Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/45

 Lincoln († 1253) [ed. by Cooke, Carmina Anglo-Normannica, 1852, Caxton Society]; Poème sur l’amour de Dieu et sur la haine du péché, 13th century, second part (Rom. xxix. 5); Le mariage des neuf filles du diable (Rom. xxix. 54); Ditie d’Urbain, attributed without any foundation to Henry I. (P. Meyer, Bulletin Soc. Anc. Textes, 1880, p. 73 and Romania xxxii, 68); Dialogue de l’évêque Saint Julien et son disciple (Rom. xxix. 21); Poème sur l’antichrist et le jugement dernier, by Henri d’Arci (Rom. xxix. 78; Not. et. Extr. 35, i. 137). Wilham de Waddington produced at the end of the 13th century his Manuel des péchés, which was adapted in England by Robert of Brunne in his Handlying Sinne (1303) [''Hist. lit''. xxviii. 179-207; Rom. xxix. 5, 47-53]; see Furnivall, Robert of Brunne’s Handlying Synne (Roxb. Club, 1862); in the 14th century we find Nicole Bozon’s Contes moralisés (see above); Traité de naturesse (Rom. xiii. 508); Sermons in verse (P. Meyer, op. cit. xlv.); Proverbes de bon enseignement (op. cit. xlvi.). We have also a few handbooks on the teaching of French. Gautier de Biblesworth wrote such a treatise à Madame Dyonise de Mountechensi pur aprise de langage (Wright, A Volume of Vocabularies; P. Meyer, Rec. d’anc. textes, p. 360 and Romania xxxii, 22); Orthographia gallica (Stürzinger, Altfr. Bibl. 1884); La manière de language, written in 1396 (P. Meyer, Rev. crit. d’hist. et de litt. nos. compl. de 1870); Un petit livre pour enseigner les enfants de leur entreparler comun françois, c. 1399 (Stengel, Z. für n. f. Spr. u. Litt. i. 11). The important Mirour de l’omme, by John Gower, contains about 30,000 lines written in very good French at the end of the 14th century (Macaulay, The Complete Works of John Gower, i., Oxford, 1899).

Hagiography.—Among the numerous lives of saints written in Anglo-Norman the most important ones are the following, the list of which is given in chronological order:—Voyage de Saint Brandan (or Brandain), written in 1121, by an ecclesiastic for Queen Aelis of Louvain (Rom. St. i. 553-588; Z. f. r. P. ii. 438-459; Rom. xviii. 203. C. Wahlund, Die altfr. Prosaübersetz. von Brendan’s Meerfahrt, Upsala, 1901); life of St Catherine by Clemence of Barking (Rom. xiii. 400, Jarnik, 1894); life of St Giles, c. 1170, by Guillaume de Berneville (Soc. Anc. Textes fr., 1881; Rom. xi. and xxiii. 94); life of St Nicholas, life of Our Lady, by Wace (Delius, 1850; Stengel, Cod. Digby, 66); Uhlemann, ''Gram. Krit. Studien zu Wace’s Conception und Nicolas, 1878; life of St George by Simon de Fresne (Rom. x. 319; J. E. Matzke, Public. of the Mod. Lang. Ass. of Amer. xvii. 1902; Rom. xxxiv. 148); Expurgatoire de Ste. Patrice, by Marie de France (Jenkins, 1894; Eckleben, Aelteste Schilderung vom Fegefeuer d. H. Patricius, 1851; Ph. de Felice, 1906); La vie de St Edmund le Rei, by Denis Pyramus, end of 12th century (Memorials of St Edmund’s Abbey, edited by T. Arnold, ii. 1892; Rom. xxii. 170); Henri d’Arci’s life of St Thais, poem on the Antichrist, Visio S. Pauli (P. Meyer, Not. et Extr. xxxv. 137-158); life of St Gregory the Great by Frère Angier, 30th of April 1214 (Rom. viii. 509-544; ix. 176; xviii. 201); life of St Modwenna, between 1225 and 1250 (Suchier, Die dem Matthäus Paris zugeschriebene Vie de St Auban, 1873, pp. 54-58); Fragments of a life of St Thomas Becket, c''. 1230 (P. Meyer, Soc. Anc. Text. fr., 1885); and another life of the same by Benoît of St Alban, 13th century (Michel, Chron. des ducs de Normandie; Hist. Lit. xxiii. 383); a life of Edward the Confessor, written before 1245 (Luard, Lives of Edward the Confessor, 1858; Hist. Lit. xxvii. 1), by an anonymous monk of Westminster; life of St Auban, c. 1250 (Suchier, op. cit.; Uhlemann, “Über die vie de St Auban in Bezug auf Quelle,” &c. Rom. St. iv. 543-626; ed. by Atkinson, 1876). The Vision of Tnudgal, an Anglo-Norman fragment, is preserved in MS. 312, Trinity College, Dublin; the MS. is of the 14th century; the author seems to belong to the 13th (La vision de Tondale, ed. by Friedel and Kuno Meyer, 1906). In this category we may add the life of Hugh of Lincoln, 13th century (Hist. Lit. xxiii. 436; Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1888, p. v; Wolter, Bibl. Anglo-Norm. ii. 115). Other lives of saints were recognized to be Anglo-Norman by Paul Meyer when examining the MSS. of the Welbeck library (Rom. xxxii. 637 and Hist. Lit. xxxiii. 338-378).

