Andresen, Heilbronn, 1877-1879, 2 vols.), written 1160-1174, stops at the battle of Tinchebray in 1107 just before the period for which he would have been so useful. His _Brut_ or _Geste des Bretons_ (Le Roux de Lincy, 1836-1838, 2 vols.), written in 1155, is merely a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth. "Wace," says Gaston Paris, speaking of the _Roman de Rou_, "traduit en les abregeant des historiens latins que nous possedons; mais ca et la il ajoute soit des contes populaires, par exemple sur Richard 1'er, sur Robert 1'er, soit des particularites qu'il savait par tradition (sur ce meme Robert le magnifique, sur l'expedition de Guillaume, &c.) et qui donnent a son oeuvre un reel interet historique. Sa langue est excellente; son style clair, serre, simple, d'ordinaire assez monotone, vous plait par sa saveur archaque et quelquefois par une certaine grace et une certaine malice."
The _History of the Dukes of Normandy_ by Benoit de Sainte-More is based on the work of Wace. It was composed at the request of Henry II.
about 1170, and takes us as far as the year 1135 (ed. by Francisque Michel, 1836-1844, _Collection de documents inedits,_ 3 vols.). The 43,000 lines which it contains are of but little interest to the historian; they are too evidently the work of a _romancier courtois,_ who takes pleasure in recounting love-adventures such as those he has described in his romance of Troy. Other works, however, give us more trustworthy information, for example, the anonymous poem on Henry II.'s _Conquest of Ireland_ in 1172 (ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1837), which, together with the _Expugnatio hibernica_ of Giraud de Barri, constitutes our chief authority on this subject. The _Conquest of Ireland_ was republished in 1892 by Goddard Henry Orpen, under the title of _The Song of Dermot and the Earl_ (Oxford, Clarendon Press).
Similarly, Jourdain Fantosme, who was in the north of England in 1174, wrote an account of the wars between Henry II., his sons, William the Lion of Scotland and Louis VII., in 1173 and 1174 (_Chronicle of the reigns of Stephen_ ... III., ed. by Joseph Stevenson and Fr. Michel, London, 1886, pp. 202-307). Not one of these histories, however, is to be compared in value with _The History of William the Marshal, Count of Striguil and Pembroke,_ regent of England from 1216-1219, which was found and subsequently edited by Paul Meyer (_Societe de l'histoire de France,_ 3 vols., 1891-1901). This masterpiece of historiography was composed in 1225 or 1226 by a professional poet of talent at the request of William, son of the marshal. It was compiled from the notes of the marshal's squire, John d'Early ([+] 1230 or 1231), who shared all the vicissitudes of his master's life and was one of the executors of his will. This work is of great value for the history of the period 1186-1219, as the information furnished by John d'Early is either personal or obtained at first hand. In the part which deals with the period before 1186, it is true, there are various mistakes, due to the author's ignorance of contemporary history, but these slight blemishes are amply atoned for by the literary value of the work. The style is concise, the anecdotes are well told, the descriptions short and picturesque; the whole constitutes one of the most living pictures of medieval society. Very pale by the side of this work appear the _Chronique_ of Peter of Langtoft, written between 1311 and 1320, and mainly of interest for the period 1294-1307 (ed. by T. Wright, London, 1866-1868); the _Chronique_ of Nicholas Trevet (1258?-1328?), dedicated to Princess Mary, daughter of Edward I. (Duffus Hardy, _Descr. Catal._ III., 349-350); the _Scala Chronica_ compiled by Thomas Gray of Heaton ([+] _c._ 1369), which carries us to the year 1362-1363 (ed. by J. Stevenson, Maitland Club, Edinburgh, 1836); the _Black Prince,_ a poem by the poet Chandos, composed about 1386, and relating the life of the Black Prince from 1346-1376 (re-edited by Francisque Michel, London and Paris, 1883); and, lastly, the different versions of the _Brutes,_ the form and historical importance of which have been indicated by Paul Meyer (_Bulletin de la Societe des Anciens Textes,_ 1878, pp. 104-145), and by F.W.D. Brie (_Geschichte und Quellen der mittelenglischen Prosachronik, The Brute of England or The Chronicles of England,_ Marburg, 1905).
