knew that the actual knowledge of the world must CHAP. IV. be sought elsewhere. Before many years were over Elfred. he had taught himself Latin,' and was soon skilled 878-901. enough in it to render Latin books into the English tongue. His wide sympathy sought for aid in this work Asser. from other lands than his own. "In old time," the king wrote sadly," "men came hither from foreign lands to seek for instruction; and now, if we are to have it, we can only get it from abroad." He sought it among the West Franks and the East Franks; Grimbald came from St. Omer to preside over the new abbey he founded at Winchester, while John, the Old Saxon, was fetched-it may be from the Westphalian abbey of Corbey-to rule the monastery he set up at Athelney. A Welsh bishop was diosissime non desinebat."-Asser (ed. Wise), p. 43. His children, Eadward and Ælfthryth, were not left "sine liberali disciplina," “nam et psalmos et Saxonicos libros et maxime Saxonica carmina studiose didicere, et frequentissime libris utuntur."-Ib. 43. In the palace-school "utriusque linguæ libri, Latinæ scilicet et Saxonica assidue legebantur.”—Ib. 43. So of his nobles, if any were too ignorant or old to profit by "liberalibus studiis," "Suum si haberet filium, aut etiam aliquem propinquum suum, vel etiam si aliter non habeat suum proprium hominem liberum vel servum, quem ad lectionem longe ante promoverat, libros ante se die nocteque quandocunque unquam ullam haberet licentiam Saxonicos imperabat recitare." — Asser (ed. Wise), p. 71. Stray references throughout his writings show his familiarity with the Old English hero-legends: "Where are now the bones of Weland ?" he renders the "Fabricii ossa" of Boethius. Either in 885 or 887. See Pauli, Life of Ælfred, p. 169. "Non enim adhuc legere inceperat," says Asser (ed. Wise), p. 46, apparently of the time soon after the Frith of Wedmore. I take "legere" to have its usual meaning, that of reading and translating Latin. 2 Pref. to Pastoral Book. * Asser (ed. Wise), p. 61. CHAP. IV. drawn with the same end to Wessex; and the acElfred. count he has left of his visit and doings at the court 878-901. brings us face to face with the king. "In those days," says Bishop Asser, "I was called by the king from the western and farthest border of Britain, and came to Saxon-land; and when, in a long journey, I set about approaching him, I arrived, in company with guides of that people, as far as the region of the Saxons, who lie on the right hand of one's road, which in the Saxon tongue is called Sussex. There for the first time I saw the king in the king's house, which is named Dene. And when I had been received by him with all kindness, he began to pray me earnestly to devote myself to his service, and be of his household, and to leave for his sake all that I possessed on the western side of Severn, promising to recompense me with greater possessions." Asser, however, refused to forsake his home, and Ælfred was forced to be content with a promise of his return six months after. "And when he seemed satisfied with this reply, I gave him my pledge to return in a given time, and after four days took horse again and set out on my return to my country. But after I had left him and reached the city of Winchester, a dangerous fever laid hold of me, and for twelve months and a week I lay with little hope of life. And when at the set time I did not return to him as I had promised, he sent messengers to me to hasten my riding to him, and seek for the cause of my delay. But, as I could not take horse, I sent another messenger back to him to show him the cause of my tarrying, and to declare that if I recovered from my infirmity I would fulfil the promise I had made. When my sickness then had departed CHAP. IV. I devoted myself to the king's service on these terms, Elfred. that I should stay with him for six months in every 878-901. year, if I could, or, if not, I should stay three months in Britain and three months in Saxon-land. So it came about that I made my way to him in the king's house, which is called Leonaford, and was greeted by him with all honor. And that time I stayed with him in his court through eight months, during which I read to him whatever books he would that we had at hand; for it is his constant wont, whatever be the hinderances either in mind or body, by day and by night, either himself to read books aloud or to listen to others reading them."1 The work, however, which most told upon English Birth of culture was done, not by these scholars, but by El- Prose. fred himself. The king's aim was simple and practical. He desired that "every youth now in England, that is freeborn and has wealth enough, be set to learn, as long