a('()ii in the Church.

44 ENGLISH LITERATURE

be brought to consent that so noble, so renowned, and so learned
a man slioiild depart the city; as soon as he was himself made
pope, he perfected the long-desired work, sending other preach-
ers, but himself by his prayers and exhortations assisting the
preaching, that it might be successful. This account, as we have
received it from the ancients, we have thought fit to insert in
our Ecclesiastical History.

Gregory, now pope, selected Augustine, a Roman priest,
as his agent in realizing his long-cherished desire of Chris-
tianizing Britain, and sent him to the island with full and
wise instructions. How Augustine was received there
Bede tells us in the following:

Augustine, thus strengthened by the confirmation of the
blessed Father Gregory, returned to the work of the word of
God, with the servants of Christ, and arrived in Britain. The
powerful Ethelbert was at that time king of Kent; he had ex-
tended his dominions as far as the great river Humber, by which
the Southern Saxons are divided from the Northern. On the
east of Kent is the large Isle of Thanet containing according to
the English way of reckoning, six hundred families, divided from
the other land by the river Want sum, which is about three
furlongs over, and fordable only in two places, for both ends of
it run into the sea. In this island landed the servant of our
Lord, Augustine, and his companions, being, as is reported,
nearly forty men. They had, by order of the blessed Pope Greg-
ory, taken interpreters of the nation of the Franks, and sending
to Ethelbert, signified that they were come from Rome, and
brought a joyful message, which most undoubtedly assured to
all that took advantage of it everlasting joys in heaven, and a
kingdom that would never end, with the living and true God.
The king having heard this, ordered them to stay in that island
where they had landed, and that they should be furnished with
all necessaries till he should consider what to do with them.
For he had before heard of the Christian religion, having a Chris-
tian wife of the royal family of the Franks, called Bertha; whom
he had received from her parents, upon condition that she should
be permitted to practise her religion with the Bishoj) Luidhard,

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 45

who was sent with her to preserve her faith. Some days after,
the king came into the island, and sitting in the open air, or-
dered Augustine and his companions to be brought into his
presence. For he had taken precaution that they should not
come to him in any house, lest, according to an ancient super-
stition, if they practised any magical arts, they might impose
upon him, and so get the better of him. But they came fur-
nished with Divine, not with magic virtue, bearing a silver cross
for their banner, and the image of our Lord and Saviour painted
on a board; and singing the litany, they offered up their prayers
to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of themselves and of
those to whom they were come. When he had sat down, pur-
suant to the king's commands, and preached to him and his
attendants there present, the word of life, the king answered
thus:

"Your words and promises are very fair, but as they are new
to us, and of uncertain import, I cannot approve of them so
far as to forsake that which I have so long followed with the
whole English nation. But because you are come from far into
my kingdom, and, as I conceive, are desirous to impart to us
those things which you believe to be true, and most beneficial,
we will not molest you, but give you favorable entertainment
and take care to supply you with your necessary sustenance;
nor do we forbid you to preach and gain as many as you can to
your religion." " Accordingly he permitted them to reside in
the city of Canterbury, which was the metropolis of all his
dominions, and, pursuant to his promise, besides allowing them
sustenance, did not refuse them liberty to preach. It is reported
that, as they drew near to the city, after their manner, with the
holy cross, and the image of our sovereign Lord and King, Jesus
Christ, they, in concert, sung this litany: "We beseech Thee O
Lord, in all Thy mercy, that thy anger and wrath be turned
away from this city, and from the holy house, because we have
sinned. Hallehijah."

As soon as they entered the dwelling-place assigned them, they
began to imitate the course of life practised in the primitive

^* This open-mindedness in the king is an early example of the traditional
English love for fair i)lay.

46 ENGLISH LITERATURE

church; ^^ applying themselves to frequent prayer, watching and
fasting; preaching the word of life to as many as they could;
despising all worldly things, as not belonging to them; receiving
only their necessary food from those they taught; living them-
selves in all respects conformably to what they prescribed to
others, and being always disposed to suffer any adversity, and
even to die for that truth which they preached. In short, several
believed and were baptized, admiring the simplicity of their
innocent life, and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine.
There was on the east side of the city a church dedicated to the
honor of St. Martin, built whilst the Romans were still in the
island, wherein the queen, who, as has been said before, was a
Christian, used to pray. In all this they first began to meet,
to sing, to pray, to say mass, to preach, and to baptize, till the
king, being converted to the faith, allowed them to preach
openly, and build or repair churches in all places.

AYhen he, among the rest, induced by the unspotted life of
these holy men, and their delightful promises, which, by many
miracles, they proved to be most certain, believed and was bap-
tized, greater numbers began daily to flock together to hear the
word, and, forsaking their heathen rites, to associate themselves,
by believing, to the unity of the church of Christ. Their con-
version the king so far encouraged, as that he compelled none
to embrace Christianity, but only showed more affection to the
believers, as to his fellow-citizens in the heavenly kingdom. For
he had learned from his instructors and leaders to salvation, that
the service of Christ ought to be voluntary, not by compulsion.
Nor was it long before he gave his teachers a settled residence
in his metropolis of Canterbury, with such possessions of differ-
ent kinds as were necessary for their subsistence.

Meanwhile, Irish missionaries of Christianity had entered
the north of England and established churches independ-
ent of Rome. While the Roman missionaries were Bene-
dictine monks for the most part, the Irish lived under
Rules of Irish origin, such as that of St. Columba. That
these Irishmen developed high types of character, learn-

15 Cf. Acts 4: 32-37.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 47

ing and piety is clear from Bede's account of one of them,
Aidan.

From the aforesaid island, ^*^ and college of monks, was Aidan
sent to instruct the English nation in Christ, having received the
dignity of a bishop at the time when Segenius, abbot and priest,
presided over the monastery; whence, among other instructions
for life, he left the clergy a most salutary example of abstinence
or continence; it was the highest commendation of his doctrine,
with all men, that he taught no otherwise than he and his fol-
lowers had lived; for he neither sought nor loved any thing of
this world, but delighted in distributing immediately among the
poor whatsoever was given him by the kings or rich men of the
world. He was wont to traverse both town and country on foot,
never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity;
and wherever in his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he
invited them, if infidels, to embrace the mystery of the faith; or
if they were believers, to strengthen them in the faith, and to
stir them by words and actions to alms and good works. ^^

His course of life was so different from the slothfulness of our
times, that all those who bore him company, whether they were
shorn monks or laymen, were employed in meditation, that is,
either in reading the Scriptures, or learning psalms. This was
the daily employment of himself and all that were with him,
wheresoever they went; and if it happened, which was but sel-
dom, that he was invited to eat with the king, he went with one
or two clerks, and having taken a small repast, made haste to
be gone with them, either to read or write. At that time, many
religious men and women, stirred up by his example, adoj^ted
the custom of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, till the ninth
hour, throughout tlie year, exce])t during the fifty days after
Easter. He ncA'er gave money to the j)owerful uien of the world,
but only meat, if lie ha])])ened to entertain them; and, on the
contrary, whatsoever gifts of luouev he received from the rich,
he either distributed them, as has been said, to the use of the

^^ Ion 11.

^^ This and the later references to Aidun (ct". /;o.s7, pp. 97 srq.) remind one of
Chaucer's description of the parson in the Prolog to the Canterbury Tales, 11. 477 scq.

48 ENGLISH LITERATURE

poor, or bestowed them in ransoming such as had been wrong-
fully sold for slaves. jNIoreover, he afterwards made many of
those he had ransomed his disciples, and after having taught
and instructed them, advanced them to the order of priest-
hood.

It is reported, that when King Oswald ^^ had asked a bishop
of the Scots to administer the word of faith to him and his na-
tion, there was first sent to him another man of more austere
disposition, who, meeting with no success, and being unregarded
by the English people, returned home, and in an assembly of the
elders reported, that he had not been able to do any good to the
nation he had been sent to preach to, because they were un-
civilized men, and of a stubborn and barbarous disposition.
They, as is testified, in a great council seriously debated what
was to be done, being desirous that the nation should receive the
salvation it demanded, and grieving that they had not received
the preacher sent to them. Then said Aidan, who was also
present in the council, to the priest then spoken of, "I am of
opinion, brother, that you were more severe to your unlearned
hearers than you ought to have been, and did not at first, con-
formably to the apostolic rule, give them the milk of more easy
doctrine, till being by degrees nourished with the word of God,
they should be capable of greater perfection, and be able to prac-
tise God's sublimer precepts." Having heard these words, all
present began diligently to weigh what he had said, and pres-
ently concluded, that he deserved to be made a bishop, and
ought to be sent to instruct the incredulous and unlearned; since
he was found to be endued with singular discretion, which is the
mother of other virtues, and accordingly being ordained, they
sent him to their friend. King Oswald, to preach; and he, as time
proved, afterwards appeared to possess all other virtues, as well
as the discretion for which he was before remarkable.

These two missionary enterprises, one working north,
the other south, were bound eventually to come into col-
lision with each other, especially as the two groups of
workers differed in some points of doctrine. At length,

^^ Cf. 'post, pp. 95 seq.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 49

when both were working in Northumbrian^ King Oswy
called a conference of the two at the monastery of Abbess
Hild at Whitby. The specific question under discussion
was the proper time for observing Easter. Bede's narra-
tive puts before us the occasion of the conference, the
issues and the course of the argument. The victory of the
Roman party was an important one for English civiliza-
tion. The date of the conference was 664 a.d.

In the meantime, Bishop Aidan being dead, Finan, who was
ordained and sent by the Scots, succeeded him in the bishopric,
and built a church in the Isle of Lindisfarne, the episcopal see;
nevertheless, after the manner of the Scots, he made it, not of
stone, but of hewn oak, and covered it with reeds; and the same
was afterwards dedicated in honor of St. Peter the Apostle, by
the reverend Archbishop Theodore.-*^ Eadbert, also bishop of
that place, took off the thatch, and covered it, both roof and
walls, with plates of lead.

At this time, a great and frequent controversy happened about
the observance of Easter; those that came from Kent or France
affirming, that the Scots kept Easter Sunday contrary to the cus-
tom of the universal church. Among them was a most zealous
defender of the true Easter, whose name was Ronan, a Scot
by nation, but instructed in ecclesiastical truth, either in France
or Italy, who, disputing with Finan, convinced many, or at least
induced them to make a more strict inquiry after the truth; yet
he could not prevail upon Finan, but, on the contrary, made him
the more inveterate by reproof, and a professed opposer of the
truth, being of a hot and violent temper. James, formerly tlie
deacon of the venerable Archbishop Paulinus,-^ as has been said
above, kept the true and Catholic Easter, with all those that he
could persuade to adopt the right way. Queen Eanfleda aiul lier
followers also observed the same as she had seen practised in
Kent, having with her a Kentish priest that followed the Catho-
lic mode, whose name was Romanus. Tims it is said to have

^' Cf. anic, p. 5, where reference is made to the poHtieul and cultural importance
of Xorthuml>ria.

■-"^ Of Canterbury. Cf. post, pp. 57, 02, 100. -^ Of York.

50 ENGLISH LITERATURE

happened in those times that Easter was twice kept in one year;
and that when the king liaving ended the time of fasting, kept
his Easter, tlie queen and her followers were still fasting, and
celebrating Palm Sunday. This difference about the observance
of Easter, whilst Aidan lived, was patiently tolerated by all men,
as being sensible, that though he could not keep Easter contrary
to the custom of those who had sent him, yet he industriously
labored to practice all works of faith, piety, and love, according
to the custom of all holy men; for which reason he was de-
servedly beloved by all; even by those who differed in opinion
concerning Easter, and was held in veneration, not only by
indifferent persons, but even by the bishops, Honorius of Canter-
bury, and Felix of the East Angles.

But after the death of Finan, who succeeded him, when Col-
man, who was also sent out of Scotland, came to be bishop, a
greater controversy arose about the observance of Easter, and
th^ rules of ecclesiastical life. "Wliereupon this dispute began
naturally to influence the thoughts and hearts of many, who
feared, lest having received the name Christians, they might
happen to run, or to have run, in vain.^- This reached the
ears of King Oswy and his son Alfrid; for Oswy, having been
instructed and baptized by the Scots, and being very perfectly
skilled in their language, thought nothing better than what they
taught. But Alfrid, having been instructed in Christianity by
^Yilfrid,^^ a most learned man, who had first gone to Rome to
learn the ecclesiastical doctrine, and spent much time at Lyons
with Dalfin, archbishop of France, from whom also he had re-
ceived the ecclesiastical tonsure, rightly thought this man's doc-
trine ought to be preferred before all the traditions of the Scots.
For this reason he had also given him a monastery of forty
families, at a place called Rhypum; which place, not long be-
fore, he had given to those that followed the system of the Scots
for a monastery; but forasmuch as they afterwards, being left
to their choice, prepared to quit the place rather than alter their
opinion, he gave the place to him, whose life and doctrine were
worthy of it.

22 Cf. PhiHppians 2: 16.

23 Of York.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 51

Agilbert, bishop of the West Saxons, above-mentioned, a friend
to King Alfrid and to Abbot Wilfrid, had at that time come
into the province of the Northumbrians, and was making some
stay among them; and at the request of Alfrid, made Wilfrid a
priest in his monastery. He had in his company a priest, whose
name was Agatho. The controversy being there started, con-
cerning Easter, or the tonsure, or other ecclesiastical affairs, it
was agreed that a synod should be held in the monastery of
Streaneshalch, which signifies the Bay of the Lighthouse, where
the Abbess Hilda,^'^ a woman devoted to God, then presided;
and that there this controversy should be decided. The kings,
both father and son came thither. Bishop Colman with his Scot-
tish clerks, and Agilbert with the priests Agatho and Wilfrid,
James and Romanus were on their side; but the Abbess Hilda
and her followers were for the Scots, as was also the venerable
Bishop Cedd, long before ordained by the Scots, as has been
said above, and he was in that council a most careful inter-
preter for both parties.

King Os\\y first observed, that it behoved those who served
one God to observe the same rule of life; and as they all ex-
pected the same kingdom in heaven, so they ought not to differ
in the celebration of the Divine mysteries; but rather to inquire
which was the truest tradition, that the same might be followed
by all; he then commanded his bishop, Colman, first to declare
what the custom was which he observed, and whence it derived
its origin. Then Colman said, "The Easter which I keep, I re-
ceived from my elders, who sent me bishop hither; all our fore-
fathers, men beloved of God, are known to have kept it after
the same manner; and that the same may not seem to any con-
temptible or worthy to be rejected, it is the same which St. John
the Evangelist, the disciple beloved of our Lord, with all the
churches over which he presided, is recorded to have observed."
Having said thus nmch, and more to the like effect, the king
commanded Agilbert to show whence his custom of keej^ing
Easter was derived, or on what authority it was grounded. Agil-
bert answered, "I desire that my disciple, the priest Wilfrid,

2* Iler life is told in The Ecclesiastical History, IV, Chap. 23. She presided over
the monastery when Caedmon lived there. Cf. post, \). 104.

52 ENGLISH LITERATURE

may speak in my stead; because we both concur with the other
followers of the ecclesiastical tradition that are here present,
and he can better explain our opinion in the English language,
than I can by an interpreter."

Then Wilfrid, being ordered by the king to speak, delivered
himself thus: "The Easter which we observe, we saw celebrated
by all at Rome, where the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul,
lived, taught, suffered, and were buried; we saw the same done
in Italy and in France, when we travelled through those countries
for pilgrimage and prayer. We found the same practised in
Africa, Asia, Egypt, Greece, and all the world, wherever the
church of Christ is spread abroad, through several nations and
tongues, at one and the same time; except only these and their
accomplices in obstinacy, I mean the Picts and the Britons, who
foolishly, in these two remote islands of the world, and only in
part even of them oppose all the rest of the universe." When he
had so said, Colman answered, "It is strange that you will call
our labors foolish, wherein we follow the example of so great an
apostle, who was thought worthy to lay his head on our Lord's
bosom, when all the world knows him to have lived most wisely."
Wilfrid replied, "Far be it from us to charge John with folly,
for he literally observed the precepts of the Jewish law, whilst
the church still Judaized in many points, and the apostles were
not able at once to cast off all the observances of the law which
had been instituted by God. In which way it is necessary that
all who come to the faith should forsake the idols which were
invented by devils, that they might not give scandal to the Jews
that were among the Gentiles. For this reason it was, that Paul
circumcised Timothy, that he offered sacrifice in the temple,
that he shaved his head with Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth,
for no other advantage than to avoid giving scandal to the Jews.
Hence it was that James said, to the same Paul, 'You see,
brother, how many thousands of the Jews have believed; and
they are all zealous for the law. And yet, at this time, the
Gosi)el spreading throughout the world, it is needless, nay, it is
not lawful, for the faithful either to be circumcised, or to offer
up to God sacrifices of flesh.' So John, pursuant to the custom of
the law, began the celebration of the feast of Easter, on the four-

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 53

teenth day of the first month, in the evening, not regarding whether
the same happened on a Saturday, or any other day. But when
Peter preached at Rome, being mindful that our Lord arose from
the dead, and gave the world the hopes of resurrection, on the
first day after the Sabbath, he understood that Easter ought to be
observed, so as always to stay till the rising of the moon on the
fourteenth day of the first moon, in the evening, according to
the custom and precepts of the law, even as John did. And
when that came, if the Lord's day did not fall the next morning
after the fourteenth moon, but on the sixteenth, or the seven-
teenth, or any other moon till the twenty-first, he waited for
that, and on the Saturday before, in the evening, began to ob-
serve the holy solemnity of Easter. Thus it came to pass, that
Easter Sunday was only kept from the fifteenth moon to the
twenty-first. Nor does this evangelical and apostolic tradition
abolish the law, but rather fulfil it; the command being to keep
the passover from the fourteenth moon of the first month in the
evening to the twenty-first moon of the same month in the even-
ing; which observance all the successors of St. John in Asia,
since his death, and all the church throughout the world, have
since followed; and that this is the true Easter, and the only
one to be kept by the faithful, was not newly decreed by the
council of Nice,-^ but only confirmed afresh; as the Church
History informs us.

"Thus it appears, that you, Colman, neither follow the ex-
ample of John, as you imagine, nor that of Peter, whose tradi-
tions you knowingly contradict; and that you agree with neither
the law nor the Gospel in the keeping of your Easter. For John,
keeping the Pasclial time according to the decree of the ^losaic
law, had no regard to the first day after the Sabbath, which you
do not practice, who celebrate Easter only on the first day after
the Sabbath. Peter kept Easter Sunday between the fifteenth
and the twenty-first moon, which you do not, but keep Easter
Sunday from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon; so that
you often begin Easter on the thirteenth moon in the evening,
whereof neither the law made any mention, nor did our Lord,

^ The first council of Nice or Nicaea (a.d. 325) where the orthodoxy of Atha-
nasian, as against Arian, theology was settled.

54 ENGLISH LITERATURE

the Author and Giver of the Gospel on that day, but on the
fourteentli, either eat the old passover in the evening, or deliver
the sacraments of the New Testament, to be celebrated by the
church, in memory of his passion. Besides, in your celebration
of Easter, you utterly exclude the twenty-first moon, which the
law ordered to be principally observed. Thus, as I said before,
you agree neither with John nor Peter, nor with the law, nor the
Gospel, in the celebration of the greatest festival."

To this Colman rejoined: "Did Anatolius,-^ a holy man, and
much commended in church history, act contrary to the law
and the Gospel, when he wrote, that Easter was to be cele-
brated from the fourteenth to the twentieth? Is it to be be-
lieved that our most reverent Father Columba ^^ and his
successors, men beloved by God, who kept Easter after the same
manner, thought or acted contrary to the Divine waitings?
Whereas there were many among them, whose sanctity is testi-
fied by heavenly signs and the working of miracles, whose life,
customs, and discipline I never cease to follow, not question-
ing their being saints in heaven."

"It is evident," said Wilfrid, "that Anatolius was a most
holy, learned, and commendable man; but what have you to do
with him, since you do not observe his decrees? For he, follow-
ing the rule of truth in his Easter, appointed a revolution of
nineteen years, which either you are ignorant of, or if you know
it, though it is kept by the whole church of Christ, yet you
despise it. He so computed the fourteenth moon in the Easter
of our Lord, that according to the custom of the Egyptians, he
acknowledged it to be the fifteenth moon in the evening; so in
like manner he assigned the twentieth to Easter-Sunday, as be-
lieving that to be the twenty-first moon, w^hen the sun had set,
which rule and distinction of his it appears you are ignorant of,
in that you sometimes keep Easter before the full of the moon,
that is, on the thirteenth day. Concerning your Father Columba
and his followers, whose sanctity you say you imitate, and whose
rules and precepts you observe, which have been confirmed by

26 Cf. post, p. 113.

27 521-597 A.D., Irish civilizcr of Scotland. We have his life by the Abbot
Adamnan. The edition by Fowler is the best (Clarendon Press).

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 55

signs from heaven, I may answer, that when many, on the day
of judgment, shall say to our Lord, 'That in his name they
prophesied, and cast out devils, and wrought many wonders,' our
Lord will reply, 'That He never knew them.' ^^ But far be it
from me, that I say so of your fathers, because it is much more
just to believe what is good, than what is evil, of persons whom
one does not know. Wherefore I do not deny those to have been
God's servants, and beloved by Him, who with rustic simplicity,
but pious intentions, have themselves loved Him. Nor do I
think that such keeping of Easter was very prejudicial to them,
as long as none came to show them a more perfect rule; and yet
I do believe that they, if any catholic adviser had come among
them, would have as readily followed his admonitions, as they
are known to have kept those commandments of God, which
they had learned and knew.

"But as for you and your companions, you certainly sin, if,
having heard the decrees of the x\postolic See, and of the uni-
versal church, and that the same is confirmed by holy writ, you
refuse to follow them; for, though your fathers were holy, do
you think that their small number, in a corner of the remotest
island, is to be preferred before the universal church of Christ
throughout the world. ^ And if that Columba of yours (and, I
may say, ours also, if he was Christ's servant) was a holy man
and powerful in miracles, yet could he be preferred before the
most blessed prince of the apostles, to whom our Lord said,
'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and to thee I
will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven '.f^" -^

When Wilfrid had spoken thus, the king said, "Is it true,
Colman, that these words were spoken to Peter by our Lord.'^"
He answered, "It is true, O king!" Then says he, "Can you
show any such power given to your Columba.^" Colman an-
swered, "None." Then added the king, "Do you both agree
that these words were principally directed to Peter, and that
the keys of heaven were given to him by our Lord?" They
both answered, "We do." Then the king concluded, "And I
also say unto you, that he is the door-keeper, whom I will not

28 Cf. Matthew 7: 21-23. 29 cf. Matthew IG: 18.

56 ENGLISH LITERATURE

contradict, but will, as far as I know and am able, in all things
obey his decrees, lest, when I come to the gates of the kingdom
of heaven, there should be none to open them, he being my ad-
versary who is proved to have the keys." ^^ The king having
said this, all present, both great and small, gave their assent,
and renoimcing the more imperfect institution, resolved to con-
form to that which they found to be better.

An earlier discussion has already ^^ put before us the
economic importance of monasteries and we shall now see
their importance for art. We have also observed that the
civilizers of Britain were prevailingly monks. The neces-
sity of furnishing their monastic establishments in Britain
led to the introduction there of many new trades and
artistic objects. The following passage from Bede's Lives
of the Holy Abbots of Wearmouth and J arrow will illustrate
this point:

Not long after, a merchant- vessel arrived, which enabled him ^-
to gratify his wish.^^ At that time, Egbert, king of Kent, had
sent out of Britain a man who had been elected to the office
of bishop, Wighard by name, who had been adequately taught
by the Roman disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory in Kent on
every topic of Church discipline: but the king wished him to be
ordained bishop at Rome, in order that, having him for bishop
of his own nation and language, he might himself, as well as his
people, be the more thoroughly master of the words and mys-
teries of the holy faith, as he would then have these adminis-
tered, not through an interpreter, but from the hands and by
the tongue of a kinsman and fellow-countryman. But Wighard,
on coming to Rome, died of a disease, with all his attendants,
before he had received the dignity of bishop. Now the Apostolic
Father, that the embassy of the faithful might not fail through
the death of their ambassadors, called a council, and appointed

'" Cf. the aUitude of Coifi toward paganism, a7itc, p. 36.
'1 Cf. ante, pp. 19-21.

'2 I.e. Benedict Biscop, master of Bede; cf. post, p. 111.
^ To visit Rome.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 57

one of his Church to send as archbishop into Britain. This was
Theodore,^^ a man deep in all secular and ecclesiastical learning,
whether Greek or Latin; and to him was given, as a colleague
and counsellor, a man equally strenuous and prudent, the abbot
Hadrian. Perceiving also that the reverend Benedict would be-
come a man of wisdom, industry, piety, and nobility of mind,
he committed to him the newly ordained bishop, with his fol-
lowers, enjoining him to abandon the travel which he had under-
taken for Christ's sake; and with a higher good in view, to
return home to his country, and bring into it that teacher of
wisdom whom it had so earnestly w^ished for, and to be to him
an interpreter and guide, both on the journey thither, and after-
wards, upon his arrival, when he should begin to preach. Bene-
dict did as he was commanded; they came to Kent, and were
joyfully received there; Theodore ascended his episcopal throne,
and Benedict took upon himself to rule the monastery of the
blessed Apostle Peter, of which, afterwards, Hadrian became
abbot.

He ^^ ruled the monastery for two years ; and then sucess-
fully, as before, accomplished a third voyage from Britain to
Rome, and brought back a large number of books on sacred
literature, which he had either bought at a price or received as
gifts from his friends. On his return he arrived at Vienne, where
he took possession of such as he had entrusted his friends to
purchase for him. When he had come home, he determined to
go to the court of Conwalh, king of the West Saxons, whose
friendship and services he had already more than once experi-
enced. But Conwalh died suddenly about this time, and he,
therefore, directed his course to his native province. He came
to the court of Egfrid, king of Northumberland, and gave an
account of all that he had done since in youth he had left his
country. He made no secret of his zeal for religion, and showed
what ecclesiastical or monastic instructions he had received at
Rome and elsewhere. He displayed the holy volumes and relics
of Christ's blessed Apostles and martyrs, which he had brought,
and found such favor in the eyes of the king, that he forthwith

34 Cf. ante, p. 49; pod, pp. GZ, 109.
^ I.e. Benedict Biscop.

58 ENGLISH LITERATURE

gave him seventy hides of hiiid out of his own estates, and or-
dered a monastery to be built thereon for the first pastor of his
church. This was done, as I said before, at the mouth of the
river Were, on the left bank, in the 674th year of our Lord's
incarnation, in the second indiction, and the fourth year of
Egfrid's reign.

After the interval of a year, Benedict crossed the sea into
Gaul, and no sooner asked than he obtained and carried back
with him some masons to build him a church in the Roman
style, w^hicli he had always admired. So much zeal did he show
from his love to Saint Peter, in whose honor he was building
it, that within a year from the time of laying the foundation,
you might have seen the roof on and the solemnity of the mass
celebrated therein.

When the work was drawing to completion, he sent messen-
gers to Gaul to fetch makers of glass (more properly artificers),
who were at this time unknown in Britain, that they might
glaze the windows of his church, wdth the cloisters and dining-
rooms. This was done, and they came, and not only finished
the work required, but taught the English nation their handi-
craft, which was well adapted for enclosing the lanterns of the
church, and for the vessels required for various uses. All other
things necessary for the service of the church and the altar, the
sacred vessels, and the vestments, because they could not be
procured in England, he took especial care to buy and bring home
from foreign parts.

Some decorations and muniments there were which could not
be procured even in Gaul, and these the pious founder deter-
mined to fetch from Rome; for which purpose, after he had
formed the rule for his monastery, he made his fourth voyage to
Rome, and returned loaded with more abundant spiritual mer-
chandise than before. In the first place, he brought back a large
quantity of books of all kinds; secondly, a great number of relics
of Christ's Apostles and martyrs, all likely to bring a blessing
on many an English church; thirdly, he introduced the Roman
mode of chanting, singing, and ministering in the church, by
obtaining permission from Pope Agatho to take back with him
John, the archchanter of the church of St. Peter, and abbot of

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 59

the monastery of St. Martin, to teach the Enghsh. This John,
when he arrived in England, not only communicated instruction
by teaching personally, but left behind him numerous writings,
which are still preserved in the library of the same monastery.
In the fourth place, Benedict brought with him a thing by no
means to be despised, namely, a letter of privilege from Pope
Agatho, which he had procured, not only with the consent, but
by the request and exhortation of King Egfrid, and by which the
monastery was rendered safe and secure for ever from foreign
invasion. Fifthly, he brought with him pictures of sacred repre-
sentations, to adorn the church of St. Peter, which he had built;
namely, a likeness of the Virgin Mary and of the twelve Apostles,
with which he intended to adorn the central nave, on boarding
placed from one wall to the other; also some figures from eccle-
siastical history for the south wall, and others from the Revela-
tion of St. John for the north wall; so that every one who entered
the church, even if they could not read, wherever they turned
their eyes, might have before them the amiable countenance of
Christ and his saints, though it were but in a picture, and with
watchful minds might revolve on the benefits of our Lord's incar-
nation, and having before their eyes the perils of the last judg-
ment, might examine their hearts the more strictly on that
account.

When Benedict had made this man ^*^ abbot of St. Peter's and
Ceolfrid abbot of St. Paul's, he not long after made his fifth
voyage from Britain to Rome, and returned (as usual) with an
immense number of proper ecclesiastical relics. There were many
sacred books and pictures of the saints, as numerous as before.
He also brought with him pictures out of our Lord's history,
which he hung round the chapel of Our Lady in the larger mon-
astery: and others to adorn St. Paul's church and monastery,
ably describing the connexion of the Old and New Testament;
as, for instance, Isaac bearing the wood for his own sacrifice,
and Christ carrying the cross on which he was about to suffer,
were placed side by side. Again, the serpent raised uj) by
Moses in the desert was illustrated by the Son of Man exalted
on the cross. Among other things, he brought two cloaks, all

^ Eastenvine.

60 ENGLISH LITERATURE

of silk, and of incomparable workmanship, for which he received
an estate of three hides on tlie south bank of the river Were,
near its mouth, from King Alfrid, for he found on his return that
Egfrid had been murdered during his absence.

Christianity is thus seen to have been a constructive
influence in early England; it made for higher culture.
There was, however, a foreign influence brought to bear
on England, which, as we have already seen, was decidedly
destructive; namely, the Danes.^' Alcuin (735-804) in
the following letter pleads for national unity and purity
in the presence of the pagan peril:

To the most excellent nation and praiseworthy people and to
the imperial kingdom of the people of Canterbury, the humble
Alcuin sends greeting.

... A very great danger threatens this island and the people
dwelling in it. Behold a thing never before heard of, a pagan
people is becoming accustomed to laying waste our shores with
piratical robbery; and our own people, the iVngles, are disagree-
ing ^^ among themselves as to kingdoms and kings. There is
scarcely any one, a thing which I do not say without tears,
found of the ancient lineage of kings, and the more uncertain
the origin the less the bravery. In like manner throughout all
the churches of Christ teachers of truth have perished; almost
all follow after worldly vanities and hold the regular ^^ discipline
in aversion: even their warriors desire avarice rather than jus-
tice. Read Gildas,"*^ the wisest Briton, and you will see why the
parents of the Britons lost their kingdom and fatherland; then,
consider yourselves and you will find things almost the same.
Fear for yourselves the statement of the very truth which has
been given in regard to the church, saying, "Every kingdom
divided against itself will not stand." ^^ Behold how great a
division there is between the people and the tribes of the Angles;

^^ Cf. ante, p. 6. ^^ Cf. ante, p. 5. ^^ I. e. monastic.

^° Cf. ante, p. 1. In the concluding words of the preface to his book Gildas
suggests that his purpose will be to show how the miseries of Britain are due to
her sins. There are many remarks in the body of the work to the same effect.

41 Cf. Matthew 12: 25.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 61

and on this account they are faiHng in their duty to themselves,
because they do not preserve among themselves peace and faith.
Recall, if it may be done, your bishop, Adelhard,''- a man wise
and venerable; strengthen then the state of your kingdom by
his advice, removing the customs displeasing to God; study to
do those things which will tend to call upon you his mercy. It
is not well that the seat of St. iVugustine, our first preacher^
should remain vacant; no one else can in any way be ordained
in Adelhard's place. It is ruinous to people everywhere not to
obey the priests and to drive out from their midst the preachers
of safety. Subject yourselves humbly to your bishop, the min-
ister of your safety, that divine grace may follow you in all your
works. Believe me, in no other way can you retain God's favor
to you; through him you can, I believe, have peace, and hope
for eternal safety. Enter into a plan for your prosperity, act
manfully, and you will find it well; turn to entreaties, prayers,
and fasting, that divine mercy may be gained for you, that it
may preserve you in peace and safety, that it may grant to you
a safe dwelling in your fatherland and a glorious kingdom in
the eternal home. O worthy and venerable brethren, may the
right hand of God Omnipotent protect and rule over you, and
may it deem you worthy of being exalted in present happiness
and eternal bliss.

The following passage, a portion of the sole extant
fragment of familiar correspondence in the vernacular of
pre-conquest England, puts the attitude of at least one
sensitive Englishman before us in a still more intimate way.
The letter as we have it is undated, but the indications
are that it falls somewhere in the tenth centur^^

I will also say to you, brother Edward, since you have asked
me about this, that you are doing wrong in giving up the English
customs which your fathers held, and in hankering after the
manners of heathen who hardly allow you to live. You are

^ Adelhard (his name is spelled Ethelhard in the Dictionary of National Biog-
raphy) was a Mercian consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in 793. His Kentish
subjects were loth to have a Mercian presiding over the see and had expelled him.
He is not known as a writer. He died in 805.

62 ENGLISH LITERATURE

making it perfectly clear by your bad habits that you despise
your kin and elders when, in order to annoy them, you dress
after the Danish fashion with neck uncovered and hair strag-
gling down over your eyes. I sha'n't say any more about these
wretched fashions except that books tell us that he shall be ex-
communicated who follows heathen ways in his life and by that
means dishonors his own people.

3. Learning in Old England. — Bede, in an early chapter
of the fourth book of his Ecclesiastical History^ gives the
following account of the educational activities of Arch-
bishop Theodore of Canterbury and his assistants. Theo-
dore was sent from Rome to carry on the work begun in
England by Augustine, and he left a deep impression on
English learning.

As both of them ^^ were well read both in sacred and in secular
literature they gathered a crowd of disciples, and there daily
flowed from them rivers of knowledge to water the hearts of
their hearers; and, together with the books of holy writ, they
also taught them the arts of ecclesiastical poetry, astronomy,
and arithmetic. A testimony of which is, that there are still
living at this day some of their scholars who are as well versed
in the Greek and Latin tongues as in their own, in which they
were born.

Alcuin, in the next century, thus describes in verse the
curriculum of his ahna mater, the famous school founded at
York by Egbert, one of Bede's pupils. Through this
school, says Mr. Gaskoin, "The old Roman city of Ebo-
racum became the intellectual centre of Christian Europe
north of Italy and Spain, and maintained that position for
nearly half-a-century, till Alcuin left his Northumbrian
home to impart to Frankish pupils at Aachen and at
Tours the learning he had himself amassed under Egbert
and his two successors." ^

^^ I.e. Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian, see ante, pp. 49, 57; post, p. 109.
« Alcuhi: His Life and His Worlc, p. 33. (C. J. Clay and Sons, 1904).

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 63

There the Euboric scholars felt the rule

Of Master yElbert,''^ teaching in the school.

Their thirsty hearts to gladden well he knew

AVith doctrine's stream and learning's heavenly dew.

To some he made the grammar understood

And poured on others rhetoric's copious flood.

The rules of jurisprudence these rehearse.

While those recite in high Aonian verse,

Or play Castalia's flutes in cadence sweet

And mount Parnassus in swift lyric feet.

Anon the master turns their gaze on high

To view the travailing sun and moon, the sky

And starry hosts that keep the law of heaven.

The storms at sea, the earthquake's shock, the race

Of men and beasts and flying fowl they trace,^''

Or to the laws of numbers bend their mind

And search till Easter's annual day they find.

Then, last and best, he opened up to view

The depths of Holy Scripture, Old and New.

Was any youth in studies well approved,

Then him the master cherished, taught and loved,

And thus the double knowledge he conferred

Of liberal studies and the Holy word.

Later on in the same poem, Alcuin catalogs the volumes
in the Library at York as follows:

There shalt thou find the volumes that contain

All of the ancient fathers who remain.

With those that glorious Greece transferred to Rome, —

The Hebrews draw from their celestial stream,

And Africa is bright with learning's beam.

*^ iElbert was the kin.sninn and eventual successor of Egbert at York.

^^ On the conception of the world current in the days of Alfred the Great, see
the first chapter of King Alfred's translation of Orosius (cf. po.st, p. 64 note).
This is accessible as Old South LcajUi No. 112 (Vol. V., pp. 245-259). Alfred's addi-
tions to Orosius' text are there indicated, the text is carefully annotated, and Sir
Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Society, comments on
King Alfred as a geographer.

G4 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Here shines what Jerome/^ Ambrose/^ Hihiry *^^ thought
Or Athanasius ^° and Augustine ^^ wrought.
Orosius,'- Leo,^^ Gregory ^^ the Great,
Near Basil ^^ and Fulgentius ^^ coruscate.

■'^ St. Jerome (331-420a.d.), translator of the Old and New Testaments into Latin.
His translation came into common use and is hence known as the Vulgate. He was
a pupil of the grammarian Donatus (cf . infra) at Rome, became fond of philosophy,
and took great pride in his library. Plautus and Cicero were his favorite Latin
authors. In 386 he founded a monastery at Bethlehem. His biographical work
De Viris Illustribus {On Famous Men) is the source of much of our information
about classical writers. His Letters are famous. Jerome was very popular during
the Middle Ages. His works are the source from which many quotations found
their way into medieval literature.

*^ St. Ambrose (340-397), Christian hymn-writer, who made his songs teach the
doctrines of the church.

^^ Hilary was the earliest of the Christian hymn-writers of medieval Europe.
He introduced church music from the East. He was bom at Poictiers in France
late in the third century, became bishop of Poictiers in 353, and died in 368.

^ St. Athanasius, one of the Greek fathers of the Church (295-373), champion
of what turned out to be orthodox Christianity in contrast to the unitarianism of
Arius. Athanasius was an orator and controversialist.

^1 St. Augustine (354-430), one of the great theologians. We have his autobi-
ography in his Confessions. In 384, he was teaching rhetoric at Milan, and in 387
was converted and baptized. He is the author of many controversial works.
His City of God, a philosophy of life and the world from the Christian point of view,
was finished in 426.

^- Orosius, who was bom in the latter part of the fourth century, was a younger
friend and assistant of Augustine. His chief work, Adversus Paganos Historiarum
Libri VII {Seven Books of History against the Pagans), was WTitten to disprove the
current statement that the woes of the later Roman Empire were caused by the
anger of the pagan gods. Orosius shows that the world had been aflBicted by just
as terrible calamities before, as after, the introduction of Christianity. His book
was the favorite text-book of universal history during the Middle Ages. Alfred
translated it into Old English.

^ Leo I, Pope 440-461. We have his Letters and Sermons.

^^ Gregory the Great (550-604). The Pope under whose direction Augustine
came to England in 597. Gregory wrote several works that were very popular.
Among these are his Cura Pastoralis {Pastoral Care) and his Dialogs, translated into
English by Alfred the Great or under his direction. Cf. 'post, pp. 123, 129-131.

^ St. Basil (331-379) was one of the interpreters of Christianity to the Greeks.
He was the author of a work on the use of pagan poetry by Christians, which has
been translated into modem English by Professor Padelford in Yale Studies in
English, XV.

^ Eulgentius (about 480-550) was an African grammarian. He wrote works

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 65

Grave Cassiodorus ^'^ and John Chrysostom ^^
Next Master Bede '^^ and learned Aldhelm ^^ come,

on mythology, an allegorical interpretation of Virgil and a history, De Mtatihus
Mundi (On the Ages of the World).

" Cassiodorous (480-575) was minister of the Ostrogothic dynasty in Italy
during the first half of the sixth century. Between 526 and 533 he wrote his II hiory
of the Goth,s, now lost. In 537 he brought out his Varioe or Letters, which are of ex-
treme historical value. He wrote commentaries on the Bible, the Tripartite History
(a history of the Church), and Institutiones Divinarum et Humanarum Lectionum
{Elements of Divine and Human Learning). The latter, which consists of compendia
of the liberal arts, was begun about 543. He composed a treatise on spelling {De
Orthographia) and a Chronicon or Chronicle, an abstract of universal history do\\-n
to 519 A.D. His works were widely kno^vTi in the Middle Ages.

^ St. John Chrysostom (344-404) was one of the great preachers of the Church.

^^ Bede, the Englishman so often referred to already. For documents on his life
and a list of his works, cf. post, pp. 107-117.

^° Aldhelm (650-709), also an Englishman, Bishop of Sherburne. *' Aldhelm,"
says Bede {Ecclesiastical History, Book V., Chap. 18; Giles' tr., p. 267), "when he
was only a priest and abbot of the monastery of Malmesbury, by order of a s;yTiod
of his owTi nation, wrote a notable book against the error of the Britons, in not
celebrating Easter at the proper time, and in doing several other things not conso-
nant to the purity and the peace of the Church; and by the reading of this book
he persuaded many of them, who were subject to the West Saxons, to adopt the
Catholic celebration of our Lord's resurrection. He hkewise wrote a notable book
On Virginity, which, in imitation of Sedulius (cf. infra), he composed double, that
is, in hexameter verse and prose. He wrote some other books, as being a man
most learned in all respects, for he had a clean style, and was, as I have said, won-
derful for ecclesiastical and liberal erudition." William of Malmesbury, the twelfth-
century English historian, wrote a life of Aldhelm in which, on the authority of
the note-book ascribed to Alfred the Great, he records the familiar story that
"Aldhelm had observed with pain that the peasantry were become negligent in
their religious duties, and that no sooner was the church service ended than they
all hastened to their homes and labors, and could Avith difficulty be persuaded to
attend to the exhortations of the preacher. He watched the occasion, and sta-
tioned himself in the character of a minstrel on the bridge over which the people
had to pass, and soon collected a crowd of hearers by the beauty of his verse; when
he found that he had gained pcjssession of their attention, he gradually introduced
among the popular poetry which he was reciting to them, words of a more serious
nature, till at length he succeeded in impressing upon their minds a truer feeling
of religious devotion; 'whereas, if . . . 'he had proceeded with severity and ex-
communication, he would have made no impression whatever upon them.' " (Cf.
Wright, Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Saxon Period, p. 215.) We have
extant a number of Aldhelm's letters, al)out one hundred riddles in verse, the
treatises On Virginity, and various miscellanies. (Cf. Cambridge History of English
Literature, I., p. 80.)

66 ENGLISH LITERATURE

While Victorinus ^^ and Boethius ^- stand
With PHny ^^ and Pompeius *^^ close at hand.
Wise Aristotle ^'-^ looks on Tully ^'' near,
Seduliiis ^^ and Juvencus ^^ next appear.
There come Albinus,*^^ Clement/° Prosper ^^ too,

^^ \'ictorinus flourished about 300 a.d. He was a rhetorician, commentator,
and translator. Among his translations are certain works on Platonic philosophy.
He wrote a treatise on Meter in four books. He became a Christian in later life.

^- Boethius (■i80-5'24') was the last of the pagan philosophers. His De Consola-
tione Philosophiw {On the Consolation of Philosophy) was probably the most popu-
lar book on philosophy in the Middle Ages. Alfred the Great translated it into
Old English, Chaucer into Middle English, and Queen Elizabeth into the language
of her day. Boethius translated and commented on Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero.
He wrote works on arithmetic, geometry, and on music which were widely used
as text-books.

^^ This is Pliny the Elder, the author, in the first century after Christ, of the
Natural History, the source of much information during the Middle Ages.

^ Pompeius Trogus, who lived in the first century before, and the first century
after, Christ completed in 9 a.d. the first Universal History written in Latin. It
has survived to our time in an abridgement.

^ Aristotle, called by Dante (Inferno, IV., 131) "the master of those who know,"
was probably kno^^^l at this time in his logical works only, in an abstract by Cas-
siodorus.

^ Tully is kno\\Ti more commonl}^ to-day as Cicero (106-43 b.c). A few only
of his speeches and letters could have been knoAMi to Alcuin. "He was revered,"
writes Dr. Sandys (History of Classical Scholarship, I., p. 623), "throughout the
Middle Ages as the great representative of the liberal art of Rhetoric."

^^ Sedulius (fifth century a.d.) was a h;>Tmi-WTiter and orator. He wrote among
other things a Carmen Paschale (Easter Song). He was probably a Scot from Ire-
land. (March, Latin Hymns, p. 248.) Aldhelm, according to Bede, imitated him.
(Cf. supra.)

^ Juvencus (about 330 a.d.) was a Christian imitator of Virgil.

^^ The Manuscript here reads Alcuinas. Editors generally adopt the reading in
the text. Albinus was a learned abbot and friend of Bede. He succeeded Hadrian
as abbot at Canterbury in 710. It was he who urged Bede to write his Ecclesiastical
History. Cf. post, p. 109.

^° This is probably Clement of Alexandria (160-215 a.d.). He was a lecturer
at Alexandria. He wrote the Exhortation, a learned and systematic attack on pa-
ganism, fiealing almost entirely with Greek mythology and speculation; Pceda-
gogus, a course of instruction resting on reason as well as revelation, partly borrowed
from the (ireek philosophers; Miscellanies, in which he tried to reconcile truth and
reason, paganism and Christianity.

^' Prosper of Aquitaine (403-403 a.d.) was a priest at Marseilles in France.
He was a friend of St. Augustine. His literary activity was occupied in historical
comj)osition, mostly ecclesiastical.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 67

Paulinus ^- and Arator.'^^ Next we view
Lactantius/^ Fortiinatus.'^-^ Ranged in line
Virgilius Maro/*^ Statins," Lucan ^^ shine.
Donatus/^ Priscian,^^ Probus,^^ Procas,^^ start

^2 Paulinus of Nola (353-431) wrote Christian poems showing the influence of
Virgil.

^^ Arator (flourished 540 a.d.) is the author of a metrical version of the Ads of
the Apostles.

^^ Lactantius (flourished 300 a.d.) is often called "the Christian Cicero." He
was a teacher of rhetoric at Nicomedia in Bithynia. He became a Christian later
in life and devoted his literary talents to the service of Christianity. His Institutes
of Divinity is an exposition of Christian teaching, while his De Mortibus Persecu-
torum (On the Deaths of the Persecutors, i.e. The Emperors who persecuted Chris-
tians) "had a large effect in fixing the tradition of the later Empire as viewed
throughout the Middle Ages." (J. W. Mackail, Latin Literature, p. 25G.) His De
Ave Phcenice {On the Phoenix) is undoubtedly the source of the Old English poem
of the same title.

"^^ Fortunatus (535-600) is the author of an epic on St. Martin of Tours mod-
eled on Virgil and Claudian.

76 Virgil (70-19 B.C.) was the most popular and best knowTi classical Latin poet
of the Middle Ages. His reputation for learning was such that he became in popu-
lar legend a great magician. Cf. Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages (London,
Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1895).

'^ Statius (40-96 a.d.), Latin epic writer, author of Thehais (Story of Thebes in
Greece); Achilleis (The Life of Achilles); and of the Silvoe (miscellaneous poems).

^8 Lucan (39-65 a.d.) was a Latin epic writer, nephew of Seneca, the philoso-
pher. Lucan wrote the Pharsalia, a poem in ten books, on the civil war between
Pompey and Caesar, in which he takes the side of Pompey. The poem was very
popular during the Middle Ages.

^^ Donatus (flourished 355 a.d.) was the author of a grammar, in shorter and
longer form, which was used throughout the Middle Ages. So well was he known
that the word donet taken from his name came to mean "grammar." (Cf. Piers
Ploivman, B. Text, V., 1. 209.) Donatus also wrote commentaries on Terence and
Virgil.

^° Priscian is the author of a grammar finished in 526 or 527 a.d.; of a work on
numerals, weights and measures; of one on the meters of Terence; and of a volume
of rhetorical themes. The popularity of his grammar is attested by the fact that
about a thousand manuscripts of it are extant. Cf. post, p. 134.

^^ Probus (flourished 56-88 .\.d.) was the foremost grammarian of the first cen-
tury after Christ. He edited Plautus, Terence, Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, and
Persius.

^2 According to the Dictionary of ('hristian Biography, one Phocas of Edessa
lived not earlier than the eigiith century. He wrote an introduction to the Syriac
translation of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite. I can find no reference to
Procas, the name in the text, as a grammarian.

68 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The roll of masters in grammatic art;
Eutychius,^^ Servius,^ Pompey,^^ each extend
The list, Comminian ^^ brings it to an end.
There shalt thou find, O reader, many more
Famed for their style, the masters of old lore,
Whose many volumes singly to rehearse
Were far too tedious for our present verse.^^

Alcuin was destined to be of great service to Charle-
magne in educational work, but was not entirely satisfied
with the educational outlook in his adopted country. He,
therefore, writes to the Emperor comparing opportunities
in England and France, as follows:

In some measure, however, I,^^ your servant, lack the choicer
books of erudition which I had in my own country through the
devoted industry of my teacher,^^ and even by my own slighter
exertions. I say these things to your Excellency ^° to the end
that, if perchance it should please your intent, so desirous of all
wisdom, I may be permitted to send over some of our young
men to obtain everything we need, and bring back into France
the flowers of Britain. In this way not only will York be a
garden enclosed, but Tours will have its outflowings of Paradise
and its pleasant fruits, so that the south wind may come and
blow upon the gardens of the Loire, and the spices thereof may
flow out.

As far as my moderate abilities will permit, I will not be sloth-
ful in sowing the seeds of wisdom among your servants in these
parts, being mindful of the sentence: 'In the morning sow thy

S3 Eutychius (flourished 488 a.d.) was an heretical theologian.

*• Servius (born about 355 a.d.) "was famous," says Dr. Sandys (pp. cit.,
p. 218) "as a Virgilian commentator, whose work owes much of its value to its
wealth of mythological, geographical, and historical learning."

*= Pompey is a grammarian of uncertain date, used by Servius and Cassiodorus.

^ Comminian is a Latin grammarian of the latter part of the fourth century.

^ For a comprehensive account of foreign influence on English, cf. T. G. Tucker,
The Foreign Debt of English Literature (Geo. Bell and Sons, 1907).

^ Alcuin.

8" Cook's note, "Albert, Archbishop of York from 767 to 788."

^ Charlemagne.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 69

seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou know-
est not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they
both shall be alike good.' ^^ In the morning, when my studies,
because of my time of life, were flourishing, I sowed in Britain;
now, as my blood grows chill in the evening of my days, I cease
not to sow in France, hoping that both, by the grace of God,
may spring up.^^

4. Book-Making in Early England. — The manufacture
and sale of books have had a great deal to do with the
standardizing of language in modern times. Our informa-
tion regarding these matters in the Old English Period is
limited, but we are not left wholly in the dark. We have
already seen that books were brought from abroad, were
copied in England and gathered into libraries. Nothing is
more characteristic of the old English civilizers and mission-
aries than their zeal in the collection of books. But a fuller
realization of what their enthusiasm meant is had when one
finds out what the mechanical difficulties of book-making
at this epoch w^ere. These difficulties are made clear in
the document quoted below. The document consists of
some verses wdiich form Riddle 27 in the collection of 95
in the Exeter Book, one of the few^ precious manuscripts
of Old English poetry extant. These riddles give us many
valuable suggestions on the life of the time and the one
here quoted is among the most important .^^

A foe deprived me of my life,^^ robbed me of worldly strength,
then dipped me in dampening water; took me thence again and
set me in the sun, where I soon lost the hair with which I had
been covered. The keen edge of a knife then scraped me, cleansed

91 Cf. Ecclesiastcs 11:6.

'^ Cf. William of Malmesbury, Chronicle qf the Kings of England, Giles' tr.,
p. 62 (Bohn Antiquarian Library).

®* The latest information regarding the Riddles is in Professor Tapper's edition
in the Albion Series (Ginn & Co., 1910). Cf. also Mr. Wyatt's edition in Heath's
Belles Lettres Series. Mr. Wyatt takes a different view from Professor Tupper in
many points.

^ The parchment is speaking.

70 ENGLISH LITERATURE

of all impurities; fingers folded me, and the exultant quill
sprinkled me over with useful drops, passed carefully over the
brown rim,'''^ took up j^art of the ink, rested again on me, and
journied on, leaving a trail of black. A craftsman then bound
me in covers of leather, adorned me with gold; so that beaute-
ous, spiral patterns made by artists embellished me. Let now
these ornaments, the scarlet dye, and my glorious possessions make
widely kno\\ii the Lord of Hosts, and not the pains of hell. If the
children of men will make use of me, they will be the safer and
the more successful, the bolder in heart, and the happier in mind,
the more prudent in spirit. They will have. the more friends,
near and dear, true and good, tried and trusty, who will gladly
enchance their fame and well-being, surround them with joys
and benefits, and hold them fast in bonds o! love. Ask what
my name is, for the good of men; my name is glorious, of service
to mankind, and holy of itself.

5. The Position of the Poet in the Earliest England. — In
the second chapter of his book On Germany, Tacitus re-
marks that ancient songs are "the only kind of tradition
and history that they (the Germans) have"; and in the
follow^ing chapter he adds, "They have also certain songs,
by the intonation of which {barditns, as it is called) they
excite their courage, while they divine the fortune of the
coming battle from the sound itself." Numerous other
references ^^ indicate that poetry was highly and widely
cultivated by the Teutons.

So w^e are not surprised to find evidence in Old English
literature that the scop and gleeman were honored members
of society and that the recitation of traditional poems ^^
was a favorite form of amusement.

^^ The vessel containing ink.

^ Professor Gummere, in his OUl English Ballads {AthenoBum Press Series, Ginn
& Co., 1903), pp. 297-298, has collected the references to the ballads of Europe.
Professor Padelford in his Old English Musical Terms (Bonner Beitrdgc zur
Anglistik, IV.) .shows that music of all sorts was highly developed in Old English
times.

^ Cf. William of Malmesbury's references to ballads as historical sources

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 71

Three illustrations are cited. The first, from Widsith,
is of especial importance, since the poem is perhaps our
earliest piece of vernacular verse. In the poem a minstrel
tells us of his experiences as a traveling entertainer at the
courts of several princes.

Widsith unlocked his word-hoard; and then spake

He among men whose travel over earth

Was farthest through the tribes and through the folks;

Treasure to be remembered came to him

Often in hall.

'Thus far I traveled through strange lands, and learnt
Of good and evil in the spacious world;
Parted from home-friends and dear kindred, far
The ways I followed. Therefore I can sing
And tell a tale, recount in the mead-hall
How men of high race gave rich gifts to me.

Thus wandering, they who shape songs for men
Pass over many lands, and tell their need.
And speak their thanks, and ever, south or north,
Meet some one skilled in songs and free in gifts.
Who would be raised among his friends to fame.
And do brave deeds till light and life are gone;
He who thus wrought himself praise, shall have
A settled glory underneath the stars. ^^

(Giles' tr., pp. 138, 148, 315.). Also Wace's references to the truth of the Arthurian
legend. Cf. Arthurian Chronicles, translated by Eugene Mason, p. 56 {Ercryman's
Library ed.)

®^ The latest work on Widsith is the book by Mr. R. W. Chambers, JMdsith, a
Study in Old English Heroic Legend. Mr. Chambers studies all the references in
the poem very carefully and makes his book a veritable introduction to Teutonic
heroic literature. (Cambridge University Press, lObZ.) Professor Gummere. in The
Oldest English Epic (The Macmillan Co.. 1!)()J)), has material on Widsith. He also
deals with lieowulf, Einnshurg, Waldere, Deois Lament, and the German Ilildebrand.
For stories of early Teutonic heroes see also Foulke tr.. History of the Langobards
(Lombards), by Paul the Deacon {Translations and Reprints from the Original
Sources of European History, Tniversity of Pennsylvania, 1907) and Mierow tr..
The Gothic History of Jordanes (Princeton University Press, 1915).

7^ ENGLISH LITERATURE

The second illustration, from Beowulf, records an ordi-
nary court entertainment in Heorot, the stately hall built
by Hrothgar in which he planned to entertain and care for
his thanes. These glimpses of life in the lord's hall have
been compared, and properly, to those in the Homeric epics.

Then the mighty spirit ^^ whose abode was in darkness, for
a time listened in agony to the loud sounds of rejoicing which
came each day from the Hall.^°'^ There was the music of harp,
the sweet song of poet. He chanted who knew how to relate
from of old the creation of men; recounted how the Almighty
wrought the Earth, the beauteous plain, how water encompasses
it; how He renowned for his victories, established the sun and
moon as lights to lighten the nations, and adorned all the cor-
ners of the Earth with boughs and leaves; how he also bestowed
life on all the creatures who live and move.

The third illustration, Deofs Lament, registers the risks
which the scop must have run, since he had to trust to
the precarious favor of a prince.

Weland ^°^ knew anguish ; the constant-hearted hero suffered
heaviness of heart; he had as his companions sorrow and long-
ing, winter-cold bitterness of spirit; he often experienced woe
after Nithhad laid distress on him by cutting his sinew-bands.

He overcame that, so may I this.

Beadohild sorrowed not so much for her brothers' death as
she did when she clearly knew that she was with child; she
could not think how she might ever endure (her disgrace).

'^ I.e. the monster Grendel. ^^ I.e. Heorot, Hrothgar's hall.

'°^ The references in the first two strophes are to characters in the legend of
Weland. (Cf. Vigfusson and Powell, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, I., 1G8 seq.) Weland,
according to Teutonic myth, was the first of smiths and held a position analogous
to that of Hephffistus or Vulcan in classical myth. Weland and his two brothers
entrapped three Swan Maidens and took them as wdves. After some years of
happiness, the wives, during the absence of their husbands, flew away. Weland,
thereupon, was seized by Nithhad, King of the Niars, hamstrung (cf. "cutting
his sinew-bands") and compelled to work for him at the forge. Weland took ven-
geance on Nithhad by killing his sons and violating the virginity of his daughter,
Beadohild, referred to in the text as both Beadohild and Mtjethilde.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 73

She overcame that, so may I this.

We have heard many thmgs of Maethilde; the love of the
Geat ^°- was boundless, so that love-sorrow robbed him of sleep.

He overcame that, so may I this.

Theodoric ^"^ possessed the fortress of the Maerings thirty win-
ters, til at was well known to many.

He overcame that, so may I this.

We have heard of the wolfish mind of Eormanric; ^"'* he ruled
the great folk of the Gothic kingdom; that was a grim king !
Many a man sat bound with sorrows, with woeful mind, wished
enough that there might be an end to this reign.

They overcame that, so may I this.

Sorrowing he sits, deprived of joy; it grows dark in his soul;
it seems to hun that his share of sorrow is endless. Moreover, he
should recollect that throughout the world, the all-knowing Lord
makes all things to change: to many a man he shows honor,
broad fame; to some, a share of woes.

I w411 tell of myself that once I was the bard of the Heoden-
ings,^^ dear to my lord — my name was Deor; many winters
had I a loyal following and a friendly lord, until now Heor-
renda,^^^ a man crafty in song, received the land which the pro-
tector of heroes gave to me before.
He overcame that, so may I this.

102 I.e. her father Nithliad.

103 Dietrich of Bern, kno^^^l to history as Theodoric the Ostrogoth, master of
Italy 493-526 a.d., and to legend and saga as one of the great heroes of his race.

104 Historical King of the Ostrogoths, who, according to Ammianus Marcellinus,
committed suicide in 375 a.d. in order to avoid falling into the hands of the Huns.

105 Descendants of Hedin, seducer of the daughter of Hagen, King of Ireland,
personages in the opening part of the great popular German epic of the Middle
Ages, Gudrun.

106 To be identified with Horand, famous singer, another character in the Gudrun.
All of these references serve to show that the Old English had the same stock of
legend and saga as their continental brethren. Two articles in Modern Philology,
IX., one by Professor W. W. Lawrence in No. 1, the other by Professor F. Tupper
in No, 2. (July and October, 1911, respectively) will help to clear up the inter-
pretation of Dears Lament. Two convenient handbooks of Teutonic legend and
mythology, are the following, both foimd in the Temple Eticyclopedic Primers Series
published by J. M. Dent & Co.: Jiriczek, Northern Legends, tr. by M. Bentinck
Smith; and Kaufmann, Northern Mythology, tr, by M. Steele Smith.

74 ENGLISH LITERATURE

IV. The Linguistic Background

1. Bede on the Languages of England. — We are so
acciistoined to-day to composition in the vernacular that
we seldom stop to think of our real attitude toward our
mother tongue. English as a vehicle for the expression of
dignified thought has not always enjoyed its present posi-
tion. Bede's reference, which we quote, betrays no hint
that the vernacular has a peculiar status among the pos-
sible languages of a community.

This island at present, following the number of the books in
which the divine law was written, contains five languages —
those of the English, Britons, Scots, Picts and Latins — each
examining and confessing one and the same knowledge of the
highest truth and of true sublimity.

Scattered references in other writers ^ show that English
was considered good enough for everyday purposes but
that Latin was the proper language for serious and schol-
arly works. This is all that can be gathered from our
sources as to the attitude of the early English tow^ard their
native language.

2. English and Other Teutonic Languages. — For some-
what over a century now scholars have been engaged in
studying out the connections between English and other
European and Asiatic languages. They have concluded
that English is no isolated tongue, but that it has relatives
in eight, some say nine, groups of languages. These are
Sanskrit, Persian, Armenian, Greek, Latin, Albanian, Cel-
tic and Slavic. English itself is included in the gi'oup
termed the Germanic or Teutonic and finds its neai'est
relatives there. The versions of the Lord's Prayer in early
Teutonic languages quoted below show how similar in some
respects these languages are.

1 E.g. 'pod, p. 131.

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 75

Gothic (380 a.d.) :

Swa nu bidyaith yiis: Atta unsar thu in himinam, weihnai
namo tliein; quimai thiudinassiis theins; wairthai wilya theins
swe in himina yah ana airthai; hlaif unsarana thana sinteinan
gif uns himma daga; yah aflet uns thatei skulans siyaima swaswe
yah weis afletani thaim skulani unsaraim; yah ni briggais uns
in fraistubnyai, ak lauseiuns af thamma ubihn; unte theina ist
thiudangardi, yah mahts, yah wulthus in aiwins. Amen.

Old High German (MS. of the Ninth Century) :

Fater unser, thu in himilom bist, giwihit si name thin, queme
richi thin, werde willeo thin, same so in hiniile endi in erthu.
Broot unseraz emezzigas gib uns hiutu. endi farlaz uns sculdhi
unsero, samo so wir farlazzem scolom unserem. endi ni gileidi
unsih in costunga, auh arlosi unsih fona ubile.

Old Norse (Printed a.d. 1540) :

Fathir Vor, sa thu ert a himnum, helgist nafn thitt. Tiki
komi thitt riki. Verthi thinn vili svo a jorthu sem a himni.
Gef OSS i dag daglight brauth. Og fyrirlat oss vorar skuldir,
svosem ver fryirlaturm vorum skulunautum. Og inn leith oss
eigi i freistni. Heldr frelsa thu oss af illu: thviatt thitt er rikit,
mattr og dyrth um allthr allda. Amen.

Okl English (Late Tenth or Early Eleventh Century):

Eornustlice gebiddath - eow thus : Faeder ure thu the eart
on heofonum, si thin nama gehalgod. Tobecume thin rice.
Gewurthe thin willa on eorthan swa swa on heofonum. Urne
gedaeghwamlican hlaf syle us to daeg. And forgyf us urne
gyltas, swa swa we forgyfath urum gyltendum. And ne gelaed
thu us on costunge, ac alys us of yfele. Sothlice.

3. Specimens of the Old English Dialects irith Transla-
tions. — Though the tribes which invaded England all
spoke what they themselves call English, they did not all
speak the same variety of English. We are familiar wdth
local differences in vocabulary and j^ronunciation in the

2 In order to make comparison easier I have not used here the character 9
which in Old Enghsh represents the th sound. Cf. post, p. 76.

76 ENGLISH LITERATURE

EiifTjlisli spoken to-day and there were the same sorts of
differences in early Enghmd. Four dialects are usually
distinguished, called Northumbrian, Mercian, West-Saxon,
and Kentish. The first was the language of the North, the
second, that of the ^lidlands, the third, that of the main
portion of Southern England, and the fourth, that of Kent.
Specimens will indicate some of the variations among
these four dialects. We are fortunate in having the poem
known as Coedmons Hymn in two of the dialects, and these
versions we quote as our first and fourth specimens. The
second is a Mercian version of the MagnificaU and the third
is the so-called Codex Aureus Inscription.

A. Northumbrian,

Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard,

metudaes maecti end his modgidanc,

uerc uiildurfader; sue he uundra gihuaes,

eci Dryctin, or astelidae.

He aerist scop aelda barnum

heben til hrofe, haleg scepen.

Tha middungeard, moncynnaes uard,

eci Dryctin, aefter tiadae

firum foldu, frea allmectig.^

B, Mercian.

micla9 ^ sawul min dryhten 7 ^ gefaeh gast

Magnificat anima mea Dominum, et exultavit spiritus

min in gode halwyndum minniim for9on gelocade
mens in Deo salutari meo. quia respexit

eaclmodnisse menenes his sehcle so9lice of 9issum
humilitatem ancillae suae: ecce enim ex hoc

cadge mic cweo9acl alle eneorisse fordon dyde

beatam me dicent omnes generationes. quia fecit

3 For translation of this and D see, post, p. 105.
'• Symbol for th sound.
^ Short-hand sign for and.

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 77

me (5a miclan se maehtig is 7 halig noma

mihi magna qui potens est; et sanctum nomen

his 7 mildheortnis his from cynne in cyn

ejus; et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenie

ondredendum hine dyde maehte in earme his

timentibus eum. fecit potentiam in bracchio suo:

tostregd oferhogan on mode heortan his ofdune sette
dispersit superbos mente cordis sui; deposuit

maehtge of selde 7 upahof ea9mode hyngrende
potentes de sede; et exaltavit humiles. esurientes

gefylde godum 7 weoHe forleort idelhende onfoe9
implevit bonis; et divites dimisit inanes. suscipit

cneht his gemyndig mildheortnisse his
Israhel puerum suum recordatus misericordiae suae

swe spreocende wes to feadrum urum Abram

sicut locutus est ad patres nostros Abraham, et

sede his o9 in weoruld

semini ejus usque in saeculum.^

C. Kentish.

Orate pro Ceolheard presbyteri, Niclas, 7 Ealhhun, 7 Wulfhehn
Pray for Ceolhard the priest, Niclas, and Ealhhun, and Wulfhehn

aurifex.

the goldsmith.

In nomine Domini nostri Ihesu Christi, ic Aclfrcd aldermon 7
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I Alfred, a magistrate,

® This composition, so far as the Enghsli is concerned, is what is known as a
gloss; i.e an interlinear transhition. We have many of these in Old English and
they are of great value in hel|)ing us to determine the meanings of words. Read in
the modem English Bible, Luke 1 : 46-55 for a translation.

78 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Werburg iiiin gefera begetan Oas bee ?et haednum herge mid
unere ehrne feo Oaet donne wses mid elsene golde. 7 dsei wit
deodan for

and Werburg my wife reclaimed these books from the heathen
army' with our good money; that is with pure gold. And that
we did for

Godes lufan 7 for unere saule Qearfe, ond for 9on 9e wit noldan
Qset 9as

God's love and for our souls' need, and because we were unwill-
mg that

halgan beoc lencg in Ssere hseSenesse wunaden, 7 nu willa5

heo gesellan

these holy books remain longer among the heathen, and now we

are

inn to Crlstes circan Gode to lofe 7 to wuldre 7 to

going to give them to the church of Christ for the praise, glory

and

weorfunga, 7 his 3rowunga to 9oncunca, 7 cisem godcundan
geferscipe to

honor of God, as memorials of His sufferings, and for the enjoy-
ment of

brucenne 9e in Cristes circan da?ghw9emlice Godes lof rseraci, to

cisem

the holy company who daily in the church of Christ sing the

praise

gerade Sset heo mon arede eghwelce mona9e for Aelfred 7

of God, on condition that they pray each month for Alfred and

for

for Werburge 7 for AlhSry^e, heora saulum to ecum lecedome,

Da hwile

Werburg and for Alhthryth, for the everlasting healing of their

' I.e. the Danish army; cf. ante, pp. G, G0-G2.

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 79

9e God gesegen hsebbe 9set fulwiht set Deosse stowe beon mote,
souls, so long as God decrees that baptism may be administered
at this

Ec swelce ic Aelfred dux 7 Werburg biddaO 7 halsiatl on
Godes

place. Likewise I Alfred and Werburg beg and entreat in the
name of

almaetiges noman 7 on allra his haligra dsei nsenig mon seo to

9on

God almighty and in those of all His saints, that no man be so

gedyrstig Qsette 9as halgan beoc selle ocl3e aSeode from Cristes

circan

bold as to sell these holy books or take them from Christ's

church,

9e hwile Oe fulwiht stondan mote.

so long as baptism is administered here.

Aelfred. Werburg Alh3ry9 eoriim filia.
Alfred. Werburg. Alhthryth their daughter.

D. West Saxon.

Nu we sculan herian heofonrices Weard,
Metodcs mihte and his mongeSanc,
weorc Wuldorf seder; swa he wundra gehwses,
ece Dryhten, or onstealde.
He serest gesceop eor9an bearnum
heofon to hrofe, halig Scyppend;
9a middangeard, monncynnes Weard,
ece Dryhten, sefter teode
firum foldan, Frea ^Imihtig.

4. The Old EncjU.sh Alphabet. — To-day we use the Latin
alphabet with little appreciation that it is an importation,
coming in the train of Latin Christianity. The Teutons,
however, before the introduction of Christianity, had an

80 ENGLISH . LITERATURE

alphabet, known as runic,^ perhaps a modification of the
Greek, and in this character one of the old English men of
letters signed his name to four of his poems. We quote
his signature from the Elene in a passage of autobiographi-
cal interest which may be regarded as a supplement to
the documents in Section VI.

Old and ready for death by reason of this failing house, I
thus have woven a web of words and wondrously have gathered
it up; time and again have I pondered and sifted my thought
in the prison of the night. I knew not fully the truth concern-
ing the cross until wisdom revealed a broader knowledge through
its marvelous power o'er the thought of my heart. I was stained
with deeds of evil, fettered in sins, torn by doubts, girt round
with bitter needs, until the King of might wondrously granted
learning unto me as a comfort for my old age; until he gave
unto me his spotless grace, and imbued my heart with it, re-
vealed it as glorious, in time broadened it, set free my body,
unlocked my heart, and loosed the power of song, which joyfully
and gladly I have used in the world. Not one time alone, but
often had I thought upon the tree of glory, before I had the
miracle revealed regarding the glorious tree, as in the course of
events I found related in books and in writings concerning the
sign of victory. Ever until that time was the man buffeted in
the surge of sorrow, was he a weakly flaring torch (C)^ although
he had received treasures and appled gold in the mead-hall;
wroth in heart (Y), he mourned; a companion to need (N),

8 Cf. Cambridge History of English Literature, I., Chap. 2 and bibliography.
A. J. Wyatt, in his Old English Riddles (D. C. Heath's Belles Lettres Series), pro-
vides a teble of the more common Old English runes and the meanings of their
names. The Old English called their alphabet futhorc, a word made up of the first
six letters of their system, just as the word alphabet is made up of the names of the
first two letters in the Greek alphabet. The word rune means in Old English se-
cret or mystery as well as letter of the alphabet, indicating that to our forefathers
there was something mysterious about writing. There was a verb runian from
the noun run, and this verb came down into the English of Shakespeare's time as
to round, meaning to whisper, thus carrying on the idea of mystery or secrecy.

'^ The corresi)onding runic cliaracters L^ f^ Nt^ 1^/1 H^ ANj r*» f^
in order are: ' '. IlL I , I I. K, I IJ , K

The scholar John M. Kemble, in Archwologia, 28: SGO-SGi (1840), announced
his discovery that this combination of runic letters spoiled Cynewulf.

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 81

he suffered crushing grief and anxious care, although before him
his horse (E) measured the miles and proudly ran, decked with
gold. Hope (W) is waned, and joy through the course of years;
youth is fled, and the pride of old. Once (U) was the splendor
of youth (?); now after that allotted time are the days departed,
are the pleasures of life dwindled away, as water (L) glideth,
or the rushing floods. Wealth (F) is but a loan to each beneath
the heavens; the beauties of the field vanish away beneath the
clouds, most like unto the wind when it riseth loud before men,
roameth amid the clouds, courseth along in wrath, and then on
a sudden becometh still, close shut in its narrow prison, crushed
by force.

Thus shall all this world pass away, and in like manner de-
vouring flame shall seize upon whoever was born into it, at that
time when the Lord himself with a host of angels shall come
into judgment. There shall each man hear the doom on all his
deeds from the mouth of the judge, and likewise shall pay the
penalty for all the foolish words ever spoken by him, and all his
overbold thoughts. Then shall the people divide into three parts
for the embrace of the flame, every man who hath ever lived
throughout the broad earth. Those who have clung fast to the
truth shall be highest in the flame, the throng of the blessed, the
host of them that yearn for glory, the multitude of the right-
eous, and thus may they endure and suffer more lightly without
distress. He tempers for them all the glare of the flame as shall
be most easy for them and most mild. The sinful men, those
stained with evil, heroes sad of heart, shall be in the middle
place, shrouded with smoke amid the hot surge of fire. The third
part, accursed sinful foes, false haters of men, the host of the
wicked, shall be in the depth of the surge, bound fast in flame
by reason of their former deeds, in the gripe of the glowing
coals. Nor shall they come thereafter from the place of punish-
ment to the memory of God, King of glory, but they shall be
cast forth. His wrath-stirring foes, from that fierce flame into
the depths of hell. I nlike this sliall it be with the other two
parts: they may look u])on the Prince of angels, the God of
victories. They shall be refined and freed from their sins, like
pure gold that is all cleansed from every alloy, refined and

82 ENGLISH LITERATURE

melted in the surge of the furnace's fire. Thus shall each of
those men be separated and purified from all their guilt, their
deep transgressions, by the fire of the judgment. And there-
after they may enjoy peace and eternal well-being. The Lord
of angels shall be merciful and gracious unto them, inasmuch as
they abhorred each sin, each work of guile, and called upon the
Son of the Creator in their prayers. Wherefore now their forms
shall shine like unto the angels, and they shall enjoy the heri-
tage of the King of glory for ever and ever.^^ Amen.

V. Literary Characteristics

1. The Spirit of Early English Literature. — It is a dif-
ficult matter to choose specific selections to illustrate the
spirit of a body of national literature. But the poems to
be quoted will do much, if read with the writings already
examined in mind, to lead us into sympathetic relations
with the animating motives of Old English literature.

Our first illustration, in the spirited rendering of Tenny-
son, brings before us that trait of Germanic life which
would occur to many as its leading feature — a devotion
to military pursuits which Tacitus found ^ to be the pre-
dominating business of the German freeman. The Battle
of Brunanhurh is all the more interesting, since in the origi-
nal, it is found as the entry for the year 937 in the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle and celebrates the glorious victory won by
Athelstan. "It is a markedly patriotic poem and shows
deep feeling; its brilliant lyrical power, and the national
enthusiasm evident throughout, have made it familiar, in
one form or another, to all lovers of English verse. Great
care was taken with the meter, which is the ancient rhe-
torical verse." ^

10 Cf. C. F. Brown in Englische Studien, 40 (1909), pp. 1-29, Irish-Latin Influ-
ence in Cynewulfian Texts.

1 Cf. ante, pp. 8-19.

2 See Cambridge Ilisforj/ of English Literature, I, pp. 151-152; Political History
oj England (Hunt and Poole), I. (Hodgkin), pp. 334-337.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 83

Athelstan ^ King
Lord among Earls,
Bracelet-bestower and
Baron of Barons,
He with his brother,
Edmund ^ AtheUng,
Gaining a Hfelong
Glory in battle,
Slew with the sword-edge
There by Brunanburh,
Brake the shield-wall.
Hewed the linden-wood,
Hacked the battle-shield,
Sons of Edward ^ with hammered brands.

Theirs was a greatness
Got from their grandsires —
Theirs that so often in
Strife with their enemies
Struck for their hoards and their hearths and their homes.

Ill

Bowed the spoiler,
Bent the Scotsman,
Fell the ship-crews
Doomed to the death.
All the field with blood of the fighters

Flowed, from when first the great
Sun-star of morning-tide.
Lamp of the Lord God,
Lord everlasting,

^ Athelstan (89.5-940), grandson of Alfred the Great and King of England,
was fighting in this battle against a coalition of Scots and Danes.

•* Edmund (922P-04G), half-brother of Athelstan and his successor as King of
England.

^ Edward, surnamed the Elder (died 924), son of Alfred the Great and his suc-
cessor as King of England, father of Athelstan and Edmund.

84 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Glode over eartli till the glorious creature
Sank to his setting.

There lay many a man
Marred by the javelin,
Men of the Northland
Shot over shield.
There was the Scotsman
Weary of war.

We the West-Saxons,

Long as the daylight

Lasted, in companies
Troubled the track of the host that we hated.
Grimly with swords that were sharp from the grindstone,
Fiercely we hacked at the flyers before us.

Mighty the Mercian,
Hard was his hand-play.
Sparing not any of
Those that with Anlaf,^
Warriors over the
Weltering waters
Borne in the bark's-bosom,
Drew to this island —
Doomed to the death.

VII

Five young kings put asleep by the sword-stroke.
Seven strong Earls of the army of Anlaf
Fell on the war-field, numberless numbers,
Shipmen and Scotsmen.

^ There were two Anlaf.s in the coalition against Athelstan, cousins, both kings
of bands of Danes settled in Ireland.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 85

VIII

Then the Norse leader,^

Dire was his need of it,

Few were his following,

Fled to his war-ship;
Fleeted his vessel to sea with the king in it,
Saving his life on the fallow flood.

Also the crafty one,

Constantinus,^

Crept to his North again,

Hoar-headed hero!

Slender warrant had

He to be proud of

The welcome of war-knives —

He that was reft of his

Folk and his friends that had

Fallen in conflict,

Leaving his son too

Lost in the carnage,

Mangled to morsels,

A yomigster in war!

Slender reason had

He to be glad of

The clash of the war-glaive —

Traitor and trickster

And spurner of treaties —

He nor had Anlaf

With armies so broken

A reason for bragging

That they had the better

' I.e. Anlaf, mentioned above. ^ King of Scots.

86 ENGLISH LITERATURE

In perils of battle
On places of slaughter —
The struggle of standards,
The rush of the javelins,
The crash of the charges,
The wielding of weapons —
The play that they played with
The children of Edward.

XII

Then with their nailed prows

Parted the Norsemen, a

Blood-reddened relic of

Javelins over

The jarring breaker, the deep-sea billow,

Shaping their way toward Dyflen ^ again,

Shamed in their souls.

XIII

Also the brethren,
King and Atheling,
Each in his glory,
Went to his owni in his own West-Saxonland,
Glad of the war.

XIV

Many a carcase they left to be carrion.
Many a livid one, many a sallow-skin —
Left for the white-tailed eagle to tear it, and
Left for the horny-nibbed raven to rend it, and
Gave to the garbaging war-hawk to gorge it, and
That gray beast, the wolf of the weald.

Never had huger

Slaughter of heroes

Slain by the sword-edge —

9 I.e. Dublin.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 87

Such as old writers
Have writ of in histories —
Hapt in this isle, since
Up from the East hither
Saxon and Angle from
Over the broad billow
Broke into Britain with
Haughty war-workers who
Harried the Welshman, when
Earls that were lured by the
Hunger of glory gat
Hold of the land.^o

The second illustration is one of the most beautiful of
our Old English poems, elegiac in nature, serious and even
gloomy in tone. We do not know its date; but it is inter-
esting to compare this product of long-past experience with
a poem of comparatively recent origin like Arnold's Dover
Beach and observe the similarity of mood. English poetry
has dealt much with sea-themes and these verses are
characteristic. W^e note the brooding over the power of
fate and the spirit of loyalty to one's lord which are com-
mon themes of Teutonic poetry.

"Still the lone one and desolate waits for his Maker's ruth —
God's good mercy, albeit so long it tarry, in sooth.
Careworn and sad of heart, on the watery ways must he
Plow with the hand-grasped oar — how long? — the rime-cold sea,

^^ Henry of Huntingdon (Forester's tr., Bohn Anfiqiiarian Llhrdri/, p. 1(>J)). in
his account of the reign of Athelstan, refers to the Battle of Hrunanburh and says
of the Old English poem: "Of the grandeur of this conflict English writers have
expatiated in a sort of poetical description, in which they have employed both
foreign words and metaphors. I therefore give a faithful version of it, in order that,
by translating their recital almost word for word, the majesty of the language may
exhibit the majestic achievements and the heroism of the English nation." The
italics are mine. Henry lived from 10S4 (?) to 1155, and his use of the term /orc/v/i
in relation to Old English indicates that a knowledge of that language was not a
part of the equipment of the learned generally in the bith century. (The quota-
tion is from Huntingdon's History of the English, Book V, anno 924.)

88 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Tread thy paths of exile, O Fate, who are cruelty."

Thus did a wanderer speak, being heart-full of woe, and all

Thoughts of the cruel slayings, and pleasant comrades' fall:

"Morn by mom I, alone, am fain to utter my woe;

Now is there none of the living to whom I dare to sliow

Plainly the thought of my heart; m very sooth I know

Excellent is it in man that his breast he straightly bind.

Shut fast his thinkings in silence, whatever he have in his

mind.
The man that is weary in -heart, he never can fate withstand;
The man that grieves in his spirit, he finds not the helper's

hand.
Therefore the glory^-grasper full hea^y of soul may be.
So, far from my fatherland, and mine o^\ti good kinsmen free,
I must bind my heart in fetters, for long, ah ! long ago.
The earth's cold darkness covered my giver of gold ^^ brought

low;
And I, sore stricken and humbled, and winter-saddened, went
Far over the frost-bound waves to seek for the dear content
Of the hall of the giver of rings; ^^ but far nor near could I find
Who felt the love of the mead-hall,^^ or who with comforts kind
Would comfort me, the friendless. 'Tis he alone will know
^\Tio knows, being desolate too, how evil a fere is woe;
For him the path of the exile, and not the twisted gold; ^^
For him the frost in his bosom, and not earth-riches ^^ old.
*'0, well he remembers the hall-men, the treasure bestowed in the

hall;
The feast that his gold-giver ^^ made him, the joy at its highth,

at its fall;
He knows who must be forlorn for his dear lord's counsels gone,
Wliere sleep and sorrow together are binding the lonely one;
When himthinks he clasps and kisses his leader of men, and lays
His hands and head on his knee, as when in the good yore-days,

^* Kennings for the lord.

^2 Cf. the situation m Beowulf where Hrothgar builds his hall Ileorot for the
care and entertainment of his thanes. The hall of the lord became the center of
the social life of the comnmnity.

13 I.e. the ring or bracelet given him by his lord. " I.e. a landed estate.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 89

He sat on the throne of his might, in the strength that wins and

saves.
But the friendless man awakes, and he sees the yellow waves,
And the sea-birds dip to the sea, and broaden their wings to the

gale.
And he sees the dreary rime, and the snow commingled with hail.
O, then are the wounds of his heart the sorer much for this,
The grief for the loved and lost made new by the dream of old

bliss.
His kinsmen's memory comes to him as he lies asleep.
And he greets it with joy, with joy, and the heart in his breast

doth leap;
But out of his ken the shapes of his warrior-comrades swim
To the land whence seafarers bring no dear old saws for him;
Then fresh grows sorrow and new to him whose bitter part
Is to send o'er the frost-bound waves full often his weary heart.
For this do I look around this world, and cannot see
Wherefore or why my heart should not grow dark in me.
When I think of the lives of the leaders, the clansmen mighty in

mood;
When I think how sudden and swift they yielded the place where

they stood.
So droops this mid-earth ^^ and falls, and never a man is found
Wise ere a many winters have girt his life around.
Full patient the sage must be, and he that would counsel teach —
Not over-hot in his heart, nor over-swift in his speech;
Nor faint of soul nor secure, nor fain for the fight nor afraid;
Nor ready to boast before he know himself well arrayed.
The proud-souled man must bide when he utters his vaunt, until
He knows of the thoughts of the heart, and whitherward turn

they will.
The prudent must understand how terror and awe shall be.
When the glory and weal of the world lie waste, as now men see
On our mid-earth, many a where, the wind-swept walls arise.
And the ruined dwellings and void, and the rime that on them

lies.

^^ In Teutonic mythology cartli, the abode of men, was conceived as situated
between the home of the gods and the phice of the departed.

90 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The wine-halls crumble, bereft of joy the warriors lie,

The flower of the doughty fallen, the proud ones fair to the eye.

War took off some in death, and one did a strong bird bear

Over the deep; and one — his bones did the gray wolf share;

And one was hid in a cave by a comrade sorrowful-faced.

O, thus the Shaper of men hath laid the earth all waste,

Till the works of the city-dwellers, the works of the giants ^^ of

earth.
Stood empty and lorn of the burst of the mighty revelers'

mirth.
*'Who wisely hath mused on this wallstead, and ponders this

dark life well.
In his heart he hath often bethought him of slayings many and

fell.
And these be the words he taketh, the thoughts of his heart to

tell:
* Where is the horse and the rider? Wliere is the giver of

gold.^
Where be the seats at the banquet? Where be the hall- joys of

old?
Alas for the burnished cup, for the byrnied chief to-day !
Alas for the strength of the prince ! for the time hath passed

away —
Is hid 'neath the shadow of night, as it never had been at all.
Behind the dear and doughty there standeth now a wall,
A wall that is wondrous high, and with wondrous snake-work

wrought.
The strength of the spears hath fordone the earls and hath made

them naught,
The weapons greedy of slaughter, and she, the mighty Wyrd; ^^
And the tempests beat on the rocks, and the storm-wind that

maketh afeard —
The terrible storm that fetters the earth, the winter-bale,

^^ We have already seen that according to Tacitus the Teutons did not Hve in
cities. (Cf. ante, p. 14.) In fact, they looked on the walls and buildings of cities
as miracles, works performed by giants.

^' I.e. Fate, one of the leading concepts in Teutonic mythology. Cf. the wierd
sisters in Macbeth.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 91

When the shadow of night falls wan, and wild is the rush of the

hail,
The cruel rush from the north, which maketh men to quail.
Hardship-full is the earth, o'erturned when the stark Wyrds say:
Here is the passing of riches, here friends are passing away;
And men and kinsfolk pass, and nothing and none may stay;
And all this earth-stead here shall be empty and void one

day"'i«

2. Literary Types. — Old English Literature is char-
acterized by its simple literary form and style, its un-
sophisticated versification and rhetoric, and by its restricted
range of types. ^^ We hav^e already examined in other con-
nections some of the most abundant sorts of our earliest
writings ^"^ and thus need add here only such as we have
not touched on.

The first of these is the homily or sermon, a mode of
expression much used in the Middle Ages for a variety of
purposes. iElfric, Abbot of Eynsham from 1005 to a date
in the neighborhood of 1020, is the most prolific writer of
homilies in the vernacular whose w^orks have come dow^n to
us. He is the foremost representative of English culture
in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. His homi-
lies cover a variety of subjects and of them all I have
chosen this fragment. On the False Gods, both because of

^^ See the essay Old English Poetry in Richard's Burton's Literary Likings, pp.
175 seq. See ApoUinaris Sidonius on the Saxon sea-rovers in Hodgkin, Italy and
Her Invaders, II, pp. 366, 367. The letter is reprinted in Ilodgkin's tr. in Tuell
and Hatch, Selected Readings in English History, pp. 9, 10 (Ginn & (\)., 1913).
The great mass of extant Old English poetry is religious in subject-matter, but no
essential difference in spirit is to be observed between these religious poems and
the two secular ones quoted. Hence, I have not thought it necessiiry to include
here any passages from the religious poems.

1^ This statement is true, of course, only in relation to the complexity of the
later periods.

2° E.g. passages from history on pp. 2-7, 36-38, 39-56, etc.; laws on pp. 22-25;
a dialog on pp. 26-34; letters on pp. 60, 61, 68; narrative verse on pp. 34, 35, 63-
68, 69, 71, 72; lyrics on pp. 72-73, 83-91; a form of bequest on pp. 77-79.

92 ENGLISH LITERATURE

its intrinsic merit and because of the light it throws on
the culture of the day.-^

Beloved brethren, divine Scripture teaches us the worship of
one true God, in these words, "There is one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and
through all, and in you all. Of Him are all things, and through
Him are all things, and in Him are all things; to whom be glory
forever. Amen." -^

The Almighty Father begat a Son of Himself, without inter-
course of woman, and by the Son He made all creatures, both
seen and unseen. The Son is just as old as the Father, for the
Father was always without beginning, and the Son was always
begotten of Him without beginning, as mighty as the Father.
The Holy Ghost is not begotten but is the Will and the Love
of the Father and the Son, of them both alike; and by the Holy
Ghost are quickened all creatures that the Father created by
His Son, who is His Wisdom. The Holy Trinity is one Almighty
God, ever without beginning and end. They are three in name
— Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — but they are not three Gods;
these three are one Almighty God, inseparable, for in these three
there is one nature, one intelligence, and one energy in all things,
and it is better for us to believe truly in the Holy Trinity, and
to confess it, than to wonder too much about it.

This Trinity created the bright angels, and then Adam and
Eve as human beings, giving them dominion over earthly crea-
tures. And they might have lived forever, without death, if
they had never broken that one commandment of God. Adam
then dwelt in happiness, free from care, and no creature could
harm him so long as he kept the heavenly behest. No fire hurt
him, though he stepped into it, nor could water drown the man,
even if he suddenly ran into the waves. Neither could any wild
beast injure him. No more could hunger, nor thirst, grievous
cold, nor extreme heat, nor sickness afflict Adam in the world,
so long as he kept that little commandment with faith. But

21 Material to be introdueed in the next section will show what the range of
Old English literature is; e.g. Alfred's and i'Elfric's prefaces. Cf. Cambridge His-
tory of Engliah Literature, I, Chap. VII, and bibliography for a treatment of the
Old English homili.sts. -- Ephesians 4: 5.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 93

when he had sinned and broken God's behest, he lost happiness,
and lived in toil, so that lice and fleas boldly bit him whom
formerly not even the serpent had dared to touch. Then he had
to beware of water and of fire, and to be on the watch lest
harm befall him, and to provide food for himself by his own toil.
Moreover, the natural gifts with which God had endowed him
he had to guard with great care in order to keep them. Even
so the good do still, they who with toil keep themselves from
sins.

The sun also, and likewise the moon, were deprived of their
fair light after Adam's guilt, though not of their own deserts.
The sun had been seven times brighter before man sinned, while
the moon had the light which the sun now gives us. Neverthe-
less, after the Day of Judgment they shall again have their full
light with which they were created. And the moon shall not
grow old, but shall shine undiminished, even as the sun does now.

With much effort men may bring it to pass that they dwell
with God in eternal happiness after the Day of Judgment, for-
ever without death, if in their deeds they now obey His com-
mandments. But those who deny God shall be plunged into
hell, into everlasting punishments and endless torments.

Now we do not read in Scripture that men set up idolatry
during any of the time before Noah's flood, and not until the
giants made the wonderful tower after Noah's flood, and God
gave them as many tongues as there were workmen. Then they
separated and went into distant lands, and mankind increased.
Then they were taught by the old devil who had formerly de-
ceived Adam, and they wickedly fashioned gods for themselves,
forsaking the Creator who had made them men. And they con-
sidered it the part of wisdom to worship as gods the sun and the
moon, because of their resplendent light, and offered them gifts,
neglecting their Creator. Some men also said of the bright stars
that they were gods, and willingly worshipped them. Some be-
lieved in fire, for its (juick burning, some also in water, and
worshipped these as gods; while others believed in the earth,
since it nourishes all things. But they might have discerned, if
they had had the sense, that there is one God who created all
things for men's use, through His great goodness. Creatures do

94 ENGLISH LITERATURE

just as their Creator taught them, and can do nothing but the
will of the Lord, for there is no Creator save the one true God.
And we worship Him with firm faith, saying with our lips, and
in all sincerity of mind, that He alone is God who created all
things. Yet the heathen would not be satisfied with so few gods,
but began to worship as gods various giants, and men who,
though they lived shamefully, were powerful in worldly affairs,
and terrible in their lives.

There was a man living in the island Crete, whose name was
Saturn, so violent and cruel that he devoured his sons when they
were born, in an unfatherly manner making their flesh food for
himself. Yet he left one alive, though he had previously de-
voured the brothers. This one was called Jove, malignant and
mighty. He drove his father out of the aforesaid island, and
would have slain him had he approached. This Jove was so
licentious that he married his sister, who was named Juno, a
very great goddess. Their daughters were Minerva and Venus,
both of whom the father foully debauched; and many of his
kinswomen he also infamously defiled. These wicked men were
the greatest gods that the heathen worshipped and converted
into gods. The son, however, was more worshipped in their foul
idolatry than was the father. This Jove was the most venerable
of all the gods whom the heathen in their error, had; among
certain nations he was called Thor, most beloved of the Danish
people. His son was named Mars, who continually made dis-
sensions, and stirred up calumnies and misery. The heathen
worshipped him as a great god; and as often as they marched out,
or decided to fight, they offered their sacrifices in advance to
this god, believing that he could aid them greatly in battle,
since he loved battle.

There was a man named Mercury while he lived, very crafty
and deceitful in deeds, loving thefts and falsehood. The heathen
made him a powerful god, offering him gifts at the meeting of
the ways, and bringing him sacrifices on the high hills. This
god was honored among all the heathen; in Danish he is called
Odin.

A certain woman was named Venus, the daughter of Jove, so
vile in lust that her father and also her brother had her as a

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 95

harlot, as did also some others; yet the heathen honor her as a
great goddess, as the daughter of their god. Many other gods,
and also goddesses, were devised in various ways, and held in
great honor throughout the whole world, to the ruin of mankind;
but these, notwithstanding their shameful lives, must be reck-
oned the principal ones. The artful devil who lurks about men
led the heathen into the great error of taking for gods foul men
who loved sins that please the devil, and brought it to pass that
their worshippers also loved their filthiness, and were estranged
from Almighty God, who loathes sin and loves purity.

They also appointed a day for the sun and the moon and for
the other gods, giving to each his day — Sunday to the sun,
Monday to the moon; the third day they devoted to Mars,
their battle-god, that he might aid them. The fourth day they
gave, for their own advantage, to the aforesaid Mercury, their
great god. The fifth day they solemnly consecrated to Jove,
the greatest god. The sixth day they appointed for the shame-
less goddess called Venus — Frigg in Danish. To the ancient
Saturn, father of the gods, they gave their own profit, the seventh
day, the last of all, though he was the oldest.

Wishing to pay the gods still more honor they bestowed on
them stars, as if they had dominion over them — the seven
heavenly bodies, the sun and the moon, and the five others
which always move toward the east, against the firmament,
but which the heaven always turns back. Yet the stars shone
in the heavens at the beginning of the world, before the wicked
gods were born, or chosen as divinities.

The second literary type chosen for illustration here is
the saint's life, a peculiarly medieval form.^"^ And from all
the Old English lives of saints, I have selected .Elfric's
Life of Saint and King Osicald because of its national
interest.

After Augustine came to England, there was a noble king
called Oswald in the land of the Northumbrians, who believed

^' Cf. Chaiu-er, Troiliis and f'risri/dc, Book II, II. 117-118, where Cressula, pre-
sumably a Trojan, speaks of reading saints' lives.

96 ENGLISH LITERATURE

greatly in God. He went in his youth from his friends and
kindred by sea to Scothmd,-^ and was there forthwith baptized,
together with his companions who had traveled with him. About
that time Edwin his uncle, king of the Northumbrians, who be-
lieved in Christ,-^ was slain by the British king named Cadwalla,
and (also) two of his successors within two years; and this
Cadwalla slew and shamefully ill-treated the Northumbrian
people after their lord's fall, until Osw^ald the blessed extinguished
his wickedness."'^ iOswald came to him and fought boldly against
him with a little army, but his faith strengthened him, and
Christ helped him to the slaughter of his enemies. Then Oswald
raised a cross quickly to the honor of God before he came to
battle, and cried to his companions, "Let us fall down before
the cross, and pray the Almighty that He will save us against
the proud enemy who desires to kill us. God Himself knoweth
well that we fight justly against this cruel king, to deliver our
people." Then they all fell down in prayer with Oswald, and
afterward on the next morning went to the fight, and there won
the victory, even as the almighty ruler granted them for Os-
wald's faith, and subdued their enemies the proud Cadwalla,
with his great host, who thought that no army could withstand
him. The same cross which Oswald had there erected, after-
ward stood there for worship. And many infirm men were
healed, and also cattle through the same cross, as Bede hath
related to us.

A certain man fell on ice and broke his arm, and lay in bed
very severely afflicted, until some one fetched to him, from the
aforesaid cross, some part of the moss with which it was over-
grown, and the sick man was forthw^ith healed in sleep in the
same night, through Oswald's merits. The place is called Heaven-
field in English, near the long wall which the Romans built,
where Oswald overcame the cruel king. And afterward there
was reared a very famous church to the honor of God who liveth

24 I.e. Ireland.

25 Skeat'.s note refers to Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, III, 2.
Cf. ante, pp. 0, 3G-38.

^ This .sentence will illustrate the statement on p. 3, a7ite, about the slowness of
the English conquest of Britain.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 97

for ever. Well then ! Oswald began to enquire concerning the
will of God as soon as he obtained sovereignty, and desired to
convert his people to the faith and to the living God. Then he
sent to Scotland where the faith was then, and prayed the chief
men that they would grant his requests, and send him some
teacher who might allure his people to God, and this was granted
to him. Then they sent straightway to the blessed king a cer-
tain venerable bishop, named Aidan.-^ He was a very famous
man in the monastic way of life, and he had cast away all
worldly cares from his heart, desiring nothing but God's will.
"Whatever came to him of the king's gifts, or (of those) of rich
men, that he quickly distributed to the poor and needy with
benevolent mind. Lo then ! Oswald the king rejoiced at his
coming, and honorably received him as a benefit to his people,
that their faith might be turned again to God from the apostasy
to which they had been turned. It befell then that this believ-
ing king explained to his counsellors in their own language the
bishop's preaching with glad mind, and was his interpreter, be-
cause he knew Irish well, and bishop Aidan could not as yet
turn his speech into the Northumbrian dialect ^^ quickly enough.
The bishop then went preaching faith and baptism throughout
all Northumbria and converted the people to God's faith, and
he ever set them a good example by (his) works, and himself so
lived as he taught others. He loved self-restraint and holy
reading, and zealously drew on young men with knowledge, so
that all his companions, who went with him, had to learn the
Psalms or some reading, whithersoever they went, preaching to
the people. He would seldom ride, but traveled on his feet, and
lived as a monk among the laity with mucli discretion and true
virtues. King Oswald became very charitable and hum])le in man-
ners, and in all things bountiful, and they reared churches every-
where in his kingdom, and monastic foundations with great zeal.
^^ It happened upon a certain occasion tliat tliey sat together,
Oswald and Aidan, on the holy Easter Day; tluMi Wwy l)are
to the king the royal meats on a silver disli. And anon there
came in one of the king's thegns who had charge of his alms,
and said that many poor men were sitting in the streets, come

27 C'f. ante, p. 47. ^ ('f. anfr, p. 76.

98 ENGLISH LITERATURE

from all quarters to the king's alms-giving. Then the king im-
mediately sent to the poor the silver dish, victuals and all, and
bade the men cut the dish in pieces and give it to the poor, to
each of them his portion, and they then did so. Then the noble
bishop Aidan took the king's right hand with much joy, and
cried out with faith, thus saying to him: "May this blessed
right hand never rot in corruption." And it happened to him
even as Aidan had prayed for him, that his right hand is sound
until this day. J Then Oswald's kingdom became greatly en-
larged, so that four peoples received him as their lord, Picts,
Britons, Scots and Angles, even as the Almighty God united
them for the purpose, because of Oswald's merits, who ever
honored Him. He completed in York the noble minster w^hich
his kinsman Edwin had before begun, and labored for the
heavenly kingdom with continual prayers, much more than he
cared how he might preserve the transitory dignities in the
world, which he little loved. He w^ould very often pray after
matins, and stand in the church apart in prayer from the time
of sun-rise with great fervor; and wheresoever he was he ever
worshipped God with the palms of his hands uplifted heaven-
ward.

At that same time also a certain bishop ^^ came from the city
of Rome, called Birinus, to the king of the West Saxons, called
Cynegils, who was yet a heathen, as w^as all the land of the West
Saxons. Birinus indeed came from Rome by desire of the Pope,
who was then in Rome, and promised that he would execute
God's will and preach to the heathen the Savior's name and the
true faith in far lands. Then he came to Wessex, which was
as yet heathen, and converted to God the king Cynegils and all
his people to the faith with him. Then it happened that the
faithful Oswald, the king of the Northumbrians, had come to
Cynegils, and took him to baptism, fain of his conversion. Then
the kings, Cynegils and Oswald, gave to the holy Birinus the
city of Dorchester for a bishop's see and he dwelt therein, ex-
alting the praise of God, and guiding the people in the faith by
his teaching for a long time, until he happily departed to Christ;
and his body was buried in the same city, until afterwards bishop
29 Skeat's note refers to Bede, op. cit.. Ill, 7.

LITERARY CEARACTERISTICS 99

Hedda carried his bones to Winchester, and with honor de-
posited them in the old Minster, where men honor them yet.

Now Oswald the king held his kingdom "^^ gloriously as for the
world, and with great faith, and in all his deeds honored his
Lord, until he was slain in the defence ^^ of his people in the
ninth year that he had obtained the rule, when he himself was
thirty-eight years old. It happened because Penda, king of
the Mercians, made war upon him, he who had formerly assisted
Cadwalla at the slaying of his kinsman king Edwin; and this
Penda knew nothing of Christ, and all the Mercian people were
unbaptized as yet. They both came to battle at Maserfield,
and engaged together until the Christians fell, and the heathen
approached the holy Oswald. Then he saw approach his life's
ending, and he prayed for his people who died falling, and com-
mended their souls and himself to God, and thus cried in his
fall, "God have mercy on our souls." Then the heathen king
commanded to strike off his head and his right arm, and to set
them up as a mark (trophy). Then after the slaying of Oswald
his brother Oswy ^^ succeeded to the kingdom of Northumbria,
and rode with an army to where his brother's head was fastened
on a stake, and took his head and his right hand, and with
reverence brought them to Lindisfarne church.

There was fulfilled, as we said before, that his right hand
continueth whole with the flesh, without any corruption, as the
bishop had said. The arm was laid reverently in a shrine
wrought of silver-work in Saint Peter's Minster within the
town of Bamborough, by the sea-strand, and lieth there as
sound as when it was cut off. His brother's daughter after-
ward became Queen of Mercia, and asked for his bones and
brought them to Lindsey, to Bardney Minster, which she greatly
loved. But the monks would not, by reason of human error,
receive the Saint, but they pitched a tent over the holy bones
that were within the hearse. Behold then God showed that he

^^ Skeat's note refers to Bede, op. cit.. Ill, 9.

^^ These statements that follow will illustrate the remarks on p. 5, ante, regarding
the intertribal wars of the English.

•^2 This is the same Oswy who called the conference at Whitby in 6C4. Cf. ante,
pp. 49-56.

100 ENGLISH LITERATURE

was a holy saint so that a heavenly light, being extended over
the tent, stood up to heaven like a lofty sunbeam all night long,
and the people beheld it throughout all the province, greatly
wondering. Then the monks were much affrighted, and prayed
then in the morning that they might reverently receive the
Saint, him whom they had before refused. Then they washed
the holy bones, and bare them reverently to a shrine in the
church, and laid them up. And there were healed through his
holy merits many infirm men of various diseases. The water
with which they had washed the bones within the church had
been poured out as it were in a corner, and the earth afterward
that had received the water became a remedy to many. By
means of that dust devils were put to flight from men who before
w^ere afflicted with madness. So also from the spot where he
fell slain in the battle men took of the earth for diseased men,
and put it in w^ater for the sick to taste, and they were healed
through the holy man.

A certain wayfaring man rode towards the fleld, when his
horse became sick, and soon fell down there rolling all over the
earth, most like a mad creature. While it was thus rolling about
the extensive field, it came at length where king Osw^ald fell in
the flight, as we have said before; and it rose up as soon as it
touched the place, whole in all its limbs, and the master rejoiced
thereat; the rider then went forward on his w^ay whither he had
intended. Then there was a maiden lying in paralysis, long
afflicted; he began to relate what had happened to him during
the ride and they carried the maiden to the aforesaid place.
Then she fell asleep, and soon afterwards awoke, sound in all
her limbs from the terrible disease; she covered up her head
and blithely journied home, going on foot as she had never done
before.

Again afterward, a certain horseman bound on an errand was
passing by the same place, and bound up in a cloth some of the
holy dust from the precious place, and carried it forward with
him to where he was hastening. He met with some merry guests
at the house; he hung the dust on a high post, and sat with the
revellers rejoicing together. There was a great fire made in the
midst of the guests, and the sparks wound towards the roof

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS -IX^V

quickly, until the house suddenly became all on fire, and the
revellers fled frightened away. The house was entirely con-
sumed except the one post whereon the holy dust was hung.
The post alone remained whole, together with the dust, and
they greatly wondered at the holy man's merits, that the fire could
not consume the mould. And many men afterward sought the place,
fetching thence their cure, and (some) for each of their friends.

His fame spread widely throughout those lands,"^-^ and also to
Ireland, and also southward to Frankland (Germany), even as a
certain mass-priest told concerning one man. The priest related
that there was in Ireland a learned man who took little heed of
his doctrine, and he cared little about his soul's needs, or his
Creator's commands, but passed his life in foolish works until
he became sick, and was brought (near) to his end. Then he
called the priest who afterwards made it known thus, and said
to him forthwith with sorrowful voice, "Now must I die a
wretched death, and go to hell for wicked deeds; now would I
make amends, if I might remain and turn to God and to good
w^ays, and change all my life to God's will; and I know that I
am not worthy of the respite, except some saint intercede for
me to the Savior Christ. Now it is told us that a certain holy
king is in your country, named Oswald; now if thou hast any-
thing (as a) relic of the saint, give it me, I pray thee." Then the
priest said to him, "I have (a piece) of the stake on which his
head stood, and if thou wilt believe, thou shalt become whole."
So the priest had pity on the man, and scraped (shaved) into
holy water some of the sacred tree and gave to the diseased
man to drink, and he soon recovered, and afterward lived long
in the world, and turned to God with all his heart, and with
holy works; and whithersoever he came he made known these
wonders. Therefore no man ought to nullify that which he of
his own will promiseth to Almighty God when he is sick, lest he
should lose himself, if he deny that to God.

Now saith the holy Bede who indited this book,"^' it is no
wonder that the holy king should heal sickness, now that he
liveth in heaven, because he desired to help, when he was here

^3 Skeat's note refers to Bode, op. cit.. Til, 13.

^* Evidently Bede's Ecclesiastical History is meant.

102 ENGLISH LITERATURE

on earth, the poor and weak, and to give them sustenance.
Now hath he honor with Ahnighty God in the eternal world for
his goodness. Afterward the holy Cuthbert,"^^ when he was yet
a boy, saw how the angels of God carried the soul of Aidan, the
holy bishop, joyfully to Heaven, to the eternal glory which he
had merited on earth. The holy Oswald's bones were afterwards
brought after many years into Mercia to Gloucester, and God
there often showed many wonders through the holy man. For
this be glory to the Almighty God, who reigneth in eternity for
ever and ever. Amen.

As the modern drama originated in the services of the
church, we shall close this part of our study by citing a
translation of the Winchester trope of 973, which gives us
an exact account of this primitive religious play.

While the third lesson is being read, let four brothers put on
their robes; and let one in his alb enter as if for some other
duty, go up to the sepulcher without making any demonstra-
tion, and, holding a palm in his hand sit down there quietly.
And, while the third responsory is being performed, let the re-
maining three brothers, all in their copes, carrying in their hands
thuribles with incense in them, come slowly before the sepul-
cher as those who are looking for something would come. These
things are done in imitation of the angel sitting at the tomb, and
of the women coming with spices to anoint the body of Jesus.

When the brother sitting near the tomb sees the three, walk-
ing around, and as it were looking for something, approach him,
let him begin to chant sweetly in a moderately loud voice:

"Whom seek ye in the sepulcher, O worshippers of Christ?"
And when this has been intoned to the end, let the three respond
in unison:

"Jesus of Nazareth, O dweller in the sky."
And let the former say to them;

"He is not here; He is risen as He said:

Go, announce His resurrection from the dead."

^ Saintly Bishop of Lindisfarne (d. G87), whose Hfc was written by Bede; see
Bede's statement, po.s/, p. 113.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 103

At this word of command, let the three turn, saying to the
chorus :

"Alleluia, the Lord is risen.'*
Then, let the brother sitting there, as if to call them back,
repeat the antiphone:

*' Come, see the place where the Lord lay : alleluia : alleluia ! "
While he is saying this, let him stand up, draw a curtain, and
show them that the cross has disappeared from the place, and
that only the linen cloths in which the cross had been wrapped
are there. And when they understand these facts, let them set
down their thuribles which they had carried into the sepulcher,
let them take up the cloths, and spread them out before the
congregation: and, as if to show that the Lord was risen and
not wrapped in them, let them sing this antiphone:

"The Lord is risen from the tomb.

He who hung upon the tree for us."
And let them put the clothes upon the altar. At the end of
the antiphone let the prior, rejoicing in the triumph of our King,
in that He had conquered death and risen, begin the hymn:

"We praise Thee, O God,"
As this begins, the bells are all rung together; after this, let the
priest say the verse thus far:

"In Thy resurrection, O Christ";
and let him then begin matins, saying:

"Lord, haste Thee to my help."

VI. Representative Authors

The larger share of medieval literature in the whole of
Western Europe is anonymous. Literary fame, apparently,
did not appeal so strongly to the poet as to make him wish
to be known for his fruits. Consequently we have little
medieval literary biography. In England, however, several
names of authors have come down to us with what may be
regarded as authentic lists of their works.

Csedmon is generally regarded as the earliest English

104 ENGLISH LITERATURE

man of letters for whom we have even the suggestion of a
biography. This is recorded by Bede in his Ecclesiastical
Jlisionj of ihc English People, IV, Chap. 24, quoted below^
Modern schohirship holds that the Old English poems wdiose
names correspond to the titles of Csedmon's poems men-
tioned toward the close of this chapter cannot, for linguistic
reasons, be ascribed to Csedmon. He may have written parts
of them, but in their present form they cannot be his.^

There was in the monastery of this abbess ^ a certain brother
especially distinguished by the grace of God, since he was wont
to make poems breathing of piety and religion. Whatever he
learned of sacred Scripture by the mouth of interpreters, he in
a little time gave forth in poetical language composed with the
greatest sweetness and depth of feeling, in English, his native
tongue; and the effect of his poems was ever and anon to incite
the souls of many to despise the world and long for the heavenly
life. Not but that there were others after him among the people
of the Angles who sought to compose religious poetry; but none
there was who could equal him, for he did not learn the art of
song from men nor through the means of any man; rather did
he receive it as a free gift from God. Hence it came to pass
that he never was able to compose poetry of a frivolous or idle
sort; none but such as pertains to religion suited a tongue so
religious as his. Living always the life of a layman until well
advanced in years, he had never learned the least thing about
poetry. In fact, so little did he understand of it that when at
a feast it would be ruled that every one present should, for the
entertainment of the others, sing in turn, he would, as soon as
he saw the harp coming anywhere near him, jump up from the
table in the midst of the banqueting, leave the place, and make
the best of his way home.

This he had done at a certain time, and leaving the house
where the feast was in progress, had gone out to the stable where

^ See Cambridge JJistnry of English Literature, I, for chapters on Old English
literature and the latest hihliographies. The latter are not always exhaustive.

' Hild, superior of tlie monastery at Whitby, whose life is narrated in the chap-
ter preceding the account of Ca'dmon.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 105

the care of the cattle had been assigned to him for that night.
There, when it was time to go to sleep, he had lain down for that
purpose. But while he slept some one stood by him in a dream,
greeted him, called him by name, and said, "Csedmon, sing me
something." To this he replied, "I know not how to sing, and
that is the very reason why I left the feast and came here, be-
cause I could not sing." But the one who was talking with him
answered, "No matter, you are to sing for me." '*Well, then,"
said he, "AYhat is it that I must sing.^" "Sing," said the other,
"the beginning of created things." At this reply he immediately
began to sing verses in praise of God the Creator, verses that
he had never heard, and whose meaning is as follows: "Now
should we praise the Keeper of the heavenly kingdom, the might
of the Creator and His counsel, the works of the Father of glory;
how He, though God eternal, became the Author of all marvels.
He, the almighty Guardian of mankind, first created for the
sons of men heaven as a roof, and afterwards the earth." ^ This
is the meaning, but not the precise order, of the words which he
sang in his sleep; for no songs, however well they may be com-
posed, can be rendered from one language into another without
loss of grace and dignity. When he rose from sleep, he remem-
bered all that he had sung while in that state and shortly after
added, in the same strain, many more words of a hymn befitting
the majesty of God.

In the morning he went to the steward who was set over him,
and show^ed him what gift he had acquired. Being led to the
abbess, he was bidden to make known his dream and repeat
his poem to the many learned men who were present, that they
all might give their judgment concerning the thing which he
related, and whence it was; and they were unanimously of the
opinion that heavenly grace had been bestowed u\nm him l)y
the Lord. They then set about expounding to liim a jiiece of
sacred history or teaching, bidding him, if lie could, to turn it
into the rhythm of poetry. This he undertook to do, and de-
parted. In the morning he returned and delivered the j)assage
assigned to him, converted into an excellent i)oeni. The abbess,

^ See two versions of this poem, one in the West Saxon dialect and one in the
Northuni]:»rian, ante, pp. 7G, 79.

106 ENGLISH LITERATURE

honoring the grace of God as displayed in the man, shortly
afterward instructed him to forsake the condition of a layman
and take ui)on himself the vows of a monk. She thereupon re-
ceived him into the monastery with his whole family, and made
him one of the company of the brethren, commanding that he
should be taught the whole course and succession of Biblical
history. He, in turn, calling to mind what he was able to learn
by the hearing of the ear, and, as it were, like a clean animal,
chewing upon it as a cud, transformed it all into most agreeable
poetry; and, by echoing it back in a more harmonious form,
made his teachers in turn listen to him. Thus he rehearsed the
creation of the world, the origin of man, and all the story of
Genesis; the departure of Israel from Egypt and their entry
into the promised land, together with many other histories from
Holy Writ; the incarnation of our Lord, His passion, resurrec-
tion, and ascension into heaven; the coming of the Holy Ghost
and the teaching of the apostles; moreover he made many poems
about the terror of the future judgment, the aw fulness of the
pains of hell, and the joy of the heavenly kingdom, besides a
great number about the mercies and judgments of God. In all
these he exerted himself to allure men from the love of wicked-
ness, and to impel them to the love and practice of righteous
living; for he was a very devout man, humbly submissive to
the monastic rule, but full of consuming zeal against those who
were disposed to act otherwise.

Hence it came to pass that he ended his life with a fair death.
For when the hour of his departure drew nigh, he was afflicted
for the space of a fortnight with a bodily weakness which seemed
to prepare the way; yet it was so far from severe that he w^as
able during the whole of that time to walk about and converse.
Near at hand there was a cottage, to which those who were sick
and appeared nigh unto death were usually taken. At the ap-
proach of evening on the same night when he was to leave the
world, he desired his attendant to make ready a place there for
him to take his rest. The attendant did so, though he could
not help wondering at the request, since he did not seem in the
least like a person a})out to die. When he was placed in the
infirmary, he was somehow full of good humor, and kej^t talking

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 107

and joking with those who had already been brought there.
Some time after midnight he asked whether they had the eu-
charist at hand. "What do you need of the eucharist?" they
answered, "you aren't going to die yet, for you are just as full
of fun in talking with us as if nothing were the matter with
you." "Never mind," said he, "bring me the eucharist." Tak-
ing it in his hand, he asked, "Are you all at peace with me, and
free from any grudge or ill-will?" "Yes," they all responded,
"we are perfectly at peace with you, and cherish no grievance
whatever." "But are you," said they, "entirely at peace with
us?" "Yes, my dear children," he answered without hesitation,
"I am at peace with all the servants of God." And thus saying,
he made ready for his entrance into the other life by partaking
of the heavenly journey-bread. Not long after he inquired,
"How near is it to the hour when the brethren are wakened for
lauds?" "But a little while," was the reply. "Well then," said
he, "let us wait for that hour," and, making over himself the
sign of the cross, he laid his head on the pillow, and falling into
a light slumber ended his life in silence. And so it came to pass
that, as he had served the Lord in simplicity and purity of mind
and with serene attachment and loyalty, so by a serene death
he left the world, and went to look upon His face. And meet
in truth it was that the tongue which had indited so many help-
ful words in praise of the Creator, should frame its very last
words in His praise, while in the act of signing himself with the
cross, and of commending his spirit into His hands. And that
he foresaw his death is apparent from what has here been related.^

Bede (672-735), the authority to whom we have so often
referred, is a medieval scholar of the best type. His text-
books on various subjects were used all over Western
Europe. "We ask with earnest desire," says St. Boniface
in a letter to Egbert of Y^ork, "that to bring joy into our
sorrow as you have done before, you shouhl take care to
send us a tiny gleam from that candle of the Church, which

■* Verse composition was among the regular accomplishments of the English
scholars of this time. Cf. The English Correspondence of St. Boniface, ed. cit., pp.
40, 100.

108 ENGLISH LITERATURE

the Holy Spirit lit within the limits of your province; that
is that 3^ou should deign to send across some part of the
commentaries which Bede, that saintly priest and investi-
gator of the Holy Scriptures, composed, especially, if it
be possible, his Homilies and his Proverbs of Solomon, for
they w^ill be very convenient and useful to us in our preach-
ing. We have heard that he wrote commentaries on these
subjects." ^ Dante places Bede in the Heaven of the Sun
along with other great scholars.^ We quote three docu-
ments regarding the life and work of Bede. The first,
the Preface to the Ecclesiastical History, gives us his atti-
tude toward his work and his method of research.

I formerly, at your ^ request, most readily transmitted to you
the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, which I had newly
published, for you to read, and give it your approbation; and
I now send it again to be transcribed, and more fully considered
at your leisure. And I cannot but commend the sincerity and
zeal, with which you not only diligently give ear to hear the
words of the Holy Scripture, but also industriously take care to
become acquainted with the actions and sayings of former men
of renown, expecially of our own nation. For if history relates
good things of good men, the attentive hearer is excited to imi-
tate that which is good; or if it mentions evil things of wicked
persons, nevertheless the religious and pious hearer or reader,
shunning that which is hurtful and perverse, is the more earnestly
excited to perform those things which he knows to be good, and
worthy of God. Of which you also being deeply sensible, are
desirous that the said history should be more fully made familiar
to yourself, and to those over whom the Divine Authority has
appointed you governor, from your great regard to their general
welfare. But to the end that I may remove all occasion of
doubting what I have written, both from yourself and other
readers or hearers of this history, I will take care briefly to
intimate from what authors I chiefly learned the same.

5 Ibid., p. 130. See T. Wright, Biographia Britannica Literaria (1842), I, for a
collection of all the materials of literary biography for the Old English period.
^ Cf. Paradiso, X. ' Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria (d. 704).

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 109

My principal authority and aid in this work was the learned
and reverend Abbot Albiniis; ^ who, educated in the Church of
Canterbury by those venerable and learned men, Archbishoj)
Theodore ^ of blessed memory, and the Abbot Hadrian,^^ trans-
mitted to me by Nothelm,^^ the pious priest of the Church of
London, either in writing, or by word of mouth of the same
Nothelm, all that he thought worthy of memory, that had been
done in the province of Kent, or the adjacent parts, by the dis-
ciples of the blessed Pope Gregory, i- as he had learned the same
either from written records, or the traditions of his ancestors.
The same Nothelm, afterwards going to Rome, having, with
leave of the present Pope Gregory, ^^ searched into the archives
of the holy Roman Church, found there some epistles of the
blessed Pope Gregory, and other popes; and returning home,
by the advice of the aforesaid most reverend father Albinus,
brought them to me, to be inserted in my history. Thus, from
the beginning of this volume to the time when the English na-
tion received the faith of Christ, have we collected the writings

8 Abbot of St. Peter's, Canterbury (d. 732). Cf. ante, p. 60.

^ Of Canterbury, cf. ante, pp. 49, 57, 62. Theodore was a native of Tarsus in
Cilicia and born about 602. He studied at Athens and was a well-known monastic
scholar on his arrival in Rome in 668. He arrived in Canterbury in May, 009,
where he effected great reforms, ecclesiastical and educational. Though a very
religious man, his piety was not of a sort to attract monastic historians for no
miracles are ascribed to him. He died on Sept. 19, 090. The chief source of our
knowledge of his life is Bede, The Ecclesiastical History, etc. See the Dictionary of
National Biography for a full modern account.

^° Cf. ante, p. 57, Abbot of St. Peter's, Canterbury. There is no article on liiiu
in either the Dictionary of National Biography, Smith and Wace, Dictionary of
Christian Biography, or The Encyclopcedia Britannica. From the biographies of
Archbishop Theodore, however, we learn that Adrian or Hadrian, an African by
birth, was the person originally selected by Pope \'italian as Archbishop of Can-
terl)ury to succee<l Wighard, who had died in Rome before consecration. Adrian
declined the office, but followed Theodore to Englaud, where he became the Anli-
bishoj)'s chief helper and Abbot of St. Peter's.

11 Died 7.'39; tenth Archbishop of Canterbury. See the arficle in the Diciiouary
of National Biography.

'^ Gregory the Great {circa oW-circa 004), <hristi;iiii/.(T of l''iiglaii(i. ( f. (inir,
pp. 42-46; 64.

" Gregory H, d. Feb. 731. Before consecration as pope, Gregory had been
papal librarian (Plummer).

110 ENGLISH LITERATURE

of our predecessors, and from them gathered matter for our his-
tory; but from that time till the present, what was transacted
in the Church of Canterbury, by the disciples of St. Gregory or
their successors, and under what kings the same happened, has
been conveyed to us by Nothelm through the industry of the
aforesaid Abbot Albinus. They also partly informed me by
what bishops and under what kings the provinces of the East
and West Saxons, as also of the East Angles, and of the North-
umbrians, received the faith of Christ. In short I was chiefly
encouraged to undertake this work by the persuasions of the
same x\lbinus. In like manner, Daniel, ^"^ the most reverend
Bishop of the West Saxons, who is still living, communicated
to me in writing some things relating to the ecclesiastical his-
tory of that province, and the next adjoining to it of the South
Saxons, as also of the Isle of Wight. But how, by the pious
ministry of Cedd ^^ and Ceadda,^*^ the province of the Mercians
was brought to the faith of Christ, which they knew not before,
and how that of the East Saxons recovered the same, after
having expelled it, and how those fathers lived and died, we
learned from the brethren of the monastery, which was built
by them, and is called Lastingham. What ecclesiastical trans-
actions took place in the province of the East Angles, was partly
made known to us from the writings and traditions of our ances-
tors, and partly by relation of the most reverend Abbot Esius.^"^
What was done towards promoting the faith, and what was the
sacerdotal succession in the province of Lindsey, we had either
from the letters of the most reverend prelate Cunebert,^^ or by
word of mouth from other persons of good credit. But what was
done in the Church throughout the province of the Northum-
brians, from the time when they received the faith of Christ
till this present, I received not from any particular author; but
by the faithful testimony of innumerable witnesses, who might

^^ Died 745; Bishop of Winchester 705-744. See the article in the Dictionary of
National Biography. The writer of the article calls Daniel one of the " most learned,
energetic and influential bishops" of the Old English Church.

'5 Cf. Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chaps. 21-23, 25; Book IV,
Chap. 1. 16 ii,i,i

1^ This is the sole reference in history to this person.

^8 I can find nothing about him.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 111

know or remember the same; besides what I had of my own
knowledge. Wherein it is to be observed that what I have
written concerning our most holy father, Bishop Cuthbert/^
either in this volume, or in my treatise on his life and actions,
I partly took, and faithfully copied from what I found written
of him by the brethren of the Church of Lindisfarne; but at
the same time took care to add such things as I could myself
have knowledge of by the faithful testimony of such as knew
him. And I humbly entreat the reader, that if he shall in this
that we have written find anything not delivered according to
the truth, he will not impute the same to me, who, as the true
rule of history requires, have labored sincerely to commit to
writing such things as I could gather from common report, for
the instruction of posterity.

Moreover, I beseech all men who shall hear or read this his-
tory of our nation, that for my manifold infirmities both of mind
and body, they will offer up frequent supplications to the throne
of Grace. And I further pray, that in recompense for the labor
wherewith I have recorded in the several countries and cities those
events wdiich were most worthy of note, and most grateful to the
ears of their inhabitants, I may for my reward have the benefit
of their pious prayers.

The second document regarding Bede is the conclusion
to the Ecclesiastical History, in which we find an account
of his life and a list of his works.

Thus much of the Ecclesiastical History of Britain, and more
especially of the English nation, as far as I could learn either
from the writings of the ancients, or the tradition of our ances-
tors, or of my own knowledge, has, with tlie liclp of (iod, been
digested })y me Bede, the servant of God, and priest of the
monastery of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, which is at
Wearmouth and Jarrow; who being l)<)rn in the territory of
that same monastery, was given, at seven years of age, to be
educated by the most reverend Abbot Benedict,-'^ antl afterward

^^ Died 087; Bishop of Lindisfarne. See article in [.Iw Dictionanj of Xnfioiial
Biography. Bede wrote two lives of him. See post, p. 113; ante, p. 10'-2.
2° I.e. Benedict Biscop; cf. ante, i)p. 5()-()0.

112 ENGLISH LITERATURE

by Ceolfrid; and sjiending all the remaining time of my life in
that monastery, I wholly applied myself to the study of Scrip-
ture, and amidst the observance of regular discipline, and the
daily care of singing in the church, I always took delight in
learning, teaching, and writing. In the nineteenth year of my
age, I received deacon's orders; in the thirtieth, those of the
])riesthood, both of them by the ministry of the most reverend
Bishop John, and by order of the Abbot Ceolfrid. From which
time, till the fifty-ninth year of my age, I have made it my
business, for the use of me and mine, to compile out of the
works of the venerable Fathers, and to interpret and explain
according to their meaning these following pieces:

On the Beginning of Genesis, to the Nativity of Isaac and
the Reprobation of Ismael, three books.

On the Tabernacle and its Vessels, and of the Priestly Vest-
ments, three books.

On the first Part of Samuel, to the Death of Saul, four books.

Of the Building of the Temple, of allegorical exposition, like
the rest, two books.

Item, on the Book of Kings, thirty questions.

On Solomon's Proverbs, three books.

On the Can' ides, seven books.

On Isaiah, Daniel, the twelve Prophets, and Part of Jeremiahy
Distinctions of Chapters, collected out of St. Jerome's ^^ Treatise.

On Esdras and Nehemiah, three books.

On the Song of Habacuc, one book.

On the Book of the blessed Father Tobias, one Book of Alle-
gorical Exposition concerning Christ and the Church.

Also, Chapters of Readings on Moses's Pentateuch, Joshua, and
Judges.

On the Books of Kings and Chronicles.

On the Book of the blessed Father Job.

On the Parables, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles.

On the Prophets Isaiah, Esdras and Nehemiah.

On the Gospel of Mark, four books.

On the Gospel of Luke, six books.

Of Homilies on the Gospel, two books.
21 Cf. ante, p. 64.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 113

On the Apostle, I have carefully transcribed in order all that
I have found in St. Augustine's ^^ Works.

On the Acts of the Apostles, two books.

On the seven Catholic Epistles, a book on each.

On the Revelation of St. John, three books.

Also, Chapters of Readings on all the Xew Testament, except
the Gospel.

Also a book of Epistles to different Persons, of which one is
of the Six ages of the world; one of the Mansions of the Children
of Israel; one on the Words of Isaiah, "And they shall })e shut
up in one prison, and after many days shall they be visited;"
one of the Reason of the Bissestile, or Leap-Year, and of the
Equinox, according to Anatolius.-'^

Also, of the Histories of Saints. I translated the Book of the
Life and Passion of St. Felix Confessor, from Paulinus's ~^ Work
in metre, into prose.

The Book of the Life and Passion of St. Anastasius, which was
ill translated from the Greek, and worse amended by some un-
skilful person, I have corrected as to the sense.

I have written the Life of the Holy Father Cuthbert,--' who was
both monk and prelate, first in heroic verse, and then in ])rose.

The History of the Abbots of this Monastery,-^ in which I re-
joice to serve the Divine Goodness, viz., Benedict, Ceolfrid, and
Huetbert, in two books.

The Ecclesiastical History of our Island and Xation in five
books.

The Martyrology of the Birth-days of the Holy ^lartyrs, in
which I have carefully endeavoured to set down all that I could
find, and not only on what day, but also by what sort of com-
bat, or under what judge they overcame the world.

22 Cf. ante, ibid.

2-^ Bishop of Laodicea in Syria Prima, 2(59. Famed for his a((|uaintaiic*' with
the Hberal arts. His hook on the Easter (juestion was esjx-cially famous. See
Smith & Wace, op. cit.

•* 35.3-431 A.D., Bishop of Xohi, author of fifty-one extant hitters, thirty-six
poems and a Panegyric on Theodosius. SeviTal of iiis poems relate to FeHx. See
the articles on Felix and Paulinus in Smitii & Wace, op. cit.

25 Cf. ante, pp. 102, 111.

"^ Cf. the excerpt, ante, pp. 5G-60.

lU ENGLISH LITERATURE

A Book of Hymns in several sorts of metre, or rhyme.

A Book of Epigrams in heroic or elegiac verse.

Of the Xature of Things, and Of the Times,-'' one book each.

Also, Of the Times, one larger book.

A Book of Orthography digested in alphabetical order.

Also a Book of the Art of Poetry, and to it I have added another
little Book of Tropes and Figures; that is, of the Figures and
Manners of Speaking in which the Holy Scriptures are written.

And now, I beseech Thee, good Jesus, that to whom thou
hast graciously granted sweetly to partake of the words of Thy
wisdom and knowledge. Thou wilt also vouchsafe that he may
some time or other come to Thee, the fountain of all wisdom,
and always appear before Thy face, who livest and reignest
world without end. Amen!

Here Ends, By God's Help,

The Fifth Book

Of The Ecclesiastical History

Of The English Nation?'^

Our third document regarding Bede is the beautiful
letter which Cuthbert, one of Bede's pupils, wrote concern-
ing his master's death.

Cuthbert, his fellow learner, to his beloved co-lector
Cuthwin, health forever in God.

I was very glad to receive the little gift which you sent me
and I read with pleasure your scholarly and devout letter in
which — and this was what I especially wanted — I learned
that masses are being celebrated and holy prayers offered dili-
gently by you in behalf of our father and master Bede, dear to
God. For this reason more from love of him than confidence

2^ The accepted treatise on astronomy in early England in Bede's time and sub-
sequently. iElfric translated it into Old English. The exhint treatise, published
in Old English with a modem translation in Wright's Popular Treatises on Science
Written during the Middle Ages, has been the subject of controversy as to its author-
ship. Cf. White, jElfric: A New Study of His Life and Writings, Index and
appendix III.

28 Bede's complete works in Latin are to be found in Migne, Patrologia Latina,
Vols. 90-95, Paris, 1844, and in the edition of J. A. Giles, 5 vols., London, 1843-44.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 115

in my own ability, it is a (sacred) pleasure (to me) to report
in a few words, how he passed from this life, especially since I
know that you have wished and desired this.

He had been ill and particularly had been troubled with
asthma, but yet had felt scarcely any pain. This was for about
two weeks before Easter. He was cheerful and happy, giving
thanks to Almighty God every day and night, or rather every
hour up to the day of our Lord's Ascension, that is May 26
(735). He daily gave lessons to us his pupils and busied him-
self the remaining time each day in singing psalms, as far as he
could. He was even anxious to pass the whole night joyously in
prayer and thanksgiving to God, except when a short nap inter-
fered. Even then, however, waking up, he meditated on the
customary scriptural songs and with hands uplifted did not
forget to return thanks to God. I am free to confess that I
never saw or heard of any one else so zealous in giving thanks
to the living God.

O truly blessed man ! he frequently repeated the remark of
St. Paul the apostle when he said, "It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God," ^^ and many other passages
of Holy Scripture, and thus warned us to rouse ourselves from
the sleep of the spirit by thinking of our final hour. And he
talked to us in our own language — for he was learned in our
songs — speaking as follows of the terrible separation of soul
and body: "In the presence of his necessary departure, no one
is wiser than he need be. Before he go hence, let him consider
what good or ill he has done and how he is to be judged after
death." He would sing antiphons for our consolation and his
own, one of which is: "O King of Glory, Lord of Hosts, who
didst in triumph rise above all heavens, forsake us not as or-
phans, but send down upon us the promise of the Father, the
Spirit of Truth. Alleluia." When, however, he reached the
petition "do not forsake us or})]ians" he burst into tears and
wept much. And after the hour he took up again what he had
begun. This was his daily practice: and we, indeed, hearing,
grieved with him and wept. Now we read, now wei)t; nay we
read in tears.

29 Cf. Hohrows 10: ;n.

116 ENGLISH LITERATURE

In such exalted pleasure we passed the period from Easter to
Pentecost. x\nd he was very happy and gave thanks to God,
because he was thought fit for such infirmity. And he often
said: "God scourgeth every son whom he receiveth ; " ^° and
repeated the remark of Ambrose: ^^ "I have not so lived as to
be ashamed to live among you; nor do I fear to die, because we
have a gracious Lord."

At this time of which I am speaking, he seemed anxious to
finish two tasks which I should mention in addition to the les-
sons which we daily received from him and to the singing of
psalms. These were the translation into our tongue for the use
of the holy church the Gospel of St. John from the beginning
to the passage reading "But what are these among so many?" ^-
and the rendering into English of certain excerpts from the
books of Bishop Isidore; ^^ for he said: "I do not want my boys
to read a falsehood, and labor in vain in this matter after my
death." AYhen, however, the Tuesday before our Lord's x\scen-
sion came, his asthma grew worse and a slight swelling of his
feet appeared. But he taught and dictated in good spirits all
that day and would often say, among other things: "Be quick
in your learning, because I don't know how long I may hold
out or whether my Creator will shortly take me hence." Yet
we thought that he was scarcely conscious of his (real) condition.
He passed the night thus, awake, in thanksgiving. As the dawn
of Wednesday came on, he bade us write diligently what we had
started; and we did so up to nine o'clock in the morning. Then
we walked in procession with the relics of the saints, as the cus-
tom of that day demanded.

But there was one of us with him who said to him: "There
is still unfinished one chapter of the book you have been dictat-
ing. But it seems hard to ask you further questions." "It is
easy," he replied, "take your pen, see that it is in good shape and
write fast." At three o'clock in the afternoon, Bede said to me:
"I have some things of value in my chest, such as pepper,

3-^ Cf. Hebrews 12: 0. ^i ^f ante, p. 64. ^2 ( f John G: 9.

3' Bishop of Seville GOO-CJG. Author of the famous Etymologies or Origins, an
early medieval encyclopedia in twenty books, source of the information of a great
number of medieval scholars. See the exhaustive article in Smith an(i Wace, op. cit.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 117

handkerchiefs and incense. Run quickly and bring the priests
of the monastery to me that I too may distribute the Uttle
gifts which God has given me." I did it in fear and trembhng,
and when they came he spoke to them one and all, entreating
them and beseeching them to say masses and offer prayers for
him diligently; to which they gladly agreed. For they all wept
and were grieved, especially because of the fact that he had said
that they should see his face no more in this world. But they
rejoiced that he said: "It is time, if it seem best to my Creator,
that I, freed from the flesh, go to Him who, when I was not,
formed me from nothing. I have lived long, and the devoted
Judge has planned my life well for me. The time of my release
is at hand, for my spirit desires to see Christ my King in His
beauty." Speaking thus and saying many other things useful
for our instruction, he passed his last day in joy even unto
vespers.

Then the boy called Wilbert, mentioned before, said: "Dear
master, there is still one sentence not translated." He replied:
*"Tis well; write." And after a little, the boy said: "Now it
is all translated." And he: "'Tis well; it is finished; you have
spoken the truth. Take my head in your hands, because I want
very much to sit facing my holy place where I used to pray,
that I may sit and call upon my Father." And thus upon
the floor of his small cell, singing "Glory to Father, Son
and Holy Spirit," he breathed his last. And we must be
sure that because he labored devotedly here to the praise of
God, angels bore his spirit to the joys of heaven which he had
longed for.

All who heard of or saw the death of our father Bede
aid that they had never seen any one else end his life in
such devotion and calm. As you have heard, he sang, as
long as there was breath in his body, tlic (Uoria and other
songs to the praise of God, and with upliftel hands did not
cease to return thanks to God. You should know that many
other things could be told and written of him, ])ut that my
crude language makes my account l)rief; yet I purpose, with
the help of God, to write more fully of him later the things
which I have seen and heard.

118 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Caedmon and Bede were natives of northern England.^"*
Most of the Okl English literature extant, however, is in
the language of southern or Saxon England. Modern
scholars, therefore, say that the standard language of pre-
conquest England was West Saxon. It is generally con-
ceded that the man who is responsible for the literary
eminence of Wessex is Alfred the Great. Four documents
illustrating the life and works of Alfred are cited here.
The first is a selection from our earliest biography of an
English layman, x\sser's Life of Alfred. Asser's book has
been the object of much skepticism, but the learned world
at present seems to agree with Mr. Stevenson that it is
both authentic and authoritative.^^

In the year of our Lord's incarnation 849, was born iVlfred,
king of the Anglo-Saxons, at the royal village of Wanating, in
Berkshire, which country has its name from the wood of Berroc,
where the box-tree grows most abundantly. His genealogy is
traced in the following order: King x\lfred was the son of King
Ethelwulf, who was the son of Egbert, who was the son of El-
mund, who was the son of Eafa, who was the son of Eoppa, who
was the son of Ingild. Ingild, and Ina, the famous king of the
West-Saxons, were two brothers. Ina went to Rome, and there
ending this life honourably, entered the heavenly kingdom, to
reign there for ever with Christ. Ingild and Ina were the sons

^ The birthplace of Cynewulf, of whose life all that we know in his own words
has been given ante, p. 80, has been the subject of much controversy. See the
Introduction to the Crist, ed. A. S. Cook (Ginn & Co., Albion Series, 1900) and
Charles W. Kennedy, The Poems of Cynewulf (E. P. Dutton & Co., 1910). The
latter is a complete translation of all of Cynewulf s signed poems and those at-
tributed to him.

^ Cf. Asserts Life of King Alfred, together icith the Annals of Saitit Neots errone-
ously ascribed to Asser, edited, with Introduction and Commentary, by William
Henry Stevenson (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1904). Mr. Stevenson's, of course, is
an edition of the Latin text. This has been translated by Professor A. S. Cook,
Asser'' s Life of King Alfred (Ginn & Co., 1906). The most complete modem sum-
mary of Alfred's life and accomplishments is Charles Plummer, The Life and
Times of Alfred the Great; Being the Ford Lectures for 1901 (Oxford, Clarendon
Press, 1902). All the histories of England have more or less material on Alfred.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 119

of Coenred, who was the son of Ceolwald, who was the son of
Cudam, who was the son of Cuthwin, who was the son of Ceaw-
Hn, who was the son of Cynric, who was the son of Creoda, who
was the son of Cerdic, who was the son of Elesa, who was the
son of Gewis, from whom the Britons name all that nation
Gegwis, who was the son of Brond, who was the son of Beldeg,
who was the son of Woden, who was the son of Frithowald, who
was the son of Frealaf , who was the son of Frithuwulf, who was
the son of Finn of Godwulf, who was the son of Geat, which
Geat the pagans long worshipped as a god. Sedulius ^^ makes
mention of him in his metrical Paschal poem, as follows:

When gentile poets with their fictions vain,
In tragic language and bombastic strain,
To their god Geat, comic deity,
Loud praises sing, etc.

Geat was the son of Taetwa, who was the son of Beaw, who
was the son of Sceldi, who was the son of Heremod, who was
the son of Itermon, who was the son of Hathra, who was the
son of Guala, who was the son of Bedwig, who was the son of
Shem, who was the son of Noah, who was the son of Lamech,
who was the son of Methusalem, who was the son of Enoch,
who was the son of Malaleel, who was the son of Cainian, who
was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son
of Adam.

In the same year,^^ king Ethelwulf sent his son Alfred, above-
named, to Rome, with an honourable escort both of nobles and
commoners. Pope Leo (the fourth) at that time presided over
the apostolic see, and he anointed for king the aforesaid AH' rod,
and adopted him as his spiritual son.

He was loved by his father and mother, and even by all the
people, above all his brothers, and was educated altogether at
the court of the king. As he advanced through the years of
infancy and youth, his form appeared more comely than that
of his brothers; in look, in speech, and in manners he was more
graceful than they. His noble nature imi)lanted in him from
his cradle a love of wisdom above all things; but, with shame

36 Cf. ante, p. CG and note. ^7 §53

1^0 ENGLISH LITERATURE

be it spoken, by the unworthy neglect of his parents and nurses,
he remained ilhterate even till he was twelve years old or more;
but he listened with serious attention to the Saxon poems which
he often heard recited, and easily retained them in his docile
memory. He was a zealous practiser of hunting in all its
branches, and hunted with great assiduity and success; for skill
and good fortune in this art, as in all others, are among the gifts
of God, as we also have often witnessed.

On a certain day, therefore, his mother was showing him and
his brothers a Saxon book of poetry, which she held in her hand,
and said, "Whichever of you shall the soonest learn this volume
shall have it for his own." Stimulated by these words, or rather
by the Divine inspiration, and allured by the beautifully illumi-
nated letter at the beginning of the volume, he spoke before all
his brothers, who, though his seniors in age, were not so in
grace, and answered, "Will you really give that book to one of
us, that is to say, to him who can first understand and repeat
it to you.^" At this his mother smiled with satisfaction, and
confirmed what she had before said. Upon which the boy took
the book out of her hand, and went to his master to read it,
and in due time brought it to his mother and recited it.

After this he learned the daily course, that is, the celebration
of the hours, and afterwards certain psalms, and several prayers,
contained in a certain book which he kept day and night in his
bosom, as w^e ourselves have seen, and carried about with him
to assist his prayers, amid all the bustle and business of this
present life. But, sad to say, he could not gratify his most
ardent wish to learn the liberal arts, because, as he said, there
were no good readers at that time in all the kingdom of the
West Saxons.^^

This he confessed, with many lamentations and sighs, to have
been one of his greatest difficulties and impediments in this life,
namely, that when he was young and had the capacity for learn-
ing, he could not find teachers; but, when he was more advanced
in life, he was harassed by so many diseases unknown to all the
physicians of this island, as well as by internal and external
anxieties of sovereignty, and by continual invasions of the pagans,

'8 Cf. pofil, Alfred's Preface to Gregory's Citra Pastoralis, pp. 129-131.

