TALK IX.

HOW THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FINALLY CAME TO ITS OWN AGAIN, AND WHAT BOOKS AND AUTHORS HELPED TO KEEP IT ALIVE IN THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.

THE man to whom our thanks are due for the first great book written in English, after the death of the good King Alfred, is a priest named Layamon, who dwelt near his church at Earnely, on the banks of the Severn. He tells us in his quaint way that it became his chief thought "that he would of England tell the noble deeds, what the men were named, and whence they came, who English land first held.” So he went on a journey to find three books which were his inspiration. When he brought them home, he tells us how he took them, and turning over the leaves "beheld them lovingly, pen he took in fingers and wrote a book-skin, the true words set together, and these three books compressed into one.”

Every one who loves books will feel his heart throb in sympathy with this old student who thus lovingly handled his newly acquired treasures, the three old books which were the models for his own work. Layamon's book is called "Brut," and like Geoffrey of Monmouth's old history, it takes up the line of British kings from Brutus; tells the story of King Arthur and the Round Table; of King Lear and his ungrateful daughters; and many other interesting old stories, since used by poets. But the most interesting fact to us about Layamon's Brut is, that when the fashionable language of England was Norman-French, this book of Layamon, in thirty-two thousand lines, had only fifty-two Norman words, the rest was pure English.

Layamon's Brut appeared early in the thirteenth century. Two other books, of about the same date, also helped to keep alive the English language, although they did not amount to much as literature. One of these, called the Ormulum, was written by a pious brother of the church, named Ormin, who put bible texts and passages of the church service into English verse, probably because the common people could better keep the sacred lines in their memories if they were written in rhythm and in their spoken language. Another book of this period, written in English, was the Ancren Riwle, or Rule for Anchoresses, written by a bishop for three good ladies who with their domestics had I decided to lead the life of recluses. The book sets forth, minutely, all rules for daily living, and the contents include rules for the management of the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, etc., as well as rules for all domestic matters.

In the rules on seeing, the good bishop says: "Wherefore, my dear sisters, love your windows as little as possible. See that they be small, the parlor or front windows narrowest and smallest. See that your parlor windows be always fast on every side, and likewise well shut; and mind your eyes there, lest your heart escape and go out like David's, and your soul fall sick as soon as it is out." Reticence in speech is strongly praised, since the Virgin Mary was a silent woman, who spoke rarely. In respect to the sense of smell, patience in bad smells is urged. “In Heaven," says the bishop, "they shall smell celestial odors who in this life have endured stench and rank smells of sweat from iron, or haircloth which they wore, or sweaty garments, or foul air in houses." All of which seems to modern ears like an encouragement to the good ladies to do without much washing, and to ignore the idea that has since gained ground that cleanliness is very near to godliness.

Although these books helped to preserve our English speech in ears that hated the Norman, yet it was not easy for writers of that time to accept the English as the language of literature. Those who wrote for posterity wanted a more

stable language than that of a court which shifted from English to Norman and back again. Thus the great history writers of the thirteenth century, Roger of Wendover, and Matthew of Paris, wrote in Latin; so did the greatest philosopher and scientist of his time, Roger Bacon, a most wonderful man, who has the credit of having invented gunpowder, although that would have been a small affair of an invention for a man who made so much greater discoveries in science and philosophy.

Near the close of the thirteenth century Robert of Gloucester wrote a rhyming history of England in his native tongue, in which he began with the British line of kings with Brut, and came down to Edward I. A little later than this Robert, came another Robert, Robert Manning of Brunne, who wrote a history in rhyme, and also a Manuel of Sins, in which the seven deadly sins are moralized upon at length. He was a true patriot, and tells us he means to write in plain words, and that he "speaks no straunge Inglyss." He also writes with moral purpose, and tells his women readers not to paint their faces to make them fairer than they are by nature, and not to go about with long trailing gowns, on whose tails the devil will ride gaily.

1327-1377.

Robert of Brunne wrote in the opening of the fourteenth century, a century which witnessed the final triumph of English, and saw it made from thenceforth the rightful speech of England. It was in the reign of Edward III that this triumph came, although a century earlier, Henry III, when he came to be king, had issued a proclamation to the English in their own language. It was indeed high time for English kings to take up the language they had lived in, for Normandy was no more a possession of England; it was lost to the crown by King John Lackland, and had become altogether an alien land. It was, therefore, good policy as well as good sense for the kings of England to restore the neglected speech of their country. But it was not until the language of France was the speech of their

enemies that English king and people united to crush it in England. When the stout yeomen among whom King Edward the III, and his brave son, the Black Prince, fought at Cressy, had beaten France in two great battles, 1346. both king and people willed that the language of their foes never more be the language of England, and a royal decree declared the speech of the land was henceforth English.

should

But before this, stronger powers than a king's edict had been at work in literature. It was a fortunate day for language and for poetry when GEOFFREY CHAUCER was born. He and a group of noble contemporaries had more power to make the English language current than all the decrees of a long line of kings. To them, and to the people, who heard them gladly, we owe the great revival of the original speech

of our forefathers.