No More Learning

One of the three
manuscripts in which it exists belonged to the monastery of
Kirkham, but the language is that of a more northerly district,
and the author probably lived near the Scottish border.
Further evidence of literary activity in the north of England
during this period is given by Cursor Mundi, a very long poem,
which, as its name implies, treats of universal rather than
local history, and, like the cycles of miracle plays which were
just beginning to pass out of the hands of their clerical inventors
into those of laymen, relates the story of the world from the
creation to the day of doom. It opens with a prologue, which
is, practically, the author's “apology” for his undertaking. Men,
he says, rejoice to hear romances of Alexander and Julius
Caesar, of the long strife between Greece and Troy, of king
Arthur and Charlemagne. Each man is attracted by what
he enjoys the most, and all men delight especially in their
“paramours"; but the best lady of all is the Virgin Mary, and
whosoever takes her for his own shall find that her love is ever
true and loyal. Therefore, the poet will compose a work in her
honour; and, because French rimes are commonly found every-
where, but there is nothing for those who know only English, he
will write it for him who “na Frenche can. "
With this explanation the author embarks on his vast theme,
which he divides according to the seven ages of the world, a
device copied from Bede. He describes the creation, the war in
heaven, the temptation of Eve, the expulsion from Paradise, the
history of the patriarchs and so on through the Bible narrative,
sometimes abridging, but more often enlarging, the story by long
additions, drawn from the most diverse authorities, which add
greatly to the interest of the narrative. One of the most in-
teresting of these additions is the legend of the Holy Rood:
this is not told in a complete form in one place, but is introduced
in relation to the history of the men who were connected with
it. In place of the prophecies there are inserted two parables,
probably from Grosseteste’s Château d'Amour; and the poet
then goes on to tell with much detail of the youth of Mary, the
birth of Christ and His childhood. Then follow the story of His
life as given by the evangelists, His death and descent into hell,
the careers of the apostles, the assumption of the Virgin and a
section on doomsday. The author concludes with an address
to his fellow-men, begging them to think upon the transitory


## p. 343 (#363) ############################################

Cursor Mundi
343
nature of earthly joys, and a prayer to the Virgin, commending
his work to her approval.
The humility betrayed in the concluding lines is all the more at-
tractive because, as his poem shows, the writer was an accomplished
scholar, extremely well read in medieval literature. His work,
indeed, is a storehouse of legends, not all of which have been
traced to their original sources. His most important authority
was the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor; but he used
many others, among which may be mentioned Wace's Fête de la
Conception Notre Dame, Grosseteste's Château d'Amour, the
apocryphal gospels, a south English poem on the assumption of
the Virgin ascribed to Edmund Rich, Adso’s Libellus de Anti-
christo, the Elucidarium of Honorius of Autun, Isidore of Seville
and the Golden Legend of Jacobus a Voragine.
The popularity of Cursor Mundi is witnessed by the large
number of manuscripts in which it is preserved, and it has
many qualities to account for this. In the first place, the
author never loses sight of his audience, showing great skill
in appealing to the needs of rude, unlettered people whose
religious instruction must, necessarily, be conveyed by way of
concrete example. He has a keen eye for the picturesque; his
description of the Flood, for instance, may be compared with the
famous passage in the alliterative poem, Cleanness, and he lingers
over the episode of Goliath with an enjoyment due as much to
his own delight in story-telling as to a knowledge of what his
hearers will appreciate; there is a strong family likeness between
the Philistine hero and such monsters as Colbrand and Ascapart.
The strong humanity which runs through the whole book is one of
its most attractive features, and shows that the writer was full
of sympathy for his fellow creatures.
The whole poem shows considerable artistic skill. In spite of
the immense mass of material with which it deals, it is well
proportioned, and the narrative is lucid and easy. The verse
form is generally that of the eight-syllabled couplet ; but, when
treating of the passion and death of Christ, the poet uses
alternately riming lines of eight and six syllables; and the
discourse between Christ and man, which follows the account of
the crucifixion, consists largely of six-lined mono-rimed stanzas.
Of the author, beyond the fact that he was, as he himself
states, a cleric, nothing whatever is known. Hupe's theory,
that his name was John of Lindebergh, which place he identifies
with Limber Magna in Lincolnshire, is based on a misreading of


## p. 344 (#364) ############################################

344 Later Transition English
an insertion in one of the manuscripts by the scribe who copied
it; and all that can be affirmed with any confidence is that
the author lived in the north of England towards the end of
the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century. Some of
the later manuscripts show west midland and even southern
peculiarities, but this is only another testimony to the wide-spread
popularity of the poem.
The most skilful story-teller of his time was Robert Mannyng
of Brunne, who, between 1303 and 1338, translated into his
native tongue two poems written in poor French by English
clerics. These two works were William of Wadington's Manuel
des Pechiez, written, probably, for Norman settlers in Yorkshire,
and a chronicle composed by Peter of Langtoft, a canon of the
Augustinian priory of Bridlington.
Unlike most monastic writers, Mannyng supplies some valuable
information about himself. In the prologue to Handling Synne,
his version of the Manuel des Pechiez, he tells us that his name
is Robert of Brunne, of Brunnëwake in Kestevene, and that he
dedicates his work especially to the fellowship of Sempringham,
to which he had belonged for fifteen years. He also tells us the
exact year in which he began his translation—1303. This informa-
tion is supplemented by some lines in his translation of Langtoft's
chronicle. Here he adds that his name is Robert Mannyng of
Brunne, and that he wrote all this history in the reign of
Edward III, in the priory of Sixille. We gather, also, from an
allusion in the narrative, that he had spent some time at
Cambridge, where he had met Robert Bruce and his brother
Alexander, who was a skilful artist.
These particulars have been elucidated by the labours of
Furnivall. Brunne was the present Bourne, a market town
thirty-five miles to the south of Boston, in Lincolnshire;
Sempringham, where was the parent house of the Gilbertine
order, is now represented by a church and a few scattered houses;
Sixille, or Six Hills, is a little hamlet not far from Market Rasen,
and here, too, was a priory of the Gilbertines.
Of William of Wadington, the author of the Manuel des
Pechiez very little is known. In the prologue to his work, how-
ever, he begs his readers to excuse his bad French, because he
was born and bred in England and took his name from a town
in that country. The apology is not altogether superfluous, for
his grammar is loose, and forms that were archaic even in the


