cases, they frequently exhibit great deviations from each other.
The testimony also supplied us by the old French chronicle of Geffrei Gaimar, who lived in the middle of the twelfth century, is of some authority, as tending to corroborate the supposition, that to king Ælfred we are indebted for a Saxon Chronicle, and, down to his time, probably in its present form. According to the same chronicler, that prince had a copy of a chronicle at Winchester fastened by a chain, so that all who wished might read; but that it might not be taken from the spot[1]; a custom of which traces still exist in England, or at least have existed, within the memory of the present generation. A further corroboration of the existence of the Chronicle in its present form, in the days of king Ælfred, is the circumstance, that his friend, Asser, bishop of Sherborne, translates and incorporates much of its matter, in his Latin life of his royal patron, from the year 849 to 887.
The Saxon Chronicle comprises the period from the invasion of Britain by Julius Cassar to the accession of Henry II. in A.D. 1154; and is, conjointly with the
- ↑ Meis n'alout pas la terre issi,
Ke nuls hom pur la guere,
Seust coment alout la terre,
Ne eel tens sul ne saveit
Nuls hom ki chescon rei estait;
Mes moignes e chanoines de abeies,
Ki des reis escristrent les vies,
Si adrescat chescon son per,
Pur la veraic raison mustrer
Des reis ; cumbien chescon regnat;
Coment out nun, coment deviat;
Quel fu oscis, et quels transi,
Quels est ent[i]res, et quels purri:
E des eveskes, ensement,
Firent li clerc adrescement.
Croniz ad nun, un livere grant;
Engleis l'alerent assemblant.
Ore est issi auctorizez,
K'a Wincestre, en l'eveskez,
La est des reis la dreite estorie;
E les vies e la memorie.
Li reis Elfred l'out en demaine;
Fermer i list une chaine.
Ki lire i volt bien i guardast;
Mais de son liu nel' remuast.—
II. 2316, seqq.Il [Elueret] fist escrivere un livre Engleis,
Des aventures, e des leis,
E des battailles de la terre,
E des reis ki firent la guere:
Et maint livere fist il escrivere,
U li bon clerc vont sovent lire.—
II. 3451, seqq.In a preceding line Gaimar calls the volume "La dreite estorie de Wincestre."
