Scborham's version of the Psalms could scarcely have been completed, when another was undertaken by Richard Rolle, chantrv priest at Hampole, near j Doncaster, who died in 1349. Of this work of Rolle, to which he subjoined a commentary, there were copies which differed from each other, showing that the orig- inal must have been altered to some extent. The fol- j lowing is a specimen of this version — Ps. lxxix, 1-6 : j
God, gens come in thin heritage; thei filed thi holy tem- pul, thei sette Jerusalem in kepyng of appuls. Thei sette the dyande bodyes of thi seruaunts mete to the fowles of the lyft; flesche of thi halowes to bestis of erthe. Thei spille hore Mode as watir in vmgong of Jerusalem ; and none was for to graue, : hade we are reprofe to oure neghbors ; skornynge and heth- ing to alle that in oure vmgong are. Howe lunge, Lord, shalt thou be wrothe in ende ; kyndelt shal be thi luf as fire. ! Helde, or het, thi wrathe in gens that thee not knew ; and in | kyngdoms that thi nome incalde not.
All these versions were made from the Latin ; and some of the venerable relics still exist in manuscript in the public libraries in the kingdom. A few of them have been printed as objects of literary curiosity.
It was not till about the year 1382 that our lan- guage was enriched with a complete copy of the Scriptures, by the hands of Wycliffe and his coad- ; jutors, not improbably with the aid of other fragment- ary portions then existing. This translation was made from the Latin Vulgate, collated with other old copies. For several centuries there had occasionally been found in England some scholars acquainted with the Hebrew and Greek languages ; and, though Wycliffe occasionally introduced Greek words in some of his writings, yet it seems scarcely probable that the knowl- edge of Greek possessed by him was at all sufficient to enable him to translate from that language. Hence, if the E-ible must be translated at all, it must be from the Latin. It belonged to a later and more critical ! age to use the originals in forming vernacular versions of the Scriptures. The translation of the New Testa- j nient was probably the work of Wycliffe himself. During its progress, the Old Testament was taken in j hand by one of Wycliffe's coadjutors; and from a note written in one manuscript, at the end of a portion of the Rook of Baruch, the translation is assigned to Nicholas de Hereford. Not unlikely the cause of this manuscript, and also of another which is prob- ably a copy, suddenly breaking off in the Book of Ba- ruch, was the summons which Hereford received to appear before the Synod in 1382. The translation was evidently completed by a different hand, not improba- bly by Wycliffe himself. However this may be, it was certainly through Wycliffe's energy that the earliest translation of the whole Bible in the English language was carried on and executed. Many of the peculiarities of this translation are to be attributed to the time in which Wycliffe lived ; and it is remark- aide that, in his version of the Scriptures, he writes far more intelligible English than is found in his orig- inal works; the dignity of the book which b.3 trans- lated seems to have imparted an excellence of ex- pression to the version itself. No part of the gen- uine version of Wycliffe was printed, excepting the Song of Solomon, by Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Com- mentary, until 1848, when Mr. L. Wilson published the New Testament in a beautiful Gothic- letter quarto volume. More recently, the entire Bible, accompanied with Purvey's revision, has been published. The fol- lowing are specimens of Wycliffe's translation — Gen. iii, 7,8; Luke viii, 31-33:
And the eizen of both being openyd ; and whanne thei fenewen hem silf to be nakid, thei soweden to gidre leeues of a fige tree, and maden hem brechis. And whanne thei herden the voys of the Lord (rod goynge in paradis at the shynyng after myd dai, Adam hid hym and his wijf fro the face of the Lord t;od in the myddel of the tree of paradis.
And thei preiden him, that he schulde not comaunde hem, that thei echulden go in to the depnesse. _ Forsothea flok of manye hoggis was there lesewynge in an hil, and thei preiedeu him, that he schulde suffre hem to entre in to hem. And he suflride hem. Therefore fendis wenten out fro the man, and entride iu to hoggis ; and with hire the Hoc wente hedlinge in to the lake of water, and was stranglid.
As Wycliffe's translation was completed in a com- paratively short space of time, and necessarily pos- sessed blemishes incident to a first edition, it is not surprising that a revised version was contemplated even in the lifetime of Wycliffe himself. According- ly, about the year 1388, not more than four years after the death of Wycliffe, the revision was accomplished, but with few substantial differences of interpretation, by Purvey, who had been Wycliffe's curate, and, af- . ter his death, became the leader of the Lollard party. Purvey's revision rendered the version more correct, intelligible, and popular, and caused the earlier trans- lation to fall into disuse. Copies of this revision were rapidly multiplied ; even now, more than one hundred and fifty copies of the whole or part of Purvey's Bible are in existence. The following are specimens of Purvey's version — Gen. iii, 7, 8; Luke viii, 31-33 :