[VI. THE PROVERBS OF ALFRED]
[Manuscript:] Jesus College, Oxford, E 29, formerly Arch. i. 29 (J). It consists of two distinct MSS. bound in one; the second begins at f. 217 r. (new foliation) and was written not long after 1276 (Anglia xxx, 222). Its contents are best described in the Owl and the Nightingale, ed. J. E. Wells, Boston, 1907, at pp. ix-xiii. Our piece is written continuously as prose, each stanza forming a paragraph, but iv and v are in one without l. 54, which is here supplied, while l. 43 is written at the end of the preceding paragraph and similarly the lines beginning viii-xvii, xix-xxiii. The scribe was evidently struggling with an original which he could not always read; see footnote to l. 105.
Another MS. is B. 14. 39, Trinity College, Cambridge (T): see The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, by M. R. James, vol. i. p. 438. It gives a much longer text very badly copied by a scribe little skilled in English.
A third copy in MS. Cotton Galba A. xix was destroyed in the fire at Dean’s Yard in 1731. But Wanley had printed a specimen (W), corresponding to ll. 1-21 of this edition, in his Catalogue (published in 1705), p. 231; and Richard James (1592-1638) had copied, from a transcript furnished to Thomas Allen (1542-1633), Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631), in what is now MS. James 6, Bodleian Library (RJ), p. 68, pieces corresponding to ll. 1-23; 27-49; 52, 53; 55-64; 78-85; 168, 9; 173, 4; 211-13; 204-206; 236, 7; 307, 8, and two fragments which correspond to the text in MS. T, ll. 516-32; 652, 3, but are not in MS. J. Allen’s MSS. passed into the possession of Sir Kenelm Digby, who presented them to the Bodleian in 1638. But the transcript was not among them. It is a curious mistake to think that it ever formed part of MS. Digby 4, which has been caused by Langbaine’s calling the copy of the Poema Morale in that MS., Alfredi Regis Parabolae. This is clear from MS. Rawlinson D 325, which consists of Hearne’s notes to Spelman’s Life of Alfred; it contains the note printed on p. 131 of the Life, which is immediately followed by a cancelled extract from the Poema Morale in the Digby version. Allen’s transcript has disappeared.
The Cotton MS. was again used by Sir John Spelman (1594-1643) for his Life of Alfred. He says that ‘by the Courtesy of Sr Thomas [Cotton, 1594-1662] I am provided of a Copy of them.’ Apparently he was himself the copyist, for he speaks of the MS. as ‘faulty and ill writ, in a mungrel Hand (as well as Language).’ He gives what corresponds to ll. 1-64, and a paraphrase of six stanzas more. It is hard to say what Spelman actually wrote, for his own MS., which was probably University Coll. MS. 136. 8, has disappeared, and the three versions of it differ considerably. They are (1) Hearne’s transcript (SH1) of Spelman prepared for the printer, now MS. Rawlinson D 324 (p. 225); (2) the Life of Alfred in English (SH2), published in 1709; (3) the Latin translation (SL) published in 1678. A fragment of the latter was copied in MS. Stowe 163, B. M. ff. 101-135; of the English poem it has ll. 1-19. The evidence which is to be got from the Spelman sources as to the text of MS. Galba is suspect. S signifies their agreement.
[Editions:] Wright, T., in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 170 (J,T): Kemble, J. M., Salomon and Saturn. (T only). This book, without title-page, is dated in pencil in my copy, 1845, 6. It seems a first attempt for the following: Kemble, J. M., The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus. Ælfric Society, London, 1848, p. 225. Morris, R., An Old English Miscellany, 1872 (J; and T from Wright and Kemble), p. 53: *Skeat, W. W., The Proverbs of Alfred, Oxford, 1907 (J,T); *Borgström, E., The Proverbs of Alfred, Lund, 1908 (J,T).
