LAYAMON.--Layamon[15] was an English priest of Worcestershire, who made a
version of Wace's _Brut_, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, so
peculiar, however, in its language, as to puzzle the philologist to fix
its exact date with even tolerable accuracy. But, notwithstanding the
resemblance, according to Mr. Ellis, to the "simple and unmixed, though
very barbarous Saxon," the character of the alphabet and the nature of the
rhythm place it at the close of the twelfth century, and present it as
perhaps the best type of the Semi-Saxon. The poem consists partly of the
Saxon alliterative lines, and partly of verses which seem to have thrown
off this trammel; so that a different decision as to its date would be
reached according as we consider these diverse parts of its structure. It
is not improbable that, like English poets of a later time, Layamon
affected a certain archaism in language, as giving greater beauty and
interest to his style. The subject of the _Brut_ was presented to him as
already treated by three authors: first, the original Celtic poem, which
has been lost; second, the Latin chronicle of Geoffrey; and, third, the
French poem of Wace.
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