dialect in MS. Laud 471, in the Bodleian Library, along with their
French originals. They are printed in Morris's _Old English
Miscellany_, and two of them will be found in _Specimens of Early
English_, Part I, p. 141. The former of these is for the Epiphany,
the text being taken from Matt. ii 1. The date is just before 1250.
I give an extract.

The kinges hem wenten and hi seghen the sterre thet yede bifore hem,
alwat hi kam over tho huse war ure loverd was; and alswo hi hedden
i-fonden ure loverd, swo hin an-urede, and him offrede hire
offrendes, gold, and stor, and mirre. Tho nicht efter thet aperede
an ongel of hevene in here slepe ine metinge, and hem seide and het,
thet hi ne solde ayen wende be herodes, ac be an other weye wende
into hire londes.

That is:

The kings went (them), and they saw the star that went before them
until it came over the house where our Lord was; and as-soon-as they
had found our Lord, so (they) honoured him, and offered him their
offerings, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. The night after that
(there) appeared an angel from heaven in their sleep, in a dream,
and said to-them and commanded, that they should not wend again
near Herod, but by another way wend to their lands.

In the days of Edward II (1307-27) flourished William of Shoreham,
named from Shoreham (Kent), near Otford and Sevenoaks, who was
appointed vicar of Chart-Sutton in 1320. He translated the Psalter
into English prose, and wrote some religious poems, chiefly relating
to church-services, which were edited by T. Wright for the Percy