Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/150

136 Saxons, Bede, surnamed the Venerable, appeared, with other men whose abilities and teaching exerted a marked influence upon the spread of English learning.

The Anglo-Saxon scholars, though defective in actual knowledge, had just conceptions of the objects of philosophy. Alcuin defines it to be the study of natural things, and the knowledge of divine and human affairs. All the subjects comprised by Alcuin in physics are arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. That larger field of science to which we now give the name of physics had not yet been discovered, nor had chemistry, mineralogy, and the other analogous sciences.



Turner, in his "History of the Anglo-Saxons," gives specimens of scholastic trifling from a dialogue of Alcuin with Prince Pepin, the son of Charlemagne. As examples of the manner in which the brain was exercised in the absence of solid learning, some portions of this dialogue are worthy of preservation. Some of, the questions, with the answers, are subjoined:—

"What is life?—The gladness of the blessed; the sorrow of the wretched; the expectation of death.

"What is death?—The inevitable event; the uncertain pilgrimage; the tears of the living; the confirmation of our testament; the thief of man.

"What is sleep?—The image of death.

"What is man's liberty?—Innocence.

"What is the brain?—The preserver of the memory,

"What is the sun?—The splendour of the world; the beauty of heaven; the honour of day; the distributor of the hours.

"What is the moon?—The eye of night; the giver of dew; the prophetess of the weather.

"What is rain?—The earth's conception; the mother of corn.

"What is the earth?—The nurse of the living; the storehouse of life; the devourer of all things.

"What is the sea?—The path of audacity; the divider of regions; the fountain of showers.

"What is a ship?—A wandering house; a perpetual inn; a traveller without footsteps.

"What makes bitter things sweet?—Hunger.

"What makes men never weary?—Gain.

"What gives sleep to the watching?—Hope.

"Who is he that will rise higher if you take away his head?—Look in your bed and you will find him there."

The following account, taken from William of Malmesbury, of the social condition of the Saxon people at the time of the Conquest, indicates a decline of literature and the arts at that period. The picture may probably be overdrawn, but the main facts are correct. "In process of time, the desire after literature and religion had decayed, for several years before the arrival of the Normans. The clergy, contented with a very slight degree of learning, could scarcely stammer out the words of the sacraments, and a person who understood grammar was an object of wonder and astonishment. The nobility were given up to luxury and wantonness. The commonalty, left unprotected, became a prey to the most powerful, who amassed fortunes, either by seizing on their property or by selling their persons into foreign countries; although it be an innate quality of this people to be more inclined to reviling than to the accumulation of wealth. Drinking was a universal practice, in which they passed entire nights, as well as days. They consumed their substance in mean and despicable houses, unlike the Normans and French, who, in noble and splendid mansions lived with frugality."

Music was cultivated by our ancestors from a very remote period. Among the Anglo-Saxons the music to which the greatest attention was bestowed was that employed in the services of religion. Singing in churches is said to have been introduced into this country in the fourth century.

Among the northern nations the Sealds were at once the poets and musicians. Like the bards of the Britons, they celebrated the deeds of the great and brave in heroic poems, which were sung to the sounds of the lyre or the harp. After the conquest of Britain by the Saxons, these minstrels remained in high favour among the people, and were received with respect and veneration in the courts of kings and the halls of the nobles. In the Anglo-Saxon language they were known by two appellations, the one equivalent to the English word, glee-men, or merry-makers, and the other harpers, derived from the instrument on which they usually played.



The glee-men were jugglers and pantomimists as well as minstrels, and they were accustomed to associate themselves in companies, and amuse the spectators with feats of strength and agility, dancing, and sleight-of-hand tricks.

Among the minstrels who came into England with William the Conqueror was one named Taillefer, of whom it is related that he was present at the battle of Hastings, and took his place at the head of the Norman army, inspiring the soldiers by his songs. Before the battle commenced he advanced on