Finally we may mention, as ancient history, the translation of Eutropius and Dares, by Geoffrey of Waterford (13th century), who gave also the _Secret des Secrets,_ a translation from a work wrongly attributed to Aristotle, which belongs to the next division (_Rom._ xxiii. 314).
_Didactic Literature_.--This is the most considerable, if not the most interesting, branch of Anglo-Norman literature: it comprises a large number of works written chiefly with the object of giving both religious and profane instruction to Anglo-Norman lords and ladies.
The following list gives the most important productions arranged in chronological order:--
Philippe de Thaun, _Comput, c_. 1119 (edited by E. Mall, Strassburg, 1873), poem on the calendar; _Bestiaire, c_. 1130 (ed. by E. Walberg, Paris, 1900; cf. G. Paris, _Rom._ xxxi. 175); _Lois de Guillaume le Conquerant_ (redaction between 1150 and 1170, ed. by J.E. Matzke, Paris, 1899); _Oxford Psalter, c_. 1150 (Fr. Michel, _Libri Psalmorum versio antiqua gallica_, Oxford, 1860); _Cambridge Psalter, c_. 1160 (Fr. Michel, _Le Livre des Psaumes,_ Paris, 1877); _London Psalter,_ same as Oxford Psalter (cf. Beyer, _Zt. f. rom. Phil._ xi. 513-534; xii. 1-56); _Disticha Catonis_, translated by Everard de Kirkham and Elie de Winchester (Stengel, _Ausg. u. Abhandlungen_); _Le Roman de fortune_, summary of Boetius' _De consolatione philosophiae,_ by Simon de Fresne (_Hist. lit._ xxviii. 408); _Quatre livres des rois_, translated into French in the 12th century, and imitated in England soon after (P. Schlosser, _Die Lautverhaltnisse der quatre livres des rois,_ Bonn, 1886; _Romania,_ xvii. 124); _Donnei des Amanz,_, the conversation of two lovers, overheard and carefully noted by the poet, of a purely didactic character, in which are included three interesting pieces, the first being an episode of the story of Tristram, the second a fable, _L'homme et le serpent,_ the third a tale, _L'homme et l'oiseau_, which is the basis of the celebrated _Lai de l'oiselet_ (_Rom._ xxv. 497); _Livre des Sibiles_ (1160); _Enseignements Trebor_, by Robert de Ho (=Hoo, Kent, on the left bank of the Medway) [edited by Mary Vance Young, Paris; Picard, 101; cf.
G. Paris, _Rom._ xxxii. 141]; _Lapidaire de Cambridge_ (Pannier, _Les Lapidaires francais_); Frere Angier de Ste. Frideswide, _Dialogues,_ 29th of November 1212 (_Rom._ xii. 145-208, and xxix.; M.K. Pope, _etude sur la langue de Frere Angier,_ Paris, 1903); _Li dialoge Gregoire le pape_, ed. by Foerster, 1876; _Petit Plet_, by Chardri, _c._ 1216 (Koch, _Altfr Bibliothek._ i., and Mussafia, _Z.f.r.P._ iii. 591); _Petite philosophie, c._ 1225 (_Rom._ xv. 356; xxix.
72); _Histoire de Marie et de Jesus (Rom._ xvi. 248-262); _Poeme sur l'Ancien Testament_ (_Not. et Extr._ xxxiv. 1, 210; _Soc. Anc.
Textes_, 1889, 73-74); _Le Corset_ and _Le Miroir,_ by Robert de Gretham (_Rom._ vii. 345; xv. 296); _Lumiere as Lais,_ by Pierre de Peckham, _c._ 1250 (_Rom._ xv. 287); an Anglo-Norman redaction of _Image du monde, c._ 1250 (_Rom._ xxi. 481); two Anglo-Norman versions of _Quatre soeurs_ (Justice, Truth, Peace, Mercy), 13th century (ed.
by Fr. Michel, _Psautier d'Oxford,_ pp. 364-368, _Bulletin Soc. Anc.
Textes,_ 1886, 57, _Romania,_ xv. 352); another _Comput_ by Rauf de Lenham, 1256 (P. Meyer, _Archives des missions,_ 2nd series iv.
