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MEDIEVAL
SCHOLARSHIP
GARLAND REFERENCE LIBRARY OF THE HUMANITIES VOLUME
2071
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MEDIEVAL
SCHOLARSHIP
BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES ON THE FORMATION OF A DISCIPLINE VOLUME
2:
LITERATURE AND PHILOLOGY
EDITED BY
HELEN DAMICO
with DONALD FENNEMA AND KARMEN LENZ
ig
Routledge Taylor & FrancisGroup New York London
First publishedby GarlandPublishing,Inc. This edition published2013 by Routledge Routledge Taylor & FrancisGroup 711 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017
Routledge Taylor & FrancisGroup 2 Park Square,Milton Park Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledgeis an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group, an iriforma business
Copyright© 1998 Helen Damico All rights reserved Medieval scholarship:biographicalstudieson the formation of a discipline, edited by Helen Damico. Garlandreferencelibrary of the humanities,vol. 2071. Contentsv. 2, Literatureand Philology. ISBN 0-8153-2890-7 Library of CongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Medievalscholarship: biographicalstudieson the formation of a discipline I edited by Helen Damico,JosephB. Zavadil. p.
cm. -
(Garlandreferencelibrary of the humanities ; vol. 1350)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesand index. Contents:v. 1. History ISBN 0-8240-6894-7(v. 1) 1. Medievalists-Biography. I. Damico,Helen. II. Zavadil, JosephB., d. 1992. III. Series. D116.5.M43 1995 909.07'07202'2-dc20 [B]
95-6189
CIP
Cover illustration:ElizabethElstob, after an insertto an initial of
English-SaxonHomily on ... St. Gregory. CourtesyThe FawcettLibrarylLondon Guildhall University
CONTENTS
IX
Xlli
PREFACE INTRODUCTION
Joan M. FerranteandRobertW Hanning XXVll
PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
XXIX
CONTRIBUTORS
3
LAURENCE NOWELL (1530-CA. 1570)
Carl T. Berkhout 19
GEORGE HICKES (1642-1715)
RichardL. Harris 33
ARNI MAGNOSSON (1663-1730)
Olafur Halld6rsson 45
HUMFREY WANLEY (1672-1726)
Milton McC. Gatch 59
ELIZABETH ELSTOB (1683-1756)
Kathryn Sutherland 75
BENJAMIN THORPE (1782-1870)
Phillip Pulsiano
93
THE BROTHERS GRIMM JACOB LUDWIG WILHELM
(1785-1863) (1786-1859)
CARL
CARL
Maria Dobozy 109
RASMUS RASK
(1787-1832)
Kirsten Wolf 125
(1825-1910)
FREDERICK JAMES FURNIVALL
DerekPearsall 139
WALTER WILLIAM
SKEAT
(1835-1912)
CharlotteBrewer 151
GASTON PARIS
(1839-1903)
GerardJ Brault 167
HENRY SWEET
177
EDUARD SIEVERS
201
(1845-1912) MichaelK e MacMahon
tJohn e Pope
(1850-1932)
EDUARD RUDOLF THURNEYSEN
(1857-1940)
HildegardL.e Tristram 215
HIPPOLYTE DELEHAYE
(1859-1941)
ThomasJ Heffernan 227
ALFRED JEANROY
(1859-1953)
William D. Paden 241
253
GEORGE LYMAN
tJohn e McGalliard JOSEPH BltDIER
KITTREDGE
(1864-1938)
William W Kibler 267
AXEL
(1864-1917) Lars Hemmingsen
vi
CON TEN T S
OLRIK
(1860-1941)
283
ANDREAS HEUSLER
(1865-1940)
Heinrich Beck 297
(1865-1940) (1871-1938)
JOHN MATTHEWS MANLY EDITH RICKERT
ElizabethScala 313
EDMUND KERCHEVER CHAMBERS
(1866-1954)
KathleenAshley 325
MICHELE BARBI
(1867-1941) ChristopherKleinhenz
339
MAX
FORSTER
(1869-1954)
Ham Sauer 351
(1869-1968)
RAM6N MENENDEZ PIDAL
t Colin Smith 365
ERNST ROBERT CURTIUS
(1886-1956)
Klaus Ostheeren 381
ROGER SHERMAN LOOMIS
(1887-1966)
SigmundEisner 395
ERICH AUERBACH
405
C.S. LEWIS
t Lowry Nelson
(1892-1957)
(1898-1963)
Derek Brewer 415
JEAN FRAPPIER
(1900-1974)
RaymondCormier 425
N.R. KER
(1908-1982) Kevin S. Kiernan
439
ROSEMARY WOOLF
453
INDEX
(1925-1978) Helga Spevack-Husmann
VlI
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PREFACE
MedievalScholarship:BiographicalStudieson the Formation ofa Discipline: Volume2: Literature andPhilology is the secondvolume of threethat present biographiesof scholarswhosework influencedthe study of the Middle Ages and transformedit into the discipline known as Medieval Studies.Volume 1 dealt with figures in medieval historiographyfrom the seventeenthcentury to the twentieth.Volume 2 providesthirty~two two accountsof men andwomen from the sixteenthcenturyto the twentieth who developedmedievalphilology and literature into a profession.Their subjectdealswith the languages and literaturesof greaterEuropefrom aboutthe seventhcenturythroughthe fifteenth andincludesCeltic, Scandinavian,Germanic,andRomancenations. Volume 3 will deal with scholarsof medievalphilosophy,art, and music. The biographiesrepresentcharacter,conveyan impressionof the subjects' temperamentand milieu, and note facts of experienceand activity. They likewise aim to set forth a relationship,if you will a continuum,amongscholars. The subjectsare multinational,and their lives in some measure reflect developing selves,but they do so in the contextof their emergenceas pioneersandshapers of the studyof medievallanguagesandliteratureoversomefour hundredyears. Medieval Studiesis international,multidisciplinary, and chronologically vast: the biographiesreflect that complexityandvariousness.Hencethe three volumes include biographiesfrom the major disciplines-history,literature,philosophy, music,andart history-andtheir representativesubfields. The objectiveswere inclusivity, representation,and balance.To limit the selectionwe decidedto concentrateon scholarswho were no longer living. Selectioncriteria included: (1)
Uncontestedmerit ofthose who pioneeredor revolutionizedparticular
fields. Humfrey Wanley set standardsfor manuscriptstudy that have prevailed to our own day; the brothersGrimm founded the disciplines
of folklore and Germanliterature and linguistics; GastonParis established Romancephilology in France;and Ernst RobertCurtius broadenedour perceptionof medievalliteratureas a Europeanphenomenon ratherthan a discipline dominatedby nationalboundaries.
(2)
Multinational representation.Subjectshail from Belgium, Denmark, England,France,Germany,Iceland,Italy, Spain,Switzerland,andthe United States.We attemptedto show cross-nationalinfluence.An example is the Danish RasmusRask, whosepioneeringwork in Norse philology andcomparativelinguistics influenced,andwas disseminated by, JacobGrimm in his DeutscheGrammatik(1822).
(3)
Gender representation.Three women are included here: Elizabeth Elstob, the first known female scholarof Old English studies;Edith Rickert, co-editor of the CanterburyTales; and RosemaryWoolf, literarycritic of religious lyric and drama.This paucityof womenscholars, in this volume as in the last, is illustrative of the late emergence of womenas scholarsof the medievalperiod.
(4)
Disciplinary representation.Includedare essaysfrom suchfields as linguistics and phonology (Rask, J. Grimm, Sweet); hagiography (Delehaye);folklore (Olrik, the brothersGrimm); lyrics and popular ballads (Jeanroy,Kittredge, MenendezPidal, Woolf); Romancephilology, manuscripttransmission,and editing (Paris, Bedier, Jeanroy, Barbi); manuscript, palaeography, and archival studies (Ker, Magnusson,Nowell, Wanley); lexicographyand grammar(Nowell, Elstob, J. Grimm, Sievers); metrics (Sievers); Germanicand Norse philology (Rask,J. Grimm, Heusler);topology, symbolism,and typology (Curtius,Auerbach,Woolf); Arthurian studies(Loomis, Frappier); English philology andediting (Skeat,Furnivall, Thorpe,Forster);troubadourstudies(Jeanroy);Celtic philology (Thurneysen);Chaucerian studies(Kittredge, Manly and Rickert); drama (Chambers,Woolf); andliterary criticism (Lewis). Somepioneeredcomparativeand interdisciplinarystudies;all publishedwork that is still essentialto our understandingof the pastand, more important, the present. Facedwith two subjectsof equalstanding,the choicewas determinedby two criteria: (a) the subject'sprofessionalenergyandcharismathatwasself-reflective yet dedicatedto the building of a discipline, and and professionalstandingof the biographer. (b) the appropriateness
x
PREFACE
Major scholarswho, for one reasonor another,hadto be omitted,have been amply discussedin the essaysincluded (e.g., J.R.R.Tolkien in Lewis; F. Diez in Paris; FrancisJ. Child in Kittredge). The biographiesare not meantto be full accounts.Somenonetheless are moving recordsof portions of individual lives, as is RasmusRask's,who developedthe theoreticalbasisfor comparativelinguistics and died in poverty, unrecognizedin his lifetime. Eachessayis accompaniedby a selectedprimary and secondarybibliographythat reflects the subject'swork in the medievalperiod. In someinstanceswe havehadto condensethe bibliographyevenfurther to keepwithin reasonablepagelimitations. In othercaseswe havenot providedinformation on Lettersand Paperseitherbecausetherewere noneor becauseinformation was unavailable. The project beganas a collaborationbetweenme and JosephB. Zavadil, who died in late springof 1992.A valuedcolleague,he participated in the conceptionof the project and the arrangementof volume 1; after his death I continuedas editor alone, with the help of my graduateassistants Donald Fennemaand Karmen Lenz, who checkedall bibliographicalreferencesand proofing. Any ventureof this sizeis a collaboration,and I am grateful to the many scholars,in addition to the contributors,who took part in the selectionprocess:Larry Benson,David M. Bevington, GeorgeBrown, Howell D. Chickering, Robert Cook, Helen Cooper,JosephJ. Duggan, AS.G. Edwards,JohnH. Fisher,RobertWorth Frank, DonaldK Fry, Helmut Gneuss,Joyce Hill, Baldur Jonsson,Stefan Karlsson, Douglas Kelly, v.A. Kolve, JonasKristjansson,Norris J. Lacy, JohnLeyerle,Angus Mcintosh, Dan Melia, Bruce Mitchell, M.B. Parkes,Alain Renoir, Velma BourgeoisRichmond, Beryl Rowland, Walter Sauer,D.G. Scragg,E.G. Stanley, Martin Stevens,Brian Stock, MargaretSwitten, Paul B. Taylor, and Linda E. Voigts. Otherswhose contributionsmade this volume possibleare Susan Tarcov, for her assistancein editing; at the University of New Mexico, my colleaguesDonald Sullivan and Patrick J. Gallacher; my studentsVirginia Barva and DouglasSimms for preparationof the manuscript;and the staff of the Inter-Library Loan and Referencedivisions of ZimmermanLibrary. I am indebtedfor the supportI receivedfrom the ResearchAllocations Committeeand Ellen H. Goldberg,former AssociateProvostfor Research.Thanks also to Guy Holborn, librarian at Lincoln's Inn. At GarlandPublishing, I am grateful for the care and attention expendedon this volume by Anne Vinnicombeand Helga McCue, andfor the generoussupportof Leo Balk.
Xl
Finally particular thanks go to TheodoreM. Andersson,Thomas Cable,JoanM. Ferrante,RobertW Hanning,Calvin B. Kendall, Gary Kuris, John Lindow, Fred C. Robinson, Paul E. Szarmach,and Jan Ziolkowski, whosesupport on this volume is much appreciated.The authorsof the essaysthat follow contributedtheir time and talents;they are notablewitnesses to the greatnessof the lives they portray. Severalof the essaysare documentsof importancein the history ofliterary scholarship.The essayby John C. Pope on Sievers,which touchesupon portions of Sievers'swork and life that have neverpreviouslybeenaddressed,is a milestonein Germanicmetriesscholarship. Pope,the authorityon Old English metriesin the last half of the twentieth century,finishedrevisionson the essayon thegreatmetricistof the nineteenth three days before he died. Other milestonelast essaysare those by John C. McGalliard, Lowry Nelson, and Colin Smith. This volume is dedicatedto them.
Helen Damico UniversityofNewMexico
xii
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION Joan M. Ferrante and RobertW. Hanning
The designation"Middle Ages," like the description"medieval" in modern usage,was oneof disapproval,evenscorn.It was coinedby humanistsproud of their awarenessof the classicalpastas somethingdistinct from the present, somethingto be reveredand imitated, in contrastto the centuriesbetween, which had freely used classicalculture as it servedtheir purposes.For the Middle Ages Christianityhad given new meaningto paganmaterial, which remainedpart of the commonculture, to be drawn on, corrected,translated, and transmutedas a living source-notyet the deadobject of studyandveneration it would be for the next severalcenturies.It was perhaps inevitable that the RomanticreactionagainstNeo-classicismshould turn for much of its inspirationandsenseof identity to that rejectedperiod, the Middle Ages. When Romanticpoetsandscholarssoughta counterto their formal andforeign (Latin) culture, they looked for it in what they perceivedas the spontaneous,native expressionsof their national ancestors.They were as wrongheadedin ignoring the classicalpresencein medievalculture as the humanists had been,thoughtheir approachwas moresympathetic.But becausethe new interestin the Middle Ages coincidedwith, perhapsgrew out of, a new nationalismin Europe,the unwillingnessto acknowledgethat presenceor to look far beyondnational and linguistic borderspersistedin medievalcriticism until World War II, when Fascismrevealedthe potentialhorrorsof nationalism and Ernst Robert Curtius and Erich Auerbachbrought medieval studiesbackinto a Europeanand classicalcontext. MEDIEVAL LITERATURE AND PHILOLOGY ON THE CONTINENT
Thougha few medievalpoetslike Danteand Chaucercontinuedto be published, read, and commentedupon during the centuriesof neglect, much medievalliteraturehad beenlost. Before anythingcould be donewith it, it had to be found, collected,copied, and edited.The earliestscholarsin this
collection were concernedwith gatheringtexts, sometimesfinding and piecing togetherscatteredfragments.Many scholarswere philologists and linguists, interestedin the texts as examplesof the developmentof a language, Old Norse,German,English, Irish, French,Italian, or Spanish.Their grammars,dictionaries,andword lists madeit possiblefor succeedinggenerations to readthe texts they and othersedited. At the sametime the classicaltraining of nineteenth-century medieval scholarsled them to assumethat therewas one correct(andwritten) version of a work, all othersbeing corruptions.Before editing a text that existedin severalmanuscriptsthey had to recreatethe "original." Therewere two main approaches.Editors eithercomparedmanuscripts,sorting them into families by commonerrors(stemma),andprivileging readingsagreedon by manuscripts from different families-the"Lachmannmethod,"which produceda composite text-or they choseone"best" manuscriptand madea faithful transcription, relegatingconjecturalemendationsto notesor an appendix.The resultanttext may havebeenaestheticallymoresatisfYing but not necessarilymore "authentic." Yet both approachesrelied on the editor'sjudgmentor taste.The italian scholarMichele Barbi rejectedthem in favor of a careful examinationof the entire manuscripttradition of a text with a considerationof its historical, linguistic, andliterary contextfor his modeleditionsof Dante'sVIta Nuova (basedon seventy-sixmanuscriptsand twenty-six editions) and Rime. The supremacyof the written text was so much a part of the mindset of early medievalscholarsthat the role of oral tradition in the transmission of andvariety amongmanuscripttextswasvirtually ignored.Yet manyof them were also interestedin folklore, myth, andpopularculture as a sourceof history, and in thesestudiesthe importanceof oral traditions was recognized. The Romantic idea of popular culture as the expressionof a Volksgeistwas closelyconnectedwith the fervor to establisha distinct identity for onepeople or another,a nationalismthat would endurethrough World War I. Some scholarssought the history of their peoplein sagas,ballads, or myths, and claimedindependentorigins for their own nationalfolklore. From the brothers Grimm, who saw the Volksgeistas the expressionof the people, offering an objective picture of their life untaintedby the subjectivity of individual poets, to RamonMenendezPidal, who collectedoral Spanishballadsfrom Spain to South America to Israel and sought the Visigothic heritagein heroic song-scholarsmined the tracesof popularculture in their questto discover national identity. Some,like Hippolyte Delehayeand JosephBedier, rejectedpopular matter.Delehaye,anxiousto establishthe authenticityof the saintswhoselives he investigated,weededout legendaryfrom historical material, arguingthat XIV
I N T ROD U C T ION
legendshouldnot be ignored, but neithershouldit be mistakenfor history. Bedier, with a deep appreciationof the literary aspectsof certain medieval texts, preferredto attributethem to the artistry of individual poets;he refused to seeoral tradition behindthe chansonsdegesteandarguedinsteadfor Latin chroniclesourcesandindividual poetsalongthe pilgrimageroutes.But Bedier was by no meansfree of the desireto establishnational identity: Authors he positedwere unknown but French. Few of the Continentalscholarscoveredin this collection were untouchedby nationalism.Nationalheritageplays a largepart in the direction of their work, often to the detrimentof scholarship.The Danes,rivals of Sweden and, later, Germany,championedIcelandic culture and did much to focus attentionon the texts and the language.But RasmusRask insistedon publishing only in Danish,so that much of his work remainedunknown,except in linguistics-andthen only becauseJacobGrimm drew on it. Axel Olrik recreatedDanish skaldic poetry from the Latin of Saxo and opposedpanGermanictheories,insisting that heroic legenddid not diffuse through various cultureslike otherfolklore narrativesbut reflectednativehistory, a form of patriotismlater exploitedby DanishNazis. It was easierfor Germanslike the brothersGrimm to seea commonGermanicheritage,but they failed to see foreign influence in national poetry and believedthat languagedetermined the unity and identity of the peoplein folklore andheroicverse.Max Forster could seeLatin sourcesfor vernacularpoetry, but he was studyingOld English, not German.The SwissAndreasHeuslerviewedwith skepticismcontemporary attemptsto resurrectthe Germanicpast,minimizeGermanborrowingsfrom other cultures,and expressprogrammaticenthusiasmfor what is "Germanic."But he projectedbackfrom Old Norseto a preliteraryperiodwhen the whole oflater epic legendswas concealedor compressedwithin a songand hopedthat the forms that "are redolentof our native soil" would revitalize modernproseand verse.Among the French Bedier was a passionatenationalistwho rejected Germanicandfolklore origins, arguingagainstorientalistsourcesfor fabliaux and a Spanishauthorof the Pseudo-Turpin(the latter two in oppositionto his teacherGastonParis).Alfred Jeanroy,who correctlysawthat Occitanpoetry hadprecedednorthernFrenchlyric, nonethelessarguedfor an earlier French popularpoetrythat influencedItalian, Portuguese,and Germanmedievallyrics, a view William D. Padenaptly calls "cultural imperialism." GastonParis, sonof a medievalscholar,who literally grew up in the BibliothequeNationale, rejectedthe nationalismin Jeanroy'sstudy of the lyric and focusedinstead on his hint at popularorigins. TheAmericanRogerShermanLoomis opposed French nationalismin his insistenceon Celtic sourcesfor all the Arthurian stories.MenendezPidal defendedthe reputationsof Spaniardswho had been xv
criticized, presentingthe Cid as a hero, a moral exemplarfor Spain,later useful in Francopropaganda,andwhitewashingthe Spanishconquestby attackingas unbalanceda bishop who documentedthe mistreatmentof the Indians. Barbi did not takea nationaliststance,but his work, focusedexclusivelyon Italian material, musthavebeenseento servethe Fascistcause:hewasawarded,amongother honors,the Mussolini Prize and nominationas senator.
It was Curtius, coming from the combinedFrenchand Germanculture of Alsace, and Auerbach,a GermanJew, who took Europeanperspectives on medieval-andnot only on medieval-literature:They enabledus to seevernacularmedievalliteratureas a Europeanphenomenon,Curtius by tracing the influenceof Latin rhetoric,Auerbachby showingthe importance of Christian typology and style. Curtius set himselfin oppositionto the nationalist position in the very title of his major work, EuropeanLiteratureand
the Latin Middle Ages, and overwhelmedit with the massof his examples. Auerbachwas alert to the continuity betweenthe Old and New Testaments as well as the differencesin the classicaland Christianstylesthat formed medievalliterature.His work on typology madepossiblethe Christianallegorical interpretationsof CharlesSingletonand D.W Robertson. Someof the nineteenth-and twentieth-centuryscholarsfound themselvesin oppositionto the existing political climate. Auerbachwas dismissed and exiled by the Nazis, Forsterforced into retirementby them, and Curtius attackedin an official Nazi paper(he did not publishbetween1932 and 1948). All three had servedin the Germanarmy in World War I, and Curtius and Auerbachhad beenwounded.Loomis volunteeredfor the American army in that war, and Bedier and Delehayedid anti-Germanpropaganda.Delehaye, servingin the Belgian resistance,was arrestedtwice, fined, and then sentenced to hard labor. Bedier, despitehis conservatism,had earlier defendedDreyfus,
insultedby the government'srelianceon an obviouslyforged text. Pariswas also distressedby the government'srefusalto acknowledgethe facts, a position consistentwith his scholarlyview that patriotic, religious, or moral endsmust never interferewith scholars'interpretationsof the facts or their conclusions. The otherswere not particularly involved in politics. But the Grimm brothers participated in a protestat Gottingen,againstthe repudiationof the constitutionby the king of Hanover,and they were exiled. MenendezPidal was removedby the Spanishgovernmentfor protestingthe closing of the University of Madrid by the dictator Primo de Rivera; he returnedin 1939 but was out of favor with the Francogovernmentuntil it bowedto pressure from foreign Hispanists.EduardThurneysendefendedthe causeofIrish nationalism. RasmusRaskdreamedof an ideal commonwealthto be established in New Zealandwith Icelandicas its official language. xvi
INTRODUCTION
Most of the continentalscholarscamefrom families of position and wealth, who encouragedtheir scholarshipand perhapstheir antiquarianinterestsdirectly or indirectly. Ami Magnusson'sfamily were clergymenand scribes.A maternal aunt of the brothers Grimm was in service to the landgravineof Hesseandhelpedwith their education.Olrik's family included officials, clergymen,artists, and writers, and two of his brotherswere medievalists. Heusler'sfamily includedlawyers, merchants,and scholars,among them Jacob Burckhardt. Forster's father was a high-ranking doctor. Thurneysen'sfather was a merchant,his mother'sfamily academic.Gaston Paris was the son of Paulin Paris, an authoriry on Old French literature. MenendezPidal's family was literary, his father a conservativejudge. Delehaye'sdistinguishedbourgeoisfamily includeda heterodoxtheologian. Auerbach'sfather was a merchant.Curtius's mother was a countess,his father a liberal civil official, his grandfatheran archaeologistand historianwho tutoredthe Kaiser,an unclea scholarof Greek whotaughtGastonParis.Roger ShermanLoomis was the sonof a missionarybut waseducatedin elite schools. Severalof them were relatedor marriedto womenwho were interesting in their own right: Loomis was marriedto threedistinguishedmedievalists and collaboratedwith oneof them. MenendezPidal and his wife worked togethertracing epic routes and collecting ballads,a pursuit they beganon their honeymoon.Paris'swife translatedEnglish writers. Jeanroy'swife published translationsand storiesfor children, and his daughtertook a doctorate in Italian languageandpublishedanthologiesofItalian poetry. Olrik's sister was a painter and textile expert.Two scholarsdid somework on medieval women: Thumeysentaught a seminaron the legal statusof women in ancient laws at the Royal Irish Academy.Jeanroydiscussedthe trobairitz in his study of lyric, but he found them shockingif taken seriouslyand preferred to dismissthem as derivative. Virtually all of the Continentalscholarswere philologists,as medievalists still were in American universitiesin the middle of this century;W.T.H. Jacksonat Columbiawas an unusualexception.Someworked as librariansand archivists; most taughtfirst in school, then in universiry, GastonParis in a women'sschool.Auerbachtaughtwomenin Turkey. Delehayewas a Jesuitwho taught math and science.Someof them taughteachother. Bedierwas a student of Paris, MenendezPidal of Jeanroy.Auerbach,Forster,and Menendez Pidal taught at somepoint in America; Curtius participatedin seminarsat PrincetonandAspen.A numberof them producedteachingtexts as well as scholarlyworks. A few did translations,MagnUssonto Latin, Loomis to English, Bedierto modernFrench.Bedier,who did muchto bring medievaltexts to the attentionof the Frenchpublic, composeda compositeversion of the XVll
Tristan story, which Paris describedas a "French poem of the mid-twelfth centurycomposedat the end of the nineteenth." Their main work, however,relatedto manuscripts:collecting, copying. dating,describing,cataloging-andto textual editing. Of the Continental scholarsrepresentedin this volume, all but Auerbacheditedat leastone medieval text; Jeanroyediteddozens.Many of them studiedthe languagesof the vernaculartexts,producingword lists, grammars,anddictionaries,so that others could readthem. Somestudiedmetricsandversification,Heuslerin German (disagreeingwith EduardSievers),Jeanroyin French. Heuslerdistinguishedparatacticstyle (short, staccatosentences,manymain clauses)in the prose of Icelandic sagasas comparedwith Latin, foreshadowingthe more sweepingwork of Auerbach.But only a few discussedthe texts as literature, and only Bedieremphasizedaestheticvalues.GastonParis,whosefather had beeninterestedin literary aspectsof medievalworks, preferredto look at them as historic documents.Jeanroytreatedthe lyrics as literature but dismissed many of them as precious,artificial, insincere,or derivative. The brothers Grimm searchedfor folk motifs in heroic poetry; Loomis mined Frenchromancesfor their Celtic sources;andCurtiuslookedat all literaturefor its Latin sources,thoughhe was awarethat a commontopos can be transformedby a greatwriter. Yet he, like Auerbach,contributedimportanttools for the criti-
cal appreciationof literary texts. Severalof the scholarswent beyondtheir work on texts to open the field to others, by giving money for publicationsor founding institutes or journals. MagnUssonleft books, manuscripts,and papersto the University of Copenhagenwith money to fund students'work and editions, now the Arnamagnaeaninstitutes in Copenhagenand Iceland. Olrik helpedfound organizationsfor the studyof folklore. JeanFrappieralmostsingle-handedly founded the Bulletin bibliographiquede fa SocieteInternationaleArthurienne and, along with Loomis and EugeneVinaver, launchedthe International Arthurian Society.GastonPariswas a founderof Romaniaand of the Societe desAnciensTextesFran~s. cais Barbi foundedStudi Danteschi,n ot to debateo ld ideas but to offer useful information from primary sources,and he gave the moneyfrom the Mussolini Prizeto studentsto work on (his) editorial projects. MEDIEVAL LITERATURE AND PHILOLOGY IN ENGLAND
Medievalstudiesin Englandcan be said to havebegunwith Caxtonsearliest printededitionsof fourteenth-andfifteenth-centutyEnglish texts by Chaucer andothers.In the sixteenthcenturythe editing andprinting of medievaltexts, including Chaucer'spoetry and Piers Plowman,frequently servedpolemical purposesin connectionwith the Reformationor were inspired by attempts XVlJl
I N T ROD U C T ION
to documenttraditionsof English poetrythat accordedwith nascentEnglish nationalismand humanistnotionsof the progressof the arts from a "ruder" pastto a sophisticated,classicallyinspiredpresent. The presentvolume documentsanotherfacet of this first phaseof medievalstudiesin England:the formation of scholarlyconcernwith the "literature,"or textual production,of the pre-Conquest,or Anglo-Saxon,period. Beyond the men who transplantedthe poetry of Chaucer,Gower, and Langlandfrom the manuscriptculture for which it was written into that of the printing press,the pioneersof Anglo-Saxonstudieswereguidedby a spirit of antiquarianism,a concernnot only with ancient texts but also with ancient artifactsand monuments.Here againwe can placethis impulsewithin two contexts.One is an English national or insular adaptationof humanist scholarlyconcernswith the accuratediscoveryanddocumentationof the classical past.This "redirectedhumanism"both complementedand challenged the normativestatusof the Greco-Romanpast as it was transmittedacross the Alps, by scholarsand by printed books, to Englandduring the fifteenth and sixteenthcenturies.The antiquarians'aim, as Camdenput it in 1590, was to bring to light for study and profit the remainsof early English civilization, "almost lost by disuseand buried in oblivion." Across the next centuriesantiquarianscholarsand enthusiastswould lament the fact that the English peopleknew too little of their pastand of the texts and monumentsthat held its secrets.As ElizabethElstob put it in a letter of 1735, "I am very much concernedto find the languageof our ancestorsso much neglected."Benjamin Thorpe and FrederickJames Furnivall in the following century respondedto this neglect by forming societiesthat would publish editions and translationsof Old and Middle English texts. Interactingwith this redirectedhumanismwas the desireto usepreConquestmaterialsprobatively in political and religious controversies.If LaurenceNowell and Humfrey Wanley were moved by antiquarianzeal, GeorgeHickes usedhis expertisein "septentrional"studies(as interestin the Germanic,as opposedto the Greco-Roman,pastwas called in his day) to buttresshis position as a "Nonjuror," an ecclesiasticloyal to the ousted Stuart monarchy. Elizabeth Elstob, the earliest known woman AngloSaxonistand a member,through her brother, of Hickes'scircle, combined antiquarianpassionswith Tory politics. What her biographerin this volume refers to as a "polemical feminism" appearsto haveaffectedher editorial policy, especiallythe decisionsto translateOld English texts and to write an Anglo-Saxongrammarin Modern English, rather than the Latin of the male, university-trainedantiquarianestablishment. xix
One othercircumstance,peculiarto Britain, must be noted:The dispersal of monasticlibraries when Henry VIII suppressedthe monasteries complicated,but also stimulated,antiquarianactivity: the first phaseof medieval, primarily Anglo-Saxon,antiquarianscholarshipin England,from the sixteenthcenturythrough much of the eighteenth,includedfinding, transcribing, collating, translating,and editing manuscripts,but also collecting, cataloging,and circulating them. Scholarlydisciplines that we identifY as palaeographyand codicology coexistedwith librarianship and the amassing of libraries. The most imposing collections were built by well-to-do gentry and nobles and organizedinto magnificentprivate libraries. Those of Sir HansSloane,Sir Robert Cotton, and the Lords Harley (earlsof Oxford) were to form the core of the British Museum'smanuscriptholdings. The work of organizingthesecollections,advising their owners,and understandingthe texts that composedthem lay with antiquarianspecialists. The antiquarianmovement,with its varied impetusesand goals, embraced English men (and, in the caseof Elstob, women) who brought to this task a rangeof social stations,interests,and capacities.Nowell was the progenyof a Lancashiresquire, Hickesof a well-to-do landowneroflessthan gentrystation, Wanleyof a poor but Cambridge-educated clergyman,Elstob of a prosperousNorthern merchant. Nowell representsthe earliestperiod of antiquarianism.A voracious seekerof knowledge,he spentmuch time on the Continent.His varied interests(including cartography)appearto haveled to a placein the household of William Cecil, QueenElizabeth'ssecretaryof state,but also to have militated againsthis publishing the fruits of his antiquarianresearches,though he did compile the first Anglo-Saxonvocabulary. The endof the seventeenth centuryandthe beginningof the eighteenth witnesseda secondperiodof lively interestin Anglo-Saxonstudies,generated in good part by the political and religious controversysurroundingthe "glorious revolution" that put William and Mary on the throne. This upheaval createdthe Nonjurors,clergy who, like GeorgeHickes, refusedto swearallegianceto William andMary becausethey had alreadydoneso to the deposed but still living JamesII. Hickes, Wanley, Elstob, and othersin Oxford and London compiledcatalogsof manuscripts,editionsandtranslationsof AngloSaxonlegal and historical and religious texts, a grammarand dictionary, and a historicalsurveyof the evolutionof English beforeand after the Conquest. Much of this work constitutedHickes's Thesaurus,a prodigiouscollaborative effort; the latter volume containsWanley's catalogof manuscriptscontaining Anglo-Saxon,which has only beensupersededin our own time by the work ofN.R. Ker. xx
INTRODUCTION
Hickes, academicallytrainedand oriented,pursuedAnglo-Saxonstudies evenduring the period (1691-99) when he was an outlawedfugitive becauseof his Nonjuring principles. In his grammarhe soughtto imposeLatin paradigms on early English-amarkof his humanisttraining-butalsoto explainthepolitical andhistorical usesto which theAnglo-Saxonheritagecould be put. Hickes madeEnglish"antiquity" accessibleby publishingtexts, grammars,glossaries, and also Wanley'scatalogs.Wanley, an autodidactwho never took a degree at Oxford, passeda large part of his life as librarian and purchasingagentfor the Lords Harley. He played a crucial role in making the Harley collection availableto the London public and eventually,through the British Museum (now British Library), to scholarsthe world over. His influential writings on how libraries should be physically arrangedfor easeof use, and aesthetic pleasure,forwardedthe antiquarians'agendain still anotherway. It was within this ferment of activity, both at its centerand at its margins, that Elizabeth Elstob worked.Like Hickes she was a high Tory; unlike him, a feminist who advocatededucationfor women.The fragility of her position as an antiquarian-afterthe deathof her brother, fellow of an Oxford college, Elstob lost both financial security and scholarly credibility in a world dominatedby classically trained, and exclusively male, Oxford scholars-isto us as noteworthyas the fact that sheresistedthe male, Oxonian world by publishing and planning editions and a grammarin which Latin no longer mediatesbetweenOld and Modern English. The eighteenthcenturysaw the publication of Bishop Hurd's Letters of Chivalry andRomance,ThomasWarton'sHistory ofEnglish Poetry, and the pioneeringChauceredition of ThomasTyrwhitr, as well as a greatdeal of interest in, andimitation of, "Gothick" architecture,especiallyits ruins. But the next great eraof medievalEnglishscholarshipwas the nineteenthcentury.Perhapsthe greatest impetuswas the developmentof philology, the "scientific" historical studyof old texts, pioneeredby GermanandScandinavianscholars.Englishscholarslike BenjaminThorpeandJohnM. Kemble,havingstudiedabroad,becameevangelists of the newphilology in England,producingeditions,translations,andgrammarsandorganizingsocietiesto sponsorsuchactivity. The partisansof "German" methodologybecameembroiledin controversywith thosewho favoredolder, less rigorous scholarlypracticesor who resistedthe "Germanizing"of Anglo-Saxon and medievalstudiesfor nationalisticreasons.English and Germanphilologists wrangledover who had establishedpriority for publishingtexts not previously edited, including Anglo-Saxonbiblical translations,the homilies of JEifric, and the Anglo-Saxonpoeticcorpus,publicationof which beganwith G. Thorkelin's edition of Beowu!f(I815)and Thorpe'sedition of the "Caedmonian"biblical "paraphrases"in Bodley MS Junius11 (I 832).
xxi
To Thorpe,Kemble, and their collaboratorsin the Societyof Antiquaries, the PhilologicalSociety,and the JElfric Society(andto Thorpe'semployers in the Public RecordsCommission)the justification for suchscholarlyactivity was not only the need toprepare"scientific" editionsand suchancillary materialas grammarsandThorpe'sAnalecta,a collectionof readingsin AngloSaxonfor beginningstudents,printedfor the first time in moderntypeface.
It was also to publish documents"tending to illustrate the early stateof England," that is, to uncover the past and bring it to the English, who knew too little of it. Thorpe bemoans"the old vernaculartongue of Englandso much neglectedat home, so successfullycultivatedby foreign philologists," and speaksof his "zeal in bringing to light the early monumentsof our languageand history." The rivalry betweenEnglish and Germanmedievalscholars,and between the academicestablishmentand philological reformers, persisted throughthe nineteenthcentury; this was the contextin which the most noteworthy medievalistsof the age performedtheir extraordinarylabors. Of the threescholarsrepresentedin this collection,Furnivall, W. W. Skeat,andHenry Sweet,only Skeathad a "regular" academiccareer,which startedwith a lectureshipin mathematicsat Cambridge(therewas no formal studyof English at that time) and culminatedin his appointmentas the first Elrington and BosworthProfessorof Anglo-Saxonthere. Furnivall's unregulatedenthusiasms,mixing of schemesfor textual editing and social reform, lack of concern for proceduralniceties or consistency,and "in your face" attitude toward Victorian classand genderhierarchiesand sexualmoresrenderedhim
persona non grata among more conventionalscholars.But his boundless energy-parallelingthat with which contemporaryengineerslike I.K. Brunel werebuilding bridges,tunnels,railroads,andpropeller-drivenoceanvesselsandhis unfalteringbeliefin the value of the English Middle Ages as a potential sourceof redemption,wisdom, and harmonyfor the working classes,led him to found the Early English Text Society(for which he editedover three dozen volumes), the ChaucerSociety (to facilitate a major re-editing of Chaucerfrom the bestmanuscripts,a task intendedfor Henry Bradshawbut accomplishedby Skeat), and the New (later Oxford) English Dictionary, of which he was the first editor. Skeat,during his long Cambridgecareer,producedepochaleditions of Piers Plowmanand Chaucer.These,althoughfar from exhaustiveor "scientific" in their use of manuscripts,exceeded,in accuracyand in the historical and cultural detail of their annotations,any previouswork on these basic texts. He thus contributedto the establishmentof English literature as a legitimatesubjectof study at Cambridge.Sweet'spassionfor Germanic xxii
INTRODUCTION
philology and phoneticsfound no institutional framework at Oxford: He read "Greats," took a fourth-classdegree,and was excludedfrom any official university position until late in his life. By then his editions of AngloSaxontexts, studenttextbooks,and innovationsin phonetictheoryhadwon him fame throughoutthe scholarlyworld and many offers of teachingpositions abroad,all of which he refusedin deferenceto his commitmentto reform the study of languagesand philology at the English universities. Sweetcameto resentwhat he regardedas the Germanmonopolizingof English philologyandAnglo-Saxonstudies,complainingaboutthe "swarmsof young program-mongersturnedout evetyyearby the Germanuniversities,so thoroughlytrainedin all the mechanicaldetailsof what may be called'parasite philology' that no English dilettantecan hopeto competewith them-except by Germanizinghirnsdfand losing all his nationality" (Prefaceto TheEarliest
English Texts[1886]). But in the sameprefaceSweetthanked"my friend Sievers for his very accuratetranscriptof the Erfun glossary(which he undertookquite spontaneously) ...." (The acknowledgmentremindsus that in the daysbefore photocopying,the transcribingof manuscriptswas an important part of the medievalist'slabors.) Sieversmet Sweetwhile studyingAnglo-Saxonand Old Saxonmanuscriptsin England; anotherresult of his English researchwas his 1875 conjecturethat an Old Saxonoriginal underlaythe so-called GenesisB poetic fragmentin Bodley MS Junius 1 I-a conjectureprovencorrectby the discoveryof parts of the original in the Vatican Library in 1894. In his later careerSieversinvestedmuch time and energyin expoundingSchaUanalyse,a voice-basedtheory for detectinginterpolationsin Germanicverse,which he defendedas scientific but which was generallyregardedby contemporariesas a disastrousturning awayfrom philological principlesand rigor. The last greatVictorian medievalistconsideredin this volume, E.K. Chambers,was trainedat Oxford and, like Sweet,was denieda position until late in life, when his scholarlyachievementwas belatedlyrecognized.Chambers spentmost of his adult life as a schoolexaminerfor the Departmentof Education, a position that left him time for his voluminousstudiesof early English drama. The MediaevalStage(1903), undertakento provide a context for the achievementsof the Elizabethanstage,andof Shakespeare in particular,brought togetherimmenseamountsof materialaboutmedievalludic activity. Its main organizingprinciple was an evolutionarythesisaboutthe progressivecomplicationandsecularizationof medievaldrama,an approachinfluencedby Victorian scientific and social Darwinist thought,now in disfavor. But the work also reflects,in its interestin the theatricaldimensionsof popularculture, the influenceof Sir JamesFraser'sGoldmBoughandthe Cambridgeritualist anthropologicalschool.It is still an indispensabletool in medievaldramastudies. xxiii
In America, as in England,English literary studiesbecamerecognized as a legitimate university subjectlate in the nineteenthcentury.At Harvard the first professorof English, FrancisJamesChild, had as his studentGeorge Lyman Kittredge, who went on to becomethe greatestscholar-criticof his andauthorof critical studgeneration.Kittredgewasan editor of Shakespeare ies of Chaucer'spoetry-especiallyhis analysisof the "dramaticprinciple" and the "marriagegroup" of Canterbury Tale.f-thatshapedmuch teachingand writing aboutthe poet through most of the twentieth century. His work was extendedand refined by masterChaucerianslike William Witherle Lawrence and especiallyE. Talbot Donaldson.
