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And in his almus he sew1 sylver
Till all pure folk that had myster:"
And all tyme oysyd3 he to wyrk
Profitably for haly kyrke.

St Serf and Satan.*

While St Serf, intil a stead,
Lay after matins in his bed,
The devil came, in foul intent
For til found him with argument,
And said: 'St Serf, by thy werk
I ken thou art a cunning clerk.'
St Serf said: 'Gif I sae be,
Foul wretch, what is that for thee?'
The devil said: "This questión
I ask in our collatión-

Say where was God, wit ye oucht,
Before that heaven and erd was wroucht?'
St Serf said: 'In himself steadless

His Godhead hampered never was.'

·

The devil then askit: What cause he had
To make the creatures that he made?'

To that St Serf answered there :

'Of creatures made he was makér.

A maker micht he never be,

But gif creatures made had he.'

The devil askit him: 'Why God of noucht
His werkis all full gude had wroucht?'
St Serf answered: That Goddis will
Was never to make his werkis ill,
And as envious he had been seen,
Gif nought but he full gude had been.'
St Serf the devil askit than :

'Where God made Adam, the first man?'
'In Ebron Adam formit was,'

St Serf said. And till him Sathanas:
'Where was he, eft that, for his vice,
He was put out of Paradise?'

St Serf said: 'Where he was made.'
The devil askit: How lang he bade
In Paradise, after his sin?'

'Seven hours,' Serf said, 'bade be therein.'
'When was Eve made?' said Sathanas.
'In Paradise,' Serf said, 'she was.' ...
The devil askit: 'Why that ye
Men are quite delivered free,

Through Christ's passion precious boucht,
And we devils sae are noucht?'

St Serf said: 'For that ye

Fell through your awn iniquity;
And through ourselves we never fell,
But through your fellon false counsell.'
Then saw the devil that he could noucht,
With all the wiles that he wrought,
Overcome St Serf. He said than
He kenned him for a wise man.
Forthy there he gave him quit,
For he wan at him na profit.

While Wyntoun was inditing his legendary chronicle in the priory at Lochleven, a secular priest, JOHN FORDUN, canon of Aberdeen cathedral, was gathering and recording the annals of Scotland in Latin. Fordun brought his history, Scotichronicon, down to the death of David I. in 1153, but had collected materials extending to the year 1385, about which time he is supposed to have died. His history was then taken up and continued to the death of James I. (1437) by WALTER BOWER or BOWMAKER, abbot of the monastery of St Colm, in the Firth of Forth.

1 Scattered, distributed. Used. *St Serf lived in the sixth century, and was the founder of the monastery of which the author was prior. The spelling of the above extract is modernised.

2 From the Danish mister, to want.

PROSE LITERATURE.

SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE.

The translations of King Alfred, the Saxon Chronicle, Saxon laws, charters, and ecclesiastical histories, more or less tinctured with the NormanFrench, are our earliest prose compositions. The first English book was SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE'S Travels, written in 1356. Mandeville was born at St Albans in the year 1300, and received the liberal education requisite for the profession of medicine. During the thirty-four years previous to 1356, he travelled in Eastern countries (where he appears to have been received with great kindness); and on his return to England, wrote an account of all he had seen, mixed with innumerable fables, derived from preceding historians and romancers, as well as from hearsay. His book was originally written in Latin, then translated into French, and finally into English, 'that every man of my nacioun may undirstonde it.' The following extract, in the original spelling, is from the edition of 1839, edited by J. O. Halliwell:

The Beginning of Mohammed.

And yee schull understonde, that Machamote was born in Arabye, that was first a pore knave, that kepte cameles, that wenten with marchantes for marchandise; and so befelle that he wente with the marchantes in to Egipt and thei weren thanne cristene, in tho partyes. And at the deserts of Arabye he wente into a chapelle, where a eremyte duelte. And whan he entered into the chapelle, that was but a lytille and a low thing, and had but a lytyl dore and a low, than the entree began to wexe so gret, and so large, and so high, as though it hadde ben of a gret mynstre or the gate of a paleys. And this was the first myracle, the Sarazins seyn, that Machomete dide in his youthe. Aftre began he for to wexe wyse and ryche, and he was a gret astronomer.

