lrtt, /t tlt Li / t, rrt / rrrt

We sti1l have these three ancient divisions, but two of them are noJonge r-except \re ry occasionally pre sented in the iorm of poetrv. Thecpic has become the novel, wrirten in prose . (Sometimes people still writenovels in verse, but thev are not l'erv popular.) The dramatic poem hasbecome the film or the play (only rarely in verse nowaciays). Lyricall)()etÍy iS the only kind of poetry left. In other wrlrds, there is verv littleroom for the epic poet or the clramatic poet nowedays: the poet, asopposed to the playwright or the novelist, writes short lyrical poems,pr,rblishcs them in magazines, and cloes not expect to make much moneyout of them. There is no living poet who can make a living out of hisp()etÍy. This is a bad sign and perhaps meens that there is no future forp()ctry. But this is something we can discuss later.

The re are othe r branches of l.iterature and 'near-lite rature ' which weshall consider in this book, particularly the essav, which is whar a manwrite s when he has no gift for poetry oÍ the novel. But I should like 1'6qto l<eep those three main forms in mind the nove1, the drama,the poem

f<rr they are the forms which havc attracted our greatest names duringthc last few centuries. In our own age it seems likely that only the novelwill survive as a literary form. There are few reaclers of poetry, and mostpcople prefer to enjoy drama in the form of the f,lm (a visual form, not alitcrary, form). But before we come to the problems of the present wehar.c a good cleal to learn about the pasr, and the past of English Litera-ture is the subject of the pages that follow.

2. Vhat is Eruglish Literature?

English literature is literature written in English. It is not merely thelitereture of Englancl or of the British Isles, but a vast and growing bodyof writings made up of the work of authors who use the English languageas a natural medium of communication. In other words, the 'English' of'English literature'refers not to a nation but to a language. Th.is seemsto me to be an important point. There is a tenclency among some peopleto regard, for instance, American 1iterature as a SeParate entity, á body ofwritings distinct from that of the British Isies, and the same attitude isbeginning to prevail with regard to the growing 1íte ratures of Africa andÁustralia' Joseph Conraci was a Po1e, Demetrios I(apetanakis was a

Greek, Ernest Hcmingwalr'v/as an American, J-in Yutang was a Chinese,but English is the medium thev have in.common, and they al1 belong-with Chaucer ancl Shakespeare ancl Dickens to English literature. Onthe other hand, a good deal of the work of Sir Thomas More and SirIirancis Bacon both Englishmen-is written not in English but inLatin, and \ /iliiam Beckford and T. S. Eliot have written in French. Suchwritings are outside the scope of our survey. I'iterature is an art whichexploits language, English literature is an art which exploits the Englishlanguage. But it is not iust an English art. It is international, and Chinese,Nlalavs, Áfricans, Indians reading this book may well one day themselvescontribute to English literature .

But in this brief history we must confine ourseh'es to the literature produced in the prítis]-r Isles, chie{ly because the'internapional'concept ofEnglish literature belongs to the present and the future, and our mainconcern is with the past. In the pages that follow we shall hardly moveout of England, and the term'English'will refer as much to the raceas to the language. Let us therefore begin by considering very brieflvboth the race and the country, for, though the subject matter of the writeris humanitv, ancl humanity is above race and nation, yet he is bound totake humanity as he finds it in his own country and, to a lesser extent, inhis own age. But, to the writer, geographv seems to be more important

9

England and the

Eng/i.rh

rt :,/t,/t Li / rrrt / tt rr II!4laÍ js Eng/ish LjleraÍura/ t t

th:rn history, ancl it is the geographJ, of Englan(l that is pcfPctuállv fe-fle ctecl in its lite rature, far more than the pattern of evcnts which we callthe historv of a nation. England is an island, and the sea washcs its litera-ture as much as its shores. lt is a colcl, stormv sea, cluite unlike the placidNlcditcrrancan or thc warm watcrs of the tropics. lts voice is nevcr farawav from the music of E,nglish poetry, ancl it cen be hearcl clearll' enougher.en in the novcls of a 'town' writer like Dickens. The landscape ofl')nglancl is variecl m()untains and lakes and rivers but the.uniformeffcct is one of grccn gentlcncs-s downs and farms and woods. TheI,,nglish lanc1scape made !(/ordswoíth; troPical jung1es cou1d never haveproclucecl a poet like him, ancl, often, when we reacl him in the tropics,we fincl it harcl to accept his belief in a kincllv, gentle power brooding overnaturc it docs not fit in with snakcs and clephants and tigers ancl tor-Íential Íein' !íe have to kntlw something about the l,i,nglish landscapebefore we can begin to eppreciate thc Fn"glish nature poets.

