The New York herald., 1875-11-09
MRS. ABBY SAGE RICHARDSON.
LECTURE ON THE INFLUENCES THAT FORMED
THE ENGLISH LITERATURE

LECTURE ON THE INFLUENCES THAT FORMED
THE ENGLISH LITERATURE.
Mrs. Abby Sage Richardson delivered a lecture yes
terday afternoon the influences that formed English
literature at Decker Hail. There quito large
tendance OF ladies' all evidently from tho most cultured
circles They listened to the lecture with great atten
ton interest Mrs. Richardson is very fine look
ing intelligent lady She has gentle expression and
pleasing delivery and at little distance she would be
taken for quite young woman. She commenced her
lecture by sayngT want to talk you this afternoon
the influences that produced English literature
and English poetry up to the time it found
expression in Godfrey Chaucer whom have come to
style, and justly the Father of English Poetry. 1t
would not be possible in the brief space devote
to up thoroughly the forces work in history
that have combined to make Chaucer what he 1t
proper begin the study OF English ltera-
ture with the AngloSaxons II Is claimed indeed that
the
ANCIENT BR1ToNs HAD A LITERATURE
much richer poetic imagery than that Of the Teutonic
people who became their -conquerors There are
Gaelic MSS Ireland which date back almost to the
,nvasion of Caesar, while the Welsh have remains
OF somewhat later date which have both power and
beauty. The question OF race is vexed one
'sWe owe oldest collection OF Ango-Saxon poetry
after Brownly the of pious monk the Bishop
OF Leoprc who, in the eleventh century, lie # to his
monastery in Exeter the library which he had col
lccted. The popularity which distinguishes tho
Gothic poetry from that OF Southern Europe is al
liberation, which II insists than on rhyme
movement The verses written like prose, there
being rhyme nor Of capital letters This
the hrst beginning OF English literature, this rude out
cry of the barbaric muse of the Gothic stock 1t
A BEGINNING
There is something rugged and stony IN Its voice. and
IL Is not devoid Of feeling though wanting in passion
and melody One hundred and dfty years after the
Saxon invasion OF England Roman priest, in passing
through the streets OF his city, some bue-eye
handsome youths exposed for sale slaves.
Their beauty attracted his attention and he
stopped to ask who the strangers were. They were
angels the slave merchant told him, and they came
from tho land OF Albion They are angels in face
well name, said the priest and they ought 10 be-
angels in heaven few years later, when this
monk had become Gregory The Great and sitting in
the Papal chair, he remembered the people whose
faces had so impressed him, and would not rest till he
had sent Christian missionaries to England. In tho
year 596 ship sent by Pope Gregory landed the pous
father, st Augustine, and thirty forty monks
companying him. on the shores OF the Kingdom OF
Kent King Ethelbcrt heard of the coming Of this
little band Of Strangers clad in long robes and bearing
alot silver cross and the image OF the dead Christ
painted on board. The Saxon monarch, seeing that
they bore no implements OF war;
FEARED wITcHCRAPT,
and would not receive them indoors because II they
practised any evil arts he imagined 1t would be more
difficult the open air These monks bore battle
axes but their stead rolls Of parchment which
tanned part OF the Hebrew Scriptures of Moses book
four Gospels and psaltery. Tho influence
literature not only Tor that time but for all time,
wrought by the introduction OF book wonderful as
the Bible cannot be estimated There yet another
who had come TO Spain century and half be-
fore Rollo swooped down on Gaul, who had brought
with them other elements to add TO this literary Ola
podrida These were the Arabs who had
brought much learning into Spain, and who England
still bare Of books had seventy public libraries in
full operation. From such commingng of Greek,
Latin, Arabian, Celtic and Gothc myths legends and
tales, there certainly impulse TO liter
ature Already in 1866 this influence had been felt
though 1t had been committed but little TO parchment
1t seems to that English muse had many grand
sponsors and that her birth waited on by many.
grand All the quarters or the earth furnished
something wherewith TO clothe her."
The above exceedingly bare outline OF the lecture
enriched by Mrs Richardson with many quaint stories
OF oden time and quotations from the oldest English
poetry