The Continuity of English Prose
On the Continuity of English Prose from Alfred to More and his School. By R. W. Chambers, M.A., D.Lit., D.Litt. (For the Early English Text Society. Milford. 6s.) English Prose. By John Brophy. (A. and C. Black. 2s. 6d.) Ix looking back upon history, and upon the history of literature, even scholars are liable to over-emphasizc. the significance of the more conspicuous periods and movements— the Norinan Conquest, for instance, or the rise of the Elizabethan drama— at the expense of less stirring times, and at the expense, in some cases, of a clear understanding and presentation of the continuity of tradition. Those who take the " drum and trumpet " view- of history tend to regard all things- in terms of military success or failure, and there is a corresponding view of cultural history which reveals all the peaks in brilliant sunshine and leaves the plains and valleys wrapped in fog. The use of chiaroscuro offers great temptation to the historian and is apt to save him and his readers the pains of arriving at a sober and accurate judgement. Any attempt, therefore, on his part to appeal to the reason rather than the emotions must be welcome. We all tire at tunes of hearing this or that individual or period cried up or cried down, and we grow the readier to learn from those who are most aware of the under- tones and undercurrents beneath the panoply of great events. History, after all, is not merely the lengthened shadow of the superman.
The first volume under review is an extract from the Intro- duction to an edition of Nicholas Harpsfield's life of Sir Thomas More, which is edited for the Early English Text Society by Miss E. V. Hitchcock and Dr. R. W. Chambers, of whom the last- named isQuain Professor of English in the University of London. But this is something more than a work of scholarship ; it is a definite attempt to refute certain opinions about the history and literature of our country, opinions which are held widely and upon the highest authority. The fact is, not only that Alfred and More are two individuals who do not always get, as men and as writers, the consideration they deserve, but that the continuity of English prose between the ages in which they lived has often been disregarded or denied. Because Chaucer was our first really great writer we must not forget that he himself was an exemplar of a civilization that had already been centuries in the making, and although it is true that Mr. Stanley Baldwin has uttered a cri du coeur on behalf of Piers Plowman as well as in favour of the novels of Mary Webb, he has not succeeded in making the earlier work a best-seller. Wiclif, we remember having been told, was the father of English prose, but as a matter of fact " England pre- ceded the nations of Western Europe by some centuries " in the development of an official language, and that language was itself based on the English prose of Alfred. So advanced, indeed, was English civilization in the. time of Edward the Confessor that " it seems as if . . • . Eleventh-Century England was getting into the Fifteenth." That phenomenon, Professor Chambers considers, accounts for " the real animus which many historians show against the England of the Confessor and of Harold, and the obvious relief with which they hail the figure of William the Conqueror. " This kind of thing won't do," we can hear our orthodox historian saying ; " it is quite unprecedented, and thank God, here is William come to put a stop to it." Professor Chambers not only makes hay of the contention of recent historians that England was nothing but a jumble of decadence and futility in the two centuries preceding the Conquest, but he makes out a vigorous case for our cultural strength in those days and even for the existence of a sense of national unity. Children, it seems,
need no longer be allowed to gather the impression that woad was all the rage until 1066.
Alfred's prose was good prose, and that is something not characteristic of a barbaric race. Uncivilized peoples may
produce great poetry, but prose, as the late J. S. Phillimore once remarked, " is an institution, part of the equipment of a civilization, part of its heritable wealth, like its laws, or its system of schooling, or its tradition of skilled craftsmanship.". The history of English prose has not only been stultified, says Professor Chambers, by a contempt for the period imme- diately preceding the Conquest but the period before the Reformation has been equally misrepresented, and here religious prejudice has been largely responsible. From Alfred
to More Professor Chambers dispenses justice with so much learning and such an equal hand that it is useless trying to do him justice in a short review. It is enough to say that scholar- ship is not always warmed by such imagination or expressed with such vividness, and that these pages may well serve as a guide to a revised perspective of English cultural history, a perspective which increases admiration for our national heritage.
Mr. John Brophy's little primer is sound and sensible. His knowledge is practical as well as theoretical, and anyone who wished to begin to learn how to write honest prose might well profit by his advice. One of his judgements, however, is likely to cause the sudden raising of an eyebrow here and there among his readers : " English prose as an adequate instrument for art hardly existed before the seventeenth century." Now the date of the Authorized Version is 1611. " It is not," says Professor Chambers, " a miracle to be looked at in isolation," because " there was such a tradition of English prose behind those who drew up the Authorized Version that even a Committee could not spoil it." He would no doubt refer Mr. Brophy to " the continuous background of English devotional prose," which was not only an " adequate instrument for art " but for religion as well.
WILLIAM PLOMER.
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