work on the migration of the British clergy to Armorica; but whether he ever executed this design is unknown. Matthew Paris declares, that in all these works Geoffrey approved himself a faithful translator. But William of Newburgh, Buchanan, Baronius, and others, maintain that he invented a very considerable part of the chronicle, which he professed to translate from a British original; and Turner has adopted the same opinion. "I believe," says this very respectable historian, "the book of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who lived in the twelfth century, to be his own composition, and to abound with fable." "12 3 Yet, as Mr Ellis remarks, it is not easy to reconcile the foregoing passage with the following from the same author:-"I believe Geoffrey to state the fact when he says he found the history of Arthur in a book brought from that country (Bretagne)." The argument drawn by those inclined to cast suspicion on our chronicler from the outrageously coloured tales with which the work abounds, may, it is clear, be quite as good evidence on the other side; the probability is even greater that those wild fables and fictions were the invention of that earlier chronicler for whom Geoffrey professes he performed the office of a translator, than of the translator himself. Geoffrey nowhere exhibits the slightest solicitude to establish the authenticity of any portion of the chronicle. He urges the simple fact, that what he now publishes is translated from the text of a native historian; and when he supplies some deficiencies in the original respecting the struggle for empire between Arthur and Modred, he is careful to state the fact.* The chronicle is divided into nine books, the first of which, containing nearly a third of the work, extends from the birth of Brutus to the introduction of Christianity into Britain. The second book extends to the reign of Vortigern. The fourth is episodical, being a translation of Merlin's prophecies. The fifth narrates the reign of Aurelius Ambrosius. The sixth is dedicated to the reign of Uther. The seventh, and most important of the whole, is occupied by the reign of Arthur. The eighth relates the reigns of Constantine, Conan, Vortiporius, Malgo, and Catericus. The ninth, and concluding book, is occupied with the romantic adventures of Edwin and Cadwallo. The work is altogether an extremely entertaining one, whatever be its value as a contribution to the historical literature of the country. It was versified in the Norman dialect by Wace, and again in English by Layamon; and it is to it we owe the affecting story of Shakspeare's Lear, that of Sackville's Ferrex and Pollux, some of the finest episodes in the Polyolbion, and the exquisite fiction of Sabrina in the masque of Comus. • Vindication of the Ancient British Poems, p. 145 Specimens of early English Romance, vol. i. p. 85. Mr Coxe, in his Tour in Monmouthshire,' informs us, that it is the opinion of the best Welsh critics that Geoffrey's work is a vitiated translation of a history of the British kings, written by Tyssilio, or St Talian, bishop of St Asaph, in the 7th rentury. But Lhuyd is of opinion that Tyssilio's work was entirely ecclesiastical. Layamon. FLOR CIRC. A. D. 1180. THE researches which have been made by literary antiquaries into the remote periods of our national history, have been productive of many interesting and not unuseful discoveries. They have enabled us to trace the dependance of literature on the various circumstances which modify men's characters and determine their condition: they have at the same time shown us how that of our own country has been formed, like a noble river from many small and confluent ones, by the junction of various streams of thought with that which was more properly original and peculiar to the nation. The history of poetry is intimately connected with that of language, particularly in the early stages of a nation's literature. It is probable that the reign of the Romans extinguished the spark of poetry which might exist in the country, instead of fanning it into flame or exciting any new feeling. The men who composed the legions were too civilized to admire the poetry of barbarians, but not sufficiently refined or educated to bring with them any literature of their own. The Saxons fought from different motives,—were in a condition far more favourable to the cultivation of poetry,-assimilated better with the native genius of England, and introduced a language and modes of thinking more turally in harmony with its wild and northern character. The union consequently of the British and Saxon dialects became close and permanent, and the language which was thence formed gained so firm a hold of the national mind, that two generations of conquerors were unable to loosen it. For a considerable period it remained unchanged and unmixed; and when the Danes