The first I
understonde
is this:
What thinge of all the worlde it is,
Which men most helpe and hath lest nede.
What thinge of all the worlde it is,
Which men most helpe and hath lest nede.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v11 - Fro to Gre
The justification of the sentiment was not to
be denied; but it must not be regarded as the highest, as the
life-determining element. It needed a rectification which should
again rescue the freedom of the spirit. Humor alone could ac-
complish Munchausen's feat, and draw itself by its own hair out of
the morass. Heine expressed his feelings with genuine warmth;
he formed them into drawn pictures and visions; but then he
placed himself on the defensive against them. He is the mod-
ern Werther, who instead of loading his pistol with a ball, loads
it with humor. Artistic harmony suffered under this triumph of
spiritual freedom; but that which appeared in his imitators as
voluntary quibbling came from Heine of inner necessity. The
subject of his first songs is the necessary expression of a struggle
between feeling and spirit, between the often visionary dream life
of a sentiment and self-consciousness, soaring free out over the
world, which adjudged absorption in a single feeling as one-sided
and unjustified. Later on, to be sure, these subjects of youthful
inspiration became in Heine himself a satiric-humoristic manner,
which regarded as a model worked much evil in literature. In
addition to personal necessity through one's own experience, there
was for a genius such as Heine's also a literary necessity, which
XI-412
## p. 6578 (#568) ###########################################
6578
RUDOLF VON GOTTSCHALL
lay in the development of our literature in that epoch.
It was
the Indian Summer of romanticism, whose cobwebs at this time
flew over the stubble of our poetry. The vigorous onset of the
lyricists of the Wars of Liberation had again grown lame; people
reveled in the album sentiments of Tiedge and Mahlmann; the
spectres of Amadeus Hoffmann and the lovely high-born maidens
of knight Fouqué were regarded then as the noblest creations of
German fantasy. Less chosen spirits, that is to say, the entire
great reading public of the German nation, which ever felt toward
its immortals a certain aversion, refreshed itself with the luke-
warm water of the poetry of Clauren, from out of which, instead
of the Venus Anadyomene, appear a Mimili and other maiden
forms, pretty, but drawn with a stuffed-out plasticism. On the
stage reigned the "fate tragedies" upon whose lyre the strings.
were wont to break even in the first scene, and whose ghosts
slipped silently over all the German boards. In a word, spirits
controlled the poetry of the time more than spirit.
Heine however was a genuine knight of the spirit, and even
if he conjured up his lyric spectres, he demanded no serious
belief in them-they were dissolving pictures of mist; and if
he followed his overflowing feelings, the mawkish sentiments of
romanticism occurred to him and disgusted him with the extrav-
agant expression of his love pain, and he mocked himself, the
time, and the literature,-dissolved the sweet accords in glaring
dissonances, so that they should not be in tune with the senti-
mental street songs of the poets of the day. In these outer and
inner reasons lie the justification and the success of the lyric
poetry of Heine. It designates an act of self-consciousness of
the German spirit, which courageously lifts itself up out of idle.
love complainings and fantastic dream life, and at the same time
mocks them both. An original talent like Heine's was needed to
give to the derided sentiment such a transporting magic, to the
derision itself such an Attic grace, that the sphinx of his poetry,
with the beautiful face and the rending claws, always produced
the impression of a work of art. The signification in literary
history of these songs of Heine is not to be underestimated.
They indicate the dissolution of romanticism, and with them
begins the era of modern German poetry.
Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by William
H. Carpenter
## p. 6579 (#569) ###########################################
6579
JOHN GOWER
(1325? -1408)
INCE Caxton, the first printer of 'Confessio Amantis' (The
Confession of a Lover), described Gower as a "squyer borne
in Walys in the tyme of Kyng Richard the second," there
has been a diversity of opinion about his birthplace, and he has been
classed variously with prosperous Gowers until of late, when the
county assigned to him is Kent. His birth-year is placed approxi-
mately at 1325. We know nothing of his early life and education.
It has been guessed that he went to Oxford,
and afterwards traveled in the troubled
kingdom of France. Such a course might
have been followed by a man of his estate.
He had means, for English property records
(in this instance the rolls of Chancery, the
parchment foundation of English society)
still preserve deeds of his holdings in Kent
and Essex and elsewhere.
JOHN GOWER
His life lay along with that of Chaucer's,
in the time when Edward III. and his son
the Black Prince were carrying war into
France, and the English Parliament were
taking pay in plain speaking for what they
granted in supplies, and wresting at the
same time promises of reform from the royal hand. But Gower and
Chaucer were not only contemporaries: they were of like pursuit,
tastes, and residence; they were friends; and when Chaucer under
Richard II. , the grandson and successor of Edward, went to France
upon the mission of which Froissart speaks, he named John Gower as
one of his two attorneys while he should be away. Notice of Gower's
marriage to Agnes Groundolf late in life-in 1397-is still preserved.
Three years after this he became blind,-it was the year 1400, in
which Chaucer died, and in 1408 he died.
Pos
"The infirm poet," says Morley, "spent the evening of his life at St. Mary
Overies [St. Mary-over-the-River], in retirement from all worldly affairs except
pious and liberal support of the advancing building works in the priory, and
in the church now known as St. Saviour's [Southwark], to which he bequeathed
his body. His will, made not long before death, bequeathed his soul to God,
## p. 6580 (#570) ###########################################
6580
JOHN GOWER
his body to be buried in St. Mary Overies. The poet bequeathed also 135. 4ď.
to each of the four parish churches of Southwark for ornaments and lights,
besides 6s. 8d. for prayers to each of their curates. It is not less character-
istic that he left also 40s. for prayers to the master of St. Thomas's Hospital,
and, still for prayers, 6s. 8d. to each of its priests, 3s. 4d. to each Sister in
the hospital, twenty pence to each nurse of the infirm there, and to each of
the infirm twelve pence. There were similar bequests to St. Thomas Elsing
Spital, a priory and hospital that stood where now stands Sion College. St.
Thomas Elsing Spital, founded in 1329 by William Elsing, was especially
commended to the sympathies of the blind old poet, as it consisted of a col-
lege for a warden, four priests, and two clerks, who had care of one hundred
old, blind, and poor persons of both sexes, preference being given to blind,
paralytic, and disabled priests. Like legacies were bequeathed also to Bedlam-
without-Bishopsgate, and to St. Mary's Hospital, Westminster. Also there
were bequests of ten shillings to each of the leper-nurses. Two robes (one of
white silk, the other of blue baudekin,-a costly stuff with web of gold and
woof of silk), also a new dish and chalice, and a new missal, were bequeathed
to the perpetual service of the altar of the chapel of St. John the Baptist, in
which his body was to be buried. To the prior and convent he left a great
book, a 'Martyrology,' which had been composed and written for them at his
expense. To his wife Agnes he left a hundred pounds, three cups, che cover-
let, two salt-cellars, and a dozen silver spoons; also all his beds and chests,
with the furnishings of hall, pantry, and kitchen; also a chalice and robe for
the altar of the chapel of their house; and she was to have for life all rents
due to him from his manors of Southwell (in Nottingham) and Moulton (in
Suffolk). »
The will is still preserved at
His wife was one of his executors.
Lambeth Palace.
Gower's tomb and monument may also still be seen at St. Saviour's,
where the description Berthelet gave of them in 1532 is, aside from
the deadening of the paintings, true:- "Somewhat after the olde
ffashion he lyeth ryght sumptuously buryed, with a garland on his
head, in token that he in his lyfe dayes flouryshed freshely in liter-
ature and science. " The head of his stone effigy lies upon three
volumes representing Gower's three great works; the hair falls in long
curls; the robe is closely buttoned to the feet, which rest upon a
lion, and the neck is encircled with a collar, from which a chain held
a small swan, the badge of Henry IV. "Besyde on the wall where
as he lyeth," continues Berthelet, "there be peynted three virgins,
with crownes on theyr heades; one of the which is written Charitie,
and she holdeth this devise in her hande:-
――
'En toy qui fitz de Dieu le Pere
Sauve soit que gist souz cest piere. '
(In thee, who art Son of God the Father,
Be he saved who lieth under this stone. )
## p. 6581 (#571) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6581
"The second is wrytten Mercye, which holdeth in her hande this
devise:-
O bone Jesu fait ta mercy
Al alme dont le corps gist icy. '
(O good Jesus, grant thy mercy
To the soul whose body lies here. )
"The thyrde of them is wrytten Pity, which holdeth in her hand
this devise :-
-
'Pur ta pite, Jesu regarde,
Et met cest alme en sauve garde. »»
(For thy pity, Jesus, see;
And take this soul in thy safe guard. )
The monument was repaired in 1615, 1764, and 1830.