Ruling sea ancl land is the English climate. In the tropics the re ate ncr

se2rsons cxcept the rainy and the clr1,, but in trnglancl one is awarc of theeaÍth appfoaching anc1 retÍeating fr<lm the sun - spring' SUmmeÍ'autumn, winter, ancl the fcstivals associated with the se seasons. The longing for spring is a common theme with English poets, ancl Christmas, thewinter festival, is the verv essence of Charles Dlc-ke r..s. Thc (lhtistian yearin Englanc1 is verY much the q11tural vezÍ the resurrection of thc earthat Easter, the hope ofnew life expressed in joy at the birth ofChrist at theclead time of the vear. liour clistinct scasons, but all comparativelv gentle

the summcr neve r too hot ancl the winter neYeí afctic. But it is the colclof F.ngland that is hardest for the dweller in the tropics to unclcrstand:

\X/hcn icicles hang bv the wall,And Dick the shephercl blows his nail.

Snow and frozen ponds ancl bare trees are common images in Englishliterature, but it is only bv a llreat effort of the imagination that the in-habitant of a.pcrpctuallv watm land can bring himself to appreciate theirsignificance for the l.lnglish poet ancl his English reacier. It has been saiclthat the English climate is responsible for the English character: theEnglish are colc] ÍatheÍ than hot-blooded, temperate rather than fiery,actir.c bccause of the necd to keep warm, philosophical under difficultiesbe cause-so an unkincl person said if you can stand the English climate\ ou can stand anything.

The English are also saicl to be conservative, disliking change (this isgenerally true of island-dwellers), but also, because the sea makes them a

nation of sailors, aclventurous and great travellers. The English have, fornearly a thousand vears, been free of domination by foreign powers (anisland is not easy to invade), and this has made them inclependent, jealousof their freedom, but also a little suspicious of foreigners. The F,nglish

,;:-i:,.,:.,,,.i1i**

{

5q

\vL:\-

{l

{

š-\ÝU

t.\l',

rt t,/r t/t Li / t' t'rr / trrr

:rrc, in fact, a CLtfioLlS míxture, and their liteÍature reflects thc contraclictir.lns in their. cháf2cteÍ. The English rebels and eccentrics people]ilic Shel]cy and Bvron ancl Blake-arc as tvpical eS the Íathef dull die'h:rrcls whtl sit at home and never change their opinions in fiftv yeaÍS: thevcry lact of a conserr,.ative society-*social stability, no foreign domination cxplains the rebcls and eccentrics, for on11, in a country wheretradition is respected will vou Írnc] men whtl say that tradition shou1d notbc respe ctecl. In other words, to have rebels you must have something torcl;cl against.

The English are sometimcs sald to be macl: this js certainly a traclitionin some Europcan countries. It is hard tci say what this means, but possibl1, it refers to impatience with restrictions, dislike of anything whichintcrferes wlth personal liberty. 'F)nglishmen never will be slaves,' saicl(icorgc Bernard Shaw.'They'are frec to do whater.eÍ the Go\.efnmentend public opinion a11ow them to do.' But both these can restrict so farrun<l no farther: the Englishman has alwavs becn able to change his(.lovernment ancl what an Englishman calls 'public opinion' is usuallvwhat he himself thinks. The English love justicc but hate laws, and it isthis hattccl of laws which makes so much linglish litcrature seem'macl'.A I;tench writer obeys thc Ácademv ru1es which goYern the cmplovmentof the lrrench language, but a tlrpically English writer Iike Shakcspearcis :rlw:rvs reaclv to make language clo 'mad' things, to invent new words()r usc metaphors which take the breath awav with their daring. And itfirllows that much English litcrature is'formlcss'.rS,hakespearc brcaks al1

rhc clramatic rules,,Dickens's nor.els proceed, seeminglv without rhymc()Í fe2lson' not like a controllccl and organiscc1 wtlrk tlf art, but like a rive rin full spatc. The French and Italians havc always liked traditional verse-forms the sonnr'r, t he r,,nrlt l, rhc line wir h a fi xr..l number of sr llabl. s

but thc English havc usually preferred to invent their own forms and,cventuallv, to have as meny stllables as they wished in a line of verse.

I l'rnglish literature, in short, has a frceclom, a willingncss to experiment,a hatrccl of rules which has no parallcl in any other literature.i

So much, briefly, f<rr the countr\. and the peoplc. !(/e must now con-sicle r the English language itself ancl ask: rrVhat clo we mean by'Flnglish'l'['his is not en eaSV c]uestion to answeÍ. !íe use terms like 'Chinese','i\Ialav', 'French', ancl'Russian'very loosely when talking about langualle, alwavs assuming that each of these names refers to a single fixedthing, Jike a house or a tree. But language is not a thing of dcad bricks:tn.] woocl ]ike a hciuse, nor a simp1e rlrganism like a tÍee . A housc canrlccay and a trcc can clie, but whcn a language seems to die (as Latin mayllc saicl trl have died) it has really onlv undergone gíeet change . Changeirnplies time, and time suggcsts history, and so the rerm'language '

