[1] What is stated above is, I believe, quite correct. I am however
informed that the first suggestion of my name came from another member of
the electoral board, to whom also I am indebted for many kindnesses.
[2] Benedict of Peterborough, II. vii.
[3] Hoveden, II. lxxviii.
[4] Const. Hist. ii. 621.
[5] Alfred the Great, by Warwick H. Draper, with a Preface by the Lord
Bishop of Hereford, p. 12.
[6] Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological
Society.
[7] Mr. Macfadyen’s Work seems to me a little tinged with this view;
Alfred the West Saxon, by Dugald Macfadyen, cf. especially pp. 161 ff.
[8] This seems to be the Bishop of Bristol’s view: Alfred the Great,
containing chapters on his Life and Times, … edited by Alfred Bowker, pp.
107-112. I refer to this work in future as ‘Essays.’
[9] Alfred in the Chroniclers, by Edward Conybeare, pp. 17, 27, 36. Pauli
had already protested against this view, König Ælfred, p. 209.
[10] See Saxon Chronicle, ii. 75, 76. Two charters, Birch, Nos. 445,
446; K. C. D. Nos. 256, 1047, cited by Pauli, u. s. p. 53, support the
view that Athelstan was the son of Æthelwulf; but, though they are not
asterisked by Kemble, I doubt their genuineness.
[11] The tradition about Erigena has been investigated by Huber, Johann
Scotus Erigena, … München, 1861, pp. 108 ff., who rightly regards it as
baseless. Yet it still hovers about; e.g. Draper, pp. 48, 49; Macfadyen,
pp. 47-49. The Bishop of Bristol seems to me a little inconsistent,
Essays, pp. 107 ff. Huber himself u. s. makes the extraordinary statement
that the Preface to Alfred’s version of the Pastoral Care is not extant.
As it had been printed at least ten times before Huber’s book appeared,
he might have known of its existence. On Erigena there is an interesting
letter by William of Malmesbury, printed in Stubbs’ edition, I. xliii ff.
[12] Essays, pp. 96, 165.
[13] Ed. Arnold, p. 145; Mr. Macfadyen cites the statement from Hoveden,
without definitely accepting or rejecting it, p. 4. This is a nice
instance of the growth of legend. In William of Malmesbury, G. P. pp.
160, 161, Æthelwulf before his accession is a subdeacon; in H. H. he
becomes a bishop; finally Harding’s rhyming chronicle makes him a
cardinal, cited by Pauli, König Ælfred, p. 54. Pity that no one had the
courage to make him Pope!
[14] Essays, pp. 83, 89.
[15] ibid., p. 11.
[16] Conybeare, p. 58.
[17] For the St. Gallen MS. of Orosius, cf. Zangemeister’s edition
(Teubner), pp. 302 ff. For the Donaueschingen MS. cf. Schilling, Ælfred’s
angelsächsische Bearbeitung der Weltgeschichte des Orosius (1886).
[18] See Schepss, Archiv für’s Studium der neueren Sprachen, xciv. 156.
[19] On p. 129 Mr. Conybeare suggests an emendation of the Chronicle
which shows that he has not mastered the Saxon declension of adjectives.
In the same passage of the Chronicle, Mr. Draper confuses Legaceaster
(Chester) with Legraceaster (Leicester), p. 16.
[20] Mr. Conybeare’s knowledge of the sources of English history seems
to stop with the Monumenta Historica Britannica, 1848. He never even
mentions the Rolls Series. He says, e.g., that the Liber de Hyda ‘has
never been printed in full,’ p. 216. It was edited for the R. S. by Mr.
Edward Edwards in 1866; cf. also pp. 120, 144, 161, 173, 177.
[21] Cited by Ebert, Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande, ii. 96.
[22] In regard to the Orosius, Schilling’s dissertation, cited above,
brings this out very well. See below, §§ 99-103.
[23] Essays, p. 187.
[24] Lectures v, vi.
[25] § 93, below.
[26] Saxon Chronicle, II. civ.
[27] Hoveden, I. xc.
[28] Essays, p. 202.
[29] Bede, ii. 28; Saxon Chron. II. cxii.
[30] 892, 899, 900.
[31] 869, 872, 873, 879, 880, 881, 883, 884.
[32] 889, 898.
[33] At 901.
[34] Cf. Ethelred’s Laws, viii. 43: ‘uton niman us to bysnan … Æðelstan ⁊
Eadmund ⁊ Eadgar,’ Schmid, p. 248.
[35] See § 118 below.
[36] Const. Hist. i. 28 (ed. 1854).
[37] Birch, No. 537; K. C. D. No. 304.
[38] Birch, No. 574; K. C. D. No. 1074; cf. Green, C. E., p. 133.
[39] See below, §§ 63, 64, 82.
[40] e.g. Ebert, u. s. iii. 250; Pauli, u. s. p. 4.
[41] 473 C [15], 484 B [39], 485 A [41]; cf. 491 E [56]. For Asser I give
references to M. H. B., adding the pages of Wise’s edition in brackets.
[42] Echoes from the Oxford Magazine, p. 29.
[43] 474 A [16].
[44] 474 B [17].
[45] 475 B [19].
[46] 477 A [23].
[47] 481 C [32].
[48] 484 C [40].
[49] 492 D [58].
[50] 494 A [61].
[51] 470 D [8].
[52] 472 B [12].
[53] 471 C [10].
[54] 476 C [22].
[55] 494 D [63].
[56] Vasallus, 480 B, 481 D [30, 33]; senior, 471 A, B [9, 10], cf. 494
E [64]; indiculus, 487 E _bis_ [48]; comes (= ealdorman), 469 B, D, 470
A, D, 476 A, B, 473 B _bis_, 491 B [5, 6-8, 14, 21 _bis_, 55]. Comes is
also used of the Danish jarls, 476 A-477 B [21-23]. For Frankish use of
vasallus see S. C. H. i. 205; for senior, ib. 193.
[57] 471 E [11]; the circumstances of the anecdote are possible. Charles
the Great’s last wife Liutgarde died in 800. His sons Charles and Pippin
seem never to have married. Beorhtric died in 802.
[58] 472 D [13].
[59] See Chronicle, ii. 80, 81. Prudentius and Hincmar are strictly
contemporary.
[60] 491 A [54].
[61] 483 D [38].
[62] 470 C [8]; Chron. 855.
[63] Writing to Æthelwulf Lupus says: ‘uestrum in Dei cultu feruorem ex
Felice didici, qui epistolarum uestrarum officio fungebatur,’ Migne, Pat.
Lat. cxix. col. 459. Writing to Felix himself, he says that he had known
him formerly in the monastery of Fara [Faremoûtier-en-Brie, see Bede,
ii. 148], which seems to show that Felix was a Frank, ib. col. 462. The
object of these letters was to get the pious Æthelwulf to subscribe to
roofing the monastery of Ferrières with lead.
[64] e.g. for vasallus cf. Pauli, König Ælfred, pp. 12, 13; S. C. H. i.
156, and the charters there cited of the ninth and tenth centuries; for
comes = ealdorman, ib. 158, 159.
[65] Cited in Dict. Nat. Biog. s. v. Grimbald.
[66] ‘Legatos ultra mare … direxit,’ 487 B [46]. Cf. the letter of Fulk
of Rheims to Alfred, Wise, p. 128 (if this is genuine, see § 88 below).
[67] 489 B [51], an addition to the Chron.
[68] ‘Dedit mihi Exanceastre, cum omni parochia quae ad se pertinebat
in Saxonia et Cornubia,’ 489 A [51]. On the meaning of Saxonia see § 30
below.
[69] T. Wright, Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Saxon Period
(1842), pp. 405 ff.
[70] Annales Cambriae, and Brut y Tywysogion, sub anno. (I shall cite the
latter work as Brut.)
[71] MS. D of the Chron. mentions a king of the West Welsh (i.e.
Cornwall) as late as 926. See Chron. II. viii.
[72] 488 A-C [49 f.].
[73] Ann. Cambr. and Brut., sub anno.
[74] Ed. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, pp. 212, 213.
[75] Cf. Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, ii. 384 (ed. 1858).
[76] Ann. Cambr. and Brut, s. aa. 840, 873; cf. Ang. Sac. ii. 648. The
Brut calls him ‘Meuruc escob bonheđic,’ i.e. ‘M. a noble bishop.’ The
origin of this curious mistake is as follows. The Ann. Cambr. at 873 say
‘Nobis episcopus et Meuruc moritur.’ The compiler of the Brut misread
this as ‘Nobilis episcopus Meuruc moritur.’
[77] Ann. Cambr. and Brut, 874.
[78] A Lumberth, bishop of Menevia, dies in 944, Ann. Cambr., or 942,
Brut; but if this is the same person it would give him a tenure of
seventy years.
[79] My friend Bodley’s Librarian has kindly called my attention to an
interesting inscription found in St. Lawrence’s Church at St. Helier’s,
Jersey, about ten years ago, which he thinks confirms the idea of the
existence of a see at Exeter in early times. The interpretation of the
inscription seems to me, however, too uncertain to justify me in making
use of it. Lingard, u. s. suggests that by the grant of Exeter, &c.,
Asser received the western portion of the diocese of Sherborne, and that
on the death of Wulfsige he succeeded to the whole.
[80] ‘Ad patriam remeauimus. Sed cum ab eo discesseramus in Wintonia
ciuitate febris infesta me arripuit; in qua sedulo per duodecim menses et
unam hebdomada die noctuque … laboraui,’ 487 D [48]. A medical friend, to
whom I showed this passage, thinks that this prolonged febrile condition
was probably due to gastritis.
[81] Chronicle, II. ciii. f.
[82] Theopold, Kritische Untersuchungen, p. 32.
[83] e.g. ‘insiliariis’ for ‘insidiariis,’ 470 D [9].
[84] 477 B [24], Flor. i. 85: [‘Pagani uictoria potiuntur. Rursus, duobus
euolutis mensibus, rex Ætheredus et frater eius Ælfredus cum Paganis,
qui se in duas diuiserant turmas, apud Meretun pugnantes, diu uictores
existunt, aduersariis omnibus in fugam uersis; sed illis in proelium
redeuntibus, multi ex his et ex illis corruunt, et] Pagani uictoriam
accipientes loco funeris dominantur.’ The passage within the brackets
has been lost in our text of Asser, owing to the recurrence of the words
‘Pagani uictoria.’ Of course Florence may have modified the passage a
little, as his manner is.
[85] Above, § 12.
[86] e.g. 877, 884.
[87] Elimauit, Flor. i. 96, eleuauit, Asser; aptius, Flor. i. 83,
apertius, Asser. But these are possibly only editorial blunders.
[88] See below, § 25.
[89] 489 C-490 C [52-54].
[90] Oxford Historical Society, 1885.
[91] The writer of the article on Camden in the Dict. Nat. Biog. thinks
that no special blame attaches to Camden in this matter. But I find it
difficult to take his view of the question.
[92] Chronicle, ii. 93.
[93] 480 C-481 B [30-32].
[94] See below, § 46.
[95] Chronicle, ii. 92.
[96] 479 B-480 A [29].
[97] 484 C-485 C [40-42].
[98] König Ælfred, p. 93.
[99] These events really belong to 885; Asser has omitted the year 884,
and so wrongly numbered the succeeding annal. See below, p. 50.
[100] 474 C [17]; 492 C [58].
[101] Especially if the disease indicated be, as some have thought,
epilepsy, with all its deteriorating effects upon the brain; so Green, C.
E., p. 101.
[102] Possible instances are: infatigabiliter studiose, 477 E [25];
Florence omits ‘studiose’; talento telonio, 484 B [39]; Flor. omits
talento; citius plus, 496 D [68]. Not in Flor.
[103] 475 A [19] the printed text has ‘expetiuit,’ but Flor. and two of
the Asser MSS. and ASN have the rare word ‘subarrauit,’ which occurs in
the same sense, 497 B [70].
[104] 484 D [40].
[105] The same sort of thing occurs occasionally even in these days
of the printing press. In the early copies of a recent Blue Book on
China, in the middle of a dispatch of Sir Claude Macdonald, occurred the
following sentence: ‘not very grammatical, but I suppose we must let Sir
Claude Macdonald write as he pleases.’ This is obviously the comment of
some official, written on the margin of his proof, which escaped deletion
when the proof was returned to the printer, and so was incorporated in
the text.
[106] See Gorham, History and Antiquities of Eynesbury and St. Neot’s,
pp. 45 ff. It was in the reign of Edgar, therefore not later than 975.
The body was stolen.
[107] Vol. II. xv. ff.
[108] I use S. D.¹ and S. D.² to indicate the two recensions. That S.
D.² used the original text of Asser is shown by his having the false
reading ‘qui fuit Fingodwulf’ in Alfred’s pedigree, which S. D.¹ omits
and Florence corrects, S. D. ii. 99; that he used S. D.¹ is proved by
the fact that under 853 they both have the false reading ‘Wada’ for
the ‘Huda’ of Asser, Florence, and the Chron., S. D. ii. 71, 102; that
he used Florence is proved by the fact that he gives the amount of
Æthelwulf’s Roman benefaction as ‘ccc mancusas denariorum,’ ii. 103;
where the word ‘denariorum’ is from Florence, and is not in Asser or
S. D.¹ Unfortunately Mr. Arnold is very capricious in his use of large
and small type. He prints in large type, as if original to S. D., many
passages which come from Florence or Asser.
[109] Thus we should read ‘ferri’ for ‘fieri,’ 471 E [11];
‘Stratcluttenses’ for ‘Stratduttenses’ 478 C [27].
[110] 492 D [58].
[111] Gams, Series Episcoporum, p. 452. Elias’ predecessor was
Theodosius, c. 864-879. In the whole list of patriarchs there is no Abel
or Bel.
[112] S. D. ii. 89.
[113] ‘Þis eal hét þus secgean Ælfrede cyninge domne Helias Patriarcha
Gerusalem,’ ii. 290.
[114] ibid., xxiv. f.
[115] pp. 147, 148; cf. Mas Latrie, Trésor de Chronologie, pp. 791, 835.
[116] Shrine, u. s. p. 113. Aug. 5.
[117] In 909 according to MS. C of the Chronicle (Mercian Register); in
906 according to MS. D. The notice of St. Winnoc as ‘lord of the minster
of Wormhoult to the south of the sea,’ p. 145, Nov. 6, is also emphasised
by Mr. Cockayne as proving that the work is earlier than 900, in which
year St. Winnoc’s body was translated to Bergues. But this point, if
insisted on, would prove the work to be earlier than 846. For in that
year St. Winnoc was translated from Wormhoult to St. Omer (_or_ Sithiu).
The translation to Bergues in 900 was from St. Omer, not from Wormhoult.
But an English writer might easily be ignorant of either or both these
translations. It is better therefore not to lay stress on this point. See
the Life of St. Winnoc in Mabillon, AA. SS. iii. 311, 312 (ed. 1672).
An English writer could hardly however have been ignorant of Oswald’s
translation, if it had taken place.
[118] 493 C [60].
[119] See Ducange, s. v.
[120] Malmesbury says of Athelney: ‘ut nullo modo nisi nauigio adiri
queat,’ G. P. p. 199. But ‘nauticis’ cannot mean ‘boats,’ but only
‘sailors.’
[121] 480 B [30].
[122] 487 C [47].
[123] 476 A [21].
[124] 487 C [47].
[125] 488 B [49].
[126] aquilonaris, 469 C [5], 474 C [17]; meridianus, 469 C [6], 476
A [21], 477 D [25], 479 A [28], 482 C [35]. East and west are always
‘orientalis,’ ‘occidentalis,’ occiduus.’ There is nothing like the Irish
‘airther,’ ‘iarthar,’ ‘fore,’ and ‘hinder,’ for east and west.
[127] 467 [1], 473 C [15], 479 A [28], 483 B [37]; cf. Britannica insula,
483 A [36].
[128] König Ælfred, p. 258.
[129] Dextralis [dextera] pars [plaga] Britannie, pp. 161, 169, 212, 223,
237.
[130] Reges et principes [totius regni] D. B. pp. 70, 118; omnes
Ecclesiae totius D. B. p. 115; clerus et populus D. B. p. 165; Dubricius
archiepiscopus D. B. pp. 163, 192; incolae D. B. p. 230; D. B. insulae,
p. 162; cf. p. 269: ‘[Grifud] rex Britannie, et ut sic dicam totius
Gualie’; from which it would seem that ‘Britannia’ is a narrower term
than ‘Gualia’; but their exact relation I do not know.
[131] 470 A [7].
[132] 471 D [10].
[133] 487 B, D, 488 A [47-49]; cf. also 496 A, B [49], where Alfred sends
alms to the monasteries not only of ‘Saxonia’ and Mercia, but also to
those of ‘Britannia,’ Cornwall, Gaul, Armorica, Northumbria, and Ireland.
[134] 477 D, 478 A [25], 483 C [37].
[135] 473 C [15]. Ethelwerd is at the opposite pole to Asser in this
respect, for he uses Australes _Angli_ for Sussex, 510 C, D, and
Occidentales _Angli_ for Wessex, 509 E, 510 D, 514 D, 515 C, 517 C. We
have, however, Saxones Occidentales, 519 A.
[136] 474 C [17], 475 D [20] _bis_, 482 D [35], 483 C, D [37, 38], 484 B
[39].
