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King Lfred's Version Off the Consolations of Boethius

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King Lfred's Version Off the Consolations of Boethius King _lfred's Version off the Consolations of Boethius HENRY FROWDE, M A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OF_0RD LONDON, EDINBURGH_ AND NEW YORK Kring e__lfred's Version o_/"the Consolations of Boethius _ _ Z)one into c_gfodern English, with an Introduction _ _ _ _ u_aa Litt.D._ Editor _o_.,I_ing .... i .dlfred_ OM Englis.h..ffgerAon2.' !ilo of the ' De Con.d.¢_onz,o,e 2 Oxford : _4t the Claro_don:,.....: PrestO0000 M D CCCC _eee_ Ioee_ J_el eeoee le e_ZNeFED AT THE_.e_EN_N PI_.._S _ee • • oeoo eee • oeee eo6_o eoee • ooeo e_ooo ..:.. ..'.: oe°_ ° leeeo eeoe ee •QQ . :.:.. oOeeo QOO_e 6eeQ aee...._ e • eee TO THE REV. PROFESSOR W. W. SKEAT LITT.D._ D.C.L._ LL.D.:_ PH.D. THIS _800K IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED PREFACE THE preparationsfor adequately commemoratingthe forthcoming millenary of King Alfred's death have set going a fresh wave of popularinterest in that hero. Lectares have been given, committees formed, sub- scriptions paid and promised, and an excellent book of essays by eminent specialists has been written about Alfred considered under quite a number of aspects. That great King has himself told us that he was not indifferent to the opinion of those that should come after him, and he earnestly desired that that opinion should be a high one. We have by no means for- gotten him, it is true, but yet to verymany intelligent people he is, to use a paradox, a distinctly nebulous character of history. His most undying attributes in the memory of the people are not unconnected with singed cakes and romantic visits in disguise to the Danish viii Preface Danish camp. It is therefore difficult for many to realize that Alfred wrote books, copies of which, written during his lifetime, are now Jying in some ,of our great hbraries. Of these books all are interesung to us from the personal character impressed on them by the King--the Pasloral Care, for instance, for ,ts admirable preface containing Alfred's observations on the state of learning in the England of his day, and the Orosius for the valuablegeograpMcal contributions which he inserted in his version of the once famous historian. But there is one of has books that more than the others is instinct with a certain anonymously persona/ note such as we look for in vain in English literature for hundreds of years after. This book is his version of the Consolalion_ of Phtlosol_hy of Boethius, the making of which was to Alfred a love's labour. It satisfied his intellectual cravings and stimu- lated his uncultured but vigorous mind, and he resolved to give his still more unlettered lieges a share in the treat. So he turned it into his own tongue, as the King of the West Saxons might be expected to do, in a large and royal way, scattering up and down the work such notes and comments as he judged needful. His .Boe/k_s heads the roll of English philosophical writings; it likewise heads the roll of English trans- Jations. I .Preface ix htions. It is hoped that the modem English dress here given to the King's best book will help to make him less an unsubstantial shadow for Englishmen of to-day, and more a real man, practical, right-feeling, and earnest beyond lus generauon. A few words on the method and aim of this modem version may be said here rather than in the Introduction. The Anglo-Saxon text followed is that edited by the translator for the Oxford University Press last year. The prose part is rendered quite literally, generally 'word by word,' as the King says of parts of his own version. Thus the simplicity and directness of the original Old English are kept. In the version of the alliterating verses, printed together after the prose, the metre of the originalOld Enghsh has been retained as far as is allowed by the limitations of modem English, but literalness has not been thereby sacriilced. The result, I may hope, will give a fair idea of the original, which itself is far from echoing the hammer-and-anvillines of the best Old English song-smiths, as we see them at work in the .Beowu/f. The Introduction is intended to give the general reader what he may llke to know about Alfred's .Boet/a'us and his literary method in general, and the student of English literature will perhaps find interest in x Preface in the selections from later English translationsof the Co_o_E_r. It is now time for me to close this preface, first expressing my heartiest thanks to Professor York Powdl, who has kindly looked carefully through the proofs of the Introduction and portions of both the prose and the verse, and has helped me generally out of his mature experience. CHRIST'S COLLEGE_ CAMBRIDGE, a_'arch,I9oo. N.B.