No More Learning

The productions of this time, dealt with in the present
chapter, fall into two main classes, religious and historical,
the former comprising homilies, saints' lives and translations
or paraphrases of Scripture, and the latter the chronicles of
Robert of Gloucester, Thomas Bek of Castleford and Robert
Mannyng, the prophecies of Adam Davy and the war songs of
Laurence Minot. The two classes have many characteristics in
common, and, while the homilists delight in illustrations drawn
from the busy life around them, the historians seldom lose an
opportunity for conveying a moral lesson.
The earliest of the three chronicles mentioned above was
written about 1300, and is generally known by the name of
Robert of Gloucester, though it is very uncertain whether he
was the original author of the whole work. It exists in two
versions, which, with the exception of several interpolations in
one of them, are identical down to the year 1135. From this
point the story is told in one version, which may be called the
first recension, in nearly three thousand lines, and in the
other, the second recension, in rather less than six hundred.


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336
Later Transition English
From an investigation of the style it has been supposed that
there was a single original for lines 1_9137 of the Chronicle,
that is to say, to the end of the reign of Henry I, composed in the
abbey of Gloucester, and that, at the end of the thirteenth
century, a monk, whose name we know from internal evidence to
have been Robert, added to it the longer continuation. This must
have been made after 1297, as it contains a reference to the canoni-
sation of Louis IX of France, which took place in that year.
Then, in the first half of the fourteenth century, another writer
found the original manuscript, added the shorter continuation,
and also interpolated and worked over the earlier part.
In any case, there can be little doubt that the Chronicle was
composed in the abbey of Gloucester. The language is that of
south Gloucestershire; and Stow, who may have had access to
information now lost, speaks in his Annals (1580) of the author as
Robert of Gloucester, or Robertus Glocestrensis. The detailed
acquaintance with local affairs shown by the writer of the longer
continuation proves that he lived near the city, while we have his
own authority for the fact that he was within thirty miles of
Evesham at the time of the battle ably described by him. But,
in the earlier part of the Chronicle, also, there are traces of
special local knowledge, which, apart from the dialect, would
point to Gloucester as the place of its origin.
The poem begins with a geographical account of England,
borrowed from Geoffrey of Monmouth, Henry of Huntingdon
and the life of St Kenelm in the South English Legendary.
Next, Nennius, or, perhaps, Geoffrey of Monmouth, is followed
for the genealogy of Brutus, the legendary founder of Britain;
and, from this point down to the English conquest, Geoffrey of
Monmouth is the chief authority. The compiler is, however, by
no means a slavish translator, and he treats his original with
considerable freedom. Thus, he sometimes elaborates, giving the
speeches of historical personages in a fuller form, while, on the
other hand, he frequently omits long passages. But the episodes
which stand out in the memory of the reader-the stories of
Lear, of the “ virgin-daughter of Locrine" and of Arthur, are
also those which arrest us in the Latin original.
Although it has sometimes been stated that the author of this
part of the Chronicle was indebted to Wace, it seems very doubtful
whether the work of his predecessor was known to him. Such
lines as those which hint at the high place taken by Gawain
among Arthur's knights, or make mention of the Round Table,


## p. 337 (#357) ############################################

Robert of Gloucester 337
may be due to verbal tradition, which was especially rife in the
Welsh marches. The coincidences are certainly not striking
enough to justify the assertion that the Gloucester Chronicle owed
anything to the Geste des Bretons, though W. Aldis Wright has
shown that the writer of the second recension was acquainted
with Layamon's version of Wace's poems.
For the history of England under the Old English and Norman
kings, the chief authorities consulted were Henry of Huntingdon
and William of Malmesbury, the former being followed in the
narration of events, and the latter in the descriptions and anecdotes
of famous characters. Occasionally, other sources are drawn
upon; for instance, the story of the duel between Canute and
Edmund Ironside is from the Genealogia Regum Anglorum of
Ailred of Rievauls, and another work by the same author, the
Vita Edwardi Regis et Martyris is, probably, the chief authority
for the life and death of Edward the Confessor. For the reigns
of Henry II and Richard I the life of Thomas à Becket in the
South English Legendary and the Annales Waverlienses supplied
some material, the former furnishing almost word for word the
accounts of the constitutions of Clarendon and of the death
of the saint. Some passages seem to depend on folk-songs; and
there are others, such as the account of the misfortunes which
befell the duke of Austria's land in revenge for his imprisonment
of Richard I, that may be due to tradition. On the whole, however,
the Chronicle does not supply much that is fresh in the way of
legendary lore.
From the beginning of the reign of Henry III the poem be-
comes valuable both as history and literature. The writer, whom
we may now certainly call Robert, was, as we have seen, either an
eye-witness of the facts he relates, or had heard of them from
eye-witnesses. He had, moreover, a distinct narrative gift, and
there are all the elements of a stirring historical romance in his
story of the struggle that took place between the king and the
barons for the possession of Gloucester. Not less graphic is the
description of the town and gown riot in Oxford in 1263. We
are told how the burgesses shut one of the city gates; how
certain clerks hewed it down and carried it through the suburbs,
singing over it a funeral hymn ; how, for this offence, the rioters
were put in prison; and how the quarrel grew to such a height
that the citizens came out armed against the scholars. Robert
relates with evident enjoyment the discomfiture of the former,
and the vengeance taken by the clerks on their foes—how they
E. L. I. CH. XVI.
22


