king alfred's prefaces, review

7/29/2019 King Alfred's Prefaces, Review

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King Alfred's PrefacesAuthor(s): E. G. StanleySource: The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 39, No. 155 (Aug., 1988), pp. 349-364Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/516766 .

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KING ALFRED'S PREFACESBy E. G. STANLEY

KING ALFRED'S preface to his translation into Old English ofGregorythe Great's Cura Pastoralis is well known,on account of itsassociation withAlfred,on account of its significance n settingout agreatmonarch's intellectual endeavours for his nation,and chiefly naccount of the relatively asy Old Englishin which it is written,making t a good piece to come earlyin any elementaryourserequiringthat the language be learntin the process of satisfying nypretensionsto a literary r perhaps socio-historicalunderstandingofthe period. Being by Alfred,the piece is datable as of his reignAD871-99.1The prose styleof this prefaceis varied. It moves fromthe formalopening of a writ,2with the name of the addressee filled n: BishopWaerferth f Worcester in the case of MS Hatton 20, and BishopWulfsigeof Sherborne in the copy preservedin MS Ii.2.4. We knowfromHumfreyWanley's careful recordof a note in the Tiberius MS,before damage and destructioncame to it, that other recipientsofcopies, and thereforeaddressees of the preface, were ArchbishopPlegmund ofCanterbury nd Bishop SwithulfofRochester; but theircopies do not survive, and we know fromJunius'note and Wanley's

1 The manuscriptsnwhich t survives ncludeBodl.MS Hatton 0 datable s ofAD 890-7,aswellas FranciscusJunius' ranscriptnBodl. MS Junius 3 of the all butcompletely estroyedCottonMS TiberiusB.xi,alsoofthat arly ate,together ith wofurther anuscripts, orpusChristiCollegeCambridgeMS 12of the 2ndhalf f the 10th ent.,and CUL MS Ii.2.4 ofthe3rdquarter f the 11th ent.,andthebadlydamagedCottonMS OthoB.ii of the ate 10th rearly 1th ent., ollated yJuniusn MS Junius 3. The manuscriptsreNos. 324, 195, 30, 19,and 175, nN. R. Ker,CatalogueofManuscripts ontaining nglo-SaxonOxford,1957). MSHatton20 is available nfacsimile, . R. Ker,The PastoralCare, EarlyEnglishManuscriptsnFacsimile,vi (1956). See also Francis P. Magoun, un., 'King Alfred's etteron EducationalPolicyAccordingo theCambridgeManuscripts', edievalStudies,11 1949), 113-22.2 See F. E. Harmer,Anglo-SaxonWritsManchester, 952), 11. For a recent nformativestudy, ee J.Morrish,KingAlfred's etter s a Source on Learning n England ntheNinthCentury',nP. E. Szarmach, tudies nEarlier OldEnglish rose Albany,NY, 1986),87-108.Cf. T. A. Shippey,Wealth ndWisdom nKingAlfred's reface o the Old English astoralCare', EnglishHistoricalReview,94 (1979), 346-55; and B. F. Huppe, 'Alfred& Aelfric:Studyof Two Prefaces',n P. E. Szarmach nd B. F. Huppe, The Old EnglishHomily& ItsBackground Albany,NY, 1978), 119-37, layingstress nterestinglyn severalaspectsofAlfred's erbal kill, hough remain nconvincedf thesignificancefthe rhetoricaltructureas givenby Huppe. Cf. also S. M. Kuhn, 'Cursus in Old English:RhetoricalOrnament rLinguistic henomenon?',peculum, 7 (1972), 188-206 repr. nS. M. Kuhn,Studies n theLanguageand Poetics fAnglo-Saxon ngland AnnArbor,1984), 167-85),esp. pp. 200-2 (=179-81).RES New Series,Vol. XXXIX, No. 155 1988) OxfordUniversityPress 1988

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record that the Otho MS was addressed to Bishop He(a)hstan ofLondon.3 The name of the addressee was left o be filled n inthecopypreserved n CCCC MS 12 and theJuniustranscript f the destroyedTiberius version. The beginning,ofwhat, in the standardedition,4 sa very ong openingsentence,reads:iElfred yning atedgretanWaerferoiscephiswordum uflice freondlice;& be cyoanhateoaetmecomswioe oft ngemynd, welcewiotan uwaerongiondAngelcynn,egoer e godcundra adage worul[d]cundra.Translatedbytheeditor:KingAlfred idsgreetbishopWaerferthithhiswords ovinglynd withfriendship;nd I let t be known o theethat thasvery often come into my mind, what wise men thereformerlywerethroughout ngland,bothof sacred nd secular rders.'The syntax, characteristic of Anglo-Saxon royal documents,changes person: from he salutation n the thirdpersonsingularto thestatement that it be made known to the recipient that the king,speakingnow in the first erson singular,has oftengiven thoughttocertainproblems,which he then setsout. The use ofthe verbhatan inboth the salutation and the statement that it be made knownto therecipient is thoughtto be calqued on a Medieval Latin idiom.5 Inshort,theveryfirstwords are veryformal,verydocumentary;but thatdocumentary tyle s soon abandoned, longbefore the first entence oftheprefacehas come to its end.Of course, personalelements are strongly elt n thesubject-matter,and they are expressed withoutany attemptto reduce the personalnote; as in the account of how the king himself, ongemangodrummislicum nd manigfealdumisgumOisseskynerices'amongothervarious and manifoldtroubles ofthiskingdom'), received instructionfromPlegmund, his archbishop, fromAsser, his bishop, and fromGrimbold and John,his masspriests,so that he began his translationofGregory'sCura Pastoralis. The rangeof tones inAlfred'spreface sunusual. Often there is a subtle combination, reflectingvariousstrands of matter.