154 and 160-164; _Rom._ xv. 285); _Le chastel d'amors,_ by Robert Grosseteste or Greathead, bishop of Lincoln ([+] 1253) [ed. by Cooke, _Carmina Anglo-Normannica_, 1852, Caxton Society]; _Poeme sur l'amour de Dieu et sur la haine du peche_, 13th century, second part (_Rom._ xxix. 5); _Le mariage des neuf filles du diable_ (_Rom._ xxix. 54); _Ditie d' Urbain_, attributed without any foundation to Henry I. (P.
Meyer, _Bulletin Soc. Anc. Textes_, 1880, p. 73 and _Romania_ xxxii, 68); _Dialogue de l'eveque Saint Julien et son disciple_ (_Rom._ xxix.
21); _Poeme sur l'antichrist et le jugement dernier_, by Henri d'Arci (_Rom._ xxix. 78; _Not. et. Extr._ 35, i. 137). Wilham de Waddington produced at the end of the 13th century his _Manuel des peches_, which was adapted in England by Robert of Brunne in his _Handlying Sinne_ (1303) [_Hist. lit._ xxviii. 179-207; _Rom._ xxix. 5, 47-53]; see Furnivall,_Robert of Brunne's Handlying Synne_ (Roxb. Club, 1862); in the 14th century we find Nicole Bozon's _Contes moralises_ (see above); _Traite de naturesse_ (_Rom._ xiii. 508); _Sermons_ in verse (P. Meyer, op. cit. xlv.); _Proverbes de bon enseignement_ (op.
cit. xlvi.). We have also a few handbooks on the teaching of French.
Gautier de Biblesworth wrote such a treatise _a Madame Dyonise de Mountechensi pur aprise de langage_ (Wright, _A Volume of Vocabularies_; P. Meyer, _Rec. d'anc. textes_, p. 360 and _Romania_ xxxii, 22); _Orthographia gallica_ (Sturzinger, _Altfr. Bibl._ 1884); _La maniere de language_, written in 1396 (P. Meyer, _Rev. crit.
d'hist. et de litt._ nos. compl. de 1870); _Un petit livre pour enseigner les enfants de leur entreparler comun francois_, c. 1399 (Stengel, _Z. fur n.f. Spr. u. Litt._ i. 11). The important _Mirour de l'omme_, by John Gower, contains about 30,000 lines written in very good French at the end of the 14th century (Macaulay, _The Complete Works of John Gower_, i., Oxford, 1899).
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_Hagiography_.--Among the numerous lives of saints written in Anglo-Norman the most important ones are the following, the list of which is given in chronological order:--_Voyage de Saint Brandan_ (or _Brandain_), written in 1121, by an ecclesiastic for Queen Aelis of Louvain (_Rom. St._ i. 553-588; _Z.f.r.P._ ii. 438-459; _Rom._ xviii.
203. C. Wahlund, _Die altfr. Prosaubersetz. von Brendan's Meerfahrt_, Upsala, 1901); life of St. Catherine by Clemence of Barking (_Rom._ xiii. 400, Jarnik, 1894); life of St Giles, c. 1170, by Guillaume de Berneville (_Soc. Anc. Textes fr._, 1881; _Rom._ xi. and xxiii. 94); life of St. Nicholas, life of Our Lady, by Wace (Delius, 1850; Stengel, _Cod. Digby_, 66); Uhlemann, _Gram. Krit. Studien zu Wace's Conception und Nicolas_, 1878; life of St. George by Simon de Fresne (_Rom._ x.
319; J.E. Matzke, _Public. of the Mod. Lang. Ass. of Amer._ xvii.
1902; _Rom._ xxxiv. 148); _Expurgatoire de Ste. Patrice_, by Marie de France (Jenkins, 1894; Eckleben, _Aelteste Schilderung vom Fegefeuer d.H. Patricius_, 1851; Ph. de Felice, 1906); _La vie de St. Edmund le Rei_, by Denis Pyramus, end of 12th century (_Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey_, edited by T. Arnold, ii. 1892; _Rom._ xxii. 170); Henri d'Arci's life of St. Thais, poem on the Antichrist, _Visio S. Pauli_ (P. Meyer, _Not. et Extr._ xxxv. 137-158); life of St. Gregory the Great by Frere Angier, 30th of April 1214 (_Rom._ viii. 509-544; ix.
