Henry Bradley

“ CALENIUS, WALTER (d. 1151) , is the name given by Bale to a person whom earlier writers mention only as ‘Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford.’ There is strong reason for believing that the designation ‘Calenius’ was coined by Bale himself, or at all events that it was invented in the sixteenth century. Among the scholars of that period ‘Calena’ (a misreading for Calleva or Caleva, which occurs in Ptolemy and Antoninus as the name of a Roman station now known to have been at Silchester) was commonly understood to be a Latin name for Oxford. ”

“ Modern criticism, however, has shown that the various portions of the so-called Cædmon poetry exhibit diversities of style inconsistent with the supposition of common authorship, and many passages indicate on the part of their authors an amount of learning which the monk of Streaneshalch cannot have possessed. The most probable conclusion seems to be that the rude Northumbrian verses of Cædmon were regarded by the writers of the Ælfredian and later ages as raw material, which they elaborated with unequal degrees of poetic skill. ”

“ On the assumption that the Anglo-Saxon ‘sacred epics’ are more or less based upon the songs of Cædmon, there is reason for believing that, with the marked exception of the ‘Exodus,’ they are in general greatly inferior to their originals. Their authors seem to have been men to whom religious edification was more important than poetry, and who often substituted a mere paraphrase of the scriptural text for the free and imaginative handling of the Northumbrian poet. ”

“ It is right to state that the views here put forward are in conflict with those which are maintained by many scholars of high authority. Professor ten Brink, for example, considers that the less poetical portion of the ‘Genesis’ is substantially Cædmon's, and that no other specimen of his work has come down to us except the ‘Hymn.’ But, in the first place, the assumption that a tame and prosaic style is characteristic of the infancy of Old-English sacred poetry is refuted by the evidence of the Ruthwell cross. ”

“ We may reasonably infer from the statements of the 'Chronicle' that the Southumbrians, whoever they were, had revolted from Æthelred in 697, that in 702 they chose Coenred as their king, and that in 704 Æthelred was induced to yield up the kingdom of Mercia to Coenred. In 709, possibly owing to a reaction against the Southumbrian party, Coenred abdicated in favour of Æthelred's son Ceolred, and, in company with Offa, the young king of the East Saxons, went to Rome, where he received the tonsure, and spent the rest of his life in works of piety. ”

“ Some scholars, moreover, have tried to prove that the dialect and versification are not precisely those of Cædmon's time. But our knowledge of early Northumbrian is so limited that it is impossible to attach much importance to these objections. We must either admit that the Cambridge manuscript gives the actual words which Bæda had before him, or we must suppose that some one took the trouble to render Ælfred's verses into Northumbrian spelling in order to insert them in the manuscript. ”

“ Augustine's monastery at Canterbury respecting the patronage of the church at Faversham, the archdeacon excommunicated the monks on account of the scenes of violence which had taken place in the sacred building, and took possession of the church. The monks appealed to the pope, who directed an inquiry into the case. How the matter was decided is not known; but in the meantime the monks had made their peace with the king, and it seems that the archdeacon availed himself of the opportunity to secure for himself a share of the revenues of the church. ”

“ On 13 Nov. the governor, Henry Newell, asked the opinion of the twenty-four members of the House of Keys on the question whether the case of Christian fell within the scope of an act of the insular legislature passed in 1422, which provided that any person who rose in rebellion against the representatives of the lord of the island should be deemed guilty of high treason, and should, at the pleasure of the house, either be sentenced by the deemsters without trial, or should take his trial before a jury. ”

“ No discussion of the ‘Cædmon’ of the Bodleian manuscript would be complete without some reference to the interesting question of the influence which it is supposed to have exercised upon Milton in the composition of ‘Paradise Lost.’ The resemblances in matter and expression between some passages of Milton's poems and the Anglo-Saxon ‘Genesis’ are so remarkable that it is difficult to regard them as fortuitous. ”

“ It is difficult to read the vivid and beautiful account given by Bæda without feeling that it bears in general the stamp of truth. The nearness of Bæda's place of residence to Streaneshalch would give him ample opportunities of obtaining information from persons to whom Cædmon had been intimately known, and the diligence which he bestowed on the collection of his materials must be evident to every student of his works. ”