## p. 345 (#365) ############################################

Handlyng Synne
345
thirteenth century are of frequent occurrence. His versification
is also poor, and, though his normal form is the octosyllabic
couplet, he does not hesitate to introduce lines of six, or even
of ten, syllables. His English audience, however, was not critical,
and the popularity of the manual is attested by the number of
manuscripts, fourteen in all, which have survived. Most of these
belong to the thirteenth century, and Mannyng's translation, as
we have seen, was begun in 1303.
The English version begins with an introduction of the usual
style, setting out the plan of the work, and stating the object
of the author in making the translation. He has put it into
English rime for the benefit of ignorant men, who delight in
listening to stories at all hours, and often hearken to evil tales
which may lead to their perdition. Therefore, he has provided
them in this book with stories of a more edifying description.
His instinct for selecting what he feels will interest the un-
learned is at once revealed by his omission of the long and dull
section in which Wadington dwells on the twelve articles of faith.
Theory attracts him little, and he proceeds at once to the first
commandment, illustrating it by the dreadful example of a
monk, who, by his love for an Eastern woman, was tempted to
the worship of idols. Then comes a notable passage, also in
Wadington, against witchcraft, and, in expansion of this, is given
the original story of how a witch enchanted a leather bag, so that
it milked her neighbour's cows, and how her charm, in the mouth
of a bishop (who, of course, did not believe in it) was useless.
Thus he treats of the ten commandments in order, keeping
fairly closely to his original, and generally following Wadington's
lead in the stories by which he illustrates them. This occupies
nearly three thousand lines, and the poet then enters upon the
theme of the seven deadly sins.
Mannyng seems to have found this a congenial subject,
and the section throws much light on the social conditions
of his time. Tournaments, he says, are the occasion of all the
seven deadly sins, and, if every knight loved his brother, they
would never take place, for they encourage pride, envy, anger,
idleness, covetousness, gluttony and lust. Furthermore, mystery
plays—and these lines are highly significant as throwing light on
the development of the drama at the beginning of the fourteenth
century-are also occasions of sin. Only two mysteries may be per-
formed, those of the birth of Christ and of His resurrection, and
these must be played within the church, for the moral edification of
the people. If they are presented in groves or highways, they are


## p. 346 (#366) ############################################

346 Later Transition English
sinful pomps, to be avoided as much as tournaments; and priests
who lend vestments to aid the performance are guilty of sacrilege.
One of the best stories in the book, the tale of Piers, illustrates
the wickedness and repentance of one of the hated tribe of
usurers. It is also in illustration of this sin that the grotesque
story occurs of the Cambridge miser parson who was so much
attached to his gold that he tried to eat it, and died in the attempt.
In respect of the sin of gluttony, not only the rich are to be
blamed; most people sin by eating too much; two meals a day
are quite sufficient, except for children, and they should be fed
only at regular hours. Late suppers, too, are to be avoided,
especially by serving men, who often sit up and feast till cock-
crow. People should not break their fast before partaking of the
“ holy bread," or dine before they hear mass.
The seven deadly sins being disposed of, there follows a long
section on sacrilege, in which Mannyng departs freely from his
original. He says, indeed, that he will deal with some vices
coming under this head as William of Wadington teaches him; but
the lines following, in which he apologises for “foul English and
feeble rhyme," seem to show that he was conscious of some
audacity in taking many liberties with the French poem. How-
ever this may be, the account of the reproof that a Norfolk
bondsman gave a knight who had allowed his beasts to defile
the churchyard, which is not in the Manuel des Pechiez, and is,
evidently, a true story, is very characteristic of the attitude of
the Gilbertines to the privileged classes. The order was, as its
latest historian has pointed out, essentially democratic in its
organisation, and the fearlessness of monk towards prior is re-
flected in the approval that Mannyng tacitly bestows on the
thrall's behaviour.
The churchyard was not only desecrated by use as a pasture.
It was the meeting-place of youths and maidens for games and
songs, and this gives occasion for the grim legend, borrowed from
a German source, of the dancers and carol singers who, on
Christmas night, disturbed the priest in his orisons. Notwith-
standing the fact that his own daughter was tempted to join the
frivolous company, he punished them with his curse; so that the
intruders were doomed to pursue their dance through rain and
snow and tempest for ever. There is something very charming in
the snatch of song-
By the leved wood rode Bevolyne,
Wyth him he ledd feyrë Mergwyne,
Why stondë we? Why go we noght?


## p. 347 (#367) ############################################

Characteristics of Mannyng's Style 347
and very grim is the irony that dooms the dancers to repeat the
last line in the midst of their involuntary perpetual motion.
These qualities are, of course, inherent in the story, but it loses
nothing in Mannyng's narration.
The discussion of the sin of sacrilege brings the author to
line 9492, and now, following Wadington, he enters on the ex-
planation of the seven sacraments. But, as the French version
supplies few stories in illustration of these, Mannyng makes up
the deficiency by several of his own. Then follows a passage on
the necessity of shrift, the twelve points of shrift and the graces
which spring from it, all treated with comparative brevity and with
little anecdotal illustration.
It is impossible for any short account of Handlyng Synne to
convey an adequate idea of its charm and interest. Mannyng
excels in all the qualities of a narrator. He combines, in fact,
the trouvère with the homilist, and shows the way to Gower's
Confessio Amantis. Thus, he differs from the antiquary Robert
of Gloucester by being one of the earliest of English story-
tellers. He had a vivid imagination which enabled him to see
all the circumstances and details of occurrences for which his
authority merely provides the suggestion, and he fills in the out-
lines of stories derived from Gregory or Bede with colours
borrowed from the homely life of England in the fourteenth
century. He delights, also, to play upon the emotions of his
audience by describing the torments of the damned, and his
pictures of hell are more grim and more grotesque than those of
Wadington. He shows a preference for direct narration, and,
where the French merely conveys the sense of what has been said,
Mannyng gives the very words of the speaker, in simple, colloquial
English. Homely expressions and pithy proverbs abound through-
out, and the work is full of telling, felicitous metaphors, such as
"tavern is the devyl's knyfe," or "kerchief is the devyl's sail,” or
" to throw a falcon at every fly. "
Simplicity is, indeed, one of the most striking features of
Mannyng's style. Writing, as he says, for ignorant men, he is at
some pains to explain difficult terms or to give equivalents for
them. Thus, when he uses the word “mattock,” he remarks, in a
parenthesis, that it is a pick-axe; and, in the same way, the term
“Abraham's bosom” is carefully interpreted as the place between
paradise and hell. And, in his anxiety that his hearers shall
understand the spiritual significance of religious symbols, he calls
to his aid illustrations from popular institutions familiar to all.


## p. 348 (#368) ############################################

348
Later Transition English
Baptism, he says, is like a charter which testifies that a man has
bought land from his neighbour, confirmation is like the acknow-
ledgment of that charter by a lord or king.
In dwelling on the personal relations of man to God, Mannyng,
like the author of Cursor Mundi, often shows much poetic feeling.
While he paints in sombre tones the dreadful fate of unre-
pentant sinners, he speaks no less emphatically of the love of
God for His children and the sacrifice of Christ. His simple faith
in the divine beneficence, combined with an intense sympathy for
penitent man, lends a peculiar charm to his treatment of such
stories as those of the merciful knight, and Piers the usurer.
Apart from its literary qualities, Handlyng Synne has con-
siderable value as a picture of contemporary manners. Much of
what is said on these points is borrowed from Wadington, but still
more is due to Mannyng's personal observation. In his attacks
on tyrannous lords, and his assertion of the essential equality of
men, he resembles the authors of Piers Plowman. The knight
is pictured as a wild beast ranging over the country; he goes out
“about robbery to get his prey"; he endeavours to strip poor
men of their land, and, if he cannot buy it, he devises other means
to torment them, accusing them of theft or of damage to the
corn or cattle of their lord. Great harm is suffered at the hands
of his officers; for nearly every steward gives verdicts unfavour-
able to the poor; and, if the latter ask for mercy, he replies that he
is only acting according to the strict letter of the law. But, says
Mannyng, he who only executes the law and adds no grace thereto
may never, in his own extremity, appeal for mercy to God.
But, if Mannyng is severe on tyrannous lords, he shows no
leniency to men of his own calling. The common sins of the
clergy, their susceptibility to bribes, their lax morality, their love
of personal adornment, their delight in horses, hounds and hawks,
all come under his lash, and, in words which may not have been
unknown to Chaucer, he draws the picture of the ideal parish
priest.
Although the order to which Mannyng belonged was originally
founded for women, they receive little indulgence at his hands. In-
deed, he surpasses William of Wadington and the average monastic
writer in his strictures on their conduct. God intended woman to
help man, to be his companion and to behave meekly to her master
and lord. But women are generally "right unkind” in wedlock;
for one sharp word they will return forty, and they desire always
to get the upper hand. They spend what should be given to the