REPRESENT ATI^E AUTHORS 121

and had his teachers and writers also so much disturbed, that
there was no time for reading. But yet among the impediments
of this present Hfe, from infancy up to the present time, and,
as I beheve, even until his death, he continued to feel the same
insatiable desire of knowledge, and still aspires after it.^^

The sons and daughters, whom he had by his wife . . . were
Ethelfled the eldest, after whom came Edward, then Ethelgiva,
then Ethelswitha, and Ethelwerd, besides those who died in
their infancy, one of whom was Edmund. Ethelfled, when she
arrived at a marriageable age, was united to Ethered, earl of
Mercia; Ethelgiva was dedicated to God, and submitted to the
rules of a monastic life. Ethelw^erd the youngest, by the divine
counsels and the admirable prudence of the king, was consigned
to the schools of learning, where, with the children of almost all
the nobility of the country, and many also who were not noble,
he prospered under the diligent care of his teachers. Books in
both languages, namely, Latin and Saxon, were read in the school.
They also learned to write; so that before they were of an age
to practise manly arts, namely, hunting and such pursuits as
befit noblemen, they became studious and clever in the liberal
arts. Edward and Ethelswitha were bred up in the king's court
and received great attention from their attendants and nurses;
nay, they continue to this day, with the love of all about them,
and showing affability, and even gentleness towards all, both
natives and foreigners, and in complete subjection to their
father; nor, among their other studies which appertain to this
life and are fit for noble youths, are they suffered to pass their
time idly and unprofitably without learning the liberal arts; for
they have carefully learned the Psalms and Saxon books, es-
pecially the Saxon poems, and are continually in the habit of
making use of books.

In the meantime, the king, during tlie frecjucnt wars and other
trammels of this present life, the invasion of the pagans, and his
own daily infirmities of body, continued to carry on the govern-
ment, and to exercise hunting in all its branches; to teach liis

•''' The chapters omitted here deal with the wars of Alfred's father and brothers
against the Danes, their several deaths, his own accession to the throne, marriage
and earlv fortunes in war.

122 ENGLISH LITERATURE

workers in gold and artificers of all kinds, his falconers, hawkers
and dog-keepers; to build houses, majestic and good, beyond
all the precedents of his ancestors, by his new mechanical inven-
tions; to recite the Saxon books, and especially to learn by
heart the Saxon poems, and to make others learn them; and he
alone never desisted from studying, most diligently, to the best
of his ability; he attended the mass and other daily services of
religion; he was frequent in psalm-singing and prayer, at the
hours both of the day and the night. He also went to the
churches, as we have already said, in the night-time to pray,
secretly, and unknown to his courtiers; he bestowed alms and
largesses on both natives and foreigners of all countries; he
was affable and pleasant to all, and curiously eager to investi-
gate things unknown. Many Franks, Frisians, Gauls, pagans,
Britons, Scots, and Armoricans, noble and ignoble, submitted
voluntarily to his dominion; and all of them, according to their
nation and deserving, were ruled, loved, honored, and enriched
with money and power. Moreover, the king was in the habit
of hearing the divine scriptures read by his own countrymen, or,
if by any chance it so happened, in company with foreigners,
and he attended to it with sedulity and solicitude. His bishops,
too, and all ecclesiastics, his earls and nobles, ministers and
friends, were loved by him with wonderful affection, and their
sons, who were bred up in the royal household, were no less
dear to him than his own; he had them instructed in all kinds
of good morals, and among other things, never ceased to teach
them letters night and day; but as if he had no consolation in
all these things, and suffered no other annoyance either from
within or without, yet he was harassed by daily and nightly
affliction, that he complained to God, and to all who were ad-
mitted to his familiar love, that Almighty God had made him
ignorant of divine wisdom, and of the liberal arts; in this
emulating the pious, the wise, and wealthy Solomon, king of the
Hebrews, who at first, despising all present glory and riches,
asked wisdom of God and found both, namely, wisdom and
worldly glory; as it is written, "Seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." ^^

40 Cf. Matt. 6:33.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 123

But God, who Is always the inspector of the thoughts of the
mind within, and the instigator of all good intentions, and
a most plentiful aider, that good desires may be formed, — for
he would not instigate a man to good intentions, unless he also
amply supplied that which the man justly and properly wishes
to have, — instigated the king's mind within; as is written, "I
will hearken what the Lord God will say concerning me." ^^ He
would avail himself of every opportunity to procure coadjutors
in his good designs, to aid him in his strivings after wisdom,
that he might attain to what he aimed at; and, like a prudent
bird, which rising in summer with the early morning from her
beloved nest, steers her rapid flight through the uncertain tracks
of ether, and descends on the manifold and varied flowers of
grasses, herbs, and shrubs, essaying that which pleases most,
that she may bear it to her home, so did he direct his eyes afar,
and seek without, that which he had not within, namely, in his
own kingdom.

But God at that time, as some consolation to the king's benev-
olence, yielding to his complaint, sent certain lights to illuminate
him, namely, Werefrith, bishop of the church of Worcester, a
man well versed in divine scripture, who, by the king's command,
first turned the books of the Dialogs '*'- of Pope Gregory and
Peter, his disciple, from Latin into Saxon, and sometimes
putting sense for sense, interpreted them with clearness and ele-
gance. After him was Plegmund, a Mercian by birth, archbishop
of the church of Canterbury, a venerable man, and endowed
with wisdom; Ethelstan also, and Werewulf, his priests and
chaplains, Mercians by birth, and erudite. These four had been
invited out of Mercia by king Alfred, who exalted them with
many honors and powers in the kingdom of the West-Saxons,
besides the privileges which archbishop Plegmund and bishop
Werefrith enjoyed in Mercia. By their teaching and wisdom the
king's desires increased unceasingly, and were gratified. Night
and day, whenever he had leisure, he commanded such men as
these to read books to him; for he never sufiered himself to be

*' Cf. Psalms 85:8.

^ This work as thus translated is still extant, e<l. Hecht in Grein, Bihliothck det
Angelsachsuchcn Prosa (Library of Anglo-Saxon Prone), V.

124 , ENGLISH LITERATURE

without one of thcni, ^vherefo^e he possessed a knowledge of
every book, though of himself he could not yet understand any-
th'ng of books, for he had not yet learned to read any thing.

But the king's commendable avarice could not be gratified
even in this; wherefore he sent messengers beyond the sea to
Gaul, to procure teachers, and he invited from thence Grimbald,
priest and monk, a venerable man, and good singer, adorned with
every kind of ecclesiastical discipline and good morals, and most
learned in all kinds of literary science and skilled in many other
arts. By the teaching of these men the king's mind w^as much
enlarged, and he enriched and honored them with much
influence.

In these times, I ^^ also came into Saxony out of the furthest
coasts of Western Britain; and when I had proposed to go
to him through many intervening provinces, I arrived in the
country of the Saxons, who live on the right hand, which in
Saxon is called Sussex, under the guidance of some of that na-
tion; and there I first saw him in the royal vill, which is called
Dene. He received me with kindness, and among other familiar
conversation, he asked me eagerly to devote myself to his service
and become his friend, to leave everything which I possessed on
the left, or western bank of the Severn, and he promised he
would give more than an equivalent for it in his own dominions.
I replied that I could not incautiously and rashly promise such
things; for it seemed to me unjust, that I should leave those
sacred places in which I had been bred, educated and crow^ned,
and at last ordained, for the sake of any earthly honor and
power, unless by compulsion. Upon this, he said, "If you can-
not accede to this, at least, let me have your service in part:
spend six months of the year w-ith me here, and the other six
in Britain."^ To this, I replied, "I could not even promise
that easily or hastily without the advice of my friends." At
length, however, when I perceived that he was anxious for my
services, though I knew not why, I promised him that if my life
was spared, I would return to him after six months, with such a
reply as should be agreeable to him as well as advantageous to

^^ I.e. Asser, the author of the biography. (Died 909.^*)
*4 I.e. Wales; cf. ante, p. 118.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 125

me and mine. With this answer he was satisfied, and when I
had given him a pledge to return at the appointed time, on the
fourth day we left him and returned on horseback towards our
own country.

After our departure, a violent fever seized me in the city of
Winchester, where I lay for twelve months and one week, night
and day, without hope of recovery. At the appointed time,
therefore, I could not fulfil my promise of visiting him, and he
sent messengers to hasten my journey, and to inquire the cause
of my delay. As I was unable to ride to him, I sent a second
messenger to tell him the cause of my delay, and assure him
that, if I recovered from my infirmity, I would fulfil what I had
promised. My complaint left me, and by the advice and con-
sent of all my friends, for the benefit of that holy place, and of
all who dwelt therein, I did as I had promised to the king, and
devoted myself to his service, on the condition that I should
remain with him six months in every year, either continuously,
if I could spend six months with him at once, or alternately,
three months in Britain and three in Saxony .^^ For my friends
hoped that they should sustain less tribulation and harm from
king Hemeid, who often plundered that monastery and the
parish of St. Deguus, and sometimes expelled the prelates, as
they expelled archibishop Novis, my relation, and myself; if in
any manner I could secure the notice and friendship of the king.

In the same year ^^ also Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, so
often before mentioned, by divine inspiration, began, on one
and the same day, to read and to interpret; but that I may
explain this more fully to those who are ignorant, I will relate
the cause of this long delay in the beginning.

On a certain day we were both of us sitting in the king's
chamber talking on all kinds of subjects, as usual, and it hap-
pened that I read to him a quotation out of a certain book. He
heard it attentively with l)oth his ears, and addressed me witli
a thoughtful mind, showing me at the same moment a book
which he carried in his bosom, wherein the daily courses and
psalms, and prayers which he had read in his youth, were written,
and he commanded me to write the same cjuotation in that book.

*■' I.e. the part of the island of Britain unck'r English rule. ^^ 887.

126 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Hearing this, and perceiving his ingenuous benevolence, and
devout desire of studying the words of divine wisdom, I gave,
though in secret, boundless thanks to Almighty God, who had
implanted such a love of wisdom in the king's heart. But I
could not find any empty space in that book wherein to write
the quotation, for it was already full of various matters; where-
fore I made a little delay, principally that I might stir up the
bright intellect of the king to a higher acquaintance with the
divine testimonies. Upon his urging me to make haste and
write it quickly, I said to him, "Are you willing that I should
write that quotation on some leaf apart? For it is not certain
whether we shall not find one or more other such extracts which
will please you; and if that should so happen we shall be glad
that we have kept them apart." "Your plan is good," said he,
and I gladly made haste to get ready a sheet, in the beginning of
which I wrote what he bade me; and on the same day, I wrote
therein, as I had anticipated, no less than three other quotations
which pleased him; and from that time we daily talked together,
and found out other quotations which pleased him, so that the
sheet became full, and deservedly so; according as it is written,
*'The just man builds upon a moderate foundation, and by
degrees passes to greater things." Thus, like a most productive
bee, he flew here and there, asking questions, as he went, until
he had eagerly and unceasingly collected many various flowers
of divine Scriptures, with which he thickly stored the cells of
his mind.

Now when that first quotation was copied, he was eager at
once to read, and to interpret in Saxon, and then to teach others;
even as we read of that happy robber, who recognized his Lord,
aye, the Lord of all men, as he was hanging on the blessed cross,
and, saluting him with his bodily eyes only, because elsewhere
he was all pierced with nails, cried, "Lord, remember me when
thou comest into thy kingdom !" "^^ for it was only at the end
of his life that he began to learn the rudiments of the Christian
faith. But the king, inspired by God, began to study the rudi-
ments of divine Scripture on the sacred solemnity of St. Martin
(Nov. 11), and he continued to learn the flowers collected by

47 Luke 23:42.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 127

certain masters, and to reduce them into the form of one ])ook
as he was then able, although mixed one with another, until it
became almost as large as a psalter. This book he called his
Enchiridion or Manual, because he carefully kept it at hand day
and night, and found, as he told me, no small consolation therein.

After long reflection on these things,'*^ he at length, by a use-
ful and shrewd invention, commanded his chaplains to supply
wax in a sufficient quantity, and he caused it to be weighed in
such a manner that when there was so much of it in the scales,
as would equal the weight of seventy-two pence, he caused the
chaplains to make six candles thereof, each of equal length, so
that each candle might have twelve divisions marked longitudi-
nally upon it. By this plan, therefore, those six candles burned
for twenty-four hours, a night and day, without fail, before the
sacred relics of many of God's elect, which always accompanied
him wherever he went; but sometimes when they would not
continue burning a whole day and night, till the same hour that
they were lighted the preceding evening, from the violence of
the wind, which blew day and night without intermission through
the doors and windows of the churches, and fissures of the di-
visions, the plankings, or the wall, or the thin canvas of the
tents, they then unavoidably burned out and finished their
course before the appointed time; the king therefore considered
by what means he might shut out the wind, and so by a useful
and cunning invention, he ordered a lantern to be beautifully
constructed of wood and white ox-horn, which, when skilfully
planed till it is thin, is no less transparent than a vessel of glass.
This lantern therefore, was wonderfully made of wood and horn,
as we before said, and by night a candle was put into it, which
shone as brightly without as within, and was not extinguished
by the wind; for the opening of the lantern was also closed up,
according to the king's command, ]\v a door made of horn.

By this contrivance, then, six candles, liglited in succession,
lasted four and twenty hours, neither more nor less, and, when
these were extinguished others were lighted.

He strove also, in his own judgments, for the benefit of both
the noble and the ignoble, who often perversely quarrelled at
*^ On some method of telling time at night.

128 ENGLISH LITERATURE

the meetings of his earls and officers, so that hardly one of them
admitted the justice of what had been decided by the earls and
prefects, and in consequence of this pertinacious and obstinate
dissension, all desired to have the judgment of the king, and
both sides sought at once to gratify their desire. But if any
one was conscious of injustice on his side in the suit, though by
law and agreement he was compelled, however reluctant, to go
before the king, yet with his own good will he never would con-
sent to go. For he knew, that in the king's presence no part of
his wrong would be hidden; and no wonder, for the king was
a most acute investigator in passing sentence, as he was in all
other things. He inquired into almost all the judgments which
were given in his own absence, throughout all his dominion,
whether they were just or unjust. If he perceived there w^as ini-
quity in those judgments, he summoned the judges, either
through his own agency, or through others of his faithful serv-
ants, and asked them mildly, why they had judged so unjustly;
whether through ignorance or malevolence; i.e., whether for the
love or fear of any one, or hatred of others; or also for the desire
of money. At length, if the judges acknowledged they had
given judgment because they knew no better, he discreetly and
moderately reproved their inexperience and folly in such terms
as these: "I wonder truly at your insolence, that, whereas by
God's favor and mine, you have occupied the rank and office
of the wise, you have neglected the studies and labors of the
wise. Either, therefore, at once give up the discharge of the
temporal duties which you hold, or endeavor more zealously to
study the lessons of wisdom. Such are my commands." At
these words the earls and prefects would tremble and endeavor
to turn all their thoughts to the study of justice, so that, wonder-
ful to say, almost all his earls, prefects, and officers, though un-
learned from their cradles, were sedulously bent upon acquiring
learning, choosing rather laboriously to acquire the knowledge
of a new discipline than to resign their functions; but if any
one of them from old age or slowness of talent was unable to
make progress in liberal studies, he commanded his son, if he
had one, or one of his kinsmen, or, if there was no other person
to be had, his own freedman or servant, whom he had some time

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 129

before advanced to the office of reading, to recite Saxon books
before him night and day, whenever he had any leisure, and they
lamented with deep sighs, in their inmost hearts, that in their
youth they had never attended to such studies; and they blessed
the young men of our days, who happily could be instructed in
the liberal arts, whilst they execrated their own lot, that they
had not learned these things in their youth, and now, when they
are old, though wishing to learn them, they are unable.

Alfred's literary work was mostly in the form of trans-
lation from the Latin. For several of his translations, how-
ever, he wrote prefaces of his own composition and these
are among the most interesting pieces of Old English prose
that w^e have. Two of these prefaces are quoted here.
Alfred, introducing to Bishop Wserfrith of Worcester his
translation of Pope Gregory's Cura Pastoralis, writes as
foliow^s of his educational plans for England: ^^

King Alfred bids greet Bishop Werfrith with his words lovingly
and with friendship; and I let it be known to thee that it has
very often come into my mind what wise men there formerly
w^ere throughout England, both of sacred and secular orders;
and what happy times there were then throughout England; and
how the kings who had power over the nation in those days
obeyed God and His ministers; how they preserved peace, mo-
rality, and order at home, and at the same time enlarged their
territory abroad; and how they prospered both with war and
with wisdom; and also how zealous the sacred orders were iK^th
in teaching and learning, and in all the services they owed to
God; and how foreigners came to this land in search of wisdom
and instruction, and how we should now have to get them from
abroad if we were to have them. So general was its decay in
England that there were very few on this side of the Huniber
who could understand their rituals in English, or translate a
letter from Latin into English; and I })elieve that there were
not many beyond the'Humber. There were so few of them that

^' The documeat will also illustrate intoUectual coiuliliDUs in late ninth century
England.

130 ENGLISH LITERATURE

I cannot remember a single one south of the Thames when I
came to the throne. Thanks be to Ahnighty God that we have
any teachers among us now. And therefore I command thee to
do as I beheve thou art wilHng, to disengage thyself from
worldly matters as often as thou canst, that thou mayest apply
the wisdom which God has given thee wherever thou canst.
Consider what punishments would come upon us on account of
this world, if we neither loved it (wisdom) ourselves nor suf-
fered other men to obtain it; w^e should love the name only of
Christian, and very few the virtues. When I considered all this,
I remembered also that I saw, before it had been all ravaged
and burned, how the churches throughout the wdiole of England
stood filled with treasures and books; and there was also a
great multitude of God's servants, but they had very little
knowledge of the books, for they could not understand anything
of them, because they were not written in their own language.
As if they had said: "Our forefathers, who formerly held these
places, loved wisdom and through it they obtained wealth and
bequeathed it to us. In this we can still see their tracks, but
we cannot follow them, and therefore we have lost both the
wealth and the wisdom, because we would not incline our hearts
after their example." When I remembered all this, I wondered
extremely that the good and wise men who were formerly all
over England, and had perfectly learned all the books, had not
wished to translate them into their own language. But again
I soon answered myself and said: "They did not think that
men would ever be so careless, and that learning would so decay;
through that desire they abstained from it, since they wished
that the wisdom in this land might increase w^ith our knowledge
of languages." Then I remembered how the law was first known
in Hebrew, and again, when the Greeks had learned it, they
translated the whole of it into their ow^n language, and all other
books besides. And again the Romans, when they had learned
them, translated the whole of them by learned interpreters into
th^ir own language. And also all other Christian nations trans-
lated a part of them into their own language. Therefore it
seems better to me, if you think so, for us also to translate some
books which are most needful for all men to know into the Ian-

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 131

guage which we can all understand, and for you to do as we
very easily can if we have tranquillity enough,^*^ that is, that all
the youth now in England of free men, who are rich enough to
be able to devote themselves to it, be set to learn as long as
they are not fit for any other occupation, until they are able to
read English writing well; and let those be afterwards taught
more in the Latin language who are to continue in learning, and
be promoted to a higher rank. When I remembered how the
knowledge of Latin had formerly decayed throughout England,
and yet many could read English writing, I began, among other
various and manifold troubles of this kingdom, to translate into
English the book which is called in Latin Pastoralis, and in
English Shepherd's Book, sometimes word by word, and some-
times according to the sense, as I had learned it from Plegmund
my archbishop, and xVsser my bishop, and Grimbald my mass-
priest, and John my mass-priest. And when I had learned it
as I could best understand it, and as I could most clearly inter-
pret it, I translated it into English; and I will send a copy to
every bishopric in my kingdom; and in each there is a book-
mark worth fifty mancuses. And I command in God's name
that no man take the book-mark from the book, or the book
from the monastery. It is uncertain how long there may be such
learned bishops as now, thanks be to God, there are nearly
everywhere; therefore I wish them always to remain in their
places unless the bishop wish to take them with him, or they
be lent out anywhere, or any one be making a copy from them.

The popularity and influence of Boethius' Ou the Con-
solation of Philosophy has already been referred to.'^ From
Alfred's translation of this book we quote the preface and
concluding prayer, for the light they throw on Alfred's
character. In his Preface Alfred says:

Alfred, King, was translator of this book, and turned it from
book-latin into English, as it now is done. Sometimes he set
word for word, sometimes translated according to the general

^° Cf. ardc, p. 120, Asser's Life of Alfred, Chap. 70; po.sf, p. 131, preface to his
translation of Hoetiiius, On the Consolation of Philonophy.
^^ Cf. ante, p. GO and note.

132 ENGLISH LITERATURE

sense, as he the most plainly and most clearly could render It
(liindered as he was) by the various and manifold worldly occu-
pations which often busied him both in mind and in body. The
occupations are to us very difficult to be numbered, which in his
days came upon the kingdoms which he had undertaken, yet,
when he had learned this book, and turned it from Latin into
the English language, he afterwards composed it in verse, as it
now is done. And he now prays and in God's name implores
every one of those whom it lists to read this book, that he would
pray for him, and not blame him if he more rightly understood
it than he could. For every man must, according to the measure
of his understanding and according to his leisure, speak that
which he speaks, and do that which he does.

Alfred in his concluding prayer writes as follows:
O Lord God Almighty, creator and governor of all creatures,
I beseech thee by thy great mercy, and by the sign of the holy
cross, and by the virginity of the blessed Mary, and by the obe-
dience of the blessed Michael, and by the love of all thy saints
and their merits; that thou wouldest direct me better than my
conduct toward thee would warrant; and direct me to thy will,
and to my soul's need, better than I myself know; and make
steadfast my mind to thy will and to my soul's need; and re-
move from me foul lust and all unrighteousness; and defend me
against my enemies, visible and invisible; and teach me to do
thy will; that I may inwardly love thee above all things, w^ith
pure mind and with pure body; for thou art my creator and my
redeemer, my help, my comfort, my trust and my hope. To thee
be praise and glory now and forever, world without end. Amen.^^

Of iElfric,-^'"^ who has already been described as the best

^2 On Alfred as a character in English literature, see J. Loring Arnold, King
Alfred in English Poetry. Add George H. McKnight, Alfred the Great in Popular
Tradition in Studies in Language and Literature in Honor of J. M. Hart (Henry
Holt & Co., 1910) and G. K. Chesterton, Varied Types, pp. 199-20G.

^^ The latest summary of our knowledge of ^Elfric's life will be found in the
Encyclopoedia Britannica, ed. 11. The most extensive review of the materials is
in Caroline L. White, Mlfric: a New Study of His Life and Writings, 1898. ( Vale
Studies in English, 2.) All of .^Ifric's prefaces are there collected and a bibliog-
raphy in chronological order shows the history of ^Elfric research.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS .133

representative of the culture of his time,-^^ we have no
contemporary biography. In fact, it was not until the
Reformation,'^'^ when his theological views in opposition to
transubstantiation became important to the reformers,
that biographical notice of him began to be taken. But the
theories concerning his identity have been conflicting and
Mr. Hunt concludes, "All that can certainly be known
about .^Elfric must be gleaned from his writings. " -^^ The
conclusions of modern scholarship are that he was born
about 955 and died after lO'^O. His education was the
typical monastic training of his day and his calling that
of a monk, first at Winchester, then at Cernel and, finally,
at Eynsham, where he became abbot.

For light on his personality, his prefaces are our best
source, and of these I quote three; namely, that to the
second volume of his Homilies J''^ which indicates the sources
of his inspiration and his method as a writer; that to his
Latin Grammar, which reveals his interest in learning and
education, his desire to be useful to his generation and his
modesty; and that to his paraphrase of Genesis, which
exhibits his sense of literary responsibility.

I, ^Elfric a monk, have translated this book from Latin l)ooks
into the English tongue, for those men to read who do not know
Latin. I have taken it from the holy gospels, and have treated
it according to the expositions of the illustrious doctors whose
names I wrote in the former book, in the Latin preface.^^ I have

^ Cf. ante, p. 25.

^^ Miss White {op. cit., p. 199) cites Bale, lUustrium Maioris Britanniir Scri/h-
torum . . ., etc., Ipswich, 1558, ag the earliest biographical notice of .Klfric Hut
Mr. Lane-Poole and Miss Bateson in their 1902 (Clarendon Press) edition of Hale,
Index Britannice Scriptorum, say (note, p. vii) that the Illustrium Maiorus Britan-
nice Scriptorum Sianmarium was published at Ipswich in 1548. A second edition
entitled Illustrium. Maioris Britannia; Catalogus was j)ul)lished at Basle in two
parts, dated Sept. 1557 and Pel). 1559 respectively.

^^ In the Dictionary of Xational Biorfraphi/, article J'Jlfric.

^^ An example of these has already been given; cf. aute, pp. 91-95,

^^ .Klfric mentions St. Augustine of IIip[)o, St. Jerome, Bede, Gregory the
Great, Smaragdus and Haymo as the sources of his material in the Homilies. Por

134 ENGLISH LITERATURE

disposed in two books the narratives which I have translated,
thinking it would be less tedious to hear if one book should be
read in the course of one year, and the other the year follow-
ing. In each of these books there are forty discourses, without
the preface: but they are not all taken from the gospels, many
of them being collected from the lives or the passions of God's
saints — but only of those whom the English nation honors with
feast-days. Before each discourse I have put the title in Latin,
but any one who wishes may change the order of the chapters
after the preface.

The Preface to the Grammar is as follows:
I, iElfric, planned to translate this little book of grammar
into the English language from the Latin (of Priscian),^^ after
I rendered the two books of eighty narratives; ^° because gram-
mar is the key which unlocks the meaning of books, and I
thought that this book might help boys at the beginning of
learning, until they came to greater scholarship. It behooves
every man, who has any valuable skill, to make it useful to
other men, and invest the talent which God has invested in him,
in other men, lest God's money lie idle and he be called an un-
profitable servant, be bound and cast into outer darkness, as
the holy Gospel saith. It befits young men to learn wisdom,
and old men to teach their juniors, because through learning is
the faith established. And every man who is learned, is blessed,
and the intelligence of him who wall neither learn nor teach, if
he can, will grow dull to holy learning, and he wall gradually
depart from God. Whence are wise teachers to come among
God's people, if they do not learn in youth, and how can the
faith advance, if learning and teaching are exhausted? God's
servants and "minstermen" need, therefore, to be w^arned, lest
holy learning in our day cool and disappear, as has been the
case in England for a few years now, so that no English priest

information about the first four, cf. ante, pp. 64, 65. Smaragdus was Abbot of
St. Mihiel in the diocese of Verdun and fl. 810. He was biblical commentator,
homilist and hagiographer. Haymo {circa 778-853) was an Anglo-Saxon ecclesi-
astic who became Bishop of Halljerstadt in 840.

^^ I carried this reference over from the Latin Preface.

^° Evidently the Homilies.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 135

knew how to compose or think out a letter in Latin, until Arch-
bishop Dunstan ^^ and Bishop .Ethelwold ^~ revived learning in
the monasteries. I, therefore, do not assert that this book will
take one very far in learning, but it will be, nevertheless, a
beginning in each language,*^^ if any one cares to use it.

I beg now in God's name that, if any one wishes to copy this
book, he follow this arch type carefully; because I have not the
power (to prevent mistakes) if some one come to grief through
false interpreters. (It is true) it will then be their risk, not
mine. The copyist who makes mistakes does a great deal of
harm, if he is unwilling (to try) to correct his errors.

The Preface to the paraphrase of Genesis runs thus:

(Here) begins the Preface to the English Translation of
Genesis.

iElfric the monk humbly greets .Ethelwaerd the magistrate.
You requested me, dear sir, to translate from Latin into English
the Book of Genesis; but when I was loth to grant your request,
you said that I need not translate further in the book than the
account of Isaac, the son of Abraham; because some one else
had already prepared you a version from that point to the end of
the book. Now it seems to me, dear sir, that the task is very
dangerous for me or any one else to undertake, for I am afraid
that if some unthinking person reads the book or hears it read,
he will imagine that he may live now under the new dispensa-
tion just as the patriarchs lived before the old law was given,

^^ Archbishop of Canterbury 959-979. He was a very influential statesman of
the time; .Elfric overestimates his ecclesiastical importance. Cf. Stubbs, Memo-
rials of St. Dunstan (Rolls Series, 1874), which contains the early lives of Dunstiin
and his letters. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also gives information regarding
him.

62 (908P-984) Bishop of Winchester. We have his life by /Elfric. He was the
real leader in the English religious revival of the lOth century. Cf. the Middle
English poem on St. Dunstan in Matzner, Alt-Englischc Sprach-Proben, I, 1,
pp. 170-176, translated into Modern English verse in Weston, Chief Mi<i<ile Eng-
lish Poets, pp. 37-41 (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1914). For a modern historian's
view. of Dunstim, see John Richard Green, The Conquest of England, pp. '269-'-275,
281-283, 280, 287, 304-309.

6^ Latin and English {?).

136 ENGLISH LITERATURE

or as they llvotl under the hiw of Moses. I onee knew that a
certain ])riest, Avho was my master at the time, had a copy of
the Book of Genesis and a smattering of Latin. He remarked
with regard to tie patriarch Jacob that he had four wives, two
sisters and their respective maid-servants. His statement was
correct, but he did not know, nor did I at the time, what a dif-
ference there is between the old dispensation and the new. In
the beginning of things in this world, the brother married his
sister, and sometimes a father had children by his own daughter,
and polygamy was practised that people might increase in num-
bers, and one could not marry unless he wedded his own rela-
tives. But if any one were to live now as men lived before
Moses or under his dispensation, that person would not only
not be a Christian, but he would also not be fit for a Christian
to eat with. The untutored priests, if they understand a modi-
cum of Latin, immediately imagine themselves great scholars,
but they do not yet appreciate the spiritual sense of what they
read, nor do they see how the old law was a symbol of what was
coming, or how the new covenant after the coming of Christ
was the fulfilment of the old ordinances, which the old covenant
foreshadowed as coming in Christ and His elect. They often ask,
also, wath regard to St. Paul why they may not marry as the
apostle Peter did. But they refuse to reflect that St. Peter
lived according to the law of Moses up to the time when Christ
was manifested in the flesh and began to preach His Holy Gos-
pel, and chose Peter as His first companion. Then Peter imme-
diately abandoned his wife, as did the other apostles who w^ere
married. All left both wives and property and followed the new
law of purity which Christ by His teachings established. Priests
are ordained as teachers for the ignorant. Now it behooved
them to be able to understand the old dispensation as well as
what Christ Himself and His apostles taught in the news that
they might instruct the people effectively in the faith of God,
and be wise guides to good works.

We say that this book has a deep spiritual meaning, but we
write down nothing but the simple words. So it will appear
to the uninstructed that its whole meaning is included in the
plain text; but this is far from being the case. This book is

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 137

called Genesis, that is the Book of Beginnings, for it is the first
of books and tells of creation; but it says nothing of the crea-
tion of angels. It begins thus: "In the beginning God created
the heavens and earth." ... It is a fact that God almighty did
create in the beginning whatever creatures He wished to create.
But, nevertheless, spiritually, Christ is the Beginning, as He
Himself said to the Jews: "I who speak to you am the Begin-
ning." ^"^ Through this Beginning God the Father wrought
heaven and earth, because He made all creatures through the
Son ^^ who was born the Wisdom of a wise Father. Again an
early verse of this book ends thus: "The Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters." . . . God's Spirit is the Holy
Spirit through whom the Father gave life to all creatures that
He made through the Son, and the Holy Spirit moves in the
hearts of men and gives us forgiveness of sins, first by water in
baptism, and then through penitence; and if any one rejects
the forgiveness that the Holy Spirit offers, his sin is unpardon-
able forever. Again, the Holy Trinity is implied in this book,
that is in the word which God spake, saying: "Let US make
man in OUR image." In that He said, "Let US make," is the
Trinity implied; while in that He said, "In OUR image," is
the true Unity implied. He did not use the plural, saying, "In
OUR images;" but He used the singular, saying, "In OUR
image." Again, there came three angels to Abraham and he
conversed with them as if they were one. (iElfric means that
this incident symbolizes the Trinity.) How did the blood of
Abel cry out to God if the misdeeds of a person do not accuse
him before God without words? From these few illustrations
you can see how deep the book is in its spiritual meaning, even
though it is a short book. To continue, Joseph, who was sold
into Egypt and saved his kinsfolk from the great famine, is a
symbol of Christ, who was sold to Death for our sake and saved
us from the everlasting famine of Hell torment. That great
tabernacle which Moses made with wonderful skill in the wilder-
ness, as God Himself instructed him, foreshadowed God's invita-
tion which He Himself oH'ered througli His apostles with many

M Cf. Revelation 1:8; 21: G; 22: 13.
65 Cf . Joliii 1 : i3.

138 ENGLISH LITERATURE

graces and winning words. To adorn the tabernacle the people
brought gold and silver and precious stones and diverse (other)
gifts; some also brought goats'-hair, as God had commanded.
The gold betokened our faith and hope which we should offer
to God; the silver God's words and the holy lessons which we
should learn from God's works; the precious stones symbolized
the nuinifold blessings which we have received from the hand of
God through human agency; the goats'-hair the keen repentance
which men should feel for their sins. The Israelites also offered
many kinds of animals to God within the tabernacle and this
act symbolizes many things. Thus it was decreed that the tail
should be entire on any animal offered in sacrifice because God
wishes that we always do well to the end of our lives. Thus is
the tail offered in our w^orks.

The Book of Genesis is thus very concisely written and yet
very profound in spiritual meaning. Besides, it is arranged just
as God Himself dictated it to Moses and so we dare write no
more in English than the Latin has, nor change the arrangement,
save so far as may be necessary since English and Latin do not
have the same idioms. Whoever translates from Latin into
English, or uses a Latin text as the basis for English teaching,
must write so that the meaning is plain in English. Otherwise,
the result is very misleading for the reader who knows no Latin.
It should also be remembered that some heretics desired to cast
aside the old law, and others wished to keep the old and discard
the new, as the Jews do; but Christ and His apostles taught
us both to keep the old spiritually and observe the new truly
in our deeds. God gave us two eyes and two ears, two nostrils
and two lips, two hands and two feet, and He wished also to
have two covenants established on this earth, the old and the
new, because He does as seems best to Him, has no counsellor,
nor can any one say to Him," Why dost Thou thus? " We should
adjust our wills to His laws and not try to change his decrees
according to our desires. My final word is that after this I
shall never dare nor desire to translate another book from Latin
into English; and I beg of you, dear sir, not to ask me to, lest
I be disolx'dicnt, if I refuse, or untruthful, if I accede to your
wish. God ])c gracious to you forever.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 139

I request now, in the name of God, that, if any one wishes to
copy this book, he make a careful copy of this text, because I
have no power to prevent the pubhcation of a false text if one
should be spread abroad by lying copyists. A bungler can do
much harm if he is unwilling to correct his mistakes. '^^

^'' This document exhibits the medieval fondness for and incHnation to allegori-
cal interpretation. Cf. the statements of Bede regarding some of his books; e.g.
those on p. 112, ante.

CHAPTER II

FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE DEATH OF
CHAUCER

I. The Political Background

"It is the judgment of most scholars that the Norman
Conquest had a more profound influence upon Enghsh
liistory than any other single event." ^ We are, therefore,
justified in citing here two of the rather numerous accounts ^
of this event or series of events. The first is the entry for
the year 1066 in the Worcester version or manuscript of
the anonymous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, already quoted in
the first chapter.^ From this narrative, evidently by an
Englishman, we get the bare facts of the Norman invasion
with a minimum of interpretation. The writer is clearly
a man inclined to a religious view of history.

In this year King Harold came from York to Westminster,
at that Easter which was after the mid-winter in which the
King ^ died; and Easter was then on the day sixteenth before

^ A. B. White, The Making of the English Constitution, p. 73 (G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1908).

2 Chronicles are abundant in England 1066-1400 and nearly every chronicler
felt called upon to embody in his own work as much material from all available
sources as he could find. This makes our accounts numerous, though, obviously,
not of equal value. Three accounts, in addition to our citations, are easily access-
ible in Cheyney, Readings in English History, pp. 95-110; those, namely, of
Wace, Roman de Ron {Romance of Rollo), pp. 117-120, 127, 128; of William of
Poitou in Scriptores Normannorum Historice (Writers of the History of the Normatis),
pp. 201 scq.; and of Symeonis Monachi Historia Regnm {Simeon the Monk's History
of the Kings), Rolls Scries, Ixxv, part 2, p. 188.

3 Cf. ante, pp. 5, 6, 7, 83.

* I.e. Edward the Confessor, King 1042-1066. "The Norman Conquest of
England, from a literary point of view, did not begin on the autumn day that saw
Harold's levies defeated by Norman archers on the slopes of Senlac. It began with

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND Ul

the Kalends of May."^ Then was, over all England, such a token
seen in the heavens, as no man ever before saw. Some men
said it was cometa the star, which some call the haired star;
and it appeared first on the eve Litania Major, the eighth before
the Kalends of May,^ and so shone all the seven nights. And
soon after came in Tosty ^ the earl from beyond sea into the
Isle of Wight, with so great a fleet as he might procure; and
there they yielded him as well money as food. And King Harold,
his brother, gathered so great a ship-force, and also a land-force,
as no king had before done; because it was made known to him
that William the Bastard ^ would come hither and win the land;
all as it afterwards happened. And the while, came Tosty the
earl into Humber with sixty ships; and Edwin ^ the earl came
with a land-force and drove him out. And the boatmen forsook
him; and he went to Scotland with twelve vessels. And there
met him Harold King of Norway with three hundred ships; and
Tosty submitted to him and became his man. And they both
went into Humber, until they came to York; and there fought
against them Edwin the earl ^° and Morcar the earl,^^ his brother:
but the Northmen had the victory. Then was it made known
to Harold King of the English that this had thus happ'ened:
and the battle was the vigil of St. Matthew. ^^ Then came Har-
old our King unawares on the Northmen and met with them
beyond York, at Staipvford-b ridge, with a great army of Englisli
people; and there during the day was a very severe fight on

the years which, from his early youth onwards, Edward the Confessor, the grand-
son of a Norman duke, had spent in exile in Normandy; and with his intimacy
with 'foreigners' and its inevitable consequences." A. R. Waller in Cambridge
History of English Literature, i, p. 1G5.

5 I.e. April 16. « I.e. April 24.

'' Son of Godwin Earl of Wessex and brother of King Harold II, Tostig had
been appointed Earl of Northumbria in 10o5 by Edward the Confessor, i)assing
over Waltheof, son of Earl Siward, the legitimate claimant of the earldom. Hut
about ten years later the Northumbrians rose in revolt against Tostig and threw
off his rule, choosing in his stead Morcar or Morcere, brother of Ivdwin, I'arl of
Mercia.

** William the Conqueror. ^ See previous not(\

^^ See previous note (9): EdA\'in and liis brother Morcar were oi)poneuts of the
house of Godwin.

11 I.e. Sept. 21.

142 ENGLISH LITERATURE

both sides. There was slain Harold the Fairhaired ^~ and Tosty
the earl; and the Northmen who were there remaining were put
to flight; and the English from behind hotly smote them, until
they came, some to their ships, some were drowned, and some
also burned; and thus in divers ways they perished, so that
there were few left; and the English had possession of the place
of carnage. The King then gave his protection to Olave, son
of the King of the Norwegians and to their bishop and to the
Earl of Orkney and to all those who were left in the ships: and
then they went up to our King and swore oaths that they ever
would observ^e peace and friendship towards this land; and the
King let them go home with twenty-four ships. These two gen-
eral battles were fought within five days. Then came William
Earl of Normandy into Pevensey ^^ on the eve of St. Michael's-
mass; ^^ and soon after they w^ere on their way, they constructed
a castle at Hasting' s-port. This was then made known to King
Harold and he then gathered a great force and came to meet
him at the estuary of Appledore; ^^ and William came against
him unawares, before his people were set in order. But the King,
nevertheless, strenuously fought against him with those men
who would follow him; and there was a great slaughter made on
either hand. There was slain King Harold and Leofwin the
earl,^^ his brother, and Girth the earl,^^ his brother, and many
good men; and the Frenchmen had possession of the place of
carnage, all as God granted them for the people's sins. Arch-
bishop Aldred ^^ and the townsmen of London would then have
child Edgar ^^ for king, all as was his true natural right : and
Edwin and Morcar vowed to him that they would fight together
with him. But in that degree that it ought ever to have been

^2 This was not Harald I, Haarfagr or Fairhaired, King of Norv\^ay from about
860 to about 930, but Harald III, Haardraacle or Hard-ruler (1015-1066), King
of Norway, 1046-1066. i3 j^ Sussex

1* September 28. is Jq j^^^j^^

1® Earl of East Anglia, fourth son of Godwin Earl of Wessex.

1^ Fifth son of Godwin Earl of Wessex, governor of Kent in 1049, probably
under his father's direction. According to Hunt in the Dictionary of National
Biography (article Leofwine) L. was never an earl. i^ Qf York.

'^ Grandson of Edmund Ironside, who was displaced as King of England by
Cnut in 1016, and grand-nephew of Edward the Confessor. Edgar died in 1120.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 143

forwarder, so was it ever from day to day later and worse; so
that at the end all passed away. This fight was done on the day
of Calixtus the Pope.-*^ And William the earl went afterwards
again to Hastings, and there awaited to see whether the people
would submit to him. But when he understood that they would
not come to him, he went upwards with all his army which was
left to him, and that which afterwards had come from over sea
to him; and he plundered all that part which he overran, until
he came to Berkhampstead.^^ And there came to meet him
Archbishop Aldred, child Edgar, Edwin the earl, Morcar the
earl, and all the chief men of London; and (they) then submitted
for need (to William) after the most harm had been done: and
it was very unwise that they had not done so before; since God
would not better it, for our sins: and they delivered hostages
and swore oaths to him; and he vowed to them that he would
be a loving lord to them: and nevertheless, during this, they
(the Normans.'^) plundered all that they overran. Then, on mid-
winter's-day,^^ Archbishop Aldred consecrated him King at West-
minster; and he gave a pledge upon Christ's book and also
swore, before he would set the crown upon his head, that he
would govern the nation as well as any king before him had at
the best done, if they would be faithful to him. Nevertheless,
he laid a tribute on the people, very heavy; and then went, dur-
ing Lent, over sea to Normandy, and took with him Archbishop
Stigand '^^ and Aylnoth ^ Abbot of Glastonbury and child Edgar,
Edwin the earl, Morcar the earl, Waltheof the earl and many
other good men of England. And Bishop Odo -^ and William -^
the earl remained here behind and they built castles wide through-
out the country and distressed the poor, and ever after it grew
greatly in evil. May the end be when God will !

20 October 14. 21 j^ Hertford. - Christmas Day.

23 Of Canterbury. Stigand was an Englishman who displaced Robert of Ju-
mieges as Archbishop of Canterbury. In the appointment, "the pope, however,
was not consulted, and his decision that the proceeding was unlawful gave ^^ ilham
a second pretext for his later invasion of England." Cross, .1 Hidorij of England
and Greater Britain, p. 57 (The Macmillan Co., 1914).

2'' Not in the Dictionary of National Biography.

25 Bishop of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror, later a[)i)()inled
Earl of Kent. 20 \Villiii,„ Fitz()sl)(>rt, created Earl of Hereford.

144 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Alongside of this story of the Battle of Hastings put the
following, the product of a later generation and the source
of many accounts in current text-books. Its author, Wil-
liam of INIalmesbury {circa lOSO-circa 1143), has, since
the days of Milton,^' been recognized as the best of twelfth-
century historians. He prided himself not so much on
giving the facts as on interpreting them correctly and fully.

King Edward declining into years, as he had no children him-
self, and saw the sons of Godwin growing in power, despatched
messengers to the king of Hungary to send over Edward, the
son of his brother Edmund, with all his family, intending, as he
declared, that either he or his sons, should succeed to the heredi-
tary kingdom of England, and that his own want of issue should
be supplied by that of his kindred. Edward came in consequence
but died almost immediately at St. Paul's in London; he was
neither valiant nor a man of abilities. He left three surviving
children; that is to say, Edgar -^ who, after the death of Harold,
was by some elected king; and who, after many revolutions of
fortune, is noAv living wholly retired in the country, in extreme
old age; Christina, who grew old at Romsey in the habit of a
nun; Margaret, whom Malcolm King of the Scots espoused.
Blessed with a numerous offspring, her sons were Edgar and
Alexander, who reigned in Scotland after their father in due suc-
cession: for the eldest, Edward, had fallen in battle with his
father: the youngest, David, noted for his meekness and dis-
cretion, is at present King of Scotland. Her daughters were
Matilda, whom in our time King Henry -^ has married, and Maria,
whom Eustace the younger. Count of Boulogne, espoused. The
King, in consequence of the death of his relative, losing his first
hope of support, gave the succession to William Earl of Nor-
mandy. He was well worthy of such a gift, being a young man
of superior mind, who had raised himself to the highest eminence
by his unwearied exertion: moreover, he was his nearest rela-
tive by l>lood, as he was the son of Robert, the son of Richard

2^ Ili.storj/ of EiKjland, Book iv, Mitford's ed., v, p. 172.

28 I.e. the child Edgar of the proc-eeding passage.

23 I.e. Henry I, youngest son of William the Conqueror.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND U;5

the second, whom we have repeatedly mentioned as the brother
of Emma,^° Edward's mother. Some affirm that Harold himself
was sent into Normandy by the King for this purpose: others,
who knew Harold's more secret intentions, say that he lacing
driven thither against his will, by the violence of the wind, imag-
ined this device in order to extricate himself. This, as it appears
nearest the truth, I shall relate. Harold, being at his country
seat of Boseham, went for recreation on board a fishing vessel,
and, for the purpose of prolonging his sport, put out to sea;
when, a sudden tempest arising, he was driven with his com-
panions on the coast of Ponthieu. The people of that district,
as was their native custom, immediately assembled from all
quarters; and Harold's company, unarmed and few in number,
were, as it easily might be, quickly overpowered by an armed
multitude and bound hand and foot. Harold, craftily meditat-
ing a remedy for this mischance, sent a person whom he had
allured by very great promises, to William, to say that he had
been sent into Normandy by the King for the purpose of ex-
pressly confirming in person the message which had been imper-
fectly delivered by people of less authority ; but that he was
detained in fetters by Guy Count of Ponthieu and could not
execute his embassy: that it was the barbarous and inveterate
custom of the country, that such as had escaped destruction at
sea, should meet with perils on shore: that it well became a
man of his dignity not to let this pass unpunished; that to suffer
those to be laden with chains who appealed to his protection
detracted somewhat from his own greatness: and that if his caj)-
tivity must be terminated by money, he w^ould gladly give it to
Earl William, but not to the contemptible Guy. By these means
Harold was liberated at William's connnand and conducted to
Normandy by Guy in person. The Earl entertained him with
niuch respect both in banf|ueting and in vesture according to
the custom of his country and, the l)etter to learn his (hs])osition
and at the same time to try his courage, took him with liim in

•■'" Emma had married (1) Etlu'lrcd tlu^ Iriready. Kin^' of Kn<,d;ind !)?!) lOK),
father of Edward the Confessor; ("2) ("nute, K'uv^ of En«,dand lOKI-lO.S.). The
son of C'nute and Emma was Hardienute, King of England 1()4()-1()4'2. One source
of our knowledge of this period is a work called F.urowiinu Ktiinuv {Praise of Emma).

146 ENGLISH LITERATURE

an expedition he at that time led against Brittany. There,
Harold, well proved, both in ability and courage, won the heart
of the Norman; and, still more to ingratiate himself, he of his
own accord, confirmed to him by oath the castle of Dover, which
was under his jurisdiction, and the Kingdom of England after
the death of Edward. Wherefore, he was honored both by hav-
ing his daughter, then a child, betrothed to him, and by the
confirmation of his ample patrimony ^^ and was received into
the strictest intimacy. Not long after his return home, the King
was crowned at London on Christmas-day and, being there
seized with a disorder of which he was sensible he should die,
he commanded the church of Westminster to be dedicated on
Innocents'-day.^2 Thus, full of years and of glory, he surrendered
his pure spirit to heaven, and was buried on the day of the
Epiphany ^^ in the said church, which he first in England, had
erected after that kind of style which now almost all attempt to
rival at enormous expense. The race of the West Saxons which
had reigned in Britain five hundred and seventy-one years from
the time of Cerdic, and two hundred and sixty-one from Egbert,
in him ceased altogether to rule. For, while the grief for the
King's death was yet fresh, Harold, on the very day of the
Epiphany, seized the diadem and extorted from the nobles their
consent; though the English say that it was granted him by the
King: but I conceive it alleged, more through regard to Harold,
than through sound judgment, that Edward should transfer his
inheritance to a man of whose power he had always been jealous.
Still, not to conceal the truth, Harold would have governed the
kingdom with prudence and with courage, in the character he
had assumed, had he undertaken it lawfully. Indeed, during
Edward's lifetime, he had quelled by his valor, whatever wars
were excited against him; wishing to signalize himself with his
countrymen and looking forward with anxious hope to the crown.
He first vanquished Griffin King of the Welsh, as I have before
related, in battle; and, afterwards, when he was again making
formidable efi'orts to recover his power, deprived him of his
head; appointing as his successors two of his own adherents,

3' Harold had succeeded his father Godwin as Earl of Wessex in 1053.
32 I.e. December 28, 1065. ^3 i,e. January 6, 1066.

THE POLITY AL BACKGROUND U7

that is, the brothers of Griffin, Elegant and Rivallo, who had
obtained his favor by their submission. The same year Tosty
arrived on the Humber from Flanders with a fleet of sixty ships
and infested with piratical depredations those parts which were
adjacent to the mouth of the river; but, being quickly driven
from the province by the joint force of the brothers Edwin and
Morcar, he set sail towards Scotland; where, meeting with Harold
Harfager King of Norw^ay then meditating an attack on England
with three hundred ships, he put himself under his command.
Both then with united forces, laid waste the country beyond the
Humber; and falling on the brothers, reposing after their recent
victory and suspecting no attack of the kind, they first routed
and then shut them up in York. Harold, on hearing this, pro-
ceeded thither with all his forces, and, each nation making every
possible exertion, a bloody encounter followed: but the English
obtained the advantage and put the Norwegians to flight. Yet,
how^ever reluctantly posterity may believe it, one single Nor-
wegian for a long time delayed the triumph of so many and such
great men. For, standing on the entrance of the bridge which Ls
called Standford Bridge, after having killed several of our party,
he prevented the whole from passing over. Being invited to sur-
render, with the assurance that a man of such courage should
experience the amplest clemency from the English, he derided
those who entreated him; and immediately reproached the set
of cowards who were unable to resist an individual. No one
approaching nearer, as they thought it unadvisable to come to
close quarters with a man who had desperately rejected every
means of safety, one of the King's followers aimed an iron jave-
lin at him from a distance and transfixed him as he was boast-
fully flourishing about and too incautious from his security, so
that he yielded the victory to the English. The army innne-
diately passing over without opposition, destroyed the disi)ersed
and flying Norwegians. King Harfager and Tosty were slain;
the King's son with all his ships was kindly sent back to his
own country. Harold, elated ])y his successful enteri)rise, vouch-
safed no part of the spoil to his soldiers. Wherefore, many, as
they found opportunity, stealing away, deserted the King, as he
was proceeding to the battle of Hastings. For with the excep-

us ENGLISH LITLRATURE

lion of his stipendiary and nicrconary soldiers, lie had very few
of the peoj)le with him; on which acconnt, eircnnivented by a
stratagem of William's, he was routed with the army he headed,
after possessing the kingdom nine months and some days. The
effect of war in this affair was triffing; it was brought about by
the secret and wonderful counsel of God; since the Angles never
again in any general battle, made a struggle for liberty, as if the
whole strength of England had fallen with Harold, who certainly
might and ought to pay the i)enalty of his perfidy, even though
it were at the hands of the most unwarlike people. Nor in say-
ing this, do I at all derogate from the valor of the Normans, to
whom I am strongly bound, both })y my descent and for the
privileges that I enjoy. Still those persons appear to me to err
who augment the numbers of the English and underrate their
courage; who, while they design to extol the Normans, load
them w^ith ignominy. A mighty commendation indeed ! that a
very warlike nation should conquer a set of people who were
obstructed by their multitude and fearful through cowardice !
On the contrary, they were few in number and brave in the ex-
treme; and, sacrificing eveiy regard to their bodies, poured forth
their spirit for their country. But as these matters await a more
detailed narrative, I shall now put a period to my second book,
that I may return to my composition, and my readers to the
perusal of it, with fresh ardor. . . .

When King Edward had yielded to fate, England, fluctuating
with doubtful favor, was uncertain to which ruler she should
commit herself: to Harold, William or Edgar: for the King had
recommended him also to the nobility, as nearest to the sover-
eignty in point of birth; concealing his better judgment from
the tenderness of his disposition. Wherefore, as I have said
above, the English were distracted in their choice, although all
of them openly wished well to Harold. He, indeed, once dignified
with the diadem, thought nothing of the covenant between him-
self and William: he said that he was absolved from his oath
l)ecause his daughter, to whom he had been betrothed, had died
before she was marriageable. For this man, though j)Ossessed of
numberless good qualities, is reported to have been careless al^out
abstaining from perfidy, so that he could by any device, elude

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND UO

the reasonings of men on this matter. Moreover, supposing that
the threats of WilHam eould never })e put into execution, be-
cause lie was occupied in wars witli neighboring ])rinces, he had,
with his subjects, given full indulgence to security. For indeed,
had he not heard that the King of Norway was approaching, he
would neither have condescended to collect troops, nor to array
them. William, in the meantime, began mildly to address him
by messengers; to expostulate on the broken covenant; to
mingle threats with entreaties; and to warn him that, ere a
year had expired, he would claim his due by the sword, and that
he would come to that place where Harold supposed he had
firmer footing than himself. Harold again rejoined what I have
related concerning the nuptials of his daughter and added that
he had been precipitate on the subject of the kingdom in hav-
ing confirmed to him by oath another's right without the uni-
versal consent and edict of the general meeting and of the ])eople :
again that a rash oath ought to be broken; for if the oath or
vow which a maiden under her father's roof made concerning
her person without the knowledge of her parents was adjudged
invalid, how much more must that oath be which he had made
concerning the whole kingdom when under the King's authority,
compelled by the necessity of the time and without the knowl-
edge of the nation. Besides, it was an unjust request, to ask
him to resign a government which he had assumed by the uni-
versal kindness of his fellow subjects and which would neither
be agreeable to the people nor safe for the military.

In this way, confounded either by true or by plausible argu-
ments, the messengers returned without success. The earl, how-
ever, made every necessary preparation for war during the whole
of that year; retained his own soldiers with increased pay and in-
vited those of others; ordered his ranks and battalions in such wise
that the soldiers should be tall and stout; that the commanders
and standard-bearers, in addition to their military science, should
be looked up to for their wisdom and age; insomuch that each
of them, whether seen in the field or elsewhere, might be taken
for a prince, rather than a leader. The bislioj)s and abbots of
those days vied so much in religion, and the nobility in princely
liberality, that it is wonderful, within a ])eriod of sixty years,

150 ENGLISH LITERATURE

liow either order should have become so unfruitful in goodness,
as to take up a confederate war ^^ against justice: the former,
through desire of ecclesiastical promotion, embracing wrong in
preference to right and equity; and the latter, casting off shame,
and seeking every occasion for begging money as for their daily
pay. But at that time the prudence of William, seconded by the
providence of God, already anticipated the invasion of England;
and, that no rashness might stain his just cause, he sent to the
pope, formerly Anselm Bishop of Lucca, who had assumed the
name of Alexander,^^ alleging the justice of the war which he
meditated with all the eloquence he was master of. Harold
omitted to do this, either because he was proud by nature or else
distrusted his cause; or because he feared that his messengers
would be obstructed by William and his partisans, who beset
every port. The pope, duly examining the pretensions of both
parties, delivered a standard to William as an auspicious presage
of the kingdom: on receiving which, he summoned an assembly
of his nobles, at Lillebourne, for the purpose of ascertaining their
sentiments on this attempt. And when he had confirmed by
splendid promises all who approved his design he appointed them
to prepare shipping, in proportion to the extent of their posses-
sions. Thus they departed at that time; and in the month of
August reassembled in a body at St. Vallery,^*^ for so that port
is called by its new name. Collecting, therefore, ships from
every quarter, they awaited the propitious gale which was to
carry them to their destination. When this delayed blowing for
several days, the common soldiers, as is generally the case, began
to mutter in their tents, "The man must be mad who wishes
to subjugate a foreign country; that God opposed him who
withheld the wind; that his father purposed a similar attempt
and was in like manner frustrated; that it was the fate of that
family to aspire to things beyond their reach and find God for
their adversary." In consequence of these things, which were
enough to enervate the force of the brave, being publicly noised
abroad, the duke held a council with his chiefs and ordered the
body of St. Vallery to be brought forth and to be exposed to the

^ A reference to the disorders of the reign of Stephen; cf. post, pp. 2Q6-209.
^ Alexander II. 3" In Picardy.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 151

open air for the purpose of imploring a wind. No delay now
interposed but the wished-for gale filled their sails. A joyful
clamor then arising summoned every one to the ships. The
earl himself first launching from the continent awaited the rest
at anchor nearly in mid-channel. All then assembled round the
crimson sail of the admiral's ship; and having first dined they
arrived after a favorable passage at Hastings. As he disem-
barked he slipped down but turned the accident to his ad\an-
tage; a soldier who stood near calling out to him, "You hold
England, my lord, its future king." He then restrained his
whole army from plundering; warning them that they should
now abstain from what must hereafter be their own; and for
fifteen successive days he remained so perfectly quiet that he
seemed to think of nothing less than of war.

In the meantime Harold returned from the battle with the
Norwegians; happy in his own estimation at having conquered;
but not so in mine, as he had secured the victory by parricide.^ ^
When the news of the Normans' arrival reached him, reeking as
he was from battle, he proceeded to Hastings though accompanied
by very few forces. No doubt the fates urged him on, as he
neither summoned his troops nor, had he been willing to do so,
would he have found many ready to obey his call; so hostile
were all to him, as I have before observed, from his having ap-
propriated the northern spoils to himself. He sent out some
persons, however, to reconnoiter the number and strength of the
enemy: these, being taken within the camp, William ordered
to be led amongst the tents, and, after feasting them plentifully,
to be sent back uninjured to their lord. On their return Harold
inquired what news they brought: when, after relating in full
the noble confidence of the general, they gravely added that
almost all his army had the appearance of priests, as they liad
the whole face, with both li|)s, shaven. For the English leave
the upper lip unshorn, suffering the hair continually to increase;
which Julius Caesar ^^ in his treatise on the Gallic Wav aflirnis
to have been a national custom with the ancient inhabitants of
Britain. The King smiled at the simplicity of the relators, ob-

^^ Fratricide rather; lie li;i(l lieljx'd kill his brother Tostig.
^* Book iv, chapter 1-t. ((iiles' note.)

152 ENGLISH LITERATURE

serving with a pleasant laugh that they were not priests but
soldiers, strong in arms and invincible in spirit. His brother
Girth, a youth on the verge of manhood and of a knowledge and
valor surpassing his years, caught up his words, "Since," said
he, "you extol so much the valor of the Norman, I think it ill-
advised for you, who are his inferior in strength and desert, to
contend with him. Nor can you deny being bound to him by
oath, either willingly or by compulsion. Wherefore, you will
act wisely, if, yourself withdrawing from this pressing emergency,
you allow us to try the issue of a battle. We, who are free from
all obligation, shall justly draw the sword in defence of our
country. It is to be apprehended that, if you engage, you will
be subjected either to flight or to death, whereas, if we only
fight, your cause will be safe at all events: for you will be able
to rally the fugitives and to avenge the dead."

His unbridled rashness yielded no placid ear to the words of
his adviser, thinking it base and a reproach to his past life to
turn his back on danger of any kind; and with similar impudence,
or, to speak more favorably, imprudence, he drove away a monk,
the messenger of William, not deigning him even a complacent
look; imprecating only that God would decide between him and
the earl. He was the bearer of three propositions; either that
Harold should relinquish the kingdom, according to his agree-
ment, or hold it of William, or decide the matter by single
combat in the sight of both armies. For William claimed the
kingdom on the ground that King Edward by the advice of
Stigand the Archbishop and of the earls Siward and Godwin
had granted it to him and had sent the son and nephew of God-
win to Normandy as sureties of the grant. If Harold should
deny this, he would abide by the judgment of the pope or by
battle, on all which propositions the messenger being frustrated
by the single answer I have related, returned and communicated
to his party fresh spirit for the conflict.

The courageous leaders mutually prepared for battle, each
according to his national custom. The English, as we have
heard, passed the night without sleep in drinking and singing
and, in the morning, proceeded without delay towards the enemy;
all were on foot, armed with battle-axes, and covering themselves

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 153

in front by the junction of their shields they formed an impene-
trable body, which would have secured their safety that day, had
not the Normans by a feigned flight induced them to open their
ranks which till that time according to their custom were closely
compacted. The King himself on foot stood with his brother
near the standard, in order that, while all shared ecjual danger,
none might think of retreating. This standard William sent
after the victory to the pope; it was sumptuously embroidered
with gold and precious stones, in the form of a man fighting.

On the other side the Normans passed the whole night in con-
fessing their sins and received the sacrament in the morning.
Their infantry with bows and arrows formed the vanguard, while
their cavalry, divided into wings, were thrown back. The earl,
with a serene countenance declaring aloud that God would favor
his as being the righteous side, called for his arms; and presently
when through the hurry of his attendants he had put on his
hauberk the hind part before, he corrected the mistake with a
laugh: saying, "My dukedom shall be turned into a kingdom."
Then beginning the song of Roland,^ ^ that the warlike example
of that man might stimulate the soldiers, and calling on God
for assistance, they began the battle on both sides. They fought
with ardor, neither giving ground, for a great part of the day.
Finding this, William gave a signal to his party that by a feigned
flight they should retreat. Through this device the close body
of the English, opening for the purpose of cutting down the
straggling enemy, brought upon itself swift destruction; for the
Normans, facing about, attacked them thus disordered, and com-
pelled them to fly. In this manner, deceived })y a stratagem,

^^ This is the name of the national epic of early France, correspontlinj^ roii^'hly
to the Old English Beoumlf. Whether the song started at Hastings was any part
of the extant Song of Roland cannot be stated, but Malniesbury's words indicate,
at least, that the story of Roland was popuhir. Wace (cf. />o.s7, p. .5;)9). in his Hrul,
ii, 11, 1. 803.5 .srr/., says that the minstrel who started the song at Hastings was named
Taillefer. The most popular rditi(m of the extant Chanson dv Roland {Song of lio-
land) is by Leon Gautier, with text, transhition (into modern FrcnclO, introduction,
notes, variant readings and glossary. This edition was first i)ul)lishcd at Tours in
1872 and has been often reissued. The Old French has been rendered into modern
English prose by Isabel Butler {Rivcr:iidc Literature Series, Houghton Mifflin Co..
1904).

154 ENGLISH LITERATURE

they met an honorable death in avenging their country; nor
indeed were they at all backward in avenging themselves, as,
by frequently making a stand, they slaughtered their pursuers
in heaps: for, getting possession of an eminence, they drove
down the Normans when roused with indignation and anxiously
striving to gain the higher ground, into the valley beneath,
where, easily hurling their javelins and rolling down stones on
them as they stood below, they destroyed them to a man. Be-
sides, by a short passage, with which they were acquainted,
avoiding a deep ditch, they trod under foot such a multitude of
their enemies in that place that they made the hollow level with
the plain by the heaps of carcasses. This vicissitude of first one
party conquering and then the other prevailed as long as the
life of Harold continued; but when he fell from having his brain
pierced with an arrow, the flight of the English ceased not until
night. The valor of both leaders was here eminently conspicuous.

Harold, not content with the mere duty of a general in exhort-
ing others, diligently entered into every soldier-like office; often
he would strike the enemy when coming to close quarters, so that
none could approach him with impunity; for immediately the
same blow levelled both horse and rider. Wherefore, as I have
related, receiving the fatal arrow from a distance, he yielded to
death. One of the soldiers with a sword gashed his thigh, as he
lay prostrate; for which shameful and cowardly action he was
branded with ignominy by William and dismissed the service.

William too was equally ready by his voice and by his pres-
ence to be the first to rush forward, to attack the thickest of
the foe. Thus everywhere raging, everywhere furious, he lost
three choice horses which were that day pierced under him. The
dauntless spirit and vigor of the intrepid general, however, still
persisted though often called back by the kind remonstrance of
his body-guard: he still persisted, I say, till approaching night
crowned him with complete victory. And no doubt, the hand
of God so protected him that the enemy should draw no blood
from his person, though they aimed so many javelins at him.

This was a fatal day to England, a melancholy havoc of our
dear country, through its change of ntksters. For it had long
since adopted the manners of the Angles which had varied

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 155

greatly according to the times; for in the first years of their
arrival they were barbarians in their look and manners, war-
like in their usages, heathen in their rites; but, after embracing
the faith of Christ, by degrees and in the process of time, from
the peace they enjoyed, regarding arms in a secondary light
only, they gave their whole attention to religion. I say nothing
of the poor, the meanness of whose fortune often restrains them
from overstepping the bounds of justice: I omit men of eccle-
siastical rank whom sometimes respect for their profession and
sometimes the fear of shame, suffer not to deviate from the
truth: I speak of princes who from the greatness of their power
might have full liberty to indulge in pleasure; some of whom,
in their own country and others at Rome, changing their habit,
obtained a heavenly kingdom and a saintly intercourse. Many
during their whole lives in outward appearance only embraced
the present world in order that they might exhaust their treas-
ures on the poor, or divide them amongst monasteries. What
shall I say of the multitudes of bishops, hermits and abbots.^
Does not the whole island blaze with such numerous relics of
its natives that you can scarcely pass a village of any consequence
but you hear the name of some saint, besides the numbers of
whom all notices have perished through the want of records?
Nevertheless, in process of time, the desire for literature and
religion decayed for several years before the arrival of the Nor-
mans. The clergy, contented with a very slight degree of learn-
ing, could scarcely stammer out the words of the sacraments;
and a person who understood grammar '*" was an object of won-
der and astonishment. The monks mocked the rule of their
order by fine vestments and the use of every kind of food. The
nobility, given up to luxury and wantonness, did not go to
church in the morning after the manner of Christians, but merely
in a careless manner heard matins and masses from a lunrying
priest in their chambers amid the blandishments of their wives.
The commonalty, left unprotected, became a prey to the most
powerful who amassed fortunes by either seizing on their ])rop-
erty or by selling their persons into foreign countries; although
it is an innate quality of this people to be more inclined to

4» I.e. Latin.

156 ENGLISH LITERATURE

revelling than to tlie accumulation of wealth. There was one
custom, repugnant to nature, which they adopted; namely, to
sell their female servants, when pregnant by them and after
they had satisfied their lust, either to public prostitution, or
foreign slavery. Drinking in parties was a universal practice,
in which occupation they passed entire nights as well as days.
They consumed their whole substance in mean and despicable
houses; unlike the Normans and French who, in noble and
splendid mansions, lived in frugality. The vices attendant on
drunkenness which enervate the mind followed; hence it arose
that engaging William more with rashness and precipitate fury
than military skill they doomed themselves and their country to
slavery by one, and that an easy, victory, "For nothing is less
effective than rashness and what begins in violence quickly
ceases or is repelled." In fine, the English at that time wore
short garments reaching to the mid-knee; they had their hair
cropped; their beards shaven; their arms laden with golden
bracelets; their skin adorned with tattooed designs. They were
accustomed to eat till they became surfeited and to drink till
they were sick. These latter habits they imparted to their con-
querors; as to the rest they adopted their manners. I would
not, however, have these bad propensities universally ascribed
to the English. I know that many of the clergy at that day
trod the path of sanctity by a blameless life; I know that many
of the laity, of all ranks and conditions, in this nation were well-
pleasing to God. Be injustice far from this account; the accusa-
tion does not involve the whole indiscriminately. "But, as in
peace, the mercy of God often cherishes the bad and the good
together; so, equally, does His severity sometimes include them
both in captivity."

^Moreover, the Normans, that I may speak of them also, were
at that time and are even now% proudly apparelled, delicate in
their food but not excessive. They are a race inured to war
and can hardly live without it; fierce in rushing against the
enemy, and where strength fails of success ready to use strata-
gem or to corrupt by bribery. As I have said, they live in
large houses with economy, envy their equals, wish to excel their
superiors and plunder their subjects, though they defend them

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 157

from others; they are faithful to their lords, though a slight
offence renders them perfidious. They weigh treachery by its
chance of success and change their sentiments for money. They
are, however, the kindest of nations and they esteem strangers
worthy of equal honor w^ith themselves. They also intermarry
with their vassals. They revived by their coming the observances
of religion which were everywhere grown lifeless in England.
You might see churches rise in every village and monasteries in
the towns and cities, built after a style unknown before; you
might behold the country flourishing with renovated rites; so
that each wealthy man accounted that day lost to him which
he had neglected to signalize by some magnificent action. But,
having enlarged sufficiently on these points, let us pursue the
transactions of William. ^^

In less than a century after the Conquest, fresh con-
tinental contact and influence were thrust upon England
when Henry of Anjou, great-grandson of William the Con-
queror, came to the English throne. The vigor of his

^^ In addition to the written sources of information on the Xorman Conquest
of England, we have the famous Bayeux Tapestry. "It is a pictorial story of the
events from the time Harold was blown across the Channel in 1065, to his death.
It is embroidered on a strip of canvas nineteen inches wide and two hundred and
thirty-one feet long. It was probably designed for the Bayeux Cathedral, where it
is still preserved." Cross, op cit., p. 60. It was made under the orders of Odo,
half-brother of the Conqueror. The latest detailed political history of this period
is Adams, Political History of England, 1066-1"21(). (Vol. ii in Hunt and Poole,
Political History of England, Longmans, Green and Co., 190o.) Xorman ascen-
dancy in England was not established by the single victory at Hastings; William
was occupied for several years in "putting down risings and overcoming resistance
to the extension of his authority." Cross, op. cit., p. 77. It was at this time that
the hero Hereward was active. He is mentioned by Florence of Worcester, Chron-
icle, tr. Forester, p. 177 (Bohn Antiquarian Library, 1854) as "a man of great
bravery." He is given a good deal of attention in Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey
of Croyland, tr. Riley {Bohn Antiquarian Library, 1854), pp. 135-148, Index. This.
Professor Freeman liolds, may cml)ody genuine Croyland tradition. {Dictionary o/
National Biography, article Ingulph.) See also Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, entries for
1070 and 1071. Charles Kingsley in Hereward the Wake (1860) has made an inter-
esting story of his life, real and fictitious. Other literary works treating the period
of the Conquest are Bulwer Lytton, Harold: the Last of the Saxons (1848) and
Tennyson, Harold (1876).

158 ENGLISH LITERATURE

policies, primarily intended to strengthen the royal powers,
and the long life of the dynasty established by him,'*^ make
it worth while to become acquainted with him. He is
thus described by Peter of Blois {circa llSo-circa I'^Oo),
secretary to Richard and Baldwin, successive archbishops
of Canterbury.

What you ^^ have urgently asked me, — to send you a true
account of the appearance and habits of the lord king of England,
is indeed beyond my power. For that task even the genius of a
Virgil would seem insufficient. But what I know I will tell without
malice or slander.

Of David it is written in praise of his beauty j^"^ that he was of
a ruddy complexion, and you know that the lord king was some-
what ruddy until venerable old age ^^ and the coming of gray
hair changed him a little. He is of medium height, so that
among short men he appears tall and not insignificant among
taller ones. His head is round in shape, as if it were the seat
of great wisdom and the special sanctuary of noble counsel. In
size it harmonizes well with his neck and the proportions of his
whole body. His eyes are round, and when he is in a peaceable
mood, dove-like and quiet; but when he is angry and his spirit
is disturbed, they seem to flash fire and are like lightning. He
is not bald, but his hair is kept close-cut. His face is lion-like
and quadrangular in shape. His nose is prominent, in keeping
with the symmetry of his whole body; his highly-arched feet,
limbs suited for horsemanship, broad chest and brawny arms
proclaim him a man strong, active and daring. . . . His hands
by their coarseness show the indifference of the man, for he
neglects them absolutely and never puts on a glove except when
he is hawking. Every day, all day long, he is standing on his
feet, whether at mass, in council, or engaged in other public
business, and although his limbs are terribly bruised and dis-
colored from the effects of hard riding, he never sits down unless

« The Plantagenets reigned in England 1154-1399.

*^ The letter is addressed to William Archbishop of Palermo, Sicily.

^ Cf. 1 Samuel 16: 12.

*^ Henry II was born in 1133 and this letter was written in 1177.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 139

he is on horseback or is eating. In one day, if business demands
it, he accompHshes four or five days' journeys, and so })y his
rapid and unexpected movements he often forestalls and defeats
the plans of his enemies. He wears straight boots, a jjlain hat
and easy dress. An ardent lover of field sports, he is no sooner
through with a battle than he is exercising with hawk and hoimd.
He would find his heavy weight a burden did he not overcome
his tendency to corpulence by fasting and exercise. He is still
able to mount a horse and ride with all the lightness of youth,
and he tires out the strongest men by his travels nearly every
day. For he does not, like other kings, stay quiet in his palace,
but, rushing through the provinces, he inquires into the deeds
of all men, judging especially those whom he has appointed to
be judges over others.

No one is more shrewd in counsel, more ready in speech, more
fearless in danger, in prosperity more prudent, in adversity more
steadfast. The man whom he has once loved he always loves,
but he will rarely admit to familiarity one whom he has once
found disagreeable. Unless he is in council or at his books he
always has in his hands a bow, a sword, spears and arrows. For
whenever he can take a respite from cares and anxieties he occu-
pies himself with private reading, or in the midst of a group of
clergymen, endeavors to solve some knotty problem. Your king ^^
knows literature well, but ours is much better versed in it.^'
For I know the attainments of each of them in the knowledge
of books. You know that the lord king of Sicily was my ])upil
for a year, and after he had learned from you the elements of
versification and literary art, by my industry and care he gained
the benefit of fuller knowledge. But, as soon as I left tlic king-
dom, throwing aside his books, he gave himself uj) to the idle-
ness of the palace. But as for the lord king of England, his

'"■' William II, King of Sicily.

■^^ Henry II, was a great patron of literary men and scholars; cf. Stubhs, Snrn-
teen Lectures on the Study of Mediwval and Modern Ifistori/, Lectures vi and vii.
Learning and Literature at the Court of flenrij II. Henry's wife. KIcanor of Aqni-
taine, was the friend and patroness of many I'roven(;al trouhadours. Another de-
scription of Henry from the works of Giraldus Camhrensis (Rolls Series, xxi. Part
5, pp. 302-30G, accessible in Cheyney, op. cit., pp. l'J7-l.'{})) agrees in the main with
this of Peter of Blois, but emphasizes the secular character of Henry's reign.

IGO ENGLISH LITERATURE

daily leisure is habitually devoted to the discussion of questions.
None more than our king is honorable in speech, restrained in
eating, moderate in drinking, none is more noble at home; hence,
his name is spread out like sweet ointment and the whole church
of the saints celebrates his alms. Our king is of a peaceful dis-
position, victorious in war, glorious in peace, and above all the
desirable things in the world he zealously looks out for the peace
of his people. Whatever he thinks or says or does is for the
peace of his people. That his people may have peace he con-
stantly undergoes troublesome and grievous toil. With a view
to the peace of his people he calls councils, makes treaties, forms
alliances, humbles the proud, threatens war, strikes terror to
rulers. For the peace of his people he uses that enormous wealth
which he gives, receives, collects and spends. No one is more
skilful or lavish than he in building walls, defenses, fortifications,
moats, places of enclosure for game and fish, and in building
palaces.

His father, a very powerful and noble count,^^ made great
additions to his territory, but he, by the strength of his own
hand adding to his father's possessions the duchies of Normandy,
Aquitaine and Brittany, the kingdoms of England, Scotland,^^
Ireland and Wales, has beyond measure surpassed his noble
father's claims to greatness. No one is more gentle to the
afilicted, more kind to the poor, more oppressive to the proud:
for he has always made it a study like a god to put down the
insolent, to raise the oppressed, and to the arrogance of pride
to oppose continual and grievous persecutions. But although,
after the custom of the kingdom, he takes a very powerful and
important part in making appointments, yet he has always kept
his hands clean and free from all venality. I w411 not describe,
but will merely touch in passing, those other gifts, both of mind

^^ Geoffrey of Anjou (1113-1151) married in 1129 Matilda, daughter of Henry
I of England, and widow of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. He ruled Anjou for
approximately 20 years, most of which was spent in wars with the Angevin barons
and for the conquest of Normandy, which was in the hands of Robert Curthose,
eldest son of William the Conqueror, or of his family.

^^ Peter grows rather enthusiastic here; Scotland and Wales were not a part of
Henry's domain and but a portion of Ireland was included therein.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND Ifil

and body, with which nature has endowed him far above other
men; for I confess my incompetence, and indeed I should con-
sider Cicero or Virgil unequal to so great a task.^'^ . . .

This other letter throws additional light on the disposi-
tion of the King:

Peter of Blois, Archdeacon of Bath, to Roger the deacon,
greeting and good counsel:

No teacher is more trustworthy or more efficient than he who
has tested by experience the theory that he teaches. Not long
since I was sent to the King on business connected with the
church of Canterbury. ^^ As usual I went into his presence cheer-
fully, but reading and understanding from his face the vexation
of his spirit, I immediately closed my lips and held my tongue,
fearful lest I should increase his irritation, for to me his face
was a faithful interpreter of his mind. So I postponed my
business until a more favorable hour and a more serene coun-
tenance should prosper it. For he who approaches an angry
prince on business is like unto one who spreads his nets in a
storm. He who offers himself to the tempest without waiting for
smoother water quickly destroys both himself and his nets. I
know that your mission to the King is a disagreeable one, there-
fore it behooves you to carry yourself all the more cautiously.

^^ This document is part of letter dccc. in vol. vii of Materials for the History of
Archbishop Thomas Becket {Rolls Series, 1875-1885, ed. Robertson and Sheppard).
The earlier part of the letter exhorts Archbishop William to show kindness to pil-
grims and thanks him for certain gifts. Tli^Jj^^^part of the letter asserts tliat
Henry II is guiltless of the death of Becket, tells ot the king's visit to the martyr's
tomb, his victory over the Scots and his suppression of the rebellion of his sons.

^^ As stated in the next section (post, p. W-Z) some of the most important of
Henry's political activities involved the position of the church. The document in
which his position regarding the relation of church and state is set fortii in its most
extreme form is the famous Constitutions of Clarendon (11(54). Tlie Latin text of
this is in Stubbs, Select Charters, 8th ed., pp. 137 seq. (Oxford, Clarendon Press,
1895). It will be found translated into English in Adams jiml Sl(>phens, Select
Documents of English Constitutional II isfor// (New York, Tiie Macmillan Co.. 1001).
PI). 11-14; in Cheyney, op. cit., pp. 148-150; and in Lee, Source Book of English
Ilistort/ (New York, Henry Holt and Co., 1900), pp. 18.'}-1.SG. The Constitutions
of Clarendon should not be confused with The Assize of Clarendon (11G6) to be
quoted post, pp. ZlZ-'-IKi.

162 ENGLISH LITERATURE

For even pleasant news may be irritating at an inopportune time
and some times disagreeable matter may be so presented as to
give pleasure. Do not hurry to bring your business before the
King until the way is prepared by me or some one else who
knows his habits. For he is a lamb when his mind is at ease,
but a lion or more fierce than a lion when he is aroused. It is
no joke to incur the anger of one in whose hands are honor and
disgrace, heirship and exile, life and death. Witness Solomon: ^-
the anger of a king is the messenger of death. ^^

The most spectacular events of Henry's reign are un-
doubtedly those that center around his efforts to subordi-
nate the church to the royal power. The contest between
church and state in post-Conquest England was not a new
problem of Henry's reign; for Anselni and AYilliam Rufus
had had their difficulties: but the struggle was at its most
acute stage at this time and led to results which were soon
incorporated in popular tradition. ^^ Thomas a Becket,

S2 Proverbs 16: 14.

*3 Peter of Blois became Archdeacon of Bath soon after 1173.

^ Becket was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1173. His tomb soon became
the favorite Enghsh resort of religious pilgrims. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are
told on a pilgrimage to this shrine. Of the seven-volume Materials for the History
of Thomas Becket, the first contains the Life and Passion of St. Thomas by William,
the Monk of Canterbury (written about 1172), the greater part of which consists of
stories of the miracles wrought at the tomb of the martyr. The second volume
contains The Passion of St. Thomas of Canterbury and The Miracles of St. Thomas
of Canterbury by Benedict of Peterborough, the Life of St. Thomas, Archbishop of
Canterbury and Martyr by John of Salisbury (cf. post, pp. 559-563) and Alan of
Tewkesbury and the Life of St. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury and Martyr by
Edward (irim, from which we quote, post, pp. 163-166. The third volume has the
lives by AVilliam Fitzstephen (died 1190?), from which we quote the introduction,
kno\Mi as The Description of London (cf . post, pp. 309-320) and Herbert of Bosham
(flourished 1102-1186). The fourth volume has two anonymous lives, the extracts
from the chronicles bearing on the history of Becket and the life commonly called
Quadrilngus, i.e, composed from four sources. The fifth, sixth and seventh volumes
contain letters pertaining to the career of Becket. The amount of material avail-
able on Becket is thus evidently abundant. These materials are all in Latin.
Becket soon became the subject of vernacular literature as well, as the poem on
his life and death attests. [(Cf. Matzner, Alt-Englische Sprach-Proben {Specimens
of the Old English Language), i, pp. 176-193, translated into modern English verse

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 163

moreover, Henry's opponent in the strife, was the latter's
best friend and had been appointed archbishop because
Henry thought he would certainly take the King's side
on the subjects at issue. Henry's disappointment and
vexation finally became so aggravated at Becket's suc-
cessful championship ^^ of the church that he was led to
make his famous angry outcry, "My subjects are slug-
gards, men of no spirit; they keep no faith with their lord,
they allow me to be made the laughing-stock of a low-born
clerk." The result was that four knights at once started
for Canterbury, followed the monks into the Cathedral,
and murdered the Archbishop in the transept on Decem-
ber 29, 1170. Edw^ard Grim, an attendant of Becket's,
with him at the time, thus describes the incidents of the
murder.

When the monks entered the church the four knights followed
immediately behind with rapid strides. With them was a cer-
tain subdeacon, armed with malice, like their own, Hugh, fitly
surnamed for his wickedness, Mauclerc, who showed no rever-
ence for God or the saints, as the result showed. When the holy
archbishop entered the church the monks stopped vespers
which they had begun and ran to him, glorifying God that they
saw their father who they had heard was dead, alive and safe.
They hastened, by bolting the doors of the church, to protect
their shepherd from the slaughter. But the champion, turning
to them, ordered the church doors to be thrown open, saying,
"It is not meet to make a fortress of the house of prayer, the

in Weston, The Chief Middle English Poets, pp. 41-50 (Boston, Houphton Mifflin,
1914)]]. See also II. Snowden Ward, The Canterhnn/ PiUjriuuujes (Lippincott, !!)().")),
Stanley, Historical Memorials of Canterbury, now available in Krrri/nian's Lihniri/,
Tennyson, Becket (1884), which gives a wonderfully accurate and vivid account of
the career of Becket.

^ The last cause of contention hetwccn Kin^' and Arclihisliop was the corona-
tion of Henry's eldest son, often in contemporary documents termed llcnry III,
as his successor. This was the prerogative of the Archhishop of Canterhury,
hut Henry had the ceremony j)erforme(l, in Becket's absence on the Continent, by
the Archl)ishop of York. Becket, thereupon, excommunicated and suspended many
of tlic King's followers.

164 ENGLISH LITERATURE

church of Christ: though it be not shut up it is able to protect
its own; and we shall triumph over the enemy rather in suffering
than in fighting, for we came to suffer, not to resist." And
straightway they entered the house of peace and reconciliation
with swords sacrilegiously drawn, causing horror to the beholders
by their very looks and the clanging of their arms.

All who were present were in tumult and fright, for those who
had been singing vespers now ran hither to the dreadful spectacle.

Inspired by fury the knights called out, "Where is Thomas
Becket, traitor to the king and realm?" As he answered not,
they cried out the more furiously, "Where is the archbishop?"
At this, intrepid and fearless (as it is written, "The just, like
a bold lion, shall be without fear"),^^ he descended from the
stair where he had been dragged by the monks in fear of the
knights, and in a clear voice answered, "I am here, no traitor
to the king, but a priest. Why do ye seek me?" And whereas
he had already said that he feared them not, he added, "So I
am ready to suffer in His name, who redeemed me by His blood;
be it far from me to flee from your swords or to depart from
justice." Having thus said, he turned to the right, under a
pillar, having on the one side the altar of the Blessed Mother
of God and ever Virgin Mary, on the other that of St. Bene-
dict the Confessor, by whose example and prayers, having cruci-
fied the world with its lusts, he bore all that the murderers
could do, with such constancy of soul as if he had been no longer
in the flesh.

The murderers followed him. "Absolve," they cried, "and
restore to communion those whom you have excommunicated,
and restore their powers to those whom you have suspended."
He answered, "There has been no satisfaction, and I will not
absolve them." "Then you shall die," they cried, "and re-
ceive what you deserve." "I am ready," he replied, "to die for
my Lord, that in my blood the church may obtain liberty and
peace. But in the name of Almighty God I forbid you to hurt
my people, whether clerk or lay." Thus piously and thought-
fully did the noble martyr provide that no one near him should
be hurt or the innocent be brought to death, whereby his glory
66 Cf. Proverbs 28: 1.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 1G5

should be dimmed as he hastened to Christ. Thus did it be-
come the martyr knight to follow in the foot-steps of his Cap-
tain and Saviour who, when the wicked sought Him, said, "If
ye seek me, let these go their way." "

Then they laid sacrilegious hands on him, pulling and dragging
him that they might kill him outside the church, or carry him
away a prisoner, as they afterwards confessed. But when he
would not be forced away from the pillar, one of them ])ressed
on him and clung to him more closely. Him he pushed off, call-
ing him, "pander," and saying, "Touch me not, Reginald; you
owe me fealty and subjection; you and your accomplices act
like madmen." The knight, fired with terrible rage at this
rebuke, waved his sword over the sacred head. "No faith," he
cried, "nor subjection do I owe you against my fealty to my
lord the king." Then the unconquered martyr, seeing the hour
at hand which should put an end to this miserable life, and give
him straightway the crown of immortality promised by the Lord,
inclined his head as one who prays, and, joining his hands,
lifted them up and commended his cause and that of the church
to God, to St. Mary and to the blessed martyr Denys.^^ Scarce
had he said the words when the wicked knight, fearing lest
the archbishop should be rescued by the people and escape alive,
leapt upon him suddenly and wounded this lamb who was sac-
rificed to God, on the head, cutting oft' the top of the crown
which the sacred unction of the chrism had dedicated to God;
and by the same blow he wounded the arm of him who tells
this. For he, when the others, both monks and clerks, fled,
stuck close to the sainted archbishop and held him in his arms
till the arm he inter|)osed was almost severed.

Behold the simplicity of the dove, the wisdom of the serpent, ^^
in the martyr who opposed his body to those who struck, thai lie
might preserve his head, that is, his soul and the cliunh, un-
harmed; nor would he use any forethought against tliose wlio
destroyed the body whereby he might es('ai)e. () worthy shej)-
herd, who gave himself so boldly to the wolves that liis flock

" Cf. Jolin 18:8.

58 Converter and patron Saint of (iaul, su|)|)()se(l to liave been niartyreil in tlie
Valerian persecution. ^^ Cf. Matlliew 10: 10.

166 ENGLISH LITERATURE

might not be torn. Because he had rejected the world, the
world in wishing to crush him unknowingly exalted him. Then
he received a second blow on the head, but still stood firm. At
the third blow, he fell on his knees and elbows, offering himself
a living victim, and saying in a low voice, "For the name of
Jesus and the protection of the church I am ready to embrace
death." Then the third knight inflicted a terrible wound as he
lay, by which the sword was broken against the pavement, and
the crown, which was large, was separated from the head; so
that the blood white with the brain, and the brain red with
blood, dyed the surface of the virgin mother church with the life
and death of the confessor and martyr in the colors of the lily
and the rose.

The fourth ^^ knight prevented any from interfering, so that
the others might freely perpetrate the murder. In order that a
fifth blow might not be wanting to the martyr who was in other
things like Christ, the fifth (no knight, but that clerk who had
entered with the knights) put his foot on the neck of the holy
priest and precious martyr, and, horrible to say, scattered his
brains and blood over the pavement, calling out to the others,
"Let us away, knights; he will rise no more." ^^

The efforts of Henry II to strengthen the royal power,
seconded by the policy of the ministers of his successor,
Richard I, succeeded so well that England in the latter
years of the twelfth century seemed well started as an
absolute monarchy. Two causes, however, intervened to
change the trend of events. One was the arbitrary and
capricious use of his power by King John, the worst of the
Angevins; the second, the discovery by the barons, under
the leadership of Archbishop Stephen Langton of Canter-

®° The four knights were Reginald de Fitzurse, Hugh de Moreville, William
Tracy and Richard de Brut.

^' Henry was on the Continent when Becket was murdered, and when the news
was brcjught to him, he expressed his grief, was deeply repentant, paid a humiliating
visit to the tomb of the martyr, and sought absolution from the pope. But it should
be remembered that, though the terms, so to speak, of the struggle between Becket
and Henry were religious, its underlying importance — the enhancing of the royal
power by subordinating that of the church — is political.

THE POLITICAL BACKBROUXD 167

biiry,^- that the rehition between king and barons was a
contractual one, and that the viohition of the contract by
one party nulHfied its apphcation to the other. Roger of
Wendover, a contemporary chronicler, in the following pas-
sage tells how the barons acted on this knowledge and
compelled the king to grant them Magna Charta, called
by the Earl of Chatham the first element in the "Bible
of the English Constitution." ^^

Of the demand made by the barons of England for their rights.

A.D. 1215; which was the seventeenth year of the reign of
King John; he held his court at AYinchester at Christmas for
one day, after which he hurried to London, and took up his
abode at the New Temple, and at that place the . . . nobles
came to him in gay military array, and demanded the confirma-
tion of the liberties and laws of King Edward, ''^ with other
liberties granted to them and to the kingdom and church of
England, as were contained in the charter and . . . laws of
Henry I;^^ they also asserted that, at the time of his absolu-
tion ^^ at Winchester, he had promised to restore those laws
and ancient liberties and was bound by his own oath to observe
them. The King, hearing the bold tongue of the barons in this
demand, much feared an attack from them, as he saw that
their demands were a matter of importance and difficulty, and
he therefore asked a truce till the end of Easter, that he
might, after due deliberation, be able to satisfy them as well as
maintain the dignity of his crown. After much discussion on
both sides the King at length, although imwillingly, j)rocured
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Ely and William
Marshal as his sureties, that on the day agreed on, lie would
in all reason satisfy them all, on which the nobles returned to

(^2 Cf. KateNorgate, John Lackland, pp. 211-^2:54 (The Macmillan Co.. 1J)(>2).
\vhere the writer makes it clear that it was the (hsc-overy of the Charier of Ilniri/ I
that showed the barons a way out of the (hffieiilty witli John.

*^ Cf. Goodrich, Select British Eloquence, p. 112.

^ I.e. the Confessor. ^ ("f. post, pp. 20.S seq.

^ John had been excommunicated by Pope Innocent III in 1209, had subniittcil
and been absolved by Archbishop Langton in 1218.

168 ENGLISH LITERATURE

their homes. The King, however, wishing to take precautions
against the future, caused all the nobles throughout England to
swear fealty to him alone against all men, and to renew their
homage to him; and, the better to take care of himself, he, on
the day of St. Mary's Purification,'^^ assumed the cross of our
Lord,^^ being induced to this more by fear than by devotion. . . .

Of the principal persotis loho compelled the King to grant the
laws and liberties

In Easter week of this same year, the . . . nobles assembled
at Stamford, with horses and arms; for they had now induced
almost all the nobility of the whole kingdom to join them, and
constituted a very large army; for in their army were computed
to be two thousand knights, besides horse soldiers, attendants
and foot soldiers who were variously equipped. . . .^^

All of these being united by oath, were supported by the con-
currence of Stephen Archbishop of Canterbury who was at their
head. The King at this time was awaiting the arrival of his
nobles at Oxford. On the Monday next after the octaves of
Easter, ^'^ the said barons assembled in the town of Brackley:
and when the King learned of this, he sent the Archbishop of
Canterbury and William Marshal Earl of Pembroke with some
other prudent men to them to inquire what the law^s and liber-
ties were which they demanded. The barons then delivered to
the messengers a paper containing in a great measure the laws
and ancient customs of the kingdom, and declared that, unless
the King immediately granted them and confirmed them under
his own seal, they would by taking possession of his fortresses
force him to give them sufficient satisfaction as to their previously
presented demands. The Archbishop with his fellow messengers
then carried the paper to the King, and read to him the heads
of the paper one by one throughout. The King when he heard
the purport of these heads derisively said with the greatest in-
dignation, "Why, amongst these unjust demands, did not the
barons ask for my kingdom also.'^ Their demands are vain and

®^ Fel^ruary 2. '^^ I.e. vowed he would go on Crusade.

^^ Names of "chief promoters of this pestilence" follow.
^° I.e. the second Monday after Easter.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 169

visionary and are unsupported by any plea of reason whatsoever."
And at length he angrily declared with an oath that he would
never grant them such liberties as would render him their slave.
The principal of these laws and liberties, which the nobles re-
quired to be confinned to them, are partly described above in
the charter of King Henry and partly are extracted from the
old laws of King Edward, as the following history will show in
due time.

The Castle of Northampton besieged by the barons

As the Archbishop and William Marshal could not by any
persuasions induce the King to agree to the demands, they re-
turned by the King's order to the barons and duly reported all
that they had heard from the King to them; and when the
nobles heard what John said, they appointed Robert Fitz-
Walter commander of their soldiers, giving him the title of
'* Marshal of the army of God and the holy church," and then,
one and all flying to arms, they directed their forces toward
Northampton. On their arrival there they at once laid siege
to the castle, but after having stayed there for fifteen days and
having gained little or no advantage, they determined to move
their camp; for having come without petraria^ "^ and other
engines of war, they, without accomplishing their purpose, pro-
ceeded in confusion to the castle of Bedford. At that siege the
standard-bearer of Robert Fitz- Walter, amongst other slain, was
pierced through the head with an arrow from a cross-bow and
died, to the grief of many.

How the city of London teas given up to the barons

When the army of the barons arrived at Bedford, they were
received with all respect by William de Beauchamp. There also
came to them there messengers from the city of London, se-
cretly telling them, if they wished to get into iliat city, to come
there immediately. The barons, ins])irited by this agreeal)le
message, at once moved their camp and arrived at Ware; after
this they marched the whole night and arrived early in the

^' Macliinos for tlirowinu stones.

170 ENGLISH LITERATURE

morning at the city of London, and, finding the gates open, they
on the '-24th of May, which was the Sunday next before our
Lord's Ascension, entered the city without any tumult whilst
the inliabitants were performing divine service, for the rich
citizens were favorable to the barons and the poor were afraid
to murmur against them. The barons having thus got into the
city, placed their own guards in charge of each of the gates and
then arranged all matters in the city at will. They then took
security from the citizens and sent letters throughout England
to those earls, barons and knights who appeared to be still faith-
ful to the King, though they only pretended to be so, and ad-
vised them with threats, as they regarded the safety of all their
property and possessions, to abandon the King who was per-
jured and who warred against his barons, and together with
them to stand firm and fight against the King for their rights and
for peace; and that, if they refused to do this, they, the barons,
would make war against them all, as against open enemies, and
would destroy their castles, burn their houses and other build-
ings, and destroy their warrens, parks and orchards.^- . . . The
greatest part of these, on receiving the message of the barons,
set out to London and joined them, abandoning the King entirely.
The pleas of the exchequer and of the sheriffs' courts ceased
throughout England, because there was no one to make a valua-
tion for the King, or to obey him in anything.

The conference between the King and the barons

King John, when he saw that he was deserted by almost all,
so that out of his regal superabundance of followers he scarcely
retained seven knights, was much alarmed lest these barons
should attack his castles and reduce them without diflficulty,
as they would find no obstacle to their so doing; and he deceit-
fully pretended to make peace for a time with the . . . barons,
and sent William Marshal Earl of Pembroke with other trust-
worthy messengers to them and told them that, for the sake of
peace and for the exaltation and honor of the kingdom, he would
willingly grant them the laws and liberties they required; he

'2 Names of those to whom the message was sent follow.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 171

also sent word to the barons by the same messengers to apj^oint
a fitting day and place to meet and carry all these matters into
effect. The King's messengers then came in all haste to London,
and without deceit reported to the barons all that had been
deceitfully imposed upon them; they in their great joy appointed
the fifteenth of June for the King to meet them, at a field lying
between Staines and Windsor. Accordingly, at the time and
place agreed on, the King and nobles came to the appointed
conference, and when each party had stationed themselves apart
from the other, they began a long discussion about terms of
peace and the aforesaid liberties. There were present on behalf
of the King the archbishops, Stephen of Canterbury and H. of
Dublin, the bishops W. of London, P. of Winchester, H. of
Lincoln, J. of Bath, Walter of Worcester, W. of Coventry and
Benedict of Rochester; master Pandulph familiar of our lord
the pope, and brother Almeric the master of the knights-tem-
plars in England; the nobles, William Marshal Earl of Pembroke,
the Earl of Salisbury, Earl Warrene, the Earl of Arundel, Alan
de Galway, W. Fitz-Gerald, Peter Fitz-Herbert, Alan Basset,
Matthew Fitz-Herbert, Thomas Basset, Hugh de Neville, Hubert
de Burgh seneschal of Poictou, Robert de Ropley, John Marshall
and Philip d'Aubeny. Those who were on behalf of the barons
it is not necessary to enumerate, since the whole nobility of
England were now assembled together in numbers not to be
computed. At length, after various points on both sides had
been discussed. King John, seeing that he was inferior in
strength to the barons, without raising any difficulties, granted
the laws and liberties listed below, and confirmed them by his
charters. . . . ^^

*'To insure the inforcement of the terms of the charter
a committee of twenty-four barons and the Lord Mayor of
London were appointed who were authorized to levy war on
the King until any transgression of which he might l)e
guilty should have been amended. This machinery for
securing its observance was the weakest thing about it,

~^ Magna Charta follows. See the text as it appears in the various source i)ooks
of English history.

172 ENGLISH LITERATURE

for there could be no peaceful progress under any such
arrangement. It was soon given up, and before the cen-
tury had passed we find a body in the making to whom, in
due course of time, the maintenance of its great principles
was intrusted." '^ This body has gradually developed into
what we now call parliament, elements of which had been
in existence for some time. Thus, Tacitus ^^ records that
the members of the various Teutonic tribes conferred and
voted regarding the course of action to be taken by the
tribe; Alfred the Great promulgated "^ his laws with the
sanction of the wise men; representative juries elected in
the several counties undertook various sorts of royal busi-
ness from the time of Henry II and furnished the typical
procedure for the election of representatives to parlia-
ment.''^

The year 1295 is marked by the assembling of what has
long been known as *'the Model Parliament." It was "not
the 'product' of grand purposeful building for the fu-
ture," "^ but of anxiety about the immediate problems of
1295. Edward I, "needed money as never before, and he
used the means to obtain it which the experience of the
past thirty years and his instincts as a practical states-
man suggested. He needed the help of all classes and, as far
as conditions allowed, he took them all into his confidence.
It can hardly be thought that the representative elements
were really asked to give their consent to taxation, but
their good will could be gained and consultation with them
facilitated assessment and collection. There was no grand
theorizing. . . ." '^

Specimen writs of summons to the three estates show us

^^ Cross, op. cit., p. 144. The word parliament means talking or conference and
is used a great deal in literature 1100-1400 in this sense. We must not import into
the medieval use of the word our modern conceptions of parliament as an institu-
tion. 75 cf. ante, pp. 10-12. '^ /^^v/., pp. 22-25.

77 The origin and early history of parliament are carefully treated in White, op.
cit., pp. 298-401. 78 iiifi_^ p. 298. 79 qi White, op. cit., p. 329.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 17;

how the matter of a national representative assembly was
presented in 1295 and outline the business of the assembly
when called.

(a) Summons of a Bishop to Parliament, 1296
The King to the venerable father in Christ Robert, by the
same grace archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England,
greeting. As a most just law, established by the careful provi-
dence of sacred princes, exhorts and decrees that what affects
all, by all should be approved, so also, very evidently should
common danger be met by means provided in common. You
know sufficiently well, and it is now, as we believe, divulged
through all regions of the world, how the king of France fraudu-
lently and craftily deprives us of our land of Gascony, by with-
holding it unjustly from us. Now, however, not satisfied with
the before-mentioned fraud and injustice, having gathered to-
gether for the conquest of our kingdom a very great fleet, and
an abounding multitude of warriors, with which he has made a
hostile attack on our kingdom and the inhabitants of the same
kingdom, he now proposes to destroy the English language alto-
gether from the earth, if his power should correspond to the
detestable propostion of the contemplated injustice, which God
forbid. Because, therefore, darts seen beforehand do less injury,
and your interest especially, as that of the rest of the citizens
of the same realm, is concerned in this affair, we command you,
strictly enjoining you in the fidelity and love in which you are
bound to us, that on the Lord's day next after the feast of St.
Martin, in the approaching winter, you be present in person at
Westminster; citing beforehand the dean and clia])ter of your
church, the archdeacons and all the clergy of your diocese, caus-
ing the same dean and archdeacons in their own persons, and
the said chapter by one suitable proctor, and the said clergy by
two, to be present along with you, having full and sufhcient
power from the same chapter and clergy, to consider, ordain and
provide, along with us and with the rest of the j)relales and prin-
cipal men and other inhabitants of our kingdom, how the dan-
gers and threatened evils of this kind are to l)e met. Witness
the king at Wangham, the thirtieth day of Sei)tenil)er.

174 ENGLISH LITERATURE

(b) Sinnmons of a Baron to Parliament, 1295

The king to his beloved and faithful relative, Edmund, Earl
of Cornwall, greeting. Because we wish to have a consultation
and meeting with you and with the rest of the principal men of
our kingdom, as to provision for remedies against the dangers
which in these days are threatening our whole kingdom, we com-
mand you, strictly enjoining you in the fidelity and love in which
you are bound to us, that on the Lord's day next after the feast
of St. Martin's, in the approaching winter, you be present in
person at Westminster, for considering, ordaining and doing
along with us and w^ith the prelates, and the rest of the principal
men and other inhabitants of our kingdom, as may be necessary
for meeting dangers of this kind.

Witness the king at Canterbury, the first of October.

The king to the sheriff of Northamptonshire. Since we intend
to have a consultation and meeting with the earls, barons and
other principal men of our kingdom with regard to providing
remedies against the dangers which are in these days threaten-
ing the same kingdom, and on that account have commanded
them to be with us on the Lord's day next after the feast of St.
Martin, in the approaching winter, at Westminster, to consider,
ordain, and do as may be necessary for the avoidance of these
dangers, we strictly require you to cause tw^o knights from the
aforesaid county, tw^o citizens from each city in the same county,
and two burgesses from each borough, of those who are espe-
cially discreet and capable of laboring, to be elected without delay,
and to cause them to come to us at the aforesaid time and place.

Moreover, the said knights are to have full and sufficient
power for themselves and for the community of the aforesaid
county, and the said citizens and burgesses for themselves and
the communities of the aforesaid cities and boroughs sepa-
rately, then and there for doing what shall then be ordained
according to the common counsel in the premises, so that the
aforesaid business shall not remain unfinished in any way for

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 175

defect of this power. And you shall have there the names of
the knights, citizens and burgesses and this writ.

Witness the king at Canterbury, on the third day of October.

A phrase in the third sentence of the first writ suggests
a cause on which much English treasure and life were
spent in the concluding century of our period. The kings
of France and England, close territorial rivals on the Con-
tinent, each trying to unify and increase his lands, many
times made it their chief business to check each other's
movements. Hence, there is much anti-French senti-
ment in fourteenth-century English literature and we
must take account of the fact here.

But, before we turn to this subject, there is another
which w^e must take notice of, also a matter of foreign
policy and one that loomed large in English feeling and
imagination. This is the relation of England and Scot-
land. From about 1290 until 1707, when England and
Scotland were united, there was more or less friction ^^
between the two countries. In all this long history of strife,
no event made so deep a popular impression as the dis-
astrous defeat of English arms by the Scotch at Ban-
nockburn in 1314. Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbrooke, a
contemporary chronicler, thus describes a famous inci-
dent in the battle.

On that night you might have seen the English host deep
in their cups, wassailing and toasting immoderately; on the
other hand the Scots silently kept their vigil fasting, their every
thought centered in their desire for their country's freedom; ^*
and this desire, though ungrounded, was vehement and ecjual
to all risks. On the morrow the Scots seized the most advan-

8° There is little doubt that the ahuost constant border strife b(>t\ve(>n Knuland
and Scotland, making the Scotch inarches a region of perpetual adventure, is the
exphmation of the fact that so many of the Enghsh and Scottish jxipular ballads
are located there. In the field of the poetry of art, cf. Hlin<l Harry's WiiUarr and
Barbour's Bruce.

^^ Cf. Malmesbury's contrast of English anti Xonnans, ante, pp. Ijt2-1,33.

17G ENGLISH LITERATURE

tageous position, and dug pits three feet deep and as wide
across, stretching along the whole line, from the right wing to
the left. These they covered over with a light framework of
twigs and osiers, that is to say, with hurdles; and then over
the top they strewed turf and grass, so that men could cross
them on foot with care, but the weight of cavalry could not be
supported. In accordance with their royal leader's command
none of the Scots were mounted, and their army, drawn up in
the usual divisions, was posted in solid formation at no great
distance from this pit, which had been warily, not to say craftily,
set between themselves and the English. On the other side, as
the English army advanced from the west, the rising sun flashed
upon their golden shields and polished helms. Their vanguard
consisted of light horse and heavy cavalry, all unconscious of
the Scots' pit, with its cunningly contrived light covering; in the
second division were men-at-arms and archers held in reserve
to give chase to the enemy; in the third was the King,^^ with
the bishops and other churchmen, and among them the brave
knight, Hugh Spenser. The cavalry of the vanguard advanced
against the enemy and fell headlong, as their horses stumbled
into the ditch, with their forefeet caught in the broken hurdles;
and when these fell through, the enemy came up and slew them,
giving quarter only to the rich, for ransom.

Froissart, the brilliant French chronicler from whom so
much of our knowledge of the spirit of the fourteenth
century comes, in the following words tells us further of
the military methods of the Scots in a fashion which closely
approaches the language of balladry.

The winter and lent ^^ passed in perfect peace, but at Easter,
Robert, King of Scotland, sent a message of defiance to King
Edward, informing him of his intention to enter England and
devastate the country by fire. Upon this. Sir John de Hai-
nault ^ was sent for, who, true to the interest of the young King

82 I.e. Edward II.

^ I.e. spring. This account is of Scotch-English operations in 1328, just after
the coronation of Edward III.

^ A close friend of Edward III and later his uncle by marriage.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 177

and his mother, soon arrived with a considerable band of follow-
ers at the city of York, and joined the English on their march
to meet the enemy.

The Scots are a bold, hardy race, and much inured to war.
When they invaded England, they were all usually on horse-
back, except the camp-followers; they })rouglit no carriages,
neither did they encumber themselves with any provision. Under
the flap of his saddle each man had a broad plate of metal; and
behind his saddle a little })ag of oatmeal, and baked upon the
plates; for the most part, however, they ate the half-sodden
flesh of the cattle they captured, and drank water. In this man-
ner, then, under the command of the Earl of Moray and Sir
James Douglas, they made their present invasion, destroying
and burning wherever they went. As soon, however, as the
English King came in sight of the smoke of the fires which the
Scots were making, an alarm was sounded, and everyone or-
dered to prepare for combat; but there were so many marshes
between the two armies that the English could not come up with
the enemy; they lay, therefore, that night in a wood, upon the
banks of a small river, and the King lodged in a monastery hard
by. The next day, it was determined, as the Scots seemed to
avoid battle, and to be sheering off to their own country, to
hasten their march, and to endeavor to intercept them as they
repassed the Tyne. At the sound of the trumpet all the Englisli
were to be ready; each man taking with him but one loaf (^f
bread slung at his back after the fashion of a hunter, so that tlieir
march might not be retarded.

As it had been ordered, so it was executed; the Englisli
started at daybreak, but, with all their exertion, did not rcacli
the Tyne till vespers, when, to tlieir great mortiflcalion. ;it't(>r
waiting some time, they discovered that the Scots had gained
the river, and passed over before them.

Their scanty store of provisions being now cxhausliMl, ilic
EngHsh suffered greatly from hunger, and il rained so inces-
santly that the horses, as well as the men, were ahiiost worn
out. However, they were still bent upon encountering the ScoN.
and the King offered a large reward to any one who should ni-
form him where they were to be found. Tlu\v had now been

178 ENGLISH LITERATURE

several days seeking for information, when, about three o'clock
one afternoon, a squire came galloping up to the King, and
reported that he had seen the enemy — that they were but a
short distance from them, and quite as eager for battle as them-
selves. Edward upon this put his army in array, continued
marching, and soon came in sight of the Scots, who were drawn
up in three battalions, on the slope of a mountain, at the foot
of which ran a rapid river, full of large stones and rocks, and
very difficult to cross. When the English lords perceived the
disposition of the enemy, they sent heralds, offering to fight
them in the plain; but the Scots would consent to no arrange-
ment, and having kept the English in suspense for some days, ,
at last retired. During all this time there were frequent skir-
mishes, and many lives lost on both sides; and though there
was no general engagement between the two armies, the Scots
were driven back into their own country, and both parties quite
tired out. Edward, on his way home, halted his weary forces
at Durham, where he paid homage to the church and bishopric,
and gave largesses to the citizens. Sir John and his company,
heartily thanked and rewarded for their services, were escorted
by twelve knights and two-hundred men-at-arms to Dover,
whence they embarked for Hainault.

It is thus evident that the Scots were an unsatisfactory
enemy so long as they ^vere so ably led and employed such
tactics. But King Robert Bruce died of leprosy in April,
1328, leaving his son David, a child of seven, his heir;
the King's death, coupled with the determination of the
English to wipe out the disgrace of Bannockburn, at
length brought about the desired result, and on July 19,
1333, Edward defeated the Scots at Halidon Hill. Law-
rence Minot, whose few extant patriotic poems are all
we know of him, celebrates this victory in stirring verse.
So keen is his sense of the relation of Bannockburn and
Halidon Hill, that he names his poem after the first
battle but devotes his attention to exultation over the sec-
ond and its results. We quote a translation into modern
verse.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 179

(Now to tell you I will turn

Of the battle of Bannockburn.)
Scots out of Berwick and Aberdeen,
At the Burn of the Bannock were ye too keen.
There ye slew many guiltless, as now ye have seen.
And now has King Edward wreaked vengeance, I ween.
It is avenged, I wot, well worth the while,
Wreaked upon the Scots, for they are full of guile.

Where are ye Scots from St. John's town.^

The boast of your banners is all beaten down.

When ye fell to your boasting King Edward was boun

To kindle your care and crack your crown.

He has cracked your crown, well worth the while !

Shame o'ertake the Scots, for they are full of guile.

Scots out of Sterling stern were and stout:
Of God and good men no fear they had nor doubt;
Now have the robbers themselves turned about;
But King Edward at last has rifled their rout.
He has rifled their rout, well worth the while;
For the Scots are as fond of gauds as of guile.
Poor roughfoot rivling, now wakens thy care !
Bag-bearing boaster, thy dwelling is bare !
False wretch and forsworn where now wilt thou fare?
Go, get thee to Bruges and bide thy time there I
There, wretch, shalt thou pine and weary the while;
Thy dwelling in Dundee is gone through thy guile.

The Scot goes to Bruges, and beats the streets.
Threats to the English he alway repeats.
Loud makes he his moan to all whom he greets;
Few mind his laments, well worth the while;
He mingles his threats witli Aviles and witli guile.

But for many who threaten and speak now full ill
'Twere better, sometimes, they should be slone-still.
The brash Scot with his threats has wind only to spill;
For Edward, our King, will ;it last ha\e his will.
He had his will at Berwick, well worth the while;
Scots gave him the keys, but look out for their guile.

180 ENGLISH LITERATURE

In alarm at the success of Edward, the Scots sent King
David to France and secured the aid of King Phihp VI, ^''
who determined to take the offensive against the EngHsh.
Thus was begun the Hundred Years' War between Eng-
land and France when Edward in October, 1337, pro-
claimed himself king of France. The basis on which he
did this is set forth by Froissart as follows:

Now sheweth the history that . . . Philip le Beau, king of
France, had three sons and a fair daughter named Isabel, mar-
ried into England to King Edward the second; and these three
sons, the eldest named Louis, who was king of Navarre in his
father's days and was called King Louis Hutin; the second had
to name Philip the Great or the Long, and the third was called
Charles; and all three were kings of France after their father's
decease by right succession each after other, without having
any issue male of rtieir bodies la\\'fully begotten. So that after
the death of Charles, last king of the three, the twelve peers
and all the barons of France would not give the realm to Isabel,
the sister, who was Queen of England, because they said and
maintained, and yet do, that the realm of France is so noble
that it ought not to go to a woman, ^*' and so consequently not
to Isabel, nor to the king of England, her eldest son. For they
determined the son of the woman to have no right nor succes-
sion by his mother, since they declared the mother to have no
right; so that by these reasons the twelve peers and barons of
France by their common accord did give the realm of France
to the lord, Philip of Valois, nephew sometime to Philip le Beau,
king of France, and so put out the queen of England and her
son, who was as the next heir male, as son to the sister to Charles,
the last king of France. Thus went the realm of France out of the
right lineage, as it seemed to many folk, whereby great wars have

^ France and Scotland had made an alliance in 1295 "by which Scotch manners
and customs were profoundly influenced by the French" (Cross, op. cit., p. 170)
and the consequences of which were "most significant for England's foreign and
domestic history." {Ibid., p. 169.) It is these complications which are referred to
in the writs of summons to the ]\Iodel Parliament of 1295. (Cf. ante, pp. 173, 175.)

^ The principle knowTi as the Salic Law.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 181

moved and fallen, and great destructions of j)eople and coun-
tries in the realm of France and other places, as ye may-
hereafter see. This is the very foundation of this history, to
recount the great enterprises and great feats of arms that have
fortuned and fallen. Sith the time of the good Charlemagne,
king of France, there never fell so great adventures. . . .

Of these "great enterprises and great feats of arms"
none is more important than the battle of Crecy, August
26, 1346, thus narrated by Froissart:

The Englishmen, who were in three battles, ^^ lying on the
ground to rest them, as soon as they saw the Frenchmen ap-
proach, rose upon their feet fair and easily without any haste
and arranged their battles. In the first which was the prince's ^
battle, the archers stood in the manner of a herse,*^^ and the men
of arms in the bottom of the battle. The earl of Xortliliampton and
the earl of Arundel, with the second battle, were on a wing in good
order, ready to comfort the prince's battle, if need were.

The lords and knights of France came not to the assembly in
good order, for some came before and some came after in such
evil order that one of them did trouble another. When the
French king saw the Englishmen his blood changed, and he said
to his marshals, "Make the Genoways ^^ go on before and begin
the battle in the name of God and St. Denis." ^^ There were
of the Genoways crossbows about fifteen thousand, but they
were so weary of going afoot that day a six leagues armed ^^ ith
their crossbows, that they said to their constables, "We be not
well ordered to fight this day, for we be not in case to do any
feats of arms: we have more need of rest." These words came
to the earl of Alenf;on, who said, "A man is well at ease to })e
charged with such a set of rascals, to be faint and fail now at
most need." Also the same season there fell a great rain and
liglitning with terrible thunder, and before the rain there came
flying over both battles a great number of crows for fear of the

*^ I.e. divisions.

^^ P^dward the Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III, made his debut as a
warrior in this battle. ^9 j ^ ^ harrow. ''° I.e. Genoese.

^^ I.e. Patron saint of France, as St. George of England.

182 ENGLISH LITERATURE

tempest coming. Then anon the air began to wax clear, and
the sun to shine fair and bright, the which was right in the
Frenchmen's eyen ^^ and on the EngHshmen's backs. When the
Genoways were assembled together and began to approach, they
uttered very great cries to abash the Englishmen, but they
stood still and stirred not for all that; then the Genoways
again a second time made a great and a fell cry, and stept for-
ward a little, and the Englishmen removed not one foot; thirdly
again they cried out and then they shot fiercely with their cross-
bows. Then the English archers stept forth one pace and let
fly their arrows, so wholly and so thick that it seemed snow.
When the Genoways felt the arrows piercing through heads,
arms and breasts, many of them did cast down their crossbows
and did cut their strings and returned discomfited. When the
French king saw them fly away, he said, "Slay these rascals,
for they shall let ^^ and trouble us without reason." Then you
should have seen the men of arms dash in among them and kill
a great number of them; and ever still the Englishmen shot
whereas they saw the thickest press; the sharp arrows ran into
the men of arms and into their horses, and many fell, horses
and men, among the Genoways, and when they were down they
could not rise again; the press was so thick that one overthrew
another. And also among the Englishmen there were certain
rascals that went afoot with great knives, and they went in
among the men of arms and slew and murdered many as they
lay on the ground, both earls, knights and squires, whereof the
king of England was after displeased, for he had rather they
had been taken prisoners.

The valiant king of Bohemia, called Charles of Luxembourg,
for all that he was nigh blind, when he understood the order of
battle, he said to them about him, "Where is the lord Charles,
my son?" His men said, "Sir, we cannot tell; we think he be
fighting." Then he said, "Sirs, ye be my men, my companions
in this journey. ^"^ I require you to bring me so far forward that
I may strike one stroke with my sword." They said they would
do his commandment, and to the intent that they should not
lose him in the press, they all tied the reins of their bridles each
"^ I.e. eyes. ^^ I.e. hinder. ^ I.e. "day's work."

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 183

to the other and set the king before to accompHsh his desire,
and so they went on their enemies. The lord Charles of Bohe-
mia, his son, who wrote himself king of Almaine ^^ and bare the
arms, he came in good order to the battle; but when he saw
that the matter went awry on their party, he departed, I can-
not tell you which way. The king, his father, was so far for-
ward that he strake a stroke with his sword, yea, and more
than four and fought valiantly, and so did his company; and
they adventured themselves so forward that they were all
there slain, and the next day they were found in the place about
the king, and all their horses tied each to the other. . . .

In the morning, the day of the battle, certain Frenchmen
and Almains ^^ perforce opened the archers of the prince's battle
and came out and fought with the men of arms, hand to hand.
Then the second battle of the Englishmen came to succour the
prince's battle, the which was time, for they had as then much
ado; and they with the prince sent a messenger to the king who
was on a little windmill hill. Then the knight said to the king,
"Sir, the earl of Warwick, and the earl of Oxford, Sir Raynold
Cobham, and other, such as be about the prince, your son, are
fiercely fought withal and are sorely handled; wherefore they
desire that you and your battle ^^ will come and aid them; for
if the Frenchmen increase, as they doubt they will, your son
and they shall have much ado." Then the king said, "Is my
son dead or hurt on the earth felled?" "No, sir," quoth the
knight, "but he is hardly matched; wlierefore he hath need of
your aid." "Well," said the king, "return to him and to them
that sent you hither, and say to them that they send no more
to me for any adventure that falleth, as long as my son is ali\c;
and also say to them that they suffer him this day lo win liis
spurs; for if God be pleased, I will this journey '''^ l)c liis and
the honor thereof, and to them that be about him." TIumi tlic
knight returned again to them and slicwcd the king's words,
the which greatly encouraged tliem, and rc})oined •"•' that ihcy
had sent to the king as they did.

^ I.e. Germany. •* lo. (ionnan.s.

»^ The king was evidently in command of tiie tliird division of the English.

»8 I.e. "day's work." '•''•' I.e. fell sorry.

184 ENGLISH LITERATURE

111 the evening the French king, who had left about him no
more than threescore persons, one and another, whereof sir
John of Hainault was one, who had remounted once the king,
for his horse was slain with an arrow, then he said to the king,
"Sir, depart hence, for it is time; lose not yourself wilfully; if
ye have loss at this time, ye shall recover it again another
season." And so he took the king's horse by the bridle and led
him away in a manner perforce. Then the king rode until he
came to the castle of Broye. The gate was closed, because it
was by that time dark; then the king called the captain, who
came to the walls and said, "Who is it that calleth there this
time of night?" Then the king said, "Open your gate quickly,
for this is the fortune of France." The captain knew then it
was the king, and opened the gate and let down the bridge. Then
the king entered, and he had with him but five barons, sir John
of Hainault, sir Charles of Montmorency, the lord of Beaujeu,
the lord d'Aubigny and the lord of Montsault. The king would
not tarry there, but drank and departed thence about midnight,
and so rode by such guides as knew the country till he came
in the morning to Amiens, and there he rested.

This Saturday the Englishmen never departed from their
battles for chasing of any man, but kept still their field, and
ever defended themselves against all such as came to assail them.
This battle ended about evensong time.

Crecy and Poictiers (Sept. 19, 1356), "those withering
overthrows for the chivalry of France," ^^° with the inter-
vening siege and capture of Calais (Sept. 2, 1346-Aug.
3, 1347), mark the height of English success in the war
with France. Economic difficulties at home, coupled with
the failing health of the Black Prince, the generalship of
Bertrand du Guesclin, Constable of France, and the sur-

^^^ The phrase is De Quincey's; cf. his Joan of Arc, Professor Turk's Athenopum
Press cd., p. 265. Cf, "The ... consequences (of Crecy) were momentous; tlie
very foundations of medieval society were shaken when the flower of French mailed
knighthood had to yield to yeomen archers and Welsh and Irish serfs armed with
knives and spears. It was a mortal l)low at the old system of warfare and the
social and i)olitical structure built upon it." Cross, op. cit., p. lOG.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 185

prising ^^^ statesmanship of the unmiHtary Charles V, caused
the tide to turn, and the long reign of Edward III ended
gloomily ^"- in 1377. His eldest son had died the preced-
ing year, leaving a son, Richard surnamed of Bordeaux,
a boy of ten, who now succeeded his grandfather as Rich-
ard II. But the problems left over from the preceding
reign, the solution of which grew increasingly difficult
during the minority and irresponsible rule of the young
king, finally led to his deposition, the second in his family
in a century, in 1399. For some reason, contemporary
chronicle accounts of the events culminating in this de-
position are scanty and unsatisfactory. We shall depend
on the allegorical story in the following poem which gives,
better than any other material, a sense of the complex
situation in 1399. The poem now known as Richard the
Redeless (i.e. Richard Lackwisdom) ^^^ was ascribed by the
late Professor Skeat to the author of the Vision of William
concerning Piers the Plowman.

... As I passed to my prayers where priests were at mass
In a blessed old borough that Bristol ^^'^ is called,

^^^ Cf. the remark of Echvard III quoted, from I know not what source, in
Cross, op. cif., p. 204, '"There never was a king who had less to do with arms, yet
there was never a king who gave me so much to do.' "

^^ Cf. the statement in Bnd {Early English Text Society ed.. Original Seriefi,
cxxxvi, p. 334), quoted in Vickers, England in the Later Middle Ages (G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1914), p. 243, "For as in the beginning all things were joyful and pleasing to
him and to all the people, and in middle life he surpassed all men in high joy anil
worship and blessedness, so, when he drew into age, tlegenerating through lust and
other sins, gradually all those blessed and joyful things, good fortune and pn)sp<Tity.
decreased and fell away, and unfortunate things and unprofitable Ikhius. with ni;iny
ills, began to spring up, and, what is worse, continued long after." ij iiave
translated the passage.)

'"^ But sec Manly in the Cambridge Ilistory of Einjlish Lifcnifnrr, ii. pp. 41, 42.

"^' "In this same year (1398) King Richard went into Ireland the second tini*-,
that is to say in the end of the same year. And in the l)egiiuiing of the twenty-third
year of his reign (i.e. 1399) Harry Duke of Lancaster, who had been exiled, came
back to England; and he landed in the north country at a place men call Raven-
spur. And with him the Archbishoj) of Canterbury, sir Thomas of Arundel, that
was exiled the same time. And anon th(M-e came to iiini Harry Karl of Nortlium-

186 ENGLISH LITERATURE

In the temple of Trinity in midst of the town.
Whose title is Christ Church, down among commons,
Sudden there surged up seldom known things.
Quite wondrous to wise men, as well they might be.
Forerunners of fears and doubts following after. -
So sore were the sayings of both the two sides,^^^
Of Richard who ruled so rich and so noble,
When he warred in the west against the wild Irish,
That Henry had entered upon the east coast
Whom all the land loved in length and in breadth.
And rose with him rapid to right all his wrongs,^^^

berland and sir Harry Percy and many other lords who had been left here in Eng-
land. And the aforesaid Harry Duke of Lancaster from thence anon with all his
host went toward Bristol, where he found sir William Scrope, treasurer of England,
sir John Bushy and sir John Green who were all three condemned there and be-
headed. And anon afterward in the same year many Londoners went to West-
minster, imagining that they would find King Richard there. . . . And sir William
Bagot, knight, was taken in Ireland near Dublin, and brought to London and put
in Newgate prison, and at length released because of his clever defense." Tr. the
Editor from Chronicles of London, ed. C. L. Kingsford, p. 19 (Oxford, Clarendon
Press, 1905). The poem begins abruptly; the writer evidently wishes to represent
himself as in the midst of things and thus locates himself at Bristol.

^^ I.e. the country was receiving contradictory reports of what was going on.

^^ In a contemporary French poem Traison et Mort du Roy Richart {The Betrayal
and Death of King Richard), whose author is very sympathetic to the cause of Rich-
ard, the Earl of Northumberland is represented as sent by Henry to treat with the
King regarding the import of Henry's return to England. Northumberland, on
being asked what Henry desires, replies to the King, "My dear sire, . . . my lord
of Lancaster has sent me to tell you what he most wishes for in this world is to have
peace and a good understanding with you, and greatly repents, with all his heart,
of the displeasure he hath caused you now and at other times, and asks nothing of
you in this living world, save that you would consider him as your cousin and friend,
and that you would please only to let him have his land, and that he may be Senes-
chal of England as his father and his predecessors have been, and that all other
things of bygone time may be put in oblivion between you two. . . ." (Translated
in Locke, War arid Misrule, being a source book of English history 1307-1399 in
BelVs English History Source Books, 1913.) On the death of John of Gaunt, father
of Henry of Lancaster, Richard, according to Froissart, confiscated the family
lands and deprived Henry of his hereditary office. It was because of this that he
returned to England. (Cf. Froissart, op. et ed. cit., p. 462). As regards the exile of
Henry compare the following from Chronicles of London already cited, p. 18 " . . .
About St. Bartholomew's tide in the twenty-first year (1397) of King Richard, at
Coventry before him the Duke of Hereford (later our Harry Duke of Lancaster)

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 187

For he would reward them f(3r the work after.
These jarring tales troubled me, for they were true,
And worried my wit with vexatious regard;
For it passed all my power of perception and thought,
How such wonderful works would come to an end.
But in sooth when they gathered, some sought to repent,^*^^
As in Christendom's circle conceivable is,
(Saying) 'twere sad royal reason reformed not at all
The mischief and misrule that men had endured.
I pitied his passion who Prince was of Wales,
And also our crowned king till Christ send another;
And, though I were little like lord to his liege, ^"^
My whole heart was his while he healthily ruled.
As I utterly knew not how things would turn out.
Whether God would soon give him the grace to amend,
To again be our guide or grant it another,
This made me to muse much and oftimes consider
To pen him a parchment to pray him be better.
And move him his mind from misrule to betake.
To praise loud the Prince who paradise made.
To fill him with faith all fortune above.
And not pine in impatience 'gainst Providence' will.
But meekly to suffer whatso were him sent.
And if it might like him to look o'er my leaves,
That made are to mend him for all his misdeeds.
And keep him in comfort in Christ and naught else,
I'd be glad that his spirit might spring for my speech.
But glum if it grieved him, by God that me bought.

and the Duke of Norfolk should have fought within hsts. But anon after th(\v had
taken their positions, the King took the contest into his own hands; and so they
fought not. And there in the same phice they were hoth exiled. That is to say,
Harry Duke of Hereford for ten years, and Thomas Duke of Norfolk for an hun-
dred years." (Tr. the Editor as are ail the other passag(\s quot(>d from this docu-
ment). Cf. the representation of this in Shakespeare, Richard II, Act I. scenes
1 and .3.

^•^^ I.e. some of those wlio had joiueil Henry changed their n\inds and went over
to Richard.

^'^^ I.e. the writer is so insignificant that his opinion made little ditferenee one
way or the other.

188 ENGLISH LITERATURE

After this exposition of the occasion of his poem and
his purpose in writing it, the author goes on to explain
at some length that he dischiims any proud purpose and
begs that his work be accepted in the spirit in which it
was written. He adds that he has the young especially in
mind in order to save them from the ill results of will-
fulness. This completes the introduction to the poem.
The first section or passus opens as follows with the au-
thor's view of the causes of Richard's fall:

Now, Richard the Redeless, have ruth on yourself,
Who lawless have led both your life and your people;
For through wiles and by wrong and waste in your time
You have lightly been lifted from what you thought lief,
And through willfulest works your will has been changed.
And bereft have you been of both riot and rest.
Your cares were renewed through your own cursed council,
And crazed has your crown been for covetousness.^°^
The love of money is the root of all evils}'^^
Of allegiance now learn a lesson or two,
Its source of security, staple supply —

^^"^ The Chronicles of London, already cited, devote 28 pages to an account of
the deposition of Richard and statement of the charges against him. Of these
latter there are 33 and of these 8 deal with money matters. The following (p. 30)
is the most striking of the list: "also, whereas the king of England may honestly
and sufficiently live off the profits and revenues of his realm and the patrimony
belonging to the Crown, without oppressing his people while the realm is not charged
with the cost and expense of war, Richard, being, so to spe«,k, all his time in truce
between the realm of England and his adversary (i.e. France), hath given, granted
and done away to diverse persons very im worthy, the most part of what belongs to
the Crown. And furthermore (he) hath put so many charges of grants and taxes
on his subjects and lieges, and that almost every year, that overmuch and exces-
sively he has oppressed his people to the great hindering and impairing of his realm
by poverty. And the same goods that have been so raised have not been s[)ent for
the profit or worship of the realm, but for the commendation of his own
name and pomp and vain glory, dispersing the same goods unprofitably. And yet
the greatest sums of money are owing in the realm for victuals and expenses of his
household, though he has had more riches than any of his progenitors that any man
can reckon or have in mind."

^^^ This line is a translation of the Vulgate reading of 1 Tim. 6: 10.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 189

Not dread nor din nor deeming untrue,
Not creation of coin for commerce in guile,
Not pillage of people your princes to please;
Not wanton caprice against wisdom's will;
Not taxation of towns without any war
By robbers who rioters ruthless were aye;
Not appraising by poleax that pitiless falls,
Nor debts from your dicing, demur as you may;
Not letting of law down by pampering love."^
If this, for a dull noil, be darkly drawn up,
Much need is there not to muse thereupon;
For mad as I am and little mind have,
I could it portray in a very few words;
For loveless allegiance availeth but little.

Later on, after speaking of the happy auspices under
which Richard had become king, the writer recurs to his
fall as follows:

What became of this crown would a clerk ^^'- here might tell;
But as well as I can I propose to declare.
And name I no names but those that were nighest:
Very privately plucked they your great power away.
And quite royally rode they throughout all your realm;
From tillers, like tyrants, they took what they pleased.
And paid them with pate-blows when pennies were few.
For none of your people durst plain of their wrongs
For dread of your dukes and of double their woe.
IVIen might as well hunt for a hare with a taper
iVs hope for amends for all their misdeeds,

"^ Thirteen of the charges against Ric-hard in The Chronicles of London account
deal with his abuse of the legal system of England, one of which (p. -2S) goes as
follows: "Also, notwithstanding tiiat the King at his coronation swore tli;it in ;ill
his judgments he should do and ord:iin to he (hme even .lud righteous ju.sticc and
righteousness in mercy and truth hy ;dl his power and niii,dit ; nevertheless he with-
out any sort of mercy with great vigor ordained upon great pain tiiat no niainier
of man should speak or pray him for any sort of grace or mercy for Harry I)uk(> of
Lancaster. In which thing tiie same king against all bonds of cliarity broke his
aforesaid oath which he had made."

^^^ I.e. a more learned man than the present writer.

190 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Or a plea against pensioners publish at all.^^'^

For blinded with friendship were you for all these;

There was no single person to punish the wrongs,

And this maddened your men, as needs it must do:

They wist not for woe to whom to complain.

For, as it was said, in earlier days,

"Where the grooms and good freemen are all alike great,

'Tis sad for the dwellings and dwellers therein." ^^^

They led you with love who law feared to meet

In judging your dukes* deeds, so dark were they then.

Thus cracked was your crown, to be newly recast.
Through parting with power to paramours base.

Later on in the third passus of his poem the writer
touches more specifically on judicial abuses as the cause
of the King's ruin, as follows:

But still there's a foul fault that often I find:
They (i.e. royal agents) pry after presents before pleas are drawn.
And abate all the bills of those that bring none (i.e. no pres-
ents) ;
And whoso is grouchy or groans at their grants (i.e. the con-
clusion of his case)
May lose his life lightly and no less a pledge. ^^^
Thus mightiest lords do lower the law.
Who more than all others misdoers maintain.

^^^ Charge 5 in The Chronicles of London (p. 27) asserts: At the same time the
king raised a great company of evil doers in Chester "of whom some went alway
^^^th the King through the realm, and cruelly slew many heges of the realm as well
within the King's house as without; and some they beat, wounded, maimed and
robbed, and took up victuals without payment and ravished wives and other
women. And although great pleas and complaints were made, spoken and declared
in the King's hearing, he, nevertheless, took no heed, nor arranged to ordain any
remedy or help for the trouble. But he let them alone and favored them in their
evil deeds, trusting in them more than in all the other lieges of his realm. Where-
fore all the true subjects of this realm grew very active amongst themselves and
engendered] great cause and matter of indignation amongst them."

^^* A saying, according to Skeat, attributed to Bede.

"^ Charge 21 in The Chronicles of London (p. 33) states that the King, in order
to raise money, encouraged various people to spy on the nobles and clergy and
bring in accusations of treason against them.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 191

For maintenance (i.e. abetting evil doers) aye — much more is

the pity ! —
Hath many more men at meat and at meals
Than ever a Christianlike king that you knew;
For, as Reason and Right rehearsed to me once,
These men are the ones who make the most woe.
For chiders of Chester ^^^ were chose many days
To be counsel for cases that came })efore court.
And pleaded Pie-Poudre ^^^ for all sorts of plaints.
They cared for no coifs that court-lawyers use.
But made many motions that man never thought (of before),
And falsehood they feigned till they drew out a fine.
And knew none of the cases commonly called.
No other sign had they to show up the law
But a pallet ^^^ of leather their heads to protect
And cover them up in lieu of a cap.
They conjured up quarrels the people to quench.
And pleaded with polaxes, sword points and pikes;
As doom was declared they drew out their blades,
And lightly they lent men the lore of long bats.^^^
They lacked all the virtues a la\\yer should have,
For, before the case opened, they called out the end.
Without hope of appeal 'less one hated his life.
And if one complained to the prince, guard of peace,
Regarding these mischievous mongers of wrong.
He was easy arrested, ungraciously seized.
And mummed on the mouth ^''^ and menaced with death.
They laid on your lieges. King, many a lash.
Nor dreaded a deal the doom of the law.
None dared in the realm to rebuke them when wrong,
No judge, nor yet justice, that judgment would give
For aught that they took, or trespassing dcvd.

"6 Cf. note 11.3 on p. 190, ante.

"^ Skeat notes, "i.e. in the court of Pie-l\)ii(lre; llie siuunmry court foriutTly
held at fairs, and so caUcd from the dusty feet {pml.s poudrcnx) of those present ."
^'^ Skeat says in his note "a leathern head-piece."

'•^ Skeat paraphra.ses, "And gave men the free exp<'ri(>iu-e of their long staves."
^-^ I.e. slapped on the mouth ;in(l told to kecj) "minu."

19-2 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The author further dilates on the troublous condition
of England, couching his thoughts in allegorical terms
drawn from the current natural history, now become fabu-
lous, of which writers were so fond even to the time of
Lyly and Shakespeare.^-^ Our poet thus applies the habits
of the hart and the partridge respectively to the state of
the country:

I refer to the Hart ^" that in height of his time —
When pasture thus pricks him and his proper age —
When he's hobbled on earth an hundred of years,
So he's feeble in flesh, in fell and in bones,
His custom's to come and catch, if he can.
Such adders as harm all other clean beasts.
Through bushes ^^^ and brakes this beast in his way.
Goes seeking and searching for adders, the shrews,
That steal to our homesteads to sting us to death.
And when it has happened the Hart catches one.
He puts him to pain as one would treat prey
And feeds on the venom a long time on end.
This is clearly his nature — not to grieve colts. ^^^

121 Cf. As you Like It, II, i, 11. 12-17:

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous.

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life exempt from public haunt.
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks.
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

122 Skeat's note reads, "The story of the hart, in the old Bestiaries, is that,
when he grows old, he seeks out an adder and swallows it; but, the adder's poison
causing him to bum, he rushes to the water and drinks plentifully^ so rendering
the venom harmless; after which he sheds his horns, and renews his strength."
The point of the use of the hart here is that the white hart was the favorite badge
of Richard 11. His retainers had it on their liveries. Cf. the translation of the
story of the hart in the Bestiary in Weston, Chief Middle English Poets (Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1914), p. 328.

123 The reference to the bushes here seems to be a pun on the name of Sir John
Bushy, one of the best known cronies of Richard; cf. the note on p. 185, ante.

1'^ On this and the other animals mentioned here, cf. Skeat's note, "The horse
is Richard Fitz-alan, Earl of Arundel, beheaded on Tower-hill a.d. 1397; the colt.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 193

Nor harass good horses, harnessed and tamed.

Nor strive with the Swan, though he should attack, ^^5

Nor bait the fell Bear, nor bind him up either,

Nor wistfully woo his willingest kin,^^'^

Nor list him to look at allies when they bleed;

This is all against Nature, as clerks have declared:

On account of ingratitude, the free man is recalled to slavery,
as in the prick of conscience and in civil law.^^?
And, therefore, our hart his health has quite missed,
And could not pass even the point of his prime.
Now construe this who can — I no more can say.^^^

Now I'll fare to the fowl which I mentioned before.
Of all the billed birds that build on the ground
My pleasure's to praise the partridge's ^-^ way,
That in season of summer when sitting is near.
And each fowl with his fere doth follow his kind,
This bird by a bank doth build up her nest,

his son Thomas, who fled to join Henry, and was one of the small company who
landed with him at Ravenspur; the sican, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, Riciiard's
uncle, so treacherously murdered by his orders at Calais, about the same time that
Arundel was beheaded; and the bear, Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, seized
with Arundel by Richard's orders, and banished by him for life to the Isle of Man,
though afterwards released by Henry. They were named from their badges, the
white horse being that of Arundel, the swan that of Gloucester, which he had adopted
from his father Edward III, who sometimes used it; and the black bear that of the
Earl of Warwick." Five of the charges against Richard in the Chronicles of London
account of his deposition, cited before, have to do with his treatment of the Duke of
Gloucester, the Earl of Arundel and the Earl of Warwick. Thus, the fourth charge
states that the King put to death the first two and doomed the last and the Lord
Cobham to perjjetual imprisonment, though they all had royal charters of pardon.

^-^ I.e. not even though Gloucester should take the initiative against ihc ( rown.

^ Cf. the quotation from TraisonctMort du Roy Richart on p. 18{), ante, and from
Froissart, ed. cit., p. 468, where Richard requests an interview with Henry of Lancaster.

^27 This is the tran.slation of a sentence in Latin inserted into the Englisli text;
is the expression "prick of conscience" a reference to the Middle English work of
that name?

1-^ The general meaning seems to be that, whereas the iioi)Ie hart rc(t>iii)s liiin-
self by hunting adders (i.e. the "undesirable citizens" of the country), Richard
has oppressed and killed off the most noteworthy people in the conununity and has
thus failed to make his way.

'-^ This account of the partridge, too. is derived from the Hestiary. ( f. Wright.
Popitlar Treatises on Science Written during the Middle Ages (London. ISH . p. 108.

194 . ENGLISH LITERATURE

And heaps up her eggs and heats them all well.

And, when the dam's done what belongs to the deed,

And hopes all to hatch ere harvest begin,

Then comes on a coward who wears a gray coat,

As nice in her noil as if she'd made the nest.

Another proud partridge, approaches the place,

And privily hides there until the dam pass;

Then seizes the seat with all her soft plumes.

And sits on the eggs that the other has laid.

She covers them well till the young come to life,

And fosters and feeds them till feathers appear.

And coats given by Nature compass them round.

But as soon as they stiffen so they can step.

Then comes up and cries their own cunning dam,

And they know w^ell her note at the very first noise.

And leave quite the lurker that erstwhile them led —

For their stomachs too seldom the substitute filled,

And their limbs were too lean, for with hunger they'd lived.

Now, daily they cheerily dine with their dam

And she fosters them forth until they can fly.

"What may this all mean, man?" well may you me ask,
"For it's darkly endited, for dull brain too hard;
Wherefore I wish now it might be your will
To tell what is proved by the partridge's case."
Ah ! go to, Hick Heavy-head, hard is your noil
To catch any cunning if craftily said !
Did you not hear what I spoke but just now —
The Eagle ^^^ had entered his own in the East
And cried and called out for his own kind of birds
Annoyed in his nest and nourished full ill
And worried to death by a leader all wrong?
But these needy nestlings the note having heard
Of the great Eagle, good angel of all.
Broke from the bushes ^^^ and briars that tore them,

'3^ The Eagle is Henry of Lancaster, who apparently had taken over this badge,
one of the numerous insignia of his grandfather, Edward III (Skeat's note).

'•^' The reference to the bushes is again a pun on the name of Sir John Bushy.
Cf. ante, p. 185.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 195

And, bent upon reaching him, burnished their bills

And followed him fiercely to fight out his wrongs;

They with their bills babbled how beaten they'd been.

And troubled with twigs for twenty-two ^^^ years.

Thus, left they the leader who led them awry.

And missed not a thing but taxed up their corn,^^^

And gathered their groats with guile as I trow.

They followed their father with faith strong and free;

Because he would feed them and foster them further.

And bring them from bondage to which they'd been broke.

