11. +Layamon’s Brut.+-- Layamon was a native of Worcestershire, and a priest of Ernley on the Severn. He translated, about the year 1205, a poem called +Brut+, from the French of a monkish writer named Master Wace. Wace’s work itself is little more than a translation of parts of a famous “Chronicle or History of the Britons,” written in Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who was Bishop of St Asaph in 1152. But Geoffrey himself professed only to have translated from a chronicle in the British or Celtic tongue, called the “Chronicle of the Kings of Britain,” which was found in Brittany-- long the home of most of the stories, traditions, and fables about the old British Kings and their great deeds. Layamon’s poem called the “Brut” is a metrical chronicle of Britain from the landing of Brutus to the death of King Cadwallader, about the end of the seventh century. Brutus was supposed to be a great-grandson of Æneas, who sailed west and west till he came to Great Britain, where he settled with his followers. --This metrical chronicle is written in the dialect of the West of England; and it shows everywhere a breaking down of the grammatical forms of the oldest English, as we find it in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In fact, between the landing of the Normans and the fourteenth century, two things may be noted: first, that during this time-- that is, for three centuries-- the inflections of the oldest English are gradually and surely stripped off; and, secondly, that there is little or no original English literature given to the country, but that by far the greater part consists chiefly of translations from French or from Latin. 12. +Orm’s Ormulum.+-- Less than half a century after Layamon’s Brut appeared a poem called the +Ormulum+, by a monk of the name of Orm or Ormin. It was probably written about the year 1215. Orm was a monk of the order of St Augustine, and his book consists of a series of religious poems. It is the oldest, purest, and most valuable specimen of thirteenth-century English, and it is also remarkable for its peculiar spelling. It is written in the purest English, and not five French words are to be found in the whole poem of twenty thousand short lines. Orm, in his spelling, doubles every consonant that has a short vowel before it; and he writes _pann_ for _pan_, but _pan_ for _pane_. The following is a specimen of his poem:-- Ice hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh Goddspelless hallghe lare, Affterr thatt little witt tatt me Min Drihhtin hafethth lenedd. I have wended (turned) into English Gospel’s holy lore, After the little wit that me My Lord hath lent. Other famous writers of English between this time and the appearance of Chaucer were +Robert of Gloucester+ and +Robert of Brunne+, both of whom wrote Chronicles of England in verse. CHAPTER II. THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.