Chapter XVIII: Part 18

What I wish and am doing with my “Biblework,” _you_ will see between the lines of my first volume; other people, twelve months later, when my first volume of the Bible documents “comes out:” and even then they will not see where the concluding volume tends,—the world’s history in the Bible, and the Bible in the world’s history. Already in the end of 1857 I finished all of the first volume: the stereotyping goes on fearfully slow. You will receive one of the first copies which goes across the Channel; and you will read it at once, will you not? I am delighted that you are absorbed in _Eckart_: he is the key to Tauler, and there is nothing better, _except the Gospel of St. John_. For there stands still more clearly than in the other gospel writings, that the object of life in this world is to _found the Kingdom of God on earth_ (as my friends the Taipings understand it also). Of this, Eckart and his scholars had despaired, just as much as Dante and his parody, Reineke Fuchs. You will find already many pious ejaculations of this kind in my two volumes of “God in History;” but I have deferred the closing word till the sixth book, where _our_ tragedy will be revealed, in order to begin boldly with a new epos. I send you to-day four sheets by book-post, “The Aryans in Asia;” for I cannot finish it without your personal help. You will find that you have already furnished a great portion of the matter. The same hymn which I translated with difficulty and trouble from Haug’s literal translation (in strophes which you however do not recognize?) (Ps. li.), you have translated for me, in your own graceful manner, on a fly-sheet, and sent to me from Leipzig. Of course I shall use this translation in place of my own. I therefore venture to request that you will do the same with regard to the other examples which I have given. If you wish to add anything _new_, it will suit perfectly, for everything fits in at the end of the chapter: the number of the pages does not come into consideration in the present stage. You will receive the leaves on Saturday; it would be delightful if you could finish them in the course of the following week, and send them back to me. (We have a contract here with France, which gives us a sort of book-post.) I expect next week the continuation of the Brahmanism and Buddha. I should like to send both to you. The notes and _excursus_ will only be printed at the close of the volume, therefore not before May. The rest (Books V., VI.) will be printed during the summer, to appear before I cross the Alps. In this I develop the tragedy of the Romano-Germanic world, and shall both gain many and lose many friends by it. I have read your brilliant article on Welcker with great delight. I possess it. Have you sent it (if only anonymously) to the noble old man? He has deserved it. The article makes a great noise, and will please him very much. In fact, everything would give me undisturbed pleasure, did I not see (even without your telling me, which, however, you have done, as is the sacred duty between friends) that you are not happy in yourself. Of _one_ thing I am convinced,—you would be just as little so, _even less_, in Germany, and least of all among the sons of the Brahmans. If you continue to live as you do now, you would everywhere miss England,—perhaps also Oxford, if you went to London. Of this I am not clear: in general a German lives far more freely in the World-city than in the Don-city, where every English idiosyncrasy strengthens itself, and buries itself in coteries. Unfortunately I have neither read “Indophilus” nor “Philindus:” please tell me the numbers of the “Times.” I can get a copy of the “Times” here from the library from month to month. Trevelyan is an excellent man, occasionally unpractical and mistaken, always meaning well and accessible to reason. But does any one _study_ in London? _Dubito!_ But I don’t understand the plan of an Oriental College. Perhaps it is possible to undertake London without giving up Oxford entirely. The power of influencing the young men, who after ten or twenty years will govern the land, is far greater in Oxford or Cambridge than in London. I am curious about your “German Reading Book.”

I maintain one thing,—you are not happy; and that comes from your bachelor life. The progress of your Vedic work delights me: but how much in it is still a riddle! Thus, for instance, the long hymn (2 Ash_t_aka, third Adhyâya, Sûkta viii. CLXIV.) p. 125. The hymn is first of all, as can be proved, beyond verse 41 _not genuine_; but even this older portion is late, surely already composed on the Sarasvatî. The Veda is already a finished book (verse 39), Brahma and Vish_n_u are gods (35, 36). The whole is really wearisome, because it wishes to be mysterious without an idea. (See 4 Ash_t_aka, seventh Adhyâya, vol. iii. p. 463.) Is not Brahma there a god like Indra?

I depend on your marking all egregious blunders with a red pencil. Many such must still have remained, leaving out of view all differences of opinion. Tell me as much as you can on this point in a letter, for on the Continent only notes for press are allowed to go as a packet. (But of these you can bring in as much as you wish: the copy is a duplicate.) At the end I should much like to write something about the present impossibility of enjoying the Rig-Veda, and of the necessity of a spiritual key. But I do not quite know, first of all, whether one can really enter upon the whole: there is much that is conventional and mortal by the side of what is imperishable. An anthology in about two or three volumes would find a rapid sale, and would only benefit a more learned and perfect edition. If you have arrived at the same conclusion, _I will blow the trumpet_.

George greets you heartily, as do his mother and sisters. Perhaps I shall move in April, 1859, to Bonn; _here_ I shall _not_ stay. _Deus providebit._ With truest affection, yours.

Best remembrance to your mother. Have you read my preface to “Debit and Credit?” I have poured out my heart about Kingsley in the Introduction to the German “Hypatia,” and told him that everybody must say to himself, sooner or late, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

[81.]

CHARLOTTENBERG, _July 31, 1858_.

