An Old English Miscellany Containing a Bestiary, Kentish Sermons, Proverbs of Alfred and Religious Poems of the Thirteenth Century

1872. From manuscripts in the British Museum, Bodleian Library, Jesus College Library, etc. A grouping of pieces that are all of a religious or didactic nature. Explanations for the inclusion of some of the text include: A Bestiary comes from Arundel MS. 292 in the British Museum. Scraps from the Bestiary with its curious moralizations are frequently to be met with in our old English authors, and even in Elizabethan writers. The Old Kentish Sermons are of great importance for an accurate knowledge of our old English dialects. The Proverbs of Alfred contain some plain and sensible maxims for the guidance of our ancestors' everyday life. The source of many of our common proverbs will be recognized among these early illustrations of Proverbial Philosophy. There is also the XI Pains of Hell. Religious Songs contain later versions of some of the pieces in Cotton Ms. as well as the poem of the Owl and Nightingale. When Holy Church is Under Foot is a lament on the decadence of the Church. Annals of England and the fragment on the Ten Commandments has been added because of its resemblance to the language of the Story of Genesis and Exodus.