Beda

“ Almost all early literature is conventional, because the spontaneous is not esteemed and is not preserved. But whatever might have happened under other conditions, the fact now is that the literature of our first Christian era is almost entirely lost. It perished in the Danish invasions. The works of Beda are, indeed, preserved, and in one sense they make a large exception to the general statement, yet the exception is not one that is of great import for our immediate purpose. His works, even when he is upon a local subject, breathe little of local curiosity or interest. ”

“ Prosper was not only a contemporary of the facts he relates, but at a later period actually became secretary to Celestine: his authority therefore is of much weight. Still it is observable that Beda, in his relation, does not attribute the mission of Germanus to the Pope. He says, that the Britons having applied for aid to the prelates of Gaul, these held a great synod, and elected Germanus and Lupus to proceed to England. Hist. Eccl. i. 17. Beda’s account is taken from the life of Germanus written by Constantius of Lyons, about forty years after the bishop’s death. ”

“ If a second man like himself had arisen in his days, who with the same clear, circumspect glance, the same honest and pious purpose, had recorded the secular transactions of his forefathers, as Beda has transmitted to us those chiefly of the church, then would the history of England have been to posterity almost like revelation for Germanic antiquity.”
It seems like a miracle to witness within a century of their country’s conversion, two native names so remarkable as these. ”

“ One morning in early April Adone received a printed invitation to attend in five days' time at the Municipality of San Beda to hear of something which concerned him. It was brought by the little old postman who went the rounds of the district once a week on his donkey; the five days had already expired before the summons was delivered. Adone's ruddy cheeks grew pale as he glanced over it; he thrust it into the soil and drove his spade through it. The old man waiting, in hopes to get a draught of wine, looked at him in dismay. ”

“ Vincent de Paul. Some, however, deduce them from a priest at Liege, called Lambert le bégue, or the stammerer. Begga was probably imported by the Danes to Scandinavia, where it is still in use, though there it may be a contraction for either Bergljot or Brigitta. The Venerable Bede himself, the father of English history, called Beda in Latin, is referred to the Welsh Bedaws, another form of the word life; but it has been more usual to explain his name by reference to the Teuton verbs, meaning to bid or to pray. ”

“ Now comes the notice of a text which always commands the attention of the ethnological philologue, when he is engaged upon the Angle period of our island's history. It refers to the middle of the eighth century, the era of the Venerable Beda, from whose writings it is taken. ”

“ An opinion, however, has been lately expressed, that 'the story of Beda's summons to Rome is founded upon an error committed by Malmesbury, who, having met with a letter in which Pope Sergius requested Ceolfrid, Abbot of Jarrow, to send one of his monks to Rome, concluded that Beda was that individual, and most unjustifiably inserted his name therein.' In support of this charge it has been alleged, that there is still extant (of an earlier date than Malmesbury's work) a copy of this letter, (Tiberius, A. xv.) in which the passage relating to Beda does not occur. ”

“ Adone coloured to the roots of his curling hair.
"That is unkind, sir!" he said humbly; "I only meant that — that —"
"I know, I know!" said the priest impatiently, but with contrition. "You meant only friendship and good-will; but there are times when the best intentions irk one. I went to see the Prior of the Certosa, and old friend; I had business in San Beda."
Adone was silent, afraid that he had shown an unseemly curiosity; he saw that Don Silverio was irritated and not at ease, and he hesitated what words to choose. ”

“ The extreme loneliness of the Edera valley was in their favour. Once in half a year, perhaps, half a troop of carabineers might ride through the district, but this was only if there had been any notable assassination or robbery; and of police there was none nearer than the town of San Beda.
It was to arrange these nightly exercises, and summon to or warn off men from them, as might be expedient, that Nernia was usually sent upon her nocturnal errands. ”

“ He had already obtained the necessary permission to leave his parish; he then asked for a young friend from San Beda to take his place in the village; left his little dog to the care of Nerina; took his small hoard in a leathern bag strapped to his loins, and went on his way at daybreak along the southwest portion of the valley, to cover on foot the long distance which lay between him and the nearest place at which a public vehicle went twice a week to a railway station; whence he could take the train to Terni and so to Rome. ”