The three works which pillow the head of the effigy indicate
Gower's 'Speculum Meditantis' (The Looking-Glass of One Meditat-
ing), which the poet wrote in French; the 'Vox Clamantis' (The Voice
of One Crying), in Latin; and the 'Confessio Amantis,' in English. It
should be remembered in noting this mixture of tongues, that in
Gower's early life the English had no national speech. The court,
Parliament, nobles, and the courts of law used French; the Church
held its service in Latin; while the inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon blood
clung to the language of their fathers, which they had modified by
additions from the Norman tongue. It was not until 1362 that Parlia-
ment was opened by a speech in English. "There is," says Dr. Pauli,
"no better illustration of the singular transition to the English lang-
uage than a short enumeration and description of Gower's writings. "
Of the 'Speculum Meditantis,' a treatise in ten books on the duties
of married life, no copy is known to exist. The Vox Clamantis >
was the voice of the poet, singing in Latin elegiac of the terrible
evils which led to the rise of the commons and their march to Lon-
don under Wat Tyler and Jack Straw in 1381. It is doubtless a true
picture of the excesses and miseries of the day. The remedy, the
poet says, is in reform-right living and love of England. Simony
in the prelates, avarice and drunkenness in the libidinous priests,
wealth and luxury in the mendicant orders, miscarrying of justice in
the courts, enrichment of individuals by excessive taxes, - these are
the subjects of the voice crying in the wilderness.
Gower's greatest work, however, is the Confessio Amantis. ' In
form it is a dialogue between a lover and his confessor, who is a
priest of Venus. In substance it is a setting-forth, with moraliz-
ings which are at times touching and elevated, of one hundred and
twelve different stories, from sources so different as the Bible, Ovid,
## p. 6582 (#572) ###########################################
6582
JOHN GOWER
Josephus, the Gesta Romanorum,' Valerius Maximus, Statius, Boc-
caccio, etc. Thirty thousand eight-syllabled rhymed lines make up
the work. There are different versions. The first was dedicated to
Richard II. , and the second to his successor, Henry of Lancaster.
Besides these large works, a number of French ballades, and also
English and Latin short poems, are preserved. "They have real and
intrinsic merit," says Todd: "they are tender, pathetic, and poet-
ical, and place our old poet Gower in a more advantageous point of
view than that in which he has heretofore been usually seen. ”
Estimates of Gower's writings are various; but even his most hos-
tile judges admit the pertinence of the epithet with which Chaucer
hails him in his dedication of Troilus and Creseide':-
"O morall Gower, this bookè I direct
To thee and to the philosophicall Strode,
To vouchsafè there need is to correct
Of your benignities and zealès good. "
Then Skelton the laureate, in his long song upon the death of
Philip Sparrow (which recalls the exquisite gem of Catullus in a like.
threnody), takes occasion to say:
And again:
"Gower's englysshe is olde,
And of no valúe is tolde;
His mattér is worth gold,
And worthy to be enrold. "
"Gower that first garnished our English rude. »
Old Puttenham also bears this testimony:-"But of them all [the
English poets] particularly this is myne opinion, that Chaucer, with
Gower, Lidgate, and Harding, for their antiquitie ought to have the
first place. "
Taine dismisses him with little more than a fillip, and Lowell,
while discoursing appreciatively on Chaucer, says:-
"Gower has positively raised tediousness to the precision of science; he has
made dullness an heirloom for the students of our literary history. As you
slip to and fro on the frozen levels of his verse, which give no foothold to the
mind; as your nervous ear awaits the inevitable recurrence of his rhyme, regu-
larly pertinacious as the tick of an eight-day clock, and reminding you of
Wordsworth's
'Once more the ass did lengthen out
The hard dry seesaw of his horrible bray,'
## p. 6583 (#573) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6583
you learn to dread, almost to respect, the powers of this indefatigable man.
He is the undertaker of the fair mediæval legend, and his style has the hate-
ful gloss, the seemingly unnatural length, of a coffin. "
Yet hear Morley:-
"To this day we hear among our living countrymen, as was to be heard
in Gower's time and long before, the voice passing from man to man, that in
spite of admixture with the thousand defects incident to human character, sus-
tains the keynote of our literature, and speaks from the soul of our history
the secret of our national success. It is the voice that expresses the persistent
instinct of the English mind to find out what is unjust among us and undo it,
to find out duty to be done and do it, as God's bidding. . . In his own
Old English or Anglo-Saxon way he tries to put his soul into his work. Thus
in the Vox Clamantis' we have heard him asking that the soul of his book,
not its form, be looked to; and speaking the truest English in such sentences
as that the eye is blind and the ear deaf, that convey nothing down to the
heart's depth; and the heart that does not utter what it knows is as a live coal
under ashes. If I know little, there may be another whom that little will help.
.
. . But to the man who believes in God, no power is unattainable if he
but rightly feels his work; he ever has enough, whom God increases. ' This is
the old spirit of Cædmon and of Bede; in which are laid, while the earth lasts,
the strong foundations of our literature. It was the strength of such a tem-
per in him that made Gower strong. God knows,' he says again, my
wish is to be useful; that is the prayer that directs my labor. ' And while he
thus touches the root of his country's philosophy, the form of his prayer —
that what he has written may be what he would wish it to be — is still a
thoroughly sound definition of good English writing. His prayer is that
there may be no word of untruth, and that each word may answer to the
thing it speaks of, pleasantly and fitly; that he may flatter in it no one, and
seek in it no praise above the praise of God. '»
-
The part of Gower's writing here brought before the reader is the
quaintly told and charming story of Petronella, from 'Liber Primus'
of the 'Confessio. ' It may be evidence that all the malediction upon
the poet above quoted is not deserved.
The Confessio Amantis' has been edited and collated with the
best manuscripts by Dr. Reinhold Pauli (1857). The Vox Claman-
tis' was printed for the first time in 1850, under the editorship of
H. O. Coxe and for the Roxburghe Club. The 'Balades and Other
Poems' are also included in the publication of the Roxburghe Club.
Other sources of information regarding Gower are 'Illustrations of
the Lives and Writings of Gower and Chaucer by Henry J. Todd
(1810); Henry Morley's reviews in English Writers'; and various
short articles.
(
## p. 6584 (#574) ###########################################
6584
JOHN GOWER
A
PETRONELLA
From the Confessio Amantis
KING Whilom was yonge and wise,
The which set of his wit great prise.
Of depe ymaginations
And straunge interpretations,
Problemes and demaundès eke
His wisedom was to finde and seke;
Wherof he wolde in sondry wise
Opposen hem that weren wise.
But none of hem it mightè bere
Upon his word to yive answére;¹
Out taken one, which was a knight:
To him was every thing so light,
That also sone as he hem herde
The kingès wordès he answerde,
What thing the king him axè wolde,
Whereof anone the trouth he tolde.
The king somdele had an envie,
And thought he wolde his wittès plie
To setè some conclusion,
Which shuldè be confusion
Unto this knight, so that the name
And of wisdom the highè fame
Toward him selfe he woldè winne.
And thus of all his wit withinne
This king began to studie and muse
What straungè matér he might use
The knightès wittès to confounde;
And atè last he hath it founde,
And for the knight anon he sente,
That he shall tellè what he mente.
Upon three points stood the matére,
Of questions as thou shaltè here.
The firstè pointè of all thre
Was this: what thing in his degre
Of all this world hath nedè lest,
And yet men helpe it allthermest.
The second is: what moste is worth
And of costáge is lest put forth.
1 No one could solve his puzzles.
## p. 6585 (#575) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6585
1 For.
The thrid is: which is of most cost,
And lest is worth, and goth to lost.
The king these thre demaundès axeth.
To the knight this law he taxeth:
That he shall gone, and comen ayein
The thriddè weke, and tell him pleine
To every point, what it amounteth.
And if so be that he miscounteth
To make in his answére a faile,
There shall none other thinge availe,
The king saith, but he shall be dede
And lese his goodès and his hede.
This knight was sory of this thinge,
And wolde excuse him to the kinge;
But he ne wolde him nought forbere,
And thus the knight of his answére
Goth home to take avisement.
But after his entendement
The more he cast his wit about,
The more he stant thereof in doubte.
Tho' wist he well the kingès herte,
That he the deth ne shulde asterte,2
And suche a sorroe to him hath take
That gladship he hath all forsake.
He thought first upon his life,
And after that upon his wife,
Upon his children eke also,
Of whichè he had doughteres two.
The yongest of hem had of age
Fourtene yere, and of visage
She was right faire, and of stature
Lich to an hevenlich figure,
And of manér and goodly speche,
Though men wolde all landès seche,
They shulden nought have founde her like.
3
She sigh her fader sorroe and sike,*
And wist nought the cause why.
So cam she to him prively,
And that was wher he made his mone
Within a gardin all him one. "
Upon her knees she gan down falle
With humble herte, and to him calle
'Escape.
• Sigh.
5 Own.
3 Saw.
## p. 6586 (#576) ###########################################
6586
JOHN GOWER
And saidè:-"O good fader dere,
Why make ye thus hevy chere,¹
And I wot nothinge how it is?
And well ye knowè, fader, this,
What adventurè that you felle
Ye might it saufly to me telle;
For I have oftè herd you saide,
That ye such truste have on me laide,
That to my suster ne to my brother
In all this worlde ne to none other
Ye durstè telle a privete
So well, my fader, as to me.
Forthy, my fader, I you praie
Ne casteth nought that hert³ awaie,
For I am she that woldè kepe
Your honour. " And with that to wepe
Her eye may nought be forbore;'
She wisheth for to ben unbore,"
Er that her fader so mistriste
To tellen her of that he wiste.
And ever among mercy she cride,
That he ne shulde his counseil hide
From her, that so wolde him good
And was so nigh flesshe and blood.
So that with weping, atè laste
His chere upon his childe he caste,
And sorroefully to that she praide
He tolde his tale, and thus he saide:-
"The sorroe, doughter, which I make
Is nought all only for my sake,
But for the bothe and for you alle.
