Early English Poetry
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y>^ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Cbe Canterbury fl>oets. Edited by William Sharp. EARLY ENGLISH POETRY gQfARLY ENGLISH POETRY: ^C^ SELECTED AND EDIT- ED, WITH A CRITICAL INTRO- DUCTION AND NOTES, BY H. MACAULAY FIT7GIBBON. LONDON I WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE. NEW YORK: 3 EAST 14th STREET, AND MELBOURNE. AUTHORS AND TITLES. Barbour, John PAP.H The Fox and the Fisherman . 14 Apostrophe to Freedom . 15 Barclay, Alexander The Mutability of Fortune 132 UGLAS, CrAWAIN A UTHORS AND TITLES. Dunbar, William— Continued. page AUTHORS AMJ TITLES. Googe, Barnaby page To the Tune of Apelles . .299 Harpalus and Phillida . .301 The Fly 304 A Refusal . .305 of Sight . Out out of Mind . .30(5 Cower, John The Envious Man and the Miser . .17 Alexander and tlie Robber .... 19 The Tale of the Coffers . , .21 Phcebus and Daphne . 24 Grimoald, Nicholas . A Time Love . L>42 Virtue ........ 243 Friendship ... , .243 Praise of . Measure keeping , . .245 Harrington, John Sonnet on Isabella , Markham , .251 Hawks, Stephen Character of a True Knight . .125 In Praise of Moderation . , , . ,129 Henry The Minstrel Morning .... 62 Henryson, Robert The Abbey Walk ...... 47 The of Garment Good Ladies . .49 ' The Three Dead Skulls . 51 Tale of the Upland Mouse and the Burgess Mouse 52 Testament of Cresseid . 5^3 A Vision of .52sop . 58 The Praise of Ago , . , . _ .00 AUTHORS AND TITLES. ITeywood, Jasper page Look ere you Leap . 309 Ieywood, John A Praise of his Lady IIoccleye, Thomas Lament for Chaucer and Gower Health James I. ok Scotland Description of his Prison Garden Description of his Love Good Counsel James V. op Scotland The Gaberlunzie Mai 251 Kennedy, Walter Praise of Age Langland, William On the Priesthood 16 Lindesay, Sir David AUTHORS AND TITLES. LYDGATE, John tag:: The London Lackpenny . .30 A Mediaeval Schoolboy . 34 " Conclusion of his Testament " . 35 A Sylvan Retreat .... .30 The Golden Age . 36 Sunrise ....... 61 God's Providence . 37 As straight as a Ram's Horn . • 33 Maitland, Richard The Creation and Paradise Lost , . Ibl Manning, Robert Praise of Good "Women ... .4 Marshall, Thomas Remember ..... Mikot, Laurence How Edward the King came in Brabant Moffat, Sir John Remember the end . t)i More, Sir Thomas On a new-married .Student .... 134 Parker, Lord Morley To his Posterity .... 313 Rhodes, Hugh Caution* .... .194 AUTHORS AND TITLES. Rolle, Richard page " " is in 1 , . What Heaven . ,5 Dame Fortune's Wheel ..... The Broad and Narrow Way .... 6 Sackville, Thomas, Lord Buckiiurst Sorrow ..... ;ji7 Winter ... Midnight ...... ;,19 Allegorical Characters from " The Mirror for Magis traies" ...... Scot, Alexander Hence, Heart . , . .185 Rondel of Love . lbii The Eagle and the Robin . ,187 Lament when his Wife left him .... ISO Skelton, John A UTHORS AND TITLES. Surrey, The Earl of page 218 His Love, Geraldinu . 218 Complaint of his Lady . ... A Careless Man 219 How no age is content ... 220 Complaint of a Lover rebuked .... 222 Prisoner in Windsor, he recounteth his pleasure there 222 How each thing receiveth pleasure in Spring . 224 A Carol of Spring ... —6 A Vow to love faithfully . 225 The Beauties of the Morning . 22G 227 A praise of his Love . • • The Happy Life ... 228 The Lover unbeloved laments by night , . 220 Love's Patience . .229 On the Death of Sir Thomas Wyat . 231 Sonnet on Sir Thomas Wyat .... 232 Death of Laocoon . 2J3 TURBERVILE, GEORGE The Lover confesseth himself to be in love . 271 The Lover, to his Lady, who gazed much up to the skies . .271 To one that had little wit ..... 272 The assured promise of a constant Lover . 272 In Praise of Lady Anne, Countess of Warwick . 27;> All things are as they are used .... 270 Of a deaf Plaintiff, a deaf Defendant, and a deaf Judge , . 27i> Of Drunkenness . 27a Of a Rich Miser ..... 280 The Niggard and the Mouse A UTHORS AND TITLES. Tusser, Thomas AUTHORS AND TITLES. Wvat, Sir Thomas— Continued. The Careful Lover coiuplaineth, and the Happy Lover counselleth .... 201 The Complaint of a Deserted Lover 202 The Re-cured Lover exulteth in his freedom A Renouncing of Love 2 The Lover forsaketh his unkind Love The Lover complaineth the unkindness of his Love 206 The Lover determineth to serve faithfully 208 The Lover & lute cannot be blamed 209 " Blame not my Lute " moralised 210 Comparison of Love to an Alpine Stream 211 Of his Love that pricked her finger with a needle 212 On his return from Spain 21 Pleasure mixed with every pain 21 The Courtier's life . 21; On the mean and sure estatt- 213 Yea or Nay . 