176; xviii. 201); life of St. Modwenna, between 1225 and 1250 (Suchier, _Die dem Matthaus Paris zugeschriebene Vie de St. Auban_, 1873, pp.
54-58); Fragments of a life of St Thomas Becket, c. 1230 (P. Meyer, _Soc. Anc. Text. fr._, 1885); and another life of the same by Benoit of St. Alban, 13th century (Michel, _Chron. des ducs de Normandie; Hist. Lit._ xxiii. 383); a life of Edward the Confessor, written before 1245 (Luard, _Lives of Edward the Confessor_, 1858; _Hist.
Lit._ xxvii. 1), by an anonymous monk of Westminster; life of St. Auban, c. 1250 (Suchier, op. cit.; Uhlemann, "uber die vie de St. Auban in Bezug auf Quelle," &c. _Rom. St._ iv. 543-626; ed. by Atkinson, 1876). _The Vision of Tnudgal_, an Anglo-Norman fragment, is preserved in MS. 312, Trinity College, Dublin; the MS. is of the 14th century; the author seems to belong to the 13th (_La vision de Tondale_, ed. by Friedel and Kuno Meyer, 1906). In this category we may add the life of Hugh of Lincoln, 13th century (_Hist. Lit._ xxiii.
436; Child, _The English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, 1888, p. v; Wolter, _Bibl. Anglo-Norm._, ii. 115). Other lives of saints were recognized to be Anglo-Norman by Paul Meyer when examining the MSS.
of the Welbeck library (_Rom._ xxxii. 637 and _Hist. Lit._ xxxiii.
338-378).
_Lyric Poetry._--The only extant songs of any importance are the seventy-one _Ballads_ of Gower (Stengel, _Gower's Minnesang_, 1886).
The remaining songs are mostly of a religious character. Most of them have been discovered and published by Paul Meyer (_Bulletin de la Soc.
Anc. Textes_, 1889; _Not. et Extr._ xxxiv; _Rom._ xiii. 518, t. xiv.
370; xv. p. 254, &c.). Although so few have come down to us such songs must have been numerous at one time, owing to the constant intercourse between English, French and Provencals of all classes. An interesting passage in _Piers Plowman_ furnishes us with a proof of the extent to which these songs penetrated into England. We read of:
"... dykers and deluers that doth here dedes ille, And dryuen forth the longe day with 'Deu, vous saue, Dame Emme!'" (Prologue, 223 f.)
One of the finest productions of Anglo-Norman lyric poetry written in the end of the 13th century, is the _Plainte d'amour_ (Vising, Goteborg, 1905; _Romania_ xiii. 507, xv. 292 and xxix. 4), and we may mention, merely as literary curiosities, various works of a lyrical character written in two languages, Latin and French, or English and French, or even in three languages, Latin, English and French. In _Early English Lyrics_ (Oxford, 1907) we have a poem in which a lover sends to his mistress a love-greeting composed in three languages, and his learned friend replies in the same style (_De amico ad amicam, Responcio_, viii and ix).
_Satire_.--The popularity enjoyed by the _Roman de Renart_ and the Anglo-Norman version of the _Riote du Monde_ (_Z.f. rom. Phil._ viii.
275-289) in England is proof enough that the French spirit of satire was keenly appreciated. The clergy and the fair sex presented the most attractive target for the shots of the satirists. However, an Englishman raised his voice in favour of the ladies in a poem entitled _La Bonte des dames_ (Meyer, _Rom._ xv. 315-339), and Nicole Bozon, after having represented "Pride" as a feminine being whom he supposes to be the daughter of Lucifer, and after having fiercely attacked the women of his day in the _Char d'Orgueil_ (_Rom._ xiii. 516), also composed a _Bounte des femmes_ (P. Meyer, op. cit. 33) in which he covers them with praise, commending their courtesy, their humility, their openness and the care with which they bring up their children.