For suche a chaunce is me befalle,
That I shall er this thriddè day
Lese all that ever I lesè may,
My life and all my good therto.
Therefore it is I sorroe so. "
"What is the cause, alas," quod she,
"My fader, that ye shulden be
Dede and destruied in suche a wise? "
1 Care.
2 Therefore.
3 Heart.
* Cannot endure it.
5 Unborn.
6 Ere.
In the midst of pity (for him).
In answer to her prayer.
## p. 6587 (#577) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6587
And he began the points devise,
Which as the king tolde him by mouthe,
And said her pleinly, that he couthe
Answeren to no point of this.
And she, that hereth howe it is,
Her counseil yaf¹ and saide tho²:-
"My fader, sithen it is so,
That ye can se none other weie,
But that ye must nedès deie,
I wolde pray you of o³ thinge,-
Let me go with you to the kinge,
And ye shall make him understonde,
How ye, my wittès for to fonde,
Have laid your answere upon me,
And telleth him in such degre
Upon my worde ye wol abide
To life or deth, what so betide.
For yet perchaunce I may purchace
With some good word the kingès grace,
Your life and eke your good to save.
For ofte shall a woman have
Thing, whiche a man may nought areche. "
The fader herd his doughters speche,
And thought there was no reson in,
And sigh his ownè life to winne
He couthè done himself no cure. ¹
So better him thought in àventure
To put his life and all his good,
Than in the manner as it stood,
His life incertein for to lese.
And thus thenkend he gan to chese
To do the counseil of this maid,
And toke the purpose which she said.
The day was comen, and forth they gone;
Unto the court they come anone,
Where as the kinge in his jugement
Was set and hath this knight assent.
Arraièd in her beste wise,
This maiden with her wordès wise
Her fader leddè by the honde
Into the place," where he fonde
1 Gave.
2 Thus.
Saw that he could do nothing to save his own life.
5 Palace.
3 One.
## p. 6588 (#578) ###########################################
6588
JOHN GOWER
The king with other which he wolde;
And to the king knelend he tolde
As he enformèd was to-fore,
And praith the king, that he therfore
His doughters wordès wolde take;
And saith, that he woll undertake
Upon her wordès for to stonde.
Tho was ther great merveile on honde,
That he, which was so wise a knight,
His life upon so yonge a wight
Besettè wolde in jeopartie,
And many it helden for folie.
But at the lastè, netheles,
The king commaundeth ben in pees,
And to this maide he cast his chere,¹
And saide he wolde her talè here,
And bad her speke; and she began:-
"My legè lord, so as I can,"
Quod she, "the pointès which I herde,
They shull of reson ben answerde.
The first I understonde is this:
What thinge of all the worlde it is,
Which men most helpe and hath lest nede.
My legè lord, this wolde I rede:
The erthe it is, which evermo
With mannès labour is bego
As well in winter as in maie.
The mannès honde doth what he may
To helpe it forth and make it riche,
And forthy men it delve and diche,
And even it with strength of plough,
Wher it hath of him self inough
So that his nede is atè leste.
For every man, birdè, and beste
Of flour and gras and roote and rinde
And every thing by way of kinde
Shall sterve, and erthe it shall become
As it was out of erthè nome,"
It shall be therthe torne ayein. ³
And thus I may by reson sein
That erthè is the most nedeles
And most men helpe it netheles;
1 Turned his attention.
2 Taken.
3 Shall turn thereto again.
## p. 6589 (#579) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6589
¹ Heed.
So that, my lord, touchend of this
I have answerde how that it is.
That other point I understood,
Which most is worth, and most is good,
And costeth lest a man to kepe:
My lorde, if ye woll takè kepe,¹
I say it is humilitè,
Through whichè the high Trinitè
As for desertè of pure love
Unto Mariè from above,
Of that he knewe her humble entente,
His ownè Sone adown he sente
Above all other, and her he chese
For that vertu, which bodeth pees.
So that I may by reson calle
Humilitè most worthe of alle,
And lest it costeth to mainteine
In all the worlde, as it is seine.
For who that hath humblesse on honde,
He bringeth no werres into londe,
For he desireth for the best
To setten every man in reste.
Thus with your highè reverence
Me thenketh that this evidence
As to this point is suffisaunt.
And touchend of the remenaunt,
Which is the thridde of your axinges,
What lest is worth of alle thinges,
And costeth most, I telle it pride,
Which may nought in the heven abide.
For Lucifer with hem that felle
Bar pride with him into helle.
There was pride of to grete cost
Whan he for pride hath heven lost;
And after that in Paradise
Adam for pridè lost his prise
In middel-erth. And eke also
Pride is the cause of allè wo,
That all the world ne may suffice
To staunche of pridè the reprise.
Pride is the heved' of all sinne,
Which wasteth all and may nought winne;
2 Head.
## p. 6590 (#580) ###########################################
6590
JOHN GOWER
Mischief.
2 Core.
3 Thee.
Pride is of every mis' the pricke2;
Pride is the worstè of all wicke,
And costeth most and lest is worth
In place where he hath his forth.
Thus have I said that I woll say
Of min answére, and to you pray,
My legè lorde, of your office,
That ye such grace and suche justice
Ordeignè for my fader here,
That after this, whan men it here,
The world therof may spekè good. "
The king, which reson understood,
And hath all herde how she hath said,
Was inly glad, and so well paid,
That all his wrath is over go.
And he began to lokè tho
Upon this maiden in the face,
In which he found so mochel grace,
That all his prise on her he laide
In audience, and thus he saide:-
"My fairè maidè, well the be
Of thin answére, and eke of the
Me liketh well, and as thou wilte,
Foryivè be thy faders gilte.
And if thou were of such lignage,
That thou to me were of parage,
And that thy fader were a pere,
As he is now a bachelere,
So siker as I have a life,
Thou sholdest thannè be my wife.
But this I saiè netheles,
That I woll shapè thin encrese;
What worldès good that thou wolt crave
Are of my yift, and thou shalt have. »
And she the king with wordès wise,
Knelende, thanketh in this wise:-
"My legè lord, god mot you quite. *
My fader here hath but a lite
Of warison, and that he wende
Had all be lost, but now amende
He may well through you noble grace. "
May God requite you.
5 Has had but little reward.
6 Been.
## p. 6591 (#581) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6591
With that the king right in his place
Anon forth in that freshè hete
An erldome, which than of eschete
Was latè falle into his honde,
Unto this knight with rent and londe
Hath yove, and with his chartre sesed,
And thus was all the noise appesed.
This maiden, which sate on her knees
To-fore the kingès charitees,
Commendeth and saith evermore:-
"My legè lord, right now to-fore
Ye saide, and it is of recorde,
That if my fader were a lorde
And pere unto these other grete,
Ye wolden for nought ellès lette,
That I ne sholdè be your wife.
And thus wote every worthy life
A kingès worde mot nede be holde.
Forthy my lord, if that ye wolde
So great a charitè fulfille,
God wotè it were well my wille.
For he which was a bachelere,
My fader, is now made a pere;
So whan as ever that I cam,
An erlès doughter nowe I am. "
This yongè king, which peisèd¹ all
Her beautè and her wit withall,
As he, which was with lovè hente,2
Anone therto gaf his assente.
He might nought the place asterte,
That she nis lady of his herte.
So that he toke her to his wife
To holde, while that he hath life.
And thus the king toward his knight
Accordeth him, as it is right.
And over this good is to wite³
In the cronique as it is write,
This noble kinge, of whom I tolde,
Of Spainè by tho daiès olde
The kingdom had in governaunce,
And as the boke maketh remeinbraunce,
Alphonse was his propre name.
1 Poised - weighed.
2 Seized.
3 Know.
## p. 6592 (#582) ###########################################
6592
JOHN GOWER
1 Destruction.
The knight also, if I shall name,
Danz Petro hight, and as men telle,
His doughter wisè Petronelle
Was clepèd, which was full of grace.
And that was sene in thilkè place,
Where she her fader out of tene¹
Hath brought and made her selfe a quene,
Of that she hath so well desclosed
The points whereof she was opposed.
## p. 6592 (#583) ###########################################
## p. 6592 (#584) ###########################################
ULYSSES S. GRANT.
## p. 6592 (#585) ###########################################
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## p. 6592 (#586) ###########################################
ES
GFANT.
## p. 6593 (#587) ###########################################
6593
ULYSSES S. GRANT
(1822-1885)
BY HAMLIN GARLAND
LYSSES GRANT was born on the 27th of April, 1822, in a small
two-room cabin situated in Point Pleasant, a village in
southern Ohio, about forty miles above Cincinnati. His
father, Jesse R. Grant, was a powerful, alert, and resolute man, ready
of speech and of fair education for the time. His family came from
Connecticut, and was of the earliest settlers in New England. Han-
nah Simpson, his wife, was of strong American stock also. The
Simpsons had been residents, for several generations, of southeastern
Pennsylvania. The Grants and the Simpsons had been redoubtable
warriors in the early wars of the republic. Hannah Simpson was a
calm, equable, self-contained young woman, as reticent and forbear-
ing as her husband was disputatious and impetuous.
