Destruction of Troy: AN ALLITERATIVE ROMANCE FROM THE UNIQUE MS. IN THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM, with Introduction, Notes, and a Glossary, PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY, BY N. TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL. MDCCCLXXIV. Price Ten Shillings and Sixpence. Committee of Management: Director: FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL, Esq. Hon. Sec.: ARTHUR SNELGROVE, ESQ., LONDON HOSPITAL, LONDON, E. J. MEADOWS COWPER, Esq. ALEXANDER J. ELLIS, Esq. H. HUCKS GIBBS, Esq. REV. DR. RICHARD MORRIS. W. ALDIS WRIGHT, Esq. (With power to add Workers to their number.) THE HEAD OFFICE OF THE UNION BANK OF LONDON, The Publications for 1865 and 1866 are out of print, but a separate subscription has been opened for their immediate reprint. The Texts for 1864, and all but three for 1865, have been reprinted. Subscribers who desire the Texts of all or any of these years should send their names at once to the Hon. Secretary, as several hundred additional names are required before the Texts for 1866 can be sent to press. The Publications for 1864 (218.) are:1. Early English Alliterative Poems, ab. 1360 A.D., ed. R. Morris. 168. 2. Arthur, ab. 1440, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 48. 4. Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, ab. 1360, The Publications for 1865 (218.) are:5. Hume's Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue, ab. 1617, ed. H. B. Wheatley. 48. 6. Lancelot of the Laik, ab. 1500, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 88. 7. Genesis & Exodus, ab. 1250, ed. R. Morris. 88. 8. Morte Arthure, ab. 1440, ed. E. Brock. 78. 9. Thynne on Chaucer's Works, ab. 1598, ed. Dr Kingsley. 10. Merlin, ab. 1440, Part I., ed. H. B. Wheatley. 11. Lyndesay's Monarche, &c., 1552, Part I., ed. F. Hall. 12. Wright's Chaste Wife, ab. 1462, ed. F. J. F. The Publications for 1866 are: 13. Seinte Marherete, 1200-1330, ed. Rev. O. Cockayne. 14. Kyng Horn, Floris and Blancheflour, &c., ed. Rev. J. R. Lumby. 15. Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 16. The Book of Quinte Essence, ab. 1460-70, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 17. Parallel Extracts froin 29 MSS. of Piers the Plowman, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 18. Hali Meidenhad, ab. 1200, ed. Rev. O. Cock The Publications for 1867 (one guinea, less No. 24, 25, 26, out of print) are:24. Hymns to the Virgin and Christ; the Parliament of Devils, &c., ab. 1430, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 38. 25. The Stacions of Rome, the Pilgrims' Sea-voyage, with Clene Maydenhod, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 18. 26. Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse, from R. Thornton's MS. (ab. 1440), ed. Rev. G. G. Perry. 28. 27. Levins's Manipulus Vocabulorum, 1570, ed. H. B. Wheatley. 12s. 28. William's Vision of Piers the Plowman, 1862 A.D. Part I. The earliest or Vernon Text; Text A. Ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 68. 29. Early English Homilies (ab. 1220-30 A.D.) from unique MSS. in the Lambeth and other Libraries. Part I. Edited by R. Morris. 78. 30. Pierce the Ploughmans Crede, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 28. The Publications for 1868 (one guinea) are : 31. Myrc's Duties of a Parish Priest, in Verse, ab. 1420 A.D., ed. E. Peacock. 48. 32. The Babees Book, Urbanitatis, the Bokes of Norture of John Russell and Hugh Rhodes, the Bokes of Keruyng, Curtasye, and Demeanour, &c., with some French and Latin Poems on like subjects, ed. from Harleian and other MSS. by F. J. Furnivall. 15s. 33. The Knight de la Tour Landry (from French of A.D. 1372), ab. 1440 A.D. A Father's Book for his Daughters, ed. from Harl. MS. 1764 and Caxton's version, by Thomas Wright. 8s. 31. Early English Homilies (before 1300 A.D.) from unique MSS. in the Lambeth and other Libraries. Part II., ed. R. Morris, LL.D. 88. 