New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-09-13
BUNYANS INSPIRATION.
SUGGESTIVE STUDIES BY PROFESSOR
HALES.


1t is a remarkable thing to observe how many
enocbs of worldwide literary activity are COM
petely reflected In a single English BOOK or IN the
works OF a single English author FOR example
there was in the Middle Ages group OF men whose
works were a perfect mosaic Of learned quotation
One could pick out OF the books OF vincent OF beau
vaiS nearly the whole of Plny's Natural History
beside, much OF Aristotle Averrhoes Avicenna, the
Latin historians and the medieval theoogians ms
plan Of composition which grew naturally out OF 'he
medieval reverence for words uttered by great men
in the past and out Of the incessant use OF au-
thortes in theological and scholastic disputes was
gradually perfected till it became attractive as
literary form and IL has given us in modern days
the essayists whose writings sparkle with Il gem"
like brilliancy because the treasures drawn from
wide reading are pressed into them ana poilsneN
with endless care one Of the best examples OF the
art as IL was understood in the Middle Ages Is 'le
work Of Tiraqueau that eccentric friend OF hape-
Iais who boosted that every twelvemonth Tor ten
years had seen the birth of a book and baoy !"
his family But the English reader does not nav
10 go back to Tiraqueau's Latin in order 10 s'uu'
this kind OF literature In its medieval form. fe
has only to turn the pages of 1.-THE Anatom!
OF Melancholy"
It has often been said that Millions epic status
alone It does nothing OF the kind Ihrough -"
Bartass Creation" it is linked TO chain
nj predecessors reaching back to those desp'Seu
poets who paraphrased Genesis in early CHRISTIAN
times But the most extraordinary phenomena Oh
this sort in England that Of an author WHO
had neither literature nor learning. but simply pie'y
and genius and yet is Joined to the far past WIN
bonds stronger than steel If you want Vhe
spirit of all allegores of life and death from Iru
dentius on. read Bunyan. Professor HaeS mas
nojnted out in the volume cited at the head or
this article the main from which the au'hor
drew the fances most suitable TO MS genius nun
Van would have been ruined by the literary m,iu-
ences Of his time. His eager syinpatheuc Si'lN
would have withered in an atmosphere where NIL
toms scornfu independence kept him erect. III Is
tmnossble TO imagine Bunyan in the circle or
Butler and Dryden. though Professor Hales makes
Che effort For books he knew Foxs BOOK OF
MARTYRS" and il did his own work more Marin IMAM
vood But the overwhelming literary influence that
affected him was that Of the Bible. IL gave depth
and spirituality TO his thought but among the
vraces that IL gave him could never have been the
grace of sustained and beautiful fiction HIS own
genius gave him that. stimulated by ions-nVen'
delightful tradition. I'VE Will only Just say WIFI le-
rard TO his sources" remarks Mr. Hales. that we
think his Indebtedness to old romanceS circulating
In popular shapes has not yet been suhciehtH
recognized What is Mr.. Greatheart but one of the
old knights peur et sans reproche-a III 'uN
or Sir Bevis. in surroundings? one thing more
Many who discuss Bunyans material write as il
the idea Of pilgrimage extinct in Bunyans
age as in our own, rather, perhaps as IL was
IN our own till it's late grotesque revival In fact
the recollection Of the custom must have been quite
fresh in Bunyan's boyhood. His own grandfather
might have gone pilgrimage in the good Ola
fashion The old tinker as he probably was, may
have formed a not unuseful item in just such
throng as Chaucer portrays in that never-fading
picture"
But in order to realize the chain or TRADITION 'he
memory must recall the whole history Of the old
romances Such tales without the name doubtless
existed from prehistoric times in the North OF En-
rope That they took on the title of the languages
Nrst 10 he
for they constituted the only literature these IAN
guaees could boast First in verse. then IN prose
they were the delight of all classes. high ana low
When they spread from the romance countries TO
others for example to England. they awoke In
people the knowledge that their own local epics
were also in fact romances. And thus the stock OF
beautiful tales grew with the help OF foreign ma
terial brought back by the Crusaders Along with
this creative movement there was morahzing
tendency which lofty Interpretation to each
story Witness the strange. delightful mysticism Of
the Holy Grail narratives With the multiplication
Of books and the spread of education, fashions
changed among the upper classes. But the people
were still true to the old tales. They still gathered
20 hear them told. Thus when knighthood was no
more the memory of it still fingered, and no male
figure OF the past was depicted save in armor. zone
old poet, without any profanity in his SOUL we
may be sure describes PLATE knight, and
speaks Of his jousting with Jesus.
The influence Of these tales on Chaucer is mani
Spenser, and even Milton linked with them.
Perhaps the gradual neglect into which they fell
Is reflected in the change that Milton underwent
between the time when he projected an Arthurian
epic and that later time when he turned 10 the
theme of Mans first disobedience." Banished as
they from the fine society which had once so
eagerly countenanced and caressed them they found
n welcome with less well-lettered. simpler folk. II
Is certain that the air in which the author Of the
Pilgrims Progress grew up was resonant with
the songs and stories Of Romance Ballad singers
were going to and fro about the country, furnished
no doubt with songs of an immediate political Inn
port but furnished also with many rhymed le-
gend of the olden time to which unlearned crowds
listened with rapt Moreover. these same old
pieces-these fragments of decaying literature
were circulating in Bunyans time In the form or
cheap books His immortal alegory is, like the
'Faerie Queene.' but a spiritual romance. 1t over
flows In the same incidents. adventures. enterprises
that compose the medieval tales curiousy inter
woven with the life scenery of the Commonwealth
and Restoration"
1t is thus that within the covers of one OF the
most delightful little books written is revealed
the essence of age long strivings Of humanity.
And this is certainly the important lesson that
As TO be drawn from the scholarly but somewhat
ecrappy and miscellaneous studies In Professor
Hales's book. Beginning with general discussion
of the old English merical romances and ending
with Victorian literature. the author touches by the
way on difficult problems In the old lays In
Dantean biography, in Chaucer Cover. the ballads.
wyatt and Surrey. Spenser. Sir John Davies, Rich
ard Brathwaite. Milton and Bunyan. He disputes
strongly the opinion of Professor Child that the
two ballads Battle Of Otterbourne" and the Hunt
tng of the Cheviot' are founded on the same
event In speaking Of recent authors. he suggests
that a great movement In literature cannot be
pected until the agatons Of the present past.
When society is again adjusted and settled. then
poetic genius may be expected to recover its voice.
for then will come that still time Of which Milton
spoke when there shall be no ending but a
poet cannot sing lin these noises"