And whence they were, and in what land were born.
Then answered one who was exceeding fair;

'Yea, we be heathen men, and hither led,

Forth sold from land of Angles. Do thou free us,
And we would ask for baptism.' Thus they spoke,
These English, nobly born; and Gregory,
Beloved of God, felt pity, and he said,
(For he was good of heart) 'I wis ye be
Angles, to angels likest, for of all
Upon this earth no kin is fair as ye!'

Then the pope questioned them of many things,
Their laws, their lands, and of their people's king;
And all they wist they told him. So when he
Had given them baptism, and made them free,
He turned to Rome, and beck'd a cardinal,
A chosen clerk, and holy, called Austin.
Then said the pope unto him, counselling:

'Austin, thou needs must wend, with soothful thought,
To England, to King Ethelbert, and preach
God's gospel there, and thou shall speed thee well.
I give thee forty right good clerks : but thou,
See that to-morrow finds thee on thy way.'1

One of the early Scripture paraphrases is The Story of Genesis and Exodus, dating, in Mr. Morris's opinion, not later than 1250. The writer takes various salient incidents in the biblical accounts, and, like his fellowwriters of that period, does not scruple to mix them with fiction and legend. But there is interest in all these efforts made, a century or more before Wickliffe, to meet, in a popular form, the desire for some further knowledge of Scripture in a tongue which the people could understand. The following is the beginning of the prologue:

1

Give love to him who rhymes a song,
To teach with wit the unlearned throng,
How they may heed with mindful look,
Though they be learned in no book,
To love their God and serve Him aye :
He will requite them faithfully.
Yea, all good and Christian men,

A Brut, 299,447, vol. iii. 180:

Tha wes inne Rome a pape of Godes dome.

Bearing peace and love between,
Them Almighty God shall love
Here below and there above;
Give them bliss and soul'es rest
Which for evermore shall last.
From Latin speech I draw my lay
Into English, sooth to say.
Christian folk who hear it may
Be glad, as birds, to see the day,
When to them the tale is sung,
In easy words and mother tongue,
Of bliss'es hill and sorrow's dale;
How Lucifer, that devil-dwale, [deceiver]
Brought mankind to sin and bale,
Held them shut in hellish mail,
Till God, clad in our weed,

To man forgiveness brought and rede,
Undid whate'er the fiend would speed,
And holp, when He saw mickle need.—
Father God of everything,

Thou Lord Almighty, highest King,
Whether that I read or sing,
Give, I pray Thee, happy timing,
Thee to praise in this my rhyming,

Telling of the world's beginning.1

And so he begins the history of Creation, and how Satan, through pride and rebellion,

Dragon became, who erst was knight,
Darkness became, who erst was light;
And everything that held with him
Murky became, and swart, and dim.2

Thus he tells of Jacob's dream—
At Luz he tarried out all night,
A stone under his head set right,
And slept, and saw in soothful dream
From earth up unto heaven's beam
A ladder stand, and thereupon

1 The Story of Genesis and Exodus, 1-34, edited by R. Morris,

E.E.T.S. No. 7:

Man og to luven that rimes ren,
The wisseth wel the logede men,

Hu man may him wel loken,

Thog he ne be lered on no boken.

2 Id. 284: Tho wurth he drake, that ear was knigt.'

C

Angels down-coming and up-gone
And the great God above on high
Then Jacob roused, and speedily
He heard Him speaking, 'God I am
Of Isaac and of Abraham.
This land I give unto thy seed,
And in this wise I bid thee rede,
That I will bring them here again
Among all peoples blest amain.'
Jacob awoke, and said in fear-

6

God in this stead [place] is surely here,

A place of dread is this, God's house,

Here is the gate of heaven 'mongst us.'1

His story ends with some events recorded in the Book
of Numbers, and so to the death of Moses.
The con-
cluding lines are :—

Beseech we now great God'es might,
That He will make our soulès bright,
And shield us all from Hell'es night,
And lead us into gladsome light,
Guide us to ways aloof from sin,
At heaven's gate to enter in,

And live in bliss with blessed men.

