Hus douhter hihte Do-ryght-so- | other-thy-damme-shal-the-bete. (C. ix. 81.) [647] See in particular Gloton's confession, with a wonderfully realistic description of an English tavern, C. vii. 350. [648] "Paradise Lost," canto vi. 601; invention of guns, 470. [649] B. Prol. 112. [650] B. xix. 474. [651] "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. iii. p. 419. See above, p. 253. [652] Good Parliament of 1376. [653] B. Prol. 95. [654] B. Prol. 49. [655] B. Prol. 46; xii. 37; v. 57; C. v. 122. [656] B. vi. 71; C. ix. 122. [657] Musset, "Nuit de Decembre." [658] B. viii. 62. [659] B. ix. 90. [660] B. xi. 114. [661] But I loked what lyflode it was: that Pacience so preysed, And thanne was it a pece of the _Pater noster_ | "_Fiat voluntas tua_." B. xiv. 47. [662] B. xiii. 137. [663] Thei timbrede not so hye. (A. iii. 76.) [664] Langland's lines usually contain four accentuated syllables, two in each half line; the two accentuated syllables of the first half line, and the first accentuated syllable of the second half line are alliterated, and commence by the same "rhyme-letter:" I _sh_ope me in _sh_roudes | as I a _sh_epe were. (B. Prol. 2.) It is not necessary for alliteration to exist that the letters be exactly the same; if they are consonants, nothing more is wanted than a certain similitude in their sounds; if they are vowels even less suffices; it is enough that all be vowels. [665] Walsingham, "Historia Anglicana," vol. ii. p. 33. Rolls. CHAPTER V. _PROSE._ For a long time, and up to our day, the title and dignity of "Father of English prose" has been borne by Sir John Mandeville, of St. Albans, knight, who, "in the name of God glorious," left his country in the year of grace 1322, on Michaelmas Day, and returned to Europe after an absence of thirty-four years, twice as long as Robinson Crusoe remained in his desert island. This title belongs to him no longer. The good knight of St. Albans, who had seen and told so much, has dwindled before our eyes, has lost his substance and his outline, and has vanished like smoke in the air. His coat of mail, his deeds, his journeys, his name: all are smoke. He first lost his character as a truthful writer; then out of the three versions of his book, French, English, and Latin, two were withdrawn from him, leaving him only the first. Existence now has been taken from him, and he is left with nothing at all. Sir John Mandeville, knight, of St. Albans, who crossed the sea in 1322, is a myth, and never existed; he has joined, in the kingdom of the shades and the land of nowhere, his contemporary the famous "Friend of God of the Oberland," who some time ago also ceased to have existed. One thing however remains, and cannot be blotted out: namely, the book of travels bearing the name of Mandeville the translation of which is one of the best and oldest specimens of simple and flowing English prose. I.