A few pieces of political satire show us French and English exchanging amenities on their mutual shortcomings. The _Roman des Francais_, by Andre de Coutances, was written on the continent, and cannot be quoted as Anglo-Norman although it was composed before 1204 (cf. Gaston Paris: _Trois versions rimees de l'evangile de Nicodeme, Soc. Anc.
Textes_, 1885), it is a very spirited reply to French authors who had attacked the English.
_Dramatic Literature_.--This must have had a considerable influence on the development of the sacred drama in England, but none of the French plays acted in England in the 12th and 13th centuries has been preserved. _Adam_, which is generally considered to be an Anglo-Norman mystery of the 12th century, was probably written in France at the beginning of the 13th century (_Romania_ xxxii. 637), and the so-called Anglo-Norman _Resurrection_ belongs also to continental French. It is necessary to state that the earliest English moralities seem to have been imitations of the French ones.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Apart from the works already mentioned see generally: Scheibner, "uber die Herrschaft der frz. Sprache in England"
(Annaberg, Progr. der Koniglichen Realschule, 1880, 38 f.); Groeber, _Grundr. der romanischen Philologie_, ii. iii. (Strassburg, 1902); G.
Paris, _La Litt. fr. au moyen age_ (1905); _Esquisse historique de la litt. fr. au moyen age_ (1907); _La Litt. norm, avani l'annexion 912-1204_ (Paris, 1899); "L'Esprit normand en Angleterre," _La Poesie au moyen age_ (2nd series 45-74, Paris, 1906); Thomas Wright, _Biographia britannica literaria_ (Anglo-Norman period, London, 1846); Ten Brink, _Geschichte der englischen Litteratur_ (Berlin, 1877, i.
2); J.J. Jusserand, _Hist. litt. du peuple anglais_ (2nd ed. 1895, vol. i.); W.H. Schofield, _English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer_ (London, 1906); Johan Vising, _Franska Spraket i England_ (Goteborg, 1900, 1901, 1902).
(L. BR.)
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ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE. It is usual to speak of "the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"; it would be more correct to say that there are four Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. It is true that these all grow out of a common stock, that in some even of their later entries two or more of them use common materials; but the same may be said of several groups of medieval chronicles, which no one dreams of treating as single chronicles. Of this fourfold Chronicle there are seven MSS. in existence; _C.C.C. Cant._ 173 (A); _Cott. Tib._ A vi. (B); _Cott.
Tib._ B i. (C); _Cott. Tib._ B iv. (D); _Bodl. Laud. Misc._ 636 (E); _Cott. Domitian_ A viii. (F); _Cott. Otho_ B xi. (G). Of these G is now a mere fragment, and it is known to have been a transcript of A.
F is bilingual, the entries being given both in Saxon and Latin. It is interesting as a stage in the transition from the vernacular to the Latin chronicle; but it has little independent value, being a mere epitome, made at Canterbury in the 11th or 12th century, of a chronicle akin to E. B, as far as it goes (to 977), is identical with C, both having been copied from a common original, but A, C, D, E have every right to be treated as independent chronicles. The relations between the four vary very greatly in different parts, and the neglect of this consideration has led to much error and confusion. The common stock, out of which all grow, extends to 892. The present writer sees no reason to doubt that the idea of a national, as opposed to earlier local chronicles, was inspired by Alfred, who may even have dictated, or at least revised, the entries relating to his own campaigns; while for the earlier parts pre-existing materials, both oral and written, were utilized. Among the latter the chronological epitome appended to Bede's _Ecclesiastical History_ may be specially mentioned. But even this common stock exists in two different recensions, in A, B, C, on the one hand, and D, E on the other. The main points of difference are that in D, E (1) a series of northern annals have been incorporated; (2) the Bede entries are taken, not from the brief epitome, but from the main body of the _Eccl. Hist._ The inference is that, shortly after the compiling of this Alfredian chronicle, a copy of it was sent to some northern monastery, probably Ripon, where it was expanded in the way indicated. Copies of this northernized Chronicle afterwards found their way to the south. The impulse given by Alfred was continued under Edward, and we have what may be called an official continuation of the history of the Danish wars, which, in B, C, D extends to 915, and in A to 924. After 915 B, C insert as a separate document a short register of Mercian affairs during the same period (902-924), which might be called the acts of aethelflaed, the famous "Lady of the Mercians," while D has