Yet, just as in the effete French society before the Revolution the Queen played at Arcadia, the King played at being a mechanic, every one played at simplicity and universal 5 philanthropy, leaving for most durable outcome of their philanthropy the guillotine, as the most durable outcome of ours may be execution by electricity; so in our own society the talk of benevolence and the cult of We, of this self-conscious, incredulous generation, sentimentalize our children, analyse our children, think we are endowed with a special capacity to sympathize and identify ourselves regret that he has sometimes allowed himself to take the second-best word instead of searching for the best. Theoretically, of course, one ought always to try for the best word. But practically, the habit of excessive care in word selection frequently results in loss of spontaneity; and, still worse, the habit of always taking the most ornate word, the word most removed from ordinary speech. In consequence of this, poetic diction has become lat- 10 childhood are the very fashion of the hour. terly a kaleidoscope, and one's chief curiosity is as to the precise combinations into which the pieces will be shifted. There is, in fact, a certain band of words, the Prætorian cohorts of poetry, whose prescriptive aid is invoked 15 with children; we play at being children. And by every aspirant to the poetical purple, and without whose prescriptive aid none dares aspire to the poetical purple; against these it is time some banner should be raised. Perhaps it is almost impossible for a contem- 20 porary writer quite to evade the services of the free-lances whom one encounters under so many standards. But it is at any rate curious to note that the literary revolution against the despotic diction of Pope seems 25 issuing, like political revolutions, in a despotism of its own making. This, then, we cannot but think, distinguishes the literary period of Shelley from our the result is that we are not more child-like, but our children are less child-like. It is so tiring to stoop to the child, so much easier to lift the child up to you. Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of to-day. It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief, it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul; it is own. It distinguishes even the unquestionable 30 to live in a nutshell and to count yourself the king of infinite space;3 it is To see a world in a grain of sand, treasures and masterpieces of to-day from similar treasures and masterpieces of the precedent day; even the Lotus-Eaters from KublaKhan; even Rossetti's ballads from Christabel. It is present in the restraint of Matthew Arnold 35 no less than in the exuberance of Swinburne, and affects our writers who aim at simplicity no less than those who seek richness. Indeed, nothing is so artificial as our simplicity. It is the simplicity of the French stage ingénue. 40 We are self-conscious to the finger-tips; and this inherent quality, entailing on our poetry the inevitable loss of spontaneity, ensures that whatever poets, of whatever excellence, may be born to us from the Shelleian stock, its 45 Dryden's false and famous line might have founder's spirit can take among us no reincarnation. An age that is ceasing to produce child-like children cannot produce a Shelley. For both as poet and man he was essentially a child. 2 i. e. this chosen band of words stands in the same relation to the aspirant for poetical distinction, as the Prætorian Cohort, or Guard (the special guard of the Roman emperors), stood to those who aspired to the imperial purple. The Prætorian Cohort, created by the Emperor Augustus for his especial use and protection, gained such power in later times that it made and deposed emperors at its pleasure. It is to know not as yet that you are under sentence of life, nor petition that it be commuted into death. When we become conscious in dreaming that we dream, the dream is on the point of breaking; when we become conscious in living that we live, the ill dream is but just beginning. Now if Shelley was but too conscious of the dream, in other respects been applied to him with very much less than its usual untruth. To the last, in a degree uncommon even among poets, the idiosyncrasy of childhood expanded and matured without 50 differentiation. To the last he was the enchanted child. 3 "O God, I could be bounded in a nut-shell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.' Ham., II. ii. 250. 4 William Blake. The line referred to is presumably: "Great wits are sure to madness near allied." Absalom and Achitophel, 162. ALFRED'S PREFACE TO HIS TRANS- (Translated on p. 20) PASTORAL æs Ælfred kyning hated gretan Wærferd biscep his wordum luflice qnd freondlice; ond de cỹ dan hāte dæt mê com swide oft on gemynd, hwelce wiotan iu wæron giond Angelcynn, ægder ge godcundra hada ge woruldeundra; ond hu gesæliglica tida da waron giond Angelcynn; ond hu da kyningas de done onwald hæfdon folces on dam dagum Gode ond his ærendwrecum hersumedon; ond hu hie æg der ge hiora sibbe ge hiora siodo ge hiora onweald innanbordes gehīoldon, ond eac ut hiora ēdel gerymdon; ond hū him da spēow @gder ge mid wige ge mid wisdome; ond eac da godcundan hadas hū giorne hie wæron ægder ge ymb lare ge ymb liornunga, ge ymb ealle da