Description:This collection of twenty-nine papers, written by an international line up of contributors, are in honour of E. G. Stanley. Applying Stanley's approach of 'wise scepticism' as a critical stance, the contributors illustrate the advantages of following John Donne's axiom 'doubt wisely'. In doing so they provide new analyses of such difficult but rewarding fields as: Old English metre and syntax Beowulf the origins and development of standard English the definitions of Old English words and connotations the styles and themes of Old English poems