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rendered into Saxon prose; in the other the verses are translated in Anglo-Saxon metre.

In rendering this interesting moral treatise accessible to his own subjects, Alfred has by no means shown himself as a mere translator or copyist. His version is rather a paraphrase than a translation, and in many parts, where the king's feelings seem to have been more particularly in harmony with his subject, whole sentences are introduced into the work not to be found in the Latin original of Boethius.

The next work which claims our notice is Alfred's translation of "Orosius," and is of considerably greater value than either of the preceding. In executing this work, the king has allowed himself even greater latitude than in his version of Boethius. Some parts of the original he has amplified; others he has compressed; and others again he has omitted altogether. To compensate, however, for these omissions, he has inserted several new chapters altogether, two of which have attracted considerable notice: they contain a description of the principal tribes of Germany in his own time, and an account of the voyages of Othar towards the north, and of Wulfstan to the Baltic, which were achieved in Alfred's own time, and possibly by his command. These and other minor insertions amount to several pages, and show that Alfred took pleasure in the study of geography, of which also they show that he possessed a surprising knowledge, if we consider the darkness of the age in which he lived, and the distraction occasioned to his mind by the number and variety of his studies.

The voyages of Othar, or Oththere, towards the north, and those of Wulfsan to the Baltic, are described in the sixth book of this work, translated by Haller, who pretends not to have taken it from Othar's own description.

The fourth work of Alfred, and perhaps the most useful of all to his subjects, was a translation of "Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation." This was an inestimable gift to those of his countrymen who could read it, as it invested that great national work with what alone it wanted, namely, that it should be written in the language of the country of whose early annals it treated. The translation was executed on the same principles which guided the king in his other works, and is of very great use as a commentary on the original text of Bede. There are several manuscripts of it in existence, and the work has been twice printed, both times as an accompaniment to the Latin original.

Besides these great works, a variety of shorter writings and tracts have been ascribed to King Alfred. Some of these have perished by time: others are still preserved in our public libraries, and have perhaps not yet received that minute attention which they demand.

William of Malmesbury says, that Alfred began to translate the Psalms of David, but died before it was finished.

Florence of Worcester also tells us, that Alfred translated the Bible or Testament into Anglo-Saxon, but this statement has met with no confirmation; and we may doubt whether Alfred's labours in this way extended further than to the compilation of his "Enchiridion, Hand-book, or Manual," of which Asser speaks in the passage we have before quoted.

There is an Anglo-Saxon manuscript in the Cottonian Library, containing some flowers or extracts gathered out of "St. Augustine's Soliloquies." At the end of these flowers is a sentence left imperfect by the abrupt termination of the MS. "Here end the sayings that King Alfred selected from those books which we call

In the Harleian Library also is a collection of Fables in Anglo-Norman verse. The authoress of this work was Marie, who lived in the thirteenth century. She says, at the end of the work, that Alfred had translated them from the Latin into English, i. e. Anglo-Saxon, from which she had turned them into French verse. Nothing more is known of the Fables which are thus ascribed to the king.

It appears from a catalogue of the Christ Church Library, in 1315, that among its MSS. was one entitled, "Liber Alured Regis de Custodiendis Accipitribus." "This book,"

observes Mr. Turner, to whom we are indebted for these notices of Alfred's minor works, "corresponds with the fact mentioned by Asser, that Alfred was accustomed 'to teach his falconers, and hawkers, and hound-trainers.'

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Mention is also made by ancient writers of the Proverbs and Parables of King Alfred. Something of this kind has heen preserved by Sir John Spelman, from a Cottonian MS. which has been burnt since his time, and is no longer legible. As the precepts which have been preserved are curious and instructive, the following paragraph with which Spelman introduces them to the notice of his readers, is worthy of our attention:

"There is in that well-known library, now Sir Thomas Cotton's, a manuscript collection of diverse precepts and instructions of King Alfred's, tending to the purpose we now

speak of; and by the courtesy of Sir Thomas I am provided with a copy of them. But, as they are, I cannot think it fit to offer them unto the world as an instance of what the king composed. For they are not his very work in the Saxon tongue, but a miscellaneous collection of some later author, who, according to his own faculty, hath, in a broken English, put together such of the sayings of King Alfred, as he met withal, some of them rhyming, and others (as perhaps the original was) in prose: and besides that in their order they somewhat argue the collector's want of judgment. For marshalling them no better, the copy is so faulty and illwritten, in a mongrel hand, (as well as language,) as that, unless I should, without regard, venture to trespass the truth, I dare not publish it according to the copy I have taken. Therefore, whereas there are thirty-one heads of the sayings of the king, all beginning with these words, 'THUS quoth Alfred,' I take them not all, only the beginning of them, and three or four of the first also, (which are the perfectest,) I have (to show the style and manner of them) set down, in the words that I have copied them, together with the current sense they have in speech at this day. For the residue I have taken such as I presume I read right and understand, and I have only set them down in English, noting them with figures, according to the number or place they hold among the rest.

