that could believe their poet to be divinely called, was the nation to produce poets, and to elevate the genius of their language. Such was the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria, and here it was that our language first received high cultivation. in It is remarkable that, while the peoples of the southern and western and south-eastern parts of the kingdom continually called themselves Saxons (witness such local names as Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Middlesex), yet they never appear any of their extant literature to call their language Seaxisc, but always ENGLISC1. The explanation of this must be sought, as I have already indicated, in that early leadership which was enjoyed by the kingdom of Northumbria in the seventh and eighth centuries. The office of BRETWALDA, a kind of elective chieftainship of all Britain, was held by several Northumbrian kings in succession. How high this title must have sounded in the ears of cotemporaries may be imagined from the fact that it is after the same model as their name for the Almighty. The latter was ALWALDA, the All-wielding. So Bretwalda was the wielder of Britain, or the Emperor of all the States in Britain. 26. The culture of Northumbria overlived the term of its political supremacy. For a century and a half the northern part of the island was distinguished by the growth of a native Christian literature, and of Christian art. Two names there are prominently associated with this Northumbrian school, which mark the extremities of the brightest part of its duration. The first is Benedict Biscop, an Anglian by birth, who made five visits to Rome, and founded the monastery of 1 Yet we find the Latin equivalent of Seaxisc, as in Asser's Life of Alfred, where the vernacular is called Saxonica lingua. Asser however was a WelshAlso in Cod. Dipl. 241, 'in commune silfa q' nos saxonice in gemennisse dicimus.' Also 833, 867. man. Wearmouth in 672. The other was Alcuin, by whose aid Charlemagne laid the foundations of learning in his vast dominions. Alcuin died in 805. This new vernacular literature of Northumbria perished in the ravages of the Danes, and not enough remains to give an intimation of what is lost. Meantime, the old mythic songs still held their own in the south, where no strong growth of Christian literature appeared to contest the ground against them. But even these could not escape without some colouring from the new religion and its sacred literature, and we may assign the eighth century as the time when the Beowulf received those last superficial touches which still arrest the reader's eye as masking or softening the heathendom of the poem. Alfred was a lover of this old national poetry. With the mention of Alfred's name, we enter upon a comparatively modern era of the language, and quit the obscurity of the pre-Danish period. Wessex, or the country of the West Saxons, becomes the arena of our narrative henceforth, and the Anglian does not claim notice again until the fourteenth century, when that dialect had shaped itself into a new and distinct national language for the kingdom of Scotland. Barbour in his poem of the Bruce determined the character of modern Scottish, and cast it in a permanent mould, just as his contemporary Chaucer did for our English language. Again, in the eighteenth century there was a brilliant revival of the Anglian dialect, out of which came the poetry of Allan Ramsay and of Robert Burns, and the dialogues in 'brad Scots,' which so charmingly diversify the novels of Sir Walter Scott. It is odd that this language, which is Anglian tinged with Norsk, should have received the Keltic name of 'Scotch' from the Scotian dynasty which mounted the Anglian throne; and that in taking a modern name from its northern neighbours it should have furnished a geographical parallel to the adoption of the name of English' by the West Saxons. 27. Wessex had not been entirely destitute of Christian learning during the period of Northumbrian pre-eminence. Aldhelm is the first great name in southern literature. He died in A.D. 709. He translated the Psalms of David into his native tongue, and composed popular hymns to drive out the old pagan songs. But though we can point to Aldhelm, and one or two other names of cultivated men in Wessex, they are exceptions to the general rudeness of that kingdom before Alfred's time. Wessex had been distinguished for its military rather than for its literary successes. Learning had resided northward. But in the ninth century a great revolution occurred. Northumbria and Mercia fell into the hands of the heathen Danes, and culture was obliterated in those parts which had hitherto been most enlightened. It was Alfred's first care, after he had won the security of his kingdom, to plant learning. We have it in his own words, that at his accession there were few south of Humber who could understand