{"article":{"id":"britannica-11-dc-20","work_id":"britannica-11","title":"Dc. 20","normalized_title":"dc-20","slug":"dc-20","aliases":[],"subtitle":"Internet Archive OCR import","body_text":"much influence on the later literature of Europe, were Englished in the nth century with considerable skill. To the same period belongs the curious tract on The Wonders of the East. In these works, and some minor productions of the time, we see that the minds of Englishmen were beginning to find interest in other than religious subjects. The crowding of the English monasteries by foreigners, which was one of the results of the Norman Conquest, brought about a rapid arrest of the development of the vernacular literature. It was not long before the boys trained in the monastic schools ceased to learn to read and write their native tongue, and learned instead to read and write French. The effects of this change are visible in the rapid alteration of the literary language. The artificial tradition of grammatical correctness lost its hold; the archaic literary vocabulary fell into disuse; and those who wrote English at all wrote as they spoke, using more and more an extemporized phonetic spelling based largely on French analogies. The 1 2th century is a brilliant period in the history of Anglo-Latin literature, and many works of merit were written in French (see ANGLO-NORMAN). But vernacular literature is scanty and of little originality. The Peterborough Chronicle, it is true, was continued till 1154, and its later portions, while markedly exemplifying the changes in the language, contain some really admirable writing. But it is substantially correct to say that from this point until the age of Chaucer vernacular prose served no other purpose than that of popular religious edification. For light on the intellectual life of the nation during this period we must look mainly to the works written in Latin. The homilies of the I2th century are partly modernized transcripts from jElfric and other older writers, partly translations from French and Latin; the remainder is mostly commonplace in substance and clumsy in expression. At the beginning of the I3th century the Ancren Riwle (q.v.), a book of counsel for nuns, shows true literary genius, and is singularly interesting in its substance and spirit; but notwithstanding the author's remarkable mastery of English expression, his culture was evidently French rather than English. Some minor religious prose works of the same period are not without merit. But these examples had no literary following. In the early i4th century the writings of Richard Rolle and his school attained great popularity. The profound influence which they exercised on later religious thought, and on the development of prose style, has seldom been adequately recognized. The A yenbite of Inwyl (see MICHEL, DAN), a wretchedly unintelligent translation (finished in 1340) from Frere Lorens's Somme des vices et des vertus, is valuable to the student of language, but otherwise worthless. The break in the continuity of literary tradition, induced by the Conquest, was no less complete with regard to poetry than with regard to prose. The poetry of the i3th and the latter part of the 1 2th century was uninfluenced by the written works of Old English poets, whose archaic diction had to a great extent become unintelligible. But there is no ground to suppose that the succession of popular singers and reciters was ever interrupted. In the north-west, indeed, the old recitative metre seems to have survived in oral tradition, with little more alteration than was rendered necessary by the changes in the language, until the middle of the Mth century, when it was again adopted by literary versifiers. In the south this metre had greatly degenerated in strictness before the Conquest, but, with gradually increasing laxity in the laws of alliteration and rhythm, it continued long in use. It is commonly believed, with great intrinsic probability but with scanty actual evidence, that in the Old English period there existed, beside the alliterative long line, other forms of verse adapted not for recitation but for singing, used in popular lyrics and ballads that were deemed too trivial for written record. The influence of native popular poetic tradition, whether in the form of recited or of sung verse, is clearly discernible in the earliest Middle English poems that have been preserved. But the authors of these poems were familiar with Latin, and probably spoke French as easily as their mother tongue; and there was no longer any literary convention to restrain them from adopting foreign metrical forms. The","body_html":"

much influence on the later literature of Europe, were Englished in the nth century with considerable skill. To the same period belongs the curious tract on The Wonders of the East. In these works, and some minor productions of the time, we see that the minds of Englishmen were beginning to find interest in other than religious subjects. The crowding of the English monasteries by foreigners, which was one of the results of the Norman Conquest, brought about a rapid arrest of the development of the vernacular literature. It was not long before the boys trained in the monastic schools ceased to learn to read and write their native tongue, and learned instead to read and write French. The effects of this change are visible in the rapid alteration of the literary language. The artificial tradition of grammatical correctness lost its hold; the archaic literary vocabulary fell into disuse; and those who wrote English at all wrote as they spoke, using more and more an extemporized phonetic spelling based largely on French analogies. The 1 2th century is a brilliant period in the history of Anglo-Latin literature, and many works of merit were written in French (see ANGLO-NORMAN).

