2. gedir hem to gider, B, the copyist evidently supposing at the moment that the alliteration was in g. 6. Dr. Whitaker's text, with F and G, has taken away much of its point from the satire, by substituting unwise' for wise,' which is found in all the others.* 11. 9-14 are omitted in C. We had marked out one or two more passages to be quoted, but as our article has already exceeded the bounds to which we would have confined it, we will only give the description of the origin and purpose of government : Thanne kam ther a kyng, 5 And thanne cam kynde wit, Ffor to counseillen the kyng, 10 And clergie bothe, Casten that the commune 15 And for profit of al the peple To tilie and to trauaille, The kyng and the commune, 20 And kynde wit the thridde, Shopen lawe and leaute, Ech man to knowe his owene. Thanne cam ther a kyng, 5 And thanne cam a kynde witte, And concience and kynde wit, 10 Sholde hure comunes fynde. And for most profitable to the puple, 15 Wit leil labour to lyve, These specimens will be sufficient, we think, to show the great superiority of the text of our MS. A, over that with which it has been compared. The author of The Visions of Piers Plowman deserves to rank high as a poet; and his work contains much to please, and much to interest us. As a poem, even Chaucer and Spencer did not disdain to derive profit from it. As a work which was written for the people, and therefore not embellished with the courtly phrases of Norman intruders, it is a noble specimen of what was then the pure language of our countrymen. For these reasons we wish to see a good edition of it; and if the few observations we have made shall prove to have hastened the accomplishment of our desires, then shall we consider that our pages have been devoted to a good and profitable end. ANALECTA ANGLO-SAXONICA, &c. MR. THORPE (whose services already done to Saxon Literature, by his translation of Rask's Grammar, and his admirable edition of Cædmon, are well known to all who desire to see a strict and philological method prevail, where little but the most incompetent ignorance has hitherto been witnessed,) has given us another proof of his well-applied zeal for the study of our native tongue, in a work under the title above mentioned. It will certainly be to all times a difficult problem to determine how, when year after year so many persons have been taking up this pursuit, when one of our Universities actually possesses a Professorship expressly meant for its encouragement, so little should at this moment have resulted from the efforts made. The purpose for which Saxon was called out of its long sleep * It has been suggested to us that in some copy the line probably stood 'With meny an wyse tale;' and that some second transcriber, misled perhaps by the sound, joined the particle to the adjective, and turned it into unwise.' to some such error of the transcriber as we find in C, where it is written of wandrit,' evidently instead of ' for wandrit.' 20. Sweyued, B, swizede, C, sweyd, E, swyzed, a, b. 28. The alliteration shows us that 'trieliche,' the reading of MS. A, is the right one; ricliche B, rychlych a. trizely C, tryelyche E, trichlich b. D has 'reallech y makyd,' but over the top, in another hand, is written 'tricanlie.' Dr. Whitaker's text, with F and G, here differs much from the others. Our dreamer is there introduced very unadvisedly telling us of this tower, 'truthe was ther ynne," a piece of information which he only learns afterwards from dame Holye Churche :' "Ich was aferd of hure face, Thauh hue faire were, And saide, mercy ma dame, The tour up on toft, quath hue, Treuthe ys ther ynne." (Passus Secundus, ed. Whit.) Where there is an evident reference to the "tour on a toft," which has been previously mentioned in the more correct text. 44. Dr. Whitaker, misunderstanding this passage, has printed ́ther' for 'that,' which is in all the MSS. In his gloss. he interprets wonnen' by to dwell;' and he paraphrases the sentence, some destroying themselves by gluttony and excess,' translating it, we suppose, "And there dwell wasters whom gluttony destroyeth." The meaning is, the ploughmen worked hard, "and obtained (wan) that which wasters destroy with their gluttony." The writer of C seems to have understood the meaning of the passage, but not the words, and has whom that theise wastours.' E has 'wynnen.' 58. To walken aboute, B, which destroys the alliteration. 47. In continuance of clothynge, a, b. The printed edit. place ll. 53, 54, before 51, 52. 60. Lykyng, D.-62, cheuen, B. cheuide, C. schosyn, D.-66, knaueth, B. 65. We have here to preserve the alliteration, adopted giltles,' from C and b, in place of synneles,' which the other MSS. and a, have. Though we find instances of irregularity in the sub-letters (or alliterative letters in the first line) in Pierce Plowman, the chief letter is not so often neglected. For leeue,' C has 'trowe.' In Dr. Whitaker's text the account of the minstrels is very confused. Here the minstrels get gold by their song without sin, but the japers and janglers are condemned as getting their living by what is afterwards called turpiloquium,' when they had ability to get it in an honester way. 74. if they schulde B, schulden D, if hem list C. Among other objects the dreamer's eye falls on a company of "pilgrymes and palmeres :" Pilgrymes and palmeres And seintes at Rome. 5 They wenten forth in hire wey, With many wise tales, I seiz somme that seiden 10 Thei hadde y souzt seintes, 20 That lothe were to swynke. Pylgrimms and palmers 2. gedir hem to gider, B, the copyist evidently supposing at the moment that the alliteration was in g. 6. Dr. Whitaker's text, with F and G, has taken away much of its point from the satire, by substituting unwise' for wise,' which is found in all the others.* 11. 