3 See the authoritativeiscussions, yKenneth isam,Studies n theHistory fOldEnglishLiteratureOxford, 953),ch. 9, The PublicationfAlfred'sastoralCare', 142;andbyN. R.Ker, inthe ntrod. o EEMF vi,esp. pp. 11-12. Forthe OthoMS, cf. H. Wanley,nG. Hickes,LinguarumVett. Septentrionalium hesaurus, Liber alter 'Catalogus Historico-Criticus'(Oxford, 705),217.4 H. Sweet,KingAlfred'sWest-SaxonVersion f Gregory's astoral Care, EETS os 45(1871). I have made use of the moremodern ditionbyD. Whitelock,weet'sAnglo-SaxonReader nProse nd Verse Oxford,1967, ndrevisions), -7.5 Cf. G. V. Smithers,A MiddleEnglish diom nd itsantecedents',nglish nd GermanicStudies,1 (1947-8), esp. pp. 109-12.A furtherxample with heKingofangels s subject) tElene 11. 9-80 maybe relevant, ehtpe cyning ngla .. ware beodan (literally,theKingofangelsbids thee . . proclaimhecovenant').

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KING ALFRED'S PREFACESLiteraryparonomasia s attempted,uccessfully think,but thesubtletywas beyond heunderstandingf theHatton cribe nd the

other cribes makedifferent istakes,n thefollowingentence, nwhich I acceptthe emendation o hafdon as witnessedby Juniusfrom iberius):Geoenchwelcwitu s oa becomon or isseworulde,a oawehitnohwaeoerneselfe e ufedon,e eac oorummonnum e efdon;onenamanenne ehafdonactte e Cristne arren,nd wioe eawa a oeawas.Consider hat ormentsill ome pon son account f hisworldwhenweourselves eitheroved lufedon]t [wisdom] oryetallowed t [lefdon,often ritteno maketmore ike formf iefanbelieve']nother eople:thename lonewehadthatwemight e Christians,ndvery ew fthevirtues.6

Alfred'suse of metaphor s good; and that I am not alone inthinkingo is shownby thefactthatthe annualpublicationAnglo-Saxon Englandhasnottired nitsuse ofa partof tas itsmotto:Swelcehiecwaeden:Ure eldran,a beoas stowa r hioldon, ie ufodonwisdom,ndourh one hiebegeaton elan ndus lafdon.Her monmaggiet esion iorawae, ac wehimne cunnon fter pyrigean.ndfor aemwehabbaonu egaerorlaeteneoonewelan eoonewisdom,or aem ewenoldonodaemporemiduremode nlutan.'The passage swell translatedySweet,except hatheuses example'to translatepor,but thewordmeanstrack, rail', nd thestem ftheverb used by Alfred to introducethe concept is etymologicallyidentical,pyrigean;nd so I adapthis translation:Asif hey adsaid: Ourforefathers,hoformerlyeld hese laces,ovedwisdom,nd hroughttheybtained ealthnd eftttous. In thiswe canstill eetheir racks,utwe cannot ollowntheir racks fterhem.Andthereforeehaveost oth hewealthnd hewisdom,ecausewewould otgetdown otheirracks ith urminds.'The etymologicalonnection etween porand spyrigeans notof akindperceivedmerely ymodernphilologists-like, ay,stithyndstand. It would have beenobvioustoany speaker fthe anguage, nlinewithmany imilar xamples fdenominal erbs, f whichwe stillhave,for xample, oldandgild,gilded,gilt, hough amnotsure fordinary peakersof ModernEnglishwould see the connection s

6 The sentences indebted o StAugustine; eeJ.E. Cross, The NameandNot theDeed',MLR 54 (1959), 66. That indebtednesss,however, otdirectlyelevant o Alfred'style.

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readily s, I believe,theAnglo-Saxonswouldhave seen theconnec-tionbetween oldandgyldan7 rtheadjective ylden.The metaphoristhereforeootedntransparent ordplay. he admirableptness fthemetaphors clear:wemustbend down to their racksfwe aretofind hem ndfollowntheir racks fterhem, s humbleheartsmustget downto it iftheyare to follow he lofty xampleset by theirancestors.A differentspectofAlfred's ndividual tyle s apparentnwhateven after millenniumnd a centuryounds ike thevoice ofroyalauthoritywieldedwith skill. It is mostobviousperhapswhenheaddresses herecipient ishoporarchbishophus:Gode lmihtegumieoonc6aette e nuanigne nstal abbao areowa. ndfor on c be bebiode aetudoswa icgeliefeaet uwille, aetube &issaworuldoingaodaem eametige,wa 6uoftost age,oaet u oonewisdombe oeGodsealde ar oaer uhiene efastanmage,befaeste.I adaptSweet's ranslation:Thanks e toGodAlmightyhatwenowhave ny upplyf eachers. ndtherefore command outo do as I believeyouwouldwishto do, todisengage ourselfrom orldly atterss oftensyou an, o that oumayapplywhereverou an pplyhatwisdom hich od hasgiven ou.Let us recallwho theaddressees re: bishops,an archbishop ven.Werethey o busywiththe worldthattheyhad to be reminded ytheirking, heir ecularruler, f theepiscopalduties mplicitn thespiritualwisdomwithwhich heyhave beenendowed,presumablynfact r at least ntheir wnopinion fthemselves,nsuchmeasure shas led to their dvancementn theChurch?That is whytheywillwish o do as hebids themdo; but f, hroughackof piritualwisdomor for nyotherreason,they re unwilling o disengage hemselvesfrom heworld,theyhave his royalcommand nd willunderstandtheir uty o theking ven fthey ail o understandheirhigher utytoGod.8