"The beginning of them is very much to be considered; for that it importeth as if there were some assembly of the chief of both orders of the kingdom called together at Sifford (or Seafford*) in Oxfordshire, and as if the king had there consulted with his clergy, nobles, and others, about the manners and government of the people, and had there delivered some grave admonitions and instructions concerning the same, to be (as one would think) divulged throughout the kingdom. For its first mentioning the assembly, and commending the king, it saith, that he began to teach those that could hear him how they should lead their lives; and then setteth down those thirty-one heads as particulars of his teaching, confirming thereby that which we have already (from other authorities) alleged, concerning his care and travail for the instruction and reformation of his people."

This is a mistake of Sir John Spelman. The Anglo-Saxon name of Shifford is Scifford, which is pronounced, as we still pronounce it, Shifford, and means the "sheed-ford," not "sea-ford." It is in the parish of Bampton.

62. Alfred's Embassies to Rome.

Alfred, who, according to some writers, was not in favour at Rome, (a fact contradicted by his biographers,) sent annually embassies to Rome, and carried on an extensive correspondence. "We have seen and read letters," says Asser, "accompanied with presents, which were sent to him by Abel, the patriarch of Jerusalem;" and the same writer speaks "of the daily embassies sent to him by foreign nations, from the Tyrrhenian sea to the farthest end of Ireland." Even this was not the limit of King Alfred's correspondence with foreign parts. In 883, the year when Pope Martin sent to him the piece of the holy cross, the king sent two of his nobles or ministers on a mission to the East Indies. These emissaries, stopping at Rome, deposited there the alms which the king had vowed, and then proceeding on their voyage, conveyed to India a similar present for the apostles, St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew, who were supposed to have evangelized those countries. Such is the brief notice of this embassy in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which adds, that the king had made a vow to this effect, "when they sat down against the [Danish] army at London," and when, "thanks be to God, they largely obtained the object of their prayer after the vow." "Such

a step," says the historian, Lappenberg, "on the part of a monarch of Alfred's character, will excite in us but little surprise, and even that little will be diminished, if we call to mind the pilgrimages that had long been usual to the pillar of Simeon Stylites, and many places regarded as holy, and every doubt obviated by the oriental gems brought back by his envoys, some of which were in existence after a lapse of centuries. The splendid colouring given by later historians to this mission, by making Sighelm bishop of Sherborne, and calling Ethelstan an alderman, has contributed to create doubts of its reality. Sighelm did not receive the bishopric of Sherborne till the death of Asser, twenty-seven years later."

In the year 884, Pope Martin died, and was succeeded by Adrian III. It seems as if his communications with Alfred had ended in the more regular transmission of gifts to Rome. Thus in 887 we read in the Saxon Chronicle, “This year Alderman Æthelelm carried the alms of the West-Saxons and of King Alfred to Rome." The next also, i. e. in 888, Beocca, the alderman, carried the alms of the West-Saxons and of King Alfred to Rome." The following year we read, "there was no journey to Rome, except that King Alfred sent two couriers with letters :"

but in 890 the mission is again mentioned: "This year," says the Chronicle, “Abbat Bernhelm carried the alms of the West-Saxons and of King Alfred to Rome."

Sir John Spelman has remarked, "that when we consider the estimation in which King Alfred was held, even at Rome itself, it appears remarkable that, after his death, his memory was passed over without his receiving the honours and title of a saint; yet if the church of Rome had borne the same good will towards him that they have done towards others, as, for instance, towards the obscure Edmund his contemporary, King of East-Anglia, it would not have been a hard task for them to have detected in the manifold incidents of his life, as good a ground for conferring on him canonization, as they have had for many whom the popes and cardinals have sainted. The very opening of Alfred's life was remarkable, though we have lost the exact particulars; and a future pope might have with propriety adjudged the honours which he had to bestow on Alfred, if not for the benefits which he brought to mankind, yet as a confirmation of the mysterious ceremony of unction, which he had received from one of that pope's predecessors. When, also, the king sat in the desolate island, and his affairs seemed to be in a hopeless state, he was assured in a vision, as the monkish writers tell us, that he should again sit upon his throne. Even the malady with which he was bound, partakes of the same wonderful character, and might be taken as a proof that Alfred was a chosen child, whom the Lord would correct with stripes in the flesh, that He might purify him for the posthumous honours of a saint. If more was wanting to prove his aptness for such honours, it might be added, that he had exemplified in his own practice the precept of the gospel, and had given half of his revenues to God, even whilst he still exercised the functions of a king. His whole life was one continued aspiration and struggle after what was good, impeded and kept back by the persecutions of a race of heathens, whose success would have overset the bark of St. Peter with its crew, the pope, and all his cardinals. It seems remarkable that no notice was taken of his career, by those who were so amply benefitted by his virtues; and it cannot be superfluous to inquire why he was not canonized, in an age when this was the highest honour which the head of Christendom could bestow.

"The king," continues Spelman, "walked with too much knowledge and understanding, and was not so easy to be led

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