Then sighed all the swimmers (i.e. the friends of Gloucester)

because the Swan ^^^ failed,
And followed this Falcon (i.e. the Eagle) throughout fields and

towns.
With many fair fowls, though many were faint
And hea\y for hurt which had come to the Horse.
Yet they fluttered all forth as fast as they could,
To have from the Eagle some help from their harm;
For he headed them all and was highest of heart
In keeping the crown as the chronicle ^^^ tells.
He cheered up the Bear and broke off his bonds,
And left him at large, to leap where he would.
And then all the bear-cubs (i.e. Warwick's friends) burst out

at once.
As fain as the fowl that flies in the sky,
That brought to his own and unbound was the boss.^^^

^^ I.e. for the term of Richard's reign.

^^^ I.e. Richard's tax-gatherers were very careful to Hst all one's property for
assessment and even took all of a farmer's crops as taxes.

^** See the note on the meanings of these animal names, onte, p. I9i.

^^ Just what chronicle is meant there is no means of knowing, but it is iutcn-st-
ing that in The Chronicles of London (ed. cit., p. 43), after the account of the deposi-
tion of Richard, there is inserted Henry's challenge of the cnm-n, as follows: "In
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I, Harry of I^mcaster, claim the
realm of P^ngland and the cro\\Ti with all the memhers and appurtenances. As I
that am descended by direct line of the blood, coming from the good King Harry
IH. And through that right, that God of His grace hatii sent to me. with help of
my kin and of my friends to recover it. The which realm was on tlie point of lieing
undone for lack of governance and good law."

^^ The very word of the text.

196 ENGLISH LITERATURE

They gathered to-gether in a great rout,

To lielj) out the heirs ^^ who long had been wronged.

Out on the green ^^^ they cackled their grief

For friends that had fallen through foul schemes of crime.

They mourned for the murder of manfullest knights.

Sternly withstanding many a storm;

They 'monished the Marshal ^^^ for his misdeeds,

Who ill-knew his craft when he covered the Horse.

And aye as they followed this Falcon about

At each moving foot for vengeance they cried

On all that assented to that evil deed.

The poem concludes with the following vivid narrative,
which furnishes a kind of composite picture of the last
parliaments of Richard's reign. The poem ends abruptly
and is unfinished, as its beginning is missing.

For where now was Christian king you ever knew
That held such an household, measured by half.
As Richard in England's realm others "misruled."
So that not all his fines for faults or fee-farms,
Nor forfeitures many that fell in his day.
Nor nonages ^^^ numberless ever renewed,
Like March ^^^ and like Mowbray and manifold more,

^^"^ According to feudal law (cf . post, p. 203) the suzerain had a right to a certain
fine, much like a modern inheritance tax, when the heir succeeded to his property.
According to The Chronicles of London {ed. cit., p. 28), the sixth charge against Rich-
ard was that his assessment of fines and ransoms was excessive and could not be
depended upon; i.e. after an offender or suitor had paid his fine, he was just as
likely as not to be called on to pay it again.

138 This reference to the green, again, is doubtless a pun on the name of Sir Henry
Green, one of Richard's friends.

^^^ Skeat's note, "The Earl-marshal was Thomas De Mowbray, Duke of Nor-
folk, son-in-law to the Earl of Arundel. The latter was executed by Richard's
orders; and, as Froissart tells us, the Earl-marshal actually bandaged his father-in-
law's eyes at the execution. . . . This is why the poet says Mowbray knew his
craft ill; for the oflSce of a Marshal (lit. servant of the horse) is to attend to the
wants of a horse, not to bandage its eyes."

^^^ Cf . " At the death of the vassal, the possession of his holding reverted to the
over lord as a result of the latter's abiding proprietorship; when the heir of the de-
ceased vassal took possession of the land, the payment of the relief was an acknowl-

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 197

Nor all cases in courts the king could control,

Nor selling that soaks up silver right fast,

Nor ])rofits of lands in the princely domain,

\Yhen accounts were cast up, with the custom of wills.

Could reach far enough, even adding his rents,

To pay the poor people purveyance's ^^^ cost,

"Without praying Parliament for poundage ^"^ beside,

And fifteenths and tenths, ^^^

And custom of cloth for sale at the fairs? ^"^

Yet if credit had come not in at the last,

Though the curse of the commons has cleaved to it aye,

edgement of this fact. ^Yhen the heir was a minor, the lord was his guanhan during
minority and received more or less of the land's income during that time." AVhite,
op. cit., p. 106, note. The Earls of March were descendants in the female line of
Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III, and rightful heirs to the throne
after Richard II. Roger Earl of March died in 1398 and was succeeded by his son
Edmund, a minor. The Mowbrays were Earls of Nottingham and, later, Dukes
of Norfolk; "John de Mowbray and Thomas de Mowbray both succeeded to the
title while in their minority in this reign." (Skeat's note.)

^^^ Purveyance was provision for the subsistence of the King and his train during
a royal progress through the country; cf. note on p. 190, ante.

^^ A tax on merchandise, assessed by weight.

^^^ "So-called because, originally and usually, they consisted of a tenth of the
revenues or chattels of burgesses and a fifteenth from the landholders of shires."
Cross, op. cit., p. 210, note.

1^ Cf. "Outside the local markets and the towns, trading centered m the great
annual fairs. The most famous of these were at Stourbridge and Winchester.
The Stourbridge fair controlled the trade of the eastern counties and the Baltic
Sea. Every trade and nationality was represented. It was under the control of
the corporation of Cambridge, it was opened annually on 18 September, when
temporary booths were set up, and it continued for three weeks. More important
still was the Winchester fair under the control of the Bishop of Winchester. Lying
between Southampton and London it was the great mart for the southeast. It
opened every year on the eve of St. Giles (31 August) and lasted for sixteen days.
During the session of the fair all trade was suspended in the neighborhood and
weights and measures were carefully scrutinized. The fairs had a special law
administered in the Pie Powder Court, so-called from the French Piah poudrcs
(dusty feet; cf. ante, p. 191) in reference to the traveling merchants and others who
came under its jurisdiction. In return for privileges and protection the merchants
paid heavy toll to the lord who controlled the fair, and curiou.s cases are on reconl
of those who tried to evade their obligations by digging their way in under the
palisades. Other fairs were held at Boston, St. Ives, Oxford, and Stamford." Ibid.,
p. 103.

198 ENGLISH LITERATURE

They'd been drawn to the devil becanse of their debts.

And when riot and revehy'd used up the rent,

And nothing was left except the bare bags,^''^

Then fell they to force to fill them again

And feigned some folly that never them failed.

And cast out their coils in council at even

To parhament privily for their own profit.

The writs went out secretly sealed up with wax.
For peers and for prelates who then should appear;
And riders they sent out to neighboring shires
To choose ^^^ them such knights as w ould cheerfully come
To sit for the shire in seats with the great.
And, when the day came for the deed to be done.
The sovereigns assembled and knights of the shire.
And, first, as their form is, they start to declare
The cause of their coming and then the King's wdll.

Comely a clerk then commenced to call out.
And the points he pronounced to all present there,
And a motion for money w as mainly the thing.
For glossing the great ^^^ lest grief should arise.

1^ Doubtless a punning reference to Sir William Bagot, a third of Richard's
notorious friends; cf. ante, p. 185.

1*^ The nineteenth charge against King Richard in The Chronicles of London
account of his deposition (ed. cit., p. 32) runs as follows: "Also, whereas by old
statute and custom of his realm in the convocation and summonmg of every par-
liament, the people of the realm in every shire were wont, and still should be free,
to choose the knights of the shire for the Parliament, and to show their griefs and
suggest remedies for them as it seemed to them best for their success. The King
now, (however), to the intent that he might the more freely have his foolish desire
performed, sends out ofttimes his commands to divers sheriffs, that they should
choose certain persons whom he names himself, to come to his Parliament, and no
others. And these knights, thus being favorable, the King can brmg round to his
purpose and desire to consent to him, either by menaces and threats, or else by
gifts; and thereby make ordinances that should turn to the great prejudice of the
realm and very expensive to the people; and especially, that of granting to the same
King the wool subsidy (i.e. the returns from the tariff on wool shipped out of Eng-
land, which was ordinarily granted from Parliament to Parliament and thus offered
a means of controlling the royal conduct) for the term of his life and other subsidies
for certain years, to the great oppressing of his people."

"^ I.e. Parliament was asked to provide money to gloss over the offenses of the
great, on the plea that, if they did not, worse things would happen to England.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND 199

And when he had told the tale to the end,
They decided to meet on the morrow ere meat.
These knights of the towns, to consider the same
With citizens sent from the shires to their sire,
To review all the bills and grant the re([uests.

But yet, as a manner of making men blind, ^'**
Some argued against the right to assess;
And said, "We are servants and salaries get.
And are sent by the shires their griefs to show forth,
And parley for profit to them, not to pass
And grant of their gold for the good of the great
In a very wrong way unless there were war;
And if we are false to our friends backv at home.
We'll be but ill worthy of winning our pay."

Then sat some like ciphers in numerous seats
That number a place but nothing avail; ^'^^
xAnd some had but supped with Simon at eve,^^°
And showed for the shire but lost all the show; ^^^
And some others were tattlers and went to the King
And soon made him foes of his earlier friends ^^-
Who believed in the best and " unblamcAvorthy " were
By King or by council or even by commons,
If one could keep count of the meaning of things.
Some slumbered and slept and said almost nil;

^^^ I.e. as a "bluff" or "blind."

^^^ I.e. zero has a place in the Ust of figures, but there's "nothing in it."

^^° Skeat says, "I have no doubt that *to sup with Simon' means hero to sup
with ecclesiastics, to share in the revels which some churchmen indulged in.
Simon means Simon Peter, and is used elsewhere . . . as a general name for the
clergy." . . .

^^1 I.e. they were in their seats but knew nothing of what was going on.

^^2 Charge 25 against Richard in The Chronicle.^ of London account (<•</. cit., p. 'M)
of his deposition reads as follows: "Also, the same King is wont of custom to
be so variable and feigning in his words and writing, and also contrary to himst-If.
and especially in writing to the Pope and to other kings ami lords outside the
realm, and also within to other subjects of his, that almosi then- was no bdirving
man might have notice of his condition, or might trust him. Hut h«- was held so
untrue and unstable that it turned not only to the slander of his own person, bnl
also to that of all the realm, and especially among strange nations of all the world
having knowledge thereof."

200 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Some mumbled and murmured, nor knew what they meant;
And some had been hired (i.e. bribed) and so held their peace.
And no further would fare for fear of their boss;
And some were so sullen and sad (i.e. hea\y) in their wits
That ere they could come to the close they were clogged
And could not construe the conclusion at all, —
No baron on bench nor burgess could either —
So blind and so bald and bare-faced was the reason.
And some were so fierce at the very first go,^^^
They shot out a spinnaker, crowded all sail
Before the wind freshly to make a good flight.
Then the lords lay in lee with ballast and cargo
And bore up the barge whose master they blamed,
^ That he knew not the course belonged to the craft,
And warned him wisely from fair-weather side.
But the mast in the midst at the end of a month
Bent nigh to bursting and brought them to land;
For, had they not steered well and struck all their sails.
And abated their bounty before the blast came.
They all had gone backward over the board.

And some were encumbered with counsel before,
And wist well enough just how it would end.
If of the assembly some did not repent.
Some followed majorities whate'er they meant;
And some went so far but no farther would go.
Some parleyed as pertly as they approved,
And called more for coin the King owed to them
Than for comfort to commons who made up the cost;
They were promised some post if they'd give their support,
To be served quite securely by the same silver.
And some dreaded dukes and Do- well ^^* foresook.

^^^ A rather good picture of those who, Uke Chaucer's man-of-law were busy,
but seemed busier than they were, and of those who are always ready to give
advice from a safe distance. ^^ I.e. righteous conduct.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 201

II. The Social and Industrial Background

From the poem just examined, it is clear that the fall
of the Plantagenets was due largely to inability to com-
prehend and cope with changing economic conditions,
which w^ill now be more fully illustrated. We shall return
on our track and trace with some care the economic and
industrial history of England 1066-1400.

Of all the social institutions introduced into England
by the Normans in 1066, none is so important and so far-
reaching as the feudal system, which is best described as
a device for the control at once of land-holding and mili-
tary service, two matters of primary interest to a ne^
government. It has already been pointed out that som^
elements of this system are to be found in Germanic life
as far back as the time of Tacitus.^ But, perhaps because
of its geographical isolation, the system did not arrive at
a very high stage of development in pre-Conquest England,
and to the Normans must be given the credit of so im-
proving and fostering the plant, that they may almost be
said to have introduced it. Our first illustration of its
life in England is the following general statement of the
reciprocal duties of lords and vassals, a statement, to be
sure, in laws ascribed to Henry I, but doubtless true of
conditions in the time of his father, the Conqueror:

If one's lord is attacked, any vassal may without punisliiiuMit
come to his assistance, and should obey him in every leiiitimale
way, except in treachery, theft, murder, and in short in lliin^^s
hke these which are allowable to no one and are infamons in law.-

1 Cf. ante, pp. 9, 12, 13, 14. The best recent treatment »»f feudalisin in Kn^'land
is Mary Bateson, Mcdiaral England {Stories of the Xation.s Series, (J. V. I'lilnam's
Sons, second impression, 1905). The entire vohnne is devoted lo a study cf the
industrial and social phases of feudalism, whose history is divided into Norman
Feudalism lOGG-1154, the Lawyer's Feudalism 11.34-12.30, and Decadent Feudalism
1250-1350.

2 This para^'raph and the next arc from section Ixxxii of the Lmrs of Henri/
I, and the full title of the section is Of Wirion.s Sort.s of Feniis in Order.

202 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Likewise, the lord ought equally at fitting times to help his
vassal with counsel and aid, and in every possible way, without
(risk of) forfeiture.

Every lord may summon his vassal, that they may come to
terms in his (i.e. the lord's) court; and (even) if the vassal lives
on an out-of-the-way manor of the fief, he will go to the court,
if his lord summons him. If his liege hold several fiefs, the man
of the one is not legally to be compelled to attend the court of
another, unless the case (involved) is under the jurisdiction of
the second to which he has been summoned.^

If the vassal hold of several lords and belong to different
fiefs, he owes more (duty) to him, and his residence will be under
the jurisdiction of him, whose liegeman he is, however much he
hold of others.

Every vassal owes fidehty to his lord touching the latter's
life, bodily members, earthly honor and keeping of his counsel,
in every honorable and advantageous way, saving only his faith
in God and fidelity to his earthly king. Theft, however, and
treachery and murder and whatever is contrary to (the law of)
God and the Catholic faith, are to be demanded of or performed
by no one; but the faith should be kept with all lords, except
that more fidelity is due to the earlier and to him who is the
liege (in each case). And, if any vassal seek another lord for
himself, he should be free to do so.

William I, however, was not content with the somewhat
loosely articulated form of feudalism brought from Nor-
mandy; but in 1086, according to the entry in the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle for that year, he brought it about that
every landholder of any importance in England took an
oath of direct allegiance to the King. The Chronicle entry
reads as follows:

This year the King wore his crown and held his court at
Winchester at Easter, and he so journeyed forward that he was
at Westminster during Pentecost, and there he dubbed his son

2 This paragraph and the two following are from section Iv of the Laws oj Henry
I, whose full title is Of the Privilege of a Lord mwr His Vassal.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 203

Henry ^ a knight. And afterwards he travelled about, so that
he came to Salisbury at Lammas; '^ and liis witan, and all the
land-holders of substance in England, whose vassals soever they
were, repaired to him there, and they all submitted to him, and
became his men, and swore oaths of allegiance, that they would
be faithful to him against all others.

Specific information regarding important feudal occa-
sions and duties is afforded by the Coronation Charter of
Henry I. as follows:

In the year of the incarnation of the Lord, 1101, Henry, son
of King \Yilliam, after the death of his brother William, by the
grace of God, king of the English, to all faithful, greeting:

1. Know that by the mercy of God, and by the common
counsel of the barons of the whole kingdom of England, I have
been crowned king of the same kingdom; and because the king-
dom has been oppressed by unjust exactions, I, from regard to
God, and from the love which I have toward you, in the first
place make the holy church of God free, so that I will neither
sell nor place at rent, nor, when archbishop, or bishop, or abbot
is dead, will I take anything from the domain of the church, or
from its men, until a successor is installed into it. And all the
evil customs by which the realm of England was unjustly o])-
pressed will I take away, which evil customs I partly set down
here.

2. If any one of my barons, or earls, or others who hold from
me shall have died, his heir shall not redeem his land, as he did
in the time of my brother, but shall relieve it by a just and
legitimate relief. Similarly also the men of my barons shall
relieve their lands from their lords by a just and legitimate
relief.

3. And if any one of the barons or other men of mine wishes
to give his daughter in marriage, or his sister or niece or rcln-
tion, he must speak with me about it, but I will ncilhcr take
anything from him for this i)ermissi()n, nor forbid liiin to gi\«'

^ Later King Henry I.

5 1 August (01(1 (^ilendar), H August (Xew (^ilendar). Tiu- wonl Lammas^ is
the 01(1 English Illafnuiosse, "loafiuass" or wheat harvest.

204 ENGLISH LITERATURE

her in marriage, unless he should wish to join her to my enemy.
And if when a baron or other man of mine is dead a daughter
remains as his heir, I will give her in marriage according to the
judgment of my barons, along with her land. And if when a
man is dead his wife remains and is without children, she shall
have her dowry and right of marriage, and I will not give her
to a husband except according to her w411.

4. And if a wife has survived with children, she shall have
her dowry and right of marriage, so long as she shall have kept
her body legitimately, and I will not give her in marriage, except
according to her will. And the guardian of the land and chil-
dren shall be either the wife or another one of the relatives as
shall seem to be most just. And I require that my barons should
deal similarly with the sons and daughters or wives of their men.

5. The common tax on money ^ which used to be taken
through the cities and counties, which was not taken in the time
of King Edward, I now forbid altogether henceforth to be taken.
If any one shall have been seized, whether a money er or any
other, with false money, strict justice shall be done for it.

6. All fines and all debts which were owed to my brother, I
remit, except my rightful rents, and except those payments
which had been agreed upon for the inheritances of others or
for those things which more justly affected others. And if any
one for his own inheritance has stipulated anything, this I remit,
and all reliefs which had been agreed upon for rightful inheritances.

7. And if any one of my barons or men shall become feeble,
however he himself shall give or arrange to give his money, I
grant that it shall be so given. Moreover, if he himself, pre-
vented by arms, or by weakness, shall not have bestowed his
money, or arranged to bestow it, his wife or his children or his
parents, and his legitimate men shall divide it for his soul, as
to them shall seem best.

8. If any of my barons or men shall have committed an offence
he shall not give security to the extent of forfeiture of his money,
as he did in the time of my father, or of my brother, but accord-

^ Monetagium, which is here translated "tax on money," was a payment made to
the king or other lord, periodically, on condition that he would not change the
standard of value during a given period. It was customary in Normandy. — Ducange,

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 205

ing to the measure of the offence so shall he pay, as he would
have paid from the time of my father backward, in the time of
my other predecessors; so that if he shall have been convicted
of treachery or of crime, he shall pay as is just.

9. All murders, moreover, before that day in which I was
crowned king, I pardon; and those which shall be done hence-
forth shall be punished justly according to the law of King
Edward.

10. The forests, by the common agreement of my barons, I
have retained in my own hand, as my father held them.

n. To those knights who hold their land by the cuirass, I
yield of my own gift the lands of their demesne ploughs free
from all payments and from all labor, so that as they have thus
been favored by such a great alleviation, so they may readily
provide themselves with horses and arms for my service and for
the defence of the kingdom.

12. A firm peace in my whole kingdom I establish and require
to be kept from henceforth.

13. The law of King Edward I give to you again with those
changes with which my father changed it by the counsel of his
barons.

14. If any one has taken anything from my possessions since
the death of King William, my brother, or from the possessions
of any one, let the whole be immediately returned without altera-
tion, and if any one shall have retained anything thence, he
upon whom it is found will pay it heavily to me. Witnesses
Maurice, bishop of London, and Gundulf, bishop, and William,
bishop-elect, and Henry, earl, and Simon, earl, and Walter
Giffard, and Robert de ^lontfort, and Roger Bigod, and Henry
de Port, at London, when I was crowned.

"Feudalism," says Meredith, "is not an objectionable
thing if you can be sure of the lord." " L nfortunately,
however, the personal element in the system was so large
that its operation was always uncertain. At least. English-
men in the time of King Stephen (1135-1154) found it so,
for their representative gives in the entries in the Anglo-

^ Cf. The Egoist, p. 94 {Poclai Revised ed., Charles bk-ribner's Sons).

206 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Sa.von Chronicle for the years 1135 and 1137 the follow-
ing acconnt of feudal anarchy in the reign of that king:

This year, at Lammas, King Henry ^ went over sea: and on
the second day, as he lay asleep in the ship, the day was dark-
ened universally and the sun became as if it were a moon three
nights old with the stars shining round it at mid-day. oNIen
greatly marvelled and great fear fell on them and they said that
some great event should follow thereafter — and so it was, for
the same year the King died in Normandy on the day after
the feast of St. Andrew. Soon did this land fall into trouble, for
every man greatly began to rob his neighbor as he might. Then
King Henry's sons and his friends took his body and brought it
to England and buried it at Reading. He was a good man and
great was the awe of him; no man durst ill-treat another in his
time: he made peace for men and deer. Whoso bare his burden
of gold and silver, no man durst say to him aught but good. In
the meantime his nephew Stephen de Blois had arrived in Eng-
land and he came to London and the inhabitants received him and
sent for the Archbishop, William Corboil, who consecrated him King
on midwinter day. In this King's time was all discord and evil-
doing and robbery ; for the powerful men who had kept aloof, soon
rose up against him; the first was Baldwin de Redvers, and he
held Exeter against the King, and Stephen besieged him, and
afterwards Baldwin made terms with him. Then the others took
their castles and held them against the King, and David King of
Scotland betook him to W^essington (Derbyshire), but notwith-
standing his array, messengers passed between them, and they came
together and made an agreement, though it availed little. . . .

This year ^ King Stephen went over sea to Normandy and he
was received there because it was expected that he would be
altogether like his uncle and because he had gotten possession
of his treasure, but this he distributed and scattered foolishly.
King Henry had gathered together much gold and silver, yet
did he no good for his soul's sake with the same. When King
Stephen came to England, he held an assembly at Oxford; and
there he seized Roger Bishop of Salisbury and Alexander Bishop

8 I.e. Henry I. ^ I.e. 1137.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 207

of Lincoln and Roger the chancellor, his nephew, and he kept
them all in prison till they gave up their castles. "When the
traitors perceived that he was a mild man and a soft and a good,
and that he did not enforce justice, they did all wonder. They
had done homage to him, and sworn oaths, but they had no
faith; all became forsworn and broke their allegiance, for every
rich man built his castles and defended them against him, and
they filled the land full of castles. They greatly oppressed the
wretched people by making them work at these castles, and when
the castles were finished they filled them with devils and evil
men. Then they took those whom they suspected to have any
goods, by night and by day, seizing both men and women, and
they put them in prison for their gold and silver and tortured
them with pains unspeakable, for never were any martyrs tor-
mented as these were. They hung some up by their feet, and
smoked them with foul smoke; some by their thumbs, or by the
head, and they hung burning things on their feet. They put a
knotted string about their heads and twisted it till it went into
the brain. They put them into dungeons wherein were adders
and snakes and toads and thus wore them out. Some they
put into a crucet-house, that is, into a chest that was short and
narrow, and not deep, and they put sharp stones in it and
crushed the man therein so that they broke all his limbs. There
were hateful and grim things called Sachenteges in many of the
castles which two or three men had enough to do to carry. The
Sachentege was made thus: it was fastened to a beam, having
a sharp iron to go round a man's throat and neck, so that he
might no ways sit nor lie nor sleep but that he must bear all
the iron. Many thousands they exhausted with hunger. I can-
not and I may not tell of all the wounds and all the tortures
that they inflicted upon the wretched men of this land; and
this state of things lasted the nineteen years that Stephen was
king, and ever grew worse and worse. They were continually
levying an exaction from the towns, which they called Tenserie,
and when the miserable inhabitants had no more to give, then
plundered they and burnt all the towns, so that well you might
walk a whole day's journey nor ever would you find a man seated
in a town or its lands tilled.

WH ENGLISH LITERATURE

Then was corn dear and flesh and cheese and butter, for
there was none in the hmd — wretched men starved — some
lived on ahns who had formerly been rich; some fled the coun-
try — never was there more misery and never did heathen act
worse than these. At length they spared neither church nor
churc-hyard but they took all that was valuable therein, and
tlien burned the church and all together. Neither did they spare
the lands of bishops nor those of abbots nor those of priests;
but they robbed the monks and the clergy, and every man
plundered his neighbor as much as he could. If two or three
men came riding to a town, all the township fled before them
and thought that they were robbers. The bishops and the
clergy were ever cursing them, but this to them was nothing,
for they were all accursed and forsworn and reprobate. The
earth bore no corn, you might as well have tilled the sea, for
the land was all ruined by such deeds and it was openly said
that Christ and his saints slept. These things, and more than
we can say, did we suffer during nineteen years because of our
sins. Through all this evil time the Abbot Martin ^^ held his
abbacy for twenty years and a half and eight days, with many
difficulties and he provided the monks and guests with all neces-
saries, and kept up much alms in the house; and withal he
worked upon the church, and annexed thereto lands and rents,
and enriched it greatly, and furnished it with robes: and he
brought the monks into the new monastery on St. Peter's day ^^
with much pomp. This was in the year 1140 of our Lord's in-
carnation, the twenty-third year after the fire. And he went to
Rome and was well received there by Pope Eugenius, from whom
he obtained sundry privileges, to wit, one for all the abbey lands
and another for the lands that adjoin the monastery, and had he
lived longer, he meant to do as much for the treasurer's house.
And he regained certain lands that powerful men possessed by
force; he won Cotingham and Easton from William iNIalduit
who held Rockingham castle, and from Hugh of Walteville
he won Hirtlingbery and Stanwick and sixty shillings yearly out
of Oldwinkle. And he increased the number of monks and

'" I.e. of Peterborough, where this MS. of the Chronicle was written.
" I.e. June 29.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 209

planted a vineyard and did many good works and improved the
town; and he was a good monk and a good man and, therefore,
God and good men loved him. Now will we relate some part
of what befell in King Stephen's time. In his reign the Jews of
Norwich bought a Christian child before Easter and tortured
him with all the torments wherewith our Lord was tortured, and
they crucified him on Good Friday for the love of the Lord, and
afterwards buried him. They believed that this would be kept
secret, but our Lord made manifest that he was a holy martyr,
and the monks took him and buried him honorably in the
monastery, and he performed manifold and wonderful miracles
through the power of our Lord, and he is called St. William.^-

Henry II, a person whose vigor and energy have already
been described for us,^^ set about correcting these abuses.
His reform policy is thus outlined by William of New-
burgh, a great historian of the twelfth century:

In the eleven hundred and fifty-fourth year from the delivery
of the Virgin, Henry, grandson of Henry the elder, by his
daughter the late empress, having arrived in England from
Normandy, after the demise of King Stephen, received his heredi-
tary kingdom; and, being greeted by all and consecrated king
with the holy unction, ^^ was hailed throughout England by
crowds, exclaiming, "Long live the King." The people, having
experienced the misery of the late reign, whence so many evils
had originated, now anticipated better things of their new
sovereign, more especially as prudence and resolution and a strict
regard to justice were apparent in him; ^^ and at his outset he
bore the appearance of a great prince. Moreover, he issued an

^^ On the medieval attitude toward the Jews, of. post, pp. 277; 407; 402-405.
• 13 Cf. ante, pp. 158-102.

1^ lie wa.s cro^^^led at Westminster on Sunday 10th December. (Stevenson's
note.)

1^ Evidently this was a common reaction; the writer of tlu> entry for the year
1154 in the Peterborough MS. of the Anglo-Suxnn Chronirlf pens the following
striking sentence, "When the King (Stephen) died, the Earl (Henry, still Earl or
Count of Anjou) was beyond sea, and no man durst do other than good for very
dread of him." Tr. eit. This 1154 entry is the last in the Chronicle and is liy many
taken to mark the end of the Old English i)eriod of our language and literature.

eiO ENGLISH LITERATURE

edict, that such foreigners as had flocked to England under
King Stej)hen for the sake of booty, as well as military service
— and esj)ecially the Flemings of whom a vast number at that
time burthened the kingdom, should return to their own coun-
try by an appointed day, to stay beyond which would be at-
tended with certain danger. Terrified at this edict, they glided
away in a moment, as quickly as a phantom vanishes; while
numbers wondered at their instantaneous disappearance. He
next commanded the newly-erected castles, which were not in
being in the days of his grandfather, to be demolished, with the
exception of a few advantageously situated, which he wished to
retain for himself or his partisans, for the defence of the king-
dom. He then paid serious attention to public regulations and
was anxiously vigilant that the vigor of the law which in King
Stephen's time had appeared lifeless and forgotten, should be
revived. He appointed oflScers of law and justice throughout
his realm for the purpose of restraining the audacity of offend-
ers, and administering redress to complainants according to the
merits of the case; while he himself either enjoyed his pleasure
or bestowed his royal care on more important avocations. As
often, however, as any of the judges acted remissly or improp-
erly and he was assailed by the complaints of the people, the
King applied the remedy of his royal revision and properly
corrected their negligence or excess. Such being the outset of
the new sovereign, the peaceably disposed congratulated and
commended, while the lawless muttered and were terrified. The
ravening wolves fled or were changed to sheep; or if not totally
changed, yet they dwelt harmlessly amid the flock, through fear
of the law. Swords were beaten into plowshares and spears into
pruning hooks; none learned war any more,^^ but all enjoyed
the leisure of that long-wished-for tranquillity now kindly ac-
corded them by God, or were intent on their several employ-
ments. . . .

The King, reflecting that the royal revenues which, in the
time of his grandfather, had been very ample, were greatly re-
duced, because through the indolence of King Stephen, they
had, for the most part, passed away to numerous other masters,

16 Cf. Isaiah 2: 4.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 211

commanded them to be restored entire by the usurper, of what-
soever degree, and brought back to their former jurisdiction and
condition. Such as had hitherto become proprietors in royal
towns and villages produced for their defence the charters which
they had either extorted from King Stephen, or earned by their
services: but these could avail them nothing, as the grants of
an usurper could not be permitted to operate against the claims
of a lawful prince. Highly indignant at first thereat, but after-
wards terrified and dispirited, they resigned — though reluc-
tantly, yet entirely — everything they had usurped and held
for a considerable time as if by legal title. ^Yhilst all through-
out each county of the kingdom submitted to the royal pleasure
. . . the King proceeded beyond the Humber and summoned
William Earl of Albermarle,^^ who in the times of Stephen had
been more truly a king there than his master, to surrender in
this respect as well as the others, to the weight of his authority.
Hesitating a long while and boiling with indignation, he at last,
though sorely hurt, submitted to his power and very reluctantly
resigned whatever of the royal domains he had possessed for
many years, more especially that celebrated and noble castle of
Scarborough. . . .

Phrases like "strict regard to justice," "serious atten-
tion to public regulations," or "vigor of the law" in the
preceding document open long vistas into the field of
Henry's activities, which may be comprehensively de-
scribed as a return to the w^ork of his grandfather, Henry
I, in establishing feudalism on a sound legal basis. "Trained
in the law-," says Miss Bateson, "a lover of the subtleties
of law, canon and civil, he and his staff of learned clerks
made it their business to smooth away those ragged edges
which the first Norman kings had left in the fitting of
Norman on to the English law. In the process many and
great changes were made, changes calculated to strengthen
the central ^^ as against the feudal power. A lawyer king

^^ lie had been created Earl of Yorksliire l)y Kinj? Stephen and had possessed
the larger j)ortion of that country. See Dugdale, Baronage, I, C£. (Stevenson.)
18 Cf. ante, p. 158.

212 ENGLISH LITERATURE

found further a grand opportunity before him to display
his learning and his strength when he engaged in one of
the longest and most exciting rounds in the periodic wres-
tling match between church and state." ^^ One of Henry's
devices for improving the legal system of England and
the administration of justice was the Assize of Clarendon,
promulgated in 1166, just a century after the battle of
Hastings. In a modern English translation of the twelfth-
century Latin, it reads as follows:

Here begins the Assize of Clarendon, made by King Henry
II, with the assent of the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls
and barons of all England.

§ 1. In the first place, the aforesaid King Henry, with the
consent of all his barons, for the preservation of the peace and
the keeping of justice, has enacted that inquiry should be made
through the several counties and through the several hundreds,
by twelve of the most legal men of the hundred and by four of
the most legal men of each manor, upon their oath that they
will tell the truth, whether there is in their hundred or in their
manor, any man who has been accused or publicly suspected of
himself being a robber, or murderer, or thief, or of being a re-
ceiver of robbers, or murderers, or thieves, since the lord king
has been king. And let the justices make this inquiry before
themselves, and the sheriffs before themselves.

§ 2. And let any one who has been found by the oath of the
aforesaid to have been accused or publicly suspected of having
been a robber, or murderer, or thief, or a receiver of them, since
the lord king has been king, be arrested and go to the ordeal of
water and let him swear that he has not been a robber, or mur-
derer, or thief, or receiver of them since the lord king has been
king, to the value of five shillings, so far as he knows.

§ 3. And if the lord of the man who has been arrested or his
steward or his men shall have claimed him, with a pledge, within
the third day after he has been seized, let him be given up and
his chattels until he himself makes his law.

13 Op. cit. p. 141. Cf. ante, p. 161.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 213

§ 4. And when a robber, or murderer, or thief, or receiver of
them shall have been seized through the above-mentioned oath,
if the justices are not to come very soon into that county where
they have been arrested, let the sheriffs send word to the nearest
justice by some intelligent man that they have arrested such
men, and the justices will send back word to the sheriffs where
they wish that these should be brought before them; and the
sheriffs shall bring them before the justices; and along with
these they shall bring from the hundred and the manor where
they have been arrested, two legal men to carry the record of
the county and of the hundred as to why they were seized, and
there before the justice let them make their law.

§ 5. And in the case of those who have been arrested through
the aforesaid oath of this assize, no one shall have court, or
judgment, or chattels, except the lord king in his court before his
justices, and the lord king shall have all their chattels. In the
case of those, however, who have been arrested, otherwise than
through this oath, let it be as it has been accustomed and ought
to be.

§ 6. And the sheriffs who have arrested them shall bring such
before the justice without any other summons than they have
from him. iVnd when robbers, or murderers, or thieves, or
receivers of them, who have been arrested through the oath or
otherwise, are handed over to the sheriffs they also must receive
them immediately without delay.

§ 7. And in the several counties where there are no jails, let
such be made in a borough or in some castle of the king, from
the money of the king and from his forest, if one shall be near,
or from some other neighboring forest, on the view of the serv-
ants of the king; in order that in them the sheriffs may be able
to detain those who have been seized by the oflScials who are
accustomed to do this or by their servants.

§ 8. And the lord king, moreover, wills that all should come
to the county courts to make this oath, so that no one shall
remain behind because of any franchise which he has or court or
jurisdiction which he has, but that they should come to the
making. of this oath.

§ 9. And there is to be no one within a castle or without a

214 ENGLISH LITERATURE

castle or even in the honor of AVallingford, who may forbid the
sheriffs to enter into his court or his land for seeing to the
frankpledges and that all are under pledges; and let them be
sent before the sheriffs under a free pledge.

§ 10. And in cities and boroughs, let no one have men or
receive them in his house or in his land or his soc, whom he
does not take in hand that he will produce before the justice if
they shall be required, or else let them be under a frankpledge.

§ 11. And let there be none within a city or borough or within
a castle or without, or even in the honor of Wallingford, who
shall forbid the sheriffs to enter into his land or his jurisdiction
to arrest those who have been charged or publicly suspected of
being robbers or murderers or thieves or receivers of them, or
outlaws, or persons charged concerning the forest; but he re-
quires that they should aid them to capture these.

§ 1*2. And if any one is captured who has in his possession
the fruits of robbery or theft, if he is of bad reputation and has
an evil testimony from the public, and has not a warrant, let
him not have law. And if he shall not have been accused on
account of the possession which he has, let him go to the water.

§ 13. And if any one shall have acknowledged robbery or
murder or theft or the reception of them in the presence of legal
men or of the hundred, and afterwards shall wish to deny it,
he shall not have law.

§ 14. The lord king wills, moreover, that those who make
their law and shall be absolved by the law, if they are of very
bad testimony, and publicly and disgracefully spoken ill of by
the testimony of many and legal men, shall abjure the lands
of the king, so that within eight days they shall go over the
sea, unless the wind shall have detained them; and with the
first wind which they shall have afterw^ard they shall go over
the sea, and they shall not afterward return into England, except
on the permission of the lord king; and then let them be out-
lawed if they return, and if they return they shall be seized as
outlaws.

§ 15. And the lord king forbids any vagabond, that is a
wandering or an unknown man, to be sheltered anywhere except
in a borough, and even there he shall be sheltered only one

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 215

night, unless he shall be sick there, or his horse, so that he is
able to show an evident excuse.

§ 16. And if he shall have been there more than one night,
let him be arrested and held until his lord shall come to give
securities for him, or until he himself shall have secured pledges;
and let him likewise be arrested who has sheltered him.

§ 17. And if any sheriff shall have sent word to any other
sheriff that men have fled from his county into another county,
on account of robbery or murder or theft, or the reception of
them, or for outlawry or for a charge concerning the forest of
the king, let him arrest them. And even if he knows of himself
or through others that such men have fled into his county, let
him arrest them and hold them until he shall have secured
pledges from them.

§ 18. And let all sheriffs cause a list to be made of all fugi-
tives who have fled from their counties; and let them do this
in the presence of their county courts, and they will carry the
written names of these before the justices when they come first
before these, so that they may be sought through all England,
and their chattels may be seized for the use of the king.

§ 19. And the lord king wills that, from the time when the
sheriffs have received the summons of the justices in eyre to
appear before them with their county courts, they shall gather
together their county courts and make inquiry for all who have
recently come into their counties since this assize; and that they
should send them away with pledges that they will be before the
justices, or else keep them in custody until the justices come to
them, and then they shall have them before the justices.

§ 20. The lord king, moreover, prohibits monks and canons
and all religious houses from receiving any one of the lesser
people as a monk or canon or brother, until it is known of
what reputation he is, unless he shall be sick unto deatli.

§ 21. The lord king, moreover, forbids any one in all England
to receive in his land or his jurisdiction or in a house under liim
any one of the sect of those renegades who have been excom-
municated and branded at Oxford. And if any one shall have
received them, he will be at the mercy of the lord king, and the
house in which they have been shall be carried outside the

216 ENGLISH LITERATURE

village and burned. And each sheriff will take this oath that
he will hold this, and will make all his servants swear this,
and the stewards of the barons, and all knights and free tenants
of the counties.

§ 'i'Z. And the lord king wills that this assize shall be held in
his kingdom so long as it shall please him.

The feudal documents so far quoted have illustrated
mainly the governmental and legal aspects of a great social
system. Materials will now be adduced to do a like serv-
ice for the life of those who lived under the system;
namely, English manorial documents. "The manor,"
says Professor Cheyney, "was the most fundamental in-
stitution of medieval society. Li the use of the term as
a territorial expression, equivalent to villa, vill, or town-
ship, a manor was a stretch of country occupied by a
rural population, grouped in a single village, or perhaps
in several hamlets, surrounded by agricultural lands. Part
of the land of the manor, known as the desmesne, was
cultivated by the lord of the manor through a bailiff or
other officers; the remainder w^as used by tenants, free
and serf, w^ho cultivated their scattered holdings and, in
the form of compulsory services, performed most of the
labor on the demesne lands. The manor, in this sense,
was the agricultural unit of the country, and had its own
internal organization based upon the form of distribution
of the land, the method of its cultivation, and the recip-
rocal relations of the demesne and the rest of the land.
The greater part of England was divided into such manors,
either contiguous or separated by unused stretches of
moor, fen, or forest." ^^

^^ Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European
History, iii, 5, p. 1. Valuable and interesting comment on these documents will
be found in chapter 2 {Village Life Six Hundred Years Ago) of Jessopp, The Coming
of the Friars and Other Historic Essays (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908). This essay-
is largely ref)rinted in Tuell and Hatch, Selected Readings in English History (Ginn
and Co., 1913).

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 217

The manorial system naturally developed greatly in
complexity during our period. Our first document is a
survey or "extent" of a manor belonging to Peterborough
Abbey about 11''25. The record is comparatively simple.

In Werminton are 7 hides at the taxation of the king. And of
this land '20 full villeins and 29 half-villeins hold 34 virgates and
a half; and for these the full villeins work 3 days a week through
the year; and the half tenants as much as corresponds to their
tenancies. And all these men have 16 plows, and they plow 68
acres and a half, and besides this they do 3 boonworks with
their plows, and they ought to bring from the woods 34 wagon
loads of wood. And all these men pay 4£. lis. 4d. And to the
love feast of St, Peter 10 rams and 400 loaves and 40 platters
and 34 hens and 260 eggs. And there are 8 socmen who have
6 plows. In the demesne of the court are 4 plows of 32 oxen,
and 9 cows and 5 calves, and 1 riding horse and 129 sheep and
61 swine and 1 draught-horse and 1 colt. And there is 1 mill
with 1 virgate of land and 6 acres which pays 60s. and 500 eels.
And Ascelin the clerk holds the church, with 2 virgates of land
from the altar of St. Peter of Borough. Robert, son of Richard,
has 2 virgates and a half. In this vill 100 sheep can be placed.

The following description of a manor house at Ching-
ford, Essex, in 1265 will bring before us both the general
possibilities of a manorial dwelling and the arrangement of
manorial grounds. The manor house was the residence of
the lord of the manor or his representative, the official
center of the community.

He -^ received also a sufficient and handsome hall well ceiled
with oak. On the western side is a suitable bed, on tlie ground,
a stone chimney, a wardro})e and a certain other small cliamber;
at the eastern end is a i)antry and a butlery. Between the hall
and the chapel is a side-room. There is a decent cha])el covered
with tiles, a portable altar, and a small cross. In the hall are
four tables on trestles. There are likewise a good kitchen well
21 I.e. the heir to the property.

218 ENGLISH LITERATURE

covered with tiles, with a furnace and ovens, one large, the
other small, for cakes, two tables, and alongside the kitehen a
small house for baking. Also a new granary covered with oak
shingles, and a building in which the dairy is contained, though
it is divided. Likewise a chamber suited for clergymen and a
necessary chamber. Also a hen-house. These are within the
inner gate.

Likewise outside of that gate are an old house for the serv-
ants, a good stable, long and divided, and to the east of the
]:)rincipal building, beyond the smaller stable, a solar for the use
of the servants. Also a building in which is contained a bed;
also two barns, one for wheat and one for oats. These* buildings
are enclosed with a moat, a wall, and a hedge. x\lso beyond
the middle gate is a good barn, and a stable for cows and another
for oxen, these old and ruinous. Also beyond the outer gate is
a pigstye.

Two more village surveys or "extents" follow, one, dated
1307, for the manor of Bernehorne; another, dated 1308,
for the manor of Borley. The first is quoted because of
the detailed way in which the various feudal services, due
from the many tenants, are indicated in it. The Borley
extent is cited because it states the right of common, of
mill, and of court and because it gives apparently careful
expression to common notions of feudal duties, as, for
example, in the last paragraph. Both documents indicate
the kind of accounts kept on a feudal estate. It is rather
amusing in the first or Bernehorne survey to find several
times the statement that a given service is of no gain to
the lord, coupled with insistence that the service must,
nevertheless, be performed.

Extent of the manor of Bernehorne, made on Wednesday next
after the feast of St. Gregory the Pope, in the thirty-fifth year
of the reign of King Edward, in the presence of Brother Thomas,
keeper of Marley, John de la More, and Adam de Thruhlegh,
clerks, on the oath of William de Gocecoumbe, Walter le Parker,
Richard le Knyst, Richard the son of the latter, Andrew of Estone,

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 219

Stephen Morsprich, Thomas Brembel, WiUiam de Swynham,
John Pollard, Roger le Glide, John Syward and John de Lillinge-
wist, who say etc., that there are there all the following things:

The jurors say that the principal messuage and its garden
with the herbage and curtilage are worth yearly 6s. 8d.; and the
dovecote is worth yearly 5s.; and the windmill is worth yearly
20s.

And there are there 12 acres of thick undergrowth whence the
pannage and herbage are worth yearly 2s.

And there are there 42 acres of maritime ^^ land in a certain
place called Scotsmarsh, each acre of which is worth yearly 12d.,
the sum being 42s.

And there are there 7 acres and 1 rood of maritime land in a
certain place called Aldithewisse; and 47 acres and 3 roods of
maritime land in a certain place called Flittermarsh, each acre
of which is worth yearly 12d., the sum being 55s.

And there are there 22 acres of maritime land in two places
called Pundfold and Longrech; and 7 acres of maritime land in
a certain place called Wyssh, and 8 acres and 3 roods of mari-
time land in a certain place called Upcroft marsh, and 3 acres
and a half of maritime land in a certain place called Redewysshe;
and each acre is worth yearly 12d., the sum being 41s. 3d.-^

The total of the acres of woods is 12 acres.
The total of the acres of arable land is 444 acres and 3 roods,
of which 147 acres 4 roods are maritime land, 101 acres marshy
land, and 180 acres waste ground.

The total of the acres of meadow is 13 acres 1 rood.
The total of the whole preceding extent 18£. 10s. 4d.
John Pollard holds a half acre in Aldithewisse and owes 18d.
at the four terms, and owes from it relief and heriot.

John Suthinton holds a house and 40 acres of land and owes
3s. 6d. at Easter and Michaelmas. -"*

^ Apparently land which was close to the salt marsh but yet capable of being
cultivated, since agricultural services of the villein tenants are mentioned subse-
quently. Bernehorne is in Sussex, quite near the sea. (The notes on this docu-
ment are Prof. Cheyney's.)

23 Various numbers of acres of land situated in different places and at values
from 3d. to 18d. per acre a year are here named. ^4 j g Sept. 29.

220 ENGLISH LITERATURE

"William of Swynhaminc holds 1 acre of meadow in the thicket
of Swynhamme and owes Id. at the feast of Michaelmas.

Ralph of Ley bourne holds a cottage and 1 acre of land in
Pinden and owes 3s. at Easter and Michaelmas, and attendance
at the court in the manor every three weeks, relief and heriot.

Richard Knyst of Swynhamme holds two acres and a half of
land and owes yearly 4s.

William at Knelle holds 2 acres of land in Aldithewisse and
owes yearly 4s.

Roger le Glede holds a cottage and 3 roods of land and owes
2s. Cd. at Easter and Michaelmas.

Alexander Hamound holds a little piece of land near Aldithe-
wisse and owes 1 goose, of the value of 2d.

The sum of the whole rent of the free tenants, with the value
of the goose, is 18s. 9d.

They say moreover that John of Cay worth holds a house and
30 acres of land, and owes yearly 2s. at Easter and INIichaelmas;
and he owes a cock and two hens at Christmas, of the value of
4d.

And he ought to harrow for 2 days at the Lenten sowing with
one man and his own horse and his own harrow, the value of
the work being 4d.; and he is to receive from the lord on each
day 3 meals, of the value of 5d., and then the lord will be at a
loss of Id. Thus his harrowing is of no value to the service of
the lord.

And he ought to carry the manure of the lord for 2 days with
1 cart, with his own 2 oxen, the value of the work being 8d.;
and he is to receive from the lord each day 3 meals of the price
as above. And thus the service is worth 3d. clear.

And he shall find 1 man for 2 days for mowing the meadow
of the lord, who can mow, by estimation 1 acre and a half, the
value of the mowing of an acre being 6d.; the sum is therefore
9d.; and he is to receive each day 3 meals of the value given
above; and thus that mowing is worth 4d clear.

And he ought to gather and carry that same hay which he
has cut, the price of the work being 3d.

And he shall have from the lord 2 meals for 1 man, of the
value of Ijd. Thus the work will be worth Ijd. clear.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 221

And he ought to carry the hay of the lord for 1 day ^Yith a
cart and 3 animals of his own, the price of the work being 6d.
And he shall have from the lord 3 meals of the value of ^Jd.
And thus the work is worth Sjd. clear.

And he ought to carry in autumn beans or oats for 2 days
with a cart and 3 animals of his own, the value of the work
being 12d. And he shall receive from the lord each day 3 meals
of the value given above; and thus the work is worth 7d. clear.

And he ought to carry wood from the woods of the lord as
far as the manor ^^ for two days in summer with a cart and 3
animals of his own, the value of the work being 9d. And he
shall receive from the lord each day 3 meals of the price given
above; and thus the work is worth 4d. clear.

And he ought to find 1 man for 2 days to cut heath, the
value of the work being 4d., and he shall have 3 meals each day
of the value given above; and thus the lord wdll lose, if he
receives the service, 3d. Thus that mowing is worth nothing
to the service of the lord.

And he ought to carry the heath which he has cut, the value
of the work being 5d. And he shall receive from the lord 3
meals at the price of 2jd. And thus the work will be worth 2M.
clear.

And he ought to carry to Battle -^ twice in the summer sea-
son, each time half a load of grain, the value of the service being
4d. And he shall receive in the manor each time 1 meal of the
value of 2d. And thus the work is worth 2d. clear.

The total of the rents, with the value of the hens, is 2s. -td.

The total of the value of the works is 2s. 3jd.; owed from
the said John yearly.

William of Cay worth holds a house and 30 acres of land and
owes at Easter and Michaelmas 2s. rent. And he shall do all
customs just as the foresaid John of Cayworth.

William atte Grene holds a house and 30 acres of land and
owes in all things just as the said John.

Alan atte Felde holds a house and 16 acres of land (for which

^ I.e. the manor-house.

^ The manor of Bernehorne was a lioldin^ of Battle Abbey, the foundation of
WilHam the Conqueror after the battle of Hastings.

202 ENGLISH LITERATURE

the sergeant pays to the court of Bixley 2s. ),^^ and he owes at
Easter and INIichaehnas 4s., attendance at the manor court,
reUef and heriot.

John LyUing"^^'yst holds a house and 4 acres of land and owes
at the two terms 2s., attendance at the manor court, relief and
heriot .

The same John holds 1 acre of land in the fields of Hoo and
owes at the two periods ^s., attendance, relief and heriot.

Reginald atte Denne holds a house and 18 acres of land and
owes at the said periods 18d., attendance, relief and heriot.

Robert of Northehou holds 3 acres of land at Saltcote and
owes at the said periods attendance, relief and heriot.

Total of the rents of the villeins, with the value of the
hens, 20s.
Total of all the works of these three villeins, 6s. lOjd.

And it is to be noted that none of the above named villeins
can give their daughters in marriage nor cause their sons to be
tonsured,^^ nor can they cut down timber growing on the lands
they hold, without license of the bailiff or sergeant of the lord,
and then for building purposes and not otherwise. And after
the death of any one of the foresaid villeins the lord shall
have as a heriot his best animal, if he had any; if however he
have no living beast the lord shall have no heriot, as they say.
The sons or daughters of the foresaid villeins shall give for en-
trance into the holding after the death of their predecessors
as much as they give of rent per year.

Silvester the priest holds 1 acre of meadow adjacent to his
house, and owes yearly 3s.

Total of the rent of tenants for life, 3^.

Petronilla atte Holme holds a cottage and a piece of land and
owes at Easter and Michaelmas . . .; attendance, relief and
heriot.

2^ Bixley was a neighboring manor, held by the Bishop of Chichester, having
certain claims over some of the land in the manor of Bemehome.

-•^ That is to let them enter the clergy. This was not only a common prohibi-
tion according to the custom of many manors but was enacted in statute law.
"Sons of rustics ought not to be ordained without the assent of the lord on whose
land they are known to have been bom." Constitutions of Clarendon, c. IG (a.d.
1164).

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 223

Walter Herying holds a cottage and a piece of land and owes
at Easter and Michaelmas 18d., attendance, relief and heriot.

Isabella Mariner holds a cottage and owes at the feast of
St. Michael 12d., attendance, relief and heriot.-^

Total of the rents of the said cotters, with the value of the
hens, 34s. 6d.

And it is to be noted that all the said cotters shall do as
regards giving their daughters in marriage, having their sons
tonsured, cutting down timber, paying heriot, and giving fines
for entrance just as John of Cay worth and the rest of the villeins
formerly mentioned.

Note, fines ^^ and penalties, with heriots and reliefs, are worth
yearly 5s.

The survey of Borley is as follows :

Extent of the manor of Borley made there on Tuesday next
after the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, a.d. 1308, in the first
year of the reign of King Edward, son of King Edward, in the
persence of John le Doo, steward, by the hands of William of
Folesham, clerk, on the oath of Philip, the reeve of Borley,
Henry Lambert, Dennis Rolf, Richard at Mere, Walter Johan
and Robert Ernald, tenants of the lord in the said vill of Bor-
ley. These all, having been sworn, declare that there is one
mansion well and suitably built; that it is sufficient for the
products of the manor, and that it contains in itself, within the
site of the manor, four acres, by estimation. The grass there is
worth yearly, by estimation, 2^.; and the pasturage there is
worth yearly 12ri., sometimes more and sometimes less, accord-
ing to its value. And the fruit garden there is worth yearly,
in apples and grapes, perhaps o.v. and sometimes more. Total,
Ss.

23 Eleven other cotters are named holdinfj cottajjes and amonnis of land var\ ini,'
from a rood to three and a half acres and giving payments iij) to tluei- ,sliilliii<,rs, and
the other services.

3° A "fine" was a payment made to tlic lord hy any oii<> who aciiuinMl land in
the manor in any other way than by inheritance, in which case the payment was
rehef. The usnal word for a penalty was not "fine" but "amerciament"; or it
was recorded that a person was "in mercy."

224 ENGLISH LITERATURE

And it is to be known that the lord is the true patron of the
church of Borley, and the said church is worth yearly, accord-
ing to assessment, in grains, in offerings, in dues and in other
small tithes £10.

And there is one water mill in the manor, and it is worth
yearly on lease 60^. x\nd the fish pond in the mill dam, with
the catch of eels from the race, is worth yearly, by estimation,
Ud. Total, Qls.

There is there a wood called le Hop, which contains 10 acres,
and the underbrush from it is worth yearly, without w^aste, 5s.;
and the grass from it is w^orth yearly 5s.; and the feeding of
swine there is worth yearly VZd. And there is there a certain
other wood called Chalvecroft, which contains, w^ith the ditches,
5 acres. And the herbage there is worth yearly ^s. dd.; and
the underbrush there is worth yearly 3^.; and the feeding of
swine there is worth yearly Qd. Total value, 17^.

There are there, of arable land in demesne, in different fields
300 acres of land, by the smaller hundred. And it is worth
yearly, on lease, £15, at the price of IZd. per acre. Total acre-
age, 300. Total value, £15.

And it is to be known that the perch of land in that manor
contains 16| feet, in measuring land. And each acre can be
sown suitably with 2| bushels of wheat, with 2| bushels of rye,
with 2 J bushels of peas, with 3 bushels of oats, and this sown
broadcast, and with 4 bushels of barley, even measure. And
each plow should be joined with 4 oxen and 4 draught horses.
And a plow is commonly able to plow an acre of land in a day,
and sometimes more.

There are likewise of mowing meadow in various places 29
acres and 1 rood. This is worth yearly £7 6s. Sd., at 5s. an
acre. Total acreage, 29A., IR. Total of pence, £7 6s. Sd.

There are likewise of enclosed pasture 28 acres, and this is
w^orth yearly 42s. at IM. per acre. Of this 16 acres are assigned
to the dairy for the cows, and 12 for the oxen and young bul-
locks. Total, 425.

It is to be known that the lord may have in the common
pasture of Borley, along with the use of the fresh meadows and
of the demesnes of the lord, in the open time, 100 sheep, by

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 225

the greater hundred. And their pasture, per head, is worth 2s.
yearly, and not more, on account of the allowance of food to
the shepherd. Total, 20^.

_ There is there likewise a certain court of free tenants of the
lord and of the customary tenants, meeting every three weeks.
And the fines and perquisites thence, along with the view of
frankpledge, are worth 206\ a year. . . .

There are, moreover of the services of the aforesaid custom-
ary tenants 22^ tasks, of which each task requires plowing upon
the land of the lord at different seasons. And a task at the
convenience of the lord at all plantings is worth l()|c?. Total,
19^. Sid.

There are, moreover, of the autumn works of the aforesaid
customary tenants from the first of August to the feast of St.
Michael, 424 days' work, the price of each day's work being 2d.
Total, 41.^. M.

The sum of the total value, according to the extent, is £43
19s. id.

Likewise from Reginald Crummelond 10^. yearly, discovered
after the extent was made up, as above. From which should
be subtracted 7d. rent owed to Lady Felicia of Sender, yearly,
for a certain meadow called Baselymede, near Radbridge. There
remains £43 18.^. ojc/., plus 10s. as above.

And it is to be known that the lord prior of Christ Church
of Canterbury has his liberty in the vill of Borley; and he has
jurisdiction over thieves caught on the manor and tenants of the
manor taken outside the manor with stolen goods in their hands
or on their backs. And the j udicia l gallows of this franchise
stand and ought to stand at Radbridge. And now let us intiuire
concerning the pillory and tumbrel. It is reported by the jury
that it ought to stand beyond the outer gates toward the west,
next to the pigstye of the lord.

And it is to be remembered that as often as It is necessary
for the reeve and four men to be present before I lie justices in
eyre or anywhere else, that is to say, at the jail delivery of our
lord the King, or wheresoever it may be, the lord ought to find
two men at his expense before the same justices; and the vil-
lagers of Borley will find three men at their expense; and this

226 ENGLISH LITERATURE

according- to custom from a time to which, as it is said, memory
does not extend.

And it is to be known that when any customary tenant of
the hmd in the manor dies, the lord will have as a heriot the
best beast of that tenant found at the time of his death. And
if he have not a beast, he shall give to the lord for a heriot 2s.
6(1. And the heir shall make a fine to the lord for the tenement
which was his father's, if it shall seem to be expedient to him; if
not , he shall have nothing. Nevertheless, to the wife of the deceased
tenant shall be saved the whole of the tenement which was her
husband's on the day he died, to be held of the lord as her
free bench till the end of her life, if she shall remain without a
husband, and on performing the services due and customary
thence to the lord. If, however, through the license of the lord,
she shall have married, the heirs of the aforesaid deceased shall
enter upon the aforesaid tenement by the license of the lord,
and shall give one half of the said tenement to the widow of the
deceased as dowry.

Our final entry in this section is a thirteenth century
certificate of manumission, issued to a villein when his
lord had made up his mind to free him. The certificate
illustrates both the procedure of manumission, the condi-
tion of the villein before he attained freedom and the privi-
leges to which he was admitted when free.

To all the faithful of Christ to whom the present writing shall
come, Richard by the divine permission abbot of Peterborough
and the convent of the same place, eternal greeting in the Lord.
Let all know that we have manumitted and liberated from all
yoke of servitude William, the son of Richard of Wythington
whom previously we have held as our born bondman, with his
whole progeny and all his chattels, so that neither we nor our
successors shall be able to require or exact any right or claim
in the said William, his progeny, or his chattels. But the same
William with his whole progeny and all his chattels will remain
free and quit and without disturbance, exaction, or any claim
on the part of us or our successors by reason of any servitude,

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 227

forever. We will moreover and concede that he and his heirs
shall hold the messuages, land, rents and meadows in Wything-
ton which his ancestors held from us and our predecessors, by
giving and performing the fine which is called merchet for giving
his daughter in marriage and tallage from year to year according
to our will — that he shall have and hold these for the future
from us and our successors freely, quietly, peacefully, and heredi-
tarily, by paying thence to us and our successors yearly 40s.
sterling, at the four terms of the year, namely; at St. John
the Baptist's day, 10s., at ^Michaelmas, 10s., at Christmas, 10s.,
and at Easter, 10s., for all service, exaction, custom, and secular
demand: saving to us nevertheless attendance at our court of
Castre every three weeks, wardship and relief, and outside serv-
ice of our lord the king, when they shall happen. And if it
shall happen that the said AYilliam or his heirs shall die at any
time without an heir, the said messuage, land, rents, and mead-
ows with their appurtenances shall return fully and completely
to us and our successors. Nor will it be allowed to the said
William or his heirs the said messuage, land, rents, meadows,
or any part of them to give, sell, alienate, mortgage, or in any
way encumber by which the said messuage, land, rents, and
meadows should not return to us and our successors in the form
declared above. But if this should occur later their deed shall
be declared null and what is thus alienated shall come to us and
our successors. In testimony of which duplicate seals are ap-
pended to this writing, formed as a chirograph, for the sake of
greater security. These being witnesses, etc. Given at Borough,
for the love of lord Robert of good memory, once abbot, our
predecessor and maternal uncle of the said William, and at tlie
instance of the good man brother Hugh of Mutton, relative of
the said abbot Robert; a.d. 1278, on the eve of Pentecost.

Manufacture and trade, nearly unknown to the (icrinaiis
described by Tacitus,^^ gradually grew in importance and

^^ Cf. ante, pp. 8-19. Amon^ the numcnnis trcatisivs on Kiif^Misli industrial history
at this time may l)c mentioned: Traill, Social KtujlatuL ii. Chapters 5, G (Cassell
& Co., 2d ed., 189.5); Ashley, EtujUsh Eronnmic Illsfnrji, ii (Lonf^mans, Green &
Co., 1894); Cheyney, Social and Jmhisfrial Ilistori/ of England, Chapters l-.> (The
Macmillan Co., 1901); Cunninj,diain, (ironili of English Indnsiry and Coinincrci, i

228 ENGLISH LITERATURE

complexity in our period and came by degrees into the
control of gilds, organizations which undoubtedly origi-
nated in voluntary associations for the attainment of some
common object, but settled into rigidly governed bodies.
The gild merchant of a community was a combination of
its mercantile forces for the complete control of trade, and
in many cases became identical with the municipal or
borough corporation. The craft gilds were organizations
not unlike modern trade unions, for the control of labor,
price and output in a given occupation, and, sometimes,
as in the case of London, came to perform important
municipal functions. These highly developed forms of
gild organization, however, did not drive out the earlier
type of voluntary clubs, for the latter give every evidence
of continuing vigor, making gild life in the later thirteenth
century and throughout the fourteenth very complex. The
craft gilds undoubtedly set up the standard for early
university organization in England, where the first scholas-
tic foundations are practically gilds of masters and of
students respectively. Gilds of various sorts became im-
portant enough, in their own eyes at least, to seek and
secure charters of privileges, as did cities and towns.
It is clear that gilds would be most easily organized and
most numerous in urban communities and, hence, we are
safe in describing the gild as the typical organizing force
in medieval city life, as feudalism was in corresponding
rural life.

Our first document referring to the gilds is the Ordinances
of the Spurriers of London, a craft gild. This set of by-laws
will show us what a typical craft gild tried to do and what
it conceived it had a right to expect of its members.

(Cambridge University Press, 3d. ed., 1903). See also Bland, Brown and TawTiey,
English Economic History: Select Documents, ed. 2. (Geo. Bell and Sons, 1915),
White and Xotestein, Source Problems in English History, pp. 109-157, An Aspect
of the Agricultural Labor Problem in the Fourteenth Century (Harper and Bros.,
1915.)

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 229

Be it remembered, that on Tuesday, the morrow of St. Peter's
Chains, in the nineteenth year of the reign of King Edward III,
the articles underwritten were read l^efore John Hannnond,
mayor, Roger de Depham, recorder, and the other aldermen; and
seeing that the same were deemed befitting, they were accepted
and enrolled in these words.

In the first place, — that no one of the trade of spurriers
shall work longer than from the beginning of the day until cur-
few rung out at the Church of St. Sepulchre, without Newgate;
by reason that no man can work so neatly by night as by day.
And many persons of the said trade, who compass how to prac-
tice deception in their work, desire to work by night rather tlian
by day; and then they introduce false iron, and iron that has
been cracked, for tin, and also they put gilt on false copper, and
cracked. And further, — many of the said trade are wandering
about all day, without working at all at their trade; and then,
when they have become drunk and frantic, they take to their
work, to the annoyance of the sick, and all their neighborhood,
as well by reason of the broils that arise between them and the
strange folks who are dwelling among them. And then they
blow up their fires so vigorously, that their forges begin all at
once to blaze to the great peril of themselves and of all the
neighborhood around. And then, too, all the neighbors are nuich
in dread of the sparks, which so vigorously issue forth in all
directions from the mouths of the chimneys in their forges. By
reason thereof it seems unto them that working by night should
be put an end to, in order such false work and such perils to
avoid: and therefore the mayor and the aldermen do will, by
the assent of the good folks of the said trade, and for the com-
mon profit, that from henceforth such time for working, and such
false work made in the trade, shall be forbidden. And if any
person shall be found in the said trade to do tlic contrary hereof,
let him be amerced, the first time in 40d., onc-lialf thereof to go
to the use of the Chamber of the Guildhall of London, and the
other half to the use of the said trade; the second time, in half
a mark, and the third time in 10s., to tlie use of the same Cham-
ber and trade; and the fourth time, let him forswear the trade
forever.

230 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Also that no one of the said trade shall hang his spurs out
on Sundays, or any other days that are double feasts; but only
a sign indicating his business: and such spurs as they shall so
sell, they are to show and sell within their shops, without ex-
posing them without, or opening the doors or windows of their
shops, on the pain aforesaid.

Also, that no one of the said trade shall keep a house or shop to
carry on his business, unless he is free of the city; and that no one
shall cause to be sold, or exposed for sale, any manner of old spurs
for new ones, or shall garnish them or change them for new ones.

Also, that no one of the said trade shall take an apprentice
for a less term than seven years, and such apprentice shall be
enrolled according to the usages of the said city.

Also, that if any one of the said trade, who is not a freeman,
shall take an apprentice for a term of years, he shall be amerced
as aforesaid.

Also, that no one of the said trade shall receive the appren-
tice, serving-man or journeymen of another in the same trade,
during the term agreed upon between his master and him; on
the pain aforesaid.

Also, that no alien of another country, or foreigner of this
country, shall follow or use the said trade, unless he is enfran-
chised before the mayor, aldermen and chamberlain; and that
by witness and surety of the good folks of the said trade, who
will undertake for him as to his loyalty and his good behavior.

Also, that no one of the said trade shall work on Saturdays,
after None has been rung out in the City; and not from that
hour until the Monday morning following.

Chaucer has described in the Prolog to the Canterbury
Tales five members of a gild which Avas not, however, a
craft gild, but must have been more or less of a social
club made up of the members of various craft organiza-
tions. His words also tell us somewhat of the social privi-
leges of the members of the gilds.

A haberdasher and a carpenter, a weaver, a dyer and an
upholsterer were with us ^^ also, clothed in the same livery, that
^ I.e. on the pilgrimage to Canterbury.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 231

of a solemn and great fraternity. Their gear had been freshly
and newly adorned; their table knives were in sheaths capped
not with brass but with silver, wrought full clean and well,
and their pouches also were in good shape. Each of them seemed,
indeed, to be a fair burgess, (worthy) of sitting in a gild-hall
on a dais. Each one on account of his wisdom was capable of
being an alderman. They had rent enough and other i)roperty,
and their wives would likewise agree (to let them be aldermen).
Otherwise the wives would be much to blame. For it is very
pleasant to be called "madame," to go to festivals at the head
of the procession and to have one's mantle royally borne.

The document which follows is a royal license, given by
Richard II in ISO'^ after due investigation, for the founda-
tion of a charitable gild whose membership was to include
the whole population of the town of Birmingham, if they
cared to join.

The King to all, etc.. Greeting. Know ye, that whereas on
the 25th October in the sixth year of our reign, by our letters
patent, we granted license to Thomas Sheldone, now dead, John
Coleshulle, John Goldsmythe, and William atte Slowe, Burgesses
of Bermyngeham, enabling them to give and assign certain
lands, tenements, and rents, with their ai)purtenances, in 15er-
myngeham and Egebaston, not held of us in chief, and worth
twenty marks a year, to two chaplains, for the celebration of
divine service in the church of St. Martin of Bermyngeham, to
the honor of God, the blessed INIary his mother, the Holy Cross,
St. Thomas the Martyr,^^ and St. Katherine; to be held by the
said chaplains and their successors for e\'er; as in those letters
patent is more fully set forth: — Now, in consideration of our
said letters patent, which have never, as is said, tak(Mi t'tVccl,
and wliicli the Bailiffs and Connnonalty (of Bermyngchani) have
sent back into oin- Chancery to be cancelled, nnd ui)on the
prayer of the 15ailitt's and Connnonalty Ihemselves, and for fifty
pounds which they have paid to us, wc do, for us and our heirs,
so far as in us lies, grant and give license to the said 15ailiffs

23 I.e. Tlioinas a Ik'ckcl.

232 ENGLISH LITERATURE

and Commonalty, tliat tliey may make and .found, in honor of
the Holy Cross, a Ciild and brotherhood of brethren and sisteren
among themselves in that town, to which shall belong as well
the men and women of the town of Bermyngeham as men and
women well disposed in other towns and in the neighborhood;
and that they may make and ordain a Master and Wardens
of the Gild and brotherhood, who shall have rule and govern-
ance over the same; and may make and found a chantry, for
the celebration by chaplains of divine service in the church of
St. Martin of Bermyngeham; and may do and find other works
of charity, for our welfare and that of the Queen, and for the
brethren and sisteren of the said Gild and brotherhood, and
for all good-doers to them, and for their souls' sake and those
of all Christians, according as the ordering and will of the said
Bailiffs and Commonalty shall appoint in that behalf. And
further, we grant and give license, for us and our heirs, to the
said John Coleshulle, John Goldsmythe, and William atte Slowe,
that they may give and assign to the said Master and Wardens
eighteen messuages, three tofts, six acres of land, and forty
shillings of rent, with the appurtenances, in the said towns of
Bermyngeham and Egebaston, w^hich are not held of us, to have
and to hold to them and their successors. Masters and Wardens
of the said Gild and brotherhood, to enable them to find there
for ever chaplains to celebrate divine service, and to do other
works of charity for ever, as aforesaid, according to their order-
ing and wdll. And we grant our special license to the same
Master and Wardens that they may take the messuages, land,
and rents aforesaid, with the appurtenances, from the afore-
named John, John, and William, and hold them, to themselves
and their successors, finding thereout chaplains to celebrate
divine service in the church aforesaid, and doing other works of
charity, for ever, according to their own ordering and will as is
before said; the statute against putting lands in mortmain not-
withstanding; desiring that neither the aforesaid John, John,
and William, nor their heirs, nor the said Master and Wardens
nor their successors, shall, by reason of that statute, be charged,
troubled, or in any way made to suffer, either by us or our heirs,
or by any Justices, Escheators, Sheriffs, or other Bailiffs or

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 233

INIinisters whomsoever, of us or our heirs: Saving however, to
the chief lords of the fee, the services due and accustomed.
Witness, etc. Given at Moulton, on the 7th day of (August).

The next two documents, Ordinances of the Gilds of St.
Mary and of The Lord's Prayer respectively, are particu-
larly interesting and significant for our purposes, because
these gilds were founded for the express object of perform-
ing pageants or plays. The first, that of St. ^lary, was to
have charge of an annual festal procession in honor of the
Virgin Mary at Beverl}^ though it had charitable duties
as well. The relation of these pageants to plays is well
known. The other gild, that of The Lord's Prayer, simi-
larly, was founded at York to perform a play on the Pater-
noster (Lord's Prayer) wdiich play w^as probably not, as
the name might suggest, like a morality play with personi-
fication of the several petitions, but a saints' play in which
various saints w^ere seen struggling with the seven deadly
sins, the respective opposites of the seven petitions in the
Prayer.^^

(a) This gild was founded, by persons named in the return,
on January 2oth, a.d. 1355.

There shall be an alderman and two stewards of the gild, wlio
shall manage its affairs according to what the brethren and sis-
teren shall have agreed. The brethren and sisteren shall each
pay, on entry, towards the expenses of the gild, five shillings,
and one pound of wax, or more. Every year, on tlic foa'st of
the Purification of the Blessed Mary,'^^ all the brethren and
sisteren shall meet together in a fit and ai)pointed phuw away
from the church: and there, one of the gild shall be clad in
comely fashion as a queen, like to the glorious ^'irgin Mary,
having what may seem a son in her arms: and two olliers shall
be clad like Jose})h and Simeon; and two shall go as angels,
carrying a candle-bearer on wliicli sliall l)c twenty-four tliick

*» I owe this information to Professor Iljinliii Cnii^' of the University of Min-
nesota. ^ I-c. Fel)riiary '2.

234 ENGLISH LITERATURE

wax lights. With these and other great hghts borne before
them and with much music and gladness, the pageant Virgin
with her son, and Joseph and Simeon, shall go in procession to
the church. And all the sisteren of the gild shall follow the
Virgin: and afterwards all the brethren: and each of them
shall carry a wax light weighing half a pound. x4.nd they shall go
two and two, slowly pacing to the church: and when they shall
have got there, the pageant Virgin shall offer her son to Simeon
at the high altar: and all the sisteren and brethren shall offer
their wax lights, together with a penny each. All this having
been solemnly done, they shall go home again with gladness.
And any brother or sister who does not come, unless cause for
staying away be shown, shall pay half a pound of wax to the
gild. On the same day, after dinner, the brethren and sisteren
shall meet together, and shall eat bread and cheese and drink
ale, rejoicing in the Lord, in the praise of the glorious Virgin
Mary: and they shall then and there choose, with the assent of
the elder part of the brethren and sisteren of the gild, an alder-
man and stewards for the next year, who shall at once undertake
the affairs of the gild. Prayers and offerings shall be given for
the dead. The alderman and stewards of the gild shall visit
those brethren and sisteren who are poor, ailing or weak and
who have not enough of their own to live upon: and they shall
give to these as they think right out of the gild stock, as has
been agreed: namely, to each one so being poor, ailing or weak,
eightpence, sixpence or at least fourpence, every week, to help
their needs. And if any of those poor brethren dies, or any
other of the gild who is not well oif, he shall be buried at the
cost of the gild and have all becoming services.

(6) As to the beginning of the said gild, be it known that,
once on a time, a play, setting forth the goodness of the Lord's
Prayer, was played in the city of York: in which play all manner
of vices and sins were held up to scorn, and the virtues were
held up to praise. This play met with sq much favor that many
said, "Would that this play could be kept up in this city, for
the health of souls and for the comfort of the citizens and neigh-
bors." Hence, the keeping up of that play in times to come,
for the health and amendment of the souls as well of the up-

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUUD 235

holders as of the hearers of it, l^ecanie the whole and sole cause
of the beginning and fellowship of the brethren of this brother-
hood. And so, the main charge of the gild is, to keep up this
play, to the glory of God, the maker of the said prayer, and for
the holding up of sins and vices to scorn. And because those
who remain in their sins are unable to call God their Father,
therefore, tlie brethren of the gild are, first of all, bound to
shun company and businesses that are unworthy, and to keep
tliemselves to good and worthy businesses. And they are bound
to pray for the brethren and sisteren of the gild, both alive and
dead, tliat tlie living shall be able so to keep the gild that they
may deserve to win God's fatherhood, and that the dead may
have tlieir torments lightened. Also, they are bound to come to
the burial ser\dces of the dead brethren and sisteren of the gild.
And if any one does not leave enough to meet the cost of such
services, tlie rest of the brethren shall bear the cost. And if
any brother dies and is buried away from this city, the brethren
shall hold services for him within the city of York. Also, it is
forbidden that any brother of the gild shall, in the belief that
he w^iU have help from his brethren, be forward in getting into
law suit or quarrel, or in upholding any wrongful cause whatever,
upon pain of losing all help and friendshij), or any relief from
the gild. And because vain is the gathering of the faithful unless
some work of kindliness is done, therefore, the brethren have
made this ordinance: That if haply it befall that any of the
brethren be robbed, or his goods or chattels perchance be burned,
or he be imprisoned for any wrongful cause, or be brought to
want through any visitation of God, the other brethren shall
for kindness' sake, help him according to his need, under the
guidance of the wardens of the gild, so that he may not hni)ly
perish through lack of help. Also, they are l)()und to find one
candle-bearer, with seven lights, in token of the seven sui)pli{a-
tions in the Lord's Prayer: which candle-!)earer shall hang in
the cathedral church of York, and be lighted on Sundays and
feast days, to the glory and honor of God Almighty, the Maker
of that Prayer, of St. Peter the glorious confessor, of St. William
and of all saints. Also, they are l)ound to make, and as often
as need be, to renew, a table showing the whole meaning and use

236 ENGLISH LITERATURE

of the Lord's Prayer, and to keep this hanging against a pillar
in the said cathedral church near to the aforesaid candle-bearer.
Also, they are bound, as often as the said play of the Lords'
Prayer is played in the city of York, to ride with the players
thereof through the chief streets of the city of York: and, the
more becomingly to mark themselves while thus riding, they
must all be clad in one suit. And to ensure good order during
the said play, some of the brethren are bound to ride or to walk
with the players until the play is wholly ended. And once in
a year a feast shall be held, and fresh wardens shall be chosen
by the gild, and a true account shall be given to the newly
chosen wardens of all that has been done on behalf of the gild
during the last year. Also, it is ordained that no one shall be
let come into this gild, until after he shall have been questioned
by the wardens of the gild as to whether he has bent his will to
live rightly, and so to deal towards the gild and its affairs that
he may be at one with the wardens. And, because the founders
of the said gild well knew that they themselves might not be
wise enough to make, at once, all needful ordinances, therefore,
at the end of the Ordinances then made, they added this clause:
"Whensoever, and as often soever, as it may perchance happen
that we or our successors, wardens and brethren of this gild,
may become wiser than we now are, none of us nor our succes-
sors shall be deemed a rebel, or as standing out against our
wishes or against those of any of our successors, if haply we put
forth, or there shall be put forth at any time hereafter, any new
ordinance that will be for the greater glory of God or the wel-
fare of this gild." Under which saving clause other wardens of
the gild have since added, that a chaplain shall, once a year,
celebrate divine service before the gild, for the good of the
brethren and sisteren of the gild, alive and dead, and for that
of the good-doers to the gild. Moreover, the brethren are wont
to meet together at the end of every six weeks, and to put up
special prayers for the welfare of our lord the King and for the
good governance of the kingdom of England and for all the
brethren and sisteren of this gild, present and absent, alive and
dead, and for all the benefactors of the gild or to the gild breth-
ren: and also, once in a year, to have a general service for the

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 237

dead brethren and sisteren. There do not belong to the gild any
rents of land, nor any tenements, nor any goods save only the
properties needed in the playing of the before-named play:
which properties are of little or no worth for any other purpose
than the said play. And the gild has one wooden chest in which
the said properties are kept.

(It is added that), as the seals of the wardens of the gild will
be unknown to many, they have asked that the seal of the Vicar-
General of the Archbishop of York shall be jnit to this return:
which has accordingly been done, in witness of the truth of the
return, on the i21st January, 1388 (9).

The last entry in this section devoted to the gilds is the
Order of the Pageants of the Play of Corpus Christi at York.
The list W'as made up in 1415, a little after the end of our
period, but it doubtless represents conditions in the last
decade of the fourteenth century as well as in the opening
years of the fifteenth. Note the cooperation of town au-
thorities with the gilds in the production of the play.

The Order of the Pageants of the Play of Corpus Christi, in the
time of the mayoralty of William Alne, in the third year of tlie
reign of Henry V, anno (year) 1415, compiled by Roger Burton,
town clerk, —

Tanners. — God the Father Omnipotent creating and forming
the heavens, the angels and archangels, Lucifer and the angels
who fell with him into the pit.

Plasterers. — God the Father in his substance creating tlic
earth and all things which are therein, in the space of five days.

Cardmakers. — God the Father forming Adam from the nmd
of the earth, and making Eve from Adam's rib, and inspiring
them witli the breath of life.

Fullers. — God forbidding Adam and Ev(^ to (^at of tlie tree of
life.

Coopers. — Adam and Eve and tlic tree between lliem, the
ser])ent deceiving tliem with a])ples; (lod s])eaking to them and
cursing the seri)ent, and an angel with a sword driving them out
of Paradise.

238 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Armorers. — Adam and Eve, an angel with a spade and dis-
taff ai)pointing them their labor.

Glovers. — Abel and Cain sacrificing victims.

Shipwrights. — God warning Noah to make an ark out of
j)laned wood.

Fishmongers a fid Mariners. — Noah in the ark with his wife,
three sons of Noah with their wives, with various animals.

Parchment-makers and Book-binders. — Abraham sacrificing his
son Isaac on the altar.

Hosiers. — Moses lifting up the serpent in the w ilderness.
King Pharaoh, eight Jews looking on and wondering.

Spicers. — \ doctor declaring the sayings of the prophets
concerning the future birth of Christ. Mary, the angel saluting
her; ]\Iary saluting Elizabeth.

Pewterers and Founders. — Mary, Joseph wishing to send her
away, the angel telling them to go over to Bethlehem.

Tilers. — ^lary, Joseph, a nurse, the child born and lying in
a manger between an ox and an ass, and an angel speaking to
the shepherds, and to the players in the next pageant.

Chandlers. — Shepherds speaking to one another, the star in
the East, an angel announcing to the shepherds their great joy
in the child which has been born.

Goldsmiths, Goldbeaters and Moneyers. — Three kings coming
from the East, Herod questioning them about the child Jesus,
and the son of Herod and two counsellors and a herald. ^lary
with the child and the star above, and three kings offering gifts.

{Formerly) The House of St. Leonard, (now) Masons. — Mary,
with the boy, Joseph, Anna, the nurse, with the young doves.
Simeon receiving the boy into his arms, and the two sons of
Simeon.

Marshalls. — Mary with the boy and Josej^h fleeing into
Egypt, at the bidding of the angel.

Girdlers, Nailers, and Sawyers. — Herod ordering the male
children to be slain, four soldiers with lances, two counsellors
of the king, and four women weeping for the death of their
sons.

Spurriers and Lorimers. — Doctors, the boy Jesus sitting in
the temple in the midst of them, asking them questions and

THE SOCL\L AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 239

replying to them, four Jews, Mary and Joseph seeking him, and
finding him in the temple.

Barbers. — Jesus, John the Baptist baptizing him, and two
angels attending.

Vinters. — Jesus, Mary, bridegroom with the bride, ruler of
the feast with his slaves, with six vessels of water in which the
water is turned into wine.

Smiths. — Jesus on a pinnacle of the temple, and the devil
tempting him with stones, and tv\'o angels attending, etc.

Curriers. — Peter, James, and John; Jesus ascending into a
mountain and transfiguring himself before them. Moses and
Elias appearing, and the voice of one speaking in a cloud.

Ironmongers. — Jesus, and Simon the leper asking Jesus to
eat with him; two disciples, Mary Magdalene bathing Jesus'
feet with her tears and drying them with her hair.

Plumbers and Patternmakers. —Jesus, two apostles, the woman
taken in adultery, four Jews accusing her.

Pouchmakers, Bottlers, and Capmakers. — Lazarus in the sepul-
chre, Mary Magdalene and Martha, and two Jews wondering.

Spinners and Vestmakers. — Jesus on an ass with its colt,
twelve apostles following Jesus, six rich and six poor, eight ])oys
with branches of palm, singing Blessed, etc., and Zaccheus climl)-
ing into a sycamore tree.

Cutlers, Bladesmiths, Shearers, Scalers, Bucklermakers, and
Homers. — Pilate, Caiaphas, two soldiers, three Jews, Judas
selling Jesus.

Bakers. — The passover lamb, the Supper of the Lord, twelve
apostles, Jesus girded with a towel, washing their feet, institu-
tion of the sacrament of the body of Christ in the new law, com-
munion of the apostles.

Cordwainers. — ^ Pilate, Caiaphas, Annas, fourtctMi aruuMJ sol-
diers, Malchus, Peter, James, John, Jcsns, and .luda^ ki»inu and
betraying him.

Bowjjers and Fletchers. — Jesus, Annas, (\iiai)lias, and four
Jews beating and scourging Jesus. Pc(<m-, llic woman accusing
Peter, and Malchus.

Tapestrijinakcrs and Conchcrs. — Jesus, Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas
two counsellors and four Jews accusing Jesus.

^40 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Li f festers. — Herod, two counsellors, four soldiers, Jesus, and
three Jews.

Cooks and Waterearriers. — Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas, two Jews,
and Judas bringing back to them the thirty pieces of silver.

Tilemakers, Millers, Furriers, Hcnjresters, Bowlers. — Jesus,
Pilate, Caiaphas, Annas, six soldiers holding spears with banners,
and four others leading Jesus away from Herod, asking to have
Barabbas released and Jesus crucified, and likewise binding and
scourging him, and placirig the crown of thorns upon his head;
three soldiers casting lots for the clothing of Jesus.

Shearmen. — Jesus, stained with blood, bearing the cross to
Calvary. Simon of Cyrene, the Jews compelling him to carry
the cross; Mary the mother of Jesus; John the apostle then
announcing the condemnation and passage of her son to Cal-
vary. Veronica wiping the blood and sweat from the face of
Jesus w4th a veil on which is imprinted the face of Jesus, and
other women mourning for Jesus.

Pinmakers, Latenmakers, and Painters. — The cross, Jesus
stretched upon it on the ground; four Jews scourging Him and
binding Him wdth ropes, and afterwards lifting the cross, and
the body of Jesus nailed to the cross on Mount Calvary.

Butchers and Poultry Dealers. — The cross, tw^o thieves cruci-
fied, Jesus hanging on the cross between them, Mary the mother
of Jesus, John, Mary, James, and Salome. A soldier wdth a
lance, a servant with a sponge, Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas, the
centurion, Joseph of Arimathea and Xicodemus placing Him
in the sepulchre.

Saddlers, Glaziers and Joiners. — Jesus conquering hell; twelve
spirits, six good, and six evil.

Carpenters. — Jesus rising from the sepulchre, four armed sol-
diers, and the three Marys mourning. Pilate, Caiaphas, and
Annas. A young man seated at the sepulchre clothed in white,
speaking to the women.

Winedrawers. — Jesus, Mary Magdalene with aromatic spices.

Brokers and Woolpackers. — Jesus, Luke, and Cleophas in the
guise of travelers.

Scriveners, Illuminators, Pardoners and Dubbcrs. — Jesus, Peter,
John, James, Philip, and the other apostles with parts of a

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 241

baked fish, and a honey-comb; and Thomas the apostle touch-
ing the wounds of Jesus.

Tailors. — Mary, John the evangelist, the eleven apostles,
two angels, Jesus ascending before them, and four angels carrying
a cloud.

Potters. — Mary, two angels, eleven a])ostles, and the Holy
Spirit descending upon them, and four Jews wondering.

Drapers. — Jesus, Mary, Gabriel with two angels, two virgins
and three Jews of Mary's acquaintance, eight apostles, and two
devils.

Linen-weavers. — Four apostles carrying the bier of Mary, and
Fergus hanging above the bier, with two other Jews and an angel.

Woolen-weavers. — Mary ascending with a throng of angels,
eight apostles, and the apostle Thomas preaching in the desert.

Innkeepers. — Mary, Jesus crowning her, with a throng of
angels singing.

Mercers. — Jesus, Mary, the twelve apostles, four angels with
trumpets, and four with a crown, a lance, and two whips, four
good spirits, and four evil spirits, and six devils.

The growing importance of commercial life in the period
1066-1400 has already been referred to,^^ and this impor-
tance is shown by the appearance, at least sporadically,
of characters from mercantile life in current literature.
But, as against the ideal of business ethics set up in the
Ordinances of the Gild of Spurriers,^' just cited, these de-
scriptions of commercial types and practices nearly all
deal with the shady side of business life. The correct
inference from this is probably not that all merchants and
bankers in the Middle Ages wcrv uniforndy dishoncsl, l)ul
that normal routine procedure was too prosaic to alliacl
the attention of the litcrai\v man oi" poet. Our (ii-st pas-
sage is Chaucer's description of a Mcrchanl, from the
Prolog to the Canterbury Talcs.

There was a Merchant with a I'orkc*! beard, clad in motley
and sitting high (awkwardly) on his horse. JIc wore a Fl(Mui>h
36 Cf. ante p. 227. •'' Ihid.. p. -H\).

242 ENGLISH LITERATURE

beaver hat; his boots were neatly tied. He spoke very solemnly
and his conversation always bore on his gainful bargains. He
wanted the sea policed at any cost between Middleburg and
Orewell.^^ He well knew how to make a profit by his exchange
of crowns in the different money-markets of Europe. This
worthy man laid out his wit well; no one knew that he was in
de]:)t, so dignified was he in his governance with his bargains
and his agreements for borrowing money. Forsooth he was alto-
gether a very worthy man, but, to tell the truth, I don't know
what his name was.

In the poem known as The Vision of William concerning
Piers the Plowman, long ascribed to William Langland,^^
we have curiously realistic pictures of many features of
fourteenth-century life. In one section of the poem there
is a series of confessions of the seven deadly sins, the
longest of which, very interestingly, is by Covetousness and
includes a good account of sharp retail practices which
sounds very modern. Covetousness has had a long busi-
ness experience in various trades, and, like Chaucer's Mer-
chant, has been both tradesman and banker. We need to
keep in mind the fact that, in the Middle Ages, all legal
trade was retail.

Then came Covetise, him cannot I describe,

So hungry and hollow Sir Harvey's self he looked:

Beetle-browed, babber-lipped, with his bleared eyes.

And, like a leather purse, his cheeks lolled down

Below his chin and shivered with age.

A hood upon his head, and a lousy hat on top,

A tawny cloak upon him, twelve winters old.

All torn and rotten and full of creeping lice;

^^ The wool trade was one of the staple English trades at this time; the wool
was shipped extensively from Orewell, near Harwich, to INIiddleburg, in the Low
Countries; hence, this merchant wishes this trade route kept free of pirates, which
were quite common.

^'•' The best reference on the present state of scholarly opinion on the "Piers
Plowman" c|uesti(m is The Cambridge Ilidory of English Literature, ii, Chapter 1
and Bibliography.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 243

But, if a louse could leap away, she had not been there.

So threadbare was the cloth of it.

"I have been covetous," quoth this caitiff, "I do acknowledge it.

Once I served Sim At-stile, and was his 'prentice bound,

First I learned to lie, a page or two of lies,

Then to weigh false was my second lesson,

To Winchester and Weyhill I went to the fair

With all kinds of merchandise as my master bade,

But had not the grace of Guile gone with me and my goods,

They had been unsold seven years, God's my witness.

Then I passed to the drapers, to learn my other lessons.

To draw the edges out that the flannel might seem longer.

Among the rich striped cloths I learned another lesson,

Threaded them with pack-needles, fastened them together,

Put them in a press, pinned them down therein,

Till ten yards or twelve made out — thirteen.

INIy wife was a weaver, woolen cloths she made.

She spake to her spinners to spin it soft,

But the pound-weight she

paid by weighed a quarter more

Than my own balance did, when I weighed fair.

I used to buy her barley, she brewed it to sell,

Penny ale and thick ale, she mixed it together,

For laborers and poor folk. Zt lay by itself;
The best ale in my bower, or in my bedchamber;

Any man that boozed of that never bought other,
Fourpence a gallon, and no good measure either

When it was served in cups. In that wife was cunning;
Rose of the Small Shop was her true name.

She had been a huckster these eleven winters.

"But now I swear, so may I

thrive, this cheating I will stop.

Nevermore will I weigh false, nor cheat in selling.
But I will wend me to Wal-

singham, and my wife with me.

And pray to Bromholm cross, to save mc from my sins."

"Didst ever repent? didst never rest i tut ion niake.^"

244

ENGLISH LITERATURE

*'Yes, once I was in an inn, with a heap of travellers,
I rose when they were sleeping, and rifled their packs."

*'That was no restitution, that was a robber's theft;

Thou hadst deserved hanging more than all thy cheating

for that else."

"I thought rifling 7cas restitu-

tion," says he,
I know no French i 'faith,

"Didst ever use usury,

"Nay saving in my youth,
I weighed a pence with a

weight.
And lent money on pledge,

I wrote me out agreements;
I gat me more wealth

"I never learned my book;
only from far Norfolk."

in all thy lifetime.^"

with Lombards and Jews,

I pared the heaviest,

the pledge was worth more than

the loan,
if the borrower failed his day,
than through merciful lending.

"I have lent to lords and ladies, and myself redeemed the pledge;
I lent to folks that were will-

ing to lose
I had bankers' letters
I counted it right here,

"Didst ever lend to lords
"Ay, I have lent to lords;
I have made many a knight
They gave me colors to wear,
Never a pair of gloves

a bit from every coin.

and took my coin to Rome,

but there it was less."

in return for their protection .^^ "
they never loved me after;
into mercer and draper,
thus were my 'prentices,
did they pay me for the same."

"Hast thou pitied the poor, who sometimes must needs bor-

row

"Ay, as much pity
Would kill them and they

catch them,
" Art thou free among thy neigh-
bors

as pedlars have on cats,
for the sake of their skins.'

with thy meat and drink .^

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 245

"I am held as courteous
That is the name I have

among them."
"God grant thee never
Save thou repent thee soon
God grant thy sons after thee
And thine executors no profit
That which was won by wrong
For neither Pope nor Pardoner
To pardon thee thy sins,

as a dog is in a kitchen;

his grace through all thy life,

and use well thy goods.

no joy of that thou winnest,

in that thou leavest them;

shall be spent by the wicked,

hath ever power

save thou make reparation."

THE SIN IS NOT REMITTED SAVE RESTITUTION BE MADE.

"Ay, I have won my goods
I have gathered what I have
I mixed my merchandise.
But the best was outside the

shop
There was wit in that.
And if my neighbor had man

or beast
I tried many a trick
And, save I got it otherwise,
I shook his purse out

with false word and wit,
with glosing and with guile;
I made a fine array,

and the worst inside —

better at all than mine,
to get for mine own,
at the last I stole it;
or I picked his locks.

"If I went to the plough,

A foot or a furrow

If I reaped I would reach over,

Seize with their sickles

In holy days at church,

I had no will

Nay I mourned my loss of

goods,
When I did deadly sin.
As when I lent and thought it

lost
If I sent my servant
To do traftic with money
No man could comfort me.

I pinched of his half-acre,

of my neighbor's land,

or bade them that reaped forme

what I never sowed.

when I heard mass,

to weep my sins;

and not my body's guilt.
I feared it not so much,

when payment was delayed,
to Bruges or Prussia land,
and to make exchange,
nor mass nor matins.

^246

ENGLISH LITERATURE

Nor penance done,

]My mind was on my goods,

nor paternoster prayed;
not on God's grace."

WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS THERE SHALL YOUR HEART BE ALSO. ^^

"In sooth," Repentance said.
Were I a Friar, in good faith,
I would take no money of

thine.
Nor mend our church with

gold of thine.
By my soul's health I would

not
For the best book in our

House,
If I knew thee to be what thou

say est I would sooner starve."

BETTER DIE THAN LIVE ILL.

"I counsel anv faithful friar never to sit at board of thine

"I have pity on thy life,
for all the gold in earth,

nor robe me in goods of thine,
nor take a dinner's cost from
thee;

a penny pittance of thee
though the leaves were burnt
gold;

I would liever, by our Lord,
Than have food and finding

live upon watercress

from a false man's fortune.

WHEN THOU EATEST RICH FOOD THOU ART ANOTHER S SLAVE;
FEED ON THINE OWN LOAF AND BE FREE.

*'Thou art unnatural;

Make reparation,

All that take of thy goods,

Are bound at the High Judge-
ment

The priest that taketh tithe
of thee.

Shall share thy purgatory

Never workman in this w^orld

Look in the Psalter:

I cannot pardon thee,
and reckon with them all.
God is my witness,

to help thee to restore.

if he know thee what thou art 3
and help to pay thy debt,
shall thrive on thy winnings;

FOR LO THOU DESIREDST TRUTH. '^^

"Then thou shall know fully what usury doth mean.
And what the priest's penance is who is proud of thine offerings;
^^ Matt. 6: 21. ^^ Psalm 51: 6.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND '247

For a harlot of her body hire may more boldly pay church

tithe
And shall sooner come to heaven than an arrant usurer like thee,
God be my witness."

Then that shrew waxed despairing, and would have hanged

himself,
Had not Repentance comforted him thus:

"Have mercy in thy thoughts, and in thy prayers pray for it.
For God's mercy is more than all His other w^orks,
And all this world's wickedness, that man can work or think,
Is no more to the mercy of God than is a spark in Thames.
Thou hast not good enough in thee to buy thee a wastel cake,
Saving by penitence, or work of thy two hands.
The goods thou hast gotten began in falsehood.
And long as thou livest on thou payest not but borrowest them

more;
And if thou know not to whom to make thy reparation.
Take thy money to the Bishop, bid him use it for thy soul;
He shall answer for thee at the High Judgment day.
For thee — and many more."

The "moral Go\ver," '^~ too, the contemporary of Chaucer
and of the author or authors of The J^isioii of WiUiam
concerning Piers the Plowman, has something to say about
the evils of trade in his day. Gower, in fact, speaks his
mind on the subject in many places in his writings; of
all his remarks I have selected the follow ing passages from
his French poem Mirour de Vomme, usually known by its
Latin title Speculum Medifaufis (the French title means
The Mirror of Man, the Latin, The Lookituj-ijhiss of One
Thinking). This poem was long supposed to be lost, but
was identified as still extant by its lal(\st editor in IS!),").
The poem as a whole is a comi)rehensive commentary in
about 30,000 lines on the author's times. The poet speaks
thus of commercial matters:

42 ("f. C'liinucr, rroiliis and Crisn/dr. Hook V. 1. 1S.)(!.

248 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Everybody knows that of our bounden duty we should preach
to the vicious for their amendment, (though) we should not flat-
ter the virtuous by commenting on their virtue, for to blame the
evil is to i^raise the good; and for this reason if I tell fools the
truth about their folly, no wise man need be at all angry at
what I say; for Reliability alongside of Trickery is rendered
more ])raiseworthy by the appearance of its opposite.

The good are good, the bad are bad; wherefore if I preach to
the dishonest, it ought not to be a matter of any consequence
to those who are honest; for each according to his works should
have his praise or his blame. To tell the truth, the merchant
who sets his thoughts on deceit and he who puts in every day
in honest toil are not of the same quality; both, to be sure, are
working for gain, but they are not at all alike.

Of one sort of merchant at the present day people speak very
commonly; Trick is his name, full of guile, and if you seek from
the East to the very extremest West, there is no city nor beau-
tiful towTi where Trick does not gather his harvest. Trick in
Bordeaux, at Seville and at Paris buys and sells; Trick has his
ships and his troops of servants, and of noble riches Trick has
ten times more than other people.

Trick at Florence and at Venice has his depositary and the
freedom of the town, as well as at Bruges and at Ghent; in
his care, too, is put the noble city on the Thames which Bru-
tus ^ founded long ago; but Trick is now about to throw it into
confusion by fleecing his neighbors of their goods; for he cares
not under what guise he acts, whether it be before or behind;

" This legend of the origin of things British as due to the efforts of one Brutus,
from whose name by a sort of umlaut Britain is derived, was first given currency
by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Hisioria Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of
Britain), of whom more later. (Cf. post, pp. 544-550; 556-558). In order, appar-
ently, to give prestige to the legendary lore of romantic Britain, of which his book
was to be so full, Geoffrey represents Brutus, a grandson of ^Eneas, as coming to
the island since called Britain and starting a civilization there which was to rival
the ancient in its glory. Brutus founded London, which is frequently styled in
medieval writers New Troy. See Geoffrey of Monmouth, op. cit.. Book I, Chaps.
3-18. The best modern F^nglish translation of Geoffrey's History is that of Dr.
Sebastian Evans in the Temple Classics edition or Everyman's Library. There is
also a translation by Giles in Six Old English Chronicles. (Bohn Library.)

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 249

he goes about seeking his own good and despises the common
profit.

Sometimes Trick is a grocer, but he is not very trustwortliy
in the matter of buying by one weight, and on the other hand
of selHng by a Hghter weight than he bought by before, so that
by deceit he keeps the surphis and his customer the deficit (in
measure or weight): but what does he care, for Trick has so
set his heart on money that he always looks out for a sharj)
bargain?

Trick also with his trickery oftentimes as a mercer deceives,
but in a very different way, for he is full of cunning, of wiles
and of cranks, to make fools of other people, so that he may
get possession of their silver. He speaks so politely and makes
himself orally such good company. But in thought he is sub-
tlely looking out for your money, behind the mask of courtesy.

This sort of bird ^"^ is never speechless, and so he is more
clamorous than a sparrow hawk: when he sees people whom he
doesn't know, he approaches and draws near, with calls and
cries, saying: "Come right in without delay! Beds, kerchiefs,
ostrich feathers, sandals, silks and goods from oversea: come
in, ril show you everything, for if you'll buy, you need go no
further; here is the best stock on the street."

But look out for one thing: if once you enter his premises,
be very wise in your buying, for Trick never gives himself away:
by his covert guile he will give you chalk for cheese. You would
think from what he says that that wild nettle is a precious rose,
so polite is his appearance; but if you wish to be safe, do not
rest with his paper.

Again, Trick is a draper and then he knows how to catch [\\o
people who are buying cloth. He will swear in God's naiiu', it'
you'll buy, that he is giving you a good bargain and just meas-
ure; but I assure you it will be a case of chance (wlictlicr yon
get what you should), if he once gets your money: tor, wliat-
ever he says or swears, his game is alwMvs ((uitc ditlcrcnt from
looking after your rights.

For they tell us, and I bcHcvc it, that tiiat wliicli Ioncs (lar]<-
ness,'*^ hates and avoids the light: licucc, wiicu I sec the (Iraj)cr

"^ Literally, "tliut wiiicli is drawn out of tliis cafre." '^ ("f. Jolin :5: ^20.

250 ENGLISH LITERATURE

ill his house, it seems to me he has no clear conscience: for
dark is tlie window where he does business with you, so that you
can hardly tell green from blue: he is also shady in his manner,
for no one can trust his first word as to price.

At a double price darkly with an oath, he puts up his cloth
for sale and thus beguiles you with the more subtlety, for he
makes you believe that he is doing you a favor, when he has
thus contrived: for he will say that he has quoted you this
price in order to have your friendship, and has gained nothing
by your custom; whereas, the measure and the bargain will
tell you it is quite otherwise.

Thus, Trick in his draper's business is intent upon a double
deceit. He is deceitful in his business when he is selling woolens:
for here Trick is in his element — in cities he is received, in the
country he is known, he goes about picking up bargains, he has
his brokers retained, he turns things upside down and makes the
first last.^^

Trick's attitude is quite worldly, for he completely overlooks
the good of others and seeks always his own advancement: but
he is especially subtle when he controls the wool staple,^^ for he
is then dealing in and speaking of his own good at close range
(though no one suspects it); whatever comes into his neighbor-
hood there, he gets a goodly share of ill-gotten gain there-
from; but his conscience will never rest easy unless God absolve
him.

O wool, noble dame, you are the goddess of merchants, to
serve you they are all ready; you make some mount to the
heights of riches and fortune and you cause others to fall to
ruin; the staple, in whatever neighborhood located, is not
without fraud and crooked dealing which wound the human con-

^ Matthew 19:30.

*'' "By the close of the thirteenth century England had come to be the great
wool-producing country of Europe, ^^^th her chief market among the Flemish weav-
ers. Accordingly, various attempts were made to fix the towns or staples where
the wool should be sold. Sometimes they were in England, sometimes in the Low
Countries, while, for a short period in the reign, trade was free and the staple
towns were done away with altogether. In 1362 the staple was removed to Calais,
where it remained, except for short intervals, till the town passed back to the
French in 1558." Cross, op. cit., p. 212.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 251

science. O wool, Christians as well as pagans and Saracens
seek to have you and confess to you.

O wool, we ought not to keep silent about your doings in
strange lands; for the merchants of all countries, in times of
peace, in times of war, are coming to look for you because of
their great love; for whoever else has his enemies, you are never
without good friends, who have given themselves to your serv-
ice for your profit: you are cherished throughout the world, the
law of which you are guardian can do great things because of you.

Over all the world you are taken, by land and sea, but you
are directed to the richest people: you are a native of England,
but that you are ill- managed, people say in divers tongues; for
Trick, who has a great deal of money, has been made regent of
your staple, and has his own way in strange countries, looks out
for his own advantage and injures the rest of us.

O beautiful, O white, O delightful one, the love of you stings
and binds so that the hearts who make merchandise of you are
not able to disengage themselves from you; thus they start
many a scheme and lay many a trap in order to catch you: and
then they make you cross the sea, as the one who is properly
the queen of their na^'y, and in order to get you people to come
enviously and covetously to bargain for you.

Exchange, usury and desire for gain, O wool, under your guid-
ance come and take service in the very court; and Trick there
makes provision for them (i.e. the king and his ministers); he
makes them acquainted with Avarice,''^ and in order to make a
profit, he has them retain brokers. But if any one desires to
keep free of fraud, Trick at once gets ahead of him, and thus I
have seen several cease to })ractise the ancient usages of loyalty
in order to keep up the wool trade.

But let him gain who will, one in our country could in my
opinion wonder a great deal at the Lombards,^'-' who arc aliens

■•^ Cf. ante, p. lOS, wlicrc Parliainoiit is cliargrd willi granliii^' illegally the wool
subsidy to Richard II for life.

*^ I.e. Italians, from whom Loiiihard St. in London was naniod, wlio, with the
Jews, carried on, often under royal protection, the business of bankinj^, frowned on
by the Church. On one of these Italian banking (irnis that failed in 1343, see po-'^t,
pp. 2G 1-262.

252 ENGLISH LITERATURE

and yet will assert the right to stay in our country just as freely
and acceptably as if they had been born and brought up among
us; in order to beguile us they appear to be our friends, and
under that cloak they have set their hearts on robbing us of our
silver and our gold.

These Lombards give us a bad bargain, they exchange their
straw for our grain, for two goods they do us four ills, they bring
to us their fustian, and in their falsity drain us of our fine
nobles ^^ of royal gold and of our sterling coins of pure metal;
this is one of the principal causes why our land is so ill-off; but
if people would take my advice, may God help me, such fellows
would not be so near us.

But they, for their part, are so skillful in playing the game of
brokerage and business, that by deceit and flattery they bring
around to their will the government of our country with which
they are more familiar than are others: hence, it is common
report that they spy on our councils, whence great perils often
come to us, and any one who to-day has his eyes open will see
the plain folly of it.

Look there at some Lombards coming up like fellows poorly
dressed but by their deceit and talent for conspiracy before they
have gone a step they dress themselves more nobly than the bur-
gesses of our city; and if they feel the need of power or of
friendship, they know how to get it by fraud and subtlety, for
their cause is advanced whether we like it or not.

There is no reason I can see, nay rather, we ought to cry
shame on such lords as, in order to get gifts by chicanery, are
willing to give credence or faith to such gentry as lie in wait to
ruin us for their own gain: but it is a great pity that our gov-

^*^ "Edward III . . . made several important innovations: he not only issued
a gold coinage, but also larger silver coins, viz., groats (fourpence) and half groats
(twopence); his second coin was the Noble. . . . This beautiful work of art was
current for six shillings and eightpence. On the obverse the king standing in the
ship, is supposed to refer to the victory over the French fleet off Sluys in 1340."
Bartholomew, A Literary Historical Atlas of Europe, pp. 104-, 105. {Everyman s
Library, 1910.) The volume contains a very good series of plates of English coins,
as well as excellent maps of Europe in general, plans of important battle-fields and
maps of literary localities, such as the English Lake Country, the Burns country,
and many others.

THE SOCI.\L AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 253

ernment, which ought to administer the kiw in our behalf, has
thrown our merchants into slavery and secretly enfranchised
aliens to rob us.

But covetousness has conquered all, for he who gives will
have friends and can bring his plans to a (successful) issue, it
is the custom in my country: but one who pays attention to
my advice will be able to see on all sides, both at home and
abroad, that trickery in business is always with us; and further
(he will perceive) that the people who live by their trades are
all trained in one school.

The writer goes on at some length to speak of other
trades, such as druggists, goldsmiths, furriers, bakers and
butchers, but concludes the passage I wish to include with
this rather brisk account of the means of trickery in the
liquor business :

If you are ever going to know Trick, you will know him by
his piment, his claree and his new ypocras. With these he fat-
tens his purse, when city dames, who before visiting the min-
ster or the market come tripping in the morning to the tavern.
But then Trick is well paid, for each one will try wine provided
it is anything but vinegar.

And then will Trick make them understand that, if they will
just wait, they may have vernage, Greek wine and Malvesie.
To cozen them into spending more money, he will name them
wines of several sorts — of Crete, Ribole and Roumania, he will
describe wines of Provence and Monterosso, he will say that he
has in his cellar Riviera and ^Muscatel for sale, — but he hasn't
a third of all these; rather he says so as a novelty that he
may induce them to drink.

From one cask, forsooth, he will draw them ten different
wines, when once he has them seated in their chairs; and so he
says to them, "O my dear ladies, make good cheer, drink just
as you please, for we have sufficient leisure." Then Trick has
his heart's desire, when he has such cliaml)erers who know how
to deceive their husbands; for it is all one to him if they are
thieves, so long as he makes his profit.

254 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Better than any master of the black art, Trick knows all the
art of wine selling, its tricks and wiles; he will counterfeit with
his craft Rhein wine with vintage of France; truly, such as
never grew anywhere save on the banks of the Thames he will
brisk uj) and disguise and say it's Rhenish in the pitcher, so
knowingly does he devise. There is no man so wide-awake that
Trick does not trap him in the end.

If Trick is a wicked one in wine, he is still worse, by common
report, in beer: I say this not for the French, but for the Eng-
lish who daily at the ale-house drink: but especially for the
poorer sort who have neither a head nor a tail ^^ of their own
unless it come from their labor, and who all make a great
clamor that the keeper of the ale-house is not reliable.^'-

Every system of economic and industrial practice is ac-
companied, as it were, by some sort of system of economic
thought, including explanations, justifications and rules of
action. Thus the system of slave labor in ancient Greece
is postulated by Plato and Aristotle. And in the Middle
Ages, w^iile economics, in any modern sense of that term,
w as far from being thought of as a science separate from
ethics or jurisprudence, there are a good many statements
of concepts which are recognizable as economic. One of
these has already been cited in the note on page 188, ante,
where, in one of the charges against Richard II, the im-
plication is left wath the reader that in medieval public
economy the theory w^as that the king was expected to
live off the revenues of the estates belonging to the crown

^^ Literally, "cross or pile," i.e. the face or the reverse of a coin.

^2 I got the suggestion of including here these passages from Gower from G. G.
C'oulton, A Medieval Garner, pp. 575-578 (Constable and Co., Ltd., 1910), a book
which Professor Jolm M. Manly called to my attention. But though I have had
Mr. Coulton's translation by me, I have both made my own and included more
than he. Mr. Coulton in his prefatory note says that the second passage translated
consists of 11. 18, 421, seq., whereas it is 11. 26, 077-26, 136. The subject-matter of
Gower's diatribe is similar to that in a sermon of Berthold of Regensburg, the
popular German preacher of the thirteenth century. The sermon is translated in
Coulton, op. (-it., pp. 348-354. Cf. Herbert Spencer, The Morals of Trade in Essays:
Moral, Political and /Esthetic, 1864.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 255

without recourse to taxation.'*^ This is an outgrowth of
the feudal conception of land -holding and is a leading
doctrine in the economic thought of the time.

Two other important medieval economic concepts are
included here: the genealogy of money -power and the
doctrine of usury. The passage setting forth the first is
taken from The Vision of William concerning Piers the
Ploivman, from which quotation has already been made.'''
In the earlier sections of this poem one of the most promi-
nent characters is Lady Meed, who, in the allegory, is
usually interpreted to be Bribery on the one hand or
Reward on the other. It seems, however, that, on account
of her conduct in the poem, she should be explained as
Money-power. It is represented that the color of ]Meed,
so to speak, will depend upon her alliances (and this is the
reason she is personated as a woman); that is, if she is
married to Conscience, as the king suggests, all will be
well, but if she is wedded to Falsehood, as is proposed by
Flattery and Liar, two other characters in the allegory,
all will be ill. The latter marriage, however, is about to
take place when certain protests regarding it come in and
the case is brought before the king himself for trial. In
the course of the latter the following statement of the
genealogy of Meed is made:

Then Theology ^^ flared up when he heard tliis tale, and said
to sir Simony,^^ "Now may you have sorrow because you have
arranged such a wedding as may anger Truth. And woe to
your council before this marriage be consummated ! For Meed
is a woman whose mother was Amends; though Falsehood wcic
her father and Fickle-Tongue her sire, yet Amends was iier
mother })y the testimony of good witnesses. Willionl tlie con-

'^^ C"f. Ilaney, Uisiorji of Econoniir TfioiK/hi, p. 7!) ( M;icinill:iu Co., 1911).

M Cf. ante, pp. 242-217.

" I.e. Canon Law; the ("hunli had judicial control of marriage.

56 A clerical friend of Meed.

056 ENGLISH LITERATURE

sent of her mother Amends, Meed may not be wedded, for
Truth promised her (the mother) faithfully to espouse one of her
daughters, and the agreement has God's blessing provided there
is no guile, and you have given her (Meed) as Guile directed,
God give you sorrow!"

Amends, the mother of Meed, should be explained as the
poet's characterization of the medieval doctrine of "just
price"; that is, "every commodity had some one true
value which was objective and absolute, and was to be
determined in the last analysis by the common estimation
of the cost of production." ^' Now, Amends means "exact
compensation for" and as such corresponds clearly with
the medieval idea that in a business transaction no profit
should be made on either side: each should give an exact
equivalent to the other. Thus, Thomas Aquinas says,
" . . . if either the price exceeds the value, or conversely,
the value exceeds the price of the thing, the balance of
justice is destroyed." ^^ Aquinas was the great philosophic
authority in the late thirteenth and the fourteenth cen-
turies. But Amends was married to Falsehood, though an
earlier line states that Meed was illegitimate,^^ and the
issue of the union w^as Meed. This exactly accords with
the doctrine of the church fathers, copied by most medieval
writers, that Money -power is evil by nature. "This was
based on a theological distinction between human nature
as it existed on its first creation, and then as it became
in the state to which it was reduced after the fall of Adam.
Created in original justice, as the phrase ran, the powders
of man's soul were in perfect harmony. His sensitive na-
ture, i.e. his passions, were in subjection to his will, his
will to his reason, his reason to God. Had man continued
in this state of innocence, government, slavery, and pri-
vate property would never have been required." ^°

" Haney, op. cit, p. 70. ^8 //^,v/.^ p. 77. 59 ^f. Text, Passus III, 1. 24.
«° Bede Jarrett, Mcdiaval Socialism, p. 9. (T. C. and E. C. Jack, The People's

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 257

The protest of Canon Law, that Meed and her fiance
Falsehood are within the forbidden degrees of relationship,
is successful and the marriage does not take place. But the
fact that Meed is tried before the king himself is interest-
ing as suggesting another economic idea of the time; Meed
is the ward of the king — this is the only basis on which
she is brought before the king for trial; for in feudal
law the vassal was subject to his lord's court. The royal
guardianship of Meed, however, bears out the theory that
she is Money-power in general, since royal care of the
money of the country is a cardinal doctrine in medieval
economic thought.^^

The medieval theory of usury fits in well with the con-
cept of money-power just expounded. The first passages
to be submitted are from the Ayenhite of Inivyt {Remorse
of Conscience) of Dan Michel, which he tells ^- us he fin-
ished in 1340. The work is "a translation of a popular
French treatise, the Somme des Vices et des Vertus (or
Sum of Vices and Virtues, known also as Li Livres roiaux
des Vices et des Vertus or The Royal Books of Vices and
Virtues and Somme le Roi or Sum the King) compiled, in
1279, by frere Lorens, a dominican, at the request of PhiHp
the Bold, son and successor of Louis IX. This, in its turn,
was borrowed from other writers, and was composed of
various homilies, on the ten commandments, the creed,
the seven deadly sins, the knowledge of good and evil, the
seven petitions of the Paternoster, the seven gifts of the
Holy Ghost, the seven cardinal virtues and confession,
many of which exist in manuscripts anterior to the time of
frere Lorens.

*'The treatment of these subjects, especially in the sec-
tion on the seven deadly sins, is allegorical. The sins are
first compared with the seven heads of the beast which

Books, London, 1913). This gives a theoretic basis for the diatribes against trade,
already quoted. ^^ Cf. Ilaney, op. cit., p. 79. ''- See post., p. 503.

258 ENGLISH LITERATURE

St. John saw in the Apocalypse; then, by a change of
metaphor, pride becomes the root of all the rest, and each
of them is represented as bringing forth various boughs.
Thus, the boughs of pride are untruth, despite, presump-
tion, ambition, idle bliss, hypocrisy and wicked dread;
while from untruth spring three twigs, foulhood, foolish-
ness and apostasy. This elaborate classification into
divisions and subdivisions is characteristic of the whole
work, and becomes not a little tiresome; on the other
hand, the very frequent recourse to metaphor which ac-
companies it serves to drive the lesson home. Idle bliss
is the great w^ind that throweth down the great towers,
and the high steeples, and the great beeches in the w^oods,
by which are signified men in high places; the boaster is
the cuckoo w^ho singeth always of himself.

"Sometimes these comparisons are drawn from the natu-
ral history of the day, the bestiaries, or, as Dan Michel
calls them, the 'bokes of kende' (books of nature). Thus,
flatterers are like to nickers (sea-fairies), which have the
bodies of women and the tails of fishes, and sing so sweetly
that they make the sailors fall asleep, and afterwards swal-
low them; or like the adder called ^seraj^n,' which runs
more quickly than a horse, and whose venom is so deadly
that no medicine can cure its sting. Other illustrations
are borrowed from Seneca, from ^Esop, Boethius, St.
Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Bernard, St. Jerome and St.
Anselm." ^^

Using the complex system of division referred to, the
author makes Usury the first root of Avarice and then
discusses the different sorts of Usury. Later he makes
Chaffering the eighth bough of Avarice.

There are seven kinds of usury. The first is lending that
lendeth silver for other things, where over and above the capi-

^ Cambridge History of EtKjlish Literature, I, pp. 395, 396.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 259

tal sum the lender taketh the profits either in pence, or in horses,
or in corn, or in wine, or in fruits of the ground that he taketh
in mortgage, without reckoning these profits as part-pay-
ment. And what is worse, he will reckon twice, or even thrice
in the year in order to raise the rate of usury, and yet he hath
gifts as well for each term; and he maketh often of the usury a
principal debt. These are usuries evil and foul. The courteous
lender is he that lendeth without always making bargains for
profit, either in pence, or in horses, or in cups of gold, or in
silver, or in robes, or in tuns of wine, or in fat swine, or in serv-
ices of horses or carts, or providings for himself or his children,
or in any other things that he takes by reason of the loan. This
is the first manner of usury, that is, lending wickedly. The
second manner of usury is in those that do not themselves lend,
but that which their fathers or the fathers of their wives or
their elders have received in pledge and they inherit, by usury
they retain and will not yield it up. The third manner of usury
is in them that have shame to lend with their own hand, but
they lend their pence through their servants or other men. These
are the master money-lenders. Of such sin great men are not
quit, who hold and sustain Jews and usurers that lend and
destroy the country; and the great men take the rewards and
the great gifts, and oftentimes the ransom money of the goods
of the poor. The fourth manner is in those that lend with other
men's silver that they buy at small cost in order to lend at a
greater. These are the little usurers that teach so much foul
craft. The fifth manner is in bargaining when men sell a thing,
whatsoever it is, for more than it is worth at the time. And
what is worse, is wickedly selling at that time when they see
their wares are most needed; then they sell the thing for twice
the dearer, or thrice as much as the thing is worth. Such folk
do much evil. For their bargaining destroyeth and maketh
beggars of knights and nobles that follow tournaments. And they
take their lands and their heritage in i)ledge and mortgage, from
which they never acquit them. Others sin in buying things, as
corn, or wine, or other things, for less than half the pence that
it is worth, and then they sell them again for twice as much,
or thrice the dearer. Others buy things when they are least

260 ENGLISH LITERATURE

worth and of great cheapness, as corn sold in harvest time, or
wine, or bargains, in order to sell them again whenever they are
most dear. And they wish for a dear time in order to sell the
dearer. Others buy corn in the blade and vines in the flower,
when they are of fair-shewing and good forwardness, that they
may have, whatever befal, their wealth safe. The sixth manner
is when they give their pence to merchants in such w ise that they
are fellows in winning but not in losing. . . . The seventh man-
ner is in those that lend their poor neighbors, in their needs, a
little silver, or corn, or do them a little courtesy. And when
they see them poor and needy, then they make w4th them a
bargain to do their work, and for the pence they have before
given to the poor man or the corn they have lent him, they have
three pennyworth of work for one penny.

The eighth bough of Avarice is chaffering, wherein one sinneth
in many ways, for worldly winning; and, namely, in seven
manners. The first is to sell the things as dear as one may,
and to buy as good cheap as one may. The next is lying, swear-
ing, and forswearing, the higher to sell their w^ares. The third
manner is by weights and measures, and that may be in three
ways. The first when one hath divers weights or divers measures,
and buyeth by the greatest weights or the greatest measures
and selleth by the least. The other manner is when one hath
rightful weights and rightful measures to sell untruly, as do the
taverners that fill the measure with scum. The third manner is
when those that sell by weight contrive that the thing that they
w^eigh showeth more hea\'y. The fourth manner to sin in chaffer-
ing is to sell to time. Of this w^e have spoken above. The fifth
manner is to sell otherwise than one hath showed before; as
doth these scriveners that show^eth good letter at beginning and
after do badly. The sixth is to hide the truth about the thing
that one wall sell, as do the dealers of horses. The seventh is
to contrive that the thing one selleth maketh for to show
better than it is; as do the sellers of cloth that choose dim
places wherein to sell their cloth. In many other manners one
may sin in chafferings, but long thing it were to say.*^^

^^ On this medieval antipathy to usury cf. Tacitus' reference to the absence of
the practice among the early Germans; ante, p. 18.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 261

Our last passage deals with a specific instance where the
evil practice of usury is censured. Giovanni Villanni
(1275-1348), a merchant and politician of Florence, his
native city, wrote a historical work which he calls His-
torie Fiorentine {Florentine History) or Cronica Universale
{Universal Chronicle), and which begins with Biblical
times and comes down to the year 1348. There is no
better authority for the intellectual and economic life of
Florence in the first forty-eight years of the fourteenth
century, which Villani observed at first hand. In one of
the later chapters of his work he thus records the failure
of a well-known Italian banking house. The causes of
the failure, he says, in quite the medieval fashion, are
avarice and usury.

In the year 1345 in the month of January failed the conipany
of the Bardi, who had been the greatest merchants in Italy.
x\nd the reason was that they, like the Peruzzi, had lent their
money and that invested with them to king Edward of England
and to the king of Sicily; and that the Bardi found they had
owing to them from the king of England, what with capital and
interest and gifts promised by him, 900,000 florins of gold,
and on account of his war with the king of France he was unable
to pay; and from the king of Sicily 100,000 florins of gold. And
to the Peruzzi were owing from the king of England 600,000
florins of gold, and from the king of Sicily 100,000 florins of
gold, and a debt of 350,000 florins of gold, so they must stop
payment to citizens and foreigners, to whom the Bardi alone
owed more than 550,000 florins of gold. Whereby many other
smaller companies and individuals whose money was in the hands
of the Bardi or Peruzzi or others who had failed, were ruined
and so became bankru])t. By this failure of the Bardi, Peruzzi,
Acciajuoli, and Bonaccorsi — of the company of Uzzano Peran-
doli, and many other small companies and individual craftsmen,
owing to the burdens on the state and the disordered loans to
lords, of which I have made mention (though not of all, which
were too long to tell), came greater ruin and discomfiture to our

202 ENGLISH LITERATURE

city of Florence than any onr state had received, if the reader
well considered the damage caused })y sucli a loss of treasure
and money lost by our citizens, and lent from avarice to lords.
O cursed and greedy usury, full of the vice of avarice reigning
in our blind and mad citizens of Florence, who from covetous-
ness to gain from great lords put their wealth and that of others
in their power and lordship to lose, and ruin our republic; for
there remained no substance of money in our citizens, except
in a few craftsmen and lenders who with their usury consumed
and gained for themselves the scattered poverty of our citizens
and subjects. But not without cause come to states and citi-
zens the secret judgments of God, to punish the sins which have
been committed, as Christ with his own mouth said in the gospel
"Ye shall die in your sin." The Bardi agreed to give up to
their creditors their possessions, which they estimated would
come to 9 shillings and 3 pence in the pound, but at a fair
price did not come to six shillings in the pound.

'' Medieval life w^as corporate in character; that is, men
thought of themselves not as individuals but as members of
groups; this is why excommunication, boycott and out-
lawry were so terrible to the medieval man — they excluded
him from his group and cut him off from all the emolu-
ments, prerogati\^es and privileges of his group. The fact
of the corporate character of medieval life also accounts
for the sumptuary legislation ^^ of the Middle Ages, the
attempt minutely to regulate the equipment and expendi-
ture of various social ranks and classes. Two phases of
this "corporation" have already been illustrated, the feudal
system of landholding and military service and the gild
system of commerce and trade respectively. There is a
third phase left, the religious orders of monks and friars.
In the first chapter two passages from The Rule of St.
Benedict were quoted ^^ to illustrate the economic function

^ Cf. the English statute of 13G.'3, designed to regulate wearing apparel, quoted
in Locke, War and Misrule, pp. 5G-59 {BcWs English History Source Books, 1913).
ee Cf. ante, pp. 19-21.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND ^63

of monasteries, but here are to be included documents
which will show how complex the monastic system had
grown and how in some ways it had degenerated. iVs a
background for these, however, a description of the monas-
tic ideal in general will be used and for this purpose a
selection from the Dialogus Miraculorum {Dialog of Mira-
cles) by Caesarius of Heisterbach has been chosen. Cie-
sarius, to be sure, was a German, but the ideal set forth
in his book was European in its scope, applying to England
as well as to Germany. Csesarius was educated in Cologne,
became Prior and Teacher of the Novices at the Cister-
cian monastery of Heisterbach, and between 1220 and 1235
wrote his Dialog, a book intended for the guidance and
instruction of the novices in the monastery, some biogra-
phies and treatises on chronology ^" and a book of Homi-
lies. The persons in the Dialog are a Monk and a Novice.

In the Monastery of St. Chrysanthius (in the Eiffel) there
dwelt a schoolmaster named Ulrich, a Frenchman by birth, of
great prudence and learning. The revenues of his office were so
small that he could not avoid falling into debt. One of the
brethren at the Pnemonstratensian ^Monastery of Steinl'eld,
perceiving that he was a man of great learning, oft-times per-
suaded him to enter his monastery by grace of conversion. At
last this Ulrich, by divine inspiration, answered thus: "I owe
a little money; pay that, and I will come to you." When the
Provost of the aforesaid monastery heard this, he gladly i)aid
the money, and Ulrich forthwith took the habit. Not long
afterwards, he was elected Provost of that house: (for there
were as yet no Abbots in the Prtemonstratensian order). Con-
sidering then that, with this office, he had undertaken the
keeping not of flocks and lands but of men's souls, he busied
himself with the uprooting of vices rather than willi (lie amassing
of money, knowing that covetousness is the root of all evil.*''*

''^ The reader has douhlless noticed that medieval records of all sorts reckon
time by the Church calendar of holidays and saints' days. This fact accounts for
the great number of treatises on chronology written in the Middle Ages.

68 Cf. 1 Tim. G: 10.

264 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Now lie had a lay brother so skilful and circumspect in the
management of worldly things, so careful and exact, that every-
thing passed through his hands, and he was almost the only one
who provided the monastery farms with all that they needed,
both i)loughs and cattle and money. He was all in all, dis-
posing everything, neglecting nothing, adding field to field and
joining vineyard to vineyard. The Provost, marking this, and,
reading in the Scriptures that nothing was more wicked than ava-
rice called the lay-brother to him one day, and said: "Dost thou
know, my bearded ^^ fellow, wherefore I am come into this
Order?" (Now he was uncunning in the German tongue; and
therefore to the lay-brethren all his speech seemed crooked and
distorted.) The lay -brother answered: "I know not, my Lord."
"Then I will tell thee: for I am come hither to weep in this spot
for my sins. Wherefore art thou come hither?" The other made
answer: "My Lord, for the same cause." "If then," said .the
Provost, "thou art come to bewail thy sins, thou shouldest have
kept the fashion of a penitent: assiduous in church, in watch-
ings, in fastings: constant in prayer to God for thy sins. For
it is no part of penitence to do as thou dost — to disinherit
thy neighbors and (in the words ^*^ of the prophet Habacuc) to
load thyself with thick clay. Whereunto the lay-brother an-
sw^ered: "Lord, those possessions w^hich I get are continuous
with the fields and vineyards of our convent." "Well," said the
Provost, "when these are bought, thou must needs buy those
also which border thereon. Knowest thou what Isaiah saith?
*Woe unto you that join house to house and lay field to field
even to the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the midst
of the earth?' ^^ For thou settest no bounds to thy covetous-
ness. When thou shalt have gotten all the land of this province,
thou shalt cross the Rhine at a stride: then shalt thou go on
even to the mountains; nor even so shalt thou rest until thou
be come to the sea. There at last, methinks, shalt thou halt,

^' "The lay-brethren, unHke the monks, let their beards grow." (Mr. Coulton's
note.)

^" The only words of this tenor to be found in Habacuc are in the second chapter
and sixth verse; the modern Revised version does not mention clay.

" Cf. Isaiah .5:8.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 265

for the sea is broad and spacious, and thy stride is short. Abide
therefore within thy cloister, haunt thy church, that thou mayest
bewail thy sins night and day. Wait awhile, and thou shalt
have enough earth beneath thee and above thee and within; for
dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return." '^ Some of the
elder brethren, hearing this, said: "Lord, lord, if this lay-brother
be removed, our house will go to rack and ruin." Whereunto he
answ^ered: "Better the house should perish, than the soul:" and
paid no heed to their prayers. Novice. He was a true shepherd,
knowing that the sheep committed to him had been redeemed not
with corruptible things as gold and silver, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled." Monk.
This appeared plainly enough in his words and actions. For in
the days when Rheinhold was made Archbishop of Cologne,
and found the revenues of the see mortgaged and the farms
desolate, he was persuaded to borrow from the different Cister-
cian houses in his diocese faithful and prudent lay-brethren who
might watch over the farms and reform the revenues by their
industry. When therefore he had accepted this counsel, and
had collected certain lay-brethren both of the hill and of the
plain, he was persuaded to take this aforesaid lay-brother also.
Wherefore he sent an honorable ambassador, who, after greeting
the Provost from the Archbishop, added: "My lord hath a
small boon to ask of you which ye should not deny him."
"Nay," answered the Provost, "it is my Lord's part not to ask
me, but to command." Then said the other: "The Archbishop
beseeches you to lend him such and such a lay-brother for such
and such uses." Whereunto the Provost answered with all due
humility, constancy and gentleness: "I have two hundred sheep
at such a Grange, so and so many in such and such others; oxen
have I likewise and horses; let my Lord take then of whatso-
ever he will; but a lay-brother conunittcd (o my soul lie sliall
never have for such uses, since it is not i'or sliec|) and oxen that
I am to render account at the judgment-day Ijcfore the Supreme
Shepherd, but for souls tlial have ])een coininilted to my care."
He left also another ])r()of of his liberality, a somewhat profit-
able example against monastic avarice. One day, before that
^2 Cf. Genesis 3: 19. '' Cf. 1 I'ctcr 1: 18, 19.

•200 ENGLISH LITERATURE

aforesaid lay-lM'othor was removed from his offiee, the Provost
came to one of his granges; wherein, seeing a comely foal, he
enquired of the same brother whose it was or whence it came.
To whom the brother answered: "Such and such a man, our
good and faithful friend, left it to us at his death." "By pure
devotion," asked the Provost, "or by legal compulsion?" "It
came through his death," answered the other, "for his wife,
since he was one of our serfs, offered it as a heriot." '^^ Then
the Provost shook his head and piously answered: "Because he
was a good man and our faithful friend, therefore hast thou
despoiled his wife.^ Render therefore her horse to this forlorn
woman; for it is robbery to seize or detain other men's goods,
since the horse was not thine before (the man's death)."

The same Provost, being a man of prudence, was unwilling
to take the younger brethren with him when he went abroad on
the business of the monastery; for he knew that this was inex-
pedient for them, by reason of the devil's temptations. Now it
befel on a day that he took with him one of the youths; and
as they were together, talking of I know not what, they met a
comely maiden. The Provost, of set purpose, reined in his steed
and saluted her most ceremoniously; she in her turn stood still
and bowed her head to return his salute. When, therefore,
they had gone a little further, the Provost (willing to tempt
the youth) said: "Methinks that was a most comely maiden."
"Believe me, my Lord," replied the youth, "she was most
comely in mine eyes also." Whereupon the Provost answered:
"She hath only this blemish, namely, that she hath but one
eye !" "In truth, my Lord," replied the youth, "she hath both
her eyes; for I looked somewhat narrowly into her face." Then
was the Provost moved to wrath, and said: "I too will look
narrowly into thy back ! Thou shouldest have been too simple
to know whether she w^ere male or female." When therefore
he was come back to the monastery, he said to the elder monks:
"Ye, my Lords, sometimes blame me that I take not the younger
brethren abroad with me." Then he expounded this whole case,
and chastised the youth sternly with words and stripes. This
same Provost was so learned that (as it was told me by an elder
^^ For the matter of the heriot see ante, p. 222.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 267

monk of that house) he preached a sermon in the Cha])ter-
General of Citeaux one day when he came thither for the busi-
ness of his Order.

Novice. It oftentimes happens that great men wrest from
their subjects money or possessions to which they have httle
right, and build therefrom Houses of rehgion. ^lay the Reh-
gious knowingly accej^t such alms as these? Monk. Whatsoever
gnaweth the conscience, defileth the conscience. Yet know that
such things are sometimes done by God's just judgment, as thou
mayest learn by the following example. A certain great and
noble man, willing to build on his lands a House of our Order,
and finding a spot suitable for a monastery, drove out its in-
habitants partly by bribes, partly by threats. But the Abbot
who was to send monks to that ])lace, fearing divine dis-
pleasure if the poor were thus deprived of their possessions,
prayed to God that He might vouchsafe to reveal His will in
that case. Then was that just man not suffered to dwell long
in anxious suspense concerning this matter: for one day, as he
was in prayer, he heard a voice saying unto him in the words
of the Psalmist: "Thou, my God, hast given an inheritance to
them that fear Thy name." ''^ Rising therefore from his knees,
he forthwith understood, how it was God's will that undevout
men should be cast forth from these lands, and that men who
feared and praised God should be settled there: as we read that
the Lord gave to the children of Israel the lands of the Canaan-
ites and other unclean nations. Yet these must not be con-
strued into a precedent; for all covetousness and injustice
should be abhorred l)y the Religious. Novice. Yea, and scandal
should all the more be avoided in such matters, because secular
folk are unwilling to have Religious for their neighbors.

This is a high unworldly ideal; })rol)al)ly it unfortu-
nately remained nioslly an ideal, for a monastery was a groat
corporation with many prol)loms to solve and obligations
to meet. The abbot was supposed })oth to maintain a
high standard of religious life in his house and to perform
in an efficient manner many of the functions of the manager

'^ The concordance gives no such verse.

268 ENGLISH LITERATURE

of a modern business concern. It is true that he had his
assistants, but the responsibiHty came back in the ultimate
to the abbot; and if he did not always perform all his
functions in an equally satisfactory way,, his delinquencies
must be debited to the account of human nature. We are
fortunate in the possession of a monastic chronicle, The
Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond,'^^ which gives us a very
intimate sense of the quality of life in the Abbey of St.
Edmundsbury in the latter part of the twelfth century,
and from which we shall quote. It is not a romantic
picture that is there set before us, but a realistic one, giv-
ing us plenty of detail of the homely routine of the great
establishment. The monks are everyday, flesh-and-blood
Englishmen, daily companions of the author Jocelin, of
whom we know nothing save what he himself tells us in
his book. He was a monk, had likely been brought up
and educated in the monastery, and shows himself a person
of some learning, since he quotes Virgil, Horace and Ovid.
His Preface is as follows: *

I have undertaken to write of those things which I have seen
and heard, and which have occurred in the church of Saint Ed-
mund, from the year in which the Flemings ^'' were taken with-
out the town, in which year I also assumed the religious habit,
and in which Prior Hugh was deposed and Robert made Prior
in his room. And I have related the evil as a warning, and the
good for an example. ^^

'^ This is the chronicle whicli Carlyle used as the basis of his picture of the
past in Past and Present. The original chronicle is in LaLin and was first republished
in modern times by the Camden Society in 1840; it also finds place in Thomas
Arnold, Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, I, pp. 209-336. It was first translated
into modern P^nglish by Tomlins as Monastic and Social Life in the Twelfth Century,
as Exemplified in the Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond in 1844.

* This and the other passages from Jocelin's Chronicle which follow are
quoted by permission of Messrs. Chatto and Windus from their edition in the
King's Classics Series.

" The allusion is to the battle of Fornham, November, 1173.

^8 Perhaps the best treatment of English monastic life in general is Gasquet,

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 269

We gather from the opening chapter that the business
of the monastery was rather run down when JoceHn's story
begins :

In those days Abbot Hugh grew old, and his eyes were dim.
He was a good and kindly man, a godfearing and pious monk, but
in temporal matters he was unskilful and improvident. He relied
too much on his own intimates and believed too readily in them,
rather trusting to a stranger's advice than using his own judg-
ment. It is true that discipline and the service of God, and all
that pertained to the rule, flourished greatly within the cloister,
but without the walls all things were mismanaged. For every
man, seeing that he served a simple and ageing lord, did not that
which was right, but that which was pleasing in his own eyes.
The townships and all the hundreds of the abbot were given to
farm; the woods were destroyed, and the houses on the manors
were on the verge of ruin; from day to day all things grew worse.
The abbot's sole resource and means of relief was in borrowing
money, that so it might at least be possible to maintain the dig-
nity of his house. For eight years before his death, there was
never an Easter or Michaelmas which did not see at least one
or two hundred pounds added to the debt. The bonds were
ever renewed, and the growing interest was converted into
principal.

This disease spread from the head to the members, from the
ruler to his subjects. So it came to pass that if any official
had a seal of his own, he also bound himself in debt as he listed,
both to Jews and Christians. Silken caps, and golden vessels,
and the other ornaments of the church, were often ])la(C(l in
pledge without the assent of the monastery. 1 have seen a l)ond
made to William Fit/Isabel for a thousand and two score i)()uii(ls,
but know not the why nor wherefore. And I lune seen m not her
bond to Isaac, son of Rabbi Joce, for fonr hundred })ounds, but
know not wherefore it was made. I \\-a\c seen also a third bond
to Benedict, the Jew of Norwicli, for ei.uht hundred and four-
score pounds, and this was the origin and cause ol' that debt.

English Momi.siic Life, The Antiqiianj.s Books, Uli cd. (Loncii)n, Mclliucu & Co.,
1910).

270 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Our ])uttery was destroyed, and the sacristan William received
it to restore whether he would or no. He secretly borrowed forty
marks at interest from Benedict the Jew, and made him a bond,
sealed with a certain seal which was wont to hang at the shrine
of St. Edmund. With this the gilds and brotherhoods used to
be sealed; afterwards, but in no great haste, it was destroyed by
order of the monastery. Now when that debt increased to one
hundred pounds, the Jew came, bearing letters of the lord king
concerning the sacristan's debt, and then at last that which had
been hidden from the abbot and the monks appeared. So the
a])bot in anger would have deposed the sacristan, alleging a
privilege of the lord pope that enabled him to remove William
his sacristan when he would. However, there came one to the
abbot, who pleaded for the sacristan, and so won over the abbot
that he suffered a bond to be made to Benedict the Jew for
four hundred pounds, payable at the end of four years, that is,
a bond for the hundred pounds to which the interest had in-
creased, and for another hundred pounds which the same Jew
had lent to the sacristan for the use of the abbot. And in full
chapter the sacristan obtained that all this debt should be paid,
and a bond was made and sealed with the seal of the monastery.
For the abbot pretended that the debt was no concern of his,
and did not affix his seal. How^ever, at the end of the four years
there was nothing wherewith the debt might be discharged, and a
new bond was made for eight hundred and fourscore pounds, which
was to be repaid at stated times, every year fourscore pounds.

And the same Jew had many other bonds for smaller debts,
and one bond which was for fourteen years, so that the sum of
the debt owing to that Jew was a thousand and two hundred
pounds, over and above the amount by which usury had in-
creased it.

Then came the almoner of the lord king and told the lord
al^bot that many rumors concerning these great debts had come
to the king. And when counsel had been taken with the prior
and a few others, the almoner was brought into the chapter.
Then, when we were seated and were silent, the abbot said:
"Behold the almoner of the king, our lord and friend and yours,
who, moved by love of God and Saint Edmund, has shown to us

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 271

that the lord king has heard some evil report of us and you,
and that the affairs of the church are ill-managed within and
without the walls. And therefore I will, and command you upon
your vow of obedience, that you say and make known openly
how our affairs stand." So the prior arose, and speaking as it
were one for all, said that the church was in good order, and
that the rule was well and strictly kept within, and matters out-
side the walls carefully and discreetly managed; and that though
we, like others round us, were slightly involved in debt, there
was no debt which might give us cause for anxiety. When he
heard this, the almoner said that he rejoiced greatly to hear
this witness of the monastery, by which he meant these
words of the prior. And the prior, and Master Geoffrey
of Coutances, answered in these same words on another occa-
sion, when they spoke in defence of the abbot at the time when
Archibishop Richard, by virtue of his legatine power, came into
our chapter, in the days before we possessed that exemption
which we now enjoy.

Now I was then in my novitiate, and on a convenient occa-
sion talked of these things to my master, who was teaching me
the Rule, and in whose care I was placed; he was Master Sam-
son, who was afterwards abbot. "^Yhat is this," I said, "that
I hear? And why do you keep silence when you see and hear
such things — you, who are a cloistered monk, and desire not
offices, and fear God rather than man?" But he answered and
said, "My son, the newly burnt child feareth the fire, and so
is it with me and with many another. Prior Hugh has l)een
lately deposed and sent into exile; Dennis, and Hugo, and
Roger de Hingham have but lately returned to the house from
exile. I was in like manner imprisoned, and afterwards was sent
to Acre, for that we spoke to the common good of our church
against the will of the abbot. This is the hour of darkness;
this is the hour in the which flatterers triumph and are believed;
their might is increased, nor can we prevail against them. These
things must be endured for a while; the Lord see and judge!"

At length Abbot Hugh fell from his horse and was killed
and Jocelin tells us how the monastery was taken over by

272 ENGLISH LITERATURE

the officers of the king, just as would be the case with any
other feudal barony:

When Abbot Hugh had been laid to rest, it was decreed in
the chapter that one should tell the death of the abbot to Ranulf
de GhinvillJ^ Justiciar of England. Master Samson and Master
Robert Ruffus hastened across the sea, bearing this same news to
the lord King, and obtained from him letters directing that the
possessions and revenues of the monastery, which were distinct
from those of the abbot, should remain entirely in the hands of
the prior and of the monastery, and that the rest of the abbey's
property should be in the hands of the King. The wardship of
the abbey was given to Robert de Cokefield and to Robert de
Flamvill the seneschal, who at once placed under surety and
pledges those of the servants and relatives of the abbot to whom
the abbot had given anything after he fell ill, or who had taken
anything from the property of the abbot. And they also treated
the chaplain of the abbot in the same way, for whom the prior
became surety. And entering our vestry, they made a double
inventory of all the ornaments of the church.

