The Age of Reaction The century and a half which followed Chaucer was a period of reaction in which literature seemed to be obeying one of the laws of its own rhythm. After the flow came the ebb. The most notable event of the time was the invention of the art of printing from movable type. Previously everything was printed from plates laboriously engraved. Now came two Germans, John Gutenberg and John Faust, who used movaable letters which could be combined to make all words and so lessened wonderfully the expense of printing. In 1455, they issued the first bible. It was printed in Latin and is known as the Mazarin bible. William The introduction of printing into England was made by William Caxton who, in 1474, published The Game of the Chesse, the first book printed in England. He was a hard-working man and in the course of his life printed about sixty-five books, some of them being the Canterbury Tales and other poems from prominent writers of the time. The accessibility of these made them popular and refined the literary taste of the people. The most important prose work of the period published by him is the Morte d' Arthur, under the name of The Byrth, Lyfe and Actes of King Arthur, of his Noble Knyghtes of the Rounde Table. This still remains one of the most fasci nating of the old romances and is a long account of the wonderful adventures, the knightly deeds of the king and his devoted companions in war and in love. Later writers have been deeply indebted to Sir Thomas Malory for his graphic narratives. Notable among those who have drawn directly from him is Lord Tennyson who in his Idyls of the King tells in matchless verse many of the fascinating old legends. Sir Thomas Malory's style is simple, direct and clear, suggesting much to the imagination, but wasting no energy in useless description. When Arthur was dying, Sir Bedivere took the famous sword Excalibur and threw it into the lake. Malory tells the incident thus briefly : "And then he threw the sword as far into the water as he might, and there came an arm and a hand above the water, and met it and caught it, and so shook it thrice and brandished. And then vanished away the hand with the sword in the water." The preparation for Arthur's departure is simple and touching: "Now put me into the barge,' said the King; and so he did softly. And there received him three queens with great mourning, and so they set him down, and in one of their laps King Arthur laid his head and then that queen said, 'Oh, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long from me?'" Tennyson takes the same incidents, and in his Morte d' Arthur, clothes them as follows: "Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran, And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged Among the bulrush beds, and clutch'd the sword, And strongly wheel'd and threw it. The great brand Made lightnings in the splendor of the moon, And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch, Shot like a streamer of the northern morn, him Three times, and drew him under in the mere. And lightly went the other to the King. ་ Then spoke King Arthur, drawing thicker breath: 'Now see I by thine eyes that this is done. |