struggle. In 877 his cause seemed to be lost, but in 878 the King of
Wessex was victorious. He made peace with the conquered Danes, and
their king, Guthrum, was baptized. And now he had to guide in peace the
nation which he had guided in war. He had to reconstruct the social and
political fabric which had been shattered by the devastations and panics
of three generations. In all his reconstruction there is manifested a
purpose not only of restoration, but also of improvement and reform. This
is conspicuous in his revision of the West Saxon Laws. The Law-book then
in use was that of King Ina (688-726). When Alfred’s code was published,
that of Ina was not abolished, but it was re-edited in the same volume,
after the manner of an appendix to Alfred’s Laws. That a new departure
was purposed is indicated by the new feature of a Prologue composed
of the Decalogue and kindred selections from Scripture. This is to be
understood partly as a consecration of the new Law-book; but further, as
the inauguration of a new principle, namely, that laws are founded in
right reason and have their highest sanction in religion. Before Alfred’s
time laws had rested upon tradition, deriving their force from the fact
that they were ancestral, or if reasoned at all were based upon a stunted
and barbaric type of reasoning. We happen to have an extant example in
which we can compare a law of Ina’s with Alfred’s reform of it. In the
case of damage to a wood, the old law drew a distinction between injury
by fire and injury by the axe, and that by fire was punished far more
heavily than the other, for this assigned reason—that fire is a thief and
works silently, whereas the axe announces itself.
“In case any one burn a tree in a wood, and it come to light who did it,
let him pay the full penalty, let him give sixty shillings, because fire
is a thief. If one fell in a wood ever so many trees, and it be found out
afterwards, let him pay for three trees, each with thirty shillings.
He is not required to pay for more of them, however many they might be,
because the axe is a reporter and not a thief (forðon seo æsc biþ melda,
nalles ðeof).”
This contrast could be retorted: for it might be urged that if fire is a
thief relatively to the owner of the wood, so is it also relatively to
the defendant, for it had started up afresh when he had left the place
thinking that all was safe. The worst that could be proved upon him
was the want of _sufficient_ caution. In fact, the law is only good as
against arson, wanton or malicious; and for that case it is not severe
enough. It may be assumed that in the bulk of cases damage by fire would
be undesigned and accidental.
But where the axe is used there can be no doubt about the motive. The man
who fells another man’s timber does so plainly with intent to steal, and
the noise of the axe is not extenuating but rather aggravating by reason
of its audacity.
In Ina’s law all such considerations were prevented by two venerable
maxims which said, “Fire is a thief, but the axe is outspoken.” Jacob
Grimm, in his _Antiquities of Law_, produced some parallels from old
German codes, but he gave the palm to this of ours for its poetic tinge.
Moreover, as an indication of the national instinct which is favourable
to whatever is open and straightforward, it may be interesting; but the
distinction was bad as law, and it was abolished by King Alfred. His new
law equalised the penalty thus: “If a man burn or hew another man’s wood
without leave, let him pay for every great tree with five shillings, and
afterwards for each, let there be ever so many, with five pence;—and a
fine of thirty shillings.”
The closing words of the king’s Prologue are as follows:—
“I, Alfred the King, gathered these (laws) together and ordered many
to be written which our forefathers held, such as I approved, and many
which I approved not I rejected, and had other ordinances enacted with
the counsel of my Witan; for I dared not venture to set much of my own
upon the statute-book, for I knew not what might be approved by those who
should come after us. But such ordinances as I found, either in the time
of my kinsman Ina, or of Offa, King of the Mercians, or of Ethelberht,
who first received baptism in England—such as seemed to me rightest I
have collected here, and the rest I have let drop.
“I, then, Alfred, King of the West Saxons, showed these laws to all my
Witan, and they then said that they all approved of them as proper to be
holden.”
