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The chief features of the romance were: a long story, cumulative in construction, chiefly of a journey or a quest; a strong martial element, with an infusion of the supernatural and wonderful; characters, usually of high social rank, and of fixed type and rudimentary workmanship, such as the knightly hero, the distressed damsel, and the wicked enchanter; and a style that was simple to quaintness, but in the better specimens was spirited and suggestive of mystery and wonder. In meter it ranged from the simple couplet of The Squire of Low Degree to the twenty-lined stanza of Sir Tristrem. In its later stages, as Chaucer satirized it in Sir Thopas, the romance became extravagant and ridiculous, but at its best it was a rich treasure-house of marvelous tales.

2. Prose. The small amount of prose is strictly practical in purpose, and its development as a species of literature is to come later.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF STYLE IN POETRY

With poetry in such an immature condition, it can be easily understood that style is of secondary importance, The prevailing, almost the universal, style is one of artless simplicity. Very often, owing chiefly to lack of practice on the part of the poet, the style becomes obscure; and when more ambitious schemes of meter are attempted (as in Pearl) the same cause leads to the same result. Humor is rarely found in Middle English, but quaint touches are not entirely lacking, as facts revealed in the life of Hampole show. Pathos of a solemn and elevated kind appears in the Moral Ode, and the romance called The Pistyl of Susan and the Pearl, already mentioned, have passages of simple pathos.

EXERCISES

1. The following extracts show the development of English poetry from Old English to Chaucerian times. Trace the changes in meter (scansion, rhyme, and stanza-forma

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Are there any traces of re-
vowel-music?

When of old the water's mass
All mid-earth,

When the sea-flood covered
The earth's circumference,
Then that noble plain
In everything entire
Against the billowy course
Stood preserved,
Of the rough waves
Happy, inviolate,

Through favour of God.
It shall abide thus in bloom,
Until the coming of the funeral
fire

Of the Lord's judgment.

The Phonix, 900

And I saw the waves

In the sea drive;

And the lion in the flood
Went with myself.

When we two came in the sea,
The waves took her from me;

But there came swimming a
fish;

And brought me to land.
Then was I all wet

And weary from sorrow, and
sick.

When I gan wake
Greatly I gan quake.

LAYAMON, Brut, 1200

(3) Ich am eldre þan ich wes. a winter and ek on lore.
Ich welde more þan ich dude. my wyt auhte beo more.
Wel longe ich habbe child ibes. a werke and eke on dede.
Þah ich beo of wynter old. to yong ich am on rede.
Vnneð lif ich habbe ilad. and yet me pinkp ich lede.
Hwenne ich me biþenche. ful sore ich me adrede.
Mest al þat ich habbe idon. is idelnesse and chilce.
Wel late ich habbe me bi-pouht. bute god do me mylce.
Veole idel word ich habbe ispeke. seoppe ich speke cube.
And feole yonge deden ido. þat me of-pinchep nube.
Moral Ode, 1250

(5)

(4) Herknet to me, gode men,

Wiues, maydnes, and alle men,
Of a tale that ich you wile telle
Wo so it wile here, and ther to duelle
The talk is of Hauelok i-maked;
Wil he was litel he yede ful naked;
Havelok was a ful god gome,
He was ful god in eueri trome,
He was the wicteste man at nede
That thurte riden on ani stede
That ye mouen nou y-here,
And the tale ye mowen y-lere.
At the beginning of vre tale
Fille me a cuppe of ful god are.

Havelock the Dane, 1300

Byteuene Mershe & Aueril
When spray biginneþ to springe,
Þe lutel foul hap hire wyl
On hyre lud to synge;

Ich libbe in louelonginge

For semlokest 11 of alle þynge,
He may me blisse bringe,

Icham in hire baundoun.12

An hendy 13 hap 14 ichabbe yhent
Ichot 15 from heuene it is me sent
From alle wymmen mi loue is lent
& lyht on Alysoun.

(6) In Nauerne be 3unde the

see

In Venyse a gode cyte,
Duellyde a prest of Yng-
londe,

And was auaunsede, y un-
derstonde.
Every 3ere at the flor-

ysyngge
When the vynys shulde
spryngge

A tempest that tyme began

to falle

Alysoun, 1300

In Avergne beyond the sea

In Venice a good city
Dwelled a priest of England,

And was advanced I understand.

Every year at the flourishing

When the vines should spring

A tempest then began to fall

And fordede here vynys And ruined all their vines.

alle;

11 seemliest.

12 bondage. 13 lucky.

14 chance. 15 I wot, I know.

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20

19

(7) Ther faure citees wern set, nov is a see called,
That ay is drouy 16 and dym and ded in hit kynde,
Blo 17 blubrande 18 and blak, vnblythe to neze
As a stynkande stanc that stryed synne
That euer of synne and of smach,21 smart is to fele;
Forthy the derk dede see hit is demed ever more,
For hit dedez of dethe duren there 3et.
For hit is brod and bothemle3 and bitter as the galle,
And no3t may lenge in that lake that any lyf berez,
And all the coste3 of kynde hit combre3 22 vchone 23
For lay ther-on a lump of led and hit on loft flete3,
And folde theron a ly3t fyther and hit to founs synkke3,
And ther water may walter to wete any erthe,

Shal neuer grene ther-on growe, gresse ne wod nawther.
Cleannesse, 1350

2. Account for the poor quality of English prose during this period.

3. What were the effects of the Norman Conquest upon English literature?

4. Describe the main features of the romance.

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CHAPTER III

THE AGE OF CHAUCER

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (1350–1450)

Compared with the periods covered by the last two chapters, the period now under review is quite short. It includes the greater part of the reign of Edward III and the long French wars associated with his name; the accession of his grandson Richard II (1377); and the revolution of 1399, the deposition of Richard, and the foundation of the Lancastrian dynasty. From the literary point of view, of greater importance are the social and intellectual movements of the period: the terrible plague called the Black Death, bringing poverty, unrest, and revolt among the peasants, and the growth of the spirit of inquiry, which was strongly critical of the ways of the Church, and found expression in the teachings of Wyclif and the Lollards, and in the stern denunciations of Langland.

LITERARY FEATURES OF THE AGE

1. The Standardizing of English. The period of transition is now nearly over. The English language has shaken down to a kind of average-to the standard of the East Midland speech, the language of the capital city and of the universities. The other dialects, with the exception of the Scottish branch, rapidly melt away from literature, till they become quite exiguous. French and English have amalgamated to form the standard English tongue, which attains to its first full expression in the works of Chaucer.

2. A curious "modern" note begins to be apparent at this period. There is a sharper spirit of criticism, a more searching interest in man's affairs, and a less childlike faith in, and a less complacent acceptance of, the established

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