lfth
and the whole of the thirteenth century. That deceptive dawn, or first
glimpse of the coming day, is to be found in the work of _Layamon_. The
old Saxon had revived, but had been modified and altered by contact with
the Latin chronicles and the Anglo-Norman poetry, so as to become a
distinct language--that of the people; and in this language men of genius
and poetic taste were now to speak to the English nation.

LAYAMON.--Layamon[15] was an English priest of Worcestershire, who made a
version of Wace's _Brut_, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, so
peculiar, however, in its language, as to puzzle the philologist to fix
its exact date with even tolerable accuracy. But, notwithstanding the
resemblance, according to Mr. Ellis, to the "simple and unmixed, though
very barbarous Saxon," the character of the alphabet and the nature of the
rhythm place it at the close of the twelfth century, and present it as
perhaps the best type of the Semi-Saxon. The poem consists partly of the
Saxon alliterative lines, and partly of verses which seem to have thrown
off this trammel; so that a different decision as to its date would be
reached according as we consider these diverse parts of its structure. It
is not improbable that, like English poets of a later time, Layamon
affected a certain archaism in language, as giving greater beauty and
interest to his style. The subject of the _Brut_ was presented to him as
already treated by three authors: first, the original Celtic poem, which
has been lost; second, the Latin chronicle of Geoffrey; and, third, the
French poem of Wace. Although Layamon's work is, in the main, a
translation of that of Wace, he has modified it, and added much of his
own. His poem contains more than thirty thousand lines.

THE ORMULUM.--Next in value to the Brut of Layamon, is the Ormulum, a
series of metrical homilies, in part paraphrases of the gospels for the
day, with verbal additions and annotations. This was the work of a monk
named _Orm_ or _Ormin_, who lived in the beginning of the thirteenth
century, during the reign of King John and Henry III., and it resembles
our present English much more nearly than the poem of Layamon. In his
dedication of the work to his brother Walter, Orm says--and we give his
words as an illustration of the language in which he wrote:

Ice hafe don swa summ thu bad
Annd forthedd te thin wille
Ice hafe wennd uintill Ennglissh
Goddspelless hallghe la