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English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History by Henry Coppee

H >> Henry Coppee >> English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History




Under him the Normans were united, while divisions existed in the Saxon
ranks. Tostig, the brother of Harold, and Harald Hardrada, the King of
Norway, combined against Harold, and, just before the landing of Duke
William at Pevensey, on the coast of Sussex, Harold was obliged to march
rapidly northward to Stanford bridge, to defeat Tostig and the Norwegians,
and then to return with a tired army of uncertain _morale_, to encounter
the invading Normans. Thus it appears that William conquered the land,
which would have been invincible had the leaders and the people been
united in its defence.

As the Saxons, Danes, and Normans were of the same great Teutonic family,
however modified by the different circumstances of movement and residence,
there was no new ethnic element introduced; and, paradoxical as it may
seem, the fusion of these peoples was of great benefit, in the end, to
England. Though the Saxons at first suffered from Norman oppression, the
kingdom was brought into large inter-European relations, and a far better
literary culture was introduced, more varied in subject, more developed in
point of language, and more artistic.

Thus much, in a brief historical summary, is necessary as an introduction
to our subject. From all these contests and conquests there were wrought
in the language of the country important changes, which are to be studied
in the standard works of its literature.


CHANGES IN LANGUAGE.--The changes and transformations of language may be
thus briefly stated:--In the Celtic period, before the arrival of the
Romans, the people spoke different dialects of the Celtic and Gadhelic
languages, all cognate and radically similar.

These were not much affected by the occupancy of the Romans for about four
hundred and fifty years, although, doubtless, Latin words, expressive of
things and notions of which the British had no previous knowledge, were
adopted by them, and many of the Celtic inhabitants who submitted to these
conquerors learned and used the Latin language.

When the Romans departed, and the Saxons came in numbers, in the fifth and
sixth centuries, the Saxon language, which is the foundation of English,
became the current speech of the realm; adopting few Celtic words, but
retaining a considerable number of the Celtic names of places, as it also
did of Latin terminations in names.

Before the coming of the Normans, their language, called the _Langue
d'oil_, or Norman French, had been very much favored by educated
Englishmen; and when William conquered England, he tried to supplant the
Saxon entirely. In this he was not successful; but the two languages were
interfused and amalgamated, so that in the middle of the twelfth century,
there had been thus created the _English language_, formed but still
formative. The Anglo-Saxon was the foundation, or basis; while the Norman
French is observed to be the principal modifying element.

Since the Norman conquest, numerous other elements have entered, most of
them quietly, without the concomitant of political revolution or foreign
invasion.

Thus the Latin, being used by the Church, and being the language of
literary and scientific comity throughout the world, was constantly adding
words and modes of expression to the English. The introduction of Greek
into Western Europe, at the fall of Constantinople, supplied Greek words,
and induced a habit of coining English words from the Greek. The
establishment of the Hanoverian succession, after the fall of the Stuarts,
brought in the practice and study of German, and somewhat of its
phraseology; and English conquests in the East have not failed to
introduce Indian words, and, what is far better, to open the way for a
fuller study of comparative philology and linguistics.

In a later chapter we shall reconsider the periods referred to, in an
examination of the literary works which they contain, works produced by
historical causes, and illustrative of historical events.




CHAPTER II.

LITERATURE A TEACHER OF HISTORY. CELTIC REMAINS.


The Uses of Literature. Italy, France, England. Purpose of the Work.
Celtic Literary Remains. Druids and Druidism. Roman Writers. Psalter of
Cashel. Welsh Triads and Mabinogion. Gildas and St. Colm.



THE USES OF LITERATURE.


Before examining these periods in order to find the literature produced in
them, it will be well to consider briefly what are the practical uses of
literature, and to set forth, as a theme, that particular utility which it
is the object of these pages to inculcate and apply.

The uses of literature are manifold. Its study gives wholesome food to the
mind, making it strong and systematic. It cultivates and delights the
imagination and the taste of men. It refines society by elevating the
thoughts and aspirations above what is sensual and sordid, and by checking
the grosser passions; it makes up, in part, that "multiplication of
agreeable consciousness" which Dr. Johnson calls happiness. Its
adaptations in religion, in statesmanship, in legislative and judicial
inquiry, are productive of noble and beneficent results. History shows us,
that while it has given to the individual man, in all ages, contemplative
habits, and high moral tone, it has thus also been a powerful instrument
in producing the brilliant civilization of mighty empires.