In the following the spelling is simplified:

A Mohammedan's Lecture on Christian Vices. And therefore I shall tell you what the Soudan told me upon a day, in his chamber. He let voiden out of his chamber all manner of men, lords and other; for he would speak with me in counsel. And there he asked me how the Christian men governed 'em in our country. And I said [to] him: 'Right well, thonked be God.' And he said [to] me: 'Truly nay; for ye Christian men ne reckon right not how untruly to serve God. Ye should given ensample to the lewed people for to do well, and ye given 'em ensample to don evil. For the commons, upon festival days, when they shoulden go to church to serve God, then gon they to taverns, and ben there in gluttony all the day and all night, and eaten and drinken, as beasts that have no reason, and wit not when And therewithal they ben so proud, they have enow. that they knowen not how to ben clothed; now long, daggered, and in all manner guises. They shoulden ben now short, now strait, now large, now sworded, now simple, meek, and true, and full of alms-deed, as Jesu was, in whom they trow; but they ben all the contrary, and ever inclined to the evil, and to don evil. And they ben so covetous, that for a little silver they sellen 'eir daughters, 'eir sisters, and 'eir own wives, to putten 'em to lechery. And one withdraweth the wife of another; and none of 'em holdeth faith to another, but they defoulen 'eir law, that Jesu Christ betook 'em keep for lost all this lond that we holden. For 'eir sins here, 'eir salvation. And thus for 'eir sins, han [have] they hath God taken 'em in our honds, not only by strength

of ourself, but for 'eir sins. For we knowen well in very sooth, that when ye serve God, God will help you; and when he is with you, no man may be against you. And that know we well by our prophecies, that Christian men shall winnen this lond again out of our honds, when they serven God more devoutly. But as long as they ben of foul and unclean living (as they ben now), we have no dread of 'em in no kind; for here God will not helpen 'em in no wise.'

Christian men.

And then I asked him how he knew the state of And he answered me, that he knew all the state of the commons also by his messengers; that he sent to all londs, in manner as they were merchants of precious stones, of cloths of gold, and of other things, for to knowen the manner of every country amongs Christian men. And then he let clepe in all the lords that he made voiden first out of his chamber; and there he shewed me four that were great lords in the country, that tolden me of my country, and of many other Christian countries, as well as if they had been of the same country; and they spak French right well, and the Soudan also, whereof I had great marvel. Alas, that it is great slander to our faith and to our laws, when folk that ben withouten law shall reproven us, and undernemen us of our sins. And they that shoulden ben converted to Christ and to the law of Jesu, by our good example and by our acceptable life to God, ben through our wickedness and evil living, far fro us; and strangers fro the holy and very belief shall thus appellen us and holden us for wicked levirs and cursed. And truly they say sooth. For the Saracens ben good and faithful. For they keepen entirely the commandment of the holy book Alcoran, that God sent 'em by his messager, Mohammed; to the which as they sayen, St Gabriel, the

angel, oftentime told the will of God.

JOHN DE TREVISA.

In the year 1387, JOHN TREVISA, a native of Cornwall, but vicar of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, translated Higden's Polychronicon. He translated various other Latin works; and, it is said, finished a translation of the Bible (now lost), at the command of his patron, Lord Berkeley. The translation of Higden's Polychronicon, 'conteyning the berynges and dedes of many tymes,' was printed by Caxton in 1482. In this work, Trevisa (or Higden) says the Scots 'draw somewhat' after the speech of the Picts. Men of the east of England, he says, accorded more in speech with those of the west than the men of the south did with the north. Al the longage of the Northumbres, specialych at Yorke, ys so scharp, slyttinge, frotynge, unschape, that we Southeron men may that longage unnethe understond.'

JOHN WYCLIFFE.

