REESE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ,190 
 
 83043 
 
 '. Class No. 
 
OUTLINE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 BY 
 
 GREENOUGH WHITE A.M. B.D. 
 
 PART I 
 THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 BOSTON U.S.A. AND LONDON 
 
 GINN & COMPANY PUBLISHERS 
 
 1895 
 
COPYRIGHT 1895 
 BY GREENOUGH WHITE 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
TO 
 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
 
 IN TOKEN OF GRATITUDE 
 FOR THE LIBERALLY ACCORDED USE 
 OF THE TREASURES OF ITS LIBRARY 
 
 WITHOUT WHICH THIS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN 
 
 AND FOR THOSE EARLIER INTELLECTUAL OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 THAT FURNISHED ITS FIRST SUBSTANCE 
 
 THIS WORK IS PRESENTED 
 
 BY A LOYAL ALUMNUS 
 
 83043 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN view of the excellent treatises upon English literature that 
 have multiplied of late years until they form by themselves a 
 veritable library, the only excuse that the present work can 
 allege for being is that in it the great subject is considered 
 under a somewhat new light. To describe the process of men- 
 tal development; to determine the limits and character of 
 literary ages ; to get at the basal principle of each successive 
 age and trace its derivation from that which preceded it, 
 such has been the motive of the work. The lives of authors, 
 therefore, have not been a primary concern, yet it is hoped that 
 the personal element in literary history has not been unduly 
 depressed and that the leading characteristics of men of com- 
 manding and formative genius have been firmly grasped and 
 forcibly presented. 
 
 It is best to explain at the outset that in prosecuting his 
 endeavor the author has welcomed any light that contemporary 
 history, literature or art seemed to afford ; he has refused to 
 regard any event in the progress of European civilization as 
 not germane to the subject and has selected many facts that 
 may at first sight seem remote from it to illustrate his theme. 
 The result may prove to have a reflective value ; for in laying 
 European history under contribution in order to interpret Eng- 
 lish literature, that literature in its turn may make the course 
 of contemporary history more perspicuous. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 In this First Part of the work in particular, which treats of 
 the ages known as mediaeval, the author will never regret 
 any pains he has taken if he be deemed to have been success- 
 ful in breaking up the stark unity which those great and mis- 
 understood ages so often dismissed as Feudal and Catholic 
 present to many minds ; in unfolding the mighty movement 
 that went on in them and discovering in some measure the 
 source of their subtle attraction ; and in showing how great is 
 the value they possess for culture a value, indeed, which 
 nothing that preceded them can supply. 
 
 It is right to add that the above was written in Cambridge 
 the last day of the year 1892, when the work, since subjected 
 to repeated revision, seemed to be approaching completion. 
 
 CHARLESTON 
 February 1895. 
 
OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF ENGLISH 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IT is customary to begin treatises upon English literature 
 with an account of Anglo-Saxon, or as some of late prefer to 
 say, Old English writings. Without detracting in the least 
 from the value of the study of the Anglo-Saxon language as an 
 intellectual discipline, from its necessity for a complete knowl- 
 edge of English, from the importance and interest of some of 
 its literary remains, one may question whether it is truly scien- 
 tific thus to identify Anglo-Saxon with English literature; 
 whether it conduces to clearness, or tends to obscure differ- 
 ences and cause confusion ; whether without affectation a work 
 can be included in English literature which an intelligent Eng- 
 lishman of the present day can enjoy only in translation, unless 
 he would take all the pains necessary for learning a foreign 
 language. Acquaintance with Latin is necessary for a thorough 
 knowledge of Italian, but histories of Italian literature do not 
 therefore begin with Ennius. And yet the connection between 
 Latin and Italian literature is exceedingly close, and the influ- 
 ence of the ancient upon the modern authors has been over- 
 whelming, while the influence of Anglo-Saxon upon English 
 literature has been just nothing. It was as late as the year 
 1832 that the treasures of the Vercelli book, among them 
 Cynewulf's best work, were first made known to the world ; 
 the same year Benjamin Thorpe edited and translated Caed- 
 mon's Scripture paraphrase ; the year following J. M. Kemble 
 
2 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 brought out the first English edition of Beowulf, and thus at 
 last made that noble epic, the most precious relic of Anglo- 
 Saxon poetry, accessible to students, and by a prose translation 
 of it in 1837 first unfolded its beauties to the general reader. 
 In 1842 Thorpe edited the collection known as the Exeter 
 book. Thus at last the body of that old poetry was brought to 
 the light of day, and yet, a full generation later, an Anglo-Saxon 
 scholar could complain of the slow awakening of interest in the 
 subject, and the unaccountable neglect of that ancient litera- 
 ture in its native land. 
 
 That neglect is sufficiently explained by the lack of original- 
 ity which, with the brilliant exception of Beowulf, pervades the 
 whole mass of Anglo-Saxon composition. There are passages 
 of power and beauty in Caedmon and Cynewulf, but on the 
 whole one cannot fail to be struck by the absence of native 
 energy and invention, which leaves to the body of that compo- 
 sition a purely antiquarian interest, and thus deprives it of the 
 right claimed for it by some near-sighted scholars to be re- 
 garded as genuine literature. A glance at those old writings 
 will reveal, beside, the difficulties that beset any attempt at a 
 philosophical history of them ; for their. arrangement fluctuates 
 with the tides of criticism, an important piece being assigned 
 by different authorities to different generations or centuries 
 even ; nothing is known about the authors of some of the most 
 important works, and little that is certain about those whose 
 names are known. These facts, lack of original thought, and 
 uncertainty about dates of composition, to which we may 
 add the gaps in the literary record, render a philosophical 
 interpretation of the phases of the literature almost impractica- 
 ble. A survey of its main divisions gives evidence, however, 
 in a general and unsatisfactory way, of a certain movement. 
 
 Before and above all its relics stands the epic of Beowulf, 
 the solitary finger of the sun that rises from the Saxon plain to 
 take rank among the mighty monuments of world literature. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 3 
 
 The tale possesses a deep and ever vital interest, in that it is a 
 record of the conflict between heathen and Christian ideas in 
 the Teutonic mind ; and as it reflects the passage of Saxons 
 and Angles over the wild North Sea from their old to their new 
 home, so too it marks the great transition from faith to faith, 
 in it we may see the revolution in belief in very process. 
 
 The most significant antithesis of ideas in this old poem, 
 this Christian graft upon a heathen stock, is that of the two 
 explanations of world history offered by Fate and by Provi- 
 dence that divided the author's and redactor's minds. That 
 man's life is bound by fate is the thought that lies deepest in 
 the mind of the hero Beowulf as he prepares for the deadly 
 conflict with the monster Grendel, but at last he decides to 
 lay aside his weapon and to wrestle with the foe, leaving the 
 outcome of the fight to the disposition of the all-wise God, the 
 holy Lord. Over and over again the poet expresses his faith 
 in a righteous and all-powerful God of battles, the true gov- 
 ernor of human affairs, and yet at the end, when Beowulf is 
 about to die by the fire-dragon's bite, it is said that his Weird, 
 that is, his Fate, was approaching. In one place the poet tries 
 to overcome the antithesis by identifying the blind Fate, the 
 gloomy Destiny of heathendom, with the holy will of the per- 
 sonal sovereign of the world : Fate, he says, is the Providence 
 of God. 
 
 The thought about nature revealed in the poem is of deep 
 interest, and shows that in the convert's mind his former gods 
 did not cease to be, but were simply metamorphosed into 
 demons, and believed to haunt the fens, moors, crags, and 
 waste places of the earth. He seems to have thought that 
 powers of nature malignant to man were directed by evil spir- 
 its. The dreadful Grendel is a sort of personification of the 
 deadly miasma of the marshes, and of any other natural influ- 
 ence hostile to human life. He towers at last to the dimen- 
 sions of a Satan ; he is an outcast, dwelling in darkness and 
 
4 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 the shadow of death, tormented by sight and sound of human 
 happiness ; he stalks over marsh and moor with a company of 
 monsters, giants, and ogres, the brood of Cain; he is the 
 abomination that makes desolate, the foe of man, at once the 
 thrall and the thane of hell, the adversary of God. Yet he re- 
 tains something of human form, he is a Caliban, only more 
 ghastly ; he destroys thirty warriors in one night. Night is the 
 time when the fire-dragon flies abroad, when fiends have power, 
 they flee at the approach of dawn. By night the splendid hall 
 of Hrothgar is deserted ; the king and his train come trooping 
 back by day. This horror of darkness and joy in the daylight 
 illustrate the dualism that underlies the whole work; its theme 
 is the ancient conflict between good and evil. 
 
 One striking touch is the gladness of nature when Grendel's 
 horrid dam, the hag of the mere, whose home is a cavern un- 
 der a torrent, is slain by Beowulf with a magic sword ; instantly 
 the sunlight grows brighter, the turbid water clears. 
 
 The lingering influence of heathenism is shown by those 
 warriors who seek to save themselves from Grendel by propi- 
 tiating the goblins, by sacrificing to idols ; ' They knew not God,' 
 is the stern comment of the poet. At last Beowulf is sent to 
 destroy the pest, by the high grace of the holy God. 
 
 Beautiful is the picture of the friendly relations of Beowulf 
 and his band and the sage old King Hrothgar ; beautiful the 
 stately courtesy of the queen to the hero. Throughout the 
 poem loyalty is lauded as the crown of human virtue, the very 
 bond of social life; disloyalty receives the severest condemna- 
 tion. Charming, too, are the scenes of mirth in the royal hall ; 
 the warriors and their guests seated at long tables decked with 
 barbaric gold, passing around ornamented ale-cups and flagons, 
 while gold-embroidered hangings wave along the walls. 
 
 The next most important relic of Anglo-Saxon poetry is 
 Caedmon's paraphrase of portions of the books of Genesis 
 and Exodus, the story of Daniel and the Three Children, and 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 5 
 
 fragments of a life of Christ. The fall of the rebel angels and 
 the rage of Satan are described with spirit and power ; the fall 
 of man is boldly told, with interesting variations from the Biblical 
 account ; but after that the paraphrast becomes tame and dull, 
 goes lumbering through the genealogies, sticks closely to his 
 text, not attempting, for instance, to harmonize the conflict- 
 ing details in the story of the flood. The escape of the chil- 
 dren of Israel from Egypt is more freshly treated. Though of 
 far less value than Beowulf, this paraphrase, with its variations, 
 is significant by reason of its deep earnestness of tone ; in those 
 two works we seem to see the Teutonic mind coming to its-elf. 
 
 It ought to be said that Caedmon's poem is regarded by 
 scholars as a composite work, traces of many hands being 
 found in it; also that neither it nor the tale of Beowulf are 
 extant in manuscripts older than the tenth century, later by 
 many ages than the originals, and, moreover, written in a dif- 
 ferent dialect from theirs. 
 
 About the time when those poems were being composed, 
 that is, at the end of the seventh century and throughout the 
 first generation of the eighth, the erudite and saintly Bede 
 the glory of the Northumbrian monasteries was preparing in 
 Latin a veritable encyclopaedia of the knowledge of his age. 
 The most remarkable passage in his works is, perhaps, the 
 account in the "Ecclesiastical History" of Brother Drithelm 
 and his vision of hell. Bede finished while on his death-bed a 
 translation into the vernacular (long since lost) of the Gospel 
 of St. John. 
 
 To the same period, probably, belong the poems of Cynewurf ; 
 but which and how many they are, and who Cynewulf was, are 
 still vexed questions among scholars. That ancient bard is 
 indeed a problematical character ; he has roamed like a rest- 
 less ghost through centuries far apart, appearing now in the 
 latest, now in the earliest period of the literature. He has 
 been identified as an abbot of the eleventh century, as a bishop 
 
6 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 of the eighth, and, finally, all ecclesiastical rank has been 
 denied him. To increase our uncertainty, there has been a 
 tendency to attribute to him almost all the floating, anonymous 
 minor poems in the language ; beside his Riddles, the Phoenix, 
 and Elene the Finding of the Cross, Andreas, Crist, 
 Juliana, Guthlac, and the Wanderer have been fathered upon 
 him. His case is a notable example of the difficulty that 
 attends any attempt at a reliable interpretation of the develop- 
 ment of the literature. The genuine specimens of Cynewulf's 
 work that have come down to us possess considerable beauty 
 of thought and style ; they show that their author derived real 
 pleasure from the gentler aspects of nature : his ideal land- 
 scape was a smooth plain, green and flowery and dotted with 
 sunny groves, under a bright sky traversed by little clouds. 
 
 With the lamentable decay in Northumbrian power and pros- 
 perity that was going on through the eighth century, a shadow 
 fell upon Anglo-Saxon literature that rested upon it for more 
 than a hundred years. And yet that was the period of the rise 
 of the power of Wessex, under Egbert, who had spent many 
 years at the court of Charles the Great, in company with his 
 countryman Alcuin the leading scholar of his age in the 
 west, and had returned in the year 800 to assume the crown, 
 and to put in practice as far as he could what he had learned 
 from the example of Charles. By the year 827, the authority 
 of King Egbert was recognized over all England ; and his able 
 administration, his military and political success, must have 
 been accompanied, it would seem, by some intellectual awaken- 
 ing. We should expect at this epoch some manifestation of 
 interest in the operations of the mind, some study of logic and 
 the laws of thought, and therewith a development, however 
 slight, of the critical faculty, and of argumentative composition. 
 The age of great poetry being past, we should look, with the 
 study of grammar and rhetoric, for the formation of a good 
 prose style. Some evidence of observation, if not investigation, 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 7 
 
 of external nature might be expected : the motions of sun, 
 moon, and stars, of winds and rivers and the sea, the proper- 
 ties of plants and minerals, the habits of animals. Already the 
 Arabians were beginning their chemical studies, and were 
 fascinated by watching the effect of herbs and minerals upon 
 the human system. With his training and executive ability 
 and capacity for organizing, it might be supposed that Egbert 
 would introduce in his realm of Wessex a more thorough and 
 comprehensive system of education ; that he would teach his 
 people the benefits of an improved economy, and would en- 
 courage agriculture and handiwork of all sorts and the erection 
 of better buildings ; and that in every way he would promote 
 social stability and domestic comfort. But if there was move- 
 ment in any or all of these directions, we have no literary or 
 architectural proofs of it. This, to be sure, does not prove 
 that there was no such movement for fire destroys both 
 books and buildings, and Egbert's reign went out in the dark- 
 ness of Danish invasion. The probability is, however, that 
 there was no great intellectual activity in that age ; perhaps 
 King Egbert found that he could not communicate to a back- 
 ward people the ideas that he had gathered at the court of 
 Charles the Great, and so left much to be done by his grand- 
 son Alfred, fifty years later. 
 
 That noble prince, steadfast, wise, and good, the very per- 
 sonification of moral energy, was nourished as a boy upon the 
 songs of his native land and language ; and was of himself 
 sufficient to create a literary age. In tranquil intervals amid 
 his Danish wars, while engaged in recovering his realm from bar- 
 barism, in rebuilding cities and restoring arts and commerce, 
 he made time to do an astonishing amount of literary work. 
 He translated for the instruction of his people the History of 
 the World by Paulus Orosius, a Spanish churchman, contem- 
 porary and friend of St. Augustine ; the Pastoral Care of Pope 
 Gregory I ; Bede's Ecclesiastical History ; and (most signifi- 
 
8 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 cant of all) Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. The aim of 
 this latter work is to inculcate self-knowledge and self-mastery : 
 it discusses the supreme good, the problem of evil, vice and 
 virtue, misery and happiness, and seeks to reconcile the free- 
 dom of the human will with God's foreknowledge. Various 
 comments of his own which the king incorporated in his trans- 
 lation show what a strong interest he felt in those great themes. 
 It will be seen that Alfred's work partakes of the imitative 
 nature of Anglo-Saxon writing in general ; none of it is original, 
 except the annotations just mentioned, and an account of the 
 voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan which he added to his trans- 
 lation of Orosius. Yet by his labors he became the father of 
 Anglo-Saxon prose-style. In his time, too, the meagre entries 
 of the ancient Chronicle become more copious, and swell it 
 into a record worthier of the national history. 
 
 The next literary epoch was shaped by the influence of great 
 ecclesiastics like Odo and Dunstan, who elevated the altar 
 above the throne, controlled the course of political events, and 
 brought their church into closer conformity to the Roman 
 model. The central point in their policy may be divined to 
 have been the introduction of the doctrine of transubstantiation, 
 in support of which miracles even were alleged : it was cur- 
 rently reported that once, while Odo was breaking the con- 
 secrated bread, great drops of blood fell from it to the 
 confusion of the incredulous. In this respect those English 
 churchmen shared in the general heightening of dogma that 
 was in progress upon the continent of Europe. Odo was trans- 
 lated from the see of Sherborne to the archbishopric of Can- 
 terbury in the year 942 ; the year following, Dunstan was 
 appointed abbot of Glastonbury. The cathedral of Canterbury 
 was rebuilt at this time. 
 
 Upon the death of Odo, Dunstan was raised to the primacy 
 in 961, and was the ruling spirit throughout the reign of Edgar. 
 With the king's help he restored many monasteries all over the 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 9 
 
 land, naturalized the Benedictine order, and ejected secular 
 canons from cathedral chapters, putting monks in their place. 
 This last measure was carried out at Winchester by Bishop 
 Ethelwold, in the teeth of furious opposition ; it was approved, 
 however, by a voice that seemed to come from the great 
 crucifix. In this reign the practice of receiving the sacrament 
 fasting was canonically enforced. 
 
 The long and remarkable career of Dunstan, as monk, artist, 
 and musician, scholar, and ecclesiastical statesman, came to a 
 close in the year 988. 
 
 Such were some of the conditions under which the new liter- 
 ature arose ; and its most celebrated names were those of 
 ecclesiastics, ^Elfric and Wulfstan. It was almost exclusively 
 religious in its character, consisting of sermons, translations 
 of the Scriptures, a paraphrase of the Psalms, and lives of 
 saints ; and it was chiefly 4rujprose, the most conspicuous 
 exception to the character thus given of it being the spirited 
 song of the fight at Maldon, in the year 991. 
 
 ^Elfric was a pupil of Bishop Ethelwold, and taught grammar 
 in the school at Winchester. Eighty homilies of his have come 
 down to us, fine specimens of pure and mellow Saxon prose; 
 in composing them he depended largely upon the writings of 
 the Fathers of the church, freely translating and compiling from 
 their stores. He translated beside the first seven books of the 
 Old Testament. ^Elfric was made an abbot; he has even 
 been identified (erroneously, as it seems to many) with the 
 archbishop of Canterbury of that name, who died in 1006. 
 One homily of his, though not original, is important as giving 
 evidence of a reaction in the mind of the English church 
 against the recent development of eucharistic doctrine and 
 toward the ancient, spiritual view. 
 
 Wulfstan, archbishop of York from 1002 to 1023, composed 
 homilies in a rugged, picturesque style quite different from 
 ic's; in one fervent address, of great interest and value, 
 
10 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 he describes the forlorn condition of the country under the 
 oppression of its Danish marauders. The political and social 
 outlook was so dark, indeed, that it seemed to both those 
 preachers as if the coming of Antichrist, the day of doom, and 
 the end of the world were near. 
 
 The sun of the Saxon state, after suffering a long eclipse 
 during the supremacy of the Danes, shone out again with a 
 pathetic, evening light in the time of Edward the Confessor, 
 and set forever upon the field of Hastings. By the year 1071, 
 the Norman conquest of England was complete : and Saxon 
 nationality, as a freely developing, self-conscious entity, as an 
 end in itself, existed no more. Its extinction is fitly typed in 
 the failure of the male line of the Saxon kings. The church, 
 too, was involved in the ruin of the state : native bishops were 
 ejected from their sees to make room for foreigners, a 
 process significantly illustrated by the deposition of Stigand, 
 native archbishop of Canterbury, and the installation of Lan- 
 franc, an Italian, in the year 1070. Canterbury cathedral was 
 destroyed by fire in the first year of the Norman conquest, a 
 loss that seriously impairs our knowledge of Saxon architecture. 
 The national literature participated, inevitably, in the general 
 decline ; yet it lingered on, a thin stream, ever ready to die in 
 the sand, until the middle of the following century. Some homi- 
 lies were written and the Chronicle was brought down to the year 
 1154 when, with the Norman dynasty, it too came to an end. 
 And then ensued a period of half a century which is practically 
 a total blank in the history of composition in the language of 
 the conquered people. A few more homilies belong to that 
 period, composed in a dialect already so far removed from 
 the form of the Saxon classics that those who spoke it could 
 no longer understand the earlier writings : ^Elfric's homilies 
 had to be modernized for their benefit. Anglo-Saxon language 
 and literature had shrunk into a possession for monastic 
 antiquaries. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 11 
 
 Even from a survey as swift as this of ours has just been it 
 is apparent that these compositions form a distinct literary 
 department which cannot legitimately be merged in any other 
 but must be isolated for special study. To understand and 
 enjoy this literature a^special discipline is necessary : the 
 language must first be learned a language which those who 
 know most about it admit to be totally new and strange to the 
 Englishman of to-day, only to be acquired by long study. By 
 reason of its peculiar form Anglo-Saxon verse especially is 
 hard to understand, as much so indeed as difficult German. 
 The literature, moreover, is circumscribed in its scope ; Beowulf 
 alone soars into the empyrean of universal poetry ; for the rest 
 it consists almost entirely of paraphrases, translations, and 
 homilies largely compiled from foreign sources, for the sake of 
 a special audience in a period long since gone by. Its work 
 has long been done ; it is now of interest only to the philologist, 
 the antiquarian, the student of Saxon civilization. It is a 
 literature at second-hand, for the Saxon mind, assimilative, 
 imitative, cared chiefly about the reproduction of the thought 
 of stronger minds. And finally, the gaps in the record, and 
 our ignorance or uncertainty about the authorship or approxi- 
 mate date even of much that remains, are such that the result 
 of the most patient attempt at a philosophical interpretation of 
 it must still be somewhat unsubstantial. Fresh discoveries and 
 closer agreement among critics must precede any complete and 
 comprehensive theory of its development. 
 
12 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 I. 
 
 IN the twelfth century the intellect of England found expres- 
 sion in Latin and Norman- French, and though works composed 
 in those languages cannot, of course, be included in English 
 literature merely because they sprang on English soil, and 
 though at first sight they seem further removed from it than 
 the Saxon classics even, yet in reality, from a literary point of 
 view, some of them are much nearer, being allied to it in 
 subject : in them appeared those images of chivalry and devo- 
 tion that have swum in enchanting vision before the eyes of 
 great English poets ; have stirred the emotions of myriads of 
 hearers and readers, and still have power to charm ; that run 
 like a golden chain through all these seven centuries of English 
 literature, binding them in one, the tales of Arthur and his 
 knights of the Round Table, of Lancelot and Galahad and the 
 search for the mystic Grail. 
 
 The charm of those old stories, the surpassing beauty and 
 mystery of the conception of the Grail, invite us to consider 
 the genius of the age from which they sprang. 
 
 For several generations there had been in progress a remark- 
 able religious revival, which, beginning silently in centres far 
 apart, had gradually widened in influence and gathered such 
 strength that at the close of the eleventh century it gave a dis- 
 tinctive character to the age. As far back as the close of the 
 tenth century a young nobleman of Ravenna named Romuald 
 was suddenly converted from a worldly to an ascetic life ; he 
 exerted an extraordinary influence upon all who came in con- 
 tact with him, and converted many, so that he became at last 
 the founder of a new brotherhood : he left his cell in the 
 Ravennese marshes, in the year 1009, to found a monastery at 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 13 
 
 Camaldoli, in the region of Arezzo. Even before his time the 
 monks of Clugny, in Burgundy, had developed an intense 
 religious zeal which told at last upon the papacy itself, and 
 raised it from the turpitude into which it had fallen : in 1049, 
 a brother of Clugny mounted the papal throne as Leo IX, and 
 carried out stringent reforms, with the aid of his friend and 
 counsellor, also a brother of the order, the mighty Hildebrand. 
 In 1038, a Florentine named Gualbert, inspired by a visit to 
 Camaldoli, started in Vallombrosa a vale of willows a 
 fraternity pledged to observe in all its strictness the primitive 
 rule of Benedict. Several affiliated houses were soon formed ; 
 at the time of the founder's death, in 1073, there were twelve 
 in the order. Still the deepening of the religious life went on ; 
 the enthusiasm for starting new orders continued unabated ; in 
 1084, Bruno of Cologne founded in a desolate site near 
 Grenoble the first Carthusian monastery, to which, following 
 an example set by Gualbert, he admitted lay brethren; in 1098, 
 an aged Benedictine monk named Robert started in a wood at 
 Citeaux, in the neighborhood of Dijon, a brotherhood which, 
 after it was joined by the fervent young Bernard, in 1113, out- 
 rivalled all others in popularity. Soon after, Bernard became 
 abbot of an affiliated house which he had founded in the wild 
 valley of Clairvaux. His genius dominated the age; for a 
 generation he exercised throughout Europe a primacy of piety. 
 Norbert of Cleves, cousin and almoner of the Emperor Henry 
 IV, was converted from a life of luxury to one of rigorous 
 asceticism in consequence of an accident which had nearly 
 proved fatal to him : while out riding one day he was over- 
 taken by a fearful thunderstorm, and was thrown by his horse, 
 terrified at lightning which struck near at hand. Donning 
 beggar's clothes, Norbert travelled about in Germany and 
 Brabant, preaching repentance. On Christmas day of the year 
 1 12 1 he established forty monks in a spot which had been 
 shown him in a vision, the lonely wooded valley of Pre- 
 
14 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 montre. This was the germ of the Premonstratensian order, 
 which soon ramified over Europe, and exerted great influence. 
 At the same time, Gilbert of Sempringham, in Lincolnshire, 
 the only English founder of an order, instituted one, chiefly 
 for women, which was known by his name. At meals, Gilbert 
 always had beside him what he called " the dish of the Lord 
 Jesus," in which he put aside, for the poor, the best of what- 
 ever was on the table. 
 
 The spiritual fervor of these ascetics ; their phantasmal view 
 of nature ; their abnormal mode of living, their prolonged 
 silence, fasts, and vigils ; their periods of rapt contemplation ; 
 the beautiful services in which they took part, the chant- 
 ing of the hours at evening and in the night-time, all tended 
 to produce occasional conditions of ecstasy, especially when, 
 after long fasting, in a state of physical and mental tension, 
 they assisted at what was the supreme event of their life and 
 worship, the celebration of the mass. About that their visions 
 clustered thickest, and serve to render intelligible to us the 
 apparition of the Grail. Thus, for example, a young Norman 
 nobleman named Walthen, who joined the Cistercians at 
 Rievaulx Abbey, and died as abbot of Melrose in the year 
 1 1 60, once, while celebrating mass, saw the host in his hands 
 vanish into the figure of the infant Jesus, who smiled upon him, 
 and was changed into the host again. 
 
 Beside this religious strain, the next most important char- 
 acteristic of the age was the spirit of warlike adventure which 
 the Normans infused into Europe. Their bounding blood, 
 their fresh activity found relief in voyages of discovery, in free- 
 booting expeditions and feats of arms, which easily took on a 
 religious cast, and the freebooter became a pilgrim, combining 
 the congenial search for further adventure with the search for 
 relief from the consciousness of past crime. Robert the Mag- 
 nificent (also called the Devil), father of William the Conqueror, 
 who lies under grave suspicion of having poisoned his brother 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 15 
 
 in order to attain the ducal crown, died in Asia Minor upon 
 his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Normans 
 were indefatigable pilgrims, many doubtless from compunc- 
 tion of conscience ; many drawn by mere religious glamour 
 blended with the longing to see strange lands ; many from a 
 desire to dignify or make decent with a pious motive their aim- 
 less search for adventure, their plundering expeditions even. 
 
 Now just at the time when Norman power was in the 
 ascendant, and when the new birth of devotional enthusiasm 
 was urging increasing numbers of pilgrims and penitents to- 
 ward the Holy Land, the fierce Seljuk Turks got possession of 
 the holy places, and made access to them difficult and danger- 
 ous. This was all that was wanting to fire the zeal of the 
 enthusiast, to make the blood of the Norman boil : the tide of 
 pilgrimage, checked by the barbarities of the Turks, steadily 
 mounted against the barrier until at last it poured over it in the 
 First Crusade. The main motive-power of the Crusades was 
 the instinctive conviction, rooted ineradicably in the human 
 breast, that there are places where man can draw nearer to 
 God than he can elsewhere ; and to the mind of that age Pales- 
 tine was preeminently the place where heaven touched the 
 earth. The crusading armies, spite of all alloy of baser 
 motives, were in reality pilgrim hosts, going armed that they 
 might repel force by force, and obtain for themselves and 
 others unimpeded access to the scenes of the Saviour's life. 
 That chivalrous devotion to the person of Christ and loyalty to 
 his memory that were the very flower of the feudal age, that 
 blind feeling after his humanity and longing to make it real to 
 mind and heart that inspired the Crusades, certainly make 
 those mighty movements deeply affecting as well as impressive. 
 It was the thought of Incarnation, indeed, which gave to that 
 and succeeding ages their strange spiritual glow, midway be- 
 tween the gloom of the dusk ages and the glare of modern 
 times. On the eve of the^ First Crusade the saintly Anselm 
 
16 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 began in England and finished in a Calabrian monastery his 
 epoch-making treatise a conspicuous sign of the stir of a 
 new intellectual life in Western Europe in which he grounded 
 the necessity of the Incarnation upon the facfrof sin. 
 
 In the armed devotion of the Holy Wars, in which bishop 
 and baron, monk and knight took part, we see revealed the 
 very form and pressure of the time. Emotional self-abandon- 
 ment was the note of the era ; men were extreme in whatever 
 they did. The swing of the soul from tumults of military 
 ferocity to a tumult of devotion is vividly exemplified in the 
 case of Godfrey and his crusaders, when, after the carnage at 
 Antioch and after having marked with blood their course 
 through Syria, they arrived at last, on that day in June of the 
 year 1099, within sight of Jerusalem, and in a moment their 
 souls were melted to contrition, and they fell on their knees, 
 weeping and groaning, and kissed the earth, and laid aside 
 their armor, and in the raiment of pilgrims walked barefooted 
 toward the holy city ; then armed again, and after a fearful 
 siege took the city, heaped the streets with slain, waded in 
 blood, and then donned white garments, went to the church 
 of the Holy Sepulchre, and bowed down in a passion of 
 humiliation. 
 
 In the excitement of battle as well as in the silence of mon- 
 astic cells men saw visions, or transmuted what they saw into 
 wondrous apparitions. The Crusaders were nerved in their 
 assault upon the walls of Jerusalem by the figure of a knight 
 that appeared over upon Mount Olivet, whom they took to be 
 St. George the Martyr. 
 
 The incident of the discovery at Antioch of the tip of the 
 lance said to have pierced the Saviour's side, and its immedi- 
 ate effect in reviving the spirit of the host, is a striking ex- 
 ample of the belief of those days in a miraculous virtue, a 
 mysterious power of communicating influence, inhering in the 
 bones of saints and martyrs, or in objects that had touched 
 

 
 ENGLISH LITERA\UFLE} ' " hi 
 
 their bodies. But most significant of all was tKe" discovery at 
 Caesarea, in noi, of a bowl of greenish glass, said to be 
 emerald, which was fully believed to be the dish out of which 
 Christ ate the broth of bitter herbs at his last passover, and in 
 which Joseph of Arimathea afterward caught the blood issuing 
 from his crucified body. 
 
 An important development of the Crusade and of the age 
 was the order of the Knights Templars. In those military 
 monks we see the perfect blend of the two passions of the age, 
 worship and warfare. Within twenty years after the founding 
 of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, a few knights banded 
 themselves together to protect pilgrims on their way to the 
 holy places ; they obtained from Baldwin II the right to lodge 
 in the precincts of his palace, on the site of Solomon's temple, 
 thence their title was derived. They chose as their habit 
 a white mantle marked with the red cross of the Crusaders. 
 As members of a religious order they were bound to attend the 
 daily services of the church ; and at their meals no voice was 
 heard save that of the reader of the Bible-lesson for the day. 
 Upon entering the order, in sign of utter self-renunciation, the 
 knight gave up all his private property, pledged himself to 
 chastity, and to kiss no woman, not even his nearest relative, 
 and vowed unquestioning obedience to the master, whose 
 bidding should be to him as God's. Two forms of disobedi- 
 ence, which were yet one, were punishable by expulsion from 
 the society : one was desertion to the infidels, the other, dis- 
 loyalty to the faith, that is, heresy, and both were treason. 
 A few years after the institution of the order Bernard was 
 chosen as its patron, and after that it gained great and speedy 
 prestige ; before the Second Crusade, of which their patron 
 and they were the chief promoters, the knights had established 
 themselves in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and England. 
 
 In England the twofold interest of the age was illustrated 
 by massive monuments that still endure the castles and 
 
18 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 cathedrals that the Normans raised. Gundulph, military 
 architect and engineer of William the Conqueror, was also 
 bishop of Rochester ; he re-built his cathedral, and reared near 
 by it the castle whose mighty keep still frowns upon the 
 Medway. Bishops were famous castle-builders' in those days : 
 King Stephen got into trouble by attempting to destroy some 
 of their fortresses. All over the land, on commanding sites, 
 rose the threatening walls, the massive keeps with machicolated 
 battlements of the castles of the Norman lords, temporal and 
 spiritual. Meanwhile, the splendid fanes of Winchester, Dur- 
 ham, Norwich, Peterborough, Ely, and Gloucester were also 
 rising, and in its lovely vale the stately nave pf Fountains 
 Abbey, over whose ponderous pillars the pointed arches the 
 first to be seen in England gave evidence, possibly, of the 
 influence of Saracenic art. 
 
 Such was the world into which Geoffrey of Monmouth was 
 born, and before which he held up the figure of the legendary 
 Arthur as the mirror of chivalry. Geoffrey came, like his hero, 
 from the west of Britain ; he was the son of a priest named 
 Arthur, of the household of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, natural 
 son of King Henry I. He studied at Oxford, and became a 
 man of learning according to the pattern of the age. There 
 he gathered material for his history ; there, at a churchman's 
 bidding, he rendered into Latin the " Prophecies of Merlin." 
 About the year 1140 he was appointed archdeacon of Llandaff, 
 through the influence of his father's brother, who was bishop 
 there. Meantime he was slowly shaping his Latin " History 
 of the Kings of Britain," making use, probably, of some old 
 collection of legends long since lost. The work assumed its 
 final form, it is believed, in 1147 the year of the Second 
 Crusade. In 1151, Geoffrey was promoted to the bishopric of 
 St. Asaph ; he died at Llandaff in 1154. 
 
 During his lifetime and for half a century after there was 
 extraordinary literary activity among the Welsh. Beside his 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 19 
 
 friend, the chronicler Carodoc, there appeared a veritable 
 galaxy of bards. Through Geoffrey part of this energy was 
 projected into the general literature of the world. 
 
 In his work appeared a troop of figures that were destined 
 to a literary immortality. Herein is manifest the difference 
 between a vein of Anglo-Norman writing and the whole body 
 of Anglo-Saxon literature : the latter contributed not one great 
 theme to English literature, while the stories of British kings 
 that Geoffrey told, the error of Lear, the conquests and mag- 
 nificence of Arthur, and his mysterious end, have exercised 
 over it a sovereign charm. It is interesting to notice that, just 
 at the time when the Norman Conquest had drawn England 
 into the current of European history, Geoffrey coordinated the 
 legendary history of the island with that of ancient Rome : 
 both were made to spring from the same Trojan stock. His 
 book played an important part in the literary awakening of 
 mediaeval Europe ; its influence upon the continent was as 
 great as it was in England. It was soon translated into 
 French verse by Robert Wace, a Norman trouvere, under 
 the title of " Brut," or Brutus the grandson of ^Eneas, fabled 
 to have become the first of the British kings. 
 
 During the life-time of Geoffrey another literary tradition, 
 deeply religious in its nature, was taking shape, which was 
 destined shortly to be grafted upon his and to transform it. 
 
 Among the chroniclers of the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
 turies who compiled in Latin their Histories of England, 
 men who were scandalized by Geoffrey's presumption in calling 
 his fictions a history, William of Malmesbury only is con- 
 nected with our subject through his Latin treatise " On the 
 Antiquity of the Church of Glastonbury." He is believed to 
 have been the son of a Norman father and a Saxon mother ; 
 he certainly exemplified in his person that union of conquerors 
 and conquered which was in process earlier than is commonly 
 supposed, an historic illustration of it is the marriage* of 
 
20 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Henry I to Matilda, daughter of Queen Margaret of Scotland 
 a princess of the Saxon line. William entered the Benedic- 
 tine monastery at Malmesbury, and after a time was made 
 custodian of its manuscripts. He was befriended by Geoffrey's 
 patron, the earl Robert of Gloucester. His history of England 
 ends with the year 1142, and probably indicates the time of his 
 death. His treatise above referred to tells of the wandering 
 of Joseph of Arimathea and his companions to Glastonbury, 
 where they preached to the natives, and gathered the first 
 Christian church in Britain. It is worth noting that in the 
 legend Joseph and his fellow-missionaries make up the mystic 
 number twelve. 
 
 Now the romantic interest of the story of Joseph centred in 
 the dish that he had brought with him, which had been used at 
 the Last Supper, and which held the blood that issued from 
 the five wounds of the Lord. Moreover, his body and King 
 Arthur's both lay enshrined, according to fable, in the sacred 
 precincts at Glastonbury. When we consider this and bear in 
 mind the general character of the age, we see clearly how just 
 one touch of poetic imagination might fuse the two lines of 
 romance in one, illumining the secular with the sacred, chang- 
 ing tales of bloodshed, passion, and demonic arts into descrip- 
 tions of the search for ideal purity and holiness, as suddenly 
 and wonderfully as the mood of the Crusaders was changed 
 when they came within sight of the walls of Jerusalem. It was 
 apparently by a churchman named Walter Map, or Mapes, that 
 that final touch was given. 
 
 He was born, probably, in the west of England. He attended 
 lectures at the University of Paris, and after his return to Eng- 
 land was made a canon of Salisbury in the Arthurian region. 
 His talents gained him the favorable notice of King Henry II ; 
 he was employed at court, and accompanied the king upon his 
 progresses through the realm. In 1173, he visited Gloucester 
 as itinerant justice of the district. The same year, Thomas 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 21 
 
 a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, who had been slain three 
 years before, was canonized by Pope Alexander III. 
 
 It must have been about this time that Walter wrote, in 
 Norman-French, his prose romance of the Quest of the Holy 
 Grail. We cannot but feel some connection between that work 
 and the great events of those years, the barbarous murder of 
 the archbishop, who murmured with his last breath, that in 
 defence of the church he was willing to die, the disasters that 
 soon after ensued, and almost overwhelmed the king, the 
 canonization, the painful humiliation of Henry before the 
 shrine of the martyr at Canterbury, these events produced 
 that excitation of imagination that precedes a great conception, 
 that atmosphere of horror and fearful expectancy, of wonder 
 and religious awe, upon which flashed in blinding light the 
 apparition of the Holy Grail. 
 
 Walter also wrote, in part at least, the romance of Lancelot 
 du Lac. He was present, as an English delegate, at a council 
 held by Pope Alexander III, probably that of the Lateran 
 in the year 1179. In 1196, he was appointed archdeacon of 
 Oxford. He was still living in the reign of King John. With 
 his Latin works we are not concerned here. 
 
 A significant fact in connection with the Quest of the Grail 
 is that in the twelfth century the sacramental wine began to be 
 generally withheld from the laity. Parallel with this change 
 came a change in the thought of the Grail : from the dish it 
 became the cup used by Jesus at the institution of his supper, 
 that is, the chalice, a symbol of the central mystery of the 
 Christian faith. The thrill that accompanied its appearance is 
 like the touch of a ghostly presence. And so the vision of the 
 Grail became the ideal of the Middle Ages ; it was a glimpse 
 of heaven, God's presence with men ; it was purity and holi- 
 ness and perfect faith and peace. And only like could com- 
 prehend like. Indescribably beautiful and pathetic is Arthur's 
 grief when his knights, with one accord, vow to undertake the 
 
22 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 quest : he knows that the charm of the Round Table is over- 
 come by a more potent spell ; that its glory is departing for- 
 ever ; that his company of gallant knights will gather round 
 him no more. It is the sundering of human ties by the con- 
 straining power of a great ideal. 
 
 Like Geoffrey's romance of Arthur, the legend of the Grail 
 soon won wide popularity upon the continent ; it stimulated 
 the imagination of the age, deeply impressed its finest poets, 
 and was the motive of its most spiritual poetry. At the French 
 court Robert de Boron produced his prose version of the story 
 of Joseph of Arimathea, and Chrestien de Troyes, a prolific 
 versifier, who flourished in the years 1180-1190, made the 
 Grail the motive of his romance of " Percevale." A profoundly 
 imaginative version of this work was the " Parzival " of the 
 German knight, Wolfram von Eschenbach. 
 
 In lighter vein, with frequent touches of satire, Wolfram's 
 contemporary and rival, Godfrey of Strassburg, recounted the 
 history of the fateful passion of Tristram and Isolde a theme 
 that hardly yielded to the legend of Arthur in popular interest. 
 
 At this period the great popular epic of Germany, the 
 Nibelungenlied, took its final form a form interesting to 
 compare and contrast with that of Beowulf, a savage, 
 heathen core with a faint burnish of Christian or rather 
 ecclesiastical terms. And as Denmark was drawn in the 
 twelfth century into the political system of the Empire, so 
 do her ancient ballads seem to circle, like satellites, in orbits 
 more or less remote, round the great luminary, the Lay of the 
 Nibelungen. In France, the " Chansons de Gestes," a mass 
 of verse dealing with Charlemagne and his paladins, deeply 
 imbued with the feudal spirit, had already been produced. 
 This, too, was the era of the troubadours, chief among whom 
 were Geoffrey Rudel, Bertrand de Born, and Pierre Vidal ; it 
 was indeed the golden prime of that Provencal poetry of love 
 and war, so soon to be extinguished by the ferocious crusade 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 23 
 
 that desolated Languedoc, and by the Inquisition thereupon 
 established. In Spain, the first and greatest monument of the 
 young Spanish language, the grand poem of the Cid, champion 
 of the faith and of the nation, emerged at this time amid the 
 tumult of the Holy Wars that were going on in that peninsula. 
 The history of Spain, partly by reason of its very aloofness 
 from the common interests of the rest of Europe, presents the 
 more striking analogies to them, chief among these being the 
 religious orders of knighthood that emulated the glory of the 
 Templars and the Knights of St. John. The order of Cala- 
 trava originated in an heroic defence of that place against the 
 Moors in the year 1158 ; and the Knights of Santiago, who for 
 many years had protected pilgrims to the famous shrine of 
 Compostella, were formally instituted in 1175 by a bull of 
 Alexander III. 
 
 It is believed that the epic of the Cid as we have it was 
 shaped from an earlier collection of ballads that sprang from 
 the fierce border warfare of Moors and Spaniards by an eccle- 
 siastic who ' refined, idealized, and Christianized the whole. 
 This gentle graft upon a savage stock would then present an 
 interesting parallel to the introduction of the Grail-motive into 
 Arthurian romance. And now, at the close of the chapter, we 
 return to England, to take note of the poet Layamon, in whose 
 work the course of English literature, properly speaking, begins. 
 
 It may seem that we have travelled far and wide before 
 making a beginning, but it will prove to have been well 
 worth our while to do so. We have gained a general impres- 
 sion of the character of the age ; have traced the working out 
 of a great conception ; and have seen how widespread and 
 productive was the fresh literary enthusiasm of the twelfth 
 century. Now our footing is firm ; we have secured a point of 
 departure for the literary developments that are to come. 
 
 The latter half of the twelfth century, though remarkably 
 barren of English writings, was, for that very reason largely, 
 
24 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 the seed-time of English speech. Freed from the restraining 
 influence that works of genius exert upon the tendency to 
 linguistic change, unused in the services of the church, in the 
 homes of the learned and the great, the language of the people 
 passed through a period of confusion from which it emerged as 
 archaic English. The changes it underwent were chiefly of 
 two kinds, inflexional and lexical : first, a general reduction of 
 the various Anglo-Saxon endings for case, gender, number, 
 person, mood, to e or en on its way to e ; and second, the intro- 
 duction of new words from Norman-French. Both modes of 
 development are exemplified in Layamon's poem, although, 
 long as it is it contains over thirty-two thousand lines 
 there are hardly one hundred and seventy words of French 
 derivation to be found in it. 
 
 Layamon was a priest who lived on the banks of the Severn, 
 in Worcestershire. His alliterative poem in which now and 
 then a stammer of rhyme is heard belongs to the threshold 
 of the thirteenth century, and stands at the head of English 
 literature : its author has been called the English Ennius. A 
 qualification is necessary, however; Layamon wrote in a dia- 
 lect, in the speech of the south of England one of the three 
 dialects among which English writings are to be divided for the 
 next hundred and fifty years. His language is difficult, no 
 doubt ; special preparation is required to understand it, and a 
 glossary must be constantly consulted; but it is not like learn- 
 ing a foreign tongue, two or three hours of study a day for 
 three or four days would make one master of the grammatical 
 difficulties that stand in the way of one's enjoyment of the 
 poem. 
 
 It is called the " Brut," and is a translation, with many 
 additions, of the Brut of Robert Wace. It is the first account 
 in English of those mythical British kings that were to play so 
 great a part in English literature. Here we have the story of 
 Lear (who, as romance says, gave his name to Leicester), as 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 25 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth told it : the injured king visits his 
 daughter " Cordoille " in France, and obtains from the king 
 her husband a force sufficient to re-conquer England, over 
 which he reigns gloriously until his peaceful death, three years 
 after. Following this comes the story of " Fereus and Poreus," 
 and shortly after of " Kinbelin," in whose time Christ was born, 
 who, in the theology of our poet, is "Father in heaven, 
 Son on earth of the good maiden, and holds with himself the 
 Holy Ghost." Soon there ensues the voluminous account of 
 the deeds of Arthur, who became king at the age of fifteen 
 years ; he was prosperous, rich in gold, liberal, strong, stern to 
 wrong-doers, dear to those who did well, the noblest of 
 kings, the Britons' darling. The most interesting portion of 
 the vast work, and that which best repays reading, is the de- 
 scription of Arthur's coronation, which extends for about five 
 hundred lines onward from line twenty-four-thousand two- 
 hundred and forty-one. Here are reflected the brilliant dis- 
 play of regal power, the stately ceremonial, and all the external 
 magnificence of the poet's own age the age of Richard I and 
 the Third Crusade. The coronation takes place on Whit- 
 sunday at the British capital, Kaerlion-on-Usk, a wealthy 
 and splendid city, second only to Rome in the whole world. 
 Thither have gathered from every quarter Arthur's vassal 
 kings, earls, and thanes, and ladies in gay array. Dubricius, 
 archbishop of Kaerlion, and the archbishops of London and 
 York, take part in the solemn ceremony ; Dubricius, the chosen 
 of Christ, the Pope's legate, leads the procession, and places 
 the crown upon Arthur's head. Then follow the coronation 
 feast, and the games, all through the long summer afternoon, 
 upon the meadows about Kaerlion. 
 
 Thus sweetly, with the glamour of poetry, did the Britons 
 and their king take captive the descendants of their Saxon 
 conquerors, as they had already, through Geoffrey's Latin 
 romance, enthralled their conquerors' conquerors. Thus, too, 
 
26 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 by the memory of Saint Dubricius, was the fame of the ancient 
 British church restored. The harmonizing effect of these old 
 legends upon the mixed population of England must have been 
 great indeed. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 27 
 
 II. 
 
 REMARKABLE differences appear between the work of Laya- 
 mon and the writings of the age that succeeded his, differ- 
 ences that were rooted, of course, in the altered character of 
 the time. Certain notable events help us to determine the 
 bounds of the new period: it extended from the year 1204, 
 when Normandy was lost to the English crown, to 1265, the 
 year of the first typical English parliament, the battle of Eves- 
 ham, and, let us add, of the birth of Dante Alighieri. It is 
 hardly necessary to say that the formative influences of the 
 period were at work years before the former date (they are dis- 
 tinguishable upon the continent at least as early as 1170), and 
 though waning were yet operative years after the latter. 
 
 A conspicuous sign of the time was the decay of crusading 
 zeal. Early in the thirteenth century the name crusade was 
 prostituted by being applied to shameless attacks upon Chris- 
 tians. A great expedition designed for the recovery of trie 
 Holy Sepulchre was diverted, by the pride and greed of the 
 Venetians, into a siege and capture of the city of Zara, and 
 soon after of Constantinople, and resulted in the temporary 
 subversion of the hollow Empire of the East. The ruthless 
 " crusade " against the Albigenses, which for twenty years 
 desolated the fairest provinces of France, was another instance 
 of abuse of the name for purposes of mischief. The crusade 
 of Andrew of Hungary in Palestine, in 1217, ended in failure 
 and speedy retreat. Europe and Asia alike were growing 
 weary of the long and costly struggle ; the only considerable 
 successes of the time were the bloodless victories of the 
 Emperor Frederick II, in 1229, and Richard, Earl of Corn- 
 wall, in 1240, who, by negotiation with the infidels, obtained 
 
28 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 possession of Jerusalem and neighboring towns. The zeal of 
 the former age burned brightly in the breast of Louis IX alone, 
 and never with a purer flame; but his first expedition was 
 disastrous in the extreme, and he died, in the year 1270, upon 
 the torrid sands of Tunis ere the second had fairly begun. 
 That was the last of the crusades. The forces of the Saracens 
 drew round the doomed town of Acre, the last stronghold of the 
 Christians in Palestine ; but the crash of its walls awoke not 
 an echo in Europe, and the reddened waves washed the 
 corpses of its defenders along the coast. 
 
 At the other extremity of the Mediterranean, Ferdinand III, 
 the sainted King of Spain, was achieving great success in his 
 struggle with the Moslem power ; he took town after town in 
 Andalusia, and in 1236 had the pleasure of converting the 
 many-pillared mosque of Cordova into a cathedral. In 1249 
 he took Seville, the largest city in the peninsula, after a pro- 
 tracted siege ; and at last all that remained to the Moors was 
 their province of Granada, enclosed, like a promontory, by the 
 Christian power. But the absorbing interest of the age was 
 the deadly strife between the papacy and the house of Hohen- 
 staufen, which ended in the extermination of the latter in the 
 year 1268, when the boy Conradin, grandson of Frederick II, 
 and last of his line, went to a cruel death upon the scaffold in 
 a public square at Naples. Grievous as the conflict was, it 
 yet shows that the mind of Europe had become more deeply 
 engaged in its own concerns than in the support of a shadowy 
 kingdom far off upon the Asiatic shore. It is this introversion 
 of the mind that gives tone to the whole period. 
 
 The most remarkable religious phenomenon of the thirteenth 
 century, and in religious movements the philosophy of all 
 these ages practically consists, was the foundation of the 
 great mendicant orders. Their originating principle was that 
 longing for complete disengagement from the world that was 
 manifested with fresh force by Francis of Assisi, who pro- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 29 
 
 posed a self-renunciation so absolute that it seemed fanatical 
 and impracticable even to the churchmen of those days. We 
 cannot but honor the motive that underlay the practice of such 
 excessive poverty ; it was designed to disencumber the brothers 
 of all burdens so that they might move around freely among 
 the growing towns, preaching the word of God. A similar zeal 
 for preaching joined with a similar poverty had already been 
 manifested by the Waldenses, whose apostolical missionaries 
 had penetrated, in the time of St. Francis, into all the great 
 countries of Western Europe, having even crossed over into 
 England. We must recognize this movement as the evan- 
 gelical phase of mediaeval piety. 
 
 Francis' attitude respecting this world's goods was deter- 
 mined by a thorough-going change in his character. Between 
 the lines of his life we may read something of the pain that 
 attends every transition from one age of the spirit to another, 
 the misunderstanding of the new by the old, the condemnation 
 of the old by the new, the mental distress, the domestic agony, 
 that should teach us a deep reverence and sympathy for the 
 heroes of every spiritual renascence. Francis practised strange 
 austerities to bring and keep his body in subjection; with that 
 quaint humor that helped to win him others' hearts he called 
 his body " Brother Ass," because it was made only to slave 
 and be beaten and to be supported by the coarsest food. His 
 order was recognized by Pope Innocent III in 1210, and from 
 that time to his death Francis held the primacy of piety in 
 Christendom. In 1219, it was estimated that five thousand 
 friars attended the general chapter of the order. The virgin 
 Clara, also of Assisi, founded an order for women under 
 Francis' rule, which soon numbered twelve houses in Italy, 
 with others in Germany. A little later, the princess Isabel, 
 sister of St. Louis, became the patroness of the Clares in 
 France. Clara was as deeply enamoured of poverty and 
 ascetic practices as was her model : she went barefoot ; wore a 
 
30 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 shift woven with sharp bristles ; lived on bread and water, and 
 slept upon the bare floor. We are not surprised to hear that 
 she suffered much from sickness, yet even her ill turns she 
 improved by spinning fine linen thread to be woven into altar- 
 cloths and corporals for the churches of Assisi. 
 
 After the death of Francis, in 1226, his work was carried on 
 in the same spirit by Anthony of Padua (born in Lisbon, in 
 1 195). He was the most noted preacher of his age, and un- 
 dertook long missionary tours in France, Spain, and Italy. 
 Within a few years the Franciscan order produced its brightest 
 light, the saint and doctor Bonaventura, who was five years of 
 age at the time of the founder's death, took the habit at the 
 age of twenty-two and became erelong general of the order. 
 Among his voluminous works is one that he wrote at Francis' 
 retreat upon Mt. Alverno : the little golden treatise of mediae- 
 val mysticism, the " Itinerarium Mentis in Deum." 
 
 At the same time the rival mendicant order, the Dominican, 
 brought forth its great saint and doctor, Thomas Aquinas, 
 whose " Summa," or system of theology, is a monument of in- 
 dustry and exhaustive analysis. Aquinas drew a strict line of 
 demarcation between the provinces of faith and reason in 
 matters of religion, a psychological distinction fertile of 
 future controversy and speculation. 
 
 The three other mendicant fraternities, Carmelite, Augus- 
 tinian, and Servite, never attained the popularity and power of 
 the former two. The Servites originated in Florence, about 
 the year 1233. The devout Filippo Benizi was one of the 
 founders, and in time became general of the order. He was 
 an earnest preacher, and once undertook an extensive mission- 
 ary journey through France and Flanders. The glory of the 
 Augustinians in this age was Nicholas of Tolentino, in the 
 march of Ancona. He too was a fervent and persuasive 
 preacher, but his usefulness was impaired by his ascetic rigors, 
 which brought upon him many painful infirmities, which he 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 31 
 
 mistook as punishments for his laxity. He chastised his re- 
 bellious flesh by binding it about with heavy iron girdles; he 
 ate only the simplest and coarsest food ; his bed was a board, 
 his pillow a stone. 
 
 The little that we have said of the monks and friars is the 
 very least that was due to men who contributed a large part of 
 the literature of mediaeval Europe, and copied and preserved 
 the rest in their libraries. 
 
 An interesting episode of the time was the military mission- 
 work of the Teutonic Knights. As the crusading fever abated, 
 they devoted their attention more and more to their boreal 
 provinces about the Baltic Sea. Having converted the natives 
 to Christianity at the point of the sword, and having established 
 some scattered bishoprics in Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland, 
 they caused the whole region to be erected into an ecclesi- 
 astical province, with its archiepiscopal see at Riga, in the 
 year 1255. 
 
 As it was throughout Europe in general, so was it in England 
 in particular: interest in home affairs and a spirit of religious 
 reflection superseded the interest of the preceding age in things 
 without and far away. The conquest of Normandy by Philip 
 of France served greatly to stimulate, even if it did not create, 
 this new self-consciousness of the English people. That event 
 was followed by two generations of internecine strife, the most 
 confused period of English history, yet fruitful of future good 
 beyond almost any other. It was a protracted struggle be- 
 tween a monarchy that aimed to be absolute, that carried 
 beyond endurance its abuse of power, that rested upon ex- 
 ternal sanction and support, and a nobility that however turbu- 
 lent was yet determined to be free ; between sovereigns like 
 John and his son Henry III on the one hand, the first tyran- 
 nical, cowardly, and evil, the other capricious and weak, who, 
 to gain the support of the Roman curia against their own 
 vassals, and to wring from them the sums of money of which 
 
32 , OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 they stood in perpetual need, were willing to sell the liberties 
 of the English church, and on the other hand, a series of able 
 and independent ecclesiastics, like Langton, Edmund of Can- 
 terbury, and Robert Grosseteste, who resented the intrusion of 
 Italian prelates into English livings and the exactions of the 
 popes, together with the great barons, led by the Marshalls and 
 Simon de Montfort, who resented the insolence of royal favor- 
 ites, the heaping of favors upon foreigners, and all the injuries 
 of irresponsible, personal government by the king. It is 
 evident, moreover, that this opposition to royal incapacity 
 and oppression which was in truth the national party, in spite 
 of the selfish motives that may have swayed many of its 
 adherents, was buoyed up by the sympathy of the people, and 
 the rising influence of the towns. It was a dark and troublous 
 age, yet in it were planted upon imperishable foundations the 
 rights of persons, the liberties of Englishmen. The charter 
 drawn up by barons and churchmen at Runnymede, and signed 
 by King John in June, 1215, was confirmed over and over 
 again in the following reign ; and Henry's bad faith and 
 neglect of its provisions led at last to the events of the year 
 1258, when a wearied nation decided that he was unfit to rule. 
 Matthew Paris, the best of England's mediaeval chroniclers, 
 through whose monkish Latin can be clearly discerned a kind- 
 ling national consciousness, is our authority for a great part of 
 the reign of Henry III, and exhibits in the plainest way the 
 dependence of English upon papal politics ; the supreme im- 
 portance of the contest between empire and papacy, and the 
 distress it caused all thoughtful minds ; the plunder of the 
 English and their church to which the pope's necessities drove 
 him, and the king's connivance at it for his own selfish ends. 
 The chronicler shows, too, with startling distinctness, how that 
 awful contest palsied all crusading effort, partly by withholding 
 aid from Europe, partly by stirring up strife between Hospital- 
 lers and Templars in Palestine. And further, by an occasional 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 33 
 
 naive remark he discloses the ill-feeling that existed among 
 members of the long-established monastic orders toward their 
 young, active, and popular rivals, the friars. 
 
 In the midst of these manifold antagonisms, and offering, as 
 it were, a refuge from them, there rose those chaste examples 
 of early Gothic architecture in which the deepening religious 
 consciousness of the time found expression. In France, the 
 cathedrals of Chartres, Rheims, and Amiens, in Germany, 
 those of Freiburg and Strassburg were more or less advanced 
 toward completion, and the reconstruction of the choir of 
 Cologne was begun. A significant change in the ground-plan 
 of churches accompanied in England the substitution of the 
 pointed arch for the round : a square eastern end replaced the 
 Norman apse. The cathedral of Lincoln was covered with a 
 substantial vault, the first probably that was constructed in the 
 kingdom. At Salisbury was rising, between the years 1220 and 
 1258, the most symmetrical of English cathedrals, the only one 
 that was completed according to the original design in the same 
 generation in which it was begun. Westminster Abbey was 
 rebuilt by King Henry III in the latter half of his reign. 
 
 It is necessary to bear these noble monuments in mind in 
 order to do justice to an age that is inadequately represented 
 by its literary remains. The truth is that the spirit of poetry 
 expressed itself mutely then in cathedral columns, walls, win- 
 dows, pinnacles, and spires, it had not yet found a tongue. 
 
 How inadequate as a literary medium the English language 
 yet seemed to educated men is shown by the fact that the 
 patriotic Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, used French in writing 
 his doctrinal and allegorical poem, the " Chateau d' Amour " 
 (the " Castle " being the body of Mary the Virgin), in which 
 he told of Creation, Redemption, the Judgment, the pains of 
 Hell and the joys of Heaven. 
 
 Now to gather in a focus all that has been said of the period, 
 to tell its secret in a word, we must recur to the thought of the 
 
34 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Grail. That was the supreme ideal of the preceding age, at 
 once its culmination and the beginning of its dissolution ; it 
 was the pivot on which thought revolved into a new stage. 
 The vision of the Grail, that is, a foretaste of heaven, could 
 only be attained by those whose lives were spotlessly pure ; 
 and in the thirteenth century, chastity meant the extirpation of 
 physical desire. For the body was regarded as impure, and as 
 the seat and source of impure appetites and imaginations. To 
 quell them, therefore, its strength must be reduced ; to live out 
 of the body, as if one had no body even, was the ideal of 
 Francis of Assisi and his companions. Hence the ascetic 
 rigors already noted, hence the snapping of all ties held to be 
 earthly, hence the straining to be free from worldly pursuits 
 and possessions. Thus only, it was thought, could one live a 
 heavenly life. Erelong the inevitable consequences of such a 
 mode of striving toward the ideal made themselves felt ; the 
 flesh, which men abused and attempted to ignore, rebelled, 
 thrusting itself upon their notice ; then ensued a more desperate 
 struggle to overcome it, followed by more violent revenges; 
 the ideal seemed ever more remote, and the spirit, groaning 
 under the bond it hated yet had to endure, conscious of its 
 own weakness, vexed by prurient suggestions, torn by doubt, 
 became a prey to melancholy. It is in such mortal strife be- 
 tween body and soul that self-consciousness grows clear ; in 
 such a time psychology begins. 
 
 The course of English literature in this period may be thus 
 summarized : devotional works appear, aiming to excite enthusi- 
 astic love for the Redeemer by pictures of his suffering; lives 
 of saints hold up examples for imitation ; sermons instruct, 
 exhort, and endeavor to make religion a more inward thing, a 
 matter of the heart ; soon an undertone of sadness begins to 
 be heard, a consciousness of failure, and marks of what the 
 mystics well term " interior desolation " ; and this ends in a 
 realization of the antithesis between soul and body as a fierce 
 antagonism, which induces final despair. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 35 
 
 The first and lengthiest specimen of this group of writings 
 is a series of sermons in metre called the " Ormulum " by its 
 author, who was an Augustinian canon named Orm. He wrote 
 in the dialect of the English midland. His plan was simple ; 
 patience only was needed for its execution, and of that quality 
 Orm had good store. It was to turn into English the gospel- 
 lesson for the day, and then append an exposition of it, and 
 in compiling the latter the author often laid under contribution 
 the writings of the great patron of his order. How laborious 
 he was may be gauged by this, that the fragment of his work 
 we possess, though amounting to more than twenty thousand 
 lines, only reaches, with many gaps, to the thirty-second ser- 
 mon, and beyond that stretched, in endless perspective, 
 scores, perhaps hundreds of gospel paraphrases with their 
 homiletic commentaries. That such a work should be com- 
 posed or read was owing, probably, to the fact that some 
 knowledge of the Scriptures which were now being withheld 
 from the laity could thus be imparted in a form not subject 
 to censure by the ecclesiastical authority. A council at Tou- 
 louse, in the year 1229, inhibited the use of translations of the 
 Scriptures, but left a way open for paraphrases of portions of 
 them like the work of Orm. 
 
 The Ormulum flows on in unrhymed lines of eight and seven 
 syllables alternately. Its iambic metre is exceedingly regular, 
 and does certainly course onward with a lilt that bears the 
 reader easily along. 
 
 In the Southern dialect and in prose were composed the 
 Lives of Saints Juliana, Margaret, and Katharine ; the " Ancren 
 Riwle," or Rule of Anchoresses, giving in detail the pattern 
 according to which nuns should frame their lives ; a long 
 homily called "Soul's Ward " (or " Guardian ") which urges, in 
 allegorical fashion, rejection of Self-Will and submission to 
 heavenly Wisdom as the guide of life; and a devotional treatise, 
 " The Wooing of Our Lord," which in the swoon of divine love 
 
36 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 that it labors to induce by holding before the gaze the picture 
 of Jesus' poverty, humiliation, passion, flagellation, and cruci- 
 fixion, reminds one of the ecstasies of St. Francis, and of the 
 morbid desire of many in that age to produce in their own 
 flesh a semblance of the five wounds of the Lord. Similar 
 to this in spirit is a short poem called "A Good Orison of 
 Our Lady," in halting lines on the basis of the iambic 
 pentameter, rhyming in couplets,' in which the beauty and 
 glory and power of Mary are chanted, and she is entreated 
 to bring her worshippers at last to the blessed heaven where 
 she is. 
 