“ He refers to a Latin fragment entitled ‘Prefatio in Librum antiquum Saxonice conscriptum,’ which states (to quote Palgrave's account of its contents) that ‘Ludovicus Pius, being desirous to furnish his subjects with a version of the scriptures, applied to a Saxon bard of great talent and fame. The poet, peasant, or husbandman, when entirely ignorant of his art, had been instructed in a dream to render the precepts of the divine law into the verse and measure of his native language. His translation, now unfortunately lost, to which the fragment was prefixed, comprehended the whole of the Bible. ”

“ COLDINGHAM, GEOFFREY de (fl. 1214) , historian of the church of Durham, was, according to the heading prefixed to the manuscripts of his book, sacrist of Coldingham priory, a ' cell ' or dependent establishment of the priory of Durham. Of his life nothing is known. His history begins with the death of Bishop William de St. Barbara in 1152, and ends abruptly with the election of Morgan (an alleged natural son of Henry II) to the bishopric in 1214. From this point the work was continued by Robert de Graystanes, afterwards himself bishop of Durham. ”

“ Some of the phrases which distinguish the ‘Story of the Fall’ from the rest of the ‘Genesis’ occur also in Cædmon's ‘Hymn to the Creator,’ and the fervid and impassioned style which the former composition shares with the ‘Heliand’ reminds us strongly of that of ‘The Dream of the Holy Rood.’ It seems, therefore, a reasonable conclusion that the ‘Heliand,’ and its sister poem in Anglo-Saxon, are both of them translations (largely amplified, possibly, but retaining much of the original diction and spirit) from the verses of the Northumbrian poet. ”

“ Dunstan.’ Mabillon's suggestion appears at first sight highly plausible, as Byrhtferth in the ‘Computus’ describes himself as ‘presbyter,’ and his master Abbo had intimate relations with Dunstan. The wretched Latinity and the bombastic style of the ‘Life,’ however, cannot easily be reconciled with the supposition of Byrhtferth's authorship. Dr. Stubbs has furnished some other arguments, which appear to be decisive against Mabillon's conjecture, although his attempt to show that the author of the ‘Life’ was a continental Saxon can scarcely be considered successful. ”

“ COCKERAM, HENRY (fl. 1650) , is known only as the author of 'The English Dictionarie, or a new Interpreter of hard English Words,' which was the first dictionary of the English language ever published. ”

“ BERNARD (fl. 805) , traveller in Palestine, called Sapiens, has hitherto been strangely treated in books of reference, having in some cases been made into two persons a century apart, while in other cases he has been confounded with one or two namesakes who lived in the twelfth century. This confusion is due in part to the singular literary dishonesty of Thomas Dempster, and in part to the carelessness of succeeding writers. None of the three persons whose histories have been thus intermixed can with certainty be affirmed to have belonged in any way to Great Britain ”

“ The mistaken attribution received a seeming confirmation from the passage in the first version of Gower's ‘Confessio Amantis,’ in which Chaucer is admonished to ‘do make his testament of love.’ As it is now ascertained that the passage in question was written not before 1390, it may possibly contain a playful allusion to the title of Usk's work.
No manuscript of ‘The Testament of Love’ is known to exist. ”

“ The work has no great merit, but is of some value to students of the language. Christian is said to have been ‘chiefly distinguished for his utter unfitness for the clerical office in every respect,' but he inherited the property of Ballakilley and Ballayemmy in the parish of Marown, and was appointed to the living through family influence. ”

“ The countess, on hearing that her husband was a prisoner made overtures to the parliament for the surrender of the island: in the hope of saving the earl’s life. These proposals were drawn up by Sir Philip Musgrave whom Lady Derby had appointed governor, and were despatched by special messenger to England. The same night which the messenger sailed there was an insurrection, headed by Christian, and participated in, according to Burton, Musgrave's biographer, by the greater part of the native population of the island. ”

“ CESTRETON, ADAM de (d. 1269) , was one of the justices itinerant in the reign of Henry III. He is said to have been the king's chaplain, and on 28 Nov. 1265 he received a grant for life of the mastership of the domus conversorum, an establishment for converted Jews, which Henry III had founded about 1231 in New Street, London, now called Chancery Lane. ”