A TEACHER OF HISTORY.--But apart from these its subjective benefits, it
has its highest and most practical utility as a TEACHER OF HISTORY.
Ballads, more powerful than laws, shouted forth from a nation's heart,
have been in part the achievers, and afterward the victorious hymns, of
its new-born freedom, and have been also used in after ages to reinspire
the people with the spirit of their ancestors. Immortal epics not only
present magnificent displays of heroism for imitation, but, like the Iliad
and Odyssey, still teach the theogony, national policy, and social history
of a people, after the Bema has long been silent, the temples in ruin, and
the groves prostrate under the axe of repeated conquests.

Satires have at once exhibited and scourged social faults and national
follies, and remained to after times as most essential materials for
history.

Indeed, it was a quaint but just assertion of Hare, in his "Guesses at
Truth," that in Greek history there is nothing truer than Herodotus except
Homer.


ITALY AND FRANCE.--Passing by the classic periods, which afford abundant
illustration of the position, it would be easy to exhibit the clear and
direct historic teachings in purely literary works, by a reference to the
literature of Italy and France. The history of the age of the Guelphs and
Ghibellines is clearly revealed in the vision of Dante: the times of Louis
XIV. are amply illustrated by the pulpit of Massillon, Bourdaloue, and
Bridaine, and by the drama of Corneille, Racine, and Moliere.


ENGLISH LITERATURE THE BEST ILLUSTRATION.--But in seeking for an
illustration of the position that literature is eminently a teacher and
interpreter of history, we are fortunate in finding none more striking
than that presented by English literature itself. All the great events of
English history find complete correspondent delineation in English
literature, so that, were the purely historical record lost, we should
have in the works of poetry, fiction, and the drama, correct portraitures
of the character, habits, manners and customs, political sentiments, and
modes and forms of religious belief among the English people; in a word,
the philosophy of English history.

In the works of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Dryden, and Addison, are to
be found the men and women, kings, nobles, and commons, descriptions of
English nature, hints of the progress of science and advancement in art;
the conduct of government, the force of prevailing fashions--in a word,
the moving life of the time, and not its dry historic record.

"Authors," says the elder D'Israeli, "are the creators or creatures of
opinion: the great form the epoch; the many reflect the age."
Chameleon-like, most of them take the political, social, and religious
hues of the period in which they live, while a few illustrate it perhaps
quite as forcibly by violent opposition and invective.

We shall see that in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_ and in Gower's _Vox
Clamantis_ are portrayed the political ferments and theological
controversies of the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. Spenser decks
the history of his age in gilded mantle and flowing plumes, in his tribute
to Gloriana, The Faery Queen, who is none other than Elizabeth herself.
Literature partakes of the fierce polemic and religious enthusiasm which
mark the troublous times of the Civil War; it becomes tawdry, tinselled,
and licentious at the Restoration, and develops into numerous classes and
more serious instruction, under the constitutional reigns of the house of
Hanover, in which the kings were bad, but the nation prosperous because
the rights of the people were guaranteed.

Many of the finest works of English literature are _purely and directly
historical_; what has been said is intended to refer more particularly to
those that are not--the unconscious, undesigned teachers of history, such
as fiction, poetry, and the drama.


PURPOSE OF THE WORK.--Such, then, is the purpose of this volume--to
indicate the teachings of history in the principal productions of English
literature. Only the standard authors will be considered, and the student
will not be overburdened with statistics, which it must be a part of his
task to collect for himself. And now let us return to the early literature
embodied in those languages which have preceded the English on British
soil; or which, by their combination, have formed the English language.
For, the English language may be properly compared to a stream, which,
rising in a feeble source, receives in its seaward flow many tributaries,
large and small, until it becomes a lordly river. The works of English
literature may be considered as the ships and boats which it bears upon
its bosom: near its source the craft are small and frail; as it becomes
more navigable, statelier vessels are launched upon it, until, in its
majestic and lakelike extensions, rich navies ride, freighted with wealth
and power--the heavy ordnance of defence and attack, the products of
Eastern looms, the precious metals and jewels from distant mines--the best
exponents of the strength and prosperity of the nation through which flows
the river of speech, bearing the treasures of mind.


CELTIC LITERARY REMAINS. THE DRUIDS.--Let us take up the consideration of
literature in Britain in the order of the conquests mentioned in the first
chapter.

