§ 6. Style of the Poem.

A claim has been made for the author of our Troy Tale to a share of popularity on the merits of his poem; can this claim be established?

If he enjoyed for a time some favour with the lovers of romance, it was, in the first place, owing to his choice of a subject. The Troy Tale, as he tells it, has lost nearly all its classic beauty; it is fitted, clumsily enough, into another framework and adopted to social needs and ideals far different to those among which it had its beginning. Yet all these changes have been made unconsciously and without definite artistic purpose. Hence it is no surprising result if the poem possesses neither symmetry nor completeness and the new things are merely patches upon the old.

But such is the character of the epic original that its charm survives even this barbarous treatment. In every dis guise it wins a ready hearing. Its fate has been of the strangest. Passed about from hand to hand, many different minds have worked their will with it; its very origins have been forgotten and Dares and Dictys stand in Homer's place. Yet its heroes are still heroic: it is occupied with the destinies of nations, and with the fates of godlike men. No poverty of workmanship can entirely destroy these great conceptions, and they are the strongest element in our English Tale of Troy.

Romance and chivalry are as yet but faintly seen. Love, as it plays part in the poem, is devoid of any inspiration. It is no more than

"Love

That maketh a man to morne & pyne
And makes him ofte his worschipe tyne
Hit makes men leue her honour

f. 189.

And makes hem take gret dishonour." Beauty is merely the incentive to violent desire. Achilles having set eyes upon Polixena is by turns moody and passio nate and sick with impatience to have his will. The women fill the part of a tragic chorus. They are the victims of unrestrained emotion: their grief is a mere display of physical violence; for grief they tear their hair and "scratte themselves"; in love they are the prototypes of Rymenhild and the Green Lady.

The poet's idea of the tragic Cassandra is original and

worthy of quotation:

"Sche ran doun thenne into the halle

And on her knes began to falle

And seyde lord kyng I praye thee

Rewe on thi self thi wiff and me

He bad hir go to hir chambur

And folde hir kerchenes of silk & lambur

So weylaway that it was so."

f. 40.

There is little attempt to differentiate the characters of the heroes; each in turn is boldest and best of men. Yet they have a certain individuality which becomes gradually impressed upon the reader as the tale proceeds. Hector stands out as the hero par excellence :

"What thei were glad

When thei here noble leder had
Was non so feble his voyce here
But it amended herte and chere

Was non so bold durst by him pas
Eche man asked what he was

Thei fled fro him as fro the ded."

f. 68.

The author has but little literary skill. His language is homely, his versification rough, often deficient in grammar, at its worst descending to the level of the merest doggrel. Yet in calling to mind these faults the great length of the poem should also in justice be remembered. On the whole the verse attains to a fair level of correctness if not of artistic merit.

Some skill in dialogue is shown: a few dry phrases in the Latin become in the hands of the English author a spirited scene of action. To take but one example, the speeches of Licomedes and Menelaus about the young Pirrus are entirely his own invention:

"Menelaus to him then sayde

Sir licomede so thow be payde
I schal the telle myn erande whi
That I come hedir sicurly
The kynges of grece alle in fere
The gretes wele as thow seis here

Bothe by mouthe & eke by letter
And sayn that it were moche better
Child Pirrus that thow holdest here
In unmanhed & foule manere
And (go?) to he(m) and to his kyn

And be his fader fomen bane

The order of knyzt when he hadde tane
And not to ligge thus in scolcurye

Hit is sir kyng a vylonye

To the sir and to him bothe

The kynges of Grece with) the are wrothe

And thow him holdis as brid in cage

That he wynnes him no vasselage

Licomede wex blo of blod

When he these wordes undirstod.”

f. 243 and 244.

The whole passage and the full account of Pirrus' knighthood are interesting, as they deal with episodes barely mentioned in Guido's Historia and may represent, as has already been suggested, an attempt to expand the episode of Pirrus into an independent tale.

Undoubtedly the best passages in the poem are descriptive passages, a storm (f. 107), setting up camp, already quoted, the vigorous battle scenes full of rueful blows, wounds, and death, given and taken with reckless hardihood.

In these last the old alliterative device is often employed. "Helmes were holed and scheldes cloven

With grete strokes here hedes hoven

Knygtes were feld stedis strayed
Wel bolde barons bledde and brayed

To ther death then were thei dygth

With swerdes scharpe and brondis brygth." f. 21.

The descriptions of nature are very few and mainly of the conventional kind so common in medieval romance: that of

the storm already referred to is by far the best.

There is a curious set of similes scattered at intervals throughout the poem. They have more originality than might be expected since they are nearly all suggested to the author by the same adjective, "thikke". The more remarkable may be quoted.

Ther lay aboute him hondes & knokeles
As thikke as any honysocles

That in somer stondes in grene medes.

f. 80.

Ther bees sat neuer so thikke on hyue

Ne corn in his lond thikker sawen

That he ne slees our men and ouerthrowen. f. 93.

f. 95.

As hauke on perche that sittes in mewe.

Throughout the whole length of the poem the author keeps completely out of sight. It is impossible to make any conjectures as to the kind of man he was. He appears equally familiar with the affairs of Church and of camp life.

He is acquainted with the names, at all events, of the most celebrated romances.

A long list of heroes is found near the beginning of the poem and has been quoted both by Warton and by M. Joly. Another romance passage contains a somewhat obscure reference to the Arthurian Legend. It occurs in a rhapsody of the kind so favourite among mediæval authors against the fickleness of Fortune, under the marginal heading of "Exempla”. After summarising the histories of Julius Cæsar and of Alisaunder, the poet continues:

"How did sche sithen with kyng Arthure
Sche was to him bothe sicur & sure
Sche made him wynne into his hand
Northway Wales & scotland
Irlond Denemark & al burgoyne
And ouercome hem of Saxsoygne
Bretanye Gaskoyne & al fraunce
And al hath thorow hir gode chaunce
Sche halpe him wel with real & rok
And at the castel of Bestok

When he faught with douzti frolle

Ther he smot on two his polle."

f. 88.

The Legende, the Fornale, the Grael and the Tropere (f. 138) are among the other books named, and it would be interesting to see a reference to the romance of Floriz and Blaunchflour in the line (f. 226):

"That is whitter than blauncheflour."

In conclusion, the poem is marked by a vigour and flow of narrative which may well have impressed those already attracted by its subject. It is full of variety and descriptive details of a kind which must have served to endow the scenes of departed Troy with vivid reality for an English audience. It is not a great poem, but, in its day, it may well have been a popular one.

London.

Dorothy Kempe.

A. POPE'S

VERHÄLTNIS ZU DER AUFKLÄRUNG DES ACHTZEHNTEN JAHRHUNDERTS.

Wenn auch in dem ausspruche Oxenstierna's, dass die welt mit sehr wenig weisheit regiert werde, unzweifelhaft viel wahrheit liegt und eine solche behauptung im munde eines mannes, der bei der weltregierung seiner zeit ein gewichtiges wort mitzusprechen hatte, besondere beachtung verdient, so wird doch wenigstens bis heute auch wiederum allgemein zu