to fall into the hands of the living God,' and much more out of Holy Writ; wherein also he admonished us to think of our last hour, and to shake off the sleep of the soul; and being learned in our poetry, he said some things also in our tongue. He also sang antiphons, one of which is, 'O glorious King, Lord of all power, who triumphing this day, didst ascend above all the heavens; do not forsake us, orphans, but send down upon us the Spirit of truth which was promised to us by the Father. Hallelujah.' And when he came to these words, 'do not forsake us,' he burst into tears, and wept much, and an hour after he began to repeat where he had commenced, and we, hearing it, mourned with him. By turns we read, and by turns we wept, nay we wept always while we read. During these days he laboured to compose two works well worthy to be remembered, besides the lessons we had from him, viz., he translated the Gospel of St. John as far as the words, 'But what are they among so many' (chap. vi. 9), into our own tongue for the benefit of the Church; and some collections out of the Book of Notes of Bishop Isidorus. When the Tuesday before the Ascension of our Lord came, he began to suffer still more in his breath, and a small swelling appeared in his feet; but he passed all that day, and dictated cheerfully, and now and then, among other things, said, 'Go on quickly; I know not how long I shall hold out, and whether my Maker will not soon take me away.' And so he spent the night awake, and in thanksgiving; and when the morning appeared, that is Wednesday, he ordered us to write with all speed, what he had begun. There was one of us with him, who said to him, 'Most dear master, there is still one chapter wanting; do you think it troublesome to be asked any more questions?' He answered, 'It is no trouble; take your pen, and write fast,' which he did. He said, 'It is time that I return to Him who formed me out of nothing; I have lived

long; my merciful Judge well foresaw my life for me; the time of my dissolution draws nigh, for I desire to die, and to be with Christ.' Having said much more, he passed the day joyfully until the evening; and the boy above mentioned said, 'Dear master, there is yet one sentence not written.' He answered, 'Write quickly.' Soon after the boy said, 'The sentence is now written; it is ended.' He replied, 'It is well; you have said the truth. It is ended. Receive my head into your hands; for it is a great satisfaction to me to sit facing my holy place where I was wont to pray, that I may also sitting call upon my Father.' And thus on the pavement of his little cell, singing, 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,' he breathed his last, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom."

Thus Cuthbert tells his friend Cuthwin of the last days of this good and faithful servant of God, and of how he did his work to the end, and finished it before he lay down

to rest.

Besides Cadmon and Bede, there were many other poets and scholars in the first English times as true-hearted as they. Such was Aldhelm in the Religious House at Malmesbury, who would take his harp, and stand on the bridge as a gleeman, singing songs, with so much earnest purpose in them, and yet so much attractiveness, that the people who had slipped out of church without waiting for the sermon, would stop to listen, and get at the same time "health to their minds." Many of the sacred songs of this time have come down to us, and are preserved in two collections, one called the "Vercelli Book," because it was found in 1823 in a monastery at Vercelli, in Italy, where it had perhaps been carried a thousand years before by some Englishman; the other is called the "Exeter Book," because it belongs to the library of Exeter Cathedral, having been presented to it by Bishop Leofric eight hundred years ago.

C

And among the scholars of the time we may remember Alcuin, born probably the same year that Bede died, 735, and as earnest as he in striving to set up the kingdom of God upon earth, although, owing to much of his life being spent abroad at the Court of Charlemagne, he has less connection with English literature. Alfred the Great, too, has a place in the story of our literature, for he made, or caused to be made, translations of many valuable works into the English tongue; and besides this, he strove in every way to educate his people, and thus fit them to read and understand their own literature, and to profit by it.

The first English literature, as we have seen, had one strong, simple purpose running through all of it, and that was the raising of men to a higher life of thought and duty; so steadfast were its writers to this aim, that their works consist almost entirely of religious books, sacred poetry, histories, and school text-books. We may be thankful that God, who rules the onward course of truth and right, so ordered things that the foundations of our literature should be thus laid in the simple setting forth of our relations to God in trust, and love, and duty; although this may not include the whole scope of literature, as we shall see further on in our story.

CHAPTER II.

ROMANCES AND CHRONICLES (1066—1300).

OUR first English writers were men living apart from the common life of the world in the Religious Houses, and healthy as their sense of religion was, and priceless as was the value of their work, there was much of human experience upon which they could not enter, and many stirring interests in which they had little part.

The Norman Conquest brought new elements into our literature, which knit it into closer sympathy with the daily life of men and the things they most care for belonging to this world. We all have a strong interest in our own lives; we like to remember the past, and to dream dreams of beautiful things to come to us in the future; and we have a strong interest too in the lives of other people; we delight in hearing of what befalls them, in stories of their sorrows and success, of the dangers they escape, the difficulties they overcome, of their noble deeds, the strength and constancy of their love, the patience of their endurance; and we rejoice, when it all ends happily at last, out of our consciousness, that it is the true end of all things in life to "work together for good."

Then beyond the lives of ourselves and of other individuals, we are all bound together in one great life, which is the life of our nation. We know that this great life was going on long before we were born and began to form a part of it, and that it has a past full of interest for us,

because it is the story of England's childhood and growth, the story of the events that in every age have helped the nation onwards towards a free, strong, and noble life, and of the men in every generation, kings and rulers, patriots and reformers, who have taken part in the direction of the nation's course. In the years which followed the Norman Conquest, we shall find that our literature is enriched by two classes of works-romances, or the stories of individual life, and chronicles, or stories of the nation's life.

Before we speak of these books themselves we must notice a change in the language, which up to this time had remained much the same, since the first English settlements in our country. The Normans, although like the English at Teutonic race, had not like them kept their own language when they settled in France; but had gradually dropped their own tongue and taken to the French, so that when they conquered England they spoke a French dialect, which we call Norman-French. French then became for a time the language of the Court and of the upper class gathered about the king, and was also used in Parliament and in the courts of law. But the great body of the English people still spoke their own language, so that at first there were two streams, as it were, running side by side, the smaller of Norman-French and the larger of First English. By degrees these mingled; the smaller began to run into the larger, and for a while discoloured its waters, but in the end became lost in it, only adding to the depth and width of the great stream.

At the time when Norman-French and First English were both spoken as two distinct languages in this country, there was another tongue which all educated persons in the land, whether Normans or English, could understand, and that was Latin; this, therefore, was used as the language of literature, for the greater number of readers could all read books in Latin. The chronicles or histories of England written at this time are in Latin