I wanted to write a real post this morning, but I have to leave the house so early that it didn’t get done. Sorry.

THE BIBLE IN OUR LITERATURE

Dr. Howard R. Driggs

Lesson 4 – Bible Influence as Revealed in Our Narrative and Epic Poetry

For Tuesday, January 22, 1946

Chaucer, often called the father of English literature, gave us in his Canterbury Tales outstanding narrative poetry. In this group of stories, preserved vibrantly by a literary master, we have an artistic portrayal of England in the Middle Ages. With picturesque old English, which, well-voiced, brings a charm and flavor of it sown, the poet tells of “nyne and twenty in a companye of sondry folk” who are making a pilgrimage about Easter time to pay homage to a “holy blissful martyr” who has “holpen hem (them) whan that they been seke (sick).” To while time away on the long journey to and from Canterbury, the travelers relate favorite tales. These, like the different storytellers, mirror the spirit, the custom, the people of that “olden tyme.”

Naturally, with such personages as a prioress, a nun, a monk, a pardoner, a friar, and a poor parson, in the company, we are brought closer to the religious thought and practices of those days. Chaucer, a keen observer, sketches these vivid characters in his prologue with artistry. He pictures the prioress as demure and neat and cultured. There are poetic shafts aimed at the monk who in this case was not pale and studious, but worldly and well fed. For show and sham and abuses of religion, the poet reveals little patience. His ire flames especially at the pardoner who went about selling indulgences, preying upon the poor and rich alike. For the poor parson, however, he has nothing but praise. “Riche he was in holy thought and work,” says the poet; and further:

He wayted after no pompe and reverence,
Ne (nor) maked him a spyced conscience.
But Crites lore,* and his apostles twelve,
He taughte, and first he folowed it him selve.

*Meaning the gospel of Christ.

Because of the old-time language, which, after all, is mainly what we use today, only with some words spelled differently, many folk miss the enjoyment of Chaucer. For those who do get over the not very difficult word barrier, there are delightful descriptions, touches of humor, bits of wisdom and gospel truths, as well as charming stories in his writings. He pictures for us typically human folk of not only his own day, but of all time. Throughout the work of this pioneer in English narrative poetry, the helpful influence of the Bible is plainly shown.

Another of our great poets who drew from the Bible not only inspiration but divine themes for his masterpieces was John Milton. In him, as in Chaucer, we can see three major influences blended to help bring forth masterly creations. First, the freedom-demanding spirit of the Anglo-Saxon; second, the culture of classic Greece; third, the Bible, with its teachings of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. For a helpful comparison here, think of the soil-laden waters of the Missouri as typifying the rugged northland folk; the clearer Mississippi as the more artistic Hellenes; and the “Beautiful Ohio” as the spiritualizing Hebraic and Christian contribution – all flowing together to make one great stream.

In Paradise Lost, to apply this analogy, we have an excellent example of such a blended creation. Milton was trained in Anglo-Saxon love of freedom; he was a classical scholar, a devoted student of the scriptures. As secretary of Oliver Cromwell, he naturally was stirred to the depths by the arrogant assumption of King Charles the First, that kings had “divine right” to rule. To the poet this all had its prototype in the “War in Heaven” with Satan, father of tyrants, fighting to dominate the souls of men, and Christ leading the host battling to uphold man’s right to exercise his God-given free agency.

Here was a Bible-inspired theme, vital then and always. How could it be most splendidly expressed? All the artistry of poetry Milton had gained from his classic studies was brought into play. Paradise Lost, most sublime of epics, vibrates with the spirit of liberty; it is stately in form, portraying heavenly characters, Satan and his legions in hell, the Son of God and his divine mission, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, their temptation by the Devil, their fall, and expulsion from Paradise.

Ringing lines of truth, precious descriptions, vivid moving pictures, all in the spirit of Job and Isaiah and the apocalypse of John, bring this epic up to the world’s greatest of literary creations. To feel its spiritual powers, its music and beauty, one must hear it effectively voiced. Further, it must be read and reread if the inner meaning of the poem is to be appreciated.

Paradise Lost will yield its rare wealth only to those who are willing to pay the price of earnest study. Such effort, like that applied to the mastery of classic music, brings its rich and lasting rewards.

