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-formation), alliteration, and style. Are there any traces of refinements such as melody and vowel-music? (1) Swá íú wætres thrym When of old the water’s mass Ealne middan-geard, All mid-earth, Mére-flód, theáhte When the sea-flood covered Eorthan ymb-hwyrft, The earth’s circumference, Thá [`s]e æthela wong Then that noble plain Æg-hwæs án-súnd In everything entire With yth-fare Against the billowy course Gehealden stód, Stood preserved, Hreóhra wæga Of the rough waves Eádig unwemmed, Happy, inviolate, Thurh áest Godes; Through favour of God. Bídeth swá geblówen It shall abide thus in bloom, Oth bæles cyme Until the coming of the funeral fire Dryhtnes dómes. Of the Lord’s judgment. _The Phœnix_, 900