With threefold joy, my loved friend, have I heard the news through your great admirer Mme. Schwabe, of your charming intention of delighting us in August with a visit. _First_, on account of the plan itself: _then_ because I can now compress into a few lines the endless letter I have so long had in my thoughts, to develop it in conversation according to my heart’s desire; _thirdly_, because really since yesterday the day has come when the one half of the concluding volume (iii.) of “God in History” has gone to press, so that its appearing is secured. A letter to you, and a like debt to Lepsius, therefore open the list. And now before anything else receive my hearty _thanks_ for your friendly and instructive letter, and what accompanied it _in Vedicis_. It came just at the right time, and you will see what use I made of it in the work.

And now here first come my _congratulations_. Nothing could be more agreeable and suitable; it is personally and nationally an honor, and an unique acknowledgment. I can only add the wish that you may enjoy the dignity itself as short a time as possible, and take leave as soon as possible of the Fellow-celibates of All Souls’. Your career in England wants nothing but this crowning-point. How prosperous and full of results has it been! Without ceasing to be a German, you have appropriated all that is excellent and superior in English life, and of that there is much, and it will last for life. I imagine you will bring your historical _Chrestomathy_ with you, and propose to you, as you most probably give something out of the Heliand and Ulphilas, to reserve my Woluspa for the next edition, as I have just established the first tenable text of this divine poem, on which the brothers Grimm would never venture. I have had this advantage, of working on the good foundation of my studies (with a Danish translation) of 1815 from Copenhagen. Neither Magnusson, nor Munch, nor Bergmann has given the text of the only MS. (Cod. Regius); one has disfigured it with the latest interpolations, another with unauthorized transpositions. I have at last worked out the unity of the Helgi and the Sigurd songs with each other, and the oldest purely mythological stratum (the solar tragedy) of both, as an important link in the chain of evidence, for the reality of the God-Consciousness of mankind and its organic laws. What people will say to the “results” (Book VI.) which fall into one’s hands, I do not know.

I have been obliged to postpone the journey to Italy from September to November. October (the 23d) is the great crisis for Prussia, and I ought not to forsake the Fatherland then, and have willingly agreed not to do so. A brighter, better day is approaching. May God give his blessing. Every one must help; it is the highest time.

But nothing disturbs me from the work of my life. The fourth volume of the “Biblework” goes to press the day after to-morrow; on the 1st of September, the fifth (Documents I. a). I have now finished _my_ preliminary work for the Old Testament in the main points, and only reserved the last word before the stereotyping; so I begin at once on the New Testament and Life of Jesus. The friendly and clever notice of the first volume of the “Biblework” in the “Continental Review” gave me and my whole family _great pleasure_: and Bernays is here since yesterday (for August and September), which helps the printing of the Pentateuch very much, as I always sent him a last revise, and now all can be worked off here. I finish with Haug in the beginning of September; he will go probably to Poonah with his very sensible bride. Charles and Theodore are well. I expect George this week with Emilia for a visit. My family greet you. Bernays sighs. He has again made some _beautiful discoveries_; that of Aristotle (about the tragedies) I have carried further philosophically. Suggest to that good Arthur Stanley (to whom I have sent my “Biblework”) to send me his “Palestine.” I cannot get it here, and should like to say something about it.

With most true love, yours.

[82.]

CHARLOTTENBERG, _July 23, 1859_.

My sons knew too well what delight they would give me through their confidential communication, which has already given us all a foretaste of the delight of your visit with your bride, and meanwhile has brought me your expected and affectionate letter.

I have felt all these years what was the matter with you, and I sympathize with your happiness as if it concerned one of my own children. I therefore now, my loved friend, wish you all the more happiness and blessing in the acquisition of the highest of life’s prizes, because your love has already shown the right effect and strength, in that you have acquired courage for finishing at _this present time_ your difficult and great work on the Vedas. The work will also give you further refreshment for the future, whilst the editing of the Veda still hangs on your hands.

Therefore let us all wish you joy most heartily (my wife has received the joyful news in Wildbad), and accept our united thanks beforehand for your kind intention of visiting us shortly with your young wife. By that time we shall all be again united here. Your remarkable mother will alone be wanting. Beg your bride beforehand to feel friendly towards me and towards us all. You know how highly I esteem her two aunts, though without personal acquaintance with them, and how dear to me is the cultivated, noble, Christian circle in which the whole family moves. I have as yet carried out my favorite plan with a good hope of success; six months in Charlottenberg on the true spiritually historical interpretation of the Old Testament, in the first volumes of the second division of the work (the so-called documents); six months of the winter on the “Life of Jesus,” and what in my view immediately joins on to that. The first volume of the Bible documents is printed, _the Pentateuch_. You will see that I have handled Abraham and Moses as freely here as I did Zoroaster and Buddha in my last work; the explanation of the books and the history from Joram to Zedekiah is as good as finished.

We shall keep peace; Napoleon and Palmerston understand each other, and Palmerston is the _only_ statesman in England and Europe who conceives rightly the Italian question. Russia follows him. I still hope by the autumn to be able to bless the God of free Italy beside Dante’s and Machiavelli’s graves. With us (Prussia) matters move fairly forwards; here they have been fools, and begin to feel ashamed of themselves. So a speedy and happy meeting.

Your heartily affectionate friend,

BUNSEN.

FOOTNOTES

1 This article formed the preface to a collection of extracts
published in 1858, under the title of _German Classics_. The
extracts are arranged chronologically, and extend from the fourth to
the nineteenth century. They are given in the original Gothic, Old
High-German, and Middle High-German with translations, while in the
more modern portions the difficult words only are explained in
notes. A list of the principal works from which the extracts are
taken will be found at the end of the article, p. 44.

