And here are the concluding six lines : For ich wot al mid iwisse Wele that ich nadde her Mine cweane Gwenayfer! It ought to be observed that, although we have given throughout the u and v exactly as they stand in the printed edition, these are really only two ways of writing what was regarded as the same letter, and that in both texts sometimes the u is to be sounded like our modern v, sometimes the v like our modern u. Thus, sweuen was pronounced sweven, uore vore, vppen uppen, auere avere, &c. THE ORMULUM. Another metrical work of considerable extent, that known as the Ormulum, from Orm, or Ormin, which appears to have been the name of the writer, has been usually assigned to the same, or nearly the same age with the Brut of Layamon. It exists only in a single manuscript, which there is some reason for believing to be the author's autograph, now preserved in the Bodleian Library among the books bequeathed by the great scholar Francis Junius, who appears to have purchased it at the Hague in 1659 at the sale of the books of his deceased friend Janus Ulitius, or Vlitius (van Vliet), also an eminent philologist and book-collector. It is a folio volume, consisting of 90 parchment leaves, besides 29 others inserted, upon which the poetry is written in double columns, in a stiff but distinct hand, and without division into verses, so that the work had always been assumed to be in prose till its metrical character was pointed out by Tyrwhitt in his edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 1775. Accordingly no mention is made of it by Warton, the first volume of whose History was published in 1774. But it had previously been referred to by Hickes and others; and it has attracted a large share of the attention of all recent investigators of the history of the language. It has now been printed in full, under the title of The Ormulum; Now first edited from the Original Manuscript in the Bodleian, with Notes and a glossary, by Robert Meadows White, D.D., late Fellow of St. Mary Magdalene College, and formerly Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford; 2 vols. 8vo. Oxford, at the University Press, 1852. The Ormulum is described by Dr. White as being "a series of Homilies, in an imperfect state, composed in metre without alliteration, and, except in very few cases, also without rhyme; the subject of the Homilies being supplied by those portions of the New Testament which were read in the daily service of the Church." The plan of the writer is, we are further told, “first to give a paraphrastic version of the Gospel of the day, adapting the matter to the rules of his verse, with such verbal additions as were required for that purpose. He then adds an exposition of the subject in its doctrinal and practical bearings, in the treatment of which he borrows copiously from the writings of St. Augustine and Elfric, and occasionally from those of Beda." "Some idea," it is added, " may be formed of the extent of Ormin's labours when we consider that, out of the entire series of Homilies, provided for nearly the whole of the yearly service, nothing is left beyond the text of the thirty-second." We have still nearly ten thousand long lines of the work, or nearly twenty thousand as Dr. White prints them, with the fifteen syllables divided into two sections, the one of eight the other of seven syllables, -the latter, which terminates in an unaccented syllable, being prosodically equivalent to one of six, so that the whole is simply our still common alternation of the eight-syllabled and the six-syllabled line, only without either rhyme or even alliteration, which makes it as pure a species of blank verse, though a different species, as that which is now in use. The list of the texts, or subjects of the Homilies, as preserved in the manuscript, extends to 242, and it appears to be imperfect. Ormin plainly claims to have completed his long selfimposed task. Here is the beginning of the Dedication to his brother Walter, which stands at the head of the work: : Nu, brotherr Wallterr, brotherr min [Now, brother Walter, brother mine] Affterr the flaeshes kinde; [After the flesh's kind (or nature)] Annd brotherr min i Crisstenndom [And brother mine in Christendom (or Christ's kingdom)] VOL. I. Thurrh fulluhht and thurrh trowwthe; [And brother mine in God's house] [Yet on (in) the third wise] Thurrh thatt witt hafenn taken ba [Though that we two have taken both] An reghellboc