CHAPTER IV. THE ENGLISH POETS. HE student's attention will now, for a short space, be turned aside from historical reading and its branches, and directed. to a more pleasant, and not less useful field of literature-that cultivated by the poets. Now, the English poets are, take them for all in all, the finest in the world; and of all gifts or studied acquirements, that of poetry is the first. It follows then, that he that studies truly, and with sufficient intelligence and love, English poetry, betakes himself to the most exalted, beneficent, and humanizing study possible. It is A definition of poetry is not here needed. articulate music, noble feeling put into words; it is worship, love, expression, the eloquence and very soul of language. It is so grand that nothing mean can live near it; and true poets are so great, too, that they are the only remaining prophets that we have on earth. The oracles are dumb else; but they remain, and speak to us and rule us from their graves. It has been said that poetry is to philosophy what Sunday is to the weekdays—a divine rest. Lord Bacon, whom few, save in the grandeur of his conceptions, will suspect of being a poet, said in his pithy style, "Poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation ;" that is, it brings and gives greatness of mind, goodness of manners, and the delight of life. "It has been to me," said Coleridge, who was indeed a poet, "its own exceeding great reward; it has soothed my afflictions, it has multiplied and refined my enjoyments, and it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and the beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.” Here, then, you have from the lips of a true Christian the very effect of divine charity given to poetry. And Coleridge was right. All God's prophets, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Job, and Isaiah, were poets. The very heathen called the poet Vates, a prophet; nay, the Greek subtilty refined this even more, and, trying to find God in the dreams of their great poet, called him ὁ ποιητὴς, the Maker. The cold Northern intellect of the ordinary Briton has somehow, since the times of the Puritans, depreciated poets and poetry. For this there may be two reasons, perhaps three. 1. He did not understand the essential nature of poetry, and thought it was jingling verse. 2. Poets have been hitherto rather poor. "Thou source of all my joy and all my woe, says Goldsmith; and, indeed, God, to keep the poet pure, has covered him with a divine mantle made of trial, poverty, and sensitiveness, so that the world touches him not too closely, and revenges itself by abusing what it cannot understand, and inventing all PIERS PLOUGHMAN. 4I 3. Poets themselves sorts of calumnies about him. have deserved now and then the harsh censure of the world, for the meaner sort of them have affected rough and uncouth ways, have been uncleanly and vicious in their courses, and have brought down upon themselves, like the foolish prophet, the lion to rend them, while he spared the ass that stood by. But the world has now grown to a better understanding of its true teachers. The student who takes up poetry as a study should begin with a few early poets. Taking Chambers's course of "English Literature," which is an admirable work, or some other text-book, such as Scrimgeour's or Dr. Smith's, he should first ascertain which are those worthy to be known, and then procure their works; for to read all poets were but lost time, since there are so many inferior, and of lower growth, while the study of one of eminence is sufficient to set open a man's heart and enlarge his intellect.* The first poem of any note in the language, and which is the most remarkable specimen of the class of verse that found general favour with the great body of the people at the time of its production, is the famous "Vision of Piers Ploughman," or, as it is given in the Latin title, "Visio Willielmi de Petro Plouhman,” the Vision concerning Peter or Piers Ploughman. The construction of the poem is in alliterative verse with * I purposely omit reference to the early English metrical romances, and also to the early English metrical chronicles, as to touch upon these and other kindred matters would interfere with the arrangement and scope of the present work. It is possible that, on a future occasion, a supplementary volume supplying these omissions, and entering into matters of a technical and more advanced nature, may be offered to the student. It is to be distinctly understood that the present papers aim only at being elementary. out rhyme, and the subject is a description of the sufferings and temptations of the soul in its passage through this world; but there is at the same time running through it a severe and satirical attack on the viciousness of the clergy, and an exposure of the general corruption of manners of the period, which placed it at the head of the anti-clerical effusions that culminated at length in the great work of Chaucer. The authorship of the poem is generally ascribed to Robert Langland, a monk, of whom it may be said there is little or nothing known in the way of personal history. Much of the language that he uses is very similar to that of Chaucer. Mr. Thomas Wright's edition may be pointed out to the student as a trustworthy and learned compilation. I extract the passage where Piers Ploughman is first brought under the notice of the reader. A number of people have been induced by the advice of two symbolical personages, Hope and Repentance, to set forth in quest of Truth :A thousand of men tho' Thrungen togeders, Cried upward to Christ 1 Then. And to his clean moder, To have grace to go with them Ac2 there was wight none so wise The way thider couth," But blustreden forth as beasts Over bankes and hills; 2 But. 5 Person. 3 Knew. ♦ Wandered ignorantly. • Withy-wand-wise. PIERS PLOUGHMAN. Y-bounden about ; Signs of Sinai And shells of Galice, And many a crouch on his cloak For men shold know "And from our Lord's sepulchre : I have been in both; In Armony and in Alisandre, In weet and in dry, And sought good saints "Knowestow' aught a corsaint us the way That men call Truth? Till now in this place.” Holy water and oil vessels. 2 Cross. of Christ. thou. 4 So that. 8 Relic. 9 5 43 Miraculous picture Interrogated. 6 Armenia. 7 Knowest Couldst. 10 Teach. 11 Man. 12 Man. 13 Naturally. |