Reconstructing Anglo-Saxon England in Antiquarian Writing 1 660

380 Pages·2001·21.02 MB·English

Reconstructing Anglo-Saxon England in Antiquarian Writing 1 660- 1 735
Jenny McKenney
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the Degee of Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Department of English
Universiv of Toronto
OCopyright by Jenny McKenney 2000
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Thesis Abstract
Reconstructing Ançlo-Saxon England in Antiquarian Writing 16 60- 17 35
Ph.D. Thesis
Jenny McKenney
Department of Engtish
University of Toronto
Novernber 2000
This dissertation considers the systematic rescue and evaluation of Saxon antiquities
during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries by English antiquaries. With
chapters on the pastime of manuscript fragment collecting, the recovey of the Old
English langage and lexicon, and coincollecting, this thesis explores how antiquanes-
deepl y influenced by scientif ic empiricism-endeavored to reconstnict the fra~mented
pas1 from its material and documentax-y remains. Although antiquaries have ken the
subjwt of numerous studies, both as a group and individually, few scholars have
approached the topic of antiquarianism through the objects they studied. Antiquities,
however. are what distinguished the antiquary from the historian: they are the vehicles by
which these scholars demonstrated their affection for and dedication to things as opposed
to words. Thus. looking both at the collections of historical artifacts compiled by
individual antiquaries and their ofien massive works of synthetic scholarship, this thesis
argues that antiquaries not only revolutionized notions of historical evidence. but
engineered news ways of reading the silent evidence of artifacts or thinçs in their
engagement with antiquities. The final chapter, by contrast, examines the mythical
legacy of King Alfred's reign to show how the scholarly attention to evidence and proof
characterizing this period was occasionally subordinated to political agendas. Looking,
in particular, at an eighteenth-century court case which depended on establishing a detail
in the life of this Saxon king, it demonstrates that-faced with current controversy and
personal politics-even antiquaries sometirnes succumbed to the allure of historical
fictions. While contributing to discussions of the links between antiquarianisrn and
experimental science, the rise of Old English scholarship, and the culture of collectinç at
this pen'od, this thesis also situates the scholarly recovery of the Saxon tonye and
cuIture within its religious and political contefis.
...
Ill
Acknowledgments
1 have many people to thank for their help in completing this thesis. First of al]. 1 should
like to thank my supervisor, Professor A. H. de Quehen, and my cornmittee members,
Professors Roberta Frank and Carol Percy, for their enthusiastic support of this project
and their helpful feedback on vanous drafb. My thanks go also to Lisa Celovsky and
Joseph Black who read versions of these chapters and provided welcome editorial
comments and. perhaps more irnportantly, encouragement, advice, and friendship
throughout my doctoral work. For their help with administrative matters in Toronto
during my residence in Amherst, Massachusens. and for their unflagging hospitality
during my trips to Toronto, 1 would like to voice rny appreciation for my friend and
collrague Chante1 Lavoie. and for Noha Sharkaway, my friend and former neighbor.
Thanks also to my parents for their patience, good humor, and support throughout my
years as a graduate student. To my husband, Clifion, who has been my constant
companion r€om Robarts Library to the British Library, through computer viruses and
morning sickness, my debts are immeasurable.
For the generous financial support 1 have received throughout the completion of
this thesis. I must give thanlis to the University of Toronto. the School of Graduate
Studies, the government of Ontario, and the estate of V. A. De Luca.
Table of Contents
CHAMER ONE
Fragnent Collecting and the End of Manuscript Culture: Antiquaries and the
Legacy of the Dissolution. .......................................... 25
CHAPTER m'O
The Dark Coasts of Antiquity: Old English and the Antiquary ........... . ... 109
CHAFITR THREE
Towards a MedaIl ic Histocy: Antiquaries and Coin-CoIlecting .............. 1 88
CHAUTERF OUR
Irnagining Alfred at Oxford. ......................................... 256
Note on Quotations
When quoting from print and manuscripts texts, I have retained the original spelling,
capitalization. punctuation, and italics of my sources. Where the meaning is obvious, 1
have expanded abbreviations and corrected minor errors, typographical and othenvise. 1
have also silentl y modernized i/j and d v when appropriate.
List of Abbreviations and Commonly Cited Works
MANL~SCRIPSTO URCES:
BL British Library, London
BodL Bodleian Library, Oxford
UC University College, Oxford
PLBLISHEDS OURCES:
Addison, Itiilrks Joseph Addison. Uze Cf/orh-o f'the Righr Honorubfe
./o.wph. 4ddison. 6 vols. London, 1 8 1 ï
Bodleiun Lihrury Record
William Camden. ('umcien S Rrifunniu 169.5. Ed. Edmund
Gibson. Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles Reprints.