[Illustration: THE SEASONS—JULY TO SEPTEMBER
(_Cottonian Library_)]
The same spirit of improvement and vigorous initiative is manifested in
his famous translations. Either by his own knowledge or by the good
advice which he knew how to obtain and appreciate, he selected from the
books then accessible those which were calculated to be most generally
useful to his people. The chief books were five, the productions of four
authors: one by Orosius, written about A.D. 412; one by Boethius, of
about A.D. 522; two by Gregory the Great, written towards A.D. 600; and
one by the Venerable Bede, which was brought to a close in the year 731.
It may be useful to add a few particulars about each of the works which
appear to have constituted the select library of King Alfred.
Orosius was a young priest who came out of Spain into Africa to visit
Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, at the time when that Father of the Latin
Church was writing his greatest work, which he entitled the _City of
God_. The occasion for this work arose out of the sack of Rome by Alaric
the Goth in the year 410. A great outcry was made by the pagans against
Christianity, as if it had been the cause of calamities which they
attributed to the displeasure of the ancient gods for their neglected
altars. In his _City of God_, which was conceived as an answer to this
charge, Augustine constructed his argument upon a broad view of human
history, urging that events must not be interpreted in an isolated
manner, but must be taken with their connection and sequence; and then we
shall discern signs of a great providential purpose guiding mankind in a
progressive course of amelioration. The old dispensation prepared men for
a fuller revelation, and the spread of Christianity has brought manifest
improvement in the condition of human life. The heathen empires of the
world, as Babylon in the East and Rome in the West, have been active
though unconscious factors in this vast and beneficent process. The book
is in fact a philosophy of history, with the Gospel for its pivot, and
all events subordinated to this master principle. The thesis is developed
with an extraordinary wealth of reasoning and illustration. To make this
great argument the more complete, Orosius undertook, at Augustine’s
request, to write a compendium of general history in the same spirit,
and accordingly he loses no opportunity of showing up the calamities of
the old heathen times, and indicating the tendency of Christianity to
mitigate the horrors of war. This book of Orosius became the recognised
manual of general history down to the sixteenth century.
The _Consolation of Philosophy_ by Boethius was the chief if not the
sole representative of the philosophy, the ethics, and the religious
aspirations of the ancients during the Dark and early Middle Ages. The
author is thus introduced by Gibbon: “The senator Boethius is the last
of the Romans whom Cato or Tully could have acknowledged for their
countryman.” Suspected by Theodoric, the Gothic King of Italy, of the
crime of Roman patriotism, he was cast into prison, and a sentence
of confiscation and death was pronounced against him, while he was
denied the means of making his defence. Chained and in view of death he
composed the _Consolation of Philosophy_, of which Gibbon says: “A golden
volume, not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully, but which claims
incomparable merit from the barbarism of the times and the situation of
the author.”[26]
Gregory the Great, who in A.D. 597 sent Augustine with his missionary
band to the King of Kent, is a name which through the whole extent of
Anglo-Saxon literature is mentioned with a peculiar veneration. From his
writings the king took two books to be included in his library of English
translations. The first was his _Pastoral Care_ (_Cura Pastoralis_), a
guide-book for the use of the priest, to instruct the consciences of
those who come to him for spiritual counsel; and as it is the first,
so it may safely be pronounced the best of all manuals of the kind.
Gregory’s ideal is a world governed by conscience, and the spirit of the
_Cura Pastoralis_ would transform all men into worthy citizens of such a
polity.
The other book of Gregory’s which Alfred took was of a different kind.
The _Dialogues_ are stories of a sensational or even grotesque character,
with a religious moral. They are calculated for a childish level of
intelligence, and were designed to compete with the degrading tales which
were the entertainment of barbarian circles. This book, which enjoyed the
highest popularity for centuries, and was among the earliest books to be
printed, is now entirely neglected, and Alfred’s translation has not yet
been edited.
Bede was born in the neighbourhood of Wearmouth in 672. In his seventh
year he entered the abbey recently founded there by Benedict Biscop, who
was the first abbot. In that and the sister house of Jarrow he continued
to his death in 735. He wrote _Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum_,
the History of the Conversion of the Angles and Saxons and of their
Earliest Ecclesiastical Institutions. No other national church possesses
a history of equal merit.[27] This was the youngest book on Alfred’s
list, and as Orosius was, what Pauli calls it,[28] a Chronicle of the
World, so this was a History of England.
