leading characteristics of style. It will be found that more attention has been paid to the works than to the life of an author, additional information on the latter subject being left to the discretion of the teacher. The Extracts have been selected with the double object of illustrating the text and of interesting the pupil; and, in the belief that the teacher has a right to expect in a new publication some relief from quotations which have become wearisome by reason of frequent repetition, the Author has inserted as many new passages as the circumstances admitted. F. A. L. OAKFIELD HOUSE, HILLHEAD, October, 1873. ELEMENTARY HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The Ancient Inhabitants of Britain-the Romans--the Saxons and their Language-the Anglo-Saxons and their Literature -the Norman Period-Semi-Saxon-Early or Old English. THE ancient inhabitants of the British Islands belonged to the Celtic race. They spoke a language similar to Welsh or Gaelic, and only a few of their words, and these chiefly geographical, remain in the language now spoken by the English people. When Cæsar and his Roman legions occupied the land, they were principally engaged in military affairs, and left behind them memories of their camps, roads, and military colonies in such words as Doncaster (from castra), street (from strata), and Lincoln (from colonia). After the departure of the Romans, the country was invaded by the Saxons-a wild, fearless, and venturesome race, who were tempted to come over to Britain in the hope of gain and glory. They came in hordes from the eastern shores of the German Ocean, drove the native Britons to the hills of Wales and the wilds of Cornwall, settled down in the land they had conquered, and became the forefathers of the people of England. The language they spoke was something like modern Dutch, and consisted almost entirely of short, expressive words, which we still use in our simplest forms of speech, although time has made changes on the way of spelling them. The poetry written in the pure Saxon tongue was, like the Saxons themselves, rugged and warlike, and full of references to warriors and heroes. The most notable of these ancient poems is the Lay of Beowulf, describing how a king was delivered by a warrior of renown from a horrible monster, which had destroyed several heroes as they lay sleeping in the palace hall. THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. A.D. 450-1150. The best remembered of the Anglo-Saxon poets is CEDMON, a cowherd, who, we are told, was visited by an angel while he slept in the stable. The angel commanded him to sing (that is, to write poetry), and gave him the "Creation" as his subject. Cadmon immediately set to work, and produced a long, tiresome Bible poem, which, however, was at that time thought very good indeed; and there are some passages here and there throughout the poem which are even now considered excellent. AngloSaxon verse was peculiar-not in the least like ours. had neither rhyme nor rhythm. It had no regular number of syllables for its lines as we have. It was only necessary to have two or three words in every two lines beginning with the same letter. This is called alliteration, and here is a specimen of it from Cædmon He aerest ge-scéop ylda bearnum halig scyppend He first created, for the children of men, the holy Creator. It Previous to the sixth century the Anglo-Saxons were heathens; but when the missionaries from Rome arrived, vast numbers forsook their gods and embraced the Christian religion. Monasteries sprang up over the country, and became schools of learning, where the monks and friars taught the boys Latin from the very few books which were then to be had; for every book was written with a pen, from beginning to end by the monks themselves, and he was a rich man who could boast of a library of a dozen |