THE RUINED CITY

P. xxvi. During the three hundred years that the Romans ruled in Britain many fine cities were built and a high civilization flourished. Some of these cities were destroyed in the wars between the Britons and the Saxons and were not rebuilt for centuries. To a meditative Englishman of King Alfred's time, these great ruins must have seemed very mysterious, for there were few historical records to tell him when or by whom the cities were built and destroyed. The fragmentary poem here translated was suggested by the sight of one of these ruins perhaps the city of Bath, which even in Roman times had been a health resort, famous for its hot springs.

A LOVE-LETTER

Pp. xxvi f. Among the Riddles in the Exeter Book stand two pieces long regarded as unconnected but recognized in 1900 by Professor Blackburn as forming a single poem. He called them the Husband's Message; but as the writer may have been, not the husband, but the lover of the woman addressed, it seems better to call the poem a Love Letter. The translation here given is by Professor Blackburn.

The lover, who has been driven into exile by powerful enemies, has gained wealth and friends in his new home and now sends to his sweetheart a piece of wood, on which he has carved some runic letters which when rearranged properly spell the word 'sword.' This is to remind her of the vows of love which they swore by the cross-hilt of his sword before he fled into exile. The piece of wood is supposed to be speaking, first telling its own history, then reminding the woman of her lover's constant love and begging her to cross the sea to him as soon as the cuckoo's song announces the coming of spring.

GENESIS

Pp. xxvii ff. In 1651 Archbishop Usher gave to the great scholar Francis Junius a manuscript containing a number of Anglo-Saxon religious poems. As these poems were paraphrases of parts of the Bible Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel Junius attributed them to Cadmon (see Bæda's account of Cadmon above, p. xiii). But later study has proved that they were not all written by the same person or even at nearly the same

time. Some of them may be the work of the other religious poets of whom Bæda tells us.

A part of the Genesis, on the fall of the angels and the temptation of Adam and Eve, has been proved to be a translation of a ninth-century poem written in Old Saxon, a language closely akin to Anglo-Saxon, or Old English. Our selection is taken from this passage for the sake of comparison with Milton's treatment of the same subject. Milton was acquainted with Junius, and some scholars have thought that he knew the Old English poem, which was published in 1655, but the similarities may be accidental.

Besides poems from Scripture, Old English religious poetry consists chiefly of versions of lives of saints. Some of these versions are signed with the name of the author, Cynewulf (pr. Kin ĕ wulf). A number of poems that were formerly assigned to Cynewulf are now regarded as the work of other authors, whose names are unknown. As all these poems imitate the style of the older poetry, it seems unnecessary to give extracts from them.

KING ALFRED'S PREFACE TO GREGORY'S CURA PASTORALIS

THE STATE OF LEARNING IN ENGLAND

Pp. xxix f. When King Alfred succeeded to the throne of Wessex, the civilization which a century earlier had flourished in England, mainly in the North, had been destroyed by the frequent inroads of Scandinavians, commonly but inaccurately called Danes. His sense of the value of education was so great that he immediately took steps to reestablish schools and to make accessible to those who could not read Latin the books which he regarded as most valuable to his people. Among these were the Universal History of Orosius, to which he made interesting additions, Bæda's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care, Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy, and St. Augustine's Soliloquies; see pages xiii, xxix f., and xxx f. above.

The Pastoral Care (Cura Pastoralis), or Pastors' Manual, was written by Pope Gregory the Great as a handbook of instructions for parish priests in their relations with their parishioners. It is distinguished for practical wisdom and a profound knowledge of the human heart what we now call applied psychology. King Alfred recognized its value and felt that an English version of it would be of great service in his plan of national

education. His reasons are given in the preface which he wrote to accompany the translation, a copy of which was sent to each bishopric in the kingdom.

FROM KING ALFRED'S OROSIUS

OHTHERE'S FIRST VOYAGE

Pp. xxx f. While King Alfred the Great was translating into English Orosius's History of the World (Historiarum libri vii adversus Paganos), he talked with two men who had explored parts of the world unknown to Orosius and known to most Englishmen only by vague rumor, if at all. These men were Ohthere, a Norwegian, and Wulfstan, probably a Dane. Ohthere told King Alfred of two voyages he had made: one along the northern coasts of Norway and Lapland, into the White Sea and up the river Dwina; the other along the western and southern coasts of Norway, through the Skagerrak and the Kattegat and to the Danish port Haddeby (in Schleswig). Wulfstan sailed from Haddeby seven days eastward along the coasts of Sweden and northern Germany nearly to where Königsberg now stands. King Alfred was so much interested in what these men told him of the strange lands and customs they had seen that he inserted in his translation of Orosius the accounts they gave of their voyages.

