The Normans had such a contempt for the language of the conquered Saxons that it would not have been read by them had it been put into Saxon. It was for two hundred years that the children in school were compelled to recite in French. The Universities compelled the students to converse in Latin and French; Saxon was the language only of the serfs. The poetry of this period necessarily was French, therefore inferior, for the French language is not adapted to poetry. The Normans had the leisure to read, therefore authors wrote most for those who could appreciate and pay for their work. The Saxon or English writers even, when they did write, attemped French and failed-such as Grostêle, Langtoft, Rotheland, Hoveden and others. Some even would write one-half of a verse in French and the other half in English, so that both Norman and Saxon could understand. But French became, finally, the court language, and the high-born had to speak it. The Normans were compelled to learn English, in order to communicate with their Saxon serfs. Then a Norman king, Henry I., married a Saxon wife, Matilda Atheling. He was obliged to learn to speak the language of his wife. His children were taught in the language of their mother and had a Saxon nurse. Little by little this language became respected and by an introduction into it of many Norman words tending to refine and polish it, it became, under Henry III., the language of the people. So we may say that our English language was formed by compromise. John de Mandeville's Travels, the oldest prose writings in this new language, is after all but a translation of a translation. He first put them into Latin, then translated them into French, and then into English, so that as he expressed it, "Every Man of my Nacioun may undirstande it"; and while the fearful exaggera tion in these travels makes his work of little value as history or literature, the world is really indebted to him for something more than these, for he first suggested the idea that the earth is round, but he said he could not understand why the people on the opposite side "do not fall into space as they stand with head downward.” MANDEVILLE (1300–1371) told the most absurd stories of the men and places that he visited. For instance, he said that he had seen men with tails like monkeys, and elephants being carried through the air in the talons of birds, and Ethiopians with one foot, but that so large that it was used for an umbrella, and that it was not unusual to see men twenty-eight feet tall. He spent thirty years in travel, and was absent so long that his friends supposed that he was dead. He is buried at Liege, where he died in the seventy-first year of his age. "He was a man of unimpeached probity, and a Christian of devoted piety." He had honors thrust upon him, and could have married the Sultan's daughter had he wished and secured with her great riches, but he refused because his faith had to be exchanged for Mohammedanism. He related fables, but he did it honestly, and many of them have been confirmed by later discoveries. We owe him much, for to him perhaps we owe not only the first map of the world, but intercourse with foreign nations. The following is his account (not in his own words, however) of the origin of the white and red rose: Near Bethlehem is the field Floridus, in which a fair maid was unjustly condemned to die, and as the fire began to burn about her she prayed to our Lord that, as she was not guilty, He would in mercy help her and make her innocence known to men. And when she had thus prayed she entered the fire, and immediately the fagots were extinguished, and became red rose trees, and those fagots that had not been lighted became white rose trees and both trees were full of beautiful flowers and these were the first rose trees that man ever saw. He had been very studious as a child, and was exceedingly curious to see the world. A journey over the globe in his day was as solemn as a departure to the realms of death, and even if he was gossipy and said incredulous things, everything taken into consideration, it must be conceded that he was a very remarkable man. The Doomsday Book, giving to each man a definite place and to each a definite duty, so that no one should be at liberty to lead at his own pleasure an unaccountable existence--it was in reality a military life transferred to social life-was instrumental in large measure in shaping from the rude intermingling of Saxon and Norman blood the Englishman we see today. The Vision of Piers Plowman by WILLIAM LANGLAND followed, giving a picture of the condition cf affairs that existed under the double taxation by the Pope and King after the Hundred Years' War. This writer was supposed to have been a secular priest of Oxford and his dream opened the eyes of his countrymen to the domination of the clergy. The allegory shows a Puritan's intensity of hatred for the wrong, and a devotion to the right. From a literary standpoint it marks the turning or transition period in English literature. JOHN GOWER followed with his moral works which Lowell said should be read as penance, but Chaucer refers to Gower as "Moral Gower," and credits him with an influence in his day. His best works were Speculum Meditant's, Vox Clamantis and Confessio Amantis. Then JOHN DE WYCLIFFE began the translation of the Bible, taking the stand that "Religion must be secular in order to escape from the hands of the clergy who forestall it; each must hear and read for himself the word of God; he will be sure then that it has not been corrupted in the passage; he will feel it better, and more, he will understand it better." He was "honored of God to be the first preacher of a general reformation to all Europe. He was born at a little village, Wyclif, the cliff by the water, and was the son of a country squire. He entered Oxford very early, being only sixteen, but in a short time distinguished himself in logic and theology. He won a fellowship in Merton, which was the most learned college of Oxford. After having been appointed to several posts of honor, he was made warden of Canterbury Hall, and became involved in the disputes between the Romanists and the govern ment. He was the first to translate the whole Bible into English. This was not a translation from the original Hebrew and Greek, but from the Latin Vulgate. Besides this work he wrote several Latin books and numerous tracts and treatises. He was called the "Morning Star of the English Reformation." His followers were called Lollards. He was born in 1324 and died in 1384, and lived in Edward III.'s reign. The ballads written at this period were many but were in the hands of the yeomen and harpers; they sang, but their songs reach us so transformed by later editions that a right estimate can not be gotten of them. Among these ballads the most admirable are Chevy Chase and The Nut-Brown Maid. However, amid all this barrenness of literature-literature that bore no real fruit—a definite language was attained and there did appear out of this intermixture of people and style a great writer-GEOFFREY CHAUCER-who, by his genius, education and life, was able to satisfy the world. He was of the court, for he was husband of the Queen's maid of honor and a member of the King's council; he was learned-well versed in all branches of scholastic knowledge as a man of the world and a man of actioneminently fitted to be called the "Father of English Poetry." With him a new spirit was infused into literature. No longer was seen the childish imitation of chivalrous life, but the grave spirit of inquiry and craving for deep truths whereby art becomes complete. He observes characters, notes their difference, studies them and makes them living distinct personages. Thou morning star of English poesie, In matchless rhyme, maker of melody, In thy chaste thought a better way to live, |