7 The morphologyfgyldan s ofcoursedifferentrom hatofspyrigean; am concernedmerelywith the degree to which the connection f the verb (or relatedadjective)withstem-vowel to the noun withstem-vowel would have been obvious to speakersof thelanguage.8 This paperwas read ntypescriptyDr AshleyCrandellAmos DictionaryfOldEnglish,Toronto)andbyDr PeterGodman PembrokeCollege,Oxford), ndhasprofitedreatly, otleast nclarity,rom heir riticism.Dr Godman stresses hecontinentalrigins f two ofAlfred's elpers, nd their onnectionwithRheims,drawing ttention o Alfred's ebtto Hincmar c.805-6 to 882) fortheking'sposition is-t-vis heChurch;cf.J. L. Nelson, Kingship,Law and Liturgyn thePoliticalThoughtof Hincmar fRheims',repr.from nglishHistoricalReview,92 (1977), 241-79, inPolitics nd Ritual in EarlyMedieval Europe (London and Ronceverte, 986), 133-71; andthe section,Das K6nigtumbei Hincmarvon Reims',in H. H. Anton,Fiirstenspiegelnd

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KING ALFRED'S PREFACESA centuryr so after lfred,hehomilistsElfric ndWulfstan aveverydistinctive rose styles;Wulfstan'swork s identifiabley his

kindof rhythmicalrose, and much of iElfric'swritingss in anelegant nd clear alliterativehythmicalrosestyle.The syntax ndvocabularyf each ofthetwo are diosyncraticohim, osomeextentand as faras we can judge by comparisonwith the much moreextensive iteratureurvivingrom heir imethansurvives rom heage of Alfred.Not enough urvives rom istimeforus to be sure fhis choiceof, or, negatively,voidanceof,vocabularynd syntacticconstructions ere confined o him or were moregeneral n theWessexof his time.Alfred adhisfavouriteubjects nd what eemsto be a stylisticallyistinct, houghveryvarious, reatmentf thosesubjects.Alfred's bility o convey n writing is royal uthorityoeswellwith hecareful, ractical rovision hat he bookshall not be takenfrom he place to which he directs t, exceptonlyforpurposesofmaking copyfromt. A commandreinforcedythegift, ent outwith achbook,ofan xstel,presumably pointer or eading,9nd ofhighvalue-in monetaryerms, s Alfred oints ut.Thispreface asbeenso often iscussed, hat shalldealselectivelywithboth tsmatter nd itsmode ofexpression. part fthemattersdevotednotmerely o the needs lay freemennd clericsmightorshouldhave of learning, nd to the place of Cura Pastoralis in aprogrammef education or hem;butalso to thefact hatEnglish snotoneofthe acred anguages f cripturalradition. hat he himself(almost certainly)10ranslatedntoEnglish prosethefirst uinqua-gene of the Psalms of David-as ArchbishopParker would havesaid11-withprefaces o themwhich ppearto reveal ome ndepen-dence ofthought,hows hathe neverthelesshought is vernacularfit ehicle t leastforuse inprivate evotion.Herrscherethosn derKarolingerzeit,M. Braubach'sBonnerHistorische orschungen, XXII(1968),281-355. (I owe both hese eferencesoDr Godman.)Anton oints utHincmar's ebtto Gregory he Great'steaching n the ordersof mankind, nd thatSt Paul's teaching nRomans, h. 13,underliesmuchofthe medieval onceptionfgovernment.n the connectionbetweenAlfred'sWinchesterndcontemporaryheims, f.also M. B. Parkes,The palaeogra-phy of the Parkermanuscript f the Chronicle, aws and Sedulius, and historiographytWinchestern the ate ninth nd tenth enturies', nglo-Saxon ngland,5 (1976), 149-71,esp.pp. 167-8.9 See D. Whitelock's ote n. 4 above),p. 225.10See J. I'a Bromwich,Whowas the translatorf theproseportion f the ParisPsalter?',nSir CyrilFox and BruceDickins,TheEarly Cultures fNorth-Westurope H. M. ChadwickMemorial tudies) (Cambridge,1950),289-303. For a morerecent tudywithgoodbibliogra-phical nformation,f.J.M. Bately,Lexical evidence or heauthorshipftheprosepsalms ntheParisPsalter', nglo-Saxon ngland,10 1982), 69-96.ll See OED s.v. Quinquagene.Cf. K. and C. Sisam,in B. Colgrave GeneralEditor),TheParisPsalter,EEMF viii 1958), 16 andn. 62 onOEfiftignthis ense.

