I avoid mention of such as are out of print or not yet completed. Bishop Percy's Folio MS.; ed. Hales and Furnivall. Pricke of Conscience, ed. Morris (Philological Society). Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben. (Only a small part of the Glossary has yet appeared.) Chaucer, ed. Tyrwhitt; I vol. (A reprint of the Canterbury Tales has been published by Routledge.) Chaucer, Aldine edition, ed. Morris; 6 vols. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, ed. Wright. (A handy and cheap reprint of the Harleian MS.) Thorpe, Analecta Anglo-Saxonica. Klipstein, Analecta Anglo-Saxonica; 2 vols. (Published by Putnam, of New York.) Bosworth, The Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels, in parallel columns, with the versions of Wycliff and Tyndale. Thorpe, Anglo-Saxon Gospels. The list may easily be extended; although at the same time it will be understood that, whilst the study of Shakespeare and Chaucer should receive early attention, the study of other texts may very well be deferred, perhaps even for some years. An acquaintance with such books as the Specimens of English may for a time be substituted for an acquaintance with the texts from which the selections are made; and an acquaintance with Thorpe's Analecta Anglo-Saxonica may likewise serve for some time in place of further research. The following books will be found useful as helps :— Warton, History of English Poetry. (The best edition is Hazlitt's, in 4 vols. 1871; the next best is that of 1840, in 3 vols.) Craik's History of English Literature. Morley, English Writers. Taine, History of English Literature; 2 vols. Smith, Students' Manual of English Literature. Angus, Handbook of the English Tongue'. 1 Let it be understood, once for all, that by no means endorse all the statements in the books I mention. In this book, for instance, are some really bad mistakes; thus, at p. 143 (ed. 1867), the author actually ventures upon the assertion that s in Wednesday is "perhaps," not a genitive form; because "Sunday and Monday are against this explanation." This is an instance of the danger of dogmatic assertion, such as sometimes substitutes guess-work Abbott, Shakesperian Grammar. Morris, Historical English Accidence. (By far the best book, in English at least, upon the subject.) Earle, Philology of the English Tongue. There are other helps innumerable, such as a good History of England; Freeman's Old English History for Children; Haydn's Dictionary of Dates; Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction; Chambers's Book of Days; Our English Home, &c. Much help can be had of course from such a great work as the English Cyclopædia, or the Encyclopædia Metropolitana (which contains the whole of Richardson's Dictionary, with its rich store of quotations). I subjoin a list of some Glossaries and Dictionaries for consultation. Nares, Glossary to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, ed. Halliwell and Wright; 2 vols. (The best.) Halliwell, Archaic and Provincial Glossary. Stratmann, Old English Glossary. (A new and greatly improved edition is just completed.) Coleridge, Glossarial Index. (Nearly superseded by Stratmann's.) Wycliffite Glossary. (This glossary to the magnificent edition of Wycliffe's Bible by Forshall and Madden can be had separately, and is valuable in itself.) Promptorium Parvulorum, ed. Way; Camden Society. (An English-Latin Dictionary, A.D. 1440. The editor's notes are most valuable.) Wedgwood, English Etymological Dictionary; 2nd ed. Webster, English Dictionary, revised by Porter, Goodrich, and Mahn; published by Bell and Daldy. (There are other editions, but this is, perhaps, on the whole the best; the etymologies are mostly to be trusted, and the book, as a whole, is highly satisfactory.) Much help as to the use of particular words can often be derived from concordances; besides Cruden's Concordance to the Bible, already mentioned, there are the excellent ones by Mrs Cowden Clarke (to Shakespeare), and Mr Dexter Cleveland for investigation. A glance at Thorpe's A. S. Gospels will shew that Wednesday was once Wodnes dag, or Woden's day; whilst Sunday and Monday were Sunnan dag and Mónan dag. Turn to Vernon's A. S. Guide (that indispensable book), and you will see that the genitive case by no means always ended in -es. (to Milton). There are also concordances to Tennyson, and to Keble's Christian Year. Mrs Furness is preparing a concordance to Shakespeare's minor poems and sonnets, and the Chaucer Society has undertaken one to Chaucer. I have never heard of any others. III. Books for those qualified to teach. The most important thing for teachers to bear in mind is the absolute necessity of referring, when they can, to the original sources of information, and to avoid taking things at second-hand without verification. The scientific study of English as a language is in no very advanced stage; there is much to be unlearnt, and much to be discovered. Perhaps no book has contributed more to excite investigation than Horne Tooke's famous Diversions of Purley, to whose memory be all honour! Yet, as was natural with his limited opportunities, he fell into many errors, which Richardson has followed sometimes too implicity; and we shall probably, owing to his influence, long continue to be periodically informed that the word it (A. S. hit), is a contraction of hight, i. e. called; the parallel to which is that the Latin id is a contraction of uocatum. Even Wedgwood's Etymological Dictionary (the best we have, upon the whole) exhibits some strange