2 “Ut easdam homilias quisque (episcopus) aperte transferre studeat in
_rusticam romanam_ linguam aut _theodiscam_, quo facilius cuncti
possint intelligere quæ dicantur.”—Conc. Tur. can. 17. Wackernagel,
_Geschichte der Deutschen Literatur_, § 26.

_ 3 Lateinische Gedichte des X. und XI. Jahrhunderts_, von J. Grimm und
A. Schmeller. Göttingen, 1838.

_ 4 Reinhard Fuchs_, von Jacob Grimm. Berlin, 1834. _Sendschreiben_, an
Karl Lachmann. Leipzig, 1840.

_ 5 Poems of Grave Ruodolf von Fenis, Her Bernger von Horheim_; see
_Des Minnesangs Frühling_, by Lachmann and Haupt. Leipzig, 1857.

6 Poem of the _Kürenberger_; see _Des Minnesangs Frühling_, pp. 8 and
230.

7 See an account of the _Italian Guest_ of Thomasin von Zerclaria by
Eugene Oswald, in _Queene Elizabethe’s Achademy_, edited by F. J.
Furnivall. London, 1869. This thoughtful essay contains some
important information on Thomasin.

_ 8 Des Minnesangs Frühling._ Herausgegeben von Karl Lachmann und
Moritz Haupt. Leipzig, 1857.

9 Sebastian Brant’s _Narrenschiff_. Herausgegeben von Friedrich
Zarncke. Leipzig, 1857.

_ 10 Rede auf Schiller_, von Jacob Grimm. Berlin, 1859. (Address on
Schiller, by Jacob Grimm.)

_Schiller-Buch_, von Tannenberg; Wien. From the Imperial Printing
Press, 1859.

_Schiller’s Life and Works._ By Emil Palleske. Translated by Lady
Wallace. London, Longman and Co., 1860.

_Vie de Schiller._ Par Ad. Regnier, Membre de l’Institut. Paris,
Hachette, 1859.

11 See _The Times’_ Special Correspondent from Vienna, November 14.

12 The Prince of Holstein-Augustenburg was the grandfather of the
present Duke and of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein.

13 Preface to a new edition of Wilhelm Müller’s poems, published in
1868, in the _Bibliothek der Deutschen National-literatur des
achtzehnten und neunzehnten Jahrhunderts._ Leipzig, Brockhaus.
Translated from the German by G. A. M.

14 “Free, and strong, and pure, and German,
On the German Rhine,
Nothing can be now discovered
Save alone our wine;
If the wine is not a rebel,
Then no more are we;
Mainz, thou proud and frowning fortress,
Let him wander free!”

15 “And let me have my full glass, and let me have my hearty laugh at
these wretched times! He who can sing and laugh with his wine, you
need not put under the ban, my lords: mirth is a harmless child.”

16 “Europe wants but peace and quiet: why hast thou disturbed her
rest?
How with silly dreams of freedom dost thou dare to fill thy breast?
If thou rise against thy rulers, Hellas, thou must fight alone,
E’en the bolster of a Sultan, loyal Europe calls a throne.”

17 I am enabled through the kindness of Mr. Theodore Martin to supply
an excellent translation of these two poems, printed by him in 1863,
in a volume intended for private circulation only.

18 Ptol. ii. 11, ἐπὶ τὸν αὐχένα τῆς Κιμβρικῆς Χερσονήσου Σάξονες.

19 Grimm, _Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache_, p. 609. Strabo, Pliny,
and Tacitus do not mention the name of Saxons.

20 Grimm, l. c. p. 629.

21 See _Poeta Saxo_, anno 772, in Pertz, Monum. I. 228, line 36; Grimm,
l. c. p. 629.

22 See Grimm, _Deutsche Sprache_, p. 781.

_ 23 Germania_, c. 40. Grimm, l. c. p. 604.

24 Grimm, p. 641.

25 Beda, _Hist. Eccl._ I. 15. “Porro de Anglis, hoc est, de ilia patria
quæ Angulus dicitur,” etc. Ethelwert, Chron. I., “Porro Anglia vetus
sita est inter Saxones et Giotos, babens oppidum capitale, quod
sermone Saxonico Sleswic nuncupatur, secundum vero Danos,
_Haithaby_.”

26 Grimm, l. c. p. 630.

27 “Guti vero similiter cum veniunt (in regnum Britanniæ) suscipi
debent, et protegi in regno isto sicut conjurati fratres, sicut
propinqui et proprii cives regni hujus. Exierunt enim quondam de
nobili sanguine Anglorum, scilicet de Engra civitate, et Angliei de
sanguine illorum, et semper efficiuntur populus unus et gens una.
Ita constituit optimus Ina Rex Anglorum.... Multi vero Angli
ceperunt uxores suas de sanguine et genere Anglorum Germaniæ, et
quidam Angli ceperunt uxores suas de sanguine et genere Scotorum;
proceres vero Scotorum, et Scoti fere omnes ceperunt uxores suas de
optimo genere et sanguine Anglorum Germaniæ, et itu fuerunt tunc
temporis per universum regnum Britanniæ duo in carne una....
Universi prædicti semper postea pro communi utilitate coronæ regni
in simul et in unum viriliter contra Danos et Norwegienses semper
steterunt; et atrocissime unanimi voluntate contra inimicos
pugnaverunt, et bella atrocissima in regno gesserunt.” (_Die Gesetze
der Angelsachsen_, ed. Schmid, p. 296.)

