[717] In his useful dissertation: Untersuchungen über K. Ælfred’s Bedaübersetzung, 1889.
[718] Gegenwärtiger Stand der Forschung über K. Ælfred’s Bedaübersetzung, 1898 (Sitzungsber. of the Vienna Academy of Sciences).
[719] Cf. Ælfric’s saying: ‘every one who translates from Latin into English should strive that the English may have its own idiom, otherwise it is very misleading to any one who does not know the Latin idiom,’ Preface to Heptateuch.
[720] See below, and cf. Schilling: ‘there are many mistakes in translation due to carelessness and want of grammatical knowledge,’ p. 9; ‘his knowledge of Latin was still small when he translated the Orosius,’ p. 61.
[721] pp. cvi-cviii.
[722] I did not then know that Mr. Sweet had already noticed this affinity, though he gave no examples, and drew no inference from it, Preface to Pastoral Care, p. xl.
[723] It is true that in the Orosius Alfred omits the conquest of Britain by Claudius (vii. 6), but this may be, as Schilling suggests (p. 21), from quasipatriotic motives, because of the ease with which the island was conquered. He does however give it in the Bede (H. E. i. 3), and this fact might be used as an argument in favour of the priority of the Bede translation.
[724] Ed. Schipper, p. 13; the corresponding capitulum is however translated in both recensions.
[725] Orosius, ed. Sweet, p. 238.
[726] ’mid dice ⁊ mid eorðwealle,’ ‘with ditch and earth-wall,’ ed. Miller, p. 32.
[727] ‘het dician ⁊ eorðwall gewyrcan’ = uallum fecerat, ibid. p. 46; cf. (of a different matter) ibid. p. 366: ’mid dice ⁊ mid eorðwealle utan ymbsealde’ = circumuallante aggere.
[728] p. 270.
[729] Below, § 109.
[730] pp. 60, 22 ff.; 62, 9 ff.; cf. also Oros. 42, 14 with Boet. 1, 9. 10; Or. 56, 32 with Bo. 9, 29; 21, 1 &c.; Or. 220, 16 with Bo. 34, 29; Or. 296, 8 with Bo. 7, 2. 3. In Oros. 72, 8 ff., Alfred seems to connect the word Fabianus with faber (craftsman), as in Boethius he seems to connect the name Fabricius with the same root, pp. 46, 165; one or two other points of connexion between the Orosius and the Boethius are given below (pp. 177 n, 184 n); cf. also B. xv, xvi § 1 (p. 34) with O. pp. 88, 220, 226 (Aetna); B. xvi § 1, 4, xxix § 2 (pp. 34, 39, 66) with O. pp. 260, 262 (Nero).
[731] K. Ælfred’s angelsächsische Bearbeitung der Weltgeschichte des Orosius (1886).
[732] Dr. Schilling gives the numbers rather differently, p. 6; I have taken for the original the capitula as given by Zangemeister from the St. Gallen MS.; for the translation, the capitula in Mr. Sweet’s edition.
[733] pp. 14 ff.
[734] pp. 17-19.
[735] pp. 19-21.
[736] 486 B [44].
[737] Einhard, Vita Caroli, c. 21.
[738] 70, 22 ff.
[739] 106, 11 ff.
[740] 264, 2. 3.
[741] See Chron. II. cvi, 8. Joinville compares St. Louis to Titus, ‘dont les anciennes escriptures racontent, que trop se dolut, et fut desconforté d’un jour que il n’avoit donné nul benefice,’ c. 142.
[742] ‘Alfred … Englene darling,’ from the so-called Proverbs of Alfred printed in Kemble’s Salomon and Saturn, pp. 226 ff.; so Laȝamon, i. 269: ‘Alfred þe king, Englelondes deorling.’ It is noteworthy that W. M. applies the term ‘deliciae Anglorum’ to Edgar, G. R. i. 164.
