liant poet, the courtly wit, or the brave | hand, and made to reveal the sores which and skilful warrior, but as the scholar, as then rankled and festered in the commonthe man who is popularly believed to have wealth. It is no part of our plan to go been the first to dare to set his hand to through the whole of this remarkable translating the Bible, as though in antici- Poem. It deals, as we have said, with the pation of the invention of printing which sadder page of our country's history; with was to be the next great step in the ad- that side which is too commonly turned vance of knowledge. down lest it should meet the public gaze or offend the public taste. Well would it be for us if we looked more intently on it, and endeavoured to read the deep lessons which it contains. While Chaucer and Gower were living in the sunshine of the Court, and while Wycliffe was engaged in his divine task at Lutterworth, far away under the shelter of the Malvern hills, with that "broad ex- Another writer, of a class quite distinct panse and free " stretching before him from the preceding one, is Richard Rolle farther than the eye can reach, rested Wil- de Hampole, better known as Hampole,* liam Langland, revolving in his teeming from the priory of that name near Donmind that celebrated "Vision" which will caster, in which he lived, and died about render him famous to the end of time. the year 1349. Hampole (as we shall conChaucer, full of the frolic and fun which a tinue to call him) wrote especially for unride over the Kentish hills in the merry learned Englishmen -for Englishmen month of May would call out, introduces who did not understand Latin † — and as us to none of the deep questions which a consequence appealed to a wider audiwere agitating men's minds. The priests ence than if he had written in a learned had in some instances grown to be the language for learned men. His books becoarse joke of the profligate or the light- came very popular, judging from the numhearted, and as such Chaucer treated ber of manuscripts which are still in exthem, never troubling his head whether istence, containing more or less of his the Church could be reformed or no, and poems, copied by various scribes, and rarely condescending to deal with the sim-altered to suit the dialect of the district. ple annals of the poor. But Langland's mind was cast in another mould; the iron had entered deeply into his soul before he His prose treatises too must have been favourites, for we learn that, his shrine having become a favourite resort of pilgrims, It was found necessary to keep his writings "in cheyn bondes," to prevent their appropriation by any devout but not over-conscientious admirer. ‡ The necessity for such a precaution will not be wondered at if we consider a little the writings themselves, and the circumstances under which they appeared. Hampole lived through the wretched and barren reign of Edward II., and had no doubt been an unwilling listener to the scandals which were so rife in high places during the lifetime, and for years after the death, of that pusillanimous king. To these succeeded the never-ending wars of Edward III., now in the Northumbria of Hampole against the Scots, and now abroad against the French. Yet these events enter little into his writings, if at all. Men's minds were doubtless "racked and stretched " by the occurrences around them; the de In his day, as often sinee, there was much that was wrong. Falsehood was in favour with the friars, and Bribery had its home in and near the seat of Justice. By him Pride, which for appearance sake took the vow of humility, and Luxury that of abstinence; Envy, which hypocritically confessed his evil thoughts, and Avarice his lies and fraud; Gluttony, who, when ill from the effects of his debauch, repent- *(1) "The Pricke of Conscience (Stimulus ConA Northumbrian Poem. By Richard ed; and Sloth, who prayed earnestly for scientiae). Rolle de Hampole. Edited by Richard Morris Pubforgiveness, as well as many other char-lished for the Philological Society by A. Asher and acters, are sketched off with a master's Co. Berlin. 1863. (2) “ English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle de Hampole.' Edited from Robert Thornton's MS. by George G. Perry, M.A. &c. E.E.T.S. 1866. * "The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman," &c. P. 1. Edited by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, M.A., &c. E.E.T.S. 1869. "Pricke of Conscience," p. 10. Equally interesting and equally vigorous are his moral stories, his Treatises on the Ten Commandments, and the Union of God with the soul of man, and his discourse on active and contemplative life. They are interesting as the expressions of sire for knowledge, as well as the desire | fild with repreues and blames. I satt by mine for power, was increasing rapidly; the ane [alone] fleeande the vanytes of the worlde first tremblings of a mighty upheaval and I fande Ihesu in deserte, fastande in the were beginning to be felt, and men were monte, anely prayande. I rane by the payne willing to encourage any who would aid of penanuce and I fand Ihesu bowndene, them in their onward march. Hampole, scourged, gyffene galle to drynke, nayled to the the times, employed his talents in the in reches bot in pouerte, noghte in delytes bot observing from his hermitage the signs of