The late erudite, and ever to be lamented Rev. J.J. Conybeare, successively Professor of the Saxon language, and of English Poetry in the University of Oxford, discovered, in the exhaustless treasures of the Bodleian Library, a portion of the Old English Poem in question: but it was a portion only. In the 21st. vol. of the Archæologia, Mr. Conybeare gave an account of this fortunate discovery, and subjoined the poetical fragment. Mr. Frederick Madden, one of the Librarians attached to the MS. department in the British Museum, was perhaps yet more fortunate in the discovery of the portion which was lost: and in the 22d. vol. of the _Archæologia_, just published, (pp. 350-398), he has annexed an abstract of the remaining fragment, with copious and learned notes. This fragment had found its way, in a prose attire, into the well-known English MS. Chronicle, called the BRUTE:--usually (but most absurdly) attributed to Caxton. It is not however to be found in _all_ the copies of this Chronicle. On the contrary, Mr. Madden, after an examination of several copies of this MS. has found the poem only in four of them: namely, in two among the Harleian MSS. (Nos. 753; 2256--from which _his_ transcript and collation have been made) in one belonging to Mr. Coke of Holkham, and in a fourth belonging to the _Cotton_ Collection:--Galba E. viii. This latter MS. has a very close correspondence with the _second_ Harl. MS. but is often faulty from errors of the Scribe, See _Gentleman's Magazine, May_, 1829.
So much for the history of the discovery of this precious old English Poem--which is allowed to be a contemporaneous production of the time of the Siege--namely, A.D. 1418. A word as to its intrinsic worth--from the testimony of the Critic most competent to appreciate it. "It will be admitted, I believe, (says Mr. Madden) by all who will take the trouble to compare the various contemporary narratives of the Siege of Rouen, that in point of simplicity, clearness, and minuteness of detail, there is NO existing document which can COMPARE with the Poem before us. Its authenticity is sufficiently established, from the fact of the Author's having been an EYEWITNESS of the whole. If we review the names of those Historians who lived at the same period, we shall have abundant reason to rejoice at so valuable an accession to our present stock of information on the subject." _Archæologia_, vol. xxii. p. 353. The reader shall be no longer detained from a specimen or two of the poem itself, which should seem fully to justify the eulogy of the Critic.