stained productions one gets an intimate knowledge of the life and thought of the people that can nowhere else be found. Genesis and Like the Ormulum in its purpose of popular instruction is the metrical paraphrase called Genesis and Exodus, written about 1250. The title recalls Cadmon and suggests the continued tendency toward religious themes. Like books for children in words of one syllable, the good poet tells his Bible stories in "londes speche and wordes smale," and says that "Christian men who hear the story of salvation in little words of their own land's speech should be as glad as birds are at the coming of the dawn." A quaint form of poetry of about the same date is the Bestiary, a kind of fantastic natural history, in which the habits of animals and birds are made to symbolize moral and spiritual AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A BESTIARY BOOK truths. The dove, for example, "hath no gall, so simple and soft should we be all; she liveth nought by prey, so we should not rob; she leaveth the worm and liveth upon the seed, so of Christ's lore we have need; like lamenting is Bestiaries her song, so should we lament, for we have done. wrong; in a hole of the rock she maketh her nest, so in Christ's mercy our hope is best." Such books had been popular from ancient Greek times, and were utilized by the early Christian fathers for the purposes of religious instruction. One prose work of the thirteenth century, the Ancren Riwle, or Rule of the Anchoresses, must be noticed for its singular excellence. It was written by an unknown monk for the Ancren Riwle, c. 1225 guidance of three women who determined to live in seclusion like nuns. His kindly instructions inIclude the minutest matters of both worldly and spiritual care, even the rule that they "shall have no beast but one cat." Professor Earle regards this work as "one of the most perfect models of simple, natural, eloquent prose in our language." A brief passage will illustrate the language and the lofty sentiment: Bi deie summe time oper bi nihte, penched & gedereð in owre heorte alle sike & alle sorie, pet wo & pouerte polieð, þe pine pet prisuns þolieð; þet heo ligged mid iren heuie iveotered; nomeliche of de Cristene þet beod ine hepinesse, summe ine prisune, summe ine alse muchele deudome alse oxe is ober asse; habbed reoupe of þeo bet beod ine stronge temptaciuns; alle monne sores setted in ower pouhte. At some time in the day or the night, think upon and call to mind all who are sick and sorrowful, who suffer affliction and poverty, the pain that prisoners endure, who lie heavily fettered with iron; especially of the Christians who are among the heathen, some in prison, some in as great thraldom as is an ox or an ass; have pity for those that are under strong temptations; take thought for all men's sorrows. Cursor Mundi, c. 1320 Early in the fourteenth century appeared the Cursor Mundi (the Over-runner of the World), a metrical paraphrase of Scripture containing the story of the world from creation to the day of doom. The unknown writer had noted with pious sympathy that since French poetry became fashionable, those who "na French can" had no books for their amusement and profit. So he supplied the need with this huge poem of thirty thousand lines, a well-seasoned mixture of Bible narratives, Latin history, and popular legends. The work was deservedly popular, for the fertile versifier often tells a good story, and shows a human enjoyment in the telling. English gravity was slowly melting before the warmer breezes of France. 1 Mannyng's But the best religious story-teller of the period is Robert Mannyng of Brunne, whose Handlyng Synne, translated from a crude French poem written by an Englishman, is a really excellent story-book. The unlearned people, he says, will have their stories, good or bad, and he determines to give them stories that will make for their salvation rather than for their perdition. So he illustrates with apt tales the ten commandments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven sacraments. Contemporary affairs are noticed, especially the sufferings of the poor at the hands of the rich. Like Chaucer, the poet draws a vivid picture of good and bad priests. This work and the Cursor Mundi were manifestly written to compete with the romantic stories of the French type, which were now taking possession of the literary field. In the works of Richard Rolle de Hampole, a Yorkshire hermit, we come to original authorship with which a definite knowledge of the author can be associated. Richard Rolle was famous in his own time for his writings in both Latin and English, for his efforts as a religious reformer, and for his Richard devout life. In the popular regard he was a saint, Rolle de and after his death his hermit's cell at Hampole Hampole, c. 1290-1349 was a shrine for sacred pilgrimages. His chief work is The Pricke of Conscience, a versified sermon in seven books, dealing with the whole life of man, from birth to doomsday. The poem, he explains, is to be a prick or goad for the conscience: For if a man rede and understandé well Two poems incomparably better in artistic merit than any yet noticed in this group are A Love-Rune by Thomas de Hales 1 to 2 heart 3 rule 'quickly 5 drive love 7yearning 8 amiss A Love- and The Pearl by an unknown author. The first is a charming lyric in stanzaic form, expressing with a sweet and tender seriousness the most exalted religious feeling. To a maid who asks the poet-monk for a love-song that may guide her in the choice of a lover, he explains how shallow and fleeting is earthly love in comparison with the perfect love of Christ. The Pearl is an outpouring of a father's grief for the loss of his little Margaret, "my precious perle wythouten spot," intensely human and beautiful in expression. "True Pearl of our poet prime," Tennyson called it. The father falls asleep The Pearl, c. 1360 upon the grave of his little one, and in a dream sees a strange land of light and beauty across a stream flowing musically over pebbles that glitter like stars in a winter night. He knows this land must be Paradise, and soon he sees his child, with face white as pure ivory, sitting beneath a crystal cliff. She tells him that he cannot come to her, urges upon him the duty of Christian resignation, and assures him that his Pearl is not lost, but is in a gracious garden where no sin can be. In a vain struggle to cross the river, the father awakes to find his head still on the little grass-grown grave of his child. Many believe the poem to be pure allegory, for which there was an increasing fondness among poets, but the note of personal emotion seems too clear and direct to be merely the voice of a religious poet preaching in allegorical verse. The twelveline stanzas, containing both alliteration and rhyme, are intricate and difficult in structure. The opening stanza, in Miss Jewett's translation, fairly reproduces the original: Pearl that the Prince full well might prize, So surely set in shining gold! No pearl of Orient with her vies; To prove her peerless I make bold: So round, so radiant to mine eyes, So smooth she seemed, so small to hold, Would count her best an hundredfold. The most characteristic and widely prevalent form of literature in the Middle Ages was the metrical romance, which reached its highest development in France. The substance of this poetry was the glorification of chivalry and the ideals of feudal society. In the pages of these interminable tales we find a vivid picture of the artificial life, refinement, and culture Metrical of the higher classes in Europe in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. The pomp and pageantry of tournaments, gorgeous feasts, slaughter of pagans, and fantastic adventures in a world of magic, giants, and dragons, as described in these romances, seem to the modern mind utterly childish, but to the medieval mind they represented noble ideals of conduct. The best of these romances gave to literature a creative impulse that has been felt through all succeeding centuries. Scott's romances are only a subsequent chapter in the great novel of heroic adventure that began with these tales. "The old French romances," says Professor Schofield, "are the glory of chivalry, as Gothic cathedrals are of Catholic worship. Both witness to the lofty idealism of the medieval world and embody materially its spiritual vision." At the Battle of Hastings, we are told, the minstrel Taillefer led the Norman army, tossing and catching his glittering sword and singing the Song of Roland, the great national romance of France, thus symbolizing the contribution about to be made by the Normans to English life and thought. The heavy clouds of Saxon gloom were soon to be in large measure cleared away by warm light from the sunny south. Queen Eleanor, wife of Henry II, brought to her court the Troubadours, those light-hearted masters of "the gay science" of |