historical lecturers and essays-第3部分
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
England which the Norse…speaking Normans could not conquer。
And now King Harold showed himself a man。 He turned at once from
the North of England to the South。 He raised the folk of the
Southern; as he had raised those of the Central and Northern shires;
and in sixteen daysafter a march which in those times was a
prodigious feathe was entrenched upon the fatal down which men
called Heathfield then; and Senlac; but Battle to this daywith
William and his French Normans opposite him on Telham hill。
Then came the battle of Hastings。 You all know what befell upon
that day; and how the old weapon was matched against the newthe
English axe against the Norman lanceand beaten only because the
English broke their ranks。 If you wish to refresh your memories;
read the tale once more in Mr。 Freeman's 〃History of England;〃 or
Professor Creasy's 〃 Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World;〃 or
even; best of all; the late Lord Lytton's splendid romance of
〃Harold。〃 And when you go to England; go; as some of you may have
gone already; to Battle; and there from off the Abbey grounds; or
from Mountjoye behind; look down off what was then 〃The Heathy
Field;〃 over the long slopes of green pasture and the rich hop…
gardens; where were no hop…gardens then; and the flat tide…marshes
winding between the wooded heights; towards the southern sea; and
imagine for yourselves the feelings of an Englishman as he
contemplates that broad green sloping lawn; on which was decided the
destiny of his native land。 Here; right beneath; rode Taillefer up
the slope before them all; singing the song of Roland; tossing his
lance in air and catching it as it fell; with all the Norse
berserker spirit of his ancestors flashing out in him; at the
thought of one fair fight; and then purgatory; or Valhalla
Taillefer perhaps preferred the latter。 Yonder on the left; in that
copse where the red…ochre gully runs; is Sanguelac; the drain of
blood; into which (as the Bayeux tapestry; woven by Matilda's maids;
still shows) the Norman knights fell; horse and man; till the gully
was bridged with writhing bodies for those who rode after。 Here;
where you standthe crest of the hill marks where it must have
beenwas the stockade on which depended the fate of England。
Yonder; perhaps; stalked out one English squire or house…carle after
another: tall men with long…handled battle…axesone specially
terrible; with a wooden helmet which no sword could piercewho
hewed and hewed down knight on knight; till they themselves were
borne to earth at last。 And here; among the trees and ruins of the
garden; kept trim by those who know the treasure which they own;
stood Harold's two standards of the fighting…man and the dragon of
Wessex。 And here; close by (for here; for many a century; stood the
high altar of Battle Abbey; where monks sang masses for Harold's
soul); upon this very spot the Swan…neck found her hero…lover's
corpse。 〃Ah;〃 says many an Englishmanand who will blame him for
it〃how grand to have died beneath that standard on that day!〃
Yes; and how right。 And yet how right; likewise; that the Norman's
cry of DEXAIE!〃God Help!〃and not the English hurrah; should have
won that day; till William rode up Mountjoye in the afternoon to see
the English army; terrible even in defeat; struggling through copse
and marsh away toward Brede; and; like retreating lions driven into
their native woods; slaying more in the pursuit than they slew even
in the fight。
But so it was to be; for so it ought to have been。 You; my American
friends; delight; as I have said already; in seeing the old places
of the old country。 Go; I beg you; and look at that old place; and
if you be wise; you will carry back from it one lesson: That God's
thoughts are not as our thoughts; nor His ways as our ways。
It was a fearful time which followed。 I cannot but believe that our
forefathers had been; in some way or other; great sinners; or two
such conquests as Canute's and William's would not have fallen on
them within the short space of sixty years。 They did not want for
courage; as Stamford Brigg and Hastings showed full well。 English
swine; their Norman conquerors called them often enough; but never
English cowards。 Their ruinous vice; if we are to trust the records
of the time; was what the old monks called accidia'Greek text'
and ranked it as one of the seven deadly sins: a general careless;
sleepy; comfortable habit of mind; which lets all go its way for
good or evila habit of mind too often accompanied; as in the case
of the Angle…Danes; with self…indulgence; often coarse enough。 Huge
eaters and huger drinkers; fuddled with ale; were the men who went
down at Hastingsthough they went down like heroesbefore the
staid and sober Norman out of France。
But those were fearful times。 As long as William lived; ruthless as
he was to all rebels; he kept order and did justice with a strong
and steady hand; for he brought with him from Normandy the instincts
of a truly great statesman。 And in his sons' time matters grew
worse and worse。 After that; in the troubles of Stephen's reign;
anarchy let loose tyranny in its most fearful form; and things were
done which recall the cruelties of the old Spanish CONQUISTADORES in
America。 Scott's charming romance of 〃Ivanhoe〃 must be taken; I
fear; as a too true picture of English society in the time of
Richard I。
And what came of it all? What was the result of all this misery and
wrong?
