PREFACE. Ir had been my purpose, in editing þe following text, to take some vivacious notice of any criticisms on þe last treatise I had undertaken for be Early English Text Society; but so long a time has elapsed since "Hali Meidenhad" appeared, þat þe public interest in attack and defense, lunge and parry, must have long since died away. Whatever I say, þerefore, must be sobered down into temperance and calm; must be simply be result of þe toil of þe student and translator. My critics made some easy and cheap fun out of þ and X: none of þem seemed to have any distinct notions on be subject. I have lately, elsewhere, stated facts; þat þe earliest MSS. favour þe, and use it in combinations of all kinds, employing it, wip few exceptions, all rough a volume, and seeming to forget þ almost entirely later writings use þ more by far þan be oper form. Much learning arises in reviews out of moper wit; to supply be void of known trud, a certain inborn deory is developed; and because Mr. Novice činks þe Saxons ought to have made a difference, between þorn in dick, and þorn in þæt, he holds opinion þat þey did. pen some bold assertor tells us þat all deviations from his doctrine are corruptions of þe Norman scribes, as if Frenchmen had written for King Ælfred. Now I hold þat in our modern times it is very difficult to separate pe sounds, þe utterance in some instances is distinctly discernible, but in opers be two change places easily. It is to be concluded þat, using þe characters indifferently, þe English writers held þe sounds to be identical. An Edinburgh reviewer, a known writer, finds what he considers a mistranslation on page 36 of "Hali Meidenhad." "pe hound at þe hide" is, to his ears, not sense. When a householder kills a sheep or ox, þe hide is valuable eiþer for use or sale; it stinks; it is þerefore drown over þe palings, or over a pole outside be house: a hungry dog, a lean dirty dog, ranging about, smells flesh, or guts, or blood, or hide, and coming, pulls at, and drags þe reserved skin: and þat does it no good; broomsticks and stones drive away þe ruffian. "But," says he, "Hude is a well-known word in Anglo-Saxon, signifying Hearth." Some trace of Hude as Heor may be found at p. 223 of þe folio edition of pe "Laws and Institutes," but þe intervention of a friend and þe courtesy of þe reviewer himself have made me aware that it is þe Scottish usage which makes be word "well known," and þat þis sense is recorded by Jamieson, as any may see. Anoþer gentleman of dialectic fame writes about Steap: and be greater part of his remarks may be summed up by observing þe Latin Altus, high or deep; similarly we might understand steap. He quotes Percy Folio, vol. i. p. 467: : Heere in this ground deepe is a water strong and steepe. Such a river seems to me to run at a steep gradient, or a fall of one foot in four and so to deserve be epidet "strong." And I find I have noted two additional places out of "Salomon and Saturn," line 570, Se steapa gim, þe bright gem, and line 827, where his word is applied to fire. Neverþeless I will not conceal from þe reader, whose edification is þe main point, þat a new and unexpected signification has come before me be passage quoted in St. Marharete, p. 108, from Hom. I. 456, is a translation from þe Latin publisht in Acta Sanctorum, Aug. 25 (not 24), and Steape eagan represents Oculi grandes. And here I must leave his word. Under be word Ranged in þe glossary of þe Cleveland Dialect some remark about Rondin is made. On p. 4, St. Marharete, last line, Makelese, it is suggested, should be interpreted Matchless: and to þat I submit. From want of subscribers enough to be Early English Text Society, þis Juliana has taken so long to appear in type þat some want of cohesion has crept into my association of ideas about it. Þe text on þe left page has been edited by Mr. Brock, from whose views I have taken one or two suggestions. To be word Maumez I demur: it should come into type, I believe, as Maumets, but a Zed is on þe MS. Pat Zed I read as TS, or oþerwise, I hold þe MS. Z to be like Zeta, a double letter such as it is in Italian, and to be a contraction for TS, and not well exprest by a modern Zed. In þe Domesday Book occurs a Cozet explained by nobody: now if we take Zed as TS, Cotset is easy enough to understand, and a suitable interpretation may be assigned it, even when occurring in company wiþ Cotarii. It gives me some pain to say, þat I believe þe story of St. Margaret is convicted of forgery by be indulgences which in þe earliest MSS. conclude pe piece. One would not rudely tear a doll from a childs arms, denouncing it as a waxwork sham; but readers of Old English are probably rid of early sentiment, and prepared to look Trux in þe face. pe name of Juliana has never been so popular in England as þat of St. Margaret: her story may be read in þe Acta Sanctorum, Feb. 16, and in þe Codex Exoniensis in alliterative verse, wanting some leaves. She is a fabulous personage. Mr. Mortons opinion þat þe Ancren Riwle, and, by way of corollary, my suggestion þat "Hali Meidenhad” be early lives of St. Margaret, Juliana Caðerine were written by bishop R. le Poor, grows more acceptable þe more I consider it. Some account of þe nunnery at Tarent is given in þe New Monasticon (Vol. V., 619):-" Though Ralf de Kahaines was the original founder, bishop Poor, who became bishop of Salisbury in 1217, was þe principal one, and has sometimes had þe foundation exclusively ascribed to him;" say the editors. Herbert le Poor, bp. of Sarum, died 6 Feb., 1217, and was succeeded by Richard le Poor, translated from Chichester; died 15 April, 1237. Who so likely to interest himself? What call could an ordinary priest have to recommend an unwelcome rule of hard self denial to noble ladies? What influence, if he had intruded himself upon þeir consciences ? Even in bese days, when very commonplace mediocre scholars often arrive at þe upper steps of be prelatic stairs, a bishops name has weight wip fashionable ladies. The ausor of þese little tracts exhibits a fair amount of learning: þe illustration about þe jacinct þe carbuncle comes from þe dialogues of St. Gregorius; St. Cyrillus Hiersolymitanus (Catech. xii. p. 106), and St. Iohannes Chrysostomos (vol. i. p. 94 ult., p. 122, 31 ed. Savile), so far countenance þe doctrine þat sin led to commerce of man wiþ woman, as þat þey teach þat Adam knew not Eve, his wife, till after their expulsion from Paradise. pis opinion was founded on be circumstance þat þe text (Gen. iv. 1) follows be account of þe expulsion: and doubtless, as still prevalent, was opposed in verse by Milton. It would sunder þe Creator of þe universe from þe Deity to be worshipped, if it had any real support in our Scriptures, but such considerations are even now sometimes excluded in eological tenets, and were of no avail in þe irteen century. Þe doctrine þat an eternal reward of a hundredfold is reserved to virginity, of sixtyfold to widowhood after one marriage, of dirtyfold to be married, is compactly þus stated by Augustinus, as matter of discussion; "Sive virginalis vita in centeno fructu sit, in sexageno vidualis, in triceno autem coniugalis" (de S. Virginitate xlvi.). We recognize, þerefore, in our writer for þe nuns of Tarent Kaines, a scholar competently instructed in þe history and writers of his profession; one who would be kindly heard, when he spoke, by pose whom he wished to persuade; and one whose eyes were turned to Tarent: and he will be bp. R. le Poor. "From Lelands words þat Tarent nunry of late stode about Crayford bridge over Stowre ryvar, lower pan Blanford, it is inferred þat þe demolition of pe buildings of his house took place at an early period after be Dissolution. All traces of its buildings have long dis appeared." Its records are not in any public collection. |