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Mr. Halliwell has appended to this volume Glossarial Notes upon such words as he deemed to stand in need of explanation, and in his Introduction has entered at some length into the history of each Romance, its connexion with similar productions in the early literature of the Continent, and its bearing upon the general history of fiction. The book is, in our opinion, by far the best edited that Mr. Halliwell has yet put forth; and we most cordially congratulate that gentleman and the Camden Society upon their respective shares, in making this valuable addition to our stores of Early English Literature.

THE HOMILIES OF THE ANGLO-SAXON

CHURCH. The Homilies of Elfric, with an English Translation. By Benjamin Thorpe, Esq., F.S.A. Parts I., II., III., IV., and V. (Printed for the Elfric Society.) 8vo. pp. 624.

WE can recommend this work to our readers, not more for its theological interest-although that is most considerable, from the illustration which it affords of the state, views, doctrine, and discipline of the AngloSaxon Church-than for its importance in illustrating the philology of our noble Germanic tongue, which was spoken by a Jeremy Taylor no less than a Shakspere, by a Barrow as well

as a Milton.

The volume contains no fewer than

forty Homilies, which form the first portion of the well-known manuscript in the Public Library at Cambridge, which has been supposed to be Ælfric's autograph copy. The author compiler of these Sermones Catholici,

or

(for his share in the work is not now to be ascertained) was, in Mr. Thorpe's opinion, not Ælfric the Archbishop of Canterbury, but Ælfric Archbishop of York, who presided over that see from the year 1023 to 1051; and, as in the work before us, the editor has furnished us with a faithful transcript of what he believes to be the most complete manuscript, "and a conscientiously correct translation of that transcript, as literal as his acquaintance with the language and his notions of good taste permitted," he is fully justified in giving expression to the "hope, that

such a translation, though unattended by a commentary, will be regarded with interest by the members of each of the great communities into whtch the Christian world is divided."

Many readers will, we suspect, object that the language of the translation is too Latinized. But, on the other hand, Mr. Thorpe would plead, and probably with success, that he was unable to introduce many purely Saxon expressions, not because they had changed their original meaning, but because they are now so generally regarded as vulgarisms that their introduction would have been prejudicial to his work by giving an air of vulgarity to his translation, quite at variance with the scholar-like character of the Saxon original.

Mr. Thorpe pronounces his work "the firstfruit of the praiseworthy attempt of the Elfric Society to rescue from oblivion the literary remains of our forefathers," and adds that it

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was selected for the earliest publicaits valuable matter and the manner in tion of the society, on account both of which it is conveyed."

We can bear witness that the book fully justifies such selection; and we when the "incurious disregard" with trust that the day is at length arrived which Sir James Macintosh charged the English nation "as having hitherto treated the literary monuments of their forefathers," has given way to a laudable anxiety for their preservation ; the Elfric Society by those whose and that such support will be given to station and circumstances enable them to do so, that the great objects for which the society was instituted may form Collection of the Literary Rebe realized, by the publication of a unimains of the Anglo-Saxons,-in short, of that great desideratum, a complete

CORPUS ANGLO-SAXONUM.

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only by his appearance in most of the associations intended for its advancement, either as an actual or an honorary member, but more particularly in the title-pages of various publications, which must be accounted, even by himself, rather by their number than their importance. He has now attempted a far more laborious task, one indeed which, even if unsuccessful, might, from its magnitude, be deemed to merit the praise allowed to great failures :

magnis tamen excidit ausis. And if the extent of the undertaking be great, so also in many respects is its difficulty; nor is his boldness lessened by the circumstance that a similar work was commenced only a few years ago by two very eminent and experienced antiquaries, and abandoned at an early stage of its progress.

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The present work is put forward to supply the alleged deficiency of any general dictionary of the early English language." A glossary to Chaucer has long existed, and more erudite glossaries have been since supplied by Sir Frederic Madden and others to various ancient writers. Still more recently, the Camden Society has obliged the world with the first portion of an invaluable work, Mr. Way's edition of the Promptorium Parvulorum. There are various Provincial glossaries for the relics of local dialects, and a "General Dictionary of Provincialisms" has been compiled by Mr. William Holloway, in an octavo volume.