Their first child was named Hiram Ulysses Grant. Before the
child was two years of age, Jesse Grant, who was superintending a
tannery in Point Pleasant, removed to Georgetown, Brown County,
Ohio, and set up in business for himself. Georgetown was a village
in the deep woods, and in and about this village Ulysses Grant grew
to be a sturdy, self-reliant boy. He loved horses, and became a re-
markable rider and teamster at a very early age. He was not notable
as a scholar, but it was soon apparent that he had inherited the self-
poise, the reticence, and the modest demeanor of his mother. He
took part in the games and sports of the boys, but displayed no mili-
tary traits whatever. At the age of seventeen he was a fair scholar
for his opportunities, and his ambitious father procured for him an
appointment to the Military Academy at West Point. He reported at
the adjutant's desk in June 1839, where he found his name on the
register "Ulysses S. Grant" through a mistake of his Congressman,
Thomas L. Hamer. Meanwhile, to escape ridicule on the initials of
his name, which spelled "H, U,G," he had transposed his name to
Ulysses H. Grant, and at his request the adjutant changed the S to
an H; but the name on record in Washington was Ulysses S. , and
so he remained "U. S. Grant" to the government and U. H. Grant
to his friends and relatives.
His record at West Point was a good one in mathematics and fair
in most of his studies. He graduated at about the middle of his
XI-413
## p. 6594 (#588) ###########################################
6594
ULYSSES S. GRANT
class, which numbered thirty-nine. He was much beloved and re-
spected as an upright, honorable, and loyal young fellow. At the
time of his graduation he was president of the only literary society
of the academy; W. S. Hancock was its secretary.
He remained markedly unmilitary throughout his course, and was
remembered mainly as a good comrade, a youth of sound judgment,
and the finest horseman in the academy. He asked to be assigned
to cavalry duty, but was brevetted second lieutenant of the 4th
Infantry, and ordered to Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis. Here
he remained till the spring of 1844, when his regiment was ordered
to a point on the southwestern frontier, near the present town of
Natchitoches, Louisiana. Here he remained till May 1845, when the
Mexican War opened, and for the next three years he served with
his regiment in every battle except Buena Vista. He was twice
promoted for gallant conduct, and demonstrated his great cool-
ness, resource, and bravery in the hottest fire. He was regimental
quartermaster much of the time, and might honorably have kept
out of battle, but he contrived to be in the forefront with his com-
mand.
In the autumn of 1848 he married Miss Julia Dent of St. Louis,
and as first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster, with a brevet
of captain, he served at Sackett's Harbor and Detroit alternately till
June 1852, when he was ordered to the coast. This was a genuine
hardship, for he was unable to take his wife and child with him;
but he concluded to remain in the army, and went with his com-
mand, sailing from New York and passing by the way of the Isth-
mus. On the way across the Isthmus the regiment encountered
cholera, and all Grant's coolness, resource, and bravery were required
to get his charge safely across. "He seemed never to think of him-
self, and appeared to be a man of iron," his companions said.
He was regimental quartermaster at Fort Vancouver, near Port-
land, Oregon, for one year. In 1853 he was promoted to a captaincy
and ordered to Fort Humboldt, near Eureka in California.
In 1854,
becoming disheartened by the never-ending vista of barrack life,
and despairing of being able to have his wife and children with him,
he sent in his resignation, to take effect July 31st, 1854. He had lost
money by unfortunate business ventures, and so returned forlorn and
penniless to New York. Thence he made his way to St. Louis to
his wife and children, and began the world again as a farmer, with-
out a house or tools or horses.
His father-in-law, Mr. Frederick Dent, who lived about ten miles
out of the city, set aside some sixty or eighty acres of land for his
use, and thereon he built with his own hands a log cabin, which he
called "Hardscrabble. " For nearly four years he lived the life of a
## p. 6595 (#589) ###########################################
ULYSSES S. GRANT
6595
farmer. He plowed, hoed, cleared the land, hauled wood and props
to the mines, and endured all the hardships and privations of a small
farmer. In 1858 his health gave way, and he moved to St. Louis in
the attempt to get into some less taxing occupation. He tried for
the position of county engineer, and failed. He went into the real
estate business with a friend, and failed in that. He secured a place
in the customs office, but the collector died and he was thrown out
of employment.
In the spring of 1860, despairing of getting a foothold in St. Louis,
he removed to Galena, Illinois, where his father had established a
leather store, a branch of his tannery in Covington, Kentucky. Here
he came in touch again with his two brothers, Simpson and Orvil
Grant. He became a clerk at a salary of six hundred dollars per
annum. At this time he was a quiet man of middle age, and his
manner and mode of life attracted little attention till in 1861, when
Sumter was fired upon and Lincoln called for volunteers. Galena at
once held a war meeting to raise a company. Captain Grant, because
of his military experience, was made president of the meeting, and
afterward was offered the captaincy of the company, which he re-
fused, saying, "I have been a captain in the regular army.
I am
fitted to command a regiment. "
He wrote at once a patriotic letter to his father-in-law, wherein
he said, "I foresee the doom of slavery. " He accompanied the com-
pany to Springfield, where his military experience was needed.
Governor Richard Yates gave him work in the adjutant's office,
then made him drill-master at Camp Yates; and as his efficiency
became apparent he was appointed governor's aide, with rank of
colonel. He mustered in several regiments, among them the 7th
Congressional regiment at Mattoon. He made such an impression on
this regiment that they named their camp in his honor, and about
the middle of June sent a delegation of officers to ask that he be
made colonel. Governor Yates reluctantly appointed him, and at the
request of General John C. Frémont, the commander of the Depart-
ment of the West, Grant's regiment (known as the 21st Illinois Volun-
teers) was ordered to Missouri. Colonel Grant marched his men
overland, being the first commander of the State to decline railway
transportation. His efficiency soon appeared, and he was given the
command of all the troops in and about Mexico, Missouri. At this
point he received a dispatch from E. B. Washburne, Congressman for
his district, that President Lincoln had made him brigadier-general.
He was put in command at Ironton, Missouri, and was proceeding
against Colonel Hardee, when he was relieved from command by
B. M. Prentiss and ordered to Jefferson City, Missouri. He again
brought order out of chaos, and was ready for a campaign, when he
## p. 6596 (#590) ###########################################
6596
ULYSSES S. GRANT
was again relieved, and by suggestion of President Lincoln placed
in command of a district with headquarters at Cairo, Illinois.
On
This was his first adequate command, and with clear and orderly
activity he organized his command of nearly ten thousand men.
the 6th of September, learning that the Confederates were advancing
on Paducah, he took the city without firing a gun, and issued an
address to the people of Kentucky which led Lincoln to say, "The
man who can write like that is fitted to command in the West. "
Early in November, in obedience to a command from Frémont, he
fought the battle of Belmont, thus preventing General Polk from
reinforcing Price in Missouri. This was neither a victory nor a
defeat, as the purpose was not to hold Belmont.
In February 1862, with an army of twenty thousand men and
accompanied by Commander Foote's flotilla, he took Fort Henry and
marched on Fort Donelson. On the 16th of the same month he had
invested Donelson and had beaten the enemy within their works.
General Simon Buckner, his old classmate and comrade, was in com-
mand. He wrote to Grant, asking for commissioners to agree upon
terms. Grant replied: "No terms except an unconditional and immediate
surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works. "
Buckner surrendered, and Grant's sturdy words flamed over the land,
making him "Unconditional Surrender Grant. " The whole nation
thrilled with the surprise and joy of this capture, and the obscure
brigadier-general became the hero of the day. He was made major-
general, and given the command of the District of Western Tennessee.
On the 6th and 7th of April he fought the terrible battle of
Shiloh, and won it, though with great loss, owing to the failure of
part of his reinforcements to arrive. Immediately after this battle,
General H. W. Halleck, who had relieved General Frémont as com-
mander in the West, took command in person, and by a clever mili-
tary device deprived Grant of all command; and for six weeks the
army timidly advanced on Corinth. Corinth was evacuated by the
enemy before Halleck dared to attack, and Grant had no hand in
any important command until late in the year.
Halleck went to Washington in July, leaving Grant again in com-
mand; but his forces were so depleted that he could do little but
defend his lines and stores. In January 1863 he began to assemble
his troops to attack Vicksburg, but high water kept him inactive till
the following April. His plan, then fully developed, was to run the
battery with gunboats and transports, march his troops across the
peninsula before the city, and flank the enemy from below. This
superbly audacious plan involved cutting loose from his base of sup-
plies and all communications. He was obliged to whip two armies in
detail, Johnston at Jackson, Mississippi, and Pemberton in command
## p. 6597 (#591) ###########################################
ULYSSES S. GRANT
6597
at Vicksburg. This marvelous campaign was executed to the letter,
and on the third day of July, Pemberton surrendered the largest body
of troops ever captured on this continent up to that time, and Grant
became the "man of destiny" of the army. All criticism was silenced.
The world's markets rose and fell with his daily doings. Lincoln
wrote him a letter of congratulation. The question of making "the
prop-hauler of the Gravois" general-in-chief of all the armies of the
United States was raised, and all the nation turned to him as the
savior of the republic.
