2nds. N«>.74., MaySO. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



431 



more particular. He says that by command of 

 the Abbess Gerberga she wrote in heroic [Latin] 

 verse, the History or Panegyric of the Acts of the 

 Emperor Otho I. ; that she also wrote in verse, 

 Eight Sacred Narratives, — the Passion of St. 

 Dionysius Martyr, the Passion of St. Pelagius 

 IMartyr, &c. — and that in [Latin] prose she wrote 

 Six Sacred Dramas, on divers subjects, but chiefly 

 on the praises of the Saints. These pieces were 

 collected and edited by the German poet laureat 

 Conrade Celtes, at Nuremburgh, in 1501, and 

 again by Henr. Leonh. Schurtzfleisch at Witten- 

 berg in 1707. The Panegyric on the Emperor 

 Otho is also printed among the ancient German 

 historians published by Reuberus (Francof. 1584), 

 and in other collections. Of these the best is pro- 

 bably that of the Monumenta Germanice Historica, 

 published by the German Historical Society, in 

 the fourth volume of which are included the his- 

 torical poems of this celebrated recluse. 



She dexterously avoids the perplexing topic 

 of the Emperor causing the deposition of Pope 

 John Xn. ; to which she thus alludes near the 

 conclusion of her Panegyric : 



" Hactenus Oddonis famosi denique regis 

 Gesta, licet tenui Musa, cecini modulando. 

 Nunc scribenda quidem constant quee fecerat idem 

 Augustus solium retinens in vertice rerum : 

 Tangere quaj vereor, quia foemineo prohibebor 

 Sexu : nee vili debent sermone revolvi. 



Qualiter et recti compunctus acumine zeli 

 Summum Pontijicem qucedam perversa patrantem 

 Ejus nee monitis dignantem cedere crebris 

 Sedis Apostolicaj fraudari fecit honore." 



Warton (Hist, of Engl. Poetry, vol. ii.'376. ad- 

 ditional note) by an extraordinary inadvertency 

 attributes Hhroswitha's Dramas to Celtes, who 

 was only their editor. This was perceived and 

 remarked by Hayley (Essay on Old Maids, vol. iii. 

 p. 52. of the third edition, Lond. 1793), who styles 

 her " the literary Phoenix of the cloister," and 

 says, " She wrote six dramatic compositions in 

 imitation of Terence ; but on subjects very dif- 

 ferent from those of the Roman dramatist, as the 

 plays of the virgin author were chiefly intended 

 to " animate her sister nuns " to perseverance in 

 the monastic life. Besides these she also wrote an 

 historical poem on the early history of her monas- 

 tery. This has been published by Leibnitz, in 

 1707 (^Script. Rerum Brunsvicensium, tom. ii.) 



The printed editions are excessively rare, and 

 even Hayley 's book, in which some considerable 

 extracts from her sacred dramas are given, is far 

 from being common. I may therefore be excused 

 for transcribing from it the arguments of two of 

 the dramas ; the Dulcicius and the Callimachus : 



1. " Argumentum in Dulcicium. Passio Sanctarum Vir- 

 ginum Agapis, Chioniae, et Hyrense ; quas sub nocturno 

 silentio DulciciMs praeses clam adiit, cupiens earum am- 

 plexibus saturari : sed mox ut intravit, mente captus, 

 qllaq ?t sartagines pro yirginibus amplectendo ogcwla- 



batur, donee facies et vestis horribili nigredine inficieban- 

 tur. Deinde Sisinnio comiti jussu per puniendas virginea 

 cessit, qui etiam miris modis illusus tandem Agapen et 

 Chioniam concremari, et Hyrenem jussit perfodi." 



2. " in Callimachitm. Resuscitatio Drusianse et 



Callimachi, qui earn non solum vivam, sed etiam prse 

 tristitia atque exccecatione illiciti amoris, in Domino 

 mortuam, plus justo amavit; unde morsu serpentis male 

 periit. Sed precibus S. Joannis apostoli una cum Dru- 

 siana resuscitatus, in Christo est renatus." 



Hayley (ut supra, Appendix) has given an en- 

 graved figure of this learned nun. 



Vossius (de Hist. Lat. lib. ii. cap. 41.) points 

 out the great error committed by the learned 

 [Laur.] Humfredus, in making Roswida the same 

 with the English abbess St. Hilda, who died a.d. 

 680, while Egfrid reigned in Northumberland, as 

 appears from V. Beda's Ecclesiastical History, 

 iv. 23, 



The history of the Gandersheim monastery is 

 very interesting. Founded a.d. 842 by Ludolph, 

 Duke of Saxony, amply endowed, and numbering 

 many princes among its vassals, it flourished till 

 the Lutheran Reformation had altered the con- 

 dition of Germany. It was not then totally de- 

 stroyed, but on account of its political signification 

 as a state of the empire was continued, though 

 but as a shadow of its former self, with an abbess 

 and four canonesses of the newly established 

 creed. It thus subsisted under the protection of 

 the Dukes of Brunswick until the final period of 

 the Germanic Roman Empire, in the first years of 

 the nineteenth century. J. G. Leuckfeld's His' 

 tory of the Monastery of Gandersheim (in German) 

 was published at Wolfenbuttel in 1709, 4to. It 

 is mentioned by Alphonsus Lasor a Varea, in his 

 Auctorum Elenchus, Patav. 1713, tom. i. p. 429. 



,Abterus, 



Dublin. 



Particulars respecting this remarkable woman 

 and extraordinary scholar of the tenth century, 

 with a list of authorities concerning her and her 

 works, will be found in the introductory chapter 

 of a book recently published by Mr. Dolman, of 

 Bond Street, and entitled Adelaide, Queen of Italy, 

 or the Iron Crown. Hawkhubst. 



XONDON DIBECTOKIES. 



(2°'^ S. iii. 270. 342.) 



Perhaps the best and most voluminous collec- 

 tion of these useful and valuable publications is to 

 be seen and examined at Mr. Maclaurin's, No. 83. 

 Lombard Street, who is always happy to show 

 them to any gentleman requiring information 

 which they contain. 



It seems to me astonishing that greater store is 

 not set by these registers of names, residences, 

 and palUrgs, which 8ffof(i m^teri^ls for genealogi- 



