A short course in literature, English and American. By John S. Hart ...

Front matter

Class _l_liMl

Book. .H37

GcpightU?

Preface

rriHE present volume is in the main an abridgment -^ of two larger works by the same author, one on English Literature, the other on American Literature. In many schools, it is found impracticable to devote to the subject of Literature the amount of time needed to master the two volumes named, and yet it is thought best not to omit the study altogether. For the accommodation of such schools tliis compend has been prepared. In using it, great advantage will arise from having copies of the larger works accessible to the scholars, as well as to the teachers, for the purpose of reference.

GONT ENTS

Part I. ENGLISH LITERATURE

PAGE

INTRODUCTION, 17

CHAPTER I. English before Chaucer

The Brut of Layamon, ......... 19

The Ancren Riwle, Robert of Gloucester, . . . . . .21

Robert of Brunne, Metrical Romance, . • . . . . . 22

CHAPTER 11.

Chaucer and his Contemporaries.

Gower, Piers Plowman, ........ 25

Wyckliffe, . 26

Chapter VI

The English Bible and other Public Standards of Faith and Worship.

I. The EN'GLtsii BinLE.

1. Wyckliffe's Version; 2. Tyndale's Version, . . . .54

3. Coveidale's Version; 4. INLitthow's Version ; 5. The Great Bible, . 55

CONTEI^TS. Vll

PAGE

6. The Geneva Tersion ; 7. The Bishops' Bible, . ... 56

8. The Rheims-Douay Version, . . . . . .57

9. King James's Yeislon, ....... 58

II. The English Prayer Book, ....... 58

III. The Shorter Catechism, . . , . . . . 60

IV. English Hymnody.

Sternhold and Hopkins, Tate and Brady, Rouse's Psalms, . .61

Watts's Psalms and Uymns, Wesleyan Hymns, .... 62

Successors to Watts and Wesley, . . . . . .62

CHAPTER XII. Sir Walter Scott and* his Contemporaries

SECTION L — The Poets.

Keats, Kirke, White, 141

Campbell, Rogers, ......... 142

Elizabeth Landon, Crabbe, , . . . . . . . 146

Heber, Hogg, Bloomfield, . . . . . . . .147

SECTION II. -The Novelists.

Sir Walter Scott 148

Maria Edgeworth, ......... 150

Miss Austen, Jane Porter, Lady Blessington, ...... 151

SECTION III. — Reviewers and Political Writers.

GifTord, Mackintosh, ]52

llazlitt. Canning, Cobbelt, ........ 15o

CONTENTS. XI

SECTION IV. — Philosophical and Scientific.

PAGE

Dugald Stewart, ......... 154

Brown, Abercrombie, Djmond, Bentham, ...... 155

Matthews, Ricardo, . . . . . . . . ^ . 156

SECTION I. — The Poets. Robert and Elizabeth Browning, ....... 183

Barry Cornwall, Adelaide Procter, P. J. Bailey, Aytoun, . . . .185

Bonar, Bickersteth, Charlotte Elliott, Jean Ingelow, Morris, . . . 186

SECTION IL — The Novelists.

Disraeli— Father and Son, ........ 191

Trollope — Mother and Sons, ........ 192

Charles Reade, Mayne Reid, ........ 193

Kingsley, Hughes, Lever, ........ 194

Lover, Warren, James, ........ 195

Collins, " George Eliot," Mrs. Gaskill, Miss Mulock, Miss Yonge, . . .196

AMERICAN LITERATURE.

CHAPTER I. The Early Colonial Period

Whitaker's Good Newes, Sandys's Ovid, ....

Vaughan's Golden Fleece, Wood's New England's Prospect, First Printing Press, Bay Psalm Book, John Cotton, T. Shepard, . Roger Williams, Eliot, Anne Bradstreet, .... Richard Mather, Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, . President Blair, Col. W. Byrd, J. Logan, T. Chalkley, . J. Woolman, C. Colden, S. Johnson, President Clap, . Presidents Dickinson, Burr, Edwards, and Davies,

CHAPTER 11.