should reallv mean: a system of sounds made by the vocal organs of a

prLrticular group of pe ople, posse ssing meaning for that group of pcople ,

and existing continuouslv for a givcn pcriod ofhistotv. But, iflanguagechanges, is it not likely that it v'ill change, as we say,'bevond all recog-nition'? Thcre mav well be so llreat a cliffcrcnce between the Chinese ofIooo Á'I). ancl the Chinese of l98o Á.t).' that the two kincls of Chinese afereellv two completelv different languages. That is certainlv thc casc withltnglish. trnglish has been spoken continuously in England frrr ovcrfifteen hunclred years, but the English spoken in r ooo ,,r.o. is a languagethat the Englishman of todav cannot undetstand. Áncl yet it is the samelanguagc, it is still English. This scems absurd. If a modern Englishmancannot understanc] a paÍticulaÍ language he calls it a foreign language.But how can it bc a foreign language when it is the languagc of his owncountrv and his own ancestoÍs? We solve the difficulty bv talking aboutthc'historical phases'of a language and using the terms'()1d English';ntl ' \l,,de rn English'.

Old llnglish has to be treated like any'rea1 'foreign language. It hasto be learnt -- with grammar books and dictionaries. lf we want first-handknowlcdge of the first English literature we have to get down to thelearning of Old E,nglish first. But this is not a thing I expect you to clo,at least not ye t. For the moment you will har.c to be content with knowingroughly what ()ld English literature is about, roughly what kind ofpoetry was written by thc encestoÍS tlf the l.,nglish and what kinc1 ofprose' \)íe har'e to know something about these things, we cannot justignore them, becausc thev have hacl, ancl still have, a ce rtain influence onthe literature of N{odern English.

That is the concern of this book the literature of N'{odern English.But again \/e aÍe faced with a questiofl: when does N'{odern E'nglishstaft ? .^S tar as we are conce rnecl, it starts as soon as we Íind an old poemoÍ prosc'wofk which we can unclerstancl without gctting out x grammxr-book or a dictionarl,. Be tween ()lc1 English and Nloclcrn l:,nglish there isa'pb_4S-c-ef !{4n.sjtign'when what is virtually a foreign language is be-coming like the language we use toda1,. This phase is known as MiddleF,nglish' Some ]\Iiddle tr,ng1ish b<loks we can reacl without much dilŤrculty; others are just as'foreign'as ()lcl English. There is a reason forthis. Timc, as we have seen, is one of the 'climensions' of language;anotheí dimensirln is spacg''English'means all the c]ifferent kjnds ofEnglish spoken from the vcry mome nt the first speake rs of the languagescttlcd in England up to the present clav. But it also rneans all the varyingkinds of English spoken in different places, at anr givcn moment in tj mc.Today, for instance, in England itself a local dialect of English can behcarcl in l-,a_nclsfrire, another in _I{ent, anothcr in Nortl'rumbcr!.and,anothcr in F,sse-x, and so on. But thelr 2ll har.e a souncl claim to be re-garded as'true English', though we fincl it convenient to call themEug/ish dia/e .r.It usually happens in anv civilisecl countrv that onc dia-lcct establishe s itsclf as the most important. Thus l{uo yii is the dialect

Vbat i.r Eng/i.rh LiteraÍnrc ? I J

O/d English

Middle Englisb

D ja/tlcÍ.r

terrsht in (lhinese schools, and..f ohore Malay the clialect taught in i\{alar.sc--hools. The dialcct chosen is usually the onc which is spokcn in theclrpital city, in the royal ctlurt, clr ín'thc universities. The English c]ialectwhich has established itself as the most important is that now known asStenclard trnglish or I{ing's, (j}_Q""gllil English, historically speakrnge miltqrq of th-e- 91{ Ir*191NIidia1{ SJl"lS,.,t (north of the Thames) ancl theold Kentish c1j1f9ct (south of the Thames). This is the dialect that I amwriting now; this is the dialect that all foreigners who wanr to knowljnelish Staít to learn. Having been for a long time the clialect mostfavt>urecl by royaltv, by learne cl men ancl statesmen, it tencls to have morelrxÍ.r than any other, anci inc1eed some clf the othcr c1ialects hat'e nclNloclern English tcxts at all. It is chiefly the literature of Stanclarcl I,lnglishthat wc are concerne(l with.

ln the N{iddle Iinglish phase-, the 'phase of transition' all the dia-lccts of England sccmecl to be as good as cach other, and all of thcm hacllitcraturcs. 'Ihere was, as vet, no thought of a supreme dialect v'ith amonopoly of English literature . This cxplains some of our ciil1iculties.( lhaucer wrote in the English of J,ondon ancl we find him comparativclvcitsv to understand, for this Ii)nglish became the language we oursclvcswrite ancl speak. But there were other poets writing in \r)í<lrcestershjre

linglish and Lancashire F,nglish ancl Kcntish Flnglish, hard for us tcr

r,rnclerstancl, ancl so we become frustratecl. But by aboutl-i_+o..ilthe confusion is clcarecl up, a1d the historv of English litcrature becomes thehistrlry of thc litcraturě of rlne dialect.. ()t very nearly so. Bven in the Nlcláern pcritlcl, a number of writ.rs

have preferrecl to write in their own county dialects. Robert I3ur-ns wasonc, clinging to the clialect of Avrshire rn Scotl-4nd, although hc knewStandard E'nglish perfectlv wel1. \)íilliam Ba1n-gs, a brilliant languagescholar of the nincteenth centurv, liked to'write jn the porsgl s.*i3,leg_r.

