Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes

Title: Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes

Editor: Joseph Hall

Release date: August 25, 2013 [eBook #43555] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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Ȝ ȝ; ƿ ᵹ (yogh; wynn, insular “g” and similar) ꝥ (thorn þ with stroke) ǣ ē ẹ etc. (vowels with less common diacritics) ἅπ. λεγ. (Greek)

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Preface

I. Worcester Fragments (A)

I. Worcester Fragments (B, C)

II. Saint Godric’s Hymns

III. The Peterborough Chronicle

IV. Charter of Henry the Second

V. A Parable

VI. The Proverbs of Alfred

VII. Memento Mori

VIII. Poema Morale

IX. Ancrene Wisse A. The Seven Deadly Sins B. The Outer Rule

X. In Diebus Dominicis

XI. Hic Dicendum est de Propheta

XII. Sermons for Palm Sunday and Easter Day

XIII. Vices and Virtues

XIV. Laȝamon

XV. Orm

XVI. Sawles Warde

XVII. Saint Katherine

XVIII. The Orison of our Lady

XIX. Saint Juliana

XX. The Owl and the Nightingale

XXI. The Bestiary

XXII. Genesis and Exodus

XXIII. Kentish Sermons

Thematic Index (added by transcriber)

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES BY JOSEPH HALL M.A., Hon. D.Litt., Durham University

PART II: NOTES

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

M CM XX

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPE TOWN BOMBAY HUMPHREY MILFORD PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY

PREFACE

The order of the vowels in the phonological sections follows Bülbring’s Altenglisches Elementarbuch, that of the consonants, Sievers’ Old English Grammar, translated by Cook. The basis of comparison is Early West Saxon. The object of these sections has been to provide collections for the interpretation of the teacher. In accidence Sievers has been followed generally, but Zupitza’s classification of the strong verbs has been adopted for convenience of use with Bülbring’s Geschichte der Ablaute. In the literature sections books marked with an asterisk are those which the student will find more immediately useful.

This book has been a long time in preparation; it will perhaps help to excuse some lack of uniformity if it be known that a great part of the notes was in type by the end of 1915.

J. H.

Woodstock,

January, 1920.

CORRIGENDA.

225/39. Omit stop after Orm here and elsewhere.

231/1. unseihte represents unsæht

249/8. After &c., add wart 122

250/31. Add wart

253/27. Omit comma after sc͞i

254/20. Dr. Bradley’s restoration in M. L. Review, xii. 73, þa þestreden sona þas landes, appears to me certain.

263/31. wile

266/26. ālīesednesse (but once ālȳsendnesse)

266/27. ā + w

271/13. sǣdon

312/36. After Bodleian add (D)

318/37. gēar

356/1. C 6

396/6. Add with before which

428/14. Add ia in giarked 84

428/38. tōgēanes

457/8. Add hn to n before nap

567/13. nyht, 160/185

Omit stop after Orm superfluous . (“Orm.”) occurs 21 times in the text. Corrections are not individually noted

254/20. Dr. Bradley’s restoration ... the reference is to the note for l. 20, i.e. line 16 of the printed page

NOTES

Abbreviations: AR Ancren Riwle, ed. Morton; Archiv [für das Studium der neueren Sprachen]; BH Blickling Homilies, ed. Morris; CM Cursor Mundi, ed. Morris; ES Englische Studien; GE Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris; HM Hali Meidenhad, ed. Cockayne; KH King Horn, ed. Hall; L Layamon, ed. Madden; NED New English Dictionary; OEH i Old English Homilies, ed. Morris First Series; OEH ii Second Series; OEM Old English Miscellany, ed. Morris; ON Owl and Nightingale, ed. Wells; PRL Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, second edition; SJ St. Juliana, ed. Cockayne; SK St. Katherine, ed. Einenkel; SM St. Marherete, ed. Cockayne; VV Vices and Virtues, ed. Holthausen.