He was made commander of all the armies of the Mississippi, and
proceeded to Chattanooga to rescue Rosecrans and his beleaguered
army. In a series of swift and dramatic battles he captured Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Wherever he went, victory seemed
to follow. His calm demeanor never changed. He was bent on
"whipping out the Rebellion. " He was seen to be a warrior of a
new sort. He was never malignant, or cruel, or ungenerous to his
enemies; but he fought battles to win them, and the country now
clamored for him to lead the armies of the Potomac against Lee, the
great Southern general against whom no Northern general seemed
able to prevail.
be denied; but it must not be regarded as the highest, as the
life-determining element. It needed a rectification which should
again rescue the freedom of the spirit. Humor alone could ac-
complish Munchausen's feat, and draw itself by its own hair out of
the morass. Heine expressed his feelings with genuine warmth;
he formed them into drawn pictures and visions; but then he
placed himself on the defensive against them. He is the mod-
ern Werther, who instead of loading his pistol with a ball, loads
it with humor. Artistic harmony suffered under this triumph of
spiritual freedom; but that which appeared in his imitators as
voluntary quibbling came from Heine of inner necessity. The
subject of his first songs is the necessary expression of a struggle
between feeling and spirit, between the often visionary dream life
of a sentiment and self-consciousness, soaring free out over the
world, which adjudged absorption in a single feeling as one-sided
and unjustified. Later on, to be sure, these subjects of youthful
inspiration became in Heine himself a satiric-humoristic manner,
which regarded as a model worked much evil in literature. In
addition to personal necessity through one's own experience, there
was for a genius such as Heine's also a literary necessity, which
XI-412
## p. 6578 (#568) ###########################################
6578
RUDOLF VON GOTTSCHALL
lay in the development of our literature in that epoch.
It was
the Indian Summer of romanticism, whose cobwebs at this time
flew over the stubble of our poetry. The vigorous onset of the
lyricists of the Wars of Liberation had again grown lame; people
reveled in the album sentiments of Tiedge and Mahlmann; the
spectres of Amadeus Hoffmann and the lovely high-born maidens
of knight Fouqué were regarded then as the noblest creations of
German fantasy. Less chosen spirits, that is to say, the entire
great reading public of the German nation, which ever felt toward
its immortals a certain aversion, refreshed itself with the luke-
warm water of the poetry of Clauren, from out of which, instead
of the Venus Anadyomene, appear a Mimili and other maiden
forms, pretty, but drawn with a stuffed-out plasticism. On the
stage reigned the "fate tragedies" upon whose lyre the strings.
were wont to break even in the first scene, and whose ghosts
slipped silently over all the German boards. In a word, spirits
controlled the poetry of the time more than spirit.
Heine however was a genuine knight of the spirit, and even
if he conjured up his lyric spectres, he demanded no serious
belief in them-they were dissolving pictures of mist; and if
he followed his overflowing feelings, the mawkish sentiments of
romanticism occurred to him and disgusted him with the extrav-
agant expression of his love pain, and he mocked himself, the
time, and the literature,-dissolved the sweet accords in glaring
dissonances, so that they should not be in tune with the senti-
mental street songs of the poets of the day. In these outer and
inner reasons lie the justification and the success of the lyric
poetry of Heine. It designates an act of self-consciousness of
the German spirit, which courageously lifts itself up out of idle.
love complainings and fantastic dream life, and at the same time
mocks them both. An original talent like Heine's was needed to
give to the derided sentiment such a transporting magic, to the
derision itself such an Attic grace, that the sphinx of his poetry,
with the beautiful face and the rending claws, always produced
the impression of a work of art. The signification in literary
history of these songs of Heine is not to be underestimated.
They indicate the dissolution of romanticism, and with them
begins the era of modern German poetry.
Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by William
H. Carpenter
## p. 6579 (#569) ###########################################
6579
JOHN GOWER
(1325? -1408)
INCE Caxton, the first printer of 'Confessio Amantis' (The
Confession of a Lover), described Gower as a "squyer borne
in Walys in the tyme of Kyng Richard the second," there
has been a diversity of opinion about his birthplace, and he has been
classed variously with prosperous Gowers until of late, when the
county assigned to him is Kent. His birth-year is placed approxi-
mately at 1325. We know nothing of his early life and education.
It has been guessed that he went to Oxford,
and afterwards traveled in the troubled
kingdom of France. Such a course might
have been followed by a man of his estate.
He had means, for English property records
(in this instance the rolls of Chancery, the
parchment foundation of English society)
still preserve deeds of his holdings in Kent
and Essex and elsewhere.
JOHN GOWER
His life lay along with that of Chaucer's,
in the time when Edward III. and his son
the Black Prince were carrying war into
France, and the English Parliament were
taking pay in plain speaking for what they
granted in supplies, and wresting at the
same time promises of reform from the royal hand. But Gower and
Chaucer were not only contemporaries: they were of like pursuit,
tastes, and residence; they were friends; and when Chaucer under
Richard II. , the grandson and successor of Edward, went to France
upon the mission of which Froissart speaks, he named John Gower as
one of his two attorneys while he should be away. Notice of Gower's
marriage to Agnes Groundolf late in life-in 1397-is still preserved.
Three years after this he became blind,-it was the year 1400, in
which Chaucer died, and in 1408 he died.
Pos
"The infirm poet," says Morley, "spent the evening of his life at St. Mary
Overies [St. Mary-over-the-River], in retirement from all worldly affairs except
pious and liberal support of the advancing building works in the priory, and
in the church now known as St. Saviour's [Southwark], to which he bequeathed
his body. His will, made not long before death, bequeathed his soul to God,
## p. 6580 (#570) ###########################################
6580
JOHN GOWER
his body to be buried in St. Mary Overies. The poet bequeathed also 135. 4ď.
to each of the four parish churches of Southwark for ornaments and lights,
besides 6s. 8d. for prayers to each of their curates. It is not less character-
istic that he left also 40s. for prayers to the master of St. Thomas's Hospital,
and, still for prayers, 6s. 8d. to each of its priests, 3s. 4d. to each Sister in
the hospital, twenty pence to each nurse of the infirm there, and to each of
the infirm twelve pence. There were similar bequests to St. Thomas Elsing
Spital, a priory and hospital that stood where now stands Sion College. St.
Thomas Elsing Spital, founded in 1329 by William Elsing, was especially
commended to the sympathies of the blind old poet, as it consisted of a col-
lege for a warden, four priests, and two clerks, who had care of one hundred
old, blind, and poor persons of both sexes, preference being given to blind,
paralytic, and disabled priests. Like legacies were bequeathed also to Bedlam-
without-Bishopsgate, and to St. Mary's Hospital, Westminster. Also there
were bequests of ten shillings to each of the leper-nurses. Two robes (one of
white silk, the other of blue baudekin,-a costly stuff with web of gold and
woof of silk), also a new dish and chalice, and a new missal, were bequeathed
to the perpetual service of the altar of the chapel of St. John the Baptist, in
which his body was to be buried. To the prior and convent he left a great
book, a 'Martyrology,' which had been composed and written for them at his
expense. To his wife Agnes he left a hundred pounds, three cups, che cover-
let, two salt-cellars, and a dozen silver spoons; also all his beds and chests,
with the furnishings of hall, pantry, and kitchen; also a chalice and robe for
the altar of the chapel of their house; and she was to have for life all rents
due to him from his manors of Southwell (in Nottingham) and Moulton (in
Suffolk). »
The will is still preserved at
His wife was one of his executors.
Lambeth Palace.
Gower's tomb and monument may also still be seen at St. Saviour's,
where the description Berthelet gave of them in 1532 is, aside from
the deadening of the paintings, true:- "Somewhat after the olde
ffashion he lyeth ryght sumptuously buryed, with a garland on his
head, in token that he in his lyfe dayes flouryshed freshely in liter-
ature and science. " The head of his stone effigy lies upon three
volumes representing Gower's three great works; the hair falls in long
curls; the robe is closely buttoned to the feet, which rest upon a
lion, and the neck is encircled with a collar, from which a chain held
a small swan, the badge of Henry IV. "Besyde on the wall where
as he lyeth," continues Berthelet, "there be peynted three virgins,
with crownes on theyr heades; one of the which is written Charitie,
and she holdeth this devise in her hande:-
――
'En toy qui fitz de Dieu le Pere
Sauve soit que gist souz cest piere. '
(In thee, who art Son of God the Father,
Be he saved who lieth under this stone. )
## p. 6581 (#571) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6581
"The second is wrytten Mercye, which holdeth in her hande this
devise:-
O bone Jesu fait ta mercy
Al alme dont le corps gist icy. '
(O good Jesus, grant thy mercy
To the soul whose body lies here. )
"The thyrde of them is wrytten Pity, which holdeth in her hand
this devise :-
-
'Pur ta pite, Jesu regarde,
Et met cest alme en sauve garde. »»
(For thy pity, Jesus, see;
And take this soul in thy safe guard. )
The monument was repaired in 1615, 1764, and 1830.
The three works which pillow the head of the effigy indicate
Gower's 'Speculum Meditantis' (The Looking-Glass of One Meditat-
ing), which the poet wrote in French; the 'Vox Clamantis' (The Voice
of One Crying), in Latin; and the 'Confessio Amantis,' in English. It
should be remembered in noting this mixture of tongues, that in
Gower's early life the English had no national speech. The court,
Parliament, nobles, and the courts of law used French; the Church
held its service in Latin; while the inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon blood
clung to the language of their fathers, which they had modified by
additions from the Norman tongue. It was not until 1362 that Parlia-
ment was opened by a speech in English. "There is," says Dr. Pauli,
"no better illustration of the singular transition to the English lang-
uage than a short enumeration and description of Gower's writings. "
Of the 'Speculum Meditantis,' a treatise in ten books on the duties
of married life, no copy is known to exist. The Vox Clamantis >
was the voice of the poet, singing in Latin elegiac of the terrible
evils which led to the rise of the commons and their march to Lon-
don under Wat Tyler and Jack Straw in 1381. It is doubtless a true
picture of the excesses and miseries of the day. The remedy, the
poet says, is in reform-right living and love of England. Simony
in the prelates, avarice and drunkenness in the libidinous priests,
wealth and luxury in the mendicant orders, miscarrying of justice in
the courts, enrichment of individuals by excessive taxes, - these are
the subjects of the voice crying in the wilderness.