incorporated it, not very skilfully, with the official continuation. Neither of these documents exists in E. From 925 to 975 all the chronicles are very fragmentary; a few obits, three or four poems, among them the famous ballad on the battle of Brunanburh, make up the meagre tale of their common materials, which each has tried to supplement in its own way. A has inserted a number of Winchester entries, which prove that A is a Winchester book. And this local and scrappy character it retains to 1001, where it practically ends. At some subsequent time it was transferred bodily to Canterbury, where it received numerous interpolations in the earlier part, and a few later local entries which finally tail off into the Latin acts of Lanfranc. A may therefore be dismissed. C has added to the common stock one or two Abingdon entries, with which place the history of C is closely connected; while D and E have a second group of northern annals 901-966, E being however much more fragmentary than D, omitting, or not having access to, much both of the common and of the northern material which is found in D. From 983 to 1018 C, D and E are practically identical, and give a connected history of the Danish struggles under aethelred II. This section was probably composed at Canterbury. From 1018 the relations of C, D, E become too complicated to be expressed by any formula; sometimes all three agree together, sometimes all three are independent; in other places each pair in turn agree against the third. It may be noted that C is strongly anti-Godwinist, while E is equally pro-Godwinist, D occupying an intermediate position. C extends to 1066, where it ends abruptly, and probably mutilated. D ends at 1079 and is certainly mutilated. In its later history D is associated with some place in the diocese of Worcester, probably Evesham. In its present form D is a comparatively late MS., none of it probably much earlier, and some of it later, than 1100. In the case of entries in the earlier part of the chronicles, which are peculiar to D, we cannot exclude the possibility that they may be late interpolations. E is continued to 1154. In its present form it is unquestionably a Peterborough book. The earlier part is full of Peterborough interpolations, to which place many of the later entries also refer. But (apart from the interpolations) it is only the entries after 1121, where the first hand in the MS. ends, which were actually composed at Peterborough. The section 1023-1067 certainly, and possibly also the section 1068-1121, was composed at St. Augustine's, Canterbury; and the former is of extreme interest and value, the writer being in close contact with the events which he describes. The later parts of E show a great degeneration in language, and a querulous tone due to the sufferings of the native population under the harsh Norman rule; "but our debt to it is inestimable; and we can hardly measure what the loss to English history would have been, if it had not been written; or if, having been written, it had, like so many another English chronicle, been lost."
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The above account is based on the introduction in vol.
ii. of the Rev. C. Plummer's edition of _Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel_ (Clarendon Press, 1892, 1899); to which the student may be referred for detailed arguments. The _editio princeps_ of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was by Abraham Wheloc, professor of Arabic at Cambridge, where the work was printed (1643-1644). It was based mainly on the MS. called G above, and is the chief source of our knowledge of that MS. which perished, all but three leaves, in the Cottonian fire of 1723. Edmund Gibson of Queen's College, Oxford, afterwards bishop of London, published an edition in 1692. He used Wheloc's edition, and E, with collations or transcripts of B and F. Both Wheloc and Gibson give Latin translations. In 1823 appeared an edition by Dr. Ingram, of Trinity College, Oxford, with an English translation. Besides A, B, E, F, Ingram used C and D for the first time. But both he and Gibson made the fatal error of trying to combine the disparate materials contained in the various chronicles in a single text. An improvement in this respect is seen in the edition made by Richard Price (d. 1833) for the first (and only) volume of _Monumenta Historica Britannica_ (folio 1848). There is still, however, too much conflation, and owing to the plan of the volume, the edition only extends to 1066. A translation is appended. In 1861 appeared Benjamin Thorpe's six-text edition in the Rolls Series. Though not free from defects, this edition is absolutely indispensable for the study of the chronicles and the mutual relations of the different MSS. A second volume contains the translation. In 1865 the Clarendon Press published _Two Saxon Chronicles (A and E) Parallel, with supplementary extracts from the others_, by the Rev.
