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"Pauli Orosii uiri clarissimi Ad Aurelium Augustinum episcopum & doctorem eximium Libri septimi ac ultimi Finis. Impressi Venetiis: opera & expensis Bernardini Veneti de Vitalibus. Anno ab incarnatione domini .M.CCCCC. Die .XII. Mensis Octobris. Regnāte Domino Augustino Barbadico.

"Registrum

"Omnes sunt terni præter n qui est quaternus."

That is-all the signatures have three sheets of two leaves each, except n, the last signature, which has four sheets, or eight leaves.

The best edition of Orosius is that of Havercamp, Leyden, 4to. 1738 and 1767; the latter is apparently the same book with only a new title. It is well edited, and contains a great mass of valuable notes: to this edition reference is always made in this work.

The high esteem in which Orosius was held in the time of Alfred, and for the subsequent six or seven hundred years, is spoken of in the following Introduction; it need not, therefore, be here repeated. While his popularity must be admitted, it cannot be denied that he has defects. He is not free from the credulity of the age in which he lived, and his authorities for the facts and the chronology in his history are not always the best. He has been severely criticized by Lipsius and Casaubon, and has had able defenders. A summary of these will be found in a small and recent 12mo. vol. entitled―

De Orosii Vita ejusque Historiarum Libris septem adversos paganos. Scripsit Theodorus Mörner, Doctor Philos. Berolini, 1844.

The greater part of this work is employed in indicating the sources from which Orosius derived his historical knowledge; and he clearly shews that, besides referring to Grecian historians, especially to Herodotus and Polybius, he made ample use of Livy and Tacitus, and had the advantage of consulting Tubero and many other historians whose works are now in part or entirely lost. Though much may be said in favour of Orosius, it is not his reputation as an historian, or the propriety of his Latin style, that claim our regard, so much as the fact that he was the popular historian whom our intellectual and energetic Alfred selected for translating into his vernacular Anglo-Saxon, with the view of presenting to his people the best historical knowledge of his day. It is the clear style of Alfred, and the additional information that he imparts in a supplementary sentence or clause, which interest

us, as given from his own personal knowledge; such, for instance, as when speaking of the Romans fording the Thames, Alfred points out the exact place, by stating that it was at Wallingford.

As our chief interest is in the works of Alfred, and particularly in his translation of Orosius, it is unnecessary to prolong our remarks upon his original Latin, only repeating that Alfred appears to have translated from a MS. connected with that which was subsequently used by Schüszler in printing the first edition of 1471. Should any ask, what are the works or writings of Alfred? It may be answered generally, that, as it was the prevailing desire of Alfred to benefit his people, he was more anxious to improve their minds in what he wrote, than to exalt himself. Instead, therefore, of laying before them only his own compositions, he did not hesitate to select and translate the best and most popular works of his day. In translating, he exercised his own powerful mind, and freely used his sound judgment, not only in omitting what he deemed of little importance, but in giving his own opinions and experience, and adding his own remarks and illustrations; not unfrequently expanding a thought and illustrating a fact of the Latin text to such an extent, as to constitute him the original author of the most instructive Essays. These important additions and separate Essays are very interesting as the composition of Alfred. One of the longest of these is his description of Europe and the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, subsequently mentioned.

We shall now speak of his works generally, and endeavour to ascertain at what time they were written. Though a want of documents may prevent us from arriving at a certainty, a few dates are recorded by which an approximation may be made. Asser tells us he was first introduced to Alfred in 884. Besides himself, the king had engaged others to read and converse with asser him in turn these were Werefrith, bishop of Worcester, the translator of Gregory's Dialogues into Anglo-Saxon, Plegmund the Mercian, and his chaplains Ethelstan and Werewulf, the most learned men of that day. By their knowledge and teaching

3 Annales rerum gestarum Ælfredi Magni, auctore Asserio Menevensi, recensuit Franciscus Wise, A.M. Oxon. 1722. Small 8vo. p 47.

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he was constantly improving. Night and day, whenever he had leisure, he had these men to read to him. He thus gained a general knowledge of books, though he could not read and study by himself. Stimulated with the desire of imparting to his subjects sound knowledge, the substance of the best books, combined with his own opinions and experience in the common language of his people, Asser tells us that Alfred began on one and the same day to read and to interpret"; and again, that he was eager at once to read and to interpret in Saxon, that he might teach others".

If reliance be placed on Asser's Annals of Alfred's life', we know the exact time when he first began to translate from Latin into Anglo-Saxon. Asser gives not only the year 887, but the very day, the feast of S. Martin, (Nov. 11). From the commencement of his reading Latin in 887 to the invasion of Hastings in 893, there is an interval of 6 years' peace; and, from the ex887 pulsion of Hastings in 897 to the demise of Alfred in 901, there 46 is another interval of peace for 4 years, making together only 89 about 10 years in which Alfred was especially engaged in study From 89 and literary composition.

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His capacious mind had been previously well stored by reading and conversing with Asser and his other friends; when, therefore, he began to translate, he would enter with all his accustomed energy upon his work. If Asser began his instruction in Latin in Nov. 887, and glossed Boethius to make the Latin more easy and intelligible to the king, as we are told by William of Malmsbury,

4 Asser is still more definite :-Die noctuque, quandocunque aliquam licentiam haberet, libros ante se recitare talibus imperabat; (non enim unquam sine aliquo eorum se esse pateretur) quapropter pene omnium librorum notitiam habebat, quamvis per seipsum aliquid adhuc de libris intelligere non posset; non enim adhuc aliquid legere inceperat. P 46.

