mitted into his friendship (1). That the king translated it is stated by Ethelwerd (2), who was his kinsman, and almost his contemporary; by Malmsbury (3), and by other chroniclers (4); and by the Saxon preface to the work itself, which reads like the king's own language (5). A MS. of the Anglo-Saxon translation exists in the Bodleian library, with the metrums rendered in prose (6). Another copy existed in the Cotton library with the metrums in AngloSaxon verse (7), the preface to which also mentions Alfred as the translator (8). Alfred consider In this translation of Boetius there is a value which ed as a moral es- has been hitherto unnoticed. It is that Alfred has taken sayist. occasion to insert in various parts many of his own thoughts and feelings. He has thus composed several little moral essays, and by them has transmitted himself to posterity in his own words and manner. It is highly interesting, at the distance of nearly one thousand years, to hear, as it were, our most revered sovereign speaking to us in his own language, on some of the most important topics of human life. Right feeling and true wisdom appear in all these effusions, and entitle him to be deemed the first moral essayist of our island. As this is new ground, which has been hitherto unexplored, we will extract and translate literally several of the passages which Alfred has added to his version. (1) See his Div. Natura, p. 32. 34. 113. and 174. Gibbon calls the book of Boetius" a golden volume, not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully." Hist. Decl. vol. iv. p. 38. (2) Ethel. Hist. p. 847. (3) Malm. p. 45. and 248. (4) Henry de Silgrave; MSS. Cott. Cleop. A. xii. p. 15., and Joh. Bever, MSS. Harl. 641. p. 21. (5) Its literal translation is : "Alfred, king, was the translator of this book; and from book-latin into English turned it, as it now is done. A while he put down word for word: a while sense for sense, so as he the most manifestly and intellectually might explain it for the various and manifold worldly occupations that oft, both in mind and in body, busied him. These occupations are very difficult for us to number, which in his days came on this kingdom which he had undertaken. He learned this book, and turned it from Latin to the English phrase, and made it again into song, so as it is now done. : "And now may it be, and for God's name let him beseech every one of those that desire to read this book, that they pray for him, and do not blame him if they should more rightly understand it than he could because that every man should, according to the condition of his understanding, and from his leisure, speak what he speaks, and do that which he doeth." See the original in Rawlinson's edition. (6) See Wanley's Catal. p. 64. 85. From this Rawlinson published his printed work. (7) It was MS. Otho. A. 6., when it was collated by Rawlinson. It has been since burnt. Wanley thought this MS. was one written in Alfred's life time. The versification of the metrums seems to be what the prose preface alludes to-" and made it again into song." The plan of Boetius is to add to each division of his prose dialogue a metrum on the same subject in Latin verse. (8) See Rawlinson. Boetius had made philosophy call upon him to remem- His feeling of ber that amidst his misfortunes, he had comfort yet connubial felicity, left him-a celebrated father-in-law, his wife, and children. Alfred, after adding, "It is untrue, as thou thinkest, that thou art unhappy," proceeds to enlarge on the short description of Boetius with such emphatic repetition, that it may be read as his own feeling of the value of an affectionate wife. The passages in italics are the additions of Alfred. "Liveth not thy wife also? She is exceedingly prudent, and very modest. She has excelled all other women in purity. I may, in a few words, express all her merit: this is, that in all her manners she is like her father. She lives now for thee; thee alone. Hence she loves nought else but thee. She has enough of every good in this present life, but she has despised it all for thee alone. She has shunned it all because only she has not thee also. This one thing is now wanting to her. Thine absence makes her think that all which she possesses is nothing. Hence for thy love she is wasting, and full nigh dead with tears and sorrow (1). " Alfred dwells on the "vivit tibi" of Boetius with manifest delight, and dilates upon the thought as if with fond recollections of the conduct of his own wife, who shared his adversity with him. Congenial with this subject is the narration which he has given of Orpheus and Eurydice. Boetius, in a metrum of Latin verses, has in a more general manner described the incident. But Alfred tells the story so completely in his own way, and with so many of his own little touches and additions, as to make his account an original tale. His story of Or "It happened formerly, that there was an harper in that nation which is called Thracia. It was a country in Greece. pheus and EuryThis harper was inconceivably good. His name was Orpheus he had an incomparable wife: she was called Eurydice. : dice. "Men then began to say of that harper, that he could harp so, that the woods danced, and the stones moved, from its sound. The wild deer would run to him, and stand as if they were