ning of the fourteenth century. He was liberally educated, and was designed for the medical profession; but early conceiving an unconquerable desire to visit foreign countries, he left England when in the twenty-third year of his age, and passed thirty-four years in travelling through various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, visiting Cythia, the Greater and the Lesser Armenia, Arabia, Syria, Media, Mesopotamia, Persia, Chaldea, Greece, Dalmatia, and Egypt, dwelling a sufficient length of time in each of these countries to acquire a thorough knowledge of their respective languages, and closely to inspect the habits and manners of the people. On his return to his native country, Mandeville wrote an Iteniary, or account of his travels, in the Latin, the French, and the English languages respectively; but his absence had been so prolonged by his various journeyings in foreign lands, that when he returned home he could not be recognized even by his relatives and friends. This circumstance, together with the vices with which his native country then abounded, induced him again to leave his home, to pass the remainder of his life among strangers. He, accordingly, embarked once more for the continent, but soon after died at Liege in Holland, on the seventeenth of November, 1372, and in the seventy-third year of his age. The travels of Mandeville contain little information that is important at the present time, farther than as they contribute to furnish us with another specimen of the English language in the fourteenth century. The following extract, however, presents a moral lesson which should not be neglected:— A MOHAMMEDAN'S LECTURE ON CHRISTIAN VICES. And therefore I shall tell you what the Soudan told me upon a day, in his chamber. He let voiden out of his chamber all manner of men, lords, and other; for he would speak to me in counsel. And there he asked me how the Christian men governed 'em in our country. And I said [to] him, 'Right well, thonked be God.' 'And he said [to] me, 'Truly nay, for ye Christian men ne reckon right not how untruly to serve God. Ye should given ensample to the lewed people for to do well, and ye given 'em ensample to don evil. For the commons, upon festival days, when they shoulden go to church to serve God, then gon they to taverns, and ben there in gluttony all the day and all night, and eaten and drinken, as beasts that have no reason, and wit not when they have enow. And therewithal they ben so proud, that they knowen not how to ben clothed; now long, now short, now strait, now large, now sworded, now daggered, and in all manner guises. They shoulden ben simple, meek, and true, and full of alms-deeds, as Jesu was, in whom they trow; but they been all the contrary, and ever inclined to the evil, and to don evil. And they been so covetous, that for a little silver they sellen 'eir daughters, 'eir sisters, and 'eir own wives, to putten 'em to lechery. And one withdraweth the wife of another; and none of 'em holdeth faith to another, but they defoulen 'eir law, that Jesu Christ betook 'em keep for 'eir salvation. And thus for 'eir sins, han, [have] they lost all this lond that we holden. For 'eir sins here, hath God taken 'em in our honds, not only by strength of ourself, but for 'eir sins. For we knowen well in very sooth, that when ye serve God, God will help you; and when he is with you, no man may be against you. And that know we well by our prophecies, that Christian men shall winnen this lond again out of our honds, when they serve God more devoutly. But as long as they ben of foul and unclean living, (as they ben now) we have no dread of 'em in no kind; for here God will not helpen 'em in no wise.' And then I asked him how he knew the state of Christian men. And he answered me, when he knew all the states of the commons also by his messengers, that he sent to all londs, in manner as they were merchants of precious stones, of cloths of gold, and of other things, for to knowen the manner of every country amongs Christian men. And then he let clepe1 in all the lords, that he made voiden first out of his chamber; and there he showed me four that were great lords in the country, that tolden me of my country, and of many other Christian countries, as well as if they had been of the same country; and they spak French right well, and the Soudan also, whereof I had great marvel. Alas, that it is great slander to our faith and to our laws, when folk that ben withouten law shall reproven us, and undernemen 2 us of our sins. And they that shoulden ben converted to Christ, and to the law of Jesu, by our good example, and by our acceptable life to God, ben through our wickedness and evil living, far fro us; and strangers fro the holy and very3 belief shall thus appallen us and holden us for wicked livirs and cursed. And truly they say sooth. For the Saracens ben good and faithful. For they keepen entirely the commandment of the holy book Alcoran, that God sent 'em by his messager Mahomet; to the which, as they sayen, St. Gabriel, the angel, oftentimes told the will of God. 1 Call. 2 Remind. 