k is regular in accent, but without alliteraintentional rhyme.

tells of himself in the dedication that he was

of the order of St. Augustine, and that he Homilies in English at the request of Brother Augustinian canon, for the spiritual improveuntrymen. His plan is, first, to give a metrical : the Gospel of the day, and then to expound it trinally and practically, with frequent borrowing ritings of St. Augustine and Elfric, and some from Bede.

homilies provided for nearly the whole of the vice, nothing remains beyond the thirty-second, hat remains there is no sentence that points to the in the work was written.

metre is in alternate verses of eight and seven ́s, imitative of a Latin rhythm, or in lines of fifteen es with a metrical point at the end of the eighth. n has taken some pains to preserve his rhythm; and the lines of the MS. marks as of different acute accents, le, double, or triple, are set. These marks may have ved as guides to a right elocution, but for the right pronciation of his vowels Brother Ormin took a precaution l his own. He doubled the consonant after a short vowel, nd there only. Where the consonant was single, even a Norman or town-bred priest reading the simple English homily to the simple country congregation was thereby taught that the preceding vowel was a long vowel, and he was accordingly warned not to mispronounce it.

Although Brother Ormin's version of the Scripture service of the day with homily upon it is good in rhythm but not poetical, yet it has one pleasant distinctive character. It is remarkable for its well-studied simplicity of expression. Without sacrifice of the dignity of the subject, each Scripture story is told in the easy language

Ormin.

CHAPTER IX.

THE ORMULUM AND THE ANCREN RIWLE.

BROTHER ORMIN was another writer at the beginning of the thirteenth century from whom we have a considerable work in much English verse. His purpose was religious and didactic. It was to bring home pleasantly and very simply to the understanding of the poor the truths of Scripture in those portions of the New Testament which were read in the daily offices of the church. The intention of his work corresponded to that of the Scripture Paraphrase of Cædmon, although it differed much in plan and execution. His work is called from his own

name the Ormulum.

"pis boc iss nemmned Orrmulum

Forrpi þatt Orm itt wrohhte."

But though the author there, for a purpose, calls himself Orm, he says elsewhere that he was named Ormin. There remains only a portion of the work, and it is in a single MS. which forms a folio volume in the Junian collection, now preserved in the Bodleian.* The

The Ormulum.

* "The Ormulum. Now first Edited from the Original MS. in the Bodleian, with Notes and a Glossary, by Robert Meadows White, D.D., late Fellow of St. Mary Magdalene College, and formerly Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford.” 2 vols. (Oxford, 1852). A second edition of it was published in 1878, edited by R. Holt, M.A. (Clarendon Press, Oxford).

metre of this work is regular in accent, but without alliteration and without intentional rhyme.

The author tells of himself in the dedication that he was a canon regular of the order of St. Augustine, and that he composed the Homilies in English at the request of Brother Walter, also an Augustinian canon, for the spiritual improvement of his countrymen. His plan is, first, to give a metrical paraphrase of the Gospel of the day, and then to expound it in metre doctrinally and practically, with frequent borrowing from the writings of St. Augustine and Ælfric, and some borrowing from Bede.

Of the homilies provided for nearly the whole of the yearly service, nothing remains beyond the thirty-second, and in what remains there is no sentence that points to the time when the work was written.

The metre is in alternate verses of eight and seven syllables, imitative of a Latin rhythm, or in lines of fifteen syllables with a metrical point at the end of the eighth. Ormin has taken some pains to preserve his rhythm; and over the lines of the MS. marks as of different acute accents, single, double, or triple, are set. These marks may have served as guides to a right elocution, but for the right pronunciation of his vowels Brother Ormin took a precaution all his own. He doubled the consonant after a short vowel, and there only. Where the consonant was single, even a Norman or town-bred priest reading the simple English homily to the simple country congregation was thereby taught that the preceding vowel was a long vowel, and he was accordingly warned not to mispronounce it.

Although Brother Ormin's version of the Scripture service of the day with homily upon it is good in rhythm but not poetical, yet it has one pleasant distinctive character. It is remarkable for its well-studied simplicity of expression. Without sacrifice of the dignity of the subject, each Scripture story is told in the easy language

that might be addressed to an untaught peasant, and the little homily upon it is produced according to the same design. A part of this design appears in the care taken to secure a right pronunciation of the words. There was still some confusion of tongues in the land during the amalgamation of all that was serviceable in the Norman with the English, and if the simplicity of the home speaking were marred by the false pronunciation of any far-fetched town priest or half-foreigner who might officiate as reader, the whole intention of the work would be so far defeated. Doubtless this was the reason of that ingenious use of consonants as a guide to correct pronunciation Having achieved this contrivance, Brother Ormin did his best to secure it from being made a misleading pathway to confusion by the blunders of transcribers, by thus laying his most special injunction on the copyist: "And whoso shall will to write this book again another time, I bid him that he write it rightly, so as this book teacheth him, entirely as it is upon this first pattern, with all such rhymes as here are set, with just as many words, and that he look well that he write a letter twice where it upon this book is written in that wise. Let him look well that he write so, for he may not otherwise write the word in English, that let him know well for sooth. And if anyone wants to know why I have done this deed, why I have turned into English the Gospel's holy teaching; I have done it in order that all young Christian folks may depend upon that only, that they with their whole might follow aright the Gospel's holy teaching in thought, in word, in deed."

Of which passage the first lines run thus in his own

verse :

"And whase wilenn shall thiss boc

Efft operr sipe writenn

Himm bidde icc patt het write rihht

Swa summ piss boc him tæchepp,

All þwerrt ut affterr þatt itt iss

Uppo piss firrste bisne,

Wipp all swillc rime alls her iss sett

Wipp all se fele wordess;
And tatt he loke wel patt he

An bocstaff write twiyyess
Eyywhær þær itt uppo piss boc

Iss writenn o patt wise."

It will have been observed in this specimen that Ormin's rhythm differs less from that of our own day than the rhythm of Layamon, and that the doubling of consonants after short vowels enables the reader, even now, rightly to determine the pronunciation of the words.

From a not less pious but more monkish and Romish priest we have a prose work written for a few women in Transition English. The "Ancren Riwle," of The Ancren which five MSS. are extant,* and which was Riwle. first edited for the Camden Society by the Rev. James Morton in 1853, is a work that was first written in the English of its time, afterwards translated into Latin. It was written for a society of anchoresses, who were afterwards incorporated with the Cistercian order, but who, when this Rule. was composed for them, do not seem to have been living under any spiritual superior. And why should they? The whole society consisted of only three pious ladies of good family with their domestics or lay sisters, who had withdrawn from the world to give themselves up to religious exercises and devout meditations. Their rule and their independence of all formal orders is well defined by the

* One in Corpus Christi Coll. Camb. ; three in the Brit. Mus., Nero A xiv., Titus D xviii., Cleopatre C vi.

"The Ancren Riwle: a Treatise on the Rules and Duties of Monastic Life." Edited and Translated from a Semi-Saxon MS. of the 13th century. By James Morton, B.D., Vicar of Holbeach, Prebendary of Lincoln, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. Earl Grey (Camden Society, 1853). Mr. Morton's introduction to this book is the chief source of information on the subject of it.