Topap at the ferp for a man and his bagage.üÿj.mit?
Item a hoes the man and his bagage.i.g).

Frem an emtp hos onlpid. Biohers to pay for a cloth underp. the broker thal haueý.g).

Efremfor a doth abouerl. 6.the broker hath újjgs.

Citem Cells Coccon doch papth lpke a doche uÿ.g).x. [

Eit right or wog.thefeme a mong.on womẽ docõplaiue Affermpng this.how that it is.alabour spent in vaine To loue the wele.forneuer a dele.thep loue a man agapne Jariere a man do. what hecan.ther fouour to attapne Petpfanewe.to them pursue.cher furût trew louer than Taboureth for nought and from her though, he is a bånniffhed mä

I

Sapnotnay.barthat alldap.it is bothe wit and lapde That womans fapch, is as who (apche.alt utterly decapeh But neitheles right good wiues i this cale might be lap Thatthep lone trewe.zcôtynew.recordeý Kutbrane maide Whiche from her loue, whā her to proue.hecam to makehis mone Wolde not departe,for in her herte.fheloupdbutlipin allone

Han betwene vs.lete vs difcufle.what was all the maner. Hetwenethem too. wewpl allo.telle all thep pepne infere That she was in.now Jbegynne.foo thatpe me answere. W berfoie pe.chat present be. I prap pougeue an eare Fam the knpght. Fcum be upght.assecretas I can Sapngalas.thus Rondvth the cause. Jam a bannushed man

pour wylle.for to fulfølle.in this wpl'not refuse

Trufling to fhewe.in wordis fewe.ý men haue an ille vse Tothcrowneshame wpmē.to blame. 1 cauleles thêē a¤use. Therfore topon.Janswere now.alle wymen to craule. pnownehert dere. wyouwhatchiere. I prep pou telle a noon For in my ipnde,ofalkmankynde J loue bur non allon

Taēdithlo.a dede is do.wherfore mocheharme Hal geme FMp deftenp.is fer to dep.a shamfuldethe trowe Or ellis to flee. the ton mußt bee.none other wep Jlinowe, Buttowódrawe,as au outlaw.and take me tony home

The Nut Brown Maid

From Richard Arnold's "Chronicle," circ. 1503

And no mervaile, for little availe

Were in your counsel then ;
Wherefore I'll to the green wood go
Alone, a banished man.

SHE.

Right well know ye that women be

But feeble for to fight;

No woman hede it is indede

To be as bold as Knight:

Yet in such fere if that you were
With enemies day and night,
I would withstand, with bow in hand,
To grieve them as I might,
And you to save, as women have,

From death men many a one ;

For in my mind, of all mankind,

I love but you alone.

The Nut Brown Maid is indeed a pearl of song, and the same may be said of many other British ballads, especially those of Scotland, of which, in general, we shall have to speak later. Their greatest importance, however, does not consist in the merit of individual pieces, but in the revival of European poetry of which they were in such large measure the instruments. The popular poetry of Germany, Scandinavia, and Spain is not inferior to that of the British Isles, but the study of these came later, and the impulse to it proceeded from Britain. The Romantic School, in so far as popular poetry was an element in it, dates from the day when the future Irish Bishop picked the torn and dirty manuscript out of the bureau in the little Shropshire town.

CHAPTER X

THE AGE OF THE FIRST TUDORS

WE have now arrived at the verge of an epochal period in English letters, when, no longer oscillating between contending forces as in the middle ages, or plunged into torpor when it ought to be going on to victory, literature presents itself as the expression of the thought and language of a united nation, and at the same time as a growing organism, continually developing new phases of activity, and augmenting simultaneously in depth and in breadth. The character of unity, indeed, had belonged to it for more than a century; but just when the amalgamation of Saxon and Norman was perfected, a blight seemed to wither the promise of their union. Enough has been said upon this subject; it need only be added that the paralysis of literary productiveness in England cannot, as in Italy, be ascribed in any degree to the enlistment of the best minds in the service of classical studies. Civil strife may be alleged as a reason, and it is certainly true that the Wars of the Roses were dynastic contests involving no principle, and powerless to fire the imagination and create impassioned feeling as war waged for freedom or even for conquest might have done. But no single cause will account for a phenomenon manifested simultaneously in almost every country in Europe, especially at a time when light was breaking in on all sides, and the arts were flourishing beyond previous example. The reawakening of lulled genius near the close of the fifteenth century is not so mysterious as its slumber; yet of the two great intellectual movements which apparently called it into being it may be said that the Renaissance was rather its nurse than its parent, and the Reformation rather its consequence than its cause.

The literary Renaissance dates from Petrarch, and had consequently long preceded the revival at the end of the fifteenth century. It had, as we have seen, been rather detrimental than favourable to original power; but when original power awoke of itself, it found that the Renaissance had greatly expanded and enriched its field of operation. The English author at the end of the fifteenth century addressed a different public from that which he would have encountered at the end of the fourteenth. Although actual literary production had been sparse and unimportant in the intervening period, literature itself was more widely and highly esteemed. The idea of its being the special property of the clerical or even of the scholarly class had been given up. English prose, which no one before Mandeville's translator had written except in devotional treatises, now claimed by far the largest share of

published literature. Translations were being made from all cultivated languages, and each new version begot the desire for another. Such events

Henry VIII.

collection at Petworth

as the progress of Turkish conquest and the discoveries of the Spaniards and Portuguese had powerfully affected the mind of man, and engendered a thirst for information which could only be gratified by books. Just at this conjuncture the printing press came in perfect correspondence with the new order of things. All these various influences, so favourable to literature, may be summed up under the head of Renaissance, a general fermentation of the spirit, eventually carrying those of whom it took possession far beyond that exclusive veneration for the classics which had for the time contributed originality of

to

repress

genius.

The Renaissance may also not unfairly be described as one of the parents of the second potent influence which regenerated literature and made it great, the Reformation. Two widely differing strains of ancestry may be traced in the Reformation's pedigree. There were in the first place the spiritually minded, the simple and devout who remained unaffected by the flood of new light which

the Renaissance was bringing in, and relied solely upon their own pious instincts. In the second place were the scholars, champions of the Renaissance in no way remarkable for piety, but whose aesthetic taste and whose critical conscience were revolted by the prevalent superstitions.

RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION

315

The Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum sums up the feelings of such men as perfectly as Luther's discourses sum up the feelings of the religious; and

Desiderius Erasmus

After the original woodcut by Albert Dürer

may remind us that there was a Renaissance beyond the Alps, and that if the humanists of Leo the Tenth's court preferred him to Luther, the