The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy: An Alliterative Romance (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The "Gest Hystoriale" Of the Destruction of Troy: An Alliterative Romance

Several extracts from the manuscript itself were subsequently for warded, and determined the Committee of the Society to print it. My professional engagements, occupying me weekly during nearly the whole of the hours at which the Museum was Open, did not admit of my copying the poem, even if its size and formidable appearance had not deterred me from attempting it. The work of transcription was undertaken by Mr David Donaldson, who had more time at his disposal and much greater experience in such work than I had, and it was completed after no small amount of difficulty and labour, which the mistake as to the author very materially increased. While the greater portion of the manuscript is certainly written in a provokingly cramp hand, yet at various parts the writing is very beautiful and easily read, having been executed apparently with great care. The reason of this remarkable differ ence did not at first occur to the transcriber. The evident mistakes, or say the curious combinations of letters employed in the spelling of the proper names especially, and the peculiarity of these on being pronounced, at last suggested to him, when he was far advanced.

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