Cross, hyngand in the Crosse and dyennd in the Crosse. Thare-fore Ihesu es noghte fundene most honourable as well as the most use- in penance; noghte in wanton joyeynge, bot in ful manner: he would teach his country- bytter gretynge, noghte emange many bot in men in their own familiar language all anelynes.' that he could, and fit them for the changes which he probably foresaw; and so he composed a poem extending over some ten thousand lines! It will not be expected that we should follow him through his discussions on the wretchedness of mankind, of which he must have seen many proofs: the instability of all mundane a good and active man serving his generathings, the pains of death, the purifying fires of Purgatory, the tokens which will precede the Day of Doom and the proceedings of that Day, the pains of hell, and the joys of heaven. These are the chief topics of the book, but their enumeration conveys only a poor idea of the immense amount of information concerning the religious speculations and beliefs, the ideas which men had of the universe, of nature, of the earth, the air, and the sea, at that time.* The prose treatises of Hampole are unfortunately very few. They perhaps give us a more favourable idea of the man than we gain from his poem-certainly we see more of him as the homely earnest teacher of those who flocked to listen to him, and were charmed by the eloquence of the old man. Preaching from the text "Oleum effusum nomen tuum,"† he burst forth tion to the best of his ability, at a time when it is too common to assume that the whole land was given over to ignorance and sloth: they are valuable as standards of the language which was spoken in the Northumbrian district, and they serve in the hands of the increasing number of students of philology, to throw light upon much which would otherwise have remained obscure. Contemporary with Hampole, but living in the county of Kent, "Dan Michel of Northgate," Canterbury, was engaged at this time in writing The Ayenbite of Inwyt, or the Remorse of Conscience. Hampole's great work was drawn from different books, "but the Ayenbite of Inwyt‡ is a literal translation of a French treatise, entitled Le somme des Vices et de Vertues. . . . composed in the year 1279, for the use of Philip the Second of France." The Editor regards it as the of all the English works of the fourteenth most important and valuable yet published century, and holds that it must ever be regarded as the standard of comparison for the language of the time in which it was written. Sothely the ryghtwyse sekys the joye and the lufe and thay fynd it in Ihesu whaym thay luffede. I yede abowte be couaytyse of reches and I fande noghte Ihesu. I rane the wanntonnes of flesche and I fande noghte Ihesu. I satt in companyes of worldly myrthe and I fand noghte Ihesu. In all thire I soghte Ihesu bot I fand hym noghte, ffor he lett me wyete by his The contrast between Dan Michel's Enggrace that he ne is fundene in the lande of soft-lish of Kent 1310 and Gower's English of ly lyfande. Thare-fore I turnede by anothire 1392- Gower himself was probably a nawaye, and I rane a-bowte be pouerte and I tive of the same county is sufficiently fande Ihesu pure, borne in the worlde, laid in a striking to justify us in placing a few lines crybe and lappid in clathis. I yode by suffer from each writer in juxtaposition:ynge of werynes and I fand Ihesu wery in the way, turment with hungre, thriste, and calde, "Prose Treatises," pp. 4. 5. † Dan Michel's Ayenbite of Inwyt; or, Remorse Of the birth, life, and death of Antichrist, we of Conscience. In the Kentish Dialect, 1849, A.D. venture to affirm that this book contains more in- Edited by R. Morris, Esq., E.E.T.S. 1866. It was formation than all our modern prophets and ex-edited by Stevenson for the Roxburghe Club in 1855. pounders put together have given us; and we have no hesitation in recommending it to their careful attention. † Canticles, 1. 3. It means the again-biting of the inner wit. § Ayenbite of Inwyt." Edited by Morris. "Confessio Amantis." Edited by Dr. R. Pauli, 1857. Intro. vii. Efterward comth slacnesse | thet comth of the defaute | of herte and of kueade wone, thet bint zuo thane man | thet onneathe he him yefth. to done wel. otheruill hit comth of onconnyndehede: and of fole hete. huer-by the man op-let zuo his herte | and his body be uestinges, and be wakinges. and by othre dedes. zuo thet he ualth ine fyeblesse and ine zuiche zikuesse, etc.- Ayenbite, p. 33. nowe it floweth, The lond now welketh The see nowe ebbeth and | succeeded in the task which they placed before themselves, and at the same time handed down the language of their own day for our use and our instruction. and now it groweth, Now be the trees with leves grene, Now they be bare and no Now be there lusty som er floures, Now be the daies, now So stant there no thing Conf Amantis, ed. 1857. 