Brevis quippe qui vocant communis lunaribus In the same poem he frequently makes his hexameters rhyme. In another part of the same poem he introduces a series of middle rhymes; as, Adventum domini, non est celebrare Decembri, Qui constat denis, annis simul atque novenis.b The comma marks the position of the middle rhyme. He adds thirty-six more lines of this sort. We have also of Bede's a long poem on the martyr Justin. The beginning may be given to show its form. Quando Christus Deus noster, Natus est ex virgine Edictum imperiale Per mundum insonuit, Quatenus totius orbis Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon who went a self-devoted missionary to Germany, and, after converting one hundred thousand from their idolatry, was murdered in 755, attempted poetry. Some of the verses which he subjoined to his epistolary correspondence yet remain to us. In the following, the middle lines represent an acrostic of the name of the friend to whom he writes. It is in Latin rhymes. The acrostic begins when he mentions his friend's name: Vale frater, florentibus Qua martyres in cuneo a Bedæ Opera, tom. i. p. 476. That Bede had observed the middle, or what have been called Leonine rhymes, is clear from his adducing one as a specimen how poets use the figure Homæoteleuton : b Bedæ Opera, tom. i. p. 485. Simeon Dun., p. 96, quotes a long poem of Bede, on the day of judgment, in hexameter Latin versc. e Bede, tom. iii. p. 367. Nitharde nunc nigerrima Qua rex regum perpetuo Cives ditat in sæculo Iconisma sic cherubin Lucidus captes aurea On another occasion he closes a letter to Pope Gregory with six complimentary hexameters. Boniface is once called by a contemporary the client of Aldhelm. Among the correspondents of Boniface we find some poets. Th' Almighty Judge, who in his Father's realms She introduces these verses with a letter, of which a few paragraphs may be selected. "I ask your clemency to condescend to recollect the friendship which some time ago you had for my father. His name was Tinne: he lived in the western parts, and died about eight years ago. I beg you not to refuse to offer up prayers to God for his soul. My mother desires also to be remembered to you. Her name is Ebbe. She is related to you, and lives now very laboriously, and has been long oppressed with great infirmity. I am the only daughter of my parents, and I wish, though I am unworthy, that I may deserve to have you for my brother; because in none of the human race have I so much confidence as in you. I have endeavoured to compose these under-written verses according to the discipline of poetical tradition, not confident with boldness, but desiring to excite the rudiments of your elegant mind, and wanting your help. I learnt this art from the tuition of Eadburga, who did not cease to meditate the sacred law." Cana, an Anglo-Saxon archbishop, another of the correspondents of the German missionary, annexes to a letter which he wrote to Lullus, six lines, which are hexameters, but rhyme in the middle of each line: d Maxima Bib. Patrum, xiii. p. 70. They contain nothing worth translating. * Ibid. p. 126. p. f Ibid. 8 Ibid. p. 83. Vivendo felix Christi laurate triumphis There is no more of his poetry extant. Ethilwald, the friend and pupil of Aldhelm, was also a poet in this period. There is a letter from Aldhelm to his beloved son and pupil Æthelwald yet extant. There is another from the disciple to his master, conceived in terms of great affection and respect, in which he says that he has sent three poems in two different species of poetry; one in heroic verse, the hexameter and pentameter, in seventy verses; another not formed on quantity, but consisting of eight syllables in every line, and one and the same letter, adapted to similar cross paths of lines; the third made in similar lines of verses and syllables, on the transmarine journey of Boniface. There are no poems immediately subjoined to the letter, but within three pages some poems follow which seem to be some of those described by Ethilwald. We infer this, because the last purports to be written by Ethilwald, and the one preceding it speaks of Aldhelm, as if it were addressed to him. Both are in the singular sort of verse above described. This singular versification seems to be a peculiar alliteration, which these passages illustrate: Summum satorem solia Maxima Bib. Pat. p. 111. Curvato colli cervicem i Vale, vale, fidissime, i Ibid. 13, 93. Farewell, farewell, most faithful friend, most dear to Christ; whom in the chamber of my heart I surround with the bond of love-the humble voice of Ethilwald having saluted thee. Maxima Bib. Pat. p. 98. Althelmum nam altissimum For I sing Aldhelm, the most lofty and most illustrious. Ibid. p. 98. These poems are more remarkable for these syllabic difficulties of versification than for any other quality, except the absence of the true poetical genius. The rhymed poems which we have cited from Aldhelm, Bede, Boniface, Leobgitha, Cana, and Ethilwald, all Anglo-Saxons who wrote before and between 700 and 750, show that the use of rhyme was a favourite amusement among the Anglo-Saxons, at this period, in their Latin poetry. Alcuin was another poet who contributed to adorn the eighth century. Some of his poems have been printed among those of Walafrid Strabo, which his editor, Du Chesne, has noticed. He has left many poetical compositions, among which his verses to Charlemagne, and his religious and moral poetry, form the principal part. He sometimes rhymes, as in this poem, of which the loose measure reminds us of Swift's petition: Quam imprimis speciosa quadriga: homo, leo, vitulus et aquila. Septuaginta unum per capitula colloquuntur de domino paria. In secunda subsequuntur protinus homo, leo loquitur et vitulus Quibus inest ordinate positus decimus atque novem numerus.' Sixteen more lines follow, rhyming in the same manner. The following poem we may call a religious sonnet. I quote it because two rhyme together at different distances, I think it an early specimen of that sort of rhyme which afterwards became improved into the sonnet: Qui cœli cupit portas intrare patentes, Hæc domus alma Dei, hic sunt thesaura tonantis, Idcirco ingrediens devota mente viator, Sterne solo membra, pectore carpe polum. Hic Deus, hic sancti tibi spes, hic terra salutis. Who seeks to enter heaven's expanded gates, Here is the gate of ever-during bliss, The path of light, of pardon, and of peace, The house of God, the treasures of his power, And numerous relics of the holiest men. With mind devoted, traveller, enter here, Here spread your limbs, and fill your heart with heav'n! If steadfast faith thy humble mind control. In another poem, on a lady building a temple, who was one of the correspondents of Boniface, he mentions Ina, the Saxon king, in his way: 'Alb. Opera. ed. Du Ch. P. 1686. Ibid. 1697. A third ruler received the supreme sceptre, Whom the nations call In with uncertain cognomen, Who now governs by right the kingdom of the Saxons. There is another, which seems to have been meant to rhyme at different distances: O mortalis homo mortis reminiscere casus Mortal! the casualties of death remember! Such deeds will bless thee in the grave we loathe. Some of his poetry is pleasing. The following is his address to his cell, when he quitted it for the world: O my lov'd cell, sweet dwelling of my soul, Must I for ever say, Dear spot, farewell! Round thee their shades the sounding branches spread, n Alb. Opera. ed. Du. Ch. p. 1721. • O mea cella mihi habitatio dulcis amata Omne genus volucrum matutinas personat odas Te mea cella modo lacrymosis plango camœnis, |