An early HarvardPh.D. wasJohnMatthewsManly, scion of a family influential in the religious and educationallife of the AmericanSouth,who went on to becomethe first headof the English Departmentat the University of Chicago.The influence of Germanicphilology and "Victorian rationalism" on Manly is perhapsbestshownby his concurrentinterestin the "scientific" study of literature and in codesand ciphers. In SomeNew Light on
ChaucerManly "deciphered"the pilgrim charactersof The CanterburyTales, identifying the contemporariesof Chaucerwho inspiredthe literary portraits. His and Edith Rickert's life's work was the preparationof an edition of the
Talesfrom all known manuscripts,with the goal of establishingby the "scientific" principles of Lachmannianrecensionthe textual archetypethat lay behindthem. Rickert'scareerdiffered substantiallyfrom Manly's: As a woman shewas lesswelcomed(and rewarded)by the academicprofession. Rickertappearsto haveperformedor supervisedmuchof the derailedwork of the Chicagoproject; in a well-intentionedbut now infamoustribute after her deathManly praisedherfor possessing "the intuition of a womanwith a woman's capacityfor enormousdrudgeryin assemblingandverifYing all thefacts concerned in eachcase"(Preface,viii). The result, The Texta/theCanterburyTales, published in eight volumesby the University of Chicago Pressin 1940, is now generally consideredto havefailed in its intention to establishan archetypal(though not necessarilyauthorial)text. But it hada major impacton Chaucerstudies,not least in its advocacyof the HengwrtManuscriptas a "better" (i.e., closer) approximation of what Chaucerwrote than the moreluxurious EllesmereManuscript. The rangeof medievalstudiesat Oxbridgein the middle andlate twentieth centuryis shown by the exemplarsincluded in this volume: N.R. Ker, whose magnificent work on palaeography,codicolgy, and catalogingof manuscriptsmarkshim as the true heir of HumfreyWanley; C.S. Lewis, who, like J.R.R. Tolkien, sadly not representedhere, combinedscholarshipwith successfulfiction writing groundedin medieval texts and Christian beliefs; and RosemaryWoolf, who representsthe substantialcontributionof women xxiv
I N T ROD U C T ION
scholarsto medievalstudies.Woolf, though a convert to Christianity, remainedproudof herJewishorigins and brought many of her religious intereststo bearon her scholarlywritings on medievalEnglish lyrics and drama. Lewis found outlet for his religious interestsin his popularapologeticwriting and his fiction; while his most influential scholarlystudy, TheAllegory of
Love,which deeplyaffectedgenerationsof studentsin EnglandandAmerica, deals with secularpassionin its intersectionwith symbolic narrativeform. Analogouslyinfluential in Beowu/fstudieswasTolkien's 1936 British Academy lecture,"Beowulf.the Monstersand the Critics," a pioneeringattempt to treat the epic from a literaty-critical perspective. Again and again the careersof the scholarsfeaturedin this volume demonstratethe importanceof malementoring-Sieversby Zarnecke,Bedier by Paris,Wanleyby Hickes, SkeatandSweetby OswaldCockayneof King's College School-orof supportgroups, basedin the academy,from which women were by and large excluded.Of the three women studied here two clearly led scholarlylives of marginalization,which afford someof the most touching momentschronicledin this collection. Elizabeth Elstob was supported,then dropped,by a circle of "septentrional"antiquarianscholars.Edith Rickert, like Elstob an advocateof educationalopportunity for girls and women, was a prolific novelist as well as a prolific scholarbut was treated much less well by the University of Chicagothan was Manly: she receiveda formal appointmentonly at agefifty-three. Although shesharedmost of her Chicagograduatestudentswith Manly, it is Rickert who is thankedin dissertationacknowledgments and memoirs.Manly himselfstatesthat although he and Rickert werereleasedfrom teachingdutiesfor half of eachyear, Rickert "was so stimulatingand self-sacrificinga teacherthat she... encouragedher studentsto pursueher in her absencein Englandwith their plans and papers..." (Preface,vii). Rickert refusedto abandonher editorial or sponsorial responsibilities,despiteretirementand heart trouble; yet her skills and devotion were ignored when Manly alone was recognizedby the Medieval Academyof America in awardingthe HaskinsMedal to The Textofthe Can-
terbury Tales. Rickert was buriedwithout a headstone;funds for one haveonly recentlybeenraisedthrough theNew ChaucerSociety,successorto FurnivalJ's original ChaucerSociety.Woolf, daughterof a movie executiveand thuswell off, was the first womanin her family to go to university; sheprofited, as Elizabeth Elstob could not, from the existenceof women'scollegesat Oxford. When medieval literary studies began, there were no disciplinary boundaries;language,histoty, folklore, literaturewerecombinedif not confused. Literature, from an aestheticor critical point of view, was not the focus of
xxv
attention.It was often madeto serve the political demandsof nationalism. But as sourcestudiesprogressed,whetherof folkloric motifs or Latin topoi or Christian types, their role in the meaningof a text had to be confronted, and scholarsbeganto write more and more literary criticism. Beyond the periodcoveredin this collection that criticism was sometimesdoneat the cost of historic context; at other times the imposition of a certain historic mode of thinking might distort the text. We have editedand translatedand studied many more texts, giving us a much broaderview of the medievalliterary world. We have learnedmore about oral transmissionfrom the work of Milman ParryandAlbert B. Lord. We haveanalyzedmedievaltexts for their structure,their irony, their social message,their concealedmessages. We have studiedliterary productionsof sophisticatedsecularcourtsandpopularexpressions of religious belief and feeling. We seemto be returning attention to popularandoral traditions,as well as attemptingto erasethe boundariesthat had beenerected,perhapsartificially, berweenliterature and other fields of study. The politics of scholarship-religious,gender,social-arealmost alwaysvisible at or nearthe surfaceof the lives chronicledin the following pages. We have in someways comea long way from the work of the scholarscoveredhere, thoughwe could not have done it without their awesomecontributions. But we are also comingback to someof their interests.We can only hopethat we havelearnedfrom their mistakesas well as their successes, that we will look to the texts not to supportour beliefs and prejudicesbut to tell us what they will abouttheir world and ours.
XXVI
I N T ROD U C T ION
PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
FRONTISPIECE
Row 1: (left to right) LawrenceNowell, courtesyBoard ofthe British Library; GeorgeHickes,ftom the W0rcesterCathedral'Parlour, , courtesyRichardL. Harris; Arni MagnUsson,courtesyThe Arnamagn£anInstitute, Reykjavik;Humfrey Wanley, unsignedmetalplate engravingafter a portrait by Hill in the Students'
Roomofthe British Library, London, courtesyMilton McC Gatch. Row2: (left to right) Wilhelm andJacobGrimm, courtesySpecialCollections, J WallardMarriott Library, UniversityofUtah; FrederickJamesFurnivall, courtesy The Library ofKing's College, London; Gaston Paris, courtesyGerardJ Brault; Henry Sweet,courtesyErich SchmidtVerlag. Row3: (left to right) EduardSievers,courtesyHelmut Gneuss,with thanksto the Institut for EnglischePhilologie, Universitiit Munchen;Eduard Rudolf Thurneysen,courtesySprachwissenschaftliches Seminar, University ofBonn; Hippolyte Delehaye,courtesyThomasJ Heffernan, with thanksto the Societe desBollandistes;Alfred Jeanroy,courtesyEditions Slatkine. Row 4: (left to right) GeorgeLyman Kittredge, courtesyUniversity ofKansas Press;Axel Olrik, courtesyLars Hemmingsen,with thanksto the University of Copenhagen;John M. Manly, courtesySpecialCollections, University ofChicago Library; Edith Rickert, courtesySpecialCollections, UniversityofChicagoLibrary. Row5: (left to right) E.K. Chambers,courtesyBritish Academy;Michele Barbi, courtesySocietaDantescaItaliana; Max Forster, courtesyHans Sauer; Ernst RobertCurtius, courtesyFrau lise Curtius andDeutschePresse-Agentur. Row 6: (left to right) Roger ShermanLoomis, courtesyOffice ofPublic Information, ColumbiaUniversity;JeanFrappier,courtesyRaymondCormier; Neil R Ker, courtesyDrew Hartzell; RosemaryWoolf, courtesyHelga Spevack-Husmann.
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CONTRIBUTORS
KATHLEEN AsHLEY
SIGMUND EISNER
University of SouthernMaine
University of Arizona
HEINRICH BECK
MILTON MCc. GATCH
RheinischenFriedrich-
Union TheologicalSeminary
Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn
6LAFUR HALLD6RSSON
Stofmin Arna Magntissonar, CARL T. BERKHOUT
Iceland
University of Ariwna RICHARD L. HARRIS GERARD]. BRAULT
University of Saskatchewan
PennsylvaniaStateUniversity THOMAS]' HEFFERNAN CHARLOTTE BREWER
University of Tennessee,
Hertford College,
Knoxville
Oxford University LARS HEMMINGSEN DEREK BREWER
University of Copenhagen
EmmanuelCollege CambridgeUniversity
KEVIN S. KIERNAN
University of Kentucky RAYMOND CORMIER
LongwoodCollege
CHRISTOPHERKLEINHENZ
MARIA DOBOZY
Madison
University of Wisconsin, University of Utah
WILLIAM
W.
KIBLER
University of Texasat Austin MICHAEL
K.c. MACMAHON
PHILLIP PULSIANO
Villanova University HANS SAUER
University of Glasgow
University of MUnich
tJOHN C. MCGALLIARD
ELIZABETH SCALA
University of Wisconsin,
University of Texasat Austin
Madison tCOLIN SMITH tLOWRY NELSON
St. Catharine'sCollege,
Yale University
CambridgeUniversity
KLAus OSTHEEREN
HELGA SPEVACK-HuSMANN
Westfalische
WestfalischeWilhelms-Universitat
Wilhelms-Universitat
MUnster
MUnster KATHRYN SUTHERLAND
xxx
WILLIAM D. PADEN
St. Anne'sCollege,
NorthwesternUniversity
Oxford University
DEREK PEARSALL
HILDEGARD
HarvardUniversity
University of Freiburg
tJOHN C. POPE
KIRSTEN WOLF
Yale University
University of Manitoba
CONTRIBUTORS
L.c. TRISTRAM
MEDIEVAL SCHOLARSHIP
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LAURENCE NOWELL (1530-ca.1570)
Carl T. Berkhout
The English humanistand antiquaryLaurenceNowell was born in 1530, or perhapsearly in 1531, at ReadHall near the village of Whalley in northern Lancashire.For five or six years toward the end of his short life he applied his formidableintellect to the studyof the "Saxon," or Old English,language. In that brief spanhe produced,albeit only in manuscript,the first modern dictionaryof Old English, the first modernedition and translationof an Old English text, and a seriesof Old English and other transcriptsas important today as they were in his own time. Although he publishednothing in his lifetime, his pioneeringachievementswere recognizedby his contemporaries. To William Lambarde(1536-1601),who probably knew the mature Nowell best,he was "a most diligent inquirer into antiquity [diligentissimus inuestigatorantiquitatis) and a close friend to me in many agreeableways" (ArchaionomiaNiir). To William Camden(1551-1623),who probablynever met Nowell, he was "a mostlearnedman [vir raradoctrinainsignisj, who first in this agerestoredthe Saxonlanguageof our ancestorsalmostlost by disuse and buriedin oblivion" (Camden[1590), 118). By the mid-sixteenthcenturyOld English had becomevirtually a foreign languagein a countrywhosescholarsand antiquarieswereslow to accept even Modern English as a languageof learning. Few antiquariesat the time were interestedin or evenawareof Old English manuscripts,and therewas little in them to appealto Tudor literary tastes.A handfulof earlier antiquaries-notablyJohn Leland (d. 1552), RobertTalbot (d. 1558), and Robert Recorde(d. 1558)-hadtaken an interestin Old English and other early manuscriptssuddenlycast to uncertainfates by Henry VIII's dispersalof England'smonasticlibraries. Leland had madenote of someof them in his itinerariesthroughoutEngland,andTalbot had achieveda good knowledge of Old English by the time of his death, but neither antiquarylived long enoughto have an impact on Anglo-Saxoniststo follow. In the mid-1560s
3
Old English manuscriptsattractedthe interestof their greatcollector ArchbishopMatthewParker(1504-1575),perhapsin part becauseof Nowell, and later the interestof Sir Robert Cotton (d. 1631), their greatestcollector of all. The preservation,study, and presentationof Old English texts were slow to prosper,however,for the next centuryand more.All would havebeeneven slowerwithout Nowell's early spark. For it was Nowell who, more than anyone else,determinedthe courseof Old English studyin its cradleperiod. In 1605Camdenagainsaluted"the learnedGendemanMasterLaurence Nowel, of Lincolns-Inne" (Camden[1605]. 32), and here the problemsbegin. Nowell's formal associationwith Lincoln's Inn, apart from his early acquaintancewith Lambarde,cannotbe confirmed, and there is little reliable informationabouthis earlylife and intellectualbackground.For most of the past four centuries,until 1974 (Warnicke), Nowell's very identity has been conflatedwith that of his cousinof the samename(1509-1576),schoolmaster of Sutton Coldfield, Marian exile, deanof Lichfield Cathedral,and brother of the renowneddean of St. Paul's Cathedral,Alexander Nowell (?1507-
1602).The conflationescapedthe noticeevenof suchredoubtableantiquaries and biographersasWilliam Dugdale,Anthony aWood, andWhite Kennett. In June 1768 SamuelPeggethe elder freshly introducedNowell's careerand contributionsin a paperread before the Society of Antiquaries in London, but by this time he was able to add nothing new andreliable from the sources at hand. Even with the two LaurenceNowells disentangled,and until further documentarycluescome to light, any biographicalaccountof the antiquary remainsincompleteand tentative.As for Nowell's scholarlyachievementsandremains,on the otherhand,only small discoveriesin recentdecades have addedmaterially to the masterlyresearchespresentedby Robin Flower to the British Academyin 1936. Nowell was the second-oldestson of four sons and apparentlythree daughtersborn to AlexanderNowell (d. before 1552) and his wife, Grace (Caterall,d. 1566); all threeof his brothers,Thomas,Charles,andJohn,and his sisterswould outlive him (Berkhout [1985]). Virtually nothing is known of his youth or his early education,although the extensiveknowledgeof Lancashiredialectalwords that he would later displayin his dictionaryof Old English (Marckwardt, "An UnnotedSourceof English Dialect Vocabulary") suggeststhat for some time he was not far removedfrom Whalley or from Eccles,nearManchester,wherehis family movedabout 1540.He was not in religious orders,and there is no indication that he ever married. By 1550 Nowell had matriculatedat Christ Church, Oxford, where he was electedto the secondrank of philosopherson 12 April andwas lector in maths by October.It is from the college archives-Nowellwas nineteen
4
LAURENCE
NOWELL
at the time of his election-thatNowell's date of birth is established(Ker [1986]). He graduatedB.A in 1552and remainedat Christ Churchas a fellow in 1552-53. His nameappearsin the buttery books as late as 24 December1554,althoughfor much of that yearhe could not havebeenin residence.At Christ Church he becamethe friend of fellow studentEdward Beaumont{d. ca. August 1552}, who in his mortal illness had madeNowell a witnessand beneficiaryof his will, leaving to him half his "antiquites,being certain strangecoynesin silver." Nowell may also have acquiredpart of Beaumont'sextensivelibrary of chiefly classicaland humanisticbooks; volumesof this kind with an ex libn! like "Laurentii Nouelli 1553" can still be found in variouslibraries. Onesuchvolume, a copy of Burley's commentary on Aristotle, passedfrom Nowell to Lambardeback to Christ Church {shelfmark e.6.26}. About this time, accordingto a brief, retrospectiveset of travel notesin his commonplacebook, Nowell hada disputewith oneAlford {"rixa cum alfordo"} that may have beenthe immediatecauseof his leaving the university, England,and a careerunlikely to have led him to a close acquaintancewith Anglo-Saxonmanuscripts.This Alford was almostcertainly FrancisAlford {ca. 1530-1592},who was at Christ Church in 1550 and remainedat Oxford in severaladministrativepostsuntil 1555.After his difficulties with Alford, Nowell journeyeda numberof times from Oxford to London and obtaineda passportfor travel to France.He had the supportof one "decanus"{perhapshis illustrious cousinAlexander,headmaster of Westminster Schoolat the time but deanof St. Paul'sby 1560, the apparentdateof Nowell's travel notes}, yet he was leaving enemiesbehind("reliqui hostes"). In November1553 Nowell departedfor Paris in the companyof an AlexanderHelvetius{Schweizer?}.Therehe found "gilpinum amicissimum," probablythe reformer BernardGilpin (1517-1583).In early 1554 he traveledto Rouenwith oneR.S. (Sir RobertStaffordof Northamptonshire?) , and in Junehe went to Antwerp and Louvain with Gilpin. It is possiblethat on this visit to Antwerp Nowell metAbrahamOrtelius, cartographerand owner of an Aldhelm manuscript,glossedin Old English, that Nowell must later have known (Brussels,BibliothequeRoyale 1650; Hetherington,5-6). It is temptingbut unwiseto suggestany significant encounterwith Old English at this time; sucha circumstancewould be much too early to fit the known chronologyof Nowell's Anglo-Saxoninterests.It is not known when or where Ortelius acquiredhis manuscript;possibly it was a later gift from Nowell. Nowell returnedto England,apparentlybecauseof pirateshipsand adversewinds off the FrenchcoastnearMarquise,but soonjourneyedagain to France,via Dieppe, "cum bunnio" (probablythe exile RichardBunneyof Wakefield). Later he went to Geneva"ad instituendosiuvenes,"youthswho
5
were apparentlya Mr. Harington'ssons,whom Nowell tutoredin Franceand Italy at aboutthis time. Probablytheywere two of the sevensonsof Sir James Harington (ca. 1517-1592)of Exton, Rutland, the elder son being John (1540-1613),whosehoroscopeNowell devisedin his commonplacebook and who would later sendhis own son to FranceandItaly undera tutor (Hasler). By 1557-58Nowell was in Italy-in Venice,in Padua,andat leastas far south as Rome. Although his yearsof travel on the Continentin the 1550scoincide closelywith the reign of QueenMary, he was probablynot a Marian exile, as his cousinsof higher profile were. Thesetravels,whetheror not provoked by hostilities at Oxford, seemmore purposeful,owing to his increaseof learning and to the onus of tutorial duties. By early 1559 Nowell seemsto havebeenbackin England.It is reasonably certain that he is the "Laurentius Nowell generosus"who represented Knaresborough,Yorkshire, as a memberof Elizabeth'sfirst parliament,which sat from 25 Januarythrough 8 May 1559. He was in attendanceas late as 6 March, but indicationsthat he did not staythe sessionare no surprise.In spring 1559 he traveledto Wiltshire "cum lamberto,"very likely William Lambarde, the young Lincoln's Inn studentfrom Kent and future antiquary,jurist, and historian of his home county. Nowell's note of this journey appearsto be the earliestrecordof the propitiousassociationof thesetwo scholars,whosenames have long beenlinked. That summerNowell visited Kent, and later he journeyedto Chichester,the Isle of Wight, Northampton,and no doubtelsewhere in Englandand possiblyin Scotland,but in the autumnmonthshe fell ill and had to interrupthis travelsandstudies.In June1560he visited his motherand brothersin Lancashireand later that month went by way of Holyheadto Ireland. His travel notesend with his settingout for Waterfordon 14 July. For the critical years 1559-62,then, we havejust a scantyknowledge of what musthavebeenfor Nowell an intensiveand difficult period of travel throughoutthe British Isles, topographicstudy, mapmaking,and eventually the learningof Old English and his employmentby Elizabeth'spowerful secretary of stateWilliam Cecil, later Lord Burghley. His commonplacebook, currentthrough 1560or slightly later, is packedchiefly with GreekandLatin classicaland humanisticmaterial and revealsno particular interest in Old English or in Anglo-Saxonantiquities.It was probablyin 1561, the likely year of his numerousentriesof Old English and Welsh place-namesin a copy of}ohn Leland's Genethliacon,that his topographicand cartographicinterestsdrew him toward Anglo-Saxontoponymy and then to a deeperinterest in Old English texts. He learnedthe languagerapidly, no doubt calling on his innate linguistic abilities and, as Leland and others had done to someextent before him, using as cribs the Latin equivalentsof such texts as
6
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NOWELL
the Old English Bede, the Old English Orosius,the Anglo-Saxonlaws, and aboveall lElfric's Grammarand Glossary;all of thesetextshe wassoonto transcribeor translateat leastin part. By 1562 or early 1563Nowell was in Cecil'shousein the Strand,London, completinghis transcriptof a manuscript-containing the Old English Bede, the Anglo-SaxonChronicle, the Anglo-Saxonlaws, the stanzaicpoem
Seasomfor Fasting, andseveralshortertexts-thatwould later becomethe illfated Otho B.xi in the Cotton Library. The making of this transcript(now B.L. Add. 43703) might have beena logical early task assignedby the collector Cecil, but two notesin it, both dated1562, point to the ambiguity of Nowell's entry into Cecil's employmentor patronage.At the beginningof it he wrote, "LaurenceNowell the owner." Near the end he wrote that he had madethe copy in Cecil's house,but at somepoint he crossedout all but the date in this latter note. Lambardelater recoveredit. It was probablynot until later in the year that Cecil fully employedhim. In April the ambassador ThomasRandolph,familiar with Nowell's mappingof the Scottishborders, had recommendedhim as a scholarand a cartographerto Cecil, and as late as Novemberand DecemberThomasWindebank,tutor of Cecil's sonThomas, recommendedNowell to succeedhim. By June1563 Nowell had been employedfor a time as the tutor of Cecil's ward and future son-in-law, Edward de Vere, seventeenthearl of Oxford (later to be claimed in antiStratfordiancircles as the authorof the works of Shakespeare). In that month Nowell wrote to Cecil, in Latin, criticizing the inadequatemappingof Britain and asking to be employedas Cecil's mapmaker. It was not much later that Nowell producedfor Cecil a remarkablyaccurate,detailed,and aesthetically pleasingpocketmap of most of the British Isles, a work that must have consumeda great deal of his time. (This map is now B.L. Add. 62540. Nowell's other known maps,exceptfor four now-lost mapsof the world that Lambarderemovedand gaveto Nowell's friend Adrian Stokes[1519-1585], are preservedin B.L. Cotton Domitianxviii.) Thereis no recordof how Cecil respondedto Nowell's letter or of the primary capacityin which Cecil employed him. Severalcontemporarywriters referredto Nowell as Cecil's "servant" or "secretary."In January1566 it was almost certainly Nowell whom ArchbishopMatthew Parkerhad in mind when he referredin a well-known letter to Cecil'sown "singulerartificer," someonecapableof ptoducinga facsimile of a missing Latin and Old English leaf in the VespasianPsalter(Gneuss). Possiblythe busy Cecil saw in Nowell a scholarlyfactotum, able to servehis growing antiquarianand collecting interests,just asArchbishopParkeracross the river in Lambeth Palaceregardedhis own Latin secretaryJohn Joscelyn
(1529-1603),who after Nowell was England'smost accomplishedAnglo-
7
Saxonistin the 1560s.On the other hand, despitethe impressionone gets from his pocketmap for Cecil (depictingan abjectNowell in one lower corner and a stern, impatient Cecil in the other), nothing in Nowell's activity suggestsan employer'sconstrainton his scholarlyactivity or intellectualperegrinationsduring his yearsin Cecil's household. In 1567,after declaringhis last will and testament,making Lambarde one of his executors,and leaving his books and paperswith Lambardefor safekeeping,Nowell departedagain for the Continent.He sought"to make him self througheknowledgeof langwagesand good learningeabroode,the mooreserviceablesubiecteto your maiestie,"accordingto Lambardein a later Court of Requestsdepositionthat tells us almostall that we know of Nowell's last years (Warnicke [1974)). In his diary LambarderecordedNowell's departureunder25 March, althoughthat date,New Year'sDay, may havebeen an approximationfor a later date in 1567. Nowell went first to Franceand, said Lambarde,spent "a good spaceof ryme" at the Universiry of Paris. In early 1568 he was still in France,wherehe madeandsentto Lambardea transcript (now at the University of Virginia) of a William of Jumiegesmanuscript. The religious conflicts in Francedrove him to Venice and Padua, "whenseafter a season"he traveledto Vienna,enrolling at the universitythere in October;he later movedon to Baseland, by August 1569, to Leipzig. On 29 September,Michaelmas,Lambardereceivedhis last evidenceof "the contynuanceof the lyffe of your said Subiect," a letter from Nowell posted from the houseof oneJohannWale in Leipzig. Lambardetried valiantly but unsuccessfullyto learn of his friend's fate; he seemsnot to have known that Nowell had migratedyet again. On 24 October1569 "LaurentiusNonellus [Nouellusl Anglus laicus" matriculatedat the University of Freiburg im Breisgau(Mayer, 1: 513). No later recordof him hasyet beenfound. By 1571 Nowell's threebrothersand sevenotherclaimantsdemanded in the Court of Requeststhat Nowell be declareddeadand that Lambarde releasetheir inheritances.Lambardereluctantlyyielded. Still uncertainabout his friend's fate, he left no words of eulogybut one day openedhis diary and wrote simply "mei amantissimus"after Nowell's name.It was left to the poet, diplomat, and occasionalantiquary Daniel Rogers (1538-1591) to commemoratehim in virtual privacy. Rogers had becomea close friend of Nowell in Paris and was perhapsone of the last Englishmento have seen Nowell alive. He hasleft threepoemsaddressedto Nowell in a thick album of Latin verse(now Huntington Library HM 31188).Two of the poems, one of them datedJuly 1569,were composedwhile Rogersknew or believed Nowell to be alive. The third, not dated, is an elegy and suggeststhat Rogersalso knew little of his friend's fate: "Esto salutatus,quocumqueNoele
8
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NOWELL
subaxe/ Contegeris:placidemembrasepultacubent"(Faretheewell, Nowell, underwhateversky you lie buried. May your bonesreposethere in peace). Rogersrecordedone further remembranceof Nowell in his notesfor a projectedhistory of RomanBritain (B.L. CottonTitus F. x, fol. 71r), compiled chiefly in the 1570s.Referringto the arrival of the Saxonsin Britain, he wrote, "Vide Saxonicummeum fragmentum,quod LaurentiusNoelus mihi dedit; quod hoc accidisseasseritanno aChristi nativitate 449" (See my Old En-
glish fragment,which LaurenceNowell gaveto me, that saysthat this occurred in A.D. 449). This little gift (from a lost manuscriptof the Old English Bede?) of Nowell, beendevouredby time. has,like so many other remembrances Nowell's considerablelibrary now belongedto Lambarde,who had alreadybeen making liberal use of it. Its dispersalover the centuriesbegan with Lambardehimself He and his heirs readily lent Nowell's materialsto other scholars,and not everythingwas returned.Someremovalswere gifts. One of them, the most sumptuousof the medievalmanuscriptsthat Nowell owned, was a richly illuminated copy of Matthew Paris's La estoire de seint
AedweardIe Rei. Lambardegave it
to
his friend Sir Walter Cope. (It is now
in CambridgeUniversity Library, Ee.iii.59.) Nowell's rarestprintedbook was probably his copy of Duns Scotus, CommentariaJoannis Scoti in 12 Ii. MetaphisiceAristotelis(Venice: Simon de Luere, 1503), which becamea gift to
the schoollibrary at Sevenoaks.(It is now in the Library of Congress,Rare
Books B434.D8.) Other books of Nowell's slipped away at undetermined times from the late-sixteenthcentury through the nineteenthor remainedin the Lambardefamily library until its final salesin September1902 (Sevenoaks), November1909(London,FrancisEdwards),andJune1924(London,Hodgson's). WhetherNowell onceownedthe Beowulfmanuscript,in which he wrote his name and the date 1563, is uncertain; there is no evidencethat it passed throughLambarde'sor evenCecil's handsbeforeits recordin the Cottoncollection half a centurylater. Nowell himselfhad no doubt partedwith many of his books before leavinghis library with Lambardein 1567. He had been acquiringbooksat leastas early as 1548, the date of his ex libris in a copy of Lucan, De Bello Civili (Cologne:JoannesGymnicus, 1537), recently in the library of Sir Irvine Massonbefore itssalein 1989. Much of Nowell's known library can still be found hereand therein England,but any attemptedreconstructionwould now have to reachwest to Los Angeles andeastto Tokyo. Nowell's most immediatelyinfluential legacy to Anglo-Saxonscholarship was his VocabulariumSaxonicum,left with most of his other books in Lambarde'scarein 1567(Marckwardt[1947, 1952]; Hetherington).Although unfinished,inconsistentin indicatingsourcesand providing illustrative citations, and unpublishedtill almostfour centurieslater, it stimulatedor eased 9
the researches of othersinto an unfamiliar tongueandestablishedat the outset the high standardsthat later Old English lexicographerswould haveto meet or exceed.Lambarde,who expectedto seethe Vocabulariumprintedone day, put it to usealmostat oncein preparinghis edition of the Anglo-Saxonlaws and beganmaking numerousadditions. Soon afterwardhe lent it to John Joscelyn,who with the help of Archbishop Parker'sson John (1548-1619) used it extensivelyin the compilation of a more ambitious but also unfinisheddictionary (B.L. Titus xv-xvi and Harley 6841). One of Nowell's relatively few lexical errors ("/Etter. An adder. Lind[isfarne Gospels]") is a clue that his was the "Saxondictionary" that William Harrisonhad consultedfor the chapteron venomousbeasts(III, 6) in his Description of Englandin Holinshed'sChronicles.Lambarde'sson Multon and grandsonThomaswere equally generousin their lending. Camdenhad used the Vocabulariumby 1605 and hoped that it would be printed. About 1611 Sir Robert Cotton borrowedit from Multon and lent it in turn to FrancisTate. FrancisJunius, who madea copy of it, SimondsD'Ewes,and othersusedit directly or indirectly during the renewedstirringsof Old English lexical interestin the earlyseventeenthcentury.Finally it passedto JohnSelden,who did not give it back. Five years after Selden'sdeath William Somnerat last producedthe first printeddictionaryof Old English, his Dictionarium SllXonico-Latino-Anglicum (Oxford: William Hall, 1659). Despiteall the addedresourcesavailable to Somnerby this time, Nowell's definitions and citations are easy to find throughouthis pages. Nowell had in hand manuscriptscontainingmore than half the surviving corpusof Old English poetry. On fol. 9r of the ExeterBook, nearthe extantbeginningof the poem Christ J, he beganan interlinearglossin Modern Englishandretouchedseveralwords of damagedOld English text. Soon, however,he lost interestandwent on to somethingelse.He was the first idenalso now as the tifiable owner or readerof the Beowuifmanuscript-known Nowell Codex-towhich he added,besideshis apparentex libris, a single modern gloss (imprecise"feared" for Old English "egsode" on fo!' 129r [131rJ). He knew TheBattleofBrunanburhand the otherpoemsof the AngloSllXon Chroniclefrom severalmanuscripts,and he knew C£dmon'sHymn at leastfrom the Old English Bedein Cotton Otho B. xi, largely destroyedby fire in 1731. It is solely from Nowell's transcriptof this manuscriptthat we havethe full text of the poem Seasom for Fastingalongwith severalothertexts. Nevertheless,he had little interest in Old English poetry. He recognized from its diction and its frequentalliteration that it was in fact poetry, but errors in his transcriptssuggestthat he understoodlittle of its metric regularity and that he was not at easewith poetic compounds.Apan from just a few entries, 10
LAURENCE
NOWELL
suchas "Dogor. Day, poetice,"his dictionary is conspicuouslyvoid of poetic words. Beowulfmust have beena disappointment.He seemsto have found his way through it in searchof proper nouns, but, though the yield would havebeenhigh, it was all too fabulousto be of much use to him. Nowell devotedhimselfinsteadto the transcribingand excerptingof a vast numberof texts having more reliable historical or topographicvalue. Most or much of this work has survived, if sometimesobscurely,well into the twentieth century; from this material, and with the help of entriesand citationsin his Vocabularium,it is possibleto gain a senseof how assiduously he worked his way through the libraries and collectionsof his time (Flower; Marckwardt [1948]; Hetherington).But therehavebeenunfortunatelosses. Among them are his transcript and translationof at least part of the Old English Orosius,a text rich in place-namesand other geographicalinformation keenlyimportantto him. His transcript,probablymadefrom B.L. Cotton Tiberius B. xi, has vanished,though it survived at least until the earlyeighteenthcentury,when it wasownedby the antiquaryRalphThoresby.His translation,also lost, might have included not much more than the portion describingthe navigationsof Ohthere.HumfreyGilbert, writing not later than the 1560s,quotedfrom this translationin his Discovrseofa Discoueriefor a
NewPassageto Cataia, printedin 1576. RichardHakluyt usedNowell's translation in the first edition of his Voyagesin 1589and, probablymore accurately, again in the edition of 1598-1600(Brewer: 205-09). The manuscriptsattracting Nowell's most persistentattentionwere thosecontainingthe Anglo-SaxonChronicleand the laws of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Perhapsencouragedby Lambarde,he becamethe first of a long series of scholarsto confront the textual complexity of the laws in particulara complexity to which he unwittingly contributed-andhis work with them showshim at leastapproachingthe act of publication. For the laws of Alfred, for example,Nowell beganwith his transcriptof the laws in Otho B. xi. He then addedto this transcriptvariant readingsfrom at leasttwo and probablythreeotherOld English manuscriptscontainingall or part of Alfred's laws, insertedrubrics, andcheckeddoubtful or difficult readingsagainsta later Latin text, the so-calledQuadripartitus. Nowell was no longer simply transcribing; he was collating and to someextent emending.He was now editing, applying principlesof textual criticism, howeverimperfectly, to the presentationof an Old English text for the first time. His editing of Alfred proceededto a further stagein CanterburyCathedralLit B 2, a copy of the laws largely unnoticedbecauseof its longtime misattribution to William Somnernearly a centurylater.The productof all this effort with Alfred's laws was the first critical edition, with a Modern English translation,of an Old 11
English text (now in the British Library's Henry Davis collection of bookbindings). Nowell wrote it around1564-65on vellum leaves,with the Old English text in a stylized insular handon the verso pagesand the translation in his bestitalic handon the recto pagesopposite.This handsomelittle book, boundin gold-tooledvellum, probablyinfluencedJoscelyn'slayout of JElfric's Homily for EasterSundayaboutrwo yearslater in A TestimonieofAntiquitie (London: John Day), the first printed edition of an Old English text. It certainly influencedLambarde'sArchaionomiain 1568. Nowell's methodologyfor the otherAnglo-Saxonlaws, and the Chronicle as well, was similar, though not as comprehensiveas for Alfred. When his intereststurned elsewherein 1567, he abandonedwhateverintention of a printededition of the laws he may havehadandhandedhis work-in-progress over to Lambarde,who completedit in his Archaionomia.Lambardeassured his readersthat his texts of the laws were basedon original Old English manuscriptsin the libraries of MatthewParkerand others.Although that was technically true, Lambardeworkedfrom a combinationof materialsanddepended heavily on Nowell's partially editedcopies.Hard textual andphysicalevidence (smudgesin printer'sink) indicatesthat in at leastone instance-forthe text of the laws of Cnut I-II-Lambardesimply markedup Nowell's editedcopy of Harley 55 and handedit to the printer (CanterburyCathedralLit E 2). The resultis that Lambarde's(andNowell's) Archaionomiahasbecomea pretty pieceof mysteryin itselE Which problematicreadingsin it comedirectly from an original manuscript,perhapsa manuscriptnow lost? Which from Nowell's editing?Which from Lambarde's?To what extent,in view of his demonstrable lapsesin mattersof phonologyand accidence(Grant [1974); Lutz [1981); Torkar [1981)), had Nowell beenmerely carelessin his transcribing?Or has therebeensomedevilish cookeryeitherby Nowell or by Lambarde?It is only recentlythat the longstanding"Lambardeproblem" hasshownsignsof resolution (Dammery;Wormald). Nowell's facility with Old English and his talent as a penmanhave causedproblemsfor modernscholars.He was capableof producingimperfect but passablesnippetsof Old English, suchas "Mid hiht ic polige, butan hiht ic ahnige" (renderinga favorite motto, "With hope I endure,without hope I fail"), and of addinguncanonicalOld English headingsor rubrics to his transcripts.Severalbrief Old English laws in Archaionomiafor which no original Old English texts are known were thought by Felix Liebermannto havecomefrom one or morelost manuscriptsuntil KennethSisam'sconvincing demonstrationthat the laws were Nowell's own archaic Englishings of Latin texts of the laws in the later Quadripartitus.In view of Nowell's respect for reliable texts, however,this apparentfakery is likely to have beenjust an
12
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NOWELL
exerciseor ajeu d'espritleft amonghis papers,accepteduncritically andprinted by Lambarde.When in the 1930sRobin Flower noticedthat Nowell's transcript of the Old English Bedein Add. 43703containeda small batchof interpolationsnot found in any surviving manuscriptof this work, the suspicion that Nowell had devisedthem from the Latin of Bede'slonger Historia
Ecclesiasticawasnaturalandimmediate(Flower [1936]; Grant [1974]). David Hill, in a forthcomingpaper,doubtsthe authenticityof someof Nowell's Old English place-namesin a map in Cotton Domitian xviii. Although most of Nowell's transcriptswere done in a rapid, workadayAnglo-Saxonhand, he could mimic insularletterformsalmostperfectlywhen he wished,in the manner of Cecil's "singulerartificer," to whom Parkerhad referredin 1566. Nowell had touchedup a few stain-damaged words in the Exeter Book, and neither he nor the Parkershadmuch compunctionaboutannotating,fresheningup, or generallyimproving manuscripts.At least one reader(Berkhout [1986]) of the troubledtext on fo1. 179rv (182rv) of the Beowulfmanuscriptbelieves that the messthereis chiefly the result of Nowell's effort to recoveran original text crudelyerasednot long after it was written. As many examplesespecially in Parker'slibrary reveal,the Elizabethans'physicalenhancement of, or meddlingwith, Old English manuscripttextswas not unusual.Although the caseis not quite closedin such mattersas the Old English Bede, any product of Nowell's industry that cannot be attestedelsewhereor that is otherwise doubtful is best usedwith caution. On the other hand, to construe Nowell's or the Parkers'practiceas "rewriting" in the senseof a knowing alterationor purposefulconcoctionof an Old English text, as one recentwriter seemsto do (Frantzen,42-43), goestoo far. Nowell and the othersrequired what they believedto be accuratetexts for their studiesandwere not inclined to
contaminatethem with readingsof no authority. Although Nowell would becomeknown to posterityalmostexclusively
as an Anglo-Saxonist,he could not have regardedhimself so narrowly. His study at Oxford, his travels in Europe,his cartographiclabors (understudy by PeterBarber), his commonplacebook, and the vestigesof his library all reveala copioushumanisticmind amassinga compendiumoflearningwithout bounds.In the mid-I560s Nowell was still collecting and presumably readingsuch books as Leonhart Fuchs, InstitutionumMedicintl! (Basel: P. Quercus,1565), and PaulusJovius, Historiarum Sui TemporisTomi Secundi
ParsAltera (Venice: CominusdeTridino, 1553), reflectinghis broaderinterestsof earlier years.His ultimate return to the Continent,whereit seemshe was contentto remain, suggestsa lingering keennessto explore intellectual horizons far from the world of Anglo-Saxonantiquities or even the matter of England. 13
It has often, too often, been remarkedthat the impetus for the sixteenth-centurygenesisof Anglo-Saxonstudieswas polemical,not altogether scholarly,andthus suspector reprehensible.Old English textswere to be preservedand quarriedfor their ancientvindication of the establishedAnglican church.Sucha motive was to someextenttrue of the immediateParkercircle, although examplesof it do not range far beyond the futile brandishingof lElfric's EasterHomily in the eucharisticdisputewith Rome or accurately characterizethe impressivelabor and erudition of the archbishop'stwo principal scholars,his sonJohnand his secretaryJoscelyn.As for Nowell, and for that matter Lambarde,there is no evidenceof any such motive. In bringing a refined humanisticbackgroundand a broaderfamiliarity with textual issuesto bearon the earliestmoderncomprehensionandtransmissionof AngloSaxontexts Nowell providedfor his contemporariesimmediatestandardsand examplesof sound,impartial scholarshipthat probablykept them more mindful of textual fidelity and more restrainedin their religious or nationalistic enthusiasmsthan they wouldhavebeenotherwise.Although the Elizabethan settlementwas heavy in the air that he breathedall about him, he showed little interestin it. Europe'sreligious controversieswere to him not much more than nuisancesto constant,insistentstudy.The homilies of lElfric and other religious texts were merely helpful sourcesof vocabularyand probablysome grammaticalpractice. Nowell's passionwas to acquirean encyclopedicunderstandingo~ the past, including but not limited to England'spast, along with a working gazetteerof all the knowableworld aroundhim. Would his studieshave led to the publication of somemonumentalachievementhad he lived beyondhis forty years?Probably not. He would have kept finding still more to learn about-perhaps more on the Continent,in the Mediterraneanworld, or even in Asia. But, as he provedearly on, he would havesharedwith othersall that he knew. Anglo-Saxonistsmust be contentthat this singularscholar,whose intellectual capacirywas so prodigious,whose craving for learning so periscopicandso insatiable,found a placefor his nation'spastin his ever-widening but all too brieflife of the mind. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
WJrks BOOKS AND ARTICLES
LaurenceNowell's "VocabulariumSaxonicum."Edited by Albert H. Marckwardt.Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,1952. Nowell's manuscriptedition with translationof the laws of Alfred is in the British Library, Departmentof Printed Books, Henry Davis Collection 59 (M 30);
14
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NOWELL
an edition by Carl T. Berkhout and GretchenA. Robinsonis forthcoming (1998). Someof his collections of legal and topographictexts are embeddedin William Lambarde'sArchaionomia,sive, De Priscis Anglorum LegibusLibri (London: John Day, 1568) and in Lambarde'sDictionarium Angliae Topographicum& Historicum: An AlphabeticalDescriptionofthe ChiefPlacesin Englandand\WIles(London: Fletcher Gyles, 1730). Portions of his translationof Ohthere'svoyage in the Old English Orosiusare printed in Humfrey Gilbert, A Discovrseofa Discoueriefor a NewPassage to Cataia (London: Henry Middleton for Richard Ihones, 1576), sig. Biiii, and in Richard Hakluyt, The Principal! Navigations, Voyages,Traffiques& Discoveriesofthe English Nation, 2nd ed. (London: G. Bishop, R. Newberie, and R. Barker, 15981600), 1: 4. Seealso Grant (1996), Liebermann(readNowell for So [Somner] among the sigla), Lutz (1981), andTorkar (1981) below. LETTERS AND PAPERS
Nowell's only extant letter, his 1563 appealto Cecil, is printed in Original LettersofEminentLiterary Men ofthe Sixteenth,Seventeenth,andEighteenthCenturies, edited by Henry Ellis (London: Nichols, 1843), p. 20. His commonplacebook is in Los Angeles,UCLA, University ResearchLibrary, SpecialCollections 170/529, bound with his abridged transcript of Holkham Hall 228. His Vocabularium Saxonicumis in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Seldensupra63; a copy of it by Francis Juniusis in Junius26. The pocket map of the British Isles madefor Cecil is in London, B.L. 62540.The image of Nowell at the headof this article is a detail from a cornerof this map. Therecan as yet be no completeinventory of Nowell's numeroustranscripts and annotatedmanuscriptsand printed books, which are still being discoveredor correctly identified. Manuscriptscontainingextensiveor otherwiseimportant transcripts or notes are in Canterbury,CanterburyCathedralLibrary Lit B 2, Lit E 1, Lit E 2; Glasgow,University Library Gen. 1053; Charlottesville,University of Virginia Hench6435a.4;London, B.L. Add. 40674, 43703-43710;Cotton Domitian xviii, VespasianE.v, Vitellius Axv, Vitellius C.ix, Vitellius E.v; Harley 552,556,3271); London, LambethPalaceLibrary 692; London,WestminsterAbbey 30; Oxford, Bod!. Top.gen.e.62;andSanMarino, HuntingtonLibrary HM 26341.Nowell's annotated, interleavedcopyof RichardHuloet, AbcedariumAnglico-Latinum(London: G. Riddel, 1552), is in the Rare Book Room of the University of Illinois Library,> Urbana.His annotatedcopy of JohnLeland, GenethliaconIl!ustrissimi EaduerdiPrincipis Cambriae (London: R. Wolfe, 1543), bound with other works annotatedby Lambarde,is in the British Library's Departmentof Printed Books (c.95.c.15).
