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Dr. Brownlow begins with a thesis that the development of prose is a sign of refinement, and achievement in prose follows achievement in poetry and song, which, he admits, is rather the opposite of common expectation. The professor then gives us the colorful story of his subject, which begins with Anglo Saxon runes and experiences two major periods of development with the mission of Augustine of Canterbury and the scholarly efforts of King Alfred the Great in the 9th century. Albert’s translations of medieval texts and the Bible into Old English helped make the language one of the most literary in Europe, but the miraculous survival and evolution of the language after the Norman Conquest has not adequately been explained, as French was the language of the rulers and the literate. By the 14th century, however, as Dr. Brownlow illustrates, several English writers were making forays into long-form prose. English prose was transformed, however, by the influence of Cicero in 15th century England, in which several pioneering essayists and translators began imitating the style of the Roman, importing more complex syntax, and influencing sacred texts that still set the standard of English today. Dr. Brownlow’s various examples from these texts, as well as his illustrations of the natural rhythms and cadences of English are very enjoyable.
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