[743] One of the most interesting of these is the explanation of the ‘indomitae gentes’ against whom Severus built his wall, as ‘Picts and Scots,’ 270, 12. For other interesting glosses, cf. 108, 16; 110, 34; 196, 24; 206, 35.
[744] I have counted thirty-six instances.
[745] 62, 9 ff.; cf. 92, 27 ff.
[746] 188, 3 ff.
[747] Above, p. 59.
[748] 174, 30 ff.; cf. 76, 4 ff. of Tomyris and Cyrus. Here the stratagem in question is mentioned by Orosius, but Alfred expands the hint very luxuriantly.
[749] Above, p. 99.
[750] 188, 8.
[751] Above, pp. 59, 102, 105-6.
[752] 172, 1 ff.; cf. also the account of Anthony’s ships, 246, 7 ff.
[753] Above, p. 113.
[754] 96, 12 ff.; cf. also 98, 12; 146, 17; 88, 3 ff.; 176, 14.
[755] 46, 15 ff.; see above, p. 110.
[756] Cited by Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, ii. 414 (ed. 1862) from private sources.
[757] 74, 22 ff.; 210, 5 ff.; 248, 12 ff.; 290, 11 ff.
[758] 134, 10 ff.
[759] 68, 19 ff.
[760] 178, 9 ff. For Regulus, cf. also Boethius, xvi. § 2 (p. 37).
[761] 190, 17 ff.; 224, 24 ff.
[762] 242, 19. 20. 30 ff.
[763] 34, 34 ff.
[764] 224, 24 ff.
[765] 54, 16 ff. (Phalaris); cf. Boeth. xvi. § 2 (p. 37, Busiris).
[766] 296, 1 ff.; the ironical remark on the loyalty (hlafordhyldo) shown by Rufinus and Stilicho to their master’s children.
[767] 136, 27 ff.
[768] Another change from similar motives is 52, 35 ff.
[769] Below, § 110.
[770] 32, 13 ff.; 58, 7 ff.; see Schilling, p. 56.
[771] The two Scipios, 224, 24 ff.; Sextus Julius Caesar and the Praetor Cneius Pompeius, are confused with the two great rivals of later days, and the whole account of the treatment of the former pair by the Senate is extraordinarily funny, 234, 21 ff.
[772] The most remarkable instance of this is in the account of Alexander’s successors and the territories which fell to their lot, 142, 26 ff. (Oros. iii. 23, 7 ff.).
[773] e.g. 190, 29; 218, 10; 264, 4 (this last may be due to a wrong reading in the Latin text); 271, 17.
[774] 246, 16 ff.
[775] ibid. 32 ff.
[776] 250, 10 ff.
[777] Dr. Schilling has remarked (p. 59) that Alfred in the Orosius never mastered the fact that a Roman might have not merely two but three names. So when there are two consuls with three names each, he either makes three persons out of them with two names each, e.g. 176, 32; 182, 5 &c., or he omits the two last names altogether, e.g. 202, 18; 204, 23 &c. By the time he reached the Boethius he had overcome this difficulty. In two places he says that Marcus was called by another name Tullius, and by a third name Cicero, xviii. § 2, xli. § 3 (pp. 43, 143).
[778] p. 61.
[779] Above, p. 160.
[780] Paul und Braune’s Beiträge, iv. 127.
[781] Ed. 2, p. 196.
[782] Introduction (1890); Dr. Miller further enforced his view in a monograph on the Place Names in the English Bede, Quellen und Forschungen (1896). For a copy of this I was indebted to the writer.
[783] Above, § 98.
[784] Homilies, ed. Thorpe, ii. 116-118.
[785] ibid. 358.
[786] ibid. i. 2.
[787] Prof. Schipper, Gegenwärtiger Stand, &c., p. 6.