[137] 470 A [7], 485 D [43], 486 E [46], 492 A [56].
[138] 470 A [7].
[139] 473 C [15], 478 D [27], 479 A [28], 483 B [37], 484 A [38], 487 C
[47].
[140] 475 B [19], 478 D [27], 479 A [28], 480 B [30], 481 D [33], 482 C
[35].
[141] Saxonica poemata, 473 E [16]; S. carmina, 485 E [43], 486 A [43].
Cf. what is said of Charles the Great, Einhard, c. 29: ‘barbara et
antiquissima carmina, quibus ueterum regum actus et bella canebantur,
scripsit memoriaeque mandauit. Inchoauit et grammaticam patrii sermonis.’
Of his son Louis the Pious on the other hand it is said: ‘poetica carmina
gentilia, quae in iuuentute didicerat, respuit, nec legere, nec audire,
nec docere uoluit,’ Theganus, Vita Hludouici, c. xx (Pertz, ii).
[142] 474 A [16], 485 E [43], 486 A [43], 497 E [71].
[143] 471 A [146] _ter_, 471 C [147], 487 C [47], 488 A [49].
[144] ‘In Saxonia et in Cornubia,’ 489 A [51].
[145] ‘In omni Saxonia et Mercia, et … in … Cornubia,’ 496 A, B [67].
[146] For cases in which it does include Northumbria see Bede, ii. 368.
[147] See Bede, ii. 43, 86.
[148] 478 B [26], 484 B [39].
[149] 489 C [52]. In the Book of Llandaff we have in one place: ‘in
confinibus Britannie et _Anglie_,’ p. 192. Asser never has Anglia.
[150] 467 _bis_ [1, 3], 471 C [10], 473 D [15], 483 A [36], 483 C [37],
484 B, C [39], 489 B [51], 491 B [55].
[151] Beorhtric, 471 D [11]; Æthelwulf, 469 D [153], 470 B [7], 483 E
[38]; Æthelbald, 472 D [13]; Æthelberht, 473 C [15]; Æthelred, 475 B [19].
[152] See below, § 49.
[153] 467 [1].
[154] Chron. 886; cf. ibid., 901.
[155] 475 A [19], 476 D [22], 477 C [24].
[156] ‘In sempiterno graphio,’ 470 C [8]; the very same phrase,
Cambro-British Saints, p. 100.
[157] 484 A [38]; the true year is 885, v. inf. p. 50.
[158] Dümmler, Gesch. d. Ostfränkischen Reiches, ed. 1. ii. 224.
[159] Bede certainly speaks of Saxons, Angles, Jutes, as being all
peoples of Germania, H. E. I. xv. In Alfred’s Orosius Germany includes
all between the Rhine, the Danube, the Don, and the White Sea.
[160] 483 A [36], 486 B [44].
[161] 477 E [11].
[162] 470 C [8], 472 D [13], 483 E [38].
[163] 491 A [54].
[164] 483 D [38].
[165] ibid.
[166] 483 D [38].
[167] 484 A [38], 489 B [51].
[168] 483 A [36] _bis_; ibid., C [37] _bis_.
[169] 483 A, B [36, 37]; at the beginning of the annal 886 we should
probably read: ‘[orientalem] regionem fugiens’; Florence has ‘orientali
Francia relicta,’ i. 101. In the division which followed the deposition
of Charles the Fat, Arnulf has ‘orientales regiones Hreni’; Rudolf,
‘internam partem regni’ (= þæt middel rice, Chron.); Odo, ‘occidentale
regnum,’ 491 A [54]; cf. Chron. 887 and notes.
[170] 479 A [28], 487 B [46], 498 B [67].
[171] 484 A [39], 486 B [44].
[172] 493 E [61], 494 B [62] _bis_.
[173] 484 A [38].
[174] 473 C [15].
[175] See § 30.
[176] Histoire de France, i. 36: ‘leur indomptable personnalité, toujours
prête à réagir contre le despotisme du fait,’ a passage alluded to by M.
Arnold, Celtic Literature, p. 102.
[177] 488 A-C [48-50].
[178] Bede, ii. 75, 76.
[179] Chron. ii. 118, 119.
[180] Collected Papers, p. 467; I have to thank my friend Mr. F.
Jenkinson, Librarian of the sister University, for reminding me of this
passage.
[181] e.g. the Book of Llandaff, which is of the twelfth century, though
based on older materials; Brochmail, Elised, Mouric, Ris, Rotri, Teudur,
will all be found in the Index.
[182] Digal Rotri, ‘the avenging of Rotri,’ Ann. Cambr. and Brut, sub
anno, 880; cf. ibid., 877.
[183] See Chron. 835, and note.
[184] 892 Ann. Cambr.; 891 Brut. He may be the Himeyt who occurs in No.
2 of the ancient Welsh pedigrees, printed from Harleian MS. 3859, in Y
Cymmrodor, ix. 171.
[185] Ann. Cambr., Brut., sub anno.
[186] pp. 212, 213; he is mentioned, ibid. 226-231.
[187] ibid., Index; in Cambro-British Saints, p. 22, the name is derived
from an eponymous king Gluigius.
[188] pp. 200, 206, 216, 226, 231-236; cf. Pedigree, No. 29, u. s.
[189] Ann. Cambr., sub anno.
[190] Book of Llandaff, pp. 238, 239.
[191] 481 B [32].
[192] 895 Ann. Cambr.; 894 Brut.
[193] Above, § 12.
[194] The special use of the term ‘Saxonia’ occurs only in the biography;
but then there was no great occasion to use it in the annals. Conversely,
the seven instances in which Welsh equivalents for Saxon place-names are
given occur wholly in the annals. But this also is quite natural. In
the annals, as we shall see, the writer was translating; and he added
explanations to make his text more intelligible to his Welsh readers.
For the same reason, and also because of their greater length, the
biographical sections give greater scope for the author’s idiosyncrasies
both of diction and of style; and therefore they naturally contain a
number of peculiarities which cannot be paralleled in the annals.
[195] The biographical sections (B) occupy nearly twice as much space as
the annalistic (A). For purposes of statistics it is hard to draw the
line exactly between them, because, even in the annals, there are small
biographical insertions, and it is difficult to know under which head
to class these. The longer anecdotes about Æthelwulf, Æthelbald, and
Æthelred I have counted as B. I give a few statistics of the vocabulary.
It will be seen that some words of frequent occurrence occur only under
one heading, and these taken alone might support the theory of a double
authorship; but I do not think they do. See last note. Adunatus, A³,
B¹; aedificium (in special sense noted in text), A¹, B³; aliquantulus,
A¹, B⁴; animose, A⁶; belligerare, A⁵, B²; curtum, B⁶; incessabiliter,
B³; infatigabiliter, A² (the writer is fond of words ending in -bilis,
-biliter); licentia (in sense of _leisure_), B³; more aprino, B¹; more
lupino, A¹; more uulpino, A¹; ordinabiliter, B⁶; testudo, A¹, B²;
uniuersitatis uia (i.e. death), A⁶, B¹; ultramarinus, A¹, B¹; uita
praesens, B¹².
[196] 482 C [35].
[197] i. 321; E. T. ii. 55.
[198] König Ælfred, p. 141.
[199] 486 A [43].
[200] 492 D [58].
[201] ibid.
[202] 495 D [66].
[203] Gesta Pontificum, pp. 389 f.: ‘Fastigium cristallinum rex
Ethelwulfus apposuit scrinio, in quo nomen eius litteris aureis est
legere.’ In front were ‘ex solido argento iactae imagines,’ i.e.
statuettes cast in solid silver; at the back ‘leuato metallo miracula
figurauit,’ i.e. scenes representing Aldhelm’s miracles. Does ‘metallo
leuato’ mean that they were engraved? or does it indicate ‘champlevé’
enamel? The latter would be another link with Alfred’s Jewel, though the
enamel of that is ‘cloisonné.’ Malmesbury speaks in the present tense, so
that the shrine had survived to his time; and he must have seen it almost
daily. In the Chron. Monast. Casinensis, under the year 1020 we find
mentioned: ‘loculus mirificus … argento et auro ac gemmis Anglico opere
subtiliter ac pulcherrime decoratus,’ Pertz, vii. 649; cf. ibid., 712:
‘Anglus quidam aurifex.’
[204] e.g. 486 D [45] neque enim … administraret; 488 A [49] qui saepe …
sub ipsis; 492 D [59] ueluti gubernator … contendit, &c.
[205] Instances of recurrence at longer intervals: 469 A [4] nobilis
ingenio, nobilis et genere; 473 D [16] cum nobilitate generis, nobilis
mentis ingenium; 474 A [17] crebris querelis, et intimis suspiriis; 486
C [45] querelabatur et assiduo gemebat suspirio; 496 B [67] in quantum
infirmitas et possibilitas atque suppetentia permitteret; 497 A [69] in
qu. poss. aut supp. immo etiam inf. perm. Instances of recurrence at
short intervals: 485 D, E [43] artes quae nobilibus conueniunt, studia
qu. nob. conu.; 485 E [43] et maxime Saxonica carmina studiose didicere;
486 A [43] et max. carm. Sax. memoriter discere, et … studiosissime; 491
C [55] erga studium … sapientiae uoluntatem, erga st. sap. deuotionem;
492 A, B [57] quamuis dissimili modo (repeated); 493 A, B [59, 60] inani
poenitentia … inanem poenitentiam … detestabilis poen … sera poen.; 494
B, D [62, 63] iudaico more [= like Judas] (repeated); 495 D, E [66]
unicuique secundum propriam dignitatem (repeated). In the long passage
about Alfred’s illness this feature reaches the degree of caricature.
If my view is right that that passage is a conflation of two traditions
relating to the same events, this characteristic also would be accounted
for.
[206] Parentheses: 481 B [32] non enim … uidimus; 489 B [51] quia illa
ciuitas … parua; 491 A [54] nullus enim … solus. Repetition: 478 D [27]
tutissimo terrarum situ; 481 C [32] locus situ terrarum tutissimus.
[207] Ecgberht … and his Coins, Numismatic Chronicle, 3rd Series, xx.
66-87. For a copy of this (too) ingenious essay I am indebted to the
kindness of Sir Henry himself. His unfavourable view of the Saxon
Chronicle is strongly expressed here and elsewhere.
[208] Foundations of England, i. 257.
[209] See Chron. sub anno, and notes.
[210] ‘Aut cum Paganis sub captiuitate erant,’ 489 C [52].
[211] 469 C [5].
[212] 469 B, C [5] (four times).
[213] 487 C [47]; probably in 473 A [14] Suth-Seaxum should be read
for-am.
[214] 484 A [38]. These forms are very common in Ethelwerd, whose work is
also based mainly on the Chronicle: ‘quod Huiccum nuncupatur,’ 509 f.;
Dorsetum Dux, 511 B; Defenum Dux, 511 C.
[215] 489 B [51], 490 C [54]; in the latter passage he has also Sigona,
which is a sort of compromise.
[216] 469 B [219].
[217] 469 D [220] and _passim_.
[218] 483 A [36], Chron. 881. Florence has ‘exercitus saepedictus,’ which
shows that he misunderstood or misread ‘superius’ as ‘supradictus.’ This
illustrates the relation of Florence to Asser, as well as that of Asser
to the Chron.
[219] See Chron. ii. 95.
[220] 482 C [35].
[221] 469 B [5] Sheppey; 469 C [6] Oakley; 476 C [22] Ashdown; 479 A [28]
Exeter; 481 D [33] Selwood.
[222] See above, p. 38, note 3.
[223] 469 B, C [225] Sheppey and London; ib. C, D [6] Surrey, and
‘Mediterranei Britones’; 474 C [17] York; 476 A [21] Reading; 477 D [25]
Wilton; 478 D [27] Wareham; 479 A [28] Exeter; 480 B [30] Chippenham; 482
C [35] Cirencester; 483 B [37] Rochester.
[224] Above, p. 44. Other good additions will be found under 853, 871.
(I do not include under this head the story of Æthelred and his mass.)
But the fact that Asser was occasionally able to make authentic additions
no more disproves the greater originality of the Chron. than similar
additions in Ethelwerd, who, while following in the main the Chron.,
evidently had other good sources now lost. On the type of Chron. used by
Asser, see Chron. II. lxxxiv.
[225] 492 C [58]: ‘ad quadragesimum quintum [annum] quem nunc agit.’
[226] 496 A [67], from Cura Past. iii. c. 20. [Anglo-Saxon Version, cap.
xliv.]
[227] Alfred says that he translated sometimes ‘word be worde,’ word by
word, sometimes ‘andgit _of_ andgite,’ ‘sensum _ex_ sensu.’ The exact
correspondence is curious.
[228] See above, §§ 24, 25.
[229] u. s. p. 356.
[230] Rev. C. S. Taylor, The Danes in Gloucestershire, pp. 7-9.
[231] 480 C-481 B [30-32].
[232] Ed. Coxe, i. 331, 332.
[233] pp. 339 ff.
[234] ‘Saxones Anglicos Zephyri sub uento morantes,’ p. 350.
[235] AA. SS. July vii. 314 ff.
[236] ‘Priusquam Anglia … Nortmannorum subiugaretur ditioni,’ p. 320ᵇ.
[237] p. 320ᵃ.
[238] Imitatio, i. 3; Eng. Transl. ed. 1863.
[239] p. 320ᵇ.
[240] pp. 317 ff.
[241] Whitaker, u. s. p. 367.
[242] pp. 256 ff.
[243] In the Shrine, pp. 12 ff.
[244] Anglia, iii. 104 ff.
[245] Catalogue of British History, i. 539.
[246] Two Saxon Chronicles, pp. 351 ff.
[247] See below, p. 56, note 4.
[248] Grundriss … der angelsächsischen Litteratur, p. 494.
[249] Gorham, pp. 256, 257.
[250] ibid. 258.
[251] AA. SS. u. s. p. 321ᵃ; Whitaker, pp. 318, 367.
[252] AA. SS. ibid.; Whitaker, p. 367. The Metrical Life seems to make
him king of Kent only, ibid. 318.
[253] Whitaker, p. 318.
[254] AA. SS. p. 321ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 320, 367.
[255] AA. SS. ibid.; Whitaker, p. 321.
[256] Whitaker, p. 343; Gorham, p. 257: ‘on Sc͠es Ælfeges dagen þæs
halgen biscopes.’ The absurdity is hardly less if we suppose the earlier
Ælfheah to be meant, 934-951. But the title of ‘Saint’ seems to show
that the later one is intended. If so, the life cannot at any rate be
earlier than 1012. And this alone would be fatal to Ælfric’s authorship,
as he was himself a personal friend of this later Ælfheah, and could not
possibly have made such a confusion; cf. Wülker, Grundriss, p. 455.
[257] AA. SS. pp. 322ᵇ, 323ᵃ; Whitaker, pp. 328, 346, 368; Gorham, p. 257.
[258] AA. SS. p. 323ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 329, 346, 368.
[259] AA. SS. p. 325ᵃ; Whitaker, pp. 333 ff., 347 ff., 370 ff.; Gorham,
p. 258.
[260] AA. SS. p. 325ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 335, 349, 372; Gorham, pp. 258, 259.
[261] AA. SS. p. 327ᵃ: ‘panes … quos nonnulli liridas appellant’;
Whitaker, pp. 351 ff.; Gorham, p. 259.
[262] AA. SS. pp. 327ᵇ-328ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 355 ff., 371 ff.; Gorham, p.
260.
[263] 481 A [32].
[264] Bede, ii. 48, 168, 175, 243, 371.
[265] Ebert, u. s. ii. 229.
[266] AA. SS. pp. 323ᵃ, 325ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 328, 348, 368, 370; Gorham,
p. 258.
[267] Gregorovius, Gesch. der Stadt Rom, iii. 206, 207. The Saxon
Chronicle dates his pontificate 883-885, another indication that it is a
year in advance of the true chronology.
[268] AA. SS. p. 325ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 335, 349, 372; Gorham, p. 259.
[269] Chron. 885.
[270] ibid. 883; omitted in MS. ‘A’ _only_. According to Malmesbury,
Alfred gave this relic to Glastonbury, Antiq. Eccl. Glast. p. 316 (ed.
Gale).
[271] Even Mr. W. H. Simcox, English Historical Review, i. 232; on the
ground that the evidence is ‘earlier than much which we accept.’ Even
were this so, it does not touch the fact of its being _inconsistent_ with
authentic records.
[272] ‘Com þa Guðrum se hæðene king mid his wælreowen here ærest on east
dæle _Sexlandes_.… Ða Ælfred king … þæt ofaxode þæt se here … wæs … swa
neh _Englelande_, he sone for fyrht fleames cepte, and his cæmpen ealle
forlet, and his heretogen, and eall his þeode; … ferde þa lutigende
geond heges and weges, geond wudes and feldes, swa þæt he … becom to
Æðelingege,’ Gorham, p. 239; cf. AA. SS. p. 327ᵃ.
[273] Pauli thinks that the result was partly due to internal
treachery, König Ælfred, p. 123; cf. also Asser, 480 B [30] ‘et etiam a
Christianis,’ &c.
[274] Professor Earle’s suggestion, who notes that Alfred’s will shows
that he had a ‘ham’ at Chippenham; cf. Asser, 480 B [30].
[275] König Ælfred, p. 117.