## p. 349 (#369) ############################################

349
Mannyng's Debt to Wadington
poor in long trains and wimples; they deck themselves out to
attract masculine attention, and thus make themselves responsible
for the sins of men. Even when the author has occasion to tell
the story of a faithful wife who made constant prayer and
offerings for the husband whom she supposed to be dead, he adds,
grudgingly,
This woman pleyned (pitied) her husbonde sore,
Wuld Gode that many such women wore!
For the ordinary amusements of the people Mannyng has
little sympathy; he looks at them from the shadow of the cloister,
and, to him, “carols, wrestlings, and summer games” are all so
many allurements of the devil to entice men from heaven. The
gay song of the wandering minstrel and the loose tales of ribald
jongleurs who lie in wait for men at tavern doors are as hateful to
him as to the authors of Piers Plowman; even in the garlands
with which girls deck their tresses he sees a subtle snare of Satan.
Towards children he shows some tenderness, recognising their
need for greater physical indulgence than their elders ; but he
upholds the counsel of Solomon to give them the sharp end of the
rod, so long as no bones be broken.
Mannyng's mode of translation renders a precise estimate of
his indebtedness to Wadington somewhat difficult. A hint from
his original will sometimes set him off on a long digression, at
other times he keeps fairly close to the sense, but interweaves
with it observations and parentheses of his own. He does not
always tell the same tales as Wadington, but omits, substitutes or
adds at will; the fifty-four stories in the Manuel des Pechiez are
represented in Handlyng Synne by sixty-five. Many of his
additions are taken from local legends, and it is in these that his
skill as a narrator is most apparent. Unhampered by any prece-
dent, the stories move quietly and lightly along, and may almost
challenge comparison with those of Chaucer.
The verse of Handlyng Synne is the eight-syllabled iambic
metre of the original; but, as in the Manuel des Pechiez, many
lines occur which defy the most ingenious scansion. The language
in its state of transition afforded special opportunity for these
irregularities ; when there was no fixed standard for the sounding
of the inflectional -e this was apt to be added or omitted at the
will of the scribe. The three manuscripts in which the poem has
survived, the Harleian, dated about 1360, and the Bodleian and
Dulwich, about 1400, show many discrepancies.
The dialect of Handlyng Synne is east midland, of a northern -


## p. 350 (#370) ############################################

350 Later Transition English
type, containing more Scandinavian forms than are found in the
language of Chaucer. The number of Romance words is much
greater than in the Gloucester Chronicle, which may be explained
partly by locality and partly by the fact that such forms are
always more numerous in translations from the French than in
original English compositions.
Mannyng's other work, the Chronicle of England, is of less
general importance than Handlyng Synne; though of greater
metrical interest. It consists of two parts, the first extending
from the arrival of the legendary Brut in Britain to the English
invasion, the second from the English invasion to the end of
Edward I's reign. The first part, in octosyllabic couplets, is a
close and fairly successful translation from Wace's version of
Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae; the second,
in rimed alexandrines, is taken from an Anglo-Norman poem by
Peter of Langtofte
Langtoft's alexandrines, which are arranged in sets riming on
one sound, seem to have puzzled Mannyng, and his attempt to
reproduce them in the fourteen-syllabled line of the Gloucester
Chronicle is not altogether successful. Sometimes the line is an
alexandrine, but at others, and this is most significant, it is
decasyllabic; moreover, though Mannyng tries to emulate the
continuous rime of his original, he generally succeeds in achieving
only couplet rime. Thus we see dimly foreshadowed the heroic
couplet which Chaucer brought to perfection?
When, at the request of Dan Robert of Malton, Mannyng set
about his chronicle, it was, probably, with the intention of following
Langtoft throughout; but, on further consideration, he judged that,
since the first part of Langtoft's chronicle was merely an abridg.
ment of Wace, it was better to go straight to the original. So,
after an introduction which contains the autobiographical details
already given, and an account of the genealogy of Brut, he gives
a somewhat monotonous and commonplace version of Wace's
poem. Sometimes, he omits or abridges; sometimes, he adds &
line or two from Langtoft, or the explanation of a word unfamiliar
to his audience, or pauses to notice contemptuously some un-
founded tradition current among the unlearned. Once, he
digresses to wonder, with Geoffrey of Monmouth, that Gildas and
Bede should have omitted all mention of king Arthur, who was
greater than any man they wrote of save the saints. In all other
lands, he says, men have written concerning him, and in France
Saintsbury, History of English Prosody, 1, 118.


## p. 351 (#371) ############################################

Mannyng's Chronicle
351
more is known of the British hero than in the lands that gave him
birth. But Mannyng's characteristic doubt of Welsh trust-
worthiness leads him to question the story of Arthur's immortality.
“If he now live," he says contemptuously, “his life is long. ”
All through his version Mannyng, as might be expected, shows
a more religious spirit than Wace; this is especially exemplified
in the passages in which he points out that the misfortunes of the
Britons were a judgment on them for their sins, and in the long
insertion, borrowed from Langtoft and Geoffrey of Monmouth, of
Cadwalader's prayer; and, as he nears the end of the first portion
of his chronicle, he draws freely on Bede, telling at great length
the story of St Gregory and the English boy slaves and the mission
of St Augustine.
The second half of the chronicle is much more interesting than
the first, partly because Mannyng adheres less slavishly to his
original. Wright, in his edition of Langtoft's chronicle, has
accused Mannyng of having frequently misunderstood the French
of his predecessor; but, though instances of mistranslation do
occur, they are not very frequent. The version is most literal in
the earlier part; later, when Mannyng begins to introduce
internal rimes into his verse, the difficulties of metre prevent
him from maintaining the verbal accuracy at which he aimed.
But, notwithstanding the greater freedom with which Mannyng
treats this part of the chronicle, his gift as a narrator is much
less apparent here than in Handlyng Synne. Occasionally, it is
visible, as when, for the sake of liveliness, he turns Langtoft's
preterites into the present tense, and shows a preference for direct
over indirect quotation. But such interest as is due to him and
not to Langtoft is derived chiefly from his allusions to circum-
stances and events not reported by the latter and derived from
local tradition. Thus, he marvels greatly that none of the
historians with whom he is acquainted makes mention of the famous
story of Havelok the Dane and Aethelwold's daughter Gold-
burgh, although there still lay in Lincoln castle the stone which
Havelok cast further than any other champion, and the town of
Grimsby yet stood to witness the truth of the history.
For the reign of Edward I, Mannyng's additions are of very s
considerable importance, and, as the authorities for these can
be traced only in a few instances, it is a reasonable conclusion to
suppose that he wrote from personal knowledge. He relates more
fully than Langtoft the incidents of the attempt on Edward's life
in Palestine, the death of Llywelyn and the treachery of the