The Revolutionary Period.

Franklin, Washington, John Adams, ...... 228

Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Jay, ....... 229

Witherspoon, F. Hopkinson, Brackenridge, ..... 230

Trumbull, Barlow, Dwight, Ames, ....... 231

XIV CONTENTS.

Ilalleck, Dana, Plerpout, Percival, J. H. Payne, Sprague, . . . .238

Mrs. Osgood, Hannah F. Gould, Mrs. Shindler, ..... 239

SECTION II. — Novelists, etc

Miss Sedgwick, Miss Mcintosh, J. P. Kennedy, . . . . . 240

Paulding, Sanderson, J. C. Neal, J. Neal, . . . . ' . .241

Hoffman, Willis, Morris, Miss Leslie, ...... 242

Mrs. Kirkland, Mrs. Child, Mrs. Judson, Mrs. Haven, .... 243

SECTION VII. —Theological V^^riters. Archibald Alexander, ......... 253

James and Addison Alexander, ....... 254

CONTENTS. XV

PAGE

Miller, Barnes, Breckinridge, . . . . . . . . 256

Cox, Thormvell, Sprague, J. Jones, L. Beecher, . . ' . . . 257

Moses Stuart, Ed. Robinson, Upham, Bethune, Channing, .... 258

Fnrness, Parker, Potter, Doane, Turner, ...... 2C9

Wayland, Alexander Campbell, ....... 260

SECTION VII. — Novelists. Hawthorne, Winthrop, ......... 288

Thoreau, Dana, Mitchell, Kimball, Gilmore, Simms, .... 289

J. E. and Ph. P. Cooke, Bird, Peterson, Melville, . . . . .290

Arthur, Adams, J. Abbott, . . ...... 291

J. S. C. Abbott, Stowe, Warners, . . . . . . .292

Ritchie, Lippincott, Spofford, Alcott, Dickinson, Smith, .... 293

Chesebro, Holmes, Terhune, Wilson, Lee, Whitney, ..... 294

Maury, Steele, E. Brooks, Whitney, Bledsoe, . . . , .300

Chase, Stuart, N. C. Brooks, McGuffey, Newell, Creery, . . ,301

SECTION XI. — Theological. McCosh, Porter, Boardman

Jacobus, Shedd, Cuyler, Lewis, .....

Plumcr, Smyth, Scott, .....

Krauth, SchafT, Beecher, Chadbourne, Peabody,

Hackctt, Samson, Eddy, McClintock,

Stevens, Wliedon, Challen, Milligan, Mcllvainc, Odeuheinier,

Stone, Tyng, Ken rick, .....

Spalding, Bayley, Hughes, England, Brownson,

. 203 304

. 305 306

. 307 308

Part L

Knglish Literature.

Introduction

English Literature, strictly speaking, does not mean the literature of England.

There have been in England several successive races, each having a literature of its own. The old Celts, still represented by the Welsh in the west of England, had a literature, rather extensive too, which is no more English than the Hebrew is. The Anglo-Saxons, through a period of several centuries, culminating in the time of Alfred the Great, had a literature, some of it of a high order. This, though nearer to the English than any of the others are, though indeed the parent of the English, is not itself English ; it is Anglo-Saxon. The Normans, who settled in England in the twelfth century, brought with them a noble literature. But it was Norman-French, not English. The ecclesiastics of the English Church, from the second century, possibly from the first, down to the time of the Eeformation, and even a little later, had among them a literature of their own, which is very copious, and some of it of a high order. But it is Church-Latin, not English.

A literature is named, not from the soil on which it thrives, but from the language in which it is written. As Latin literature is that written in the Latin language, as Greek literature is that written in the Greek language, so

English Literature is that written in the English language.

What it Includes. — It includes works written by Americans, as "well as those written by Englishmen. It includes the works even of foreigners, provided those works are v/ritten in the English language.

