serted for which he had not the testimony of some respectable witness. Some of these persons are credible from having been present at the event which they related; others, from the high rank which they held in the church, such as Acca, bishop of Hexham, Guthfrid, abbat of Lindisfarne, Berthun, abbat of Beverley, and Pechthelm, bishop of Whitherne. The author received secondary evidence with caution, for he distinguishes between the statements which he received from eye-witnesses, and those which reached him through a succession of informants. In the last of these instances, the channel of information is always pointed out with scrupulous exactness, whatever opinion we may entertain, as in the case of some visions and miracles, of the credibility of the facts themselves."

Of the value of this work we can have no better evidence than the fact of its having been so often translated into the vernacular tongue. King Alfred thought it not beneath his dignity to render it familiar to his Anglo-Saxon subjects, by translating it into their tongue.

The first version in modern English was that of Stapleton, bearing the following title, "The History of the Church of Englande, compiled by Venerable Bede, Englishman, translated out of Latin into English by Thomas Stapleton, Student in Divinity. Antw. by John Laet, 1565." The object of the translator was to recall the affections of the people to the theological forms and doctrines which in his time were being exploded. In the dedication to queen Elizabeth occurs the following passage:-"In this History Your Hignes shall see in how many and weighty pointes the pretended reformers of the Church in Your Graces dominions have departed from the patern of that sounde and catholike faith planted first among Englishmen by holy S. AUGUSTIN our Apostle, and his virtuous company, described truly and sincerely by Venerable BEDE, so called in all Christendom for his passing vertues and rare learning, the Author of this History. And to thentent Your Highnes intention bent to weightier considerations and affaires may spende no longe time in espying oute the particulars, I have gathered out of the whole History a number of diversities betwene the pretended religion of Protestants, and the primitive faith of the English Church."

The work was again translated into English by John Stevens, Lond. 8vo. 1723; and a third time (with some omissions) by W. Hurst, Lond. 8vo. 1814, and apparently with the same object which influenced Stapleton.

In 1840, the editor of the present volume published a new edition of Stevens's translation, altering it in many respects, and correcting the orthography of proper names, according to the modern and generally received standard. A second edition of the same volume was published in 1842. In the same year also it was introduced, to accompany the Latin text, in the second volume of an edition of the complete works of Venerable Bede, and is now a fourth time printed with the other works contained in this volume. As the translation has on each occasion received certain corrections, it is hoped that the English reader will now find it to convey a tolerably accurate notion of the style and sense of the original.

CHAP. IV.-OF THE SAXON CHRONICLE.

THE work, which passes under the name of the Saxon Chronicle, is a continued narrative written at different dates, and in the Anglo-Saxon language, of the most important events of English History from the earliest period to the year of our Lord 1154. As it is evident, both from the antiquity of the very manuscripts of it now extant, as well as from certain allusions and forms of speech which occur in it, that the latter part of it at least was written by a person contemporary with the events which he relates, it cannot but be an object of interest and of great historical importance to examine so ancient a writing according to all the modes which literary criticism can suggest; and this inquiry becomes the more imperative from the extreme probability that the earlier part of the Chronicle is also of a contemporary character, and therefore ascends to a very earlier period of Saxon history, even to the time of the Heptarchy itself. This opinion rests upon the remarkable fact, that whilst the dialect of the latter portion of the Chronicle approaches very nearly to our modern English, the early part of it bears the impress of times much more rude and ancient, and the language in which it is written is absolutely unintelligible to the modern Englishman, who has not made the Anglo-Saxon tongue a serious object of his study.

The first point which suggests itself to the inquirer, concerns the form in which so valuable a national monument has

come down to us. I shall not deem it necessary to delay the reader's attention by an account of the mode in which our large public and private collections of manuscripts have been formed. It is sufficient to observe that in all our collections of MSS. there are now only six ancient copies of the Saxon Chronicle known to be in existence. proceed to enumerate and describe them in order.

We will

I. The first copy of this Chronicle is generally known by the name of the Benet or Plegmund MS., so called because it is preserved in Benet [now Corpus Christi] College, Cambridge, and because Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of king Alfred, is thought to have had some hand in compiling the first part of it.

"From internal evidence of an indirect nature," says Dr. Ingram, "there is great reason to presume that archbishop Plegmund transcribed or superintended this very copy of the Saxon Annals to the year 891, the year in which he came to the see. Wanley observes it is written in one and the same hand to this year, and in hands equally ancient to the year 924, after which it is continued in different hands to the end.

