Volume 2, Part 1 Part 9 (2/2)
Shrubsole, _The Land of Lakes_ (London, 1906), a guide to fis.h.i.+ng in County Donegal. Europe: ”Palmer Hackle,” _Hints on Angling_ (London, 1846), contains ”suggestions for angling excursions in France and Belgium,” but they are too old to be of much service; W.M. Gallichan, _Fis.h.i.+ng and Travel in Spain_ (London, 1905); G.W. Hartley, _Wild Sport with Gun, Rifle and Salmon Rod_ (Edinburgh, 1903), contains a chapter on huchen fis.h.i.+ng; Max von dem Borne, _Wegweiser fur Angler durch Deutschland, Oesterreich und die Schweiz_ (Berlin, 1877), a book of good conception and arrangement, and still useful, though out of date in many particulars; _Ill.u.s.trierte Angler-Schule (der deutschen Fischerei Zeitung)_, Stettin, contains good chapters on the wels and huchen; H. Storck, Der Angelsport (Munich, 1898), contains a certain amount of geographical information; E.B. Kennedy, _Thirty Seasons in Scandinavia_ (London, 1904), contains useful information about fis.h.i.+ng; General E.F. Burton, _Trouting in Norway_ (London, 1897); Abel Chapman, _Wild Norway_ (London, 1897); F. Sandeman, _Angling Travels in Norway_ (London, 1895). America: C.F. Holder, _Big Game Fishes of the United States_ (New York, 1903); J.A. Henshall, _Ba.s.s, Pike, Perch and Pickerel_ (New York, 1903); Dean Sage and others, _Salmon and Trout_ (New York, 1902); E.T.D. Chambers, Angler's Guide to Eastern Canada (Quebec, 1899); Rowland Ward, _The English Angler in Florida_ (London, 1898); J. Turner Turner, _The Giant Fish of Florida_ (London, 1902). India: H.S. Thomas, _The Rod in India_ (London, 1897); ”Skene Dhu,” _The Mighty Mahseer_ (Madras, 1906), contains a chapter on the acclimatization of trout in India and Ceylon. New Zealand: W.H. s.p.a.ckman, _Trout in New Zealand_ (London, 1894); Capt. Hamilton, _Trout Fis.h.i.+ng and Sport in Maoriland_ (Wellington, 1905), contains a valuable section on fis.h.i.+ng waters.
_Fishery Law._--G.C. Oke, _A Handy Book of the Fishery Laws_ (edited by J.W. Willis Band and A.C. M'Barnet, London, 1903).
ANGLO-ISRAELITE THEORY, the contention that the British people in the United Kingdom, its colonies, and the United States, are the racial descendants of the ”ten tribes” forming the kingdom of Israel, large numbers of whom were deported by Sargon king of a.s.syria on the fall of Samaria in 721 B.C. The theory (which is fully set forth in a book called _Philo-Israel_) rests on premises which are deemed by scholars--both theological and anthropological--to be utterly unsound.
ANGLO-NORMAN LITERATURE:--The French language (_q.v._) came over to England with William the Conqueror. During the whole of the 12th century it shared with Latin the distinction of being the literary language of England, and it was in use at the court until the 14th century. It was not until the reign of Henry IV. that English became the native tongue of the kings of England. After the loss of the French provinces, schools for the teaching of French were established in England, among the most celebrated of which we may quote that of Marlborough. The language then underwent certain changes which gradually distinguished it from the French spoken in France; but, except for some graphical characteristics, from which certain rules of p.r.o.nunciation are to be inferred, the changes to which the language was subjected were the individual modifications of the various authors, so that, while we may still speak of Anglo-Norman writers, an Anglo-Norman language, properly so called, gradually ceased to exist.
The prestige enjoyed by the French language, which, in the 14th century, the author of the _Maniere de language_ calls ”le plus bel et le plus gracious language et plus n.o.ble parler, apres latin d'escole, qui soit au monde et de touz genz mieulx prisee et amee que nul autre (quar Dieux le fist si douce et amiable princ.i.p.alement a l'oneur et loenge de luy mesmes. Et pour ce il peut comparer au parler des angels du ciel, pour la grand doulceur et biaultee d'icel),” was such that it was not till 1363 that the chancellor opened the parliamentary session with an English speech. And although the Hundred Years' War led to a decline in the study of French and the disappearance of Anglo-Norman literature, the French language continued, through some vicissitudes, to be the cla.s.sical language of the courts of justice until the 17th century. It is still the language of the Channel Islands, though there too it tends more and more to give way before the advance of English.