## p. 352 (#372) ############################################

352 Later Transition English
provost of Bruges who undertook to deliver the English king into
the hands of the enemy. It is, however, in connection with Scottish
affairs that his additions are most noteworthy. Although he
regards the Scots with the peculiar bitterness of the northern
English, he follows with especial interest the fortunes of Bruce,
with whom, as we have seen, he had been brought into personal
contact.
The fragments of ballads given by Langtoft celebrating the
victories of the English over the Scots occur also in Mannyng's
version, and, in some cases, in a fuller, and what seems to be a more
primitive, form. They are full of barbaric exultation over the
fallen foe, and form a curious link between the battle songs in the
Old English Chronicle and the patriotic poems of Laurence Minot.
One other work has been assigned to Robert Mannyng. This
is the Medytacyuns of be soper of oure lorde Jhesu. And also of
hys passyun. And eke of be peynes of hys swete modyr, Mayden
Marye. be whyche made yn latyn Bonaventure Cardynall. In
the two manuscripts in which Handlyng Synne has survived in
a complete form (Bodleian 415 and Harleian 1701), it is followed by
a translation of the above work, but this alone is not sufficient
evidence as to the authorship. The language, however, is east
midland, and the freedom with which the original is treated,
together with the literary skill indicated in some of the additions
and interpolations, may, perhaps, justify the ascription of this work
to Robert Mannyng ; but the point is uncertain.
Of Mannyng's influence on succeeding authors it is impossible
to speak definitely. The fact that only three manuscripts of his
great work survive points to no very extensive circulation, and
the resemblance of certain passages in Handlyng Synne to lines
in the Vision of Piers Plowman and the Canterbury Tales
may very well be due to the general opinion of the day on the
subjects of which they treat. It has been noticed that the frame-
work of Handlyng Synne is not unlike that of Gower's Con-
fessio Amantis; but the custom of pointing the lesson of a disser-
tation by an illustrative narrative is common to didactic writers
of all periods, and Gower's adoption of a method popular among
approved moralists must have been intended to add zest to the
delight of his audience in stories which were of a distinctly secular
character.
The literary activity of the south-east of England during this
time was less remarkable than that of the west and north ; never-


## p. 353 (#373) ############################################

“marrlliam of Shoreham s "in the British Museum
rite themes of
William of Shoreham 353
theless, three writers of some importance, William of Shoreham,
Dan Michel of Northgate and Adam Davy, call for mention here.
Of these writers two were clerics ; the third held the position of
"marshall” in Stratford-at-Bow.
William of Shoreham's works are contained in a single manu-
script (Add. MS 17,376) now in the British Museum; and, curiously
enough, though the seven poems treat of the favourite themes of
the medieval homilist, they take the form of lyrical measures.
The first deals with the seven sacraments; the second is a transla-
tion of the well-known Latin Psalms printed in the Lay Folk's
Mass Book, of which there are other metrical versions in Middle
English; the third is a commentary on the ten commandments; and
the fourth a dissertation on the seven deadly sins. Then comes a
lyric on the joys of the Virgin, and, after that, a hymn to Mary,
indicated, by the colophon, to be a translation from Robert
Grosseteste. Last of all, is a long poem on the evidences of Christi-
anity, the mystery of the Trinity, the Creation, the war in heaven
and the temptation of Adam and Eve. Here the manuscript
breaks off, but, from internal evidence, it is clear that the poet in-
tended also to treat of the redemption.
Though he is handicapped by the form of verse chosen, the
author shows a good deal of artistic feeling in his treatment of
these well-worn themes. His favourite stanzas consist of seven
or six lines, the former riming abcbded, the latter, aabccb;
but he uses, also, alternately riming lines of varying length
and the quatrain abab. His poems are characterised by the
tender melancholy which pervades much English religious
verse; he dwells on the transitoriness of earthly life, the waning
strength of man and the means by which he may obtain eternal
life and he pleads with his readers for their repentance and
reformation.
From a reference in the colophon to Simon, archbishop of
Canterbury, we may conclude that the present manuscript dates
from the beginning of the reign of Edward III. From other
colophons we learn that the poems were composed by William of
Shoreham, vicar of Chart, near Leeds, in Kent.
The other important Kentish production of this time was the
Ayenbite of Inwyt (the "again-biting” of the inner wit, the remorse
of conscience), the value of which, however, is distinctly philo-
logical rather than literary. Our information as to its author
is derived from his preface in the unique manuscript in the
British Museum, which states that it was made with his own hand
E. L. I. CH. XVI.
23


## p. 354 (#374) ############################################

354
Later Transition English
by Dan Michel, of Northgate, in Kent, and belonged to the library
of St Austin at Canterbury, and from a note at the end of the
treatise, which adds that it was written in English for the sake of
ignorant men, to guard them against sin, and that it was finished
on the vigil of the holy apostles, Simon and Jude, by a brother of
the cloister of St Austin of Canterbury, in the year 1340.
The Ayenbite of Inwyt, was not, however, an original work.
It was a translation of a very popular French treatise, the Somme
des Vices et des Vertus (known also as Li Livres roiaux des Vices
et des Vertus, and Somme le Roi), compiled, in 1279, by frère
Lorens, a Dominican, at the request of Philip the Bold, son and
successor of Louis IX. This, in its turn, was borrowed from other
writers, and was composed of various homilies, on the ten com-
mandments, the creed, the seven deadly sins, the knowledge of
good and evil, the seven petitions of the Paternoster, the seven
gifts of the Holy Ghost, the seven cardinal virtues and confession,
many of which exist in manuscripts anterior to the time of frère
Lorens.
The treatment of these subjects, especially in the section on
the seven deadly sins, is allegorical. The sins are first compared
with the seven heads of the beast which St John saw in the
Apocalypse ; then, by a change of metaphor, pride becomes the
root of all the rest, and each of them is represented as bringing
forth various boughs. Thus, the boughs of pride are untruth,
despite, presumption, ambition, idle bliss, hypocrisy and wicked
dread; while from untruth spring three twigs, foulhood, foolish-
ness and apostasy. This elaborate classification into divisions and
sub-divisions is characteristic of the whole work, and becomes not
a little tiresome; on the other hand, the very frequent recourse
to metaphor which accompanies it serves to drive the lesson
home. Idle bliss is the great wind that throweth down the great
towers, and the high steeples, and the great beeches in the woods,
by which are signified men in high places; the boaster is the
cuckoo who singeth always of himself.
Sometimes these comparisons are drawn from the natural
history of the day, the bestiaries, or, as Dan Michel calls them,
the “bokes of kende. ” Thus, flatterers are like to nickers (sea-
fairies), which have the bodies of women and the tails of fishes,
and sing so sweetly that they make the sailors fall asleep, and
afterwards swallow them; or like the adder called “serayn," which
runs more quickly than a horse, and whose venom is so deadly
that no medicine can cure its sting. Other illustrations are