66 He In the same century, but a little earlier, a third writer, who may conveniently be classed with Hampole and Dan Michel, flourished in Lincolnshire. Robert of Brunne, or Bourne, well known by his Handlyng Synne,"* by his translation of Peter Langtoft's Chronicles, † and (though in a less degree) by his "Meditations on the Lord's Supper," &c.,‡ not yet Several reasons might be given for this published. His " Handling Sin" he evidifference of language but the chief was dently intended to be a popular book, a that, while Gower wrote the language of book which, if the people could not read, the Court, Dan Michel wrote that which they would be glad to listen to. was in common use among the classes to would speak to them of the Commandwhom the language and the refinements of ments, of the seven sins, of the seven sacthe palace were almost unknown. Chau-raments, of the twelve points of shrift, cer's language, like Gower's, stands immeasurably lifted above that of any other writer of this century, and shows the advances which our tongue was beginning to make, and the great things of which it was capable. These wrote for the learned and polite, and it was but right that they should clothe their poetry in the garb which would gain it an admittance within this charmed circle. De Hampole, Dan Michel, Robert of Brunne, and others of this century, had no such ambition. In 1303 Brunnet wrote * "For lewd men I undertook In English tongue to make this book." And from sin and vanities them draw." While Dan Michel's "apology" is "This book is writ in English of Kent. This book is made for lewd men, For father and for mother and for other kin, Them for to bear from all manner sin." ** Prompted by motives like these, it is no wonder that they brought their thoughts down to the language of those whose wellbeing they had at heart. Doing this, they The editor looks upon Dan Michel as one of the pure Southern writers. See Morris's edition of "Genesis and Exodus," p. xviii. † Robert Manning, of Brunne. ‡ Unlearned. § Several. Ignorant. ག Prick of Conscience," p. 10. **"Ayenbite," p. 262. and the twelve graces which sprang from shrift; and all should be mingled with tales, rhymes, aud marvels, for he wrote for "lewd men" who would gladly listen to these. The whole is a curious admixture of paraphrases of Scripture, stories of dreams, omens, witchcraft, and so on. Warnings he uttered against drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, the oppression and robbery of which the rich were often guilty, lying, slandering, and all the other shortcomings which ever have been, and we fear ever will be, common to mankind. We, in our day, can enter as well as his hearers could into his meaning when he says "Tavern is the devil's knife, Bible knowledge, and gave in addition a sly blow now and then at the lazy and immoral parson, who was rarely spared by lay or clerical writer when the opportunity occurred to make him smart for his misdeeds. There was much more freedom of opinion and liberty of speech in these centuries than we have an idea of. Men thought pretty well as they liked, they wrote what they chose, and translated that which took their fancy. No matter whether the book contained much or little of the Bible, no matter whether the religious orders were lashed or no, all were turned into English speech, if it was thought that any good would come thereby, either by their being read, or by their affording materials for the preaching clergy. A notable instance of this translating spirit, as we may call it, is afforded by the Story of Genesis and Exodus of about the middle of the thirteenth century.* The author of this introduces his subject by telling his readers, in a very brief preface, that men ought to love a story in rhyme, Twelwe and sexti men woren thor-to, Allied to the Genesis and Exodus, yet differing from it in time, dialect, and treatthe of subject, are ment 66 Alliterative Poens, supposed to be by the author of Gawayne and the Green Knight." The poems are three in number, all of a devoutly religious cast, and all written probably in a season of the deepest afflictionthey are indeed the outpourings of a heart overwhelmed by the loss of a beloved child, whose infant prattle was silenced in death when only two years of age. The father visits his child's grave in the "high his grief, he falls asleep, and his dream, season of August," where, giving way to which will teach them how to conduct themselves, even if ignorant of bo ks, and in which he sees and converses with how to attain to that rest which God will his lost "Pearl," and is only separated give. He drew this song, he says, out of from her by a narrow stream, forms the Latin into English speech; and to hear subject of the first poem, which inculcates the story of man's bliss and sorrow and the resignation to the will of God; the second, devil's overthrow, related in "londes which consists of several Biblical stories speche and wordes smale," ought to make rendered into alliterative verse, advocates fain" or joyful as birds are when purity of life; the third poem, called by they first perceive the dawn. His object the editor "Patience," is a paraphrase of having been to render only the more im- the book of Jonah. If the reader cares to portant parts of the narrative into Eng-master the "uncouth forms "which abound lish, he wisely exercised his discretion and in this volume, he will find the whole writomitted what was not essentially neces- ten with much spirit, and pervaded by sary to the completeness of his story.t many sentiments which serve to raise the He did not bind himself down to a literal translation, but he used his liberty sparingly, only expanding his subject here and there, and generally with advantage either to the meaning or in adding to the interest