Sources Barber, Peter."A Tudor Mystery: LaurenceNowell's Map of Englandand Ireland." Map Collector22 (1983): 16-21. Bately,Janet."JohnJoscelynand the Laws of the Anglo-SaxonKings." In W&rdr, Texts
andManuscripts:Studiesin Anglo-SaxonCulture Presentedto Helmut Gneuss, editedby Michael Korhammer,pp. 435-66.Cambridge:Brewer, 1992. Berkhout,Carl T. "William Lambarde'sOld English ex libris." Notesand QJteries31 (1984): 297-98. - - - . "The Pedigreeof LaurenceNowell the Antiquary." English LanguageNotes 23: 2 (1985): 15-26. - - - . "Anglo-SaxonStudiesin the Age of Shakespeare."Old EnglishNewsletter19: 2 (1986): A-28.
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Black, PamelaM. "LaurenceNowell's 'Disappearance'in Germanyand Its Bearing on the Whereaboutsof His Collectanea1568-1572."English Historical &view 92 (1977): 345-53. - - - . "SomeNew Light on the Careerof LaurenceNowell the Antiquary." AntiquariesJournal62(1982): 116-23. Brewer, Derek S. "Sixteenth, Seventeenthand EighteenthCentury Referencesto the Voyage ofOhthere(OhtherianaIV)." Anglia 71 (1953): 202-11. Buckalew,Ronald E. "Nowell, Lambarde,and Leland:The Significanceof Laurence Nowell'sTranscriptof lElfric's Gramm4rand Glossary." In Anglo-SaxonScholarship: TheFirst ThreeCenturies,editedby Carl T. Berkhoutand Milton McC. Gatch,pp. 19-50. Boston: Hall, 1982. Camden,William. Britannia. 3rd ed. London: G. Bishop, 1590. - - - . Rem4inesofa GreaterWOrke ConcerningBritain. London: G[eorge)E[ld) for SimonWaterson,1605. Dammery,Richard."The Law-Codeof King Alfred the Great: AStudyand Edition." 2 vols. Thesis,Triniry College,Cambridge,1991. Flower, Robin. "LaurenceNowell and the Discovery of England inTudor limes." Proceedingsofthe British Academy21 (1936 for 1935): 46-73. - - - . "LaurenceNowell and a RecoveredAnglo-SaxonPoem." British Museum Quarterly 8 (1934): 130-32. Frantzen,Allen J. Desirefor Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teachingthe Tradition. New Brunswick: RutgersUniversiry Press,1990. Gneuss,Helmut. "Zur GeschichtedesMS. VespasianA. I. " Anglia 75 (1957): 125-33. Grant, RaymondJ.S.''A Note on 'The Seasonsfor Fasting.'" ReviewofEnglish Studies 23 (1972): 302-04. - - - . "LaurenceNowell's Transcriptof BM Cotron Otho B.xi." Anglo-SaxonEngland3 (1974): 111-24.
- - - . LaurenceNowell, William Lambarde,and the Laws ofthe Anglo-Saxons. Amsterdam:Rodopi, 1996. Hahn,Thomas."The Identity of the Antiquary LaurenceNowell." English Language Notes20: 3/4 (1983): 10-18. Hasler,P.w., ed. The HouseofCommons,1558-1603.3 vols. London: Her Majesty's StationeryOffice, 1981. Hetherington,M.S. The Beginningsof Old English Lexicography.Spicewood,Texas: Privatelyprinted, 1980. Ker, N.R. CatalogueofManuscriptsContainingAnglo-Saxon.Oxford: Clarendon,1957. Reprintedwith supplement,1990. - - - . "Books at Christ Church 1562-1602."In The Collegiate University, edited by JamesMcConica,vol. 3 of TheHistory ofthe UniversityofOxford, pp. 498520. Oxford: Clarendon,1986. Liebermann,Felix, ed. Die Gesetzeder Angelsachsen.3 vols. Tiibingen: Niemeyer, 1903-16. Lutz, Angelika. Die Version G der AngelsiichsischenChronik: RekonstruktionundEdition. Munich: Fink, 1981. - - - . "Das Studium der Angelsachsischen Chronik im 16. Jahrhundert:Nowell und Joscelyn."Anglia 100 (1982): 301-56. Marckwardt, Albert H. "Nowell's Vocabularium Saxonicum and Somner's Dictionarium." Philological Quarterly 26 (1947): 345-51. - - - . "An UnnotedSourceof English Dialect Vocabulary."JournalofEnglish and Germ4nicPhilology46 (1947): 177-82.
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- - - . "The Sourcesof LaurenceNowell's VocabulariumSaxonicum."Studiesin Philology 45 (1948): 21-36. Mayer, Hermann,ed. Die Matrikel tier Universitiit Freiburg im Breisgau von 14601656. 2 vols. Freiburgim Breisgau:Herder, 1907-10. Meaney,Audrey L. "Variant Versionsof Old English Medical Remediesand the Compilation of Bald's Leechbook."Anglo-SaxonEngland13 (1984): 235-68. - - . "London, British Library Additional Ms. 43703." Old EnglishNewsletter19: 1 (1985): 34-35. Pegge,Samuel."LaurenceNowell, Dean of Lichfield, & Restorerof the SaxonLanguage& Learning." In his PeggePapers.Oxford, Bodl. Add. C 245. 16 June 1768. Rogers,Daniel. Danielis Rogersii, Albimontii Angli, Infontia. San Marino, Huntington Library HM 31188.Ca. 1560-80. Rosier, JamesL. "A New Old English Glossary: Nowell upon Huloet." Studia Neophilologica49(1977): 189-94. Sisam, Kenneth. "The Authenticiry of Certain Texts in Lambard'sArchaionomia 1568." In his Studiesin the History of Old English Literature, pp. 232-58. Oxford: Clarendon,1953. Sledd,James."Nowell's VocabulariumSaxonicumand the Elyot-CooperTradition." Studiesin Philology 51 (1954): 143-48. Thoresby,Ralph. DucatusLeodiensis:Or, The TopographyoftheAncientandPopulous Town and Parish ofLeedes. ... London: Edward Nutt for Maurice Atkins, 1715. Torkar, Roland. "Zu den ae. Medizinaltextenin Otho B.xi und Royal 12 D.xvii, mit einer Edition der Unica (Ker, No. 180 art. lla-d)." Anglia 94 (1976): 31938.
- - - . Eine altenglischeObersetzungvon A/cuins "De Virtutibus et Vitiis, " Kap.20 (LiebermannsJudex).Munich: Fink, 1981. Warnicke,Retha."Note on a Court of RequestsCaseof 1571." EnglishLanguageNotes 11 (1974): 250-56. - - - . "The LaurenceNowell Manuscriptsin the British Library." British Library Journal5 (1979): 201-02. Wormald, Patrick. "The LambardeProblem: Eighty Years On." In Alfred the Wise: Studiesin Honour ofJanetBate/y,editedby JaneRobertsandJanetL. Nelson, with Malcolm Godden,pp. 237-75.Cambridge:Brewer, 1997.
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GEORGE HICKES (1642-1715)
Richard L. Harris
GeorgeHickes, theologicalandpolitical controversialistandeminentphilologist of medievalGermanicstudies,was born atMoorhouse,Newsham,in the parish of Kir(k)by Wiske, North Yorkshire, on 29 June 1642. He was the fourth child and secondson of William Hickes, of Ness, nearNunnington, in the parish of Stonegrave,EastYorkshire, and of Elizabeth Key, daughter of the rector of Topcliffe, a few miles southof Newsham.His fatherwas well off, having "got an estatesufficient to maintain hospitality abovehis ranck & yet give very good educationto 7 children that lived to be men & women" (Bedford, Biography, fo1. lr). Hickes'sfamily was politically divided, his father loyal to Parliament,his motherof strongRoyalist background.From his mother, Hickes gained the earliestdirections of his mature political views, sucked"in his Mother's Milk," he would later claim, "bred in his Bone" (Hickes [1683],227). Hickes's early education,first at Danby Wiske and later at the Free Schoolof Northallerton,was underThomasSmelt,a remarkableteacher,who "had seldomless than fourscorescholars"(Hickes, as quotedin Lee, 13-14). Hickes describeshim as a "greatLoyalist, a Cavalier,thoughhe concealedhis Principles" (ibid., 13). Anecdotessuggestthat Smeltsubtly ingrainedhis principles in his boys while avoiding confrontationwith authorities.A number of his studentswent on to achieveexcellenceand fame. Hickes was sentat sixteento his older brother,John, a Nonconformist ministerat Saltash,Cornwall, whosedayswereto endwith his executionfor active participation in the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685 (Calamy, 287-89; Cranch).Intendedfor apprenticeshipto a merchantin Plymouth,Hickes never entereduponthis venture.It was found that "the greatbentof his Geniuswas to learning, & not to trade" (Bedford, Biography,fo1. 3r), and in 1659 he entered St. John'sCollege,Oxford. His Royalist inclinationsmadelife theredifficult un-
til the Restoration,whentearsfilled his eyesas he beheld"the remnantof the poor 19
ejectedfellowes of Collegesin very meanhabits,& with all the marksof the hardshipsthey had suffer'dattendingupon the Royal visitors in order to be restor'd" (Bedford, Biography,fol. 4r). Hickes moved to MagdalenCollege, where he studied under Henry Yerbury, receivinghis B.A. in 1663. He migratedto MagdalenHall the same year and in 1664 becamea Yorkshire Fellow of Lincoln College.He obtained an M.A. in 1665. Hickesservedat Lincoln first underthe decliningrectorship of Paul Hood, who was replacedin 1668by Nathaniel,Lord Crewe,later bishop of Oxford and then of Durham.UnderCrewe'sleadershipLincoln Collegeattractedstudentsfrom privilegedandwealthybackgrounds(Green,269-74). Crewe resignedthe rectorshipof Lincoln in 1672, to be replacedby the distinguishedphilologist ThomasMarshall. A fellow of Lincoln since 1668, Marshall had spentmuch of the Interregnumand succeedingyearsin Holland, primarily at Dort, where he provided his Observationesto Francis Junius'sedition of the Gothic andAnglo-SaxonGospels(1665). His rectorship was obtainedthrough the influenceof John Fell and the help of correspondencewith Hickes (ibid., 275-80). John Fell, deanof Christ Church, Oxford, was sympatheticto philological studies,an energeticleaderand encouragerof projects.Through his associationwith Marshall he obtainedfrom Holland exotic type fonts for the Oxford University Press,which he was then reorganizing(Morison). Marshall, who had known Hickes at Lincoln during sojournsthere in the 1660s,and who appearsto haveintroducedhim to Fell, broughtHickes closerto AngloSaxon in the early years of his rectorship,although there is no evidenceof his having formally taughthim the language.The interestin medievalGermanic languageswas current at Oxford becauseof such men as Fell and Marshall. Someyears later Edward Thwaites would write in his copy of Hickes'sInstitutionesthat the impetusfor this grammarcamefrom JohnFell. (Thwaites'scopy of the Institutionesis in the Bodleian,4to L 370.) Hickes'scareerat Oxford was interruptedby a tour of the Continent with one of his old students,Sir GeorgeWheler, from the days of Crewe's recruiting at Lincoln (Bedford, Biography, fols. 6r-8r; Wheler, 28-29). From October 1673 through 1674 Hickes accompaniedWheler, leaving him only to return to Oxford for his B.D., July 1675, a processnecessary for retaining his fellowship there. Hickes was electedsubrectorof Lincoln in 1676 andwould havegainednumerousfurther academichonorshad he remainedat Oxford. In the sameyear, however, he was offered and acceptedthe position of domesticchaplainto JohnMaitland, duke of Lauderdale,a closefriend of CharlesII. As secretaryof statefor ScotlandLauderdalewent to Edinburgh 20
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in May 1677,taking Hickeswith him. The chaplain'slettersto SimonPatrick, prebendaryof Westminster,and to ThomasSmith, chaplainto Sir Joseph Wtlliamson,secretaryof state,from Edinburgharepreserved(B.L. Lansdowne 988 and Bod!. Smith 50, respectively)and are of importancefor their information on the political situation of Lauderdaleduring this crucial period of conflict betweenthe Covenantersand the English establishment.Hickes, somewhatreluctantly,receiveda D.O. from St. AndrewsUniversity in 1677, and anotherwas awardedhim by Oxford in 1679, for servicesrenderedto the Scottishchurch(St. AndrewsUniversity MunimentsVY305/312, p. 449, and Bedford, Biography, fo!' 11r). Lauderdalereturnedto Englandin 1679, and that autumn Hickes marriedFrancesMarshall, a daughterof CharlesMalloty, of Raynham,Essex. Malloty had beena closefriend of Oliver Cromwell but lost the friendship as a Royalist, refusingpositionsunderCromwell'sleadership.His daughter's views were also conservative,and FrancesHickes was a sourceof strengthfor her husband duringthe period of his outlawry, in the 1690s.Nine yearshis senior,she brought£70 per annumto the marriage(RawlinsonD. 809, fo!' 395r, and Bedford, Biography,fols. 12vand55r, her epitaph). Hickes was given a prebendat Worcesterin 1680 and shortly afterward, by Lauderdale'sinfluencewith William Sancroft,the London vicarage of All Hallows Barking by theTower (Lauderdaleto Sancroft,5 August 1680, Bod!. Tanner37, fo!' 113r). At this point he left Lauderdale'sservicebut remaineda loyal friend andwas calledto the duke'sbedsideat his deathin 1682 (Bedford, Biography,fo!' 14r). During theseyearsin London Hickes entered into religious controversy,loyal to the traditions of the Church of England, opposedto Nonconformistsand to RomanCatholics,andvaluedby Charles II for his intelligent supportof the Stuartmonarchy.In 1683 he waspreferred to the deaneryof Worcesterand the following year declinedan offer of the insufficiently lucrative bishopricof Bristol. It was at this point in his careerthat FrancisNorth, then Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, sent for Hickes at CharlesII's command,telling him the king "did not intendhe shouldstaylong at Worcester,& thereforedesir'dhe would apply himselfto study the ParliamentRolls, for that the Bishopsfor want of more knowledgein that matterhad beensincethe Reformationthe worst Membersof Parliamentin the Houseof Lords, & of the least influence,whereasbefore that time they us'd to be the best, & have the greatest swaythere" (Bedford, Biography,fols. 20r-21r). EvidentlyHickes'smonarch intendedhim for higherpositionsin the church;antiquarianstudycould have practicalapplicationin political matters(Levine [1970]). Hickes gaveup study of the Rolls in 1685only after the deathof CharlesII, knowing that "he could 21
not expectto be a Favouritein the next Court" becauseof his public opposition to RomanCatholicism(Bedford, Biography,fo!' 2ir). Shortly after the coronationof JamesII and a discouraginginterview with the new king, Hickes retired from London to Worcester,resigninghis All Hallows vicarageand all expectationof preferment.Although active in the affairs of the deanery,he devotedmuch time to scholarship,apparently with the help and influenceof William Hopkins, a friend from Oxford days and a prebendaryof Worcester.Hopkins had lived for a time in Swedenand was expertin the medievalGermanic,or "septentrional,"languages,as well as in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin (Hickes, Prefaceto SeventeenSermons,xxi). The two menbuilt up the cathedrallibrary, andby 1687Hickeswrote a friend of his growing proficiency in Anglo-Saxonand in Gothic (To Edmund Bohun, 19 March 1687, Bod!. Firth c. 13, fo!' 35r). In the spring of this year Hickes'scorrespondence with Oxford indicatesthat he was compiling a grammarof Gothic andAnglo-Saxonfor publication there, eventuallyas the InstitutionesGrammaticaeAnglo-Saxonicae et
Moeso-Gothicae.Printing was under way in the following year, with Hickes visiting Oxford briefly in autumnto assemblematerialsfor a preface(details in letters from Hickes to Chariett, Bod!. Ballard 12). The last parts having been printed in the spring of 1689, Hickes was troubled briefly in Juneby objectionsfrom Oxford over his dedicationof the work to William Sancroft, archbishopof Canterbury,who like other clergymenunsympatheticto the reign of William and Mary was on the vergeof losing his post in the church. Hickes'slengthy and effusive dedication to Sancroft, no doubt politically motivated,was cut to a short page,and his work was publishedto a warm receptionamongantiquaries,just at the time when his ecclesiasticalcareer was close to ruin. (The dedicationis in Bod!. Tanner317, a leaf following the printed version.) The coronationof William andMary in April 1689 createdproblems for clergymenandholdersof public office who hadtakenan oath of allegiance to JamesII
andwho felt that he was still legally king of England,despitethe
de facto monarchyof his usurpers.Sevenbishopsand over 400 clergymen were affected by this dilemma, Hickes among them (Broxap; Lathbury; Overton).As oneof theseecclesiaticalNonjurors,he was suspendedfrom the deaneryof Worcesteron 1 August 1689 for refusingto take the oath of allegiance.He was replacedby William Talbot, in April 1691, at which point he placeda declarationin the cathedral,refusingto give up office, claiming the illegality of his deprivation, and announcinghis intentionsof seekingreinstatementby all legal means.This declarationwas seizedand read in Privy Council, whereargumentsfor its beingregardedas an act of high treasonwere 22
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successfullycountered.Treatedinsteadas high misdemeanor,it led to Hickes's outlawry, from which he gainedno rdeaseuntil the summerof 1699(Bedford, Biography,fol. 26r, andHickes'sDeclaration,Bodl. Eng. hist. b. 2, fol. 109r-v). He seemsto have lived through 1691 in fear of apprehensionbyauthorities. He had considereda secondedition of the Institutionesas early as 1690 (to Arthur Charlett, 18 August 1690, Bodl. Ballard 12, fol. 63r). Arthur Charlett,his closefriend, and masterof University Collegefrom 1692, provided him with booksfrom Oxford, and he was able to gain advicefor a second edition from such correspondentsas Edmund Gibson and William Nicolson (Bodl. Add. c. 217). By 1694 he had producedanothergrammar, of "Francic," or Franconian,which would eventuallybe publishedin the second edition. In the early 1690s,however,beyondthe addition of this grammar, he had no ambitionsfor expandinghis materialsfor a secondedition. The deathof QueenMary late in 1694 destabilized Englishpolitics for the next couple of years.Although there is no evidenceof Hickes'shaving participatedin the AssassinationPlot, his Jacobiteassociationsand Nonjuring statusrenderedhim of interestto the authoritiesduring this period. He had visited JamesII at Saint Germainin 1693, obtaining his permission, necessaryin the Church of Englandfrom the time of Henry VIII, for the consecrationof two bishops to perpetuatethe episcopalsuccession amongthe Nonjurors. Hickes andThomasWagstaffewere accordinglyconsecratedsuffragansof Thetfordand Ipswich, respectivdy,early in 1694.Ifhe wereapprehended andhis episcopalstatusdiscovered,Hickeswould havebeen technicallyliable to executionfor allowing himsdf to be consecratedwithout permissionof the reigning monarch.In the spring of 1696, following a near arrest, he took refuge for a few weeks with White Kennett, vicar of Arnbrosden,Oxfordshire,whoseParochialAntiquities(1695) representednew trendsin scholarship.KennettencouragedHickes to expand,in wayssimilar to Kennett'sown work, his secondedition of the grammars,eventuallypublished as the Thesaurus(Harris [1983]: 179-80). When Hickes undertook what becamethe Thesaurus,he hadno inkling of the extent to which his Imtitutioneswould be augmentedand enlargedin the processof becomingthis far more comprehensive,indeedmonumental, work. Over the next yearshe soughtthe hdp of suchScandinaviansas Christian Worm and JohanPeringskioldto augmenthis printing of Runolfur Jonsson'sRudimenta.With the aid of William Nicolson and HumfreyWanley he addedchaptersto his Anglo-Saxongrammar,producingthus the first history of the English language.With the grammarshe included his Dissertatio
Epistolaris, on the usesof knowledgeof the medievalGermaniclanguages,to which was appendedSir Andrew Fountaine'sNumismataAnglo-Saxonicaet 23
Anglo-Danica.Forming a whole separatevolume of the work was Humfrey Wanley's Catalogusof early English manuscripts,first projectedin 1696 as an expansionofHickes'sCatalogusin the Imtitutiones.In the late 1690sWanley's Catalogusassumedmassiveproportions,like so muchelsein the Thesaurus,and it proveddifficult, finally, to bring the work to completion
a.Aw. Bennett:
34-35}. Financedby subscription,the printing of the Thesaurusbeganin August 1698 and continuedinto 1704-05,when the Cataloguswascompleted. Copieswere distributed throughoutBritain and on the Continent,and reactionswere positive (Bedford, Biography, fols. 46r-49r). Hickes gave over active philological studyat this point andwithin the next few yearsdispersed his small manuscriptcollection, most of it going to Robert Harley's library by way of Wanley. William Wotton's CompectusBrevis, in fact composed mainly by Hickes, was intendedas an advertisementfor the Thesaurusand was his last work publishedin this field. John, Lord Somers,had obtainedfor Hickes a nolle prosequiagainst all proceedingsagainsthim in May 1699, and from that point Hickes, whosehomewas in OrmondStreetin London, could onceagainlive openly without fear of arrestor, for the most part, of disturbanceby the authorities. He continuedto exercisehis function as a leader of the Nonjurors, enteringthe controversyin 1701 on the right of ascendancyof JamesII's son,JamesFrancesEdward,following the deathof the duke of Gloucester and of the king in 1700 and 1701, respectively.Hickes becamePrimus of the Nonjuring churchin 1710 after the deathof William Lloyd, deprived bishop of Norwich, Sancroft'sappointeeas his successor,the last of the active deprived bishopsamong the Nonjurors. Hickes effected the consecrationof more Nonjuring bishopsin 1713, thus ensuringthe episcopal successionof the schism,which continuedinto the first decadeof the nineteenthcentury. In the yearsfollowing the publication of the ThesaurusHickes proto numerousyoungerantiquarianscholars. vided help and encouragement He helpedRalphThoresbywith his DucatusLeodiemis(1715). He approved of EdwardLhuyd's ArchaeologiaBritannica (1707), encouragingthe nevercompletedcontinuationof work beyondthe first volume. He backedElizabeth Elstob'sattemptsto get supportat Oxford for her edition of JElfric's homilies. He contributedmaterialto JohnChamberlayne'sOratio Dominica (1715) and was displeasedat receiving no acknowledgmentfor this. ThomasHearne,whoseoutspokenconservativepolitical opinionscauseddamage to his careerat Oxford, receivedconsolationfrom Hickes and warm approvalof his editions of previouslyunpublishedtexts.
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Hickes died at his housein OrmondStreeton 15 December1715, a year after the deathof his wife. He was buriedbesideFrancesin St. Margaret's Churchyard,next to WestminsterAbbey, where the bodies of some other Nonjurors also rest. His funeral was conductedby NathanielSpinckes,one of thosewhom he had consecratedbishop in 1713 (Bodl. Eng. hist. c. 1, p. 204, andRegisterof WestminsterAbbey). His publishedWill remembersvarious friends and Nonjurors. His library, of which there is a published Cata-
logue, was sold at auction by NathanielNoel in 1716. GeorgeHickeswas a priestin the Churchof England,a theologicaland political controversialist,and a philologist. Someof his work in nonlinguistic areaswas of lasting imponance,notably his discussionsof the nature of the eucharist,of the priesthood,andof episcopacy.In his own time aswell as later, however,he was mostwidely known for his "septentrional,"or medievalGermanic, studies. Hickes seemsto have undertakenthe production of his Imtitutiones during his years at the deaneryof Worcesterfor severalreasons.From his friends at Oxford, in particularJohn Fell andThomasMarshall, he was well awareof the needfor a systematicapproachto the grammarof Old English and relatedlanguages.During his time in London he had beentoo busywith religious controversyand ecclesiasticalresponsibilityfor work in philology; there is clear evidenceof his having soughtmore peacefulassignmentsearly in his churchcareerso that he could studyandwrite. Only with the discouraging presenceon the throneof JamesII, and the realizationthat his opportunities for advancementwithin the churchwere exhaustedfor the foreseeable future, did Hickes move to Worcesterand there undertakewhat would materializeas the Imtitutiones.This work, publishedin 1689, proved comforting to Hickes throughthe daysof political and religious turmoil asJames II was gradually removedfrom power. Hickes camefrom a family in which political issueswere a matterof conflict, and he perhapstendedto become more involved in suchcontroversythanwas conduciveto his peaceof mind. Following the publication and successfulreceptionof this first set of medievalGermanicgrammars,Hickes soon beganto collect suggestionsfor a secondedition. He had no intentions for so full an expansionof the Institutionesas he eventuallyachieved,aiming first only at the addition of a grammarof "Francic," or Franconian,to the correctedworks of the 1689
volume. Mter his traumaticflight from the authoritiesand stay with White Kennett in the spring of 1696, however,what would becomehis Thesaurus assumedproportionsfar beyondthe earlier objectives.