Orosius wrote his History at the suggestion of St. Augustine, who about the same time was writing his book On the City of God (De Civitate Dei). Both books were intended as defenses of Christianity against the attacks of pagans. Orosius is inaccurate, but his history was widely read and exercised great influence upon mediaval thought.

THE BATTLE OF MALDON

Pp. xxxi ff. King Alfred, by his wars with the Danes, brought peace to England, and for a time his successors ruled not only Wessex but Mercia and even Northumbria. About a century later, however, the Danes invaded England anew and were ultimately successful in gaining control of the country and placing a Danish king on the throne. The present poem celebrates the attempt of the English leader Byrhtnoth to resist the invaders. The seamen, probably really Norwegians, had plundered Ipswich and were ravaging Essex, when Byrhtnoth and his men met them on the banks of the Blackwater (then called Panta) near Maldon. The bridge (11. 74 ff.) seems to have been a causeway that was below water at high

tide. It is sad to relate that the brave defense of the English was unsuccessful. With victory almost within grasp, Byrhtnoth was killed and his men defeated. That Byrhtnoth should allow the enemy to ford the river unharmed in order that they might fight on equal terms, incredible as it seems to a modern reader, was in entire accord with the practice of ancient warfare.

APOLLONIUS OF TYRE

Pp. xxxv ff. The most famous version of the story of Apollonius is the play of Pericles which in part at least was written by Shakespeare. But the story had been popular for more than a thousand years before Shakespeare wrote. We first hear of it as a Latin romance — perhaps translated from Greek in the third century of our era. Over a hundred manuscripts of this Latin version still exist, and they differ so greatly that we may be sure there were many others. It was translated in the Middle Ages or in modern times into almost every language of Europe. The translation into Old English (Anglo-Saxon) was made in the tenth or the eleventh century.

The story up to the point at which our selection begins, may be outlined as follows:

Apollonius, King of Tyre, driven out of his country by the treachery and cruelty of the King of Antioch, flees to Tarsus in a ship richly laden with food, jewels, and fine garments. A famine is raging in Tarsus, and Apollonius generously supplies food. The grateful citizens erect a statue in his honor, but he sails away, intending to go to Cyrene, on the coast of Africa. On the way, a sudden storm wrecks his ship, destroys his companions, and casts him ashore naked at Pentapolis.

CHARMS

Pp. xxxvii f. Although preserved to us only in late versions in a late manuscript, the Charms undoubtedly go back to an antiquity far greater than, that of any other extant English verse. The ideas belong to pre-Christian times, and if they survived and - superficially Christianized

were practiced in later periods, this is no more than is true of hundreds of prehistoric superstitions cherished half in belief and half in fear even by educated men and women of our own time. Our remote ancestors did not conceive of the world they lived in as ruled by orderly sequences of cause and effect, but believed in the pervading presence of creatures of supernatura! power who controlled events. If a person or a

beast was sick, they did not give medicine but recited a charm. If an article was lost, they said a charm to recover it. With them magic took the place of both science and religion, as it does among savages of the present day.

EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH

That there is little literature of high quality in English between the Norman Conquest and the middle of the fourteenth century is not surprising if we remember the social conditions of the country. Scholars in England, as in the rest of Europe at that time, wrote and spoke and read Latin. Most books of learning, therefore, whether sacred or profane, histories, scientific, philosophical, religious, and literary treatises, etc., were written in Latin. The language of the upper classes was French. The French literature of the continent was accessible to them, and many of the most interesting literary works in Old French romances, plays, legends of saints, religious songs, love songs, and political satires were written in England by persons whose native language was French. This continued until the fourteenth century, when, as we learn from many evidences, the upper classes began to give up French; see the picturesque account of this given by Trevisa, p. 71 of this book. The history of literature in England is therefore in this period a very different thing from the history of English literature, and we cannot judge of the literary ability, tastes, or culture of Englishmen from 1066 to 1350 without taking into account what they read and wrote in Latin and French as well as in English.

