The Reverend F. W. Paul, M.A., whose friendship it has been my privilege to share for half a century, has revised the translation on page 33. He has done so under protest. Incompetence, ignorance of monkish Latin and the corruptness of the text have been his pleas. The first no one will allow who knows him; the second is by no means uncommon; the third everyone will admit. L’Abbé Duine truly says of the Vita Samsonis that plusieurs constructions grammatical sont absolument barbares. Mr. Paul has suggested the following emendations of the passage before us. Although drastic they appear worthy of consideration, unless they can be shown to run clean contrary to the habits of thought, the terminology and the rules of composition observed by writers of the seventh century. For quoddam phanum he would read quendam phallum; for mathematicum, matrimonium; for injecturam, jecturâ. We should then have in the latter part of the first sentence “he saw men worshipping a certain phallus after the custom of the Bacchantes by means of a lewd play,” and for atque excusantibus illis malum non esse mathematicum eorum parentum in ludo servare, “and when they said that there was no harm in their commemorating their parents’ wedlock in a play.” I have accepted jecturâ for in jecturam and his translation of it. It is unfortunate that a critical edition of the Vita Samsonis has not yet been prepared. L’Abbé Duine has indeed furnished some useful notes—only too few—on the syntax and the peculiar use of certain pronouns, prepositions and adjectives.[[130]] But, as Professor Loth truly observes, to produce such an edition a minute study of the syntax is required and also a glossary of all the words which in form or in meaning are peculiar—a glossary in which all the idioms should be exhibited. The task requires special qualifications and will not perhaps appeal strongly to those who have them. Sooner or later someone will doubtless be found to undertake it, someone, it is hoped, who is not only a scholar but who is familiar with the religious literature of the seventh and eighth centuries.
APPENDIX B
Edward the Confessor’s Charter
(Oliver’s Monasticon, p. 31)
Carta Edwardi regis Anglorum pro abbatiâ sancti Michaelis (Ex autographo apud S. Michaelem in Normannia).
In nomine sanctae et individuae Trinitatis, ego Edwardus Dei gratia Anglorum rex, dare volens pretium redemptionis animae meae, vel parentum meorum, sub consensu et testimonio bonorum virorum, tradidi sancto Michaeli archangelo in usum fratrum Deo servientium in eodem loco sanctum Michaelem qui est juxta mare, cum omnibus appendenciis, villis scilicet, castellis, agris et caeteris attinentibus. Addidi etiam totam terram de Vennefire,[[131]] cum oppidis, villis, agris, pratis, terris cultis et incultis, et cum horum redditibus. Adjunxi quoque datis portum addere qui vocatur Ruminella cum omnibus quae ad eum pertinent, hoc est molendinis et piscatoriis et cum omni territorio illius culto et inculto, et eorum redditibus.
Si quis autem his donis conatus fuerit ponere calumpniam anathema factus, iram Dei incurrat perpetuam. Utque nostrae donationis auctoritas verius firmiusque teneatur in posterum, manu meâ firmando subterscripsi, quod et plures fecere testium.
Signum regis Edwardi ✠ Signum Roberti archiepiscopi Rothomagensis ✠ Hereberti episcopi Lexoviensis. Roberti episcopi Constantiensis. Signum Radulphi ✠ Signum Vinfredi ✠ Nigelli vicecomitis. Anschitilli. Choschet. Turstini.