"As for his head, it was set upon a pole, on London-bridge, where abiding about 14 days, was then privily bought by the said Margaret, and by her for a time carefully preserv'd in a leaden box, but afterwards with great devotion 'twas put into a vault (the burying-place of the Ropers) under a chapel joyning to St. Dunstan's church in Canterbury, where it doth yet remain, standing in the said box on the coffin of Margaret his daughter buried there."

And lastly, as confirming the chain of proof as to the identity of the scull lately seen, the following note in the same place is very satisfactory :

Hearne, that when the vault was opened "Dr. [then Mr.] Rawlinson informed in 1715, to enter into one of the Roper's family, the box was seen enclosed in an iron grate."

RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.
Anglo-Saxon Literature,*

SINCE the publication of Thorpe's Cadmon and the first edition of Kemble's Beowulf, a new and great impulse has been given to the study of the Anglo-Saxon language and literature in England. We feel confident that the progress made in it since that time has been great, and as good materials and good guides are being constantly afforded to us, we doubt not that it will be continually greater. The two books we have just mentioned, the Apollonius and, above all, the Analecta, by Thorpe, with the new edition of Beowulf, and the translation, glossary, and notes, are quite enough to authorize us in saying, that very much has been done towards an accurate knowledge of the language of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers since that period. When we add to these, Layamon nearly ready, which will be well edited by Sir F. Madden; the Exeter book in an advanced state of preparation, by Thorpe; the invaluable monuments from Vercelli, Brussels, &c. also edited by Thorpe, which we owe to the zealous exertions of Mr. Purton Cooper, the Secretary of the Record Commission; the interesting poem of Salomon and Saturn, with a most learned dissertation, now in the press, by Kemble; and a Saxon Mythology and Saxon Dictionary in preparation by the same scholar; we are sure that all our readers will agree with us in saying that the prospects of our Anglo-Saxonists are bright.

The third article in our list, a translation, considerably altered and amplified so as to form a new work, from an article which formerly appeared in our contemporary, Fraser, gives a tolerably complete sketch of the progress of Anglo-Saxon studies, from their first dawn in the days of the reformation, the age of Parker and Fox, through the in some senses brilliant æra of the seventeenth century and the oblivion to which they were consigned during much of the eighteenth, to their propitious revival in our own days. To this work, a three-shilling pamphlet, we refer our readers for the details of this progress, and for a comparison of the systems and merits of the old and new schools of Saxonists, as well as for a sketch of the Anglo-Saxon poetry. We shall confine ourselves at present to the two volumes of Beowulf which have recently appeared.

It is difficult to account for the long neglect which the romance of Beowulf, so interesting not only to Saxon philologists, but to the antiquary, the historian, and the lover of ancient literature in general, had experienced. It is the

* The Anglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf, the Traveller's Song, and the Battle of Finnesburh, edited by John M. Kemble, Esq. M.A. &c. Second edition. Pickering, 1835 (1837) fcp. 8vo.

A Translation of the Anglo-Saxon Poem of Beowulf, with a copious Glossary, Preface, and Philological Notes, by John M. Kemble, Esq. M.A. &c. Pickering, 1837. fcp. 8vo.

Coup-d'Eil sur les Progrès et sur l'Etat actuel de la Litterature Anglo-Saxonne en Angleterre, par M. Thomas Wright; traduit de l'Anglais par M. de Larenaudière. Paris, Silvestre, 1836. London, Pickering, 8vo. 3 S

GENT. MAG. VOL. VII.

picture of our heroic ages, such as few nations can boast-the Anglo-Saxon Iliad. Preserved in a manuscript, written itself in the tenth century, the poem bears undeniable marks of a much earlier origin. "In spite of its generally heathen character, there occur in it Christian allusions which fix this text at least at a period subsequent to A.D. 597. But it is also obvious that an older and far completer poem has once existed; of which the numerous blunders, both in sense and versification, the occurrence of archaic forms found in no other Anglo-Saxon work, and the cursory allusions to events, which to the Anglo-Saxons after their departure from Sleswic, must soon have become unintelligible, are convincing proofs that our present text is only a copy, and a careless copy too."-(Pref. to vol. 1. p. xx.) The first edition was published by a Dane, Grimus J. Thorkelin, in 4to, with a Latin translation, whose text was so extremely bad, even to the separating one word sometimes into two or three, as to render his book entirely valueless. So much eagerness was felt among those who knew the work to have a more correct text, that Mr. Kemble's first edition was sold off in less than three months after its publication. The new edition is considerably improved, and we think now that, unless other MSS. could be found, its editor has done all an editor can do for this important monument of the remote ages of our history. It is, however, the second volume, now first published, in which he has conferred the greatest benefit on Anglo-Saxon students, and which will do most towards making this poem more generally known. Here we have an accurate and literal translation of the whole poem, prefaced by a long dissertation on the mythic persons mentioned in it; we also have here a most valuable glossary to the language of Anglo-Saxon poetry, and numerous philological notes of great importance to those who wish to study the poem critically.

