(_a_) The _epic_ in its untutored form exists in _Beowulf_. This poem lacks the finer qualities of the epic: it is deficient in the strict unity, the high dignity, and the broad motive of the great classical epic; but a crude vigor and a certain rude majesty are not wanting. It is no mean beginning for the English epic. The later poems of the Cædmon and Cynewulf types are too discursive and didactic to be epics, though in places they are like _The Battle of Maldon_ and _The Fight at Finnesburgh_ in their narrative force. (_b_) The _lyric_--that is, the short and passionate expression of a personal feeling--hardly exists at all. The nearest approach to it lies in the dramatic monologues, such as _Deor’s Complaint_. These poems are too long and diffuse to be real lyrics, but they have some of the expressive melancholy and personal emotion of the lyric. =2. Prose.= The great bulk of Old English prose consists of translation; and in its various shapes English prose adopts the methods of its originals. We have many homilies, some history, and a few pastoral letters, all based strictly upon Latin works. There are very few passages of real originality, and they are short and disjointed. Of historical writing we have the rudiments in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_. On the whole, the development is very small, for the prose is bound by the curse of imitativeness. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY STYLE =1. Poetry.= We have once more to distinguish between the earlier _Beowulf_ stage and the later Cynewulf stage. In the earlier period the style is more disjointed, abrupt, and digressive, and is weighted down by the reliance upon the kenning. In the later stage there is greater passion and insight, less reliance upon the stock phrases, and a greater desire for stylistic effects. =2. Prose.= In spite of its limited scope, Old English prose shows quite an advance in style. The earlier style, represented by the prose of Alfred, is rather halting and unformed, the sentences are loosely knit, the vocabulary is meager, and there is an absence of the finer qualities of rhythm and cadence. By the time of Wulfstan the prose has gained in fluency. It is much more animated and confident, and it freely employs alliteration and the commoner rhetorical figures. But within this development both of prose and poetry there was already the seed of decay. During the last century of the period the poetical impulse was weakening; there is little verse after the time of Cynewulf. The prose too was failing, and the language was showing symptoms of weakness. The inflections were loosening even before the Norman Conquest, and the Old English vocabulary was being subtly Gallicized. The Norman Conquest was in time to put an abrupt finish to a process already well advanced. EXERCISES