From these sources, and from his own reading, Mr. Halliwell has undertaken to compile his General Dictionary of the early-English language, intended, it may be presumed, to combine the obsolete words of all periods and all dialects.

Such a work, executed by a philologist determined to develope the history of the language, might, if performed with intelligence and judgment, be of the highest value: a dictionary which

* Boucher's Glossary of Archaic and Provincial Words: edited by the Rev. Joseph Hunter and Joseph Stevenson, esq. Parts I. and II.

+ This class of books is now very numerous; as may be seen in the Bibliographical List of them published by Mr. Russell Smith.

gave as it were the descent and genealogy of our language, might be compared to a magnificent temple, perfect in all its parts; Mr. Halliwell's Dictionary we can only assimilate to a tessellated pavement, or a patchwork counterpane. Contenting himself with putting together an alphabet of archaisms, provincialisms, technicalisms, and solecisms, with a sprinkling of "proverbs" and "customs," he performs a task not very different to those wherein he has previously distinguished himself, whilst editing his multifarious succession of libretti, and, it must be feared, as totally deficient of any definite design or substantial conclusion.

"

The plan proposed in the selection of words, and their treatment, is as follows:

"It is intended, within as moderate a compass as possible, to give a large collection of those obsolete and provincial words which are most likely to be useful, without extending the size and cost of the work by etymological or other similar researches; and while care is taken to establish, as far as possible, the correct meanings of the words, to avoid discussion on subjects that would be interesting only to the professed etymologist. It is not of course proposed to exclude etymology, but merely to render it subservient in the way of explanation, and not allow it to occupy too much space."

Here, it will be seen, are announced four characteristics for the Dictionary: 1. a moderate compass, size, cost, and space; 2. general utility; 3. accuracy; 4. a little gentle dalliance with etymology. These stipulations are on the whole unexceptionable; but we are much disposed to conclude that a more faithful devotion to the charms of Etymology would have conduced to the accomplishment of all the other ends proposed, to greater accuracy, greater utility, and greater economy of space and cost.

The plain fact is, that Mr. Halliwell is the victim of a very extraordinary passion. Whilst sparing of his attentions to the decent and orderly nymph, Etymology, he is absolutely enamoured of a very ugly and decrepid old witch, named Cacography, every wrinkle of whose haggard face he is desirous to immortalise on a petual canvas; though, with usual capriciousness of her se age, the old lady says she is

per

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and

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mined to disappoint him. In fact, so different an aspect do her features assume every day, that we have reason to believe he will at length despair in his enterprise, though for the present the rapid growth of this Archaic Dictionary has blinded his eyes to the frightful features it has derived from his lady-patroness. Even already he admits that "it may be objected that too many obviously corrupt forms have been admitted."

To exemplify Mr. Halliwell's mode of limning the grimaces of his aged beauty, we need only refer to any one page of his Dictionary; but to do so in the way of extract we will take two words, the ramifications of which will occupy fully as much space as we can afford. They are abashed and abie. The former is still so common a word that it perhaps might have been omitted altogether; but Mr. Halliwell thinks differently, and he has accordingly presented it under the following phases or "forms :"

"ABAISCHITE. Ashamed.

ABAISSED. Ashamed; abashed.
ABAIST. The same as Abaissed.
ABASCHED. Abashed; ashamed.
ABASSCHT. Abashed.
ABAST. Downcast.
ABAYSCHID. Frightened.
ABAYSSHETTE. Abashed.
ABAYST. Disappointed.
ABAYSTE. Abashed."

Here are ten entries of a single word; and if ten are admitted, with such slight varieties, we may be sure that others of at least equal claim (and possibly as many in number,) must be away,-others which are as likely to occur to those who may refer to the Archaic Dictionary, as the "forms" which happen to have occurred to Mr. Halliwell in the course of his own reading.

For example, under ABASSCHT, he has given a passage in which the word is written abasshed; why should he not have entered that as well as ABASCHED?

Again, he explains "ABAY SCHID, Frightened," on the authority of the Promptorium Parvulorum; but the "form" in that dictionary is" Abaschyd." Why then, did not ABASCHYD make yet a twelfth entry in Mr. Halliwell's columns ?

