Professor Borges - A Course on English Literature

them, and suddenly she recognizes the body of the man she loved. And she says nothing, but she covers him with kisses. So the monks identify the king, bury him, and give him a Christian burial.
    Now, there also exists a legend that has been preserved in an Anglo-Saxon chronicle that says that King Harold did not die at Hastings but rather retired to a convent after the battle and there did penance for all his sins—it seems his life was tempestuous. And [the chronicle says] sometimes when William theConqueror, who would thereafter rule over England, had a difficulty to resolve, he would pay a visit to this anonymous monk, who had once been Harold, king of England, and would ask him what he should do. And he always followed his advice, because naturally both of them—the conqueror and the conquered—cared about England’s welfare. So, you may choose between these two versions, though I suspect you will prefer the first, the one about Edith Swanneck, who recognizes her old lover, and not the other one, about the king.
    Then we have two centuries, and during these two centuries it is as if English literature were taking place underground, because French was spoken in court, the clergy spoke Latin, and the people spoke Saxon (four Saxon dialects that were also intermingled with Danish). And one must wait from the year 1066 to the fourteenth century for English literature—which had carried on in a crude, clumsy way, which had continued on like an underground river—to reemerge. And then we have the great names ofChaucer, Langland, and then we have a language, English, that has been deeply permeated by French, to such an extent that, yes, indeed, currently there are more Latin than Germanic words in the English dictionary. But the Germanic words are the essential ones, they are the words that correspond to fire, metals, man, trees. On the contrary, all the words of culture come from Latin.
    And here we conclude the second unit.

CLASS 8

    A BRIEF HISTORY UNTIL THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON.

    MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1966
    Only a few days have passed since last Friday, but for our studies, it is as if many more had gone by. We are going to leave the eleventh century, take a leap, and land straight in the eighteenth century. But first, we should summarize the important events that have taken place in between.
    After the Battle of Hastings, which marked the end of Saxon rule in England, the English language goes into crisis. From the fifth to the seventh century, English history is linked to Scandinavia, whether through the Danes—the Angles and the Jutes came from Denmark as well as from the mouth of the Rhine—or the Norwegians, with the Viking invasions. But after the Norman conquest in 1066, England is connected to France, separating from Scandinavian history and its influence. Literature is broken off, and the English language resurges two centuries later with Chaucer and Langland.
    At first, the connection to France arises, we might say, in a bellicose fashion: in the Hundred Years’ War, the English are soundly defeated. And in the fourteenth century, the first inklings of Protestantism appear in England, before anywhere else. At that time, what will become the British Empire begins to take shape: the war with Spain gives England a victory and predominance over the seas.
    In the seventeenth century, there is a civil war, when Parliament rebels against the king. The Republic arises, which is an event that seriously scandalized the European nations at the time. The Republic did not last. Then came the era of the Restoration, culminating in the return of the monarchy, which continues till today.
    The seventeenth century is the century of the metaphysical, baroque poets. This is when JohnMilton, the republican, writes his great poem,
Paradise Lost
. In the eighteenth century, on the other hand, the empire of Rationalism arises. It is the century of Reason, and the ideal of prose has changed. It is no longer the flamboyant prose of the seventeenth century, but rather one that aspires to clarity, eloquence, and expressions of logical justification. When dealing with abstract thought, words of Latin origin are used abundantly.
    Now we come to the life of SamuelJohnson, a life that is very well known. It is a life we know better than that of any other man of letters. And we know it because of the work of his friend, JamesBoswell.
    Samuel Johnson was born in the town of Lichfield, in Staffordshire