position, which would answer the conditions in the Prometheus, that the Coryphæus acted any other part before the chorus came on. In the ÈTMτà èπì ¤ýẞas, Ismene and the Herald are one person, whence the line ιώ, ιώ, πῆμα πατρὶ πάρευνον, given to Antigone after the last response of Ismene, to give time for the change. In the ikerides, the inferiority in quality of the Deuteragonist causes an effect which is rather absurd, though more pleasing, by the women speaking to the king almost throughout, instead of their father being spokesman, like Iolaus in the Heraclidæ, as might have been expected from his directing them in every thing, and being called their Bovapxos, &c. But this is interesting in another way, as shewing the greater importance of the Coryphæus as a mere actor in these early times, when the dialogue had not so much encroached upon the chorus. In the dipus at Colonus, (See Müller, as above,) the most probable, though unpleasing supposition, is, that Theseus was represented in one scene by the Deuteragonist, who elsewhere acts Antigone. But it is also necessary to suppose, in some places, that a mere dressed Ismene appeared on the stage, since her presence is implied where three other actors are speaking.

Αἴδ ̓ ὁμοῦ πελάζομεν (1108. Brunck.) ἐμφύτε τῷ φύσαντι, 1103, &c. then Antigone, ὅτ' ἔσθ' ὁ σώσας, 1118. Ed. ὦ ξεῖνε, &c. 1119. τήνδε σὴν ἐς τάσδ' ἐμοὶ τέρψιν, 1121, and Theseus, τέκνοισι τερφθεὶς τοῖσδε, 1140. An apparent Ismene is evidently present.

In the next scene, Antigone says, πάρεστι δεῦρο Πολυνείκης όδε, 1253, and he begins addressing both; waîces, 1253.

(Ismene never speaks, from her return when rescued, to the time of her departure to the place of Edipus's expected death.)

In the next short scene of the thunder, Edipus says, ŵ Tékvα, Tékva, 1457, and then in the following with Theseus, he addresses him, τέκνον Αἰγέων, 1538, φίλτατε ξένων, 1552, &c., and his two daughters, ὦ παῖδες, 1542, &c.

Or where but two, in the last scene of the play; for we cannot suppose the actor of Edipus appeared again after the death of Edipus. Ismene ceases to speak at 1736. Theseus apparently enters at 1751, and says пaveτe Oрývwv, waîdes, and so afterwards.

Antigone is certainly carried off by Creon's people before Theseus enters, 894, and he is about to seize Edipus. The expression oixetai τέκνων ̓Αποσπάσας μου τὴν μόνην ξυνωρίδα is curious ; but means, "he has sent away, at two different times, my two daughters, and is going himself: So 866. ψιλὸν ὄμμ' ἀποσπάσας Πρὸς ὄμμασιν τοῖς πρόσθεν ἐξοίχῃ.

The expressions, τούτοιν σκήπτροιν (848.) ταϊνδέ γ' ἐστερημένος (857) TaÚτai póvai (859) are more so; but it is quite clear from 2 I

VI.

818, that Ismene was already carried off while sacrificing at the other side of the grove. Τὴν μὲν ἀρτίως ἐγὼ Ξυναρπάσας ἔπεμψα, τὴν δ' ἄξω τάχα.

The succession of actors in the scenes is as follows, as I conceive:— Edipus,

Antigone.

2. CHAUNSUN DEL SECLE.-(A Song of the World.)

THE beautiful little poem, which bears this title, and which is found in a volume written during the reign of Edward I., apparently in one of the eastern counties of England, is not printed among the various extracts from the same MS., which Messrs. Wright and Halliwell have published in their Reliquiæ Antiquæ. This MS. (Digby, 86, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford,) is undoubtedly written by a Norman clerk, who, young, rude, and silly as he seems to have been, has mixed up in it every thing, good and bad, sacred and profane, Latin, Norman-French, and English materials. The poem strikes the reader, when he discovers it surrounded by other poetry of a different and even low description, because it is the production of a stage of the English language, of which the history is not yet known sufficiently at the present day. We can therefore not understand the reason why these few verses did not find a place among the Reliquiæ Antique, and we give them here for the first time, with a few remarks and grammatical explanations showing their real value.