With mouth and heart we say, Amen.2

Another favourite way of imparting religious instruction, in a form attractive to the common people, was to tell of the habits and properties, real or supposed, of certain animals, and then to allegorise them in a Christian sense. One of these so-called Bestiaries' is supposed by Mr. Morris to be by the same author as the Genesis and Exodus just spoken of. It was written about the same date, 1250, and, like it, in the East Midland form of the language. Scraps from these curious compositions are often found in later writers. The natural history recorded of the animals selected is of an astonishing kind, and the spiritual and moral applications often quaint and ingenious. Of the lion the characteristics specially

1 The Story of Genesis and Exodus, 1603-20:

He lay bi Luzan ut on nigt.

A ston under hise heued rigt.

2 Id. 4155: Biseke we nu godes migt.'

dwelt upon are that he is accustomed to watch on a hill; that when the hunter approaches he carefully erases his track by means of his tail; that when the whelp is born it does not stir until the third day, when its sire calls aloud and wakes it; and lastly, that the lion always sleeps with its eyes open. When these facts have all been turned into religious allegory, the parable passes on to the eagle, the serpent, and the ant. Of the latter it is said that

As the ant shunneth barley, when she can store up wheat,

So when we have the Gospel law, to shun the old law is meet.'

The following is from the Turtle-Dove. It is put in the original into more careful rhyme than most of the rest, perhaps as being intended to be sung :

List every faithful man hereto : once at the Church'es gate,
Think of it oft-your soul did choose Lord Christ to be her mate.
He is our soul's espoused; O, love ye Him with might,
And wend ye never from Him by daylight or by night.
Though He from sight hath fared, yet be we to Him true;
When we have such an old love, why should we seek a new?
Believe we that He liveth aye, and up in heaven doth reign,
And that from thence to judge the world on earth He comes
again.2

I pass to some others of the religious poems of the thirteenth century collected by Dr. Morris in his Old English Miscellany. The Poema Morale may perhaps date from the first year or two of King John's reign. It embodies the solemn reflections of a man far advanced in years awaking to the shortcomings of his life, and anxious that the grave thoughts which come into his mind should warn and encourage others. It begins thus:

A winter older than I was, I'm older eke in lore;

My goods are greater than they were,-my wit it should be more.

1 A Bestiary, 291-94, E.E. T.S. No. 49:

The mire suneth the barlic, thanne ye fint te wete.

2 Id. 714-29:

List ilk lefful man her-to, and herof oft reche :

Ure sowle atte kirke dure ches hire crist to meche.

Too long have I a child y-been in work, and eke in deed, And though my age be winter old, too young am I in rede. A life of little boon I've led, and still, methinks, I lead; And when I think me thereupon, full sorely do I dread. In childishness and idleness my life is wellnigh past : Too late have I bethought myself, unless God's kindness last. Many the idle word I've said ;-sorely I speak the truthMany my headstrong deeds, whereof I'm pinchèd now with ruth. Too often have I guilty been in work alike and word, Too mickle have I spent on self, too little laid in hoard : All that I liked best of old, that most mislikes me now; For he who follows most his will, he cheats himself, I trow.1 Then he continues of the need of a man laying up for himself a treasure in heaven; how no evil goes unpunished, no good unrequited, and how every one must go before his Lord and receive his wages according to his earnings. Each man shall be his own judge, and his own works will bear witness for or against him. Then comes a solemn and terrible picture of the doom of the wicked; then of loving God with all our might and our neighbour as ourselves :

For all that e'er we read or sing before God's holy board Holdeth and hangeth upon these the twain things of His Word. All law of God doth he fulfil, the new one and the old,

Who hath within him there two loves, and will them well uphold.2

I next quote from a poem on The Passion of Our Lord:

Then came He toward Jerusalem upon a Palm Sunday,
He had no princely robe of fur, He wore no robe of gray,

[badger's fur]
He had no steed to ride upon, He had no palefray, [palfrey]
But meekly rode upon an ass, as I to you may say,
And as He came into the burgh, thus riding as a King,
Forth came the children unto Him, and sweetly they did sing,

1 A Moral Ode, 1-14, in E.E. T.S. No. 49:

Ich am eldre than ich wes a winter and ek on lore,
Ich welde more than ich dude, my wyt auhte beo more.
Wel longe ich habbe child ibeo a werke and eke on dede
Thuh ich beo of wynter old, to yong ich am on rede.

2 Id. 305-8:

Al that me redeth and syngeth bivoren godes borde
Al hit hongeth and hald bi thisse twain worde.