 To a later date than any of these about the middle of 
 King Henry's reign belong a quaint metrical Bestiary that 
 breaks into occasional rhyme, and a freely flowing version in 
 octosyllabic couplets of portions of the books of Genesis and 
 Exodus. Both are couched in the Midland dialect. 
 
 .The Bestiary is a version of a Latin work ; it is a curious 
 example of that mixture of legend and allegory that passed as 
 natural history in the middle ages. After the description of an 
 animal and its supposed habits, often apocryphal, but accepted 
 without suspicion on the authority of the author, there follows 
 an application to human conduct for every habit, imaginary 
 or otherwise, was believed to be symbolical, and capable of 
 conveying a moral lesson. As the Ant, for instance, gathers 
 food in season, so should we gather spiritual sustenance ; as 
 winter is to her death is to us ; and as she drops the barley 
 she is carrying when she finds a grain of fine wheat, so should 
 we discard the old law, the new is better. 
 
 The representative piece of the period, and best worth con- 
 ning, is a rhyming homily of not quite four hundred lines which 
 has been poorly entitled " A Moral Ode." " An Earnest Call 
 to a Godly Life " would be a better description of its character; 
 its burden is, "Do Good while yet there is Time." The 
 author's soul was heavily weighted with a sense of the extent 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 37 
 
 and power and fearful end of sin ; he felt a pressing responsi- 
 bility for the souls of others, he must "warny" all his friends 
 to shun the path that leads to endless pain. His voice comes 
 sounding to us out of the very heart of that sad age ; this is 
 proved by the demand that there was for the poem through 
 many years : several copies of it are still extant, some dating 
 from the beginning, some from the end of the period. Its long 
 lines, with their monotonous rise and fall, chime well with the 
 solemn thought they convey. It begins with a lament for 
 wasted time : the poet's youth is past, and now he cannot do 
 the good he then neglected to do ; his example and his regret 
 should incite his readers to do well while they can, else like 
 him they will sorely repent. Every man must stand by himself, 
 trust no kinsfolk, not even wife or child, and the wife must 
 not trust her husband : none but Christ can save another's 
 soul. Let each avail of every opportunity of doing good, for a 
 time of reckoning is to come, when every man will be judged 
 by his works. God is gracious ; to him a little gift that comes 
 of good will is dear : ah, do good before it is too late. At the 
 day of doom devils will be our accusers; they will bring to 
 light all our evil deeds, and we shall be our own judges, for 
 there is no witness like a man's own heart; every man knows 
 himself best, his works and his will, and shall judge himself as 
 the testimony of his works may compel him, either to death or 
 to life. The pains of hell are terrible and without end ; a 
 week's pleasure here must be paid for with seven years of 
 sorrow there ; if one could experience that pain for only one 
 hour now he would abandon wife and child, father, sister and 
 brother, and all the pleasures and possessions of the world, and 
 be ever in prayer that he might escape hell-fire and arrive at 
 last in heaven. Oh listen ! in hell are hunger and thirst, 
 heat and cold ; no rest, but ever-burning fire for the false, lust- 
 ful, and covetous ; adders and snakes to tear and fret the 
 proud ; darkness and smoke and dreadful fiends, no tongue 
 
38 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 can tell the horrors of that place ; compared to them the great- 
 est pain we suffer on earth is glee. And many bad Christians 
 are there, without hope, oh, warn your friends as I do mine. 
 We are weak and sinful ; we suffer for our forefather's fault ; 
 but God is merciful. Two words, love to God and man, sum 
 up the whole of God's law : if we have those two loves we 
 shall taste the joys of heaven. Reflect before it is too late ; 
 keep yourself from the world and its love ; nine men in every 
 ten are pressing down the broad way ; few take the narrow 
 way of God's commandment, surrendering their own wills. 
 Let us take that path, for it leads to heaven ; there God is all 
 in all, those who are near him lack nothing. There shall those 
 see more of him who loved him more here, and find in him all 
 that man can desire : they have enough that have him who 
 possesses all things. May God bring us to that bliss. Pray, 
 dear friends, for the soul of him who wrote this, that he may 
 attain it. 
 
 The earnest dualism of this pathetic exhortation gives place 
 to despair in a remarkable poem called " The Debate of the 
 Body and the Soul," which was widely popular in many lands 
 in the thirteenth century. Its grotesqueness and savage dual- 
 ism were highly characteristic of the age. The author dreams 
 that he sees a knight's body lying on a bier, and the soul that 
 has just parted from it standing by. The soul gibes at the 
 body, and curses it for its disobedience : it would go its own 
 gait, and now its gluttony and lust have brought them both to 
 hell. The corpse slowly rears its head and replies : " Thou 
 dost wrong to lay all the blame upon me. I was entrusted to 
 thy guidance, and did nothing but what thou didst whisper in 
 my ear. Thou art lost by thine own fault, and but for thee I 
 should be as a sheep or an ox, and not be bound to hell." The 
 soul retorts : " I could do nothing without thee. We were both 
 born of one woman; I loved thee, but thou wast unruly; I was 
 thy slave, and now must suffer for thy deadly sins." " Nay, 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 39 
 
 the thought of every sin came first from thee, Soul ! I knew 
 not what was right or wrong except as thou didst teach me. I 
 was inclined to sin, as is the race, and thou didst allow me my 
 pleasure, though it was for thee to beat and bind." " I gave 
 thee good advice," says the soul, "but the fiend and the world 
 deceived thee. O ye traitors ! combining against my bliss : ye 
 led me as an ox is led by the horn, and have brought me to 
 hell-pain. Now no prayer avails ! " " Oh that I had died at 
 birth ! " cries the corpse, " then I had not known sin." " 'Tis 
 too late, Body! We must go our way, but oh, that thou 
 hadst amended only a little while ago ! Here come the fiends, 
 farewell ! We shall meet at doomsday." Then the devils 
 swoop upon the wretched soul, strike their claws into it, tousle 
 it hither and thither, drag it to the pit of hell, hurl it over the 
 brink and the dungeon door closes upon it. With the horror 
 the sleeper rouses up, aghast ; and thanks God that he is still 
 in the land of the living, and by repentance may hope to 
 escape that fearful fate. 
 
 If we turn to contemporary literature upon the continent of 
 Europe we shall find there also interesting evidence that a 
 serious spirit was abroad that was quite out of touch with the 
 spirit of those light romances, full of love and war and adven- 
 ture, in which the former age delighted. Among the songs of 
 Walther von der Vogelweide the prince of the Minnesingers 
 (the German troubadours) there are many verses that show 
 how acutely he felt the discord of his time. Although he is 
 remembered now for his love-songs, and especially for his lively 
 touches of natural description, a serious, moralizing strain was 
 yet the chief characteristic of his genius. The shadow of the 
 end seemed to him to be falling upon the world; he saw corrup- 
 tion spreading in the church, and anarchy impending in the 
 state. The correctness of this latter forecast appeared before 
 the next generation had passed away; the fall of the house of 
 Hohenstaufen was followed by the disorders of the Interreg- 
 
40 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 num, during which the flower of German song faded, and the 
 line of Minnesingers, like their imperial masters' line, became 
 extinct. 
 
 Sometime about the year 1250 appeared a book of moral in- 
 struction called "Der Winsbecke," purporting to be a father's 
 advice to his son. At this time all Germany was ringing with 
 the eloquence of Berthold Lech, a friar of the order of St. 
 Francis, a preacher of repentance, and of interior piety as con- 
 trasted with reliance upon indulgences, the merit of pilgrimages, 
 and the intercessions of saints. So vast were the crowds that 
 thronged to hear him that no building would hold them, and 
 he had to preach in the fields. His sermons are models of 
 clear German prose. 
 
 In France, too, the religious revival stimulated by the men- 
 dicant orders gave rise to much sermon-writing in the mother- 
 tongue. How generally prevalent was the didactic spirit 
 exemplified by " Der Winsbecke " is shown by the appearance 
 of a similar work in French, " Le Castoiement d'un Pere " 
 "A Father's Counsel" in which rules of conduct are im- 
 pressed upon the memory by apposite stories. The contrast 
 between the two great periods that we have been studying is 
 well illustrated by the works of the famous chroniclers, Ville- 
 hardouin and Joinville : the former wrote a history of the con- 
 quest of Constantinople (in which he took part) in the year 
 1204, which is full of the stir and color of the times; the latter 
 wrote, in a sober tone that was suited to a graver period, a 
 history of his royal patron, St. Louis. Of writings in verse we 
 can do no more than mention the lays and fables of Marie de 
 France ; the lyrics of Thibault de Champagne ; and the " Roman 
 de la Rose," begun by Guillaume de Lorris, who died about the 
 year 1260. This voluminous work, popular for ages in many 
 lands, has been suggestively termed a "psychological epic"; 
 it is an allegory, and through it all a moral purpose runs ; the 
 Rose, to obtain which is the object of the lover's endeavor, is 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 41 
 
 the recompense of faithful love, and personified sins such as 
 Sloth and Hatred stand in the way of its attainment. 
 
 After the blighting Albigensian crusade the sceptre of poetry 
 passed from Provence to Northern Italy, where it was wielded 
 by the severe Sordello of Mantua, whose shade in after 
 years guided Dante through the valley to the gate of Purgatory. 
 A few troubadours, leaving the desolate halls of their patrons, 
 who had fallen in the wars, wandered over the Pyrenees and 
 sought a livelihood in Catalonia and Aragon. Chief among 
 these was Pierre Cardinal, who found a patron in Jayme I, 
 king of Aragon ; but his spirit was embittered by misfortune, 
 and in satirical songs he poured contempt upon his age. The 
 last of the troubadours was Giraud Riquier of Narbonne, 
 who was befriended by Alfonso the Wise, king of Castile. 
 His verses suffer from that didacticism which is the death of 
 poetry. 
 
 The representative poet of Spain in this age was the priest 
 Gonzalo of Berceo, in the neighborhood of Calahorra. He 
 composed rhyming lives of saints, "The Martyrdom of St. 
 Lawrence," and the "Merits" and "Miracles of the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary." He died sometime after the year 1260. At the 
 end of the century appeared a Spanish version of "The Debate 
 of the Body and the Soul." 
 
42 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 III. 
 
 THERE stands a church upon the embattled acropolis of Car- 
 cassonne the old church of St. Nazaire the body of which, 
 dating from the eleventh century, is gloomy indeed. Its west- 
 ern end was walled up long ago, in time of war, and lets in no 
 light ; half a dozen heavy pillars on either side divide the aisles 
 from the nave ; overhead lowers a cavernous vault, pierced by 
 no openings. The chancel end is bright, and going toward it 
 one finds himself surrounded by tinted light that almost dazzles 
 after the darkness left behind. Right and left extend spacious 
 transepts, above are springy vaults, and round about are 
 graceful columns, carvings, and large windows filled with the 
 elegant tracery of the fourteenth century, and the gleam of 
 painted glass. Something like that is the change we experience 
 on passing from the shadows of the last age into the light of 
 the one before us. 
 
 We are greeted by an English carol that begins in this way : 
 " Spring is come with love in its turn, with blossoms and with 
 birds' songs, that brings all this bliss ; day's-eyes in the dales, 
 sweet notes of nightingales, every bird sings its song. The 
 thrustlecock chides them ever ; away is their winter woe when 
 woodruff springs. These birds sing wondrous many, and 
 whistle in their winter joy so that all the wood rings." 
 
 This is one of a number of refreshing little songs of love and 
 budding branches, spring flowers ancl returning birds. 
 
 A clever poem of considerable length, showing the same 
 genial appreciation of nature and a new-born sense of humor, 
 is " The Owl and the Nightingale," in which, in sprightly 
 couplets well suited to the theme, those birds flout each other, 
 peck each other's character to pieces, and celebrate their 
 
DIVERSITY 
 OF ENGLISH LITERATURE)^ 
 
 own good qualities. " Each said of the other's habits the 
 very worst that they knew "; it was a " stiff debate." The 
 nightingale sat on a fair bough, among blossoms, in a thick 
 hedge mingled with spire (tall grass) and green sedge; near 
 by, on an old ivy-covered tree-trunk, stood the owl. The night- 
 ingale taunts her enemy with her evil look and "guggling" 
 note ; she is a tyrant, hated by small birds ; moreover, she 
 feeds on nasty creatures like snails and mice and such "foul 
 wights." The owl swells with rage : "Why won't you fly out 
 into the open," she says, "and let us see which of us two is 
 fairer ? " "I don't care to have you claw me with your sharp 
 cleavers," retorts the nightingale ; " shame on you for your 
 treachery ! Tell me, monster, why do you sing your doleful 
 song by night, never by day? 'Tis a grisly shriek to hear. 
 You fly by night too, you love darkness." "I sing better 
 than you, chatterer ! My loud note is not like your feeble 
 piping. You sing all day and all night long ; your piping tires 
 everybody." " Not so, owl ! Everything is glad when I come. 
 The blossoms begin to spring and spread on tree and in 
 meadow ; the lily with her fair beauty welcomes me, prays me to 
 fly to her ; the red rose too, on the thorny bush, begs me to sing 
 for her love." " I have a fine dwelling too," rejoins the owl : 
 " big trees with thick boughs, all overgrown with green ivy that 
 never fades in frost or snow ; in winter it keeps me warm, in 
 summer cool ; my house is bright and green when nothing is 
 left of yours. You jeer at me for my food, but what do you 
 eat, pray ? Is it not spiders and flies and worms ? But I keep 
 men's houses and barns free from mice, churches, too, I 
 cleanse of them ; no foul wight that I can catch ever comes to 
 Christ's house." At this the nightingale is out of all patience : 
 " One song of my mouth is better than all that ever you could 
 do. My notes are sweet, like the songs of Holy Church ; in 
 heaven there is such singing. I help the priests at matins, and 
 they rejoice in my song." After further wrangling, the night- 
 
44 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 ingale bursts out, as if victorious, into loud warbling, in which 
 a choir of other birds join, thrush and throstle and wood-wale; 
 the wren calls for a decision ; Nicholas of Guilford (the author's 
 name, no doubt) shall be the umpire. Away they fly to find 
 him "but how they sped in their judgment I can't tell you; 
 here is no more of this tale." 
 
 In verse similar to that of this playful piece but far more 
 fluent, brighter yet in color, sprightlier in fancy, is a short 
 poem called " The Land of Cokaygne " " Kitchen-land." It 
 is a satire upon the luxury that was already beginning to invade 
 and corrupt conventual life, but its tone is by no means bitter, 
 it is rather that of amusement ; it was written in the spirit 
 of a wag, not of a reformer. Better than Paradise where 
 there is fruit but no meat, and nothing but water to drink is 
 the land of Cokaygne, that flows with oil, milk, honey, and 
 wine. "Well is him that there may be." In that land there 
 is an abbey of white and grey monks where there is store of 
 flesh and fish ; the very walls are built of pasties ; in the 
 cloister is a tree of spices ; a well of treacle is hard by. To 
 that abbey roast geese fly, bringing garlic. After dinner, the 
 young monks go out to play, and here the humor of the 
 piece becomes outrageous. In conclusion it is said that to 
 reach that delectable land one must wade for seven years up 
 to his chin in swines' filth. 
 
 " The Land of Cokaygne " is one of the best specimens of 
 light satire in the language. The appearance of such a piece 
 signifies much : it means that a critical spirit is abroad; that 
 fresh powers of observation are coming into play ; that thought 
 is growing independent. 
 
 Collections of proverbs those digests of popular experi- 
 ence were made at this time, and were in great demand. 
 One of such goes by the name of Hendyng some legendary 
 sage, some rustic Solomon, whose name became a generic term 
 for all makers of proverbs. After a ballad-like stanza, in which 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 45 
 
 some bit of popular observation is unfolded, the whole is com- 
 pactly summed up in one of Hendyng's sayings, and often 
 made yet more portable by being clinched with a rhyme or an 
 assonance. In this old collection occur many proverbs that 
 are still current : "A good beginning makes a good ending," - 
 "a burnt child dreads the fire." Other examples are : " Hope 
 of long life beguiles many a good wife," "when need is 
 highest, help is nighest," - " seldom comes loan laughing 
 home," " well he fights that well flies." In the last two the 
 assonance is still preserved, it is obscured by our modern 
 pronunciation in the following : " A fool's bolt is soon shot." 
 
 The poetical pieces thus far noticed were simply the prelude 
 to masses of rhyme. Long rhyming chronicles appeared, in 
 which Arthur and the other ancient British worthies figured 
 again upon the scene. Romances full of love and fighting and 
 adventure gathered bulk proportionate to the popularity of 
 their heroes. It is plain that there was a resurgence in some 
 measure of the spirit of the age of Layamon. 
 
 Portions of Scripture history, beginning with the birth, death, 
 and resurrection of Christ, were dramatised and acted in con- 
 nection with the Corpus Christi festival, first instituted by 
 Pope Urban IV in 1264, and appointed to be kept on the 
 Thursday following Trinity Sunday. These representations 
 were called miracle-plays, and at last mysteries (in order to 
 distinguish them from other miracle-plays founded on the lives 
 of saints) : it is believed that a series of them was acted at the 
 town of Chester within a few years from the date given above. 
 
 This promising, fresh beginning of English literature is to be 
 explained by the spirit of the age of Edward I. As unlike his 
 father's as was the character of that great sovereign, so unlike 
 the former age was that which had supervened. The pendulum 
 of thought and feeling had swung over a wide arc ; a new set 
 of ideas had replaced the old. Whereas the world, in its double 
 sense of external nature and human society, had seemed to be 
 
46 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 hopelessly evil, opposed in its very essence to heaven and to 
 God, and whereas the human body had been despised and 
 hated as the loathly prison of the soul, now, on the contrary, 
 instructed doubtless by the unhappy consequences of that view 
 of things, men began to discover goodness and beauty in the 
 world and the body ; regarded nature with the genial interest 
 we have already noted ; and received gratefully the pleasures 
 of the senses. The human spirit began to feel at home in the 
 body, looked about it, and exerted itself to improve its condi- 
 tion. Thus was a higher unity secured after the painful dis- 
 cord of the previous period. 
 
 At such a time natural science is born ; and the striking 
 witness to this fact is the renowned Franciscan friar, Roger 
 Bacon. The story of his troubled life marks him out conspic- 
 uously as the intellectual pioneer and martyr of his age. His 
 investigations having aroused the suspicion of his superiors in 
 the order, he was kept under guard in Paris for a whole decade, 
 and was deprived of instruments and books. Happily for him, 
 a friend of former years was raised to the papal throne in 
 1265 as Clement IV; for him Bacon managed to compose a 
 work the "Opus Majus," a synopsis of science as he under- 
 stood it, which brought about his liberation, and in 1268 he 
 was in his native land of England once more. He was too 
 eager to be discreet; his impatience with ignorance and mental 
 immobility in high places made him enemies ; the general of 
 the Franciscans in special disliked and suspected him ; and in 
 1278 he was confined at Paris again. Ten years later, the 
 general was chosen pope, with the title Nicholas IV; and it 
 was not until his death, in 1292, that Bacon was set free. He 
 returned to England to die. 
 
 By making mathematics the ground of all science Bacon 
 gave unity to his speculations. He excelled in alchemy and 
 optics, studies in which the Saracens had been without 
 peers for fully five centuries. As an explanation of the back- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 47 
 
 vvardness of science throughout Christendom, Bacon alleged 
 four causes : unquestioning submission to authority, the force 
 of habit, prejudice, and self-sufficient ignorance. The only 
 remedy, he said, was to go directly to nature, and question her 
 without fear and without prepossession. The scholastic 
 method of argument had failed to increase or advance knowl- 
 edge : that could only be done by experience, by experience in 
 its twofold sense, external observation and experiment and 
 internal comprehension, conception, understanding. The 
 causes of sensation, the two principles of physical existence, 
 he made to be matter and " virtue " (in the sense in which we 
 speak of the virtues, properties, or powers of herbs): these 
 were the elements of natural science. Creation, motion, any 
 effect he explained by the action of a " virtue," or quality, or 
 power, upon matter. 
 
 Out of mere justice to the age one is obliged to say thus 
 much about Bacon, although his writings, being all in Latin, 
 do not belong to English literature. 
 
 It is interesting to compare with him his almost equally mis- 
 understood and ill-used contemporary, the star-gazing king of 
 Castile, Alfonso X. To him we owe the simplification of our 
 arithmetic by the introduction of Arabic numerals. 
 
 Bacon had experimented much with lenses, but it was left 
 for an Italian, Alessandro Spina, first to put them to practical 
 use in the manufacture of eye-glasses. 
 
 Another Italian meanwhile, the Neapolitan Flavio Gioja, was 
 experimenting with the loadstone, and about the year 1302 
 devised a compass and magnetic needle. 
 
 The epoch was further signalized by the dissection of two 
 human bodies at Bologna, in 1315, by the professor of anat- 
 omy, Mondini di Luzzi, in the presence of the medical students 
 of the university. Up to that time, the interior structure of 
 the human body had been inferred from that of lower animals : 
 the great Galen even derived what he knew of it from the 
 
48 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 bodies of apes. Mondini's work the result of his investiga- 
 tions was not superseded as a text-book in anatomy for two 
 hundred years. 
 
 The head of the medical profession in England at this time 
 was John Gatesden, or Gaddesden, a graduate of the newly 
 founded Merton College, Oxford, who about the year 1299 
 began to study medicine, and soon became a successful practi- 
 tioner in London. He gained celebrity by his fanciful treat- 
 ment of a son of Edward I for small-pox, and the boy 
 recovered. Toward the close of that king's reign Gatesden 
 compiled his " Rosa Medicinae," drawing heavily upon the 
 writings of Arabian doctors. He lived to a great age, dying in 
 1361; and not many years after he was ranked by Chaucer 
 among the greatest physicians of all time. 
 
 A feature of the age quite as remarkable as this progress of 
 science and medicine was the development of another profes- 
 sion, that of the law. Out of the tumult of the previous period 
 sprang a longing for order, for security of life and limb and 
 property, that favored the growth of law, and goes far to 
 explain the rise of strong governments in Europe toward the 
 close of the thirteenth century. In England, that longing was 
 responded to by Edward I, one of the greatest of her kings, 
 whose name is a synonym for order, able government, and 
 legal and political reform. The battle of Evesham, in 1265, 
 had established anew the royal authority, and Edward took 
 advantage of the tranquil period that ensued to go to Palestine 
 as a continuator of St. Louis' last crusade. There his valor 
 and military prowess gained him high renown, stirred the 
 patriotic pride of his people, and won him their admiration and 
 affection ; upon the death of his father he returned to England, 
 in 1274, to take up the reins of government in an auspicious 
 season. The kingdom was at peace, and commerce was flour- 
 ishing. The year after his return, parliament made a begin- 
 ning of customs legislation by according him a duty on 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 49 
 
 exported wool, which was all that was needed to replenish his 
 treasury. From the first Edward directed his attention to the 
 strict execution of justice throughout the realm, and to the 
 development of law and of a better judicial system. Interest 
 in the subject had been greatly increased by a valuable com- 
 pend, "Of the Laws and Customs of England," by a late 
 learned jurist, Henry Bracton. Edward broke up the old 
 king's court into its constituent parts, and established these as 
 distinct courts, those of King's Bench, the Exchequer, and 
 Common Pleas ; he also parted the martial from the civil func- 
 tion of the justices (the union of which was characteristic of 
 the feudal age), it is said that Ralph Hengham, first chief 
 justice of the reconstructed court of King's Bench, was the first 
 who did not wear under his ermine a coat of mail. 
 
 Great as Edward was as a law-giver and administrator, he 
 was equally great and successful in his military undertakings ; 
 indeed, it is the brilliant extension of his authority over all 
 Britain, whereby he made of it an island-empire, that mention 
 of his name in general first suggests. Those conquests of his, 
 moreover, accelerated the growth of sound constitutional gov- 
 ernment, for the king's necessities forced him to have contin- 
 ual recourse to parliaments, and to gain the confidence and 
 support of shires and towns by giving them representation, 
 and grants of money were secured by concessions on his part. 
 In 1282 came the conquest of Wales (one cause, without 
 doubt, of the revival of interest in Welsh legends which we 
 have already observed) ; the year following, Edward called four 
 knights from every shire and four burgesses from every corpo- 
 rate town to devise some means of meeting the cost of the war. 
 In 1294, in consequence of a serious quarrel with Philip the 
 Fair of France, he had to make a similar appeal ; and in 1295 
 there met a parliament that became the model of all such 
 assemblies in the future. Then followed the war with Scotland 
 for Edward had allowed himself to be persuaded by his 
 
50 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 lawyers that he had a just claim to the overlordship of that 
 kingdom, and this time his necessities led to the confirma- 
 tion of the charters, in the year 1297. In the winter of 1301, 
 he had again to make large concessions in order to obtain from 
 the barons unanimous rejection of the arrogant and unprece- 
 dented claim lately put forth by Pope Boniface VIII to the 
 suzerainty of Scotland. In 1303, Edward made a triumphant 
 military progress through that kingdom, his fleet meanwhile 
 skirting its shores. 
 
 Among contemporary sovereigns Edward had no equal as a 
 great national king. Philip IV (the Fair) was a successful 
 despot, but he was not great ; he was selfish and cruel ; his 
 influence and example, and the result of his strongly central- 
 ized government, were disastrous to France. Yet in many 
 respects the careers of the two monarchs were remarkably like, 
 and show in an instructive way with what different motives the 
 same line of policy may be pursued. Like Edward, Philip 
 bent all his energies to the depression of feudalism, and to that 
 end favored the jurists, extended the jurisdiction of the Parlia- 
 ment of Paris to the virtual suppression of lesser courts, and 
 called the people to his aid. In 1302, during the height of his 
 contest with Boniface VIII, he convened, beside the clergy 
 and nobles, representatives of the Third Estate. It was the 
 first meeting of the States-General, and was analogous to 
 Edward's parliament of 1295. That contest between pope and 
 king was the chief concern of the era ; it was a mortal combat 
 between a declining and a rising power; the legal, critical, 
 slightly skeptical temper of the time was all on the king's side. 
 After the collapse of the papal power, Philip's influence in the 
 conclave secured the election of a Frenchman as pope, who 
 took the name of Clement V, was invested at Lyons, and fixed 
 his residence at Avignon. Having humbled the mightiest insti- 
 tution of the middle ages and made it subservient to his ends, 
 Philip continued his war with feudalism by attacking its 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 51 
 
 wealthiest, proudest, and most powerful representatives, the 
 Knights Templars. He forced the pope to his will, and 
 Clement abolished the order in the year 1312. 
 
 The tone of French literature was prevailingly satirical in 
 this period, as is shown by the poems of Rutebceuf, and yet 
 more conspicuously by the continuation of the " Romance of 
 the Rose" by Jean de Meung he introduced into it a new 
 and significant allegorical personage, " False-Semblance," and 
 grafted upon a dreamy exposition of the metaphysic of love a 
 prolix satire upon the society of his day. A consummate 
 example of long-drawn and remorseless satire was also taking 
 shape, the great beast-fable of the middle ages, the " Roman 
 du Renart." There is something terrible in the cynical con- 
 tempt of honor displayed in this poem, this apotheosis of base- 
 ness, this triumphant career of coarse and cruel trickery, hypoc- 
 risy, and lust. It is indicative of the emergence of an ignoble 
 element in the social life of the time, destitute of any high 
 ideal, yet quick to discern any discrepancy between profession 
 and practice on the part of its superiors, and stirred to admira- 
 tion only by successful cunning. 
 
 Late in the thirteenth century the sarcastic Adam de la Halle 
 produced the first comedy of modern times " Li Jus Adam." 
 
 Interesting evidence of the reaction against the gloomy ideas 
 of the former age is afforded in German literature by some of 
 the songs of Friedrich von Sonnenburg. The world, he de- 
 clares, is fair and good ; and he proves it in true mediaeval 
 fashion by reference to the bodies of Christ and his saints, 
 which were formed of its substance and by it were nourished ; 
 the resurrection bodies of the redeemed, moreover, will be 
 framed of it. We should not despise the world, he concludes, 
 but be glad that we are in it. 
 
 While Friedrich was preaching this wholesome doctrine, the 
 energetic Rudolf of Hapsburg, king of the Romans, was mak- 
 ing his part of the world pleasanter to live in, by restoring 
 
52 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 order and maintaining the peace of the Empire as far as he 
 was able. He repressed the violence of the barons, razed the 
 castles of the refractory, and cleared the highways of the rob- 
 ber bands that infested them. He was wise in his generation, 
 and made friends of the people. 
 
 With the rise of the people in political importance, a vein of 
 satire cropped out in German literature also, appearing most 
 conspicuously in the homely verse of Hugo von Trimberg. 
 
 Even the hastiest survey of the age would be incomplete 
 were we not to mention again that remarkable man, Alfonso X 
 (the Wise), brother-in-law of Edward I, his sister, the noble 
 Eleanor, become Edward's queen. Alfonso had the Bible 
 translated into Spanish, and had a chronicle of Spanish history 
 and a great code of laws and customs compiled, also in the 
 native language. The Code took its title " Las Siete Parti- 
 das " from its seven main divisions. These were the first 
 great monuments of Spanish prose. . A little later the fluent 
 Italian language was moulded by the mighty genius of Dante, 
 who stands, Janus-like, between two worlds, his backward gaze 
 piercing depths of gloom until it is lost in the silvery light of 
 classic literature, while his forward face, flushed with the sun- 
 rise of the Renascence, seems to command all coming time. 
 
 To Aquinas and Bonaventura Dante was profoundly in- 
 debted, and he more than paid what he owed them : the theol- 
 ogy of the one and the mysticism of the other, transmuted by 
 him into poetry, were freed from the shackles of the technical 
 and professional, and attained a universal validity. It is, of 
 course, unnecessary to look beyond the sixth book of the 
 ^Eneid for the suggestion of the general design of the Divine 
 Comedy, but in the middle ages more than one monkish vis- 
 ionary had made the same awful journey as Virgil's hero, and 
 had not been deterred, as he was, from exploring the terrific 
 city of Dis, and in their steps Dante trod. Bede's account 
 of Drithelm's vision was mentioned long since ; yet more strik- 
 
ing and detailed is the account given by Roger of Wendover 
 (a precursor of Matthew Paris), among his annals of the year 
 1196, of a certain monk of Evesham who, while his body lay 
 in trance, was conducted by St. Nicholas through the doleful 
 regions where souls received fitting punishment for their sins. 
 
 The Divine Comedy may be read as the history of a soul 
 that has struggled from darkness into light. It is a record of 
 the travail of its author's own century, as it passes out of the 
 horror of great darkness, the lurid gleams and deadly fear of 
 the Inferno, through the milder shades of Purgatory, to the 
 peace and faith and radiance of the Paradise. The lofty invo- 
 cation to the Virgin at the very close of the vast poem merits 
 special attention ; it was in Dante's time that the cultus of 
 Mary reached its consummation ; it was firmly established 
 henceforth as an essential element in the popular faith, was 
 defended and expounded by doctors, enriched the services of 
 the church, and became the inspiration of poets and artists. 
 To the Franciscan order this access of devotion was primarily 
 due ; St. Bonaventura composed a Litany of the Blessed Vir- 
 gin, and about the year 1300 Duns Scotus, the subtle school- 
 man, defended with many refined arguments the lately devel- 
 oped doctrine of her immaculate conception. In this he 
 antagonised the conservative Aquinas, as he did his theological 
 system in general, enlarging the domain of faith in doctrinal 
 matters at the expense of that of reason. The Carmelites 
 strove to outdo the Franciscans in devotion to Mary; they 
 called themselves her friars, and boasted that she had shown 
 their order peculiar favor. The Servites took their title from 
 the special service they professed to her. The first great 
 Christian painter, Giovanni Cimabue, thrilled the heart of 
 Florence with joy by his colossal picture of the Madonna, 
 and a little later the new cathedral of that city, built by the 
 eminent architect Arnolfo, was dedicated to St. Mary of the 
 Lily. 
 
54 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 A clue to the secret source of this outburst of devotional 
 fervor is afforded by the two wonderful hymns of the thirteenth 
 century, the " Dies Irae " and the " Stabat Mater," the former 
 uttering in awe-struck accents the burden of the first half of 
 the century, the latter opening out in the last half a way of 
 relief. Both are believed to have been composed by Francis- 
 can friars. The Dies Irae exhibits a soul conscious only of 
 two awful facts itself and God: its poverty, helplessness, sin- 
 fulness, and abysmal alienation from a terribly majestic and 
 offended Deity. The Stabat Mater interposes a screen be- 
 tween the trembling soul and its Maker; the Virgin Mother 
 is the intermediary who dispenses grace and pardon from 
 above, stirs up holy affections in the human heart, and will 
 plead for the sinner at the judgment so shudderingly expected. 
 Thus the awful gulf was bridged, and the guilt-burdened spirit 
 poured itself forth in the very abandonment of adoration to- 
 ward that gracious figure, all mercy and mildness, who had 
 herself sounded the depths of human sorrow, and forgot its 
 own anguish in contemplating hers. 
 
 This motion of sympathy broke up the stony ground of the 
 heart, and a spring-tide of art ensued. To the year 1288 
 the first of the pontificate of Nicholas IV, for whom it was 
 done belongs the great mosaic representing the Coronation 
 of the Virgin in the apse of S ta Maria Maggiore at Rome. In 
 the church of S ta Maria sopra Minerva a mosaic over the tomb 
 of Durandus, who died in 1296, presents the great symbolist 
 and ritualist on his knees before a Madonna that might have 
 been designed by Cimabue. At Florence and Siena flourish- 
 ing schools of fresco-painting arose under Giotto and Duccio. 
 Those great masters loosed the swathing bands of art; their 
 work is characterized by a mobility, lifelikeness, and varied 
 expression of feeling before unknown. In his department 
 Giotto was as eminent a man as his friend Dante (whose por- 
 trait he painted) was in his ; it is pleasant to think of the 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, 55 
 
 intercourse between them at Padua, Dante looking on and 
 conversing while Giotto covered the walls of the Arena Chapel 
 with scenes from the lives of the Virgin -Mother and her son. 
 
 The epoch was further rendered illustrious by a revival of 
 sculpture, under a fresh and direct study of nature and of 
 remains of ancient art. Now it was that the Pisani carved 
 and cast their pulpits, statues, tombs, and doors. 
 
 The reign of Edward I was the flowering time of mediaeval 
 English art. Gothic architecture then attained its relative 
 perfection in the introduction of geometrical tracery, which, 
 coming midway between the severity of the lancet style and the 
 weakness of flowing tracery, was capable of endless variety 
 without extravagance and of perfect adaptation to openings of 
 any form. This beautiful style is exhibited in the Angel Choir 
 at Lincoln, which belongs to the early years of Edward I, and 
 in the nave of York and the Chapter-house at Wells, begun 
 about the middle of his reign. The sculptures of the Angel 
 Choir, too, give evidence of the taste and skill of the period. 
 The leafy capitals of columns show the effect of the new study 
 of nature, as do the carvings of the exquisite crosses reared by 
 Edward wherever the body of Queen Eleanor rested on its way 
 to interment in Westminster Abbey. The fine recumbent fig- 
 ures in bronze upon the tombs of Henry III and Eleanor were 
 the work of William Torel, but who he was it is impossible 
 now to ascertain; some insist that he was an Englishman, 
 others, that he was an Italian of the school of the Pisani. 
 The latter claim at least testifies to the excellence of his work. 
 The beautiful grille by Eleanor's tomb is a specimen of the 
 delicate iron-work of his time. 
 
 After this sweeping glance at the manifold activity of the 
 age we turn again to the literature, which we are now better 
 prepared to appreciate. One of the first points to arrest our 
 attention is the great influence of French literature and lan- 
 guage upon English : the statutes of Edward's reign were 
 
56 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 couched in French (instead of Latin as before) ; chronicles, 
 romances, mysteries, were done into English ; and French 
 words were naturalized in the language in such numbers as to 
 make this an epoch in its history. The first who thus enlarged 
 the vocabulary was the monk Robert of Gloucester, who, 
 about the year 1300, wrote in the southern dialect a rhyming 
 history of England that begins with the mythical Brutus and 
 ends with the reign of Henry III. Thus the first part of his 
 chronicle covers the same ground as Layamon's, but Robert 
 greatly abridges the history of the British kings in order to 
 make room for later dynasties. Like Layamon, he dwells 
 upon the story of Arthur in a tone of admiration and regret. 
 This new invasion of English literature by the Britons made 
 amends for the recent conquest of Wales. One cannot fail to 
 see in the good monk's record of British, Saxon, Danish, Nor- 
 man, and Angevin dynasties an evidence of patriotic pride, of 
 the rising national spirit, and of the union of races now hap- 
 pily achieved. His chronicle contains twelve thousand lines 
 
 equivalent to twice as many of the short lines of Layamon. 
 To Robert has been ascribed a set of Lives of Saints Kath- 
 arine, Lucy, Christopher, Ursula and the Eleven Thousand 
 Virgins, Swithin, Dunstan, Edmund the Confessor and others 
 
 that are written in the same dialect and verse as his history. 
 In the life of St. Swithin occurs an interesting touch of criti- 
 cism of the bishops for their pageantry in the consecration of 
 churches, the good Swithin did not make such display. 
 
 In the year 1303, Robert Mannyng, of Brunne, in Lincoln- 
 shire, a member of the order of St. Gilbert of Sempringham, 
 translated into English verse a French treatise called "The 
 Hand-book of Sins." He called his version " Handlyng 
 Synne" using the term "handling" in the sense of "touch- 
 ing " or " concerning." It deals with the seven deadly sins 
 pride, envy, anger, covetousness, sloth, gluttony, lechery, 
 illustrating them with stories that enforce the duty and advan- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 57 
 
 tage of practising their contrary virtues. Many years later, at 
 the bidding of his prior, Mannyng translated, also out of the 
 French, a rhyming history of England. This work, which was 
 designed for the instruction and entertainment of the common 
 people, goes over the ground that Robert of Gloucester had 
 lately occupied, with the addition of the reign of Edward I 
 whom Mannyng greatly admired. An English version of St. 
 Bonaventura's " Meditations on the Lord's Supper, and Hours 
 of the Passion," which is marked by much sweetness of phrase 
 and feeling, has been attributed to him. 
 
 These writings are of importance in the history of the lan- 
 guage. They are in the Midland dialect, and show it in its 
 final phrase, just before it rose to recognition as the English 
 language proper. The changes that we noticed in connection 
 with the speech of Layamon have been progressing ; the 
 various terminations of Anglo-Saxon have become (with few 
 exceptions) indistinguishable, having been melted down to a 
 universal <?, and even that is beginning to drop off, especially 
 from adjectives ; es is now established as the regular plural of 
 substantives; and the vocabulary has been swelled by new 
 words of French derivation that greatly outnumber those even 
 that were introduced by Mannyng's elder contemporary, the 
 monk of Gloucester. Already the language has a decidedly 
 modern look : it is hardly if at all more difficult to understand 
 than Chaucer's. 
 
 A certain melancholy interest attaches to Adam Davy's 
 "Dreams about King Edward II," because their glowing va- 
 ticinations of his miraculous escape from assassination, his 
 election as emperor, coronation by the pope, and subsequent 
 crusade under Christ's guidance, are in such woful contrast 
 with his unhappy career and horrible end. 
 
 As the Corpus Christi festival had not yet attained great 
 popularity or come into general observance, Pope Clement V 
 promulgated it anew at the Council of Vienne in the year 
 
58 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 1311. Five years later, Pope John XXII ordered that it 
 should be celebrated everywhere with solemn processions. As 
 the festival rose thus, rapidly in importance, so, we may pre- 
 sume, did the dramatic representations that were connected 
 with it increase in number and popularity. Those five years 
 may be referred to as the time when a fresh impulse was given 
 to the performance of mysteries ; then the famous collections 
 known as the Chester, Wakefield, Coventry, and York plays 
 were taking shape. These sets contained from two- to four- 
 dozen plays apiece ; it took days, sometimes even a week to 
 present them ; they were acted by members of the town guilds 
 upon movable scaffolds in the market-places or open spaces 
 before churches. In some instances they became an accom- 
 paniment of the annual fairs that drew a great concourse of 
 country people to town. They were in truth the chief means 
 of popular religious instruction, for sermons were few : Arch- 
 bishop Peckham of Canterbury had lately had to require his 
 priests to preach at least once every three months. The 
 mysteries unfolded in long panorama the great events in the 
 history of man's redemption ; a series of them would embrace 
 these and similar subjects: the Fall of the Angels the 
 Creation the Fall of Man Cain and Abel Noah the 
 Sacrifice of Isaac the story of Balaam the birth of Christ, 
 Visit of the Shepherds, and of the Three Kings the Flight 
 into Egypt Massacre of the Innocents Miracles of Christ, 
 especially the Raising of Lazarus the Conspiracy of Pilate 
 and Caiaphas the Crucifixion Harrowing of Hell Res- 
 urrection walk to Emmaus Ascension appearance of 
 Antichrist, and Day of Judgment. 
 
 This list reminds one of the frescoes of the same scenes and 
 subjects that were at this very time beginning to bloom upon 
 the walls of Italian churches. The passion of the age for such 
 graphic synopses of Bible history is revealed again in the 
 high popularity of the " Cursor M'undi," or Course of the 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 59 
 
 World, a voluminous poem in the Northern dialect, ascribed to 
 the latter part of the reign of Edward II. Its prologue, which 
 consists of only two hundred and seventy lines, is really inter- 
 esting for the glimpse of contemporary romance with which it 
 begins ; in it, too,' the author has kindly told us just what he is 
 going to write about, and has spared us the necessity of read- 
 ing further. Men love (he says) to hear rhymes and romances 
 of Alexander, Julius Caesar, and the strong strife of Greece 
 and Troy; of Brut, Arthur, Gawain, and Kay, their adven- 
 tures and the wonders that befell them ; of Charles and Roland, 
 and their wars against the Saracens ; of Tristram, Isambras, 
 and Amadas, vain shadows all. Earthly love is a phantom ; 
 those who can should rhyme of the blessed Mother of God, 
 and her love. In her honor he will write and tell of the old 
 and new law, of the fall of the Angels, of Adam, Noah, 
 Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Joseph, Moses, David, 
 and Solomon; then of Christ's coming, of Joachim and St. 
 Ann, the birth of Mary and of her Son, the Three Kings, 
 Herod's slaughter, the flight into Egypt, the baptism and temp- 
 tation of Christ, his miracles, crucifixion, harrowing of hell, 
 resurrection, and ascension ; and finally of the lives of the 
 Twelve Apostles, the assumption of Mary, the revelation of 
 Antichrist, and the Day of Doom. All this he will write in 
 English tongue, for the love of Englishmen, that the common 
 folk of England may understand it. Everywhere one finds 
 French rhymes, but let there be to each his own language. 
 
 In this list, as in that of the mysteries, one is struck by the 
 width of the leap from Old to New Testament times : the 
 great prophetic period seems to be entirely ignored. But 
 the author of the " Cursor Mundi " is better than his word, 
 and in the body of his work partly fills the gap by some 
 account of Elijah, and of the prophecies of Isaiah and Jere- 
 miah. He devotes about ten thousand lines to Old Testament 
 history and prophecy, and about fourteen thousand to the 
 
60 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 (partly apocryphal) Gospel story, and the Last Things. All 
 through the work much legendary matter is inwoven. The 
 popularity of a production like this is to be explained (as in 
 the case of the " Ormulum ") by the ecclesiastical prohibition 
 of translations of the Bible. The Psalter only was permitted 
 to be translated ; and a version of it was made in English 
 prose by William of Shoreham, in Kent, about the year 1327. 
 
 To the same date belongs a series of rhyming homilies in 
 the Northern dialect. The preacher begins with a slight para- 
 phrase of the Sunday's lesson, proceeds to an exposition of 
 it that inclines strongly to allegory, and points the whole with 
 an appropriate tale. It was an age of story-telling ; one 
 misses its full flavor unless he perceives the na'ive and child- 
 like delight with which men and women listened then to tales 
 of marvel and adventure. 
 
 The prologue to " Cursor Mundi " classifies excellently the 
 rhymed romances that were steadily increasing in popularity 
 through the reign of the first two Edwards. To the groups 
 there indicated should be added certain suggestions of an old 
 Danish and Saxon group, the " Lay of Havelok the Dane " 
 and "King Horn." These are both translations from the 
 French as, indeed, all the romances are. Horn was a ban- 
 ished prince, courteously received by King Aylmar, whose 
 daughter Rimenhild falls desperately in love with him. Before 
 he can marry her he must be knighted, and prove himself 
 worthy of her by valiant deeds. So he goes in search of 
 adventure, beheads hundreds of Saracens, enters the service 
 of the King of Ireland, kills the giant champion of a heathen 
 host, and is suddenly called home by a messenger from 
 Rimenhild, who has been betrothed against her will to a 
 neighboring prince. Horn braves the king ; tells him he will 
 conquer his own land and return for Rimenhild ; he does so, 
 bears her away in triumph and makes her his queen. This is 
 in brief the simple theme upon which a host of romances 
 merely ring the changes. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.^ ^% T " 
 
 M^ALlFOn^ 
 
 In the cycle of stories about Charlemagne and^ Roland 
 echoes of the old " Chansons de Gestes " sounded in England. 
 One cannot but feel more interest, however, in stories that were 
 native to the soil, such as the Arthurian legends, chief among 
 which were those of Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Lancelot 
 of the Lake, the Quest of the Grail, and the Death of Arthur. 
 The Tale of Troy derived its popularity partly from its imag- 
 ined connection with the history of Britain. 
 
 A set of tales and apologues of Oriental origin that goes by 
 the name of the "Seven Sages" is significant because it 
 taught western writers to string together a number of stories 
 upon a slender thread of narrative. The tales referred to are 
 fourteen in number ; seven of them are told by a wicked 
 queen with intent to prejudice her husband's mind against 
 his innocent son, who must be speechless for a week; their 
 effect is counteracted by the other seven, told by the sages ; 
 and the king is thus amused until the fatal week is past, after 
 which the prince's tongue is loosed, he clears himself com- 
 pletely, and the bad queen is put to death. 
 
 The adventures of two English heroes, Bevis of Hampton 
 and Guy of Warwick, were unsurpassed in popularity if we 
 may judge by their great length, and the way in which they 
 have been patched and added to by later hands. Bevis was 
 the son of an English earl. Even as a child he performs 
 wonderful feats of strength and valor, but his wicked mother 
 sells him into slavery to the Saracens. The Sultan's daughter 
 Josyan falls in love with him ; after manifold adventures in 
 paynim and Christian lands, he marries her ; and their son 
 Guy is crowned king by the dying Sultan. Much better is the 
 romance of Guy of Warwick, with whom, as a type of chivalry, 
 we may close this account of the literature of the age. Guy 
 was a son of the steward of the Earl of Warwick ; he was 
 shapely, brave, and strong. He dares to love the Earl's 
 daughter, Felice, but she disdains him. In a vision she is 
 
62 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 warned to be kind to him ; she bids him be knighted, and 
 when that is done, bids him seek adventure that he may prove 
 himself worthy of her. For a year he fights and jousts, and 
 returns famous : still she is not satisfied. He sets off again, 
 meets with unimaginable adventures, kills the Sultan, is be- 
 trothed to the daughter of the Emperor of the East, but is 
 reminded of Felice by the sight of the wedding ring. He 
 escapes the match by getting into a broil with a courtier ; 
 leaves Constantinople, and after more adventures arrives in 
 England. He slays an invulnerable dragon that was wasting 
 Northumberland ; is joyfully received at Warwick, and is 
 wedded to Felice, whose scruples are now entirely overcome. 
 Erelong, compunction of conscience sets him roving upon a 
 pilgrimage : he visits Jerusalem, and after a few final adven- 
 tures, returns home to fight a giant, the champion of an invad- 
 ing Danish host ; and then retires to a forest hermitage to die. 
 These romances were the delight of the feudal aristocracy, 
 and continually bring before the mind's eye the gay business 
 of their lives, their hunting, hawking, jousting, fighting, and 
 feasting ; and present beside pictures of the castles barbi- 
 can, drawbridge, portcullis, gloomy gate, and open bailey sur- 
 rounded by parapeted walls and towers in whose sombre 
 halls they were chanted by the minstrels. Edward I built 
 castles on a new plan, of which those he reared at Carnarvon 
 and Conway are splendid examples : the keep now left its 
 lordly central position and was engaged with half-a-dozen other 
 towers in the castle wall, which enclosed a bailey of a rudely 
 oval outline. The apartments in the towers, lighted by loop- 
 holes for windows, so dim that lamps had to be lit while it was 
 yet day, badly ventilated too, filled with smoke from the gusty 
 fireplace when the wind blew the wrong way, must have been 
 uncomfortable enough, in spite of the sparse rushes strewn 
 upon the floor, the arras that covered the damp walls, and the 
 soft divans memorials of intercourse with the East. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 63 
 
 The rest of the literature, rhyming chronicles, paraphrases 
 of Bible history, and religious poems sprang from another 
 source, the monasteries. The antithesis between these two 
 classes of writings the romantic and the religious is well 
 expressed in the prologue to " Cursor Mundi." Of the grand 
 churches, rivalling cathedrals, that bounded the cloisters on 
 their northern side, the most beautiful was Tintern Abbey, re- 
 built in the perfect style of the time of Edward I. About the 
 cloisters and the little sunny gardens they enclosed were the 
 chapter-house, scriptorium, or library, where the work of copy- 
 ing and illuminating manuscripts went on, hospice, where trav- 
 ellers were entertained, dormitories for the brothers, almonry 
 where food, clothing, and medicines were doled to the poor, 
 refectory, kitchen, cellars, and offices. The mere enumeration 
 of thes,e buildings indicates how important an agency such an 
 institution must have been in the social life of the time. The 
 life of the monks was regulated by the canonical hours ; after 
 service at prime (6 o'clock in the morning) they worked, in 
 summer, for four hours ; then read until sext (midday), when 
 they had a meal ; rested through the heat of the day, and 
 after nones (3 o'clock) worked until evensong. They were 
 allowed each a pound of bread a day, and two meals of two 
 cooked dishes and a dish of fruit. At bed-time compline was 
 sung, and then they went to rest upon their mattresses of straw. 
 But the severity of this rule was beginning in many places to 
 be relaxed, and the simple life of former years to be corrupted 
 by worldliness and self-indulgence. 
 
 Castle and convent were now declining institutions, types of 
 a system passing away, its work nearly done. The centre of 
 interest shifts to the growing towns, and homes of the people. 
 Everywhere there were rising, at first under the protection of 
 baron, bishop, or abbot, but now, in securer times, farther 
 away, villages of perhaps one hundred souls, farmers', weavers', 
 and tanners' families, their cottages arranged in line along a 
 
64 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 X road, near a stream. The cottage floor was simply trodden 
 earth ; around the walls 'were chests ; a brass pot, wooden 
 trenchers, and pottery were the household utensils ; chimneys 
 were perhaps just beginning to be built, but as a rule the 
 smoke of the fire was allowed to escape through a hole in the 
 roof. A ladder led to the snug sleeping loft overhead, under 
 the thatch. The house was scented by the heap of refuse that 
 fermented for months at a time just outside the door. The 
 farmer's clumsy cart rolled to field on stout iron-bound discs 
 of wood that did duty as wheels. The only breaks in the dull 
 round of hard labor were the services on Sundays and saints' 
 days, and for the favored few a visit to the annual fair at a 
 distant town. The church was the centre and light of village 
 life in those days. It was often fortified, especially if it were 
 by the sea and in danger from freebooters; to its massive 
 square tower the people ran for refuge, carrying their little 
 property of value, when threatened with danger. The conse- 
 cration of a church was the event of a lifetime ; then the 
 bishop came with his clergy, marched in procession round the 
 building, bade the doors be opened, entered, sprinkled holy 
 water about, blessed the corners of the church, and then the 
 altar, on which twelve candles shone, chanted the litany, 
 and then the people, who had been waiting without, were 
 admitted to see the rest of the ceremony. In like manner 
 grave-yards were consecrated, the four corners blessed, and 
 crosses set up. The bell that was to call the village to 
 service was washed, named, and blessed against lightning and 
 evil spirits. 
 
 The church's watchful care encompassed every individual 
 from the cradle to the grave, supporting him at the great crises 
 of his life, and hallowing them ; receiving him, an infant, at 
 baptism, confirming him at the age of puberty, applying for 
 every spiritual ailment the antidote of penance, nourishing 
 him with the Eucharist, solemnizing his marriage, smoothing 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 65 
 
 his passage to another world with extreme unction and the 
 viaticum. 
 
 Unless one apprehends such facts as these genially, without 
 prejudice or contempt, it is not for him to understand or enjoy 
 the culture of that age. 
 
 It is estimated that in the fourteenth century the population 
 of England amounted to as many as two million, five hundred 
 thousand souls, of whom at least two hundred thousand were 
 gathered in the towns. London numbered about forty thou- 
 sand ; Norwich, the second city in the kingdom, perhaps a 
 third as many; then came York and Bristol, with about ten 
 thousand each. The streets of the cities were narrow, the 
 houses low. In London, an ancient ordinance required that 
 the buildings should be of stone ; there, at the time of which 
 we treat, gabled upper stories were beginning to appear, pro- 
 jecting so boldly that they almost met above the narrow streets. 
 The rooms on the ground floor were then commonly converted 
 into shops. Chimneys and glazed windows were becoming 
 general in the houses of the well-to-do, behind which often 
 pleasant gardens stretched. More than half the land of Lon- 
 don was in the hands of ecclesiastics ; fine monasteries like 
 those of the Black and Gray Friars gave character to the city. 
 Over all the world-famous spire of St. Paul's shot into the air 
 to a height of nearly five hundred feet: its dedication, in the 
 year 1315, signalized the completion of the old cathedral, after 
 a century of reconstruction and addition. The vast building, 
 with its cloisters, chapter-house, and episcopal palace adjoining, 
 enclosed a wide square, in the middle of which rose a large 
 cross of sculptured stone. In a neighboring row, manuscripts, 
 pictures, and rosaries were sold. A single bridge old Lon- 
 don bridge spanned the river Thames ; it was lined, like a 
 street, with houses on either side. From Southwark the tide 
 of pilgrimage, travel and traffic set toward Kent, and all the 
 counties that bordered on the English channel. 
 
66 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Living was plain and poor in those days, and throughout the 
 winter absolutely unwholesome, for owing to lack of provender 
 for that season vast droves of cattle had to be killed in Novem- 
 ber, and on their salted meat people lived for more than half the 
 year. The salt used was made by evaporation, and was dark in 
 color and poor in quality. In Lent, of course, salt fish was the 
 only fare. As the supply of vegetables was quite insufficient to 
 correct the ill effects of so unwholesome a diet, it is no wonder 
 that the people of England were plagued with scurvy in those 
 long winters. An immediate result of so much salt fare was 
 intolerable thirst ; vast quantities of ale and small beer were 
 required to quench it. The tables of the rich were supplied 
 with Gascon wine. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the world into which Chaucer and Gower, 
 Langland and Wyclif were born. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 67 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE office of Edward Ill's reign was to fill with feeling, 
 and thereby modify the intellectual forms of the time of Ed- 
 ward I. It was an era of sentiment, of a fresri stir of the affec- 
 tions, of freer fancy and humor, of a new pathos. This it is 
 that makes it so attractive to the student of history ; the soul 
 feels more at home in it than in any preceding age. 
 
 The settled participation of the people in the government of 
 the country begot an interest in the common welfare and a 
 sense of national unity and glory that were more genial and 
 general than before. In theology, a further departure was 
 made from the scholastic method which heralded the dissolu- 
 tion of the system : the logical proofs of church doctrines that 
 were employed in preceding ages were abandoned as inade- 
 quate; the reason was declared to be ineffectual in the sphere 
 of the supernatural ; and faith was proclaimed as the only or- 
 gan for apprehending spiritual truths. From such an attitude 
 diverse consequences sprang : among pious souls a more ardent 
 devotion was stimulated, a warmer coloring was cast over re- 
 ligion, and it became a matter of feeling; while the stirring 
 intellect of the time, gladly relinquishing all spiritual concerns 
 to the direction of an external authority, exercised itself in the 
 sphere that was left to it of the secular and the human, and 
 revelled in the glory of nature and the treasures of classic lit- 
 erature. In architecture, the chaste forms of the last age 
 were moulded into mild curves of excessive elegance and grace 
 that bear the impress of the refinement, sentiment, and fancy 
 of the new epoch. The choirs of the cathedrals of Lichfield, 
 Ely, and Wells are examples of this Decorated style ; but the 
 acme of flowing tracery (seeming in this case to copy the deli- 
 
68 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 cate curves of leaves and flower-buds) was attained in the east 
 window of the cathedral of Carlisle. And now at last the 
 spirit of the age found a tongue, and in the young Chaucer's 
 liquid lines, his " ditties and glad songs " (which sparkled, we 
 may be sure, with dew and sunshine), his " Court of Love," 
 " Complaint to Pity," and " Complaint of Mars," warbled forth 
 the exultant joy in existence, the delight in springtime, in the 
 fragrance and beauty of flowers, and the song of birds, the bliss 
 of happy love, the woe of unrequited love, that were the prod- 
 uct of this new birth of the soul. Chaucer's first literary work 
 (significant of the French influence that dominated all his early 
 poems) was a translation of the " Romance of the Rose." He 
 also translated from the French a prayer to Mary, in which the 
 thought of the tender compassion of the Virgin Mother rouses 
 in the* poet's heart the very abandonment of love and passion- 
 ate entreaty. He flees to her, he has no comfort except in her, 
 the queen of misericord, the cause of grace. In her is abound- 
 ing pity ; she has ruth on our adversity. This word ruth is 
 most characteristic of Chaucer of any in his vocabulary ; it is 
 his own abounding sympathy, his broad humanity, that has so 
 endeared him to every later age. This quality gave him access 
 to the hearts of his characters, and his mastery of language 
 enabled him to tell their secrets to others. The woes of myth- 
 ological personages even were real to him ; his beautiful lament 
 for the Duchess Blanche of Lancaster opens, appropriately, 
 with the sad story of Alcyone, and 
 
 " Truly I which made this book 
 Had such pity and such ruth 
 To read her sorrow, that, by my troth, 
 I fared the worse all the morrow 
 And after, to thinken on her sorrow." 
 
 In the same poem, the inconsolable grief of the man in black 
 (the widowed Duke) an impersonation of sorrow, and the 
 poet's sympathy with him, are affectingly portrayed. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 69 
 
 The central figure in this epoch of feeling, of a national 
 enthusiasm which he himself did much to create, is that of the 
 spirited young king, Edward III. He stands in the heart of 
 all the stir and glitter of that day. Enthroned when he was 
 only fourteen years old, he wedded, at fifteen, Philippa of 
 Hainault, and in 1330, when he was but seventeen years of 
 age, became the father of a son who is known to history as the 
 Black Prince. A few months later he assumed in full the sov- 
 ereign authority ; sent to the gibbet the worthless Mortimer ; 
 and fairly began his brilliant reign. In 1333, his victory over 
 the Scots at Halidon Hill wiped out the lingering disgrace of 
 Bannockburn, and his overlordship of Scotland was admitted 
 by the king whom he placed upon the throne of that country. 
 In 1337, in his resentment at the assistance afforded by Philip 
 VI of France to the refractory Scots, Edward revived his claim 
 to the French crown as grandson of Philip the Fair ; entered 
 into an alliance with the Flemings, a connection that had an 
 important bearing upon the industrial development of England ; 
 and began the long drama of the Hundred Years' War. The 
 splendid victory of the English fleet off Sluys, in the year 1340, 
 was the first great naval battle of modern times. In 1346, on 
 the field of Cre'cy, King Edward defeated a French army three 
 times as numerous as his. The following year he reduced 
 Calais. At Poitiers, in 1356, the Black Prince overcame and 
 put to flight a host that outnumbered his as five or six to one ; 
 took the French king captive, carried him to England, and 
 exhibited him in courteous triumph in the streets of London. 
 These dazzling victories swelled to the utmost the pride of 
 Englishmen in their king and country, and greatly diminished 
 the influence" over them, before so potent, of the French lan- 
 guage and literature. 
 
 Parallel with these events were the Statutes of Provisors and 
 Praemunire, declarations of the independence of the English 
 church. The papal curia, still situated at Avignon, was quite 
 
70 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 under French control. Those statutes forbade papal fore- 
 stalling of the rights of chapters and patrons by appointing 
 successors to living incumbents, and declared the king's court 
 the court of final appeal, threatening with outlawry any ecclesi- 
 astic who carried his case to the curia for settlement. 
 
 King Edward enhanced the lustre of his monarchy by intro- 
 ducing, for princes of the blood royal, an order of nobility ele- 
 vated above the ancient orders, that is, the dukedom. He 
 created the Prince of Wales, while yet a young child, Duke of 
 Cornwall, and soon after made his cousin Henry Duke of Lan- 
 caster. But it was the institution of the Order of the Garter 
 that sums up for us picturesquely and completely the magnifi- 
 cent qualities of his reign. With it was connected the rebuild- 
 ing of Windsor castle, a truly national work, in which 
 laborers from every shire in England cooperated, and both 
 confess the magic power of Arthurian romance. A Round 
 Table was set up in the Round Tower at Windsor ; knights 
 and noblemen from far and near contended in splendid tourna- 
 ments ; twenty-five of the bravest were decorated with the 
 insignia of the order ; and song and feasting concluded 
 the day. 
 
 Edward was interested in the intellectual culture of his young 
 subjects : at Cambridge, where Clare Hall had lately been 
 founded, he founded, in 1332, King's Hall, or College. About 
 the same time, Oriel and Queen's Colleges were instituted at 
 Oxford, the latter in honor of Queen Philippa. These founda- 
 tions are to be compared with the universities that were rising 
 at the same period in the large towns of southern Europe. 
 
 There was no noted man of science in this reign, if we ex- 
 cept John Ardern, the first celebrated English surgeon, and 
 he was not as eminent as his French contemporary, Guy de 
 Chauliac, physician to several of the Avignonese popes. Ar- 
 dern began his study of the human frame at the time when the 
 Black Death was devastating Europe; after the year 1370 he 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 71 
 
 had a flourishing practice in London, where he attended the 
 Black Prince and the chief of the nobility. 
 
 When we turn to the literature of the reign we catch at first, 
 to our surprise, echoes of the lugubrious strains of the time of 
 Henry III. It is as if a fountain of bitter water had flowed 
 underground for a hundred years to well up darkly amid the 
 sunshine of a happier age. This sense of incongruity is 
 lessened when we consider that the writers of the beginning of 
 Edward Ill's reign were reared in the midst of the fierce 
 antagonisms of his father's time, and voice its tragic spirit. 
 It is apparent, moreover, that a deeper religious sentiment was 
 abroad than in the period immediately preceding. 
 
 An excellent illustration of this is afforded by the following 
 sentence, out of a work translated from the French by Michel 
 of Northgate, Kent, in the year 1340 : "If thou wilt know 
 what is good and what is evil, go out of thyself, go out of the 
 world, learn to die, part thy soul from the body by thought, 
 send thine heart into the other world (that is, into heaven, hell, 
 and purgatory) there thou shalt see what is good and what 
 is evil." The work of which this dualistic effort is the key- 
 note goes by the name of " The Ayenbite of Inwyt " (Again- 
 biting of the Inner-wit, or Remorse of Conscience). It is writ- 
 ten in the uncouth Kentish dialect. It is an exhaustive classi- 
 fication and description, with divisions and sub-divisions quite 
 in the manner of a philosophic treatise, of the seven deadly 
 sins and the virtues that correct them. 
 
