Gregory's "Pastoral Care."-His first real literary work was the translation (889) of Pope Gregory's Cura Pastoralis, or in English (as Alfred says in his Preface) Hierdeboc (Herdsman's Book). This handbook for Christian priests was suited to Alfred's purpose, the revival of learning amongst the clergy, and for his translation he sought the help (again, see the Preface) of Archbishop Plegmund, Bishop Asser, and the priests Grimbald and John. The Preface is the first original English prose of great literary value. In it Alfred sadly recounts the decay of learning, exhorts the bishops to foster it, states his intention to revive it, apologizes for the use of English, and says that he is sending a copy to every bishop. Orosius.--Whether Alfred's next translation was that of Orosius's Universal History or of Bede's Ecclesiastical History is doubtful. Orosius was a Spanish disciple of Augustine, and his work, written early in the 5th century, was then the chief authority. Again with an educational aim, Alfred wished his people to have the historical and geographical knowledge the book contained. He deals very freely with his material, and adds much original matter. The voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan in the Baltic and to the White Sea, which he had at first hand from those early explorers, breathe the very spirit of English sea adventure. Bede's "History."-Less freely, and with the omission of many chapters, he translates (890-891) Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Anglorum. The oft-quoted account of the origin of English poetry in Cædmon and his hymn about the Creation is a fine piece of early English prose. Boethius. The last effort of the Danes was made in 893-97, and after a severe struggle Alfred was victorious. The Danish fleet was captured in 897. About that year Alfred translated the De Consolatione Philosophia of Boethius (475-525), a famous scholar and writer, a translator of many works of Greek learning, and a senator of the court of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric. Through his enemies he fell from favour, and was imprisoned, tortured, and executed. During his imprisonment he wrote the De Consolatione. It is a dialogue between Boethius and his guardian Philosophy, appearing to him as a woman. A sympathy of mind leads sometimes to Alfred's identifying himself with Boethius in the dialogue. He also to a great extent christianizes the ideas and expressions. 66 Augustine's Soliloquies.”—Probably by Alfred is the West-Saxon version of Augustine's Soliloquia, a treatise on God and the nature and future of the soul. Gregory's "Dialogues."-A West-Saxon translation of Gregory's Dialogues was made at Alfred's request by Werferth, Bishop of Worcester. It supplements the current lives of the saints with accounts of Italian saints and their miracles. CHAPTER 5. OLD ENGLISH PROSE Alfred the Great: his Educational Activities; his Translations of Gregory's Pastoral ALFRED Alfred at his accession told Pope Gregory that there were few south of the Humber who could render the service-book into English, and fewer north of it. For England, lost to learning through the Danish invasions, he did what Charlemagne, with the aid of English scholars from Northumbria, had once done for his kingdoms; and as the result of his labours Wessex became, in succession to Northumbria, the centre of learning. He has been called the greatest of our kings; he led his country victoriously against the Danes, established laws, fostered learning, and set a high example of religion and piety. Visiting Rome as a boy, and, on his homeward journey, the court of Charles the Bald, he received impressions that greatly influenced him in his work for the revival of letters in England. The sources of our knowledge about Alfred are his own works, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and a Life by Asser. Asser was a Welsh cleric of St. Davids whom Alfred prevailed upon to spend with him six months of each year after 886, and to help him in the study of Latin. He became Bishop of Sherborne, and outlived Alfred by ten years. In 887 Alfred began to compile a Handbook, now lost, chiefly extracts from the Vulgate and the Fathers. Next year he had it translated into English for the people to read. Perhaps in the same year, more probably about five years later, he edited and wrote the preface to his Law Book. 66 Gregory's Pastoral Care."-His first real literary work was the translation (889) of Pope Gregory's Cura Pastoralis, or in English (as Alfred says in his Preface) Hierdeboc (Herdsman's Book). This handbook for Christian priests was suited to Alfred's purpose, the revival of learning amongst the clergy, and for his translation he sought the help (again, see the Preface) of Archbishop Plegmund, Bishop Asser, and the priests Grimbald and John. The Preface is the first original English prose of great literary value. In it Alfred sadly recounts the decay of learning, exhorts the bishops to foster it, states his intention to revive it, apologizes for the use of English, and says that he is sending a copy to every bishop. Orosius. Whether Alfred's next translation was that of Orosius's Universal History or of Bede's Ecclesiastical History is doubtful. Orosius was a Spanish disciple of Augustine, and his work, written early in the 5th century, was then the chief authority. Again with an educational aim, Alfred wished his people to have the historical and geographical knowledge the book contained. He deals very freely with his material, and adds much original matter. The voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan in the Baltic and to the White Sea, which he had at first hand from those early explorers, breathe the very spirit of English sea adventure. Bede's "History."