469 



WAGE, ROBERT. 



WADDING, LUKE. 



460 



usual forms are "Wace, Gasse, Gace, Guaze, Huace, and Huistacc, 

 names which appear to be abbreviations of Eustache or Eustace. His 

 Christian name is likewise doubtful, aa he never styles himself other- 

 wise than ' Master Wace.' Du Cange supposed it to havo been 

 Matthew, and Huet is the first writer who calls him Robert. Ho was 

 born in the island of Jersey about the year 1112, and received his 

 early education at Caen ; he completed his studies, which appear to 

 have been chiefly connected with the clerical profession, during a resi- 

 dence of some time in the territories of the King of France, and he 

 afterwards returned to Caen, where Henry I. usually held his court. 

 In this town he spent the greatest portion of his life ; his chief occu- 

 pation was the composition of metrical romances, so called from their 

 being written in the Roman or vulgar dialect. The ' Roman du Rou/ 

 which he completed in 1160, was dedicated to Henry II., and was 

 presented to him by Wace in person, who was rewarded with a 

 canonry in the cathedral church of Bayeux ; this preferment, accord- 

 ing to the ancient capitularies of that church, he held from 1161 to 

 1171. As he frequently styles himself ' clerc lisaut,' reading clerk, it 

 has been supposed that he was attached to the private chapel of 

 Henry II. He complains however, and that somewhat bitterly, that 

 the reward he received from the Dukes of Normandy neither answered 

 his anticipations nor came up to the promises they had made him. 

 He is said to have died in England, about the year 1184. 



The principal details in this brief notice of the life of Wace, are 

 given to us by himself in his ' Roman du Rou.' 



" Lunge* est la geste des Normanz, 

 Et a metre est grieve en Romanr. 

 Si 1'on demande qui co dist "f- 

 Ki ceste cstoire J en Roraanz mfst ; 

 Jo$ di e dirai ke jo sui, 

 AVace, de 1'isle de Gersui, 

 Ki est en mer Ters Occident. 

 Al fieu|| de Normendie appeal. 1 !! 

 En 1'isle de Gersui fu nez. 

 A Caen fu pctis portez, 

 Iloec ** fu a letres mis, 

 Puis fu lunges en France apris. 

 Quand de France jo repairai.ff 

 A Caen lunges conversai ; JJ 

 De Roman/, fere m'entremis, 

 Mult$$ en ecris et mult en fls. 

 Par Deu ai'e|||| e par li Rei 

 Altre Iflf fors li servir ne dei. 

 Me fut donnee, Dex li rende, 

 A Baieues une provende ; *** 

 Del rei Henri segund vos di. 

 Is'evou Henri, pere Henri." 



[*Longue.] 



[f Qui dit cela.] 

 [t Ilistoirc.] 



[||Fief. . IT Appartient.] 



[** La.] 



[ft Je revins.] 

 [JJ Demeurai.] 



[5$ Beaucoup.] 



[1111 Autre cxcepte lui.] 



[*** Prebende.] 



The rhymed chronicle from which this extract is taken is entitled 

 ' Le Roman du Rou (Rollo) et des Dues de Normandie,' and is the best 

 known of the writings of Wace ; it is held in high esteem as a monu- 

 ment of the language and as an historical document, which, though 

 incorrect in some of its details and sometimes inexact in its dates, 

 presents a faithful picture of society during that period. It contains 

 the history of the Dukes of Normandy from the first invasion by 

 Rollo down to the eighth year of King Henry I., and not simply, as 

 Hallam states, the narrative of the battle of Hastings and conquest of 

 England by the Normans. The first, or introductory part, is written 

 in lines of eight syllables, and presents us with the history of the first 

 irruption of the Normans into England and France. The second part 

 or section is written in Alexandrine verse, and relates the principal 

 events which took place in the reign of Rollo ; the third , in the same 

 metre, the history of William Longsword and his son Richard, the 

 first Duke of Normandy of that name ; in the fourth part, which is 

 alone longer than the three precedine, he resumes the eight-syllable 

 measure, and presents us with a sequel of the history of Richard, and 

 that of his successors to the year 1106. The whole poem contains 

 exactly 16,547 lines. He generally follows Dudon and William of 

 Jumieges as his guides in the relation of historical facts, but he adds 

 many interesting and curious details which he reports to have received 

 from hearsay. 



His description of the battle of Hastings is given with considerable 

 minuteness of detail, and has been largely drawn upon by succeeding 

 historians. Among the disadvantages under which the English 

 laboured, Wace says that they could not fight on horseback, nor 

 shelter themselves under a buckler with one hand, while with the 

 other they directed their blows ngainst the enemy. 



The other chief recognised poem of Wace is ' Le Brut d' Angle- 

 terre,' a work which preceded his ' Roman du Rou.' The date of it as 

 ascertained by some lines near the end of the poem is 1155. The 

 principal incidents in it are derived from a Latin translation, by 

 Geoffrey of Monmouth, of a pcem composed in the dialect of Lower 

 Brittany. The subject of it is a certain Brutus, who is imagined to 

 have been the great-grandson of ^Eneas, and who ruled ovtr Great 

 Britain. It contains nearly eighteen hundred lines, in the same metre 

 as those above quoted, and is by some supposed to have been the 

 first work containing the origin of Arthur's round table, his knights, 

 and tournaments. [ARTHUR.] 



The next authentic work of Wace is styled ' La Chronique ascen- 

 dante deo Dues de Normandie : ' it commences with Henry II. and 



goes back to Rollo. It is a short poem of only three hundred and 

 fourteen Alexandrine verses, and is published in the first volume of 

 the ' Mdmoires de la Socie'te' des Antiquaires de la Normandie,' p. 144. 