 Michel's injunction above quoted was followed to the letter 
 by his contemporary, Richard Rolle, hermit of Hampole, near 
 Doncaster, Yorkshire, who died in the year 1349. He wrote, 
 in the Northern dialect, a dreary yet interesting poem, "The 
 Prick of Conscience," in which he expatiates, with infinite 
 detail, upon the misery of man's life. Every period of it, he 
 says, contains mickle wretchedness ; as soon as a child is born 
 it begins to cry ; it is pitifully feeble, and until it is baptized 
 
72 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 is the fiend's son ; even if it lives to grow up a stalwart and 
 comely young man, evils of all sorts, fever, dropsy, jaundice, 
 phthisic, gout, and other maladies will cause his strength to 
 abate, his beauty to fade ; then comes doting old age, heavy of 
 heart and head, dim of sight, hard of hearing, short of mem- 
 ory, and then death, whose tokens are remorselessly de- 
 scribed ; nor is the poet content to leave the grewsome theme 
 until he has harrowed our feelings to the uttermost by unveil- 
 ing the horrors of the charnel-house. He enlarges next upon 
 the uncertainty of life ; the world is unstable, as variable as the 
 sea, as full of danger as a wilderness haunted by wild beasts or 
 a forest full of thieves and outlaws ; man's life is a series of 
 chances and changes ; Dame Fortune turns her wheel, and 
 while she lifts some from woe to weal, plunges others from weal 
 to woe. Fascinated, like an Egyptian of old, by the thought of 
 death, the hermit-poet turns to it again to dilate upon its physi- 
 cal and spiritual terrors ; he enumerates four reasons why death 
 is to be dreaded : the pain of the parting of soul and body ; the 
 vision of devils about the death-bed ; the account of his life 
 that the sufferer must shortly give ; and his uncertainty whether 
 he is passing to joy or pain. As to the first point, a figure em- 
 ployed by a " philosopher " is quoted with approval ; suppose 
 a tree planted in a man's heart, its roots twisted about every 
 joint and vein in his body, its top shooting out of his mouth, 
 and then suppose that that tree, with all its roots, were sud- 
 denly pulled out, the pain would be like, yet not so fearful as 
 that of the parting of soul and body. The next portion of the 
 work treats of Purgatory (its least pain being greater than the 
 greatest pain of earth ; a spark only of its fires being hotter 
 than all the fires of earth), the next of Doomsday, and the 
 last of the Pains of Hell and the Joys of Heaven. Some of 
 the pains of hell are Dantesque and terrific ; there men suffer 
 such hunger that they tear their own flesh ; they thirst, and 
 have only fire to drink ; they are tortured by conscience, and 
 by devils whose aspect woulfl drive men mad for fear. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 73 
 
 Violent as the contrast seems to be between this dismal poem 
 with its lurid touches and the brilliant reign in which it ap- 
 peared, there was yet a fundamental agreement between them, 
 they represented the two poles of feeling. The hermit of 
 Hampole's aim was emotional coercion ; he would save men 
 by exciting to an agony the sentiment of fear. 
 
 The other extreme of feeling, that of desire of glory, joy in 
 victory, and patriotic pride, was voiced by Laurence Minot, 
 Edward Ill's rustic laureate, who composed, in the Northern 
 dialect, eleven poems that celebrate the great deeds of English- 
 men and their "comely King" in the war with France and 
 Scotland. The ground of this sentiment, in large measure the 
 cause of those triumphs, was a conviction that God was on the 
 side of the English in the struggle, and that he regarded their 
 king with peculiar favor. Proof of this is quaintly recorded 
 by Minot : one dull morning, when the spirit of the English 
 army was depresssed by a thick fog, King Edward made his 
 prayer to God, " and God sent him good comfort soon, the 
 weather grew full clear." 
 
 All through this period, we should bear in mind, miracle- 
 plays and mysteries were enacted in due season before eager 
 crowds, and metrical romances were as popular as ever. About 
 the middle of the reign a French romance, " William of Paler- 
 mo," was translated into the midland dialect, in alliterative 
 verse. It is a tale of a Sicilian prince who was kidnapped by 
 a were-wolf, found by a shepherd, and finally adopted by the 
 emperor of Rome ; the were-wolf, who was in reality a Spanish 
 prince, suffering under the baleful enchantment of his wicked 
 step-mother, is in the sequel restored to his right shape, and 
 returns to his native land to reign. It is a pretty story; and 
 the best descriptive passages it contains were added by the 
 English translator. More interesting yet, because smacking of 
 the soil, is the "Tale of Gamelyn " a youth who is abused 
 and betrayed by his eldest brother, and escapes to the green- 
 
74 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 wood, where he is made "king" of a company of outlaws. 
 His story is evidently connected with that of Robin Hood. 
 The gathering hatred of the people toward the regular clergy 
 is strikingly exhibited in this poem. The best of all these 
 romances, either of this or the previous period, is that of " Sir 
 Gawayne and the Grene Knight." It is of considerable length. 
 Each section, of about twenty alliterative lines, is pointed with 
 a jaunty quatrain. Sir Gawayne is King Arthur's nephew ; he 
 is a paragon of knighthood, an exemplar of the five chivalric 
 virtues, frankness, fellowship, chastity, courtesy, and pity or 
 sympathy. The scene opens with the Christmas festivities at 
 Camelot ; Guenore the queen is there in gay apparel ; after the 
 bounteous feast Arthur calls for tales of marvel and adventure. 
 On a sudden a giant, as green as grass, appears before the 
 court ; his beard is like a bush, his bristly brows are green, 
 and " all his vesture verily is verdure." He is seated upon a 
 green foal ; his saddle is embroidered with birds and flies, his 
 stirrups set with green stones. He holds no weapon but a 
 holly-bough and axe of sharp green steel. The company is 
 daunted by this singular apparition, who dares any knight there 
 present to smite him on the neck three times with the axe, on 
 condition that that knight shall seek him out a year from that 
 day and stand as many strokes in his turn. Amid the fore- 
 bodings of the ladies, Sir Gawayne undertakes the adventure : 
 his first two blows are ineffectual; the third severs the Green 
 Knight's head from his body ; the monster catches up his head 
 and gallops away. The seasons come and go, but no thought 
 of escape from the conditions he has accepted ever enters 
 Gawayne's mind to a knight it is an unspeakable disgrace 
 not to keep his faith. The warm showers fall, the trees grow 
 green, the birds build and sing, " for solace of the soft summer," 
 the " donkand dew " drops from the worts, the sun is bright 
 and hot, the wind blows, the dust drives, the leaves fall, the 
 grass grows gray, and winter winds round. It is time for 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 75 
 
 Gawayne to start on his quest for the Green Knight. First he 
 wanders through North Wales, and in the winter woodland 
 meets many wonders, but none can tell him of the Green 
 Knight. At Christmastide he arrives at a fine castle, and is 
 courteously entertained there three days. His host goes hunt- 
 ing, after making Gawayne promise that he will return him 
 anything that may be given him in his absence. The descrip- 
 tions of the arming of a knight, and of deer, boar, and fox- 
 hunting, are given with spirit, and are entertaining episodes in 
 the story. Meanwhile the lady of the castle tempts Gawayne ; 
 it is a difBcult predicament, he must be courteous to the 
 lady, yet not a traitor to his host ; he withstands her entice- 
 ments gracefully and honorably. She gives him a magic girdle 
 to protect him in his encounter with the Green Knight, whose 
 haunt (he discovers) is not far away. In the evening, when- his 
 host returns, Gawayne gives him his lady's kisses but says 
 nothing about the girdle. The next morning, he sets out to 
 fulfil his compact with the giant. It is a wild winter's day ; 
 the north wind blows, the " snittering " snow drifts in the dales, 
 every hill has a hat and cloak of mist. At last he comes to a 
 cave, overgrown with herbs ; it is the green chapel of the giant, 
 an " ugly oratory, where devil-wise devotions might well be 
 paid ; a cursed kirk ! " Out of a hole in the ground comes the 
 Green Knight, his host of the castle, though he knows it not. 
 Gawayne bares his neck for the blows ; the first two are only 
 feigned ; the third time the axe just cuts his skin. Then the 
 Green Knight tells him he has borne himself well save in the 
 matter of the girdle : the third stroke was his punishment for 
 that little blemish upon his honor. Gawayne is deeply humili- 
 ated, and curses his cowardice and untruth. 
 
 As we read, we feel instinctively that the figures of this story 
 have a hidden meaning, and we are justified in seeking it by 
 the known passion of the Middle Ages for allegory. What 
 is the Green Knight but a type of nature, not the inanimate 
 
76 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 world, but the deathless life that is in nature ? Then the 
 teaching of the tale is that that Protean life can only be con- 
 quered and made harmless, even friendly, by perfect self-con- 
 trol and the strength and fearlessness that spring from purity 
 and good faith. 
 
 The most popular book of the age, and an important monu- 
 ment of early English prose, was Sir John Mandeville's story 
 of travel in the Orient. Sir John left England in the year 1322, 
 and was gone for more than thirty years. Upon his return 
 from the East, he submitted a Latin version of his narrative to 
 the pope at Avignon ; having gained his approval of it he 
 translated it into English, in 1356. His motive in composing 
 the book was to afford pilgrims a guide to Jerusalem and the 
 Holy Land. So he points out, in the first part, four ways to 
 the holy city: one by Cyprus and Jaffa, another by Tyre, an- 
 other northward from Egypt, another, almost entirely by land, 
 through Constantinople and Antioch. In the second part he 
 takes a wider range; traverses Armenia, the land of Job, India, 
 Java, and Cathay ; describes the gardens, palace and throne of 
 the Grand Khan, and the customs of the Tartars; and then 
 tells of Media, Georgia, and the Land of Darkness ; of twenty- 
 two kings pent up between the mountains and the Caspian Sea, 
 who will break forth in Anti-Christ's time; of the dominion of 
 Prester John and his palace at Susa; of the Vale Perilous, the 
 Devil's Head, and the isles of Bragman and Taprobane. 
 Though some of Mandeville's geography seems to be of fairy- 
 land, and though he records marvels prodigious enough to 
 satisfy even the eager craving of that childlike day, yet that 
 very interest in geography and the doings of strange folk in 
 far-off lands was at once a sign and a means of a remarkable 
 intellectual and imaginative awakening, and the many manu- 
 scripts of the work show how general that awakening was. 
 One notable trait of Mandeville's is the interest and subtle 
 sympathy born thereof with which he describes the religious 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 77 
 
 beliefs of various peoples, the strange ways of the Greek and 
 Syrian Christians, the belief of the Saracens and of the Fire- 
 worshippers. He actually speaks in that day of the Inquisi- 
 tion, of the " Holy book Alkoran, which God sent by his 
 messenger Mohammed,"- a dangerously liberal sentiment ! 
 
 Such was the literature produced in England while Chaucer 
 was a boy. Meantime, in Germany, William of Occam, an 
 Englishman, who had already drawn the last conclusion from 
 that theological nescience on which Duns Scotus had lately 
 insisted, was defending, under the protection of the Emperor 
 Louis IV, and in his behalf, the rights of the civil power as 
 against papal autocracy. It was not by any means by chance 
 that the flourishing period of German mysticism in the Rhine 
 valley, at Constance, Basel, Strassburg and Cologne, coincided 
 with Occam's career, that Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, and the 
 author of the " German Theology " were his contemporaries. 
 Scholasticism was dissolved into mysticism through the medium 
 of feeling, by the doctrine of intuitive apprehension of the 
 being of God and of all spiritual truths. In matters of faith, 
 moreover, both yielded unqualified submission to the authority 
 of the church. 
 
 In the year 1362, a priest of Strassburg named Closener 
 finished his German prose chronicle of his own time. The 
 most remarkable passages in it are those descriptive of the 
 Black Death, and the emotional extravagances (connected with 
 it) of the Flagellants. The whole of the fourteenth century 
 was prolific in the homely, mechanic verse of the Master- 
 singers. 
 
 The rise of sentiment in that century was signalized by a 
 revival of poetry in the South ,of France. A court of love was 
 instituted at Toulouse, and on the first of May, 1324, a golden 
 violet was awarded to the author of the best poem in the Pro- 
 vencal dialect. This was the occasion of the Floral Games, 
 and of a renewed flourish of the "Gay Science." In 1355, 
 
78 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 second and third prizes were awarded, a silver eglantine, or 
 flower of jasmine, and an acacia-blossom to the author of the 
 best ballad. And now, in the north, the young Froissart was 
 meditating the first part of his chronicle of the gorgeous spec- 
 tacles, the splendid feasts, and all the pride, pomp, and circum- 
 stances of the glorious wars of his day. By this time, too, the 
 wave of enthusiasm for classic culture, propagated by Petrarch, 
 had reached northern France, and Nicholas d'Oresme, a canon 
 of Rouen, said to be the most learned Frenchman of his day, 
 headed a revival of letters, in the course of which translations 
 into the vernacular were made of works of Caesar, Sallust and 
 Cicero, Livy, Ovid, Valerius Maximus, and Lucan, and of the 
 Latin version of works by Xenophon and Aristotle. 
 
 A delightful collection of tales that deserve to be better 
 known than they are was composed in Spanish prose by Don 
 Juan Manuel under the title "El Conde Lucanor." The tales 
 purport to be a wise counsellor's answers to the Conde's 
 questions concerning the conduct of life. Witty and wanton 
 stories, parodies of hymns, and a satire on the papal court for 
 its luxury and greed of gold, were written in Spanish verse by 
 a daring priest, Juan Ruiz de Hita. It is no wonder that he 
 languished, for the last thirteen years of his life, in the prisons 
 of the archbishop of Toledo. The history of Don Juan's 
 young relative, King Alfonso XI of Castile, bears comparison 
 in brilliancy, movement, and romantic coloring with that of 
 Edward III. Alfonso founded in the year 1332 the short-lived 
 Order of the Belt, which very probably suggested the institu- 
 tion of the Order of the Garter. Edward admired his young 
 Castilian contemporary exceedingly, sought an alliance of their 
 houses, sent him aid during the siege of Algeciras. Alfonso's 
 love for the beautiful Leonora de Guzman, and the ill-fated 
 passion of Pedro, prince of Portugal, for the yet lovelier Inez 
 de Castro, make this the most romantic era in the history of 
 the peninsula: and its enthusiastic and often irregular loves, 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 79 
 
 its melting sentiment, martial daring and adventurous spirit are 
 all enshrined in a work of pure imagination, the vast romance 
 of Amadis of Gaul. 
 
 To Italy, alive with the inspiration of Dante's genius, the 
 literary supremacy of the fourteenth century unquestionably 
 belonged; and the name of Andrea Orcagna, goldsmith, pain- 
 ter, sculptor, and architect, a contemporary of Petrarch and 
 Boccaccio, reminds us that her preeminence in the arts was yet 
 more absolute. Taddeo Gaddi, a pupil of Giotto, emulated his 
 master in some frescoes in the church of S to Croce, Florence, 
 illustrative of scenes in the life of the Virgin ; and to her 
 Petrarch addressed a fervent hymn. That exquisite poet re- 
 fined the Italian language, and gave it flexibility, elegance, and 
 grace. His sonnets to Laura are, many of them, antithetical, 
 ingenious, studied, but some, especially of those written after 
 her death, are instinct with a tender and exquisite sentiment 
 that bathes even hills, woods, and waters in its pensive light. 
 Thus Petrarch became the clearest spokesman of that age of 
 feeling. Sentiment like his, moreover, is one of the mightiest 
 agents in self-knowledge : in him the ideal of culture, of self- 
 development as contrasted with the monastic ideal of self- 
 repression, came once for all into full relief. His very name 
 seems to shed visible radiance over the whole age. After his 
 coronation with the poet's laurel wreath at Rome, in the year 
 1341, he was the literary dictator of Europe. 
 
 At the same time Boccaccio began his contributions to 
 Italian literature. He had already composed in Latin an 
 erudite work on the genealogy of the ancient gods which bears 
 witness to the passion for antiquity that characterizes every 
 return to nature. In 1341 he visited Naples, and became the 
 chief ornament of the gay court of its cultivated but dissolute 
 queen. There he wrote, in the octave stanza that he made 
 his own, a diffuse romantic poem intended as an epic, "La 
 Teseide." This he followed with the " Filostrato " : and then 
 
80 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 taught the Italian language to wind and flow in light and grace- 
 ful prose in his " Decameron." In this work the tales of the 
 fourth and fifth days the first set treating of unhappy, the 
 other of happy love and successful intrigue strikingly illus- 
 trate the range of sentiment (albeit in this case somewhat 
 artificial) which we have learned to associate with that time. 
 Tears, smiles, and mocking laughter chased each other in 
 quick succession over the countenance of the age. 
 
 Among Boccaccio's most admired works were two, written in 
 Latin, on the sad fortunes of illustrious men and on famous 
 women. Soon after his return from Naples, where he spent 
 the seven best years of his life, he met Petrarch, and the two 
 became fast friends. One of Boccaccio's chief claims to dis- 
 tinction is that he stimulated a great yearning among scholars 
 to learn Greek. 
 
 A contemporary of his, Giovanni Villani, the historian of 
 Florence, proved by his work that Italian was a fit instrument 
 for historical composition. 
 
 Such, in brief, was Chaucer's immediate literary background; 
 and with him English literature began a new course. Up to 
 this time, as has been constantly forced upon our attention, it 
 was at best but a dialect literature, provincial and narrow in 
 scope and interest ; but in the last forty years of the fourteenth! 
 century the Midland dialect became the English language, and 
 writings in it enjoyed no longer a merely local but a national 
 popularity. Henceforth we shall have occasion to mention 
 the Northern and Southern forms no more, save as the former 
 may re-appear under a new name as the Scottish dialect, the 
 first monument of which, a product of the sturdy struggle for 
 Scottish independence, was honest John Barbour's poem, " the 
 Bruce." Various reasons have been brought forward to ac- 
 count for the interesting linguistic development just mentioned: 
 it has been said that the Midland counties exceeded the others 
 in extent, wealth and populousness ; that in them were situ- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 81 
 
 ated the great institutions of learning at Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge ; that within their bounds the king held his court ; that 
 the language of the midland could be understood by men from 
 north and south who could not understand each other ; and 
 finally, that Chaucer's poems and Wyclif's translation of the 
 Bible were sufficient of themselves to raise the dialect in which 
 they appeared into a commanding position. These reasons 
 serve to account for the supremacy of the Midland dialect, but 
 a deeper cause underlay them all which alone satisfactorily 
 explains the rise in importance of English speech, and that 
 was the elevation of English sentiment in consequence of the 
 splendid successes of the war with France. An interesting 
 expression of it was an act of parliament of the year 1362, 
 two years after the treaty of Bretigny, which put a term to the 
 first period of the Hundred Years' War, which required that 
 henceforth in the courts of law all cases should be pleaded, 
 defended and judged in the English tongue, "the tongue of the 
 realm," instead of in French as before. And now, at this 
 favorable juncture, a great master arose to make the forming 
 language flow in verses of captivating melody. 
 
 Something has already been said, by way of anticipation, of 
 Chaucer's character : that sympathy which was then empha- 
 sized as its dominant note remained with him through life. 
 Over and over again he proclaims his poetic creed, that a truly 
 noble heart is quick to feel and show compassion : 
 
 " For pity runneth soon in gentle heart." 
 
 That line sums up his observation of life, and that we may not 
 miss its import he repeats it, weaving it into works that belong 
 to different periods of his career. It appears first in the pro- 
 logue to the " Legend of Good Women," and is repeated in the 
 tales of knight, merchant, and squire. In the man of law's 
 tale the thought is otherwise expressed : " a gentle heart is ful- 
 filled of pity." In the same, the pathos of Constance's story 
 is too poignant for the narrator : 
 
82 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 " I may not tell her woe until to-morrow, 
 I am so weary for to speak of sorrow." 
 
 He uses the felicitous expression "pitous joye " to suggest 
 the indescribably affecting blend of various and deep emotions 
 when relatives, long parted, meet again. That gentle and 
 beautiful relation of sympathy between human beings, that 
 noble and refining sentiment of which true courtesy was the 
 expression, was admirably suggested by the word mansuetude 
 much used in Chaucer's time ; it is a pity that we have 
 lost it. 
 
 Chaucer's love of nature God's " vicar general " is 
 proved by innumerable passages: by the well-known description 
 of his romantic homage 'to the daisy "the emperice and 
 floure of floures alle" : in the prologue to the "Legend of 
 Good Women " ; by the pretty lines in the knight's tale : 
 
 " The busy larke, messager of claye, 
 Salueth in hire song the morwe graye-, 
 And fyry Phebus ryseth up so brighte 
 That al the orient laugheth of the lighte, 
 And with his stremes dryeth in the greves 
 The silver dropes hongyng on the leeves " ; 
 
 even more by such examples of delicate observation as these 
 (from the "Parliament of Fowls" and the squire's tale) : 
 
 " Therwith a wynd onethe it myght be lesse 
 
 Made in the levys grene a noyse softe 
 
 Acordaunt to the bryddis song alofte." 
 "The vapour, which that fro the erthe glood, 
 
 Made the sonne to seme rody and brood." 
 " Herkneth these blisful briddes how they synge, 
 
 And seth the f ressche floures how they springe ; 
 
 Ful is myn hert of revel and solaas " - 
 
 cries Chanticleer, in the nun's priest's tale. 
 
 Chaucer had a keen eye for artistic beauty: in the second 
 nun's tale occurs this stanza of pictorial quality as distinct as 
 any fresco of the school of Giotto: 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 83 
 
 Valerian gooth hoom, and fynt Cecilie 
 With-inne his chambre with an angel stonde ; 
 This angel hadde of roses and of lilie 
 Corones two, the which he bar in honde ; 
 And first to Cecile, as I understonde, 
 He yaf that oon, and after gan he take 
 That other to Valerian, hir make." 
 
 There are traces in other works of his of an art more advanced 
 than that of any contemporary Italian artist, for Chaucer 
 died before the boy-painter was born who first dared to depict 
 the unclad human form. In the " Parliament of Fowls " there 
 is a picture of Venus recumbent on a golden bed : her golden 
 hair is loose, she is nude to the waist, her limbs are covered 
 with thin valence. In the " House of Fame " the poet dreams 
 that he is in a temple of glass, and among statues and portrai- 
 tures sees a figure of Venus "naked floating in a see," a garland 
 of red and white roses on her head, and doves fluttering around. 
 Not till a hundred years later did any work of Italian art 
 appear that at all resembled that description. 
 
 A mythologic touch that would be startling were it not naive, 
 and that was subtly characteristic of the Renascence, occurs in 
 the story of Dido, who was so fair that God the Creator might 
 take her for his love, if he would wed a mortal woman. It can- 
 not be denied that this is paralleled by the relation conceived 
 by mediaeval devotion to exist between the Holy Ghost and 
 the Virgin Mary : there is a bold expression of it in the prio- 
 ress's prologue to her tale. 
 
 Chaucer's journey into Italy at the end of the year 1372 was 
 a turning point in his literary career. He went in King 
 Edward's service, and was away until the end of the following 
 year. It is supposed that upon that visit he made the ac- 
 quaintance of Petrarch : it is certain that his Clerk's tale was a 
 free version of Petrarch's Latin translation of the last tale in 
 Boccaccio's Decameron. That Italian journey put a term to 
 the literary influence of France upon his spirit, and opened its 
 
84 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 gates to the more potent influence of the great authors of Italy. 
 There is not one of Boccaccio's works before mentioned to 
 which Chaucer was not deeply indebted. His stanza is but a 
 slight modification of Boccaccio's octave. In 1378, he went on 
 another embassy to Northern Italy, and some time after his 
 return composed " The House of Fame," in which Dante's 
 influence is plainly apparent. An eagle bears the poet to the 
 echoing palace of fame, midway between heaven, earth and sea. 
 It is built of beryl, and stands on a high rock of ice which is 
 written all over with famous names, the least known of which 
 have partly melted away. In the splendid hall sits the goddess 
 of Fame on a ruby throne ; on pedestals beside her 'stand 
 Statius, Homer, Virgil, Ovid, "the great poet Dan Lucan," and 
 others. This idea of individual glory, this hope of living in the 
 memory of the race, was a salient feature of Renascent life and 
 thought : men longed to stand well in others' estimation, to 
 gain their approbation by brilliant achievements. That desire 
 arose naturally out of the character of the age : it was simply 
 a longing for sympathy raised to fever heat. It was a highly 
 important agent in the cultivation of individuality, in which the 
 broadest and deepest distinction between mediaeval and mod- 
 ern literature consists. Literature proper was henceforth no 
 longer to be provided by cowled monks whose personality was 
 lost in their profession, or by wandering and nameless min- 
 strels. Chaucer's personality is surprisingly distinct when seen 
 against the background of all previous English literature ; he 
 was in truth a modern man. We should not forget to mention 
 as a significant factor in his intellectual development, his trans- 
 lation of Boethius' treatise " On the Consolation of Philosophy." 
 By the year 1388, Chaucer had worked free of Italian influ- 
 ence, and entered upon his third, last, and thoroughly English 
 period, that of the shaping of the Canterbury Tales. To 
 that period belong the inimitable Prologue, and in all proba- 
 bility, the tales of miller, reeve, friar, summoner, etc. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 85 
 
 stories of broad humor and coarse satire for which Chaucer 
 himself apologizes: he must not "falsen his mateere." His 
 own "Rhyme of Sir Thopas " in the midst of which he is 
 impatiently interrupted by the host is a delicious satire on 
 the metrical romances still in vogue, on their fantastic charac- 
 ters, motives, and incidents, and prosy detail. A playful piece 
 like that is worthy of attentive reading ; it is an evidence of 
 independent thinking such as generally marks the boundary 
 between epochs ; it is the criticism of a new age on that which 
 has gone before. 
 
 The Canterbury Tales comprise a veritable world of thought 
 and feeling. Scattered through them, especially the later ones, 
 are many allusions that Help us to reconstruct with tolerable 
 completeness the domestic life of Chaucer's time. The frank- 
 lin's tale one of the most pleasing of all, its subject bor- 
 rowed from Boccaccio, opens with a beautiful description of 
 wedded love : " Love is a thing as any spirit free." The wife 
 of Bath's tale (for a wonder) concludes in the same strain : 
 yet it may be doubted whether Chaucer had such a lofty idea 
 of marriage as some of his critics, deceived by the seeming 
 seriousness of certain playful passages, have declared that he 
 had. How could he have when for ages after his day the tra- 
 ditional view of marriage as a declension from the better state 
 of celibacy still cumbered the ground ? when he could write 
 that in the consummation of wedlock a woman lays half her 
 holiness aside ? a notion that poisoned the stream of domes- 
 tic life at its source. It is true that he says, correctly enough, 
 that " marriage is a full great sacrament " but then that line, 
 with its accompanying (ironical) praise of a wife occurs in the 
 one and only thoroughly and hopelessly corrupt tale that he 
 ever wrote. In the parson's sermon is a rebuke that throws a 
 sad light upon a grave and only too common wrong : " above 
 all things men ought to avoid cursing their own children, and 
 giving their offspring to the devil : surely it is great peril and 
 
86 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 great sin." The doctor of physic cautions parents against 
 negligence in chastising their children. The franklin has a 
 son whom he brings up on the vicious though common princi- 
 ple of "snubbing," because the youth is not as virtuous as he 
 should be. 
 
 It seems impossible to doubt that the plan of the Canterbury 
 Tales was suggested by the Decameron, but its working out 
 was entirely independent and national in movement and color. 
 Boccaccio's story-tellers, ten in number, are all young and of 
 the same station in life ; they meet in the church of Santa 
 Maria Novella, and leave the plague-stricken city to shut them- 
 selves from their suffering kind in the safe seclusion of a stately 
 palace amid delicious gardens and refreshing fountains ; there 
 they divert their minds from all thought of the misery left be- 
 hind by telling tales which, as we have seen, tend toward classi- 
 fication, one set dealing with happy, another with unhappy 
 love-affairs. The English poet gathers thirty people together, 
 of all ranks and ages, and of the most varied experience of life ; 
 they meet in an inn, and their motive is a genial one : they are 
 pilgrims to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. In the 
 morning they set forth, all on horseback, and pass before us 
 in a gay and shifting cavalcade ; though of varying degrees of 
 reverence or no reverence, their common motive, and the free 
 intercourse of travelling acquaintanceship, give them all a 
 pleasing equality. The tales they tell are of infinite variety, 
 and are adjusted with nice art to their several characters. 
 
 So Chaucer has preserved for us a world of life that moves 
 and has its being forever. How potent the spell of his gently 
 lapsing verse! 
 
 " In Surrye whylom dwelte a companye 
 Of chapmen riche, and thereto sadde and trewe, 
 That wyde-wher senten her spicerye," 
 
 yielding to the current the reader is quickly borne over the tide 
 of years to that far-off, almost ideal time when Constantinople 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 87 
 
 was the centre of the world's commerce, and the precious 
 stuffs and jewels of the Orient, brought thence in Genoese and 
 Venetian argosies, were distributed over Europe, and ex- 
 changed in the ports of Bruges and London for the produce of 
 northern shores scoured by the fleets of the Hanseatic League ; 
 when along the line of those fertilizing streams of trade stately 
 monuments of art were rising ; when the Dukedom of Athens 
 still existed, a last fragment and fading memorial of the Latin 
 Empire of the East ; when Genghis Khan and his sons were yet 
 mighty and marvellous figures in a not distant past ; when bow, 
 sword and buckler had not yet vanished before powder and 
 shot ; when English knights served in Lithuania with their 
 Teutonic brethren, or under Castilian banners against the Moors 
 of Granada or sought adventure even further away, in Anatolia 
 and Armenia ; when dreamy legends of saints were still 
 devoutly believed ; when pilgrimages to Compostella and the 
 Virgin's house at Loreto were popular ; when Rome was the 
 religious centre of Christendom, and her emissaries were 
 omnipresent and numerous as the motes that people the sun- 
 beams. 
 
88 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 V. 
 
 IN relation to his times, Chaucer would have been happier 
 had his whole career been set back ten years or so: he lived on 
 into an era of discord, folly and crime in which his spirit must 
 have felt belated and something of an alien, nor can he have 
 fully understood and sympathized with the moral struggle of 
 those troubled years. Even his early manhood had been dis- 
 turbed by jarring cries, the cry of poor against rich, of 
 laborers against idlers, of earnest men against worldly church- 
 men, and worthless monks and friars. The spokesman of this 
 popular discontent was William Langland ; his allegorical, 
 severely didactic, preaching poem, in dialect and in alliterative 
 verse, was in great demand: many manuscripts of it are still ex- 
 tant. Langland found the social condition of the England of 
 his day to be lamentably unsound ; in the prologue to his work 
 he passes in review various classes intended to represent the 
 sum of English society, and finds that in the mass evil vastly 
 preponderates : plowmen labor hard to produce what the waste- 
 ful scatter in gluttony ; the proud array themselves in outward 
 splendor ; jesters " Judas' children " make fools of them- 
 selves instead of working as they might ; beggars rove about, 
 getting food by feints, fighting over their ale greedy, lazy 
 ribalds! ; pilgrims and palmers seek the shrine of St. James, and 
 saints at Rome, and have leave to lie all their lives after ; 
 some great lubbers that are loth to work call themselves her- 
 mits and take their ease ; friars of all the four orders preach for 
 their own profit and glose the gospel as seems good to them ; 
 pardoners and parish-priests divide the people's silver ; ser- 
 geants at law plead for pence and pounds, but will not part 
 their lips for love of our Lord ; bishops bold and bachelors of 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 89 
 
 divinity become clerks of account, to serve the king ; deacons 
 and archdeacons, instead of preaching to the people, "lope" 
 to London to plunder the country as clerks of King's Bench ; 
 bakers, butchers, weavers, tailors, tanners, masons, ditchers 
 and delvers do their work badly ; there are some truly pious 
 people, some honest merchants, some minstrels who get guilt- 
 less gold, but most men now on earth have their honor in 
 this world, and reck not of any other heaven than here. The 
 body of the poem is a rambling allegory of things seen in 
 dreams ; a lovely lady, Holy-church, explains their meaning, 
 and preaches about truth and right ; Flattery, Falsehood, and 
 Meed (this world's goods) appear on the scene : Meed is to be 
 married to Falsehood, but he leaves her in the lurch ; the king 
 offers her to Conscience, but he rejects her with horror, and 
 gives a catalogue of her enormities. In the next dream the 
 deadly sins are moved to confession, and go in search of St. 
 Truth ; they are directed on their allegorical way by the ideal 
 personage who gives his name to the work Piers the Plowman. 
 In following visions occur interesting and affecting descriptions 
 of the hard life, improvidence, and sorrows of the poor. 
 
 Langland's conviction was that the times were out of joint, 
 but could be set right if only the rich would have ruth on the 
 poor, and if every man would work diligently at his calling, 
 and be guided by right reason, common sense, and conscience. 
 This appeal to conscience, to the sense of duty, is of deep 
 significance ; it means that the mind of England was strug- 
 gling to reach a higher moral level than feeling could afford. 
 Another and more satisfactory guide of life was being sought 
 for in the midst of that moral confusion into which mere sen- 
 timent must ever degenerate. Into such confusion, toward the 
 close of the fourteenth century, England and the world at 
 large were plunging; a light shade falls over the face of his- 
 tory at this point, and dims the brightness of the First 
 Renascence. 
 
90 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 The treaty of Bretigny was soon infringed by the French 
 king, Charles V ; his forces made serious encroachments upon 
 Poitou and Guienne, and the boundary-line of the English 
 possessions in France began steadily and rapidly to contract. 
 The Black Prince had sadly embarrassed his cause by his ill- 
 advised interference in Spanish affairs, he found to his cost 
 that he was upon the wrong side in the struggle for the 
 Castilian crown. He achieved his last famous success in the 
 recapture of the city of Limoges, in 1370, and sullied it by an 
 act of ungovernable passion which has left an ineffaceable 
 stain upon his memory : the town had revolted from him, and 
 in the fury of revenge he ordered a general massacre of its 
 inhabitants : three thousand persons, all defenceless, many of 
 them innocent, fell victims to this sanguinary mandate. 
 
 In England, King Edward III, though yet in middle life, 
 was fast declining in vigor and honor. After the death of his 
 faithful queen Philippa, in 1369, he resigned himself completely 
 to the influence of a courtesan, the notorious Alice Pierce : the 
 scandal was such that parliament had finally to bring about her 
 removal from court. In 1376 the Black Prince died ; the year 
 after the king followed him to the tomb ; and the Prince's only 
 surviving son, then but eleven years of age, acceded to the 
 throne as Richard II. The story of his reign is a depressing 
 account of incapacity and misgovernment, of a long struggle 
 for power between the dukes his uncles and the king, of a 
 series of crafty and vindictive strokes and counterstrokes of 
 selfish policy. In 1381, the smouldering discontent of the 
 people was fanned into flame by the imposition of a hated tax 
 to pay the costs of the futile war with France ; but the insur- 
 rection was soon suppressed and its leaders were put to death. 
 In 1386, the French collected a great army and a multitude of 
 ships for the invasion and subjugation of England, but a 
 storm at sea and divided counsels among the commanders 
 brought the vast enterprise to naught. The next year, King 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 Richard, restive under the control of his uncle the duke of 
 Gloucester, and swayed entirely by the influence of his favorite, 
 the handsome but profligate De Vere, obtained from the sub- 
 missive Chief Justice, Robert Tresilian, and his colleagues a 
 declaration against the Duke's attempt to minimize the royal 
 authority. This scheme failed of success : the duke and his 
 party rose in arms, De Vere fled to the continent, and Tresil- 
 ian, caught hiding, was hung. In 1389, however, Richard 
 managed to secure sovereign power ; but an unpopular step 
 which he took, in 1396, led to his fall : he made peace with 
 Charles VI of France for a term of twenty-eight years, and 
 took to wife his daughter Isabella. Trading upon the general 
 dislike of this connection in England, Gloucester began fresh 
 intrigues, which were foiled by a stroke of kingcraft : he was 
 arrested and made way with, and his chief adherents were ex- 
 ecuted or banished. Richard now plainly revealed the temper 
 of a tyrant, and, satisfied that he had crushed all opposition, 
 he shortly crossed over into Ireland to maintain his authority 
 there. But while he was away his cousin Henry, duke of 
 Lancaster, whom he had banished from the realm and whose 
 possessions he had seized, landed in England and speedily 
 attracted to himself a numerous following. At the news, 
 Richard returned precipitately, and found himself alone in his 
 kingdom : he was taken captive, deposed, removed to some 
 secret spot, and was never heard of more. 
 
 It was in the midst of this period of disintegration, of dis- 
 solution of family and social ties, while the political pendulum 
 oscillated between anarchy and tyranny, that a great and 
 much needed appeal to Conscience and the Bible was stren- 
 uously and resolutely made by John Wyclif and his band of 
 "poor priests." This reformatory movement originated at 
 Oxford: Wyclif first appears upon the scene as Warden of 
 Balliol College. About the year 1366 he was drawn into the 
 current of political life, and powerfully defended the refusal of 
 
92 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 the English government to pay the tribute demanded by Pope 
 Urban V. At this time he sketched out his cardinal doctrine 
 of Dominion, that all authority depends upon God's favor. 
 This weapon he turned against the papal claims : like a sword 
 with double edge it cut right and left. While the English 
 people obey God, he said, they hold directly of him and not 
 mediately, through the pope. Thus at a stroke he lopped off 
 both the temporal and the spiritual authority of the pope in 
 England. For on the one hand he gave the national idea a 
 deeper ground than had been recognized since Israelitish 
 times : the state, he said, as well as the church derives its 
 power from God and does him service ; and, on the other 
 hand, by insisting upon the immediate, personal relation of 
 man to God, that as man sins against his Maker and may sin 
 secretly so by secret repentance and confession to him he 
 may obtain forgiveness, he banished all intermediaries between 
 the creature and the creator, levelled the celestial and terres- 
 trial hierarchies, and revealed the emptiness of the heavenly 
 treasury and the deceitfulness of indulgences. Wyclif would 
 have earnestly exhorted or sternly rebuked the Canterbury 
 pilgrims had he met them at the Tabard inn : he would have 
 shown them that pilgrimage was no sure sign of genuine con- 
 trition or means of grace. His was a ringing appeal to the 
 conscience of the people. " Some good judgment," he wrote, 
 "is of men's out-wits [senses] ; some, of men's wit within, as 
 men judge how they shall do by law of conscience." "Men 
 of conscience " say that only Christ can hear shrifts. When 
 Wyclif thought of man he took it for granted that he was 
 free in choice and act : " each man hath a free will and choos- 
 ing of good and evil." To convert that will to righteousness 
 was the motive of his and his followers' fervent preaching, and 
 of their translation of the Bible. " It is Antichrist," he said, 
 " who forbids the study of God's word, and who says that 
 preaching is useless because God ordains to weal or woe." 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 93 
 
 This evangelical activity was a necessary consequence of the 
 doctrine of dominion : the condition by which the English 
 people received from God the right to govern themselves, 
 without interference from pope or emperor, was that they 
 should serve and obey him, should do him homage (an appli- 
 cation of the feudal principle) : they lost that right by failure 
 to fulfil the condition, by disobedience and sin. Hence it was 
 imperatively necessary that the English should be a godly peo- 
 ple ; to that end it was necessary that they should know the 
 will of God which it was their duty to obey ; that will was 
 embodied in the Bible : that therefore they must thoroughly 
 know by reading and exposition. Wyclif grasped in a manner 
 granted to few in the world's history the thought of God as 
 absolute will : when he fixed his gaze on him he was a predes- 
 tinarian. He held together the doctrine of God's uncondi- 
 tioned sway and of human freedom, and felt, perhaps perceived 
 that there was, no conflict between them. 
 
 One aspect of his position which needs further illustration 
 is the conflict between religious authorities that it occasioned. 
 The theory of theological nescience that was in the ascendant 
 before and during Wyclif's day left it to faith alone to appre- 
 hend spiritual truths, but faith was capable of mistaking 
 temporal errors for eternal truths ; faith bowed unquestion- 
 ingly to the authority of the church, the mystics gave it an 
 all but unqualified submission ; and opinions and institutions 
 purely human, from which divine efficacy had evaporated, and 
 which were becoming noxious, might be and were generally 
 accepted on ecclesiastical authority as divinely revealed dogmas 
 and polities. Any one who would alter anything in the estab- 
 lished order of things must seek another court of appeal, 
 and that Wyclif found in the Bible. There, he proclaimed, 
 was a clear expression of the will of God, with which the con- 
 fused and changing authority of the church might and often 
 did come into conflict. For many years that antagonism found 
 
94 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 daily expression in the controversies between the friars and the 
 " poor priests," or preachers whom Wyclif sent out, who ere- 
 long came to be known by the unexplained but evidently 
 opprobrious term " Lollards." They regularly closed their 
 argument by an appeal to " God's law," which their opponents 
 as regularly attempted to offset by instancing the practice of the 
 church. The inefficacy of this latter appeal, and the farthest 
 reach of intellectual independence in that day, are exemplified 
 by Wyclif's naive assertion that the pope's approval of a thing 
 indicates that it is probably wrong ! 
 
 From this view of the Bible as the supreme authority in 
 religious matters its translation into the vernacular followed as 
 a matter of course. That translation was in its best sense a 
 popular act ; it was an act of trust, of trust in the intelli- 
 gence of the people, their capacity to understand the book, and 
 in their moral sense, their will to use it rightly. Distrust of 
 these was then and for ages after the ground of all objections 
 to such translation : the people would misconstrue and abuse 
 the teaching of the book, it was said. To this suspicion Wyclif 
 opposed a firm faith in the good sense of the majority, and an 
 argument capable of infinite application : he could not deny 
 that some might abuse their liberty, "but should food be 
 forbidden to all because some are gluttons ? " Against his 
 opponents the friars he adduced the example of Christ, who 
 taught the people deepest truths in their mother-tongue ; the 
 spirit, moreover, spoke in divers tongues on the day of Pente- 
 cost ; St. Jerome translated the Scriptures out of the original, 
 sacred languages into Latin ; they have been translated into 
 French ; and the friars themselves teach the Lord's Prayer in 
 English, why not then the whole Gospel? "Englishmen 
 know Christ's lore and life best in their mother-tongue." 
 
 Wyclif and his coadjutors addressed themselves, therefore, to 
 the great task of turning the Vulgate into the speech of the 
 English Midland. He toiled especially at the New Testament, 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 95 
 
 beginning with the Gospels, proceeding to the Epistles ; a faith- 
 ful friend of his named Nicholas Hereford, chief pillar of his 
 party at Oxford, devoted his attention to the books of the Old 
 Testament. Hereford's translation was painfully literal, and 
 had to be revised ; so John Purvey, one of Wyclif's wandering 
 preachers, and later his curate at Lutterworth, went over the 
 whole work, clearing up obscurities and polishing the style ; by 
 the year 1388 his labor was done, and the English Bible stood 
 forth, a splendid monument of energy and zeal. 
 
 Next in importance to the translation of the Word of God was 
 its exposition ; Wyclif imputed to preaching an extraordinary 
 efficacy : it is better, he said, and more esteemed by Christ 
 than the consecration of the elements. Hence his institution 
 of itinerant preachers, his "poor priests," who in their evan- 
 gelical poverty resembled the primitive Franciscans. It is 
 interesting to know that he bade them everywhere do all they 
 could to strengthen those ties of social and domestic life that 
 were being so rudely strained in his day. One of his later 
 English treatises, " Of Servants and Lords," was occasioned by 
 the insurrection of the year 1381. It discusses the relations of 
 classes to each other, and dwells upon the important fact (gen- 
 erally ignored then and for ages after) that masters have some 
 duties toward those whom they employ : that all the rights are 
 not on their side, and all the duties on the other. At the same 
 time, the author is careful to disavow, on the part of the " poor 
 priests," the doctrine attributed to them that tenants may 
 refuse to pay rent to wicked landlords. The impression was 
 general that the new religious teaching was at the bottom of the 
 social disturbances of the time ; and some incautious followers 
 of Wyclif's may very likely have drawn extreme but not illogi- 
 cal conclusions from his doctrine of dominion. The insurrec- 
 tion was certainly an embarrassing circumstance ; it forced 
 Wyclif to define his doctrine anew, and expressly to restrict its 
 applicability : tenants may not keep back rent due to wicked 
 
96 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 lords, he said, though they may withhold tithes from sin- 
 ful priests. This limitation to the ecclesiastical sphere of 
 the great principle that dominion is lost by sin, though incon- 
 sistent, was natural ; Wyclif shrank with horror from revolu- 
 tionary inferences from it which he had not foreseen when he 
 first enunciated it, during the contest with Urban V, years 
 before. Finally, he guarded himself and his doctrine in a way 
 that emptied it of all practical significance : in this world, he 
 concluded, one can never know that a man is void of God's 
 grace and may justly be deprived of the power conferred by it. 
 As regards his attitude toward the fine arts, Wyclif was no 
 iconoclast : in his " Trialogus " an approved speaker points out 
 that Christ did not condemn signs in themselves, but only 
 abuse of them ; the brazen serpent, the crucified Lord himself, 
 were both signs. Nevertheless, in Wyclif s nature the moral 
 element was developed to the sacrifice of the ideal : his intense 
 seriousness, his fear lest symbols should become to the simple 
 occasions of idolatry, made him suspicious of the use of the 
 arts in the service of the sanctuary, while his deep sympathy 
 with the poor made him intolerant of the diversion of wealth 
 that would relieve their necessities to the production of works 
 of art. He seems to have felt that though statues, "gay 
 windows, and paintings " were not wrong, they were at least 
 inexpedient, and might have evil effects. " They worship false 
 gods who seek blind stocks or images and offer to them more 
 than to poor, bedrid men. Rich men clothe dead stocks and 
 stones with precious clothes, with gold and silver and pearls 
 and gayness to the world, and suffer poor men go sore a-cold 
 and at much mischief." His dislike of the elaborate ritual of 
 the Middle Ages a gorgeous form closely allied in its nature 
 to the fine arts was determined by his belief in the potency 
 of preaching, which seemed to him to be interfered with by the 
 time spent in ceremonies ; while the pains that had to be taken 
 to avoid mistakes in these intricate " rites and rules of sinful 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 97 
 
 men" made them as intolerable as the requirements of the 
 Jewish law, the freedom of the gospel was quite done away 
 by such "novelry." As for church music, "descant and 
 counter note, organ and small breaking vain japes stir 
 vain men to dancing more than to mourning. Where there are 
 forty or fifty in a choir, three or four proud lorels sing so that 
 none can hear the sentence, and all others shall be dumb and 
 look on them like fools." 
 
 It is well known that up to the time of the papal schism, in 
 1378, Wyclif's heresies concerned no doctrinal point, but only 
 such questions as the relation of church and state, the govern- 
 ment and worship of the church, and the morals and manners 
 of the clergy. He had become so formidable, however, by his 
 earnestness and ability, the indisputable strength of his moral 
 position, and the ever increasing number of his followers, that 
 the great prelates, monks, and friars whose worldliness he 
 assailed began to feel that something must be done to suppress 
 him, and he was summoned by the bishop of London to answer 
 for his errors before a synod at St. Paul's in the winter of 1377. 
 But the influence of the University of Oxford, where he had 
 troops of friends ; the favor of the government, which he served 
 so well during the controversy with the papacy ; the enthusiasm 
 of the people, who regarded him as their champion ; and the 
 powerful protection of John, duke of Lancaster, eldest surviv- 
 ing son of Edward III, neutralized the utmost efforts of his 
 enemies ; it was impossible to secure his conviction, and the 
 synod broke up in confusion. Foiled at home, his embittered 
 foes appealed to Pope Gregory XI, who, in May of the same 
 year, fulminated five bulls against the reformer. It is to be 
 noted that the propositions condemned in these were practical 
 consequences of the doctrine of dominion : they concerned the 
 power of prelates, and points of government and discipline, 
 the constitution of the church, and not her doctrinal decisions. 
 Thus fortified, Wyclif's opponents attempted again to bring 
 
98 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 him to judgment : he was cited to appear before the bishop of 
 London and the archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth, in 1378, 
 but nothing of significance was done by them. In the summer 
 of that year occurred an event of rare magnitude in European 
 history, an immediate effect of which was Wyclif's complete 
 spiritual enfranchisement. Upon the death of Gregory XI 
 the cardinals elected as his successor Prignano, a Neapolitan, 
 who assumed the title of Urban VI. More than seventy years 
 had elapsed since an Italian had worn the tiara. Urban fixed 
 his residence at Rome, and began at once, and with some 
 acerbity of temper, considerable disciplinary reforms. Dissat- 
 isfied with his proceedings, the proud and luxurious French 
 cardinals, who were in a large majority in the conclave, pre- 
 tending that their choice had been made under compulsion, 
 and was therefore invalid, proceeded to elect one of their own 
 number in Urban's stead. He took the title of Clement VII, 
 and established his court at Avignon. Thus originated the 
 memorable Schism of the West, which shook the very founda- 
 tions of papal power. Rival lines of pontiffs divided the 
 suffrages of Europe ; they made desperate efforts to crush 
 each other, it was a shameful but instructive spectacle. 
 " God hath cloven the head of Antichrist," exclaimed Wyclif, 
 exultantly ; it seemed to him a God-given opportunity for the 
 English to throw off the papal dominion altogether. Now 
 began the last and busiest period of his life, in which he trans- 
 lated the New Testament, questioned and ere long boldly 
 controverted the received opinion concerning the eucharist, 
 and appealed to the intelligence of the people in tract after 
 tract, couched in vigorous English. It was inevitable that a 
 strenuous thinker who, as we have seen, regarded with cold 
 dislike the details of the worship of his day, should sooner or 
 later penetrate to the central point of that worship the doc- 
 trine of the eucharist and bring it into question ; that a clear 
 thinker should revolt from that confusion of thought which 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 99 
 
 supposed a conversion of one substance into another, the 
 phenomena meanwhile remaining unchanged ; that a zealous 
 reformer should at last fall foul of a doctrine that seemed to be 
 the innermost intrenchment of the worst evils that afflicted the 
 church. Wyclif utterly rejected the dogma of transubstantia- 
 tion as unscriptural and idolatrous : Christ, the apostles, and 
 the saints of the primitive church all taught, he maintained, 
 that "the sacred host, white and round," is at the same time 
 true bread and the Lord's body. 
 
 This daring definition brought on another crisis ; many of 
 his followers, fearful of the innovation and its possible conse- 
 quences, fell away from him ; and a council was held in the 
 spring of the year 1382 at which this and other statements in 
 his works were condemned. Personally, however, Wyclif suf- 
 fered no harm ; he withdrew to his quiet rectory in the pleasant 
 village of Lutterworth, and after two years of faithful work 
 there, died in peace at the close of the year 1384. And now, 
 as his grand figure fades into that distant past from which we 
 have summoned it, it were best, perhaps, that some recollection 
 of his firm hold upon spiritual realities should henceforth be 
 associated with his name ; that we should pay his memory the 
 honor due to it for his undaunted claim for man to an immedi- 
 ate, personal relation with the eternal Origin of things. Few 
 have pierced with as keen a vision through the outward shows 
 of things to the realities that underlie them, few have been 
 as thoroughly convinced of the vanity of all forms that are not 
 vitalized by spirit. " Baptism by water is nothing without 
 baptism by fire that is, the Holy Ghost," he said. " Crown 
 [tonsure] and cloth make no priest, nor the emperor's bishop 
 with his words, but power that Christ giveth." " Not babbling 
 of the lips but a holy life is prayer." And this noble sentence 
 lingers like music in the memory : " God the Trinity is with 
 each creature by might, wisdom, and goodness to keep it, for 
 else it should turn to nought; but God is with good men of 
 
100 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 virtuous life by grace, and dwelleth in their souls as his own 
 temple." 
 
 To the series of moralists and reformers belongs the poet 
 John Gower; he is to be classed with Langland and Wyclif 
 rather than, as he customarily is, with Chaucer. It must not, 
 however, be inferred that he was affiliated to the " new sect of 
 lollardy ": he is emphatic in his denunciations of it ; he adjures 
 his reader : 
 
 " Beware that thou be not oppressed 
 With Antichristes lollardie : . . . 
 this newe tapinage 
 Of lollardie goeth about 
 To sette Christes faith in doubt 
 Such newe lore I rede eschewe." 
 
 He thus affords interesting and valuable evidence that the 
 reformatory impulse of the hour was deep and general, too 
 wide to be confined within sectarian lines. 
 
 Gower was several years older than Chaucer, and he outlived 
 him by some years. His u Vox Clamantis," in Latin verse, 
 was occasioned by the insurrection of 1381 : it is a searching 
 analysis of the social and moral evils to which he referred the 
 discontent of the peasantry, and the outbreak of revolution. 
 The condition of England seemed to him deplorable, " the 
 end of the world is fallen upon us." At the head of the gov- 
 ernment was an ignorant and careless boy. A shocking schism 
 in the papacy was bringi*. manifold woe upon the church: 
 " we fall between two stools." The governors of the church 
 were corrupt ; they committed every deadly sin ; the parish 
 priests and roving friars followed their example, they were 
 greedy and drunken, lustful, hypocritical. Soldiers were 
 extortionate and licentious, merchants dishonest, lawyers 
 crafty and unjust, laborers discontented, and voracious as 
 a pack of wild beasts. In the midst of such corruption 
 what was to be done? Gower's reply is like Langland's, 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 101 
 
 let every man take care of himself, have faith in God, who is 
 over all, do his duty to his fellows, and use the world well, 
 remembering that its pleasures and possessions pass away. 
 
 This anxious interest in the social problem contrasts strik- 
 ingly with the unconcern of Chaucer, who ignores it so airily 
 that from his works one would never guess that one of the 
 most serious convulsions in English history had happened in 
 his time. 
 
 Gower wrote, in French, another moral essay in verse, the 
 " Speculum Meditantis." This does not appear to have been 
 a successful effort ; no copy of it is known to exist ; but his 
 last and greatest work, the " Confessio Amantis," was ex- 
 tremely popular in his own day and for ages after. It is writ- 
 ten in English, in smooth, octosyllabic couplets. It consists 
 of a really interesting prologue, and eight books, one for each 
 of the deadly sins, and one a summary of the philosophic and 
 moral, scientific and liberal learning of the poet's own age. 
 The different books consist of groups of tales that illustrate 
 the deadly sins; they are borrowed from the Bible, from Ovid, 
 Cassiodorus, and Isidore, from the " Tale of Troy," of Alex- 
 ander the Great, and of Lancelot du Lac, and from ; the 
 popular collection known as the "Gesta Romanorum," and 
 the " Speculum Regum " of Godfrey of Viterbo. Gower was a 
 learned, not to say a bookish man, according to the fashion of 
 his time. " I read as the cronique saith," "In a cronique 
 this I read" "This find I rt^p ; ~ poesy" are formulas 
 of frequent occurrence in his work. He strings his stories 
 together upon the tenuous thread of a supposed confession 
 made by a young lover, whose father confessor examines 
 him in the seven sins, and points his precepts with appropriate 
 tales. Some of these ate tedious enough, and one cannot but 
 echo the unhappy young penitent's unguarded admission : 
 
 " The tales sounen in min ere, 
 But yet min herte is elleswhere." 
 
102 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 But what makes Gower truly great, and worthy of lasting 
 remembrance, is his moral view of the universe. To him in 
 truth preeminently belongs the title "moral " bestowed upon 
 him, half mischievously perhaps, by Chaucer. Two great ideas 
 were the fountains of his inspiration : the thought of a myste- 
 rious correspondence between the physical and moral spheres, 
 between nature and spirit, and that of human freedom, of a 
 power in man to rise above the force of circumstance, and to 
 put the stars under his feet. Gower believed that the Black 
 Death was incurred by man as a punishment for his sin. 
 
 " The sun and moon eclipsen both 
 And ben with mannes sinne wroth ; 
 The purest air for sin aloft 
 Hath ben and is corrupt full oft." 
 
 The ground of this belief lay in a supposed interdependence 
 between the world and man the microcosm. The four elements 
 of the external world had their counterparts in the four humors 
 of man's body, and between his soul and these there was 
 mysterious union. But between soul and body strife has 
 arisen, and the result is sin: 
 
 " For sin of his condition 
 Is mother of division." 
 
 Disturbances in the realm of nature are the portentous signs 
 and punishment of this moral discord. 
 
 " The man, as telleth the clergie, 
 Is as a world in his partie, 
 And when this little world misturneth 
 The grete world all overturneth ; 
 The land, the sea, the firmament, 
 They axen alle jugement 
 Against the man." 
 
 The other thought, which he wearies not in reiterating, is 
 that man, if he is true to himself, is not the sport of chance. 
 Duty, not Fortune, determines his success and happiness. The 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 103 
 
 world is out of joint, and why? Some say, Because of For- 
 tune, or, Because of the aspect of the stars. Then the poet 
 delivers his message : 
 
 " The man is overall 
 His owne cause of weal and woe : 
 That we fortune clepe so 
 Out of the man himself it groweth." 
 
 An invigorating truth, banishing a host of grisly superstitions 
 whose presence benumbs the soul ! " All earthly things which 
 God began," he says, in reassuring tones, "were only made to 
 serve man." The planets do indeed control mundane affairs, 
 diseases, tempests, wars, but good and wise men need not 
 fear the stars (and then come the immortal lines) : 
 
 " For one man, if him well befalle, 
 Is more worth than ben they alle 
 Towardes Him that weldeth all." 
 
 A flash of insight like that penetrates the profoundest 
 depths of the mysteries of creation and redemption and makes 
 them luminous ; a cheery call like that out of the ages gives 
 fresh meaning to life, inspires with new courage, and lightens 
 the oppressive weight that natural science with its mechanical 
 processes would lay upon the soul. With one sweep of her 
 pinion the heavenly muse of poetry exalts little man to the 
 sublime station that is rightfully his ; from that altitude the 
 world, weary, heavy, and unintelligible before, becomes trans- 
 parent and intelligible. Thus, in the evening of the fourteenth 
 century, did John Gower transcend the superstitions of his 
 time ; and thus may we in this latter day shake off with him 
 the nightmare of fatalism, and transcend the no less enfeebling 
 superstitions of a school of scientific thought that would arro- 
 gate to sensuous experience all reality, and that despises and 
 denies the ideal. As long as science lasts, as long as the world 
 endures, poetry will endure to give the spirit its due, to correct 
 
104 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 the one-sided and therefore faulty and dangerous estimates of 
 a science blind to the moral and ideal, and to resist the mate- 
 rializing tendency of our every-day life. 
 
 It is worth noting upon how much higher a moral level than 
 Chaucer's Gower stood. Chaucer never worked free of the 
 eery influence of the constellations ; how numerous his refer- 
 ences to judicial astrology are every one familiar with his works 
 knows well. "In the stars," he says, "clearer than is glass, 
 is written the death of every man, without a doubt. Certainly 
 our appetites here, be it of war or peace or hate or love, are 
 all ruled by Destiny. Fortune can turn her wheel and out of 
 joy bring men to sorrow." With him a favorite maxim is, 
 " Make virtue of necessity." 
 
 A memorable characteristic of Gower's (reminding us how 
 far we have travelled from the era of the Crusades) is his 
 recognition of the rights even of infidels. He believes that 
 Christian men run counter to their Lord's commands when 
 they shed the blood of heathen folk, for these too have souls 
 to save. His missionary zeal recalls the evangelical labors of 
 his Spanish contemporary, Vincent Ferrer, among the Moham- 
 medans of Granada. 
 
 " And for to sleen the hethen alle, 
 I not what good there mighte falle 
 So mochel blood though there be shad. 
 This finde I writen, how Crist bad 
 That no man other shoulde slee . . . 
 To sleen and fighten they us bidde 
 Hem whom they shuld, as the boke saith, 
 Converten unto Cristes feith . . . 
 A Sarazin if I slee shall 
 I slee the soule forth with all, 
 And that was never Cristes lore." 
 
 Passages of natural description, sometimes quite pleasing, 
 generally conventional, are scattered through the " Confessio 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 105 
 
 Amantis." The woful lover seeks the solitude of the woods 
 and there gives way to his feelings : 
 
 " In the moneth of May, 
 Whan every brid hath chose his make 
 And thenketh his merthes for to make 
 Of love that he hath acheved, . . 
 Unto the wood I gan to fare, 
 Nought for to singe with the briddes, 
 For whan I was the wood amiddes 
 I fonde a swete grene pleine, 
 And there I gan my wo compleigne." 
 
 In another place there are a few pretty lines about the sun 
 
 " which is the worldes eye, 
 Through whom the lusty compaignie 
 Of foules by the morwe singe, 
 The freshe floures sprede and springe, 
 The highe tre the ground beshadeth, 
 And every mannes herte gladdeth." 
 
 Hopelessly conventional, pedantic, and arid are Gower's ref- 
 erences to the arts. Amid the glories of mediaeval architec- 
 ture and sculpture, for which he seems to have had no eye, he 
 nods over names gathered from his books : 
 
 " Zeuzis found first the portreture, 
 And Prometheus the sculpture ; 
 After what forme that hem thought 
 The resemblaunce anon they wrought." 
 
 and then (O discriminative Gower !), 
 " Berconius of cokerie 
 First made the delicacie." 
 
 And yet to this poor, prosy old poet was granted the supreme 
 vision of that age : "One man, if he behave well, is worth 
 more than planets and stars to Him who wields them all." 
 
 When Gower wrote the " Confessio Amantis," sometime 
 about the year 1386, he was living as a "clerk" and lay 
 brother with the monks of St. Mary Overies, Southwark. In 
 
106 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 1397, when he was seventy years of age, he married. He had 
 need of a nurse, for in 1400 (the year of Chaucer's death, and 
 probably of Langland's also) he became blind. He died in 
 1408, leaving his widow well provided for, and dividing the 
 residue of his property among the churches of Southwark, the 
 leper-houses, and a hospital for the blind and infirm. 
 
 It is instructive to observe how, simultaneously with this re- 
 forming movement that we have been studying, English Gothic 
 architecture underwent a change. The straight lines and right 
 angles of the Rectilinear or Perpendicular style began to replace 
 and repress the graceful and luxuriant but often weak and even 
 wanton curves of the Decorated style, - a change that symbolizes 
 delicately and beautifully the passage of the sentimental into 
 the moral epoch. The mullions of cathedral windows began 
 to strike right through the tangle of flowing tracery to the 
 mouldings of the window-heads ; transoms intersected mul- 
 lions ; the flat surfaces of walls, buttresses, and towers were 
 ribbed with vertical and horizontal mouldings, and thus marked 
 off into panels ; within, the heads of pier-arches were de- 
 pressed, the triforium disappeared and a plane surface closely 
 ruled up and down with parallel lines took its place. It was 
 like an invasion of architecture by carpentry ; fancy was con- 
 fined by measurement ; the style was mechanical, inorganic, 
 yet something in its regularity, its plain, practical nature, sttited 
 the English genius ; it was found to be peculiarly fitted for 
 collegiate structures and manorial halls as well as for church- 
 building ; and it became the favorite and characteristic variety 
 of English Gothic. It first appeared in Abbot Litlington's 
 work at Westminster, in the decades 1366-86, but it was 
 left to William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, to develop 
 it with such strength and consistency that it has become in- 
 dissolubly associated with his name. In 1386, Wykeham 
 founded New College, Oxford ; the year following, Winchester 
 College ; meanwhile he was remodelling his cathedral, the nave 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 107 
 
 of which is the crowning example of Perpendicular style. The 
 nave of Canterbury cathedral was also rebuilt in the new 
 fashion at this time. The utmost elaboration of Perpendicular 
 tracery is displayed in the great east window of York Minster, 
 constructed in the years 1403-1408 ; the amazing intricacy of 
 the work fatigues the sense. (A continental example of the 
 triumph of parallelism over flamboyancy is afforded by the 
 marvellous cathedral of Milan, which was being constructed at 
 this very epoch.) During the Lancastrian Period from 1399 
 to 1461 the fa9ades and profiles of several important cathe- 
 drals York, Lincoln, Wells were rendered more imposing 
 by the completion of their triple towers. That was the palmy 
 period, moreover, of parish-church building : then uprose, all 
 over England, many of those picturesque churches with their 
 square gray towers, that, often embowered in foliage, are such 
 salient and attractive features in the landscape. 
 
 The adaptability of the Rectilinear style to scholastic pur- 
 poses was exemplified at All Souls College, Oxford, founded 
 by Archbishop Chichely in 1437; at the royal foundation of 
 Eton, in 1446; and (consummately) at Magdalen College, 
 Oxford, founded by Bishop Waynflete in 1459. 
 
