The infinitive ends regularly in en; locan 86, 91, iþolie b 11 are the only exceptions; verbs of the second weak conjugation have -ien, iðolien 40, lokien 46, and six others; exceptions are enden 32, iloken 85, sceawen b 21. Dative infinitives with inflection are to bihaldene 18, to brekene 30, to demene 89, to swimminde b 86, uninflected are to haliȝen 74, to wurðien 75 (virtual nominatives), for to lokien 9, for to arisen b 40 and ten others in piece xi with for to, to draȝen b 117 and fifteen others with to. Presents are s. 1. bidde 60, iseo 58; 2. bringest b 63, leist b 60; 3. bicherreð b 112, wuneð b 91, exceptional are bitacnet b 74, speked 37, speket b 92, contracted forms as beot 98, bret b 111 amount to one-third of the total number; pl. 1. cumeð b 58, slage we b 57, tuneð b 44; 2. habbeð 73, b 20; 3. beoreð b 82, wepeð 34, and of the second weak conjugation, iblissieð 5, lokieð b 115, smurieð b 114, wunieð b 80; subjunctive s. 2. ȝefe 60, 69, milcie 68; 3. ibureȝe 36, iknawe b 24, icnawe b 25, cume 61, 69, forhoȝie b 25, ilokie 97, trukie b 105; pl. 1. tunen b 44: imperative s. 2. aris 70, haue 39, iscild b 121, swim b 88, tech b 89; pl. 2. ihereð b 79. Past of Strong Verbs: Ia. s. 3. cweð 45 (3), iseh 48: Ib. s. 3. com 10 (3), bicom b 9, nom b 10: Ic. s. 3. biwon 7, 73, gon 65, bigon 54, b 89, swam b 90, warp 16; pl. 3. urnen 20: II. s. 3. scean 29; pl. 3. swiken 30: III. s. 3. abeh 64: IV. s. 3. stod b 7: V. s. 3. het 9, weop 55. Participles present: Ib. dalneominde 99: Ic. beorninde 12, berninde 16 (3): II. glidende 35; past: Ia. ibeden 71, geuen b 49, b 102, ispeken b 77: Ic. biwunden b 79, idoluen b 46: III. icorene pl. 68: IV. idreȝen b 70, istonde b 9: V. ahonge 14, 19, ihaten 4, b 52. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 3. ferde 10, ledde 50, sende 88, escade 44, 49, onswerede 70, onswerde 57, sceawede 12 (7), sceaude 16, hefde b 69, b 70, hefede b 8, seide 59, b 87; pl. 3. ledden 44, 49. Participles present: graninde 33, liuiende 42, wuniende 12, 53; past: afered b 104, ibet b 62, forgult 22, iherd b 20, iherð 73, b 77, isceaweð b 49, iseit b 14, iset 82, isend b 39, iwrat 79; fotetd 28 is participial in form; inflected are aweriede b 29, blessede b 19, iclepede b 110, forgulte 73, isende b 73. Minor Groups: witen inf. 7, 58, wat pr. s. 62, witeð 2 pr. pl. imp. b 118, b 119, wiste pt. s. 51, biwisten pt. pl. 21; aȝen 1 pr. pl. 90, b 65; sceal 1 pr. s. 62, scal b 89, sculen 1 pr. pl. b 21, sceolde pt. s. b 13, scolde b 111; mei pr. s. b 103, b 107, maȝen 1 pr. pl. 40, b 50, 2 pr. pl. 65, 92, pr. pl. b 101, mihte pt. s. 42, b 11; to beon dat. inf. b 49, is pr. s. 60, nis b 69, bið 53, b 59, beoð 1 pr. pl. b 56, pr. pl. 34 (5), beon b 19, beo pr. s. subj. 79, 84, beo 2 pr. pl. subj. b 119, pr. pl. subj. 99, wes pt. s. 8, nes 52, weren pt. pl. 17 (4), were 11, nere 23, were pt. s. subj. 44, nere b 70; wulle 1 pr. s. 62, wule pr. s. 6, nulle 85, nule b 28, b 67, wulleð 1 pr. pl. 2, wuleð 2 pr. pl. 1, walde pt. s. 46, nalde 46, nalden pt. pl. 32; don inf. 48, dat. inf. b 101, deð pr. s. 29, deað b 58, do we 1 pr. pl. b 44, doð pr. pl. b 34, fordoð b 81, idon pp. b 69; gan inf. 42, 43, eode pt. s. 10, eoden pt. pl. 9.
With ȝette adv. 19, comp. ‘ȝiete,’ OEH i. 139/13, ȝetten 64/54; mid prep. 65 with accusative is Anglian (Napier, Anglia, x. 138): leste conj. b 104 (þȳ lǣs þe) is an early instance of the compound.
[Dialect:] These pieces were copied by the scribe of the PM in the same MS. As was said at [p. 327], he belonged to the Southern border of the Midland area. On the evidence of the spoilt rhymes in the Pater Noster, inne : sunne, OEH i. 55/23, 24 (4 times), linnen : sunnen, id. 67/230, 231, he must be located to the West of that area, where u was the representative of OE. y, ȳ.