During all this time the principal works written in English were such as were supposed to be of practical interest to those who could not read Latin or French: sermons, religious treatises, poems of sacred or secular history, didactic poems, and the like. Some works of entertainment were produced for those who understood English only, but both parchment and paper were expensive, and the only method of making copies of a book was by writing. In 1324 very plain copying cost a laborer's day's wages for 3300 words. Fine ornamental writing cost much more; in 1396 the rate paid for a legendary for Winchester College was nine weeks' wages per thousand words. Books therefore were rarely owned except by persons of wealth; the common people had to depend for -literary entertainment, not on books, but on singers and reciters.

In view of these facts, it is not strange that much of the lighter literature just that which would be of especial interest to us was not put into writing during the Middle Ages. Some of it

such as the popular ballads was preserved by oral tradition; see pages 772 ff. and the accounts of Bishop Percy and the Ballads in any history of English literature. But naturally most of the unwritten literature has perished beyond recovery. Any estimate of the literary tastes and production of the Middle Ages must make allowance for these facts.

Another fact must be taken into consideration in studying the literary culture of England in the Middle Ages. Only a small part of the writings which once existed have come down to us. A large portion of medieval literature has perished by the ordinary decay and accidents natural to the passage of so long a time; but there have been also some special agencies of destruction. Chief among them was the disestablishment of the monasteries in England by Henry VIII. He did not, to be sure, order the destruction of the manuscripts; but no care was taken to preserve them, and many were destroyed by ignorant zealots, while many were wantonly used for the vilest purposes. What happened may be read in Dr. Gasquet's Henry the VIII and the English Monasteries or in John Bale's Leyland's New Year's Gift to King Henry VIII. Bale, who was a learned scholar of that time, says: "Never had we bene offended for the losse of our lybraryes, beynge so many in nombre, and in so desolate places for the more parte, yf the chiefe monumentes and most notable workes of our excellent wryters had bene reserved. . . . But to destroye all without consyderacyon is, and wyll be unto England for ever, a moste horryble infamy amonge the grave senyours of other nacyons. A greate nombre of them whych purchased those superstycyouse mansyons [i.e., the monasteries] reserved of those lybrarye bokes . . . some to Scoure theyr candel-styckes and some to rubbe their bootes. Some they solde to the grossers and sope sellers, and some they sent over see to the bokebynders, not in small nombre, but at times whole shyppes full, to the wonderynge of the foren nacyons. . I knowe a merchaunt man, whych shall at thys tyme be namelesse, that boughte the contentes of two noble lybraryes for xl shyllynges pryce, a shame it is to be spoken. This stuffe hathe he occupyed [i.e., used] in the stede of graye paper [wrapping paper] by the space of more than X. yeares, and yet he hath store ynough for as many yeares to come."

THE PRONUNCIATION OF MIDDLE

ENGLISH

Even those students who do not try to read the original text of the Middle English selections should try to pronounce some parts of the poems, at least, in order to obtain a sense of the verse effects.

The pronunciation of Middle English changed considerably between the beginning and the end of the period and there were many differences between the different dialects at the same time. Besides this, we assume that as great differences existed then between different individuals as exist now in the pronunciation of Modern English. Therefore only very rough approximations to the actual sounds can be suggested; but such a conventional system will enable the reader to get some idea of the fuller tones of ancient English and to maintain in his reading a uniform and unbroken poetic feeling.

The following sounds are commonly given for Chaucer's English and may be used for Middle English in general:

Pages 1 f. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle belongs for the most part, of course, to the history of English literature before the Norman Conquest; but the later records, especially those of the Peterborough version, from which our selection is taken, are of great importance for the study of modern English prose. The Chronicle seems to have been begun in the reign of Alfred the Great, perhaps in consequence of his efforts for the education of his people. It exists in six versions, differing more or less from one another both as to the events recorded and the period of time covered, but together forming, in a manner, a single work. The early entries, beginning with 60 B.C., were compiled from various sources and are, for the most part, very meager and uninteresting. Here are the complete records for two years: "An. DCCLXXII. Here (that is, in this year) Bishop Milred died." "An. DCCLXXIII. Here a red cross appeared in the sky after sunset; and in this year the Mercians and the men of Kent fought at Otford; and wondrous serpents were seen in the land of the South-Saxons." For long, weary stretches of years, there are, with the notable exception of the vivid account of the death of Cynewulf, few more exciting entries than these. Even when great events are recorded, there is no effort to tell how or why they occurred, no attempt to produce an interesting narrative. In the time of King Alfred, however, a change appears, and, though the records still have the character of annals rather than of history, the narrative is often very detailed and interesting, especially in regard to the long and fierce contest with the Danes.