Meanwhile the monks in a very human way gossip over
the qualifications of the possible successors of Abbot Hugh:

The abbacy being vacant, we often, as was right, made sup-
plication unto the Lord and to the blessed martyr Edmund that
they would give us and our church a fit pastor. Three times in
each week, after leaving the chapter, did we prostrate ourselves
in the choir and sing seven penitential psalms. And there were
some who would not have been so earnest in their prayers if they

'' Chief justiciar of England and reputed author of Tractatus de legihus ct consue-
titdinibiis regni Angliae {Tractate on the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of England),
first printed in 1554. After rising through various grades of pul)Hc office, he
became the right-hand man of Henry II, and during the latter's repeated absences
from England was practically viceroy. On Henry's death in 1189, Glanville was
removed from office by Richard I, heavily fined and imprisoned. On his release he
took the cross and died at the siege of Acre in 1190. His book noted above is a
practical treatise on the forms of procedure in the king's Court and "as the
source of our knowledge of the curia regis, and for the information it affords re-
garding ancient customs and laws, it is of great value to the student of English
history." (Enclyclopo'dia Brilannica, ed. 11, article GlanviU).

THE SOCUL AND INDUSTRL\L BACKGROUND 273

had known who was to become abbot. As to the choice of an
abbot, if the king should grant us free election, there was much
difference of opinion, some of it openly expressed, some of it
privately; and every man had his own ideas.

One said of a certain brother, "He, that brother, is a good
monk, a likely person. He knows much of the rule and of the
customs of the church. It is true that he is not so profoundly
wise as are some others, but he is quite capable of being abbot.
Abbot Ording was illiterate, and yet he was a good abbot and
ruled this house wisely; and one reads in the fable that the
frogs did better to elect a log to be their king than a serpent,
who hissed venomously, and when he had hissed, devoured his
subjects." Another answered, "How could this thing be? How
could one who does not know letters preach in the chapter, or
to the people on feast days? How could one who does not
know the scriptures have the knowledge of binding and loos-
ing? For the rule of souls is the art of arts, the highest form of
knowledge. God forbid that a dumb idol be set up in the church
of Saint Edmund, where many men are to be found who are
learned and industrious."

Again, one said of another, "That brother is a literate man,
eloquent and prudent, and strict in his observance of the rule.
He loves the monastery greatly, and has suffered many ills for
the good of the church. He is worthy to be made abbot."
Another answered, "From good clerks deliver us, oh Lord ! That
it may please Thee to preserve us from the cheats of Norfolk;
we beseech Thee to hear us !"

And again, one said of one, "That brother is a good husband-
man; this is proved by the state of his office, and from the
posts in which he has served well, and from the buildings and
repairs which he has effected. He is well able to work and to
defend the house, and he is something of a scholar, though too
much learning has not made him mad. He is worthy of the
abbacy." Another answered, "God forbid that a man who can
neither read nor sing, nor celebrate the holy office, a man who
is dishonest and unjust, and who evil intreats the poor men,
should be made abbot."

Again, one said of another, "That brother is a kindly man,

274 ENGLISH LITERATURE

friendly and amiable, peaceful and calm, <>enerous and liberal, a
learned and eloquent man, and proper enough in face and gait.
He is beloved of many within and without the walls, and such
an one might become abbot to the great honour of the church,
if God wills." Another answered, "It is no credit, but rather a
disgrace, in a man to be too particular as to what he eats and
drinks, to think it a virtue to sleep much, to know well how
to spend and to know little how to gain, to snore while others
keep vigil, to wish ever to have abundance, and not to trouble
when debts daily increase, or when money spent brings no re-
turn; to be one who hates anxiety and toil, caring nothing while
one day passes and another dawns; to be one who loves and
cherishes flatterers and liars; to be one man in word and another
in deed. From such a prelate the Lord defend us."

And again, one said of his friend, "That man is almost wiser
than all of us, and that both in secular and in ecclesiastical
matters. He is a man skilled in counsel, strict in the rule,
learned and eloquent, and noble in stature; such a prelate would
become our church." Another answered, "That would be true,
if he were a man of good and approved repute. But his char-
acter has been questioned, perhaps falsely, perhaps rightly. And
though the man is wise, humble in the chapter, devoted to the
singing of psalms, strict in his conduct in the cloister while he
is a cloistered monk, this is only from force of habit. For if
he have authority in any office, he is too scornful, holding monks
of no account, and being on familiar terms with secular men,
and if he be angry, he will scarce say a word willingly to any
brother, even in answer to a question."

I heard in truth another brother abused by some because he
had an impediment in his speech, and it was said of him that
he had pastry or draff in his mouth when he should have spoken.
And I myself, as I was then young, understood as a child, spake
as a child; and I said that I would not consent that any one
should be made abbot unless he knew something of dialectic,
and knew how to distinguish the true from the false. One, more-
over, who was wise in his own eyes, said, "May Almighty God
give us a foolish and stupid pastor, that he may be driven to use
our help." And I heard, forsooth, that one man who was Indus-

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 275

trious, learned, and pre-eminent for his high birth, was abused
by some of the older men because he was a novice. The novices
said of their elders that they were invalid old men, and little
capable of ruling an abbey. And so many men said many things,
and every man was fully persuaded in his own mind.

At length, after an election formula which delighted
Carlyle in its simplicity, Samson the subsacristan was
chosen Abbot. He had been recognized for some time as
a man of power, though he was a silent fellow. Abbot
Hugh had tried to flatter him ^^ and had said to his inti-
mates that Samson w^as the only man he had found whom
he had not been able to bend to his ow^n w^ll. He w^as
zealous for learning ^^ and had great religious sensibility,
for when he heard of the capture of Jerusalem by the
Saracens, "he began to wear undergarments made of horse
hair, and a horse-hair shirt, and gave up the use of flesh
and meat."^- "He was an eloquent man, speaking both
French and Latin, but rather careful of the good sense of
that which he had to say than of the style of his words.
He could read books written in English very well, and was
wont to preach to the people in English, but in the dialect
of Norfolk, where he was born and bred." ^^ He was a
careful manager ^^ and very patriotic, since he gave more
than his share for the ransom of King Richard I.^^ The
beginning of his rule in the monastery is thus described by
Jocelin:

In those days I was prior's chaplain, and within four months
was made chaplain to the abbot. And I noted many things and
committed them to memory. So, on the morrow of his feast, the
abbot assembled the prior and some few others together, as if to
seek advice from others, but he himself knew what he would do.

He said that a new seal must be made and adorned with a
mitred effigy of himself, though his predecessors had not had

8" Jane's translation in the King's Classics Series, pp. 9, 10. ^^ Ibid., p. 57.
82 Ibid., p. 63. 83 ji^ifi^^ p, 64. ^ Ibid., pp. 66-67. ^ Ibid., p. 85.

276 ENGLISH LITERATURE

such a seal. For a time, however, he used the seal of our prior,
writing at the end of all letters that he did so for the time being
because he had no seal of his own. And afterwards he ordered
his household, and transferred various officials to other offices,
saying that he proposed to maintain twenty-six horses in his
court, and many times he declared that ''a child must first
crawl, and afterwards he may stand upright and walk." And
he laid this especial command upon his servants, that they should
take care that he might not be laid open to the charge of not
providing enough food and drink, but that they should assidu-
ously provide for the maintenance of the hospitality of the
house.

In these matters, and in all the things which he did and de-
termined, he trusted fully in the help of God and his own good
sense, holding it to be shameful to rely upon the counsel of
another, and thinking he was sufficient unto himself. The monks
marvelled and the knights were angered; they blamed his pride,
and often defamed him at the court of the king, saying that he
would not act in accordance with the advice of his freemen. He
himself put away from his pri^y council all the great men of the
abbey, both lay and literate, men without whose advice and
assistance it seemed impossible that the abbey could be ruled.
For this reason Ranulf de Glanvill, justiciar of England, was
at first offended with him, and was less well-disposed towards
him than w^as expedient, until he knew well from definite proofs
that the abbot acted providently and prudently, both in domes-
tic and in external affairs.

Samson's talents for government were not suffered to
remain long in the obscurity of the monastery; he soon
got into public office, as Jocelin tells us in the following
chapter :

Seven months had not yet passed since his election, and,
behold ! letters of the lord pope were sent to him appointing him
a judge for hearing causes. In the performance of this work he
was rude and inexperienced, though he was skilled in the liberal
arts and in the holy scriptures, as being a literate man, brought

THE SOCL\L AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 277

up in the schools and a ruler of scholars, and renowned and well
proved in his own work. He therefore associated with himself
two clerks who were learned in the law and joined them with him,
using their advice in church matters, while he spent his leisure
in studying the decrees and decretal letters. * And the result
was that in a little while he was regarded as a discreet judge, by
reason of the books which he had read and the causes which he
had tried, and as one who proceeded in the cases which he tried
according to the form of law. And for this cause one said,
*' Cursed be the court of this abbot, where neither gold nor silver
profit me to confound my enemy !"

In course of time, he became somewhat skilled in temporal
matters, being guided by his commonsense, for his mind was so
subtle that all men wondered, and Osbert FitzHerbert, the under-
sheriff, used to say, "This abbot is given to disputation; if he
goes on as he has begun, he will blind us all, however many we
be." But the abbot, being approved in these matters, was made
a justice in eyre, though he kept himself from error and wander-
ing. But "envy seeks out the highest." His men complained
to him in the court of St. Edmund, since he would not give judg-
ment hastily or believe every spirit, but proceeded in a judicial
manner, knowing that the merits of the cases of suitors are made
clear by discussion. It was said that he would not do justice to
any complainant, unless money were given or promised; and
because his aspect was acute and penetrating, and his face, like
Cato's, rarely smiling, it was said that his mind lent rather to
severity than to mercy. Moreover, when he took fines for any
crime, it was said that judgment rejoiced against mercy, for i;i
the opinion of many, when it came to a matter of taking money
he rarely remitted that which he might lawfully take.

So his wisdom increased, as well as his care in managing affairs,
and in improving his state, and in spending honorably.

Some of the abbey's financial difficulties were conceived
as due to the Jews, and Samson finally secured royal per-
mission to drive them from the neighborhood.

The recovery of the manor of Mildenhall for one thousand one
hundred silver marks, and the expulsion of the Jews from the

278 ENGLISH LITERATURE

town of St. Edmund's, and the foundation of a new hospital
at Babwell, were signs of great virtue.

The lord abbot sought letters from the king that the Jews
might be expelled from the town of St. Edmund's, asserting that
whatever is in the town of the blessed Edmund, or within the
district subject to the jurisdiction of the monastery, belongs of
right to the Saint, and that consequently the Jews ought either
to be the men of St. Edmund, or else be driven from the town.
Leave, therefore, was given to him to eject them, provided that
they should have all their chattels, as well as the value of their
houses and lands. And when they were sent forth, and under
armed force were conducted to various towns, the abbot ordered
that in every church and before every altar those should be
solemnly excommunicated who should henceforth receive Jews
or entertain them as guests in the town of St. Edmund's. This
provision was afterwards modified by the justices of the king,
to the effect that if Jews should come to the great pleas of the
abbot in order to exact debts due to them from their debtors,
then for this reason they might be entertained for two days and
two nights in the town, and depart in peace on the third day.

Samson was a stout defender of the monastery's rights,
even against archbishops and kings.

In a manor of the monks of Canterbury, which is called Eleigh,
and which is in the hundred of the abbot, there chanced to be a
murder. But the archbishop's men would not allow the mur-
derers to take their trial in the court of St. Edmund. Then the
abbot made complaint to king Henry, and said that archbishop
Baldwin was claiming the liberties of our church for himself,
on the ground of a new charter which the king had given to the
church of Canterbury after the death of the blessed Thomas.

Then the king answered that he had never given a charter to
the prejudice of our church, and that he did not wish to take
from the blessed Edmund anything which he had formerly pos-
sessed. On hearing this, the abbot said to his intimate advisers:
"It is wiser counsel that the archbishop should make complaint
of me than that I should make complaint of the archbishoj). I
wish to place myself in possession of this liberty, and then I will

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 279

defend myself with the help of St. Edmund, in whose right our
charters bear witness that this liberty is."

Accordingly, unexpectedly, and very early in the morning,
with the help of Robert de Cokefield, about eighty armed men
were sent to the town of Eleigh, and took those three murderers
by surprise and brought them bound to St. Edmund's, and cast
them into the dungeon of the prison. And when the archbishop
made complaint of this, Ranulf Glanvill, the justiciar, com-
manded that those men should be bound by surety and pledges
to stand their trial in the court wherein they ought to stand it;
and the abbot was summoned to come to the court of the king
and to make reply concerning the violence and injury which he
was said to have done to the archbishop. And the abbot many
times presented himself at the court, without attempting to
make excuse.

At last, at the beginning of the fasting time, they stood before
the king in the chapter-house of Canterbury, and the charters
of the two churches were read publicly. And the lord king
answered, "These charters are of equal age, and come from the
same king Edward. I know not what to say, save that the
charters are contradictory." To this the abbot replied, "What-
ever may be said about the charters, we are seised of the liberty,
and have been in the past, and on this point I will submit to
the verdict of the two counties, Norfolk and Suffolk, which will
allow^ this."

Archbishop Baldwin, however, having first taken counsel with
his men, said that the men of Norfolk and Suffolk loved St.
Edmund greatly, and that a large part of those counties was
under the rule of the abbot, and therefore he would not abide by
their arbitration. But the king was angry and offended at that,
and rising up, left the place, saying, "He that is able to receive
it, let him receive it." And thus the matter was postponed, and
is still undecided.

But I saw that some of the men of the monks of Canterbury
were wounded to the death by the rustics of the township of
Midling, which is situated in the hundred of St. Ednumd, and
as they knew that the prosecutor is bound to go to the court of
the defendant, they preferred to be silent and to hide the matter.

280 ENGLISH LITERATURE

rather than comphiin of it to the abbot or his officers, since they
were in nowise wilhng to come and plead in the court of St.
Edmund.

After these things the men of Eleigh set up a certain measure
for the doing of justice in cases where bread and corn had been
measured with false measures, and the abbot made complaint
of this to the lord bishop of Ely, who was at that time justiciar
and chancellor. But he would not hear the abbot, because he
was alleged to be scenting the archbishopric, which was then
vacant. When, however, he had come among us, and was re-
ceived as legate, before he departed, he made prayer at the shrine
of the holy martyr. And the abbot, seizing the opportunity, said
in the hearing of all w^ho were present, "My lord bishop, the
liberty, which the monks of Canterbury claim, is the right of
St. Edmund, whose body is here, and as you will not assist me
to protect the liberty of his church, I put a complaint between
you and him. Henceforth he may secure his right." The chan-
cellor did not condescend to make any answer, and within a
year was forced to leave England, and suffered divine vengeance.

But when the same chancellor had returned from Germany
and had landed at Ipswich, and spent the night at Hitcham, a
report came to the abbot that the chancellor wished to pass
through St. Edmund's, and to hear mass with us on the morrow.
Therefore the abbot forbade the celebration of the divine offices
while the chancellor was present in the church, for he said that
he had heard in London that the bishop of London had pro-
nounced the chancellor excommunicate, in the presence of six
bishops, especially for the violence which he had done to the
archbishop of York, at Dover, and that the said chancellor, while
excommunicate, had departed from England.

Accordingly, when the chancellor came among us on the mor-
row, he found no one to chant mass for him, either clerk or
monk. But the priest, indeed, who stood at the first mass and
at the canon of the mass, and the other priests by the altars,
ceased, and stood with unmoved lips, until a messenger came and
said that he had left the church. The chancellor took no notice
openly, but he did many ills to the abbot, until, by the media-
tion of friends, they both returned to the kiss of peace.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 281

In the matter, too, of the commercial rights of the mon-
astery Samson showed himself true to his namesake.

The merchants of London wished to be quit from toll at the
fair of St. Edmund's. Many, however, though unwillingly and
under compulsion, paid it, and on this account many tumults
and a great disturbance occurred between the citizens of London
in their court. Wherefore, having held a meeting about the
matter, they sent word to abbot Samson that they ought to be
quit of toll throughout all England, under the authority of the
charter which they held from king Henry the Second.

To this the abbot answered that, were it needful, he could
easily bring the king to warrant him that he had never made
them a charter in prejudice of our church, or to the injury of
the liberties of St. Edmund, to whom the holy Edward had
granted and confirmed toll and theam and all regalian rights
before the conquest of England. And he added that king Henry
had given to the Londoners quittance from toll throughout his
ow^n demesnes, where he had the right to give it; for in the
city of St. Edmund's he could not give it, for it was not his
to give.

When the Londoners heard this, ,they decreed with common
assent that none of them should come to the fair of St. Edmund's
and for two years they did absent themselves, whence our fair
suffered great loss, and the offerings in our sacristry were greatly
diminished. Eventually, when the bishop of London and many
others had mediated, an agreement was reached between them
and us whereby they should come to the fair, and some of them
should pay toll, but this should be at once returned to them,
that by such a device the privilege of both parties might be
maintained.

But as time went on, when the abbot had come to an agree-
ment with his knights, and as it were, rested in peace, lo ! again,
"The Phihstines be upon thee, Samson !"^^ For the Londoners,
with one voice, threatened to level with the earth the stone
houses, which the abbot had built in the same year, or to take
distress a hundredfold from the men of St. Edmund, if the abbot

^ Cf. Judges lG:4-2'2.

282 ENGLISH LITERATURE

did not at once make reparation to them for the wrong which
they had suffered from the baiHffs of the town of St. Edmund's.
For they had taken fifteen pence from the carts of the citizens
of London, which were coming from Yarmouth and carrying her-
rings, and which passed through our town. And the citizens of
London said that they had been quit of toll in every market,
and always and in every place, throughout all England, from
the time when the city of Rome was first founded, at which
time the city of London was also founded. They said that they
ought to have this privilege throughout all England, both on the
ground that their city was a privileged city, which had been
the metropolis and capital of the kingdom, and on the score of
the antiquity of the city.

The abbot, however, asked for a truce on this dispute for a
reasonable time, until the return of the king to England, that
he might consult with him on this matter; and taking the advice
of men skilled in the law, he handed back to the complainants
those fifteen pence as a pledge, without prejudice to the ques-
tion of the right of either party.

In the tenth year of the abbacy of abbot Samson, by common
counsel of our chapter, we made complaint to the abbot in his
court and said that the receipts from all the goods of the towns
and boroughs of England were increased, and had grown to the
advantage of the possessors and the greater profit of their lords,
save in the case of this town, which had been wont to pay forty
pounds and had never had its dues increased. And we said that
the burghers of the city were responsible for this, since they held
so many and such large stands in the market-place, shops and
sheds and stalls, without the assent of the monastery, and at the
sole gift of the bailiffs of the town, who were annual holders
of their offices, and as it were servants of the sacristan, being
removable at his good pleasure.

But when the burghers were summoned, they answered that
they were under the jurisdiction of the king, and that they ought
not to make reply, contrary to the liberty of the towns and their
charters, concerning that which they had held and their fathers
well and in peace, for one year and a day without dispute. And
they said that it was the old custom that the bailiffs should.

THE SOCL\L AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 283

without consulting the monastery, give to them places for shops
and sheds in the market-place, in return for some annual pay-
ment to the bailiwick. But we disputed this, and wished the
abbot to dispossess them of such things as they held without
having any warrant for them.

Then the abbot came to our council, as if he had been one
of ourselves, and privately informed us that he wished, so far
as he could, to do right to us; but that he had to proceed in a
judicial manner, and that he could not, without the judgment
of the court, dispossess his free men of their lands and revenues,
which they had, whether rightly or wrongly, held for many
years. He added that if he were to do this, he would be liable
to punishment at the discretion of the king and at the assizes
of the kingdom.

The burghers, therefore, took counsel and offered the monas-
tery a revenue of a hundred shillings for the sake of peace, and
that they might hold that which they held as they had been
accustomed. But we would not grant this, preferring to post-
pone the matter, and perchance hoping that in the time of
another abbot, either we might recover all, or change the place
of the fair; and so the matter for many years advanced no
further.

The management of the cellar had always been a diffi-
culty in the abbey, and, after trying various other expedi-
ents, Samson decided to undertake it himself, with what
results is shown in the following:

In the year of grace one thousand one hundred and ninety-
seven, certain changes and alterations were made in our church,
which may not be passed over in silence. When our cellarer
did not find his ancient revenues sufficient, ab])ot Samson ordered
that fifty pounds should be given him in annual increase from
Mildenhall by the hand of the prior. This was not to be paid
at one time, but in instalments every month, that in each month
there might be something to spend, and that the whole might
not be used up in one part of the year; and so it was done for
one year.

284 ENGLISH LITERATURE

But tlie cellarer and his assistants complained of this, and he
said that if he had had that money in his hands, he would have
provided for himself and gathered stock for himself. Then the
abbot, against his will indeed, granted that request. And when
the beginning of August came, the cellarer had already spent the
whole amount, and moreover owed twenty-six pounds, and was
bound to pay a debt of fifty pounds before Michaelmas.

And when the abbot heard this, he was wroth, and spoke thus
in the chapter, "I have often threatened that I would take our
cellar into my own hands owing to your incompetence and ex-
travagance, since you bind yourselves with great debt. I placed
my clerk with your cellarer as a witness, that the office might
be managed with greater care. But there is no clerk or monk
who dares tell me the cause of the debt. It is said, indeed, that
the too elaborate feasts in the prior's house, which occur with
the assent of the prior and of the cellarer, and the superfluous
expense in the guest-house owing to the carelessness of the guest-
master, are the cause of it. You see," he went on, "the great
debt which is pressing on us; tell me your opinion as to the
way in which the matter should be remedied."

]\Iany of the cloistered monks, hearing this, and, as it were,
laughing to themselves, were pleased with what was said, and
said privately that what the abbot said was true. The prior
cast the blame on the cellarer, and the cellarer on the guest-
master, and the guest-master made excuse for himself. We, of
course, knew the true reason, but were silent from fear. On
the morrow the abbot came and again said to the monastery,
"Give me your advice as to how your cellar may be more
thoughtfully and better managed." And there was no one who
would answer a word, save one who said that there was no
waste at all in the refectory whence any debt or burden
could arise. And on the third day the abbot said the same
words, and one answered, "The advice ought to come from
you, as from our head."

Then the abbot said, "Since you will not give advice, -4|iid
cannot rule your house for yourselves, the control of the monas-
terj' falls upon me as your father and chief guardian. I receive,"
he went on, "into my own hand your cellar and the charge of

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 285

the guests, and the task of getting supplies within and without."
And with these words, he deposed the cellarer and guest-master,
and replaced them with two monks, with the titles of sub-cellarer
and guest-master, and associated with them a clerk of his table,
master G., without whose assent nothing was to be done in the
matter of food and drink, or in expenditure or in receipts. The
former buyers were removed from the work of buying in the
market, and food was to be purchased by a clerk of the abbot,
and our deficits were to be made good from the abbot's treasury.
Guests who ought to be received were received, and those who
ought to be honored were honored. Officials and cloistered
monks alike took their meals in the refectory, and on all sides
superfluous expenses were cut down.

But some of the cloistered monks said among themselves,
*' There were seven, yes, seven, who devoured our goods, and if
one had spoken of their devouring, he would have been regarded
as one guilty of high treason." Another said, as he stretched
forth his hands to heaven, "Blessed be God, who hath given such
a desire to the abbot, that he should correct so great faults."
And many said that it was well done.

Others said that it was not well done, thinking so great a
reformation derogatory to the honor of the house, and calling
the discretion of the abbot the ravening of a wolf; and in truth
they called to mind old dreams, to the effect that he who should
become abbot would raven as a wolf.

The knights were astonished, the people marvelled, at these
things which had been done, and one of the common sort said,
*'It is a strange thing that the monks, being so many and learned
men, should allow their affairs and revenues to be confused and
mingled with the affairs of the abbot, when they had always
been wont to be separated and parted asunder. It is strange
that they do not guard themselves against the danger which will
come after the death of the abbot, if the lord king should find
things in this state."

A certain man again said that the abbot was the only one
who was skilled in external aft'airs, and that he ought to rule all,
who knew how to rule all. And one there was who said, "If
there were but one wise monk in so great a monastery, who

^286 ENGLISH LITERATURE

might know how to rule the house, the abbot would not have
done such things." And so we became a scorn and derision to
those who were round about us.

About this time it happened that the anniversary of abbot
Robert was to be celebrated in the chapter, and it was decreed
that a Placebo and a Dirige should be sung more solemnly than
was wont, that is, with ringing of the great bells, as on the anni-
versaries of abbots Ording and Hugh. The cause of this was
the noble deed of the said abbot Robert, who separated our goods
and revenues from those of the abbot. But this solemnity was
due to the counsel of some that so the heart of the lord abbot
might be moved to do well. One there was, however, who
thought that this was to be done to the shame of the abbot, who
was accused of wishing to confound and intermingle his affairs
and revenues and ours, in that he had taken our cellar into his
own hand.

Then when the abbot heard the unusual ringing of bells, and
knew well and considered that this was contrary to custom, he
wisely hid the cause of the action and sang mass solemnly. But
on the follow^ing Michaelmas, since he wished to silence the
murmurs of some men in part, he appointed him who had been
sub-cellarer to the post of cellarer, and ordered another to be nomi-
nated as sub-cellarer, though the same clerk remained with them
and procured all needful things as before. But when that clerk
passed the bounds of moderation, saying, "I am Bu," — whereby
he meant that the cellarer had passed the bounds of temperance
in drinking, — and when, without consulting the abbot, he held
the court of the cellarer and took sureties and pledges, and re-
ceived the revenues for the year and spent them w^ith his own
hand, he was publicly called chief cellarer by the people.

And when the clerk often wandered through the court, and
many poor and rich debtors followed him as if he had been mas-
ter and chief agent, as well as claimants of divers sorts and on
divers matters, perchance one of our officials stood in the court.
He saw this, and wept for shame and confusion, thinking that
this was a shame to our church, and thinking of the danger
which would result, and thinking that a clerk was preferred to
a monk to the })rejudice of the whole monastery. Accordingly

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 287

he, whoever he was, procured by means of another, that this
should be fitly and moderately pointed out to the lord abbot,
and it came to pass that it was brought to the abbot's knowl-
edge how arrogant the clerk was, and what he did to the shame
and wrong of all; and that he was the cause of great disturb-
ance and discord in the monastery. But when the abbot heard
this, he at once ordered word to be sent to the cellarer and to
the said clerk, and commanded that the cellarer should hence-
forth regard himself as cellarer in the receipts of money, and in
holding pleas, and in all other matters, saving this only, that
the said clerk should assist him, not on an equality, but as a
witness and adviser. ^^

Thus the story runs on, adding detail to detail of our
knowledge of monastic life. We see King John on a visit
to the monastery and learn of his niggardliness, we hear of
various new disputes between various officers; but, as
Jessopp says,^^ these serve to vary the monotony of
routine. We are furnished a list of the knights of the
abbey and their duties and learn of the death and election
of a prior. The Chronicle comes to no particular conclu-
sion and ends before the death of Samson leaving "the
monastery at peace with all men."

But the monastic system decayed, and when we get down
to these portraits of monastic figures by Chaucer, we see
little in them to connect them with either an exalted reli-
gious life or a strenuous business life in the community.

There was also a nun, a prioress, "^^ who was very simple and
coy in her smiling; her greatest oath was but by St. Loy.^*^
She was called ^ladame Eglantine. She j)crformcd divine serv-
ice very well, intoned in her nose in seemly fashion, and she

^'^ Cf. Augustus Jessopp, Daily Life in a Medicral Monastery in The Coming of
the Friars (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 15th impression, 1908).

88 The Coming of the Friars, p. 189.

83 I.e. among the pilgrims to Canterbury.

3'' Patron saint of goldsmiths who refused to swear an oath; to say, therefore,
that the Prioress' greatest oath was by St. Loy is to say that she swore not at all.

288 ENGLISH LITERATURE

spoke French properly after the school of Stratford-on-the-Bowe,
for Parisian French was unknown to her. She was well-bred at
meals and let no morsel fall from her lips nor did she wet her
fingers much in the sauce. She could carry a morsel well and
see to it that no drop fell upon her breast. She had set her
heart on having good manners. She wiped her upper lip so
clean that not a bit of grease was seen in her cup after she had
taken a drink. She reached after her food politely and really
was good company and very pleasant and amiable in bearing,
took pains to imitate courtly behavior, to be stately in carriage
and held worthy of reverence. And, to speak of her sensibili-
ties, she was so loving and piteous that she would weep if she
saw a mouse if it were caught in a trap or bleeding. She had
some little dogs that she fed on roast meat and fine bread and
would weep bitterly if one of them died, or even if you hit
one smartly with a stick; all with her was sensibility and tender-
ness. Her hood was very neatly fastened; her nose straight;
her eyes gray as glass; her mouth small, soft and red. She had
a wonderful forehead, it was almost a span high, I believe; and,
to be accurate, she was not undergrown. Her cloak was very
chic, as I was aware. She had a set of coral beads on her arm,
varied with green ones at intervals, and on this string of beads
hung a very fine brooch of gold on which was first engraved a
capital A and then the legend. Amor vincit omnia (Love con-
quers all).

There was a monk, a splendid candidate for athletic honors,
a bold rider who loved hunting; a manly man, capable of being
an abbot. He had many a fancy horse in his stable; and, when
he rode, you could hear his bridle jingling in the whistling wind
as clear and as loud as does the bell of the chapel of this lord's
monastery. The Rule of St. Maur or of St. Benedict, because
they were old and somewhat strict, he disregarded. He was
inclined to pooh-pooh old things and take his stand with the
moderns. He didn't care a plucked hen for the text that says
that hunters are not holy men, nor for the idea that a monk
out of his cloister is like a fish out of water. He held such
things not worth an oyster, and I was rather disposed to agree
with him. Why should he study and make himself mad with

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 289

always poring over a book in the cloister or doing manual labor,
as St. Augustine bade? How is the world to be served? Let
Augustine follow such courses if he likes them. Therefore, this
monk was a hunter in earnest; he had some greyhounds, swift
as birds in flight; his whole heart was set on riding and hunting
rabbits — he spared no expense. I noticed that his sleeves were
trimmed at the wrist with fur and that the finest to be had;
and that to fasten his hood under his chin he had a very curious
pin made of gold — a lover's knot formed the larger end of it.
His head was bald and shone like glass, his face, also, shone as if
it had been oiled. He was a lord fat and in a flourishing physi-
cal condition; his eyes, deep set and rolling in his head, gleamed
like the fires under a furnace; his boots were supple and his
horse well cared for. Now certainly he was a fine specimen of a
prelate — he was not pale like a tormented ghost. Of all roasts
he liked best a fat swan. His riding horse was as brown as a
berry.

The restlessness and skepticism largely engendered in
Europe by the Crusades roused many good souls to a feel-
ing that a great revival of gospel Christianity was needed. ^^
Two of these, Dominic, a Spaniard, and Giovanni Bernar-
done, an Italian better known as Francis of Assisi, founded
new religious fraternities or brotherhoods since called orders
of friars (from Latin f rater, brother), Dominicans or Black
Friars and Franciscans or Gray Friars, named from the
respective colors of their clothing. These friars were not
to remain in solitude, devoted to self-cultivation like monks,
but were bound to go out among the people ])reacliing and
offering practical assistance of all kinds. Francis, soon
canonized, insisted that his companions should work in
absolute poverty, depending on alms for subsistence. This
principle was likewise later ado])led by St. Dominic. On
the whole the Franciscan order has left us better records
of its activities and was llu^ more characteristic of the
whole movement, and our first two documents relate^ to

^^ Cf. the lltlc c.ss;iy in Jcssoj);), op. cit.

290 ENGLISH LITERATURE

it. The first consists of the more important provisions in
the Rule of St. Frcuicis, the constitution of his order.

(After a long prolog.) I. In the name of God: here begins the
Rule of the Friars Minor, '■^" the first chapter.

The rule for the life of the friars minor is this, to observe and
keep the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by living in obedi-
ence without property and in chastity. Brother Francis promises
obedience and reverence to the lord Pope Honorius and to his
la\A'ful successors and to the Church of Rome. All other brothers
are bound to obey Brother Francis ^^ and his successors.

II. Of Those Who Are to Be Admitted to This Life and How
They May Be Admitted.
If any who desire to take up this life come to our brethren,
let the latter send them to the provincial ministers, ^^ to whom
only is granted license to receive brothers. The ministers shall
diligently examine the candidates in the Christian faith and the
sacraments of the Church. The ministers shall carefully examine
and if the applicants steadfastly believe in them (i.e. the faith
and the sacraments referred to) and will truly and- faithfully
grant and confess them, and (agree) steadfastly to keep them
to the end of their lives: and if they are not married: ... let
the ministers say to them the words of the holy gospel, namely
that they go and sell all their goods, and themselves try to dis-
tribute the proceeds to the poor: ^^ but if they cannot do the
latter, their good intention is sufficient. And the brethren shall

^ St. Francis with characteristic huraihty dubbed his followers "brothers of
lower rank than all others," hence friars minor or minorites. The materials for
our knowledge of the life and character of St. Francis are practically all included
in the Temple Classics and Everyman s Library; these include The Little Flowers;
The Mirror of Perfection, the Life by Bonaventura, and other Lives. The standard
work of modem scholarship on St. Francis is the Life by Paul Sabatier. It has
been translated from the original French into English. (Charles Scribner's Sons,
1912.) °3 St. Francis always called himself Brother Francis.

^* Europe, for purposes of organization, was divided into sections called prov-
inces and over each of these was set a sort of superintendent called a provincial
minister. Notice that the titles of even the superior officers in the order mean
service; minister is from the identical Latin word meaning servant, cf. Matt. 20:
25-28. "s Cf. Matt. 19: 21.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 291

see to it that they do not meddle with nor busy themselves with
their temporal good nor with the procuring thereof, in order
that instead they may freely do whatsoever God suggests or
inspires in their minds. Nevertheless, if advice be demanded or
asked of them in this matter, the ministers have permission to
send them (i.e. the persons asking the advice) to God-fearing
persons, by whose counsel their goods may be distributed and
given to the poor.

Then after this (examination and giving up their property) the
ministers shall give the initiates the clothing of probation, that
is to say, two coats without hoods, a cord, a femoral and a
shirt. Unless it be thought expedient by the said ministers that
the time of probation be lengthened or shortened in special cases,
when the year of probation is finished and ended, the probation-
ers may be received to obedience and profession.

And in no wise may it be lawful for them to forsake this
religious order, after and according to the commandment of
the Pope, for, as the holy gospel says, no man putting his hand
to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of heaven. ^^

And those who have made their profession and promised obe-
dience shall have one coat with a hood and another without
. . . and such as have need or are constrained by necessity may
wear shoes. And all the brethren must be clothed in simple and
cheap garments. And they may patch and mend them with
pieces of sack-cloth or with other pieces, with the blessing of
God. And I warn the brethren not to despise nor judge ^^ such
men as they see clothed in delicate and soft raiment, or with
colored and costly array, or using delicious meats and drinks,
but I charge each one rather to judge and despise himself.

III. How the Brethren Should Behave Themselves when They
Travel.

I counsel and also warn and exhort my brethren in our Lord
Jesus Christ that they brawl not, nor strive in their words of
comrhunication nor judge and condemn other men; but that
they be meek, peaceable, soft,^** gentle and courteous, speaking
honestly and answering every man as they should and ought.

^ Cf. Luke 9: 02. '••' Cf. Matt. 7: 1. ^^ (^f Proverbs 1.5: 1.

292 ENGLISH LITERATURE

And they shall not ride unless they be constrained by evident
necessity or else by sickness. Into what house or place soever
they enter they shall first say, "Peace be unto this house." ^^
And, according to the holy gospel, they may eat of all such food
as is set before them.

IV. That the Brethren May not Receive iVny Coin or Money.

I command steadfastly and strictly all the brethren that in no
wise they receive any sort of coin or money, either directly in
person or through any sort of intermediary. Nevertheless, for
the needs of sick brothers, and for the clothing of the brethren,
through spiritual friends, the ministers only and custodians and
wardens shall have diligent care and charge according to the
places, to the times and seasons, and to cold countries and re-
gions, as it shall seem to them expedient according to their neces-
sity and need. Saving this always, that, as I said before, they
may not receive any sort of coin or money.

V. How the Brethren Shall Busy and Occupy Themselves in

Bodily Labor.

The brethren to whom God hath given grace and strength to
labor shall truly and devoutly work in such wise that Idleness,^'^^
the enemy of the soul, being excluded and put away, they quench
not the inward fervor and spirit of holy prayer and devotion to
which all transitory and temporal things ought to yield and give
place. As for pay for their labor they may receive for them-
selves and their brethren those things that are needful and
necessary for their bodies except coin or money. (Let them
receive their pay) in a lowly and meek spirit, as pertains to the
servants of God and the true followers of most perfect and holy
poverty.

VL How the Brethren May not in any wise Burden Themselves
with Any Kind of Property.

The brethren shall have no property, either in houses or lands,
or rents or any sort of thing, })ut shall be like pilgrims and

»9 Cf. Luke 10: 1-lG.

"0 Cf. ante, p. 19, the first quotation from the Rule of St. Benedict.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 293

strangers ^°^ in this world, in poverty and meekness, serving
Alniiglity God. They shall boldly,!"- faithfully, surely and
meekly go for alms. Nor shall they, nor ought they to be
ashamed, for our Lord made Himself poor in this world. ^"^

A II. Of Penance to Be Enjoined on the Brethren that Fall into
Sin.

VIII. Of the Election of the Minister General of This Frater-
nity and of the Chapter at Whitsuntide. (Pentecost,
fifty days after Easter.)

IX. Of the Preachers.

The brethren shall not preach in the diocese of any bishop who
forbids them to do. so. And none of the brethren shall be so
bold as to preach to the people unless he has been examined,
approved by the minister general of this brotherhood and ad-
mitted by him to the office of preaching. I warn also and re-
quire and exhort the same brethren that in their preaching their
words and speech be select and chaste to the profit and edifica-
tion of the people, showing to them vices and virtues, pain and
joy in few words; because our Lord's sermons on earth were but
brief.

X. Of the Admonition and Correction of the Brethren.
XL That the Brethren Are Forbidden to Enter Nunneries.

XII. Of Those that Desire to Go among the Saracens or Other
Unbelievers.

Whosoever of the brethren by divine inspiration wishes to go
among the Saracens or other infidels, shall seek i)ermission of
their provincial ministers and the latter shall not grant it except
to such as they think to be serious and able and sufiicient to
be sent. These things by obedience I enjoin on the ministers
that they ask and request one of the canhnats of tlic Po|)(^ and
of the Holy Church of Rome to be governor, defender and
corrector of this brotherhood, that we always being subject
and abject under the feet of Holy Church, being stable and
steadfast in the catliolic and Christian faith, may truly keep

i°i Cf. IIol)row,s 1 1 : 13. i'^- ( f . Mall. 7: 7. "« C'f. 2 ( '..r. S : 9.

294 ENGLISH LITERATURE

poverty and meekness and the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which we have steadfastly and strictly vowed and
promised to do.

Conclusion.

And, therefore, in no way shall it be lawful for any man to
violate or oppose this charter or writing of our confirmation, or
to go contrary to it, or to move against it by boldness and pre-
sumption or by rash audacity in any way, for whosoever is so
hardy as to presume or undertake to do such a thing shall know
and understand that he thereby will fall into the great wrath
of God and of His blessed apostles Peter and Paul.

Given at the Lateran, November 26, in the eighth year of our
pontificate (1224).

(A long note on chapter 5 follows.)

Thomas of Eccleston, a writer of whom we know only
what he tells us in his book, Liber de Adventu Minorum in
Angliam {Account of the Arrived of the Minorites in Eng-
land), but who seems to be a careful investigator of Fran-
ciscan history and was a contemporary of King Henry
III of England (king 1216-1272), describes in the follow-
ing paragraphs how the doctrines of St. Francis were
brought to England. It is to be noted that, according to
this account, the Dominicans had already established them-
selves in London and at Oxford w^hen the Franciscans
arrived.

In the year of our Lord 1224, in the time of the lord Pope
Honorius, and in the same year in which the Rule of the Blessed
Francis was confirmed by him, in the eighth year of the reign
of King Henry, son of John, on the third day after the Feast
of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin,^''^ which fell that year
on a Sunday, the Minorite Brethren first landed in England at
Dover; there were four clerks and five laymen. The following
were the clerks: first. Brother Agnellus of Pisa, a deacon of about
thirty years old, who had been appointed by the Blessed Fran-
^^ Sept 11. (The Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin is on Sept. 8.)

THE SOCL\L AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 295

cis in the last general chapter. Provincial Minister in England.
. . . The second was Brother Richard of Ingworth, an English-
man, a priest and preacher somewhat more advanced in years,
who was the first to preach to the people beyond the moun-
tains. i°^ . . . The third was Brother Richard of Devon, also an
Englishman, a young acolyte, who left us divers examples of
longsuffering and obedience. . . . The fourth was Brother Wil-
liam Ashby, a youthful Englishman, still a novice wearing the
garb of probation.

The laymen were these: First, Brother Henry of Ceruise, a
Lombard, who, on account of his sanctity and great discretion,
was made warden of London, and who, when his period of labor
in England was completed, after the numbers of the brethren had
been increased, returned to his own country. The second was
Brother Laurence, from Beauvais, who was engaged at the be-
ginning in uncompleted work, according to the injunctions of
the Rule; afterwards he journeyed to the Blessed Francis, whom
he was favored to see frequently, and by whose conversation
he was comforted; finally, the holy Father freely gave him his
robe, and with a most pleasant benediction sent him back joyful
to England. . . . The third was Brother W. of Florence, who
returned to France, soon after the reception of the brethren (in
England). The fourth was ]\Ielioratus; the fifth. Brother Jaco-
bus Ultramontanus, still a novice in the garb of probation.

These nine, who had been brought across for charity to Eng-
land and freely sup]>lied with necessaries by the monks of Fe-
camp, came to Canterbury and abode at the j:>riory of the Holy
Trinity for two days; then four of them, to wit. Brother Richard
of Ingworth, Brother Richard of Devon, i^rotlicr IIcMirv and
Brother Melioratus, j)roceeded to London. The fi\-c ollicrs went
to the Hospital of Poor Priests, wlicre they remained until (liey
had ])rei)are(l a ])lace of residence for tliemsehes; soon alter, a
small room within the school was given to tlieni, wliere lliey
remained from day to day, slmt \\\) almost constantly. \\'lien
the schohirs returned liome in the evening, the brethren entered
the house where the scholars had l)een seated, made tliemseh-es
afire, and sat near it; sometimes, when they wished lo drink,
1^6 I.e. noiili of till- .VIps.

296 ENGLISH LITERATURE

they placed on a fire a i)ot witli the dregs of beer, and put a
dish in the i)ot, and drank in turn, sj^eaking each some words
of pious instruction; and as he bears witness who shared in their
real simplicity, and was a participator in their holy poverty,
their drink was often so thick that, when the pots came to be
heated, they poured in water, and so drank with pleasure.

The four brethren, of whom I have spoken above, when they
came to London, betook themselves to the Friars Preachers (i.e.
the Dominicans), by whom they were kindly received, and with
whom they remained for two weeks, eating and drinking what
was set before them, like intimate friends. Afterwards they
hired a house in the village of Cornhill, where they constructed
cells, stuffing the interstices between the cells with grass. They
remained until the following summer in their early simplicity,
without a chantry, because they had as yet no privilege to erect
altars and celebrate divine service in their house. Just before
the Feast of All Saints,^°*' and before Brather Agnellus had come
to London, Brother Richard of Ingworth and Brother Richard
of Devon came to Oxford, and there also were most kindly re-
ceived by the Preaching Friars in whose refectory they ate and
in whose dormitory they slept for eight days. Afterwards they
hired for themselves a house in the parish of St. Ebba and there
remained without a chantry until the following summer. There
the Blessed Jesus sowed a grain of mustard-seed which after-
wards became the greatest among herbs. ^'^^ From that place
Brother Richard of Ingworth and Brother Richard of Devon
set out to Northampton where they took up their abode in the
hospital. And afterwards they hired for themselves a house in
the parish of St. Egidius, where the first warden was Brother
Peter of Spain who wore an iron corslet next his body and fur-
nished many other examples of perfection. The first warden of
Oxford was Brother William Ashby, hitherto a novice; he was
now given the dress of the Order. The first warden of Cam-
bridge was Brother Thomas of Spain; of Lincoln, Brother Henry
Misericorde, a layman. The lord John Travers first received the
brethren at Cornhill, and gave them a house; a certain layman
from Lombardy was appointed warden, who first taught letters
i«> Nov. 1. i«7 Cf. Matt. 18: 81, 32.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 297

by night in the church of the Blessed Peter at Cornhill, and
afterwards became Vicar of England, while Brother Agnellus
went to the general chapter. In the vicarate he had as his
associate Brother Richard of Ingworth; in the end, being unable
to endure such heights of prosperity and being weakened by so
many orders, he became insane and apostatized from the Order.
It is worthy of note that in the second year of the administra-
tion of Brother Peter, fifth Minister of England, that is to say,
in the thirty-second year after the arrival of the brethren in
England, the number of brethren living in the province of Eng-
land, in forty-nine places, amounted to twelve hundred forty-
two.

The movement flom'ished, got to itself learning, and pro-
duced great scholars. Englishmen of European scholastic
reputation like iVlexander Hales, Roger Bacon, ^^^ and Duns
Scotus were Franciscans; continentals like Albertus Mag-
nus and Thomas Aquinas, the official theologians of the
Church, were Dominicans. In less than fifty years after
the Minorites landed at Dover, a member of the Order
had become Archbishop of Canterbury and Bonaventura,
General of the Order, had declined the Archbishopric of
York. "In 1281 Jerome of Ascoli, Bonaventura's suc-
cessor as General, was elected Pope, assuming the name
of Nicholas IV." 109

But for some reason the movement lost the purity of its
early ideals, the orders fell into decay, and within a cen-
tury of the election of Nicholas IV, we find an English
poem like the following, piu'porting to be written by a
novice in one of the orders, full of severe censure of the
everyday life of the friars.

No priest, monk, canon nor any man of religion is so fervent
in his devotion as is this holy friar. For some devote themselves
to chivalry, some to rioting and ribaldry; but friars devote
themselves to great study and to long prayers; whoso keeps

103 Cf. post, pp. 391-401. 103 Cf. Jessopp, op. cit., p. -45.

298 ENGLISH LITERATURE

their whole Rule both in word and deed will certainly, I am sure,
reap heaven's bliss as his reward.

Men can see by their faces that they are men of severe pen-
ance and also that their living is thin and weak. I have lived
now forty years and fatter men in the kidneys I never saw than
these friars in countries where they wander about. Without
meat they become so emaciated and penance so subdues them
that each must ride on horseback when they must pack up and
leave town.

Alas ! that it ever should be so that such clerks as they should
walk from town to town to seek their living. By God who won
all this world, he who organized this order methinks must have
been a very simple sort of man. For they have naught to live
by, they wander here and there and deal in divers merchandise
just as if they were pedlars.

They deal in purses, pins and knives, in girdles and gloves for
girls and women; but always the husband comes off ill where
friars are numerous. For when the goodman is from home and
the friar comes to his dame, he spares neither for sin nor shame
to do his will. If they got no help from housewives when hus-
bands are not in, the welfare of the friars would be bad and
they w^ould brew so thin !

Some friars carry rich furs about for greater dames and stout
to trim their clothes on the outside with, after they are finished.
For some vaire,^^^ for others gryse,^^*^ for some cloth and others
silk, and also many sorts of spice they carry in their bags.
Whatever pleases the women the friars have at hand; but the
husband who must foot the bill gets but small return.

Tricks they know and many a scheme; for one can with a
pound of soap get him a kirtle and a cape and something else
to boot. Why should I swear an oath.'^ There is no pedlar
that carries a pack can sell his wares half so dear as that friar
can. For if he gives a woman a knife that cost but two-pence,
he will have pay worth ten knives, I know before he goes.

Let every man that lives here, if he have wife or fair daugh-
ter, allow no friar to shrive them in public or in private. Though
women seem steadfast in heart, they can make their hearts

"° Various kinds of fine furs for which we have no modern equivalent names.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 299

changeable with fair heliesl and table and fulfill their desires.
Beware always of the limitor ^^^ and of his fellow as well, for if
they play their tricks in your house, it will probably turn out
ill for you.

They say that they (the friars) destroy sin, but they (really)
maintain peoi)le most therein; for if a man had slain all his kin,
let him go to a friar for absolution, and for less than a i)air of
shoes he will wash the murderer clean and declare that the sin
he has committed will never harm his soul. It seems in sooth
that men say of them in many different lands that the cursed
caitiff Cain founded these orders.

Now see in truth whether it be so: the name Carmelite ^^^
begins with C, Augustinian ^^'- begins with A, Jacobin with I and
Minorite with M; thus Caim ^^'^ started these four orders and filled
the world with error and hypocrisy. All the wickedness that
men can recount dwells among them; there is no room for other
souls in hell, there is such a crowd of friars.

They travel eagerly and busily, to humiliate the secular
clergy; ^^^ they slander them and thus do wrong. Whoso lives
many years will see that it will l^ippen to the friars as it did
to the Templars ^^^ who lived among us so long. For they did

^^^ A friar licensed to beg in a certain district and limited to that district.

^^2 Augustinians and Carmelites were less important orders of friars founded aft«T
the greater two.

^^^ The preferred spelling of the name in the Middle Ages.

"■* Secular clergy or secular priests, so-called to distinguish them from regular
clergy or those living under monastic or other rules, were priests living out in the
world (Latin sa'cidurii) among the people; they were also called possessit)ners
because they were in possession of the parish churches and incomes.

1^^ The Knights Templars or Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple «)f Solo-
mon were one of the three great military orders (the other two were the Teutonic
Knights and the Knights of St. John or Knights Hospitallers) founded in the
twelfth century. Its object was to protect |)ilgrims after the first Crusade. The
Order became widespread, |)()pnl;ir and wciilliy, its history is thai of the Crusades.
The Order was suppre.s.sed in France, wlicn> i! •>riginaleil. on cliarges of li»>resy and
immorality, after .several knights had been torlured and after a (rial wliicli lasted
for two years, on May G, VM'i. The real molivr for the sui)pression was that the
Order had become .so gr<«at that Philip I\' (tii.- Fair) of France felt that in the
interest of c<'ntrali/iiitr aulhorilv in his realm, he would have to get rid of it.

300 ENGLISH LITERATURE

not regard religion but lived as they pleased, but they were
brought down and destroyed through the ordinance of the king.

The friars are doing dreadful things that can never come to
good ending; the friar will go on for eight or nine years or per-
haps ten or eleven. ^^^ But when his time has fully passed he
then has no scruple about stealing six or seven marks from any
body. These friars, so wily and so gay, have arranged such anni-
versary masses that no possessioners ^^^ can keep up with them.

It fell to them to live entirely by begging on alms gathered
from place to place and for all that helped them they were to
pray and sing (masses). But now this land is raked so clean
that secular priests ^^^ can scarcely get positions on account of
these friars. That is a wonderful thing and a quaint custom
ordained among them that friars are become annual priests and
in that way sell their songs.

Very wisely they can preach and talk; but they do nothing
but talk. I was a friar for a long time and therefore know
whereof I speak. But when I saw that their lying didn't agree
with their preaching, I cast off my friar's clothing and straight-
way went my way. Other leave took I none when I went but
I sent them all to the devil, both prior and convent.

Though I am out of the order I am no apostate; I lacked one
month of twelve and nine odd days or ten (of completing my
novitiate). I made ready to leave; before the day came to take
the final vow I went my way throughout the town in sight of
many men. Lord God, who with such dreadful pains didst
redeem mankind, let no man after me have the desire to be a
friar."^

"^ The friars' organizations, along with other rehgious corporations, were done
away with in England in the time of Henry VIII.

"^ It would almost seem that Chaucer had this poem before him when he com-
posed his description of the friar in the Prolog to the Canterbury Tales. Cf. 11. 208-
271. He uses many of the same expressions as occur in this poem. Cf. Skeat's
notes to Chaucer's account of the friar. Chaucer, in fact, has little that is serious
to say of any of the regular clergy, i.e. those living under rules. But he makes up
for this in his portrait of the country priest. Cf. Prolog to the Canterbury Tales, 11.
479-530. The picture there given reminds one of the character of Dr. Primrose in
the Vicar of Wakefield, or of Cowper's model preacher in the Task, Book IH, 11.
395-413.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 301

The Teutonic heirs of the Roman Empire, who, in their
earher years, according to Tacitus, ^'^ had shunned cities,
began about the tenth century, in England at least, to build
towns or boroughs and by 1300 or 1400 had come to regard
them as very important. The name borough (Old English
burh), the characteristic medieval name for towns in Eng-
land, meant originally a fortified place, and, as applied to
towns, probably goes back to the time when Edward the
Elder (king 900-924), in his efforts to reconquer the Dane-
lagh, fortified high places and assigned chiefs as their
guardians. About the high place w^as an open space ''in-
closed by a ditch, re-enforced by a rampart of earth pro-
tected by a wooden palisade. Often people coming to these
strongholds for protection engaged in trade and other
industries." ^^^ These traders and artisans, desiring the
protection of the fortification and the chief and, later,
eager for more freedom and scope for their own action, are
the organizers of the gilds of which we have treated, ^-°
and the leaders in demanding from nobles and kings char-
ters in w^hich their exact rights and duties as burgesses
should be set forth. It is from town charters that some of
our most valuable information regarding town life is de-
rived. These charters are very numerous; for, though but
eighty English towns are named in Doomsday Book, the
Xorman Conquest, by stimulating foreign trade and keep-
ing up a connection with the Continent, gave a great
impetus to city life; and England built many towns. But
these charters are also very much alike, and hence one or
two samples will illustrate the whole mass,^'-^

"8 Cf. ante, p. 11. i'^ Cross, op. cit., p. 47. i-" Cf. anfc, p. 228 scq.

^^^ That must liavc Ixmmi ;i kind of charter which Leofric, at the plea of Godiva,
granted to Coventry. The story, as told in Sir William Dugdale's Antiquities of
Waricickshire (IGoO). is as follows: "The Counte.ss Godiva, l)earing an extraordi-
nary affection to this place (Coventry), often and earnestly besought her husband
that, for the love of God and the blessed X'irgin. he would free it from that grievous
servitude whereunto it was sui)ject; but he, rebuking her for imj)()rtvming him in a

302 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Before quoting the charters, however, we should notice
another sort of interesting municipal document, namely,
the statement of town custom. For this purpose the
Cu>itoms of Chester and Neivcastle-upon-Tyne, the former
from Doomsday Book, have been selected.

(a) The city of Chester, in the time of King Edward, paid tax
as being of fifty hides; ^" three and a half hides of which
were outside of the city. That is, one and a half hides were
beyond the bridge, and two hides in Newton and Redcliff, and
in the bishop's borough; these paid tax with the city.

In the time of King Edward, there were in the city 431 houses
paying tax. x\nd besides these the bishop had 56 tax-paying
houses. Then the city paid ten and a half marks ^-^ of silver;
two parts belonged to the king and the third to the earl. And
the following laws existed there:

When peace had been granted by the hand of the king, or by
his letter or through his bailiff, if any one broke it, the king had
100 shillings for it. But if the same peace of the king, at his
order had been granted by the earl, if it was broken, of the 100
shillings which were given therefor, the earl had the third penny.

manner so inconsistent with his profit, commanded that she should thenceforward
forbear to move thereon; yet she, out of her womanish pertinacity, continued to
solicit him, insomuch that he told her if she would ride on horseback naked from
one end of the to^\Ti to the other, in sight of all the people, he would grant her re-
quest. \Miereunto she replied, 'But will ye give me leave to do so?' And he re-
plying, ' Yes, ' the noble lady, upon an appointed day, got on horseback naked, with
her hair loose, so that it covered all her body but her legs; and thus performing
her journey, she returned with joy to her husband, who thereupon granted to the
inhabitants a charter of freedom. ... In memory whereof the picture of him and
his lady was set up in a south window of Trinity Church in this city about Rich-
ard Il's time, his right hand holding a charter with these words written thereon:

' I, Luriche, for love of thee,
doe make Coventry Tol-free.' "

The Works of Tennyson with Notes by the Author, edited by Hallam, Lord Tennyson
(The Macmillan Co., 1913), pp. 901, 902. Cf. Tennyson's Godiva and Landor's
Leofric and Godiva. Leofric died in 1057.

^~ A hide was a unit of taxation or of measurement, equalling in the latter case
approximately 120 acres. It is here evidently the former.

^^ The mark of silver was equal to V3s. 4^/.; of gold, £6.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 303

If, however, the same peace was infringed when granted by the
reeve of the king or the officer of the earl, it was compounded
for by forty shiUings, and the third penny belonged to the earl.

If any free man of the king l^roke the peace which had been
granted and killed a man in his house, all his land and money came
to the king, and he himself became an outlaw. The earl had tlie
same concerning his man making this forfeiture. No one, how-
ever, except the king, was able to grant peace again to an outlaw.

He who shed blood between Monday morning and the ninth
hour of Saturday compounded for it with ten shillings. From
the ninth hour of Saturday to Monday morning bloodshed was
compounded for with twenty shillings. Similarly any one paid
twenty shillings who did this in the twelve days after Christ-
mas, on the day of the Purification of the Blessed Mary, on the
first day of Easter, the first day of Pentecost, Ascension Day,
on the Assumption or Nativity of the Blessed Mary and on the
day of All Saints.

He who killed a man on these holy days compounded for it
with £4; but on other days with forty shillings. Similarly he
who committed burglary or assault, on those feast days or on
Sunday £4. On other" days forty shillings.

Any one setting prisoners free ^'^ in the city gave ten shillings.
But if the reeve of the king or of the earl committed this offence
he compounded for it with twenty shillings.

He who committed theft or robbery or exercised violence upon
a woman in a house compounded for each of these with forty
shillings.

If a widow had illegitimate intercourse witli any one she com-
pounded for it with twenty shillings; a girl, however, with ten
shillings for a similar cause.

He who in the city seized u])()n the land of anotlicr antl was
not able to prove it to be his, was fined forty shillings. Simi-
larly also he who made a claim ni)()n it, if he was not able to
prove it to be his.

He who wished to make relief of his own land or that of his
relative gave ten shillings.

124 The word hangcwitham, tlms trauslalrd. has also boon considered to mean
the offence of liaiiging a person without warrant of law. — Dueange.

304 ENGLISH LITERATURE

If he was not able or did not wish to do this the reeve took
his huid into the hand of the king.

He who did not pay the tax at the period at which he owed
it componnded for it with ten shiUings.

If fire burned the city, he from whose house it started com-
pounded for it with three oras^^^ of pennies, and gave to his next
neighbor two shiUings. Of all these forfeitures two parts be-
longed to the king and the third to the earl.

If without the license of the king ships came to the port of
the city or departed from the port, from each man who was
on the ships the king and the earl had forty shillings. If against
the peace of the king and after his prohibition the ship ap-
proached, as well it as the men, with all things which were upon
it, did the king and the earl have.

If, however, with the peace and license of the king it had
come, those who were in it sold what they had in peace; but
when it w^ent away, four pence from each lading did the king
and the earl have. If to those having martens' skins the reeve
of the king gave orders that to no one should they sell until
they had first brought them and show^n them to him, he who
did not observe this compounded for it by paying forty shillings.

A man or a w^oman making false measure in the city, and
being arrested, compounded for it with four shillings. Similarly
a person making bad ale, was either placed in the ducking stool
or gave four shillings to the reeve. This forfeiture the officer of
the king and of the earl received in the city, in whosesoever
land it had been, either of the bishop or of another man. Simi-
larly also, if any one held the toll back beyond three nights, he
compounded for it with forty shillings.

In the time of King Edward there were in this city seven
moneyers,^^^' who gave seven pounds to the king and the earl,
besides the ferm,^-^ when the money was turned over.

^25 An ora is a number of pennies, varying in different times and places, here
possibly sixteen or twenty.

*'^ The moneyers were men who had tlie contract for coining money, paying a
fee for the privilege of reserving to themselves the seigniorage.

'2^ A ferm was a fixed amount paid as a lump sum in place of a number of
smaller or more irregular payments.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 305

There were at that time twelve judges of the city, and these
were from the men of the king, and of the bisho]), and of the earl;
if any one of these remained away from the hundred court on
the day in which it sat, without a clear excuse, he compounded
for it with ten shillings, between the king and the earl.

For repairing the city wall and the bridge the reeve sum-
moned one man to come from each hide of the county. If the
man of any one did not come his lord compounded for it to the
king and the earl with forty shillings. This forfeiture was in
addition to the ferm.

This city paid at that time of ferm £45 and three bundles of
marten's skins. The third part belonged to the earl, and two to
the king.

When Earl Hugh received it, it was worth only £30, for it
was much wasted. There were 205 fewer houses than there had
been in the time of King Edward. Now there are just as many
there as he found.

Murdret held this city from the earl for £70 and one mark of
gold. He had at ferm for £50 and one mark of gold all the pleas
of the earl in the county and in the hundreds, with the excep-
tion of Inglefeld.

The land on which the temple of St. Peter stands, which
Robert of Rodelend claimed for demesne land, as the county has
proved, never pertained to the manor, outside the city, but j)er-
tains to the borough; and it has always been in the custom of
the king and the earl, like that of other burgesses.

(6) These are the laws and customs which the burgesses of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne had in the time of Henry, king of Eng-
land, and ought to have:

Burgesses may make seizure for debt from those dwelling
outside, within their market place and without, and within
their house and without, and within their borough and without,
without the license of the reeve, unless courts are held in the
borough, and unless they are in the army or on guard at a
castle.

From a burgess a burgess is not allowed to make seizure for
debt without the license of the reeve.

If a burgess has agreed u])()n anything in the borough with

306 ENGLISH LITERATURE

those dwclliiiiX outside, the debtor, if he acknowledges it, must
pay the debt himself, or he must grant right in the borough.

Suits which arise in the borough are to be held and finished
there, except those whicli belong to the king's crown.

If any burgess is summoned on any prosecution, he shall not
plead outside of the borough except for want of a court. Nor
must he respond without day and term, unless he shall have
first fallen into an absurd defense; except with regard to things
which pertain to the crown.

If a ship has put in at Tynemouth and wishes to depart, it
is allowed to the burgesses to buy whatever they wish.

If a suit arises between a burgess and a merchant, it shall be
settled before the third tide.

AYhatever merchandise a vessel has brought by sea ought to
be carried to land, except salt and brine, which ought to be sold
on the ship.

If anyone has held land in burgage for a year and a day justly
and without prosecution, he need not make defense against a
claimant, unless the claimant has been outside the realm of
England, or in the case where he is a boy having no power to
speak.

If a burgess has a son in his house, at his table, the son shall
have the same liberty as his father.

If a villain comes to stay in a borough, and there for a year
and a day stays as a burgess in the borough, let him remain
altogether, unless it has been said beforehand by himself or by
his lord that he is to remain for a certain time.

If any burgess makes an accusation concerning any matter,
he cannot wage battle against a burgess, but let the burgess
defend himself by law, unless it is concerning treason, when he
ought to defend himself by battle. Nor can a burgess wage
battle against a villain, unless he has first departed from his
burgage.

No merchant, unless he is a burgess, may buy any wool,
hides, or other merchandise, outside of the town, nor inside of
the borough except from burgesses.

If forfeiture happens to a burgess, he shall give six oras to
the reeve.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 307

In the borough there is no merchant, nor heriot, nor blood fine,
nor stenge.sdiuf.

Each burgess may have his oven and hand-mill if he wishes,
saving the king's right to the oven.

If a woman is in transgression concerning bread or concerning
ale, no one ought to intermeddle excej)t the reeve. If she shall
have transgressed a second time, let her be whipped for her
transgression. If for a third time she shall have transgressed, let
justice be done upon her.

No one except a burgess may buy clothes for dyeing, nor
make, nor shear them.

A burgess may give his land, or sell it, and go whither he
wishes, freely and quietly, unless he is engaged in a suit.

The charters selected are those of Lincoln, granted by
Henry II, and of Winchester, granted by his son Rich-
ard I, which follow:

(a) Henry, by the grace of God, king of England, duke of
Normandy and Aquitaine, count of Anjou, to the bishop of
Lincoln, justiciars, sheriffs, barons, officers and all his faithful,
French and English, of Lincoln, greeting. Know that I have con-
ceded to my citizens of Lincoln all their liberties and customs
and laws, which they had in the time of Edward and AYilliam
and Henry, kings of England; and their gild merchant of the
men of the city and of other merchants of the county, just as
they had it in the time of our aforesaid predecessors, kings of
England, best and most freely. And all men who dwell within
the four divisions of the city and attend the market are to be
at the gilds and customs and assizes of the city as they have been
best in the time of Edward, Wilham and Henry, kings of Eng-
land. I grant to them moreover, that if anyone shall buy any
land within the city, of the burgage of Lincoln, and shall have
held it for a year and a day without any claim, and he who has
bought it is able to show that the claimant has been in the land
of England within the year and has not claimed it, for the
future as before he shall hold it well and in peace, and without
any prosecution. I confirm also to them, that if anyone shall
have remained in the city of Lincoln for a year and a day with-

308 ENGLISH LITERATURE

out claim on the part of any claimant, and has given the cus-
toms, and is able to show by the laws and customs of the city
that the claimant has been in existence in the land of England
and has not made a claim against him, for the future as in the
past he shall remain in peace, in my city of Lincoln, as my
citizen. Witnesses, E., bishop of Lisieux; Thomas, chancellor;
H., constable; Henry of Essex, constable. At Nottingham.

(6) Richard, by the Grace of God, King of England, Duke
of Normandy, etc., to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls,
barons, justices, sheriffs, ministers, and all bailiffs, and his faithful
subjects of his whole land, greeting. Know ye, that we have
granted to our citizens of Winchester, of the gild merchant,
that none of them shall be impleaded outside the walls of the
city of Winchester in any plea, except pleas of outside tenures,
money ers and our ministers being excepted. We have granted
also to them that none of them engage in the duel, and that for
pleas pertaining to our crown they may proceed according to
the ancient custom of the city. These things also we have
granted to them, that the citizens of Winchester, of the gild
merchant, be quit of duty, custom and bridge toll, in the market
and outside, and through the sea ports of our whole land this
side of the sea and beyond; and that no one be amerced save
according to the ancient law of the city, as it prevailed in the
time of our ancestors; and that they shall hold justly all their
lands and tenures and pledges and dues. And, in the case of
their lands and tenures, which are in another city, their rights
shall be maintained according to the custom of the city; and
for all dues adjustable at Winchester and for the pledges made
there, they shall hold pleas at Winchester. And if anyone in
our whole land takes duty or custom from the men of Win-
chester, of the gild merchant, after he has failed of right, the
sheriff of Southampton or the reeve of Winchester shall take
a pledge for his appearance at Winchester. Moreover, for the
benefit of the city, we have granted to them, that they shall
be quit of exactions and levies, except a levy made by our
sheriff or other officer.

These said customs we grant to them, and all other liberties
and franchises which they had in the time of our ancestors; and

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 309

if any unjust customs have been levied in war, they shall cease;
and whoever seeks the city of Winchester with his merchandise,
from whatever place, whether a foreigner or other, shall come,
stay and return in our peace, rendering right customs, and no
one shall disturb him, on account of this, our charter. There-
fore, we wish and firmly decree that they and their heirs have
by inheritance and hold all the aforesaid, of us and our heirs.
Witness, Walter, Archbishoi) of Rouen; Roger of Bath, Henry
of Coventry, bishops; Bertram of Verdun, John ^Marshall, Wil-
liam Marshall. Given by the hand of John of Alencon, arch-
deacon of Lisieu, our vice-chancellor, at Nunancurte, on the
fourteenth day of March, in the first year of our reign.

London is naturally the most interesting of all English
cities, and we are fortunate in possessing a very spirited
and detailed account of London life in the late twelfth
century, which wall be quoted entire. This Description
of London was written by William Fitzstephen, a devoted
follower of Thomas a Becket, as an introduction to his
Life of his master. ^-^

Of the Situation of the Same (London).
Amongst the noble and celebrated cities of the world, that of
London, the capital of the kingdom of England, is one of the
most renowned, possessing above all others abundant wealth,
extensive commerce, great grandeur and magnificence. It is
happy in the salubrity of its climate, in the profession of the
Christian religion, in the strength of its fortresses, the nature
of its situation, the honor of its citizens and the chastity of
its matrons; in its sports, too, it is most i)leasant, and in the
production of illustrious men most fortunate. All which things
I wish separately to consider.

Of the Mildness of the (Miniate.

There then

"Men's minds are soft'ned by a temp'rate clime,"

not so, however, that they are addicted to llctMilioiisncss, but so

that they are not savage andbrntnl, l)ut rallicr kind and generous.

128 I.e. Th.)ma> a H.-cket.

310 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Of the Religion.
There is in St. Paul's church an episcopal see: it was for-
merly metropolitan, and, it is thought, will be again, should the
citizens return to the island: unless perhaps the archiepiscopal
title of St. Thomas, 1-9 and his bodily presence there, should al-
ways retain that dignity at Canterbury where it now is. But
as St. Thomas has ennobled both these cities, London by his
birth, and Canterbury by his death, each of them, with respect
to the saint, has as much to allege against the other, and with
justice too. As regards divine worship, there are also in London
and in the suburbs thirteen larger conventual churches, besides
one hundred and thirty-six lesser parochial ones.
Of the Strength of the City.

On the east stands the Palatine tower, a fortress of great size
and strength, the court and walls of which are erected upon a very
deep foundation, the mortar used in the building being tempered
with the blood of beasts. On the west are two castles strongly
fortified; the wall of the city is high and thick, with seven double
gates, having on the north side towers placed at proper intervals.
London formerly had walls and towers in like manner on the
south, but that most excellent river the Thames, which abounds
with fish and in which the tide ebbs and flows, runs on that side
and has in a long space of time washed down, undermined and
subverted the walls in that part. On the west also, higher up
the bank of the river, the royal palace rears its head, an incom-
parable structure, furnished with a breastwork and bastions,
situated in a populous suburb, at a distance of two miles from
the city.

Of the Gardens.

Adjoining to the houses on all sides lie the gardens of those
citizens that dwell in the suburbs, which are well furnished with
trees, spacious and beautiful.

Of the Pasture and Tillage Lands.

On the north side too are fields for pasture and a delightful
plain of meadow land, interspersed with flowing streams, on
which stand mills, whose clack is very pleasing to the ear. Close
by lies an immense forest, in which are densely wooded thickets,

129 Cf. ante, p. 163.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 311

the coverts of game, stags, fallow-deer, boars and wild bulls.
The tillage lands of the city are not barren gravelly soils, but
like the fertile plains of Asia which produce abundant crops and
fill the barns of their cultivators with

"Ceres' plenteous sheaf."
Of the Springs.
There are round London, on the northern side, in the suburbs,
excellent springs; the w^ater of which is sweet, clear and salu-
brious,

"'Mid glistening pebles gliding playfully:"

amongst which Holywell, Clerkenwell and St. Clement's well are
of most note and most frequently visited, as well by the schol-
ars from the schools as by the youth of the city when they go
out to take the air in the summer evenings. The city is delight-
ful indeed when it has a good governor.
Of the Honor of the Citizens.

This city is ennobled by her men, graced by her arms and
peopled by a multitude of inhabitants; so that in the wars
under King Stephen ^^^ there went out to muster, of armed
horsemen, esteemed fit for war, twenty thousand, and of infan-
try sixty thousand. The citizens of London are respected and
noted above all other citizens for the elegance of their manners,
dress, table and discourse.
Of the Matrons.

The matrons of the city are perfect Sabines.^'^^
Of the Schools.

The three principal churches possess, by j^rivilege and ancient
dignity, celebrated schools; yet often, by the favor of some
person of note or of some learned men eminently distinguished
for their philosoi)liy, other schools are permit led ui)on suft'er-
ance. On festival days the masters assemble liieir j^upils at
those churches where the feast of the patron saint is solemnized;
and there the scliolars disj)utc, some in n dcmoiist rat i\'c way,
and otlier logically; some again recite enthymcmes, while others
use the more perfect syllogism. Some, to show their abilities,

^•■'" Cf. anfr, pp. m>-2(M).

'•" Kcfcrenco to tlio Sal)iiu' woincii of Itoinan liistorv.

312 ENGLISH LITERATURE

engage in such disputation as is practised among persons contend-
ing for victory alone; others dispute upon a truth, which is the
grace of perfection. The sophisters, who argue upon feigned
toj^ics, are deemed clever according to their fluency of speech
and conunand of language. Others endeavor to impose by false
conclusions. Sometimes certain orators in their rhetorical ha-
rangues employ all the powers of persuasion, taking care to ob-
serve the precepts of the art and to omit nothing apposite to the
subject. The boys of the different schools wrangle with each
other in verse and contend about the principles of grammar or the
rules of the perfect and future tenses. There are some who in
epigrams, rimes and verses use that trivial raillery so much
practised among the ancients, freely attacking their companions
with Fescennine ^^- license, but suppressing the names, discharg-
ing their scoffs and sarcasms against them, touching with Socratic
wit the failings of their school fellows or perhaps of greater per-
sonages, or biting them more keenly with a Theonine ^^^ tooth.
The audience,

'*well disposed to laugh,
With curling nose double the quivering peals."
Of the Manner in which the Affairs of the City Are Disposed.
The artizans of the several crafts, the vendors of the various
commodities and the la])orers of every kind have each their
separate station which they take every morning. There is also
in London, on the bank of the river, among the wine-shops which
are kept in ships and cellars, a public eating-house: there every
day, according to the season, may be found viands of all kinds,
roast, fried and boiled, fish large and small, coarser meat for the
poor, and more delicate for the rich, such as venison, fowls and
small birds. If friends, wearied with their journey, should unex-
pectedly come to a citizen's house, and, being hungry, should
not like to wait till fresh meat be bought and cooked:
"The canisters with bread are heap'd on high;
The attendants water for their hands supply."

^^ Fescennium was a town of Etruria and "From this town the Romans are
^aid to have derived the Fescennine songs bandied about at harvest festivals; these
w.ere usually of a coarse and boisterous character." (Smith, Smaller Classical Dic-
tionary.) 133 Could this be a misprint for "Leonine".^

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 313

Meanwhile, some run to the river side and there every thing
that they could wish for is instantly procured. However great
the number of soldiers or strangers that enter or leave the city
at any hour of the day or night, they may turn in there if they
please and refresh themselves according to their inclination; so
that the former have no occasion to fast too long, or the latter
to leave the city without dining. Those who wish to indulge
themselves would not desire a sturgeon or the bird of Africa ^"^'^
or the goodwit of Ionia, when the delicacies that are to be found
there are set before them. This indeed is the public cookery
and is very convenient to the city and a distinguishing mark of
civilization. Hence we read in Plato's Gorgias, "Juxta medi-
cinam esse coquorum officium, simulantium et adulationem
quartse particulse civilitatis." ^^^ There is without one of the
gates, immediately in the suburb, a certain smooth field in name
and in reality. There every Friday, unless it be one of the more
solemn festivals, is a noted show of well-bred horses exposed for
sale. The earls, barons and knights, who are at the tirrte resi-
dent in the city, as well as most of the citizens, flock thither either
to look on or to buy. It is pleasant to see the nags with their
sleek and shining coats, smoothly ambling along, raising and
setting down alternately, as it were their feet on either side: in
one part are horses better adapted to esquires; these, whose
pace is rougher but yet expeditious, lift up and set down, as it
were, the two opposite fore and hind feet together; ^^^ in another
the young blood colts, not yet accustomed to the bridle,

1^^ A species of goose.

^^ This must be a quotation from some garbled medieval Latin translation of
the Gorgias. Translated literally into modern English, it reads, "The art of cook-
ery, of those who pretend to flatter the fourth part of the state, is next to medicine."
In the Gorgias Socrates is discussing rhetoric with (iorgias, Polus, and Callicles. He
maintains that rhetoric, usually called the art of persuasion, is really no art at all,
but bears the same relation to the right and wrong of argument as the art of cos-
tuming bears to gymnastic art, or sophistry to legislation, or cookery to medicine.
Fitzstcphen either had a bad translation or he has misunderstood his text, for,
whereas he would put cookery next to medicine, Socrates contrasts theni as sham
and trufe art respectively. See Jowett's translation of the Gorgtas in his Dialogs oj
Plato, iii, pp. 49-51 (New York, ( harlcs Scribner's Sons, 1911).

^^ I.e. tlu' horses were pacers.

314 ENGLISH LITERATURE

"Whifh upright walk on pasterns fimi and straight,
Their motions easj', prancing in their gait,"

in a third are the horses for burden, strong and stout-limbed;
and in a fourth, the more valuaVjle chargers of an elegant shape
and noble height, with nimbly moving ears, erect necks and
plump haunches. In the movements of these the purchasers
observe first their ea.s\' pace and then their gallop, which is
when the fore-feet are raised from the ground and set down
together, and the hind ones in like manner, alternately. AMien
a race is to be run by such horses as these and perhaps by
others, which in like manner, according to their breed, are
strong for carriage and vigorous for the course, the people raise
a shout and order the common horses to be withdrawn to another
part of the field. The jfxrkeys, who are boys expert in the man-
agement of horses, which they regulate by means of curb-bridles,
.sometimes by threes and sometimes by twos, according as the
match^is made, prepare themselves for the contest. Their chief
aim is to prevent a competitor getting before them. The horses,
too, after their manner, are eager for the race; their limbs
tremble, and, impatient of delay, they cannot stand still; upon
the signal being given, they stretch out their limbs, hurry over
the course and are borne along with unremitting speed. The
riders, insjjired with the love of praise and the hope of victorj%
clap .spurs to their flying horses, lashing them with their whips
and inciting them by their shouts. You would think with
Ileraclitus '^^ that all things were in motion, and that Zeno's '■'*
opinion was altogether erroneous, when he said that there was
no such thing as motion and that it was impossible to reach the
goal. In another quarter, apart from the rest, stand the goods
of the peasants, implements of husbandry', swine with their long
sides, cows with distended udders,

"r>xen of bulk immense, and woolly flocks."

''^ Ileraclitus wa.s a Grf^.-k philos/^>phf;r who flourished at Ephcsu.s afxjut .500 B.C.
Hj.s writings ha/J the reputation of Fx-ing very obscure. .Accorriing to him fire was
the underlying motive p<jwer of the universe. He held, as our text .states, that all
things were in coastant flux.

•^ This Is 2>eno the Eleatic philr>sr>pher, no called from the town of Elea in South-
em Italy, where he flourished aUjut 488 (?) B.C. He argued for the unrf*a!ity of

TTIE SfK lAI. AM) INDr-IIUAL liACKGROUXD 31.1

Then- too stand \ho inaros fitted for the plow, the dray and the
cart, of which .sf)nic arc hi^ with foal, others have their frolic-
some colts ninnin^ close hy their sitles. To this city from every
nation tinder lieaven merchants hrin^' tlieir commodities hy sea,

"Arabia's ^old, Sahaea's '"^^ spice nnrl incense,
Scythia's keen weapons, and the oil of palms
Frmn Babylon's rich soil, Nile's precious gems,
Norrvay's warm peltries, Russia's costly sables.
Sera's ^*^ rich vestures and the wines of Gaul,
Hither are sent."

According to the evidence of chroniclers Ix)ndon is more
ancient th;in Rome: for, as both derive their origin from the
same Trojan ancestors, this was founded by Unit us before that
by Romulus and Remus. '^' Hence it is that, even to this day,
both cities use the same ancient laws and ordinances. Thi>,
like Rome, is divided into wards; it has annual sheriffs instead
of consuls; it has an order of senators and inferior magistrates
and also sewers and aqueducts in its streets; each class of suits,
whether of the deliberative, demonstrative or judicial kind has
its appropriate place and proper court; on stated days it has
its assemblies. I think that there is no city in which more np-
proved customs are observerl, in attending churches, honoring
(ifxi's orflinanccs, keeping festivals, giving alms, receiving strang-
ers, confirming espousals, contracting marriages, celebrating
werldings, pre[)aring entertainments, welcoming guests and also
in the arrangement r)f the funeral cerenu)nies and the buri;d of
the dead. The only inconveniences of I>ondon are the immoder-
ate drinking of ffK)lish persons and the frefjuent fires. More-
over, almost all the bishops, abbots and great men of Kngland
are in a manner (•itiz<'n> and fn'cmen of London; as they have
magnifirent houses there to which they resort, >penfling large
sums of money, whenever they are Mimmoned thither to councils
and as,s<"mblies l)y the king or their iinl mpniitan, or are com-
pelled tr) go there l)y their own busin<*>>.

motion ;in«l sp.uf. He .-iliouM not Iw <«»nfii.sofl with tho other 'Aenn of the Uh
anri .'Ul fcntiirirM n.c, the foimrler f>f Stoirism.

'•" I.r. Arahia. '•" I.-. C h ni ' ' ( f. nn/r. p. UH.

316 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Of the Sports.
Let us now proeeed to the sports of the city; since it is ex-
pedient that a city be not only an object of utihtj^ and impor-
tance but also a source of pleasure and diversion. Hence even
in the seals of the chief pontiffs, up to the time of Pope Leo/^^
there was engraved on one side of the Bull the figure of St. Peter
as a fisherman, and above him a key stretched out to him, as it
were, from heaven by the hand of God, and around him this
verse,

"For me thou left'st thy ship, receive the key."

On the obverse side was represented a city, with this inscription,
GOLDEN ROME. It was also said in praise of Augustus
Caesar and the city of Rome,

"All night it rains, the shows return with day,
Caesar, thou bear'st with Jove alternate sway."

London, instead of theatrical shows and scenic entertainments,
has dramatic performances of a more sacred kind, either repre-
sentations of the miracles which holy confessors have wrought,
or of the passions and sufferings in which the constancy of
martyrs was signally displayed. ^^^ Moreover, to begin with the
sports of the boys, for we have all been boys, annually on the
day which is called Shrovetide,^^ the boys of the respective
schools bring each a fighting cock to their master and the whole
of that forenoon is spent by the boys in seeing their cocks fight
in the school-room. After dinner all of the young men of the
city go out into the fields to play at the well-known game of
foot-ball. The scholars belonging to the several schools have
each their ball; and the city tradesmen, according to their re-
spective crafts, have theirs. The more aged men, the fathers
of the players and the wealthy citizens come on horseback to see
the contests of the young men, with whom after their manner,
they participate, their natural heat seeming to be aroused by
the sight of so much agility and by their j)articipation in the
amusements of unrestrained youth. Every Sunday in Lent,

^^ I have been unable to find which Pope Leo is meant.

^^^ A dear reference to religious plays.

1^ The Tuesday before Ash- Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 317

after dinner, a company of young men enter the fields, mounted
on warlike horses —

"On coursers always foremost in the race'*;
of which

"Each steed's well-trained to gallop in a ring."

The lay-sons of the citizens rush out of the gates in crowds,
eciuipped with lances and shields, the younger sort with pikes
from which the iron heads have been taken off, and there they
get up sham fights and exercise themselves in military combat.
When the king happens to be near the city, most of the courtiers
attend and the young men who form the households of the earls
and barons and have not yet attained the honor of knighthood,
resort thither for the purpose of trying their skill. The hope of
victory animates every one. The spirited horses neigh, their
limbs tremble, they champ their bits, and, impatient of delay,
cannot endure standing still. When at length

"The charger's hoof seizes upon the course,"

the young riders having been divided into companies, some
pursue those that go before without being able to overtake them,
whilst others throw their companions out of their course and
gallop beyond them. In the Easter holidays they play at a
game resembling a naval engagement. A target is firmly fas-
tened to the trunk of a tree which is fixed in the middle of the
river, and in the prow of a boat driven along by oars and the
current stands a young man who is to strike the target with
his lance; if, in hitting it, he break his lance and keep his posi-
tion unmoved, he gains his point and attains his desire: but if
his lance be not shivered by the blow, he is tumbled into the
river, and his boat passes by driven along by its own motion.
Two boats, however, are ])laced there, one on each side of the
target, and in llicni a nunilxT ol' young men to lake up the striker,
when he first emerges from the stream or when

"A second time he rises from the wave."

On the bridge and in l)alconies on the banks of the river stand
the spectators

"well disposed to laugh."

318 ENGLISH LITERATURE

During the holidays in summer the young men exercise them-
selves in the sj^orts of leaping, archery, wrestling, stone-throwing,
slinging javelins l:)eyond a mark and also fighting with bucklers.
Cytherea leads the dance of the maidens who merrily trip along
the groinid beneath the uprisen moon. On almost every holiday
in winter, before dinner, foaming boars and huge-tusked hogs,
intended for bacon, fight for their lives, or fat bulls or immense
boars are baited with dogs. When that great marsh which
washes the walls of the city on the northside is frozen over, the
young men go out in crowds to divert themselves upon the ice.
Some, having increased their velocity by a run, placing their
feet apart and turning their bodies sideways, slide a great way:
others make a seat of large pieces of ice like mill-stones and a
great number of them running before and holding each other by
the hand, draw one of their number who is seated on the ice:
if at any time they slip in moving so swiftly all fall down head-
long together. Others are more expert in their sports upon the
ice; for fitting to and binding under their feet the shinbones of
some animal, and taking in their hands poles shod with iron,
which at times they strike against the ice, they are carried along
with as great rapidity as a bird flying or a bolt discharged from
a cross-bow. Sometimes two of the skaters having placed them-
selves a great distance apart by mutual agreement, come to-
gether from opposite sides; they meet, raise their poles and
strike each other; either one or both of them fall, not without
some bodily hurt: even after their fall they are carried along
to a great distance from each other by the velocity of the mo-
tion; and whatever part of their heads comes in contact with
the ice is laid bare to the very skull. Very frequently the leg
or arm of the falling party, if he chance to light upon either of
them, is broken. But youth is an age eager for glory and desir-
ous of victory, and so young men engage in counterfeit battles,
that they may conduct themselves more valiantly in real ones.
Most of the citizens amuse themselves in sporting with merlins,
hawks and other birds of a like kind and also with dogs that
hunt in the woods. The citizens have the right of hunting in
Middlesex, Hertfordshire, all the Chilterns and Kent as far as
the river Cray. The Londoners, then called Trinovantes, re-

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 319

pulsed Caius Julius Csesar, a man who delighted to mark his
path with blood. Whence Lucan says,

"Britain he sought, but turn'd his back dismay'd." ^^^

The city of London has produced some men who have subdued
many kingdoms and even the Roman empire; and very many
others whose virtue has exalted them to the skies, as w^as prom-
ised to Brutus ^^*^ by the oracle of Aj)ollo :

"Brutus, there lies beyond the Gallic bounds
An island which the western sea surrounds:

To reach this happy shore thy sails employ:

There fate decrees to raise a second Troy,

And found an empire in thy royal line

Which time shall ne'er destroy, nor bounds confine."

Since the planting of the Christian religion there, London has
given birth to the noble emperor Constantine ^^^ w^ho gave the
city of Rome and all the insignia of the empire to God and St.
Peter and Pope Sylvester,^-^^ whose stirrup he held, and chose
rather to be called defender of the holy Roman church than
emperor: and that the peace of our lord the Pope might not, by
reason of his presence be disturbed he withdrew from the city
which he had bestowed upon our lord the Pope and built for
himself the city of Byzantium. London also in modern times

145 Cf. Lucan, Phar.mlia, Book ii, 1. 572. ^^^ Cf. ante, pp. 2i8, 31o.

1^^ A mistake of Fitzstephen's enthusiasm or ignorance.

"^ A reference to the famous donation of Constantine embodied in a document
kno\vn as Constitutum Constantini {The Decree of Constantine). This was possibly
pubHshed about 7.54 A.D., but, according to the article on the Donation in the Xew
International Knchjclopedia, was never used before the thirteenth century to vin-
dicate papal claims to temporal power. It is difficult to tell here whether Fitz-
stephen refers to the Constitutum or simply to the tradition of the gift. If to the
former, his reference would antedate the Enclyclopedia\s. The pontificate of .^\ 1-
vester I, the Sylvester referred to in the text, extended from 31-t-33;j. Laurcntius
Valla {circa 1406-1457), the eminent Italian Renaissance scholar, proved in 143!)
that the Constitutum was a forgery in his book De Falso Crcdita ct Emcntita Con-
stantini Donatione Declamatio {Speech concerning the Falsely Credited and Forged
Donation of Constantine). A translation of the Constitutum is to be found in Hen-
derson, Select Ili.dorical Documents of the Middle Ages, pp. 319-329 (George Bell
and Sons, 1892).

320 ENGLISH LITERATURE

lias jiroduced illustrious and august princes, the empress Ma-
tilda,'^'* King Henry III '-'^ and St. Thomas, '^^ the archbishop and
glorious martyr of Christ than whom no man was more guileless
or more devoted to all good men throughout the whole Roman
world.

"The city is delightful indeed," remarks Fitzstephen of
London, "when it has a good governor." ^^- Unfortu-
nately, good governors were not always the lot of London,
as w^e see from the following document, which is interest-
ing on two accounts; one, that it is the first petition in the
English language presented to Parliament; the other, that
it records an account of London municipal politics in the
later fourteenth century. It is preserved in a MS. in the
Public Record Office, London, and bears date, 1386.

To the most noble and worthy lords, most righteous and w^ise
advisors to our liege lord the King, make complaint, if you
please, the folk of the Mercers' Company of London as citizens
of the same, of many subtle wrongs as well as open oppressions
done them for a long time past. One of which was that, whereas
the election of a mayor is made by the freemen of the city with
the good and peaceable advice of the wisest and truest men,
every year freely — notwithstanding this freedom or franchise,
by force, Nicholas Brembre ^^^ with his follow ers nominated him-
self, the next year after John Northampton, as is well known,
and with violence and by main strength, w^as chosen mayor,
to the destruction of the rights of many, contrary to the peace
aforementioned. For in the same year, the aforesaid Nicholas,
unnecessarily, against the peace, made divers armed attacks by
day as well as by night and destroyed the King's true lieges,
some by open slaughter, some by false imprisonments; and some
fled the city for fear, as it is openly known.

And, further, to maintain these wrongs and many others,
the next year after, the same Nicholas, against the aforesaid

'^^ Daughter of Henry I of England. ^^^ Eldest son of Henry II.

'^1 Thomas a Becket. i52 ^f „^j^^^ p 311

*^2 See the article on him in the Dictionary of Nalional Biography.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 321

freedom Jiiid true summons, made open proclamation that no
man should come to vote for mayor but those who were sum-
moned; and all that were summoned were of his persuasion and
party. And on the night next following he had a great quantity
of arms and armor carried to the gild-hall, with which both
aliens and citizens were armed in the morning contrary to his
own proclamation, which was to the effect that no one should
be armed; and certain ambuscades were laid, so that, when the
freemen of the city came to vote for mayor, armed men broke
out upon them, crying, "Slay, slay," and followed them. And
so the people for fear fled to their houses and other j)laces of
hiding, as if they were in a land at war and afraid of being
killed en masse.

And from that time to this the office of mayor has been held
as if by conquest or force, and so have many other offices, so
that any man, known to be discontented, complaining at or
expressing himself in opposition to any of these wrongs, or ac-
cused by the statement of any one at all, even if the charge
were ever so false, was impeached, if Nicholas willed it, anon was
imprisoned, and, though it were on the false testimony of the
lowest officer that it pleased him to maintain, was held untrue
to our King; for, if any one accused an ofScer suborned by
Nicholas, of wrong or anything else, he pledged Nicholas against
his accuser and Nicholas, though unworthy as he himself ad-
mitted, represented the King. Also, if any man because of
service or for any other permissible reason approached a lord,
to whom Nicholas w^as afraid his evil courses might become
known, he was at once accused of being false to the interests of
the city and so to the King.

And if a general complaint were made against his treachery,
as by us of the Mercers' Company or any other craft, or if any
general method of withstanding him were broached, or, — as
time out of mind has been the custom, — ^ people would club
together, however lawful or profitable it might be for us, we
were at once accused of disturbing the peace and many of us
are still under false indictments. And we are openly slandered,
considered false and traitors to our King; for this same Nicholas
said before the mayor, aldermen and our craft gathered in a place

322 ENGLISH LITERATURE

of record, tliat twenty or thirty of us should be hanged and
drawn, which charge, may it please your worships, should be
])roved or disproved before a fair judge, that the truth may be
known; for truth amongst us is either the prerogative of a few,
or else for many a day none of us may show himself; and not
only has it (the truth) been obscured and hidden l)y man now,
but also aforetime, the most profitable points of true governance
of the city, gathered together after protracted labor of discreet
and wise men, without the advice of true men — in order that
these points might not be known nor kept in force — in the
time of mayor Nicholas Ext on were completely destroyed by fire.

And so far have these false ways gone that often he, Nicholas
Brembre, has said, in support of his falsehood, our liege lord's
will was such as it never was, we submit. He said also, when
he had slandered us, that those who would admit that they
had been false to the King, the King would pardon, cherish and
be kind to: and if any of us all, who with God's help have been
and shall be found true, was so bold as to offer to prove himself
true, he was at once ordered to prison, as well by the mayor
now in office as by his predecessor, Nicholas Brembre.

Also, we have often been commanded, by our loyalty, to do
unnecessary and illegal acts and also by the same token kept
from things necessary and lawful, as was shown when a com-
pany of good women, in a case where men were helpless, went
barefoot to our liege lord to seek grace of him for true men as
they supposed; for then were such proclamations made that no
man or woman should approach our liege lord to ask grace, and
overmany other commandments also, before and since, by the
suggestion and information of such as would not their treachery
were known to our liege lord. And, lords, by your leave, our
liege lord's commandment, to simple and unassuming men, is
a great thing to be used so familiarly without need; for they,
unwise in using it, may easily sin against it.

Therefore, gracious lords, may it please you to take heed in
what manner and when our liege lord's power has been misused
by the aforesaid Nicholas and his followers, for since these
wrongs aforesaid seem the accidental or common outward
branches, it is clear the root of them is a rotten substance or

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 3^28

stock within, namely, the aforesaid briar or bramble (Brembre, a
variant spelling of bramble), who practices wrong against the
city and others, if it please you, as may be shown and well-known
by an impartial judge and mayor of our city; the which with
your rightful lordships' foremost remedy granted, as God's law
and reason will, namely, that no man should be judge in his
own cause, wrongs will be more openly known and truth appear
at the door. Otherwise among us, we cannot know in what man-
ner it will appear without more trouble, since the governance of
the city stands, as has been said before, and will stand while
victuallers ^'^ are allowed to assume such state; the which gov-
ernance, formerly hidden from many, now shows itself openly
whether it has been a cause or beginning of division in the city
and afterward in the kingdom, or not.

Wherefore, for greatest need, we meekly petition you, most
worthy, righteous and wise lords and council to our liege lord
the King, graciously to correct all the wrongs aforesaid, and that
it please your lordsliips to be gracious mediators between us and
our liege lord the King, that such wrongs may be known to him,
and that we may show ourselves and then be held as true to
him as we are and ought to be. Also, we beseech your gracious
lordships that if any of us, individually or collectively, are im-
peached before our liege lord or his worthy council by conniv-
ance of others, or approach to the King, as by Breml^re or his
abettors by false witness, because it stood otherwise among us
than as now proved it has stood, or by any other wrong sugges-
tion by which our liege lord has been unlawfully informed, that
then your worships may be such that avc may come in answer
to excuse ourselves; for we know well, at least most of us do
and we hope all do, that all such Avrongs have l)een unwitting
on our j)arl, or else entirely against our will.

And, righteous lords, as one of the greatest remedies, among
others, to withstand many of the aforesaid troubles among us,
we pray wilh incckucss lor this especijilly, llial llic statute or-
dained and made l)y Parliament, held at Westminster in the
sixth year of our King now reigning, may be enforced and exe-
cuted here in London as elsewliere in tlic rcahii; to wit:

^'-^ Brcniln-c was a xicluallfr l>\ trade.

824 ENGLISH LITERATURE

... It is ordained and ordered that neither in the city of
London nor in any other city, borough, manor or sea-port,
throughout the entire aforesaid reahii, shall any victualler have
judicial jurisdiction over another person, nor exercise it, nor
enjoy it in any manner, except on manors where another person
cannot be found according to this statute unless the same judge
for the time in which he is in office leave off and abstain from
his victualling, on pain of losing his goods, etc.

England in the fourteenth century may be said to have
become conscious of the labor problem. This is indicated
by the fact that a series of royal ordinances, culminating
in a statute in 1357, tried unsuccessfully to deal with the
matter by legislation. Realization of the labor difficulty
was aided by the appearance in England about 1348 of
the Black Death, a form of the bubonic plague, which
carried off about one-third of the population of the coun-
try. Henry Knighton, a contemporary chronicler, thus
comments on the Black Death and couples it with an
account of labor conditions: ^^^

Then the grievous plague penetrated the seacoasts from
Southampton and came to Bristol and there almost the whole
strength of the town died, struck as it were by sudden death;
for there were few who kept their beds more than three days
or two days or half a day: and after this the fell death broke
forth on every side with the course of the sun. There died at
Leicester in the small parish of St. Leonard more than 380, in
the parish of Holy Cross more than 400, in the parish of St.
IMargaret of Leicester more than 700, and so in each parish a
great number. Then the Bishop of Lincoln sent through the
whole bishopric and gave general power to all and every priest,
both regular and secular, to hear confessions and absolve with
full and entire episcopal authority except in matters of debt, in
which case the dying man, if he could, should pay the debt while
he lived, or others should fulfil that duty from his property after

^■'■' C'f. F. A. (iasquet, The Great Pedilence (A.D. 131f8-9), (Simpkin, Marshall,
Hamilton, Kent and Co.. Ltd., 1893).

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 325

his death. Likewise the pope granted full remission of sins to
whoever was absolved in peril of death and granted that this
power should last until next Easter, and everyone could choose
a confessor at his will. In the same year there was a great
plague of sheep everywhere in the realm, so that in one place
there died in pasturage more than 5000 sheep and so rotted
that neither beast nor bird would touch them. And there were
small prices for everything ^ui account of the fear of death. For
there were very few who cared about riches or anything else.
For a man could ha\'e a horse which before was worth 40^.
for 6s. Sd., a fat ox for 46*., a cow for VZd., a heifer for 6d., a
fat wether for 4-d., a sheep for Sd., a lamb for 2d., a big pig for
5d., a stone of wool for 9d. Sheep and cattle went wandering
over fields and through crops and there was no one to go and
drive or gather them, so that the number cannot be reckoned
which perished in the ditches in every district for lack of herds-
men; for there was such a lack of servants that no one knew
what he ought to do. In the following autumn no one could
get a reaper for less than 8<:/. with his food, a mower for less
than l^fZ. with his food. Wherefore, many crops perished in the
fields for want of someone to gather them: but in the pestilence
year, as is above said of other things, there was such abundance
of all kinds of corn that no one much troubled about it. The
Scots, hearing of the cruel pestilence of the English, believed
it had come to them from the avenging hand of God, and — as
it was commonly reported in England — took for their oath
when they wanted to swear, "By the foul death of England."
But when the Scots, believing the English were under the shadow
of the dread vengeance of God, came together in the forest of
Selkirk with purpose to invade the whole realm of England, the
fell mortality came upon them, and the sudden and awful cruelty
of death winnowed them, so that a])out 5000 d'wd in a sliort
time. Then the rest, some feeble, some strong, (lelcrmin(Hl to
return lionie, l)ul the English t'ollowed and overlook them and
killed many of them.

Master Thomas of Bradwardine '•'''' was consecrated by the

^^* C'luiuccT rcfrrs lo him in his Xun\s Prie.sf's Talc, I. \l^l, as a great tlicological
authority.

326 ENGLISH LITERATURE

pope archbishop of Canterbury, and when he returned to Eng-
land he came to London, but within two days was dead. He
was famous beyond all other clerks in the whole of Christendom,
especially in theology, but likewise in the more liberal sciences.
At the same time priests were in such poverty everywhere that
many churches were widowed and lacking the divine offices,
masses, matins, vespers, sacraments and other rites. A man
could scarcely get a chaplain under 10 pounds or 10 marks to
minister to a church. And when a man could get a chaplain
for 5 or 4 or even for 2 marks with his food when there was
an abundance of priests before the pestilence, there was scarcely
any one now who was willing to accept a vicarage for 20 pounds
or 20 marks; but within a short time a very great multitude of
those whose wives had died in the pestilence flocked into orders,
of whom many were illiterate and little more than laymen, ex-
cept so far as they knew how to read although they could not
understand.

^leanwhile, the King sent proclamation into all the counties
that reapers and other laborers should not take more than they
had been accustomed to take, under the penalty appointed by
statute. But the laborers were so lifted up and so obstinate
that they would not listen to the King's command, but if any
one wished to have them, he had to give them what they wanted,
and either lose his fruit and crops or satisfy the lofty and covet-
ous wishes of the workmen. And when it was known to the
King that they had not observed his command and had given
greater wages to the laborers, he levied heavy fines upon abbots,
priors, knights, lesser and greater, and other great folk and small
folk of the realm, of some 1006'., of some 405. , of some 20.s'., from
each according to what he could give. He took from each caru-
cate ^^^ of the realm 205. and, notwithstanding this, a fifteenth.
And afterwards the King had many laborers arrested and sent
them to prison; many withdrew themselves and went into the
forests and woods; and those who were taken were heavily
fined. Their ringleaders were made to swear that they would
not take daily wages beyond the ancient custom, and they were
freed from prison. And in like manner was done with the other

1" I.e. 100 acres.

THE SOCIAL AND IXDUSTRL\L BACKGROUND 327

craftsmen in the burroughs and villages. . . . After the afore-
said pestilence, many buildings, great and small, fell into ruins
in every city, borough and village for lack of inhabitants, like-
wise, many villages and hamlets became desolate, not a home
being left in them, all having died who dwelt there; and it was
probable that many such villages would never be inhabited again.
In the winter following there was such a want of servants in
work of all kinds, that one would scarcely believe that in times
past there had been such a lack. . . . And so all necessaries be-
came so much dearer that what in times past had been worth
Id. was then worth M. or od.

Magnates and lesser lords of the realm who had tenants made
abatements of the rent in order that the tenants should not go
away on account of the want of servants and the general dear-
ness: some, half the rent; some more, some less, some for two
years, some for three, some for one year, according as they could
agree with them. Likewise, those who received of their tenants
day-work throughout the year, as is the practice with villeins,
had to give them more leisure, and remit such works, and either
entirely to free them, or give them an easier tenure at a small
rent, so that homes should not be everywhere irrecoverably
ruined, and the land everywhere remain entirely uncultivated.

Knighton speaks of labor ordinances and describes their
general tenure; the follow^ing proclamation addressed to the
sheriff of Kent gives us in more detail the provisions of
l)ractically all the labor laws of the time, clearly outlines
the problem, and states the penalties for violation.

The king to the sheriff of Kent, greeting. Because a great
part of the people, and especially of workmen and servants,
have lately died in the pestilence, many seeing the necessities of
masters and great scarcity of servants, will not serve unless they
may receive excessive wages, and others ])rcf erring to beg in idle-
ness rather than by labor to get llieir li\ ing; we, considering the
grievous incommodities which of the huk cs})ecially of ])lough-
men and such laborers may licrcaflcr come, liave upon delibera-
tion and treaty with the prelates and thc^ nobles and learned
men assisting us, with their unanimous counsel ordained:

328 ENGLISH LITERATURE

That every man and woman of our realm of England, of what
condition he be, free or bond, able in body, and within the age
of sixty years, not living in merchandize, nor exercising any
craft, nor having of his own whereof he may live, nor land of his
own about whose tillage he may occupy himself, and not serving
any other; if he be required to serve in suitable service, his
estate considered, he shall be bound to serve him which shall
so require him; and take only the wages, livery, meed, or salary
which were accustomed to be given in the places where he oweth
to serve, the twentieth year of our reign of England, or five or
six other common years next before. Provided always, that the
lords be preferred before others in their bondmen or their land
tenants, so in their service to be retained; so that, nevertheless,
the said lords shall retain no more than be necessary for them.
And if any such man or woman being so required to serve will
not do the same, and that be proved by two true men before
the sheriff, bailiff, lord, or constable of the town where the same
shall happen to be done, he shall immediately be taken by them
or any of them, and committed to the next gaol, there to remain
under strait keeping, till he find surety to serve in the form
aforesaid.

If any reaper, mower, other workman or servant, of what
estate or condition he be, retained in any man's service, do de-
part from the said service without reasonable cause or license,
before the term agreed, he shall have pain of imprisonment;
and no one, under the same penalty, shall presume to receive or
retain such a one in his service.

No one, moreover, shall pay or promise to pay to any one more
wages, liveries, meed, or salary than was accustomed, as is before
said; nor shall any one in any other manner demand or receive
them, upon pain of doubling of that which shall have been so
paid, promised, required or received, to him who thereof shall
feel himself aggrieved; and if none such will sue, then the same
shall be applied to any of the people that will sue; and such
suit shall be in the court of the lord of the place where such case
shall happen.

And if lords of towns or manors presume in any point to
come against this present ordinance, either by them or by their

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 329

servants, then suit shall be made against them in the form afore-
said, in the counties, wapentakes, and trithings, or such other
courts of ours, for the penalty of treble that so paid or promised
by them or their servants. And if any before this present ordi-
nance hath covenanted with any so to serve for more wages, he
shall not be bound, by reason of the said covenant, to pay more
than at another time was wont to be paid to such a person; nor
under the same penalty, shall presume to pay more.

Item. Saddlers, skinners, white ta\\yers, cordwainers, tailors,
smiths, carpenters, masons, tilers, shipwrights, carters, and all
other artificers and workmen, shall not take for their labor and
workmanship above the same that was wont to be paid to such
persons the said twentieth year, and other common years next
preceding, as before is said, in the place where they shall happen
to work; and if any man take more he shall be committed to
the next gaol, in manner as before is said.

Item. That butchers, fishmongers, hostelers, brewers, bakers,
poulterers, and all other sellers of all manner of victuals, shall
be bound to sell the same victuals for a reasonable price, having
respect to the price that such victuals be sold at in the places
adjoining, so that the same sellers have moderate gains, and not
excessive, reasonably to be required according to the distance
of the place from which the said victuals be carried; and if any
sell such victuals in any other manner, and thereof be convicted,
in the manner and form aforesaid, he shall pay the double of
the same that he so received to the party injured, or in default
of him, to any other that will sue in this behalf. And the mayors
and })ailiffs of cities, boroughs, merchant towns, and others, and
of the ports and maritime places, shall have power to inquire of
all and singular, which shall in any thing offend against this,
and to levy the said penalty to the use of them at whose suit
such, offenders shall be convicted. And in case the same mayors
and bailiffs be negligent in doing execution of the premises, and
thereof be convicted before our justices, by us to be assigned,
then the same mayors and bailiffs shall be compelled by the
same justices to pay the treble of the thing so sold to the party
injured, or in default of him, to any other that will sue; and
nevertheless they shall be grievously i)unished on our part.

330 ENGLISH LITERATURE

And because many strong beggars, as long as they may live
by begging, do refuse to labor, giving themselves to idleness and
vice, and sometimes to theft and other abominations; none upon
the said j)ain of imprisonment, shall, under the color of pity or
alms, give anything to such, who are able to labor, or presume
to favor them in their idleness, so that thereby they may be
compelled to labor for their necessary living.

It would appear that this law was drastic enough to
meet the situation, but that it did not is clear from the
fact that nearly the same statute was re-enacted thirteen
times in the century following 1349. Labor troubles con-
tinued and combined with other things to produce several
protests against the medieval system in the latter years of
the fourteenth centur3\ Perhaps the most violent and prac-
tical of these was the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The fol-
lowing account of some episodes in this revolt from the
pen of Froissart makes it very vivid. In these chapters
the writer largely abandons "the glowing, rich and pow^er-
ful" ^^^ style of his usual "feudal painting" ^^^ and gives us
a rapid account of events. His lack of s^anpathy with the
laborers, just wdiat is to be expected from Froissart, the
friend of aristocrats and kings, is evident. ^^^

While these conferences ^^^ were going forward, there happened
in England great commotions among the lower ranks of the
people, by which England was near ruined without resource.
Never was a country in such jeopardy as this was at that period,

1=8 Cf. Scott, Walpole in The Lives of the Novelists, p. 192. Ed. Saintsbury in
Everyman's Library.

1^^ Some would include in these protests passages from the J^ision of William
concerning Piers the Ploicman. But, while the author or authors of this work are
critical of the al)uses that have found their way into the medieval system, it is
quite clear that he or they had no thoroughgoing dissatisfaction with the system
in itself. Langland, if we may still use that name, was a prophet in the Old Testa-
ment sense; that is, he desired that the medieval system might be restored in its
pristine purity rather than that any other be put in its place. On the prophets
see Wallis, The Sociological Study of the Bible (The University of Chicago Press,
1912). 1^0 The negotiations ^^-ith the Scots, mentioned post, p. 338.

THE SOCIAL AND IXDUSTRL\L BACKGROUND 331

and all through the too great comfort of the commonalty.
Rebellion was stirred up, as it was formerly done in France by
the Jacques Bons-hommes,^*^^ who did nmch evil, and sore troubled
the kingdom of France. It is mar\'ellous from what a trifle this
pestilence raged in England. In order that it may serve as an
example to mankind, I will speak of all that was done, from
the information I had at the time on the subject.

It is customary in England, as well as in several other coun-
tries, for the nobility to have great privileges over the com-
monalty, whom they keep in bondage; that is to say, they are
bound by law and custom to plough the lands of gentlemen, to
harvest the grain, to carry it home to the barn, to thrash and
winnow it: they are also bound to harvest the hay and carry it
home. All these services they are obliged to perform for their
lords, and many more in England than in other countries. The
prelates and gentlemen are thus served. In the counties of Kent,
Essex, Sussex, and Bedford, these services are more oppressive
than in all the rest of the kingdom.

The evil-disposed in these districts began to rise, saying they
were too severely oppressed; that at the beginning of the world
there were no slaves, and that no one ought to be treated as such,
unless he had committed treason against his lord, as Lucifer
had done against God; but they had done no such thing, for
they were neither angels nor spirits, but men formed after the
same likeness with their lords, who treated them as beasts. This
they would not longer bear, but had determined to be free, and
if they labored or did any other works for their lords, they would
be paid for it.

A crazy priest in the county of Kent, called John Ball, who, for
his absurd preaching, had been thrice confined in the ])ris()n of
the archbishop of Canterbury, was greatly inslrunuMital in in-
flaming them with those ideas. He was accustomed, every
Sunday after mass, as the pe()])le wvvc coming out of the church,
to preach to them in tlie ni;irk('t-j)l;ice and assemble a crowd
around him; to whom lie would say: "My good friends, things
cannot go on well in England, nor ever will, until everything

""'' A <:-()nt('iii{)tu()Us name ^nvcii hy IVcikIi iiohKvs to Frcncli i)c;is;ints who after
tlic l)altlc of PoitiiTS (l.'5.")()j rose in revolt a^'aiii>l their lords, hiil were put down.

332 ENGLISH LITERATURE

shall be in common; when there shall neither be vassal nor lord,
and all distinctions levelled; when the lords shall be no more
masters than ourselves. How ill have they used us ! and for
what reason do they thus hold us in bondage? Are w^e not all
descended from the same parents, Adam and Eve? and what
can they show, or what reasons give, why they should be more
the masters than ourselves? except, perhaps, in making us labor
and work, for them to spend. They are clothed in velvets and
rich stuffs, ornamented with ermine and other furs, while we are
forced to wear poor cloth. They have w4nes, spices, and fine
bread, when we have only rye and the refuse of the straw; and,
if we drink, it must be water. They have handsome seats and
manors, when we must brave the wind and rain in our labors
in the field; but it is from our labor that they have wherewith
to support their pomp. AVe are called slaves; and, if we do not
perform our services, we are beaten, and we have not any sov-
ereign to whom we can complain, or who wishes to hear us and
do us justice. Let us go to the king, who is young, and remon-
strate with him on our servitude, telling him we must have it
otherwise, or that we shall find a remedy for it ourselves. If we
wait on him in a body, all those who come under the appellation of
slaves, or are held in bondage, will follow us, in the hopes of being
free. When the king shall see us, we shall obtain a favorable
answer, or we must then seek ourselves to amend our condition."

With such words as these did John Ball harangue the people,
at his village every Sunday after mass, for which he was much
beloved by them. Some who wished no good declared it was
very true, and murmuring to each other, as they were going to
the fields, on the road from one village to another, or at their
difi'erent houses said, "John Ball preaches such and such things,
and he speaks truth."

The archbishop of Canterbury, on being informed of this, had
John Ball arrested, and imprisoned for two or three months by
way of punishment; but it would have been better if he had
been confined during his life, or had been put to death, than to
have been suffered thus to act. The archbishop set him at
liberty, for he could not for conscience' sake have put him to
death. The moment John Ball was out of prison, he returned to

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 333

his former errors. Numbers in the city of London having heard
of his preaching, being envious of the rich men and nobihty,
began to say among themselves that the kingdom was too badly
governed, and the nobility had seized on all the gold and silver
coin. These wicked Londoners, therefore, began to assemble and
to rebel: they sent to tell those in the adjoining counties they
might come boldly to London, and bring their companions with
them, for they would find the town open to them, and the com-
monalty in the same way of thinking; that they would press
the king so much there should no longer be a slave in England.

These promises stirred up those in the counties of Kent,
Essex, Sussex, and Bedford, and the adjoining country, so that
they marched towards London; and, when they arrived near,
they were upwards of sixty thousand. They had a leader called
Wat Tyler, and with him were Jack Straw and John Ball: these
three w^ere their commanders, but the principal was Wat Tyler.
This Wat had been a tiler of houses, a bad man, and a great
enemy to the nobility. When these wicked people first began
to rise, all London, except their friends, were very much fright-
ened. The mayor and rich citizens assembled in council, on
hearing they were coming to London, and debated whether they
should shut the gates and refuse to admit them; but, having
well considered, they determined not to do so, as they should
run a risk of having the suburbs burnt.

The gates were therefore thrown open, when they entered in
troops of one or two hundred, by twenties or thirties, according
to the populousness of the towns they came from; and as they
came into London they lodged themselves. But it is a truth,
that full two-thirds of these people knew not what they wanted,
nor what they sought for: they followed one another like sheep,
or like to the she})herds of old, who said they were going to
conquer the Holy Land, and afterwards accomplished nothing.
In such manner did these poor fellows and vassals come to Lon-
don from distances of a hundred and sixty leagues, but the
greater part from those counties I have mentioned, and on tlieir
arrival they demanded to see the king. The gentlemen of the
country, the knights and sciuires, began to be alarmed when they
saw the people thus rise; and, il" lliey were frightened, they had

334 ENGLISH LITERATURE

sufficient reason, for less causes create fear. They began to
collect together as well as they could.

The same day that these wicked men of Kent were on their
road towards London, the princess of Wales, ^*^- mother to the
j^jjjg 163 ^yj^g returning from a pilgrimage to Canterbury. She
ran great risks from them; for these scoundrels attacked her
car, and caused much confusion, which greatly frightened the
good lady, lest they should do some violence to her or to her
ladies. God, however, preserved her from this, and she came in
one day from Canterbury to London, without venturing to make
any stop by the way. Her son Richard ^^^ was this day in the
Tower of London: thither the princess came, and found the
king attended by the earl of Salisbury, the archbishop of Can-
terbury, sir Robert de Xamur, the lord de Gommegines and
several more, who had kept near his person from suspicions of
his subjects who w^ere thus assembling without knowing what
they wanted. This rebellion was well known to be in agitation
in the king's palace before it broke out and the country peoi:)le
had left their homes; to which the king applied no remedy, to
the great astonishment of every one. In order that gentlemen
and others may take example, and correct wicked rebels, I will
most amply detail how this business was conducted.

On Monday preceding the feast of the Holy Sacrament, ^^^
in the year 1381, did these people sally forth from their homes
to come to London to remonstrate with the king, that all might
be made free, for they would not there should be any slaves in
England. At Canterbury they met John Ball (who thought he
should find there the Archbishop, ])ut he was at London), Wat
Tyler, and Jack Straw. On their entrance into Canterbury they
were much feasted by every one, for the inhabitants were of their
way of thinking; and, having held a council, they resolved to
march to London, and also to send emissaries across the Thames
to Essex, Suffolk, Bedford, and other counties, to press the
people to march to London on that side, and thus, as it were,
to surround it, which the king would not be able to prevent.
It was their intention that all the different parties should be

162 Widow of the Black Prince. ^'^^ Richard II.

^'^ I am unabk" to find out Avhat day this was.

THE SOCUL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 335

collected together on the feast of the holy Sacrament, or on
the following day.

Those who had come to Canterbury entered the church of St.
Thomas, and did much damage: they pillaged the apartments
of the archbishop, saying, as they were carrying off different
articles: "This chancellor of England has had this piece of
furniture very cheap: he must now give us an account of the
revenues of England, and of the large sums he has levied since the
coronation of the King." After they had defrauded the abbey of
St. Vincent, they set off in the morning, and all the populace of
Canterbury with them, taking the road towards Rochester. They
collected the people from the villages to the right and left, and
marched along like a tempest, destroying every house of an attorney
or king's proctor, or that belonged to the archbishop, sparing none.

On their arrival at Rochester they were much feasted, for the
people were awaiting for them, being of their party. They
advanced to the castle, and seizing a knight called sir John de
Newton, who was constable of it and captain of the town, they
told him that he must accompany them as their commander-in-
chief, and do whatever they should wish. The knight endeavored
to excuse himself, and offered good reasons for it, if they had
been listened to; but they said to him, "Sir John, if you will
not act as we shall order, you are a dead man." The knight,
seeing this outrageous mob ready to kill him, complied with their
request, and very unwillingly put himself at their head. They
had acted in a similar manner in the other counties of England,
in Essex, Suffolk, Cambridge, Bedford, Stafford, Warwick, and
Lincoln, where they forced great lords and knights, such as the
lord Manley, a great baron, sir Stephen Hales, and sir Thomas
Cossington, to lead and march with them. Now, observe how
fortunately matters turned out, for had they succeeded in their
intentions they would have destroyed [\\c whole nobility of
England: after this success, the people of other nations would
have rebelled, taking examj)le from those of (ihent and Flanders,
wlio were in actual rebellion against their lord.'*" In this same

^'"'^ Philip van Arteveldc was at this tiiiu' Iradiiif^ the burghers of Fhmders against
their Count Louis. The revolt was crushed with the aid of Philip the Bold of
Burgundy, son-in-law of Louis.

336 ENGLISH LITERATURE

year the Parisians acted a similar part, arming themselves with
leaden maces. ^^'^ They were upwards of twenty thousand, as I
shall relate when I come to that part of my history; but I will
first go on with this rebellion in England.

AVhen those who had lodged at Rochester had done all they
wanted, they departed, and, crossing the river, came to Dartford,
but always following their plan of destroying the houses of law-
yers or proctors on the right and left of their road. In their
way they cut off several men's heads, and continued their
march to Blackheath, where they fixed their quarters: they said
they were armed for the king and commons of England. When
the citizens of London found they were quartered so near them,
they closed the gates of London Bridge: guards were placed
there by orders of sir William Walworth, mayor of London,
and several rich citizens who were not of their party; but there
were in the city more than thirty thousand who favored them.

Those who were at Blackheath had information of this; they
sent, therefore, their knight to speak with the king, and to tell
him that what they were doing was for his service, for the king-
dom had been for several years wretchedly governed to the
great dishonor of the realm and to the oppression of the lower
ranks of the people, by his uncles,^^^ by the clergy, and in par-
ticular by the archbishop of Canterbury, his chancellor, from
whom they would have an account of his ministry. The knight
dared not say nor do anything to the contrary, but, advancing
to the Thames opposite the Tower, he took boat and crossed
over. While the king and those with him in the Tower were in
great suspense, and anxious to receive some intelligence, the
knight came on shore: way was made for him, and he was
conducted to the king, who was in an apartment with the prin-
cess his mother. There were also with the king his two maternal
brothers, the earl of Kent and sir John Holland, the earls of
Salisbury, Warwick, Suffolk, the archbishop of Canterbury, the
great prior of the Templars in England, sir Robert de Namur,
the lord de Vertain, the lord de Gommegines, sir Henry de

'^ A renewal about this time of the movement referred to on p. 331.
^^"^ Notably by Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, and John of Gaunt, Duke of
Lancaster.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 337

Sausselles, the mayor of London, and several of the principal
citizens.

Sir John Newton, who was well known to them all, for he was
one of the king's officers, cast himself on his knees and said:
"My much redoubted lord, do not be displeased with me for the
message I am about to deliver to you; for, my dear lord, through
force I am come hither." "By no means, sir John; tell us what
you are charged with: we hold you excused." "^ly very re-
doubted lord, the commons of your realm send me to you to
entreat you would come and speak with them on Blackheath.
They wish to have no one but yourself; and you need not fear
for your person, for they will not do you the least harm: they
always have respected and will respect you as their king; but
they will tell you many things, which they say it is necessary
you should hear; with which, however, they have not em-
powered me to acquaint you. But, dear lord, have the goodness
to give me such an answer as may satisfy them, and that they
may be convinced I have really been in your presence; for they
have my children as hostages for my return, whom they will
assuredly put to death if I do not go back."

The king replied, "You shall speedily have an answer."
Upon this he called a council to consider what was to be done.
The king was advised to say that if on Thursday they would
come down to the river Thames, he would without fail speak
with them. Sir John Newton, on receiving this answer, was
well satisfied therewith, and, taking leave of the king and barons,
departed: having entered his boat, he recrossed the Thames and
returned to Blackheath, where he had left upwards of sixty
thousand men. He told them from the king, that if they would
send on the morrow morning their leaders to the Thames, the
king would come and hear what they had to say. This answer
gave great pleasure, and they were contented witli it: they
passed the night as well as they could; but you nuist know
that one-fourth of them fasted for w;mt of ])ro\ision, as tliey
had not })r()ught any with them, at whicli they were nuich vexed,
as may be su])])()sed.

At this time the earl of Huckingham "'"^ was in Wales, where
^^^ Constabk' of England and thoroforo an important man in this emergency.

338 ENGLISH LITERATURE

he j)ossessed great estates in right of his wife, who was daughter
of the earl of Hereford and Xortham])ton; but the common
report about London was that he favored these people: some
assured it for a truth, as having seen him among them, because
there was one Thomas very much resembhng him from the
county of Cambridge. As for the EngHsh barons who were
at Plymouth making preparations for their voyage, they had
heard of this rebellion, and that the people were rising in all
parts of the kingdom. Fearful lest their voyage should be pre-
vented, or that the populace, as they had done at Southampton,
AVinchelsea, and Arundel, should attack them, they heaved their
anchors, and with some difficulty left the harbor, for the wind
was against them, and put to sea, when they cast anchor to wait
for a wind.

The duke of Lancaster ^^^ was on the borders, between la
^Morlane, Roxburgh, and Melrose, holding conferences with the
Scots: he had also received intelligence of this rebellion, and
the danger his person was in, for he well knew he was unpopular
with the common people of England. Notwithstanding this, he
managed his treaty very prudently with the Scots commis-
sioners, the earl of Douglas, the earl of Moray, the earl of
Sutherland, the earl of Mar, and Thomas de Vesey. The Scots-
men who were conducting the treaty on the part of the king
and the country knew also of the rebellion in England, and how
the populace were rising everywhere against the nobility. They
said that England was shaken and in great danger of being
ruined, for which in their treaties they bore the harder on the
duke of Lancaster and his council.

We will now return to the commonalty of England, and say
how they continued in their rebellion.

On Corpus Christi ^'° day king Richard heard mass in the
tower of London, with all his lords, and afterwards entered his
barge, attended by the earls of Salisbury, Warwick, and Suffolk,
with other knights. He rowed down the Thames towards Rother-
hithe, a manor belonging to the crown, where were upwards of
ten thousand men, who had come from Blackheath to see the
king and to speak to him: when they perceived his barge ap-
i*'' John of Gaunt, the King's uncle. *^° Thursday, June 13.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 339

proach, they set up sueh shouts and eries as if all the devils in
hell had been in their company. They had their knight, sir
John Newton, with them; for, in case the king had not come
and they found he had made a jest of them, they w ould, as they
had threatened, have cut him to pieces.

When the king and his lords saw this crowd of people, and
the wildness of their manner, there was not one among them so
bold and determined but felt alarmed: the king was advised
by his barons not to land, but to have his barge row^ed up and
down the river. "What do ye wish for.^" demanded the king;
"I am come hither to hear what you have to say." Those near
him cried out with one voice: "We wish thee to land, when we
will remonstrate with thee, and tell thee more at our ease what
our wants are." The earl of Salisbury then replied for the king,
and said: "Gentlemen, you are not properly dressed, nor in a
fit condition for the king to talk with you."

Nothing more was said; for the king was desired to return
to the Tower of London from whence he had set out. When
the people saw they could obtain nothing more, they were in-
flamed with passion, and went back to Blackheath, where the
main body was, to relate the answer they had received, and how
the king was returned to the Tower. They all then cried out,
"Let us march instantly to London." They immediately set off,
and, in their road thither, they destroyed the houses of lawyers,
courtiers, and monasteries. Advancing into the suburbs of
London, which were very handsome and extensive, they pulled
down many fine houses: in particular, they demolished the
prison of the king called the Marshalsea, and set at liberty all
those confined within it. They did nuich damage to the suburbs,
and menaced the Londoners at the entrance of the bridge for
having shut the gates of it, saying they would set fire to the
suburbs, take the city by storm, and afterwards l)nni and destroy
it.

With respect to the common ])eople of London, nnnib(>rs were
of their opinions, and, on assembling together, said: "Why will
you refuse admittance to these honest men? They are our
friends, and wliat they are doing is for our good." It was then
found necessary to open the gates, when crowds rushed in, and

340 ENGLISH LITERATURE

ran to those shops which seemed well stored with provision: if
they sought for meat or drink it was placed before them, and
nothing refused, but all manner of good cheer offered, in hopes
of appeasing them.

Their leaders, John Ball, Jack Straw, and Wat Tyler, then
marched through London, attended by more than twenty thou-
sand men, to the palace of the Savoy, which is a handsome build-
ing on the road to Westminster, situated on the banks of the
Thames, belonging to the duke of Lancaster; they immediately
killed the porters, pressed into the house, and set it on fire. Not
content with committing this outrage, they went to the house
of the knights-hospitalers of Rhodes, dedicated to St. John of
Mount Carmel, which they burnt, together with their hospital
and church. They afterwards paraded the streets, and killed
every Fleming they could find, whether in house, church, or hos-
pital; not one escaped death. They broke open several houses
of the Lombards, taking whatever money they could lay their
hands on, none daring to oppose them. They murdered a rich
citizen called Richard Lyon, to whom Wat Tyler had been for-
merly servant in France; but, having once beaten this varlet, he
had not forgotten it, and, having carried his men to his house,
ordered his head to be cut off, placed upon a pike, and carried
through the streets of London. Thus did these wicked people
act like madmen; and, on this Thursday, they did much mis-
chief to the city of London.

Towards evening they fixed their quarters in a square called
St. Catherine's, before the Tower, declaring they would not de-
part thence until they should obtain from the king everything
they wanted, and have all their desires satisfied; and the chan-
cellor of England made to account with them, and show how
the great sums which had been raised were expended; men-
acing, that if he did not render such an account as was agreeable
to them, it would be the worse for him. Considering the various
ills they had done to foreigners, they lodged themselves before
the Tower. You may easily suppose what a miserable situa-
tion the king was in, and those with him; for at times these
rebellious fellows hooted as loud as if the devils were in them.

About evening a council was held in the presence of the king,

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 341

the barons who were in the Tower with him, sir WilHani Wal-
worth the mayor, and some of the principal citizens, when it
was proposed to arm themselves, and during the night to fall
upon these wretches, who were in the streets and amounted to
sixty thousand, while they were asleep and drunk, for then they
might be killed like flies, and not one in twenty among them
had arms. The citizens were very capable of doing this, for
they had secretly received into their houses their friends and
servants, properly prepared to act. Sir Robert Knolles remained
in his house, guarding his property, with more than six score
companions completely armed, who would have instantly sallied
forth. Sir Perducas d'Albreth was also in London at that
period, and would have been of great service; so that they could
have mustered upwards of eight thousand men, well armed. But
nothing was done; for they were too much afraid of the com-
monalty of London; and the advisers of the king, the earl of
Salisbury and others, said to him: "Sir, if you can appease them
by fair words, it will be so much better, and good humoredly
grant them what they ask; for, should we begin what we cannot
go through, we shall never be able to recover it: it will be all
over with us and our heirs, and England will be a desert."
This counsel was followed, and the mayor ordered to make no
movement. He obeyed, as in reason he ought. In the city of
London, with the mayor, there are twelve sheriffs, of whom
nine were for the king and three for these wicked people, as it
was afterwards discovered, for which they then paid dearly.

On Friday morning those lodged in the square before St.
Catherine's, near the Tower, began to make themselves ready;
they shouted much, and said that if the king would not come
out to them, they would attack the Tower, storm it, and slay all
in it. The king was alarmed at these menaces, and resolved to
speak with them; he therefore sent orders for them to retire to
a handsome meadow at Mile-end, where, in the summer time,
people go to amuse themselves, and that there the king would
grant them their demands. Proclamation was made in the King's
name for all those who wished to si)eak with him to go to the
above-mentioned ])lace, where he would not fail to meet them.

The commonaltv of the different villages began to march

342 ENGLISH LITERATURE

thither; but all did not go, nor had they the same objects in
view, for the greater part only wished for the riches and destruc-
tion of the nobles, and the plunder of London. This was the
principal cause of their rebellion, as they very clearly showed;
for when the gates of the Tower were thrown open, and the king,
attended by his two brothers, the earls of Salisbury, of Warwick,
of Suffolk, sir Robert de Namur, the lords de Vertain and de
Gommegines, with several others, had passed through them,
Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and John Ball, with upwards of four
hundred, rushed in by force, and, running from chamber to
chamber, found the archbishop of Canterbury, whose name was
Simon, a valiant and wise man, and chancellor of England, who
had just celebrated mass before the king: he was seized by
these rascals, and beheaded. The prior of St. John's suffered
the same fate, and likewise a Franciscan friar, a doctor of physic,
who was attached to the duke of Lancaster, out of spite to his
master, and also a serjeant-at-arms of the name of John Laige.
They fixed these four heads on long pikes, and had them carried
before them through the streets of London: when they had
sufficiently played with them, they placed them on London
Bridge, as if they had been traitors to their king and country.

These scoundrels entered the apartment of the princess, and
cut her bed, which so much terrified her that she fainted, and
in this condition was by her servants and ladies carried to the
river-side, when she was put into a covered boat, and conveyed
to the house called the Wardrobe, where she continued that day
and night like to a Woman half dead, until she was comforted
by the king her son, as you shall presently hear.

When the king was on his way to the place called Mile-end,
without London, his two brothers, the earl of Kent and sir John
Holland, stole off and galloped from his company, as did also
the lord de Gommegines, not daring to show themselves to the
populace at Mile-end for fear of their lives.

On the king's arrival, attended by the barons, he found up-
wards of sixty thousand men assembled from different villages
and counties of England: he instantly advanced into the midst
of them, saying in a pleasant manner, "My good people, I am
your king and your lord: what is it you want? and what do

THE SOCL\L AND INDUSTRL\L BACKGROUND 343

you wisli to say to me?" Those who heard him answered, "We
wish thou wouldst make us free forever, us, our heirs and our
lands, and that we should no longer be called slaves, nor held in
bondage." The king replied, "I grant your wish: now, there-
fore, return to your homes and the places from whence you
came, leaving behind two or three men from each village, to
whom I will order letters to be given sealed with my seal, which
they shall carry back with every demand you have made fully
granted: and, in order that you may be the more satisfied, I will
direct that my banners shall be sent to every stewardship,
castlewick, and corporation." These words greatly appeased
the novices and well-meaning ones who were there, and knew
not what they wanted, saying, "It is well said: we do not wish
for more." The people were thus ctuieted, and began to return
towards London.

The king added a few words, which pleased them much: "You,
my good people of Kent, shall have one of my banners; and
you also of Essex, Sussex, Bedford, Suffolk, Cambridge, Stafford,
and Lincoln, shall each of you have one; and I pardon you all
for what you have hitherto done; but you must follow my ban-
ners, and now return home on the terms I have mentioned."
They unanimously replied they would. Thus did this great
assembly break up, and set out for London. The king instantly
employed upwards of thirty secretaries, who drew up the letters
as fast as they could; and, having sealed and delivered them to
these people, they departed, and returned to their own counties.

The principal mischief remained behind: I mean Wat Tyler,
Jack Straw, and John Ball, who declared that though the peoj)le
were satisfied, they would not thus depart; and they had more
than thirty thousand who were of their mind. They continued
in the city, without any wish to have their letters, or the king's
seal; but did all they could to throw the town into such confu-
sion that the lords and rich citizens might be nnu'dered, aud their
houses pillaged and destroyed. The Londoners suspected tins,
and kept themselves at home, with their Irieuds and servants, well
armed and prepared, every one according to his abilities.

Wlien the ])eo])le had been ai)peased at Mile-end (ireen, and
were setting off for their different towns as s])ee(li]y as they could

344 ENGLISH LITERATURE

receive the king's letters, king Richard went to the Wardrobe,
where the princess was in the greatest fear: he comforted her,
as he was very able to do, and passed there the night.

I must relate an adventure which happened to these clowns
before Norwich, and to their leader, called William Lister, who
was from the county of Stafford. On the same day these wicked
people burnt the palace of the Savoy, the church and house of
St. John, the hospital of the Templars, pulled down the prison
of Newgate, and set at liberty all the prisoners, there were col-
lected numerous bodies from Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk,
who proceeded on their march towards London, according to
the orders they had received, under the direction of Lister.

In their road they stopped near Norwich, and forced every
one to join them, so that none of the commonalty remained
behind. The reason why they stopped near Norwich was, that
the governor of the town was a knight called sir Robert Salle;
he was not by birth a gentleman, but, having acquired great
renown for his ability and courage, king Edward ^^^ had created
him a knight: he was the handsomest and strongest man in
England. Lister and his companions took it into their heads
they would make this knight their commander, and carry him
with them, in order to be the more feared. They sent orders
to him to come out into the fields to speak with them, or they
would attack and burn the city. The knight, considering it was
much better for him to go to them than they should commit
such outrages, mounted his horse, and went out of the town
alone, to hear what they had to say. When they perceived him
coming, they showed him every mark of respect, and courteously
entreated him to dismount, and talk with them. He did dismount,
and committed a great folly; for, when he had so done, having
surrounded him, they at first conversed in a friendly way, say-
ing," Robert, you are a knight, and a man of great weight in this
country, renowned for your valor; yet, notwithstanding all this,
we know who you are: you are not a gentleman, but the son of
a poor mason, just such as ourselves. Do you come with us,
as our commander, and we will make so great a lord of you that
one (juarter of England shall be under your command."
1^1 King Edward III.

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 345

The knight, on hearing them thus speak, was exceedingly
angry; he would never have consented to such a proposal; and,
eyeing them with inflamed looks, answered, "Begone, wicked
scoundrels and false traitors as you are: w^ould you have me
desert my natural lord for such a company of knaves as you?
I would much rather you were all hanged, for that must be your
end." On saying this, he attempted to mount his horse; but,
his foot slipping from the stirrup, his horse took fright. They
then shouted out, and cried, "Put him to death." When he
heard this, he let his horse go; and, drawing a handsome Bor-
deaux sword, he began to skirmish, and soon cleared the crowd
from about him, that it was a pleasure to see. Some attempted
to close w4th him; but with each stroke he gave, he cut off heads,
arms, feet, or legs. There were none so bold but were afraid;
and sir Robert performed that day marvellous feats of arms.
These wretches were upwards of forty thousand; they shot and
flung at him such things, that had he been clothed in steel
instead of being unarmed, he must have been overpowered:
However, he killed twelve of them, besides many whom he
wounded. At last he was overthrown, when they cut off his
legs and arms, and rent his body in piecemeal. Thus ended sir
Robert Salle, which was a great pity; and when knights and
squires in England heard of it, they were nnich enraged.

On the Saturday morning the king left the Wardrobe, and
went to Westminster, where he and all the lords heard mass in
the abbey. In this church there is a statue of our Lady ^"'-
in a small chapel that has many virtues and j)erforms great
miracles, in which the kings of England have much failli. The
king, having paid his devotions and made his offerings to this
shrine, mounted his horse about nine o'clock, as did tlie ])arons
who were witli him. They rode along tlic causeway to return
to London; })ut, when they had gone a little way, lie turned to
a road on the left to go from London.

This day all tlic rabble were again assembled, under the con-
duct of Wat Tyler, -lack Straw, and John Hall, to parley at a
place called Smitlifield, where, e\-ery Friday, the horse-market
is kei)t. They amounted to upwards of twenty thousand, all
1"- Tlic \ir<,qii Mary.

346 ENGLISH LITERATURE

of the same sort. Many more were in the city, breakfasting and
drinking Rhenish and IMahnsey Madeira wines, in taverns and
at the houses of the Lombards, without paying for anything;
and happy was he who could give them good cheer. Those who
were collected in Smithfield had the king's banners, which had
been given to them the preceding evening; and these reprobates
wanted to pillage the city this same day, their leaders saying
*'That hitherto they had done nothing. The pardons which the
king has granted will not be of much use to us; but, if we be
of the same mind, we shall pillage this large, rich, and powerful
town of London, before those from Essex, Suffolk, Cambridge,
Bedford, Warwick, Reading, Lancashire, Arundel, Guildford,
Coventry, Lynne, Lincoln, York, and Durham shall arrive; for
they are on the road, and we know for certain that Vaquier
and Lister will conduct them hither. If we now plunder the
city of the wealth that is in it, we shall have been beforehand,
and shall not repent of so doing; but if we wait for their arrival,
they will wrest it from us." To this opinion all had agreed, when
the king appeared in sight, attended by sixty horse. He was not
thinking of them, but intended to have continued his ride without
coming into London: however, when he came before the abbey
of St. Bartholomew, which is in Smithfield, and saw the crowd
of people, he stopped, and said he would not proceed until he
knew what they wanted; and, if they were troubled he would
appease them.

The lords who accompanied him stopped also, as was but
right, since the king had stopped; when Wat Tyler, seeing the
king, said to his men, "Here is the king: I will go and speak
with him: do not you stir from hence until I give you a signal."
He made a motion with his hand, and added, "When you shall
see me make this sign, then step forward, and kill every one
except the king; but hurt him not, for he is young, and we can
do what we please with him; for, by carrying him with us
through England, we shall be lords of it without any opposi-
tion." There was a doublet-maker of London, called John Tide,
who had brought sixty doublets, with which some of the clowns
had dressed themselves; and on his asking who was to pay, for
he must have for them thirty good marks, Tyler replied, "Make

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 347

thyself easy, man; thou shalt be well paid this day: look to me
for it: thou hast sufficient security for them." On saying this,
he spurred the horse on which he rode, and, leaving his men,
galloped up to the king, and came so near that his horse's head
touched the crupper of that of the king. The first words he said,
when he addressed the king, were, "King, dost thou see all
those men there?" "Yes," replied the king; "why dost thou
ask.^" "Because they are all under my command, and have
sworn by their faith and loyalty to do whatever I shall order."
"Very well," said the king; "I have no objections to it." Tyler,
who was only desirous of a riot, answered, "And thinkest thou,
king, that those people and as many more who are in the city,
also under my command, ought to depart without having had
thy letters.^ Oh no, we will carry them with us." "^Yhy,"
replied the king, "so it has been ordered, and they will be de-
livered out one after the other: but, friend, return to thy com-
panions, and tell them to depart from London: be peaceable
and careful of yourselves, for it is our determination that you
shall all of you have your letters by villages and towns, as it
has been agreed on."

As the king finished speaking, Wat Tyler, casting his eyes
around him, spied a squire attached to the king's person bear-
ing his sword. Tyler mortally hated this squire; formerly they
had had words together, when the squire ill-treated him. "What,
art thou there.^" cried Tyler: "give me thy dagger." "I will
not," said the squire: "why should I give it thee?" The king,
turning to him, said, "Give it him, give it him;" which he did,
though much against his will. When Tyler took it, he began to
play with it and turn it about in his hand, and, again address-
ing the squire, said, "Give me that sword." "I will not," replied
the squire; "for it is llic king's sword, and thou art not worthy
to bear it, who art ))ut a mechanic; and, if only thou and I
were together, thou wouldst not June dared to say what thou
hast for as large a heap of gold as this church." "By my troth,"
answered Tyler, "I will not eat this day before I have thy
head." At these words, the mayor of London, with about
twelve more, rode forward, armed under llicir robes, and, j)ush-
ing through the crowd, saw Tyler's manner of behaving: ui)on

348 ENGLISH LITERATURE

which he said, "Scoundrel, how dare you thus behave in the
presence of the king, and utter such words? It is too impudent
for such as thou." The king then began to be enraged and said
to the mayor, "Lay hands on him."

Whilst the king was giving this order, Tyler had addressed
the mayor, saying, '*Hey, in God's name, what I have said,
does it concern thee? what dost thou mean?" "Truly," replied
the mayor, who found himself supported by the king, "does it
become such a stinking rascal as thou art to use such speech
in the presence of the king, my natural lord? I will not live a
day, if thou pay not for it." Upon this, he drew a kind of
scimitar he w^ore, and struck Tyler such a blow on the head as
felled him to his horse's feet. When he was down, he was sur-
rounded on all sides, so that his men could not see him; and one
of the king's squires, called John Standwich, immediately leaped
from his horse, and, drawing a handsome sword w4iich he bore,
thrust it into his belly, and thus killed him.

His men, advancing, saw their leader dead, when they cried
out, "They have killed our captain: let us march to them, and
slay the whole." On these words, they drew up in a sort of
battle-array, each man having his bent bow before him. The
king certainly hazarded much by this action, but it turned out
fortunate; for when Tyler was on the ground, he left his attend-
ants, ordering not one to follow him. He rode up to these
rebellious fellows, who were advancing to revenge their leader's
death, and said to them, "Gentlemen, what are you about? you
shall have no other captain but me: I am your king: remain
peaceable." When the greater part of them heard these words,
they were quite ashamed, and those inclined to peace began to
slip away. The riotous ones kept their ground, and showed symp-
toms of mischief, and as if they were resolved to do something.

The king returned to his lords, and asked them what should
next be done. He was advised to make for the fields; for the
mayor said "that to retreat or fly would be of no avail. It is
proper we should act thus, for I reckon that we shall very soon
receive assistance from London, that is, from our good friends
who are prepared and armed, with all their servants in their
houses." W'hile things remained in this state, several ran to

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 349

London, and cried out, "They are killing the king! they are
killing the king and our mayor." Upon this alarm, every man
of the king's party sallied out towards Smithfield, and to the
fields whither the king had retreated; and there were instantly
collected from seven to eight thousand men in arms.