John Earle. This edition has no translation, but in the notes and introduction a very considerable advance was made. On this edition is partly based the later edition by the Rev. C. Plummer, already cited above. In addition to the translations contained in the editions already mentioned, the following have been issued separately. The first translation into modern English was by Miss Anna Gurney, privately printed in 1819. This was largely based on Gibson's edition, and was in turn the basis of Dr. Giles' translation, published in 1847, and often reprinted. The best translation is that by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, in his series of _Church Historians of England_ (1853). Up to the Conquest it is a revision of the translation contained in _Mon.
Hist. Brit._ From that point it is an independent translation.
(C. PL.)
ANGLO-SAXON LAW. 1. The body of legal rules and customs which obtained in England before the Norman conquest constitutes, with the Scandinavian laws, the most genuine expression of Teutonic legal thought. While the so-called "barbaric laws" (_leges barbarorum_) of the continent, not excepting those compiled in the territory now called Germany, were largely the product of Roman influence, the continuity of Roman life was almost completely broken in the island, and even the Church, the direct heir of Roman tradition, did not carry on a continuous existence: Canterbury was not a see formed in a Roman province in the same sense as Tours or Reims. One of the striking expressions of this Teutonism is presented by the language in which the Anglo-Saxon laws were written. They are uniformly worded in English, while continental laws, apart from the Scandinavian, are all in Latin. The English dialect in which the Anglo-Saxon laws have been handed down to us is in most cases a common speech derived from West Saxon--naturally enough as Wessex became the predominant English state, and the court of its kings the principal literary centre from which most of the compilers and scribes derived their dialect and spelling. Traces of Kentish speech may be detected, however, in the _Textus Roffensis_, the MS. of the Kentish laws, and Northumbrian dialectical peculiarities are also noticeable on some occasions, while Danish words occur only as technical terms. At the conquest, Latin takes the place of English in the compilations made to meet the demand for Anglo-Saxon law texts as still applied in practice.
[v.02 p.0036]
2. It is easy to group the Anglo-Saxon laws according to the manner of their publication. They would fall into three divisions: (1) laws and collections of laws promulgated by public authority; (2) statements of custom; (3) private compilations of legal rules and enactments. To the first division belong the laws of the Kentish kings, aethelberht, Hlothhere and Eadric, Withraed; those of Ine of Wessex, of Alfred, Edward the Elder, aethelstan,[1] Edmund, Edgar, aethelred and Canute; the treaty between Alfred and Guthrum and the so-called treaty between Edward and Guthrum. The second division is formed by the convention between the English and the Welsh _Dunsaetas_, the law of the Northumbrian priests, the customs of the North people, the fragments of local custumals entered in Domesday Book. The third division would consist of the collections of the so-called _Pseudo-leges Canuti_, the laws of Edward the Confessor, of Henry I., and the great compilation of the _Quadripartitus_, then of a number of short notices and extracts like the fragments on the "wedding of a wife," on oaths, on ordeals, on the king's peace, on rural customs (_Rectitudines singularum personarum_), the treatises on the reeve (_gerefa_) and on the judge (_dema_), formulae of oaths, notions as to wergeld, &c. A fourth group might be made of the charters, as they are based on Old English private and public law and supply us with most important materials in regard to it. Looking somewhat deeper at the sources from which Old English law was derived, we shall have to modify our classification to some extent, as the external forms of publication, although important from the point of view of historical criticism, are not sufficient standards as to the juridical character of the various kinds of material. Direct statements of law would fall under the following heads, from the point of view of their legal origins: i.
customary rules followed by divers communities capable of formulating law; ii. enactments of authorities, especially of kings; iii. private arrangements made under recognized legal rules. The first would comprise, besides most of the statements of custom included in the second division according to the first classification, a great many of the rules entered in collections promulgated by kings; most of the paragraphs of aethelberht's, Hlothhere's, and Eadric's and Ine's laws, are popular legal customs that have received the stamp of royal authority by their insertion in official codes. On the other hand, from Withraed's and Alfred's laws downwards, the element of enactment by central authority becomes more and more prominent. The kings endeavour, with the help of secular and clerical witan, to introduce new rules and to break the power of long-standing customs (e.g. the precepts about the keeping of holidays, the enactments of Edmund restricting private vengeance, and the solidarity of kindreds as to feuds, and the like). There are, however, no outward signs enabling us to distinguish conclusively between both categories of laws in the codes, nor is it possible to draw a line between permanent laws and personal ordinances of single sovereigns, as has been attempted in the case of Frankish legislation.
