x6o Early English Poetry.
as a scholar is not eclipsed by his fame During the reign of Edward, the Con- as a legislator. In both respects he has fessor, it ceased to be cultivated ; and no peer in England's line of Kings, after the Conqueror, it became more He is reputed to have beer the founder barbarous and vulgar, as it was then the of the University of Oxford, as well as sign of servility, and the badge of an the originator of the " Trial by Jury." enslaved race.
He died a. d. 900 or 901. As early as the year 652, the Anglo- John Scot, or Johannes Scotus Saxons were accustomed to send their Engena, flourished during Alfred's reign, youth to French monasteries to be edu- was a lecturer at Oxford, and the founder cated. In succeeding centuries the or chief prompter of scholastic divinity, court and nobility were intimately alUed The earliest specimen of the Anglo- to the magnates of France ; and the Saxon language extant is the Lord's adoption of French manners was prayer, translated from the Greek by deemed an accomplishment. The con- Ealdfride, Bishop of Sindisfame, or Holy querors commanded the laws to be ad- Island, about the year 700 : ministered in French. Children at
school were forbidden to read their
" Urin Fader thic arth in heofnas ; native language, and the English name
Our father which art in heaven; , , ^ i a i j
,1 J ^, • became a term of reproach. An old
SIC gehalgud thm noma ; ^
be hallowed thy name; WTitcr m the elcvcnth ccntury says :
to cymeth thin rye ; " Children in scoie, agenst the usage
to come thy kingdom; „ . and manir of all other nations, beeth
SIC thm willa sue is in heofnas & m ,, , r 1 1 • i
be thy will so is in heaven and in Compelled for to Icve hire own langage,
eorthe ; and for to construe his lessons and
^^"'?' ,,--.,. , 1 . thynges in Frenche. and so they haveth
unn hlaf onrwistlic sel us to daig : ..u m ' i; .. • _ -c i j »
our loaf super-excellent give us to day? scthe Normans Came first mto England."
and forgefe us scylda uma ; The Saxon was spoken by the peasants,
and lorgive us debts ours; j^^ ^j^g country, yct not wlthout an
^: r '°5Si^ '■'ttS'Z r„f - intermixture of French ; the courtly Ian-
and no inlead usig in custnung; guage was French with some vestiges of
and not lead us into temptation; the vemaCular SaXOn
ah gefrig usich from ifle. -p^^ Conqueror's army was composed
but free us each from evil. ^ j ir
of the flower of the Norman nobility.
The new Danish irruptions again ar- They brought with them the taste, the
rested the progress of learning, and ig- arts, and the refinements, they had ac-
norance and misery, as is usual, followed quired in France. European schools
in the train of war. Alfred had re- and scholars had been greatly benefitted
stored learning and promoted the arts by studying Latin versions of Greek
of peace. But his successors failed to philosophers from the Arabic. Many
sustain the institutions he planted. He learned men of the laity also became
is said to have shone with the lustre of teachers, and the Church no longer en-
the brightest day of summer amidst the joyed a monopoly of letters. They trav-
gloom of a long, dark, and stormy, win- elled into Spain to attend the Arabic
ten Before the Norman conquest the schools.
Anglo-Saxon tongue fell into disrepute ; It is a remarkable fact that Greek
and French teachers and French man- learning should have travelled through
ners were affected by the high-bom. Bagdad to reach Europe.
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