How Divided. — For convenience of treatment, however, the subject is divided into two parts. The works in English written in England and its dependencies are considered under the head of English Literature ; the works in English written in the United States are considered under the head of American Literature.

Point of Beginning. — To fix a precise point when English Literature may be said to have begun, we must first ascertain how far back the English Language goes.

Beginning of the Language. — In one sense. Language, being in a constant state of transition, has no beginning — none, that is, which may be traced to some precise point in historical times. And yet, if we follow any language Ixoni its present condition back through successive changes, we find, after a while, that the documents which api)ear in it are no longer intelligible to ordinary readers. The stream is lost. We are obliged, therefore, for convenience of treatment, to assume a point, somewhat arbitrarily, where each language, in its present form, may be said to begin. Happily, in the case of the English language, historical events have defined this point more sharply than is the case with most languages. The Saxons in England maintained their language comparatively unimpaired until the coming of the Normans, a. d. 1066. For one or two centuries after the coming of the Normans, a sharp conflict took place, not only between the two races, but also between the two languages. The final result was a mixed jace and a mixed language — predominantly Saxon, but with a large Norman element.

The mixed language resulting from the Conquest, neither pure Saxon, such as Alfred spoke and wrote, still less pure Norman-French, such as William and his barons spoke, is our English.

The Precise Point. — In a change so gradual and continuous as that of the transition of a language from its ancient form to its modern form, it is not easy, as already stated, to fix a precise point where the language ceases to be one, and becomes clearly the other. But, in the case of the English,

The date, A. d. 1200, may be assumed as a convenient dividing line between the old language and the new.

Documents written much earlier than that are either Anglo-Saxon or Norman-French, according to the birth and the proclivities of the writer ; documents later than that, become soon unmistakably English.

CHAPTER I. Enqlish before Chaucer

Eecognizing- the language as being English from and after the beginning of the thirteenth century, the first author in chronological order that claims attention is a Chronicler by the name of Layamon.

The Brut of Layamon.

The work of Layamon is called Brut, or more fully, Brutus of England. It is a chronicle of British affairs, from the arrival of Brutus, an imaginary son of ^neas of Troy, to the death of King Cadwalader, A. D. 689.

Origin of the Legend. — Among the old Britons there had grown up a most extraordinary mass of legends in regard to the early history of the race. Tlie great object of patriotic ambition with them seemed to be to trace the origin of their race back to ancient Troy. This floating mass of traditionary legends had been collected by some Celtic hand, and woven, with all possible gravity, into a formal history of Britain, tracing its line of monarchs back, in regular succession, to Brutus, an imaginary son of ^neas of Troy. Brutus settled in Britain, as ^ueas did in Italy. Such was the tradition.

Geoifrey of Monmouth, — An English monk, Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated into Latin this Welsh Chronicle, now lost. Geoffrey called his book Historia Britonum, A History of the Britons. As history it is worthless. It forms, however, an important link in the history of English literature, the materials of a large number of the earliest works that exist, both in English and in Norman-French, having been drawn from this crude mass of fictions, misnamed history.

Layamon' s Chronicle. — Layamon's Chronicle, Brutus of England, is in the main a translation of a Chronicle of the same name, "Brut d'Angleterre," by Wace, a Norman-French poet, who took the story from Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Of Layamon himself we know nothing, except what he himself tells us, which is very little. He tells us that he was a priest,. and that he resided at Ernley, near Eedstone, in Worcestershire ; and he seems to say that he was employed there in the services of the church.

Date of the Chronicle. — The composition of the Chronicle, Brutus of England, has, from internal evidence, been assigned to the beginning of the thirteenth century, — not later, probably, than the year 1205.

Versification of the Chronicle. — The French Chronicle which Layamon followed was in eight-syllable rhyming couplets. Layamon's Brutus sometimes rhymes ; as,

— Kinges — theines — velde

— thinges — sweines — scelde.