JOHN DE WYCLIFFE, the distinguished ecclesiastical reformer and translator of the Bible, was a native of the parish of Wycliffe, near Richmond, in Yorkshire. He was born in 1324; studied at Oxford; and in 1361 obtained the living of Fylingham, in the diocese of Lincoln, and the mastership and wardenship of Baliol College. In 1365, he was transferred to the wardenship of Canterbury Hall-his predecessor, named Wodehall, being deposed; but the next archbishop, Langham, restored Wodehall, and Wycliffe appealing to the pope, the cause was decided against him. This personal matter may have sharpened his zeal against the papal supremacy and doctrines, which he had previously dissented from and begun to attack. His first writings were directed against

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the mendicant friars and the papal tribute; but having opened a course of theological lectures in Oxford-there being then no formal professor of divinity-he gave more steady and effectual expression to what were termed his heresies. The substance of his lectures he embodied in a Latin treatise, the Trialogus, which is directly opposed to the leading tenets of the Roman Catholic Church. Wycliffe, however, did not lose favour by this bold course. He was selected, in 1374, as one of a commission that met at Avignon with the papal envoys, to remonstrate against the power claimed by the pope over English benefices. Some concessions were made by the pope, and Wycliffe was rewarded by the crown with a prebend in Worcestershire, and the rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire-the latter being afterwards his chief residence. The heads of the church, however, soon got alarmed at the teaching and opinions of Wycliffe. He was several times cited for heresy, and though strenuously defended by the Duke of Lancaster, he was obliged to shut his theological class in the year 1381. Shortly previous to this, he had put forth decided views against the doctrine of transubstantiation. Thus cut off from public employment, Wycliffe retired to his rectory at Lutterworth, and there, besides writing a number of short treatises, he commenced the translation of the whole of the Scriptures. He was assisted by some disciples and learned friends in translating the Bible from the Latin Vulgate, and the completion of this great work is referred to the year 1383. Wycliffe died in 1384. The religious movement which he originated proceeded with accelerated force. Twenty years afterwards, the statute for burning heretics was passed; and in 1484, the bones of Wycliffe were dug up from the chancel of the church at Lutterworth, burned to ashes, and the ashes thrown into the river Swift. This brook,' says Fuller, the church historian, in a passage which brings quaintness to the borders of sublimity, 'hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean: and thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which is now dispersed all the world over.'

The writings of Wycliffe were voluminous and widely circulated, though unaided by the printingpress. His style is vigorous and searching, more homely than scholastic. He was what we would now call a thorough church-reformer. The best specimens of his English are to be found in his translation of the Bible, which materially aided in the development of the resources of the English language. A splendid edition of Wycliffe's Bible was printed at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1850, edited by the Rev. J. Forshall and Sir Frederick Madden.

Gospel of St Mark, Chapter I.*

I The bigynnynge of the gospel of Jhesu Crist, the sone of God.

2 As it is writun in Ysaie, the prophete, Lo! I send myn angel bifore thi face, that schal make thi weye redy

before thee.

the weye of the Lord, make ye his pathis rihtful. 3 The voyce of oon cryinge in desert, Make ye redy

4 Jhon was in desert baptisynge, and prechinge the baptym of penaunce, into remiscioun of synnes.

*The orthography is very irregular, the same word being often spelled two or three different ways in the same page.

5 And alle men of Jerusalem wenten out to him, and al the cuntree of Judee; and weren baptisid of him in the flood of Jordan, knowlechinge her synnes.

6 And John was clothid with heeris of camelis, and a girdil of skyn abowte his leendis; and he eet locusts, and hony of the wode, and prechide, seyinge:

7 A strengere than I schal come aftir me, of whom I knelinge am not worthi for to vndo, or vnbynde, the thwong of his schoon.

8 I have baptisid you in water; forsothe he shal baptise you in the Holy Goost.

9 And it is don in thoo dayes, Jhesus came fro Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptisid of Joon in Jordan. 10 And anoon he styinge vp of the water, sayth heuenes openyd, and the Holy Goost cummynge doun as a culuere, and dwellynge in hym.

11 And a voys is maad fro heuenes, thou art my sone loued, in thee I haue plesid.

12 And anon the Spirit puttide hym in to desert. 13 And he was in desert fourty dayes and fourty nightis, and was temptid of Sathanas, and was with beestis and angelis mynstriden to hym.