As early as 1691 William Nicolson had advisedHickes of the desirability of studyingdialectalvariation in Old English, which he sawas the result of
25
Old Norseinfluence.In 1696Nicolson,commentingin print on the Institutiones, calledagainfor suchwork, andby autumnof that year, following his staywith Kennett,Hickes was receptive(Nicolson [1696-99]' 1: 102). In 1699 Hickes wrote Nicolson about progresson Chapter22 of his Anglo-Saxongrammar, "De dialecto Nortmanno-Saxonica,sive Anglo-Nortmannica,which though when I beganit, I thought would have afforded but little matter of speculation, yet hath it carriedme into large theories..." (Harris [1992], Letter 122), and it is clear that by this time Nicolson'sinfluence had profoundly widened and deepenedHickes'sunderstandingof the history of the English language. In the sameletter he writes, "Could I haveforeseenwhither your proposeallof a Chr. de dialectoDano-Saxonicawould haveled me, I shouldneverhavehad courageto haveventuredon the work." Hickes and his readersto this day are primarily indebtedto Nicolson for the appendedChapters19 through 24 of the grammar,which constitutethe first history of the English language. Also devotedto thosetheories,which hadseemedbeyondHickes'sreach or interestprior to 1696,is his massiveDe Linguarum~terum Septentrionalium
Usu DissertatioEpistolaris, addressedto Sir BartholomewShower,a politically sympatheticlawyer, as its inspirer.The basicconceptsfor this work, however, musthavearisenfrom Hickes'svisit with Kennett,whoseown historical studies weredevotedto carefulassessment of early documentsin severallanguages and who saw the needfor examplesof the application of linguistic knowledgeto the pursuit of legal and political history. He had persuadedHickes to perform other related tasks for him during the Ambrosdensojourn and had at this time hopesfor a completehistory of medieval England using these new historical methods (G.y' Bennett, 163-64). The Dissertatio
Epistolaris is an outgrowth of this interest and of Kennett'sinfluence on Hickes during this crucial period in the developmentof the Thesaurus
LinguarumSeptentrionalium. The incalculableusefulnessof his Catalogusto the Thesaurusand to later scholarsaside, Humfrey Wanley'sassociationwith Hickes was significant for the latter's careerin philology. In the spring of 1698 Hickes wrote Wanley, "I have learnt more from you, than ever I did from any other man, and liveing or dying I will makemy acknowlegements morewayesthan one" (Harris [1992], Letter 45). In the progressof their collaborativerelationship Hickes relied on Wanley's accurateobservationof manuscripts,his precise memory, and his seeminglyintuitive understandingof what he observed.So completelydid he acceptWanley'swork that the latter complainedprivately of plagiarism(ibid., Letter 243, Wanley'snote following the text of the letter). Hickes possessed both the advantagesand the disadvantagesof a traditional academiceducation;he was strong in classicalbackgroundbut also 26
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inhibited by it in his approachto philology. Wanley, never acceptedat Oxford, was more accurateand lessbiasedin his observations,more at homein the world of the Enlightenmentto which Hickes aspired.In many matters of technicalimportancehe was Hickes'steacherand benefactor,though his junior by thirty years.(For their correspondence seeB.L. Harley 3779,Hickes to Wanley, and Bod!. Eng. hist. c. 6, Wanley to Hickes.) Hilkiah Bedford,in a studyof reactionsto the Thesaurus,recordedhow when a copywas sentto the duke ofTuscanyhe "call'd a Counselof the Dotti, & commandedthem to perusethe work, & give him an accountof it. They did so, & gave him this account, that it was an excellent & extraordinary Work, worthy to be plac'd in his Highness'sLibrary, & would be an ornament to it: But that they believ'd the authorwas un huomo d'uno cervello particolari, A Man of a particularhead" (Bedford, Biography, fo!' 48r). If Hickes'swork was remarkable,it was so becauseof his eruditionand his vision. Although merelyacquaintedwith Old Englishwhenhe beganstudying it in the autumn of 1686 while actively engagedin the businessof the Worcesterdeanery,he reportedsubstantialprogressin that languageand in Gothic by March 1687. His prefaceto the Institutiones,done in autumnof the next year, revealsan impressivebreadthof understandingin the field of early Germaniclanguages.He wasawareof the FlemishambassadorBusbecq's claim to havecomeacrossspeakers,ca. 1560, of what was until recentlytaken for a late survival of a form of Gothic. He recordedcontemporaryEnglish dialect studies.He transcribedan Anglo-Saxoncoronationoath, which he sawas having bearingson Nonjuring argumentsover the traditional natureof kingship. His grammarof Anglo-Saxonand of Gothic relies heavily on the model of Latin schoolgrammars(Hughes,121). He treatsstrongverbs as irregulars, and his perceptionof the conjugationalsystemincludes the tenses,moods, and voices of Latin grammar.His inclusion in the Institutionesof Run6lfur J6nsson'sGrammaticaeIslandicaeRudimenta(1650), togetherwith his own alphabetizedversionof FrancisJunius'sIcelandic-Latinglossary(Bod!. Junius36), madethis language,too, readilyavailableto Englishscholars.The last major section of the InstitutioneswasHickes'sCatalogusVeterumLibrorum Septentrionalium, its first pagedevotedto Gothic, followed by a pageof printed works in Old English, andfinally by manuscriptslocatedin British libraries.The variousparts of the Institutionesthusbroughttogetherandsystematizedmuch of the groundwork of "septentrional"studiesfrom an English point of view. White Kennett wrote, in 1693, "We havehad methodicaland accurateInstitutionsof Grammar by the LearnedDr. GeorgeHickes, incomparablyskill'd in the Antiquities of our Churchand Nation. So that now to be ignorant of that tongueis not the misfortuneof a Scholar,but his fault" (Kennett [1693], 53-55). 27
To his secondedition Hickes brought anotherdecadeor so of study and collaborativeinterchange.The final chaptersof his Anglo-Saxongrammar begin the history of the English languagewith an outline of Anglo-Saxon dialects,as he perceivedthem. Hickes mentions"Britanno-Saxonica"as a pure and simple dialect, spokenby Saxonsfrom the time of their invasionof England until the comingof the Danes.He identifies "Dano-Saxonica"as a dialect usedin the south of Scotlandand north of Englandfrom Danish occupation until the Norman Conquest.In the south and west of England the correspondingdialectwas "Semi-Saxon."From the NormanConquestto the reign of Henry II Hickes discernswhat he calls "Normanno-Saxon."In extremely technicalpassagesin Chapter20, Hickes remarkson externalGermanic influenceson Anglo-Saxon,both Scandinavianand Franconian.He presentsmuch information in his next chapteron the influenceof Old Norse on "Dano-Saxon"poetic vocabulary. Here and in succeedingchapters,he emphasizesmore thanwe do today the Scandinavianinfluenceon English, a bias encouragedby the closenessof the two languagesat the time of linguistic contact, and the resultantdifficulties of distinguishingtheir respective forms. Realizingthe importanceof orthographicalevidenceto the history of a language,Hickes presentschangesin scribal practice introducedby the Normans,with a number of illustrative items. He divides lexical influence in this periodinto threeparts,"Gallo-Francic,""Gallo-Latin," and "Danish." He also studiesthe Normaninfluenceon English syntax. Hickes'sChapter23, "De PoeticaAnglo-Saxonum,"is concernedwith the form and style of Old English poetry. He toucheswith varying success on suchsubjectsas rhythm and alliterationand providesa brief anthologyof texts. Chapter24, "De poeticaSemi-Saxonica"providesMiddle English reading material.The concludingchapters,19 through 24, of the Anglo-Saxon grammardeservea full-length study, if not translationand edition, sincethey constituteour first history of English and contain ideasand even examples still usedtoday for pedagogicalpurposes. Hickes'sothergreatcontributionin his Thesaurusis his De Linguarum VeterumSeptentrionaliumUsu Dissertatio Epistolaris. With much help from Wanley he brought togethervast quantitiesof learning in severalareasof Germanicphilology and pointedthe way for future research.David Douglas remarksthat "by itself it would entitle Hickes to a prominentplace among the great English medievalists"(91). The Dissertatiohas a digressivequality that suggeststo the modernreadera frustratinglack of organization,but the essaysit containshavebeenof interestto scholarssincetheir first appearance. Hickes, using primary sourcesin the sameway asWhite Kennettbeforehim, 28
G EO R G E
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delved into the Germanicfoundationsof Anglo-Saxongovernmentand legal code;his studyof the jury systemis a notableexampleof the sort of work of which he was capable.In this section,demonstrablywith Wanley'sassistance,Hickes distinguishedhimselfby his recognitionand extensiveutilization of chartersas a basic sourcefor Anglo-Saxonhistory. "It was Hickes," observesDouglas,"who beganthe properinvestigationof Anglo-Saxoncharters, and, in collaborationwith his pupil Wanley, he set subsequentresearch moving upon lines from which it has never profitably deviated" (ibid., 92). Numerousother passages,such as studiesof Germanicpersonalnames,ornamenthis Dissertatioand provide food for later philological thought. Like the last chaptersof the Anglo-Saxongrammarthis is a most importantcontribution to knowledgeand waits for the closer perusalof modernscholarship. (An editedtranslationof the Dissertatiois in preparationby Catherine Gunderson,Curator,Museumof Antiquities, University of Saskatchewan.) Aside from his own scholarship,Hickes must be admiredfor his endeavorsas a kind of intellectualcontractoror encourager.The Thesaurusbenefits tremendouslyfrom his persuadingWanley to redo his Catalogusfrom the Imtitutiones.Without the editing and augmentingof EdwardThwaites the Thesauruswould have beenfar different, if indeedit had come into being at all. (Thwaites'sletters to Hickes are in Bodl. Eng. hist. c. 6.) Contributions of essaysand editions from such men as EdmundGibson,William Hopkins, William Elstob, andWilliam Nicolson addedto the wealth of material containedwithin its pages.Hickes'sgreatnesslay in part in his ability to obtainthe best,evenfrom scholarswhosepolitical andreligiousviews were much unlike his own. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
WOrks BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Jovian: Or, an Answerto Julian theApostate.London: Kettilby, 1683. InstitutionesGrammaticaeAnglo-Saxonicae etMoeso-Gothicae.Oxford: At the Sheldon Theatre,1689. "Letter from Dr GeorgeHickes, Dated May the 22d, 1700 to Dr Sloane,Concerning the SaxonAntiquity, MentionedN. 247 of TheseTransactions:With an Account of His Book Now in the Pressat Oxford." PhilosophicalTransactions ofthe RoyalSociety22 (1700): 464-69. Linguarumveft. SeptentrionaliumThesaurusGrammatico-CriticusetArchaeologicus.2 vols. Oxford: At the SheldonTheatre,1703-05.Volume 1 includesthe following: Part 1: InstitutionesGrammaticaeAnglo-Saxonicae et Moeso-Gothicae, by GeorgeHickes; Part 2: InstitutionesGrammaticaeFranco-Theotiscae,by GeorgeHickes; Part 3: GrammaticaeIslandicaeRudimenta,by Run61fur ]6nsson,with additions and illustrations by George Hickes;Part 4: De AntiquaeLifteraturae SeptentrionalisUtilitate, sive, De Linguarum veterum
29
SeptentrionaliumUsu Dissertatio Epistolaris ad BartholomaeumShowere,by GeorgeHickes; Part 5: NumismataAnglo-Snxonica6- Anglo-Danica,by Andrew Fontaine.Volume 2 includesthe following: Librorum Vat. Septentrionalium,
~i in AngliaeBibliothecisExtant, necnonMultorum ~tt. Codd. Septentrionalium Alibi ExtantiumCatalogusHistorico-Criticus..., by HumfreyWanley. Wotton, William. Linguarum SeptentrionaliumThesauriGrammatico-Critici, et Archaeologici,AuctoreGeorgio Hickesio, ConspectusBrevis. London: Sare,1708.
~tt.
[SeeShelton.] Prefaceto SeventeenSermonsofthe Reverendand LearnedDr. William Hopkins, by William Hopkins. London: Sare, 1708.
GrammaticaAnglo-Snxonicaex Hickesiano Linguarum SeptentrionaliumThesauro Excerpta.Compiled by EdwardThwaites. Oxford: At the SheldonTheatre, 1711. [A translationin English by Sir FredericMadden is in Harvard University Library Eng. 531.] The LastWill 6- Testamentofthe ReverendDr. GeorgeHickes. London: Curll, 1716.
BibliothecaHickesiana: Or, a Catalogueofthe Library ofthe Late ReverendDr George Hickes, ... WhichWill Begin to BeSoldon Thursday,March 15, 1716, by Nath. Noel ... Bookseller.London, 1716. Shelton,Maurice,trans. WOttonsShortView ofGeorgeHickessGrammatico-Criticaland ArchaeologicalTreasureofthe AncientNorthern-Languages.London: Browne, 1735. [A translationof Wotton.] LEITERS AND PAPERS
The letters of GeorgeHickes to Humfrey Wanley are kept in the Harleian Collection, in the British Library. Most of his other correspondenceis in the Bodleian Library, in the Ballard and Smith collections.Someletters and other papersare in the OsbornCollection in the Beineckeat Yale University. His annotated copy of Gu~mundur Andrt!sson's Lexicon Islandicumis in the Niedersachsische Staats-und Universitatsbibliothek,Gottingen. Someof his Nonjuring papersare kept at the Library of the ScottishEpiscopalTheologicalCollege, Edinburgh,and a number of his letters to Ralph Thoresbyare in the Library of the Yorkshire ArchaeologicalSociety,West Yorkshire Archive Service,Leeds.
Sources 1. Manuscripts Oxford. Bodleian Library. Eng. misc. e. 4, Hilkiah Bedford'spartially completedBiographyof GeorgeHickes, togetherwith annotatedbibliographyand copies of somedocuments,continued in Bod!. Eng. hist. b. 2, fols. 52r-57r. B.D.d.2. G.M. Yould. "The Careerand Writings of Dr. GeorgeHickes, Nonjuror (1642-1715)."B.D. thesis,Oxford University, June 1968. D.Phi!. d. 297. JA.w. Bennett. 1938. "The History of Old English and Old Norse Studiesin Englandfrom the Time of FrancisJuniustill the End of the EighteenthCentury." D.Phil. thesis,Oxford University, June 1938. G.M. Yould. "The Origins and Transformationof the Non-juror Schism, 16701715." Ph.D. diss., University of Hull, October1979. 2. Printed Bennett,G.y' White Kennett, 1660-1728 . ... London: Societyfor the Preservation of Christian Knowledge, 1957.
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Hie K E S
Bennett,J.A.w. "Hickes'sThesaurus:A Studyin Oxford Book-Production."English
Studies1 (1948): 28-45. Broxap,Henry. TheLaterNon-Jurors.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press,1924. Calamy,Edmund. TheNonconformist'sMemorial. Edited by S. Palmer. London:Harris, 1775-78. Chamberlayne,John. Oratio dominica. ... Amstela:dami:Goerei, 1715. Cranch,JaneBowring. TroublousTimes: Or, Leavesfrom theNote-Bookofthe Rev. Mr. John Hicks, an EjectedNonconformistMinister, 1670-71. London: Jackson, Walford, and Hoddler, 1862. Douglas,David C. English Scholars,1660-1730. London: Cape,1939. Green,Vivian Hubert Howard. The CommonwealthofLincoln College, 1427-1971Oxford: Oxford University Press,1979. Harris, Richard L., ed. ~ ChorusofGrammars':·The Correspondence ofGeorgeHickes andHis Collaboratorson the ThesaurusLinguarumSeptentrionalium.Toronto: Pontifical Institute of MediaevalStudies,1992. - - - . "George Hickes, White Kennett, and the Inception of the Thesaurus
LinguarumSeptentrionalium."BodleianLibrary Record11 (1983): 169-86. Hopkins,William. Seventeen SermonsoftheReverendandLearnedDr William Hopkins. London: Sare, 1708. Hughes,ShaunED. "The Anglo-SaxonGrammarsof GeorgeHickes and Elizabeth Elstob." In Anglo-SaxonScholarship:TheFirst ThreeCenturies,editedby Carl T. Berkhoutand Milton McC. Gatch,pp. 119-47.Boston: Hall, 1982. Junius,Franciscus,ed. QuatuorD.N JesuChristi Evangeliorum:ltersionesPerantiquae Duae, Gothica Scil. et Anglo-Saxonica.With notes by ThomasMarshall. Dordrecht:HenricusandJoannesEssaei,1665. Kennett,White. "The Life of Mr Somner."In his edition of William Somner'sA Treatise ofthe RomanPorts and Forts in Kent. Oxford: At the SheldonTheatre,
1693. - - - . Parochial AntiquitiesAttemptedin the History ofAmbrosden,Burcester,and Other AdjacentParts in the Countiesof Oxford and Bucks. Oxford: At the SheldonTheatre,1695. Lathbury,Thomas.A History ofthe Nonjurors. London: Pickering, 1845. [Lee, Francis}. Memoirsofthe Life ofMr. John Kettlewell. . . Compiledfrom the CollectionsofDr. GeorgeHickesandRobertNelson.London:T. Horneet a1., 1718. Levine, JosephM. "Tudor Antiquaries." History Today20 (1970): 278-85. - - - . Humanismand History: Origins ofModern English Historiography. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,1987. Lhuyd, Edward. ArchaeologiaBritannica. Oxford: At the SheldonTheatre,1707. Mayor, JohnEyton Bickersteth.CambridgeUnder QueenAnne.Cambridge:Deighton, Bell, 1911. Morison, Stanley,with Harry Carter.John Fel/, the University Press,andthe "Felt» Tjpes. Oxford: Clarendon,1967. Nicolson,William. TheEnglish Historical Library. ... 3 vols. London: Swall and Child, 1696-99. - - - . The LondonDiaries ofWilliam Nicolson, BishopofCarlisle, 1702-1718. Edited by C. Jonesand G.S. Holmes. Oxford: Clarendon,1985. Overton,John Henry. The Nonjurors: Their Lives, Principles, and Writings. London: Smith, Elder, 1902. Philip, I.G. "Libraries and the Universiry Press."In The EighteenthCentury, edited by Lucy Stuart Sutherlandand Leslie GeorgeMitchell, pp. 725-55 [see below}.
31
Piggott, Stuart. ''Antiquarian Studies."In The EighteenthCentury, edited by Lucy StuartSutherlandand Leslie GeorgeMitchell, pp. 757-77 [see below]. Seaton,Ethel. Literary RelationsofEnglandandScandinaviain the SeventeenthCentury. Oxford: Clarendon,1935. Sisarn,Kenneth.Studiesin the History ofOld English Literature. Oxford: Clarendon, 1953. Sutherland,Lucy Stuart, and Leslie GeorgeMitchell, eds. The EighteenthCentury. Oxford: Clarendon,1986. Thoresby,Ralph. DucatusLeodiensis.London: Atkins, 1715. Wanley, Humfrey. LettersofHumfrey Wanley: Palaeographer,Anglo-Saxonist,Librarian 1672-1726.Edited byP.L. Heyworth. Oxford: Clarendon,1989. Wheler,Sir George.AutobiographyofSir GeorgeWheler. Edited by E.G. Wheler. Birmingham:Cornish, 1911.
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'"
ARNI MAGNOSSON (1663-1730) 6lafur Halldorsson
Arni MagnUsson(Latinized Arnas Magna:us,Danish Arne Magnusson),Icelander, professor,archivist, collector of books and manuscripts,was born at the rectory of Kvennabrekkain Dalasysla,westernIceland, on 23 November 1663.The mainsourcesfor the first part of his life arethreebiographieswritten after his death, two by Jon 6lafssonfrom Grunnavfk (1705-1779),one written in Danish,editedby E.C. Werlauffin Volume 3 of Nordisk Tidsskrift for Oldkyndighed,the other and shorterone in Icelandic.The third biography is by Arni's brother,Jon Magnusson(1662-1738).The Icelandic biographies are in Arni MagnUssonslevnedogskrifter{Jonsson,ed., 112: 3-47). His father, MagnUsJonsson(d. 1684), clergymanand deputysheriff, was a brilliant man and learnedin law. His motherwas GuorunKetilsdottir (d. 1690).Soonafter his birth Arni was takento Hvammurin Dalasysla,the homeof his mother's parents,the ReverendKetill Jorundarson(1603-1670)andGuOiaugPalsdottir (d. ca. 1676), and there he developedinto a young man of twenty, first with Ketill, who diedwhenArni was six, and thenwith the ReverendPall Ketilsson (ca. 1644-1720),his mother'sbrother. Ketill Jorundarsonwas one of the best andmostproductivescribesin Icelandin the seventeenthcentury, andwe can assumethat in his homeArni from his early childhood becameacquainted with many books, old and new. Arni beganto learn Latin from Ketill when he was six, "though he was not taught much that winter," accordingto his brother,Jon; "no more than the paradigmsin Donatus.... But beforethat he hadlearnedto readIcelandicandothersmall mattersrelatingto that" (ibid., 3). He beganto learn Greekwhen he was ten. In the fall of 1680Arni enteredthe cathedralschool at Skalholt, from which he graduatedin the spring of 1683. Thereare no detailedsourcesaboutthe eathedralschoolduring the yearswhen Arni was a studentthere,but the chiefsubjectsmusthavebeenLatin, Greek,theology, andliturgy. The boyswereprobablyalso taughtDanishandperhapssome German,as well as mathematicsand, conceivably,philosophy. 33
Arni MagnUssonregisteredas a studentat the University of Copenhagen on 25 September1683andstudiedtheologyfor two years,becomingattestatus
theologiaein1685.He was alumneatBorchsKollegium in Copenhagenfrom 1691 to 1694; designeretprofessorin 1694; archival secretaryin the Danish Chancelleryin 1697 and its director from 1725; professorphilosophiaeet antiquitatumDanicarumat the University of Copenhagenin 1701; professor of history and geographyin 1721 and, in the sameyear, librarian at the University Library and in effect its director; assessorcomistoriein 1710; and
~aster
of Elers Kollegium from 1720 to 1725. Arni Magnussonwas born about a hundredyears after Danish and
Norwegianscholarshad begunto use Icelandichistorical sources,especially the sagasof the kings of Norway in medievalmanuscripts,mostly Icelandic, which were at that time in Norway. The new awarenessof this material had led DanishandSwedishhumanistsin the late-sixteenthandseventeenthcenturies to searchfor more manuscriptsand to use them, with the help of Icelanders,as historicalsources.Most of the manuscriptsthat the Danishscholars obtainedendedup in the University Library in Copenhagen. This growing interestof Danish andSwedishhumanistsin early icelandic literatureled to the collectingof manuscriptsby Icelanders,especially the bishopsin Slcilholt and H6lar, who, in addition to collecting the manuscripts,arrangedfor scribesto copy them.The two menwho broughtup Arni MagnUsson,Ketill Jorundarsonand Pall Ketilsson,both becameinvolved in the copyingof old vellums, andwe may be certainthat Arni spenthis developing yearsamongsuch books. During his yearsat the Slcilholt school two emissaries,one of the Danish, the other of the Swedishking, were traveling aroundthe country collecting manuscripts.Arni thus grew up in an atmosphereof concernfor the preservationof medievalIcelandicwritings. In CopenhagenAmi Magnussonenteredthe employ of Thomas Bartholin (1659-1690),a young man of learningwho had studiedat various Europeanuniversitiesandwho hadbeenappointedprofessor(1677) andnamed to the distinguishedoffice of royal antiquariusin 1684. In that year Arni was appointedhis amanuensisand beganto gathersourcesrelatingto Danishand Norwegian ecclesiasticalhistory prior to the Reformation.Arni's main task was to copy textsfrom IcelandicandNorwegianmanuscriptsanddocuments, including old poetry, and to translatethem into Latin. When Bartolin died in 1690,he andhis co-workershad managedto collect a greatbody of sources in twenty-five handwrittenvolumes,which are now preservedin the Royal Library in Copenhagen(E donationevariorum 1 faL Bartholiniana). Nine of thesevolumeswere written, in part if not entirely, by Arni MagnUsson.The texts in Arni's handwere copiedeither letter-for-letteror in his own spelling,
34
A RNI
MAG NOS SON
from Danish,Icelandic, and Norwegianoriginals, and they all testifY to unusualprecisionanda developingability to discriminatewhat was andwas not worth copying diplomatically. ThomasBartholin had accessto the manuscripts in the Royal Library and the University Library, both medievalvellum manuscriptsand recentcopies;he borrowedmanuscriptsfrom the episcopalseein SlciIholt anddocumentsfrom Danish,Icelandic,andNorwegian archives.He hadhimselfacquiredtwo largevellum codicesfrom Iceland:AM 61 fol., containingthe Great Sagasof Olaf Tryggvasonand Olaf the Saint, and Ma1Jruvallabok(AM 132 fol.), which containedelevenSagasof Icelanders, including Njtils saga,Egils saga,and Laxd41asaga.He convincedthe Danish king Christian V to sendan order to the Danish magistratein Iceland banningthe saleor the sendingof manuscriptsfrom Icelandto anyoneother than the king's historian(that is, himself), andat the sametime he tried to buy or borrow manuscripts,or copiesof them if the ownerswere not willing to sell or lend. Arni MagnUssonjourneyedto Iceland in the summerof 1685 and spentthe winter at his childhoodhome, Hvammur, before returningto Copenhagenin the summerof 1686. During this visit he acquireda number of manuscripts.He was in Norway undercommissionfrom Bartholin from the summerof 1689to the endof February1690,andshortly after that he was in Slclne andJutlandcollecting and inquiring aboutsources.On the Norwegian journeyhe stayedfor elevenweekswith the royal historiographerPorm6i1ur Torfason(Torfaeus,1636-1719)at Stangarlandon the islandof Kormt. What might be called Arni MagnUsson'syouthful productionis preservedin the Bartholin manuscriptsmentionedabove.Thesemanuscriptsbear the characterof Bartholin's historical methodology,and their main value is that they preservecopiesof sourcesthat were later lost, both texts and many documents,especiallyNorwegiandiplomatic documents.At many placesin the margins are notationsby Arni indicating the sourcefrom which the materialwas taken. At the sametime that Bartholin was collecting materialfor an ecclesiasticalhistory of DenmarkandNorway, hewasalsoworking on a book, which was printed in 1689 with this grandiosetitle: AntiquitatumDanicarum de
Causis Contemptlfa Danis Adhuc GentilibusMortis. Libri Tres ex Vetustis CodicibusetMonumentisHactenusIneditis Congesti.This small quartoof736 pages,citesa greatnumberof sourcesandlists them at the end.Among these are twenty-oneLatin works in manuscriptand sixty-sevenIcelandic works (sagas,plfttir, and lawbooks) in manuscript,in addition to the PoeticEdda. Every item that derives from Icelandic and Norwegian sources-which Bartholin classified under antiquitatumDanicarum-wascopied by Arni MagnUssonwith unusualaccuracyand translatedinto Latin. Apart from the 35
Norsetexts the book was written in Latin for a learnedaudience.The intent was to increasethe fame of the Danes,both at home and abroad,and to revive the ancientheroiccontemptfor deathamongDanishwarriors.The book played a part in the competition betweenDanish historiansand their colleaguesin Swedenover which country had the more remarkablepast. In the seventeenthcenturySwedesopposedthe Danesin threewars, andthe Swedes had also done their best to obtain medievalIcelandic manuscriptsand find in them the ancienthistory of Sweden,not hesitatingto refer to thesesources as "our old sagas."But Bartholin'sbook marksa new stagein that it doesnot treat all the sagasas of equal historical validity; the legendarysagas,for example, are not put on the sameplanewith Heirnskringla. Ami's letters and notes indicate that while in Bartholin's service he becamefamiliar with the writings and the methodsof Europeanhistorians, especiallyGermanand French;his opinion of their methodsappearsin a letter to ChancellorFrederikRostgaard(1671-1745),written on 3 October1691: While it would be desirablefor most of the dissertationsof new historians regardingGermany,Pomerania,Poland,Denmark,and Sweden to be burned,and to have nothing but the old ones,it would be fun to studyour antiquities.... In all fairnessI must complimentthe French,who thesedaysarebringing into the openvariousmonuments of the ancientsort-thoughto be sure they are of little value-and who always indicatewhere this or that is taken from, with greatclarity [Arne Magnussonsprivate brevveksling,389 (English translationby RobertCook)]. During theseyearsArni had begunhis own historical research,collecting materialsfor a book on Ari fr60i I>orgilsson (1067-1148),the pioneerof vernacularIcelandichistoriography,andpreparingan edition of Ari's
fslendingabok,which was written around 1130 and is the earliestpreserved work on the history of the Icelanders.In 1688 Ami becamefriends with Torfaeus,who shortly after their meetingsentAmi his works for his evaluation, probablybeginningwith his history of the Orkneys, OrcadesseuRerum
OrcadensiumHistoritt. Libri Tres. ... The printing of this work was entrusted to Ami and was publishedin 1697. In 1664Torfaeushad completeda volume on the lives of the Danish kings, from the legendarySkjold to Sveinn (Hfsson [d. 1076]. This work, SeriesDynastarumet RegumDanitt, was written in Latin on the basisof medieval Icelandicsources,with texts from these sourceswritten in Icelandicwith Latin translations.The original redaction of this work is extant,and we can seethat Torfaeusrevisedit and then, with
36
AR N I
MAG NOS SON
Arni's encouragement, decidedto have it published.Before this took place, Arni had it in his possession,and it is safeto say that he rewrotemuch of it. For many of the citations from Icelandic he consultedbetter manuscripts thanTorfaeushad usedand changedthe spelling. He also cut the last part of the book (to be publishedseparately),so that now it goes no farther than Gorm theOld [d. ca. 940], the father of Harald Blue-tooth. Preparations for the editing of Seriestook at leastfour years,during which time many long letters passedberweenAmi and Torfaeus.From theseletters we can see how much careAmi devotedto the project.Torfaeususedthe legendary sagasunsparinglyas historical sources,but Ami called thesesagaslies and
fobulaeand trimmed this materialfrom Seriesbeforeit was printed-disregatdingTorfaeus'sobjections. Arni refers to the books of Bartholin andTorfaeuson a slip of paper that now belongsamonghis noteson Knjtlinga sagain the manuscriptAM
1 fo!': The Icelandic that has beenprinted outsideof Iceland (I mean historical books and passagesfrom them) is quite incorrect, apart from what Bartholin andTorfaeushave edited (and they do not really deservethe credit).The best,however,is what Verelius has had printed. Much of the Icelandicis also badly translated[English translationby RobertCook]. We can see that the labor that Ami expendedon the preparationof thesebooksleft little time for his own scholarship.But theselabors,especially while he was working for Bartholin, causedhim to read and study many manuscriptsand documents,and in this way he acquireda great deal of knowledgeto add to the foundationthat he had broughtwith him from Iceland. Although he never publisheda completework on medievalIcelandic literature, his notes make it clear that he had masteredIcelandic literature, from the earliesteddic poemsto his own time. After the death of Bartholin in 1690, Arni becamethe protegeof MatthiasMoth (1649-1719),over-secretaryin the Danish Chancelleryand the most powerful man in Denmark. Moth arrangedfor Ami to travel in Germanyfrom June1694until shortly beforeChristmas1696.He went first to Stettin, and then to Berlin, Dresden,Frankfurt an der Oder, Jena,and Leipzig, where he made his longeststay. The chief purposeof this journey was to look for materialthat would be relevantin assemblingan ecclesiastical history of Denmark,a project that Bartholin had worked on with Ami's assistanceand that Ami was supposedto completeafter Bartholin's death.
37
WhereverAmi traveled,he searchedin libraries for sourcesabout the ecclesiasticalhistory of the North and the history of the North in general,and he noted everythingthat he found on the subject, both printed and in manuscript. His notes are preservedin AM 909 4to A-E. He not only gathered information about texts useful to the history of the northerncountries,but he also made a point of learning how Europeanscholarsdealt with these materials.Ami seemsto havebeenespeciallyimpressedby the way in which the French Benedictines(the Maurists), especiallyJean Mabillon (1632-
1707),createda scientific basisfor the gatheringof sourcesand historical research,and he usedthem as a model. Ami MagnUssonseemsto havehad little interestin publishinghis own work. The only piecesto seeprint during his lifetime were two little books,
Incerti Auctoris... ChronicaDanorum,etPraecipueSialandite... (Leipzig, 1695) and TestamentumMagni RegisNorvegite.. . (Copenhagen,1719), two small Latin documentson DanishandNorwegianhistory. He also published,anonymously, a small booklet about witch trials in Jutland, Kort og sandfordig
Beretning, om den viit-udraabteBesettelseudi Tisttfd. Til alles Efterretningaf Original-AkterogtrovtfrdigeDokumenteruddragenogsammenskreven (Copenhagen, 1699). None of the preservedmanuscriptsin his hand can be called a completework. On the otherhandthereis an abundanceof commentsand notes, which haveinestimablevalue as sourceson a variety of topics, especiallywith regardto the manuscriptsin his own collection. Ami Magnussonbeganwhen quite young to collect manuscriptsand printedbooks.In 1685,while in Iceland,he acquiredthreemanuscriptsfrom the fourteenthcentury, the lawbooksAM 344,346,and 347 fols., in addition to a numberof others.While in Bergenin 1689 he bought five medieval Norwegianmanuscripts.In Copenhagenhe setout to retrieveall the Icelandic and Norwegian manuscripts that had been in the hands of now-deceasedDanish scholars.During his lifetime he was able to acquire everythingof this sort that was in private hands,both vellum manuscripts and copies.From Icelandhe acquired,eitheras purchasesor gifts, a few dozen manuscripts,including thirty vellums from Skalholt. He had amasseda substantialcollection of northernmanuscriptsas early as 1700. In 1702Ami Magnussonwas appointedto a committeethat was sent to Iceland to make generalobservationsabout conditions. He managedto havethe lawmanPall Vfdalfn (1667-1727)appointedhis collaborator.They were entrustedwith a study of legal proceduresin the country, by means of a review of complaintsand judgments;but their main task involved registeringall propertyandsettledareas,assessingtheir worth, noting the livestock of the farmersand how much livestock eachpropertycould support.
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In addition theywere to makea censusof the whole country.Arni was occupied with this taskfor ten years,apartfrom the winter 1705-06and the period from the fall of 1708 to the fall of 1709,when he was in Copenhagen. During this year in Copenhagenhe marriedMette Fischer(d. 15 September
1730),who, aboutten yearsolder than he, wasthe wealthywidow of the king's saddler;the marriagebroughthim both propertyandcash.He spentthe other winters during this period at Slcilholt. In 1703, under the instigationof The committee,a censuswas taken of all of Iceland, indicating the name,age, occupation,and addressof everyinhabitant;the listing of propertieswas not finished until 1714. During theseyears in IcelandAmi traveledextensively,especiallyin the south and west, and correspondedwith men throughoutthe country, meetingmany of the most prominentonesat Slcilholt and at the site of the annualassemblyat Pingvellir. He thus succeededin collecting old and new manuscriptsfrom all parts of Iceland in such large measurethat only a few medieval manuscriptsremaineduntouched-apart from a small numberof fragmentsdiscoveredlater, mostly in the bindingsof books. Ami had arrived at the eleventhhour to rescuewhat was left of medievalIceiandicmanuscripts.Most of the vellum manuscriptsthat he acquired in Iceland were incomplete,and the ones that remaineduntouchedwere largely lawbooks.Ami searchedtirelesslyfor parts missing from his manuscripts,andsomeof them he succeededin assemblingfrom variousplacesthoughoften theywere in poorconditionfrom havingbeenusedin the bindings of booksor from someotherreason.But most of what he knew hadonce existedhad alreadybeenlost. He wrote down where he had acquiredevery manuscriptand whateverhe could find out about the previousowners.He collectedeverything,eventhoughnothingwas left but a singleleafor a fragment of a leaf, even narrow strips of vellum if therewere any old letters on them. In this way he salvagedthe oldest remainsof the Icelandicand Norwegian written languages,the earliestof which were manuscripts fromthe twelfth century,invaluablesourceson the palaeography,orthography,grammar, and style. All aspectsof Icelandicliteraturefrom the twelfth centuryto the eighteenthare representedin the manuscriptsthat he collectedand in the copies that he had made. Much of this material, especiallythe literature of the later period, is also availablein other collections,such as the royal librariesof CopenhagenandStockholm,the National Library of Iceland,and the University Library in Uppsala.But much would have beenlost if it had not beenfor Ami's labors. He also bought or borroweda variety of documents, mostly Icelandic but also Danish and Norwegian, and had careful copies made of all of them, including drawingsof the seals.His collection
39
contains1,372 copiesof Danish documents,2,895 Norwegian,and 5,939 of Icelandic. Ami sailedfrom Icelandfor the last time in September1712,on a ship that encounteredroughweatherand reachedNorway only in November.After spendingthe winter with Torfaeusat Stangarlandon Kormt, Ami reached Copenhagenin March 1713.Thereremainedthe taskof recordinghis labors in Iceland for the impatient and disagreeableauthorities,who found him slow to give a full accountof the work of the Commission.He had to spend much of his time in lawsuits arising from his and Pall Vidal in's interventions into the legal processin Icelandand the official activities of authorities. But his main occupationwas work in the Danish Chancelleryand researchwith his own collection. He continuedto purchasemanuscriptsat auction or whereverthey could be found. The manuscriptsand documents that he had collectedin Iceland,including the recordsfor the survey,did not reach Denmarkuntil 1720; later a small numberof additional manuscripts cameto him from Iceland. Ami did not just collect manuscripts;he also worked tirelesslyto trace their provenance.A massof his noteson thesemattershascomedown to us, someplacedin the manuscripts,otherswritten into his notebooks.Ami's notes also containcommentson the sagas,on peoplewho lived more than a hundred years,on rare words, on place-namesand local conditionsin Icelandon anythinghavingto do with Icelandichistory and culture.Thesenoteswere probably madewith a view toward the completionof a major work on Icelandic literatureand learning. Ami MagnUssonwas an outstandinglydiligent andmeticulousscholar always searchingfor original sourcesif there was any chanceof their existence.His criticism was constantlyprovoking, and he was awareof the limitations of medievalIcelandicliteratureas historical sourcematerial. He was knowledgeableaboutmedievalNorseliterature,both poetryand prose,Norwegian and Icelandic; and he was such a keen palaeographerthat virtually all of his datingsof manuscriptsandfragmentshavebeenconfirmedby later research.His contemporariesrelate that he was courteous,distinguishedin appearance,helpful and loyal to his friends and the needy;but he could also be sharp and unyielding to thosewho opposedhim, whetherhigh officials of the king or men oflower station. In the fall of 1728 catastrophestruck.Arni hadput togetherthe largest collection of Icelandic, Norwegian,and Danish manuscriptsthat any single personhad everowned,andhe also had an outstandingcollection of printed books,including incunabulaand other rarities. On 20 Octobera fire started in the westernpart of Copenhagen,reachingStoreKannikestra:de,the street 40
ARNI
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whereArni lived, the next day. IcelandicstudentsandArni's secretariesmanagedto savemostof his manuscriptsand a small portion of his printedbooks, but many manuscripts-theexact numberis not known-burnedto ashes alongwith printed books.It is not known how much progresshe had made in collecting material for a history of Icelandic literature and learning, for everythingthat he hadcompletedon thesesubjectsfell victim to the fire. The surviving notesand brief commentsin his handare all of inestimablevalue; they ought to be published,preferablyin facsimile. Someof his comments on slips of paperthrow glimmers of light into the pastand on long-forgotten figures. From them we can seehis main preoccupationsand his attitude toward historical sources.One of the most famous is a note written at the endof a descriptionof a manuscriptcontaininga conflation of annals,which he had torn apart,consideringthat "it could serveno other use than to lead posterityinto error." The descriptionendswith thesewords: "That is the way of the world, that somepeopleintroducenew errors, and otherscomeafter them and try to eliminatethesesameerrors.This way, everyonekeepsbusy" (Helgason[1958], 113 [English translationby Robert Cook)). The fire left Arni a broken man. He did not manageto sort out the books savedfrom the fire, but he did try to procurecopies of documents from Iceland to fill the gaps.He fell sick on 24 December1729 and died on 7 January1730. He was buried in the choir of the Churchof Our Lady, Copenhagen.The day before he died Arni madea last will and testament, bequeathingto the University of Copenhagenall of his books and papers and stipulating that his estateshould be used to fund a scholarshipfund, the interestfrom which would be usedto pay two Icelandicstudentsto make copiesof the most trustworthyand useful works, and afterwardthoseof less value, and to makeeditions,which wereall to be printedon good, white paper in clear letters. The royal decreeconcerningthis fund was proclaimed thirty yearsafterArni's death,on 18 January1760; in 1772 the Arnamagna:an Commissionwas founded,andseriouswork beganto be devotedto editions. The Arnamagna:anCollection was kept in the University Library in Copenhagenuntil 15 October1957,when it was movedto the newly founded Arnamagna:anInstitute in Copenhagen.In 1965 the Danish parliament passeda law stipulatingthat the Arnamagna:anCollectionand the Legacybe divided betweenDenmarkand Iceland.The agreementconcerningthis division was signedin March 1971, and in 1972 the ten-year-oldManuscript Institute of Iceland becamethe Arnamagna:anInstitute in Iceland.This Institute has since been responsiblefor the care of the Icelandic manuscripts that havebeenreturnedto Icelandfrom Denmark.The remainingpart of the collection is in the careof the Arnamagna:anInstitute in Copenhagen.
41
The Arnamagna:anCollection and the Amamagna:anLegacy have madeit possiblefor scholarsfrom many countriesto do researchon Icelandic manuscriptsand to produceeditions basedon the cultural heritagethat Ami MagnUssondevotedhis life to savingfrom oblivion. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
WOrks BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Ed. and trans. Incerti Auctoris (Qui VergenteSeculoXlII Vixisse Videtur), Chronica
Danorum, et PrlEcipueSialandilE; seu, ChronologiaRerumDanicarumab Anno Christi MXXVIII ad AnnumMCCLXXXIIcumAppendiceChronolog. usquead AnnumMCCCVII, ex Veteri MembranaEruit, PrimusqueEdidit. Leipzig: Gleditsch,1695. Reprintedin ScriptoresRerumDanicarumMedii/Evi, Partirn HactenusInediti, Partirn ErnendatiusEditi, Quos Collegit, Adornavit, et Publici Juris Fecit JacobusLangebek.Vo!' 2, pp. 602-44. Copenhagen: Godiche, 1773.