[276] ‘Butan þam cyninge Ælfrede,’ ‘diese vier Worte klingen in ihrer
trockenen Einfachheit unendlich grossartig,’ ibid., 125 note. The same
words are used of Hereward, 1071 E, 1072 D; and Pauli has remarked that
Alfred’s position in Athelney was not unlike Hereward’s in Ely, p. 129.
[277] Chron. 878, and notes.
[278] Weltgeschichte, VI. ii. 44. Ethelwerd in his Preface says:
‘dilucidius explicare oportet,’ 499 C. If this is his idea of lucidity,
what would his obscurity be?
[279] cf. Pauli, u. s. p. 145 note.
[280] On Ethelwerd cf. Chronicle, II. xliv, ci. f., cxxv, 8, 9, 18, 28,
47, 59, 89 f., 174, 178.
[281] sub anno 901.
[282] Pauli thinks he detects traces of a ballad in a passage of
Ethelwerd, König Ælfred, p. 119 note; but it is difficult to argue from a
writer like Ethelwerd.
[283] Ed. Arnold, p. 147; On Henry of Huntingdon, cf. Chron. II. lvii f.,
10, 43, 70, 215, 244 f.
[284] ii. 84.
[285] ‘Incelebres,’ not ‘in celebres.’
[286] S. D. i. 62, 63, 204 ff., 230 ff.; ii. 83, 111.
[287] Gesta Regum, i. 125.
[288] Old English History, p. 130.
[289] Not the cathedral, as I have wrongly said, Chron. II. 94.
[290] S. D. i. 204, 230.
[291] G. R. i. 124-126, 130.
[292] See below, §§ 90, 115.
[293] G. R. i. 132, 133.
[294] See Chronicle, II. cxxvii.
[295] ‘Incurabili morbo languentem … curandum transmisit,’ Higden, vi.
318, 356; Lib. de Hyda, p. 26.
[296] W. M. i. 129; Ingulf, p. 28; Bromton, col. 818; W. Thorn, col. 1777
(hundred et _lestes_); Ann. Winton. p. 10; Robert of Gloucester, i. 293;
Lib. de Hyda, p. 42.
[297] Geoffrey of Monmouth, iii. 5, 13; Layamon’s Brut, i. 269 f.; John
of Wallingford, p. 538; Higden, ii. 92 (from Alfred of Beverley). The
whole myth is due to a misunderstanding (wilful, probably, in the first
instance) of the partial incorporation in Alfred’s Laws of the _Mercian_
code of Offa.
[298] ‘Primus monarcha Anglorum,’ Lib. de Hyda, p. 48, which gives a
long comment on this text; cf. Ric. de Cirencest. Speculum Hist. i.
45: ‘primus … monarcha, et ad quem monarchia regni Anglicani totaliter
extitit deuoluta.’ Ethelwerd, though so much nearer the time, is not
guiltless in this matter, saying that Alfred ‘obtinuit regnum … super
prouincias Brittanniae cunctas,’ p. 514 C.
[299] Wendover, i. 363.
[300] ‘Illam maximam regis credidit dignitatem, nullam in ecclesiis
Christi habere potestatem,’ Ailred of Rievaulx, ed. Migne, col. 719.
[301] Bromton, col. 814; Rudborne, Ang. Sac. i. 207; Lib. de Hyda, p. 41.
[302] ‘Uir literatissimus, et philosophus in uniuersitate Oxenfordensi,’
Rudborne, u. s.
[303] Bromton, col. 818: ‘tertiam [partem] scholaribus Oxoniae, nouiter
congregatis’; so Lib. de Hyda, p. 45.
[304] Rapin (Eng. trans. 1732), i. 95, 160; Carte (ed. 1747), i. 311,
316. The fiction-monger of the Mirror of Justices treats it as already
ancient in the time of Alfred. I owe these references to Sir Frederick
Pollock.
[305] Miroir des Justices, pp. 296-298; where the names of the defaulting
justices are given, and very marvellous they are. I owe this reference to
Draper, p. 35.
[306] See above, §§ 44, 45; cf. also Wallingford, p. 535.
[307] See ii. 87.
[308] cf. S. D.² ii. 117: ‘dum reuerterentur _domum_’; the difference
between ‘domūiret’ and ‘dormiret’ would be extremely small.
[309] Ed. Bannatyne Club, p. 22.
[310] See ii. 114.
[311] ‘her Aldfrið … forðferde … on Driffelda,’ Chron. 705 (Northern
recension).
[312] He transfers to Æthelred Asser’s description of Alfred’s division
of his time and revenues, Langtoft, Rolls Ed. i. 312-324.
[313] Church History, Book ii. 83; cited by Raine, Priory of Hexham, i.
22.
[314] See i. 354.
[315] Chron. 883, MSS. B and C.
[316] See pp. 19, 28.
[317] For Mr. Riley’s notable exposure of Ingulf, see Archaeological
Journal, xix. 32 ff., 114 ff.
[318] Ingulf, pp. 20 ff.
[319] ibid. 20.
[320] Bede, H. E. iii. 18; so John the Old Saxon, abbot of Athelney, was
‘bellicosae artis non expers, si in meliori disciplina non studeret,’
Asser, 494 D [63].
[321] See p. 25.
[322] See p. 27.
[323] ibid.
[324] cf. Wulfstan’s Homilies, ed. Napier, p. 310; Ælfric, Lives of
Saints, pp. 440, 468; and the references to the Laws given, Chron. ii.
164, 165. Edgar indeed was formally enrolled as a confessor, and found a
place in the Calendar, see AA. SS. July 8, p. 659.
[325] Chron. 1018, MS. D.
[326] Gorham, p. 260.
[327] Rolls Ed. p. 163.
[328] Rolls Ed. p. 10.
[329] Rolls Ed. p. 113.
[330] Chron. II. cxxvii.
[331] Thus 869 and 870 are _both_ given as Alfred’s twenty-first year;
this throws the Series one wrong up to 876 inclusive. The annal 877, as I
have shown, is blank in the genuine text of Asser. Then in 878 not only
is this not allowed for, but the number twenty-seventh is repeated from
876. This further increases the error by two, i.e. the total error now
amounts to three years; and this error is maintained to the end.
[332] Chronicle, II. xlix, cii-civ, cxvii, 44, 73, 77.
[333] Foundations of England, i. 247.
[334] Bede, I. lvi.
[335] A yet earlier copy of this document is printed in Sweet’s Oldest
English Texts, p. 179; another copy occurs in the Cambridge University
MS. of the Anglo-Saxon Bede; and a third in a fragment which probably
originally belonged to MS. B of the Chronicle; all these MSS. read
‘xxiii.’ with A; a later copy printed by Professor Napier reads ‘xxii.,’
this is probably a mere slip, or it may be due to the influence of Asser.
See Chronicle, II. xxviii. f., lxxxix. f., 1, 79. In the Hyde Register,
pp. 94 ff., is a later copy beginning with Ine and going down to Canute;
this omits the passage about Alfred’s age.
[336] Cited by Stubbs, W. M. II. xlii. f.
[337] On the intellectual poverty of Rome about this time see a very
interesting passage in Gregorovius, u. s. iii. 141-149.
[338] 473 D [16].
[339] ‘religiosa nimium femina’ is Asser’s description of his mother, 469
A [4]. Æthelwulf’s famous donation, whatever its exact nature, is at any
rate proof of his piety and charity; which are not necessarily, as some
persons seem to think, marks of a weak intellect. The letters of Lupus of
Ferrières, cited above, § 14, are evidence that his liberality was well
known on the Continent.
[340] Asser, 473 D [15].
[341] On pilgrimages and the disastrous results which often followed from
them, see Gregorovius, ii. 178 ff., iii. 76 ff.; Bede, ii. 281, 282; on
the passion for relics, ibid. 158; Gregorovius, iii. 72 ff.; Ebert, ii.
99, 334 ff., iii. 208 ff.
[342] On sponsors at confirmation see Bede, ii. 383.
[343] Ed. Hearne, pp. 19 ff.
[344] In a review of vol. ii of my Saxon Chron., in Brandl und Tobler,
Archiv für ’s Studium der neueren Sprachen, civ. pp. 188 ff.
[345] ‘Cingulo, honore, uestimentisque.’ _Cingulum_ sometimes means
‘dignity,’ ‘office,’ v. Ducange, s. v.; and that may be the meaning here.
[346] Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgesch. ii. 133, cited by Stubbs,
Const. Hist. i. 145; the authority is Gregory of Tours: ‘in Basilica
beati Martini tunica blatea indutus est, et chlamyde, imponens uertici
diadema,’ ii. 38.
[347] Ed. Migne, col. 718: ‘Leo tempus et aetatem regnandi regiae
unctionis sacramento praeueniens, sicut quondam Samuel puerum Dauid,
ita eum in regem … consecrauit.’ Later writers made much of this papal
unction, saying not merely that Alfred was the first English king
anointed by the pope, which is true, but that he was the first English
king who was ever anointed and crowned, e.g. Thorn, in Twysden, col.
1777; Rudborne, Ang. Sac. i. 201, 207: ‘ab ipso descendit inunctio regum
Angliae’; Chron. Robert of Gloucester, p. 388: ‘so þat, biuore him, pur
king nas þer non’; John de Oxenedes (who puts the papal coronation after
Alfred’s accession to the throne!), p. 3; Birch, ii. 256: ‘Alfredus
rex totius Anglie, primus coronatus’; see the figure of Alfred in MS.
Cott. Claud. D. vi, given in Draper, p. 130, where the crown and ampulla
evidently allude to the Roman unction and coronation. Nicolas Smith,
titular bishop of Chalcedon († 1655), says: ‘hic solus ex omnibus
Angliae regibus Diadema et inaugurationem sumpsit a Romano Pontifice, ut
agnoscunt Protestantes,’ in Wise’s Asser, p. 109. I do not know whether
modern Roman controversialists derive any satisfaction from the same
reflexion. If so, it would be a pity to deprive them of it.
[348] Birch, No. 493; K. C. D. No. 1057.
[349] Chron. ii. 82. So the Charter, Birch, No. 467; K. C. D. No. 269;
though the Indiction is wrong, and Stubbs gives the date as 853, Const.
Hist. i. 142.
[350] Ebert, ii. 111; Weber, Weltgesch. v. 331, 432.
[351] John xi. 49-52.
[352] Chron.; Asser, sub anno.
[353] Prudentius Trecensis, Pertz, i. 433.
[354] Birch, No. 486; K. C. D. No. 276.
[355] ‘Romam, composito regno, abiit,’ i. 109.
[356] The Chron. says, ‘ærest,’ ‘for the first time,’ but an earlier
wintering has been mentioned in 851.
[357] Birch, No. 487; K. C. D. No. 277.
[358] Chronicle, ii. 82.
[359] See below, pp. 86, 89.
[360] 470 C [8].
[361] W. M. II. xliii.
[362] See above, p. 74; the other charters cited by Stubbs, loc. cit. are
all spurious.
[363] ‘Ad patriam atque ad patrem … direxit,’ S. D.¹ ii. 71; ‘ad patrem
… remisit,’ S. D.² ii. 101 (of the pope). Both these versions also,
especially the second, clearly distinguish this journey of Alfred’s from
the one in 853, ii. 103.
[364] Prudentius Trecensis, Pertz, i. 449.
[365] Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, ii. 148; Anastasius in Muratori,
SS. III. i. 251; on which see Gregorovius, iii. 149 ff.
[366] u. s. iii. 110.
[367] So Wendover, i. 290, 291 (who makes this unction of Alfred as king
at his father’s request, to the exclusion of his elder brothers, one of
the main causes of Æthelbald’s revolt); so too a spurious charter, Birch,
No. 493; K. C. D. No. 1057.
[368] The eleventh or twelfth cent. Epitome of the Chron. known as
MS. F. I may once more protest against the habit of citing this late
authority as ‘_the_ Saxon Chronicle,’ without qualification. Mr.
Conybeare (u. s. p. 16) goes further, and misrepresents even this poor
authority: ‘according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it was on the news of
[Æthelbald’s] incestuous union reaching Rome that Leo “hallowed Alfred
to king.”’ Æthelbald’s marriage is not mentioned in any MS. of the
Chronicle, not even in F.
[369] Gregorovius, iii. 112.
[370] Gesta Regum, i. 109, ii. xxxix.
[371] Lib. Pontif. ii. 111; or Muratori, SS. III. i. 233. For an earlier
fire in the same quarter see Chron. 816 and notes. On these foreign
‘schools’ or hostelries at Rome cf. Chron. ii. 69; De’ Rossi, Un Tesoro
di monete Anglo Sassoni (1884), pp. 6, 7.
[372] Gregorovius, iii. 87 ff. (a fine description); Ranke, Weltgesch.
VI. ii. 1. Compare Alcuin’s fine lines on the state of Rome at the end of
the eighth century:
Roma caput mundi, mundi decus, aurea Roma,
Nunc remanet tantum saeua ruina tibi,
De Clade Lindisfarnensis Monasterii, vv. 37, 38.
[373] Gregorovius, iii. 65, 66; Weber, Weltgesch. v. 186 f.
[374] Conybeare, u. s. p. 15.
[375] Weber, u. s. pp. 465 f., 505 ff. The Monk of St. Gallen actually
_identifies_ the Saracens and Northmen, see Ebert, u. s. iii. 220.
[376] Weber, u. s. pp. 192, 193.
[377] See above, § 34.
[378] Ranke, u. s.
[379] Gregorovius, u. s. pp. 97 ff.
[380] Chron. 855 and notes.
[381] cf. Ranke, u. s. VI. ii. 40 ff.
[382] ibid. VI. i. 207, 208; Weber, u. s. p. 553.
[383] 470 D-471 C [8-10].
[384] Chron. 860 A.
[385] ibid.
[386] e.g. Pauli, u. s. p. 51; S. C. H. i. 204.
[387] Ranke, u. s. VI. i. 57 ff.; Weber, u. s. pp. 460, 461.
[388] At the beginning of the story the conspirators plot ‘ne unquam
Æthelwulf rex _a Roma reuertens_ iterum in regnum reciperetur,’ i.e. the
conspiracy is hatched while Æthelwulf is still at Rome; at the end the
story of Eadburh seems to imply that it was the marriage with Judith
which provoked the conspiracy.
[389] 472 D [13].
[390] Ranke, u. s. c. 2. Weber, u. s. pp. 450 ff.
[391] ‘renuntia … incesto … matrimonio; quia ista Iudith … proximo tibi
affinis est sanguine,’ W. M. Gesta Pont. p. 13.
[392] See Chron. ii. 80, 81.
[393] Prudentius Trecensis, Pertz, i. 450. If his words are to be taken
strictly it would seem that Æthelwulf placed the crown on the head of
his child bride. (The marriage benediction of Judith is in Bouquet, vii.
621, 622, and is rather a satire on her subsequent history.) So Charles
the Great crowned Louis the Pious when he associated him with himself
in the imperial power, Sept. 813. Had this precedent been followed,
the relations of Papacy and Empire might have been very different,
Gregorovius, u. s. pp. 18, 19; Weber, u. s. p. 424.
[394] Birch, No. 495; K. C. D. No. 1058.
[395] H. E. ii. 5.
[396] Iohannes Longus, Pertz, xxv. 768.
[397] The genuine charters signed by Alfred prior to his own accession
are, Birch, Nos. 467, 486, 502, 506, 515, 520, 522; K. C. D. Nos. 269,
276, 285, 287, 293, 1061, 298.
[398] Rolls Ed. i. 393.
[399] 743 D-744 B [15, 16].
[400] e.g. 487 B [46], 491 B [55], 492 A [56]. In one place, 485 D [43],
it is used of reading both Latin and Saxon; only in one passage is it
used of Saxon alone, 474 B [16]. Green, C. E. p. 158, rightly understands
it in this sense.
[401] Preface to Cura Pastoralis; cf. Asser: ‘illo tempore lectores
boni in toto regno Occidentalium Saxonum non erant,’ 474 B [17]. Here
‘lectores’ means teachers of _Latin_. Florence substitutes ‘grammatici.’
Ælfric, writing towards the end of the next century of his own youth,
says: ‘a mass-priest who was my master could to some extent (_be dæle_,
partly) understand Latin,’ Pref. to Heptateuch; and speaking of his own
day he adds: ‘unlearned priests, if they understand just a little of
Latin books, forthwith think themselves splendid teachers,’ ibid. p. 2.
[402] 474 B, C [17], 486 C [45].
[403] Alfred’s love of hunting comes out in one or two passages in his
writings, e.g. Bede, i. 1 ad fin., where Ireland is said to be ‘mære on
huntunge heorta ⁊ rana,’ ed. Miller, p. 30; cf. Boethius, xxxii. § 3, ed.
Sedgefield, p. 73.
[404] König Ælfred, p. 68; so Green, C. E. p. 100.
[405] 474 B [16], 486 A [43], 487 A [46], 488 D [50] _ter_, 491 C
[55]. To learn by heart is ‘memoriter retinere,’ ‘memoriter discere,’
473 E [16], 486 A [43]. But apart from any question of the meaning of
‘recitare,’ Asser says distinctly in this case: ‘magistrum adiit et
_legit_, quo _lecto_ matri retulit et recitauit.’
[406] W. M. II. xlii.
[407] Biographia Liter. Britan., i. 385.
[408] i. 296, 311; modified in Thorpe’s translation, ii. 44. Pauli
rightly protests against the theory, p. 67.