Among the first, came sir Robert Knolles and sir Perducas
d'Albreth, well attended; and several of the aldermen, with up-
wards of six hundred men-at-arms, and a powerful man of the
city called Nicholas I3ramber, the king's draper, bringing with
him a large force, who, as they came up, ranged themselves in
order, on foot, on each side of him. The rebels were drawn up
opposite them: they had the king's banners, and showed as if
they intended to maintain their ground by offering combat. The
king created three knights: sir ^Yilliam Walworth, mayor of
London, sir John Standwich, and sir Nicholas Bramber. The
lords began to converse among themselves, saying, "What shall
we do? We see our enemies, who would willingly have murdered
us if they had gained the upper hand." Sir Robert Knolles
advised immediately to fall on them and slay them; but the
king would not consent, saying, "I will not have you act thus:
you shall go and demand from them my banners: we shall see
how they wdll behave when you make this demand; for I will
have them by fair or foul means." "It is a good thought,"
replied the earl of Salisbury.

The new knights were therefore sent, who, on approaching,
made signs for them not to shoot, as they wished to speak with
them. When they had come near enough to be heard, they said,
"Now attend; the king orders you to send back his banners,
and we hope he will have mercy on you," The lianners were
directly given up, and brought to the king. It was then ordered,
under pain of death, that all those wlio had obtained the king's
letters should deliver them uj). Some did so; ])ut not all. The
king, on receiving tliem, had them torn in their ])resen('e. You
must know that from the instant wlieii I lie king's ])anners were
surrendered, these fellows kei)t no order; but the greater })art,
throwing their bows to the ground, took to their heels and
returned to London.

Sir Robert Knolles was in a violent rage that they were not

350 ENGLISH LITERATURE

attacked, and the whole of them shun; but the king would not
consent to it, saying, he would have ample revenge on them,
which in truth he afterwards had.

Thus did these people disperse, and run away on all sides.
The king, the lords, and the army returned in good array to
London, to their great joy. The king immediately took the road
to the Wardrobe, to visit the princess his mother, who had re-
mained there two days and two nights under the greatest fears,
as indeed she had cause. On seeing the king her son, she was
mightily rejoiced, and said, "Ha, ha, fair son, what pain and
anguish have I not suffered for you this day!" "Certainly,
madam," replied the king, "I am w^ell assured of that; but now
rejoice and thank God, for it behoves us to praise him, as I
have this day regained my inheritance, and the kingdom of
England, which I had lost."

The. king remained the whole day with his mother. The
lords retired to their own houses, A proclamation was made
through all the streets, that every person who was not an inhab-
itant of London, and who had not resided there for a whole year,
should instantly depart; for that, if there were any found of a
contrary description on Sunday morning at sunrise, they would
be arrested as traitors to the king, and have their heads cut off.
After this proclamation had been heard, no one dared to infringe
it; but all departed instantly to their homes, quite discomfited.
John Ball and Jack Straw were found hidden in an old ruin,
thinking to steal aw^ay; but this they could not do, for they
were })etrayed by their own men. The king and the lords were
well pleased with their seizure: their heads were cut off, as was
that of Tyler, and fixed on London bridge, in the place of those
gallant men whom they beheaded on the Thursday. The news of
this was sent through the neighboring counties, that those might
hear of it who were on their way to London, according to the
orders these rebels had sent to them: upon which they instantly
returned to their homes, without daring to advance further.^^^

1^' For the historical study of this episode in English history, cf. the following;
Powell, The Rising in East Anglia in 1381 (Cambridge University Press, 1890);
Kriehn, Studies in the Sources of the Social Revolt of 1381 (American Historical
Review, VII, pp. 254-285; 458-484); Oman, The Great Revolt of 1381 (Oxford,

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 351

Our final entry in this section devoted to the social and
industrial background of this period in English literary
history is also a protest, though a more or less humorous
one. It is the poem, The London Lyckpenny, long ascribed,
on the sole testimony of the sixteenth-century antiquarian
John Stowe, to John Lydgate. But this external evidence
is very late and "of internal evidence, there is not a shred
to render Lydgate's authorship probable." ^"^ The poem,
then, is anonymous, but we can still enjoy its humorous
complaint.

To London once my steppes I bent,

Where trouth in no vryse should be faynt.

To Westmynster-ward I forthwith went,
To a man of law to make complaynt:

I sayd, ''For Marys love, that holy saynt,

Pyty the poore that wold proceede (i.e. go to law) !"

But for lack of mony I cold not spede.

And as I thrust the prese amonge,

By froward chance my hood was gone;
Yet for all that I stayed not longe,

Tyll to the Kynges Bench I was come:
Before the judge I kneled anon.

And prayed hym for Gods sake to take heede;
But for lack of mony I myght not speede.

Clarendon Press, 1906). Aconsiderablebody of literature has been inspired hv this
revolt. Chaucer, to be sure, mentions it but once (cf. The Nuris Priests Tale,
Canterhury Talcs, B, 11. 4584, 4585), but a large part of the Vox Clamantis {Voice
of One Crying) by Gower is devoted to it. There are accounts in other chroniclers.
(For Knighton's account see Cheyney, Readings in English History, pp. -iOl-
2G5; for Adam of I'sk's, Locke, War and Misrule 1307-1309, pp. 71-73). Then
there is an Elizabethan play of 1587, Jack Sfraiv, to be found in Dodslcy's Old
Plays (1744). Next comes Southey's play, Wat Tyler (1794). The most famous
writing inspired by the rebellion is probal)ly The Dream of John Ball, by Wil-
liam Morris (1888); the latest is the novel. Long WilL by Florence Converse
(1903), which connects Langland with the revolt.

17" Cf. E. P. Hammond in Anglia, XX, pp. 404-420. The quotation in the text
is from j). 409.

352 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Beiieth hem sat clarkes, a great rout,

Which fast dyd wryte by one assent:
There stoode up one and eryed about,

"Rychard, Robert and John of Kent !"
I wyst not well what this man ment,

He eryed so thy eke there in dede;
Rut he that lackt mony myght not spede.

L^nto the Common Place (Pleas) I yode (went) thoo (then),

Where sat one with a sylken hoode;
I dyd hym reverence, for I ought to do so.

And told my case as well as I coode.
How my goodes were defrauded me by falshood:

I gat not a mum of his mouth for my meed,

And for lack of mony I myght not spede.

Unto the Rolles I gat me from thence.

Before the clarkes of the Chancerye,
Where many I found earnyng of pence;

But none at all once regarded mee.
I gave them my playnt uppon my knee:
They lycked it well, when they had it reade;

But, lackyng mony, I could not be sped.

In Westmynster Hall I found out one

Which went in a long gown of raye (a striped cloth):
I crowched and kneled before him anon;

For Maryes love, of help I hym praye.
*'I wot not what thou meanest," gan he say;

To get me thence he dyd me bede (bid) :
For lack of mony I cold not speed.

Within this hall nether rich nor yett poore

Would do for me ought, although I shold dye.

Which seing, I gat me out of the doore.
Where Flemynges began on me for to cry,
"Master, what will you copen (cheapen) or by.^
Fyne felt hattes, or spectacles to reede.^

Lay down your sylver, and here you may speede."

THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 353

Then to Westmynster Gate I presently went,

When the sonne was at hyghe pryme.
Cookes to me they tooke good entente,

And proferred me bread with ale and wyne,
Rybbes of befe both fat and ful fyne;

A fay re cloth they gan for to sprede:
But, wantyng mony, I myght not then speede.

Then unto London I dyd me hye;

Of all the land it beareth the pryse.
"Hot pescodes !" one began to crye;

"Strabery (strawberries) rype!" and "cherryes in the ryse
(on the branch) !"
One bad me come near and by some spyce:

Peper and saffrone (saffron) they gan me bede (offer) :
But for lack of mony I myght not speed.

Then to the Chepe (Eastcheap) I gan me drawne.

Where much people I saw for to stand.
One of red me velvet, sylke and lawne;

An other he taketh me by the hande:
*'Here is Parys thred, the fynest in the land."

I never was used to such thynges in dede.
And, wantyng mony, I myght not speed.

Then went I forth by London stone,

Thoroughout all Canwyke streete:
Drapers mutch cloth me offred anone.

Then met I one cryed, "Hot sliepes feet !"
One cryde, " Makerell ! " "Ryshes (rushes) grene!" another gan
greete;

On bad me by a hood to cover my head.
But for want of mony I myght not be sped.

Then I hyed me into Est Chepe:

One cryes, "Rybbes of befe!" and many a pye;
Pewter pottes they clattered on a heaj):

There was harpe, pype and mynstralsye;
"Yea, by Cock !" "Nay, by Cock !" some began crye;

354 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Some songe of Jenken and Julyan for there mede.
But for lack of niony I myght not spede.

Then into Cornhyll anon I yode,

Where was mutch stolen gere among:
I saw where honge myne owne hoode,

That I had lost amonge the thronge;
To by my own hood I thought it wronge;
I knew it as well as I dyd my crede;
But for lack of mony I could not spede.

The taverner tooke me by the sieve;

"Sir," sayth he, "wyll you our vryne assay?"
I answered, "That can not mutch me greve; ^

A peny can do no more then it may."
I drank a pynt and for it dyd paye;

Yet sore a-hungerd from thence I yede (went),
And, wantyng mony, I cold not spede.

Then hyed I me to Belyngsgate (Billingsgate),

And one cryed, "Hoo ! go we hence !"
I prayed a barge-man, for Gods sake.

That he would spare me my expence.
"Thou scapst not here," quod he, "under two pence;

I lyst not yet bestow my almes dede."
Thus, lackyng mony, I could not speede.

Then I convayed me into Kent,

For of the law I would meddle no more;

Because no man to me tooke entent,
I dyght me to do as I dyd before.

Now Jesus, that in Bethlem was bore,

Save London, and send trew lawyers there made !

For who-so wantes mony with them shall not spede !

III. The Cultural Background

1. Ideals of the Period. — The official clerical philosophy
of the Middle Ages included a doctrine which was so strong
an influence on medieval culture that it deserves treatment

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 355

by itself. This is the doctrine or ideal of asceticism; i.e. the
belief that this life in itself is inherently bad; that delight
in the world as we perceive it by the senses is an ill-omen
for the life of the spirit; and that mortification "of the
four great natural passions — joy, hope, fear and grief," ^ is
the way of salvation. Asceticism, says Professor Ross, "is
the resource of a rising contemplative class in getting the
upper hand of rude, violent men. . . . The volume and
persistence of the world's asceticism cannot be understood
until we take note of it as instrument of social control." -

The typical medieval writer is the ecclesiastic; his literary
talent finds expression in homily, saint's life, vision, alle-
gory or religious play; and all of these inculcate directly
the philosophy of asceticism. This we must understand in
order to appreciate this large body of medieval literature.

On the other hand, lay-literature in the Middle Ages,
small in bulk at first but growing larger as the course of the
world proceeds, is critical of the ascetic spirit. But again,
the latter must be before us or we cannot see the -point
of the criticism, which may take the form of subtle satire.

The document selected to illustrate this ascetic ideal is
the Debate between the Body and the Soul. The poem, too,
is typical of a large body of didactic verse presenting doc-
trine in the form of discussion; and, further, it is interest-
ing because it is a vision poem, that peculiar product of
the medieval mind.

The poem was evidently popular since it is found in six
MSS. The only difficulty in our including it here is its
length — in the original it consists of 61 stanzas of 8 lines
each. But this obstacle has been overcome by present-
ing a partial synopsis with direct ciuotation of the more
impressive stanzas.

In the opening stanza we are Inlroduced to a vision of the

^ Cf. Robinson, Readings in European Ilistori/, I, p. SS (Ciinn and Co., 190-i).
2 Social Control, pp. 310, 311 (The Mjic-niillan Co., 1901).

350 ENGLISH LITERATURE

death of a knight who had led a gay life. His soul, about
to leave his body, addresses the latter, so foul and black,
and wishes to know what has become of all the pleasures
in which the body was wont to indulge:

"Where now are all thy rich and costly weeds,
Thy sumpter horses and thy silken bed,
Thy pacing palfreys, and the other steeds
That thou hast often with thy right hand led;
Thy swift- winged falcons that were wont to scream,
And all the baying hounds that thou hast fed?
God grants but little to thee, it would seem,
Now all thy former friends have from thee fled." ^

At the conclusion of this list of pleasures, which includes
several stanzas, the body admits that it did indulge in
them, but asserts that everything was done at the instance
of the soul. The body says:

"I served thy pleasure ever, night and day.
At darkening even and at dewy morn;
E'en as a child thou guidedst me at play,
Yea, from the very day when thou wert born.
Thou, who couldst judge of good and evil deeds,
Shouldst have known how to count the bitter cost
Of acts like mine, and where such folly leads;
Blame, then, thyself, if now thou shalt be lost." '^

The soul's reply, one of the best passages in the whole
poem, is quoted in full:

The spirit answered, "Body, be thou still;

And of thy fierce words have a care;

Think not to chide and mock me at thy will

That swollen like a bottle liest there.

Think not, O wretch, though thou art soon to fill

With thy foul flesh a dark and narrow grave.

That, after all the deeds thou didst of ill.

Thou yet so easily thyself shalt save.

3 Stanza 4. ^ Stanza 8.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 357

" Think not to get sweet peace, thus stained with sin,
There where thou liest, mouldering in the clay;
Though thou shalt be decayed without, within,
And wafted by the idle wind away,
Still shalt thou rise complete from out the sod
Again to meet me at the judgment day.
And come before the dooming })ar of God,
Where we the penalty of sin must pay.

"Thou wert assigned to me to teach me good,

But when thou thought'st to do some evil deed,

I could not hold thee back, strive as I would;

I had to follow thee, instead of lead.

Thee I withstood as firmly as I could.

But bit in teeth, like a rebellious steed,

Thou wouldst not cleave to innocence or good.

Thou followedst sin and wrong with shameful speed.

"I wished to show thee what was fair, what bad;
Tell thee of Christ and of His church on earth;
But thou, in thy career, so wild and mad,
Receiv'dst my teaching but with mocking mirth.
Although with fervor I might preach and pray.
Thy wricked mind and heart were not inspired;
But still rejected good from day to day.
And did whatever evil they desired.

"I bade thee think upon thy poor soul's needs.
Matins and masses, vesper, evensong;
But thou wert fain to do first other deeds,
And at my warning words laughed loud and long;
By field and stream, swift as an arrow speeds.
Didst hasten to the Court to do men wrong;
But for the sake of pride or other meeds
Little of right thou didst among the throng.

"Who is a greater traitor to his lord.
Or who can less contrive to do his will.
Than one he trusts in every act and word
Through every day and hour to serve him still?

358 ENGLISH LITERATURE

And while thou wert so prosperous and great.
And while I searched and sought with all my might
Thy rest and peace, thou strov'dst to seal my fate,
And plunge me ever into hell's dark night.

**Xow may the wild beasts roam the fields at will.
Or lie in peace beneath the branch and leaf;
And birds fly freely over mead and hill;
For thy false heart may cause them no more grief:
Thy lips are dumb, thy ears no sound can hear,
Thy eyes are blinded by the hand of death,
Thou liest loathsome, grinning on thy bier,
From thy foul form there comes an evil breath.

"No lovely lady, whom in days of old
Thou didst caress and woo with glances sweet,
Would lie beside thee where thou liest cold.
Though all the wide world's wealth were at her feet.
Thou art unlovely, fearsome now to see;
Those icy lips tempt not for kisses meet;
Thou hast no friend who would not wildly flee.
If he should meet thee strolling on the street." ^

The body again answers that his w^hole conduct was
suggested by the soul. But the latter reminds the body
that their constant association was not voluntary, at least
on his part:

'*0f the same woman were we born and bred,

body, both together, without doubt;
Together were we fostered fair and fed.

Till thou didst learn to speak and run about.
And softly thee with tenderest love I led.
To cause thee woe I never did incline,
To lose thy service was my constant dread —

1 knew no other body would be mine." ^

^ Stanzas 9-lG inclusive. ^ Stanza 22,

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 359

'*Thy flesh and blood seemed very fair to me:
I wished to see thee thrive while thou didst live;
For all my love was truly placed on thee,
And peace and rest I ever sought to give.
But thou didst grow so stubborn and unkind,
So weak in works, so blind to what was best,
I tried no longer to oppose thy mind;
Although I ever lived within thy breast.

"So for our ruin thou didst everything

Of malice, en\y, gluttony and pride,

That was displeasing unto heaven's King

And ever in His anger didst abide.

So evermore thou hadst thy sinful way

And none of thy foul pleasures wouldst thou leave;

Full dearly now I for thy sins must pay —

Ah, well-a-day, too sorely must I grieve.

"Of w^hat would surely come to thee and me
A faithful warning oft to thee I gave;
But as an idle tale it seemed to thee,
That thou couldst fall into the silent grave.
Thou didst all evil things the world thee bade,
And took each pleasure which thy flesh did crave;
I suffered thee, and was myself as mad —
Thou the wild master; I, thy wretched knave." ^

The body in its turn asserts that all knowledge of right
or wrong comes from the soul and again places the re-
sponsibility for his conduct on the soul:

"Think'st tliou, () spirit, a reward to gain
By saying falsely that thou wort my thrall?
Or to escape from punishment and pain
By lying words and groans and tears withal.'^
In all my life long never did I aught.
Or stole or robbed or sinned in any way,

' Stanzas 2-1-^20 inclusive.

360 ENGLISH LITERATURE

But that from thee first eame the wicked thought:
He who has earned the punishment must pay.

' "How coukl I know what act was wrong, what right,
What I should take or what I should forgo,
Except the things thou placedest in my sight,
Because I deemed that wisdom thou didst know?
Wien evil were the deeds thou taughtest me.
And then to me thou didst begin to moan,
Thy way being evil, as I then could see,
I strove another time to have mine own.

"But hadst thou then, as Christ deserved of thee,
My flesh subdued w^ith hunger, thirst and cold,
Remembering naught of good was known to me.
When in my wickedness I grew so bold,
All I had undertaken in my youth
That had I followed still when I was old;
Thou letst me ever wander north and south
And have my will and my own false way hold.

"Thou never shouldst, for any life or land.
Nor any other worldly joy to win.
Have suffered me to turn to either hand,
To any act that led to shame or sin.
But thee I found so easy to control.
Of so small wit, so swayed by every wind
As is a waving wand, O wretched soul —
No reason to cease sinning could I find.

"Thou knew'st that every man is prone to sin;
From the beginning it was always so;
And strives the pleasures of the world to win,
And serves the fiend that is our deadly foe.
So, when I turned to sin, like all my kind.
Thou shouldst have kept me from these evils all:
But when the blind attempt to lead the blind,
Into the ditch they })oth are sure to fall." ^

8 Stanzas 27-31 inclusive. For the reference in the last two lines cf. Matt.
15:14.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 361

The soul admits that he felt his responsibility for the
care of the body, but concludes that both body and spirit
have been beguiled by the world, the flesh and the devil:

"The false, foul fiend of hell, that enviously

Has ever looked upon all humankind.

Was alway as a spy to thee and me

When I a good thought put into thy mind.

The world and flesh he had for company.

That many a soul before deceived had;

These three, who knew the foolishness of thee.

Beguiled thee, wretched one, and made thee mad." ^

This draws from the body a bitter lament over his mis-
spent life. Among other things the body bewails the fact
that he was fated to be a human body. Why could he
not have been a brute and so have avoided all these
troublesome moral problems.'^ The soul, however, breaks
in to remark that nothing can now shield them from the
consequences of their sin; the hell-hounds are at hand:

"Should all the men who still retain their lives.
And all the dark robed priests who masses sing.
And all the gracious maidens and good wives
And widows weep for us and their hands wring —
If five times every one who is alive.
And five times over every earthly thing
Should plead, since we our own selves did not shrive —
Us unto heaven's bliss they could not bring.

"Body, I may no longer with thee dwell;
Nor stand beside thee here to speak with thee;
For now I hear the hell-hounds' ])icrcing yell;
And fiends more than a man did ere this see
Are coming now to drag me down to hell:
And from them I can never h()])e to (lee;
But with thy skin and blood, remember well,
At doomsday shalt thou be again with me." ^^
9 Stanza 33. >" Stanzas 44, 45.

362 ENGLISH LITERATURE

A vivid description of the torture of the body follows:

They ^^ said that rich and costly weeds to wear

Was on the earth the thing he ^^ loved the best;

Therefore, a devil's cloak was there,

All burning hot, and on him it was pressed.

With hot clasps was it fastened, close and tight.

Clinging with torture to his back and breast.

A helmet on his head by no means light

They placed and then led forth a horse all dressed.

A bridle was brought forth to place on it;

A cursed devil as a colt then seemed,

Horridly grinning, flames his red eyes lit.

Upon his head and throat the bright fire gleamed.

A saddle in the middle of the side,

Full of sharp spurs, all glowing red and hot,

Whereon the wretched spirit was to ride —

A fearful seat and rough it was, I wot.

Upon the saddle was he slung,

W^here he should suffer ever more and more,

A thousand devils then his death song sung,

Pursued him here and there and beat him sore;

With hot spears, then, he through and through was stung:

All torn and bruised he was from head to feet.

At every step forth glowing sparks were flung.

As from a brand that burns with fervent heat.

W^hen he a while had ridden on that road,
From off the saddle where he had been placed
He was cast down to earth as is a toad.
And hell-hounds fierce and cruel then him chased.
They tore great pieces from him on the way
As shrieking madly he was hellward led;
A man might mark by bloody drops that day
Where the wild fiends and that poor soul did* tread.
" I.e. the torturing fiends. ^- I.e. tlie guilty body.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 363

In cruel sport they bade him })low his horn.

Cry on his hounds Bauston and Bevis too;

As in the days of yore, at early morn

Out hunting he was ever wont to do.

A hundred howling devils in a row

Beat him with cords, and shouted curses bold.

Until they reached that dark pool, loathed and low.

Where hell is, as I often have been told.

And when they had to that dark dwelling won,

The fiends cast into air so wild a yell.

The solid earth it opened up anon.

And smoke and vapor from it up did swell;

Odor of pitch and brimstone forth did go;

For five miles round men might perceive it well —

Lord, he would be a man in fearful woe

Who must endure a tenth of such a smell. ^^

The poem concludes with the futile plea of the soul for
mercy, the casting of the body into hell, and the dreamer's
reflections on the experience, exhorting men to repent while
yet there is time.

Interweaving with this ascetic ideal and yet contrasting
with it was chivalry, which can best be described as a
system of social life and manners, the cultural reflection
of the feudal §ystem. Chivalry has its roots ^^ in the Teu-

^^ Stanzas 50-56 inclusive. For a satire on the ascetic ideal sec the beast epic
of Reynard the Fox. Mr. Jacobs' adaptation in Burt's Home Library gives a very
good version of the numerous tales. The Introduction is also a valuable account
of the sources and relations of the various stories.

^^ Cf. e.g. ante, p. 1'2, the Teutonic ceremony for initiating the youth into the
tribe. The English before tiie Norman Conquest may c\v\\ have made .some prog-
ress in systematizing the conferring of knighthootl. ("f. the following record in
Ingulph, Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland, ". . . It w.is llic custom of the English.
that he who was about to be lawfully cousecr.ilcd a knight .should, the evening be-
fore the day of his consecration, with coutrilion and compunction, make confession
of all his sins, before some bishop, abbot, monk or priest, and should, after being
absolved, pass the night in a church, giving him.self up to prayer, devotion and
mortification. On the following day he was to hear mass and to make offering of

364 ENGLISH LITERATURE

tonic military spirit and this, consecrated by the church,
blossomed in the knightly ideals of courtesy, individual
accomplishments, and morality. Much of the literature of
our period aims directly or covertly to teach the principles
of chivalry, as for example this French story of Sir Hugh
of Taharie.

In the years when Saladin was King, there lived a Prince in
Galilee, who was named Sir Hugh of Tabarie. On a day he was
with other Christian men who gave battle to the Turks, and,
since it pleased God to cast his chivalry behind him, Sir Hugh
was taken prisoner, and many another stout knight with him.
When dusk closed down on the field, the Prince was led before
Saladin, who, calling him straightway to mind, rejoiced greatly
and cried, "x-Vh, Sir Hugh, now are you taken." "Sire," answered
the brave knight, "the greater grief is mine." "By my faith,
Hugh, every reason have you for grief, since you must either

a sword upon the altar, and, after the gospel, the priest was to bless the sword and,
with a blessing, lay it upon, the neck of the knight; on which, after having commu-
nicated at the same mass in the sacred mysteries of Christ, he became a lawful
knight. The Normans held in abomination this mode of consecrating a knight,
and did not consider such a person to be a lawful knight, but a mere tardy trooper,
and a degenerate plebeian." Riley's translation in Bohn's Antiquarian Library,
1854! (George Bell and Sons). Too much importance must not be assigned to this
notice on account of the doubtful character of the Chronicle from which it is
quoted. But Miss Dodd in her Early English Social History from the Chronicles
(London, George Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1913), quotes it as of some value on p. 134.
Chaucer draws three pictures of chivalric personages, the knight, the squire and the
j'eoman. Cf. Prolog to the Canterbury Tales, 11. 42-117. His Knighfs Tale is a
good example of the romance of chivalry, drawing its material from the "matter
of antiquity" (cf. post, p. 518). The best general treatment of chivalry in
English is Francis Warre Cornish, Chivalry in the Social England Series (The Mac-
millan Co., 1901). The most extensive work published is by Alwin Schultz, Das
Hofische Leben {The Courtly Life) (Leipzig, S. Hirzel, 1889). For chivalry in its
bearing on English literature consult W. H. Schofield, Chivalry in English Literature:
Chaucer, Malory, Spenser, Shakespeare (Harvard Studies in Comparative LiteraturBy
II, the Harvard University Press, 1912). On the courtly person and his counter-
part, the villein, cf. S. L. Galpin, Cortois and Villain in French and Provengal Poetry,
1200-1400, pp. 95, 96 (Yale Dissertation on the subject published by the author
and printed by Ryder's Printing House, New Haven). See also C. S. Bald-
win, An Introductioii to English Medieval Literature (Longmans, Green and Co.,
1914), chivalry and courtly love in the Index.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 365

pay your ransom or die." "Sire, I am more fain to pay ransom
than to die, if by any means I may find the price you require
of me." "Is that truly so.'^" said the King. "Sire," said Sir
Hugh, "in the fewest words, what is the sum you demand of
me?" "I ask of you," repHed the King, "one hundred thousand
besants." ^^ "Sire, such a sum is too great a ransom for a man
of my lands to pay." "Hugh," said the king, "you are so good
a knight, and so hardy, that there is none who hears of your
prison and this ransom, but will gladly send of his riches for
your ease." "Sire," said he, "since thus it must be, I promise
to pay the sum you require, but what time do you grant me to
find so mighty a ransom?" "Hugh," said the King, "I accord
you the grace of one year. If within the year you count me out
the tale of these besants, I will take it gladly; but if you fail
to gain it then must you return to your prison and I will hold
you more willingly still." "Sire, I pledge my word and my
faith. Now deliver me such a safe conduct that I may return
in safety to my own land."

"Hugh, before you part I have a pri\y word to speak to you."
"Sire, with all my heart, and where?" "In this tent, close by."
When they had entered into the pavilion, the Emperor Saladin
sought to know in what fashion a man was made knight of the
Christian chivalry, and required of him that he should show it
to his eyes. "Sire, whom then should I dub knight?" "My-
self," answered the King. "God forbid that I should be so false
as to confer so high a gift and so fair a lordship even upon the
body of so mighty a prince as you." "But wherefore?" said
the King. "For reason, sire, that your body is but an em])ty
vessel." "Empty of what, Sir Hugh?" "Sire, of Christianity
and of baptism." "Hugh," said he, "think not hardly of me
because of this. You are in my hand, and if you do the thing
that I require of you, what man is there to blame you greatly
vhen you return to your own realm? I seek this grace of you,

^^ The coin referred to licre is prohahly tlic ^old luv.ant, more properly called
solidus, issued by the emperors at (\)nstantinoi)le in the Middle Ages, worth in
present American money $2.4iJ. There was also a silver coin of the same issue,
called the white bezant, worth 70 cents. The word bezant comes from the name of
the city liyzantium, so called before Constantine made it over into Constantinoj)le.

366 ENGLISH LITERATURE

rather than of another, because you are the stoutest and the most
})erfect knight that ever I may meet." "Sire," said he, "I will
show you what you seek to know, for were it but the will of
God that you were a christened man, our chivalry would bear in
you its fairest flower." ^^ "Hugh," said he, "that may not be."
Whereupon Sir Hugh made ready all things necessary for the
making of a knight; and having trimmed the hair and beard of
the King in seemly fashion, he caused him to enter within the
bath and inquired, ' Sire, do you understand the meaning of this
water?" "Hugh, of this I know nothing." "Sire, as the little
child comes forth from the waters of baptism clean of sin, so
should you issue from this bath washed pure of all stain and
villainy." "By the law of the Prophet, Sir Hugh, it is a fair
beginning." Then Sir Hugh brought the Sultan before an un-
touched bed, and having laid him therein, he said, "Sire, this
bed is the promise of that long rest in paradise which you gain
by the toils of chivalry." So when the King had lain softly
therein for a little space. Sir Hugh caused him to stand upon his
feet, and having clothed him in a fair white vesture of linen and
silk, said, "Sire, this spotless stole you first put on is but the
symbol of a body held and guarded clean." Afterwards he set
upon the King a gown of scarlet silk and said, "Sire, this ver-
meil robe keeps ever in your mind the blood a knight must shed
in the service of his God and the defence of Holy Church." Then
taking the King's feet in his hands, he drew thereon shoes of
brown leather, saying, "Sire, these brown shoes with which you
are shod, signify the color of the earth from which you came,
and to which you must return; for whatever degree God permits
you to attain, remember, O mortal man, that you are but dust."
Then Sir Hugh raised the Sultan to his feet and girt him with
a white baldric, saying, "Sire, this white cincture I belt about
your loins is the type of that chastity with which you must be
girded withal. For he who would be worthy of .such dignity as
this must ever keep his body pure as any maid." After this
was brought to Sir Hugh a pair of golden spurs and these he did
upon the shoes with which the sultan was shod, saying, "Sire,
so swiftly as the destrier plunges in the fray at the prick of these
^^ Cf. Saladin as Scott pictures him in The Talisman.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 367

spurs, so swiftly, so joyously, should you fight as a soldier of
God for the defence of Holy Church." Then at the last Hugh
took a sword, and holding it before the King, said, "Sire, know
you the three lessons of this glaive?" "What lessons are these?"
"Courage, justice and loyalty. The cross at the hilt of his
sword gives courage to the bearer, for when the brave knight
girds his sword upon him he neither can, nor should, fear the
strong adversary himself. xA^gain, sire, the two sharp edges of
the blade teach loyalty and justice, for the office of chivalry is
this, to sustain the weak against the strong, the poor before
the rich, uprightly and loyally." The King listened to all these
words very heedfully and at the end inquired if there was noth-
ing more that went to the making of a knight. "Sire, there is
one thing else but that I dare not do." "What thing is this?"
"It is the acolade." "Grant me now the acolade and tell me
the meaning thereof." "Sire, the acolade is a blow upon the
neck ^^ given with a sword, and the significance thereof is that
the newly made knight may always bear in mind the lord who
did him that great courtesy. But such a stroke will I not deal
to you, for it is not seemly, since I am here your prisoner."

That night Saladin, the mighty Sultan, feasted in his cham-
ber with the fifty greatest lords of his realm, emirs, governors
and admirals, and Sir Hugh of Tabarie sat on a cushion at his
feet. At the close of the banquet Sir Hugh rose up before the
King and said, "Sire, grant me grace. I may not forget that
you bade me to seek out all fair and honorable lords, since there
is none who would not gladly come to my help in this matter
of my ransom. But, fair Sir King, in all the world shall I never
find a lord so wise, so hardy and so courteous as yourself. Since
you have taught me this lesson, it is but just and right tliat I
should pray you to be the first to grant me aid herein."

Then Saladin laughed loudly out of a merry heart and said,
"Pray God that the end be as sweet as the beginning. Truly,
Sir Hugh, I will not have it on my conscience that you miss
your ransom because of any meanness of mine, and, Ihcret'ore,
without guile, for my part I will give you fifty thousand bcsants."

^^ Cf. the possibly Old English custom reconk'd in llie extract from Ingulph's
Chronicle, ante, p. 3G4.

368 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Then the great Sultan rose from his throne, and taking Prince
Hugh with him, came to each of the lords in turn, emir, governor
and admiral, and prayed of him aid in the business of this ran-
som. So all the lords gave largely out of a good heart in such
measure that Sir Hugh presently acquitted himself of his ransom
and returned to his own realm from among the paynim.

The pomp and circumstance of chivalry are well illus-
trated in the following passage from Gawain and the Green
Knight which the late Gaston Paris, the great French au-
thority on medieval literature, called the pearl of English
medieval romance. At the opening of the story, while
Arthur is celebrating New Year's Day at Camelot, a gi-
gantic Green Knight, riding a green horse, enters and offers
to allow any of King Arthur's knights to strike him with
his ax a blow on the neck, provided the respondent will
allow the challenger to return the compliment the fol-
lowing year. At first all are dumfounded, but at length
Gawain, the pattern knight, screws up his courage to under-
take the enterprise. After the proper preparations have
been made, Gawain cuts off the Green Knight's head and
it rolls about the floor. But the giant unconcernedly
picks it up by the hair, gets back on his horse, and rides off,
reminding Gawain of his promise to meet him at the Green
Chapel the next year. Our passage tells how, after his
time of respite is over, Gawain prepares to redeem his
promise.^^

Yule is now^ o'erpast and the year is gone.
Each season has succeeded in due turn;
For after Christmas time comes crabbed Lent,
Demanding fish for flesh and simpler cheer.
Then the world's weather with the winter strives,
The cold withdraws itself, the clouds uplift,

'* Cf. a complete verse translation of Gawain and the Green Knight in Weston,
Romance, Vision and Satire (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1912). The same trans-
lator before had published a partial pn^se rendering of the story as Vol. I of the
series Arthurian Romances Unrepresented in Malory (David Nutt, 1900).

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 369

And softly falls the rain in showers warm
On the fair plains on which the flowers appear.
The meadows and the groves are clad in green,
Birds busk themselves to build and l:)lithely sing
For solace of soft summer that ensues:
Upon the banks the bonny blossoms bloom,
Both rich and rank, and noble notes enough
Are heard in fairest woods from dawn to dark.

After the summer season with soft winds,

When Zephyr breathes his soul on seeds and herbs.

Full joyous is the growth that waxes there.

When the dark dew drips from the drooping leaves

Beneath the blissful blush of the bright sun.

And then comes harvest, hardening the grain,

And warning it to wax for winter ripe.

With drought he drives the dust into the air

On high and wafts it widely over face of fields.

The wroth wind of the welkin with the sun

Angrily wrestles and the leaves drop down

From ageing trees and light upon the ground:

And gray are all the groves that were so green

But yesterday, and ripe is all the fruit

That then was flower; so goes the gliding year

Into its many yesterdays, and so

The winter comes again, and the world needs

No sage to tell us this.

Now when the morn
Of ]Michaelmas ^^ was come, with warning sad
Of winter near, full oft thought Gawain
Of that dread journey which he soon must take.

Yet till All-Hallows'-'" Day lie lingcMvd there
With Arthur, who, on thai same day, made feast
For that brave hero's sake, witli revelry.
And all the richness of the Table Round —
The courteous knights and comely ladies there
1^ Sept. ^2i). "'' Nov. 1.

370 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Were all in sorrow for that well loved knight;

And, though they spoke no word to tell their grief,

Still many there were joyless for his lot.

After the meat, with mourning Gawain turned

Unto his king and uncle and then spoke

About his riding and his words were these,

"Now, liege lord of my life, your leave I crave.

You know my plight and, therefore, I am bound

To say no more. In honor am I pledged

To set forth on the morrow on my search

For that Green Knight as God may give me light."

Then came together all the noblest knights,
Ywain and Eric and full many more.
Sir Dodinel le Sauvage, the great duke
Of Clarence, Launcelot and Lionel,
Lucan, the Good, Sir Bors, Sir Bedivere,
Both mighty men, and heroes many too.
With Mador de la Porte. These courtiers all
Got round the King, with hea\^ hearts.
To give their counsel unto Sir Gawain.
Much grief and weeping was there in the hall
That such a gallant knight should wend his w^ay
On such an errand, seeking for a blow
So deadly, and should deal no other stroke
With his good sword. But he made good cheer
And said, "W^hy shrink? What yet remains
To do for a brave man but prove his fate.
However dire and fearsome it may be?"

He dwelt there all that day, but the next morn

He rose up early, asking for his arms.

Which then were brought and in this knightly wise:

First a rich carpet on the floor was laid —

How gaily on it glittered the gold gear

As the knight stepped thereon and grasped the steel !

Clad was he in a doublet of rich silk

With a close hood, well made and lined throughout

With soft, warm fur. Steel shoes upon his feet

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 371

They set and wrapped his Hmbs in shining greaves

With knee caps polished briglit and fastened firm

About his knees with knots of gleaming gold.

His thighs were cased in cuisses of strong steel.

Fast closed with leather thongs. They gave him then

The shield of polished steel rings, firmly sewn

Upon fair stuff; and burnished braces strong

L'pon his arms, with elbow pieces stout,

They tightly lashed, and gave him too the gloves

Of steel to shield his hands, and other gear

That should protect him in his hour of need.

And over all they cast a rich surcoat;

And fastened on his heels the golden spurs;

And by a silken girdle to this hero's side

They bound a sword full sure.

^Yhen he was garbed
In harness thus, his armor was right rich.
For the least loop or lartchet of that mail
Burned with bright gold. Accoutered as he was,
He barkened to the mass and offering made
At high church altar. Then to king
And nobles of the court and ladies fair
He came and farewell bade them courteously.
Who kissed him and commended him to Christ.
Then Gringalet his steed, with saddle girt
That glistened bright with many a gilded fringe,
Stood ready for the venture, decked anew.
The bridle barred with buttons of clear gold.
The covertures and trappings of that steed.
The crupper and the long and flowing skirts
Accorded with the saddle, for they shone
And glittered, like the rising sun's bright rays,
With rich red gold.

His helmet then he took
And raised it hastily and on his head
He set it high and hasped it fast behind.
All strongly was it made and lined throughout.

37!2 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Over the ventail was a kerchief Hght,

Broidered and })ound about with finest gems

On a broad silken ribbon, and gay birds,

And many a turtle and true lover's knot

Were also broidered there, entwined so thick,

It seemed that many maidens must have wrought

Quite seven winters long to finish it.

But the fair circlet that his helmet crowned

AYas wealthier still of price, adorned as 'twas

With a device of diamonds, large and pure.

Then showed they him the shield of splendid red,
Whereon the pentangie enamelled was
In golden hue. And why the noble prince
Bore this device, I fain would tell,
Although I thus must tarry in my tale.
■\ It is a sign which Solomon once set, ""^

; Betokening truth, by title that it had;

Because it is a figure with five points,
Each line of which another overlaps.
And hath nowhere beginning nor an end.
Being an endless knot in English speech.
Hence, it was suited well unto this knight
And his clear arms, for faithful in five-fold
Was good Gawain, and pure as gold was he,
Void of all ill and well endowed
With virtues all: and so this mark
He bore upon his shield and outer coat,
As truest hero and as gentlest knight.

Faultless in his five senses was he first;
And his five fingers never played him false;
And all his trust was in the five great wounds
That Christ felt on the cross, as told in Creed.
And when in battle he was sore beset
He wist well that he drew his conquering strength
From the five joys which Heaven's Queen
Had of Her Child. For this cause did he bear
An image of Our Lady, wrought out well.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 373

On one half of his shield, that when he looked

On Her sweet face he should not lack for aid.

And the fifth five that my fair hero used

I find were frankness and good fellowship

Above all else; and purity of soul,

And courtesy, that never failed or swerved,

And sweet compassion, that surpasseth all.

In these five virtues was he wrapped and clothed,

iVnd all these, five-fold, were linked each with each.

So that they had no end; and they were fixed

Upon five points that ne'er were known to want —

Nor were they joined or sundered anywhere.

Nor could ye a beginning find or end.

Therefore, upon his shield was shaped that knot,

All painted with keen gold on ground of red.

Which is the pure pentangie, as they know

Who learning have. So Gawain was prepared

iVnd took his lance in hand and bade good-bye

Unto them all — he feared forevermore.-^

A concrete expression of the spirit of chivalry is to be
seen in the supposed founding by Edward III in 1344 of
the Order of the Garter, modeled on the knighthood of
King Arthur. The event is thus described in the Con-
tinuation of the Chronicles by Adam of Murimuth, a con-
temporary.

In the year 1344, the king, Edward III, ordered a great
tournament to be held on the nineteenth day of January in the
place of his birth, that is, in the castle of Windsor; and this

2^ The story ends Jis follows: "As the next New Year drew nigh, Gawain, riding
wild ways afar in his seareh, was reeeived and nobly entertained at Christniastide
in a eastle whose lord promised to eseort him betimes to the Green Chapel hanl by.
IMeantime showing as a guest the noblest and most scrupulous courtesy, Gawain
was three times tempted by his host's lady in vain. Then standing by the Green
Chapel to receive the return stroke, he was but grazed; for the Green Knight, re-
vealing himself as the lord of the castle and the deviser of the temptations, declared
himself satisfied that Gawain was intleed worthy." Baldwin, op. cit., p. 155.

374 ENGLISH LITERATURE

he caused to be publicly proclaimed a sufficiently long time be-
forehand as well in foreign parts as in England. He invited to
this by his own letters all the ladies of the south of England and
the wives of all the citizens of London. There assembled in
the said castle on Sunday, the twentieth of January, earls,
barons, knights and very many ladies. There the king provided
the customary banquet so that the great hall was filled with the
ladies, not a single man being present excepting only two knights
who had come from France for this occasion. At this banquet
there were present two queens, nine countesses, wives of the
barons, knights and citizens, who could not easily be counted,
and who had been placed by the king himself in their seats
according to rank.

The Prince of Wales, the duke of Cornwall, the earls, barons
and knights ate together with the people in a tent and other
places where food supplies and all other necessaries had been
prepared freely for all without murmur; and in the evening
there was dancing. For the three following days the king with
nineteen other knights kept a jousting against all who came
from without; and the same lord, not on account of royal favor
but because of great skill which he showed and because of the
good fortune which he had, for three days gained the palm
among those at home. A foreign lord, knight of Stapleton,
gained the victory on the first day, on the second Philip Des-
penser, on the third John Blount. On the Thursday following
the tournament of the sons, the lord king gave a banquet at
which he founded the order of the Round Table, and under a
certain form belonging to the said Round Table he received the
oaths of certain earls, barons and knights whom he wished to
belong to this said Round Table; and he fixed the day for hold-
ing the Round Table for the next day of Pentecost following,
giving to all present the right of returning home with their
badges of honor. Afterwards he ordered a very fine building
to be erected there, in which the said Round Table could meet
at the designated time. For the erection of this building he
brought in stonecutters, carpenters and other workmen, ordering
wood as well as stone to be procured, sparing neither labor nor
expense.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 375

The chivalric spirit also found expression in the Cru-
sades, that series of expeditions lasting from 109G to 1^272,
which purposed to protect the Holy Sepulcher from the
Turks and secure it as a permanent shrine for Christen-
dom. This purpose the Crusades failed to achieve, but,
in lieu of gaining their primary object, served as a great
cultural stimulus to the European mind by bringing it
into touch with an alien civilization of apparently high
attracting power. Undoubtedly the most picturesque
figure among English crusaders is Richard the Lion-
Hearted, patron of knights and troubadours, himself a
knight and troubadour. Richard soon became a romantic
figure and, though the prosaic facts of his life were known,
had ascribed to him a legendary genealogy and career
which put him on a par with King Horn, Havelock, King
Arthur and Guy of Warwick. William of Malmesbury
thus describes the enthusiasm aroused by the first Crusade,
an enthusiasm typical of that aroused by all the others. ^^

In the year of the incarnation 1095, pope Urban the second,
who then filled the papal throne, passing the Alps, came into

^ On the Crusades in general consult the medieval histories and Archer and
Kingsford, The Crusades: the Story of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem {The Story
oj the Nations Series, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1895). Villehardouin and De Joinville,
Chronicles of the Crusades is a number in Everyman's Library. On literary material
from the Crusades, see Vaublanc translation in Munroe and Sellery, Medieval Civi-
lization, enlarged ed., pp. 2(59-277 (The Century Co., 1910). See also Chaucer, The
Squire's Tale in The Canterbury Tales with Skeat's notes. Martha Pike (\^nant in
the Introduction to her Oriental Tale in England in the Eighteenth Century (Columbia
I'niversity Studies in Comparative Literature; Columbia Cniversily Press, 1908).
has a few remarks about oriental infitiences in the Middle Ages. On Richard as
a crusader, see Archer, The Crusade of Richard I {English History Told- by Contem-
poraries, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 188G). On Richard as a troubadour, .see J. F.
Rowbotham, Troubadours and Courts of Love, chap, v, pp. ()()-7,'J {The Social Eng-
land Series; The Macmillan Co., 1905). On Richard as a hero of romance, .see
Weston, The Chief Middle English Poets, pp. 12.'J-1.'}2 and notes (Houghton MifHin
Co., 1914). The Crusades left one indelible mark on European romance — the
villains of many romances are Saracens. This trait comes down at least as far as
Spenser.

376 ENGLISH LITERATURE

France. The ostensible cause of his journey was that, being
driven from Rome by the violence of Guibertr^ he might prevail
on the churches on this side of the mountains to acknowledge
him. His more secret intention was not so well known; this
was, by Bohemond's -^ advice, to excite almost the whole of
Europe to undertake an expedition into Asia; that in such a
general commotion of all countries, auxiliaries might easily be
engaged by whose means both Urban might obtain Rome; and
Bohemond, Illyria and Macedonia. . . . Still, nevertheless,
whatever might be the cause of Urban's mission, it turned out
of great and singular advantage to the Christian world. A
council, therefore, was assembled at Clermont which is the
most noted city of Auvergne. ... A clear and forcible dis-
course, such as should come from a priest, was addressed to the
people on the subject of an expedition of Christians against
Turks.2^ . . . The bulk of the auditors were extremely excited
and attested their sentiments by a shout, pleased with the
speech and inclined to the pilgrimage. And immediately in the
presence of the Council some of the nobility, falling down at
the knees of the pope, consecrated themselves and their property
to the service of God. Among these was Aimar, the very power-
ful bishop of Puy, who afterwards ruled the army by his pru-
dence and augmented it through his eloquence. In the month of
November, then, in which the council was held, each departed
to his home: and the report of this good resolution soon becom-
ing general, it gently wafted a cheering gale over the minds of

2^ I.e. Guibert of Ravenna (circa 1030-1100), antipope under the title Clement
III from June 25, 1080 to his death in September 1100. Urban II, of course, did not
recognize him as pope, and hence our story calls him by his personal, not his papal,
name. Guibert maintained himself at Rome from 1084i until he was driven out by
the crusaders in 1097.

2^ I.e. Ikjhemond I (circa 1058-1111), Prince of Otranto and later of Antioch,
a Norman, son of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Calabria and Apulia. Bohemond was
a trusted adviser of Urban II and the real leader of the first Crusade. For the
various accounts of the capture of Jerusalem by Bohemond and his colleagues in
1099, see Duncalf and Krey, Parallel Source Problems in Medieval Ilisfori/ (Harper's
Parallel Source Problems, Harper and Brothers, 1912), pp. 95-133. Bohemond had
a strenuous life in his struggles against the Turks and the Eastern Emperor.

^ The sermon of Urban follows.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 377

Christians: which being universally diffused, there was no nation
so remote, no people so retired, as not to contribute its portion.
This ardent love not only inspired the continental provinces but
even all who had heard the name of Christ whether in the most
distant lands or savage countries. The Welshman left his hunt-
ing; the Scot his fellowship with lice; the Dane his drinking
party; the Norwegian his raw fish. Lands were deserted of their
husbandmen; houses of their inhabitants; even whole cities
migrated. There was no regard to relationship, affection to
their country w^as held in little esteem, God alone was placed
before their eyes. Whatever was stored in granaries or hoarded
in chambers, to answer the hopes of the avaricious husbandman,
or the covetousness of the miser, all was deserted, they hungered
after Jerusalem alone. Joy attended those who went while
grief oppressed those who remained. But why do I say re-
mained? You might see the husband departing with his wife,
indeed, with all his family; you would smile to see the whole
household loaded on a wagon, about to proceed on their way.
The road was too narrow for the traffic, the path too confined for
the travelers, so thickly were they thronged with endless multi-
tudes. The number surpassed all human imagination, though
the itinerants were estimated at six millions. Doubtless, never
did so many nations unite in one opinion; never did so immense
a population subject their unruly passions to one, and almost to
no, direction. For the strangest wonder to behold was, that
such a countless multitude marched gradually through various
Christian countries without plundering, though there was none
to restrain them. Mutual regard blazed forth in all, so that if
any one found in his possession what he knew did not belong
to him, he exposed it everywhere for several days to be claimed;
and the desire of the finder was suspended till perchance the
wants of the loser might be rci)airc(l.

As a specific instance of inlcrcvsl in (lie first Crusade a
little nearer England, notice the foHowing account by
Florence of Worcester of how Robert, Duke of Normandy,
eldest son of Wilh'ain the (\)ii(|ueror, mortgaged his (hichy
in order to follow the suggestion of Fope Urban. The King

378 ENGLISH LITERATURE

William mentioned in the text is William II, Rufus, second
son of William I the Conqueror.

After this, Robert, Earl of Normandy, proposing to join the
Crusade to Jerusalem, sent envoys to England, and requested
his brother King William that, peace • being restored between
them, he would lend him ten thousand silver marks, receiving
Normandy in pledge. The King, wishing to grant his request,
called on the English lords to assist him with money, each ac-
cording to his means, as speedily as possible. Therefore, the
bishops, abbots and abbesses broke up the gold and silver orna-
ments of their churches and the earls, barons and viscounts
robbed their knights and villeins, and brought to the King a
large sum of mone3^ With this he crossed the sea in the month
of September, made peace with his brother, advanced him six
thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds, and received from
him Normandy as security for its repayment.

Just one incident in the crusading career of Richard I
may be cited here as a sample passage from his life. This
is the account from the Itinerary of Richard 7, by Richard
of the Holy Trinity, of the King's prow^ess at the siege of
Joppa in 1192. The writer describes himself in his Prolog
as an eye-witness of the events he records and excuses the
want of literary finish in his book on the plea that he com-
posed on the spot and did not have time to revise. Modern
critics are disposed to accept his statements as correct.
Joppa at the time in question was in Christian hands, but
Saladin, hearing that Richard w^as absent from the town,
determined to besiege it. The Christians sent a message
of distress to Richard, w^ho responded by at once sending
on his main force by land, while he with a smaller body
of warriors came up to Joppa by sea. The incident then
developed thus:

The Turks, discovering the arrival of the King's fleet, sallied
down to the seaside with sword and shield and sent forth showers
of arrows: the shore was so thronged with their numbers that

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 379

there was hardly a foot of ground to spare. Neither did they
confine themselves to acting on the defensive, for they shot their
arrows at the crews of the ships, and their cavalry spurred their
horses into the sea to prevent the King's men from landing.
The King, gathering his ships together, consulted with his officers
what was the best step to take. "Shall we," said he, "push on
against this rabble multitude who occupy the shore, or shall
we value our lives more than those of the poor fellows ^\ho are
exposed to destruction for want of our assistance.^" Some of
them replied that further attempts were useless, for it was by
no means certain that any one remained alive to be saved, and
how could they land in the face of so large a multitude.^ Rich-
ard looked around thoughtfully, and at that time saw a priest
plunge into the water and swim toward the royal galley. When
he was received on board, he addressed the King with palpitating
heart and spirits almost failing him. "Most noble King, the
remnant of our people, waiting for your arrival are exposed like
sheep to be slain, unless divine grace bring you to the rescue."
"Are any of them still alive, then.^" asked Richard, "and if
so, where are they?" "Some of them are still alive," said the
priest, "and hemmed in and at the last extremity in front of
yonder tower." "Please God, then," replied the King, "by
whose guidance we have come, we will die with our brave
brothers in arms, and a curse light on him who hesitates." The
word was forthwith given, the galleys were pushed to land, the
king dashed forward into the waves with his thighs unprotected
by armor, and up to his middle in the water; he soon gained
firm footing on the dry strand: behind him followed Geoffrey
du Bois and Peter de Pratelles, and in the rear came all the
others rushing through the surf. Tlie Turks stood to dctVnd
the shore which was covered witli IIhmp nunicroiis troops. Rich-
ard, with an arbalest which lie hekl in his liand, (h'ove tliem
back right and left; his companions pressed upon the recoihng
enemy whose courage (juaihMl wlien they saw it was the King,
and they no longer dared to meet him. He brandisluMJ his
fierce sword, which allowed them no time to resist, but they
yielded before his fiery blows, and were (hiv(Mi in confusion with
blood and havoc by the Kiiiii's in(Mi until [he sliore was entirely

380 ENGLISH LITERATURE

cleared of them. They brought then together beams, poles and
wood, from the old ships and galleys, to make a barricade; and
the King placed there some knights, servants and arbalesters to
keep guard and to dislodge the Turks, who, seeing that they
could no longer oppose our troops, dispersed themselves on the
shore with cries and yells in one general flight. The King then,
by a winding stair, which he had remarked in the house of the
Templars, was the first to enter the town, where he found more
than three thousand Turks turning over everything in the houses
and carrying away spoil. The brave King had no sooner entered
the city, than he caused his banners to be set up on an emi-
nence, that they might be seen by the Christians in the tower,
w^ho, taking courage at the sight, rushed forth in arms from the
tow^er to meet the King, and at the report thereof the Turks
were thrown into confusion. Richard, meanwhile, with bran-
dished sword, still pursued and slaughtered the enemy, who were
thus enclosed between the two bodies of Christians and filled
the streets with their dead. Why need I say more.^ All were
slain except such as took to flight in time; and thus those w^ho
had before been victorious were now defeated and received con-
dign punishment, while the King still continued the rout, show^-
ing no mercy to the enemies of Christ's Cross, whom God had
given into his hands; for there never was a man on earth who
so abominated cowardice as he.

The same writer thus characterizes Richard:

His generosity and his virtuous endowments the Ruler of the
World should have given to the ancient times, for in this period
of the world, as it waxes old, such feelings rarely exhibit them-
selves, and, when they do, they are objects of wonder and as-
tonishment. He had the valor of Hector, the magnanimity of
Achilles, and was equal to Alexander and not inferior to Roland
in bravery; nay, he outshone many illustrious characters of our
ow^n times. The liberality of a Titus was his, and, what is so
rarely found in a soldier, he was gifted with the eloquence of
Nestor and the prudence of Ulysses; and he showed himself
preeminent in the conclusion and transaction of business, as one
whose knowledge was not without active good-will to aid it.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 381

nor his good-will wanting in knowledge. Who, if Richard were
accused of presumption, would not readily excuse him, knowing
him for a man v.ho never knew defeat, iini)atient of an injury,
and impelled irresistibly to vindicate his rights, though all he
did was characterized by innate nobleness of mind. Success made
him better fitted for action. Fortune ever favors the brave and,
though she works her pleasure on whom she will, Richard was
never to be overwhelmed with adversity. He was tall of stat-
ure, graceful of figure, his hair between red and auburn, his
limbs were straight and flexible, his arms rather long and not
to be matched for wdelding the sword or for striking with it,
his long legs suited the rest of his frame, while his appearance
was commanding and his manners and habits suitable; and he
gained the greatest celebrity not more from his high birth than
from the virtues that adorned him. But why need we take much
labor in extolling the fame of so great a man.^ He needs no
superfluous commendation, for he has a sufficient meed of praise
w^hich is the sure companion of great actions. He was far
superior to all others both in moral goodness and in strength
and memorable for prowess in fight; and his mighty deeds out-
shone the most brilliant description we could give of them.
Happy in truth might he have been deemed, had he been with-
out rivals who envied his glorious actions, and whose only cause
of enmity was his magnificence and his being the searcher after
virtue rather than the slave of vice.-*^

2. Foreign Influence. — A simple but coniprclicnsivo
title in this chapter for the a])ove topic might be the single
word French. Beginning as far back as the reign of Ed-
ward the Confessor, who was brought nj) in Xonnandy,
and coming down in successive waves almost to llir {\[\y<,
of Chaucer, French was the (loiiiiiiaiit loi-cign force in
English culture. After the Xornians came Henry II with
his Angevins, bringing willi tlicin in (^ueen Eleanoi- a

2^ Tlic list of \in';\[ iiicii to \vli(tiii Kidiard i> Iutc ((Wiii).!!!'!! comprises most of
the names of the heroes most admired in ihr Middle A^es; the only serions omis-
sion is that of Judas Ma<<al)a'us. We have already referred to Abl)ot Samson's
devotion to Uieliard; ef. ante, p. 27.'>.

382 ENGLISH LITERATURE

representative of the civilization of Provence, the home of
the troubadours, a land quite different in history and tra-
dition from Northern France, the home of the Normans.
And Henry II, it should be remembered, controlled more
territory on the Continent than did his liege, the King of
France. And the Angevins were followed by other French
men and fashions soon to be dominant in England.^^

But French influence in this age means more than the
mere influence of France. It involves a whole congeries
of cultural forces gathered in Gaul from the entire con-
tinent of Europe, Asia Minor and Africa. It is said that
St. Francis owes his name Francisco to his knowledge of
French affairs and language -^ and Dante records Parisian
habit in at least one regard.-^ In fact, the connection of
France with the wide world seems electric; no sooner was
an idea broached or a movement started anywhere than
the news was flashed to Paris and the idea or the move-
ment became prominent there. And England, from her
close connection with France, was especially susceptible
to all these things. The Crusades, the friars, the new
orders of knighthood, the most recent developments in
philosophy and theology and Arthurian romance all came
to England from France.

But, to recur to French influence in the narrower sensei
notice this account of his education among some auto-
biographical remarks by Giraldus Cambrensis ( 1 146-1220 .f^),
a story repeated in the lives of many prominent men of
his and later days. Giraldus, or Gerald de Barri, a Welsh-
man, was one of the most prominent men at the literary
court of Henry II and the author of the Topography of
Ireland^ a History of the Conquest of Ireland, an Itinerary

-^ French prisoners of the Hundred Years' War contributed their share to Eng-
hsh culture; among them was King John II of France, captured ^^^th his young
son at Poitiers in 1356 and a prisoner in Enghtnd 1357-60.

^ Cf. Jessopp, op. cit., p. 10. 20 (jf Purgatorio, XI, 81.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 383

through Wales, a Description of Wales and the Gemma
Ecclesiastica {Churchly Jewel), a manual of instruction for
Welsh priests. Gerald frequently refers to his own life
in his works, as in this extract from the first of the four
works just mentioned, and one of his many affectations is
to speak of himself in the third person, as he does here: ^^

Giraldus was born in the southern part of Wales near the
seacoast of Dyved, not far from the principal town of Pembroke,
the castle of Mainarpir. He sprang from freeborn parents; for
his mother was Angarath, daughter of Nesta, the noble daughter
of Rhys, chieftain of South Wales, and a son of Theodore. She
married a most excellent man, William de Barri, and from this
marriage Giraldus was born. He was the youngest of four
brothers. When the three others were busy in their childish
pleasures, building in the sand and gravel now camps, now towns,
now palaces, he, in his own fashion, alone in his play, devoted
his entire energy to the construction of churches or monasteries.
After his father, watching him, had considered this with admira-
tion, influenced as if by inspiration, he determined with pro-
phetic soul that this son must devote himself to literature and
the liberal arts. . . .

^° For studies of French influence at this time in England, see Tucker, op. cit.;
Rowbotham, op. cit.; the Cambridge History of English Literature, I, chap, viii and
bibhography; W. H. Schofiekl, English Literature from the Conquest to Chaucer
(The Macmillan Co., 190G), the Introduction and chaps. 2, 3, 4. Mr. Schofiekl intro-
duces many quotations into his text, but unfortunately he doesn't give us the exact
source of his material. Thus on pp. 12 and !.'{ he quotes testimony to the pre-emi-
nence of Paris from Chrestien de Troyes, Bartholonueus Anglicus and Richard of
Bury, but gives no clue to the location of the passages in the respective works.
His treatment of this subject, however, is brilliant. See also Baldwin, op. cit..
Index, and Traill, Social England, I, pp. :344-i3.3() (Cassell and (\>.. 1894-1898).
Many references to the importance of French will be found later in this section
and in sections iv, v, and vi, post, cf. pp. 418, 5;39-oG2 and the Index. It is rather
suggestive, in this matter of French influence, that the songs of the birds near the
end of Chaucer's Parlement of Foulcs and of the laborers at the end of the Prolog
to the Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman are alike French. (Cf. Chau-
cer, Parlement of Foules, 11. C7.'J-fi79; Vision, etc., Prolog, \ text 1. KKJ. B text 1. 224.
C text 1. 228.) One of these poems, Chaucer's, is courtly, celebrating the marriage
of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia; the other is plebeian.

384 ENGLISH LITERATURE

In the process of time a desire for higher study and progress
led him (i.e. Giraldus) to cross over three times to France. For
three periods of several years he studied the liberal arts in
Paris, and at length, equaling the greatest teachers, excellently
taught the trivium ^^ and obtained especial praise for his rhetori-
cal ability. He was thoroughlj^ devoted to his studies, showing
no levity or jesting in deed or in spirit, so much so that when the
doctors of arts wished to give an example of the good scholar,
they mentioned Giraldus above all others. So, as he was worthy
to give an example of all scholarly excellence and preeminence
in early childhood, since his good deeds continued, he could do
so in youth as well. . . .

After arrangements had been completed, Giraldus, since he
believed nothing finished as long as anything higher remained,
looking not back but ever striving towards the future, ascended
step by step without cessation. Since the treasures of books
were greater abroad, he determined to cross over to France for
higher and more mature study, and in Paris to apply himself
diligently anew to his choicer studies. He was to erect on the
foundation of arts and letters the walls of canon law and to
finish the sacred roof of theology above. Thus a building of
triple structure connected by the firmest of joints would be
strong in lasting qualities. When for many years he had applied
his studious mind to civil law, then at length had turned it to
more sacred heights, he obtained so great influence in cases of
canon law, which by established custom were discussed on Sun-
days, that on the day on which it was known that such ques-
tions were to be debated, so great a throng of almost all of the
doctors with their scholars came forth for the pleasure of hear-
ing him, that scarcely was there a house large enough to hold
the audience. For so much did he aid the reasonings of canon law
by his rhetorical skill, so much did he adorn the cause, as well
by his figures of speech and brilliant style as by depth of thought,
and so well did he adapt the sayings of philosophers and authors,

^' I.e. the more elementary group of medieval studies comprising grammar (i.e.
Latin), rhetoric, and logic; the second group of four studies — music, arithmetic
geometry, and astronomy — made up the quadrivium. Trivium and quadrivium
together made up the list of the seven liberal arts.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 385

with wondrous aptness fitting them in pro})er phices, that just
as the more learned and adept agreed with him, so much the
more eagerly and attentively they applied their minds and
thoughts to listen and commit to memory. . . .

Let us now return to our own affairs and likewise to the con-
tinuation of the narrative. Giraldus, after a long period of
study determined to return to his father land. He waited for
his messengers to bring him money until long after the date set
for their return. iVIeanwhile his creditors, to whom he was
greatly in debt, kept pressing him impatiently and rudely from
day to day. Grieving, anxious and almost desperate he went
to the chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury ^^ and St. Germain
d'x\uxerre founded and dedicated by the archbishop of Rheims,
brother of King Louis. To this chapel, founded in honor of that
saint ^" at the time of his martyrdom, Giraldus fled for refuge,
with his friends, to beg and implore the aid of the martyr, ^■-
knowing indeed, as the philosopher Philo ^^ says, that when
human aid fails we must hasten to the divine. When the mass
had been piously heard and an offering presented, a reward for
his piety was divinely given, for he received in the same hour
his messenger with joy and prosperity. It was indeed a wonder-
ful interposition of God, who gains in His own way from human
affairs His holy results, and although He knows that His gifts
are given purely from love, nevertheless wishes them to be
gained, as it were, by prayers and deeds.

3. Learning in the Period. — "When we try to picture
to ourselves," says Symonds, "the intellectual and moral
state of Europe in the Middle Ages, some fixed and almost
stereotyped ideas immediately suggest themselves. We
think of the nations immersed in a gross mental lethargy;
passively witnessing the gradual extinction of arts and
sciences which Greece and Rome had splendidly inaugu-
rated; allowing libraries and monuments of antique civiliza-
tion to crumble into dust; while they trembled under a

'- I.e. Thomas a Berket.

^^ A Jewish-Hellenistic j)hil()s<)ph(T horn at Alexandria about 25 a.d. While in
ritual a strict Jew, in intcrjjrelation of Scripture he was allegorical and theosophic.

386 ENGLISH LITERATURE

dull and brooding terror of coming judgment, shrank from
natural enjoyment as from deadly sin, or yielded them-
selves with brutal eagerness to the satisfaction of vulgar
appetites." ^^ Symonds goes on to show that this view of
medieval Europe, so long held, is erroneous and that the
Middle Age was an epoch of great zeal for intellectual
endeavor and learning, a conclusion that is now generally
accepted. In fact, we can say that Europe at this time
was in one of its most active period^, but that if the re-
sults of her research were not always commensurate with
her effort, it was because of lack of materials and tools to
work with, as Roger Bacon complains. ^^

One of the most enthusiastic scholars and thinkers of
the epoch was Abelard, worthy of "renown by virtue of his
extraordinary intellectual power and bold honesty of sci-
entific attitude." ^^ In the first letter in the first volume
of Cousin's edition of his works, Abelard reviews his
"calamities," describes his own eager pursuit of knowledge,
the jealousy of less keen fellow-students and teachers, and
his retirement to a solitary place in order to devote himself
to his own studies and thoughts. But he was to be dis-
appointed, for thither followed him a great company of
disciples, and in his account of their conduct we have a
striking testimony to their zeal.^^

3^ Wine, Women, and Song, p. 1 (King's Classics ed.; Chatto and Windus, 1907).

35 Cf. post, p. 391. 36 Schofield, op. cii., p. 52.

" The most thorough and comprehensive study of medieval culture is H. Osborn
Taylor, The Medieval Mind: a History of the Development of Thought and Emotion
in the Middle Ages, 2 vols. (The Macmillan Co., 1911). Mr. Taylor had come to
this study after two other important books on the history of culture; viz. Ancient
Ideals, 2 vols. (Published for the Columbia University Press by The Macmillan
Co., 1900) and The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages (Columbia University
Studies in Literature: the Columbia University Press, 1903; 2d ed). The Mac-
millan Co. announces (March, 1915) another work, doubtless of the same high
quality, to be entitled Deliverance: the Freeing of the Spirit in the Ancient World.
On English Ix-urning in our period, cf. Traill, op. cit., I, pp. 332-343; 429-440; II,
pp. 61-74; Schofield, op. cit., chap. 2; the Cambridge History of English Literature,

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 387

I, therefore,^^ withdrew to a solitary spot that I knew of in the
country of Troyes. Here I received tlie gift of some land whereon,
with the assent of the bishop of that diocese, I first built a little
oratory of reeds and straw which I dedicated to the name of the
Hoty Trinity. Here I lived in hiding with a certain clerk for
my companion and could with truth chant that psalm to the
Lord, "Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the
wilderness." ^^ When the scholars heard this, they began to flock
together from all parts, leaving their cities and towns and com-
ing to live in my wilderness. Here, instead of spacious houses,
they built themselves little tabernacles; for delicate food they
ate naught but herbs of the field and rough country bread; for
soft couches they gathered together straw and stubble, nor had
they any tables save clods of earth. They seemed in very truth
to imitate those ancient philosophers of whom Jerome ^ thus
wrote in his second book against Jovinian, "Through the senses,
as through windows, vices creep into the soul. . . . Impelled
by such reasons, many philosophers have left the press of cities
and suburban gardens, where the fields are pleasantly watered
and the trees thick with foliage; where birds chirp and living
pools mirror the sky; where the brook babbles on its way and
many other things entice men's ears or eyes; lest through the
luxury and abundance of plenty a soul's strength be turned to
weakness and its modesty violated. For indeed it is unprofit-
able to gaze frequently on that whereby thou mayest one day
be caught, and to accustom thyself to such things as thou shalt
afterwards scarce be able to lack. For the Pythagoreans also,
avoiding such frequented spots were wont to dwell in the wilder-
ness and the desert." Moreover, Plato himself, though he was

I, chap, ix; I, chap, xv and bibUographies. On Abchird, cf. Joseph McCabe, Ahc-
lard (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1901); Gabriel Goinpayrc, Abilard and flic Origin and
Earlij History of Universities {Great Educators Series; Charles Seribner's Sons,
189:5). The Letters of Aljclard to Eloisc are accessible in an English version partly
translation, partly paraphrase, in the Temple Classics Series (K. P. Dutton and Co.).
In Robinson, op. cit., I, j)p. 44(5— i.^-i, further passages from th<> h'tter (pioled in the
text are translated, as well as the Inlrodiiclion iind sjiruplc (lucslions from Aix-lanrs
Sic ct Non {Ves and No).

^ I.e. because of his scholastic troubles with his former colleagues.

39 Cf. Psalm ? ■'" Cf. <i"lr, p. (14.

388 ENGLISH LITERATURE

a rich man whose costly couch Diogenes ^^ once trod under his
muddy feet, chose the Academy, a villa far from the city and
not only solitary but pestilent also, as the fittest spot for the
entire study of philosophy, that the assaults of lust might be
broken by the anxiety and frequent pressure of sickness and
that his disciples might feel no other delights save in those
things that he had taught them. Such is also the life which the
sons of the prophets are said to have led who clung around
Elislia,"*- and of whom, as of the monks of those days, this same
Jerome writeth in his letter to the monk Rusticus, saying among
other things, "The sons of the prophets, who, as we read in the
Old Testament, were monks, built themselves little lodges hard
by the river Jordan, and, leaving towns with their multitudes,
lived upon coarse meal and wild herbs." Such then were my
disciples who, building their little huts there beside the river
Arduzon, seemed rather hermits than scholars. Yet, the greater
was the press of pupils flocking thither, and the harder the life
which they suffered to hear my teaching, the more glorious did
my rivals think this to me and the more ignominious to them-
selves. For, after having done all that they could against me,
they grieved now that all things should work together to me for
good; ^^ wherefore, to quote my Jerome again, "though I had
withdrawn far from cities, market-places, quarrels and crowds,
yet even so, as Quintilian ^'* saith, en\y found me in my hiding

*^ Diogenes the famous Cynic, a contemporary of Plato and Alexander the Great,
who lived in a tub and made himself notorious by despising riches and inveighing
against luxury. Most of our knowledge of him comes from Diogenes Laertius
(circa 118 A.D.-217), ^i.\o(T6<i>oiv Bioi {Lives of the Philosophers) . The latter does
not record the story to which our text alludes, but does tell the following, which
is somewhat like it: "On one occasion Plato had invited some friends who had
come to him from Dionysius to a banquet, and Diogenes trampled on his carpets,
and said, 'Thus I trample on the empty pride of Plato'; and Plato made him
answer, 'How much arrogance are you displaying, O Diogenes! when you think
that you are not arrogant at all.' But, as others tell the story, Diogenes said
'Thus I trample on the pride of Plato'; and that Plato rejoined, 'With quite as
much pride yourself, O Diogenes.' " Tr. Yonge, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent
Philosophers, p. 226 (Bohns Library, 1905 ed.; George Bell and Sons).

« Cf. 2 Kings 2; 9: 1. « Cf. Romans 8: 28.

^ Quintilian (circa 35 A.D.-circa 97), Roman rhetorician and teacher of elocu-
tion, whose De Institutione Oratoria Libri XII (Tivelve Books on the Education of

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 389

place." For these fellows, complaining within themselves and
groaning with envy, said, "Behold, the whole world hath gone
after him; "^^ we have profited naught in persecuting him; nay,
we have added rather to his renown. We have sought to ex-
tinguish his name and have kindled it the more. Lo, these
scholars have all necessaries at hand in their towns; yet, con-
temning the delights of the city, they flock together to the
penury of this wilderness, and are miserable by their own choice."
Yet it was then my intolerable poverty more than anything else
that drove me to become a master in the schools; for I could
not dig, and to beg I was ashamed; wherefore, falling back upon
the art which I knew, I was compelled to employ my tongue
instead of the labor of my hands. My scholars, of their own
accord, provided me with all necessaries not only in food and
raiment but in tilling of the fields and defraying the cost of build-
ings, so that no household care might withdraw me from my
studies. Seeing then that my oratory could no longer hold even
a small portion of them, they must needs extend it, building it
more solidly with stones and wood. Though formerly it had
been established and hallowed in the name of the Holy Trinity,
yet because I had there found a refuge in mine exile and some
small share of the grace of God's consolation had been l)reathed
into my despair, therefore in memory of that loving kindness I
called it the Paraclete.

The same enthusiasm is reflected in a poem found in
the collection of medieval student songs known as Car-
mina Burana and thus translated by Symonds:

I, a wandering scholar lad.

Born for toil and sadness.
Oftentimes am driven by

Poverty to madness.

Literature and knowhMlge
Fain would still be earning

the Orator) was a standard Icxf-liook on rlicloric and crilicisin for oMif uri(\s. The
tenth book opens with a condensed survey of (ireek. and I^atin Literature wluMiee
many medieval writers drew their knowhul^e of th(« names and eliarueteristies of
classical authors. '^ Cf. .loiui 1-': 1!).

390 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Were it not that want of pelf
Makes me cease from learning.

These torn clothes that cover me

Are too thin and rotten;
Oft I have to suffer cold,

By the warmth forgotten.

Scarce I can attend at church,

Sing God's praises duly;
Mass and vespers both I miss,

Though I love them truly.

Oh, thou pride of N ,

By thy worth I pray thee
Give the suppliant help in need.

Heaven will sure repay thee.

Take a mind unto thee now

Like unto St. Martin ;4«
Clothe the pilgrim's nakedness,

Wish him well at parting.

So may God translate your soul

Into peace eternal.
And the bliss of saints be yours

In His realm supernal. ^'^ *

^ Martin, son of a Roman military tribune, was born about 31G a.d. He re-
tired to religious solitude late in life, whence he was drawn to become bishop of
Tours in 374. He was stationed at Amiens during the severe winter of 332 and,
noticing a man shivering with the cold, took his own coat from his shoulders and
cut it in two with his sword, giving half to the shiverer and keeping half for him-
self.

"^ Chaucer's Oxford clerk (cf. Prolog to the Canterbury Tales, 11. 285-310) was
perhaps a scholar of this sort. But see the article of H. S. V. Jones in the Publica-
tions of the Modern Language Association of America, XX, no. 1 (March 1912), in
which the writer, in opposition to most of the commentators, takes the view that
Chaucer's clerk was not a mendicant. He had the same enthusiasm for learning,
however.

* By permission of Messrs. Chatto and Windus from tlieir edition in the Ki?uj's Clas.iics Scries-

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 391

The author of Piers the Plowman s Creed (dated by Skeat
about 1394) thinks that this zeal for l)ook-learning has gone
so far as to be a nuisance and a menace. He says:

Now-a-days every shoemaker's son must be sent to school
and every beggar's brat study his books, come to be a writer,
dwell with a lord or falsely be a friar, and serve the fiend. So
that, instead of the beggar's brat we shall have a bishop who
will sit close to the peers of the land. And the sons of lords
will bow low to these rascals and knights will crouch and scrape
to them. And their fathers were shoemakers, soiled with grease,
and their teeth jagged as a saw from working with leather !
Alas, that the lords of the land believe in such wretches and
trust such vagabonds on account of their mild words. They
(i.e. the lords) should make the sons of their own brothers or
others of gentle blood, bishops. It would seem better so rather
than to foster traitors and allow^ false friars to become fat and
flourishing and cumber their flesh. These climbing knaves
were fitter to wash dishes rather than to have the chief seats
at table and be served with silver. They ought to fill their
stomachs from a great bowl of beans and bacon rather than eat
roast partridges, plover or peacocks.

Roger Bacon (1214-1292) was the greatest scholar of
his day, equally remarkable as scientist, linguist, man of
letters and philosopher. He entered, much to his regret
later, the Franciscan order, the superiors of which viewed
his studies with suspicion and did all they couhl to make
him unproductive. It finally required a special command
of Pope Clement IV to enal)le him to write his ])riiu'ipal
books. Bacon, however, was not satisfied willi a www
reproduction of current learning; he insisted on .•jdvnncing.
In the following extracts from his works he ('omphiins of
various obstacles in the way of productive scholarship in
his time:

If llic saints made mistakes in tlicir t ranslalion^, nnicli more
do these men, who haxc lilllc or no title* t(j sanctity at all. So,

392 ENGLISH LITERATURE

though we have numerous translations of all the sciences by
Gerard of Cremona,*^ Michael Scot/^ Alfred the Englishman,^^
Herman the German ^° and William Fleming,^° there is such utter
falsity in all their writings that none can sufficiently wonder at
it. For a translation to be true, it is necessary that the trans-
lator know the language from which he is translating, the lan-
guage into which he translates and the science he wishes to work
in. But who is he.^ and I will praise him, for he has done mar-
vellous things. Certainly none of the above-named had any
true knowledge of the tongues or of the sciences, as is clear*
not from their translations only, but from their condition of life.
All were alive in my time; some in their youth, contemporaries
of Gerard of Cremona who was somewhat more advanced in
years among them. Herman the German, who was very inti-
mate with Gerard, is still alive and a bishop. When I ques-
tioned him about certain books of logic which he had to translate
from the Arabic, he roundly told me that he knew nothing of
logic and therefore did not care to render them; and certainly,
if he was unacquainted with logic, he could know nothing of
other sciences as he ought. Nor did he understand Arabic, as
he confessed, because he was rather an assistant in the trans-
lations than the real translator. For he kept Saracens about
him in Spain who had the principal hand in his versions. In
the same way, Michael the Scot claimed the merit of numerous

*^ Circa 1114-1187 a.d.; medieval translator of Ptolemy's Astronomy. Gerard
studied in the Moslem school at Toledo. He translated sixty-six other scientific
works.

^^ Circa 1175-circa 1234. He was probably a Scotchman (see Bacon's next ref-
erence to him below, where he is called Michael the Scot). Educated at Oxford,
Paris, and Bologna, Michael spent most of his later life at the court of the
Emperor Frederick II in Sicily. He came back to Oxford about 1230 with trans-
lations of and commentaries on Aristotle. He wrote the Physiognomice Magistri
Michaelis Scoti (Master Michael Scot on Physiognomy) and Mensa Philosophica
(often translated as The Philosopher s Banquet). His life in Sicily gave him an op-
portunity to translate the Arabic commentaries on Aristotle. He wrote on as-
tronomy and alchemy and later came to be known as a magician. Cf. Scott, The
Lay of the Last Minstrel, the action of which centers about the traditional grave of
Michael Scot at Melrose Abbey.

^ The names of these three are not to be found in modern works of refer-
ence.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 393

paraphrases. But it is certain that Andrew, a Jew, labored at
them more than he did. And even Michael, as Herman re-
ported, did not understand either the sciences or the tongues.
x\nd so of the rest; especially the notorious William Fleming
who is now in such reputation. Whereas it is well known to
the literati at Paris that he is ignorant of the sciences in the
original Greek, to which he makes such pretensions; and there-
fore, he translates incorrectly and corrupts the philosophy of
the Latins. For Boethius ^^ alone was well acquainted with the
languages and their interpretation. My Lord Robert (Grosse-
teste) ^2 by reason of his long life and the wonderful methods
he employed, knew the sciences better than any other man; for
though he did not understand Greek or Hebrew, he had many
assistants. But all the rest were ignorant of the tongues and
the sciences, and above all this William Fleming who has no
satisfactory knowledge of either and yet has undertaken to
revise all our translations and give us new ones. But I have
seen his books and I know that they are faulty and that they
should be avoided. For as at this time the enemies of the
Christians, the Jews, the Arabs and the Greeks, have the
sciences in their own tongues, they will not allow the Christians
the use of perfect MSS., but they destroy and corrupt them,
particularly when they see incompetent people, who have no
acquaintance with the tongues and the sciences, presuming to
make translations. . . .

51 Cf. ante, p. 66.

52 Circa 1175-1253 a.d., statesman, theologian, writer, liishop of Lincoln. He
was bom of humble parentage, educated at Oxford, and became proficient in law,
medicine, and natural science. He taught at Oxford, where he became chancellor.
He was the first rector of a school established at Oxford about Hi^! by the Fran-
ciscan friars, whom he gladly welcomed on tluMr arrival in Kngland. He was chosen
Bishop of Lincoln in 12.'}5 and showed himself an ecclesiastical reformer of a severe
type, for which reason he had a hard time in f)utling his ideas into practice. He
was independent in his attitude toward papal encroachments in England in his
time. He wrote in French Chu.straii dWutonr {Thr (\tstle nj Lorr), an allegorical
work who.se popularity is shown by the fact that it was .several times translated
into English. (See an extract translated in Shackford, Lajendu and Satires from
Medieval Literature, pp. 05-97; Ginn and Co., IDIS.) Ilis EpiMola: {Letters)
have been ed. for the RoUti Series (XXV, 1861). i>y 11. !{. Luard. See the story of
his attitude toward minstrelsy, post, p. 450.

394 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The scientific books of Aristotle,"'^ of Aviccnna,-''* of Seneca,^^
of Cicero '•" and other ancients cannot be had except at great
cost; their princii)al works have not been transhited into Latin,
and copies of others are not to be found in ordinary libraries or
elsewliere. The admirable work of Cicero De Repuhlica ^"^ is
not to b(> discovered anywhere, so far as I can hear, although I
have made anxious incjuiry for it in different i)arts of the Avorld
and by various messengers. And so of many other works of
which I sent extracts to your Beatitude.*'^ 1 could never find
the works of Seneca until after the time when I received your
commands,-'** although I made diligent search for them for twenty
years and more. And so it is with many more useful books of
this noble science (ethics). . . .

And so, all who know anything at all disregard the false trans-
lations of Aristotle, and seek such remedy as they can. This is
a trutli which men lost in learning will not consider; but they
seek consolation for their ignorance like brutes. If 1 had control
over the books of Aristotle (as we have them now), I would
have them all burned; for to study them is but lost time and
a source of error and niultij)lication of ignorance beyond all
human power to calculate. And, seeing that the labors of

^^ Cf. ante, p. GO. Other reniark.s of liacon uhout Aristotle follow in our ex-
tracts and show his ascendency in medieval thought.

" I.e. Abn AH al Ilossein Ibn Sina (980-<nVca 1037 a.d). It is from the sound of
the last two words in his name that the common designation of him comes. lie
was an Arabian physician and i)hilosopher whose great work was a system of
medicine l)ased on Arabic translation of (Ircek works. He was to a large extent a
discij)le of Aristotle in philosophy. On medieval medicine and literature, sec P. A.
I{obin, The Old Phjisiology in English Literature (E. P. Dutton and Co., 1911).
On medical learning, see Chaucer's description of the Doctor of Physic, Prolog to
the Canterbury Tales, 11. 411-444 and Skeat's notes.

'''' (Urea B.C. 4-A.D. ()5. He was born at Cordova in Spain, but came to Rome
at an early age, where he studied eloquence and the Stoic philosophy. He became
tutor to Nero- and later one of his ministers and for some time exercised a good in-
fluence over the Emperor. lUit Nero became jealous of him and Seneca committed
suicide at his orders. He is the author of many ethical works and the reputed
writer of .several tragedies which have had a marked influence on modern i)lays.

"^ Cf. ante, p. (50; the De Hepnbliea, probably iikxIcKmI on the Republic of Plato,
is still lost, cxcej)t for fragments.

" I.e. Pope Clement IV, to whom Bacon a<ldressed his works.

^ It was about 1205 that the Pope directed Bacon to put his works into shape.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 395

Aristotle are the foundation of all science, no one can tell how
much the" Latins waste now because they have accepted evil
translations of the Philosopher; wherefore, there is no full
remedy anywhere. Any one who would glory in the knowledge
of Aristotle ought to learn it in its original and native tongue
but now^ there is uniform falsity of rendering as well in philoso-
phy as in theology. For all the translators (of the Bible) before
St. Jerome °^ erred cruelly, as he himself says over and over
again. . . . We have few profitable books of philosophy in Latin,
for Aristotle wrote a thousand volumes, as we read in his Life,
w^hereof we possess only three of any importance; his Logic, his
Natural History and his Metaphysics. . . . But the vulgar herd
of students, with their leaders, have nothing to rouse them to
any w^orthy effort, w^herefore they feebly dote over these false
versions, wasting their time and their money. For outward
appearance alone possesses them; nor do they care what they
know but only what they may seem to know in the eyes of the
senseless multitude.

So likewise numberless matters of God's wisdom are still
wanting. For many books of Holy Writ are not translated; for
example two books of the ^Maccabees ^° which I know exist in
the Greek, and many other books of many prophets which are
cited in the Books of Kings and Chronicles. Moreover, Jose-
phus ^^ in his Antiquities is utterly false as to the course of time
without which nothing can be known of the history of the sacred
text; wherefore, unless the translation is revised, he is worthless

59 Cf. ante, p. 66.

^ I.e. two books of Hebrew history treating the period later than that covered
in the present bibhcai canon. These, like other books in the Hebrew Bible, were
translated into Greek in the Septuagint version between 286 and 284! B.C.

®^ A Jew known nowadays by his Latin name only. He was bom of royal
and sacerdotal parentage about 37 a.d. and was well educated in both Hebrew and
Greek literature. At the outbreak of the war between the Romans and the Jews
about Go A.D. he was Roman governor of Galilee. He was present in the army of
Titus at the siege and fall of Jerusalem in 70. Thereafter he lived at Rome till
about 100 .\.D. and devoted himself to literary studies. His extant genuine works
are: a History of the Jewish War (in Greek) in 7 books, twenty books of Jewish
Antiquities, being a history of the Jews from the earliest times to the death of Nero,
an Apology Jar the Jews against Apion and an Autobiography. He is a very valuable
authority for Jewish History.

396 ENGLISH LITERATURE

and sacred history will perish. Besides, the Latins lack innumer-
able books of the Hebrew and Greek expositors; such as, Origen,^^
Basil, ^ Gregory Nazianzen,^'* Damascenus,^^ Dionysius,*^*^ Chrys-
ostom ^^ and other noble doctors, in Hebrew as well as in Greek.
Therefore, the church slumbers, for in this matter she does
naught nor has done for these seventy years past, except that
the Lord Robert (Grosseteste) ^^ of holy memory, Bishop of
Lincoln, translated into Latin from the books of St. Dionysius ^^
and Damascenus and a few other consecrated teachers. Wonder-
ful is the negligence of the church; for there has been no su-
preme pontiff since the days of Pope Damasus,^° nor any inferior
cleric who has been solicitous for the church through transla-
tions save only the above mentioned glorious bishop. . . .

(A) root of the difficulty (of accurate scholarship) is that we
ought to have excellent mathematicians who should not only
know what exists, original or translated, in connection with the
sciences, but be able to make additions to them, a thing which
is easy for good mathematicians to do. For there are only two
perfect mathematicians. Master John of London ^° and Master
Peter de Maharn-Curia,^'^ a Picard. There are two other good
ones, Master Campanus de Novaria ^'^ and Master Nicholas, ^*^
the teacher of Aumary de Montfort.^^ For without mathe-

^2 Circa 185 x.n.-circa 254. He was an Alexandrian by birth and education and
a great exponent of the ascetic ideal of life; well kno^vn in his time and later as a
great teacher and expositor of Christian doctrine, the most weighty theologian that
the church had produced up to his time. He is sometimes called the father of the
allegorical method of interpreting Scripture. His system of theology Ilept "Apxcoi'
{De Principiis, On Fundamentals) develops the theology of the fourth gospel.

" Cf. ante, p. 64.

" Circa 329-390 a.d. Saint and Bishop of Constantinople. He was well edu-
cated in the Greek philosophical schools of his day. He is one of the Greek fathers
of the church, chiefly famous as a theologian and a defender of orthodox Athana-
sian doctrine as against the heresy of Arius. His theological teaching is best
embodied in his five Theological Orations. We also have some works of his de-
nouncing the Emperor Julian, the Apostate, many letters and some poems, mostly
autobiographical. ^^ (?)

'^' Dionysius the Areopagite, the reputed author of a work on the Celestial Hier"
archies, first noticed in the sixth century.

" Cf. ante, p. 65. «« Cf. ante, p. 393. ^o p^p^ f^om 366 to 384.

''^ These names I crtn't find in modern reference books.

''^ The son of the celebrated Simon de Montfort; see post, pp. 472-480.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 397

matics nothing worth knowing in philosophy can be attained. . . .
And, therefore, it is indispensable that good mathematicians
be had and they are scarce. Nor can any one obtain their serv-
ices, especially the best of them, except it be the Pope or some
great prince. . . . For he would hardly condescend to live with
any one who wished to be the lord of his own studies and prose-
cute philosophical investigations at his pleasure.

And besides this expense (of subsidizing mathematicians),
other great expenses would have to be incurred. Without mathe-
matical instruments no science can be mastered; and these
are not to be found among the Latins and could not be made
for two or three hundred pounds. And besides, better tables
are absolutely necessary, for although the certifying of the tables
is done by instruments, yet this cannot be accomplished without
a large number of instruments; and they are hard to use and
hard to keep because of (the danger of) rusting, and they cannot
be moved from place to place without risk of breaking them;
and a man cannot have everywhere and on all occasions new
instruments which he ought to have, unless he have certified
tables. These tables are called Almanac or Tallignum in which,
once for all, the motions of the heavens are certified from the
beginning to the end of the world without daily labor; so that
a man can find everything in the heavens every day, as we
find in the calendar the feast-days of the saints; and then every
day we' could consider in the heavens the causes of all things
which change on the earth, and seek similar positions (of the
heavens) in times past, and discover similar effects. And like-
wise of the future. And so everything might be known. These
tables would be worth a king's ransom and, therefore, could not
be made without vast expense. And I have often at templed
the composition of such tables, but could not finisli tlicin tliroiiuh
lack of funds and the folly of those whom I had to eini)l()y. For,
first of all, it would })e necessary that ten or twelve l)()ys should
be instructed in tlie ordinary canons and astronomical tables;
and when they knew how to work them, then for a year they
ought to (try to) discover the motions of each i)lanet singly for
every day and every hour, according to all the variations of
their motions and other changes in the heavens.

398 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Then there are other instruments and tables of practical
geometry and practical arithmetic and music which are of great
utility and indispensably required. But more than any of these
it would be requisite to obtain men who have a good knowledge
of oi)tics (perspectivam scientiam) and its instruments. For
this is the science of true vision and by vision we know all things.
For a blind man knows nothing of the world; sight reveals to
us the differentia of things, as Aristotle says and we know by
experience. This science certifies mathematics and all other
things, because astronomical instruments do not work except by
vision, in accordance with the laws of that science. Nor is it
wonderful if all things are known by mathematics, and yet all
things by this science (optics), because, as I have said before,
the sciences are intimately connected, although each has its
proper and peculiar province. . . . But this science has not
hitherto been read at Paris nor among the Latins (i.e. in Italy);
(nor any where else) except twice at Oxford in England; and
there are not three persons acquainted with its power. Where-
fore, he who pretends to be an authority, of whom I have spoken
before, knows nothing of the importance of optics, as appears from
his books, for he has never written one on this science, w^hich he
would have done had he known it, nor in his other writings has
he said anything about it. . . . They are but few who know
these things as in the case of mathematics, and are not to be
had except at a high price; and costly likewise are the instru-
ments of this science which are very difficult to make and more
expensive than those necessary for mathematics. . . .

I say this because I am sorry for this ignorance and that of
the generality; for without these they can know nothing. No
author among the ancient masters or the moderns has written
about them; but I have labored at them for ten years, as far
as I could find time, and I have examined them narrowly as
well as I could, reducing them to writing since the time when
I received your mandate. . . .

(Another) important thing which is a cause of error in the
pursuit of wisdom at present is this: that for forty years past
certain men have arisen . . . who have made themselves into
masters and doctors of theology and philosophy, though they

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 399

themselves have never learned anything of any account; nor
will they nor can they learn by reason of their position, and I
will take care to show by argument . . . within the compass of
the following pages why I think so. And, though I grieve for
and pity these as much as I can, yet truth prevails over all and,
therefore, I will here expound at least some of the things which
are publicly done and are known to all men, though few turn
their hearts to regard either this or other profitable considera-
tions by reason of the cause of error which I here set forth,
whereby almost all men are basely blinded. These are boys who
are inexperienced in the knowledge of themselves and of the
world and of the learned languages, Greek and Hebrew, which,
I will prove later on, are necessary to study; they are ignorant
also of all parts of the world's philosophy and wisdom when they
so presumptuously enter upon the study of theology, which re-
quires all human wisdom, as the saints teach and as all wise
men know. For, if truth is anywhere, here it is found; here, if
anywhere is falsehood condemned, as Augustine ^^ says in his
book Of Christian Doctrine. These are boys of the two . . .
orders,^^ like Albert ^'^ and Thomas ^^ and others, who, as in

72 Cf. ante, p. 64.

73 I.e. the Franciscan and Dominican orders of friars, as the sequel
shows.

74 I.e. Albertus Magnus or Albert of Cologne (1206.^-1280). He was of noble
German family and educated at Padua, where he studied Aristotle. He entered
the Dominican order in 1221 or 1223. He studied theology under Dominican rule
at Bologna and elsewhere and then was lecturer at Cologne, whence he went to
Paris, took his doctor's degree and taught. He was canonized in 1622, He, along
with Thomas Aquinas, to be mentioned in our next note, endeavored to bring
Christian theology into harmony with Aristotle. He had of Aristotle only a Latin
translation of an .\rabic translation of the Greek. His works in the Paris edition
by Borgnet, 1890, fill '36 volumes. He was the most h^irned and the most widely read
theologian of his time. His philosophical works, which are mostly con«lensations of
and commentaries on Aristotle, are arranged on the Aristotelian .sciieme. His
nickname was Doctor Tniversalis (Tniversal Doctor). In theology his principal
works are a three-volume commentary on The Sentenre.'i nf Peter IjOmbard (cf. jx)st,
p. 433) and a two-volume Summa Theologiw {Digest of Theology).

" I.e. Thomas Aquinas or Thomas of Aquino {cirea 1226-1274), known by the
nicknames of Doctor foinmunis. Doctor Angel icus, Princeps Schola.sticornin, Doctor
Ecclrsine {General Enci/clopcdia, Angelic Doctor, Chief of the Scholastics, Doctor of
the Church). He was of noble Italian family, educated at the Benedictine monastery

400 ENGLISH LITERATURE

many cases, enter those orders when they are twenty years old
or less. This is the common course, from the English Sea to
the borders of Christendom, and especially outside . . . France;
so that in Acquitaine, Provence, Spain, Italy, Germany, Hun-
gary, Dacia and everywhere boys are promiscuously received into
the orders from their tenth to their twentieth year; boys too
young to be able to know anything worth knowing, even though
they were not already possessed with the afore-mentioned causes
of human error; wherefore, at their entrance into the orders,
they have no knowledge of any value for theology. Many
thousands become friars who cannot read their Psalter or their
Donat; '^^ yet, immediately after their admission, they are set to
study theology. And from the beginning of the orders, espe-
cially from the time when learning began to flourish in them, the
first students were like the later ones (i.e. this has always been
the custom among the friars). iVnd they have given themselves
to this study of theology which needs the whole of human wis-
dom. Wherefore, they must of necessity fail to reap any great
profit, especially seeing that they have not taken lessons from
others in philosophy since their entrance, and, most of all, be-
cause they have presumed in those orders to enquire into phil-
osophy by themselves and without teachers, so that they are
become masters in theology and in philosophy before being dis-
ciples. Wherefore, infinite error reigns among them, although
for certain reasons this is not apparent by the devil's instigation
and by God's permission. One cause of this (failure of the lack
of learning among the friars to impress the public) is that the
orders have the outward show of sanctity; wherefore it is
plausible to the world that men in so holy a state would not

of Monte Cassino and the University of Naples. He entered the Dominican order
in 1243. lie studied at Paris and in 1245 at Cologne under Albertus Magnus. He
taught at Paris, later in Rome, Bologna, Pisa and elsewhere in Italy. His chief
theological works are a commentary on The Four Books of Sentences of Peter Lom-
bard, a Snmma Theologiw, Qucestiones Disputatce et Qnodlibetales (Disputed and
General Questions), Opuscida Theologica {Minor Theological Works). He has become
the official theologian of the Catholic Church; his works were edited in 1882 with
the especial sanction of Pope Leo XIII.

^^ I.e. their Latin grammar; for a note on Donatus, from whose name the word
donat comes, cf. ante, p. G7.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 401

presume to have such quaUties as they could not prove that
they had.^^ . . .

Compilation was an art much practised in the Middle
Ages; many encyclopedias were made. A medieval writer
in his Prolog to his translation of one of these, the De
Proprietatibus Rerum (On the Properties of Things), by
Bartholomseus Anglicus (Bartholomew the Englishman)
tells us the purpose of his work. Bartholomew was an
English scholar of the thirteenth century; he studied and
taught theology at Paris, and entered the Franciscan order
about 1230. His book was a common source of informa-
tion on natural history and was translated into French
in 1372, into English in 1398 and into Spanish and Dutch
in the fifteenth century. It has often been reprinted.
Our translator says of the arrangement and aim of the
book:

True it is that after the noble and expert doctrine of wise
and well-learned philosophers, left and remaining with us in
writing, we know that the properties of things follow and ensue
their substance. Herefore it is that after the order and dis-
tinction of substances, the order and distinction of the proper-
ties of things shall be and ensue. Of the which things this work
of all the books ensuing, by grace, help and assistance of Al-
mighty God, is compiled and made. Marvel not, ye witty and
eloquent readers, that I, thin of wit and void of cunning, have
translated this book from Latin into our vulgar language, as a
thing profitable to me and peradventure to many other, which
understand not Latin, nor have the knowledge of the properties
of things, which things be approved by the })ooks of ^rcat mid
cunning clerks and by the ex]:)erience of most witty and n()l)lc

"^ Bacon himself, like Michael Scot, became in the popular ima^'ination a i^rcal
magician; cf. the Elizabethan play. Friar liaron atul Friar liinu/ai/, by Robert
Greene. For comment and illustrative material, the best edition of this play is
that of Ward, Marlowc'.s Dr. Fauxtu.s and Greene i< Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay,
4th ed. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). Perhaps a more accurate text of the play
is that in Neilson, The Chief Elizabethan Dramatics (Ilouj^diton Mifflin Co., 1911).
The play can also be had in the Temple Dramatists Series (K. P. Dulton and Co.).

402 ENGLISH LITERATURE

philosophers. All these properties be full necessary and of great
value to them that will be desirous to understand the obscuri-
ties or darkness of holy scriptures: which be given to us under
figures, under parables and semblance, or likelihoods of things
natural and artificial. Saint Denys,^^ that great philosopher
and solemn clerk, in his book named The Heavenly Hierarchies
of Angels, testifieth and witnesseth the same, saying in this
manner: Whatsoever any man will conject, feign, imagine, sup-
pose or say: it is a thing impossible that the light of the heavenly
divine clearness, covered and closed in the deity, or in the god-
head, should shine upon us, if it were not by the diversities of
holy covertures. Also it is not possible, that our wit or intend-
ment might ascend unto the contemplation of the heavenly
hierarchies immaterial, if our wit be not led to the consideration
of the greatness or magnitude of the most excellent beauteous
clarity, divine and invisible. Reciteth this also the blessed
apostle Paul ^^ in his epistles, saying that by these things visible,
which be made and be visible, man may see and know by his in-
ward sight intellectual, the divine, celestial and godly things,
which be invisible to this our natural sight. Devout doctors
of theology or divinity, for this consideration prudently and
wisely read and use natural philosophy and moral, and poets
in their fictions and feigned informations, unto this fine and end,
so that by the likelihood or similitude of things visible our wit
or our understanding spiritually, by clear and crafty utterance
of words, may be so well ordered and uttered : that these things
corporeal may be coupled with things spiritual, and that these
things visible may be conjoined with things invisible. Excited
by these causes to the edifying of the people contained in our
Christian faith of Almighty Jesus, whose majesty divine is
incomprehensible: and of whom to speak it becometh no man,
but with great excellent worship and honor and with an inward
dreadful fear. Loth to offend, I purpose to say somewhat under
the correction of excellent learned doctors and wise men, what
every creature reasonable ought to believe in this our blessed
Christian faith.*

^8 I.e. Dionysius the Areopagite; cf. ante, p. 396. ^' Cf. Romans 1: 20.

• By permission of Messrs. Chalto and Windus from llicir Edition in the King's Classics Series.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 403

So much for science; ^^ as for literary scholarship,
Chaucer in some lines from his poem, The Hous{e) of Fame,
has left us his view of the great poets and literary men of
the past. The Hous{e) of Fame, an allegorical-dream
poem, is interesting, according to Dr. Root,^^ because in
it Chaucer has embodied a very noble philosophy of life
and because he has revealed himself in it more fully than
in any of his other longer poems. The poem is in three
books, in the first of which Chaucer tells how in a dream
he found himself in the glass Temple of Venus, the walls
of which were painted over with the story of iEneas.
There are also reminders of other love stories of the past,
but the poet is not satisfied with the Temple, even though
it is so beautiful, and leaves, whereupon he finds himself
alone on a vast sandy desert. His interpreter is an eagle,
who in the second * book gives an account of Chaucer's
past life and, taking him up into the sky, shows him a
panoramic view of the kingdoms of earth and heaven. In
the third book we are shown the dwelling place of the
goddess of fame on a mountain of ice on which the nkmes
of the famous are written. The sides of the mountain are
so slippery that it is very hard to climb it and the melting
of the ice easily makes the names disappear. In the build-
ing on the top of the mountain is a great hall and in this
Chaucer finds some pillars on which are inscribed names
of some likely to be remembered longer than others. Of
these he speaks as follows:

These of whom I am about to speak, I saw standing there,
without doubt: upon an iron *^- pillar strong that was completely
covered with tiger's blood, was that inhabitant of Toulouse known

80 Cf. Steele, Medimval Lore {King's Classics Series; J. W. Luce ;iiul Co.) for
generous extracts from the most interesting parts of the work of Bartholomseus
Anglicus.

81 Cf. The Poetry of Chaucer (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1906), chap. vii.

82 These, because they all wrote war poetry, are represented on iron pillars;
iron was the metal of Mars.

404 ENGLISH LITERATURE

as Statius,^ who carried the fame of Thebes upon his shoulders
and also that of the cruel Achilles. And by him stood . . .
upon a wonderfully high iron pillar the great Horner,^'* and with
him w^ere Dares ^^ and Dictys,^^ Lollius,^^ Guido della Colonna ^^
and the English Geoffry.'^^ And each of these, to my great joy,
was engaged in maintaining the reputation of Troy. Its fame
was so great that it was no easy task to look after it. But yet
I could see that there w^as a little en\y in their midst; one said,^^
for instance, that Homer WTote lies in his poetic feigning, that
he was too favorable to the Greeks in his representation of the
Trojan War, and that, hence, what he wrote was fabulous.

Then I saw standing on a pillar of tinned iron that Latin
poet Virgil ^^ who has long sustained the fame of ^Eneas.

And next him on a copper pillar Ovid,^- the clerk of Venus,
w^ho has sown broadcast the fame of the great god of love. And
he w^as still working at his task here when I saw him on a pillar
as high as I could follow with my eyes. And, therefore, this

^ Statius, a Latin poet who died about 96 a.d. He wrote the Thehaid, an ac-
count of the history and wars of Thebes in Greece, and the Achilleid, a story of the
life and exploits of Achilles. Statius was a native of Naples, but there was a medi-
eval ttadition that he was a native of Toulouse in southern France; Dante, for
example, whom Chaucer is followng here, says (Purgatorio, xxi, 89) that Statius was
a Toulousan. Statius was much read in the Middle Ages; he was the conductor
of Dante through part of purgatory.

^ Homer, the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, was a mere name to medieval
Europe unable to read Greek.

^ Dares was the name affixed to a late Latin work which professed to correct
the errors of Homer in regard to the Trojan War. Dares was supposed to give the
Phrygian or Trojan side of the story.

^ Dictys, likewise, was the name given another late Latin work written to cor-
rect Homer. Dictys was represented as a Cretan, an eyewitness of the struggle.

^ The identity of Lollius has not been satisfactorily settled.

^ An Italian writer whose Ilistoria Trojana {Trojan History) was finished in
1287.

^ Le. Geoffrey of Monmouth, cf. atdc, p. 248 and post, pp. 545-549; 557, 558.

^ Guido was one of those who said this. (See Skeat's notes throughout here.)

^^ '"Homer's iron is admirably represented as having been by Virgil covered
over with tin ': note in Bell's Chaucer." — Skeat's note.

^"^ Ovid is here taken as the representative love poet; he was a contemporary
of Virgil and is the most immoral of the classical poets, curiously popular in the
Middle Ages.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 405

hall of which I am writing, grew a thousand feet higher, longer
and broader than it was before — this I am sure of.

Then I saw on a pillar of iron of a very hard sort the great
poet Lucan.^^ And on his shoulders he was bearing, as high as
I could see, the fame of Julius and Pompey. And by him stood
all those clerks who write of the mighty works of Rome, so that
if I were to enumerate them all, I should have to tarry all too
long. And next him on a pillar of sulphur, raging as if he were
mad, was Claudian ^"^ . . . who has borne up the fame of hell,
of Pluto and of Proserpine who is the queen of that dark place.^^

In the Middle Ages, as in other periods in the history of
Western Europe, learned men were gathered in schools of
various sorts and gave themselves to the training of their
successors. In the past too much has been made of the
differences between medieval and modern conditions of
education, for the probabilities are that medieval men were
much like ourselves. At least, the educational process in
the fourteenth century began with much the same human
material as to-day, if we can put any faith in the follow-
ing description of himself as a schoolboy by Lydgate
(.^1370-.^1451) in his poem The Testament of Dan John
Lydgate.

During the time of this green season — I mean the period of
my immaturity running from childhood to my fifteenth year —
by experience, as was clear, (I) was garish, strange in my ac-
tions, disposed to many unbraided passions.

(I was) void of reason, given to willfulness, froward to vir-

93 Cf. ante, p. 67.

9^ Claudius Claudianus, a fourth-century Latin poet, wrote a work called De
Raptu Proserpina' {On the Stealing of Proserpine), which is here referred to.

3^ For the suggestion to include this passage in my text I am indel)ted to Pro-
fessor C'harles G. Osgood of Princeton University. The most exhaustive account
of the learning of Chaucer, and an account that throws a good deal of light on all
medieval learning, is that of Professor Lounsbury in his Studies in Chaucer, chapter
V. A much condensed account of a medieval author's reading is that in BaKlwin,
op. cit., pp. 191-196. Cf. Dante's view of the great men of letters of the past and
of the heroes and heroines of mythology in Inferno, IV, 11. 80-l-i4.

406 ENGLISH LITERATURE

tue, not mindful of thrift, loath to learn, not fond of concen-
tration save on play or mirth, not inclined to read or spell,
following all the appetites belonging to childhood, easily ex-
cited, wild and seldom sad, weeping for nothing and soon after
laughing.

(I was) ready at slight provocation to strive with a play-mate,
as my feelings were my only guide; sometimes I stood in awe
of the rod — my only fear was a thrashing; "creeping like snail
unwillingly to school"; ^"^ losing time; like a young unbridled
colt, making my friends spend their goods for nothing.

I was wont to come late to school, to attend not for the sake
of learning but to keep up appearances, ready to quarrel with
my companions, all my pleasure w^as found in practical jokes.
And when I was rebuked for this, my scheme was to make up a
lie and muse upon it in order to excuse myself when I did wrong.

I had no respect for my betters, and gave no heed to my
sovereigns at all, grew obstinate in disobedience, ran into gar-
dens where I stole apples, spared neither hedge nor wall in
gathering fruit, was more ready to pluck grapes off other men's
vines than to say matins.

My heart w^as set on making fun of others and playing tricks
on them, contriving evil schemes against them, on cavorting and
making faces like a monkey. When I did wrong I could accuse
others. I employed all my senses foolishly, was readier to count
cherry stones than to go to church or listen to the sacristy
bell.

I hated to get up and still more to go to bed, was ready for
dinner without washing my hands. My Paternoster (the Lord's
Prayer) or Creed I threw to the dogs — this was my way. I
was shaken with every wind like a wanton reed, and, when
scolded by my friends and told to mend my faults, turned a
deaf ear and didn't care to listen to them.

Chaucer, in the story which the prioress tells in the
Canterbury Tales, describes the education afforded by the
primary schools of the period.

^ As You Like It, ii, vii, II. 146, 147.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 407

There was in Asia, in a great city, among Christians, a
Jewish quarter ^^ protected by a lord of that country for the
sake of foul usury and filthy lucre, hateful to Christ and His
following; and through its streets men could ride or walk, for
it was free and open on each side.

Down at the further end of this part of the city there was a
Christian school in which there were many children of Christian
blood who were learning . . . year by year such things as
people usually learn in that sort of school, namely, to sing and
to read, as small children do in their childhood.

Among these children was a widow's son, a little student,
seven years old, who went to school every day and also, when-
ever he saw the image of Christ's mother, was in the habit of
kneeling down and saying his Hail, Mary, as he went along. . . .

This little child, as he sat studying his primer, heard the
hymn Alma Redemptoris {Dear Mother of Our Lord) sung, as
children were learning to sing from the Antiphonal, and he drew
as near as he dared and listened to the words and notes until
he knew^ the first stanza by rote.

He didn't at all understand the Latin, for he was young and
of tender years; but one day he begged one of his companions
to explain the song to him in his mother-tongue, or tell him
why the hymn was used. He made this plea often, kneeling
down on his little bare knees.

His mate, who was somewhat older, answered him in this
way, "This song, I have heard, was written about our Blessed
Lady free, to greet her and also to ask her to be our help and
succor when we die. I can't tell you any more about tliis matter;
I have learned to sing the song, but I don't know much gram-
mar (Latin)."

After learning to read and sing, boys went on to the
study of grammar (Latin) as a prerequisite (o any further
studies. The Latin authors commonly read were Virgil,
Ovid, and the prose writers of tlu^ later Roman (Miii)ire.

^^ Chaurer thus transfers the European altitude toward llie Jews to the Orient.
On the Enghsh attitude toward the Jews at this time, cf. ante, pp. 201), 277 and post,
pp. 4G2-4G5.

408 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Exercises in composition in prose and verse evidently ac-
companied this reading. The pagan character of this
regimen drew the following spirited protest from the
reforming Bishop Grandisson of Exeter in 1357:

John etc., to his beloved sons in Christ, all the archdeacons
in our cathedral church of Exeter and their Officials, health etc.

Not without frequent wonder and a feeling of pity have we
personally experienced, and daily experience, among the masters
or teachers of boys and of the unlearned of our diocese, that
they, while instructing them in grammar, observe a form and
order of teaching which are preposterous and useless, indeed
superstitious and more like heathens than Christians, in that as
soon as their scholars have learnt to read or say even very. im-
perfectly the Lord's Prayer, with the Hail Mary and the Creed,
also Matins and the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, and the like,
which are necessary for faith and the safety of their souls, though
they do not know how to construe or understand any of the
things before-mentioned, or to decline or parse any of the words
in them, they make them pass on prematurely to learn other
school books of poetry or in metre. And so it happens that
when they are grown up they do not understand what they say
or read every day; moreover, which is even more damnable,
through want of understanding they do not know the catholic
faith.

Desiring, therefore, by all the ways and means possible, to
root out so dreadful and stupid an abuse which has become too
usual in our diocese, we commission and command you to order
and enjoin on all masters or teachers of boys, presiding over
Grammar Schools within the boundaries of your archdeaconry,
by our authority, as by virtue of these presents we strictly order
and enjoin, that they shall not make the boys whom they re-
ceive to learn grammar only to read or learn Latin, as hitherto,
but leaving everything else make them construe and understand
the Lord's Prayer and Ave Mary (Hail, Mary), the Creed,
Matins and Hours of the Blessed Virgin, and decline the words
there and parse them before they let them go on to other books.
Informing them that we do not intend to mark any boys with

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 409

a clerical character unless they have by this means been found
to have become proficient.

Dated at our manor of Chudleigh 13 February, 1356-7, and
the thirtieth year of our consecration.

After spending some time in the grammar school, the
student naturally passed on to the university, where, after
courses in the seven liberal arts — grammar, logic, rheto-
ric (the trivium, the program of the undergraduate), arith-
metic, geometry, music and astronomy (the quadrivium)
— and the three philosophies — natural, moral and meta-
physical, a thirteenth-century addition to the university
course — ■ he might proceed to the study of law, medicine
and theology.

The unfortunate rival claims of Oxford and Cambridge
to priority of foundation and the obstinate determination
to substantiate these claims by documents, even forged
ones, have vitiated nearly all the early accounts of uni-
versity origins in England. So we cannot present any
trustworthy contemporary narrative of the beginnings of
English university life, but must piece together an account
from casual references ^^ in contemporary literature. In
the later thirteenth century, however, we get a consider-
able number of rather extended notices of these things from
which satisfactory inferences as to historical facts can be
drawn. From the following Rules of Oxford, for example,
we learn a good deal about conditions there. These Rules
were compiled about 1292.

Each book of the house, now or hereafter to he given out,
shall be taken only after a large deposit has })een left, in order
that the one having it may the more fear to lose it; and let a
duplicate receipt be made, of which one j)art shall be kept in
the common custody, and the other be taken by the scholar

^ These references arc collected in I><'ach, Educational Charters and Documentt
598-1909, pp. 100-109 (Cambridge University Tress — in the United States, G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1911).

410 ENGLISH LITERATURE

having the book; and let no book be given outside of the col-
lege without a still better bond, and with consent of all the
scholars. , . .

No one shall interfere with the regular arrangement of the
household either in the choice of dinners or in the occupation of
the rooms of the house, but each scholar shall give diligent
assistance; and especially they shall not exceed an expense of
twelve pence a week each from the common treasury, except
in the three principal weeks, unless a special dispensation has
been given by the university, . . .

All the scholars of the house shall often speak Latin, in order
that they may obtain an easier and more ready and more deco-
rous manner of speaking in disputations and in other proper
circumstances.

Let them all live honorably, like clerics, as becomes saints,
not fighting, nor using tales or scurrilous language, nor singing
love songs, nor telling tales of love adventures or such as lead
to evil thoughts; nor ridiculing any one or stirring him to anger,
nor shouting so that students may be interfered with in their
study or rest.

IVIasters of the liberal arts willingly perform varied and hea\y
labors in lecturing and discussing, for the profit and advantage
of their pupils, but on account of stinginess, w hich has grown up
in these modern days more than formerly, they are not suffi-
ciently rewarded by them for these labors, as is befitting and as
was formerly done; therefore, it is made a rule, that each stu-
dent under the faculty of arts attending in the hall at the usual
weekly exercises shall pay, for either the old or new logic,^^ at
least twelve pence for the w^hole year, dividing it in proper pro-
portions for the separate terms.

Those who shall regularly hear lectures on books on physics
must pay eighteen pence for hearing these books for a year.

It is made a rule that masters of the grammar schools shall
be required to dispute on grammar on Thursdays.

^ The old logic was the realistic logic developed in the earlier Middle Ages on
the basis of very poor and meager translations of Aristotle; the new logic was
the nominalistic logic developed by Abelard. Cf. Hastings Rashdall, The Univer-
sities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1895), Index.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 411

Since it has been made law from old time, that masters hold-
ing schools of grammar should, on their oath, give attention to
the positive knowledge of their pupils; yet some, looking for
gain and profit and forgetful of their own salvation, treating that
statute with contempt, have presumed to give what they call
"cursory lectures," to the evident injury of their students; the
chancellor, wishing to look out for the profit of the . . . stu-
dents, and especially the younger ones, as he is bound to do,
has suspended such attendance, which is not only frivolous but
injurious to the advancement of the said younger pupils, and
has made a law, that whosoever shall in future wish to conduct
schools of grammar shall desist from cursory lectures of this kind,
upon pain of being deprived of the rule of the schools and of
under going imprisonment at the will of the chancellor. Neither
in the schools nor anywhere in the university shall they give
such courses of lectures as these, nor allow them to be given,
but shall diligently attend to the positive instruction of their
pupils. ...

The bachelors about to take their degrees in a certain year
must appear before certain masters, with the good testimony
of some other masters and bachelors. They shall then swear,
touching the sacred objects, that they have heard all the books
of the old logic ^^ at least twice, except the books of Boethius,^*^*^
which it is enough to have read once, and the fourth book of
the Topics of Boethius, which they are not required to read. Of
the new logic ^^ they shall swear that they have read the books
of First Topics and Outlines twice, the book of Later Topics
at least once. Of grammar they must swear that they have
heard Priscian ^°^ On Constructions twice, the Barlxirism of Dona-
tus ^"^2 once, or three books of physical matters; that is Physics,^^^
Of the Soul, Of Generation and Corruption.^^'^

"» Cf. ante, p. 66. "" Cf. ante, p. 67. '"^ ('f_ „„f,.^ p. 07.

^^ The three titles ure of works of Aristotle.

1*'* This last paragraph is a statement of the Oxford eurriculuin in b2(!7. ( f.
what is said of Cambridge in 1109 in the Continuation of Ingiilph's Chronicle of the
Abbey of Croyland {fr. cit., p. 2.'J7): "He (a certain Al)l)ol Joirrid) also sent to his
manor of Cottenhain, near Cambridge, the lord (iislebert, his fellow-monk, and
professor of Saered Theology, togetiier with three other monks who had aec-om-
panied him into England; who, being very well instrii(t(>d in philosophirai theo-

412 ENGLISH LITERATURE

In 1296 a patriotic English bishop wrote to the pope,
asking for Oxford the same privileges as those already
granted to Paris. His letter is as follows:

To the most holy father in Christ, Lord Boniface (VIII), by
divine providence of the very holy Roman and universal church
highest pontiff, John, by the mercy of the same, humble minis-
ter of the church at Carlisle, with reverential obedience sends
kisses for his blessed feet.

Great fertility gladdens a mother, and the more virtuous the
offspring the greater is the occasion for joy. The inexhaustible
fertility of the University of Oxford does not cease to produce

rems and other primitive sciences, went every day to Cambridge, and, having hired
a pubUc barn there, openly taught their respective sciences and in a short space of
time collected a great concourse of scholars. For in the second year after their
arrival, the number of their scholars from both the country as well as the town,
had increased to such a degree, that not even the largest house or barn, nor any
church even, was able to contain them. For this reason, they separated into dif-
ferent places, and, imitating the plan of study adopted at Orleans, brother Odo,
who was eminent in these days as a grammarian and a satirist, early in the morn-
ing, read grammar according to the doctrine of Priscian, and the comments of
Remigius thereon, to the boys and younger students assigned to him. At the first
hour, brother Terricus, a most acute sophist, read the Logic of Aristotle, according
to the Introductions of Porphyry and Averroes, to those who were somewhat older.
Then at the third hour, brother William read lectures on the Rhetoric of Tully and
the Institutes of Quintilian. Master Gislebert, being unacquainted with the Eng-
lish language, but very expert in the Latin and French, the latter being his native
tongue, on every Lord's day and on the festivals of the Saints, preached to the
people the Word of God in the various churches. On feast days before the sixth
hour, he expounded to the literates and the priests, who in especial resorted to
hear him, a text from the pages of Holy Scripture." The mention of the Spanish-
Arabian physician, jurist and philosopher Averroes {circa 1126-1178) in this pas-
sage destroys its historical reliability, but even if Ingulph and his continuators are
the authors of a fourteenth-century historical novel, their statement here may tell
us what went on at Cambridge later than the date assigned to these lectures. The
earliest reliable mention of Cambridge according to Leach {op. cit., p. 149) is 1231.
The Remigius spoken of in the passage is Remigius of Auxerre (born in Burgundy
before 850, died about 908), a Benedictine teacher and commentator who wrote on
the liberal arts, Priscian and Donatus, the Bible and the mass. The commentaries
of Averroes on Aristotle were widely used in the Middle Ages. Porphyry (233-
circa 304 a.d.) was a Syrian by birth and education and a lecturer on grammar,
history and philosophy. Priscian, Tully and Quintilian have been noticed before
(pp. 67, 6G and 388 respectively).

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 413

iricany great and useful sons for the ranks of the Lord, so that
it is truly rated as the mother and nurse of English learning, and
is deserving of being held in honor with the affection due to a
mother. Therefore, since a wise son is the gladness of a father,
she ought to be held in favor who increases the house of God
with the wisdom and devotion of such sons.

As I have learned, the apostolic foresight has considered it
best to distinguish the university of the kingdom of France by
such a privilege that all who have attained in any faculty the
rank of the honor of master shall be permitted to deliver lec-
tures in the same faculty anywhere, and to continue these as
long as they please, w^ithout a new examination or approbation,
without the duty of going back to the beginning, or of seeking
the favor of any one. I therefore affectionately and devotedly
beg your pious fatherly care that, for increasing the peace and
uniformity among scholastics, it may be pleasing to your apos-
tolic kindness to extend the common privilege of this dispensa-
tion to the said University of Oxford. There is truly a fear felt
by many of the great men of the kingdom of England, that
peace cannot long be preserved inviolate by the students, —
a thing which is especially necessary among universities, — un-
less the English university is acknowledged to be deserving of
being ranked with the rest in liberties and scholastic powers.
May the Lord preserve your Holiness to rule the universal
church through all time ! Dated at Berwick, on the third day
of September, 1296.

"At Merton College, Oxford, the warden and fellows were
bound to meet three times a year at a 'scrutiny,' wherein
each gave his opinion of the condition of the college. Of
three of these meetings some rough notes taken by one
who was present have been preserved." '"' One set of these
notes dated 1339 gives us the following notion of a medie-
val faculty meeting:

Middleton. William the chaplain has often insulted the fellows.

Handel. It would be well if the senior fellows were summoned
to make peace between Wylie and Finmer.

^^ See Ashley, Edward III and II h Wars. j). G5.

414 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Westcomhe. The noise the fellows make in their rooms.

Humberstone. The quarrel between Wylie and Finmer. The
fellows keep dogs, and progress in their studies is prevented by
idleness. The statute is not observed, for we have no bursars.
Also it would be well if the land in Little Wolford were let to
a farmer.

Finmer. Wylie, although appointed under the statute to
audit accounts, will not audit them, and though thrice sum-
moned and again called upon by the fellows, has rebelliously
refused, and so falls under the statute; and he unjustly receives
better commons, and they who ought to proceed against him
are too remiss.

Wanting. The warden should not go on insulting the senior
fellows in the way he has begun.

Willie. Somebody should be sent to Stratton to enquire about
the college estates and other business.

Lynham. As to allaying the quarrels among the fellows.

Sutton. They ought to have a keeper of pledges, ^°^ but have
not, and there is a deficit; and it is said that some books are
sold, without the college or the fellows benefiting by it. The
warden does not enforce process against the debtors of the college
and especially against the bailiff of Elham; and Wanting owes
the bailiff of Elham seven pounds and sixteen pence which belong
to the college, and as he excuses himself from all other business,
he ought not to take part in these college meetings. . . .

Handel. Would be glad if a volume of decrees and of decretals
were placed in the library and if the books of the college were
arranged.

Buckingham. Wanting has sold the college horses at Elham,
and has kept the money in his hands, and has rendered no ac-
count nor has the bailiff. . . . There should not be a number
of people taking notes in the meeting.

Dumhleton. Nothing.

Monhy. Wylie has publicly, in the presence of all the fellows,
insulted Finmer.

106 Professor Ashley {Ibid., p. G6) suggests that these "pledges" were objects
left by students in pawn with the college for loans from college funds; they may
also have been deposits for loans from the college library; cf. ante, p. 409.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 415

Leverington. The seneschal is not present in chapel on saints'
days, but is absent for the most part. . . .

Wylie. Begs that what has been said by Elyndon and Want-
ing be corrected and recommends charity. The warden should
correct it, especially what had been said to the warden in the
meeting, and above all what Elyndon said, that the reputations
of some of the fellows were tarnished; and how that Durant
accused Wylie of planning with the other seniors to prevent the
election of a fellow, and that he had this from those who were
recently in London.

Middleton. Elham is in fault as to the breaking of the hall
door. We ought to have a mill at Seaton.

Handel. This opportunity should be taken of restoring peace.
The juniors should show reverence to the seniors, and everyone
should be enjoined publicly to observe charity, and each should
try to bring this about as far as he can.-

Humberstone. The warden ought by statute to get the help
of some of the fellows who are impartial to put an end to the
quarrel between Wylie and Finmer. W^anting has behaved dis-
respectfully towards the warden by publicly addressing him as
Robert.

The early careers of the medieval universities were
troublous, full of struggles for recognition with the civil
and ecclesiastical authorities. Especially hard was their
conflict with the former, for the university students all
wished to be ranked as clerics and enjoy all the privileges
of their order, particularly the right of immunity from
the ordinary civil courts. The constituted powers in cities
and towns, in the interest of law and quiet, naturally
wished all the inhabitants to be subject to the saiiu* law.
This difference of opinion or jurisdiction was the cause of
many a "town and gown" riot in university towns. A
famous brawl occurred at Oxford in I'^OJ) and is thus
described by Roger of ^Vendover:

About (this) time a clerk, who was studying \hv liberal arts
at Oxford, by accident killed a woman, and when he found she

416 ENGLISH LITERATURE

was dead, sought safety in flight. But the bailiff of the town and
others who came up and found the woman dead, began to try
and find the murderer in his hostel, which he had hired with
three other clerks, and not finding the criminal, took his three
friends, who knew almost nothing about the murder, and threw
them into prison. A few days afterwards, on the orders of the
king of the English, in contempt of the liberty of the church,
they were taken outside the town and hanged. On this nearly
three thousand clerks, masters and scholars alike, left Oxford,
not a single one of the whole University remaining. Some of
them went to study the liberal arts at Cambridge, some to
Reading, but the town of Oxford was left empty.

This attempt to get desired privileges by secession reminds
one of the conduct of the plebeians in their contests with
the patricians at Rome, and these exoduses, which were
numerous, became quite serious in the eyes of the town
authorities, for they realized that, notwithstanding the
added difficulties and responsibilities that a university com-
munity brought to a city, it was an advantage for a muni-
cipality to have a university within its borders, because of
the additional business brought them thereby. Hence,
when in 1334 a secession to Stamford from Oxford had
taken place, pressure was brought to bear on King Ed-
ward III himself to issue a decree forbidding the erection
of a university at Stamford. This incident has added
interest because "so late as the first quarter of the nine-
teenth century every candidate for an Oxford degree was
required to take an oath not to lecture at Stamford." ^^'^
The King expressed himself thus:

The king, to the sheriff of Lincoln, greeting. Whereas we are
given to understand that many masters and scholars of our

'^ Cambridge History of Englinh Literature, II, p. 392, note. Chapter xv, from
which this note is taken, with its bibliography, is the most convenient reference on
the subject we liave just been treating. See the reference to the method of dis-
puting in schools in Fitzstephen's Description of London, ante, p. 311; and to school
games in the same document, ante, p. 316.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 417

university of Oxford under color of certain dissensions lately,
as it is said, arisen in that university, and with other idle pre-
texts, withdrawing themselves from that university, presume to
betake themselves to the town of Stamford, and there carry
on their studies and perform scholastic exercises, having by
no means sought our assent or license; which, if it were toler-
ated, would manifestly turn not only to our contempt and dis-
grace but also to the dispersion of our said university;

We, unwilling that schools or studies should in any wise be
carried on elsewhere within our realm than in places where there
are now universities, order and firmly enjoin you to go in per-
son to the said town of Stamford, and there and elsewhere within
your bailiwick w^here it is expedient, cause it to be publicly pro-
claimed with our authority, and prohibition made that any
vshould carry on study or perform scholastic exercises elsewhere
than in our said universities, under penalty of forfeiting to us
all they can forfeit; and cause us, without delay, to be informed
distinctly and openly, in our chancery, and under your seal, of
the names of those whom you find disobeying, after this procla-
mation and prohibition;

For we will that speedy justice be done as is fitting to all
and everyone ready to bring their complaints of any violence or
injury done to them at the said city of Oxford, before our jus-
tices there, specially deputed for this purpose.

Witness the king at Windsor, the second day of August.

By the king and council. ^°^

4. Books and Their Place in Culture. — Richard d'Aun-
gerville (1281-L345), better known as Richard of Bury,
has made himself famous as the greatest private l)ook
collector of the age and, by writing a volume on the love
of books, has enabled posterity to get his ideas and ideals
as a collector. He was left an orphan at an early age and
brought up under the care of an uncle who sent him to

108 "This vigorous measure was successful but not until a writ had hcen issued
next year ordering the seizure of the books of the disobedient." Ashley's note, op.
cit., p. 35.

418 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Oxford. Of his pursuits at the University, Richard writes,
"From an early age, led by we know not what happy
accident, we attached ourselves with present solicitude to
the society of masters, scholars and professors of various
arts, whom perspicacity of wit and celebrity of learning
had rendered most conspicuous; encouraged by whose con-
solatory conversation we were most deliciously nourished,
sometimes with explanatory investigation of arguments,
at others with recitations of treatises on the progress of
physics, and of the Catholic doctors, as it were multiplied
and successive dishes of learning. Such were the com-
rades we chose in our boyhood; such we entertained as
the inmates of our chambers, such were the companions
of our journies, the messmates of our board and our
associates in all our fortunes." His brilliance as a student
recommended him as a tutor for the future Edward III,
and by that means he was introduced to the public life
of his day, becoming a diplomat and statesman. But he
never lost liis interest in book collecting and used his
position to further his favorite avocation. On one diplo-
matic mission he visited Paris, and of his impression of the
city says, "O blessed God of Gods in Sion! what a rush
of the flood of pleasure rejoiced our heart as often as we
visited Paris the Paradise of the world! There we longed
to remain, where on account of the greatness of our love
the days ever appeared to us to be few. There are de-
lightful libraries, in cells redolent of aromatics; there,
flourishing greenhouses of all sorts of volumes; there
academic meads trembling with the earthquake of Athe-
nian Peripatetics, pacing up and down; there, the promon-
tories of Parnassus, and the porticoes of the Stoics. . . .
There, in very deed, with an open treasury and untied
purse strings we scattered money with a light heart, and
redeemed inestimable books with dirt and dust. Every
buyer is apt to boast of his bargains; but ... we will

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 419

add a most compendious way by which a great multi-
tude of books, as well old as new, came into our hands.
Never, indeed, having disdained the poverty of religious
devotees, assumed for Christ, we never held them in ab-
horrence, but admitted them from all prarts of the world
into the kind embraces of our compassion; ... to these,
under all circumstances, we became a refuge; to these we
never closed the bosom of our favor. Wherefore, we de-
served to have ... as well their personal as their mental
labors, who going about b}^ sea and land, surveying the
whole compass of the earth, and also inquiring into the
general studies of the universities of the various provinces,
were anxious to administer to our wants, under a most
certain hope of reward. . . . Besides all the opportunities
already touched upon, we easily acquired the notice of
the stationers and booksellers, not only within the provinces
of our native soil, but of those dispersed over the king-
doms of France, Germany and Italy, by the prevailing
power of money; no distance whatever impeded, no fury
of the sea deterred them; nor was cash wanting for their
expenses when they sent or brought us the wished for
books; for they knew to a certainty that their hopes . . .
were secure with us. . . . Moreover, there was always
about us in our halls, no small assemblage of antiquaries,
scribes, bookbinders, correctors, illuminators, and gen-
erally of all such persons as were qualified to labor advan-
tageously in the service of books." He would not have
been content with the modest twenty books of Chaucer's
clerk and yet we learn that Richard's collections, called
"an infinite number of books" by Adam of Murimuth,
totaled somewhat more than five cartloads. ^^^ He made
noble use of his treasures, for in chapters 18 and 1!) of
his Philobiblon {Love of Books) we lia\'e (lie following words:
"We have for a long time, held a rooted purpose ... to

109 Cf. Baldwin, up. oil., p. V.H.

420 ENGLISH LITERATURE

found in perpetual alms, and enrich with the necessary-
gifts, a certain Hall in the revered University of Oxford,
the first nurse of all the liberal arts; and further to enrich
the same . . . with deposits of our books, so that they may
be made common* as to use and study, not only to scholars
of the said Hall, but through them to all the students of
the aforesaid University forever. . . . Five of the scholars
dwelling in the aforesaid Hall are to be appointed by the
Master, ... to whom the custody of the books is to be
deputed. Of which five, three shall be competent to lend
any books for inspection and use only; but for copying
and transcribing we will not allow any book to pass with-
out the walls of the house. Therefore, when any scholar,
whether secular or religious, whom we have deemed quali-
fied for the present favor, shall demand the loan of a book,
the keepers must carefully consider whether they have a
duplicate of that book; and if so, they may lend it to him,
taking a security which in their opinion shall exceed in
value the book delivered; and they shall immediately make
a written memorandum both of the security and of the
book lent. . . . But if the keepers shall find that there
is no duplicate of the book demanded, they shall not lend
such book to any one whomsoever, unless he be of the
company of scholars of the said Hall, except . . . for
inspection within the walls of the foresaid Hall, but not
to be carried beyond them. But to every scholar whatever
of the aforesaid Hall, any book may be available by loan.
. . . And the aforesaid keepers must render an account
every year to the master of the house, and two of his
scholars to be selected by him; . . . and every person to
whom any book has been lent shall exhibit the book once
in the year to the keepers, and if he wishes it he shall
see his security." It is a pity that Richard's collections
were entirely dispersed or destroyed by the time of Edward
VI. After these personal references to Richard we are

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 421

ready for some further passages ^^^ from his book; namely
chapters 3, 5, 6 and 12, which are entitled What are ice to
think of the price. in the buying of hooks. The complaint of
books against the possessioners. The complaint of books
against the mendicants, and Why we have caused books of
grammar to be so diligently prepared.

From what has been said we draw this corollary welcome to
us, but, as we believe, acceptable to few: namely, that no dear-
ness of price ought to hinder a man from the buying of books,
if he has the money that is demanded for them, unless it be
to withstand the malice of the seller or to await a more favor-
able opportunity of buying. For if it is wisdom only that makes
the price of books, which is an infinite treasure to mankind,
and if the value of the books is unspeakable, as the premises
show, how shall the bargain be shown to be dear where an
infinite good is being bought? Wherefore, that books are to
be gladly bought and unwillingly sold, Solomon, the sun of men,
exhorts us in the Proverbs: Buy the truth, he says, and sell
not wisdom. ^^^ But what we are trying to show by rhetoric or
logic, let us prove by examples from history. The arch-})hiloso-
pher Aristotle, ^^2 whom Averroes ^^^ regards as the law of Nature,
bought a few books from Speusippus ^^^ straightway after his
death for 72,000 sesterces. Plato, ^^^ before him in time, but
after him in learning, bought the book of Philolaus ^^® the Py-
thagorean, from which he is said to have taken the Timxpus,'^^'^ for
10,000 denaries, as Aulus Gellius ^^^ relates in the Xocte.s Attica;.

^1° The passages so far quoted are from the Philohiblon, chaps. 8, 19 and 20 in the
translation of Inghs inchided in Edwards, Memoirs of Libraries (2 vols., London,
Trubner and Co., 18.59), I, pp. 377-383.

"1 Cf. Proverbs 23: 23. "2 cf. ante, p. 66. "^ Cf. ante, p. 412.

^^* Nephew of Plato and his successor in the school of the Academy.

"6 B.C. 429 or 428-347, cf. ante, p. 388.

"^ A contemporary of Socrates, the master of Plato and the chief character in
all his Dialogs, died B.C. 399.

^^"^ The Tinifrns of Plato, one of the most obscure of his Dialogs, druls with
theories of creation and was one of the three Platonic dialogs known in the Middle
Ages, the other two bcirig the Plurdo and the Mcno.

"* Aulus Gellius was a Roman granunarian who livivl about a.d. 117-180. Ilis
Nodes AtticoB (Athenian Nights) contains many extracts from classical writers and

422 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Now Aulus Gellius relates this that the foolish may consider
how wise men despise money in comparison with books. And
on the other hand, that we may know that folly and pride go
together, let ns here relate the folly of Tarquin the Proud in
despising books, as also related by Aulus Gellius. An old woman,
utterly unknown, is said to have come to Tarquin the Proud,
the seventh king of Rome, offering to sell nine books, in which,
as she declared, sacred oracles were contained, but she asked
an immense sum for them, insomuch that the king said she was
mad. In anger she flung three books into the fire, and still
asked the same sum for the rest. When the king refused it,
again she flung three others into the fire and still asked the same
price for the three that were left. At last, astonished beyond
measure, Tarquin was glad to pay for three books the same
price for which he might have bought nine. The old woman
straightway disappeared, and was never seen before or after.
These were the Sibylline books, which the Romans consulted
as a divine oracle by some one of the Quindecemvirs, and this
is believed to have been the origin of the Quindecemvirate."^
What did this Sibyl teach the proud king by this bold deed,
except that the vessels of wisdom, holy books, exceed all human
estimation; and as Gregory ^^^ says of the kingdom of heaven:
They are worth all that thou hast?*

The venerable devotion of the religious orders is wont to be
solicitous in the care of books and to delight in their society, as

thus served as a kind of dictionary of favorite quotations in the Middle Ages.
Some of the writers quoted by Aulus are not extant in any other form. The out-
lines of the reign of Tarquin the Proud are given in Livy (b.c. 59-a.d. 17), History
oj Rome, book i, chapter 49, but Livy does not tell the story of these books. The
authorities for that story are Dionysius of Halicarnassus (died a.d. 7), History of
Rome, book iv, chapter 62, Varro, a Roman writer of the first century B.C., as
quoted by Lactantius (see ante, p. 67) in his Institutes of Divinity, book i, chapter 6,
Aulus Gellius, op. cit., book i, chapter 19 and Isidore of Seville (see post, p. 434),
Origins, book viii, chapter 815.

"^ According to modern authorities, Tarquin assigned two men of equestrian
rank to the care of these books; the number was after 367 b.c. increased to ten and
the college was not made to consist of fifteen until the first century B.C.

'^ Probably Gregory the Great; of. ante, p. 64.

* By permission of Messrs. Chatto and Windus fr«m their Edition in theKing's Classics Series.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 423

if they were their only riehes. For some used to write them
with their own hands between the hours of prayer, and gave
to the making of books such intervals as they could secure and
the times appointed for the recreation of the body. By those
labors there are resplendent to-day in most monasteries these
sacred treasures full of cherubic letters, for giving the knowledge
of salvation to the student and a delectable light to the path of
the laity. O manual toil, happier than any agricultural task !
O devout solicitude, where neither Martha nor Mary ^-^ deserves
to be rebuked ! O joyful house, in which the fruitful Leah ^-^
does not en\'y the beauteous Rachel ^^^ but action ^-^ and contem-
plation ^"^ share each other's joys ! O happy charge, destined to
benefit endless generations of posterity, with which no planting
of trees, no sowing of seeds, no pastoral delight in herbs, no
building of fortified camps can be compared ! Wherefore the
memory of those fathers should be immortal, who delighted
only in the treasures of wisdom, who most laboriously provided
shining lamps against future darkness, and against hunger of
hearing the AYord of God, most carefully prepared, not bread
baked in ashes, nor of barley, nor musty, but unleavened loaves
made of the finest wheat of divine wisdom, with w^hich hungry
souls might be joyfully fed. These men were the stoutest cham-
pions of the Christian army, who defended our weakness by
their most valiant arms; they were in their time the most cun-
ning takers of foxes, who have left us their nets, that we might
catch the young foxes, who cease not to devour the growing
vines. Of a truth, noble fathers, worthy of perpetual benedic-

121 Martha (c-f. Luke 10: 38-42) and Leah (cf. Genesis 20 and 30) were taken in
the Middle Ages as tyi)es of the aetive Hfe; and Mary and Rachel, of the eontenipla-
tive life. The former was the life of the person out in the world and the latter that
of the cloistered monk. Toynbec in his Dante Diclionanj adduces quotations fro:u
Gregory the Great, Hugli of St. Victor and Aquinas to sliow how Leah was used in
this symbolism; Toynbec is annotating Dante, Pnrgnfori/, xxvii. 11. 100-108. Since
Rachel was by Jacob preferred to Ix'ah, and Mary to Martha, by Jesus, medievid
philosopher^ and theologians took the conleniplative life to i)e superior to the ac-
tive. Dinsmore in his Aids to the Stuil;/ of Dnntr, ])p. 31!)-;{22. quotes in translation
the teaching of Ac|uinas as to the relative merits of the two ideals of life, the active
and the contemplative. Ci. post, pp. 4.51— too for VVyclif's protest against the or-
thodox assumption.

4^24 ENGLISH LITERATURE

tion, ye would have been deservedly happy, if ye had been al-
lowed to beget offspring like yourselves, and to leave no degen-
erate or doubtful progeny for the benefit of future times.

But, painful to relate, now slothful Thersites ^^^ handles the
arms of Achilles ^-^ and the choice trappings of war-horses are
spread upon lazy asses, winking owls lord it in the eagle's nest,
and the cow^ardly kite sits upon the perch of the hawk.

Liber Bacchus ^^^ is ever loved,
And is into their bellies shoved.

By day and by night;
Liber Codex ^^^ is neglected.
And with scornful hand rejected,

Far out of their sight.

And as if the simple monastic folk of modern times were de-
ceived by a confusion of names, while Liber Pater ^-^ is preferred
to Liber Patrum,^^^ the study of monks nowadays is in the empty-
ing of cups and not the mending of books; to which they do
not hesitate to add the wanton music of Timotheus,^-^ jealous of
chastity, and thus the song of the merrymaker and not the
chant of the mourner is become the office of the monks. Flocks
and fleeces, crops and granaries, leeks and potherbs, drink and
goblets, are nowadays the reading and study of the monks, ex-
cept a few elect ones, in whom lingers not the image but some
slight vestige of the fathers that preceded them. And again,
no materials at all are furnished us to commend the canons
regular for their care or study of us, who though they bear
their name of honor from their twofold rule, yet have neglected
the notable clause of Augustine's Rule,^'^^ in which we are com-
mended to his clergy in these words: Let books be asked for
each day at a given hour; he who asks for them after the hour
is not to receive them. Scarcely any one observes this devout

122 The buffoon in the Iliad. 123 jhe hero of the Iliad.

124 Names of the classic god of wine.
126 I.e. the MS. of a book, i.e. bookmaking.

126 I.e. the Book of the Fathers, the writings of the great Christian scholars.
12^ A celebrated Greek musician and poet, a musical innovator; born B.C. 428,
died 357. i=» Cf. ante, p. 64.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 425

rule of study after saying the prayers of the Church, but to
care for the things of this world and to look at the plow that
has been left is reckoned the highest wisdom. They take up
bow and quiver, embrace arms and shield, devote the tribute of
alms to dogs ^^ and not to the poor, become the slaves of dice
and draughts, and of all such things as we are wont to forbid
even to the secular clergy, so that we need not marvel if they
disdain to look upon us,^^° whom they see so much opposed to
their mode of life.

