FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO CHAUCER

The Normans who conquered England in 1066 were Norsemen in origin but they had lived long enough in France to become French both in language and civilization. During the two centuries that followed the Conquest French literature expanded. In the same period English existed only as language of conquered  and illiterate people. When it emerged again as a literary language in the 14th century it had become deeply influenced by French forms, and manners and traditions.

The language itself was transformed by the disappearance of the old poetic terms and the infiltration of  new words imported by the Normans. Modern English was formed in this period. Its basis and the words which we use most often in ordinary speech remained Anglo-Saxon, but words of French origin or derived through French from Latin and Greek are far more numerous and form the bulk of our vocabulary.

Latin was the language for scholars, French for the poets and chroniclers of court and castle. The few works written in English that have survived- mostly religious works, homilies, sermons in verse and prose, translations and paraphrases of the Bible, rules for monastic life and prayers- vary in value; but one, at least, the attractive "Ancrene Wisse" ('Nuns' Guide'), belongs to the great tradition of English devotional prose.

The cycle of Arthurian legend, for example, with all the tales of "King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table", grew up about this time. It was first written in Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his "History of the Kings of Britain" (about 1150). Walter Map, and Anglo-Norman chronicler, added a little later to the story the theme of "Galahad's" quest for the Holy Grail.

The first English version of the legend which we have was written at the end of the 12th century by Layamon, a priest of Arnley on Severn. His 'Brut', or 'History of Britain', is a long epic poem written in verse which blends the old and the new, half-way between alliteration and rhyme. His best style, swift and bare, is shown in such passages as his account of King Arthur's death, a subject which was to be made famous again in modern times by Tennyson's "Morte d'Arthur". From these beginnings there grew the wide cycle of Arthurian legend which provided inspiration for Malory 300 years later, for Spenser, for Milton- until he turned to graver themes- and for many lesser poets and writers of prose romance.

We should remember, too, certain English lyrics of this period which have the grace of French song. Instead of the grim northern scenes which had characterized English poetry until this time they sing of spring and love and flowers. The love-songs of Alisoun and Spring are light and varied in their rhythms and marked by a quick eye for the beauties of nature. And this song is wholly English in its simplicity:

Summer is y-comen in!

Loud sing cuckoo!

Groweth  seed and bloweth meat,

And springeth the wood now.

Sing cuckoo! (modernized spelling)  

About the beginning of the 13th century the English language began to reassert itself. The loss of Normandy by King John confined the Normans to England. Cut off from the continent, they began to feel themselves as English men. By the 14th century they had almost given up French; English in its developments was no longer regarded as uncouth and thenceforwards it triumphed. After 1350 it began to replace French in the schools; in 1362 it was used in the law courts; and in 1399 Henry IV addressed Parliament in English for the first time.

The prose of the time, from 1350 to 1400, is sparse and of slight literary value. There is, however, some attraction in "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville". The work was regarded for a long time as original; in reality it was a translation of an amusing fraud perpetrated by a French physician. But these tales of the adventures of an imaginary knight, Sir John Mandeville of St. Albans, in fabulous lands remain amusing even if they are not very credible. They belong, as a narration of foreign marvels, midway between Herodotus and Baron Munchansen.

The other prose writers of the age who did more than translate were Walter Hilton( d.1396) and the great reformer John Wycliff (1324-1384). Hilton in his "Scale of Perfection" gave excellent examples of terse and clear devotional prose, the kind of writing that reappears at its best in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress ". Wycliff wrote at first in Latin; then, towards 1380, that he might appeal to the people in his struggle against the Pope, he used English. His most important contribution to English prose is the translation of the Bible that he initiated.

 But taken as a whole, English literature at this period is noted for its poetry, not its prose. There is one further poet of these early times to be considered before we come to Chaucer. This is John Gower, who was a learned man, a Londoner familiar with court society, a friend and rival indeed of Chaucer himself. He wrote at first in Anglo-Norman French and then in Latin. Only at the last and at the request of Richard II he wrote in English his "Confesio Amantis" (1390-1393). This is a long compilation of 40.000 eight-syllabled lines, a collection tales within a framework that is artificial yet effective. He told a story easily and clearly, and his work was very popular for many years. He was learned, fluent, and industrious, and his writings are what Chaucer's might have been without Chaucer's genius.