## p. 355 (#375) ############################################

The Ayenbite of Inwyt
355
borrowed from Seneca, from Aesop, Boethius, St Augustine,
St Gregory, St Bernard, St Jerome and St Anselm.
Unfortunately, Dan Michel was a very incompetent translator.
He often quite fails to grasp the sense of his original, and his
version is frequently unintelligible without recourse to the French
work.
It is noticeable, however, that it improves as it proceeds,
as if he taught himself the language by his work upon it. The
same MS contains Kentish versions of the Paternoster, the creed
and the famous sermon entitled Sawles Warde, which is abridged
from an original at least one hundred years older. It is a highly
allegorical treatment of Matthew, xxiv, 43, derived from Hugo
of St Victor's De Anima, and describes how the house of Reason
is guarded by Sleight, Strength and Righteousness, and how they
receive Dread, the messenger of Death, and Love of Life Ever-
lasting, who is sent from heaven.
Certain resemblances between the Ayenbite of Inwyt and
The Parson's Tale have led to the supposition that Chaucer
was acquainted with either the English or the French version. It
has recently been proved, however, that these resemblances are
confined to the section on the seven deadly sins, and even these
are not concerned with the structure of the argument, but consist,
rather, of scattered passages. And, although the immediate source
of The Parson's Tale is still unknown, it has been shown that its
phraseology and general argument are very similar to those of a
Latin tract written by Raymund of Pennaforte, general of the
Dominicans in 1238, and that the digression on the seven deadly
sins is an adaptation of the Summa seu Tractatus de Viciis, com-
posed before 1261 by William Peraldus, another Dominican friar.
Another interesting production of the south-eastern counties
is a poem of a hundred and sixty-eight octosyllabic lines, riming
in couplets, known as the Dreams of Adam Davy, which appears
to date from the beginning of the reign of Edward II. The
author, who, as he himself informs us, lived near London, and
was well known far and wide, tells how, within the space of twelve
months, beginning on a Wednesday in August, and ending on a
Thursday in September of the following year, he dreamed five
dreams, concerning Edward the king, prince of Wales. In the
first dream he thought he saw the king standing armed and
crowned before the shrine of St Edward. As he stood there, two
knights set upon him and belaboured him with their swords, but
without effect. When they were gone, four bands of divers
coloured light streamed out of each of the king's ears.
23–2


## p. 356 (#376) ############################################

356 Later Transition English
The second vision took place on a Tuesday before the feast of
All Hallows, and, on that night, the poet dreamed that he saw
Edward, clad in a gray mantle, riding on an ass to Rome, there to
be chosen emperor. He rode as a pilgrim, without hose or shoes,
and his legs were covered with blood. This theme is continued
in the third vision, on St Lucy's day, when the seer thought
that he was in Rome, and saw the pope in his mitre and Edward
with his crown, in token that he should be emperor of Christendom.
In the fourth vision, on Christmas night, the poet imagined
that he was in a chapel of the Virgin Mary and that Christ,
unloosing His hands from the cross, begged permission from His
Mother to convey Edward on a pilgrimage against the foes of
Christendom; and Christ's Mother gave Him leave, because Edward
had served her day and night.
Then came an interval in the dreams, but, one Wednesday in
Lent, the poet heard a voice which bade him make known his
visions to the king: and the injunction was repeated after the
last vision, in which he saw an angel lead Edward, clad in a robe
red as the juice of a mulberry, to the high altar at Canterbury.
The exact purpose of these verses is very difficult to de-
termine. The manuscript in which they are preserved (Laud
MS 622), appears to belong to the end of the fourteenth century;
but the allusion to “Sir Edward the king, prince of Wales” is
applicable only to Edward II. Perhaps they were designed to
check the king in the course of frivolity and misrule which ended
in bis deposition; but the tone is very loyal, and the references
to him are extremely complimentary. The poems are, in fact,
intentionally obscure, a characteristic which they share with other
prophecies of the same class, notably those attributed to Merlin
and Thomas of Erceldoune. The same manuscript contains poems
on the Life of St Alexius, the Battle of Jerusalem, the Fifteen
Signs before Domesday, Scripture Histories and the Lamentation
of Souls, which show many resemblances to the Dreams, and
may also be by Adam Davy; if so, he must have been a man of
education, since some of them seem to be derived directly from
Latin originals.
The most important national poems of the first half of the
fourteenth century are the war songs of Laurence Minot, pre-
served in MS Cotton Galba ix in the British Museum. The author
twice mentions his name; from internal evidence it is probable
that the poems are contemporary with the events they describe;
and, as the last of them deals with the taking of Guisnes, in 1352,


## p. 357 (#377) ############################################

Laurence Minot
357
it is supposed that he must have died about this time. Diligent
research has failed to discover anything further about him, but
Minot was the name of a well-known family connected with the
counties of York and Norfolk. The language of the poems is, in
its main characteristics, northern, though with an admixture of
midland forms; and, in three of them, the poet shows detailed
acquaintance with the affairs of Yorkshire. Thus, the expedition
of Edward Baliol against Scotland, to which reference is made in
the first poem, set sail from that county; in the ninth poem the
archbishop of York receives special mention; and, in the account
of the taking of Guisnes, Minot adopts the version which ascribes
the exploit to the daring of a Yorkshire archer, John of Doncaster.
The events which form the subject of these poems all fall
between the years 1333 and 1352. The first two celebrate the
victory of Halidon Hill, which, in the poet's opinion, is an ample
recompense for the disgrace at Bannockburn; the third tells how
Edward III went to join his allies in Flanders, and how the
French attacked Southampton and took an English warship, the
Christopher; the fourth relates the king's first invasion of France,
and Philip's refusal to meet him in battle; the fifth celebrates the
victory at Sluys, mentioning by name the most valiant knights who
took part in it; the sixth is concerned with the abortive siege of
Tournay in the same year; and the seventh tells of the campaign
of 1347 and of the battle of Crecy. Then come two poems on the
siege of Calais and the battle of Neville's Cross. These are followed
by an account of a skirmish between some English ships and some
Spanish merchantmen; and the eleventh and last poem relates the
stratagem by which the town of Guisnes was surprised and taken.
The poetical value of these songs has been somewhat unduly
depreciated by almost every critic who has hitherto treated of
them. Their qualities are certainly not of a highly imaginative
order, and they contain scarcely one simile or metaphor; but the
vérse is vigorous and energetic and goes with a swing, as martial
poetry should. The author was an adept in wielding a variety of
lyrical measures, and in five poems uses the long alliterative
lines which occur in such poems as William of Palerne and Piers
Plowman in rimed stanzas of varying length. The other six
are all written in short iambic lines of three or four accents,
variously grouped together by end-rime. Alliteration is a very
prominent feature throughout, and is often continued in two
successive lines, while the last words of one stanza are constantly
repeated in the first line of the next, a frequent device in