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338 Later Transition English
plundered their shops, burned their houses and punished the
mayor, who was a vintner, by taking the bungs from his casks,
and letting the wine run away. But, he adds, when the king
came and heard of all this mischief, he drove the clerks out of
the town, and forbade their returning till after Michaelmas.
Picturesque as such passages are, they are less valuable than
the powerful description of the battle of Evesham and the death
of Simon de Montforty a passage too well known to call for
further reference.
The form of this Chronicle is no less interesting than its theme.
Its metre is an adaptation of the two half-lines of Old English
poetry into one long line, one of its nearest relations being
Poema Morale. In spite of the well-marked caesura, a relic of
the former division into halves, the line has a swinging rhythm
especially suited to narrative verse and the poem is of metrical
importance as showing the work of development in progress!
It was not long after Robert had added his continuation to the
Gloucester Chronicle that Thomas Bek of Castleford composed
a similar work in the northern dialect. The unique MS of this
chronicle is preserved at Göttingen, and is as yet inedited. The
work contains altogether nearly forty thousand lines, of which
the first twenty-seven thousand are borrowed from Geoffrey of
Monmouth, while the remainder, extending to the coronation of
Edward III, are derived from sources not yet defined. The metre
is the short rimed couplet of the French chroniclers
Mention has already been made of the South English Le-
gendary, a collection of versified lives of the saints in the same
dialect and metre as those of the Gloucester Chronicle. The fact
that certain passages from these lives are incorporated in the
Chronicle has led to the conclusion that one person was respon-
sible for both; but, as we have seen, the Chronicle is probably the
work of three hands, if not of more, and it is impossible to say
anything more definite about the authorship of the Legendary
than that it had its origin in the neighbourhood of Gloucester
towards the end of the thirteenth century, and that more than
one author was concerned in it. The oldest manuscript (Laud
108 in the Bodleian) was written after 1265, and is dated by
its editor, Horstmann, as belonging to the years 1280—90.
It is probable, however, that it had been in band a considerable
time. As the number of saints' days increased, it was found
couvenient to have at hand homiletic material for each festival;
See Saintsbury, History of English Prosody, i, 67.


## p. 339 (#359) ############################################

The South English Legendary 339
and, as no single monastic library would contain manuscripts of all
the independent lives required, these had to be borrowed and
copied as occasion served. This was a task too great for any one
man, and it is most probable that the monks at Gloucester had been
gathering the legends together for some years, and that a number
of them contributed towards the first redaction. This would
partly account for the unequal merit of the lives, some of which
display much more literary and poetic feeling than others. But,
in considering this point, it must be remembered that the charm
of any particular story depends largely on its original source ;
even the clumsy pen of a monkish translator could not wholly
disguise the beauty of such legends as that of St Francis.
Although the collection is of the most varied description, and
comprises the lives of saints of all countries and of all ages down
to the time of compilation, the best-told legends are those of.
native saints; and, as the style of these is not unlike that of the
author of the longer continuation of the Gloucester Chronicle,
it is possible that they may be by him. Among them may be
especially mentioned the very vivid account of the career and
murder of St Thomas of Canterbury, which displays considerable
dramatic power, and the life of St Edmund of Pontigny (arch-
bishop Edmund Rich, who died in 1240), which treats of events
that were still fresh in men's minds and, like the Gloucester
Chronicle, betrays a great admiration for Simon de Montforte
The same predilection, it may be noted, is evident in the life of
St Dominic, where Sir Simon, “that good and gracious knight,"
is commended for having lent his support to the order of preaching
friars.
Some of the lives, such as those of St Kenelm and St Michael,
are made the vehicle of secular instruction, and contain curious
geographical and scientific disquisitions, the latter being especially
valuable for its light upon medieval folk- and devil-lore and for its
cosmology. The most interesting of all the lives are those connected
with St Patrick and St Brendan. The story of Sir Owayn's visit
to purgatory shows all the characteristic Celtic wealth of imagina-
tion in the description of the torments endured. Nothing could
be more terrible than the lines which describe him as “ dragged
all about in a waste land, so black and dark that he saw nothing
but the fiends, who drove him hither and thither and thronged
around him. ” And, on the other hand, nothing could be more
charming in its strange mystic beauty than the story of St
Brendan's sojourn in the Isle of Birds, and his interview with the
22—2


