CHAPTER III BESIDES Archbishop Parker, we must make honourable mention of the names of Joscelin and Nowel, Fox and Lambarde, as connected with the revival of the Anglo-Saxon language. John, son of Sir Thomas Joscelin, was the secretary and amanuensis of Archbishop Parker. Although his name is scarcely known in the literary annals of England, his labours in the field of English history may claim for him a rank, far higher than those who employed the stores which he collected, and afforded them a paternity. It is believed, that he collected the materials for the Antiquitates Britannica, published in 1572 by Parker, if he did not actually write the greater portion of that work. To those who feel an interest in the progress of the Anglo-Saxon, his name will be held in deserved respect, for he edited, and superintended the publication of the first entire work in that language and character ever printed, and thereby laid the foundation for its revival amongst us. This work was, " A Testimonie of Antiquitie, shewing the auncient Fayth of the Church of England, touching the Sacrament of the Body and Bloude of the Lord here publikely preached, and also receaved in the Saxons Tyme, above 600 yeares agoe. Imprinted at London by John Day, dwelling, ouer Aldersgate, beneath S. Martyns. "To this work is prefixed a learned preface by Joscelin, containing some account of Ælfric, the author of the homily, and a statement of the doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon church, at the time this homily was written. The Anglo-Saxon is given on the left side of the * Without date, but in the year 1567. Strype says, about 1566. page, the English translation on the right. At the end are the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, in Anglo-Saxon, with an interlinear English translation.* Amongst the works of Joscelin (assisted, as it would appear, by John, son of Archbishop Parker) is a Saxon-Latin Dictionary. The first part, from A to L, is said to have been collected from glossaries, laws, versions of the Gospels, the rule of St. Benedict, Gregory's Pastorals, the homilies of Ælfric, and other Saxon writings. The second part contains the Saxon words from M to Z. We have before seen that Parker kept persons in his family, who could imitate any of the Saxon characters to be found in MSS., to make old books complete. In this labour Joscelin was doubtless employed; his learning, and particularly his knowledge of the Saxon language, giving him an advantage over others. Some of these works, as completed by his hand, are now in the Cotton Library, and in the Public Library of Cambridge; in a few of which he has inserted various readings, and added notes. § The labours of Joscelin seem to have been directed towards illustrating the ecclesiastical and civil history of his country. In a folio volume in the Cotton Library, consisting partly of transcripts by him from various sources on English history, there are two works by him, "Annales Angliæ," and "Historia Ecclesiastica Angliæ et de vitis Archiepiscoporum Cantuariensis."|| In another volume in the same library is a short notice of the Saxon books which he had met with, and a catalogue of authors who had written on English history, and where extant. It is also stated in the preface to Hickes's "Institutiones Grammaticæ Anglo-Saxonicæ," that there existed a Saxon Grammar by Joscelin, which could not be found. In the scarce and curious volume entitled, " A Dissertation on Typographical Founders and Founderies," by E. R. Mores, Svo, 1778, it is stated that this paschal homily of Elfric was printed in 1567, in a small duodecimo, and again in another of the same size shortly afterwards; and he adds, “It is not generally known, that there are two editions of this book, but we have them both," p. 8, Note. MS. Cotton. Titus A. xv. Titus A. xvi. § Tib. B. iv. Nero A. i. 1 Vitel. E. xiv. Nero C. iii. That there was a Grammar is evident, from the index of it still remaining in the Bodleian Library.* Of Laurence Noel, or Nowel, archdeacon of Derby, and dean of Lichfield, we possess, in our wretched compilations called "Biographical Dictionaries,” little or nothing but what has been copied from the pages of Wood's Athenæ. We can only glean from manuscript, or otherwise obscure sources, a few particulars. Some years before the Saxon types had been cut by John Day, and there was some prospect of the Saxon language being perpetuated, by means of printing, Nowel had been engaged in learning the language, and before the year 1567 had compiled a Saxon-English Dictionary.† Whilst at Lincoln's Inn, he instructed William Lambarde in the knowledge of that tongue. He made a transcript of the AngloSaxon laws from the Textus Roffensis, intending apparently to publish it with an English translation, which was made about the same time by John Warnford. This transcript, illustrated with notes, he presented, together with his Vocabularium Saxonicum, to his pupil Lambarde, and he farther rendered him assistance on the publication of the Archaionomia, or first collection of Anglo-Saxon laws ever printed. was published in 1568, accompanied by the Latin version of Lambarde.§ The labours of Nowel did not end here; he made several collections from historical MSS. which are still extant in the Cotton Library. It would appear, from a note It * The title is, Dictionariolum, sive Index Alphabeticus Vocum Saxonicarum (ni fallor) omnium, quas complectitur Grammatica clarissimi viri Domini JOHANNIS JOSSELINI. Item alius Index, &c. Bosworth's Grammar, Pref. xxv. Edit. 1823. See Wanley's Catalogue Anglo-Saxon MSS. p. 101. Hickes, Institut. Gram. A.