We recur to Britain while inhabited by the Celts, both before and after
the Roman occupation. The extent of influence exercised by the Latin
language upon the Celtic dialects cannot be determined; it seems to have
been slight, and, on the other hand, it may be safely assumed that the
Celtic did not contribute much to the world-absorbing Latin.

The chief feature, and a very powerful one, of the Celtic polity, was
_Druidism_. At its head was a priesthood, not in the present meaning of
the word, but in the more extended acceptation which it received in the
middle ages, when it embraced the whole class of men of letters. Although
we have very few literary remains, the system, wisdom, and works of the
Druids form one of the strong foundation-stones of English literature and
of English national customs, and should be studied on that account. The
_Druid_ proper was governor, judge, philosopher, expounder, and
executioner. The _ovaidd_, or _ovates_, were the priests, chiefly
concerned in the study of theology and the practice of religion. The
_bards_ were heroic poets of rare lyric power; they kept the national
traditions in trust, and claimed the second sight and the power of
prophecy. Much has been said of their human sacrifices in colossal images
of wicker-work--the "_immani magnitudine simulacra_" of Caesar--which were
filled with human victims, and which crackled and disappeared in towering
flame and columns of smoke, amid the loud chantings of the bards. The most
that can be said in palliation of this custom is, that almost always such
a scene presented the judicial execution of criminals, invested with the
solemnities of religion.

In their theology, _Esus_, the God Force--the Eternal Father--has for his
agents the personification of spiritual light, of immortality, of nature,
and of heroism; _Camul_ was the war-god; _Tarann_ the thunder-god; _Heol_,
the king of the sun, who inflames the soldier's heart, and gives vitality
to the corn and the grape.[4]

But Druidism, which left its monuments like Stonehenge, and its strong
traces in English life, now especially found in Wales and other
mountainous parts of the kingdom, has not left any written record.


ROMAN WRITERS.--Of the Roman occupancy we have Roman and Greek accounts,
many of them by those who took part in the doings of the time. Among the
principal writers are _Julius Caesar_, _Tacitus_, _Diodorus Siculus_,
_Strabo_, and _Suetonius_.


PSALTER OF CASHEL.--Of the later Celtic efforts, almost all are in Latin:
the oldest Irish work extant is called the _Psalter of Cashel_, which is a
compilation of the songs of the early bards, and of metrical legends, made
in the ninth century by _Cormac Mac Culinan_, who claimed to be King of
Munster and Bishop of Cashel.


THE WELSH TRIADS.--The next of the important Celtic remains is called _The
Welsh Triads_, an early but progressive work of the Cymbric Celts. Some of
the triads are of very early date, and others of a much later period. The
work is said to have been compiled in its present form by _Caradoc of
Nantgarvan_ and _Jevan Brecha_, in the thirteenth century. It contains a
record of "remarkable men and things which have been in the island of
Britain, and of the events which befell the race of the Cymri from the age
of ages," i.e. from the beginning. It has also numerous moral proverbs. It
is arranged in _triads_, or sets of three.

As an example, we have one triad giving "The three of the race of the
island of Britain: _Hu Gadarn_, (who first brought the race into Britain;)
_Prydain_, (who first established regal government,) and _Dynwal Moelmud_,
(who made a system of laws.)" Another triad presents "The three benevolent
tribes of Britain: the _Cymri_, (who came with Hu Gadarn from
Constantinople;) the _Lolegrwys_, (who came from the Loire,) and the
_Britons_"

Then are mentioned the tribes that came with consent and under protection,
viz., the _Caledonians_, the _Gwyddelian race_, and the men of _Galedin_,
who came from the continent "when their country was drowned;" the last
inhabited the Isle of Wight. Another mentions the three usurping tribes;
the _Coranied_, the _Gwydel-Fichti_, (from Denmark,) and the _Saxons_.
Although the _compilation_ is so modern, most of the triads date from the
sixth century.


THE MABINOGION.--Next in order of importance of the Celtic remains must be
mentioned the Mabinogion, or _Tales for Youth_, a series of romantic
tales, illustrative of early British life, some of which have been
translated from the Celtic into English. Among these the most elaborate is
the _Tale of Peredur_, a regular Romance of Arthur, entirely Welsh in
costume and character.


