Much is between heaven and earth; for the man that mightè go Every day forty mile, and yet some deal mo, He ne shoulde nought to the highest heaven, that ye alday y-seeth Comen in eighte thousand year, there as the sterren beeth: And though Adam our firstè father had begun anon Tho that he was first y-made, and toward the heaven y-gon, And had each day forty mile even upright y-go He ne had nought yet to heaven y-come, by a thousand mile and mo!
Encyclopedias and universal histories are frequent in rhyme. The Northern dialect comes into literary use early in the fourteenth century in a long book, the _Cursor Mundi_ or _Cursor o Werld_, which is one of the best of its kind, getting fairly over the hazards of the short couplet. In the Northern dialect this type of book comes to an end two hundred years later; the _Monarchy_ of Sir David Lyndsay is the last of its race, a dialogue between Experience and a Courtier, containing a universal history in the same octosyllabic verse as the _Cursor Mundi_. The Middle Ages may be dated as far down as this; it is a curiously old-fashioned and hackneyed form to be used by an author so original as Lyndsay, but he found it convenient for his anti-clerical satire. And it may be observed that generally the didactic literature of the Middle Ages varies enormously not only as between one author and another, but in different parts of the same work; nothing (except, perhaps, the _Tale of Melibeus_) is absolutely conventional repetition; passages of real life may occur at any moment.
The _Cursor Mundi_ is closely related to the Northern groups of _Miracle Plays_. The dramatic scheme of the _Miracle Plays_ was like that of the comprehensive narrative poem, intended to give the history of the world ‘from Genesis to the day of Judgement’. It is impossible in this book to describe the early drama, its rise and progress; but it may be observed that its form is generally near to the narrative, and sometimes to the lyrical verse of the time.
The _Cursor Mundi_ is one of a large number of works in the Northern dialect, which in that century was freely used for prose and verse—particularly by Richard Rolle of Hampole and his followers, a school whose mysticism is in contrast to the more scholastic method of Wycliffe. The most interesting work in the Northern language is Barbour’s _Bruce_. Barbour, the Scottish contemporary of Chaucer, is not content with mere rhyming chronicles; he has a theory of poetry, he has both learning and ambition, which fortunately do not interfere much with the spirit of his story.