Kort og sandfordigBeretningom den viit-udraabte Besettelseudi Tist£d. Til alles Efterretning af Original-Akter og trovlErdige Dokumenter uddragen og sammenskreven. Copenhagen,1699. Reprint by Alfred Ipsen. Copenhagen: Gjellerup, 1891. "Explicatio InscriptionisCornu Cujusdarnex Musa:oClar. a Mellen." Nova Literaria Maris Balthici (1701): 62. Ed. and trans. TestamentumMagni Regis NorvegilE, ConscriptumAnno Christi MCCLXXVIJ, Nunc Prirnurn e Tenebris Eruturn et in Publicarn Lucern Producturn.Copenhagen:Wieland, 1719. Reprintedin ScriptoresRerum Danicarum. ... Vo!' 6, pp. 247-52.Copenhagen:M0ller, 1786. Trans. Kristinrettr jonserkibyskups... (ArchbishopjOn's EcclesiasticalLaw). In Annales EcclesiIE DanicIE Diplomatici . .., vo!' 1, pp. 786-821. 4 vols. Copenhagen: M0ller, 1741. "De AppellationeGothicaLinguaeIslandicae."In SaganafGunnlaugiOrmstunguok Skalld-Rafoi,sive Gunnlaugi Vermilingvis 6- RafoispoetlE vita, pp. 278-79. Copenhagen:Godiche,1775. "Chronologia Haraldi Pulchricorni et InsequentiurnNorvegia: Regurn." In jon LoptsensEncomiast:... vedjohn Erichsen,pp. 54-71.Copenhagen:Gyldendal, 1787. "Vita Sa:rnundi Multiscii Vulgo Froda." In Edda SlEmundarhinns Froda. Edda Rhythmicaseu Antiquior, Vu{g-o SlEmundinaDicta. .. ,vo!. 1, pp. i-xxviii. 3 vols. Copenhagen:SurntibusLegati Magna:aniet Gyldendalii, 1787-1828. KatalogoverdenArnamagnteanske handskriftsamling.2 vols. Edited by Kristian Kalund. Copenhagen:Gyldendal,1888-94. Arne Magnussonsi AM. 435 a-b, 4to, indeholdtehIlndskriftfortegnelser,medto till£g. Edited by Kristian Kalund. Copenhagen:Gyldendal, 1909. With Pall Vldalln. jarJabOkArna MagnUssonarogPdis Vida/ins.Vo!s. 1-11.Copenhagen: M0llers, 1913-43. Vols. 12-13: ReykjavIk: Hill Islenska fra:llafelag I Kauprnannahiifn,1990. With Pall VldaHn. Manntal d Islandi driJ 1703. Reykjavik: Hagstofafslands, 1924-47. Arni Magnussonslevnedog skrifter. 2 vols. Edited by Finnur J6nsson.Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1930.
42
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MAG NOS SON
LEITERS AND PAPERS
The major collectionsof Ami MagnUsson'slettersareheld at the Arnamagna:an Institutein Copenhagen,the DanishStateArchives, the National Library ofIceland, the Royal Library in Copenhagen,and in the Konsistorium'sArchive of the University of Copenhagen.
ArneMagnusson.Embedsskrivelser og andreoffentligeaktstykker.Introducedand edited by Kr. Kalund. Copenhagen:Gyldendal,1916. Arne Magnusson.BrevvekslingmedTorfous (PormOHur Torfason). Introducedand edited by Kr. Kalund. Copenhagen:Gyldendal, 1916. Arne Magnussonsprivate brevveksling.Edited by Kr. Kalund and Finnur Jonsson. Copenhagen:Gyldendal,1920. Sources ArneMagnusson1663-1963.Copenhagen:Royal Library, 1963. Bekker-Nielsen,Hans,and Ole Widding. ArneMagnusson:Den storehandskriftsamler. I300-aretfor hansf;dseL Copenhagen:G.E.C. Gad, 1963.Translatedas Arne Magnusson:TheManuscriptCollectorby RobertW. Mattila. Odense:Odense University Press,1972. Bet£nkning vedrllrende de i Danmark beroende islandske handskrifter og museumsgenstande, esp. pp. 8-19. Copenhagen:Schultz, 1951. "BiographiskeEfterretningerom Arne Magnussen;ved Jon Olafsenfra Grunnavik. Med Indledning, Anma:rkningerog Tilla:g af E.C. Werlauff." In Nordisk Tidsskriftfor Oldkyndighed,vol. 3, pp. 1-166. Copenhagen:Quist, 1836. Ehrencron-Miiller, Holger. In ForfotterlexikonomfottendeDanmark, Norge og Island indtiI18i4, vol. 5, pp. 284-87.Copenhagen:Aschehoug,1927. Helgason,Jon [Kalund, Kr.J. "Magnusson,Ami." In Dansk biografisk Leksikon grundlagtafC.F.Bricka, vol. IS, pp. 230-34.Copenhagen:Schultz, 1938. Helgason,Jon. Handritaspjall, esp. pp. 83-99. Reykjavik: Mal og Menning, 1958. Kalund, Kristian. Introduction to vol. 2 of Katalog over den Arnamagn£anske handskriftsamling,pp. iii-xxvi. 2 vols. Copenhagen:Gyldendal, 1888-94. Rafnsson, Sveinbjom. "Ami Magnussonshistoriska kritik: Till fragan om vetenskapssynen bakomDen Arnamagnaeanska samlingen."In Overgriinser: Festskrifttill Birgitta Oden, edited by IngemarNorrlid, pp. 293-316.Lund: B.T.J. Datafilm, 1987. f>orkeIsson,Jon (Thorchillius). "Analecta ad Memoriam Ama: Magna:i." In Arni MagnUssonslevnedog shifter, editedby FinnurJonsson,vol. 1, part 2, pp. 61107.2vols. Copenhagen:Gyldendal,1930. Vigftisson, Gul'lbrandur.SturlungaSaga. ... 2 vols. Vol. 1, Prolegomena,pp. cxIviicli. Oxford: Clarendon,1878.
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HUMFREY WANLEY (1672-1726)
Milton McC. Gatch
HumfreyWanley,a palaeographer who set the standardsfor manuscriptstudy in Englandthat prevaileduntil our own day, and a cataloguerof manuscripts whoserecordsretain remarkablecompleteness andvalidity, was born in 1672 in Coventry.His father, Nathaniel,an impecuniousand creativeclergyman, died when the boy was eight yearsold. Apprenticedto a linen draper,he neverthelessdevelopedan interestin antiquarianstudies,especiallyin manuscript study, that brought him to the attention of his bishop and of the learned world. In 1695, at an unusuallyadvancedage, he went up to Oxford and matriculatedbut did not take a degree.Employedin the Bodleian Library, he beganwork on the catalogof manuscriptscontainingwriting in AngloSaxon,which would be his major completedand publishedscholarlyundertaking. Frustratedwith the limitations on his advancementin Oxford, he went down to London in 1700; therehe workedfive yearsfor the Societyfor Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), simultaneouslypursuingscholarly projectsand seeingthe catalogof manuscriptsin Anglo-Saxoninto print in 1705. In that year he left the SPCKand for severalyearssupportedhimself and his wife, Ann, with freelanceprojects. From 1708 to his deathhe was librarian to the Harleys: Robert, speakerof the Houseof Commons,Lord Treasurerduring the scandalknown as the South Sea Bubble (when, in AlexanderPope'swords,"Britain was sunkin lucre'ssordidcharms"),andfirst earl of Oxford, and (from the time of Robert'simprisonmentin 1715, but especiallyafter his deathin 1724) his son, Edward,secondearl. Ih later years he spentas much time at Edward'scountryseat,Wimpole, nearRoystonin Cambridgeshire,where the printed books in the Harleianlibrary were kept, as in London, wherethe manuscriptswere housedin Duke Street.Although he aspiredto other positions that were never offered, it is perhapsbest for the history of Englishscholarshipthat he remaineda servantto the Harleys, for he assistedmaterially in amassinggreat printed book and manuscript 45
collections, the latter of which becameone of the foundationalcollections of the British Museum and continues(in the British Library) to bear the Harleian name. The chronicle of Wanley's personallife and characteris even briefer. Having unsuccessfullyattempteda marriageof financial advantagewhile at Oxford, he marrieda youngwidow, Ann BourchierBerenclow,in 1705. None of their offspring lived beyondearly childhood, and Ann died in 1722. On the eve of his own deathhe married anotherAnn, to the distressof at least someof his acquaintance. The exclusionof personallettersfrom the published correspondence makesit difficult to estimatehis privatecharacter,but Wanley seemsto have beenwidely admiredand soughtout both for his sociability and for his learning, which was graciouslyavailable to all who wantedhis advice.Ambitious and desperatefor a properappointment,especiallyin the early years at Oxford and in London, he sometimesseemedoverreaching, perhapsnevermore so than in his efforts to be appointedto the Cotton Library, which causedfriction with the keeper,ThomasSmith. But he was never the object of malicioussatire,so commonin his age,during his Londonyears. Therewas, nevertheless,a persistenttradition of denigratingWanley's educationand character.It derives almost exclusivelyfrom the lifelong animosity nurturedby ThomasHearneof St. EdmundHall, Oxford, a rival antiquary and librarian and a diarist who has left a voluminous record of his daily doings-aman "of too solitary and too malicious a humour to be a memberof a coterie" (Evans,32) or to abide the gregariousand sometimes overly self-assuredformer apprenticefrom Coventry.Given the universalrespectWanley was accordedby other personsof attainmentin many fields, Hearne'scolorful but malicious evidencemust be readwith cautionand acceptedonly when it can be corroborated. The review that follows will begin with reflection on Wanley'seducation beforeassessing his achievementsas a studentof manuscriptsandof handwriting, his accomplishmentsas a bookmanand librarian, and his serviceto scholarsandscholarship.IfWanley's attainmentsas a historian (well assessed by David Douglas) are not given separateattentionhere, it is becausenone of his projectsfor editing historical texts reachedfruition and becausehis historical studiesare inseparablefrom his palaeographyand librarianship,both of which were also subsumedunder Wanley's definition of the antiquary's calling. In more recent times, becauseof the tendencyto specializationof learning,the term "antiquary" seemsoften to connotepractitionersof archaeology, one concernedwith "antiquities."To Wanley and his contemporaries "antiquary" had a far more inclusivedefinition: the studyof the pastand the documentationof the past using all available evidencefrom the history of
46
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languageandwritten texts to stonemonuments.Although therewas certainly an interestin the classicaland Europeanpast, early-eighteenth-century English antiquarianismwas by no meansconfinedby the classicalandtheological intereststhat dominatedthe universitiesbut was aboveall concernedto study and preservethe British past. In December1707 Wanley recordedthe minutes of a group of men who agreedto meet every Friday eveningin a tavern in the Strandor Fleet Street.The group would evolve as the Societyof Antiquaries,and its definition of its pursuitscanserveas a descriptionof Humfrey Wanley'sscholarly, professionalcalling: Agreedthat the Businessof this Societyshall be limited to the subject of Antiquities; and more particularly, to such things as may Illustrate and Relateto the History of GreatBritain. Agreed that by the subjectof Antiquities and History of Great Britain, we understandonly suchthings as shall precedethe Raign of James the first King of England.Provided,that upon any new Discoveryof Antient Coins, books,sepulchresor other Remainsof Antient Workmanship,which may be communicatedto us, we reserveto ourselves the liberty of Conferringupon them [quotedby Evans,36]. Suchwas the spaciousrealm of learningto which Humfrey Wanley devoted himselfthroughouthis life, despiteall the obstaclesthat the worlds of learning and wealth erectedin his way. To Americans,who havecometo regardlearningandvocationaltraining as gainedalmostexclusivelyin formal education,the autodidact-apersonlearnedandaccomplisheddespitea want of formal education-isunusual in the extreme.Yet evenin an agewhen autodidacticismwas not uncommon, Humfrey Wanleyseemedto his contemporariesan unusualphenomenonalmosta subjectfor his father'scompendiumof talesof wonderfrom human experience.Even before he moved fromCoventryto Oxford in 1695, while still apprenticedto a linen draper,he attractedthe attentionof William Lloyd, bishop of Coventryand Lichfield, and was a subjectof the correspondence oflearnedmen in Oxford and London. Practicallynothing is known aboutWanley'searly formal education. His father, a Cambridgegraduate,was a learned,perhapsunusualclergyman who wrote verse "palely reminiscentof Vaughn" (Sisam, 259). His Wondersofthe Little World (1678) is a compendiumof reportsof unusual, even bizarre, phenomenain humanlife that are intendedto documentdivine omnipotenceand providence.In someeighteenth-century editions it had suchsubtitlesas "A GeneralHistory of Man" or ''A GeneralHistory of 47
Good Men, Bad Men, GreatMen, Little Men, &c. &c." Orderly and well documented,if credulous,it fit the fashionfor gathering"evidences"supportive of a thesis,and (curious though it seemsto a readerof our time) it was reprintedas late as 1818 and had an abridgededition in 1931. Humfrey's educationin basicswas probably well under way when his father died in
1680, but althoughclergymennot infrequentlytutored their children, it is not possibleto know how or whetherNathanielWanley was formative in any way of the greatstudentandcuratorof the book his son was to become, nor is it possibleto assessthe possibleinfluenceof his grandfatherand namesake,HumphreyBurton, sometimeclerk of the council of Coventry. Humfrey Wanley'sself-tutelagein the study of languageand manuscriptswas apparentlynot impededby the tasksof his apprenticeship,which was completedby his admissionas freemanof the DrapersCompanyof Coventryin 1696, after he had left his birthplacefor Oxford. His transcription from 1691 of William Somner'sDictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum survives,as does a transcriptionfrom a borrowedcopy of not only George Hickes'sgrammarof Old English, InstitutionesGrammaticaeAnglo-Saxonicae
et Moeso-Gothicae(1689), but also Hickes'scatalogof manuscriptscontainingAnglo-Saxonin the BodleianLibrary, Oxford (B.L. Harley 3317; Letter 1). And after a visit or visits to Oxford (during one of which he presenteda Latin manuscriptBible to the Bodleian)he was in 1694 participatingin one of the greatscholarlyprojectsof the time, a comprehensivecatalogof British manuscript collections: Catalogi Librorum ManuscriptorumAngliae et Hiberniae (1697), associateduniversally(but not on the title page)with the nameof EdwardBernard.He contributedfour catalogsto the work and,when he had gone up to Oxford, its index and perhapsits preface.His entriesfor the manuscriptsowned by the FreeSchool at Coventryalreadybetraycharacteristictraits: the datingof manuscriptson the basisof the handwriting("as I guessby the Hand") and the discoveryof sixteenth-centurymanuscript materialin a printed book that explains"the Art of making the Gilded and PaintedLetterswhich we seein old MSS" (Bernard,2: 33-34). But the requirementsof an Oxford educationwerenot congenial,however highly commendedWanleycameand howeverprecocioushe was in his special line of scholarship.He matriculatedin the summerof 1695 at St. EdmundHall, Oxford, wherehe was to assistthe principal, JamesMill, with an edition of the Greekgospels(Sisam,261). He was appointedto the staff of the Bodleianat the end of the year, and at the beginningof the next year migratedto University College,wherehe was taken underthe wing and the roof of Arthur Chariett, the master.Dr. Charlett had been a supporterof Wanleyfor sometime. Wanley'searliestletter to him is datedOctober1694,
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and it is clear that they had alreadymet in Oxford (Letter 1). Charlettwas a promoterof his Wunderkind,Wanley, and brought him to the attentionof SamuelPepysand (moresignificantly), in a letter of August 1695,to the great Saxonistand grammarianGeorgeHickes (Hickes [1992], Letter 5). Hickes hadsince1689beenliving in hiding, deprivedof his postas deanof Worcester Cathedralbecauseof his refusal to take the oath to William and Mary while JamesII was still living. Oxford was at the time in the midst of a rare flurry of interestin andresearchon the EnglishMiddle Ages, in particulartheAngloSaxon heritage. Edmund Gibson, ThomasTanner, and William Elstob (brother of Elizabeth,herselfa major contributor but not a memberof the universiry) are amongthosehe encountered. In addition to his faciliry in the study of manuscriptsWanley seems to havehad training in the classicallanguages.His earlycorrespondence with George Hickes was composedin passableLatin (Letters 26-28; Hickes
[1992], Letters 16, 18-23,26-27),as is theAnglo-SaxonCatalogus,although EdmundGibson found his draft prefacefor the Bernard Catalogi so full of Anglicisms that it neededto be rewritten or editedby someonemore learned (Hickes [1992], 86). His matriculationat St. EdmundHall was partially to help in the collation of manuscriptsfor Mill's edition of the GreekGospels (published1707),so he can hardly havebeenignorantof Greekwhen he arrived in Oxford. Throughouthis careerhe wrote letters touching on Greek palaeography(e.g., the letter of 1699to SamuelPepys[Letter 63 andAppen-
dix vi; the original of both is New York, PierpontMorgan Library MA 3964] and the 1721 letter in Latin to Bernardde Montfaucon[Letter 218]); in the Socieryof Antiquaries'portrait, by ThomasHill, Wanleyholds a manuscript of the Gospelsin Greek.Yet it hassometimesbeensuggestedthat he had no basiceducationthatwould qualify him for admissionto the universiryandthat he was incapableof providing the Latin prefaceof Bernard'sCatalog;, but this is impossibleon the record; and it must be borne in mind that the negative view of his educationcan be tracedalmostexclusivelyto ThomasHearne. Yet Wanley was not to becomea graduateand consequentlycould not hopefor prefermentat Oxford. He seemsearly to have put asidethe notion of readingfor a degree.It was said that he threw up his handswhen first introducedto the studyof logic and quit formal studyalmoston the spot, but the anecdoteis basedon Hearne'sevidence(Sisam,264) and shouldbe taken with a grain of salt. Charlettseemsto have turned a deafear to pleasto help Wanleyaroundthe examinationrequirementsor to havebeenpowerlessto ease the way (Letter 52); and Wanley'shopesfor a degreeand a position in the universiry ended(Douglas,99; Sisam,264). He may simply havebeentoo bent on his own specialsubject.Autodidactsare in fact often contemptuous
49
of academicauthoritieswho know lessabouttheir areaof expertise:one thinks of the Americanscholarwho is said to have refusedto submit a completed doctoral dissertation(which was soon published) becausethere was no one in his university competentto examineand evaluateit. Wanley's failure to take a degreeandhis failure in 1698 to securethe librarianshipat the Bodleian in competitionwith anotherof Charlett'sprotegeswere at any rate the occasion for his removal to London in 1700.
It is againstthe backgroundof academicfailure that one must review the achievementof Wanley's lifetime, arising from his facility as a palaeographer anda cataloguerof manuscripts.The greatAnglo-Saxonmanuscript catalogwas completedin London, but his gifts and this major project came to full flower in his Oxford years, especiallyin his relationshipwith GeorgeHickes,who was in manyways the spirit behindthe Saxonrevival at Oxford in the 1690s, althoughhe was himself in exile from public life throughoutthe decade. KennethSisamhasbestappreciatedWanley'sambitionandachievement (Sisam, 262-65). Almost contemporarywith Wanley was the work of Jean Mabillon (1632-1707)and Bernardde Montfaucon(1655-1741),members of the Benedictinecongregationof Saint-Maur(Maurist), which devoteditself to the editing of the works of the fathers of the church (see Knowles). Both of the Frenchmonasticscholarscontributedto the editing of texts, but their greatestcontributionswere the basic works that createdthe scientific studyof manuscripts.Montfaucon'swork on Greekpalaeographywas not to be publisheduntil 1709,andhis manuscriptcatalog,BibliothecaBibliothecarum, was not to be issueduntil 1739. (Wanley had progressedso far that, when Montfaucon'sPalaeographiaGraecaappeared,he found it disappointingand not as rich as he had hoped[Sisam,272).) But Mabillon's De ReDiplomatica (1681) had establishedthe foundationsfor scientific study of palaeography. EdmundGibson, one of the most gifted of the Oxford Saxonistsand later bishop of London regardedWanley at the outsetof his careeras the person most likely to becomethe English Mabillon (Letters, xvi, note 11), and it is clear that this is preciselywhat Wanley himself aimed at and in someways achieved,despitehis lack of publicationon the subject. The foundation of the study of manuscripts,Wanley knew from an early age,is dating: "His methodwas to find what he called'dates,'i.e. manuscripts or documentswhich could be fixed to a definite year or years by a congruenceof evidence.By referenceto theseas standardshe settled the approximateage of undatedmanuscripts"(Sisam, 272). The fullest statement of his principles is probablya letter of 1701 that was printed in 1705 in the PhilosophicalTransactionsof the Royal Society(Letter 79). As early as 50
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1699, consultedby SamuelPepys,who askedhim to datea group of manuscript fragments,Wanley insistedon the importanceof handling numerous manuscriptsand making careful note of the forms of the letters (Letter 63). In a day beforephotographiccopyingWanleywas blessedwith a good eye, a retentive mind, and an ability to copy letters from manuscriptwith astonishingaccuracy.(His own English handwas also clearand consistenta trait that makesthe studentof early-eighteenth-century scholarshipgrateful, especiallyafter strugglingwith the writing of many of his contemporaries.) From the outsetWanley was assemblingtools for the support of palaeographicalstudy: Charlett showedto a numberof personsa "book of specimens"in which Wanley had assembledalphabetsfrom the major Europeanlanguagesand periodsof manuscriptwriting. The book, recentlyrediscovered,survives as Longleat HouseMS 345, and engravedspecimens of alphabetsbasedupon it wereincludedin Hickes's Thesaurusand otherimportant eighteenth-centurypalaeographicalstudies(Keynes: 128-35). He boughtfrom his friend JohnBagforda collectionof papersamplesthat would be helpful in tracing the origins of later medieval manuscriptsand early printedbooks(Letter 63 at 124-25).He hada collectionof manuscriptfragmentsthat he proposed"to place in a book accordingto their Age, and the Countreywherein they were written. The use that I shall makeof this Collection, is, that wheresoeverI happento be (having my book with me) I may at any time satisfiemy selfof the Age andCountreyof any (Latin) MSs" (Letter 63 at 124); and he actually proposedto the curatorsof the Bodleian Library that they let him take fragmentsfrom the bindingsof Bodleianbooks to augmentthis collection (Gatch, 1983; Letters,Appendix v). Wanley was accomplished,yet his ambitionsoutstrippedhis abiliry to deliver the publishedfruits of his knowledgefor which his colleagues hoped. His collections and letters togetherwith the Anglo-Saxoncatalog show his great potential, but he did not producea De Re Diplomatica for English medievalmanuscriptsthat would serveto guide the coming generations.Wanleyhad to makehis living doing the work othersassignedhim. One of the annoyancesof his employmentat the Bodleianwas that his superiors, discommodedby his long absencesin Cambridgeand London to consult manuscripts,not unreasonablyput him on a short tether. Wanley's was an age of greatscholarlyambitionsand projects,but a personwho had to make his living doing the work that othersassignedhim could not bring a monumentalproject to fruition, as the Benedictinesof Saint-Maur,with no other demandsupon their attention,were able to do. Wanley's longtime friend John Bagford had enormouscollectionsto serveas resourcesfor the history of printing he hopedto write, and he was a major sourceof Wanley's
51
collectionsfor the study of palaeography.Bagford'stalent was by no means comparablewith Wanley's,andhis project neverapproachedcompletion;but Wanley describedBagford'scollectionsfor the history of printing in generally favorableterms and was happythat Harley was able to acquirethem for his library when Bagforddied (Gatch[1986]: 157-64;Gatch[1990]: 446-61). It was not until the nineteenthcentury(if then) that otherscholarswere able to bring to fruition the work that Wanley and Bagford had pioneeredbut lackedthe time and moneyto complete. Wanley'sone major completedwork was the great Librorum Veterum
Septentrionalium,Qui in Angliae BibliothecisExtant. .. CatalogusHistoricoCriticus (1705), the catalogof manuscriptscontainingAnglo-Saxonthat was publishedin the secondvolume of George Hickes's Linguarum Veterum SeptentrionaliumThesaurus(Oxford, 1703-05).This was a monumentof applied palaeography,and the fact that it describedthe manuscriptsof the CottonLibrary beforemanyof themwereseriouslydamagedin a fire in 1731 is only a coincidentalfactor in the longevity of the work's usefulness:it was replacedonly in 1957,whenN.R. Ker publishedhis Catalogueo/Manuscripts
ContainingAnglo-Saxon.Ker's introductionpaid tribute to Wanley'saccomplishment: a new catalogwas needednot becauseof any shortcomingin Wanley'sdescriptionsbut becauseof the "vast amountof work that hasbeen doneon the texts and manuscriptsWanleyfirst described"(Ker, xiii-xiv). As Ker acknowledges,the catalogis thoroughin its descriptionof the manuscripts and their contents,for which incipits andexplicits are normally given. Wanley examinedgreat numbersof manuscriptsfor isolatedOld English notations or glossesas well as for continuoustext. He missedonly about a dozenmajor manuscriptsthat have come to light in England,severalmanuscriptson the Continentthat were not reporteduntil the secondquarterof the nineteenthcentury, and fragmentsfrom bindings that have appearedfrom time to time. He also includedlegal materials,early Middle Englishwitnesses,and moderntranscriptionsthat Ker ruled beyondhis scope. Wanley'srelationshipwith Hickeswas remarkable.It is clearfrom the letters that the distinguishedclergymanand scholarrecognizedWanley'stalentsquickly oncethey camein contact.After it hadbeendecidedthat Wanley was to have the responsibilityfor the catalog,Hickes hectoredand advised him, making certain that the taskwas not abandonedto somenew enthusiasmof the youngerman and that Wanleykept regularhoursandguardedhis health. He introducedhim to Robert Harley in a letter of 1701 (Hickes [1992], Letter 190) as the personwith "the best skill in ancienthandsand
MSS.of any man not only of this, but, I believe, of any former age." In the sameletter he comparedWanley favorably with Dr. ThomasSmith, keeper
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of the Cotton Library, wishing that the youngerscholarcould be the cataloguerof the whole of that library, not just of its Anglo-Saxonholdings.This introduction, although it was only in connectionwith the catalogfor the
Thesaurus,would in the long run be an importantonefor Wanley andHarley, whosecareersas bookmenwereto be inextricable.It was probablyHickeswho introducedWanley to the SPCK His position with that society has always beenregardedas uncongenialfor Wanleyand inimical to his primary interests.
It is true that the catechismhe translatedfrom Frenchin 1704was not Wanley's ideaof his principal calling, but he was interestedin the history of biblical texts and editions, as witness his early gift of a Latin biblical manuscriptto the Bodleianand the collection of Bibles sold to the new library of St. Paul'sCathedral.Whateverits shortcomings,his employmentat the SPCK supported Wanley during the writing of the catalog-andkept him in London, where he hadmajor collectionsto consult.And he was ableat SPCKto do somework on Old English biblical translationsandparaphrases (Letter 107; Sisam,267). BecauseWanley lived in Oxford at the outsetof the catalogproject, its manuscriptshad beeneasilyavailableto him; and he was able to makean extendedvisit to Cambridgein 1699 to consult manuscriptsthere. His employers' unhappinesswith his desireto go to London for the samepurpose (Douglas, 102) contributedto his leavingOxford. He proposedto go to the Continentto visit librariesin the mannerof Mabillon and Montfaucon(Let-
ters, Appendix ii), but Hickes, after initial support,realizedthat this scheme threatenedthe completionof the Anglo-Saxoncataloguingproject for the
Thesaurusand kept Wanley in England. Although the CatalogusHistorico-Criticus may be Wanley's only completed major cataloguingproject, his work on otherswas foundational. He worked in 1701 on a catalogfor Sir HansSloane,the physician,collector, and secretaryof the Royal Sociery, whose collection, with the Cottonian and Harleian,was oneof the nuclei of the British Museumwhen it was foundedin 1753 (B.L. Sloane3972.B).And he cataloguedfor the Harleys: his manuscript CatalogusBrevior was printed in 1759 with the descriptionsof the Harleian manuscriptholdings in the British Museumthrough Harley 2407, and there was much further cataloguingactivity for the Harleys' printed books(Wanley [1966], xv-xvii). The descriptionsof the Harley manuscriptshave not been superseded, andnoneof his descriptions,publishedor unpublished,andjudgmentsabout provenanceand date is safelydisregarded.Wanley'sachievement was considerable;we must be grateful that so much survivesfor us to consult. For the presentpurposediscussionof Wanley's accomplishmentsas a librarian mustbe brief, althoughthe library work is integralto his achievement. The cataloguingaspectof his librarianshiphas alreadybeendiscussed,and I 53
shall refer hereonly to his prowessas an evaluatorand acquirerof booksand to his discussionsof the principlesof library managementand organization. A library can attain greatnessonly if it hasa curatorwith the gift of acquiring appropriateholdings. Wanley showedtalent in this respectfrom the beginning. Although very much a junior, Wanley was given chargeat the Bodleianof the negotiationsfor the major acquisitionof the end of the seventeenth century, the purchaseof parts of the library of Edward Bernardfrom his widow in 1698 (Hickes [1992], Letter 47). Before he was regularly in his employ, he securedthe collection of Sir Simondsd'Ewesfor Harley in 1703 (Letter 103, 104). He was long concernedfor the future of the Cotton Library, which he recognizedas a nationaltreasureandof which he aspiredto be keeper. His Diary is not a personalrecordbut an accountof his activities as the librarian to the Harleys,and it displayshis goodjudgmentand financial shrewdness as an acquirerof booksand manuscriptsfor his employersas well as his acuity in advisingthemaboutpurchases.Oneof the mostfamousstoriesaboutWanley as a buyerof booksis his own accountof a personwho wantedto sell booksto the Harleys and took Wanley out drinking, thinking he could get a big price. Quite the reversehappened,and the sellerwas so undoneby his eveningwith Wanley that it was severaldays beforehe could deliver the booksWanley had boughtfor a song(Wanley [1966], entry for 13-15July 1720).
As a practicallibrarian he left severallettersand memorandathat are full of practicalwisdomaboutthe dispositionandregulationoflibraries. He wrote a memorandumfor RobenHarley in 1714whenthereseemsto havebeendiscussion of building a library for the Harleiancollectionon principlesnot unlike those employedby Sir ChristopherWren in his librariesat Trinity College,Cambridge, andLincoln Cathedral.The library shouldbe a single,rectangularroom with large windowson eitherside; betweenthewindowsandperpendicularto thewalls, book presses,labeledas to their contentsand "securedfrom thievesanddust," should manifestthe "grandeurof the collection"; more utilitarian printed books could be stackedin shelvesin a galleryabovethewindows; cabinetsunderthewindows could storeuncataloguedacquisitions,and tablesbetweenthe presseswould accommodatereaders;at the endof the room therewas to be an alcovewheretreasuredHebrewscrolls could be storedandtreasuresdisplayedfor visitors; a chimney in the centerof the room would accommodatewinter fires for the good of building, books,librarian, andreaders;a small areashouldbe devotedto the needs of the library keeper,and an adjoining room would serveas a museumfor the pictures,drawings,and antiquariananifactsthat in the eighteenthcenturywere imponantancillariesto collectionsof books and manuscripts.Such a grand library, availableto the public, would inspiregifts from othercollectors,concluded the ever-acquisitivelibrarian (Wakeman:82-84).
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Equally interestingis a letter of 1710 to an official of St. Paul's Cathedral on the organizationand managementof the library being installed in Wren's just-completededifice (Letter 119). Fire is to be prohibited, and, to precludethe useof candlesand otherlights, the hoursare kept to daylight.
The loaningof booksis prohibited.Wanley comesdown in favor of the prevailing customof stackingbooksnot by subject("Faculties& Sciences")but by size, for arrangementby subjectis inefficient and destroys"the Beautyof the Library." Thus the catalogis the key to the location of booksand essential to the utility of the library. If Wanley'sexerciseof the art of librarianship is not exclusivelyan aspect of his pursuit of medievalstudies,it gives a glimpse into the conditions underwhich collectionsfor medievalstudieswere assembledand the accommodationthat was madefor researchers.Wanley'slegacy to later generations of medievalistsis not editedtexts or analysesof aspectsof medievallife, letters, or history but basic tools and resourcesfor the study of the Middle Ages: the preservationof booksin well-orderedlibrariesavailablefor the consultationof scholarsand, aboveall, the organizationof knowledgeof medievalmanuscript writing and bookmaking,which we call palaeographyand codicology. Portraitsof HumfreyWanleyhangin threegreatBritish learnedinstitutions with whosehistory he is intimately associated:the BodleianLibrary at Oxford, the British Library (oncea division of the British Museum),and the Societyof Antiquariesof London.A learnedman with little formal education but vaulting aspiration,an extraordinarylibrarian andbookman,congenial and almost universally liked, the polymath of palaeography,Wanley was recognizedby contemporariesas almost a phenomenonof nature.This remarkableman, essentiallyuntutoredin the arts of palaeographyand codicology,learnedmuch and taughtmuch. And he was a personwe should all like to haveknown and from whom we have profited immeasurably. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
In addition to the listings under Wllrks. Wanley'swritings will be found under Sourcesin Bernard; Ellis; Gatch (1982) and (1990): 448-49; Hickes, Chorus; and Wakeman.
WOrks BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Trans. The GroundsandPrinciplesofthe Christian Religion. Explain'din a Catechetical Discourse,for the Instruction of YoungPeople. Written in French. ..., by JE Ostervald. Printed by W. Sayesfor William Hawes, 1704. Rev. ed. London: Stanhope,1704. Librorum Vett. Septentrionalium.Qui in AngliaeBibliothecisExtant. necnon Multorum Vett. Codd. SeptentrionaliumAlibi ExtantiumCatalogusHistorico-Criticus. cum
55
Totius ThesauriLinguarumSeptentrionaliumSexIndicibus.Vol. 2 of Linguarum Vett. SeptentrionaliumThesaurusGrammatico-Criticuset Archaeologicus,by GeorgeHickes. Oxford: At the SheldonTheatre,1705.
TheDiary ofHumfreyWanley1715-1726.Edited by CE. Wright and Ruth C. Wright. 2 vols. London: BibliographicalSociety, 1966. LEITERS AND PAPERS
LettersofHumfreyWanley: Palaeographer,Anglo-Saxonist,Librarian 1672-1726.Edited by P.L. Heyworth. Oxford: Clarendon,1989. Sources [Bernard,Edward]. Catalogi Librorum ManuscriptorumAngliaeet Hiberniaein Unum Collecti cumIndiceAlphabetico.2 vols. Oxford: At the SheldonTheatre,1697. Courtney, WilliamPrideaux."Humfrey Wanley." In The Dictionary ofNational Biography, edited by Sir Leslie Stephenand Sir SidneyLee, vol. 20, pp. 74446. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1921-22. Douglas,David C. "HumphreyWanley." In his English Scholars,1660-1730, pp. 98118. London: Cape,1939.2nd rev. ed. London: Eyre andSpottiswoode,1951. and Ellis, Henry. Original LettersofEminentLiterary Men ofthe Sixteenth,Seventeenth, EighteenthCenturies.CamdenSociety,23. London: Nichols, 1843. Evans,Joan.A History ofthe SocietyofAntiquaries.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956. Gatch, Milton McC "Humfrey Wanley's Proposalto the Curatorsof the Bodleian Library on the Usefulnessof ManuscriptFragmentsfrom Bindings." Bodleian Record11 (1983): 94-98. - - - . "John Bagford as a Collectorand Disseminatorof ManuscriptFragments." The Library, 6th ser.,7 (1985): 95-114. - - - . "JohnBagford,BooksellerandAntiquary." British Library Journal12 (1986): 150-71. - - - . "FragmentaManuscriptaand Vttria at Missouri and Cambridge." Transactions ofthe CambridgeBibliographicalSociety9 (1990): 434-75. Gillam, S.G.,and R.W. Hunt. "The Curatorsof the Library and HumphreyWanley." Bodleian Library Record5 (1954-56):85-98. Gneuss,Helmut. "Der altesteKatalogder angelsachsischen Handschriftenund seine Nachfolger." In Anglo-Saxonica:Beitrage zur Vor- und Fruhgeschichteder
Li~rary
englischenSpracheundzuraltenglischenLiteratur: Festschriftfor HansSchrabam zum65. Geburtstag,editedby Klaus R. Grindaand Claus-DieterWetzel, pp. 91-106. Munich: Fink, 1993. Gordon, Alexander. "NathanielWanley." In The Dictionary ofNational Biography, edited by Sir Leslie Stephenand Sir SydneyLee, vol. 20, pp. 746-47. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1921-22. Hearne,Thomas.Remarksand CollectionsofThomasHearne. Edited by CE. Doble, D.W. Rannie,and H.E. Salter. 11 vols. Oxford: Clarendon,1885-1921. Heyworth, P.L. "HumfreyWanleyand 'Friends'of the Bodleian, 1695-98."Bodleian Library Record9 (1976): 219-30. Hickes, George.Linguarum Vett. SeptentrionaliumThesaurusGrammatico-Criticuset Archaeologicus(1703-1705).2 vols. Hildesheim:Olms, 1970. [Hickes, George]."A ChorusofGrammars': The Correspondence ofGeorgeHickesand His Collaborators on the ThesaurusLinguarum Septentrionalium.Edited by RichardL. Harris. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of MediaevalStudies,1992.
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Ker, N.R CatalogueofManuscriptsContainingAnglo-Saxon.Oxford: Clarendon,1957. Reprint with supplement,1990. Keynes, Simon. "Reconstructionof a Burnt Cottonian Manuscript:The Caseof Cotton MS. Otho A. I. " British Library Journal22 (1996): 113-60. Knowles, David. "The Maurists." In his GreatHistorical Enterprises:Problemsin MonasticHistory, pp. 31-62. London: Nelson, 1963. Murphy, Michael. "Antiquary to Academic:The Progressof Anglo-SaxonScholarship." In Anglo-SaxonScholarship:TheFirst ThreeCenturies,editedby Carl T. Berkhoutand Milton McC. Gatch,pp. 1-17. Boston: Hall, 1982. Sisarn,Kenneth."Humfrey Wanley." In his Studiesin the History ofOld English Literature, pp. 259-77.Oxford: Clarendon,1953. Turberville, Arthur Stanley.A History ofWeibeckAbbeyand Its Owners.2 vols. London: Faberand Faber,1938-39. Wakeman,Geoffrey. "Humfrey Wanley on Erecting a Library." Private Library 5 (1964): 80-84. Wright, C.E. "Humfrey Wanley: Saxonistand Library-Keeper." Proceedingsofthe British Academy46 (1960): 99-129.