[789] ‘liber quem composuit in lingua Saxonica de Gestis Anglorum … cuius copiam habui in Prioratu Canonicorum de Suthwyk,’ Anglia Sacra, i. 183. This is interesting as showing that Saxon studies were not quite extinct even in the fifteenth century. It is also interesting, because we can almost certainly point to the very ‘copia’ used by Rudborne. It is the Cotton MS. Otho B. XI. This is now terribly injured, owing to the great Cottonian fire of 1731. But Wanley (p. 219), who saw it when complete, describes it as ‘exemplum antiquum primitus Eccles. Beatae Mariae de Suwika’ (Southwick, Hants); cited, ed. Miller, I. xvi. Rudborne also cites Alfred’s will, p. 206, though this does not agree with our copies.
[790] In vol. iv of Grein-Wülker’s Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa, 1897-1899.
[791] Gegenwärtiger Stand, &c., u. s. pp. 4, 5.
[792] Ed. Miller, p. xxiii; ed. Schipper, p. xxix.
[793] Above, § 88.
[794] I have shown above, p. 145, that there are certain words characteristic of the earlier recension of the Dialogues which the reviser systematically alters into others, semninga into færinga, tid into tima, ongitan to oncnawan, &c. In the Bede I have noticed 32 instances of semninga, not one of færinga; 90 of tid, none of tima; 10 of ongitan, 2 of oncnawan. I do not pretend that my observations are exhaustive. The following words occur, so far as I know, only in the Bede and in the Dialogues (the references are to the pages and lines of Hecht’s and Miller’s editions respectively):—ágendlíce = proprie, D 264, 26; B 30, 10 (in the sense of ‘arbitrarily’ it occurs C. P. p. 144); allíc = catholicus, D 237, 20; B 312, 31; ancerlíf, D 210, 26; B 364, 30; brícsian, D 343, 37; B 244, 22; camphád, D 298, 8; B 480, 11; drihtenlíc, D 309, 26; B 158, 10; eardunghús, D 185, 16; B 366, 16; efenceasterwaran, D 205, 1; B 62, 20; fordémedness, D 235, 14; B 34, 5; forsettan (in sense of ‘obstruct’) D 258, 28; B 212, 16; fremsumlíce, D 242, 10; B 184, 23; gefeolan, D 336, 23; B 450, 28; gefremedness, D 318, 15; B 32, 7; gewinfullíc, D 222, 9; B 56, 9; gýmeléasness, D 208, 4; B 242, 28; ungebrosnendlíc, D 233, 15; B 378, 4; ungeæhtendlic, D 282, 21; B 84, 12. This list too might be easily extended; and the whole subject of the relation of the two works is well worthy of further examination. No doubt the resemblance is partly due to the similarity of their subject matter. The likeness of the two originals is also very strong in parts; so much so indeed that I think that Bede must, consciously or unconsciously, have modelled his style in the Hist. Eccl. on the Dialogues of Gregory. Still the likeness between the two translations is, I think, greater than one would expect in the case of two perfectly independent translators, and points to their having been produced under similar influences.
[795] e.g. 114, 29; 180, 15; 216, 9; the references are to the E. E. T. S. edition by Dr. Miller.
[796] e.g. 38, 24; 50, 1; 226, 30; 274, 10.
[797] e.g. 36, 17; 122, 33; 190, 22. 30; 266, 32; 294, 23; 406, 21.
[798] e.g. 32, 7; 172, 28; 270, 33.
[799] Instead of the passive the impersonal active form is ordinarily used in Anglo-Saxon; not ‘the land is called Kent,’ but, ‘one calls the land Kent.’ In the Celtic languages the so-called passive really is, in origin, an impersonal active form, which explains the (at first sight) strange phenomenon that the ‘passive’ always takes an accusative after it, see Zimmer, Keltische Studien, No. 8.
[800] e.g. 14, 27: ‘fram deaðes liðe,’ ‘a mortis articulo’ (lið = joint); 32, 8; 128, 14; 214, 17; 269, 9; 274, 11; 278, 2; 294, 7; 308, 22; 336, 24; 370, 4; 462, 7; 478, 33. An interesting instance of taking a metaphorical expression literally occurs 372, 14 (H. E. iv. 29). The original is ‘incubuit precibus antistes’; this is translated ‘ða aðenede se biscop hine in cruce ⁊ hine gebæd,’ ‘the bishop stretched himself in a cross and prayed’; i.e. the translator understands by ‘incubuit’ what the Irish call ‘cros-figil,’ or praying with the body stretched out prostrate on the ground in the form of a cross.
