About 1205 LAYAMON, a priest of Ernley, wrote that

"Hit com him on mode
and on his megin thonke
thet he wolde of Engle
tha aedhelaen tellen,
wat heo ihoten weoren
and wonen heo comen

tha Englene londe
aerst ahten

aefter than flode

the from drihtene com
the al her quelde

quic that he funde."

It came to him in mind,
and in his main thought
that he would of England
the great deeds tell
what they were called,
and whence they came
that English land
first owned

after the flood

that from God came

that all here quelled (killed) (destroyed) living that it found.

Layamon's work was a translation of a translation of the popular tradition of Britain, which had been cherished by the descendants of the old Britons in Wales and Brittany, concerning a Brutus, grandson of the Trojan Æneas, who, many centuries before the Christian era, had established his reign in Britain. This story was written in Latin by GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, one of the chroniclers of the twelfth century; and from this Latin Chronicle, a Norman poet, WACE, wrote a rhymed version in French, called Brut d'Angleterre. It is this poem retranslated by LAYAMON into the spoken language of his time, and called Brut (Brutus), that forms one of the landmarks in the progress of the English language.

THE ANCREN RIWLE (Anchoresses' Rule) consists of a series of monastic instructions, written for the use of a company of anchoresses, three sisters, who, with their servants, established a nunnery at Dorsetshire.

The ORMULUM, written a few years later than the two preceding, is a series of Homilies or Scriptural instructions in verse. The author announces himself at the beginning of his work, by stating that

"Thiss boc iss nemmned Orrmulum,

Forthi thatt Orrm itt wrohhte."

The doubling of the consonants after short vowel sounds was an eccentricity of spelling peculiar to Orm. There is no indication of this method having been followed by others. It was an earnest effort on the part of the zealous Orm to fix, at least, the sound of the language of the people.

RHYMING CHRONICLERS AND OTHER POETS.

LAYAMON was the first of a series of rhyming chroniclers. Nearly a century after Layamon, ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER wrote another rhymed history of England from the time of the mythical Brutus of Troy until the death of Henry III. He was followed, fifty years after, by ROBERT MANNING, or ROBERT DE BRUNNE, the last of the RHYMING CHRONICLERS.

The first imaginative poem of purely English origin belongs, also, to the thirteenth century. It is called The Owl and the Nightingale, and represents these two birds as setting forth their respective claims to superiority as songsters.

The first Scotch poet of whom we hear was THOMAS Of ERCELDOUNE, or THOMAS the RHYMER (1250-1300), to whom was ascribed the gift of prophecy as well as of poesy. He sang the story of Sir Tristrem, one of the old British legends.

As a poet, WALTER MAP, or MAPE (1150 —), is best known by his Latin verses; but the service he rendered to English literature was his arrangement of the popular romances of King Arthur. To these old tales he added a more spiritual significance, idealizing the ruder life depicted in the originals. He wove into the series the story of the Holy Grail.

Many imitations of the Arthurian stories arose. The most noted was that of Tristram and Isoud.*

Later poets who serve as a sort of connecting link between this age and the next, were RICHARD ROLLE (1290-1348) and LAURENCE MINOT (— 1352). The former wrote a long religious poem, entitled The Pricke of Conscience. Minot wrote war songs, commemorating the victories of Edward III. over the Scotch and French. He was the first national song writer.

In this period the germs of the English Drama are found in the old miracle play, St. Catharine, written in French and played at Dunstable in 1119. The early plays were the devices of the clergy to impress upon the people the example of the lives of saints and the doctrines of the Church. Bible scenes were thus converted into dramatic representations.†

* Written by Lucas de Gast.

†See History of the Drama, page 77.

SCHOLASTICISM.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Universities began to be an acknowledged power. Through the learning and zeal of the Franciscan friars, Oxford University became the rival of Paris. Education, however, was by no means general; the laity, as a rule, could neither read nor write, and all works were still written in Latin.