9-14 are omitted in C. We had marked out one or two more passages to be quoted, but as our article has already exceeded the bounds to which we would have confined it, we will only give the description of the origin and purpose of government : Thanne kam ther a kyng, 5 And thanne cam kynde wit, Ffor to counseillen the kyng, 10 And clergie bothe, Casten that the commune 15 And for profit of al the peple To tilie and to trauaille, The kyng and the commune, 20 And kynde wit the thridde, Shopen lawe and leaute, Ech man to knowe his owene. Thanne cam ther a kyng, 5 And thanne cam a kynde witte, And concience and kynde wit, And for most profitable to the puple, 15 Wit leil labour to lyve, These specimens will be sufficient, we think, to show the great superiority of the text of our MS. A, over that with which it has been compared. The author of The Visions of Piers Plowman deserves to rank high as a poet; and his work contains much to please, and much to interest us. As a poem, even Chaucer and Spencer did not disdain to derive profit from it. As a work which was written for the people, and therefore not embellished with the courtly phrases of Norman intruders, it is a noble specimen of what was then the pure language of our countrymen. For these reasons we wish to see a good edition of it; and if the few observations we have made shall prove to have hastened the accomplishment of our desires, then shall we consider that our pages have been devoted to a good and profitable end. ANALECTA ANGLO-SAXONICA, &c. MR. THORPE (whose services already done to Saxon Literature, by his translation of Rask's Grammar, and his admirable edition of Cædmon, are well known to all who desire to see a strict and philological method prevail, where little but the most incompetent ignorance has hitherto been witnessed,) has given us another proof of his well-applied zeal for the study of our native tongue, in a work under the title above mentioned. It will certainly be to all times a difficult problem to determine how, when year after year so many persons have been taking up this pursuit, when one of our Universities actually possesses a Professorship expressly meant for its encouragement, so little should at this moment have resulted from the efforts made. The purpose for which Saxon was called out of its long sleep It has been suggested to us that in some copy the line probably stood 'With meny an wyse tale ;' and that some second transcriber, misled perhaps by the sound, joined the particle to the adjective, and turned it into 'unwise.' is; by Archbishop Parker, was avowedly theological. Foxe and W. L'Isle used it under his auspices merely to confound their political and religious opponents on the Popish side. But it was never once suffered to relapse into its ancient limbo, and while Wheeloc, Spelman, Junius, Hickes, Gibson, and Rawlinson, are remembered, it cannot be said to have wanted severe and zealous pursuers. Yet, in spite of the many who before and after them put their hand to the plough, the work has never proceeded: and had it not been for the industry of Danes and Germans, and those who drew from the well-heads of their learning, we might still be where we were, with idle texts, idle grammars, idle dictionaries, and the consequences of all these-idle and ignorant scholars. The only approach which we can make to a solution of this strange problem that the study being a little out of the way of men's usual pursuits, has been stared at and wondered at; and that those who did give themselves to it, and become péyada davuara thereby, have had their heads turned: and having so lost the better part of their senses, have entirely forgotten what they did when they first began Greek or Latin; viz. that they first learnt at great length and with much pains, the grummar of these tongues; and then by means of the Dictionary and the Authors, having become competent scholars, ventured or not, according as their humour led them, upon editing books themselves. This process, our Saxonists hitherto, with extremely few exceptions, have diametrically reversed: most have begun by editing books which they could not hope to understand; and though some may have succeeded during the progress of their work in picking up a little of the grammar, the great majority certainly have not. We could mention, were we so inclined, Doctors, yea, Professors of Anglo-Saxon, whose doings in the way of false concords, false etymology, and ignorance of declension, conjugation, and syntax, would, if perpetrated by a boy in the second form of a public school, have richly merited and been duly repaid by a liberal application of ferula or direr birch. To this alone we owe it, that the Saxon Poems have, comparatively speaking, been little ventured upon by our Viri Clarissimi; and far more that, till Rask published his Grammar of the language, there was not an elementary book upon the subject fit to be named. We do not hesitate to express our firm conviction, that there has not hitherto been, since Hickes, one man capable of producing such a book; grammars we have had, and plenty, but all founded upon him, following him, and adopting unreservedly nearly every blunder which the age in which he lived, and the vastness of his plan, render in him excusable. But those helps to stumblers, and which the Delectus, Florilegium, Analecta Græca Minora, and such other books, have been to Greek and Latin students, are in vain looked for in A. S. and as for Dictionary or Glossary, even to this day there is none. We say this most advisedly, for if ever book was calculated to do harm, to retard the progress of a study, to perplex and fill with trouble the mind of a learner, Lye's Dictionary is assuredly that book. Words from every period, and every dialect heaped together: the half Saxon Lajamon, the old Saxon (Northaloingian) Evangile Harmony, the barbarous half Norse glosses from the Durham book, placed with enviable impartiality upon the same footing as the polished and beautiful West-Saxon of Alfred! and to crown this, not one word from Beowulf, and not a tithe of the words from the Codex Exoniensis; or indeed, almost any of the Saxon poems! Such is Lye's Dictionary, from which, in order that it may become tolerably useful, many hundred lines must be rejected, to make room for many hundred of matter entirely new. That a dictionary must be set on foot, and of quite a different character too, before we can know any thing of our old and mother tongue, we are well assured; and if the Saxon Committee wish to be of use to any but Dilettante, let them take this into their serious consideration. A part of the work which we have long desired to see accomplished, is at length per formed by the book whose title we have put at the head of these remarks. There is a selection of passages, adapted to the necessities of learners, and offering them the means of gradually becoming proficients and appended to this we have an excellent Glossary, competent to lead any one, without more than the proper application of head, to a knowledge of the whole volume; and, |