"ABASCHYD, or aferde; territus, perterritus. Prompt. Pary,"

It may appear trifling in us to discuss, or even to point out, the meaning of Abashed, which will be found in any pocket abridgment of Johnson: but our object is to show Mr. Halliwell: 1. The utter hopelessness of collecting every "form" of spelling; and, 2. The want of exactness of explanation consequent upon the neglect of arrangement, and a deduction of secondary senses from the primary,in short, how that, in neglecting Etymology, he is neglecting his best friend.

His ten entries of this word, which Occupy in the Dictionary nineteen lines of explanation, and thirty-six lines of example, in all fifty-five lines, are to our minds thrown away in any dictionary containing the verb of which it is a participle.

The old-English orthographies above. enumerated are, in reality, interesting proofs how our two words abase and abash are both descendants of the French word originally engrafted into our language whilst the i or y was retained in Abaissed, or Abayschid, &c. it was in fact an English participle formed on a French verb.

That French verb, Abaisser, is most closely resembled in English by Abase: and this last word we find Mr. Halliwell has given with six lines of explanation. And again under ABESSE with six more, in addition to the fifty-five already enumerated. Now, might not all that was necessary have been comprised in about six lines, sparing the other sixty? something in this way:

ABASE, to bring down, to humble, Fr. abaisser, from à and bas. Hence abaissed (Piers Ploughman), abaischite, (Morte d'Arthur), abasched (MS. Cantab. Ff. ii. 38, f. 109), [Modern, abashed.] &c. &c. Cast down, as with shame or fear; disappointed.

But if not in six, at most in twentysix lines, the word (if really to be deemed obsolete) might have been fully explained with all the important examples, and with references from such "forms" of spelling as might possibly baffle an inquirer. This would have tended materially to the proposed purpose of conciseness and economy of space.

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Then, with a view to 'the correct meanings of the words," Mr. Halliwell would have found it a material assistance if he had determined to de

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"And anoon the damysel roos and walkide: and sche was of twelve yeer, and thei weren abayschid with a great stoneyng. Here there is no authority for the interpretation 'frightened;' if we look to the original, καὶ ἐξέστησαν ἐκστáσei peɣáλn (Mark v. 42.) it would rather be, like our present version, "astonished." As we might now say, the witnesses of the miracle were overcome with a great astonishment.

(And here we may mention, by the bye, that a reference to Wiclif's version of 1380, supplies yet a thirteenth "form," viz. abaischide.)

Probably, in the passage quoted under ABAYSTE, the sense contemplated by the author of the Promptorium was more clearly implied:

Syr Eglamour es noghte abayste, In Goddis helpe es alle his trayste. Again, under "ABAYST," the first example bears out the sense Disappointed;" but in the second,

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"It seems to be used for injured in the Morte d'Arthur, i. 366,-' He smote Syr Palomydes upon the helme thryes, that he abasshed his helme with his strokes.'"

where a disregard to the primary or etymological sense creates the whole difficulty. In the very next line ABAST

is explained as "Downcast," and so to abase was "to cast down." "He abasshed his helme "-" injured" it! he struck it down,-a bas, to the ground.

A still more glaring example, however, of Mr. Halliwell's want of etymological arrangement and connection is furnished by the cognate words abye and abide, of which his "forms" are almost endless, and his explanations sufficiently varied. Notwithstanding the space they will occupy, we can only show them fairly by extracting them:

"ABADE. (1) Abode; remained. (2) Delay.

ABAY. At bay.

ABBAY. To bay; to bark.
ABBIGGET. Expiate; pay for.
ABE'. To atone for.
ABECHED. Fed; satisfied.
ABEDE. Abode; remained,
ABEGE. To atone for.
ABEISAUNCE. Obedience.
ABESYANS. Obeisance.
ABEY. To abie.
ABEYD. To abide.

ABEYE. To bow; to obey.
ABEYSAUNCE. Obeisance. Skinner thinks
the proper form of the word is abeisance.
ABEYZEDOUN. Obeyed.

ABIDANCE. Tarrying; dwelling.
ABIDDEN. Endured.