3 True. Lecture the Chird. CAUSES OF THE DEARTH IN LITERATURE THAT FOLLOWED THE AGE OF EDWARD THE THIRD THE FORMATION OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE LOWLANDS OF SCOTLAND SCOTTISH POETS-JOHN BARBOUR-ANDREW WYNTOUN-BLIND HARRYJAMES THE FIRST-ROBERT HENRYSON-WILLIAM DUNBAR-GAVIN DOUGLAS SIR DAVID LYNDSAY-SIR PATRICK SPENS. THE light of genius which spread such luster over the English nation du ring the reign of Edward the Third, and that of his successor Richard the Second, when Wickliffe was shaking the papal power of Rome to its very center, and Chaucer was chanting forth his sweet poetic strains, and Gower was clothing his severe moral and didactic lessons in harmonious numbers, was succeeded by a long period of literary darkness and gloom; for, from that time until toward the close of the reign of Henry the Eighthembracing a period of more than a century and a half-only an occasional literary star glimmered through the surrounding darkness. The civil distur bances by which the kingdom was then convulsed, was probably the principal reason why this was the state of the national mind; for while men were trembling for their lives, they were not likely to occupy themselves very greatly, either in the production, or the perusal of literary works. The sceptre first passed from the strenuous grasp of Edward the Third into the feeble hands of his grandson Richard the Second. Then came the usurpation of the Duke of Lancaster, which was soon followed by the rebellion of the Earl of Northumberland, and afterward the long and bloody war of the Roses. Henry the Seventh of the House of Lancaster, however, after triumphing over Richard the Third of the opposite faction, by marrying Elizabeth, heiress of the House of York, united the interest of the contending parties; but it occupied the whole of that monarch's long and vigorous reign to raise the kingdom from the exhausted state in which he found it, to happiness and prosperity. His son and successor, Henry the Eighth, succeeded to an undisputed crown; and as he had been carefully educated, and possessed some small degree of literary taste, he made some pretensions to the patronage of learning. This dark period was, it is true, occasionally relieved by some light of genius twinkling through its murky gloom. To a brief notice of the writers who afforded this relief, we shall, therefore, now proceed; but as we shall have occasion first to mention some of the early authors of Scotland, we may remark, in passing, that the language used at this time in the lowland district of that country, was, like that of England, based upon the Teutonic, and had, like the cotemporary English, a Norman admixture. To account for these circumstances, some writers have supposed that the language of England, in its various shades of improvement, reached the North through the settlers who are known to have flocked thither from England during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; while others suggest that the great body of the Scottish people, apart from the Highlanders, must have been of Teutonic origin; and they point to the very probable theory as to the Picts having been a German race. They farther suggest that a Norman admixture might readily have come to the national tongue, through the long intercourse between the two countries during the three centuries just mentioned. Thus it is presumed, 'one common language was separately formed in the two countries, and owed its identity to its being constructed out of similar materials, by similar gradations, and by nations in the same state of society.' Whatever might have been the cause, there can be no doubt that the language used by the first Scottish vernacular writers in the fourteenth century, greatly resembled that which was used cotemporaneously in England. Of these writers, John Barbour is the first of whom we possess any certain knowledge. JOHN BARBOUR was born 1320, but at what precise place is unknown. His early education, and the development of his genius must have been, for the age in which he lived, very remarkable; as we find him in 1357, when he was in the thirty-seventh year of his age, exercising the duties of the important office of archdeacon of Aberdeen. Besides his clerical attainments, Barbour was distinguished for political abilities also; and was, accordingly, chosen by the Bishop of Aberdeen to act as his commissioner at Edinburgh, when the ransom of David the Second was there debated. His learning too was such that on several occasions he accompanied men of rank to study at Oxford. His death occurred 1396, when he was in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Barbour, in all probability, formed his taste upon the Romance writers who preceded him in England, as his first poem was founded upon The Brute a subject made famous, as already observed, by Geoffrey of Monmouth and other writers. The Bruce, his great poem, is conducted upon a similar plan; but unlike the former work, the principal incidents which it narrates, are founded on authenticated facts. It is, therefore, a very important production, and may be considered as a complete history of the memorable transactions in which king Robert the First, asserted the independence of Scotland, and obtained its crown for himself and his family. At the same time it is far from being destitute of poetical spirit or rhythmical sweetness and har mony. It contains many vividly descriptive passages, and abounds in dignified and even pathetic sentiment. In the opening of this important poem, the author, contemplating the enslaved condition of his country, breaks forth in the following animated APOSTROPHE TO FREEDOM. A fredome is a nobill thing! Then all perquer he suld it wyt; And suld think fredome mar to pryse Than all the gold in warld that is. From this poem we might select many other passages fraught with deep interest; particularly that which describes the death of Sir Henry De Bohun -an event which took place on the eve of the battle of Bannockburn; but our space will permit us to introduce a single extract only from the description of that important battle itself. THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN. When this was said The Scottismen commonally Of them kneeland, he said, in hy, 'Yon folk kneel to ask mercy.' Sir Ingram1 said, 'Ye say sooth now- They ask mercy, but not of you; I tell you a thing sickerly, That yon men will all win or die; 1 Sir Ingram L'Umphraville. 2 Fear of death. |