## p. 358 (#378) ############################################

358 Later Transition English
contemporary verse. The constant recourse to alliteration de
tracts, somewhat, from the freshness of the verse, since it leads the
author to borrow from the romance writers well-worn tags, which
must have been as conventional in their way as the hackneyed
pastoral terms against which Wordsworth revolted. Such are
"cares colde," "cantly and kene," " proper and prest," "pride in
prese," "prowd in pall”; with many others of a similar nature.
In spite of the highly artificial structure of the verse, however,
the language itself is simple, even rugged, and the poems dealing
with the Scottish wars bear a strong resemblance to the rude
snatches of folk-song which have already been mentioned in
connection with Mannyng's translation of Langtoft's chronicle.
There is the same savage exultation in the discomfiture of the
Scots, the same scornful references to their “rivelings" (im-
promptu shoes made of raw hide) and the little bags in which
they were wont to carry their scanty provisions of oatmeal. And
the very simplicity of the narrative conveys, perhaps better than a
more elaborate description, the horrors of medieval warfare; in
reading these poems we see the flames spread desolation over the
country, while hordes of pillagers and rough riders are driven
in scattered bands to their own land; or we behold the dead
men "staring at the stars” or lying gaping " between Crecy and
Abbeville. ” Nor is the pomp of military array forgotten; we see the
glitter of pennons and plate armour, the shining rows of shields
and spears, the arrows falling thick as snow, the red hats of the
cardinals who consult together how they may beguile the king,
the ships heaving on the flood, ready for battle, while the
trumpets blow, and the crews dance in the moonlight, regardless
of the waning moon that foretells disaster on the morrow. Strange
merchantmen, transformed, for the time, into war vessels, loom in
the Channel, hiding in their holds great wealth of gold and silver,
of scarlet and green; but in vain do these pirates come hither
with trumpets and tabors, they are already doomed to feed the
fishes. There is no thought of mercy for a fallen foe; only in one
place does any sense of compassion seem to affect the poet.
When he tells how the burgesses of Calais came to demand mercy
from Edward, he puts into the mouth of their leader a pitiful
description of their plight. Horses, coneys, cats and dogs are all
consumed; the need of the petitioners is easily visible in their
appearance; and they that should have helped them are fled away.
But Minot says nothing about the intercession of queen Philippa,
related by Froissart.


## p. 359 (#379) ############################################

Laurence Minot
359
Minot seems to have been a professional gleeman, who earned
his living by following the camp and entertaining soldiers with
the recitation of their own heroic deeds. It is possible, however,
that his skill in versification may have led to his promotion to the
post of minstrel to the king, and that he held some recognised
office about the court. His poems, unlike those of Barbour, which
were composed long after the occasions they commemorated, were,
probably, struck off to celebrate events as they arose, and, in
one of them, that on the siege of Tournay, his exultation seems to
have been somewhat premature. While Barbour's Bruce is a long,
sustained narrative, composed in the same metre throughout, the
verse of Minot is essentially lyric in character, and, as has been
seen, ranges over a large variety of measures.
Minot's patriotism is everywhere apparent. His contempt for
the “wild Scots and the tame" (the Highland and Lowland Scots)
is undisguised, and he has equally small respect for the lily-flowers
of France. When the English meet with misfortune, he always
finds plenty of excuses for them. Thus, in the fight at Southampton,
the galleymen were so many in number that the English grew
tired, but, “since the time that God was born and a hundred years
before, there were never any men better in fight than the English,
while they had the strength. ” His admiration and loyalty for the
king are without measure. The most is made of Edward's per-
sonal bravery at Sluys, his courteous thanks to his soldiers and
the esteem shown him by foreign dignitaries, while the poet con-
tinually insists on the righteous claim of his sovereign to the
throne of France. And, though his poems are sometimes quite
unhistorical in matters of fact, they are important in that they
evidently reflect the growing feeling of solidarity in the nation,
and the patriotic enthusiasm which made possible the victories
of Sluys and Crecy.


## p. 360 (#380) ############################################

CHAPTER XVII
LATER TRANSITION ENGLISH
II
SECULAR LYRICS; TALES; SOCIAL SATIRE
FROM the middle of the thirteenth century to the days of Piers
Plowman, writers of English were still polishing the tools used
in the preceding century. We have seen their predecessors at
work in monasteries on saints' lives and religious verse; chroniclers
have come under consideration; and the flourishing of romance,
both home-grown and imported, has been noted. It remains to
discuss the evidence which is gradually accumulating that neither
court nor cloister were to exercise a monopoly in the production
and patronage of English letters: there was also " the world out-
side. " Certain of the romances-Havelok notably-bear traces,
in their extant forms, of having been prepared for ruder audiences
than those which listened, as did the ladies and gentlemen of
plague-stricken Florence towards the close of this period, to tales
of chivalry and courtly love and idle. dalliance.
A famous collection of Middle English lyrics shows signs that
there were writers who could take a keen pleasure in “notes suete
of nyhtegales,” in “wymmen” like "Alysoun” and in the “northerne
wynd. " There are still poems addressed to “Jhesu, mi suete
lemman,” full of that curious combination of sensuousness and
mysticism which is a notable feature of much of the religious
verse of these centuries; but more purely worldly motifs were
beginning to be preserved; tales which were simply amusing and
cared little for a moral ending were being translated; and indica-
tions appear that the free criticism of its rulers, which has always
been a characteristic of the English race, was beginning to find
expression, or, at any rate, preservation, in the vernacular.
To the early years of the period under consideration belongs
one of the most beautiful of Middle English lyrics:
Sumer is i-cumen in,
Lhude sing cuccn3.
Its popularity is attested by the existence of the music to which it
1 Harl. MS. 2253, Brit. Mus.
• Harl. MS. 978.


## p. 361 (#381) ############################################

Secular Lyrics
361
was sung in the first half of the thirteenth century. If summer
had not yet “come in,” spring, at any rate, was well on the way when
verses like these became possible. A sense of rime, of music, of
sweetness, had arrived; the lines were settling down into moulds
of equal length, and were beginning to trip easily off the tongue to
an expected close. And, instead of the poet feeling that his spirit
was most in harmony with the darker aspects of nature, as was the
case with several of the Old English writers whose works have been
preserved, the poet of the Middle English secular lyric, in common
with the poet of The Owl and the Nightingale, feels “the spring-
running” and cannot refrain from entering into the spirit of it with
a gladsome heart:
Groweth sed and bloweth med,
And springth the wdo nul.
Sing cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Lhouth after calve cu:
Bulluo sterteth, bucke verteth,
Murie sing oucou!
The same note is struck, only more often, in the Harleian lyrics
above referred to, which are dated, approximately, 1310, and were
collected, apparently, by a clerk of Leominster. The slim volume
in which these lyrics were printed sixty-five years ago, by Thomas
Wright", contains poems familiar, perhaps, to most students of
English poetry and familiar, certainly, to all students of English
prosody. The measures of the trouvères and troubadours had
become acclimatised in England-Henry III had married a lady
of Provence-80 far as the genius of the language and the nature
of the islanders permitted; and the attempt to revive the principle
of alliteration as a main feature, instead of, what it has ever been
and still is, an unessential ornament, of English verse was strong
in the land. And first among these spring poems, not so much in
respect of its testimony to the work of perfecting that was in
progress in the matter of metre, as in its sense of the open air,
and of the supremacy of “humanity,” is the well-known Alison
lyric beginning
Bytuene Mershe & Averil
When spray biginneth to springe,
The lutel foul hath hire wyl
On hyre lud * to synge;
3 runs to the greenwood.
8 Specimens of Lyric Poetry composed in England in the Reign of Edward I, Peray
Society, 1842. Some had been printed before by Warton and Rilson.
• In her own language.
I now.


