bling lines from The DREAM OF THE ROOD, a DREAM VISION
written in the West Saxon dialect of OLD ENGLISH.
The craftsman Drahmal (whose name is carved in
the plate) constructed the cross in England, probably
in the early 11th century. Besides the poem, the cross
features a dedication: “To Ælfric from his brothers,
Æthelmær and Æthelwold.” Numerous attempts to
identify the three brothers have proved unsuccessful,
and the cross remains something of a mystery.
See also RUTHWELL CROSS.
FURTHER READING
d’Ardenne, Salvina. “The Old English Inscription on the Brus-
sels Cross.” English Studies 21 (1939): 145–164, 271–272.
BRUT, THE LAYAMON (ca. 1155) LAYAMON’s The
Brut is a verse CHRONICLE of the history of England from
the time of its alleged founding by the legendary Bru-
tus, great-grandson of the Trojan hero Aeneas, until
the last British king. Included in its contents is the
reign of King ARTHUR.
The Brut comprises more than 16,000 lines of allit-
erative verse divided into HALF-LINEs. It survives in two
manuscripts, both dating to the later 13th century.
Contrary to other renditions of early Britain, The Brut
strips away most of the lavish aristocratic settings,
focusing instead on the plight of ordinary people. This,
coupled with its VERNACULAR composition, may indi-
cate that its intended audience was nonaristocratic. On
the other hand, the sheer cost of producing a manu-
script of such length suggests wealthy PATRONAGE, and
most of the aristocracy were bilingual.
After the NORMAN CONQUEST, there was a renewed
interest in the history of Britain, leading to the prolif-
eration of chronicles, both verse and prose. For his
poem, Layamon used source material from the Vener-
able Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People
(Historia Ecclesiastica), the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE,
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain
(Historia Regum Britanniae), and the ROMAN DE BRUT, by
the Jersey poet WACE in the ANGLO-NORMAN language.
The Brut is an important poem as it is the fi rst work to
cast the mythical history of England into the vernacu-
lar, and one of the few major pieces written in English
during the immediate postconquest period.
See also ALLITERATION.
FURTHER READING
Allen, Rosamund. “The Implied Audience of Layamon’s
Brut.” In The Text and Tradition of Layamon’s Brut, edited
by Françoise Le Saux, 136–137. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer,
1994.
Stanley, E. G. “Layamon’s Antiquarian Sentiments.” Medium
Aevum 38 (1969): 23–37.
David A. RobertsBURDEN A burden is a verse line in a CAROL(E) or
hymn that signals the beginning and/or end of a STANZA.
In function, it closely resembles a REFRAIN.“BURNING BABE, THE” ROBERT SOUTHWELL
(1595) The most famous poem by the English Roman
Catholic writer ROBERT SOUTHWELL is a Christmas vision.
The poet stands shivering outdoors on a snowy winter’s
night when, suddenly, his chest feels warm (ll. 1–4). He
looks up in fear to see if he is near a fi re and sees the
vision of a baby burning. The baby is weeping, he sees,
but the tears only kindle the fi re. The babe explains that
he is sad because people have not come to warm them-
selves in the fl ame (ll. 5–8). Then, in a series of meta-
phors, he says his breast is a furnace where sinful souls
are heated like metals (ll. 9–12). This operation is for
their good, he adds, for, once melted, the souls will be
bathed in his blood. Having said this, he vanishes, but
the words are suffi ciently pointed to remind the poet
that it is Christmas Day (ll. 13–16).
“The Burning Babe” is written in FOURTEENERs—14-
syllable lines of iambic verse. In all, there are eight
rhymed COUPLETs, the fi rst seven of which form a single
period, or sentence, with semicolons after lines 6 and- The fi nal couplet forms a second sentence, in
which the vision vanishes and the poet identifi es it as a
reminder of Christmas.
The poem is most diffi cult where it becomes most
interesting, with the series of metaphors equating the
Christ child with fi res of purgatory—the Roman Cath-
olic place of preparation where souls are purged of
their sins and prepared for entrance into Heaven. It is
disturbingly far away from the sentimental verse of
Christmas cards precisely because it reminds us that
Jesus and Christ are the same at all times. Indeed, the
fi re is fueled by “wounding thornes” (l. 9), a reminder
“BURNING BABE, THE” 95