Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/9



Lives of Saints, now for the first time printed, may practically be regarded as forming a 'third series' of Ælfric's Homilies. The first series was printed for the Ælfric Society in 1844, with the title—'The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church. The First Part, containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric, in the original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Vol. I. By Benjamin Thorpe, F. S.A.' The second series was printed for the same society in 1846, with precisely the same title, excepting only the substitution of 'Vol. II.' for 'Vol. I.'

The use of the phrase 'The First Part' in the above title is remarkable, since we are not told what the 'Second Part' was to be, nor did any 'Second Part' ever appear. However, in the list of Ælfric's works given in the Preface to vol. i., there is mention of 'A Collection of Homilies on the Saints' days observed by the Anglo-Saxon Church.' It would therefore seem as if Mr. Thorpe had at one time the intention of publishing a second part, which most likely would have contained the Lives which I have now undertaken to edit for the Early English Text Society.

Instead of 'second part,' I employ the term 'third series,' because it better describes the exact state of the case. Mr.