 Among the minor arts may be mentioned the sepulchral 
 brasses that were multiplied in this period : large plates of 
 burnished metal let into slabs in the floors of churches and 
 mortuary chapels, and engraved with figures to represent those 
 who rested below. The designs are highly characteristic of 
 the time ; they are quite conventional in feature and figure, and 
 are almost Byzantine in their stiff symmetry, their straight and 
 clear-cut outlines, and tendency to attenuated forms. The 
 head-dresses are set, the faces flat and staring, and the lines 
 that represent the folds of drapery are sharp and angular, 
 sometimes almost parallel as they fall from the waist down- 
 ward, to break in stiff folds about the feet with their pointed 
 shoes. 
 
108 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Before we pass to the history and literature of the Lancas*- 
 trian era, it will be well to review, briefly, the general condition 
 of Europe at the close of the fourteenth and beginning of the 
 fifteenth century: At no other period does the intimate con- 
 nection that subsisted between the states of Catholic Christen- 
 dom become more apparent, the subtle sympathy that bound 
 them together in such a manner that movements originating in 
 any one were soon propagated among the others, so that they 
 all underwent similar changes at about the same time; the 
 working of a like spirit can be perceived at once in all. 
 
 In Spain, the ferocious dynastic struggle already alluded to 
 reached its^crisis in the year 1369, when Pedro the Cruel was 
 slain by the hand of his half-brother, Henry of Trastamar, 
 a son of Leonora de Guzman. The new monarch mounted an 
 uneasy throne ; he and his descendants were involved in inter- 
 mittent wars with England and Portugal, which latter power 
 meanwhile underwent a similar dynastic change. The Duke of 
 Lancaster married Pedro's daughter, and advanced her claim 
 to the crown of Castile. When the papal schism broke out, the 
 Spanish states for a while stood neutral ; but French interest 
 brought them at last to recognize the Avignonese pope. Eng- 
 land and Portugal, on the contrary, professed obedience to the 
 Roman pontiff, Urban VI ; and he granted an indulgence to 
 any who should aid the Duke of Lancaster in his contest with 
 the usurping king of Castile. Henry's son, John I, suffered a 
 severe defeat at the hands of the Portuguese in 1385, which 
 rendered his position so difficult that he had to propose a com- 
 promise by which the rival claims to the crown were reconciled ; 
 he married his young son, Henry, to the Duke's daughter. His 
 death soon after plunged Spain into years of civil strife ; during 
 the minority of the boy-king the great nobles and prelates con- 
 tended for the regency : among the latter one at least, the 
 archbishop of Santiago, held to the Roman pope. It may be 
 that this fact contains the secret of the political confusion of 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 109 
 
 those years. Peace was attained only when the young king 
 assumed full power, which he enhanced by a bold stroke of 
 statecraft. During those tumultuous times flourished one who 
 was to be their chronicler Pedro Lopez de Ayala, courtier, 
 chancellor, soldier, and chief, if not the only distinguished man 
 of letters of his nation in that age. He translated into Spanish 
 the works of Livy and Boethius, the " Morals " of Pope 
 Gregory I, and Boccaccio's " Falls of Princes," and wrote a 
 moralizing poem, " El Rimado de Palacio," in which he 
 described, quite in Gower's vein, but with occasional touches 
 of the humor that Gower lacked, the duties of rulers, the cor- 
 ruption of the age, and the need of reform. He died in 1407 
 a year before the English poet. 
 
 The schism in the papacy was the supreme concern of the 
 period, and it is highly probable that it may serve, to a degree 
 not generally realized, as a clue to the labyrinth of contem- 
 porary politics. It should not be forgotten that Urban VI 
 came to the chair as a reforming pope. Catherine of Siena, 
 the spiritual heroine, the most noted and influential woman of 
 her day, engaged herself heart and soul in his cause. But he 
 was sadly unequal to his opportunity ; the severity with which 
 he began his reforms was akin to mania ; false to his trust, he 
 soon abandoned himself to shameful nepotism ; became em- 
 broiled with the queen of Naples, and made the conquest of 
 her kingdom the end and aim of his pontificate. Foiled in 
 spite of desperate efforts, he had to flee to Genoa ; there he 
 caused five cardinals whom he suspected of conspiracy against 
 him to be strangled. It was whispered then, and has since 
 been generally believed that his mind was unbalanced. His 
 successor, Boniface IX, was a remarkably able man. At his 
 accession, anathemas were cordially exchanged with his rival 
 of Avignon, from whose obedience he succeeded erelong in 
 detaching the kingdom of Naples. His interference precipi- 
 tated a revolution in German politics, and indications are not 
 
110 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 wanting that he was an agent in the dynastic change in England. 
 The peace that Richard II made with France in 1396 drew him 
 into relations, at least of negotiation, with the Avignonese pope 
 Benedict XIII. This was the time when attempts were made 
 by several governments, greatly to the annoyance of both 
 popes, to induce them to resign. Boniface had already had 
 occasion to remonstrate with Richard in regard to his ecclesi- 
 astical policy. After the conclusion of the unpopular peace 
 above mentioned, it will be remembered that Richard appre- 
 hended certain of his opponents and banished others. Among 
 the latter was Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, 
 whose powerful influence was largely instrumental in raising 
 Henry of Lancaster to the throne of England in Richard's 
 stead. Immediately after this revolution in the government 
 Arundel was restored to his see by Boniface IX. Hostilities 
 were renewed between England and France ; Henry relied 
 upon the church for support ; and Boniface, as if emboldened 
 by the belief that he had a firmer hold upon the nation than 
 before, revoked certain concessions that he had formerly 
 granted. 
 
 The troubled reign of Wenzel, king of Bohemia, and until 
 his deposition in 1400, king of the Romans and emperor-elect, 
 almost exactly coincided in duration with the papal schism. 
 Wenzel was rude even to brutality, and coarse in his pleasures 
 but perhaps his character was not as black as it has been 
 painted by clerical odium. He was unable to cope with the 
 turbulence of the great nobles, and though he overawed them 
 once by a stroke of policy similar to that practised at the same 
 period in England and Spain, his partial and temporary success 
 was equivalent to failure, and left him hated and suspected, and 
 in worse condition than before. But when he joined the king 
 of France in urging the rival popes to abdicate, the measure of 
 his iniquity was full ; Boniface retorted by commanding the 
 electors to choose another emperor. The result was fresh 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Ill 
 
 confusion in that age of countless schisms ; there was a division 
 in the college : the electors of the Rhine were in the papal 
 interest, and chose Rupert of the Palatinate ; those of the 
 north and east preferred Frederick of Saxony ; so for a moment 
 there were three shadowy emperors in the field, but the 
 number was almost instantly reduced by the assassination of 
 Frederick. Wenzel died in 1419 not without suspicion of 
 foul play. 
 
 In the far north-east of Europe profound political changes 
 took place. After the extinction of the Piast dynasty, Jagello, 
 duke of Lithuania, was called to the throne of Poland, and 
 devoted his energies through a long reign to the depression of 
 the power of the Teutonic knights. At Tannenberg, in the 
 year 1410, the order suffered a defeat from which it never 
 recovered ; and thus the glory of another great institution of 
 the Middle Ages passed away. 
 
 Meantime, confusion verging upon anarchy reigned in the 
 dominions of the House of Austria. The young duke, Albert 
 IV, died in 1404, entrusting to his cousins, William and Leo- 
 pold, the guardianship of his son, Albert V, then a mere infant. 
 William's death, in 1406, was the signal for civil strife ; Leopold 
 was involved in disputes with his younger brother, the intract- 
 able Ernest, at the head of a powerful faction. The spirit of 
 feudalism broke out once more ; the nobles were all in arms ; 
 for five years the land was desolated with civil war ; commerce 
 and agriculture declined ; robbers infested the highways, it 
 was the darkest hour in the history of the duchy. It was also 
 a school of hard political experience for the young Albert, who 
 assumed control of the government upon Leopold's death, in 
 1411. He proved to be a sagacious ruler, restored peace and 
 prosperity to his country, and laid the foundations of the future 
 grandeur of his house. 
 
 While the condition of Austria was beginning to improve, 
 that of France was rapidly approaching the lowest degree of 
 
112 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 humiliation that her annals record. Her king, Charles VI, 
 was demented ; his queen was an evil woman, and exerted a 
 pernicious influence upon state affairs ; the conduct of govern- 
 ment was a prize that was contended for by raging factions 
 under the lead of the rival dukes of Burgundy and Orleans ; 
 and the people were wretched. If anything beside self-interest 
 guided the policy of Louis of Orleans it was his devotion to the 
 cause of Pope Benedict XIII : with his help Benedict escaped 
 from his palace at Avignon, where he had been imprisoned for 
 years by the royal troops, in the spring of 1403, and shortly 
 after the kingdom returned to his obedience. The fortunes 
 of both pope and duke rose and fell together ; in the fall of 
 1407 Louis was foully murdered, and Benedict erelong had to 
 flee into Spain. For the next seven years the power of the 
 duke of Burgundy was, upon the whole, in the ascendant. 
 He favored a conciliar settlement of the papal controversy ; 
 the city of Pisa, lately conquered by Florence, was offered by 
 that republic as an eligible site for the proposed synod ; there, 
 in the year 1409, the fathers met, and, dominated by the 
 genius of Jean Gerson, declared the rival pontiffs heretics, 
 schismatics, and perjurers, deposed them both, and elected in 
 their stead an aged Greek cardinal, who took the title of 
 Alexander V. The Roman and Spanish popes, however, 
 refused to accept the character given them by the fathers at 
 Pisa ; and for years the church and the world were scandalized 
 by the intrigues and mutual anathemas of three popes. Mean- 
 while, in France, the Orleanist party was reorganized under 
 the headship of the Count d'Armagnac, by whose name it was 
 subsequently known ; civil war broke out, and the Armagnacs, 
 crushed by the Burgundians, appealed for aid in their despair 
 to Henry IV of England. The year following he died, and his 
 son, Henry V, thinking that France in her distracted state was 
 ripe for subjugation, revived the obsolete claims of Edward III, 
 and landed with an army at the mouth of the Seine in the 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 113 
 
 summer of 1415. The Armagnacs now made amends for their 
 disloyalty, and almost entirely by themselves withstood the 
 invader. The duke of Burgundy stood sullenly aloof, and saw 
 his compatriots worsted at Agin court ; but their ultimate suc- 
 cess was assured, for they had identified their cause with the 
 nation's. The siege and capture of Rouen by the English 
 monarch in the winter of 1419, and his imminent advance upon 
 Paris, brought about a temporary cessation of party strife ; but 
 the barbarous murder of the duke of Burgundy at the very 
 moment when reconciliation seemed accomplished plunged his 
 country into an abyss of humiliation ; for his son, the young 
 Duke Philip, opened his arms to the English, and with the 
 cooperation of the queen, and amid the plaudits of the people 
 of Paris, concluded with Henry V in the spring of 1420 the 
 amazing treaty of Troyes, by which the succession to the throne 
 of France was signed away to the English king, to the exclu- 
 sion of the dauphin. It was many years before the French 
 monarchy, consecrated anew by the vision, heroic action, and 
 piteous death of the Maid of Orleans, resolved the jarring 
 notes of party hatred into harmony, and led France slowly up 
 to power and prosperity again. 
 
 At the commencement of the struggle between the Burgun- 
 dians and the Armagnacs, in the year 1410, died Jean Frois- 
 sart, the singer and chronicler of a brighter day ; and a few 
 years later another representative of the French literature of the 
 fourteenth century passed away Eustache Deschamps, author 
 of innumerable ballads and rondeaus. Their younger contem- 
 poraries, Christine de Pisan and Alain Chartier, more deeply 
 impressed by the accumulating evils of the time, moralized in 
 prose and verse. Productions characteristic of the period were 
 prose works on morals and manners, which laid down rules of 
 conduct and illustrated the effects of good and bad behavior. 
 But perhaps the most significant product of the age was the 
 " Morality," or moral-play, which made the Devil, the Vice, and 
 
114 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 the Deadly Sins enact their parts upon the stage, and engaged 
 them in allegorical combat with the Virtues. This develop- 
 ment in the drama becomes full of meaning when placed in its 
 proper setting, in the period out of which it sprang. 
 
 In spite of this manifest vitality of French literature, it must 
 be admitted that the literary supremacy of the fourteenth 
 century belonged to Italy and England in turn. The names 
 of the great English authors of the last half of that century 
 are the only ones that can be mentioned with those of the 
 great Italians of the first half without a painful sense of 
 incongruity. 
 
 It was during the short reign of Henry V that the schism in 
 the papacy was practically healed. The conscience of Europe 
 was thoroughly roused by the enormity of three popes excom- 
 municating and vilifying each other, and was determined to 
 put a stop to it. An ecumenical council one of the most 
 magnificent assemblies that ever met was convened at 
 Constance in the year 1414; and then began one of the 
 most impressive exhibitions of moral energy in the history of 
 civilization, a determined effort to reform abuses, and to 
 bring order out of chaos, the force of which was not spent for 
 more than a generation. The deliberations of the council were 
 guided by the eminent French doctors, Gerson and D'Ailly. 
 Its first important regulation was that the voting should be by 
 nations. It asserted as a fundamental principle that the 
 authority of councils is superior to that of popes. (Nicholas 
 of Clemanges, a learned Frenchman, and a friend of D'Ailly, 
 maintained in a pamphlet published about this time that the 
 authority of the Bible is over all.) The three contending 
 popes were unceremoniously set aside ; two of them eventually 
 submitted, but nothing could bend or break the will of the 
 Spaniard, Benedict XIII, in whose favor a temporary diver- 
 sion was made by the Armagnacs, then in power, and he 
 remained in schism until his death. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 115 
 
 Meanwhile, the fathers in council proceeded to their task 
 of extirpating heresy, which, they devoutly believed, was 
 accountable for many of the ills that plagued the church. In 
 the severity, the injustice, of their procedure, they were 
 actuated, doubtless, by an uneasy sense that they had gone 
 far along the road of what seemed to many startling innovations 
 in ecclesiastical polity, and that it behoved them to vindicate 
 their unimpeachable orthodoxy. So they made examples of 
 two conspicuous Bohemian reformers, John Huss and Jerome 
 of Prague, who had trodden in Wyclif 's footsteps. The writings 
 of Wyclif had long been well known in the University of Prague, 
 and his opinions had been sown broadcast throughout Bohemia. 
 In his preaching Huss had inveighed against the wealth, luxury, 
 and immorality of the clergy, and the abuse of indulgences, 
 but he had gone no further ; at his examination it was attempted 
 to entangle him in errors concerning the sacrament of the 
 altar, but touching that point no fault could be found in him. 
 Nevertheless he was burnt at the stake. 
 
 Contrary to the desire of the German delegates, who urged 
 that the promised reform of the church " in head and members " 
 should next be undertaken, the council hastened the election 
 of a new pope, and the choice of the cardinals fell upon a 
 member of the proud Roman family of Colonna, who received 
 the homage of the assembled fathers as Pope Martin V. 
 Reform was bruited no more ; and after making arrangements 
 for a future council, that of Constance was dismissed by the 
 new pontiff with fair words, in the year 1417. One little event 
 in the session of that last year a contest for precedence 
 between the ambassadors of France and England is of 
 interest to us : the Englishman asserted his right to precede 
 as the representative of a nation that had been converted to 
 Christianity by Joseph of Arimathea, years before there were 
 any converts in Gaul. 
 
 Benedict XIII still maintaining that in him alone was the 
 
116 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 true church died in the year 1424, and the little knot of 
 cardinals whom he had created, and who remained faithful to 
 him to the last, chose as his successor a canon of Barcelona, 
 who called himself Clement VIII. For a time he was sup- 
 ported, on political grounds, by the king of Aragon ; but in 
 1428 he submitted to Martin V and the schism of half a 
 century was healed. 
 
 Terrible religious wars had broken out in Bohemia as a 
 result of the mistaken attitude of the council of Constance 
 towards the reforms of Huss. His followers now went further 
 than he, and demanded that in the communion the cup should 
 be administered to the laity. The revolt was quite beyond the 
 slowly reviving papal power to suppress, and the reluctant 
 pope had to bow to the decree of Constance, and summon a 
 council. It assembled at Basel, in 1431. The above-mentioned 
 controversy over precedence was renewed, this time with the 
 Castilian ambassador; arguments for and against the mission 
 of Joseph of Arimathea were brought forward on both sides, 
 the English adducing " many ancient testimonies" William 
 of Malmesbury's, doubtless, among the number. 
 
 The council of Basel met partly to continue, partly to undo, 
 whether for good or evil, the work of its predecessor. It 
 reaffirmed the supremacy of councils in ecclesiastical matters, 
 and succeeded for a season in humiliating the new pope, 
 Eugenius IV. Its departure from the practice of voting by 
 nations, however, lost it the adhesion of the English clergy, 
 who in convocation determined to obey the pope. The council 
 admitted a deputation from Bohemia, and for the sake of peace 
 acceded to its demands. It also promulgated certain reforma- 
 tory decrees, which were recognized, for a time at least, in 
 France and Germany. But its influence began steadily to 
 wane from the time when, in its keen conflict with Eugenius IV, 
 who had convened a rival synod, it declared him deposed, and 
 chose another pope. Europe was weary of schisms. The 
 
OF ENGLISH LITER A TU. 
 
 council, weakened by defections to the party of., Eugenius, 
 removed, in 1443, to Lausanne ; it lingered on, an ever- 
 diminishing remnant, until 1449, when it was glad to accept 
 overtures of peace made by his successor, Nicholas V. The 
 conciliar epoch was over, and the jubilee of 1450 celebrated 
 the completion of the papal restoration. 
 
 An earnest, almost pathetic reversion to the antique type of 
 ascetic piety accompanied and adorned this restitution of the 
 old ecclesiastical order. It was an attempt, foredoomed to 
 speedy failure, to retrieve the mediaeval ideal of life which had 
 lately paled before the sunny ideal of the Renascence. It was 
 inspired, without doubt, by a desire to countervail the errors of 
 heretical piety. Within a few years after the papal schism 
 there came into the world a number of pious souls that were 
 destined to be powerful agents in the work of Catholic reforma- 
 tion in the fifteenth century. Bernardino of Siena and John of 
 Capistrano, Franciscans, by their self-denying lives and fiery 
 preaching recalled the primitive zeal of their order. Bernardino 
 refused bishopric after bishopric, believing that by preaching 
 from city to city throughout Italy he could save more souls. 
 John of Capistrano preached at large in Italy, and went on 
 missions into Germany and Austria. A French girl, Colette 
 Boilet, began a reform in the sisterhood of St. Clara, which 
 she carried through successfully in the teeth of angry and 
 contemptuous opposition. She won the regard of Benedict XIII, 
 who appointed her superior of her order. Her reformed rule, 
 first adopted in Savoy, made its way into Burgundy, and at last 
 into Spain and Flanders. Another pious woman, a Roman 
 widow named Francesca, a mistress of the art of self-mortifica- 
 tion, and endowed with the faculty of seeing visions, became 
 the founder of a new order for her sex. In the year 1425 she 
 formed a convent which grew so rapidly in numbers and 
 reputation that in 1437 it was erected into an order, that of 
 Collatines, by Eugenius IV. The most vivid lights of this 
 
118 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 ascetic revival were the sainted archbishops of Florence and 
 Venice, Antonio, later known as Antoninus, and Lorenzo 
 Giustiniani. The former was indeed a noble soul, self-denying 
 in the extreme, but lenient to others, a friend of the poor and 
 the sick, an earnest preacher. He was a Dominican, and 
 before his elevation to the archbishopric was prior of the 
 monastery of San Marco, among whose inmates in his time 
 was the beatified painter, Fra Angelico of Fiesole, whose 
 frescoes exquisitely reveal the ideal of the devout spirits of his 
 day. Lorenzo Giustiniani, a young Venetian nobleman, had a 
 vision in his nineteenth year that diverted all his thoughts 
 from the delights of a worldly life to the monastic ideal. He 
 tested his constancy by lying all night on knotty sticks, and at 
 last fled to an island monastery to avoid a match that his 
 widowed mother proposed for him, and never visited his 
 home again until she lay dying. He practised the utmost 
 austerities that one could endure and live. He bore the heats 
 of summer without repining, hoping to escape the more intoler- 
 able heat of hell, and in midwinter refused the comfort of a 
 fire. Called from his convent to the bishopric of Venice, the 
 greatest luxury he permitted himself in his new state was a bed 
 of straw. From the first, his zeal in the performance of his 
 new duties, his cogent preaching, his self-immolating spirit, 
 made the breath of a fresh spiritual life felt throughout his 
 populous diocese, and churches and religious institutions were 
 multiplied. The last eminent exponent of this Catholic reforma- 
 tion was Francis of Paula, on the Calabrian coast. He was 
 much younger than the men and women just noticed, having 
 been born at the very close of the papal schism. At the age 
 of fifteen years he began a hermit's life in a cavern by the sea. 
 Gradually a little community gathered around him; in 1454 a 
 church and monastery were erected ; and erelong the brother- 
 hood obtained the pope's approval as the order of Friars 
 Minims. Francis visited Sicily, Naples, and Rome, and passed 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 119 
 
 on urgent invitation into France, where he became spiritual 
 adviser to three successive kings. 
 
 The English kings of the House of Lancaster were involved 
 in the perplexities and miseries of the age of schisms ; it was 
 left for the rival House of York to participate in the general 
 restoration of order throughout Europe by sovereign authority. 
 Perhaps the most memorable circumstance connected with the 
 history of the Lancastrian line is the decided increase of power 
 that parliament then enjoyed. Freedom of debate was con- 
 ceded to it, and its right to determine the privileges of its 
 members was recognized. It guarded the public expenditure, 
 and exercised control even over the royal household. These 
 facts are to be viewed in their relation to the significant fact 
 that the House of Lancaster held by parliamentary title purely ; 
 not to Henry IV but to the young Edmund Mortimer did the 
 crown belong by hereditary right. 
 
 Henry's foreign policy was, naturally, a reversal of that of 
 Richard II ; at her father's demand, Richard's child-widow, 
 Isabella, was sent back to France, but without her dowry; 
 and the treaty between the two kingdoms was ruptured. Henry 
 did not live long enough to take advantage to the full of his 
 neighbor's intestinal conflicts ; for great part of his reign he 
 was kept busy at home by warfare upon the Scotch and Welsh 
 borders, and by the menacing attitude of the Earl of Northum- 
 berland, head of the great family of the Percys, chief repre- 
 sentatives of the feudal nobility of that day, who, having been 
 largely instrumental in raising Henry to the throne, conceived 
 a grudge against him, and, fired with the ambition of a king- 
 maker, conspired to dispossess him, and bestow the crown 
 upon Mortimer. On three several occasions Northumberland 
 rose in arms against his liege ; on the last of these, in the year 
 1408, he met his death, but his ally, Owen Glendower, still 
 held out in North Wales. 
 
 Scotland had her full share of the portentous crimes and 
 
120 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 vicissitudes of those dark times. Her well-intentioned but 
 weak king, Robert III, resigned the conduct of affairs to his 
 ambitious brother, whom, in the year 1398, he created duke 
 of Albany. David, heir-apparent to the crown, a worthless 
 young man, was done to death by his uncle's orders in Falkland 
 Castle, and Robert, fearful of the safety of his remaining son, 
 James, sought a refuge for him in France but on his way 
 thither, in 1405, the young prince was intercepted by the 
 English, and was lodged in the Tower of London. This last 
 blow broke his father's heart. 
 
 By the year 1411, Henry found himself in condition to 
 interfere cautiously in the strife of Burgundian and Armagnac, 
 but now his health began to fail: he was subject to attacks 
 of epilepsy, and early in the spring of 1413 he died, leaving to 
 his spirited son (with what success we know) the prosecution 
 of his designs upon unhappy France. 
 
 Henry V was detained by an alarming demonstration on the 
 part of the Lollards, and by a plot to overthrow his government 
 and raise Mortimer to the throne, before he could make his 
 descent upon the French coast, and emulate, even outdo the 
 achievements of his illustrious ancestor, Edward III. The 
 glories of his brief reign were too transient to initiate a new 
 literary epoch, to do more than cast a passing gleam athwart 
 the sombre history of his house ; his dazzling successes left his 
 infant son only a heritage of disaster. The story of Henry VI's 
 long reign is, outwardly, that of the slow decay of English 
 power in France ; inwardly, of misgovernment verging upon 
 anarchy, degenerating at last into civil war. For a few years 
 all went well : Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, brother of the 
 late king, was appointed by parliament protector of the realm, 
 and his elder brother John, duke of Bedford, regent in France. 
 A politic act of the new government was the liberation of the 
 Scottish king, James I, after his long detention of more than 
 eighteen years ; he pledged himself to preserve peace with 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 121 
 
 England, and the treaty was cemented by his marriage with 
 the Lady Joan Beaufort, a cousin of Henry V. Thus the 
 French lost a useful ally. James returned to his native land 
 in the spring of 1424 to begin administrative and legal reforms 
 that promised to open a new era of order and prosperity in his 
 distracted kingdom but his enlightened designs were cut 
 short by his barbarous assassination in the year 1437. 
 
 For the first five years of Bedford's able regency the prestige 
 of the English arms continued unabated : it was even enhanced 
 by the battle of Verneuil in 1427 a victory that recalled the 
 palmy days of Henry V. But in the same year the young 
 French patriot Dunois achieved his first conspicuous success 
 at Montargis the first of a series of solid though not brilliant 
 successes that resulted after many years in the utter discom- 
 fiture of the English and their expulsion from reconstituted 
 France. In 1428, Bedford began his ill-fated siege of Orleans; 
 the city was defended by Dunois and succoured by Joan of 
 Arc : her vision and his steadfastness regenerated the nation. 
 From that time the tide of English power began steadily to 
 ebb, and the decline was rather accelerated than stayed by the 
 Maid's pitiable martyrdom at Rouen. Bedford's death in 1435 
 broke the last tie that bound the duke of Burgundy to the 
 English cause, and he made his peace with the French king, 
 who shortly after recovered his capital of Paris. 
 
 Meantime, at home, there was angry contention between 
 Humphrey of Gloucester and his uncle, the cardinal-bishop of 
 Winchester, one standing for a continuance of the war, the 
 other for peace. The logic of events, and such influence as 
 the meek young king was able to exert, favored the latter policy, 
 and in 1444 a truce was agreed upon with France, which was 
 signalized the next year by Henry's marriage with Margaret, 
 daughter of Rene of Anjou. By a secret article in the 
 treaty the English possessions in Maine and Anjou were 
 restored to the new queen's family. 
 
122 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 In this interval of quiet, Charles VII carried out an extremely 
 important measure, the formation of a standing army ; and 
 in 1449 he seized the first opportunity that offered to resume 
 the war. He sent Dunois into Normandy, and town after town 
 submitted to him; in 1450, Cherbourg, the last possession of 
 the English in that quarter, was wrested from them. 
 
 These disheartening reverses, and the waste of taxation in 
 prosecuting so unfortunate a war, added to the unpopularity of 
 Queen Margaret, the suspicion engendered by the cession of 
 Maine, and the penury and monstrous indebtedness of the 
 crown, caused great commotion in England ; a popular insur- 
 rection broke out that resembled that of 1381. The general 
 discontent was not allayed when in 1451 Dunois overran 
 Guienne. The year following, Richard, duke of York, heir to 
 the royal claim of the house of Mortimer, as if representing 
 the national will, demanded a reform in the government. A 
 temporary diversion was made in favor of the English in 
 Guienne, but in 1453 the troops of Charles VII closed 
 round them again ; they were driven from Bordeaux and 
 Bayonne, and Calais with its environs remained the last shred 
 of their French possessions. 
 
 These disasters deranged King Henry's feeble intellect, and 
 parliament appointed the duke of York protector of the realm. 
 But about Christmas-tide, 1454, Henry enjoyed a restoration 
 of reason, and Richard was deprived of his authority. He 
 forthwith raised an army, and met and defeated the royal 
 forces at St. Alban's in May, 1455, taking the king himself 
 captive. This was the first of a long series of sanguinary 
 battles in which victory almost invariably inclined to the side 
 of the Yorkists, and in which the genius of feudalism was 
 extinguished. 
 
 Again his troubles disordered Henry's understanding, and 
 again the duke of York was made protector. In 1456 the 
 king recovered, and a hollow reconciliation of the contending 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 123 
 
 parties was effected ; for a few years an ominous quiet was 
 preserved. But in 1459 the inevitable conflict between a wan- 
 ing and a rising cause broke out afresh : the Yorkists were 
 victorious at Bloreheath, and the next year at Northampton ; 
 and the duke's title to the crown was admitted by the Lords. 
 The inflexible Margaret, however, gathered an army in the 
 north and won a victory at Wakefield ; Richard fell in the bat- 
 tle, and his head, contemptuously circled with a paper crown, 
 was stuck upon the walls of York. His son Edward, now 
 duke, a good soldier, though but nineteen years of age, partly 
 avenged his death at the battle of Mortimer's Cross, in the 
 winter of 1461, and marching straightway to London mounted 
 the throne, amid the rejoicings of the citizens, as King Edward 
 IV. Immediately after, in conjunction with his cousin, the 
 Earl of Warwick, he established his power by a fearful slaughter 
 of the Lancastrians on the field of Towton. 
 
 The poetry of the Lancastrian period was affected by the 
 evil fortunes of the House. It presents to our view the grad- 
 ual decay of the literary enthusiasm inherited from the four- 
 teenth century. It is afflicted with the garrulity and prolixity 
 of age ; and a deadly blight steals over it with the increasing 
 disorders of Henry VI's hopeless reign. The most attractive 
 quality of the representative poets of the age is, perhaps, their 
 reverent affection for the memory of Chaucer, but their linger- 
 ing didacticism gives evidence that they derived more from 
 Gower, whose name they constantly coupled with Chaucer's. 
 Among their most characteristic and readable verses are their 
 confessions of a wasted youth ; the emotion of regret and 
 penitence in these has a ring of sincerity that makes them 
 start out from the mass of mediocre and imitative versification 
 in which they are imbedded. 
 
 John Lydgate, monk and scholar, illustrates well the back- 
 ward look, the longing to have walked and talked with Chaucer, 
 that was his finest inspiration, in the prologue to his volumi- 
 
124 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 nous " Story -of Thebes." He offers it to us as the last of the 
 Canterbury tales. He pictures himself as riding in his black 
 cope on a slender palfrey with a rusty bridle, to visit the shrine 
 of St. Thomas, and perform his vows after a recovery from 
 sickness. It befell that he entered the town soon after Chaucer 
 and his pilgrims had arrived there, and that he sought enter- 
 tainment at the very inn where they were. The Host 
 demanded his name, and invited him to join his party ; the 
 following morning, when they were a bow-shot out of town, 
 he called on Lydgate not to preach, but to tell a tale, "of 
 effect of joy " : 
 
 4< And as I coude, with a pale chere, 
 My tale I gan anone, as ye shal here." 
 
 It is the story of CEdipus, and of the unbrotherly struggle of 
 " Ethiocles and Polimite." It was a parable for its author's 
 own times ; despite the Host's precaution, Lydgate concealed 
 under the sweetness of rhyme a homiletic motive ; at the con- 
 clusion of the tale he expresses his conviction that Lucifer is 
 the originator of war. 
 
 That mixture of Christian and classic, that vision of antiquity 
 through the medium of chivalry, which was so characteristic 
 of the Renascence, is exhibited in this and other of Lyd- 
 gate's works. The compromise between the royal brothers 
 by which they agree to reign in alternate years is confirmed 
 by "othe of Sacrament." Tydeus is the best knight of the 
 world ; at his marriage all the Barons are present. When they 
 prepare for war, the worthy Bishop Amphiorax prophesies a 
 terrible slaughter of princes. Lydgate's "Testament" opens 
 with praise of the name of Jesus, who brought many souls 
 out of hell, in spite of Cerberus ; he is our Samson, our 
 Orpheus. 
 
 The piece last mentioned continues with a pretty but con- 
 ventional description of spring, to which childhood is compared, 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 125 
 
 and thus a transition is effected to the main business of the 
 poem a piteous disburdening of a sensitive conscience by a 
 confession of youthful shortcoming for which Jesus' absolution 
 is implored. As a boy the poet was headstrong and loath to 
 learn ; late at school, chattering and trifling, he would forge a 
 lie to cover up a fault. He stole apples ; no hedge or wall 
 restrained him ; he was readier to pluck grapes off other men's 
 vines than to say matins. He was a wanton ape, scoffing and 
 scorning ; he misused his five senses, and would sooner 
 count cherry-stones than go to church or hear the sacring bell. 
 He was loath to get up in the morning, to go to bed at night. 
 He was the bell-wether of truants. After he had entered the 
 monastic life, like Lot's wife he often looked back. He took 
 little heed of Benedict's rule, wore a black habit and was 
 a counterfeit, was disobedient, intemperate, the last at choir 
 until one day he saw a crucifix painted on a cloister-wall and 
 beside it the single word VIDE. From the impression at that 
 moment received he dated his conversion. 
 
 For Henry V, Lydgate composed a version of the tale of 
 Troy a popular subject, as we have seen, among readers who 
 traced the history of their island up to a king of Trojan 
 descent. For Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, he composed 
 another long poem, " The Falls of Princes," based upon 
 Boccaccio's work : a politico-moral subject appropriate to the 
 age. In the writings of his French contemporary also, the 
 didactic Alain Chartier, Lydgate found a congenial spirit 
 
 Bred in an age of schisms, of extraordinary vicissitudes, it 
 is no wonder that he was profoundly impressed by the muta- 
 bility of the world, the instability of human affairs. "All 
 stands in change like a midsummer rose " is the refrain of one 
 of his poems ; and of another, " All worldly thinge turneth as 
 a ball." Fortune and her wheel play a leading part in his 
 drama of life ; universal history seems to him simply the record 
 of her caprices : where are Pyrrhus, Alexander, and Seneca, 
 
126 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 he cries, where Rome and Carthage? it is as Fortune would : 
 she is the disposer. She is a great goddess, the empress of 
 this world, that is why it is so variable. Death casts down 
 princes from her wheel : witness the fate of Absalom, Hector, 
 Caesar, Belshazzar, Henry V. A curious piece, of contraries 
 all compact, gives one the impression of a mind confused, 
 without a clue to the labyrinth of life, helpless before the 
 riddle of the world, its oppositions, difficulties, and disappoint- 
 ments : " The more I go, the further behind I am ; the more I 
 seek, the less can I find ; the longer I serve, the more out of 
 mind : is this fortune, or is it infortune ? A weary peace, and 
 peace amid the war ; a weeping laughter, a merry glad weep- 
 ing ; the more I run, the more way I lose ; is this fortune, or 
 is it infortune ? A troubled joy, a joyful heaviness ; a sobbing 
 song, a cheerful distress ; trusty deceit, faithful deception ; 
 now light, now heavy, now sorrow, now gladness : how escape 
 these puzzling contrarieties ? By faith in God ; Christ's pas- 
 sion shall reclaim us in spite of false fortune." Elsewhere he 
 explains that there can be no " steadfast living " for man, made 
 as he is of the four elements, of four humors that alter with 
 the seasons ; in the midst of this perpetual change it is a 
 relief to lift one's eyes to the constant heavens, to think of the 
 Lord who is eternal, who sits so far above the seven stars in 
 his most imperial palace. 
 
 Lydgate's didactic vein crops out with exceeding plainness 
 in his "Dietary," or Rules for Preserving Health, a com- 
 pend of popular philosophy : " Rise from meat with an appe- 
 tite . . . don't grumble at meals . . . beware of rear-suppers ! 
 . . . don't drink between meals . . . too much salt meat is 
 injurious to delicate stomachs ... be moderate in diet, have 
 compassion on the needy, and live at peace with all men." One 
 of the best of his short poems is his " Counsel to an old man 
 on marriage with a young wife," in which he answers the old 
 man's arguments for such marriage. Another, " On the horned 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 127 
 
 head-dresses of ladies," is a dissuasive from an extravagant 
 fashion of the day. In pieces like these one can mark the 
 natural and easy transition from a didactic to a satirical spirit 
 and style, exemplified in a fable of two cows, Chychevache 
 and Bycorne, the first of which feeds on debonair wives and is 
 lean, the last on patient husbands, and is fat ; in the well- 
 known ballad, * London Lickpenny,' which gives us an enter- 
 taining glimpse into the streets of the capital in that far-off 
 day ; and in an ironical rhyme in which the poet returns to the 
 charge against his times : the world is stable princes are 
 righteous knights true priests perfect " even as the crab 
 goeth forward " ; law is incorruptible there 's no envy in 
 cloisters laborers are never idle women have banished 
 new-fangledness the hungry are fed, the naked clothed 
 heretics have left their frowardness and all 's "as straight as 
 a ram's horn." 
 
 In the collection of Lydgate's minor poems may be found 
 one, a love-poem, to the authorship of which he assuredly can 
 lay no claim. It is known that many fugitive pieces of the 
 fifteenth century were attributed to him ; and there is evidence 
 that some anonymous songs and ballads of that time were 
 written by women. The subject of the poem referred to is 
 " A Maiden's Complaint" ; in it we read, without question, a 
 woman's heart ; it is eloquent with passionate yet delicate 
 feeling. "We played and gathered flowers in the mead 
 together as children, he and I, and love then gave me for 
 my reward a knot in heart of remembrance that will never 
 come undone. And yet I have set my heart where, in all 
 likelihood, I shall never find favor, so great is the difference 
 between his manhood and my simpleness. I shall love him 
 best notwithstanding : would to God that he knew the truth, 
 how often I sigh for his sake ! His countenance, his figure, 
 his bearing are ever present in my sight ; in his absence I can 
 never be happy, without his love I can never be at rest. He 
 
128 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 is and has been from my tender years my chosen knight, though 
 he knows it not. Imprinted in my inward thought until I die, 
 he shall never depart out of my heart, whose only solace is 
 waking or sleeping to dream of him." 
 
 One of the finest ballads of the fifteenth century (though 
 the first draught of it we possess is an inferior version of a 
 later age) is that of " Chevy Chase," an account of the bold 
 Lord Percy's hunting-party upon the Cheviot Hills, in the 
 midst of which he is encountered by the Douglas and his men; 
 the rival champions fall in deadly combat, and a frightful 
 slaughter ensues. It is impossible to fix the date of this event, 
 so contradictory are the historical allusions in the. poem ; 
 it seems like a confused echo of several border battles. It 
 presents to our minds a vivid picture of the lawlessness and 
 bloodshed, the ferocity relieved with rare touches of magna- 
 nimity, that characterized those turbulent times. It is an epic 
 in miniature. 
 
 In Lydgate's day Moralities, or Moral-plays, were introduced 
 into England ; three specimens of such plays, known to belong 
 to the reign of Henry VI, are still extant. 
 
 For the canons of St. Paul's, London, Lydgate composed a 
 version of the " Dance of Death," to be illustrated by designs 
 upon the cloister wall. The grotesque subject was exceedingly 
 popular at that epoch, in both verse and painting, throughout 
 Christendom. For the abbot of St. Albans he wrote a met- 
 rical life of the patron saint of that ancient and celebrated 
 monastery. 
 
 Lydgate was still living, at an advanced age, in the year 
 1446. About that time, Osbern of Bokenham, Norfolk, an 
 Augustinian friar, wrote in unpolished verse a set of lives of 
 famous female saints for some noble ladies, his patronesses. 
 Thomas Occleve, a close contemporary of Lydgate's, less of a 
 poet than he but more of one than Osbern, seems like a 
 shadow of the stronger master in his devotion to Chaucer, 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 129 
 
 his retrospective, moralizing vein, his depressing sense of the 
 uncertainty of things, his diffuse and prolix style. In a short 
 poem, "La Male Regie" (Mis-Rule) he makes melancholy 
 confession of youthful indiscretions, which have brought him 
 to poverty and sickness. Youthful lusts led him astray ; now 
 he would return to obedience. Venus' family enticed him, 
 wine and " thick wafers " ; he was a tavern-haunter. He would 
 go to bed full of liquor, and rise late : he was a mirror of riot. 
 He paid the taverners and cooks at Westminster gate just what 
 they asked, and so was taken for a "very gentleman " ; thence 
 home by water he would pay the boatmen well and be called 
 " master,"- oh treacherous flattery ! Erelong his purse grew 
 light, excess exiled the coin. Then came sickness to restrain 
 his indulgence, and he found himself in debt. The poem ends 
 with an invocation to the god of health, and in significant 
 proximity to it is another "Au Roy," piteously entreating a 
 flood of royal largess to relieve his distress. Confession and 
 petition are repeated in his long poem, " The Governail of 
 Princes," dedicated to Henry V. This is a free rendering of 
 a mediaeval Latin treatise ; it is an " art of government," 
 another of those politico-moral subjects adapted to the time. 
 In the lengthy introduction he prefixed to it, Occleve bemoans 
 the mutations of the world, the inroads of heresy, the extrav- 
 agance of fashion, and the irregular payment of his annuity, 
 by which he is sometimes reduced to great straits ; he pays a 
 touching tribute to Chaucer's memory, which he echoes in the 
 body of the work. He lived long enough to direct his worship 
 to the rising sun of York ; in an address, doubtless to the 
 Duke Richard, which must have been composed about the year 
 1449, he recommends himself to the Princess his wife and to 
 Prince Edward, and prays the Trinity for a thousand years of 
 happiness for them all. 
 
 In Scotland, the literary impulse exerted by John Barbour 
 had effect early in the fifteenth century in a rhymed history, 
 
130 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 " The Oryginale Cronykil of Scotland," written by Andrew of 
 Wyntoun, prior of St. Serf's monastery, Loch Leven. It is in 
 nine books, "in honor of the nine orders of angels," and was 
 called " Original " because it began with the creation. It 
 extends to the death of Robert III, in 1406. 
 
 Of Chaucer's immediate followers the Scottish king, James 
 I, was the most poetical. None made the master's works the 
 subject of more loving study, none so thoroughly assimilated 
 their spirit. His main poem, " The King's Quair " (or Book), 
 is written in Chaucer's stanza, and abounds in reminiscences 
 of his works, but it is the story of his love a love that had 
 a happy ending, and the personal element in it is strong and 
 fresh enough to redeem it fully from the charge of mediocre 
 imitation. It was composed toward the close of his English 
 captivity. 
 
 The poet-king pictures himself reading Boethius, and medi- 
 tating on Fortune's inexplicable power, the insecurity of earthly 
 enjoyment, and his own loss of liberty. Looking from his 
 window (in Windsor Castle) into a fair garden below he hears 
 the birds sing hymns to Love, and wonders what this Love is. 
 Looking again, he sees a lovely lady walking in the garden 
 with her maids : is she the very goddess Nature ? He prays to 
 Venus, and calls on the nightingale to sing, but the lady goes 
 her way, and his day is turned to night. Suddenly a mystic 
 light streams in at the window, and he is caught up to the 
 lovers' heaven, Venus has heard his prayer, and receives him 
 graciously. She sends him, with Good Hope as guide, to 
 Minerva, who, on examination, finds that his love is virtuous, 
 gives him good advice (quoting Ecclesiastes), and instructs him 
 in the doctrine of Necessity and Free-Will. The lover then 
 descends to earth, and finds himself in a delicious garden along 
 a river running clear and cold over golden gravel ; he marks 
 the fishes that leap and play in its waters, their scales glittering 
 in the sun like fine mail, the rows of trees laden with delec- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 131 
 
 table fruit along its banks, and the divers animals that roam 
 around. At last he discovers a spot encircled with a wall, and 
 within it the great goddess Fortune and her wheel, under which 
 is an ugly pit that never gives up again those who fall into it ; 
 a crowd of folk cling to the wheel, some rising on it, some 
 almost dropping from it, some violently flung off. The god- 
 dess sets him on it, and pinches his ear so sharply that he 
 wakes from his dream. Going once more to his window, a 
 turtle-dove bearing a branch lights on his hand a favorable 
 omen ; and he blesses Fortune's axle-tree and wheel that have 
 whirled him so well. The poem ends, as was customary, with 
 an envoy, and a reference to the " superlative poets," Gower 
 and Chaucer, whose souls its royal author commends to the 
 bliss of heaven in a line that haunts the ear with a fine, far-off, 
 aeolian melody such as distinguishes mediaeval poetry at its 
 best; he who has never caught it has missed an exquisite 
 satisfaction, a pure and humanizing pleasure. 
 
 A very important strain of thought that gave tone to the 
 whole Lancastrian period to a degree scarcely appreciated even 
 by students was that of the followers of Wyclif. During the 
 reign of Richard II they increased so rapidly in numbers that 
 an ecclesiastical annalist could assert that " they were multi- 
 plied like suckers from the root of a tree and everywhere filled 
 the compass of the kingdom, insomuch that a man could not 
 meet two people on the road but one of them was a disciple of 
 Wyclif." The accession of the House of Lancaster was inaus- 
 picious to their cause ; Henry IV sought to strengthen his pre- 
 carious title by any means, principally by courting the favor of 
 the clergy, and this he found could be most surely gained by 
 oppressing the Lollards. Hence the famous statute of the year 
 1400 empowered a bishop to arrest any person suspected of 
 holding heretical opinions, to try him, and if convicted, 
 imprison him at pleasure ; and if, having recanted, he after- 
 ward relapsed, to deliver him to the sheriff to be burnt. John 
 
132 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Purvey, the reviser of Wyclif's Bible, bowed before the storm 
 and abjured his heresy ; but a martyr to the cause was soon 
 found in William Sautrey, a priest in London, upon whom the 
 awful sentence of deposition was accordingly carried out. 
 Paten, chalice, and chasuble were taken from him, in token of 
 his degradation from the priesthood ; New Testament and 
 lectionary, alb and stole, taper and church-keys symbols of 
 the diaconate were next taken away ; and clad in the simple 
 habit of a layman he was led to the stake and burnt alive. 
 Thus was consummated the first legalized murder for con- 
 science' sake in England. In 1407 another priest, William 
 Thorpe, was convicted of holding Lollards' opinions, and was 
 imprisoned : what finally became of him is not known. In 
 1410, Thomas Badby, a smith, found in error concerning the 
 capital point of transubstantiation, was burnt to death. And 
 yet, meanwhile, the parliament of the land was sufficiently 
 tinctured with Wyclif's opinions concerning church property to 
 propose the seizure of some of it. Archbishop Chichely actually 
 encouraged Henry V in his warlike projects in order to divert 
 the attention of the people from these questions. The rising 
 of the persecuted Lollards at the beginning of that king's reign 
 has been already mentioned ; their patron Oldcastle, a noble- 
 man, was marked out as a distinguished victim, but he 
 escaped from prison, and was not apprehended and put to 
 death until four years later. 
 
 The decrees of the Council of Constance stirred in England 
 fresh efforts to extirpate heresy. Wyclif's ashes were dug up 
 and vindictively cast into the brook that flows by Lutterworth. 
 An Inquisition was established, with Thomas Netter con- 
 fessor to Henry V, and a stalwart defender of orthodoxy at 
 its head. The learned John Capgrave, provincial of the English 
 branch of the Augustinian order, author of a lost life of St. 
 Gilbert, preserves in his English chronicle many curious items 
 concerning the Lollards which reveal beside his blind and 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 133 
 
 bitter prejudice against the sect. His chronicle ends about this 
 time, though he lived on to hail the accession of Edward IV. 
 
 In 1419, several Lollards were constrained to alter their 
 views. In 1424, two wandering priests were brought back to 
 the fold. The same year, James I returned to Scotland 
 which was honeycombed with the new heresy to copy there 
 the ecclesiastical policy of his Lancastrian gaolers. He made 
 friends of the clergy by procuring straightway the enactment of 
 a statute similar to the English one, under which Paul Craw, a 
 Hussite emissary, was burnt at St. Andrews in the year 1432. 
 
 At Oxford, in 1427, Bishop Flemyng of Lincoln founded the 
 college named after his see for the express purpose of training 
 young churchmen to combat Wyclifite error. This shows how 
 widespread and deep-rooted the new doctrines yet were, and 
 how inefficient the Inquisitors had proved themselves in the 
 odious business of suppressing them. Even if all these indica- 
 tions of Lollard strength were lacking, Bishop Pecock's great 
 work, " The Represser of Over-much Blaming of the Clergy," 
 composed about the year 1449, wou ld stand as a monument to 
 the persistence of the sect. But while controverting many of 
 its tenets he manifested so tolerant a spirit toward others, and 
 broached views of his own so novel and startling that he soon 
 came. to be regarded as quite as great a troubler of the peace 
 of the church as the sectaries he opposed ; the archbishop of 
 Canterbury condemned his critical opinions, and he found 
 himself confronted by the dilemma of recantation or the fagot. 
 He grasped the former horn and threw his books into the fire. 
 Copies of them were also burnt at Oxford, where they had led 
 astray numbers of the best students. Now the pope, Pius II, 
 interposed in his behalf ; but only elicited from King Henry 
 VI fuller information as to the grounds of his deprivation, and 
 in 1459 t ne Y ear when the civil war broke out afresh poor 
 Pecock was sent to practical incarceration in a sequestered 
 abbey in Cambridgeshire. Of his after fate nothing is known. 
 
134 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 VI. 
 
 IT commonly happens that in a vast cycle of the world's 
 history distinguished by definite characteristics from every 
 other there will occur a single epoch, perhaps a generation 
 only, in which those characteristics are so conspicuously 
 summed up that one can put his finger on the place and say : 
 This is the essence of the whole, the focus of every ray. Such 
 a comprehensive period will naturally occur toward the close 
 of a series of ages that have an inner harmony, for the series 
 will display its peculiar qualities more distinctly as it advances. 
 Just such a period, the quintessence of what we call the Middle 
 Ages, now stretches before us for the space of half a century, 
 from about 1460 to about 1510, including thus the reigns of 
 the Yorkist kings and the first Tudor. 
 
 Every age is of course an age of transition, but in the one 
 before us it is especially necessary to couple with this fact, that 
 at the end of the fifteenth century the ideas and institutions of 
 the Middle Ages came to full fruition, their inmost nature 
 standing revealed, this other fact, that there was not one of 
 them which the stream of time was not slowly dissolving away; 
 the mighty fabric of mediaeval civilization was settling down 
 upon its foundations, to be replaced by quite another structure. 
 These facts, if constantly borne in mind, will make many con- 
 trasts clear, many puzzling contradictions intelligible. From 
 its very richness and variety this complex era is difficult to 
 comprehend, more so than any we have yet encountered ; 
 but it will repay any pains taken in its study, for it holds the 
 keys to the next age, the marvellous sixteenth century ; it 
 determined the colossal movements of the Reformation era. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 135 
 
 The spirit of feudalism blazed forth with extraordinary bril- 
 liancy at the moment of its expiration : never were there more 
 commanding representatives of the feudal nobility than War- 
 wick the king-maker, Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and 
 Ferdinand, duke of Braganza, yet they fell before the irre- 
 sistible advance of new ideas, and their falls were the death- 
 throes of a system. Sovereigns and people combined, and 
 between those upper and nether millstones the ancient aris- 
 tocracy was ground to powder ; it was replaced by a court 
 nobility, a change indicative of a change in culture equally 
 profound. 
 
 Everywhere at this time strong, centralized governments 
 were emerging from amid the confusion of the passing age ; 
 governments that met brute force with deep dissimulation, that 
 overcame the anarchic independence of their vassals by playing 
 off one against another, by sowing suspicion among members 
 of a hostile coalition and detaching them one by one ; by tor- 
 tuous diplomacy, by employment of mean agents, by disguising 
 stealthy advances to arbitrary power under forms of law ; by 
 ruthless, exterminating cruelty when occasion offered ; by stand- 
 ing armies and the use of ordnance ; by rigid economy in 
 administration, and by encouragement of trade, thereby 
 gaining the interest of an opulent class and securing a revenue. 
 
 The development of a legal spirit, directing particular atten- 
 tion to the details of justice, was a prominent feature of the 
 time. And now, in the decrepitude of the empire, whose 
 " peace," noble ideal as it was, was unhappily seldom more 
 than a dream, the statesmen of Florence perfected a device 
 that was to take its place and exert a tremendous influence 
 upon the destinies of Europe, the theory of a " balance of 
 power," enforcing peace by common resistance to the aggres- 
 sions of an overweening foe, an end often attained only 
 through prodigious wars. 
 
 Now, too, intrepid Portuguese navigators were bringing 
 
136 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 home knowledge of new lands, and unfolding prospects of a 
 golden commerce to the dazzled eyes of Europe. 
 
 To the papacy one more chance was given to retrieve itself, 
 to show of what worth it might be to the nations, and that 
 chance it made haste to squander miserably. Restored to its 
 place by the religious sentiment of Christendom, encircled with 
 a faint halo by the lives and works of a company of saintly 
 men and women, reformers of discipline, missionaries, preach- 
 ers, ascetics, visionaries, artists, freed completely from the 
 interference of emperors, the yet more fatal patronage of 
 French kings, it was left to itself for a season to work out its 
 salvation under highly favorable auspices. But hardly had 
 the salutary check of a general council been removed when it 
 began to manifest its deep-seated corruption and to speed upon 
 its downward career ; it became the appanage of a few power- 
 ful families who used it for their own aggrandizement ; the 
 supreme pontiffs themselves were luxurious, some of them 
 revoltingly immoral men, whose highest ambition was to extend 
 their secular sway ; and the Christian world was drained of gold 
 by disgraceful means, the German nation being bled above all 
 others, to support their pleasures, their sumptuous courts, and 
 their projects for disturbing the peace of Italy. 
 
 Scholastic philosophy now produced its last eminent doctor, 
 Gabriel Biel, lecturer in theology at the new University of 
 Tubingen. He reproduced Occam's doctrine of a Deity in- 
 comprehensible by man, whose attributes were mere accommo- 
 dations to the imbecility of the human intellect and could not 
 be proved to have any ground in his real nature. He made 
 explicit avowal of the doctrine that lay at the root of the 
 religious legalism of the Middle Ages when he defined a meri- 
 torious act as consisting of two elements, the free-will of the 
 doer, and divine grace. His fresh assertion of the efficacy of 
 sacraments without regard to the character of the recipient is 
 significant, as is his daring exaltation (connected therewith) of 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 137 
 
 the power of the priesthood. He was an enthusiastic propa- 
 gator of the doctrine of the immaculate conception. 
 
 At the same time the " new learning," coming in in a flood, 
 was rapidly undermining and sweeping away the relics of 
 the scholastic system. Monasticism, another overshadowing 
 institution of the Middle Ages, was likewise disintegrating. 
 Though outwardly it seemed stable, inwardly it was unsound ; 
 the reforming, disciplinary movement of the last age soon 
 spent its force, and its results, partial at best, passed away like 
 a vapor, and left the vast institution to disclose its inherently 
 evil tendencies ; it became hideously corrupt. The principal 
 agents in its dissolution were a reviving, eager appetite for 
 enjoyment of life, and a strengthening domestic sentiment. 
 
 The astrological and alchemical notions of ages germinated 
 afresh in this fecund period, close upon the dawn of modern 
 science (Copernicus was born in the year 1473). Astrologers 
 were indispensable functionaries at princes' courts ; astrologi- 
 cal figures were painted upon walls and ceilings and embroi- 
 dered upon garments ; almanacs were compiled and were in 
 great request ; the calculation of nativities was pursued with 
 ardor and without restraint, an ecclesiastic actually pre- 
 sumed to cast the horoscope of Christ. Another could assert 
 that his crucifixion was determined by the influence of the 
 stars, and a Bolognese physician could attribute his miracles to 
 the same influence, and still evade the Inquisition. So far did 
 the thought of the age decline from the ethical common-sense 
 of Gower. Among seekers for the philosopher's stone in this 
 century the most famous was the German, Basil Valentine, 
 more honorably distinguished by chemical discoveries of real 
 value made during his quest. Divination and magical prac- 
 tices flourished, some of them as disgusting as they were 
 ridiculous. The movements of the lions in princes' menag- 
 eries were studied with morbid curiosity and superstition, and 
 auguries drawn therefrom. At the bottom of all these notions 
 
138 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 and practices lay the persuasion that every property, every 
 motion in the universe had some occult significance, some 
 bearing upon human destiny, some correspondence in the 
 frame of man. 
 
 The code of prosecutions for witchcraft was now developed 
 with scientific precision and minuteness of detail. The occa- 
 sion of this was the publication of a bull by Pope Innocent 
 VIII in the year 1484, calling attention to the late portentous 
 increase in the number of witches and recommending stringent 
 measures for its reduction. The year following, accordingly, 
 forty-one miserable beings were burnt at the town of Como 
 alone; and in 1489, the inquisitor Sprenger, having extracted 
 full confessions of the heinous practices of German witches, 
 classified them, and furnished elaborate details of the process 
 of conviction, in his " Witches' Hammer." 
 
 Never in the history of the Catholic church had there been 
 so superb a ceremonial, such triumphs of art, as glittered in 
 the last forty years of the fifteenth century ; the elaborate 
 rites, centering about the sacrifice of the mass, the ecclesias- 
 tical music and ornaments that were so wearisome, even offen- 
 sive to Wyclif s soul, were zealously cultivated, and restored to 
 more than their pristine magnificence. Evidence of the taste 
 of the time is afforded by the extraordinary demand that there 
 was for Durandus' great work, the " Rationale " of church 
 architecture, ornament, and dedication, vestments, the mass, 
 and other divine offices, festivals and saints' days : it was the 
 first book put into print after the Bible ; a splendid edition of 
 it appeared at Mainz in 1459, and it ran through twelve other 
 editions before the end of the century. The motive of all 
 this was the elevation of the sacramental system above preach- 
 ing, extolled by Wyclif and his followers as of superior 
 efficacy ; and so at last we are able to discriminate the point 
 of departure of this from the preceding age : it consisted in a 
 renewed allegiance and devotion to the doctrine of Transub- 
 

 OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 139 
 
 stantiation, that God is received in the consecrated wafer more 
 effectually than through reading or hearing the Scriptures, 
 preaching, or any other means whatsoever. This was the cen- 
 tral point of the age ; round it circled the splendid worship 
 and art, the hieratic absolutism, the thought of sin and justifi- 
 cation, all the religious life of Christendom. Indissolubly 
 associated with it were the benefits of confession, penance, 
 and priestly absolution pre-requisites to reception upon 
 which fresh emphasis was laid. Pilgrimages were resorted to 
 as highly meritorious acts and means of grace, pleasant like- 
 wise, and grateful to a mundane curiosity ; indulgences were 
 purchased as easy ways of escape from the consequences of 
 sin. It is worthy of note that the jubilee cycle was now 
 reduced to one of twenty-five years, so agreeable to one 
 party was that means of expiation, so lucrative to the other. 
 Paul II published a jubilee for the year 1475 tne profits of 
 which, however, he did not live to reap, and in order to 
 bring its benefits within reach of all he made a remarkable 
 innovation in its observance, commuting the customary pil- 
 grimage to Rome into a visit to some local shrine, and a gift 
 according to ability. His successor, Sixtus IV, reaped the 
 harvest that Paul had sown ; and in 1477 asserted the lawful- 
 ness and efricacy of indulgences in ransoming from purgatory 
 the spirits of the dead. 
 
 One can hardly doubt that there was a subtle yet real con- 
 nection between the dogma of transubstantiation and the 
 alchemist's notion of a transmutation of metals; that each 
 stood as an argument for the other. Both were rooted in the 
 confirmed habit of thought of five hundred years. 
 
 It is clear that the idea of the institution, the community, 
 corporate interest was in the ascendant, as opposed to the rude 
 individualism of the former age. The church was rehabilitated 
 in her authority, its impersonation, papal infallibility, did not 
 lack learned defenders. Divergences of opinion in matters of 
 
140 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 religion were suppressed; in 1478 the Spanish Inquisition was 
 organized anew, and shortly after Torquemada began his 
 blood-stained career. So it came to pass that the experience 
 of more than a century before was repeated, in an intensified 
 form : the intellect and the emotions, denied fair play in the 
 religious sphere, expatiated in the fascinating fields of literature 
 and art. It is a mistake to suppose that Roman literature was 
 totally neglected during the monastic ages ; most of its greatest 
 authors, Terence, Cicero and Sallust, Virgil, Tibullus, Horace, 
 Livy, and Ovid, Seneca and Lucan, Juvenal, Statius, and 
 Suetonius, were known, at least in part, and probably never 
 ceased to be read somewhere ; but in the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries, through the contagion of Petrarch's enthu- 
 siasm, the indefatigable zeal of Poggio Bracciolini, the list 
 was greatly extended ; Plautus, Lucretius, much of Cicero, 
 Catullus, Vitruvius, and Columella, Quintillian, Silius Italicus, 
 and Aulus Gellius were recovered, and early in the sixteenth 
 century much of Tacitus was found in a German monastery ; 
 and all were studied with an ardor and a veneration that it is 
 hard for us to conceive to-day. Even more notable, and dis- 
 tinctive of the fifteenth century, was the revival of Greek 
 letters. There was already a strong desire to become 
 acquainted with them, when the precarious condition of the 
 Eastern Empire and the projects for a union between the 
 Greek and Latin churches sent westward a succession of Greek 
 scholars who, finding a warm welcome in Italy, settled there 
 and gave lessons in their language and literature. The first of 
 these, the learned Chrysoloras, commissioned by the emperor 
 of Constantinople to solicit aid against the Turks, finally estab- 
 lished himself at Florence, where he became Poggio's tutor. 
 He was employed by the Roman pope, Gregory XII, to nego- 
 tiate a union between the churches. In 1423, Giovanni 
 Aurispa, a famous collector of manuscripts, brought to Venice 
 from Constantinople more than two hundred codices, including 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 141 
 
 the poems of Pindar, and the complete works of Plato, Xeno- 
 phon, Lucian, Plotinus, and Proclus. Niccolo Niccoli, a 
 Florentine, who died in 1436, bequeathed to the republic his 
 precious collection of eight hundred Greek, Latin, and Oriental 
 manuscripts. Cosmo de' Medici was a princely purchaser of 
 Greek, Latin, Hebrew and other Semitic manuscripts, and thus 
 formed the nucleus of what was later known as the Laurentian 
 library. Parentucelli, a noted humanist and patron of human- 
 ists, who had been engaged to draw up a catalogue of Niccoli's 
 collection, after his accession to the papal throne as Nicholas 
 V gathered the extraordinary number of over five thousand 
 volumes of classical authors, thus founding the famous library 
 of the Vatican. And now at this most favorable juncture 
 came the invention of printing, by which the study of these 
 and other authors was marvellously facilitated ; the triumphs 
 of this art bring into especial prominence the encyclopaedic 
 character of the age. A remarkable collection of the earliest 
 specimens of the art exists in the library that was founded at 
 Vienna about the year 1440 by the Emperor Frederick III. 
 The correction of texts of the Latin classics, begun by Niccoli, 
 was carried on with enthusiasm and success by the poet Angelo 
 Poliziano, who amended the texts of Ovid, Statius, Quintillian, 
 Pliny Junior, and Suetonius, and inspired others to do as much 
 for those of Persius, Martial, and Columella. The concourse 
 of scholars and ecclesiastics that accompanied the Greek em- 
 peror to Florence in 1439, t effect a reconciliation of the 
 Eastern and Western churches, marks another stage in the 
 naturalization of Greek culture in Italy. Conspicuous among 
 them was the cultivated Bessarion, who, with his tutor Pletho, 
 indoctrinated the Italian mind in the ideal Platonic philosophy, 
 and, despite the jealous opposition of conservative thinkers, 
 broke the spell of the mediaeval version of Aristotle. The 
 domestication of Greek learning may be said to have been 
 completed by the fall of Constantinople, which drove a host of 
 
142 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 literary men to Italy, in the year 1453 the cardinal date of 
 the whole century, doubly important in its bearing upon com- 
 merce and discovery as well as learning : the imperative neces- 
 sity henceforth of rinding a sea-route to India led to the dis- 
 coveries of Columbus, the circumnavigation of Africa by Vasco 
 da Gama. 
 
