pression without much dignity; and the fourth by a combination, with many peculiarities of its own, of the excellences of the two preceding periods. In the first age we see the early untutored efforts of the national mind beginning to rouse itself from the torpor of ages; in the second, the influence of the revival of learning, and of the study of the great classical remains of antiquity, may be clearly traced; in the third, the polish and grace, neatness and liveliness of the French writers, were regarded as the models of imitation; while the fourth, influenced partly by a love for the speculations of Germany, but still more by a re-awakened enthusiasm for our own older authors, exhibits the deep-searching and dignified thought of an early period, arrayed in the chaste and graceful ease of a modern style. While these leading features will be found in general characteristic of the authors in each period, it is not of course meant to be asserted that they are equally conspicuous in all. Individual writers will be found in every period adopting a style at variance with that prevalent at the time; but this only corroborates the truth of the general remark, as their peculiarity serves to make more palpable the general similarity of the style from which they choose to depart.

PERIOD FIRST

FROM THE TIME OF CHAUCER TO THE END OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN.

HISTORICAL SKETCH.

1. To the ordinary reader English literature begins with Chaucer. Even if we admit that the writings of those who preceded him are entitled to the honourable appellation of literature, yet without some knowledge of Anglo-Saxon they are almost totally unintelligible. A word here and there may indeed be recognised, but the general scope and purpose of the author remain unknown. Without, therefore, entirely omitting all notice of the predecessors of Chaucer, a very brief reference to them will suffice.

During the existence of the Saxon rule, four languages were in common use in the island: the Saxon, which was spoken in England and the Lowlands of Scotland; the Gaelic, in the Highlands of Scotland; the Welsh, a kindred dialect, in Wales; and the Latin, which was everywhere the vehicle of communication among the clergy. As the clergy in those days had a monopoly of learning, they were naturally our oldest authors, and our earliest literature is thus written in the Latin language. Of our old ecclesiastical authors the most famous is the venerable Bede, a monk of Jarrow, on the Tyne (born 673, died 735), whose "Ecclesiastical History of England" is of considerable historical value. During the terrors occasioned by the Danish invasions, learning almost entirely disappeared, so that Alfred is said to have been unable to find a clergyman in England able to give him instruction in Latin. Under that illustrious and patriotic prince, learning was encouraged and liberally rewarded. With a zeal for the spread of education far in advance of his own age, he has recorded his anxious desire, "that all the freeborn youth of his people might persevere in learning till they could perfectly read the English Scriptures." That good example might not be wanting, he himself translated into Saxon, for the edification of his subjects, various works, the chief being "Bede's History" and the History of Orosius," along with some religious treatises by St Augustine and Pope Gregory the Great. By the Bishops whom he employed and rewarded for their learning, several parts of Scripture were translated into Anglo-Saxon, and the people were encouraged to study them. The only other prose writings in Anglo-Saxon were the monkish chronicles. These were brief registers of current events composed usually in some monastery; and are interesting to the antiquary,

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as well as valuable to the historian. In poetry the most remarkable of the Anglo-Saxon writings is the "Vision of Cædmon" (about 680), who belonged to the Monastery of Whitby, and who, in a poem of about six thousand lines, gives a poetical summary of Scripture history from the fall of the rebel angels to the day of judgment. His poem is said to possess a sort of distant resemblance to "Paradise Lost."

2. As compared with modern English, Anglo-Saxon differs chiefly in being an inflected language, that is, in being able, by some change in the termination, to express a modification in the meaning, which in English would require the use of prepositions or other auxiliary words. The nouns in Anglo-Saxon had many more cases than in English; some of the pronouns had even more numbers; the adjectives were fully declined, as in Latin or German; and the verb, besides having a much greater variety of terminations, could express the peculiar force of the potential mood without any assistance from auxiliaries. Thus it happens that though most of the words used in Anglo-Saxon exist in some shape in modern English, yet an extract from an AngloSaxon writer is, to a mere English scholar, not much more intelligible than would be one from a German author. This will be seen by the following passage from Alfred's translation of " Orosius," every word of which is still in use, and which is perhaps the very simplest that could be found in Anglo-Saxon :

"The hwal bith micle læssa thonne othre hwalas, ne bith he lengra thonne sivan elna lang, ac on his agnum lande is se betsta hwæl huntath tha beoth eahta and feowertiges elna lange, and tha mæstan fiftiges elna lange, thara he sæde that he sixa sum ofsloge sixtig on twam dagum."

This whale is much less than other whales, it is not (literally, not is he) longer than seven ells long, but in his (the narrator's) own land is the best whale-hunting; there are they eight and forty ells long, and the most fifty ells long, of these he said, that he with five others (literally, of six one) slew sixty in two days."

3. At the Conquest a new language, the Norman-French, was introduced. Its use was, however, confined to the higher classes, the others continuing to employ the Saxon. Efforts were made by the early Norman Kings to abolish the Saxon language, but these were unsuccessful, and the two languages existed together for some time. By degrees, however, they began to combine, each borrowing from the other, and both losing many of their peculiarities. The language formed by this combination is called Old English, and is the basis of the language at present in use. The transition from the AngloSaxon to a language recognisable as English by ordinary readers was slow and gradual, and has been by some critics divided into two periods. (1.) The first of these extends from the Conquest to A.D. 1230, and is called Semi-Saxon. This period is distinguished partly by the use of Norman words, usually of Latin origin, but chiefly by the tendency to employ less frequently the inflections which formed so marked a feature in the Saxon tongue. During this period many works were produced, the most noted being the "Saxon Chronicle, written probably in the reign of Henry I.; and a poem called the Brut," by Layamon, a monk, which derives its name from its recording the history of England from the time of Brutus, an imaginary

Trojan hero, to whom the foundation of the British monarchy is ascribed, down to the end of the seventh century. (2.) The second period, or Old English, prevailed from A.D. 1230 to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and has been subdivided into early and middle English, the year A.D. 1330 being chosen as the separating point between the two. In the early English we can trace the continued approximation to our modern speech; most of the old terminations are dropped, and among other features, not the least noteworthy, is the use of the modern termination of the plural in "s." The language at this date begins to be intelligible to the ordinary reader, and the old plays known as the Chester, Towneley, and Coventry mysteries, which belong to this period, are well worthy of a perusal. 4. Middle English is the name given to that form of the language used by Chaucer and his contemporaries.

