THE NORMAN POETS OF ENGLAND. The first literary productions which call for at tention after the Conquest, are a class which may be considered as in a great measure foreign to the country and its language. Before the invasion of England by William, poetical literature had begun to be cultivated in France with considerable marks of spirit and taste. The language, which from its origin was named Romane (lingua Romana),* was separated into two great divisions, that of the south, which is represented popularly by the Provençal, and that of the north, which was subdivided into French and Anglo-Norman, the latter dialect being that chiefly confined to our island. The poets of the south were called in their dialect trobadores, or troubadours, and those of the north were distinguished by the same title, written in their language trouveres. In Provence, there arose a series of elegant versifiers, who employed their talents in composing romantic and complimentary poems, full of warlike and amatory sentiment, which many of them made a business of reciting before assemblages of the great. Norman poets, writing with more plainness and simplicity, were celebrated even before those of Provençe; and one, named Taillefer, was the first man to break the English ranks at the battle of Hastings. From the preference of the Norman kings of England for the poets of their own country, and the general depression of Anglo-Saxon, it results that the distinguished literary names of the first two centuries after the Conquest are those of NORMAN POETS, men who were as frequently natives of France as of England. Philippe de Thaun, author of treatises on popular science in verse; Thorold, who wrote the fine romance of Roland; Samson de Nanteuil, who translated the proverbs of Solomon into French verse; Geoffroi Gaimar, author of a chronicle of the Anglo-Saxon kings; and David, a trouveere of considerable eminence, whose works are lost, were the most noted predecessors of one of much greater celebrity, named Maistre WACE, a native of Jersey. About 1160, Wace wrote, in his native French, a narrative poem entitled Le Brut D'Angleterre (Brutus of England). The chief hero was an imaginary son of Æneas of Troy, who was represented as having founded the state of Britain many centuries before the Christian era. This was no creation of the fancy of the Norman poet. He only translated a serious history, written a few years before in Latin by a monk named GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, in which the affairs of Britain were traced with all possible gravity through a series of imaginary kings, beginning with Brutus of Troy, and ending with Cadwallader, who was said to have lived in the year 689 of the Christian era. This history is a very remarkable work, on account of its origin, and its effects on subsequent literature. The Britons, settled in Wales, Cornwall, and Bretagne, were distinguished at this time on account of the numberless fanciful and fabulous legends which they possessed-a traditionary kind of literature resembling that which has since been found amongst the kindred people of the Scottish Highlands. For centuries past, Europe had been supplied with tale and fable from the teeming fountain of Bretagne, as it now is with music from Italy, and metaphysics from Germany. Walter Calenius, archdean of Oxford, collected some of these of a professedly his * Any book written in this tongue was cited as the livre Romans (liber Romanus), and most frequently as simply the Romans: as a great portion of these were works of fiction, the term has since given rise to the word now in general use, omance. torical kind relating to England, and communicated them to Geoffrey, by whom they were put into the form of a regular historical work, and introduced for the first time to the learned world, as far as a learned world then existed. As little else than a bundle of incredible stories, some of which may be slightly founded on fact, this production is of small worth; but it supplied a ground for Wace's poem, and proved an unfailing resource for the writers of romantic narrative for the ensuing two centuries; nor even in a later age was its influence exhausted; for from it Shakspeare drew the story of Lear, and Sackville that of Ferrex and Porrex, while Drayton reproduces much of it in his Polyolbion, and it has given occasion to many allusions in the poems of Milton and others.* Maistre Wace also composed a History of the Normans, under the title of the Roman de Rou, that is, the Romance of Rollo, first Duke of Normandy, and some other works. Henry II., from admiration of his writings, bestowed upon him a canonry in the cathedral of Bayeux. Benoit, a contemporary of Wace, and author of a History of the Dukes of Normandy; and Guernes, an ecclesiastic of Pont St Maxence, in Picardy, who wrote a metrical life of Thomas à Becket, are the other two Norman poets of most eminence whose genius or whose writings can be connected with the history of English literature. These writers composed most frequently in rhymed couplets, each line containing eight syllables.