35. Lyndesay's Works, Part III.: The Historie and Testament of Squyer Meldrum, ed. F. Hall. 2s. The Publications for 1869 (one guinea) are: 36. Merlin, Part III. Edited by H. B. Wheatley, Esq.; with an Essay on Arthurian Localities, by J. S. Stuart Glennie, Esq. 12s. 37. Sir David Lyndesay's Works, Part IV., containing Ane Satyre of the Three Estaits. Edited by F. Hall, Esq. 4s. 38. William's Vision of Piers the Plowman, Part II. Text B. Edited from the MSS. by the Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 10s. 6d. 39. The Alliterative Romance of the Destruction of Troy, translated from Guido de Colonna. Edited from the unique MS. in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, by D. Donaldson, Esq., and the Rev. G. A. Panton. Part I. 10s. 6d. Early English Text Society. DUKE OF MANCHESTER'S COMMEMORATION FUND. From the "Daily News," Nov. 20, 1873. THE issue of an appeal for funds by the Director of the Early English Text Society, Mr F. J. FURNIVALL, serves to remind us of the valuable and important work which this association of a few scholars has achieved during its short existence of ten years. Working with the slenderest support in the way of annual subscribers, and dependent for its literary labours on the gratuitous work of its editors, the Society has given to the world no fewer than seventyfour volumes, many of which contain the publication of more than one old manuscript. This average of seven volumes and a half a year represents the rescue from oblivion of a whole mass of medieval literature. There are poems, romances, legends, scientific treatises, satires political and religious, hymns, sermons, and books of behaviour. These, together with a few, like "Piers Plowman," known and published before, have been edited, annotated, and prepared for the press with all that jealous care, comparison of originals, and accurate scholarship which we are accustomed to expect in the production of Latin and Greek classics. Indeed, the names of the editors, among whom are those of Messrs FURNIVALL, SKEAT, and MORRIS, are by themselves a sufficient guarantee, not only for thorough and conscientious work, but for the enthusiasm which belongs to the preachers of a new creed and the pioneers of a new branch of learning. The Early English Text Society, which does not in any way clash with the Camden and the Hakluyt Societies, spreads its labours, roughly speaking, over the five centuries between the Norman conquest and the later years of Queen ELIZABETH. There does not seem to be any rigid rule laid down as to the limitation of the term Early English, for we find among the publications a translation by King ALFRED in the West Saxon dialect on the one hand, and a poem of the seventeenth century on the other. But its work may fairly be considered to lie between the twelfth and the sixteenth century, a long period, which our old school-books taught us to picture as a great sterile Sahara over which the thirsty traveller would toil, finding but one oasis, that marked with the name of CHAUCER. That misconception is now finally put away and done with, and though there is small chance that the ordinary Englishman will voluntarily take up the study of Early English any more than that of Hebrew, the mass of fresh knowledge which students of medieval language and literature will acquire from these publications will gradually get diluted in articles and essays, popularized by lively writers, reduced to formulæ in school manuals, and so at last will be brought in some form or other into that ever-increasing stock of facts without which no education is complete, and which are supposed by every writer to be as much in the possession of their readers as the Multiplication Table. To accumulate these facts, and help to their assimilation, may in a sense be considered as the ultimate end of all students' labour, their very raison d'être. Perhaps the most important fact which the Early English Text Society establishes and illustrates is the continuity of the English mind. There is no great gulf, such as we used to believe, between CEDMON and CHAUCER, or between CHAUCER and SHAKESPEARE; all our authors and poets are united as by some great high road where the scenery varies from place to place, but yet we are always under an English sky. The great lesson, that the history of literature is not a series of brilliant light effects, but a development according to natural laws, as yet perhaps imperfectly understood, can nowhere, except perhaps in France, be so well illustrated as by the English writers, and especially those smaller links in a great chain whom the Early English Society has restored to life. But the uses of the Society extend far beyond the enforcement of this lesson. It has wiped away, as Mr FURNIVALL proudly boasts, the old well-deserved reproach of indifference to the sources of our own language; it has stirred up the study of English historically; it makes possible a knowledge of the language; it makes accessible the most valuable documents of that history; and it shows how, in the teeth of ignorance, civil war, and obstacles of all kinds, literature, that is, the power of expression, went on growing, now slowly, now quickly, putting forth in this direction