Lyric Poetry.—The only extant songs of any importance are the seventy-one Ballads of Gower (Stengel, Gower’s Minnesang, 1886). The remaining songs are mostly of a religious character. Most of them have been discovered and published by Paul Meyer (Bulletin de la Soc. Anc. Textes, 1889; Not. et Extr. xxxiv; Rom. xiii. 518, t. xiv. 370; xv. p. 254, &c.). Although so few have come down to us such songs must have been numerous at one time, owing to the constant intercourse between English, French and Provençals of all classes. An interesting passage in Piers Plowman furnishes us with a proof of the extent to which these songs penetrated into England. We read of:

One of the finest productions of Anglo-Norman lyric poetry written in the end of the 13th century, is the Plainte d’amour (Vising, Göteborg, 1905; Romania xiii. 507, xv. 292 and xxix. 4), and we may mention, merely as literary curiosities, various works of a lyrical character written in two languages, Latin and French, or English and French, or even in three languages, Latin, English and French. In Early English Lyrics (Oxford, 1907) we have a poem in which a lover sends to his mistress a love-greeting composed in three languages, and his learned friend replies in the same style (De amico ad amicam, Responcio, viii and ix).

Satire.—The popularity enjoyed by the Roman de Renart and the Anglo-Norman version of the Riote du Monde (Z. f. rom. Phil. viii. 275-289) in England is proof enough that the French spirit of satire was keenly appreciated. The clergy and the fair sex presented the most attractive target for the shots of the satirists. However, an Englishman raised his voice in favour of the ladies in a poem entitled La Bonté des dames (Meyer, Rom. xv. 315-339), and Nicole Bozon, after having represented “Pride” as a feminine being whom he supposes to be the daughter of Lucifer, and after having fiercely attacked the women of his day in the Char d’Orgueil (Rom. xiii. 516), also composed a Bounté des femmes (P. Meyer, op. cit. 33) in which he covers them with praise, commending their courtesy, their humility, their openness and the care with which they bring up their children. A few pieces of political satire show us French and English exchanging amenities on their mutual shortcomings. The Roman des Français, by André de Coutances, was written on the continent, and cannot be quoted as Anglo-Norman although it was composed before 1204 (cf. Gaston Paris: Trois versions rimées de l’évangile de Nicodème, Soc. Anc. Textes, 1885), it is a very spirited reply to French authors who had attacked the English.

Dramatic Literature.—This must have had a considerable influence on the development of the sacred drama in England, but none of the French plays acted in England in the 12th and 13th centuries has been preserved. Adam, which is generally considered to be an Anglo-Norman mystery of the 12th century, was probably written in France at the beginning of the 13th century (Romania xxxii. 637), and the so-called Anglo-Norman Resurrection belongs also to continental French. It is necessary to state that the earliest English moralities seem to have been imitations of the French ones.

ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE. It is usual to speak of “the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”; it would be more correct to say that there are four Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. It is true that these all grow out of a common stock, that in some even of their later entries two or more of them use common materials; but the same