\n

But vernacular literature is scanty and of little originality. The Peterborough Chronicle, it is true, was continued till 1154, and its later portions, while markedly exemplifying the changes in the language, contain some really admirable writing. But it is substantially correct to say that from this point until the age of Chaucer vernacular prose served no other purpose than that of popular religious edification. For light on the intellectual life of the nation during this period we must look mainly to the works written in Latin. The homilies of the I2th century are partly modernized transcripts from jElfric and other older writers, partly translations from French and Latin; the remainder is mostly commonplace in substance and clumsy in expression. At the beginning of the I3th century the Ancren Riwle (q.v.), a book of counsel for nuns, shows true literary genius, and is singularly interesting in its substance and spirit; but notwithstanding the author's remarkable mastery of English expression, his culture was evidently French rather than English. Some minor religious prose works of the same period are not without merit. But these examples had no literary following.

\n

In the early i4th century the writings of Richard Rolle and his school attained great popularity. The profound influence which they exercised on later religious thought, and on the development of prose style, has seldom been adequately recognized. The A yenbite of Inwyl (see MICHEL, DAN), a wretchedly unintelligent translation (finished in 1340) from Frere Lorens's Somme des vices et des vertus, is valuable to the student of language, but otherwise worthless. The break in the continuity of literary tradition, induced by the Conquest, was no less complete with regard to poetry than with regard to prose. The poetry of the i3th and the latter part of the 1 2th century was uninfluenced by the written works of Old English poets, whose archaic diction had to a great extent become unintelligible. But there is no ground to suppose that the succession of popular singers and reciters was ever interrupted. In the north-west, indeed, the old recitative metre seems to have survived in oral tradition, with little more alteration than was rendered necessary by the changes in the language, until the middle of the Mth century, when it was again adopted by literary versifiers.

\n

In the south this metre had greatly degenerated in strictness before the Conquest, but, with gradually increasing laxity in the laws of alliteration and rhythm, it continued long in use. It is commonly believed, with great intrinsic probability but with scanty actual evidence, that in the Old English period there existed, beside the alliterative long line, other forms of verse adapted not for recitation but for singing, used in popular lyrics and ballads that were deemed too trivial for written record. The influence of native popular poetic tradition, whether in the form of recited or of sung verse, is clearly discernible in the earliest Middle English poems that have been preserved. But the authors of these poems were familiar with Latin, and probably spoke French as easily as their mother tongue; and there was no longer any literary convention to restrain them from adopting foreign metrical forms. The

","volume_id":"britannica-11-v9","page_range_label":"Vol. 9, pp. 609-609","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich/page/n656/mode/1up","text_source_url":"https://archive.org/download/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich_djvu.txt","scan_source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich","quality_status":"ocr-imported-page-aligned","parser_version":"ia-djvu-xml-v1","page_refs":[{"page_number":"609","label":"p. 609","image_url":"/source-assets/scans/britannica-11/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich_0657.jpg","source_image_url":"https://archive.org/download/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich_jp2.zip/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich_jp2%2Fencyclopaediabrit09chisrich_0657.jp2&ext=jpg","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich/page/n656/mode/1up"}]},"work":{"id":"britannica-11","slug":"britannica-11","title":"Encyclopaedia Britannica","short_title":"Britannica 11th","edition":"11th edition","publisher":"Cambridge University Press","publication_start_year":1910,"publication_end_year":1911,"language":"English","country":"United Kingdom / United States","copyright_status_note":"First published before 1931; treated as public domain in the United States. Verify jurisdiction before redistribution outside the U.S.","source_quality":"mixed-clean-and-ocr","text_source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica","scan_source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri","volumes":[{"id":"britannica-11-v1","volume_number":"1","title":"A to Androphagi","year":1910,"source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri01chisrich","text_source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica","scan_source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri01chisrich","page_count":1084},{"id":"britannica-11-v2","volume_number":"2","title":"Andros to Austria","year":1910,"source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri02chisrich","text_source_url":"https://archive.org/download/encyclopaediabri02chisrich/encyclopaediabri02chisrich_djvu.txt","scan_source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri02chisrich","page_count":null},{"id":"britannica-11-v9","volume_number":"9","title":"Edwardes to Evangelical Association","year":1910,"source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich","text_source_url":"https://archive.org/download/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich_djvu.txt","scan_source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabrit09chisrich","page_count":null},{"id":"britannica-11-v26","volume_number":"26","title":"Submarine Mines to Tom-Tom","year":1911,"source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri26chisrich","text_source_url":"https://archive.org/download/encyclopaediabri26chisrich/encyclopaediabri26chisrich_djvu.txt","scan_source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri26chisrich","page_count":null},{"id":"britannica-11-v27","volume_number":"27","title":"Tonality to Vesuvius","year":1911,"source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri27chisrich","text_source_url":"https://ia903207.us.archive.org/15/items/encyclopaediabri27chisrich/encyclopaediabri27chisrich_djvu.txt","scan_source_url":"https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri27chisrich","page_count":null}]}}