The Editor of the present valuable and interesting record of our old
English speech will, no doubt, both astonish and alarm his readers by
informing them that he has never seen the manuscript from which the work he
professes to edit has been transcribed.
But, while the truth must be told, the reader need not entertain the
slightest doubt or distrust as to the accuracy and faithfulness of the
present edition; for, in the first place, the text was copied by Mr F. J.
Furnivall, an experienced editor and a zealous lover of Old English lore;
and, secondly, the proof sheets have been most carefully read with the
manuscript by the Rev. W. W. Skeat, who has spared no pains to render the
text an accurate copy of the original.[1] I have not been satisfied with
merely the general accuracy of the text, but all _doubtful_ or _difficult_
passages have been most carefully referred to, and compared with the
manuscript, so that the more questionable a word may appear, either as
regards its _form_ or _meaning_, the more may the reader rest assured of
its correctness, so that he may be under no apprehension that he is
perplexed by any typographical error, but feel confident that he is dealing
with the reading of the original copy.
The editorial portion of the present work includes the punctuation,
marginal analysis, conjectural readings, a somewhat large body of
annotations on the text of the poem, and a Glossarial Index, which, it is
hoped, will be found to be complete, as well as useful for reference.
The Corpus manuscript[2] is a small volume (about 8 in. × 4½ in.), bound in
vellum, written on parchment in a hand of about 1300 A.D., with several
final long ſ's, and consisting of eighty-one leaves. Genesis ends on fol.
49_b_; Exodus has the last two lines at the top of fol. 81_a_.
The writing is clear and regular; the letters are large, but the words are
often very close together. Every initial letter has a little dab of red on
it, and they are mostly capitals, except the _b_, the _f_, the _ð_, and
sometimes other letters. Very rarely, however, _B_, _F_, and _Ð_ are found
as initial letters.
The illuminated letters are simply large vermilion letters without
ornament, and are of an earlier form than the writing of the rest of the
manuscript. Every line ends with a full stop (or metrical point), except,
very rarely, when omitted by accident. Whenever this stop occurs in the
middle of a line it has been marked thus (.) in the text.