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It will be seen from the above that the most flouris.h.i.+ng period of Anglo-Norman literature was from the beginning of the 12th century to the end of the first quarter of the 13th. The end of this period is generally said to coincide with the loss of the French provinces to Philip Augustus, but literary and political history do not correspond quite so precisely, and the end of the first period would be more accurately denoted by the appearance of the history of William the Marshal in 1225 (published for the _Societe de l'histoire de France_, by Paul Meyer, 3 vols., 1891-1901). It owes its brilliancy largely to the protection accorded by Henry II. of England to the men of letters of his day. ”He could speak French and Latin well, and is said to have known something of every tongue between'the Bay of Biscay and the Jordan.' He was probably the most highly educated sovereign of his day, and amid all his busy active life he never lost his interest in literature and intellectual discussion; his hands were never empty, they always had either a bow or a book” (_Dict. of Nat. Biog._). Wace and Benoit de Sainte-More compiled their histories at his bidding, and it was in his reign that Marie de France composed her poems. An event with which he was closely connected, viz. the murder of Thomas Becket, gave rise to a whole series of writings, some of which are purely Anglo-Norman. In his time appeared the works of Beroul and Thomas respectively, as well as some of the most celebrated of the Anglo-Norman _romans d'aventure_. It is important to keep this fact in mind when studying the different works which Anglo-Norman literature has left us. We will examine these works briefly, grouping them into narrative, didactic, hagiographic, lyric, satiric and dramatic literature.
_Narrative Literature:_ (_a_) _Epic and Romance_.--The French epic came over to England at an early date. We know that the _Chanson de Roland_ was sung at the battle of Hastings, and we possess Anglo-Norman MSS. of a few _chansons de geste_. The _Pelerinage de Charlemagne_ (Koschwitz, _Altfranzosische Bibliothek_, 1883) was, for instance, only preserved in an Anglo-Norman ma.n.u.script of the British Museum (now lost), although the author was certainly a Parisian. The oldest ma.n.u.script of the _Chanson de Roland_ that we possess is also a ma.n.u.script written in England, and amongst the others of less importance we may mention _La Chancun de Willame_, the MS. of which has (June 1903) been published in facsimile at Chiswick (cf. Paul Meyer, _Romania_, x.x.xii. 597-618). Although the diffusion of epic poetry in England did not actually inspire any new _chansons de geste_, it developed the taste for this cla.s.s of literature, and the epic style in which the tales of _Horn_, of _Bovon de Hampton_, of _Guy of Warwick_ (still unpublished), of _Waldef_ (still unpublished), and of _Fulk Fitz Warine_ are treated, is certainly partly due to this circ.u.mstance. Although the last of these works has come down to us only in a prose version, it contains unmistakable signs of a previous poetic form, and what we possess is really only a rendering into prose similar to the transformations undergone by many of the _chansons de geste_ (cf. L. Brandin, _Introduction to Fulk Fitz Warine_, London, 1904).
The interinfluence of French and English literature can be studied in the Breton romances and the _romans d'aventure_ even better than in the epic poetry of the period. The _Lay of Orpheus_ is known to us only through an English imitation; the _Lai du cor_ was composed by Robert Biket, an Anglo-Norman poet of the 12th century (Wulff, Lund, 1888). The _lais_ of Marie de France were written in England, and the greater number of the romances composing the _matiere de Bretagne_ seem to have pa.s.sed from England to France through the medium of Anglo-Norman. The legends of Merlin and Arthur, collected in the _Historia Regum Britanniae_ by Geoffrey of Monmouth ([+] 1154), pa.s.sed into French literature, bearing the character which the bishop of St. Asaph had stamped upon them. Chretien de Troye's _Perceval_ (c.
1175) is doubtless based on an Anglo-Norman poem. Robert de Boron (c.
1215) took the subject of his Merlin (published by G. Paris and J.
Ulrich, 1886, 2 vols., _Societe des Anciens Textes_) from Geoffrey of Monmouth. Finally, the most celebrated love-legend of the middle ages, and one of the most beautiful inventions of world-literature, the story of Tristan and Iseult, tempted two authors, Beroul and Thomas, the first of whom is probably, and the second certainly, Anglo-Norman (see ARTHURIAN LEGEND; GRAIL, THE HOLY; TRISTAN). One _Folie Tristan_ was composed in England in the last years of the 12th century. (For all these questions see _Soc. des Anc. Textes_, Muret's ed. 1903; Bedier's ed. 1902-1905). Less fascinating than the story of Tristan and Iseult, but nevertheless of considerable interest, are the two _romans d'aventure_ of Hugh of Rutland, _Ipomedon_ (published by Kolbing and Koschwitz, Breslau, 1889) and _Protesilaus_ (still unpublished) written about 1185. The first relates the adventures of a knight who married the young d.u.c.h.ess of Calabria, niece of King Meleager of Sicily, but was loved by Medea, the king's wife. The second poem is the sequel to _Ipomedon_, and deals with the wars and subsequent reconciliation between Ipomedon's sons, Daunus, the elder, lord of Apulia, and Protesilaus, the younger, lord of Calabria.
