Halleck's New English Literature Part 5

IV. Repression of sentiment is a marked characteristic of _Beowulf_ and it still remains a peculiarity of the Anglo-Saxon race. Some people say vastly more than they feel. This race has been inclined to feel more than it expresses. When it was transplanted to New England, the same characteristic was prominent, the same apparent contradiction between sentiment and stern, unrelenting devotion to duty. In _Snow Bound_, the New England poet, Whittier, paints this portrait of a New England maiden, still Anglo-Saxon to the core:--

"A full, rich nature, free to trust, Truthful and almost sternly just, Impulsive, earnest, prompt to act, And make her generous thought a fact, Keeping with many a light disguise The secret of self-sacrifice."

No matter what stars now s.h.i.+ne over them, the descendants of the English are still truthful and sternly just; they still dislike to give full expression to their feelings; they still endeavor to translate thoughts into deeds, and in this world where all need so much help, they take self-sacrifice as a matter of course. The spirit of _Beowulf_, softened and consecrated by religion, still persists in Anglo-Saxon thought and action.

THE CAEDMONIAN CYCLE

Caedmon.--In 597 St. Augustine began to teach the Christian religion to the Anglo-Saxons. The results of this teaching were shown in the subsequent literature. In what is known as Caedmon's _Paraphrase_, the next great Anglo-Saxon epic, there is no decrease in the warlike spirit. Instead of Grendel, we have Satan as the arch-enemy against whom the battle rages.

Caedmon, who died in 680, was until middle life a layman attached to the monastery at Whitby, on the northeast coast of Yorks.h.i.+re. Since the _Paraphrase_ has been attributed to Caedmon on the authority of the Saxon historian Bede, born in 673, we shall quote Bede himself on the subject, from his famous _Ecclesiastical History_:--

"Caedmon, having lived in a secular habit until he was well advanced in years, had never learned anything of versifying; for which reason, being sometimes at entertainments, where it was agreed for the sake of mirth that all present should sing in their turns, when he saw the instrument come toward him, he rose from table and returned home.

"Having done so at a certain time, and gone out of the house where the entertainment was, to the stable, where he had to take care of the horses that night, he there composed himself to rest at the proper time; a person appeared to him in his sleep, and, saluting him by his name, said, 'Caedmon, sing some song to me.' He answered, 'I cannot sing; for that was the reason why I left the entertainment and retired to this place, because I could not sing.' The other who talked to him replied, 'However, you shall sing.' 'What shall I sing?' rejoined he. 'Sing the beginning of created beings,' said the other. Hereupon he presently began to sing verses to the praise of G.o.d."

Caedmon remembered the poetry that he had composed in his dreams, and repeated it in the morning to the inmates of the monastery. They concluded that the gift of song was divinely given and invited him to enter the monastery and devote his time to poetry.

Of Caedmon's work Bede says:--

"He sang the creation of the world, the origin of man, and all the history of Genesis: and made many verses on the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their entering into the land of promise, with many other histories from Holy Writ; the incarnation, pa.s.sion, resurrection of our Lord, and his ascension into heaven; the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the preaching of the Apostles; also the terror of future judgment, the horror of the pains of h.e.l.l, and the delights of heaven."

The Authors.h.i.+p and Subject Matter of the Caedmonian Cycle.--The first edition of the _Paraphrase_ was published in 1655 by Junius, an acquaintance of Milton. Junius attributed the entire _Paraphrase_ to Caedmon, on the authority of the above quotations from Bede.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FACSIMILE OF BEGINNING OF JUNIAN Ma.n.u.sCRIPT OF CAEDMON.]

TRANSLATION

For us it is mickle right that we should praise with words, love with our hearts, the Lord of the heavens, the glorious King of the people. He is the mighty power, the chief of all exalted creatures, Lord Almighty.

The _Paraphrase_ is really composed of three separate poems: the _Genesis_, the _Exodus_, and the _Daniel_; and these are probably the works of different writers. Critics are not agreed whether any of these poems in their present form can be ascribed to Caedmon. The _Genesis_ shows internal evidence of having been composed by several different writers, but some parts of this poem may be Caedmon's own work. The _Genesis_, like Milton's _Paradise Lost_, has for its subject matter the fall of man and its consequences. The _Exodus_, the work of an unknown writer, is a poem of much originality, on the escape of the children of Israel from Egypt, their pa.s.sage through the Red Sea, and the destruction of Pharaoh's host. The _Daniel_, an uninteresting poem of 765 lines, paraphrases portions of the book of _Daniel_ relating to Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, the fiery furnace, and Belshazzar's feast.

Characteristics of the Poetry.--No matter who wrote the _Paraphrase_, we have the poetry, a fact which critics too often overlook. Though the narrative sometimes closely follows the Biblical account in _Genesis_, _Exodus_, and _Daniel_, there are frequent unfettered outbursts of the imagination. The _Exodus_ rings with the warlike notes of the victorious Teutonic race.

The _Genesis_ possesses special interest for the student, since many of its strong pa.s.sages show a marked likeness to certain parts of Milton's _Paradise Lost_. As some critics have concluded that Milton must have been familiar with the Caedmonian _Genesis_, it will be instructive to note the parallelism between the two poems. Caedmon's h.e.l.l is "without light and full of flame." Milton's flames emit no light; they only make "darkness visible." The following lines are from the _Genesis_:--

"The Lord made anguish a reward, a home In banishment, h.e.l.l groans, hard pain, and bade That torture house abide the joyless fall.

When with eternal night and sulphur pains, Fullness of fire, dread cold, reek and red flames, He knew it filled."[15]

With this description we may compare these lines from Milton:--

"A dungeon horrible, on all sides round.