[801] e.g. 282, 23; 294, 23; 450, 13; 482, 9.
[802] Gegenwärtiger Stand, &c., pp. 8-10.
[803] See the parallel texts in Schipper’s edition, pp. 266-270, 273-275.
[804] ibid. 271-272 (= Miller, p. 206). This passage relates to the Easter Controversy.
[805] ibid. 276-285 (= Miller, pp. 210 ff.). Another passage, Schipper, pp. 133-140 (= Miller, pp. 110 ff.), is omitted in two of the younger group of MSS.; but as it is contained in the third, its omission in the two others was probably due to some mutilation of their common original.
[806] Above, § 98.
[807] H. E. i. 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32; ii. 4, 8, 10, 11, 17, 18, 19; v. 21.
[808] H. E. i. 23; iii. 29; the Canons of the Council of Hertford are retained, iv. 5.
[809] ibid. i. 27.
[810] ibid. iv. 20; v. 7, 8, 19; ii. 1, is an exception; here Gregory’s epitaph is translated into prose.
[811] ibid. ii. 2 (a few lines); iii. 3 (part), 4, 17 (part omitted in older recension); 25, 26, 28 (a few lines); v. 21.
[812] Bede, I. xxxix ff.
[813] See Miller, pp. lvii ff.; and cf. the characterisation Aidan as ‘the good bishop,’ 246, 26. One notes too with pleasure the omission of the epithet ‘prudens’ which Bede strangely applies to Coifi’s purely material arguments in favour of Christianity, 134, 23 (H. E. ii. 13).
[814] H. E. i. 2, 6 (this passage about Carausius is omitted also in the Orosius; here the omission causes a serious perversion of meaning, what is said of Carausius in the original being transferred to Maximianus in the translation); 8 (the passage about Arianism in Britain omitted), 9, 10, 11 (much shortened), 17-22; ii. 1 (shortened). In many cases however, in spite of the omission of a chapter, the capitulum belonging to it is retained and translated.
[815] ibid. v. 15-17.
[816] Grundriss, p. 406. This is contested by August Schmidt, u. s. pp. 28 ff.
[817] Chronicle, II. xxi, lxi, lxviii, cxiii.
[818] e.g. 40, 8; 46, 11; 114, 11; 120, 7; 156, 1; 158, 28; 164, 14; 166, 32; 174, 25; 178, 17; 188, 23. 25 (name of Bamborough inserted, which name is nowhere mentioned by Bede); 238, 31; 240, 27 (here the insertion was necessitated by the preceding omission; so at 246, 33); 242, 19; 264, 11; 338, 8. 25; 374, 26; 390, 20; 394, 24. 29; 438, 1. 8; 464, 6.
[819] 166, 10 (the addition of ‘⁊ cyste,’ ‘and kissed it,’ to the account of Aidan blessing Oswald’s bounteous hand); 162, 2; 370, 29; 380, 18; 412, 15; cf. 58, 26; 102, 31; 130, 32; 174, 30 ff.; 184, 34; 232, 19.
[820] 32, 10.
[821] 42, 16.
[822] 246, 26.
[823] e.g. 240, 20; 256, 8; 346, 7; 390, 6; 422, 8; 424, 20; 428, 24; 442, 27. 29; 456, 13.
[824] 382, 19; 422, 15 ff.; 448, 19; 466, 27.
[825] 52, 5. 11; 166, 23; 278, 30.
[826] 144, 9; 186, 33; 216, 23; 448, 10.
