Page:Alexander and Dindimus (Skeat 1878).djvu/23

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SPECIMENS OF OTHER VERSIONS.
xv

humani generis structura conditur," &c.[1] By the help of these tracts, I have been able to find, as far as can be found, the original of almost every sentence in our poem, nad I have pointed out the principal results of this research in the Notes.

§ 13. For further information, see Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes, Halle, 1867, the editions of Julius Valerius by Angelo Mai (Milan, 1817) and Karl Müller (Paris, 1846); the Old High-German version edited by H. Weismann (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1850), the second volume of which, in particular, contains much information; the introduction to Kyng Alisander in Weber's Metrical Romances; the remarks on the Alexander Romances in Col. Yule's edition of Marco Polo, p. cxxxvii; Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Hist. iv. 66–71, &c. I give two passages, by way of example, for comparison with the English poem. The former, from Julius Valerius, answers to ll. 1–22. The latter, from the Old High-German Romance, written by Lamprecht in the twelfth century, and edited by Weismann, corresponds to ll. 111–136. From Julius Valerius, De Rebus Gestis Alexandri, ed. Mai; Milan, 1817, lib. iii. cc. xvi–xxii.

"xvi. Quare domitis hostibus avectaque praeda, ad Oxydracontas, quae gens exim colit, iter suum dirigit. Non illam quidem gentem hosticam intercursatur (neque enim illis studia sunt armorum) sed quod celebre esset, Indos, quos gymnosophistas appellant, hisce in partibus versari, opum quidem omnium et cuiusque pretii negelegentes, solis vero diversoriis sapientissimi, quae humi manu exhauriunt aditibus perangusta, enimvero subter capacibus spaciata, quod id genus aedium neque pretii scilicet indigens, ed ad flagrantiam solis aestivam aptius habeatur. Ii igitur cum conperissent Alexandrum ad sese contendere, primates suos, quos scilicet a sapientae modo censent obviare adventati iubent cum litteris huiuscemodi."

From the Old High-German Romance, beginning at l. 4946

"Do sluge wir unze gezelt
uf an ein breit felt.
groz wunder ih da sah;
des morgenes do uns quam der tach
do sah ih wassen boume--
des nam ih rehte goume--
di wohssen harte scone
uzer erde unz an di none;

  1. MS. C.C.C. 370 fol. 47 back; cf. MS. C.C.C. 219, fol. 70.