And toclav English literature contains works in the many E,ngiish dia,lccts of Ame rica, and even in the c]iale ct rlf the \'X/e st lnclian negro. \Ďi/c

shoulcl rejoicc in this richncss ancl varietv.Ir,nglish literature, then, is vest, cxtending long ih time and wiclc in

space . ( )ur task now is to e xamine its beginnings in the temperate, mist\.,raitrv islancl where the English nation came into being.

,. The First English Literatare

The first l:,)nglishmen were foreigncrs. In other worcls, they came tcrIingland from abroacl whcn Englancl was alreadv inhabited by a longscttled race ancl blessed b1. a fairly advanced cilrlisrtjon. That l,;ngsettled race was thc British race, and the beginnings of its settlementcennot bc tracecl: thev belong tr> pre history. That Íace stil] exists, to befound mainly in \ /ales, ro rhe we st of Enghncl, speaking a language quiteunlike E'nglish, clifférent in temPefemeni an,l ..,lt,rr. í"- ií'. É"gl.t''invader, still cultivating a literaturc which has never jnflusn6sd norbcen much inlluenced bv the literature wc are studying. lt is ironicalthat this people shoulcl now be called the \Velsh (from the ()lcl lrnglishword fcrr'fnreigner') when thcv are much less foreigners thzrn theEnglish. The ancicnt Romans callecl them 'Britanni' and their counrrv'I)ritannia' . !(/c can call them 'Britons..

These Britons 'wcÍe ru]cd [,lr a few ccnturies bv the R'qm.ans, andBrjtannia or Britain \ /as the most we sterl\r and northerll, province ofthe Roman Empire. The Romans brought their Ja.nguage (of whichtÍaccs Still survive in the name s of the

-t_ow-ns of England) ancl their archi_

tects ancl enginecrs as well as their garrisons and governors. Britain wasgivcn towns, villas with central heating, public baths, thcatres, and asvstcm of roads which is still more or less in existence. But, as we know,the Roman Empire eventuallv fe1l, the Roman legions withdrew, and apcople softened by civilisation and colonial rulc was left to itself and toany tough invader who cared to cross from Europe . The time of thc fal1

"f $g*tsg.Tit ETp!t., is also the time of the migrations of peoples fromthe East of Europe such peoples as the Goths and Vandals, who themsclves broke the power of Rome. Disturbed by these movements west-ward by barbarous and ruthless hordes, certain peoples from the north-west of E'urrlpe crossed thc se rs and settle d_--or.ér a n.,mber of vears-inBritain, driving the British west ancl claiming rhe counrry for themseh,es.These peoples included the ]\neles and $,a-{_,oAs, who still give theirnames to what is sometimes called the An'g19_;!_4+*Q!t íacc. Their language ,

rJ

Romaa Britaia

Angla .\'axon

En,q/and

The First En,g/ish LiÍeralare I /

oí grollP of dialects, is sometimes callecl Anglo .Saxo{, but, in theinterests of unity, we shall kcep to the name t llďEngiish. '

!íe have few historical details of these lgyryrogs a1d''sett1eme_nts,_which vou can think of as being completecl b)' the end of the seventhcenrury. Thc legends ol'King Arthur and his Knighrs of the RoundT.ab-]e tell of the defenders of the old Roman civilisation Íighting a braverearguard action against the new barbarians. The Angles and Saxons anc1,

along with them, the J_uLe s were barbarians perhaps only in the sense thatthey welg_ not -Cb1.!.1l_+S,flhe Roman Empire had ended as a Christianlimpire ancl Chrjst!4nitv had been well-established as the religion ofBritarn.íBut the Angles and Saxons worshipped the old--Qgp.anicgodswho still give their names to the days of the week-Thg-r and !(pde-nand the rest. Yet thev had some civilisation. Thel' were f-ry4lers and _s_e,4..

men, they knew something of law and the art of government, and itseems that they brought a !!t91a11119 with them from Éurope trl England,áS the country must now be ca1led.