Just a few lines can be given here to suggest some of the gems of thought and description within the great epic:

Him (Satan) th’ Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky.

* * *

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven –
so says the fallen Satan.

When the Son of God offers himself to redeem the world, his Father, with tender love and admiration, makes promise that through this atoning sacrifice shall come, in time,

New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,
And after all their tribulations long,
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With Joy and Love triumphing, and fair Truth.

Matchless portrayal of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, of the subtleties of Satan, and of the driving of our first parents from paradise, carry forward the great story to its closing lines:

Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide,
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.

The Canterbury Tales and Paradise Lost differ basically in form. Stories that Chaucer brings together in the first are individual, unrelated tales. It is only the outward plan, devised by the poet, of having the various pilgrims traveling together tell the different stories that holds them with something of unity. Paradise Lost, on the other hand, is made up of different stories, each of which helps to develop the central theme. This makes it an epic, similar to the Illiad, the Odyssey, or to Hiawatha. The Canterbury Tales in structure may be likened to a necklace; Paradise Lost is more wheel-like in its story unity.

Idylls of the King by Tennyson is another great epic. its various interesting stories of the Knights of the Round Table center in Arthur, their king. In Celtic tales this legendary hero was preserved through the years. In Mallory’s Morte d’Arthur, one of the first of English books to be printed, stories linked with Arthur’s name are in prose. Tennyson brings to us many of the sane stories in more polished English blank (unrhymed) verse.

Further, the poet portrays King Arthur more plainly as a champion of Christianity. With his chosen and tested knights, he strives to hold back the Anglo-Saxon pagans who, when the Roman legions were withdrawn from England, made conquest of that realm. With “We fight for our fair father Christ,” as something of a battle cry, the courageous Arthur:

Fought, and in twelve great battles overcame
The heathen hordes, and made a realm and reigned.

At the outset the King had announced: “The old order changeth, yielding place to new.” Something more, however, than victory over pagan hosts was necessary to make good that vow. Stories, one after another, of the Knights of the Table Round, reveal the continuing struggle against sin, disloyalty to high ideals, and a falling from grace. Then into the epic comes the miracle of the Holy Grail.

This sacred symbol, one legend has it, was the cup out of which Christ drank at his Last Supper. Taken to England, so the old story goes, by Joseph of Arimathea, it had remained there until the time –

Grew such evil that the holy cup
Was caught away to heaven and disappeared.

Only by the absolutely pure could the cup again be seen. A sister of Sir Percival, of the Table Round, was first to win that precious privilege. Said she:

Sweet brother, I have seen the Holy Grail:
For waked at dead of night, I heard a sound
As of a silver horn from o’er the hills
… and then
Streamed through my cell a cold and silver beam,
And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail.
Rose red with beatings on it, as if alive …
And then the music faded, and the Grail
Pass’d. …
So now the Holy Thing is here again
Among us, brother, fast thou too and pray,
And tell thy brother knights to fast and pray,
That so perchance the vision may be seen
By thee and those and all the world be heal’d.

Percival, heeding his sister’s words, withdrew from the Table Round to an abbey, to pass his life thenceforth in prayer and fast and alms. Other knights, catching the religious fervor, likewise took up the quest of the Holy Grail. Among them was Galahad, youngest of all. To this splendid youth, King Arthur, dubbing him knight, had said, “God make thee as pure as thou art beautiful.” That the prayer was granted is attested by the story that Galahad was one who did see the vision of the Holy Grail.

But unrighteousness did not cease. The Table Round in time was broken up. At last came the passing of the king (Morte d’Arthur). And, as the great leader neared the close of his uplifting life, he said again:

The old order changeth, yielding place to new …
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.

Outstanding among our American creators of narrative and epic poetry is Longfellow. His name, to most folk, will bring memories of Evangeline and The Courtship of Miles Standish.

Something deeper than just interesting stories are in these and other narrative verse by Longfellow. Evangeline is a symphony impressing “the beauty and strength of woman’s devotion”; The Courtship of Miles Standish likewise is a musically beautiful poem portraying conflict between love and duty. Both picture with artistry moving scenes in earlier American life: one a story of the Norman peasantry transplanted to Arcadia; the other a story of the Pilgrims in Plymouth. To get the full richness out of these classics, one must read and reread them and, in doing so, follow Longfellow’s own advice from “The Day is Done’:

Lead to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

All great poetry was created to be heard rather than just to be read silently.

