HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 83 



the most valuable specimen of our Old English dialect that 

 time has left us." His introductory verse fairly indicates 

 the quality of the poem : 



" Nu brotherr Wallterr brotherr niin : affterr the fleshess kinde, 

 And brotherr min i crisstenndom : thurrh fullught und thurrh 

 trowwthe, 



Ice have wennd inntill Englissh : godd spelles halghe lare 

 Aflfter that little witt tatt me ; min drihhtin haveth lenedd." 



(Now brother Walter brother mine : after nature of the flesh, 

 And brother mine in Christendom : by baptism and by faith, 

 I have turn'd into English ; the gospel's holy lore, 

 After the little knowledge that : to me my Lord hath lent.) 



The name of Wycliffe is associated with two translations 

 of the Bible. And he was likely the originator of both, 

 although his actual share of work as translator remains 

 uncertain. Of the first version, the translation from Genesis 

 to the middle of the Apocrypha, was by Nicolas of Hereford. 

 His manuscript, with his notes and emendations, still exists. 

 The rest of the Old Testament was by an unknown hand : 

 and the gospels, and likely much of the New Testament, are 

 mainly by Wycliffe. But few copies of this first version are 

 left in manuscript. Nicolas of Hereford, its chief translator, 

 was student and fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, was a 

 warm supporter and friend of Wycliffe, was imprisoned for 

 aiding the lyollard cause, and after Wycliffe's death was chief 

 leader of the Lollards, as the Wycliffites were called. But, 

 according to the National Dictionary of Biography, Nicolas 

 recanted iti 1391, became chancellor of Hereford Cathedral, 

 and ended his days as a Carthusian monk at St. Anne's, 

 Coventry. 



For the second Wycliffe Bible, the work of John Purvey 

 was most important. While Wycliffe was rector at Lutter- 

 worth, Purvey was closely associated with him, and there he 

 commenced rendering into idiomatic English Wycliff's literal 

 translation of the Vulgate. His work was finished at Bristol 

 about four years after Wycliffe's death. Purvey has left 

 interesting particulars as to how that work was done. 