By the sn-d:f'-:b:.]:1h"::::gE' the new masteÍS of Englancl had become a Qb**t*.*p_-.p.ele, chiefly because of the energv of the Christjanevangelists from lrelancl, who came over to convert them. And al1 the..č"i'ás oFth-e.arlv liteiature oíthe Anglo Sa.'ons belong to a ChristianEngland, lg-rj$-ej_r_b,c_lerks in _qlonast_e,rie.q,- kept lloredjn monas*r-er1es,

a-qd*gp"b_cp$gC1,9_J1gfu31 the tjmg 9{"1h9*R9{-o_t-+3.9gt' y-h-e_t:Jl-e_I,l*ry

VIII dissolvecl the monlq.ted.p"S-.-We must think of this literature as beingjžf}lssed down by_wgra 9i Á"ytr. from generation ro gencrari,',n, ii.cfe2tors for the most paÍt uf'&reyÍL gd_9n11, b.ejr-rggiven-a'written.formlong af19r jts'pÍ]'mB.o_sj'tj.on. This literature is almost eIc]gsjr"'|y n _"-"lls-.l'].-.ggT.Thcrc is p1o55. bur this is not strictll lirerarurc--1[5rory. rhe-ology, letters. biograp[y-and the nrmes ol'the wrirers of much of thi:prose are known. There is a lot of anonymous poerry in the world, butver1, little anonymous prose.l_Sound is the essence of verse, ancl henceverse is chiefly a matter of Áouth and ear'íBut prose is a matteÍ for the penand it has to be composed on paper. \Ýh_en a man composes on paper heusually signs his name. fA poem is recitecl, remembered, passed on, andits origin is forgotten iat least as far as early literatures are concerned.l

Th."s]dggl 9p:' in the English language is @;.IÍ.lr-". ío,_.oíposed in England, but on tbs-scl-ti|'s-+Lgf"F-g:"-p.: the new''šěttlersbrought it over along with their wives, goods, and chattels. It was notwritten down tili the -end."of ,tl1.9 .qi"4t-h.Selt"U-fy-. It is a;stirring, warhke,r tolent poemíof oveÍ three thousand lines. and it is p&iaps difficult Lothink of it ášBeing set down by a monk, a man of peace, in the quiet of a

monastery. These Anglp Saxon monks, however, hacl the biood of warriors in them, they we ie the sons ancl grandsons of Vikings. Beouu/f isessentially a Y*?-r;1-o*t]s-q|_Q'ÍJ.[t tells of the hero who gives his name to thepoem and his struggle with a fgu_l,mon-ster half-devil, half-man called

fftt':

Beouulf

Ú:,:

Ang/a 5'axan i/hninationfron tlLe Lindetfarne Cosptls.

rt,,/ t,1, Li / t rrr / ttrt 'l'fu Fir.rt En,qli.rh Lilt,ra/rrrt t I

into Modern lrnglish but rctained the technique of the original :

Bitter breast carcs have t abided,Known on my keel many a care's hold,Áncl dire sea SuÍge' and thcrc I rlft spcntNarrow nightwatch nrgh the ship's heaclWhi]e she tclssecl close to cliffs. Coldly aÍ11rcteci,

Mv feet were bv frost benumbed.Chill its chains are; challng sighsHew my heart rouncl and hunger begotNIere weary mood. . . .

This usc of heacl rhyme in ()1d English verse, while it produces aneÍIcct ofvio]encc, iS also fesponsib1e for a certain inabilitv to'cal] a spadea spacle '. The necd to find \ /ords beginning with the same sound meansoften that a poet hes to call some quite common thing bv an uncommonname' usu2llY a naÍne that he himself invents for his immediate purpose.Thus the sea becomes the swan's way or the whale's foad oÍ the sail-path.[''og becomcs the air,he]met, darkness the night-he lmet. The Old Iinglishlanguage was well fitted for playing this sort of game, because its normalway of making new words was to take two old words ancl join them togcther. Thus, as there was no word for crartfl,, the form rod fasten hacl tctbc made, meanjng'trl Í]r to a tree'. The worcl uertehrd had not yet comeinto F,nglish, so ban hring(bone ring) had to be usecl instead. A lot of ()ld-trnglish words thus have the qualit,v of 1!dd-l_e_s 'guess what this is'-,ancl it is n()t surprising that riddling was a favourite Old Flnglish pursuit.Indccd, some of the loveliest of the shorter poems are called riclclles.Thcrc is one on a bull's horn. The horn itself speaks, telling how it oncewas the wcapon of an armecl v/arri()r (the bull) but soon afterwards wastransformed into a cup, its bosom being filled bv a maiden 'adorned withrings'. Finallv jt is borne on horseback, and it swélls with the air fr<ln-r

someone else 's bosom. It has become a trumpet. The actual guessingessencc of a ricldle-is lcss important than the fanciful clescription of theobject whose name, of couÍSe' is never disclosccl.

It js time we examined a piece of ()lc1 Ir,nglish ve rse , and we cannot dobetter than take a poem composecl ny C_C_dgg". This poem is perhaps f"the first piece of Christian lite raturq to appear in Anglo-Saxon F,ngland,and it is especially notable because, according ro rhe Venerable Bede, itwas .dir.inely inspired. Caedmon, a humble and unlearned man, tencledthe cattle of an abbev on the Yorkshire coast. One night, at a feast, whensongs were called for, he stole out quietly, ashamed that he cou]d contÍi-bute nothing to the amateuí enteftainment. He lay down in the cow she dand slept. In his sleep he hearcl a voice asking him to sing. 'I cannot sing,'he said,'anc1 that's why I left the feast and came here."Nevertheless,'said the mysterious voice,'vou shall sing to me."$íhat shall 1sing?'