[Literature:] Wülker, R., Ueber die neuangelsächsischen Sprüche des Königs Ælfred. Paul-Braune, Beiträge, i. 240: Gropp, E., On the Language of the Proverbs of Alfred, Halle, 1879: Zupitza, J., Anglia, iii. 570; Holthausen, F., Archiv, lxxxviii. 370-2 (emendations). Ekwall, E., Anglia, Beiblatt, xxi. 76-8. Skeat, W. W., Transactions of the Philological Society, 1895-8, p. 399. For Proverbs: Förster, M., in ES xxxi. 1-20: Kellner, L., Alteng. Spruchweisheit, Wien, 1897: Kneuer, K., Die Sprichwörter Hendyngs. Leipz. Dissert. 1901: Skeat, W. W., Early English Proverbs, Oxford, 1910; Tobler, A., Li Proverbe au Vilain, Leipzig, 1895: Catonis Disticha, in Baehrens, Poetae Latini Minores, iii. 205-42: Senecae Monita, ed. Woelfflin: Publilii Syri Sententiae, ed. Woelfflin, Lipsiae, 1869: Alanus de Insulis, ed. C. de Visch, Antwerpiae, 1654: Arnulf, Deliciae Cleri, Romanische Forschungen, ii. 211: Columbani Monostichon, Poetae Lat. Aevi Carolini, i. 275: Fecunda Ratis, ed. Voigt, Halle, 1889: Florilegium Gottingense, Rom. Forsch. iii. 281, 461: Florilegium S. Omer, id. vi. 557: Florilegium Vindobonense, Müllenhoff u. Scherer, Denkmäler, xxvii: Otloh, Beda, i. 1080: Proverbia Heinrici, MSD: Proverbia Rustici, Rom. Forsch. iii. 633: Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, ed. Croke, Oxford, 1830: Wipo, ed. Pertz., Hannoverae, 1853.
[Phonology:] Oral a is a; a before nasals and lengthening groups, o, but can 231, manyes, 295, fremannes, 299: me, indef. pron. < man is due to loss of stress: þanne, þane, þan, hwanne are usual, but þenne 72, 91, hwenne 254. æ is mostly a, as always in after, at, fader, hwat, war 16, but e in eþelyng 44, gedelyng 214, gled 209, glednesse 30, gres 81, heuedest 187, queþ 19, &c., þet 154 (once), þes 63 (once), wes 4 and always; Ealured 6 occurs beside Alured 12, &c. e and e before lengthening groups is e, but ny 124 < ne: imulten 276 represents myltan. i is i, often written y, mostly in conjunction with n, but wule 91, 254, 286 (beside wile 154, wille 142), nule 69, after w, nele 254, OE. nele. o is o, but on is weakened to a 112, 200; ðone is þane 247, 248, þene 114, 116, 198 (LWS. ðane, ðæne). œ is represented in seorewe 151, 233, serewe 156. u is u, but bycome 138, where o is associated with m. y is u: munye 25 is OE. mynian; vordrye 227, OE. fyrþrian, is a French spelling; king, kyng, dryhten with y for i are exceptions as usual; steorne 207 is corrupt.
ā is o; a remains in bihat 245, mayþenes 130, madmes 133, 276. ǣ1 is e: exceptions are vyches 276, euer uyches 54, which descend from ylc, agoþ 146, ouergoþ 143, without umlaut: nenne 296 is nænne. ǣ2 is also e, but þar 4 &c., always. ē is e, but doþ 81. ī is i, often written y, but me 140 (mīn) is due to loss of stress. ō is o, but reowe 96 (rōwan), a French spelling. ū is u: for it w is written in hw 11, 22, 42. ȳ is u in byhud 163, cuþe 254, cuþeþ 170, lutel 215, 277, 312, luþre 257, but litel 281; þȳ has i in forþi 304, e in þe 82.
ea before r + cons. is e in erewe 156, a in arewe 152, þarf 108, 244; before length. groups, e in bern 311; its i-umlaut is seen in churreþ 53 (cierran), and, before length. group, yeorde 328 (gierd): ea before l + cons. is a, as al 105, &c.; before length. groups, e in weldan 130 &c., awelde 320, o in cold 237, holde 42, 102, 280, 304, &c., vpholde 113; its i-umlaut is seen in ealde 319, 330, elde 68, 71, 72 (ieldo), ildre 125 (ieldran). eo before r + cons. is eo in heorte 163, 166, smeorte 164, but e in werk 15, werke 16; before length. groups, eo in cheorl 58, eorl 4, eorþe 81, &c., yeorne 66, 69, leorne 170 &c., but furþ 113; its i-umlaut is shown in durlyng 7, hurde 6, vrre 136. The wur group has invariably u. eo before l + cons. is eo in seolf 308 &c., but sulue 284 (sylfe). ea, u-umlaut of a, is wanting in balewe 282, baleusyþes 189. eo, å-umlaut of e, is shown in feole 2, 249, and weole 78 (5), but fele 2, 132, 302 is without change; vale 300 is feala with shifted accent. eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, is seen in heonne 115, heore 11, seoluer 121, 134, but is wanting in huntseuenti 79; leofian appears only as libben 135. ea after palatals is a in schal 35 (8), gesc(e)apen is ischapen 92; ie after g is e in foryeteþ 137, yeue 90: eo after g is o in yong 195, yonge 328, yongmon 87; youþe 105, youhþe 66, 69, 98 (geogoð) show combination with the following g: eo after sc is o in scolde 87 &c., scholden 11: heom is heom 9.