Diowotdomas de hie Gode don scoldon; ond hū man utanbordes wisdom ond lare hieder on lond sōhte, ond hū we hie nū sceoldon ute begietan, gif we hie habban sceoldon. Swee clane hio was oofeallenu on Angelcynne Sæt swide feawa waron behionan Humbre de hiora dēninga cũden understondan on Englisc o de furðum an ærendgewrit of Lædene on Englisc aręccean; ond ic wene dætte noht monige begiondan Humbre næren. Swa feawa hiora wæron dat ic furðum anne ānlēpne ne mæg gedencean be sudan Temese, da da ic tō rice fēng. Gode ælmihtegum sie donc dætte wē nu ænigne onstal habbað lārēowa. Ond for don ic de bebiode dæt du dō swae ic geliefe dæt dū wille, Sæt du de dissa woruldðinga tō dæm geametige, swæ du oftost mæge, dæt du done wisdōm de de God sealde dær dær du hiene befæstan mæge, befæste. Gedenc hwelc wītu ūs da becomon for disse worulde, dā dā wē hit nōhwæder nē selfe ne lufodon, nē eac öðrum monnum ne lefdon one naman anne wē lufodon dætte wē Cristne wæron, ond swide feawe dã dēawas. Gif hwa gewilniged to gewitane hũ ge dōn mann he was, odde hwilene wurdscipe he hæfde, o de hū fela lande he wære hläford, donne wille we be him awrītan swā swā wē hine agēaton de him locodan and ōöre hwile on his hirĕde wunedon. Se cyng Willelm be wē embe specað wæs swide wis man and swide rice, and wurðfulre and strengere donne ænig his foregenga wære. He was milde bām gōdum mannum þe God lufedon, and ofer eall gemett stearc þām mannum þe widcwadon his willan. On ðām ilcan steode be God him geüde þæt he mōste Engleland gegan, hē ārērde mære mynster and munecas þær gesætte and wæll gegōdade. On his dagan wæs þæt mære mynster on Cantwarbyrig getymbrad and eac swide manig ōder ofer eall Englaland. Eac pis land was swide afylled mid munecan and pa leofodan heora lif æfter ses Benedictus regule, and sẽ Xpendōm was swilc on his dæge þæt lc man hwæt his hāde tō belumpe folgade sẽ be wolde. . . ... Wel late ic habbe mē biþoht, būte mē God dó milce. Fele ydele word ic habbe iqueden, syöden ic speke сифе, And fale junge dēde idō þet mē ofþinchet nube. ORMULUM (Modernized on p. 28) Nu brōberr Wallterr, brōperr min affterr þe flashess kinde, annd brōþerr min i Crisstenndōm burrh fulluhht and þurrh trowwbe, annd brōþerr min i Godess hūs zēt ō þē þridde wise, þurrh batt witt hafenn takenn bā an rezhellbōc to follзhenn, unnderr kanunnkess had annd lif swa summ Sannt Awwstin sette; icc hafe dōn swã summ þũ badd annd fōrbedd te bin wille, icc hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh goddspelless hallзhe lare, affterr þatt little witt þatt mē min Drihhtin hafepp lened. Du bohhtesst tatt itt mihhte wel till mikell frame turrnenn, 3iff Ennglissh follc, forr lufe off Crist, itt wollde 3ērne lernenn annd foll3henn itt and fillenn itt wipp bohht, wipp word, wipp dēde ; annd forrbi zerrndesst tū þatt icc biss werrc be shollde wirrkenn, annd icc itt hafe fōrbedd tē, acc all þurrh Cristess hellpe. 9 5 10 15 20 25 DEBATE OF THE BODY AND THE SOUL (Modernized on p. 30) Als I lay in a winteris ny3t And litel served God to pay; De gost was oute and scholde away. Spellunge and smecchunge bēod ine mūde bōðe ase sihde is i den eien; auh we schullen leten smecchunge vort tet wē spēken of ower męte, and spēken nu of spellunge and terefter of herrunge, of bo imene sume cherre ase goo tōgederes. On alre erest hwon 3ē schulen tō oure parlūres burle, iwiteð et ower meiden hwo hit beo pet is icumen, vor swuch hit mei bēon þet 3ē schulen asunien ou; and hwon 3ē alles mōten vorð, creoise ful 3ēorne our mud, earen, and eien, and tē brēoste eke, and goð forð mid Godes drēde tō preoste. On erest sigged 'confiteor,' and berefter benedicite'; þet he ouh tō siggen, hercned his wōrdes and sitted al stille pet, hwon he parted vrom ou, bet he ne cunne ower gōd ne ower uvel nouder, ne he ne cunne ou nouðer blamen ne preisen. Sum is so wel ilered qðer sę wīs iwōrded pet heo wolde bet he wuste hit be sit and spęked touward him and zelt him word azein word, and bicumes meister be schulde beon ancre, leared him bet is icumen to leren hire; wolde bi hire tale sõne beon mit te wise icud and icnowen. Icnowen heo is wēl, vor þurh þet ilke bet heo wened to beon wīs ihōlden hē understont þet heo is sot, vor heo hunted efter pris and kecche lastunge. Vor et te laste hwon hē is iwend awei, Deos ancre,' he wule siggen, 'is of muchele spęche.' ALYSOUN (Modernized on p. 42) Bytuene Mersh ant Averil, When spray biginneth to springe, The lutel foul hath hire wyl In world nis non so wytermon, That al hire bounte telle con. Hire swyre is whittore then the swon Ant feyrest may in toune. Icham for wowing al forwake, An hendy hap ichabbe yhent; Ichot from hevene it is me sent; From alle wymmen mi love is lent Ant lyht on Alysoun. BARBOUR'S BRUCE (Modernized on p. 55) A fredome is a noble thing! 25 30 35 40 225 230 235 Than all perquer he suld it wyt; And suld think fredome mar to pryss Than all the gold in warld that is. 240 Thus contrar thingis euir-mar Discoweryngis off the tothir ar. 520 After be sesoun of somer wyth be soft wyndez, A scheep as I were; vn-holy of werkes, on Maluerne 5 Me bi-fel a ferly A Feyrie me bouhte; 90 I was weori of wandringe and wente me to Vndur a brod banke bi a Bourne syde, And as I lay and leonede and lokede on be I alumberde in A alepyng hit sownede so murie. nino con To A Meruelous sweuene, 11 |