Early English and Scottish Poetry, 1250-1600
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
/ Early English and Scottish Poetry 1250- 1600 SELECTED AND EDITED, WITH A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION AND NOTESy H. MACAULAY FITZGIBBON LONDON WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE PATERNOSTER ROW 1888 URRAliY UMVERSn V OF CALIFORNU SAiNTA BARBAilA l3^0f INDEX. ARBUTHNOT, ALEXANDER ; Ixvi PAGE On Love 396 BARBOUR, JOHN; li The Fox and the Fisherman . 15 Apostrophe to Freedom 17 BARCLAY, ALEXANDER; xlv The Mutability of Fortune 187 CHAUCER, GEOFFREY; XXIU INDEX. DOUGLAS, gawain; Ixii Morning in May 173 Sleep .... 176 Spring .... 177 To Love the Enslaver . 179 Ballad in Conamendation of Honour 181 DUNBAR, WILLIAM ; lix The Merle and the Nightingale 107 Christ's Nativity . 112 To a Lady 114 Advice to Lovers 115 The Changes of Life 116 No Treasure without Gladness 117 Meditation written in Winter 119 The World's Instability 121 Lament for the Makers 123 A May Day-Dream 127 Opening Stanzas of " The Thistle and the Rose 130 Dame Nature crowns the Scottish Lion " King of Beasts " . 132 The King and Queen of Flowers 134 On Content 136 The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins 138 The Devil's Inquest 142 Of Life 146 Amends to the Tailors and Soutars 147 How shall I govern me ? 149 EDWARDS, RICHARD ] IxXV Affirming his Constancy INDEX. GASCOIGNE, GEORGE ; Ixxvi iii INDEX. HENRYSON, ROBERT J Ivui The Abbey Walk .... 88 The Garment of Good Ladies . 90 The Three Death's Heads 92 Tale of the Upland Mouse and-the Burgess Mouse 94 The last meeting of Troilus and Cresseid 99 A Vision of yEsop .... lOI The Praise of Are .... 104 HEYWOOD, JASPER ; xlvui Look ere you leap ..... 383 HEYWOOD, JOHN ; xlviii A Praise of his Lady ..... 257 HOCCLEVE, THOMAS ; XXXvii Lament for Chaucer and Gower ... 65 Health ...... 67 JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND, KING ; Ivi Description of his Prison Garden ... 80 Description of his Love as seen from his Prison Window 83 King James's Good Counsel .... 87 JAMES V. OF SCOTLAND, KING ; Ivi The Gaberlunzie Man ..... 322 KENNEDY, WALTER ; Ixvi The Praise of Age . .152 LANGLAND, WILLIAM ; Xxii On the Priesthood ..... INDEX. LINDSAY, SIR DAVID ; Ixiv page The Hope of Immortality .... 190 The Creation of Adam .... 192 The Building of the Tower of Babel . 193 Meldrum's Duel with the English Champion Talbart . 195 A Carman's Account of a Law-suit . .197 The Pardoner's Song ..... 198 The Confessional ..... 199 LYDGATE, JOHN ; xxxviii London Lickpenny ..... 68 Description of a Mediaeval Schoolboy ... 72 " Conclusion of Lydgate's Testament " . 74 A Sylvan Retreat ..... 75 Sunrise ...... 76 God's Providence ..... 77 As straight as a Ram's Horn . 7^ MAITLAND, RICHARD ; Ixvi The Creation and Paradise Lost . 241 MANNYNG, ROBERT; xix Praise of good Women .... 5 MINOT, LAWRENCE : XX How Edward the King came in Braband . 9 MOFFAT, SIR JOHN ; Ixvi Remember the end . .150 MORE, SIR THOMAS Epigram on a New-married Student . 189 PARKER, LORD MORLEY, To his Posterity ..... 387 RHODES, HUGH Cautions ...... 256 ROLLE, RICHARD What is in Heaven .... .6 Dame Fortune's Wheel .... 7 The Broad and Narrow Way .... 8 INDEX. SACKVILLE, THOMAS, LORD BUCKHURST ; IxXXviii Sorrow . :;S8. Winter . Midnight 390 Allegorical Characters . 391 SCOT, ALEXANDER ; Ixvi Hence, Heart . 246 Rondel of Love 248 The Eagle and the Robin 249 Lament when his Wife left him 252 SKELTON, JOHN ; xlv To Isabell .... 154 Upon a Dead Man's Skull 156 To Mistress Margery Wentworth 158 His Reply to the Question, " Why wear ye Calliope " Embroidered with Letters of Gold ? 159 The Complaint of a Rustic against the Clergy 160 Lament for Phillip Sparrow 164 To Mistress Margaret Hussey . 169 On Time .... 171 SPENSER, EDMUND ; IxXX The Oak and the Briar INDEX. XI STILL, BISHOP PAGE I cannot eat but little Meat .... 385 SURREY, THE EARL OF ; Ixix Description and praise of his Love, Geraldinc . 286 Complaint of his Lady .... 287 How no Age is Content .... 288 Complaint of a Lover rebuked . 290 Prisoned in Windsor, he recounteth his Pleasure there 291 How Each Thing receiveth Pleasure in Spring . 293 Spring ...... 294 A Vow to love faithfully, howsoever he be rewarded . 295 The Beauties of the Morning .... 296 A Praise of his Love ..... 297 The Happy Life ..... 298 The Lover unbeloved laments by night . 299 Love's Patience ..... 300 On the Death of Sir Thomas Wyat . 302 Death of Laocoon ..... 304 TURBERVILE, GEORGE; Ixxiv The Lover confesseth himself to be in Love . 343 The Lover, to his Lady, who gazed much up to the Skies . .... 344 The assured Promise of a constant Lover . 