Where, after twenty-eight years reign, he was buried. Edward succeeded, and due praise is given to his prowess in keeping the Danes at bay; nor is his sister "the lady of Mercia" passed over without celebration of her "wysdome." Then follows the reign of Athelstan and of his brother Edmund, over whose violent death St. Dunstan mourned, and of which he was warned by seeing the devil "hoppe and low, And sayled and pleyed, and made joy ynow." Of St. Dunstan, who at this period of the history first rises into notice, Robert of Gloucester, like every other monkish Chronicler, gives a most laudatory character. Every overbearing act is either softened down or attributed to his ardent zeal for the welfare of the Church, and every stupid miracle which the Saxon Chroniclers (who certainly never possessed the taste of the Normans, in working up their marvels,) detail, is duly recorded in the most prosingly edifying manner. Edred succeeded his father Edmund, and since Dunstan under his auspices became one of the greatest men in the land, he receives a large share of commendation : "God man Edred was ynou, and to godnesse dreu anon, On his death-bed he sent for this fa- "The Kyng Edred nou aslepe, in oure Louerd ys." Edred's successor Edwin, is, as may be expected, very severely handled. The King who presumed to send so haughty a churchman as Dunstan into exile, could not be expected to find favour in the eyes of a monkish Chronicler, and, according to Robert of Gloucester, he was not merely a gross sensualist (the character assigned him by most of his enemies), but a fierce tyrant, "As a new Herode in such poer he com." Among his misdeeds, that very unlikely one of his turning the abbey of Malmsbury into a stable is placed. But his crowning act of iniquity was his exiling Dunstan. After this nothing prospered; his nobles revolted, and chose Edgar his brother. "Vor he drou to alle godeness, and beter was than other." How he died is not stated, but bad as he was, "thoro' bidding of Seynt Dunstan," he finally attained to Hea ven. Edgar, whose peculiar devotedness to "holy Church" and her ministers, covered, in the estimation of our monkish Chroniclers, "a multitude of sins," is characterized as a "gode man." When he was born, Dunstan, who, more perhaps than other Saxon saint, enjoyed the ministry of angels, was advertised of the important intelligence, by hearing them sing, "Up in the lufte (air) a murye song, and that song was thys, It accords but ill with this pacific an- ing account of a dream that he had respecting two apples, one of which struck the other from the tree, and which was interpreted by his mother to portend that subsequent tragic feud in his family, completes Robert of Gloucester's account of Edgar. The sad tale of stepdame jealousy and murder succeeds; the account of the circumstances attendant on the atrocious assassination of Edward the Martyr, differs in no respect from the generally received accounts. He, Atte chyrche of Caversham, as The story that finds a place in all the older Chroniclers, of little Eldred crying bitterly at the death of his brother, and the fiendlike Elfrida beating him so severely with a candle, that he could never after endure the sight of one, follows. To the modern reader, a candle, although rather a singular instrument of chastisement, may appear inadequate to afford any severe degree of punishment; but when he is told that no candles, except wax, however, adds that the knife was ing and slender, "as me may yut ysé he hath gare * (bid) ybe." and that of a peculiarly hard kind were used, and that unlike our sta wax candles, we learn from an ext soon after the conquest, that "pa lights" averaged from four to pounds weight, he will cease to w der that the remembrance of his most murderous chastisement ¿ve on Eldred's mind even to the cay his death. But Elfrida is said eve tually to have repented her crimes, fa "the luther (cruel) quene, that Seynt Edward slou, And Ambresbury thet other to bete (atone) yre trespas." Of these two religious houses, Worwell never attained any peculiar celebrity, but Ambresbury continued thro' many centuries to be the resort of the wealthy and high-born. Alianor of Provence, the wife of our third Henry, closed there her life, and a daughter of Edward the First, at a very early age, took the veil there. Eldred's reign was turbulent; for "the folc of Denemark" arrived again in England, and ravaged the country about Southampton. Eldred, unable to meet them fairly in the field, acceded to a proposition to massacre them, and the ineffectual attempts which were made in several counties, very justly enraged Swein, who, coming with great force, drove Eldred and his family to Normandy. Eldred returned on Swein's death; but at his death the Danes were so powerful, that "Knout" divided the kingdom with Eldred's son Edmund Ironside. Ironside receives no scant praise from our Chronicler, much satisfaction the just reward At fenestre in Temese." The use of the foregoing Fred word is singular, since we repeated find him making use of "wynd or "wyndere," for so he indifferent spells it. Knout succeeds to an undividedespire, and a very good character des our chronicler give him; a circu stance very creditable, since Robert s Gloucester expresses on all