eferred by the best writers on the subject to the reign of
Charlemagne, and thence called the Carolinian Psalms. The best text of this
is to be found in a Dutch periodical, the _Taalkundig Magazijn_.
[23] _Beowulf_ is by far the most considerable poem, not only in
Anglo-Saxon, but in any old Gothic tongue. It has been admirably edited and
translated by Mr. Kemble. The subject is the account of Beowulf, an Angle
hero--Angle but not English, as the scene of the poem is on the Continent.
In its present form it shows traces of the revision of some Christian
writer: the basis, however, of its subject, and the manners it describes,
are essentially Pagan. The most remarkable feature in the poem is the fact
that no allusion is made to England--so that, _Anglo_-Saxon as the work
is--it belongs to the Anglo-Saxons of Germany before they became English.
[24] A Gospel Harmony translated from the one of Tatian, exists in a
dialect too little purely High German, to pass absolutely as such, yet less
_Low_ German than the Dutch of Holland. This belongs to the _Middle_ Rhine,
and is called _Frank_.
[25] The Alemannic is the German of the _Upper_ Rhine; the dialect out of
which the Bavarian and Swiss grew. Its chief specimens occur in--
a. _The Glosses of Kero_--
b. _The Psalms_ by a monk named _Notker_.
c. A life of _Anno_ of Cologne.
d. The Song of Solomon, by Willeram.
e. _Musrpilli_, an alliterative poem.
f. _Krist_, a life of Christ, by Otford, and others less important.
Most of these (along with Tatian), are to be found in Schilter's
_Thesaurus_.
(Original footnotes)
[26] In Hampshire.
[27] In Northern Germany.
[28] The Eyder.
[29] See ss. 21-29.
[30] Saxons _North of the Elbe_ (_Albis_).
[31] See Notes 17 and 18.
[32] De Mor. Germ. 40.
[33] Meaning _ditch_
[34] This list is taken from Smart's valuable and logical English Grammar.
[35] As in _Shotover Hill_, near Oxford.
[36] As in _Jerusalem artichoke_.
[37] A sort of silk.
[38] _Ancient Cassio_--"Othello."
[39]
Be she constant, be she fickle,
Be she flame, or be she _ickle_.--SIR C. SEDLEY.
[40] Or _periphrastic_.
[41] That of the verb substantive, _if I were_, subjunctive, as opposed to
_I was_, indicative.
[42] This by no means implies that such was the power of [sigma], [zeta],
[gamma], [kappa], in Greek. They are merely convenient symbols.
[43] As a _name_, _Sigma = Samech_.
[44] Of the Hebrew and
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