,ir,/t,/,

(ircnclcl, wbo has for a long time been raiding the banclueting-hall ofKing Hrothgar of Jutland (land of the .f utes) and carrving off antl dcv()Lrringi l-Irothgar's warriors. Beowulf sails from Sweclen and comes tothc hclp of Hrothgar. His fights with Gtendei and (lrendel's equallvhorrific 1161[61-216 the subject of the poem, a poem whosc grim musicis thc snapping of fangs, tbe crunching of bones, and whose colour is thesrcy of the northern winter, shot b,v the red of blood. It is strong meat,no work for the squeamish, but it is in no wav a crucle ancl primitive composition. It shows great ski1l in its construction, its imagery and langua5Se2Íc sOphiSticated. It is not a Christian poe m.-despite the Christian flav oursiven to it bv the monastery scribe (e.g. Grendel is of the accursed raceof the first murclerer, Cain)-but the product of an ach.anced pagancir ilisation.

N{ uch of the strength and violence r>f Beau,a/f <leriv e from the nature of()lcl English itself. That was a language rich in consonants, foncl ofcluSteÍing its cons<lnants togethgr, so thzt the mouth Seems to perform a

swift act of violence. The following Modern English words are to bef<runcl in ()1d E nglish, and are tvpical of that langua ge'. .rtrength ('in whichscvcn muscular consonants strangle a single vowe l'),1 hreatlt, que//, drenclt,

crash. Compzred with the softer languages of the East and South, ()lcl

Iinglish seems to be a seties of loud noises. And the violence of the lan-euage is emphasised in the techniquc that the ( )ld English poet emplovs.Í{ere is a linc frtlm Beou,l/Í:

Steap stanlitho st:ige nearwe(Stcep stone slopes, paths narrow)

The line is divided into two halves, ancl each half has two heavv ,stresses.'fhree (sometimes four, occasionally two) of the strcsses of the wholeline are made even more emphatic by the te of :hea.d rh1n-e'.'1Í1ead-rhvmcmeans making words begin with the same sound (this is sometimcs calleclallitcration, but alliteration rea11y refers to words beginning with thesame letter, which is not alwavs the same thing as beginning with thcsame sound). Although, slpc_g. th"9" \9_1n.q! 9,9.1"9.\1est, most Englishvcrse has traclitionallv used end-rh1mi-(or ordinary rhymc, as we may callit) this old heacl rh1,me has always had some influence on English write rs.ln the twentieth centurv some poets have abancloned orclinarv rhyme anclreverted to the ()ld English practice. Certainly, the use of head-rhvmeseems natural to English verse and it even plalrs a largc part in everydavI')nglish speech: )h.a/e and he arj ; fat and;l'arj ; time and tide ; ft as a fidd/e ,'

a pig in a pokt, etc., etc. This modern rer.ival was perhaps started by ETraP9u1d, 3l4qgfiSel, who ttrnslaterl the Olr'l F,nglish prtem'1-he .feaf arer

] '1 History o;f L:'ngli.rb ]'iteratare, Rook I, bv Rmile l-cgouis, tÍznslated bv Helen l)ougJas

lrvinc. J. l\{. l)ent, r917.

l'.r r,, /i :/ t Li / r nr tr.trr

esked Caec1mon.'Sing me the Song of Creation,'v/as the answeÍ. Then(]ircc]mon sang the follclwing vefses'.verses he hacl neveÍ heafcl bcfore :

Nu wc sculan heri:rn heoftlnrices wearcl,

il{etocles mihte ancl his modgethonc;$ťetltc wuldotfaeclet, swa he wunclras gehwaes,

Ece clryhten, orcl onsteurlcle.

'fhosc are the first four lines, ancl they can be translate d as follows: 'Nowwc must praise the (luarclian of the kingclom of heaven, the might of theCreator ancl the thought of His mind; the work of the Fathcr of men, as

Hc, the Eternal Lorcl, formed the beginning of er.erv wonder.' If voulook carefull,v at these lines you will see that Old F,nglish is not a complctely foreign language . Certain wotcls we still possess ancl,lti.r,lte,a,e

whjle other words have merelv changed their form a little. Thus, zzz hasbecome now (stIII nu in Scodancl), rtihte has becomc ruiybt, utorc has bc-cotll'e work, sya has become so, Jaeder has become -faÍller. tsIeofonrit

(hear.cnlv kingdom) suggests bishoprit, which wc stil1 use to clesctibc thc'kingclom' of a bishop. ()ther words, of course, have died completelv.Note the form of the poe m: the clivision of the line into two halves, thc:

four stresses, the use of head-rhvme. You cen think of this poem as

having been composecl about'67o, a key year fctr English literature .