The philosophy of the Middle Ages, usually termed Scholastic, was a blending of philosophy with theology. Adopting the dialectics, or mode of reasoning employed by the ancients, the scholastic philosophers applied to all questions the test of the syllogism. This species of argument served as a keen mental whetstone to the disputants, but resulted in no new developments of scientific facts. ST. ANSELM (1033-1109), who succeeded LANFRANC (1005-1089) as Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first "to clothe religious doctrines in philosophical formulas." Other schoolmen of the period were JOHN OF SALISBURY ( 1182); PETER OF BLOIS (1198); ALEXANDER HALES (—— 1254); JOANNES DUNS SCOTUS (1308); WILLIAM OF OCCAM (1300-1347). The last three were styled respectively the "Irrefragable Doctor," the "Subtle Doctor," the "Invincible Doctor."

The Crusades, as we have seen, had established a communication between Europe and Asia. Arabia, during the Middle Ages, was the acknowledged seat of learning, and from the schools of Bagdad and Cordova, mathematical and physical science came.

The first great light of science in England was ROGER BACON (1214-1294), a Franciscan monk. Anticipating his great namesake, Francis Bacon, by more than three hundred years, he foreshadowed, in his Opus Majus, Opus Minus, and Opus Tertium, some of the greatest truths taught by the philosopher of the sixteenth century. The "idols" of the latter seem almost suggested in the reasons assigned by Friar Bacon for human ignorance.* This great philosopher urged the study of nature by experiment. In his own mathematical researches, he led

*"Trust in inadequate authority, the force of custom, the opinion of the inexperienced crowd, and the hiding of one's own ignorance with the parading of a superficial wisdom."

the way to later discoveries in optics. Robert GrossetTESTE (1175-1253), another Franciscan friar, was the teacher and intimate friend of Bacon. He was pronounced by the latter "per

fect in divine and human wisdom."

LATIN CHRONICLERS.

At the head of the list of Chroniclers of this era stands the name of GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH (1154), notwithstanding the fact that his "Chronicles" were romances rather than history. They were the source from which successive chroniclers drew, down to the time of Elizabeth; and they are to-day well-springs of romance and poetry.

Geoffrey of Monmouth was of Welsh parentage, and with a warm love for the old Celtic stock he made out for the British nation a heroic line of ancestors, tracing them back through King Arthur and other illustrious Celtic heroes to a Brutus, great grandson of Aeneas! In this chronicle we hear for the first time of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Tuble. The scene of the first English tragedy, Ferrex and Porrex, is taken from this work, as is also the story of King Lear.*

However much this prince of chroniclers was followed and believed in by succeeding ages, the plodding, truth-abiding chroniclers of his own time were outraged by his romantic stories, set down for grave facts. They said:

"That fabler with his fables shall be straightway spat out by us all, as in all things we trust Bede, whose wisdom and sincerity are beyond doubt." The other chroniclers of this time were WILLIAM of MALMSBURY (10951143); HENRY of HUNTINGDON (1154); ROGER DE HOVEDEN (1202); MATTHEW PARIS (- 1259); ROGER DE WENDOVER (1237); NICHOLAS TRIVET (1258-1328); RALPH HIGDEN (— - 1370).

As Latin was the tongue in which all the learned works were written, and Norman French was the language of the lighter songs and romances, and was also spoken by the higher circles, while English was the language of the people, it may readily be imagined that the close of this period would present a con

* Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin history of the British kings was suggested by the finding in Brittany of an ancient manuscript in the Cymric tongue, purporting to be a history of Britain.

fusion of tongues. Some of the literature of the time affords illustrations of the commingling of Latin, French, and English. The poem quoted on page 35 is an example.

Illustrations of the Literature of the Transition Period.

1150-1350.

From LAYAMON's translation of Brut d'Angleterre.

From the Ancren Riwle.