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The Development of English Medieval Scholarship between 1660 and 1730

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2011

David C. Douglas
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Extract

Though the subject of this paper is over-large, its purpose was begotten of piety, not presumption. If, therefore, I lack the confidence which pertains to discovery, I am not for that reason without my apology; and I aspire to the hope that the Fellows of this Society may deem it a seemly relaxation to pause from their labours for the space of an hour in order to reflect gratefully upon some of their forerunners in learning. Between 1660 and 1730 English medieval scholarship advanced to a notable achievement, and the names of the chief men who contributed thereto are almost household words to all modern students of medieval England. But the history of that pregnant movement of research has still to be written and few of us would claim that we had made full use of the work of our predecessors. Consequently, since the distant converse of dwarfs with giants conduces to humility, it may be salutary to recall once more this great adventure of English erudition, and profitable, also, with an eye to the present, to speculate upon the cause and character of its astonishing success. The praise of famous men has earned an ancient commendation and even a cork may sustain a draught of fishes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 21 , December 1939 , pp. 21 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1939

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References

1 I propose in a forthcoming publication to consider some of the questions which are raised in this paper.

page 22 note 1 “ ‘Tis time to observe Occurences, and let nothing remarkable escape us. The Supinity of elder days hath left so much in silence, or time hath so matyred the Records, that the most industrious Heads do finde no easie work to erect a new Britannia“ (Hydriotaphia: Preface.)

page 23 note 1 Cf. Firth, The School of English Language and Literature (1909).

page 23 note 2 For malicious descriptions of the last months of Wanley's life and of the unfortunate marriage he then contracted, see Hearne, Coll., x, p. 377, and Portland MSS. Rep. v, p. 638; vii, pp. 439, 442.

page 24 note 1 Cf. Plummer's remarks in his edition of the Ecclesiastical History (i, Preface, esp. p. lxxx). Smith apparently used for his Latin text three out of the four best manuscripts known to Plummer. Both he and Plummer were unacquainted with a fifth important manuscript discussed by Dr. Lowe in Eng. Hist. Rev., xli, p. 245.

page 24 note 2 Sisam in Rev. Eng. Studies, vii, pp. 7–9.

page 24 note 3 In 1613 John Hayward, in the preface to his remarkable Lives of the Three Norman Kings of England, had shown himself well aware that a study of the Norman Conquest might readily be made to serve the needs of propaganda. Some more modern scholars have derived yet deeper satisfaction from a conviction that a solution to the problems of eleventh- century history should be sought in the political sentiments of their own time. They have possessed their reward, even as did Sir William Temple when in 1695 he devoted so many pages of his Introduction to the History of England to a discussion of the substitution of William for Edgar the Atheling. William Nicolson, who was himself committed to the Revolution settlement, found in this book “such Reflections as become a States man” (English Historical Library, ed. 1736, p. 76).

page 24 note 4 Sometimes attributed to William Atwood but more probably the work of Edward Cooke.

page 25 note 1 See the extracts from his Latin autobiography printed by D'Oyly, , Life of Sancroft (1821), ii, pp. 105–54.Google Scholar

page 25 note 2 Despite his reputed eccentricity of being “mad a quarter of a year together in every year” (Hearne, Coll., viii, p. 382), Sparke's Histories Ccenobii Burgensis Scriptores Varii was a notable production. It contains material which is still not to be found elsewhere.

page 25 note 3 Thomas Rud in collaboration with Thomas Bedford produced in 1732 an edition of Simeon of Durham's Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesia, which superseded the version which had appeared in Twysden's Scriptores. Rud in opposition to opinions previously expressed by Bale and Selden argued in his fine preface for the true attribution of the authorship of the History.

page 26 note 1 Impartial Memorials of Thomas Hearne (1736), pp. 25, 26; cf. Times Literary Supplement, 6 June, 1935.

page 28 note 1 D. N. Smith, Warton's History of English Poetry, p. 9.

page 28 note 2 Brady, Introduction to the Old English History, “Advertisement”

page 28 note 3 Madox, Exchequer (1711), p. iv.

page 29 note 1 Stubbs, Benedict of Peterborough (Rolls Series), i, pp. xxi–xl. He adds the tribute: “It seldom falls to an editor to be able to bestow on the labours of his predecessors in the same task the unqualified praise that I can give to this edition.”

page 29 note 2 Joannis Glastoniensis Chronica, ed. Hearne, (1726), ii, pp. 570–7;Google ScholarWülker, , Grundgriss zur Geschichte der Angelsächsischen Litteratur, pp. 334–8;Google ScholarLaborde, E. D., Byrhtnoth and Maldon (1936);Google ScholarGordon, E. V., The Battle of Maldon (1937).Google Scholar

page 29 note 3 Cf. Stevenson, Asser's Life of King Alfred, p. xliii.

