284 tage 287 William Tyndale 287 Æneas Silvius before James I. to face page 288 Prelates" 335 Α Page 64 Miles Coverdale 335 page 292 294 Hugh Latimer 338 John Leland 339 295 Quair" from the Kingis Glasgow University Title-page of Henryson's "Testa ment of Cresseid " "The Taill of the Cok and the Jasp" from Henryson's Fables King James II. of Scotland From "A Lytell Geste of Robin Hode" printed by Wynkyn de Worde "King John and Bishoppe " from to face page 298 the Percy Folio. Illustration from Skelton's "Balade of the Scottysshe Kynge". Title-page of Percy's "Reliques" Title-page of "A Mery Geste of Robyne Hoode" printed by Copland Kirkley Nunnery The Banner of Douglas. The Nut Brown Maid (from Arnold's Chronicle) Henry VIII. Desiderius Erasmus Title page of Erasmus' thegmes Sir Thomas More Beaufort House, Chelsea Title-page of Robinson's Translation of "Utopia" Title-page of Skelton's "Little Boke of Phillip Sparow" Proclamation of Henry VIII. ordering the English Bible to be used in all Churches. Title-page of Skelton's Garlande ". page 343 344 to face page 344 . 44 Goodly Illustration from Barclay's "Ship Title-page of the Great Bible, 1539 to face page 348 " Title-page of Sternhold's "Certayne Psalmes" 303 305 307 of Fools" Sir Thomas Wyatt. page 314 Title-page of Howard's "Songs and Sonnets page 350 Katherine of Arragon 352 317 Anne Boleyn 317 Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey King James IV. 357 Headpiece from More's "Utopia" 320 Letter from Sir Thomas More to his daughter to face page 320 MS. Song of Welcome by Dunbar to face page 358 John Colet page 321 Bishop Bale page 360 Thomas Cromwell. 322 Edward VI. 361 Old St. Paul's Cathedral, before and after the burning of the Spire Bishop Bale before Edward VI. 361 323 Title-page of Gavin Douglas's Thomas Linacre 324 Translation of Virgil Title-page 363 of Lord Berners' Title-page of Lindsay's "Works" "Froissart" 365 325 John Heywood Sir Thomas Elyot " Title-page of The Governour Bishop Gardiner 366 326 King James V. 367 Queen Mary I. 367 328 Cardinal Wolsey 368 CHAPTER I THE BEGINNINGS 449-849 LITERATURE is the daughter of Language. For the study, therefore, of a literature it is essential to possess a clear view of any features of the idiom in which it is conveyed which may contribute to impress it with a peculiar character. The most exceptional characteristic of the English language as spoken Duality of and written for centuries past is the dual constitution of its vocabulary, in English Speech which it differs from all the other leading languages of Europe, and can only be paralleled with those tongues of Eastern and Western Asia which have respectively become pervaded with Chinese or Arabic influence. All European languages, indeed, have borrowed largely, and Spanish might almost seem a compound of three or four distinct tongues spoken by widely differing races. Yet even here Latin is distinctly the paramount speech, and the others are but its satellites. In English alone two constituents, one indigenous, the other engrafted, practically balance each other. Both are essential to the language; one as forming the original nucleus of personality without which English would be a mere dialect of some foreign idiom; the other as possessing that sure criterion of vitality, the capacity of growth and modification. This our original Anglo-Saxon speech has lost, and recent endeavours to restore it have only served to prove the loss perpetual. The indigenous portion, therefore, of our vocabulary is the more nationally characteristic, the engrafted is the more flexible and copious. The stability of one element is admirably balanced by the plasticity of the other. Their union in one speech, frequently permitting choice between two words equally appropriate, has largely contributed to render the English vocabulary opulent and to impart colour and music to English style. The circumstance on which we have thus briefly dwelt may be con- Native and sidered as the key to the history of English literature, which appears as gredients in foreign in a constant struggle between innate and exotic constituents. As regards English the mere vocabulary of the language this struggle did not commence until the Norman Conquest, but as concerns the spirit of the literature it had begun much sooner. The epic of Beowulf shows the direction which VOL. I. A |