buried under a great barrow on a promontory rising high above the sea. "And round about the mound rode his hearth-sharers, who sang that he was of kings, of men, the mildest, kindest, to his people sweetest, and the readiest in search of praise." In this poem real events are transformed into legendary marvels; but the actual life of the old Danish and Scandinavian chiefs as it was first transferred to this country is vividly painted. It brings before us the feast in the mead-hall, with the chief and his hearth-sharers, the customs of the banquet, the rude beginnings of a courtly ceremony, the boastful talk, reliance upon strength of hand in grapple with the foe, and the practical spirit of adventure that seeks peril as a commercial speculation; for Beowulf is undisguisedly a tradesman in his sword. The poem includes, also, expression of the heathen fatalism, "What is to be goes ever as it must," tinged by the energetic sense of men who feel that even fate helps those who help themselves; or, as it stands in "Beowulf," that "the Must Be often helps an undoomed man when he is brave."

5. These two poets, Cadmon and the unknown author of "Beowulf," were doubtless the greatest poets in our First English period; but, among the other poets of that period, a beautiful and interesting character was Aldhelm. He was born in 656, was of gentle stock, was well taught by the learned Adrian; and for the love of God he gave his life, with all his intellectual and his material wealth, to the monastery at Malmesbury. In 672, at the very time when Cædmon was doing his poetic work at Whitby, Aldhelm, a youth of sixteen, joined a poor monastery which had been founded by a Scot, more learned than rich, named Meldum, after whom the place had its name of Meldum's Byrig, or Malmesbury. The place was so poor that the monks had not enough to eat. Aldhelm obtained a grant of the monastery, rebuilt the church, gathered religious companies about him, and inspired in them his zeal for a pure life. He was a musician and a poet; played, it is said, all the instruments of music used in his time. His letters and his Latin verse, chiefly in praise of chastity, survive; but those English songs of his which were still on the lips of the people in King Alfred's day are lost to us. William of Malmes

bury has recorded, on King Alfred's authority, that Aldhelm was unequalled as an inventor and singer of English verse; and that a song ascribed to him, which was still familiar among the people, had been sung by Aldhelm, on the bridge between country and town, in the character of an English minstrel or gleeman, to keep the people from running home directly after mass was sung, as it was their habit to do, without waiting for the sermon. Another story is, that on a Sunday, at a time when many traders from different parts of the country came into Malmesbury, Abbot Aldhelm stationed himself on the bridge, and there, by his songs, caused some of those who would have passed to stay by him, and, leaving their trade until the morrow, follow him to church.

6. Apart from "Beowulf," and Cadmon's "Paraphrase," each existing in a single manuscript, the main body of the First English poetry that has come down to us has been preserved in two collections, known as the Exeter Book and the Vercelli Book. Each is named from the place where it was found. The Exeter Book is a collection of poems given, with other volumes, to the library of his cathedral by Leofric, Bishop of Exeter, between the years 1046 and 1073. The other volume was discovered in 1823, in a monastery at Vercelli, in the Milanese, where it had been mistaken for a relic of Eusebius, who was once Bishop of Vercelli.

Among the pieces in these volumes are three of considerable length, by a poet named Cynewulf, who, according to one opinion, was Bishop of Lindisfarne, and died in 780, or, according to another opinion, was Abbot of Peterborough, and died in 1014. In the Vercelli Book is Cynewulf's "Elene," a poem of 2,648 lines, on the legend of St. Helen, or the finding of the true cross by the mother of Constantine. In the Exeter Book we have Cynewulf's legend of "Juliana," martyr in the days of Emperor Maximian, and a series of poems which have unity among themselves, and have been read as a single work, Cynewulf's Christ." Cynewulf deals with Scripture history and legend in a devout spirit; and his poems are interesting, although their earnestness is not quickened by any touch of genius.

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Among other poems in the two collections, we have in the Exeter Book "The Traveller's Song," which is sometimes thought to be the oldest of First English poems; the legend of "St. Guthlac; ""The Phoenix," an allegory of the life of the Christian; "The Panther" and "The Whale," two examples of the early Christian fashion of turning natural history into religious apologue; "An Address of the Soul to the Body; "The Various Fortunes of Men; and some "Proverbs and "Riddles." The collection contains a few pieces not exclusively devotional, and it represents in fair proportion the whole character of First English poetry. Since it was produced by an educated class trained in the monasteries, the religious tone might be expected to predominate, even if this were not also the literature of a religious people. The domestic feeling of the Teuton is tenderly expressed among these poems in a little strain from shipboard on the happiness of him whose wife awaits on shore the dear bread-winner, ready to wash his travelstained clothes and to clothe him anew by her own spinning and weaving.