of the narrative. A few lines only from this very curious and valuable writer must suffice. him as author very high in our estimation. His dialect is against him, and it must ever prove an obstacle to that acquaintance with the poems which they deserve. The effect produced by the handwriting on the wall upon Belshazzar affords a good example of the writer's manner of treating his subject. It is thus described: The following ex tract will show the kind of liberty which the author occasionally took with his original: — "Nembrot gat hise feres red, For that he hadde of water dred, "The Story of Genesis and Exodus: an Early English Song, about 1250 A.D." Edited by R. Morris, E.E.T.S. 1865. "Genesis and Exodus," p. vi. The chief omissions from Genesis and Exodus, and the portions of Numbers and Deuteronomy which are included, are given by Mr. Morris at the foot of p. viii. LIVING AGE. 1056 VOL. XXIII. : In the palace principal upon the plain wall, Opposite to the candlestick that clearest there shone, There appeared a palm with a pointel in its fingers, That was grisly and great and grimly it When that bold Belshazzar looked to that into their hidden recesses, to their antique fist, Such a dazing dread dashed to his heart, That all faded his face and failed his cheer; The strong stroke of the blow strained his joints, His knees catch too close, and clutch his hams, And he unfolding his palms displays his features, And howls as a frightened hound that roars for dread, Ever beholding the hand till it had all gra ven, And rasped on the rough wall uncouth words." We have thus imperfectly noticed a very few of the books which from seven hundred years to four hundred years ago were making their way through unknown difficulties into the hearts and minds of men. We have purposely confined our remarks to the period preceding the close of the fifteenth century, but we are painfully conscious of how much we have left even unmentioned. The lives of saints, the moral and religious poems, the hymns, the homilies, the books written for the instruction and guidance of the clergy and religious orders, Lydgate's writings, and a thousand other subjects and writers present themselves to our view and claim some brief notice at our hands. Not one of these but demands and would well repay attention. Their name may be "legion," and many of them may treat of exploded beliefs and old doctrines, which having had their day, have ceased to be, and can never be galvanized into life again. Nor do we wish it. But as the votary of science loves to trace back the various forms of life through the myriads of ages which have preceded him, so we who love our glorious English language and literature, desire to trace them back • Editor's Translation, p. xv. and uncouth forms, and look at the rock from whence they were hewn, the hole of the pit from whence they were digged; and we try to bring up thence something which shall throw some gleam of light on many a mystery yet unsolved, many a doubt not yet cleared away. We have been long labouring at this English of ours. The earliest traces of it are still fixed in the names of our rivers and hills; in Beowulf and Cædmon we trace its growth; the overrunnings of our country by strangers from other lands- always barbarians to the plundered and suffering inhabitant - then scored deeply many a line on its page, probably erasing much that was old, or too weak to maintain its position. After these Alfred, who still holds his mysterious sway over us, in the intervals when his right hand was not required to grasp the spear, used the pen and gave that impetus to writing the language which troubles, widespread and many, had rendered so needful. This was continued by the chroniclers, biographers of saints, homilists, the authors of the "Ormulum," the "Ancren Riwle," and many other still extant works, till the solid ground on which Chaucer stood was reached. Much of this poetry lacks the pathos which was then found in that of other countries; the prose lacks the grace and polish and sentiment which are so attractive; but poetry and prose were the work of men who had little thought for the graces which style can give; their whole aim was to raise the moral and religious character of their countrymen, and to improve their social condition. these ends many of them passed their laborious lives in the loneliness of the monastic cell, forgotten of almost all men, but never forgetting the great work which they endeavoured to forward as God gave them ability. For TINTING THE ELECTRIC SPARK.-M. E. Bec- the solution traversed. The saline solutions are querel has shown that the electric spark may best concentrated, and the platinum wire posibe diversely and beautifully coloured by being tive. The experiment is readily performed in a made to pass through saline solutions. If an glass tube. Salts of strontia will colour the electrical spark from an inductive apparatus be spark red; chloride of sodium, yellow; chloride made to pass into the extremity of a platinum of copper, blueish green, &c. The light from wire suspended over the surface of the solution these sparks, analyzed by the spectroscope, furof a salt, this spark will acquire special colour-nishes a method for the determination of the naation according to the chemical composition of ture of the salts contained in the solution. |