Come then, reverend fathers, deign to recall your fathers and
devote yourselves more faithfully to the study of holy books,
without which all religion will stagger, without which the virtue
of devotion will dry up like a shred, and without which ye can
afford no light to the world.*

Poor in spirit, but most rich in faith, off-scourings of the
world and salt of the earth, despisers of the world and fishers
of men, how happy are ye, if suffering penury for Christ ye know
how to possess your souls in patience ! ^^^ For it is not want, the
avenger of iniquity, nor the adverse fortune of your parents,
nor violent necessity that has thus oppressed you with beggary,
but a devout will and Christ-like election, by which ye have
chosen that life as the best, which God Almighty ]Made Man as
well by word as by example declared to be the best. In truth,
ye are the latest offspring of the ever-fruitful Church, of late
divinely substituted for the Fathers and the Prophets, that your
sound may go forth into all the earth, and that instructed by
our ^^^ healthful doctrines ye may preach before all kings and
nations the invincible faith of Christ. ^Moreover, tliat the faith
of the Fathers is chiefly enshrined in })ooks tlie second chapU^r
has sufficiently shown, from which it is clearer than li.^ht tliat
ye ought to be zealous lovers of })()()ks above all Christians. \e
are commanded to sow upon all waters, because the Most High

125 Cf. Chaucer's description of llic prioress and monk, anlc, pp. ^287, ^88.
1^ The books are addressing the monks.
13' The books are addressing? tlie friars.

* By permiasion of Messra. Chatto and Wimlus from ibcir Edition in iho King's Classics
Series.

426 ENGLISH LITERATURE

is no respecter of persons, nor does the INIost Holy desire the
death of sinners, Who offered Himself to die for them, but de-
sires to heal the contrite in heart, to raise the fallen and to
correct the perverse in the spirit of lenity. For which most
salutary purpose our kindly Mother Church has planted you
freely, and having planted has watered you with favors, and
having watered has established you with privileges, that ye may
be co-workers with pastors and curates in procuring the salva-
tion of faithful souls. Wherefore, that the order of Preachers
was principally instituted for the study of the Holy Scriptures
and the salvation of their neighbors, is declared by their con-
stitutions, so that not only from the Rule of Bishop Augustine,^^^
which directs books to be asked for every day, but as soon as
they have read the prolog of the said constitutions they may
know from the very title of the same that they are pledged to
the love of books.

But alas a threefold care of superfluities, viz., of the stomach,
of dress and of houses, has seduced these men and others follow-
ing their example, from the paternal care of books and from
their study. For, forgetting the providence of the Savior, who
is declared by the Psalmist ^^^ to think upon the poor and needy,
they are occupied with the wants of the perishing body, that
their feasts may be splendid and their garments luxurious,
against the Rule, and the fabrics of their buildings, like the bat-
tlements of castles, carried to a height incompatible with poverty.
Because of these three things, we books, who have procured
their advancement and have granted them to sit among the
powerful and noble, are put far from their hearts' affection and
are reckoned as superfluities; except that they rely upon some
treatises of small value, from which they derive strange heresies
and apocryphal imbecilities, not for the refreshment of souls,
but rather for tickling the ears of the listeners. The Holy
Scripture is not expounded, but is neglected and treated as
though it were commonplace and known to all, though very
few have touched its hem, and though its depth is such, as holy
Augustine ^^^ declares, that it cannot be understood by the human
intellect, however long it may toil with the utmost intensity of
132 Cf. ante, p. C-l. ^^ Cf. Psahus 9: 12 and 18.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 427

study. From this lie who devoted himself to it assiduously, if
only He will vouchsafe to open the door who has established the
spirit of piety, may unfold a thousand lessons of moral tea(!liing,
which will flourish with the freshest novelty and will cherish
the intelligence of the listeners with the most delightful savors.
Wherefore the first professors of evangelical poverty, after some
slight homage paid to secular science, collecting all their force
of intellect, devoted themselves to labors upon the sacred scrip-
tures, meditating day and night on the Law of the Lord. And
whatever they could steal from their famishing belly, or inter-
cept from their half-covered body, they thought it the highest
gain, to spend in buying or correcting books. Whose worldly
contemporaries observing their devotion and study bestowed
upon them for the edification of the whole Church the books
which they had collected at great expense in the various parts
of the world.

In truth, in these days as ye are engaged with all diligence
in pursuit of gain, it may be reasonably believed, if we speak
according to human notions, that God thinks less upon those
whom He perceives to distrust His promises, putting their hope
in human providence, not considering the raven, nor the lilies,
whom the Most High feeds and arrays. ^^"^ Ye do not think upon
Daniel ^^^ and the bearer of the mess of boiled pottage, ^^^ nor
recollect Elijah ^^^ who was delivered from hunger once in the
desert by angels, again in the torrent by ravens, and again in
Sarepta by the widow, through the divine bounty, which gives
to all flesh their meat in due season. Ye descend, as we fear,
by a wretched anticlimax, distrust of the divine i)rovidence i)ro-
ducing reliance upon your own prudence, and reliance upon
your own prudence begetting anxiety about worldly things,
and excessive anxiety about worldly things taking away the
love as well as the study of books; and thus poverty in these
days is abused to the injury of the Word of God, whicli ye have
chosen only for profit's sake.

With summer fruit, as the people gossip, ye attract boys '^'^

1'* Cf. Matt. 6: 26-28. '^ C7. Daniel 6. I'o cf. Gen. 25: 28-34.

1^ Cf. 1 Kings 19:5; 17: 6; 10-1(1.

^* Cf. the words of Bacon, ante, pp. I{!)!)-K)l.

428 ENGLISH LITERATURE

to religion, whom wlien they have taken the vows ye do not
instruct by fear and force as their age requires, but allow them
to devote themselves to begging expeditions, and suffer them
to spend the time in which they might be learning, in procuring
the favor of friends, to the annoyance of their parents, the
danger of the boys and the detriment of the order. And thus
no doubt it happens that those who were not compelled to learn
as unwilling boys, when they grow up, presume to teach though
utterly unworthy and unlearned, and a small error in the begin-
ning becomes a very great one in the end. For there grows up
among your promiscuous flock of laity a pestilent multitude of
creatures, who nevertheless the more shamelessly force them-
selves into the edifice of preaching, the less they understand
what they are saying, to the contempt of the Divine Word and
the injury of souls. In truth, against the Law, ye plow with
an ox and an ass together,^^^ in committing the cultivation of the
Lord's field to the unlearned. Side by side, it is written, the
oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them: since it
is the duty of the discreet to preach, but of the simple to feed
themselves in silence by the hearing of sacred eloquence. How
many stones ye fling upon the heap of Mercury ^^^ nowadays !
How many marriages ye procure for the eunuchs of wisdom !
How many blind watchmen ^^^ ye bid go round about the walls
of the Church !

O idle fishermen, using only the nets of others, which when
torn it is all ye can do to clumsily repair, but can net no new
ones of your own! ye enter on the labors of others, ye repeat
the lessons of others, ye mouth with theatric effect the super-
ficially repeated wisdom of others. As the silly parrot imitates
the words that he has heard, so such men are mere reciters of
all, but authors of nothing, imitating Balaam's ass,^^ which,

'39 Cf. Deut. i2: 10.

^*^ Mercury, the classical messenger of the gods, was the god of travelers and in
his honor heaps of stones were to be found at the cross-roads, each waj'farer being
supposed to add one to the heap. Mercury was also the inventor of ^^•ise and
clever discourse. The allusion is an apt one, for the friars were supposed to be the
wandering messengers of a new gospel and were to be pre-eminently preachers of
the Word. The irony of Bury's remark is very pointed.

»« Cf. Isaiah 56: 10 and Song of Solomon 3: 3. ^*^ Cf. Numbers 2i: 21-30.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 429

though senseless itself, yet became eloquent of speech and the
teacher of its master though a prophet. Recover yourselves,
O poor in Christ, and studiously regard us books, without which
ye can never be properly shod in the preparation of the Gospel
of Peace. ^^

Paul the Apostle, preacher of the truth and excellent teacher
of nations, for all his gear bade three things be brought to him
by Timothy, his cloak, books and parchments,^^ affording an
example to ecclesiastics that they should wear dress in modera-
tion, and should have books for aid in study, and fiarchments,
which the Apostle especially esteems, for writing: and especially,
he says, the parchments. And truly that clerk is crippled and
maimed to his disablement in many ways, who is entirely igno-
rant of the art of writing. He beats the air with words and edi-
fies only those who are present, but does nothing for the absent
and for posterity. The man bore a writer's ink-horn upon his
loins, who set a mark Tau upon the foreheads of the men that
sigh and cr\' fEzekiel ix.); teaching in a figure that if any lack
skill in writing, he shall not undertake the task of preaching
repentance.

Finally, in conclusion of the present chapter, books implore
you: make your young men who though ignorant are apt of
intellect apply themselves to study, furnishing them with neces-
saries, that ye may teach them not only goodness but discipline
and science, may terrify them by blows, charm them by bland-
ishments, mollify them by gifts and urge them on by painful
rigor, so that they may become at once Socratics in morals
and Peripatetics in learning. Yesterday, as it were at the eleventh
hour,^^^ the prudent Householder introduced you into his vine-
yard. Repent of idleness before it is too late: would that
with the cunning Steward ye might be ashamed of begging so
hopelessly; for then no doubt ye would devote yourselves more
assiduously to us books and to study.*

'« Cf. Ephesians G: 11. '" Cf. i Tim. 4: 13.

^^ \n allasion to the comparative youth of the orders of friars; the scriptural
allusion is Matt. 20: 1-16.

* By permission of Messrs. Chatto and Windus from their Edition in the Kin^'t Classics
Series.

430 ENGLISH LITERATURE

While we were constantly delighting ourselves with the read-
ing of books, which it was our custom to read or to have read
to us every day, we noticed plainly how much the defective
knowledge even of a single word hinders the understanding, as
the meaning of no sentence can be apprehended, if any part
of it be not understood. Wherefore we ordered the meanings
of foreign words to be noted with particular care, and studied
the orthography, prosody, etymology and syntax in ancient gram-
marians with unrelaxing carefulness, and took pains to eluci-
date terms that had grown too obscure by age with suitable
explanations, in order to make a smooth path for our students.

This is the whole reason why w^e care to replace the anti-
quated volumes of the grammarians by improved codices, that
we might make royal roads, by which our scholars in time to
come might attain without stumbling to any science.*

The number and range of volumes in a medieval mo-
nastic library are indicated in the following catalog of the
Library at the Monastery of Rievaux. The catalog was
written in the fourteenth century and is extant in a MS.
in the Library of Jesus College, Cambridge, and first
printed in 1843.1^^

(A) The Codex of Justinian }^'^ The Decrees of Gratian.^"^^ John'^^^
on the Decrees. Haymo,^^ On the Epistles of St. Paul.

^^ Each item followed by a period in the catalog represents a volume imless
otherwise specified. Dashes before an item indicate that the books mentioned were
written by the same author as those preceding.

^^^ Justinian was Roman Emperor at Constantinople 527-565 a.d., and under
his orders the law of the Empire was codified. This involved three tasks, the
collection of all that was valuable in the writings of earlier jurists (called the Digest
or Pandects), the collection of the imperial laws proper (called the Justinian Codex
or Code) and the preparation of an elementary treatise on law (called the Institutes)
for the use of law students. Sometimes the term Code is applied to all three
of these works together, sometimes to the second work only; it is impossible to
tell which is meant here.

'^* Ciratian, a Benedictine monk, in 1144 put out his Decretum (Decrees), a code
of canon, that is church, law founded on the Justinian Code and the decisions of
ecclesiastical officials. Gratian probably taught canon law at Bologna, but the
study long faced the opposition of the Church. ^^^ ? ^^ Cf. ante, p. 133.

* By permission of Messrs. Chatto and Windus from their Edition to iheKing's Classics Series.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 431

(B) Augustine,^'^ On the City of God. — , On John. — , On the
Psalter, in five volumes. — , On the Ten Commandments, On Grace
and Free Will, the Epistle of Prosper ^''^ to Augustine, the Epistle
of Hilary ^''^ to Augustine. Augustine, On the Predestination of the
Saints, On the Virtue of Perseverance, On Genesis against the Mani-
chceans.^^^ — , On the Sermon on the Mount, On Nature and Grace
and Letter to Valentine. ^'^^ — , On the Size of the Soul. Ambrose, ^"^^
0?i the Good of Death, On Justice and On Widows. Augustine,
On the Perfection of Justice, On Reproof and Grace and God with^
Us. — , On Charity and his Retractions. — ; On Dualism, On the
Discipline of Christians, On the Ten Strings,^^'^ the Rule for the
Life of Clerics, On Marriage and Concupiscence, Against Julian,^'^
Against Two Epistles of the Pelagians, ^^^ On Holy Virginity. — ,
To Simplicianus '^^^ against Pelagius ^""^ and others.

(C) Against Faustus.^^^ — , On the Trinity. — , On Confes-
sions. — , On the Words of the Lord. — , On the Literal Inter-
pretation of Genesis, Against Damasippus.^^^ The Letters of
Augustine and — , In Reply to Pelagius the Heretic. — , Oii Peni-
tence, Whence Evil, Of Free Will, Against Five Heresies, Of Proper
Marriage, a certain part of On the Perfection of Justice and Hugo,^"^
On Noah's Ark. xVugustine, On the Baptism of Infants, To Mar-
cellinus,^^^ On One Baptism, On the Letter and the Spirit, To Pau-
linus,^*^^ Yponosticon, Against the Pelagians, On Deaths in the ChurcJi,

1^^ Cf. ante, p. 64; consult also Encyclopedia Britannica, ed. 11, article Augus-
tine. ^^2 \ disciple of Augustine. ^" Cf. ante, p. 64.

^^* An oriental sect, dualistic in its doctrine, teaching that the universe is the
home of two warring powers of about equal might. Augustine was a Manichiean
before his conversion to Christianity.

155 Possibly Bishop Valentine, who labored in Rhietia in the first half of the fifth
century. '^ Cf. ante, p. 64. '^^ Probably a musical work.

158 01 Kclanum, the most gifted and consistent champion of IVlagianism.

159 ']■'],(. IVlagians were followers of Pelagius (mentioned later), a Hrilish monk
of the fifth century who denied human need of divine grace and the doctrine of
original sin. "'" .^ '"' .\ Manieluean.

'^2 The word Versus, which I have rendered Aijaiust. may also mean I'crscs;
since Damasippus seems unknown, it is impossible to tell which rendering is correct.

163 Hugh of St. Victor (circa 1078-1141), mystic philo.sopher much read in the
Middle Ages; the Encbjclnprrdia liritaunica article says there is a copy of his
works in nearly every monastic library of which we have record. '"' ?

105 I'robably Paulinus of Xola (.'J.>.'J-4.'J1). who, we know, corresponded with

432 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Against the Letter of a ManichoBau and On the Care to Be shown
about Death. — , Concerning Christian Doctrine. — , Against
Lying, To Renatus ^^^ on the Origin of the Soul against the Books of
J^incentius,^^'^ To Peter ^^^ against the Books of Vincentius,^^"^ To Vin-
centius Vi^tor,^^"^ Against the Perfidy of the ArianSy^^^ Against the Ad-
versaries of the Law and the Prophets, a Book of Bestiaries ^^° and
The Epistles of Anselm.^'^^ Augustine, On the Harmony of the
Evatigelists and two sermons On Swearing. The Soliloquies of
Augustine. — , Against the Academics and On the Order of Monks.
(D) Bernard,^''^ On the Song of Songs. Books of Bernard; that
is, The E.rposition of the Gospel, The Angel Gabriel Was Sent,
On the Degrees of Humility and Pride, On the Varieties of Monastic
Discipline, On Grace and Free Will and Love of the Lord, the
Exhortation to the Templar s,^"^^ and his Book to Pope Eugenius
(III). The Sermons of Bernard for the course of the year. The
same, — , On Grace and Free Will, his Book to Cardinal Ascelinus ^^*
on Loving God and the Verses of Hildebert ^^-^ on the Mass. The
same, Bernard, On Loving God, his Sentences on the Trinity, On
Foreknowledge, On the Sacrament of the Altar, On Certain Sacra-
ments of Faith, The Epistles of Bernard. Anselm, Why God Man,
On the Virgin Birth, On the Mount of Humiliation, On Repara-
tion for Human Redemption, Exposition of the Gospel, Jesus En-

Augustine. Paulinus Avrote an Opus Sacramentorum et Hymnorum (Book of the
Sacraments and Hymns) and a Liber de Laude Generali Omnium Martyrum {Book in
General Praue of All the Martyrs). Or the Paulinus mentioned in the text may be
PauHnus of Pella {circa STG-ioQ), author of a long autobiographic poem, Eucharis-
ticos or Eucharisticon Deo sub Ephemeridis Mece Textu {The Sacrament to God under
the Form of My Ephemeral Life). ^^e ? i67 ? m ?

169 Followers of Arius, fourth-century Unitarian theologian.

17° Cf. ante, p. 192.

1^1 Circa 1033-1109, Archbishop of Canterbury, Italian by birth and education.
Attracted by the fame of Lanfranc, Prior of Bee in Normandy, later Archbishop of
Canterbury, Anselm came to Bee and, when Lanfranc was made archbishop by
William the Conqueror, Anselm succeeded him as prior. Anselm d'd his literary
work at Bee. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by William II Rufus, Anselm
spent the greater part of his tenure of office in controversy with the King over the
civil position of clerics, anticipating the struggle of Becket with Henry II.

172 St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), one of the most famous of medieval
monks and preachers. '^a (^f ante, p. 299. i74 i

"5 Circa 1055-1133, French writer and ecclesiastic, known as egregius versificaior
(famous verse writer).

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 433

tered into a Certain City, His Life (i.e. Anselm's) and Wimundus,^^'^
On the Body of the Lord against Berengarius}'^'^ The Books of An-
selm on the Incarnation of the Word, Monologion, Prosologion, the
Attack of a Certain Man on the Second, Third and Fourth Chap-
ters of a Work of His {i.e. Anselm's) and the Latter s Reply, the
Letter to Bishop Walerranus}''^ Anselm, Tractate on Truth, Trac-
tate on Free Will, On the Fall of the Devil, On the Agreement of
Foreknowledge and Predestination and Grace with Free Will, On
Similitudes, On Grammar. Ailred,^^^ On Spiritual Friendship and
Oti the Origins of Cloisters. A Book of Sermons which begins
thus, You Seek from Me, etc. Ailred,^^^ O71 the Burdens of Isaiah.
— , On the Life of St. Edward,^^^ On the Generosity and Habits and
Death of King David, On the Life of St. Bishop Minian,^^^ On the
Miracles of the Church at Hexham. The Epistles of Ailred.^''^ — ,
On the Sold. The Mirror of Charity. The Letters of the Roman
Pontiffs. The Letters of Cyprian.^^^ Ailred/^^ On a Bundle of Leaves.
(E) Origen/^^ On the Old Testament, in two volumes. Ra-
banus/^"^ On Matthew. Haimo/^^ On the Epistles of Paul. Jose-

phus/^^ The Antiquities. , On the Jewish War and Ailred/'^

On the Generosity of King David. The Sentences of Peter Lombard. ^^"^

176 p

^" Died 1088, a heretic on the subject of transuhstantiation, wliich he held to be
unreasonable. ^~^ ?

"^ An English ecclesiastic and historian (1109-1166), monk and abbot at Rie-
vaux. ^^ I.e. Edward the Confessor.

^^^ 360-432, Apostle of the Southern Picts, Bishop of Whitehorn or Whithern.

^^2 Saint (circa 200-258), Bishop of Carthage, one of the most notable of the
early martyrs. ^^^ Cf. ante, p. 396.

^^ Rabanus or Hrabanus Maurus (circa 776-856 a.d.), German lUne<li(liiu\
ecclesiastic and teacher. He was a pupil of Alcuin at Tours and in S'2'2 l)e(aiiu'
Abbot of Fulda. ^^ Cf. ante, pp. 133 and 430.

'86 Ibid., p. 395.

1*^ An Italian, as his name indicates. He lived from about 1100 to 1 l(i4. He
studied at Bologna, Rheims and Paris, where he was a pupil of .\belard. He became
a teacher of theology in the Cathedral ScIkkiI of Notre Dame and in 1159 Bishop
of Paris, but resigned the next year. His death occurred in 1 KU. His Fonr Books
of Sentences was a collection of ol)servations from Au^Mistinc and otluT fathers on
points of Christian doctrine, with ol)jecti(>ns and vr]A\cs fioui antliors of rri)ulr.
It was intended as a marnial for scholastic disputants and as such was used for five
hundred years as the basis of many lectures and treatises. (Cf. ante, p. 3!)9.) It
was one of the first b(Joks printed and many editions have been published.

434 ENGLISH LITERATURE

(F) The Morals of St. Gregory Pope,^^^ in five volumes. — , On
Ezechiel. — , The Pastoral Care, the Book on the Three Kinds of
Homicide and the Book on the Conflict of Vices and Virtues. The
Book of Gregory's Dialogs. A Book of Fifty Homilies. The First
Part of the Rcgister.^'^'^ Augustine, On True Religion and Marsias.^^^
The Second Part of the Register ^^^ and A Book on the Science of
Speaking. On the Highest Trinity and the Catholic Faith. Robert,^^^
On the Apocalypse. A Book of Sermons, certain excerpts from the
books of Justinian and passages of the Bestiaries.^^^

(G) Ambrose, On Luke. — , On the Blessed Immaculates. — On
Duties and Sacraments. The Letters of Ambrose. — , Oil Virgins,
On Xaboth, his Sermon on Fasting, a book of Prior Richard ^^^ on
Benjamin and his Brethren, On Certain Parts of the World, On the
Seven Wonders of Rome, On the Five Parts of England. Ambrose,
On the Good of Death, On Fleeing the World, On Widoivs, his
Hexameron, On Penitence and Cassiodorus,^^'^ On the Virtues of the
Soul. The First Part of the Etymologies of Isidore,^^'" the Exposi-
tion of the Grammar of Donatus,^^^ Certain Derivations Arranged
in Alphabetical Order, and the Rules of Versification. The Second
Part of the Etymologies of Isidore, On Certain Proper Names of the
Old and New Testaments and Their Meanings, and a book of
Isidore called Synonyms. John Chrysostom,^^^ On the Fiftieth
Psalm, On the Canaanitish Woman, On Reparation for Backslid-
ing. x\ugustine. On a Brave Woman, The Life of Two Priests, On
Ten Abusive Things, The Miracle of the Body and Blood of Our
Lord, Bede,^^^ On Tobias, Isidore, On the Highest Good, and Divers
Virtues. A Book of St. Gregory Nazianzen.^^^ An interlinear copy
of the Book of Chronicles, certain Little Expositions of the Epistles
of St. Paul and the Sermons of Babio.^^^ Laurentius,^^! Oil the

188 Cf. ante, p. 64.

'83 P>i(lently the books in which daily records of matters important to the
monastery were kept.

^••° .'' 1^1 Perhaps Robert Pulleyn, mentioned hiter; cf. p. 435.

'•'2 Cf. ante, p. 192.

1-3 Richard of St. Victor (.^1173), theological writer of allegorical and mystical
tendencies. '^■* Cf. ante, p. 65.

'^^ Archbishop of Seville (flourished ?636) : his Etymologies in 20 books was a
favorite medieval encyclopedia. ^^^ Cf. ante, p. 67. '"^ Ibid., p. 65.

•98 Ibid., p. 65. 133 Ibid., p. 396. 200 p 201 p

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 435

Consolation of Friendship, certain decrees of the fathers, and
Ysagoge (Introduction) of Johannicius.^"^ The Letters of Seneca}^
The sermons of Mauricius ^'^^ which begin thus, Festus upon Fes-
tus. Twenty-eight sermons of St. Bernard, On the Song of Songs.
(H) Hugo,20'^ On the Sacraments in two vohimes. — , On the
Contempt of the World, his Soliloquy on the Pledge of the Soul, the
same. On the Virginity of St. Mary, his solution of the question
Why Can There not Be Marriage ivith One Sex and his Didas-
calion. A Treatise by Hugh and The Miracles of the Body and
Blood of the Lord. Hugo, On Ecclesiastes, and a book of Ecclesi-
astical Dogmas by Gennadius -°^ and a Eulogy of Master John of
Cornwall. "-^'^ Ivo of Chartres,^^^ Pannormia. The same, the
Letters of Dindimus ^^^ and Alexander, the Letter of Lord Bald-
win,"^^^ Abbot of Forda, a Sermon concerning St. Thomas ^^^ and
St. William ^^^ and a salutary piece of advice by a certain wise
man How Rude and Unskilled Persons Should Speak Cautiously
of God and the Soul. The Sentences of Hugo.'~'^ The Letters of
Lvo 2^^^ and the Letters of Hildebert ^^"^ Bishop of Le Mans. Hugo,^^^
On the Hierarchy. Robert,^^^ On Matthew. — , On Leviticus, a
sermon of master Robert Pulleyn,^^^ On All the Necessary J^ir-
tues of the Christian Life, a book of Prior Richard,^^^ On Benja-

202 ? 203 cf. ante, p. 394.

2°^ Possibly one of the martyrs under Maviinian 286-305 a.d.

205 I.e. Hugh of St. Victor; ante, p. 431.

206 Of Massiha (Marseilles), flourished iQ'i-iQd a.d. His best kno^^^l work is a.
continuation of St. Jerome, De Viris Illustribus (On famous Men) by the same title.
This work of Gennadius is an important source of knowledge of the 93 writers
mentioned in it. 207 Flourished 117(5.

208 Circa 1010-1116, Bishop of Chartres, a pupil of Lanfranc at Bee.

209 A fictitious King of the Brahmins, who debate;! inconclusively with King
Alexander the (Jreat the merits of the active and the contemplative life. Cf. Scho
field, op. cit., p. 302.

2'o This is Archbishop Baldwin of (antcrbiiry, who died at Acn> on crusade with
Richard the Lion-IIearted in 1190. 211 i^ Thomas a Bccket.

212 I.e. William, Archbishop of York, 1140-1154.

2'3 I.e. Hugh of St. Victor; ante, p. 431.

2'^ Ibid., p. 432.

2'5 Probably Robert PuUeyn (I'liUciu). an Kiiglisliman {circa 1080-1150). who
studied in Paris under Abehird, lectured at Oxford «>u the Scriptures in 1133,
became a cardinal under Celestine II and papal chancellor under Lucius H.

2'6 Cf. ante, p. 434.

436 ENGLISH LITERATURE

juin and His Brethren, the Rule of St. Basil}^"^ The Letters of
Mauricius}^^ Books of MauriciuSj^^"* namely, The Mirror of
Monastic Religion, his Apology, The Itinerary of Peace, his book
On Rythni and On the Translation of the Body of St. Cuthbert.^^^
A Lapidary ^^ and certain sermons, sentences and compilations.
(I) Bede,"^ On Luke. — , On Mark. — , On the Tabernacle. — ,
On the History of the English. — , On Seasons and certain chroni-
cles of his. — , On Thirty Questions and On Esdras. — , On Samuel.

— , On the Canonical Epistles and On the Song of Songs. — , On
the Life of St. Cuthbert ^'^ and Cuthbert,222 On the Death of St.
Bede. Two English books.

(K) The Ecclesiastical History.^^ The History of {H)Egesip-
pus.^^ The History of Henry.^^ The History of Jerusalem.^^^
The History of the Britons.'^'^ The Itinerary of Clement.^'^ The
Sermons of master Geoffrey Babio ^^^ and an Exposition of the
Prophets Joel and Nahum. Orosius,^^'' On the History of the World,

— the History of the Trojan War by Dares,-^^ the Verses of Peter
Abelard ^^^ to His Son, and The English Chronicle. ^^^ Books of
Aldhelm,^ certain names and words from a book of capitularies,
Hugo of Folieto,^^^ On the Material Cloister, the same. On the
Spiritual Cloister, an Attack on Solomon. An Exposition of the
Gospel, Simon Peter Said to Jesus, a sermon On the Labor and
Reward of the Saints, a sermon On the Nine Months of the Con-
ception and the Eight Days of the Circumcision of Christ, a sermon
On Holy Easter, collections of extracts and meditations, a Trea-
tise on Certain Chapters of the Song of Songs and a Handbook of
Matters and Words. An Exposition of the Song of Songs, Am-
brose, On the Song of Songs, an Exposition of the Eight Construc-

217 Cf. ante, p. 64. 218 /^^^^^ p 435 219 75^-^^ p io2.

220 I.e. a book on the mystical virtues of stones; cf. passages translated from
the Lapidary in Shackford, op. cit., pp. 111-116 and notes.

221 Cf. ante, p. 65. 222 jjji^^ pp lU-in.
223 Perhaps that of Hugo of Fleury, who died about 1118.

22* An ecclesiastical writer of the second century. 225 p 226 p

227 Of Geoffrey of Monmouth? cf. ante, p. 248. 228 ? 229 ?

230 Cf. ante, p. 64. The word Ormeda in the Latin title of Orosius' book I have
rendered History on the authority of Ducange. 231 Qf ante, p. 404.

232 Ibid., p. 386. 233 ffjg Anglo-Saxon Chronicle? 234 ^f ^^^^^ p q^

236 p

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 437

tions of Priscian, an Exposition of the Apocalypse, the same, an
Exposition of the Song of Songs, glosses of Boethius,^-'^^ and a Brief
Exposition of Certain Psalms. John ^^"^ on the Decrees of Gratian,
The Body of the Canon Law. An interlinear Matthew. An inter-
linear Acts of the Apostles. Boethius,^'^'^ On the Trinity, the
Book of Cato,^^ the Passion of St. Laurence,^^^ Proverbs from the
Books of the Poets, the Life of St. Mary of Egypt,"^^ Hildebert,^'!
On the Edification of the Soul, likewise some Verses of his, certain
hymns, Odo,^^^ On the Powers of Herbs, Marbodeus,^'^ On the
Kinds of Stones, the Passion of St. Mauricius,'^^'^ the Life of
Thais 2'*'' and other verses, the Cosmography of Bernard Sylves-
ter,^'*^ the Passion of St. Thomas "^"^ and other verses and remarks.
An Anthology of Pagan Poetry, the Passion of St. Laurence -'^^
and an Art of Calculating with Arabic Figures.

(L) The Lives of the Fathers, a Life of St. Guthlac,^^'^ a book

236 Cf. ante, p. 66. 237 ? ^f. ante, p. 430.

238 I.e. Dionysius Cato, the title given to a small collection of moral precepts in
verse, which was very popular in the Middle Ages. It is very doul)tful if such a
person as Dionysius Cato ever existed. The date of the original compilation is
the third century B.C. The best known title of the work is Dionijsii Catonis Dis-
iicha de Moribus ad Filium {('oupleta of Dionysius Cato on Morals for JIvi Son).
The book has a Preface and 56 injunctions of a simple character, such as Lave your
parents, and 144 moral precepts, each of which is couched in two dactyllic hex-
ameters. The book was much used as a text-book in Latin for young pupils.
Thirty editions of it were put out in the fifteenth century. An early English trans-
lation was published by Caxton, the first English printer.

23!' A Christian martyr in the Valerian persecution August 10, 2o8.

2'" A more or less mythical third-century Christian ascetic.

2« Cf. ante, p. 432. . 242 p

2'*3 Circa 103.5-1123, Bishop of Rennes; his book On Gems is the source of much
material in the medieval Lapidary. Cf. Shackford, op. cit., i)p. 170, 171.

24^ Cf. ante, p. 43.5.

245 \ Christian saint and penitent in Egypt in the fourth century; a Lifr l)y
Marljodeus is extant.

2"* Of Chartres or more properly of Tours, a twelfth-century phihxsophical
writer of whom little is known. His favorite philosopher was Plato, though he
pnjbably knew nothing of Plato's except the Tinurus; in his Platonic tendency
Bernard was unlike most m<'dieval phil()soi)hers.

247 Tins' may be either 'I'homas a Becket or Thomas the Apostle.

248 An Anglo-Saxon hermit and saint who lived circa 673-714. Pn)i)ai)Iy the
Life menti(med is that by the monk Felix, which is our authority for the life of
Guthlac.

438 ENGLISH LITERATURE

which is called The Formula for an Honorable Life. A Life of
St. Godric ^^^ the Hermit. John the Hermit ^^^^ on Ten Conferences.
A Book of Fourteen Conferences.'^'''^ Prosper,^-'^ On the Active and
the Contemplative Life and Diadem of Monks. The Book of Odo.^^
Little E.vpositions of the Old and New Testaments, Certain Acts
in the Church before the Passion of the Lord, Augustine, On the
Psalms, other compilations and The Rule Shines Forth. The Book
of Bishop Heraclis ^°^ which is called Paradise and The Persecu-
tion of the Province of Affrica. The Sentences of Master Walter ^'""^
which begin, Salvation Has Made a Litter for Itself. The Sen-
tences which begin thus. While Silence Is in Our Midst. The
Rule of John Cassian.'^^^ An interlinear Psalter of Abbot Ailred.^^
An interlinear Psalter of Lord xVbbot Ernald.^^^ An interlinear
Psalter of Master Walter. ^^^ An interlinear Psalter of Hurold.
An interlinear Psalter of Ralph Barum. x\n interlinear Psalter
of Simon of Sigillum. A small interlinear Psalter for those on
probation. A Psalter of Geoffry Dinant. A Psalter of Fulco. A
Psalter of William of Rutland. A Psalter of Jerome ^'""^ which
belonged to William of Barking.

(M) The Book of Justinian on the Laws. A medical book
which is called A Collection of Antidotes. The Introduction ^^^
of Johannicius. A Large Priscian. Priscian, On Constructions.
Bernard,^^^ On the Twelve Degrees of Humility, Sermons and Useful
Observations, the Apologetics of St. Bernard and Interpretations of
Hebrew Names. Sermons of St. Bernard wdiich begin Holy through
Faith and certain observations. An Exposition of the Prophet

2^3 Possibly Godric I, Abbot of Croyland 870-941.

2^" John Cassian {circa 360-435), who introduced into Western Europe the rules
of Eastern monasticism. His two principal works are the Institutes and the Twenty-
Jour Conferences. Ten of these seem to be bound in this volume and the remaining
fourteen in the next.

2^' I.e. Prosper of Aquitaine, a disciple of Augustine, cf. ante, p. 431.

"^"^ Possibly some work of Odo of Cheriton, died 1247, known as a preacher and
fabulist.

253 Possibly Hcraclas, Bishop of Alexandria from 231-247, pupil and opponent
of Origcn.

^* Probably Walter of St. Victor, twelfth-century mystic ])hilosopher and theo-
logian, opponent of Abelard and Peter Lombard.

^^ Cf. ante, p. 433. ^^ ? not mentioned in the Cathotic Encyclopedia.

2^7 Cf. anle, p. 64. 268 75^^^ p, 435 259 75^^?., p. 432.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 439

Nahum and On Joel, observations and sermons and profitable
letters of several persons, Laurentius,^^^ On the Creation and
Works of the Lord. A Collection of Divers Observations Applied
to Divers Situations in the Catholic Church and Excerpts, Ornately
Put, from the Register of Gregory. Cicero's Synonyms, certain
matters About the Calculation of Time and the Rules of Versifica-
tion. Rhetoric. Boethius,^^^ On the Consolation of Philosophy.
Porphyry's -''- Introduction to the Categories of Aristotle and other
books of dialectic. A book Of the Miracles of St. Mary.^^^

(N) A Book of Homilies for Winter. A Book of Homilies for
Summer. A Passional ^'^ for the Month of October. A Passional
for the Months of November and December. A Passional for the
Month of January. The Life of St. Sylvester ^"'-^ and lives of other
saints. A Life of St. Ambrose and of other saints. Homilies for
Quadragesima. A tripartite Psalter.

(O) Jerome,-"'^ On the Twelve Prophets in two volumes. — , On
Jeremiah and On Daniel. — , On Hebrew Questions, On the Dwell-
ings of the Children of Israel, On the Distances of Places, On the
Interpretation of Hebrew Names, On Questions of the Book of Kings,
On Chronicles, On the Ten Temptations, On the Six States of Fugi-
tives, On the Song of Deborah,"^^"^ On the Lamentations of Jeremiah,
Prudentius,^^^ On Building, Hugo of Folieto,^^^ On the Cloister of
the Soul, Jer' Gennad',"'° Isidorc^-^^ On Illustrious Men, Cassio-
dorus,^^- On the Institutions of Divine Letters, Ailred,^^^ Ofi a
Standard of Weights and Measures, Of the Map. Bernard, On the
Song of Songs, an interlinear Jeremiah, the Minor Works r/
Bernard, the letters and observations of several persons, an inter-
linear list of Barbarisms, the Letters of Seneca and St. Paiil.'-'^

260 ? 261 Qi ante, p. GO. 202 //^^v/.^ p. ^^o

2'"'^ I.e. the mother of Jesus. ^ci j ^. .,^ \\^i ^,f \\•^^^ saints' days for the luontli.

265 Pope from 314-335, to whom C'onstantine is supposed to have made the
famous Donation; ef. ante, p. .'519. The Life is le^jenchiry.

2«s Cf. ante, p. 64. 207 (;f J,„lf,es .5.

26'* A Christian lloman poet born 313 a.d. lie was the first really great Christian
poet. His (Udhcmcrinon (Daili/ lioiiiid) has been translated into modern Kn^dish
verse and is aecessible in the Temple r/f/.v.sw'r.s- ed. (K. P. Dutton and Co.).

263 (^f. ante, p. VM',. 270 :. 271 //„v/^ p 434

2-2 Ihid., p. (;r,. 273 ji,i,i ^ p 4153.

2^^ Generally regarded to-day as spurious.

440 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The Sermons of Peter Manducatorr^^ On the Birth of St. Cuth-
bert, the Passion of St. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury,^'^^ the
Miracle of the Image of St. Mary, the Life of St. Olaf.^'''' Cer-
tain acts of the Savior, a sermon of Robert Pulleyn ^^^ the Rule
of Certain Adverbs and the Question of a Certain Construction,
Jerome, Against Jovinian ^^^ on Mystical Places, Bede, On the
Metrical Art and On Figures of Speech, Hugo,^^° On the Training
of \ or ices, the Letter of Abbot Patellicus -^^ to His Bishop and the
Bishop's Reply. The Life of St. Jerome and his Letters. The
Sentences of Master Robert INIelun.^^^ The Sermons of Abbot
Werrus.-^ The Letters of Sidonius.^^"^

(P) Interhnear Books.

Genesis. Exodus. Isaiah. The same. Job. The same. The
Twelve Prophets. The same. The same. Six Prophets. To-
bias, Judith, Esther and the Apocalypse. The Song of Songs
and the Canonical Epistles. Matthew. Mark. The same. Luke
The same. The same. John. The same. The same. The
Canonical Epistles. The Epistles of Paul. The same. The
Apocalypse. The same and the Song of Songs.

(Q) A Book of Usages in two volumes. A Brief Gloss of the
Psalter. Certain Passages from the Gospels briefly Explained, the
E.rhortation of St. Bernard to Pope Eugenius (III), Observations
of the Father concerning Vices and Virtues and a Physics. A
Prayer-Book which begins Lord Jesus Christ Son of the Living

^^ Thirteenth-century French theologian . ^^^ I.e. Thomas a Becket.

2" Patron saint of Norway (circa 995-1030)., 278 Qf ante, p. 435.

2^* An Italian heretic of the fourth century who opposed asceticism, celibacy,
and monachism, held that Mary after the birth of Jesus was no longer a virgin,
that the l)lessedness of heaven does not depend on the merit of good works, and that
a Christian cannot sin wilfully.

280 Possibly Hugh of St. Victor; cf. ante, p. 431. 28i a

282 An English philosopher and theologian (circa 1100-1167). He studied with
Hugh of St. Victor and probably with Abelard and was the master of John of Salis-
bury (cf. post, p. 559) and Thomas a Becket. Through the influence of the latter
he became Bishop of Hereford in 1163. His Sentences have never been published in
full but are still in MSS. 283 ?

2**' A Christian author, bom at Lyons about 430 and died at Clermont about
480. He became Bishop of C'lermont, wrote poems and letters, and is the last
representative of the ancient culture in Gaul. His Letters, though somewhat rhe-
torical and ornate, give a unique picture of the life of the times.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 441

God, Bernard, On Propriety in Poetry, the Hours of St. Mary,
the Institution of a Chapter and Exposition of Certain Prayers.
The same, a Prayer-Booh which begins Lord Jesus Christ Who
into This World. Sentences which begin Do not Desire for Your-
self and Prudentius.-*^^ An Explanation of Certain Names and
Words in the Epistles of St. Paul, Verses concerning Christ, sermons
of certain fathers on the sacraments of the faith. A Hand-hook,
Verses of a Certain Man On the Death of Robert Bloet,^^^ Bishop of
Lincoln and the more difficult parts of the Old and New Testa-
ments. Certain comments on philosophy, certain observations
of Paul and Isaiah, glossed, an Anthology of the Gospels, the
Golden Gem^ a letter of the Bishop of Chartres,^'^^ wonderfully
useful, a book on St. Patrick, a Conference of the Trinity, St.
Augustine Himself to Himself, excerpts from the Pannormie of
Ivo of Chartres,^^'^ the Soliloquy of Mauricius ^^^ and interpreta-
tions of certain words. A Psalter half in verse and certain
prayers in rhythm. A little book which is called An Image of
the World and other observations. A medical book which be-
longed to Hugh of Beverly. 2^^

As contrast and supplement to the foregoing, we include
the following list of books, showing the tendencies of lay
and courtly taste, bequeathed to Bordesley Abbey, Wor-

285 Cf. ante, p. 439.

^^ Died 1123, chancellor of England under William the Conqueror and William
Rufus. He was an indifferent ecclesiastic but a good administrator. Henry of
Huntingdon (cf. ante, p. 87 and post, pp. 553-555) addresses him as patron.

^"^ Probably Ivo (cf. ante, p. 435), though John of Salisbury (cf. post, p. 559)
was also Bishop of Chartres and wrote "wonderfully useful Lt>ttors."

288 Cf. ante, p. 435.

289 So far as 1 know, this is the first time this catalog has been translated or an-
notated. Edwards, o/;.rt<., I, pp. 333-341, prints it without translation or conuncnt.
He also {ibul., pp. 122-2.35) prints for the first time the catalog (»f tlic Lilirary of
the Benedictine M<mastery of Christ Church, Cautcrl)ury. This document, tlioiigli
much longer than the Kievaux catiilog, has no greater range of books than the
latter. Coulton, op. cif., pp. 529, 530 quotes a standard clerical reference library
"of minimum size"; it is especially rich in works on c.inon law. That (vclesiastics
were not always so devotional in their n-.-nling .is they should have Ix'cn is snggcslrd
in the list of a friar's favorite books whicli Chaucer recites in the (\inf<rhiir// Talc'i,
D 11. G()9-{)91; cf. Skeat's notes. For a general reference cm libraries of this period
see Savage, Old English Libraries (Chicago, \. (\ McClurg and Co., H)12).

442 ENGLISH LITERATURE

cestershire, by Guy Beauchamp Earl of Warwick in 1315.
The list is found in one of the MSS. at Lambeth Palace.

To all those who will see or hear this letter, Guy Beauchamp
Earl of Warwick, Greeting in God: We have given into the
power and keeping of the Abbot and Convent of Bordesley, the
gift to be perpetual, all the romances named below, that is to
say :

A volume which is called the Thesaurus}'^^ A volume in
which is the first book of Lancelot ^^^ and that of the Romance
of Aine}^'^ A Psalter in French. A volume of the Gospels and
of Lives of Saints. A volume which contains the four principal
Gests of Charles and of Doon of Mayence . . . and of Girard of
Viana and of Aimeri of Xarbonner^^ A volume of the Romance
of Edward of England ^^^ and of King Charles Doon of Nanteuil?'^^
And the Romance of Guy of Nanteuil.^^ And a volume of the
Romance of Joseph of Arimathea and of the Holy GraUP"^ And
a volume which tells how Adam was expelled from Paradise and
Genesis. 2^^ And a volume in which are all the following ro-

^ I.e. the Tresor of the Itahan Brunetto Latmi (circa 1230-1294) to whom
Dante (1260-1320) pays tribute in such a way (cf. Inferno, XV, 11. 30, 31) that it
was for long thought that Brunetto was Dante's master. This is probably not the
case. Brunetto wTote his Tresor in French "because that language 'is more delight-
ful and more Andely kno^Mi.' " Cf. Johnson, Selections from the Prose Works of
Matthew Arnold (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1913), pp. 68, 321.

^^ Cf. Schofield, op. cit.. Index and Bibliography.

2^ A conjectural rendering of the Old French Aygnes; Aine was an Irish love-
goddess, patroness of Alunster and beloved of a Fitzgerald, to Avhom she bore the
semi-divine wizard Earl Gerald, fourth Earl of Desmond. (Cf. Spence, Dictionary
of Romance ami Romance Writers, E. P. Dutton and Co., 1913.)

2^^ Parts of the Old French epic stories dealing with the exploits of Charle-
magne and his peers. It is curious, however, that the list speaks of four principal
gests of Charles; ordinarily but three are mentioned. These romances first appear
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

"^^ Possibly an account of the adventures of Edward the Confessor of England;
cf. Schofield, op. cit., p. 281.

^^ Fragments of this twelfth-century French romance are extant.

2^ A romance of the end of the twelfth century.

^^ A p(jj)ular member of the cycle of grail stories which ultimately was joined
to the .\rthurian cycle; cf. Schofield, op. cit., Index and Bil)liography.

^ Two miracle plays, of which the former, the Adam, is the oldest French
play. It sprang from the liturgical ('hristmas play and was written in England in

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 443

mances, that is to say, The Lives of the Fathers at the beginning
and then a Count of Auteypt,'^^^ the Vision of St. Paul and then
The Lives of Tivelve Saints. And the Romance of William Long-
sivord.^^^ And The Autjiority of Holy Men and the Mirror of the
Soul. A volume in which are contained the Life of St. Peter
and St. Paul and other books. And a volume which is called
the Apocalypse. And a book of medicine and surgery. And a
volume of the Romance of Guy and the Queen ^^^ entire. A volume
of the Romance of Troy.^^^ A volume of the Romance of William
of Orange and of Tihaut of Araby.^^^^ A volume of the Romance
of Amadas and Ydoine.^'^^ A volume of the Romance of Girard
of Viana.^^^ A volume of the Romance of the Brut ^^^ and of
King Constantine. A volume of the Instruction Aristotle Gave
King Alexander. A volume of the Death of King Arthur and of
Modred.^^"^ A volume in which is contained The Infancy of Our

the twelfth century, to be played, not inside the church, as were the Latin liturgical
plays, but in the church porch. It has three parts, the fall of Adam and Eve, the
death of Abel, and a prefiguration of the death of the Messiah with the procession
of the prophets who announce the coming of the Redeemer. ^99 -j

^^ Died 1226. Earl of Salisbury, natural brother of Richard the Lion-Hearted,
great crusader and founder of Salisbury Cathedral. Many wonders are told in his
interesting life. See the article in The Dictionary of National Biography.

^°^ Perhaps a story of an adventure of Guy, father of Bevis of Hampton, who
married a daughter of the King of Scotland. Or perhaps the reference is to Guy
of Burgundy, who married Floripas, daughter of Laban, sovereign of Babylon.
See Spence, op. cit. No romance of the title Guy and the Queen is cataloged in the
authorities. ^^ See Schofield, op. cit.. Index and Bibliography.

^^ A subcycle of the Charlemagne epic with many stories. It belongs to tlie
eleventh century. William was at first a historical person contemporary with
Charlemagne and his son Louis, but was later confused with other Williams. See
Spence, op. cit.

30* Cf. Schofield, op. cit.. Index and Bibliograpliy. ^os (^7 ^„,/,, p 4^.^^

306 jjy ^Yace (flourished 1170), chronicler, born in Jersey and educated at Caen;
adapted and translated froju Latin into French the Ili.s'toria liriionum {fli.siory oj
the Britoyis) of Geoffrey of Monmouth (cf. (uilc, p. 218). Wace also later, at the re-
quest of Henry II, made a general history of the Normans in Normandy and Eng-
land by rewriting an earlier chronicle of William the Conqueror and making addi-
tions to it. This work was named Roman dr Ron {Rnmnnrr nf Rnlln) from Hollo,
the leader of the Northmen (Normans) in th.-ir (lescfiit upon North. -ni l''iMii(i' in
the tenth century. Wace also wrote other works, e.g. The Life of St. Xirola.^ men-
tioned below. Cf. Wace's autobiography, po.st, p. 559.

3"^ Cf. Schofield, op. cit., index and HiMiography.

444 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Savior, Hoio He Was Taken into Egypt. And The Life of St.
Edward.^'^^ And The Vision of St. Paul. The Vengeance which
the Lord Wreaked by means of Vespasian and Titus and The Life
of St. Nicolas ivho Was Born in Putras.^^^ And The Life of St.
Eustace.^'^ And The Life of St. Guthlac.^^' And the Passion of
the Savior . And the Meditation of St. Bernard ^^^ on Our Lady
St. Mary and on the Passion of Her Son Jesus Christ Our Lord.
And The Life of St. Euphrasia.^^^ And The Life of St. Rade-
gund.^^^ And The Life of St. Juliana.^^^ A volume in which is
Instruction for Children and A Light for Them. A volume of the
Romance of Alexander ^^^ with pictures. A small red book in
which are contained many things. A volume of the Romance
of the Marshals ^^^ and of Fierehras ^^^ and of Alexander .^^^ These
books we grant for our heirs and assigns that they stay in the
said Abbey .^^^

308 Cf. ante, p. 433.

3°^ By Wace; see above. This is Nicolas of Myra or of Bari who died Dec. 6,
345 or 352. He was born at Parara, not Patras, a city of Lycia in Asia Minor
and is the saint who presides over giving at Christmas.

3^° Died 29 March, 625. The second abbot of the Irish monastery of Luxeuil
in France, which mider his care attained renoAvn as a seat of learning and sanctity.

311 Cf. ante, p. 437. ^12 /^^^^ p 432^

31' Or Euphraxia, virgin saint, bom about 380 and died after 410.

31* Abbess at Poitiers in 567, died 587. She was the unwilling wife of Clotaire,
son of Clovis I, King of the Franks. She became a great friend of the Christian poet
Fortunatus, for whom see ante, p. 67.

31* Suffered martyrdom in 303 under Diocletian. There is extant an Old Eng-
lish poem on her life.

31^ Cf. Schofield, op. cit.. Index and Bibliography.

31^^ The word Marshals here is a conjectural rendering for the Old French Ma-
reschans. William Marshal Earl of Pemboke died in 1219. He was regent of Eng-
land during the repeated absences of Richard the Lion-Hearted and was a pattern
of chivalry in his uncompromising fidelity to his chief. The principal source of
our knowledge of his life is a long French poem, Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal
{History of William the Marshal), which was discovered about 1890. It was written
at the request of Marshal's family about 1225, is based on excellent information
and generally regarded as highly valuable by modern scholars. See the article on
Marshal in the Dictionary of National Biography. The last days of Marshal are
summarized in Gautier, La Chevalerie {Chivalry), pp. 773-777.

3'^ Or Ferumbras cf. Schofield, op. cit.. Index and Bibliography.

3'^ See the article on Guy Beauchamp in the Dictionary of National Biog-
raphy.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 445

The circulation of books in the Middle Ages was largely
determined, as it is to-day, by their price, and, therefore,
if we wish to estimate the place of books in medieval cul-
ture, it is important to know something of medieval book
prices. But notices of these are scattered, and besides,
price lists of single commodities without reference to those
of other articles are meaningless. Hence, we preface our
citation of items from two fourteenth-century account-
books, where book prices are listed, by quoting the royal
proclamation of 1315, which sets prices for several food-
stuffs.

Edward (II), by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of
Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine, to the mayor and sheriffs of
London, Greeting. We have received a complaint of the arch-
bishop, bishops, earls, barons and others of the commonalty of
our kingdom, presented before us and our council, that there is
now a great and intolerable dearth of oxen, cows, sheep, hogs
geese, hens, capons, chickens, pigeons and eggs, to the no small
damage and grievance of them and all others living within the
said kingdom. Wherefore, they have pressingly besought us,
that we should take care to provide a fit remedy thereof. We,
therefore, for the common benefit of the people of the said
kingdom, assenting to the aforesaid supplication, as seemed meet,
have ordained, by the advice and assent of the prelates, earls,
barons and others, being of our council, in our last parliament
held at Westminster, that a good saleable fat live ox, not fed
with grain, be henceforth sold for 16s. and no more; and if he
have been fed with corn, and be fat, then he may be sold for
^24s. at the most; and a good fat live cow for l"2s. A tat liog
of two years of age for 40d. A fat sheep with the wool tor ^2()d.
A fat sheep shorn for 14(1. A fat goose in our city aforesaid
for 3d. A good and fat ca])on for '^Id. . . . and tlircn^ |)igcons
for Id., and twenty eggs for Id. And tlmt if it liai)i)cn that any
person or })ersons be found tliat will not sell the said saleable
goods at the settled price aforesaid, then let the foresaid saleable
goods be forfeited to us. And forasmuch as \v(^ will that the
foresaid ordinance be henceforth firmly and in\iolal)ly kept

446 ENGLISH LITERATURE

in our said city and the suburbs thereof, we strictly order and
command you, that you cause the foresaid ordinance to be pro-
claimed publicly and distinctly in our foresaid city and the sub-
urbs thereof, where you shall think meet, and to be henceforth
inviolably kept, in all and singular its articles, throughout your
whole liberty, under the foresaid forfeiture; and by no means
fail herein, as you are minded to avoid our indignation, and to
save yourselves harmless. Witness ourself at Westminster, the
fourteenth day of ^larch, in the eighth year of our reign.

The account-books of Merton College Grammar School
for the fourteenth century are extant, and from entries
in them we can gather some idea of the prices of books and
scholastic expenses and services as follows:

Account. 1308-9.

The boys' expenses.^^"
t
To John of Mere, their master, when he began
For schoolage of 9 boys in the winter term with

the usher's fee
For schoolage of 8 boys in Lent
For a brass pot hired for a year

For a Cato ^^i

For ivory tablets

In shoes and stockings, straw and candles

In schoolage of 10 boys in the summer

Total 2

1347-8
Also in parchment bought at different times for art-
ists and grammarians

• s.

£ 2

Also in a tattered book of Horace ^^^ bought for the
boys

320 Prices of foodstuffs fell at the time of the Black Death; cf. ante, pp. 324, 325.

321 I.e. The Duiich.<f of Cato; cf. ante, p. 437.

3^ I.e. the works of Horace, the contemporary of Ovid and Virgil. We may

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 447

Also in several pairs of white tablets for granunariaiis

for reporting arguments 2i
Also to Master John Cornwall ^~^ in the winter term for rent

of the house l-^

And to his usher 3

Also to the same John for Lent term 10

To the usher for the same time 2|

Also to the same John for the summer term l'^

Total 6 8i

5. The Position of the Poet and Literary 31 an. — In gen-
eral, the status of the poet 1066-1400 was somewhat lower
than in the previous period; he was regarded more as a
mere entertainer and not so much as "guide, philosopher,
and friend." One's attitude toward poets and poetry, how-
ever, was likely to be determined largely by the general
trend of one's sympathies and training, whether clerical
or courtly. If the former, one would officially condemn
the poet as an agent of the devil, though one might wink

assume that in this period books were made in the same way as in the previous age,
cf. ante, p. 69. As for the publication and seUing of books, see the article by Dr.
R. K. Root, Publication before Printing, in the Publication.^ of the Modern Language
Association of America, xxviii, 3 (September, 1913), pp. 417-431. The gist of Dr.
Root's conclusion is as follows: "It seems plain that . . . the author was in the
first instance his owa publisher. It was his task to secure the labor of copyists
(cf. the remarks of Richard of Bury, ante, p. 419) and to oversee and revise their
work. How large his -first edition may have been we have no means of telling; but
it is clear that at the time of publication copies of the work were sent to several
patrons or friends. Save accidentally through the indiscretion of a friend, a work
was not allowed to circulate until it had received its final revision and had been
formally })resented and 'released'; though l)efore this it might have become known
to a good many people {)rivately. After tiie formal {jublication, each ct)py which
had been presented could be freely copied under the direction of its r«>(ipicnl; so
that the recipients might become secondary jjublisluM-s, as it \vcr(>. 'I'o llicm the
author communicated any alterations he might wish to make in the work. From
time to time, at the request of friends, he would haxc made umlcr his supervision
new exemplars; and these would naturally iii(oi|)oratc aii.\- alterations he might
have made in the meanwhile. I have found no evi<lence to show that the profes-
sional booksellers, the stationarii and librarii, played any direct part in the process
of publication." p. i'iV). ^-^ Tiu' same master is mi'iilioiied, /;o.s7, p. 4S.5.

448 ENGLISH LITERATURE

in secret at the poet's activity; if the latter, one would
welcome him with open arms, as an agency of relief from
the too tiring monotony of life in a feudal castle or as a
pleasant inspirer to chivalric deeds. In the passage to be
quoted from Robert Mannyng's (circa 1288-1338) Iland-
lyng Synne {Manual of the Sins), these two attitudes to-
ward poetry and entertainment are seen in somewhat of
a contest. Mannyng is also known as Robert of Brunne,
and about 1300 he adapted his Handlyng Synne, an ac-
count of the familiar seven deadly sins, illustrated by
tales from the French Manuel des Peches {Manual of
the Sins) of William of Waddington. Robert also trans-
lated into English verse the French Chronicle of Peter
Langtoft.

If a clerk in orders joust, he is blameworthy; it were better
that he break his arm or leg than that he succeed; in truth,
if he engage in such activity, it is against the state of holy
church.

He (the clerk in orders) may not, according to the decree,
act nor see miracles (i.e. miracle plays); for if you take up
miracles, they are sinful gatherings and sights.

In the church, however, he may reasonably play the resur-
rection — that is to say, how God rose, how the human and the
divine struggled powerfully in that incident — in order to make
men truly believe that He rose with flesh and blood. And he
may play without jeopardy how God was born on Christmas
night, in order to give men a firm belief that He was born of
the virgin Mary.^24

But if he does it (acts) on the streets or in the woods, it
truly seems a sinful spectacle. St. Isidore,'^^^ I take him to wit-
ness — for he says it and it is true, he says it in his book —
remarks that they who make such plays as miracles, games or
elaborate tournaments before any man, forsake what they
adopted at their christening. These are worldly shows which

^'^* A writer to be quoted later does not agree \s\\h. this; cf. post, pp. 525-543.
»26 Cf. ante, p. 434.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 449

you agreed to give up when you became a Christian. At the
font the untaught man says, "I forsake you, Satan, with all
your vain show and all your works" — that is what you are
taught according to clerks. Are you keeping your word — cer-
tainly you are not — when you make such a show of yourself
(as you do in plays) ? You are breaking your covenant with God
and serving your sire, the devil. St. Lsidore ^^ says in his writings,
"All those who delight in seeing such things, or lend horses or
harness for those purposes, are in danger of being found guilty."

If a priest or clerk lends vestments which have })een hal-
lowed by a sacrament, he is more blameable than others; he
is guilty of a sacrilege. ... If he falls into this danger, he
should be properly punished for it.

Dances, carols and summer games are the source of much
shame. When you consent to take part in these, you are
slothful ^-^ in God's service. And those that sin in this way by
means of you shall be required at your hands. What are you
going to say about all the minstrels who delight themselves in
such things.-^ Their conduct is very risky, it does not show a
proper love for God's house. They had rather hear of a dance,
of boasting and of pride than of the grace of God or any other
sort of wisdom that could be named. Their whole livelihood
— clothing, meat and drink - — comes from folly. And, to illus-
trate this, I shall recount what happened once to a minstrel.
St. Gregory ^-^ tells the tale in one of his books.

A minstrel, a goliardeis,^'^** came once upon a time to the house
of a bishop and asked alms. The porter gave him entrance, at
meal time the table was laid and grace was about to be said,
when the minstrel started to play with a great noise, loud and
high. The bishop had the reputation of being a holy man, (but)
he gave the minstrel a place at table and should liave said
grace. Yet he was so disturbed by the minstrel that he had no
grace to say his gracious words with proper devotion because
of the noise of the minstrelsy.

'-'"' All the stories in this seetion are told to ilhistrate the sin of sloth.
^27 Probably in his Dialogs; ef. ante, p. (Jl.

^^ I.e. a follower of the fabled Bishop (iolias, patron of minstrels and wandering
students; cf. Symonds, op. oil., pp. 21-27.

450 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The bishop made a solemn complaint and said to all who
were there that he would not be a stickler for formality in the
presence of the grace of charity. He saw right well, through
the Spirit, that vengeance would come quickly (upon the min-
strel for his impiety). "Give him the alms and let him go; his
death that shall slay him is near." And as the minstrel passed
out of the gate, a stone fell down from the Avail and killed him
on the spot.

This showed that God was not pleased with what the minstrel
had done in disturbing the blessing and the good bishop's devotions.

This is told for the gleeman's sake (to warn) him to be care-
ful when he sings his song; and also for the sake of those who
hear, that they may not love it so dearly nor have so much
pleasure in it as through it to pay less worship to God.

Now, I am going to tell you a story which I have heard of
the Bishop St. Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln. ^-^ He was very
fond of hearing the harp because it sharpens men's wit, and so
he had his harper's chamber right next to his study. Many
times, during the day or at night, he had the comfort of songs
and lays. Somebody asked him once why he was so delighted
with minstrelsy and why he regarded his harper with so much
affection. He replied, "The power of the harp, through skill
and proper playing, will destroy the power of the fiend, and the
harp is very properly likened to the cross. Another thing gives
me comfort here — if God gives us so much solace here through
the music which comes from a piece of wood, there must be
much more pleasure there with God himself where He dwells.
The harp often reminds me of the joy and bliss of heaven.
Therefore, good sir, you must learn, when you hear a gleeman,
to worship God with all your might, as David says in the
Psalter, 'With harp, tabor and glee of symphony, worship God;
with trumpets and the psaltery, with stringed instruments,
organs and the ringing of bells; with all these worship the
Heavenly King.' ^^° If you do this, I say without fear that you
may listen to minstrelsy." ^^^

329 Cf. ante, p. 393. ^ao Qi. Psalms 33, 81, 92, 108, 150.

33^ For the best general and comprehensive treatment of medieval minstrelsy,
see E. K. Chambers, The MedicBval Stage, I, book 1 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1903).

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 451

6. Wiclifs Protests against the Medieval System. — Roger
Bacon ^^- and Richard -of Bury ^^^ protested, as we have seen,
against various abuses in the medieval way of doing
things, but their protests were not thoroughgoing. There
was, however, in the fourteenth century, one EngHshman
of great abiHty who found that the whole official phi-
losophy of the Middle Ages was wrong. This was John
Wiclif, "the morning-star of the Reformation," who used
his powerful pen to publish abroad his indictment of the
medieVal system. In the passages quoted below, Wiclif
protests against the clerical decision to keep the Bible from
the masses, against the thesis that the contemplative life
is superior to the active, against the theory of the con-
fessional and its abuses, against ecclesiastical encroach-
ments on the jurisdiction of the civil power on the ground
that the former is superior to the latter, and against the
theory of ecclesiastical property.

{A) And they (the prelates) are always loath to have men
know the life of Christ, for when His life and teachings are
known, men will rise in His behalf and priests will be despised
for their lives, for they dishonor Christ, both in word and in
deed. iVccordingly one great bishop of England is ill-pleased
at the translation of God's law into English for unlearned men.
And he is in the habit of annoying, summoning and prosecuting
a certain priest, because he has written (thus in) English (for
ordinary) men. And thus (the bishop) is luirting another priest
with the help of the Pharisees because he has preached the gos-
pel of Christ in plain terms. O ye men who are on Christ's,
side, lend us your aid against Antichrist ! for the perilous times
of which Christ and Paul told long ago are here. But one
source of comfort to me is the knights wlio are fond of the
gospel and desire to read the evangel of Christ's life in English.
Later, if God will, i)riests shall be deprived of their prerogatives
and shall lose the support which makes them bold against Christ
and His law. There are three gr()ni)s fighting against the sect
3^2 Cf. ante, pp. 391-401. ^33 j^^i^ pp 417-430.

452 ENGLISH LITERATURE

of (real) Christian men. The first is the pope and the cardinals
through the false law which they have made; the second is
the emperor's bishops who despise the law of Christ; the third
is these Pharisees — possessioners and beggars (friars). All these
three, enemies of God, are living in hypocrisy, in worldly cov-
etousness, and idleness in God's law. Christ save His church
from these enemies for they fight perilously.

(B) When true men teach that according to God's law, com-
mon sense and reason, every priest ought to put the force of
his mind and will into preaching the gospel, the devil blinds
hypocrites to excuse themselves (on the plea of a) feigned con-
templative life, and to say that since the contemplative life
is the best (life) and priests cannot live in both action (i.e.
preaching) and contemplation, they should for the love of God
cease preaching and live in contemplation. Observe the hypoc-
risy of this conclusion. Christ taught and exhibited the best life
for priests, as our faith declares, since He was God and could not
err. But Christ preached and charged all His apostles and dis-
ciples to go and preach the gospel to all men. Hence, the proper
office of a priest in this world is to preach and teach the gospel.

In this world the best life for priests is a holy life in keep-
ing God's commands and in true preaching of the gospel, as
Christ did and charged all His priests to do. But these hypo-
crites imagine that their selfish indulgence in dreaming and fantasy
is contemplation, and that preaching is a (kind of) active life.
So they imply that Christ adopted the worse type of life for this
world and forced priests to renounce the better and take the
worse life. Thus these fond hypocrites accuse Christ of error.

(C) The pope might arrogate to himself the right to name
as proper priests whomever he would. He might make a bar-
gain with this priest that he should absolve no one unless he
would give him money, or become a partisan of his, and thus
Antichrist might easily conquer lordships and even kingdoms
for himself. Thus, curates and parish priests might spoil the
people as friars have done; and it would be the regular thing
to bargain with the pope for the office of priest.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 453

So men of conscience will not confess their sins to a priest;
for they say that only Christ is able to hear confession properly.
And if any slander them or sue them at law, they ask for a
priest (really) capable of shriving them, and (say that) they will
gladly confess themselves.

(Z)) When Christ was in the hands of His enemies, where
ordinarily men forget themselves and their duty, he bethought
Himself of this sword (the sword of civil or criminal punishment),
and said to Peter, "Put up again thy sword into its place." ^"^^
And there is need that Christ's church pay heed to this word
betimes; for this sword and what it stands for may be drawn
so far out of its place that it will not be possible to put it
back. For this is the status of the sword in many lands where
the clergy have secular dominion fully in their power; and it
will very likely be in the same condition within a four years in
England, unless the knighthood are quick to put their hands on
the sword and restore it to its proper place. For we might as
well recognize the lethargy that has fallen upon us and allowed
the clergy more and more grip on this sword and its perquisites.
And they are likely during this sleep of the secular party to
pull the sword out of the secular hand suddenly, and thus to
get complete control of it, as clerks in divers other lands have.
And men ought to realize that if the clergy once gets this sword
fully into their power, the secular party may go whistle on an
ivy leaf for any property that they will ever return. It would
be against the law that they have made as touching such things;
for they are bound to get into clerical hands as much |)roperty
as they can, and in no case to turn anything back into secular
hands.^^'^

(E) The clergy say that they hold their property nol i)ri\ alcly
but in common, as the apostles and perfect people did at the
beginning of Christ's church, who had all things in common ^^^
as clerks and ecclesiastics say they have now. . . . Hul il' we
take heed we shall see at a glance how the c-lergy sjx'ak i'a]s(^ly
here. . . . For in exactly the same s])irit as the baron or tlie
knight possesses and governs his barony or i)roperty docs tlie

^ Cf. John 18: 11. ^''^ Widif was a priest and a kvturcr at Oxfonl.

336 Cf. Acts 2: U, 45.

454 ENGLISH LITERATURE

clerk, monk, canon, college or convent manage its property,
execute judgment and mete out penalties, such as imprisonment
and hanging, with other secular torments, which formerly be-
longed to the secular arm of the church only.

The Wiclifite conclusions in theology, formulated in
twent^^-four theses, were, by the ecclesiastical authorities,
declared to be, ten of them heretical, and fourteen, erro-
nous. The theses are as follows:

I. — That the material substance of bread and of wine re-
mains, after the consecration, in the sacrament of the altar.

II. — That the accidents do not remain without the subject,
after the consecration, in the same sacrament.

III. — That Christ is not in the sacrament of the altar iden-
tically, truly and really in his proper corporal presence.

IV. — That if a bishop or priest lives in mortal sin he does
not ordain, or consecrate, or baptize.

\\ — That if a man has been truly repentant, all external
confession is superfluous to him, or useless.

VI. — Continually to assert that it is not founded in the gospel
that Christ instituted the mass.

VII. — That God ought to be obedient to the devil.

VIII. — That if the pope is foreordained to destruction and a
wicked man, and therefore a member of the devil, no power has
been given to him over the faithful of Christ by any one, unless
perhaps by the Emperor.

IX. — That since Urban the Sixth, no one is to be acknowl-
edged as pope; but all are to live, in the way of the Greeks,
under their own laws.

X. — To assert that it is against sacred scripture that men of
the church should have temporal possessions.

XI. — That no prelate ought to excommunicate any one un-
less he first knows that the man is excommunicated by God.

XII. — That a person thus excommunicating is thereby a
heretic or excommunicate.

XIII. — That a prelate excommunicating a clerk who has
appealed to the king, or to a council of the kingdom, on that
very account is a traitor to God, the king and the kingdom.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 455

XIV. — That those who neglect to preach, or to hear the
word of God, or the gospel that is j)reached, because of the ex-
communication of men, are excommunicate, and in the day of
judgment will be considered as traitors to God.

XV. — To assert that it is allowed to any one, whether a
deacon or a priest, to preach the word of God, without the au-
thority of the apostolic see, or of a catholic bishop, or some
other which is sufficiently acknowledged.

XVI. — To assert that no one is a civil lord, no one is a
bishop, no one is a prelate, so long as he is in mortal sin.

XVII. — That temporal lords may, at their own judgment,
take away temporal goods from churchmen who are habitually
delinquent; or that the people may, at their own judgment, cor-
rect delinquent lords.

XVIII. — That tithes are purely charity, and that parish-
ioners may, on account of the sins of their curates, detain these
and confer them on others at their will.

XIX. — That special prayers applied to one person by pre-
lates or religious persons, are of no more value to the same person
than general prayers for others in a like position are to him.

XX. — That the very fact that any one enters upon any pri-
vate religion whatever, renders him more unfitted and more in-
capable of observing the commandments of God. !

XXI. — That saints who have instituted any private religions
whatever, as well of those having possessions as of mendicants,
have sinned in thus instituting them.

XXII. — That religious persons living in private religions are
not of the Christian religion.

XXIII. — That friars should be required to gain their living
by the labor of their hands and not by mendicancy.

XXIV. — That a person giving alms to friars, or to a preach-
ing friar, is excomnnmicate; also the one receiving.'^*^^

7. The Growth of a Feeling of Ncitionality. — The growth
of a feeling of nationality is a marked feature of the cul-

^'' For more material on Wiclif of. /w.sY, i)p. 588-595. For a general reference to
Wiclif and his work, see The Cambridge Histoty of English Literature, ii, chapter ii
and liihliographrj.

450 ENGLISH LITERATURE

ture of this epoch and doubtless was a stimulus for the
outburst of literature in the vernacular which marked its
close. The development of this feeling is especially notice-
able among the upper classes, who largely represent impor-
tations from Normandy, Anjou, and other parts of France.
At the beginning of the period their estimate of England
was low. For example, the regard of William the Con-
queror for his English kingdom as compared with his
Norman duchy is expressed in his will as thus recorded
by Henry of Huntingdon : ^^^

William, King of England, bequeathed Normandy to his
eldest son, Robert; the kingdom of England to William, his
second son; and the treasure he had amassed to his third son,
Henry, by means of which he succeeded in depriving him of his
dominions; ^^^ a thing displeasing to God, but the punishment
was deferred for a time.

Yet in 1106, forty years after the battle of Hastings,
Angevins, English and Normans, with the flow^er of Brit-
tany, followed Henry, now King of England, to Nor-
mandy in his contest with his elder brother, Robert.
Henry and Robert met at Tenchebrai and Henry was
victorious, thus making Normandy an appanage of the
English crown,^"^^ as Huntingdon again records.

Upon his laying siege to the castle of Tenerchebrai, the Duke
of Normandy (Robert), having with him Robert de Belesme
and the Earl of Morton with all their adherents advanced
against him (King Henry). The King on his side was not un-
prepared; for there were with him almost all the chief men of
Normandy and the flower of the forces of England, Anjou and
Brittany. The shrill trumpets sounded and the Duke, with his
few followers, boldly charged the King's numerous troops, and,

33« Cf. ante, p. 87.

3'^ Huntingdon, being a decided partisan of Henry I as against Robert, means
that Henry should have been given the sovereignty of either England or Normandy.
3^" Normandy had already been mortgaged to William II; cf. ante, p. 378.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 457

well trained in the wars of Jerusalem,^'*^ with his terrible onset
repulsed the royal army. William Earl of Morton, also attack-
ing it from point to point, threw it into confusion. The King
and the Duke with a great part of their troops fought on foot,
that they might make a determined stand; but the Breton
knights bore down the flank of the Duke's force, which, unable
to sustain the shock, was presently routed. Robert de Belcsme,
perceiving this, saved himself by flight; but Robert Duke of
Normandy and William Earl of Morton were made prisoners.
Thus the Lord took vengeance on Duke Robert; because when
He had exalted him to great glory in the holy wars, he rejected
the offer of the kingdom of Jerusalem, preferring a service of
ease and sloth in Normandy to serving the Lord zealously in
the defence of the Holy City. The Lord, therefore, condemned
him to lasting inactivity and perpetual imprisonment.

Tow^ard the close of the twelfth century there is evidence
that English and Normans had become pretty well fused
and the basis for national feeling established. This evi-
dence is found in the Dialogus de Scaccario {Dialog on the
Exchequer') of Richard Fitzneale or Fitznigel, otherwise
known as Richard of Ely, who died in 1198. He was the
son of Nigel Bishop of Ely and became treasurer of Eng-
land in 1169. He held this office for twenty-nine years,
and his experience fully qualified him to write his book
on the principles and administration of the English ex-
chequer; a book invaluable to modern scholars because of its
definitions of medieval financial and political terms and its
description of fiscal procedure. Richard wrote his dialog
"by request," as he tells us in the following words: "In
the twenty-third yesir of the reign of King Henry II
(1177), while I was sitting at the window^ of a tower next
to the River Thames, a man spoke to me impetuously,
saying, 'Master, hast thou not read that there is no use
in science or in treasure that is hidden.^' When I replied

^■»' I.e. the Crusades.

458 ENGLISH LITERATURE

to him, 'I have read so,' straightway he said, *Why,
therefore, dost thou not teach others the knowledge con-
cerning the exchequer which is said to be thine to such an
extent, and commit it to writing lest it die with thee?'
I answered, 'Lo, brother, thou hast now for a long time
sat at the exchequer, and nothing is hidden from thee,
for thou art painstaking. And the same is probably the
case with the others who have seats there.' But he, 'Just
as those who walk in darkness and grope with their hands
frequently stumble, — so many sit there who seeing do
not perceive, and hearing do not understand.' Then I,
'Thou speakest irreverently, for neither is the knowledge
so great nor does it concern such great things; but per-
chance those who are occupied with important matters
have hearts like the claws of an eagle, which do not retain
small things, but which great ones do not escape.' And
he, 'So be it; but although eagles fly very high, neverthe-
less they rest and refresh themselves in humble places;
and, therefore, we beg thee to explain humble things w^hich
will be of profit to the eagles themselves.' Then I, 'I
have feared to put together a work concerning these things
because they lie open to the bodily senses and grow common
by daily use; nor is there, nor can there be in them a
description of subtle things, or a pleasing invention of the
imagination.' And he, 'Those who rejoice in imaginings,
who seek the flight of subtle things, have Aristotle and
the books of Plato; to them let them listen. Do thou
write not subtle but useful things.' Then I, 'Of those
things which thou demandest it is impossible to speak
except in common discourse and in ordinary words.' 'But,'
said he, as if roused to ire, for to a mind filled with desire
nothing goes quickly enough, 'writers on arts, lest they
seem to know too little about many things, and in order
that art might less easily become known, have sought to
appropriate many things, and have concealed them under

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 459

unknown words: but thou dost not undertake to write
about an art, but about certain customs and laws of the
exchequer; and since these ought to be common, common
words must necessarily be employed, so that the style may
ha\e relation to the things of which we are speaking.
Moreover, although it is very often allowable to invent
new words, I beg, nevertheless, if it please thee, that thou
may'st not be ashamed to use the customary names of
the things themselves which readily occur to the mind,
so that no new difficulty from using unfamiliar words may
arise to disturb us.' Then I, *I see that thou art angry;
but be calmer; I will do what thou dost urge. Rise,
therefore, and sit opposite to me; and ask me concerning
those things that occur to thee. But if thou shalt pro-
pound something unheard of, I shall not blush to say,
"I do not know." But let us both, like discreet beings,
come to an agreement.' And he, 'Thou respondest to my
wish. Moreover, although an elementary old man is a
disgraceful and ridiculous thing, I will nevertheless begin
with the very elements.'" ^^^

He, therefore, asks first the meaning of the word ex-
chequer itself and the explanation of this leads to further
queries, in the course of which they come upon the word
murder. In explaining this Fitzneale says:

Murder (Murdrum), indeed, is properly called the secret death
of somebody, whose slayer is not known. For "murdrum"
means the same as "hidden" or "occult." Now in the primi-
tive state of the kingdom after the Conquest those who were
left of the Anglo-Saxon subjects secretly laid ambushes for the
suspected and hated race of the Normans, and, here and there,
when opportunity offered, killed them secretly in the woods and
in remote places: as vengeance for whom — when the kings
and their ministers had for some years, with exquisite kinds of
tortures, raged against the Anglo-Saxons; and they, neverthe-

'*2 Cf . Henderson, Select Historical Docuvienis of the Middle Ages, pp. 22, 23.

460 ENGLISH LITERATURE

less, had not, in consequence of these measures, altogether
desisted, — the following plan was hit upOn, that the so-called
"hundred" in which a Norman w^as found killed in this way —
when he who had caused his death was not to be found, and it
did not appear from his flight who he w as — should be con-
demned to a large sum of tested silver for the fisc; some, in-
deed, to 36, some to 44£, according to the different localities
and the frequency of the slaying. And they say that this is
done with the following end in view, namely, that a general
penalty of this kind might make it safe for the passers by, —
and that each person might hasten to punish so great a crime and
to give up to justice him through whom so enormous a loss fell
upon the neighborhood. . . .

Disciple. Ought not the occult death of an Anglo-Saxon, like
that of a Norman, to be reputed murder?

Master. By the original institution it ought not to, as thou
hast heard: but during the time that the English and Normans
have now dwelt together, and mutually married and given in
marriage, the nations have become so intermingled that one
can hardly tell to-day — I speak of freemen — who is of English
and who of Norman race; excepting, however, the bondsmen
who are called "villani" (villeins), to w^hom it is not free, if
their lords object, to depart from the condition of their station.
On this account, almost always when any one is found thus
slain to-day, it is punished as murder; except in the case of
those who show^ certain proofs, as we have said, of a servile
condition.

Disciple. I wonder that this prince of singular excellence
(William the Conqueror), and this man of most distinguished
virtue, should have shown such mercy towards the race of the
English, subjugated and suspected by him, that not only did he
keep the serfs by whom agriculture could be exercised, from
harm, but left even the nobles of the kingdom their estates and
ample possessions.

Master. Although these things do not pertain to the matters
undertaken and concerning which I have bound myself, I will
nevertheless freely expound what I have heard on these matters
from the natives themselves. After the conquest of the king-

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 461

dom, after the just overthrow of the rebels, when the king him-
self and the king's nobles went over the new places, a diligent
inquiry was made as to who there were who, contending in war
against the king, had saved themselves through flight. To all
of these, and even to the heirs of those who had fallen in battle,
all hope of the lands and estates and revenues which they had
before possessed was precluded: for it was thought much for
them even to enjoy the privilege of being alive under their
enemies. But those who, having been called to the war, had
not yet come together, or, occupied with family or any kind of
necessary affairs, had not been present, — when, in course of
time, by their devoted service they had gained the favor of their
lords, they began to have possessions for themselves alone;
without hope of hereditary possession, but according to the
pleasure of their lords. But as time went on, when, becoming
hateful to their masters, they were here and there driven from
their possessions, and there was no one to restore what had
been taken away, — a common complaint of the natives came to
the king to the effect that, thus hateful to all and despoiled of
their property, they would be compelled to cross to foreign
lands. Counsel at length having been taken on these matters,
it was decided that what, their merits demanding, a legal pact
having been entered into, they had been able to obtain from
their masters, should be conceded to them by inviolable right:
but that, however, they should claim nothing for themselves by
right of heredity from the time of the conquest of the race.
And it is manifest with what discreet consideration this pro-
vision was made, especially since they would thus be bound to
consult their own advantage in every way, and to strive hence-
forth by devoted service to gain the favor of their lords. So,
therefore, whoever belonging to the conquered race, possesses
estates or any thing of the kind, — he has acquired them, not
because they seemed to be due to him by reason of heredity, but
because his merits alone demanding, or some pact intervening,
he has obtained them.^^^

^'^ Chaucer's Man of Law has at his tongue's end the hiws of England since the
time of William the Conqueror; cf. Prolog to the Canterbury Tales, 11. 323-324 and
Skeat's notes.

462 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Against the Jews, national feeling, combined to be sure
with religious antipathy, often expressed itself in deeds
of violence and murder. Of what happened to the Jews,
for example, at the coronation of Richard the Lion-
Hearted, William of Newburgh ^^^ speaks as follows :

Richard, the only monarch of the age who bore that name,
was consecrated king at London and solemnly crowned by Bald-
win Archbishop of Canterbury on the third day of . . . Sep-
tember (1189), a day which, from the ancient superstition of
the Gentiles, is called evil or Egyptian, as if it had been a kind
of presage of the event which occurred to the Jews. For that
day is considered to have been fatal to Jews, and to be Egyp-
tian rather than English; since England, in which their fathers
had been happy and respected under the preceding king (Henry
II), was suddenly changed against them, by the judgment of
God, into a kind of Egypt where their fathers had suffered hard
things. Though this is an event that is fresh in our memory
and known to all who are now living, yet it is worth the trouble
to transmit to posterity a full narration of it, as proof of an
evident judgment from on high upon that perfidious and blas-
phemous race.

Not only Christian nobles, but also the leading men among
the Jews, had come together from all parts of England to wit-
ness the solemn anointing of the. Christian sovereign. For those
enemies of the truth were on the watch lest, perchance, the
prosperity which they had enjoyed under the preceeding mon-
arch should smile upon them less favorably under the new king;
and they wished that his first acts should be honored by them
in the most becoming manner, thinking that undiminished favor
would be secured by ample gifts. But whether it was that they
were less acceptable to him than to his father (Henry II), or
whether he was on his guard against them, from some cause,
(of which I am ignorant,) through a superstitious caution, ad-
vised by certain persons, he forbade them (by a proclamation,
it is said) to enter the church while he was being crowned, or
to enter the palace while the banquet was being held after the

344 Cf. ante, p. 209.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 463

solemnity of the coronation. After the celebration of the mass
was finished, the King, glorious in his diadem, and with a mag-
nificent procession, went to the banquet; but it happened that,
when he was sitting down with all the assembly of the nobility,
the people who were watching about the palace began to crowd
in. The Jews who had mingled with the crowd were thus driven
within the doors of the palace. At this, a certain Christian was
indignant, and, remembering the royal proclamation against
them, endeavored, as it is said, to drive away a Jew from the
door, and struck him with his hand. Aroused at this example,
many more began to beat the Jews back with contempt, and a
tumult arose. The lawless and furious mob, thinking that the
King had commanded it and supported them, as they thought,
by his royal authority, rushed like the rest upon the multitude
of Jews who stood watching at the door of the palace. At first
they beat them unmercifully with their fists, but soon, becoming
more enraged, they took sticks and stones. The Jews then fled
away; and, in their flight, many were beaten so that they died,
and others were trampled under foot and perished. Along with
the rest, two noble Jews of York had come thither, one named
Joceus, and the other Benedict. Of these, the first escaped,
but the other, following him, could not run so fast, so that he
was caught and, to avoid death, was compelled to confess him-
self a Christian, and, being conducted to a church, was there
baptized.

In the meantime, an agreeable rumor that the King had
ordered all the Jews to be exterminated pervaded the whole of
London with incredible celerity. An innumerable mob of law-
less people, belonging to that city and also from other places
in the provinces, whom the solemnity of the coronation had at-
tracted thither, soon assembled in arms, eager for })lunder and
for the blood of a people hateful to all men by the judgment of
God. Then the Jewish citizens, of whom a multitude reside
in London, together with those who had come thither from all
f)arts, retired to their own houses. From three o'clock in the
afternoon till sunset, their dwellings were surrounded by the
raging people and vigorously attacked. By reason of their
strong construction, however, they could not be broken into

464 ENGLISH LITERATURE

and the furious cassailants had no engines. The roofs, there-
fore, were set on fire, and a horrible conflagration, destructive to
the besieged Jews, afforded light to the Christians who were
raging in their nocturnal work. Nor was the fire destructive to
the Jews alone, though kindled against them; for, knowing no
distinction, it caught some of the nearest houses of the Chris-
tians also. Then you might have seen the most beautiful parts
of the city miserably blazing in flames, caused by her own
citizens, as if they had been enemies. The Jews, however, were
either burnt in their own houses or, if they came out, were re-
ceived on the point of the sword. . . .

Similar occurrences took place in other parts of England,
as we learn from William and other authorities. Roger of
Hoveden (died 1201?), for example, who, on account of the
part he played in contemporary affairs, is well informed on
late twelfth-century matters, gives the following story of
what happened to the Jews at York:

In the . . . month of March (1190) . . . the sixth day before
Palm Sunday, the Jews of the city of York, in number five
hundred men, besides women and children, shut themselves up
in the tower of York, with the consent and sanction of the keeper
of the tower and of the sheriff, in consequence of their dread of
the Christians; but when the sheriff and the constable sought
to regain possession of it, the Jews refused to deliver it up. In
consequence of this, the people of the city and the strangers
who had come within the jurisdiction thereof, at the exhortation
of the sheriff and the constable, with one consent made an attack
upon the Jews.

After they had made assaults upon the tower, day and night,
the Jews offered the people a large sum of money to depart with
their lives; but this the others refused to receive. Upon this,
one skilled in their laws arose and said, "Men of Israel, listen
to my advice. It is better that we should kill one another, than
fall into the hands of the enemies of our law." iVccordingly,
all the Jews, both men as well as women, gave their assent to
his advice, and each master of a family, beginning with the chief

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 465

persons of his household, with a sharp knife first cut the throats
of his wife and sons and daughters, and then of all his servants,
and lastly his own. Some of them also threw their slain over
the walls among the people; while others shut up their slain
in the King's house and burned them, as well as the . . . house.
In the meantime, some of the Christians set fire to the Jews'
houses and plundered them, and thus all the Jews in the city
of York were destroyed and all acknowledgments of debts due
to them were burnt.^^^

Indignation at King John for his loss of lands, entailing
loss of prestige upon the nation, is expressed in the follow-
ing translation of a contemporary Provengal poem:

When I see the fair weather return and leaf and flower appear,
love gives me boldness and heart and skill to sing. Then, since
I do not want matter, I will make a stinging sirvente which I
will send yonder for a present to King John, to make him
ashamed.

And well he ought to be ashamed, if he remember his ances-
tors, how he has left here Poitou and Touraine, given them to
King Philip without his asking for them. Wherefore all Guienne
laments King Richard who in its defence would have laid out
much gold and much silver. But this man does not appear to
me to care much for it.

He loves better fishing and hunting, pointers, greyhounds and
hawks, and repose; wherefore he loses his property and his
fief escapes out of his hand. Galvaing seems ill-furnished with
courage, so that we beat him here most frequently. And, since
he takes no other counsel, let him leave his land to the lord of
the Groing.

Louis knew better how to deliver William and gave lilm ricli
succor at Orange, when the Almassor had caused Tibaud to
besiege him."^^ Glory and honor he had with j)rofit. I say this
for a lesson to King John who loses his people, because he suc-
cors them not near or far off.

^^^ On the medieval attitude towards the Jews, see ante, pp. 'ill; 407. They were
expelled from England in 1290 under Edward I.

'^® A reference to the romance of William of Orange; cf. ante, p. 443.

466 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Barons, on this side my lesson of correction aims at you,
whose deUnquencics it blames. What I have seen you do . . .
I am grieved at, for it falls to me to speak of you, who have let
your credit fall into the mud. And afterwards you have a foolish
sentiment that you do not fear correction. But he who told
you ill, it is he who disgraces you.

Lady whom I desire and hold dear, and fear and flatter above
the rest, so true is your praise that I know^ not how to say it or
to relate it. . . . As gold is more Avorth than tin, you are worth
more than the best hundred and you are better worth to a
young man than are the monks of Caen to God.

Savary,^^^ a king without a heart will hardly make a successful
invasion. And, since he has a heart soft and cowardly, let no
man put his trust in him.

But the long reign of Henry III (1216-1272) is the time
when the national spirit developed most rapidly. This
was due to causes partly interior and partly exterior to
England. Of the latter, one was the action of the King of
France, who in 124-4 gave all Norman barons who held
lands both in England and on the Continent their choice
of which they would relinquish, as Matthew Paris tells
])elow. Another was the fact that King John had declared
himself the liege of the Pope, had turned his kingdom over
to him and agreed to pay homage and tribute. This gave
Innocent III, the most able of the medieval popes, just
the opportunity he desired to fill English benefices, as they
fell vacant, with his own nominees, and thus to build up
what would to-day be called a very efficient political ma-
chine. Henry III, coming to the throne a minor, a per-
son of refined tastes and thoroughly submissive to the
plans of the Pope, readily acquiesced and brought upon
himself the troubles of his reign. It should be remembered
that a clerical training was the surest entrance to ad-
ministrative or fiscal preferment in medieval Europe and

'^^ The brother poet to whom the lines were sent.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 467

that, hence, the filHng of EngHsh church offices with papal
foreign appointees inevitably meant that these appointees
would have a disproportionate influence in English state
affairs.

Of the internal causes, the most potent was the quality
of the English baronage of the day, stimulated by their
long struggle against the tyranny of King John. William
Marshal Earl of Pembroke, Archbishop Stephen Langton
of Canterbury, Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent, Bishop
Robert Grossesteste of Lincoln and Simon de Montfort
Earl of Leicester are famous names in the history of Eng-
lish leadership and statesmanship. The barons determined
that they would not be dominated by foreigners, and their
decision came to the test in the Barons' War in which,
though defeated by the rising genius of Prince Edward,
later Edward I, they made lasting contributions to the
cause of English liberty.

"Matthew Paris has justly been considered the best
Latin chronicler of the 13th century; and his work con-
trasts sharply with previous works of the kind. In place
of an almost colourless narrative, we have a series of
brilliant historical criticisms, a change which is mainly
due to the altered policy of the clergy who w^ere com-
pelled to abandon their position of political neutrality for
one of active partisanship. His style is constantly vivid
and lively, and often marked by considerable humour. . . .

"Matthew, like the majority of the clergy in his day,
was a warm supporter of the popular cause. He fiercely
denounces alike the encroachments and oppression of the
Roman court and the extravagance and tyranny of the
king and his foreign kinsfolk. In his pages, indeed, the na-
tional sentiment may be said first to receive adequate
expression. The wide range of his history should be
n^)ticed, for not only is it the best source of information
with respect to events in England, but it is also an au-

468 ENGLISH LITERATURE

thority of value for the history of France, of Spain, and
of the struggle between the Papacy and the Empire." ^^^
Paris (circa 1195-1259) thus records how the King of
France treated the Norman nobles in 1244:

In the course of those days, the King of France, having con-
voked at Paris all the people across the water who had posses-
sions in England, thus addressed them, "As it is impossible that
any man living in my kingdom and having possessions in Eng-
land can competently serve two masters, he must inseparably
attach himself either to me or to the King of England." Where-
fore, those who had possessions and revenues in England were
to relinquish them and keep those which they had in France, or
vice versa. And when this came to the knowledge of the King
of England, he ordered that all people of the French nation
and especially Normans, who had possessions in England, should
be disseized of them. Whence it appeared to the King of France
that the King of England had broken the treaties between them,
because he had not, as the King of France had done, given the
option to those who were to lose their lands in one or other of
the two kingdoms, so that they might themselves choose which
kingdom they might remain in. . . .

In 1245 the English commons protested to the Pope
against the extortions of Italian prelates in England. A
portion of their letter, as recorded by Paris, reads as
follows :

... It is not without great annoyance and intolerable injury
to us that . . . religious men should be in any way defrauded
of their rights of patronage or appointments to churches. But
now, by you and your predecessors (the popes) . . . Italians,
of whom there is now an almost endless number, are enriched
from the churches belonging to the patronage of those very . . .
men who are called the rectors of the churches, thus leaving
those whom they ought to defend entirely unprotected, giving
no care to the souls of the people, but allowing these most

3^8 Cf. Hutton, The' Misrule of Henry III, pp. 150-151 {English History by Corn-
temporary IVriters, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887).

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 469

rapacious wolves to disperse the flock and carry off the sheep.
Hence, they can say with truth that these persons are not good
shepherds,''^^ as they do not know their sheep, neither have the
sheep any knowledge of the shepherd. They do not practise
hospitality or the bestowal of alms enjoined on the church, but
they only receive the fruits to carry them out of the kingdom,
impoverishing it in no slight degree, by possessing themselves
of its revenues, by which our brothers, nephews and other rela-
tions, well-deserving men of the said kingdom, ought to be
benefited; and the latter both could and would compassion-
ately and piously put in practice the said works of charity and
several others, and would in person serve the said churches, that,
according to the words of Paul, those who serve the altar may
live by the altar; but they, urged by necessity, are now become
laymen and exiles. But in order that the truth may be known
to you, these Italians, receiving sixty thousand marks and more
each year in England, besides divers other receipts, carry off
more clear gain in revenues from the kingdom than the King
himself, who is the protector of the church and holds the reins
of government in the kingdom. . . .

In 1236 Henry III married Eleanor of Provence, and
when she came to England, she brought with her a num-
ber of her relatives whom Henry undertook to provide for
in England. Hence, the literature of the time is full of
complaints of the extravagance of the court. Thus Mat-
thew^ Paris, again, speaks of conditions in l^o^ as follows:

During all this time, through the many-shaped cunning of
Satan, the people of England in general, barons, knights, citi-
zens, merchants and laborers and especially religious men, were
laboring under a most pestilential infliction; for the higher ranks
of the foreigners imposed on the lower classes so many labori-
ous services, and harassed them by so many robberies and in-
juries, that of all nations existing, England appeared to be in
the lowest condition. In one place the houses of merchants, in
another their carts and their small possessions were forcibly

3" Cf. John 10: 11-16.

470 ENGLISH LITERATURE

seized on, and notliing was left as an indemnity for them, save
tallages and ridicule. On seeing these proceedings, some even
of the more noble of the English, whom I am ashamed to men-
tion by name, said in their pride and with accompanying oaths,
"There are now many kings and tyrants in England, and we
ought to be kings and tyrannize the same as others;" and so
they became worse than the rest. If any one who had been
grievously injured laid his complaint before the Poitevins (i.e.
Henry's foreign agents), whose heads were turned by their vast
riches and possessions, and asked for justice to be done him
according to the law of the land, they replied, "We care nothing
for the law of the land, what are the customs or ordinances to
us?" Thus the natives of the country, especially the religious
men, were as dirt in the sight of the foreigners, in whose steps
some of the English were not ashamed to follow. On one occa-
sion, Brother Matthew Paris, the writer of this book, and Roger
de Thurkeby, a knight and man of letters, were taking their
meal together at one table, when Brother Matthew mentioned
the aforesaid oppressions, and the above named knight said
seriously in reply, "The time is coming, O religious men ! and
indeed, now is, when every one who oppresses you thinks he is
doing God a service; indeed, I think that these injurious oppres-
sions and troubles are not far short of utter ruin." When the
said Matthew heard this speech, it brought to his mind the say-
ing, that "in the last days of the world, there will be men, lov-
ing themselves, who have no regard to the advantage of their
neighbors."

Matthew further comments on Henry's practice of turn-
ing over English revenue and property to foreigners, as
follows :

The King . . . persisted in his usual extravagances and . . .
continued to distribute the vacant escheats and revenues amongst
unknown, scurrilous and undeserving foreigners, in order to
inflict an irrej)arable wound upon the heads of his natural sub-
jects. Not to mention others, we think it right to speak in this
volume of the following case, as one out of many. In the serv-
ice of Geoffrey de Lusignan, the King's brother, was a certain

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 471

chaplain who served as a fool and buffoon to the King, the said
Geoffrey his master and all the court, and whose sayings, like
those of a silly jester and cup-l^earer, contributed to their amuse-
ment and excited their laughter; and on this man the King
bestowed the rich church of Preston, which had formerly be-
longed to William Haverhull, the lately-deceased treasurer of
the King, the yearly proceeds of which church amounted to more
than a hundred pounds. This same chaplain, a Poitevin by
birth, utterly ignorant alike in manners and learning, we have
seen pelting the King, his brother Geoffrey and other nobles,
whilst walking in the orchard of St. Alban's, with turf, stones
and green apples, and pressing the juice of unripe grapes in
their eyes, like one devoid of sense. Despicable alike in his
gesture, mode of speech and habits, as well as in size and per-
sonal appearance, this man might be considered as a stage actor
rather than a priest as he was, to the great disgrace of the
priestly order. Such are the persons to whom the King of Eng-
land intrusts the care and guardianship of many thousands of
souls, rejecting such a vast number of learned, prudent and
proper men as England has given birth to, who know the lan-
guage of the natives, and how to instruct the ignorant. In like
manner, also, to provoke the anger and hatred of w^orthy men,
the King ill-advisedly gave away the other church benefices
which had belonged to the aforesaid William, to unworthy men
and foreigners, whose incapacity and uselessness was shown by
their extraordinary conduct, and who were plainly proved to
be reprobates by their conversation, which was not only scur-
rilous, but also foolish and obscene. This digression from our
narrative is elicited by our sorrow for the causes of it.

The nationalist n^ovement of the reign culminated in
the Barons' W^ar, in the course of which two im})ortant
battles were fought, Lewes, May 14, I'^CU and Evesham,
August 4, 1265. The leader of the popular party in both
was Simon de Montforl, who was victorious in the first
l)ut met defeat and deatli in the second at the hands of
Prmce Edward, later P^dward I, the general of the court
party. Just after the battle of Lewes, a long Latin poem,

472 ENGLISH LITERATURE

giving a full account of the principles of both factions,
appeared, from which we quote in translation the following:

The English were despised like dogs; but now they have
raised their head over their vanquished enemies.

In the year of grace one thousand two hundred and sixty-
four, and on the Wednesday after the festival of St. Pancras,
the army of the English bore the brunt of a great battle at
the castle of Lewes : for reasoning yielded to rage, and life to the
sword. They met on the fourteenth of May and began the
battle of this terrible strife, which was fought in the county of
Sussex and in the bishopric of Chichester. The sword was
powerful, many fell, truth prevailed and the false men fled. For
the Lord of valor resisted the perjured men and defended those
who were pure with the shield of truth. The sword without and
fear within routed the former, the favor of heaven comforted
very fully the latter. The solemnities of the victor and the
sacred crowns give testimony on this contest, since the church
honored the said persons as saints and victory crowned the true
soldiers. The wisdom of God, which rules the whole world,
performed miracles and made a joyful war, caused the strong
to fly and the valorous men to shut themselves up in a cloister
and in places of safety. Not in arms, but in the grace of Chris-
tianity, that is in the church, remained the only refuge for those
who were excommunicated; after deserting their horses this
counsel alone occurred to the vanquished. And her whom pre-
viously they had not hesitated to profane, her whom they ought
to have honored in the place of a mother, in her they seek
refuge, though little worthy of it, and seek their defence in
embracing the wood of salvation. Those whom prosperity
caused to despise their mother, their wounds compelled to know
their mother. When at Northampton, they succeeded by treach-
ery, the faithless children despised the church; with the sword
they disturbed the bowels of the holy mother, and in their
prosperity did not merit a successful war. The mother then
bore the injury patiently, as though heedless of it, but not
letting it pass unmarked: she punishes this and other injuries
which were afterwards added, for the madmen ra,vaged many

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 473

churches; and the band of enraged men, which has now been
thrown into confusion, mercilessly spoiled the monastery which
is called Battle, of its goods, and thus they prepared a battle for
themselves. The Cistercian monks of Robertsbridge would not
have been safe from the fury of the sword, unless they had given
five hundred marks to the prince, which Edward ordered to be
received, or they had perished. By these and similar deeds they
merited to give way and succumb before their enemies. May
the Lord bless Simon de Montfort ! and also his sons and his
army ! who exposing themselves magnanimously to death, fought
valiantly, condoling the lamentable lot of the English who,
trodden under foot in a manner scarcely to be described, and
almost deprived of all their liberties, had languished under hard
rulers, like the people of Israel under Pharaoh, groaning under
a tyrannical devastation. But God, seeing this suffering of the
people, gives at last a new Matathias,^^*^ and he with his sons,
zealous after the zeal of the law, yields neither to the insults
nor to the fury of the king.

They call Simon a seducer and a traitor; but his deeds lay
him open and prove him to be a true man. Traitors fall off in
time of need; they who do not fly death, are those who stand for
the truth. But says this insidious enemy now, whose evil eye is
the disturber of peace, " If you praise the constancy and fidelity,
which does not fly the approach of death or punishment, they
shall equally be called constant, who in the same manner, go to
the combat fighting on the opposite side, in the same manner
exposing themselves to the chance of war and subjecting them-
selves to a hard appelation." But in our war in which we are
engaged, let us see what is the state of the case.

The earl had few men used to arms, the royal party was
numerous, having assembled the disciplined and greatest warriors
in England, such as were called the flower of the army of the
kingdom; those who were prepared with arms from among the
Londoners, were three hundred set before several thousands;
whence they were contemptible to those and were detested by

'^ An aged priest, father of Judas Maccabanis, who, wlicn Antiochus IV Epi-
phanes in 175-101- b.c. tried to crush out the national Jewish reUgion, came forward
with his five sons, opposed the royal policy, and re-established the Hebrew kingdom.

474 ENGLISH LITERATURE

those who were experienced. Much of the earl's army was raw,
fresh in arms they knew Httle of war. The tender youth, only
now girt with a sword, stands on the morning in battle accus-
toming himself to arms, what wonder if such an unpractised
tyro fear, and if the powerless lamb dread the wolf? Thus
those who fight for England are inferior in military discipline
and they are much fewer than the strong men who boasted in
their own valor, because they thought safely and without danger
to swallow up, as it were, all whom the earl had to help him.
INIoreover, of those whom the earl had brought to the battle
and from whom he hoped for no little help, many soon with-
drew from fear and took to flight as though they were amazed,
and of three parts one deserted. The earl with a few faithful
men never yielded. We may compare our battle with that of
Gideon ; ^^^ in both w^e see a few of the faithful conquer a great
number who have no faith and who trust in themselves as
Lucifer did. God said, "If I should give the victory to the many,
the fools will not give the glory to me, but to fools." So if
God had made the strong to conquer, the common people w^ould
have given the credit of it to the men and not to God.

From these considerations it may be concluded that the war-
like men did not fear God, wherefore they did nothing to prove
their constancy or fidelity, but they showed on the contrary
their pride and cruelty; and wishing to confound those whom
they despised, issuing forth boldly, they perished quickly. Exal-
tation of the heart brings on ruin and humility merits to receive
the divine grace, for he who does not trust in God, God over-
throws his pride. We may bring forward Hamaan and Morde-
cai;^^2 w^e read that the former was arrogant, the latter a true
Israelite; the gallows which Hamaan had prepared for Mordecai,
in the morning the wretch bore it himself in order to be hanged
upon it. The queen's banquet blinded Hamaan, which he re-
puted as an extraordinary privilege, but his vain expectation is
turned into confusion, when after the feast he is dragged to the
gallows. Thus sorrow followed close upon joy when it coupled
death with the end of the feast. Very differently it happens to
the Israelite w^hom by God's will the king honors. Goliath is
^^ Cf. Judges C-9. 352 cf Esther 3-10.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 475

overthrown by the stroke of a Httle stone,^^-^ nothing profits him
whom God pursues. . . .

Listen to the equity of Earl Simon: when the royal party
would be satisfied only with his head and his life, nor would
allow his head to be redeemed, but would have it cut off, by
whose confusion they hoped the body of the people should be
confounded and the greatest part of the state brought into
danger, so that the most grievous ruin would immediately follow
— may it be long before this happen ! — Stephen, by divine
grace Bishop of Chichester, groaning deeply for the immense
evils which were then impending . . ., the two parties being
persuaded to treat of a peace, received this answer from the
Earl, "Choose the best men, who have a lively faith, who have
read the decretals, or who have taught in a becoming manner
theology and sacred wisdom, and who know how to rule the
Christian faith, or whatever they may have the courage to
decree, they shall find us ready to agree to what they shall dic-
tate, in such a manner that we may escape the stigma of per-
jury and keep the league as children of God." Hence, it may
easily be understood by those who swear, and show little reluc-
tance to despise what they swear receding quickly from it al-
though they swear to what is right, and not rendering whole
what they promised to God, with how much care they ought to
keep their oath, w^hen they see a man avoiding neither torment
nor death on account of his oath, which was made not incon-
siderately, but for the reformation of the fallen state of the
English nation, which the fraud of an inveterate enemy had
violated. Behold Simon, obedient, despises the loss of property,
submitting himself to punishment rather than desert the truth,
proclaiming to all men openly by his deeds more than by his
words that truth has nothing in common with falsehood. Woe
to the perjured wretches who fear not God ! denying Him for
the prospect of an earthly reward or for fear of imprisonment or
light punishment; the new leader of tlie journey teaches to bear
all that the world may inflict on jiccount of truth, for it is this
which can give perfect liberty."^"'^ For the Karl liad first ])ledged
his oath that whatever the zeal of the wise had provided for the
353 Cf. 1 Samuel 17: 41-49. 354 qi j^i^n 8: 32.

476 ENGLISH LITERATURE

reformation of the King's honor and for the repression of wan-
dering error, at Oxford,^-'^ he would steadfastly keep it and would
not change the law then ordained, knowing that such canonical
constitutions and such catholic ordinances for the pacific con-
servation of the kingdom, on account of which he had before
sustained no slight persecution, were not to be despised; and
because he had sworn to hold them firmly unless the most per-
fect doctors of the faith should say that the jurators might be
absolved, who had before taken such oath, and that no further
account was to be made of what they had sworn. Which, when
the said bishop recited to the King, and perhaps the artificer
of fraud was standing by, the voice of the crowd of arrogant
courtiers was raised high, "See now the soldier is to give way to
the sayings of clerks ! The military order subjected to clerks is
debased !" Thus the wisdom of the Earl was despised, and Ed-
ward is said to have answered thus, "They shall have no peace
unless they put halters about their necks and deliver them-
selves up to us to be hanged or to be drawn." What wonder if
the Earl's heart was then moved, when nothing but the pain of
the stake was prepared for him? He offered what he ought to
do, but was not listened to; the King rejected measure, for-
getting what was good for him. But, as the event of the matter
next day taught him, the moderation which he then refused,
was afterwards not to be had. In the evening was derided the
Earl's devotion, the shock of which was found, next day, to be
victorious. This stone, long rejected from the doorway, was
afterguards fitted to the two walls.^^® The division of England
was on the verge of desolation but the corner-stone ^^^ was there
as a help to the division, the truly singular religion of Simon,
The faith and fidelity of Simon alone becomes the security of
the peace of all England; he humbles the rebellious, raises those
who were in despair, reconciling the kingdom, repressing the
proud. And how does he repress them.^^ certainly not by prais-
ing them; but he presses out the red juice in the hard conflict;
for truth obliges him to fight or to desert the truth, and pru-
dently he chooses rather to devote his right hand to the truth,
and by the rough way, which is joined to probity, by the harder
^ A reference to the Provisions of Oxford, 1258. ^se ^f j Peter 2: 1-8.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 477

and shorter way which is unpleasant to the proud, to obtain
the reward which is given to those who use force, than to dis-
please God by shrinking, and to promote the designs of bad
men by flight. For some men had studied to erase the name of
the English, whom they had already begun to regard with
hatred, against whom God opposed a medicine, since He did
not desire their sudden ruin.

Hence, let the English learn to call in strangers, if they wish
to be exiled by strangers. For these when they desire to en-
large their own glory, and are eager that their own memory stand
always, study to associate with themselves very many of their
own nation and by degrees to make them the principal nobles;
and thus grows the confusion of the natives, with indignation
and bitterness of heart, when the chief men of the kingdom feel
themselves to be beaten down by those who make themselves
their equals, taking from them the things which ought to apper-
tain to them, growing by the things by which they used to grow.
The King ought to honor with escheats and wards his own
people, who can help him in various ways, who, by as much as
they are more powerful by their own strength, are so much the
more secure in all cases. But those who have brought nothing,
if they are enriched by his goods, if they are made great who
were of no account, such men, when they begin to grow, always
go on climbing till they have supplanted the natives; they study
to avert the prince's heart from his own people, that they may
strip of glory those whose ruin they are seeking. And who
could bear such things patiently.'^ Therefore, let England learn
prudently to have a care, lest such perplexity should happen any
more, lest such an adversity fall upon the English. The Earl
studied to obviate this, because it had gained too much head,
like a great sea, that could not be dried by a small effort, but
must be forded by a great assistance from God. Let strangers
come to return quickly, like men of a moment, but not to re-
main. One of the two hands aids the other, neither of them
bearing more really the grace which belongs to both; let it help,
and not injure, by retaining its place.'^'^' Each thing would avail
its own possessor if they came so; the Frenchman by doing good
3" Cf. Romans 12:4; 1 Corinthians H: 12-31; Ephesians 4:25.

478 ENGLISH LITERATURE

to the Englishman, and not seducing by a flattering face, nor
the one withdrawing the goods of the other, but rather by sus-
taining his own portion of the burden. If his own interest had
moved the Earl, he would neither have had any other zeal, nor
would he have sought with all his power the reformation of the
kingdom, but he would have aimed at power, he would have
sought his own promotion only, and made his first object the
})romotion of his friends, and would have aimed at enriching his
children, and would have neglected the weal of the community,
and would have covered the poison of falsehood with the cloak
of duplicity, and would thus have deserted the faith of Chris-
tianity, and would have subjected himself to the retribution of
dreadful punishment, nor would he have escaped the weight of
the tempest. And who can believe that he would give himself
to death, that he would sacrifice his friends, in order that he
might thus raise himself high.'^ If those Avho hunt after honor
cover their object cunningly, always meditating at the same
time how they may avoid death, none love more the present
life, none choose more eagerly a position devoid of danger. They
who thirst after honors dissimulate their aim, they make them-
selves cautiously the reputation which they seek. Not so the
venerable Simon de Montfort, who, hke Christ offers himself a
sacrifice for many; Isaac does not die, although he is ready for
death; it is the ram which is given to death, and Isaac receives
honor."^^^ Neither fraud nor falsehood promoted the Earl, but
the divine grace which knew those whom it would help. If
you consider the time and the place of the conflict, you will find
that they promised him a defeat rather than victory, but God
l^rovided that he should not succumb. He does not take them
on a sudden by creeping stealthily by night, but he fights openly
when day is come. So also the place was favorable to his ene-
mies, that thus it might appear plainly to all to be the gift of
God, that victory departed from him who put his trust in him-
self. Hence, let the military order, which praises the practice
of the tournament that so it may be made expert at fighting,
learn how the party of the strong and skilful was here bruised
by the arms of those who were feeble and unpractised: that
358 Cf. Genesis 22: 1-19.

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND 479

He may confound the strong, God promotes the weak, comforts
the feeble, lays })rostrate the firm. Thus let no one now pre-
sume to trust in himself, but if he know how to place his hope
in God, he may take up arms with constancy, nothing doubting,
since God is a help for those who are on the side of justice. Thus
it was right that God should help the Earl, for without God he
could not overcome the enemy. Of whom should I call him the
enemy .^ — of the Earl alone .^ or should I recognize him as the
enemy of the English and of the whole kingdom? perhaps also
of the church and therefore of God? And if so, how much grace
ought he to have? He failed to deserve grace who trusted in
himself, and he did not merit to be helped who did not fear God.
Thus falls the boast of personal valor and so for evermore be
praised the Lord of vengeance who gives aid to those who are
destitute of force, to a few against many, crushing fools by the
valor of the faithful; who sits upon a throne above, and by His
own strength treads upon the necks of the proud, bowing the
great under the feet of the less. He has subdued two kings and
the heirs of kings, whom he has made captives, because they
were transgressors of the laws; and he has turned to shame the
pomp of knighthood with its numerous retinue; for the barons
employed on the sons of pride the arms which, in their zeal for
justice, they had taken up in the cause of the kingdom, until
victory was given them from heaven, with a great glory that
was not expected. For the bow of the strong was then over-
come, and the troop of the weak was established with strength;
and we have said it was done by heaven, lest any one should
boast of it; let all the honor, on the contrary, be given to Christ,
in whom we believe ! For Christ at once commands, conquers,
reigns ! Christ delivers His own to whom He has given His
promise. We pray God to grant that the minds of the conquerors
may not attribute their success to themselves, and let what
Paul says be observed by them, "He who would be joyful, let
him be joyful in God." •^^'' If any one of us indulge in vain glory,
may God be indulgent to him, and not angry ! and may he make
our party cautious in future; lest deeds be wanting, may they
make themselves a wall ! May tlie j)(n\er of the Almighty per-

^^ 2 Cor. 10: 17.

480 ENGLISH LITERATURE

feet what it has begun and restore to its vigor the kingdom of
the English people ! that glory may be to Himself, and peace
to His elect, until they be in the country where He shall lead
them. O Englishmen ! read this concerning the battle of Lewes
by the influence of which you are saved from destruction; for
if victory had gone over to those who are now vanquished, the
memory of the English would have lain in disgrace.^^°

During the first half of the fourteenth century the best
expression of the national movement is the commercial
policy of Edward III, who sought to develop the woolen
industry in England. For this purpose he imported Flem-
ish weavers ^^^ to teach Englishmen their skill. Popular
indignation was roused at this, so that to his Flemish
proteges the King was forced to give bills of protection
like the following:

The King to all bailiffs, etc., to whom these letters may come.
Greeting. Know that, whereas John Kempe, of Flanders,
weaver of woolen cloths, has come to dwell within our realm of
England for the sake of exercising his craft therein and of in-
structing and informing those who wish to learn the same, and
has brought with him certain men and servants and apprentices
of that craft:

We take this John, his men, servants and apprentices aforesaid,
together with all their goods and chattels, into our protection, and
we promise to other men of that craft, as well as to dyers and
fullers, wishing to come from across the sea to dwell within our
kingdom for the same cause, that similar letters shall be granted.

Witness the King, at Lincoln, the 28th day of July (1331.?).

Pursuing the same policy, Edward sought to prohibit
the exportation of wool, as Adam of Murimuth informs us
in the follow^ing:

'^ The best reference for the national movement in the reign of Henry III is
O. H. Richardson, The National Movement in the Reign of Henry III (The Mac-
millan Co., 1897).

'*' The skill in weaving of Chaucer's Wife of Bath is compared to that of Flemish
weavers; cf. Chaucer, op. cit., 11. 459-460.

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 481

The King summoned his ParHament for the Monday after
the feast of St. Matthew the apostle,^*^^ and in this he made his
eldest son, Duke of Cornwall, the Lord Henry, son of the Earl
of Lancaster, Earl of Derby, the Lord William of Bohun, Earl
of Northampton, the Lord AYilliam of Montagu, Earl of Sarum,
the Lord Hugh of Audley, Earl of Gloucester, the Lord William
of Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, the Lord Robert of Ufford,
Earl of Suffolk. These creations were made in the second Sun-
day in Lent, at Westminster; where also he made twenty-four
knights. Also in the same parliament it was enacted that no
wool growing in England should leave the realm, but that cloth
should be made with it in England, and that all weavers of
cloth should be welcomed in England wherever they might come
from, and that fit places should be assigned to them and that
they should have wages from the King until they could make
fitting gain by their craft. Also it was enacted that no one
should use cloth made outside England and afterwards imported,
except the King and Queen and their children. From which
statutes no results followed, nor did any one take the trouble
to observe them.^*^

Edward's success against the Scotch and his early vic-
tories in the Hundred Years' War, coming after the prog-
ress of the thirteenth century, help to account for the
events of the later fourteenth century, when the English
language came into its own and English literature proved
an adequate medium of expression for national feeling.^^^

IV. The Linguistic Background

The Norman Conquest of England and its sequence is
important in the history of the English language for three
reasons: first, it reduced the status of English and made
it the speech of a conquered race; second, it accelerated

362 Sept. 21.

'63 Por a modern writer on tlie woolen industry at this titnc, see Ashley, The
Early History of the Woolen Industry, Vublications of the Ameriean Economic Asso-
ciation, ii (1887), pp. 47-50. ^^ Cf. post, pp. 482-486.

482 ENGLISH LITERATURE

the inflectional decay already apparent in late Old English;
third, it brought many romance words into the English
vocabulary. To the first of these facts we have testimony
from contemporary writers; the other two come to light
only after study of the language itself, first in its pre-
conquest state, and then in its condition after the Conquest.
1. The Status of English. — In a previous reference to
Henry of Huntington we have already seen that an under-
standing of Old English was not a part of the equipment of
a cultivated man in the early twelfth century.^ That
English had a distinctly lower position than French in the
early fourteenth century is indicated in the following pas-
sage from the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester. Robert
has just been describing the Norman Conquest and at the
conclusion of his narrative says:

Thus came England into the hands of Normandy, and the
Normans at that time could speak nothing but their own lan-
guage. And they (still) speak French as they did at home and
have their children taught so. Therefore, the upper classes of
this land (England) who came of their (Norman) blood, (now)
employ the same speech which was received from them; for
unless a man knows French, he is little regarded. But men of
lower rank hold to English, and to their own speech yet. I
imagine that in all the world there are no countries that do not
employ (one single, national) speech, except England alone.
But people agree that it is best to know both (English and
French), for the more a man knows, the more highly is he
esteemed.

The nearly contemporary Cursor Mundi furnishes evi-
dence to the same effect, as follows:

French rimes I hear commonly recited everywhere. A great
many books have })een written for Frenchmen. But what has
been done for the one who knows no French.'^ Nearly all the

1 Cf. ante, p. 87.

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 483

inhabitants of England are Englishmen (i.e. they are of Saxon,
not Norman lineage); and so it seems most necessary to speak
(write) in the language that one will use most there. It seldom
happened that the English tongue was praised in France, and
we English will be doing French no harm if we do not praise it
here. I am writing for ignorant Englishmen who will under-
stand what I say.

But, because of the rising tide of national feeling already
discussed, English began to gain a higher position, which
fact is expressed in the statute of 1362, as follows:

Because it is often showed to the King by the prelates, dukes and
earls, barons and all the commonalty, of the great mischiefs which
have happened to divers of the realm, because the laws, customs
and statutes of this realm be not commonly known in the same
realm, for that they be pleaded, showed and judged in the
French tongue, which is much unknown in the said realm; so
that the people which do implead, or be impleaded, in the
King's court, and in the courts of others have no knowledge nor
understanding of that which is said for them or against them
by their sergeants and other pleaders; and that reasonably the
said laws and customs shall be the more soon learned and known,
and better understood in the tongue used in the said realm, and
by so much every man of the said realm may the better govern
himself without offending of the law, and the better keep, save
and defend his heritage and possessions; and in divers regions
and countries where the King, the nobles and others of the said
realm have been, good governance and full right is done to every
person, because that their laws and customs be learned and used
in the tongue of the country: the King, desiring the good gov-
ernance and tranc[uillity of his ])e()i)le, and to put out and es-
chew the harms and mischiefs which do or may happen in this
behalf by the occasions aforesaid, hath ordained and established
by the assent aforesaid, that all ])leas which shall be ])leaded
in his court whatsoever, before any of his justices whatsoever,
or in his other places, or Ix'fore any of liis other ministers what-
soever, or in the courts and places of any other lords what-
soever within the realm, shall be pleaded, showed, defended,

484 ENGLISH LITERATURE

answered, debated and judged in the English tongue, and that
they be entered and enrolled in Latin; and that the laws and
customs of the same realm, terms and processes, be holden and
kept as they be and have been before this time; and that by
the ancient terms and forms of pleaders no man be prejudiced,
so that the matter of the action be fully showed in the declara-
tion and in the writ: and it is accorded by the assent aforesaid,
that this ordinance and statute of pleading begin and hold place
at the fifteenth of St. Hilary - next coming.^

John of Trevisa, translating the Polychronicon of Ralph
Higden, comments thus on linguistic conditions in 1385:

There are just as many languages and tongues in this island
as there are varieties of people. Yet Welshmen and Scots, who
have not mingled with other nations, retain almost their primi-
tive speech, unless it be that the Scots who were for a while in
alliance with the Picts have been somewhat affected by the
language of the latter. But the Flemings w^ho dwell in Western
Wales have abandoned their strange speech and use English.
The English, though they had from the beginning three dialects,
southern, northern and midland, as they came from three tribes
of Germany, by mingling and fusion first with Danes and later
wath Normans, have spoiled their native language in many
cases; and some employ strange stammering, chattering, snarling
tones.

This degeneration of the vernacular is because of two things.
One is that children in school, contrary to the usage and prac-
tice of other nations, are compelled to abandon their native
tongue and to construe their lessons and exercises in French,
and have done so since the Normans first arrived in England.
Furthermore gentlemen's children are taught to speak French
from the time that they are rocked in their cradles and play

2 .Jan. 14.

^ But thi.s law did not completely remedy the abuse aimed at. Archbishop
Cranmcr, in his Aris-wer to the Fifteen Articles (1549), says, "I have heard suitors
murmur at the bar, because their attornies have pleaded their cases in the French
tongue which they understood not." — Cranmcr, Remains and Letters, p. 170 {Publi-
cations of the Parker Society).

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 485

with children's toys; and country gentlemen imitate these others
and try hard to speak French in order to get more fame.^

This was commonly the practice before the first plague,^ but
has since been somewhat changed. For John Cornwall,^ a school-
master, changed the method in the Latin school and the trans-
lating of French into English; and Richard Pencrych learned
that sort of teaching from him and others imitated Pencrych; so
that now, in the year of our Lord 1385 ... in all the grammar
schools of England children are giving up French and learning
and translating in English. The advantage is that they learn
their Latin in less time than was wont to be true; but the loss
is that at present children in grammar schools know no more
French than do their left heels. This is too bad, especially if
they are going abroad for travel. Besides, gentlemen have com-
monly ceased teaching their children French.

It seems a great wonder that English, which is the native lan-
guage of Englishmen and their vernacular, has so many var-
ieties (i.e. dialects) in this island; but that the language of
Normandy, a strange tongue, has but one dialect among all the
men who speak it properly in England. Nevertheless, there are as
many sorts of French in the realm of France as there are of Eng-
lish in the kingdom of England. Further, as regards this English
language, which is divided into three dialects and is spoken
(pure) by very few people in the country, a remarkable thing
has taken place; for the men of the East agree better with the
men of the West in their speech sounds than do the men of the
North with those of the South (i.e. Midland was taking the lead
among the dialects). And that's the reason why the Mercians,
who are Midlanders, as it were partners of the extremes, under-
stand the neighboring dialects better than Northern and South-
ern comprehend each other. All language of the Northumbrians,
and especially that at York, is so sharp, piercing, harsh and un-
pleasant, that we Southerners can hardly understand it. I believe
that the reason for this difficulty is that the Northerners are near

* So far Higden, who died about i;U)4; tlic roinuindor of tlio passage is an addi-
tion by Trevisa.

^ I.e. the first visitation of the 15hick Death; ef. anh\ pj). .'J^24-327.
^ The same master is mentioned ante, p. 447.

486 ENGLISH LITERATURE

to strangers and aliens who speak foreign languages; and also
because the Kings of England live always at a distance from
that country (the North); because they are more inclined to
the South and if they travel northward do so with large numbers
of followers. The reason for their being more in the South
than in the North may be that (the South has) better agricul-
tural land, more people, more noble cities and more useful
harbors.

Thomas LTsk, secretary to John of Northampton the
Wiclifite Lord Mayor of London, wrote, during his im-
prisonment prior to his execution in 1388, The Testament
of Love, long ascribed to Chaucer. In one of the opening
paragraphs of this work, Usk states his opinion of the
position of Latin, French and English in England as
follows :

In Latin and French many sovereign wits have been greatly
pleased to write and have perfected many noble things; but
certainly there are some (in England) who write (a sort of)«
French poetry in which (real) Frenchmen would take as much
delight as we do in hearing Frenchmen's English. And there are
many words in English of which we Englishmen scarcely know
the meaning. How then should a Frenchman born understand
such words any better than a jay chatters English? It is equally
true that the minds of Englishmen will not take in the sense of
French idioms however much we boast of (our knowledge of)
foreign language. Therefore, let clerks write in Latin, for they
have an interest in science and are skilled therein; and let
Frenchmen also in their French use their queer expressions for
it is natural to them; and let us show our quality in such words
as we learned in our mother-tongue.

2. Specimens of the Middle English Dialects with Trans-
lations. — We see that at least one Englishman of the period
noticed the varieties of English spoken in the island of
Britain. Modern scholars, however, differ from John of
Trevisa in finding that the four dialects of the Old English

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 487

period persisted into the Middle English period. To these
four must be added that of London, a sort of mixture of
all, which was coming into prominence. We, therefore,
include here five sets of specimens and translations. For
the Northern dialect, the successor of the Old English
Northumbrian, we have selected a passage from the Bruce
of John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen in 1357. This
long poem treats, in the manner of a romance, of the deeds
and vicissitudes of Robert Bruce, a national hero from
Scotch history of a time not long previous to the time of
Barbour. In the passage selected, Bruce is reading to his
men the Romance of Ferambrace, as they cross Loch Lomond.

The King, the qiihilis, meryly

Meanwhile the monarch, in a merry mood

Red to thaim, that war him by,

Read to the faithful who with him stayed

Romany s off worthi Ferambrace;

The romance of the worthy Ferambrace;

That worthily our-ciimmyn was.
Of how that hero of the iron arms

Throw the rycht douchty Olyver;
By doughty Oliver was overcome;

And how the Duk-Peris wer

And how Duke Paris and ten other men

Assegyt intill K^rymor,

And one fair woman (there were twelve in all)

Quliar Kin;^ Lavyiie lat lliaini bel'or,
Were in the mighty castle Egrimor

With may thowsands th(Mi I can say.

Bv Kiim- Lavvne and lliousands of his men

488 ENGLISH LITERATURE

And bot eleven within war thai,

Fiercely beseiged, and those few knights within,

And a woman: and war sa stad,

And that brave woman, were so sore beset,

That thai na mete thar-within had,

That they could taste no food but what they seized

Bot as thai fra thar fayis wan.

From their foul foes, yet never did they shrink:

Yheyte sua contenyt thai thaim than.

But the strong tower full manfully they held.

Thai thai the tour held manlily

Till that bold knight, Richard of Normandy,

Magre his fayis, warnyt the King,
Braving the foe, took warning to the King,

That wes joy full off this tithing:

Who joyful was thereat, for he had feared

For he wend thai had all bene slayne.
That Paris had been slain with all the rest.

Tharfor he turnyt in hy agayne.

Full soon his gallant army in its march

And wan Mantrybill and passit Flagot;
Won Mantrybel, and crossing the Flagot

And syne Lavyne and all his flot.

Fell fiercely on Lavnye and all his fleet,

Dispitusly discumfit he:

And drove them from the place dispiteously,

And deliveryt his men all fre,
Freeing the gallant men within

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 489

And wan the naylis and the sper,

The castle. And he won the nails and spear

And the croune that Jesu couth ber;

That pierced the Savior, and the crown of thorns

And off the croice a gret party

He wore upon the cross, and of the cross

He wan throw his chevalry.

A part he won, all through his chivalry.

The gud King, apon this maner,

With tales like these the good and kindly King

Comfortyt thaim that war him ner;

Gave comfort to his men and made them gay

Till that his folk all passyt was.

And brave at heart, till all had crossed the Lake.^

As a specimen of the Midland dialect, the successor of
the Old English Mercian, the Dedication to the Ormidum
has been selected.

Nu, brotherr Wallterr, brotherr min affterr the flaeshes kinde,
Now Walter, my brother in the flesh,

Annd brotherr min i Crisstenndom thurrh fulluhht annd thurrh

trowwthe.
And my brother in Christianity through baptism and through

truth,

Annd brotherr min i Godess hus yet o the thridde wise,
And my brother in God's house slill in a third fashion,

thurrh thatt witt hafenn takonii ])a an rcgcllboc to follyhenn,
Because we two have taken one rule of life to follow,

"^ This passage may be used to supplement those on the popuhirity of romance,
post, pp. 51G-519. Throughout these passages th has been used in phiee of the char-
acter |).

490 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Unnderr kanunnkess had annd lit' swa summ Sannt Awwstin sette;
In a canon's station and life just as St. Augustine ordained;

Ice liafe don swa summ thu badd annd forthedd te thin wille,
I have done as you desired and have executed your will,

Ice hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh goddspelles hallghe lare,
By translating into English the gospel's holy lore,

Affterr thatt little witt thatt me min Drihhtin hafethth lened.
According to the (measure of) the little wit which my Lord has
lent me.

Thu thohhtesst tatt itt mihhte wel till mikell frame turrnenn.
You thought that it might indeed to great good turn,

YifF Ennglissh folic, forr lufe off Crist, itt wollde yerne lernenn
If English folk, for love of Christ, would learn it gladly

Annd follyhenn itt annd fillenn itt withth thohht, withth word,

withth dede;
And follow it and fulfil it in thought, in word, in deed;

Annd forrthi yerrndesst tu thatt ice thiss werrc the shollde wirr-

kenn,
And, therefore, you desired that I this work for you should do,

Annd ice hafe forthedd te, ace all thurrh Cristess hellpe,

And I have done it for you, but all through the help of Christ,

Annd unnc birrtli bathe thannkenn Crist thatt itt iss brohht till

ende.
And it behoves both of us thank Christ that it is finished.

Ice hafe sammnedd o thiss boc tha goddspelles neh alle
I have gathered in this book nearly the whole gospel

Thatt sinndenn o the messeboc inn all the yer att messe;
That is in the massbook for a whole year;

Annd ayy affterr the goddspell stannt thatt tatt the goddspell

menethth,
And always after the gospel stands an interpretation,

Thatt mann birrth spellenn to the folic off theyyre sawle nede.
Which one should say to the people for their souls' good. . .

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 491

Ice hafe sett her o thiss boc amang goddspelles worrdess,
I have set here in this book among the gospel's words,

All thurrh mesellfenn, maniy word the rime swa to fillenn;
Quite on my own responsibility, words to make out the rime;

Ace thu shallt findenn thatt min word, eyy whaer thaer itt iss ekedd.
But you will find that my words, wherever they are inserted,

Mayy hellpenn tha thatt redenn itt to sen annd t'unnderrstandenn
May help those that read it to see and to understand

All thess te bettre, hu theyym birrth the goddspell unnderrstann-

denn.
All the better, how it behoves them to understand the gospel.

Annd forrthi troww^e ice thatt te birrth wel tholenn mine wordess.
And therefore I trust that it will behove you to suffer my words,

Eyywhaer thaer thu shallt findenn hemm amang goddspelless

wordess ;
Wherever you find them among the gospel's words;

For whase mot to laewedd folic larspell off goddspell tellen,
For if one is to tell the story of the gospel to ignorant people.

He mot wel ekenn maniy word amang goddspelless wordess.
He must add many a word among the gospel's words.

Annd ice ne mihhte nohht min ferrs ayy withth goddspelless

wordess
And I could not always my verses with the gospel words

Wel fillenn all, annd all forrthi shollde ice wel offte nede
Fill out , and for that reason alone I often was forced

Amang goddspelless wordess don min word, min ferrs to fillenn.
Among the gospel words to ])ut my own, my verse to complete.

Annd te bitaeche ice off thiss boc, licli wikenn alls itt

semethth.
And I beseech you with regard to Ihis ])ook, higli duty as it

seems.

All to thurrhsekenn illc an ferrs, annd to thurrhlokenn offte.
Completely to examine every verse, and to look through it often,

492 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Thatt upponn all thiss boc ne be nan word yaen Cristes lare,
(To see) that in all this book there be no word against Christ's
lore,

Nan word tatt swithe wel ne be to trow^^enn and to follyhenn.
No word that it would not be very safe to trust and to follow. . . .

Annd whase willenn shall thiss boc efft otherr sithe writenn
And if any one wishes to transcribe this book,

Himm bidde ice thatt he't write rihht, swa summ thiss boc himm

taechethth
Him bid I that he write it right, just as this book directs

him.

All thwerrtut affterr thatt itt iss uppo thiss firrste bisne,
Throughout according as it is in this first exemplar,

Withth all swillc rime alls her iss sett, withth all se fele wordess;
With just such rimes as here are used, with just as many words;

Annd tatt he loke wel thatt he an bocstaff write twiyyess
And that he see to it well that he write a letter twice

Eyywhaer thaer itt uppo thiss boc iss writtenn o thatt wise.
Everywhere where it is written in that way in this copy.

Loke he wel thatt he't write swa, forr he ne mayy nohht elles
Let him look well to this, for otherwise he can not

Onn Ennglissh writenn rihht te word, thatt wite he wel to sothe.
Write the words correctly in English, let him be sure of that.

Annd yiff mann wile witenn whi ice hafe don thiss dede,
And if one wishes to know why I have done this,

Whi ice till Ennglissh hafe wennd goddspelless hallghe lare,
(Namely,) why into English I have turned the gospel's holy lore,

Ice hafe itt don forrthi thatt all Crisstene foUkess berrhless
(Let him know that) I have done it because the salvation of all
Christians

Iss lang uppo thatt an, thatt teyy goddspelles hallyhe lare
Depends upon this alone, that they the gospel's holy lore

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 493

Withth fulle mahhte follyhe rihht thurrh thohht, thurrh word,

thurrh dede.
With full might follow right through thought, word and

deed. . . .

Ice thatt tiss Ennglissh hafe sett, Ennglisshe menu to lare,
I who this English have written, to teach Englishmen,

Ice wass thaer thaer I crisstnedd wass Orrmin bi name nemm-
nedd;
Was, when I was christened, named Ormin;

Annd ice, Orrminn full innwarrdliy withth muth and ec withth

herrte
And I, Ormin, very sincerely, with mouth and also with heart

Her bidde tha Crisstenne menn thatt herenn otherr redenn
Here pray the Christians who hear or read

This hoc, hemm bidde ice her thatt they forr me thiss bede bid-

denn.
This book that they for me offer this prayer,

Thatt brotherr thatt tiss Ennglissh wTitt allre aeresst wrat annd

wrohhte.
That the brother who wrote the first copy of this English book,

Thatt brotherr forr hiss swinnc to laen soth blisse mote findenn.
For his labor as reward true blessedness may find.^

To represent the Southern dialect, Layamon's account
from his Brut of the founding of King Arthur's Round
Table has been chosen.

Hit wes in ane yeol-daeie that Arthur in Lundenc lai;
It was on a holy day that Arthur was in London;

^ This passage may bo used to snpjjlcinont those already quoted to show the
relatively low position of Englisli al)out l''2()(). This is all that we know about
Ormin, save that on the MS, which is one of the few Middle Hnglish autograph
MSS. that are extant, is written, "This l)o()k is calhMl Orniuhnn l)e('ause Orin made
it." It is easy to see that the Drdirafiori to the Orniiiliini is an imi)ortant document
in the history of English sj)elling. .Just how much weight, however, islo be given to
Ormin's spelling is a matter of dispute. On the side of Ormin is Professor Emer-

494 ENGLISH LITERATURE

tha weoren him to i-cumen of all his kineriche,

then were come to him from all his kingdom (vassals),

of Brutlonde, of Scotlonde, of Irlonde, of Islonde,

from Britain, from Scotland, from Ireland, from Iceland,

and of al than londe the Arthur haefede an honde.
and from all the lands that Arthur had in hand.

alle the haexte theines mid horsen and mid sweines.
All the highest thanes with horses and with swains.

Ther weoren seoven kingene sunes mid feove hundred cnihten

icumen.
There were seven kings' sons with five hundred knights,

with uten than hired the herede Arthure.

not counting the throng that Arthur commanded.

Aelc hafede an heorte leches heye,
Each had a heart looking high,

and lette that he weore betere than his ivere.
and thought that he was better than his fellows.

That folc wes of feole londe, ther wes muchel onde.

The people came from many lands and there was much envy,

for the an hine talde haeh, the other muche herre.

because the one rated himself high, the next himself much higher.

Tha bleou mon tha bemen and tha hordes bradden;
Then they blew the trumpets and spread the tables;

water me brohte an vloren mid guldene laeflen,
water men brought on floor in golden bowls,

seoththen clathes soften al of white seolke.
then soft clothes all of white silk.

Tha sat Arthur adun and bi him Wenhaver tha queue.
Then Arthur sat down and by him Guinevere the Queen.

son; see his Middle English Reader, Grammatical Introduction, passim. On the op-
posite side is the late Professor James Morgan Hart; see his Development of
Standard English Speech (Henry Holt and Co., 1907).

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 495

seoththen sete tha eorles and ther after tha beornes,
Next sat the earls and thereafter the barons,

seoththen tha cnihtes al swa mon heom dihte.
then the knights just as they were directed.

Tha heye iborne thene mete beoren

The high-born men then bore in the meat

aefne forth rihten tha to than cnihten,
even straight on then to the knights,

tha touward than theinen, tha touward than sweinen,
then to the thanes, then to the swains,

tha touward than bermonnen forth at than borden.
then to the porters forth at the board.

Tha duguthe waerth iwTaththed; duntes weoren rive:
Then the warriors grew angry; blows were rife:

aerest tha laves hoe weorpen tha while heo ilaesten,
first they threw the loaves while they lasted,

and tha boUen seolverne mid wine ivulled,
and the silver bowls filled with wine,

and seoththen tha vustes vusden to sweoren.
and then the fists approached necks.

Tha leop ther forth a yung mon the ut of Winet-londe com;
Then jumped up a young man who had come from Winetland;

he wes iyefen Arthur to halden to yifle;

he had been given to Arthur to hold as a hostage;

he was Rumarettes sune, thas kinges of Winette.
he was a son of Rumarette, King of Winet.

Thus seide the cniht there to Arthur kinge,
Thus said the knight there to Arthur the King,

Laverd Arthur buh rathe into thine bure,
*'Lord Arthur go quickly into thy chamber,

and thi cjuene mid the and thene maeies cuthe,
and thy Queen with thee and thy known relatives,

496 ENGLISH LITERATURE

and Ave this conij) sciillen to-delen with thas uncuthe kempen.
and we shall settle this eontest against these strange warriors."

Aefne than worde he leop to than borde,
Even at the word he leapt on the table,

ther leien tha cnives beforen than leod-kinge;
where lay the knives before the King;

tlireo cnifes he igrap and mid than anae he smat
three knives he seized and with one he smote

i there swere the eniht the aerest bigon that ilke fiht,
in the neck the knight who first began that brawl,

that his hefved i thene flor haelde to grunde.
so that his head on the floor fell to the ground.

Sone he floh aenne other thes ilke theines brother;
Soon he slew another, this same thane's brother;

aer tha sweordes comen seovene he afaelde.
before the swords came seven he had slain.

Ther wes faeht swithe graet; aelc mon other smat;
There was a great fight; each man smote another;

ther wes muchel blod gute, balu wes an hirede.
there was much blood spilled, bale was in the crowd.

Tha com the king buyen ut of his buren
Then the King came out of his chamber

mid him an hundred beornen mid helmen and mid burnen;
with him a hundred nobles with helmets and with shields;

aelc bar an his riht hond whit stelene brond.
each bore in his right hand a white steel brand.

The cleopede Arthur athelest kingen,
Then cried Arthur, noblest of kings,

Sitteth sitteth swithe elc mon bi his live,
*'Sit, sit quickly each man by his life,

and wa swa that nulle don, he seal for-demed beon;
and woe to him that will not, he shall be fordoomed;

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 497

Nimeth me thene ilke mon tha this feht aerst bigon,
Bring me the man who this fight first began,

and doth withthe an his sweore and drayeth hine to an more,
and put a withy about his neck and drag him to a moor,

and doth hine in an ley ven ther he seal Hggen.
and put him in a low fen where he shal lie.

And nimeth al his nexte cun tha ye mayen ivinden
And take all his nearest kin that you can find

and swengeth of tha hafden mid breoden eouwer sweorden;
and cut off their heads with your broad swords;

tha wifmen tha ye mayen ifinden of his nexten cunden
the women whom you can find of his nearest kin

kerveth of hire neose and heore wdite ga to lose;
cut off their noses and let their beauty go to ruin;

and swa ich wulle al fordon that cun that he of com.

and thus I will quite destroy the family from which he came.

And yif ich avere mare seoththen ihere
And if I ever more afterw^ards hear

that aei of mine hirede of heye na of loge
that any of my company, be he high or low,

of thissen ilke slehte aeft sake arere,

on account of this same strife ever raise a brawl,

ne sculde him neother gon fore gold ne na gaersume,

there shall go for him as ransome neither gold nor any treasure,

haeh hors no haere scrud, that he ne sculde beon ded, ,
fine horse nor finer garment, that he should not die,

other mid horsen to-dragen — that is elches swiken lagen.

or be drawn in pieces by horses — that is the law for every traitor.

Bringeth thene halidom and ich wulle swerien ther on,
Bring the sacred relics and I will swear thereon,

swa ye scullen cnihtes the weoren at thissen fihte,
and so shall ye, knights who were present at this fight.

498 ENGLISH LITERATURE

eorles and beornes, that ye hit breken nulleth.

Ye earls and barons, that ye shall not break this troth."

Aerst sweor Arthur athelest kingen,
First swore Arthur, noblest of kings,

seoththen sworen eorles, seoththen sweoren beornes,
then swore the earls and then the barons,

seoththen sweoren theines, seoththen sweoren sweines,
next swore thanes and next swains,

that heo navere mare the sake nulde arere.

that they never more would raise trouble (on account of this
fight).

Me nom alle tha dede and to leirstowe heom ladden.
Men took all the dead and laid them in the burial place.

Seoththen me bleou bemen mid swithe murie dremen.
Then they blew the trumpets with very merry sound,

weoren him leof weoren him laed, elc ther feng water and claed,
were they lief, were they loath, each there took water and cloth,

and seoththen adun sete saehte to borden.
and then sat down reconciled at the tables.

al for Arthure aeige athelest kingen.