-Less freely, and with the omission of many chapters, he translates (890-891) Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Anglorum. The oft-quoted account of the origin of English poetry in Cædmon and his hymn about the Creation is a fine piece of early English prose. Boethius. The last effort of the Danes was made in 893-97, and after a severe struggle Alfred was victorious. The Danish fleet was captured in 897. About that year Alfred translated the De Consolatione Philosophie of Boethius (475-525), a famous scholar and writer, a translator of many works of Greek learning, and a senator of the court of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric. Through his enemies he fell from favour, and was imprisoned, tortured, and executed. During his imprisonment he wrote the De Consolatione. It is a dialogue between Boethius and his guardian Philosophy, appearing to him as a woman. A sympathy of mind leads sometimes to Alfred's identifying himself with Boethius in the dialogue. He also to a great extent christianizes the ideas and expressions. Augustine's "Soliloquies."-Probably by Alfred is the West-Saxon version of Augustine's Soliloquia, a treatise on God and the nature and future of the soul. Gregory's "Dialogues."-A West-Saxon translation of Gregory's Dialogues was made at Alfred's request by Werferth, Bishop of Worcester. It supplements the current lives of the saints with accounts of Italian saints and their miracles. Other Works.-A Martyrology is by an unknown writer, but was written in Alfred's reign. William of Malmesbury says that Alfred began a translation of the Psalms. In the Paris National Library there is an 11th-century MS. containing an Old English prose translation of the first fifty Psalms, and an alliterative verse translation of the rest. The style of the prose suggests Alfred's authorship. He probably did not write the Proverbs of Alfred, a book on Falconry, or a translation of Æsop's Fables, all of which have been attributed to him. (British Museum.) Alfred's Style. In his writings Alfred shows his own personality: his nature, his thoughts, his wide sympathies, his deep interests, especially for his people, and his religious soul. His original composition is weighty and full of life, and the style of his writing is far less rugged than the earlier prose, though it is not so finished as that of the next period, for which, however, it lays a foundation. Happily, by his translation he brought a considerable Latin element into Old English prose. THE CHRONICLE The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is the beginning of history in our vernacular. The monks used to write brief notices of contemporary or recent events; it was probably at Winchester that this was first done in English, and from the Winchester Chronicle the other MSS. have been derived. In Ethelwulf's reign, or soon afterwards, under a strong national impulse, the annals were revised-gaps were filled, and new entries made. But about 891, when there was a lull in the Danish struggle, Alfred had a recension made, with additions from Bede and the Latin writers, and he filled in the years from 866, a part which is more consecutive in idea, more firm in style, more full and continuous in treatment. The Chronicle is an undertaking which is ascribed to Alfred; his work on it ends with the year 891. There is no entry for 892; but the narrative for 893-97, the new Danish invasion, is a fine example of Old English prose. From 897 to 910 there is a reversion to the older style; then a good writer again takes it up, till 924, when it again becomes meagre. The Peterborough Chronicle carries on the narrative seventy years longer than any other, viz., to 1154. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a record of lawless times, of ruin, of portents, right through the long epoch of the Danish wars, and so on to the end: the famous entry for 1137, the last but three, movingly describes the wretchedness of the people in the civil wars of Stephen's reign. The MSS. The MSS. vary in details, but not in the main account. They are by many hands and in unequal style, from the bald statement of an event to larger entries in good narrative prose. Several patriotic and historical poems, to which reference has already been made, are inserted in the 10th and 11th centuries, and, with two or three exceptions, are all the poetry of that period. ÆLFRIC AND THE HOMILISTS The monastic houses, despite Alfred's efforts, were still in a very bad state at his death, and so continued for the first half of the century; the clergy were worldly and unlearned. With the monastic reform of the Benedictines learning began to improve. Edgar began to reign in 957. Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, who had been banished by Edwy, was recalled, and made Archbishop of Canterbury. In 961 Oswald, nephew of Odo, late Archbishop of Canterbury, became Bishop of Worcester, and in 963 Ethelwold, Abbot of Abingdon, became Bishop of Winchester. During Edgar's reign, and in those of his sons Edward the Martyr and Ethelred the Unrede, the monasteries founded or restored numbered forty. Æthelwold drew up a version of the Benedictine Rule for the English monks and secular canons, and afterwards, at Edgar's instance, translated it into English. The Blickling Homilies.-The Blickling Homilies (Blickling Hall, Norfolk) were composed c. 971, and were due to the work of Dunstan, Æthelwold, and their followers. They exhort to repentance-the Judgment Day is at hand (it was a common belief that the world would end in the year 1000). They are weak in theology; in style they form a transition from Alfred to Elfric. Elfric. Winchester, Alfred's capital, and, as we have seen, the birthplace of the Chronicle, has another claim in this period. Here was founded by Ethelwold the most famous of the schools of this ecclesiastical revival, a school to which went Elfric, the greatest writer of English prose before the Conquest. He was born in 955, and was a postulant at Winchester in 971. He was ordained deacon and priest, and after Æthelwold's death in 984 his successor, Ælfheah, sent him in 987 to Cerne Abbey, to be master of the novices and give instruction in the Benedictine rule. While here he determined to make translations from the Latin to help him in his work of Christian teaching. He returned to Winchester c. 990. Between 990 and 993 he composed the first series of his Homilies, and before 995 the second series. He also before 996 wrote an Anglo-Saxon Latin Grammar, a Latin-English |