[844] c. viii, Sedgefield, p. 20; cf. c. vii. § 2, p. 15.
[845] In Memoriam, vi.
[846] Matthew Arnold, Geist’s Grave.
[847] On the strength of this, Boethius obtained the honours of saintship, Moore, u. s. p. 282. Dante places Boethius in heaven, but among the theologians in the Sun, Paradiso, x. 124 ff., not among the warriors and martyrs of the Cross in Mars; though he says of his soul—
[848] Stewart, p. 33.
[849] Stewart, pp. 1 ff.
[850] ibid., pp. 108 ff.
[851] ‘Uti in Timaeo Platoni nostro placet, in minimis quoque rebus diuinum praesidium debet inplorari,’ Lib. III, Prosa ix.
[852] Vol. xciv, 149 ff.; many of Dr. Schepss’ instances are reproduced in Mr. Sedgefield’s Introduction, pp. xxxi ff. Among the most distinctly Christian interpretations are: the references to the heavenly Jerusalem, c. v. § 1 (p. 11), cf. c. xxxvi. § 2 (p. 105); and to the martyrs, c. xi. ad fin. (p. 26); the beautiful saying that ‘Christ dwelleth in the valley of humility,’ c. xii (p. 27); the Christian application given to the fable of Eurydice, c. xxxv. ad fin. (p. 103); the identification of the rebellion of the giants with Nimrod’s building of the Tower of Babel, c. xxxv. § 4 (p. 99).
[853] Thus the addition in c. xxiv. § 3 (p. 54) on the worth of friends, is a repetition of c. xx. ad fin. (p. 48); the sentence against living a soft life, c. xxxix. § 10 ad fin. (p. 133), anticipates c. xl. § 3 (p. 138); the thought that the temporal prosperity of the good is a foreshadowing of their eternal happiness, c. xxxix. § 11 (p. 134), anticipates c. xl. § 2 (p. 137).
[854] Above, § 87.
[855] c. xvii. pp. 40, 41.
[856] c. vii. § 3 (p. 18).
[857] c. xviii. § 4 (p. 45).
[858] c. xiii. (p. 28).
[859] c. xxx. §§ 1, 2 (p. 69).
[860] c. xxxvi. § 8 (p. 110); c. xli. § 2 (p. 142).
[861] c. xli. § 2 (p. 142).
[862] ibid. § 3 (p. 144).
[863] See note 2, p. 181.
[864] c. vii. § 3 (p. 18).
[865] c. xii. ad fin. (p. 27).
[866] Clarendon Press, 1900.
[867] See pp. 26, 27, 34, 53 (simile of the rivers and the sea, repeated pp. 82, 83, 86); 57 (the wheel, repeated p. 81, and p. 129, where there is a hint of it in the text, which is most elaborately developed under the influence of a commentary); 70, 72, 86 (similes of the stars and of soul and body); 90 (the ingot); 93 (sifting meal); 108 (child riding a hobby-horse); 97 (chink in the door); 117 (scattered like smoke); ibid. (crash of a falling tree); 121 (weak eyes); 144 (steersman foreseeing the tempest).
[868] Cf. Earle, Alfred Jewel, pp. 161 ff.
[869] See especially cc. xxxix-xli; cf. also c. v. § 3, c. xi. § 2, c. xx. ad init.; cf. above, p. 159.
[870] Paradise Lost, ii. 557 ff.
[871] c. xxxix. § 8 (p. 131).
[872] Cf. Dante, Purg. xvi. 70-2.
[873] c. xli. § 2 (p. 142).
[874] ibid.
[875] ibid. § 3 (p. 143).
[876] ibid. (p. 144). Dante has a still more subtle comparison—
[877] Sciphere, c. xv (p. 34).
[878] c. xix (p. 46).
[879] c. xxix. § 3 (p. 67); cf. the Orosius translation, pp. 10, 24.
[880] c. xiii (p. 28).
[881] c. xiv. ad init. (p. 29).
[882] c. xxv (p. 57).
[883] See note 2, p. 181.
[884] c. xxix. § 1 (p. 65).