All this was for fear of Arthur, noblest of kings.

Birles ther thrungen, gleome ther sungen:
Cupbearers there thronged, gleemen there sang:

harpen gunnen dremen, duguthe wes on selen.
harps began to sound, the people were rejoiced.

Thus fulle seoveniht wes than hirede idiht.
Thus for a full week were the people treated.

Seoththen hit seith in there tale, the king ferde to Cornwale,
Then it says in the story, the King fared to Cornwall,

ther him com to anan that waes a crafti weorc-man,
where came to him one who was a skilled workman,

and thene king imette and feiere hine graette,
and he met the King and greeted him fair, saying.

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 499

Hail seo thu Arthur, athelest kinge,
"Hail, Arthur, noblest of kings,

Ich aem thin age mon, moni lond ich habbe thurh-gan;

I am thine own liege, many lands have I travelled through;

ich con of treo-werkes wunder feole craftes.
I know in carpentry many shifts.

Ich iherde suggen bi-yeonde sae neowe tidende,
I have heard over the sea new tidings,

that thine cnihtes at thine borden gunnen fihte
that thy knights at thy table began a fight

a midewinteres daei; moni ther feollen;
on midwinter's day; that many fell there;

for heore muchele mode morth-gomenn wrohten,

that because of their great pride they wrought murder,

and for heore hehye cunne aelc wolde beon with inne.

and on account of their high lineage each would be nearest you.

Ah ich the wulle wurche a bord swithe hende
But I will make for thee a table very fine

that ther mayen setten to sixtene hundred and ma,
that will seat sixteen hundred and more,

al turn abute, that nan ne beon with ute,

Quite round, so that no one will be further away than another,

with uten and with inne, mon to-gaines monne.
without and within, man opposite man.

Whenne thu wult riden, with the thu miht hit leden,
When thou desirest to travel thou canst carry it with thee,

and setten hit whar thu wulle after thine iwille.
and put it where thou pleasest according to thy will.

and ne dert thu navere adrede to there worlde longen

And then thou wilt never need to fear to the end of the world

that aevere aeine modi cniht at thine borde makie fiht;
that ever any proud knight at thy table make a fight;

500 ENGLISH LITERATURE

for ther seal the hehye beoii aefne than loge.

for there shall the high be on a level with the low.**

Timber me lete biwinnen and that bord begin;
Lumber they had brought and the table begun;

to feouwer wikene virste that were wes ivorthed.
in four weeks' time the work was finished.

To ane heye daeie that hired wes isomned,
On a festive day the company was gathered,

and Arthur him seolf beh sone to than borde,
and Arthur himself came immediately to the table,

and hehte alle his cnihtes to than borde forth rihtes.
and invited all his knights to come at once.

Tho alle weoren iseten cnihtes to heore mete;
Then all the knights were seated at their meat;

tha space aelc with other alse hit weore his brother;

then each spoke with the other as if they had been brothers;

alle heo seten abuten, nes ther nan with uten.
they all sat in a circle, there was no one far away.

Aeveraelches cunnes cniht there wes swithe wel idiht;
Every sort of knight there was well cared for;

alle heo weoren bi ane, the hehye and tha laye;
all were on one level, both the high and the low;

ne mihten ther nan yelpe for othere kunnes scenchen,
no one could boast there of other kinds of drinks,

other his iveren the at than beorde weoren.
different from what his companions had, who were at the same
table.

This wes that ilke bord that Bruttes of yelpeth,
This was that same table that the Britons boasted of,

and sugeth feole cunne lesinge bi Arthure than kinge.
and tell many sorts of lying tales about Arthur the King.

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 501

Swa deth aver ale mon the other luvien ne con;
So does every one who can not love another;

yif he is to him to leof, thenne wule he liyen,
(Or) if he is too dear to him, then he will lie,

and suggen on him wurth-scipe mare thenne he beon wurthe;
and give him a higher rating than he is worth;

ne beo he no swa luther mon that his freond him wel ne on.
there is no man so worthless that his friend will not do well bj^
him.

Aeft yif on volke feondscipe arereth

Again, if among the people enmity ever arises

an aever aei time betweone twon monnen,
anywhere between two men,

me con bi than laethe lasinge suggen,

people can always say hateful things about the hateful person,

theh he weore the bezste mon the aevere aet at borde;
though he were the best man who ever ate at table;

the mon the him weore lath, him cuthe last finden.

the man who is hostile to him knows how to find him at last.

Ne al soth ne al les that leod-scopes singe th;

That which popular minstrels sing is not all false nor all true;

ah this is that soththe bi Arthure than kinge:
but this is the truth about Arthur the King:

Nes naever ar swulc king swa duhti thurh alle thing;
there was never before so doughty a king in every way;

for that sothe stond a than writen, hu hit is iwurthen,
for the truth stands in the writings how it happened,

ord from than aenden of Arthur than kinge,

from the beginning to the end of Arthur the King,

no mare no lasse, buten alse his lagen weoren.
no more, no less but just as his laws were.

Ah Bruttes hine luveden swithe and ofte on him liyeth.
But the Britons loved him well and often lie about him,

50^2 ENGLISH LITERATURE

and suggeth feole thinges bi Arthur than kinge
and say many things about Arthur the King

that naevere nes iwurthen a thissere weorlde-richen.
that never happened in the kingdoms of this world.

inoh he mai suggen the soth wule vremmen
He who would tell the truth can tell enough

seolcuthe thinges bi Arthure kinge.^
strange things about King Arthur.

To represent the dialect of Kent the Postscript of Dan
Michel's Ayenhite of Inwyt has been selected.

Nou ich wille thet ye wyte hou hit is y-went
Now I desire that you know how it came about

Thet this boc is y-write mid Engliss of Kent.
That this book is written in the English of Kent.

This boc is y-mad vor lewede men.

This book has been written for ignorant people,

Vor vader and- vor modor and vor other ken,
For fathers and mothers and other kin,

Ham vor to berge vram alle manyere zen.
Them to protect from all sorts of sin,

That ine hare inwytte ne bleve no voul wen.
That in their consciences remain no foul stain.

*'Huo ase God" is his name yzed

"Who as God" is his name interpreted (literally said)

That this boc made; God him give thet bread
That this book made; may God give him the bread

' This incident of the founding of the Round Table is an original addition to
the Arthurian story on Layamon's part; his Brut is nearly twice as long as that of
Wace, whose work he took as the basis of his own; Wace in turn had greatly en-
larged the story of Geoffrey of Monmouth, his predecessor. (For biographical
material about the three, cf. post, pp. 557-559; 579.) Layamon's Brut appeared
about 1205; it runs to 16,120 lines and yet there are only 90 French words in it, a
fact which shows how slow romance words were in coming into the English vocabu-
lary.

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 503

Of angles of hevene and therto his red

Of the angels of heaven and in addition His counsel

And onderfonge his zaule huanne thet he is dyad.
And receive his soul when he is dead.

Ymende. Thet this boc is volveld ine the eve of the holy apostles
Add : That this book was finished on the Eve of the holy apostles

Symon an Judas ^^ of ane brother of the cloystre of sanyt austin of
Simon and Judas by a brother of the cloister of Saint Augustine of

Canterberi ine the yeare of oure Ihordes beringe 1340.
Canterbury in the year of our Lord's birth 1340.

To represent the dialect of London the English Procla-
mation of Henry III (1258) has been chosen.
«
Henri, thurg Godes fultume King on Engleneloande, Lhoaverd
Henry, through God's help King in England, Lord

on Yrlonade, Duk on Normandi, on Aquitaine, and Eorl on
in Ireland, Duke in Normandy and x\quitaine, and Earl of

Anjow, send igretinge to alle hise holde, ilaerde and ileawede, on
Anjou, sends greeting to all his faithful, learned and ignorant, in

Huntendoneschure : thaet witen ye wel alle thaet we willen and
Huntingdonshire: that you may know well that we will and

unnen thaet thaet ure raedesmen alle, other the moare dael of
grant that which our councillors, or the majority of

heom thaet beoth ichosen thurg us and thurg thaet loandes folk
them who are chosen through us and through the people

on ure kuneriche, habbeth idon and shullen don in the worthnesse
of the country in our kingdom, have done and shall do to the honor

of Gode and on ure treowthe, for the freme of the loande thurg
of God and our truth, for the benefit of the land through

the besigte of than toforeniseide redesmen, beo stedefaest and
the care of the aforementioned councillors, may it be steadfast and

10 October 27.

504 ENGLISH LITERATURE

ilestinde in alle thinge abuten aende. And we hoaten alle ure
lasting in all things without end. And we bid all our

treowe in the treowthe thaet heo us oyen, thaet heo stedefaestliche
faithful by the troth they owe us, that they steadfastly

healden and swerien to healden and werien tho isetnesses thaet
hold and swear to hold and safeguard the ordinances that

beon imakede and beon to makien, thurg than toforeniseide raedes-
have been made and are to be made, through the aforesaid coun-

men, other thurg the moare dael of heom alswo alse hit is
cillors, or through the majority of them just as it has

biforen iseid; and thaet aech other helpe thaet for to done bi
been ordered before; and that each help the other to do aci^ording

than ilche othe ayenes alle men riht for to done and to foangen.
to that same oath to do right and act properly toward all.

And noan ne nime of loande ne of egte wherthurg this besigte
And let no one take any land or other property by which this

muge beon ilet other iwersed on onie wise. And yif oni other
object may be hindered or jeopardized in any way. And if any

onie cumen her onyenes, we willen and hoaten thaet alle ure
oppose this injunction, we wish and command that all our

treowe heom healden deadliche ifoan. And for thaet we willen
faithful hold them as mortal enemies. And since we will

thaet this beo stedefaest and lestinde, we senden yew this writ
that this be permanent and lasting, we send you this open

open, iseined with ure seel, to halden amanges yew ine hord.
writ, sealed with our seal, to keep among you in your archives.

Witnesse us selven aet Lundene thane eytetenthe day on the
Witness ourselves at London, the eighteenth day in the

monthe of Octobre in the two and fowertiythe yeare of ure
month of October in the forth-second year of our

cruninge. And this wes idon aetforen ure isworene redesmen,
crowning. And this was done before our sworn councillors,

THE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 505

Boneface Archebischop on Kanteburi, Walter of Cantelow, Bischop
Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury, Walter of Cantelow, Bishop

on Wirechestre, Simon of Muntfort, Eorl on Leirchestre, Richard
of Worcester, Simon of Montfort, Earl of Leicester, Richard

of Clare, Eorl on Glowchestre and on Hurtford, Roger le Bigod,
of Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hereford, Roger Bigod,

Eorl on Northfolk and Marescallon Engleneloande, Perres of
Earl of Norfolk and Marshall of England, Pierre of

Savveye, Willelm of Fort, Eorl on Aubemarle, Johan of Plesseiz,
Savoy, William of Fort, Earl of Albemarle, John of Plesseiz,

Eorl on Warewik, Johan Geffrees sune, Perres of Muntfort,
Earl of Warwick, John son of Geoffrey, Pierre of Montfort,

Richard of Grey, Roger of Mortemer, James of Aldithele, and
Richard of Grey, Roger of Mortimer, James of Aldithele, and

aetforen othre inoge. And al on tho ilche worden is isend into
before several others. And in just these same terms proclamation

aevriche othre schire over al thaere kuneriche on Engleneloande,
is made in every other shire in the kingdom of England,

and ek intel Irelonde.^^
and also in Ireland.

3. The Written Language. — As regards this topic, all
we can do is to recall the anxious words of Ormin already
quoted ^^ as to the copying of his text, and to cite the follow-
ing passages from Chaucer. The first is his address to his
Troilus and Criseyde near the end of that poem; and the
second, his lines to Adam, his copyist.

Go, my little book, my little tragedy, to the j)lace whence God
may yet send thy maker the power to write something comic !
But, little book, envy thou no poet, ])ut be subject to all song;

" This Procamation refers to the Oxford Prori.s-ions of V158\ for a transhition of
the text of the Provi.sions, see Adams and Stephens, Select Documents of English
Constitutional Ilistorij, pp. .50-G3. *2 q{ ante, p. 492.

506 ENGLISH LITERATURE

and kiss the steps when thou seest Virgil, Ovid, Homer, Lucai?
and Statins pass by.

And because there is so great diversity in English and the
writing thereof, I pray God that no one miswrite thee nor
"niismeter" thee for lack of proper words. And wherever thou
art read, I pray God thou mayst be understood. . . .

Adam Scrivener, if it ever happen that you make another
coj^y of BoetJiius or Troilus, may you have scab under your
locks, if you do not copy my exemplar correctly. I have to go
over your work so many times every day to correct and erase
and scratch it out; and all my trouble is because of your
negligence and haste. ^^

V. Literary Characteristics

1. The Spirit of Literature 1066-HOO. — The two sorts
of literature which bulk largest in the writings of the
period 1066-1400 are the didactic and the romantic; and,
if we are adequately to reflect the spirit of the times, these
two must be reckoned with. As representative of the first
tendency the proem to Ancren Riwle {A Rule for Ancho-
resses) has been selected.

"The upright love thee," ^ saith the bride to the bridegroom.
There is a Law or Rule of Grammar, of Geometry and of The-
ology; and of each of these sciences there are special rules. We
are to treat of the Theological Law, the rules of which are two:
the one relates to the right conduct of the heart; the other, to
the regulation of the outward life.

"The upright love thee,^ O Lord," saith God's bride to her
beloved bridegroom, those who love thee rightly, those are up-
right; those who live by a rule. And ye, my dear sisters, have
oftentimes importuned me for a rule. There are many kinds of
rules; but, among them all, there are two of which, with God's
help, I will speak, by your request. The one rules the heart, and

^' The best reference for the history of the English Language in the period is
The Cambridge History of English Literature, I, chapter xix, and BibUography.
1 Cf. Song of Solomon 1:4. ^ Ci. I Timothy 1:5.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 507

makes it even and smooth, without knot or wound-mark of evil
or accusing conscience, that saith, " In this thou doest wickedly,"
or, "This is not amended yet as well as it ought to be." This
rule is always within you, and directs the heart. And this is
that charity which the Apostle describes . . . "Out of a pure
heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned." ^ "Con-
tinue," saith the Psalmist, "thy mercy to them that know thee,"
by faith unfeigned, "and thy righteousness," that is, rectitude
of life, "to those who are upright in heart," ^ in other words,
who regulate all their wishes by the rule of the divine will; such
persons are rightly called good. The Psalmist says, "Do good,
O Lord, to those that be good, and to them that are upright in
their hearts." * To them it is said that they may delight,
namely, in the witness of a good conscience. "Be glad in the
Lord and rejoice, all ye that are upright in heart," ^ that is, all
whom that supreme law hath directed aright which directs all
things rightly. Concerning which Augustine saith, "Nothing
must be sought contrary to the rule of the supreme authority";
and the Apostle, "Let us all abide by the same rule." ^ The
other rule is all outward, and ruleth the body and the deeds of
the body. It teaches how men should, in all respects, bear them-
selves outwardly; how they should eat and drink, dress, take
rest, sleep and walk. And this is bodily exercise, which, accord-
ing to the Apostle, profiteth little,^ and is, as it were, a rule of
the science of mechanics, which is a branch of geometry; and
this rule is only to serve the other. The other is as a lady; this
is as her handmaid; for, whatever men do of the other out-
wardly, is only to direct the heart within.

Do you now ask what rule you anchoresses should observe.'*
Ye should by all means, with all your might and all your strength,
keep well the inward rule, and for its sake the outward. The
inward rule is always alike. The outward is various, because
every one ought so to observe the outward rule as that the body
may therewith best serve the inward. Now then, is it so that
all anchoresses may well observe one rule.^ ... All may and
ought to observe one rule concerning purity of heart, that is, a

3 Cf. Psalm 3G: 10. * Ci. Psalm U5: 4. « Cf. Psalm 32: 11.

6 Cf. Philippians 3: 16. ^ ^f. 1 Timothy 4: 8.

508 ENGLISH LITERATURE

clean unstained conscience, without any reproach of sin that is
not remedied by confession. This the lady rule effects, which
governs and corrects and smoothes the heart and the conscience
of sin, for nothing maketh it rugged but sin only. To correct
it and smooth it is the good office and the excellent effect of all
religion and of every religious order. This rule is framed not by
man's contrivance, but by the command of God. Wherefore,
it ever is and shall be the same, without mixture and without
change; and all men ought ever invariably to observe it. But
all men cannot, nor need they, nor ought they to keep the out-
ward rule in the same unvaried manner, . . . that is to say, in
regard to observances that relate to the body. The external
rule, which I called the handmaid, is of man's contrivance; nor
is it instituted for anything else but to serve the internal law.
It ordains fasting, watching, enduring cold, wearing haircloth
and such other hardships as the flesh of many can bear and
many cannot. Wherefore, this rule may be changed and varied
according to one's state and circumstances. For some are strong,
some are weak and may very well be excused and please God
with less; some are learned and some are not, and must work
the more and say their prayers at the stated hours in a different
manner; some are old and ill favored, of whom there is less
fear; some are young and lively, and have need to be more on
their guard. Every anchoress must, therefore, observe the out-
ward rule according to the advice of her confessor, and do obedi-
ently whatever he enjoins and commands her, who knows her
state and her strength. He may modify the outward rule, as
prudence may direct, and as he sees that the inward rule may
thus be best kept.

No anchorite, by my advice shall make profession, that is,
vow to keep anything as commanded, except three things, that
is, obedience, chastity and constancy to her abode; that she
shall never more change her convent, except only by necessity,
as compulsion and fear of death, obedience to her bishop or
superior; for, whoso undertaketh anything, and promises to
God to do it as His command, binds herself thereto, and sinneth
mortally in breaking it, if she break it wilfully and intention-
ally. If, however, she does not vow it, she may, nevertheless,

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 509

do it, and leave it off when she will, as of meat and drink,
abstaining from flesh or fish, and all other such things relating
to dress and rest and hours and prayers. Let her say as many,
and in such a way, as she pleases. These and such other things
are all in our free choice, to do or to let alone whenever we choose,
unless they are vowed. But charity or love and meekness and
patience and truthfulness and keeping the ten old commandments,
confession and penitence, these and such others, some of which
are of the old law, some of the new, are not of man's invention,
nor a rule established by man, but they are the commandments
of God, and, therefore, every man is bound and obliged to keep
them, and you most of all; for they govern the heart, and its
government is the main point concerning which I have to give
directions in this book, except in the beginning and in the con-
cluding part of it. As to the things which I write here concern-
ing the external rule, ye, as my dear sisters, observe them, our
Lord be thanked, and through His grace ye shall do so, the
longer the better; and yet I would not have you to make a vow
to observe them as a divine command; for, as often thereafter
as ye might break any of them it would too much grieve your
heart and frighten you, so that you might soon fall, which God
forbid, into despair, that is, into hopelessness and distrust of
your salvation. Therefore, my dear sisters, that which I shall
write to you in the first, and especially in the last part of your
book, concerning your service, you should not vow it, but keep
it in your heart, and perform it as though you had vowed it.

If any ignorant person ask you of what order you are, as
you tell me some do, who strain at a gnat and swallow the fly,
answer and say that ye are of the order of St. James, who was
God's Apostle, and for his great holiness was called God's brother.
If such answer seems to him strange and singular, ask him,
"What is order, and where he may find in holy writ religion
more i)lainly described and manifested than in the canonical
epistle of St. James?" He saith what religion is, and what right
order, . . ."Pure religion and without stain is to visit and
assist widows and fatherless children, and to keej) himself pure
and unstained from the world." ^ 'I'hus does St. James describe

8 Cf . James 1 : 27.

510 ENGLISH LITERATURE

religion and order. The latter part of his saying relates to
anchorites: for there are two parts of this description, which
relates to two kinds of religious men; to each of them his own
part applies, as you may hear. There are in the world good
religious men, especially some prelates and faithful preachers,
to whom belongs the former part of that which St. James said;
who are, as he said, those who go to assist widows and orphans.
The soul is a widow who has lost her husband, that is, Jesus
Christ, by any grievous sin. He is likewise an orphan who,
through his sin, hath lost the Father in Heaven. To go and
visit such, and to comfort and assist them with food of sacred
instruction, this, saith St. James, is true religion. The latter
part of his saying relates to anchorites, to your religious order, as
I said before, who keep yourselves pure and unspotted from
the world, more than any other religious persons. Thus the
Apostle St. James describes religion and order; neither black
nor white does he speak of in his order, as many do, who strain
at the gnat and swallow the fly, that is exert much strength
where little is required. Paul,^ the first anchorite, xA.ntony ^^ and
Arsenius,^^ Macharius ^^ and the rest, were they not religious
persons and of St. James' order? And St. Sara,^^ Sincletica ^^
and many other such men and women with their coarse mat-

^ A more or less mythical Christian hermit, of whom we have a Life by St.
Jerome.

^° Founder of Christian monasticism. He was born about 250, retired from the
world into the Egyptian desert about 270, and lived alone for about 35 years, at
one time going for twenty years without once seeing the face of a human being.
In 305, after repeated importunity, he became the leader of a body of monks and
devoted himself to the instruction of them for five or six years. Then he withdrew
to solitude again and died about 35G or 357. Most of our knowledge of him comes
from St. Jerome.

^^ Saint and hermit, born about 354 at Rome, died about 450 at Troe in Egypt.
He was the tutor of Arcadius, the son of Theodosius the Great, was well educated
and lived in luxury until he was visited by a vision which directed him to leave the
world. He obeyed and, withdrawing to the desert, lived, meanly clad, there for 55
years.

'^ Or Macarius, the Egyptian, one of the most famous of the early Christian
solitaries. He was born about 300 and died about 390. He was a disciple of St.
Anthony and founder of a monastic community in the Scetic desert.

'^ Not in the Catholic EncijclopcEdia.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 511

tresses and their hard hair-cloths, were not they of a good order?
And wliether white or black, ^^ as foohsh people ask you, who
think that order consists in the kirtle or the cowl, God knoweth;
nevertheless, they may well wear both, not, however, as to
clothes, but as God's bride singeth of herself, ... "I am
black and yet white," ^^ she saith, "dark outwardly and bright
within." In this manner answer ye any one who asks you con-
cerning your order, and, whether white or black, say that ye are
both through the grace of God, and of the order of St. James,
which he wrote, the latter part, . . . that is, what I said before,
to keep himself pure and unstained from the world; herein is
religion and not in the wide hood, nor in the black, nor in the
white, nor in the gray cowl. There, however, where many are
gathered together, they should, for the sake of unity, make a
point of sameness of clothes, and of other outward things, that
the outward sameness may denote the sameness of one love and
of one will, every one the same as another. Let them look well
that they do not lie. Thus it is in a convent; but, wherever a
woman liveth, or a man liveth by himself alone, be he hermit or
anchorite, of outward things whereof scandal cometh not, it is
not necessary to take so much care. Hearken now to Micah,
God's prophet, ... "I will show thee, O man," saith the holy
Micah, God's prophet, " I will show thee truly what is good and
what religion is and what order and what holiness God requires
of thee. Mark this, understand it, do good, and deem thyself
ever weak, and with fear and love w^alk with the Lord thy
God." ^^ Wherever these things are, there is true religion, and
there is right order; and to do all the other things and leave
this undone is mere trickery and deceit. All that a good re-
cluse does or thinks, according to the external rule, is altogether
for this end; it is only as an instrument to promote this true
religion; it is only a slave to help the lady rule the heart.

Now, my dear sisters, this book I divide into eight distinctions,
which ye call parts, and each part treats separately, without con-
fusion, of distinct matters, and yet each one falleth in properly
after another, and the latter is always connected with the former.

'■* Referring,' to the jealousy hctwecii the different orders of friars.
15 Cf. Song of Solomon 1 : .5. i6 Q{ Micah 6: 8.

512 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The first part treats entirely of your religious service.

The next is, how you ought, through your five senses, to keep
your heart, wherein is order, religion, and the life of the soul.
In this part there are five chapters or sections concerning the five
senses, which guard the heart as watchmen when they are faith-
ful, and which speak concerning each sense separately in order.

The third part is of a certain kind of bird, to which David,
in the Psalter, compares himself, as if he were an anchorite,
and how the nature of those birds resembles that of anchorites.

The fourth part is of fleshly, and also of spiritual temptations,
and of comfort against them, and of their remedies.

The fifth part is of confession.

The sixth part is of penitence.

The seventh part is of a pure heart, why men ought and
should love Jesus Christ, and what deprives us of His love and
hinders us from loving Him.

The eighth part is entirely of the external rule; first, of meat
and drink and of other things relating thereto; thereafter, of
the things that ye may receive, and what things ye may keep
and possess; then, of your clothes and of such things as relate
thereto; next, of your tonsure, and of your works, and of your
blood-letting; lastly, the rule concerning your maids, and how
you ought kindly to instruct them.

In the course of Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrimage, the
Monk described in the Prolog tells, of certain unfortunate
historical characters, a series of stories highly edifying but
increasingly tiresome to the Knight, who finally breaks out
in protest. He had already told his splendidly romantic
tale of Palamon and Arcite and from his criticism of his
companion's effort, we can infer what the knightly stand-
ards of literary value were.

"Stop," said the Knight, "good sir, no more of this; what
you have said is quite enough, indeed; aye, more than enough;
for a little gloom goes a good ways with most people, I guess.
Speaking for myself, I can say to me it is a great cause of un-
easiness to hear of the sudden fall of men who have had great

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 513

wealth and comfort. In fact, the opposite kind of story, namely
that of a man who has been poor, has climbed up, become pros-
perous and staid so, is a great joy and solace to me. Such a
thing is gladsome in my judgment and would be very goodly to
tell." "Yes," added the Host, "by St. Paul's bell, you speak
quite truly; this monk, he talked loud and told how 'fortune
w^as covered with a cloud,' and of some sort of tragedy — I
don't know just what — and, forsooth, of what use is it to bewail
and complain of what's done; of course it's painful to hear of
misfortune. So, sir Monk, no more of this, God bless you! your
story bothers all this company; such talk is not worth a butter-
fly; for there is no joy nor pleasure in it. Wherefore, sir Monk,
or Dan Piers, to call you by your name, I pray you tell us some-
thing else, for truly, were it not for the jingling of the bells that
hang everywhere on your bridle, by the King of Heaven, I
should have fallen asleep, however deep the ruts were. And,
if I had, your story would have been in vain, for certainly, as
old clerks say, 'If a man lacks an audience, he gains nothing by
giving out his wdsdom.' And I am sure that the responsibility
is on me to take good account of all the tales. Therefore, sir, I
pray you tell us a hunting yarn." "No," replied the Monk,
"I have no inclination to merriment; let somebody else perform
as I have."

Alongside of both the didactic and romantic literature
of the epoch, there is a vein of thought that rebels against
the higher ideals expressed therein, scoffs at them and turns
them to ridicule. This thought finds voice in fabliau
and satire, which often become coarse and risque. Some
of this is seen in The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer tries
to anticipate censure by the following apology for this
kind of realism;

But first, I pray you in your courtesy that you will not think
I am a villein, if I speak plainly in this matter by reporting the
words and expression of the pilgrims, even if I put them down
just as they were. For you know this as well as I, that if you
are going to repeat his story after a person, you must reiterate

514 ENGLISH LITERATURE

as closely as you can every word, if it is in your power, however
rough and rude his speech may be. Or else your version will
be untrue, or you will have to improvise or make a different
story. You may not spare him though he were your brother;
you may as well use one word as another, (for you are not ulti-
mately responsible for the tale). Christ Himself spoke plainly
in holy writ, and you know well, He was no villein. And fur-
ther, Plato says — to any one who can read him — the words
must be cousin to the deed. Also, I pray you, forgive me if I
have in this work portrayed people just as they are — my wit is
small, as you will understand.

Edifying literature, directly didactic or allegorical,
romance and satire do not exhaust the medieval spirit.
The lyric feeling for poetry persisted, often coming to
merely incidental expression to be sure, but leaving its
record in a small body of poems, religious and secular,
which must be reckoned with in any adequate treatment
of the period. In the following translation of a students'
song, the persistence of the feeling for poetry is registered.

Sweet in goodly fellowship

Tastes red w ine and rare O !
But to kiss a girl's ripe lip

Is a gift more fair O !
Yet a gift more sweet, more fine,

Is the lyre of Maro (Virgil) !
While these three good gifts were mine,

I'd not change with Pharaoh.

Bacchus wakes within my breast

Love and love's desire,
Venus comes and stirs the blessed

Rage of Phoebus' fire;
Deathless honor is our due

From the laurelled sire:
Woe should I turn traitor to

Wine and love and lyre !

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 515

Should a tyrant rise and say,

"Give up wine!" I'd do it;
"Love no girls !" I would obey,

Though my heart should rue it.
"Dash thy lyre !" suppose he saith,

Naught should bring me to it;
"Yield thy lyre or die," my breath.

Dying, should thrill through it ! *

2. The Technique of Vernacular Literature. — The first
discussions of the technique of vernacular literature are
found in this period, crude, it is true, but indicative of
awakening thought on the subject. We quote first Robert
Mannyng's lines on the difficulties of rimed verse. It will
be recalled that alliteration, not rime, was the technical
feature of Old English verse.

Whatever they (i.e. the writers from whom I draw my stories)
have declared in writing and speech, I have set forth in English,
the simplest I could find and easiest to pronounce. I have not
written for orators, reciters or harpers, but for the love of plain
men who do not know dijfficult English. For there are many
who do not understand hard English when they see it in rime;
and if they do not know what a thing means, it seems to me
its value would be lost. I did not compose my work to be
praised, but that ignorant men might be helped. If it were
written in tail, foreign, or interlaced (i.e. leonine) rime, there
are enough English who could not get the clue to the meaning.
Hence, . . . something would have been lost, so that many men
who heard it could not follow the story. I hear works of Ercel-
doun ^^ or Kendal sung or recited, but not in their original forms,
so that the meaning is lost. You may hear the same in Sir
Tristram. It is more popular than (any other) stories are or ever
were, provided it is rey)eated as Thomas made it. But I hear no
man render it without leaving out some of the rimes. So the
labor and fair stories of former generations are well nigh lost.

" I.e. Thomas of Erceldoun or "Thomas tlio Rimer" (flourished 1220-1297),
supposed minstrel author of .Sir Tristram mentioned below.

* By periuissiun of Messrs. Challo uiid VViiidus, from lluir cditiou iu tlie King's Classics Series.

516 ENGLISH LITERATURE

They (i.e. men of former generations' said in their pride that
none were such as they, and all their productions \s*ill now dis-
appear. They wrote in such peculiar English that many a one
does not understand it. And so I refused to work hard over
strange rimes; especially, since my wit was too thin to travail
in queer speech, and since I did not know such unusual EngUsh
as they produced. And men begged me many a time to put
(my stories) in easy rimes; they said that if I made them diffi-
cult many a one would refuse to Usten; for there are extraordi-
nary words that are not in use now. And, therefore, for the
common people who would listen to me gladly, I began in easy
language for love of the ignorant man, to teU the bold adven-
tures which had been done and described here 'in England .
For this book I desire no other reward than good prayers when
you read it. Hence, all you unlearned lords, for whom I have
used this English, pray to God that He give me grace; I trav-
ailled for your comfort.'^'

Chaucer's Monk in the following gives us bis idea of
tragedy :

Tragedy is . . . a . . . story, as old books make us re-
member, of him who lived in great prosperity and has fallen
from his high degree into misery and ends wretchedly. It is
commonly written in six-foot verse caUed hexameter. But it is
also written in prose and also in various meters in many
different ways. . . . This account ought to suffice. ^^

3. The Popular Literary Types. — Professor Schofield's
description of the contents of the "Auchinleck" MS.,
written between 1330 and 1340 will illustrate the state of

^ The most convenient account of Old and Middle English meters and prooody
in general is in The Cambridge Hi-fiory of EnglUh Literature, i, chapter 18 and Bib-
liography.

^ My colleague. Dr. Robert M. Garrett, called my attrition to the following
in Da.i Leidentr Glo*9ar {The Leyden Glo^ary), p. 67 (ed. Glc^ger, Augsburg, 1901):

Tragoedia beUica cantica de eusebio
rei fabulatio rei hircania trago enim hircus.
Tragedy is a warlike song (from EUSEBirs)
or a goatlike siory — trago meaas goat.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 517

literary taste in England lOGG-1400. ''This beautifully
written and illuminated parelunent," he says, "now in the
Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, contains over forty
distinct pieces, many short or fragmentary, others of great
length. In disordered juxtaposition may there be found a
number of legends of the virgin and various saints, a
vision of purgatory, bits of Bible history, and paraphrases
of Scripture texts, a didactic treatise on the Seven Deadly
Sins, a Debate between the Body and the Soul, a Dispute
between a Thrush and a Nightingale respecting women,
and a fragment in their praise, a lone fabliau 'How a
Merchant did his Wife Betray,' a chronicle of the kings of
England, a list of names of Norman barons, and two satires
on political conditions in the reign of Edward II. But
the bulk is romance, and this of every provenience. The
Carlovingian cycle is represented by the poems of Roland
and Vernagu and Otuel; the Arthurian by the Breton lays
of Le Freine^ Sir Orfeo, Sir Degare, and the romances of
Sir Tristram and Arthur and Merlin; English traditions
by those of Guy of Warwick and his son Reinhrun, by
Beves of Hampton and Horn Child; the matter of the
East by an account of Alexander, and the originally
Greek story of Flores and Blancheflour; together with
the legendary romance of Amis and Amiloun and the
Oriental collection of tales known as the Seven Wise
Masters. Surely such a manuscript could afford pleasure
to men in any mood, whatever their literary predilec-
tion." 20

Following this clue, we shall first quote two passages to
show the popularity of romance. The first is from Cursor
Miindiy already ^^ cited, and a highly significant testimony,
because the writer argues from I he poi)ularily of secular
romance that people would be eciually eager to hear Bible
and saintly stories, if they were put in equally interesting

20 Schoficld, op. rit., 1)1). 11, l.>. 21 cf. ante, p. 482.

518 ENGLISH LITERATURE

form. He proposes to try the experiment of giving reli-
gious material a romantic flavor.

People are eager to hear rimes and read romances of various
sorts. (Thus, they delight in stories) of Alexander the conqueror,
of Julius Ciesar the emperor, of the strange strife of Greece and
Troy when many thousands lost their lives, of Brutus, that
baron bold of hand, who first conquered England, of King Arthur
who was so noble that he had no peer in his day. Of the wonders
and adventures that befel his knights I know several stories; for
example, those of Gawain, Kay and other braves and their de-
fence of the Round Table. (I have heard) how King Charles
(Charlemagne) and Roland fought — they would not make peace
with the Saracens; of Tristram and his dear Iseult, how he
became a fool for her; of Joneck and of Isambrase, of Ydoine
and of Amadas. (There are) also several (other) kinds of stories
of princes, prelates and kings; songs with strange rimes (in)
English, French and Latin. Every one is intent on hearing the
tales that please him best.^^

To supplement this, the following more general passage
from Ywain and Gawain may be quoted:

Sir Ywain w^ent at full speed through the hall into an orchard,
taking his maiden with him. There he found a knight lying
under a tree on a cloth of gold. Before him sat a beautiful
maiden. Another lady was with them and the maiden in that
place read for them to hear a royal romance, but I do not know

-2 On the authority of Jean Bodel, a French poet who, toward the close of the
twelfth century, WTote of the wars of Charlemagne against the Saxons, modern
scholars have divided the romances into groups or cycles. Bodel, speaking of ro-
mance, says, "There are only three 'matters' to an intelligent man, those of France,
of Britain and of Rome the great." The "matter" of France includes the romances
of Charlemagne and his peers; that of Britain, the Arthurian stories; and that of
Rome the great, all the romances of antiquity. It will be noticed that all three of
these groups are represented in the names mentioned in this extract from Cursor
Mundi. There are, however, other romances that will not fall into these groups.
Hence, writers like Schofield (op. cit., chapter v) make other groups, such as the
matter of England and the matter of the Orient. There are still other isolated
stories that come into no group.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 519

what particular story it was. The girl was but fifteen years
old, the knight was lord of all that estate and she was his heir.'--^

The character of a tenth-century religious play, the con-
nection of gilds with dramatic representations, Fitzstephen's
description of London amusements including religious plays,
and the attitude of some clerics toward miracle plays have
already been treated in these pages. ^^ Here will be intro-

23 Passages similar to this are to be found in Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, ii, 11.
82-84; Sir Thopas, 11. 186-189; Nuns Priest's Talc, 11. 391-393; Ilavelok, 11. 2320-
2335; Squire of Low Degree, 11. 75-82. A passage from Barbour, Bruce, iii, 11.
435-466, has already been quoted in another connection; cf. ante, pp. 487H189.
For an outline of the story of Ywain and Gawain see Billings, A Guide to the
Middle English Metrical Romances {Yale Studies in English, ix, 1901), pp. 154-
156. Baldwin, op. cit., pp. 100-102, reprints Miss Billings' summary. For refer-
ences for the study of the entire subject of medieval romance, see The Cambridge
History of English Literature, i, chapters 12, 13 and 14; Schofield, op. cit., chapter
v; and Baldwin, op. cit., chapters 2, 3 and 4. Mr. Baldwin's treatment gives one
some rather new points of view.

2' Cf. ante, pp. 102, 103; 233-241; 316; 448 respectively. We shall here give
some references to show the persistence and development of drama from the tenth
to the fourteenth century. There was at Beverly in 1220 a play of the Resurrec-
tion. This play was outside the church. (Professor Gayley in Plays of Our Fore-
fathers, p. 21, quotes the account of an incident which happened during the
production of the play. See his discussion.) ISIatthew Paris about 1240 refers to
religious plays, adding, "Miracula vulgariter appellamus." ("We commonly call
them miracles." See Morley, English Writers, iii,'p. 116.) Bishop Grosseteste of
Lincoln wrote in 1244 a circular letter to his archdeacons on the conduct of the
clergy. Among the faults of the latter is the playing of miracles, Mayday plays
and harvest-home plays. (See Grosseteste, Epistolce, Rolls Scries, xxv, p. 317.)
This reference indicates that, to the Bishop at least, religious plays were not so
much marked as they once had been by that devotional character which Fitz-
stephen had assigned to them. The clerk Absolom in Chaucer's Miller's Tale
played Herod on a high scaffold. {Canterbury Tales, A 11. 3383, 3384.) There is a
reference in the same tale to Noah's difficulty in persuading his wife to enter the
ark. {Ibid., 11. 3539, 3540. Cf. the Noah play in Manly, Specimens of Pre-Shakes-
pcarean Drama, i, pp. 13-30.) Among the pleasures of the Wife of Bath is going
"to plays of miracles." {Canterbury Tales, I) 1. 558.) The peculiarity of Pilate's
voice in the play became a byword. {Ibid., .\ 1. 3124. Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith,
in her edition of the York Mystery I*lays, p. Ivii, cites a passage from the Apothegms
of Erasmus on this same voice; it was "out of measure loude and high.") Wiclif, De
Officio Pa.'itorali {On the Pastoral Ofjice), chapter 15 {English Works, Y,. E. T. S. ed.,
p. 429) argues for the liiblc in English and says that The Ix)rd's Prayer in English

520 ENGLISH LITERATURE

duced five further documents to illustrate the history of
the drama 1066-1400. The first is the proclamation of the
town clerk at York in 1394 of the annual Corpus Christi
festival. This document shows the conditions under which
such plaj^s were given,

Proclamation of the play of Corpus Christi ^^ to be made on
the vigil of Corpus Christi. Hear ye, etc. We command on
the King's behalf and that of the mayor and sheriffs of this
city that no man go armed in this city with sword or Carlisle
axe, nor with any other weapon in disturbance of the King's
peace and of the play, nor hinder the procession of Corpus
Christi. And that you leave your harness in your inns, save
knights and squires of worship who have their swords borne
after them, on pain of forfeiture of your weapons and of the
imprisonment of your bodies. And that the men who produce
the pageants play at the places that have been assigned for
that purpose and nowhere else, on pain of the fine heretofore
provided for that offence, namely forty shillings. And that the
men of the gilds and all other men who provide torches come
forth in such array and fashion as has been the custom and
wont before this time, not having weapons but carrying tapers
for the pageants. And officers that are keepers of the peace
(should do their duty) on pain of forfeiture of their franchise
and of bodily imprisonment. And all manner of craftsmen who
bring forth their pageants in order and course by good players,
well arrayed and openly speaking, on pain of losing a hundred
shillings, to be paid to the chamberlain, without appeal. And
that every player that shall play is to be ready in his pageant
at the mid-hour between the fourth and fifth of the morning
(i.e. 10:30 a.m.), and all the other pageants rapidly following,
each after the other, as their course is, without tarrying. Under
the penalty to be paid to the chamberlain of eight pence.

is given in the play of York. (Cf . ante, pp. 233-237.) In another place {ibid., p. 206)
Wiclif speaks of playing "a pagyn (pageant) of the devil at Christmas." A passage
in Piers the Plowman s Creed puts haunting taverns and mixing in miracles in the
same category. (Ed. Skeat, 11. 106, 107.)
^ Corjjus Christi Day is May 29.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 521

The next document, an account of the cost -^ of the Cor-
pus Christi pageant at York in 1397, when Richard II
came to see it, will further illustrate the preceding topic,
and will also indicate some of the properties used in giving
the play.

Item: For coloring four robes for the work of the pageant 4s.

And for painting the pageant

And for a new banner with apparatus

And for carrying material out to the gate to greet the
King and bringing it back

And for 20 fir spars at said gate at meeting the King

And for 19 saplings bought of John de Craven for afore-
said gate

And to 8 porters bringing and moving the pageant

And to the janitor of Holy Trinity for looking after the
pageant

To actors

To minstrels at the Feast of Corpus Christi

And for bread, venison pasties, wine and meat, and for
neckcloths for the mayor and leading citizens on the
day of the play 18s. 8d.

And to the minstrels of the Lord King and other lords

who came in 7£ 8s. 4d.

And to the chamberlain for a red and white robe to receive

the King in 58s. lOd.

That the status of actors at the beginning of the four-
teenth century was somewhat dubious at least, is indicated
in the following passage from the Penitential of Thomas de
Cabham Bishop of Salisbury, who died in 1313:

There are three kinds of actors. Some (i.e. the first kind)
transform and transfigure their bodies by base leapings and ges-
tures, or by stripping themselves disgracefully, or by putting on
horrible masks; and all such are damnable, unless they give up

^ Chambers, op. cit., ii, appendix w, prints many lists of accounts, but very few
in the period lOCG-1400 are itemized so that one can get from them any definite
ideas as to the various items of expense.

2s.

12s

.2d

2s.

Id.

5s.

lOd.

6s.

8d.

5s.

4d.

13s.

4d.

522 ENGLISH LITERATURE

their work. There are others who do nothing at all but act
criminously, having no fixed abode, but they follow in the trains
of magnates and tell indecent tales about absentees in order to
please those present. Such also are damnable, because the Apostle
forbids eating with such, and they are called scurrilous vaga-
bonds, because they are good for nothing but stuffing them-
selves and telling evil tales. And then there is a third sort of
actors who have musical instruments to delight mankind; and
of such there are two varieties. Some frequent public drinking
festivals and lascivious gatherings and sing there divers songs to
move men to lust; and these are as bad as the others (described
above) . There are others called clowns who sing of the deeds of
great men and the lives of saints, and comfort men in sickness or
distress and perform innumerable tricks, as do the leapers and per-
formers, male and female, and others who play in base costumes
and make ghosts appear by incantation or other means. If,
however, they do not do this, but, accompanied on their in-
struments, sing of the deeds of great men and of other edifying
things that may comfort men, as has been said before, they
may be supported, as Pope Alexander says. For when a cer-
tain clown asked him whether the soul of one engaged in such
business could be saved; the Pope asked him in turn whether
there was no other occupation by which he could make a living.
The clown replied that there was not. Wherefore, the Pope
granted that he might live by his trade (and be saved); pro-
vided he would abstain from the above mentioned lascivity and
baseness. It should be noted that all sin mortally who give
of their substance to scurrilous persons or lechers or the afore-
said actors. To give to actors is nothing but perdition.

In the passage regarding minstrels and plays already ^^
quoted from Ilandlyng Synne, it is stated that the clergy-
man may reasonably take part in the play of the resur-
rection in order to impress the fact of Christ's rising upon
the minds of the people. What this play was is seen in
the following passage from an account of the ritual and
ceremonies of Durham Abbey. The account should be

27 Cf. ante, pp. 448-450.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 523

compared with the Winchester trope translated and quoted
above.^^

Within the Abbeye Church of Durham, uppon Good Friday
theire was marvelous solemne service, in the which service time,
after the Passion was sung, two of the eldest Monkes did take
a goodly large Crucifix, all of gold, of the picture of our Saviour
Christ nailed uppon the crosse, lyinge uppon a velvett cushion,
havinge St. Cuthbert's armes uppon it all imbroydered with gold,
bringinge that betwixt them uppon the said cushion to the lowest
greeces (steps) in the Quire; and there betwixt them did hold
the said picture of our Saviour, sittinge of every side, on ther
knees, of that, and then one of the said Monkes did rise and
went a pretty way from it, sittinge downe uppon his knees,
with his shoes put of, and verye reverently did creepe away
uppon his knees unto the said Crosse, and most reverently did
kisse it. And after him the other Monke did so likewise, and
then they did sitt them downe on every side of the Crosse, and
holdinge it betwixt them, and after that the Prior came forth
of his stall, and did sitt him downe of his knees, with his shoes
off, and in like sort did creepe also unto the said Crosse, and
all the Monkes after him one after another, in the same order
and in the mean time all the whole quire singinge an himne.
The service beinge ended, the two Monkes did carry it (the
crucifix) to the Sepulchre with great reverence, which Sepulchre
was sett upp in the morninge, on the north side of the Quire,
nigh to the High Altar, before the service time; and there lay
it within the said Sepulchre with great devotion, with another
picture of our Saviour Christ, in whose breast they did enclose,
with great reverence, the most holy and blessed Sacrament of
the Altar (the communion bread), senceinge (perfuming with
incense) it and prayingc unto it upon their knees, a great space,
settinge two tapers before it, wliich tapers did burnc unto Easter
day in the morninge, that it was taken forth.

There was in the Abbey C'hurch of Durcsmc (Durham) verye
solemne service uppon Easter Day, betweene three and four of
the clock in the morninge, in honour of the Resurrection, where

2* Cf. ante, pp. 102, 103.

524 ENGLISH LITERATURE

two of the oldest Monkes of the Quire came to the Sepulchre,
being sett upp upon Good Friday, after the Passion, all covered
with red velvett and embrodered w^ith gold, and then did sence
(burn incense before it) it, either Monke with a pair of silver
sencers sittinge on theire knees before the Sepulchre. Then
they both rising came to the Sepulchre, out of the which, w^ith
great devotion and reverence, they tooke a marvelous beauti-
full IMAGE OF OUR SAVIOUR, representing the resurrection,
with a crosse in his hand, in the breast whereof was enclosed
in bright christall the holy Sacrament of the Altar, throughe
the which christall the Blessed Host (the communion bread) was
conspicuous to the behoulders. Then, after the elevation of the
said picture, carryed by the said tw^o Monkes uppon a faire
velvett cushion, all embrodered, singinge the anthem of Christus
resurgens (Christ rising), they brought it to the High Altar,
settinge that on the midst thereof, whereon it stood, the two
Monkes kneelinge on theire knees before the Altar, and senceing
it all the time that the rest of the whole quire was in singinge
the aforesaid anthem of Christus resurgens. The which anthem
beinge ended, the tw^o Monkes tooke up the cushions and the
picture from the Altar, supportinge it betwixt them, proceeding,
in procession, from the High Altar to the south Quire dore,
w^here there w^as four antient Gentlemen, belonginge to the Prior,
appointed to attend theire cominge, holdinge upp a most rich
CANNOPYE of purple velvett, tached round wdth redd silke
and gold fringe; and at every corner did stand one of theise
ancient Gentlemen, to beare it over the said image, with the
Holy Sacrament, carried by two Monkes round about the church,
the whole quire w^aitinge uppon it with goodly torches and great
store of other lights, all singinge, rejoyceinge, and praising God
most devoutly, till they came to the High Altar againe, whereon
they did place the said image there to remaine untill the Ascen-
sion day. . . .

Over the (second of the iii Alters in that place) was a mer-
veylous lyvelye (lifelike) and bewtiful Immage of the picture
of our Ladie, so called the LADY OF BOULTONE, which
picture was maide to open with gymmers (hinges) from her
breaste downdward. And within the said immage was wrowghte

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 5^25

and pictured the immage of our Saviour, merveylouse fynlie
gilted, houldinge uppe his handes, and houldinge betwixt his
handes a fair large CRUCIFIX OF CHRIST, all of gold, the
which crucifix w^as to be taiken fourthe every Good Fridaie,
and every man did crepe unto it that was in that church at that
daye. And ther after yt was houng upe againe within the
said immage.

The grounds of clerical opposition to miracle plays are
exhaustively and effectively stated in the following late
fourteenth-century homily.

Here begins a treatise of miracle playing.

Know ye, Christian men, that as Christ is God and man and
the way, the truth and the life, as says the Gospel of John -^ —
the w^ay to the erring, the truth to the ignorant and doubt-
ing, life to those who are weary from their struggle to reach
heaven — , so Christ did nothing that w^as not effective in the
way of mercy, in truth of righteousness, and in life by yielding
everlasting joy for our continual mourning and sorrowing in the
vale of tears. In the case of the miracles, therefore, that Christ
did here on earth, either of Himself or through His saints, they
were so effective and so earnestly done, that to sinful men that
err they brought forgiveness of sin, setting them in the way of
right belief; to doubtful men, they brought wisdom better to
please God and a lively hope in God to be steadfast in Him;
and to the way-weary, for the great penance and suffering of
tribulation that men must have therein, they brought the love
of doing charitable deeds, in comparison w^ith which everything
else is of little weight, and the willingness to suffer death, which
most men fear, on account of the everlasting life and joy that men
most love and desire, and the hope of which puts away all
weariness here of the way of God. Therefore, since the miracles
of Christ and His saints were so effective, as in our own creed
we certainly state, no man should use in jest and play the
miracles and works that Christ so earnestly wrought to our
healing; for whosoever does so, errs in faith, rejects Christ and

» Cf. John 14:6.

526 ENGLISH LITERATURE

scorns God. He errs in the faith, because he takes the most
precious works of God in play and jest, and so takes His name
in vain and misuses our faith. Ah ! Lord ! since an earthly
servant dare not make sport of what his earthly lord takes
seriously, much more should we not make our fun of those
wonderful things that God so seriously wrought for us ; for
truly, when we do so, fear of sin is taken away, as a servant
when he fools with his master loses his fear of offending him,
especially when he jokes about what his master takes seriously.
And just as a nail driven in holds two things together, so fear
driven toward God holds and sustains our faith in Him. There-
fore, as playing and joking about the most serious works of God
takes away that fear of God that men should have, so it also
takes away our faith and the greatest aid to our salvation.
And, since robbing us of our faith is more like taking vengeance
than sudden death; and when we make light of the most serious
works of God, such as His miracles, God takes away from us
His graces of meekness, fear and reverence, and our own faith;
when we play His miracles, as men do now-a-days, God takes
more vengeance on us than does a lord who suddenly slays his
servant, because he was too familiar with him. And, just as
such a lord then indeed says to his servant, "Play not with me
but with your equals," so, when we make game of the miracles
of God, He, taking from us His grace, says to us more earnestly
than the aforesaid lord, "Play not with Me but with your
equals." Therefore, playing such miracles is rejecting Christ;
first, by giving way in the plays to our flesh, to our lusts and
to our five senses; whereas God wrought wonders to the bring-
ing on of His bitter death, and to the teaching of penance, and
to the avoidance of cultivating the senses, and to the mortify-
ing of them. And this is the reason why the saints notice that
we never read much in holy writ about Christ's shrinking from
anything, but only of His long penance, many tears and shedding
of blood, in order to teach us that all our acts here should dis-
cipline the flesh and teach us to bear adversity. Hence, all
that we do and are that is different from these three (i.e. pen-
ance, tears and shedding of blood) utterly reverses Christ's
works, so that St. Paul says, "If ye be out of the discipline of

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 527

which all good men have been made perceivers, then are ye
adulterers and not sons of God." -^^ And since miracle playing
is the opposite of doing penance, since plays are performed and
cast with great joy, miracle playing reverses discipline, for in dis-
cipline (or perhaps discipleship) the very voice of our blaster Christ
is heard, as a pupil hears the voice of his master; and the word
of God in the hand of Christ is seen, at which vision all our
other senses tremble for fear and quake, as does a child at see-
ing his master's ferule; and the third in very discipline is the
turning away from and forgetting all the things that Christ
hates and turned away from here, as a child under discipline of
his master turns away from all the things that his master has
forbidden him, and forgets them, for the great mind he has to
do his master's will. And for these three writes St. Peter, "Be
ye humbled under the mighty hand of God that he may en-
hance you in the time of visitation, casting all your cares upon
Him." ^^ That is, be ye humbled, that is to Christ, hearing His
voice, by very obeisance to His behests; and under the mighty
hand of God seeing evermore His staff in His hand to chastize
us if we wax wanton or idle, bethinking us, as St. Peter says,
that "hideous and fearful it is to fall into the hands of God on
high"; ^2 for, just as it is the highest joy to remain in the hand,
of the mercy of God, so it is most hideous and fearful to fall
into the hands of the wrath of God. Therefore, let us meekly
fear Him here, always seeing and picturing His staff over our
heads, and then shall He raise us up elsewhere in the time of
His gracious visitation. So that we do cast our cares upon Plim,
that is, we do all our other earthly works — we are not bidden
do His spiritual works — trusting more freely and speedily and
pleasantly in Him who careth for us.''^ That is, if we do for
Him what it is in our power to do, He shall marvellously do for
us what it is in His power to do, both in delivering us from all
perils and in graciously giving us all that we need or will ask of
Him. And, since no man can serve two masters, as Christ says
in the gospel,^'' no man may hear at once cciually effectively the
voice of the Master Christ and of his own lusts. And since

30 Cf. Hebrews 12: 8. 3i Cf. 1 Peter 5:6,7.

32 Cf. Hebrews 10: 31. =" cf_ Mj^tthew G: 24.

528 ENGLISH LITERATURE

miracle ]:)laying is of the lust of the flesh and mirth of the body,
no man may effectively hear them and the voice of Christ at
once, as the voice of Christ and the voice of the flesh are the
calls of two contrary lords; and so miracle playing nullifies dis-
cipline, for as St. Paul said, "Every real discipline in the time
that now is, is not a joy but a mourning." ^^ Also, since it makes
us see vain sights of disguise, array of men and women by evil
continence, each urging the other to lechery and contention, as
after most bodily mirth comes the greatest contention, as such
mirth unfits a man for patience and inclines him to gluttony
and other vices, ... it does not allow a man to concentrate his
entire attention on the staff of God over his head, but makes him
keen for all such things as Christ by the deeds of His passion
bade us forget. Hence, such miracle-playing, in its effects on
penance, on discipline and on patience, nullifies the behests of
Christ and His deeds. Also, such miracle-playing is scorning of
God, for, just as intentional omission of what He bids is de-
spising God, as did Pharaoh, so jestingly taking God's bidding
or words or works is scorning Him, as did the Jews that mocked
Christ. Therefore, since these miracle plays take in mockery
the serious works of God, no doubt they scorn God, as did the
Jews that mocked Christ, for they laughed at His passion as
these latter laugh and mock at the miracles of God. Hence, as
the former scorned Christ, so these latter scorn God, and, just
as Pharaoh, wroth to do what God commanded him, despised
God, so these miracle players and maintainers, pleasantly omit-
ting to do what God bids them, scorn Him. He, forsooth, has
bidden us all hallow His name, rendering fear and dread with
our whole mind for His works, without any jesting or mockery,
as all holiness is in men thoroughly in earnest; hence, in play-
ing the name of God's miracles, as the actors pleasantly omit
to do what God bids them, they scorn His name and so Himself.
But, in opposition to these considerations, men say that they
play these miracles for the worship of God, and thus are dif-
ferent from the Jews who mocked Christ. Also, they say, men
are frequently by such plays converted to good living, since men
and women see in these spectacles that the devil, by their array
3* Cf. Hebrews 12: 11.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 529

through which they entice each other to lechery and pride,
makes them his servants in bringing themselves and many others
to hell, whence they will have a far worse time hereafter by
their proud array here than they have honor here. And then
they also reflect that all this worldly life here is but vanity for
a while, like the plays, and come to leave their pride and take
upon themselves the meek conversation of Christ and His saints.
For this reason, they say, miracle plays turn men to faith and
do not pervert them, xAlso, they continue, frequently through
such plays men and women, seeing the passion of Christ and of
His saints, are moved to compassion and devotion, weeping
bitter tears, so that they do not scorn God but worship Him.
And then (they add that it is) profitable to men and to the wor-
ship of God to exhibit and set forth all the means by which
men may see sin and be drawn to virtue; and that, as there are
men who will be converted to God by means of serious deeds
only, so there are others that prefer to be converted in jest and
sport; so that it is a convenient time to try to convert the
people by games and plays, such as miracle plays and other
sorts of mirth. Also, they say, men must have some recreation,
and it is better, or at least, less bad for them to have their
recreation in playing miracles than in playing other sorts of
things. Also, (they argue) since it is permissible to have the
miracles of God painted, why is it not equally proper to have
them played, since men may better read the will of God and
His marvellous works in the representation of them on the stage
than in paintings, and better that they be held in men's mind
and often repeated in plays rather than in paintings, for paint-
ing is a dead book whereas acting is a lively one.^

To the first argument we reply that such miracles are not
played to the worshij) of God, for they are performed more to
be seen of the world and to please the world than to be seen of
God or to please Him; as Christ never gave us example of them,
but they are a heathen institution, the work of men who ever
dishonored God, saying that to the worshij) of God which ever
vilifies Him; therefore, as the wickedness of heathen disbelief
lies to itself when they say that their idolatry is to the worship
of God, so men's desire now-a-days to follow their own lusts

530 ENGLISH LITERATURE

lies to itself when they say that such miracle plays are for the
worship of God. For Christ says that adulterers seek such signs,
as a rake seeks signs of love, but no deeds of love; so, since
these plays are only empty signs of love with no deeds, they are
not only contrary to the worship of God, in both sign and deed,
but they are traps of the devil to catch men to believe in anti-
Christ, as words of love without the reality are tricks of a rake
to secure a partner in fulfilling his evil desire. Both because
these miracles are mere lies, since they are signs without deeds,
and because they are pure vanity since they take the miracles
of God in vain according to their own lust — and certainly lying
and vanity are the most effective schemes of the devil to draw
men to believe in anti-Christ — ... it is forbidden to priests
not only to take part in miracle plays, but even to see or hear
them, lest they who should be the tackle of God to catch men
for and hold them in the faith of Christ, should be made, on
the contrary, through hypocrisy the tools of the devil to secure
men for belief in anti-Christ. Therefore, just as a man, swearing
in vain by the names of God, and saying that he worships God
and despises the devil whereas he lyingly does the reverse, so
players of miracles, as they are idle workers though they say
that they do it to the worship of God, vainly lie; for, as says
the gospel, "Not he that says Lord! Lord! shall come to the
bliss of heaven, but he that doeth the will of the Father of
Heaven shall come to His kingdom." ^^ So much more, not he
that plays the will of God worships Him, but only he that does
His will in deed. As, therefore, men by feigned tokens beguile
and really despise their neighbors, so by such feigned miracles
men beguile themselves and despise God, like the tormentors
who mocked Christ.

And as anent the second argument, we say that just as a
virtuous deed is sometimes the occasion of evil, like the passion
of Christ to the Jews, an occasion not given them but taken by
them, so evil deeds once in a while are the occasion of good, as
for example, the sin of Adam was the occasion of the coming of
Christ, not given by sin but offered by the great mercy of God.
Likewise, miracle playing, though it be a sin, may happen to
35 Cf. Matthew 7: 17.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 531

be the opportunity of converting men, but, as it is a sin, it is
far more often the occasion for perverting them, not only in the
case of individuals but in that of whole communities, as it
causes a whole people to be occupied in vanity contrary to the
behest of the Psalter, which says to all men and especially to
priests who read it every day in their service, "Turn away thine
eyes that they see not vanities," ^^ and again, "Lord, thou hast
hated all waiting vanities." ^^ How, then, may a priest play
in interludes, or give himself to the sight of them? since it is
so expressly forbidden him by the foresaid command of God;
namely since he curses every day in his service all those that
turn away from the commands of God; but alas a greater shame
is it that priests now-a-days must curse themselves all day — at
least as many as cry, "Watt, shrew," ^^ cursing themselves.
Thus, miracle playing, since it is against the command of God
that directs us not to take God's name in vain, is against our
faith, and, hence, cannot give occasion for turning men to faith
but must turn them away; and for this reason many men imag-
ine that there is no hell of everlasting pain, but that God merely
threatens us and will not punish us indeed, as miracle plays are
only shows and not realities. Therefore, these plays pervert
not only our faith but also our hope in God, by which saints
trusted that the more they abstained from such plays, the
greater reward they should have from God; and, therefore,
holy Sara, the daughter of Raguel, hoping for high meed from
God, said, "Lord, thou knowest that I never coveted man and
have kept myself clean from all lusts and have never mingled
with players," ^^ and by this true confession to God, as she
hoped, had her prayers heard and obtained great reward from
God; and, since a young woman of the Old Testament, to keep
her bodily virtue of chastity and worthily to enter into the
sacrament of matrimony when her time should come, a})stained
from all manner of idle playing and from all company of idle
players, much more a priest of the New Testament, who has

36 Cf. Psalm 119: .'$7. " C'f. Psalm 31: G.

3* This must have been a remark in one of the miracle plays.
3' Sara, daughter of Haguel, a character in the aixxhryphal book of Tobit; cf.
chapter 3: 14, 15.

5S2 ENGLISH LITERATURE

passed the time of his youth and should keep not only his
chastity but all other virtues, and minister not only the sacra-
ment of matrimony but all the others, and especially is bound
to minister to all the people the precious body of Christ, ought
to abstain from all idle playing both of miracles and of every-
thing else. For surely, since the Queen of Sheba, as says Christ
in the gospel, shall condemn the Jews who would not receive the
wisdom of Christ,'^'' much more this holy woman Sara, at the
day of doom, shall condemn those priests of the New Testament
who give themselves to plays, falsifying the holy manners ap-
proved by God and Holy Church; therefore, priests ought to be
very much ashamed who turn to shame this good holy woman
and the holy body of Christ which they take in their hands,
the which body never gave itself to play but only to such things
as are contrary to play, such as penance and the suffering of
persecution. And so this miracle playing not only reverses faith
and hope, but very charity, by which a man should wail for
his own sins and those of his neighbors, and especially those of
priests; for miracle playing withdraws not only one person but
all the community from deeds of charity and penance unto
deeds of lust and such things and feeding our wits. So then,
these men who say, "Let us play a play of anti-Christ and of
the day of doom that some men be converted thereby," fall into
the heresy of those that reverse the apostle and say, "Let us
do evil that good may come," ^^ to condemn whom, as the
apostle says, is righteous.

We answer the third argument as follows, saying that such
miracle playing gives no occasion for genuine and necessary
weeping, but that the weeping that befals men and women at
plays is not principally because of true inward sorrow for their
sins, nor in good faith, but comes from what they see outside them
(i.e. the play). Sorrow before God is not allowable but rather
to be reproved; for, since God Himself reproved the women
that wept over Him in His passion,'*^ much more are they to
be reproved who weep over the mere play of Christ's passion,
ceasing to weep for the sins of themselves and their children,
as Christ bade the women who wept over Him.

« Cf. Matthew 12: 42. "i Cf. Romans 3: 8. *2 cf. John 20: 11-18.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 533

And by this we answer the fourth argument, saying that no
man can be converted except by the earnest effort of God and
not by vain playing; for what the Word of God or His sacra-
ments cannot bring about, can hardly be effected by playing
which has no virtue but is full of error. Therefore, just as the
tears that men often shed at such plays are commonly feigned,
witnessing that they love the pleasure of their bodies and their
worldly prosperity more than God and the prosperity of their
souls, and, therefore, have more compassion for pain than for
sin, they falsely weep for lack of worldly prosperity rather than
for lack of spiritual well-fare, as do those who are damned in
hell; just so oftentimes the conversion that men seem to experi-
ence after such exhibitions is but feigned holiness, worse than is
other earlier sin. For if he were truly converted, he would hate
to see all such vanity as the commands of God forbid, even if
through such a play he take occasion by the grace of God to
flee sin and follow virtue. And if any man say here, "If this
playing of miracles were sin, why does God convert men thereby,"
we should answ^er that He does so to commend His mercy to us,
that we may think how utterly good to us He is. Because,
while we are thinking against Him, doing idly and withstanding
Him, He thinks of mercies for us and sends us His grace to flee
from all such vanity. And because there should be nothing
sweeter to us than that sort of divine mercy, the Psalter calls
this mercy the blessing of sweetness, where it says, *'Thou
camest before him in the blessing of sweetness," ^^ which sweet-
ness, although very pleasant to the spirit, is very troublesome
to the body, if it is genuine; as flesh and spirit are rivals, this
sweetness in God cannot be experienced while a man is occu-
pied with seeing a play. Therefore, the priests that call
themselves holy and busy themselves with such play are very
hypocrites and liars.

And we answer the fifth argument in this way, saying that
real recreation is faithful occupation in false works in order
the more ardently to do greater, and, therefore, such miracle
playing or the seeing of plays is not real recreation but a false
and worldly sort, as the deeds of the patrons of such plays

43 ?

534 ENGLISH LITERATURE

prove. For they have never tasted divine sweetness, travailing
so much therein that their body would not suffice to bear such
a travail of the spirit. But as one goes from virtue to virtue,
they go from lust to lust, so that they dwell the more steadfastly
in them, and, therefore, as this feigned recreation of playing
miracles is a false conceit, so it is double villainy, worse than
though they played pure vanity. For now the people give
credence to many mingled falsehoods, for other mingled truths,
and make out that to be good which is evil; and so oft times
it would be less ill if they played ribaldry than if they played
miracles. And if men ask what recreation men should have on
the holiday after their holy contemplation in the church, we say
to them two things; one, that if they had really occupied them-
selves in contemplation before, they would neither ask this ques-
tion, nor desire to see vanity; the second, that his recreation
should be in works of mercy to his neighbor and in delighting
himself in all good conversation with his neighbor, as before he
delighted himself in God, and in all necessary works that reason
and nature demand.

And to the last argument, we say that painting, if it be truth-
ful and not mixed with falsehood, and not too anxious to feed
men's senses, and not an occasion of idolatry to the people, is
but as plain letters to a clerk in reading the truth. But such
is not the case with miracle plays which are made rather to
delight people physically than as books for the ignorant; and,
therefore, if they are lively books, they are rather books that
teach wickedness than books that teach goodness. Hence, good
men, seeing that their time is too short for even their serious
activity, and feeling that the day of reckoning is coming on
fast, and not knowing when they shall go hence, flee all such
idleness, yearning to be with their spouse Christ in the bliss of
heaven.

Some half -friendly delayer of his soul's health, ready to ex-
cuse the evil and, like Thomas of India,'^'* hard to convince, says
that he will not accept the foregoing condemnation of miracle

*'' I.e. Thomas the Apostle, who, aeconhng to some non-canonical gospels and
legendary lives, was the apostle of India. For Thomas' skeptical spirit see John
14:5; 20:25, 27, 28.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 535

plays unless men show him phiinly that according to holy writ
they are contrary to our faith. Wherefore, in order that his
half friendship may become complete, we beg him to consider
first . . . the second commandment, where God says, "Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." ^^ And,
since the marvellous works of God are His name as the good
works of a craftsman make his reputation, ... it is in this
commandment forbidden to take the wonders of God in vain.
And how may they be more taken in vain than where they are
made the instruments of men's jests, as when they are played
by mummers? And since God wrought His works in earnest,
we should take them earnestly; otherwise, forsooth, we take
them in vain. Reflect then, friend, and determine whether
your faith declares that God performed His miracles in order
that we might play them. No, it says to you, "He wrought
them in order that you might fear and love Him." And cer-
tainly great fear and fervent love do not allow playing or jok-
ing with Him. Thus, since plays reverse the will of God and
the end for which He wrought His wonders for us, there is no
doubt but that miracle playing is really taking God's name in
vain. And if this isn't enough for you, though it would satisfy
a heathen who, therefore, will not represent his idolatry on the
stage, I beg you to read in the Book of Life, that is Christ
Jesus, and see if you can see in Him that He gave us example
of taking part in plays. No, He was just the opposite and our
faith curses whatever leads us to exceed or fail to reach what
Christ gave us the pattern for doing. How, then, dare you say
yourself that you will believe nothing but what can be shown
to be a part of our faith? And, since in matters that please the
natural man, such as plays, you will not try to repress them
unhvss it can be proved by the faith to be necessary, much more
in things of the spirit — always exemj)lified in the life of Christ
and so fully written in the Book of Life, such as ceasing to play
miracles and j)utting away all jesting — you should not hold
against it, unless it can he shown to be contrary to the faith,
in as much as in all doubtful nialters one should stand with the
party that is more favorable to the S])irit and comes closer to

« Cf. Exodus 20: 7.

536 ENGLISH LITERATURE

the example of Christ. And just as every falsehood and every
sin destroys itself, so your answer refutes itself, and, hence, you
may well know that it is not true but thoroughly unnatural.
For, if you had a father who had suffered a degrading death in
order to secure your heritage for you, and you, afterward, should
unthinkingly burn up the documentary evidence of your owner-
ship in order to make a spectacle for your self, there is no doubt
but that all good men would deem you unnatural. Much more,
God and all His saints deem all those Christians unnatural who
play or applaud the play of the death or miracles of the most
kind father Christ who died in order to bring men to the ever-
lasting heritage of heaven.

But, peradventure, you will say here that even if producing
plays is a sin, ... it is a small one. But be sure, dear friend,
that every sin, be it never so small, if it is maintained and
preached as good and profitable, is deadly; and, therefore, the
prophet says, "Woe to them that call good evil and evil, good !" ^
and, therefore, the wise man condemns those who rejoice when
they do evil; and, therefore, all saints say that it is human to
fall, but diabolical to remain fallen. Hence, since this falling
is sin, as you acknowledge, and is firmly maintained and people
delight in it, there is no doubt that it is deadly sin, worthy of
condemnation, diabolical, not human. Lord, since Adam and
Eve and all mankind were driven out of Paradise, not only for
eating the apple but also for trying to conceal their sin, much
more miracle playing, not only defended but steadfastly main-
tained, is damnable and mortal, since it perverts not only one
man but a whole people, who call good evil and evil, good. And,
if this will not satisfy you, although it should be enough for
every Christian that nothing should be done beyond the doctrine
that Christ taught, consider what God did in the case where we
read that at the command of God, because Ishmael played with
his brother Isaac,^^ both Ishmael and his mother were cast out
of the house of Abraham. The reason for this was that by such
playing Ishmael, who was the son of a servant, might have
beguiled Isaac out of his heritage; and Isaac was the son of
the free wife of Abraham. Another reason was that, since
^« ("f. Lsaiah 5: 20. « Cf. Genesis 21: 9-14.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 537

Ishmael was born after the flesh and Isaac after the spirit, as the
apostle says,"^ it was an example that the play of the flesh is
not agreeable nor helpful to the spirit, but conduces to the taking
away of the spirit's heritage. And a third reason was to pre-
figure that the Old Testament, which is the covenant of the
flesh, may not be ranked with the New Testament, which is
the covenant of the spirit; and if the former be kept equally
with the latter, real freedom is abrogated and the heritage of
heaven nullified. Hence, since the play of Ishmael with Isaac
was not lawful, much more carnal jesting with the spiritual
works of Christ and His saints is not lawful, for His miracles
were intended to convert men to faith, since there is far more
contradiction between carnal play and the serious deeds of
Christ than between the estate of Ishmael and that of Isaac,
and also since the play of Ishmael and Isaac was a symbol of
the war between flesh and spirit. Therefore, as two things of
entirely opposite nature cannot come together without harm to
each, as experience teaches, and that party will do harm that
has the stoutest attack, and that will be most hurt that is
weakest, so playing, which is carnal, with the works of the spirit
is to the detriment of both body and soul, and the body will do
most harm to the soul, since in such plays the body is most
prominent. . . . And, as in good things the thing symbolized
is always better than the symbol, so in evil things the thing
symbolized is always worse than the symbol, since the jesting
of Ishmael with Isaac is the symbol of the dance the body leads
the spirit, and the symbol is evil, the thing symbolized is far
worse. Consequently, playing with the miracles of God deserves
heavier vengeance — and is a greater sin — than the jesting of
Ishmael with Isaac deserved — which was a smaller sin; and, as
the companionship of a thrall with his lord makes the master
despised, so much more fooling with the miracles of God makes
them despised, for j)lay-a('ting in comparison with the miracles
of God is far more churlish than can be the relation of any serv-
ant to his lord; and, hence, tlie j)laying of Ishmael, who was
the son of a menial, with Isaac, who was the son of a free
woman, was justly reproved and both the mother and the son
« Cf. Gulutians t:21-.'51.

538 ENGLISH LITERATURE

removed from his eompany; much more men's joking with the
wonders of God should be reproved and put out of human
company. And thus, as the apostle says, ^^ as there is no benefit
to be derived from intercourse between the devil's instrument
to pervert men, such as the devices of the flesh, and God's
means of converting them, such as His miracles, ... as it is
a downright lie to say that for the love of God he will be a good
friend of the devil, so it is a downright lie to say that for the
love of God he will play His miracles; for in neither is the love
of God shown but His commandments are broken. And since
the ceremonies of the old law were carnal though God-given,
they should not be classed with the new covenant which is
spiritual; for as the game of Ishmael with Isaac intended to
deprive the latter of his heritage, so the observance of the old
law in the new regime would take away men's belief in Christ
and make them go backward; that is, from the spiritual living
of the new covenant to the carnal living of the old. Much more
play-acting deprives men of their faith in Christ and is a veri-
table backward step from the deeds of the spirit to mere lip-serv-
ice done after the lusts of the flesh, which are quite contrary to
the acts of Christ, and, therefore, we shall find that it was never
practised among real Christians. But lately so-called religious
people have manifested their faith in tokens only and not in
deeds, and priests have performed their office in signs only and
for money and not in acts, and, hence, the apostacy of these
latter draws many people after them, as the apostacy of Lucifer
the archangel drew many from heaven after him.

And if this, friend, will not satisfy you, which even the eyes
of the piteously blind might see, take heed how the coming of
contraries together (has ill results), as in the case of the contact
of the children of Abner and the children of Joab.^^ In their
conflict three hundred and sixty men and doubtless more were
slain, whereas the representation of spiritual works according
to the lusts of the flesh does still more harm, as flesh and spirit
are more determined enemies (than were Abner and Joab). For
it is with plays as it is with apostates who preach for what
there is in it; for, just as the latter hold worldly gain of more
« ? ^ CLi Samuel 3.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 539

value than the word of God, since they make the word of God
but a means to their own aggrandizement, so these miracle
players and their patrons are simple apostates, both because they
subordinate God and exalt themselves — for they have God in
mind only for the sake of their plays — and also because they
delight more in the play than in the miracle itself — as an
apostate delights more in his actual gains than in the truth of
God and praises more highly things of outward comeliness than
matters that are inwardly fair and Godward. And it is for this
reason that miracle playing is a real danger to the house of God;
for, just as a jealous man, seeing his wife trifling with his kind-
nesses and using them as means to love another man than him-
self, doesn't wait very long before chastising her, so, since God
is more jealous of His people — as He loves them more than
any man loves his wife — He, seeing His grace in His miracles
subordinated, men's lusts exalted and men's wills preferred to
His own, it is no wonder though He send vengeance soon there-
after; as must needs be for His great righteousness and mercy;
and, therefore, it is that the wise man says, "The end of mirth
is sorrow and often your laughter shall be mingled with sadness."
And for this reason, as experience proves, ever since this kind
of apostacy reigned among the people, the vengeance of God
never ceased to visit us, either in the form of pestilence or war
or floods or dearth or some other ill, and usually when men are
most untimely merry sadness follows soon. Therefore these
plays now-a-days bear witness to three things; first, great sin
beforehand; second, great folly in the act; and third, great
vengeance afterwards. For, just as the children of Israel, when
Moses was up on the mountain busily praying for them, mis-
trusted him and worshipped a golden calf -'^ and then ate and
drank and rose to play and then lost 2^2,000 men by death; so,
as this incident registered first their idolatry and then their
mistrust of Moses when they should have believed liim most and
their folly in the deed and the vengeance that followed, miracle
phiying is a good testimony to men's avarice and covetousness
in the first place — and this is idolatry, as the a])ostle says, for
what they should spend upon the needs of their neighbors, they

6> (7. Exodus 32.

540 ENGLISH LITERATURE

lay out on plays and tlien are grouchy about paying their debts
and their rent, though they don't grudge pajnng out twice as
much on plays. Further, in order to assemble men to raise the
price of food (i.e. they persuade people to come to town to see
the plays and then raise prices) and to stir them to pride, glut-
tony and boasting, they give these plays. And also in order to
have the wherewithal themselves to see the plays and to hold
fellowship with gluttony and lechery w^hile the plays are going
on, they busy themselves the more greedily beforehand to be-
guile their neighbors in buying and selling; and so this playing
of miracles now-a-days is a convincing proof of covetousness,
that is idolatry. And, just as Moses at that time was on the
mountain in greatest travail for the people, so now Christ is
in heaven with His Father praying most devotedly for the
people; and, nevertheless, as the children of Israel in their folly
did at that time their utmost to annul the great labor of Moses,
so men now-a-days, according to the hideous idolatry of covetous-
ness in the producing of plays, do their utmost to nullify the
attentive prayer of Christ in heaven for them, and so their
plays bear witness to the extent of their foolish acts. And hence,
as the children unnaturally said to Aaron when Moses was on
the mountain, "We know not how it is with Moses, make us,
therefore, gods to go before us," so men now-a-days, equally
unnaturally, say, "Christ no longer performs miracles, let us,
therefore, play His old ones," adding many reasons so plausibly
that the people give as much credence to them as to the truth,
and so they forget to be instant in prayer like Christ, for the
idolatry in which men indulge at such plays. Idolatry, I say,
for men honor these plays as much as or more than the word
of God when it is preached, and, therefore, they speak blas-
phemy when they say that acting does more good to the people
than the word of God when it is preached. Ah Lord ! what is
a greater blasphemy against Thee than to promise to do Thy
bidding (and then only play at doing it), as do those who preach
that the word of God does far less good than that which is or-
dained by man only and not by God, namely, miracle plays. Just
as we call the representation of miracles miracles, so the children
of Israel called the golden calf god; in which they had in mind

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 541

the ancient miracles of God, and before that image they wor-
shipped and sang praise, as they worshipped and sang praise
to God because of His wondrous works for them, and, therefore,
they did idoLatrously. So now-a-days, since many people wor-
ship and praise only the semblance of the miracles of God as
much as the word of God in the preacher's mouth by which all
miracles are done, there is no doubt but that the people are
more idolatrous now in such miracle playing than were the
people of Israel at the time of their worship of the calf, in as
much as the lies and lusts of miracle plays are more contrary
to God and more accordant with the devil than was the golden
calf that the people worshipped. x\nd, therefore, the idolatry
then was but a prophecy of men's idolatry now, and, therefore,
the apostle says these things happened to them in a figure,^^
and the devil is delighted with the plays, as he gets most gain
by deceiving men by semblances of the means by which men
were formerly converted to God, but by which the devil form-
erly was pained. Therefore, without question, such perform-
ances deserve much more vengeance than did the rejoicing of
the children of Israel after they had worshipped the golden calf,
as miracle plays make sport of greater and more abundant favors
from God.

Ah Lord ! since the games of the children bear witness of the
sins of their fathers before them, and their own original sin and
their own lack of wisdom, and hence their later punishment
shall hurt them more, so much more this playing of miracles
bears witness of men's hideous sins and their forgetting of their
Master Christ and their own folly and the folly of malice pass-
ing that of children and that there is great vengeance to come
upon them — more than they may be able patiently to bear
because of the great delight that they have in their play. Hut,
friend, peradventure you say that no man shall make you believe
that it is not good to play the passion of Christ and other events
in His life. But, as opposed to this, hear how, when Elisha
went up to Bethel, children j)layfully came u]) to him and said,
"Go up, bald head, go up, bald head," ^^ and how he therefore
cursed them and how two wild bears came out of the wild wood
62 Cf. Hebrews 9: 9; 11: 19. " C'f. 2 Kings 2: 23. 24.

542 ENGLISH LITERATURE

and tore them all to pieces, two and forty of them; and as all
saints say that the baldness of Elisha betokens the passion of
Christ, then, since by this story it is clearly shown that men
should not make a jest of a symbol of the passion of Christ,
nor with a holy prophet of Christ, much more in the New Testa-
ment when men should be wiser, kept farther from joking and
more closely directed to serious action and Christ more feared
than was Elisha in his day, men should not play the passion of
Christ upon pain of greater vengeance than was wreaked upon
the children who mocked Elisha. For surely, the playing of His
passion is but mockery of Christ, as has been said before, and,
therefore, dear friend, behold how nature tells that the older
a man grows the more unnatural it is for him to play, and there-
fore the book says, "Cursed be the children a hundred years of
age!" And certainly the world, as the apostle says, is now at
its ending . . .; therefore, because of the approach of the day
of doom, all God's creatures are vexed and angry at men's play-
ing, especially miracle playing, as will be shown in earnest and
with vengeance at the last day; and miracle playing is now
unnatural for all creatures, and, hence, God is sending now-a-days
more wisdom to men than He did before, because they ought
now to leave off playing and give themselves up to more serious
business, more pleasing to God. Also, friend, take heed to what
Christ says in the gospel, namely, "As it was in the days of
Noah when the great flood was approaching, men were eating and
drinking and giving way to their passions, and fearfully came
God's vengeance in the flood upon them, so shall it be with the
coming of Christ at the last day," ^^ so that when men give
themselves up most to their playing and mirth, fearfully shall
the day of doom come upon them with great vengeance. There-
fore, beyond doubt, friend, this miracle playing that is now in
vogue is but a true threat of sudden vengeance upon us; and,
therefore, dear friend, let us spend neither our wits nor our
money upon plays but let us exert ourselves to do good in great
fear and penance, for truly the weeping and physical devotion
in plays are but as the strokes of a hammer on every side, to
drive out the nail of our fear of God and the day of doom and
6^ Cf. Matthew 24: 37-39.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 543

to make the waj^ of Christ slippery and hard for us, like rain on
paths of clay. Then, friend, if we are bound always to play,
let us play as did David before the ark of God ^ and as he
spoke before Michal his wife who despised his dancing, where-
fore he spoke to her in this manner, "The Lord liveth, so I
shall dance before the Lord who hath chosen me rather than
your father and all his house, and He hath decreed that I shall
be leader of the people of Israel, and I shall dance for I am to
be made greater than I am, and I shall be meek in my own
eyes and to the handmaidens of whom you speak I shall appear
more glorious." So this playing has three phases; the first is
that we see in how many ways God has given us His grace,
passing our neighbors; and we should be that much more grate-
ful, fulfilling His will and more confident in Him in the face of
all manner of reproach from our enemies. The second phase
consists in continual devotion to God Almighty and in being
foul and reprovable in the world's eyes, as Christ and His
apostles showed themselves and as David said. The third phase
consists in being as lowly in our own eyes or more humble than
we appear to others, setting least store by ourselves, as we know
more of our own sins than of those of any one else, and then
before all the saints of heaven and before Christ at the last day,
and in the bliss of heaven we shall be more glorious, in as much
as the better we exhibit the three aforesaid phases here. The
which three phases well to play here and then to come to heaven,
grant us the Holy Trinity ! Amen.^^

Passages already quoted have shown the interest and
variety of medieval writers of history on English soil.
The prefatory material to the work of William of New-
burgh," now to be quoted, will show that one of these
writers had critical method as well.

^ Cf. 2 Samuel G: U-22.

*^ All the references needed for the study of tiie medieval drama will he found in
the Cambridge Iliatory of English Literature, v, chapters 1, 2 and 3 and Bibliography.
The most satisfactory collection of texts is Manly, Spenmen.s of Pre-Shahespearean
Drama, i ((iinn and Co., 1897).

" Newburgh has already been quoted; cf. a/i/c, pp. 209-211; 462-464.

544 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The Prefatory Epistle

A prefatori/ and apologetic Epistle to the ensuing Work, addressed
to the abbot of Rievaux, by William, canon of Newborough.

To his reverend father and lord, Ernald, abbot of Rievaux,
WilHani, the least of the servants of Christ, prayeth,
that when the Prince of Shepherds shall appear, there
may be given to him an unfading crown of glory.

I HAV'E received the letters of your holiness, wherein you
deign to assign to me the care and labor of writing (for the
knowledge and instruction of posterity) a history of the memor-
able events which have so abundantly occurred in our own times;
although there be so many of your own venerable fraternity
better qualified to accomplish such a work, and that more ele-
gantly; but this, I perceive, arises from your kind desire to
spare, in this respect, the members of your own society, who
are so fully occupied in the duties of monastic service, as well
as to prevent the leisure hours kindly granted to my infirmity
from being unemployed. Indeed, I am so devotedly bound by
your kind regard to me, that, even were your commands more
difficult, I should not venture to gainsay them; but since your
discrimination does not impose upon me any research into pro-
found matters or mystical exposition, but merely to expatiate,
for a time, on historic narrative, as it were for mental recrea-
tion only (so easy is the work), I have, consequently, no suffi-
cient ground of refusal remaining. Wherefore, by the assistance
of God and our Lord, in whose hands both of us and our words
are, and relying on the prayers of yourself and your holy brother-
hood, who have condescended to unite their repeated entreaties
to the command of your holiness, I will attempt the labor you
recommend; premising, however, some few necessary matters
before I commence my history.

here ends the epistle

The history of our English nation has been written by the
venerable Beda, a priest and monk, who, the more readily to
gain the object he had in view, commenced his narrative at a
very remote period, though he only glanced, with cautious brev-

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 545

ity, at the more prominent actions of the Britons, who are known
to have been the aborigines of our island. The Britons, how-
ever, had before him a historian ^^ of their own, from whose
work Beda has inserted an extract; this fact I observed some
years since, when I accidentally discovered a copy of the work of
Gildas. His history, however, is rarely to be found, for few
persons care either to transcribe or possess it — his style l)eing
so coarse and unpolished: his impartiality, however, is strong
in developing truth, for he never spares even his own country-
men; he touches lightly upon their good qualities, and laments
their numerous bad ones: there can be no suspicion that the
truth is disguised, when a Briton, speaking of Britons, de-
clares, that they were neither courageous in war, nor faithful
in peace.

For the purpose of washing out those stains from the char-
acter of the Britons, a writer in our times has started up and
invented the most ridiculous fictions concerning them, and with
unblushing effrontery, extols them far above the Macedonians
and Romans. He is called Geoffrey,''^ surnamed Arthur, from
having given, in a Latin version, the fabulous exploits of Arthur
(drawn from the traditional fictions of the Britons, with addi-
tions of his own), and endeavored to dignify them with the name
of authentic history; moreover, he has unscrupulously promul-
gated the mendacious predictions of one Merlin, as if they were
genuine prophecies, corroborated by indubitable truth, to which
also he has himself considerably added during the process of
translating them into Latin. He further declares, that this Mer-
lin was the issue of a demon and woman, and, as participating
in his father's nature, attributes to him the most exact and
extensive knowledge of futurity; whereas, we are rightly taught,
by reason and the holy scriptures, that devils, being excluded
from the light of God, can never by meditation arrive at the
cognizance of future events; though by the means of some types,
more evident to them than to us, they may predict events to

^ Reference is here made to Gildas, an extract from whose History occurs in
the Ecclcaiadical Ili.stori/ of Bechi, I, xxii, .50.

*^ The celebrated Geoffrey of Monmouth; cf. ante, pp. 248; 404 and post,
557-558.

,540. ENGLISH LITERATURE

conic ratlicr by conjecture than by certain knowledge. More-
over, even in tlicir conjectures, subtle though they be, they
often deceive thcnisehes as well as others: nevertheless, they
impose on the ignorant by their feigned divinations, and arro-
i:i\[c to lliemselves a prescience which, in truth, they do not
possess. The fallacies of Merlin's prophecies are, indeed, evi-
dent in circumstances which are known to have transpired in
tlie kingdom of England after the death of Geoffrey himself,
who translated these follies from the British language; to which,
as is truly believed, he added much from his own invention.
Besides, he so accommodated his prophetic fancies (as he easily
might do) to circumstances occurring previous to, or during his
own times, that they might obtain a suitable interpretation.
Moreover, no one but a person ignorant of ancient history, when
he meets with that book which he calls the History of the Britons y
can for a moment doubt how impertinently and impudently he
falsifies in every respect. For he only who has not learnt the
truth of history indiscreetly believes the absurdity of fable. I
omit this man's inventions concerning the exploits of the Britons
previous to the government of Julius Caesar, as well as the
fictions of others which he has recorded, as if they were authen-
tic. I make no mention of his fulsome praise of the Britons,
in defiance of the truth of history, from the time of Julius
Caesar, when they came under the dominion of the Romans, to
that of Honorius, when the Romans voluntarily retired from
Britain, on account of the more urgent necessities of their own
state.

Indeed, the Britons, by the retreat of the Romans, becoming
once more at their own disposal — nay, left to themselves for
their own destruction, and exposed to the depredation of the
Picts and Scots — are said to have had Vortigern for king, by
whom the Saxons, or Angles, were invited over for the defence
of the kingdom: they arrived in Britain under the conduct of
Hengist, and repelled the irruptions of the barbarians for a time;
but afterward, having discovered the fertility of the island, and
the supineness of its inhabitants, they broke their treaty, and
turned their arms against those by whom they had been invited
over, and confined the miserable remains of the i)eople, now called

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 547

the Welsh — who had not been dispersed — within inaccessible
woods and mountains. The Saxons, moreover had, in the course
of succession, most valiant and powerful kings; among whom
was Ethelberht, great grandson of Hengist, who, having extended
his empire from the Gallic ocean to the Humber, embraced
the easy yoke of Christ at the preaching of Augustine. Ailfred,
too, king of Northumberland, subdued both the Britons and
the Scots with excessive slaughter. Edwin, who succeeded Ail-
fred, reigned at the same time over the Angles and Britons;
Oswald, his successor, governed all the nations of Britain. Now,
since it is evident that these facts are established with historical
authenticity by the venerable Beda, it appears that whatever
Geoffrey has written, subsequent to Vortigern, either of Arthur,
or his successors, or predecessors, is a fiction, invented either
by himself or by others, and promulgated either through an
unchecked propensity to falsehood, or a desire to please the
Britons, of whom vast numbers are said to be so stupid as to
assert that Arthur is yet to come, and who cannot bear to hear
of his death. Lastly, he makes Aurelius Ambrosius succeed to
Vortigern (the Saxons whom he had sent for being conquered
and expelled), and pretends that he governed all England super-
excellently; he also mentions Utherpendragon, his brother, as
his successor, whom, he pretends, reigned with equal power and
glory, adding a vast deal from Merlin, out of his profuse addic-
tion to lying. On the decease of Utherpendragon, he makes his
son Arthur succeed to the kingdom of Britain — the fourth in
succession from Vortigern, in like manner as our Beda places
Ethelberht, the patron of Augustine, fourth from Hengist in
the government of the Angles. Therefore, the reign of Arthur,
and the arrival of Augustine in England, ought to coincide.
But how much plain historical truth outweighs concerted fiction
may, in this particular, be perceived, even by a pur})lind man
through his mind's eye. Moreover, he depicts Arthur himself
as great and powerful beyond all men, and as celebrated in his ex-
ploits as he chose to feign him. First, he makes him triumph, at
pleasure, over Angles, Picts, and Scots; then, he subdues Ire-
land, the Orkneys, Gothland, Norway, Denmark, partly by war,
partly by the single terror of liis name. To these he adds

548 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Icolantl, which, by some, is called the remotest Thule, in order
tliat wliat a noble poet flatteringly said to the Roman Augustus

"The distant Thule shall confess thy sway," ^^

might apply to the British Arthur. Next, he makes him attack,
and s])eedily triumph over, Gaul — a nation w^hich Julius Caesar,
with infinite peril and labor, was scarcely able to subjugate in
ten years — as though the little finger of the British was more
powerful than the loins of the mighty Caesar. After this, with
numberless triumphs, he brings him back to England, where he
celebrates his conquests with a splendid banquet with his subject-
kings and princes, in the presence of the three archbishops of the
Britons, that is London, Carleon, and York — whereas, the
Britons at that time never had an archbishop. Augustine, hav-
ing received the' pall from the Roman pontiff, was made the
first archbishop in Britain; for the barbarous nations of Europe,
though long since converted to the Christian faith, were content
with bishops, and did not regard the prerogative of the pall.
Lastly, the Irish, Norw^egians, Danes, and Goths, though con-
fessedly Christians, for a long while possessed only bishops, and
had no archbishops until our own time. Next this fabler, to
carry his Arthur to the highest summit, makes him declare war
against the Romans, having, how^ever, first vanquished a giant
of surprising magnitude in single combat, though since the times
of David we never read of giants. Then, with a wider licence of
fabrication, he brings all the kings of the world in league with
the Romans against him; that is to say, the kings of Greece,
Africa, Spain, Parthia, Media, Iturea, Libya, Egypt, Babylon,
Bithynia, Phrygia, Syria, Boeotia, and Crete, and he relates
that all of them were conquered by him in a single battle;
whereas, even Alexander the Great, renowned throughout all
ages, was engaged for twelve years in vanquishing only a few
of the potentates of these mighty kingdoms. Indeed, he makes
the little finger of his Arthur more powerful than the loins of
Alexander the Great; more especially when, previous to the
victory over so many kings, he introduces him relating to his
comrades the subjugation of thirty kingdoms by his and their

60 Cf. Virgil, Geargics, 1, 1. 30.

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 549

united efforts; whereas, in fact, this romancer will not find in the
world so many kingdoms, in addition to those mentioned, which
he had not yet subdued. Does he dream of another world pos-
sessing countless kingdoms, in which the circumstances he has
related took place? Certainly, in our own orb no such events
have happened. For how would the elder historians, who were
ever anxious to omit nothing remarkable, and even recorded
trivial circumstances, pass by unnoticed so incomparable a man,
and such surpassing deeds .^ How could they, I repeat, by their
silence, suppress Arthur, the British monarch (superior to Alex-
ander the Great), and his deeds, or Merlin, the British prophet
(the rival of Isaiah), and his prophecies? For what less in the
knowledge of future events does he attribute to this Merlin
than we do to Isaiah, except, indeed, that he durst not prefix
to his productions, "Thus saith the Lord"; and was ashamed
to say, "Thus saith the Devil," though this had been best suited
to a prophet the offspring of a demon.

Since, therefore, the ancient historians make not the slightest
mention of these matters, it is plain that whatever this man
published of Arthur and of Merlin are mendacious fictions, in-
vented to gratify the curiosity of the undiscerning. Moreover,
it is to be noted that he subsequently relates that the same
iVrthur was mortally wounded in battle, and that, after having
disposed of his kingdom, he retired into the island of Avallon,
according to the British fables, to be cured of his wounds; not
daring, through fear of the Britons, to assert that he was dead
— he whom these truly silly Britons declare is still to come.
Of the successors of Arthur he feigns, with similar effrontery,
giving them the monarchy of Britain, even to the seventh gen-
eration, making those noble kings of the Angles (whom the ven-
erable Beda declares to have been monarchs of Britain) their
slaves and vassals.

Therefore, let Beda, of whose wisdom and integrity none can
doulit, possess our unbounded confidence, and let this fabler,
with his fictions, be instantly rejected by all.

There were not wanting, indeed, some writers after Beda,
but none at all to be compared with him, who detailed from his
days the series of times and events of our island until our own

550 ENGLISH LITERATURE

recollection; men deserving of praise for their zealous and faith-
ful labors, though their narrative be homely. In our times,
indeed, events so great and memorable have occurred, that, if
they be not transmitted to lasting memory by written docu-
ments, the negligence of the moderns must be deservedly
blamed. Perhaps a work of this kind is already begun, or even
finished, by one or more persons, but, nevertheless, some vener-
able characters, to whom I owe obedience, have deigned to en-
join such a labor, even to so insignificant a person as myself, in
order that I, who am unable to make my offerings with the rich,
may yet be permitted, with the poor widow, to cast somewhat
of my poverty into the treasury of the Lord:^^ and, since we
are aware that the series of English history has been brought
down by some to the decease of King Henry the First, begin-
ning at the arrival of the Normans in England, I shall succinctly
describe the intermediate time, that, by the permission of God,
I may give a more copious narrative from Stephen, Henry's
successor, in whose first year I, William, the least of the servants
of Christ, was born unto death in the first Adam, and born
again unto life in the Second.^^

" Cf. Mark 12: 41-44.

^2 On historical composition in the period see The Cambridge History of English
Literature, i, chapter 9 and Bibliography. Also Buckle, History of Civilization in
England, chapter 6. (The Origin of History and the State of Historical Literature
in the Middle Ages.) On Arthurian material in the chronicles, see R. H. Fletcher
in Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, x, 1906. With William of
Xewburgh's opinion of the Arthurian stories, cf. the following paragraph from Wil-
liam of Malmesbury (op. et. ir. cit., p. 315): "At that time (circa 1087), in a prov-
ince of Wales called Ros, was found the'sepulcher of Walwin (Gawain), the noble
nephew of Arthur; he reigned, a most renowned loiight, in that part of Britain
which is still named Walwerth; but was driven from his kingdom by the brother
and nephew of Hengist, . . . though not without first making them pay dearly
for his expulsion. He deservedly shared with his uncle the praise of retarding for
many years the calamity of his falling country. The sepulcher of Arthur is no-
where to be seen, whence ancient ballads fable that he is still to come. But the
tomb of the other . . , was found in the time of King William, on the sea-coast
fourteen feet long: there, as some relate, he was wounded by his enemies, and suf-
fered shipwreck; others say, he was killed by his subjects at a public entertain-
ment. The truth consequently is doubtful; though n(?ithcr of these men was
inferior to the reputation they have acquired."

Other literary types of the period, such as vision, debate, allegory, lyric, sermon.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 551

VI. Representative Authors

Literature continues ^ to be prevailingly anonymous,
though, happily, during the period 1066-1400 a larger share
can be assigned to definite authors than in the preceding
period. Literary biography, however, still is practically
non-existent, and modern knowledge of the lives of authors
remains dependent on scant and scattering notices in
chronicles and legal documents and the modest remarks
of writers themselves, notices which the historical critic
must reconcile and piece together if he is to have a run-
ning account. The following is a list of writers representa-
tive of the various languages written in England, of the
different interests of the age, and of the several types of
Hterature.

Of Marie de France, a French woman living in England,
the author of a charming collection of lays and of a series
of iEsopic fables, we know only what is said in the fol-
owing Prolog.

Those to whom God has given the gift of comely speech,
should not hide their light beneath a bushel,^ but should will-
ingly show it abroad. If a great truth is proclaimed in the ears
of men, it brings forth fruit a hundred-fold; but when the sweet-
ness of telling is praised of many, flowers mingle with the fruit
upon the branch.

According to the witness of Priscian,^ it was the custom of
ancient writers to express obscurely some portions of their books,
so that those who came after might study with greater diligence
to find the thought within their words. The philosophers knew

letter and satire, have already been illustrated in these pages. Legal doeuinents
have also been quoted. The best written ronianee of the age and the best fitted to
illustrate the qualities of the type is Chaueer's Knight's Talc. That Chaucer
could see the absurd side of romantic literature is shown in his parody Sir Thopas.
For the identification of proper names in the romances and nnicli of the other lit-
erature of the Middle Ages, see I^ewis Spence, A Dicfionarj/ of Medieval Romance
and Romance Writers (E. P. Dutton and Co., 1913).

1 Cf. ante, p. 103. 2 qi Matthew 5: 15. 3 ^f ante, p. G7.

552 ENGLISH LITERATURE

this well, and were the more unwearied in labor, the more subtle
in distinctions, so that the truth might make them free.** They
were persuaded that he w^ho would keep himself unspotted from
the world ^ should search for knowledge, that he might under-
stand. To set evil from me, and to put away my grief, I pur-
posed to commence a book. I considered within myself what
fair story in the Latin or Romance I could turn into the common
tongue. But I found that all the stories had been written and
scarcely it seemed the worth my doing, what so many had done.
Then I called to mind those Lays I had so often heard. I
doubted nothing — for well I knew — that our fathers fashioned
them, that men should bear in remembrance the deeds of those
who have gone before. Many a one, on many a day, the min-
strel has chanted to my ear. I would not that they should
perish, forgotten by the roadside. In my turn, therefore, I
have made of them a song, rimed as I am able, and often has
their shaping kept me sleepless in my bed.

In your honor, most noble and courteous King, to whom joy
is a handmaid, and in whose heart all gracious things are rooted,
I have brought together these lays and told my tales in seemly
rime. Ere they speak for me let me speak with my own mouth
and say, "Sire, I offer you these verses. If you are pleased to
receive them, the fairer happiness will be mine, and the more
lightly I shall go all the days of my life. Do not deem that I
think more highly of myself than I ought to think,^ since I
presume to proffer this, my gift." Hearken now to the com-
mencement of the matter.^

4 Cf. John 8: 32. ^ Cf. James 1: 27. ^ cf. Romans 12: 3.

^ It is generally assumed that the author of the Lays is the same as the author
of the Fables; who signs herself in an Epilog as follows, "Marie ai num, si suis de
France" (My name is Marie and I am of France"). Marie ^^Tites in French but
not, as might be expected, in the Anglo-Norman dialect; her language is lie de
France. All the extant MSS. are of the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, but the
language of the poems dates them in the second half of the twelfth century. It is
usually assumed, though there is no statement to that effect in the work, that the
Lays were dedicated to Henry II of Fngland. The Fables were written for a Count
William, usually thought to be William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury. Denis
Pyramus, a contemporary French author, testifies to the popularity of Marie's
Lays in the following terms, "And Dame Marie also, who in rime wrought and built

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 553

Henry of Huntingdon (1084?-! 155), already quoted,^ in
the Dedicatory Epistle to his History gives us a view of the
value of history which throws light on the sort of man he
was.

To Alexander Bishop of Lincoln.

As the pursuit of learning in all its branches affords, accord-
ing to my way of thinking, the sweetest mitigation of trouble and
consolation in grief, so I consider that precedence must be
assigned to history, as both the most delightful of studies and the
one which is invested with the noblest and brightest prerogatives.
Indeed, there is nothing in the world more excellent than accu-
rately to investigate and trace out the course of worldly affairs.
For where is exhibited in a more lively manner the grandeur of
heroic men, the wisdom of the prudent, the uprightness of the
just and the moderation of the temperate than in the series of
actions which history records? We find Horace ^ suggesting
this, when in speaking of Homer's story, he says,

''His works the beautiful and base contain, —
Of vice and virtue more instructive rules
Than all the sober sages of the schools."

Grantor,^ indeed, and Chrysippus ^ composed labored treatises
on moral philosophy, while Homer unfolds, as it were in a play,
the character of Agamemnon for magnanimity, of Nestor for
prudence, of Menelaus for uprightness, and on the other hand
portrays the size of iVjax, the feebleness of Priam, the wrath of
Achilles and the fraud of Paris; setting forth in his narrative

and thought out the verses of her Lays, which are not at all true. And she is much
praised for them and the rimes loved everywhere, ... by count, baron and
chevalier and . . . (people) have them read and take delight (in hearing them)
and they have them repeated oft. The Lays are a solace to ladies who listen and
ease their hearts." La Vie Scint Edmund le Rcy {The Life of St. King Edmund), 11.
35-4G, cd. Arnold, Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey {Rolls Scries, xcvi, 1892, pp.
138, 139). Denis is trying to secure an audience for his true historical poem by
pointing to the popularity of a merely fictitious one; his words may be taken as a
supplement to those of the (hirsor Mundi on the popularity of romance; cf. ante.y
p. 5 IS. This St. Edmund King was the patron saint of St. Edmundsbury Abbey,
of which Jocelin of Brakelond wrote his Chronicle; cf. ante, pp. 208-287.
8 Cf. ante, pp. 87, 450. » Cf. Epistles, Book I, 2, 11. 1-5.

554 ENGLISH LITERATURE

what is virtuous and what is profitable, better than is done in
the disquisitions of philosophers.

Hut wliy should I dwell on profane literature? See how
sacred history teaches morals; while it attributes faithfulness to
Abraham, fortitude to Moses, forbearance to Jacob, wisdom to
Josoj)]!: and while, on the contrary, it sets forth the injustice
of Ahab, the weakness of Oziah, the recklessness of Manasseh
and the folly of Rehoboam. O God of mercy, what an effulgence
was shed on humility, when Moses, after joining with his brother
in an offering of sweet-smelling incense to God, his protector
and avenger, threw himself into the midst of a terrible dan-
ger, ^'^ and when he shed tears for Miriam, who spoke scornfully
of him, and w^as ever interceding for those who were malignant
against him ! How brightly shone the light of humanity when
David, ^^ assailed and grievously tried by the curses, the insults
and the foul reproaches of Shimei, would not allow him to be
injured, though he himself was armed, and surrounded by his
followers in arms, while Shimei was alone and defenceless; and
afterward when David was triumphantly restored to his throne,
he would not suffer punishment to be inflicted on his reviler.
So, also, in the annals of all people, which indeed display the
I)rovidence of God, clemency, munificence, honesty, circumspec-
tion and the like, with their opposites, not only provoke be-
lievers to what is good and deter them from evil, but even
attract worldly men to goodness and arm them against wicked-
ness.

History brings the past to the view as if it w^ere present and
enables us to judge of the future by picturing to ourselves the
past. Besides, the knowledge of former events has this further
pre-eminence, that it forms a main distinction between brutes
and rational creatures. For brutes, whether they be men or
beasts, neither know nor wish to know whence they come nor
their own origin nor the annals and revolutions of the country
they inhal)it. Of the two, I consider men in this brutal state
to be the worse, because what is natural in the case of beasts,
is the lot of men from their own want of sense; and what beasts
could not acquire if they would, such men will not though they
I'J Cf. Exodus 4: 27, 31; 5: 1. " Cf. 2 Samuel 16: 5-U\ 19: 23.

REPRESENl ATIVE AUTHORS 555

can. But enough of these, whose Hfe and death are ahke con-
signed to everkisting oblivion.

With such reflections, and in obedience to your commands,
most excellent prelate, I have undertaken to arrange in order
the antiquities and history of this kingdom and nation, of
which you are a most distinguished ornament. At your sug-
gestion, also, I have followed, as far as possible, the Ecclesias-
tical History of the Venerable Bede, making extracts, as well,
from other authors, with compilations from the chronicles pre-
served in ancient libraries. Thus, I have brought down the
course of past events to times within our own knowledge and
observation. The attentive reader will learn in this work both
what he ought to imitate, and what he ought to eschew; and if
he becomes the better for this imitation and this avoidance, that
is the fruit of my labors which I most desire; and, in truth, the
direct path of history frequently leads to moral improvement.

William 1- of Malmesbury (1090P-1143), Henry^s con-
temporary, thus records his zeal for study in general, for
that of history in particular, and his view of the historian's
function.

A long period has elapsed since, as well through the care of my
parents as my own industry I became familiar with books. This
pleasure possessed me from my childhood: this source of delight
has grown with my years. Indeed, I was so instructed by my
father that, had I turned aside to other pursuits, I should have
considered it as jeopardy to my soid and discredit to my char-
acter. Wherefore, mindful of the adage, "Covet Avhat is neces-
sary," I constrained my early age to desire eagerly that which
it was disgraceful not to possess. I gave, indeed, my attention
to various branches of literature, but in different degrees. Logic,
for instance, which gives arms to eloquence, I contented myself
with barely hearing. Medicine, which ministers to the health of
the body, I studied wilh somcwliat more attention. But now%
having scrupulously examined the several branches of ethics, I
bow down to its majesty, because it sj)ontaneously unveils itself

12 Cf. ante, pp. 144-157; 375-377.

556 ENGLISH LITERATURE

to those who study it, and directs their minds to moral practice;
history more especially; which, by an agreeable recapitulation
of past events, excites its readers, by example, to frame their
lives to the pursuit of good or to aversion from evil. When,
therefore, at my own expense, I had procured some historians
of foreign nations, I proceeded during my leisure at home, to
encjuire if any thing concerning our own country could be found
worthy of handing down to posterity. Hence it arose that,
not content with the writings of ancient times, I began myself
to compose; not indeed, to display my learning which is com-
paratively nothing, but to bring to light events lying concealed
in the confused mass of antiquity. In consequence, rejecting
vague opinions, I have studiously sought for chronicles far and
near, though I confess I have scarcely profited any thing by this
industry. For perusing them all, I still remained poor in infor-
mation; though I ceased not my researches as long as I could
find any thing to read. What I have clearly ascertained con-
cerning the four (Anglo-Saxon) kingdoms, however, I have
inserted in my first book, in which I hope Truth will find no
cause to blush, though perhaps a degree of doubt may some-
times arise. I shall now trace the monarchy of the West Saxon
kingdom through the line of successive princes, down to the
coming of the Normans: which if any person will condescend
to regard with complacency, let him in brotherly love observe
the following rule, "If before he knew only these things (i.e.
if he already knew all that he finds in the book), let him not be
disgusted because I have inserted them; if he knows more, let
him not be angry that I have not spoken of them"; but rather
let him communicate his knowledge to me, while I am still
alive, that, at least, those events may be noted on the margin
of my history, though they are not mentioned in the text. . . .
It is by no means the part of an historian to give entire credence
to flattering reports, or to deceive the credulity of his readers.
. . . There will perhaps be many in different parts of England,
who may say that they have heard and read some things dif-
ferently related from the mode in which I have recorded them:
but if tliey judge candidly, they will not, on this account, brand
ine with censure; since, following the strict laws of bistorts I

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 557

have asserted nothing but what I have learned either from
relators, or from writers, of veracity. But, be these matters
as they may, I especially congratulate myself on being, through
Christ's assistance, the only person, or at least the first, who,
since Bede, has arranged a continued history of the English.
Should any one, therefore, as I already hear it intimated, under-
take, after me, a work of a similar nature, he may be indebted
to me for having collected materials, though the selection from
them must depend upon himself.

Geoffrey of Monmouth ^^ (1100.^-1154), maligned yet
popular, or perhaps maligned because popular, deliber-
ately ^et himself the task of writing the history of the
Kings of Britain, that is, the Kings of the Welsh. He
claims this particular province as his ow^n by reason of
having in his possession an ancient book in the British
language which he undertakes to render into Latin, as he
tells us in his Preface.

Oftentimes in turning over in mine own mind the many themes
that might be subject-matter of a book, my thoughts would fall
upon the plan of writing a history of the Kings of Britain, and
in my musings thereupon meseemed it a marvel that, beyond
such mention as Gildas and Bede have made of them in their
luminous tractate, naught could I find as concerning the kings
that had dwelt in Britain before the Incarnation of Christ nor
even as concerning Arthur and the many others that did succeed
him after the Incarnation, albeit that their deeds be worthy of
praise everlasting and be as pleasantly rehearsed from memory
by word of mouth in the traditions of many peoples as though
they had been written down. Now whilst I was thus thinking
upon such matters, Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, a man learned
not only in the art of eloquence, but in the histories of foreign
lands, offered me a certain most ancient book in the British
language that did set forth the doings of them all in due suc-
cession and order from Hrule, the first King of the Britons,
onward to Cadwalhidcr, the son of Cadwallo, all told in stories
13 Cf. ante, pp. 248; 404; 544-550.

558 ENGLISH LITERATURE

of exceeding beauty. At his request, therefore, albeit that never
have I gathered gay flowers of speech in other men's httle gar-
dens, and am content with mine own rustic manner of speech
and mine own writing-reeds, have I been at the pains to trans-
late this vohmie into the Latin tongue. For had I besprinkled
my page with high-flown phrases, I should only have engendered
a weariness in my readers by compelling them to spend more
time over the meaning of the words than upon understanding
the drift of my story.

Unto this my little work, therefore, do thou Robert, Earl of
Gloucester,^'* show favor in such wise that it may be so cor-
rected by thy guidance and counsel as that it may be held to
have sprung, not from the little fountain of Geoffrey o£ Mon-
mouth, but rather from thine own deep sea of knowledge, and
to savor of thy salt. Let it be held to be thine own offspring,
as thou art the offspring of the illustrious Henry, King of the
English. Let it be thine, as one that hath been nurtured in the
liberal arts by philosophy, and called unto the command of
armies by thine own inborn prowess of knighthood; thine, w^hom
in these our days Britain haileth with heart-felt affection as
though in thee she had been vouchsafed a second Henry. . . .

Howbeit their kings (i.e. of the British) w^ho from that time
have succeeded in Wales I hand over in the matter of writing
unto Karadoc ^'^ of Lancarvan, my contemporary, as I do those
of the Saxons unto William of Malmesbury and Henry of Hunt-
ingdon, whom I bid be silent as to the Kings of the Britons,
seeing that they have not that book in the British speech which
Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, did convey hither out of Brit-
tany, the which being truly issued in honor of the aforesaid
princes, I have on this wise been at the pains of translating into
the Latin speech.

Geoffrey's Latin history soon attracted translators to
render it into French. By one of these, Geoffrey Gaimar,

^* An illegitimate son of Henry I.

^* Or Caradoc or Caradog (died 1147), a Welsh ecclesiastic and chronicler, one
of the group of writers patronized by Robert, Earl of Gloucester. He wrote
a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth, which in its original form is no longer
extant.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 559

it was translated into French verse before 1150; but
Gaimar's version was early eclipsed by that of Wace, whose
brief autobiography reads as follows:

If anybody asks who said this, who put this history into the
romance language, I say and I will say to him that I am Wace
of the Isle of Jersey, which lies in the sea, toward the west, and
is a part of the fief of Normandy. In the Isle of Jersey I was
born, and to Caen I was taken as a little lad; there I was put
at the study of letters; afterwards I studied long in France.
^Yhen I came back from France, I dwelt long at Caen. I busied
myself with making books in romance; many of them I wrote
and many of them I made.

John of Salisbury (circa 1120-1180) was a partisan of
Thomas a Becket, an important person at the literary
court of Henry II and Bishop of Chartres in 1176. He is
the author of the Polycraticus, of the M etalogicus and of
about three hundred extant letters. The Polycraticus,
"The Statesman's Book," "contrasts the vain pursuits of
men of his day with the best precepts of the philosophers,
pointing out the frivolous or vicious pleasures that are
opposed to reason and right." ^^ The M etalogicus is invalu-
able as a storehouse of information regarding the matter
and form of scholastic education and remarkable, like the
Polycraticus, for its cultivated style and its humanistic
tendency.^" His Letters, written to the leading men of the
time, throw much light on the literary, political and scien-
tific position of the tw^elfth century. From the Metalogi-
cus we quote John's account of his own education, and
from one of his letters, his statement of his sentiments on
mountaineering in the Alps.

When I was a very young man, I went to study in France,
the year after tlic death of llial lion in the cause of justice,

^^ Schoficld, op. cit., p. 51.

^"^ Sec the article on John of SuHsbury in the Enclycopwdia Britannica, ed. 11.

560 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Henry King of England.^* There I sought out that famous
teaclier and peripatetic philosopher of the Palatine,^^ who at
that time presided at Mont St. Genevieve and was the subject
of admiration to all men. At his feet I received the first rudi-
ments of this art, and showed the utmost avidity in picking up
and storing away in my mind all that fell from his lips. When,
however, much to my regret, Abelard left us, I attended
Master Alberic,-" a most obstinate dialectician and unflinching
assailant of the nominalist sect. Two years I stayed at Mont
St. Genevieve, under the instruction of Alberic and Master
Robert de Melun,^^ if I may so term him, not from the place
of his birth, for he was an Englishman, but by the surname
which he gained by his successful governance of his schools.
One of these teachers was scrupulous even to minutiae, and every-
where found some subject to raise a question; for the smoothest
surface presented inequalities to him, and there was no rod so
smooth that he could not find a knot in it, and show how it
could be gotten rid of. The other of the two was prompt in
reply, and never for the sake of subterfuge avoided a question
that was proposed; but he would choose the contradictory side,
or by a multiplicity of words show that simple answer could not
be given. In all questions, therefore, he was subtle and profuse,
whilst the other in his answers was perspicuous, brief and to the
point. If two such characters could ever have been united in the
same person, he would be the best hand at disputation that our
times have produced. Both of them possessed acute wit and an
indomitable perseverance; I believe they would have turned out
great and distinguished men in physical studies, if they had sup-
ported themselves on the great base of literature and more
closely followed the tracks of the ancients, instead of taking
such pride in their own discoveries. All this is said with refer-
ence to the time during which I attended them. For one of
them afterwards went to Bologna and there unlearnt what he
had taught; on his return he also untaught it: whether the
change was for the better or the worse, I leave to the judgment
of those who heard him before and after. The other of the two

18 I.e. Henry I. i^ Cf. ante, pp. 387-389. ^i cf. ante, p. 440.

^ Circa 1080-post 1154; author of several philosophical works.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 561

was also a proficient in the more exalted philosophy of divinity
wherein he gained a distinguished name. With these teachers
I remained two years and became versed in commonplaces,
rules and elements in general, which boys study and in which my
teachers were most weighty, so that I seemed to know them as
well as I knew my own nails and fingers. There was one thing
which I had certainly attained to, namely, to estimate my own
knowledge higher than it deserved. I fancied myself a sciolist
because I ^^s ready in what I had been taught. I then,
beginning to reflect and to measure my strength, attended
on the grammarian William de Conches ^^ during the space of
three years; I read much at intervals: nor shall I ever regret
the way in which my time was then spent. After this I became
a follower of Richard rEveque,^^ a man who was master of every
kind of learning, and whose breast contained much more than
his tongue dared give utterance to; for he had learning rather
than eloquence, truthfulness rather than vanity, virtue rather
than ostentation. With him I reviewed all that I had learnt
from the others, besides certain things, which I now learnt for
the first time relating to the quadrivium, in which I had already
acquired some information from German Hardewin.^- I also
again studied rhetoric, which I had before learnt very super-
ficially with some other studies from Master Theodoric," but
without understanding what I read. Afterwards I learnt it more
fully from Peter Hely.^^ My maintenance, by God's blessing
on me, — for I was very poor and distant from friends and rela-
tives, — was supplied me by the sons of noblemen whom I
instructed: this made me of necessity, and at their request, fre-
quently recall to memory what I had heard before. I then
formed a close intimacy with Master Adam,^^ a man of most
acute understanding, and — whatever others may think — of
much learning, who gave his particular attention to Aristotle.
Though he was my tutor, he communicated to nic what he
knew, and laid himself open to me in a manner which he had
never used before except to a very few; for he was thought to
be a very envious man. Meanwhile I taught the first elements
of logic to William ^^ of Soissons who afterwards invented some-
^'- Known only us masters in the schools.

oG2 ENGLISH LITERATURE

tiling to assail the antiquity of logic, to draw unexpected con-
sc([uences, and to destroy the opinions of the ancients; and at
last I handed him over to the aforementioned preceptor. There
he perhaps learnt that the same thing is not the same, etc^
hut I could never be brought to believe that from one impossi-
bility, all impossibilities could arise. I was at last rescued from
all this by the poverty of my condition, the request of compan-
ions and the advice of my friends that I should undertake the
office of a tutor. I obeyed their wishes; and on my return
after three years, finding Master Gilbert,^^ I studied logic and
divinity with him: but he was very speedily removed from us,
and in his place we had Robert de Poule,^ a man amiable alike
for his rectitude and his attainments. Then came Simon de
Poissy'-'^ who was a faithful reader but an obtuse disputator.
These two were my teachers in theology only. In this manner
twelve years having passed away whilst I was engaged in these
various occupations, I determined to revisit my old companions
whom I found still engaged with logic at Mont St. Genevieve.^^

In his later life, John was "engaged in many kinds of
official business, some of which required great tact. Be-

-^ Known only as masters in the schools.

-■* As comment on this long stay of John's in France, cf. the following lines of
(Jhrestien de Troyes, a French poet of the twelfth century:

Or vous ert par ce livre apris.
Que Gresse ot de che valeric
Le premier los et de clergie;
Puis vint chevalerie a Rome,
Et de la clergie la some,
Qui ore est en France venue.
Diex doinst qu'ele i soit retenue
Et que li lius li abelisse
Tant que de France n'isse
L'onor qui s'i est arestee!

(^"Sow by this book you will learn that first Greece had the renown for chivalry
and letters: then chivalry and the primacy in letters passed to Rome, and now is
it come to France. God grant it may be kept there; and that the place may please
it so well, that the honor which has come to make stay in France may never depart
thence!" — Tr. Matthew Arnold in The Study of Poetry, ed. Johnson, Riverside
Literature Series, p. 69. Cliges, 11. 30-39, Johnson's note.)

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 563

fore 1169 he had crossed the Alps ten times on missions
to Rome" -' and on one of these trips, he writes as follows:

Pardon me for not writing. I have been on the Mount of
Jove; on the one hand looking up to the heavens of the moun-
tains, on the other shuddering at the hell of the valleys; feel-
ing myself so much nearer to heaven that I was more sure that
my prayer would be heard. "Lord," I said, "restore me to my
brethren, that I may tell them, that they come not into this
place of torment." Place of torment, indeed, where the marble
pavement of the stony ground is ice alone, and you cannot set
down a foot safely; where, strange to say, although it is so slip-
pery that you cannot stand, the death, into which there is every
facility for a fall, is a certain death. I put my hand in my scrip,
that I might scratch out a syllable or two to your sincerity; lo,
I found my ink-bottle filled with a dry mass of ice: my fingers,
too, refused to write: my beard was stiff with frost, and my
breath congealed into a long icicle. I could not write the news
I wished. ^^

25 Cf. Schofield, op. ciL, p. 51.

26 The letter is dated from the Great St. Bernard Pass. Coulton, op. cit., pp. 14-
18, quotes three other medieval accounts of mountain climbing. On medieval taste
in landscape, cf. the following, "Mediaeval landscape we can easily ... reproduce
for ourselves. AVe know what men loved; we know what they habitually saw about
them. The country was still in large tracts wild and savage, overgrown with vast
forests like those through which the knights in mediaeval romance perpetually
wander. Even so late as the time of Elizabeth, we know that one-third of England
was unreclaimed waste land. Here and there the grim castle of a feudal lord, its
thick walls and frowning turrets witnessing to the military character of the age,
would break the monotony, but hardly relieve the terror of the w'oods. Or, again,
the sweet sound of unseen bells would draw the traveller to some spot where 'a
little lowly hermitage' or a stately abbey spoke of the mighty power of the Church.
Of course, wide regions even apart from the towns were by tiiis time subdued to
human use and smiling fertility; yet the general character of scenery during tlie
middle ages must have been wild and fierce. Men are governed l)y desire for con-
trast. We in our peaceful days crave precipice and savage height and raging tor-
rent, and take our holiday pleasure in the wildest regions we can discover. It is,
then, no wonder that people in the middle ages loved and sought in landscape all
which was gently ordered, even, and serene. The mediaeval idea of beauty is a
garden-close. Flowering trees bend above its synunetrical walks, roses bloom there
forever, and clear fountains .softly .splashing join in the melody of birds. In this
garden pace fair damsels, a faint perpetual smile in their gray eyes. Young squires

564 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Giralclus Cambrensis, whose account of his French edu-
cation has already been quoted,-' was the most voluble
autobiographic writer of his age. He not only wrote a
lengthy book on his ow^n life, but he indulged himself,
like Mr, Bernard Shaw of our time, in the composition of
numerous prefaces which exhibit his fondness for "show-
ing off" his learning and connections with the great. In
the following passage from his Autobiography {De Rebus a
se Gestis, On Matters Accomplished by Himself), Giraldus
relates how he recited his Topography of Ireland at Oxford.

Giraldus . . . crossed from Ireland into Wales, where also
his Topography, which he had begun, he applied his studious
mind wholly to complete. In the process of time, the book hav-
ing been finished, desiring not to hide his light under a bushel
but to set it on a candlestick that it might give light,-^ he ar-
ranged to recite his book at Oxford, where clergy and learning
were most vigorous and eminent in England, before a great audi-
ence. And since there were in his book three distinctions (sec-
tions), the recitation lasted for three days; on the first of which
he entertained all the poor of the whole town whom he sum-

and pretty pages move in attendance, and all take their joy together in the fresh
sweet morning air of an undying May. Rocks and mountains cause abhorrent
shudder to the mediaeval mind. Dante's spirits in purgatory climb for their pen-
ance a lofty height; but because they are blessed, though once sinful, the mountain
is laid out for them in neat terraces, and when they reach the top they will find that
the peak has been smoothed away, and a delightful level garden planted for their
refreshment. The wild primeval sense of fellowship with the stormy sea, which
marked in so striking a way the rude literature of our Saxon forefathers, has also
vanished. Nature is loved in the middle ages, but loved not for her spiritual power,
but for her fertility and peace. The treatment of landscape in mediaeval art and
literature is conventional and formal; it has no range of observation or depth of
insight, though it almost alwaj^s possesses a charm of its o%\'n." Vida D. Scudder,
Introduction to the Study of English Literature, pp. 60-62 (Globe School Book Co.,
1901). For further references on John of Salisbury, see Sandys, History of Classical
Scholarship, 1; Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on Medieval and Modern History; and
Poole, Illustrations of the History of Mediwval Thought. See also A. C. Krey, John of
Salisbury s Attitude towards the Classics, XVI, Part II, Transactions of the Wiscon-
!fin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Dec. 1909.

»7 Cf. ante, pp. 383-385. ^s cf. Matthew 5: 15.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 565

moned to his hosj)itality. The next day, all the doctors of the
various faculties and their disciples of greater fame and reputa-
tion. On the third, the remaining students together with the
local military and many burgers. This was a sumptuous and
noble affair, indeed, because the authentic and ancient days of
the poets were therein in some measure restored; nor does the
present age nor any record of antic^uity register its like had in
England.

In the following words Giraldus tells us his aim in the
History of the Conquest of Ireland and defends the Topog-
raphy of Ireland from the charge of including fabulous
stories.

Forasmuch as in my Topography of Ireland I have described
at large the site of the island, its singularities, and those of
sundry things contained in it, the marvels in which nature has
there indulged out of her ordinary course, and the origin of the
various races settled in it from the earliest ages until these our
own days, I have now undertaken, at the earnest request of
many persons of high rank, to set forth in a separate volume the
annals of events which have occurred in our own days relating
to the last and recent conquest of Ireland.^^ For if I have been
able to give a tolerably clear account of times long past, and of
things which happened in ages so far preceding our own, how
much more exact will be my narrative of transactions which
have taken place under my own observation, of the greatest
part of which I have been eyewitness, and which are so fresh
in my memory that I cannot have any doubt about them. The
Topography treats of localities and events connected with an-
cient times, the History deals with the present.

But methinks I see some one turn up his nose, and, disgusted
with my book, hand it to another, or throw it aside, because the
reader will find all things in it plain, clear and easy of appre-
hension. But let liim know that I have written chiefly for the
use of the laity and of princes who have but little learning, and
desire things to be related in so simple and easy a style, that

23 The Pope in 11.51 luul granted Ireland to Henry II.

566 ENGLISH LITERATURE

all may understand them. For we may be permitted to use
j)()pular language when the acts of the people, as well as of their
superiors, are to be reduced to writing. Besides, it has been
my endeavor to compose all my works in a popular style, easy
to understand, however I may have added to it some ornament
from my own stores; and I have therefore entirely rejected the
old and dry method of writing used by some authors. And,
inasmuch as new times require new fashions, and the philoso-
pher bids us follow the examples of the old men in our lives, and
of the younger men in our words, I have earnestly aimed to
adopt the mode of speech which is now in use and the modern
style of eloquence. For since words only give expression to
what is in the mind, and man is endowed with the gift of speech
for the purpose of uttering his thoughts, what can be greater
folly than to lock up and conceal things which we wish to be
clearly understood, in a tissue of unintelligible phrases and intri-
cate sentences? To show ourselves sciolists in a knowledge of
our own, shall we take pains so to write, that others may see
without comprehending and hear without understanding? Is it
not better, as Seneca says, to be dumb than to speak so as not
to be understood? The more, then, language is suited to the
understanding, though framed with a certain elegance of style,
the more useful it will be, as well as suited to the tastes of men
of letters. . . .

Inasmuch also as some malevolent person has made slanderous
attacks on my Topographyy a work not to be despised, I have
thought it worth my while to introduce here a few words in its
defence. The elegance of its scholastic style has obtained uni-
form praise from all quarters; and though it is contrary to my
detractor's nature to commend anything, he is ashamed and
afraid to cavil at my First and Third Distinctions. But it is
no easy matter to act a counterfeit part, and my critic, not
being able quite to change his natural disposition, that he might
at least do some mischief, and vent the malignity with which
he was bursting, he boldly cavils at the Second Distinction,
hoi)ing that by convicting me of falsehood in that he shall dis-
credit the whole. His objections are of this sort: the author,
he says, "introduces a wolf talking with a priest; he draws a

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 567

picture of a creature with the })ody of a man, and the extremi-
ties of an ox; he tells us of a bearded woman. ..." Let him,
however, if he is so shocked at these stories, read in the Book of
Numbers how Baalam's ass s])oke, and the prophet chid the ass.
Let him read the lives of the Fathers, and he will find Anthony
conversing with a satyr; and that Paul the hermit was fed in
the desert by a raven. Let him also read the voluminous works
of Jerome,^^ the Hexameron of Ambrose ^^ and the Dialogs of
Gregory .^^ He will find Augustine's ^^ volume De Civitate Dei
{On the City of God), and especially Books 16 and 21, full of
prodigies. Let him read also the eleventh Book of Isidore's
Etymologies,^^ concerning marvels; his twelfth Book, respecting
beasts; and his sixteenth, respecting precious stones and their
virtues. Let him also examine the works of Valerius Maximus,^^
Trogus Pompeius,^^ Pliny ^"^ and Solinus; ^^ and in all these he
will find many things at which he may cavil in the same man-
ner. After reading these, I say, will he condemn the whole
works of these great writers on account of some extraordinary
accounts which they have inserted in them.^^ But let him be
better advised, and consider well the remark of St. Jerome,^^
that there are many things contained in the Scriptures which,
30 Cf. ante, p. 64. ^i /^^ p 431

32 KnowTi to us as the compiler of a large collection of historical anecdotes, en-
titled De Factis Dictuque Memorabilihus Lihri ix (Nine Books on Memorable Deeds
and Words) , He lived in the reign of the emperor Tiberius, to whom he dedicated
his book. " In an historical point of view the work, though turgid in style, and un-
inspired with any originality of thought, is by no means without value, since it
preserves a record of many curious events not to be found elsewhere; but its state-
ments do not always deserve implicit confidence." Smith's Smaller Classical Dic-
tionary.

33 Lived in the first centuries B.C. and a.d., author of a universal history in 44
books, called Historic Philippico', because the history of the various jjeoj^Ies was
grouped around the Macedonian Empire founded by Philip, father of Alexander
the Great.

^ Pliny the Elder (23 A.D.-79 a.d.), author of the Natural Ilistonj in .'J7 books,
the source of much material in Isidore of Seville and other medieval enc-yclopedias.

35 Circa 238 a.d. "Author of a geographical comj)endium, divided into .57 chap-
ters, containing a brief sketch of the world as known to the ancients, diversified by
historical notices, remarks on the origin, habits, religious rites and .social condition
of the various riations enumerated. It displays l)ut little knowledge or judgment."
Smith, op. eii.

5(>8 ENGLISH LITERATURE

though they seem to be incredible, are nevertheless true. For
nature cannot prevail against the God of nature; and every
creature ought not to abhor, but to admire and hold in rever-
ence, the works of the Creator. To adopt also the words of
Augustine ^^ on this subject, "How can anything be against
nature which exists })y the will of the great Creator?" A prodigy,
therefore, is not contrary to nature, but contrary to the common
course of nature; and, therefore, as it is not impossible for God
to ordain and create whatsoever things He listeth, no more is
it impossible for Him to alter and change into what forms He
listeth the things He has already created.

In the final Preface to the History of the Conquest of
Ireland, addressed to King John, Giraldus gives John
advice regarding the government of Ireland in a way that
shows his interest in the country.

To his most revered lord, and beloved in Christ, John, the noble
and illustrious King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke
of Normandy and Aquitaine and Count of Anjou: Giral-
dus dedicates his work, ivishing him all health in body
and soul and the prosperous issue of all his worldly affairs.

It pleased your excellent and noble father, King Henry, some
time ago, when I was in attendance on himself, to send me over
to Ireland in your company.^^ Having noted while I was there
sundry notable things which were strange and unknown in other
countries, I made a collection of materials with great industry,
from which, on my return to England, after three years' labor,
I published a Topography of Ireland, describing the country and
the wonders of it; not forgetting the honor your father had gained
from that beforehand. The work so pleased him — for, a rare
thing in our times, he was a prince of great literary attainments
— that at his instance, I afterwards renewed or rather con-
tinued my labors, and composed the present w^ork on the recent
conquest of that kingdom, made by him and those under him.
But, as worth is more commended than rewarded, I received no
remuneration for either of these books.

^ John Mcnt to Ireland in 1185.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 569

But since, through neglect or rather your many occupations,
the recollection of that land, not the least among the islands of
the West, which you visited long since,^^ seems to have faded
from your mind, I have undertaken to refresh it, by dedicating
to your highness a corrected and fuller edition of my work. The
history commences with the time when Prince Dermitius, driven
into exile by his subjects, took refuge with your father in Nor-
mandy ,^'^ and obtained aid from him, and is continued until
your first arrival in the island, when I attended you; and I have
honestly related all that was done, whether for good or evil, by
the several leaders of expeditions and nobles who went over to
Ireland, in regular order from the first to the last.

Here, then, as in a bright mirror, and far more clearly, and
certainly by the light of historical truth, it may be ascertained,
seen and reflected to whom the greatest share of the glory of
this conquest ought justly to be attributed; whether to the
men of the diocese of St. David's my own kinsmen, who were
the first adventurers, or to those of Llandaff,^^ men, truly, of
better descent than enterprise, for they went over on the invita-
tion of the first conquerors, and tempted by the example of their
success to embark in a similar adventure — or lastly, whether
it be due to the third expedition,^^ which consisted of a large
force, amply supplied with arms, provisions and everything
necessary.

Much was assuredly done by him who made the beginning,
much by him who went over with additional forces and added
strength to the first enterprise; but far more by him who gave
his whole authority to the two former expeditions, and sanc-
tioned them by his license, and at last, by going over himself,
reduced the whole country to submission, and resolutely com-
* pleted the whole undertaking, though his too hasty return
from the island, caused by tlic unnatural conspiracy of his sons,"**^
prevented order being fully settled on a firm foundation.

" Dermitius or Diarinait api)ealo(l to Ilonry II in IKJO.

^* The loader of the men of LhmdaH" was Uichani de (Mare, Earl of Pembroke.
^^ Henry himself was in Ireland from October, 1171 to April, 1172.
^^ Young Henry, Richard and Geoffrey rebelled against their father, Henry II,
in 1173.

570 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Do not undervalue, then, noble King, what cost your father
and yourself so much toil, and do not part with so much glory
and honor to strangers who are both unworthy and ungrateful;
nor for the sake of an island of silver hazard the loss of one of
gold; for the one does not exclude the other, but both together
become doubly valuable. The gold of x\rabia and the silver of
Achaia enrich the same treasury, though in different heaps.
Besides, other considerations may induce you not to be unmind-
ful of your dominion of Ireland. It has pleased God and your
good fortune to send you several sons . . . and you may have
more hereafter. Two of these you may raise to the thrones of
two kingdoms, and under them you amply provide for numbers
of your followers by new grants of lands, especially in Ireland,
a country which is still in a wild and unsettled state, a very
small part of it being yet occupied and inhabited by our people.

But if neither the desire of augmenting your own glory, nor
of royally endowing and elevating one of your sons, will induce
you to extend your fostering care to your dominions of Ireland,
you ought at least to protect and reinstate in their rights those
veteran warriors who have served your father and yourself with
so much devoted fidelity, by whose enterprise that land was
first taken possession of, and by whose valor it is still retained,
but who are constantly supplanted by new-comers, reaping the
fruits of other men's labors, and advanced more by their good
luck than by their valor. It should be your care to abate the
pride and humble the insolence of such men as these; for, if
report speaks true, their folly is risen to such a pitch of arro-
gance and presumption, that they even aspire to usurp in their
own name all the rights of dominion belonging to the princes
of that kingdom.

Wherefore, you should take the greatest care that when you<
have any designs of extending your conquests in the interior
of the country, you should keep a close watch on what is passing
in the Eastern districts, and use your utmost efforts to recover,
by God's grace, what has been unjustly alienated there; for
you have nothing to fear in the West if you leave no danger in
the rear. It would doubtless be a sign not only of great negli-
gence, but of idle folly, and a great reproach, were you to harbor

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 571

in your own towns and castles, and on your own lands, which
although they may be in the West, would lie closer on your rear,
domestic enemies, who are ever plotting treason, and only wait
for time and opportunity to break into open revolt. It would
be like wrapping snakes in the folds of your robe, or nourishing
fire in your bosom which was ready to burst into flame. It is
unsafe for princes to foster any hydra-heads in their dominions.
It is especially unsafe for island princes to have in their terri-
tories any other frontier marches than the sea itself.

Moreover, if for these reasons, or any of them, you should
be induced to pity and relieve your land so often mentioned,
which is now desolate and in a manner deserted, and to reduce
it to a state of order, not unprofitable to you and yours, permit
me to offer your royal majesty some advice, though it may
savor of the freedom of speech which is natural to Welshmen
like myself, and which we can neither alter nor get rid of. I
refer to the two pledges which your father gave to Pope Adrian,
when he obtained his permission to invade and conquer Ireland,
and acted most prudently and discreetly for his own interest,
and those of his family and people, when he secured the sanc-
tion of the highest earthly authority to an enterprise of so much
magnitude, which involved the shedding of Christian blood.
One was, that he would raise up the church of God in that
country, and cause a penny to be paid to St. Peter for every
house in Ireland, as it is done in England; according to the
tenor of the bull of privilege granted by the said Pope, and
obtained from him by your father's prudence and policy, and
now laid up in the archives at Winchester, as is hereafter set
forth in the present History. But Solomon says in the Proverbs,
*' Nothing less becomes a prince than lying lips," "^^ and it is
especially dangerous to lie to God, and for a creature to take
upon himself to set at naught his Creator. In order, therefore,
to deliver the soul of your father who made these j)romises, and
your own soul and those of your children, it is highly fitting
that you, having no other shield of defence against the anger of
the Righteous Judge for so much Christian ])lood already shed,
and perhaps still to be shed, should ])e very careful to fulfil

'1 Cf. Proverbs 17:7.

572 ENGLISH LITERATURE

your father's vows. And if by so doing God may be honored in
this conquest, as is becoming and right, you may expect that
the eartlily prosperity of you and yours will be augmented, and
above all, that eternal happiness will be your portion at last.

These promises not having hitherto been performed, the
divine justice has therefore, we may well believe, suffered calami-
ties of two kinds to happen by way of judgment. The one is
that the completion of this conquest, and the profit to be drawn
from it, have been deferred; the other, that the first and prin-
cipal invaders of Ireland, namely, Robert Fitzstephen, who was
the first of our countrymen who landed there, and as it were
opened and showed the way to others, as also Hervey de Mont-
Maurise, Raymonde, John de Courcy and Meyler never had any
lawful issue of their bodies begotten. Nor is it any marvel.
The poor clergy in the island are reduced to beggary. The
cathedral churches, which were richly endowed with broad lands,
by the piety of the faithful in old times, now echo with lamen-
tations for the loss of their possessions, of which they have been
robbed by these men and others who came over with them, or
after them, so that to uphold the church is turned into soiling
and robbing it.

It is the part of a good prince to redress these evils; for it
concerns his honor, to say nothing of his duty to God, that the
clergy throughout his dominions, whose place it is to assist him
faithfully in his councils, and in all the more weighty affairs
and principal acts of his government, should be relieved of their
grievances, and enjoy the honors and privileges which are their
due. Moreover, in order that some acknowledgment and propi-
tiation may be made to God for this bloody conquest and the
profits of it, the promised tax of the Peter's Pence should be
paid in future. It is but small, and this moderate payment
frees all, while it is not a burthen to any.

I would further add, with your permission, that in memory
of this conquest of Ireland, made by the English, and because,
in the course of years, there are great changes in the succession
of lords, so that in process of time the right of inheritance often
devolves on heirs by descent in remote degrees, and even utter
strangers in blood, a fixed annual tribute in gold or birds, or

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 573

perhaps in timber, should be reserved by some written instru-
ment, in order to show to all future times that the realm of
Ireland is subject to the crown of England by an indissoluble
bond.

Considering also that annals of events, heard through an
interpreter, are not so well understood, and do not fix themselves
in the mind so firmly as when they are published in the ver-
nacular tongue, it would be well, if such be your pleasure, that
some man of learning, who is also skilled in the French language,
be employed to translate this work of mine, which has cost much
labor, into French; and then, as it would be better understood,
I might reap the fruits of my toil, which hitherto, under illiter-
ate princes, have been lost because there were few who could
understand my works. Hence a man of great eloquence, Walter
Mapes, x\rchdeacon of Oxford, has often said to me in conversa-
tion, with his usual facetiousness and that urbanity for which
he is remarkable, "You have written a great deal. Master Giral-
dus, and you will write much more; and I have discoursed
much: you have employed writing; I, speech. But though your
writings are much better and much more likely to be handed
down to future ages than my discourses, yet, as all the world
could understand what I said, speaking as I did in the vulgar
tongue, while your works, being written in Latin, are understood
by only a very few persons, I have reaped some advantage from
my sermons; but you, addressing yourself to princes, who were,
doubtless, both learned and liberal, but are now out of date,
and have passed from the world, have not been able to secure
any sort of reward for your excellent works, which so richly
merited it." It is true, indeed, that my best years, and the
prime of my life, have been spent without any remuneration or
advancement arising out of my literary labors, and I am now
growing old, and standing, as it were, on the threshold of death;
but I neither asl^ nor expect, worldly recompense from any one.
My only desire is, and it is all I ought to desire, that, first and
above all, I may partake of the divine mercy vouchsafed me by
Him who giveth all things freely, through good works; His
grace cooperating, nay, being the sole efficient cause; and next,
that through my poor literary works I may obtain favor with

574 ENGLISH LITERATURE

the world, if ever the pursuits of learning should again be held
in esteem, and recover their former eminence; although my
reward may be deferred till further times, when posterity is sure
to award honor to every man according to his just deserts.