 By the year 1453 the Second Renascence was fully initiated. 
 The differences between this and the Petrarchian period were 
 such that it is unscientific in the extreme to confound the two, 
 to assume that attributes of one pertain to the other also. One 
 deeply significant characteristic was common to both : a 
 divorce of morals and intellectual interests from religion, a 
 condition of unstable spiritual equilibrium always provocative 
 of satire ; but in the fifteenth century the schism was completer 
 than in the fourteenth. One patent distinction the later revival 
 enjoyed, an infusion of Hellenic thought through the pres- 
 ence and tuition in the Greek language, literature, history, 
 philosophy, and mythology, of a swarm of Greek ambassadors, 
 ecclesiastics, and literary refugees of more or less repute who 
 wandered up and down in Italy. Again : the first renascence 
 followed a prolonged endeavor to bring political order out of 
 chaos that had proved conspicuously successful in several 
 quarters, fairly so in others ; whereas the second accompanied 
 a similar endeavor, and emerged amid a welter of conflicting 
 forces, keeping pace with the reestablishment of civil and 
 ecclesiastical authority. These and other characteristics, such 
 as the stronger family feeling before mentioned, melt in a clare- 
 obscure of sentiment more easily felt than defined, differing as 
 much from that of former periods as Lorenzo de' Medici's 
 nameless mistress differed from the Beatrice of Dante, Pe- 
 trarch's Laura, or the Fiammetta of Boccaccio. The contrast 
 was as vividly reflected in the arts, in which a revolution 
 was wrought during the fifteenth century by the study and 
 representation of the nude figure, the application of the 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 143 
 
 sciences of anatomy and perspective, and the use of colors 
 mixed with oil. 
 
 A notable feature of the later revival of learning was the 
 greater participation in it of the northern nations, shown in the 
 founding of new homes of humanism, the Universities of 
 Freiburg and Greifswald, in the years 1455 and 1456 respec- 
 tively, of Basel, in 1459, Ingolstadt, 1472, Tubingen and 
 Upsala, 1477, Copenhagen, 1479, an ^ Wittenberg, 1502. In 
 Scotland, the University of Glasgow was founded in 1451 ; 
 that of St. Andrews was enlarged by the founding of St. 
 Saviour's College in 1459 ; and King's College, the germ of 
 the University of Aberdeen, was instituted in 1494. 
 
 As Italy still led the rest of Europe, so did Florence lead 
 Italy in intellect, varied and harmonious culture, and the art of 
 elegant living. The peculiar position of that republic then 
 yielding itself to the genial tyranny of the Medici between 
 the duchy of Milan and the oligarchic republic of Venice on 
 the one hand, and the papal monarchy and the kingdom of 
 Naples on the other, explains how it was that there, in the 
 midst of such mixed political relations, that compelled perpetual 
 vigilance for the preservation of autonomy, there should have 
 been devised that delicate adjustment of forces known as a 
 balance of power. The conquest of Pisa in the year 1406 was 
 probably the most important event in Florentine history ; it 
 resulted in the purchase of Livorno in 1421 ; and Florence, 
 now first possessed of a strip of sea-coast, began a new role as 
 a maritime power, her galleys appeared in the Levant, the 
 Black Sea, and the English channel. This enlargement of 
 horizon was a powerful stimulus to her intellectual life : the 
 sciences of astronomy and navigation had henceforth a practical 
 interest for many of her citizens which occasioned the flourish 
 of mathematical studies that soon ensued and that exerted a 
 profound influence upon the arts. Political consequences of 
 magnitude followed this extension of commerce ; large part of 
 
144 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 the wealth that flowed from it fell to the merchant princes 
 of the house of Medici and enhanced their power: the recall 
 of the great Cosmo from brief exile in the year 1434 was 
 not obscurely connected with the conquest of Pisa. He 
 remained the first citizen of the republic until his death in 1464, 
 a position which his grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, 
 exchanged for almost absolute sway. 
 
 The wealth of Florence exhaled in a refined civilization such 
 as the world had not seen since the golden age of Athenian 
 culture nearly two thousand years before ; and there was about 
 it a subtlety, spirituality, inventiveness, a certain iridescent 
 play of color that contrasts picturesquely with the statuesque 
 repose and beauty relatively perfect within narrower limits of 
 the classic time. It cannot be too emphatically stated that the 
 humanists as a class had no earnest quarrel with the Catholic 
 church, rather they confessed her authority. They despised 
 the quiddities of scholasticism, the barbarous Latin of which 
 moreover smote harshly upon ears sensitive to Ciceronian 
 cadences ; they had a hearty antipathy to monks and friars, 
 but none to a cultivated hierarchy, a papacy adorned by such 
 noted humanists as Nicholas V and Pius II. The imposing 
 ceremonial of the church gratified their aesthetic sense ; the 
 common notion of propitiation, quite like that of the ancients, 
 was no offence to them ; nor was the dogma of transubstantia- 
 tion monstrous to men who revelled in the classic lore of meta- 
 morphosis. But while they acknowledged a mysterious depend- 
 ence upon the sacraments, and yielded to the church all 
 responsibility for their spiritual life, they indemnified them- 
 selves by boundless liberty in the region of the human. An 
 ideal of culture, of a perfected personality, of an harmonious 
 play of every activity of mind and body, took possession of 
 the youth of Florence. The charm of the old ideal of knight- 
 hood was still potent ; it lingered on as the basis of the new 
 manhood and was enriched by the novel thought of manifold 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 145 
 
 accomplishment ; the result was a fusion of mediaeval and 
 classic ideals. The complete man must be expert in horse- 
 manship and all the exercises of a cavalier ; he must be a 
 good swimmer, runner and wrestler (a touch of the palaestra 
 here) ; he must also learn to dance. Beside his native Tuscan 
 a cultivated man should master at least one other language, 
 and that should be the language of Cicero. He should be 
 versed in literature and be a connoisseur of art ; he should 
 sing or perform upon some instrument of music, lute, harp, 
 organ, or (best of all) the violin. A conception like this seen 
 embodied in one individual enthralls the imagination of an age; 
 it was more than realized in the consummate character of Leo 
 Battista Alberti, and all who knew him confessed the fasci- 
 nation of his personality. He was athletic, literary, musical ; a 
 wit, and a polished Latinist in verse and prose. He wrote an 
 Italian treatise, " La Famiglia," in which he held up a noble 
 ideal of domestic life. He was a mathematician, a student of 
 science and law. He drew and wrote on art. He was a 
 passionate admirer of natural beauty and was often melted to 
 tears by the sight of a fair landscape. His contemporary, 
 Pope Pius II, gave expression to a feeling similar but not so 
 romantic, more in the vein of Virgil and Statius, in his Latin 
 " Commentaries " ; in the description of his summer haunt at 
 Tivoli, where, among the ivy-clad ruins of Hadrian's villa, he 
 mused upon the transiency of earthly glory, we have that 
 mingled sense of the beauty of nature and the pathos of the 
 dead past that was a dominant note of Renascent life. This 
 graceful melancholy was nourished by pictures of ruins embow- 
 ered in dark laurel and funereal cypress, the first of which 
 appeared in the year 1467. 
 
 Sex was not recognized in the culture of the intellect ; 
 sisters enjoyed the same advantages of education as their 
 brothers ; and numbers of highly accomplished women gave 
 tone to the social life of the day. They were conversant with 
 
146 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 classic literature, both Latin and Greek, and often wrote strong 
 verse of their own ; they could engage in philosophic discus- 
 sion and correspond with celebrated scholars upon equal 
 terms ; they were skilled in vocal and instrumental music. 
 Graceful and dignified demeanor, facile dialogue, exquisite 
 purity of speech, were cultivated as fine arts. 
 
 A day spent in this wise was accounted perfect : first, in the 
 freshness of the morning, a ramble among the hills, the conver- 
 sation meanwhile threading some Platonic dream ; about the 
 middle of the forenoon, breakfast, accompanied by song and 
 music ; then to a shady garden nook, to listen to the recital of 
 an original poem by one of the company ; after a long siesta 
 through the languid hours, to meet again in the cool of the 
 evening by a bubbling spring or fountain, every one to tell 
 some tale "of effect of joy" or sorrow; then supper, followed 
 by sprightly talk which should yet keep within the bounds of 
 delicacy. 
 
 This delightful programme might have been deduced from 
 joyous days actually passed by Lorenzo and his friends at his 
 palatial villa of Ambra, with its woods stocked with Sicilian 
 pheasants and peacocks, its gardens and orchards along the 
 river-side, or at his other villa at hilly Fiesole, where he 
 especially enjoyed the society of the philosophers, scholars and 
 poets who were his intimate companions. There might be 
 seen the noble Ficino, to whom the Platonic philosophy had 
 become a religion, and who exemplified in his daily walk its 
 refining tendency; Poliziano, his pupil, an eminent scholar, 
 exquisite Latinist, and the first Italian poet since Petrarch; 
 Pulci, wit and poet, author of a voluminous mock-epic, the 
 " Morgante Maggiore"; and thither came a singular product of 
 the Renascence, the omniscient young Pico, prince of Mirandola, 
 who had lately published at Rome innumerable theses, drawn 
 from all the great departments of knowledge, which he was 
 prepared to defend in half a dozen different languages. Poli- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 147 
 
 ziano's " Stanzas," written when he was a mere boy on occa- 
 sion of a grand tournament held by Giuliano de' Medici, evince 
 a delicate, Virgilian appreciation of rural beauty and contain 
 a whole gallery of mythological pictures. His description of 
 the never-fading, Elysian loveliness of Venus' haunt on the 
 island of Cyprus was a first sketch for yet more glowing 
 descriptions of delicious gardens by greater poets of a later 
 day. He also wrote in Italian a tiny lyrical drama, " Orpheus," 
 and a few minor poems. The true nature of Pulci's work has 
 often been a subject of debate ; it has been argued that it is 
 wholly satirical and skeptical of established beliefs and institu- 
 tions. The fact seems to be that it is a jocoserious production, 
 a merry parody of the romances of chivalry still in vogue, heap- 
 ing deserved ridicule by the way on the religious orders, yet 
 flowering out now and then in passages of genuine emotion. 
 
 A sign of the satirical spirit that grew with the growth of 
 political absolutism is afforded by the court fools whose num- 
 bers were now multiplied in the retinues of the petty despots 
 of Italy and thence throughout Europe. Those fantastic 
 beings were privileged to mock and gibe without respect of 
 persons, and sometimes, in the guise of jest, to let their impe- 
 rious masters know what otherwise they would never hear, 
 just what others thought of them. 
 
 The peculiar glory of Florence in the fifteenth century was 
 her art. In architecture a remarkable innovation distinguished 
 the second Renascence, the introduction of the dome. In 
 the year 1420 Brunelleschi began and left almost finished at 
 his death in 1444 his magnificent dome over the cathedral. 
 Years before he had visited Rome with his boy friend Donatello 
 destined to prove himself in time one of the greatest sculptors 
 of the world and had been deeply impressed by the superb 
 cupola of the Pantheon. He returned to Florence filled with 
 enthusiasm for the wonderful works of antiquity and with an 
 ambition to recover the mechanical knowledge of the old 
 
148 .OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Romans and to rival their constructive feats. Donatello 
 returned to carve many noble statues, among them his ideally 
 beautiful St. George ; after a second sojourn in the papal 
 capital he executed in 1433 his reliefs of dancing children for 
 the choir gallery of the Florentine cathedral. The organ 
 gallery was decorated with like reliefs by Luca della Robbia ; 
 his marble youths and maidens are vocal with the spirit of song ; 
 his children, singing, playing, and dancing, his little naked 
 frolicsome boys, express the very ecstacy of renascent life, and 
 reveal the artist's admiring love of happy childhood. Nothing 
 could picture more vividly the strength of the healthy reaction 
 from monastic ideas. 
 
 In 1451 Donatello designed an equestrian statue the first 
 since the decline of art in ancient Rome. The year following 
 his illustrious compeer, Lorenzo Ghiberti, finished his second 
 glorious set of sculptured bronze doors for the Florentine 
 baptistery. 
 
 This revival of the sculptor's art was due to the passion for 
 antique and natural beauty already noticed. The rage for 
 collecting statues, busts, fragments of sculpture, vases, coins, 
 engraved gems, was identical in principle with the lust of pos- 
 sessing manuscripts of classical authors. The discovery dur- 
 ing the pontificates of Alexander VI and Julius II of the Apollo 
 Belvedere, the group of the Laocoon, the Torso and Venus 
 named of the Vatican, resembled in effect the recovery of a 
 lost work by Cicero or Tacitus. In the early part of the cen- 
 tury Cyriac of Ancona, a zealous antiquary, explored the coasts 
 of the Mediterranean, exhuming bits of sculpture, sketching 
 what was too large for him to carry away ; when asked why he 
 spent his time and substance in such pursuits he replied, " To 
 wake the dead ! " Cosmo de' Medici left to his son a large 
 collection of gold and silver medals, cameos and gold rings 
 with stones engraved with classic and mythological subjects, 
 inlaid tables from Byzantium, and similar treasures. Such 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 149 
 
 were the beautiful objects desire of which banished, from 
 Florence at least, the old-time eagerness for nauseous relics of 
 saints. The splendid Lorenzo inherited to the full his grand- 
 father's tastes ; the readiest way to his favor was to present 
 him an ancient vase or coin. Along the garden walks and 
 arcades behind his palace in the city he caused his statuary, 
 busts, and other specimens of ancient sculpture to be arranged, 
 and instituted there an academy of art under the direction of 
 Bertoldo, a chosen pupil of Donatello. There that master's 
 methods were transmitted to the succeeding generation ; there 
 Torrigiano studied and the young Angelo learned his art. 
 
 We have already observed an improvement in the technics 
 of painting. By the middle of the century the new medium 
 oil, first successfully employed by the Flemish painters, 
 Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, found its way into the studios of 
 Venice and Florence. Somewhat earlier, Masaccio, an artist 
 of extraordinary genius, who died very young, originated the 
 naturalistic style of painting by his noble frescoes (which he 
 did not live to finish) in the Brancacci chapel of the Carmelite 
 church in Florence. In one of these a youth who kneels to an 
 apostle who has wrought his miraculous recovery is represented 
 entirely naked, the first figure of the kind in modern art. 
 
 The Brancacci chapel became a school for future artists ; 
 Filippo Lippi studied there, and his son Filippino finished 
 Masaccio's frescoes. 
 
 The next nude figure of note was that by Botticelli of Venus 
 floating over the sea in her shell. But all previous efforts in 
 this line were puny and immature as compared with Signorelli's ; 
 in his frescoes at Orvieto, executed upon the threshold of the 
 sixteenth century, that great master revealed a consummate 
 knowledge of anatomy and a Dantesque imaginative power 
 that mark him as the forerunner of Michael Angelo. 
 
 A pioneer in the application of mathematical science to the 
 arts of design was Paolo Uccelli, a pupil of Ghiberti. He prose- 
 
150 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 cuted with enthusiasm the study of perspective and made its 
 principles generally known. A younger contemporary of his, 
 Antonio Pollajuolo, was an expert both in perspective and 
 anatomy. 
 
 When we turn to the inventive side of the art we are struck 
 by its widening range of subjects and its increased capacity to 
 express emotion, from the tenderest human feeling to the terrific 
 and sublime. The irresistible inclination of the age made it 
 inevitable that art should at last overstep its scriptural and 
 ecclesiastical limits and enter the field of classical and mytho- 
 logical illustration. Botticelli led the way ; his " Birth of 
 Venus " has just been mentioned ; another interesting work of 
 his among many in this style is his attempted reproduction of 
 the " Calumny " of Apelles, from a passage descriptive of the 
 original in an ancient author. The magnificent series of 
 pictures by the great Paduan master, Andrea Mantegna, illus- 
 trating " The Triumph of Julius Caesar," is well-known. Pin- 
 turicchio's " Sibyls " at Rome remind us of Angelo's, and 
 those of the "Three Fates," and those of Da Vinci's terrible 
 Medusa. 
 
 Pinturicchio's name recalls his masterpieces at Siena (in 
 executing which he enjoyed the collaboration of the young 
 Raphael) frescoes illustrating the leading events in the life 
 of yEneas Sylvius (Pope Pius II) representative of the new 
 departments of historical and portrait painting that flourished 
 with the reviving idea of earthly renown. Families and com- 
 munities were desirous of preserving likenesses of their illus- 
 trious members. Another important feature of renascent life 
 we may connect with his name : delight in beauty of land- 
 scape, charmingly shown in the backgrounds of some of these 
 pictures. 
 
 The deepest inspiration, the motive power of this great epoch 
 of art was, however, a renewed devotion to the Virgin Mary. 
 A causal connection subsists between the feminine ideal and 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 151 
 
 all high art ; the perception of the divine in womanhood, in 
 motherhood, exerts a refining influence, bestows a new sense 
 of beauty. Without the Athena of Phidias, the Hera of Poly- 
 cletus, the Mary of Giotto and Raphael, those artists and the 
 epochs they dominated would have been other and far less than 
 they were. In the fifteenth century pope and council were at 
 one in forwarding the cultus of Mary : the council of Basel 
 promulgated anew the doctrine of her immaculate conception, 
 and Sixtus IV forbade dispute about it and authorized its cele- 
 bration. This action was symptomatic of a fresh wave of 
 popular devotion, generated in part by way of reaction against 
 Wyclifite and Hussite disparagement of the cultus. Even the 
 laughing Pulci grows serious and devout when he invokes 
 Mary, as he does in opening several cantos of his work ; at its 
 very beginning he adores her as daughter, mother, and spouse 
 of God (that is, of the persons of the Trinity respectively) and 
 entreats her to illumine his mind, inspire his style, and guide 
 him through the whole progress of the work. Thus she became 
 to him what the Muse was to a Roman poet. 
 
 The painters of the age set forth their ideal of womanhood 
 in innumerable Madonnas. Representations of the man Christ 
 were remarkably rare : their place was usurped by the Madonna 
 and infant Jesus. The invasion of devotional art by the 
 realistic spirit is shown by this, that whereas previously the 
 Virgin was represented veiled and the child swathed, toward 
 the close of the century she was pictured with uncovered head 
 and the child naked. Scenes from her life were painted by 
 Ghirlandajo upon the choir-wall of Santa Maria Novella. A 
 memorable development of the doctrine of the immaculate con- 
 ception was the novel cultus ftf Ann, mother of the Virgin ; the 
 devout sentiment of the age soon raised her to a position close 
 by her daughter, as we see her portrayed by the Bolognese 
 master Francia. In such a subject we can perceive beside the 
 working of domestic sentiment, of a sense of the beauty and 
 
152 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 goodness of human relationships, which was manifested yet more 
 strongly and perfectly in those beautiful groups, the " Holy 
 Families " that first appeared at the end of the century. 
 
 A further awakening of emotion, an effort to compel feelings 
 of pity, pain, and terror by representations of the mortal suffer- 
 ings of the Redeemer, are widely apparent in the art of the 
 time. The tragic series of " Stations of the Cross " was trans- 
 planted into Europe by a pilgrim from the Holy Land in the 
 year 1477. Now for the first time we find the Saviour repre- 
 sented as falling under the weight of his cross. The awful 
 scene of the crucifixion was depicted with great power by Man- 
 tegna and the Venetian master Bellini ; and now at that 
 supreme moment the triumph of natural feeling over faith was 
 betrayed by the swooning of Mary, in some examples she 
 even falls as if dead. By reason of its pathos the " Pieta," - 
 the mother lamenting over the dead body of her son was an 
 oft-attempted subject : it was nobly and tenderly treated by 
 Francia and Fra Bartolomeo. Perugino's sentimental concep- 
 tion of the ascension offers a significant contrast to the fervent 
 faith revealed in Giotto's upward soaring figure : his Saviour 
 seems to pause between earth and heaven, and looks down 
 with a pensive, almost affected grace upon the friends he is 
 leaving below. 
 
 Finally, we have to notice an invention that was to art what 
 printing was to literature, a means of multiplying copies of 
 pictures as the other multiplied books, the art of engraving 
 on copper. To Baccio Baldini, a Florentine, who acted upon 
 the suggestion afforded him by impressions of goldsmiths' work, 
 the credit of the invention seems to be due ; he was assisted 
 with designs by several of the enfinent artists lately mentioned. 
 
 The substance of these last few pages is intended whenever 
 henceforth we have occasion to allude to the influence of Italy 
 upon other peoples. It is futile to talk about that influence 
 unless it is clearly understood what is meant by it. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 153 
 
 In Spain, during the long and troubled reign of John II, 
 considerable progress was made in domesticating the study of 
 classic and Italian literature by Juan de Mena and the Marquis 
 of Santillana. The latter introduced the sonnet into Castilian 
 literature, and, though not a scholar himself, was a generous 
 patron of scholars, and urged on translation of the Latin 
 classics ; the former was a devoted student of the Italian poets, 
 and in his famous * Labyrinth ' modelled himself upon Dante. 
 The conquest of Naples in the year 1443 by the royal humanist 
 Alfonso V of Aragon was an important factor in making the 
 intellectual movement in Italy better known in the Peninsula. 
 At that epoch, too, flourished the Catalan poet Ausias March, 
 whose delicate love-poems composed some during his lady's 
 lifetime, some after her death, confessed the fascination of 
 Petrarch's muse. 
 
 The main interest of Spanish history through the first half of 
 the century centres in the person of one of the most famous 
 of royal favorites Alvaro de Luna. His influence over the 
 cultivated but somewhat frivolous king seemed like witchcraft ; 
 it was offset by the implacable hatred of the great nobles. In 
 part, doubtless, to divert their attention from his internal 
 administration of the government, the favorite engaged John II 
 in a campaign against the Moors of Granada ; it was highly 
 successful, and the conquest of that delightful province might 
 have been anticipated by many years but for the disaffection of 
 the nobles ; their intrigues against Alvaro culminated at last 
 in tedious civil wars that gave opportunity for a retaliatory 
 invasion by the Moors. Alvaro's pride finally outwore the 
 king's infatuation : his sudden fall from the pinnacle of power 
 and speedy execution in the year 1453 added another example 
 to the moralist's long catalogue of Fortune's caprices. A year 
 later John II followed him to the tomb and was succeeded by 
 his son, Henry IV, who in the recent disturbances had joined 
 the ranks of the rebel lords. In his careless, pleasure-loving 
 
154 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 temper Henry resembled his father, but was yet weaker ; he was 
 governed by favorites and mistresses and the manners of his 
 palace were a scandal to Spain. In order to humble the lords 
 his late associates he advanced persons of low origin to 
 positions of honor and influence, but the result was a repeti- 
 tion of the wretched broils of his father's time. In 1463 Henry 
 and Louis XI had a conference at Fuentarabia ; the French 
 king had offered his services in settling matters in dispute 
 between Castile and Aragon, but his decision pleased neither 
 party. Shortly after civil war broke out in Castile ; beside the 
 nobility, many large towns fell away from their allegiance ; 
 Henry's conduct had disgusted all classes, and in his person 
 the monarchy was subjected to extreme humiliation. His crown 
 was at last offered to his young sister, Isabella ; she put it 
 by for the time, and Henry, having submitted to his enemies' 
 hard conditions, was allowed to end his pitiable career upon 
 the throne. In 1469 took place one of the famous marriages 
 of history a union destined to bring order out of this political 
 and social chaos and to weld the weak and warring states of 
 Spain into one compact and powerful monarchy the marriage 
 of Isabella with Ferdinand of Aragon. From the first their 
 union was regarded by all who longed for order as the hope of 
 their distracted country, the pledge of good government to 
 come a pledge amply redeemed by Isabella when she acceded 
 to the throne upon her brother's death in the year 1474. 
 
 The strange character of Louis XI impressed itself deeply 
 upon his age and has been revealed for all time by his secre- 
 tary and confidential adviser, Philippe de Comynes, whose 
 " Memoirs " are doubtless the best-known and most consider- 
 able work of the period. Less therefore need be said about 
 him than his darkly commanding position would justify ; all 
 we need do is to indicate, with a few brief touches, his his- 
 torical connections. Like Henry IV Louis had, as heir-appar- 
 ent, joined the rebels to his father's authority ; like him, but 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 with more success, he as king made use of mean agents in his 
 subtle stripe with the feudal aristocracy. His confidants and 
 tools, Olivier le Dain and Tristan 1'Hermite, remind one too of 
 Catesby and Cochran, the base instruments of his young 
 contemporaries, Richard III of England and James III of 
 Scotland. To the extension and elevation of the royal power 
 and the ruin of feudalism involved therein Louis bent all the 
 energies of an intellect fertile in resource, tireless in opera- 
 tion, and unscrupulous as to the means employed. In the 
 science of politics the despots of ^taly were his tutors ; the won- 
 derfully successful career of an elder contemporary, Francesco 
 Sforza, who by a master-stroke of craft and cruelty had made 
 himself duke of Milan, especially excited his admiration. He 
 mastered perfectly the art of managing others by self-interest 
 and fear, of dividing opponents that he might overcome them 
 separately. He played upon the weaknesses and passions of 
 his victims and would flatter one to his face while by secret, 
 far-off agencies he was preparing his destruction. And when 
 he had an enemy in his toils nothing could exceed his malice 
 and cruelty. The mingled guile and ruthlessness of his nature 
 and the singular success with which his policy was crowned 
 exerted a sort of fascination, the fascination of terror, over the 
 minds of his contemporaries. Some years elapsed, however, 
 after he came to the throne in the summer of 1461 before his 
 character appeared fully in this light : at first he was more 
 openly aggressive and ambitious ; the great representatives of 
 French feudalism took the alarm, banded themselves together, 
 and gave him check in battle at Montl'hery, and with that 
 his career of cunning began ; he resolved henceforth to avoid 
 appeals to arms and to meet violence with skilful negotiation, 
 deceit, and corruption. After the battle he seemed to yield 
 everything they asked to the confederated lords, but it was only 
 to find time to practise upon them, break up their league, and 
 isolate his great adversary, Charles the Bold, who in 1467 
 
156 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 became duke of Burgundy and for the next ten years the 
 middle period of his reign gave Louis' energies abundant 
 employment. The way in which the king recovered the ground 
 he had lost, his dealings with the French dukes and with Charles, 
 the personification of overgrown feudalism, remind one of 
 nothing so much as of Reynard the Fox, and the tricks he 
 played upon the bear, wolf, cat, hare, etc., in that great poem 
 of the thirteenth century which was now enjoying a renewed 
 popularity. The redoubtable league of little Swiss republics 
 proved at last a serviceable 1*>ol to the most absolute monarch 
 in Europe : the city of Berne, instigated by Louis, rushed into 
 a war with Charles, drew with it the other cantons, and inflicted 
 upon the rash duke a series of crushing defeats that culminated 
 in his death upon the field of battle early in the year 1477. ^ 
 was left for Louis, in the seven remaining years of his reign, 
 triumphantly to gather in the fruit of his dextrous policy. His 
 exultation at the fall of his powerful rival, however, caused him 
 to forget the caution that was necessary in prosecuting one 
 of his favorite projects, the marriage of his son to Charles's 
 daughter Mary, heiress of Burgundy : he allowed his rapacious, 
 treacherous disposition to appear so plainly in his dealings with 
 her that the young duchess, disgusted and indignant, threw 
 herself into the arms of the imperial faction, and in August, 
 1477, wedded Maximilian of Austria, and Louis had the 
 mortification of seeing the wealthy provinces of the Netherlands 
 transferred as an hereditary possession to the House of Haps- 
 burg. This was the second marriage of rare consequence in 
 that period. It was the chief success attained by the emperor 
 Frederick III Maximilian's father in his reign of more 
 than half a century (one of the longest in history), in the course 
 of which he suffered every ignominy. 
 
 Frederick is a conspicuous example of the way in which the 
 princes of his time rallied around the rehabilitated papacy : 
 none of them surpassed him in devout submission to it, and 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 157 
 
 he had his reward. He surrendered to Eugenius IV the privi- 
 leges that the council of Basel had secured to the German 
 church ; and some years later, when his incapacity and neg- 
 lect of imperial interests had so disgusted the electors that 
 they began to think seriously of deposing him, Pius II came to 
 his support and held him on the throne. He carried on his 
 private studies, astrological and medical, careless though the 
 empire fell to pieces under the blows of the invading Turks. 
 In public affairs he pursued a Fabian policy of inactivity, 
 but under a phlegmatic exterior concealed far-reaching designs 
 for the aggrandizement of his house which were realized at 
 the end of his reign, after the Burgundian match. 
 
 The founding of German Universities has been mentioned 
 as evidence that the wave of humanism was travelling north- 
 ward ; in the year 1467, Desiderius Erasmus, destined to 
 become the great exponent of northern humanism, was born in 
 Rotterdam. In France, during the conflict between Louis XI 
 and Charles of Burgundy, there occur several indications that 
 the future triumph of the Renascence was preparing : Terence 
 was done into French for the king, and a fresh translation of 
 Ovid's " Metamorphoses " was made, while for the duke Quin- 
 tus Curtius' life of Alexander and Caesar's " Commentaries " 
 were translated. In the year 1483 a romance based upon the 
 JEneid appeared in print. 
 
 In 1465 died Charles, duke of Orleans, a poet whose 
 work belongs to the past generation, when Louis XI was yet 
 Dauphin, but who may be placed here because he illustrates 
 well an intellectual attitude that greatly furthers political abso- 
 lutism like Louis' a tendency of cultivated minds, enamoured 
 of beauty and pleasure, to abstract themselves in stormy 
 periods from all interest and interference in public affairs, and 
 to create for themselves worlds apart where, as Charles himself 
 urged, they can think at their ease, and banish care and sad- 
 ness. In the present case, this attitude of mind excites no 
 
158 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 wonder : the duke of Orleans had had his full share of the 
 tribulations of his disastrous time. Taken captive at Agincourt 
 and detained long years in England, when he was allowed to 
 return he secluded himself in his chateau at Blois amid a world 
 of music and song, and practised poetical composition in the 
 pretty, artificial forms then in vogue. Among his gay and 
 dainty little verses those on the changing seasons of the year 
 are especially pleasing. The representative poet of the reign 
 of Louis XI was one much younger than he, and of a condition 
 of life as different as could be imagined "a poor little scholar 
 who was called Francois Villon " the poet of the Paris streets. 
 A spendthrift and libertine, he was acquainted with all the 
 profligacy, penury, squalor, and misery of the worst purlieus of 
 the Paris of his time. Yet he was bred for better things and 
 had something of an education, and the contrast between 
 what was and what might have been made him wretched. 
 When he thought of it he spoke out with a passion of regret or 
 a settled sadness that brought into French poetry a new and 
 thrilling note of personal experience and appeal. The upshot 
 of it all was his resignation in thought to a cheerless fatalism, 
 
 he would make the stars responsible for his faults : " I am 
 a sinner, I know it well," he cries, " and what the planets have 
 made me I shall be." In other moods an experience like 
 his gives rise to satirical reflections; much of his work is 
 instinct with that spirit of satire that was characteristic of the 
 period and grew sharper as the century grew older. A notable 
 expression of it is the cynical " Fifteen Joys of Marriage " 
 an attack on women a prose work ascribed to Antoine de la 
 Salle, who is believed also to have had a hand in composing a 
 famous set of prose tales, the " Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles," 
 
 which Louis XI richly enjoyed. 
 
 The taste for dramatic representations continued unabated, 
 and gave rise in this period to new forms of art. The old mys- 
 tery-plays now rolled up into series of huge bulk, and the great 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 159 
 
 number of clever farces that have been preserved from the end 
 of the fifteenth century proves that these were a favorite form 
 of popular diversion. 
 
 Such, in sum, is the historical and literary setting of the 
 dynasty of York. 
 
 The years of Edward IV's reign 1461 to 1483 exactly 
 coincided with those of his French rival, Louis XI. The two 
 halves of the fifteenth century do not offer a contrast more 
 vivid than that that Edward offered, in aspect and character, to 
 the poor king whom he displaced a man weak in feature, 
 intellect, and will, whose virtues fitted him rather for a cloister 
 than a throne. Edward was a youth of nineteen years when he 
 assumed the crown. He was the handsomest prince of his 
 time : Comynes assures us that he was the handsomest man he 
 ever saw. He was vigorous, a good fighter, devoted to pleasure, 
 luxurious, lascivious even, and cruel on occasion, as men of his 
 stamp generally are. His accession signified the triumph of 
 the principle of legitimacy, of natural right, over parliamentary 
 enactment, by which the House of Lancaster held. Royal 
 authority was now in the ascendant ; parliamentary power 
 declined. Edward had large possessions in his own right and 
 was further enriched, after his success at Towton, by the 
 estates of a host of attainted lords and gentry ; parliament, 
 moreover, helped him to greater independence and diminished 
 its own consequence by granting him the customs (now increas- 
 ing in productiveness) once for all, for the term of his life. As 
 a result of this and of the peace with France it was rarely 
 summoned during his reign. To balance this constitutional 
 regression there came about a signal development of law, its 
 practice and interpretation, a condition of things character- 
 istic of strong reigns : Louis XI ever sought to give his 
 arbitrary acts a color of legality. In 1461 the first solicitor- 
 general of the crown was appointed ; in 1471 the first attorney- 
 general. In John Markham, a consistent Yorkist, Edward 
 
160 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 found a useful ally, and he was appointed chief justice of 
 the Court of King's Bench ; but because he would not go the 
 length the king wished in straining the law to suit his ends he 
 had to make way, toward the middle of the reign, for a more 
 pliant tool of power, Thomas Billing, who balked at nothing so 
 it pleased the king. The latter part of the reign was adorned 
 by the labors of the learned jurists Sir John Fortescue and 
 Thomas Littleton. In 1481 Littleton's famous treatise "On 
 Tenures" was printed. It was couched in the old French of 
 the law-courts and was divided into three parts, treating 
 respectively of tenancies in general, of the rights and duties 
 of lords and tenants, and of means of acquiring and surren- 
 dering rights in land. It was the first work of the kind in 
 England, and so clear were its definitions, so thorough its 
 analysis, so systematic its arrangement, that it aroused real 
 enthusiasm in the profession, an enthusiasm that may be 
 gauged by the fact that William Hussey, Edward's attorney- 
 general and last chief-justice, got it by heart. Fortescue was 
 a faithful Lancastrian. He had been Henry VPs sergeant and 
 chief- justice, and after the battle of Towton, in which he took 
 part, he fled with Margaret and her little son to Scotland and 
 suffered attainder. He accompanied the queen in her wander- 
 ings upon the continent as tutor to the prince, for whom he 
 composed, in Latin, his " Praises of the Laws of England." 
 After the extinction of the male line of the house of Lan- 
 caster in 1471 he gave in his submission to Edward IV 
 and his attainder was reversed. About this time, probably, he 
 wrote his treatise, in twenty short chapters " On the Govern- 
 ance of England." In this work he had the courage to use 
 English. He begins by drawing a comparison between abso- 
 lute and constitutional monarchy and their effects as exhibited 
 in France and England respectively, goes on to show the 
 necessity of an ample revenue for the king, greater than that 
 of any subject, discusses the means of raising it, and 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 161 
 
 winds up with a recommendation (acted upon later) to form a 
 body of councillors who should advise the king in financial 
 matters especially. 
 
 We have spoken of the increasing value of the customs : it 
 sometimes seems as if the most significant feature of the revo- 
 lution that raised the house of York to power is that it was a 
 victory of the townsfolk, artisans, traders of what is called 
 the middle class. Great advances were now made in commerce 
 and manufactures : English merchants began to compete with 
 the men of the Hanse towns even in the Baltic Sea : for the 
 encouragement of home-industry a highly protective statute was 
 passed in 1463 by which importation of woollen and leather 
 goods and specified articles of hardware was forbidden. For 
 the farmer's benefit a corn-law was also passed forbidding the 
 importation of wheat when it was under a specified market 
 price. Artisans and manufacturers prospered in this period 
 their work was well paid for, their hours of labor were few ; 
 rural laborers on the contrary suffered, their day was long, their 
 wages were low. Little by little the farm-lands of England 
 were being converted into pasture, into enormous sheep-walks, 
 to supply the great English staple, wool, in constant demand 
 in foreign markets. 
 
 It was some time before the nature of the new monarchy was 
 fully disclosed ; at first it seemed allied in policy as well as 
 by blood and fellowship in arms with the great house of Neville 
 and its head, the popular and powerful earl of Warwick, the 
 full-blown flower of the feudal age. We have not in our 
 possession every link in the chain of events that led up to 
 the inevitable crisis, the mortal conflict between the new 
 monarchy and the old feudalism on Barnet field. Edward's 
 marriage with the beautiful young widow, Elizabeth (Wood- 
 ville) Grey, made known in the fall of the year 1464, is com- 
 monly held to have begun the breach, which was widened by 
 the favor shown the new queen's relatives and by another 
 
162 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 marriage, that of the king's sister Margaret and Charles of 
 Burgundy brought about by the Woodville interest in 1467. 
 On both occasions Warwick was planning a French match, for 
 he favored alliance with Louis XI ; in the latter instance he 
 was cruelly discredited, for he had already begun negotiations 
 with the French king. The antagonism of sentiments and 
 ideas grew keener ; in the summer of 1469 Warwick gave proof 
 of his power, actually making the king his captive but soon 
 released him. It is unnecessary to search for the disgusts that 
 hurried on the final catastrophe : Edward was restive under 
 his great vassal's overshadowing influence and Warwick 
 divined that the king's policy was inimical to his whole system. 
 In 1470 he rose again ; but this time Edward was prepared and 
 the earl had to take refuge in France. There his affiliations 
 underwent a radical change ; he turned Lancastrian, was recon- 
 ciled to Margaret of Anjou, and contracted his daughter to her 
 son, to whom he pledged the crown of England after the demise 
 of Henry VI. Surprising as this change of connection was, we 
 yet feel that there was an inner fitness in it ; it was the des- 
 perate embrace of the Lancastrian and the feudal cause, 
 destined to sink together. With aid from Louis XI which he 
 hardly needed, so popular was he, Warwick landed in England 
 in September; in a few days he was at the head of a large 
 army ; Edward was deserted and fled with his brother Richard 
 on fleet horses to Lynn just in time to escape on a ship 
 bound for Holland where he arrived with no other possessions 
 than the clothes he wore. Warwick now had Henry VI pro- 
 claimed and reigned in his name for half a year. But in the 
 spring of 1471 came the amend : with some little help from his 
 brother-in-law, Charles the Bold, Edward returned, nominally 
 to recover his duchy, really to try his fortune once more ; finding 
 the way clear he pushed on to London and was warmly wel- 
 comed by the citizens. Turning back he encountered Warwick 
 at Barnet and in the sanguinary battle that followed the great 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 163 
 
 earl fell. Edward promptly marched across the kingdom to 
 meet Margaret of Anjou who had landed in the west, defeated 
 her at Tewkesbury and caused the prince her son to be slain. 
 Immediately after Henry VI perished in the Tower, and 
 Edward was sole master in the kingdom. His restoration 
 was the triumph of London and of trade : the Hanse merchants 
 had contributed toward it and as a reward he confirmed their 
 privileges in London and granted them beside factories at 
 Lynn and Boston. Another point deserves notice, his victo- 
 ries were won with gunpowder. By this time the long-standing 
 prejudice against that medium was wearing out ; its use was 
 pretty well understood and was henceforth constant and the 
 relics of feudalism were wiped away. 
 
 The sun of York was now supreme in an unclouded heaven 
 and the king, freed from every rival, every apprehension, in the 
 pride of youth and conquest and a power greater perhaps than 
 any of his predecessors had ever enjoyed, gave himself up to 
 the pursuit of pleasure, and tournaments, hunting-parties and 
 banqueting were the order of the day. A type of the new 
 nobility was the head of the family of Howard which now 
 rose into prominence : Edward created him duke of Norfolk 
 and showered offices upon him. But the particular ornament 
 of the court, the mirror of courtesy, of elegant tastes and 
 chivalrous manners, was the queen's brother, Anthony Wood- 
 ville, Caxton's patron ; and second only to him came the lord 
 Hastings. As an instance of the refinement, the intellectual 
 atmosphere of the court, we note that the first royal poet- 
 laureate in England was appointed in this reign, a writer of 
 Latin verse named John Kay. A scarce perceptible dawn 
 of new learning ' began to spread as a slender succession of 
 scholars returned from Italy, some of them bringing manu- 
 scripts. Thus the downfall of scholasticism was heralded ; but 
 the humanists were not numerous or influential enough to 
 stamp the age, it was Caxton rather and the mediaeval themes 
 
164 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 over which he labored that gave it its literary character. In 
 1477 he introduced the art of printing into England, an 
 event sufficient of itself to make the reign illustrious. 
 
 We have seen English used for the first time in the discus- 
 sion of problems in political philosophy by Sir John Fortescue ; 
 he was preceded by several years in this serious use of the 
 mother tongue by Bishop Pecock, against whom this very 
 indictment was brought by his enemies, that he wrote in 
 English. As a result he is vindicated to-day with acclamation 
 and his enemies are put to confusion, their memories are 
 only revived to be covered with contempt and consigned 
 again to oblivion while his " Represser " stands forth a model 
 of argumentative composition and without question the most 
 considerable work produced in England in the course of the 
 fifteenth century. At first it seems difficult to place him : he 
 was rejected by the Lancastrians and his case was not bettered 
 by the revolution that put Edward IV on the throne : in 1476 
 we find that king, who in such matters took his cue from the 
 opinion of those about him, commending the authorities at 
 Oxford for suppressing Pecock's works and bidding them 
 withhold the degree of doctor in divinity from some theologian 
 who was believed to have been infected with his obnoxious 
 ideas. But the fact that his books were circulating at the 
 university and making many converts during this reign makes 
 their examination fitting at this point ; the title of his principal 
 tractate, moreover, is a helpful indication, it was intended 
 to "repress" the Lollards, to put a stop to their fault-finding 
 with the church clergy, an end pretty effectually realized by 
 Edward IV : it is a remarkable fact that after his accession the 
 Lollards subsided, disappeared beneath the surface ; the church 
 was heartily Yorkist and held to the monarch a relation of 
 close and mutual support. More than all we feel in the 
 bishop's work the breath of the new epoch ; he occupied in 
 truth a transitional position. His fate was that of most com- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 165 
 
 prehensive minds, to be misunderstood and abused on all 
 sides, proof enough of the independence and originality of 
 his views. His tolerance extraordinary in that age, his 
 willingness to see what was good in the contentions even of 
 his opponents, his desire to do justice to all parties, his 
 recognition of the claims of the papacy, the English church, 
 and the Lollards, brought it to pass that he was suspected 
 and hated by all. His work was of deep significance, for it 
 was instinct with that fine humanity, that respect for ancient 
 usages which yet does not preclude all timely change, that 
 loyalty to Scripture, that large reasonableness, fairness in dis- 
 cussion, soundness of mind and heart, that came to be known 
 later as the spirit of Anglicanism, a truly catholic spirit. 
 
 Beside his " Represser " Pecock wrote in English a grammar 
 of morals which he called his " Donet " and a " Treatise on 
 Faith " in which he met the Lollards half way, admitting that 
 Scripture is the rule of faith. He also wrote " Of Matrimony" 
 and projected a work on logic. 
 
 His relation to the ages of religious thought that we have 
 traversed may be stated thus. It will be remembered that in 
 past centuries the reason had been held to be a useful organ 
 of religious knowledge, competent to prove some if not all of 
 the fundamental doctrines of Christianity ; that later it had been 
 discredited and the authority of the church had been declared 
 the ground of faith ; and that finally the Bible had been set 
 over against that authority as the sole depository of unadul- 
 terated truth. It was left for Pecock at the close of these 
 ages to combine the results of all and to set forth with vary- 
 ing degrees of clearness and consistency, the reason, the Bible, 
 and the church as the threefold root of religious knowledge. 
 Thus he curiously exemplified in his theological culture the 
 composite character of the age ; but as has been shown by 
 reason of its strenuous reaction against Wyclif's ideas the age 
 was one-sided and intolerant in regard to the Bible and so 
 
166 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 could not appreciate Pecock's liberal attitude ; and though his 
 defence of the constitution of the church and certain of its 
 popular practices was agreeable to some it displeased others 
 by its moderation, and all took alarm at his appeal to the 
 reason. 
 
 The " Represser " falls into two main divisions, the first part 
 general, clearing the ground and establishing principles, the 
 second particular, applying those principles to some special 
 usages chiefly objected to by the Lollards. It begins by setting 
 forth three radical errors of theirs : (i) That no ordinance is 
 of God that cannot be found in the Bible (some are so 
 "smart and wanton " as to ask of any usage they dislike, 
 "Where groundest thou it in Holy Scripture?"); (2) That any 
 humble Christian can discover the true sense of any passage in 
 the Bible ; (3) That when that sense is thus gained one should 
 not listen to any argument about it. Then follows the doctrine 
 of the reason ; it is not the office of Scripture to establish any 
 law or truth that reason may discover. The Moral Law is of 
 equal authority with Scripture : upon it temperance, justice, 
 and reverence toward God are based ; it is the law "of kind," 
 of nature, the "doom" or judgment of natural reason, 
 written in men's souls by the finger of God ; it is the * print 
 and image of God,' not grounded on the Bible but presup- 
 posed by it, to be dutifully kept by men though there were no 
 Bible as was the case, for instance, before Abraham's time. 
 The principles of morals are not founded upon any words of 
 Christ but were presupposed by him. Whenever there seems 
 to be a conflict concerning a point of morals between the out- 
 ward letter and the law within the heart the former must be 
 harmonized with the latter for that is of absolute obligation. 
 And the larger part of God's law is written on the heart ; 
 acquaintance with moral philosophy, therefore, is necessary to 
 Christians. Let none disparage or seek to diminish that 
 " inward Scripture." Next, as to the Bible ; it certifies to truths 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 167 
 
 intuitively derived, publishes anew the moral law, and estab- 
 lishes beside points of faith, some of which are laws (as, for 
 instance, baptism), and some not (as historical facts). Pecock 
 would not forbid the laity to read the Bible ; he pays by the 
 way this fine tribute to Wyclif's version : the Scripture in the 
 mother tongue is delectable and sweet and draws men to devo- 
 tion and love of God, hence it is esteemed beyond reason. 
 Many lawful things are not ordained or even mentioned in it, 
 as articles of clothing, cooking, clocks, translations of itself, 
 shaving, laughing, singing, quoit-throwing, ale and beer-making 
 (much worse than images!). "Vain, disputatious women appeal 
 to express statements of Scripture : how, then, dare they wear 
 kerchiefs or wash and anoint themselves ? They may not 
 adduce the example of Susannah for that is an apocryphal 
 book!" The Lollards' argument from the sole authority of 
 Scripture is thus reduced to absurdity and they are brought 
 back to reason. From laymen's conflicting interpretations and 
 quarrels over the sense of Holy Writ is deduced the need of a 
 learned ministry ; and from the divisions among the sectaries 
 is drawn a powerful argument for the authority of the church. 
 " You Bible-men differ, some of you are called Opinion- 
 holders, some Neutrals ; you are full of schism, ought you 
 not to admit the doom of reason and return to the catholic and 
 general faith and lore of the church ? " 
 
 In the second division of his work the bishop applies himself 
 to a defence of eleven points in the constitution or practice of 
 the church which were commonly brought in question by the 
 Lollards. It is interesting to learn that these were the use of 
 images, pilgrimages, property in land, the hierarchy, ecclesias- 
 tical laws, religious orders, invocation of saints, costly church 
 ornament, the mass, taking of oaths, and maintaining the law- 
 fulness of war and capital punishment. He opens his defence 
 with a philosophical classification of the whole body of 
 knowledge according to its derivation (i) from reason, which 
 
168 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 is Philosophy, (2) from revelation, by testimony, apprehended 
 by faith, that is, Theology. Further, all truth may be classed 
 as either " speculable " or " doable " (practical) ; and the latter 
 may be distributed into actions approved, forbidden, or left 
 undetermined by faith and reason, that is, actions lawful, 
 unlawful, or indifferent and those of the last class may gen- 
 erally be considered lawful. Any who deny these distinctions 
 are out of the pale of argument. Herein the bishop forces into 
 clear relief the nature of the difference between his and the 
 church's view of the Bible and the Lollard view ; they may be 
 distinguished as broad and narrow ; according to the former all 
 usages are lawful that are not forbidden by Scripture, accord- 
 ing to the latter none are lawful that Scripture does not enjoin. 
 One by one the points above mentioned are passed in review ; 
 the procedure is simple, it is to bring each to the dual test 
 of reason and the Word of God. The first matter in dispute is 
 the use of images ; it is usual but not apposite to refer to the 
 second commandment as condemning these ; in fact it con- 
 demns idols only, not images used as " minding signs." These 
 are approved by Scripture, God himself commanded the 
 brazen serpent to be made, the cherubim, the bosses and 
 images of the Temple ; Christ used money stamped with 
 Caesar's image. Crucifixes therefore are lawful. Reason, 
 moreover, does not forbid them, for no one in his senses wor- 
 ships them or supposes that any divine virtue inheres in them ; 
 nor are they to be put out because some abuse them to super- 
 stition, for other good things are subject to abuse, the Bible 
 in English for instance ! To use " seeable, rememorative 
 signs," such as the sacraments are is both permissible and 
 helpful ; they assist the memory like a knot in* one's girdle, 
 they are like portraits of dead or absent friends. Pilgrimages 
 when tried by Scripture and reason are not found lacking, 
 the women who visited the sepulchre very early in the morning 
 were pilgrims, and though these too are liable to abuse yet 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 169 
 
 when rightly used they quicken devotion. But the Lollards 
 contend that the Bible and preaching are better reminders than 
 images and pilgrimages and that living men are better repre- 
 sentations of Christ " than is any unquick stock or stone graved 
 and orned with gold and other gay paintures " and that God is 
 equally present everywhere so that one place is no holier than 
 another. But this is not true : "God chooseth to give his grace 
 one place before another, therefore that place is holier." Such 
 a spot was Bethel, and Jacob said, dreading : " How 
 gastful is this place ! " And out of the bush God said to Moses : 
 "Undo the shoes off thy feet for the place in which thou 
 standest is holy land." Again, the Bible is a "hearable " not 
 a " seeable " sign of the Lord, and a glance of the eye brings 
 to mind much and long matter more quickly and easily than 
 hearing and reading do and there are many who cannot 
 read. Finally, an image must resemble its object and nothing 
 else, and no living man can represent Christ as truly as a 
 crucifix does. Here is the conclusion of the matter: "what- 
 ever reason deemeth to be done is moral law of God and his 
 pleasant service even in case it cannot be found specially wit- 
 nessed to by Holy Scripture." A digression on the origin of 
 idolatry follows ; Pecock thinks it began in the worship not of 
 dead men but of the stars. The third point, as to ecclesias- 
 tical rights in land : some of the laity declare that those who 
 defend them are in a state of damnation. Yet such holdings 
 are not condemned in either testament : the Levites were 
 endowed with forty-eight cities ; and if Christ's example of 
 poverty be of universal obligation so also should his celibacy 
 be. Human law does not forbid endowments. The bishop has 
 a fling at Wyclif's doctrine of dominion : " a clerk verily to 
 say a heretic" asserts that if the clergy misapply their 
 property the temporal lords may take it away : but the evil 
 deeds of an unfaithful servant should not prejudice his inno- 
 cent heir for otherwise bad kings might be similarly deprived. 
 
170 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Further : some of the laity say that all ranks above the priest- 
 hood bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, the pope are anti- 
 Christian ; yet they are not forbidden by reason or Scripture, 
 remember the Jewish high-priest and Christ's appointment of 
 Peter. The remaining points are briefly treated, the method 
 of disposing of them had been amply illustrated and the bishop 
 was growing tired of the discussion. Some call religious orders 
 devilish; yet they are not prohibited by Scripture. It is 
 objected that they were not instituted by Christ, neither was 
 the Lord Mayor of London. The habits of the brothers are 
 "seeable signs," like liveries, and in their "lordly mansions" 
 they are given to hospitality. The bishop's last retort sounds 
 somewhat flippant : it was in truth a flash of not unjustifi- 
 able indignation at the perversity of his opponents' temper, 
 one cannot call it reasoning. It is clear that the pristine 
 evangelical fervor of Wyclif's followers had declined and that 
 the sect was muffling itself in a mantle of legalism, a carping 
 literalism, the veriest formalism, and that of an ugly kind. 
 It was just as well that it should lift its voice no more. 
 
 In writing his book Pecock evidently had access to many 
 documents long since lost or destroyed. The " Represser " 
 is thus a precious record of a highly important controversy. 
 
 We turn now to the civilization of the age upon its domestic 
 and material side. And here we are exceedingly fortunate 
 in possessing a mass of correspondence that brings the times 
 of Edward IV before us with the vividness of lightning. The 
 letters of the Paston family present us pictures of real life so 
 broad and animated and full of detail that they transport us 
 into the period with an immediacy quite unprecedented. This 
 remarkable collection begins well back in the reign of Henry 
 VI but is most intimately associated with the following reign 
 for it attains its greatest interest and volume during the time 
 that Sir John Paston figures upon the scene. He was the 
 same age as Edward and the companion of his revels ; and 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 171 
 
 after his death at the end of the year 1479 the correspondence 
 loses its vivacity and gradually dwindles away. In the epistles 
 of the sportive knight we get an inkling as to the license in 
 speech and manners of the boon companions of the king. A 
 rueful remark of his after the battle of Barnet shows us 
 what men of the world inferred from the recent course of 
 events as to the divine government in general : it seemed to 
 them sheer caprice : "God hath showed himself marvellously 
 like Him that made all and can undo again when him list, 
 and I can think that by all likelihood shall know Himself as 
 marvellous again and that in short time." The fact that Sir 
 John had turned Lancastrian after Edward's flight the year 
 before gives point to the sentiment. In her correspondence 
 extending over forty years his mother, Margaret Paston, sus- 
 tains the reputation of her sex in the art of letter-writing ; he 
 furnishes the high-lights, the glimpses of a courtier's life, she 
 puts in the shadows, and some of them are black indeed, 
 the vexations, difficulties, and dangers of a country gentle- 
 woman's life in the epoch of the Wars of the Roses. We com- 
 miserate her anxieties, the constant hard times, the difficulty 
 of getting in the rents, the neighborly quarrels, the general 
 insecurity; we shudder at deeds of violence committed on 
 property and person, at mention of the thieves that prowl by 
 the highways, at fearful visitations of the plague. Looking 
 through these letters and the documents found among them 
 we can see the cottages of the peasantry in a wretched state 
 of disrepair: well for the poor people if they can get rushes 
 from the lord's marsh and windfallen sticks from his trees to 
 mend them with! and little wonder that in these forlorn 
 haunts, living on unwholesome and often scanty food, they 
 suffer from fevers, scurvy, and leprosy. Up at the hall if it 
 be late autumn we can see them laying in the winter's supply 
 of beef; can watch the swing of the butcher's axe, the liberal 
 use of the salt-bushel, and see the salting-tubs and barrels 
 
172 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 ranged in the larder ; if it be late in the winter we note the 
 arrival of a horse-load of herring and some eels as a Lenten 
 supply. Passing through the kitchen we mark the yawning 
 fireplace well-furnished with its "great brass pot," caldron, 
 spits, flesh-hook, pot-hook, and other utensils, mortars and 
 pestles both brass and stone ; and in the buttery may inspect 
 the gallon bottles, leather pots, wooden trenchers, pewter 
 basins, ewers, and candlesticks, the silver spoons and dishes, 
 some chased and bordered with gilt, the precious pottlers 
 enameled with violets and daisies, the salt-cellar "like a bas- 
 tille " gilt with roses. The living rooms seem to our eyes 
 scantily furnished ; save for the formidable array of armor and 
 weapons at its upper end bassinets, gauntlets, cuirasses, 
 cuishes and greaves, cross-bows, spear-heads, swords and 
 guns used moreover not long since to protect the manor from 
 assault, the great hall has nothing in it but a long table, 
 some chairs or benches, and a pair of andirons, tongs and fire 
 shovel. The walls are lined with arras and pieces of tapestry 
 curiously embroidered : one has on it a hawking-scene, another 
 a group of archers shooting birds with cross-bows, another, a 
 lady harping by a castle, another, a savage with a child in his 
 arms, these last being subjects drawn, no doubt, from old 
 romances. The bed-rooms have one or two chairs each, a fire- 
 pan, tongs and bellows, but the one piece of furniture is the 
 bed, with tester and curtains of linen or say (a necessary 
 defence against draughts), fine sheets, fustian blankets, silken 
 coverlets and down-pillows cased in green or purple silk or the 
 rare magnificence of red velvet. Next we may inspect the 
 wardrobe the splendid gown of cloth of gold, velvet and 
 woollen gowns purfled with fur, black and purple girdles "har- 
 nessed with silver," jackets of blue, russet, red and black velvet 
 and figured satin, damask, deep green, scarlet and purple 
 hoods and black and scarlet hose. The wardrobe of a young 
 student of good family is as follows : a short musterdevelers 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 173 
 
 gown, other short gowns, green and blue, the latter made 
 out of a silk dress, one of murrey silk made only a year 
 ago and one of russet silk furred with beaver "was made 
 this time two year." The walk of letters was not all of flowers 
 to this youth ; his mother or grandmother writes to ask if he 
 is "doing his devoir in learning" and adds, "if he do not well 
 nor will not amend pray [his tutor] that he will truly belash 
 him : so did the last master and the best that ever he had at 
 Cambridge." 
 
 Family relations were harsh and unlovely, bearing the 
 impress of the feudal system: "homage" was rigorously 
 exacted of the young as is indicated by the " lowly terms " 
 of address to be met with in the Paston letters : a daughter 
 begins a humble letter home with " Right worshipful and my 
 most entirely beloved mother" ; and Madame Paston writes 
 with some asperity to Sir John because he has omitted a cus- 
 tomary form : " I think ye set but little by my blessing ; if ye 
 did ye would have desired it in your writing to me." Children 
 were felt to be troubles to be " bestowed " as early as pos- 
 sible ; it was usual to send them to serve in families of dis- 
 tinction to be taught good manners ; daughters were then 
 disposed of to the first fair bidder or even offered as time 
 wore on with a bonus, and if the heart of one revolted from 
 a match arranged by her parents it was of no consequence 
 except perhaps a merciless beating. In one of her epistles 
 Mistress Margaret urges her husband to look out a good mar- 
 riage for his sister for his mother is fain to be delivered of 
 her : let him inquire about widower Kny vet's livelihood. John 
 Paston, a light-hearted, careless boy, was often in disgrace ; we 
 have a "lowly" letter of his to his displeased father and one 
 from his mother on the same occasion pleading for him : 
 " Vouchsafe to be his good father for I hope he is chastised." 
 Erelong he ran away and joined Edward IV ; his father was 
 very angry and visited his indignation upon his mother : she 
 
174 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 writes, "I durst not let him know of the last letter that ye 
 wrote me because he was so sore displeased with me at that 
 time." More than a year passes and this cry is wrung from 
 her: " I understand that ye will not that your son be taken into 
 your hous'e: for God's sake, sir, a pity on him, and at the 
 reverence of God be ye his good father, and have a fatherly 
 heart to him and the blessed Trinity have you in His keep- 
 ing." How pitiable this paternal anger seems, seen in the 
 deep light of four hundred years ! 
 
 ' Romances (among them Guy of Warwick, the Green Knight, 
 and the Belle Dame sans Mercie), chronicles, and lives of 
 . saints formed the staple reading of the household. For pas- 
 times they had, indoors, chess, cards, " playing at the tables," 
 music (harp, lute, and song), " disguisings," and the ladies 
 had, of course, their embroidery ; out of doors, they pursued 
 the venerable amusements of hawking, hunting, and jousting. 
 What a far-away, romantic sound has the following piece of 
 news in one of the Paston letters ! it rings in the ear with a 
 mournful music as out of an infinite past. "There is one 
 come into England, a knight out of Spain, with a kerchief of 
 pleasance iwrapped about his arm, the which knight will run 
 a course with a sharp spear for his sovereign lady's sake." 
 
 Having finished our progress through the hall we may next 
 visit the chapel of the estate and admire its appointments 
 all the property of the lord of the manor, the altar-cloth 
 " with the Trinity in the midst," the silver-gilt crucifix, silver 
 candlesticks, pyx and cruets, chalice and paten, and pax (a 
 small plate with a raised crucifix on it to be passed round and 
 kissed during mass), the antiphoners and missals with silver 
 clasps, the alb, tunicle, cope and other vestments. While 
 we examine these we are aware that the lady of the manor has 
 sunk on her knees before the altar and is rapidly running over 
 her rosary of " chalcedony beads, gaudied with silver gilt." On 
 a Sunday we might hear a sermon on Lydgate's text: "this 
 world is but a thoroughfare and full of woe." 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 175 
 
 Last of all, and the closing scene of this old-world history, 
 we are permitted to attend the funeral obsequies of the father 
 of the family, We catch his parting sigh : " For the more hasty 
 deliverance of my soul from the painful flames of the fire of 
 Purgatory, let them faithfully deal my goods." We mix in the 
 crowd of priests, friars, bell-ringers and torch-bearers whose 
 lights so fill the church with smoke during the dirge that 
 the windows have afterward to be taken out to purify the air. 
 We share the funeral baked meats, beef, mutton, pork and 
 capons: there are also fish and eggs in abundance, barrels of 
 beer, and a " roundlet of red wine." In the deserted church a 
 solitary light is burning over the newly filled tomb, which will 
 finally be closed by a memorial slab with a flat brass figure 
 inlaid. 
 
 It is interesting to know that during the most prolific years 
 of the Paston correspondence a similar revelation of home life 
 in distant Florence was being made in winsome Italian by 
 Alessandra degli Strozzi, in her letters to her exiled sons. All 
 we need do to correct any exaggerated estimate we may have 
 formed of the Paston letters as literary productions is to put 
 the best of them side by side with hers : the English examples 
 have the charm of perfect sincerity, of unconscious self-revela- 
 tion, but only rare and accidental touches of any literary value ; 
 Madam Strozzi's have also that indefinable charm, and her 
 letter on the death of her youngest son is an exquisite produc- 
 tion, rising a whole Apennine above the Paston lowland : it is 
 a pure and perfect blend of tender human affection and divine 
 faith. 
 
 The most eminent literary man of the Yorkist era was 
 William Caxton, merchant, printer and translator. Because 
 he produced no original work one is apt to overlook his claim 
 to regard in the history of literature. The work he did was of 
 great importance in his age ; he was its representative man of 
 letters ; it was an age not of creative energy but of culture, 
 
 
176 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 and he responded perfectly to its demands. He was versed in 
 Latin and French and put his knowledge to account in multi- 
 farious translations ; and as he was guided in his choice by the 
 desires of his cultivated public the list of books he published 
 is a faithful register of the taste of his time. Until his fiftieth 
 year he was known only as a man of affairs and a courtier : in 
 1465 he was made superintendent of the colony of English 
 merchants at Bruges, and he was employed by Edward IV to 
 negotiate a commercial treaty with the duke of Burgundy. In 
 1471 he finished with the Duchess Margaret's encouragement, 
 his first translation, the " Recuyell [or collection] of the His- 
 tories of Troy." The work was soon in such demand that 
 enough copies could not be supplied in manuscript and Caxton 
 was glad to put it into print some three years later. By that 
 time he had finished his second piece of literary labor, a trans- 
 lation of a work belonging to the end of the thirteenth century 
 "The Game and Play of the Chess Moralized" in which 
 under the figure of the pieces of the game and their func- 
 tions king and queen, knights, rooks, "alphins," and 
 pawns the duties of various ranks in the social order are set 
 forth. After this was printed he left Bruges and established 
 himself and his press at Westminster where he brought out in 
 1477 "TheDictes and Sayings of Philosophers" the first 
 book printed in England. The translating had been done by 
 the accomplished Anthony Woodville. Henceforth until his 
 death fifteen years later Caxton kept the reading public supplied 
 at the rate of three or four publications a year. The most 
 significant thing in his list of productions is an omission : 
 there is no Bible or portion of the Bible in the mother tongue 
 to be found in it. A Latin psalter he did print, and the 
 " Hours " according to the use of Sarum. Another striking 
 feature of his work is that beyond a version of Tully on Old 
 Age and Friendship it betrays hardly a trace of the revival of 
 interest in classic authors. Some of it is distinctly practical 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 177 
 
 and didactic, as for example a French and English vocabulary 
 for the use of travellers, a Governal of Health, and books of 
 Courtesy and Good Manners. The popularity of Lydgate's 
 minor works is attested by numerous publications ; and we find 
 translations of Alain Chartier's letter on the vexations of court 
 life, Christine de Pisan's Moral Proverbs and Feats of Arms 
 and Chivalry, and one of those moral treatises belonging to 
 their time, a Chevalier's advice to his daughters. Quite early 
 in his career Caxton published an edition of the Canterbury 
 Tales and followed it up with other of Chaucer's works, 
 his version of Boethius, Parlement of Fowls, and Troilus and 
 Cressida. He also printed Gower's Confessio Amantis. ' Going 
 further back in our history we find him selecting for translation 
 and publication an English Chronicle, Reynard the Fox, the 
 Golden Legend (lives of saints), Bonaventura's Mirror of the 
 Life of Christ, and finally touching the spring of the litera- 
 ture in Malory's great compilation, the Noble Histories of King 
 Arthur and some of his Knights. The worthy old printer 
 rounded his career appropriately with the sequel to the story 
 of Troy, bringing out his translation of the French romance 
 drawn from the ^Eneid ; in his conclusion he appeals to a 
 rising literary light, " Master John Skelton, poet-laureate of 
 Oxford," to amend the work where necessary. 
 