SM St. Marherete, ed. Cockayne text unchanged: apparent error for “Margerete”

I. WORCESTER FRAGMENTS

A

Manuscript: Worcester Cathedral Library, 174. It consists of sixty-six leaves of vellum, ‘which had been cut and pasted together to form covers for a book in the Cathedral archives’ (Catalogue of the Chapter Library, ed. Floyer and Hamilton, Oxford, 1906). Its contents are (1) an incomplete copy of Ælfric’s Grammar and Glossary, used by Zupitza for his edition of the text (Berlin, 1880); (2) the scrap here marked A; (3) the pieces B and C with five more fragments of the same poem. A completes the page on which the glossary ends, and B is on the verso of the leaf. The leaves have been slightly shorn at one side and reduced at top and bottom, but probably to no great extent: the conjectural complement, which is here printed within square brackets, is for the most part fairly obvious, the more so as portions of the lost letters often remain. The whole MS. is in the same large square hand, but the pieces in verse, which are written continuously, like prose, are less carefully executed. The handwriting is of the second half of the

twelfth century, perhaps about 1180 A.D. The Latin headings are not in the MS.

Editions: Phillipps, Sir T., Fragment of Ælfric’s Grammar, &c., London, 1838; Wright, T., Biographia Britannica Literaria, AS. Period, p. 59, 60, London, 1842 (omits the last four lines); Varnhagen, H., Anglia, iii. pp. 423-25.

Phonology: The scribe is mainly faithful to the orthography of his original, which was in Anglo-Saxon script (as is shown by Sipum for Ripum) and older language. He still uses the rune for w. His spelling wavers between old and new, ǣ survives in ilærde, lærden, læreþ, beside e in ilerde, weren; ea persists in wireceastre, but wincæstre, rofecæstre; the inflection is not levelled in leodan, but leoden, hoteþ, losiæþ (æ = e). Drihten represents an OE. form in i; ie is e in derne; ā is o in hoteþ, eo (= o) in leore. OE. æ + g is æi in fæire, fæier, sæiþ; e + g is ei in lorþeines; ēo + h is i in liht; ēa + h, eih in unwreih. Bocare goes back to late OE. bōcre; c is written ch in wisliche; sć [š] is still sc in sceolen.

Accidence: The def. article is s. n. neut. þet 17, 19; s. a. f. þa 5; pl. n. þeo 3, 17; pl. d. þen 19; pl. a. þeo 4. Noteworthy nouns are the mutation pl. bec 7; diȝelnesse, s. a. 5; leoden, pl. n. 3, 18, leodan, pl. a. 15 (weak forms); leore, pl. n. 17. The relatives are þe, þeo 18 (as in L 257, 2999), þet 3: the demonstrative þis, pl. n. neut. 22, þeos, pl. n. m. 15, pl. a. m. 9 (properly a sing. form): possessives, ure 9, 15, 18; heore 16. Glod 16 is a weak preterite beside strong glēow, but the cognate forms in other languages are weak, and this may be a borrowing from the Norse (NED s.v.).

French are questiuns, probably its first appearance, and feþ 23, with its peculiar monophthong (OF. feid in which d was the spirant [ð]); comp. 8/91 note.

Dialect: Middle or Western South.

Metre: Alliterative long line, of somewhat rude construction, without transitional rhymes or assonances. The alliteration extends mostly to two consonants, sometimes to three, as 5, 17; l. 16 is pure syllabic verse. The scribe sometimes misplaced the pause stop, as at 9, and sometimes omitted it.

Introduction: In this scrap, some English patriot laments the wholesale substitution of foreign prelates for English under William the Conqueror. At the end of 1070 A.D. there were only two native bishops, Wulfstan at Worcester and Siward at Rochester. This may point roughly to the time, as the preponderance of names connected with Winchester to the place, of the composition. The absence of the names of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (1002-1016 A.D.) and Archbishop of York (1002-1023), the 225 author of the Homilies; of Wærferth, Bishop of Worcester (872-915), translator of Pope Gregory’s Dialogues; of the later Wulfstan (1062-1095), under whose rule there was great activity in the collection and transcription of Homilies and other literature in English (Keller, W., Die litterarischen Bestrebungen von Worcester in AS. Zeit, p. 64); together with the writer’s ignorance of the North, shows that it was not composed at Worcester. And the mistakes in Sipum 1/11 and heoueshame 1/12 would hardly be made by a Worcester transcriber.

The heading is from Numbers xxvii. 17.

2. ⁊ = and: ond apparently does not occur in the twelfth century. [writen]: Varnhagen supplies bec. Comp. ‘þa writen me beoð to icume,’ L 9131. awende. Bede translated into English the Gospel of S. John and some extracts from Isidore (Baedae Opera Historica, ed. Plummer, i. pp. lxxv, clxii).

