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The attention given to the writings of Alfred, to the neglect of other Old English prose works, is explicable mainly on the ground of the author's eminence, and the existence of good editions of the 'Cura Pastoralis' and 'Orosius'. Alfred wrote in Early West Saxon, which, thanks to Sweet and Cosijn, has become the standard dialect of Old English from the phonological point of view. But has it a like surpassing value for syntactical research? For the study of mode, yes, because in this early period the subjunctive forms had not yet been leveled into likeness with those of the indicative. But for other purposes its superiority is questionable; all the important works of Alfred are translations from the Latin, and are vitiated, as a basis for syntactical research, by this fact.

The work of Elfric, on the other hand, is much more largely original than that of Alfred, to which it is about equal in bulk. It represents the language in its maturity smooth, polished, clear, and elegant. Here, it seems to me, we must look for the standard syntax of the best Old English, as far as that may be illustrated by the works of any one writer. And yet a reference to the tables will show the meagreness of our information in regard to the syntax of Elfric; and, of the two best dissertations, one is based on the least original of the author's works.

The Chronicle is another case in point. This work must, by its very nature, be quite independent on Latin sources: it shows the language in its native and often rugged purity as clearly as does the

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poetry, while it is free from the various peculiarities, due to the exigencies of metre, which impair the value of all poetry for syntactical investigation; the existence of a number of parallel texts, of different dates, makes it especially useful for comparative study. But we have only one monograph on the Chronicle alone, in addition to its treatment by Lüttgens and Fricke, and by the Johns Hopkins

men.

The German method tends to limit the view to a single text, or at most to the work of a single author. Of the monographs produced in Germany, Dr. Wülfing's is, of course, by far the most important. And for what reason? Mainly because he thoroughly examines a larger number of texts than the other men. Given a careful and intelligent investigator - and Dr. Wülfing fulfils this condition. admirably we may say that the value of the result varies almost exactly as the number of texts studied. But variety of texts is even more important than their number typical productions of the different periods must be examined together in order to the formation of any final judgment as to a norm of style. It is safe to say that, with Wulfing's equipment, a comparative study of the syntax, or even a limited portion of the syntax, of the Cura Pastoralis, the Chronicle, and the Homilies of Elfric and Wulfstan, with those in the collection at Blickling Hall, would have produced results far more commensurate with the labor involved than those which he presents from his examination of Alfred's complete works.

The tables show what has been done in this field. What remains to be done is equally apparent. But our first need is not the filling of the gaps in these lists. If we are to possess a complete and trustworthy account of Old English Syntax within a reasonable time, we must work in a more comprehensive way. We have now a considerable background the fruit of twenty years of labor; we possess a number of admirable models for syntaxresearch, such as Callaway's dissertation on the Absolute Participle, and Blackburn's on the English Future, with its broad foundation in Germanics; with these before him, there is no excuse for a scholar who puts forth a monograph of the old style, with its narrow view and partial results. The syntax of no one text, especially a poetical text, can be accepted as a norm of Old English usage. By comparative study alone can we hope to arrive at a proper understanding of any construction or group of constructions.

The ideal dissertation in Old English Syntax should, it seems to me, be a complete historical account of a single form of expression, or group of such forms; it should cover all the important texts, at least the prose texts; it should distinguish between early and late usages, when a distinction exists; and should point out traces of Latin influence, if they are present. It should give accurate statistics of the proportional frequency of parallel modes of expressing the same idea, and whatever else may seem likely to be of use in the final determination of the norm for a given period. When this is done,

we may construct what may be called a 'standard Old English idiom', embracing those speech-forms which are common to the best texts of all periods.

Work such as I have. outlined may be accepted as definitive, and the portion of the field covered by the investigator may be set apart as occupied. A few isolated spots have been so taken up, and we have a small part of the final complete treatise at hand. But large tracts of rich soil are awaiting claimants who shall cultivate them aright. If the effort of the past fifteen years had been more wisely expended, a large proportion of the work might have been already in our possession.

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Druck von Ehrhardt Karras, Halle a. S.

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