28 Klaus Groth writes: “The island of Friesian speech on the continent
of Schleswig between Husum and Tondern is a very riddle and miracle
in the history of language, which has not been sufficiently noticed
and considered. Why should the two extreme ends only of the whole
Friesian coast between Belgium and Jutland have retained their
mother-speech? For the Ost Friesians in Oldenburg speak simply
Platt-Deutsch like the Westphalians and ourselves. Cirk Hinrich
Stüremburg’s so called Ost-Friesian Dictionary has no more right to
call itself Friesian than the Bremen Dictionary. Unless the whole
coast has sunk into the sea, who can explain that close behind
Husum, in a flat country as monotonous as a Hungarian Pussta,
without any natural frontier or division, the traveller, on entering
the next inn, may indeed be understood if he speaks High or Low
German, nay, may receive to either an answer in pure German, but
hears the host and his servants speak in words that sound quite
strange to him? Equally strange is the frontier north of the
Wiede-au, where Danish takes the place of Friesian. Who can explain
by what process the language has maintained itself so far and no
farther, a language with which one cannot travel beyond eight or ten
square miles? Why should these few thousand people not have
surrendered long ago this ‘useless remnant of an unschooled
dialect,’ considering they learn at the same time Low and High
German, or Low-German and Danish? In the far-stretching, straggling
villages a Low-German house stands sometimes alone among Friesian
houses, and _vice versa_, and that has been going on for
generations. In the Saxon families they do not find it necessary to
learn Friesian, for all the neighbors can speak Low-German; but in
the Friesian families one does not hear German spoken except when
there are German visitors. Since the seventeenth century German has
hardly conquered a single house, certainly not a village.”
(_Illustrir__te__ Deutsche Monatshefte_, 1869, p. 330.)

_ 29 Histoire de St. Louis_, par Joinville. Texte rapproché du Français
Moderne par M. Natalis de Wailly, Membre de l’Institut. Paris, 1865.

_Œuvres de Jean Sire de Joinville_, avec un texte rapproché du
Français Moderne, par M. Natalis de Wailly. Paris, 1867. M. Natalis
de Wailly has since published a new edition of Joinville, _Histoire
de Saint Louis_, par Jean Sire de Joinville, suivie du Credo et de
la lettre à Louis X.; texte ramené à l’orthographe des Chartes du
Sire de Joinville. Paris, 1868. He has more fully explained the
principles according to which the text of Joinville has been
restored by him in his _Mémoire sur la Langue de Joinville_. Paris,
1868.

30 See Paulin Paris, p. 175.

31 In his last edition of the text of Joinville, which was published in
1868, M. de Wailly has restored the spelling of Joinville on all
these points according to the rules which are observed in
Joinville’s charters, and in the best MSS. of the beginning of the
fourteenth century. The fac-similes of nine of these charters are
published at the end of M. de Wailly’s _Mémoire sur la Langue de
Joinville_; of others an accurate transcript is given. The authentic
texts thus collected, in which we can study the French language as
it was written at the time of Joinville, amount to nearly one fifth
of the text of Joinville’s History. To correct, according to these
charters, the text of Joinville so systematically as had been done
by M. de Wailly in his last edition may seem a bold undertaking; but
few who have read attentively his _Mémoire_ would deny that the new
editor has fully justified his critical principles. Thus with regard
to the terminations of the nominative and the oblique cases, where
other MSS. of Joinville’s History follow no principle whatever, M.
de Wailly remarks: “Pour plus de simplicité j’appellerai règle du
sujet singulier et règle du sujet pluriel l’usage qui consistait à
distinguer, dans beaucoup de mots, le sujet du regime par une
modification analogue à celle de la déclinaison latine. Or, j’ai
constaté que, dans les chartes de Joinville, la règle du sujet
singulier est observée huit cent trente-cinq fois, et violée sept
fois seulement; encore dois-je dire que cinq de ces violations se
rencontrent dans une même charte, celle du mois de mai 1278, qui
n’est connue que par une copie faite au siècle dernier. Si l’on fait
abstraction de ce texte, il reste deux violations contre huit cent
trente-cinq observations de la règle. La règle du sujet pluriel est
observée cinq cent quartre-vingt-huit fois, et violée six fois: ce
qui donne au total quatorze cent vingt-trois contre treize, en
tenant compte même de six fautes commises dans le texte copié au
siècle dernier. De ce resultat numérique, il faut évidemment
conclure, d’abord, que l’une et l’autre règle étaient parfaitement
connues et pratiquées à la chancellerie de Joinville, ensuite qu’on
est autorisé à modifier le texte de l’Histoire, partout où ces
règles y sont violées. (D’après un calcul approximatif, on peut
croire que le copiste du quatorzième siècle a violé ces règles plus
de quatre mille fois et qu’il les respectait peut-être une fois sur
dix.)”

_ 32 Table Méthodique des Mémoires de Trévoux_ (1701-1775), précédée
d’une Notice Historique. Par le Pére P. C. Sommervogel, de la
Compagnie de Jésus. 3 vols. Paris, 1864-65.

_ 33 Chasot: a Contribution to the History of Frederic the Great and his
Time._ By Kurd von Schlözer. Berlin. 1856.

34 Speech delivered at Stratford-on-Avon on the 23d of April, 1864, the
Tercentenary of Shakespeare’s birth.

35 Franz Baco von Verulam: _Die Realphilosophie und ihr Zeitalter_. Von
Kuno Fischer. Leipzig. Brockhaus. 1856.

_ 36 Pauli Hentzneri J. C. Itinerarium Germaniæ, Galliæ, Angliæ,
Italiæ_: cum Indice Locorum, Rerum, atque Verborum commemorabilium.
Huic libro accessêre novâ hâc editione—1. Monita Peregrinatoria
duorum doctissimorum virorum; itemque Incerti auctoris Epitome
Præcognitorum Historicorum, antehac non edita. Noribergæ, Typis
Abrahami Wagenmanni, sumptibus sui ipsius et Johan. Güntzelii, anno
MDCXXIX.