As we have already observed, the interest of the poem of Beowulf is not confined to the philologist, it also interests the antiquary and the historian in a very high degree. In it we have the most lively sketches of a state of society which our imagination could never have pictured to us without it, and we have contemporary illustrations of manners and customs which will solve a host of doubtful questions. According to the poem, Hrothgar was a Danish prince, who, in the sunshine of his prosperity, had built himself a princely residence, 66 a great mead-hall," which was named Heorot. Here he hoped to feast in quiet with his nobles. The place was, however, haunted by an unearthly monster, one " of Cain's kin," to whose ravages many of Hrothgar's thanes fell victims. The account of this monster's origin illustrates a superstitious belief, prevalent in the west throughout the middle ages; it is one of the Christian additions to the original poem, though the notion itself had probably its foundation in northern mythology, when the early converts identified some one of their gods with the fratricide Cain.

Ne ge-feáh he bære fæhde,
ac he hine feor for-wræc,
metod for by máne,
man-cynne fram :
banon un-tydras
ealle on-wócon,
Eótenas and Ylfe
and Orcneas;
swylce gi[gantas]

þá wid Gode wunnon,

lange brage;

[he] him æs leán for-geald." v. 197.

He (the Creator) rejoiced not
in the act of hatred,

but banished him for his crime
afar from mankind :
thence evil progenies
all awoke into life,
Eotens and Elves,
and Orks;
Giants also

then warred against God,
for a long period :

he gave them therefore their reward.

Throughout the old English poetry, up to a late period, bad people are said to be" of Cain's kin," by which expression they are not compared to the first murderer, but to the wicked spirits and monsters which were supposed to have sprung from him.

Beowulf, the Geát, the hero of our romance, a Saxon hero too, who dwelt on the opposite shore, resolved to try his valour against the Grendel, and deliver the Danes from their enemy. His visit to the Danish court, his reception there, and the festivities in the royal hall.

-The combat with the Grendel, and afterwards with the monster's mother, the rejoicings after his two victories, and Beowulf's return to his own country, laden with treasures, are the subject of the first part of the poem. In the second part, Beowulf is king over his people, and aged, he goes to fight a dragon which had long guarded the treasures of the people of old time, and which had molested his subjects; the dragon is conquered, but Beowulf falls in the encounter, and this really magnificent poem closes with the account of his obsequies. For a longer analysis we must refer to the Coup-d'œil; but we would rather refer our readers to the poem itself. We could go on quoting passages through our whole number, for we never in our life met with a poem so full of beautiful and striking passages as the romance of Beowulf the Geát.

Of its value to antiquaries and historians, an example will be the best illustration. In our last number we gave a long notice of Sir William Betham's observations on the ring-money of the ancient Celts. A perusal of Beowulf, and of the rest of the Anglo-Saxon poetry, will show that this ring-money was as common among the Saxons and other Teutonic tribes, as among the Celts, and that it is by no means necessarily of that remote antiquity which has been given to it. We will only cite a few passages, out of a host furnished by our poem, which bear upon our subject. Of Hrothgar (the Danish king), after he had built Heorot, it is said,

"He beót ne a-léh;

beágas dælde,

sinc æt symle;

sele hlifade;

He belied not his promise;
he distributed rings,
treasure at the feast;
the hall rose aloft;

In the minstrel-song about Finn and Hengest, one term of a treaty is that

This kind of money was probably used by the Anglo-Saxons long after their settlement in England; and the name of "ring-giver," as an epithet of princes, was preserved perhaps to the time of the Norman conquest. Such is the title of Athelstan, at the beginning of the noble song on the victory at Brunanburh―

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Church and Dissent. By Edmund which took root and grew up in the