Gower's greatest work, however, is the Confessio Amantis. ' In
form it is a dialogue between a lover and his confessor, who is a
priest of Venus. In substance it is a setting-forth, with moraliz-
ings which are at times touching and elevated, of one hundred and
twelve different stories, from sources so different as the Bible, Ovid,
## p. 6582 (#572) ###########################################
6582
JOHN GOWER
Josephus, the Gesta Romanorum,' Valerius Maximus, Statius, Boc-
caccio, etc. Thirty thousand eight-syllabled rhymed lines make up
the work. There are different versions. The first was dedicated to
Richard II. , and the second to his successor, Henry of Lancaster.
Besides these large works, a number of French ballades, and also
English and Latin short poems, are preserved. "They have real and
intrinsic merit," says Todd: "they are tender, pathetic, and poet-
ical, and place our old poet Gower in a more advantageous point of
view than that in which he has heretofore been usually seen. ”
Estimates of Gower's writings are various; but even his most hos-
tile judges admit the pertinence of the epithet with which Chaucer
hails him in his dedication of Troilus and Creseide':-
"O morall Gower, this bookè I direct
To thee and to the philosophicall Strode,
To vouchsafè there need is to correct
Of your benignities and zealès good. "
Then Skelton the laureate, in his long song upon the death of
Philip Sparrow (which recalls the exquisite gem of Catullus in a like.
threnody), takes occasion to say:
And again:
"Gower's englysshe is olde,
And of no valúe is tolde;
His mattér is worth gold,
And worthy to be enrold. "
"Gower that first garnished our English rude. »
Old Puttenham also bears this testimony:-"But of them all [the
English poets] particularly this is myne opinion, that Chaucer, with
Gower, Lidgate, and Harding, for their antiquitie ought to have the
first place. "
Taine dismisses him with little more than a fillip, and Lowell,
while discoursing appreciatively on Chaucer, says:-
"Gower has positively raised tediousness to the precision of science; he has
made dullness an heirloom for the students of our literary history. As you
slip to and fro on the frozen levels of his verse, which give no foothold to the
mind; as your nervous ear awaits the inevitable recurrence of his rhyme, regu-
larly pertinacious as the tick of an eight-day clock, and reminding you of
Wordsworth's
'Once more the ass did lengthen out
The hard dry seesaw of his horrible bray,'
## p. 6583 (#573) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6583
you learn to dread, almost to respect, the powers of this indefatigable man.
He is the undertaker of the fair mediæval legend, and his style has the hate-
ful gloss, the seemingly unnatural length, of a coffin. "
Yet hear Morley:-
"To this day we hear among our living countrymen, as was to be heard
in Gower's time and long before, the voice passing from man to man, that in
spite of admixture with the thousand defects incident to human character, sus-
tains the keynote of our literature, and speaks from the soul of our history
the secret of our national success. It is the voice that expresses the persistent
instinct of the English mind to find out what is unjust among us and undo it,
to find out duty to be done and do it, as God's bidding. . . In his own
Old English or Anglo-Saxon way he tries to put his soul into his work. Thus
in the Vox Clamantis' we have heard him asking that the soul of his book,
not its form, be looked to; and speaking the truest English in such sentences
as that the eye is blind and the ear deaf, that convey nothing down to the
heart's depth; and the heart that does not utter what it knows is as a live coal
under ashes. If I know little, there may be another whom that little will help.
.
. . But to the man who believes in God, no power is unattainable if he
but rightly feels his work; he ever has enough, whom God increases. ' This is
the old spirit of Cædmon and of Bede; in which are laid, while the earth lasts,
the strong foundations of our literature. It was the strength of such a tem-
per in him that made Gower strong. God knows,' he says again, my
wish is to be useful; that is the prayer that directs my labor. ' And while he
thus touches the root of his country's philosophy, the form of his prayer —
that what he has written may be what he would wish it to be — is still a
thoroughly sound definition of good English writing. His prayer is that
there may be no word of untruth, and that each word may answer to the
thing it speaks of, pleasantly and fitly; that he may flatter in it no one, and
seek in it no praise above the praise of God. '»
-
The part of Gower's writing here brought before the reader is the
quaintly told and charming story of Petronella, from 'Liber Primus'
of the 'Confessio. ' It may be evidence that all the malediction upon
the poet above quoted is not deserved.
The Confessio Amantis' has been edited and collated with the
best manuscripts by Dr. Reinhold Pauli (1857). The Vox Claman-
tis' was printed for the first time in 1850, under the editorship of
H. O. Coxe and for the Roxburghe Club. The 'Balades and Other
Poems' are also included in the publication of the Roxburghe Club.
Other sources of information regarding Gower are 'Illustrations of
the Lives and Writings of Gower and Chaucer by Henry J. Todd
(1810); Henry Morley's reviews in English Writers'; and various
short articles.
(
## p. 6584 (#574) ###########################################
6584
JOHN GOWER
A
PETRONELLA
From the Confessio Amantis
KING Whilom was yonge and wise,
The which set of his wit great prise.
Of depe ymaginations
And straunge interpretations,
Problemes and demaundès eke
His wisedom was to finde and seke;
Wherof he wolde in sondry wise
Opposen hem that weren wise.
But none of hem it mightè bere
Upon his word to yive answére;¹
Out taken one, which was a knight:
To him was every thing so light,
That also sone as he hem herde
The kingès wordès he answerde,
What thing the king him axè wolde,
Whereof anone the trouth he tolde.
The king somdele had an envie,
And thought he wolde his wittès plie
To setè some conclusion,
Which shuldè be confusion
Unto this knight, so that the name
And of wisdom the highè fame
Toward him selfe he woldè winne.
And thus of all his wit withinne
This king began to studie and muse
What straungè matér he might use
The knightès wittès to confounde;
And atè last he hath it founde,
And for the knight anon he sente,
That he shall tellè what he mente.
Upon three points stood the matére,
Of questions as thou shaltè here.
The firstè pointè of all thre
Was this: what thing in his degre
Of all this world hath nedè lest,
And yet men helpe it allthermest.
The second is: what moste is worth
And of costáge is lest put forth.
1 No one could solve his puzzles.
## p. 6585 (#575) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6585
1 For.
The thrid is: which is of most cost,
And lest is worth, and goth to lost.
The king these thre demaundès axeth.
To the knight this law he taxeth:
That he shall gone, and comen ayein
The thriddè weke, and tell him pleine
To every point, what it amounteth.
And if so be that he miscounteth
To make in his answére a faile,
There shall none other thinge availe,
The king saith, but he shall be dede
And lese his goodès and his hede.
This knight was sory of this thinge,
And wolde excuse him to the kinge;
But he ne wolde him nought forbere,
And thus the knight of his answére
Goth home to take avisement.
But after his entendement
The more he cast his wit about,
The more he stant thereof in doubte.
Tho' wist he well the kingès herte,
That he the deth ne shulde asterte,2
And suche a sorroe to him hath take
That gladship he hath all forsake.
He thought first upon his life,
And after that upon his wife,
Upon his children eke also,
Of whichè he had doughteres two.
The yongest of hem had of age
Fourtene yere, and of visage
She was right faire, and of stature
Lich to an hevenlich figure,
And of manér and goodly speche,
Though men wolde all landès seche,
They shulden nought have founde her like.
3
She sigh her fader sorroe and sike,*
And wist nought the cause why.
So cam she to him prively,
And that was wher he made his mone
Within a gardin all him one. "
Upon her knees she gan down falle
With humble herte, and to him calle
'Escape.
• Sigh.
5 Own.
3 Saw.
## p. 6586 (#576) ###########################################
6586
JOHN GOWER
And saidè:-"O good fader dere,
Why make ye thus hevy chere,¹
And I wot nothinge how it is?
And well ye knowè, fader, this,
What adventurè that you felle
Ye might it saufly to me telle;
For I have oftè herd you saide,
That ye such truste have on me laide,
That to my suster ne to my brother
In all this worlde ne to none other
Ye durstè telle a privete
So well, my fader, as to me.
Forthy, my fader, I you praie
Ne casteth nought that hert³ awaie,
For I am she that woldè kepe
Your honour. " And with that to wepe
Her eye may nought be forbore;'
She wisheth for to ben unbore,"
Er that her fader so mistriste
To tellen her of that he wiste.
And ever among mercy she cride,
That he ne shulde his counseil hide
From her, that so wolde him good
And was so nigh flesshe and blood.
So that with weping, atè laste
His chere upon his childe he caste,
And sorroefully to that she praide
He tolde his tale, and thus he saide:-
"The sorroe, doughter, which I make
Is nought all only for my sake,
But for the bothe and for you alle.
For suche a chaunce is me befalle,
That I shall er this thriddè day
Lese all that ever I lesè may,
My life and all my good therto.