## p. 362 (#382) ############################################

362
Later Transition English
Ich libbel in love-longinge
For semlokest of alle thynge,
He may me blisse bringe,
Icham in hire baundoun .
An hendy hap ichabbe yhents,
Ichot from hevene it is me sent,
From alle wymmen mi love is lent
& lyht on Alysoun.
There is a world of difference between these lines and the ideal
of convent-life set forth in Hali Meidenhad. By natural steps, the
erotic mysticism that produced the poems associated with the Virgin
cult passed into the recognition, not merely that there were “sun,
moon and stars," "and likewise a wind on the heath,” but also that
there existed earthly beings of whom
Some be browne, and some be whit. . .
And some of theym be chiry ripe 6.
In another of the Harleian poems, “the wind on the heath”
inspires a refrain:
Blou, northerne wynd,
Send thou me my suetyng.
Blou, northerne wynd, blou, blon, blou!
which, by its very irregularity of form, shows the flexible strength
that was to be an integral feature of the English lyric. Yet another
poem has lines:
I would I were a thrustle cock,
A bountyng or a laverok,
Sweet bride!
Between her kirtle and her smock
I would me hide:
which form a link in the long chain that binds Catullus to the
Elizabethan and Jacobean lyrists. And the lines beginning
Lenten ys come with love to toune,
With blosmen & with briddes roune?
are full of that passionate sense of “the wild joys of living" which
led “alle clerkys in joye and eke in merthe” to sing
Right lovesom thu art in May thu wyde wyde erthe.
I live.
? power.
8 Good fortune has come to me. • turned away.
6 See ante, p. 229.
6 A Song on Woman, MS. Lambeth 806, 135, printed by Wright and Halliwell,
Reliquiae Antiquae, I, 248.
i Bong. Cf. The Thrush and the Nightingale, Digby MS. 86, Bodl. , printed in
Reliquiae Antiquae, 1, 241 “Somer is comen with love to toune," etc.


## p. 363 (#383) ############################################

Proverbs of Hendyng 363
The Proverbs of Hendyng, “Marcolves sone,” are to be found
in the MS that contains the above lyrics and may, therefore, be
mentioned here. They appear to have been collected from older
material in their present form before the close of the thirteenth
century; and they recall the wisdom literature to which reference
has already been made in dealing with Old English proverbs and
with the poems attributed to Alfred. These proverbs are obvious
summaries of the shrewd wisdom of the common folk, which is as
old as the hills, and not confined to any one race or country:
Tel thou never thy fo that thy fot aketh,
Quoth Hendyng . . .
Dere is botht the hony that is licked of the thorne;
and they enshrine many phrases that are still common property :
Brend child fur dredeth,
Quoth Hendyng;
but their main interest for us lies in the form of the stanzas which
precede the proverb, and which consist of six lines rimed aabaab;
here it is evident that the nebulous outlines of earlier attempts
have taken shape and form out of the void, and become the ballad
stanza ; the unrimed shorter lines are now linked by end-rime,
and the reciter from memory is aided thereby.
The literature of the Middle Ages was of a much more
“universal,” or cosmopolitan, character than that of later times-
it will be remembered that “the book” in which Paolo and
Francesca “read that day no more” was the book of Lancelot
and not a tale of Rimini-and, one of the reasons for this width
of range was that letters were in the hands of a few, whose
education had been of a "universal,” rather than a national, type.
English literature, in the vernacular, had to compete for many
a long year, not only with Latin, which, even so late as the days
of Erasmus, was thought to have a fair chance of becoming the
sole language of letters? , but, also, though in a rapidly lessening
degree, with Norman-French, the language of all who pretended
to a culture above that of the common folk. And it is to Latin,
therefore, that we have often to turn for evidence of the thoughts
that were beginning to find expression not only among monastic
1 Cf. A Father's Instruction, ante, p. 62.
· Cf. also, its long use in legal documents : “To substitute English for Latin as the
language in which the King's writs and patents and charters shall be expressed, and
the doings of the law-courts shall be preserved, requires a statute of George II's day. "
Maitland, in Traill's Social England, Vol. 1


## p. 364 (#384) ############################################

364. Later Transition English
chroniclers and historians, but also among social satirists and
writers of political verse. At first the amusement of those only
who had a knowledge of letters, Goliardic verses and political
satires in Latin became models for the imitation of minstrels and
writers who set themselves to please a wider circle, and who made
themselves the mouthpieces of those who felt and suffered but
id not express hat the people had of Hereward”, a son
Some hint of what the people had liked to hear in the way of
tales is preserved for us in The Deeds of Hereward', a son of Lady
Godiva, and an offspring of the native soil, the recital of whose horse-
play in the court of the king and of whose deeds on his speedy mare
Swallow would appeal to all who liked the tale of Havelok, the
strapping Grimsby fisher lad, scullery boy and king's son. But the
secular tale and satirical poem of the thirteenth and fourteenth
century appealed to a different audience and are of direct historical
value. In Latin and in English, the tyranny and vice and luxury
of the times are strongly condemned, the conduct of simoniacal
priest and sensual friar is held up to ridicule ; and, in that way,
the ground was prepared for the seed to be sown later by the
Lollards. Monasticism, which had risen to an extraordinary
height during the reign of Stephen and borne excellent fruit
in the educational labours of men like Gilbert of Sempringham,
began to decline in the early years of the thirteenth century.
"Then came the friars; and their work among the people, especially
in relieving physical suffering, was characterised by a self-sacri-
ficing zeal which showed that they were true sons of Assisi; but
there were some among those who succeeded them whose light
lives and dark deeds are faithfully reflected in the songs and
satires of Middle English; and there were others, in higher stations,
equally false to their trust, who form the subject of the political
verse coming into vogue in the vernacular. Even though it be borne
in mind that the mutual antagonism between regulars and secu-
lars, and between members of different orders, may be responsible
for some of the scandals satirised, and that there was always a
lighter side to the picture—against bishop Golias and his clan
there were, surely, people like Richard Rolle of Hampole-yet
sufficient evidence remains, apart from the testimony of Matthew
Paris, of the steadily growing unpopularity of monks and friars,
and the equally steady growth of the revolt of the people against
clerical influence.
Social satire of the nature indicated is seen in Middle
1 Extant in a Latin version only.


## p. 365 (#385) ############################################

Dame Siriz
365
English in the few examples of the fabliau still extant. The
short amusing tale in verse appealed greatly to the French-
man of the thirteenth century; and, though the few that have
survived in English show strong signs of their foreign origin,
their popularity proved that they were not only accepted as
pleasing to “the ears of the groundlings" but as reflecting, with
somewhat malicious, and wholly satiric, glee, the current manners
of monk and merchant and miller, friar and boy. The Land of
Cokaygne tells of a land of gluttony and idleness, a kitchen-land,
not exactly where it was “always afternoon," but where the monk
could obtain some of the delights of a Mohammadan paradise.
The very walls of the monastery are built “al of pasteiis," "of
fleis, of fisse and riche met," with pinnacles of "fat podinges”;
The gees irostid on the spitte
Fleez to that abbai, god hit wot,
And gredith? , gees al hote, al hot;
and entrance to this land could only be gained by wading
Seve zere in swineis dritte. . .
Al anon up to the chynne.
The Land of Cokaygne has relatives in many lands; it lacks
the deep seriousness of the Wyclifian songs that came later, and
the light satirical way in which the subject is treated would
seem to imply that a French model had been used, but its
colouring is local and its purpose is evident.
Dame Siriz, an oriental tale showing traces of the doctrine
of the transmigration of souls, was put into English after
many wanderings through other languages, about the middle of
the thirteenth century, and is excellently told in a metre varying
between octosyllabic couplets and the six-lined verse of the Sir
Thopas type. Other renderings of the same story are contained
in Gesta Romanorum (28), Disciplina Clericalis (XI) and similar
collections of tales; and the imperfect poem in the form of a
dialogue between Clericus and Puella, printed by Wright and
Halliwell, may be compared with it. A tale of this kind was
certain of popularity, whether recited by wandering minstrel or
committed to writing for the pleasure of all lovers of comedy. To
the “common form” of an absent and betrayed husband, is added
the Indian device of the “biche" with weeping eyes (induced by
mustard and pepper), who has been thus transformed from human
shape because of a refusal to listen to the amorous solicitations of
Reliquiae Antiquae, 1, 145,
I cry.