[885] c. xxix. § 1 (p. 65).
[886] c. xxxiv. § 8; cf. Spenser’s musical lines:
[887] pp. xxv ff.
[888] The statement of the late Liber de Hyda, p. 44, that Werferth translated the Boethius for Alfred, as well as the Dialogues, is totally unsupported, and the style of the two works is as different as possible.
[889] 519 A; he calls it ‘liber Boetii lachrymosus’; he says, however, that Alfred translated other works ‘numero ignoto.’
[890] Otho A. vi, of the tenth century, but much injured in the Cottonian fire of 1731.
[891] Bodl. 180 (2079); early twelfth century. There are also some transcripts and various readings taken by Junius from these two MSS.
[892] Lib. I. metr. 6; Lib. II. metr. 2; Lib. IV. metr. 7. The reason of this omission is probably due to the fact, that in these three instances Alfred’s prose translation omits the formula with which it generally introduces the Metra: ‘Then Wisdom began to sing.’ This has been made an argument against Alfred’s authorship of the Metra. But it is surely quite possible that Alfred, coming back to his work after some time (see below, pp. 189 f.), and making his alliterative version without fresh reference to the Latin, should, in the absence of the usual formula, have overlooked the poetical character of these sections. In one case, Lib. I. metr. 7, the introductory formula is wanting, and yet the section exists in the verse translation. But here the poetical character of the section is much more obvious, and it is followed by a formula which often follows the Metra, ‘then was Wisdom silent for a while,’ c. vii. ad init.; so cc. xvii. ad init., xxiv. ad init., xxxix. §§ 2, 4, xli. § 2. A still more frequent concluding formula is ‘ða ongan he eft spellian.’
[893] Sedgefield, pp. 1, 151.
[894] e.g. Leicht: ‘schon die veränderte Form, die Alliteration und der mit ihr verbundene Stil mussten darauf führen dass neue Gedanken angeregt wurden, wenn der Dichter derselben fähig war,’ cited in Wülker, Grundriss, p. 431. This ‘mussten’ is, to use a favourite formula of German criticism, ‘rein willkürlich.’
[895] So Hartmann, in Wülker, p. 425.
[896] Of Betty Foy he says, ‘I never wrote anything with so much glee’; of Laodamia, ‘It cost me more trouble than almost anything of equal length I have ever written,’ Morley’s edition, pp. 88, 530.
[897] p. 167: ‘Tres Eryci uitulos, et Tempestatibus agnam,’ Aen. v. 772.
[898] The passage occurs both in the Gesta Regum and in the Gesta Pontificum. In the former it runs thus: ‘sensum librorum Boetii de Consolatione planioribus uerbis enodauit, quos rex ipse in Anglicam linguam uertit,’ i. 131; in the latter ‘elucidauit’ is substituted for ‘enodauit,’ and the supercilious words are added: ‘labore illis diebus necessario, nostris ridiculo,’ p. 177. The G. Pont, is later than the G. Regum, see G. R., I. xix.
[899] Grundriss, p. 427.
[900] u. s., p. 159.
[901] u. s., p. 193.
[902] The first edition would probably have no preface of its own, because Alfred regarded it as only a preliminary draft.
[903] Stewart, u. s., p. 202.
[904] c. xxxix. § 4 ad fin. (p. 127). Leicht is absolutely arbitrary when he says: ‘wir dürfen nicht annehmen dass er, als er an seine Prosa-Uebersetzung ging, schon den Plan hatte, später der Form seiner Vorlage insofern mehr Gerechtigkeit widerfahren zu lassen, als er die Metra in das Gewand der angelsächsischen Dichtung kleiden wollte,’ Wülker, p. 430. This is precisely what we may very fairly suppose on the evidence.
[905] In Wülker, Grundriss, p. 426; e.g. ix. 61 (p. 164), xxi. 3, 4 (p. 185), xxvi. 3 (p. 193), xxvii. 30 (p. 198).