I have thus endeavoured to give some idea of the books chosen by Alfred,
as regards their rank and place in general literature. Our next step
is to consider how Alfred dealt with these books and what he made of
them. In his mind the translator’s function was not to reproduce an
ancient author, but to produce a useful work. How he treated Orosius may
readily be seen by any one who will examine the latest edition of the
translation, that by Dr. Sweet (Early English Text Society). He hit upon
the admirable plan of printing opposite the translation the corresponding
portions of the Latin text, using italics for such parts of the original
as are not literally translated. How great was the freedom of adaptation
is promptly seen by the swarms of italics with which the Latin pages are
bespangled. Besides these adaptations there are substantial additions in
the shape of original contributions by King Alfred to the knowledge of
European geography. First there is a map-like description of the nations
of Central and Northern Europe, which are comprised under the name of
Germania. The author begins with a sketch of his area: by east and west,
from the Don to the sea about Britain; by north and south, from the
Danube and Euxine to the White Sea. Coming to details, he starts with the
East Franks (whose land-mark and memorial now lives in Frankfort), and
with these East Franks for a centre he gives the relative positions of
Swabians, Bavarians, Bohemians, and Thuringians, to the north of whom lie
the Old Saxons, who are bounded on the west by Elbe-mouth and Friesland.
From this point the Old Saxons become the pivot of the description.
This new piece of geographical literature is followed by two narratives
of northern voyagers: Oht-here, who had explored the coast of Norway from
where is now Christiania to far round the North Cape; and Wulfstan, who
explored the southern coasts of the Baltic, and describes the strange
customs of the Esthonians.
These three pieces taken together constitute one homologous group of
ninth-century geography, which fully justifies Reinhold Pauli’s estimate,
that the “Germania” of Alfred is more extensive and better defined than
the “Germania” of Tacitus.
Besides this large insertion there are several smaller ones in the
course of the work, and these may easily be found by observing where
blanks occur on the Latin page of Dr. Sweet’s edition. Where Orosius
tells how M. Fabius refused a Triumph when it was offered to him by
the Senate, the translator inserts two paragraphs, one describing a
Roman Triumph, and the other relating the origin and functions of the
Roman Senate. In Cæsar’s invasion of Britain, where Orosius tells how he
reached the river Thames, which (says he) is fordable in one place only;
the translator adds that the ford is now called Wallingford. In such
occasional insertions we see the beginnings of that vast apparatus of
modern learning which is now relegated to footnotes or to separate books
of reference.
The conditions under which Boethius produced that unique work _The
Consolation of Philosophy_ may have tended to give the book a special
attraction for the mind of the trouble-tossed king. He certainly seems
to have made great use of the book as a text for his own reflections and
meditations. “For although King Alfred professed to translate the work
of Boethius, yet he inserted in various parts many of his own thoughts
and feelings,” etc. These are the words of one who up to the moment of
writing was the latest editor of Alfred’s _Boethius_;[29] but now he must
share the ground with Mr. Sedgefield, whose new and greatly improved text
has just issued from the Clarendon Press. On Alfred’s manner of dealing
with his originals Mr. Sedgefield says: “Even in his most faithful
translation, that of the _Cura Pastoralis_, King Alfred is by no means
what in these days would be called literal; while in his _Boethius_ it
is the exception to find a passage of even a few lines rendered word for
word.” And, we may add, it is precisely this free handling which gives
to the king’s translations their personal interest, and nowhere is this
peculiar attraction so strongly felt as in his adaptation of Boethius.
German research has somewhat modified the inference which ascribed
to Alfred everything in his version which is not found in the text.
Old Latin commentaries and scholia upon the _De Consolatione_ have
been discovered in continental libraries, which contain similar
expansions, especially those in the direction of Christian doctrine.
