A Literary History of the English People | Page 5

at the "Tabard"--Gift of observation--Real life, details--Difference with Froissart--Humour, sympathy--Part allotted to "lowe men." The collections of tales--The "Decameron"--The aim of Chaucer and of Boccaccio--Chaucer's variety; speakers and listeners--Dialogues--Principal tales--Facetious and coarse ones--Plain ones--Fairy tales--Common life--Heroic deeds--Grave examples--Sermon. The care for truth--Good sense of Chaucer--His language and versification--Chaucer and the Anglo-Saxons--Chaucer and the French 312
V. Last Years.--Chaucer, King of Letters--His retreat in St. Mary's, Westminster--His death--His fame 341
CHAPTER III.
THE GROUP OF POETS.
Coppice and forest trees 344
I. Metrical Romances.--Jugglers and minstrels--Their life, deeds, and privileges--Decay of the profession towards the time of the Renaissance--Romances of the "Sir Thopas" type--Monotony; inane wonders--Better examples: "Morte Arthure," "William of Palerne," "Gawayne and the Green Knight"--Merits of "Gawayne"--From (probably) the same author, "Pearl," on the death of a young maid--Vision of the Celestial City 344
II. Amorous Ballads and Popular Poetry.--Poetry at Court--The Black Prince and the great--Professional poets come to the help of the great--The Pui of London; its competitions, music and songs--Satirical songs on women, friars, fops, &c. 352
III. Patriotic Poetry.--Robin Hood--"When Adam delved"--Claims of peasants--Answers to the peasants' claims--National glories--Adam Davy--Crécy, Poictiers, Neville's Cross--Laurence Minot--Recurring sadness--French answers--Scottish answers--Barbour's "Bruce"--Style of Barbour--Barbour and Scott 359
IV. John Gower.--His origin, family, turn of mind--He belongs to Angevin England--He is tri-lingual--Life and principal works--French ballads--Latin poem on the rising of the peasants, 1381, and on the vices of society--Poem in English, "Confessio Amantis"--Style of Gower--His tales and exempla--His fame 364
CHAPTER IV.
WILLIAM LANGLAND AND HIS VISIONS.
Langland first poet of the period after Chaucer 373
I. Life and Works.--A general view--Birth, education, natural disposition--Life at Malvern--His unsettled state of mind--Curiosities and failures--Life in London--Chantries--Disease of the will--Religious doubts--The faith of the simple--His book a place of refuge for him 374
II. Analysis of the Visions.--The pilgrims of Langland and the pilgrims of Chaucer--The road to Canterbury and the way to Truth--Lady Meed; her betrothal, her trial--Speech of Reason--The hero of the work, Piers the Plowman--A declaration of duties--Sermons--The siege of hell--The end of life 382
III. Political Society and Religious Society.--Comparison with Chaucer--Langland's crowds--Langland an insular and a parliamentarian--The "Visions" and the "Rolls of Parliament" agree on nearly all points--Langland at one with the Commons--Organisation of the State--Reforms--Relations with France, with the Pope--Religious buyers and sellers--The ideal of Langland 388
IV. Art and Aim.--Duplication of his personality--"Nuit de Décembre"--Sincerity--Incoherences--Scene-shifting--Joys forbidden and allowed--A motto for Langland--His language, vocabulary, dialect, versification--Popularity of the work--Fourteenth and fifteenth centuries--Time of the Reformation 394
CHAPTER V.
PROSE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
The "father of English prose" 403
I. Translators and Adaptators.--Slow growth of the art of prose--Comparison with France; historians and novelists--Survival of Latin prose--Walsingham and other chroniclers--Their style and eloquence--Translators--Trevisa--The translation of the Travels of "Mandeville"--The "Mandeville" problem--Jean de Bourgogne and his journey through books--Immense success of the Travels--Style of the English translation--Chaucer's prose 404
II. Oratorical Art.--Civil eloquence--Harangues and speeches--John Ball--Parliamentary eloquence--A parliamentary session under the Plantagenet kings--Proclamation--Opening speech--Flowery speeches and business speeches--Debates--Answers of the Commons--Their Speaker--Government orators, Knyvet, Wykeham, &c.--Opposition orators, Peter de la Mare--Bargains and remonstrances--Attitude and power of the Commons--Use of the French language--Speeches in English 412
III. Wyclif. His Life.--His parentage--Studies at Oxford--His character--Functions and dignities--First difficulties with the religious authority--Scene in St. Paul's--Papal bulls--Scene at Lambeth--The "simple priests"--Attacks against dogmas--Life at Lutterworth--Death 422
IV. Latin Works of Wyclif.--His Latin--His theory of the Dominium--His starting-point: the theory of Fitzralph--Extreme, though logical, consequence of the doctrine: communism--Qualifications and attenuations--Tendency towards Royal supremacy 427
V. English Works of Wyclif.--He wants to be understood by all--He translates the Bible--Popularity of the translation--Sermons and treatises--His style--Humour, eloquence, plain dealing--Paradoxes and utopies--Lollards--His descendants in Bohemia and elsewhere 432
CHAPTER VI.
THE THEATRE.
I. Origins. Civil Sources.--Mimes and histrions--Amusements and sights provided by histrions--How they raise a laugh--Facetious tales told with appropriate gestures--Dialogues and repartees--Parodies and caricatures--Early interludes--Licence of amusers--Bacchanals in churches and cemeteries--Holy things derided--Feasts of various sorts--Processions and pageants--"Tableaux Vivants"--Compliments and dialogues--Feasts at Court--"Masks" 439
II. Religious Sources.--Mass--Dialogues introduced in the Christmas service--The Christmas cycle (Old Testament)--The Easter cycle (New Testament). The religious drama in England--Life of St. Catherine (twelfth century)--Popularity of Mysteries in the fourteenth century--Treatises concerning those representations--Testimony of Chaucer William of Wadington--Collection of Mysteries in English. Performances--Players, scaffolds or pageants, dresses, boxes, scenery, machinery--Miniature by Jean Fouquet--Incoherences and anachronisms 456
III. Literary and Historical value of Mysteries.--The ancestors' feelings and tastes--Sin and redemption--Caricature of kings--Their "boast"--Their use of the French tongue--They have to maintain silence--Popular scenes--Noah and his wife--The poor workman and the taxes--A comic pastoral--The Christmas shepherds--Mak and the stolen sheep 476
IV. Decay of the Medi?val Stage.--Moralities--Personified abstractions--The end of Mysteries--They continue being performed in the time of Shakespeare 489
CHAPTER VII.
THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
I. Decline.--Chaucer's successors--The decay of art is obvious even to them--The society for which they write is undergoing a transformation--Lydgate and Hoccleve 495
II. Scotsmen.--They imitate Chaucer but with more freedom--James I.--Blind Harry--Henryson--The town mouse and the country mouse--Dunbar--Gavin Douglas--Popular ballads--Poetry in the flamboyant style 503
III. Material welfare; Prose.--Development of the