† COMMENCEMENT OF THE PRESENT FORM OF ENGLISH. Of the century following the Conquest, the only other compositions that have come down to us as the production of individuals living in, or connected * Ellis's Metrical Romances. † Ellis's Specimens, i., 35-59. A short passage from Wace's description of the ceremonies and sports presumed to have taken place at King Arthur's coronation, will give an idea of the writings of the Norman poets. It is extracted from Mr Ellis's work, with his notes: Quant li rois leva del mangier, De la cité es champs issirent; Et les ineaur3 chevalx monstrer: Li autre alerent escremir, Cil qui son compaignon vainquoit, Lor servise a celx rendi, A ceulx qui d'autres terres estoient, Qui par amor au roi venoent, 1 To amuse themselves. To just. 3 Fleet (isnel). 4 Toleap • He gave them livries of lands 1 with, England, are works written in Latin by learned ecclesiastics, the principal of whom were John of Salisbury, Peter of Blois, Joseph of Exeter, and GEOFFREY of MONMOUTH, the last being the author of the History of England just alluded to, which is supposed to have been written about the year 1138. About 1154, according to Dr Johnson, the Saxon began to take a form in which the beginning of the present English may plainly be discovered.' It does not, as already hinted, contain many Norman words, but its grammatical structure is considerably altered. There is a metrical Saxon or English translation, by one LAYAMON, a priest of Ernely, on the Severn, from the Brut d'Angleterre of Wace. Its date is not ascertained; but if it be, as surmised by some writers, a composition of the latter part of the twelfth century, we must consider it as throwing a valuable light on the history of our language at perhaps the most important period of its existence. A specimen, in which the passage already given from Wace is translated, is presented in the sequel. With reference to a larger extract given by Mr Ellis, of which the other is a portion, that gentleman remarks-'As it does not contain any word which we are under the necessity of referring to a French origin, we cannot | but consider it as simple and unmixed, though very barbarous, Saxon. At the same time,' he continues, 'the orthography of this manuscript, in which we see, for the first time, the admission of the soft g, together with the Saxon z, as well as some other peculiarities, seems to prove that the pronunciation of our language had already undergone a considerable change. Indeed, the whole style of this composition, which is broken into a series of short unconnected sentences, | and in which the construction is as plain and artless as possible, and perfectly free from inversions, appears to indicate that little more than the substitution of a few French for the present Saxon words was now necessary to produce a resemblance to that Anglo-Norman, or English, of which we possess a few specimens, supposed to have been written in the early part of the thirteenth century. Layamon's versification is also no less remarkable than his language. Sometimes he seems anxious to imitate the rhymes, and to adopt the regular number of syllables, which he had observed in his original; at other times he disregards both, either because he did not consider the laws of metre, or the consonance of final sounds, as essential to the gratification of his 1 | readers; or because he was unable to adapt them throughout so long a work, from the want of models ☐ in his native language on which to form his style. | The latter is perhaps the most probable supposition; but, at all events, it is apparent that the recurrence of his rhymes is much too frequent to be the result of chance; so that, upon the whole, it seems reasonable to infer, that Layamon's work was composed at, or very near, the period when the Saxons and Normans in this country began to unite into one nation, and to adopt a common language.' SPECIMENS OF ANGLO-SAXON AND ENGLISH [Extract from the Saxon Chronicle, 1154.] On this yær wærd the King Stephen ded, and bebyried there his wif and his sune wæron bebyried æt Tauresfeld. That ministre hi makiden. Tha the And ne king was ded, tha was the eorl beionde sæ. durste nan man don other bute god for the micel eie of him. Tha he to Engleland come, tha was he underfangen mid micel wortscipe; and to king bletcæd in Lundine, on the Sunnen dæi beforen mid-winter-dæi. Literally translated thus:-'A. D. 1154. In this year was the King Stephen dead, and buried where his wife and his son were buried, at Touresfield. That minister they made. When the king was dead, then was the earl beyond sea. And not durst no man do other but good for the great awe of him. When he to England came, then was he received with great worship; and to king consecrated in London, on the Sunday before mid-winter-day (Christmas day).' [Extract from the account of the Proceedings at Arthur's Coronation, given by Layamon, in his translation of Wace, executed about 1180.] * Tha the kingt igeten1 hafde * The notes are by Mr Ellis, with corrections. † The original of this passage, by Wace, is given in an earlier page. 1 Eaten. Multitude of attendants. Sax. 3 Fled. Then fled out of the town the people very quickly. * Their throngs of servants. Held (their way) through the fields. 7 Began. 8 To discharge arrows. 10 To shoot or throw darts. 5 Fairly dressed. To run. 11 Made, or played at, wither-games, Sax. (games of emula tion), that is, justed. We have already seen short specimens of the Anglo-Saxon prose and verse of the period prior to the Conquest. Perhaps the best means of making clear the transition of the language into its present form, is to present a continuation of these specimens, extending between the time of the Conquest and the reign of Edward I. It is not to be expected that these specimens will be of much use to the reader, on account of the ideas which they convey; but, considered merely as objects, or as pictures, they will not be without their effect in illustrating the history a word synonymous with the French on. 12 Some they on field played under shield; that is, fought with swords. of our literature. 