… NOTES ON AN ALEXANDRES MANUSCRIPT: N.L.W. 5040 FEW epic poems of the Latin Middle Ages can have been so extensively copied and so enthusiastically…
… NOTES ON AN ALEXANDRES MANUSCRIPT: N.L.W. 5040 FEW epic poems of the Latin Middle Ages can have been so extensively copied and so enthusiastically studied and annotated than the Alexandreis of Walter of Chatillon. Composed around 1180 in ten books of over five thousand lines and dedicated to Walter's patron, William of the White Hands, Archbishop of Reims (1176¾1202), the poem well illustrates the twelfth century renaissance in general and the resurgence of the…
… use of secondary r after p, and in the general approximation towards a two lined script, although ascenders and descenders are still clearly distinguishable…
… use of secondary r after p, and in the general approximation towards a two lined script, although ascenders and descenders are still clearly distinguishable in this manuscript. Both upright and uncial d are found, and there are examples of capital forms for r and a within the body of a word. The long form of s predominates, the round form being confined to the end of a line. Excessive Gothic angularity, however, is absent,…
… four leaves are missing, viz. xi, xii, xiii, xiv. This is in fact the case, for the manuscript unfortunately lacks Book 2, 25-265. Also…
… four leaves are missing, viz. xi, xii, xiii, xiv. This is in fact the case, for the manuscript unfortunately lacks Book 2, 25-265. Also missing are Book 9, 206¾580; and Book 10, 1-215. The capital letters of each new book in the poem together make up the name of Walter's patron Guillermus, and each book, in turn, is preceded by a ten line metrical summary of its contents. The large capitals found at the…
… etc. Similarly, the corrector corrects examples of telescoping, e.g. in 3,95-6. But here and there the corrector shows a tendency towards hypercorrection. For example,…
… etc. Similarly, the corrector corrects examples of telescoping, e.g. in 3,95-6. But here and there the corrector shows a tendency towards hypercorrection. For example, the correct precedenti in 5,451 is unnecessarily changed to precedens, and, likewise, subfocat in 5,445 is misguidedly made plural through the proximity of gaudia. A close study of the textual tradition shows that very many Alexandreis manuscripts bear signs of a distinct horizontal transmission, where the scribe does not follow…
… This last line soon became proverbial and is often referred to in catalogues as 'the line'. A poem containing so many rhetorical sententiae was…
… This last line soon became proverbial and is often referred to in catalogues as 'the line'. A poem containing so many rhetorical sententiae was thus ideal material for the schools where rhetoric still held an honoured place in the curriculum. Significantly, for manuscript grouping, N.L.W. 5040 does not contain the author's prose prologue which accompanies the poem in most manuscripts. This is in the form of a letter in which Walter, after much soul…
… Eastern forces. The wave of blood from the rout of the Theban legion helped on the passage of the river, and the intermingling gore…
… Eastern forces. The wave of blood from the rout of the Theban legion helped on the passage of the river, and the intermingling gore shot up heavenwards, despising the barrier of the banks, and completely flooded Agaue). The allusion is to the martyrdom of a Theban legion of Christians at Agaunum, now S. Maurice in Valais, on the orders of the Emperor Diocletian in 285 A.D. Textually here N.L.W. 5040 reads Obruitur with other…
… in his hot pursuit of Darius. The textual inconsistencies between the two passages in the early manuscripts appear to support the acceptance of the…
… in his hot pursuit of Darius. The textual inconsistencies between the two passages in the early manuscripts appear to support the acceptance of the doublet, and Walter may well have chosen a slightly different vocabulary in repeating this striking simile. The other passage I should like to draw attention to is Book 7, 328 ff. Walter, full of admiration for the magnanimity of Alexander and indeed Darius, cannot help lamenting the lack of antique…
… CHURCH RECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CARDIGANSHIRE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY fk T the consecration of Llanddeiniol new church in October 1835 the Reverend John Hughes,…
… CHURCH RECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CARDIGANSHIRE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY fk T the consecration of Llanddeiniol new church in October 1835 the Reverend John Hughes, vicar of Llanbadarn Fawr (and later Archdeacon of Cardigan) A preached from the text 'Surely I will not go into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep unto mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place…
… be 'a church as it should be One of the most complete and successful imitations of ancient models that the present age has produced'.3…
… be 'a church as it should be One of the most complete and successful imitations of ancient models that the present age has produced'.3 It was no accident that it should have been founded here and I hope to show that much that was characteristic in its worship was already present in the worshipping customs of many other churches. Then, going off in another direction, one could point to the long and honourable educational…
… the impression that all is well with the fabric, yet a few years later a church has disappeared and a new one built because…
… the impression that all is well with the fabric, yet a few years later a church has disappeared and a new one built because of the alleged dilapidation, dampness or inconvenience of the old. There is no denying that most were in a very bad way. Archdeacon David Evans in his book of recollections8 describes how cold and uncomfortable was Llanrhystud, with its shuttered windows, its earth-floor 'Mixed with the bones of our ancestors',…
… of the livings, for there were no rectories, as we shall see). For centuries these vast hill parishes had supported their sparse pastoral populations…
… of the livings, for there were no rectories, as we shall see). For centuries these vast hill parishes had supported their sparse pastoral populations and the parish churches and the few chapels of ease had supplied such means of grace as was demanded. Demand changed in response to the operation of two main forces, the one physical, the other spiritual. The first was the growth and the redistribution of population, and possibly it was…
… Apart, perhaps, from the town of Aberystwyth itself, the deanery was probably the poorest part of the county and one of the poorest in…
… Apart, perhaps, from the town of Aberystwyth itself, the deanery was probably the poorest part of the county and one of the poorest in Wales. Its economic resources were small and the wealth that was produced exceedingly unevenly divided. 'The inhabitants of the parish', wrote the incumbent of Llanafan, Rev. D. E. Jones to the Church Building Society in December 1836, 'with the exception of a few persons hereinafter named, are persons of low…