Note 794 — LECTURE VI LITERARY WORKS (continued); SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

I have shown above, p. 145, that there are certain words characteristic of the earlier recension of the Dialogues which the reviser systematically alters into others, semninga into færinga, tid into tima, ongitan to oncnawan, &c. In the Bede I have noticed 32 instances of semninga, not one of færinga; 90 of tid, none of tima; 10 of ongitan, 2 of oncnawan. I do not pretend that my observations are exhaustive. The following words occur, so far as I know, only in the Bede and in the Dialogues (the references are to the pages and lines of Hecht’s and Miller’s editions respectively):—ágendlíce = proprie, D 264, 26; B 30, 10 (in the sense of ‘arbitrarily’ it occurs C. P. p. 144); allíc = catholicus, D 237, 20; B 312, 31; ancerlíf, D 210, 26; B 364, 30; brícsian, D 343, 37; B 244, 22; camphád, D 298, 8; B 480, 11; drihtenlíc, D 309, 26; B 158, 10; eardunghús, D 185, 16; B 366, 16; efenceasterwaran, D 205, 1; B 62, 20; fordémedness, D 235, 14; B 34, 5; forsettan (in sense of ‘obstruct’) D 258, 28; B 212, 16; fremsumlíce, D 242, 10; B 184, 23; gefeolan, D 336, 23; B 450, 28; gefremedness, D 318, 15; B 32, 7; gewinfullíc, D 222, 9; B 56, 9; gýmeléasness, D 208, 4; B 242, 28; ungebrosnendlíc, D 233, 15; B 378, 4; ungeæhtendlic, D 282, 21; B 84, 12. This list too might be easily extended; and the whole subject of the relation of the two works is well worthy of further examination. No doubt the resemblance is partly due to the similarity of their subject matter. The likeness of the two originals is also very strong in parts; so much so indeed that I think that Bede must, consciously or unconsciously, have modelled his style in the Hist. Eccl. on the Dialogues of Gregory. Still the likeness between the two translations is, I think, greater than one would expect in the case of two perfectly independent translators, and points to their having been produced under similar influences.