 From this review it appears that the result of Caxton's labors 
 was to create a library of mediaeval literature for English 
 readers. His work was to gather up the literary treasures 
 of a closing cycle. That is the right way to envisage it, - 
 as resulting in a real mediaeval encyclopaedia. 
 
 It is a fact worth noting that the writings of Edward IV's 
 reign were almost without exception in prose, and of that 
 prose Sir Thomas Malory became by long practice the prin- 
 cipal master: it attained its highest relative beauty in his 
 Morte d'Arthur. Rhymed romances, however, were still so 
 popular as to warrant the production of new ones; as an 
 
178 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 example of these and not from any inherent merit, as an 
 illustration also of the witchery of Geoffrey of Monmouth's 
 legends, potent enough to convert many a fugitive tale into a 
 satellite of the Arthurian system, we may give an idea of 
 " Sir Launfal," a version of a French original made by an other- 
 wise unknown rhymer named Thomas Chester. Launfal was 
 one of Arthur's knights. He disapproved of the king's mar- 
 riage with the Irish princess Guinever; and at the wedding 
 feast she marked her displeasure by bestowing gifts on all but 
 him. He forsook the court forthwith and haunted the woods 
 about Caerleon, until one day two lovely damsels came on 
 him in his poverty and conducted him to the splendid pavilion 
 of their mistress, the Lady Tryamour. She showed him 
 peculiar favor, gave him a magic purse in which whenever he 
 put his hand he should find a piece of gold, gave beside a 
 charm against the dangers of the tourney, a steed named 
 Blanchard, and a page to wait on him, enjoining him at the 
 same time never to speak of her in the presence of others. 
 Thus equipped and attended he returned to Caerleon where he 
 lived right royally for a while and was victorious in many jousts. 
 His fame flew afar, and Sir Valentine, the champion of Lom- 
 bardy, sent him a challenge. Launfal journeyed thither, 
 defeated the haughty hero, killing him in the conflict, then 
 slew his would-be avengers and returned to Arthur's capital in 
 a blaze of glory. Guinever now made advances to him which 
 he rejected scornfully and in his indignation forgot the due 
 government of his tongue, declaring that his lady's ugliest 
 maid was as fit to be queen as she. The furious woman went 
 straight to the king and reported his insolence, adding a foul 
 slander thereto. Meantime Sir Launfal feeling in his purse 
 found no gold, saw his page spurring away on Blanchard, and 
 bitterly repented his disobedience to his mistress's command. 
 Summoned to Arthur's presence and bidden to produce his 
 incomparable mistress he was in a desperate strait when on 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 179 
 
 a sudden ten beautiful maidens appeared, each fairer than the 
 queen, and after them the dazzling Tryamour. She cleared 
 the happy knight from Guinever's calumny and breathing on 
 that wicked woman turned her blind ; then rode away with her 
 lover and her maids to the magic isle of Oleron. "Thus was 
 Sir Launfal borne away to faery and never seen more by 
 mortal men." 
 
 The spell of Arthurian legend and the Sancgreal was laid 
 with fresh power upon the England of Caxton's day. It is a 
 significant fact that in Wales there had been in progress for 
 fully a century a revival of song largely connected with Glen- 
 dower's war of independence. Some time in the reign of 
 Henry VI a voluminous and singularly dull rhymed version of 
 the familiar story had been produced, destined speedily to be 
 effaced, together with all previous versions, by Sir Thomas 
 Malory's rendering, completed, as he tells us, in the ninth year 
 of the reign of King Edward IV that is, in 1469 or the 
 winter of 1470. Though in prose this work, unlike the poem 
 just mentioned, is anything but prosaic; it is in fact a prose- 
 epic ; into that mould was poured the aspiration of an age that 
 would otherwise have found vent in poetry. Malory caught 
 the naive narrative manner and poetic charm of his French 
 originals ; his concluding book especially the Morte d' Arthur 
 proper has in both style and subject the true epic cadence. 
 And so it came to pass that an enchanted wind of high and 
 chivalric romance blew through those money-getting days of 
 Edward IV, and the mystic light of the Grail silvered them, 
 touching with exquisite refinement and spirituality an age in 
 which the body was re-asserting itself imperiously and the 
 senses were grossly indulged, but that glamour could stir 
 strange yearnings even in the sensual breast. And the old 
 knight's prose-epic has remained one of the chief legacies that 
 the Middle Ages have bequeathed to after-times: its theme 
 universally known, itself more widely read and loved in the 
 
180 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 land of its birth than any other composition of those periods. 
 It has been a great poetic factor, richly nourishing the 
 imagination, awakening perennially the sense of wonder. 
 
 Those tales of the Round Table are the doubly distilled 
 essence of the four centuries during which they were in process 
 of elaboration ; they are a compend of the ages of chivalry, 
 feudalism, and Latin Catholicism, the embodiment of what 
 we call the mediaeval spirit, its sensuality and asceticism, its 
 ferocity and loyalty, its superstition and spirituality. Their 
 real hero, Sir Launcelot du Lake, is its consummate type, 
 and second only to him comes Sir Tristram de Lyoness. These 
 rival champions form, with Arthur and Guinevere, Mark and 
 Isoud respectively, two triads of souls deeply sinned against 
 and sinning, in each triad an imperfect marriage, a love per- 
 fect and passionate yet guilty when it might have been holy, 
 such is the simple and tragic motive of the double action in this 
 vast aggregation of romances. It may not be called immoral 
 for not the representation but the justification of immorality is 
 immoral and that is not suggested here. Upon the treat- 
 ment of the theme our judgment must be based and then the 
 tales of Tristram and Launcelot will be acquitted of any solici- 
 tation to illicit love ; a heavy sense of a law broken weighs 
 upon the spirit of the actors, and in the suffering, penitence, 
 and agony of the guilty ones, even to the rending asunder of 
 soul and body, poetic justice is duly meted out. Many episodes 
 in the working out of the plot cannot be thus acquitted save as 
 they are truthful reflections of a moral lawlessness rife in 
 those times, largely consequent upon enforced and unhappy 
 marriages unworthy of the name. Beside, a frank submission 
 to the demands of the senses was undoubtedly a latent charac- 
 teristic of the Middle Ages, often erroneously supposed to be 
 peculiar to the Renascence, a fact that should be sufficient 
 warning to those who seek to make rigid separation between 
 those periods, ruling any touch of Renascent life out of its 
 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 181 
 
 legitimate connection with mediaeval history. The most vehe- 
 ment expression of this riot in the blood is an incident in Tris- 
 tram's career, when a fresh wound, bleeding freely, cannot 
 assuage his raging lust. 
 
 The ferocity, the lust of fighting of those knightly ages is 
 expressed in what are perhaps the most tedious passages in 
 the volume descriptions of battles in which knights " hurtle 
 like wild boars," one smiting down one and another another 
 in wearisome repetition until the ground is covered with 
 blood. 
 
 A propensity to magic runs through the whole romance as 
 was inevitable in an age that practised it and explained every- 
 thing beyond common experience as the result of magical influ- 
 ence. The prominent parts played by the wizard Merlin and 
 Arthur's witch-sister, Morgan le Fay, come instantly to mind : 
 in a highly imaginative passage the Fay, being pursued and 
 nearly overtaken, turns herself and her steed into a great 
 marble stone. Other enchantresses are Dame Brisen and the 
 Lady of the Lake. The diabolical mantle that the unnatural 
 Fay sends her brother the king, his sword Excalibur and other 
 enchanted or fated brands, suggest a strain of Saracenic magic 
 imported at the time of the Crusades. Violent love and hatred 
 are the result of witchcraft, as in the case of Sir Pelleas and 
 the lady Ettarde, practised upon by the sorceress of the lake; 
 a classic example is the philtre shared by Tristram and Isoud, 
 " whose love never departed after for weal or woe." Works 
 of art are a product of subtle craft, as the twelve gilded statues 
 of kings that Merlin made with the figure of King Arthur 
 above them all, his drawn sword in his hand. The sovereign 
 enchantment is that of the blessed Grail, which heals deep 
 wounds, dispels madness, and spreads the board with delicate 
 viands. 
 
 The landscape through which the knights course on their 
 quest is solemn, grand, and vague, as befits the breadth and 
 
182 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 mystery of the action; there are no touches of minute observa- 
 tion, but the large, primitive elements of natural scenery are 
 ever present mountain and valley, lake and river, wood and 
 sea ; almost always an old chapel, abbey, or castle may some- 
 where be discerned, and the May sun or the moonlight of 
 romance irradiates the scene. 
 
 Of the crowning glory of nature the human form a fine 
 appreciation is displayed that only needed a little quickening 
 to turn into the passionate admiration felt by the artists of 
 the Italian Renascence. Thus Sir Galahad's beauty moved all 
 who saw him (and whoever would behold his semblance, an 
 ideal knight "without villany or treachery," may go to Florence 
 and in the St. George of Donatello see it immortalized in stone). 
 A unique touch occurs in the romance of Tristram, where the 
 king, riding in the forest, discovers a " fair naked man " sleep- 
 ing by a spring, his sword lying on the grass beside him, it 
 is his nephew, Sir Tristram, who has gone distracted through 
 suspicion that Isoud is deceiving him. The suggestion of 
 shining water, the gleam of steel on the soft green grass, the 
 tint of flesh, and the figure of the king on horseback, pushing 
 through the boughs of the forest, these few simple elements 
 make up a picture of rare beauty. Enjoying this perception 
 of the beauty of the nude male form without which the 
 highest art can never be it is somewhat remarkable that that 
 generation gave birth to no fine painting or sculpture; the 
 absence of these indicates a conspicuous defect in the English 
 genius. The final gorgeous efflorescence of English Gothic 
 architecture was indeed then preparing : in this the artistic 
 impulse of the time found satisfaction. It was certainly nour- 
 ished by Malory's narrative, which constantly blossoms out into 
 passages of high pictorial value that make it in truth a mine for 
 artists. 
 
 A few extracts will help to illustrate what has been said and 
 will afford a taste of the enchantment of the tale. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 183 
 
 " So they rode till they came to a lake the which was a fair water 
 and broad. And in the midst of the lake Arthur was ware of an arm 
 clothed in white samite that held a fair sword in the hand. ' Lo,' 
 said Merlin, ' yonder is the sword that I spake of.' With that they 
 saw a damsel going upon the lake. ' What damsel is that ? ' said the 
 king. ' That is the Lady of the Lake,' said Merlin, ' and within that 
 lake is a rock and therein is as fair a place as any on earth and richly 
 beseen; and this damsel will come to you anon and then speak ye 
 fair to her that she will give you that sword.' "... 
 
 "Right so there came by the holy vessel of the Sancgreal with all 
 manner of sweetness and savor but they could not readily see 
 who bare that vessel. But Sir Percivale had a glimmering of the 
 vessel and of the maiden that bare it, for he was a perfect clean 
 maiden. And forthwithal they both were as whole of hide and limb 
 as ever they were in their life days." . . . 
 
 " And then the king and all estates went home unto Camelot and so 
 went to evensong to the great minster, and after that to supper, and 
 every knight sat in his own place as they were toforehand. Then anon 
 they heard cracking and crying of thunder that hem thought the place 
 should all to drive. In the midst of this blast entered a sunbeam 
 more clearer by seven times than ever they saw day and all they were 
 alighted by the grace of the Holy Ghost. Then began every knight 
 to behold other and either saw other by their seeming fairer than 
 ever they saw afore. Not for then there was no knight might speak 
 one word a great while and so they looked every man on another 
 as they had been dumb. Then there entered into the hall the Holy 
 Grail covered with white samite, but there was none might see it 
 nor who bare it ; and there was all the hall fulfilled with good odors 
 and every knight had such meats and drinks as he best loved in this 
 world. And when the Holy Grail had been borne through the hall 
 then the holy vessel departed suddenly that they wist not where 
 it became. Then had they all breath to speak and then the king 
 yielded thankings to God of his good grace that he had sent them. 
 ' Certes,' said the king, 'we ought to thank our Lord Jesu greatly for 
 that he hath showed us this day at the reverence of this high feast of 
 Pentecost.'" . . . 
 
 " And at the last he came to a stony cross which departed two 
 
184 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 ways in waste land ; and by the cross was a stone that was of marble 
 but it was so dark that Sir Launcelot might not weet what it was. Then 
 Sir Launcelot looked by him and saw an old chapel and there he 
 weened to have found people. And Sir Launcelot tied his horse to a 
 tree and there he did off his shield and hung it upon a tree and then 
 went to the chapel door and found it waste and broken. And within 
 he found a fair altar full richly arrayed with cloth of clean silk and there 
 stood a fair candlestick which bare six great candles, and the candle- 
 stick was of silver. And when Sir Launcelot saw this light he had 
 great will for to enter into the chapel but he could find no place where 
 he might enter ; then was he passing heavy and dismayed. Then he 
 returned and came to his horse and did off his saddle and bridle and 
 let him pasture ; and unlaced his helm and ungirded his sword and 
 laid him down to sleep upon his shield before the cross." . . . 
 
 " ' But my time hieth fast,' said the king unto Sir Bedivere ; ' take 
 thou Excalibur my good sword and go with it to yonder water side 
 and when thou comest there I charge thee throw my sword in that 
 water' ... So Sir Bedivere departed and by the way he beheld that 
 noble sword that the pommel and the haft was all of precious stones 
 and then he said to himself, 'if I throw this rich sword in the water 
 thereof shall never come good but harm and loss.' And then Sir 
 Bedivere hid Excalibur under a tree ; and as soon as he might he 
 came again unto the king and said he had been at the water and had 
 thrown the sword in. 'What saw thou there?' said the king ... 
 'Sir' he said, 'I saw nothing but the waters wap and waves wan.' 
 ' Ah, traitor untrue ! ' said King Arthur : ' But now go again lightly 
 for thy long tarrying putteth me in great jeopardy of my life. For I 
 have taken cold, and but if thou do now as I bid thee if ever I may 
 see thee I shall slay thee with mine own hands, for thou wouldest for 
 my rich sword see me dead.' Then Sir Bedivere departed and went 
 to the sword and lightly took it up and went to the water side ; and 
 there he bound the girdle about the hilts and then he threw the 
 sword as far into the water as he might, and there came an arm and 
 a hand above the water and met it and caught it and so shook it 
 thrice and brandished, and then vanished away the hand with the 
 sword in the water. So Sir Bedivere came again to the king and 
 told him what he saw. ' Alas ' said the king, ' help me hence for I 
 

 OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 ^ 
 
 dread me I have tarried over long/ Then Sir Bedivere took the king 
 upon his back and so went with him to that water side ; and fast by 
 the bank hovered a little barge with many fair ladies in it, and among 
 them all was a queen, and all they had black hoods, and they wept 
 and shrieked when they saw King Arthur. 
 
 ' Now put me in the barge,' said the king, and so he did softly. 
 And there received him three queens with great mourning and so 
 they set him down, and in one of their laps King Arthur laid his 
 head ; and then that queen said, Ah, dear brother, why have ye 
 tarried so long ? ' And so then they rowed from the land. Then Sir 
 Bedivere cried, Ah, my lord Arthur, what shall become of me now 
 ye go from me and leave me here alone among mine enemies ? ' 
 1 Comfort thyself ' said the king, ' and do as well as thou mayest for 
 in me is no trust for to trust in. For I will into the vale of Avilion 
 to heal me of my grievous wound.' " 
 
 With such dirgelike music the Morte d' Arthur draws to its 
 close, and not there only, but through the whole complex of 
 romances as well may be heard a like asolian strain, swelling 
 and dying away and rising again with the wind of inspiration. 
 
 For poetry of form as well as substance we must cross the 
 northern border, for such was produced in this era by one man 
 only in Britain and he a subject of James III. Robert Henry- 
 son, schoolmaster at Dunfermline, in his bright and picturesque 
 Scotch verse both openly confesses and unconsciously reveals 
 the sway that Chaucer's genius exerted over him ; he was 
 though no servile follower: he linked his work to the master's 
 by writing a " Testament of Cresseid," intended as a supple- 
 ment to Chaucer's " Troylus," but in the act gave evidence of 
 his independence of spirit, for in his sequel he proposed to 
 correct what he deemed amiss in the moral of his original by 
 inflicting upon Cressida a fit punishment for her faithlessness. 
 His " Robyne and Makyne," a comic pastoral, is the first of its 
 class in British poetry. Makyne, a lovelorn country lass, has 
 long teased with her affection the insensible Robyne ; just as 
 she, weary of his hardness of heart, is beginning to catch his 
 
186 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 spirit of indifference he begins to relent and erelong grows 
 ardent but she is now heart-whole and cold; the moral is, 
 " He that will not when he may, when he will shall have a nay." 
 But it is by his clever fables, thirteen in number, that Henryson 
 is best remembered ; the demand for such reading was general 
 in his day, Caxton printed a version of the fables of ^Esop. 
 Two of Henryson's "The Dog, Sheep, and Wolf," and " The 
 Wolf and Lamb " are palpable hits at the rich and powerful 
 for their oppression of the poor people, the commons. For his 
 " Chaunticleir and Fox " Henryson was indebted to the Can- 
 terbury Tale told by the nun's priest. His beautiful prologue 
 to the fable of the Lion and Mouse is an excellent example of 
 his descriptive powers : his delicate observation of nature sup- 
 plies a notorious want in contemporary English literature, 
 indeed, he is often startlingly modern in his sensitiveness to 
 external impressions. 
 
 During the reign of James III a prolix narrative poem on 
 the national hero, William Wallace, was produced by a Scottish 
 minstrel popularly known as Blind Harry. This effort was 
 suggested, doubtless, by the success achieved by Barbour's 
 " Bruce," - to which it serves as an introduction. It is 
 inspired by a bitter hatred of the English. 
 
 In the time of Edward IV, apparently, the old mystery-plays 
 were matured into the form in which we now possess them. 
 Among the Wakefield or Towneley mysteries are two lively 
 pictures of rustic manners the " Cain," and the Second Play 
 of the Shepherds. Cain is naively represented as an English 
 boor of the fifteenth century; he is a burly brute, lustful, 
 greedy, irascible, envious an incarnation of all the deadly 
 sins: a full-blooded "Iniquity" as compared with that old 
 abstraction, the Vice of the moral plays. 
 
 Chaucer's canon's yeoman's tale may be read as an intro- 
 duction to this age which was infected fully as much as his 
 with a rage for alchemical pursuits. To the first half of 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 187 
 
 Edward's reign belongs an imposture called " The Book of 
 Quint- Essence " a panegyric on that purest of substances, 
 the " Water of Life," incorruptible, and imparting incorrupti- 
 bility, able to restore old feeble men to the strength of youth : 
 a walnut-shell full of it is a panacea for every ill. To make it, 
 " distil one thousand times," etc., etc. George Ripley, a 
 Carmelite friar, was a celebrated alchemist ; he dedicated his 
 rhymed " Compound of Alchemy " to the king. Incited by his 
 success, another of these philosophers named Thomas Norton 
 produced an "Ordinal of the Chemical Art," also in verse, 
 which he presented in 1477 to Archbishop Neville, his patron 
 
 brother to the fallen Warwick. Roger Bacon was Norton's 
 paragon, a fact that we may record as one among many 
 indications of a certain sympathy between this age and that of 
 Edward I. 
 
 A cursory view of the condition of the mainland of Europe 
 at the end of the century reveals an extraordinary development 
 of the principle of centralized government so forcibly expounded 
 by Louis XI. Nowhere is this more striking than in the 
 Spanish peninsula, where political affairs had long been in a 
 state of distraction amounting almost to anarchy. Now, under 
 the resolute control of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Hermandad, 
 or league of towns for mutual defence, was developed into an 
 effective police for the whole kingdom ; the nobility even was 
 subjected to its jurisdiction; and crime and disorder were 
 repressed. Justice was everywhere unflinchingly administered 
 and a revision of the Castilian law-code was taken in hand. 
 Not less remarkable were the financial and economic reforms, 
 
 by which the state of the coinage was improved, and the 
 royal revenues were largely augmented, and the industrial 
 awakening, extraordinary for Spain, that ensued upon the 
 restoration of credit : trade and agriculture revived, and the 
 roads now freed from robbers were put in better condition. 
 
 A step symbolical of the changed relations of the feudal 
 
188 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 aristocracy and the new monarchy was taken in the year 1476, 
 when at the death of Rodrigo Manrique, grandmaster of the 
 famous order of Knights of Santiago, Ferdinand assumed the 
 headship. The incorporation of the masterships of the other 
 military orders with the crown followed in due course and was 
 erelong made perpetual by a papal provision. 
 
 Manrique's death was the occasion of one of the noblest 
 poems in Spanish literature the sonorous "Coplas " or stanzas 
 of his son Don Jorge, a young hero who died on the field of 
 battle three years later. Beginning with some solemn reflections 
 on death's universal empire over the race, the relentless sweep 
 of time, and the transiency of this world's pleasure and glory, 
 the monody passes to a few particular instances of the power 
 of death and change drawn, in a manner that reminds us of 
 one of Villon's ballads, from recent Spanish history, and con- 
 cludes with a. tribute of filial love and pride to the memory 
 of Don Rodrigo, a typical Castilian cavalier, brave and devout. 
 Solemn as the poem is it is yet nowhere gloomy for it is 
 relieved by a perfect faith in a brighter and an enduring 
 world. 
 
 In 1492 the protracted war of conquest waged against the 
 Moors of Granada to which Spanish zeal gave the character of 
 a last Crusade and which afforded an opportunity for a final 
 glorious display of mediaeval chivalry was brought to a 
 conclusion and made amends in some measure for the losses 
 that Christendom had lately sustained at the other end of the 
 Mediterranean. Later in the same year the discoveries of 
 Columbus gave to Castile and Leon a new world. 
 
 At this period the dramatic pieces of Juan de la Enzina 
 were being performed, an edition of them was published in 
 1496. They are remarkable for the light they throw upon the 
 process of transition from the ancient mysteries to the comedy 
 of real life. In 1499 was published a clever play called 
 " Celestina " from the tricky woman who is the leading char- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 189 
 
 acter ; it was written by a law-student at Salamanca named 
 Rojas. 
 
 Beside the creation of these new forms in the drama active 
 work was done in translating popular romances. It is interest- 
 ing to note that about the same time with Malory Spanish 
 translators were busy with French versions of Arthurian fiction : 
 a Spanish " Merlin " and " Artus " appeared in print at the 
 turn of the century. Then, too, was completed a translation 
 of the Portuguese fiction, " Amadis of Gaul," and bulky as it 
 was it proved so fascinating that numberless additions were 
 grafted upon it. 
 
 Feudalism was annihilated in Portugal and the monarchy 
 made absolute by John II, who reigned from 1481 to 1495. 
 Louis XI was his model. Like Ferdinand and Isabella he 
 made use of the representatives of the people in his contest 
 with the feudal nobility and when his end was gained calmly 
 dispensed with their services and stood alone and supreme. 
 The first year of his reign he struck severe blows at the power 
 of the great nobles by setting on foot an inquiry into their 
 titles to their estates and by ordering the suppression of their 
 courts of justice. The duke of Braganza, the proudest of 
 them all, for nearly a third part of Portugal was in his fee, 
 led the way in opposing these measures : he was summarily 
 arrested, tried, and put to death in the year 1483. A relative 
 of his, the duke of Viseu, stepped into his place, and was 
 stabbed to the heart by the king's own hand the year following ; 
 a hecatomb of his confederates was then sacrificed and the 
 ruthless work was done. The king could now turn his atten- 
 tion to cannon-founding, ship-building and the progress of his 
 mariners along the African coast, and to the encouragement of 
 the study of classic literature. 
 
 The policy of Louis XI was carried to its triumphant con- 
 summation when Brittany, the last feudal area in France, was 
 annexed to the crown by the marriage of his son Charles VIII 
 
190 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 to its Duchess Anne in the year 1491. The French power 
 thus consolidated was now the most formidable in Europe, but 
 a rival speedily appeared in Spain, aggrandized by the conquest 
 of Granada : the two powerful states began to try conclusions 
 with each other and the theatre of war was hapless, divided 
 Italy. Imperial prerogatives were endangered by French 
 aggression there and Maximilian of Austria, emperor-elect, 
 was hence involved in the struggle. At the same time united 
 England under the strong government of her Tudor kings was 
 ready to begin her role in the new political system of Europe. 
 A novel aspect was thus given to the face of Christendom: 
 the great powers, united within, began to direct their energies 
 outward, came into manifold relations with each other, formed 
 league after league, now for the partition of Italy, now to 
 counterpoise an overgrown and threatening power : the history 
 of the next twenty-five years is one of incessant, confusing, 
 kaleidoscopic changes. 
 
 In 1494 the ambitious young king Charles VIII, his head 
 full of fantastic ideas of conquest, descended upon Italy to 
 enforce his claim to the sovereignty of Naples. His course 
 was like a triumphal progress and excited such apprehensions 
 that Milan, Venice and the pope, Spain and Austria formed a 
 confederacy to cut off his retreat. Charles had to leave Naples 
 in haste and fight a battle against great odds in order to save 
 himself ; his conquest was transient but the impression it made 
 sufficiently long-lasting ; one consequence of it was that the 
 French carried home with them fruit of the Renascence. 
 
 In 1496 took place a profoundly important union, the com- 
 plement of the famous marriages formerly noticed, that of 
 Philip, son of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy, and Joanna, 
 daughter, and eventually heiress, of Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 In the last year of the century there was born to the young 
 pair a son upon whose head were to be heaped coronets and 
 crowns. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 191 
 
 At this epoch Louis XII, who had just succeeded his young 
 cousin Charles upon the throne of France, bringing to it a 
 decidedly questionable claim to the duchy of Milan, made an 
 easy conquest of that rich province and then entered into a 
 nefarious alliance with Ferdinand of Aragon for the partition of 
 Naples. The kingdom was speedily overrun by their armies 
 but in the division of the spoils the allies quarreled ; the French 
 were defeated in several desperate engagements and their forces 
 wasted by disease ; and at the end of the year 1503 the per- 
 fidious Ferdinand remained in sole possession. Untaught by 
 this reverse, Louis immediately, and it must be said wantonly, 
 projected with Maximilian a partition of the territories of the 
 republic of Venice. Thus was formed the league of Cambrai, 
 to which the pope and the minor princes of Italy acceded, and 
 in a short campaign in the spring of 1509 the republic was 
 despoiled of its possessions on the mainland. From this sorry 
 triumph, however, Louis reaped no advantage, for the pope 
 the belligerent Julius II suddenly veered round and nego- 
 tiated with Spain, England, Venice and the Swiss the Holy 
 League for the purpose of driving the French out of Italy 
 an end that was soon successfully accomplished. 
 
 An astonishing figure dominated Florence in the last decade 
 of the fifteenth century the last and greatest of that line of 
 preachers of repentance the origin of which we have seen 
 the eager Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola ; an extraor- 
 dinary apparition like a Hebrew prophet of old rising in the 
 midst of renascent Italy to convict her cultured ones of sin and 
 startle them to contrition, to cast a lurid light upon the vices of 
 a great city, to denounce the skepticism and immorality that 
 were infecting the literature and art of the Renascence, to 
 proclaim the necessity of a reformation in the church, and to 
 establish a momentary theocracy under which gay Florence 
 grown devout took Jesus for her king. In other lands as well 
 eloquent preachers arose to inculcate righteousness and call the 
 
192 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 people back to a spiritual religion and the attentive crowds 
 that assembled to hear them showed that they satisfied a 
 widely felt need. The Breton-born Franciscan brother, Olivier 
 Maillard, whose life overlapped Savonarola's by some years, 
 preached in many parts of France and in Flanders, exhorting 
 to holiness of life, rebuking the sins of every class, sparing not 
 those in highest place : his sermons lacked the intense glow of 
 the great Dominican's but he was an earnest and persuasive 
 preacher in the allegorical style then in vogue and his exceed- 
 ingly direct and familiar address to his congregations, the 
 satirical touches, anecdotes, and scraps of verse with which his 
 discourse was enlivened, his frequent improprieties in matter 
 and manner, simply enhanced his popularity. Another eloquent 
 Franciscan, Michel Menot, a slightly younger contemporary of 
 his, far outdid Maillard in these homiletical extravagances, 
 examples of which were afforded in German literature by the 
 sermons of Geiler of Strassburg, in which we find the same true 
 piety and zeal to do good with a like quaintness of illustration, 
 allegory, amusing and satirical anecdote. An instance of 
 Geiler's appeal to the public taste is the fact that he drew texts 
 for a number of sermons from Sebastian Brandt's " Ship of 
 Fools " an extremely popular and not ungenial satire that 
 issued from the press of Basel in 1494. 
 
 Two versions of that Leviathan of fables, " Reynard the 
 Fox," demand notice, one in Dutch prose the one that Cax- 
 ton used, the other in Low German verse based upon the 
 first. That mordant satire upon all lofty pretensions, with its 
 ridicule of royal authority, personated by King Lion, its mock- 
 ery of religious profession by the Fox's sanctimony, manifests 
 the sharp, quite disenchanted vision of the common folk. 
 Denying with a grin all that is knightly, romantic, ideal, and 
 spiritual, it is to the Morte d' Arthur as nadir to zenith, but 
 both must be attentively perused by any who would apprehend 
 the Middle Ages in their entirety. The Morte d'Arthur was 
 
<9/' ENGLISH LITERATURE. 193 
 
 bandied back and forth between England and France, Rey- 
 nard, between the Netherlands, France and Germany ; and it 
 may be doubted whether any other two productions can give 
 one as clear a notion of the spirit of those times. 
 
 Of the many German artists of that day we may mention one 
 of the most eminent, Peter Vischer of Nuremberg, because of 
 his conception of King Arthur presented in bronze at Inns- 
 bruck. It is a noble figure and the helmeted face, especially 
 as seen in profile, is severely beautiful. Vischer's work other- 
 wise deserves our attention as indicative of the transition from 
 Gothic to Renascent art. 
 
 During the fifteenth and first quarter of the sixteenth 
 century, while Denmark was exercising an hegemony over the 
 other Scandinavian states, final transcriptions of almost all of 
 her old ballads were being made. Through the veil of the 
 language of this later age it is not difficult to see how these 
 interesting little poems can be arranged in groups correspond- 
 ing to the grand divisions of European literature in the centu- 
 ries we have traversed. Thus some of them are based on 
 legends of saints ; one remarkable ballad pictures the soul of 
 a rich man just dead as seated on the body's breast bewailing 
 and accusing it : others are poems of tender sentiment, the 
 supreme type of these being the beautiful and pathetic tale of 
 the loves of Axel and Walborg ; others again are humorous, 
 among them a delicious parody of the turgid style of the 
 romances of chivalry, quite in the spirit of Chaucer's Sir 
 Thopas or Pulci's Morgante. 
 
 The fall of Richard III on Bosworth field in 1485 and the 
 elevation of his rival to the throne as Henry VII put an end 
 to the Wars of the Roses ; thereby was effected indeed a pro- 
 found dynastic change but no real revolution. The policy of 
 the new king was a continuation of that of Edward IV whose 
 daughter he married. He projected a war with France and 
 got subsidies for it from parliament which, according to a 
 
194 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 precedent set by Edward, he reinforced by "benevolences " or 
 loans exacted from wealthy subjects and then sold peace at 
 a high price to the French king, making heavy profits on all 
 sides by the transaction. He promoted commerce, making 
 treaties with Florence, the Scandinavian countries and Riga. 
 He provided John and Sebastian Cabot with ships for their 
 voyage over the western ocean ; and in June, 1497, they dis- 
 covered the North American continent in the neighborhood of 
 Newfoundland. 
 
 The key to Henry's character and system of government is 
 a simple one, avarice. Studying the vicissitudes of the past 
 generation he perceived that Henry VI was poor and unfor- 
 tunate, his successor rich and fortunate, and he inferred a 
 causal connection between those terms. So he decided that 
 to ensure his dynasty and the nation against a return of those 
 disorders the one thing needful was money, and he cast about 
 to accumulate it in a manner that suggests that the task was 
 congenial to his nature. His policy of repressing the great 
 lords chimed with it ; parliament had passed a statute reducing 
 their large retinues to safer limits and the king was keen in 
 discovering through his agents any breach of the law and 
 inexorable in exacting the penalty. Ingenious instruments of 
 his rapacity were found in the lawyers Dudley and Empson; 
 and no device by which sums of money could be extorted and 
 which could bear a semblance of legality was left untried by 
 them. These exactions were popularly represented by the 
 dilemma known as " Morton's fork " from the king's minister, 
 Cardinal Morton : it was said that none could escape being 
 impaled upon one or the other of its horns, for if he lived 
 splendidly he was asked to give the king of his superfluity, if 
 economically, to contribute of his savings. By these various 
 artifices, by a pacific policy that traded upon the expectation of 
 war, by the device of benevolences, by fines and forfeitures 
 and by a rigid parsimony, Henry managed to amass an enor- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 195 
 
 mous treasure and to keep himself quite independent of parlia- 
 ment. He is to be reckoned among the astute sovereigns of 
 that day. 
 
 The ridiculous pretensions of Simnel and Warbeck and the 
 measure of credit they gained are curious examples of popular 
 credulity, the unsettled state of men's minds and the preva- 
 lency of plots and imposture in that period. Warbeck's attempt 
 had at least one substantial result, for under color of repelling 
 the Scottish king's invasion in his behalf Henry wrung fresh 
 subsidies from parliament. The utter failure of the plot 
 revealed beside to foreign powers how firmly the king was 
 seated on his throne, and he was now able to negotiate brilliant 
 matches for his children, of unforeseen consequence. In 1501 
 he married his son Arthur a name that yields historical evi- 
 dence of the power of romance to the princess Catherine, 
 younger daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. The frail young 
 prince died in the following spring but the king provided a 
 substitute for him in his 'second son, Henry, then in his twelfth 
 year, for otherwise the princess would have had to return to 
 Spain and with her her precious dowry. Soon after Henry 
 gave his eldest daughter Margaret in marriage to the king of 
 Scots, James IV, and thus secured peace on his northern 
 frontier. 
 
 We have seen how exquisitely the changing sentiment of 
 ages is registered in architecture; fresh and striking illustra- 
 tions of this law now confront us. The principal monument of 
 Edward IV's time is the beautiful church of St. Mary Redcliffe 
 at Bristol one of the finest churches in England not a cathe- 
 dral, a peculiarly attractive specimen of the perpendicular 
 style. But the crowning artistic glory of Henry VII's reign 
 and of the age is the vaulting known as fan-tracery, superbly 
 exhibited in the three royal chapels of Windsor, Cambridge, 
 and Westminster. In the system of fan-vaulting each section 
 is in idea a half of a spreading cone up the surface of which 
 
196 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 splay numerous ribs all of the same length and same curve, like 
 the fingers of a bent fan. The concave-sided lozenges left in 
 the roof between the crowns of the vaulting segments are filled 
 with elaborate tracery or droop in pendants. The effect of the 
 whole, especially as seen in St. George's chapel, Windsor, is 
 rich, elegant and buoyant. The inception of the new style 
 has been thought to belong to the last years of Edward's reign ; 
 thus the Divinity school at Oxford is referred to the year 1480 
 but it is roofed in the manner of the next century. Both 
 St. George's chapel and that of King's college, Cambridge, 
 were begun by 1479; ^ was ^ e ^ f r Henry VII and his son 
 to finish them; and so we have an architectural parallel to 
 what was said above regarding Henry's policy : he built upon 
 the foundations Edward laid. The nave of St. George's was 
 vaulted in 1490, its choir in 1507. A pleasing specimen of the 
 style is the "new building" at the eastern extremity of Peter- 
 borough minster, begun as a receptacle for relics quite early in 
 the century but not completed until" this and the following 
 reign. Bath Abbey is another example. To the year 1502 
 belongs the tiny chantry of the lamented Prince Arthur at 
 Worcester ; and then his father's sumptuous mortuary chapel at 
 Westminster was begun. Here, arching ribs spring from the 
 wall free for a space, pushing forward and piercing complete 
 and highly decorated cones. They resemble arms holding 
 torches and with the whirling flounces of tracery, the aston- 
 ishing pendants in the middle seeming to rest on air, exert a 
 truly bewildering effect. It is the very flamboyancy of vaulting, 
 the dolphin-death of Gothic architecture. 
 
 Considerable progress was made in the revival of classical 
 learning during the reign of Henry VII. Thomas Linacre, a 
 fellow of All Souls', Oxford, went to Bologna in 1485 to per- 
 fect himself in Greek as an aid to advanced medical study 
 and putting by y , the mediaeval versions of their works read 
 Aristotle and Galen in the original. He visited Florence 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 197 
 
 (where he met Poliziano), Rome, Venice and Padua. William 
 Grocyn, a fellow of New College, learned Greek of an Italian 
 resident at Oxford; in 1488 he went to Florence and spent 
 two years in Italy studying. He was followed by one Latimer 
 in 1489; and both returned to Oxford to teach what they 
 had learned in the favored haunts of classicism. 
 
 John Colet was born in London in 1466. In 1483 he 
 entered Magdalen College ; there he studied Greek and read 
 the works of Plato. After ten years he visited Italy and 
 herein the wide difference between him and the scholars just 
 mentioned appears: they returned thence polished humanists, 
 he returned with something more than learning with 
 religious convictions greatly deepened and a grave sense of 
 the necessity of a reform in the faith and morals of the clergy. 
 
 It has been suggested with a large measure of probability 
 that he owed to Savonarola this deepening of his religious con- 
 sciousness ; it is certain that he was in Florence during the 
 great preacher's supremacy, and a soul like Colet's could not 
 fail to be moved by that impassioned eloquence. In 1497 we 
 find him back at Oxford imbued with the teaching of St. Paul, 
 delivering lectures on his epistle to the Romans, not in the 
 jejune style of the scholastic scribes with their endless patristic 
 references, but fresh, helpful, rich in suggestion, vibrating with 
 the note of personal experience. The hall was crowded when- 
 ever he lectured ; it was felt that a new spiritual force was 
 manifesting itself at the University. 
 
 A disciple and friend of Colet was the young Thomas More, 
 son of a justice of the court of King's Bench. He had served 
 as a lad in the household of Archbishop Morton (afterward 
 Cardinal), and was distinguished even then by his intelligence 
 and uprightness of character. In 1492, at the age of fourteen 
 years, he was entered at Oxford: in 1496 at Lincoln's Inn. When 
 he was about twenty years old he underwent a severe religious 
 experience and sought peace through the ascetic discipline 
 
198 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 still in vogue among earnest souls: he wore a harsh shirt of 
 hair next his skin, scourged himself, and slept on the bare 
 floor. While in this mood he made the acquaintance of 
 Erasmus, then on his first visit to England, who, though 
 eleven years his senior, felt an instant attraction to the young 
 Englishman and the two became fast friends. The great 
 scholar exerted a wholesome influence, without doubt, upon 
 More's sensitive nature, helping him gently out of the thorny 
 thicket of his spiritual anxieties into the flowery path of letters 
 again. Erasmus moreover now ripened into intimacy an 
 acquaintance he had formed with Colet upon the continent 
 some time before. It is a charming group, an intercourse 
 delightful to think upon, that of these three scholars and 
 sympathetic, ardent souls especially in an epoch otherwise 
 singularly barren in literary attraction. More became the 
 fairest type of an English humanist. It is a pity that he and 
 Colet did not trust more than they did the capacity of expres- 
 sion of their native language : had they done so their fame 
 and Colet's in particular would now be greatly enhanced. 
 
 Kay's successor as poet-laureate royal was Bernard Andre, a 
 scholar from the south of France. About the middle of 
 Henry's reign he composed a panegyric in French verse, 
 " The Twelve Triumphs of Henry the Seventh," in which that 
 monarch and his brave exploits were compared with Hercules 
 and his labors. About that time, too, the slender ranks of 
 English humanists received an accession in the person of 
 Polydore Vergil, a native of Urbino, who, having been de- 
 spatched to England by Pope Alexander VI to levy Peter's- 
 pence found his situation there so agreeable that he decided 
 to remain and was erelong rewarded by preferment in the 
 church. 
 
 A native 'scholar of considerable celebrity was John Skelton, 
 to whom, it will be remembered, Caxton looked up and whom 
 even Erasmus extolled. According to a custom of the time 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 199 
 
 he had received the degree of poet-laureate from the University 
 of Oxford for his skill in Latin versification. In a rhyme of 
 some length, pleasing in spots, entitled "The Garland of 
 Laurel," and addressed to some ladies who had worked a 
 wreath, the insignia of his rank, upon his court gown, he vin- 
 dicates his title to the poet's crown, adducing a number of his 
 poems. The king was his patron : he was appointed tutor to 
 Prince Henry and had the honor of producing a " morality," 
 since lost, before his majesty and the court at Woodstock. 
 When he had reached middle age he took orders and was 
 presented with a living in Norfolk; his biographers seem to 
 suppose that at this time his character underwent a sudden 
 change and that from a scholar he became the coarsely 
 abusive satirist that his name now first suggests. But in his 
 earliest known effort, a dirge for Edward IV, we find the moral- 
 izing tone, the note of disenchantment, of disgust with the world, 
 that proclaims the embryo satirist; and if we had his poems in 
 chronological order they would no doubt reveal that his temper 
 grew more savage as the character of the times became plainer. 
 In the piece just referred to he quotes St. Bernard to the effect 
 that " a man is but a sack of stercory and shall return to worm's 
 meat," and upon that hideous text great part of his produc- 
 tion hangs. Skelton had a morbid sense of the loathsomeness 
 of physical decay, disease and death ; in a repulsive poem he 
 held up a grinning death's head to the age as a picture of the 
 end of all its strength and splendor. An oft-printed piece of 
 his, "The Tunning of Elinor Rumming," is a superlative 
 example of nauseous realism. 
 
 The testimony of Alexander Barclay, translator of Brandt's 
 " Ship of Fools," is that the England of his day was given over 
 to " Lewdness and Folly." Brandt's famous satire had by this 
 time been translated into several languages. Its conception 
 was furnished by the chariot shaped like a ship and peopled 
 by droll figures, the "naval car " that is believed to have given 
 
200 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 its name to the carnival, at which it used to be a principal 
 show, being dragged along in procession. Brandt fancied its 
 passengers and crew to be representatives of over a hundred 
 classes of fools ; his motive was to expose the myriad devia- 
 tions from common sense that make men ridiculous. Barclay's 
 free English version with alterations was produced in 1508 
 and printed the following year. He explains that its title 
 might have been " The Satire, or Reprehension of Foolishness." 
 The book was illustrated with quaint German wood-cuts, among 
 them two representations of that antique machine, long a poetic 
 property, the wheel of Fortune. Amid the crowd of fools 
 we note the bibliophile, the superannuated man of fashion, the 
 young man who has married an old woman for her money, the 
 petulant woman, the fat-witted person who cannot understand 
 a joke, the boaster, the gambler, and some choice specimens 
 of the fcrol in orders the ignorant priest, the covetous bishop. 
 In marked contrast to these specimens of satire indicative, 
 whether coarse or dull, of some deep-seated disorder in the 
 social framework a schism fast becoming too grave to be 
 borne between what was and what ought to have been is the 
 placid rehabilitation of mediaeval ideals in Stephen Hawes' 
 " Pastime of Pleasure." To an Oxford education Hawes 
 added the polish of travel in his own country and in France. 
 He was something of a linguist and was especially conversant 
 with French. He was a student of literature, a critic even after 
 his kind : thus he would draw comparisons between Chaucer 
 and Lydgate, magnifying the excellences of the latter bard. 
 Lydgate he adopted as his master, his patron saint in letters; 
 for his memory he showed an extraordinary veneration and 
 affection. In paying his tribute of respect to the three lords of 
 English song he despatches Chaucer and Gower in three 
 stanzas while he devotes ten to Lydgate. Here we have the 
 unmistakable sign-manual of the literary dilettante, of one who 
 would establish an esoteric cult in poetry by reversing the 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 201 
 
 popular, the vulgar estimate, who seeks distinction by an 
 amiable eccentricity of judgment, an affectation of special 
 insight. Hawes was in fact the representative man of letters 
 of the reign, the exponent of its culture; he was its product, 
 for he was yet young when towards its close he composed his 
 principal work. He was an ornament of the court, being in 
 great request for his talents in composition, conversation and 
 recitation from the elder poets for he had a capacious 
 memory. The king made him his Groom of the Chamber. 
 
 "The Pastime of Pleasure" was produced in 1505-1506 
 and printed in 1509. Although the author, in accordance with 
 a long-standing fashion, prays to Venus for success in love 
 and to Mars for the meed of enduring fame, and though this 
 desire of fame is felt to be a potent motive in its composition, 
 the poem is yet essentially mediaeval in general design and 
 detail. Its groundwork is that of the romances of chivalry : it 
 is the quest of a knight, Grand Amour, toward union with the 
 feminine ideal, La Belle Pucelle. It is allegorical in intention 
 as these titles indicate and exceedingly didactic mediaeval 
 characteristics both. Its characters are those of a " morality " : 
 thus Grand Amour in his quest encounters an ugly dwarf, 
 False Report, slays the three-headed giant Falsehood, and is 
 instructed by Counsel. In its execution it develops into a little 
 cyclopaedia of mediaeval culture, for the typical knight must 
 be a master of all the sciences : Grand Amour is bidden by 
 Doctrine to perfect himself in. the studies of the trivium 
 grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and of the quadrivium, - 
 arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy. His course in 
 the school of Rhetoric occasions quite an interesting analysis 
 of that art as taught in Hawes's day: its parts, we learn, are 
 Invention, Disposition or arrangement of narrative or argu- 
 ment, Elocution that is, choice of words, expression (well 
 exemplified by Lydgate !), Pronunciation, and Memory. In 
 the tower of Music its patroness sits surrounded by a heap of 
 
202 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 instruments tabors, sackbut, dulcimers, rebeck and soft 
 recorders, and we are treated to a little essay on the moral 
 influence of the art: it banishes evil thoughts and gladdens 
 the heart. Under Astronomy several sciences are included. 
 We are taught first of all that omnipotent God, the "chief 
 astronomer," has made Nature to be his vice-gerent. A 
 treatise of mediaeval psychology follows : the five external 
 " wits " or senses are five gates through which information 
 streams in upon the first of the five internal senses, the " Com- 
 mon wit " or understanding ; the other four are Imagination, 
 Fantasy (" finishing " the matter afforded by the former), Esti- 
 mation (whose function it is to comprehend space, time, cause 
 and effect), and finally Memory. Hawes here takes occasion 
 to explain that his " native language is obscure." A bit of 
 physiology comes next, for under the " high influence of the 
 planets " falls the discussion of the four elements and four 
 humors. 
 
 His tuition finished, Grand Amour proceeds to the Tower of 
 Chivalry and forth thence to slaughter giants with his sword 
 Clara- Prudence and finally to pierce with it a metallic monster, 
 Malice, after which feat he is received by Pucelle in a hall 
 paved with precious stones, its windows of crystal, its walls 
 covered with arras, its roof "of marvellous geometry." There 
 they are wedded by Church-Law. In another passage, descrip- 
 tive of Fortune's hall with its "curiously branched roof," 
 Hawes reminds us that he belonged to the epoch of fan-tracery : 
 like it his work is studied and ornate. He has some passages 
 that are full of color, notably the description of Doctrine's 
 palace. His characteristic lines lending themselves easily to 
 quotation read like echoes of the proverbial philosophy of his 
 
 day: 
 
 " After an ebb there cometh a flowing tide "... 
 " After the day there cometh the dark night : 
 
 For though the daye be never so long 
 
 At last the bell ringeth to evensong." 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 203 
 
 His literary enthusiasm finds expression in a highly character- 
 istic line, in praise 
 
 " Of famous poets many years ago." 
 
 " Farewell, sweetheart, farewell, farewell, farewell," 
 
 if read with ever fainter breath, a vanishing effect, a dying 
 fall, will give a just impression of the pensive sweetness long 
 drawn out, the attenuated grace of Stephen Hawes. His was 
 a mild St. Martin's summer of mediaeval poetry; he was the 
 darling of the ladies of the court of Henry VII. 
 
 Part of the verse-production of this reign as of previous 
 ones was anonymous and popular, taking the form of ballads. 
 It is cause for regret that as in the case of the Danish ex- 
 amples most of them have been preserved to us only in the 
 adulterated versions of a later time. One entertaining speci- 
 men, among the best of its class, may be safely ascribed to the 
 earlier portion of Henry's reign the ballad of the Nut-brown 
 Maid, composed presumably by a woman to vindicate the con- 
 stancy of her sex in love. The maid's lover subjects her 
 affection to a series of severe tests ; he pretends that he has 
 committed some breach of law and must away to the greenwood 
 for refuge: she promises to accompany him and is not deterred 
 by his clearly drawn picture of the discomforts and dangers of 
 woodland life. Finally he declares that he is already provided 
 with a sweetheart in the forest who is fairer than she and 
 whom he loves better, but the maid stands even this search- 
 ing test triumphantly : 
 
 " ' Though in the wood I understood ye had a paramour, 
 
 All this may not remove my thought but that I will be your ; 
 And she shall find me soft and kind and courteous every hour, 
 Glad to fulfil all that she will command me, to my power ; 
 For had ye, lo ! an hundred mo, yet would I be that one, 
 For in my mind, of all mankind, I love but you alone.' " 
 
 This supreme surrender overcomes her lover who comforts 
 her telling her that he had only said it to prove her and re- 
 
204 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 veals what he had hitherto concealed, that he whom she has 
 won for her husband by her enduring love is an earl's son and 
 no banished man. 
 
 As regards domestic life in this reign we are provided, but 
 slenderly as compared with Edward IV's time, with the corre- 
 spondence of some Yorkshire gentlefolk that serves as a con- 
 tinuation to the Paston letters, beginning where they leave off 
 but it is by no means as voluminous or as interesting as that 
 famous collection. The centre of the new correspondence was 
 Sir Robert Plumpton, warden of Knaresboro' Castle ; and his 
 wife, the Lady Isabel, held to it a relation similar to that that 
 Margaret Paston held to the earlier series. We are afforded a 
 vivid glimpse of the straits of one among the many families 
 that were drawn into the toils of Richard Empson, the king's 
 agent ; he began proceedings against Sir Robert in 1497. 
 "The great man E[mpson] sits for assessing of fines for 
 knights,"- fines, that is, levied upon persons who might re- 
 ceive knighthood but who sought to avoid the attendant trouble 
 and expense and his correspondent goes on to warn Sir 
 Robert: "Your, adversaries intend surely to attempt the law 
 against you." Erelong we hear Lady Plumpton complaining 
 that she can neither borrow money nor sell wood upon the 
 estate for everybody knows that she is eager to sell and next 
 to nothing is offered for the largest trees and meanwhile 
 there is Lenten stuff to buy. None can tell what the land 
 would bring for the title is insecure. " We are brought to 
 beggar-staff." Later, her husband sends her warning: " If any 
 precept come from the sheriff to take your cattle obey ye it 
 not. No cattle should be taken thereby but your husband's 
 cattle and he hath none and so may ye make the bayly 
 answer." 
 
 A curious but by no means exceptional instance of affection 
 traded upon is offered by a kinsman of the Plumptons who 
 considers whether it might not be as well to give his sister in 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 205 
 
 marriage to a gentleman who loves her so devotedly that he 
 would probably take her with a smaller dowry than any other 
 would demand. 
 
 Leaving Yorkshire we cross the northern border once again. 
 The young king of Scots, James IV, handsome, pleasure-loving, 
 popular, was enjoying an influence rare for the crown in his 
 distracted country which had lately been rent by discords worse 
 than ordinary. Under his energetic administration which re- 
 flected the spirit of the age Scotland enjoyed a respite from 
 strife and a measure of prosperity. James had splendid tastes, 
 in especial a passion for architecture ; the palaces of Stirling, 
 Holyrood, Linlithgow and Falkland were built, restored or 
 decorated in his reign. He loved music and song : minstrels, 
 rhymers and scholars were welcome at his gay court and gave 
 it a finer lustre. Its greatest literary ornament and, indeed, 
 the chief of Scottish poets throughout the two-hundred years' 
 course of independent Scottish literature, was William Dunbar. 
 Formerly a Franciscan friar he had discarded the frock to 
 become a dependent of the king whom he served in several 
 foreign missions. He flattered the taste of the age by his alle- 
 gorical poems which are unusually successful specimens of 
 their class. His "Golden Targe " opens with a pretty descrip- 
 tion of May impaired as was inevitable then by classical 
 allusions. The " Targe " is the shield with which Reason de- 
 fends the poet for awhile against the darts of Beauty. Dunbar's 
 finest production in this vein, his best-known work and one that 
 possesses a permanent charm, is the graceful epithalamium he 
 composed for the king upon his marriage with the Tudor prin- 
 cess Margaret. " The Thistle and the Rose " is its symbolic 
 title : it is instinct with light and color the best and most 
 characteristic properties of Scottish poetry. 
 
 Removed by a whole hemisphere from such play of fancy 
 and sentiment are the satirical pieces that Dunbar penned in 
 an altered mood : indeed, but for the well-known vicissitudes 
 
206 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 of mood to which the human spirit is subject it would be hard 
 to believe that species of writing so different could proceed 
 from the same author. In his versified report of the confabu- 
 lation of some female ribalds, "Two Married Women and a 
 Widow," there is a cynical display of an almost savage lust, of 
 hypocritic cunning aevoted to the service of animal instinct, 
 that uncovers an abyss of moral evil in the social life of Scot- 
 land as the Middle Age was drawing to a close. (The king 
 himself was a notorious libertine.) Another tale of coarse 
 humor and intrigue, " The Friars of Berwick," may be ascribed 
 to Dunbar ; it is quite in the manner of the baser element in 
 the Canterbury Tales. 
 
 We have from him a Scotch version of the " Dance of the 
 Seven Deadly Sins" and surely that grotesque subject has 
 never been treated with more force, originality and grewsome 
 realism. He addressed to the king many rhymed petitions for 
 places in the church ; and repeated disappointment appears 
 to have inspired a series of despondent, moralizing poems that 
 remind one of Lydgate's favorite themes : " the world is false 
 and unstable," and "all earthly joy returns in pain." He wrote 
 "Of the World's Vanity," and "Of the Changes of Life," and 
 once when he was sick and in fear of death composed a lament 
 for the famous poets of Britain from Chaucer's to his own day. 
 A like occasion, a like mood doubtless inspired his " Confession " 
 of all sorts of sins : a line in it tersely expresses the religious 
 attitude of his age and of a character such as his : 
 
 " I trow in the kirk, to do as it commandis." 
 
 Submissive as he became he could not escape accusation of 
 heresy ; in a " Flyting " or humorous dispute in verse his con- 
 temporary and literary friend, Walter Kennedy, charged him 
 with being a "Lollard laureate, a lamp of Lollards," doubt- 
 less because of his shrewd hits at the priests and the religious 
 orders. Kennedy was of noble birth, well-educated, and had 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 207 
 
 travelled upon the Continent. He composed some devotional 
 poems, a "Passion of Christ " and a " Ballad in Praise of our 
 Lady " wherein he blesses her from top to toe and begs her 
 intercession for " KENNEDY her man." 
 
 Another noble author and of greater distinction was Gavin 
 Douglas, whose " Palace of Honor," addressed to King James, 
 is one of the polished, artificial allegories then in vogue at 
 court a dream of adventure on a May morning among myth- 
 ological personages, classic heroes and poets, including a course 
 over classic geography. As may be imagined, it is tedious 
 reading to-day ; yet it contains some gorgeous coloring and 
 reveals its author's genuine and undiscriminating passion for 
 the antique : it is thus a monument of the spread of renascent 
 sentiment into remote Scotland. Of that sentiment Douglas 
 was the one exponent in his day and corner of the world. By 
 it he was nerved to accomplish his great feat a translation of 
 the ^Eneid into the Scotch dialect, in heroic couplets. He 
 prefaced every book with an original prologue, the seventh and 
 twelfth of which are gems of natural description. In the former 
 we have a picture drawn from his own observation of the effect 
 of winter wind and cold upon the sea, upon streams and fields, 
 cattle and men ; in the latter, the converse of this, the effect 
 of the spring sun upon the atmosphere, the sea and land, cities 
 and meadows, trees, flowers, birds and beasts, and finally upon 
 man. Many passages in these are almost startlingly modern 
 in delicacy and accuracy of observation, in the light with which 
 they are irradiated and the color with which they are imbued. 
 
 At the very close of our period printing was introduced into 
 the northern kingdom and the new literature was thus put 
 into wider circulation by Walter Chepman, a cloth-merchant of 
 Edinborough. Under the king's patronage, Chepman set up a 
 press in his house and furnished the capital, a junior partner, 
 Andrew Miller, who had learned the art in France, doing the 
 printing. In the autumn of the year 1507 they received a royal 
 
208 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 patent " to imprint books of laws, acts of parliament, chronicles, 
 mass-books and legends of Scotch saints, and all other books 
 that shall seem necessary." Poems, romances and ballads, in 
 the judgment of the shrewd partners, seemed evidently to 
 belong to the last class and issued from their press before the 
 heavier kind of literature specified in the patent. In 1508 the 
 first book printed in Scotland was put upon the market : it 
 comprised some popular romances of chivalry, the " Gest of 
 Robin Hood," the "Maying" of Chaucer, the "Golden Targe," 
 "Book of Good Counsel to the King," "Two Married Women 
 and the Widow," and "A Lament for the Makers" (/>., poets), 
 all by Dunbar, and the " Flyting " of Dunbar and Kennedy. 
 Then appeared a breviary, in parts, completed in the summer 
 of 1510; of other works that may have issued from Chepman's 
 press nothing is known. The defeat and death of James IV 
 at Flodden demoralized the nation: the light of literature paled 
 and a press could no longer be supported. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 209 
 
 VII. 
 
 WE now approach one of the mightiest periods in human 
 history the era pf the Reformation; an era crowded with 
 great characters and great events, confused with conflicting 
 aims ; it is at once one of the most tempting and difficult of 
 subjects, it seems inexhaustible, oceanic. 
 
 In the first half of the sixteenth century there appeared in 
 Europe a constellation of crowned heads, effulgent, almost ab- 
 solute in might and glory, foremost among them being Henry 
 VIII, Francis I, and Charles V. Off in the extreme south-west 
 reigned a most opulent king, John III of Portugal, the rich- 
 est sovereign in Europe, for his treasuries were filled with the 
 gold and silver of the Indies and his capital, Lisbon, which 
 had attracted to its capacious port the eastern trade formerly 
 enjoyed by the cities of Italy, was now become the principal 
 mart of the world. In the extreme north-east there rose a 
 strong and beneficent king, Gustavus Vasa founder of the 
 greatness of Sweden. All these monarchs were practically 
 absolute within their several dominions ; only among them- 
 selves was any effectual constraint put upon each other's power 
 and pretensions. The collapse of feudalism was complete. 
 
 The supreme political factors upon the continent of Europe 
 were four in number, and three of them were marshalled against 
 one the emperor Charles V. It is necessary to bear in mind 
 the tremendous power of Spain throughout this century: the 
 union of Castile and Aragon and the resulting conquest of 
 Granada had created a potent nationality cemented by a som- 
 bre religious enthusiasm, and Spain was suddenly lifted to 
 the first place in Europe. At the same time streams of pre- 
 cious metals poured in upon her from the new world but 
 
210 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 this was not an unalloyed blessing : the Spaniards came out of 
 the Middle Ages with a knightly contempt of labor, they got 
 gold by fighting, and it enervated the realm at last: the indus- 
 trial movement of the preceding generation, slight enough as it 
 was, subsided under the blight of the American conquests and 
 erelong ceased. For the time being, however, the strength 
 and influence of Spain were vast, sufficient of themselves to 
 give her young king a commanding position in the polity of 
 Europe. Charles was beside king of the Two Sicilies ; Aus- 
 tria and the Netherlands were in his domain ; in the year 1519 
 the crowns of Lombardy and the Empire were united upon his 
 brow : thus he had the whole continent in his grasp, his was 
 the widest sway since Charlemagne. 
 
 This prodigious power was a menace to the liberty, to the 
 very existence of the other states of Europe; Charles was more 
 dreaded than the pitiless Turk; Francis I made it his life- 
 work to struggle with him and with the cooperation of the 
 Protestant princes of Germany and of Suleiman II managed 
 to make head against him and to maintain a precarious bal- 
 ance of forces. Such were the four political factors of the 
 Reformation era. A singular spectacle ! a Catholic king of 
 France, German Protestants and a Turkish sultan forced into 
 combination against the power of Charles V. 
 
 The transition from feudalism was accomplished ; that from 
 mediaeval Catholicism was now in progress. It is commonly 
 taught that the Middle Ages came to an end with feudalism, 
 but that was only one and on the whole a lesser feature of 
 those ages ; while the mediaeval church yet stood, with its 
 system of education, morals and worship, its monasteries and 
 nunneries, cardinalate and papacy, it is erroneous to say that 
 the Middle Ages were over. That could not be said, either, 
 until their municipal life was extinct ; until the civic activity 
 of old, the freedom of the city republics of Italy, the power of 
 a great institution like the Hanseatic League had also passed 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 211 
 
 away. Never had the mediaeval church seemed more magnifi- 
 cent than in the first quarter of the sixteenth century under 
 the splendid pontificate of Leo X ; we can now see that its 
 institutions that then seemed impregnable were in reality but 
 hollow shells only needing a touch to crumble away. The 
 principal interest of the history of the first half of the century 
 lies in the mighty religious revolution that went forward despite 
 many checks in the north of Europe. It was a conflict of 
 north and south, of Teuton, Saxon, Norseman against 
 Roman, Celt and Frank, of the more moral against the 
 more ideal, of the English and German languages against 
 the universal Latin, of the ideas of Wyclif, Huss and the 
 Lollards against those of the succeeding age; and not of 
 Wyclif and Huss only but also of the reformers of a century 
 or two before their time : of the almost forgotten Waldenses, 
 of Friar Berthold and Robert of Lincoln. The historian would 
 err greatly who neglected the thought and work of those early 
 leaders of the reformation, of a strenuous evangelicalism that 
 was never totally extinguished throughout the Middle Ages 
 and that emerged with power at their close. And so we 
 behold a tremendous conflict waged over all Europe with 
 alternate failure and success between evangelical doctrine, 
 the Scriptures and preaching on the one hand, and on the 
 other the sacramental and sacerdotal system of the mediaeval 
 church. The tide of reform flowed and ebbed and flowed 
 again ; there were eager forward movements and violent reac- 
 tions : it was a giant oscillation that cradled a new world into 
 being and it went on with the greatest ease, evenness and 
 success under the strong hands of Henry VIII and Gustavus 
 Vasa. 
 