This; paradoxical as it may seem: That the Norman conquest was the
making of the English people; of the Free Commons of England。
Paradoxical; but true。 First; you must dismiss from your minds the
too common notion that there is now; in England; a governing Norman
aristocracy; or that there has been one; at least since the year
1215; when Magna Charta was won from the Norman John by Normans and
by English alike。 For the first victors at Hastings; like the first
conquistadores in America; perished; as the monk chronicles point
out; rapidly by their own crimes; and very few of our nobility can
trace their names back to the authentic Battle Abbey roll。 The
great majority of the peers have sprung from; and all have
intermarried with; the Commons; and the peerage has been from the
first; and has become more and more as centuries have rolled on; the
prize of success in life。
The cause is plain。 The conquest of England by the Normans was not
one of those conquests of a savage by a civilised race; or of a
cowardly race by a brave race; which results in the slavery of the
conquered; and leaves the gulf of caste between two racesmaster
and slave。 That was the case in France; and resulted; after
centuries of oppression; in the great and dreadful revolution of
1793; which convulsed not only France but the whole civilised world。
But caste; thank God; has never existed in England; since at least
the first generation after the Norman conquest。
The vast majority; all but the whole population of England; have
been always free; and free; as they are not where caste exists to
change their occupations。 They could intermarry; if they were able
men; into the ranks above them; as they could sink; if they were
unable men; into the ranks below them。 Any man acquainted with the
origin of our English surnames may verify this fact for himself; by
looking at the names of a single parish or a single street of shops。
There; jumbled together; he will find names marking the noblest
Saxon or Angle bloodKenward or Kenric; Osgood or Osborne; side by
side with Cordery or Banisternow names of farmers in my own
parishor other Norman…French names which may be; like those two
last; in Battle Abbey rolland side by side the almost ubiquitous
Brown; whose ancestor was probably some Danish or Norwegian house…
carle; proud of his name Biorn the Bear; and the ubiquitous Smith or
Smythe; the Smiter; whose forefather; whether he be now peasant or
peer; assuredly handled the tongs and hammer at his own forge。 This
holds true equally in New England and in Old。 When I search through
(as I delight to do) your New England surnames; I find the same
jumble of namesWest Saxon; Angle; Danish; Norman; and French…
Norman likewise; many of primaeval and heathen antiquity; many of
high nobility; all worked together; as at home; to form the Free
Commoners of England。
If any should wish to know more on this curious and important
subject; let me recommend them to study Ferguson's 〃Teutonic Name
System;〃 a book from which you will discover that some of our
quaintest; and seemingly most plebeian surnamesmany surnames; too;
which are extinct in England; but remain in Americaare really
corruptions of good old Teutonic names; which our ancestors may have
carried in the German Forest; before an Englishman set foot on
British soil; from which he will rise with the comfortable feeling
that we English…speaking men; from the highest to the lowest; are
literally kinsmen。 Nay; so utterly made up now is the old blood…
feud between Norseman and Englishman; between the descendants of
those who conquered and those who were conquered; that in the
children of our Prince of Wales; after 800 years; the blood of
William of Normandy is mingled with the blood of the very Harold who
fell at Hasting