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ELIZABETH
ELSTOB
(I683-1756) Kathryn Sutherland
ElizabethElstob, the first known womanscholarof Anglo-Saxon,was born on 29 September1683,the daughterof an old, estabin Newcastle-upon-Tyne lished, north-of-Englandfamily. Her father, Ralph Elstob, was a merchantclothier of the city and her mother,JaneHall, the daughterof a merchant. ElizabethElstob died on 3 June1756in London, having spenther last years in the householdof the duchessof Portland,whereshewas employedas governess.She was buried in St. Margaret'sChurch, Westminster.Elstob's life assumesan almost novelistic determinationand has persistentlybeeninterpretedin a romanticlight by her biographers.As the young companionand pupil of her older brother,the SaxonistWilliam Elstob (1673-1715),shewas celebratedandevennurturedby the maleacademyas somethingof a prodigya learnedwoman.Sheestablishedfor herselfat an early agea reputationas a formidablelinguist andscholarof Old English-thefirst femaleSaxonist.But by the time she was thirty-four, the acclaim and the securitywere lost, and shespentthe next twenty yearsin obscurityand sometimesextremepoverty until shewas "rediscovered"and in a mannersocially reclaimedby the amateur antiquaryGeorgeBallard. Throughhis dedicationto her cause,and the good offices of a network of literary and philanthropicwomen,Elstob'sfinal yearswere madesecure,thoughsheneverresumedher scholarlycareer. What detailswe haveof ElizabethElstob'slife are intriguingly incomplete and, where derivedfrom her own account,sparingand enigmatic.She spenther earliestyearsin Newcastle,wherewhat she describesas her childhood language,"the languageof the north," laid the groundworkfor and exerted a strong influence over her subsequentstudiesin Old English. Her motherwas an influenceon her prodigiousappetitefor learning.This is not surprising,given the traditional role of mothersin early education;but, on her daughter'sevidence,JaneElstob appearsto have beenan unusuallyfervent believer in educationfor women. However, her father's deathin 1688
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and her mother'sin 1691-92left Elizabeth,by the age of eight, an orphan. Shewas sentto live with her uncle, the ReverendCharlesElstob, prebendary of CanterburyCathedral.By her own accountthe uncle was unsympathetic to her alreadyawakenedenthusiasmfor languages;but, shetells us, he eventually relentedandallowedher to studyFrench.Her first published workwas a translationfrom the Frenchof Madeleinede Scudery'sAn Essayupon Glory (1708). Issuedanonymously,it hasa dedicationaddressedto her aunt, "Mrs. Elstob, at Canterbury";and in Canterbury,as shepoints out in an appended letter "To Mrs. Mary Randolph,"shefirst testedthe possibilitiesof a world of female learningand knew the supportof female friendships. The influenceof her motheron her early educationexplainswhat remainsfundamentalto ElizabethElstob'sscholarship-anassociationbetween femaleindividuationandlanguageacquisition.In the briefautobiographythat she constructedreluctantly and in middle age she writes simultaneouslyof her mother'searlyencouragement oflanguagelearningand the traumaticseveranceof the linked maternaland linguistic bonds at her mother'sdeath. "From her Childhood she was a great lover of Books," she explains of her former self, "which being observ'dby her Mother, who was also a great admirer of Learning, especiallyin her own Sex, therewas nothing wanting for her improvement,so long as her Mother liv'd. But being so unfortunateas to lose her when she was about eight years old, and when she had but just gone through her Accidenceand Grammar, there was a stop put to her progressin Learningfor someyears" (Bod!. Ballard 43, fo!' 59r). Elizabeth Elstob datedher real life as a scholarfrom the time when sheset up homewith her brother,William, ten yearsher seniorand an Oxford graduate.Elizabeth'sremovalto Oxford probablytook placeabout 1698, when she was fifteen; for it was in this year that she discoveredher interest in Anglo-Saxonstudiesthrough her "accidental"(as shecalls it) sight of her brother'stranscriptof the Old English Orosius(Elstob [1709], vi). A student of Queen'sCollege and from 1696 fellow of University College, Oxford, William Elstob was in the 1690sassociatedwith the Queen'sSaxonistsand the resurgencein what were then known as "septentrional"studies(the study of northernlanguages)as a result of the religious and political controversies of the late seventeenthcentury.ThroughWilliam, Elizabethwas acceptedinto the society of such scholarsas George Hickes, EdwardThwaites,John Hudson,HumfreyWanley, andArthur Charlett.The interesttakenin her own researchesby GeorgeHickes in particular helpsto contextualizethe religiopolitical bias of her Saxonstudies-theirstrange(to late-twentieth-century taste) Anglican-feministemphasis.But there is no evidenceto support the view that Hickes's patronageof Elstob can be explainedby her being his 60
ELI Z ABE THE L S TO B
granddaughter(Nichols [1812-16], 4: 139-40) or his niece (Dictionary of NationalBiography).It is to this early involvementin her brother'swork and friendshipsthat Edward Rowe Mores refers when he describesElizabethas "a female studentin The Univ." (Mores, 27). Shewas not, of course,an admitted studentin any official sense;but as the young sisterof a memberof the universitysheseemsto have enjoyedaccessto someof its facilities. In 1702 the Elstobs moved to London, where William took up an appointmentas rector of St. Swithin's and St. Mary Bothaw's.They lived in Bush Lane, a narrowThames-sidestreetjust acrossCannonStreetfrom St. Swithin's Lane and in sight of St. Paul'sCathedral.Bush Lane is still there, though now lined with modernconcreteand steel office buildings, close to CannonStreetRailway Station. Here the Elstobs remaineduntil William's deathin 1715.Theseyearswere the period of Elizabeth'sactive scholarship. From copying and transcribingmanuscriptsfor her brother'suse she progressedto learningOld Englishandotherancientnorthernlanguagesandthen to editing Anglo-Saxontexts for hersel£In her late, shottautobiographyshe lovingly acknowledgesthe supportgiven to her early researchesby a brother "who very joyfully andreadily assistedand encourag'dher, in herStudies,with whom shelabour'dvery hard as long as he liv'd" (Bod!. Ballard 43, fo!' 59v). Eventually,accordingto JohnNichols, who was apprenticedprinter to William Bowyer the younger,the sonof Elizabeth'sprinter, shebecame"not only mistressof her own and the Latin tongue,but also of sevenotherlanguages" (Nichols [1812-16], 4: 129). Internal evidenceallows us to include French, modestamountsof classicalGreekand Hebrew,Gothic and otherGermanic languages,as well as Old English and the decipheringof runic inscriptions amongthoselanguagesof which shehad a working knowledge. From the correspondence of the brotherandsisterandfrom accounts left by their visitors a picture emergesof theseproductive London years. GeorgeHickes lived nearby at this time; and there was the community of scholars,Wanley,William Brome,and others,collectedaroundthe Cottonian and Harleian libraries, to whose resourcesbrother and sister had accessat varioustimes.The amateurantiquaryRalphThoresbyrecordsin his diary for January1709 a visit to the Elstobsin Bush Lane; and over a period of time he providesglimpsesinto their domesticarrangements. Among thesehe mentions the ten-year-oldserving boy JamesSmith, who waits at table and, under Elizabeth'sinstruction,learnsto recognizeenoughLatin and Old English to makecopiesof old manuscripts(Thoresby[1830], 2: 131). ElizabethElstob was also acquaintedin theseyearswith the philosopher and feminist polemicist Mary Astell. The connectionmay have been made through Hickes; like him Astell was a Tory, a High Anglican, and a
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believer in women'seducation.But the lives of the two women convergein other ways. Astell was a northerner,also from Newcastle,and echoesof her feminist tracts are heard in the long and lively prefacesthat characterize Elstob'spublishedworks. In scholarshipandlifestyle the olderAstell was probably somethingof a role model and heroinefor the girl, who, by early deprivation, associatedlearningwith restoredfemale companionshipbut from circumstancefound herselfon the perimeterof an exclusively male scholarly world. In later life Elstob was an important sourceof personalinformation aboutAstell when GeorgeBallard cameto include her in his Memoirso/Sev-
eral Ladies0/Great Britain, Who Have Been Celebratedfor Their Writings or Skill in the LearnedLanguages,Arts, andSciences(1752).
In 1715, within months of eachother, William Elstob and George Hickes died. From being the pet of the maleAnglo-Saxonestablishmentand the acquaintanceat leastof the extensivecircle of bookishwomenwho surroundedMary Astell, Elstob simply disappeared,in or about 1718, and was not heardof againuntil sheherselfbecamethe objectof antiquarianpursuit. Shewas, by her own later admission,heavily in debt and unableto find sufficient financial backingfor her ambitiouspublishingventures.Her successful applicationfor the queen'sbounty, a small annualpensionconferredby the monarchon deservingpersons,was cut off within months of its award in 1714 by QueenAnne'sdeath;and the modestfortune left to the brother and sisteron their mother'sdeathhad long since beenconsumedin supplementingWilliam's inadequateLondonsalaryand payinghis expensivemedical bills (NottinghamUniversity Library PortlandPw E 9). Her earliestmodern biographer,CarolineWhite, suggestsa political explanationfor Elstob'sapparentabandonmentby the scholarlyworld at this time: her willingness to treatywith the contemporaryWhig ascendancy(White [1870]: 96). Oxford, in many ways still her academichome, was Tory and loyal, like Hickes, to the memoryof the deposedStuart dynasty.The dilatory patronageof Robert Harley, Lord Oxford, the founderof the HarleianLibrary, was lost in 1715, when he fell from political favor. While party feelings undoubtedlyran high at this time, andwhile old allegianceswould continueto fuel scholarshipin the enclavesof Oxford long after they ceasedto be live issueselsewhere,it is clear that the real discontinuityin ElizabethElstob'slife pre- and post-1715 is explicablenot simply in party-political but in sexual-politicalterms: the consequence of the lost male guaranteesof her scholarshipand with them of her respectability. In the summerof 1735 GeorgeBallard, a corsetmaker by trade and an antiquaryby inclination, discoveredElstob, then agedfifty-two, running an elementaryschoolfor the childrenof the poor in Evesham,Worcestershire.
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Elstob's correspondence with Ballard, preservedfrom 17 August 1735 in Ballard 43 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, is our bestinsight into the lost twenty yearsand the sourceof much of our information on Elstob'slife generally; the Ballard manuscriptsare also an invaluablerecordof the history of medievalscholarshipat Oxford in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries.To Ballard'spersistentinquiries we owe the existenceof the memoir of her own life, only sixty-sevenlines long, which Elstob senton 23 November1738for inclusionin RichardRawlinson'splannedupdateof Anthony Wood'sAthenaeOxonienses(1691-92),a biographicaldictionary of Oxford writers andbishops,which at this time containedno femaleentries.Readapart from its intendeddestination,this reticentand unengagedself-portrait,written in the third person,assumesa poignantsignificance-thestory of a life curtailedlong beforeit was finished. In her first letter to Ballard Elstob writes of her "greatestconcern" as being "the unhappyCircumstancesI have labour'd under for severalyears, which depriv'd me of Leisure to follow thoseStudies,which were my only delight and employmentwhen I had nothing else to do" (Bodl. Ballard 43, fo!' 3v). On 29 August she sendshim a transcriptof Psalm 100 "from the Saxon,written I believe by the first Woman that has studiedthat Language sinceit was spoke."With it sheencloses"a Specimenof Runick," adding,"and Gothick shou'dnot havebeenwanting, cou'd I haveprocur'dit." But her eagernessto reestablishthe scholarlycontact("I am very much concern'dto find the Languageof our Ancestorsso much neglected")is marredby her lack of leisure and resourcesas well as failing health. Sheis now, sheinforms Ballard, "a poor little contemptibleold maid generallyVapour'dup to the ears,but very chearfull, when shemeetswith an agreeableconversation"(Bodl. Ballard 43, fo!' 5). Elstob'sletters to Ballard tell a story of long yearsof physicaland intellectual privation. Illnessesare many; in particular a recurrentcomplaint, which she describesas "myoid NervousFever" (Bod!. Ballard 43, fo!' SIr), affectshead,eyes,and hands,preventingher from writing; it suggests,in part at least, a psychosomaticorigin. When shedisappeared,about 1718, Elstob left behind ("in the handsof a Person,with whom I believ'd they wou'd be very safe") her preciousbooks and manuscriptsand the results of years of unpublishedresearch;sheneverrecoveredthem. Sheappearsnot evento have had accessto copies of her own publications(Bod!. Ballard 43, fo!' 25v). Writing on 21 July 1748 of theselost books, she concludes:"[Ilt is at least thirty yearssince this happen'dto me, and you may reasonablythink it has made me very unhappyever since, which if my Friendswere sensibleof, I mustbelievethey wou'davoid all occasionsof bringing it to my remembrance" (Bod!. Ballard 43, fo!' 72r).
In 1739, through Ballard's publicity and the interventionof a group of influential women in her cause,Elstob becamegovernessto the children of the duchessof Portland.The circumstancesare worth outlining, a good exampleof the web of femaleconnectionsthat sustainedintellectualwomen at this period. SarahChapone,running a girls' boardingschool nearby in Gloucestershire,was, probablyindependentlyof Ballard, interestedin Elstob's plight and drew up a circular letter askingfor a subscriptionon her behal£ Among those she informed of Elstob's situation was her girlhood friend Mary Granville, now Mary Pendarves(and later to be Mary Delany). Mary Pendarveswas a friend of the duchessof Portland,who was granddaughter of RobertHarley, from whoselibrary Elstob hadbenefitedand in whosecollection someof her own transcriptionsnow were housed.Eventshad come full circle. But if the new securitywas welcome, therewas to be no real renewal of scholarlycompanionshipand no return to old researches.As governessto the fourPortlandchildrenElstobwas kept fully employed,instructing them, if her own proposedplan was adheredto, in the principles of religion, somehistory, and the basic rules of English grammarand etymology (Nottingham University Library Portland Pw E 8). She died in the duchess'sserviceat the ageof seventy-two. Always somethingof a curiosity, ElizabethElstobattractedin her lifetime and for the rest of the eighteenthcentury the attentionof male scholars, who recordedtheir brief impressionsof her, often with a certainanthropological or gossipyfascination.Her "lost" years,in particular, titillated the academiccommunity. Brome wrote to ThomasRawlins in 1736 of her rediscovery,"I am as inquisitive into her life as if I were to be her biographer, andwhateveryou impart to me as secretshall go no farther" (White [1870]: 149). For EdwardRoweMores,visiting her at Bulstrode,the Portlands'country seat,"shepursuedtoo much the drug calledlearning" and in consequence cameto grief: "[W]e havevisited her in her sleeping-roomat Bulstrode," he remarks,"surroundedwith booksand dirtinessthe usual appendages of folk oflearning" (Mores, 28). Only GeorgeBallard'saccountof her (Nottingham University Library PortlandPw E 9) is touchedby the sympatheticidentification of one who, as a mere tradesman,himself feels the disadvantagesof exclusionfrom the scholarlyestablishment.Ballard'sone publicationfrom a lifetime of antiquariancollecting, his MemoirsofSeveralLadiesofGreatBrit-
ain, was really the result of his friendshipwith Elstob and, oddly enough,is the most significant monumentto her existence.What is curiousis that, becausethis was a studyof learnedwomen in historyand Elstob herselfwas still alive, shehasno formal entry in Ballard'swork; yet not only was Ballard completing a project that she had contemplatedas early as 1709, but her own 64
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condition as relict of and link with an earlier generationof learnedwomen gave the materialsshe suppliedto him a particular authenticity,just as her own recent history of obscurity and neglectchallengedsociety in his pages to rethink women'srights to literatureand learning. Two slim but prodigiouslytitled volumesrepresentElstob'spublished Anglo-Saxonresearches:An English-SaxonHomily on the Birth-Day ofSt. Gregory: Anciently Usedin the English-SaxonChurch. Giving an Accountofthe Conversionofthe Englishfrom Paganismto Christianity. Translatedinto Modern English (1709) and The Rudimentsof Grammarfor the English-Saxon Tongue,First Given in English: With an Apologyfor the StudyofNorthernAntiquities. BeingVery UsefulTowardsthe UnderstandingOur AncientEnglishPoets, and Other Writers (1715). Her most ambitious project, an edition of both seriesof lElfric's Catholic Homilies, a project begunwith the edition of the St. Gregoryhomily, remains,apartfrom a thirty-six-pageproofspecimen,in manuscriptform in the British Library. Sheneversold enoughsubscriptions to offset the high costsof printing, and the help shelooked for from Queen Anne'sbounty was lost as soonas gained.It is clear from correspondence at this time that the homilies project was implicatedin Elstob'sdebts and disappearance(B.L. Add. 5853, fo!' 151). The late memoir that she drew up for Ballard and Rawlinsonsupplementsthis short list with an accountof her scholarlyundertakingsduring the time shelived with her brother.After listing her publications,sheadds: Shedesign'dif ill fortune had not preventedher to have Publish'dall Alfricks Homilies, of which she had madean entire Transcriptwith the various readingsfrom other Manuscripts,and had translatedseveral of them into English.Shelikewise took an exactCopy of theTextus RoffensisuponVellum, now in the Library of that Greatand Generousencouragerof Learning,the Right Honourablethe Earl of Oxford. And transcribedall the Hymns, from an Ancient Manuscriptbelonging to the Church of Sarum.Shehad severalother designs,but was unhappily hinder'd, by a necessityof getting her Bread, which with much difficulty, labour, and ill health, she has endeavour'dto do for manyYears,with very indifferent success[Bod!. Ballard 43, fo!. 60rl. Elstob'sfirst Anglo-Saxonpublicationwas probablythe transcriptof the Old English AthanasianCreedfrom the Salisbury Psalter,which appearedin the ConspectusBrevisof 1708 to Hickes'sgreat LinguarumVeterum SeptentrionaliumThesaurus(1703-05). Subsequently,as she suggests,and as Thoresbyinforms us after his visit to Bush Lane in January1709, she 65
embarkedupon an improved edition of the Anglo-SaxonPsalmsfrom the SalisburyCathedralmanuscript(Ker, no. 379) to replacethat of Sir John Spelmanof 1640. Her transcriptof the TextusRoffensis(B.L. Harley 1866 and
6523) wasdescribedto Nichols as "one of the mostlovely specimensof modern Saxonwriting that can be imagined" (Nichols [1812-16], 4: 140). Among the "severalotherdesigns"that sheherselfalludesto as unfortunatelyaborted and for which we have no documentationthereappearsto have beena projectedlife of lElfric. When Rawlins visited Elstob in 1736-37,she had still not given up hopeof undertakingthis study. Her brotherWilliam also acknowledgesher assistancein various joint undertakings,amongthem the preparation and adornmentof an edition of Gregory'sPastoral Care (Pegge,24). Aside from her unfulfilled schemes,the core of Elstob's workis the
Homily on theBirth-Day o/St. Gregory, which appearedwhenshewas twentysix; Rudimentso/Grammar,which shepublishedat thirty-two; and what she sawas her most importantcontribution,the unpublishededition of lElfric's
Catholic Homilies, on which she spenther late twenties and early thirties. Though her methodsas an editor predatemodern criteria for establishing textualauthority,shewas consideredby Hickes,whosejudgmentrepresented the standardfor the time, to be a painstakingscholar. For her major work on the lElfric homilies, she borrowedtwo manuscriptsfrom the Cotton Library, one of them B.L. Cotton Vitellius C. v. (Ker, no. 220), a copy of the First Seriesof Catholic Homilies madeat the beginningof the eleventhcentury. This manuscriptwas subsequentlybadly damagedat the edgesin the Cottonfire of 1731.Wherepossible,Elstob'spracticewas to transcribemore than one manuscriptversion of eachhomily and to work toward what she believedto be the best reading, happily, if curiously to us, collating early manuscriptsagainsttheir modern transcriptsas an aid to further accuracy. In its most completesections,her manuscriptdraft for the First Seriescontinues an editorial methodthat she establishedin the pilot text of the Gregory homily. In both, the Old English text occupiesthe left-handcolumn (in manuscript,the verso of eachleaf) with the right-handcolumn (in manuscript, the facing recto) being reservedfor a Modern English translation.A deep bottom margin leavesspacefor referencingand additional notes.The plan was to transcribe,collate, and translateall the homilies.The manuscript volumesofElstob'sedition, preservedin the British Library, bearout her own commentsthat transcriptionand collation had reacheda late stage of completion,but little of the translationor annotationis finished, though rather more is in working draft. Where apparentlycomplete-thatis, lElfric's Latin preface,the prefaceproper, and the first homily, "A Sermon on the Creationto be readto the peoplewhenit is thoughtfit" (B.L. Lansdowne
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373, fols. 2-25)-thecollatedtext and translationare in a neatsmall hand, handsomelyembellishedwith titles done in red, red initials, and somecapitals. To Hickes her edition of the completehomilies was "the most correctI ever sawor read" (Bod!. Ballard 12, fo!' 129r). What remainsmostvaluablein Elstob'spublishededition is its provision of an apparatusand an environmentthrough which the Anglo-Saxon pastcan speakdirectly to the eighteenth-century present.Perhapsher most revolutionarydeparturein editing the Gregoryhomily is her abandonment of Latin, at that time consideredthe medium of exchangebetweenOld and Modern English, and her insistenceon the two stagesof English as capable of mutual explanationand evenlively communication.In her own words: But, to cometo the Homily upon St. Gregory.When I had readit over, and transcribedit, I madeno long Disputeof it, whetheror no I shou'd make it English. ... This, I confess,I have not done with any great Elegance,accordingto the Geniusof our presentIdiom; having chosen rather to use such English as wou'd be both intelligible, and best expressthe Saxon;that, as near as possible,both the Saxonand the
English might be discernedto be of the sameKindred and Affinity: and the Readerbe more readily enabled,andencouragedto know the one by the other; which End I imaginewould not be so well answer'd, by a Translationmore polite and elaborate[Elstob (1709), viii-ixJ. The projectof tracingthe historical continuityof the English language, begunin the Gregotyhomily, is extendedin RudimentsofGrammar,in which Elstob providesan Old English-ModernEnglish grammar.Thoughshedraws heavily hereon the massivescholarshipof Hi ekesandThwaites,her purpose, unlike theirs, is to prove the accessibilityof Old English without the distorting and intimidating interventionof Latin paradigms.The real influenceon her methodwasJElfric; shesoughtto resurrecthis technicalgrammaticalvocabularyin the vernacularand in doing so to reroutelinguistic history. Accordingto one recentverdict it was not until the appearance of Henry Sweet's
An Anglo-SaxonReaderin 1876 that inflections and syntax were again explainedso accessibly(Hughes[1982], 120). In her prefatory"Apology for the Studyof NorthernAntiquities," written as a letter to Hickes, Elstob takeson the formidableoppositionofJonathanSwift (in particularhis chargesleveled againststudentsof Old English in A Proposalfor Correcting, Improving, and AscertainingtheEnglish Tongue[1712]) and the grammarianJohnBrightland. Against Swift's tired and commonplacecriticisms of antiquarianphilologists and indeedof "low" Teutonicelementsin the English language(including 67
monosyllablesand harshconsonants),she assertsthe proof that exists, even in his own practice,of the enrichmentof Modern English by its" SaxonRoot." How can it be imagined,she asks, that the English languagemight be improved"by divestingit of the Ornamentsof Antiquity, or separatingit from the SaxonRoot, whosebrancheswereso copiousandnumerous"?(Elstob, iv). Her Grammarwasan attemptat healingwhat sheconsideredto be an unacceptablecultural breachand a dangeroussuppressionof northernlinguistic identity in the pursuit of classicalrefinement. Neither Elstob nor her male contemporariespresumedour general "scientific" principles for the critical edition; nor was it expectedthat editors would not havedesignsthat their burrowingsinto the pastwould vindicate. It was acknowledgedthat scholarshipis biased.But it was Elstob's great achievementto direct this bias in ways unimaginedby the establishment. Shewas an lElfrician scholar.The rangeof her work is boundedin the Anglo-Saxonperiod by the known lElfric corpusand its characteristic concerns,as they appearedto the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenthcenturies, and in her own age by a blend of political, religious, and personal preoccupations.Associatedwith lElfric for Elstob are the elucidationof the doctrinesof the early Saxonchurch and the consolidationof the authority of the vernacularlanguage.Her translationtheory, for example,owesmuch to lElfric's prefatory defenseof his translation method from the Latin as outlined in the Catholic Homilies and as renderedby Elstob herselfin her projected"English Saxon Homilies of lElfric." Interwovenwith and vivifying these distant inquiries is a zealouslegitimation of contemporary Churchof Englandorthodoxies,a relatedand polemicalfeminism, and one of the earliest systematicdefensesof women'sright to language.Elstob's scholarshipwas dedicatedin equal measureto dispassionatehistorical investigationand interestedself-exploration. The Homily on the Birth-Day ofSt. Gregoryposesa curiousstudyfor the textual critic. Where moderneditorial theory assumesthat the systematiccollation of all relevanttexts leadsbackto an author'sfinal intentionsor the ideal reconstructionof a lost original, Elstob assumesas a living principle inherent in the subjectof the text itself that it leadsforward from its authoror original to her own situationas a learnedwoman in the early-eighteenthcentury. For Elstobeditinginvolvesa substantialengagement, andthe modernedition makes its own social and institutionalstatement.In line with her conviction,lElfric's text is leveledin Elstob'sedition with her own parallelModern English translation and set within an extensiveapparatusof introductorymatter, glosses, and annotations,designedto demonstratehow the themeof the homilySt. Gregory'sconversionof the English to Christianity-originatesa seriesof
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associatedconversionsby which her own authorityas a femaleAnglo-Saxonist is confirmed. Here and in RudimentsofGrammarE1stobputs the casefor Old English as a femalepreserve.Her Grammarwas prompted,shetells us in the preface,by the requestof a younglady to learn Old English from her, andit is written in Englishout of concernfor those"whoseEducation,hathnot aIIow'd them an Acquaintancewith the Grammarsof other Languages"(Elstob, iii). Historically and by right of birth Old English is the "Mother Tongue" (ibid, ii), with somegeneralrelation, E1stobsuggests,to what might be called a female experienceof culture. What this might meanin terms of our late-twentiethcenturyideasaboutthe natureof languageor the relation of women'soppression to the structuresand social functions of languageis an interestingquestion. Like any modernlinguist Elstob is compelledto understandlanguage in terms of a systemof differencesand similarities; and significantly shedistinguishesOld English by its differencefrom Latin andGreek,the traditional foundation of scholarshipand the signs of passageinto a public and male world. Old English, on the contrary,was (and is) the poor relation of the classics; but, more than this, the difference that is Old English reinsertsElstob into the familiarities of a lost world of childhood,the world of the female, presentingto her, as shesays,"a moreparticularAgreementwith someWords which I hadheardwhenvery youngin the North" (E1stob[1709], vi-vii).
It is difficult not to privilege biographicalinformation in evaluating Elstob's contributionto Anglo-Saxonscholarship,becausefor her the study of Old English was an act of self-assertion,and in exploring the JElfrician canon she came to know herself. The quest for self-possessionin history helps to explain Elstob'sabsorptionwith mattersof typography-theElstob Anglo-Saxonfont andthe costly investmentin her printedworks in graphics and decoratedinitials that signal the textual-andgender-politicalalliance at the materiallevel (Sutherland,231-35). Unusualfor a womanpublishing at that time, sheemblawnedher nameacrossher title pages.Elstob'sachievements as a Saxonistare impressive.She was the first scholar to presentthe languageof the Anglo-Saxonsin its originative and lively relation to Modern English; shecompiledthe first critical edition, completewith parallelEnglish translationand notes,of an JElfric sermonand undertookthe first systematic critical edition of the Catholic Homilies; and she producedthe first Old English-ModernEnglish grammar.Shewas a latecomerto thoseChurch of Englandcontroversiesthat did so much to establishthe relevanceof AngloSaxonstudiesin the late-seventeenth century; but the politicized contextfor her acquisitionof Old Englishensuredthat her understandingof the language would be combativeand interrogativeand effecteda transferenceof polemical
69
energyfrom the narrowly religious and party-political to the sexual-political arena.Combinedwith this is Elstob'skeenassociationoflanguageacquisition with various forms of familial and educationalcompensation,where reinstating the "mothertongue"functions as psychologicalandcultural reparation. Elstob'ssignificanceto Anglo-Saxonstudieshasbeentoo easilyignored. The nineteenth-century agendafor Old English scholarshipas the tracingof a self-accountableGermaniclinguistic tradition owed much to her pioneering example.Forgottenfor almosta century,shewas remembered,briefly and with a certainmasculinecondescension (by JosephBosworthin the introduction to his 1823 Grammar), in the contextof the Gothic Romanticismthat markedAnglo-Saxonscholarshipin the early-nineteenthcentury.The habit dies hard: to David Douglasin the twentieth centuryit was "as a propagandist of Old EnglishStudiesthat ElizabethElstob,without everherselfattaining to the front rank in scholarship,was able to take her placeamonga most distinguishedcompanyof scholars"(Douglas,73). Bosworth'sGrammarincluded extractsfrom Elstob'spublishedand unpublishededitions; and in 1839 her edition and translationof the Gregoryhomily was reissuedbut with significant prunings.In the sameyear L. Langley took Elstob'sedition of the homily as the basisfor his Principia Saxonica:Or an Introduction to Anglo-SaxonRead-
ing. Elstob'slife was the subjectof feminist scholarlyinvestigationin the 1920s. More recentlythe critique of Anglo-Saxonstudiesin the light of gender-sensitive historical and linguistic methodologiessuggestspotentialfor further reassessment.In particular Old English studies in the late-twentiethcentury might learn much from Elstob'sculturally sensitiveeditorial and grammatical theories,with their origins in what she, as a woman, believed to be the most vital intersectionsof Old and Modern English history and society. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
WOrks BOOKS AND ARTICLES
An Essayupon Glory. Written Originally in French by the CelebratedMademoisellede Scudery. Done into English by a Person ofthe SameSex. London: Morphew, 1708. [Publishedanonymously.] "Transcriptof Old EnglishAthanasianCreedfrom the SalisburyPsalter."In the ConspectusBrevis(1708) [attributedto William Wotton, but plannedby George Hickes, who also supplied the notes] to Hickes's Linguarum Vett.
SeptentrionaliumThesaurusGrammatico-Criticuset Archaeologicus.2 vols. Oxford: At the SheldonTheatre,1703-05.[Publishedanonymously.]
An English-SaxonHomily on the Birth-Day ofSt. Gregory: AncientlyUsedin the English-SaxonChurch. Giving an Accountofthe Conversionofthe Englishfrom Paganismto Christianity. Translatedinto Modern English, with Notes, &c. London: Bowyer, 1709.
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SomeTestimoniesofLearnedMen in Favour ofthe IntendedEdition ofthe SaxonHomilies, Concerningthe LearningoftheAuthorofThoseHomilies; andtheAdvantagesto Be Hopedfor from an Edition ofThem. In a Letterfrom the Publishers to a Doctor in Divinity. London: Bowyer, 1713. The English SaxonHomilies of/E/fric, Arch-BishopofCanterbury,Who Flourishedin the Latter Endofthe Tenth Centuryand the Beginningofthe Eleventh.Being a CourseofSermonsCollectedout ofthe Writings oftheAncientLatin Fathers, Containingthe Doctrines &c. ofthe Church ofEnglandBefore the Norman Conquest,andShewingIts Purity from Many ofThosePopishInnovationsand Corruptions, Which Were AfterwardsIntroducedinto the Church. Now First Printed, and Translatedinto the Languageofthe PresentTimes. Oxford: At the SheldonTheatre,1715. [B.L. Lansdowne373, fo!' 88, four pagesof a sampleprinting of the Homiliesissuedas a prospectusto raisesubscriptions.] Pageproofs of pp. 1-36 of a projectededition. [Oxford, 1715?]. TheRudimentsofGrammarfor the English-SaxonTongue,First Given in English: With an Apologyfor the StudyofNorthern Antiquities.Beingery UsefolTowardsthe UnderstandingOur AncientEnglishPoets,andOtherWriters. London: Bowyer, 1715. Facsimilereprint with the original preface. TheRudimentsofGrammar for the English-SaxonTongue, 1715. Menston,Yorkshire: Scolar, 1968. An Anglo-SaxonHomily on St. Gregory'sDay, with an English Translation by Elizabeth Elstob. A NewEdition: With a Preface, ContainingSomeAccountofMrs. Elstob. Edited by J.S.c. U.S. Cardale].London: Pickering, 1839. An Apologyfor the StudyofNorthern Antiquities1715. Edited by CharlesPeake.Los Angeles:William AndrewsClark Memorial Library, University of California,
1956. LETIERS AND PAPERS
British Library, London. Lansdowne370-74and Egerton838. Work toward an edition of "The English SaxonHomilies of JElfric Arch-Bishop of Canterbury." BodleianLibrary, Oxford. Ballard 64. Notestoward a history of famouswomen.Dated 12 August 1709. Ballard 43, fols. 3-99. ElizabethElstob'sletters to George Ballard. 17 August 1735-30January1753. NottinghamUniversity Library. PortlandPw E 8-9. A letter from E1stobto Mrs. Mary Pendarves,8 November1738,and an unsignedaccountby Ballard of his "discovery" ofElstob and her story of her life as told to him.
Sources Ashdown,Margaret."ElizabethE1stob,the LearnedSaxonist."Modern LanguageRe-
view 20 (1925): 125-46.
Ballard, George.MemoirsofSeveralLadiesofGreatBritain, Who HaveBeenCelebrated for Their Writings or Skill in the LearnedLanguages,Arts, andSciences.Oxford: Jackson,1752. Beauchamp,Virginia Walcott. "Pioneer Linguist: Elizabeth Elstob (1683-1756)."
University ofMichigan Papersin W0men'sStudies1: 3 (1974): 9-43. Collins, SarahH. "Elizabeth E1stob:A Biography." Ph.D. diss., Indiana University,
1970.
- - - . "The Elstobs and the End of the Saxon Revival." In Anglo-SaxonScholarship: The First ThreeCenturies,editedby Carl T. Berkhoutand Milton McC. Gatch,pp. 107-18.Boston: Hall, 1982.
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Douglas,David C. English Scholars,1660-1730.London: Cape,1939. 2nd. rev. ed. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode,1951. Green, Mary Elizabeth. "Elizabeth Elstob: The Saxon Nymph' (1683-1756)." In FemaleScholars:A Tradition ofLearnedWomenBefore 1800, edited by J.R. Brink, pp. 137-60. Montreal: Eden PressWomen's Publications, 1980. Hughes,ShaunED. "Mrs. Elstob'sDefenseof Antiquarian Learningin Her Rudimentsof Grammarfor the English-SaxonTongue(1715)." Harvard Library Bulletin 27 (1979): 172-91. - - _ . "The Anglo-SaxonGrammarsof GeorgeHickes and ElizabethElstob." In Anglo-SaxonScholarship:TheFirst ThreeCenturies,editedby Carl T. Berkhout and Milton McC. Gatch,pp. 119-47. Boston: Hall, 1982. J., B. "The First Home Student?"OxfordMagazine(24 November1938): 212-13. Ker, N.R CatalogueofManuscriptsContainingAnglo-Saxon.Oxford: Clarendon,1957. Reprint with supplement,1990. Langley, L., ed. Principia Saxonica:Or an Introduction to Anglo-SaxonReading,Com-
prisingAe/fric'sHomily on the Birthday ofSt. Gregory: With a Preliminary Essay on the Utility ofAnglo-Saxon.London: Tyas, 1839. Mores, Edward Rowe. A Dissertation upon English TypographicalFoundersand Founderies(J 778): With a CatalogueandSpecimenofthe TypeFoundryofJohn James(J 782). Edited by Harry Carter and ChristopherRicks. Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Sociery, 1961. Morton, Richard. "Elizabeth Elstob's RudimentsofGrammar(171 S): Germanic Philology for Women." Studiesin Eighteenth-CenturyCulture 20 (1990): 267-87. Murphy, Michael. "The Elstobs:Scholarsof Old English and Anglican Apologists." Durham UniversityJournalS8(1966): 131-38. Nichols, John. BiographicalandLiterary AnecdotesofWilliam Bowyer, Printer, F.S.A., andofMany ofHis LearnedFriends. London: Nichols, 1782. - - - . "The Elstobs." In his Literary Anecdotesofthe EighteenthCentury; Com-
prising BiographicalMemoirsofWilliam Bowyer, Printer, F.S.A. andMany of His LearnedFriends, vol. 4, pp. 112-40.9vols. London: Nichols, Son, and Bentley, 1812-16. Pegge,Samuel."An Historical Account of that VenerableMonument of Antiquity, the TextusRoffensis;Including Memoirs of the LearnedSaxonists,Mr. William Elstob and His Sister...." Vol. 2S of BibliothecaTopographicaBritannica. Edited by John Nichols. London: Nichols, 1784. Perry, Ruth. "George Ballard's Biographiesof LearnedLadies." In Biography in the EighteenthCentury, edited by J.D. Browning, pp. 85-111. New York: Garland, 1980. Reynolds,Myra. The LearnedLady in England1650-1760.Esp. pp. 169-85.Boston: HoughtonMifflin, 1920. Richardson,M.A., ed. "William and ElizabethElstob, the LearnedSaxonists."In his
ReprintsofRare Tracts andImprints ofAntientManuscripts, ere., Chiefly Illustrative ofthe History ofthe Northern Counties,vol. 5, pp. 1-74. 7 vols.
Newcastle:Richardson,1843-49. "The SaxonNymph." TimesLiterary Supplement (28 September1933): 646 (seealso G.S. Hinds, "The Saxon Nymph" TimesLiterary Supplement[S October 1933]: 671; H. Michell, "William Elstob" Times Literary Supplement[26 October1933]: 732). Stephen,Leslie. "Elizabeth Elstob." In The Dictionary ofNational Biography, edited
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by Sir Leslie Stephenand Sir SydneyLee, vol. 6, pp. 752-53. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1885-90. Sutherland,Kathtyn. "Editing for a New Centuty: Elizabeth E1stob'sAnglo-Saxon Manifesto andiElfric's St. GregoryHomily." In The Editing ofOld English: Papersfrom th~ 1990ManchesterConftrence,editedby D.G. Scraggand Paul E. Szarmach,pp. 213-37.Cambridge:Boydell and Brewer, 1994. Thoresby,Ralph. TheDiary ofRAlph Thoresby.Editedby JosephHunter. 2 vols. London: Colburn and Bentley, 1830. - - - . Lettersfrom ElizabethE1stob.In LettersofEminentMen, Addressedto RAlph ThoresbyF.RS.,vol. 2, pp. 147,163,198,225,301.2 vols. London: Colburn and Bentley, 1832. Wallas, Ada. Beforethe Bluestockings.Esp. pp. 133-89. London: Allen and Unwin, 1929. White, CarolineA. "ElizabethE1stob,the Saxonist:Outlinesof the Life of a Learned Lady, in the (So-Called)AugustanAge of English Literature." Sharpe'sLondon MagazineofEntertainmentand Instruction for GeneralReading,n.s., 35 (1869): 180-90,243-47,304-10; n.s., 36 (1870): 26-32, 95-99, 147-52, 190-95,251-54. Wood,Anthony. AthenaeOxonienses:An ExactHistory ofAll the Writers & BishopsWho Have Had Their Education in the Most Ancient& Famous University of Oxford, from the FifteenthYearofKing Henry the Seventh,Dom. 1500, to the End ofthe Year 1690. ... 2 vols. in 1. London: Bennet,1691-92.