There is a gorld cleal of Old English veÍse' Some dealing with war, 1ike

Th Battlt: oJ'hIa/don, whose heroic note stil1 rings oveÍ the ccnturies:

'Íhought sha]l be btal.cr, the heart boldcr'N{ightier the moocl, as out might lcssens.

'There is a larger bociy of verse on Christian themcs, sometimes beautiful,but generallv cluller than the pagan, warrior poems. There are two grcatpoe ms The SeaJarey and The IYaltdgrer_- whose resigne d melancholy (the

lame nts of men without fixed abocle) ancl powe rful de scription of natr-rrc

still speak strongly through the strange worcls and the heavv-f<rotcclthvthms. Resignecl melancholv is a characteristic of much ()1d llnqlishveÍSe : evcn when a poem is at it( mí)st vigorous c1ealing with war,storm, sea, the drinking-hall, thc creation of the world we alwavs sccmto be aware of a certain unde rcurrent of sadness., Pe thaps this is a rcí1cc-tion of the English climate the grey skies ancl the mjst or pethaps it is

something to clo with the me re souncl of English in its first phase he av tt

footecl, harsh, lacking in the tripping, gay quality of a languagc likeIrrench or ltalian. ()r perhaps it is a quality aclclecl, in odd lines or cvenworcls, by the scribes in thejr monasteÍies monks aware thzt this wtlrlclis vanit1,, that life is short, that things pass eway and nnh'(]od is real. Ilutthe sense of melanchoiv is there all the time, part of the strange hauntingmusic oť Old E'nglish poetÍy.

Tlle Fir.rÍ Flngli.rl) l 'i/t t-,t/ttt', '!

lr rttrrains to say somcthing of Olcl English prose. Before we can clo ()kl lltt.y./i.rlt /,r,,,,tIrIs wc lllust rťmincl ourselves of the fact of dialect' the fact that ()1dl,rrllish was not a single languagc but is as with ,\loclern Englishrrrclt lv the name we give to a group of dialects. Think of llngland, abouttlrl't'ltt] rlf the ninth centuÍy' as clivided into three main kingc1rlmsN,rr'(lrumbria, thc long thick neck of the countr,v; Nfcrcia, thc fat bod,v;\\ , sscx, the Foot, stretching from the Thames to Lancl's End. ()f theset lrr t t, N.rthumbria was thc centrc of learning, with its rich m.nastcriesr rilrlr)CCl with manuscript books bouncl in golcl ancl ornamcnted with|'ti'r'irlus Stones. Up to the miclcl]c of the njnth centuÍ,v, alI the prletrv <lfL r rq l:r rr cl was re corclecl in thc \.rthumbrian diale ct. But in those clavs, as'rtt\' ttttlnl< w.rlulc] tel] us, nothing was pefmanent, anC] the ninth centLlíV'', r tlr. t nri .f N'rrhumlrri:r as the h,rfirc .f lr';rrning rrrd rlri lrbran ol'l rl1'Ii1111]. The "Danes inr'adecl tr'nglancl (The BaÍt/e aJ' L\,Ia/tlon tel]s <li al 'rt tt'r í]ght against the Dane s) and sackecl Northumbria as thc Goths hacl'', l't', l R,'me. The m('ntsteriťs wefc lorrted. tht.precioU5 |'oo|<s u.e re

rr1'pctl ro picces for their rich ornements, the monks llecl or were'l'rLrghtr:recl. Now !íessex, the kingclom of A]fred tlrc Great, became .lllt,tll lla|'Ln,l's culrural cťntr(..

\\ lren \l|'red Came l(r ťhc thr, lnc rlf \X csst r he was nrrt happr ahrlutrlr. statc of le:rrning hc found there._ (There is a r.erv intc:r:esttng lctter her,i lote rbout this to one of his bisl-rops.) But rhen w-as no time lbr im1' r ,lv itlg it: the Danes wcre savaging the countÍV and Alfre c]'s task v'as to.r'1'1111iss armies ancl beat back the inr.acler. In 8;8, whcn it lookccl astlrorrsh thc Danes woulcl bccome masters of England, {lircd defcetedtlrt'lrl in a series of de cisive batt]es and thcn macle 2 tÍeatv which conline clr lrcir rulc to the north.[iov', in a pcaceful kingdom, hc began to improvcÍl)(' State <lf education, ftlunding colleges, importing teachers irtlmLrrrope, translating Latin books into VTest Saron (or \ii/essex) I,)nglish,I'r cserving the wcalth of vcrse which had le l.t its olcl home in NorthumI'ri:r. So now the dialcct of F)nglish culture became e southern one.

