Among the works of authority referred to by mediæval writers the Revelations of Methodius long held a prominent place. Its popularity continued even into comparatively modern times, for from the year 1475 printed editions of the text appeared at frequent intervals. Sackur, its latest editor, who has prepared a critical version of the work, goes so far as to credit it with an influence second only to that of the canonical books and the Church Fathers. It is the purpose of the present study, first, to investigate the influence of this work upon Middle-English writers, discovering, if possible, to what extent and in what version, they used Methodius; and furthermore, to publish, as evidence of the popularity of the Revelations, a Middle-English metrical translation, which has been preserved in a single ms. Before taking up this phase of the influence of Methodius, however, it will simplify the discussion to summarize briefly what sort of material the Revelations contains, and what is known of its author and its origin.

Sous l'influence du déterminisme de Comte et des theories de Taine sur la race, le milieu et le moment, la critique littéraire de la seconde partie du 19e siècle exagéra l'importance de l'élément collectif ou national dans la production des æuvres d'art et ne mit pas suffisamment en évidence l'influence essentielle du talent individuel. Depuis vingt ans environ, une forte reaction contre ces théories nous a fait oublier systématiquement l'élément racique pour insister exclusivement sur la personnalité des auteurs. On s'est plu à étudier les moindres détails de l'existenee des écrivains, de leur enfance, de leur vie privée. On a même affecté d'ignorer—ou à peu près—l'influence du milieu, du goût de l'époque, des tendances existant chez les auteurs contemporains, etc., éléments qui nécessairement guident l'inspiration des artistes les plus indépendants.

At the very beginning of the nineteenth century, which has aptly been called “the century of the child,” a new sense of the sacredness of childhood found expression in Wordsworth's song written in 1802:

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

In the winter of 1567–8 five gentlemen of the Inner Temple presented befor the queen a tragedy entitled Gismond of Salerne. In 1591–2 Robert Wilmot, author of the fifth act, publisht a revision of the entire work under the name Tancred and Gismund. This was reprinted by Dodsley. The erlier version has cum down to us in two ms. copies, both in the British Museum: Hargrave 205, knoen as H, and Landsdowne 786, knoen as L, the former dating from the third quarter of the sixteenth century, the latter from the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century. L has been reprinted by Brandl in volume LXXX of Quellen und Forschungen and by Cunliffe in his Early English Classical Tragedies. Renewed study of the work finds a stimulus in the recent publication of a fotografic reproduction of H in Farmer's facsimile edition of The Old English Drama.

Hermann Kirchner, son of Joachim Kirchner, was born November 11, 1562 at Hersfeld in Hessen. As a youth he was sent to Copenhagen to live with his brother, and there in the Ducal Library he began his higher studies. Thence he went to Rostock, and in 1587 to Marburg, supplied with recommendations from Chrytaeus, the historian, to the poet and dramatist, Aegidius Hunnius, who was until 1592 Professor of Theology in Marburg.

The Ovide moralisé is a portentous performance of about seventy-two thousand lines, extant in some seventeen manuscripts. Fragments of it were printed by Tarbé under the title of Œuvres de Philippe de Vitry, and the first volume of a critical text of the entire poem, edited by Professor de Boer of Amsterdam, is now in print. The work, with its mixture of fairly close translation and amazing allegorization of the Metamorphoses is discussed at length by Gaston Paris in its relation to other mediaeval translations or imitations of Ovid. And in de Boer's Introductions and articles will be found all necessary bibliographical apparatus.