guesses, not always in accord with the known facts of comparative philology. It frequently happens that words cited from foreign languages are wrongly spelt, and I know of no better plan than the one I have for years adopted, viz. to keep on the table a row of foreign Dictionaries, for the purpose of verification. To a student of English, a Dictionary of old French is absolutely indispensable, because words introduced from the French were introduced mostly in the fourteenth century. There is one by Burguy (which really forms the third volume of his Grammaire de la Langue d'Oïl, but can be had separately) which is excellent. I can also recommend the following : Cotgrave's French Dictionary. (There are several editions. I use that published A.D. 1660.) Roquefort, Glossaire de la Langue Romaine. Diez, Wörterbuch der Romanischen Sprachen. (There is also an English version.) Raynouard, Glossaire. (Glossary of Old Provençal.) Jamieson, Scottish Dictionary. (Large edition, 4 vols. 4to. Small edition, I vol. 8vo., at a moderate price; it omits the quotations.) Spurrell, Welsh Dictionary. Meadows, Italian and Spanish Dictionaries. Ferrall and Repp, Danish Dictionary. German, Dutch, and Swedish Dictionaries are also needed. The German ones are plentiful. For Dutch and Swedish Dictionaries. the Tauchnitz small editions may serve ; but sometimes reference must be had to some better Dutch Dictionary, as e.g. hat of Bomhoff. Kilian's Dictionary of Old Dutch is well known as a useful book of reference. Ihre, Glossarium Suio-Gothicum; 2 vols. folio. (This was the real foundation of Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. It is, in fact, a most valuable dictionary of Old Swedish. I expect it will yet throw much additional light on English etymology; I do not think it has been thoroughly worked out.) Richtofen, Altfriesisches Wörterbuch. Bosworth, larger Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Grein, Glossary to the "Bibliothek der Angelsächsischen Poesie." Lye and Manning, Saxon Dictionary. Skeat, Moso-Gothic Glossary. (The only one in English.) Gabelentz and Löbe, Moeso-Gothic Glossary. Diefenbach, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Gothischen Sprache. Stamm, Ulfilas (Text and Glossary; a neat, good, and handy edition). Heyne, Heliand. (A paraphrase of the Gospels in "OldSaxon;" i.e. the old low-German of Westphalia: Text and Glossary; a good edition.) Brachet, Dictionnaire Etymologique. (A French Dictionary; written in French.) Littrè, Dictionnaire. (A great and valuable work.) Egilsson, Icelandic Lexicon. (A lexicon of the old poetical language only; the explanations are in Latin.) Haldorsson, Icelandic Lexicon. (A lexicon of the modern Icelandic; explanations in Latin.) Möbius, Altnordisches Glossar. (Very good.) Cleasby and Vigfusson, Icelandic Lexicon (of the old prose language; not yet finished). Wackernagel, Altdeutsches Wörterbuch. (The smallest handy glossary of Old German. The great works are those of Schilter, Wachter, Graff, and Benecke.) Benfey, Sanskrit Dictionary. Fick, Wörterbuch der Indo-germanischen Sprachen. And so on; for it is obvious that the consideration of English etymology leads directly, and indeed very soon and readily, to questions which relate to the whole Indo-European family of languages. Owing to the great number of French words, we must of course often have recourse to Latin; but it is perhaps absolutely necessary to add, that "classical" Latin is of no great help: we must enlarge our ideas so as to take in the Latin of the middle ages, so well exemplified in the great work of Ducange. A new edition of Ducange for English students is now in the press. Meanwhile, let me draw attention to the excellent epitome of Ducange by Maigne d'Arnis, published by M. l'Abbé Migne in a single octavo volume. Help is also to be had from the various English provincial glossaries, such as those of Atkinson (Cleveland dialect), Forby (Norfolk), Brockett (North of England), Hartshorne (in his Salopia Antiqua), Wilbraham (Cheshire), Mrs Baker (Northampton), Barnes (Dorsetshire); with many others. Some grammars will also be required; those of Dutch, Danish, Swedish, &c. in Thimm's Series of European Grammars, may serve; the Icelandic Grammar is, however, not much to be depended upon. The best (small) Spanish Grammar is that by Del Mar; of modern Provençal, that by Craig; of Portuguese, that by Vieyra; of Welsh there is a convenient one by Spurrell. There is a good book by Haldeman on English Affixes, published in Philadelphia. The best Anglo-Saxon Grammar is that by Professor March (of Lafayette College, U. S.); there is also a German one by Loth; see also Thorpe's (translated from Rask), and Dr. Bosworth's. There are at least three very good English Grammars in German, viz. those by Mätzner, Fiedler and Sachs, and (best of all) by Koch. A translation of Mätzner's Grammar has been announced for publication. Add to these, Helfenstein's Grammar of the Teutonic Languages; Schleicher's Compendium der vergleichenden Grammatik der Indo-germanischen Sprache; and the like. A famous book is Hickes's Thesaurus, in 3 vols. folio; the third volume of which, by Wanley, contains an excellent and complete catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon MSS. The following texts will also occasionally be required; some of them, frequently. The publications of the Early English Text Society and of the Chaucer Society. The subscription to the former is one guinea, annually, and a second guinea for the "Extra Series ;" the present |