as he is not fit for any other оссираtion, till they well know how to read English writing; and let those be afterwards taught in the Latin tongue who are to continue learning, and be promoted to a higher rank."" For this purpose he set up, like Charles the Great, a school for the young nobles at his own court. Books were needed for them as well as for the priests, to the bulk of whom Latin was a strange tongue, and the king set himself to provide English books for these readers. It was in carrying out this simple purpose that Ælfred 1 Asser (ed. Wise), pp. 47-51. In CHAP. IV. changed the whole front of English literature. Elfred. the paraphrase of Cadmon, in the epic of Beowulf, 878-901. in the verses of Northumbrian singers, in battle songs and ballads, English poetry had already risen to a grand and vigorous life. But English prose hardly existed. Since Theodore's time theology had been the favorite study of English scholars, and theology naturally took a Latin shape. Historical literature followed Bæda's lead in finding a Latin vehicle of expression.' Saints' lives, which had now become numerous, were as yet always written in Latin. It was from Alfred's day that this tide of literary fashion suddenly turned. English prose started vigorously into life. Theology stooped to an English dress. History became almost wholly vernacular. The translation of Latin saint-lives into English became one of the most popular literary trades of the day. Even medicine found English interpreters. A national literature, in fact, sprang suddenly into existence which was without parallel in the western world.a 1 66 'The charters anterior to Ælfred are invariably in Latin.”—Palgrave, Engl. Commonw. i. 56. 2 From the time of Ælfred's version of "The Pastoral Book," religious works like Ælfric's Homilies are written in English. In this vernacular theology England stood alone. 3 From the days of Alfred to the eve of the Norman Conquest, when the "Vita Haroldi" forms an exception (for the Encomium Emmæ is hardly of English origin), we possess only a single Latin historian, the ealdorman Æthelweard. 4 "The old English writers," says Mr. Sweet, "did not learn the art of prose composition from Latin models; they had a native historical prose, which shows a gradual elaboration and improvement, quite independent of Latin or any other foreign influence. This is proved by an examination of the historical pieces inserted into the Chronicle. The first of these, the account of the death of Cynewulf tions. It is thus that in the literatures of modern Eu- CHAP. IV. rope that of England leads the way. The Romance Elfred. tongues-the tongues of Italy, Gaul, and Spain— 878–901. were only just emerging into definite existence Alfred's when Ælfred wrote. Ulfilas, the first Teutonic transla prose-writer, found no successors among his Gothic people; and none of the German folk across the sea were to possess a prose literature of their own for centuries to come. English, therefore, was not only the first Teutonic literature-it was the earliest prose literature of the modern world. And at the outset of English literature stands the figure of Ælfred. The mighty roll of books that fills our libraries opens with the translations of the king. He took his books as he found them-they were, in fact, the popular manuals of his day: the compila and Cynehard, is composed in the abrupt disconnected style of oral conversation: it shows prose composition in its rudest and most primitive form, and bears a striking resemblance to the earliest Icelandic prose. In the detailed narrative of Alfred's campaign and sea-fights the style assumes a different aspect; without losing the force and simplicity of the earlier pieces, it becomes refined and polished to a high degree, and yet shows no traces of foreign influence. Accordingly, in the 'Orosius,' the only translation of Ælfred's which from the similarity of its subject admits of a direct comparison, we find almost exactly the same language and style as in the contemporary historical pieces of the Chronicle. In the Bede, where the ecclesiastical prevails over the purely historical, the general style is less national, less idiomatic than in the 'Orosius,' and in purely theological works, such as the 'Pastoral,' the influence of the Latin original reaches its height. Yet even here there seems to be no attempt to engraft Latin idioms on the English version; the foreign influence is only indirect, chiefly showing itself in the occasional clumsiness that results from the difficulty of expressing and defining abstract ideas in a language unused to theological and metaphysical subtleties."-Introduction to Pastoral Book (E. E. Text Soc.), p. xli. |