r. tom. i. p. 52. Ep. xxxviii. It was written
about 796.

[279] He was also very careful in instructing the scribes to
punctuate with accuracy, which he deemed of great importance. See
Ep. lxxxv. p. 126.

[280] Necrolog. MS. Capituli, Metropolitani Salisburgensis, _apud_
Froben, tom. i. p. lxxxi.

[281] Charlemagne founded several libraries;--see _Koeler, Dissert.
de Biblio. Caroli Mog._ published in 1727. Eginhart mentions his
private collection, and it is thus spoken of in the emperor's will;
"Similiter et de libris, quorum magna in bibliotheca sua copiam
congregavit: statuit ut ab iis qui eos habere uellet, justo pretio
redimeretur, pretin in pauperes erogaretur." Echin. Vita Caroli, p.
366, edit. 24mo. 1562. Yet we cannot but regret the dispersion of
this imperial library.

[282] Formerly called _Streaneshalch_.

[283] At the age of 66, _Bede_, b. iv. cxxiii.

[284] Bede, b. iv. c. xxiv.

[285] John de Trevisa says, "Caedmon of Whitaby was inspired of the
Holy Gost, and made wonder poisyes an Englisch, meiz of al the
Storyes of Holy Writ." _MS. Harleian_, 1900, fol. 43, a.

[286] Ibid.

[287] Cottonian Collection marked _Claudius_, B. iv. There is
another MS. in the Bodleian (_Junius_ XI.) It was printed by Junius
in 1655, in 4to. Sturt has engraved some of the illuminations in his
_Saxon Antiquities_, and they were also copied and published by J.
Greene, F. A. S., in 1754, in fifteen plates.

[288] It is unfortunately imperfect at the end, and wants folio 32.

[289] Take the following as an instance of the similarity of thought
between the two poets. Sharon Turner thus renders a portion of
Satan's speech from the Saxon of Caedmon:

"Yet why should I sue for his grace?
Or bend to him with any obedience?
I may be a God as he is.
Stand by me strong companions."
_Hist. Anglo Sax._ vol. ii. p. 314.

The idea is with Milton:

. . . . . . . . To bow to one for grace
With suppliant knee, and deify his power,
Who from the terror of this arm so late
Doubted his empire; that were low indeed!
That were an ignominy, and shame beneath
This downfall!
_Paradise Lost_, b. i.

[290] He will find it in Charlton's History of Whitby, 4to. 1779, p.
113.