to folghenn, [One rule-book to follow] Unnderr kanunnkess had and lif, [Under canonic's (canon's) rank and life] [And performed thee thine will (wish)] [I have wended (turned) into English] Affterr thatt little witt tatt me [My Lord hath lent] Thu thohhtesst tatt itt mihhte well [Thou thoughtest that it might well] Till mickell frame turrnenn [To mickle (much) profit turn] Yiff Ennglissh follk, forr lufe off Crist, [If English folk for love of Christ] Itt wollde yerne lernenn, [It would earnestly learn] Annd follghenn itt, and fillenn itt [And follow it, and fulfil it] Withth thohht, withth word, withth dede. [With thought, with word, with deed] Annd forrthi gerrndesst tu thatt icc [And I it have performed thee] Acc all thurrh Cristess hellpe; [But all through Christ's help] Annd unne birrth bathe thannkenn Crist [And us two it becomes both (to) thank Christ] Thatt itt iss brohht till ende. [That it is brought to end] [I have collected on (or in) this book] Tha Goddspelless neh alle [The Gospels nigh all] Thatt sinndenn o the messeboc [That are on (or in) the mass-book] Inn all the yer att messe. [In all the year at mass] Annd ayy affterr the Goddspell staunt Thatt mann birrth spellenn to the folle Off theyyre sawle nede; [Of (or for) their soul (or soul's) need] Annd yet taer tekenn mare inoh [And yet there in addition more enough] Thu shallt taeronne findenn [Thou shalt thereon (or therein) find] Off thatt tatt Cristess hallghe thed [Of that that Christ's holy people] Birrth trowwenn wel and folghenn. [Behove (to) believe well and follow] Icc hafe sett her o thiss boc [I have set here on (or in) this book] Amang Goddspelless wordess, [Among (the) Gospel's words] All thurrh me sellfenn, manig word The rime swa to fillen; [The rhyme so to fill] Acc thu shallt findenn thatt min word [But thou shalt find that my word] Eyywhaer thaer itt iss ekedd [Everywhere there (or where) it is eked (or added)] Mayy hellpenn tha thatt redenn itt [May help them that read it] To sen and tunnderrstanndenn [To see and to understand] All thess te bettre hu theyym birrth [The Gospel (to) understand] One remarkable feature in this English is evidently some thing very peculiar in the spelling. And the same system is observed throughout the work. It is found on a slight examination to consist in the duplication of the consonant whenever it follows a vowel having any other than the sound which is now for the most part indicated by the annexation of a silent e to the single consonant, or what may be called the name sound, being that by which the vowel is commonly named or spoken of in our modern English. Thus pane would by Ormin be written pan, but pan pann; mean men, but men menn; pine pin, but pin pinn; own on, but on onn; tune tun, but tun tunn. This, as Mr. Guest has pointed out, is, after all, only a rigorous carrying out of a principle which has always been applied to a certain extent in English orthography, as in tally, or tall, berry, witty, folly, dull, as compared with tale, beer, white, lone, mule. The effect, however, in Ormin's work is on a hasty inspection to make his English seem much more rude and antique than it really is. The entry of the MS. in the catalogue of Vliet's library, as quoted by Dr. White, describes it as an old Swedish or Gothic book. Other early notices speak of it as semi-Saxon, or half Danish, or possibly old Scottish. Even Hickes appears to have regarded it as belonging to the first age after the Conquest. Ormin attaches the highest importance to his peculiar system of orthography. Nevertheless, in quoting what he says upon the subject in the subsequent passage of his Dedication we will take the liberty, for the sake of giving a clear and just idea of his language to a reader of the present day, to strip it of a disguise which so greatly exaggerates its apparent antiquity : And whase willen shall this book [And whoso shall wish this book] Eft other sithe writen, [After (wards) (an) other time (to) write] Him bidde icc that he't write right, [Him bid I that he it write right] Swa sum this book him teacheth, [So as this book him teacheth] All thwert out after that it is [All athwart (or through) out after that (or what) it is] Upo this firste bisne. [Upon this first example] With all suilk rime als here is set [With all such rhyme as here is set] With all se fele wordes [With all so many words] And tat he looke well that he [And that he look well that he] |