Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XVII. SIR THOMAS MORE. 43 1Near the beginning of vol. vi. is his 'In Annotationes Novi Testamentipraefatio, primae editionis, quae fuit An. M.D. xv., cui tamen postadmixta sunt quaedam,' &c.XVII.SIR THOMAS MORE.(A) (B) yl Dialogue concerning Heresies.' It is a remarkable and important fact, that the style which Wycliffehimself employs in his controversial and other original works, is a verydifferent one from that in which he clothed his translation.This circumstanceseems to give some countenance to the declaration of Sir ThomasMore, otherwise improbable, that there existed English Bibles longbefore Wycliffe ; and hence we might suppose that his labours, andthose of his school, were confined to the revision of still earlier versions.But although English paraphrases, mostly metrical, of different parts ofthe Bible were executed at the very commencement of our literature,yet there is no sufficient ground to believe that there were anyprose translations of such extent and fidelity as to serve for a basis ofrevision ; and the oldest known complete translation of the Old Testament,the earlier text in the late Oxford edition of the Wyclifie versions,has very much the aspect of a first essay.'— Marsh's Lectures,published m the ' Student's Manual of English Language,' ed. Smith,p. 446. The simplest solution of the difficulty is to suppose that SirThomas More had actually seen some copies of the Anglo-SaxonGospels or Psalters ; these he would of course call englishe. as theyshould be called ; and he may have made the mistake of supposing theMSS. to contain the whole Bible. In any case, he exaggerates the truth.Observe how he says (Extract C, p. 184) that ' the cleargie therein agreedthat the englyshe bybles should remajTie which were translated aforeWickliffes dayes.' This they would easily have consented to, supposingthem to be Anglo-Saxon MSS., because they were well aware thatscarcely any one could read them.(C) From thesame.Line 46. Lay, i. e. lay it down, agree about it ; cf.' reason layd,' 1. i61. As nothynge coulde elles, as knew nothing else.no. Dydde not let to spealte, did not hinder or refrain themselvesspeaking.III.Yet letteth all thys nothing, yet all this nowise prevents.134. Lapis ofensionis, &c.; so in the Vulgate, i Pet. ii. 8.from