The language is still semi-Saxon as it was spoken in the beginning and in the middle of the 13th century, a hundred years before Chaucer ; only five words have crept in from the Norman-French: prowe, pris, mirour, poure, to fail; besides, the spelling of ounstudefast and oup is

a proof that a Frenchman has committed these verses to the vellum. All other words are pure Germanic, and although the construction of the sentences is already very different from the Anglo-Saxon, the flexion of the nouns, as in thene, eien, halien, the infinitive of the verbs terminating in -en, bileven, bugen, done, gon, and the double negation like ne-non, nout-ne, nis-non, show sufficiently how little the language of the conquering people had been able to supplant that of the subdued nation, in the course of two centuries.' It is true, the verse has lost everything that was peculiar to the old Saxon poetry; no traces of the double arsis in every verse are left, and if we except coincidences like wint and went, hous and hom, the old alliteration is entirely given up, and its place is filled by the romantic rhyme. But the structure of the strophes is exceedingly tasteful; all of them are alike, consisting of ten verses, each of them having four (iambic) feet with three different rhyming syllables, which follow each other alternately like 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 3, 2.

The subject seems to have been a very favourite one among the Saxons, as the very similar but still alliterative fragment called the Grave, (in Thorpe's Anal. p. 153, ed. I.) shows, it marks for a considerable time the contrast against the gay and licentious ballads of the Norman conquerors. A depth of feeling and thoughtful contemplation is displayed, such as we find only in the poetic relics of those Teutonic nations, whose pure blood and manner of thinking was not yet altered by the intrusion of foreign elements. The Chaunsun del Secle, whose Norman title must be kept, as no other is given, reminds one immediately of certain beautiful songs of the German Minnesaenger, in which all happiness of this world, whose outward appearance is all green and red, is described as nothing, when the inside of it is seen, dark like death, and the only consolation is found in true religious longing. This little English specimen of the same century conveys the same idea, expressed in a not less beautiful form.

Uuorldes blisse ne last non prowe,'

hit3 wint and went awei anon;

the lengore that hic hit icnowe,s
the lasse ich finde pris ther on.
for al hit is imeindR with kare,

1 The dialect is the East-Anglian and of exactly the same period, in which the second MS. of Layamon's Brut is written (MS. Otho. c. x111.) cf. Sir F. Madden's Edition, and the Extracts in B. Thorpe's Analecta Anglo-Saxonica. " Profit, old Engl. introduced by the Normans. The aspirate is very com

mon at that time. 4 The A.S. is windan and wendan, the Germ. winden und wenden. 5 A.S. gecnawan, cognoscere; the prefix i- appears very early in the East-Anglian dialect in the place of the Saxon and German ge-. 6 Mingled from the A.S. mengan.

11

7 There is still some mark of the case; A.S. seorh, semis. seorwe, sorrow. 8 Man, like the French on, the German man. 9 When; the next words are not quite clear; is ginneth = beginneth, and is agon the infinitive to go, or the A.S. agan, to have? 10 A.S. belucan, to lock, to inclose. Whoop and moan. 12 Owns, possesses. 13 A.S. nowiht like Germ. niwiht, nicht. 14 A.S. gód, good. 15 A.S. sawan, to sow. 16 Old Engl. bi: cache, to deceive; the A.S. weorthan, to become, forms still the passive, like in Germ. 17 A.S. gylt, guilt. 18 A.S. aer old Engl. ere, before. 19 The Semisaxon partic. instead of the A.S. gelaehte, from gelaeccan, to take, to seize. 30 Nustan, to know not. 21 A.S. drihten, the Lord, a word of old origin,

which is found also in the poetry of the old Saxons on the Continent, and which is lost very soon after the time of our poem. 23 A.S. betaecan, particip. betaehte, to intrust.

23

24

End, with the aspirate. A.S. sel, Germ. selig? 25 To be derived from the A.S. cypan, to sell; but the sense of this line is not quite clear. 26 A.S. belaefan, to leave behind. 27 Every-where -of, from the A.S. aeghwaer. 35 The Semis. form for the A.S. hlaford, lord. 29 A.S. baér, Engl. bier, Norman fr. bière. 30 A.S. thone, acc. masc. sing. of the article, slaep being a masc. 31 A.S. dreorig, dreary. 32 A.S. gefer, company, cf. Germ. gefaehrte. 33 A.S. buton, but.