[409] Dict. Nat. Biog., i. 154.
[410] ‘nobilis ingenio, nobilis et genere,’ 469 A [4].
[411] cf. Pauli, u. s. p. 67.
[412] See Chron. ii. 81, where I have shown that the Chronicle’s (and
Asser’s) two years is too long. The Roman historian on the other hand
cuts him off too rapidly: ‘reuersus ad proprium regnum … _post paucos
dies_ uitam finiuit,’ Liber Pontificalis, ii. 148.
[413] Birch, No. 436; K. C. D. No. 254. In Sim. Dun. i. 204, ‘Australes
Saxones’ has the same meaning.
[414] See above, § 30.
[415] Birch, No. 454; K. C. D. No. 261.
[416] Conquest of England, pp. 73, 74.
[417] Birch, No. 395; K. C. D. No. 223; Stubbs, C. H. i. 172.
[418] Malmesbury has an interesting passage on the effects of Egbert’s
foreign sojourn, G. R. i. 105.
[419] 472 B [12].
[420] Pauli, u. s. p. 79; following Lappenberg, i. 296; E. T. ii. 27. I
think they have been misled by the Latin version of Alfred’s will, which,
as I shall show (§ 64), is of no authority.
[421] ‘Ut iustum erat,’ adds Asser, 473 A [14].
[422] 477 C [24]; cf. Lib. de Hyda, p. 27: ‘Ethelredus, quem princeps
gloriosus Alfredus coegit ante se regnare.’
[423] 472 D [13].
[424] See p. 152.
[425] I use the words Danes and Danish, as the Chronicle does, for the
Scandinavian invaders generally, without professing to distinguish the
origin of each separate band. This is the general English use, on the
Continent the generic name is Nortmanni, Northmen; Green, Conq. Eng.
p. 68; cf. Einhard, Vita Car. c. 12: ‘Dani ac Sueones quos Nortmannos
uocamus’; ibid. c. 14: ‘Nortmanni qui Dani uocantur.’ Ranke says: ‘it is
impossible to distinguish Danes and Northmen,’ Weltgesch., VI. i. 42. For
a vivid description of their ravages in France see Folcuini Gesta Abb.
Lobiensium, cc. 16, 17, Pertz, iv. 61, 62; and the verses of Ermoldus
Nigellus, Dümmler, Poetae aeui Carolini, ii. 59. Cf. also the well-known
description of the earlier and very similar ravages of the Saxons,
Sidonius Apollinaris, Epist. viii. 6.
[426] See above, § 57.
[427] The Chronicle mentions this under 860, but only with the vague date
‘on his dæge,’ ‘in his [Æthelberht’s] time.’ This seems to show that this
part of the Chronicle cannot have been written up till some little time
after the event. It is a foreign Chronicler, Prudentius Trecensis, who
enables us to fix it to the year of Æthelberht’s accession, 860, Pertz,
i. 454. For what follows the Chronicle is the authority, except where
otherwise stated.
[428] Vikinger, p. 55.
[429] Sim. Dun. i. 55 f., 225; ii. 106, 110, 377, 391.
[430] Liber de Hyda, p. 27.
[431] According to MS. F of the Chronicle, the appointment of Æthelred to
the archbishopric of Canterbury was made by Æthelred and Alfred jointly,
Chron. i. 283.
[432] 475 A [19]; it occurs again 476 D [22] (battle of Ashdown); 477
C [24], in relation to Alfred’s accession. In the last passage Alfred
is said to have borne the title ‘uiuentibus fratribus.’ The plural is
probably mere rhetoric; otherwise it might point to the arrangement
as to the succession having been made under Æthelberht, which is not
impossible; cf. Ailred of Rievaulx’ phrase: ‘cum fratribus aliquo tempore
regnauit,’ ed. Migne, col. 719.
[433] See above, p. 40.
[434] cf. O’Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, I. cxxxii f.
[435] Rhŷs and Brynmor Jones, The Welsh People, p. 203.
[436] It is curious that though Alfred speaks of Æthelbald, Æthelred and
himself as three brethren, he only calls Æthelberht ‘our kinsman,’ ‘uncer
mæg.’ The same use occurs in Bede, p. 188, where Oswy is called Oswald’s
‘mæg.’
[437] Near the beginning Alfred speaks of ‘min yrfe þæt me God and mine
yldran forgeafon,’ i.e. ‘the inheritance which God and my forefathers
granted me.’ The Latin translator gives ‘principes’ for ‘yldran,’ a
meaning which it can have. He therefore naturally took the sentence to
refer to Alfred’s election as king by the Witan; and the rest may have
followed from this.
[438] 472 B [12].
[439] Const. Hist. i. 142 note.
[440] April, 1886.
[441] Foundations of England, i. 244.
[442] ‘Martyrio coronatus est.’ R. W. i. 318.
[443] Not March 31, as Mr. Simcox says.
[444] Chronicle, II. cxxxix. ff.
[445] Asser, 476 A [21]. This is one of Asser’s good additions to the
Chronicle.
[446] Chronicle, ii. 87.
[447] 476 C [22].
[448] ‘Aprino more,’ 476 D [23].
[449] See above, p. 16.
[450] Domesday, ff. 57 b, 60 a.
[451] See a letter to the Times of August 30, 1864, by Mr. Henry Moody of
Winchester. I was wrong in identifying (Chron. ii. 87) the Compton near
which Ashdown is to be sought with the Compton near East Ilsley; it is
Compton Beauchamp in Shrivenham Hundred. This correction I also owe to
Mr. Taylor.
[452] I cannot find Roughthorn Farm either on the six-inch or
twenty-five-inch Ordnance map. There is a spot called Thickthorn about a
mile east of Ashdown Park; a hill called Alfred’s Castle just west of the
Park, an Alfred’s Hill between Longcot and Uffington; Danesfield Copse
south of Lambourne.
[453] Simcox, u. s.
[454] ‘Folc-gefeoht.’
[455] Florence gives the date as April 23, i. 85.
[456] Langtoft makes him killed in battle: ‘fu navrez par un coup
d’espeye’; this is certainly wrong. For Langtoft’s confusions on the
subject of Æthelred, see above, p. 65.
[457] The Ring and the Book, Pompilia, ad finem.
[458] This title is not older than the sixteenth century, Pauli, u.
s. p. 2. In the Hyde Register, p. 13, Edward, Alfred’s son, is called
‘Eadweardus Magnus.’
[459] Weltgeschichte, VI. ii. 46.
[460] ‘quasi inuitus’ 477 C [24]; cf. Boethius, c. 17: ‘þu watst ꝥ me
næfre seo gitsung ⁊ seo gemægð þisses eorðlican anwealdes forwel ne
licode, ne ic ealles forswiðe ne girnde þisses eorðlican rices,’ ed.
Sedgefield, p. 40.
[461] ‘mox Elfredus a ducibus et a praesulibus totius gentis eligitur,’
S. D. ii. 81.
[462] Asser’s statement, u. s., that Alfred succeeded ‘cum summa omnium …
regni accolarum uoluntate,’ probably does not refer to formal election.
[463] Cf. Chronicle, ii. 145, 146.
[464] ‘sumor-lida.’
[465] 477 C [24]. The same phrase is used of Burgred of Mercia, who died
at Rome, 478 B [26]. Mr. Simcox sees in the phrase (based on Rev. xx. 6)
a possible trace of British Pelagianism. Anyhow the special use of the
phrase in these two cases is no doubt due to the fact that Asser regarded
Æthelred as a martyr, and Burgred as a pilgrim.
[466] p. 514 C.
[467] Chronicle, ii. 88.
[468] Ethelwerd distinctly recognises that there were three engagements
in addition to the six which he names: ‘tria certamina exceptis supra
memoratis bellis’; only Ethelwerd’s list of six would differ from that
in the Chronicle by the omission of Wilton and the substitution of the
second battle of Reading. Mr. Simcox does not notice this passage of
Ethelwerd; perhaps he too regarded it as a distorted version of the
battle of Wilton.
[469] ‘sterilis uictoriae status.’
[470] ‘peraudacitatem persequentium decipientes,’ 477 D [25].
[471] ‘quot millia Paganae expeditionis … perierunt, nisi soli Deo,
incognitum,’ 477 E [25]. The reflexion, if we allow for Asser’s usual
rhetoric, is not unfounded.
[472] ‘Beorredus Rex Merciorum … cum Britonibus occupatus, qui crebris
irruptionibus Occidentalem partem Regni sui Merciae inquietabant,’ p. 25.
[473] This notice is in all MSS. of the Chronicle except A. See notes ad
loc.
[474] Birch, Nos. 533, 531; K. C. D. No. 303.
[475] ‘monasterium celeberrimum, omnium regum Merciorum sacratissimum
Mausoleum funditus destruxerunt,’ Ingulf, p. 26 (cf. Fl. Wig. i. 72). On
a point like this Ingulf may probably be trusted.
[476] ‘Anglicus genere, sed barbarus impietate,’ Ingulf, p. 27.
[477] ‘fór Ælfred cyning út on sǽ.’
[478] Cf. Murray’s Guide Book for Wilts., Dorset, and Somerset. Wareham
is the only English place to which Asser gives the title of ‘castellum,’
478 D [27]. He uses the term once of a Danish fort, 483 B [37].
[479] The evasion of the Danes from Wareham to Exeter is mentioned in the
Chron. both under 876 and 877. The earlier mention is probably merely
proleptic, giving by anticipation what was the issue of the affair.
[480] ‘þær him mon to ne meahte.’
[481] This is the interpolated passage in Asser, which cannot, as I have
shown above (§ 20), be traced further back than Roger of Wendover. It
sounds however perfectly genuine.
[482] v. 3105.
[483] I owe this suggestion to Professor Earle.
[484] Ranke, Engl. Gesch., B. III. c. 6.
[485] Exodus xv. 10.
[486] For the whole of this and the following sections I may refer to the
Chronicle, with my notes.
[487] § 46, above.
[488] I give what seems to me the most probable line of march. But every
one of these three places, (1) Ecgbryhtesstan, (2) Iglea, (3) Ethandun,
has been variously identified. The following series have been proposed—A.
(1) Brixton, (2) Clay Hill near Warminster, (3) Edington; B. (as in the
text); C. (1) Bratton near Westbury, (2) Highley Common near Melksham,
(3) Heddington on the Roman road from Bath to Marlborough. Bratton seems
to me impossible on philological grounds. Yatton has also been proposed
for Ethandun. Philologically it is possible; (cf. Yarnton near Oxford =
Eardingtun) but its position north-west of Chippenham is against it.
[489] viz. that it is Bratton Camp, between Edington and Westbury.
[490] Essays, p. 138.
[491] Asser, 481 B [32], v. s. pp. 44, 51.
[492] ‘arcem imparatam atque immunitam, nisi quod moenia _nostro more
erecta_ … haberet … locus tutissimus … sicut nos ipsi uidimus,’ ib.
Is any type of earthworks known which is specifically Welsh? Asser’s
episcopal charge of Exeter, if a fact, would account for his knowledge of
the district. The name of Odda comes from Ethelwerd, p. 515 D.
[493] Mediaeval and modern writers, overlooking the word ‘brother,’
write as if it were Ingwar and Halfdene themselves who fell; so S. D.
ii. 111, 114. Professor Oman writes Ingwar and Hubba, on I know not what
authority, Essays, p. 137. The name Ubba comes only from Gaimar.
[494] The details are mostly from Asser, u. s. He gives the number of
slain as 1200; i.e. CↃCC for IↃCCC. Ethelwerd, p. 515 E, says that the
Danes were finally victorious; but it is hard to reconcile this with the
Chronicle, and still more with Asser.
[495] The Chronicle puts this under 879; but, seeing that the battle of
Ethandun was fought in May, it almost certainly belongs to the same year
878. It is this mistake which throws the chronology of the Chronicle a
year wrong from this point up to 897 (= 896).
[496] No document exists embodying the terms of the agreement of 878.
‘Alfred and Guthrum’s peace,’ often confused with the treaty of Wedmore,
belongs to 886.
[497] Chron. ii. 114.
[498] Idylls of the King, The Coming of Arthur.
[499] Chron. u. s. chiefly from Green, Conq. Engl. pp. 111 ff.
[500] p. 515 D.
[501] Cf. what is said in the Soliloquies, p. 182: ‘gyf þonne æfre
gebyreð þ þu … hæfst ealle þine freond myd þe … on þam ilcan weorce,
⁊ on þam ilcan willan ðe ðe best lyst don’; cf. Boeth. xxix. § 1 (p.
66): ‘cyningas ne magon nænne weorðscipe forðbrengan buton hiora þegna
fultume.’
[502] ‘urne ealra freond,’ Birch, No. 582; K. C. D. No. 327. I do not
mean to assert that Werferth was at Athelney or Edington, though he may
have been. But he and Æthelnoth were working for a common end, and his
district benefited largely by Alfred’s victory.
[503] ‘They were the first European warriors who realised the value of
quick movement in war,’ Green, C. E. p. 89.
[504] ‘þæer gehorsude wurdon,’ 866; ‘se gehorsoda here,’ 876, 877; ‘þa
wearþ se here gehorsod æfter þæm gefeohte,’ 881. Conversely after a
defeat: ‘his wurdon þær behorsude,’ 885. Asser, describing this last
incident, says: ‘equis, quos de Francia secum adduxerant, derelictis,’
483 C [37]; ‘hie asettan him … ofer [sc. to England] mid horsum,’ 893;
cf. Flor. Wig. i. 111.
[505] Note the use of ‘bestelan’ for the movements of the invaders, 865,
876 (_bis_), 878.
[506] Earlier in the annal Alfred ‘rides’ to Brixton.
[507] ‘Ælfred æfter þam gehorsudan here mid fierde rad.’
[508] Sir Walter Besant, Essays, p. 17.
[509] For purely English events we have not, as a rule, the help of the
foreign Chronicles, and cannot therefore be sure whether they also are
dated a year in advance; but probably in most cases they are.
[510] That this and not 885 is the true date is proved by the Annales
Vedastini, and the Chronicon Reginonis, Pertz, i. 521, 594.
[511] Asser, 483 B, C [37].
[512] This comes at the end of the annal in the Chronicle, but almost
certainly refers to an earlier period of the year.
[513] ‘de Cantio,’ Asser, u. s.
[514] See above, § 50.
[515] Chron. ii. 99 f.
[516] Whatever the date, the Chronicle places the occupation of London
in close connexion with the breach of the peace by the Danes in the
preceding year. It may even be that a desire to bring out that connexion
has led to the mention of the breach being postponed to the end of the
annal.
[517] Schmid, Gesetze, pp. 106 ff. Cf. ib. xxxviii f.; and see the very
interesting remarks of Green, C. E. pp. 151-3.
[518] Certainly as early as 880; see the charter Birch, No. 547; K. C. D.
No. 311.
[519] Essays, pp. 19, 57, 245 ff.; Ranke, u. s. VI. ii. 43: ‘Die
merkantile Hauptstadt der Welt verdankt dem König Alfred gleichsam ihre
zweite Gründung.’
[520] ‘Orco tradit spiramen,’ p. 517 C.
[521] Malmesbury has some interesting remarks on this, G. R. i. 128, 129;
cf. S. C. H. i. 191.
[522] See above, § 10.
[523] Earle, Chronicles, p. xvi.
[524] Chron. II. cvii, 109.
[525] Chron. 894 ad init.
[526] Birch, No. 579; K. C. D. No. 1075.
[527] ‘de instauratione urbis Londoniae,’ Birch, No. 577.
[528] Birch, No. 1335; see Maitland, Domesday and Beyond, pp. 187, 188,
502 ff.
[529] 493 A, B [59, 60].
[530] There is a good passage on this point in Ingulf, p. 27: ‘Alfredus …
ciuitates suas et castella sua renouauit, turres et munitiones in locis
magis necessariis construxit, ac totam terrae faciem in formam multo
meliorem immutatam, per oppida murata, et alia loca munitissima contra
barbaros insuperabilem fore fecit’; cf. Essays, pp. 141 ff.
[531] Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 191; Essays, pp. 143 ff.; Green, C. E. pp.
135 ff.
[532] Chron. 894, i. 86-7.
[533] For this event the date in the Chronicle is apparently correct.
[534] See Dümmler, u. s. ii. 349 ff. The foreign Chronicles show clearly
that the date is 892, not 893 as in the Saxon Chron.
[535] ‘samworht,’ ‘half-wrought.’ Mr. Macfadyen ingeniously connects
this with the passage cited above from Asser, as to the difficulty
which Alfred had in getting the fortifications constructed which he had
ordered. For the justification of the sketch which follows I must refer
to my notes to the Chronicle. The only point on which I have modified my
view, is as to the position of Buttington.
[536] It is only in Ethelwerd that Edward’s share in the campaign is
mentioned. He would now be a little over twenty, if, as Asser says,
Alfred was married in 868, and Edward was his second child, 475 A [19],
485 C [42].
[537] This name also comes from Ethelwerd. Ramsay, Foundations of
England, i. 261, sees in this the ancient name of Westminster; and a
writer in the Athenaeum for June 15, 1901, takes the same view still
more positively, saying that we shall search the Colne in vain for an
island called Thorney. I imagine we should search the neighbourhood of
Westminster with equally little success; and if the name has become
extinct in one locality, why not in the other? possibly because the
thorns have become extinct which gave the name. Ethelwerd _may_ be
mistaken as to the name, but it is absolutely certain that the island on
which the Danes were blockaded was in the Colne: ‘hie flugon ofer Temese,
… þa up be Colne on anne iggað. Þa besæt sio fierd hie.’