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WithCura PastoralisAlfredwas awareofhowthebookfitsnto heChristian eritagefEngland, s heperceivedhefactual asis ofthatheritage,nd the mplicationfthatbasis. In theproseprefaceo t hemerely efers o thebookwhich is genemnod n LaedenPastoralis,ond on Englisc"Hierdeboc"'. He addresseshimself o that n theseparate erseprefacewhichfollows heprefacenprose nsix of themanuscripts f his Pastoral Care about which we know or whichsurviventact.12n thecontemporaryattonMS there s a consider-ablespacebetween heprose nd theverseprefaces; nd a handsome,ornamentalnitial horn egins heverse.The differences hichmarkoff he versefrom heprosearenotmerely xternal, f course.Theverseprefacehas, as an Old Englishpoemmust,metrical alf-lineswith lliteration,hough he scansion s notquite regular, s well astouches fvocabularyharacteristicf andconfined o verse.Figura-tive anguage s used: the bookspeaks.That an object speaks nthefirst erson s, ofcourse, common hetoricalevice nOld Englishpoetry,13devicewhich ninscriptionsan be traced cross heAlps,ifone so wishes,back to Greekantiquity.No wonder hen, hat hefirst ditorof thepoem,WilliamLambard,who in 1574edited theprefaces orArchbishopMatthewParker,14ecognizedt, and drewattention o the stylistic hange by heading the verse: 'LIBERLOQUITUR'.As poetryhe short iece-it is printednmodern ditions nonlysixteen ong lines-has not alwayshad a good reception.15 enrySweet,excellent hilologisthoughhe was, is not to be admired sreadily s a literaryritic.Armedwith heknowledgefOld Englishversificationas far s waspossible n1871,that s,wellbefore duard

12 MSS Hatton20,TiberiusB.xi as transcribedyJuniusnJunius 3, CCCC 12,OthoB.iias collated yJuniusnJunius 3; as well as Trinity ollegeCambridgeR.5.22 (717) oftheendof the10th rthebeginningf the11lth ent.accordingo Ker'sCatalogue No. 87), and CULIi.2.11 ofthe 3rdquarter f the 11th ent.according o Ker (No. 19). The standard dition fthe verseprefaceas well as of theverse pilogue) s E. V. K. Dobbie's TheAnglo-SaxonMinorPoems,Anglo-Saxon oeticRecords, i NewYork,1942),pp. cxii-cxv, 10-12,201-2; p. cxv,he says: A secondeleventh-centuryopyofWulfsige'smanuscriptf thePastoralCare, MS.Ii.ii.4 oftheCambridgeUniversity ibrary, oes not contain ither f theverse exts'; hat scorrect ftheepilogue,but notoftheversepreface.13 Cf. E. G. Stanley,A Collection fPapers withEmphasison Old EnglishLiterature(Toronto,1987),229-30, 264-6,407-8.14 SElfrediegisResGestaeLondon, 1574),sig. Fijvo.15 In themanuscriptshe text s writtenontinuouslyikeprose s is usualforAnglo-Saxonverse.W. W. Skeat rrangedhe extnverse ines na note o Sweet'sEETS edition, p. 473-4.Dobbie,ASPR vi,p. cxii,givesF. Holthausen hecredit or hediscoveryn1901that he hortpieceat theend is a verse pilogue,Die Gedichte nAElfredsbersetzungerCurapastoralis',Archiv urdas Studiumder neueren prachenundLiteraturen, 06 1901), 346-7; but Sweet(p. 473) recognizedhe pilogue s verse nthepassage uoted bove.Holthausenwas thefirstoprinttas verse;and he rebukes weet forhisuncalled-for ockeryf themetrical orm. heverse pilogue urvives nly n MSS Hatton20 andCCCC 12.

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KING ALFRED'S PREFACESSievers schematized it in a form tillwidelyaccepted16), Sweet foundAlfred's verse preface wanting:This curiousdoggrel s, as well as the similarpiece at theend, probablyAlfred's wncomposition.t is onlydistinguishedrom roseby tsregularalliteration nd use of poetic words and phrases, such as 'iegbuend,''Dryhtnescempa,' 'rodra weard,' &c. Metrically t is little more thandislocatedprose,although ome lines are worsethanothers.The freedomand ooseness f ll 0. E. versificationakes tpeculiarlyiabletodegenerateintomereprose,which s alsothecase withmuchofourmodern lankverse.