flooded it, as it were, with a new vocabulary, it still retained its old and genuine characteristics. The Normans introduced a language altogether new; but, notwithstanding the efforts employed to destroy the Saxon, its words and idioms outlasted the dominion of the Conqueror, and have resisted for a thousand years every revolution both of power and of fashion. na It is thus that the labours of the inquirers who have explored the remote tracks of our literature, have led us by a broad line from one period to another, enabling us at every stage to see enough to satisfy a reasonable curiosity. Specimens even exist of the Danish-Saxon which may be regarded as proof that that language was well cultivated, and that a taste for poetry, a perception of the sublime representations of Scripture, was possessed in a sufficient degree to lay the foundation of a literature. There is reason to believe that the Saxons, before the invasion of the Danes, had not neglected the study of poetry; and Camden, in his rare and curious volume entitled, Remaines concerning Britaine,' makes allusion to the skill which some, both of the native British and the Saxons, evinced in versification. After contending that "in grandity and gravity, in smoothness and propriety, in quickness and briefness," the poets of England are equal to any, he says, "this would easily appear if any lives were extant of that worthy British lady, Claudia Ruffina, so commended by Martial; or of Gildas, which Lilius Giraldus saw in the libraries of Italy; or of old Chedmon, who, by divine inspiration, about the year 680, became so sweet a poet in our English tongue, that with his sweet verses full of compunction, he withdrew many from vice to virtue, and a religious fear of God; or of our Claudius Clemens, one of the first founders of the university of Paris." The specimens which he then gives from some later writers, prove that the feeling of poetry was not lost amid all the troubles which the nation had undergone; what, however, of the passages he extracts are from Latin poems, and he apologises for the uncouth expressions they occasionally exhibit, on the plea that the age was so overcast with the " thick fogs of ignorance, that every little spark of liberal learning seemed wonderful." Joseph of Exeter, who followed King Richard I. to Palestine, was one of the most celebrated poets of that age, and commemorated the acts of his master in a poem called Antiocheidos.' John Hanvill, a monk of St Albans, was another writer who distinguished himself also in Latin verse; as was also felix, a monk of Crowland. In the descriptions of these early authors there is a certain strength and vivacity which amply atone for their want of classical correctness; and in the perusal of their remains the student of literary history will be often interested by discovering the germ of that style both of thought and expression, which is so genuine ly English. 66 It was, however, the great merit-as has been justly remarked-of the Saxons, before the Norman conquest, that they could express most aptly all the conceits of the mind in their own tongue, without borrowing from any. A curious proof is given of this in the words used to express the various objects of religious veneration. Thus, the word gospel, which means literally God's speech, was used instead of evangelium, or any modern derivative. The disciples of Christ were called Leorning cuihtors, that is, learning servants; and religion itself was termed ean-fastnes, as the one and only assurance and fast anker-hold of our souls' health." The methods employed by the Normans to introduce their own tongue would have obliterated the traces of any less firmly rooted language, or of any less intrinsically adapted to perform the offices of such a species of machinery as human speech. But with all the arbitrary power which the conquerors used to effect their purpose, the utmost they could do was to engraft the Norman on the Saxon. The iron tongue of the North lost no particle of its true metal; and after French had long been employed not only in matters of public concern, but in the common intercourse of the better orders of society, the Saxon re-asserted its claims to superiority, and was acknowledged as the staple of the national language. Of the little favour it received from the invaders, the most convincing evidence exists in a variety of ancient documents. In Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon, as quoted by Warton,3 we find it distinctly declared, that it was a primary object in the education of children to prevent their knowing any language but French. "Children in scole," says the old author, agenst the usage and manir of all other nations, beeth campelled for to lev hire owne language, and for to construe hir lessons and hire thynges in Frenche; and so they haveth sethe Normans came first into Engelond. Also gentilmen children beeth taught to speke 'Lel. p 224. Ib. p. 259. Hist. of English Poetry, vol. i. sect. i. p. 5. Frensche from the tyme that they bith rokked in here cradell, and kenneth speke and play with a childes broche: and uplondissche men will likne himself to gentylmen, and fondeth with great besynesse for to speke Frensche to be told of." But the strongest proof, perhaps, that could be given of the extent to which the Normans carried their violent proceedings in respect to the introduction of their language, is the fact, that in the year 1095, a bishop Wolstan of Worcester, was actually deprived of his see for his persevering attachment to his native tongue.