[Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, by J. J. Conybeare, 1826, CLOSE OF THE 'ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE.' [See p. 14.] 'MILLESIMO. C.XXXVII. Dis gære for be k. Steph. ofer sa to Normandi. and þer wes underfangen. fordi þ hi uuenden he sculde ben alsuic alse be eom wæs. and for he hadde get his tresor. ac he todeld it and scatered sotlice. Micel hadde Henri k. gadered gold and syluer, and na god ne dide me for his saule tharof. pa be king S. to Englal. com ba macod he his gadering æt Oxeneford. and þar he nam þe₺ Roger of Sereberi, and Alex. of Lincol. and te Canceler Roger hise neues. and dide ælle in prisun. til hi iafen up here castles. pa be suikes undergæton he milde man was. and softe. and god. and na justise ne dide. þa diden hi alle wunder. He hadden him manred maked, and athes suoren. ac hi nan treuthe ne heolden. alle hi wæron forsworen. and here treothes forloren. for æuric rice man his castles makede and agænes him heolden. and fylden þe land ful of castles.' 'Nu we willen sægen sum del wat belamp on Stephne kinges time. On his time be Iudeus of Noruuic bohton an Xristen cild beforen Estren. and pineden him alle be ilce pining pure Drihten was pined. and on Lang Fredæi him on rode hengen. for ure Drihtines luue. and sythen byrieden him. Wenden þit sculde ben forholen, oc ure Drihten 'AN. MC.XXXVII. In this year king Stephen went over sea to Normandy, and was there received; because they imagined that he would be such as his uncle was, and because he had got his treasure: but he distributed it and scattered it foolishly. Much had king Henry gathered of gold and silver, and no good was done for his soul thereof. When king Stephen came to England (a. 1139), he held an assembly at Oxford, and there he took the bishop Roger of Salisbury, and Alexander bishop of Lincoln, and the chancellor Roger, his nephew, and put them all into prison, till they gave up their castles. When the traitors perceived that he was a mild man, and soft, and good, and did no justice, then did they all wonder. They had done homage to him, and sworn oaths, but had held no faith; they were all forsworn, and forfeited their troth; for every powerful man made his castles, and held them against him; and they filled the land full of castles.' 'Now we will say a part of what befel in king Stephen's time. In his time the Jews of Norwich bought a Christian child before Easter, and tortured him with all the same torture with which our Lord was tortured; and on Longfriday (i.e. Good Friday) hanged him on a rood, in love [ hatred] to our atywede he was hali martyr. and te munekes him namen, and bebyried him heglice in be minstre. and he maket þur ure Drihtin wunderlice and manifældlice miracles, and hatte he S. Willelm.' Lord, and afterwards buried him. They imagined that it would be concealed, but our Lord showed that he was a holy martyr. And the monks took him and buried him honourably in the monastery; and through our Lord he makes wonderful and manifold miracles, and he is called St. William.' [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1861, i., 382–3; ii., 230-2; Thorpe's Translation, Rolls Collection.] THE DREAM OF BRUTUS. By LAYAMON. [Brutus, great-grandson of Æneas, is banished from Italy for slaying his father Silvius. In the Island of Leogice (conjectured, without much probability, to be Leucadia or Lycia) he has a dream of Albion, in which he ultimately settles, and builds New Troy, or Trinovant, called afterwards Kaerlud by his successor Lud, and then Lunden or Lundres. See p. 25.] pa buhte him on his swefne: þar he on slepe læi. bat his lauedi Diana: hine leofliche biheolde. and bus him to seide: Bi-gende France i bet west: bu scalt finden a wunsum lond. þat lond is bi-urnan mid þære sæ; þar on bu scalt wrban sael. bar is fugel þar is fisc ah leode ne beoð þar nane. per to bu scalt teman : and ane neowe Troye þar makian. per scal of bine cunne: Then seemed it to him in his dream, where he asleep lay, that his lady Diana beheld him lovingly, with winsome smiles, well she him promised, and courteously her hand on his head laid, and thus to him said, where he asleep lay : Beyond France, in the west, thou shalt find a winsome land; the land is by the sea surrounded thereon thou shalt prosper. There is fowl, there is fish ; there dwell fair deer; there is wood, there is water; there is much desert; the land is most winsome springs there are fair; dwell in the land Eotens [gian's] most strong ALBION is the land named, but men are there none. Thereto thou shalt procced, and a new Trey there make there shall of thy kin. kine-bearn arisen. and scal bin mære kun: wælden bus londes. eond þa weorld beon ihæged: and þu beo hæl and isund. He boute of his swefne: and hou be laefdi him sæide. mid muchelere lufe : he seide hit his leoden. hu him imette: and þa læfdi hine igrette. royal progeny arise, and thy powerful kin shall rule this land; over the world they shall be cele brated, and thou be whole and sound.'