Occasionally also it runs into regular octo-syllabics ; as,

On the whole, it would seem that Layamon, for his versification, either followed some system of his own, dependent upon artifices which, at this distance, we cannot appreciate, — which, at any rate, we haye not yet discovered, — or, which is probable, that he had no system of verse, but simply. broke up his matter into short lines, like the original which he was translating, and that in so doing, he occasionally adopted both its metre and its rhyme.

Linguistic Value of the Chronicle. — The Linguistic value of Layamon's Brutus is very great. The Chronicle is considerable in amount, numbering 32,250 lines ; and it sh^ws us the condition of the language in that interesting and curious transition stage, about midway between the ]3ure old Saxon and the established modern English.

The Ormulum.

The Ormulum is so called from its author, Orm, as he liimself says, in the opening couplet :

^ This boo is nemmed Ormulum, Forthy that Orm it wrote.

Subject of the Ormulum. — The Ormulum is a series of Homilies, the subjects of the homilies being those portions of the New Testament appointed to be read in the daily mass service of the church.

Date of the Ormulum. — The Ormulum was written somewhere in the early part of the thirteenth century, a little later than the Brutus of Layamon, perhaps about the year 1 220.

ENGLISH BEFORE CHAUCER. 21

Diction of the Ormulum. — The Ormulum, like the Brutus of Layaraon, has almost no Norman-French words. It shows the language in that state in which the old Saxon inflections are nearly gone, the grammatical structure being almost identical with modern English, but foreign words have not yet begun to intrude themselves.

Versification of the Ormulum. — The verse, in the Ormulum, does not rhyme, but it is metrical throughout, and consists of couplets, arranged in lines alternately of eight syllables and seven syllables. Thus:

I Now brothler Waltier, broth |er min, — |\After I the flesh|es kind|e.

It is a peculiar and not unpleasing form of blank verse.

The Aneren Ri^Arle.

The title, Aneren Biwle, means " Anchoresses' Eule," — Aneren being the abbreviated form of the old genitive " Ancrena," and Biwle being the old spelling for '' Eule."

Object of the Work. — The Aneren Eiwle is a treatise on the duties of the monastic life, written by an ecclesiastic, apparently one in high authority, for the direction of three ladies, to whom it is addressed, and who, with their domestic servants, or lay sisters, formed the entire community of a religious house.

Date of the Work. — The composition of the Aneren Eiwle is referred to the same date as the Ormulum, possibly a little later. The year 1225 is given as a probable conjecture. It is interesting as an extended specimen of prose of the same period with the two poetical works already noticed.

Robert of Gloucester.

At the distance of nearly a century from Layamon, is a rhyming Chronicler, Eobert of Gloucester. All we know of him is that he was a monk of Gloucester Abbey, and. as he alludes to events which occurred in 1297, he must have written, or at least finished, his Chronicle after that date. '^

Subject. — Eobert of Gloucester's Chronicle is a versified history of British affairs, from the imaginary Brutus of Troy down to the death of Henry III., A.d. 1272.

Its Versification. — This Chronicle is written for the most part in Alexandrine metre, or iambic twelve-syllable rhyming couplets.

Its Diction. — The language shows great advance from the documents previously described, and requires almost no change to be intelligible to the modern reader.

Robert of Brunne.

At the distance of nearly half a century from Eobert of Gloucester, is Robert Manning, generally called, from his birthplace, Eobert of Brunne. His Chronicle was finished in the year 1338.

Further Particulars. — Eobert of Brunne' s Chronicle gives a rhyming history of England from Brutus of Troy down to the death of Edward I., A. D. 1307. The first part, from Brutus to Cadwalader, A. d. 689, is a translation of Wace's Brutus, and is, like it, in eight-syllable rhyming couplets. The remaining portion is a translation from a contemporary Norman-French chronicle, and is, like the original, in Alexandrian, or twelve-syllable rhyming couplets. It shows some advance, both in language and in poetical merit, upon its predecessors.

Metrical Romance.

The essential feature of the Metrical Eomance was a tale of love and adventure, told in verse.

