222 ENGLISH LANGUAGE 



well trained in philological method, some of whom have only a slight 

 interest in the English language in its later, and much more significant, 

 developments. 



Yet our shelf of Anglo-Saxon works of reference is far from full, 

 and some of the gaps occur in places to which we should oftenest have 

 recourse if we did not know they were empty. The state of Anglo- 

 Saxon lexicography, for example, is a disgrace to English-speaking 

 scholars. Who will give us a halfway satisfactory Anglo-Saxon dic- 

 tionary and free us from the thralldom of Bos worth-Toller? Grein's 

 Poetical Lexicon is so marvelous a piece of work that, old as it is, 

 one hesitates to suggest its revision. Yet everybody knows that a new 

 Grein is a need that is sorely felt. A distinguished American scholar 

 has long been giving his leisure hours to making collectanea for an 

 exhaustive Anglo-Saxon dictionary; but I doubt if he has much 

 expectation of finding a publisher. There are understood to be large 

 materials at Oxford; but one despairs of ever seeing them put forth. 

 Is there any hope except in international cooperation among a large 

 number of scholars, financed by some institution of inexhaustible 

 resources that feels no regard for profits, and directed by a specialist 

 characterized by equal breadth and fineness of knowledge and by 

 exceptional skill in the organization of materials and the management 

 of collaborators? Instances of similar lexicographical enterprises 

 now proceeding to a successful issue will at once occur to you. I need 

 not mention them by name. Should we not all keep in mind as one of 

 our first duties the furtherance of this great undertaking in every 

 way in our power? 



I will not dwell on the other deficiencies in our Anglo-Saxon 

 equipment. On the whole, the material is so compact and manageable, 

 the various desiderata are so well defined, and the number of trained 

 workers is so great, that, without being unduly sanguine, we may 

 hope to see most of our needs supplied as time goes on, the great 

 task of the dictionary excepted. There is still much to do hi Anglo- 

 Saxon dialectology; but the main lines of distinction are well recog- 

 nized, and there are a number of distinguished monographs. Syntax, 

 to be sure, is an almost untilled field ; but to that subject we must 

 recur in a moment. As to meter, there are still wide differences of 

 opinion, and of late there has been manifested a tendency to question 

 the soundness of some of the best-accredited results, or, at all events, 

 to deny their utility for purposes of textual criticism. One thing, 

 however, is clear: There are a large number of facts about the 

 structure and movement of Anglo-Saxon verse that have been ascer- 

 tained beyond the possibility of a doubt and that have been shown to 

 admit of orderly classification. In all our discussions on points of 

 theory, it is well to remember that these facts are facts, not opinions. 

 The verses do actually contain such and such syllables, arranged thus 