14 Forsothe aftir that Joon was taken, Jhesus came in to Galilee, prechinge the gospel of the kyngdam of God,

15 And seiynge, For tyme is fulfillid, and the kyngdam of God shal come niy; forthinke yee, or do yee penaunce, and bileue yee to the gospel.

16 And he passynge bisidis the see of Galilee, say Symont, and Andrew, his brother, sendynge nettis into the see; sothely thei weren fishers.

17 And Jhesus seide to hem, Come yee after me; I shal make you to be maad fishers of men.

18 And anoon the nettis forsaken, thei sueden hym. 19 And he gon forth thennes a litil, say James of Zebede, and Joon, his brother, and hem in the boot makynge nettis.

20 And anoon he clepide him; and Zebede, her fadir, left in the boot with hirid seruantis, their sueden hym. 21 And thei wenten forth in to Cafarnaum, and anoon in the sabotis he gon yn into the synagoge, taughte

them.

22 And thei wondreden on his techynge; sothely he was techynge hem, as hauynge power, and not as scribis. 23 And in the synagoge of hem was a man in an vnclene spirit, and he cried,

24 Seyinge, What to vs and to thee, thou Jhesu of Nazareth? haste thou cummen bifore the tyme for to destroie vs? Y woot thot thou art the holy of God.

25 And Jhesus thretenyde to hym, seyinge, Wexe dowmb, and go out of the man.

26 And the vnclene goost debrekynge hym, and cryinge with grete vois, wente awey fro hym.

27 And alle men wondriden, so that thei soughten togidre among hem, seyinge, What is this thinge? what is this newe techyng? for in power he comaundith to vnclene spirits, and thei obeyen to hym.

28 And the tale, or tything, of hym wente forth anoon in to al the cuntree of Galilee.

The Magnificat.

And Marye seyde: My soul magnifieth the Lord.
And my spiryt hath gladid in God myn helthe.
For he hath behulden the mekenesse of his hand-

mayden: for lo for this alle generatiouns schulen seye that I am blessid.

For he that is mighti hath don to me grete thingis, and his name is holy.

And his mercy is fro kyndrede into kyndredis to men that dreden him.

He hath made myght in his arm, he scatteride proude men with the thoughte of his herte.

He sette doun myghty men fro seete, and enhaunside meke men. He hath fulfillid hungry men with goodis, and he has left riche men voide.

He heuynge mynde of his mercy took up Israel his child.

As he hath spokun to oure fadris, to Abraham, and to his seed into worlds.

Of Wycliffe's earlier controversial works, the following on the mendicant friars is characteristic, the orthography being modernised :

The Mendicant Friars.

Friars been most perilous enemies to Holy Church and all our land, for they letten curates of their office, and spenden commonly and needless sixty thousand mark by year that they robben falsely of the poor people. For, if curates didden their office in good life and true preaching as they been holden upon pain of damning in hell, there were clerks enough of bishops, parsons and other priests; and, in ease, over money to the people. And yet two hundred year agone, there was no friar; and then was our land more plenteous of cattle and men, and they were then stronger of complexion to labour than now; and then were clerks enough. And now been many thousand of friars in England, and the old curates standen still unamended, and among all sin is mere increased, and the people charged by sixty thousand mark by year, and therefore it must needs fail; and so friars suffer curates to live in sin, so that they may rob the people and live in their lusts. For, if curates done well their office, friars weren superflue, and our land should be discharged of many thousand mark; and then the people should better pay their rents to lords, and dimes and offerings to curates, and much flattering and nourishing of sin should be destroyed, and good life and peace and charity shoulden reign among Christian men. And so when all the ground is sought, friars saien thus, indeed: 'Let old curates wax rotten in sin, and let them not do their office by God's law, and we will live in lusts so long, and waste vainly and needless sixty thousand mark by year of the poor commons of the land, and so at the last make dissension between them and their childer for dimes and offerings that we will get privily to us by hypocrisy, and make dissension between lords and their commons. For we will maintain lords to live in their lusts, extortions, and other sins, and the commons in covetise, lechery, and other deceits, with false swearing, and many guiles; and also the curates in their damnation for leaving of their ghostly office, and to be the procurators of the Fiend for to draw all men to hell. Thus they done, indeed, however they feignen in hypocrisy of pleasing words.