Sweet's insistence on metrical accuracy was misguided, I think.The versepreface s a good poem ofitskind. The book speaks, and, ifso Romantic an extension s tolerated, ts vernacular anguage speaks:Book and Language say, 'We have arrived.' This preface,like thatinprose, shows consciousness of the Christian tradition enshrined inCura Pastoralis, writtenby St Gregoryhimselfto whom the Englishowe Christianity, nd broughthere, Alfred tells us, by St Augustineof Canterbury.This book then is likethe Faith itself n Alfred's hereand now.The book speaking names a third authority, Alfred, a lesserinstrument n the salvation of the countrythan Gregory,one of thefour Doctors of the Church, or than Augustine, England's protodoc-tor. In an age when even bishops could not be relied upon to haveenough Latin for the proper discharge of their pastoral duties, asAlfred has told us in the prose preface, a king may become aninstrumentn thesalvationof his people, because he was conscious ofthe necessityand the means ofgivingvernacularexpressionto sumxbec da &eniedbecearfostaien eallummonnumowiotonne'certainbooks whichare mostnecessaryforeveryone to know'), as he says inthe prose preface. In prose and verse he demonstrateshis conscious-ness of the spiritualneeds of his people; his use of verse forsuch apurpose demonstrates furtherhis awareness of the vernacular tradi-tion which, as he must have known,had been with the English longbeforethecomingofAugustineand Christianity.There is no mentionin either preface, probably no thought, of a rivalrybetween thevernaculartradition nd the traditionof Latin Christianity.After ll,Alfred'seducational programmeexplicitlyplaces the vernacular n theserviceof Latin Christianity.16Sievers's ystemf cansion irstppeared n two rticles:ZurRhythmikesgermanischenAlliterationsverses',eitrage ur Geschichte er deutschen pracheundLiteratur, 0 (1885),209-314, 451-545; followedby a further rticle n the same journal,12 (1887), 454-82. AsHolthausen ointed ut see thepreceding ote),Sieversdiscusses ome inesoftheepilogue nthe econdofthearticles, eitrige10,465.

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It is impossible to give a reasonable account ofAlfred'sprefacestothePastoral Care without some discussion ofhis verseepilogue to it.It is highly figurative, nd the Hatton scribe shapes the part of thepoem thatcomes on the last page, lines 11-30 ofthe modernedition,to look like some colophons ofearly printedbooks, that s, thewritingtapers to a point.In theepilogue, Alfredmakes wisdomes stream (line 14, the flowofwisdom') thecentre of what he says. Wisdom is se wxterscipeoflines1 and 7, a word difficult o translate: it seems to mean more thansimply piece ofwater'or conduit', senses foundelsewhere. I thinkhemay be referringto the elemental aspect of water, the aqueousprinciple, something higherthanmereaquosity,mere wateriness. Itssource is in heaven; that source is theHoly Spirit (line 8).Sweet translates heepiloguewell. For mypresentpurposes theendis particularly ignificant. t seems to me strikinglyharacteristicofAlfred; and in the following abridgement and rough paraphrase Iemphasize thatby selection:God promiseds life-givingobelievers hesewaterswhich risefromwithinthem 11. 1-6). Saints and the chosengavevariousdirectionso the flow fthesewaters, hrough ooksand themindsofhumanbeings 9-12). Somewhoreceive hiswater am tupintheconfinesf heirminds,holdingt fastwiththeir ips so that t does notflow utuseless; thatfountain ydivinegraceremains eepandstill nthebreast fman 13-17). Some let t runoutover tracts fland; that s a foolish ourse ofaction, fsuchpurewater sallowed o flow ver hefields,oud andshallow, ill t turns omud 18-21).But draw t nowto drinkt, since theLord grantedyouthatGregory asdirectedoyourdoors he Lord's fountain22-4). Let himwho hasbroughthiswatertightesselfillt: lethim omebackquickly ormore 25-6). Ifheresomemanhasbroughtothis ource leaky essel, ethimrepair teagerly,lesthespillthe clearest fwaters,esthelosethedrink f ife 27-30).As elsewhere,Alfred writes n terms ofopportunityforgood. Godhas provided through the Holy Spirit. What God has providedmankind must allow to be of use to man forwisdom, presumablyunderstood as that exerciseofmindwhichleads to salvation. As in theParable of the Talents, each receives and makes use of what hereceivesaccordingto his severalability,and bythatuse multipliesthegood he has received, and is therefore hankedas a good and faithfulservant. But whoevermakes bad use of what he has received, of himChrist says in the Parable (Matthew 25: 30): 'And cast ye theunprofitable ervant nto outer darkness: thereshall be weeping andgnashingof teeth.' That is the man whose mind Alfreddepicts as aleakyvessel whichhas not been repaired; that s the man who has lostthedrinkof life.

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KING ALFRED'S PREFACES 357The order nwhichAlfredwrotehis works snotknown ecurely.7It is usuallypresumed, nd I accepttheview,thatCura Pastoralis

came first,mainlybecause its prose preface eems programmatic.Alfred ppearsto be about to embark n hisprogramme; e does notsound as ifhe were omeway throughtorat its end.I gonext o Alfred's reface ohis translationfthe oliloquies fStAugustine,but onlybecause the prefacefollowson well from heepilogue ustdiscussed.As Dobbie says:18The highlyifficultndmetaphoricaltylewhichwe findnthemetricalepilogue howsmany esemblanceso thestyle f theproseprefaceoAlfred'sranslationfthe oliloquiesfSt.Augustine,nd fAlfred rotetheprefaceo theSoliloquies,henhe wasprobablylsothe uthorftheepilogueothe astoral are.Wehave nonon-figurativerefaceotheSoliloquies,but ntheonlysurvivingmanuscript19hebeginning f theprefacehas sometimesbeenthoughto be incomplete, hough hat s far romertain; xceptthathaving onne dv., then', s thethirdwordwouldseemtoimplythatwhat s statednow stands n somerelationshipo whatprecedesit. Yet in themanuscript othingAlfredian recedes t; the texthasnotevena title r ncipit.One editor20acillates etween The abruptbeginning oints oa lossofthefirst artofMS.' (in theapparatus),and (in thenotes) Apparentlyhefirst etter fGaderode[thefirstword of the preface] s, in the MS., an ornamental apital,thusdenotinghebeginningfa chapter,f not a book.'21 heremaywell