“ Beddoes, Thomas Lovell, poet, son of above, born 1803, died 1849; published The Bride's Tragedy while a student at Oxford, studied medicine, and lived long abroad. His work was largely fragmentary, but his posthumous Death's Jest-book, or The Fool's Tragedy (1850) , received the high praise of such judges as Landor and Browning. His Poems, with memoir, appeared in 1851.
Bede, Beda, or Bæda, known as the Venerable, English historian and theologian, born in 672 or 673 in the neighbourhood of Monkwearmouth, County Durham; educated at St. ”

“ It is one of the indications of the date of the poem.
"So God send her to me."—This would seem to be a kind of competition between them as to the good fortune of entertaining the guest.
"he Lords of the Bedu."—The Bedu, ie., the Bedouins. "Bedu" is the correct plural of "Bedawi," a wanderer, which Europeans have changed into Bedouin, Bedouins.
Page 5. "Fulano and Fulano."—So the Spaniards render the Arabic "Fulan," corresponding to our "Mr. So and So," or the French "Monsieur un tel." ”

“ It may be doubted if the people of the West ever overcome the impression made upon them by the first view of a camel equipped and loaded for the desert. Custom, so fatal to other novelties, affects this feeling but little. At the end of long journeys with caravans, after years of residence with the Bedawin, the Western-born, wherever they may be, will stop and wait the passing of the stately brute. The charm is not in the figure, which not even love can make beautiful; nor in the movement, the noiseless stepping, or the broad careen. ”

“ He saw before him a land in which the monk was to be the conservator and promoter of learning. And in carrying out this purpose he did more than plant a monastery, for he planted and reared a man. We have the word of that historian whose life and death so nearly approach those of his favorite author, when we declare that “prose took its first shape in the Latin history of Baeda.” For John Henry Greene closed his history of the English people much as Bede ended his own career, weary with his labor and yet completing what he had begun. ”

“ But I never saw the fun of being left high and dry on your bed: it would be a shock to the system which I couldn't stand. But even this dreadful expedient would be better than posting an æger; which, you know, you didn't ought to was, Giglamps. Well, turn out, old feller! I've told Robert to take your commons [1] into my room. Smalls and Charley are coming, and I've got a dove-tart and a spread-eagle."
"Whatever are they?" asked Mr. Verdant Green.
"Not know what they are!" cried Mr. Bouncer; "why a dove-tart is what mortals call a pigeon-pie. ”

“ A brightness that was too strong for her, a sense as of great Shapes, a looming Presence, swept on to her, wrapped her round, overweighted her. She struggled to keep up with the Beata consciousness, for she knew if only she could succeed in that she would find the answer to her own sorrow and Beata's fear. The outer world had begun to come back, the towers of the town showed as through a mist, some growing more and more definite; some, those of Beata's day, wavering uncertainly. . . . She strained her flagging nerves, caught at her subsiding energies in one last effort. ”

“ Why, what do you mean, sir? Didn't you ever learn in the nursery what happened to old Daddy Longlegs when he wouldn't say his prayers?"
"Robert did call me," said our hero, rubbing his eyes; "but I felt tired, so I told him to put in an aeger."
"Upon my word, young un," observed Mr. Bouncer, "you're a coming it, you are! and only in your second term, too. What makes you wear a nightcap, Giglamps? Is it to make your hair curl, or to keep your venerable head warm? Nightcaps ain't healthy; they are only fit for long-tailed babbies, and old birds that are as bald as coots ”

“ Beata.
(Letting her arms sink down helplessly.) I can't.
Richard.
Wait, dear. (He loosens her veil.) How white you are! Come to the fire. (He leads her to the fireplace.) There! is that right?
Beata.
Everything is right as long as you're alive!
Richard.
Why, Beata, what put such an idea into your head?
Beata.
Hasn't it been in yours ever since yesterday?
Richard.
There will be no duel, I assure you.
Beata.
I have just read your speech. It was your goodbye to the world. Oh, don't laugh--don't deny it. I've felt death hanging over us ever since. ”