After the Norman Conquest, one version of

the Chronicle, that kept by the monks of Peterborough, contains entries of the greatest importance both for the history of the times and for the state of the English language then. The latest of these entries is for the year 1154, when the turbulent reign of the weak Stephen was followed by the strong and peaceful administration of Henry II. The selection we have chosen is from the entry for 1137, and gives a startling picture of the terrors of the time. But although the account is true, it would be a mistake to infer from it, as some have done, that civilization had perished in England. Not only were the monks of Peterborough at this very time rebuilding their beautiful monastery and other men erecting churches and cathedrals of wonderful beauty in other parts of England, it was in these very years that literature flourished with extraordinary vigor. The great stories of King Arthur and Merlin the Magician first appear in literature in King Stephen's reign. It may well give one a shock, at least of surprise, to learn that Geoffrey of Monmouth, who introduced these stories into literature, dedicated one of his books to the very Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, mentioned in 1. 12 and the other to Robert earl of Gloucester, King Stephen's half-brother and bitterest enemy.

The most notable things about this passage, considered as English prose, are its simplicity and straightforwardness and its strong resemblance to modern English in sentence structure and word order. These features are probably to be accounted for by the fact that, though the writer doubtless understood Latin, he did not feel that he was producing literature, but only making a plain record of facts, and consequently did not attempt the clumsy artificialities so often produced by those who tried to imitate Latin prose in English.

Pronunciation. In addition to the usual symbols of sounds (see p. 678), the following require special attention in this selection:

like long e in there: gære, p. 1, l. 1, undergæton, 1. 16, wæron, l. 21, ævric, 1. 22, agænes, 1. 23, dæies, p. 2, 1. I, uuæren, 1. 4, nævre, l. 4, hæved, l. 10, gæde, l. 11, hærnes l. 11.

i like y: iafen (pr. yaven), p. 1, l. 14. sc like sh: sculde, p. 1, l. 3, biscop, l. 11. u and uu like w: suikes, p. 1, l. 15, suoren, l. 19, suencten, 1. 24, suythe, l. 25; uuenden, p. 1, 1. 3, uurecce, 1. 25, uuaren, 1. 27, uuæren, p. 2, 1. 4, uurythen, l. 10, uuerse, 1. 19.

POEMA MORALE

Pp. 2 ff. This is the first important English poem after the Norman Conquest. It consists of a large number (about 400 lines) of moral and religious precepts embodying the author's philosophy of life, and was evidently written for the purpose of inculcating right living in all who read or heard it. As the short specimen given here shows, the questions of life, present and future, are treated in a spirit of selfish prudence, and the sentiment most frequently and powerfully appealed to is that of self-preservation. The spirit of the author is a sincere but hard and narrow Christianity, untouched by the tenderness of personal affection for Jesus or of concern for one's friends and fellow-men notable in the best work of Richard Rolle, Thomas de Hales, or even the dull but lovable Orrm. The author has, however, much skill in language and versification, and at times the vigor and vividness of his work is undeniable. The poem must have been very popular in its day, as all peoples in the early stages of development are fond of proverbial sayings and similar forms of practical wisdom. Several copies of it, made in various parts of England, have come down to us.

The verse is the seven-stressed line known as the septenarius, or septenary. The rhythm seems to me trochaic, or falling. The line naturally falls into two parts rhythmically: one of four stresses and one of three. The weak final e is always pronounced except before a vowel sound. Every line, therefore, ends in a weak syllable, and an extra syllable often occurs at the cæsura (i.e., the metrical pause within the line). Many lines also have a weak syllable at the beginning before the first stress (see ll. 2, 3, 8, 10, etc.). Pronunciation. The following require special