[Footnote 1: The _Judicia civitatis Lundoniae_ are a gild statute confirmed by King aethelstan.]
3. Even in the course of a general survey of the legal lore at our disposal, one cannot help being struck by peculiarities in the distribution of legal subjects. Matters which seem to us of primary importance and occupy a wide place in our law-books are almost entirely absent in Anglo-Saxon laws or relegated to the background.
While it is impossible to give here anything like a complete or exact survey of the field--a task rendered almost impossible by the arbitrary manner in which paragraphs are divided, by the difficulty of making Old English enactments fit into modern rubrics, and by the necessity of counting several times certain paragraphs bearing on different subjects--a brief statistical analysis of the contents of royal codes and laws may be found instructive.
We find roughly 419 paragraphs devoted to criminal law and procedure as against 91 concerned with questions of private law and civil procedure. Of the criminal law clauses, as many as 238 are taken up with tariffs of fines, while 80 treat of capital and corporal punishment, outlawry and confiscation, and 101 include rules of procedure. On the private law side 18 clauses apply to rights of property and possession, 13 to succession and family law, 37 to contracts, including marriage when treated as an act of sale; 18 touch on civil procedure. A subject which attracted special attention was the law of status, and no less than 107 paragraphs contain disposition dictated by the wish to discriminate between the classes of society.
Questions of public law and administration are discussed in 217 clauses, while 197 concern the Church in one way or another, apart from purely ecclesiastical collections. In the public law division it is chiefly the power, interests and privileges of the king that are dealt with, in roughly 93 paragraphs, while local administration comes in for 39 and purely economic and fiscal matter for 13 clauses. Police regulations are very much to the fore and occupy no less than 72 clauses of the royal legislation. As to church matters, the most prolific group is formed by general precepts based on religious and moral considerations, roughly 115, while secular privileges conferred on the Church hold about 62, and questions of organization some 20 clauses.
The statistical contrasts are especially sharp and characteristic when we take into account the chronological sequence in the elaboration of laws. Practically the entire code of aethelberht, for instance, is a tariff of fines for crimes, and the same subject continues to occupy a great place in the laws of Hlothhere and Eadric, Ine and Alfred, whereas it appears only occasionally in the treaties with the Danes, the laws of Withraed, Edward the Elder, aethelstan, Edgar, Edmund and aethelred. It reappears in some strength in the code of Canute, but the latter is chiefly a recapitulation of former enactments. The system of "compositions" or fines, paid in many cases with the help of kinsmen, finds its natural place in the ancient, tribal period of English history and loses its vitality later on in consequence of the growth of central power and of the scattering of maegths. Royalty and the Church, when they acquire the lead in social life, work out a new penal system based on outlawry, death penalties and corporal punishments, which make their first appearance in the legislation of Withraed and culminate in that of aethelred and Canute.
As regards status, the most elaborate enactments fall into the period preceding the Danish settlements. After the treaties with the Danes, the tendency is to simplify distinctions on the lines of an opposition between twelvehynd-men and twyhynd-men, paving the way towards the feudal distinction between the free and the unfree. In the arrangements of the commonwealth the clauses treating of royal privileges are more or less evenly distributed over all reigns, but the systematic development of police functions, especially in regard to responsibility for crimes, the catching of thieves, the suppression of lawlessness, is mainly the object of 10th and 11th century legislation. The reign of aethelred, which witnessed the greatest national humiliation and the greatest crime in English history, is also marked by the most lavish expressions of religious feeling and the most frequent appeals to morality. This sketch would, of course, have to be modified in many ways if we attempted to treat the unofficial fragments of customary law in the same way as the paragraphs of royal codes, and even more so if we were able to tabulate the indirect evidence as to legal rules. But, imperfect as such statistics may be, they give us at any rate some insight into the direction of governmental legislation.