Another thing: to appreciate the inner meaning and spiritual beauty of these story-poems one must know the Bible. All through them are lines that call, as do the following, for a working knowledge of that Book of Books. These are typical ones from Evangeline:

Harvests were gathered in; and wild, with the winds of September
Wrestled the trees of the forest, as Jacob of old with the angel.
…
Like unto shipwrecked Paul on Melita’s desolate seashore.
…
Strutted the lordly turkey, and crowed the cock with the self-same
Voice that in ages of old had startled the penitent Peter.
…
Hot and on his lips still burned the flush of the fever
As if life, like the Hebrew, with blood had besprinkled its portals.
That the angel of death might see the sign and pass over.

And these from The Courtship of Miles Standish:

This is the hand of the Lord; it is laid upon me in anger,
For I have followed too much the heart’s desires and devices,
Worshipping Astaroth blindly, and impious idols of Baal.
This is the cross I must bear, the sin and the swift retribution.
…
Giants in hearts they were, who believed in God and the Bible,
Ay, who believed in the smiting of Midianites and Philistines.
…
Forth from the curtain of clouds, from the tent of purple and scarlet,
Issued the sun, the great High Priest, in his garments resplendent,
Holiness unto the Lord, in letters of light on his forehead.

Another of Longfellow’s creations, in structure like that of the Canterbury Tales, and doubtless inspired by Chaucer’s creation, is Tales of a Wayside Inn. In his later years, the American poet, as professor of the chair of poetry at Harvard, gathered round him friends and students from not only his own but other countries. go to the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts – preserved now as a shrine by Henry Ford, in tribute to Longfellow’s work which gave the place literary immortality – and you may see photographs of some of these friends hanging on the wall.

There, as the poet devised the setting for his tales, the group of friends would gather round the fireside, and share their stories. From the genial landlord, they were given the first one, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Another, “King Robert of Sicily” came from a Sicilian; still another, already mentioned in the first of our lessons, “The Saga of King Olaf” was related by the musician, Ole Bull. A Spanish Jew, a poet, a theologian, and a student, all add their favorite tales. And these, with prelude and interludes, are held together as with a strand – story gems made into a literary necklace.

Many of the stories are closely linked with the Bible. This is true especially of “King Robert of Sicily,” “The Legend Beautiful,” and the “Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi.” Others, like “The Birds of Killingworth” vibrate with the Christian spirit. And this may be said not only of Longfellow’s poems as a whole, but of story-poems created by Whittier, Lowell, and other fine American poets. Space forbids more than this passing tribute due these creators of interesting, uplifting literature.

Discussion and Activities

1. (a) What, in brief, does Chaucer portray in The Canterbury Tales? (b) Which of the religious pilgrims in the poem were worthy the name of Christian? Which were not? Why?

2 (a) Tell very briefly the background Bible story of Paradise Lost. (b) How does the theme of man’s free agency link with the founding of our nation? With the world wars we have had (c) What basic preparation had Milton for this masterwork?

3. (a) What, briefly, is the legend of the Holy Grail? (b) What qualities in Sir Galahad made it possible for him to see this vision? (c) How does Lowell in his Vision of Sir Launfal bring the Holy Grail closer to our lives? Sketch his story.

4. (a) Why may Longfellow be aptly called a great poet for both schools and homes? (b) Most folk get just story enjoyment from his narrative poems. What other riches are to be had from appreciative re-reading of Evangeline, The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Tales of a Wayside Inn?

5. (a) Prove with brief quotations from Chaucer, Milton, Tennyson, Longfellow, or other creators of narrative poetry, that a good working knowledge of the Bible is essential to an understanding of their story-poems.

6. Name from another poet – English or American – a narrative poem which links with the Bible in title, allusions, thought or spirit; for example, “Abou Ben adhem” by Leigh Hunt.

Special References

Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer.
Paradise Lost, Milton.
Idylls of the King – “The Holy Grail” and “Passing of Arthur,” Tennyson.
Evangeline, Courtship of Miles Standish, Tales of A Wayside Inn, Longfellow.