On the grave of his little one, covered over with flowers, the father pours out his love and grief till, in the summer stillness, he falls asleep, while we hear in the sunshine the drowsy hum of insects and the faraway sound of the reapers’ sickles.  He dreams there, and the dream grows into a vision beautiful.  His body lies still upon the grave while his spirit goes to a land, exquisite beyond all words, where he comes suddenly upon a stream that he cannot cross.  As he wanders along the bank, seeking in vain for a ford, a marvel rises before his eyes, a crystal cliff, and seated beneath it a little maiden who raises a happy, shining face,—­the face of his little Margaret.

    More then me lyste my drede aros,
    I stod full stylle and dorste not calle;
    Wyth yghen open and mouth ful clos,
    I stod as hende as hawk in halle.

He dares not speak for fear of breaking the spell; but sweet as a lily she comes down the crystal stream’s bank to meet and speak with him, and tell him of the happy life of heaven and how to live to be worthy of it.  In his joy he listens, forgetting all his grief; then the heart of the man cries out for its own, and he struggles to cross the stream to join her.  In the struggle the dream vanishes; he wakens to find his eyes wet and his head on the little mound that marks the spot where his heart is buried.

From the ideals of these three poems, and from peculiarities of style and meter, it is probable that their author wrote also Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  If so, the unknown author is the one genius of the age whose poetry of itself has power to interest us, and who stands between Cynewulf and Chaucer as a worthy follower of the one and forerunner of the other.

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE OF THE NORMAN PERIOD.  It is well-nigh impossible to classify the remaining literature of this period, and very little of it is now read, except by advanced students.  Those interested in the development of “transition” English will find in the Ancren Riwle, i.e.  “Rule of the Anchoresses” (c. 1225), the most beautiful bit of old English prose ever written.  It is a book of excellent religious advice and comfort, written for three ladies who wished to live a religious life, without, however, becoming nuns or entering any religious orders.  The author was Bishop Poore of Salisbury, according to Morton, who first edited this old classic in 1853.  Orm’s Ormulum, written soon after the Brut, is a paraphrase of the gospel lessons for the year, somewhat after the manner of Caedmon’s Paraphrase, but without any of Caedmon’s poetic fire and originality. Cursor Mundi (c. 1320) is a very long poem which makes a kind of metrical romance out of Bible history and shows the whole dealing of God with man from Creation to Domesday.  It is interesting as showing a parallel to the cycles of miracle plays, which attempt to cover the same vast ground.  They were forming in this age; but we will study them later, when we try to understand the rise of the drama in England.