of Easter Eve, with this stanza from Giles Fletcher, "Christ's Victory and Triumph ":

"Toss up your heads, ye everlasting gates,

And let the Prince of Glory enter in !

At whose brave volley of sidereal states

The sun to blush, and stars grow pale, were seen,

When leaping first from earth He did begin

To climb His angels' wings; then open hang

Your crystal doors,' so all the chorus sang

Of heavenly birds, as to the stars they nimbly sprang."

NOTE 15, p. 23.

Following upon these lines, there intervenes a passage, 658-684, upon "The Gifts of Men," a theme which is a common motive of early poetry-we shall see it repeated in Langlands' "Piers Plowman"-but, as interpreted by Cynewulf, of finer poetic quality than is shown elsewhere. It may have come to him from the similar thought in the Thirteenth Book of Homer's "Iliad," 726-734, or more likely from Pope Gregory's Homily on the "Gifts of the Spirit," in 1 Corinthians xii. 8. The passage I may render as follows:

"Lo! the world shaper,

God's spirit-son,

There to ennoble us,

Gave to us grace,
Home-seats eternal
Far above angels:
And also manifold
Wisdom of soul.

Sowed there and set there

Lore for men's minds:

One He gave eloquence,
Wisely he sendeth it

Through the mind's memory
As a sweet mouth-guest,

Wisdom right noble ;
Yea, he can say and sing
Full many hidden things,
Who in his heart holds
Masterful wisdom :

One can with fingers deft
Loud before heroes

Wake the shrill harp-strings,
Greeting the glee-beam':
One can interpret well
God given Law :

One can the star's wide course
Trace through the heavens:
One can the spoken-word
Write with a cunning pen :
To one in stress of fight
War-luck he giveth,

When the sharp spear shower,
Wing'd work of arrows,
O'er leaps the shield-fence:
One can right boldly
O'er the salt sea streams

Drive the black war ships

Swift through the surges :

One can the lofty trees

Climb to their topmost steep:

One can with smith-craft

Fashion war-weapons:

One can the spacious ways
Of the wide field-plain

Mete the out-going :

Thus doth the mighty One,
He the true Bairn of God,
Grant men His gifts on earth,
Grant to them equally;
Not to one man of all

Granteth all wisdom,

Lest pride should injure him;

By his own skill-craft

Raised beyond others."

NOTE 16, p. 24.

In "Modern Language Notes" for June 1889, Professor Cook of Yale proved that one important source of Cynewulf's Part III. is the following alphabetic Hymn, quoted by Bede in his De Arte Metrica :

Hymnus de Die Judicii.

Apparebit repentina dies magna Domini,
fur obscura velut nocte improvisos occupans.

Brevis totus tum parebit prisci luxus sæculi,
totum simul cum clarebit præterisse sæculum.
Clangor tubæ per quaternas terræ plagas concinens,
vivos una mortuosque Christo ciet obviam.
De cælesti Judex arce, majestate fulgidus,
Claris angelorum choris comitatus aderit.
Erubescet orbis lunæ, sol et obscurabitur,

Stellæ cadent pallescentes, mundi tremit ambitus.

Flamma ignis anteibit justi vultum Judicis,
cælos, terras, et profundi fluctus ponti devorans.

Gloriosus in sublimi Rex sedebit solio;

angelorum tremebunda circumstabunt agmina.

Hujus omnes ad electi colligentur dexteram ;
pravi pavent a sinistris, hædi velut fætidi.

"Ite," dixit Rex ad dextros, "regnum cæli sumite
Pater vobis quod paravit ante omne sæculum.

Karitate qui fraterna me juvistis pauperem,

Karitatis nunc mercedem repostate divites."

Læti dicent: "Quando, Christe, pauperem te vidimus,
te, Rex magne, vel egentem miserati juvimus."
Magnus illus dicet Judex: "Cum juvistis pauperes,
panem, domum, vestem dantes, me juvistis humiles."
Nec tardabit et sinistris loqui justus Arbiter :
in gehennæ maledicti flammas hinc discedite;
Obsecrantem me audire despexistis mendicum,
nudo vestem non dedistis, neglexistis languidum.
Peccatores dicent: "Christe, quando te vel pauperem
te, Rex magne, vel infirmum contemnentes sprevimus.
Quibus contra Judex altus: "Mendicanti quamdiu
opem ferre despexistis, me sprevistis improbi."
Retro ruent tum injusti ignes in perpetuos,

Vermis quorum non morietur, flamma nec restringuitur

Satan atro cum ministris quo tenetur carcere,
fletus ubi mugitusque, strident omnes dentibus.

Tunc fideles ad cælestem sustollentur patriam
choros inter angelorum, regni petent gaudia.
Urbis summæ Hierusalem introibunt gloriam
Vera lucis atque pacis in qua fulget visio.
X PM. Regem jam paterna claritate splendidum
ubi celsa beatorum contemplantur agmina-

Ydri fraudes ergo cave, infirmentes subleva
aurum temne, fuge luxus si vis astra petere

Zona clara castitatis lumbos nunc præcingere

In occursum magni regis fer ardentes lampades.

NOTE 17, p. 24.

Cynewulf was the first old English writer of whom we have any knowledge to lay emphasis upon the story of the Invention of the Cross and Constantine's premonitory dream, related in

Eusebius, "Life of Constantine," Bk. I., chap. xxviii.-xxxi. He seems to have treated of the subject three times, in this passage of "The Christ," lines 1084 and onwards, in the "Elene," lines 69-104, and in the separate poem "The Dream of the Rood," if, as seems most likely, he was the author of it. Professor Sweet in "Old English Texts," p. 125, commenting on the Runic inscriptions of the celebrated Ruthwell Cross in Dumfries, which are apparently quotations from this Latin poem, says: "As regards the authorship of the poem, I hold fast to the opinion that it is a portion of the epilogue to the 'Elene,' preserved entire in the Vercelli MS., and consequently is the work of Cynewulf. Also that the complete original text of the Cross poem is that from which the Vercelli recension was copied. The sculptor or designer (Caedmon' or 'Cadmon Made Me') of the Ruthwell Stone, having only a limited space at his command, selected from the poem such verses as he thought most appropriate, and engraved them wherever he had room for them." The following verse translation of the Poem is by Mr. Moorsom (1901):

"Ho, Brethren, list the dream I tell,

The best that e'er to man befell,

How, when the world was hushed to rest,
And men lay still by sleep oppressed,

Amid the visions of the night

Before me rose a wondrous sight;

I dreamt a tree of golden light

With radiant splendour glistening bright
Was borne upon the air;

Methought the four arms glimmered bare,
Save that on each a jewel rare

Flamed on the night a ruddy glare;

And five gems clustered, whence they sprung,
All ruby-red