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340
Later Transition English
penitent Judas, permitted, in recompense of one charitable deed,
to enjoy a little respite from the pains of hell.
While the monks of Gloucester were thus busy with hagiology,
similar activity was exhibited in the north of England, according
to Horstmann in the diocese of Durham, though the preva-
lence of midland forms in the texts points to a district further
south. There exists in many manuscripts, the earliest of which,
in the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh, seems to have
been written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, a cycle
of homilies, in octosyllabic couplets, covering the whole of the
Sundays in the church year. Two of the later manuscripts
(Harleian 4196 and Tiberius E. VII), both written about 1350,
contain also a cycle of legends for use on saints' days.
Considerable diversity is shown in the recensions of the
homilies; the Edinburgh MS opens with a prologue, in which
the author, like many writers of the time, carefully explains
that his work is intended for ignorant men, who cannot under-
stand French; and, since it is the custom of the common people to
come to church on Sundays, he has turned into English for them
the Gospel for the day. His version, however, is not a close
translation; it resembles Ormulum in giving first a paraphrase
of the Scripture, and then an exposition of the passage chosen;
but, in addition to this, there is also a narracio, or story, to
illustrate the lesson and drive the moral home. These stories are
often quite short, sometimes mere anecdotes, and are derived from
the most diverse sources : sometimes from saints' lives, some-
times from Scripture and sometimes from French fabliaus. The
homilist is an especial lover of the poor, and one of his most
striking sermons is that for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany, on
the subject of Christ stilling the waves. The world, says he, is
but a sea, tossed up and down, where the great fishes eat the
small; for the rich men of the world devour what the poor earn
by their labour, and the king acts towards the weak as the whale
towards the herring. Like Mannyng of Brunne, the writer has a
special word of condemnation for usurers.
The Harleian manuscript is, unfortunately, imperfect at the
beginning, so that it is impossible to say whether it ever contained
the prologue; while the MS Tiberius E. VII was so badly burned
in the Cottonian fire that the greater part of it cannot be de-
ciphered. These manuscripts, however, show that the homilies
had been entirely worked over and rewritten in the half century
that had elapsed since the Edinburgh version was composed.


## p. 341 (#361) ############################################

Homilies and Legends 341
The plan of paraphrase, exposition and narration is not always
followed, and, so far as Easter Sunday, the stories are taken
chiefly from Scripture. From this point, however, they depend on
other sources, and they are especially interesting when compared
with the contents of other northern poems of the same period. The
legend of the Holy Rood, for instance, which runs like a thread
through Cursor Mundi, is given at great length, and so, also, is
the graphic story of Piers the usurer, which occurs in Handlyng
Synne. Among the stories is the well-known legend of the monk
who was lured by a bird from his monastery, and only returned
to it after three hundred years, when everything was changed,
and no one knew him.
The legends which follow these homilies are much more re-
stricted in scope than those of the southern collection, and are
confined chiefly to lives of the apostles or of the early Christian
martyrs, St Thomas of Canterbury being the only English saint
represented. But, while the Gloucester Legendary seems to have
been intended only as a reference book for the preacher, the
northern series shows the lives in a finished form, suitable for
reading or reciting in church. The verse is polished, limpid and
fluent, betraying, in its graceful movement, traces of French
influence, while, at the same time, it is not free from the tendency
to alliteration prevalent in northern poetry. The writer had
a genuine gift of narration, and possessed both humour and
dramatic power, as is shown by the story of the lord and lady
who were parted by shipwreck and restored to one another by
the favour of St Mary Magdalene; and, like most medieval
homilists, he excels in the description of horrors-of fiends
“blacker than any coal,” and of dragons armed with scales as
stiff as steel. Sometimes, a little homily is interwoven with the
story; and one passage, which rebukes men for slumbering or
chattering in church, resembles a similar exhortation in Hand-
lyng Synne. The section on the "faithful dead,” also, seems
to be in close dependence on that work. Three of the stories
told occur in close juxtaposition in Mannyng's book; and a
reference to the story of Piers the usurer, which is mentioned
but not related, probably because it had already found a place
in the homilies, points to the conclusion that the compiler was
well acquainted with the work of his predecessor.
The desire to impart a knowledge of the Scriptures to men
who could understand only the vernacular likewise prompted the
author of the Northern Psalter, a translation of the Psalms in
ivell acquainted with art a knowledge Qar likewise promptime in


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342
Later Transition English
vigorous, if somewhat rough, octosyllabic couplets, composed
about the middle of the reign of Edward II. 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


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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


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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


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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


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.