_ 37 Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County of Cornwall._
By William Borlase, LL. D. London, 1769.

_A Week at the Land’s End._ By J. T. Blight. London, 1861.

38 Plin. _H. N._ xvi. c. 44. “Non est omittenda in ea re et Galliarum
admiratio. Nihil habent Druidæ (ita suos appellant magos) visco et
arbore in qua gignatur (si modo sit robur) sacratius. Jam per se
roborum eligunt lucos, nec ulla sacra sine ea fronde conficiunt, ut
inde appellati quoque interpretatione Græca possint Druidæ videri.
Enimvero quidquid adnascatur illis, e cœlo missum putant signumque
esse electæ ab ipso deo arboris. Est autem id rarum admodum inventu
et repertum magna religione petitur, et ante omnia sexta luna, quæ
principia mensium annorumque his facit, et seculi post tricesimum
annum, quia jam virium abunde habeat, nec sit sui dimidia. Omnia
sanantem appellantes suo vocabulo, sacrificiis epulisque rite sub
arbore præparatis, duos admovent candidi coloria tauros, quorum
cornua tune primum vinciantur. Sacerdos candida veste cultus arborem
scandit, falce aurea demetit; candido id excipitur sago. Tum deinde
victimas immolant, precantes ut suum donum deus prosperum facial his
quibus dederit.”

_ 39 Tre_, homestead; _ros_, moor, peatland, a common; _pol_, a pool;
_lan_, an enclosure, church; _caer_, town; _pen_, head.

40 Cranmer’s Works, ed. Jenkyns, vol. ii. p. 230.

41 Observations on an ancient Manuscript, entitled _Passio Christi_, by
—— Scawen, Esq., 1777, p. 26.

42 Borlase’s _Natural History of Cornwall_, p. 315.

_ 43 Ibid_.

44 Her age was certainly mythical, and her case forms a strong
confirmation of the late Sir G. C. Lewis’s skepticism on that point.
Dolly Pentreath is generally believed to have died at the age of one
hundred and two. Dr. Borlase, who knew her, and has left a good
description of her, stated that, about 1774, she was in her
eighty-seventh year. This, if she died in 1778, would only bring her
age to ninety-one. But Mr. Haliwell, who examined the register at
Paul, found that Dolly Pentreath was baptized in 1714; so that,
unless she was baptized late in life, this supposed centenarian had
only reached her sixty-fourth year at the time of her death, and was
no more than sixty when Dr. Borlase supposed her to be eighty-seven.
Another instance of extraordinary old age is mentioned by Mr. Scawen
(p. 25), about a hundred years earlier. “Let not the old woman be
forgotten,” he says, “who died about two years since, who was one
hundred and sixty-four years old, of good memory, and healthful at
that age, living in the parish of Guithian, by the charity mostly of
such as came purposely to see her, speaking to them (in default of
English) by an interpreter, yet partly understanding it. She married
a second husband after she was eighty, and buried him after he was
eighty years of age.”

_ 45 Specimens of Cornish Provincial Dialects_, by Uncle Jan Treenoodle.
London, 1846: p. 82.

_ 46 Greece, Ancient and Modern_, by C. C. Felton. Boston, 1867, vol.
ii. p. 314.

_ 47 The Races of the Old World: A manual of Ethnology._ By Charles L.
Brace. London, 1863, p. 362 _seq._

48 Cornish proverbs have lived on after the extinction of Cornish, and
even as translated into English they naturally continue to exercise
their own peculiar spell on the minds of men and children. Such
proverbs are:—

“It is better to keep than to beg.”

“Do good; for thyself thou dost it.”

“Speak little, speak well, and well will be spoken again.”

“There is no down without eye, no hedge without ears.”

49 A critical edition, with some excellent notes, was published by Mr.
Whitley Stokes under the title of _The Passion_. MSS. of it exist at
the British Museum and at the Bodleian. One of the Bodleian MSS.
(Gough, Cornwall, 3) contains an English translation by Keigwyn,
made in 1682.

50 In the MS. in the British Museum, the translation is said by Mr.
Norris to be dated 1693 (vol. ii. p. 440). It was published in 1827
by Davies Gilbert; and a critical edition was prepared by Mr.
Whitley Stokes, and published with an English translation in 1862.
Mr. Stokes leaves it doubtful whether William Jordan was the author,
or merely the copyist, and thinks the text may belong to an earlier
date, though it is decidedly more modern than the other specimens of
Cornish which we possess in the dramas, and in the poem of _The
Passion_.

_ 51 Guare_, in Cornish, means a play, a game; the Welsh _gware._

52 According to Lhuyd, _guirimir_ would be a corruption of
_guarimirkle_, _i.e._ a miracle-play. Norris, vol ii. p. 455.

53 In some lines written in 1693, on the origin of the Oxford _Terræ
filius_, we read:—

“These undergraduates’ oracles
Deduced from Cornwall’s _guary_ miracles,—
From immemorial custom there
They raise a turfy theatre!
When from a passage underground,
By frequent crowds encompassed round,
Out leaps some little Mephistopheles,
Who e’en of all the mob the offal is,” etc.