17 For what anlegitimatelye deduced bouttheorder fAlfred'sworks, ee D. Whitelock,'The Prose of Alfred'sReign', n E. G. Stanley ed.), Continuationsnd BeginningsLondon,1966),67-96,passim.18 ASPR vi, p. cxii. See also A. J. Frantzen,KingAlfred, wayne EnglishAuthors eries,425 (1986), 71-2, for goodaccount f theprefaceo theSoliloquies.19CottonVitellius .xv ofthemiddle f he12th ent. ccordingoKer,Catalogue,No. 215,boundtogether y CottonwiththeBeowulfManuscript,nd thereforemore often escribedthan tmight therwise ave been.20 H. L. Hargrove,King Alfred'sOld EnglishVersion fSt. Augustine's oliloquies,YaleStudies nEnglish,xiii 1902), 1,71. Mycopyofthe bookbelonged oHolthausen nd has hisnotes;one ofthem, ttheopening fthepreface,eads to K. Luick nR. Meringer,W6rter ndSachen, II', Indogermanischeorschungen, 7 (1905), 132-9, to whichM. Forster lso drewattention n Die Beowulf-Handschrift,erichte iber die Verhandlungen er SachsischenAkademieder Wissenschaftenu Leipzig, Philologisch-historischelasse, 71/4 1919), 74.Luick p. 133) andForster egard hebeginnings complete.Other ditionsnclude hatbyW.Endter,KonigAlfreds es GrossenBearbeitung erSoliloquiendesAugustinus,n C. W. M.Grein and R .. Wlker, Bibliothek er angelsachsischenrosa,xi (1922; repr.Darmstadt,1964),who,p. viii,follows uick and Forsternregardinghebeginnings complete.21 The manuscriptsdamaged t thispoint, ndHargrove oyswith he deathat he nitialsnot, s onemight avethought,he G of Gaderodebut the ofthe ubjectpronounc forwhichtheres noevidenceand, I think, ospace); andforwhich here s nosyntacticaleedsincethenon-expressedubjectpronoun c is to be inferredrom heoblique pronounme in the sameclause; cf. B. Mitchell,OldEnglish yntax Oxford, 985), 1509.



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have been a factual preface to Alfred's version of the Soliloquies:withoutanyevidencefor t,its existence s merespeculation.We mustconfineourselvesto theprefacewe have, and notenlargediscussiontothe prefacetheremayor should have been.We may dismiss for a startone anachronisticnotion: 'Old EnglishLiterature' is our concept, not thatof theAnglo-Saxons, who wouldprobablyhave thoughtofvernacular books as givingaccess towisdomand knowledge, profaneor sacred, convenientforthose ignorantofLatin. In biographical sentimentalitynvolvingEnglish literature, hemawkishness is exceeded only by those who think of Prospero'sspeech, 'Our revels now are ended', as Shakespeare's farewell toliterature,or the stage, or life, or us. A. J. Wyatt expressed theanachronismsuccinctly:22 'The prefaceto theCura Pastoralis mayberegarded as Alfred's introduction nto literature,this preface as hisfarewell.'What does Alfredsymbolize as the constructionsor structuresorworks whichhe knew how to put up or work? The best translation ntoModern English of a difficult ext is thatby D. Whitelock.23 quotethe opening:Then I gathered ormyselftaves ndpropsandtie-shafts,ndhandlesforall the tools I knew how to use, and crossbars nd beams for all thestructureshich knewhowtobuild, hefairest iecesof imber,smany sI couldcarry.Nor did I come homewith single oadwithoutwishing obringhome all thewood, if I could have carried t. In each tree I sawsomethinghat required t home. For I adviseeach ofthosewho s strongand has manywagons,to plan to go to the same woodwhere cut theseprops, nd fetch orhimselfmore here, ndload hiswagonswithfair ods,so thathe canplaitmany finewall,andput up many peerlessbuilding,and build a fair nclosurewith hem; ndmaydwell herein leasantlyndathisease winterndsummer,s I have notyetdone.These timbers are not unlike thewaters of the verse epilogue to thePastoral Care; theytoo are spiritual.The wood fromwhich hegatherstimbersforhis works s pleasingto the one who has taughtor advisedhim,presumablytheLord, who 'maybring tto pass that shall dwellat greaterease both in this transitoryhabitation by this road'-theroad could be one of the construction works forwhich he uses thetimber, though mention of beautifulwalls, manigne smicernewah,

22 AnAnglo-Saxon eader (Cambridge, 919, ndfrequentlyeprinted),53.23 EnglishHistoricalDocuments. , c.500-1042 (2nd edn., London and New York, 1979),917-18; but he eavesoutthe nd nwhich hebook sexplained; or hat, ee the ranslationyM. J. Swanton,Anglo-Saxon rose,Everyman's niversityibrary 09 (LondonandTotowa,1975), 38. Germanreaderswillstillfind seful he article y Luick and) Meringer. ee n. 20above.