This discovery enlarges the literary interest, with small detraction
from the work of the king. His glory is not of a kind to rise and fall
by little gradations of more or less. The suggestions supplied by these
commentaries are in their nature very obvious. For, as was observed by
Mr. Stewart, the most casual reader of Boethius cannot fail to be struck
with the strong theism which breathes through his pages, and invites
the touch of paraphrase to give it the full Christian sound, as when
the city of Truth, from which Boethius represents himself as exiled,
becomes under the translator’s hand the heavenly Jerusalem; a thought
which is expressed in the recently discovered scholia. But in Lib. ii.
metr. 4, where the translator brings in the striking sentence, “Christ
dwelleth in the vale of Humility and at the monumental stone of Wisdom,”
the old Latin annotator contributes only this—“The stone is Christ.” Of
the famous simile which likens the world to an egg, there is this much
found in the scholia—“That the sky and the earth and the sea are in
configuration like an egg.” See how this is developed by the poet:[30]—
Ðu gestaðoladest Thou didst establish
þurh þa strongan meaht, through strong might,
weroda wuldor cyning, glorious king of hosts,
wunderlice wonderfully
eorðan swa fæste the earth so fast
þæt hio on ænige that she on any
healfe ne heldeð, side heeleth not,
ne mæg hio hider ne þider nor can hither or thither
sigan þe swiðor any more decline
þe hio symle dyde. than she ever did.
Hwæt hi þeah eorðlices Lo nothing earthly
auht ne haldeð, at all sustains her,
is þeah efn eþe it is equally easy
up and of dune upwards and downwards
to feallanne that there should be a fall
foldan þisse: of this earth:
þæm anlicost likest in fashion to
þe on æge bið how in an egg
gioleca on middan, middlemost is the yolk,
glideð hwæþre and withal gliding free
æg ymbutan. the egg round about.
Swa stent eall weoruld So standeth the world
stille on tille, still in its place,
streamas ymbutan, while streaming around,
lagufloda gelac, water-floods play,
lyfte and tungla, welkin and stars,
and sio scire scell and the shining shell
scriðeð ymbutan circleth about
dogora gehwilce; day by day now
dyde lange swa. as it did long ago.
Book iii. metre 9; p. 182, ed. Sedgefield.
This simile occurs only in the poetical version of the Metres, for there
are two versions, one in prose and another in verse, and it is agreed
that the versification has been done after and from the prose; but there
is a question (into which we cannot now enter) whether Alfred is the
author of both, or only of the prose version.
But before we quit Alfred’s _Boethius_, we must notice his treatment
of Lib. ii. prosa 7, where we may discover something more than free
handling. In the first three lines of that section he found a profession
of disinterestedness which he could honestly appropriate to himself. The
Latin speaks thus: “Thou knowest, said I, that I was never governed by
the ambition of transitory wealth. But material for action I did covet,
that my talents might not rust in idleness.” Upon these lines for a text
the king made his chapter xvii., in which it is evident that he forgets
Boethius and speaks for himself and of himself throughout. Applying his
author’s words to himself, he expands them into a veritable apology,
explaining why a king needs a great revenue, and ending thus: “I resolved
to live honourably as long as I lived, and after my time to leave to the
men who should come after me my memorial in good works.”
Now we come to the translation of the _Cura Pastoralis_, a work of
high and manifold interest.[31] A copy of it was sent to every bishop
in England. The very copy which was addressed to Werferth, Bishop of
Worcester, is still in our possession. It is preserved in the Bodleian
Library, and may be seen under glass by every visitor. This wonderful
relic, like the Alfred Jewel, seems to bring us into personal contact
with the great king himself.