[906] The two points in which the Metra are said to show less accuracy than the prose version, viz. the making Ulysses king of Thracia instead of Ithaca, and calling Homer the friend as well as the teacher of Virgil, are possibly merely due to the needs of alliteration, xxvi. 7; xxx. 3 (pp. 193, 203). Almost the only thing in the Metra to which there is nothing corresponding in the prose version is the well-known simile of the egg, xx. 169 ff. (p. 182), and this, though possibly suggested by a commentary, is thoroughly Alfredian. Editors have, I think, unduly prejudiced the question by either omitting the Metra altogether (as Cardale, who merely gives one as a specimen), or printing them as a sort of appendix at the end. It would be fairer to print them in the text in parallel columns with the prose version, an arrangement which would also greatly facilitate the study of them. They have, be it remembered, the authority of the MS. which is by nearly 200 years the more ancient of the two.
[907] On the editions of this work, see above, p. 128, note 4. See also Professor Wülker’s interesting Essay, Paul und Braune, Beiträge, iv. 101 ff., to which I am much indebted; also Grundriss, pp. 415 ff.
[908] Wülker, Beiträge, pp. 119, 120.
[909] ‘Delectabatur et libris S. Augustini, praecipueque his qui de Ciuitate Dei praetitulati sunt,’ Einhard, c. 24.
[910] Above, p. 141.
[911] Grundriss, p. 419.
[912] Above, § 90.
[913] Beiträge, u. s. pp. 129, 130.
[914] Evil is really non-existent, Boethius, xxxv. § 5, xxxvii. § 4 (pp. 100, 114); Blooms, p. 165. God the highest good and happiness, Boet. xxxiv. §§ 2, 5, 6 (pp. 84, 86, 87); Bl. p. 166. God regulates all things with His bridle, Boet. xx. § 1 (p. 49); Bl. p. 168. God gave freedom to men, Boet. xli. §§ 3, 4 (pp. 143, 145); Bl. p. 168. The open door, Boet. xxxv. § 3 (p. 97); Bl. p. 169. Metaphor of the Egg, Boet. Metr. xx. 169 ff. (p. 182); Bl. p. 174 (this has an important bearing on the authorship of the verse translation of the Metra). Calm haven (weather) after storms, Boet. xxxiv. § 8 (p. 89); Bl. p. 179. Metaphor of weak eyes, Boet. xxxviii. § 5 (p. 121); Bl. p. 182. Against a soft life, Boet. xl. § 3 (p. 138); Bl. p. 184. The leech gives different kinds of medicine, Boet. xxxix. § 9 (p. 132); Bl. p. 189. Things lighted by the sun, Boet. xxxiv. § 5 (p. 86); Bl. p. 180. Men and angels immortal, Boet. xlii. (p. 148); Bl. p. 191. Various paths all leading to one end, Boet. xxiv. § 1 (p. 52); Bl. p, 187. The soul released from prison at death, Boet. xviii. § 4 (p. 45); Bl. p. 202. For an analysis of the thought and diction of the ‘Blooms’ as compared with the Boethius, see a good Essay by F. G. Hubbard, Modern Language Notes, ix. 322 ff. My own list was made independently. Mr. Hubbard remarks that in several cases a passage, which is an addition to the original in the ‘Blooms,’ corresponds with a translated passage in the Boethius. This seems to show that the Anglo-Saxon Boethius was one of the sources of the ‘Blooms,’ which must therefore be later than the Boethius. There is a dissertation by Hulme: Die Sprache der altengl. Bearbeitung der Soliloquien, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1894; but it is purely philological. A new edition of the ‘Blooms’ may be expected shortly from Mr. H. L. Hargrove of Yale.
[915] See above, pp. 159, 183-4.
[916] xi. § 2 (p. 26).
[917] pp. 192-5. 198, 199.
[918] See Ebert, Literatur des Mittelalters, i. 240, 241.
[919] Some of these are cited above, p. 194, note 1.
[920] p. 175; cf. p. 179; of this too there is an anticipation in the Boethius, x. ad fin. (p. 23); cf. also the metaphor of the ship in Asser, 492 D [59].
[921] p. 200.
