Part 13 (1/2)

+1688+ 31. +John Bunyan+ writes his 'Pilgrim's Progress'-- a book full of pithy English idiom. ”The common folk had the wit at once to see the worth of Bunyan's masterpiece, and the learned long afterwards followed in the wake of the common folk” (+Born 1628+)

+1642+ 32. +Sir Thomas Browne+, the author of 'Urn-Burial' and other works written in a highly Latinised diction, such as the 'Religio Medici,'

written [1642]

+1759+ 33. +Dr Samuel Johnson+ was the chief supporter of the use of ”long-tailed words in osity and ation,” such as his novel called 'Ra.s.selas,' published [1759]

34. +Tennyson, Poet-Laureate+, a writer of the best English-- ”a countryman of Robert Manning's, and a careful student of old Malory, has done much for the revival of pure English among us” (+Born 1809+)

PART IV.

OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

CHAPTER I.

OUR OLDEST ENGLISH LITERATURE.

1. +Literature.+-- The history of English Literature is, in its external aspect, an account of the best books in prose and in verse that have been written by English men and English women; and this account begins with a poem brought over from the Continent by our countrymen in the fifth century, and comes down to the time in which we live. It covers, therefore, a period of nearly fourteen hundred years.

2. +The Distribution of Literature.+-- We must not suppose that literature has always existed in the form of printed books. Literature is a living thing-- a living outcome of the living mind; and there are many ways in which it has been distributed to other human beings. The oldest way is, of course, by one person repeating a poem or other literary composition he has made to another; and thus literature is stored away, not upon book-shelves, but in the memory of living men.

Homer's poems are said to have been preserved in this way to the Greeks for five hundred years. Father chanted them to son; the sons to their sons; and so on from generation to generation. The next way of distributing literature is by the aid of signs called letters made upon leaves, flattened reeds, parchment, or the inner bark of trees. The next is by the help of writing upon paper. The last is by the aid of type upon paper. This has existed in England for more than four hundred years-- since the year 1474; and thus it is that our libraries contain many hundreds of thousands of valuable books. For the same reason is it, most probably, that as our power of retaining the substance and multiplying the copies of books has grown stronger, our living memories have grown weaker. This defect can be remedied only by education-- that is, by training the memories of the young. While we possess so many printed books, it must not be forgotten that many valuable works exist still in ma.n.u.script-- written either upon paper or on parchment.

3. +Verse, the earliest form of Literature.+-- It is a remarkable fact that the earliest kind of composition in all languages is in the form of +Verse+. The oldest books, too, are those which are written in verse.

Thus Homer's poems are the oldest literary work of Greece; the Sagas are the oldest productions of Scandinavian literature; and the Beowulf is the oldest piece of literature produced by the Anglo-Saxon race. It is also from the strong creative power and the lively inventions of poets that we are even now supplied with new thoughts and new language-- that the most vivid words and phrases come into the language; just as it is the ranges of high mountains that send down to the plains the ever fresh soil that gives to them their unending fertility. And thus it happens that our present English speech is full of words and phrases that have found their way into the most ordinary conversation from the writings of our great poets-- and especially from the writings of our greatest poet, Shakespeare. The fact that the life of prose depends for its supplies on the creative minds of poets has been well expressed by an American writer:--

”I looked upon a plain of green, Which some one called the Land of Prose, Where many living things were seen In movement or repose.

I looked upon a stately hill That well was named the Mount of Song, Where golden shadows dwelt at will, The woods and streams among.

But most this fact my wonder bred (Though known by all the n.o.bly wise), It was the mountain stream that fed That fair green plain's amenities.”

4. +Our oldest English Poetry.+-- The verse written by our old English writers was very different in form from the verse that appears now from the hands of Tennyson, or Browning, or Matthew Arnold. The old English or Anglo-Saxon writers used a kind of rhyme called +head-rhyme+ or +alliteration+; while, from the fourteenth century downwards, our poets have always employed +end-rhyme+ in their verses.

”{L}ightly down {l}eaping he {l}oosened his helmet.”

Such was the rough old English form. At least three words in each long line were alliterative-- two in the first half, and one in the second.

Metaphorical phrases were common, such as _war-adder_ for arrow, _war-s.h.i.+rts_ for armour, _whale's-path_ or _swan-road_ for the sea, _wave-horse_ for a s.h.i.+p, _tree-wright_ for carpenter. Different statements of the same fact, different phrases for the same thing-- what are called +parallelisms+ in Hebrew poetry-- as in the line--

”Then saw they the sea head-lands-- the windy walls,”

were also in common use among our oldest English poets.

5. +Beowulf.+-- The +Beowulf+ is the oldest poem in the English language. It is our ”old English epic”; and, like much of our ancient verse, it is a war poem. The author of it is unknown. It was probably composed in the fifth century-- not in England, but on the Continent-- and brought over to this island-- not on paper or on parchment-- but in the memories of the old Jutish or Saxon vikings or warriors. It was not written down at all, even in England, till the end of the ninth century, and then, probably, by a monk of Northumbria. It tells among other things the story of how Beowulf sailed from Sweden to the help of Hrothgar, a king in Jutland, whose life was made miserable by a monster-- half man, half fiend-- named Grendel. For about twelve years this monster had been in the habit of creeping up to the banqueting-hall of King Hrothgar, seizing upon his thanes, carrying them off, and devouring them. Beowulf attacks and overcomes the dragon, which is mortally wounded, and flees away to die. The poem belongs both to the German and to the English literature; for it is written in a Continental English, which is somewhat different from the English of our own island.

But its literary shape is, as has been said, due to a Christian writer of Northumbria; and therefore its written or printed form-- as it exists at present-- is not German, but English. Parts of this poem were often chanted at the feasts of warriors, where all sang in turn as they sat after dinner over their cups of mead round the ma.s.sive oaken table. The poem consists of 3184 lines, the rhymes of which are solely alliterative.