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[graphic]

THE

String Perioo Nonry the fourth, QUEEN ELIZABETH

HE age of Chaucer was succeeded by a period destitute of original genius, and it was not until a century and a half afterwards that the Earl of Surrey revived the national interest in poetry. One cause of this literary stagnation was undoubtedly the disturbed state of the country, in consequence of the sanguinary Wars of the Roses, and the absorbing influence of religious controversy inspired by the doctrines of Wycliffe and the dawn of the Reformation. In the latter part of the fifteenth century, the introduction of the art of printing offered unprecedented and invaluable facilities for the progress of literature; yet in original or powerful composition, we have only three distinguished names-those of James I. of Scotland, Dunbar, and Sir Thomas More,

OCCLEVE AND LYDGATE.

THOMAS OCCLEVE (circa 1370-1454) was a disciple of Chaucer, whom he styles his master and poetic father, and whose death he lamented in

verse:

O master dear and father reverent,

My master Chaucer, flower of eloquence,
Mirror of fructuous intendement,

O universal father in science!

Alas, that thou thine excellent prudence
In thy bed mortal mightest not bequeathé!

What ailed Death, alas! why would he slay thee?

Occleve's principal work is a version, with additions, of a Latin treatise, De Regimine Principium, written by Egidius, a native of Rome, about 1280. On Occleve's manuscript, preserved in the British Museum, is a drawing by him, a portrait of Chaucer, the only likeness of the old poet, from which all the subsequent engraved portraits have been taken. Occleve's poem is entitled The Governail of Princes, and it was printed entire in 1860, edited by Mr T. Wright for the Roxburghe Club. The poet, it appears, held the appointment of Clerk of the Privy Seal; and, as in the case of Chaucer and other poetical officials, his salary or pension seems to have been irregularly paid. He addresses the king (Henry V.) on the subject:

My yearly guerdon, mine annuity,
That was me granted for my long labour,
Is all behind; I may not payed be;
Which causeth me to live in languor.

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O liberal prince, ensample of honour,
Unto your grace like it to promote

My poor estate, and to my woe beth boot.1

Contemporary with Occleve was JOHN LYDGATE (circa 1373-1460), a monk of Bury, born at Lydgate, near Newmarket. His poetical compositions range over a great variety of styles. His muse,' says Warton,was of universal access; and he was not only the poet of the monastery, but of the world in general. If a disguising was intended by the company of goldsmiths, a mask before his majesty at Eltham, a May-game for the sheriffs and aldermen of London, a mumming before the lord mayor, a procession of pageants from the creation for the festival of Corpus Christi, or a carol for the coronation, Lydgate was consulted, and gave the poetry.' The principal works of this versatile writer are entitled, The Story of Thebes, The Falls of Princes, and The Destruction of Troy. He had travelled in France and Italy, and studied the poetry of those countries.

In the words of Warton,' there is great softness and facility' in the following passage (spelling modernised) of Lydgate's Destruction of Troy:

Description of a Silvan Retreat.

Till at the last, among the bowes glade,
Of adventure, I caught a pleasant shade;
Full smooth, and plain, and lusty for to seen,
And soft as velvet was the yonge green:
Where from my horse I did alight as fast,
And on the bow aloft his reine cast.
So faint and mate of weariness I was,
That I me laid adown upon the grass,
Upon a brinke, shortly for to tell,
Beside the river of a crystal well;
And the water, as I reherse can,
Like quicke silver in his streams y-ran,
Of which the gravel and the brighte stone,
As any gold, against the sun y-shone.

We add a few lines in the original orthography of the poet-a passage in the Story of Thebes, shewing that truth hath ever in the end victory over falsehood:

Ageyn trouth falshed hath no myght;
Fy on querilis nat grounded upon right!
With-oute which may be no victorye,
Therefor ech man ha this in memoyre,
That gret pouer, shortly to conclude,
Plenty of good, nor moch multitude,

1 Give remedy.

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