their ritual, or translate a letter from Latin into Englisc; and,' he adds, 'I ween there were not many beyond Humber either'-pointing to the heathen darkness. in which the north was then shrouded. This famous passage occurs in a circular preface, addressed to the several bishops, and serving as an introduction to Alfred's version of Gregory's Cura Pastoralis. I quote it in the original, with Mr. Henry Sweet's translation :— DEOS BOC SCEAL TO WIOGORA CEASTRE. Alfred kyning hated gretan Wærferð biscep his wordum luflice and freondlice; and de cydan hate Sæt me com swide oft on gemynd, hwelce wiotan THIS BOOK IS FOR WORCESTER. King Alfred bids greet bishop Warferth with his words lovingly and with friendship; and I let it be known to thee that it has very often come into iu wæron giond Angelcynn, ægðer ge godcundra hada ge woruldcundra; and hu gesæliglica tida a wæron giond Angelcynn; and hu ða kyningas de done onwald hæfdon dæs folces on Sam dagum Gode and his ærendwrecum hersumedon; and hie æger ge hiora sibbe ge hiora siodo ge hiora onweald innanbordes gehioldon, and eac út hiora eðel gerymdon; and hu him da speow ægðer ge mid wige ge mid wisdome; and eac da godcundan hadas hu giorne hie wæron æger ge ymb lare ge ymb liornunga, ge jmb ealle da Diowotdomas de hie Gode scoldon; and hu man utanbordes wisdom and lare hieder ôn lond sohte, and hu we hie nu sceoldon ute begietan gif we hie habban sceoldon. Swæ clæne hio was offeallenu ôn Angelcynne dæt swide feawa wæron behionan Humbre de hiora deninga cuden understondan on Englisc, odde furðum ân ærendgewrit of Lædene on Englisc areccean; and ic wene dat noht monige begiondan Humbre næren. Swæ feawa hiora weron dat ic furðum anne ânlepne ne mæg geðencean besuðan Temese da da ic to rice feng. Gode ælmihtegum sie donc dat we nu ænigne on stal habbað lareowa. my mind, what wise men there formerly were throughout England, both of sacred and secular orders; and how happy times there were then throughout England; and how the kings who had power over the nation in those days obeyed God and his ministers; and they preserved peace, morality, and order at home, and at the same time enlarged their territory abroad; and how they prospered both with war and with wisdom; and also the sacred orders how zealous they were both in teaching and learning, and in all the services they owed to God; and how foreigners came to this land in search of wisdom and instruction, and how we should now have to get them from abroad if we were to have them. So general was its decay in England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English, or translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I cannot remember a single one south of the Thames when I came to the throne. Thanks be to God Almighty that we have any teachers among us now. 28. Alfred inaugurated a new era for his country. With him, that is to say, in the last quarter of the ninth century, Saxon literature starts up almost full-grown. It seems as if it grew up suddenly, and reached perfection at a bound without preparation or antecedents. It has been too much the habit to suppose that this phenomenon is sufficiently accounted for by the introduction of scholars from other countries who helped to translate the most esteemed books into Saxon. So the reign of Alfred is apt to get paralleled with those rude tribes among whom our missionaries introduce a translated literature at the same time with the arts of reading and writing. It has not been sufficiently considered that such translations are dependent on the previous exercise of the native tongue, and that foreign help can only bring up 'a wild language to eloquence by very slow degrees. There is a vague idea among us that our language was then in its infancy, and that its compass was almost as narrow as the few necessary ideas of savage life. A modern Italian, turning over a Latin book, might think it looked very barbarous; and perhaps even some moderate scholars have never appreciated to how great a power the Latin tongue had attained long before the Augustan era. Great languages are not built in a day. The fact is that Wessex inherited a cultivated language from the north, and that when they called their translations Englisc and not Seaxisc, they acknowledged that debt. The cultivated Anglian dialect became the literary medium of hitherto uncultured Wessex; just as the dialect of the Latian cities set the form of the imperial language of Rome, and that language was called Latin. 29. Of this literary Englisc the Lord's Prayer offers the readiest illustration. THE LORD'S PRAYER. Matt. vi. Fæder ure, pu pe eart on heofenum Si þin nama gehalgod Be thy name hallowed To becume thin rice Come thy kingdom Geweorpe pin willa on eorpan, swa swa on heofenum Be-done thy will on earth, so-as in heaven Urne dæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg Our daily loaf give us to day |