Therefore it is I sorroe so. "
"What is the cause, alas," quod she,
"My fader, that ye shulden be
Dede and destruied in suche a wise? "
1 Care.
2 Therefore.
3 Heart.
* Cannot endure it.
5 Unborn.
6 Ere.
In the midst of pity (for him).
In answer to her prayer.
## p. 6587 (#577) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6587
And he began the points devise,
Which as the king tolde him by mouthe,
And said her pleinly, that he couthe
Answeren to no point of this.
And she, that hereth howe it is,
Her counseil yaf¹ and saide tho²:-
"My fader, sithen it is so,
That ye can se none other weie,
But that ye must nedès deie,
I wolde pray you of o³ thinge,-
Let me go with you to the kinge,
And ye shall make him understonde,
How ye, my wittès for to fonde,
Have laid your answere upon me,
And telleth him in such degre
Upon my worde ye wol abide
To life or deth, what so betide.
For yet perchaunce I may purchace
With some good word the kingès grace,
Your life and eke your good to save.
For ofte shall a woman have
Thing, whiche a man may nought areche. "
The fader herd his doughters speche,
And thought there was no reson in,
And sigh his ownè life to winne
He couthè done himself no cure. ¹
So better him thought in àventure
To put his life and all his good,
Than in the manner as it stood,
His life incertein for to lese.
And thus thenkend he gan to chese
To do the counseil of this maid,
And toke the purpose which she said.
The day was comen, and forth they gone;
Unto the court they come anone,
Where as the kinge in his jugement
Was set and hath this knight assent.
Arraièd in her beste wise,
This maiden with her wordès wise
Her fader leddè by the honde
Into the place," where he fonde
1 Gave.
2 Thus.
Saw that he could do nothing to save his own life.
5 Palace.
3 One.
## p. 6588 (#578) ###########################################
6588
JOHN GOWER
The king with other which he wolde;
And to the king knelend he tolde
As he enformèd was to-fore,
And praith the king, that he therfore
His doughters wordès wolde take;
And saith, that he woll undertake
Upon her wordès for to stonde.
Tho was ther great merveile on honde,
That he, which was so wise a knight,
His life upon so yonge a wight
Besettè wolde in jeopartie,
And many it helden for folie.
But at the lastè, netheles,
The king commaundeth ben in pees,
And to this maide he cast his chere,¹
And saide he wolde her talè here,
And bad her speke; and she began:-
"My legè lord, so as I can,"
Quod she, "the pointès which I herde,
They shull of reson ben answerde.
The first I understonde is this:
What thinge of all the worlde it is,
Which men most helpe and hath lest nede.
My legè lord, this wolde I rede:
The erthe it is, which evermo
With mannès labour is bego
As well in winter as in maie.
The mannès honde doth what he may
To helpe it forth and make it riche,
And forthy men it delve and diche,
And even it with strength of plough,
Wher it hath of him self inough
So that his nede is atè leste.
For every man, birdè, and beste
Of flour and gras and roote and rinde
And every thing by way of kinde
Shall sterve, and erthe it shall become
As it was out of erthè nome,"
It shall be therthe torne ayein. ³
And thus I may by reson sein
That erthè is the most nedeles
And most men helpe it netheles;
1 Turned his attention.
2 Taken.
3 Shall turn thereto again.
## p. 6589 (#579) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6589
¹ Heed.
So that, my lord, touchend of this
I have answerde how that it is.
That other point I understood,
Which most is worth, and most is good,
And costeth lest a man to kepe:
My lorde, if ye woll takè kepe,¹
I say it is humilitè,
Through whichè the high Trinitè
As for desertè of pure love
Unto Mariè from above,
Of that he knewe her humble entente,
His ownè Sone adown he sente
Above all other, and her he chese
For that vertu, which bodeth pees.
So that I may by reson calle
Humilitè most worthe of alle,
And lest it costeth to mainteine
In all the worlde, as it is seine.
For who that hath humblesse on honde,
He bringeth no werres into londe,
For he desireth for the best
To setten every man in reste.
Thus with your highè reverence
Me thenketh that this evidence
As to this point is suffisaunt.
And touchend of the remenaunt,
Which is the thridde of your axinges,
What lest is worth of alle thinges,
And costeth most, I telle it pride,
Which may nought in the heven abide.
For Lucifer with hem that felle
Bar pride with him into helle.
There was pride of to grete cost
Whan he for pride hath heven lost;
And after that in Paradise
Adam for pridè lost his prise
In middel-erth. And eke also
Pride is the cause of allè wo,
That all the world ne may suffice
To staunche of pridè the reprise.
Pride is the heved' of all sinne,
Which wasteth all and may nought winne;
2 Head.
## p. 6590 (#580) ###########################################
6590
JOHN GOWER
Mischief.
2 Core.
3 Thee.
Pride is of every mis' the pricke2;
Pride is the worstè of all wicke,
And costeth most and lest is worth
In place where he hath his forth.
Thus have I said that I woll say
Of min answére, and to you pray,
My legè lorde, of your office,
That ye such grace and suche justice
Ordeignè for my fader here,
That after this, whan men it here,
The world therof may spekè good. "
The king, which reson understood,
And hath all herde how she hath said,
Was inly glad, and so well paid,
That all his wrath is over go.
And he began to lokè tho
Upon this maiden in the face,
In which he found so mochel grace,
That all his prise on her he laide
In audience, and thus he saide:-
"My fairè maidè, well the be
Of thin answére, and eke of the
Me liketh well, and as thou wilte,
Foryivè be thy faders gilte.
And if thou were of such lignage,
That thou to me were of parage,
And that thy fader were a pere,
As he is now a bachelere,
So siker as I have a life,
Thou sholdest thannè be my wife.
But this I saiè netheles,
That I woll shapè thin encrese;
What worldès good that thou wolt crave
Are of my yift, and thou shalt have. »
And she the king with wordès wise,
Knelende, thanketh in this wise:-
"My legè lord, god mot you quite. *
My fader here hath but a lite
Of warison, and that he wende
Had all be lost, but now amende
He may well through you noble grace. "
May God requite you.
5 Has had but little reward.
6 Been.
## p. 6591 (#581) ###########################################
JOHN GOWER
6591
With that the king right in his place
Anon forth in that freshè hete
An erldome, which than of eschete
Was latè falle into his honde,
Unto this knight with rent and londe
Hath yove, and with his chartre sesed,
And thus was all the noise appesed.
This maiden, which sate on her knees
To-fore the kingès charitees,
Commendeth and saith evermore:-
"My legè lord, right now to-fore
Ye saide, and it is of recorde,
That if my fader were a lorde
And pere unto these other grete,
Ye wolden for nought ellès lette,
That I ne sholdè be your wife.
And thus wote every worthy life
A kingès worde mot nede be holde.
Forthy my lord, if that ye wolde
So great a charitè fulfille,
God wotè it were well my wille.
For he which was a bachelere,
My fader, is now made a pere;
So whan as ever that I cam,
An erlès doughter nowe I am. "
This yongè king, which peisèd¹ all
Her beautè and her wit withall,
As he, which was with lovè hente,2
Anone therto gaf his assente.
He might nought the place asterte,
That she nis lady of his herte.
So that he toke her to his wife
To holde, while that he hath life.
And thus the king toward his knight
Accordeth him, as it is right.
And over this good is to wite³
In the cronique as it is write,
This noble kinge, of whom I tolde,
Of Spainè by tho daiès olde
The kingdom had in governaunce,
And as the boke maketh remeinbraunce,
Alphonse was his propre name.
1 Poised - weighed.
2 Seized.
3 Know.
## p. 6592 (#582) ###########################################
6592
JOHN GOWER
1 Destruction.
The knight also, if I shall name,
Danz Petro hight, and as men telle,
His doughter wisè Petronelle
Was clepèd, which was full of grace.
And that was sene in thilkè place,
Where she her fader out of tene¹
Hath brought and made her selfe a quene,
Of that she hath so well desclosed
The points whereof she was opposed.
## p. 6592 (#583) ###########################################
## p. 6592 (#584) ###########################################
ULYSSES S. GRANT.
## p. 6592 (#585) ###########################################
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## p. 6592 (#586) ###########################################
ES
GFANT.
## p. 6593 (#587) ###########################################
6593
ULYSSES S. GRANT
(1822-1885)
BY HAMLIN GARLAND
LYSSES GRANT was born on the 27th of April, 1822, in a small
two-room cabin situated in Point Pleasant, a village in
southern Ohio, about forty miles above Cincinnati. His
father, Jesse R. Grant, was a powerful, alert, and resolute man, ready
of speech and of fair education for the time. His family came from
Connecticut, and was of the earliest settlers in New England. Han-
nah Simpson, his wife, was of strong American stock also. The
Simpsons had been residents, for several generations, of southeastern
Pennsylvania. The Grants and the Simpsons had been redoubtable
warriors in the early wars of the republic. Hannah Simpson was a
calm, equable, self-contained young woman, as reticent and forbear-
ing as her husband was disputatious and impetuous.