— Then awoke Brutus ; well was he alive! He thought of his dream, and how the lady said to him; with much love he told it to his people, how he had dreamt and the lady greeted him. [Layamon's Brut; or, Chronicle of Britain (MS. Cott. Calig. A. Ix., v. 1222-61), by Sir Frederic Madden, 1847, i., 52–4.] THE FINDING OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE. By ORM, or ORMIN. [See p. 25.] &tegg þa wenndenn efft onnyæn þatt dere child to sekenn, & comenn efft till gerrsalæm To sekenn himm þær binnenn. & tegg him o be bridde dagg þær fundenn i þe temmple Bitwenenn þatt Judisskenn flocc batt læredd wass o boke; & tære he satt to fraggnenn hemm Off beggre bokess lare, & alle patt himm herrdenn þær, Hemm puhhte mikell wunnderr Off batt he wass full gæp & wis To swarenn & to fraggenn. & Sannte Marge comm till himm & seggde himm buss wiþþ worde Whi didesst tu, lef sune, buss Wibb uss, for uss to swennkenn? Witt hafenn sohht te widewhar Icc & ti faderr babe Wibb serrhfull herrte & sarig mod, Whi didesst tu piss dede? & tanne seggde Jesu Crist Till babe buss wipp worde What wass guw swa to sekenn me, Whatt was guw swa to serrghenn? 'And they then turned back again that dear child to seek, and came again to Jerusalem, to seek him there within. and they him on the third day there found in the temple among the Jewish flock that learned was in book; and there he sat to ask them of their book's lore, and all that him heard there, them thought much wonder of that he was full shrewd and wise to answer and to ask. and Saint Mary came to him and said [to] him thus with word, Why didst thou, dear son, thus with us, for us to trouble? we-two have sought thee wide-where I and thy father both with sorrowful heart and sorry mood, why didst thou this deed? and then said Jesus Christ, to both thus with word, what was [there to] you so to seek me, what was [there to] you so to sorrow? Ne wisste ge nohht tatt me birrþ Abutenn hise bingess? & tegg he mihtenn nohht tatt word & dide hem here wille & comm wipp hemm till Nazaræþ, Swa summ be Goddspell kibebb, & till hemm babe he lutte & bæh not wist ye not that me becomes my father's will [to] do? nor that me becomes [to] be careful about his things? and they might not that word yet then well understand; and he then went forth with them and did them their will, and came with them to Nazareth, so as the Gospel saith, and to them both he obeyed and bowed through soothfast obedience, and was with them till that he was of thirty winters' age.' burrh sobfasst herrsummnesse & was wipp hem till þatt he wass Off brittig winnterr elde.' [The Ormulum, edited from the original MS. in the Bodleian, by R. M. White, and R. Holt, 1878, 11. 8925-8964. The Modern version is from Marsh's Origin and History of the English Language, 1862, 183-5.] KING ARTHUR AND THE ROUND TABLE. By ROBERT OF BRUNNE. [See p. 26.] He toke so mykille of curtasie In alle ansuere he was fulle wys, For no man wist who was best Non sat hie, non sat lawe, But alle euenly for to knawe; But alle o round, and alle were hende ; Non wist who of ban most was, [Quoted in Appendix V. to Preface to the Handlyng Synne, edited by F. J. Furnivall for the Roxburghe Club, 1862, xxxviii.—xxxix.] T EXTRACT IX. A.D. 1346. THE BATTLE OF NEVILLE'S CROSS. By LAURENCE MINOT. -com ['The ninth song,-perhaps the most spirited of them all,— memorates the battle of Nevile's Cross, and the defeat and capture of king David Bruce . . It was by the counsel of Philippe of Valois that the Scots invaded England, we are told, and they were so confident in the belief that all the fighting men had been carried out of England to the French wars, that king David talked of descending from his horse at the palace of Westminster.' Wright, Introduction, xxiv. The following is part only of the ballad. See p. 27.] |