## p. 366 (#386) ############################################

366 Later Transition English
a "clerc. " The device is used by the pander, Dame Siriz, who,
for twenty shillings, promises another “clerc” to persuade the
merchant's wife to yield to his desires.
There is, unfortunately, very little of the famous satirical beast
epic Reynard the Fox that can be claimed for England. Some of
the animals were known to Odo of Cheriton, the fabulist, who
makes use of stories of Reynard to point the moral of his sermons;
and a short fabliau of about the same period as those above
mentioned is extant; but this is about all In The Vox and the
Wolf is cleverly related, in bold and firm couplets, the familiar
story of the well and the device of Renauard for getting himself
out of it at the expense of the wolf Sigrim. The teller of the
story in Middle English is learned in his craft, and the poem is an
admirable example of comic satire, perhaps the best of its kind
left to us before the days of Chaucer. Not only are the two
characters well conceived, but they are made the vehicle, as in
the romance of the Fleming Willem, of light satire on the life of
the times. Before admitting the wolf to the paradise in the bucket
at the bottom of the well, the fox takes upon himself the duties of
a confessor, and the wolf, to gain absolution asks forgiveness, not
only for the ordinary sins of his life, but, after a little pressing
even repents him of the resentment shown when the confessor
made free with the penitent's wife. Few things show more clearly
the failings and vices current in the Middle Ages than do the
various stories of the deeds of Reynard in his ecclesiastical dis-
guises : stories that were carved in stone and wood and shown in
painted glass, as well as recited and written. His smug cowled face
looks out from pulpits and leers at us from under miserere seats.
The literary needs of those who were familiar with the
“romances of prys” in which deeds of chivalry were enshrined,
and who, with the author of Sir Thopas, could enjoy parodies of
them, were met by such salutary tales as The Turnament of
Totenham. A countryside wedding, preceded by the mysteries of
a medieval tournament, is described by Gilbert Pilkington, or by
the author whose work he transcribes, in language that would be
well understood and keenly appreciated by those of lower rank
than “knight and lady free. ” It is an admirable burlesque; rustic
"laddis" contend not only for Tibbe the daughter of Rondill the
refe, but for other prizes thrown in by the father :
He shalle have my gray mare [on which Tibbe “was sett"],
And my spottyd sowe;
and, therefore, Hawkyn and Dawkyn and Tomkyn and other noble


## p. 367 (#387) ############################################

The Tale of Gamelyn
367
youths “ffro Hissiltoun to Haknay," "leid on stifly,” “til theyre
hors swett,” with much “clenkyng of cart sadils” and many
“brokyn hedis," and
Woo was Hawkyn, woo was Herry,
Woo was Tomkyn, woo was Terry
when they sat down to the marriage feast of the winner. The
Tale of Thopas exercises its useful office with a rapier; if The
Turnament of Totenham performs its duty with a cudgel, the
result, so far as the victim is concerned, is none the less effective.
The middle of the fourteenth century gave us The Tale of
Gamelyn', which is dealt with elsewhere as a metrical romance and
in connection with the works of Chaucer. It forms an admirable
link between the courtly romance and the poetry of the outlaws •
of the greenwood. A younger brother, despoiled of his share
in the inheritance, is ill-clothed and given poor food by his
eldest brother, handed over to understrappers to be thrashed and
otherwise maltreated. But, after the fashion of Havelok, Gamelyn
proves himself adept at the staff and strong in the arm; and, after
a fair supply of adventures, with much success and further tribu-
lation, he becomes head of a forest band of young outlaws; then,
after justice has been done to his unnatural brother, he becomes
king's officer in the woodland. It is a "loveless” tale of the
earlier Stevenson kind; no courtly dame has part or parcel
therein; nevertheless, in the form in which we now have it, The
Tale of Gamelyn is quite excellent, is, in fact, typically English in
its sense of free life and open air.
Of the two collections of stories referred to above, one, the most
famous of its kind, and the source-book for many later English
writers, Gesta Romanorum, probably took shape in England, in
its Latin form, in the period under discussion. Early preachers
and homilists were only too willing to seize hold of stories from
every quarter in order to "point the moral," and their collections
have served many ends different from the purpose designed. If
the "moral" attached to each tale, and dragged in, often, on the
most flimsy excuse, be ignored, the tales in Gesta Romanorum
become readable, for they are often excellently, even though baldly,
told. Other Latin collections of cognate kind, the work of English
compilers, have been referred to in a preceding chapter", and
all are of importance in the light they throw on the manners of
the time. One, the Summa Praedicantium of John de Bromyarde,
a Dominican friar, scholar of Oxford and antagonist of Wyclif,
1 Volume I, p. 298, Volume 1, pp. 194 ft. See Chapter 3, Map, Neokham, eto.


## p. 368 (#388) ############################################

368 Later Transition English
devotes a thousand pages to subjects likely to be acceptable to
congregations, and deserves more attention than has hitherto been
paid it. In the legendaries and poems compiled and written
by monks for homiletic purposes, there are many germs of the
tale-telling faculty, and much folk-lore. Things charming and
grotesque are inextricably mixed. In the legends of the Child-
hood of Jesus, for instance, there is a delightful account of the
reverence paid by the animal creation and by inanimate nature to
the Infant during the journey to Egypt; and then the poem is
marred by the addition of crude miraculous deeds recorded as
afterwards wrought by Him. Many of our tales have originally
come from the east; but, in spite of the proverb, they have
gathered much moss in rolling westward, and flints from the same
quarry that have travelled a fairly direct course look strangely
different from others that have zigzagged hither.
Of Middle English political verses, the earliest preserved are,
probably, those on the battle of Lewes, which was fought in 1264.
The battle was celebrated by a follower of the fortunes of Simon de
Montfort, in a poem which is of considerable philological and
metrical importance. The number of French words it contains
reveals the process of amalgamation that was going on between the
two languages, and lets us into the workshop where the new speech
was being fashioned. The interest of the poem is also considerable
from the evidence it furnishes that the free-spoken Englishman was
beginning to make the vernacular the vehicle of satire against his
superiors in the realm of politics, following the example of the
writers of the Latin satirical poems then current. The educated
part of the race was beginning to show signs of the insular prejudice
against foreigners which is not even absent from it to-day—though
it could loyally support “foreigners” when they espoused the
national cause—and, more happily, it was showing signs of the
political genius which has ever been a quality of our people. Metri-
cally, these political lyrics in the vernacular are of importance
because of the forms of verse experimented in and naturalised
The minstrel who sang or recited political ballads had to appeal to
more critical audiences than had the composer of sacred lyrics; he
had to endeavour to import into a vernacular in transition some-
thing of the easy flow of comic Latin verse.