metre depending on a fixed and determinate number of syllables, nor that marked attention to their quantity which Hickes supposed to have constituted the distinction between verse and prose. Indeed, it may be observed, in addition to the arguments adduced by Mr. Tyrwhitt, that as the distinctive character of the Greek and Latin prosody was ob literated by the invasion of the northern nations, it is not probable that the original poetry of these nations should have been founded on a similar prosody; particularly, as the harmony of all the modern languages depends much more upon accent and emphasis, that is to say, upon changes in the tone or in the strength of the voice, than upon quantity, by which is meant the length of time employed in pronouncing the syllables. Upon the whole, it must still remain a doubt, whether the Anglo-Saxon verses were strictly metrical, or whether they were only distinguished from prose by some species of rythm: to a modern reader it will certainly appear, that there is no other criterion but that which is noticed by Mr. Tyrwhitt, namely,

a greater pomp of diction, and a more stately kind of march." The variety of inflection, by which the Anglo-Saxon language was distinguished from the modern English, gave to their poets an almost unlimited power of inversion; and they used it

almost without reserve: not so much perhaps for the purpose of varying the cadence of their verse, as with a view to keep the attention of their hearers upon the stretch, by the artificial obscurity of their style; and to astonish them by those abrupt transitions which are very commonly (though rather absurdly) considered as Pindaric, and which are the universal characteristic of savage poetry.

That the reader may be enabled to judge for himself concerning the truth of all the foregoing observations, he is here presented with a specimen of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The only liberty which has been taken with it, is that of substituting the common characters instead of the Saxon; and a literal translation is added, for the purpose of shewing the variety of inversions in which the Saxon poets so much delighted. But as such a translation is very ill calculated to convey the spirit of a poetical original, I am happy in being enabled, by the kindness of a friend, to subjoin a second, and metrical version. This was written several years ago, during the controversy occasioned by the poems attributed to Rowley, and was intended as an imitation of the style and language of the fourteenth century. The reader will probably hear with some surprize, that this singular instance of critical ingenuity was the composition of an Eton school-boy.

AN ODE ON ÆTHELSTAN'S VICTORY,

From Two MSS. in the Cottonian Library, British Museum, Tiberius, B. iv. and Tiberius, A. vi. dated in the Year 937-in Gibson's Chronicle, and Hickes's Saxon Grammar, in the Year 938-and supposed to be written by a contemporary Bard.

The asterisks shew the alliterations.

1 Ballice is boldly, Mar. xv. 43, in the Rushworth Gloss, and bealh varies little in sound from beah.

• Whiter in his Etymol. p. 347, gives gevar, Chaldaic, and thence deduces our corresponding Chief, Captain, &c. g and

This celebrated ODE is rendered into English, as literally as possible, to show the very great affinity between our present Language and its Saxon forefather, which, it is hoped, will be admitted as an excuse for some occasional obscurity.

LITERAL RENDERING.

Here Athelstan King,

Of Earls the Lord,

Of Barons the bold chief,

And his brother eke,

care certainly letters of the same organ; and in Saxon cafre and cafost, are chiefer, chiefest; and Matt. xxvii. 57, Gothic, gabigs is applied to Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable

man.

3 Æthel, hæleth, halettan, cilt, clyto, on Mr. Whiter's elementary Principle, are all deducible from 1,t, disregarding the vowels, and the Latin altus, inclytus, Greek nλvтos, our exalted, lofty, &c. Etheling is the young Ethel, or noble.

Thrym, derived from turma, is the common term for a train, and the Saxons sometimes added, frequently omitted, the m final; and in English tier, as tier of guns, a row, a long line of ancestors.

5 The marches of Wales and the North of England elucidate this term to an English reader, but it is derived from the Gothic MARKOS, Mat. ix. 34, where mar is the corres. ponding Saxon, and signifies marks defining boundaries.