Aldhelm's Latin Poetry and Old English Verse
Michael Lapidge
A FEW YEARS AGO, in the pages of Comparative Literature, W. F. Bolton made an eloquent plea for Anglo-Latin literature by students Old English.' Bolton's was eminently justified. With rare exceptions, has been explored English scholars only with a view to locating sources texts, motifs, and images. Yet, as saw clearly, Anglo-Saxons Latin were alternative literary language [s], there deep between them (p. 165), dependency which, I assume, extended far beyond borrowing material verbal expressions. The following are attempt respond study both literatures side examining metrical peculiarities poetry Aldhelm, who died abbot Malmesbury bishop Sherborne 709,2 unquestionably first perhaps most prodigious Anglo-Saxon man letters, whose lengthy Carmen de Virginitate3 full-scale poem be composed British Isles. No one ever properly appreciated unique cardinal position Aldhelm occupies history poetry: he medieval poet long tracts quantitative verse not native speaker Latin.4 Consider his immediate pre-
Comparative Literature