was the encouragement which this distinguished character gave to the study of English history and antiquities, and, in particular, to the Anglo-Saxon learning; and, therefore, though we cannot, with his biographer, attribute its revival entirely to him, inasmuch as labourers were in the field before him, as well as with him, by the foundation of a Saxon Lecture in one of the Universities, he gave to it a new feature of interest and encouragement, and therefore is entitled to a high rank amongst the promoters of Anglo-Saxon Literature in England. In the year 1640, Sir John Spelman published the AngloSaxon version of the Psalter, with an interlinear Latin translation, another book, useful in its kind, added to the few already printed. This work he dedicated to Archbishop Laud, whom he praises for a preserver of ancient MSS. and a patron of the Saxon tongue. Archbishop Usher was another promoter of this study. We are told that it was he who first moved Sir Henry Spelman to found the Saxon lecture at Cambridge, and made the proposal to Sidney College; that he recommended Whelock to that office, advising him the method of reading the Saxon Gospels, and gave him directions and encouragement in the publication of Bede. The same learned prelate also communicated to Junius a MS. copy of Cadmon's Metrical Paraphrase, and subsequently promoted the publication of that work. We shall presently mention, also, (when giving an account of the labours of Somner,) the encouragement which the Saxon Dictionary received at his hands. The reasons which induced Sir Henry Spelman's choice of Whelock, as Saxon professor, are not very apparent, (unless from the recommendation of Usher just mentioned,) seeing that he was previously unacquainted with the language; but Kennet, in his life of Somner, informs us, that Whelock "had assisted Sir Henry in some transcripts of that tongue when at Cambridge." Accordingly, to carry into effect the intention of the founder "to promote the study of the Saxon tongue, either by reading it publicly, or by the edition of Saxon MSS. and other books;"* Whelock, in 1643, published Bede's Ecclesiastical History, with the Anglo-Saxon version of King Alfred. To this he added the Saxon Chronicle, from a MS. in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, collated with another MS. in the Cotton Library, with his own Latin translation.† In the following year, he published a new edition of Lambarde's Archaionomia, (corrected by himself in six hundred places,) to which he added the laws of William I. in Norman and Latin, and of Henry I. in Latin, and two distinct Glossaries; the Latin translation of Lambarde (with slight corrections) being retained. Whelock also promised the world a Saxon Dictionary, which indolence or death prevented him from accomplishing; the materials which he amassed for it exist in a collection of words from Bede, formerly in the possession of N. Batteley, and now in the British Museum.‡ John de Laet, of Antwerp, a friend of Junius, once intended an edition of the Anglo-Saxon Laws, or at least of those which had not before been printed. A transcript from the Textus Roffensis was made for him by Sir Henry Spelman, and he published the laws of Ethelbert, Hlothære, and Edric, at Antwerp, in 1640, in a Latin translation. He had also (as we are led to infer from a letter of Sir Simonds D'Ewes to Somner) projected an Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, but apparently little or no progress was made, as we hear no more of it. In the year 1650, Dr. Meric Casaubon published his trea mentioned, "Sir Henry Saxon Lecture to be con[Baker's Coll. vol. xix.] • In the Catalogue of the Harleian Library are Spelman's Propositions concerning the British and ferred upon Mr. Abraham Wheelock, anno 1640." MS. Harl. 7046. In the same Library will be found a Collection of Letters to Whelock from Sir Henry Spelman, Sir Thomas Adams, &c. concerning the Saxon and Arabic Lecture, with other particulars and Letters to Whelock. [Baker's Coll. vol. xiv.] MS. Harl. 7041. From certain papers of Gerard Langbaine, in the Bodleian Library, it would appear that it had been his intention to print an edition of the Saxon Chronicle, employing for his text the Codex Laud, but finding Whelock already engaged on the work, he relinquished it.-Dissection of the Saxon Chronicle, 183. MS. Harl. 761. Lexicon Saxonico-Latinum, maxima ex parte ex Bedæ Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ versione Saxonica, studio et diligentia Abrahami Wheloci Collectum. Wanley, 303. tise, "De Quatuor Linguis Commentationis, pars prior." This first part only on the "Hebrew and Saxon Languages" saw the light. In this work he has traced (as he believed) many Saxon words to their original in the Hebrew. He has also incidentally given us some account of the state of Saxon learning and its promoters in his time. In the "Historia Anglicanæ Scriptores Decem," 1652, was printed a short poem, "De situ Dunelmia," in the Saxon language and characters, which has since been often reprinted. The next work we have to mention (and of which an analysis here would be entirely out of place) is the great collection of Dodsworth, Dugdale, and others, entitled "Monasticon Anglicanum." In this work are many Saxon charters of foundations, together with boundaries of lands in Saxon, and which so often accompanied the Latin charters of our Anglo-Saxon kings. In the "History of St. Paul's Cathedral," by Sir William Dugdale, published in 1658, also appeared a few Saxon charters. To Francis Junius, son of the celebrated divinity professor at Leyden, are we