54 The following extract from a Cornish paper gives some curious words
still current among the people:—

“A few weeks since a correspondent in the _Cornish Telegraph_
remarked a few familiar expressions which we West country folks are
accustomed to use in so vague a sense that strangers are often
rather puzzled to know precisely what we mean. He might also have
added to the list many old Cornish words, still in common use, as
_skaw_ for the elder-tree; _skaw-dower_, water-elder; _skaw-coo_,
nightshade; _bannel_, broom; _skedgewith_, privet; _griglans_,
heath; _padzypaw_ (from _padzar_, four?), the small gray lizard;
_muryan_, the ant; _quilkan_, the frog (which retains its English
name when in the water); _pul-cronach_ (literally pool-toad) is the
name given to a small fish with a head much like that of a toad,
which is often found in the pools (_pulans_) left by the receding
tide among the rocks along shore; _visnan_, the sand-lance;
_bul-horn_, the shell-snail; _dumble-dory_, the black-beetle (but
this may be a corruption of the dor-beetle). A small, solid wheel
has still the old name of _drucshar_. Finely pulverized soil is
called _grute_. The roots and other light matter harrowed up on the
surface of the ground for burning we call _tabs_. The harvest-home
and harvest-feast, _guildize_. _Plum_ means soft; _quail_, withered;
_crum_, crooked; _bruyans_, crumbs; with a few other terms more
rarely used.

“Many of our ordinary expressions (often mistaken for vulgar
provincialisms) are French words slightly modified, which were
probably introduced into the West by the old Norman families who
long resided there. For instance: a large apron to come quite round,
worn for the sake of keeping the under-clothing clean, is called a
_touser_ (_tout-serre_); a game of running romps, is a _courant_
(from _courir_). Very rough play is a regular _cow’s courant_. Going
into a neighbor’s for a spell of friendly chat is going _to cursey_
(_causer_) a bit. The loins are called the _cheens_ (old French,
_echine_). The plant sweet-leaf, a kind of St. John’s wort, here
called _tutsen_, is the French _tout-saine_ (heal all). There are
some others which, however, are not peculiar to the West; as
_kickshaws_ (_quelque chose_), etc. We have also many inverted
words, as _swap_ for wasp, _cruds_ for curds, etc. Then again we
call a fly a _flea_; and a flea a _flay_; and the smallest stream of
water a river.”—W. B.

55 Quoted in Petrie, _Eccles. Architecture of Ireland_, p. 107.

56 Borlase, _Antiquities of Cornwall_, p. 162.

57 Strabo, iv. 197: τοὺς δ᾽ οἴκους ἐκ σανίδων καὶ γέῥῤων ἔχουσι
μεγάλους θολοειδεῖς, ὄροφον πολὺν ἐπιβάλλοντες.

58 Cf. Photius, _Bibliotheca_, ed. Bekker, p. 148, 1. 32: περὶ τῆς παρὰ
τὸν ὠκεανὸν Γιγωνίας πέτρας, καὶ ὅτι μόνῳ ἀσφοδειλῷ κινεῖται, πρὸς
πᾶσαν βίαν ἀμετακίνητος οὖσὰ.

59 The following extract from a Cornish newspaper, July 15, 1869, shows
the necessity of imperial legislation on this subject to prevent
irreparable mischief:—

“The ruthless destruction of the Tolmen, in the parish of
Constantine, which has been so much deplored, has had the effect, we
are glad to say, of drawing attention to the necessity of taking
measures for the preservation of the remaining antiquities and
objects of curiosity and interest in the county. In a recent number
of the _West Briton_ we called attention to the threatened overthrow
of another of our far-famed objects of great interest,—the
Cheesewring, near Liskeard; and we are now glad to hear that the
committee of the Royal Institution of Cornwall have requested three
gentlemen who take great interest in the preservation of
antiquities—Mr. William Jory Henwood, F. G. S., etc., Mr. N. Hare,
Jr., of Liskeard, and Mr. Whitley, one of the secretaries of the
Royal Institution—to visit Liskeard for the purpose of conferring
with the agents of the lessors of the Cheesewring granite
quarries—the Duchy of Cornwall—and with the lessees of the works,
Messrs. Freeman, of Penryn, who are themselves greatly anxious that
measures should be taken for the preservation of that most
remarkable pile of rocks known as the Cheesewring. We have no doubt
that the measures to be adopted will prove successful; and with
regard to any other antiquities or natural curiosities in the
county, we shall be glad to hear from correspondents, at any time,
if they are placed in peril of destruction, in order that a public
announcement of the fact may become the means of preserving them.”

60 See p. 245.

61 See Isaac Taylor’s _Words and Places_, p. 212. The Ock joins the
Thames near Abingdon.

62 See the learned essay of M. Rossignol, “De l’Orichalque: Histoire du
Cuivre et de ses Alliages,” in his work, _Les Métaux dans
l’Antiquité_. Paris. 1863.

63 There is another Penny come quick near Falmouth.

64 Isaac Taylor, _Words and Places_, p. 402.

65 It has been objected that _Marchadyon_ could not be called the
original form, because by a _carta Alani comitis Britanniæ_, sealed,
according to Dugdale’s _Monasticon Anglicanum_, by Alan, anno
incarnationis domini MCXL., ten shillings per annum were granted to
the monks of St. Michael, due from a fair held at _Merdresem_ or
_Merdresein_. Until, however, it has been proved that _Merdresem_ is
the same place and the same name as _Marchadyon_, or that the latter
sprang from the former, _Marchadyon_ in the charter of Richard, Earl
of Cornwall, 1257, may for our immediate purpose be treated as the
root from which all the other names branched off. See Oliver,
_Monasticon Exon._ p. 32.