 It must have been written later than 1173, as it makes mention of the 

 troubles excited in Normandy during that year by the revolt of the 

 sons of Henry II. against their father. 



The other two remaining poems of Wace possess less interest, and 

 are not so generally known. The first of them is entitled 'L'Esta- 

 blissernent de la Feste de la Conception, dicte la Feste as Normands ; ' 

 the second, ' La Vio de S. Nicolas,' of which Hickes has published 

 several extracts in his ' Thesaurus Litteraturje Septentrionalis.' 



The above-mentioned works are the only ones which have been 

 preserved, and on their authenticity no doubt exists. Two other 

 poems have been ascribed to him, 'Le Roman du Chevalier au Lion,' 

 and 'Le Roman d'Alexandrie ; ' but, though they are undoubtedly 

 productions of the 12th century, they are now generally supposed by 

 the best critics not to belong to Wace. 



The manuscripts of his poems are very numerous; there are com- 

 plete manuscripts of the ' Roman du Rou ' both at the Royal Library 

 of Paris, No. 7567, and at the library of the Arsenal; that in the 

 Royal Library is supposed to have been written in the 14th century. 

 The most ancient is in the British Museum, and was probably written 

 in the first years of the 13th century; it contains however only the 

 fourth part of the ' Roman du Rou.' 



There is a valuable essay on the manuscripts of the 'Roman du 

 Rou ' by M. de Brequigny, in the fifth volume of his ' Notices des 

 MSS. de la Bibliotheque Royale.' 



In 1827, there was published at Rouen a remarkably fine edition of 

 the 'Roman du Rou,' in two octavo volumes, with very valuable 

 notes, by M. Frederic Pluquet, who had devoted several years to the 

 laborious task of carefully collating the text of the various manu- 

 scripts in existence. 



The following works may be consulted for a more ample account of 

 the life and writings of Wace : 1. Capefigue, ' Essai sur les Invasions 

 Maritimes des Normands dans les Gaules,' 1823 ; 2. Depping, ' Histoire 

 des Expeditions Maritimes des Normands,' 1826; 3. Wheaton, ' History 

 of the Northmen,' London, 1831. In these two works there are 

 copious and interesting extracts from the ' Roman du Rou; ' Depping 

 particularly has very justly appreciated the value of Wace as a poet 

 and an historian. 4. Pluquet, ' Notice sur la Vie et les Ecrits de 

 Robert Wace, suivie de Citations extraites de ses Ouvrages,' Rouen, 

 1824. In this work will be found the most complete account of the 

 writings of Wace. Roquefort, ' Glossaire de la Langue Romano,' Paris, 

 2 vols. 1808, will be found useful to the readers of Wace. 



WACHTER, JOHN GEORGE, a distinguished scholar and archjeo- 

 Iqgist, was born at Memmingen in Suabia, in 1G73. He studied classical, 

 oriental, and modern languages, and became early known for his 

 learning ; he was also thoroughly acquainted with numismatics. Com- 

 bining great sagacity and a sound judgment with an extensive stock of 

 knowledge, he was able to produce works, some of which are still among 

 the best of their kind. For some time he was employed in the 

 Museum of Antiquities in Berlin, and was chosen member of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences of that city. However, the first kings of 

 Prussia, Frederic I. and William L, showed little disposition to promote 

 the arts and sciences, and Wachter left Prussia for Leipzig, where he 

 was appointed first librarian and director of the Museum of Anti- 

 quities. He died in 1757. His principal works are : 1, ' Glossarii 

 Germanici, &c. Specimen ex ampliore Farragine decerptum,' Leipzig, 

 8vo, 1727: this work was the forerunner of, 2, ' Glossarium Germanicum, 

 continens Origines et Antiquitates totius Linguse Germanicse,' Leipzig, 

 2 vols. fol., 1736-37. This is his principal work, and is still considered 

 a standard book. Wachter understood all the dialects of the High 

 and Low German languages, and he had also a complete knowledge 

 of the Persian language, which enabled him to establish the meaning 

 and etymology of a great number of words. He was one of the most 

 distinguished founders of the school of comparative grammar. 3, 

 ' Archecologia Numaria,' &c., in ' Nova Acta Eruditorum,' and sepa- 

 rately, Leipzig, 4to, 1740. The chief object of this work was the 

 explanation of the difficulties connected with the study of numis- 

 matics. In the last chapter the author discusses several passages of 

 Piiuy (' Hist. Nat.'), concerning coins, and although these passages had 

 already been illustrated by eminent men, such as Father Hardouiu 

 and others, the results of Wachter were much more satisfactory. 

 4, ' Nature et Scripturse Concordia, Commentario de Literis ac Nume- 

 ris Primcevis illustrata et Tabulis JEneis depicta,' Leipzig, 4to, 1752, 

 without the author's name. Besides these and other works on similar 

 subjects, Wachter wrote a great number of valuable memoirs for the 

 'Miscellanea Berolinensia' (first series) and the ' Nova Acta Erudito- 

 rum,' such as ' Tyraunus in Veteri Gemma monstroso et portentoso 

 emblemate reprsesentatus ;' ' De Alphabeto Naturae et Literarum non 

 Naturalium a Nattiralibus Origine Auimadversiones ; ' 'Ad Disserta- 

 tiouem Eruditam Viri Clarissimi Swentoni de Lingua Etrurise, &c. 

 Annotatiuncula,' &c. In his last will Wachter left the manuscript of 

 his great Glossary, which he had enriched with notes and numerous 

 additions, to the library of his native town, Memmingen, where it is 

 still kept. Other valuable linguistic dissertations in manuscript are in 

 the Royal Library at Dresden. 



WADDING, LUKE, a Roman Catholic priest of great learning and 