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KING ALFRED'S PREFACESwouldmake hat urprising-'while aminthisworld, nd alsointheeternalhomewhich he has promisedus' through he Doctors andFathersof theChurch.As in theepilogue, here s the command radviceto eachwhohas theability, o go and, not fillhiswatertightvesselthistime,but make use of the timbergiven n plenty.Thepromises fGod revealed nd laid down ntheworks fthe Doctorsand the Fathersof theChurch ead everyman,when he has built avillageon land leasedtohimbyhis lord' to look forward o the timewhen throughhis lord's mercyhe may acquire bookland and aperpetualnheritance',ookland ecausethe itle o t sdocumentary,namely,nthewritingsf theDoctorsandthe Fathers:So shall he ich iverct,who ules oth heseransitoryabitationsnd heeternalmansions. ayhewho reatedoth,ndrules oth, rantmethat tmay e nmy ower oth obeuseful ere nd oattain hither.As intheepilogue, heusefulnessfAlfred's iouswish s that fusebeingmadebyhim, s God's goodandfaithfulervant, fthetalentshehas beengranted.In the last part of the prefaceAugustine's oliloquia are morecloselydescribed:theyare concerning hys modis smeaungeandtweounga, uhysgesceadwisnesnswarode ysmodetonnepaetmodymbe hwaettweonode' ('the reflections nd doubts of his, StAugustine's,mind,how hisratiocinationnswered ismindwheneverthatmind was in perplexitybout something').The supremacy freason nd thecertaintyhat n answer xistswhen doubt arisesarevery haracteristicfAlfred.But what does Alfred ymbolize s theconstructionsr structuresor workswhich he knew howto putup orwork, nd whatare thetimberswith which everygood man should load his cart? Notliterature,ut doingone's best in diligent nd virtuous aboursonearth,by gatheringnoughwisdom, hebuildingmaterials or uchconstructions,he timberseft n plenty ythe Fathersforour use.And the timbers rovide lso the woodenhandlesfor hemany oolsused insuch abours.For theartsofpeace leisure s requisite, ut also comfort: kingmustprovidefor hepeacefulneedsof his people.A Christian ingmustdo more,his aimmustbe larger hancomfortnthistransitorystoclif,life n thecitybuiltoftimbers'ifI understand lfred's secorrectlynthisfigurativeontext).The greater bject s made clearbytheteaching fthe Fathers:well-directedyeswill find herightwaytotheeternal ome,eternal onour rmercy, ternal est.Alfredrevertsothehouse builthere, hemerest ytling . . cotlyf, cottageall leasehold,butgood enoughfor uchvirtuous ursuits fpeaceas

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hunting,fowling, nd fishing.These activitieswill providethenecessariesof life. But by the Lord's grace, there s the eternalbookland oowhichwillnever scheat oanyone fhigher tanding rbetter itle, n everlastingnheritance, od's promise o us throughthe Fathers.Alfreds skilfuln his use of magery.With t hegets o thecentre fhisundertaking,hathe haswritten guidefor hespirit asedon StAugustine'soliloquiawhere re to be found easons hatwillanswertheperplexedmind.The plentifulimbers rom heforest rovide hetools ndthebuildingmaterials or omfortsufficientor hepeacefularts, nd materials lsoofservicena viewbeyond hisworld.

The thirdof Alfred'sworkswith a preface s his translation fBoethius' e Consolationehilosophiae. he prefacemaybe regardedas to a second dition,nmodern erms.Alfred, aving irstranslatedBoethius ntoEnglish prose,next reworked heprosetranslation fthemetresntoverse.The preface ellsus so.24 t ismuchmore iketheprose preface o hisPastoral Care than he twopoeticpiecesandthan the veryfigurative refaceto his Soliloquies. It is factual,characteristicallyodest, tating hatElfredKuningwieswealhstoddissebec ('KingAlfredwas thetranslator',rperhapsinterpreter',ofthisbook'); first, ordbeworde,hwilumndgit f ndgitewordforword,butat times onceptbyconcept';next,having urned tfromLatin ntoEnglishdiscourse'prosediscourse' s how heusesthetermspell here and elsewhere),he recomposed t to leo&e to song' or'poetry'; nd that oo s donenow.Why ucha clear elf-proclamationofauthorship as ever beendoubted cannotunderstand,nd sincesuchdoubts renowno longerprevalentheymaybe disregardedsbelongingo an ageofscholarshiphatfelt trongeroubts nauthorswhonamed hemselveshan nascribing nonymous orks oauthorswhose name, Cynewulfor Caedmonfor example, they attachedvigorously ithout oodevidence.There aretwovery ifferentersonal lementsn the hort reface.The first s a statement bout 'tam mislicumond manigfealdumworuldbisgumehineoft eg5er eon modegeon lichoman isgodon'('thedivers ndmanifoldaresof theworldwhich ften fflictedimboth n mind ndbody'). This goes beyond nxieties boutaffairsfstate, uch as hewrote bout ntheproseprefaceothePastoralCare:'ba ongan c ongemang 5rum mislicum nd manigfealdumisgum6isses kynerices a boc wendan on English6e is genemned . .Pastoralis' 'then began amongotherdivers nd manifold ares of

24 For thetext ftheprefacewe aredependentnFranciscus unius' ranscriptinBodl. MSJunius 2)ofCottonMS Otho A.vi whichwasbadlydamagednthefire f1731.Ker,CatalogueNo. 167,assigns heOtho MS to themiddle f the10th ent.

