according to
manuscripts there, and from its own types, _formis ejusdem_. The editor
was ignorant of the previous editions, and in his preface announces the
poem as _a new work_, although ancient; according to his knowledge,
never before printed; impatiently regarded and desired by many; and not
less venerable for antiquity than for erudition:--"En tibi, candide
lector, opus novum, ut sic antiquum, nusquam quod sciam editum, a multis
cupide inspectum et desideratum, non minus antiquitate quam eruditione
venerabile."

This edition seems to have been repeated at St. Gall in 1693; and these
two, which were the last, appear to have been the best. From that time
this poem rested undisturbed until our own day, when an edition was
published at Hanover, in Germany, by W. Mueldener, after the Paris
manuscripts, with the following title:--"Die zehn Gedichte des Walther
von Lille, genannt von Chatillon. Nach der pariser Handschrift
berichtigt, und zum ersten Male vollstaendig herausgegeben von W.
Mueldener." Hanover, 1859, 8vo. Such an edition ought to be useful in
determining the text, for there must be numerous manuscripts in the
Paris libraries. As long ago as 1795 there were no less than nineteen in
the National Library, and also a manuscript at Tours, which had drawn
forth a curious commentary by M. de Forcemagne.[23]

I ought not to forget here that in 1537 a passage from this poem was
rendered into English blank verse, and is an early monument of our
language. This was by Grimoald Nicholas, a native of Huntingdonshire,
whose translation is entitled "The Death of Zoroas, an Egyptian
Astronomer, in the First Fight that Alexander had with Persians."[24]
This is not the only token of the attention it had awakened in England.
Alexander Ross, the Scotch divine and author, made preparations for an
edition. His dedicatory letter was written, bearing date 1644; also two
different sets of dedicatory verses, and verses from his friend David
Eclin, the scholarly physician to the king,[25] who had given him this
"great treasure." But the work failed to appear. The identical copy
presented by Eclin, with many marginal notes from Quintus Curtius and
others, is mentioned as belonging to the Bishop of Ely at the beginning
of the present century.[26] But the homage of the Scotchman still exists
in his dedicatory letter:--"Si materiam consideres, elegantissimam
utilissimamque historiam gestorum Alexandri magni continet; certe sive
stylum, s