ABSTRACT
All compositions in verse may be reckoned examples (by intention, at least) of literary art. This does not hold for prose compositions. In Old English times, even as now, prose was the normal form of non-literary speech and writing, and of the prose works left to us from the period we limit ourselves to those more or less literary in character. The literary prose of Old English is made up, for the most part, of translations or paraphrases of Latin writings. The English did not cultivate prose as an art form until they became acquainted with Latin literature, which gave them both sources and models for prose works of art. These sources and models, chiefly compositions of Christians though they were, had maintained the traditional great prose genres: history, philosophy, and oratory. In addition, minor genres like the epistle were represented. Everywhere, however, new wine had been poured into the old bottles. Thus, the oration appeared as a sermon. It was this Christianized classical tradition which the Roman missionaries brought to England and which the converts and their sons carried on in Latin and English. Throughout Old English times literary prose remained learned and clerical; for the people, verse continued to be the only natural medium of literary art.