In the present articles his exemplars were in the South-Western dialect. That of piece x was considerably the older, probably of the early transition period about the beginning of the twelfth century, as is evident from the archaic forms which have survived in the copy. There is no trace of these in piece xi, the original of which was probably little older than the copy. As in the copy of the Poema Morale, the scribe’s alterations affect mainly the sounds; the grammar remains Southern; a Midland form like beon b 19 is isolated.
[Vocabulary:] The foreign element is small; most of the Romance words are in piece xi. French are archangel 8, blanchet b 114, castles b 38, feble b 9, glutenerie b 34 (first appearance), grace b 49, lechurs b 117, manere b 84, prophete b 7, b 43, sacreð b 76, sacramens b 75, salmes 47, seint b 22, merci 39, meister 21, meistres 23, ureisuns b 75: Latin, apostles 88, sancte 8; mihhal 8 is probably a direct borrowing from the Vulgate Michahel. Scandinavian are caste b 10, icast b 68, griðe 80.
[Introduction:] The ultimate sources of this discourse are (i) the Legend of S. Paul’s visit to the other world, and (ii) the Sunday Letter as extended by the addition of the Dignatio diei Dominicae.
(1) S. Paul in his second epistle to the Corinthians, xii. 2-4, said that he had been caught up to the third heaven and heard words unspeakable. But a detailed account of what he saw, partly drawn from the Revelation of Peter (ed. M. R. James, p. 65) and coloured by Egyptian ideas of the other world, was extensively circulated in the early Church, and existed in two Greek versions as early as the fourth century. One of these, the Ἀναβατικὸν Παύλου, is lost, but it is probably represented in a Latin version discovered by Dr. M. R. James and published in Texts and Studies, ii. no. 3. The other younger Greek version, denounced by S. Augustine as ‘nescio quibus fabulis plenam’ (iii. 541 e), was printed by Tischendorf in Apocalypses Apocryphae, 34-69: he dates it about 380 A.D. There is an early Syriac version, an English translation of which is reprinted by Tischendorf under the Greek Text.
The Latin version already mentioned is the most ancient and the fullest form of the legend, and it is the main source of the Latin mediaeval versions, which have been classed by Brandes in six redactions. Of these the first alone contains an account of S. Paul’s visit to heaven, the others describe only the abode of the lost. The fourth redaction (B iv) printed in Brandes, Visio Pauli, 75, in the Cologne edition of Beda, vii. 362, as one of his sermons, and by P. Meyer from a Toulouse MS. of the fourteenth century in Romania, xxiv. 365, appears to be the main source of most of the versions in the modern languages, as of our text. Meyer enumerates twenty-three MSS. of it; he thinks that it is not anterior to the twelfth century and that it was widely circulated in England. In Notices et Extraits, xxxv. 153, he gives a list of six versions in French: (1) by Henri d’Arci, there printed; (2) by Adam de Ros, trouvère anglais, printed by Ozanam in Dante et la philosophie catholique, 1845, p. 425; (3) Anonymous, MS. Bibl. Nat. 2094, of which Brandes cites the beginning and end, p. 51; (4) Anonymous, B.M. Add. 15606, printed in part in Romania, vi. 11-16; (5) by Geoffroi de Paris, an adaptation of the preceding; (6) by an anonymous English trouvère, printed in Romania, xxiv. 357. The English versions in verse are (1) MS. Laud 108, Bodleian, printed by Horstman in Archiv lii. 35; (2a) MS. Jesus Coll. Oxford E 29, printed in OEM 147-155; (2b) MS. Digby 86, Bodleian, printed by Horstman in Archiv lxii. 403; (3) Vernon MS. Bodleian, in OEM 223-232 and ES i. 293-299; (4) MS. Douce 302, Bodleian, in OEM 210-222. There is, besides the present article, a fourteenth-century prose version printed in ES xxii. 134. The relations of the English and French versions are determined by Brandes in ES vii. 34.
Some references in the older literature should be noticed. Ælfric (Hom. Cath. ii. 332) calls the legend a lying composition, and proceeds to tell that of Fursey as true. The writer of the Blickling Homilies (43, 45) relates the episode of the wicked bishop, following a text closely resembling the oldest Latin version, which differs little from the Greek at this point. In a second passage, 209/29-211/7, he has combined vague recollections of the legend with scenery drawn from Beowulf (see the Preface to BH, pp. vi, vii).
The first part of the present article differs from B iv and agrees with F iii in substituting smoke (‘smorðer,’ l. 26) for fulgur; with F iii it omits the Fiery Wheel and the Bridge of Dread, and the punishment of usurers by name. It is therefore possible that it and F iii had a common source. But our author has exercised a free choice in details; he says nothing of the punishment of the unchaste child murderers, of the oppressors of widows and orphans, of those who broke their fast before due time, and of those in the pit; nothing of the vision of sinful and righteous souls borne through the air; all of which are in B iv. His own fantasy is probably responsible for the division of the torments of the furnace, l. 24, between the furnace, the fount of fire and the sea of hell, and for the pleading of S. Paul in ll. 56-72, which are without parallel in any of the other versions.