which are almost as old as the Beowulf, and one or two fragments which may have been committed to writing even earlier. One such collection of poetry, called the "Exeter Book," was given by a good bishop to the library of Exeter Cathedral some time in the eleventh century. Most of these poems are on religious subjects, although two or three of the most poetical in the book have an air of even greater antiquity than the Christian religion on English soil. Let me give you a few lines from one of these old poems, “The Sea-farer," which might have been sung by some old viking in the earliest times that the ships of the Northmen sailed the seas. He begins,

"I of myself can
a true tale relate,
my fortunes recount,
how I in days of toil,
a time of hardship,
oft suffered

bitter breast-cares,
have endured,

proved in the ship,
strange mishaps many.

The fell rolling of the waves

has me oft drenched,

an anxious night-watch
at the vessel's prow

when on the cliff it strikes.

Pierced with cold

were my feet,

bound with frost

with cold bonds.

There cares sighed
hot round my heart;
hunger tore me within, –
the sea-wolf's rage;
that the man knows not

to whom on land

all falls out

most joyfully;

how I miserable and sad
on the ice-cold sea
a winter passed
with exile traces,

of dear kindred bereft.
Hung o'er with icicles,
the hail in showers flew,
where I heard naught
save the sea roaring,
the ice-cold wave."

Note the atmosphere of this old poem,

the icy cold

ness, which almost makes one shiver in reading it, and you will feel that the unknown poet knew something of the poetic art.

IV.

ON THE FORM OF EARLY ENGLISH POETRY, AND THE OLD POEM OF CEDMON.

EFORE going farther, I want you to glance at the con

BEFORE

struction of this early poetry, and to note in what way it differs from the poetry of other peoples. Its most marked difference is its alliteration, or the use of the same initial letter to begin a certain number of words in a line of poetry. The verses were written like prose; for a long time they were not supposed to be cast in poetical form, as there was no use of capital letters at the beginning of lines. There was, however, a little mark, like a colon or semicolon, dividing the poem into lines; and these lines consisted usually of two important and two unimportant syllables. Of such a pair of lines the two most important words of the first, and the most important of the second, had the same initial; thus:

"The grim guest
Grendel hight."

"An un-winsome wood,

water stood under it.

The water welled blood;
the warriors gazed

on the hot heart's blood,
while the horn rung

a doleful death-note."

This system of alliteration, which was used by the Scandinavians as well as the English, is the distinguishing mark of the poetry of the North. Probably this use of consonant initials was as natural to these Northern peoples as the music of rhythm and the jingling of rhyme were to the nations of the South of Europe, where the language was so rich in vowels. and so soft in sound. Certainly the use of a recurring consonant seems natural to the poets of the North, and we shall see that alliteration is much used by poets in later

English, and that it often crops out in our poetry even at the present day.

The first noted poetical outcome of the English Muse after the land was Christianized was the work of Cædmon, of whom very little is known, except that he lived near the convent of Whitby, which was presided over by the Abbess Hilda, one of that long line of saintly women who are found in the early annals of the Christian Church.

This Cadmon, according to the earliest account, was present at some convivial party, where it was the custom, as from the earliest times among all Teutonic peoples, to sing or recite, while the others feasted, and each was called upon in turn to perform his part. But when it came to him to sing, Cadmon got up and went out, he was so ashamed of his ignorance. Going out into the stable among the cattle, the care of which was that night committed to him, he fell asleep there. In his dream he heard a voice saying, “Cadmon, sing to me.” He answered, "Thou knowest I cannot sing." Then the voice replied, "However, you shall sing." "What shall I sing?" asked Cædmon, meekly. Sing thou the beginning of created things." And on this he began to praise God in verse, and to utter a long poem in his dream. On waking he was still inspired by the influence he had felt in his sleep, and continued to sing the Creation, the Fall of Man, and the whole story of Paradise Lost. Taken before the Abbess Hilda, she persuaded him to enter the monastery, and he lived and died there in great holiness, leaving as his work this first English epic which Christianity inspired in England.

66

The poem opens with a description of the revolt of Lucifer in Heaven, the Creation, the Temptation and Fall, and goes on through nearly all the dramatic incidents of the Old Testament. Here are the lines that follow the account of Satan's conspiracy and rebellion:

"Then was God angry,

and wroth with that host
whom he erst had honcred
with beauty and glory;

he formed for these false ones
an exile home,

anguish for reward,

the groans of hell,

hard punishment;

bade the torture-house

await the victims."

After he has banished Lucifer and his rebels, God creates the earth and man to re-people the sky, empty of the angels he has banished to hell. Of the earth the old poem says,

"There had not here as yet

save cavern shade

aught been;

but this wide abyss

stood deep and dim,

strange to its Lord,

idle and useless."

Satan's speech of discontent has a shadowy likeness to Milton's Satan :

666

Why shall I toil,' said he.

'To me it is no whit needful
to have a superior.

I can with my hands

as many wonders work;

I have great power to form
a diviner home,

higher in heaven.

Why shall I for his favor serve?

bend to him in such vassalage?

I may be a god as he.

Stand by me, strong associates,

who will not fail me in this strife.

Heroes strong in mood,

who have chosen me for chief,

renowned warriors!

I may be their chieftain,

sway in this realm.

To me it seemeth not right

that I in aught need cringe
to God for any good.

I will no longer be his vassal.'"

The following lines are from the description of the deluge:

700-710

"The Lord sent

rain from heaven,
and also amply let

the well brooks

throng on the world

from every vein.

The torrent streams
dark-sounded;

the sea rose

o'er their shore-walls.

Stern and strong was he
who o'er the waters swayed,
covered and overwhelmed
the sinful sons

of middle earth

with the dark waves."

Cadmon flourished in the seventh century, somewhere in the period from 657 to 680. His successors were a line of worthy monks, who for centuries kept alive in monasteries the faint flame of learning and literature. In the early part of the eighth century appeared the first English biography, that of Bishop Wilfrid, who built York Minster, written by his pious chaplain, Eddius; about this time, too, came the first autobiography known to our literature, written by Bishop Egwin. Text-books in the various sciences began to appear. Aldhelm, a learned monk of the seventh century, was both a musician and a poet, and assumed the garb and character of a gleeman, singing his verses in English, that it might thus attract and teach the people. Unfortunately, for a very long time the language of books and of learning was Latin, and the good every-day speech of our forefathers, the homely English, was crowded out of use. This was partly because English was not much esteemed, and partly because Latin was the language of scholars all over Europe; and being thus a universal tongue, it was the most convenient one for authors. But it was a misfortune for the English language and literature that a foreign speech should for centuries have held such a sway over the speech of the people.