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BENJAMIN THORPE (1782-1870)
Phillip Pulsiano
BenjaminThorpewas a remarkablyproductivescholarin Anglo-Saxonand Scandinavianstudiesand an advocate,with John Mitchell Kemble (18071857), of a scientific approachto philology basedon the work of German and Danish scholars.Virtually nothing is known of Thorpe'slife prior to 1830. From about 1826 to 1830he studiedat the University of Copenhagen, most likely under the direction of the linguist RasmusRask (1787-1832). Thorpe providesa glimpseof his earlier careerin a letter dated9 November 1835 to JohnAllen (1771-1843),political and historical writer attachedto the householdof Lord Holland, whom he had askedto assisthim in securing a permanentposition: "I ought to havestatedthat /, by no means,confine
my wishesto the attainmentofa literary post; for havingbeenbred to business, and professingsome'clerkly skill: 1 could turn my handto manythings; and my long residenceat Copenhagenwas on importantbusinesswith the Danish Governmentin direct intercoursewith the king and his ministers...." (B.L. Add. 52185).A letter dated24 December1832from HudsonGurney (1775-1864)to FredericMadden(1801-1873),then an assistantat the British Museum, placesThorpe at one point in Paris, where he worked for the Rothschildfirm: "For Mr. Thorpehe was a personentirely unknownto me-& was merely introducedto me in the courseof his Saxonschemesby Dr. Hodgkin who had known him at Pariswhen in the employof the Rotschilds [sicl-& chargedinto their English business-Hewas next employedby the Houseof Wilsons in negotiatingthe Danish Loan at Copenhagen"(quoted by Toldberg: 290). Gurney goes on to call Thorpe "a very honest,respectable, & capableman-butwho, in thesenegotiations,had notadvancedhis own fortune." Thorpewas madea memberof the Societyof Antiquarieson 24 March 1831 (althoughhe later resigned);he was also an honorarymemberof the IcelandicLiterary Societyof Copenhagen(Hio islenskab6kmenntafelag),of 75
the Royal Academyof Sciencesof Munich, andof the Societyof Netherlandish Literature of Leiden. He was appointedconsul at Stockholm,a post he declined.He was employedby the Public RecordsCommissionfor approximately eight years,beginningin May 1834,althoughhe was neverto obtain a permanentposition. Beyondthesemeagerfacts we know thatThorpewas marriedto a certain Mary Ann (maidenname unknown);that he was granteda civil list pension of £160in 1835,which was increasedto £200 perannumon 17 June1841 "in considerationof his servicesrenderedto literature,particularlyin theAnglo Saxonlanguage"(Colles, 15); that a pensionof £80 was grantedon 13 August
1872 to his wife "in considerationof the laboursof her late husband... in connectionwith Anglo-Saxonliterature" (ibid., 56; seeGentleman'sMagazine
5 [1836]: 191-92,which recordsthe initial sum as £150); and that he had a sister-in-law(unidentified) in Brighton (B.L. Add. 52185; letter of 18 October 1835 to Allen). We know also that his stepdaughterwas namedElise Otte, who was born in Copenhagenand whosewidowed mother married Thorpewhile he was studyingin Denmark.Thorpeoften complainedin his early lettersof ill health,citing "catarrhand rheumatismin the head" (Thorpe to Kemble, 7[?] February1833, Bod!. Eng. lett. b. 4), "a highly inflammatory fever" that causedhim to be "dangerouslyill" (to Allen, 31 July 1835, B.L. Add. 52185). In a letter of 31 May 1840 he offers a grim portrait of himselfjust after the completionof his edition of theAnglo-Saxonlaws: "My pallid front and lingering gait tell me in termsnot to be misunderstood,that if! still earnestlycherishthe wish of continuinga labourerin the field ofliterature,a partial restorationof bodily strengthis quite indispensable"(to Allen, B.L. Add. 52186).Despitethe portrait of ill healththatThorpe'sown commentspaint, his life spannedeighty-eightyears,andhe was still planning new projectsin Anglo-Saxonstudiesin the monthsprior to his deathin 1870. Sincemuch of Thorpe'spersonallife remainshidden,it is throughhis editions, translations, andletters,manyof which areyet to be discovered,that we can ascertainsomethingabout his concerns,his accomplishmentsas a scholar,and his significancefor Anglo-Saxonstudiesin Englandduring the nineteenthcentury.Thorpe first cameto the attentionof scholarsthrough the publicationof his translationofRask'sAngelsaksiskSprogkretilligemeden
kort L£sebog(Stockholm,1817) underthe title A GrammaroftheAnglo-Saxon Tonguewith a Praxis (1830).This first translationinto English was prepared with the cooperationof Rask.It was throughRaskthatThorpewould introduce English scholarsto the "new philology" and, not much later, come to abandonthe Anglo-Saxontypeface(retaining only thorn and eth). It is the comparativelinguist Raskwho is todaycreditedwith distinguishingbetween
76
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what is termedWestandNorth Germanic(seethe Raskessayin this volume). This early connectionwith Raskand the new philology playeda major role in shapingThorpe'sscholarlystanceand perhapslinked Thorpe intimately with Kemble, who was deeply influencedin his work by the Germanphilologist JacobGrimm andwho, evenmore thanThorpe,stoodat the center of controversyin English academe. In 1832Thorpe publishedhis edition and translationof the poems in the so-called"Ca:dmonianManuscript" (Bod!. Junius11), underthe title
Gedmon'sMetrical ParaphraseofParts ofthe Holy Scripturesin Anglo-Saxon. The identical project had beenundertakenby J.J. Conybeare(1779-1824), who upon learningofThorpe'sintentions,turnedover his work to him for his use.Conybeareis accordinglythankedin Thorpe'sprefacefor "his unsolicited kindnessin sendingme his own interleavedcopy of Ca:dmon,containinghis translationof a considerableportion of the poem" (Thorpe [1832], xvi). But the edition that Kemble in his introductoryessayto Francisque Michel's BibliothequeAnglo-Saxonne(1837) would laud as "excellent and satisfactory"and deservingof "the very highestpraise" (Michel, 6) was not without controversy.At an importantmeetingof the Socieryof Antiquaries on 17 November1831 it was resolvedto publishThorpe'sedition followed by Madden'sedition of Layamon'sBrut and Richard Price's edition of the Ormulum.(Both the Gentleman'sMagazine[1 0 1(March 1831): 254] and the Foreign Quarterly Review[7 (1831): 375] reportedthat the printer Richard Taylor was to be co-editorwith Thorpe.) By 5 December1831 at the latest the bookwas in press(Thorpeto Madden,B.L. Egerton2838).Yet at a meeting of the society'sofficers at SomersetHouseon 27 November1832 (so Maddenwrites in his diary) Thorpe'sedition cameunderheavycriticism from Madden,not only for "someill judgedcensureson the characterof}unius as a Saxonist,"but, more important, becauseof the "Verbal Index" to the volume. Thorpe had taken a large step in classifyingwords by headwordsonly (infinitives for verbs; nominativesfor nounsand adjectives),without citing individual forms or occurrences(although preterite forms are sometimes cited). As Maddenwrites: "I objectedto this modeof compilation,as it renders nearly uselessthe object of the Index. The Committeeagreedwith me, but the sheetshaving beenprinted off, it becamea questionof expeme'(Diary of Sir F. Madden,vol. 10, January1831-December1832; entryfor Tuesday 27 November1832; B.L. Facs.*1012). A proposalwas put forward by CharlesPurtonCooperandsecondedby Maddenstating"that Mr. Thorpe's
Index Verborumwas not madein the way intendedby the Committee& he was thereforerequestedto remodel it, & make it strictly a Verbal Index on the plan of the Indicesto the Delphic classics"(entryfor 11 December1832). 77
At a subsequentmeetingon 8 January,which Maddendid not attend, the issueof the "Verbal Index" was againraised.In a letter written that sameday to Madden,Henry Ellis informs him that as a result of letters producedby HudsonGurney,Anna Gurney,RichardTaylor, and othersCooperwithdrew his motion, and the SaxonCommittee"orderedthe Ca:dmonwith its present Index to be publishedforthwith." Nevertheless,Ellis closeshis letter with a stern remark: "I shouldhope, if M' Thorpe is to be employedon any other SaxonClassicfor our Societythat his operationswill be overlookedandguided by a Sub-Committeeof two or threemembersappointedby the Council, who can, fromtime to time, report their opinion of his progress,and of his mode of conductingthe Publication which may be entrustedto his care" (B.L. Egerton2839). Thorpe's"Verbal Index" appearedin the form he had originally intended. The circumstances surroundingthe edition of the "Ca:dmonian"poems are significant for two reasons:First, they providedThorpe with an opportunity to introducehimselfto Kemble; second,as oneof the works supported by the Societyof Antiquariesin its newly proposedseriesthe edition, along with Thorpehimself, would almostimmediatelycomeinto conflict with the DanishscholarN.ES. Grundtvig. On 13 December1832Thorpewrote his first letter to Kemble, in which he summarizeshis dilemmaconcerningthe "Verbal Index" (which was "sentencedforthwith to be cancelled")and asks for Kemble's opinion (Bod!. Eng. lett. b. 4). Kemble's reply apparentlywas positive,andin responseThorpeoffers a commentthat could easily havebeen written by either of thesescholars:"I feel very much obligedand gratified by your letter of the 2nd Inst. which, notwithstandingthe disappointmentsand vexationsthat have hitherto attendedmy short Saxoncareer,revives in me the hopethat the Biblical remainsof our forefathersmay not yet be brought forth in our own country,and that I shall be sparedthe mortification of having recourseto Germanyfor what ought yearsand yearsago to have beendone at home" (7 January1833, Bod!. Eng. lett. b. 4).
It is at this time that Kemble agreedto join Thorpe in preparingan edition of the gospelsand the psalms(accordingto the letter of7 January,of both the Paris Psalterandthe glossedpsalters).UltimatelyThorpehad inmind to bring out what he called a Corpus Biblicum Anglo-Saxonicum(Kemble would usethis samerubric oneyear later in a letter to Grimm, dated8 January 1834: "I am not without hopethat at no very distantperiod, Mr. Thorpe and I may find time to edit all the remainsof the Old Testamentas well as the New, and thesetogetherwith the homilies would form such a Corpus Biblicum as I supposescarcelyany other nation canshow" [Wiley, 48]). From this sameletter to Kemble, we learn that ThorpehopedKemble would help 78
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to securethe supportof the ClarendonPressin publishingthe work. Rather,
the Pitt Syndicsat Cambridgeexpresseda willingness, accordingto Thorpe, to undertakethe gospels(to Allen, 28 May 1833, B.L. Add. 52185).It would
be nearly a year later that Thorpe'sedition of the PansPsalterwould begin being printed by the Clarendon(to Allen, 23 April 1834, B.L. Add. 52185). But it would be still anotheryear beforeit was published,andthen not without disagreementbetweenThorpe and the delegatesof the press,Thorpe claiming that his agreementwas only to producea transcriptof the psalter, nothing more (to Philip Bliss, 9 October 1835, and his reply, 11 October, B.L. Add. 34571).ThatThorpewas in Parisworking directly from the manuscript is confirmed by a letter from the BibliothequeRoyale, dated 12 February 1834: "Mr. Thorpetravailler en effet it la copiedu PsautierAnglo-Saxon pour Ie Bibliothequed'Oxford: la copieestmemetfeS avancee"(Lincoln's Inn, Misc. 269A, vo!' 5, part 1, no. 80). The collaborativeproject betweenKemble andThorpewas apparentlyshort-lived;Thorpewould publish his edition of the west-SaxonGospelsseparatelyin 1842 through printers in London and Oxford; andKemble'sown edition of the gospelswould be publishedin 1858, one year after his death. Thorpe'sedition of C£dmon'sMetrical Paraphrasewas publishedby early February1833 (althoughnot announced;seeThorpe to Kemble, 7[?] February1833,Bod!. Eng. lett. b. 4; the title pagecarriesthe date 1832). Here Grundtvig entersthe picture. Grundtvig had publisheda prospectusin early 1830 announcinghis intention to prepareeditions of Beowulf,Ca:dmon's
Paraphrase,poemschiefly from the Exeter Book, Layamon'sBrut, and Old English homilies (seeToldberg: 288f£). In a letter dated10 July 1831,at the "particulardesire" of Grundtvig, the publishersBlack, Young, andYoung forwarded to Madden a copy of the prospectusannouncinghis intention to publish the new seriesand askingMaddento subscribe.Thorpehad recently returnedfrom Denmark, having completedhis translationof Rask's Gram-
mar and, having got wind of Grundtvig'splans, beganagitating to establish a competingseries.Thorpewas quickly joined by Maddenand other membersof the Societyof Antiquaries(seeToldbergfor detaileddiscussion).Bound with Thorpe'sC£dmon'sMetrical Paraphraseis a prospectus,resolvedupon by the membersof the Societyof Antiquariesin a vote at a meetingof 17 March 1831, and reportedin the Gentleman'sMagazine(101 [March 1831]: 254), inauguratinga new seriesof publications:"The publication of the Remains of Anglo-Saxonand EarlyEnglish Literature existing in manuscript... has long been thought highly desirableby personsattachedto the study of our nationalAntiquities and Language... and it was, on matureconsideration, determinedby the Council, to recommendthat the Societyof Antiquaries 79
should take upon themselvesthe direction and executionof someof these Works ..." (Thorpe [1832], iii). Grundtvigwas understandably annoyed.In a letter dated27 June1831 to Christian Molbech, he writes: "An unpleasantsurprisewas awaiting me here, becauseMr. Bowring told me that anothersubscriptionplan had been made [by Mr. Thorpewho translatedRask'sAnglo-Saxongrammar] for the samebooks I had proposed,and that this plan was supportedby the AntiquarianSociety" (printed by Schr0der,175-76). In a letter written to EW Treschowthe day before, he is more pointedin his remarks:"I returnedon Friday, andyesterdayspokewith Mr. Black, who, like a properEnglishman, was most annoyedat Mr. Thorpe'sconduct,who had beensnoopingaround at his placeuntil he got to seethe prospectusin its manuscriptform and then, when it was printed, had utteredhis surprisethat it was exactlyhis old plan, which I had known and adopted.What luck that I had not suggestedthe edition to Black, but that he had suggestedit to me, and thus knew that it was all a thumping lie" (Christensenand Grundtvig, 2: 194). Clearly, Grundtvig consideredThorpe the culprit who had stolen his proposal;and when it was suggestedto him that he collaboratewith Thorpe, he flatly rejectedthe offer to "join the rival, who hasactedlike a rogueand cheat" (ibid., 2: 195; for a fuller statementby Grundtvig seeSchr0der,213-18; for a detailed accountof the affair seeToldbergand also Hall, esp. 393-95; seealso the commentin Frazier'sMagazine12 [1835]: 80: "We believethat the project did not originatein England.It was first talked of in Denmark..."). Thorpe and the "Maddenites"hadwon out over the Dane,althoughthe seriesso precipitously begun by the Society of Antiquariesdid not last long enoughto seeits announcedvolumespublishedunderits auspices. The year 1834 was both hectic and productivefor Thorpe. In May he beganhis work on completingRichardPrice'sedition of the Anglo-Saxon laws for the Public RecordsCommission;he had recentlycompletedhis edition of ApolloniusofTyre (1834); his edition of the Paris Psalter (1835) was making its way throughthe press;his AnalectaAnglo-Saxonica was published while he was in Paris(seeThorpeto Allen, 23 April 1834, B.L. Add. 52185); and he had begunto take an interestin the Vercelli Book (particularlysince Cooperhad initially led him to understandthat it containedanothertranslation of the psalms,which he had hopedto use to supply the lacunaein the Paris Psalter; seeThorpeto Cooper,12 May 1834, Lincoln'sInn, Misc. 268A, vol. 5, part 2, no. 461).Thorpe'searly reputationas an Anglo-Saxonist,however, restedmuch on the publication of his AnalectaAnglo-Saxonica(1834; rev. ed., 1846),a work that Kemblewould later call "one of the most important Saxon works ever publishedhere or abroad" (introductory essayto 80
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Michel, 25). It is as a result of Kemble'sreview of the book in the Gentleman's
Magazinethat the Analectawould be broughtto the full attentionof English scholars,only to standat the centerof a bitter controversyplayedout through subsequentresponses. In his review Kemblehailedthe Analectaas "anotherproofof [Thorpe's] well-appliedzeal for the study of our native tongue" (Gentleman'sMagazine, n.s., 1 [January-June1834]: 391). Yet in his zeal Kemble launchedan attack upon earlier and currentscholarshipin England,"where little but the most incompetentignorancehashitherto beenwitnessed"(391); andhe challenged in particular the Rawlinson Professorat Oxford University, JamesIngram, groupinghim amongthe "idle and ignorantscholars"(392) of his day. The first responsecamefrom "1.J.," who claimed that Kemble's criticisms were more applicableto Kemble than to English scholars(ibid., 2 [July-December 1834]: 140). ''ToW'' next took up the challenge,criticizing Thorpe's"meagre Glossary," but more pointedly attackingKemble: "We have no longer Anglo-Saxon,but German-Saxon.Someof our half-educatedcountrymen, after spendinga few monthson the Continent,return surchargednot only with gloomy ideason divinity, but evenupon philology," and, further, "[b]ut I havenot donewith your Critic, who is so dependentupon the leadingstrings of DanesandGermans,that he venturesnot a stepwithout them" (ibid.: 260). A tamer responsewas written by "K.N.," who criticizes both Thorpe'sglossary (citing much the sameobjectionsas voiced by Maddenat the meeting of the Societyof Antiquaries)and Kemble'sarrogance(ibid.: 483-86;seealso the reviews by"M.N." [362-63), "T.W" [363-64], "B." [591-94), "K.N." [Kemble, 601-05]' "J.1." [n.s. 3 (January-June1835): esp. 43-44], and "T.W" [ibid.: 167-68]). Throughoutthe controversyand notwithstandingthe criticisms of Thorpe'sglossary,the work was well receivedfor its "general accuracyand value" (ibid., 2 [July-December1834]: 594) andas an "admirablebook" (ibid.: 362), as was his edition of ApolloniusofTyre(ibid.: 363-64).The real issue was the new philology and Kemble's denigrationof the English AngloSaxonistsand his alliancewith continentalscholarship.Thorpewas brought into the controversyby association.Matterscameto a headwith the anonymous publicationin 1835 of TheAnglo-Meteor,supposedlyprinted, according to a note in Madden'shandmadeon the copy in the British Library, "in Holland underthe superintendency of the Rev. Mr. Bosworth."Here the attack againstKemble is relentless(seealso Kemble'slettersto Grimm in Wiley, 101 and 108); and althoughit is insinuatedthatThorpestandsas one of the "two or three GermanizedEnglishmen[who] haveformed a plan of thrusting their foreign notions upon the English" (9), he figures only marginally
81
in the pamphlet,again with regard to his glossaryand also with respectto Kemble'sclaim thatThorpe'sAnalectais the first book to abandonthe AngloSaxoncharactertypes.Thorpe'sletters to Cooperand Allen during this period do not so much as allude to the controversy.Despitehis silencein his letters, however,Thorpestoodwith Kemble in his opinion of Anglo-Saxon studiesin England.As he writes in the prefaceto his Analecta:"[B]ut I shall not regret having sent it [the volume] forth to the world, if, by its publication, the study of the old vernaculartongueof England,so much neglected at home, and so successfullycultivated by foreign philologists, shall be promoted in a land where it onceflourished" (Thorpe,Analecta,iii). (For a detailed discussionof the Kemble affair seeAckerman.) Thorpe'swork with the Public RecordsCommissionbeganofficially in May 1834. In a letter dated28 May 1833Thorpeinforms Allen that one day earlier, upon learning of the death of Richard Price, Subcommissioner of Public Records,who died on 23 May, he had written to CharlesPurton Cooperand Henry Petrie offering his servicesto the RecordsCommission: "I havebut little to urge in favour of my own pretensionsto the appointment beyonda consciouszeal in bringing to light the early monumentsof our Laws and History, and I flatter myselfthat my knowledgeof Saxon,German,Danish, and French,with someIcelandic, may render me in more shapesthan one a useful attacheto the Commission.To the above, I will add that successin this object would tend to relieve my mind from a heavyload of anxiety for the future" (B.L. Add. 52185).That samewish was again expressed to Allen on 23 April 1834 (ibid.) and to Cooper(Lincoln's Inn, Misc. 268A, vol. 5, part 2, no. 460). At this time Thorpe apparentlyfirst learnedof the Vercelli codex, for it is in the Cooperletter that he questionswhether the codexdoes in fact contain an Old English translationof the psalms.By late April Thorpehad receivednewsfrom Allen that the commissionwould soon take "the subjectof the Saxonworks ... into consideration" (27 April 1834,
B.L. Add. 52185); and by May, Thorpehad beencontractedto work for the commissionto completePrice'sedition of the Anglo-Saxonlaws at the rate of £600 to be paid in quarterly installmentsof £50 beginningon 1 Juneof that year (ibid.; letter of 19 June1837 to Allen). Work beganalmostsimultaneouslyon both the Vercelli Book and the laws. By 18 February1835Thorpehad completed,accordingto his own account, a transcriptof the poetry(with arrangementinto metrical units), critical notesand conjecturalemendations,and a descriptionof the manuscript and its contents; headdsas well that he was seeingit through the press.The work "folly engagedme for eight weeks" (to Cooper, Lincoln's Inn, Misc. 269A, vol. 5, part 2, no. 392; seealso no. 391, 8 January1835).The printed 82
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sheetsformed part of Appendix B of Cooper'sReporton Rymer'sFoedera.At the end of Appendix E in the British Library copy (shelfmark B.S. 33) is a notewritten by JohnRomilly of the Public RecordOffice dated29 May 1869 statingthat the ''Appendiceshavebeenin storesincethe year 1837,when the RecordCommissionexpired...." Thorpewould neverseehis work published (see Halsall), althoughcopies of the sheetsdid circulate, even making their way to Germanyand Grimm (seeWiley, 176-77and the prefaceto Grimm's edition, AndreasundElene,iii-iv). Kemble did attemptto defendThorpein the prefaceto his edition of the Vercelli Book: "It would not be fair ... to makeThorperesponsiblefor the meagreform in which his [edition] appeared.
It was intendedas an Appendix, or rather as part of an Appendix ..." (Kemble, vi). Thorpe'smain concernduring his tenurewith the commissionwas with completingan edition of the laws. This period of his life was fraught with anxiety.Thorpe'staskwas originally to completePrice'sedition, of which twenry-threesheetshad alreadybeenprinted.Thorpegraduallycameto recognize that the sheetscontainednumerouserrors (see,for example,Thorpe to Cooper,9 September1834, Lincoln's Inn, Mise. 269A, vol. 5, part 2, no.
464), and his correspondence with Allen during this period often concerned questionsregardingediting and translatingthe texts. By May 1835, after meetingwith Cooperat Holland House,Thorpewrote to Allen recommending that the printed sheetsbe canceled(6 May 1835, B.L. Add. 52185; the report of7 May 1835 to Cooperin Lincoln's Inn, Misc. 269, vol. 5, part 2, no. 393, notes that seventeensheetshad beenprinted; in the prefaceto the printed edition the numbergiven is nineteen).The work, originally to have taken two years to complete,would be completedby May 1840 and published in the sameyear. Throughoutthis period and beyondThorpe'sconcernwas to secure permanentemployment;his lettersare filled with petitions that, as the work on the laws progressed,shadedinto protestations,until by the year 1837 he was openly asking for an increasethat would bring his salary to £350 (see, for example,to Allen, 1 November1837, B.L. Add. 52185,and 24 December [1840], Add. 52186). Allen's responsehad earlier beensympatheticbut crisp: "Get on with your work and as fast as you can and when it is brought to completionI shall [dol my bestto inducethe Commissionersto takeyour caseinto consideration..." (draft, 8 January1836, B.L. Add. 52185).Thorpe entertaineda brief hopethat the Foederawould be resumed(to Allen, 27 July 1840, B.L. Add. 52186),while earliersuggestingthat he might work in Denmark for the commissionin gatheringdocumentson British history in exchangefor £100 toward expensesfor two to threemonths(to Allen, 31 May 83
1840, B.L. Add. 52186).The governmentwas suspiciousthat Thorpehad a private purposein offering to work abroad,and nothingcameof his request. In a letter of 14 September1840Thorpesuccinctlyvoiceshis frustrationand concerns:"What am I to do next?" (to Allen, B.L. Add. 52186).With Allen's help Thorpereceivedan offer of employmentfrom Lord Normanby,but after completingthe laws, he tells us, to be reduced"to the ranks" at the salaryof an extraclerk would be "somewhathumiliating" (to Allen, 25 February1841, B.L. Add. 52186). Despitehis concernfor his future Thorpe remainedproof the Life andLegendof St. Guthlac ductive,working on "a metricalparaphrase in Anglo-Saxon" andproposing,as he haddonerepeatedly,to edit lElfric's homilies or lives of saints(to Allen, 8 October1840, B.L. Add. 52186). Although Thorpe'swork with the commissionhad come to an end, he remainedundauntedin pursuinghis research,proposingto the delegates of Oxford University Pressto edit lElfric's homilies (to Bliss, 2 June 1841, with accompanyingformal proposal,B.L. Add. 34574). One year later his edition of the gospelswas publishedalong with his edition and translation of the Exeter Book, the latter underthe auspicesof the Societyof Antiquaries. The yearwas importantfor other reasonsas well, for it is at this time that Thorpe becameengagedin organizing the lElfric Society. The first certain referenceby Thorpeto the formation of a new societycomesin a letter dated 13 January1842 to Allen: "I am still doing my best towardsfounding a Society (The lElfric) for the publicationof the Homilies and Lives of Saints,to which I have addedthe Sax. Chronicle, Bede (Alfred's) &c., but it is yet in embryo, the Exeter Book having absorbedall my thoughtsof late. Kemble will, I trust, be joined with me in the lElfric, and extinguishIngram'scomic edition" (B.L. Add. 52186).Oneweeklater he forwardedto Allen a preliminary prospectus(21 January[1842] B.L. Add. 52186;seealso letter to Bliss, 21 January1842, B.L. Add. 34574). This early prospectuslists Thorpe as undertakingthe homilies and saints' lives, with Kemble editing the Anglo-
SaxonChronicle. Progressin establishingthe societywas, from Thorpe'sperspective,slow; as of early Februaryonly fifteen subscribers,apartfrom Thorpe's personalfriends and acquaintances,were gathered;and by early March we find Thorpewriting: "About the lElfric I hardly know what to sayfurther than that it doesnot go at rail-way rate" (letter to Allen, 4 Februaryand 3 March 1842, B.L. Add. 52186).His lettersto Allen in this yeardocumentthe numbers of new subscribersto the society; by mid-March Thorpe had collected thirty subscribers,by earlyJuly roughly 120, still eightyshort of the two hundred neededto permit the printing of the first volume (see17 March, 2 May, 13 May, 31 May, 10 June,3 July, and 21 July 1842, and also 13 September 1843, B.L. Add. 52186). Enoughsubscriberswere eventuallysecured. 84
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The revised prospectus,dated 22 May 1843, statesthe aim of the JElfric Society: "The object of this Societyis the publicationof thoseAngloSaxonandotherliterary monuments,both civil and ecclesiastical,tendingto illustrate the early stateof England,which haveeither not yet beengiven to the world, or of which a more correctand convenientedition may be deemed desirable"(printed with the first publicationof the society,Thorpe'sedition of JElfric's homilies).The society, however,was short-lived, publishingonly Thorpe'sedition of the homilies (1844-46)and Kemble'seditionsof Solomon
andSaturn(in threeparts: 1845-48)and the Vercelli Book (1844; part 2 was printed in 1856), althoughthe prospectusannouncedthat Kemble was also to edit Gregory'sPastoral Care and Dialoguesalong with Augustine'sSolilo-
quies,Alfred's translationof Bede'sEcclesiasticalHistory, Orosius,andBoethius's ConsolationofPhilosophy,while Thorpewas to edit the Lives ofSaints;another ten works listed in the prospectusalso never came to fruition. In a letter to Maddendated2 March 1854Thorpeexpresseshis agitationconcerning the society, most probablywith regard to knitting up its financial affairs. The letter is characteristicof Thorpe: seeingthe failure of the society, andsuspectingthat somefunds might remainin the coffers, he proposespublishing a last volume-hisedition of Beowulf,which, he writes, is "quite ready for press" (B.L. Egerton2845).The proposalwas neverfulfilled; the society peteredout, and the edition of Beowulfwas publishedthrough an Oxford printer a year later. From about 1845 onwardwe can detecta changein Thorpe'sscholarly program.Although he continuedto solicit supportfor his projects,he seemsto havesettledinto a patternthat yielded a steadystreamof publications rather than, as in his earlier years, working frantically on multiple projects.Perhapshe hadbegunto achievesomefinancial securityby this time, but perhaps,too, with Kemble having failed to obtain the position of Protobibliothecariusat Cambridgein 1845,andwith his leavingEnglandin 1849 (Wiley, 15-16),the kind of scholarlyexcitementKemble evidentlygeneratedin Thorpe had cooled, andThorpe now begana changedpacein his work. We find Thorpeexpandinghis rangeof interestsbeyondAnglo-Saxon studies. In 1848-49 he publishedan edition of Florenceof Worcester's Chronicon, in 1849 a new edition of John Allen's Inquiry into the Rise and Growth ofthe RoyalPrerogativein England,in 1851-52his Northern Mythology, in 1853 a collection of Scandinavianand Germantales under the title Yule-Tide Stories, and in the sameyear a translationof Reinhold Pauli's
Konig AelfredundseineStelle in der GeschichteEnglands(1851) by "A.P. {of Wareham),"to which Thorpe addedan edition and translationof the Old English Orosius.By November1855Thorpehadcompleteda translationand 85
revision ofJ.M. Lappenberg'sA History ofEnglandUnder theNormanKings, which he publishedtwo yearslater. (Thorpe had publisheda translationof Lappenberg'sGeschichtevon Englandin 1845, althoughhe beganthe project in 1835.) Thorpe's Beowulf,completedin 1854, was publishedin 1855 (Kemble'sedition, limited to a hundredcopies,hadbeenpublishedin 1833). The edition was immediatelycomparedby reviewerswith Kemble's;and both Pauli in GottingischeGelehrteAnzeigen(17 November1855: 1830-35) and the anonymousreviewer in the Athan.eum(no. 1452 [August 25,1855]:967-
68) note the distinction betweenthe two editors: "Mr. Kemble adopted,to the full extent, the views of Grimm; while Mr. Thorpe... has all the predilection of the Northernscholarsfor the Scandinavianliterature, and he evidently looks more to the North than to the South" (ibid.: 967). Even at this late dateThorpe'sorientationin his scholarshipremainedclear. As early as 1849Thorpeexpressedan interestin editing the ecclesiastical councils of Anglo-SaxonEngland. He wrote to Bliss on the subjectin May and October1849 (25 May and 19 October,B.L. Add. 34577),including in the May letter a formal proposalto the delegatesof Oxford University Press.The work would be completedin "about 15 months" at a cost to the pressof £5.10 per printed sheet,"including all charges."Nothing seemsto have come of his plans for his "Concilia Magna: Britannia:." The available letters show a lacunafor the years 1850-55,and only a few miscellaneous letters from after this time have thus far beenfound. It is neverthelessclear thatThorperemainedcontinuouslyactive in his research,publishingan edition of the Anglo-SaxonChroniclein 1861 (althoughKemble was originally to edit the Anglo-SaxonChroniclefor the lElfric Society),his Diplomatarium
Anglicum.IEviSaxoniciin 1865,andhis translationof the PoeticEddain 1866, which, he writes in his preface,was ready for pressin 1856, but which he did not considerfor publicationuntil 1864. Thorpe'sedition and translationof the Anglo-SaxonChroniclebecame the focus of controversyfrom its inception on 6 May 1858,when the Master of the Rolls, Sir JohnRomilly, first proposedthe edition to Thorpe,until its publication in 1861. In a letter dated 12 April 1859 Thorpe statedthat the edition, about fifty sheets,had beensubmittedto the printers and that he was preparingto turn to the translation,but he mentionsin passingthat he was "anxious to be informed of somegentlmanat Cambridgeto whom I might senda few pagesof Latin which I shall be glad to havecollatedwith the CorpusMS. of the Chronicle" (PRO 37/63). The point is taken up by Romilly in a responsedated 13 April: "I have beeninformed (I know not
whethercorrectly or not), that you had not beenat c.c.c.Cambridgefor this purpose" (of collating); and he discussesa numberof discrepancies
86
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betweenThorpe'stext and AbrahamWheelock'sedition (1643). In a letter by Thorpewritten the following day the matteris madeclear: "I took my text of the CorpusM.S. from the Monumenta,collatedwith an original transcript by Price, with Ingram'sedition, andwith Gibson's.In Price'stext I haverarely found an inaccuracy.For nearlya year I havebeenunableto leavethe house, in consequence of inflammationof the headand eyes,which haswholly incapacitatedme for work after candlelightand could not go to Cambridge."
An exchangeoflettersfollowed betweenThorpeand Romilly on the subject in which Romilly remindsThorpein unambiguoustermsthat the edition was to be preparedon the basisof a full collation of the manuscripts:"I should certainly not haveconsideredmyselfjustified in employingthe government moneyfor the republicationof the text of the 'Monumenta'eventhoughcollated with anothertext" (PRO 37163; 19 April 1859); and further "I consider that the MSS are to be printed 'Verbatim et Literatim' as I havestated in various lettersand by this I mean 'all blundersincluded' (PRO 37163; 7 July 1859). The matteris addressedat length in two memoranda(draft andsummary copy) datedWednesday,13 March 1861, recording an interview by Romilly with Mr. Hamilton on the matter.The points madeagainstThorpe are "1. When he found he could not comply with the regulationsas to the collation of the MSS he ought to havereportedthe fact to the M.R. 2. That he ought at leastto haveselecteda personas competentas himselfto collate, when he found that he could not do the work himself. 3. He thought the matter of the fac-similes a very grave dereliction of duty" (PRO 37163) (Thorpehad allowed two lithograghsto be printed for the edition that were not from the Chronicle). Preciselywhat stepsThorpetook to rectify the matter is not clear, althoughit is certain that Romilly playeda part in checking the proof sheetsagainstcertain manuscripts.Thorpe, however,would seem to havereturnedto collating the manuscripts,as his lettersof 17 and22 January to Romilly attest: "I always looked at Pauli's transcripts;but never suffered such doubtful word to passuntil I had ascertainedthe true readingby a reexaminationof the MS" (17 January;PRO 37163); "Unable to rest tranquil underthe groundlesscharge,that, by my own avowal, I had not myself verified the accuracyof my transcriptsof the Chronicle,I sentcertificatefor their signature,to Mr. Macrayand Mr. Hamilton, proving that suchwas not the case"(22 January;PRO 37163). For his work of forty-sevenand one-half sheetsat £8.80 per sheet(760 pages),Thorpe received£399 as payment(7 August 1861; PRO 37163). The prefaceto the edition of the Chroniclewas in proofstageby early February1861. Surprisingly,by 12 June,Thorpe,ignoring the conflicts that 87
attendedthe publicationof the Chronicle, petitionedRomilly to havehis edition of the chartersacceptedfor publication.ApparentlyRomilly refused.A letter written by Thorpe to Romilly dated20 January1862 revealsthe basis for the decision:"The otherobjection-myinabiliry to collate the MSS. Personally, I cannotremove,nor am I awareof any advantagemissingfrom such personalcollation" (PRO 37163). (Thorpe had proposedinsteadto engage ReverendWD. Macrayof the Bodleian,who hadalsoworkedon the Chronicle.) The matter was not pursuedby Romilly. A letter by Mary Ann Thorpe to Romilly dated14 April 1871 notesthe completionof the work in manuscript and asks"whetherthe Governmentcan hold out to me any hopeof accepting my late husband'swork ..." (PRO 37/1). The edition was neverpublished. Even in the last yearsof his life Thorpewas planningfuture works. In a letter to C.H. Pearsondated13 January1869 he statesthat he is currently "engagedon the topographicalchartersof the pre-Normannicperiod, in continuation of my 'DiplomatariumAnglicum'" (Bod!. Eng. lett. d. 191). Pearson,he had hoped,would provide a testimonialso that he could apply to Parliamentfor financial assistance.The first volume, he states,accompanied by a translation,could be "sent to pressin the courseof a fortnight." The work was nevercompleted,nor haveThorpe'snotesbeenfound. Thorpedied on 19 July 1870 at his homeat Chiswick The notice of his deathin the Athanttum(no. 2230 [1870]: 117) is, consideringThorpe'saccomplishments,modest:"It is with greatregretthat we haveto announcethe death, at the advancedageof 88, of Mr. BenjaminThorpe, the archa:ologistand antiquary. Mr. Thorpe'sattainmentsas an Anglo-Saxonscholarare widely known; and he was also notedfor his zeal in the causeof social progressand enlightenment." Yet it wasThorpewho first madeit a commonpracticeto abandonthe traditional (and cumbersome)Anglo-Saxontypeface.And it is to Thorpe that credit is owed for "giving Englandits first native volume of Old English verse" throughthe publicationof Cttdmon'sMetrical Paraphrase(Hall: 401). A comparisonof the letters of Thorpe and Kemble makesit dear that the latter was more deeplydrawn into analyzingand advancingthe principles of Germanicphilology; Thorpewaslessa theoristand morean editor andtranslator, a "labourerin the field ofliteramre," to usehis own words. His copious notesto Allen discussingdetailsof the Anglo-Saxonlaws exhibit, if not a keen mind, at least one that soughtto make senseof and bring to light the large quantiryof materialthat lay hiddenin manuscriptsneglectedby Englishscholars. As a translatorhe was exceedinglyliteral; one moderncritic remarksof Thorpe'sBeowulf'This translationcannotbe read" (Crane: 331). Thorpe's complaint to Bliss about his arrangementwith the delegatesof Oxford Universiry Presswith regard to his edition of the Paris Psalter may well be 88
BEN JAM I NTH 0 R P E
indicative of how he conceivedof his task within the scholarlyarena:"I believe 1 neednot recall to your memorymy consultationwith you uponthe subject, and that my proposal,foundedupon that consultation,was for a transcript only. ... My contractwas drawn up, as 1 thought with all the explicitness which such a documentrequired,but it seemsthat the Delegatesopine that the words 'furnish a transcript'imply the correctionof the proofs of 30 sheets of Saxon& Latin, the framing of a setof notes,and the composingof a preface" (9 October 1835, B.L. Add. 34571). We see much the sameorientation at work in his edition of JElfric's Homilies: "[M]y labourhas,consequently,been limited to that of a faithful transcriptionof that transcript,as literal as my acquaintancewith the languageandmy notionsof goodtastepermitted;and1 ventureto hope that such a translation,though unattendedby commentary, will be regardedwith interestby the membersof eachof the greatcommunities into which the Christianworld is divided" (Thorpe [1844], 1: vi-vii). Thorpe'simpottanceresidesin his making availableup-to-dateeditions accompaniedin mostcasesby translations,alongwith works, suchas his translation of Rask'sGrammaror his own Analecta,that could be usedby studentsand that in the long run would invigorateAnglo-Saxonstudiesin England.It is in this contextthat his translationsof Germanscholarly worksandof Scandinavian poetry and tales can be placed. His program,especiallyin the early pan of his career,was directedtoward sendingthe materialout to the public as quickly as possible,evenif this meantin somecasesoffering little more than transcriptsor literal translations.His editionswould come to be superseded,somesoon after his death, but their significancefor their time, and even for the preparationof moderneditions,is not to be passedover lightly. Despiteits obviousdeficiencies Thorpe'soutput played an important role in realizing his dreamof revitalizing Anglo-Saxonstudiesin England.It was this dreamthat in somemeasurehe lived to seecometo fruition, much to his delight, as the prefaceto his revisededition of the Analectasuggests:"The editorfeels muchgratificationin mentioningthat this work is now adoptedas a text-bookfor his lecturesby the RawlinsonProfessorofAnglo-Saxonliteraturein the Universityof Oxford, whenceit maybe hoped that the study of our ancientmother-tonguemay find its way, as an essential branchof English education,into our higherschools..." (Thorpe[1846], vi). SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
WOrks BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Trans. A Grammarofthe Anglo-SaxonTongue, with a Praxis . ..: ANew Edition Enlarged and Improvedby the Author, by ErasmusRask Copenhagen:M011er, 1830. 2nd rev. ed. London: TrUbner, 1865.