BRITISH BARDS.--A controversy has been fiercely carried on respecting the
authenticity of poems ascribed to _Aneurin_, _Taliesin_, _Llywarch Hen_,
and _Merdhin_, or _Merlin_, four famous British bards of the fifth and
sixth centuries, who give us the original stories respecting Arthur,
representing him not as a "miraculous character," as the later histories
do, but as a courageous warrior worthy of respect but not of wonder. The
burden of the evidence, carefully collected and sifted by Sharon
Turner,[5] seems to be in favor of the authenticity of these poems.

These works are fragmentary and legendary: they have given few elements to
the English language, but they show us the condition and culture of the
British mind in that period, and the nature of the people upon whom the
Saxons imposed their yoke. "The general spirit [of the early British
poetry] is much more Druidical than Christian,"[6] and in its mysterious
and legendary nature, while it has been not without value as a historical
representation of that early period, it has offered rare material for
romantic poetry from that day to the present time. It is on this account
especially that these works should be studied.


GILDAS.--Among the writers who must be considered as belonging to the
Celtic race, although they wrote in Latin, the most prominent is _Gildas_.
He was the son of Caw, (Alcluyd, a British king,) who was also the father
of the famous bard Aneurin. Many have supposed Gildas and Aneurin to be
the same person, so vague are the accounts of both. If not, they were
brothers. Gildas was a British bard, who, when converted to Christianity,
became a Christian priest, and a missionary among his own people. He was
born at Dumbarton in the middle of the sixth century, and was surnamed
_the Wise_. His great work, the History of the Britons, is directly
historical: his account extends from the first invasion of Britain down to
his own time.

A true Celt, he is a violent enemy of the Roman conquerors first, and then
of the Saxon invaders. He speaks of the latter as "the nefarious Saxons,
of detestable name, hated alike by God and man; ... a band of devils
breaking forth from the den of the barbarian lioness."

The history of Gildas, although not of much statistical value, sounds a
clear Celtic note against all invaders, and displays in many parts
characteristic outlines of the British people.


ST. COLUMBANUS.--St. Colm, or Columbanus, who was born in 521, was the
founder and abbot of a monastery in Iona, one of the Hebrides, which is
also called Icolmkill--the Isle of Colm's Cell. The Socrates of that
retreat, he found his Plato in the person of a successor, St. Adamnan,
whose "Vita Sancti Columbae" is an early work of curious historical
importance. St. Adamnan became abbot in 679.

A backward glance at the sparse and fragmentary annals of the Celtic
people, will satisfy us that they have but slight claims to an original
share in English literature. Some were in the Celtic dialects, others in
Latin. They have given themes, indeed, to later scholars, but have left
little trace in form and language. The common Celtic words retained in
English are exceedingly few, although their number has not been decided.
They form, in some sense, a portion of the foundation on which the
structure of our literature has been erected, without being in any manner
a part of the building itself.




CHAPTER III.

ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE AND HISTORY.


The Lineage of the Anglo-Saxon. Earliest Saxon Poem. Metrical
Arrangement. Periphrasis and Alliteration. Beowulf. Caedmon. Other
Saxon Fragments. The Appearance of Bede.



THE LINEAGE OF THE ANGLO-SAXON.


The true origin of English literature is Saxon. Anglo-Saxon is the mother
tongue of the English language, or, to state its genealogy more
distinctly, and to show its family relations at a glance, take the
following divisions and subdivisions of the

TEUTONIC CLASS.
|
.--------------------+-------------------.
| | |
High German branch. Low German branch. Scandinavian branch.
|
Dead | Languages.
.----------+--------------+-------------+------------.
| | | | |
Gothic. Old Dutch. Anglo-Saxon. Old Frisian. Old Saxon.
|
English.

Without attempting an analysis of English to find the exact proportion of
Saxon words, it must be observed that Saxon is the root-language of
English; it might with propriety be called the oldest English; it has been
manipulated, modified, and developed in its contact with other
languages--remaining, however, _radically_ the same--to become our present
spoken language.

At this period of our inquiry, we have to do with the Saxon itself,
premising, however, that it has many elements from the Dutch, and that its
Scandinavian relations are found in many Danish words. The progress and
modifications of the language in that formative process which made it the
English, will be mentioned as we proceed in our inquiries.

In speaking of the Anglo-Saxon literature, we include a consideration also
of those works written in Latin which are products of the times, and bear
a part in the progress of the people and their literature. They are
exponents of the Saxon mind, frequently of more value than the vernacular
writings.