13 Many a kind of game there they gan urge.' Dringen (Dutch), is to urge, press, or drive. 14 And whoso might win worship by his gaming. 15 Him they led with song before the people's king.' Me, 16 Gave him givings, gifts. THE NORMAN POETS OF ENGLAND. torical kind relating to England, and communicated them to Geoffrey, by whom they were put into the form of a regular historical work, and introduced for the first time to the learned world, as far as a learned world then existed. As little else than a bundle of incredible stories, some of which may be slightly founded on fact, this production is of small worth; but it supplied a ground for Wace's poem, and proved an unfailing resource for the writers of romantic narrative for the ensuing two centuries; nor even in a later age was its influence exhausted; for from it Shakspeare drew the story of Lear, and Sackville that of Ferrex and Porrex, while Drayton reproduces much of it in his Polyolbion, and it has given occasion to many allusions in the poems of Milton and others.* The first literary productions which call for at tention after the Conquest, are a class which may be considered as in a great measure foreign to the country and its language. Before the invasion of England by William, poetical literature had begun to be cultivated in France with considerable marks of spirit and taste. The language, which from its origin was named Romane (lingua Romana),* was separated into two great divisions, that of the south, which is represented popularly by the Provençal, and that of the north, which was subdivided into French and Anglo-Norman, the latter dialect being that chiefly confined to our island. The poets of the south were called in their dialect trobadores, or troubadours, and those of the north were distinguished by the same title, written in their language trouveres. In Provence, there arose a series of elegant versifiers, the Romance of Rollo, first Duke of Normandy, who employed their talents in composing romantic and complimentary poems, full of warlike and ama- of his writings, bestowed upon him a canonry in the tory sentiment, which many of them made a business of reciting before assemblages of the great. Norman poets, writing with more plainness and simplicity, were celebrated even before those of Provençe; and one, named Taillefer, was the first man to break the English ranks at the battle of Hastings. From the preference of the Norman kings of England for the poets of their own country, and the general depression of Anglo-Saxon, it results that the distinguished literary names of the first two centuries after the Conquest are those of NORMAN POETS, men who were as frequently natives of France as of England. Philippe de Thaun, author of treatises on popular science in verse; Thorold, who wrote the fine romance of Roland; Samson de Nanteuil, who translated the proverbs of Solomon into French verse; Geoffroi Gaimar, author of a chronicle of the Anglo-Saxon kings; and David, a trouveere of considerable eminence, whose works are lost, were the most noted predecessors of one of much greater celebrity, named Maistre WACE, a native of Jersey. About 1160, Wace wrote, in his native French, a narrative poem entitled Le Brut D'Angleterre (Brutus of England). The chief hero was an imaginary son of Æneas of Troy, who was represented as having founded the state of Britain many centuries before the Christian era. This was no creation of the fancy of the Norman poet. He only translated a serious history, written a few years before in Latin by a monk named GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, in which the affairs of Britain were traced with all possible gravity through a series of imaginary kings, beginning with Brutus of Troy, and ending with Cadwallader, who was said to have lived in the year 689 of the Christian era. This history is a very remarkable work, on account of its origin, and its effects on subsequent literature. The Britons, settled in Wales, Cornwall, and Bretagne, were distinguished at this time on account of the numberless fanciful and fabulous legends which they possessed-a traditionary kind of literature resembling that which has since been found amongst the kindred people of the Scottish Highlands. For centuries past, Europe had been supplied with tale and fable from the teeming fountain of Bretagne, as it now is with music from Italy, and metaphysics from Germany. Walter Calenius, archdean of Oxford, collected some of these of a professedly his Maistre Wace also composed a History of the Normans, under the title of the Roman de Rou, that is, and some other works. Henry II., from admiration cathedral of Bayeux. Benoit, a contemporary of Wace, and author of a History of the Dukes of Normandy; and Guernes, an ecclesiastic of Pont St Maxence, in Picardy, who wrote a metrical life of Thomas à Becket, are the other two Norman poets of most eminence whose genius or whose writings can be connected with the history of English literature. These writers composed most frequently in rhymed couplets, each line containing eight syllables.