indebted for the publication of the first poem (except the short one above mentioned) in the Anglo-Saxon language. Born at Heidelberg in 1589, and educated by his father, he at first intended to engage in the profession of arms, but subsequently applied to study with great attention. In 1620, at the age of thirty-one, he came into England, and was received into the family of the Earl of Arundel, (for which he was principally indebted to the friendship of Laud, then bishop of St. David's,) and in which he continued thirty years. During this period, and for some years afterwards, he occasionally visited the Bodleian Library for the furtherance of his studies. Observing there some Saxon books of great antiquity, which lay about neglected, he determined on taking advantage of them to learn that language, to which he was still further inclined, because it would enable him to discover many etymologies in the Dutch, English, and German. He afterwards applied himself solely to the study of the Northern languages, in which he made great progress. This passion for the acquisition of languages never left him. When far advanced in life, understanding that in West Frisia there were some villages in which the ancient Saxon tongue was preserved, he went and resided there for two years. In 1674 he returned to England, to the end that he might peruse such English Saxon books which he had not yet seen, especially those in the Cotton Library, as well as elsewhere. In the following year he went to Oxford, where he resided in the family of Dr. Thomas Mareschall, principally for the opportunity of visiting his favourite Bodleian; but finding old age creeping upon him, he removed to Windsor, where, in the family of the learned Isaac Vossius, his nephew, he resided but a short time before he died. The first publication of Junius in Saxon literature was Cadmon's Metrical Paraphrase, which was printed at Amsterdam in 1655, in a Saxon text and letter, without translation or notes. The original MS. of this poem was the property of Archbishop Usher, who presented it to Junius, by whom, with the rest of his MSS., it was bequeathed to the Bodleian Library.* In the same library, amongst his collections, is a MS. Index to Cadmon by him, but which has never been published. We are greatly indebted to this scholar for the zeal which he displayed in the collection and transcription of glossaries of every kind that he met with, for the illustration of the Teutonic languages. He had apparently, as early as 1654, intended to publish an Anglo-Saxon Glossary. In a letter to Selden, dated May 8, 1654, from Amsterdam, he writes, "Haveing met here in these our parts with four MS. glossaries, &c., I begin to think myself now so well instructed with good subsidyes as that I shal be bold to try how to ad something to what Goldastus and Freherus have commented in that kind. In the meane while, I have here Anglo-Saxon types, (I know not whether you call them punchons,) a cutting, and they will be matriculated and cast within the space of seven or eight weeks at farthest. As soon as they come to my hands, I will send you some little speci * Preface to Thorpe's Cadmon, xiii. 8vo, 1832. * men of them, to the end I might know how they will be liked in England, and afterwards goe in hand with the forementioned glossaries," &c. In 1655, he published the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels at Dordrecht, with the notes of Dr. Thomas Mareschall, (whose tutor in the Saxon language he had been,) and a Gothic glossary. The types which had been used in the printing of this work and Cadmon he brought into England, and in the year 1677, together with others, were by him presented to the University of Oxford.t Many of the works of Junius still remain in manuscript in the Bodleian Library. The Etymologicon Anglicanum was published by Lye, in two volumes folio, 1750. His great work, the Glossary of five Northern Languages, Dr. Fell caused to be transcribed for the press in nine folio volumes, but which has never been published. There is a copy of Somner's Dictionary, corrected and illustrated with great additions by him. Amongst his collections are several Saxon glossaries, together with other works on Saxon literature, illustrated with notes. Their number and variety display the unwearied industry of his character, which no difficulty, no labour, caused him to relax from. Blessed with an excellent constitution, and continual health, which temperance and early rising continued to him till his death, he devoted the greater part of his time to his favourite studies, and in his works has left us a character of learning, that few in our time, with the few advantages that he possessed, may hope to excel. Amongst the contributors to Anglo-Saxon literature, about • A second edition of this work, if we credit the title-page, was printed at Amsterdam in 1684; but it appears to be the same work with a new title-page and dedication. Dr. Dibdin says, in speaking of the Dordrecht edition, "I suspect that this book was in fact printed at Oxford; the types and paper clearly indicate it." Ædes Althorpianæ, i. 121, quoted by Michell, 88. The Saxon types of Junius not being in England in the year 1665, it is difficult to account for the printing of a work with them at Oxford in that year; for soon after that we have collateral evidence that the Gospels in Anglo-Saxon and Gothic had been printed somewhere under the care of Junius and Mareschall. † Edw. Rowe-Mores's Dissertation on Type Founders, p. 16. For a particular account of the collections of Junius, see Wanley's Catalogue. 1747 |