found in all the three manuscripts, and the absence of are (sunt), point to the Southern border of the Danelagh; at the same time, the Northern wiþ (cum) has driven out the Southern mid. Thei (illi) sometimes replaces hi; both Ich and I are found. The Midland form þrist (sitis) has been altered by all the three transcribers; the two Southern ones use þurst, something like our sound of the word: Dr. Mall, by the help of the rime, has here restored the true reading. Ch had replaced c, for michel, not mikel, is found in the Northern manuscript. The dialogue is most curious; Satan swears, par ma fei, like the soundest of Christians; and our Lord uses a metaphor taken from a game of hazard. The comic business, as in the Antigone of Sophocles, falls to a warder. The oath God wot comes once more; and also the Danish word gate (via), which never made its way into the South.[1]
A sad corruption, which first appeared in the Bestiary, is now once more seen: it is one of the few things that has escaped Dr. Mall's eye. The second person of
- ↑ I give a specimen from page 33 of Dr. Mall's work. Abraham
speaks: —
Louerd, Crist, ich it am,
Þat þou calledest Abraham;
Þou me seidest, þat of me
Shulde a god child boren be,
Þat ous shulde bringe of pine,
Me and wiþ me alle mine,
Þou art þe child, þou art þe man,
Þat wes boren of Abraham;
Do nou þat þou bihete me,
Bring me to hevene up wiþ þe.The New English, as we see, is all but formed.