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Ed. and trans. CEdmon'sMetrical ParaphraseofParts ofthe Holy Scripturesin AngloSaxon:With an English Translation, Notes,anda Verbal Index. London: Society of Antiquaries, 1832. Ed. and trans. AnalectaAnglo-Saxonica:A Selection,in Proseand Verse, from AngloSaxonAuthorsofVariousAges, with a Glossary. DesignedChiefly as a First Book for Students.London: Arch, 1834. Rev. ed. London: Smith, Elder, 1846. Ed. and trans. TheAnglo-SaxonVersion ofthe Story ofApolloniusof1jre: Upon Which Is FoundedthePlay ofPericles,Attributedto Shakespeare:From a Ms. in the Library ofCCC, Cambridge.With a Literal Translation, &c. London: Arch, 1834. Ed. Libri psalmorumversio antiqua Latina; cum paraphrasiAnglo-Saxonica,partim soluta oratione, partim metricecomposita,nuncprimum e. cod. mJ. in Bibl. regia Parisiensiadservato.Oxford: E TypographaeoAcademico,1835. Ed. "Appendix B" to CharlesCooper'sReporton Rymer'sFoedera. London: Record Commission,1869. [A pageat the end of appendixE notesthat the report was originally readiedin 1837.] Ed. AncientLawsandInstitutesofEngland.·ComprisingLawsEnactedUnder theAngloSaxonKingsfrom .!Ethelbirhtto Cnut, with an English Translation ofthe Saxon; The Laws CalledEdwardthe Confessor's;The Laws ofWilliam the Conquerer, and ThoseAscribedto Henry theFirst. Also, MonumentaEcclesiasticaAnglicana, ftom the Seventhto the Tenth Century;andtheAncientLatin Version oftheAngloSaxonLaws. With a CompendiousGlossary, &c. By commandof His Late Majesty King William IV underthe direction of the Public Recordsof the Kingdom. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode,1840. Ed. Da Halgan GodspelonEnglisc: TheAnglo-SaxonVersion ofthe Holy Gospels.Edited from the Original Manuscripts.London: Rivington; Oxford: Parker, 1842. Ed. and trans. CodexExoniensis:A Collection ofAnglo-SaxonPoetry,from a Manuscript
in the Library ofthe Dean and ChapterofExeter, with an English Translation, Notes,andIndexes.London: Societyof Antiquaries, 1842. Ed. and trans. The Homilies of.!Elfie, with an English Translation. 2 vols. London: lElfric Society, 1844-46.[Vol. 1 hasan addedtitle page: The Homilies ofthe Anglo-SaxonChurch. The First Part, Containingthe "SermonesCatholici," or Homiliesof.!E/ftic. In the Original Anglo-Saxon,with an English Version.] Trans.A History ofEnglandUnder theAnglo-SaxonKings, Translatedfrom the German ofDr. JM Lappenberg,For. HS.A., Keeperofthe Archivesofthe City ofHamburg. With Additionsand Correctionsby theAuthorand the Translator. 2 vols. London: Murray, 1845. Ed. Florentii WigorniensisMonachi. Chroniconex Chronicis, ab adventuHengestietHorsi in Britanniam usqueadannumM CXVII. Cui accesseruntcontinuationesduae quarum una ad annumM CXLI., altera, nuncprimum typis vulgata, ad annumM CCXCV.perducta.Adfidem codicummanuscriptorumedidit, brevique adnotationepassimillustravit. 2 vols. London: SumptibusSocietatis,1848-49. Ed. Inquiry into the Riseand Growth ofthe RoyalPrerogativein England: A New Edition with theAuthor'sLatestCorrections,BiographicalNotices, &c. To Which Is Addedan Inquiry into the Lifo and CharacterofKing Eadwig, by JohnAllen. London: Longman,Brown, Green,and Longmans,1849. "lElfric's Colloquy." Notesand Queries1 (9 February1850): 232. Ed. and trans. Northern Mythology: Comprisingthe Principal Popular Traditions and SuperstitionsofScandinavia,North Germany,and the Netherlands.Compiled ftom Original and Other Sources.3 vols. London: Lumley, 1851-52. Ed. Yule-Tide Stories:A Collection ofScandinavianand North GermanPopular Tales and Traditions,from the Swedish,Danish, and German.London: Bohn, 1853.
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Ed. and trans. with A.P. The Life ofAlftedthe Great. Translatedfrom the German of
Dr. R. Pauli. To WhichIs AppendedAlfted's Anglo-SaxonVersion ofOrosius. With a Literal English Translation, andan Anglo-SaxonAlphabetand Glossary. London: Bell, 1853. [Thorpeis responsiblefor the text and translationof Orosius; ':A.P." for the translation.] Ed. and trans. TheAnglo-SaxonPoemsofBeowulf,the Scopor Gleeman'sTale, andthe Fight at Finnesburg: With a Literal Translation, Notes, Glossary, etc. Oxford: Wright; Henry Parker, 1855. Trans. A History ofEnglandUnder the Norman Kings, or from the Battle ofHastings
to the Accessionofthe HouseofPlantagenet:To Which Is Prefixedan Epitome ofthe Early History ofNormandy. Translatedfrom the German ofDr. JM Lappenberg,For. ES.A., Keeperofthe Archivesofthe City ofHamburg. Oxford: Wright, 1857. Ed. and trans. TheAnglo-SaxonChronicle: Accordingto the SeveralOriginal Authorities. 2 vols. London: Longman,Green,Longman,and Roberts,1861. Ed. and trans. DiplomatariumAnglicum.lEvi Saxonici:A Collection ofEnglish Char-
ters, from the ReignofKing.lEthelberhtofKent, A.D. DC. V. to That ofWilliam the Conquerer. Containingl MiscellaneousCharters. Il Wills. III Guilds. Iv. ManumissionsandAcquittances.With a Translation ofthe Anglo-Saxon.london: Macmillan, 1865. Ed. and trans. Edda St£mundarhinns FrOlJa: The Edda ofSt£mundthe Learned,from
the Old Norse or Icelandic with a Mythological Index and an Index ofPersons and Places. London: Triibner, 1866. [Issued in two parts, the first without indication of authorship.] LEITERS AND PAPERS
The most importantof the lettersto, from, and concerningThorpearefound in London, B.L.Add. 34571,34574,34577,34580,43798,52184, 52185, 52186; B.L. Egerton 2838, 2839,2845; London, Lincoln's Inn, Correspondence of c.P. Cooper,Misc. 268, 268A, 269A [letters from 1834 to 1838]; London, PublicRecord Office 37/63; Oxford, Bodi. Eng. lett. b. 4, Eng. lett. d. 191; Bodl. Phillips-Robinson e 398, fols. 51-52.
Sources Ackerman,GretchenP. "J.M. Kemble and Sir FredericMadden: 'Conceit and Too Much Germanism'?"In Anglo-SaxonScholarship: The First Three Centuries, edited by Carl T. Berkhout and Milton McC. Gatch, pp. 167-81. Boston: Hall, 1982. [Anon.]. The Anglo-SaxonMeteor: Or Letters, in Defenceof Oxford, Treating ofthe
WonderfolGothicAttainmentsofJohnM Kemble,ofTrinity College, Cambridge. Oxford, 1835. [Anon.]. Review of TheAnglo-SaxonPoemsofBeowulf,the Scopor Gleeman'sTale, and the Fight at Finnesburg.Athant£um(25 August 1855): 967-68. Arsleff, Hans. The StudyofLanguagein England, 1780-1860.Princeton:Princeton University Press,1967. Christensen,Georg, and StenerGrundtvig, eds. Brevefra og til N.ES. Grundtvig.2 vols. Copenhagen:Gyldendal, 1924-29. Clubb, Merrel D. "Junius,Marshall, Madden,Thorpe---andHarvard." In Studiesin LanguageandLiteraturein HonourofMargaret Schlauch,editedby Mieczyslaw Brahmeret aI., pp. 55-70.Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers,1966.
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Colles,William Morris. Literature and the PensionList: An InvestigationConducted for the Committeeofthe IncorporatedSocietyofAuthors. London: Societyof Authors, 1889. Crane,JohnKenny. "To Thwackor Be Thwacked:An Evaluationof AvailableTranslations and Editions of Beowulf' CollegeEnglish32 (1970): 321-40. Grimm, Jacob,ed. AndreasundElene. Cassel:Fischer,1840. Hall, J.R. "The Conybeare'Ca:dmon':A Turning Point in the History of Old English Scholarship."Harvard Library Bulletin 33 (1985): 378-403. Halsall, Maureen."BenjaminThorpeandthe Vercelli Book." English LanguageNotes 6 (1969): 164-69. Kemble, J.M., ed. The Poetry ofthe CodexVercellensis:With an English Translation. London:.t£lfric Society, 1843. Kennedy,Arthur G. "Odium Philologicum,or, a Centuryof Progressin EnglishPhilology." In StanfordStudiesin LanguageandLiterature, editedby Hardin Craig, pp. 11-27. Stanford:StanfordUniversity Press,1941. Ker, N.R "c. Maier's Transcriptof the Vercelli Book." Medium/Evum 19 (1950): 17-25. Michel, FrancisqueXavier. BibliothequeAnglo-Saxonne.Paris: Silvestre; London: Pickering, 1837. Pauli, Reinhold. Review of TheAnglo-SaxonPoemsofBeowulf,the SCDP or Gleeman's Tale, andthe Fight at Finnesburg. GottingischegelehrteAnzeige(17 November 1855): 1830-35. Schr0der,L., ed. Christian Molbech og Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig. En BrevvexlingSamletafChr. KF. Molbech. Copenhagen:Gyldendal,1888. Toldberg,Helge. "Grundtvig og de engelskeantikvarer." Orbis Litterarum 5 (1947): 258-311. Wiley, RaymondA., ed and trans.John Mitchell KembleandJakob Grimm: A Correspondence1832-1852:UnpublishedLettersofKembleand TranslatedAnswers ofGrimm. Leiden: Brill, 1971.
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THE BROTHERS GRIMM JACOB LUDWIG CARL
(1785-1863);WILHELM
CARL
(1786-1859) Maria Dobozy
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and his brother Wilhelm Carl Grimm, the foundersof the disciplinesof folklore and Germanliteratureand linguistics, were born in Hanau, Hesse-Kassel.The title page of their Hildebrandslied, publishedin 1812, carries the words "herausgegeben durch die Bri.ider Grimm," a self-chosendesignationthat expressedthe unity with which the editorspursuedtheir scholarlyendeavors.This phrase,and not the faity tales alone, madethe brothersinseparablein the minds of their readersand warrantsa joint biography. Jacoband Wilhelm were the oldest of five brothersand one sister. When their father, Philipp Wilhelm Grimm, town clerk in Hanauand later justiciary in Steinau,died in 1796, the family fell into economichardship. It was throughthe supportof their mother'ssister,HenrietteZimmer, who was in serviceto the landgravineof Hesse,that Jacoband Wilhelm were able to attendthe gymnasiumin Kasseland then the university in Marburg (1802-06).They studiedlaw with the intention of enteringcivil service. In 1806Jacobbecamea clerk in the HessianWar Office. After the French assumedcontrol in 1808, he enteredthe employofJeromeBonaparte,king of the newly createdkingdom of Westphalia,as private librarian. After Napoleon'sdefeatJacobreturnedto Hessiandiplomaticserviceas secretary from 1813 to 1815, taking part in the Congressof Vienna from September 1814 to June1815. Wilhelm, long unemployedbecauseof a heartconditionresultingfrom scarletfever, took the postof secretaryat the elector'slibrary in Kasselin 1814. Jacobreturnedthere in 1816 also to work at the library. Aside from short periodsof separationWilhelm and Jacobsharedone household,living and working togetherin adjoining roomswith much carryingof booksbackand forth. In 1825Wilhelm marriedDorotheaWild, a neighborand closefriend
93
of their sister,who assumedresponsibilityfor the doublehousehold.Sheand Wilhelm had threechildren. At the university in Marburg the brothers becameacquaintedwith Friedrich Karl von Savigny, co-founderof the historical school of jurisprudence,andwith his "geneticprinciple." From him they learnedhow to work with medievalmanuscriptsand to respectthe original text. Jacobspentseveral months in Paris collecting material from manuscriptsfor von Savigny. In their own work, too, the brothersmademore careful and accuratecopies of manuscriptsthan had their predecessors. Through von Savignythey met ClemensBrentanoandAchim von Arnim, two membersof the well-known circle of Romanticpoets,who encouragedtheir interestand love for folk poetry and also medievalpoetry. During their formative yearsin Marburg and Kasselthe brothersbegan to publish on medievalliteratureand by 1814 had abandonedcivil service for a lifelong interestin the deveiopmentof humanculture by studying the documentsof the medieval Europeanpast. Having assimilatedand reworkedJohannGottfried Herder'sconceptof Naturpoesie,natureor folk poetry, andvon Savigny'sgeneticprinciple, they beganearly on to developtheir own theory of naturepoetry, which would justifY the study of literaturehistorically in all periods. Interestedprimarily in the origin and development of culture, they focusedon literary documents,consideringthem to be its most revealingandsignificantproducts.In 1829,whenWilliam II, electorof HesseKassel,refusedto promotethem to fill the vacatedposition oflibrarian, they acceptedan invitation to go to Gottingenas professorsand librarians.Jacob lecturedat the universityon the history of Germanliterature,Germangrammar, Tacitus's Germania, and diplomatics; Wilhelm on Gudrun, the
Nibelungenlied,and Erek by Hartmannvon Aue. An act of political protestendedtheir professorshipsin Gottingen.In 1837 ErnestAugustus,duke of Cumberlandand arch-Tory, becameking of Hanover.Opposedto the increasingparticipationof citizensin the molding of constitutionalgovernments,he repudiatedthe constitution of 1833. In responsesevenuniversity professors,including the Grimms, objectedpublicly on legal grounds.The GottingenSevenwere dismissedfrom the university, and the threewho were consideredthe initiators of the protest,Jacob and the two historiansFriedrich ChristophDahlmannand GeorgGottfried Gervinus,were immediatelyexiled. The GottingenSevenhad expressedthe right of citizens to maintaina constitutionand to protestdespoticauthority. This episodebrought the Sevenpolitical notoriety throughoutGermany;it demonstratedto many their commitmentto the democraticchangesslowly taking place (seeJacob'sdefense,J. Grimm [1838]). 94
THE
B ROT HER S G
RIM M
During the exile (1837--40)universitiesin Weimar, Marburg, France, Belgium, the Netherlands,andSwitzerlandoffered the brotherspositions.In 1840 they acceptedthe invitation of FrederickWilliam IV; king of Prussia, to lecture at the University of Berlin as membersof the Royal Academyof Sciences.Jacob'sfinal public involvementin the nation building of his day was his attendanceat the Frankfurt National Parliamentconstitutedafter the March Revolutionof 1848. Electedto representEssen-Millheim,he participateddutifully until the discussionsreacheda deadlock.By the time of the move to Berlin, the brotherswere respectedacrossEurope.Severalscientific academiesinducted them into their ranks, among them Gottingen, 1812; Berlin, 1832; Reykjavik and Copenhagen,1833; Paris(Legion of Honor for Jacob), 1841; London and Switzerland, 1843; Stockholm, 1844; Helsinki, 1845; St. Petersburg,1854; Boston, 1852. The Grimms' intellectual developmentwas formed by the German naturephilosophers.Perhapsthe strongestinfluenceof the older generation was Herderand his theory of naturepoetry, basedon the premisethat early societywas undivided.This early, prenationalperiod of unity, in which not individuals but the folk in its collectivevigor (Volksgeist)createdits own history, was consideredthe historical period of "nature." What we know as separate institutions and cultural products,such as poetry, history, law, and religion, were first an undivideduniry, which grew and differentiatedgradually.Since that early periodof communitythe vigorousfolk spirit hascontinuedto drive the unfolding of culture, differentiating to developseparateinstitutions and variousways in which to reflect upon and expressitsel£ The spirit of the folk or communityis responsiblefor guiding the maturationprocessso that institutions may developby meansof analogousstructures.Cultureconstitutesa system and developsor maturesaccordingto its own internal rules, like a living organism,hencethe useof the organicmetaphorto describeits development. In the pastthe folk spirit was unreflective,not affectedby social constraintsand conflicts, and thereforeable to producea body of literaturethat presentedan objective picture of life and its own history. Such naive poetry composeditself. Producednot by an individual poet but by the specially empoweredvoice of the folk, it was true poetrybecauseit was integratedwith the community: it was createdand understoodby all
O. Grimm [1807]). In
contrastthe poetas individual emergesin later stagesof cultural development to producesubjectivepoetry.As the poet reflectsupon himselfand his world, he produceswhat is no longer natural, but artificial: Kunstpoesie.The drawbackof a spontaneously,individually producedartwork is its fragmentednature, and thereforeits subjectivity; it representsonly part of reality or history, and as suchcan no longer be understoodby the entire community.
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The creativestagein which the Volksgeistproducedgenuinefolk poetry was for Jacoba historical period, now fragmentedand lost, its unity and perfectionnever to be regained.Wilhelm, too, acknowledgedthe age of folk poetry in which the heroic songs,epics,and legendsfirst appeared. Yet, in contrastto Jacob,he maintainedunshakenfaith in the eternalexistenceof Volkpoesiein humanhistory. For him literaturewas dynamic, renewed again and again by the audiencewith each reading or hearing (Denecke[1971], 193). Like their Romanticcontemporariesthe brothersviewedthis earlystage in the developmentof societyin generaland of Germanculturein particular as simpler and more "honest" or objective.They differed, however, in that they distinguishedclearly betweenthe past and their own period. Although they saw the Germanicpast as a living, vital part of their present,they did not wish to turn the clock backor to recreatethe past. Tracesof the unfragmentedpastwere not completelylost. Folk poetry expressingthe commoncultural heritageof humankindhad sunk below the surfaceof educatedculture to be passedon as traditional legends and fairy tales by peasantsand artisans.Here it survived,adaptedand transmitted orally, a sourcewaiting to be tapped.The brothersmade ready to tap as much"evidence"of the early cultureas possible,not only from manuscripts but also from oral legendsand tales, in order to discoverthe living germ of the past. It was von Savignywho offered a method.While remainingconsistent with the thenprevailingnaturephilosophy,von Savignybuilt on the historical conceptof natural,organicmaturationof all culture.According to his geneticprinciple institutionsdevelopedout of customsand traditions,which grew out of the needsof the membersof the community.Law, too, unfolded from the innermostessenceof the folk community and from a common history. Becausethesecustomsevolve and live on to developaccordingto their own rules or teleology, no laws can be imposedfrom the outsidewithout seriouslydisturbing the systemand its subsequentdevelopment.Law developsorganically;it is not fabricated,nor can it be imposedfrom outside. Jurisprudencemust be treatedhistorically (Schmidt-Wiegand,Grimm, 3). OnceJacobhad rethoughtthe geneticprinciple and appliedit to languageand literature, the premiseof an underlying systemand rules that bring maturationrequired that literature, too, be studiedhistorically. He maintainedthat since law, like languageand custom, is popular in its origins and organicin its development,it cannotbe consideredseparatelyfrom them. It is as ridiculous to invent a languageor a poetryartificially as it is to attemptto createa law code.
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The fact thatJacobconnectedlanguageandlaw, consideringlanguage the foundationof institutions, meansthat he went considerablybeyondhis teacherin applying the principle systematicallyto all aspectsof cultural development(ibid., 5). Languageis central in this approachbecauseit is the repositoryof cultural, traditional knowledge(]. Grimm [1815]). Philology and grammar-theanalysisof eachinstanceof languageuse-arecentral to all historicalinquiry becauselanguageis the mediumfor the preservationand transmissionof tradition. The theoryof unified culturedictatesa methodby which onecan place the object of study in its original context, and von Savignyprescribedtwo types of investigations:the collection of internal evidenceto reconstructthe structuresor essentialfeaturesthat disclosethe workings of the system,and the studyof the externalinfluenceson the objectover time. Determiningthe original context requirescomparativeand historical methodology.This was not developedby von Savigny or the Grimms alone. A burgeoningnotion of geneticrelationshipssimilar to a simple evolutionaryschemawas a common topic in naturephilosophyand usedto explain speciationin the natural world. Naturalists,as well as Herderand JohannWolfgang von Goethe, discussedthe needfor a comparativemethodfor reconstructingan archetype plan or structurethat guides the maturationof eachorganismbut that also ensuresthat different speciesmaturein analogousways. By 1793 the biologist Karl Friedrich Kielmayer had written that "the resemblanceof the species one to the other, and their diversity, appearsin the source,almost as though they camefrom a commonfather" (Mason,358). Oncethe organic metaphorhad been so usefully applied to cultural development(e.g., Sir William Jones[1786] on the genealogicalthesisfor language),the Grimms took the next step and appliedthis principle and its methodconsistentlyto their studyoflanguageandliterature.This was the innovationthat madetheir work exemplaryand promptedscholarsto namethem foundersof German philology, or Germanics,a term that in Germancomprisesliterature, folklore, linguistics, history, and mythologyas they pertainto the history of German culture. Todaywe considerthem separatedisciplines. The brothersfound the WllksgeistofHerdercorroboratedin their study of medievalmanuscriptsandpoetictexts, andso the theoryand their projects, they felt, grew out of the artifactsandtexts, andwere not imposedupon them. In his own lectureon the humanorigins oflanguage(1851) Jacobexpressed his debt to Herderby using the title of his award-winningessayof 1770and againrejectingthe view that humanlanguagewas a direct gift from God. The brothersformulateda completeresearchprogramearlyon in their journal on folk culture, AltdeutscheWiilder, publishedin 1813-16(Denecke
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[1971]' 56). The plan was to focus on the origins and growth of literature and cultureof the Old High Germanand Middle High Germanperiods(ca. 800-1450)using the methodoutlined above.The unified approach,which had as its goal the reconstructionof the past from which contemporaryinstitutionshad evolved,dictateda comparativemethodthat broughttogether the severalcomponentsof culture: literature, folklore, linguistics, law, and religion. To this end they soughtout sourcesfrom the pastas well as existing oral tradition. The fairy tales and folktales told by their contemporariesbecameas importantas the manuscriptsof heroic poetry. The brotherswere collectors, and not just of Germanmaterial. They lookedfor Germanicsourcesin Scandinavia,the Netherlands,andEnglandand studiedothertraditionsin Spain,Ireland,Scotland,Serbia,Russia,andFinland. Yet they were not indiscriminatecollectorsor hoardersof material, for they found relationsandconnectionsin the materialthey gathered.Theysharedtheir sourcesand insightswith fellow scholars,a trait that madethem a nodal point in the Europeanscholarly community. Among their correspondentswere Goethe,RasmusRask, RasmusNyerup, Richard Cleasby,John M. Kemble, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Finnur MagnUsson,August Schleicher,and Karl Freiherrvom und zum Stein. The Grimms hadalwaysintendedto publishsimultaneouslytheir collectionsof primary materialsand essaysevaluatingthosematerials.By 1807 they beganpublishingon the questionof the origin and characterof medievalliterature.Jacobproposedthat historiographyand literature were not distinct in what has since then beencalled the heroic age, roughly the sixth centurythrough the ninth, becausepoetry is the expressionof both the history and the identity of the Germanicpeoples(J. Grimm [1807]). From the first they setaboutcollectingwith the purposeof seekingthe basicelementin poetry, the Sage, or legend, that would allow reconstruction of early-Germanicpoems.For Jacobpoetry, like natural history, carriesits results, its teleologicaldevelopment,within; the outcomecannotbesuperimposed
(J. and W. Grimm [1813]' "Preface"). Nordic literature quickly became Wilhelm's specialareain 1808, after he comparedthe oldestGermanicliterary texts and madedistinctionsbasedon sociologicalcriteria as well as on the nature-artdichotomy(W, Grimm [1808]). And in 1811,as counterpartto Jacob's book on Minnesang(courtly love poetry), he publishedhis translationof heroic poetry, AltdiinischeHeldenlieder(Old Danish Heroic Poetry). The translaincludesa lengthycomparation, sincecorrectedbut stylistically unsurpassed, tive studythat discussesthe origins, language,andstyle of this true naturepoetry. The brothers' comparativemethod and conclusionsinitially led them to stresssimilarities and underplaydifferences.WhenJacobrefused 98
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to distinguishbetweenMinnesangandthe later Meistergesanginorder to stress the priority of naturepoetry over art createdby individual poets0. Grimm [1807]), BernhardJ. Docenrespondedby demonstratingthe manydifferences betweenthem (Docen [1807]). Later, likely becauseof what the brothershad learnedthrough applicationof comparativemethodto phonology, they began to stressdifferencesquite a bit more. The changeis noticeablein the greatercarewith which theyfollow up on sourcetraditionsand developments. In the Kinder- undHausmarchenthey implied that all tales belongedto one great collective folk tradition that one might assumewas German,whereas later they tried to distinguishGermanicmaterialfrom otherson the basisof transmissionand language. Jacob'sstudyof the poemsaboutEmperorFrederickBarbarossademonstrateshis view of Sagenbildung,the incorporationof historical eventsinto poetry 0. Grimm [1843]). This questionhas beenaskedrepeatedly,but the Grimms were the first to openit up to fruitful discussion.The premisethat the past,especiallyunrecordedhistory, is recoverablefrom poetrywas shared by a numberof other medievalists,amongthemJohn M. Kemble andThomasWright in England,Leon GautierandGastonParisin France,andRamon MenendezPidal in Spain. Wilhelm's outstandingcontribution to this issue was the DeutscheHeldensage,a collection and comparativestudy of legends, themes,and namesfrom heroic legendfound in literature and art from the sixth centuryto the sixteenth.The preface,in which he usesthe legendsand songsto measurethe stageof developmentsociety has reached,is still cited as the startingpoint for the study of heroic poetry (Hauck, vii). The Brothers Grimm collectedfolktales and legends,Marchen and
Sagen,as well as heroic poetryin order to discover,preserve,and understand the imaginationand beliefs of the people.They aimed at a genuinereproduction of the teller'sor transmitter'swords andstyle. Recentscholarsof fairy tales have criticized them for their editorial intervention (see McGlathery, 1993); andyet the brothers,andespeciallyWilhelm, who was responsiblefor most of the final editing and, after 1819,all of it, were the first to transcribe with caremuch of what existedin the oral tradition. Their talesare more accuratewith respectto that tradition than earliercollectionsby CharlesPerrault in Franceor JohannKarl August Musausin Germany.Their transcriptions and editions of heroic poetry and medievalliteraturewere also more accurate than those of their predecessors and servedas a model for their contemporaries.A prime exampleis their edition of the early-ninth-century
Hildebrandslied.Even a cursoryglanceat the proseedition by JohannGeorg von Eckhart (1729) revealsthat the brotherswere the first to constitutethe text as we know it. They identified correctlyword divisions and compounds, 99
the Germanicalliteration (Stabreim),proper versification, and heroic genre (Dick, 72-82). Still extantis Jacob's1817 transcription(in the Berlin State Library Germ. 4° 931) of FranciscusJunius's1655 edition of the C. Gullmundsson.Copenhagen:Popp, 1825-27;vol. 11, JOmsvikinga saga. .., with 1>. Helgason,1>. Gullmundsson,and c.c. Rafn, 1828; vol. 6, SogurMagnUsarKonungsGMa . .., with 1>. Gullmundsson,1831;vol. 7, Sogur NoregsKonunga. .., 1832. Frisisk Sprogl£re udarbejdetefter sammePlan som den islandskeog angelsaksiske. Copenhagen:Beeken,1825. Om ZendsprogetsogZendavestas /Eide og/Egthed.In Det skandinaviskeLitteraturselskabs Skrifter21 (1826): 231-74. Reprintedin SamledeAfhandlinger, 2: 360-93; UdvalgteAfhandlinger,2: 125-208. Fors'g til en videnskabeligdansk Retskrivningsl£re,medHensyn til Stamsprogetog Nabosproget.Copenhagen:Popp, 1826. Dengamle£gyptiskeTidsregningefterKildernepil ny bearbejdet.Copenhagen:Schultz, 1827. Italitfnsk Formi£re, udarbejdetefter sammePlan somden spanskeSprogi£re.Copenhagen: Schultz, 1827. Vejledningtil Akra-Sprogetpil KystenGinea, medet TtlLegomAkvambuisk.Copenhagen: M011er, 1828. Den £ldstehebraiskeTtdsregningindtil Moses,efterKildernepil ny bearbejdetogforsynet medet Kilrt over Paradis. Copenhagen:Schultz, 1828. Trans. Historien om de ti Vizirer og hvorledesdetgik dem{medJKongAddBachtsSon. Copenhagen:Schultz, 1829. A Grammarofthe Danish Languagefor the Use ofEnglishmen,Togetherwith Extracts in Proseand ~rse. Copenhagen:Schultz, 1830. Lestrarkverhandaheldri mannabornum meHstuttumskirlngargreinumum staftofiiJog annaiJjar til heyrandi.Copenhagen:Schultz, 1830. Engelskformi£re, udarbejdetefteren ny Plan. Copenhagen:Gyldendal, 1832. KortfottetVejledningtil Jet oldnordiskeellergamleislandskeSprog. Copenhagen:Reitzel, 1832.
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OldnordiskLttsebog,indeholdendePr,verafde bedsteSagaeri dengamleislandskeText, gjennemsetog rettetefterde bedsteOldblJger, samtforsynetmedet Ordregisterover de vanskeligsteOrd. Copenhagen:Reitzel, 1832. R£sonneretLappisk Sprogl£re efter den Sprogart, som brugesaf Fjaddlappernei Porsangerfjordeni Finnmarken.En omarbejdelseafProf Knud LeemsLappiske Grammatica.Copenhagen:Schubothe,1832. johannesv. Hdksen.LudvigHolberg, jean de France, i islandskBearbejdelsevedRmmus Rask.Edited by Jon Helgason.Copenhagen:Levin and Munksgaard,1934. DefYnskeB,ndersSprog. Edited by Poul Andersen.Copenhagen:Schultz, 1938. Samledetildelsforhen utrykteAjhandlingerafR.K Rmk.3 vols. Edited by H.K. Rask. Copenhagen:Popp, 1834-38.
RasmusRask: UdvalgteAjhandlinger.3 vols. Edited by Louis Hjelmslev. Copenhagen: Levin and Munksgaard,1932-35. LEITERS AND PAPERS
Rask'slettersand papersare housedat the Royal Library in Copenhagenand the National Library of Icelandin Reykjavik.
Brevefra og til RasmusRask. 2 vols. Edited by Louis Hjelmslev. Copenhagen: Munksgaard,1941. Vol. 3: Brevefra og til RasmusRask. Brevkommentarog handskriftkatalogby Marie Bjerrum. Copenhagen:Munksgaard,1968. Sources Andersen,Poul. "Nogle Fejl i Rask's Lydopfattelse."In Studier tilegnedeVerner DahleruppaafemoghalvJjerdsaarsdagen den 31. oktober1934, edited by Poul Andersenet al., pp. 244-56.Copenhagen:Universitetsforlaget,1934. Antonsen,Elmer H. "RasmusRaskand JacobGrimm: Their Relationshipin the Investigation of GermanicVocalism." ScandinavianStudies34 (1962): 183-94. Bjerrum, Marie. "Hvorfor kom Rask ikke til Sverigei 181D?" In Festskrifttil Peter Skautrup21.januar1956,editedby SvendAakjrer et al., pp. 375-81.Aarhus: Universitetsforlaget,1956. - - - . "Hvorfor rejste Rasktil Kaukasusog Indien?" DanskeStudier52 (1957): 80-100.
- - - . RasmusRasksajhandlingerom det danskesprog: Bidrag til forstaelseafRasks tttnkning. Copenhagen:DanskVidenskabsForlag, 1959. - - - . "Rask,Rasmus."In DanskBiografiskLeksikon.Vol. 11, cols. 646-51. 16 vols. 3rd ed. Copenhagen:Gyldendal,1979-84. Bloch, S0ren.Det Gr£skeSprogsGrammatikaldelesfra nyafbearbeidet.Copenhagen,1803. - - - . DanskRetskrivningsLtre.Copenhagen,1805. Christensen,Carl C. "RasmusRask, hans D.pd og hvad han efterlod sig." Danske Studier29(1932): 1-21. Clough, Benjamin. A Dictionary of the English and Singhalese,and Singhalese andEnglish Languages.2 vols. Colombo:WesleyanMission Press,1821-30.
- - - . A CompendiousPali Grammar, with a Vocabulary in the SameLanguage. Colombo: WesleyanMission Press,1824. Diderichsen,Paul. RasmusRmkogden grammatisketradition. Studierover vendepunktet i sprogvidenskabens historic. Copenhagen:Munksgaard,1960. - - - . Helhedog Struktur. Udvalgtesprogvidenskabelige ajhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gad, 1966 [seepp. 308-25].
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Djupedal,Reidar."Eit brevfca RasmusRaskom danskrettskrivning." DanskeStutiier 51 (1956): 107-10. - - - . "RasmusRaskog 'VidenskabernesSelskabsDanskeOrdbog.'" In Festskrijt til Peter Skautrup21. januar 1956, edited by SvendAakjrer et aI., pp. 38396. Aarhus: Universitetsforlaget,1956. Dyggve, Holger P:n. "Finn Magnusenog Rasksstore Rejse." DanskeStudier30 (1933): 17-22. Fussing,HansH. "Raskiana."DanskeStudier29(1932): 148-56. Grimm, Jacob.Untitled. AllgemeineLiteratur-ZeitungI, 3 I (18 I 2): 241-48; 32: 24954;33:257-63;34:265-70. - - - . DeutscheGrammatik.4 vols. Gottingen:Dieterich, 1819-37.2nded. 1822-37. Grundtvig, Frederik,trans. Bjowulfi drape: Et gothiskhelte-digtfta forrige aar-tusinde, afangel-saxiskpaa danskeriim. Copenhagen:Seidelin, 1820. Halld6rsson, Bjorn. Lexikon Islandico-Latino-Danicum.2 vols. Copenhagen: Schubothum,1814. Hjelmslev, Louis. "RasmusRaskog Sverige1812-1818."Nordisk Tidskri/t9 (1933): 445-56. - - - . "RasmusRask 1787-1832."In Storedanskepersonligheder,edited by Aage Bertelsen,vol. 2, pp. 174-85.2vols. Copenhagen:BerlinskeForiag, 1949. - - - . "Commentairessur la vie et l'oeuvre de RasmusRask." Conftrencesde I1nstitutde Linguistiquede I'Universitede Paris 10 (195I): 143-57.Reprinted in Portraits ofLinguists: A BiographicalSourceBookfor the History ofWestern Linguistics, 1746-1963,edited by ThomasA. Sebeok,vol. I, pp. 179-95.2 vols. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press,1966. Jespersen,Otto. RasmusRask: I hundredaretefter hans hovedvtErk.Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1918. Kalund, Kr. "Bidrag til R. RasksLrevned: Fra SamtidigesSkildring." Dania 4 (1897): 129-43. Malone, Kemp. "RasmusRask." WVrd Study28 (October 1952): 1-4. Reprintedin
Portraits ofLinguists:A BiographicalSourceBookfor the History ofWesternLinguistics, 1746-1963,editedbyThomasA.Sebeok,vol. I, pp. 195-99.2vols. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press,1966. ," Pedersen,Holger. Videnskabenom sproget.Historisk sprogvidenskab i det 19. arhundrede.
Fotografisk optryk afSprogvidenskaben i det nittendeaarhundredemetoderog resultater(1924)og Et blik paasprogvidenskabens historie medStErligt hensyntil dethistoriskestudiuma/sprogetslyd (1916). With a prefaceand index by Jens Juhl Jensen.Aarhus:Arkona, 1978. Petersen,Carl S. "Et bidrag til Raskslevned." Dania 10 (1903): 155-70. Petersen,N.M. Kortfottet danskRetskrivningsitEre.Copenhagen:1837. Piebenga,Gryt Ant. Een studieover het werk van RasmusRask: In het bijzonderover zijn Frisisk sprogitEre. Groningen:Y.R.B. Offsetdrukkerij, 197I. Rischel, J0rgen. SproggranskerenRasmusKristian Rask: Forskerbedri/terog bristede forhabninger.Odense:OdenseUniversity Press,1987. - - - , ed. RasmusRask200ar. Fem artikler i anledningafRasmusRasks200-arsdag den22. november1987.Supplementto Humanist6,no. 14. Copenhagen:Det HumanistiskeFakultetsRepro-Afdeling,1987. [Containsfive articles:J