XXXVI 



RISE AND PROGRESS 



wood ami wild, of blood and battle, of lore and 

 wassailing. These neither the rivalry of the 

 monks, nor the ban of the church, were able to 

 suppress in favour of moral rhapsodies ami 

 versions of Scripture. The gospel-translations 

 of OTTKRIKD * were not, we may believe, so often 

 on contemporary lips as the grand triumphal 

 hymn, pregnant with lyric fire, that commemo- 

 rates the overthrow of the Normans by Louis the 

 Third, f 



A foreign writer, with praiseworthy liberality, 

 has pronounced the merits of Charlemagne, great 

 as they were, inferior to those of ALFRED. $ That 

 illustrious prince was himself a scholar of no 

 mean attainments, and an author, whose labours 

 improved and enriched the Anglo-Saxon dialect ; 

 one of the finest and purest forms of Teutonic 

 speech. His animating example and fostering 

 cares had the most beneficial influence on his 

 contemporaries ; and but for the subsequent 

 troubles of England, and the incessant terrors of 

 Danish invasion, might have caused so ample a 

 development of mental powers as would have 

 created an early and complete English literature. 

 Even amid the agitating events of those turbulent 

 times which followed his death, the voice of song 

 at least was not silenced. How much of epic 

 inspiration, as well as of national pride, still 

 lives in the Saxon poem on the victory of Athel- 

 stan ! By appealing to further evidence, and 

 especially by turning once more to the materials 

 furnished by the state of Iceland, and the rest of 

 the Scandinavian territories, it would be easy to 

 make out a pleasing picture of the genius of the 

 middle ages at their close ; but the appearance 

 of new languages, and the fresh dawn of intellect 

 in other parts of Europe, now invite our attention 

 to a wider and more fruitful field of observation. 



We have already alluded to the confusion 

 and debasement of language, produced by the 

 torrent of immigration from the North, in those 

 Southern countries over which it passed. Where 

 the medium of thought was so corrupted, and 

 while the virulence of the corruption endured, 

 there could be no vernacular literature. But, 

 force and activity of mind having been original 

 attributes of the conquering race, and recollec- 

 tions of pristine glory still lingering among the 

 conquered, it was to be expected that regularity 

 and harmony of speech would ultimately reap- 

 pear even out of the concussion of discordant 

 elements. And thus, in the course of centuries, 

 order in new and various shapes arose from pre- 

 vious confusion ; the Latin and Teutonic tongues 



* A. D. 870. t Author unknown. Date A. D. 881. 

 I Keigas, A. D 91 1901. A. D. 939. 



were blended together upon a principle of com 

 promise ; and hence proceeded all the chief 

 dialects of Modern Europe. Over the South, 

 from Portugal to Italy, the Latin element pre- 

 vailed : but even where Teutonic was the basis 

 and main ingredient ; in the English, in the yet 

 purer and more primitive German ; there has been 

 so considerable an infusion of Roman words, 

 that these also might fairly be classed with the 

 Romanic languages. Among those, however, to 

 which that name is generally given ; the Proven- 

 gal, the French, the Italian, the Spanish, and the 

 Portuguese ; the traces of a common origin, 

 notwithstanding some curious diversities in the 

 formation of vocables from the Latin stock, are 

 much more deeply and indelibly marked. To 

 these five, so closely related ; and to the other 

 two, which may be viewed apart from them ; all 

 that is prominent and precious in modern letters 

 belongs. The birth of some of these languages ; 

 of the Provencal, which having been formed at 

 Aries during the reign of king Bozon,|| preceded 

 the rest in antiquity ; and of the French, which 

 took its rise in the court of William Long-sword,^} 

 son of the Norman duke Rollo ; falls within the 

 limits of the middle age : but it is not until the 

 eleventh century that their progress becomes 

 identified with the history of literature. 



With the earliest years of this century causes 

 began to unfold themselves, which altered the 

 relations of society in Europe, and, as a neces 

 sary consequence, the tone of her literary pro - 

 ductions. Hitherto circumstances had abnost 

 forbidden the development of more than the 

 poetical faculty in certain popular forms. There 

 had been no elegant repose ; no widely-diffused 

 freedom ; no peaceful enjoyment of property : 

 the independence and industry of the middle 

 classes, which have since generated so much 

 mental power, were things scarcely known : the 

 chieftain, the vassal, and the slave, were the 

 characters which stood out in highest relief, and 

 determined the aspect of civil life. 



At last, through that tendency, so remarkable 

 in human aflairs, of enormous evils to work their 

 own cure, the social chaos resolved itself into 

 some appearances of order and tranquillity. 

 Throughout the whole of the eleventh century 

 this process was in operation ; and although 

 Europe was then in a state of transition, whose 

 results became more evident in the course of the 

 next two hundred years, yet the very commence- 

 ment of the great change is sufficiently marked 

 to constitute a new era. It was then that the 

 gradual abolition of personal slavery, hardly 



!1 A. D. 877887. 



f A. I). 917943. 