-S. Pref. p. 1. †The original MS. of this work is now in the Bodleian Library, [MSS. Selden, Arch. B. supra, 63.] A beautiful transcript made by Junius is now amongst that learned antiquary's collections in the Bodleian. [No. xxvi.] It contains several additions by him. Somner made use of the original for the compilation of his Saxon Dictionary. Nowel is considered the first, and Lambarde the second, restorer of the Anglo-Saxon language.-Wood's Athenæ by Bliss. MS. Lansdown. 558. An English translation of the laws of Ina, Alured, Edward, Athelstan, Edmund, Edgar, Canute, Edward the Confessor, &c. At the end is an explanation of difficult Saxon words. § Historical Account of Textus Roffensis, by S. Pegge, 4to, 1784. of Lambarde, inserted in a blank page of the Saxon Vocabulary, that he had also given some attention to, and made collections for, illustrating the progress of the English language, after the Norman Conquest.* In the Lansdowne Collection there is a "Letter from Lawrence Nowel, tutor to the young Earl of Oxford, to Sir William Cecill," complaining of the inaccuracy of the general maps of England, and stating his design of constructing maps of all the counties, if he should meet with Sir William's encouragement. June 1563.† The third publication in Anglo-Saxon literature, which issued from the press of John Day, was the Gospels by Fox the Martyrologist. The English translation, which is in the margin, is from the Bishop's Bible, somewhat altered to the Saxon idiom. The dedication to Queen Elizabeth, prefixed, makes us acquainted with the motives of the early Saxonists * "For the degrees of the declination of the old Inglishe or Saxon Tongue, reade, I. The lawes before the Conquest. II. The Saxon Chronicle of Peterborough after the Conquest. III. The Saxon writte of Henry III. to Oxfordshire, in ye little booke of old lawes. IV. The Pater noster and crede of Rob. Grosted, in the booke of Patrices purgatorie, &c. V. The rhythme of Jacob in the booke called Flos Florum. suchelike, it may appeare how, and by what steps our language is This design was probably superseded by the publication of Saxton's Maps of the English Counties, and of which a great number exist in the Bodleian Library, amongst Gough's Collections; but there is a collection in the Cotton Library, which may claim the attention of the English topographer. It is in Domitian. XVIII, "Variæ mappa chorographicæ Hiberniæ, Scotia, Angliæ et Walliæ; quarum illæ quæ Angliam describunt, Saxonicis characteribus à laudato ut videtur Laur. Nowello exarantur." It is rarely to be met with; the title at length is, "The Gospel of the Fower Euangelistes, Translated in the Old Saxons tyme out of Latin into the Vulgare Toung of the Saxons, newly collected out of Auncient Monuments of the sayd Saxons, and now published for testimonie of the same. At London, printed by Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer Aldersgate. 1571. Cum priuilegio Regiæ Maiestatis per decennium." It was published at the expense of Archbishop Parker. for their prosecution of this new study. After stating "what a controversie, among many controversies moe hath risen of late, in our dayes, whether it were conuenient the Scriptures of God to be put in our Englishe tounge," he enumerates the nations that possessed translations of the Scriptures into their own language, and of our own country adds: " If any doubt of the auncient usage thereof in England, whether they had the Scriptures in their language of old tyme, here he may have a proof of so much translated." He then details the translations made at various times before and after the Conquest, “as well before Wickliffe's tyme as since, unto the reign of Richard II.,” and the sanction of the archbishops and clergy, for their perusal as well as for their being read to the people, as late as the commencement of the fifteenth century. It is evident from Fox's preface, that Archbishop Parker's principal object in promoting the publication of Anglo-Saxon books had relation to the reformed religion. And had it not been from the particular direction which the studies of Nowel, and, through him, of Lambarde, to the illustrating, from that language, of the topography of England, it is possible that, at the present day, we might have been seeking those helps to the study of it, which are now in such comparative abundance around us. In speaking of his patron, the archbishop, in connection with his own labours, Fox tells us, "We thought to exhibite the same firste to your Maiestie, and so by you to your subjects, not so much for any great necessitie we sawe in that speach now to be used and practiced, being growen out of use and continuance;" but that her Majesty's subjects might be convinced that those who laboured so earnestly to have the Scriptures in English were introducing no innovation, but rather were returning to what had been the custom of the English church for centuries. "Albeit, it may serue to no small good steede in courts, and for them that be learned in the lawes, whereby they may more readily understand many of their old words and termes, also very many deeds and charters of Princes giftes and foundations geven to the church and to Byshops seas, and other ecclesiastical foundations, wherein are seen and to be proued the old auncient bounds and limites of townes, of commons, of woods, of rivers, of fields, |