As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames No light; but rather darkness visible.

...a fiery deluge, fed With ever burning sulphur unconsumed."[16]

In Caedmon "the false Archangel and his band lay p.r.o.ne in liquid fire, scarce visible amid the clouds of rolling smoke." In Milton, Satan is shown lying "p.r.o.ne on the flood," struggling to escape "from off the tossing of these fiery waves," to a plain "void of light," except what comes from "the glimmering of these livid flames." The older poet sings with forceful simplicity:--

"Then comes, at dawn, the east wind, keen with frost."

Milton writes:--

"...the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire."[17]

When Satan rises on his wings to cross the flaming vault, the _Genesis_ gives in one line an idea that Milton expands into two and a half:--

"Sw.a.n.g aet f=yr on tw=a f=eondes craefte."

Struck the fire asunder with fiendish craft.

"...on each hand the flames, Driven backward, slope their pointing spires, and, rolled In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale."[18]

It is not certain that Milton ever knew of the existence of the Caedmonian _Genesis_; for he was blind three years before it was published. But whether he knew of it or not, it is a striking fact that the temper of the Teutonic mind during a thousand years should have changed so little toward the choice and treatment of the subject of an epic, and that the first great poem known to have been written on English soil should in so many points have antic.i.p.ated the greatest epic of the English race.

THE CYNEWULF CYCLE

Cynewulf is the only great Anglo-Saxon poet who affixed his name to certain poems and thus settled the question of their authors.h.i.+p. We know nothing of his life except what we infer from his poetry. He was probably born near the middle of the eighth century, and it is not unlikely that he pa.s.sed part of his youth as a thane of some n.o.ble. He became a man of wide learning, well skilled in "wordcraft" and in the Christian traditions of the time. Such learning could then hardly have been acquired outside of some monastery whither he may have retired.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANGLO-SAXON MUSICIANS. _Illuminated MS., British Museum._]

In variety, inventiveness, and lyrical qualities, his poetry shows an advance over the Caedmonian cycle. He has a poet's love for the beauty of the sun and the moon (_heofon-condelle_), for the dew and the rain, for the strife of the waves (_holm-roece_), for the steeds of the sea (_sund-hengestas_), and for the "all-green" (_eal-gr=ene_) earth. "For Cynewulf," says a critic, "'earth's crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with G.o.d.'"

Cynewulf has inserted his name in runic characters in four poems: _Christ_, _Elene_, _Juliana_, a story of a Christian martyr, and the least important, _The Fates of the Apostles_. The _Christ_, a poem on the Savior's Nativity, Ascension, and Judgment of the world at the last day, sometimes suggests Dante's _Inferno_ or _Paradiso_, and Milton's _Paradise Lost_. We see the--

"Flame that welters up and of worms the fierce aspect, With the bitter-biting jaws--school of burning creatures."[19]

Cynewulf closes the _Christ_ with almost as beautiful a conception of Paradise as Dante's or Milton's,--a conception that could never have occurred to a poet of the warlike Saxon race before the introduction of Christianity:--

"...Hunger is not there nor thirst, Sleep nor heavy sickness, nor the scorching of the Sun; Neither cold nor care."[20]

_Elene_ is a dramatic poem, named from its heroine, Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine. A vision of the cross bearing the inscription, "With this shalt thou conquer," appeared to Constantine before a victorious battle and caused him to send his mother to the Holy Land to discover the true cross. The story of her successful voyage is given in the poem _Elene_. The miraculous power of the true cross among counterfeits is shown in a way that suggests kins.h.i.+p with the fourteenth century miracle plays. A dead man is brought in contact with the first and the second cross, but the watchers see no divine manifestation until he touches the third cross, when he is restored to life.

_Elene_ and the _Dream of the Road_, also probably written by Cynewulf, are an Anglo-Saxon apotheosis of the cross. Some of this Cynewulfian poetry is inscribed on the famous Ruthwell cross in Dumfriess.h.i.+re.

Andreas and Phoenix.--Cynewulf is probably the author of _Andreas_, an unsigned poem of special excellence and dramatic power. The poem, "a romance of the sea," describes St. Andrew's voyage to Mermedonia to deliver St. Matthew from the savages. The Savior in disguise is the Pilot. The dialogue between him and St. Andrew is specially fine. The saint has all the admiration of a Viking for his unknown Pilot, who stands at the helm in a gale and manages the vessel as he would a thought.

Although the poet tells of a voyage in eastern seas, he is describing the German ocean:--

"Then was sorely troubled, Sorely wrought the whale-mere. Wallowed there the Horn-fish, Glode the great deep through; and the gray-backed gull Slaughter-greedy wheeled. Dark the storm-sun grew, Waxed the winds up, grinded waves; Stirred the surges, groaned the cordage, Wet with breaking sea."[21]

Cynewulf is also the probable author of the _Phoenix_, which is in part an adaptation of an old Latin poem. The _Phoenix_ is the only Saxon poem that gives us the rich scenery of the South, in place of the stern northern landscape. He thus describes the land where this fabulous bird dwells:--

"Calm and fair this glorious field, flashes there the sunny grove; Happy is the holt of trees, never withers fruitage there.

Bright are there the blossoms...

In that home the hating foe houses not at all, * * * * *

Neither sleep nor sadness, nor the sick man's weary bed, Nor the winter-whirling snow...

...but the liquid streamlets, Wonderfully beautiful, from their wells upspringing, Softly lap the land with their lovely floods."[22]

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ANGLO-SAXON POETRY

Martial Spirit.--The love of war is very marked in Anglo-Saxon poetry. This characteristic might have been expected in the songs of a race that had withstood the well-nigh all-conquering arm of the vast Roman Empire.