214 Disdain me not 214 Satire " On the mean and sure estate 215 'tt'YNTOUN, Andrew ov Macbeth and the Witches Anonymous A Little Geste of Robin Hood Ancient Love Song Care away for evermore Earliest English Sea- Song Gossip mine Hymn on the Passion I had both money and a friend Love Ditty of a,bout the year 1300 Love Song to Mistress Alysuuu A UTHORS AND TITLES. Anonymous—Continued. PREFACE. In the choice of selections for the present volume, I have necessarily been confined within certain defined limits, Roughly speak- ing, the period embraced is from Layamon to the early Elizabethans—in dates from about T300 to 1560 a.d. From this certain exceptions are to be made : the works of Chaucer and Spenser are not included, nor are the Border Ballads, these being all treated in separate volumes of this series In order to render the collection acceptable to the general public, and holding, as I do, that literary merit does not consist in mere obsolete phraseology, I have— wherever it was possible to do so without destroying the metre, rhyme, or alliteration, and without losing the poetic flavour—endeavoured to modernise the more antique extracts as much as possible. In so doing I have followed certain definite PREFACE. rules as under. When a word differs from the modern word in spelling only, I have not preserved the antiquated spelling. As a general rule, wherever it is possible, I have in the text substituted for obsolete their terms modern synonyms \ giving the original words in the notes at the end of the volume. In cases where this is not pos- sible or desirable, I give the archaic word, along with its modern equivalent, at the head of the poem. If it be a word still in use, but in a different sense, and might thus prove mis- leading, I print the word in the text in italics. I have throughout endeavoured to secure the best texts, and I here, once for all, beg to acknowledge my indebtedness to all previous writers on the subject, of the result of whose labours I have freely availed myself. H. MACAULAY FITZGIBBON. 75 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, — THE EARLY ENGLISH POETS AND THEIR WORKS. Secttom I. Chaucer's Predecessors. HE long period of European history known as the Dark Ages was at length drawing to a close. With the beginning of the thirteenth century there came the dawn of a new and brighter day. Man's intellect seemed once more to arouse itself from its long slumber, and to apply itself once again to study with renewed vigour. Nor are the causes which brought about this improved state of affairs far to seek. The two great barriers to the wider diffusion of learning were—(1) the inadequacy of the vernacular tongue for literary composition, and (2) the want of books. The removal of the first of these obstacles had commenced ; the second remained until the introduction of the art of printing, more than a century later, multiplied copies to an innumerable extent, and placed the means of enlightenment within the reach of all. Formerly Latin, the language of the schools, was the sole vehicle of literary composition, and in this dress all the higher kinds of knowledge wire communicated. The vernacular being used only to ex- press the ordinary everyday affairs of life, learning b. came the possession of a privileged few. But the introduction EARLY ENGLISH POETS. and use of the tongue of the common people into litera- ture now became more frequent, and, as a necessary result, that tongue became gradually more adapted for the expression, not merely, as before, of tangible objects, but also of abstract ideas. The cause and effect reacted on one another, and the more the vernacular was used to express literary ideas, the more capable it became of so doing. Other causes which contributed to this revival of letters are to be found in the establish- ment of the great monastic orders, and the foundation of schools and universities at which the monks were educated ; also in the patronage afforded to learning by the princes and nobility. The English language dates from about the year 1250. For the century and a half previous the nation's speech was passing through a transition period. Norman-French was still the language of the law, the court, and the nobility ; but nevertheless the native vernacular, spoken solely by the larger mass of the despised commonalty, more than held its own, until at length the hostile tongues— like the antagonistic races of conquerors and conquered, —Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon, became fused and welded into one, the noble English language. These three stages, Latin, French, and Earliest English, are well typified in three celebrated works—first, the History of Britain, in nine books, written in Latin by Geoffrey of Mon- mouth, the historian of Arthur, Lear, and Cymbeline, about the year 1130 ; second, a translation of this work by Wace into 15,000 French lines some forty years later ; third, another translation, at about an equal interval of time, into Earliest English, by a Worcester- shire priest named Layamon.