[538] To this year perhaps better than to any other would apply the very
rhetorical description of Hen. Hunt., how messengers poured in upon the
king, saying that the Danes were in this, that, and the other quarter,
pp. 138, 139.
[539] The Chronicle seems to synchronise the relief of Exeter
approximately with the capture of the fort at Benfleet; but Alfred was
busied in the west some time longer, while the English forces were
blockading Buttington, Chron. i. 87.
[540] The Alfred Jewel, p. 104.
[541] ‘ánstreces,’ literally ‘at a stretch.’
[542] Can it be that the fyrd after all did reach them? Ethelwerd seems
to say that Æthelnoth attacked the Danes at York, p. 518 E. Or is this a
punitive expedition against the Northumbrian Danes?
[543] Hen. Hunt. says ‘fecit aquam Luye findi in tria brachia,’ p.
150; i.e. he conceives the two obstacles as erected _in_ the river, so
dividing it into three channels, which is perfectly possible. Perhaps
the worthy archdeacon may even have seen the remains of Alfred’s works.
But I cannot now take Steenstrup’s view that this device may have been
suggested to Alfred by Orosius’ account of the capture of Babylon by
Cyrus, Lib. ii. c. 6. That was effected by diverting the course of the
river, which there is no reason to suppose that Alfred attempted.
[544] Bell. Gall. v. 1.
[545] The connexion of the Frisian language with that of the Angles and
Saxons was very close, and they have certain marked characteristics
in common, pointing to close neighbourhood of their original abodes.
Of English dialects the Frisian is nearest to Kentish, except in the
northern Frisian islands, where it seems more akin to West-Saxon. I take
this from Siebs, Zur Gesch. der engl.-fries. Sprache, in Paul’s Grundriss
der germanischen Philologie, 2nd ed. i. 1153 ff., for a reference to
which I am indebted to Professor Napier, who tells me that in his
judgement Englishmen and Frisians would be quite intelligible to one
another in the ninth century. There is a sentence of Frisian in Pertz,
xxii. 576, which might just as well be Anglo-Saxon.
[546] In 882 Charles the Fat had granted West Friesland to a wiking Chief
Guðfrið, Dümmler, u. s. ii. 204, 205; cf. ibid. 224 ff., 241; Weber, u.
s. v. 684, 685. For earlier ravages in Frisia, cf. ibid. 495; Pertz, i.
445.
[547] 486 B [44]. Charles the Great also employed Frisians in his fleet
for his wars against the Danes, Weber, u. s. p. 421; cf. Einhard, Vita
Caroli, c. 17.
[548] Mr. Conybeare says: ‘one MS. of the A.-S. Chronicle makes St. Neot
[!!] (Athelstan of Kent) fight “on shipboard” in 851, but the entry, if
correct, stands absolutely alone.’ The fact is that the entry is found
in five MSS. out of six. A is the only one which omits the words ‘on
scipum.’
[549] See notes to Chron., ad loc. It has, however, been pointed out
to me by Mr. A. J. Wyatt, of Christ’s College, Cambridge, that the
phrase ‘ahton wælstowe gewald’ looks as if these battles were fought on
land; and I admit that I cannot produce any certain instance of this
phrase being applied to a naval victory. The provision that a merchant
who fared thrice over sea on his own account should rank as a thane is
unfortunately of uncertain date, Schmid, pp. lxiv, 390.
[550] Preface to Pastoral Care. Cf. the description of the Lombard
ravages in the translation of the Dialogues, p. 258: ‘nu syndon þa
burga forhergode … ⁊ þa ceastra toworpene, cyrcan forbærnde ⁊ mynstra
toworpene, ⁊ eac gehwylce tunas ge wera ge wifa fram hæðenum mannum
geweste, ⁊ eac fram ælce bigonge þis land ligeð tolysed ⁊ idlað in
westenne. ne eardað nænig agend frea, ac wild-deor abysgiað þa stowe, þa
ær hæfde ⁊ eardode manna mænigo.’
[551] So Freeman, in Dict. Nat. Biog. i. 156; cf. S. C. H. i. 99, 100;
‘occasione barbarorum etiam indigenae in rapinas anhelauerant,’ W. M. i.
129.
[552] Rev. C. S. Taylor, Origin of the Mercian Shires, p. 3.
[553] Below, § 90. Cf. M. H. Turk, The Legal Code of Alfred the Great,
pp. 50, 51 (a very useful monograph); Schmid, Gesetze, pp. xxxvii ff.
[554] ‘licet enim, ut quidam ait, leges inter arma sileant, ille
inter fremitus armorum leges tulit,’ Gesta Regum, i. 129; cf. Robert
of Gloucester, i. 392: ‘Vor þey me segge þat lawes beþ in worre tyme
uorlore, Nas it noȝt so bi is daye, vor þei he in worre were, Lawes he
made riȝtuolore and strengore þen er were.’ Cf. Chron. Rames., p. 13:
‘Alfredus rex Anglicarum legum conditor.’
[555] Turk, u. s. p. 35.
[556] ‘þæt it here name,’ Turk, p. 74; Schmid, p. 62; ‘here’ is the
regular name for the Danish, as ‘fyrd’ is for the native host.
[557] Turk, p. 100; Schmid, p. 94.
[558] Turk, p. 82; Schmid, p. 66; Alfred’s idea that it was Christianity
which first allowed money-compensation for offences is interesting,
though unhistorical. The same idea occurs Oros. 48, 32.
[559] Turk, p. 84; Schmid, p. 72.
[560] Turk, p. 96; Schmid, p. 88.
[561] Turk, p. 80; Schmid, p. 66.
[562] e.g. by Schmid, p. xxxix.
[563] Matt. vii. 12, which gives the rule in its positive, and not in its
negative form.
[564] Turk, pp. 37, 38.
[565] 497 A-D [69-71].
[566] 497 A [69].
[567] Turk, p. 78; Schmid, p. 64.
[568] ‘omnia … iudicia, quae in sua absentia fiebant … inuestigabat; …
iudices aut per se ipsum, aut per … suos fideles … interrogabat,’ 497
C [70]; cf. Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 183, 205, 208, 391; Pauli, König
Ælfred, p. 179.
[569] Birch, No. 591; K. C. D. No. 328.
[570] Josephus, Ant. xviii. 4, 6; cf. Schürer, Gesch. des jüdischen
Volkes, i. 356.
[571] Einhard, Vita Caroli, c. 24.
[572] Cf. the very striking parallel of Charles the Great: ‘cum
aduerteret multa legibus populi sui deesse, nam Franci duas habent
leges [i.e. the Salic and Ripuarian] in plurimis locis ualde diuersas,
cogitauit quae deerant addere, et discrepantia unire, praua quoque …
corrigere; sed de his nihil aliud ab eo factum est, nisi quod pauca
capitula … legibus addidit,’ ibid. c. 29.
[573] Above, § 11.
[574] Probably Long Dean, three miles from Swanborough Tump, which is
between Pewsey and Woodborough, Wilts. [I give this statement as I find
it, but I have searched the six-inch Ordnance map in vain.]
[575] Birch, No. 553; K. C. D. No. 314; and elsewhere.
[576] This is specially noticeable in the matter of grants of land,
Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 193.
[577] Stubbs, u. s. i. 129, 130, 240.
[578] Preface to Pastoral Care.
[579] Col. 1777.
[580] ‘the veil of ninth-century darkness,’ Stubbs, u. s. i. 236.
[581] Ed. Migne, col. 719.
[582] Cf. Pauli, p. 153.
[583] Mansi, Concilia, xvii. 54; Jaffé, Reg. Pont. p. 270; Chron. ii. 87.
[584] Spelman’s Life of Alfred, ed. Hearne, pp. 219 ff. I owe the
reference to Mr. Macfadyen.
[585] Pertz, xiii. 566-8; W. M. II. xlvii.
[586] Birch, No. 582; K. C. D. No. 327.
[587] First printed by Cockayne in The Shrine; reprinted in Englische
Studien, xviii, where the pagination of Cockayne’s edition is retained. I
cite the pages of Cockayne’s edition.
[588] See below, § 115.
[589] ‘ic cwæðe þeah þæt hyt si preostum betere, næbbe ðonne hæbbe,’ [sc.
wif], p. 183; so in the Orosius, 290, 1. 2, Alfred strongly condemns the
compelling of monks to military service.
[590] Asser, 493 C [60].
[591] Ibid. 495 A [64]. W. M. says that in the Nuns’ Chapterhouse at
Shaftesbury was a stone, transferred thither from the walls of the town,
with this inscription: ‘Anno Dom. Inc. Elfredus rex fecit hanc urbem
DCCCLXXXᵒ. regni suo VIIIᵒ,’ G. P. p. 187 (cf. Lib. de Hyda, p. 49, which
reads reparauit’ for ‘fecit’). This shows that Shaftesbury was one of
Alfred’s ‘burgs,’ and it occurs in the Burghal Hidage with a territory of
700 hides, Maitland, Domesday, p. 503. It certainly has a most commanding
position.
[592] See the document by which Edward acquires land for carrying out his
father’s intentions, Birch, No. 605; K. C. D. No. 1087. The so-called
‘golden charter’ of foundation ‘pro anima patris mei Alfredi regis
_totius Anglie_ [!] _primi coronati_,’ is a flagrant forgery, Birch, No.
602, K. C. D. No. 336; cf. Liber de Hyda, pp. xxiii ff.
[593] 493 D [61].
[594] 494 [62-64].
[595] Asser, 496 A, B [67]; cf. Einhard, c. 27, for similar liberality on
the part of Charles the Great towards foreign Christians.
[596] 495 C-496 B [65-67].
[597] The ‘Modus tenendi Parliamenti’ (Stubbs’ Charters, pp. 502 ff.) is
a curious instance of a purely imaginary constitution giving itself out
as historical. It _may_ be as old as Edward I’s reign; if so, as Gneist
says, ‘es würde nur dann beweisen dass es schon damals Ideologen des
Feudalismus gab,’ Verwaltungsrecht, p. 393.
[598] Const. Hist. i. 105, 143.
[599] Above, §§ 35, 78.
[600] Asser, 496 C-E [68, 69].
[601] ‘tentoriorum tenuitates.’
[602] Weber, Weltgesch., v. 298; Oelsner, Jahrbücher des fränkischen
Reiches unter K. Pippin, p. 347: ‘direximus [uobis] … libros … insimul
artem gramaticam … geometricam … omnes Greco eloquio scriptas, necnon
et horologium nocturnum.’ Cf. also the very curious account given by
Einhard, Annals, ad ann. 807, of a striking clock given to Charles by the
king of Persia, cited in Hazlitt’s edition of Warton’s History of English
Poetry, i. 197.
[603] 492 C [58]; cf. Einhard, Vita Car., c. 16.
[604] Of Charles it is said: ‘Scotorum reges habuit ad suam uoluntatem,’
ibid.
[605] The Life of St. Gall, written in this very century, says: ‘nationi
Scotorum consuetudo peregrinandi iam paene in naturam conuersa est,’
Pertz, ii. 30; cf. Bede, ii. 170.
[606] See Chron. ii. 103-105, where these and other instances are
collected.
[607] 517 E.
[608] Above, § 27.
[609] Printed in Tobler, Descriptiones Terrae Sanctae, and elsewhere.
[610] The nominal amount was however really doubled, because the Saracens
insisted on the money being paid by weight, and not by tale.
[611] At the mouth of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which is now
silted up, St. Martin, Dict. Géogr.
[612] St. Willibald in the preceding century (circa 720), took a very
different route. I give the principal stages only: The Seine, Rouen,
Gorthonicum(?), Lucca, Rome, Naples, Syracuse, Monemvasia, Cos, Samos,
Ephesus, Miletus, Cape Chelidonium, Cyprus, Emesa, Damascus, Jerusalem.
This also is printed in Tobler, u. s.
[613] 883, 887, 888, 889, 890.
[614] 889.
[615] Lib. ii. Prosa vii.
[616] Anglo-Saxon Version, ch. xvii; ed. Sedgefield, p. 40; the
translation which follows is taken mainly from Mr. Sedgefield’s handy
rendering of Alfred’s version into modern English, in which the passages
added by Alfred to his original are very conveniently indicated by
italics, p. 41.
[617] For Charles’ Court school cf. Weber, v. 392 ff.
[618] 485 D-486 C [42-44], 496 A [67].
[619] Writing to Offa Alcuin says: ‘ualde mihi placet quod tantam habetis
intentionem lectionis, ut lumen sapientiae luceat in regno uestro, quod
multis modo extinguitur in locis. Vos estis decus Britanniae, tuba
praedicationis, gladius contra hostes, scutum contra inimicos,’ Monumenta
Alcuiniana, p. 265.
[620] ‘Pleimundus … magister Elfredi regis,’ G. P. p. 20.
[621] Bede, ii. 55, 56. To avoid this ambiguity Lupus of Ferrières uses
the expression ‘sacerdos secundi ordinis,’ Vita S. Wigberti, c. 5.
[622] R. W. i. 324; he alters Werwulf’s name into Werebert, probably
because there was a bishop of Leicester of that name early in the ninth
century. There was an Athelstan bishop of Hereford early in the eleventh
century. This may give us an idea of Wendover’s critical skill.
[623] See Stubbs, W. M. II. xlviii.
[624] Above, p. 129.
[625] W. M. II. xliv ff.
[626] Johannes Longus, a later chronicler of St. Bertin’s, says that
Grimbald came to England in consequence of the murder of Fulk, archbishop
of Rheims, Pertz, xxv. 769; as the date of this was 900, the date of
Grimbald’s arrival would be thrown to the very end of Alfred’s reign.
The Liber de Hyda, p. 30, says that Grimbald was sent for by advice of
Archbishop Æthelred. This would make the invitation at least as early as
889. And the same authority, p. 35, places his arrival in 885. But I do
not attach much weight to any of these statements.
[627] Printed in Wise’s edition of Asser, pp. 123 ff., Birch, ii. 190
ff., and elsewhere.
[628] ‘nostrum est uobis illum canonice concedere,’ Wise, p. 128.
[629] e.g. by Pauli, u. s. p. 195; AA. SS. July, ii. 652.
[630] Wise, pp. 127, 128.
[631] Wise, p. 124.
[632] Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, i. 322.
[633] St. Grimbald’s mass day (July 8) is mentioned in the Chron. 1075 D
ad init. See Chron. ii. 122, 123.
[634] Above, p. 18.
[635] ‘inde perplures instituere studuit,’ Asser, 592 A [56].
[636] South of the Thames Alfred did not know a single priest at the time
of his accession, who knew Latin; south of the Humber there were very
few; north of the Humber he does not think there were many. This confirms
the view taken above, that Mercia was at this time intellectually the
least backward part of England. The reference to Northumbria implies
rather Alfred’s lack of accurate information, than any strong belief that
things were very much better there.
[637] ‘forðy me ðyncð betre, gif iow swa ðyncð,’ p. 7; cf. Solil. p. 169:
‘gyf þe nu þincð swa swa me þincð.’
[638] It is the combination of reading _with translation_ that is new.
The passage must not be interpreted as if Alfred now for the first time
began to read Latin.
[639] Asser, 491 C-492 B [55-57].
[640] ‘enchiridion … id est manualis liber,’ Asser; the equivalent Saxon
‘handbóc’ is found in some MSS. of W. M., i. 132 note.
[641] Gesta Pont., pp. 333, 336.
[642] i. 272.
[643] Article on the ‘Blostman’ in Paul and Braune’s Beiträge, iv.
119 ff. (1877). For Wülker’s later views, see Grundriss, pp. 390-392,
415-420. Later writers continue, however, to repeat Wülker’s earlier
views, e.g. Macfadyen, p. 330. Wülker sets aside the Florence of
Worcester reference, a little arbitrarily, as it seems to me, Beitr. u.
s. p. 128.
[644] Now at length (1900), after many vicissitudes and delays, edited by
Hans Hecht in vol. 5 of Grein-Wülker’s Bibliothek der angelsächsischen
Prosa.
[645] ‘Werfrithus … imperio regis libros dialogorum Gregorii papae … de
Latinitate primus in Saxonicam linguam, aliquando sensum ex sensu ponens
[hwilum andgit of andgite, Pref. Past. Care] elucubratim et elegantissime
interpretatus est,’ 486 E-487 A [46]; cf. W. M. i. 131. When Professor
Earle says (Essays, p. 197) that the authority for Werferth’s authorship
of this translation ‘is late and of doubtful value,’ he goes much further
in rejecting Asser than I can go.
[646] So in both MSS. according to Hecht, and it certainly is so in
Hatton. But I suspect that in the original MS. there was simply a capital
G., standing for ‘Gregories,’ which the scribes wrongly expanded. However
highly Alfred might think of Gregory’s works, he would hardly speak of
them as _God’s_ books.
[647] Plegmund, Asser, Grimbald, and John.
[648] Bede, ii. 70; Ebert, u. s. i. 546 ff. The fourth book of the
Dialogues had further a very great influence on the development of the
mediaeval doctrine of Purgatory.