Origin of the Romance. — Metrical romances were first brought into England by the Normans. Works of this kind were immensely popular, both in France and England. At length, when the governing race in England began to use the language of their adopted country, similar romances in English were composed for their amusement. These were imitations or translations from the Norman-French, and so little did the translators contribute to them of their own invention, that the names even of the authors have not come down to us.

Period of the Metrical Romance. — The Metrical Eomance began as early as a.d. 1200, about the time of Layamon's Brutus. It flourished to some extent during the thirteenth century, but the time of its greatest ascendency was in the fourteenth. After A. d. 1400, it began to wane, and finally it gave way to the prose romance, and then disappeared altogether for more than three hundred years, when it was for a time quickened into new life, though in a difierent form, by Sir Waker Scott,

The Most Celebrated. — The names of some of the most celebrated of these Eonianees are Sir Tristram, King Horn, Sir Havelock, Sir Guy, The Scpiire of Low Degree, King Eobert of Sicily, King Alisander, The. King of Tars, The Death of Arthur, The Soudan of Damascus, etc.

CHAPTER 11.

Chaucer and his Contemporaries.

(1330-1400.)

The fourteentli centuiy is celebrated in English annals by tlie long and successful reign of Edward III., and by the military glories of his son, Edward the Black Prince, achieved in the famous battles of Crecy and Poitiers, in France.

Civil and Religious Discontents. — Before the close of the century, also, serious di^^contents arose among the common people on account of the oppressions of the government, and the first distinct protest was uttered against the irregularities of the religious orders. In regard both to civil and religious liberty, there was a noteworthy struggle, and many of the reforms in both, which took effect two centuries later, are distinctly traceable to the elforts put forth, and the opinions expressed, in this stirring period.

Writers of the Period. — The fourteenth century has a few names of note in the history of English literature. These are Chaucer, Gower, Piers Plowman, Wyckliffe, and Sir .John Mandeville.

Chaucer.

Geoffrey Chaucer, 1328-1400, is our first great poet, — so incomparably great, as to all that went before, that he is distinctively called the Father of English Poetry.

Personal History. — The personal history of Chaucer is involved in no little obscurity. Neither the place nor the date of his birth is certainly known, though an early traditi(m asserts that he was born in London, and the probabilities are in favor of the commonly received date of 1328, as that of his birth. His writhigs give abundant proof that he was liberally educated, and both the great Universities claim him. Even on this point, however, there is no certainty, though there is a fair probability in the conjecture that, according to a custorn much prevalent at that time, he began his studies in one University and finished them in the other, as there is also in the supposition that lie spent some time in study abroad at the University of Paris.

Social Position. — Chaucer evidently belonged to a good family, and his connections through life were with people of rank and quality. He lived in stirring times, being contemporary with Wyckliffe, John of Gaunt, the great Duke of Lancaster, Edward III., the invader of France, and his son the Black Prince, the hero of Crecy and Poitiers. Chaucer was himself in the army that invaded France, and was taken prisoner. He held at different times various offices of honor and emolument, and the few authentic records of him that we have show that he was on terms of intimacy with the highest nobility in the kingdom.

Marriage. — Chaucer was by marriage closely connected with John of Gaunt, who was, for a long time, second only to the King himself, and whose son, Henry of Bolingbroke, during Chaucer's life, succeeded to the throne under the title of Henry IV. Chaucer's wife was maid of honor to the Queen, and Chaucer himself was valet to the King.

Political and Eeligious Affinities. — Chaucer's writings show him to have been in sympathy with Wyckliffe and the Lancastrians, in their resistance to the encroachments of the Roman hierarchy. He does not indeed enter into the political and religious questions of the time as a disputant, but the sketches of character which he gives show plainly enough where his sympathies lie. Those who are painted as models of excellence, like the Good Parson, belong to the national party in the ecclesiastical hierarchy ; while those who are held up to ridicule, like the Friar and the Sumpnour, belong to the class whose ecclesiastical connection was with Pome rather than with England.