66 If a market was held on the “dimidia terræ hida” granted by Robert
to the monks, this difficulty would disappear.

67 In the Additional Supplement (p. 4), Dr. Oliver gives the more
correct reading, “_de Markesiou, de parvo Mercato, Brevannek,
Penmedel, Trewarbene_.” It depends on the comma after _Markesiou_
whether _parvus Mercatus_ is a separate place or not.

68 Dr. Bannister remarks that _Markesion_ occurs as early as 1261, in
the taxation of Bishop Walter Bronescombe, as quoted in Bishop
Stapledon’s register of 1313. If that be so, the original form and
its dialectic varieties would have existed almost contemporaneously,
but the evidence that _Markesion_ was used by Bishop Bronescombe is
indirect. See Oliver, _Monast. Exon._ p. 28.

69 On the termination of the plural in Cornish, see Mr. Whitley
Stokes’s excellent remarks in his edition of _The Passion_, p. 79;
also in Kuhn’s _Beiträge_, iii. 151; and Norris, _Cornish Drama_,
vol. ii. p. 229. My attention has since been called to the fact that
_marhas_ occurs in the plural as _marhasow_, in the _Cornish Drama_,
vol. i. p. 248; and as _s_under such circumstances may become _j_
(cf. _canhasawe_, Creat. line 29, but _canhajowe_, Creat. line 67),
_Marhajow_ would come still nearer to _Market Jew_. Dr. Bannister
remarks that in Armorican, market is _marchad_, plural _marchadou_,
corrupted into _marchajou_.

70 The following note from a Cornish paper gives some important facts
as to the date of the name of _Market Jew_:—

“Among the State Papers at the Record Office, there is a letter from
Ralph Conway to Secretary Cope, dated 3d October, 1634, which
mentions the name of _Market-jew_.

“In another, dated 7th February, 1634-5, Sir James Bagg informs the
Lords of the Admiralty that the endeavors of Mr. Basset, and other
gentlemen in the west of Cornwall, to save the cargo of a wrecked
Spanish galleon which broke from her moorings in Gwavas Lake, near
Penzance, were opposed by a riotous multitude, consisting of the
inhabitants of Mousehole and _Marka-jew_, who maintained their
unlawful proceedings with the cry of ‘One and All!’ threatening with
death the servants of the Crown, and compelling them to avoid their
fury by leaping down a high cliff.

“In another of the same date, from Ralph Bird, of Saltram, to
Francis Basset, the rebels of Mousehole, with their fellow-rebels of
_Market Jew_, are spoken of, as having menaced the life of any
officer who should come to their houses to search for certain hides
that mysteriously disappeared from the deck of the galleon one
boisterous night, and were probably transferred to Mousehole in the
cock-boat of Mr. Keigwin, of that place; and various methods are
suggested for administering punishment to the outrageous barbarians.

“In consequence of these complaints, the Lords of the Admiralty
wrote to Sir Henry Marten, on the 12th of February of the same year,
concerning ‘the insolency’ committed by the inhabitants of Mousehole
and _Markaiew_ requesting that the offenders may be punished, and,
if necessary, the most notorious of them sent to London for trial.

“In _Magna Britannia et Hibernia_, 1720, p. 308, _Merkju_ is
mentioned as being ‘a little market-town which takes its name from
the market on Thursdays, it being a contraction of _Market-Jupiter_,
_i.e._ as ’tis now called _Market Jew_, or rather _Ju_.’

“Norden, who was born about 1548, says in his _Specul. Britanniæ_,
which was published in 1728, that _Marca-iewe_ (_Marca-iew_ in
margin) signifies in English, ‘market on the Thursday.’ In an old
map, apparently drawn by hand, which appears to have been inserted
in this book after it was published, _Market Iew_ is given, and in
the map issued with the book _Market Jew_.

“The map of Cornwall, contained in _Camden’s Britannia_, by Gibson,
1772, gives _Market-Jew_. The edition 1789, by Gough, states at page
3, that ‘_Merkiu_ signifies the _Market of Jupiter_, from the market
being held on a Thursday, the day sacred to Jupiter.’

“Carew’s _Survey of Cornwall_, ed. 1769, p. 156, has the
following:—‘Over against the Mount fronteth a towne of petty
fortune, pertinently named _Marcaiew_, or _Marhas diow_, in English
“the Thursdaies market.” ’ In the edition published in 1811, p. 378,
it is stated in a foot-note that _Marazion_ means ‘market on the
Strand,’ the name being well adapted to its situation, ‘for _Zion_
answers to the Latin _litus_.’ ”

71 H. B. C. Brandes, _Kelten und Germanen_, p. 52.

72 Capgrave, _Legenda Angliæ_, fol. 269.

73 “Within the land of Meneke or Menegland, is a paroch chirche of S.
Keveryn, otherwise Piranus.”—Leland. “Piran and Keveryn were
different persons.” See Gough’s edition of _Camden_, vol. i. p. 14.

74 Carew, _Survey_ (ed. 1602), p. 58. “From which civility, in the
fruitful age of Canonization, they stepped a degree farder to
holines, and helped to stuffe the Church Kalender with divers
saints, either made or borne Cornish. Such was Keby, son to Solomon,
prince of Cor.; such _Peran_, who (if my author the Legend lye not)
after that (like another Johannes de temporibus) he had lived two
hundred yeres with perfect health, took his last rest in a Cornish
parish, which there-through he endowed with his name.”

