an Anglo-Norman language, properly so called, gradually ceased to exist.  The prestige enjoyed by the French language, which, in the 14th century, the author of the Maniere de language calls “le plus bel et le plus gracious language et plus noble parler, apres latin d’escole, qui soit au monde et de touz genz mieulx prisee et amee que nul autre (quar Dieux le fist si douce et amiable principalement a l’oneur et loenge de luy mesmes.  Et pour ce il peut comparer au parler des angels du ciel, pour la grand doulceur et biaultee d’icel),” was such that it was not till 1363 that the chancellor opened the parliamentary session with an English speech.  And although the Hundred Years’ War led to a decline in the study of French and the disappearance of Anglo-Norman literature, the French language continued, through some vicissitudes, to be the classical language of the courts of justice until the 17th century.  It is still the language of the Channel Islands, though there too it tends more and more to give way before the advance of English.

[v.02 p.0032]

It will be seen from the above that the most flourishing period of Anglo-Norman literature was from the beginning of the 12th century to the end of the first quarter of the 13th.  The end of this period is generally said to coincide with the loss of the French provinces to Philip Augustus, but literary and political history do not correspond quite so precisely, and the end of the first period would be more accurately denoted by the appearance of the history of William the Marshal in 1225 (published for the Societe de l’histoire de France, by Paul Meyer, 3 vols., 1891-1901).  It owes its brilliancy largely to the protection accorded by Henry II. of England to the men of letters of his day.  “He could speak French and Latin well, and is said to have known something of every tongue between’the Bay of Biscay and the Jordan.’  He was probably the most highly educated sovereign of his day, and amid all his busy active life he never lost his interest in literature and intellectual discussion; his hands were never empty, they always had either a bow or a book” (Dict. of Nat.  Biog.).  Wace and Benoit de Sainte-More compiled their histories at his bidding, and it was in his reign that Marie de France composed her poems.  An event with which he was closely connected, viz. the murder of Thomas Becket, gave rise to a whole series of writings, some of which are purely Anglo-Norman.  In his time appeared the works of Beroul and Thomas respectively, as well as some of the most celebrated of the Anglo-Norman romans d’aventure.  It is important to keep this fact in mind when studying the different works which Anglo-Norman literature has left us.  We will examine these works briefly, grouping them into narrative, didactic, hagiographic, lyric, satiric and dramatic literature.