A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

I. INTRODUCTION.

The Difficulties attend

The Beginnings of English Literature.
ing them. The Advisability of taking Chaucer as our
Starting Point. The Necessity of Knowing the Outlines of
Earlier Days before even Chaucer is attempted.

ENGLISH LITERATURE may be said to begin with some fragments
of poetry that date back as far as the fourth century; and,
for the ten centuries following, our literature is extremely
difficult to understand, because it is written either in Anglo-
Saxon, or else in one of the dialects of Middle English. It took
a thousand years for English literature to develop properly;
and we do not come across any author who can be easily
mastered until we arrive at the middle of the fourteenth
century. Then we find Geoffrey Chaucer one of the greatest
of our poets, who died in the year 1400. We cannot, however,
properly appreciate even his work unless we know something of
the condition of English between the fourth and the fourteenth
centuries; and this knowledge we must try to obtain by
learning a little about the principal things that happened to
the language before Chaucer's time.

II. THE OLD ENGLISH TIMES.

I. The Teutonic Tribes in Britain. Nature of their Poetry.
Alliteration, and what it means. How the Fragments of
Ancient Songs have been preserved. Examples of them.
“The Fight at Finnesburg," and "Beowulf.”

We have to begin by thinking of the tribes that came over to Britain in the fifth century, and slowly transformed it into England. They were Teutonic tribes, and spoke various Teutonic tongues. Like all the other branches of the great family to which they belonged-the Aryan family--they possessed a

literature consisting of a number of wild war-songs. These songs were quite unlike modern English poetry, since they had neither rhyme nor metre. In the place of rhyme there was a certain arrangement, known as alliteration, by which the same letter of the alphabet was made to recur in the accented parts of a line. Then, instead of a regular metre, there was only a kind of natural swing, produced by the accents in each couplet; but no restriction was laid on the number of feet, or syllables, as is the case in modern poetry.

The war-songs, in the ancient days, were handed on fron generation to generation by word of mouth. Two or three of them were written down in Northumbria and Wessex during the seventh century, when those districts became Christianised; and one of the fragments so preserved, the Fight at Finnesburg, shows by its composition that it dates back to times probably long before the invasion of Britain.

A small piece of manuscript, containing the description of this fight, was discovered in the seventeenth century by Dr. George Hickes, in the Library of Lambeth Palace. It was pasted on the inside cover of a manuscript book of Homilies; and Dr. Hickes at once made a copy of it. The lines are valuable as giving a picture of the primitive civilisation that existed among the Teutonic tribes. Of these tribes, the Frisians lived on the west coast of Sleswick, and in the islands of the North Sea. Finn was king of the North Frisians, and dwelt at Finnesburg, his town in Jutland. His wife was Hildeburh, the daughter of a famous Dane; her brother, Hnaef, was a thane of the Danish king. The outbreak of an old tribal feud inspired Finn with a hatred for his brother-in-law, so he invited Hnaef to stay as a guest at Finnesburg, with the intention of putting him to death. Hnaef, suspecting nothing, went over with sixty men, accompanied by Hengest, the chief of his companions. The Danes were lodged in a great hall at Finnesburg; and one night, when they were all asleep, Finn and his men surrounded the building, and began the attack. Either Hnaef or Hengest was disturbed by the noise; for the "young and warlike king" mentioned in the manuscript found by Dr. Hickes is clearly one of them. Springing from his couch, he gives the alarm to his sleeping comrades:

"Then cried the young
'This is not day dawning,
but now bear forth
their ready equipments.
the gray burnie clinks,
shield answers shaft.

and war-like king,

nor flies here the dragon;
our deadly foes

The ravens croak;
the shields rattle,
Now shines the moon,

Burnie, a coat of mail, made of chain rings.

The conflict was bitter, and Hnaef was slain; but Hengest, who took over the command, fought on until nearly all Finn's men were killed. When the strife was over, the son of Finn and Hildeburh was found among the dead. Peace was made between Finn and Hengest; pledges and blood-money were taken; and the bodies of Hnaef and of Hildeburh's son were burnt on the same pyre. Hildeburh, however, had lost her brother at the hands of her husband; as well as her own son, who had fought against Hnaef. Though the peace lasted for a time, Finn's treachery could never be forgiven; and in the end he met with his due reward.

Far more famous is the story of Beowulf, a tale brought over by the Northern tribes that settled in Northumbria during the fifth century, though the version that we possess seems to have been put into Old English by a poet of a later date. Beowulf, even as it stands, is famous for its character and merits. Like all the old songs, it is full of references to the terrors of the wild country and the dark night. These, to the English, were the habitation of dreadful ghosts, of unfriendly spirits, and of evil demons. Such horrors, created by their fear of the unknown, haunted, in their belief, all the forest and the fen. Wild beasts and human enemies lurked in the darkness to do harm. Life was a constant terror, and death a constant foe.

The poem gives an account of Hrothgar, King of the Danes; of the palace that he built; of his wealth and treasures; and of the trouble brought upon him by a monster called Grendel, "he that held the moor, the fen, and the fastnesses." The daughters of Cain, so the legend ran, had brought forth in

darkness all kinds of strange horrors-giants and elves and supernatural creatures-who for a long time fought against God, and were denied admission to the houses of men; Grendel was one of these. The real meaning of this legend is probably that Grendel was a huge and savage polar bear. The name signifies the Destroyer—literally the Grinder.

For twelve years, however, the King of the Scyldings, or Danes, endured the ravages and spoliation of Grendel without being able to capture him, or to check his evil doings. The news of the disaster caused in Hrothgar's territory spread to all the neighbouring districts; and at last, one morning, the warder of the Scyldings, whose duty it was to guard the seashore, saw a strange ship approach, filled with armed men. He instantly gave the alarm, and Hrothgar's thane, or governor of the district, went down at once to meet the ship; "with might he shook the strong spear in his hand." He demanded from the strangers whence they had come, and what was their purpose; and their leader, a tall and handsome young man, answered for them, “We are of the Goths' kind, Hygelac's hearth-sharers my father was widely known, a high-born lord hight Ecgtheow." Then the thane knew that this young man was Beowulf; and led him gladly up to the king. Hrothgar was sitting, bald and old, when his thane approached and told of the stranger's coming. Hrothgar welcomed him eagerly and showed him the highest honours; and Wealtheow, the queen, with her own hands, passed him the mead-cup at the banquet.

Grendel, that same night, determined to attack the palace. He little realised how dangerous was the new foe that had arrived. These are the lines describing his hasty traverse of the moorland, and his furious entrance into the king's wine-hall:

"Then from the moor,

came Grendel

The wicked one thought

in that high hall

He strode, hidden by the mist,
stood, the gold-hall of men,
That was not the first time
but never before,

bolder warriors, hall thanes,
Came then this fiend,

up to the hall;

though fast in its fire-bands,

thus burst the death-bringer,the door of the hall."

under misty hills,

God's wrath was upon him.
that among the men

some he might slay.

to where he knew the wine-hall

shining with bright jewels.
he had sought the wine-hall,
nor at any time after,
did he find.

deprived of all joy,

and quickly the door fell,
when his claws touched it;
since he was angry,

Hight, named, called.

A horrible scene ensued. Grendel, seizing one of the sleeping men, bit him through the body, drank his blood, and tore off his