Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/75

 io»8.iv.juLTi5,i905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 59 those pre-WycIiffite translations of the Scriptures into the vernacular which, as Dr. Gasquet main- tains in his book ' The Old English Bible,' were more frequent than was at one time admitted. Members of religious orders, it seems, who were unfamiliar with Latin and French, were allowed to use English versions, although they were forbidden to the "lewid" or common people, as Wycliflfe bitterly complained. The object of these early translators was, as one of them puts it, " tyll women to mak it couth that leris no Latyn in thar youth." The present volume gives a version, from a MS. of about 1400, of a considerable number of selected portions of the New Testament, which were put into English for the behoof of some house of religious women, as may be inferred from the reader being frequently addressed as "suster." Now after five centuries it very fittingly and appro- priately finds an editor in a learned lady who has devoted herself to the study of Middle English Biblical versions, Doctorin Panes, a Fellow of Newnham. We can congratulate her on the learn- ing, judgment, and praiseworthy accuracy with which she has done her work. In a careful ana- lytical introduction to the text she discusses the questions suggested by it, its language, and its grammatical peculiarities. The first part of the version, she concludes, is written in a South- western dialect, while the latter part lias cha- racteristics of the North or North-Eastern Mid- lands. The Vulgate text used by the translator seems to have preserved many curious readings analogous to those of Codex Bezre, and in many instances to have been corrupt or carelessly written. Thus Mia is confused with uita, muri with m'ri, commouebo with commouebo, indicate with indicate. Partly to this cause, and partly, no doubt, to the imperfect knowledge of the translator, may be attributed certain droll blunders or misunder- standings which are of frequent occurrence. The " tongues of tire" (Acts ii. 3) become here " langages apperd vnto hem "; and in Acts xii. 20 " persuaso Blasto " becomes " Persuasoblasto the Kenges Chaumbirleyn." Proper names, indeed, were a constant source of difficulty and downfall to this good clerk. " Sosipater Pyrrhi" (Acts xx. 4) is expanded into"Sosythefadireof Pirry"; in " venimus contra (Ilium " (Acts xx. 15) he finds an unknown land " Contrachye": "Phvlippos colonia" (Actsxvi. 12) he modernizes into " Phihppis tho cyte of Coleyne." But the crowning " howler " of all is probably the rendering of "navis Alexandrina cui erat insigne Castor" (Acts xxviii. 11), which he turns into "a •chyppe of Alysawnder tho whiche hade fairnes of Castels"; but here an older French version had led the way by giving the vessel " un molt noble chastel"! Once more: we cannot but wonder what the sisters of the community made of this, " whoso anyreth thee a thousande paas, go with hym other two thousande " (Matt. v. 41), if they did not guess that the italicized word stood for angariaverit, itself a mere borrowing of the original Greek ayyapevftv, to compel or enforce conveyance. It has escaped the net of Dr. Murray. In "Thabita surge" (Acts ix. 40) the Latin is retained, as if giving the very words of St. Peter! As a monument of early English this version has a distinct value for the student of language and of literature. Already we find here Adam and Eve making themselves "breches of leues"(p; 3); "Sara buxom to Abraham" (1 Pet. iii. 6); "Noe, a bedel of ryghtfulnesse " (2 Pet. ii. 5). Interesting words are qnyhten, collections, used for gatherings or assemblies (Heb. x. 25); " vmyyuen (or bounden)* with this cheyne" (Acts xxviii. 20); and yaseyn, the puddle (volutabnan) in which the sow wallows ('3 Pet. ii. 22), a word akin, no doubt, to Fr. gaschis, gdchix, and " wash." We note the modern- sounding phrase " in proces of tyme" (p. 4), and ditsentery (Acts xxviii. 8), anticipating the Revised. Version, where the A.V. has "bloody flux." The thorn letter, always a pitfall for the printer, has- led him into at least one error not corrected in the- errata, "pought" (2 Tim. iii. 8, p. 119) standing for " I'ought.' The Works of William Shakespeare. In 10 vols.. Vol. 111. (Stratford, the Shakespeare Head Press.) THE third volume of the noble edition of Shake- speare issued from the Shakespeare Head Press,. Stratford-on-Avon, contains four comedies: 'The Merchant of Venice,' 'As You Like It,' 'The- Taming of the Shrew,' and 'All's Well that Ends- Well.' Its frontispiece consists of a beautiful design of 'The Stratford Bust.' The text retains- its old simplicity and excellence, and the beauty of form is naturally maintained. Nothing remains- to be added to the eulogy of a work which might well become the most popular, as it is one of the handsomest, of library editions of Shakespeare. Glancing through the plays, to the reperusal of which the beautiful text allures, we are struck by the fact that 'The Taming of the Shrew' might well come immediately before instead of directly after 'As You Like It. In the famous epilogue to the latter play, spoken by Rosalind, the opening, sentence is : "It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue." This seems to hint that 'The Taming or the Shrew,' in the induction or prologue to which a lord is the principal character,, was fresh in men's memory. This may be a mare's nest, but we do not recall having seen it previously noted. Mr. Bullen is, of course, justified in print- ing the works in the order already existing. Shakeipearea Sonnet*. (Stratford-on-Avon, the- Shakespeare Head Press.) To the same press that gives us the afore-noticed edition of the plays of Shakespeare is owing t hi.-- daintiest conceivable edition of the Sonnets of the great dramatist. Not quite a facsimile is the volume, though the disposition and appearance ofr the pages favour that assumption. Some revision has, indeed, been made of the text, which in the main follows Thomas Thorpe's 1609 quarto. More than one alteration consists in the substitution of "thy'' for "their"when the latter word is, Mr. Bulleu holds, a misprint. Line 8 of Sonnet xxxv.,. which in the original appears Excusing their sins more than their sins are, thus appears Excusing their sins more than thy sins arc, following a reading invented by Capell and accepted' by Malone, and differing from that of Mr. Georgs- Wyndham. A more important alteration is made- in Sonnet cxlvi., 1. 2, where there is evidently a compositor's blunder, and where some change is indispensable. In other cases warrantable de- parture from the first quarto is to be traced. The orthography is as a rule modernized, "centre" appearing for " center," " rebel" for " rebbell," and.