Chaucer's principal work, The Canterbury Tales, is believed to have been written late in life, after the age of sixty, though it is probable that one at least of the Tales, and that the longest one in the collection, had been written earlier as a separate performance.

Plan of the Work. — According to the plot^ of this celebrated work, the poet represents himself as bent on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Tlioraas a Becket, at Canterbury. At the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, he meets with nine-and-twenty other pilgrims, all bound on the* same errand. To beguile the tedium of the way, they agree that each shall tell a tale, both going and returning. • Hence the name, " The Canterbury Tales."

Structure of the Work. — In his Prologue, which is itself no inconsiderable poem, Chaucer describes each of his fellow travellers, and in

CHAUCER AND HIS COE"TEMPOE ARIES. 25

these descriptions has given a series of portraits that are unequalled of their kind in English literature. . In the art of word-painting, these portraits have never heen surpassed. They constitute a picture gallery, of which the great English race may well be proud, as a monument of art which can never decay, and which can never be stolen by Vandal invaders. The gay cavalcade having set out, the narration of the tales is interspersed with amusing incidents of the journey. Each tale is in keeping with the supposed character of the narrator ; and as each is taken from some walk in life different from the others, the whole together form a moving panorama of life and manners in the fourteenth century. Probably of no country in the world, except perhaps Arabia and Palestine in the time of the Patriarchs, have we such a lively picture as Chaucer, in the Canterbury Tales, has given us of the England of Wyckliffe and Edward III.

Gower.

John Gower, 1320 (?)-1408, the contemporary and friend of Chaucer, was not equal to the latter in genius, or in the influence which he exerted on English literature. He was far, however, from lacking •either genius or influence, and his name is constantly coupled with that of Chaucer in all the earlier authors or writers who have written of either.

Rank as a Poet. — The term "moral," applied to him originally by Chaucer, has stuck to Gower ever since, and is supposed to convey the idea that he was more concerned for the moral correctness of his writings than for their elegance or taste. Certain it is, that he lacks those qualities of imagination, fancy, and humor, which mark so strongly his great contemporary.

Besides some smaller poems, Gower wrote three large works. Speculum Meditantis (The Mirror of Meditation), in French ; Vox Clamantis (The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness), in Latin ; and Confessio Amantis (The Confessions of a Lover), in English.

Confossio Amantis. — This, being in English, is the work by which Gower is chiefly known. It is of immoderate length, — extending to more than 30,000 lines. It was once much read, though few would now undertake so formidable a task.

Piers Plo^A^man.

Another work of great celebrity and value, belonging to this period of our literary history, is one commonly known as Pier,s Plowman. It 3 was completed about the same time as The Canterbury Tales, but is in many respects in striking contrast with that great work.

Piers Plowman is an allegorical and satirical poem, in the form of a series of visions, or dissolving views, in which the various characters and occupations of men pass under review.

The Name. — So little is known of the author of this work, that in referring to it, or quoting from it, writers more frequently speak of Piers Plowman, which is the name commonly given to the poem, than of Langland, which was probably the name of the author. The full and proper title of this work is, The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman.

History of the Author. — William Langland, the author of Piers Plowman, appears to have been born about 1332, and to have died about the year 1400. He was born in moderate circumstances, but was sent to school, and acquired some knowledge of books. He was not, however, an accomplished scholar, like Chaucer and Wyckliffe, nor did he move like them in the higher circles of social life. He saw life rather among the poor and lowly, and is to be accepted as the true interpreter of their thoughts and feelings.

Form of the Poem. — The old Saxon poetry had a form peculiar to itself. It was neither metrical, like the classic poetry, nor rhyming, like the modern, but was distinguished by a peculiar consonantal alliteration. The lines had no fixed length, but had usually about fourteen syllables, and were divided into two distinct parts about the end of the eighth syllable ; and the words were so selected and arranged that at least two leading words in the first section, and at least one word in the second section, began with the same letter. Thus : Ac now is religion a rider, || a roaraer about, A deader of ^ove-days, || and a ^ond-buyer.

