to erliwen any one (whether melancho- 
ly or not). 
Thus, in §* Love's Labour Loft,” act 
45 Ic. 3. 
Then homeward every man aftach the hand 
OF his fair miftrefs. 
{n the afternoon 
He will with fome itrange paftinie fo/ace them. 
The ladies were not peculiarly in need 
of confvlaiiow: but the verb is here ufed, 
as I have already obferved, for one of the 
Latin fignifications, te exhilarate. 
Yours, &c. 
Tower-Hill, SP Lp! 
June’ 5, 1806. 
omens 25. setae 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
A aniwer to your corre{pondent “ A, 
Wiliams,” in your Jaft Number, who 
has @arted {ome very fingular doubts con- 
cerning the Etymology of the word Ezg- 
land, i take the liberty to fend you the 
followin» obfervations, which I with you 
may find worthy of a place in your luerary 
repohtory. ‘ 
I cannot help putting Mr. Williams in 
mind, that chronology is the eye of hif- 
tory, and that, unlefs he takes the for- 
mer to his aid, he will for ever be inca- 
pable of finding his way through the 
mazes of thelatter. If he had been aware 
of this, and if he had, witha litile more 
attention, confidered the age of the hillo. 
rians whom he has quoted, and that of 
the Saxon conqueft, he would not have 
fallen into deubts fo fingularand fo un- 
founded. Of the authors be has quoted, 
none has wrote before the beginning of 
the 12th, and Codinus lived in the 14th 
century of the Coriftian era, But when 
did the Saxon revolution take place? It 
began in the middle of the fiftr, and w:s 
completed bef: re the clofe of the tixth age; 
conlequently more than sco yéars previ- 
ous to any of thole hiftorians, on whofe 
teftimony Mr, Williams founds his affer- 
tion, that the Britons were life-guards at 
the Grecian court, and currently known 
by the appellation of Enaglihh « confder- 
ably prior to the Saxon revolution.” Per- 
haps thefe hiftorians, however, in {peak- 
ing of the Yarangs as Britons or Englith, 
have recorded events from the fecond, 
third, or fourth xra? We thould fup- 
pote fo from the sanner in which Mr. 
Williams comments upon them; but far 
from it. Anna Comnena (who does not 
call the Varangs Britons or Englifh, but 
Mays that they were from Thule, by which 
itis highly probable that the Grecians, 
On the Etymology of the Word “ England,” 
50 § 
from the time of Procopius, meant Scan- 
civavia) mentions them at the year 1085 ; 
Cinnamus, who calls them Britons, at 
1130; Nicawtas at 11943; Pachymeres at 
1258 end 12613; and Codinus ftill later. 
How then, I am defirous to know, can 
Mr, Willhams bring them back fo far as 
** confiderably prior to the Saxon revolu- 
tion?’ Will he, perhaos, lay fo much 
ftrefs onthe avexa$ev of Cinnamus, which 
he tranflates ** from time immemorial,” 
as thence to infer, that the Britons here 
mentioned, and called Englith, had been 
at the Roman court from the very time 
that Britain was a province of that em. 
pire? I fhall not dwell on the impropri- 
ety of building (uch a conjecture on a 
fingle word, which may, with equal faci. 
lity at leaft, admit of anovher interpreta- 
tion. I fhall only afk, if the Baguyyos 
(‘or they ave the perfons in queftion) had 
been fo long in that diftinguithed tiation, 
how fhould it come to pafs that no writer 
has taken notice of them before the be- 
ginning of the eleventh century? For, 
to my belt recollection, Cedrenus is the 
firft who mentions them at the year TOR? S 
and he does net yet call them Britons or 
Englifh. The firt who gives them that 
denomination is Cinnamus, at1130. Be- 
ides, fuppofe even that they were from 
the mot remote period, might not an au. 
thor of the tweltth century happen to ap- 
ply the name of Exgli/h, familiar to him, 
to ages in which at did not yet exit? And 
when no records of a more ancient date 
concurred in proving the prooriety of that 
application, what argument could thence 
be drawn for fubverting the ufual etymo- 
logy of that word? 
Thus much, I believe, is fully fufficie 
ent toconvince Mr, Williams that the per- 
fons alluded to, and familiarly called 
Lxghjb, in the quotavions adduced by him, 
were, by feveral ages, pofterior, not 
** confiderably prior,’’ to the Saxon re- 
volution, and, coniequently, that their 
being called Englih cannot in the leat 
interfere with the ufual, and, beyoad 
doubt, the only true etymology of the 
word England. But for fill farther cone 
viction, if he fhould with to learn when, 
and on what cccafion thofe Englifh Bri- 
tons came to the court of Conttantinople, 
I will refer him to Torrfeus and Order¢- 
cus Vitalis, by whom we are informed 
that it happened during the reions of 
Alexivs Comnenus in Conttantinople, and 
of William the Conqueror in Eagland, 
whofe oppreflive government was the 
caufe of their emigration, Ordericus Vi. 
talis, ¢lpecially, (1.4, ‘p.508, in Du- 
chefniz 
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