3. ꝥ . . . þurh, by which. The preposition separated from its relative and placed with the verb is common in ME. See Anklam, Das Englische Relativ im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert, pp. 15-19, 44-6. Comp. in these texts, þet . . . bi, 72/182; inne, 84/45, 131/104; of, 38/155, 66/96, 116, 117/8, 139/11, 211/476; on, 96/53, 179/112; to, 142/75, 79, 143/98; þe . . . embe, 81/77; inne, 11/3, 4; mide, 81/79; offe, 85/84; one, 83/9, 119/73; to, 96/54; uppe, 84/71; þer . . . in, 7/59, 54/1, 147/148; of, 64/61; on, 106/210; to, 89/32; wið, 48/300. Similarly hem . . . to, 193/564; þa . . . to, 96/58.

4. C[not]ten: completed by Holthausen, Archiv, cvi. 347. Comp. ‘siȝewulf . . hine befran . . be ȝehwylcum cnottum þe he sylf ne cuþe,’ Interrogationes Sigewulfi, ed. MacLean, 58/12; ‘Ich habbe uncnut summe | of þeos cnotti cnotten,’ SK 1150, 1; and 202/168. With unwreih, comp. ‘Ac Augustinus se wisa us onwreah þas deopnysse,’ AS. Homilien, ed. Assmann, 5/103; ‘him þa toweardæn þing unwreah ⁊ swytelode,’ Twelfth Cent. Hom. 98/17; Cursor, 22445. questiuns: probably Bede’s In Libros Regum Quaestiones Triginta, answering questions put by Nothelm (Plummer, p. cli). But there appears to have been a work known as Bedae Quaestiones in utrumque Testamentum (Plummer, clv note), and there may be a reference to such of his commentaries as were replies to the queries of Acca, Bishop of Hexham. hoteþ: Wright supplies we after þe as in 6, but hoteþ may mean here ‘are called,’ though the passive sense is commoner in Central than in Early ME.

5. derne diȝelnesse. Comp. ‘Þatt dærne diȝhellnesse | Þatt writenn wass þurrh Moysæn,’ Orm 12945; and 125/296.

6. For Aelfric the Abbot see Skeat in E. E. T. S., O. S. 114, pp. xxii-xliv. 226 The writer appears not to know his translations of Joshua, Judges, Esther, and possibly Job. His identification of Aelfric with Alcuin, who liked to call himself Albinus, is possibly due, as MacLean suggests, to the former having translated Alcuin’s Sigewulfi Interrogationes (p. 47, and Anglia, vi. pp. 463, 4).

7. bocare. Comp. ‘Beda, se mæra bocere,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 22/210. [fif]: supplied by Varnhagen.

8. Vtronomius: probably a blunder, but possibly an original attempt at abbreviation. Or the writer may have had in mind the explanation given in De Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae, ‘Deuteronomium, hoc est, iterationem Legis,’ S. Augustini Op., iii. App. p. 13a. Observe that he places the title next to Exodus; he would know from Jerome’s preface that it means ‘secunda lex.’ Numerus: so Ælfric, ‘on Lyden Numerus and on Englisc Getel,’ Grein’s Prosa, i. p. 179.

10. þet weren. Comp. for the singular of the demonstrative, 80/35: ‘Soðlice ða eagan þæt bioð ða lareowas, & se hrycg þæt sint ða hiremenn,’ Gregory’s Pastoral Care, ed. Sweet, 28/12; ‘hwet beoð þas vii ȝeate? Det beoð ure egan,’ OEH i. 127/29. Sometimes the verb also is singular, as at 76/8. Similarly hit, it, 117/13, 190/450. bodeden: this verb usually takes an acc. as here, so 15/86; ‘bodian þa soðen ileafen,’ OEH i. 97/31; but ‘bodiende umbe godes riche,’ id. 95/19.

