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4 D& Review . —Cony beards Anglo-Saxon Poetry >* " Lustendth Lordynges leof and ; der ^ > Ye thatwolen of the St / nrfay here i Tke Sonday a day hat is That angels and archangels joyn I wis Mare in that ilke day . Than any odur [ otherV '
. We have often felt surprise that the Anglo-Saxon tongue , so venerable and so deaT as it ought to be to all the lovers of ancient English literature , should be so little cultivated ; should in fact , perhaps , be less cultivated in the present age of inquiry and thirst after antiquarian pursuits ^ than k was in the last century . We have , to be sure , magnificent collections mouldering in our university libraries , and we have Anglo-Saxon professors ,
but they do . marvellously little , and leave the elucidation of what ought to be their special office to the private investigations of such laborious writers as Sharon Turner , who , unfortunately , by the inelegance of his style and the narrowness of his views ( common to most self-taught scholars ) has not contributed much to entice the student into the depths of Anglo-Saxon literature . We have not , we are ashamed to say , even a dictionary of the language within the reach and suited to the purposed of a general student *
- If this want , and that of ^ a bett er g rammar than those which are now accessible , were supplied , the difficulty would be very trifling in the way of any Englishman's acquiring a general acquaintance with the native tongue of bis forefathers , which still forms the basis of his own . The volume before us owes its origin to the preparations made by Mr . Cony beare , the late professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford , for publication of some of the results of his studies . However characteristic of the rwbus and *
amiable mind of the author we may consider the immediate design of th £ publication , which was that of providing funds for erecting a school in the village where his clerical duties lay , we cannot but think it a reproach to the university that the result of the studies for which its professor was so peculiarly qualified , and of the eminent advantages which her libraries an < i endowments placed within his reach , should only find their way or be
jknown to the public by fugitive papers in the British Bibliographer , the transactions of the Society of Antiquaries , or by fragments arranged after retirement to other pursuits , and at last left to the accident of finding in the kindred taste and brotherly affection of Mr . W ; D . < Conybeare at * appropriate editor and collector . The volume , however * before us ( cramped as it is in its arrangement and design by the anxiety of its Editor not to interfere with the textual integrity of any of his brother ' s papers ) is highly interesting ^ and very useful as a guide to the study of Anglo-Saxon poetry . With it , the Saxon Chronicle , and two or three other works not difficult of
access , the student will have sufficient materials to prosecute \ m pursuits to ^ very considerable extent- ^ perhaps far enough to answer all practical purposed . . The contents of the volume are introductory essays on the poetry , and particularly the metres , of the Anglo-Saxons , with remarks ott i-hose of the other Teutonic , tbe Icelandic , and Celtic , nations ; after wnich Mows an arrain ( ged <^ talogiieof ill the extant Kemains of Anglo ^ -Saxoti poetry , wkh somd specimens not noticediri the bddirof the work , Then follow extracts ^ specimens , and translations , designed for iltostrations of Anglo ^ Saxort £ 9 £ tty , which were completed for th ^ pr ^^ by the late Professor , comprising ; the hymns of Ccedmon and Bede , the noble heroic poem of Beowulf , and
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1828, page 406, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2561/page/46/
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