Margaret (i.e., "the pearl"). He dreams that he is transported to a wonderful land, through which a musical river flows over pearly sand, and stones that glitter like stars on a winter night. On the other side of the river, at the foot of a gleaming cliff, he sees his daughter sitting, clothed in bright raiment trimmed with pearls, and in the midst of her breast a great pearl. The father begs to be taken to her abidingplace; she tells him that he may see, but cannot enter, "that clean cloister." She bids him go along the river bank until he comes to a hill. Arrived at the top, he sees afar off the city of Heaven, "pitched upon gems," with its walls of jasper and streets of gold. At the wonder of the sight he stands, "still as a dazed quail," and gazing sees, "right as the mighty moon gan rise," the Virgins walking in procession with the Lamb of God. His daughter is one of them.

Then I saw there my little queen

Lord! much of mirth was that she made
Among her mates.

He strives in transport to cross over and be with her; but it is not pleasing to God that he should come, and the dreamer awakes.

The language of The Pearl has the same vigor and picturesqueness which distinguishes that of Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight. This, indeed, has come down to us in the same manuscript with The Pearl. Many scholars believe that they are the work of the same man. If so, he was the most considerable poet between Cynewulf and Chaucer.

IV. END OF THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION

Early Songs and Ballads. As early as the middle of the thirteenth century, song writers began to put to beautiful use the new tongue formed by the flowing together of Saxon and Norman-French. We possess several songs written between 1250 and 1350, which have in them the promise of Herrick and of Shelley. They are all songs of love and of spring. The best known is perhaps the "Cuckoo Song,' with its refrain of "Loude sing Cuckoo!"; but even more

End of the Period of Preparation

35

charming is the spring-song "Lent is come with love to town," and the love-song called "Alisoun," with its delightful opening:

Bitwenë Mersh and Averil

When spray * begineth to springë,
The little fowles † have hyre ‡ will
On hyrë lud § to singë.

To this period also probably belong the ballads which sprang up about the name of Robin Hood, the popular hero of Old England, the embodiment of its delight in the life of green forest and open sky, in bluff, shrewd manners, and in generous adventure. Rude as many of these early ballads are, they tell their story in a wonderfully fresh and vivid way; and they are full of charming bits of nature-poetry.

When shaws been sheene, and shrads full fayre,

And leaves both large and long,

It is merry walking in the fayre forrést
To heare the small birde's songe.

Final Result of the Norman Conquest.-The England which finds utterance in these songs and ballads is a very different England from that which had spoken in "The Wanderer," and "The Battle of Brunanburh." It is no longer the fierce and gloomy aspects of nature, but her bright and laughing moods, that are sung. Love and merry adventure have taken the place of war, as the poet's chief theme. The Norman invasion has done its work. The conquerors have ceased to be such, for foreign wars and centuries of domestic intercourse have broken down the distinction between men of Norman and men of Saxon blood. The new language is formed, a new and vigorous national life is everywhere manifest. A new poet is needed, great enough to gather up and make intelligible to itself this shifting, many-colored life; and Chaucer is at hand.

REVIEW OUTLINE.-This chapter treats of England under the rule of the Norman and Angevin kings, beginning with the reign of the Their. § Voice.

* Foliage.

† Birds.

Conqueror, in 1066, and ending with the close of Richard II's reign in 1327. It covers, therefore, something more than two centuries and a half. The first part of this period has no literary history, so far as English is concerned, for no English books were written, except that the English Chronicle was continued at the monastery of Peterborough until 1154. The first part of the chapter deals with the fusion of the Norman and Saxon races. The Normans were not orig

inally a very different people from the Saxons.

How were they related,
What had made them

in race and by their original habits of life? different? State the chief facts in the history of the Norman-French up to the time of the conquest of England. Note the changes which took place in England by reason of the conquest, in architecture, in laws, in speech. Note the steps by which the two peoples drew together, politically, under William I, Henry I, Henry II, John and Edward I. In what manner did the English speech manage to survive? When it reappeared again as a written language, how had it changed in character? How long did it take this new language to absorb the French? In view of the fact that English absorbed a body of French words nearly three times its own bulk, how do you explain the fact that it retained its individuality as a language? The metrical romance, or chanson de geste (song of deeds) was transplanted to English soil at the very beginning of the Norman occupation, and was for a long time written only in French. Note the various sources from which these romances were drawn; note also that the use of the King Arthur legends by the trouvères brought into English literature the first large Celtic element, corresponding to the large proportion of Celtic blood in the Normans, and the smaller but still considerable ingredient which the Saxons had absorbed from the Celts of Britain. Give the story of Layamon, and indicate the nature of his "Brut." What elements of the King Arthur legend did he add to what was already given by his predecessors? How was he enabled to make these additions? At what period were the French romances translated into English? Outline the story of Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, answering the following questions: (a) Why does Gawayne set out to find the Green Chapel? (b) Whose is the castle where he finds shelter? (c) What compact does he make with the lord of the castle? (d) Why does Morgain try to tempt him to deceive the lord? (e) Why did the Knights of the Round Table wear the green belt? Why is "The Pearl" so called? What are the indications in the ballads and songs of the late thirteenth and early

fourteenth centuries that a new spirit was coming over English literature? Note the joyousness and outdoor freshness of these poems which herald Chaucer, the freshest and most joyous in temper of all English poets.

READING GUIDE. The literature of this period is accessible only with difficulty and in expensive form; little or nothing can be required of a student in the way of private reading. If the teacher can secure Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, or H. Morley's Early English Prose Romances (in the Carisbrooke Library series), enough should be read to the class to illustrate the nature of the early romance. Extracts from Layamon's "Brut" and an epitome of the whole poem are given in Morley's English Writers, Vol. III, pp. 212-227. This will serve admirably for illustration, and is more accessible than the above. "The Pearl," text and translation, is edited by Israel Gollanz (Nutt). The lyrics "Alysoun" and "Lent is come with love to town" are given in Morris and Skeat's Specimens of Early English. The "Love Rune" of Thomas de Hales can be found in B. Ten Brink's History of English Literature, Vol. I.

Fiction. Charles Kingsley's "Hereward the Wake" and Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe" give vivid pictures of society during the Norman and Angevin period. Hereward deals with the times of William I, Ivanhoe with those of Richard Coeur de Lion.

For a tabular view of this period, see close of Chapter IV.