A Literary History of the English People, from the Origins to the RenaissanceJusserand, J. J. (Jean Jules)
History
A Literary History of the English People, from the Origins to the Renaissance
Jusserand, J. J. (Jean Jules)
English literature -- History and criticism
[328] The Psalter was translated into English, in verse, in the second
half of the thirteenth century: "Anglo-Saxon and Early English Psalter,"
Surtees Society, 1843-7, 8vo; then in prose with a full commentary by
Richard Rolle, of Hampole (on whom see below, p. 216): "The Psalter or
the Psalms of David," ed. Bramley, Oxford, 1884, 8vo; again in prose,
towards 1327, by an anonym, who has been wrongly believed to be William
de Shoreham, a monk of Leeds priory: "The earliest English prose
Psalter, together with eleven Canticles," ed. Buelbring, E.E.T.S., 1891.
The seven penitential psalms were translated in verse in the second half
of the fourteenth century by Richard of Maidstone; one is in Horstmann
and Furnivall: "Minor Poems of the Vernon MS.," p. 12.
[329] "The Story of Genesis and Exodus, an early English Song," ab.
1250, ed. R. Morris, E.E.T.S., 1865; shortly before that date a
translation in French prose of the whole of the Bible had been
completed.
[330] See, _e.g._, "The early South-English Legendary or lives of
Saints; I., MS. Laud, 108, in the Bodleian Library," ed. C. Horstmann,
Early English Text Society, 1887, 8vo.--Furnivall, "Early English Poems
and Lives of Saints," Berlin, Philological Society, 1862,
8vo.--"Materials for the history of Thomas Becket," ed. Robertson,
Rolls, 1875 ff., 7 vols. 8vo.--Several separate Lives of Saints have
been published by the E.E.T.S.
[331] Horstmann, "The early South-English Legendary," p. vii. The same
intends to publish other texts, and to clear the main problems connected
with them; "but it will," he says, "require more brains, the brains of
several generations to come, before every question relative to this
collection can be cleared." _Ibid._
[332] The latter is the MS. Laud 108 in the Bodleian, edited by
Horstmann; the other is the Harleian MS. 2277 in the British Museum;
specimens of its contents have been given by Furnivall in his "Early
English poems" (_ut supra_).
[333] From MS. Harl. 2277, in Furnivall's "Early English poems," 1862,
p. 34.
[334]
In the faireste lond huy weren | that evere mighte beo.
So cler and so light it was | that joye thare was i-nogh;
Treon thare weren fulle of fruyt | wel thicke ever-ech bough ...
Hit was evere-more day: heom thoughte, and never-more nyght.
Life of St. Brendan who "was here of oure londe," in Horstmann's
"South-English Legendary," p. 220. See also "St. Brandan, a mediaeval
Legend of the Sea," ed. T. Wright, Percy Society, 1844; Francisque
Michel, "Les Voyages Merveilleux de St. Brandan a la recherche du
Paradis terrestre, legende en vers du XIIe. Siecle," Paris, 1878; _cf._
"Navigation de la barque de Mael Duin," in d'Arbois de Jubainville's
"L'Epopee Celtique en Irlande," 1892, pp. 449 ff. (above p. 12).
[335] Renan, "Essais de morale et de critique," Paris, 1867, 3rd
edition, p. 446.
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