The Walter Mapes or Map referred to by Giraldus con-
trived, in the midst of his busy life of preaching, politics,
and diplomacy, to compose one book on which most of our
knowledge ^'^ of his career depends. This is the book De
Nugis Curialium (Courtiers' Trifles), which impresses a
modern reader rather as a note-book of interesting stories
and experiences than as a finished work. We quote four
passages. Map begins thus:

" I am in time and I speak of time," says Augustine,^^ and adds,
"I know^ not what time is," I likewise can say that I am in the
court and speak of the court, and know not, God knows, what
the court is. I know, however, that the court is not time; it
is temporal, to be sure, changeable, varying, local and wander-
ing, never remaining in the same place; in my retreat I lose
sight of it altogether; on my return, I find little or nothing of
what I left; become a stranger I see it outside me. The court
is the same but its members change. If I shall have described
the court, as Porphyry defines genus,^ perhaps I shall not lie
in saying that this multitude in some way relates itself to a

^ The ^ATitings of Giraldus Cambrensis have many references to the career of
Map.

*^ AVright quotes a passage from Augustine, Confessions, Book xi, chapter 25,
which I translate thus, "And I confess to thee, Lord, that I am so far ignorant of
the nature of time; and again I confess to thee. Lord, that I know that I am saying
this in time, and that I have been talking of time for some time, and that the pas-
sage of time is nothing else than a delay in time. How do I know this, when I am
ignorant of the nature of time?"

^ Cf. ante, p. 412. Wright quotes from Porphyry, Isagogus, chapter 2, a pas-
sage, which I translate thus, "For genus is called a collection of individuals re-
lating themselves in some way to a single chief and in turn to each other." This,
says Wright, is Boethius' literal rendering of the Greek of the original. Wright
adds that Map was probably quoting from memory and confused his quotation
with what follows in Boethius; this I render as follows: "And indeed the principle
of each generation is first called genus, then the multitude of those which are under
one head."

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 575

single chief. We (i.e. the courtiers) at least are an infinite mul-
titude, striving to please one alone; and to-day we are one
multitude; to-morrow we shall be another.

Later on ^Nlap has the following record of reading and
conversation at the table of Thomas a Becket:

I was present at the table of the good Thomas then Arch-
bishop of Canterbury; there sat there two white "^'^ abbots talk-
ing of many miracles of . . . Bernard,"^^ taking their beginning
from what the letter of Bernard says in condemnation of ^Master
Peter,^^ chief of the nominalists, who sinned more in his reason-
ing than in his knowledge of divinity; for in the latter he com-
muned with his own heart; in the former he labored against his
heart and undertook many tasks in opposition to it. The Letter
of Lord Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux to Pope Eugenius, who had
been one of his monks and whom no one of his own order has
succeeded (as pope), was being read. In that letter is contained
the statement that Master Peter was the proud image of Golias *^
and that Arnold of Brescia '^^ was his standard-bearer, and, tak-
ing an excellent opportunity against this worst of methods
(nominalism), the abbots praised Bernard and extolled him to
the stars. And so, John Planeta, because he was unwilling to
hear this of the good master (Abelard), said, "I saw one miracle
on Mount Pessulanus which many wondered at;" and when
asked to relate it, said, "To him whom you have properly called
a famous man, was brought bound a certain maniac to be cured;
and, sitting on a large mule, Bernard addressed the unclean
spirit, with the people who had gathered all silent, and at length
said, 'Loose his chains and set him free.' The sj)irit, however,
when it felt itself going, threw stones at the Abbot himself as

45 I.e. Carmelites. "« Cf. anfc, p. 432.

47 I.e. Abelard; cf. ante, pp. 387-389.

48 Mythical bishop of the wandering stuflents, whence their songs are called
Goliardic. To Map himself has long been ascribed the authorship of many of
these poems wjbich ridicule monasticism and monks. The ascription of the author-
ship to Map is now regarded as without foundation in fact.

43 Circa 1100-11.5.5, an Italian cleric connected with the twelfth-century move-
ment for ecclesiastical reform. He studied under Abelard and tried to apply his
doctrines to political condition}.

576 ENGLISH LITERATURE

long as he could, and, instantly following Bernard as he fled
through the villages, even when caught by the people, always
had his eyes on him, because his hands were held." The story
didn't please the presiding officer of the meal and he said to
John in a threatening tone, "Do you call this a miracle?" John,
replied, "Those who were present called this a miracle worthy
to be remembered, because the maniac was mild and kind to all
and vexed the hypocrite alone, and this to me has so far been
(an example of) the punishment of presumption." Likewise two
white abbots were talking of the aforementioned man (Bernard)
in the presence of Gilbert Foliot Bishop of London, commending
his miracles; and, after many points had been brought out, one
said, "Although these things w^hich are reported of St. Bernard,
may be true, yet I saw him once when his miraculous power
failed him. A certain man from the borders of Burgundy asked
him to come and cure his son. We went and found the son dead.
Lord Bernard bade that the body be brought into a secluded
room, and, after he had sent everybody else away, lay down
upon (super) the body, and after offering a prayer, got up; but
the boy did not get up, for he lay there dead." Then I said,
"He (Bernard) was the most unhappy of monks; for I never
heard of a monk who sat down on a boy but that the boy at
once got up after him." The abbot blushed and several went
out to laugh. It was stated, however, of this same Bernard,
after this defection of his power, that a second incident happened
to him, not at all favorable to his fame. Walter Count of
Namour died in a Carthusian convent and was buried there.
Therefore, Lord Bernard ffew (convolavit) down to his grave and
when he had fallen on his face and prayed a long time, the
Prior begged him to come to breakfast, as it was time. But
Bernard said to him, "I shall not leave here until brother Walter
speaks to me;" and he cried with a loud voice saying, "Walter,
come forth." But Walter, because he did not hear the voice of
Jesus and did not have the ears of Lazarus, did not obey.^^

Because . . . Arnold of Brescia was mentioned in our talk,
a statement may be made, if you please, about his identity, as
we have heard from a man of that time, a great man indeed

60 Cf. John 11.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 577

and of much literature, Robert de Burneham. This Arnold was
summoned after Abelard by Pope Eugenius, was allowed no
defence and condemned in his absence, not because of his writ-
ing but because of his preaching. Measured by blood Arnold
was noble and great, by learning very great, by devotion in the
first rank, indulging himself in the matter of food and raiment
only when direst necessity compelled. He went about preaching,
seeking not his own but the Lord's and was loved and admired
by all. When he reached Rome, the Romans were devoted to
his doctrine. He came finally to the papal court and saw the
tables of the cardinals laden and delicate in golden and silver
dishes; in his letters he took them gently to task for this (lux-
ury) in the presence of the pope, but they bore it ill, and cast
him out. But he returning to the city, began tirelessly to teach.
The citizens thronged to him and heard him gladly. It hap-
pened, moreover, that they learned that Arnold had preached in
the presence of the pope on the contempt of wealth and mammon
and had been cast out. They gathered round the papal court,
cursed the pope and the cardinals, called Arnold a good and just
man and the others avaricious, unjust and evil, said that they
were not the light of the world but its dregs and . . . scarcely
kept themselves from violence. After this brawl had been with
difficulty quieted and legates had been sent to the emperor,
the pope denounced Arnold as a heretic and excommunicate,
and the messengers did not come back until they had seen to it
that Arnold was hanged.

In 1179 Map attended the Lateran Council in Rome and
was deputed to examine and cross-question the deputies
of the ^Yaldenses, a rising sect of heretics. Of this inci-
dent he says:

I saw at the council in Rome under the celebrated Po])e Alex-
ander III the Waldensees, rabble, unlearned, named from their
founder Waldo who was a citizen of Lyons. ^Fhey ])resente(l to
the i)ope a book in the vernacular of (iaul, in which a text of the
Psalter and several other books of both the Old and the New
Testaments together with a gloss were contained. They sought
with much fervor that the right of preaching be confirmed to

578 ENGLISH LITERATURE

them, because they seemed to themselves to be prepared,
though they were scarce tyros. For it is a matter of tradition
that birds, when they see that they are not subject to snare nor
net, think that all ways are open to them. ... I, the least of
many thousands who were called (delegates to the council),
derided them, when a discussion or debate arose over their peti-
tion, and, charged by a certain great prelate to whom that
greatest pope had joined the care of confessions, sat to hear the
case. After many skilled and prudent lawyers had been called
in, two Waldensees who seemed to be leaders of the sect were
brought to me, to dispute with me of the faith, not for the sake
of finding out the truth, but that, after I had been convinced,
my mouth, like the mouth of one speaking evil, might be closed.
I confess I sat down in trepidation, lest, my sins pressing on me,
the power of speech in so great a council should be denied me.
The prelate bade me, who was ready to answer, proceed against
them. At first, therefore, I proposed some very easy questions
which no one should be ignorant of, knowing that to a rude ass
drivers offer lettuce unworthy of their own lips, "Do you be-
lieve in God the Father.^" They answered, "We do." "And
in the Son?" "Yes." "And in the Holy Spirit.?" "We be-
lieve." And they were made fun of by manifold clamor of all
and went out in confusion, and properly so, because they were
governed by no one and sought to be governors, like Phaethon,
who didn't know the names of his horses. The Waldensees
nowhere had a home . . . but went about barefoot, clad in
sheepskins, having no private property, but all things in com-
mon, like the apostles, naked following a naked Christ.

In view of the fact that to Map has been ascribed the
authorship of several Arthurian romances, it is important
and interesting to see what his opinion of the romances
was.

The industry of the ancients outstrips us; they render deeds
which were past to them present to us, and we are dumb, where-
fore their memory lives among us and we are unmindful of our
own time. Remarkable miracle! the dead live and the living
are buried in their place. And our times also have something

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 579

perhaps of Sophocles not lacking the buskin. Yet famous deeds
of modern great men lie hid, and insignificant shreds of antiquity
are exalted. This is doubtless the reason why we know how
to find fault, but not to write; we seek to criticize and deserve
to be criticized. So the double tongues of detractors make poets
rare. Thus minds are torpid and geniuses perish; thus the
innocent serenity of our time is disturbed, and its light is
dimmed though from no lack of material; but craftsmen are
lacking and we are not esteemed. Caesar in Lucan, ^Eneas in
Virgil live in many praises; the vigilance of the poets is
the greatest, not the least, thing in their favor. To us only
the folly of minstrels celebrates the divine nobility of the
Charleses ^^ and the Pepins; ^^ no one speaks of the present
Caesars, yet their characters are ready to the pen with their
bravery, temperance and universal admiration.

Layamon (flourished 1200) merits notice as the first
important writer of the English vernacular after the Nor-
man Conquest. So much of his life and work as he thought
should be known we have in his own words — and this is
all we know of him.

There was a priest in the land who was named Layamon; he
was the son of Leovenath — may the Lord be gracious to him !
— he dwelt at Ernley, at a noble church upon Severn's bank.
Pleas^t there it seemed to him, near Radestone where he read
books. It came into his mind and chief thought that he would
tell the noble deeds of the English; what they were named and
whence they came, who had first possessed the English land,
after the flood that came from God; that destroyed here all
that it found alive, except Noah and Shem, Ham and Japhet
and their four wives, who were with them in the ark. Layamon
began to journey wide over this land and procured the good
books which he took for authority. He took the English l)0()k
that Saint Bede made; another he took in Latin that Saint
Albin made and the fair Augustine who brought baj)tism in
hither; the third book he took and laid it there in the midst,

^^ I.e. Charlemagne and his father, celebratetl in romance.

580 ENGLISH LITERATURE

that a French clerk made, who was named Wace, who could
write well, and he gave it to the noble Eleanor who was the
high King Henry's queen. Layamon laid before him these books
and turned over the leaves; lovingly he beheld them — may the
Lord be merciful to him ! He took pen in his fingers and wrote
on book-skin and set the words together and the three books
compressed into one. Now prayeth Layamon, for love of Al-
mighty God, that each good man that shall read this book and
learn this counsel, say together these true words, for his father's
soul who begat him, and for his mother's soul who bore him to
be man, and for his own soul, that better befall it. Amen !

The life of Robert Mannyng of Brunne must be imagined
from the following passages in Handlyng Synne (1303)
and TJie Story of England (1338) :

Of Brunne I am, if any blame me; Robert Mannyng is my
name; blessed be he by the God of heaven who will graciously
remember me; in the third Edward's time was I when I wrote
this history; I was in the house of Sixille; Dan Robert of Mal-
ton whom you know wrote it for his companions' delight when
they desired pleasure. . . .

To all Christian men under the sun, and to the good men of
Brunne, and especially all by name of the fellowship of Sem-
pringham, Robert of Brunne gives greeting — in all the good-
ness that may be had — of Brunne Wake in Kesteven, six miles
beyond Sempringham.

I dwelt in the Priory fifteen years in the company, in the time
of good Dan John of Camelton, now departed; in his time was
I there ten years and knew and heard of his manners; then
with Dan John of Clinton five winters I lived; Dan Philip was
master at the time I began this English rime; the year of grace
then happened to be a thousand three hundred and three. . . .

Now of King Robert Bruce shall I tell still more and of his
brothers Thomas and . . . sir Alexander for whom I am sorry
— they both got into trouble for deeds they did. Alexander was
a masterful artist and made a carven king in Cambridge for the
clergy before his brother was king. There has been no one since
who was so successful as he in art and but one before him who

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS • 581

read in Cambridge. Robert (i.e. King Robert Bruce) made a
celebration for him, for he was there then, and he who wrote
and made this rime saw the whole thing. . . .

Now have we told of the Britons, of kings and some barons,
how they maintained this land, from the time of Brutus who
first discovered it up to the time of Cadwallader. Now we are
going to leave off riming about the Britons and shall tell of the
English who began to live here after the Britons. The English
took the land at God's command and their period we call the
English period. Everything is called English that is spoken in
this language; Frankish speech is called romance — clerks and
men of France say so. Peter Langtoft, a canon tonsured in the
house of Bridlington, wrote all this history of the English kings
in romance. . . . He wrote down all the deeds they did and I
translated after him. I can follow and get his meaning but can-
not imitate his fine diction; I am not worthy to open his book.
. . . When Peter began his book he besought a holy clerk to
give him grace to succeed — namely that holy man called St.
Bede — for he found much in his books; Bede made five books
of English history. And I shall pray him likewise to give me
grace to write well and put this into rime. . . .

For ignorant men I undertook in the English tongue to make
this book. For many are of such a character that they will
gladly listen to tales and rimes: in games and feasts and at the
ale-house men like to listen to idle tales which may often lead
to villainy; for such men I have made this rime as a better way
to spend their time. . . .

Lords, who are now here, listen and hearken to the Sfonj of
England as Robert Mannyng found it written and has put it
into English, not for the learned but for the ignorant, for those
who live in this country and know no Latin nor French, to give
them solace and joy when they sit together.

And it's a good thing to know the state of the land, . . .
what sort of peo[)le first settled it, . . . and it is good for nitiny
reasons to hear of the deeds of the kings, to know which were
fools and which wise, which of I hem knew most, and which did
wrong and which riglit, and which maintained j)eace, and which
made war. . . .

582 . ENGLISH LITERATURE

One master Wace in French told all the Brut which he trans-
lated from Latin, from ^Eneas to Cadwallader. Then master
Wace leaves off; and just as far as Wace goes I follow with my
English in the same way; for Wace rimes all the Latin while
Peter Langtoft sometimes skips. Master Wace told all the
Brut and Peter Langtoft the deeds of the English. Where Wace
stopped Langtoft began and told the story of England; as he
says, so say I.

Richard Rolle of Hampole {circa 1290-czVca 1349) is
noteworthy as one of the first writers of original English
prose after the Conquest. Our knowledge of his life is
derived from a Legenda et Officium etc. {Legend and Office,
etc.) prepared shortly after his death by the nuns of Ham-
pole in anticipation of his canonization, which, however,
did not occur. A translation of the^ relevant parts of the
Legend and Office reads as follows:

The saint of God Richard the Hermit was born on a farm
at Thornton in the diocese of York. At the proper time, more-
over, by the industry of his parents he was apprenticed to learn-
ing. And when he was of more mature years, Master Thomas
de Neville, formerly Archdeacon of Durham, honorably placed
him at the University of Oxford where he was deemed very
proficient in study. He desired to be imbued with the theologi-
cal doctrines of sacred scripture more fully and completely than
with physic and the discipline of secular science. At length, in
the nineteenth year of his life, considering the duration of mortal
life uncertain and its end fearful, especially to those who either
give way to the indulgence of the flesh or labor only to heap "Up
riches and for this strive with schemes and tricks — though they
mostly trick themselves — , he concluded, through the inspira-
tion of God, thinking betimes of his latest plans, not to be taken
in the snares of sin but to return from Oxford to his father's
house. One day he said to his sister who loved him with a tender
affection, "Sister beloved, you have two tunics, one white and
the other gray, which I should very much like to have. I beg
you, as far as you can, to grant my request and bring the gar-

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 583

ments along with a rain hood belonging to my father to the wood
nearby." She was glad to comply and, as she had agreed, brought
the articles to the grove the next day, though she had no idea of
what her brother intended to do. But when he had received the
clothes, he at once cut off the sleeves of the gray tunic and the
trimmings off the white one, and in some way contrived to sew
sleeves on his own under garment that the whole outfit might
serve his purpose. He then took off his own outer garments and
put on his sister's white robe, over which he put the gray one
and struck his arms through the sleeve holes. He then put the
rain hood on his head in such a way that after some fashion at
that time he might get for himself a rough likeness to a hermit.
But when his sister had seen what was going on, she cried in
her amazement, "My brother is crazy, my brother is crazy.'*
When he heard this he drove her from him with threats and
immediately fled far away, lest he should be seized by his friends
and acquaintances.

The saint flees to solitude, ^

He enters then a celestial order, i

Seeking the sweetness of a holy life.

The abbot love there maintains a perfect rule.

Soon gives the formula for a holy life.

After putting on the garments of a hermit and leaving his
parents, he went to a certain church on the Eve of the Assump-
tion of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, in which he knelt to
pray in a place where the wife of a faithful knight. Sir John de
Darton,'Was wont to worship. When she entered the church to
hear vespers, the servants of the knight tried to crowd Richard
out, but Lady de Dalton in humility would not allow it. When
Richard rose from his devotions at the conclusion of vespers, the
sons of the knight, who had been students at Oxford, said that
they knew that (the stranger) was the son of William Rolle and
that tliey liad known him at Oxford. On the day of the Assumj)-
tion Richard again entered the church and, without any sug-
gestion from any one, put on the dress of an assistant and
chanted matins and the office of the mass with the rest (of the
clergy). When, further, the gospel had been read in the mass,

584 ENGLISH LITERATURE

after seeking the blessing of the ])riest, he entered the pulpit
and preached a wonderfully edifying sermon to the people so
that so great a multitude of people were touched with com-
j)unctio!i at his words that they could scarce keep from tears,
and testified that they had never before heard a discourse of
such power and force. Nor was it remarkable since he was the
special vessel of the Holy Spirit, sounding from His influence,
whose province it is, as the apostle says in Romans, to scatter
His grace as He pleases and to cause groanings unutterable.^^

After mass, therefore, the aforementioned knight (Sir John de
Dalton) invited him to dine, (and), when he had entered his
manor, Richard stayed in an old tumbled dow^n hut, being un-
willing to enter the hall but rather sought to fulfil the gospel
injunction which says that when you have been mvited to a
wedding-feast you should sit in the lowest seat, until he who has
invited you, says to you, ''Friend go up higher,"^ which was
fulfilled in his case. For when they had looked dihgently for
him and had found him in the abovementioned hut, the knight
seated him at table above his own sons. Richard himself, more-
over, was such a perfect guardian of his silence that not a single
word came from his mouth. And when he had satisfied himself,
he rose before they took out the table and was going out. The
knight who had called him said that this was not usual, and
after repeating the statement got him to stay. When the meal
was over he again wished to leave but the knight, who desired
to have a private conference with him, kept him until, when all
the rest who had been there had gone, he asked him whether he
was the son of William Rolle. (And Richard said he was.) . . .^^

After Sir John had examined him in secret and on perfect
evidence had determined he was sane, he clothed him in proper
garments according to Richard's wish and kept him a long time
on his estate, giving him lodging in a solitary place and provid-
ing him with all the necessaries of life. And he accordingly began
with all diligence day and night to strive for a more perfect life,

62 Cf. Romans 8.

" The omitted portion involves verses commenting on the situation.

^ Cf. Luke 14: 10.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 585

and in every way he could to excell in the contemplative life
and flame with divine love. . . .^^

Most admirable and especially useful were the occupations of
this saint in holy exhortations by which he converted many to
God, and also in his sweet writings, treatises and books, written
to edify his neighbors, which all reproduced in the hearts of wor-
shippers a most grateful harmony; and among other remarkable
things, it was noticed that, when he was once seated in his cell
after dinner, the lady of the manor and many with her came to
him and found him writing very rapidly. They asked him to
stop and speak some word of edification to them. And at once
he exhorted them to follow the best virtues, leave the vanities
of the world and confirm their hearts in the love of God. But
he did not at all on that account stop writing for two hours.
. . . This could not have been, had not the Spirit at that time
directed his hand and tongue especially when distractions were
continually breaking in and his talk was altogether different
from what he was writing. So much was he in the Spirit at
times when he prayed, that others took off the tattered garment
with which he was covered, nor did he know nor notice that it
was patched, mended and put back on him. . . .^^

A curious collection of travelers' tales dating from about
1350 was for a long time ascribed to Sir John Mandeville.
Modern criticism has concluded that there was no such
person. But we have the book, and its prolog is an inter-
esting document, as a reading of it will prove.

Forasmuch as the land beyond the sea, that is to say, the
Holy Land, whicli men call the Land of Promise or Behest, sur-
passing all other lands, is tlie most worthy land, most excellent,
and lady and sovereign of all other lands, and has been blessed

^ The omitted portion describes the various models Richard set himself, his
mystic experiences, mortified life, fasts and vigils.

^ The omitted portion describes Richard's teujptatioiis and miracles and re-
counts his longing for death. The document concludes with the statement that,
when a woman whom he had cured needed his aid again, she sent a messenger for
him, who found him dead. On Richard, see The (Uimbridgr Illstori/ of Ktujlish
Literature, ii, chapter 2 and Bibliograplii^.

586 ENGLISH LITERATURE

and hallowed by the precious body and blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ; in the which land it pleased Him to take flesh and blood
of the Virgin Mary, to compass that holy land with His blessed
feet; and there He would in His blessedness be born of the said
blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, and become a man, and work
many miracles, and preach and teach the faith and law of Chris-
tian men unto His children; and there it pleased Him to suffer
much reproof and scorn for us; and He that was King of Heaven,
of Air, of Earth, of Sea and of All Things Therein Contained,
would only be called King of the Jews; and that land He chose
before all other lands, as the best and most worthy land, and
the most virtuous land in all the world; for it is the heart and
center of all the world; witness the philosophers who say, "The
virtue of things is in their midst"; and that in that land He
would lead His life and suffer passion and death at the hands of
the Jews for us; to buy and deliver us from the pains of hell
and death without end; which had been ordained for us because
of the sin of our first father Adam and because of our own sins
also; for, as for Himself, He had deserved no evil; for He never
thought nor did evil: and He that was King of Glory and of
Joy might best in that place suffer death; because He chose
that land rather than any other to suffer His passion and death
in; for he that will publish anything in order to make it known,
will have it cried and proclaimed in the central square of a
town ; so that the thing which is proclaimed and announced may
reach all parts equally soon: just so, He who was the Former
of all the world, would suffer for us. at Jerusalem; that is, the
center of the world; to the end and intent, that His passion
and His death, that was published there, might be known equally
early in all parts of the world. See how dear He bought man,
whom He made in His own image, and how dear He redeemed
us, for the great love He bore us, and we never deserved it of
Him. For no more precious chattels nor a greater ransom could
be offered for us than His blessed body. His precious blood and
His holy life that He enslaved for us. Ah dear God ! what love
He had for us His subjects when He that never trespassed would
for us trespassers suffer death! Right well ought we to love and
worship, to fear and serve such a Lord; and to honor and praise

REPRESENTxVTIVE AUTHORS 587

such a holy land that brought forth such Fruit through which
every man is saved, unless from his own fault. Well may that
land be called a delightful and fruitful land that was wet and
moistened with the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ;
the which is the same land that our Lord promised us as an
inheritance. And in that land He would die, as if He had seized
it to leave it to us His children. Wherefore, every good Chris-
tian man that has the power and the wherewithal, should take
pains with all his might to conquer our rightful heritage and
drive out all unbelievers. For we are called Christian men after
Christ our Father. And if w^e are true children of Christ, we
ought to claim the heritage that our Father left us and take it
out of heathen men's hands. But now, pride, covetousness and
envy have so inflamed the hearts of the lords of the world, that
they are more busy in disinheriting their neighbors than in claim-
ing and conquering their rightful heritage just mentioned. And
the common people, who would lay out their bodies and property
to conquer our heritage, cannot do it without the lords. For a
throng of people without a leader or a chief lord is like a flock of
sheep without a shepherd; they scatter and disperse and know
not whither to go. But would God that the temporal lords and
all secular lords were in harmony and with the common people
would take this holy voyage over the sea. Then I trow well
that within a short time our rightful heritage aforementioned
would be reconciled and put in the hands of the proper heirs
of Jesus Christ.

And inasmuch as a long time has passed since there was a
general expedition or voyage over the sea; and many men desire
to hear of the Holy Land and get solace and comfort thereby;
I, John Mandeville, although I am not worthy, who was born
in England, in the town of St. Albans, passed the sea in the year
of our Lord 1322, on St. Michael's Day, and have been a long
time oversea, and have seen and gone through many divers
lands and many provinces and kingdoms and isles, and have
passed through Tartary, Persia, Armenia, the little and the great;
through Libya, Chaldea, and a great i)art of Ethiopia; through
the land of the Amazons, the greater part of India, the less and
the greater; and throughout many other islands that are about

588 ENGLISH LITERATURE

India; where dwell many divers peoples, and of varied manners
and law s and of strange shapes of men. Of which lands and isles
I shall speak more plainly hereafter. And I shall describe to
you some part of the things that are there, at the proper time
when they occur to me; and especially for them who desire and
intend to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem and the holy places
that are around it. And I shall tell them the way to take thither.
For I have many times passed and ridden that way in the goodly
company of many lords: thank God.

And you are to understand that I have translated this book
out of Latin into French and rendered it in turn out of French
into English that every man of my nation may understand it.
But lords and knights and other nobles and w^orthy men who
know }3ut little Latin and have been beyond sea will know and
understand whether I err in describing or setting forth or other-
wise; that they may correct and amend it. For things passed
out of one's mind or not seen for a space are soon forgotten;
because the mind of man cannot be stimulated nor restrained,
because of human frailty.

John Wiclif (1320?-! 384), because of his prominence in
the church and theology, came to be unusually well known
in the world and "got his name into" the chronicles. An
anonymous writer in the Harleian MSS. number 2261 thus
describes Wiclif in 1377:

Master John Wiclif, doctor of divinity in the University of
Oxford, began to sustain openly in the said University erro-
neous conclusions contrary to the state of the universal Church
and conclusions of heresy, and especially against canons, monks
and religious men possessionate, which drew to him in this time
divers fellows of the same sect dwelling in Oxford, going bare-
foot with long gowns of russet, that they might publish and
fortify their errors against men contrarious to them, preaching
openly the said errors. Among whom they said that the sacra-
ment in the altar after the sacrament or consecration is not the
very body of Christ. Also he said that temporal lords and men
might take away meritoriously the goods (of) men of the Church
sinning or trespassing. Nevertheless the Pope with his council

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 589

damned xxiii conclusions as vain, erroneous and full of heresy,
and sent bulls direct to the Metropolitan of England and the
Bishop of London that they should cause the said Master John
to be arrested and to examine him of the said conclusions. That
inquisition done, and a declaration made, the Archbishop of
Canterbury commanded and prohibited the said Master John
and his codisciples to use the said conclusions, and so they were
still for a season. But soon after, by supportation of lords and
other noblemen, they took to them more wicked opinions, and
had great continuation in their malice. ^^

Adam of Usk in his Chronicle has the following to say of
Wiclif and his followers in 138^:

According to the saying of Solomon, "Woe to thee, O land,
when thy king is a child," ^^ in the time of the youth of the same
Richard (II) many misfortunes, both caused thereby and hap-
pening therefrom, ceased not to harass the kingdom of Eng-
land . . . even to the great disorder of the State, and to the
last undoing of King Richard himself and of those who too
fondly clung to him. Amongst all other misfortunes, nay,
amongst the most wicked of all wicked things, even errors and
heresies in the catholic faith, England, and above all, London
and Bristol, stood corrupted, being infected by the seeds which
one master John Wy cliff e sowed, polluting, as it w^ere, the faith
with the tares of his baleful teaching. And the followers of this
master John, like Mahomet, by preaching things pleasing to the
powerful and rich, namely, that of withholding of tithes and even
of offerings and the ])lundering of temporal goods from the clergy
were praiseworthy, and, to the young, that self-indulgence was a
virtue, most wickedly did sow^ the seed of murder, snares, strife,
variance and discords, which last unto this day, and which, I
fear, will last even to the undoing of the kingdom. . . . The
people of England, wrangling about the old faith and the new,
are every day, as it were, on the \-cry point of bringing down

" Cf. ante, pp. 4.51-455.

^^ Cf. Pvcclesiastes 10: 10. It is nilhcr sufj^'ostivc tliut tlic same quotation is ap-
plied to tlie condition of Kn^dand in tlu* J'i.sion of William concerning ]*icrs the Ploio-
man; cf. B text, Prolog, 1. 193; C text, I, 1 . ^00.

590 ENGLISH LITERATURE

upon their own heads rebelhon and ruin. And I fear that in
the end it will happen as once it did, when many citizens of
London, true to the faith, rose against the Duke of Lancaster
to slay him, because he favored the said master John, so that
hurrying from his table into a boat hastily provided, he fled
across the Thames, and hardly escaped with his life.

The Bull of Pope Gregory XL to the University of
Oxford against Wiclif reads in translation as follows:

Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved
sons the chancellor and University of Oxford, in the diocese of
Lincoln, grace and apostolic benediction.

We are compelled to w^onder and grieve that you, who, in
consideration of the favors and privileges conceded to your uni-
versity of Oxford by the apostolic see, and on account of your
familiarity wdth the Scriptures, in whose sea you navigate, by
the gift of God, with auspicious oar, you, who ought to be, as
it were, warriors and champions of the orthodox faith, without
which there is no salvation of souls, — that you through a cer-
tain sloth and neglect allow tares to spring up amidst the pure
wheat in the fields of your glorious university aforesaid; and
what is still more pernicious, even continue to grow to maturity.
And you are quite careless, as has been lately reported to us,
as to the extirpation of these tares; with no little clouding of a
bright name, danger to your souls, contempt of the Roman
church, and injury to the faith above mentioned. And what
pains us the more is that this increase of the tares aforesaid is
known in Rome before the remedy of extirpation has been ap-
plied in England where they sprang up. By the insinuation of
many, if they are indeed worthy of belief, deploring it deeply,
it has come to our ears that John de Wycliffe, rector of the
church of Lutterworth, in the diocese of Lincoln, Professor of
the Sacred Scriptures, (would that he were not also Master of
Errors,) has fallen into such a detestable madness that he does
not hesitate to dogmatize and publicly preach, or rather vomit
forth from the recesses of his breast certain propositions and
conclusions which are erroneous and false. He has cast himself
also into the depravity of preaching heretical dogmas which

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 591

strive to subvert and weaken the state of the whole church and
even secular polity, some of which doctrines, in changed terms,
it is true, seem to express the perverse opinions and unlearned
learning of jNIarsilio of Padua ^^ of cursed memory, and of John
of Jandun, whose book is extant, rejected and cursed by our
predecessor. Pope John XXII, of happy memory. This he has
done in the kingdom of England, lately glorious in its power
and in the abundance of its resources, but more glorious still
in the glistening piety of its faith, and in the distinction of its
sacred learning; producing also many men illustrious for their
exact knowledge of the holy Scriptures, mature in the gra\'ity of
their character, conspicuous in devotion, defenders of the catholic
church. He has polluted certain of the faithful of Christ by
besprinkling them with these doctrines, and led them away from
the right paths of the aforesaid faith to the brink of perdition.

Wherefore, since we are not willing, nay, indeed, ought not
to be willing, that so deadly a pestilence should continue to
exist with our connivance, a pestilence which, if it is not opposed
in its beginnings, and torn out by the roots in its entirety, will
be reached too late by medicines when it has infected very many
with its contagion; we command your university with strict
admonition, by the apostolic authority, in virtue of your sacred
obedience, and under penalty of the deprivation of all the favors,
indulgences, and privileges granted to you and your university
by the said see, for the future not to permit to be asserted or
set forth to any extent whatever, the opinions, conclusions, and
propositions which are in variance with good morals and faith,
even when those setting them forth strive to defend them under
a certain fanciful wresting of words or of terms. Moreover, you
are on our authority to arrest the said John, or cause him to
be arrested and to send him under a trustworthy guard to
our venerable brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the
Bishop of London, or to one of them.

^^ Or Marsiglio {circa 1280-ciroa 134.'J) with Jt)hn of Jandun between 1324 and
1326 wrote Defensor Pads {Defender of the Peace). The thesis of the book is that
the way to peace in the world is for the Church to give up any chiim to temporal
power. Marsilio argues for tlie separation of ( "Inirch and State, pleads for religious
liberty, and denies the right of the Church to punish heresy.

592 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Besides, if there should be, which God forbid, in your uni-
versity, subject to your jurisdiction, opponents stained with
these errors, and if they should obstinately persist in them,
proceed vigorously and earnestly to a similar arrest and removal
of them, and otherwise as shall seem good to you. Be vigilant
to repair your negligence which you have hitherto shown in
the premises, and so obtain our gratitude and favor, and that
of the said see, besides the honor and reward of the divine rec-
ompense.

Given at Rome, at Santa Maria Maggiore, on the 31st of
May, the sixth year of our pontificate.

Wiclif's reply to the papal summons to come to Rome in
1384 is written, as we should expect of the reformer, in
English. In modernized spelling it reads thus:

I have joy fully to tell what I hold, to all true men that
believe and especially to the Pope; for I suppose that if my
faith be rightful and given of God, the Pope will gladly confirm
it; and if my faith be error, the Pope will wisely amend it.

I suppose over this that the gospel of Christ be heart of the
corps of God's law; for I believe that Jesus Christ, that gave
in his own person this gospel, is very God and very man, and by
this heart passes all other laws.

I suppose over this that the Pope be most obliged to the keep-
ing of the gospel among all men that live here; for the Pope is
highest vicar that Christ has here in earth. For moreness of
Christ's vicar is not measured by worldly moreness, but by this,
that this vicar follows more Christ by virtuous living; for thus
teacheth the gospel, that this is the sentence of Christ.

And of this gospel I take as belief, that Christ for time that
he walked here, was most poor man of all, both in spirit and in
having; for Christ says that he had naught for to rest his head
on. And Paul says that he was made needy for our love. And
more poor might no man be, neither bodily nor in spirit. And
thus Christ put from him all manner of worldly lordship. For
the gospel of John telleth that when they would have made
Christ king, he fled and hid him from them, for he would none
such worldly highness.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 593

And over this I take it as belief, that no man should follow
the Pope, nor no saint that now is in heaven, but in as much as
he follows Christ. For John and James erred when they coveted
worldly highness; and Peter and Paul sinned also when they
denied and blasphemed in Christ; but men should not follow
them in this, for then they went from Jesus Christ. And this
I take as wholesome counsel, that the Pope leave his worldly
lordship to worldly lords, as Christ gave them, — and move
speedily all his clerks to do so. For thus did ('hrist, and taught
thus his disciples, till the fiend had blinded this world. And it
seems to some men that clerks that dwell lastingly in this error
against God's law, and flee to follow Christ in this, been open
heretics, and their fautors been partners.

And if I err in this sentence, I will meekly be amended, yea,
by the death, if it be skilful, for that I hope were good to me.
And if I might travel in mine own person, I would with good
will go to the Pope. But God has needed me to the contrary,
and taught me more obedience to God than to men. And I
suppose of our Pope that he will not be Antichrist, and reverse
Christ in this working, to the contrary of Christ's will; for if
he summon against reason, by him or by any of his, and pursue
this unskilful summoning, he is an open Antichrist. And merci-
ful intent excused not Peter, that Christ should not clepe him
Satan; so blind intent and wicked counsel excuses not the Pope
here; but if he ask of true priests that they travel more than
they may, he is not excused by reason of God, that he should
not be Antichrist. For our belief teaches us that our blessed
God suffers us not to be tempted more than we may; how should
a man ask such service? And therefore pray we to God for our
pope Urban the sixth, that his old holy intent be not quenched
by his enemies. And Christ, that may not lie, says that the
enemies of a man been especially his home family; and this is
sooth of men and fiends.

But here we are especially interested in Wiclif as a
literary man, because to him belongs the honor of first
translating into the English speech the entire Bible, a work
that has had a remarkal)le influence on English literary

594 ENGLISH LITERATURE

style, as well as upon English thought. What a contem-
porary thought of Wiclif s work in this field is indicated
in the following remarks of Henry Knighton:

At this time flourished Master John Wy cliff e, rector of the
church of Lutterworth in the county of Leicester, the most eminent
doctor of theology of those days. In philosophy he was second
to none, in scholastic learning incomparable. This man strove
especially to eclipse the thoughts of others by the depth of his
knowledge and the subtlety of his reasoning, and to differ from
them in opinion. He is reported to have introduced into the
church many opinions which were condemned by the learned
men of the universal church. These will, in part, be described
in the proper place. He had as a forerunner John Ball,^^ just
as Christ had John Baptist, who prepared His way before Him
in such opinions and disturbed many by his teachings, at least
so it is said. I have made mention of him before. This Master
John Wycliffe translated from the Latin into the tongue of the
Angles (though not of the angels) the gospel which Christ in-
trusted to the clergy and learned men of the church, in order
that they might gently minister it to the laity and to the weak
according to the exigency of the times and the need and mental
hunger of each one. Thus to the laity and even to such women
as can read, this was made more open than formerly it had been
even to such of the clergy as were well educated and of great
understanding. Thus the evangelical pearls have been scattered
abroad and trampled by the swine,^^ and that which used to be
dear to clergy and laity is now a common jest in the mouth of
both. The gem of the clergy has become the toy of the laity.

John Capgrave, an English chronicler of the next cen-
tury, thus records the death of Wiclif:

In the 9th year of this king (Richard II), John Wiclif, the
organ of the devil, the enemy of the Church, the mirror of hypoc-
risy, the nourisher of schism, by the rightful doom of God, was
smitten with a horrible palsy throughout his body. And this

«o Cf. ante, pp. 330-350. ^^ Cf. Matthew 7: 6.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 595

vengeance fell upon him on St. Thomas' '^^ Day in Christmas, but
he died not till St. Silvester's ^^ Day. And worthily was he
smitten on St. Thomas' Day, against whom he had greatly
offended, letting (hindering) men of that pilgrimage; ^- and con-
veniently died he in Silvester's feast, against whom he had
venomously barked for dotation (endowment) of the Church.

The present controversy over the authorship of the poem
or poems called collectively The Vision of William con-
cerning Piers the Ploivman has already ^^ been referred to.
The traditional autobiography of William Langland, long
called the author, we have in his own words in the latest
or C version of the text, as the late Professor Skeat named
it. Mr. Burrell has rendered it into modern English as
f ollow^s :

Thus I woke, God wot, where I dwelt in Cornhill.

Kit ^^ my wife and I, dressed like a loUer (vagabond or beggar),

And among the London loUers little was I set by,

And among the hermits (trust me for that).

For I made verses on them as my wit taught me.

Once when I had my health, in hot harvest time.

And my limbs to labor with, and loved good fare,

And nothing in life to do, but drink and sleep.

In health of body and mind,

I came on Conscience, and Reason met me.

He met and questioned me, and my memory roamed back.

And Reason reproved me.

"Canst thou serve as a priest or sing in church.^
Make a haycock in the field or i)itch the hay.'^

^2 I.e. Thomas a Beckct; the reference to the pilj^rimage means that Wichf
advised people not to do penance by making the pilgrimage to Canterbury and
leav'ing an offering there.

•'^ I.e. Pope Silvester I; on the dotation or endowment referred to below, cf. ante,
p. 319. St. Thomas' Day is Dec. 20; St. Silvester's, Dec. 31.

^ Cf. ante, pp. 242-247; 25.'>-257; .S.'iO.

^ She is referred to again C text, XXI, 1. 473, wiiere a daughter, Kalote, is also
mentioned.

596 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Canst mow or stock or bind the sheaves?
Canst reap or guide the reapers? Canst rise early?
Canst blow the horn, and keep the kine together,
Lie out o'nights, and save my corn from thieves?

"Make shoes or clothes, or herd the sheep?

Trim hedge, use harrow, or drive the swine and geese.

Or do any other work that the people need

To win some living for them that be bedridden?"

"Nay," said I, *'God help me,

I am too weak to work with sickle or with scythe.

I am toolong,^*^ believe me, to stoop low down,

Or to last for any time as a true working man."

*'Then hast thou lands to live by or rich lineage

That findeth thee thy food? An idle man thou seemest;

Thou art a spender and canst spend; thou art a spill-time.

Or thou beggest thy living at men's buttery hatches;

Thou art a Friday-beggar, a feast-day beggar in the churches;

A loller's life is thine, little to be praised.

Righteousness rewardeth men as they deserve.

THOU SHALT YIELD TO EACH MAN AFTER HIS WORKS.^^

Thou art maybe broken in body or limb,

Maimed maybe through mishap, therefore art thou excused?"

"When I was young," quoth I, "many a year ago,

My father and my friends set me to school

Til I knew thoroughly what Holy Scripture said.

What i§ best for the body, what is safest for the soul.

Yet never did I find since mj^ friends died

A life that pleased me save in these long clothes,

If I must live by labor and earn my living

I must needs labor at the work I learned.

EACH MAN IN WHAT CALLING HE IS CALLED THERE DWELL HE.^^

«> The author calls himself Long Will, B text, XV, I. 148. He is caUed WUl, C
text, II, 1. 5; XI, 1. 71; A text, XII, 11. 99, 103.
" Cf. Matthew 16: 27; Revelation 2: 23.
" Cf. 1 C orinthians 7: 20, 24.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 597

**I live in London and I live on London,

The tools I labor with, to get my living by.

Are the Lord's Prayer, my Primer, my Dirges and my Vespers,

And sometimes my Psalter and the Seven Psalms;

I sing masses for the souls of those that give me help,

ifVnd they that find me food welcome me when I come,

Man or woman, once a month, into their houses;

No bag have I nor bottle, only my belly.

"Moreover, my lord Reason, men should, methinks.
Constrain no cleric to do common work.
The tonsured clerk, a man of understanding.
Should neither sweat nor toil, nor swear at inquests.
Nor fight in the van of battle, nor hurt his foe.

RENDER NOT EVIL FOR EVIL.^^

They be the heirs of heaven, all that are ordained.
And in choir and church, Christ's own ministers.

THE LORD IS THE PORTION OF MINE INHERITANCE

Clerks it becometh for to serve Christ,

And for folk unordained to cart and work.

And no clerk should be tonsured save he be the son

Of frankleyns and free men and of wedded folk;

Bondmen and bastards and beggars' children,

These are the sons of labor, these are to serve lords.

To serve God and the good as their station asketh.

"But since bondmen's sons are made into bishops.

And bastards' bairns are made archdeacons,

And soap-makers and their sons are knights for silver's sake,

And lords' sons be their laborers and have mortgaged their rents

And to support this realm have ridden against our foes

To comfort the Commons and honor the king.

And monks and nuns that should support the poor

Have made their own kin knights and i)aid the fees for it.

Popes and patrons refuse poor gentle blood.

And take the sons of Mammon to keej) the Sanctuary;

Holiness of life and Love have long to us l)een strangers,

69 Cf. 1 Thessalonians 5: 15. ^o qi Psalms 16: 5.

598 ENGLISH LITERATURE

And will be till these things wear out, or they be somehow

clumged.
"Therefore, rebuke me not. Reason, I pray thee.
For in my conscience I know what Christ would have me do.
Prayers of a perfect man and his discreet penance,
These be the dearest work that our Lord loveth."

Quoth Conscience, "By Christ, I see not where this tendeth.

But to beg your life in cities is not the perfect life,

Save you be in obedience to Prior or to Minster."

"That's truth," said I, "I do acknowledge it,

That I have lost my time, mis-spent my time.

And yet I hope that even as one who oft hath bought and sold

And always lost and lost and at the last hath happened

To })uy him, such a bargain that he is better for ever

And all his loss is at the last only as a leaf.

Such winning is his, under God's grace,

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE THE TREASURE ETCETERA,'^
A WOMAN WHO FOUND A PIECE OF SILVER . . . ETCETERA, ^^

Even so hope I to have of Him that is Almighty
A gobbet of His grace; and then begin a time
That I shall turn to profit all the days of my life."

"I counsel thee," quoth Reason, "hurry to begin
The life that is commendable and dear to the soul;"
"Aye, and continue in it," quoth Conscience.

So to the kirk I went to honor my Lord;

Before the Cross upon my knees I knocked my breast,

Sighing for my sins, saying my prayer.

Weeping and wailing till again I was asleep.

*'To write anything like a biography of Gower, with the
materials that exist, is an impossibility. Almost the only
authentic records of him, apart from his writings, are his
marriage-license, his will, and his tomb in St. Saviour's
Church; and it was this last w^hich furnished most of the

^' Cf. Matthew 13: 44. "'^ cf. Luke 15: 9.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 599

material out of which the early accounts of the poet were
composed." '^ We shall quote here Mr. Macaulay's para-
phrase of the marriage-license, his version of the will,
various pertinent passages from the works of the poet and
the description of the tomb by the Elizabethan antiquary
John Stow. The contents of the marriage-license are as
follows :

"25 Jan. 1397-8. A license from the bishop of Winchester
for solemnizing the marriage between John Gower and Agnes
Groundolf, both parishioners of St. Mary Magdalene, South-
wark, without further publication of banns and in a place out-
side their parish church, that is to say, in the oratory of the said
John Gower, within his lodging in the Priory of Saint Mary
Overey in Southwark. Dated at Highclere."

At the beginning of a verse epistle dedicating his Vox
Clamantis {Voice of One Crying) to Archbishop Arundell
of Canterbury (1396-1414), Gower writes:

This epistle, written in his heart's devotion, John Gower old
and blind has sent to the Most Reverend Father in Christ and
his own special lord, Thomas of Arundell, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, Primate of all England and Legate of the Apostolic See.
Whose state to the rule of His church may the Son of the Vir-
gin, our Lord Jesus Christ, direct and happily preserve, who with
God the Father and Spirit lives and rules as God for ever. Amen.

Of the origin of his English poem Confessio Amantis
{Confession of One Loving) Gower writes in his Prolog:

The books of those who wrote before us remain and we are
thereby instructed of what was written then : hence, it is proper
that we also in our time among us here write of modern events,
as we have example of the ancients that it can be so. That
when we are dead and elsewhere, there may be a remainder for
the ear of the world in times coming after this.

But, because people say, and it is true, that one who writes
entirely to instruct often dulls a man's wit if he is going to read
'^ Cf. Macaulay, The Works oj John Gower, W, p. vii.

600 ENGLISH LITERATURE

all day, ... I would take a middle course and write a book
between the two, somewhat of learning and somewhat of pleas-
ure, so that some one may like more or less what I write. And
because few men are writing in our English, I intend to make a
book for England's sake, the sixteenth year of King Richard.

This Prolog is extant in two forms, an earlier and a later.
The two agree thus far with the exception that in the
earlier King Richard's sake is the expression used instead
of England's sake, and the dating year is not mentioned.
The earlier form then continues:

A book for King Richards 's sake to whom belongs my alle-
giance with all my heart's obedience in everything that a liege
man can or ought to do for his king. So far forth I recommend
myself to him who may entirely command me, and pray to the
High King who causes every king to reign, that his crown may
long be his. I recall and wish it understood, as it once hap-
pened, in the town of New Troy (London) which took its first
joy from Brutus, that as I once came rowing along the River
Thames, as fortune would chance, I met my liege lord. And so
it befell, as I came nigh and he saw me, that he bade me come
into his barge. x4nd when I was in company with him, amongst
other said, he laid this charge on me, and bade me do my ut-
most to write something new for him, that he might see it after
the form of my writing.

. And thus at his command my heart is the more glad to do
his behest; and also my fear is the less that en\'y will not bring
it about to censure and blame unreasonably what I shall write.
A gentle heart stills his tongue so that it will distill no malice,
but praises what is praiseworthy. But from him who cares not
for his words and does everything wrong I pray the Heavenly
King to sliield me.

And though the world is wild and full of such jangling, what-
ever may befall, the king's command shall not be neglected. I,
hoping to deserve his thanks, shall follow his will — otherwise
I were inexcusable, for that which a king asks may not be
denied.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 601

Perhaps a reason for the substitution of England for
Richard in the Prolog to the Confessio Amantis, and the
omission of the following lines, may be that Gower gradu-
ally drew away from Richard to Henry IV, for whom the
poet declares himself thus in the Dedication to his Ballades:

Your suitor "^^ and humble vassal, your Gower ^^ who is
wholly your subject, since you have received the crown, will do
you service other than I did before, now in ballade, which is
the flower of song, now in virtue where the soul has its heart:
he who trusts in God has the better part.

In another French poem Gower has an apology for writ-
ing in French:

To the university of all the world John Gower sends this envoy;
and if I have not the fashion of a Frenchman, pardon me that
I lead you astray from it (pure French) : I am English, so I
seek in this way to be excused. . . .

Gower has left the following survey of his literary career :

Because each one is bound to impart to others what he has
received from God, John Gower, wishing, while yet there is
time, to render somewhat of an account of his stewardship ^^ of
the things which God has given him in the flesh, composed in
the midst of his labor and leisure three })ooks for the notice of
others for the sake of doctrine in the following order:

"^ The French word that I here translate suitor is nrafnur; Maoaulay siifrge.sts
another rendering, namely, "The poet means no d<)iil)t to s])cak of himself as one
who is bound to pray for the king."

^^ The meter here shows that the name (loirrr was protiotmccd a dissyllahle
(Macaulay's not;?). The poet writes his full w.imc into the v(>rs(> of the Conjcssio
Amantis twice, viz., viii, 11. 2321, 2908. hi I lie rrohxj to the (irst l)0()k of the Vox
Clamatitis, 11. 19-24', Gower works out his name thus, "If you ask tlie name of the
writer, lo that word lurks i solicit in the threr following verses. Take the first two
letters of (ioilfrcy and put John before them, au<l let Wales add its first letter; then
let tcr, losing its first letter, contribute its other meuil)ers and the order of the name
composed in such a form is clear."

'"' The Latin word h(>re is rillinin'onis {rilic(tt loin's) . which some of (Power's
biographers have rcinivriu\-rnan(i(;r?ntnt of n ronnfr// rsfafc. aud have thence inferred
that the poet was a country gentleman.

602 ENGLISH LITERATURE

The first hook, «]jiven out in the GalHc tongue, is divided into
ten books, and, treating of the vices and virtues, as well as of
the various classes in this world, tries to show by a straight path
the way by which a transgressing sinner ought to return to the
knowledge of his Creator. And the title of this same book is
announced as Speculum Meditantis {Mirror of One Meditating) J "^

The second book, composed in Latin verse, treats of the vari-
ous misfortunes that happened in the time of Richard II in
England. Wherefore, not only the chiefs of the kingdom, but
the commons suffered torment and the most cruel king himself
because of his faults, falling from his high position, was thrown
at last into the pit which he had digged. And the name of this
volume is called Vox Clamantis.

< That third book which on account of reverence for his most
vigorous lord Henry of Lancaster, then Earl of Derby, is finished
in the English tongue, according to the prophecy of Daniel,
discourses on the changes in the kingdoms of this world from
the time of King Nebuchadnezzar to our own. It treats, like-
wise, according to Aristotle, of the things in which King Alex-
ander was taught as well in course of life as in doctrine. Yet
the principal matter of this book puts the emphasis on love and
the infatuated passions of lovers. And appropriately the name
Conjessio Amantis was specially chosen for this.

Mr. Macaulay's version of Gower's will is as follows:

'*The testator bequeathes his soul to the Creator, and his
body to be buried in the church of the Canons of St. Mary
Overes, in the place specially appointed for this purpose. To
the Prior of the said church he bequeathes 40^., to the subprior
20.V., to each Canon who is a priest 135. 4c?., and to each of the
other Canons 6.s'. 8rf., that they may all severally pray for him
the more devoutly at his funeral. To the servants of the Priory
2ft. or 1.9. each according to their position; to the church of St.
Mary Magdalene 40.v. for lights and ornaments, to the parish
priest of that church 10s. ^ 'that he may pray and cause prayers
to be offered for me'; to the chief clerk of the same church 3s.

"' Long thought lost hut discovered by Mr. Macaulay in 1895 (cf. his ed., i,
{). Ixviiij and pubhshed under the caption Mirrour de I'omme (Mirror of Man).

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 603

and to the sub-clerk 2.s\ To the following four parish churches
of Southwark, viz.: St. Margaret's, St. George's, St. Olave's,
and St. Mary Magdalene's near Bermondsey, 13^. 4d. each for
ornaments and lights, and to each parish priest or rector in
charge of those churches 6s. 8rf., 'that they may pray and cause
and procure prayers to be offered for me in their parishes.' To
the master of the hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark 40.9., to
each priest serving there Qs. Sd. for their prayers; to each sister
professed in the said hospital Ss. 4c?., to each attendant on the
sick 20d., and to each sick person in the hospital 12d.y and the
same to the sisters (where there are sisters), nurses and patients
in the hospitals of St. Anthony, Elsingspitell, Bedlem without
Bishopsgate, and St. Maryspitell near Westminster; to every
house for lepers in the suburbs of London 10.5., to be distributed
among the lepers, for their prayers : to the Prior of Elsingspitell
40s., and to each Canon priest there 6s. Sd.

"For the service of the altar in the chapel of St. John the
Baptist, 'in which my body shall be buried,' two vestments of
silk, one of blue and white baudkin and the other of white silk,
also a large new missal and a new chalice, all which are to be
kept for ever for the service of the said altar. Moreover to the
Prior and Convent the testator leaves a large book, 'recently
composed at my expense,' called Martilogium, on the understand-
ing that the testator shall have a special mention of himself
recorded in it every day.

"He leaves to his wife Agnes £100 of lawful money, also
three cups . . ., two salt-cellars and twelve spoons of silver,
all the testator's beds and chests, with the furniture of hall,
pantry and kitchen and all their vessels and utensils. One
chalice and one vestment are left to the altar of the oratory
belonging to his apartments. He desires also that his wife
Agnes, if she survive him, shall have all rents due for his manors
of Southwell in the county of Northampton (?) and of Mul-
toun in the county of Suffolk, as he has more fully determined in
certain otlier writings given under his seal.

"The executors of this will are to l)e as follows: Agnes his
wife, Arnold Savage, knight, Roger, escjuire, William Denne,
Canon of the king's chaj)el, and John Burton, clerk. Dated in

604 ENGLISH LITERATURE

the Priory of St. INIary Overes in Southwark, on the feast of the
Assumption of the Virgin, MCCCCVIII." ^^

John Stow, the Elizabethan antiquary, in his Survey
of London, thus describes the tomb of Gower, the earliest
extant obituary monument to an English man of letters:

John Gower, esquire, a famous poet, was then an especial
benefactor to that work, and was there buried on the north side
of the said church, in the chapel of St. John, where he founded
a chantry: he lieth under a tomb of stone, with his image, also
of stone, over him: the hair of his head, auburn, long to his
shoulders, but curling up, and a small forked beard; on his head
a chaplet, like a coronet of four roses; a habit of purple, dam-
asked down to his feet; a collar of esses gold about his neck;
under his head the likeness of three books, which he compiled.
The first, named Speculum Meditantis, written in French; the
second. Vox Clamantis, penned in Latin; the third, Confessio
Amantis, written in English, and this last is printed. Vox
Clamantis, with his Cronica Tripartita {Tripartite Chronicle),
and other, both in Latin and French, never printed, I have and
do possess, but Speculum Meditantis I never saw, though heard
thereof to be in Kent."^^

The earliest lives of Chaucer belong to the sixteenth
century and are mostly legendary. Nineteenth-century
research has composed the present standard biography
from references in legal documents and public records,
passages in his writings, and references to him in those of
his contemporaries. We 'shall quote here passages from
his own works, a royal letter regarding him, a reference by
Gower, and a poem by Eustache Deschamps, a contem-
porary French writer.

^8 "The will was proved, Oct. 24, 1408, at Lambeth before the Archbishop of
Canterbury (because the testator had property in more than one diocese of the
province of Canterbury), by Agnes the testator's wife, and administration of the
pnjperty was granted to her on Nov. 7 of the same year" (Macaulay).

"^ The standard works on Gower are Macaulay's ed., Oxford, Clarendon Press,
4 vols., 11)02; and Macaulay's article in The Cambridge History of English Litera-
ture, ii, cliaj)lcr and liihliograjjh/j.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 605

A description of Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales agrees
pretty well with extant portraits generally regarded as
authentic.

When all this miracle (the story of Hugh of Lincoln hy the
Prioress) had been told, every man was so sober that it was
w^onderful to see, until our Host began to jest, and then at first
he looked at me, saying, "What sort of man are you; you look
as if you were searching for a hare, for I notice that you are
always staring at the ground.

"Come here and look up merrily. Now cheer up, sirs, and let
this man have a chance; he is shaped in the waist about like
me; for any woman, small and fair of face, he would be a doll
to embrace. He seems elvish by his behavior, for he talks with
no one.

"Now do you tell us a story as others have; let it be one of
mirth and begin at once." "Host," said I, "Do not be dis-
pleased for I know no other story except one in rime that I
learned long ago." "Well, that'll be all right," said he, "now
shall we hear something unusual, ^° I think, from his look."

Chaucer in these words records his delight in books and
nature :

Habitually, both for pleasure and profit, I often read books,
as I told you. But wherefore do I say all this.^ Not long ago,
it happened that I was looking at a book which was written in
ancient letters; and in it I read the whole day fast and eagerly
to learn a certain matter. For out of old fields, as men say,
comes all this new science that we learn. But now to the pur-
pose of this matter, I was so delighted in reading on that the
whole day seemed very short to me. . . .

And if old l)ooks were gone the Ivcy to remem})rance would
l)e lost. We ought, therefore, to honor and believe tliese books
when we have no other proof. And for my part, though I know
but little, I delight in reading books and to them I give faith
and credence, and in niy heart have them in reverence so thor-

^^ Chaucer then proceeds to tell the Rime of Sir Tliopas, which the company
can't stomach; he then perjjctrates the Tale oj Melibcus on them.

606 ENGLISH LITERATURE

()ii*jhly that there is no game will take me from them unless
it he seldom on a holiday, except when May is come and I hear
the birds sing and the flowers are coming up. Then, farewell
my book and my devotion.

Chaucer had a son Louis ten years old who was anxious
to learn something about astronomy. So the poet compiled
for the little boy a manuscript book on the subject and
wrote a Prolog to it, which reads in part as follows:

Little Louis, my son, I perceive well by certain evidences
your ability to learn sciences touching numbers and proportion;
and as well I regard your constant desire in special to study a
treatise on the astrolabe. Therefore, since a philosopher says,
*he wraps himself in his friend, who gives heed to the rightful
prayers of his friend,' I have given you a sufficient Astrolahie
for our location, made according to the latitude of Oxford. And
by means of this little treatise I purpose to teach you a certain
number of conclusions pertaining to this instrument. I say
certain conclusions for three reasons. The first is this: trust
well that all the conclusions that have been found, or else pos-
sibly might be found in so noble an instrument as the astrolabe,
are not known perfectly to any mortal man in this region, I
suppose. Another cause is this: that, truly, in any treatise on
the astrolabe that I have seen, there are some conclusions that
will not work in every case; and some are too hard for your
tender ten years to conceive. This treatise, divided into five
parts, will I show" you in easy rules and simple words in English;
for of Latin you as yet know but little, my little son. But
nevertheless, these true conclusions in English will be as suffi-
cient for you as for those noble Greek clerks in Greek, for
Arabians in Arabic, for Jews in Hebrew and for Romans in
Latin. For the Romans translated them first out of other
languages into their own; that is, Latin. And God knows that
in all these languages and in many more these conclusions have
been satisfactorily learned and taught, and by different rules,
just as various routes lead divers people the right way to Rome.
Now will I meekly pray every discreet person who reads or

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 607

hears this Httle treatise to excuse my rude writing and my super-
fluity of words, for two reasons. The first is, that difficult style
and hard subject-matter together make a heavy task for such
a child to learn. And the second reason is this, that truly it
seems wiser to me to repeat an important matter (often) than
that he forget it (by hearing it) once. And, Louis, if so be that
I show you in my easy English as true conclusions, touching
this matter, and not only as true but as many and as subtle,
as are shown in any common Latin treatise on the subject, show
me the more gratitude; and pray God save the King, who is
lord of this language, and all who owe him faith and loyalty,
each in his degree, the greater and the less. But consider well
that I do not assume that I have searched out this matter by
my own original labor and wit. I am but an ignorant compiler
of the labors of the old astrologers and have translated it into
my English solely to teach you. And with this sword shall I
slay envy.

Chaucer is the first English poet to show the influence
of Italian literature, of which there were three great mas-
ters, Dante (1265-1321), Petrarch (1304-1374), and Boc-
caccio (1315-1375) in the fourteenth century. He made
use of Dante in the Hous(e) of Fame, the Monk's Tale,
the invocation to the Virgin in the Prioress' Tale, and many
scattered lines and phrases. Chaucer refers to Dante by
name five times, ^^ but the following passage is the only
reference involving more than two lines. Near the con-
clusion of his story of L^golino ^- the Monk in Chaucer's
tale says:

Of this tragedy you should have had enough. If any one
wishes to follow it further, let him read ^- the great poet of
Italy who is called Dante, for he can tell the whole from point
to point, not one word will lie omit.

*^ These roferences arc: IIou.s-{r) of Fame, I. 4.50, Legend of Good Women, Prolog,
1. 336, ^fonlc\s T(de, 1. 471, Wife of Bath's Tale, 11. 270, 271 (here Dante is styled
"the wise poet of Florence"), Jind Frhir's Tale, 1. 222.

^ The story of Ugolino Dante tells In Inferno, XXXIII.

608 ENGLISH LITERATURE

Chaucer used for his Clerk's Tale Petrarch's Latin
version of Boccaccio's ItaHan story of Griselda, shows
Petrarch's influence in a certain passage in Troilus and
Criscydcy^^ and refers to Petrarch by name three times. ^*
Tlie following from the Prolog to the Clerk's Tale is the
most extended reference:

I'll tell you a story which I learned at Padua ^^ from a worthy
clerk, as is shown by his words and work. He is now dead and
nailed in his chest, I pray God rest his soul. The name of this
laureate poet and clerk was Franeis Petrarch whose sweet rhet-
oric illumined all Italian poetry.

Chaucer drew more from Boccaccio than from both the
other two together, yet he never mentions him by name.

Of Chaucer's contemporary reputation in England we
have a testimony from Gower. At the conclusion of the
Confessio Amantis, Venus says to the Lover of the poem:

And greet well Chaucer when you meet, as my disciple and
my poet; for in the flower of his youth in sundry wise, as he
knew how, he made for my sake songs and ditties glad of which
the land is full; wherefore, I am most beholden to him in par-
ticular above all others. And so in his old days you may give
him this message, that he in his later age, to furnish a conclusion
for all his work, as he is my servant, make " his testament of
love.^*^ Do this errand as you have your shrift above, that my
court may record it.'^^

Cliaucer's reputation had gone abroad also, as we see
in this poem of a contemporary French writer, Eustache
Deschamps :

«■'• Cf. n.xik I, II. 400 seq.

^ 'J'licsc refcTcnces are: Monies Tale, 1. 335 (here Petrarch is called my " Maister
Petrark"), Prolog to Clerics Tale, 11. 26-33 and Clerics Tale, 1. 1091.

^ We know that Chaucer made two trips to Italy and might have met Petrarch
personally; the question raised by this reference is, did he, is the clerk here Chaucer,
or is this a mere literary reference?

*^' This is a reference to no i)articuhir extant work.

" Chaucer in turn refers to (iower as "the moral Gower"; cf. Troilus and
Criseijdc, Hook v, 1. 1806.

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 609

O Socrates, full of philosophy, Seneca in morals and angelic
in works, great as Ovid in poetry,''^ to the point in speech, wise
in rhetoric, lofty eagle, who by your vision, illumine the king-
dom of .Eneas (i.e. England), the isle of giants found by Brutus,
and who have sown flowers and planted a rose-garden for those
ignorant of the language of France; great translator, noble
Geofi"rey Chaucer.

You are the god of worldly love, in England, and of the rose,^^
in the angelic land where Anglo-Saxons flourish; England is the
name given to it, according to the latest etymology. Into good
English you translate books: and long since have you set up an
orchard, for which you did demand plants from poets in order
to give them a reputation, great translator, noble Geoffrey
Chaucer.

To you for this reason, from the springs of Helicon, whose
source is wholly in your charge, I beg an authentic work to
quench my philosophic thirst: my Gallic throat will be quite
dry until you give me to drink. I am Eustace who (write to
you) and shall have plants of my own; but take in good part
the works of a tyro, so that you will have something of mine,
great translator, noble Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Envoi

Lofty poet, ... in your garden I should but meddle: (but)
consider what I mentioned first, your noble planting, your sweet
melody. And to satisfy me (i.e. that I may know that I am
eligible to enter the garden), write back, I pray you, great trans-
lator, noble Geoffrey Chaucer.

Late in life, apparently, Chaucer fell into money dif-
ficulties and wrote a })oeni To Ills Empty Purse which he
sent to Henry IV in hopes of getting help. This is the
poem in a modern English version:

^^ On tlu'sc <<)rii|);iris()ii.s of ( "liauccr lo tlic ^rcat of the past, soe Lounsbury,
Studies in Chaucer (IlarjxT and nrotlM-rs, lS!)-2), Cliaplcr .> (The L(arnin<,' of Chau-
cer).

*' Doubtless a referenee to Cliaiicer's transhition of the Romance of the
Rose.

610 ENGLISH LITERATURE

To you, my purse, and to no other wight
Complain I, for you are my lady dear !
I am so sorry, now that you are light;
For, sure, unless you make me heavy cheer,
I were as lief be laid upon mj^ bier;
And so unto your mercy thus I cry,
Be heavy again, or else I'll surely die !

Now vouche me safe this day ere it be night,
That I of you the blissful sound may hear,
Or see your color like the sunshine bright,
For yellowness, that never had a peer.
You are my life, my pilot me to steer,
Queen of my comfort and good company:
Be hea\y again, or else I'll surely die !

Now, purse, who are to me my life's clear light,

And savior, in this human world down here.

Out of this town now help me through your might.

Since treas'rer mine to be you seem to fear;

For "friarlike" I'm shorn so very near.

But yet I pray unto your courtesy:

Be heavy again, or else I'll surely die !

Chaucer's Envoi
O conqueror of Brutus' Albion,
Who both by line and free election.
Are our true King, this song to you I send;
And you, who all our harm can quite amend.
Have mind upon my supplication !

The desired help came in the following letter:

The King, to all to whom these presents may come: Greet-
ing. It appeareth to us, by inspection of the Rolls of Chancery
of Richard, late King of England, the Second after the Conquest,
that the same late King caused his letters patent to be made to
this effect:

"Richard, by the Grace of God, etc.: Greeting. Know ye,

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 611

that we of our especial favor, and in return for the service which
our beloved esquire, Geoffrey Chaucer, hath bestowed, and will
bestow on us in time to come, have granted to the same Geof-
frey twenty pounds, to be received each year at our Exchequer,
at the terms of Easter and St. Michael, by equal portions, for
his whole life. In witness whereof we have caused to be made
these our letters patent. Ourself witness at Westminster, i28th
of February, in the seventeenth year of our reign."

It appeareth also to us, by inspection of the Rolls of the
Chancery-court of the same late King, that he caused his other
letters patent to be made to this effect:

"Richard, by the Grace of God, etc. : Greeting. Know ye that,
of our especial grace, we have granted to our beloved esquire,
Geoffrey Chaucer, one cask of wine, to be received every year
during his life, in the port of our city of London, by the hands
of our chief butler for the time being. In witness whereof, etc.

"Witness ourselves at Westminster, on the 13th day of
October, the twenty-second year of our reign."

We in consideration that the same Geoffrey hath appeared
before us in our Chancery-court personally, and hath made
corporal oath, that the aforesaid letters have been casually lost,
have thought proper that the tenor of the record of the same
letters be transcribed by these present. In witness, etc.

The King being witness, at Westminster, the 18th day of
October, 1399.*

At the conclusion of the Parson s Tale in the Canter-
bury series, Chaucer, speaking in his own person, prays
his readers that he may be forgiven for having written
a number of his works, most of them in fact. This section
of the Parson s Tale had been declared spurious by some
critics, but the present tendency is to regard it as genuine,
and, since it gives in the author's o\vn words the complet-
est list of his works, we quote it here.

Now I pray all those who may read or listen to this little
treatise, that if there is anything in it that pleases them, they

•Quoted l)y permission of Messrs. ("hatto and Wiiidiis, from their edilion in the King's Classics
Series.

612 ENGLISH LITERATURE

thank our Lord Jesus Christ for it, from whom all wit and all
goodness come; and that if there is anything that displeases
tliem, they put it to the account of my lack of skill, and not to
that of my will, that would fain have done better if I had had
the ability. For our Book says, "All that is written, is written
for our instruction," ^° and that is my intent.

Wherefore, I meekly beseech you, for the mercy of God, that
you pray for me that Christ have mercy on me and forgive me
my sins, and especially for having translated and written worldly
vanities, which I repudiate in (these) my Retractions; namely,
the Book of Troilus, the book also Of Fame, the Book of the
Twenty -jive Ladies, the Book of the Duchess, the book of St.
Valentine's Day of the Parliament of Birds, the Tales of Canter-
bury — at least, such as tend to sin; the Book of the Lion and
many another book, if I could remember them; and many a
song and many a lecherous lay, of which may Christ forgive
me the sin.

But for the translation of Boethius, On the Consolation of
Philosophy and other books of Legends of the Saints, and homi-
lies and books of morality and devotion, for these I thank our
Lord Jesus Christ and His blissful Mother and all the saints of
heaven, beseeching them that they from henceforth to the end
of my life may send me grace to bewail my guilt and strive for
the salvation of my soul; and grant me the grace of real peni-
tence, confession and satisfaction, that I live well in this present
life, through the benign grace of Him who is King of Kings and
Priest over all Priests, who bought us with the precious blood
of His heart, so that I may be one of those to be saved at the
day of doom. Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives
and rules as God for ever and ever. Amen.^^

90 Cf. 2 Timothy 3: 16.

^^ The indispensalile book for Chaucer bibliography is E. P. Hammond, Chaucer:
a Bibliographical Manual (The Macmillan Co., 1908). The texts of the earliest
lives of Chaucer are given there, pp. 1-35. Lounsbury, op. cit., i, pp. 133-142, gives
a translation of the Life by Leland, Chaucer's first biographer. The chapter on
Chaucer in the Cambridge History of English Literature, ii, is by Professor Saints-
bury. Dr. Hammond, in her Chaucer: a Bibliographical Manual, devotes pp. 51-69
to a discussion of the Chaucer canon; she cites two other lists of his works by Chau-
cer, viz., Legend of Good Women, Prolog, 11. 405 seq. and head-link to the Man of

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS 613

Laics Tale, Canterbury Tales, B, 11. 39 scq. Professor Tatlock, in an article, Chaucer s
Refractions, in the Publications of the Modern Language Association in America,
xxviii, 4 (December, 1913), pp. 52l-5'-29, shows that in his Retractions Chaucer was
following in the tradition of St. Augustine, Bede, (iiraldus Camhrensis, and others.
For articles on all the writers included in this section of Representative Authors,
pp. 551 seq., see the Dictionary of National Biography. William of Malmesbury,
Geoffrey of Monmouth, Henry of Huntingdon, Wace, John of Salisbury, Walter
Mapes, Giraldus Cambrensis, and Layamon, with extracts designed to exhibit their
several styles, are all treated in Wright, Biographia Britannica Literaria, ii, the
Anglo-Norman Period (London, John W. Parker, 1840). The matter quoted above
in these pages from Orm, Dan Michel of Xorgate, Roger Bacon, Richard of Bury,
and William of Newburgh, may be used to supplement the matter given in this
section.

INDEX

{^Numbers refer fo pages. Titles of books and articles are italicized.']

Aachen, 6*2.

Aaron, early English Christian martyr,
42.

Abel, 137, 238.

Abelard, 386-389, 436, 440, 560, 575,
577.

Abraham, 135, 137, 238, 554.

Account books of Merton College Gram-
mar School, 446, 447.

Achilles, 380, 404, 424, 453.

Actors, kinds of, 521, 522.

Acts of the Apostles, 113.

Adam, 92, 93; in genealogical table of
Alfred the Great, 119: and Eve, 237,
238, 256, 332; French play on, 442.

Adamnan, Life of St. Columba, 54.

Adam of Murimuth, 373, 419, 480.

Adam of Usk, 351, 589.

Adams, Geo. B., Civilization in Europe
during the Middle Ages, 19; Political
History of England 1066-1216, 157;
and Stephens, Select Documents of
English Constitutional History, 161,
505.

Adam Scrivener, Chaucer's copyist, 506.

Adelhard, archbishop of Canterbury, 61.

Adrian or Hadrian, abbot, 57, 109.

iElbert, master in the school at York,
62.

.(Elfric, English cleric and scholar, 25,
91-95, 95-102, 114, 132, 139.

iEneas, hero of the /Eneid, 248, 404,
579, 582, 609.

.^.sop, 258, 551.

/Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, 135.

Africa, 52, 63, 382, 548.

Agatho, 51; f)ope, 58, 59.

Agilbert, bishop of the West Saxons, 51.

Agriculture, 18, 26, 217-226.

Aidan, Irish missionary to Xorthuin-
bria, 47, 48, 49, 50, 97, 98.

Ailred, abbot of Rievaux, 433, 438, 439.

Alban, St., early British martyr, 39-42.

Alberic, 560.

Albertus Magnus, 297, 399.

Albinus(.^), 66, 109, 110, 579.

Albion Series, 69.

Alcuin, English educator and scholar,

60, 62, 63, 68.
Alcuin: His Life and Work, by C.J. B.

Gaskoin, 62.
Aldhelm, English ecclesiastic, scholar

and ^^T-iter, 65, 436.
Aldred, archbishop of York, 142, 143.
Alexander (the Great), 380, 435; ro-
mances of, 444, 518, 548, 549, 602.
Alfred the Great, King of the West

Saxons and of England, 6, 21, 22, 63,

92, 118-132, 172; his Preface to

Gregory's Cura Pastoral is, 120, 129-

131.
Alfrid, son of Oswy of Xorthumbria,

50, 51, 60.
Alia, king of Northumbria, 5.
Allegory, 136-139, 192, 257, 365-367,

396.
Almaine (Germany), Almains, 183.
Alphabet, 79-82.
Alps, John of Salisburv on crossing the,

563.
Ambrose, St., 64, 116, 431, 434.
AmericanJIistorical Review, 350.
Ananias and Sai)phira, 21.
Anatolius, 54, 113.
Anchorites, 510.
Ancren Riule, by Bislioj) Poore, 506-

512.
Angevins, 381, 382, 456.
Angles, Angha, Anglian, 1, 2, 5, 7, 43,

(50, 87, 98, 104, 148. 154, 546, 547.
Anglia, .351.
Anglo-Sa.r()n Chronicle, 1. 4, 5, 6, 13,

82, 135, 140, 157, 202, 205, 206,

209 (.^), 436.

616

INDEX

Anglo-Saxons. 118, 459, 460, 556, 609.

Anjoii, Henry of (Henry II, King of
England), 157; Geoffrey of, 160.

Anlaf, 84.

Anselni, St., archbishop of Canterbury,
16^2, 258, 432, 433.

Anthology of Pagan Poetry, 437.

Apollinaris Sitlonius, 91, 440.

Appledore, 142.

Aquila and Priscilla, 52.

Arabic, 392, 606.

Arator, 67.

Archbishops of Canterbury, 6, 7, 109,
123, 143, 158, 162, 163, 173, 432, 589,
591.

Archer, T. A., The Crusade of Richard I,
375; and Kingsford, C. L., The
Crusades, ibid.

Aristotle, 66, 254, 392, 394, 395, 398,
399, 410, 411, 412, 421, 439, 458, 602.

Arithmetic, 63, 384, 409.

Armenia, 587; Armenian, 74.

Armorica, Armoricans, 122.

Arnold, J. Loring, King Alfred in Eng-
lish Poetry, 132.

Arnold, Matthew, Dover Beach, 87.

Arnold of Brescia, 575, 577.

Arnold, Thomas, Memorials of St. Ed-
mumrs Abbey, 268, 553.

Arthur, King, 4, 368, 369, 370, 373;
romances of, 442, 443; founding of
the Round Table by, Layanion's ac-
count, 493-502; historicity of ques-
tioned by William of Xewburgh,
545-550; William of Malmesbury on,
550, 557; Mapes on romances on, 579.

Arthur of the English Poets, by Howard
Maynadier, 4.

Arthurian Chronicles, tr. by Eugene
Mason, 71.

Arthurian Romances Unrepresented in
Malory, 368.

Artificers, 21, 58, 70, 122.

Art of Calculating with Arabic Figures,
437.

Artisans in medieval England, 26-34,
230, 231, 237-241, 253, 301, 312,
327-330.

Arundell, Thomas, Archbishop of
Canterbury, 599.

Asceticism, 354-363, 506-512.

Ashley, W. J., English Economic His-
tory, 227; Edward III and His Wars,
413, 414, 417; Early History of the
Woolen Industry, 481.

Asia, 52, 311, 376, 382; Asiatic, 74.

Asser, Life of Alfred, 118-129, 131.

Assize of Clarendon, 161, 212-216.

Astrolabie, by Chaucer, 606.

Astronomy, 63, 114, 384, 392, 606, 607.

Athanasius, St., 64, 396.

Athelred, bishop of Wiltshire, 6.

Athelstan, King of England, 82.

Athens, 109.

Augustine, archbishop of Canterbury,
44, 45, 61, 62, 95, 547, 548.

Augustine of Hippo, St., 64, 113, 133,
258, 399, 424, 426, 431, 432, 434,
438, 567, 568, 574, 579, 613.

Augustus, Roman Emperor, 2, 316,
548.

Aulus Gelhus, 421.

AureHus Ambrosius, King of the
Britons, 547.

Aurinia, a German prophetess, 10.

Averroes, 412, 421.

Avicenna, 394, 421.

Ayenbite of Inwyt, by Dan Michel of
Norgate, 257, 258, 502, 503.

Bacon, Roger, 297, 386, 391-401, 427,

451, 613.
Badon, one of Arthur's battles, 4.
Bagot, Sir William, 186, 198.
Baker, 30.
Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury,

435, 462.
Bald^^dn, C. S., An Introduction to Eng-
lish Medieval Literature, 364, 373,

383, 405, 419, 519.
Bale, John, sixteenth-century antiquary,

133.
Ball, John, 331, 332, 333, 334, 340, 342,

343, 345, 350, 594; Dream of, by

William Morris, 351.
Ballades, by John Gower, 601.
Ballads, 175, 550.
Bamborough, 99.

Bannockburn, battle of, 175, 178, 179.
Barbour, John, Bruce, 487-489, 519.
Bardney Minster, 99.
Barons' War, 467, 471.

INDEX

617

Bartholonicieus Anglicus, 383, 401; Dc

Proprietalibus Rcrum, ibid.
Basil, St., G4, 39G (his Rule for Monks),

436.
Bassas, 4.
Bateson, Mary, Medieval England,

201, 211.
Baffle of Brunanburh, 82-87.
Baffle of Maldon, 13.
Baveux Tapestry, 157.
Beadohild, 72.
Beauchamp, Guy, Earl of Warwick,

books bequeathed by, to Bordesley

Abbey, 441-444.
Beaw, ancestor of Alfred the Great, 119.
Becket, Thomas a, archbishop of Can-
terbury and martyr, 161, 162-166,

231, 309, 310, 320, 385, 432, 435 {?),

437, 440, 575, 595.
Bedwig, ancestor of Alfred the Great,

119.
Bede, English historian and scholar, 1,

3, 4, 42, 43, 44, 47, 56, 62, 65, 74,

96, 98, 99, 101, 102, 104, 107-117,

118, 133, 139, 190, 436, 440, 544,

545, 547, 549, 555, 557, 579, 581, 613.
Beldeg, ancestor of Alfred the Great,

119.
BeWs English History Source Books,

186, 262.
Benedict Biscop, abbot of Jarrow, 5Q,

51, 58, 59, 111, 113.
Benedict of Xursia, St., The Rule of,

19, 46, 164, 262, 288, 292.
Benedict of Peterborough, 162.
Beowulf, 13, 19, 34, 35, 71, 72, 88, 153.
Berkhampstead, 143.
Bernard of Clair vaux, St., 258, 432,

435, 438, 439, 440, 441, 575, 576.
Bertha, queen of Ethelbert of Kent, 44.
Bestiary, 192, 432, 434.
Bible and people, 135-139, 451, 594.
Billings, A. H., Guide to the Middle

English Metrical Romances, 519.
Biographia Britannica Jjiteraria, by

Thomas Wright, 65, 108, 613.
Birinus, Ijishoj), 98.
Birmingham, 231, 232.
Bishop, political fnnclions of, 22, 23,

61, 173.
Black Death, 324, 446.

Black Prince, 181, 184, 185.

Bland, A. E., Brown, P. A., and
TawTiey, R. H., English Economic
History: Select Documents, 228.

Boccaccio, 608.

Bodd, Jean, on the "matters" of ro-
mance, 518.

Boethius, Roman philosopher, 66, 131,
132, 258, 39.3, 411, 437, 439, 574;
Alfred the Great's tr. of On the Con-
solation of Philosophy, 131, 132;
Chaucer's, 506, 612.

Bohn Antiquarian Library, 1, 69, 87,
157, 248, 364.

Boniface, St., English missionary to
Germany, 38, 107.

Bonner Beifrdge zur Anglistik, 70.

Book, 69, 78, 246, 414, 417-430.

Book of Epigrams, by Bede, 114.

Book of Hymns, by Bede, 114.

Book of Orthography, by Bede, 114.

Book of the Art of Poetry, by Bede, 114.

Book of the Life and Passion of St.
Anastasms, by Bede, 113.

Book of the Life and Passion of St.
Felix Confessor, by Bede, 113.

Book of the Lion (?) by Chaucer, 612.

Book of the Twenty-five Ladies {Legend
of Good Wonten?) by Chaucer, 612.

Book of Tropes and Figures, by Bede, 114.

Bordesley Abbey, books bequeathed to,
441-444.

Boycott, 262.

Bradwardine, Thomas, archi)ishop of
Canterbury, 325.

Bravery among the Germans, 9, 12.

Breguoin, 4.

Hrembre, Nicholas, 320-324. 349.

Bretwalda (Chief Teutonic ruler of
Britain), 5.

Britain, Briton, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 19, 38, 39,
42, 43, 44, 52, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60,
68, 69, 74, 87. 96, 98, 119, 122, 124,
125, 151. 24S, 545, 546-550, 557,
.558, ,")81.

Brittany, 146. 160. VA).

Brond, ancestor of Alfred the Great, 119.

Hrown. C. K., Irish-Latin Injhirncc in
Cyncwulfian Texts, 82.

liriire, by John Barbour, 487-4S9, 519.

Brut, by Layamon, 493-502.

G18

INDEX

Brutus, mythical ancestor of the
Britons, ^48, 315, 319; romances of,
518; (Brute) 557, 581, 600, 609, 610.

Buckle, H. T., HiMory of Civilization in
England, 550.

Building among the Germans, 14.

Buhver Lytton, E., Harold: the Last
of the Saxons, 157.

Burton, Richard, Literary Likings, 91.

Bushy, Sir John, 186, 19^2, 194.

Byzantium, 319, 365.

Cadwalla, 96, 99.

Caedmon, 103-107, 118; Coedmons

Hymn, 76, 79, 105.
Caesarius of Heisterbach, 263.
Caiaphas, 239, 240.
Cainian, in genealogical table of Alfred

the Great, 119.
Cair Lion, 4; (Carleon on Usk), 548.
Calais, 184, 250.

Cambridge, 409, 411, 412, 416, 580.
Cambridge History of English Literature,

ed. by Ward and Waller, 38, 65, 80,

82, 92, 104, 141, 185, 242, 258, 383,

386, 416, 455, 506, 516, 519, 543,

550, 585, 612.
Camden Society, Publications of, 268.
Canon law, 255, 257, 384, 430, 437,

441.
Canterbury, 7, 45, 60, 109, 110, 123,

161, 174, 175, 295, 310, 335.
Canterbury, archbishops of, 6, 7, 44,

45, 49, 57, 61, 109, 123, 135, 163,

167, 278-280, 297, 325, 331, 332,

334, 336, 342.
Canticles, 112.
Capgrave, John, English Chronicler,

594.
Carlyle, Thomas, Past and Present,

268, 275.
Carmina Burana, medieval students'

songs, 389.
Cassiodorus, late Roman scholar and

statesman, 65, 434, 439.
Catalog of the Library of the Monastery

at Rievaux, 430-441.
Cat Bregion, 4.
Cat Coit Celidon, 4.
Catholic, 49, 418; Catholic Encyclopedia,

438, Catholic epistles, 113.

Cato (Dionysius), 437, 446.

Cattle and money among the early

Germans, 16.
Cavalry, 9.

Ceadda, English saint, 110.
Ceawlin, King of the West Saxons, 6,

119.
Cedd, English bishop, 51, 110.
Celidon, 4.

Celt, Celtic, Celts, 38, 74.
Ceolfrid, abbot, 59, 112, 113.
Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury,

6, 7.
Ceohvald, ancestor of Alfred the Great,

119.
Ceohvulf, King of Xorthumbria, 108.
Cerdic, ancestor of Alfred the Great,

119, 146.
Cernel Abbey, 133.
Chaldeans, 3.
Chambers, E. K., The Medieval Stage,

450, 521.
Chambers, R. W'., Widsith, a Study in

Old English Heroic Legend, 71.
Charlemagne, 68, 181; romances of,

442, 443, 518, 579.
Charter of Lincoln, 307, 308.
Charter of Winchester, 308, 309.
Chasteaii d' Amour, by Robert Grosse-

teste, 393.
Chatham, Earl of, 167.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 46, 95, 162, 200,
»^, 241, 247, 287, 300, 325, 364,

375r~5§h 383, 350, 390, 394, 403,

405, 406, 419, 425, 441, 461, 480,

486, 505, 512, 513, 51J2, 551, 604-613.
Cheerful spirit in literature, 512, 513.
Chester, 42, 190; Customs of, 302.
Chesterton, G. K., Varied Types, 132.
Che\Tiey, E. P., Readings in English

History, 140, 159, 351; Social and

Industrial History of England, 227,

216, 219.
Chief Elizabethan Dramatists, ed. W'. A.

Neilson, 401.
Chief Middle English Poets, ed. Jessie

L. Weston, 135, 163, 192, 375.
Chivalry, 363-381.
Chrestien de Troyes, 383, 562.
Christianity, 3, 36, 38-60, 129-131,

136, 547.^

INDEX

619

Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, 268,
553; of Robert of Gloucester, 482;
Chronicles, 112; Chronicles of Eng-
land, France and Spain, by Froissart,
13; Chronicles of London, ed. C. L.
Kingsford, 186-200; Chronicles of the
Crusades, by G. \'illehardouin and
J. de Joinville, 375.

Churches as refuge from pursuers, 22.

Cicero, 161, 394, 439.

Circulation of books, 445.

Cities, dislike of among the early Ger-
mans, 14, 214, 228; rise of in Eng-
land, 301; customs in mediaeval
England, 302-324.

City of Legion (Caerleon), 4.

Civilization in Europe during the Middle
Ages, by G. B. Adams, 19.

Claudian, late Latin poet, 405.

Clement, St., Gd.

Clerical opposition to miracle plays,
525-543.

Clerk, 7, 193, 277, 354, 390, 410, 415,
419, 448-450, 519.

Clerk's Tale by Chaucer, 608.

Cnut, King of England, 142, 145.

Coat of arms, 8; of mail, ibid.

Codex Aureus Inscription, 77-79.

Coenred, ancestor of Alfred the Great,
119.

Coifi, chief pagan priest at the court of
Edwin of Northumbria, 36, 37, 56.

Collection of Antidotes, 438.

Colman, English ecclesiastic, 50-55.

Columba, St., 46, 54, 55.

Comminian, Latin writer, 68.

Compayre, Gabriel, Abelard and the
Origin and Early History of Uni-
versities, 387.

Conant, M. P., Oriental Tale in Eng-
land in the Eighteenth Century, 375.

Confessio Amantis by Gower, 599, 601,
602, 604, 008.

Constantine (the Great), Roman Em-
peror, 42, 319.

Constantinus, King of Scots, 85.

Constitutions of Clarendon, 1(51, 222.

Constitutum Constantini, 319.

Converse, Florence, J^ng Will, 351.

Conwalli. King of the West Saxons,
57.

Cook, 31.

Cook, A. S., ed. Crist of Cynewulf, 118;

tr. Asser, Life of Alfred, ibid.
Copying manuscripts, 69, 135, 139,

505, 506.
Corinth, 52.

Cornish, F. W., Chivalry, 364.
Coronation Charter of Henry I, 203-205.
Corporate character of medieval life,

262.
Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ed. G. Vig-

fusson and F. Y. Powell, 72.
Cost of the Corpus Christi pageant at

York, 521.
Coulton, G. G., A Mediaeval Garner,

254, 441, 563.
Counselor, 31, 32.

Covetousness, confession of, 242-247.
Cowper, William, The Task, 300.
Craig, Hardin, 233.
Cranmer, Thomas, Remains and Letters,

484.
Crecy, battle of, 181-184.
Creoda, ancestor of Alfred the Great,

.119.
Crete, 94.

Cronica Tripartita, by Gower, 604.
Cross, A. L., A History of England and

Greater Britain, 143, 157, 172, 180,

184, 185, 197, 250, 301.
Crusades, 289 (?), 333, 375-381, 382,

457.
Cudara, ancestor of Alfred the Great,

119.
Cunebert, 110.
Cunningham, William, An Essay on

Western Civilization in Its Economic

Aspects, 21; Groicth of English In-
dustry and Commerce, 227.
Cura Pastoralis, by (irogory the Great,

131.
Cursor Mundi, 482. 517, 518, 553.
Cus-toms of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 302.
Cuthbcrt, St., 102, 436; bishop of

Lindisfarne, 111; pupil of liede, 114.
("iitliwin, pupil of Bede, 114; ancestor

of Alfred the Great. 119.
Cynegils. King of tiic West Saxons, 98.
Cynewulf. Old English poet, 80-82, 118.
Cynric. ancestor of Alfred the Great, 119.
Cyprian, St., 433.

C^20

INDEX

Dale, E., Natiotiol Life and Character
in the Mirror of Early Englitih Lit-
erature, 34.

Dalfin, Archbishop of France, 50.

Danes, 6, So, 60, G2, 84, 85, 86, 94
(called pagans in Asser, Life of
Alfred), 121, 122, 377, 548.

Daniel, bishop of Winchester, 38, 110;
the prophet, 427; Daniel, 112.

Dan Michel of Norgate, Ayenbite of
Inicyt, 257, 258, 502, 503, 613.

Dante, 66, 108, 382, 404, 405, 423, 442,
607.

Dares, mythical Latin historian of
Troy, 404, 436.

David, 158, 548, 554.

Death of King Arthur and Modred, 443.

Debate between the Body and the Soul,
355-363.

De Joinville, J., Chronicler of the
Crusades, 375.

Dene, residence of Alfred the Great,
124.

Denis, St., 165, 181; Denis Pyramus,
French poet, 552.

De Xugis Curialium, by Walter Mapes,
574, 613.

Deor, Old English scop (.^), 73; Deor's
Lament, 71, 72, 73.

De Quincey, Thomas, 184.

Derwent, 38.

Deschamps, Eustache, French poet,
604; poem on Chaucer by, 609.

Dialects of Enghsh, 76-79, 275, 484,
485, 486-505.

Dialog on the Exchequer, by Richard
Fitzneale, 457-460; Dialogs of Greg-
ory the Great, 123.

Dictionary of Christian Biography, 67,
109, 113, 443; Dictionary of National
Biography, 61, 109, 110, 111, 133,
142, 157, 320, 444, 613; Dictionary
of Romance and Romance Writers, by
Lewis Spence, 442, 443, 551.

Dictys, mythical Latin historian of
Troy, 404.

Didactic spirit in literature, 506-512.

Difficulties of rimed verse, 515, 516.

Dinsmore, C. A., Aids to the Study of
Dante, 423.

Diocletian, Roman Emperor, 39.

Dionysius Gate, 437, 446; the Areopa-
gite, 396 (St. Denys), 402.

Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Mar-
lowe, 401.

Dodd, A. F., Early English Social His-
tory from the Chronicles, 364.

Dodsleys Old Plays, 351.

Dominic, St., 289.

Donatus, Roman grammarian, 67, 400,
411, 412, 434.

Doomsday Book, 301, 302.

Dorchester, 98.

Dore, 6.

Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold, 87.

Drama, 102, 103, 233-241, 316, 442,

>, 448, 519-543.

Drinking, 17, 152, 156, 160, 175, 253,
254, 315.

Duglas, 4.

Duncalf, F., and Krey, A. C, Parallel
Source Problems in Medieval History,
376.

Duns Scotus, 297.

Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury,
135.

Dyflen (Dublin), 86, 186.

Eadbert, English bishop, 49.

Eafa, ancestor of Alfred the Great, 118.

Eanfieda, queen of Osway of North-

umbria, 49.
Eanfrid, Etheling (prince) of North-

umbria, 5.
Early English Text Society (E. E. T. S.),

185; Publications of, 1.
Early German names of the days of the

week, 95.
East Angles, East Anglia, East Anglian,

2, 5, 6, 50, 110.
Easter, 49-56, 140.
Easterwine, abbot of Jarrow, 59.
East Saxons, 2, 110.
Eating, 17, 152, 156, 160, 288.
Ecclesiastes, 112.
Ecclesiastical History of the English

Nation, by Bede, 1, 44, 51, 62, 65,

96, 104, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 555.
Ecgtheow, father of Beowulf, 35.
Economic concepts, 254-262.
Edgar, grandson of Edmund Ironside,

142, 143, 144, 148.

INDEX

621

Edmund Ironside, 142, 144.

Edmund, King of East Anglia, 6;
later St. Edmund, 268-287; King
of England, 83.

Edward I, King of England, 172, 46.5,
467, 471, 473, 476; Edward II, King
of England, 176, 180, 445; Edward
III, King of P:ngland, 176, 177, 179,
180, 185, 229, 261, 344, 373, 416,
418, 480, 481, 580; Edward VI, King
of England, 420.

Edward the Black Prince, 181, 184,
185, 334.

Edward the Confessor, King of Eng-
land, 140, 141, 142, 144, 145, 146,
148, 167, 169, 204, 205, 307, 381,
433; Edward the Elder, King of
England, 83, 86, 121.

Edwards, E., Memoirs of Libraries, 421,
441.

Edwin, Earl of Mercia, 141, 142, 143,
147; Edwin, King of Northumbria,
5, 6, 36-38, 96, 98, 99, 547.

Egbert, King of Kent, 56; Egbert,
king of the West Saxons and of Eng-
land, 5, 6, 118, 146; Egbert of York,
62, 107.

Egfrid, king of Northumbria (Xorth-
umberland), 57, 58, 59.

Eg>T)t, 52, 137, 462, 548.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II,
159, 381, 580; Eleanor of Provence,
wife of Henry III, 409.

Elene, 80.

Elesa, ancestor of Alfred the Great,
119.

Elijah, 427.

Ella, king of the South Saxons, 5.

Edmund, ancestor of Alfred the Groat,
118.

P^merson, O. F., A Middle English
Reader, 493.

Enchiridion or Manual of Alfred the
Great, 127.

Enci/cloprdia 1iriia)iniea, 109, 1.32,
272, 431, 5.59.

England, English, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 19, 22,
25, 36, 43, 44, 47, 52, 58, 60, 61, 62,
68, 74, 75, 76, 80, 82, 87, 95, 103,
109, 116, 118, 129, 130, 131, 1.32, 1.33,
134, 135, 138, 140, 141, 142, 144, 146,

147, 148, 152, 154, 156, 157, 158,
159, 160, 166, 167, 170, 173, 175,
176, 177, 179, 181, 182, 183, 184,
188, 196, 201, 214, 228, 250, 254,
268, 275, 281, 282, 294, 295, 297,
301, 324, 325, 326, 328, 330, 331,
335, 336, 342, 345, 363, 374, 381,
382, 400, 401, 409, '413, 416, 451,
456, 460, 462, 464, 466, 467, 468,
469, 470, 471, 472, 473, 474, 475,
476, 477, 478, 480, 481, 482, 483,
484, 485, 486, 518, 544, 546, 556, 557,
564, 569, 571, 572, 573, 579, 581,
582, 589, 601, 609.

Englische Studien, 82.

English History Told by Contemporaries,
375, 468.

English language, use of, 131, 275, 320,
401, 412, 451, 481-486, 581, 582,
588, 592, 602, 604, 606, 607, 609.

English Proclamation of Henry III,
503-505.

English spelling, Orm on, 492.

Enoch, in genealogical table of Alfred
the Great, 119.

Enos, in genealogical table of Alfred
the Great, 119.

Eoppa, ancestor of Alfred the Great,
118.

Eormanric, 73.

Esdras, 112.

Esius, abbot, 110.

Essay on Western Civilization in Its
Economic Aspects, by William Cun-
ningham, 21.

Etlu«lber(h)t, king of Kent, 6, 22, 44-46,
547.

Ethelfrid, king of the Xorthunil)rians,
5.

Ethelred, king of the West Saxons and
of England, (J; the Unready, King of
Kiigland, 145.

Ethehvulf, father of Alfrcil the Great,
118, 119.

Europe, European, 5, 62, 74, 107, 250,
252, 289, 290, 376, 382, 385, 386,
466, 548.

Eutyehius, 68.

Everyman s library, 71, 163, 248, 252,
290, 375.

Evesham, battle of, 471.

6^2'^

INDEX

Excommunication, i6i.
Exeter Book, 09.
Eynsham Abbey, 133.

Fables of Marie de France, 551, 552.

Fairs, 197, 243.

Family life among the early Germans,

10, U, 15, 1(5; of Alfred the Great,

121, 122; .Elfric on, 136.
Felix, bishop of the East Angles, 50.
Feudal system, 201-227.
Feuds among the early Germans, 16;

among the English in Alfred the

Great's time, 22, 23, 24.
Fierebras {Ferambrace or Ferumbras),

444, 487-489.
Finan, 49.
Finn of Godwulf, ancestor of Alfred

the Great, 119.
Finnsburg, 71.
Fisherman, 28.
Fiske, C. F., Old English Modifications

of Teutonic Racial Conceptions, 19.
Fitzneale, Richard, of Ely, Dialog on

the Exchequer, 457-461.
Fitzstephen, William, 162, 313, 319,

320, 416, 519; his Description of

London, 309-320.
Flanders, 147, 335, 480.
Flemings, 210, 250, 480, 484.
Florence of Worcester, English chroni-
cler, 157, 377.
Foreign Debt of English Literature by

T. G. Tucker, 68, 383.
Fortunatus, Latin Christian poet, 39,

67, 444.
Fowler, 29.

Framms, German spears, 8.
France, 173, 175, 180-184, 188, 331,

374, 382, 384, 400, 413, 419, 456,

466, 468, 483, 485, 552, 559, 562,

609.
Francis of Assisi, St., 289, 294, 382.
Frankland (Germany), 101.
Franks, 44, 49, 50, 52, 62, 68, 69, 122.
Frealaf, ancestor of Alfred the Great,

119.
Freeman, E. A., 157.
Freeman, perquisites of among the

early Germans, 12, 13; in the days

of Alfred the Great, 121, 131, 193.

French, 244, 251, 254, 275, 288, 364,
381, 383, 401, 412, 482, 484, 485,
486, 518, 552, 558, 573, 580, 581,
588, 601, 604.

Frenchman, 142, 156, 181, 182, 183, 382.

Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, by
Robert Greene, 401.

Friars, 246, 289-300, 382, 391, 425, 441.

Friar s Tale by Chaucer, 607.

Frigg (Freya), Teutonic goddess, 95.

Frisians, 122.

Frithowald, ancestor of Alfred the
Great, 119.

Frithuwulf, ancestor of Alfred the
Great, 119.

Froissart, Jean, French chronicler, 13,
176, 180, 181, 186, 193, 330.

Fulgentius, Christian Latin poet, 64.

Funeral customs among the early Ger-
mans, 18.

Furneaux, Henry, ed. Germania of
Tacitus, 10.

Gaimar, Geoffrey, 558, 559.

Gallic, 602, 609.

Galpin, S. L., Cortois and Villain in
French and Provengal Poetry, 364.

Garrett, R. M., 516.

Gascony, 173.

Gasquet, F. A., English Monastic Life,
268; The Great Pestilence, 324.

Gaul, 58, 122, 124, 548.

Gautier, L., La Chevalerie, 444.

Gawain and the Green Knight, 368-373.

Gayley, C. M., Plays of Our Fore-
fathers, 519.

Geat, ancestor of Alfred the Great, 119.

Gegwis, name given the English by
the Britons, 119.

Generals among the early Germans, 9.

Genesis, 112, 135, 136, 137, 138; .El-
fric's Preface to his paraphrase of,
133, 135-139.

Genoa, Genoese (Genoways), 181, 182.

Gentiles, 52.

Geoffrey Gaimar, 558, 559; Geoffrey le
Baker of Swinbrooke, 175; Geoffrey
of Anjou, 160; Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth, 5, 248, 404/ .?'), 436, 443, 502,
557, 558, 613; criticized by William
of Newburgh, 544-550.

INDEX

623

Geometry, 384, 409, 506.

German, Germanic, Germany, 8, 10,
14, 70, 74, 82, 183, 201, 227, 260,
280, 400, 419, 484.

Germania of Tacitus, 7, 8-19.

Germanic Origins, by F. B. Gummere,
19.

Gewns, ancestor of Alfred the Great,
119.

Gideon, 474.

Gildas, 1, 4, 60, 545, 557.

Gilds, 228-241, 301, 307, 308, 519.

Giles, J. A., translator of early Eng-
lish Chronicles, 1, 4, 114.

Giraldus Cambrensis, 159, 382-385,
564-574, 613.

Girth, earl of Kent, son of Godwdn of
Wessex, 142, 152.

Gleni, 4.

Gloucester, 102.

Godmundingham, 38.

Godwin, earl of ^Yessex, 141, 144, 146,
152.

Golias, bishop, 449, 575.

Goliath, 474.

Goodrich, C. A., Select British Elo-
quence, 167.

Gospels, 112, 116, 134, 136.

Gothic, 73, 74; Goths, 548.

Gower, John, 247, 350, 598-604, 608.

Grammar, 63, 134, 384, 408, 409, 506.

Grandisson, J., bishop, his protest
against the pagan character of medie-
val schools, 408.

Gratian of Bologna (.^), canon lawyer,
his Decrees, 430, 437.

Greece, 52, 57, 62, 63, 74, 80, 254, 385;
romances of, 518, 548, 562; Greek,
62, 113, 130, 389, 393, 396, 399, 404,
574, 606.

Green, Sir John, 186, 189.

Green, John Richard, The Conquest of
England, 135.

Greene, Robert, Friar Bacon and Friar
Bungay, 401.

Gregory I, the Great, jjopc and St.,
42, 43, 44, 56, 64, 109, 110. 13.3, 258.
422(.^), 423, 434, 449, 567; Gregory
II, pope, 10!); Gregory XI, p<)i)e,
bull against Wiclif, 590-592; (Jreg-
ory Xazianzen, 396, 4.34.

Grein, C. W. M., Bibliothek der An-

gelsdchsischen Prosa, 123.
Grendel, the monster in BeoindJ, 35, 72.
Griffin, king of the Welsh, 146, 147.
Grim, Edward, follower and biographer

of Thomas a Becket, 162.
Grosseteste, Robert, bishop of Lincoln,

author and statesman, 393, 396, 450,

467, 519; his Chasteau d' Amour, 393.
Growth of a feeling of nationality in

I^ngland, 455-481.
Guala, ancestor of Alfred the Great, 119.
Gudrun, heroine of German epic, 73.
Guido della Colonna, Italian author, 404.
Gummere, F. B., Germanic Origins, 19;

Old English Ballads, 70; The Oldest

English Epic, 71.
Gurnion, 4.
Guy of Warwick, 375.

Hadrian or Adrian, abbot, 57, 109.

Haimo, or Haymo, 433.

Hales, Alexander, English theologian,

297.
Halidon Hill, battle of, 178.
Hamaan, 474.
Hammond, E. P., 351; Chaucer: a

Bibliographical Manual, 612.
Handlyng Synne, by Robert Mannyng

of Brunne, 448, 522.
Haney, L. H., History of Economic

Thought, 255, 256, 257.
Harold. King of England, 140, 141, 144,

145-157.
Harold, King of Norway, 141. 142, 147,

148.
Hart, James Morgan, Development of

Standard English Speech, 494; Studies

in Language and Literature in Honor

of, 19. 132.
Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology

and Literature, 550.
Hastings or Hasting.s-port. 142. 143,

rU. 147. 150. 151. l.)7, 212. 4.-}6.
Hathra. ancestor of Alfred the Great,

1H).
Havelok, .375; Havrlok, English ro-
mance. 519.
Hawking and Hawks. 29. 122.
Haymo. 133. 4.30; Haimo, 433.
Heavenheld, 96.

624

INDEX

Hebrew, (>.S, K?0, Sm, 390, 399, 006.

Hector, Trojan hero, 380.

Hedda, English bisliup, 99.

Hehnet, 8.

Henderson, E. F., Select Historical
Documents of the Middle Ages, 319,
459.

Hengist, leader of the Jutes to Britain,
2, 540, 547, 550.

Henry I, King of England, 144, 160,
167, 169, 201, 203-205, 206, S07,
320, 456. 457, 550, 558, 560, 565;
Henry H, King of England, 158-
166, 172, 209-216, 272, 281, 307,
320, 381, 382, 443, 457, 462, 552,
569, 580; Henry HI, King of Eng-
land, 294, 406-480; English Procla-
mation of, 503-505; Henry IV, King
of England, 601, 609; Henry VIH,
King of England, 300.

Henry, duke of Lancaster, later Henry
IV, King of England, 185-200, 602.

Henry of Huntingdon, History of the
English, 87, 441, 456, oo^-o55, 558,
613.

Heodenings, 73.

Heorot, Hrothgar's hall in Beowulf, 72,
88.

Heorrenda, 73.

Heremod, ancestor of Alfred the Great,
119.

Heretic, 138, 454, 455, 577, 589, 590,
591, 594.

Hereward, English outlaw, 157.

Hermits, 510.

Herod, 238; in miracle plays, 519.

Hilary, meflieval hymn \\Titer, 64, 431.

Hild(a), abbess of Whitby, 49, 51, lOi.

Hildebert, medieval poet, 432, 435, 437.

HUdehrand, 71.

Hingwar, 6.

History, Bede on, 108-111; William of
Xewburgh on, 544-550; Henry of
Huntingdon on, 553-555; W^illiam of
Malmesbury on, 555-557.

Hiftory of Classical Scholarship, by
J. E. Sandys, 66.

Hodgkin, Thomas, The History of Eng-
land from the Earliest Times to the
Norman Conquest, 1, 82; Italy and
Her Invaders, 91.

Homer, Homeric, 72, 404, 553.
Homilies, /Elfric's, 133, 134, 439.
Honorius, bishop of Canterbury, 50;

Roman Emperor, 546.
Horace, Latin poet, 268, 447, 553.
Horsa, leader of the Jutes to England, 2.
Horses, 8, 260, 313-315.
Hospitality among the early Germans,

16; in medieval London, 313.
Hous(e) of Fame, by Chaucer, 403-405,

607, 612.
Hrothgar, character in Beowulf, 35, 72,

88.
Hubba, 6.
Huetbert, abbot of Wearmouth and

Jarrow, 113.
Hugo (Hugh) of St. Victor, medieval

philosopher and theologian, 423, 431,

435, 440.
Humber, 2, 5, 44, 129, 141, 147, 211,

547.
Hundred, Teutonic military division, 9.
Hundred Years' War. 180-185, 481.
Hungary, 144, 400.
Hunt, \\., and Poole, R. L., Political

History of England, I, 82, 157.
Hunting, 13, 27, 120, 121, 205, 206,

289, 311, 318, 465.
Hutton, W. H., The Misrule of Henry

III, 468.

Idleness, among the early Germans, 13;

Rule of St. Benedict on, 19-21.
Ignorance of the early Germans, Tacitus

on, 15.
Imports, eleventh century, 30.
Ina (Ine), King of the West Saxons, 22,

118.
Infantry, 9.

Ingild, ancestor of Alfred the Great, 118.
Ingulf, Chronicle of the Abbey of Croy-

land, 157, 363, 367; Continuation of,

411, 412.
Initiation of the youth to manhood

among the early Germans, 12.
lona, 46.
Ireland, 160, 186, 445, 547, 564, 505,

569, 570, 572.
Irish, 46, 82, 96, 101, 184, 548.
Iron, scarcity of among the early Ger-
mans, 8.

INDEX

625

Isaac, 135.

Isaiah, 549; I.saiah, 112, 441.

Isidore of Seville, medieval scholar, 116,

422, 434, 4.39, 448, 449, 507.
Isle of Lindisfarne, 49; Isle of Thanet,

44; Isle of Wight, 2, 110, 141.
Israelite, 138, 474.
Italian, Italy, 49, 52, 62, 398, 400, 419,

607.
Itermon, ancestor of Alfred the Great,

119.
Itinerary of Richard I, 378.
Ivo of Chartres, 435, 441.

Jack Straic, Elizabethan play, 351.
Jacob, 136, 554.

Jacques Bon-hommes, fourteenth-cen-
tury French agitators and rebels,

331.
James, St., 52, 239, 509, 510.
James, deacon, 49, 51.
Jarrett, Bede, Medweval Socialism, 256.
Jarrow, monastery of. 111.
Javelin, 8, 11, 12.
Jeremiah, 112.
Jerome, St., translator of the Bible into

Latin, 64, 112, 133, 258, 388, 395,

439, 510, 567.
Jerusalem, 2, 275, 377, 457, 587.
Jessopp, A. J. C, The Coming of the

Friars and Other Historic Essays, 216,

287, 289, 297.
Jesus in miracle plays, 238, 239, 240,

241, 525-543.
Jiriczek, O. L., Northern Legends, 73.
Jew, Je\\-ish, 52, 136, 209, 238, 239, 240,

241, 244, 251, 259, 269, 270, 277,

278, 393, 407, 462-465, 606.
Job, 112.
Jocelin of Brakelond, Chronicle, 268,

553.
John, archchanter of St. Peter's, Rome,

58.
John Chrysostom, St., 65, 396, 434.
John, King of Englanrl, 166, 167-171,

287, 465, 466, 467, 568.
John of (iaunt, duke of Lancaster, 186,

336, 338, .340, .342, 590.
John of Salisl)ury, English scholar and

churchman, 162, 440, .559-563, 613;

Metalogicus, 559; Polycraticus, ibid.

John of Trevisa, tr. of Higden's Poly-

chronicon, 484, 486.
John the Baptist, 239, 594.
John the Apostle and Evangelist, St.,

51, .52, 53, 54, 239, 2.58.
Jordanes, Gothic History, tr. C. A.

Micro w, 71.
Joseph, 137, 554.
Joseph and Mary in the miracle play,

238.
Joseph of Arimathea, 240; and the

Holy Grail, romance of, 442.
Joshua, 112.
Jove, 94, 563.
Jovinian, opponent of St. Jerome, 387,

440.
Judas, betrayer of Jesus, 239.
Judas Maccabaeus, 381, 473.
Judges, 112.
Julius Caesar, 151, 319, 405, 540, 548,

579; romances of, 518.
Julius, early British Christian martyr,

42.
Juno, 94.

Jurisprudence, 63.
Justinian, Roman emperor. Codex of,

430, 434, 438.
Jutes, 1, 2, 7.
Juvencus, Christian imitator of Virgil,

66.

Karadoc of Lancarvon, 558.
Kaufmann, F., Northern Mythology, 73.
Kennedy, Poems of Cyneiculf, 118.
Kent, 2, 5, 6, 49, 56, 57, 77, 109, 142,

318, 327, 331, 333, 334, 343.
Kinds of actors, 521, 522.
King Horn, romantic hero, 375.
Kings, among the early Germans, 9, 11,

12, 13; in Old English law, 22, 23.
King\s Classics Series, 38, 268, 387, 390,

402, 403, 422, 429, 430, 515, 611.
Kingsley, Charles, Hcrcward the Wake,

157.
Knighthood, 12, 364-375, 382.
Knighton, Henry, English chronicler,

324, .327, 351, 594.
Knight's Tale, by (liaucer, 551.
Knights Templars, 299, 336, 344, 432.
Krey, A. C, John of Salisbury's Attitude

toward the Classics, 564.

6^6

INDEX

Kriehn, G., Studies in the Sources of the
Social Revolt of ISSl, 350.

Labor problem in England in the four-

teentii century, 3i24-350.
Lactiintius, Latin Christian poet, G7,

Lanicch in genealogical table of Alfred
the Great, 119.

Lancelot, romantic hero, 370; Lance-
lot, 44^2.

Landor, W. S., Leofric and Godiva, 302.

Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury,
432.

Langland, William {?), 242, 351, 595-
598.

Langtoft, Peter, French WTiter, 448,
581, 582.

Langton, Stephen, archbishop of Can-
terbury, 166, 167, 168, 169, 171, 467.

Lapidary, 436.

Lastingham, 110.

Latin, 8, 25, 26, 57, 62, 74, 79, 121,
123, 129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135,
136, 138, 155, 275, 384, 389, 393,
395, 397, 401, 407, 410, 412, 467,
484, 485, 486, 518, 545, 552, 557,
558, 573, 579, 581, 582, 588, 594,
602, 604, 606, 607.

Latin Grammar, ^Elfric's, 133, 134.

Laurentius Valla, renaissance scholar,
319.

Law, 16, 21, 22-25, 26, 127, 128, 135,
138 (Salic), 180, 193, 203-205, 210,
211, 212-216, 277, 302-309, 327-330,
393, 409, 483, 484.

Layamon, 579, 580, 613; Brut, 493-502.

Lays of Marie de France, 552.

Lazarus, 239, 576.

Leach, A. F., Educational Charters and
Documents, 409.

Leah, 423.

Learning, 62-68, 104-118, 119-124,
125-127, 128, 129-131, 133, 134,
135, 155, 311, 312, 384, 385, 386,
389, 390, 391-402, 405-417.

Lee, G. C, Source Book of English
History, 161.

Legend of Good Women, by Chaucer, 612.

Legends of the Saints (.^), by Chaucer, 612.

Legion, City of (Cuerleon), 4.

Legislative customs, among the early
Germans, 10, 11; among the early-
English, 22, 36.

Leo I, pope, 64; IV, pope, 119.

Leofric and Godiva, 301.

Leofwin, earl of East Anglia, 142.

Letters of Abelard to Eloise, 387.

Lewes, battle of, 471; Song of, 472-480.

Liberal arts, 120, 121, 122, 276, 384,
409, 410, 420.

Libraries, 20, 59, 63-68, 69, 78, 385,
414, 420, 421, 430-444.

Life of the Holy Father Cuthbert, by
Bede, 113.

Lindisfarne, Isle of, 49; church of, 99,
111.

Lindsey, 99, 110.

Linuis, 4.

Literary Historical Atlas of Europe, 252.

Little Floivers of St. Francis, 290.

Lives of the Holy Abbotts of Wearmoiith
and Jarroio, by Bede, oG, 113.

Locke, A. A., War and Misrule, 186, 262,
351.

Logic, 384, 409, 410, 555, 562.

Loire, 68.

Lombards, 244, 251, 252, 346.

London, 109, 143, 144, 146, 167, 169,
170, 171, 186, 228, 229, 281, 282,
294, 295, 309-324, 326, 333, 334,
336, 337, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343,
345, 346, 347, 349, 350, 351-354,
374, 445, 463, 473, 487, 519, 548,
589, 590, 591, 597, 600.

Londoyi Lyckpenny, 351-354.

Lord and Vassal, relation of, 12, 202,
231.

Lounsbury, T. R., Studies in Chaucer,
405, 609, 612.

Lucan, Roman poet, 67, 319, 405, 579.

Lucifer, 237, 331, 474.

Luidhard, bishop, 44.

Lydgate, John, 351, 405.

Lyly, John, 192.

Lyons, 50.

Macaulay, G. C, 599, 601, 602.
Macbeth, 90.

McCabe, Joseph, Abelard, 387.
McKnight, G. H., Alfred the Great in
Popular Tradition, 132.

INDEX

627

Maerings, 72.

Maethilde, 73.

Matzner, E., Alt-Englische Sprach-

Proben, 135, 162.
Magic, 10, 45, 401.
Magna Charta, winning of, 107-171.
Mahomet, 589.
Malaleel, in genealogical table of Alfred

the Great, 119.
Malory, Sir Thomas, 304, 308.
Mandeville, Sir John {?), 585-588.
Manly, J. M., 185, 254; Specimens of

Pre-Shakespearean Drama, 519, 543.
Mannyng, Robert, of Brunne, 580-582;

Ilandlyng Synne, 448, 515.
Man of Law's Tale by Chaucer, 012.
Manor house, description of, 217, 218.
Manorial system, 216-227.
Manufacture and trade, 227-230, 242-

254, 298, 301, 480, 481.
Mapes, Walter, 573, 574-579, 613;

De Nugis Curialium, ibid.
Marbodeus, On the Kinds of Stones, 437.
Marie de France, 551, 552.
Markham, Sir Clements, 63.
Marlowe, Christopher, Doctor Faustus,

401.
Mars, 94, 95.
Marshall, William, earl of Pembroke,

167-171, 467; romance of, 444.
Marshalsea prison, 339.
Marsiglio of Padua, 591.
Martha, sister of Lazarus, 239, 423.
Martian, Roman Emperor, 2.
Martin, St., 46, 126, 173, 174, 175, 390.
Martyrology, 113.
Mary Magdalene, 239, 240.
Mary, sister of Lazarus, 423.
Maserfield, 99.
Matriarchate, 16.
Matthew Paris, 466-471, 519.
Maynadier, Howard, The Arthur of the

English Poets, 4.
Medicine, 393, 394, 409, r)-)5.
Medeshamstede, 6.
Medieval Lore, ed. by Robert Steele,

403.
Medieval taste in natural scenery, 563,

564.
Mclun, Robert, English theologian, 440,

560.

Mercers' Company of London, 320-324-

Merchants and Merchandise, 30, 241,
248-254, 258-260, 281, 298, 306, 307,
308, 328.

Mercia, Mercians, 2, 5, 6, 22, 76, 99,
102, 110, 121, 123.

Mercury, 94, 95.

Meredith, George, The Egoist, 205.

Merlin, British magician, 545-550.

Methusalem, in genealogical table of
Alfred the Great, 119.

Midland Angles, 2.

Migne, J. P., Patrologia Laiina, 114.

Military tactics, among the early Ger-
mans, 9; of the Scots at Bannock-
burn, 176; of the English at Crecy,
181.

Miller s Tale, by Chaucer, 519.

Milton, John, 144.

Minerva, 94.

Mihot, Lawrence, English poet, 178.

Minstrels, 70-73, 449, 579.

Mirror of Perfection, life of St. Francis,
290.

Modern Philology, 73.

Money, among the early Germans, 14;
and cattle, 16.

Money-power, genealogy of in the
Vision of William concerning Piers
the Plowman, 255-257.

Monks, 7, 19, 20, 21, 25, 33, 34, 47, 56,
111, 112, 114-117, 121, 133, 134,
135, 155, 208, 209, 262-289, 424, 425.

Monk's Tale, by Chaucer, 607, 608.

Morcar, Saxon noble, 141, 142, 143, 147.

Mordecai, 474.

Morley, Henry, English Writers, 519.

Morris, William, The Dream of John
Ball, 351.

Moses, Mosaic, 53, 112, 136, 138, 238,
554.

Munroe, D. C, and Sellery, G. C,
Medieval Civilization, 375.

Murder, Fitzneale's definition of, 459-
461.

Music, 384, 409, 450.

Names of the days of the week, early

(Jernian, 95.
Nationality, growth of a feeling of,

455-48 l!

628

INDEX

National Life and Character in the

Mirror of Early English Literature, by

E. Dale, 34.
Nehemiah, 112.
Nennius, British ^^Tite^, 4.
Nestor, Homeric hero, 380, 553.
Newgate, !2'-29.

New International Encyclopedia, 319.
Neic Testament, 113.
Nice or Nicaea, council of, 53.
Nicodemus, 240.
Nithhad, 72.
Noah, 93; in genealogical table of

Alfred the Great, 119; in miracle

plays, 238, 519, 579.
Norgate, Kate, John Lackland, 167.
Norman Conquest, 140, 301, 363;

effect on the status of the English

language, 481.
Normandy, 143, 145, 152, 160, 202,

206, 209, 377, 378, 381, 456, 457,

482, 485, 559.
Normans, 143, 148, 151, 153, 154, 155,

156, 157, 175, 201, 381, 382, 456,

459, 460, 466, 468, 482, 483, 484,

550, 556.
Northern Legends, by O. L. Jiriczek,

73.
Northern Mythology, by F. Kaufmann,

73.
Northmen, 141, 142.
Northumbria, Northumbrian, 2, 5, 6,

49, 50, 57, 62, 76, 95, 97, 98, 105,

110, 485, 547.
Norwegians, 147, 151, 377, 548.
Nothelm, 109, 110.
Nuns Priest's Tale, by Chaucer, 325,

519.

Oaths, 22, 25.

Odin (Woden), 2, 94, 119.

Odo, bishop of Bayeux, 143, 157.

Offa, Etheling (prince) of Northumbria,

5; Offa, King of the Mercians, 22.
Of the Building of the Temple, by Bede,

112.
Of the Map, 439.

Of the Nature of Things, by Bede, 114.
Of the Times, by Bede, 114.
Olave, son of the King of Norway, 142.
Old English, 75.

Old English Ballads, by F. B. Gummere,
70.

Old English Modifications of Teutonic
Racial Conceptions, by C. F. Fiske, 19.

Old English Musical Terms, by F. M.
Pmlelford, 70.

Oldest English Epic, by F. B. Gummere,
71.

Old High German, 75.

Old Norse, 75.

Old Saxony, 2.

Old South Leaflets, 63.

Oman, C. W., The Great Revolt of 1381,
350.

On a Standard of Weight and Measures,
439.

On the Doivnfall of Britain, by Gildas, 1.

Order of the Garter, 373.

Order of the Pageants of the Play of
Corpus Christi at York, 237.

Ordinances of the Gild of the Lord's
Prayer, 234.

Ordinances of the Gild of St. Mary, 233.

Ordinances of the Spurriers of London,
228, 241.

Origen, philosopher and theologian, 396.

Orm, 613; Dedication to the Ormulum,
489-493.

Orm on English spelling, 492.

Ormidum, Dedication to, by Orm, 489-
493.

Orosius, Latin historian, 63, 64, 436.

Osgood, C. G., 405.

Oslac, Etheling (prince) of Northum-
bria, 5.

Oslaf, Etheling (prince) of Northum-
bria, 5.

Oswald, Etheling (prince) of North-
umbria, 5, 6; King of Northumbria,
48, 95-102, 547.

Os^\'^ldu, Etheling (prince) of North-
umbria, 5.

Oswy, Etheling (prince) of Northum-
bria, 5, 6; King of Northumbria, 49,
50, 51, 99.

Outlawry, 262.

Ovid, 268, 404, 407, 447, 609.

Oxford, 294, 392, 393, 398, 409, 416,
417, 418, 420; privileges of, 412,
413; a "scrutiny" at Merton (Col-
lege, 413-415; Giraldus Cambrensis

INDEX

629

at, 56i, 565; Richard Rolle at, 582,
583; AViclif at, 588, 590-592, 606.
Oxherd, 27.

Padelford, F. M., Basil the Great's Essay

on Poetry, 64; Old English Musical

Terms, 70.
Paris, 248, 336, 382, 384, 392, 393, 398,

399, 401, 418, 468.
Paris, Gaston, 368.
Pariiament, 172-175, 197, 198, 320,

323, 481.
Parliament of Birds, by Chaucer, 383,

612.
Parson s Tale, by Chaucer, 611.
Paul the apostle, 52, 136, 402, 429, 434,

439, 441, 479.
Paul the Deacon, History of the Lom-
bards, tr. W. D. Foulke, 71.
Paulinus of Xola, 67, 113, 431.
Paulinus, bishop of York, 36, 37, 49.
Peasants' Revolt of 1381, 330-350.
Penda, King of the Mercians, 99.
Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints

from the Original Sources of European

History, 71, 216.
Pentateuch, 112.
Persia, 587; Persian, 74.
Peterborough, 208, 209, 217.
Peter of Blois, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162.
Peter Lombard, Sentences, 399, 433.
Peter the apostle, 49, 52, 53, 54, 55, 58,

136, 239, 316, 319.
Petrarch, 608.
Pevensey, 142.

Philip VI, King of France, 180.
Philo, Jewish philosopher, 385.
Philobiblon, by Richard of Bury, 419-

430.
Picts, 2, 3, 52, 74, 98, 484, 546, 548.
Pictures, religious, in F^ngland, 59.
Piers the Plowman s Creed, 391, 519.
Pilate, 239, 240.
Plantagenets, 158, 201.
Plato, 254, 313, 387, 388, 39 i, 421. 437,

458, 514.
Play of the resurrection at Winchester,

102, 103; at Durham, 523-525.
Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury,

123, 131.
PUny the Elder, 06, 567.

Plowman, 26.

Plummer, Charles, The Life and Times

of Alfred the Great, 118.
Poetry among the early Germans, 70;

among the Old English, 70-73; in

the Middle English Period, 447-450,

514.
Poi(c) tiers, battle of, 184.
Polychronicon of Ralph Higden, tr. by

John of Trevisa, 484.
Pompeius Trogus, 66, 567.
Pompey, Roman statesman, 68, 405.
Poole, R. L., Illustrations of the History

of Medieval Thought, 564.
Popular Treatises on Science Written

during the Middle Ages, ed. T. Wright,

114.
Powell, E., The Rising in East Anglia

in L381, 350.
Praise of Virgins, by Fortunatus, 39.
Prices, 208, 325, 326, 329, 410, 421,

445-447.
Priests, among the early Germans, 9,

11; among the early English, 37,

136.
Prioress Tale, by Chaucer, 406, 607.
Priscian, Latin grammarian, 67, 134,

411, 412, 437, 438, 551.
Probus, 67.
Procas, 67.
Proclamation of miracle plays at York,

520.
Prolog to the Canterbury Tales, by

Chaucer, 47, 230, 241, 300, 364, 390,

394, 461, 480.
Prosper of Aquitaine, 66, 431, 438.
Provence, Provencal, 159, 382, 400, 465,

469.
Provisions of Oxford, 476, 505.
Prudentius, Christian Latin poet, 439,

441.
Psalms, 121, 122.
Ptolemy's Astronomy, 392.
Publications of the American Economic

Association, 481.
Publications of the Camden Society, 26S.
Publications of the Early English Text

Society (E. E. T. S.), 1.
Publications of the Modern Language

Association of America, 390, 447, 613.
Publications of the Parker Society, 484.

630

INDEX

Pulleyn, Robert, English theologian,
(?) -134, 435, 440.

Punishment, methods of, among the
early Germans, 11; among the Eng-
lish in the time of Alfred the Great,
i'i-25; during the reign of Stephen,
207.

Quadrivium, 384, 409.
Quintilian, 388, 412.

Rabanus (Hrabanus) Maurus, medieval
educator, 433.

Rachel, 423.

Ranulf de Glanvill, Tractatus de Legihus
et Consududinibus Regni Ajiglia,
n^l, 276, 279.

Rashdall, Hastings, The U?iiversities of
Europe in the Middle Ages, 410.

Reckoning time, among the early Ger-
mans, 11; Alfred the Great's inven-
tion for, 127.

Recreations, among the early Germans,
17; in medieval London, 316-319;
forbidden, 448-450.

Redwald, King of the East Angles, 5, 6.

Reformation, 133, 451.

Relations of English and Normans in
the twelfth century, 457-461.

Religion, among the early Germans, 9;
among the pagan English, 35, 36-38;
after the conversion of the English
to Christianity, 39-60.

Representative authors, 103-139, 551-
613.

Revelation of St. John, 113.

Reynard the Fox, 363.

Rhetoric, 63, 384, 409; Rhetoric, 439.

Rhypum, 50.

Richard I, the Lion-Hearted, King of
England, 166, 272, 275, 308, 375,
378-381, 472; Richard II, King of
England, 185-200, 231, 254, 3,34,
338, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 347,
.348, 349, 383, 521, 589, 594, 600,
602, 610, 611.

Richard of Bury, 383, 417-430, 451, 613.

Richard of St. Victor, 434, 4.35.

Richardson, O. H., The Nationalist
Movement in the Reign of Henry III,
480.

Richard the Redeless, 185-200.
Riddles in Old English, 69.
Rime, difficulty of writing in, 515, 516.
Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, 176,

178, 580.
Robert, duke of Normandy, 377, 378,

456, 457.
Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle, 482.
Robin, P. A., The Old Physiology in

English Literature, 394.
Robinson, J. H., Readings in European

History, 355, 387.
Roger of Hoveden, 464.
Roger of Wendover, 167, 415.
Roland, French here, 380; Song of, 153.
Rolle, Richard, of Hampole, 268, 582-

585.
Rolls Series, 135, 159, 161, 393, 519, 553.
Romance of the Rose, tr. (?) by Chaucer

from the French, 609.
Romances, 442-445, 465, 506, 517;

popularity of, 518; Cycles of, ibid.;

Walter Mapes on, 578, 579.
Romanus, 49, 51.
Rome, Romans, 8, 9, 42, 44, 46, 50, 53,

56, 57, 58, 59, 62, 63, 96, 98, 109,

118, 119, 130, 155, ^4, 315, 316,

319, 385, 405, 416, 422, 545, 548,

562, 563, 577, 590, 592, 606.
Ronan, 49.
Root, R. K., The Poetry of Chaucer, 403;

Publication before Printing, 447.
Ross, E. A., Social Control, 355.
Round Table, 374; Arthur's founding

of, 493-502.
Rowbotham, J. F., Troubadours and

Courts of Love, 375, 383.
Rule of St. Benedict, 19, 40, 164, 262,

288, 292.
Rule of St. Francis, 290-294.
Rules of Oxford, 409.
Runes, 10, 79-82.

St. Paul's Cathedral, 144, 310.
Saladin, 364-368.
Salisbury Oath, 202.
Salome, 240.
Salter, 30.
Samuel, 112.

Sandys, J. E., History of Classical Schol-
arship, 66, 564.

INDEX

631

Sanskrit, 74.

Saracens, '251, 275, 375, 392, 518.

Saturn, 94, 95.

Savage, E. A., Old English Libraries,

441.
Saxon poems, 120, 121, 122, 129.
Saxons, 1, 2, 4, 7, 87, 118, 121, 123,

124, 125, 126, 483, 546, 547, 558.
Scandinavia, Scandinavian, 6.
Sceldi, ancestor of Alfred the Great,

119.
Schofield, W. H., Chivalry in English

Literature, 364; English Literature

from the Conquest to Chaucer, 383,

386, 442, 443, -444, 516, 517, 518,

519, 559, 563.
Schultz, Ah\in, Das Hofische L^eben, 364.
Science, 391-402.
Scot, Michael, 392, 401.
Scotland, 141, 144, 147, 160, 175.
Scots, 48, 49, 50, 51, 74, 85, 96, 98, 122,

175-179, 180, 325, 330, 338, 377, 481,

484, 546, 547.
Scott, Sir Walter, The Lives of the

Novelists, 330; The Talisman, 366;

The Lay of the Last Minstrel, 392.
Scudder, Vida D., Introduction to Eng-
lish Literature, 564.
Sedulius, 66, 119.
Segenius, 47.

Seneca, 258, 394, 435, 439, 566, 609.
Senlac, 140.
Servius, 68.
Seth, in genealogical table of Alfred the

Great, 119.
Severn, 124.
Shackfdrd, M. H., Legends and Satires

from Medieval Literature, 393, 436,

437.
Shakespeare, "William, Richard II, 187;

As You Like It, 192, 406; 192, 364.
Shaw, G. Bernard, 564.
Shem, in genealogical table of Alfred

the Great, 119, 579.
Shepherd, 27, 238.
Shield, 8, 9, 12.
Shoemaker, 30, 391.
Sicily, 159.

Simeon the Monk, 140.
Simon de Montforl, 396, 467, 471, 473,

474, 475. 476, 477, 478, 479.

Sir Hugh of Taharie, 364-368.
Sir Thopas by Chaucer, 519, 551.
Six GUI English Chronicles, 1, 4, 248.
Skeat, W. W., editor of Old and Middle

English texts, 96-101, 185, 190, 191,

192, 194, 197, 199, 300, 391, 394,

404, 441, 461.
Slavery, among the early Germans, 18,

193; in Greece, 254
Slavic, 74.
Smaragdus, 133.
Smith, Lucy Toulmin, York Mystery

Plays, 519.
Smiths and smithing, 31.
Solinus, 567.
Solomon, 112, 122, 162, 372, 421, 571,

589.
Song of Habacuc, 112.
Song of Roland, 153.
Sophocles, 579.

Southey, Robert, Wat Tyler, 351.
South Saxons, 2, 6, 44, 110.
Spain, 62, 392, 400, 468, 548.
Spear, 8.
Speculum Meditantis, by Gower, 247,

602, 604.
Spence, Lewis, Dictionary of Romance

and of Romance Writers, 442, 443,

551.
Spencer, Herbert, The Morals of Trade,

254.
Spenser, Edmund, 364, 375.
Squire of Low Degree, 519.
Stamford, 416, 417.
Stamford-bridge, 141 (Standford

Bridge), 147.
Standards of living, among the early

Germans, 16, 17, 18; in pre-conquest

England, 22-25, 26-34; in the reign

of Alfred the 'Great, 122, 131;

^Ifric on, 136. 151, 152-154, 155-

157, 177, 185-200, 217-227, 229-231,

242-247, 248-254, 287-289, 295, 296,

302-324, 332, 351-354. 391, 410,

448-450.
Stanley. .\. P.. Historical Memorials of

Canterbury, 163.
Statins. Latin poet. 67, 404.
Steele. Robert, Medieval Lore.
Slei)hen, King of England, 205-209,

210, 211, 311.

632

INDEX

Stevenson, W. H., editor of Asser, Life

of Alfred, 118.
Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, 14-3.
Stow, John, EUzabethan antiquary, 351,

599, 604.
Straw, Jack, 333, 334, 340, 342, 343, 345,

350.
Streaneshalch, 51.
Stubbs, William, Memorials of St.

Dunstan, 135; Seventeen Lectures on

the Study of Mediceval and Modern

History, 159, 564; Select Charters, 161.
Survey of Werminton, 217; of Berne-

horne, 218-223; of Borley, 223-226.
Sussex, 124, 142, 331, 333, 343.
Sword, 8.

Sylvester, pope, 319, 439, 595.
Symonds, J. A., Wine, Women, and

Song, 385, 386, 389, 449.

Tacitus, 7, 8, 19, 34, 35, 70, 82, 90, 172,
201, 227, 260, 301.

Tactics, military, among the early
Germans, 9; of the Scots at Ban-
nockbum, 176; of the English at
Crecy. 181.

Toetwa, ancestor of Alfred the Great,
119.

Tales of Canterbury, by Chaucer, 612.

Tarquin and the Sibyl, 422.

Tatlock, J. S. P., Chaucer's Retractions,
613.

Taylor, H. Osbom, The Medieval Mind,
386; Ancient Ideals, ibid.; The Clas-
sical Heritage of the Middle Ages, ibid.;
Deliverance, ibid.

Teaching, 25-34, 120, 121, 124, 126,
130, 134, 136, 138, 410, 412.

Temple Classics, 248, 290, 387, 439;
Temple Dramatists, 401; Temple En-
cyclopedic Primers, 73.

Tenchebrai, battle of, 456, 457.

Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 82; Harold,
157; Becket, 163; Godiva, 302.

Testament of Dan John Lydgate, 405.

Testament of Love, by Thomas Usk, 486.

Teuton, Teutonic, 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 19,21,
34, 38, 42, 70, 71, 74, 89, 90, 172,
.301, .363.

Thames, 130, 248, 310, 336, 337, 457,
590, 600.

Thanet, Isle of, 44.

Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Can-
terbury, 49, 57, 62, 109.

Theodoric (Dietrich of Bern), 72.

Theodosius, 113.

Thetford, 6.

Thomas Aquinas, 257, 297, 399, 423.

Thomas of Eccleston, Liber de Adventu
Minorum in Angliam, 294.

"Thomas the Rimer," 515.

Thor, 94.

Timothy, 52.

Titus, Roman emperor, 380.

Tobias, 112.

To His Empty Purse, by Chaucer, 609.

Tostig (Tosty), son of Godwin of Wes-
sex, 141, 142, 147, 151.

Tours, 62, 68.

"Town and gown," 415-417.

Toynbee, Paget, Dante Dictionary, 423.

Tragedy, a monk's definition of, 516;
the Leyden Glossary on, ibid.

Traill, H. D., Social England, 227, 383,
386.

Traison et Mort du Roy Richart, 186, 193.

Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy
of Sciences, Arts and Letters, 564.

Transubstantiation, 133, 588.

Trat Treuroit, 4.

Trinity, 137.

Trivium, 384, 409.

Troilus and Criseyde, by Chaucer, 95,
247, 505, 506, 519, 608, 612.

Tucker, T. G., The Foreign Debt of
English Literature, 68, 383.

Tuell, H. E., and Hatch, R. W., Se-
lected Readings in English History,
91, 216.

Tully (Cicero), 66, 412.

Turks, 375-381.

Tyler, Wat, 333, 334, 340, 342, 343,
345, 346, 347, 348, 350.

Ulysses, 380.

Usk, Thomas, The Testament of Love,

486.
Usury, 18, 23, 251, 257-262.
Utherpendragon, King of the Britons,

547.

Vagabonds, 214, 327-330, 391.

INDEX

633

Valentinian, Roman emperor, 2.
Valerius Maximus, Roman historian,

567.
Varlingacestir, -t^.
Vassal and lord, relations of, H, 202,

231.
Vecta, 2.

Veleda, German prophetess, 10.
Venus, 94, 9.5.
Verlamacestir, 42.
Veronica, 240.
Verulam, 42.

Vespasian, Roman emperor, 10.
Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Gold-
smith, 300.
Vickers, K. H., England in the Later

Middle Ages, 185.
Victgilsus, 2.
Victorinus, 66.
Vienne, 57.
Vigfusson, G., and Powell, F. Y.,

Corpus Poeticum Boreale, 72.
Villanni, Giovanni, Historie Florentine,

261.
Villehardouin, G., chronicler of the

Crusades, 375.
Villein, manumission of, 226, 227.
Vills, 7, 124.
Virgil, 67, 158, 161, 268, 404, 407, 447,

514, 548, 579.
Vision of William concerning Piers the

Plowman, by William Langland(.^),

185, 242, 247, 255, 330, 383, 589, 595.
Vitalian, pope, 109.
Vortigem, King of the Britons, 2, 546,

547.
Vox Clamant is, by John Gower, 599,

602, 604.

Wace, French author, 71, 140, 153, 443,
444, 502, 559, 580, 582, 613.

Waldenses, 577, 578.

W alder e, 71.

Wales, 124, 160, 187, 558, 564.

Wallace, by Blind Harry, 175.

Wallis, Louis, The Sociological Study
of the Hihlc, 330.

W'anating (Wanting), birthplace of
Alfred the(;reat, 118.

Wanderer, 87-91.

Wantsum, 44.

Ward, H. Snowden, The Canterbury

Pilgrimages, 163.
Warlike nature of the early Germans, 9,

12, 13.
Wearmouth and Jarrow, monastery of,

111.
Weland, Teutonic Vulcan, 72.
Welsh, 87, 146, 184, 377, 383, 484, 547,

557, 571.
Were, 58.
Werefrith, bishop of Worcester, 123

(Wa^rfirth), 129.
Westminster, 140, 143, 146, 173, 174,

203, 209, 320, 340, 345, 446, 481.
Weston, Jessie L., ed. Chief Middle

English Poets, 135, 163, 192, 375;

Romance, Vision and Satire, 368;

Arthurian Romances Unrepresented in

Malory, I, 368.
West Saxons, 2, 5, 6, 79, 86, 98, 105,

110, 118, 120, 146, 556.
Whitby, 104.
White, A. B., The Making of the English

Constitution, 140, 172; and Xotestein,

W., Source Problems in English

History, 228.
W^hite, C. L., Mfric: a New Study of

His Life and Writings, 114, 132, 133.
Wiclif (Wyclif), John, 423, 451-455,

519, 588-595.
Widsith, 71; Widsith, a Study in Old

English Heroic Legend, ibid.
Wierd sisters, 90.

Wife of Bath's Tale, by Chaucer, 607.
Wighard, 56, 109.
Wight, Isle of, 2.
Wiglaf, 13, 35.
Wilbert, pupil of Bcde, 117.
Wilfrid of York, 50, 51, 52, 54, 'y-y.
William I, King of England (called also

William the Bastard and William the

Conqueror), 141-157, 201. 202, 203.

307, 377, 378, 432, 441, 456. 460;

William II, Rufus, King of England,

162. 203, .37S. 4.32. 441.
William of Malmesbury. 65. 69. 70. 144.

l.->:5. 175, 375. 550, ryory-ry-yl, 558, 613.
William of Ncwburgh. 209. 462. 613;

criticism of (ieoffrey of Monmouth,

544-550.
William of Toitou, 140.

634

INDEX

William of Waddington, 4-18.

Wiltshire, 7.

Winchester, 99, 102, 125, 133, 1G7, 203,

243, 571; The Charter of, 308, 309.
Wine, ]Vo7neti, and Song '"by J. A. Sy-

monds, 386, 449.
AVitan, 22, 30, 203.
Woden (Odin), 2, 94, 119.
Women, position of among the early

(icrmans, 10.
Wool and wool-trade, 242, 243, 250-253,

481.
W'right, Thomas, Biographia Britannica

Literaria, Anglo-Saxon Period, 65,
108; Anglo-Norman Period, 613;
ed. Mapes, W., De Nugis Curialium
for Camden Society, 574; Popular
Treatises on Science Written during
the Middle Ages, 114, 193.

Yale Studies in English, 64, 114, 132,

519.
York, 38, 50, 62-68, 98, 140, 141, 147,

177, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 346, 464,

465, 485, 520, 521, 548.
Ywain and Gawain, 518.

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