1971.
.4 ('homv of Grclrnrnars: The (krrespondence of George
Hrckm und hrs Colluborutors on the Thesaurus linguarum
septentrionahm. Ed- Richard L- Hams. Publications of
the Dictionary of Old English 4. Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Medieval Studies, 1994.
Thomas Hearne. Rernurks unJ ( 'ollc.ctron.s. Ed. C. E.
Foble, D. W. Rannie, and W. E. Salter. 1 1 vols. Osford:
Clarendon, 1885- 192 1.
Report on fite .44unuscript.s of ltis Gruce the Ihke of
Portlund Hi.sioricu/ rthnu.scripts ( bnrmrssion. Vol. 7.
London, 190 1.
Hic kes, Tlmuz rrzrs George H ickes. I, inpumm vert. srptentrionufizrrn
r h~suurugs rummîicu-cri1 et urch~efno gicu.~.O sford.
ICUS
1 703-05. Menston England: Scolar Press, 19 70.
Johnson, Worh Samuel Johnson. The Yule Edition of the Worh of Sumuel
Johnson. 16 vols. New Haven: Yale UP, 1969.
John Leland. Jounnis Lelundi ant iy uurii de rehzrs
Hrifunnrcw collecruneu. Ed- Thomas Hearne. 6 vols.
Oxford, 1 7 1 5.
John Leland. The Itinerur),o fJohn Leland rhe untiquup.
Ed. Thomas Heame- 9 vols. Oxford. 1 7 1 1 - 1 2.
Pltzlo.vophicul Trunsucrion.~of '/l?c'R oyul Societ~?L. ondon,
1665-1 886. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp.. 1963.
Alexander Pope. 7he Poems of Alexuncier Pope.
Twickenham edition. Gen. ed. John Butt. 1 1 vols.
London: Methuen: New Haven: Yale CTP, 1939-69.
Pope, Prose Alexander Pope. Prose Work of Ale-runder Pope. Ed.
Norman Ault. 2 vols. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1936.
Spelrnan. L!f2 John Spelrnan. L&J of'King -+FIIfi.c'tdh e Greut. Ed. Thomas
Hearne. Osford, 1709.
SpeIman. Viru JOh n Sp el man. ./E(frediM ugni hglurum regis invlc!i.wimi
vilu. Ed. Obadiah Walker. Osford, 1678.
Wood- Hi-sr. urd An!. Anthony Wood. Hi-vtoy und un fiy niries ($'the (hii~ersity
c,f'O_rlord Ed. John Gutch. Osford, 1 793.
Wood, IArfec rnd Tintes Anthony Wood. The I.rfe und Times of Anfhony WooJ,
unîiquuty, of 0-rfi~rcl1. 632- 1695. descrihed by H~mselj:
-
Ed. Andrew Clark. 5 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1 89 1 1900.
Introduction
so izere. the eiè und 172itzCi IS no Iess ufji-cid with fizti-se
.vrctre/y nrrnes rhun th? woziid have heen rrkn sturuiing
und entire. Th- breed in generous rni ndes a kind of pirtie:
and setr the thought u-worke 10 mkc. oui ~hew
rnugnrficrnce us rhey HJc.rew hen in peflecrion.
-John Aubrey, "Essay towards the description of
the North Division of ~iltshire"'
This thesis is concerned with late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English
antiquarks and their efforts to recuperate and reconstmct the story of their early
medieval ancestors through the various artifacts that suMved as evidence of an
indigenous culture. Although antiquaries have been the subject of numerous studies.
both as a _croupa nd individually, few scholars have approached the topic of
antiquarianism through the objects they studied. Antiquities, however. are what
distinguished the antiquary from the historian; they are the vehicles by which these
scholars dsmonstrated their affection for and dedication to thinçs as opposed to words.'
in the chapters that foilow, I consider several of the "things-' that antiquaries focused on
as representative objects of Anglo-saxon and early medieval culture which, in contrast to
the more familiar artifacts of the classical world, seemed foreign, primitive, and
hopelessi\: fra-mentary. 1 argue that one of the primary motivations for the resurgence of
antiquarianism at the end of the seventeenth century, after an initial flowering in the
'
John Aubrey. Wilrsh~:7 he fi~pgraphica(l 'ollecfiotrs.e d. John Edward Jackson (London. 1862) Preface
3
Throughout this thesis 1 define antiquities as material remains or artifacts. As D. R. Woolf has pointai out,
'
though. the term was also used, more generaily. to mean "maners pertaining to the distant past." 77w /dea of
Hisron- rrr f.hr!v Stirarr Enpf'(Toronto:U ofT oronto P, 1990) 17