--The passages in the prose text which do not occur in the Latin original are printed in italics, but Alfred's numerous omissions are not indicated in the text. For details, the Introduction to the Oxford edition of the Old English _oe//agt may be consulted. INTRODUCTION § I. Wessex at Peace. Alfred's Reforms. IN the year 878 A.D., on the conclusion of the negotiations begunwith Guthrum at Wedmore,Wessex emergedunbeatenhut sorely shakenfrom a life-struggle that had lasted many years without intermission. Inch by inch the Scandinavianpirates had been driven back, andnow the West-Saxon king could boast of a broader realm than ever before had been his, and better still, a more united people. The first seven or eight years of his reign had been spent in camp or on the march, fighting, pursuing,retreating,in the varying fortunesof the struggle; a busy time, with small leisure for thoughts or deeds unconnected with immediate and constant peril. Alfred's earlyambitions had perforce to sleep, while his people had enough to do to hold their groundagainstthe invader, standing still or going hack on the path of culture. Still, it is probablethat the harsh training king and subjects had gone through togetherin their dark days was after all a real though disguised benefit to both. They shared the memory of perils and hardships borne together, and must have come to understand and sympathize with each other as only those can do that have side by side faced a xii Introduction a common danger for many months. And so Alfred would, when brighter days came, find ready to his hand 'fitting instruments of rule,' as he himself calls them. He entered upon the herculean labour of build- ing up and consolidating the shattered fabric of society and government with a deep sense of the responsibility involved, and a clear perception of the di/ficulties to be faced. But his keen enthusiasm for the work made it seem easy, and carriedhim through it allwith admirable success. Everything had to be done, as a veritable chasm gaped between the present and the past. First of all, the laws of the West-Saxon kings had to be copied afresh, amended, and published, and their honest administration enforced, so that equal justice done be- tween man and man might smooth the way for the arts of peace. The citizen army had to be organized against a possible recrudescenceof the piratical raids, a fleet of ships had tobe builh and London resettled and fortified. Agriculture could now be carried on in security, and the simple arts and manufactures of that day needed careful fostering. The Church, sorely weakened and humihated after repeated outrage on the part of the heathen and by neglect of her own distracted people, must be raised to her formerhigh estate. Her bishops and priests must be put back in their cures, her monas- teries endowed, and piety and learning again cherished. § _. arti: Zealfor Zearning. For of all the many forms of activity into which Alfred plunged in his eagerness to make up for lost time, we are sure that_ next to religion, the cause of learning Introduction xiii learning lay nearest his heart. He himself had always loved It, its books and its bookmen, and he wanted his people to share his love. He quite understood that before a nation can begin to advance along the road of enlightenment and civilization it must be taught the elements of education; and we know from his own account into what a lamentableignorance, not only the common people, but even the clergy had fallen. The words of the King on this subject are most instructive, and for the history of his times of prime authority. 'The sacred orders,' he says, 'were once zealous in teaching and study.... Men used to come to England from other lands in search of wisdom and instruction, but now we should be obhged to get them from abroad if we wanted them. So entirely was learning fallen away in England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their church services in English, or even turn a Latin letter into English ; and I think there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I cannot call to mind a single one south of the Thames, when I succeeded to the throne.... Thinking over all this, I rememberedalso how I had seen, before the country was all ravaged and burnt, the churches throughout England standing full of treasures and books. There was also a great number of God's ministers, but they had very little profit of their books, of which, not being written in their own tongue, they could make nothing.' One of Alfred's tlrst acts in fiutherance of his educational schemes was, if we may beheve the story in Asser's Lt_, the foundationof a court school, wherein he followed, consciously or not, the example of the great xiv Introduction great Frankash king whom he resembled in so many ways.
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