CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

I

THE Norman Conquest inaugurated a distinctly new epoch in the literary as well as in the political history of England. AngloSaxon authors were then as suddenly and as permanently displaced as Anglo-Saxon kings. The literature afterwards read and written by Englishmen was thereby as completely transformed as the sentiments and tastes of English rulers. Clearly reflecting the altered attitude of the leaders of the people, the new styles of writing reveal in a measure the new national character, and betray important conditions determining its growth.

The Christian religion had been imposed on the Saxons by their leaders, working upon the common folk from the chieftains down. At first the alien creed was but superficially accepted. Little by little, however, the new instruction greatly modified men's religious ideas, and Roman definitely replaced Germanic ritual. Likewise, the foreign types of literature introduced at the Conquest first found favour with the monarchs and courtiers, and were deliberately fostered by them, to the disregard of native forms. No effective protest was possible, and English thought for centuries to come was largely fashioned in the manner of the French. Throughout the whole period that here engages our attention, in forms of artistic expression as well as of religious service, the English openly acknowledged a Latin control.

Nevertheless, though there was little independence in letters during this epoch, though it was not distinctively English as we now use the term, it is far from being the dull and barren stretch that so many literary historians would have us believe. If under Anglo-Norman rule compositions in the English vernacular were few and of slight account, this was certainly not occasioned by the people's inertia or distress, as the impression is often improperly given. Much to the contrary, the era was one of extraordinary intellectual activity, when, with greatly broadened horizons, with new interests awakened in Continental and Eastern affairs, constantly in contact with races of unlike temperament and tradition, Englishmen were in a state of growth and development when writing was inevitable, when some way of satisfying the demands of the many alert and prosperous who were eager for knowledge and entertainment had to be contrived, when patriotic sentiment demanded expression, abuses called for a pen to denounce, and abounding piety sought support in books.

What would have become of English literature had the foreign dominion not been established, no amount of speculation will ever determine. The fact is too often ignored that before 1066 the Anglo-Saxons had a body of native literature distinctly superior to any which the Normans or French could boast at that time: their prose especially was unparalleled for extent and power in any European vernacular. It should, moreover, be kept in mind how brilliant were the writings of the remote Norsemen during the eleventh and two succeeding centuries, how they in Iceland and the Western Isles, under conditions doubtless no more exceptional than might have developed in England, produced much noble poetry and marvellous prose that we still read with delight. But, while admitting the possibility of a revival of interest in literature amongst the English, one cannot deny that the Normans came to their land when they greatly needed an external stimulus; for ignorance was then rife in all parts, learning and culture were dying of inanition, and darkness seemed gathering round. The Conquest effected a wholesome

awakening of national life. The people were suddenly inspired by a new vision of a greater future. They united in a common hope. Sooner than is generally believed, the Saxon element lost its initial hostility to the new-comers, the bonds of sympathy growing with the realisation that the fortunes of both races were indissolubly knit, that all were anxious to maintain the dignity and integrity of the land. From the consequent blending of blood came a generation of increased power. From the incitement of opportunity came impulses to work. Capable and eager, the youth of the country strove for distinction; and reward was yielded richly to those who had the wisdom to seek it aright. Success, it was evident, lay not in harking back to a past from which the people was definitely severed, but in seizing the advantages of the present and reaching forward to those seemingly still more abundant in store. As a result of the Battle of Hastings, England was finally removed from isolation, and impelled into the strong currents of international life. The Anglo-Normans, possessed as they were of enthusiasm, energy, and executive skill, vied successfully with their Continental kin, and stirred their fellow-countrymen to like achievement. Literature could not but profit by the new sense of security and enlargement of view. The Conquerors not only brought with them soldiers and artisans and traders, they quickly imported scholars to revive knowledge, chroniclers to record memorable events, minstrels to celebrate victories, or sing of adventure and love. These gained a hearing and a following. Learning flourished anew, and writers multiplied.

The most obvious change in literary expression appears in the vehicle employed. For centuries Latin had been more or less spoken and written by the clergy in England. The Conquest, which led to the reinvigoration of the monasteries and the tightening of the ties with Rome, determined its more extensive Still more important, as a result of foreign sentiment in court and castle, it caused writings in the English vernacular to be disregarded, and established French as the natural speech of the cultivated and high-born. The clergy insisted on the use

use.

of Latin, the nobility on the use of French: no one of influence saw the utility of English as a means of perpetuating thought, and for nearly three centuries very few works not deliberately devised for the ignorant laity appeared in the native vulgar tongue.

Those, meanwhile, who controlled the destinies of the kingdom, fought its battles, administered its laws, organised its churches, founded its schools, and worked otherwise for its welfare-all with one accord encouraged the vogue of French fashions without feeling that they did amiss. Thus not only the bias of prevailing attitude, but the stamp of English style, was incalculably changed. When the English language finally became supreme in England, it was employed primarily to perpetuate conceptions and methods of writing originally French. In process of time the foreign types, like the foreign words in the vocabulary, were accepted by high and low without demur.

To appreciate properly the significance of this substitution of foreign for native styles, the new trend of literary inclination that began soon after the Conquest, we must consider that in the early Middle Ages France was the literary centre of all Western Europe. Then, more than at any other period, she enjoyed an hegemony in the intellectual domain, and led the fashion in literary production. The epoch was one of new birth of new trials and new successes. In every departure France seems to have anticipated the slower thought of other nations and discovered the paths which they later found it best to tread. She devised and others imitated. She set the standard, and by it all were measured. Surpassing any degree of influence to which she has since attained, her dominion was widespread and unquestioned. Fortunately, it was at this period, when the French genius appears effectively to have controlled Western ideas, that England was in closest contact with France. By reason of their language and political conditions, Englishmen were kept familiar with all contemporary thought. Their reading was substantially that of the rest of Europe.

If France was thus the supreme arbiter of European