Protesilaus defeats Daunus, who had expelled him from Calabria. He saves his brother's life, is reinvested with the dukedom of Calabria, and, after the death of Daunus, succeeds to Apulia. He subsequently marries Medea, King Meleager's widow, who had helped him to seize Apulia, having transferred her affection for Ipomedon to his younger son (cf. Ward, _Cat. of Rom._, i. 728). To these two romances by an Anglo-Norman author, _Amadas et Idoine_, of which we only possess a continental version, is to be added. Gaston Paris has proved indeed that the original was composed in England in the 12th century (_An English Miscellany presented to Dr. Furnivall in Honour of his Seventy-fifth Birthday_, Oxford, 1901, 386-394). The Anglo-Norman poem on the _Life of Richard Coeur de Lion_ is lost, and an English version only has been preserved. About 1250 Eustace of Kent introduced into England the _roman d'Alexandre_ in his _Roman de toute chevalerie_, many pa.s.sages of which have been imitated in one of the oldest English poems on Alexander, namely, _King Alisaunder_ (P. Meyer, _Alexandre le grand_, Paris, 1886, ii. 273, and Weber, _Metrical Romances_, Edinburgh).
(_b_) _Fableaux, Fables and Religious Tales_.--In spite of the incontestable popularity enjoyed by this cla.s.s of literature, we have only some half-dozen _fableaux_ written in England, viz. _Le chevalier a la corbeille, Le chevalier qui faisait parler les muets, Le chevalier, sa dame et un clerc, Les trois dames, La gageure, Le pretre d'Alison, La bourgeoise d'Orleans_ (Bedier, _Les Fabliaux_, 1895). As to fables, one of the most popular collections in the middle ages was that written by Marie de France, which she claimed to have translated from _King Alfred_. In the _Contes moralises_, written by Nicole Bozon shortly before 1320 (_Soc. Anc. Textes_, 1889), a few fables bear a strong resemblance to those of Marie de France.
The religious tales deal mostly with the Mary Legends, and have been handed down to us in three collections:
(i.) The Adgar's collection. Most of these were translated from William of Malmesbury ([+] 1143?) by Adgar in the 12th century (”Adgar's Marien-Legenden,” _Altfr. Biblioth_. ix.; J.A. Herbert, _Rom_. x.x.xii. 394).
(ii.) The collection of Everard of Gateley, a monk of St. Edmund at Bury, who wrote _c_. 1250 three Mary Legends (_Rom_. xxix. 27).
(iii.) An anonymous collection of sixty Mary Legends composed _c_.
1250 (Brit. Museum Old Roy. 20 B, xiv.), some of which have been published in Suchier's _Bibliotheca Normannica_; in the _Altf. Bibl_.
See also Mussafia, ”Studien zu den mittelalterlichen Marien-legenden”
in _Sitzungsh. der Wien. Akademie_ (t. cxiii., cxv., cxix., cxxiii., cxxix.).
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Another set of religious and moralizing tales is to be found in Chardri's _Set dormans_ and _Josaphat, c._ 1216 (Koch, _Altfr. Bibl._, 1880; G. Paris, _Poemes et legendes du moyen age_).
(_c_) _History_.--Of far greater importance, however, are the works which const.i.tute Anglo-Norman historiography. The first Anglo-Norman historiographer is Geoffrey Gaimar, who wrote his _Estorie des Angles_ (between 1147 and 1151) for Dame Constance, wife of Robert Fitz-Gislebert (_The Anglo-Norman Metrical Chronicle,_ Hardy and Martin, i. ii., London, 1888). This history comprised a first part (now lost), which was merely a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's _Historia regum Britanniae_, preceded by a history of the Trojan War, and a second part which carries us as far as the death of William Rufus. For this second part he has consulted historical doc.u.ments, but he stops at the year 1087, just when he has reached the period about which he might have been able to give us some first-hand information.
Similarly, Wace in his _Roman de Rou et des dues de Normandie_ (ed.
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