In the Vercelli Book, beside Cynewulf's "Helen," there is a still longer legend of "St. Andrew," with a "Vision of the Holy Rood," the beginning of a poem on "The Falsehood of Men," a poem on "The Fates of the Apostles," and two "Addresses of the Soul to the Body," one corresponding to that in the Exeter Book. Such poems, in which the soul debates with the body as chief cause of sin, remained popular for centuries.

Among the remains of First English poetry outside the Exeter and the Vercelli Book, the most interesting of those which seem to have been produced before the end of the eighth century is a fragment of old battle-song known as "The Fight at Finnesburg;" also a fine fragment of a poem on "Judith," and a fragment of a gloomy poem on "The Grave."

Few poems remain to us from the First English period, belonging to the years after the eighth century. The writers of that famous national record called "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" occasionally rise from prose into verse, and in this way has been preserved the poem of "The Battle of Brunanburh."

There remains to us, nearly complete, a First English poem on "The Battle of Maldon," or, as it is also called, "The Death of Byrhtnoth," warm with the generous love of independence, and yet simply honest in its record of defeat, through which we feel, as it were, the pulse of the nation beating healthily.

Perhaps the most famous specimen of the poetry of this period is a scrap of song believed to have been composed by King Canute. One day, when he was going by boat to Ely to keep a church festival, he ordered his men to row slowly, and near shore, that he might hear the psalms of the monks; then he called to his companions to sing with him, and invented on the spot a little song:

"Merie sungen the Muneches binnen Ely
Tha Cnut ching reuther by;
Rotheth cnites ner the land

And here ye thes Muneches sang."
("Pleasantly sang the monks in Ely

When Canute the king rowed by;

Row, boys, near the land,

And hear ye the song of the monks.")

Then followed other verses, said to have been still remembered and sung a hundred years after the Conquest.

7. As to their mechanism, there is one measure for "Beowulf," Cadmon's "Paraphrase," and all subsequent First English poems. There is no rhyme, and no counting of syllables. The lines are short, depending upon accent for a rhythm varying in accordance with the thought to be expressed, and depending for its emphasis upon alliteration. Usually, in the first of a pair of short lines, the two words of chief importance begin with the same letter, and, in the second line of the pair, the chief word begins also with that letter, that is to say, if the alliteration is of consonants; in the case of vowels the rule is reversed, -the chief words begin with vowels that are different.

CHAPTER III.

FIRST ENGLISH PROSE.

1. The Venerable Bede.-2. Alcuin and John Scotus Erigena.-3. King Alfred.4. Ethelwold and Dunstan.-5. Progress in England.-6. Elfric.-7. AngloSaxon Chronicle.

1. As Cædmon marches at the head of the long line of English poets, so the Venerable Bede leads the still longer line of English prose-writers. This wise and saintly man, born in 673, was a child in arms when Cædmon sang the power of the Creator and his counsel, and the young Aldhelm had begun his work at Malmesbury. When seven years old, that is to say, about the time of the death of Abbess Hilda, -Bede was placed in the newly-founded monastery of St. Peter, at Wearmouth. Three years later the associated monastery of St. Paul was opened at Jarrow, on the banks of the Tyne, about five miles distant from St. Peter's. Bede, then aged ten, was transferred to the Jarrow monastery. There he spent his life, punctual in all formal exercises of devotion, and employing his whole leisure, pen in hand, for the advancement of true knowledge. He digested and arranged the teaching of the fathers of the church, that others might with the least possible difficulty study the Scriptures by the light they gave. He produced, in a Latin treatise on "The Nature of Things," a text-book of the science of his day, digested and compacted out of many volumes. His works are almost an encyclopædia of the knowledge of his time. He drew it from many sources, where it lay hidden in dull, voluminous, or inaccessible books; and he set it forth in books which could be used in the monastery schools, or be read by the educated for their own further instruction. The fame of the devout and simple-minded English scholar spread beyond England. A pope in vain desired to have him brought to Rome. He refused in his own monastery the dignity of abbot,