page 29 note 4 Smith, Historiœs Ecclesiasticœ…Libri Quinque auctore…Bœda (1722), pp. 764 sqq.

page 30 note 1 Thesaurus: Diss. Ep., pp. 33–44.

page 30 note 2 Cf. Stenton, , English Feudalism (1932), p. 86;Google ScholarHody, , History of English Councils and Convocations (1701), pp. 287, 288.Google Scholar

page 30 note 3 “His parts,” observed Anthony Wood (Fasti, ed. Bliss, ii, col. 5), “were never advanced when young by academical education.”

page 31 note 1 Hickes to Bp. of Bristol 22 May, 1714 (Portland MSS., Rep. v, P. 445)

page 32 note 1 Difference between an Absolute and Limited Monarchy (1714), pp. xiv, xv, Ixix.

page 32 note 2 E. F. Jacob, R. Hist. Soc. Trans., 4th Series, vol. xv, pp. 91–131.

page 32 note 3 “The instinct of every Englishman,” remarked Emerson in 1856, “is to search for a precedent“; “the taste of this people is conservative”; “the stability of England is the security of the modern world” (English Traits, ed. 1883, pp. 109, 137, 167). Price Collier, another foreign observer, arrived at the same conclusions in 1902 (England and the English, pp. 253, 363): “The Englishman,” he remarks, “looks back for his standard and makes precedent serve as his guide.” “They are the last race of all to be fuddled and disturbed by new religions, new theories of government, new solutions of the problem of existence.”

page 33 note 1 Halifax, Works, ed. Raleigh, p. 249.

page 33 note 2 Quoted by Firth in Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World. See his Essays, ed. Davies (1938), p. 36.

page 33 note 3 Cf. Aubrey's Life of Prynne.

page 33 note 4 E. C. to Robert Harley, 29 Jan., 1691: “Mr. Ashton was executed at Tyburn.—He would not permit the Ordinary to pray with him but desired Sir Francis Child to let him have the divine that went along with him to perform the last ghostly offices, which was permitted. They say it was Divine Hicks and after him came little Cook of Islington, both non-jurats, and so he went into the other world.” (Portland MSS., Rep. iii, p. 458.)

page 33 note 5 Brome to Charlett, quoted in Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, iv, pp. 148, 149.

page 33 note 6 Brunetière, for example, specifically contrasts the highly individual character of English literary expression with the “social” tendency of the French. (Essays, trans. D. N. Smith, esp. p. 52.)

page 34 note 1 Wheare, Method of Reading Histories, ed. 1698.

page 34 note 2 Cf. N. Sykes, Edmund Gibson, pp. 95–105.

page 34 note 3 Cf. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, vi, pp. 1 sqq.

page 35 note 1 Cf. Powicke, Sir Henry Spelman and the Concilia, esp. pp. 7, 8; Douglas, , “William Dugdale the Grand Plagiary” in History, vol. XX, pp. 194, 195.Google Scholar

page 35 note 2 Madox, Exchequer (1711), Preface and esp. pp. iii, iv.

page 36 note 1 Cf. Richardson, M. A., Reprints of Rare Tracts (1843–1848), vol. ii.Google Scholar

page 36 note 2 For a graphic description see Caulfield, J., Portraits, Memoirs and Characters of Remarkable Persons from the Revolution to the Death of George II, i, pp. 51, 52;Google ScholarHardy, , Syllabus of Documents in Rymer's Fœdera, i, pp. xxiv, xxv.Google Scholar

page 36 note 3 Madox, Exchequer (1711, p. i).

page 36 note 4 “Life of Hearne,” p. 33, in Lives of Leland Hearne and Wood (1772).

page 37 note 1 Figgis, “William Warburton “in Typical English Churchmen from Parker to Maurice.

page 37 note 2 Prefaces to Rudiments of Grammar (1715) and English Saxon Homily (1709). Cf. Times Literary Supplement, 28 Sept., 1933.

page 38 note 1 Bolingbroke, Study of History (Sixth Letter) in Works (1754), ii, P 360.

page 38 note 2 D. N. Smith, Warton's History of English Poetry, p. 8.

page 38 note 3 Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures (1900), p. 281.

page 38 note 4 Specifically noted by Pinkerton in Gentleman's Magazine (1788) in connexion with the project sponsored by Gibbon for new editions of the chronicles of England. Cf. Gibbon, Address Recommending Mr. Pinkerton (Misc. Works, iii, p. 571).