EARLIEST SAXON POEM.--The earliest literary monument in the Saxon language
is the poem called Beowulf, the author and antiquity of which are alike
unknown. It is at once a romantic legend and an instructive portraiture of
the earliest Saxon period--"an Anglo-Saxon poetical romance," says Sharon
Turner, "true in costume and manners, but with an invented story." Before
proceeding to a consideration of this poem, let us look for a moment at
some of the characteristics of Saxon poetry. As to its subject-matter, it
is not much of a love-song, that sentiment not being one of its chief
inspirations. The Saxon imagination was inflamed chiefly by the religious
and the heroic in war. As to its handling, it abounded in metaphor and
periphrasis, suggestive images, and parables instead of direct narrative.


METRICAL ARRANGEMENT.--As to metrical arrangement, Saxon poetry differed
from our modern English as well as from the classical models, in that
their poets followed no laws of metre, but arranged their vernacular
verses without any distinct rules, but simply to please the ear. "To such
a selection and arrangement of words as produced this effect, they added
the habit of frequently omitting the usual particles, and of conveying
their meaning in short and contracted phrases. The only artifices they
used were those of inversion and transition."[7] It is difficult to give
examples to those unacquainted with the language, but the following
extract may serve to indicate our meaning: it is taken from Beowulf:

Crist waer a cennijd
Cyninga wuldor
On midne winter:
Maere theoden!
Ece almihtig!
On thij eahteothan daeg
Hael end gehaten
Heofon ricet theard.

Christ was born
King of glory
In mid-winter:
Illustrious King!
Eternal, Almighty!
On the eighth day
Saviour was called,
Of Heaven's kingdom ruler.


PERIPHRASIS.--Their periphrasis, or finding figurative names for persons
and things, is common to the Norse poetry. Thus Caedmon, in speaking of
the ark, calls it the _sea-house, the palace of the ocean, the wooden
fortress_, and by many other periphrastic names.


ALLITERATION.--The Saxons were fond of alliteration, both in prose and
verse. They used it without special rules, but simply to satisfy their
taste for harmony in having many words beginning with the same letter; and
thus sometimes making an arbitrary connection between the sentences or
clauses in a discourse, e.g.:

Firum foldan;
Frea almihtig;

The ground for men
Almighty ruler.

The nearest approach to a rule was that three words in close connection
should begin with the same letter. The habit of ellipsis and transposition
is illustrated by the following sentence in Alfred's prose: "So doth the
moon with his pale light, that the bright stars he obscures in the
heavens;" which he thus renders in poetry:

With pale light
Bright stars
Moon lesseneth.

With this brief explanation, which is only intended to be suggestive to
the student, we return to Beowulf.


THE PLOT OF BEOWULF.--The poem contains six thousand lines, in which are
told the wonderful adventures of the valiant viking Beowulf, who is
supposed to have fallen in Jutland in the year 340. The Danish king
Hrothgar, in whose great hall banquet, song, and dance are ever going on,
is subjected to the stated visits of a giant, Grendel, a descendant of
Cain, who destroys the Danish knights and people, and against whom no
protection can be found.

Beowulf, the hero of the epic, appears. He is a great chieftain, the
_heorth-geneat_ (hearth-companion, or vassal) of a king named Higelac. He
assembles his companions, goes over the road of the swans (the sea) to
Denmark, or Norway, states his purpose to Hrothgar, and advances to meet
Grendel. After an indecisive battle with the giant, and a fierce struggle
with the giant's mother, who attacks him in the guise of a sea-wolf, he
kills her, and then destroys Grendel. Upon the death of Hrothgar he
receives his reward in being made King of the Danes.

With this occurrence the original poem ends: it is the oldest epic poem in
any modern language. At a later day, new cantos were added, which,
following the fortunes of the hero, record at length that he was killed by
a dragon. A digest and running commentary of the poem may be found in
Turner's Anglo-Saxons; and no one can read it without discerning the
history shining clearly out of the mists of fable. The primitive manners,
modes of life, forms of expression, are all historically delineated. In it
the intimate relations between the _king_ and his people are portrayed.
The Saxon _cyning_ is compounded of _cyn_, people, and _ing_, a son or
descendant; and this etymology gives the true conditions of their rule:
they were popular leaders--_elected_ in the witenagemot on the death of
their predecessors.[8] We observe, too, the spirit of adventure--a rude
knight-errantry--which characterized these northern sea-kings

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