and that tiny tendrils which were destined to grow in time into great branches, laden with the fruits of labour and genius. No single form of literature springs suddenly into existence, and the old familiar phrases, such as that which used to describe CHAUCER as the Father of English Poetry, have to be abandoned altogether, or used in a modified sense. But the Society has yet other claims upon us, in addition to those which appeal chiefly to students of literature. It is to such works as are issued under its auspices that we must look, far more than to the State records, for the social history of the country. In the "Babees Boke," the "Boke of Norture," the "Boke of Carving," the statutes of the English Guilds, and the "Supplycacyon of the Beggars," we may read the very mind of our forefathers, the way in which they regarded the common duties and responsibilities which make up every-day life, their methods of making existence comfortable, gentle, easy, and cultured, their way of dress, their protection and advancement of the arts; how they ate, drank, talked, and slept. And if there linger among us any relics of that most ancient religion, the worship of ancestors, Mr FURNIVALL'S appeal for help should touch us there. But, indeed, his Society is doing so great a work for all the English-speaking race on both sides of the Atlantic, that its claims reach higher than mere pride or patriotism. With a modesty which seems to us excessive, he proposes to raise a Commemoration Fund of 2007. We should have preferred a larger request, first, because we are anxious to see the work which Mr FURNIVALL NOW subdivides into a Chaucer Society, a Lydgate Society, and so on, all forming part of the Early English Text Society; and secondly, because it is always well to ask, if you ask at all, for a large amount. We fear that Mr FURNIVALL has not yet learned the great truth, well known to all charitable and benevolent associations, not only that much is given to those that have much, but also that much is given to those who ask for much. Whatever be the sum that this Society asks and gets, be it much or little, we may be very sure that it will be well spent. JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. Early English Text Society. THE DUKE OF MANCHESTER'S COMMEMORATION FUND. WITH the last day of 1873, the Early English Text Society closed the tenth year of its existence. During its short life it has done more and better work than any other Society of like kind. It has made possible, for the first time, a knowledge of the history of the English language; it has made accessible to all, the most valuable documents of that history; it has stirred-up the study of English historically in schools and colleges, and by students generally; it has wiped away from England the old well-deserved reproach of indifference to, of ignorance of, the sources of its noble tongue, which for beauty and power stands level with, if it does not excel, the choicest languages of the world. The change that the Society's ten-years' life has wrought in the scientific study of English, is gladly acknowledged by the scholars of the Continent and the United States, but has not yet met with due recognition in England, where the Society is insufficiently supported. Its work is continually hampered by lack of funds. It has now liabilities that it cannot discharge. The Duke of Manchester has therefore come forward to head a Commemoration Fund in help of the Early English Text Society, at this, the close of its first ten-years' work, and has proposed that-in the first instance at least £200 should be raised by twenty donations of £10 each, and that any number of smaller donations should be received. The Duke has himself given a donation of £10 to the Fund. The Marquis of Ripon, the late head of the Educational Department of the country, has also contributed the sum of £10 expressly on account of the service done by the Society to the cause of the historical study of English. Mr Richard Johnson of Langton Oaks, near Manchester, has given his donation of £10 mainly because the Society's publications have so remarkably illustrated the social condition and habits of our ancestors. A London "Friend" has added his £10 because he thinks it the duty of Englishmen to show their appreciation of the generous sacrifice of time and brain made by the Society's editors to promote the study of Alfred's and Chaucer's tongue. 'The Duke's £200 Fund (ten donations of £20 each), in aid of the Chaucer Society, has been already raised this year, and applied to the purposes of the Chaucer Society, |