occasion a true old English hatred of all “* outlandish menne," among whom the Danes and the Normans come in for the greatest share. It is indeed warthy of remark, that his independenc of prejudice, when he comes to treat particular characters, however pre diced he may be in regard to the ntion or class to which they belong places this neglected chronicler o high vantage ground, compared with "Dreduol was he to his fon, that hym annalists. King Knout, he tells us, many of the more-esteemed mockist durste vewe abyde. As leon hardi ynou." Over his assassination our Chronicler duly laments, and he celebrates with studied greatly to attach the English to him; he also built and restore many churches. Then comes the c lebrated story of his reproof to his The employment of this word, so generally considered as genuine Scotch, in the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester, is another evidence that the dialect of the Lov. lands has been directly derived from the old English. courtiers, on which our chronicler dilates with great satisfaction, although most blunderingly he imagines that Canute really believed that the sea was " subject to his sway, rather than that he made use of the situation in which he was at that moment placed, to read, by an emphatic figure, an emphatic 34 lesson to his unworthy flatterers. This is Robert of Gloucester's version, and in it certainly "Knout" appears more like one of the half insane eastern monarchs, or Roman emperors, than the intelligent descendant of a line remarkable for intellectual energy. "Of al bys prouté (valiant) dedes, I ne may verbere noght, And enresonede hys men, as hii (they) byvore hym stode, That yt bygan to wexé vaste, as yt deth atte tyde, Tho it was ney to hym ycome, baldéliche he spac, And in this "King Cambyses' vein," he goes on for nearly twenty couplets. Meanwhile the sea, little heeding royal prohibition, advances rapidly, overturns Canute's chair, and forces him and his courtiers precipitately to flee away. The conclusion is in far better taste, and told with an expression of simple piety, that amply atones for "Ne that no man is wurthe to be ycluped Kyng, Bote the hey (high) Kyng of Hevene, that wroghte al thyng. He wende hym forthe to chyrche, and byvore the rode (rood) com, And wyth meke herte pitesliche (mournfully) hys Kynges crown nom (took) Was worthe to crown bere, and other Kynges none. Nor, adds the chronicler, would he After a slight notice of his successor, Robert of Gloucester proceeds to detail the particulars of Edward the Confessor's reign, giving due laudations, as might be expected, to his great sanctity, which certainly rendered him far more fitted for a cloister than a throne. He gives us a long prayer, which Edward, on his accession, preferred to Heaven, imploring that since he did not possess prowess sufficient to repel the enemies of his land, the Danes might never be suffered during his reign to invade it. This prayer was granted; and, however the nation might in other respects suffer, it was free during the whole period from those desolating incursions. Next follows an account of that ambitious noble Godwin, and his turbulent sons, and his lovely and literary daughter, the "rose springing from the rude briar," Editha. The account of Edward's marriage with her, and most laudatory eulogies on their great sanctity, succeed. But, although Robert of Gloucester duly honours the saintly fame of the Confessor, he is by no means his blind eulogist; he censures him severely for the part he subsequently took against his mother, in that quarrel which was only appeased by the miracle of her walking unhurt over the red-hot plough-shares. Perhaps, however, the circumstance of a bishop being implicated, might contribute to our chronicler's indignation against St. Edward. His account of this celebrated trial by ordeal, is very minute and decisive on the point that Emma was not blindfolded, and then set to step between the shares; but that she was led to them, and expected to place her bare feet upon each. Such was the invariable practice of the Saxon ordeal, for the test was not, the escaping the fire; but the being unhurt by actual contact with it. The chronicler tells us how she was comforted by a vision of St. Swithin the night before, who bade her not fear, how that when her "ryche clothes were ydo," and the bishops having blest the shares, she stept upon them, so complete was the miracle, that she knew not when she had passed over them, but continued walking onward. Nine towns were the queenlike gift to St. Swithin for this seasonable aid, and Edward repented sorely that ever he had suspected his mother. Then comes the tale of Godwin being strangled by bread; and the chronicler next proceeds to show how Edward, disliking so young a prince as Edgar Atheling to succeed him, cast his thoughts toward Normandy, and en Earl Harold with the proffer of crown. Harold was taken prison by "Syr Guy of Pountyn." He there fore sent to Duke William to rassm him, which was done, and Har swore him fealty. Meanwhile s Edward had token of his death by & John-he sent for his "baronye" Midwinter to meet him at Westm ster, where, after lying in a tra for two days, and on his awa uttering a long prophecy about approaching judgment on the Sa