CONTRACTIONS USED IN THE GLOSSARY.
A.S. Anglo-Saxon.
Da. Danish.
Du. Dutch.
Allit. Poems, Early English Alliterative Poems (Ed. Morris).
O.E. Old English.
Prov. E. Provincial English.
Fr. French.
Fris. Frisian.
Ger. German.
Goth. Gothic.
M.H.Ger. Middle High German.
O.H.Ger. Old High German.
Laȝ. Laȝamon's Brut (Ed. Sir F. Madden).
Met. Hom. Metrical Homilies (Ed. Small).
O.N. Old Norse.
Orm. Ormulum.
P. of C. Hampole's Pricke of Conscience (Ed. Morris).
Prompt. Parv. Promptorium Parvulorum (Ed. Way).
S.Sax. Semi-Saxon.
Sw. Swedish.
My obligations to Mr Skeat (in whose accuracy and judgment I have the fullest confidence) are numerous; and I am indebted to him, among other obligations, for the description of the manuscript, and for some interesting remarks upon the metre of the poem. My thanks are also due to the Rev. J. R. Lumby, who most kindly and readily re-collated the text with the manuscript.
It is thus described—wrongly, of course, as to age—in the printed catalogue of the Corpus manuscripts:—"ccccxliv. A parchment book in 8vo., written in the xv. century, containing the history of Genesis and Exodus in Old English verse."
From lines [19]-26 we might infer that our author intended to include in his song much more of the Bible narrative than we have in the present work.
Father, God of all things, Almighty Lord, highest of kings, Give thou me a propitious season (enable thou me successfully), to show this world's beginning, Thee, Lord God, to honour, whetherso I read or sing.
The following are the chief omissions:—1. Genesis, chapters ii. 10-14; ix. 20-27, x. 2-7, 10-32; xxiii. 3-20; xxx. 1-5, 14-16, 37-43; xxxi. 1-17; xxxvi.; xxxviii.; xlviii.; xlix. 1-27. 2. Exodus, chapters xii. 40-51; xiii. 1-16; xx. 20-26; xxi.; xxii.; xxiii.; xxv.; xxvi.; xxvii.; xxviii.; xxix.; xxx.; xxxi.; xxxiii. 12-23; xxxiv. 1-32; xxxv.; xxxvi.; xxxvii.; xxxviii.; xxxix.; xl.
Numbers, chapters xi.; xii.; xiii.; xiv.; xvi.; xvii.; xix.; xx.; xxi.; xxii.; xxiii.; xxiv.; xxv.; xxvi.; xxvii.; xxxi. Deut. xxxiv.
Natural marks?
MS. in-sile.
The Bestiary presents not only the same grammatical and verbal forms which distinguish the Genesis and Exodus from other Early English compositions, but also its orthographical peculiarities, e.g. ſ for sch; ð for th; g for y and ȝ (gh), etc. The editor assigns this poem to the early part of the thirteenth century.
Warton assigned it to the reign of Henry II. or Richard I.; Sir F. Madden to the time of Henry III. (1216-1272).
Those employed (about fifty altogether) are more or less technical—aucter, auter, astronomige, arsmetrike, bigamie, bissop, crisme, charité, canticle, circumcis, corune, crune, desert, graunte, gruchede, holocaust, hostel, iurnee, iusted (allied), lecherie, lepre, mount, mester, meister, neve (nephew), offiz, pais, plente, pore, present, prest, pris, prisun, promissioun, prophet, roche, sacrede, scité (city), spirit, spices, suriurn (sojourn), swinacie (quinsy), serue, seruice, ydeles, ydolatrie.
Since writing the above I have printed for the Early English Text Society "Old English Homilies, 2nd Series," which are earlier than the Ormulum, and contain many East Midland peculiarities. "The Wooing of Our Lord" in Old English Homilies, 1st Series, contains some peculiarities of the West Midland dialect.
See Preface to O.E. Hom., 2nd Series.
It must be recollected that the Ormulum is much earlier than the Story of Genesis and Exodus.
See Ormulum, Introduction, p. lxxviii., note 105; lxxxi., note 112.
While agreeing with the editor of the Ormulum, that the simplicity of grammatical forms may fairly be considered as indicating a less artificial, and therefore advanced, stage of the language, I cannot adopt his theory, that "the strict rules of grammar" were therefore abandoned, and thereby was anticipated, to a certain extent, a later phraseology and structure; or that Orm, or any other O.E. writer, ever sacrificed "the more regular for a simpler, though more corrupt, structure and style." It must always be borne in mind that our earlier writers always speak of their language as English; but it was the English of the district in which they lived. In some districts, as in the Northumbrian, for instance, the language underwent certain changes at a very early period, which more Southern dialects did not adopt for more than a century afterwards: thus, in works of the 14th century, we find the Midland more archaic than the Northumbrian, and the Southern more archaic than either. Authors seeking to become popular would write in the dialect best understood by their readers, without considering whether it was simple or complex. Thus the Ayenbite of Inwyt (A.D. 1340), written for the men of Kent, contains far more of the older inflectional forms than the Ormulum of the twelfth century.