† COMMENCEMENT OF THE PRESENT FORM OF ENGLISH. Of the century following the Conquest, the only other compositions that have come down to us as the production of individuals living in, or connected * Ellis's Metrical Romances. † Ellis's Specimens, i., 35-59. A short passage from Wace's description of the ceremonies and sports presumed to have taken place at King Arthur's coronation, will give an idea of the writings of the Norman poets. It is extracted from Mr Ellis's Quant li rois leva del mangier, De la cité es champs issirent; Et les ineaux chevalx monstrer: Li autre alerent escremir, * Any book written in this tongue was cited as the livre Romans (liber Romanus), and most frequently as simply the Romans: as a great portion of these were works of fiction, the term has since given rise to the word now in general use, omance. Lor servise a celx rendi, 1 To amuse themselves. 2 To just. 3 Fleet (isnel). To leap 1 i [The Siege of Antioch.] Ac the Christians cried all on God, and good earnest Tho wend forth this company, with mony a noble And, thorough the grace of Jesus Christ, the Paynims nome, man, they overcome, And won Tars with strength, and syth Toxan. And to yrene brig from thannen' they wend, And our lord at last to Antioch them send, That in the beginning of the lond of Syrie is. And they within again' them stalwartly cast. So that after Christmas the Saracens rede nome,2 So that the Earl of Flanders and Beaumond at last In the month of Feverer the Saracens eftsoon And went toward Antioch, to help their kind blood, Of the thrid the good Raymond; the ferth the good man And slew to ground here and there, and the other flew * anon, * * * * So that at a narrow brig there adrent1 mony one. rear; ** Tho the Saracens it i-see, they were some deal in fear, And this town up this luther men as for nought nome, [Description of Robert Curthose.] He was William's son bastard, as I have i-said ere And well i-wox4 ere his father to Englond come. For to help their fellows, whan they were were.6 And as stalwart men to-gather fast set, And smote ane up the helm, and such a stroke him gave, The Duke Godfrey all so good on the shouldren smote one, And forclave him all that body to the saddle anon. And they, for the wonder case, in dread fell anon. In beginning of Lent this battle was y-do, 1 Thence. 4 Six parties. Took counsel. 3 Shrews, cursed men. 5 Then were there no more. 6 Weary. 8 Foes. 9 So soon as they were prepared. Curthose my young son stalward knight shall be.' Never yet man ne might, in Christendom, ne in Pay- In battle him bring adown of his horse none tine. In the list of Rhyming Chroniclers, Robert of Gloucester is succeeded by ROBERT MANNING, a Gilbertine canon in the monastery of Brunne or Bourne, in Lincolnshire (therefore usually called Robert de Brunne), who flourished in the latter part of the reign of Edward I., and throughout that of Edward II. He translated, under the name of a Handling of Sins, a French book, entitled Manuel des Pêches, the composition of William de Wadington, in which the seven deadly sins are illustrated by legendary stories. He afterwards translated a French chronicle of England, which had been written by Peter de Langtoft, a contemporary of his own, and an Augustine canon of Bridlington in Yorkshire. Manning has been characterised as an industrious, and, for the time, an elegant writer, possessing, in particular, a great command of rhymes. The verse adopted in his chronicle is shorter than that of the Gloucester monk, making an approach to the octosyllabic stanza of modern times. The following is one of the most spirited passages, in reduced spelling: 2 Wicked. 7 Fresh. 5 Square. 1 Were drowned. 4 Grown. • Frequently before Seeing his sturdy doings. [The interview of Vortigern with Rowen, the beautiful Hengist that day did his might, They asked the king to give her Kent, He loved peace at his might; Through muris, hills, and vallies, Another street ordained he, [Praise of Good Women.] Nothing is to man so dear ENGLISH METRICAL ROMANCES. HE rise of Romantic Fiction in Europe has been traced to the most opposite quarters; namely, to the Arabians and to the Scandinavians. It has also been disputed, whether a politer kind of poetical literature was first cultivated in Normandy or in Provence. Without entering into these perplex ing questions, it may be enough to state, that romantic fiction appears to have been cultivated from the eleventh century downwards, both by the troubadours of Provence and by the Norman poets, of whom some account has already been given. As also already hinted, a class of persons had arisen, named Joculators, Jongleurs, or Minstrels, whose business it was to wander about from one mansion to another, recit [Fabulous Account of the first Highways in England.] ing either their own compositions, or those of other Belin well held his honour, And wisely was good governor. 1 Well advanced in convivialities. • Of good appearance. This phrase is still used in Scotland. • Interpreter. 8 Greeted. • As pleased her. • Pleased. 4 Lord. 5 Had no knowledge. persons, with the accompaniment of the harp. The histories and chronicles, already spoken of, partook largely of the character of these romantic tales, and were hawked about in the same manner. Brutus, the supposed son of Eneas of Troy, and who is described in those histories as the founder of the English state, was as much a hero of romance : |