"At the end of the year 890 is added, in a neat but imitative hand, the following interpolation, which is betrayed by the faintuess of the ink, as well as by the Norman cast of the dialect and orthography:

"Her was Plegemund gecoron of gode and of eallen his halechen.

"There are many other interpolations in this MS.;* a particular account of which, however curious, would necessarily become tedious. A few only are here selected, with a view to illustrate the critical apparatus of this work, and the progressive accumulation of historical facts. They are generally very short, except where an erasure has been made to find room for them. The notice of the birth of St. Dunstan, as of every thing else relating to him, appears to be a monastic interpolation. His death is mentioned in the margin, in a very minute hand, in Latin. There seems to be nothing of any great value in this MS. beyond the time of Alfric, whose The death of Plegmund for instance.

death is recorded, after a considerable chasm, in the year 1006. After this period the notices of events and transactions are very scanty and defective. The royal donation of the haven of Sandwich to Christ Church, Canterbury, is placed to the year 1031, but evidently written after the conquest, and left unfinished. The Saxon part ends in the year 1070, with the words, - - bletsungan underfeng; after describing at full length the dispute between the archbishops of Canterbury and York.”*

II. The second copy of the Saxon Chronicle is in the British Museum. [MS. COTTON, TIBERIUS A. vi.] It is "written in the same hand with much neatness and accuracy, from the beginning to the end," and "is of very high authority and antiquity. It was probably written c. 977, where it terminates. The hand-writing resembles that ascribed to St. Dunstan. It narrowly escaped destruction in the fire at Westminster, previous to its removal to its present place of custody, being one of Sir R. Cotton's MSS., formerly belonging to the monastery of St. Augustine's, Canterbury."+

III. A third MS. is also in the British Museum. [Cott. Tib. B. i.]

"This MS., though frequently quoted by Somner in his Dictionary under the title of 'Chronica Abbendoniæ,' or the Abingdon Chronicle, and said to have been transcribed by him, seems not to have been known to Gibson, though noticed by Nicolson within a few years after the appearance of his edition. It contains many important additions to the former Chronicles, some of which are confirmed by C.T. B. iv.; but many are not to be found in any other MS., particularly those in the latter part of it. These are now incorporated with the old materials. Wanley considers the handwriting to be the same to the end of the year 1048. The orthography, however, varies about the year 890 (889 of the printed Chronicle). The writer seems to have been startled at Offæ for Oththan, i. e. Othoni, A.D. 925; for there is a chasm from that place to the year 934, when a slight notice is introduced of the expedition of Athelstan into Scotland.§

* Dr. Ingram's preface, p. xx.

English Historical Library, Part I. p. 116.

+ Ibid.

Most of the MSS. are defective here; and the thread of history, during this turbulent period, appears to have been often disturbed. But

In the year 982 are some curious particulars respecting the wars of Otho II. in Greece, and his victories there over the Saracens, now first printed. From the same source, and from C.T. B. iv., we have been enabled to present to the reader of English history a more copious and accurate account than has hitherto appeared, of the Danish invasions, the civil wars in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and the battles of Harold previous to the Norman Conquest. The MS. terminates imperfectly in 1066, after describing most minutely the battle of Stanford-bridge; the few lines which appear in the last page being supplied by a much later hand." IV. A fourth copy of the Saxon Chronicle occurs also in the British Museum. [Cott. Tiberius B. iv.]

"This MS. like the preceding, though of invaluable authority, was unknown to Gibson. It is written in a plain and beautiful hand, with few abbreviations, and apparently copied in the early part, with the exception of the introductory description of Britain, from a very ancient MS. The defective parts, from A.D. 261 to 693, were long since supplied from four excellent MSS. by Josselyn; who also collated it throughout with the same; inserting from them, both in the text and in the margin, such passages as came within his notice; which are so numerous, that very few seem to have eluded his vigilant search. A smaller but elegant hand commences fol. 68, A.D. 1016; and it is continued to the end, A.D. 1079, in a similar hand, though by different writers. Wanley notices a difference in the year 1052. The value and importance of this MS., as well as of the preceding, will be best exemplified by a reference to the notes and various readings in the present edition. The last notice of it will be found in page 456."

V. The fifth MS. is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. [Laud E, 80.] It is so 66 well known, from being made the basis of Gibson's edition where Wheloc's was deficient, that it will not be so necessary to enlarge on it here. It is a fair copy of older Chronicles, with a few inaccuracies, omissions, and interpolations, to the year 1122; therefore no part of it was written

poetry took advantage of the circumstance, and occasionally filled a chasm with some of the earliest specimens of the northern muse; the preservation of which we owe exclusively to the Saxon Chronicle.

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