Geoffrey Chaucer is supposed to have been born about the year 1328; he is believed to have been a native of London, and having found a patron in John of Gaunt, obtained some lucrative and honourable employment in the public service. He served in the French wars, and in his official capacity travelled in France and Italy. He thus enjoyed the opportunity of personally observing nature and man in various climes and circumstances, on a more extensive scale than usually falls to the lot of poets; and as his powers of observation were fortunately equal to his advantages, his works are distinguished by accuracy in the delineation of manners, and truth in the description of nature. His chief work, the "Canterbury Tales," consists of a series of stories supposed to be told by a company of pilgrims, to relieve the tedium of their journey to the shrine of St Thomas at Canterbury. With two exceptions, the tales are in verse, and though only one-half of the work was finished, what we have is usually found quite sufficient for the reader's patience. Notwithstanding their prolixity, The Canterbury Tales" are justly reckoned one of the greatest productions in our literature. Of Chaucer's minor works, his "House of Fame" is the best known, chiefly through Pope's version of it-" The Temple of Fame." Chaucer died A.D. 1400. In or near A.d. 1362 was written a singular poem called the Vision of Piers Plowman." It was the production of a monk, Robert Langland, and is an allegorical work, describing and satirizing the vices of the time; in its general character it resembles the moral plays or moralities which were so popular about this period. Another contemporary of Chaucer was John Gower (died 1404), author of the "Confessio Amantis," or "Lover's Confession." This work is written in octosyllabic verse, and consists of a miscellaneous collection of stories, with which a priest seeks to comfort a penitent lover. It displays much ability in description, burdened, however, with considerable weakness of style and endless prolixity of narrative. During the same period flourished John Wickliffe (1324-1386), so well known as "The Morning Star of the Reformation." His translation of the Bible, executed about A.D. 1380, possesses high value, both from the important consequences of which it was remotely the cause, and from its being the earliest work of any size in English prose. Sir John Mandeville, too, the first of our travellers, has left us an exceedingly amusing account of his various journeys during upwards of thirty years previous to 1356.

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5. In Scotland, literature was of later growth than in England. The turbulence of the country, the poverty of the people, and the sterility of the soil, were unfavourable to the encouragement of learning; and though Scotland produced many famous men, they received their education and spent their lives on the Continent, where their talents found a wider and more congenial sphere for exercise. In Scotland, as in England, the earliest works were in Latin, the most famous being the "Scoto-chronicon" of John of Fordoun, who died A.D. 1387, and the "History of the Exploits of Wallace," by John Blair, who had been that hero's chaplain. Of the earliest use of the vernacular in Scotland no certain account can be given; some of the old ballads are assigned to a very early period, but without good authority, and the prophecies traditionally ascribed to Thomas the Rhymer, who flourished in the reign of Alexander III., are generally admitted to be spurious. The earliest undoubted work in English is the "Acts and Life of the most victorious conqueror, Robert Bruce," compiled in 1375 by John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen. It is in eightsyllabled verse, extends to a great length, and is divided into a hundred and one books. Its spirit and energy place it without dispute at the head of all chronicles, and some of its passages, such as his apostrophe to freedom, are to be found in every collection of the beauties of British verse. At a later period (1420) Andrew Wyntoun, Prior of Loch Leven, wrote his "Chronicle Original," or General History, a work every way inferior to that of Barbour. The next name of importance in Scottish literature is that of James I., who, in his 66 King's Quair" (that is, King's Book) celebrates the beauty of Lady Joanna Beaufoy, to whom he was afterwards married. His poem is allowed by all critics to possess great merits, and to bear a strong resemblance in thought and style to Chaucer and Gower, whom, indeed, he professedly recognises as his masters and models. Some doubt exists as to the precise period at which Henry the Minstrel, better known as Blind Harry, flourished; there can be no doubt, however, as to the great popularity enjoyed by his "Life of Wallace." This work, a poem in twelve books, was long the favourite of the Scotch nation, and in a modernized form is still extensively read.

6. For some time after the death of Chaucer literature in England exhibits a melancholy blank. Little progress, indeed, could be expected to be made during the fifteenth century, when the foolish wars with France, and the bloody quarrels of the Roses, occupied the minds and thoughts of the nation. The only writer of eminence in the period was John Lydgate, who flourished during the first half of the century in the Monastery of Bury St Edmund's. If merit were to be judged by the quantity of matter produced, Lydgate would be the first of our English poets, for he wrote an immense number of works on a great variety of subjects. His merits, however, bear a very slight proportion to the extent of his works, of which the best known are the "Story of Thebes," the Siege of Troy," and the Fall of Princes." In prose, during this period, we have nothing better than a law treatise by Sir John Fortescue, Chief-Justice under Henry VI. In the midst of this dearth of learning, an event happened which was destined in a few years to change the whole face of

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