Anglo-Saxon Poetics in the Linguarum Veterum
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository English Language and Literature ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2-9-2011 Anglo-Saxon Poetics in the Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archaelogicus of George Hickes: A Translation, Analysis, and Contextualization Shannon McCabe Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds Recommended Citation McCabe, Shannon. "Anglo-Saxon Poetics in the Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archaelogicus of George Hickes: A Translation, Analysis, and Contextualization." (2011). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ engl_etds/8 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Language and Literature ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I want to thank Dr. Timothy Graham for his unending support and infinite patience over the years. Without you, this would never have come to fruition; you are truly worthy of the title vir doctissimus. If I am anything as a scholar, it is all because of you. To my committee members Dr. Helen Damico, Dr. Anita Obermeier, and Dr. Carl Berkhout. Thanks for allowing me the time to work on this and for being patient with changing circumstances as they arose. I would also like to thank Dr. Leslie Donovan for providing me with the ―gateway drug,‖ namely her ―Legends of Arthur‖ class. It‘s not often we can say that we changed the course of a life for the better, and you definitely have changed mine! To my mother for her support over the years. Even though you really have no idea what I do, you‘ve loyally supported it anyway. To my friends, Anne Van Arsdall, Kim Klimek, Sarah Baechle, Megan Worth, and Karmen Lenz, and the rest of the IMS ―coven.‖ I wish you were all here for this, but a virtual toast to all of you will have to suffice. I also thank Benjamin McCabe whole-heartedly. Thank you for letting Mummy write, and not turning into a raging juvenile delinquent while I did it. I owe you a long trip to the park and a new set of Legos for your patience. And most of all to Todd McCabe for your patience, editing skills, and love. This absolutely would not have gotten done without you. And remember: nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition… iii iv Anglo-Saxon Poetics in the Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archæologicus of George Hickes: A Translation, Contextualization and Analysis by Shannon Morgan McCabe B.A., Anthropology, Colorado State University, 1993 M.A., English, University of New Mexico, 2000 Ph.D., English, University of New Mexico ABSTRACT In 1705, the last fascicle of the Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archaeologicus of George Hickes was published in Oxford. This monumental volume represented a major step forward in Anglo- Saxon studies. This study translates the most monumental chapter of the Thesaurus, Chapter 23. Although this chapter ―On the Poetic Art of the Anglo- Saxons,‖ represents the first sustained attempt to apply a critical and theoretical apparatus to Anglo-Saxon poetry, it is also concerned with attempts to sort out a ―purer‖ language from the various dialects represented in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. Hickes directly addresses two major Anglo-Saxon forms in Chapter 23, ―pure Saxon,‖ and ―Dano-Saxonic,‖ the lesser of the two languages, because of its ―foreignness,‖ a key term for Hickes, who sought to separate out what he believed to be the true Anglo-Saxon from dialectal languages which he believed to have introduced ―abhorrent‖ elements into Anglo-Saxon poetry. Ultimately, this desire of Hickes to divine the ―purer‖ language with respect to the Anglo-Saxon reflects a more general eighteenth century anxiety v about the nationalistic uses of language and the attempt to control and modify the language, beginning with Sir William Temple‘s essay On Ancient and Modern Learning, as well as the response to it by William Wotton in his Reflections Upon Ancient and Modern Learning, culminating in Jonathan Swift‘s ―A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue,‖ and Elizabeth Elstob‘s An Apology for the Study of Northern Antiquities. Especially important was the linking of language to national identity and issues of nation building, as with the establishment of the Académie Française in 1635. This anxiety manifests itself in Swift as an attempt to purge the English language of ―barbaric‖ elements, namely Germanic words and grammatical forms, placing him and his supporters in direct opposition to the antiquarian movement headed by George Hickes and the Oxford Saxonists. vi Table of Contents Chapter One: George Hickes and His Thesaurus ................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 George Hickes and His Thesaurus............................................................................ 4 Hickes‘s Childhood and John Hickes .............................................................. 4 Oxford, Thomas Marshall, and John Fell ........................................................ 7 Scotland and D.D. ............................................................................................ 9 All-Hallows and James II................................................................................ 12 The Dean of Worcester and the Institutiones ................................................. 16 The Revolution and the Non-Jurors .............................................................. 19 The Fugitive Years and the Oxford Saxonists ............................................... 23 The Printing and the Reception of the Thesaurus.......................................... 31 Chapter Two: Literature Review.............................................................................. 37 Chapter Three: The Great Language Debates and the Antiquarian Enterprise ...................................................................................................................................... 61 Chapter Four: “On the Poetic Art of the Anglo Saxons” ...................................... 92 Chapter Five: Analysis ............................................................................................ 197 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 224 vii Chapter One Introduction The goal of this dissertation is to provide a translation of a key chapter in the Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archæologicus of George Hickes, a work that was published in fascicles between 1703 and 1705, and to place the text into its eighteenth-century context by examining the reception of the Thesaurus along with the scholarly movements and the debates in which it became important. The Thesaurus has been analyzed by students of Anglo-Saxon studies and eighteenth-century studies, but it is difficult to find one study that thoroughly contextualizes the Thesaurus within its place in the Long Eighteenth Century, and looks at its impact and the response to it during that time period. This translation and analysis will provide valuable information to scholars and remove some of the barriers to understanding and working with key portions of the monumental Thesaurus. The Thesaurus is divided into three major parts: the Dissertatio epistolaris, a lengthy study of the foundations of Anglo-Saxon and Germanic languages; the Numismata Anglo-Saxonica et Anglo-Danica, a treatise by Sir Andrew Fountaine on numismatics appended to the Dissertatio epistolaris; and the grammars of Anglo- Saxon, Anglo-Norman, Frankish, Icelandic, and Middle English.1 The 1 The Icelandic grammar was not written by Hickes but is a reprint of Runólfur Jónsson‘s Icelandic grammar of 1650. This is the same grammar that Hickes used in his earlier Institutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae et Moeso-Gothicae (1689). 1 monumental Librorum veterum septentrionalium … catalogus historico-criticus of Humfrey Wanley appeared as a separate, second volume. In this dissertation I will translate and analyze a chapter in the grammar portion of the Thesaurus, Chapter 23, and analyze and contextualize its reception and its impact on the Long Eighteenth Century. The translation focuses on poetic composition in Chapter 23. This chapter is crucial for understanding the history of the English language and the perception of this history by eighteenth-century philologists. Chapter One of this dissertation will cover important background material on George Hickes and his collaborators on the Thesaurus. It will also provide a general historical context, including the political and intellectual milieu of the Long Eighteenth Century, which is vitally important to understanding the Thesaurus and its reception. Chapter Two will provide an overview of the most important sources for both the Long Eighteenth Century and the roles of Swift and the Oxford Saxonists in this dissertation. Chapter Three will analyze the role Hickes played in an important seventeenth- and eighteenth-century debate, the ―Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns,‖ and contributions to the debate by the Oxford Saxonists and especially Elizabeth Elstob. It will also discuss the role of