[922] p. 179.
[923] p. 204.
[924] Above, § 88.
[925] I do not, however, regard with some critics the occurrence of military operations in any year as necessarily excluding all literary activity in that year. Considering Alfred’s energy, and the fact that military operations were to a large extent suspended in the winter, the assumption seems to me rather rash; Asser distinctly says that Alfred carried on his studies ‘inter omnia alia mentis et corporis impedimenta,’ 488 D [50]; and Alfred tells how he began the Cura Pastoralis ‘ongemang oðrum mislicum ⁊ manifealdum bisgum ðisses kynerices’; cf. also Boethius, Prose Preface.
[926] W. M. II. lx. ff.
[927] ibid. i. 145; so in 838: ‘Imperator [Louis the Pious] filium suum Karolum armis uirilibus, i.e. ense cinxit, corona regali caput insigniuit,’ Theganus, Vita Hludouici, Pertz, ii. 643.
[928] See Chronicle, ii. 112-4; and add to the references there given, Ramsay, Foundations of England, i. 267; and an interesting little monograph on Alfred’s Boyhood and Death, by W. B. Wildman, Sherborne, 1898.
[929] Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 13. 67.
[930] ‘Pupillorum’; in Ps. ix. 34 (x. 16) ‘pupillo tu eris adiutor’ is paraphrased ‘þu eart fultumiend þara þe nabbað nawðer ne fæder ne modor.’ Cf. the elegy on the death of Charles the Great:—
[931] i. 116.
[932] p. 519 A.
[933] Preface to Pastoral Care.
[934] Henry VI in 1441 did apply to Eugenius IV for Alfred’s canonisation, Bekynton’s Correspondence, i. 118, Rolls Series. I owe this reference to an interesting article in the London Quarterly for January 1902, which only came into my hands after the first three lectures were in type. The author, Mr. W. E. Collins, goes further than I can go in rejecting Asser, but his article is well worthy of attention.
[935] See Pauli, u. s. p. 126; cf. Essays, p. 13.
[936] Heb. xi. 33, 34.
[937] ‘Henry stands with Alfred, Canute, William the Conqueror, and Edward I, one of the conscious creators of English greatness.… If he had been a better man, his work would have been second to that of no character in history; had he been a weaker one than he was, England might have had to undergo for six hundred years the fate of France,’ Stubbs, Benedict of Peterborough, II. xxxiii, xxxvi.
[938] Sermon preached before the University on the Sunday following the death of Her late Majesty; now printed as an appendix to the present volume.
[939] Faust, Part I, Scene iv.
[940] Above, pp. 38, 120, 125-6, 129, 131, 135, 160, 191.
[941] Cf. Lord Rosebery’s inspiring address at Winchester (Humphreys’, Piccadilly).
[942] Iliad, v. 303, 304.
[943] Cited by Ebert, ii. 151.
[944] ‘Usque ad quattuor milia quingenti traditi, et … in loco qui Ferdi [Verden] uocatur, iussu regis omnes una die decollati sunt,’ Einhardi Annales, sub anno 782.
[945] See above, p. 124.
[946] Tennyson, Guinevere.
[947] Above, p. 181.
[948] Hoveden, IV. lxxxi.
[949] Col. iv. 5; cf. 1 Thess. iv. 12.
[950] 1 Pet. ii. 12.
[951] 1 Cor. vii. 10-17.
[952] Matt. xiii. 33; Luke xiii. 21.
[953] John vi. 15.
[954] Luke xii. 14.
[955] Latham, Pastor Pastorum, pp. 403 ff.
[956] Gen. i. 27; Matt. xix. 4; Mark x. 6.
[957] Mark xii. 13 ff. and parallels.
[958] John xix. 11.
[959] Dante, Monarchia, Lib. i; cf. Purg. xxxii. 102:
though this is not the temporal, but the eternal Rome.
[960] Dante, Purg. x. 82 ff.; Parad. xx. 43 ff.
[961] 2 Cor. i. 4.
[962] 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2.
[963] c. lxi.
[964] Ad Philad. c. 6.