tame; so still, that though men or hounds came against them, they would not shun them. 66 They mention also that this harper's wife died, and her soul was led into hell. Then the harper became very sorry, so that he could not be among other men. But he withdrew to the woods, and sat upon the mountains both day and night, and wept and harped. Then the woods trembled, and the rivers stopped, and no hart shunned the lion, nor hare the hound. No cattle knew any mistrust or fear of others, from the power of his songs. "Then the harper thought that nothing pleased him in this world. Then he thought that he would seek the gods of hell, and begin to soothe them with his harp, and pray that they would give him his wife again. "When he came there, that hell-hound, whose name was Cerverus, came against him. He had three heads, but he began to sport with his tail, and to play with him for his harping. There was also a very terrible gate (1) Alfred's Boet. p. 17. Rawl. Ed. Boet. lib. ii. prosa 4. warder; his name should be Caron: he had also three heads, and he was very fierce. Then began the harper to supplicate him for his protection while he was there, and that he should be brought out from thence sound. Caron promised him this, because he was pleased with his uncommon song. "Then he went on further, till he met the grim goddesses that the multitude call Parcas. They say that they will give honour to none, but punish every man according to his deserts, and that they govern every man's fortune. "Then he began to intreat their mercy, and they began to weep with him. Then he went further, and all the citizens of hell ran toward him, and led him to their king. And all began to talk with him, and to ask what he prayed. The restless wheel that Ixion was bound to, the king of Laiusta, for his guilt, stood still for his harping; Tantalus, the king that in this world was immoderately covetous, and whom the same evil passion followed, his covetousness was stayed; and the vulture forbore to tear the liver of Titius, the king that before was thus punished; and all hell's citizens rested from their torments while he harped before the king. "When he had long harped, the king of the citizens of hell called him and said, 'Let us give this slave his wife, for he hath earned her by his harping. Bid him, then, that he may well know, that he must never look back after he is gone from hence;' and he said, 'If he look back, he shall lose this woman.' "But men can with great difficulty repress love. Wel-a-way! What! Orpheus then led his wife with him, till he came to the boundary of light and darkness, then his wife went after him: then he came forth into the light: then he looked back towards the woman, and she died away from him (1). " In another part we have his sentiments on riches. He has added to the reflections of Boetius the several following passages. (1) P. 100. I have made the translation strictly literal; and will add as literal a one of the original of Boetius, that the reader may observe for himself what Alfred has made his own :-" "Formerly the Thracian poet, mourning the death of his wife, afterwards compelled, by his plaintive measures, the woods to run, and the moveable rivers to stand; the hind joined her intrepid side to the cruel lion's; nor did the hare fear the visible dog, made placid by the song. When the interior fervour of his bosom burnt more violent, those strains which subdued all could not soothe their master. Complaining of the cruel deities, he went to the infernal regions. There attempering his bland lays to the sounding strings, whatever he had imbibed from the chief fountains of the goddess mother; what impotent grief gave; what love, groaning in grief, wept, he expressed; and moving Tanarus, solicited with a sweet prayer the lords of the shades. Caught by the new song, the threefold porter was stupified. The guilty, whom the goddesses, avengers of crimes, agitate with fear, now sorrowful, dissolve in tears. The swift wheel revolves not the head of Ixion; and Tantalus, perishing with thirst, despises the long streams. The vulture, satisfied with the harmony, drew not the liver of Titius. At length, We are conquered!' exclaims the pitying arbiter of the shades: Let us give the man his companion, his wife, bought by his song.' But a law restricted the gift, that while he should leave Tartarus he should not bend back his eyes. Who shall give a law to lovers? Love is a greater law to itself. borders of night, Orpheus saw, lost, and killed his Eurydice." Alas! near the Boetius has merely said "Are riches precious in their own nature, or in yours? His thoughts on Which of them do you prefer, gold or accumulated money? wealth and liberBut these shine more by being poured out than by being heaped ality. up; for avarice makes us always odious, but liberality illustrious (1). ” On this text Alfred has expatiated into these effusions "Tell me now whether thy riches, that in thine own thought are so precious, be so from their own nature. But yet, I tell thee, that what is so of its own nature, is not so from thee. If then of its own nature it be so, and not of thine, why art thou then ever the better for its good? "Tell me now which of these thou thinkest the most dear. Is it gold? I know that gold avails something. But though it now be