75 Hunt’s _Popular Romances_, vol. ii. p. 19.

_ 76 Saxon Chronicle_, ed. Earle, p. 14, and his note, Preface, p. ix.

77 This _how_, according to Professor Earle, appears again in the
_Hoe_, a high down at Plymouth, near the citadel; in _Hooton_
(Cheshire), in _How-gate_, _Howe of Fife_, and other local names.
See also Halliwell, _s. v._ Hoes, and Hogh; Kemble’s _Codex
Diplomaticus_, Nos. 563, 663, 784.

78 Hunt, vol. i. p. 187.

79 Matthew Paris, _Opera_, ed. Wats, p. 902.

80 See _Reymeri Fœdera_, A. D. 1255, tom. i. p. 543.

81 See Adam Bremensis’ _De Situ Daniæ_ ed. Lindenbruch, p. 136;
Buckle’s _History of Civilization_, vol. i. p. 275.

82 Carew, _Surrey_ (ed. 1602), p. 8: “and perhaps under one of those
Flavians, the Jewish workmen made here their first arrival.”

83 Gibbon, chap. i. “The name which, used by Ptolemy and Pliny in a
more confined, by Ammianus and Procopius in a larger sense, has been
derived, ridiculously, from Sarah, the wife of Abraham, obscurely
from the village of Saraka, more plausibly from the Arabic words,
which signify a _thievish_ character, or _Oriental_ situation. Yet
the last and most popular of these etymologies is refuted by
Ptolemy, who expressly remarks the western and southern position of
the Saracens, then an obscure tribe on the borders of Egypt. The
appellation cannot therefore allude to any _national_ character;
and, since it was imported by strangers, it must be found, not in
the Arabic, but in a foreign language.”

84 See R. Williams, _Lexicon Cornu. Britannicum_, s. v.

85 “It may be given as a rule, without exception, that words ending
with _t_ or _d_ in Welsh or Briton, do, if they exist in Cornish,
turn _t_ or _d_ to _s_.”—Norris, vol. ii. p. 237.

86 “The frequent use of _th_ instead of _s_ shows that (in Cornish) the
sound was not so definite as in English.”—Norris, vol. ii. p. 224.

Another explanation of _Attal Sarazin_ has been suggested by an
eminent Cornish scholar: “I should explain _sarazin_,” he writes,
“as from _saratin_, a Med. Lat. _saritinus_, cf. _ex-saritum_,
_ex-saritare_ in Diez, E. W. ii. 283, s. v. _Essart_. _Atal_ cannot
be W. _adhail_. I would identify it with the Fr. _attelle_, splint.
It occurs in O. 427, meaning ‘fallow.’ _Atal sarazin_ I should
explain as ‘dug-up splinters or shingle,’ and _towle_ (_toll_)
_sarazin_ as a ‘dug-up hole or excavation.’ ”

87 See p. 311, l. 30.

88 “History of the Exchequer,” London, 1711, p. 168: “Et quod nullus
Judæus receptetur in aliqua Villa sine speciali licentia Regis, nisi
in Villis illis in quibus Judæi manere consueverunt” (37 Henry III).

89 Read before the Ashmolean Society, Oxford, November 25, 1867.

90 In Gough’s edition of Camden the name is given “Careg cowse in
clowse, _i.e._ the heavy rock in the wood.”

_ 91 Baronii Annales_, anno 493.

_ 92 Baronii Annales_, anno 709.

93 I have added _church_, for Mr. Munro, who kindly collated this
passage for me, informs me that the C. C. C. MS. gives distinctly
_ædem_ where the editor has left a lacuna.

94 Thomas Crammer sends a dispensation, in 1537, to the Rev. John
Arscott, archpresbyter of the ecclesia St. Michaelis in Monte Tumba
Exoniensis diocesis. (_Monasticon Dioc. Exon._ p. 30.) Dr. Oliver
remarks, “It may be worth while to observe, that when St. Michael
‘in procella,’ or ‘in periculo maris,’ is named in the old records,
the foreign house is meant. But St. Michael ‘in Tumbâ,’ or ‘Monte
Tumbâ,’ is a name occasionally applied to both houses.” It would
have been interesting to determine the exact date when this latter
name is for the first time applied to the Cornish Mount.

_ 95 Passion_, ed. W. S. p. 95. Coth, Bret. kôz=O. Celtic cottos
(Atecotti “perantiqui”).

96 It was suggested to me that the _opacissima sylva_ may even have a
more distant origin. There seems as little evidence of a dense
forest having surrounded Mont St. Michel in Normandy as there was in
the case of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. Now as the first
apparition of St. Michael is supposed to have taken place in Mount
Garganus, _i.e._ Monte Gargano or Monte di S. Angelo, in Apulia, may
not “the dense forest” have wandered with the archangel from the
“querceta Gargani” (Hor. _Od._ ii. 9, 7) to Normandy, and thence to
Cornwall?

_ 97 A Memoir of Baron Bunsen_, by his widow, Baroness Bunsen. 2 vols.
8vo. Longmans, 1868.

_Christian Carl Josias Freiherr von Bunsen_. Aus seinen Briefen und
nach eigener Erinnerung geschildert, von seiner Wittwe. Deutsche
Ausgabe, durch neue Mittheilungen vermehrt von Friedrich Nippold.
Leipzig, 1868.

98 Translated by G. A. M.

99 No date, but about December, 1849.