In Alfred’s Epistle to the bishops, which forms his Preface to the
_Pastoralis_, the mind of the king is laid open in a very remarkable
manner. Among the many precious evidences which time has spared for the
perpetuation of a noble memory, the first place must certainly (on the
whole) be accorded to this Preface. It exhibits in the clearest light
the reflections of the king upon the past and present condition of his
country, his deep sense of the vast losses that had been sustained, his
meditation on the means of repair at his command, and the direction of
his thoughts to that which is the only root of effective reform, an
enlightened and instructed national conscience. In his contemplation of
this vital principle, he perceives the value of religious education, and
the necessity of beginning there. At this point his discourse enters more
into detail, the practical drift of which is, that the Latin schools
being lost, and being (for the present at least) irreplaceable, it will
be necessary to institute a system of education through the medium of
the English language. Some scholars thought that education could only be
properly conducted through Latin, and that the vernacular would lower
its dignity and value. They could not wholly approve of the method of
translations. Here Alfred had nearly the same battle to fight as Jerome
fought before him, and in his apology he drew materials from Jerome’s
store, adding the further inference that if Scripture might be had in the
vulgar tongue, why not other good books?
Children (he thought) should be taught to read English, and this
elementary stage of education should be common to all of free birth.
For the sons of those who could afford to prolong the education of
their children, Latin studies should follow, and such boys should be
trained for the higher offices. Here the English basis of education
is propounded as a course which was dictated by necessity; but if ever
it should be demonstrated that this course is absolutely the best, the
credit of having been the first to open the right path must not on that
account be denied to King Alfred. In the good old times, Wessex had been
far behind Northumbria in the culture of the classics, but this had led
to a fuller development of the vernacular, and Alfred found his mother
tongue not inadequate to the occasion, and large specimens of Latin
literature were rendered in West Saxon, and thus it happened that the
dialect of Wessex became to the after literature of England what the
Attic dialect was to the literature of Greece.
The king’s letter to the bishops begins thus:—
ÐEOS BÔC SCEAL TO WIOGORA CEASTRE
THIS BOOK IS TO GO TO WORCESTER
Alfred, king, commandeth to greet Wærferth, bishop, with
his words in loving and friendly wise: and I would have you
informed that it has often come into my remembrance, what
wise men there formerly were among the Angle race, both of
the sacred orders and the secular; and how happy times those
were throughout the Angle race; and how the kings who had
the government of the folk in those days obeyed God and His
messengers; and they on the one hand maintained their peace
and their customs and their authority within their borders,
while at the same time they spread their territory outwards;
and how it then went well with them both in war and in wisdom;
and likewise the sacred orders, how earnest they were, as well
about teaching as about learning, and about all the services
that they owed to God; and how people from abroad came to this
land for wisdom and instruction; and how we now should have to
get them abroad if we were going to have them. So clean was
it fallen away in the Angle race, that there were very few on
this side Humber who would know how to render their services in
English, or just read off an epistle out of Latin into English;
and I wean that not many would be on the other side Humber.
So few of them were there that I cannot think of so much as
a single one south of Thames when I took to the realm. God
Almighty be thanked that we have now any teachers in office.
Moreover, the king called also to mind what he had himself seen in his
early days, before all the harryings and burnings of recent times:
how the churches of England had been well stored with books, and the
clergy were numerous, but they had profited little by the books, because
they could not understand them, as they were not written in their own
language. At this point his eloquence rises to a dramatic pitch, and
“It is,” he breaks out, “as if they had said: ‘Our ancestors, who were
the masters of these sacred places, they loved wisdom, and by means of
it they acquired wealth and left it to us. Here may yet be seen their
traces, but we are not able to walk in their steps, forasmuch as we have
now lost both the wealth and the wisdom, because we were not willing to
bend our minds to that pursuit.’” Remembering all this, he had marvelled
very exceedingly at those good scholars who were once so frequent in
England, men who had completely mastered the Latin books, that they had
not been willing to translate any part of them into their own language.
But he soon answered himself and said, that they never could have
anticipated the present utter decay, and it was their very zeal for
learning which caused them to abstain from translating, because they
thought that the path of education and knowledge lay through the study of
languages.
Then I remembered how the law of Moses was first known in
Hebrew; and later, when the Greeks had learned it, they
translated it into their own language, and all other books too.
And later still the Latin people in the same manner, they by
means of wise interpreters, translated all the books into their
own speech. And so also did all the other Christian nations
translate some portion of the books into their own speech.