45 The baths were there then; then is . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . That is a royal thing
In a house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[14-18.] The text is too corrupt to permit of reconstruction. A literal translation of the fragmentary lines has been given in order to show the student something of the loss we have suffered in not having the whole of this finely conceived lament for fallen grandeur. The line numbers are those of Kluge’s text.
II. CHRISTIAN POETRY
1. CÆDMONIAN SCHOOL
[Concerning the man Cædmon, we have nothing but Bede’s account in his Ecclesiastical History (see [p. 179 below]) and Cædmon’s Hymn.
Genesis was first published in Amsterdam 1655, next in 1752. The first editions brought Genesis under Cædmon’s name, because of Bede’s account. There is, however, no such clue in the manuscript. The assignment of Genesis to Cædmon was questioned by Hicks as early as 1689. The Cædmonian authorship was defended in the early part of the nineteenth century by Conybeare and Thorpe. It is now agreed that all the Cædmonian Paraphrases are probably by different authors.
Cf. A. S. Cook, “The Name Cædmon,” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, vi, 9, and “Cædmon and the Ruthwell Cross,” Modern Language Notes, v, 153.]