Their first child was named Hiram Ulysses Grant. Before the
child was two years of age, Jesse Grant, who was superintending a
tannery in Point Pleasant, removed to Georgetown, Brown County,
Ohio, and set up in business for himself. Georgetown was a village
in the deep woods, and in and about this village Ulysses Grant grew
to be a sturdy, self-reliant boy. He loved horses, and became a re-
markable rider and teamster at a very early age. He was not notable
as a scholar, but it was soon apparent that he had inherited the self-
poise, the reticence, and the modest demeanor of his mother. He
took part in the games and sports of the boys, but displayed no mili-
tary traits whatever. At the age of seventeen he was a fair scholar
for his opportunities, and his ambitious father procured for him an
appointment to the Military Academy at West Point. He reported at
the adjutant's desk in June 1839, where he found his name on the
register "Ulysses S. Grant" through a mistake of his Congressman,
Thomas L. Hamer. Meanwhile, to escape ridicule on the initials of
his name, which spelled "H, U,G," he had transposed his name to
Ulysses H. Grant, and at his request the adjutant changed the S to
an H; but the name on record in Washington was Ulysses S. , and
so he remained "U. S. Grant" to the government and U. H. Grant
to his friends and relatives.
His record at West Point was a good one in mathematics and fair
in most of his studies. He graduated at about the middle of his
XI-413
## p. 6594 (#588) ###########################################
6594
ULYSSES S. GRANT
class, which numbered thirty-nine. He was much beloved and re-
spected as an upright, honorable, and loyal young fellow. At the
time of his graduation he was president of the only literary society
of the academy; W. S. Hancock was its secretary.
He remained markedly unmilitary throughout his course, and was
remembered mainly as a good comrade, a youth of sound judgment,
and the finest horseman in the academy. He asked to be assigned
to cavalry duty, but was brevetted second lieutenant of the 4th
Infantry, and ordered to Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis. Here
he remained till the spring of 1844, when his regiment was ordered
to a point on the southwestern frontier, near the present town of
Natchitoches, Louisiana. Here he remained till May 1845, when the
Mexican War opened, and for the next three years he served with
his regiment in every battle except Buena Vista. He was twice
promoted for gallant conduct, and demonstrated his great cool-
ness, resource, and bravery in the hottest fire. He was regimental
quartermaster much of the time, and might honorably have kept
out of battle, but he contrived to be in the forefront with his com-
mand.
In the autumn of 1848 he married Miss Julia Dent of St. Louis,
and as first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster, with a brevet
of captain, he served at Sackett's Harbor and Detroit alternately till
June 1852, when he was ordered to the coast. This was a genuine
hardship, for he was unable to take his wife and child with him;
but he concluded to remain in the army, and went with his com-
mand, sailing from New York and passing by the way of the Isth-
mus. On the way across the Isthmus the regiment encountered
cholera, and all Grant's coolness, resource, and bravery were required
to get his charge safely across. "He seemed never to think of him-
self, and appeared to be a man of iron," his companions said.
He was regimental quartermaster at Fort Vancouver, near Port-
land, Oregon, for one year. In 1853 he was promoted to a captaincy
and ordered to Fort Humboldt, near Eureka in California.
In 1854,
becoming disheartened by the never-ending vista of barrack life,
and despairing of being able to have his wife and children with him,
he sent in his resignation, to take effect July 31st, 1854. He had lost
money by unfortunate business ventures, and so returned forlorn and
penniless to New York. Thence he made his way to St. Louis to
his wife and children, and began the world again as a farmer, with-
out a house or tools or horses.
His father-in-law, Mr. Frederick Dent, who lived about ten miles
out of the city, set aside some sixty or eighty acres of land for his
use, and thereon he built with his own hands a log cabin, which he
called "Hardscrabble. " For nearly four years he lived the life of a
## p. 6595 (#589) ###########################################
ULYSSES S. GRANT
6595
farmer. He plowed, hoed, cleared the land, hauled wood and props
to the mines, and endured all the hardships and privations of a small
farmer. In 1858 his health gave way, and he moved to St. Louis in
the attempt to get into some less taxing occupation. He tried for
the position of county engineer, and failed. He went into the real
estate business with a friend, and failed in that. He secured a place
in the customs office, but the collector died and he was thrown out
of employment.
In the spring of 1860, despairing of getting a foothold in St. Louis,
he removed to Galena, Illinois, where his father had established a
leather store, a branch of his tannery in Covington, Kentucky. Here
he came in touch again with his two brothers, Simpson and Orvil
Grant. He became a clerk at a salary of six hundred dollars per
annum. At this time he was a quiet man of middle age, and his
manner and mode of life attracted little attention till in 1861, when
Sumter was fired upon and Lincoln called for volunteers. Galena at
once held a war meeting to raise a company. Captain Grant, because
of his military experience, was made president of the meeting, and
afterward was offered the captaincy of the company, which he re-
fused, saying, "I have been a captain in the regular army.
I am
fitted to command a regiment. "
He wrote at once a patriotic letter to his father-in-law, wherein
he said, "I foresee the doom of slavery. " He accompanied the com-
pany to Springfield, where his military experience was needed.
Governor Richard Yates gave him work in the adjutant's office,
then made him drill-master at Camp Yates; and as his efficiency
became apparent he was appointed governor's aide, with rank of
colonel. He mustered in several regiments, among them the 7th
Congressional regiment at Mattoon. He made such an impression on
this regiment that they named their camp in his honor, and about
the middle of June sent a delegation of officers to ask that he be
made colonel. Governor Yates reluctantly appointed him, and at the
request of General John C. Frémont, the commander of the Depart-
ment of the West, Grant's regiment (known as the 21st Illinois Volun-
teers) was ordered to Missouri. Colonel Grant marched his men
overland, being the first commander of the State to decline railway
transportation. His efficiency soon appeared, and he was given the
command of all the troops in and about Mexico, Missouri. At this
point he received a dispatch from E. B. Washburne, Congressman for
his district, that President Lincoln had made him brigadier-general.
He was put in command at Ironton, Missouri, and was proceeding
against Colonel Hardee, when he was relieved from command by
B. M. Prentiss and ordered to Jefferson City, Missouri. He again
brought order out of chaos, and was ready for a campaign, when he
## p. 6596 (#590) ###########################################
6596
ULYSSES S. GRANT
was again relieved, and by suggestion of President Lincoln placed
in command of a district with headquarters at Cairo, Illinois.
On
This was his first adequate command, and with clear and orderly
activity he organized his command of nearly ten thousand men.
the 6th of September, learning that the Confederates were advancing
on Paducah, he took the city without firing a gun, and issued an
address to the people of Kentucky which led Lincoln to say, "The
man who can write like that is fitted to command in the West. "
Early in November, in obedience to a command from Frémont, he
fought the battle of Belmont, thus preventing General Polk from
reinforcing Price in Missouri. This was neither a victory nor a
defeat, as the purpose was not to hold Belmont.
In February 1862, with an army of twenty thousand men and
accompanied by Commander Foote's flotilla, he took Fort Henry and
marched on Fort Donelson. On the 16th of the same month he had
invested Donelson and had beaten the enemy within their works.
General Simon Buckner, his old classmate and comrade, was in com-
mand. He wrote to Grant, asking for commissioners to agree upon
terms. Grant replied: "No terms except an unconditional and immediate
surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works. "
Buckner surrendered, and Grant's sturdy words flamed over the land,
making him "Unconditional Surrender Grant. " The whole nation
thrilled with the surprise and joy of this capture, and the obscure
brigadier-general became the hero of the day. He was made major-
general, and given the command of the District of Western Tennessee.
On the 6th and 7th of April he fought the terrible battle of
Shiloh, and won it, though with great loss, owing to the failure of
part of his reinforcements to arrive. Immediately after this battle,
General H. W. Halleck, who had relieved General Frémont as com-
mander in the West, took command in person, and by a clever mili-
tary device deprived Grant of all command; and for six weeks the
army timidly advanced on Corinth. Corinth was evacuated by the
enemy before Halleck dared to attack, and Grant had no hand in
any important command until late in the year.
Halleck went to Washington in July, leaving Grant again in com-
mand; but his forces were so depleted that he could do little but
defend his lines and stores. In January 1863 he began to assemble
his troops to attack Vicksburg, but high water kept him inactive till
the following April. His plan, then fully developed, was to run the
battery with gunboats and transports, march his troops across the
peninsula before the city, and flank the enemy from below. This
superbly audacious plan involved cutting loose from his base of sup-
plies and all communications. He was obliged to whip two armies in
detail, Johnston at Jackson, Mississippi, and Pemberton in command
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ULYSSES S. GRANT
6597
at Vicksburg. This marvelous campaign was executed to the letter,
and on the third day of July, Pemberton surrendered the largest body
of troops ever captured on this continent up to that time, and Grant
became the "man of destiny" of the army. All criticism was silenced.
The world's markets rose and fell with his daily doings. Lincoln
wrote him a letter of congratulation. The question of making "the
prop-hauler of the Gravois" general-in-chief of all the armies of the
United States was raised, and all the nation turned to him as the
savior of the republic.
He was made commander of all the armies of the Mississippi, and
proceeded to Chattanooga to rescue Rosecrans and his beleaguered
army. In a series of swift and dramatic battles he captured Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Wherever he went, victory seemed
to follow. His calm demeanor never changed. He was bent on
"whipping out the Rebellion. " He was seen to be a warrior of a
new sort. He was never malignant, or cruel, or ungenerous to his
enemies; but he fought battles to win them, and the country now
clamored for him to lead the armies of the Potomac against Lee, the
great Southern general against whom no Northern general seemed
able to prevail.