“ Suddenly they heard a distant rush through the wood on each side of them, like the tramp of hoofs, and the startled creatures of the wood scampered through the brushwood, or whirled across their path in hasty flight.
"God help us! it is the mounted soldiers!" exclaimed Beata. "But collect yourself--your dress disguises you perfectly. Do not betray yourself." And she hastily snatched the bandage from his eyes and hid it in her bosom; then she pulled the hat low over his brow so that his eyes might not be seen under its broad brim. ”

“ He still journeyed everywhere on foot, and out of ‘zealous love of pious toil’ resisted the bidding of Archbishop Theodore, who ordered him to ride when he had a longer circuit than usual to make. The primate, however, insisted on having his way, and on one occasion with his own hand helped Ceadda to mount; because, as Bede says (iv. 3) , he had ‘assuredly discovered him to be a holy man.’ Bede relates several beautiful instances of this ‘holy man's’ habits of simple piety as described to him by one who had been brought up and trained in Ceadda's monastery at Lastingham. ”

“ Verdant Green sprang out of bed much relieved in mind to find that the alarm of fire was nothing more than his scout knocking vigorously at his door, and that it was chapel-time.
"Want any warm water, sir?" asked Mr. Filcher, putting his head in at the door.
"No, thank you," replied our hero; "I - I -"
"Shave with cold. Ah! I see, sir. It's much 'ealthier, and makes the 'air grow. But any thing as you does want, sir, you've only to call."
"If there is any thing that I want, Robert," said Verdant, "I will ring."
"Bless you, sir," observed Mr. Filcher, "there ain't no bells never in colleges! ”

“ Bernicia, Bede lived, was himself a man of singular learning, and a very great encourager of it in others; and had, doubtlessly, an extraordinary respect for Bede, as appears by his request to him to write the Ecclesiastical History, and by Bede's submitting the papers to him for his perusal. That prince was not only a lover of learned men in general, but especially of that part of them who led a monastic life, insomuch that, about three years after Bede's death, he resigned his crown, and became a monk at Lindisfarne. ”

“ Tester, the bed-maker? "Law bless you, sir!" said that estimable lady, dabbing her curtseys where there were stops, like the beats of a conductor's baton - "Law bless you, sir! I've bin a wife meself, sir. And I knows your feelings."
And what said Mr. Robert Filcher? "Mr. Verdant Green," said he, "I'm sorry as how you've done with Oxford, sir, and that we're agoing to lose you. And this I will say, sir! if ever there was a gentleman I were sorry to part with, it's you, sir. But I hopes, sir, that you've got a wife as'll be a good wife to you, sir ”

“ Bede displays extensive, if not profound learning, the whole of which he had acquired from sources that were ordinarily within the reach of monastic students. Bede “was a man of universal learning, not less skilled in the Greek than in the Latin tongue: a poet, a rhetorician, an historian, an astronomer, an arithmetician, a master of chronology [Pg 84] and geography, a philosopher, and theologian. So much was he admired in his own times that it became a proverbial saying among the learned—“A man born in the farthest corner of the earth has compassed the earth with the line of his genius.” ”

“ In the dark glades of that primeval forest a splendid Candelabra, erected by the late Duke of Saxe Gotha, marks now the spot where Christianity first shed its light upon the wild tribes of Saxony. Alcuin, also his countryman, the preceptor of Charlemagne, omits no opportunity of sounding the praises of Bede, whose Homilies in his day were read in all churches, and at whose tomb numerous miracles had been performed.
His relics were removed by stealth from their quiet resting-place at Jarrow, by Ælfred, a priest of Durham. ”

“ They had reached one of those very narrow passes between two tall stones, which performed the office of a stile in Loamshire, and Dinah paused as she turned towards Seth and said, in her tender but calm treble notes—
"Seth Bede, I thank you for your love towards me, and if I could think any man as more than a Christian brother, I think it would be you. But my heart is not free to marry. That is good for other women, and it is a great and a blessed thing to be a wife and mother ”