Cuthbert's Narrative of Bæda's Last Hours declares that there is in the writings of the whole monastic school of the era "a religious tenderness, a fuller love of quiet beauty, an imaginative heavenliness, which our sacred poetry has never lost." The story of Bæda's last hours as related by his pupil Cuthbert has often been told: During these days he labored to compose two works well worthy to be remembered, besides the lessons we had from him, and singing of psalms: viz., he translated the Gospel of St. John into our own tongue for the benefit of the Church, and some collections out of the Book of Notes of Bishop Isidorus. On Wednesday he ordered us to write with all speed what he had begun; and this done, we walked till the third hour with the relics of saints, according to the custom of that day. There was one of us with him who said to him, "Most dear master, there is still one chapter wanting." He answered, "Take your pen and make He passed the day joyfully ready and write fast," which he did. till evening, and the boy above mentioned, said, "Dear master, there is yet one sentence not written." He answered, “Write quickly." Soon after the boy said, The sentence is now written." He replied, "It is well; you have said the truth. It is ended." And on the pavement of his little cell, singing "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," when he had named the Holy Ghost he breathed his last and so departed to the heavenly kingdom. REQUIRED READING. Cuthbert's Letter, Morley, ii., 153. CHAPTER VI ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE THE NORTHUMBRIAN SCHOOL (680-782)—Continued. 3. Cynewulf The most many-sided, prolific, and, we might say, greatest poet of his time.-Ten Brink. Life. (Brooke, Chs. xxiii.-xxiv. ; Morley, ii., Ch. ix. ; Azarius, Development of Old English Thought; Earle, Ch. xi.; Ten Brink, i., p. 48.) Until comparatively recent times the Cadmon mentioned in Bæda's history stood solitary as the only Anglo-Saxon poet whose name we knew. In the year 1840, however, while editing the old poem Elene, Kemble discovered that several words in the epilogue were runes, and that they spelled out the word CYNEWULF. Since then three other Anglo-Saxon poems, Juliana, Christ, and Fates of the Apostles, have been found to be signed in the same way, and the conclusion that the four are the work of one poet by the name of Cynewulf has been generally accepted. Of the identity and biography of this newly discovered singer we know nothing. Of his personality, however, we can tell considerable, for the work that he has left us abounds in personal allusions. All of his poems are religious, and their materials are drawn mostly from Bible homilies and Church legends. The Juliana is the story of a Christian maiden who submitted heroically to torture Cynewulf's Christ His Elene and even to martyrdom rather than take as a husband one not a Christian. This and The Fates of the Apostles need not detain us. While they contain passages of undoubted power, both poems are far below the rest of Cynewulf's work. His true strength is shown in his Christ and his Elene, both of which he entered upon with his whole soul. The Christ is a trilogy treating successively of the Nativity, the Ascension, and the Day of Judgment. Scattered through it are passionate lyrics, prayers, hymns, bursts of praise and joy. Parts are dramatic, suggesting the miracle plays of later years; everywhere there is loftiness of thought and sustained power. In the Elene Cynewulf treats the old legend of Constantine's vision of the cross; the expedition of his mother Helena (Elene is the Greek form) to Jerusalem; the finding of the cross and the nails, and the conversion of the Jew Cyriarcus. Like all of Cynewulf's work, the poem is deficient in plot and in constructive art: the finding of the cross is the climax, and yet after this episode the narrative drags on and on for many pages. The characters are mere puppets, and the movement of the narrative is often retarded by tiresome repetitions. But despite all these faults, there is unmistakable dramatic power about the poem. With little trouble it could be turned into a miracle play, each of the chapters furnishing a scene. Parts of it are powerfully conceived, and it is hard to escape from the conviction that the whole poem was written in heat, that it was poured from a full heart. We know from the epilogue that it was composed during a time of spiritual crisis. Old age was upon the poet; he was Autobiography in Elene stained with crimes, Its Art Fettered with sins, pained with sorrows, He sought aid from books; late into the night he labored with them, and at last Heaven revealed to him a vision of the "tree of glory" as the emblem of victory. The legend of Elene, then, was typical of his own experience, and the poem burst from the full heart of the singer. Judas is none other than Cynewulf himself, and his passionate prayer for guidance came from the depths of the poet's soul. It has not The art of the poem lies in its artlessness. a trace of self-consciousness, of effort, of constraint. The poet again and again allows the wild heathen fire in his blood to blaze up unchecked. When Helena, for instance, set out on her journey to find oversea the true cross, we find him picturing a scene that had happened many a time along the Viking coast when fleets of black war-ships were making ready to harry the Saxon shore: The steeds of the sea Round the shore of the ocean were standing, Then severally hastened Over the mark-paths, band after band. Then they loaded with battle-sarks, With shields and spears, with mail-clad warriors, 2 Garnett's translation. Cynewulf and Cædmon Cynewulf's Minor Strain Cynewulf is a stronger singer than Cædmon, than any early English poet save the creator of Beowulf. In Cadmon we had lofty flights, some of them the highest efforts of the Anglo-Saxon muse; in Cynewulf we have sustained power. Cædmon, kept close to the Scripture text; Cynewulf constantly wanders far from authorities, and, like Chaucer, tells the tale anew so that it becomes his own. Cadmon, while deeply religious, and devout even to asceticism, belonged, after all, to the first generation of Christians; with Cynewulf Christianity had penetrated deeper; it was a part of his birthright, and not often does his heathen blood rise to his eyes and brain and make him to forget. Cædmon's songs are all in the major key, full of hope and joy; Cynewulf sang a minor song, his was a sad soul,-doubtless he lived in the melancholy days of his country's decline. Such was Cynewulf, a true poet with a soul as sensitive as gossamer. In youth, as such natures often will, he had plunged into the mire of worldly life; he had seen much, he had suffered much. In old age we find him sad and serious, oppressed by the hollowness of life. cry comes to us strangely like that of Hrothgar in Beowulf, strangely like that of Macbeth in Shakespeare. How thoroughly English, how familiar is his lament: To each one is wealth Fleeting 'neath heaven, treasures of earth His |