11. Wilfrid, Bishop of York, d. 709. Ripum: Ripon; Beda’s Inhrypum (Plummer, i. 183, ii. 104). Johan of beoferlai, Bishop of York, d. 721. He is commonly associated with the foundation of a monastery at Beverley in Yorkshire, but see Memorials of Beverley Minster, Surtees Society, 1898, pp. xv-xix. Beverley is Beoforlic in AS. Chron. MS. D 721 (but written about 1070 A.D.); Beoferlic in MS. E; Bevrelie in Domesday (see Stolze, Zur Lautlehre der AE. Ortsnamen im Domesday Book, p. 28, and Zachrisson, Anglo-Norman Influence on English Place-Names, p. 152). Cuþb[ert], Cudberct, Bishop of Lindisfarne, d. 687. Dunholm occurs in AS. Chron. MS. D 1056 as the oldest name; Durham descends from AN. Dureme. The episcopal mint from Beke 1283 A.D. to Langley 1437 A.D. has Dunholm, Dunelm, and Dureme indifferently. The seal of Richard de Marisco (1217-1226) has Dunholmensis. Comp. Zachrisson, 133-5. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, 962-91, Archbishop of York, 972-91, d. 992 (see Keller, pp. 11-21). For Latin books attributed to him, see Wright,

Biographia, i. pp. 466, 7. Worcester in AS. Charters is Wigeran or Wiogeran Ceaster, also Wigernaceaster, Wigraceaster; in Domesday, Wirecestre. Egwin, Bishop of the Hwiccas, i.e. see of Worcester; founder of the Abbey of Evesham, d. 717 A.D. For 227 works attributed to him, see Wright, Biographia, i. p. 227. heoueshame: in Domesday Evesham; in the foundation charter Egwin writes, ‘In quo loco (i.e. Ethomme) quum beata Virgo Maria cuidam pastori gregum, Eoves nomine, comparuisset (ob cujus viri sanctitatem eundem locum Eoveshamiam nuncupavi),’ Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, ed. Macray, p. 18. æl[dhelm], Abbot of Malmesbury and Bishop of Sherborne, d. 709 A.D. (Plummer’s Bede, ii. pp. 308, 9). William of Malmesbury says in his Gesta Pontificum, p. 336, ‘nativae quoque linguae non negligebat carmina; adeo ut, teste libro Elfredi . . . nulla umquam aetate par ei fuerit quisquam.’ He is said to have translated the Psalms. Swiþþun, Bishop of Winchester, d. 862. æþelwold, pupil of S. Dunstan, Abbot of Abingdon, Bishop of Winchester, 963, d. 984 A.D. In

the Latin Life by Ælfric as revised by Wulfstan, it is recorded, ‘Dulce namque erat ei adolescentes et iuvenes semper docere, et latinos libros anglice eis solvere,’ Acta Sanctorum, August, i. p. 94. His translation of the Rule of S. Benedict was edited by Schröer in the Bibliothek der AS. Prosa, ii. Kassel, 1885-8. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, d. 651. Biern: Birinus, Bishop of Winchester, d. 650. The spelling with ie appears to be analogic with the i-umlaut in such words as ierre, and so to belong to the scribe’s original. wincæstre: in the Chronicle, anno 744, Wintanceaster; Venta Civitas in Bede. [Pau]lin, Paulinus, the Missionary Bishop of York, and, after 634 A.D., Bishop of Rochester, seems more likely than the less-known Cuichelm, Bishop of Rochester, suggested by Wright. The MS. has lin not lm. rofecæstre: in AS. Chronicle, anno 604, Hrofesceaster; ‘in ciuitate Dorubreui, quam gens Anglorum a primario quondam illius, qui dicebatur Hrof, Hrofæscæstræ cognominat,’ Beda, i. 85. Dunston. S. Dunstan was Bishop of Worcester,

957-9, Bishop of London, 958, 959, Archbishop of Canterbury, 959, d. 988. ælfeih: S. Ælfheah, succeeded Æþelwold as Bishop of Winchester in 984 A.D., became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1006, and was martyred by the Danes in 1012 A.D. cantoreburi: a French spelling, as Canteberi, 10/174; contrast Cantuarabirȝ, 11/4. L has still Cantuarie buri, 94/15; Cantwareburi, 2821; where O has Cantelburi.

15. on englisc, repeating 9. The writer does not mean that all these produced works in English, but only to contrast them with French-speaking clerics.