r\lfrccl is en importent figurc in the historv of L,nglish literature. He\\ is not an artist (that is, he wrote no poclTls, clrama, or stories), but hel.ncw how to writc_good clcar prose. A1so, rvith helpers, he translzrteclrrrrr,'lr l.arin int,r English tincluding the |-.rr/,:iar/ir,t/ Hi.rtat-y,,f rht.Vcncr-rlrlc Becie), ancl sr> showecl writers of English how ro hanclie foreignr,ltrrs. English hacl been mostly concernccl with shccr d,:scription: now itl r'rtl trl learn how to express ahstracÍions. And also, becausc cifhis concernl, )r.(iclucation ancl books,rAlfred ma1, be saicl to har.'e established the c<>n-l]Íltl()us cultural tradition of Englan_d, despite the |tlreign invasiclnsu lrich were still to comc.

lior much of the later history of r\nglo-Saxon timcs we zrte indebtecl tr>

rvlr:rt is known as the A4g/r2 f.qxp-ry-Qllrqnick a rccord of the main hapl)( !rings of the country, k_ep_t b1. mgnks i4 sgrlcn successive monasteries,

l'.ry/r,/r l .//t t,////1,

:ttttl ctlve ring the period- fromÉhe.middle of the ninth centuty to r r 5.ul,\wlr.'rr l lt'nry_l l crmt'to thr'thronc' This is the first hi5toÍ\ 'f a Germln-ic|t.l'rlr', in some wa)s rhe firsr newTiiaper, cerrainlr rhe most sr,lid antlintcrcsting piece of ()1c1 English pÍose we possesyAncl in it we see ()1c]Iinglish moving steaclily r.wards Middle Engtisir, that transitionar ranguage which is slowly t. develop into the rongue of our own age.

( )ur bricf story ends at the clc-rse of the-firsr thousand reers ,lí the(lhristian era. Ir ends with the impassioned prose of an Archbishop of|<lr]<,'

!(/ulf9la:l cÍying out thatLthe end of the wor1d is coming, theAnti (lhrist is here*:-!Repent, for the day of the Lord is at hanci.iAndindeccl it wasqlhe end, not of the world but of Angio,saxon EnglanfuTheP3ne; o.yer-"ran the u/hole country and, after only a brief morn",rt ot i".1.-pcndcnce' the Anglo-Sa\ons were to know an even greateÍ servituc]e . ln

i to"(líi 1]]e!sÍrnans came ovef to make E'ngland theirs' to change the o]du a\','í lile and also the langu:rgc.1 Heav1'-footed { )ld English rias ro be-c,)me through its mingling wTih a lighrer, brighter rongue Fromsunnier lands-the richest ancl most various literarl. me dium in ihe wholer;f history-.-\

4. The Coning of the I ormdns

Norman'means'North-man'. Thc Normans werc, in fact, of the samelrloocl as the Danes, but thc,v had thoroughly absorbed the culture of thel;rtr' l{oman Empire, had been long C-hristianised, ancl spoke that offshoot, rl' l,atin we call Norman French. Thus their kingdom in France had a

r cry clifferent set of traditions from those of the country they conquered.You ma1. sum it up b,v sa,ving that the Norman wav of 1ifu lookedgouthr1)warcls the Medite rranean, towarcls the sun, towarcls wine and laught95lr,hile the Anglo Saxon way cif life looked towards thelgre,v northerns( 1ls grim, heavy, melancholy, humourles-s;

Not that the conquering Normans were irresponsible or ineffrcient(<1u:rlitics which, wrongly, people often associate with the southernrrrccs). \X/illiap. -t!9_

po"lggetor made a thorough job of taking over ther or.rntrf, and,!-rad er.'er).t!$"*3:1y;-t1gg|q_rlSd down to the number,rl'tleer in the forests, so it was said and this inventorv carried theIrrshtening name of pqngs-d-+y'_P.,o^-o--k-.r Solt-he first piece of Normanu,riting in England is a,cat41,o-gue of tl,rg -k!ng's Propgrty, for \X/illiam sawlr irnsclf as the owner of the countrv. He owne d the land and eve rythingi n it, but 9.4419{ land to the nobles who had helpe d him achieve his con,1rrcst, and so set up that feudal-sy-s-te-m-which was to transform Englishlili'. Feudalism may be thought of as a sort of pyramid, with the king attlrc apex and societv ranged below him in lower and lower degrees ofr',rnk jtill at the base yo,, have the humblest order of men, tied to r orking ,./,

,,rr the land, men with few rights. Few rights, but yet rights, for one of ,

t I rc characteristics of feudalism was- r-egppnsibility: working tvro,\ /aysrrlr rrnd d_ory4., The barons were responsible to the king, but the king hadlris responsibilities towards them, and so on down to the base of the

lrr ramid.With the coming of the Normans, theiÍ 1aws, their castles, their know'

l,,l{re of the art of rar,-the Ang-lo Salons q4-!k.ta 4p,,99it194--ql3!-ks*tLe-s9,,/1rvhich killed their culture and qa{9 their language a despisecl thing. Old ;lirlglish liteiature dies 1though in the monari..i., ihě' Anglo-'Saxon

2J ,'/s i ., *' t - ,, a, t.l

,4 t" P,a rt Y

Doruesda1, Book .i

i ''' j Á .

t,, l

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