William L'Isle
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William L'Isle (also Lisle) (1569–1637) was an English antiquary and scholar of
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
literature.


Life

He was second of the five sons of Edmond Lisle of
Tandridge, Surrey Tandridge is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Tandridge District, in the county of Surrey, England. Its nucleated village, nucleus is on a rise of the Greensand Ridge between Oxted and Godstone. It includes, toward ...
; the family probably took its name from the Isle of Ely. His mother was Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Rudston of Cambridgeshire. His father's sister Mary was mother by her second husband of Thomas Ravis, later bishop of London, at whose request L'Isle composed an
epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
against Andrew Melvill. He was also related to
Sir Henry Spelman Sir Henry Spelman (c. 1562 – October 1641) was an English antiquary, noted for his detailed collections of medieval records, in particular of church councils. Life Spelman was born in Congham, Norfolk, the eldest son of Henry Spelman (d. 1581 ...
the antiquary. His eldest brother, George, settled at South Petherton in Somerset. Of his younger brothers, Edmund became sewer of the chamber to Queen Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, and captain of Walmer Castle; Nicholas and Thomas respectively married the two daughters of Nicholas Brooke, sewer of the chamber to Elizabeth. L'Isle was a scholar at Eton College, and in 1584 entered King's College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1589 and M.A. in 1592 and became a Fellow of his college. He resigned his fellowship after 1608 in order to take possession of an estate which had been left him in the ancestral home at Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire. Subsequently, L'Isle became one of the esquires extraordinary to James I. He returned to Cambridge and spent most of his time there. He took part in a violent quarrel in King's College in August 1608, which resulted in the wounding of the vice-chancellor
Roger Goad Roger Goad (1538–1610) was an English academic theologian, Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and three times Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Life He was born at Horton, Buckinghamshire, and was educated at Eton College and ...
. Goad brought the matter to the notice of the chancellor,
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, (1 June 156324 May 1612), was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart period, Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury s ...
; L'Isle then wrote submitting to Salisbury's jurisdiction and begging not to be deprived for his offence, citing thirty years' study in the university, and no action was apparently taken against him. L'Isle was taken ill at Chesterton Cambridgeshire, and was moved to Wilbraham, where he died in September 1637. Like his younger brother Edmund, who died a month later, he was buried at Walmer, where a monument to their memory was erected in the church.


Works

Lisle was a pioneer in the study of Anglo-Saxon. He is one of the known owners of the E manuscript of the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...
'', the so-called Peterborough Chronicle, in which he made notes on interleaved pages. Interest in the doctrinal position of the early English church on various points in controversy in his day first led him in that direction. In 1623 he printed and published for the first time, with an English translation, the ‘Treatise on the Old and New Testament,’ by Ælfric Grammaticus, whom Lisle wrongly identified with
Ælfric of Abingdon Ælfric of Abingdon and also known as Ælfric of Wessex. (died 16 November 1005) was a late 10th-century Archbishop of Canterbury. He previously held the offices of abbot of St Albans Abbey and Bishop of Ramsbury, as well as likely being the abb ...
the archbishop of Canterbury. Lisle found the manuscript in
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet (22 January 1570/71 – 6 May 1631) of Conington Hall in the parish of Conington in Huntingdonshire, England,Kyle, Chris & Sgroi was a Member of Parliament and an antiquarian who founded the Cotton library. ...
's library (Bodl. Laud E. 19). An appendix contained ‘the Homilies and Epistles of the fore-said Ælfricus,’ and a second edition of ‘A Testimonie of Antiquitie, etc., touching the Sacrament of the Bodie and Bloud of the Lord,’ first issued by Archbishop Matthew Parker and Parker's secretary,
John Joscelyn John Joscelyn, also John Jocelyn or John Joscelin, (1529–1603) was an English clergyman and antiquarian as well as secretary to Matthew Parker, an Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Joscelyn was involved ...
in 1566. There follow two extracts from (a) Ælfric's ‘Epistle to Walfine, Bishop of Scyrburne,’ and (b) his ‘Epistle to Wulfstan, Archbishop of York,’ expressing disapproval of a long preservation of the consecrated elements after Easter day. The book concludes with the
Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
, the Creed, and Ten Commandments in Anglo-Saxon, with a verbal interlinear translation intended to serve as exercises for beginners. There was a second edition of this "Saxon Treatise" under the title of ''Divers Ancient Monuments'' in 1638, the year after his death. The major editions of Anglo-Saxon works which he had projected were Ælfric's translations of the Pentateuch, and the books of Joshua, Judges, and Job, and also the '' Saxon-English Psalter''. Lisle was also the author of some verse. In 1598 he published translations of parts of
Du Bartas Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544, in Monfort – July 1590, in Mauvezin) was a Gascon Huguenot courtier and poet. Trained as a doctor of law, he served in the court of Henri de Navarre for most of his career. Du Bartas was celebrated acr ...
's ''Weeks'', but no copy is extant. In 1625 appeared a still larger instalment of Du Bartas in English and French, ‘so neare the French Englisshed as may teach an Englishman French, or a Frenchman English. With the commentary of S. G ulart deS nlis’ The portion translated includes the end of the fourth book of ‘Adam’ and all four books of ‘Noah,’ the subjects of the poems for the first two days of the second week. The volume closes with an ‘Epistle dedicatorie to the Lord Admirall,’ Lord Howard of Effingham dated 1596, and evidently a reprint from the original edition. In 1619 he wrote two Latin hexameter poems addressed to his neighbour, Michael Dalton, and prefixed to the second edition of his ''Countrey Justice'' published in that year. In 1628 appeared ‘Virgil's Eclogues, translated into English by W. L., Gent.,’ with the gloss of
Ludovicus Vives Juan Luis Vives March ( la, Joannes Lodovicus Vives, lit=Juan Luis Vives; ca, Joan Lluís Vives i March; nl, Jan Ludovicus Vives; 6 March 6 May 1540) was a Spaniards, Spanish (Valencian people, Valencian) scholar ...
. Part of these had been translated as early as 1600, though not published. He brought out in 1631 a rhymed version, with abridgments and additions, of
Heliodorus Heliodorus is a Greek name meaning "Gift of the Sun". Several persons named Heliodorus are known to us from ancient times, the best known of which are: *Heliodorus (minister) a minister of Seleucus IV Philopator c. 175 BC * Heliodorus of Athen ...
' Aethiopica.Under the title ‘The Faire Æthiopian, dedicated to the King and Queene by their Maiesties most humble Subject and Seruant William L'isle.’ In 1638 there was a reissue of the work with the title ‘The Famous Historie of Heliodorus amplified, augmented, and delivered periphrastically in verse.’ Lisle also wrote the verse inscription on the tomb of William Benson, his aunt Mary Lisle's second son by her first husband, who was buried in St Olave's, Southwark.


References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Lisle, William 1569 births 1637 deaths Anglo-Saxon studies scholars Alumni of King's College, Cambridge People educated at Eton College Fellows of King's College, Cambridge People from Cambridge