5 Asser, p 55.

6 ... Confestim legere, et in Saxonica lingua interpretari, atque inde perplures instituere studuit. Asser, p 56.

7 See the arguments against its authenticity in Mr. Wright's paper inserted in Vol. xxix of the Archæologia; and in his Biog. Brit. Lit. I. p 408-412: and for it in Lingard's Hist. of A.-S. Ch. II, 426: Pauli's Introd. to his life of Alfred, and Kemble's Sax. in Eng. II, p 42.

8 Hic... præsumpsit incipere in venerabili Martini solemnitate. Asser, p 57. Anno

887.

9 "Hic (Asser) sensum librorum Boetii De Consolatione planioribus verbis enodavit, quos rex ipse in Anglicam linguam vertit." II, § 122.

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THE PROBABLE DATES OF ALFRED'S TRANSLATIONS.

we may conclude that the translation of Boethius was the first' ⚫ fruits of Alfred's literary exertions. Industrious and indefatigable as he was, he would soon make great progress in this work, and possibly finish it the next year. It is, therefore, not improbable that the translation of Boethius appeared in 888.

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As Alfred was always alive to everything which concerned his kingdom, and had a great predilection for historical knowledge, his early attention could not fail to be drawn to the celebrated historical work of Bede. Having first supplied his people with a he work on morality, in his translation of Boethius, in which he had supped fuople with incorporated his own views and experience of life, his next wish. would naturally be to give them an account of their own country. Bookhin For this purpose he would select for his second publication the great work of his far-famed countryman, the "Historia Anglo- Bede rum" of Bede. This being a more regular and extensive work, 891 Alfred adheres more closely to the Latin text, in his Anglo-Saxon version, than in Boethius; he, however, with his accustomed freedom, omits those parts of Bede which he thought were not adapted for his people. or 891.

It was probably finished about 890+ See

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The active and comprehensive mind of Alfred not only induced him to patronize men of learning, but seafaring men, celebrated 2 for their discoveries, attracted the king's notice1; if, therefore, he did not engage Ohthere and Wulfstan to undertake their voyages, he at least induced them to relate to him in detail what they had seen, which he wrote down from their dictation, and inserted the narrative in his translation of Orosius, together with his own description of Europe, The earnest desire which the king always manifested for encouraging naval enterprise, and his own partiality Orosius. for the study of history and geography, render it probable that wither 89 affred Qrosius was the third work which translated, and finished about 893, before the invasion of Hastingsin that year.,

of Alfred

The harassing warfare with Hastings for the next 4 years, from 893 to 897, would leave little time and repose for uninterrupted study. On the expulsion of Hastings in the latter year, we may well suppose, from his previous habit of regular distribution and employment of time, that, after discharging his public duties, he (This is the most important Pongest &. specimen of Alfreddown

1 Wise's Asser, p 66.

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would gladly take the first opportunity of resuming his studies,
and of finishing, with the aid of his friends, the works which had
been so long interrupted by the distractions of war.

Amongst these may possibly be placed "Gregory's Pastoral
Care. We have more certain intimations as to the date of
a. Sax
Alfred's translation of the PastoralWe knowdt must have been
published after 890; for, in the introduction, written by himself,
Alfred speaks of the assistance he received from Archbishop
Plegmund, Bishop Asser, and the presbyters Grimbold and
Cef John Now the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the accession
of Plegmund to the see of Canterbury in 890. As Alfred calls
Plegmund his archbishop, in his introduction, it must have been
written between the year of Plegmund's accession in 890, and
Grigores
that of Alfred's death in 901. It could hardly have been finished
Pastoral before the invasion of Hastings in 893, nor before his expulsion
Care hotin 897; if so, it must have been finished between 897 and 901
897901 In all this, it must be allowed, there is much uncertainty. As

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the exact dates could not be ascertained, even after close investi-
gation, it was thought that some would prefer what appears an
approach to truth, to an entire silence on the subject. It is with@
this feeling alone that these remarks have been made upon the
probable dates of Alfred's chief works.

Though there is an uncertainty as to the exact dates when
Alfred translated Boethius, Bede, Orosius and the Pastoral, there
can be none as to his being the translator of these works into
+ Jee Test Anglo-Saxon. They have always been ascribed to him. In the
+dee
mena in first sentence of the preface to Boethius, it is said," Alfred, king,
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Both was translator of this book, and turned it from book-latin into
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English." There are other expressions in this preface which
Wises
Asser log could not have been properly used by any one except by the king
himself. The Anglo-Saxon version of Bede has always been
Folio Life ascribed to Alfred.-The fact is testified by the Church, for
p 189 Ælfric, in his homily on S. Gregory, written about 990, and
generally used in the Church, speaks of Bede's "Historia Anglo-

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2 Ic hie geliornode æt Plegmunde minum ærce-biscepe, and æt Assere minum biscepe, and at Grimbolde minum mæsse-prioste, and æt Johanne minum mæsse-preoste. Introduction to Gregory's Pastoral, Oxford MS. Hatton 20, fol 2.

3 Ælfred, Kuning, was wealhstod pisse bec, and hie of bec Ledene on Englisc wende. Card. Boet. Р ii.

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Allpring get" there being Eng books, miveligious subscoh slects from with the inception of those we king alfred had translate from See as also in Wrights Brag volt / 487

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