[649] e.g. i. 2, 3, 7, 9, &c.
[650] Bampton Lectures, p. 74.
[651] ‘reliquiis quibus ille rex maxime post Dominum confidebat,’ 478 D
[28]; the candles which Alfred invented, ‘die noctuque … coram sanctis
multorum electorum Dei reliquiis, quae semper eum ubique comitabantur, …
lucescebant,’ 496 D [68]; cf. the (probably spurious) passage 485 B [41].
[652] ‘Die Verehrung der Reliquien und der Glaube an ihre Wunderkräfte
war kaum zu irgend einer Zeit grösser,’ Ebert, u. s. ii. 99. 334 ff.,
iii. 208 ff.; Gregorovius, iii. 72 ff.; Bede, ii. 157 f.
[653] The MS. of the revised version, Hatton 76, is mutilated near the
end of ii. 35, and has also several lacunae earlier in the work, Hecht,
p. ix.
[654] See H. Johnson, Gab es zwei … altenglische Uebersetzungen der
Dialoge Gregors? Berlin, 1884.
[655] e.g. 4, 14; 5, 1; 9, 19; 15, 9; 30, 21. Occasionally, though
rarely, the later version is the longer, e.g. 36, 20; 37, 27; 42, 28. The
references are to the pages and lines of Hecht’s edition, where the two
texts are very conveniently printed in parallel columns.
[656] e.g. 17, 1 ff.; 31, 28 ff.; 41, 24 ff.; 43, 7 f.; 46, 14 ff.; 62,
9 ff.; 67, 1; 81, 30 ff.; 108, 2; 126, 19; 127, 20 ff.; 128, 2; 133, 12;
136, 7; 139, 16; 140, 3; 141, 21; 163, 10.
[657] 35, 17 æmtignesse C = otio, ingange H = ostio; 89, 30 mid oþrum C =
cum aliis, mid fiðerum H = cum alis; at 145, 17 C is more correct than H,
unless this too rests on a difference of reading, molesta _for_ modesta;
the latter is certainly right. (C = unrevised, H = revised text.)
[658] I give a few examples of changes frequently made, with the number
of instances which I have noticed: _ongitan_ altered to _oncnawan_ (14
times; in three cases _ongitan_ is retained); _gangan_ to _stæppan_
(7); _tid_ to _tima_ (8; in four cases _tid_ is retained); _cniht_ to
_cnapa_ (19; in three cases _cniht_ is retained); _wise_ to _þing_ (17);
_semninga_ to _færinga_ (8); _hwæt_, as exclamation, inserted (9). There
are probably other instances of these changes which I have overlooked.
But these are sufficient to show that they were systematically made. And
the list could be easily enlarged.
[659] See above, pp. 34, 35.
[660] For this account of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle I may refer generally
to the Introduction to vol. ii of my edition, especially §§ 62, 68, 83,
89, 93, 100-8.
[661] For the body of scribes maintained by Alfred see the little verse
Proem to the Pastoral Care; (the book itself is represented as speaking)
‘Ælfred kyning … me his writerum sende suð ⁊ norð; heht him swelcra ma
brengan bi ðære bisene,’ pp. 8-9.
[662] Below, § 99.
[663] ‘Psalterium transferre aggressus, uix prima parte explicata,
uiuendi finem fecit,’ G. R. i. 132. On Alfred’s fondness for the psalms
see above, pp. 16, 140; below, p. 153. It is worth notice that in Boeth.
xxxix. § 10 (p. 133), Alfred substitutes a quotation from the psalms, for
the Greek quotation of the original.
[664] See Bede, ii. 137; so in Anglo-Saxon we have ‘let him sing one
fifty,’ ‘two fifties,’ &c., ibid. 138; and add to the references there
given, Thorpe, Ancient Laws, ii. 286.
[665] The MS. was edited by Mr. Thorpe for the Clarendon Press in 1835.
[666] See Wichmann in Anglia, xi. 41.
[667] Grundriss, p. 436.
[668] Anglia, xi. 39 ff.
[669] Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, ix.
43 ff.; also printed separately. To these two essays and Mr. Thorpe’s
Preface I owe several of the facts made use of in this section.
[670] ‘he witgode be him sylfum, hu his ealdormen sceoldon fægnian his
cymes of his wræcsiðe,’ Thorpe, p. 50; cf. Solil. p. 204, where it is
said how a man returned from exile remembers his past troubles, in
pleasurable contrast with his present good fortune.
[671] These colophons were sometimes mechanically copied by scribes, and
Thorpe suggested that such might be the case in the present instance.
If this were so, then it would not be necessary to prove identity of
handwriting in order to prove that the person referred to was the same.
[672] Gesta Regum, ed. Stubbs, I. xvi.
[673] It is not impossible that the whole tradition of Alfred having
translated the Psalter may have arisen out of the passage in Asser where
it is said that Alfred’s Encheiridion or Commonplace Book grew, ‘quousque
propemodum ad magnitudinem unius psalterii peruenerit,’ 492 B [57]. We
seem to have a trace of this confusion in the Eulogium Historiarum, iii.
9: ‘semper habebat librum in sinu quod ipse uocabat manuale, … quidam
dicunt hoc fuisse Psalterium.’
[674] ‘totum Nouum et Vetus Testamentum in eulogiam Anglicae gentis
transmutauit,’ p. 81 (Anglia Christiana Society edition). Ailred of
Rievaulx (also twelfth century) says ‘sacros apices in linguam Anglicam
uertere laborabat,’ col. 722.
[675] ‘plurimam partem Romanae bibliothecae Anglorum auribus dedit,’ G.
R. i. 132.
[676] Cf. the lines of Alcuin:—
‘Nomine Pandecten proprio uocitare memento
Hoc corpus sacrum, Lector, in ore tuo;
Quod nunc a multis constat Bibliotheca dicta
Nomine non proprio, ut lingua Pelasga docet.’
Dümmler, Poetae Latini Aeui Carolini, i. 283.
[677] Fulman, Scriptores, i. 79, 80.
[678] So Schmid, Gesetze, p. xli.
[679] Ingulf, u. s.; Chron. Evesham, p. 97.
[680] See Pauli, König Ælfred, pp. 241 ff. The Saxon life of St. Neot
speaks in very large terms of Alfred’s literary works, but gives no names
of any of them; for the Proverbs, cf. Ailred of Rievaulx, u. s.; Ann.
Winton. p. 10.
[681] See the references collected, Bede, ii. 70; Ebert, u. s. i.
551, 552. In Ælfric’s Canons it is mentioned among the books ‘which a
mass-priest needs must have,’ Thorpe, Ancient Laws, ii. 350.
[682] Cura Past. i. 1; ‘cræft eabra cræfta,’ p. 45; Alfred uses exactly
the same expression, Solil. p. 180.
[683] Grundriss, pp. 394 ff.
[684] 133, 18 (ii. 7) an etymology of Gregory’s omitted; 135, 20 (ii.
7) an alternative interpretation omitted; 401, 28 (iii. 27) ‘masculorum
concubitores’ omitted; 461, 13 (iii. 40). The references are to the pages
and lines of Mr. Sweet’s edition; references to the books and chapters of
the original are given in brackets.
[685] 243, 11. 13; 253, 11; 275, 15; 277, 19; 299, 15. 17. 19. 21. 23;
301, 1. 3; 311, 25; 315, 24; 323, 4. 11. 25; 325, 5; 327, 1; 329, 22;
331, 6. 13; 343, 1; 367, 2; 369, 5; 371, 14; 373, 23; 377, 7. 25; 379,
3; 381, 12; 387, 25; 389, 9. 23; 395, 12; 405, 10; 409, 32; 413, 17. 21;
421, 10; 425, 30; 427, 28. 32; 433, 8. 18; 435, 9; 437, 19; 445, 19. 31.
35; 463, 20. 23; in two cases the references are wrong; at 91, 16 Mal.
ii. 7 is assigned to Zechariah, though Malachi is given in the original;
at 117, 7 1 Cor. iv. 21 is assigned to Galatians.
[686] 413, 10; 415, 5; 419, 6; 425, 20. 25; 429, 23; 435, 18; 465, 4. 14.
23.
[687] 474 B [16], 485 E [43], 491 C [55].
[688] 31, 21; 103, 5; 145, 20; 181, 12; 189, 7; 222, 22; 253, 12; 293, 2.
4; 301, 7; 401, 28; 421, 19.
[689] Cf. the marvellous etymology of ‘sacerdos,’ 139, 15.
[690] 37, 5 ff.; 43, 20; 101, 16 ff.; 117, 18.
[691] 43, 15.
[692] 125, 19.
[693] 169, 23.
[694] 439, 29; for other doubtful interpretations cf. 391, 23; 411, 10.
At 391, 23 is an insertion which is unintelligible to me. Possibly it
rests on some difference of reading in the Latin.
[695] 167, 2.
[696] Turk, u. s. pp. 37, 70; Schmid, p. 60; cf. also Boeth. xxxiv. § 8
(p. 89); Pss. ix. 9; xvii. 1; xxx. 3.
[697] 385, 22.
[698] 35, 23; cf. 63, 3; 373, 18 (_king’s_ highways). For thane cf. Bede,
pp. 122, 126, 134, 194.
[699] p. 197.
[700] So in the continental Heliand, cf. Ebert, u. s. iii. 102, 103; in
Andreas, ibid. 64; in Cynewulf’s Christ, the Angels are the thanes, ibid.
51.
[701] Orosius, pp. 218, 296; Solil. p. 196.
[702] See above, p. 123.
[703] 109, 13; 143, 1 ff.; 197, 9.
[704] 251, 18; cf. a similar but less striking instance, 421, 35.
[705] 263, 21.
[706] 129, 14 ff.; 157, 15 ff.; 215, 21 ff.; 271, 4. 5; 279, 15. 16; 283,
13 ff.; 291, 14 ff.; 306, 5 ff.; 343, 8 ff.; 375, 14 ff.; 387, 2 ff. 25
ff.; 397, 22 ff.; 433, 1 ff.; 437, 12 ff.; 445, 10 ff. (this expansion
of the metaphor of a boat making its way against the stream is of great
interest); 449, 2 f.; 451, 28 ff.; 465, 16 ff.
[707] 145, 20 ff.; 149, 24 ff.; 165, 13 ff.; 179, 10 ff.; 185, 24 ff.;
207, 18 ff.; 313, 1 ff.; 325, 8 ff.; 449, 5 ff.; 457, 3 ff.
[708] 75, 14 f.; 103, 25; 149, 4 ff.; 365, 3 ff.; 407, 23 ff.; 427, 17;
443, 10. This last instance is of some little interest; Alfred translates
‘quem Deus suscitauit solutis _doloribus_ inferni’ by ‘whom God raised up
to loose the _prisoners_ of hell.’
[709] Preface to Pastoral Care.
[710] 37, 11. 12; cf. 7, 17. 18; 103, 1.
[711] 59, 3 ff.
[712] 229, 3 ff. The very word ‘stælherigas’ occurs in the Chronicle, 897.
[713] 433, 27 ff.; cf. also Oros. 46, 34.
[714] Since writing the above account, I have read two careful German
dissertations on the relation of Alfred’s translation of the Cura
Pastoralis to the original, one by Gustav Wack, Greifswald, 1889; the
other by Albert de Witz, Bunzlau, 1889. They go into greater detail than
I have done, but come to much the same result.
[715] See the table in Wülker, Grundriss, p. 393. Wack, u. s. p. 58,
would put the Orosius even before the Cura Pastoralis.
[716] Wülker, u. s. p. 396.
[717] In his useful dissertation: Untersuchungen über K. Ælfred’s
Bedaübersetzung, 1889.
[718] Gegenwärtiger Stand der Forschung über K. Ælfred’s Bedaübersetzung,
1898 (Sitzungsber. of the Vienna Academy of Sciences).
[719] Cf. Ælfric’s saying: ‘every one who translates from Latin into
English should strive that the English may have its own idiom, otherwise
it is very misleading to any one who does not know the Latin idiom,’
Preface to Heptateuch.
[720] See below, and cf. Schilling: ‘there are many mistakes in
translation due to carelessness and want of grammatical knowledge,’ p. 9;
‘his knowledge of Latin was still small when he translated the Orosius,’
p. 61.
[721] pp. cvi-cviii.
[722] I did not then know that Mr. Sweet had already noticed this
affinity, though he gave no examples, and drew no inference from it,
Preface to Pastoral Care, p. xl.
[723] It is true that in the Orosius Alfred omits the conquest of Britain
by Claudius (vii. 6), but this may be, as Schilling suggests (p. 21),
from quasipatriotic motives, because of the ease with which the island
was conquered. He does however give it in the Bede (H. E. i. 3), and this
fact might be used as an argument in favour of the priority of the Bede
translation.
[724] Ed. Schipper, p. 13; the corresponding capitulum is however
translated in both recensions.
[725] Orosius, ed. Sweet, p. 238.
[726] ’mid dice ⁊ mid eorðwealle,’ ‘with ditch and earth-wall,’ ed.
Miller, p. 32.
[727] ‘het dician ⁊ eorðwall gewyrcan’ = _uallum fecerat_, ibid. p. 46;
cf. (of a different matter) ibid. p. 366: ’mid dice ⁊ mid eorðwealle utan
ymbsealde’ = circumuallante aggere.
[728] p. 270.
[729] Below, § 109.
[730] pp. 60, 22 ff.; 62, 9 ff.; cf. also Oros. 42, 14 with Boet. 1, 9.
10; Or. 56, 32 with Bo. 9, 29; 21, 1 &c.; Or. 220, 16 with Bo. 34, 29;
Or. 296, 8 with Bo. 7, 2. 3. In Oros. 72, 8 ff., Alfred seems to connect
the word Fabianus with faber (craftsman), as in Boethius he seems to
connect the name Fabricius with the same root, pp. 46, 165; one or two
other points of connexion between the Orosius and the Boethius are given
below (pp. 177 _n_, 184 _n_); cf. also B. xv, xvi § 1 (p. 34) with O. pp.
88, 220, 226 (Aetna); B. xvi § 1, 4, xxix § 2 (pp. 34, 39, 66) with O.
pp. 260, 262 (Nero).
[731] K. Ælfred’s angelsächsische Bearbeitung der Weltgeschichte des
Orosius (1886).
[732] Dr. Schilling gives the numbers rather differently, p. 6; I have
taken for the original the capitula as given by Zangemeister from the St.
Gallen MS.; for the translation, the capitula in Mr. Sweet’s edition.
[733] pp. 14 ff.
[734] pp. 17-19.
[735] pp. 19-21.
[736] 486 B [44].
[737] Einhard, Vita Caroli, c. 21.
[738] 70, 22 ff.
[739] 106, 11 ff.
[740] 264, 2. 3.
[741] See Chron. II. cvi, 8. Joinville compares St. Louis to Titus,
‘dont les anciennes escriptures racontent, que trop se dolut, et fut
desconforté d’un jour que il n’avoit donné nul benefice,’ c. 142.
[742] ‘Alfred … Englene darling,’ from the so-called Proverbs of Alfred
printed in Kemble’s Salomon and Saturn, pp. 226 ff.; so Laȝamon, i. 269:
‘Alfred þe king, Englelondes deorling.’ It is noteworthy that W. M.
applies the term ‘deliciae Anglorum’ to Edgar, G. R. i. 164.
[743] One of the most interesting of these is the explanation of the
‘indomitae gentes’ against whom Severus built his wall, as ‘Picts and
Scots,’ 270, 12. For other interesting glosses, cf. 108, 16; 110, 34;
196, 24; 206, 35.
[744] I have counted thirty-six instances.
[745] 62, 9 ff.; cf. 92, 27 ff.
[746] 188, 3 ff.
[747] Above, p. 59.
[748] 174, 30 ff.; cf. 76, 4 ff. of Tomyris and Cyrus. Here the stratagem
in question is mentioned by Orosius, but Alfred expands the hint very
luxuriantly.
[749] Above, p. 99.
[750] 188, 8.
[751] Above, pp. 59, 102, 105-6.
[752] 172, 1 ff.; cf. also the account of Anthony’s ships, 246, 7 ff.
[753] Above, p. 113.
[754] 96, 12 ff.; cf. also 98, 12; 146, 17; 88, 3 ff.; 176, 14.
[755] 46, 15 ff.; see above, p. 110.
[756] Cited by Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, ii. 414 (ed. 1862)
from private sources.
[757] 74, 22 ff.; 210, 5 ff.; 248, 12 ff.; 290, 11 ff.
[758] 134, 10 ff.
[759] 68, 19 ff.
[760] 178, 9 ff. For Regulus, cf. also Boethius, xvi. § 2 (p. 37).
[761] 190, 17 ff.; 224, 24 ff.
[762] 242, 19. 20. 30 ff.
[763] 34, 34 ff.
[764] 224, 24 ff.
[765] 54, 16 ff. (Phalaris); cf. Boeth. xvi. § 2 (p. 37, Busiris).
[766] 296, 1 ff.; the ironical remark on the loyalty (hlafordhyldo) shown
by Rufinus and Stilicho to their master’s children.
[767] 136, 27 ff.
[768] Another change from similar motives is 52, 35 ff.
[769] Below, § 110.
[770] 32, 13 ff.; 58, 7 ff.; see Schilling, p. 56.