345 In Praise of Lady Anne, Countess of Warwick . 346 That all things are as they are used . , . 350 Of a deaf Plaintiff, a deaf Defendant, and a deaf Judge ...... 352 The Miser and the Mouse .... 354 rUSSER, THOMAS ; Ixxv Sonnet to his Wife ..... 336 Good-Husband and Unthrift .... 337 Moral Reflections ..... 340 Time and the Year . .341 Principal Points of Religion .... 342 UDALL, NICHOLAS ; IxXV The Minion Wife ..... 384 INDEX. VAUX, LORD ; Ixxv The Assault of Cupid . 306 The aged Lover renounceth Love 309 Grey Hairs 311 Death in Life . 312 Of a contented Mind . 313 WEDDERBURN, JAMES ; Ixvi Go, Heart 253 Leave me not . 254 WYAT, SIR THOMAS j Ixx A Supplication ..... 260 The Lover's Appeal . .261 Death's Bounties ..... 262 A Description of such a one as he would love . 263 The Careful Lover and the Happy Lover . 264 The Complaint of a Deserted Lover . 265 The Re-cured Lover exulteth in his freedom . 267 A Renouncing of Love .... 269 The Lover forsaketh his unkind Love. 270 The Lover complaineth the unkindness of his Love . 271 The Lover determineth to serve faithfully . 273 The Lover's Lute cannot be blamed . 275 Comparison of Love to an Alpine Stream . 277 Of his Love that pricked her finger with a needle . 278 That Pleasure is mixed with every Pain . 279 The Courtier's Life ..... 280 Yea or Nay ...... 281 Disdain me not ..... 282 On the mean and sure Estate .... 283 WYNTOUN, ANDREW OF ; Hi Macbeth and the Witches 64 INDEX. xiu ANONYMOUS A Love Ditty ..... THE EARLY ENGLISH POETS AND THEIR WORKS. Section I.— Chaucer's Predecessors. ' M ^HE long period of European history known as the I Dark Ages was drawing to a close. With the A beginning of the thirteenth century came the dawn of a new and brighter day. Man's intellect seemed to arouse itself from long slumber, and to apply once again to study with renewed vigour. Nor are the causes which brought this about far to seek. The two great ^barriers to the wider diffusion of learning were the inadequacy of the vernacular for literary composition, and the want of books. The removal of the first of these obstacles had begun ; the second remained until the introduction of the art of printing, more than a century later, multiplied copies, and brought 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 were communicated. The ver- nacular being used only in everyday affairs, learning became the possession of a privileged few. But the use of the tongue of the common people in literature now became more frequent, and, as a necessary result, that tongue became gradually xvi EARL Y ENGLISH POETS. better adapted for the expression of abstract ideas. Cause and effect reacted on one another, and the more the vernacular was used to express hterary ideas, the more capable it became of so doing. Other causes which contributed to this revival of letters were the establishment of the great monastic orders, and the foundation of schools and universities at which the monks were educated ; also the patronage afforded to learning by the princes and nobility. The English language dates from about the year 1250. The century and a half previous was 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. Three stages, Latin, French, and Earliest English, are well typified in three celebrated works—^first, the Historia Brita7inorum, in nine books, written in Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the historian of Arthur, Lear, and Cymbeline, about the year 1130 ; second, the Brut (TAiigleterre, a translation of this work by Wace into 15,000 French lines some forty years later ; third, another transla- tion, at about an equal interval of time, into Earliest English, by a Worcestershire priest named Layamon. This, the most noteworthy production of the latter portion of the transition period, is entitled The Brut ; it extends to some 32,000 lines, and is characterised by both alliteration and rime. The language is almost entirely Saxon—a remarkable fact when we bear in mind Layamon's French original. In fact, Layamon was the last of the Saxon poets, and his work may be termed the lastjgreat Anglo-Saxon, rather than the Earliest English poem of any length. It is uninteligible to INTRODUCTION. xvii the ordinary English reader. Another remarkable poem of this period, second in importance to The Brut only, was The Onnuhnn, so named after its author Ormin, a series of homilies on the New Testament lessons in the daily service of the Church. It exists in a single incomplete MS., containing but the homily for a single Sunday. This numbers some 10,000 lines of fifteen syllables each : if the work was completed on the same scale, it must have been one of the very longest poems in any language.