“ The Irish writers themselves speak of Cairnech as a Briton, but they make him a native not of Wales but of Cornwall. It appears likely, however, that this is merely a conjecture, founded on an etymological interpretation of the name Cairnech, which MacFirbis regarded as meaning 'Cornishman.' There seems on the whole to be no reason for disputing the identity of Carantacus and Cairnech, or the correctness of the statement that he was born in Wales. ”

“ In dedicating to Lord Burghley his French-English dictionary, Cotgrave says that to his patron's favour he owes ‘all that he is or has been for many years,’ and thanks him for his kindness in ‘so often dispensing with the ordinary assistance of an ordinary servant.’ The dictionary was first published in 1611 ”

“ Until a few days before his death, which occurred on 27 May 1876, he was accustomed to work from nine in the morning till six in the evening, his principal task being the preparation of the new edition of his larger dictionary, the publication of which had been undertaken by the Clarendon Press. He also left behind him a large mass of annotations on the Anglo-Saxon charters, which still remain unpublished. Bosworth was a fellow of the Royal Society, and a member of many learned societies both at home and abroad. He was three times married, but left no children. ”

“ In 1802 Caddick published three sermons, the titles of which are ‘True Christianity,’ ‘Peace the Christian's Happiness,’ and ‘Counsel for Christians.’ In 1805 he issued proposals for printing by subscription a Hebrew and English edition of the Book of Common Prayer, an annotated edition of the Old and New Testaments in Hebrew and English, and ‘A Volume of Sermons preached in the Parish Churches in and about the Cities of London and Westminster from 1780 to 1804.’ It does not appear, however, that any of these works were actually published. ”

“ There is no evidence that the writer thus referred to was of British origin; in fact, as will be shown, there are strong grounds for believing the contrary. Dempster, however, whose patriotic object it was to swell (by fair means or foul) the catalogue of Scottish worthies, boldly asserts that he was abbot of Holywood in Dumfriesshire. This is obviously a fabrication, as there is no real proof of the existence of any abbey at Holywood before the Premonstratensian foundation there in the twelfth century. It should be observed that Dempster adopts Malmesbury's date of 870 for Bernard's journey. ”

“ And, in the second place, a servile paraphrase of the biblical text can only have proceeded from a writer who was able to read his Latin bible; to a poet who, like Cædmon, had to depend on his recollection of extemporised oral translations, such a performance would have been absolutely impossible. ”

“ At the time when the work appeared, the idiom of mediæval Latin writers had been little studied, and there were in England few, if any, persons capable of perceiving that the Latinity of the pseudo-Richard was not that of a fourteenth-century monk. ”

“ Usk was again the accuser, and (according to his own assertion, which is indirectly corroborated by Walsingham) offered to prove the truth of his words by wager of battle. Northampton was sentenced to death, but reprieved. On 24 Sept. Usk received the king's pardon (ib. ii. 467) . It was generally believed that he had been suborned by Brembre to make false charges against his master. In ‘The Testament of Love’ he shows himself deeply sensible of the odium which his treachery had brought upon him. ”

“ The life above referred to (which the Bollandists remark is suspected of being largely fabulous) says that the kingdom of Ceredig being invaded by the Irish, and the king being advanced in years and infirm, the nobles counselled him to abdicate in favour of his eldest son, Carantacus. The young prince, 'loving the heavenly king more than an earthly Kingdom,' took flight in order to escape the honour that was to be thrust upon him, and lived for some time as a hermit in a place which was afterwards known as Guerit Carantauc (possibly Llangrannog in Cardiganshire) . ”

“ Geoffrey speaks of the archdeacon as ‘accomplished in the art of oratory and in foreign history;’ and in the course of his work he intimates that in his account of Arthur he has supplemented the statements of his British author by information which had been supplied to him by Walter himself. Ranulph Higden mentions Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, in his list of the authorities followed by him in his ‘Polychronicon.’ It is quite possible that Higden may have had access to some genuine work of Walter which is now lost. ”

“ The earl endeavoured to defend his conduct on the ground that the English Act-of Indemnity did not extend to the Isle of Man. The king, however, was greatly incensed by the assumption of sovereign rights on the part of a subject., and on the petition of Christian’s two sons. George and Ewan, the Earl of Derby, the deemsters, the governor, and three members of ‘the pretended court of justice’ were brought before the king in council. ”