 In the capital of Christendom itself the faith of former time 
 was dead : skepticism was so general and daring that the fifth 
 Lateran council, held by Leo X, thought it expedient (to 
 Luther's great disgust) to promulgate anew the doctrine of 
 
212 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 the immortality of the soul against the philosopher Pompo- 
 nazzi, who had denied that it could be proved by reason or 
 out of the writings of Aristotle. From the same synod issued 
 a fresh assertion of papal supremacy and shortly, with almost 
 cynical disregard of the awakening conscience of Europe, 
 there was published by the Curia a greatly enlarged and scien- 
 tifically classified inventory of sins with the prices of accom- 
 panying pardons. Yet in the days of Leo X Italian humanism 
 put forth its consummate flower, not as winsome, fresh and 
 fragrant as in the time of Lorenzo his father, but full-blown 
 and gorgeous : rarely in the annals of mankind has there shone 
 such a galaxy of genius and talent as then graced the courts 
 of Rome, Florence, and Ferrara. Leo's secretary was the 
 cultivated and fastidious Bembo, who piqued himself on the 
 classic purity of his Latinity and the almost equal elegance 
 of his Italian style. He encouraged the use of the vernacular 
 by men of letters and gave them an example of refined rhetoric 
 in the elaborate discussion as to the nature of love held by 
 "gli Asolani." Of greater importance for universal literature 
 was the dramatic poet Gian-Giorgio Trissino : his tragedy of 
 " Sofonisba " achieved such conspicuous and instantaneous 
 success that it secured for its author the favorable notice of 
 the pope, who appointed him to be one of his ambassadors. 
 The work appeared in the year 1515: it was the first of its 
 kind in Italy that gave evidence of spontaneity of native 
 genius : there had been nothing before but feeble imitations 
 of the antique. As is natural in nascent drama, " Sofonisba " 
 is a tale of turgid passion couched in a style that is by com- 
 parison weak and frigid : it is full of long, studied and declama- 
 tory speeches : but its significance can be gauged by this, that 
 they are cast in blank verse. The origin of so important a 
 form is of such interest that Trissino's reasons for using it are 
 worth citing; in the dedication of his tragedy to Pope Leo he 
 explains that he uses Italian so as to be popularly understood 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 213 
 
 and blank verse because it is best suited to express emotion : 
 rhyme, which suggests careful thought, is not adapted for 
 emotional utterance, which as it is not must not seem studied : 
 moreover, blank verse has a certain dignity. This last remark 
 is weightier than it seems : there can be no doubt that the new 
 poetic medium originated in an endeavor to catch the effect of the 
 inimitable unrhymed measure of the ancients. And so Trissino 
 has the credit of having devised this simple, flexible and hence- 
 forth indispensable form one of the most precious legacies 
 of the Italian Renascence to modern literature. There is 
 evidence, however, that before him others were experimenting 
 in this line ; the credit of prior invention would seem to belong 
 to Giacomo Sannazaro, a Neapolitan, in the fourth eclogue 
 of his " Arcadia," published fully ten years before the " Sofo- 
 nisba," there occurs a considerable passage in blank verse. 
 The work is otherwise of importance, for it heads the list of 
 those classico-romantic pastorals that were exceedingly fashion- 
 able for many generations, pictures of an ideal country life 
 in the open air colloquies of Platonic shepherds and shep- 
 herdesses on mountain lawns or in flowery fields by running 
 streams under green boughs. 
 
 Giovanni Rucellai, a cousin of the pope and his ambassador 
 to the court of France, was the next distinguished writer to 
 employ blank verse, in a didactic poem of fifteen hundred 
 lines inspired by one of Virgil's Georgics, " Le Api "- " the 
 Bees." He also produced a tragedy, "Rosmunda," for his 
 cousin's entertainment. 
 
 Meanwhile in Florence the sinister Macchiavelli had just 
 published his manual of a portentous political science which 
 was yet nothing more than the practice of the rulers of Italy in 
 his day : they had succeeded in effecting a divorce of govern- 
 ment and morals quite as complete as that already achieved 
 between morals and religion. When a state has been con- 
 quered, says Macchiavelli, every scion of the reigning family 
 
214 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 should be killed off, or, if it has been accustomed to govern 
 itself, it should be effectually ruined and then garrisoned. 
 A successful usurper should establish his power by a general 
 massacre. A prince may abide by his engagements when 
 convenient ; he should seek a reputation for honor and talk 
 much of good faith ; he should also be accounted liberal and 
 to this end should be lavish of the possessions of his enemies 
 but scrupulous as to laying fresh taxes upon his people. 
 Macchiavelli breaks out in admiration and commendation of 
 the triumphant craft of Caesar Borgia : he was his political 
 paragon. A characteristic discussion is that as to whether 
 it is better for a ruler to be feared or loved ; the misanthrope 
 concludes that human nature is so changeable, selfish and 
 contemptible that it is better to be feared : punishment is the 
 surest means of control. 
 
 "The Prince" merely spoke out the open secret of all the 
 tyrants of Italy. When he had finished it Macchiavelli turned 
 to his profound " Discourses upon Titus Livius." 
 
 The greatest poet of the age flourished at the court of the 
 Estes at Ferrara. There in the last century, in his " Orlando 
 Innamorato," Bojardo had told over again the story of the 
 favorite hero of mediaeval romance in verse that was too rude 
 for a later, more refined generation. The subject was worked 
 over in a bright style by Francesco Berni, but the final and 
 incomparable version was Ariosto's. In the year 1516 appeared 
 forty cantos of his "Orlando Furioso"; six supplementary 
 cantos were added later ; the first complete edition was pub- 
 published at Ferrara in 1532. The following year the poet 
 died. 
 
 It is to be noted that the incidents, the theme of this great 
 poem the fury in love and warfare of Charlemagne's paladin, 
 Roland are thoroughly mediaeval ; though touched with the 
 finer taste, fancy and sensuousness of the Renascence it is 
 yet a tale of chivalry. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 215 
 
 This was the period of the utmost glory of Renascent art, 
 of the exquisite school of Milan under da Vinci, Luini and 
 Ferrari, the sumptuous school of Venice under Giorgione, 
 Palma and Titian, of Correggio at Parma, del Sarto and 
 the rest at Florence, and Bazzi at Siena; it was typed in the 
 magnificent reception that Pope Leo gave to the reconstructed 
 college of cardinals in apartments of the Vatican just decorated 
 by Raphael. But there was a spirit that deeply felt the differ- 
 ence between what was and what ought to have been, and in 
 the wonderful figure of " the Slave " the indignant Angelo 
 compressed the speechless agony of his great soul over the 
 enslavement of his native land. 
 
 His tutor Torrigiano spent several years in England making 
 the famous tomb of Henry VII and his queen that may be 
 seen in his fan-vaulted chapel at Westminster. Another Italian 
 artist named Benedetto was engaged by Wolsey to execute a 
 tomb for him at Windsor. 
 
 The gabled halls of Brasenose College at Oxford, begun in 
 the year 1512 (the year that Torrigiano arrived in London), 
 are interesting relics of the collegiate architecture of Henry 
 VIII's reign. At the same time the beautiful tower of Mag- 
 dalen was rising. The intellectual ambition of the time found 
 expression in many scholastic foundations : Margaret, Countess 
 of Richmond, mother of the late king, had just established two 
 colleges at Cambridge ; at Oxford, Bishop Fox began to build 
 Corpus Christi, Wolsey endowed a Greek lectureship, and in 
 1524 suppressed an old priory and erected Christ Church 
 upon its site. We have in this church a fine example of fan- 
 tracery vaulting ; English architecture was still Gothic and 
 mediaeval. 
 
 Scholasticism still cumbered the ground, but the vehement 
 efforts its partisans made to sustain it, their loud vociferations, 
 showed that the system was in its last stages. Feeling ran 
 high between the disciples of the old and the new learning ; 
 
216 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 the quiet cloisters of Oxford rang with their debates which 
 not seldom ended in blows. The old order was changing, 
 giving place to new. 
 
 One would have an inadequate idea of the age of Henry 
 VIII who did not perceive under its external brilliancy the 
 pathos that attends the decline and fall of great and once 
 beneficent institutions. A profound pathos invests the decay 
 of old ideals but God fulfils himself in many ways lest one 
 good custom outgrown should corrupt the world. And the grief 
 is generally forgotten in the midst of the magnificence of the 
 age. It was the last effulgence of mediaevalism the last 
 intense crimson and golden glow of the long mediaeval day. 
 But there was a light within that light ; the sunset of the 
 Middle Ages paled before the new sun of modern times, and 
 the color of the former half of Henry's reign faded out into 
 the broad white glare of the latter part. So it was with the 
 century : it began mediaeval, it ended modern. 
 
 We have in Henry VIII a striking illustration of the popular 
 belief that fathers transmit their peculiar qualities to their 
 daughters and mothers to their sons, for his character is 
 illuminated by reading into it that of his maternal grandfather. 
 With Edward IV we are already acquainted ; his daughter 
 Elizabeth (queen to Henry VII) inherited from him her fine 
 figure, beautiful countenance and engaging manners, and 
 transmitted them, together with his appetite for pleasure and 
 magnificence and most important of all his determined 
 will, to her son. Henry was seventeen years old when he 
 came to the throne and a burst of popular rejoicing, long pent 
 up under the severe represssion of his father's reign, greeted 
 the handsome young prince at his accession. His was certainly 
 an attractive, indeed a superior character. His physique was 
 fine and he was fond of all knightly exercises. He was a 
 good scholar, especially in languages, and had refined tastes 
 loved painting and music, which he practised a little himself ; 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 217 
 
 he composed some masses that were sung in his royal chapel. 
 He was moreover well instructed in mediaeval divinity and 
 polity and piqued himself somewhat upon his attainments in 
 that line ; he was an expert in theological discussion. The force 
 and fascination of his personality may be estimated by this, that 
 he retained, if not the early affection, at least the admiring awe 
 of his people all through his long reign of nearly forty years. 
 
 He was crowned with his queen, Catherine of Aragon, in 
 June, 1509, a few days before his eighteenth birthday. He 
 and his people were at one in their willingness to make a sharp 
 distinction between his and his father's administration : Empson 
 and Dudley, the instruments of the old king's rapacity, were 
 cast into the Tower and erelong beheaded, and his chancellor 
 and minister, Archbishop Warham, a man of mediocre talents 
 whom Henry never regarded with particular favor, was eclipsed 
 and at last edged out by Thomas Wolsey. 
 
 The young king hastened to waste the treasure so painfully 
 collected by his father in tournaments, splendid entertainments 
 and wars. He continued the time-worn, ancestral policy of 
 hostility to France, invaded that country in the summer of 
 1513, and achieved a glittering success in the Battle of Spurs. 
 The year following, however, perceiving that he was being 
 tricked by his father-in-law of Spain, he veered round, made 
 a peace with the French king which he cemented by the gift 
 of his sister Mary in marriage, and began a series of negotia- 
 tions that culminated in the pageantry of the Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold in the summer of 1520. His position was a 
 novel one for an English king ; in possession of a copious 
 treasure, at the head of an insular kingdom, strong, compact, 
 and happily freed from the burden and embarrassment of con- 
 tinental dependencies (which it was well that he could not 
 recover), Henry was able to play a distinguished part upon 
 the theatre of European diplomacy and to pose as an arbiter 
 between mighty opposites. 
 
218 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 In Wolsey the king found a minister after his own heart. 
 Of affable manners and splendid tastes, fond of architecture, 
 fine gardens, spectacles and shows, yet of extraordinary capacity 
 for public affairs, Wolsey was unique in English history in the 
 number of great offices that were heaped upon him in succes- 
 sive years. Beginning as royal chaplain and almoner, he was 
 summoned to the king's council, was appointed dean and then 
 bishop of Lincoln, and was almost immediately afterward 
 elevated to the archbishopric of York. The next year 1515 
 Pope Leo made him a cardinal at the king's own request 
 and the great seal of the chancellor, taken from Warham, was 
 conferred upon him. In 1517 the pope, still acting under 
 pressure from the king and as a special favor to him, invested 
 Wolsey with legislative powers over the English church. He 
 was now the lordliest, most magnificent prelate that England 
 had ever beheld, the final, full-blown type of an ecclesiastical 
 statesman of the Middle Age ; he held to the church the same 
 relation that the great earl of Warwick held to English feudalism. 
 And that very year Martin Luther posted his theses against 
 indulgences on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, a weighty motive of this accumula- 
 tion of high offices was a desire of reform : a feeling was 
 gaining ground that something must be done to reform the 
 corrupt church. Archbishop Warham had attempted the task 
 in a feeble way and found it too great for his powers ; he was 
 thrust aside and Wolsey was invested with unlimited power 
 over the church. For as papal legate he was superior to the 
 archbishop of Canterbury and moreover could do what no 
 bishop could he could inspect, control, suppress monasteries. 
 To effect a disciplinary reform of the clergy both regular and 
 secular such was in large measure the motive of these 
 combinations. 
 
 In the early years of the reign, in the midst of the jubilant 
 rebound from the repression of former years, Lollardy rose to 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 219 
 
 the surface ; prosecutions for heresy were renewed, the prin- 
 cipal point involved being transubstantiation ; in the year 
 1511 the movement excited general attention and alarm, 
 several Lollards were forced to recant, some preferred to 
 suffer death. 
 
 The Lollards of London flocked to hear the evangelical 
 preaching of the dean of Saint Paul's, John Colet altogether 
 the most significant character in the English church at that day. 
 He deplored schism and advocated a reform within the church : 
 his was a voice coming from within, like conscience, calling 
 upon the body to repent and when such warning voices die 
 unheeded the retribution and the only remedy is schism. His 
 prophetic, apostolic character was manifested in his self-denying 
 life and simple attire. The king respected and admired him 
 for with all his earnestness he was free from taint of fanaticism. 
 When the spread of heresy impelled the summoning of convo- 
 cation in the winter of 1512 Colet was chosen as preacher ; it 
 was the opportunity of his life and in a stirring sermon, in 
 Latin, he proclaimed the duty, the necessity of immediate 
 reform. He attributed to the evil lives of her ministers the 
 patent corruption of the church ; the impurity of priests, he 
 said, is the most grievous heresy. He took his text from the 
 twelfth chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans and 
 admonished the assembled bishops and clergy in fearless tones 
 not to be conformed to the world in pride of place, feasting 
 and pleasures of the senses, pursuit of rich benefices, worldly 
 business and distractions, but to be reformed to humility, 
 temperance, charity and a spiritual life. And the reform must 
 commence with those of highest station : the bishops should be 
 spiritually-minded men, clear of all simony, should reside in 
 their sees, abstain from everything unbecoming their high 
 office and carefully strain out unworthy applicants for orders : 
 thus the reformation would be extended to the priesthood and 
 through it finally to the people. 
 
220 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Colet's sermon made a deep impression ; it was translated 
 into English and purely practical though it was the bishop of 
 London brought against the preacher a charge of heresy ; he 
 was however protected by a powerful sympathizer the arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, and the year following was invited to 
 preach before the king. The whole country was looking 
 forward to the war with France upon which the king had set 
 his heart but Colet in the courage of his convictions con- 
 demned that war. The king's conscience was touched ; he 
 sent for the preacher and for more than an hour they conferred 
 together in the palace garden. From that hour none of Colet's 
 foes ventured to assail him. 
 
 A picturesque event was the pilgrimage that Colet and Eras- 
 mus took together a last pilgrimage to Canterbury. The two 
 friends found the relics exhibited, the mouldering rags and 
 bones, repulsive to a degree, and were completely convinced 
 of the inefficacy of pilgrimages as a means of salvation. 
 
 In the fall of 1515 the great preacher had an opportunity to 
 inculcate sound politics in the sermon he was asked to deliver 
 upon the occasion of Wolsey's installation as cardinal. His 
 friend More had just embodied a social ideal in his " Utopia." 
 The brightest minds of the day were much exercised over the 
 political and economic situation. 
 
 Colet's attitude toward the schoolmen was antagonistic : he 
 condemned Aquinas for having adulterated the simplicity of 
 the Gospel with philosophical refinements. Toward the new 
 learning upon its purely literary side he was no less hostile ; 
 he exhorted his hearers to shun pagan culture as a vain and 
 worldly thing and to beware of the books of heathen philoso- 
 phers unless they would become associates of demons. Herein 
 his Montanistic strain is revealed ; such a narrow and partial 
 outlook contrasts painfully with Erasmus's genial, catholic 
 suggestion : " Perhaps the spirit of God is shed abroad more 
 widely than we think." 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 221 
 
 Colet was a reformer and of too earnest a spirit to jest and 
 enjoy. His business was to call men back to the Bible, 
 especially to the writings of St. Paul, whom he esteemed as the 
 " wisest of men." He was uncompromising in his Augustinian- 
 ism : man is by nature evil, ignorant, utterly without the divine ; 
 the world is like the restless sea and men are as fish beneath 
 its surface, in a state of death and darkness, they have to be 
 drawn from it to see the light. In this body of ours, so vile, 
 dark and mortal, a pure, bright and deathless soul may yet 
 dwell. And God knew before those who should be fitted for 
 his mysteries, those who cleave less closely to this world ; 
 they are called and chosen out of the mass according to his 
 wise and holy will ; their minds are illumined by his presence, 
 their wills corrected. For the divine artificer moulds men as 
 wax, moves them as stones, and so constructs his church. 
 The thought of one Spirit in many persons is a favorite one 
 with Colet. 
 
 With such postulates as to our nature the union of the 
 divine and the human becomes a serious problem. Colet's 
 view of the Incarnation was that the iron of Christ's humanity 
 was attracted and upheld by his divinity as by a magnet. 
 
 His teaching on the subject of marriage proves that he still 
 belonged to the monastic age: marriage is God's condescension 
 to man's weakness ; it is not good in itself and is but the lesser 
 of two evils ; if one can do without it he ought to. " If only 
 all the faithful had remained chaste the heathen would have 
 supplied new material for the church, and when all the heathen 
 were converted the kingdom of God would have come, and if 
 all men had thus come to an end what end more desirable 
 to this pilgrimage ? But man's weakness delays Christ's 
 return ! " 
 
 In his project of a disciplinary reform within the church 
 Colet was ably and ardently seconded by Erasmus, who brought 
 to the cause a finer scholarship and a trenchant weapon of 
 
222 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 satire and gave the idea currency upon the continent. In his 
 " Praise of Folly " Erasmus launched out in unsparing satire 
 upon luxurious popes and bishops, lazy and ignorant monks 
 and friars and quibbling schoolmen nor did he fail to score, 
 in passing, those princes who careless of the public good sought 
 only their own pleasure. The book attained a European 
 circulation ; indeed, Erasmus recalls Petrarch by the dicta- 
 torial position he occupied in the republic of letters. In 1516 
 appeared his revision of the Greek text of the New Testament 
 a monument of critical scholarship. 
 
 A like reformatory movement was in progress in France 
 inspired by a like enthusiasm for Biblical studies. Lefevre 
 d' Staples, of the University of Paris, commented upon the 
 New Testament in the original, dwelling especially upon the 
 epistles of St. Paul, applied himself to amending the text of 
 the Vulgate and even ventured to translate the Gospels and 
 Pauline epistles into the vernacular. Conservative Spain too 
 felt the stir of the new Biblical scholarship : at the University 
 of Alcala, lately founded by the austere Cardinal Ximenez, and 
 under his patronage, the learned Lebrija got out a famous 
 polyglot edition of the Scriptures. 
 
 If Colet commanded the respect, more, the veneration of 
 rasmus, More drew forth his admiring affection and surely 
 
 is one of the most lovable characters in history. The subtle 
 blend of seriousness and humor that made him so winning 
 comes out in the "Utopia," in which deep thoughts far in 
 advance of the age are mingled with many a playful fancy. 
 The beings of that Platonic dream held that reasonable pleasure 
 is accordant with the will of God ; they therefore condemned 
 the ascetic life as cruel to one's self and thankless to the 
 Creator, as though one would not be indebted to him and 
 so refused all his gracious gifts. In Utopia was no persecution 
 for conscience' sake, for they held that a man cannot force his 
 religious beliefs and that various forms of worship might 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 223 
 
 proceed from the same God, who might inspire different men 
 different ways and be pleased with that variety. A novel 
 liberality ! It is a pity that More did not entrust the work to 
 his native language for it would then have enjoyed a wider and 
 longer circulation. His " History of Richard III " shows how 
 well he could write in English, though its style doubtless 
 because it was a first essay at historical composition is still 
 too much in bondage to Latin syntax. It is bright and interest- 
 ing reading and is set off with speeches in character, in the 
 manner of Thucydides, the argument of the queen-mother in 
 sanctuary at Westminster is acute and spirited. At the end of 
 the description of Jane Shore occurs the author's mournful 
 comment : " Men use, if they have an evil turn, to write it in 
 marble ; and whoso doth us a good turn we write it in dust." 
 
 In Germany the first tide of reformation was at flood in the 
 year 1520, when Luther, his thought having been clarified by 
 controversy, began to realize his spiritual kinship to Huss and 
 was forced, however reluctantly, to the conclusion that even 
 an ecumenical council might err. In his address to the Ger- 
 man nobility he assailed the papal supremacy and speedily 
 followed this by a thorough-going criticism of the . sacramental 
 system of the mediaeval church, to which he attributed her 
 various maladies and upon which the papal supremacy seemed 
 plainly to be based. He rejected all but three of the seven 
 sacraments and repudiated the dogma of transubstantiation. 
 
 The German knights put forth their last strength in behalf 
 of Luther's reform, and the union was symbolized by the 
 literary labors, the satires and ardent appeals of Ulrich von 
 Hutten, one of their noblest representatives. But upon the 
 threshold of the third decade of the century a marked reac- 
 tionary sentiment manifested itself and at the Diet of Worms 
 the ban of the empire was pronounced against Luther and his 
 adherents, his writings were burnt and all future dissemination 
 of his teaching was forbidden. Had the decree been enforced 
 
224 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 it would have gone very hard with him and the cause but the 
 fall of Belgrade into the power of the Turks that same year 
 created a timely diversion. In France the reaction attained 
 sufficient strength to drive d'fitaples from the kingdom and to 
 wring a retractation from his pupil and protector, the bishop 
 Bric.onnet. In England it was signalized by the entry of the 
 king into the lists of theological controversy ; by a " Defence 
 of the Seven Sacraments against Luther " he won from the 
 grateful Leo the title, " Defender of the Faith." In his book 
 Henry assumed perforce the position of bishop Pecock when 
 attacking the Lollards, namely, that much is lawful which is 
 not expressed in Scripture ; and in the judgment of the reac- 
 tionary party he achieved success. Whatever the effect of the 
 work may have been upon the continent, for England it was of 
 real moment, for in it Henry put himself on record as a devoted 
 Catholic and from that position he never receded. Having 
 once assumed it all his pride, all his obstinacy of will, not to 
 speak of his convictions, held him to it, and through life he 
 remained a consistent mediaeval Catholic in all that concerned 
 doctrine, a determined upholder of the dogma of transubstan- 
 tiation. So ow for several years reform languished ; Colet 
 was dead, and the only apparent use that Wolsey made of his 
 legatine commission was the suppression of a few monasteries. 
 Henry's book and Luther's reply in which he handled his 
 royal opponent pretty roughly had this important conse- 
 quence, that a decisive breach was thereby effected between 
 the great reformer and Erasmus. The latter cordially assented 
 to Henry's thesis ; their relations were otherwise of the friend- 
 liest; and Erasmus, scandalized by Luther's incivility, now 
 came out as a representative of the reaction. He examined 
 the reformer's writings, found the weak spot he sought in his 
 doctrine of predestination and published a severe animadver- 
 sion upon it. A truculent German monk named Murner 
 rushed into the fray in the king's behalf with a book bearing 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 225 
 
 the sensational title, "Is the King of England a Liar or is 
 Luther?" and his singular defence must have been gratify- 
 ing to Henry, for he invited him to visit England. 
 
 Murner was a universal satirist, sparing no class, no dignity, 
 equally bitter against the hierarchy of the old church, the 
 monks and friars, and the reformers. Such general discontent 
 is indicative of some deep-seated malady in the social frame. 
 A like raucous note was raised in England by John^ kelton T 
 who grew more abusive as he grew older and the times worse. 
 In the short, rattling lines of his "Colin Clout," running through 
 odd lists of rhymes, he rails at bishops, priests, friars, schoolmen, 
 Lollards and Lutherans ! His ire was especially excited by the 
 unprecedented grandeur of Cardinal Wolsey, to whose adminis- 
 tration he ascribed all the misfortunes of the reign. " Why 
 come ye not to Court ? " is a ferocious attack upon " linsey 
 Wolsey, who rules all the roost with bragging and boast, with 
 pomp and pride ; who nods and becks in the Star Chamber 
 and regards lords no more than potsherds, all the barons 
 fear the butcher's dog." This coarse personal satire so roused 
 the cardinal that its author had to flee from his vengeance to 
 Westminster sanctuary. 
 
 Skelton composed the best moral-play of the period 
 designed without doubt as a salutary warning to King Henry 
 VIII. It shows how Magnificence, seduced from Moderation 
 by Self-Will and Craft, loses both Liberty and Felicity and 
 becomes a prey to Adversity, Poverty and Despair; he is saved 
 by Hope, Redress, Circumspection and Perseverance, who 
 instruct him in genuine mediaeval fashion as to the mutability 
 of things. 
 
 In "The Manner of the World nowadays" Skelton probed 
 many a social sore spot of the age. (He always had a curious 
 taste for mortality, the grotesque, and the loathsome.) " So 
 many good sermons and so few devotions saw I never; so well 
 apparelled wives and so ill of their lives widows so soon wed 
 
226 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 after their husbands are dead, so proud and so gay, so rich 
 in array and so scant of money, saw I never; so many places 
 untilled, so many beggars, such increase of thieves, all 
 England decays." This pessimistic outcry in which we catch 
 clear echoes of Piers Plowman of old had only too much 
 reason in the existing frame of things. The kingdom was in a 
 deplorable economic condition. The mediaeval system of 
 cultivation by which a farm was divided into three fields, 
 one growing wheat, another beans or peas, while the third lay 
 fallow was fast wearing out. Food was dear ; the prices of 
 wheat, pork and poultry doubled during the middle of the 
 reign. As the profit on English wool was high the passion for 
 sheep-farming continued and was shared by both spiritual and 
 temporal lords ; lands were enclosed, small farms were blotted 
 out and holdings grew ever more extensive. The evicted 
 tenants flocked to the towns where they helped to swell the 
 pauper and criminal classes. As villages were deserted their 
 churches fell into disrepair and were used as folds for the sheep 
 that pastured in the burial grounds. The whole Isle of Wight 
 was turned into a vast sheep run. In the cities poverty and 
 suffering were great and general ; the streets were filthy, the 
 houses unventilated and noisome ; the old-time guilds that 
 controlled labor and its materials were rapidly declining, manu- 
 factures decayed, and there were constant complaints of 
 trickeries practised in trade of light weights, small measures 
 and adulterations. The divorce of ethics and economics was 
 as marked as that of ethics and politics, or religion. And when 
 the hard struggle for subsistence was made harder by heavy 
 taxation and a forced loan to build the king's ships and carry 
 on his wars the popular discontent came near exploding in an 
 armed insurrection. 
 
 War had been declared with France for the political and 
 military corollary of the religious reaction was a drawing away 
 from the French toward a Spanish alliance. Of this war there 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 227 
 
 remains a literary memorial of worth, for the king, wishing to 
 kindle the enthusiasm of his subjects by reviving the recollec- 
 tion of the great deeds of their forefathers in the glorious wars 
 of old, gave Lord Berners as a task the translation into English 
 of Froissart's Chronicle a task which he accomplished with 
 much graphic power. The emperor attached Wolsey to his 
 cause by holding out to him a golden lure the popedom, 
 in the attainment of which summit of his ambition he promised 
 to use all his influence over the college of cardinals. Charles 
 and Henry now entered into a nefarious confederacy to parti- 
 tion France ; Henry was to revive his obsolete claims to the 
 crown of that country and in the division was to have its 
 western half. But the emperor never intended to lend his 
 power to the aggrandizement of his ally's, and after the terrible 
 defeat of the French at Pavia and the capture of their king, 
 Charles made his own terms with him in utter disregard of 
 Henry and let him go. He had just shown how lightly he 
 regarded his compact with Wolsey by permitting a scion of the 
 Medici family to be raised to the papal chair as Clement VII. 
 If Wolsey in his resentment now put it into the king's head (as 
 Catherine always supposed) to offer a mortal insult to the 
 emperor by repudiating his queen, Charles's aunt, he bitterly 
 atoned for it later, for that troublous divorce was the rock on 
 which all his hopes were wrecked. Catherine was several years 
 older than the king; all their children had died in infancy save 
 Mary, now a sickly child of some ten summers ; and Henry 
 interpreted their loss as a divine judgment upon him for having 
 married his brother's widow. His longing was for a male heir ; 
 it was impossible for men to see clearly then how far removed 
 England was from any danger of a return to the distressful 
 condition of the Wars of the Roses ; Henry really dreaded 
 another succession war and thought it essential to his dynasty 
 and the welfare of the kingdom that he should have a son, 
 and Wolsey was commissioned to negotiate a divorce, which 
 
228 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 implied a revocation of the papal dispensation for the marriage. 
 The matter first bruited in the year 1526 was a conse- 
 quence of the breach with the emperor already determined on. 
 Copies of William Tyndale's version of the New Testament, 
 just printed at Cologne, were burnt in London that year and it 
 was forbidden to bring others into the kingdom. In Scotland 
 a distinguished martyr to the reformed opinions was found in 
 the young Patrick Hamilton but his death at the stake 
 marked the culmination of the reaction : its force was now 
 spent and combinations favorable to renewed progress were 
 forming. In Germany the Lutheran princes leagued together 
 and at the Diet of Speyer secured the right of administering 
 religious affairs in their respective dominions. This result was 
 achieved through the emperor's alarm at a fresh irruption of 
 the Turks; by their terrible victory at Mohacz the ancient 
 Catholic kingdom of Hungary was annihilated : the king and 
 his principal lords fell on the field of battle and a famous 
 mediaeval state, which had been a bulwark of civilization 
 against the Turks for more than a hundred years, came to an 
 end, losing its independence. The following year, 1527, the 
 reformation was carried out in Sweden by Gustavus Vasa, who 
 met the churchmen in diet at Westerns and bade them choose 
 between him and the pope. Henry and Francis, scandalized 
 at the sack of Rome by the imperial forces, consummated a 
 treaty that paved the way for an onward march of reform in 
 their dominions. It was of no avail to Wolsey that he obtained 
 a bull from Clement VII authorizing the suppression of some 
 more monasteries : that trifling measure could not avert the 
 great catastrophe: he could not arrange the divorce and he 
 felt that he was doomed. As a prince of the church his lot 
 was cast with Rome ; the question lay between a text in 
 Leviticus and a papal dispensation which he could not but 
 believe to be valid; he did his best to please the king, 
 failed, and was banished from the court Henry seized his 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 229 
 
 palace of York-place (Wolsey had before presented him with 
 his other palace of Hampton Court) and ordered him to retire 
 to his archbishopric. But his enemies were not satisfied with 
 his fall from power ; they wanted his life ; and in the autumn 
 of 1530 they prevailed upon the king to summon him to 
 London on a charge of high treason. The old cardinal, broken 
 down, that is, in body and spirit, though not old in years, 
 started to obey the king's command but was prostrated upon 
 the journey; at an abbey by the road he took to the bed from 
 which he never rose again, and with him mediaeval ecclesi- 
 asticism expired in England. 
 
 A new set of characters appeared upon the stage : Thomas 
 Cromwell, formerly one of Wolsey's servants, destined to be 
 for the next ten years the minister of the most absolute mon- 
 archy that England had ever known ; Thomas Cranmer, who 
 had suggested an appeal to the universities of Europe concern- 
 ing the divorce case and who was shortly to be made arch- 
 bishop upon the death of Warham ; and Anne Boleyji, who had 
 some time since supplanted her mistress, Queen Catherine, in 
 the king's affections and was soon to replace her upon the 
 throne. Interest led her to ally herself with the reformers. 
 
 In 1531 came the humiliation of the clergy, who were forced 
 to pay an enormous sum to obtain Henry's pardon for having 
 submitted to that legatine authority of Wolsey which he himself 
 had procured. Convocation, overawed, passed a resolution 
 that the king was supreme head of the church of England. In 
 1533 he was married to Anne Boleyn, and Cranmer, now arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, adjudged the marriage with Catherine to 
 have been invalid. It was a triumph of the Protestant prin- 
 ciple of appeal to Scripture as against the authority of a pope. 
 The new queen was now crowned with sumptuous ceremony 
 and in September gave birth to a daughter who was named 
 Elizabeth. In 1534 the obsequious parliament, echoing the 
 definition of the terrified convocation, declared the king su- 
 
230 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 preme head on earth of the church of England. This royal 
 supremacy was precisely analogous to the principle lately 
 established at Speyer. 
 
 While these events were transpiring in England the pros- 
 pects of Protestantism were brightening upon the continent as 
 well. The Augsburg Confession was followed by the League 
 of Schmalcald, by which the Lutheran princes opposed a firm 
 front to the emperor, and in 1532 Suleiman and his Turks 
 appeared before the walls of Vienna. Charles was compelled 
 to reconcile himself to the Protestant princes and signed with 
 them the religious peace of Nuremberg by which he granted 
 them free exercise of their religion within their own territories. 
 A prosperous period ensued : state after state joined the 
 Protestant cause, Wiirtemberg in 1534, Brandenburg and 
 Saxony in 1539 : by the latter year Bavaria was the solitary 
 principality in Germany that remained solidly Catholic. 
 
 In France the reformers enjoyed the sympathy of the king's 
 sister, Margaret, queen of Navarre. Francis too favored them 
 at first, willing to use them as instruments against his rival the 
 emperor, but by the year 1535 he began to feel anxious at the 
 progress that reformed ideas were making in his kingdom; 
 some of their representatives moreover were either fanatical 
 or were falsely accused of having posted some daring placards 
 that appeared upon the walls of Paris, even upon the king's 
 palace doors; several persons were arrested therefore and 
 burnt at the stake. And yet Francis concluded that year an 
 alliance with the Turkish sultan, subordinating religion to 
 policy. At the same time that he was allied with the infidel 
 he was burning reformers in Paris and encouraging them in 
 Germany. 
 
 News of these martyrdoms came to John Calvin in his retreat 
 at Basel and he began forthwith his master-work, the " Chris- 
 tian Institution," in which he regarded the whole circle of 
 Christian doctrine from the point of view of justification by 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 231 
 
 faith: the result was a clear, logical, severely systematic 
 treatise. He composed it in Latin and soon translated it into 
 French for the benefit of a larger public. Luther had recently 
 completed his translation of the Bible into German and an 
 Italian version had appeared at Venice, the work of Brucioli, a 
 capable Greek and Hebrew scholar. Cultivation of the popu- 
 lar speech was everywhere a feature of the Reformation. 
 
 The most eminent Hebraist in England was Robert Wake- 
 field, for whom a lectureship in Hebrew was founded at Oxford. 
 In 1535 the king commanded that Greek should be taught in 
 all the colleges there, and this definitive triumph of the new 
 learning was celebrated by the students by a general immola- 
 tion of the works of the schoolmen. But Henry did to death 
 that year the new learning's fairest representative, Sir Thomas 
 More. He fell a sacrifice to the royal supremacy in religious 
 matters, and the following year the king got Tyndale burnt at 
 Antwerp as a sacrifice to the mass. Such was the policy, as 
 tortuous as that of Francis I, by which Henry daunted his 
 subjects. 
 
 The monasteries represented the ancient polity in an especial 
 manner and consequently the tide of reform as it rose was 
 bound to break about those old institutions ; with the collapse 
 of papal authority they too were doomed. In 1536 Henry 
 caused his submissive parliament to institute a commission of 
 inquiry into the state of the monasteries and in consequence 
 of their report nearly four hundred were suppressed. In 1537, 
 to make relic-worship more ridiculous, the frauds perpetrated 
 at various shrines were exposed ; Becket was declared a traitor, 
 his ashes were cast out, his shrine was demolished and two 
 great chests full of jewels from it escheated to the Ipng. In 
 1538 it was ordered that throughout England every statue that 
 had been worshipped should be pulled down. And now the 
 turn of the remaining and greater monasteries came and the 
 pope, out of all patience, published the bull of excommunication 
 
232 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 that he had ready some years before but had delayed at the 
 entreaty of Henry's ally, the king of France. 
 
 One who looks into the literature of those ten years must be 
 amazed to note the awe approaching adoration in which the 
 English held their king. He made, interpreted and executed 
 laws to suit himself ; parliament and bench were as putty be- 
 tween his fingers; although for form's sake he made use of 
 his subservient parliament it came at last to this, that his procla- 
 mations had the force of law. He was invested with the attri- 
 butes of the highest secular and ecclesiastical authority and to 
 the majority of his subjects he appeared as a kind of earthly 
 divinity. Never has the doctrine of regal irresponsibility been 
 more boldly expressed than by William Tyndale, the spokesman 
 of that iconoclastic decade : " The king is in this world without 
 law and may at his lust do right or wrong and shall give ac- 
 count but to God only." This apotheosis of earthly sovereignty 
 sprang from the thought of the divine, upon which it was 
 grounded, of which it was the visible analogue. Tyndale clear- 
 ly reveals the connection : God is absolute, inscrutable : we 
 may not ask why he saves one and not another ; " God hath 
 power over all his creatures of right, to do with them what he 
 list; he will be feared and not have his secret judgments 
 known." And God rules the world through kings : " he that 
 resisteth the king resisteth God " ; even an evil king is a bene- 
 fit of God, for " it is better to suffer one tyrant than many." 
 Such is the passive " Obedience of a Christian Man " incul- 
 cated by this Protestant Macchiavelli, and his defence is that 
 only so could the yoke of Rome be broken. 
 
 In Tyndale the English Protestant appears in plain colors. 
 He was a disciple of Colet but his radicalism registers the rise 
 of the tide of reform far above the limits his master would have 
 assigned. He disparaged sacraments, ceremonies, consecrated 
 buildings ; of the first he rejected all but two, baptism and the 
 Lord's supper and the latter he defined as a memorial of 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 233 
 
 Christ's everlasting sacrifice but not itself a sacrifice. Confir- 
 mation he declared to be "a dumb ceremony " reserved by 
 bishops to increase their power but "the wagging of a 
 bishop's hand is not blessing." In like manner he ridiculed 
 auricular confession, pilgrimage, saint-worship and priestly 
 celibacy. The spirit that razed Gothic shrines and shattered 
 statues comes to light in his dictum, God is in all places alike : 
 what careth he for the temple ? " The temple wherein God 
 will be worshipped is the heart of man " and no place is holier 
 than any other. God's absoluteness, man's nothingness were 
 the poles of his thought. Original sin he defined as birth 
 poison remaining in all men in this life ; the freedom of the 
 will and the gospel of works seemed to him the most odious 
 heresy. "That faith only before all works and without all 
 merits but Christ's only justifieth, is proved by Paul"; that 
 the outward deed justifies and makes holy is the error of "the 
 pope's sect." He vindicated his translation of the Bible ; the 
 papists, to quench the light, call it impossible, unlawful, hereti- 
 cal to translate the scriptures but "will ye resist God? 
 Hath he not made the English tongue ? Why forbid ye him 
 to speak in the English tongue then as well as in the Latin ? " 
 He charged his opponents with wresting Holy Scripture from 
 its plain meaning by their doctrine of multiple senses and alle- 
 gorical interpretation, whereas " it hath but one simple, literal 
 sense," and brushed aside the old and common argument 
 about its difficulty: "a man without the spirit of Aristotle may 
 by the Spirit of God understand Scripture." His fling at the 
 light literature of the day is characteristic, Puritanic: "the priests 
 permit the reading of Robin Hood, Bevis of Hampton, Hercules, 
 Hector and Troilus, with a thousand histories and fables of 
 love and wantonness and of ribaldry as filthy as heart can 
 think, to corrupt the minds of youth withal, clean contrary to 
 the doctrine of Christ and his apostles." He magnified preach- 
 ing as the great duty of churchmen and defended it from the 
 
234 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 charge that it was accountable for grave public disorders : not 
 preaching the gospel but the evil life of ecclesiastics causes dis- 
 obedience and insurrection. Wyclif is justified : " he preached 
 repentance unto our fathers not long since, and they repented 
 not. What followed ? the French and civil wars that made 
 the land a wilderness." Such was his prophetic philosophy of 
 history. His practical teaching is of interest. He sought to 
 recall the daily and economic life of man to its moral and 
 religious basis : " Let every man of whatsoever craft, whether 
 brewer, baker, tailor, victualler, merchant or husbandman serve 
 his brethren as he would do Christ himself, and so his occupa- 
 tion pleaseth God." All occupations, either washing of dishes 
 or preaching the word, are alike if done with the spirit of God. 
 His teaching concerning the family is marked by a curious 
 contradiction : all generation, all life is of God, he says, 
 and in the next breath bids children remember that they are 
 their parents' good and possession (a piece of bad logic from 
 which has ever sprung most of the misery of the world). A 
 child should dread its parents for "when they are angry 
 with thee God is angry with thee and his vengeance will not 
 depart from the disobedient till they be murdered, drowned or 
 hanged. The marriage of children pertaineth unto their elders " 
 by the fifth commandment a truism then, yet one to which 
 all romance gives the lie. "The husband is to the wife in 
 God's stead" and the master to the servant: "his command- 
 ments are God's." All heads up therefore in marital and 
 paternal absolutism the analogue in the family to the regal 
 in the state and the divine in heaven. By a contradiction 
 similar to the above Tyndale bids his autocratic king remember 
 that the people are God's and not his. 
 
 Thomas Starkey, sometime Henry's chaplain and intermedi- 
 ary between him and his relative, Reginald Pole, reflects 
 the king-worship of the hour. He wrote an apology for the 
 royal supremacy and the king's second marriage for in 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 235 
 
 saying " My kingdom is not of this world " Christ designed to 
 leave all such things to the governance of man and worldly 
 policy ! This exegesis did not convince Pole ; he sent his 
 kinsman an insulting book upon the points in dispute, identi- 
 fied his interest with that of the papacy, visited Rome and was 
 raised to the cardinalate. It was a terrible blow to his agent 
 Starkey, to whom it was "great grief if the king should not be 
 good lord to him and gracious." His disgrace begot in him a 
 "contempt for this life and its vain pleasures." To recover 
 favor he wrote and dedicated to Henry an imaginary but 
 instructive " Dialogue " between Pole and a royalist named 
 Thomas Lupset, one of Colet's pupils. It treats in an interest- 
 ing manner of the origin of civil life and of existing economic 
 evils. Pole, it would appear, was a determinist in his psychol- 
 ogy : " the mind of man first of itself is as a clean and pure 
 table " and will is as opinion is. He advances the anarchic 
 postulate that for years men lived without a prince or a common 
 council and that life was then more virtuous, more accordant 
 with the dignity of human nature than it is under the existing 
 social order. He prefers a country to a city life "I had 
 rather live in the wild forest." Lupset replies that civil life is 
 grounded in man's better nature and is therefore truly natural ; 
 that cities are " stars upon earth " and that instead of abandon- 
 ing them and returning to barbarism one should study how to 
 remove their imperfections. Pole declares for elective mon- 
 archy : Lupset regards hereditary succession as a safeguard 
 against civil war. The prince is the heart of the social order ; 
 from the heart all life and wisdom spring ; and now is the time 
 to labor for the state while we have " so noble a prince ; never 
 prince had more fervent love to the wealth of his subjects than 
 hath he." True, in a sense not intended ! 
 
 Starkey had a relish for proverbial philosophy : " Matters 
 be ended as they be friended ; many eyes see better than one ; 
 it is easier to spy two faults than amend one ; he was never 
 
236 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 good master that never was scholar, nor never good captain 
 that never was soldier," are some of the sayings embodied in 
 the dialogue. 
 
 With so excellent a prince it is a marvel that the condition 
 of society continued as bad as ever ! Both disputants agree 
 that England is in a bad way ; castles and towns are dilapi- 
 dated, lands lie waste, poverty is increasing and population 
 declines while beggars grow more numerous. This gloomy 
 picture is corroborated by Elyot : " What an infinite number 
 of English men and women at this present time wander in all 
 places throughout this realm as beasts brute and savage 
 abandoning all occupation, service and honesty ! " Starkey 
 complains of the oppressive number of priests, canons, monks 
 and friars ; lawyers, those ' cormorants,' are out of all propor- 
 tion to the number of artisans and farmers ; bishops care only 
 for the wool of their flock and ape the secular lords ; common- 
 ers too seek to imitate lords in their expense and show. The 
 conclusion arrived at is that a remedy for these ills is to be 
 sought in encouraging marriage : priests should be allowed to 
 marry, bachelors should be well taxed and poor men with five 
 children exempted from taxation. For the due repair of decay- 
 ing towns and the health of the citizens the old office of edile 
 should be revived. The general idleness might be corrected 
 by instruction in manual arts and more and better schools 
 should be established. 
 
 The earnest mind of Sir-Thoirias_Elyot was equally exercised 
 over the political situation and he preceded Starkey in sug- 
 gesting a better method of education as a specific. He was 
 one of the most learned men of the reign, an ardent friend 
 and admirer of More's and a servant of the king on diplomatic 
 embassies. In 1531 appeared his " Governor " an ideal of 
 culture for an English youth destined to public office. From 
 the unity of the supreme ruler Elyot, like Tyndale, derives his 
 correspondent earthly monarchy : aristocracy and democracy, 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 237 
 
 he avers, are ever subject to division and discord : by examples 
 drawn from Scripture and the experience of Greece, Rome 
 and several Italian states he unfolds his philosophy of history. 
 In a single sentence he couches the apology of that revolu- 
 tionary decade : " From God only proceedeth all honor and 
 neither noble progeny, succession nor election be of such 
 force that by them any estate or dignity may be so established 
 that God being stirred to vengeance shall not shortly resume 
 it and perchance translate it where it shall like him." 
 
 The " education of a gentleman " who is to serve his king 
 as a lesser " governor " or magistrate should begin in infancy. 
 He should hear no coarse word but only pure English and 
 Latin, which may be made familiar to him from his earliest 
 years. The refining influence of music is not to be forgotten ; 
 it is a solace and a pleasant science and was so regarded by 
 the ancients. If the child is inclined to paint or form images 
 in stone or "tree," he should be encouraged contempt of 
 art and artists suppresses genius and so we have to apply to 
 strangers when we would have anything painted or carved. 
 The boy's tutor should be selected with care, for an ignorant 
 and cruel master dulls wits as daily experience shows. 
 (Children suffered untold misery at their teachers' hands in 
 those days.) While learning Greek the little student is to con- 
 verse in Latin, and he should begin to read authors before 
 he gets wearied of the grammar, which should serve simply as 
 an introduction to literature. It is good to commit to memory 
 and to practise verse-composition. At fourteen years the lad 
 should have read Homer and Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Lucan, 
 Hesiod and selections from other classics ; he may then take 
 up logic and rhetoric, and geography as a preparation for 
 history which, with poetry, stimulates courage. Elyot defends 
 poetry ; much may be learned, he says, even from comedies. 
 At seventeen years the youth should learn to restrain his ardor 
 by reason and philosophy especially that branch called 
 
238 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 moral: now he may study Aristotle, Cicero and above all 
 Plato. To make the physical frame strong and supple, wrest- 
 ling and running are recommended by the example of the 
 ancients ; swimming is good though it be not of much repute 
 now ; sword-play and battle-axe afford good exercise, hunting 
 and hawking give one an appetite for supper. "All dancing 
 is not repugnant unto virtue "; it may be a noble and virtuous 
 pastime and should be turned to account in gentle education. 
 The mixed dance signifies matrimony and that is a sacra- 
 ment. Among other amusements and exercises Elyot dissuades 
 from dice as an invention of the devil ; cards are not so bad 
 but chess is best of all. " Shooting with the bow " is highly 
 commended, but ten-pins, quoit-throwing and foot-ball are 
 proscribed the last because of the "beastly fury and vio- 
 lence " it excites and the danger of strain incurred. 
 
 So far the training of the youth ; the second part of the 
 work treats of the virtues which one in authority should prac- 
 tise, of his apparel and his dwelling. He should be affable, 
 benevolent, liberal. A forcible sentence dissuades from anger 
 that hideous passion : " who, beholding a man by fury 
 changed into an horrible figure, his face infarced [swollen] 
 with rancor, his mouth foul and imbossed [frothy], his eyne 
 wide staring, not speaking, but as a wild bull roaring and 
 braying out words despiteful and venomous, forgetting his 
 estate or condition, forgetting learning, yea, forgetting all 
 reason, will not have such a passion in extreme detestation ? " 
 (Such a spectacle, one might suppose, should cure the beholder 
 and the shame consequent on the exhibition the offender of 
 any disposition to fly into a like rage or commit a repetition of 
 such a scene.) 
 
 A magistrate's house should have its walls adorned with 
 arras, painted panels and figures representing famous deeds 
 and persons, and the board should be set out with plate and 
 vessels engraved with histories or wise sentences. The duty 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 239 
 
 of decorating churches inspired what is perhaps the most glow- 
 ing sentence in the work ; " These material churches where- 
 unto repaireth the congregation of Christian people, in the 
 which is the corporal presence of the Son of God and very God, 
 ought to be pure, clean and well adorned, as the heaven visible 
 is most pleasantly garnished with planets and stars resplen- 
 dishing in the most pure firmament of azure color." 
 
 Eljot was the type of a cultivated, Catholic humanist of the 
 latter half of the reign of Henry VIII. He was overpowered 
 by the wealth and authority of classic literature ; among his 
 numberless examples drawn therefrom, his constant reference 
 to ancient authors, we long for more nervous, original thought. 
 He remains nevertheless (perhaps we ought to say therefore) 
 a typical Englishman of the Renascence. 
 
 At the court John Heywood made merriment by his witty 
 talk and song, epigrams and light dramatic pieces. He had 
 been recommended by Sir Thomas More to the young princess 
 Mary. In his dialogue of "The Pardoner and the Friar" 
 written before the breach with Rome we are transported even 
 to Chaucer's day ; the atmosphere is still mediaeval. The 
 two sinners strive to outdo each other in popular favor ; the 
 pardoner vaunts his power to absolve from every sin and the 
 miraculous efficacy of his relics, while the friar celebrates the 
 good deeds of his order ; they preach at each other in alternate 
 lines, work themselves into a passion and finally come to 
 blows. In " John the Husband, Tyb the Wife, and Sir John 
 the Priest " the woes of a henpecked husband are set forth, 
 the ill usage he sustains at the hands of a faithless wife and 
 a profligate priest, but the brightest of Heywood's pieces is 
 " The Four P's." A palmer, a pardoner, a 'pothecary and a 
 pedlar rival each other in telling monstrous stories : at the last 
 the palmer avers that he never saw a woman out of patience in 
 his life : the others, agape, profess that he has won, for that is 
 the greatest lie of all. 
 
240 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 John Bale, a zealous partisan of the Reformation, composed 
 mysteries and interludes, but for the best dramatic relic of 
 the day the best morality, perhaps, ever written in Britain 
 we have to cross once more the Scottish border. Owing to the 
 treaty with France there was relative peace between England 
 and Scotland, and at the court of the young king, James V, 
 we discern a transient blush of letters and arts, a touch of 
 renascent scholarship, a freedom of thought and speech, a 
 moment of gayety that recall the palmier time before Flodden. 
 Among the scholars at the court was John Bellenden, whose 
 version of Boece's Latin history of Scotland so pleased the 
 king that he commissioned him to turn the work of Livy 
 into the popular dialect. In 1537 James concluded a romantic 
 courtship by bringing home from France the delicate young 
 princess Madeleine as his bride and in her train there came 
 a page named Pierre Ronsard. The poor girl lived only a 
 few weeks after her arrival in the north, dying before she could 
 be crowned and Sir David Lindsay gave expression to the 
 general sorrow in a poetical lament. He had been the king's 
 preceptor and it was he who wrote the moral-play mentioned 
 above. It is entitled "A pleasant Satire of the Three Estates" 
 
 the spiritual and temporal lords, that is, and the burgesses 
 
 but the first of these had to bear the brunt of the satire 
 which can hardly have been " pleasant " to them : and the first 
 part of the play was designed as a lesson for the king a 
 warning and rebuke of his sensual propensities. King Humanity 
 desires to rule his realm well but is tempted by Wantonness to 
 yield to Sensuality ; good Counsel comes to recover him, to the 
 alarm of Flattery and Falsehood, who disguise themselves as 
 friars, change their names to Devotion and Wisdom, beguile 
 the king and drive Counsel away. Now Truth appears and 
 is accused to the bishops of having an English Testament in her 
 hand: an abbot advises a charge of heresy and summary ban- 
 ishment, but for the present she is put in the stocks. Chastity 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 241 
 
 next seeks to save the king but Sensuality bids him choose 
 between them and he banishes Chastity on pain of death. But 
 now Correction who has been reforming the rest of Christen- 
 dom arrives in Scotland: Flattery robs the king and runs away: 
 Correction looses and recalls Counsel, Truth and Chastity and 
 drives away Sensuality who takes refuge with the bishops and 
 abbots. 
 
 The play was enacted before the court at Linlithgow palace 
 in the year 1540. Lindsay used a plainness of speech that is 
 an extraordinary revelation of the manners of the day. It 
 speaks well for the king that he took his old tutor's remon- 
 strances in good part: and without his protection Lindsay 
 could hardly have ventured upon such bold criticism of the 
 higher clergy. He illumines for us the ghastly abyss of corrup- 
 tion the surface of which the common histories skim with 
 euphemistic, deceptive propriety. The gross sensuality of the 
 decaying church is his dominant theme : " the Roman church 
 is the lamp of lechery : the cardinals and bishops have banished 
 chastity from Rome. Most of the prelates of this nation have 
 concubines some have three. The marriage of the clergy is 
 criminal, is irksome, but a change of concubines innocent and 
 pleasant." And the biting satire was irrefutable, so extreme 
 was the moral dissolution finally induced by monastic restraint 
 upon natural instinct and a canonical impediment to a lawful 
 connection. And his clerical associates, counsellors and con- 
 science-keepers connived at if they did not actually encourage 
 the young king in his loose way of life. Such were the morals 
 of the parties that combined to suppress the reformation in 
 Scotland and the corruption and tyranny of the Scottish 
 episcopate is the sufficient explanation of the force that presby- 
 terianism there acquired. 
 
 In the latter part of the satire which recounts the oppres- 
 sion of John Commonweal whose money is drained Romeward 
 occur some quaint touches: a pardoner just from Rome finds 
 
242 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 his traffic diminishing and curses the New Testament, Luther 
 and St. Paul as the cause ; and the spiritual lords agree that 
 "it had been good that Paul had ne'er been born! " 
 
 Among Lindsay's shorter poems is a remorseless exposure 
 of the immoral suggestions of the confessional and the frivolous 
 and mercenary nature of the penances prescribed. In his 
 " Answer to the King's Flyting " he scores his royal pupil's 
 profligacy in downright terms. In other coarse but clever 
 verses he ridicules a passing fashion in ladies' dress and his 
 " Justing between Watson and Barbour " is a satire with a 
 double edge ; it is a lampoon upon the professors of medicine 
 and a Rabelaisian caricature of the courtly entertainment of 
 the tournament and when a once honored institution becomes 
 a subject for jest and burlesque its end is near. 
 
 The best known by far, the most read and loved to-day of 
 all the writers of the reign of Henry VIII are the poet friends 
 Wyatt and Surrey ; to them belongs the credit of having intro- 
 duced the sonnet and blank verse into English literature. 
 Wyatt was of the more masculine genius. Of his sonnets the 
 octave is correct, Petrarchian ; the sestet is composed of an 
 ordinary or inverted quatrain and a couplet. In one experj- 
 ment there are only three rhymes, two running alternately 
 through twelve lines, the third forming the terminal couplet. 
 He also composed rondeaux, songs, epigrams etc. in a single 
 Chaucerian stanza or Boccaccian octave, and satires in the 
 rhyming system of Dante's Divine Comedy. So deeply was 
 his genius swayed by Italian influence, though French too was 
 not wanting. His verse is analytical, reflective, its subject 
 is the passion of love. One pretty sonnet the crystalline 
 form is singularly adapted to contain distilled emotion tells 
 of the signs of love ; another, of a dream that he had his love 
 in possession ; another describes the lover's woful state, now 
 freezing, now burning his life is compared to a ship tossed 
 at sea and again to the Alps. There is scant observation of 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 243 
 
 external nature in these poems: love is compared to a tiger, a 
 stream, fire, wind, the sea, but there is no landscape, no 
 picture; external objects are introduced in a frigid, merely 
 decorative way. He complains of his mistress' cruelty and 
 his own lack of liberty ; yet again though beloved by her he 
 loves he suffers still and makes the discovery that there is 
 pain even in love's fruition. He continues to analyze his 
 feelings, his doubts: "by love hell may be felt ere death 
 assail." (Perhaps it was in this mood that he took to trans- 
 lating the seven penitential psalms !) At last by an effort of 
 will he breaks his bonds and adopts a manlier strain, rejoicing 
 that he has regained his freedom, having broken the snares of 
 love like a bird. 
 
 His satires are in similar vein : he exults that he has escaped 
 from the court where speech is not free, where one must speak 
 fair to wealth and rank, where life is no life but flattery and 
 slavery: now he is free "in Kent and Christendom," and 
 there he invites a friend to join him. 
 
 He sums up his experience of life for his young reader's : 
 
 " If thou wilt mighty be flee from the rage 
 Of cruel will and see thou keep thee free 
 From the foul yoke of sensual bondage . . . 
 For He that hath each star in heaven fixed . . . 
 Alike hath made thee noble in his working, 
 So that wretched no way may thou be 
 Except foul lust and vice do conquer thee." 
 
 Stars and the moral law ! They are a young man's poems, 
 self-conscious, introspective, aspiring ; in them we perceive the 
 soul turning in upon itself, studying its own workings ; here is 
 the personal element, self-analysis, contrast of outer and inner, 
 the note is distinctly modern, the age is growing meta- 
 physical, psychological, ethical. 
 
 Nature enters largely into Surrey's sonnets ; one of them is 
 a pretty description of spring and in truth his was the spring- 
 
244 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 time of modern poetry. " The sun, when he hath spread his 
 rays " reveals a wide landscape : 
 
 " The mountains high and how they stand, 
 The valleys and the great mainland, 
 The trees, the herbs, the towers strong, 
 The castles and the rivers long." 
 
 Roaming about the streets of London one night with frolic- 
 some companions, Surrey broke the big glass windows of some 
 of the staid citizens and was speedily lodged in the Fleet 
 prison ; but there, instead of using the time for repentance, he 
 penned a satire upon the city, the modern Babylon, and the 
 vices of its inhabitants, whose windows he broke to mind 
 them of God's judgment ! 
 
 He wrote many quatrains, versified several chapters of the 
 book Ecclesiastes and several psalms but his chief contri- 
 bution to his country's literature was a translation of the second 
 and fourth books of the ^Eneid in blank verse. We note that 
 his caesura usually falls after the fourth syllable the second 
 foot, rarely after the fifth ; on an average one line in seven 
 begins with an accented syllable ; an alexandrine sometimes 
 intrudes itself ; and the lines, of which only one in six runs on 
 into the following, never end with a redundant syllable. So 
 formal and mechanical at its introduction was that most plastic 
 and ductile form of verse. 
 
 It is interesting to learn that at this very epoch the sonnet 
 was introduced into French literature by Mellin de Saint Gelais. 
 The fashion of psalm-translating was exemplified with eminent 
 success by Clement Marot a prote'ge of the queen of Na- 
 varre. He was an expert beside of polished taste in all kinds 
 of mediaeval measures. His version of the psalms was widely 
 popular and for thus abetting the religious movement and for 
 his liberal opinions he was forced to flee into Italy. Another 
 of Margaret's protege's Bonaventure des PeViers was a 
 satirist of all religions : he was no doubt a collaborator with 
 

 - 
 
 OF ENGLISH 
 
 his royal patroness in her famous Heptameron or " tales of 
 the seven days " with which a supposed party of fashionable 
 visitors to the springs of Cauteretz beguiled an enforced delay 
 on their return. Genuine mediaeval license marks many of 
 their tales. 
 
 The traits just slightly touched on are sufficient to indicate 
 the fatal weakness in faith and morals by reason of which the 
 French after many noble efforts surrendered themselves to the 
 remodelled church of Rome. Deeply significant in this regard 
 is the huge satire, the grotesque allegory, " Gargantua and 
 Pantagruel " the chief literary landmark of that time, and 
 a cloaca, as it would seem, for all the ordure of the Middle 
 Ages. Rabelais has ever been a problematical character ; he 
 was a monk, but a monk out of his cloister, a student of medi- 
 cine and of the new learning ; he was sincere in his uncouth 
 satire upon the monastic and scholastic systems and for the 
 latter he propounded a natural and sensible substitute, yet 
 he was not a Protestant, hardly a man of the Renascence ; his 
 eye was fixed upon the animal part of our nature and though 
 he had glimpses of higher things he contented himself with 
 mockery. So it was with his countrymen : France laughed 
 with Rabelais and abandoned the ideal. 
 
 Sonnets had been written in Spanish, it will be remembered, 
 long since, but the form was now fairly naturalized in Castilian 
 literature by the poetic pair Juan Boscan and Garcilasso de la 
 Vega, who afford a pleasing and forcible comparison with their 
 English contemporaries Wyatt and Surrey. Their sonnets are 
 tuned to the same pure and meditative strain and the young 
 Garcilasso's are of even superior grace. They also experi- 
 mented with blank verse, Boscan in a long tale, his friend in a 
 poetic epistle. Boscan's best production is an allegory of love 
 in Boccaccio's octave. 
 
 A sample of Spanish prose and of the politico-didactic 
 interest of the period is the " Dial of Princes " by Antonio de 
 
246 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Guevara, historiographer to the emperor Charles V. It was 
 widely read and translated. And a class of writings character- 
 istic of Spanish literature, thence imported and made popular 
 in many languages, was headed by Diego de Mendoza with his 
 comic history, written during his student days at Salamanca, of 
 the clever rogue and lackey, " Lazarillo de Tormes." 
 
 An interesting literary reaction against the late poetic move- 
 ment under Italian tutelage was led by Christoval de Castillejo 
 from about the year 1540. He advocated with all his might a 
 return to old-time modes of verse. 
 
 The date is memorable for it was signalized by a strenuous 
 ecclesiastical reaction whose capital expression was the institu- 
 tion of the Jesuit order. In 1541 the conciliatory conference 
 at Regensburg in which a basis of agreement was sought for 
 both Catholics and Protestants broke up in failure. In 1543 
 a Spanish Testament was suppressed and the Inquisition was 
 introduced into Italy ; the following year a Spaniard was burnt 
 for Lutheran heresy ; and in 1545 the great reactionary Coun- 
 cil of Trent was convened. Its objects were a reformation of 
 the church and suppression of heresy but the former point 
 though pressed by the French bishops was by Spanish and 
 Italian influence postponed to the latter, and the decrees on 
 the Scriptures and justification were carefully worded so as to 
 exclude the reformers' views. The Roman church had at last 
 awakened to the necessity of repressive measures and disci- 
 plinary reform if it would save itself from dissolution and 
 that awakening connotes the close of mediaevalism proper in 
 southern Europe and the collapse of Italian humanism. The 
 sack of Rome had scattered the humanists thence, Medicean 
 tyranny had exiled others from Florence and numbers of 
 scholars and artists wandered into France to enjoy the pro- 
 tection and patronage of its munificent king. Conspicuous 
 among these and one of the first was the Florentine Luigi 
 Alamanni, author of a didactic poem on agriculture patterned 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 247 
 
 after Virgil's Georgics, in blank verse. The sculptor Cellini, 
 the painter Bordone, the novelist Bandello followed and the 
 last was gratified by the gift of a bishopric. The Jesuit 
 reaction was the finishing blow to declining humanism in Italy, 
 
 and perhaps it came none too soon. It was merited ; for 
 the indecencies of Pietro Aretino, the egotism, extravagance 
 and license of Cellini, were indicative of the degeneration of 
 genius and demanded a curb. In the tales of Matteo Bandello 
 
 the Boccaccio of this later Renascence concupiscence 
 moves the characters about like pawns on a chess board. 
 They are not worthy of the name of characters : change of name 
 and incident alone give variety the intrigue is ever the same. 
 
