Skeat , Walter William , 1835-1912 , Professor of Anglo-Saxon , philologist , Anglican clergyman

Born in London, 1835; educated at King's College School (where the Anglo-Saxon scholar Thomas Oswald Cockayne was his form-master) and Highgate School; entered Christ's College, Cambridge, 1854; studied theology and mathematics; took the mathematical tripos (fourteenth wrangler), 1858; elected a fellow of Christ's College, 1860; took orders, 1860; curate of East Dereham, Norfolk, 1860; curate of Godalming, but illness ended his career in the church; returned to Cambridge and was appointed lecturer in mathematics, Christ's College, 1864; Fellow of Christ's College; began the serious study of Early English; following the foundation of the Early English Text Society (1864) by Frederick James Furnivall and Richard Morris, Skeat produced editions of texts; founder and president of the English Dialect Society, 1873-1896; elected to the new Elrington and Bosworth professorship of Anglo-Saxon, Cambridge, 1878; in his later years, pursued the systematic study of place-names; Fellow of the British Academy; died in Cambridge, 1912. Publications (as editor and author): Songs and Ballads of Uhland (1864); Lancelot of the Laik (1865); Parallel Extracts from MSS of Piers Plowman (1866); Romance of Partenay (1866); A Tale of Ludlow Castle (1866); Langland's Piers Plowman (in four parts, 1867-1884); Pierce the Plowman's Creed (1867, new edition 1906); William of Palerne (1867); The Lay of Havelok (1868, new edition 1902); A Moeso-Gothic Glossary (1868); Piers Plowman, Prologue and Passus I-VII (1869, 1874, 1879, 1886, 1889, 1891, etc); John Barbour's The Bruce (in four parts, 1870-1889; another edition, Scottish Text Society, 1893-1895); Joseph of Arimathæa (1871); Chatterton's Poems (2 volumes, 1871, 1890); Specimens of English from 1394 to 1597 (1871, 1879, 1880, 1887, 1890, etc); The four Gospels, in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian (1871-1887); in conjunction with Dr Morris, Specimens of Early English from 1298 to 1393 (1872, 1873, 1894, etc); Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe (1872); Questions in English Literature (1873, 1887); Seven Reprinted Glossaries (1873); Chaucer, The Prioress's Tale, etc (1874, 1877, 1880, 1888, 1891, etc); Seven (other) Reprinted Glossaries (1874); Ray's Collection of English Words not generally used, with rearrangements (1874); Fletcher's The Two Noble Kinsmen (1875); Shakespeare's Plutarch (1875); Five Original Provincial Glossaries (1876); A List of English Words, compared with Icelandic (1876); Chaucer, The Man of Lawes Tale, etc (1877, 1879, 1889, etc); with J H Nodal, Bibliographical List of Works in English Dialects (1873-1877); Alexander and Dindymus (1878); Wycliffe's New Testament (1879); Five Reprinted Glossaries (1879); Specimens of English Dialects (1879); Wycliffe's Job, Psalms, etc (1881); Ælfric's Lives of Saints (in four parts, 1881-1900); The Gospel of St Mark in Gothic (1882); Edwin Guest, History of English Rhythms (new edition by Skeat,1882); Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry (1882); An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (in four parts, 1879-1882, 2nd edition, 1884, 3rd edition, 1898, 4th edition, 1910); A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (1882, 1885, 1887, 1890; new editions (rewritten), 1901, 1911); The Tale of Gamelyn (1884); The Kingis Quair (1884); The Wars of Alexander (1886); Principles of English Etymology, First Series (1887, 1892); in conjunction with A L Mayhe, A Concise Dictionary of Middle English (1888); Chaucer, The Minor Poems (1888, 1896); Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women (1889); Principles of English Etymology, Second Series (1891); Chaucer, Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (1891, 1895); A Primer of English Etymology (1892, 1895); Twelve Facsimiles of Old English Manuscripts (1892); Chaucer, House of Fame (1893); Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (6 volumes, 1894); The Student's Chaucer (1895); Nine Specimens of English Dialects (1895); Two Collections of Derbycisms, by S Pegge (1896); A Student's Pastime (1896) (Skeat's autobiography); Chaucerian Pieces (volume vii of Chaucer's Works) (1897); The Chaucer Canon (1900); Notes on English Etymology (1901); The Place-names of Cambridgeshire (1901); The Place-names of Huntingdonshire (1903); The Place-names of Hertfordshire (1904); A Primer of Classical and English Philology (1905); The Place-names of Bedfordshire (1906); The Proverbs of Alfred (1907); Chaucer's Poems in Modern English (6 volumes, 1904-1908); Piers the Plowman in Modern English (1905); Early English Proverbs (1910); The Place-names of Berkshire (1911); contributions to the Philological Society's Transactions.