* There was, however, a harshness and a want of copiousness in the Saxon which admitted of its being modified without injury by the introduction of new words and modes of expression. We accordingly find that by the commencement of the 13th century poetry began to flow with a smoother melody, and to exhibit a greater variety of images. Some of the specimens to which the date has been affixed of the year 1200, are extremely beautiful in point of sentiment, and are couched in a language evidently rich in poetical expression. One of these contains the following description of spring: Lenten ys come with love to tonne, With blosmen and with briddes ronne, Days ezes in this dales, Notes suete of nyhtegales, Uch foul songe singeth. The threstlecoe hym threteth so, Away is heure winter wo, When woderove springeth; This foules singeth ferly fele, Ant wlyteth on heure wynter wele, That al the wode ryngeth. The following love-song will show that the versification had acquired a degree of smoothness when it was produced-which is supposed to have been in the reign of King John-that left little for the poets of a more refined age to effect: When the nyhtegale singes the wodes waxen grene, Ich have lived al this yer, that I may love na more, Suete lemon, y preye the, of love one speche Specimens might also be produced to show that there was no want of variety either in the metre or in the form of the stanza. But the above will suffice to give the reader an idea of the progress which, even at this early period of its literature, the art of versification was making in England. But it was not till a subsequent age that these glimmerings M Paris, sub ann. • MSS. Hari. • Ibid. of true poetic power increased into a steady and permanent light. Some of the larger poems of this era, which appear to have possessed a considerable share of popularity, are deficient both in spirit and design, and exhibit only the rude efforts of inexperienced rhymers. Little must have been known of the true nature of poetry when such productions could obtain general approbation; and we may accordingly conclude that the taste of the people had as yet received none of those strong impressions which at once determined its direction, and enabled it to judge intuitively of what is presented to its judgment. It was before our poetic literature had reached this stage of its progress, that Layamon, a priest of Ernesley upon Severn, translated Wace's Brut d'Angleterre'-which is a Norman-French version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's history-into English verse. We do not pos sess any materials for a biographical notice of this early writer; but regarding his translation as one of the earliest specimens of metre in the native language, we have used his name for the purpose of introduc ing a few remarks on the state of our poetical literature towards the close of the second period of English history. Mr Ellis supposes that Layamon finished his translation in 1180, and conceives our language to have been formed betwixt that period and 1216. The following is a specimen of Layamon's verses :— And of alle than folke The wuneden ther on folde, That is, in English—“ And of all the folk that dwelt on earth was this land's folk the handsomest (people told); and also the women handsome of hue." Mr Ellis regards the dialect of Layamon as pure Saxon. Mr Campbell's opinion seems more just, that it is truly neither Saxon nor English, but something intermediate betwixt the old and new languages," something," to use his own beautiful simile, "like the new insect stirring its wings before it has shaken off the aurelia state.' There is good evidence that the following ballad must have been composed in the reign of Henry III., probably soon after the battle of Lewes, which was fought in 1264. It is entitled, Richard of Al maigne,' and seems to have been written by one of Leicester's adhe rents :- "Sitteth alle stille, ant herkneth to me: For te make the pees in the countrẻ, Ant so he dude more. Richard, Thah thou be ever trichard, Tricthen shalt thou never more. Richard of Alemaigne, whil that he wes kyng, He spende al is tresour opon swyvyng, 'Essay on English Poetry, p. 33. |