[771] The two Scipios, 224, 24 ff.; Sextus Julius Caesar and the Praetor
Cneius Pompeius, are confused with the two great rivals of later days,
and the whole account of the treatment of the former pair by the Senate
is extraordinarily funny, 234, 21 ff.
[772] The most remarkable instance of this is in the account of
Alexander’s successors and the territories which fell to their lot, 142,
26 ff. (Oros. iii. 23, 7 ff.).
[773] e.g. 190, 29; 218, 10; 264, 4 (this last may be due to a wrong
reading in the Latin text); 271, 17.
[774] 246, 16 ff.
[775] ibid. 32 ff.
[776] 250, 10 ff.
[777] Dr. Schilling has remarked (p. 59) that Alfred in the Orosius never
mastered the fact that a Roman might have not merely two but three names.
So when there are two consuls with three names each, he either makes
three persons out of them with two names each, e.g. 176, 32; 182, 5 &c.,
or he omits the two last names altogether, e.g. 202, 18; 204, 23 &c. By
the time he reached the Boethius he had overcome this difficulty. In two
places he says that Marcus was called by another name Tullius, and by a
third name Cicero, xviii. § 2, xli. § 3 (pp. 43, 143).
[778] p. 61.
[779] Above, p. 160.
[780] Paul und Braune’s Beiträge, iv. 127.
[781] Ed. 2, p. 196.
[782] Introduction (1890); Dr. Miller further enforced his view in a
monograph on the Place Names in the English Bede, Quellen und Forschungen
(1896). For a copy of this I was indebted to the writer.
[783] Above, § 98.
[784] Homilies, ed. Thorpe, ii. 116-118.
[785] ibid. 358.
[786] ibid. i. 2.
[787] Prof. Schipper, Gegenwärtiger Stand, &c., p. 6.
[788]
‘He nom þa Englisce boc,
þa makede Seint Beda.’
Laȝamon, i. 2.
[789] ‘liber quem composuit in lingua Saxonica de Gestis Anglorum … cuius
copiam habui in Prioratu Canonicorum de Suthwyk,’ Anglia Sacra, i. 183.
This is interesting as showing that Saxon studies were not quite extinct
even in the fifteenth century. It is also interesting, because we can
almost certainly point to the very ‘copia’ used by Rudborne. It is the
Cotton MS. Otho B. XI. This is now terribly injured, owing to the great
Cottonian fire of 1731. But Wanley (p. 219), who saw it when complete,
describes it as ‘exemplum antiquum primitus Eccles. Beatae Mariae de
Suwika’ (Southwick, Hants); cited, ed. Miller, I. xvi. Rudborne also
cites Alfred’s will, p. 206, though this does not agree with our copies.
[790] In vol. iv of Grein-Wülker’s Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa,
1897-1899.
[791] Gegenwärtiger Stand, &c., u. s. pp. 4, 5.
[792] Ed. Miller, p. xxiii; ed. Schipper, p. xxix.
[793] Above, § 88.
[794] I have shown above, p. 145, that there are certain words
characteristic of the earlier recension of the Dialogues which the
reviser systematically alters into others, _semninga_ into _færinga_,
_tid_ into _tima_, _ongitan_ to _oncnawan_, &c. In the Bede I have
noticed 32 instances of _semninga_, not one of _færinga_; 90 of _tid_,
none of _tima_; 10 of _ongitan_, 2 of _oncnawan_. I do not pretend that
my observations are exhaustive. The following words occur, so far as I
know, only in the Bede and in the Dialogues (the references are to the
pages and lines of Hecht’s and Miller’s editions respectively):—ágendlíce
= proprie, D 264, 26; B 30, 10 (in the sense of ‘arbitrarily’ it occurs
C. P. p. 144); allíc = catholicus, D 237, 20; B 312, 31; ancerlíf, D 210,
26; B 364, 30; brícsian, D 343, 37; B 244, 22; camphád, D 298, 8; B 480,
11; drihtenlíc, D 309, 26; B 158, 10; eardunghús, D 185, 16; B 366, 16;
efenceasterwaran, D 205, 1; B 62, 20; fordémedness, D 235, 14; B 34, 5;
forsettan (in sense of ‘obstruct’) D 258, 28; B 212, 16; fremsumlíce, D
242, 10; B 184, 23; gefeolan, D 336, 23; B 450, 28; gefremedness, D 318,
15; B 32, 7; gewinfullíc, D 222, 9; B 56, 9; gýmeléasness, D 208, 4; B
242, 28; ungebrosnendlíc, D 233, 15; B 378, 4; ungeæhtendlic, D 282, 21;
B 84, 12. This list too might be easily extended; and the whole subject
of the relation of the two works is well worthy of further examination.
No doubt the resemblance is partly due to the similarity of their
subject matter. The likeness of the two originals is also very strong
in parts; so much so indeed that I think that Bede must, consciously
or unconsciously, have modelled his style in the Hist. Eccl. on the
Dialogues of Gregory. Still the likeness between the two translations
is, I think, greater than one would expect in the case of two perfectly
independent translators, and points to their having been produced under
similar influences.
[795] e.g. 114, 29; 180, 15; 216, 9; the references are to the E. E. T.
S. edition by Dr. Miller.
[796] e.g. 38, 24; 50, 1; 226, 30; 274, 10.
[797] e.g. 36, 17; 122, 33; 190, 22. 30; 266, 32; 294, 23; 406, 21.
[798] e.g. 32, 7; 172, 28; 270, 33.
[799] Instead of the passive the impersonal active form is ordinarily
used in Anglo-Saxon; not ‘the land is called Kent,’ but, ‘one calls the
land Kent.’ In the Celtic languages the so-called passive really is, in
origin, an impersonal active form, which explains the (at first sight)
strange phenomenon that the ‘passive’ always takes an accusative after
it, see Zimmer, Keltische Studien, No. 8.
[800] e.g. 14, 27: ‘fram deaðes liðe,’ ‘a mortis articulo’ (lið =
joint); 32, 8; 128, 14; 214, 17; 269, 9; 274, 11; 278, 2; 294, 7; 308,
22; 336, 24; 370, 4; 462, 7; 478, 33. An interesting instance of taking
a metaphorical expression literally occurs 372, 14 (H. E. iv. 29). The
original is ‘incubuit precibus antistes’; this is translated ‘ða aðenede
se biscop hine in cruce ⁊ hine gebæd,’ ‘the bishop stretched himself in a
cross and prayed’; i.e. the translator understands by ‘incubuit’ what the
Irish call ‘cros-figil,’ or praying with the body stretched out prostrate
on the ground in the form of a cross.
[801] e.g. 282, 23; 294, 23; 450, 13; 482, 9.
[802] Gegenwärtiger Stand, &c., pp. 8-10.
[803] See the parallel texts in Schipper’s edition, pp. 266-270, 273-275.
[804] ibid. 271-272 (= Miller, p. 206). This passage relates to the
Easter Controversy.
[805] ibid. 276-285 (= Miller, pp. 210 ff.). Another passage, Schipper,
pp. 133-140 (= Miller, pp. 110 ff.), is omitted in two of the younger
group of MSS.; but as it is contained in the third, its omission in the
two others was probably due to some mutilation of their common original.
[806] Above, § 98.
[807] H. E. i. 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32; ii. 4, 8, 10, 11, 17, 18, 19; v.
21.
[808] H. E. i. 23; iii. 29; the Canons of the Council of Hertford are
retained, iv. 5.
[809] ibid. i. 27.
[810] ibid. iv. 20; v. 7, 8, 19; ii. 1, is an exception; here Gregory’s
epitaph is translated into prose.
[811] ibid. ii. 2 (a few lines); iii. 3 (part), 4, 17 (part omitted in
older recension); 25, 26, 28 (a few lines); v. 21.
[812] Bede, I. xxxix ff.
[813] See Miller, pp. lvii ff.; and cf. the characterisation Aidan as
‘the _good_ bishop,’ 246, 26. One notes too with pleasure the omission
of the epithet ‘prudens’ which Bede strangely applies to Coifi’s purely
material arguments in favour of Christianity, 134, 23 (H. E. ii. 13).
[814] H. E. i. 2, 6 (this passage about Carausius is omitted also in the
Orosius; here the omission causes a serious perversion of meaning, what
is said of Carausius in the original being transferred to Maximianus in
the translation); 8 (the passage about Arianism in Britain omitted), 9,
10, 11 (much shortened), 17-22; ii. 1 (shortened). In many cases however,
in spite of the omission of a chapter, the capitulum belonging to it is
retained and translated.
[815] ibid. v. 15-17.
[816] Grundriss, p. 406. This is contested by August Schmidt, u. s. pp.
28 ff.
[817] Chronicle, II. xxi, lxi, lxviii, cxiii.
[818] e.g. 40, 8; 46, 11; 114, 11; 120, 7; 156, 1; 158, 28; 164, 14; 166,
32; 174, 25; 178, 17; 188, 23. 25 (name of Bamborough inserted, which
name is nowhere mentioned by Bede); 238, 31; 240, 27 (here the insertion
was necessitated by the preceding omission; so at 246, 33); 242, 19; 264,
11; 338, 8. 25; 374, 26; 390, 20; 394, 24. 29; 438, 1. 8; 464, 6.
[819] 166, 10 (the addition of ‘⁊ cyste,’ ‘and kissed it,’ to the account
of Aidan blessing Oswald’s bounteous hand); 162, 2; 370, 29; 380, 18;
412, 15; cf. 58, 26; 102, 31; 130, 32; 174, 30 ff.; 184, 34; 232, 19.
[820] 32, 10.
[821] 42, 16.
[822] 246, 26.
[823] e.g. 240, 20; 256, 8; 346, 7; 390, 6; 422, 8; 424, 20; 428, 24;
442, 27. 29; 456, 13.
[824] 382, 19; 422, 15 ff.; 448, 19; 466, 27.
[825] 52, 5. 11; 166, 23; 278, 30.
[826] 144, 9; 186, 33; 216, 23; 448, 10.
[827] 150, 13; 154, 19; 156, 5; 166, 16; 178, 14; 182, 11; 202, 12; 268,
13 (a reference to one of Bede’s teachers); 446, 19 (statement that
Daniel was still bishop of Winchester); 472, 23 (the statement that the
Britons still retained their incorrect Easter, though all the Celts had
submitted before the end of the eighth century; see Bede, I. xxxix). In
one case Alfred by inserting the words ‘oð þas tid,’ ‘up to the present
time,’ does seem to pledge himself to the truth of the statement in his
own day, 176, 20.
[828] 152, 23 (Municipium treated as a proper name); 292, 20; 334, 7;
340, 34; 370, 15.
[829] 118, 7 (_episcopum_ instead of _episcopium_; this misreading is
found in some Latin MSS.); 154, 3; and 306, 20 (_troicus_ instead of
_tragicus_ or _stragicus_); 242, 31 (_a Deo_ instead of _adeo_); 340,
8 (_de tecto_ instead of _detecto_); 388, 33 (_praeponere_ instead of
_proponere_); 436, 26 (_siuimet_ [i.e. _sibimet_] instead of _suimet_).
[830] 4, 2 ff.; 98, 6; 236, 7 ff.; for lesser divergences cf. 178, 22;
258, 15; 388, 6.
[831] e.g. Pope Gregory and the Anglian slave boys, 96, 31; the death of
Cædmon, 348, 10.
[832] Const. Hist. i. 70, 71, 111.
[833] I give a list of the more important terms:—heretoga = dux, 148;
ealdormen ⁊ heretogan = duces regii, 236; ealdorman, which in some
applications is equivalent to heretoga, is a vaguer and more general
term, and represents a considerable number of Latin expressions; thus
ealdormen = duces, 134, 158, 302; = maiores natu, 136, 158; = maiores,
348, 442, 450; = principes, 198, 240, 316, 334; = satrapae, 414; =
subreguli, 298 (_bis_); ealdorman = maior domus regiae, 256 (of Ebroin);
þegna aldormon = primus ministrorum, 264; gerefa = praefectus, 194,
256; tun gerefa = uillicus, 344, 414; geþeahteras = consiliarii, 136,
454; witan = consiliarii, 134; = seniores, 452; in gemote heora weotona
= in conuentu seniorum, 162; þegn = minister, 134, 146, 158, 196, 294,
462; cf. þinen = ministra, 318; þegnung = ministerium, 196; cwene þegn
= reginae minister, 330; cyninges þegn = minister regis, 328; = miles
regis, 150; = miles, 222, 302, 326 (_bis_), 418, cf. 436; þegn = miles,
194; gesið = comes, 194, 228, 274, 292, 326, 394; gesiðmann = comes, 22
(_bis_); æðelingas = nobiles, 138, 240, 242 (this is important as showing
that æðeling was not restricted, as in later usage, to members of the
royal house, though it is used of them, as the following examples show);
æðeling (of a king’s brother), 324; se geonga æðeling = regius iuuenis,
iuuenis de regio genere, 130, 306; æðelingas þæs cynecynnes = nobiles
ac regii uiri, 140; here = hostilis exercitus, 54; = exercitus, 356;
fyrd = exercitus, 102; = expeditio, 30; fyrd ⁊ here = bellum, 168, 208;
cynelic tun = uilla regia, 140; cyninges bold = uilla regia, 140; ham =
uicani, 180; tunscipe = uicani, 416; wiic = mansio, 332, 388; sundorwic
= mansio, 262; boclanda æht = praediorum possessiones, 236; heowscipe
= familia (hide), 332; hiwisc = familia (hide), 456 (_bis_); hired =
domus (household), 144; higna ealdor = pater familiae, 180; geferscipe
= domus (household), 264; = clerus, 248, 398; cf. mid his geferum = cum
clero suo, cum clericis suis, 364, 402; his preost ⁊ hond þeng = clericus
illius, 456; ealdordom = primatus, 368; aldorbiscop = metropolitanus
episcopus, 408; regolweard = praepositus, 362; so: prafost ⁊ regolweard,
360; prafost ⁊ ealdorman = propositi 232 (these three examples refer to
the prior or provost of a monastery). In the Orosius we have æðelingas
= regii iuuenes, 44; ealdorman = praefectus, 60, 84; but the most
interesting instance is: Asiam [he] hæfde Romanum to boclande geseald =
traditam per testamentum Romanis Asiam, 224; cf. the Soliloquies, p. 164:
‘ælcne man lyst siððan he ænig cotlyf on his hlafordes _læne_ myd his
fultume getimbred hæfð, þæt he hine mote hwilum þaron gerestan, … oð þone
fyrst þe he _bocland_ ⁊ ece yrfe þurh his hlafordes miltse geearnige.’
At p. 176 of the same work is a passage which perhaps illustrates the
date of the use of seals in England, for I do not think there is anything
corresponding to it in the original: ‘geþene nu gif ðines hlafordes
ærendgewrit ⁊ his insegel to ðe cymð.’ Another interesting passage
illustrating the meeting of the Witan, the gathering of the fyrd, the
king’s household, &c., is at p. 187: ‘geðenc nu hweðer awiht manna cynges
ham sece þer ðær he ðonne on tune byð, oððe his gemot, oððe his fyrd’
&c.; cf. also pp. 200, 204. It is worth noting that the word ‘carcern,’
‘prison,’ occurs first in Alfred’s Laws (see Schmid, Gesetze, Glossary,
s. v.), and is also of frequent occurrence in his works, Past. p. 329;
Oros. p. 214; Boeth. i. (pp. 7, 8), xviii. § 4 (p. 45), xxxvii. § 1
(p. 111); Solil. pp. 202, 203. In the Psalter, which is possibly by
Alfred, we have mention of the two _shires_ of Judah and Benjamin, ed.
Thorpe, p. 113; cf. ibid. 29 for an interesting reference to measurement
of land with ropes. In the Dialogues we have the following: geréfa =
praefectus, 340; = tribunus, 220; geréfman = primarius, 222; = curialis,
308; geréfscír = locus praefectorum; práfost = praepositus (in monastic
sense), 344; ealdorman = comes, 220, 301. An interesting word is
wlíte-weorð, literally ‘face-price’ = ransom, 179.
[834] See Stewart’s Boethius, p. 172; Moore, Dante Studies, i. 279-83;
it may be noted that Augustine, Orosius, Gregory, Bede, and Boethius,
all occur in Alcuin’s catalogue of the York Library, De Sanctis Ebor.
vv. 1535 ff. Still more interesting is the fact that Augustine, Orosius,
Boethius, Bede, are mentioned within a few lines of one another,
Paradiso, x. 118-32.
[835] On Boethius generally, see Boethius, an essay by H. F. Stewart,
1891, a book from which I have learnt much. See also the article on
Boethius in Dict. Christ. Biog.
[836] Stewart, p. 54.
[837] ibid., 78.
[838] Mr. Stewart, p. 106, puts it the other way; but I think the above
statement does fuller justice to Boethius.
[839] Henry of Huntingdon and Petrarch among others wrote treatises De
Contemptu Mundi. Boccaccio, as Mr. Archer reminds me, wrote a treatise De
Casibus illustrium uirorum, on which Chaucer’s Monk’s Tale with the same
title is founded.
[840] From a poem De Contemptu Mundi by Jacopone; Trench’s Sacred Latin
Poetry, 3rd ed., p. 270. The Rhythm of Bernard of Morlaix, from which
come ‘Jerusalem the Golden,’ ‘Brief life,’ &c., has the same title.
[841] Stewart, p. 203.
