English Lands, Letters and Kings, vol. 1: From Celt to TudorMitchell, Donald Grant
History
English Lands, Letters and Kings, vol. 1: From Celt to Tudor
Mitchell, Donald Grant
English literature -- History and criticism; Great Britain -- Intellectual life
[8] Of late years, owing to the difficulty of working, the mining and
manufacture of the jet has nearly gone by--other carbon seams in Spain
offering better and more economic results; these latter, however, still
bear the name of Whitby Jet.
[9] I ought to mention that recent critics have questioned if all the
verse usually attributed to Cædmon was really written by him: nay, there
have been queries--if the picture of Satan itself was not the work of
another hand. An analysis of the evidence, by Thomas Arnold, may be found
in _Ency. Br._ See, also, _Making of England_, Chap. VII., note, p. 370.
[10] “During his last days verses of his own English tongue broke from
time to time from the master’s lip--rude runes that told how before the
‘need-fare,’ Death’s stern ‘must go,’ none can enough bethink him what is
to be his doom for good or ill. The tears of Beda’s scholars mingled with
his song. So the days rolled on to Ascension tide,” etc.
[11] It is of record in MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER, a Benedictine monk of the
fourteenth century--_Flores Historiarum_--first printed in 1567. “_Nuda
equum ascendens, crines capitis et tricas dissolvens, corpus suum totum,
prater crura candidissima inde velavit._” The tradition is subject of
crude mention in the _Poly-olbion_ of DRAYTON; I also refer the reader to
the charming _Leofric and Godiva_ of LANDOR.
[12] _Harold: the Last of the Saxon Kings_; first published in 1848
and dedicated to the Hon. C. T. D’Eyncourt, M.P., whose valuable
library--says BULWER--supplied much of the material needed for the
prosecution of the work.
[13] GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH (Bishop of St. Asaph), d. 1154. His _Cronicon,
sive Historia Britonum_ first printed in 1508: translated into Eng.,
1718. Vid. _Wright’s Essays Arch. Sub._, 1861.
[14] Such exception as the name warrants, must be made in favor of
NENNIUS, § 50, A.D. 452.
[15] Other important Arthurian localities belong to the north and west of
England; and whoso is curious in such matters, will read with interest
Mr. STUART GLENNIE’S ingenious argument to prove that Scotland was the
great cradle of Arthurian Romance. _Early English Text Society, Part
iii._, 1869.
[16] The fable is Scandinavian. The Anglo-Saxon version, dating probably
from the seventh century, makes it a very important way-mark in the
linguistic history of England. Eng. editions are numerous: among
them--those of KEMBLE, 1833-7: THORPE, 1855 and 1875: ARNOLD, 1876: also
(Am. ed.) HARRISON, 1883: Translations accompany the three first named: a
more recent one has appeared (1883) by DR. GARNETT of Md.
[17] WALTER MAP, or MAPES, was born on the borders of Wales about 1143,
and was living as Archdeacon at Oxford as late as 1196: possibly this
was the Walter who supplied material to GEOFFREY of Monmouth; there was
however another WALTER (CALIENUS) who was also Archdeacon at Oxford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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