[827] 150, 13; 154, 19; 156, 5; 166, 16; 178, 14; 182, 11; 202, 12; 268, 13 (a reference to one of Bede’s teachers); 446, 19 (statement that Daniel was still bishop of Winchester); 472, 23 (the statement that the Britons still retained their incorrect Easter, though all the Celts had submitted before the end of the eighth century; see Bede, I. xxxix). In one case Alfred by inserting the words ‘oð þas tid,’ ‘up to the present time,’ does seem to pledge himself to the truth of the statement in his own day, 176, 20.
[828] 152, 23 (Municipium treated as a proper name); 292, 20; 334, 7; 340, 34; 370, 15.
[829] 118, 7 (episcopum instead of episcopium; this misreading is found in some Latin MSS.); 154, 3; and 306, 20 (troicus instead of tragicus or stragicus); 242, 31 (a Deo instead of adeo); 340, 8 (de tecto instead of detecto); 388, 33 (praeponere instead of proponere); 436, 26 (siuimet [i.e. sibimet] instead of suimet).
[830] 4, 2 ff.; 98, 6; 236, 7 ff.; for lesser divergences cf. 178, 22; 258, 15; 388, 6.
[831] e.g. Pope Gregory and the Anglian slave boys, 96, 31; the death of Cædmon, 348, 10.
[832] Const. Hist. i. 70, 71, 111.
[833] I give a list of the more important terms:—heretoga = dux, 148; ealdormen ⁊ heretogan = duces regii, 236; ealdorman, which in some applications is equivalent to heretoga, is a vaguer and more general term, and represents a considerable number of Latin expressions; thus ealdormen = duces, 134, 158, 302; = maiores natu, 136, 158; = maiores, 348, 442, 450; = principes, 198, 240, 316, 334; = satrapae, 414; = subreguli, 298 (bis); ealdorman = maior domus regiae, 256 (of Ebroin); þegna aldormon = primus ministrorum, 264; gerefa = praefectus, 194, 256; tun gerefa = uillicus, 344, 414; geþeahteras = consiliarii, 136, 454; witan = consiliarii, 134; = seniores, 452; in gemote heora weotona = in conuentu seniorum, 162; þegn = minister, 134, 146, 158, 196, 294, 462; cf. þinen = ministra, 318; þegnung = ministerium, 196; cwene þegn = reginae minister, 330; cyninges þegn = minister regis, 328; = miles regis, 150; = miles, 222, 302, 326 (bis), 418, cf. 436; þegn = miles, 194; gesið = comes, 194, 228, 274, 292, 326, 394; gesiðmann = comes, 22 (bis); æðelingas = nobiles, 138, 240, 242 (this is important as showing that æðeling was not restricted, as in later usage, to members of the royal house, though it is used of them, as the following examples show); æðeling (of a king’s brother), 324; se geonga æðeling = regius iuuenis, iuuenis de regio genere, 130, 306; æðelingas þæs cynecynnes = nobiles ac regii uiri, 140; here = hostilis exercitus, 54; = exercitus, 356; fyrd = exercitus, 102; = expeditio, 30; fyrd ⁊ here = bellum, 168, 208; cynelic tun = uilla regia, 140; cyninges bold = uilla regia, 140; ham = uicani, 180; tunscipe = uicani, 416; wiic = mansio, 332, 388; sundorwic = mansio, 262; boclanda æht = praediorum possessiones, 236; heowscipe = familia (hide), 332; hiwisc = familia (hide), 456 (bis); hired = domus (household), 144; higna ealdor = pater familiae, 180; geferscipe = domus (household), 264; = clerus, 248, 398; cf. mid his geferum = cum clero suo, cum clericis suis, 364, 402; his preost ⁊ hond þeng = clericus illius, 456; ealdordom = primatus, 368; aldorbiscop = metropolitanus episcopus, 408; regolweard = praepositus, 362; so: prafost ⁊ regolweard, 360; prafost ⁊ ealdorman = propositi 232 (these three examples refer to the prior or provost of a monastery). In the Orosius we have æðelingas = regii iuuenes, 44; ealdorman = praefectus, 60, 84; but the most interesting instance is: Asiam [he] hæfde Romanum to boclande geseald = traditam per testamentum Romanis Asiam, 224; cf. the Soliloquies, p. 164: ‘ælcne man lyst siððan he ænig cotlyf on his hlafordes læne myd his fultume getimbred hæfð, þæt he hine mote hwilum þaron gerestan, … oð þone fyrst þe he bocland ⁊ ece yrfe þurh his hlafordes miltse geearnige.’ At p. 176 of the same work is a passage which perhaps illustrates the date of the use of seals in England, for I do not think there is anything corresponding to it in the original: ‘geþene nu gif ðines hlafordes ærendgewrit ⁊ his insegel to ðe cymð.’ Another interesting passage illustrating the meeting of the Witan, the gathering of the fyrd, the king’s household, &c., is at p. 187: ‘geðenc nu hweðer awiht manna cynges ham sece þer ðær he ðonne on tune byð, oððe his gemot, oððe his fyrd’ &c.; cf. also pp. 200, 204. It is worth noting that the word ‘carcern,’ ‘prison,’ occurs first in Alfred’s Laws (see Schmid, Gesetze, Glossary, s. v.), and is also of frequent occurrence in his works, Past. p. 329; Oros. p. 214; Boeth. i. (pp. 7, 8), xviii. § 4 (p. 45), xxxvii. § 1 (p. 111); Solil. pp. 202, 203. In the Psalter, which is possibly by Alfred, we have mention of the two shires of Judah and Benjamin, ed. Thorpe, p. 113; cf. ibid. 29 for an interesting reference to measurement of land with ropes. In the Dialogues we have the following: geréfa = praefectus, 340; = tribunus, 220; geréfman = primarius, 222; = curialis, 308; geréfscír = locus praefectorum; práfost = praepositus (in monastic sense), 344; ealdorman = comes, 220, 301. An interesting word is wlíte-weorð, literally ‘face-price’ = ransom, 179.
[834] See Stewart’s Boethius, p. 172; Moore, Dante Studies, i. 279-83; it may be noted that Augustine, Orosius, Gregory, Bede, and Boethius, all occur in Alcuin’s catalogue of the York Library, De Sanctis Ebor. vv. 1535 ff. Still more interesting is the fact that Augustine, Orosius, Boethius, Bede, are mentioned within a few lines of one another, Paradiso, x. 118-32.
[835] On Boethius generally, see Boethius, an essay by H. F. Stewart, 1891, a book from which I have learnt much. See also the article on Boethius in Dict. Christ. Biog.
[836] Stewart, p. 54.
[837] ibid., 78.
[838] Mr. Stewart, p. 106, puts it the other way; but I think the above statement does fuller justice to Boethius.
[839] Henry of Huntingdon and Petrarch among others wrote treatises De Contemptu Mundi. Boccaccio, as Mr. Archer reminds me, wrote a treatise De Casibus illustrium uirorum, on which Chaucer’s Monk’s Tale with the same title is founded.
[840] From a poem De Contemptu Mundi by Jacopone; Trench’s Sacred Latin Poetry, 3rd ed., p. 270. The Rhythm of Bernard of Morlaix, from which come ‘Jerusalem the Golden,’ ‘Brief life,’ &c., has the same title.
[841] Stewart, p. 203.
[842] ‘Misimi a leggere quello non conosciuto da molti libro di Boezio, nel quale, cattivo e discacciato, consolato s’ avea,’ Conv. ii. 13. This statement that the book was ‘not known by many’ is curious. On the use of Boethius by Dante, see Dr. Moore, u. s. pp. 282-8, 355, 356.
[843] I have not read this book myself; but More’s great-grandson Cresacre More describes it as ‘a most excellent book, full of spiritual and forcible motives, expressing lively Sir Thomas’ singular resolution to apply all those wholesome medicines to himself,’ Life of Sir T. More, ch. x. ad init.