Southern writers before 1340 formed the g.s. of fem. nouns in -e and not in -es.
In the Southern dialect the article had separate forms for the nominative fem. (theo, tho), and neuter (thet, that); the fem. gen. sing. (thar, ther), and the masc. acc. (than, then).
See Ormulum, Introduction, p. lxxviii., note 105.
Sinden, are, occurs in the Ormulum and the Bestiary, but is not employed in the present poem.
These forms occur in O.E. Hom., 2nd Series.
In O.E. Hom., 2nd Series, we find hes = them. See Moral Ode, l. 186, O.E. Hom., 2nd Series: "wel diere he hes bohte."
Robt. of Gloucester, Shoreham, Dan. Michel's Ayenbite of Inwyt.
Deep he them buried under an oak.
For Solomon find them shall.
He took them.
All his footsteps after him he filleth, draweth dust with his tail where he steppeth, or dust or dew (moisture), that they are not able to find them.
I have in one case taken the liberty of separating the pronoun from the verb (for the convenience of the reader), giving the MS. reading in the margin; but I am sorry now that I did not let them stand as in the original copy.
Mes = me + es = one, them, occurs in O. E. Hom., 2nd Series.
All he them had (he had them all) with might begotten (obtained).
Undealt (undivided) he them laid, whereso he them brought.
The dove hath habits good,
All we them ought to have in mind
(i.e. we ought to have them all in mind).
Bilhah two children bore by him,
Rachel called them Dan, Naphtali;
And Zilpah two sons to him bore,
Leah called them Gad and Asher.
The tabernacle he put them in.
He set them in the firmament.
ðei occurs once only in the present poem, þeȝȝr, þeȝȝm, not at all; it occurs twice in O.E. Hom., 2nd Series.
Philolog. Soc. Proceedings, vol. i. pp. 73, 261. Almigtin, almighty, p. 2, l. [30], is the only adjective I find with this termination.
The dative of the A.S. bóc was béc.
gebroðeren (A.S. broðru) occurs in the Semi-Sax. Gospels.
A.S. cealfru.
cildru.
dura.
ægru.
handa.
cý.
lambru.
greiðe (prepare), kipte (seized), lit (stain), liðe (listen), mal (speech), witterlike (truly), are found in Southern English, and may be the remains of the Anglian element in the A.Saxon.
Those marked * thus constantly occur in Northumbrian and Midland works (with Northern peculiarities) of the 14th century.
fere occurs for feren, so senwe = sinews (A.S. sinu, sing., sina, pl.).
As a rule fem. nouns, and nouns of the n declension, take the inflexion -es; as, 'sinnes same' (sin's shame), 'sowles frame' (soul's profit), 'helles male' (hell's mail), 'werldes drof' (world's assembly). The Bestiary contains the following genitives in -e:—'nese smel' (O.E. Miscell., p. 1), 'welle grund' (Ib., p. 3), 'kirke dure' (Ib., p. 6), 'soule drink' (Ib., p. 7), 'soule spuse' (Ib., p. 23), 'helle pine' (Ib., p. 24).
The forms in -er, -est, are properly adverbial and not adjectival.
tigðe = tithe, tenth, occurs in l. [895], and tigðes in l. [1628].
Orm uses the more Northern ȝho (Northumbrian sco).
get = she it: "al get bit otwinne," she biteth it all in two (Bestiary, O.E. Miscell., p. 9).
See p. xix.
ðei occurs but once only.
O.E. Hom., 2nd Series.
See pp. xix, xx.
See Preface to O.E. Hom., 2nd Series.
If godes = god's, seiden (pl.) may be an error for seide (sing.), and hem will then = he + hem, he them.
Chaucer constantly uses men with a verb in the singular number, third person. See Notes and Queries for Feb. 8th, 1873, where I have shown that the West-Midland substituted men for the Southern me.
The genitive and possessive are denoted by one form; as, ure, of us; gure, of you; here, of them.
Because elided in these cases.
The Bestiary is far more accurate in this respect.
gangande rhymes with standen (O.E. Miscell., p. 21, ll. 654, 655).
This form is used when the pronoun follows.
Followed by the pronoun.
The second person of irregular verbs (pret.) does not occur in the poem. In the Ormulum the inflection is -e, which is occasionally dropped.
These forms do not occur in the poem.
Sinden = are, occurs in the Bestiary and the Ormulum. Sinde and senden in O.E. Hom., 2nd Series.