church, he died. Harold, "the fax earl," succeeds; and it is curious: observe how closely our chronicera details of what is called the comp of England, coincide with the pr tured history in the Bayeux Tapes In both Harold is represented as commissioned by Edward himse proffer the crown to William; in t he is shown when prisoner to G Pountyn, supplicating William to som him, and subsequently as sw ing fealty to him "on holy rela And now comes the battle of Has ings, at which Taillefer is menti as being present, and the first w commenced the fight by slaying Saxon banner-bearer. The gen account of this celebrated battle a very similar to those given in the Ne man historians, and Harold be smitten down, a knight that saw fall, rushed upon, and slew him.Thus," says our chronicler, "Thus, lo the Englische volc (folk) vor naght to grounde com And thus was in Normannes hond that lond ybroght ywis, Thus we see that even in the 13th century, the descendants of the Saxons never viewed the transference of their kingdom to the Norman William as the result of military conquests; but acknowledged that he, rather than Harold, was the rightful sovereign, although, as our chronicler hints just above, it was not in "pure right," since a nearer relation of the Confes sor was set aside to make room fr the Norman king. Our chronicler next tells us, that Harold's mother petitioned William for her son's corpse, and that he sen it to her "vayre enow," without de manding any ransom. William thes proceeded to London, and there, against his coming, "Wyth vayre procession, that fole of toun drou, And, undervonge (acknowledged) hym vayre enou as Kyng of thys lond. The lines with which our chronicler now concludes this book, are very characteristic, and are very important, inasmuch as they prove that the popular notion of the Norman French wholly superseding the Saxon language, has no foundation in history. Norman French indeed became the language of the law courts; while of the nobility, and of the higher classes, it was the mother tongue; but it does not at all appear from what, after much inquiry, we have been able to ascertain on the subject, that the Saxon was ever more prescribed than the Gaelic is at this moment in the Highlands, or the Erse among the native Irish. The testimony of Robert of Gloucester indeed seems conclusive on the subject. "And the Normans ne couthe speke, but her (their) own speche, And speke French, as dude at om (home) and her chyldren also teche, So that hye men of this londe, that of her blode com Holdethe al thulke speche, that hii of hem nome (is derived from their name), Ich wene ther ne be man, in worldes contreys none, That ne holdeth to her kynde speche, bot England one. And with this very admirable remark, our Chronicler concludes his tale of what is commonly called the OXFORD PROFESSORS OF ANGLO-SAXON. MR. URBAN, Nov. 15. BEFORE I left England in the month of August, I read a letter in your Magazine, threatening me with a critique, in which all my pretensions to scholarship were to be annihilated, and the character of the University of Oxford, supposed to be attacked in some remarks of mine, was to be vindicated by the downfal of an arrogant assailant. As I never look for much proficiency in these matters from Oxford men, I confess this gasconade gave me very little concern; 1 was content that your correspondents should rail now, in the hope that they might hereafter learn. In fact I looked upon the whole proceeding as no more than one bubble of the effervescence produced by the installation of their new Chancellor, and I thought that at least as much indignation was aimed against the Cambridge man and the Whig, as against the inaccurate scholar. Though my opinion upon this point remains unaltered, yet having read the remarks which were thus announced, paraded, and introduced with a flourish of drums and trumpets, I find them to be written in a spirit of such bitterness, and to be so filled with envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, that I have relinquished the intention which I had at first, of treating your correspondent with a good-natured but entire disregard. He has struck too hard at me not to receive a lesson which I trust shall teach him for the future to be a little more cautious with whom he meddles. The opinion which I entertain of himself will be made pretty apparent in the course of these remarks; it is however of somewhat greater importance to reduce the ignorant respect which is paid to the school of which he has officiously constituted himself the champion, to its proper measure. I hope to put it upon the same footing at home, as it occupies abroad. Its foundations are neither wide nor deep; and I feel very curious to see whether a vigorous shake will not bring the clumsy edifice to the ground. The errors in my book were very numerous; a good scholar might have detected many; your Oxford correspondent, with all the will to do as much mischief as possible, has succeeded in finding a clerical error, in correcting which he commits a far greater; he objects to my writing fyren-bearfe, because, as he says, the MS. reads fyen-Searfe; the MS. reads no such thing, and could read no such thing; it reads fyren-dearfe. From whatever causes GENT. MAG. VOL. II. 4 G |