And aaron held up his hond
to ðe water and ðe more lond;
ðo cam ðor up ſwilc froſkes here
ðe dede al folc egipte dere;
Summe woren wilde, and ſumme tame,
And ðo hem deden ðe moſte ſame;
In huſe, in drinc, in metes, in bed,
It cropen and maden hem for-dred;
Summe ſtoruen and gouen ſtinc,
And vn-hileden mete and drinc;
Polheuedes, and froſkes, & podes ſpile
Bond harde egipte folc un-ſile.[8]
And Aaron held up his hand
To the water and the greater land;
Then came there up such host of frogs
That did all Egypt's folk harm;
Some were wild, and some tame,
And those caused them the most (greatest) shame;
In house, in drink, in meats, in bed,
They crept and made them in great dread;
Some died and gave (out) stink,
And (others) uncovered meat and drink;
Tadpoles and frogs, and toad's venom
Bound hard Egypt's sorrowful folk.
—(ll. 2967-2978.)
The reader must not be disappointed if he fails to find many traces in this
work of our pious author's poetic skill; he must consider that the interest
attaching to so early an _English_ version of Old Testament History, as
well as the philological value of the poem, fully compensates him for the
absence of great literary merit, which is hardly to be expected in a work
of this kind. And, moreover, we must recollect that it is to the
patriotism, as well as piety, of such men as our author, that we owe the
preservation of our noble language. The number of religious treatises
written in English during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries proves
that the dialect of religion approached more closely to the speech of the
people than did the language of history or romance. And it is a curious
fact that the most valuable monuments of our language are mostly
theological, composed for the lewed and unlearned, who knew no other
language than the one spoken by their forefathers, and who clung most
tenaciously to their mother tongue, notwithstanding the changes consequent
upon the Norman invasion, and the oppression of Norman rule, which,
inasmuch as it fostered and kept up a patriotic spirit, exercised a most
important and beneficial influence upon Early English literary culture and
civilization.