What new qualities are added to Anglo-Saxon poetry in this Cycle? What old qualities are retained? Does the poetry seem more modern in any respect? Why is the Phænix (Brooke's History of Early English Literature, pp. 428-430; Gollancz's Exeter Book, Part I., pp. 201241) remarkable? General Questions on Anglo-Saxon Poetry.-What most striking passages (a) in Beowulf, (b) elsewhere, show the Saxon love of war and of the sea? Instance the most striking parallelisms found in your readings. Give a list of vivid metaphors. What conspicuous differences do you find between Anglo-Saxon and old Celtic literature? (Morley's English Writers, I., 165-239, gives a sufficient number of selections from old Celtic literature to enable the student to answer this question. See also this volume, p. 37.) What excellences and defects seem to you most pronounced in Anglo-Saxon verse? Prose. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Bede's Ecclesiastical History are both translated in one volume of Bohn's Antiquarian Library. The most interesting part of Bede for the student of literature is the chapter relating to Cædmon (Chap. XXIV., pp. 217–220). In the Chronicle, read the entries for the years 871, 878, 897, 975, 1087, and 1137. What is there of interest in these selections? Why is the Chronicle specially valuable for the historian? The qualities of Alfred's prose may be seen in the passages translated in Brooke's English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest, pp. 221-241, and in Earle's Anglo-Saxon Literature, pp. 186– 206. A translation of Alfred's Orosius entire is given in Pauli's Life of Alfred (Bohn's Antiquarian Library). The most interesting part of Orosius is the original matter describing the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, pp. 249-255. What guided all Alfred's efforts in literature? What qualities are most manifest in his prose? Why is Anglo-Saxon poetry so vastly superior to the prose ? WORKS FOR CONSULTATION AND FURTHER STUDY (OPTIONAL) Ramsay's The Foundations of England. Freeman's Old English History. Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons. Grant Allen's Anglo-Saxon England. Green's History of the English People. Green's Conquest of England. Ten Brink's Early English Literature, Vol. I., pp. 1–115. Brooke's History of Early English Literature to the Accession of King Alfred, 500 pp., contains many metrical translations of specimens of the best Anglo-Saxon poetry. Brooke's English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest, 338 pp. Earle's Anglo-Saxon Literature. Morley's English Writers, Vols. I. and II., contains translations of many fine passages in Anglo-Saxon literature. Azarias's The Development of English Literature. Taine's English Literature, Book I., Chap. I. Jusserand's Literary History of the English People from the Origins to the Renaissance, pp. 3-93. Arnold's Notes on Beowulf. The Exeter Book, edited and translated by Gollancz. Gurteen's The Epic of the Fall of Man: A Comparative Study of Cadmon, Dante, and Milton. Bosworth and Waring's Anglo-Saxon Gospels. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England, and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, I vol., translated by Giles in Bohn's Antiquarian Library. Bohn's Six Old English Chronicles. Mabinogion (a collection of Welsh fairy tales and romances), translated by Lady Charlotte Guest. Sidney Lanier's The Boy's Mabinogion. CHAPTER II FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066, TO CHAUCER'S DEATH, The Norman Conquest. 1400 The overthrow of the Saxon rule in England by William the Conqueror in 1066 was an event of vast importance to English literature. The Normans (Norsemen or Northmen), as they were called, a term which shows their northern extraction, were originally of the same blood as the English race. They settled in France in the ninth century, married French wives, and adopted the French language. In 1066 their leader, Duke William, crossed the English Channel with an army, won the battle of Hastings, and became King of England. Characteristics of the Normans. The intermixture of Teutonic and French blood had given to the Normans the best qualities of both races. The Norman was nimble-witted, highly imaginative, and full of northern energy. The Saxon possessed dogged perseverance, good common sense, if he had long enough to think, and but little imagination. Some one has well said that the union of Norman with Saxon was like joining the swift spirit of the eagle to the strong body of the ox, or, again, that the Saxon furnished the dough, and the Norman the yeast. Had it not been or the blending of these necessary qualities in one race, English literature could not have become the first in the world. We see the characteristics of both the Teuton and the Norman in Shake speare's greatest plays. A pure Saxon could not have turned from Hamlet's soliloquy to write: "Where the bee sucks, there suck 1."1 CHANGES WROUGHT IN THE LANGUAGE The Emergence of Modern English. The productions of English authors during the three centuries after the Norman Conquest are of more philological than literary interest. The student should note the principal changes in the language because the relation between literature and its medium of expression is specially intimate. A great literature demands a rich vocabulary capable of expressing delicate shades of difference in thought and feeling. A musician may possess the highest type of ability, but if he is compelled to perform on a defective instrument, his music will show the shortcomings of its vehicle of expression. The period of growth of a literature and its language cannot be neglected by one who wishes a broad comprehension of the literary masterpieces alone. Modern English literature did not suddenly make its appearance like the fabled roses which sprang full-blown wherever the feet of Venus touched the soil. The language in which Chaucer and Shakespeare wrote was formed in a conflict in which no quarter was given or asked. Two great languages, the Saxon and the French, struggled for the mastery. The contest terminated with the survival of the fittest expressions from each. In the same ranks beside the Saxon words "mother" and "home," stand the French "duty" and "family." 1 The Tempest, V., 1. The student will the more intelligently comprehend the great change in his mother tongue if he looks at the transformation as an evolutionary process. Zoölogy shows that when animal organs become unnecessary, they tend to atrophy and to pass into the rudimentary stage or disappear entirely, and that those organs best adapted to further the welfare of the animal have developed. The reason why other branches of the Teutonic language have not developed so far as English is because their environment was not so favorable, since both French and Latin exercised comparatively small influence in their growth. Three Languages used in England. For three hundred years after the Norman Conquest, three languages were widely used in England. The Normans introduced French, which was the language of the court and the aristocracy. William the Conqueror brought over many Norman priests, who used Latin almost exclusively in their service. The influence of this book Latin is generally underestimated by those who do not appreciate the power of the church. The Domesday survey shows that in 1085 the church, with her dependents, held more than one third of some counties. In addition to the Latin and the French (which was itself principally of Latin origin), there was, thirdly, the Anglo-Saxon, to which the middle and the lower classes of the English stubbornly adhered. The Loss of Inflections. Anglo-Saxon was a language with changing endings, like modern German. If a Saxon wished to say "good gifts," he had to have the proper case endings for both the adjective and the noun, and his expression would have been gode giefa. good gifts," he would have inflected "the" and made the For "the |