ABIDE. (1) To persevere; to endure;
to suffer. It is also another form of
abie. (2) To forbear; to tolerate.
ABIDYNGE. Patent.
ABIDYNGELY. Staying.
ABIE. To pay for; to expiate.
ABIGGEDE. Suffer.

ABIGGEN. To abie.

ABIST. Payest for it.
ABIT. Abideth.

ABITE. (2) To atone for. (4) Abideth.
ABOADE. Abided; suffered; endured.
ABODE. (1) Delay. (2) Waited for.
ABOGHTEN. Suffered.
ABOOD. Remained.

ABOUGHT. Sometimes, atoned for, from abiggen.

ABOUGHWED. Bowed, obeyed.
ABUDE. To bid; to offer.
ABUE. To bow; to obey.
ABUGGEN. To abie.

ABUY. (1) To bow. (2) To abie.
ABUYZE. To abie.

ABYCHE. To suffer for.
ABYDDE. Abided.
ABYDE. To forbear.

ABYT. Abideth; continueth.
ABYYD. (1) Stay. (2) Suffer."

When to these "forms" our lexico

grapher shall have added those which he may find commencing with a b, and others commencing with o, he will have manufactured a goodly regiment out of one or two cognate words: but it is a regiment which has neither the advantage of a uniform,—we mean in Mr. Halliwell's interpretations,-nor the merit of keeping its ranks, for its members are scattered like sharpshooters, each erecting its head as an independent member of the Archaic Vocabulary. The general import of the word appears be that of awaiting with patience. Hence its application to suffering, and expiation; and sometimes perhaps to obedience, though the word obedience itself has another origin, in the Latin. Hence also its application to continual remaining at one spot, and the word abode still in common use. The bay of dogs also was their waiting, not their "barking; " as now used, it is only a particular species of "barking," at the most: they bark while they are kept at bay. As for the sense "to bow," which Mr. Halliwell has introduced under the "forms" ABEYE, ABOUGHWED, ABUE, and ABUY, it more properly belongs to the verb byg-an, to bow, or bend: words so similar as abey, abow, and obey would naturally fall into some confusion in colloquial use. Probably "to bid, to offer," as under ABUDE, in Anglo-Saxon biddan, is connected with the other verb abidan, inasmuch as the person making an offer, abided, or waited for, its acceptance.

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Mr. Halliwell will probably tell us, that these are the very etymological questions that he professes to avoid. But are they not inseparably connected with his proposed ings?" It might perhaps have been better if he had avoided all the inflections of verbs, and generally all such words as are noticed in our best modern dictionaries, which is the case with those we have noticed. As it is, he has vainly attempted to explain every inflection of the language, written in an antique orthography, that he may happen to have met with, at the same time disregarding those operations of grammar and etymology to which the "forms" owe their birth. We need not say more to shew how much space might have been saved by compressing and coalescing the multiGENT. MAG. VOL. XXIII.

form heads which are presented by such words as the verb abie. A still greater saving perhaps would have resulted from the omission of such words as are found in the early-English language employed in the same sense as they are still, but merely written in an obsolete orthography, which in no case obscures their meaning. The author has been sadly led astray by his "forms" of spelling, which after all are not forms of speech; their perfect enumeration is impossible, and would be useless if it were not. Acquaintance with the varieties of antient orthography is acquired by reading, and not by a dictionary.

A third means of economising space and cost would have been the rejection of words that are culled from the

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canting" or Slang vocabulary : these might very properly have been left in that choice repository.

Fourthly, technical words might have been consigned in confidence to technical dictionaries, particularly if occurring only in works of science. They are generally derived from the learned languages, and their signification is therefore seldom obscure. This rule would have relieved our lexicographer from many words belonging to the law, to mathematics, astrology, chemistry, &c. and of a great many belonging to botany or natural history.

Fifthly, Mr. Halliwell has incorporated many solecisms, which we think were scarcely deserving that attention. They are of two origins, either of pedantry or euphuism; or else of editorial misapprehension and mere typographical error. Of the first

kind is that under ABBREVYATE,— "caused Collyngborn to be abbrevyate shorter by the heade"-a mere circuitous expression for "beheaded," but where our author explains brevyate, decreased!" Something like this is the meaning he assigns to a line of Lydgate,

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