[842] ‘Misimi a leggere quello non conosciuto da molti libro di Boezio,
nel quale, cattivo e discacciato, consolato s’ avea,’ Conv. ii. 13. This
statement that the book was ‘not known by many’ is curious. On the use of
Boethius by Dante, see Dr. Moore, u. s. pp. 282-8, 355, 356.
[843] I have not read this book myself; but More’s great-grandson
Cresacre More describes it as ‘a most excellent book, full of spiritual
and forcible motives, expressing lively Sir Thomas’ singular resolution
to apply all those wholesome medicines to himself,’ Life of Sir T. More,
ch. x. ad init.
[844] c. viii, Sedgefield, p. 20; cf. c. vii. § 2, p. 15.
[845] In Memoriam, vi.
[846] Matthew Arnold, Geist’s Grave.
‘Sunt lacrimae rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt.’
[847] On the strength of this, Boethius obtained the honours of
saintship, Moore, u. s. p. 282. Dante places Boethius in heaven, but
among the theologians in the Sun, Paradiso, x. 124 ff., not among the
warriors and martyrs of the Cross in Mars; though he says of his soul—
‘Ed essa da _martiro_
E da esilio venne a questa pace.’
[848] Stewart, p. 33.
[849] Stewart, pp. 1 ff.
[850] ibid., pp. 108 ff.
[851] ‘Uti in Timaeo Platoni nostro placet, in minimis quoque rebus
diuinum praesidium debet inplorari,’ Lib. III, Prosa ix.
[852] Vol. xciv, 149 ff.; many of Dr. Schepss’ instances are reproduced
in Mr. Sedgefield’s Introduction, pp. xxxi ff. Among the most distinctly
Christian interpretations are: the references to the heavenly Jerusalem,
c. v. § 1 (p. 11), cf. c. xxxvi. § 2 (p. 105); and to the martyrs, c. xi.
ad fin. (p. 26); the beautiful saying that ‘Christ dwelleth in the valley
of humility,’ c. xii (p. 27); the Christian application given to the
fable of Eurydice, c. xxxv. ad fin. (p. 103); the identification of the
rebellion of the giants with Nimrod’s building of the Tower of Babel, c.
xxxv. § 4 (p. 99).
[853] Thus the addition in c. xxiv. § 3 (p. 54) on the worth of friends,
is a repetition of c. xx. ad fin. (p. 48); the sentence against living
a soft life, c. xxxix. § 10 ad fin. (p. 133), anticipates c. xl. § 3
(p. 138); the thought that the temporal prosperity of the good is a
foreshadowing of their eternal happiness, c. xxxix. § 11 (p. 134),
anticipates c. xl. § 2 (p. 137).
[854] Above, § 87.
[855] c. xvii. pp. 40, 41.
[856] c. vii. § 3 (p. 18).
[857] c. xviii. § 4 (p. 45).
[858] c. xiii. (p. 28).
[859] c. xxx. §§ 1, 2 (p. 69).
[860] c. xxxvi. § 8 (p. 110); c. xli. § 2 (p. 142).
[861] c. xli. § 2 (p. 142).
[862] ibid. § 3 (p. 144).
[863] See note 2, p. 181.
[864] c. vii. § 3 (p. 18).
[865] c. xii. ad fin. (p. 27).
[866] Clarendon Press, 1900.
[867] See pp. 26, 27, 34, 53 (simile of the rivers and the sea, repeated
pp. 82, 83, 86); 57 (the wheel, repeated p. 81, and p. 129, where there
is a hint of it in the text, which is most elaborately developed under
the influence of a commentary); 70, 72, 86 (similes of the stars and of
soul and body); 90 (the ingot); 93 (sifting meal); 108 (child riding a
hobby-horse); 97 (chink in the door); 117 (scattered like smoke); ibid.
(crash of a falling tree); 121 (weak eyes); 144 (steersman foreseeing the
tempest).
[868] Cf. Earle, Alfred Jewel, pp. 161 ff.
[869] See especially cc. xxxix-xli; cf. also c. v. § 3, c. xi. § 2, c.
xx. ad init.; cf. above, p. 159.
[870] Paradise Lost, ii. 557 ff.
[871] c. xxxix. § 8 (p. 131).
[872] Cf. Dante, Purg. xvi. 70-2.
[873] c. xli. § 2 (p. 142).
[874] ibid.
[875] ibid. § 3 (p. 143).
[876] ibid. (p. 144). Dante has a still more subtle comparison—
‘La contingenza …
Tutta è dipinta nel cospetto eterno.
Necessità però quindi non prende,
Se non come dal viso in che si specchia
Nave che per corrente giù discende.’
Parad. xvii. 37-42.
[877] Sciphere, c. xv (p. 34).
[878] c. xix (p. 46).
[879] c. xxix. § 3 (p. 67); cf. the Orosius translation, pp. 10, 24.
[880] c. xiii (p. 28).
[881] c. xiv. ad init. (p. 29).
[882] c. xxv (p. 57).
[883] See note 2, p. 181.
[884] c. xxix. § 1 (p. 65).
[885] c. xxix. § 1 (p. 65).
[886] c. xxxiv. § 8; cf. Spenser’s musical lines:
‘Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life does greatly please.’
Faerie Queene, I. ix. 40; cf. II. xii. 32.
[887] pp. xxv ff.
[888] The statement of the late Liber de Hyda, p. 44, that Werferth
translated the Boethius for Alfred, as well as the Dialogues, is totally
unsupported, and the style of the two works is as different as possible.
[889] 519 A; he calls it ‘liber Boetii lachrymosus’; he says, however,
that Alfred translated other works ‘numero ignoto.’
[890] Otho A. vi, of the tenth century, but much injured in the Cottonian
fire of 1731.
[891] Bodl. 180 (2079); early twelfth century. There are also some
transcripts and various readings taken by Junius from these two MSS.
[892] Lib. I. metr. 6; Lib. II. metr. 2; Lib. IV. metr. 7. The reason of
this omission is probably due to the fact, that in these three instances
Alfred’s prose translation omits the formula with which it generally
introduces the Metra: ‘Then Wisdom began to sing.’ This has been made
an argument against Alfred’s authorship of the Metra. But it is surely
quite possible that Alfred, coming back to his work after some time (see
below, pp. 189 f.), and making his alliterative version without fresh
reference to the Latin, should, in the absence of the usual formula, have
overlooked the poetical character of these sections. In one case, Lib. I.
metr. 7, the introductory formula is wanting, and yet the section exists
in the verse translation. But here the poetical character of the section
is much more obvious, and it is followed by a formula which often follows
the Metra, ‘then was Wisdom silent for a while,’ c. vii. ad init.; so cc.
xvii. ad init., xxiv. ad init., xxxix. §§ 2, 4, xli. § 2. A still more
frequent concluding formula is ‘ða ongan he eft spellian.’
[893] Sedgefield, pp. 1, 151.
[894] e.g. Leicht: ‘schon die veränderte Form, die Alliteration und
der mit ihr verbundene Stil _mussten_ darauf führen dass neue Gedanken
angeregt wurden, wenn der Dichter derselben fähig war,’ cited in Wülker,
Grundriss, p. 431. This ‘mussten’ is, to use a favourite formula of
German criticism, ‘rein willkürlich.’
[895] So Hartmann, in Wülker, p. 425.
[896] Of Betty Foy he says, ‘I never wrote anything with so much glee’;
of Laodamia, ‘It cost me more trouble than almost anything of equal
length I have ever written,’ Morley’s edition, pp. 88, 530.
[897] p. 167: ‘Tres Eryci uitulos, et Tempestatibus agnam,’ Aen. v. 772.
[898] The passage occurs both in the Gesta Regum and in the Gesta
Pontificum. In the former it runs thus: ‘sensum librorum Boetii de
Consolatione planioribus uerbis enodauit, quos rex ipse in Anglicam
linguam uertit,’ i. 131; in the latter ‘elucidauit’ is substituted for
‘enodauit,’ and the supercilious words are added: ‘labore illis diebus
necessario, nostris ridiculo,’ p. 177. The G. Pont, is later than the G.
Regum, see G. R., I. xix.
[899] Grundriss, p. 427.
[900] u. s., p. 159.
[901] u. s., p. 193.
[902] The first edition would probably have no preface of its own,
because Alfred regarded it as only a preliminary draft.
[903] Stewart, u. s., p. 202.
[904] c. xxxix. § 4 ad fin. (p. 127). Leicht is absolutely arbitrary
when he says: ‘wir dürfen nicht annehmen dass er, als er an seine
Prosa-Uebersetzung ging, schon den Plan hatte, später der Form seiner
Vorlage insofern mehr Gerechtigkeit widerfahren zu lassen, als er die
Metra in das Gewand der angelsächsischen Dichtung kleiden wollte,’
Wülker, p. 430. This is precisely what we may very fairly suppose on the
evidence.
[905] In Wülker, Grundriss, p. 426; e.g. ix. 61 (p. 164), xxi. 3, 4 (p.
185), xxvi. 3 (p. 193), xxvii. 30 (p. 198).
[906] The two points in which the Metra are said to show less accuracy
than the prose version, viz. the making Ulysses king of Thracia instead
of Ithaca, and calling Homer the _friend_ as well as the teacher of
Virgil, are possibly merely due to the needs of alliteration, xxvi. 7;
xxx. 3 (pp. 193, 203). Almost the only thing in the Metra to which there
is nothing corresponding in the prose version is the well-known simile
of the egg, xx. 169 ff. (p. 182), and this, though possibly suggested
by a commentary, is thoroughly Alfredian. Editors have, I think, unduly
prejudiced the question by either omitting the Metra altogether (as
Cardale, who merely gives one as a specimen), or printing them as a sort
of appendix at the end. It would be fairer to print them in the text in
parallel columns with the prose version, an arrangement which would also
greatly facilitate the study of them. They have, be it remembered, the
authority of the MS. which is by nearly 200 years the more ancient of the
two.
[907] On the editions of this work, see above, p. 128, note 4. See also
Professor Wülker’s interesting Essay, Paul und Braune, Beiträge, iv. 101
ff., to which I am much indebted; also Grundriss, pp. 415 ff.
[908] Wülker, Beiträge, pp. 119, 120.
[909] ‘Delectabatur et libris S. Augustini, praecipueque his qui de
Ciuitate Dei praetitulati sunt,’ Einhard, c. 24.
[910] Above, p. 141.
[911] Grundriss, p. 419.
[912] Above, § 90.
[913] Beiträge, u. s. pp. 129, 130.
[914] Evil is really non-existent, Boethius, xxxv. § 5, xxxvii. § 4 (pp.
100, 114); Blooms, p. 165. God the highest good and happiness, Boet.
xxxiv. §§ 2, 5, 6 (pp. 84, 86, 87); Bl. p. 166. God regulates all things
with His bridle, Boet. xx. § 1 (p. 49); Bl. p. 168. God gave freedom
to men, Boet. xli. §§ 3, 4 (pp. 143, 145); Bl. p. 168. The open door,
Boet. xxxv. § 3 (p. 97); Bl. p. 169. Metaphor of the Egg, Boet. Metr.
xx. 169 ff. (p. 182); Bl. p. 174 (this has an important bearing on the
authorship of the verse translation of the Metra). Calm haven (weather)
after storms, Boet. xxxiv. § 8 (p. 89); Bl. p. 179. Metaphor of weak
eyes, Boet. xxxviii. § 5 (p. 121); Bl. p. 182. Against a soft life,
Boet. xl. § 3 (p. 138); Bl. p. 184. The leech gives different kinds of
medicine, Boet. xxxix. § 9 (p. 132); Bl. p. 189. Things lighted by the
sun, Boet. xxxiv. § 5 (p. 86); Bl. p. 180. Men and angels immortal,
Boet. xlii. (p. 148); Bl. p. 191. Various paths all leading to one end,
Boet. xxiv. § 1 (p. 52); Bl. p, 187. The soul released from prison at
death, Boet. xviii. § 4 (p. 45); Bl. p. 202. For an analysis of the
thought and diction of the ‘Blooms’ as compared with the Boethius, see
a good Essay by F. G. Hubbard, Modern Language Notes, ix. 322 ff. My
own list was made independently. Mr. Hubbard remarks that in several
cases a passage, which is an addition to the original in the ‘Blooms,’
corresponds with a translated passage in the Boethius. This seems to show
that the Anglo-Saxon Boethius was one of the sources of the ‘Blooms,’
which must therefore be later than the Boethius. There is a dissertation
by Hulme: Die Sprache der altengl. Bearbeitung der Soliloquien, Freiburg
im Breisgau, 1894; but it is purely philological. A new edition of the
‘Blooms’ may be expected shortly from Mr. H. L. Hargrove of Yale.
[915] See above, pp. 159, 183-4.
[916] xi. § 2 (p. 26).
[917] pp. 192-5. 198, 199.
[918] See Ebert, Literatur des Mittelalters, i. 240, 241.
[919] Some of these are cited above, p. 194, note 1.
[920] p. 175; cf. p. 179; of this too there is an anticipation in the
Boethius, x. ad fin. (p. 23); cf. also the metaphor of the ship in Asser,
492 D [59].
[921] p. 200.
[922] p. 179.
[923] p. 204.
[924] Above, § 88.
[925] I do not, however, regard with some critics the occurrence of
military operations in any year as necessarily excluding all literary
activity in that year. Considering Alfred’s energy, and the fact that
military operations were to a large extent suspended in the winter, the
assumption seems to me rather rash; Asser distinctly says that Alfred
carried on his studies ‘inter omnia alia mentis et corporis impedimenta,’
488 D [50]; and Alfred tells how he began the Cura Pastoralis ‘ongemang
oðrum mislicum ⁊ manifealdum bisgum ðisses kynerices’; cf. also Boethius,
Prose Preface.
[926] W. M. II. lx. ff.
[927] ibid. i. 145; so in 838: ‘Imperator [Louis the Pious] filium
suum Karolum armis uirilibus, i.e. ense cinxit, corona regali caput
insigniuit,’ Theganus, Vita Hludouici, Pertz, ii. 643.
[928] See Chronicle, ii. 112-4; and add to the references there given,
Ramsay, Foundations of England, i. 267; and an interesting little
monograph on Alfred’s Boyhood and Death, by W. B. Wildman, Sherborne,
1898.
[929] Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 13. 67.
[930] ‘Pupillorum’; in Ps. ix. 34 (x. 16) ‘pupillo tu eris adiutor’ is
paraphrased ‘þu eart fultumiend þara þe nabbað nawðer ne fæder ne modor.’
Cf. the elegy on the death of Charles the Great:—
‘Pater cunctorum orphanorum, omnium
Peregrinorum, uiduarum, uirginum.’
Printed at the end of Einhard’s Life (ed. Pertz, 1863), p. 41.
[931] i. 116.
[932] p. 519 A.
[933] Preface to Pastoral Care.
[934] Henry VI in 1441 did apply to Eugenius IV for Alfred’s
canonisation, Bekynton’s Correspondence, i. 118, Rolls Series. I owe this
reference to an interesting article in the London Quarterly for January
1902, which only came into my hands after the first three lectures were
in type. The author, Mr. W. E. Collins, goes further than I can go in
rejecting Asser, but his article is well worthy of attention.
[935] See Pauli, u. s. p. 126; cf. Essays, p. 13.
[936] Heb. xi. 33, 34.
[937] ‘Henry stands with Alfred, Canute, William the Conqueror, and
Edward I, one of the conscious creators of English greatness.… If he
had been a better man, his work would have been second to that of no
character in history; had he been a weaker one than he was, England might
have had to undergo for six hundred years the fate of France,’ Stubbs,
Benedict of Peterborough, II. xxxiii, xxxvi.
[938] Sermon preached before the University on the Sunday following the
death of Her late Majesty; now printed as an appendix to the present
volume.
[939] Faust, Part I, Scene iv.
[940] Above, pp. 38, 120, 125-6, 129, 131, 135, 160, 191.
[941] Cf. Lord Rosebery’s inspiring address at Winchester (Humphreys’,
Piccadilly).
[942] Iliad, v. 303, 304.
[943] Cited by Ebert, ii. 151.
[944] ‘Usque ad quattuor milia quingenti traditi, et … in loco qui Ferdi
[Verden] uocatur, iussu regis omnes una die decollati sunt,’ Einhardi
Annales, sub anno 782.
[945] See above, p. 124.
[946] Tennyson, Guinevere.
[947] Above, p. 181.
[948] Hoveden, IV. lxxxi.
[949] Col. iv. 5; cf. 1 Thess. iv. 12.
[950] 1 Pet. ii. 12.
[951] 1 Cor. vii. 10-17.
[952] Matt. xiii. 33; Luke xiii. 21.
[953] John vi. 15.
[954] Luke xii. 14.
[955] Latham, Pastor Pastorum, pp. 403 ff.
[956] Gen. i. 27; Matt. xix. 4; Mark x. 6.
[957] Mark xii. 13 ff. and parallels.
[958] John xix. 11.
[959] Dante, Monarchia, Lib. i; cf. Purg. xxxii. 102:
‘Di quella Roma onde Cristo è Romano,’
though this is not the temporal, but the eternal Rome.
[960] Dante, Purg. x. 82 ff.; Parad. xx. 43 ff.
[961] 2 Cor. i. 4.
[962] 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2.
[963] c. lxi.
[964] Ad Philad. c. 6.