 The conversion of the aged Bembo is symbolical of the 
 change that came over the spirit of Italy: he was made a 
 cardinal in 1539 and forthwith forswore the cultivation of classic 
 literature as profane. 
 
 In 1542 Andrea Palladio began his careful measurements 
 of old Roman buildings, published erelong a set of plans and 
 restored elevations and elaborated for the builders of the reac- 
 tion a congenial architectural style, ornate, mechanical, new 
 Roman : of round arches, round or gabled window-heads, 
 superimposed tiers of pilasters of different orders, and balus- 
 traded eaves. 
 
 During those years Giorgio Vasari, Angelo's pupil, occupied 
 himself in collecting, before it was too late, information con- 
 cerning the artists of past time which he digested in his 
 incomparable " Lives." It was a last effort of the mediaeval 
 memory, summing up the results of a long day of creative 
 activity. 
 
 We remark finally a glowing Italian version by Bernardo 
 Tasso of a romance long popular in the Spanish peninsula 
 the Amadis of Gaul. 
 
 In the realm of natural science the overthrow of outworn 
 authority went on for of investigations in the sphere of 
 
248 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 matter the powers that be are rarely apprehensive. Under and 
 through the alchemy of the Middle Ages modern chemistry was 
 working and protruding like the thumb of Ptah through his 
 swathing-bands. In 1541 the troubled career of Paracelsus 
 closed at Salzburg. He first made science stammer in the 
 German tongue and though beset by teeming, mystical fan- 
 cies struck into original and practicable paths of research. 
 In token of his breach with past authority he gave the works 
 of Galen to the flames. 
 
 The supremacy of the great Roman anatomist was more 
 cautiously and surely undermined by the Fleming, Vesalius, 
 whose discoveries also superseded Mondini's; he was the 
 father of modern anatomy. 
 
 Shortly before his death in 1543 Nicholas Copernicus pub- 
 lished his " Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies," relegating 
 the Ptolemaic system to the past ; but strange to say that 
 momentous work that wrought a revolution in astronomy only 
 to be compared with Luther's in religion or with the discov- 
 eries of Columbus and da Gama remained without effect until 
 the ensuing century. 
 
 The same year the first great botanic garden was laid out at 
 Padua. And through the decade the young Swiss naturalist, 
 Conrad Gesner, was travelling far and wide, studying plants, 
 which he aimed to classify according to a natural system, 
 gathering materials for his epoch-making work on animals. 
 
 The reactionary spirit of the decade was not without its 
 influence on the temper of Luther ; as he aged he grew harder, 
 his opinions crystallized, he waxed ever more bitter against 
 the Calvinists, more intolerant of all variations from his 
 standard. Sebastian Franck's protest was especially irritating 
 to him. Franck was a theologian of mystical tendency who 
 made appeal from Luther's growing dogmatism to a higher 
 spiritual court that of conscience and inward conviction of 
 religious truth. He was the spokesman of much secret dis- 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 249 
 
 content among Germans with some of the results and princi- 
 ples of the Lutheran reformation. 
 
 The sympathetic attitude of Diirer and Cranach, however, 
 reminds us that Luther never made the breach with art that 
 Zwingli and Calvin made. Indeed, he composed a series of 
 forcible sermons against iconoclasts that are beside good 
 specimens of his German style. He had the wisdom to set his 
 hymns to popular melodies and thus they enjoyed immense 
 vogue. Popular literature too was ever his ally ; Hans Sachs, 
 the rhyming shoemaker of Nuremberg, in countless songs and 
 homely satires and narratives helped to advance his cause. 
 
 In England the late spring-tide of reform began to ebb. 
 Henry felt that the religious and intellectual movement had 
 gone far enough and needed a check which he proceeded to 
 apply through the notorious Six Articles that he caused his 
 parliament to pass in the year 1539. Though it be hard to 
 recollect these in detail it is easy to remember that their pivot 
 was the mass. The first declared that the doctrine of tran- 
 substantiation was that of the church of England ; this was 
 followed by assertions of the sufficiency of communion in one 
 kind and the efficacy of private masses ; confession to a priest 
 was declared to be a pre-requisite to communion; and in 
 remaining articles the condition of celebrants was touched on : 
 sacerdotal celibacy was enforced and the binding nature of the 
 second monastic vow was set forth. This last was a pecu- 
 liarly arbitrary provision ; it was levelled at the hosts of monks 
 that wandered up and down the land, many of whom after 
 their ruthless ejection from their old homes were seeking to 
 make new ones by entering the marriage relation ; by this 
 article they were forbidden to become thus merged in general 
 society. 
 
 For an attempt he made to attach the king to the protestant 
 interest in Germany Thomas Cromwell paid the forfeit with 
 his head. After the death of Jane Seymour, his third queen 
 
250 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 doubly endeared to him as the mother of his son Edward 
 his minister pressed upon Henry an alliance with the princess 
 Anne of Cleves. A portrait of her taken by Holbein to 
 whom we are indebted for likenesses of many distinguished 
 personages of the reign so attracted the king that the match 
 was arranged but when Anne appeared his disappointment 
 was grievous : the cunning painter had flattered her, and she 
 could speak nothing but German, of which he understood not 
 a word. He offered therefore to become her affectionate 
 brother ; she was to receive a pension and take precedence 
 next after his queen and daughter. Anne was complaisant, 
 agreed to a divorce and assumed her singular position at the 
 English court. But Cromwell went to the block on a charge of 
 heresy, and the very day of his execution the king wedded a 
 second Catherine, of the great Catholic house of Howard. 
 
 The familiar political combinations of the past now repeated 
 themselves as by an inner necessity ; Henry became estranged 
 from his late ally of France, drew toward his imperial friend of 
 former times and the partition agreement of twenty years 
 before was reverted to. Francis thereupon renewed his alli- 
 ance with Suleiman II and we behold again the familiar 
 groups, the king of France, German Protestants, and Turks 
 against emperor and king of England who has now also per- 
 force a war with Scotland on his hands. From 1543 to 1545 
 the European war dragged on ; it was not pressed with 
 energy by either party ; Europe was exhausted by the tremen- 
 dous conflicts of the past half-century; and more than all 
 Francis himself desired reconciliation with the church and the 
 emperor, he too would become a prominent representative 
 of the reaction. The three great sovereigns now grown old 
 were ready and willing to sustain as best they could authority 
 and the old order, so in 1545 peace was made between them, 
 
 a peace that Francis made haste to solemnize by a ferocious 
 massacre of the Vaudois the Protestants of the south of 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 251 
 
 France. Henry wielded over England his "whip with six 
 strings," sending Protestants to the stake for infringing his 
 articles while Catholics went to the block for denying his eccle- 
 siastical jurisdiction ; the land was overawed by his capricious, 
 inscrutable policy; his closing years were a true reign of 
 terror. His minister now was Stephen Gardiner, bishop of 
 Winchester a rigid sacramentarian, who made desperate 
 efforts to bring Cranmer into discredit, instigating against him 
 charges of heresy. Hugh Latimer, who had resigned his 
 bishopric of Worcester upon the passage of the Six Articles, 
 was sent to the tower. Yet ever and anon the reformers 
 were heartened by some act like that which directed that 
 copies of the Bible in English (Tyndale's version as revised 
 by Coverdale and others) should be exhibited in parish 
 churches, or that which provided for the publication of part 
 of the service in the mother tongue. Henry's marriage to 
 his last queen, Catherine Parr, was regarded as auspicious to 
 their cause toward which she was well inclined, but in con- 
 versations with the king on doctrinal subjects she gave too free 
 expression to her views, was for an instant in grave peril and 
 only extricated herself by a prudent submission. 
 
 Among the victims offered up to the dogma of transub- 
 stantiation none engaged deeper sympathy than the gentle, 
 devoted and long-suffering Anne Askew, who was burnt at 
 Smithfield in 1546. The height of the reaction headed in 
 Scotland by the evil Cardinal Beaton was marked that year 
 by the burning of George Wishart, a distinguished evangelical 
 preacher. 
 
 The domestic condition of England continued unprosperous. 
 The king's necessities led him to commit one of the gravest 
 injuries a government can inflict on its people ; he debased 
 the coinage, and workers found their wages shrivel in their 
 hands they understood not why. The discontent and suffering 
 were grievous. In consequence partly of the industrial depres- 
 
252 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 sion, partly of the suppression of the monasteries where relief 
 has been dispensed of old, vagabondage and pauperism 
 attained dimensions so alarming that the rudiment of a poor- 
 law had to be devised : "sturdy vagabonds " voluntary pau- 
 pers were to be repressed and the deserving poor to be 
 relieved from funds dispensed by episcopal almoners. The 
 defect of the measure was that public charity alone was relied 
 on to supply the funds which were hence uncertain and in bad 
 times quite inadequate. 
 
 The literature of the end of the reign was scant and scarce 
 worth mentioning ; indeed, none could flourish in that atmos- 
 phere of fear and suspicion ; in his determination to suppress 
 all opposition to his arbitrary will Henry would seem to have 
 been animated by a desire to annihilate literature. One by one 
 its foremost representatives were killed off. Tyndale and More 
 had been extinguished ; upon the fall of Cromwell Wyatt was 
 committed to the Tower, and having been commanded to join 
 the king at Falmouth died on the journey of a fever contracted 
 in his anxious haste ; and a crowning injustice was the execu- 
 tion of Surrey because there coursed in his veins a strain of 
 royal blood. 
 
 The king even brought legislation to bear upon literature and 
 the drama, his object being the suppression of all publications 
 in English upon the subject of religion. By an act of the year 
 1542 he put a stop to the performance of the old mysteries and 
 forbade all religious plays, ballads and songs (of which many 
 satirical specimens were current) as " noisome to the peace of 
 the church." 
 
 Before his decease in 1546 Sir Thomas Elyot had the satis- 
 faction of seeing his hints on archery expanded into an elaborate 
 treatise, the " Toxophilus " or " School of Shooting," by his 
 young friend Roger Ascham. It is in the form of a dialogue. 
 Archery is pronounced a most honest pastime, indulged in by 
 the ancients, wholesome for princes and students ; cards are 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 253 
 
 condemned as devoid of exercise and honesty ; and music of 
 the new school " so nicely fingered, so sweetly tuned " is dis- 
 countenanced as too nearly resembling the Lydian mode : 
 beside, Galen has said that " much music marreth men's man- 
 ners." An exception is made as to old-fashioned plain-song 
 which is declining and should be encouraged. Here accord- 
 ingly we have a quaint musical corollary to the doctrinal 
 reaction ! 
 
 By that time John Leland, who held the unique office of 
 king's antiquary, had finished his great tour over England in 
 the course of which he visited every city, manor-house, castle 
 and monastery in the kingdom if we may believe his declara- 
 tion, and saved as many manuscripts as he could from the 
 wreck, distressing to his honest soul, of the monastic libraries. 
 That archaeological survey at the moment when the Middle 
 Ages were expiring was like memory, recapitulating at eventide 
 the toils and triumphs of the day. It testified to the rise of 
 national sentiment and an historic sense, uncritical though 
 it might be : in Leland the Arthurian legends found a last 
 defender : he published a Latin assertion of their genuineness. 
 
 Now it was that written sermons began to supersede the old 
 fashion of free and familiar delivery. Precision of statement 
 and literary finish might thus be attained but it was at the 
 expense of the energy, picturesqueness and directness of appeal 
 of the extemporaneous style. 
 
 Luther died in 1546, none too soon for him he just escaped 
 witnessing a seeming obliteration of German Protestantism. 
 The year 1547 was the low- water mark of the reaction; the 
 protestant leaders were divided among themselves and para- 
 lyzed by doubt and treachery ; their wholly inadequate force 
 melted away before the emperor at Miihlberg and Germany 
 was at his feet. But the same year Henry and Francis passed 
 away leaving the stage clear for new characters Cardinal 
 Beaton had paid for his tyranny with his life, and western 
 
254 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Europe breathed more freely. Slowly the tide began to turn 
 and a fifth chapter in Reformation history opened a fresh 
 and even more vigorous forward movement than the last. In 
 the course of a few years Charles lost the magnificent position 
 he had gained by his victory at Miihlberg ; the new king of 
 France allied himself with the protestant princes to undo its 
 results and received from them a bit of territory on the bank 
 of the Rhine with the title " Protector of the Liberties of Ger- 
 many"; in 1552 the Turks took Temesvar ; and the emperor 
 was constrained to conclude with the Protestants what was to 
 him the humiliating truce of Passau, granting them freedom of 
 worship according to the terms of that early decree of Speyer. 
 In 1555 this was made the basis of the general and lasting 
 religious pacification of Augsburg ; the labor of his life seemed 
 thrown away and the unhappy old emperor, bitterly repenting 
 that he had let Luther escape him, conscious that his whole long 
 career was a failure, abdicated and went into a monastery 
 where he soon after died. 
 
 Henry's attempt to graft a reformed, national polity upon the 
 old system of faith and worship had proved impracticable and 
 in his son's reign the latter went by the board. The boy-king 
 Edward was a zealous little Protestant ; his maternal uncle and 
 guardian, the duke of Somerset, was hand and glove with the 
 reforming party ; Cranmer's star was in the ascendant, Latimer 
 was released from the Tower where he had spent the years of 
 reaction, and radical changes in the mode of worship were con- 
 summated ; in fact the existing ecclesiastical system of England 
 was then fully inaugurated. The Six Articles were rescinded ; 
 with the doctrine of the corporal presence of Christ in the 
 eucharist private masses ceased, both elements were adminis- 
 tered to the laity, and the clergy were allowed to wed. The 
 liturgy was done into English; in the year 1548 the Book of 
 Common Prayer appeared the famous " First Book of King 
 Edward VI." These sweeping changes seemed revolutionary 
 
OF ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 255 
 
 to Bishop Gardiner and his compeer Bonner of London ; they 
 remonstrated, were cast into prison and shortly deprived of 
 their sees. Ridley was appointed in Bonner's room and 
 Hooper to be bishop of Gloucester : his scruples about wearing 
 the episcopal vestments, which he called idolatrous and impious, 
 delayed the latter's installation. In Hooper the lineaments of 
 the Puritan can be plainly discerned. To minds of his stamp 
 it seemed that the church was not yet reduced to the just 
 evangelical model ; the agitation went on ; after the crushing 
 defeat of Miihlberg several eminent continental reformers took 
 refuge in England and pointed out defects in the prayer-book 
 which permitted quite too many of the old ceremonies for 
 their taste. More statues and pictures were removed from the 
 churches ; the ancient stone altars gave place to communion 
 tables and candles were no longer seen; in the year 1552 the 
 Second Book of Edward VI registered the further rise of the 
 tide. Objectionable practices allowed by the former book were 
 dropped ; the sentences used when administering the elements 
 were altered to accord with the merely commemorative view ; 
 and worship became in outward form and in inward spirit 
 evangelical. 
 
 It is interesting to observe how Wyclif's fame after its long 
 eclipse came out now in full lustre: indeed, through the vary- 
 ing phases of doctrine that we have been studying, what men 
 thought of him was a ready gauge of their position. Cranmer 
 took issue with Gardiner about him : " John Wyclif was a 
 singular instrument of God in his time to set forth the truth 
 of Christ's Gospel, but Antichrist that sitteth in God's temple 
 boasting himself as God hath by God's sufferance prevailed 
 against many holy men and sucked the blood of martyrs these 
 late years." The passage occurs in the archbishop's "Answer 
 to a Crafty and Sophistical Cavillation " of his old enemy 
 "against the true and godly doctrine" of the sacrament. 
 The treatise is not agreeable either in temper or style it 
 
256 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 could scarcely be expected to be, but it defines clearly its 
 author's position. He believed that "the very body of the 
 tree or rather the root of the weeds beads, pardons, pil- 
 grimages, indulgences, service in Latin etc. is the popish 
 doctrine of transubstantiation." He appealed to Christ's in- 
 stitution : none of his apostles were so " fond " as not to know 
 that the bread was not his body nor the wine his blood. Our 
 opponents " teach that Christ is in the bread and wine. But 
 we say according to the truth that he is in them that worthily 
 eat and drink the bread and wine. My meaning is that the 
 force, the grace, the virtue and benefit of Christ's body that was 
 crucified for us and of his blood that was shed for us be really 
 and effectually present with all them that duly receive the sac- 
 raments but all this I understand of his spiritual presence. 
 . . . Nor no more truly is he corporally or really present in the 
 due ministration of the Lord's Supper than he is in the due 
 ministration of baptism." Bread, wine and water are signs 
 and tokens, not to be worshipped ; yet Christ is in them as he 
 is in his Word " when he worketh mightily by the same in the 
 hearts of the hearers"; he is not present in the voice of the 
 speaker but uses it as he does his sacraments. 
 
 The noblest figure in the English reformation was without 
 question that of Bishop Latimer, a brave man, earnest, large- 
 hearted, buoyant of spirit of all the reformers of the island- 
 kingdom he most resembled Luther. In his youth as he 
 himself testified he was as " obstinate a papist as any in the 
 kingdom, zealous without knowledge " like Saul the perse- 
 cutor; when he was converted he became a sturdy pillar of 
 evangelic faith. He was much the most popfilar preacher of 
 the day and he magnified his office. His famous " Sermon on 
 the Plough," conceived in the quaint, allegorical style that the 
 people loved, enforced the duty of preaching. It was delivered 
 at St. Paul's in the winter of 1549. Taking a passage out of 
 St. Luke's gospel as his starting-point, " the Seed is the 
 
of ENGLISH LITERATURE, 257 
 
 Word of God" -he proceeded to draw a parallel between 
 the ploughman and a preacher. Erelong he rose into a pro- 
 phetic strain, denouncing the pride and wickedness of London, 
 calling upon its people to repent, "but London cannot abide 
 to be rebuked, such is the nature of man ; they will not amend 
 their faults and they will not be ill spoken of." Nevertheless 
 he hesitated not fearlessly to expose its sins and to score those 
 "unpreaching prelates" whom he held to be largely responsible 
 for the wide-spread ignorance and wrong-doing. We can divine 
 the hush that fell upon the great congregation as the orator 
 engaged closer attention by the sudden question, "Who is the 
 most diligent bishop and prelate in all England that passeth 
 all the rest in doing his office ? I can tell for I know him 
 well. But now I think I see you listening and harkening that I 
 should name him. Will ye know who it is ? I will tell you ; 
 it is the Devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all other, 
 he is never out of his diocese, ye shall never find him unoccu- 
 pied, he keepeth residence at all times, he is ever at his 
 plough." 
 
 The ensuing Lent, Latimer delivered a series of six sermons 
 before the boy king and on one occasion in the following year 
 preached to him both in the morning and afternoon of the same 
 day. Still in prophetic vein he chose as his subject avarice 
 and lust and their connection, which he illustrated by the 
 adulteries that follow marriages for money. He returned to 
 his charge against London as wicked a city as Nineveh, 
 equally in need of repentance. 
 
 An example of his homiletic allegorizing almost as good as 
 his sermon on the plough was that " on the Card," in which he 
 drew a moral from the popular pastime : in the game of life 
 " hearts is trumps, as I said." 
 
 " If thou build a hundred churches, give as much as thou 
 canst make to the gilding of saints and honoring of the church 
 and offer as great candles as oaks, if thou leave the works of 
 
258 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 mercy and the commandments undone these works shall 
 nothing avail thee,"- yet of themselves they are good. 
 Latimer was not an iconoclast. 
 
 In 1549 appeared a metrical version of parts of the psalter 
 
 the work of Thomas Sternhold, who died that year. The 
 collection was subsequently enlarged by John Hopkins and 
 enjoyed for generations an extraordinary popularity. 
 
 A single dramatic effort is extant of the reign of Edward VI 
 
 the comedy of "Ralph Roister Doister " by Nicholas Udall, 
 formerly master of Eton College. Other plays that he com- 
 posed have been lost. Ralph is a brainless, rakish fellow of 
 the town who is beguiled by a cunning parasite called Mery- 
 greek an English Lazarillo and is helped and hindered 
 by him in a vain but persistent suit he pays to a well-to-do 
 widow. The rhyme, metre and diction of the play are those 
 of the homely popular tales of former times, the dialogue is 
 easy and familiar, and the action progresses through well- 
 defined acts and scenes. 
 
 The date of its appearance is fixed by a reference made to it 
 by Thomas Wilson, the rhetorician, who published a treatise on 
 rhetoric and logic in the year 1553. His object was the purifi- 
 cation of the spoken language from the classic and foreign terms 
 with which scholars, travellers and the fashionable delighted 
 to encrust it. There is much sensible advice in the book : 
 " Never affect inkhorn terms or be over-fine. Only the foolish 
 fantastical Latin their tongues; journeyed gentlemen, for show, 
 talk a French or Italianate English and the fine courtier talks 
 nothing but Chaucer." Men were still half-ashamed of their 
 native tongue which was then just emerging from its state of 
 immaturity ; it is evident that it was undergoing that expansion 
 of vocabulary that was to make it the great medium of expres- 
 sion for the coming generation ; but many in their half-culture, 
 their would-be elegance, were making mistakes in taste and 
 selection. Against such Wilson's was a manly and useful protest. 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 259 
 
 Sir John Cheke, the most eminent classical scholar in the 
 kingdom and Edward's tutor in Greek, who had in the last 
 reign had a sharp controversy with bishop Gardiner as to the 
 proper pronunciation of that language, was equally jealous of 
 the purity of his native speech and sought to expunge from its 
 vocabulary words and phrases that had crept into it from 
 foreign languages. He also suggested a simplification of its 
 spelling. 
 
 We note elsewhere interest in the vernacular ; Sir David 
 Lindsay penned a vigorous defence of his in the opening of 
 his " Dialogue concerning the Monarchy," a long metrical 
 account of ancient empires that winds up with an attack upon 
 the papal monarchy in the style with which we are already 
 familiar. It was the last monument of the old northern or 
 mediaeval Scottish dialect, the literary history of which we 
 have traced for two hundred years ; its author died soon after. 
 
 A highly interesting parallel to these efforts for the extended 
 use, enrichment and purification of the vernacular is offered 
 by a school of French writers that rose at this very era. Its 
 programme was set forth in an enthusiastic " Defence of the 
 French language " published in the year 1549, the maiden 
 essay of a young poet named Joachim du Bellay whose dawning 
 talent had been marked by king Francis and the queen of 
 Navarre. After the fashion of the Renascence he was dubbed 
 " the French Ovid." His defence of his mother tongue con- 
 sisted in a word in the proposition that it was quite capable of 
 appropriating spoil from Latin and Greek. A favorite analogy 
 was the practice of the Latin authors who, though profoundly 
 versed in Greek, did not therefore discard their own language 
 but applied their scholarship to its enrichment and regulation. 
 For the attainment of these ends du Bellay and his followers 
 accordingly introduced into the language shoals of classic 
 terms and to give it exquisite polish cultivated the sonnet 
 with especial zeal. 
 
260 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 After the appearance of his treatise which was the literary 
 sensation of the hour, du Bellay visited Rome where he spent 
 some years. He exemplified his theory in a set of over a hun- 
 dred sonnets "To Olive " and returned in the year 1552 with 
 forty-five more on "The Ruins of Rome." He was henceforth 
 a particular star at the court of Henry II. His contem- 
 porary, Pierre Ronsard, cooperated powerfully in the movement 
 and erelong eclipsed his fame, winning from the admiring 
 court the title "Prince of Poets." He applied himself to 
 composing French odes in imitation of Horace. His preceptor 
 in the classics, Jean Dorat "the French Pindar" was the 
 Nestor of the movement, which progressed in spite of the 
 ridicule of Rabelais now approaching his end. 
 
 The year that du Bellay returned from Rome a disciple of 
 his, fitienne Jodelle, then but twenty years of age, made him- 
 self the pioneer of an important form classic tragedy by 
 his play " Cleopatra." It was characterized by the mingled 
 weakness and extravagance, the frigid, imitative rendering of 
 heroic passions common to first efforts in this line, but it 
 was hailed by Ronsard the arbiter as equal to anything of 
 Sophocles and it furnished a model of its kind for coming 
 centuries. 
 
 The four poets just mentioned made up with some lights of 
 less magnitude the celebrated group of the Pleiade. One of 
 the latter, Baif by name, translated two of Euripides' tragedies 
 and became an exemplar of the tendency of the school to 
 degenerate into mere academic correctness. 
 
 While the affairs of the Protestants were prospering in Ger- 
 many the death of Edward VI in the summer of 1553 opened 
 the way for a third Catholic reaction, the most vehement of all, 
 proportioned to the thoroughness of the late reform. It was 
 the sixth and last chapter in the long contest between mediae- 
 val and modern ideas. The princess Mary came to the throne 
 at the mature age of thirty-six, her nature embittered by many 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 261 
 
 injuries and by the thought of the ill-usage endured by a mother 
 whom she deeply loved and whose memory it was her dearest 
 consolation to defend. She inherited her father's tenacity of 
 will but she was more than half her mother's daughter ; her 
 affections were fixed upon her mother's land of Spain. Hence 
 from the first her whole heart was engaged in the project 
 broached by the emperor of a marriage with his son Philip. 
 Her devotion to her mother's faith was absolute : to restore it 
 in its integrity was the object of her reign. She passed over 
 therefore the latter part of her father's reign, aiming not only 
 to maintain as he had done Catholic doctrine but also to restore 
 the ancient form of church government, and took as her ideal 
 the system of his earlier years, of her mother's time. 
 
 Gardiner's star was now in the ascendant; he was restored 
 to his see and was appointed chancellor. Hooper and Cover- 
 dale were incarcerated in the Fleet, Ridley and Latimer in the 
 Tower where they were soon followed by Cranmer; other 
 prominent reformers fled to the continent. Bonner was rein- 
 stated in his bishopric of London and straightway the old 
 crucifixes reappeared in the churches of his diocese and the 
 texts with which the reformers had decorated their walls were 
 blotted out. 
 
 Proceedings were hastened to reconcile England with the 
 see of Rome. The queen's obsequious parliament declared 
 that the marriage of Henry and Catherine had been valid and 
 reversed Cranmer's sentence of divorce ; every act of the late 
 reign touching religion was revoked ; and Mary's kinsman, 
 Cardinal Pole, came sailing up the Thames in his barge to 
 receive as papal legate the submission of the kingdom through 
 its representatives. Parliament bent the knee, was absolved 
 by him from the sins of heresy and schism, and renewed the 
 act for burning heretics. 
 
 The sacrament became afresh the subject of impassioned 
 controversy ; the advocates of tran substantiation, flushed with 
 
262 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 triumph, balked not at its ultimate absurdity, asserting that at 
 the Last Supper Jesus ate his own body. The celibacy of the 
 clergy was enforced, married ministrants were ejected from 
 their livings. The queen's forwardness was yet too slow for 
 the ungrateful pope : he demanded restitution of all the old 
 church lands ; but here Mary's hands were tied. Of her own 
 means however she managed to found anew a few abbeys. 
 
 There is something pathetic in this half heart-sick attempt to 
 stay a vanishing ideal. 
 
 That the mediaeval revival might be whole and entire the 
 old-time culture was brought into fashion again ; the literature, 
 amusements and popular customs of past centuries were 
 revived by authority. The mystery-plays lately forbidden were 
 sanctioned once more, the May-games and dances ; again on 
 the Feast of Fools boys played the bishop or abbot and 
 mimicked the solemn ceremonies of the church. By such 
 strange pastimes an outlet had been provided for the latent 
 skepticism of the mediaeval populace lest its mocking mood 
 should flash into something more serious. 
 
 In 1554 a fine edition of Gower's " Confessio Amantis" was 
 gotten out, in 1555 a like one of Lydgate's Troy-book; and the 
 same year (a symbolic act) Chaucer's bones were reinterred in 
 a Gothic tomb, the first of poets in the since famous corner 
 of England's historic abbey. That year too the legend of the 
 Sangreal appeared in a Spanish dress a romantic emblem of 
 the alliance subsisting between the two countries. 
 
 In 1557 a certain Richard Tottell got out a collection of 
 poems by various hands Surrey's and Wyatt's among the 
 number from which we single out two for particular mention 
 because they were written in blank verse. Their subjects were 
 the deaths of Cicero and Zoroas (an Egyptian astrologer of 
 Alexander's day), their author was one Nicholas Grimald 
 (of Italian descent, as his name implies). These new speci- 
 mens of English blank verse are marked by more variable 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 263 
 
 caesura than Surrey's and are altogether more flexible than 
 his ; run-on lines are frequent and light endings even appear. 
 In the last reign Grimald had been Bishop Ridley's chaplain 
 but under Mary he made little difficulty about conforming to 
 the reestablished mode of worship. 
 
 The jocund John Heywood was among the contributors to 
 Tottell's " Miscellany." He had suffered some shrewd turns 
 in the late inconstant times ; toward the end of Henry's reign 
 he had been taxed with treasonable views touching the king's 
 ecclesiastical supremacy and had made unconditional surren- 
 der ; under Edward it is said, perhaps jocosely, that his droll 
 wit alone saved him from hanging. The accession of his 
 former patroness was hailed by him with joy ; it promised a 
 safe covert from such reverses for his sentiments accorded 
 entirely with hers ; the years of her reign were fulfilled of 
 halcyon days for him. He greeted her upon her coronation 
 with a congratulatory address in Latin, and celebrated her 
 union with Philip in a song. His humor was grateful to her 
 and often lightened her melancholy moods. In 1556 he pro- 
 duced a lengthy allegorical poem in his quaint vein, "The 
 Spider and the Fly,"- the Protestants being figured by the 
 ruthless spiders, the Catholics by the innocent flies: the heroine 
 of this epic fable was of course the queen, who appeared in the 
 character of a house-maid, wielding the broom of her temporal 
 power at the bidding of her Lord and sovereign Lady, the 
 church. 
 
 The laureateship of the reign was about evenly divided be- 
 tween Heywood and William Forrest the queen's chaplain. 
 In Edward's time he had been forced to conform sorely against 
 his will to the reformed worship. He addressed to the young 
 king a long didactic effort bearing the sounding alliterative 
 title "A Pleasant Poesy of Princely Practice " in which he 
 enlarged upon the unhappy condition of the laboring poor 
 and the duty of a prince in such an exigency. Only a few 
 
264 OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 months before Mary's death he finished and presented to her 
 in manuscript his metrical vindication of her mother's memory, 
 containing his interpretation of recent history. Catherine of 
 Aragon in the character of the Second Griselda gave title to 
 the work, which was couched in the Chaucerian stanza. Ere 
 the exemplary queen was deposed the land flourished in plenty, 
 God's service was maintained and the rich helped the poor 
 Griselda in special was kind to them. She attended matins at 
 Greenwich priory and had an image of Christ's passion made 
 "not of idolatrous intent as certain miserable men hold." 
 The rhymer is severe on Wolsey, who was no friend to Griselda; 
 "yet he had an edifying end God shield his soul from the 
 infernal flame ! " With the divorce began the affliction of both 
 church and realm ; schisms, sects and heresies of Satan's own 
 raising entered in ; the king " expressed by the name of 
 Walter was led somewhat by light persons "; bad counsellors 
 and agents took the place of good, self-will was the chief ruler, 
 truth was set aside, the saints were slandered, the blessed Virgin 
 Mary was no better esteemed than any other woman and any 
 dunghill was as good as the sanctuary : 
 
 " These mischiefs with hundredfold moe began 
 At the incoming of this new Queen Anne." 
 
 Now the realm rapidly decayed, the poor suffered penury, 
 rents were raised and there was dearth ; fasting was made a 
 jest, down went crosses, churches and monasteries. But Gri- 
 selda's life was a pattern of piety and she made a good end, 
 receiving extreme unction. " Now she prays for us though 
 wretched men seduced by Satan say that saints' prayers profit 
 nothing : through hers I firmly believe we have been called 
 back of late from the damnable race we were running." 
 
 The leading representative of the new learning fell a sacrifice 
 to the violent ecclesiastical rebound. Men of the old school 
 were thoroughly convinced that Greek letters had been largely 
 responsible for the late religious upheaval: and in Sir John 
 
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 265 
 
 Cheke a conspicuous victim was found. His heart was wholly 
 in the cause of the reform ; but now in age and weakness, in 
 prison, trembling at the threat of torture, he sent in his recan- 
 tation and was released only to die of shame and distress of 
 spirit for his betrayal of the truth. 
 
 The queen's Spanish match was generally unpopular and 
 was made the pretext for a rising which was speedily put down 
 but which involved the execution of the sweet and hapless Lady 
 Jane Grey, a gentle representative of the new learning and the 
 reformed faith. The princess Elizabeth even was in danger : 
 she was suspected of complicity in the insurrection and was 
 lodged for a time in the Tower. 
 
 The inmost nature of the desperate doctrinal reaction, the 
 madness of a failing cause, had to be revealed, the connection 
 of papal supremacy, the mass and persecution to be plainly 
 exhibited. Squibs and satires upon the mass were many and 
 were a vexation of spirit to Mary and her counsellors as similar 
 ones had been to her father in his age. Under the lately re- 
 vived statute for the punishment of heretics the burning of 
 protestant martyrs began. The design was by a few single 
 examples to intimidate the whole body. So early in 1555 
 Hooper was burnt at Gloucester and Bishop Farrar of St. 
 David's at Carmarthen ; in the autumn Ridley and Latimer 
 were sacrificed at Oxford, the latter crying out as the fagots 
 were heaped around them, " Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, 
 and play the man, for we shall this day light such a candle in 
 England as I trust shall never be put out." Gardiner died a 
 few weeks after in remorse of soul and dismay at the magnitude 
 of the odious task to which he was committed : the number of 
 victims greatly surpassed his expectations. The following 
 spring Archbishop Cranmer also perished in the flames at Ox- 
 ford. He had shown little of the spirit of the hero, but his 
 case was pitiable in the extreme and excited general com- 
 miseration. Cardinal Pole was now invested with the primacy. 
 
266 OUTLINE OF PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 In the course of this oppressive reign about three hundred 
 persons suffered an excruciating death. Kent the scene of 
 the late insurrection the city of London and the eastern 
 midland furnished most of the victims. In its frenzy the re- 
 action destroyed itself; evangelical faith received its baptism 
 of blood and fire and evinced its truth and power by the forti- 
 tude of its martyrs. 
 
 In 1557 the queen's infatuation for her Spanish partner 
 involved her in a disastrous war with France in the course of 
 which Calais and Guisnes, last remnants of once broad posses- 
 sions, were lost to the English crown. 
 
 Worn out with ill health and depression of spirits, full of 
 misgivings as to the impending failure of her whole policy and 
 repining at Philip's continued absence, Mary died, a disap- 
 pointed woman, in the month of November, 1558. The tidings 
 of her death were brought to her sister Elizabeth as she was 
 walking under the autumn oaks at Hatfield. The Middle Ages 
 were over forever. 
 
ADVERTISEMENTS 
 
SKETCH OF THE 
 PHILOSOPHY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. 
 
 By GREENOUGH WHITE, A.M. 
 
 12mo. Flexible cloth, iv + 66 pages. Introduction price, 30 cents. 
 By mail, postpaid, 35 cents. 
 
 This essay points out the connection between our country's 
 literature and history, and shows how new forms in letters 
 and arts have arisen as advancing thought required. It may 
 be used as a key to the whole subject, as well as to the 
 excellent and extended treatises upon it and the numerous 
 compilations that have recently appeared. It is a book that 
 will interest the general reader (it can be read at a single 
 sitting), and the experienced teacher will find it highly valu- 
 able in inculcating in more advanced classes habits of sound 
 and scholarly appreciation of American intellectual life. 
 
 Professor Barrett Wendell: As a 
 
 guide to study I should think the book ad- 
 mirable. It is well-digested in substance, 
 rationally put together from beginning to 
 end, and written in a perfectly direct, fine 
 style. 
 
 Professor F. J. Child (in a letter to the 
 author) : I think you are a little incautious 
 in your preface. But when we come to 
 the history you are entirely temperate and 
 discriminating. Your rapid sketch pre- 
 sents the production of two hundred years 
 lucidly and very agreeably. 
 
 Professor Charles F. Richardson, 
 
 author of a " History of American Litera- 
 ture " : It is refreshing, when so much so- 
 called "criticism" is second-hand, to 
 come upon a discussion like this, present- 
 ing conclusions often new and always 
 based on direct reading. 
 
 Professor Moses Coit Tyler, author 
 
 of a " History of American Colonial Litera- 
 ture " : I can honestly say that I am struck 
 most agreeably by the soundness of its 
 fundamental conception of the spirit and 
 motive of American Literature. It is 
 much to be wished that our people could 
 
 catch that fruitful idea here properly put 
 at the front, that there is a living and illu- 
 minating connection between our country's 
 history and its literature. 
 
 Mr. Edmund C. Stedman, author of 
 " Poets of America," etc., etc. : The precis 
 seems to me to be successful and to go to 
 the root of the matter i.e. to show the 
 philosophy of the development of the suc- 
 cessive phases of our national literature. 
 
 Phillips Brooks : I am much interested 
 by the philosophical spirit in which the 
 treatise is conceived, and am sure that its 
 readers will thank its author for much sug- 
 gestion and food for thought. 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes : An interest- 
 ing study of some of our earlier and more 
 recent authors. 
 
 John Greenleaf Whittier: It was 
 
 difficult to compress in the space of a brief 
 essay all that might be said of the develop- 
 ment and trend of our literature and 
 thought, but so far as it goes it is a valuable 
 and well-considered paper in proof of the 
 fact of an unborrowed and independent 
 American Literature. 
 
 GINN & COMPANY, Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago, London, 
 
10 
 
 HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature. 
 
 Designed mainly to show characteristics of style. By WILLIAM MINTO, 
 late Professor of Logic and English Literature, University of Aberdeen, 
 Scotland. 12mo. Cloth. 566 pages. Mailing price, $1.65 ; for intro- 
 duction, $1.50. 
 
 HHHE main design is to assist in directing students in English 
 composition to the merits and defects of the principal writers 
 of prose, enabling them, in some degree at least, to acquire the one 
 and avoid the other. The Introduction analyzes style : elements 
 of style, qualities of style, kinds of composition. Part First gives 
 exhaustive analyses of De Quincey, Macaulay, and Carlyle. These 
 serve as a key to all the other authors treated. Part Second takes 
 up the prose authors in historical order, from the fourteenth cen- 
 tury up to the early part of the nineteenth. 
 
 Hiram Corson, Professor of Eng- 
 lish Literature, Cornell University : 
 Without going outside of this book, 
 an earnest student could get a knowl- 
 edge of English prose styles, based 
 on the soundest principles of criti- 
 cism, such as he could not get in any 
 twenty volumes which I know of. 
 
 Katharine Lee Bates, Professor 
 of English, Wellesley College : It is 
 of sterling value. 
 
 Minto's Characteristics of the English Poets. 
 
 From Chaucer to Shirley. 
 
 By WILLIAM MINTO, late Professor of Logic and English Literature, 
 University of Aberdeen, Scotland, 12mo. Cloth, xi + 382 pages. 
 Mailing price, $1.65 ; for introduction, $1.50. 
 
 chief object of the author has been to bring into as clear 
 light as possible the characteristics of the several poets within 
 the period chosen. As a secondary object he endeavors to trace 
 how far each poet was influenced by his predecessors and con- 
 temporaries. 
 
 College Requirements in English. 
 
 Entrance Examinations. Second Series. 
 
 By Rev. ARTHUR WENTWORTH EATON, Instructor in English in the 
 Cutler School, New York. 12mo. Cloth. 104 pages. Mailing price, 
 $1.20; for introduction, $1.12. 
 
 J. Scott Clark, formerly Prof essor 
 of Rhetoric, Syracuse University : 
 We have now given Minto's English 
 Prose a good trial, and I am so much 
 pleased that I want some more of the 
 same. 
 
 A. W. Long, formerly of Wofford 
 College, Spartariburg, S.C.; I have 
 used Minto's English Poets and Eng- 
 lish Prose the past year, and am 
 greatly pleased with the results. 
 
HIGHER ENGLISH. 11 
 
 Selections in English Prose from Elizabeth to 
 
 Victoria. 1580-1880. 
 
 By JAMES M. GABNETT, Professor of the English Language and Liter- 
 ature in the University of Virginia. 12mo. Cloth, ix-j-701 pages. 
 By mail, $1.65: for introduction, $1.50. 
 
 rpHE selections are accompanied by such explanatory notes as 
 have been deemed necessary, and will average some twenty 
 pages each. The object is to provide students with the texts 
 themselves of the most prominent writers of English prose for 
 the past three hundred years, in selections of sufficient length to 
 be characteristic of the author, and, when possible, they are com- 
 plete works or sections of works. 
 
 H. N. Ogden, formerly of W. Vir- 
 ginia Univ. : The book fulfills my ex- 
 pectations in every respect, and will 
 become an indispensable help in the 
 
 F. B. Gummere, Prof, of English, 
 Haverford College: I like the plan, 
 the selections, and the making of the 
 book. 
 
 work of our senior English class. 
 
 Macau lay's Essay on Milton. 
 
 Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by HERBERT A. SMITH, Instructor 
 in English in Yale University. 12mo. Paper. pages. Mailing 
 
 price, cents ; for introduction, cents. 
 
 A CONVENIENT and well-edited edition of Macaulay's masterly 
 essay on Milton. The introduction and notes are especially 
 valuable to students. 
 
 Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year. 
 
 History of the Plague in London. 
 
 Edited by BYRON S. HURLBUT, Instructor in English in Harvard 
 University. 12mo. Cloth. pages. Mailing price, cents; for 
 
 introduction, cents. 
 
 rpHE book is intended to meet the requirements of students pre- 
 paring to take the college entrance examinations, and to 
 supply a convenient edition for general use. 
 
 Biography. Phillips Exeter Lectures. 
 
 By Rev. PHILLIPS BROOKS, D.D. 12mo. Paper. 30 pages. Mailing 
 price, 12 cents; for introduction, 10 cents. 
 
12 
 
 HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 The Art of Poetry : 
 
 The Poetical Treatises of Horace, Vida, and Boileau, with the trans- 
 lations by Howes, Pitt, and Soame. 
 
 Edited by 'ALBERT S. COOK, Professor of the English Language and 
 Literature in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth. Iviii + 303 pages. Mailing 
 price, $1.25; for introduction, $1.12. 
 
 Bliss Perry, Prof, of English, 
 Princeton University : The fullness 
 and accuracy of the references in the 
 notes is a testimony to his patience 
 
 as well as his scholarship. ... I 
 wish to express my admiration of 
 such faithful and competent edit- 
 ing. 
 
 Shelley's Defense of Poetry. 
 
 Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by ALBERT S. COOK, Professor of 
 English in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth, xxvi + 86 pages. Price 
 by mail, 60 cents; for introduction, 50 cents. 
 
 John F. Genung, Prof, of Rhetoric, 
 Amherst College: By his excellent 
 editions of these three works, Pro- 
 fessor Cook is doing invaluable 
 service for the study of poetry. The 
 works themselves, written by men 
 who were masters alike of poetry 
 and prose, are standard as litera- 
 
 ture; and in the introduction and 
 notes, which evince in every part the 
 thorough and sympathetic scholar, 
 as also in the beautiful form given 
 to the books by the printer and 
 binder, the student has all the help 
 to the reading of them that he can 
 desire. 
 
 Cardinal Newman's Essay on Poetry. 
 
 With reference to Aristotle's Poetics. Edited, with Introduction and 
 Notes, by ALBERT S. COOK, Professor of English in Yale University. 
 8vo. Limp cloth, x -J- 36 pages. Mailing price, 35 cents ; for intro- 
 duction, 30 cents. 
 
 Add/son's Criticisms on Paradise Lost 
 
 Edited by ALBERT S. COOK, Professor of the English Language and 
 Literature in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth, xxiv+200 pages. 
 Mailing price, $1.10; for introduction, $1.00. 
 
 V. D. Scudder, Instructor in Eng 
 lish Literature, Wellesley College : It 
 
 be welcome as an addition to our 
 store of text-books. 
 
 seems to me admirably edited and to 
 
 What is Poetry ? " Leigh Hunt's Answer to 
 
 the Question, including Remarks on Versification. 
 Edited by ALBERT S. COOK, Professor of the English Language and 
 Literature in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth. 104 pages. Mailing 
 price, 60 cents ; for introduction, 50 cents. 
 
 Bliss Perry, Prof, of Oratory, 
 Princeton University, Princeton, 
 N.J. : Professor Cook's beautiful 
 
 little book will prove to the teacher 
 one of the most useful volumes in 
 the series it represents. 
 
HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 13 
 
 Essays and Letters selected from the Writings 
 
 of John Ruskin. 
 
 With Introductory Interpretations and Annotations. By Lois G. 
 HUFFORD, Teacher of English Literature in the Indianapolis High 
 School. 12mo. Cloth, xxix x 441 pages. Illustrated. Mailing price, 
 $1.10; for introduction, $1.00. 
 
 rpHESE essays are characteristic expressions of Ruskin's viewc 
 on social questions and ethical culture. They are accom- 
 panied by interpretative introductions and explanatory notes. 
 The main introduction gives Ruskin's theory of life and art, a 
 biographical sketch, showing what influences contributed to the 
 formation of his character, and the characteristics of his literary 
 style. 
 
 The Beginnings of the English Romantic Moue- 
 
 ment, 
 
 A Study in Eighteenth Century Literature. By WILLIAM LYON 
 PHELPS, Ph.D., Instructor in English Literature, Yale University. 
 12mo.. Cloth, viii+192 pages. Mailing price, $1.10; for introduc- 
 tion, $1.00. 
 
 book is a -study of the germs of English Romanticism 
 between 1725 and 1765. No other work in this field has 
 ever been published, hence the results given here are all the fruit 
 of first-hand investigation. 
 
 It is believed that this book is a contribution to our knowledge 
 of English literary history ; and it will be especially valuable 
 to advanced classes of students who are interested in the develop- 
 ment of literature. 
 
 Archibald MacMechan, Prof, of 
 English, Dalhousie College, Halifax, 
 N.S. : It is a valuable contribution 
 to the history of English literature 
 in the eighteenth century. 
 
 Barrett Wendell, Prof, of Eng- 
 lish, Harvard University : Among 
 the most scholarly and suggestive 
 books of literary history. 
 
 Studies in the Evolution of English Criticism. 
 
 By LAURA JOHNSON WYLIE, Graduate Student of English in Yale 
 University. 12mo. Cloth, viii + 212 pages. Mailing price, $1.10 ; 
 for introduction, $1.00. 
 
 PPHE critical principles of Dryden and Coleridge, and the con- 
 ditions on which the evolution of their opposite theories 
 depended, are the subjects chiefly discussed in this book. 
 
14 
 
 HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 A Primer of English Verse. 
 
 By HIRAM CORSON, Professor of English Literature in Cornell Univer- 
 sity. 12mo. Cloth. iv + 232 pages. By mail, $1.10; for introduction, 
 $1.00. 
 
 leading purpose of this volume is to introduce the student 
 to the aesthetic and organic character of English Verse to 
 cultivate his susceptibility to verse as an inseparable part of poetic 
 expression. To this end, the various effects provided for by the 
 poet, either consciously or unconsciously on his part, are given for 
 the student to practice upon, until those effects come out distinctly 
 to his feelings. 
 
 J. H. Gilinore, Prof, of English, 
 University of Eo Chester : It gives a 
 thoroughly adequate discussion of 
 the principal forms of English verse. 
 
 The University Magazine, New 
 York: Professor Corson has given 
 us a most interesting and thorough 
 treatise on the characteristics and 
 
 Analytics of Literature. 
 
 uses of English metres. He dis- 
 cusses the force and effects of vari- 
 ous metres, giving examples of usage 
 from various poets. The book will 
 be of great use to both the critical 
 student and to those who recognize 
 that poetry, like music, is constructed 
 on scientific and precise principles. 
 
 A Manual for the Objective Study of English Prose and Poetry. By 
 L. A. SHERMAN, Professor of English Literature in the University of 
 Nebraska. 12mo. Cloth, xx + 468 pages. Mailing price, $1.40; for 
 introduction, $1.25. 
 
 book was written to embody a new system of teaching 
 literature that has been tried with great success. The chief 
 features of the system are the recognition of elements, and insuring 
 an experience of each, on the part of the learner, according to the 
 laboratory plan. The principal stages in the evolution of form 
 in literature are made especial subjects of study. 
 
 Edwin M. Hopkins, Instructor of 
 English, University of Kansas: I 
 am delighted with the fruitful and 
 suggestive way in which he has 
 treated the subject. 
 
 Bliss Perry, Prof essor of English, 
 Princeton University : I have found 
 
 it an extremely suggestive book. . . 
 It has a great deal of originality and 
 earnestness. 
 
 Daniel Dorchester, Jr., Prof, of 
 Rhetoric and English Literature, 
 Boston University : It is a very use- 
 ful book. I shall recommend it. 
 
HIGHER ENGLISH. 15 
 
 Fiue Short Courses of Reading in English Litera- 
 
 ture. 
 
 With Biographical and Critical References. By C. T. WINCHESTER, 
 Professor of English Literature in Wesleyan University. Sq. 16mo. 
 Cloth, v + 99 pages. Mailing price, 45 cents j for introduction, 40 cents. 
 
 nHHIS little book lays out five short courses of reading from the 
 most prominent writers in pure literature of the last three 
 centuries, beginning with Marlowe and ending with Tennyson. 
 The book contains also information as to the best editions for 
 student use, with extended and well chosen lists of critical and 
 biographical authorities. 
 
 Le Baron K. Briggs, Professor of 
 English, Harvard University : I am 
 
 much pleased with it. It cannot help 
 being useful. 
 
 Synopsis of English and American Literature. 
 
 By G. J. SMITH, Instructor of English, Washington (D.C.) High School. 
 8vo. Cloth. 125 pages. By mail, 90 cents; for introduction, 80 cents. 
 
 /^NE finds here in every case the author's full name, the dates 
 of birth and death, the class of writers to which he belongs, 
 the chronological place of that class in the development of litera- 
 ture, his most important works, his most distinguished contem- 
 poraries, the leading events of the time, and, in most cases a few 
 clear words of explanation or criticism. 
 W. B. Chamberlain, formerly Prof '. 
 
 ofEheloric,Oberlin College: Its clear- 
 ness, compactness, and readiness for 
 reference, must make it one of the 
 most useful tools for either teacher 
 or student. It gives a vast amount 
 
 of most valuable information in the 
 most economical manner possible. A 
 very valuable feature is its correla- 
 tion of literary with political and 
 general historical events. I regard 
 it as a decided success. 
 
 Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hamlet. 
 
 For the use of Colleges, High Schools, Academies and Clubs. By CAR- 
 ROLL LEWIS MAXCY, A.B., Associate Principal and Instructor in Eng- 
 lish, Troy (N.Y.) Academy. Square lOmo. Cloth. 200 pages. Mail- 
 ing price, 50 cents; for introduction, 45 cents. 
 
 AT the close of each scene is appended an extensive body of 
 questions covering all the points of action, and leading to 
 a thorough appreciation and familiarity with the play. 
 
 The Philosophy of American Literature. 
 
 By GREENOUGH WHITE, A.M., Professor in Univ. of the South. 12mo. 
 Flexible cloth, iv + 66 pages. By mail, 35 cents ; for in trod., 30 cents. 
 
16 HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 The Best Elizabethan Plays. 
 
 Edited with an Introduction by WILLIAM R. THATEE. 12mo. Cloth, 
 611 pages. By mail, $1.40; for introduction, $1.25. 
 
 rPHE selection comprises The Jew of Malta, by Marlowe; The 
 Alchemist, by Ben Jonson ; Philaster, by Beaumont and Fletcher; 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Fletcher and Shakespeare ; and The 
 Duchess of Malfi, by Webster. It thus affords not only the best 
 specimen of the dramatic work of each of the five Elizabethan 
 poets who rank next to Shakespeare, but also a general view of the 
 development of English drama from its rise in Marlowe to its last 
 strong expression in Webster. 
 
 Felix E. Schelling, Professor of 
 English, University of Pennsyl- 
 vania: All professors of English 
 literature must welcome such intel- 
 ligent and scholarly editions of our 
 enduring classics. 
 
 Charles F. Richardson, Professor 
 of English, Dartmouth College: The 
 book is an excellent one, well edited, 
 equipped with brief and sensible 
 notes, and introduced by a preface 
 of real critical insight. 
 
 A Method of English Composition. 
 
 By T. WHITING BANCROFT, late Professor of Rhetoric and English 
 Literature in Brown University. 12mo. Cloth. 101 pages. Mailing 
 price, 55 cents ; for introduction, 50 cents. 
 
 Notes on English Literature. 
 
 By FRED PARKER EMERY, Professor of Rhetoric, Dartmouth College. 
 12mo. Cloth. 152 pages. By mail, $1.10; for introduction, $1.00. 
 
 HHHIS book follows the critical, comparative, and philosophical 
 method of the best universities, and combines the advantages 
 of the tabulated synopsis of authors and books with those of the 
 critical literary history 
 
 The Rhetoric Tablet 
 
 By F. N. SCOTT, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, University of Michi- 
 gan, and J. V. DENNEY, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Ohio State 
 University. No. 1. 5|x 9 inches. White paper (ruled). No. 2. Tinted 
 paper (unruled). 7^x9| inches. Sixty sheets in each. Mailing price, 
 20 cents ; for introduction, 15 cents. 
 
 AS a substitute in English work for composition-books or other 
 manuscript-paper, the Rhetoric Tablet offers the following 
 advantages: (1) Uniform paper throughout the school, (2) a 
 broad margin for corrections, (3) a minute and systematic 
 analysis of the most common errors in composition, (4) references 
 to standard rhetorics. 
 
22 
 
 HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 The Classic Myths in English Literature. 
 
 Based chiefly on Bulfinch's " Age of Fable." Accompanied by an inter- 
 pretative and illustrative commentary. Edited by CHARLES MILLS 
 GAYLEY, Professor of the English Language and Literature, Univer- 
 sity of California. 12mo. Half leather, xlv + 540 pages. Mailing 
 price, $1.65; for introduction, $1.50. New Edition, with 16 full-page 
 illustrations. 
 
 work is recommended both as the best manual of mythol- 
 ogy and as indispensable to the student of English literature. 
 Some special features are : 
 
 1. An introduction on the indebtedness of English poetry to 
 the literature of fable, and on methods of teaching mythology. 
 
 2. An elementary account of myth-making and of the prin- 
 cipal poets of mythology, and of the beginnings of the world, of 
 gods and of men among the Greeks. 
 
 3. A thorough revision and systematization of Bulfinch's 
 Stories of Gods and Heroes: with additional stories, and with 
 selections from English poems based upon the myths. 
 
 4. Illustrative cuts from Baumeister, Roscher, and other 
 standard authorities on mythology. 
 
 5. The requisite maps. 
 
 6. Certain necessary modifications in Bulfinch's treatment of 
 the mythology of nations other than the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 7. Notes, following the te?:t (as in the school editions of Latin 
 and Greek authors), containing an historical and interpretative 
 commentary upon certain myths, supplementary poetical cita- 
 tions, a list of the better known allusions to mythological fiction, 
 references to works of art, and hints to teachers and students. 
 
 Albert S. Cook, Professor of the 
 English Language and Literature, 
 Yale University : I can cordially rec- 
 ommend it to colleges and schools. 
 It is scholarly, attractive, stimu- 
 lating, and refining. 
 
 C. K. Adams, President Univer- 
 sity of Wisconsin: An admirable 
 volume. It is just what hundreds 
 of thousands of students need. 
 
 William T. Harris, United States 
 Commissioner of Education: It is 
 
 the most satisfactory book yet pub- 
 lished on this theme. . . . Every 
 reader of literature should have 
 this book within reach on his 
 table. 
 
 Katharine Lee Bates, Professor 
 of English Literature, Wellesley Col- 
 lege : It is well worth doing and 
 well done. 
 
 F. J. Miller, Professor of Latin, 
 University of Chicago: I am more 
 than charmed with it. 
 
26 
 
 HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 ATHENJEUM PRESS SERIES. 
 
 ISSUED UNDER THE GENERAL EDITORSHIP OF 
 
 PROFESSOR GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE, of Harvard University, 
 
 AND 
 PROFESSOR C. T. WINCHESTER, of Wesleyan University. 
 
 FT is proposed to issue a series of carefully edited works in 
 English Literature, under the above title. This series is in- 
 tended primarily for use in colleges and higher schools ; but it 
 will furnish also to the general reader a library of the best things 
 in English letters in editions at once popular and scholarly. The 
 works selected will represent, with some degree of completeness, 
 the course of English Literature from Chaucer to our own times. 
 The volumes will be moderate in price, yet attractive in appear- 
 ance, and as nearly as possible uniform in size and style. Each 
 volume will contain, in addition to an unabridged and critically 
 accurate text, an Introduction and a body of Notes. The amount 
 and nature of the annotation will, of course, vary with the age 
 and character of the work edited. The notes will be full enough 
 to explain every difficulty of language, allusion, or interr>retation 
 Full glossaries will be furnished when necessary. 
 
 The introductions are meant to be a distinctive feature of the 
 series. Each introduction will give a brief biographical sketch of 
 the author edited, and a somewhat extended study of his genius, 
 his relation to his age, and his position in English literary history. 
 The introductory matter will usually include a bibliography of 
 the author or the work in hand, as well as a select list of critical 
 and biographical books and articles. See a/.so Announcements. 
 
 Sidney's Defense of Poesy. 
 
 Edited with an Introduction and Notes by ALBERT S. Cook, Professor 
 of English in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth, xlv + 103 pages. By 
 mail, <)0 cents; for introduction, 80 cents. 
 
 William Minto, Late Prof, of Lit- 
 erature, University of Aberdeen: It 
 seems to me to be a very thorough 
 and instructive piece of work. The 
 interests of the student are consulted 
 
 in every sentence of the Introduction 
 and Notes, and the paper of ques- 
 tions is admirable as a guide to the 
 thorough study of the substance of 
 the essay. 
 
HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 27 
 
 Ben Jonson's Timber: or Discoveries 
 
 Made upon Men and Matter, as they have Flowed out of his Daily 
 Readings, or had their Reflux to his Peculiar Notions of the Times. 
 
 Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by FELIX E. SCHELLING, Profes- 
 sor in the University of Pennsylvania. 12mo. Cloth, xxxviii + 166 
 pages. Mailing price, 90 cents ; for introduction, 80 cents. 
 
 is the first attempt to edit a long-neglected English classic, 
 which needs only to be better known to take its place among 
 the best examples of the height of Elizabethan prose. The intro- 
 duction and a copious body of notes have been framed with a 
 view to the intelligent understanding of an author whose wide 
 learning and wealth of allusion make him the fittest exponent of 
 the scholarship as well as the literary style and feeling of his age. 
 
 Edward Dowden, Prof, of English, 
 Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland : It 
 is a matter for rejoicing that so valu- 
 able and interesting a piece of liter- 
 
 ature as this prose work of Jonson 
 should be made easily accessible, and 
 should have all the advantages of 
 scholarly editing. 
 
 Selections from the Essays of Francis Jeffrey. 
 
 Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by LEWIS E. GATES, Instructor in 
 English in Harvard University. 12mo. Cloth, xlv + 213 pages. By 
 mail, $1.00; for introduction, *K) cents. 
 
 fPHE selections are chosen to illustrate the qualities of Jeffrey's 
 style and his range and methods as a literary critic. The 
 introduction gives a brief sketch of the history of Reviews in 
 England down to 1802* and suggests some of the more import- 
 ant changes in critical methods and in the relations between critic 
 and public which were brought about by the establishment of the 
 Edinburgh Review. This volume is especially valuable for classes 
 that are beginning the independent study of literary topics and 
 methods of criticism. 
 
 Charton Collins, London, Author 
 of "Bolinybroke and Voltaire," 
 "Jonathan Swift," etc. : The intro- 
 duction gives succinctly and clearly 
 all the facts which enable students 
 to understand Jeffrey's character- 
 
 istics as a man, his relative position 
 to his contemporaries, his excellence, 
 his deficiencies and his limitations. 
 . . . I have no hesitation in saying 
 that the book supplies a real want, 
 and supplies it excellently. 
 
28 HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 Old English Ballads. 
 
 Selected and edited, with Notes and Introduction, by Professor F. B. 
 GUMMERE of Haverford College. 12mo. Cloth, xcviii + 380 pages. 
 By mail, $1.35; for introduction, $1.25. 
 
 fPHE aim has been to present the best of the- traditional English 
 and Scottish ballads and also to make the collection repre- 
 sentative. The pieces have been arranged by subject, but not 
 divided into groups or classes. The glossary will be found full 
 but simple. Philological details have been given only when the 
 explanation of the passage rendered them necessary. The notes 
 have been prepared according to the same principle, the eluci- 
 dation of the text and the thought. The introduction presents a 
 detailed study of popular poetry and the views of its chief critics, 
 with notes on metre, style, etc. 
 
 Lever ett Spring, Professor of Rhet- 
 oric, Williams College : A thorough 
 and scholarly piece of literary work. 
 
 Isaac N. Demmon, Professor of 
 
 Michigan: Admirably done through- 
 out and seems to supply an im- 
 portant piece of apparatus for the 
 teaching of English in our schools. 
 
 English Literature, University of 
 
 Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas 
 
 Cray. 
 
 Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by WM. LYON PHELPS, Instructor 
 in English Literature at Yale College. 12mo. Cloth. 1 + 179 pages. 
 By mail, $1.00 ; for introduction, 90 cents. 
 
 rpHIS volume contains all of the poems of Gray that are of any 
 real interest and value, and the prose selections include the 
 Journal in the Lakes entire, and extracts from his Letters of auto- 
 biographical and literary interest. The Introduction, besides 
 containing a Life of Gray, a Bibliography, etc., gives a summary 
 of his historical significance, with a critical review of his work. 
 The Notes on the Prose are very brief, and simply explanatory. 
 This volume of Gray, besides being adapted for the general reader, 
 will be especially useful in schools and colleges. 
 
 Hiram Corson, Professor of Eng- 
 lish, Cornell University, Ithaca, 
 N.Y.: The editorial part of this 
 work is admirably done. 
 
 George C. Chase, President of 
 
 Bates College, Lewiston, Me. : An 
 excellent text, competent editing 
 and scholarly notes. 
 
HIGHER ENGLISH. 29 
 
 A Book of Elizabethan Lyrics. 
 
 Selected and edited, with Introduction, Notes and Indices, by FELIX E. 
 SCHELLING, Professor of English Literature in the University of Penn- 
 sylvania. 12mo. Cloth. Ixix + 327 pages. By mail, $1.25 ; for intro- 
 duction, $1.12. 
 
 T1HE selections have been drawn from the works of individual 
 authors, from Plays and Masques, and from the Miscellanies, 
 Song Books and Sonnet Sequences of the age: each selection is 
 given entire. The poems are arranged as nearly chronologically 
 as is possible in order that the collection may be representative. 
 The introduction sets forth the general nature of the Elizabethan 
 lyric in its thought and form, briefly treating of the changes 
 wrought in style and versification, the sources of the selections, 
 questions of text and authorship. 
 
 Herrich: Selections from the Hesperides and the 
 
 Noble Numbers. 
 
 Edited with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary, by Professor EDWARD 
 E. HALE, Jr., of the State University of Iowa. 12mo. Cloth, 
 pages. By mail, ; for introduction, 
 
 rpHE editor has made a selection of Herrick's best poems. In 
 the introduction he endeavors to mark the varied develop- 
 ment of Herrick's poetic thought and to find bases for proper infer- 
 ence concerning the poet's life. He has, however, kept in mind 
 throughout that Herrick is of real interest as a consummate artist 
 of exquisite quality, and not as an available object for critical 
 methods. 
 
 Carlyle's Sartor Resartus. 
 
 Edited, with an Introduction and Commentary, by ARCHIBALD MAC 
 MECHAN, Munro Professor of English in Dalhousie College, Halifax, 
 N.S. 12mo. Cloth. pages. By mail, ; for introduction 
 
 gARTOR RESARTUS is Carlyle's first important book. It 
 contains in essence all his teaching for his age, and possesses 
 also much interest as his spiritual autobiography. Though no 
 book needs annotation more, on account of its many and remote 
 allusions, this is the first attempt since its publication to deal fully 
 with the difficulties which it presents. 
 
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