16. Comp. ‘Si ergo lumen, quod in te est, tenebrae sunt, ipsae tenebrae quantae erunt?’ S. Matt. vi. 23.

17. nu is: so Wright and Varnhagen, but read nu beoþ; for beo lore, those teachings, is plural.

19. lorþeines, teachers, apparently an ἅπ. λεγ., of which the second element represents OE. þegn, servant, disciple. Comp. the usual ‘larþawes,’ 15/82, ‘lorþeu,’ 20/68, ‘lorþeawes,’ 84/61, ‘larðewes,’ OEH ii. 41/28 (OE. *lārðēowas), ‘lareaw,’ OEH i. 241/21 (OE. lārēow). losiæþ, in the rarer intransitive use, perish. Comp. ‘ꝥ þa men ne losien, þe on him ilyfæð,’ Twelfth Cent. Hom. 2/31, 34/1, 38/23; ‘þenne losiað fele saulen,’ OEH i. 117/18. forþ mid, together with, also with, here in the rare adverbial use. Comp. ‘þenne losiað fele saulen ⁊ he seolf forð mid for his ȝemeleste,’ OEH i. 117/18; ‘& him seolf þer forð mide,’ L 608. It is common as a preposition, as at 40/176, 77/55, 195/611; ‘his þenegas forð mid him þe he þyder brohte,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 528/645; ‘forswoleȝeð þene hoc forð mid þan ese,’ OEH i. 123/11.

20. ‘Sicut aquila provocans ad volandum pullos suos, et super eos volitans, expandit alas suas, et assumpsit eum, atque portavit in humeris suis,’ Deut. xxxii. 11, spoken of God’s care and training of his people. See Bozon, Contes Moralisés, p. 60, for an elaborate application of the text.

22. to worlde asende. Comp. ‘fram Gode hider on world sended,’ BH 209/23.

23. [festen &c.]. Comp. 190/438, 10/154. The sense required is, That we should put our full trust in him.

Editions: ... London, 1842 (omits the last four lines); text has : for ;

6. For Aelfric the Abbot see Skeat in E. E. T. S., O. S. 114 E.E.T.S., O.S. without spaces

11. ... Ælfric as revised by Wulfstan Wulstan: spelling “Wulfstan” used everywhere else

20. ... Contes Moralisés, p. 60 Moralises

B, C

Manuscript: As for A, p. 223.

Editions: Phillipps, as above; Singer, S. W., The Departing Soul’s Address to the Body, London, 1845; Haufe, E., Die Fragmente der Rede der Seele an den Leichnam, Gryphiswaldiae, 1880; Buchholz, R., Die Fragmente der Reden der Seele an den Leichnam, Erlangen, 1889; afterwards enlarged in *Erlanger Beiträge, ii. 6. 1890.

Literature: (1) of the Worcester Fragment. Haufe, E., Anglia, iv. 237 (emendations); Holthausen, F., Anglia, xiv. 321 (emendations); Kaluza, M., Litteraturblatt, ii. 92; *Zupitza, J., Archiv, lxxxv. 78 (review of Buchholz). (2) of the Desputisoun. Heesch, G., Language and Metre, Kiel, 1884; Holthausen, F., Anglia, Beiblatt, iii. 302; Kaluza, M., Litteraturblatt, xii. 12; *Kunze, O., Critical Text, Berlin, 1892; Linow, W., Erlangen, 1889, edition enlarged in Erlanger Beiträge, i. 1. 1889; Mätzner, E., AE. Sprachproben, i. 90-103; Varnhagen, H., Anglia, ii. 225-52; Zupitza, J., Archiv, lxxxv. 84. (3) of the Legend in general. *Batiouchkof, Th., Romania, xx. 236; Bruce, J. D., Modern Language Notes, v. col. 385-401; Dudley, Louise, The Egyptian Elements in the 229 Legend of the Body and Soul, Bryn Mawr, 1911; id. An Early Homily on the ‘Body and Soul’ Theme, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, April, 1909; Gaidoz, H., Revue Celtique, x. 463-70; Kleinert, G., Halle, 1880; Paris, Gaston, Romania, ix. 311-14; Varnhagen, H., Anglia, ii. 225, iii.

569; *Zupitza, J., Archiv, xci. 369.

Phonology: For an account dealing with all the seven fragments see Buchholz: what follows is based on the two here printed, with references, where necessary, to his text of the other five.