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The Latin Epigram of the Middle English Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

L. B. Hessler
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Extract

Although much has been written of the relation of the Latin classics to English literature, comparatively little interest has been taken by scholars in the actual use of Latin as a practical instrument by English writers. During the Middle Ages it was the universal language for religious and learned works; even at a later date Bacon found it difficult to discard Latin for English, having the Essays translated into Latin on the ground that it was the more durable medium for the transmission of his thoughts to posterity.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , December 1923 , pp. 712 - 728
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1923

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References

1 I have not had access to the collections of epitaphs by T. J. Pettigrew, 1857, or E. R. Suffling, 1909. Probably many will be found in those books.

2 Stubbs, W., Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History, p. 153.

3 Gesta Pontif. Angl., p. 433.

4 Gesta Regum Angl., II, p. 322.

5 Robert Guiscard, or Wiscard, a Norman conqueror 1015-85.

6 These two poems, separated by William of Malmesbury, are given as a continuous composition in Eulogium Historiarum, III, 55, and in Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarum, II, 27.

7 Hist. Angl., p. 158.

8 The second book of epigrams, or the twelfth of the history, has never been printed. The writer has a rotograph copy of the manuscript (Lambeth 118), which he intends to publish.

9 Widow (ob. 918) of Ethered, a lord of Mercia.

10 Op. cit. p. 244.

11 Op. cit. p. 254.

12 Op. cit. p. 237.

13 Found also in Annales de Waverleia, p. 224. As the mediaeval historian did not scruple to life the work of other writers for historical purposes, so he quoted quotations also when it suited him. Many of such duplications appear throughout the Rolls Series.

14 Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houedene, IV, 84.

15 Hist. Angl., I, 275.

16 Chronica Majora, III, 169; for the epigrams which follow cf. III. 551.

17 Chronica Johannis de Oxenedes, p. 13.

18 Op. cit., p. 46.

19 Church History, II, p. 120.

20 Polychronicon, III, p. 174.

21 Op. cit. VIII, 54.

22 Op. cit. VIII, 168.

23 Op. cit. XVIII, 238, 292.

24 Vol. II, p. 127.