I am glad that C. B. has questioned the propriety of the epithet "female monster," which some of your correspondents have applied to Queen Brunehilda. Knowing how the passion and prejudice that characterise party spirit have under our own observation been able to distort facts and blacken characters, we should receive with the greater caution the statements of those who, if they were free, which is hardly possible, from a strong bias, lived in an age when exact information was hardly possible to obtain, and when the most odious calumnies could defy refutation. From the success with which Brunehilda maintained the sovereignty of her husband's kingdom through a long life, I should conclude that she was a woman of great abilities as well as energy; and the terms in which Gregory the Great addresses her, tend to confirm this opinion. And in reference to this it seems somewhat surprising that it should not have struck those who first raised this question, that the evidence of the "wise and virtuous pontiff" was at least as good as that of the historian who might be neither wise nor virtuous. Gregory is surely as powerful to raise Brunehilda, as Brunehilda to pull down Gregory. But the plain fact is, that there is a tendency to be hyperbolical in our estimation of crowned heads; in all probability, if one was no monster the other was no saint.
The circumstances in favour of the more favourable view of Brunehilda's character, are sufficiently well attested. That she was the superior in every respect to Fredegunda probably she felt herself, and as probably the latter was made to feel. Gregory of Tours was not merely struck by the beauty of her person and her engaging manner, but he has also remarked upon her good sense and her agreeable conversation. Sisterly affection appears in the first instance to have precipitated her into a conflict that ended but with her life. Her sister's murder was followed by those of Sigebert and Merowig; and it is not a little remarkable that though it is not doubted who was the instigator of these crimes, the name of "monster" is never applied to Fredegunda, but reserved for the familiar appellation of her victim. When we consider how generally vague are the charges against Brunehilda, and, regarding what is otherwise known of her, how improbable, I think some suspicion of an undue leaning on the part of the Frankish historians will not be altogether misplaced. My own opinion is that she was one of those remarkable women who from time to time astonish the world; one, whom for her superior knowledge and acquirements, the rumour of a rude age gifted with supernatural powers. And I am farther inclined to think that in the course of time the characters reported of her from opposite sources became finally so antagonistic, that they came to be considered as those of two distinct persons; and with a reference to the eternal enmity between Fredegunda and herself, she became more world-wide famous than has been hitherto supposed, as both the Criemhilda and Brunehilda of the Nibelungen Noth. Many circumstances may be brought forward to support this latter view.
[8] Why do your correspondents adopt the barbarous French corrupted form of this name, "Brunéhaut?"
SAMUEL HICKSON.
St. John's Wood.
COVERDALE'S BIBLE.
(Vol. v., p. 59.)
The answer of our friend MR. OFFOR to the inquiry of your correspondent H. H. H. V., Vol. v., p. 59., would have required no remarks but for the paragraph which follows his description of the copies of Coverdale's Bible in his valuable collection. That paragraph was as follows:—
"The introduction of the words from the Douche and Latyn has never been accounted for; they probably were inserted by the German printer to make the volume more popular, so as to interest reformers by the German of Luther, and Romanists by the Vulgate Latin. The translation is certainly from the Hebrew and Greek, compared with Luther's and the Vulgate."
If MR. OFFOR will look at "the Prologue to the Translation of the Bible—Myles Coverdale unto the Christian Reader," in that copy of his, which he describes with the delight of an amateur of rare editions as having "several uncut leaves," he may read in its first page, how Coverdale confesses, with that humility which especially adorned his character, that "his insufficiency in the tongues" made him loath to undertake the task. He then touchingly alludes to Tyndale's adversity, suppressing his name, while he speaks of his "ripe knowledge," and laments the hindrances to his completing the translation of the Scriptures. But "to help me herein," he proceeds, "I have had sundry translations, not only in Latin, but also of the Dutch [i.e. German] interpreters, whom because of their singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible, I have been the more glad to follow for the most part, according as I was required." And again he says, "Lowly and faithfully have I followed mine interpreters."