Sometimes printed thus :

Ac now is religion a rider,

A reamer about,

A deader of /ove-days,

And a Zond-buyer.

But in the old manuscript copies, it is always found written in the long lines, with a mark of some kind to show the division into sections.

Wyckliffe.

Jolm Wyckliffe, 1324-1384, known among Protestants as "The Morning Star of the Reformation," may almost be styled also the Father of English Prose, as his contemporary, Chaucer, is the Father

CHAUCEE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. 27

of English Poetry. Wyckliffe was at least one of the earliest writers who in plain and vigorous prose addressed the common people in words familiar to the hearths and homes of England.

Wyckliffe wrote many treatises : some learned, addressed to scholars and the higher orders, and some in homely phrase, addressed to the common people. But his chief literary work was A Translation of the Holy Bible.

The First English Version. — Separate portions of the Holy Scriptures had been translated into English before this time. But Wyckliffe' s was the first translation of the whole Bible into English. It was completed in 1382, and revised in 1388.

Character of the Version. — Wyckliffe's translation was made directly from the Latin Vulgate, not from the original Hebrew and Greek. It is extremely literal, and is marked by great homeliness of style, studiously avoiding the language of scholars and of courtly people.

Influence. — Wyckliffe's Version was much used in his own day, and for ^ some generations following, and it had great influence both upon English speech and religious opinions. Moreover, the movement which it inaugurated led finally, in a later day, to the formation of the Version now in common use.

Mandeville.

Sir John Mandeville, 1300-1372, is the earliest notable instance of the genuine English Traveller, " The Bruce of the fourteenth century."

His Travels. — Mandeville left home at the age of twenty-seven, and travelled for thirty-four years, going first to Jerusalem, and then on eastward into the remotest parts of Asia. On returning, he wrote a book describing some of the marvellous things that he had seen.

His Book. — This book of Voyage and Travel was written by him at first in Latin, then in French, then in English. It was translated into Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and German. Books of travel were not so common then as they are now, and this work of Mandeville's, giving an account by an eye-witness of remote regions and nations, the very existence of which was almost unknown among the people of Europe, was read with the greatest avidity. With the credulity of the age, he embodied in his work every grandam tale that came in his way ; yet, on the whole, he is worthy of credit when describing what came under his own observation. It is not uncommon to find him in one page giving a sensible account of something which he saw, and in the next repeating with equal seriousness the story of Gog and Magog, and of men with tails, or the account of the Madagascar bird which could carry elephants through the air. The work is interesting as one of the earliest specimens of English prose.

CHAPTER III. Early Scotch Poets

Feom the time of Chaucer, for a period of nearly two centuries, the succession of minstrels and poets seems to have been limited to the northern part of the island, nearly all the poetical writers of any note in this period being Scotchmen.

These early Scotch poets are Barbour, Wyntoun, James I. of Scotland, Blind Harry, Henryson, Dunbar, Gawin Douglas, and Lindsay.

Barbour.

John Barbour, 1320 (?)-1396, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, and a contemporary of Chaucer's, was a poet of considerable note.

Barbour wrote two extended poems, The Brute, a metrical chronicle, tracing the Scottish kings back to Brutus of Troy, and llie Bruce, recounting the warlike deeds of the Scottish hero, Bobert Bruce.

-Character of The Bruce. — Barbour calls The Bruce a Eomaunt. By this we are not to understand that the work is a fiction, but that the deeds of the hero are in themselves romantic. Barbour's work, though in verse, is an important historical document, being a metrical chronicle of the great Scottish hero, written soon after his death, and while the facts were still fresh in the minds of all. It is indeed a complete history of the memorable transactions by which Eobert I. asserted the independence of Scotland ; at the same time, it has no little of poetic fire and of rhythmical harmony. The poem consists of more than 12,500 lines, of which more than 2,000 are occupied with the battle of Bannockburn.