'On s'étonne que l'Angleterre, pour qui l'ancien français est une langue nationale presque autant que pour la France, ne l'étudie pas avec plus d'ardeur et ne consacre pas, notamment, plus de travaux à la langue et a la littérature anglo-normande'.[1] Thus wrote a distinguished French Scholar some twenty-five years ago, and, sad to relate, his words have fallen on deaf ears. Interest in the subject would seem to have waned rather than increased. A century and a half ago Warton did not think that a correct estimate of Middle-English poetry could be formed if Anglo-Norman works were left out of consideration. Thomas Wright shared the same conviction and laboured unceasingly to secure a proper appreciation of Anglo-Norman writers.[2] More recent critics have seldom followed their good example. The Cambridge History of English Literature devotes special chapters to Anglo-Saxon and to the Latin literature produced in England, but refers only incidentally to Anglo-Norman production. Jusserand,[3] it is true, pays more attention to the subject, but almost confines himself to an analysis of French influences in England.
Continental text-books refer to Anglo-Norman writers in so far only as they fit into the great literary movements of France. G. Paris indeed attempted to do them justice in his Littérature française au moyen âge.[4] H. Suchier in his Geschichte der französischen Literatur made them the object of a separate study which can still be consulted with
- ↑ Romania, xxiv (1895), p. 158.
- ↑ The name of Francisque Michel, the indefatigable editor of A.-N. texts, should also be mentioned in this connexion.
- ↑ J. J. Jusserand, op, cit., 1st ed., 1894.
- ↑ G. Paris has also contributed a number of useful articles, e.g., a review of Suchier's work (Mélanges de littérature française, pp. 21 sq.), 'La Littérature normande avant l'annexion' (Mélanges, pp. 71 sq.), 'L'Esprit normand en Angleterre' (Poésie au moyen âge. 2e série, pp. 45-74).