good, and dear to us, yet he will be more renowned, and more beloved, who gives it, than he who gathereth it, or plunders it from others. So riches are more reputable and estimable when men give them, than they are when men gather and hold them. "Hence covetousness maketh the avaricious odious both to God and man; while bounty maketh us always pleasing and famous, and worthy both to God and to men who love it. "Now as property cannot then belong both to those who give it and to those who take it away, it is therefore always better and more valuable when given than when held (2). " On this subject a passage may be read as an instance of the intelligent ease and force, with which the king partly translates, and partly imitates his author when he means to render him exactly. Boetius says (6 Your riches, unless broken into pieces, cannot pass to many, and when this is done they must make those poor whom they quit. O narrow and impotent riches, which cannot be had entire by many, and yet cannot come to each without the poverty of the rest!" "Though thou shouldest divide them as small as dust, yet thou couldst not make all men to possess them equally; and when thou hadst divided them all, thou wouldest then be poor thyself. So worthy of a man are the riches of this world! No man may fully have them. They can make no man happy except they make others poor." On a good name. Alfred has taken occasion to insert the following thoughts from his own mind, on reputation, obviously expressing his own feelings of the value of that blessing which has accompanied his memory : "This is clear enough, that a good word and good fame are better and more precious to every man than any riches. The word filleth the ears of all who hear it; and it thrives not the less with those who speak it. It openeth the vacancy of the heart: it pierces through other hearts that are locked up, and in its progress among them it is never diminished. No one (1) Boet. lib. ii. prosa 5. (2) Alfred's Boet. p. 23, 24. can slay it with a sword, nor bind it with a rope, nor ever kill it (1).” He has so expanded the thought of Boetius on the value of jewels, with turns and feelings of his own, and expressed them with so much more energy than his author, as to be in a great measure original even where he copies: On the value of jewels. "Why should the beauty of gems draw your eyes to them to wonder at them, as I know they do? What is then the nobility of that beauty which is in gems? It is theirs; not yours. At this I am most exceedingly astonished, why you should think this irrational, created good, better than your own excellence: why should you so exceedingly admire these gems, or any of those dead-like things that have not reason; because they can by no right deserve that you should wonder at them. Though they be God's creatures, they are not to be measured with you because one of two things occurs; either they are not good for you themselves, or but for a little good compared with you. WE TOO MUCH UNDERVALUE OURSELVES when we love that which is inferior to us, and in our power, more than ourselves, or the Lord that has made us and given us all these goods (2). Alfred's translation of the passages on the other advantages possessed by the rich is also so animated, that we quote it as a specimen of his own genuine feelings on the subject, with a version of the Latin (3), that the reader may make his own comparison. On the advantages of the rich. "Dost thou like fair lands?' "Then Mind answered to Reason, and said "Why should I not like fair lands? How ! Is not that the fairest part of God's creation? Full oft we rejoice at the mild sea, and also admire the beauty of the sun, and the moon, and of all the stars. "Then answered Wisdom and Reason to the Mind, and thus said: "How belongeth heaven's fairness to thee? Durst thou glory that its beauty is thine? It is not, it is not. How! Knowest thou not that thou madest none of them. If thou wilt glory, glory in God. "Whether now dost thou rejoice in the fairer blossoms of Easter, as if thou hadst made them (4); canst thou now make any such? or hast thou (1) Alfred. p. 24. "Does the brightness of (2) Alfred, p. 24. The literal English of Boetius is gems attract your eyes? But the chief part of the splendor with them is the light itself of the jewels, not of the men, which indeed I wonder that any should so vehemently admire; for what is there in that which wants the motion of the soul, and the combination of limbs, which can seem by right to be beautiful to animate and rational nature ? Although they are the works of the Creator, and by this distinction attract something of the final beauty, yet placed below your excellence, they by no means deserve your admiration." Lib. ii. pr. 5. (3) The passage in Boetius is "Does the beauty of the fields delight you?— Why not? It is a fair portion of the fairest work. So sometimes we delight in the face of the serene sea. So we admire the sky, the stars, the sun, and the moon. But do any of these touch you? Do you dare to boast of the splendor of any such?" Boet. lib. ii. pr. 5. (4) "Are you yourself distinguished by the vernal flowers? Or does your abundance swell in the summer fruits? Why are you carried away by emply joys? Why do you embrace external goods for your own? Will fortune make those |