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Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They LivedLong, William J. (William Joseph)

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Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived

Name: Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived
Author: Long, William J. (William Joseph)

Long, William J. (William Joseph)

American literature -- History and criticism; English literature -- History and criticism

_LITERATURE_. Brooke, History of Early English Literature;
    Jusserand, Literary History of the English People, Vol. I; Ten
    Brink, English Literature, Vol. I; Lewis, Beginnings of English
    Literature; Schofield, English Literature from the Norman Conquest
    to Chaucer; Brother Azarias, Development of Old-English Thought;
    Mitchell, From Celt to Tudor; Newell, King Arthur and the Round
    Table. A more advanced work on Arthur is Rhys, Studies in the
    Arthurian Legends.

    _FICTION AND POETRY_. Kingsley, Hereward the Wake; Lytton,
    Harold Last of the Saxon Kings; Scott, Ivanhoe; Kipling, Puck of
    Pook's Hill; Jane Porter, Scottish Chiefs; Shakespeare, King John;
    Tennyson, Becket, and The Idylls of the King; Gray, The Bard; Bates
    and Coman, English History Told by English Poets.




CHAPTER III

THE AGE OF CHAUCER AND THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING (1350-1550)


  For out of oldë feldës, as men seith,
    Cometh al this newë corn fro yeer te yere;
  And out of oldë bokës, in good feith,
    Cometh all this newë science that men lere.

                Chaucer, "Parliament of Foules"

SPECIMENS OF THE LANGUAGE. Our first selection, from _Piers Plowman_
(_cir._ 1362), is the satire of Belling the Cat. The language is that
of the common people, and the verse is in the old Saxon manner, with accent
and alliteration. The scene is a council of rats and mice (common people)
called to consider how best to deal with the cat (court), and it satirizes
the popular agitators who declaim against the government. The speaker is a
rat, "a raton of renon, most renable of tonge":

  "I have y-seen segges," quod he,
    "in the cite of London
  Beren beighes ful brighte
    abouten here nekkes....
  Were there a belle on here beighe,
    certes, as me thynketh,
  Men myghte wite where thei went,
    and awei renne!
  And right so," quod this raton,
    "reson me sheweth
  To bugge a belle of brasse
    or of brighte sylver,
  And knitten on a colere
    for owre comune profit,
  And hangen it upon the cattes hals;
    than hear we mowen
  Where he ritt or rest
    or renneth to playe." ...
  Alle this route of ratones
    to this reson thei assented;
  Ac tho the belle was y-bought
    and on the beighe hanged,
  Ther ne was ratoun in alle the route,
    for alle the rewme of Fraunce,
  That dorst have y-bounden the belle
    aboute the cattis nekke.

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Outlines of English and American Literature: An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived

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