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KING ALFRED'S PREFACESthiskingdom o turnthat book intoEnglishwhich is called . . .Pastoralis').Notonly re the caresof the world'of thepreface o theBoethiusnot denticalntheologicalmplication ith he caresof thiskingdom' fthepreface o the Pastoral Care, thoughperhapsnearenough;but hisbodily fflictionsre mentionedntheprefaces nly nthatto theSoliloquies.They are mentioned lso at some lengthbyAsser n hisbiographyftheking,wherewe aretold how athisverywedding-feast severe llness,which was to remainwithhimfromthat imewhenhewastwentyohis fortiethear ndbeyond, hat s,presumablyor he restofhis life, uddenly ndmysteriouslytruckhim:Multinamque avoret fascinationeircumstantisopulihoc factum sseautumabant;lii diaboli uadamnvidia,ui semper onis nvidusxistat;alii inusitatouodamgenere ebris; lii ficumxistimabant,uodgenusinfestissimioloristiam b infantiaabuit.25Many, o besure, llegedhatthadhappenedhroughhebenignnfluenceand enchantmentfthepeople round im;others,hroughhemalignantinfluencef hedevil,who salwaysnviousfgoodmen; thers,hat twasthe esultf ome nfamiliarind ffever;till thershoughthat twasdueto thepiles,becausehe had sufferedhisparticularindof agonizingirritationven rom isyouth.26Since thekinghimself eferso thisbodily nfirmity,he matter snot to be dismissed s theresultmerely fthe nfluencefhagiogra-phyonAsser, he form fbiographymostfamiliarohimandone inwhich bodily sufferings made much of. Asser dwells on thepsychiatricmplicationsfAlfred's easeless,bodily nfirmity,itautne unius horae securitatem abeat,qua aut illam infirmitatemonsustineat ut sub illiusformidineugubriter rope constitutus ondesperet' 'suchthathe does nothave evena singlehourofpeace inwhichhe doesnoteitherufferrom hedisease tself relse,gloomilydreadingt, snotdriven lmost odespair').27 lfrednhispreface o

25 See W. H. Stevenson,Asser'sLifeof KingAlfredOxford,1904), 55 (ch. 74 11.12-17).AsserwroteDe rebusGestis Elfredi hen thekingwas 45 yearsold, as he saysch. 91 11.3-4(Stevenson, . 76), that s, in893; there s no reason o think hathisillness bated before isdeath n899. Ch. 91 describesAlfred'sllness ncemore, n much he ame terms s ch. 74. SeeStevenson's otes o bothchapters, p. 294-6, 327.26 Exceptfor avore, quotethetranslationyS. Keynes nd M. Lapidge,AlfredheGreat,PenguinClassics Harmondsworth,983),89. Their note p. 254) suggestsfurores thepossiblereading nderlyingfauore,hich hey ake o mean "inspiredfrenzy",nd hencebyextension"incantation"r"spell"'. Stevenson xplained hewords hus pp. 294-5): 'Some ascribed t to"favor t fascinatio" f thesurrounding eople,which, fthereadingbe correct,maymeansomethingike the evil eyeor perhaps nfection'; ut forthattoo evidence s lacking. amindebted oDr PeterGodmanfor better olution.He takes hehendiadysfavor tfascinatio'obe a benign nchantmentn contrast ith diaboli nvidia', hedevil'smalignnfluence.27 Ch. 91 11. -9 (Stevenson, . 76; Keynes ndLapidge, p. 101).

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theBoethius lso mentionshetroubles e and hispeoplehad tobear;andyethe found imenotonly o earn ounderstand hebook,buttochangehis translationrom neentirely rosetoonewithpoetry.Heasks his readers o prayforhim,a common uthorial equest n theMiddleAges; and common oois the noteofauthorialmodesty, ereexpressednthewish hat hereader houldnotblame he ranslatorfthe readerunderstand he matter fthe book more orrectlyhan hetranslator.The final dea ofthepreface s, however,ess commonplace,ndmore n inewithAlfred'soncept fduty,hisduty ndthat fothers,as good to be done accordingto one's opportunitynd ability:'Forlamle alc mon sceal be his andgitesmae5eond be his aemettansprecantaethe sprec5ond don taethe dep.' ('For everyonemust,according o the measure fhisintellect nd according othe eisurehefinds,peakwhathespeaks nd dowhathedoes.')Alfred'swhollycommendable ntellectual viditycould not besatisfied y his own laboursalone, and he therefore ommandedBishop Waerferthf Worcester o translateGregorythe Great'sDialogi intoEnglish, s Asser ellsus.28The kinghimself ontributeda short rosepreface oit,extant n twoslightlyifferentersions.29

Alfredhas been honouredby a bountifulGod withthegloryofkingship,nd he has found t expressed n sacredwritingsxaatus,lam peGod swa micelehealicnysse oruldgeling5a orgifenafi, isseomaesteearft3atwe hwilon re modgeli5ian ndgebigean o amgodcundum nd gastlicum ihtebetweohpas eorblican arfulnysse'('that ous, to whomGod hasgranteduchgreat minence fworldlyrank, here s thegreatest eed thatweattimes ssuageourmind ndincline o thatdivine and spiritual uty n the midstofthisearthlycare'). I translate iht s duty'; tmeansthatwhich sright'; do notthink tmeans law'here.Whathe is led tobythat ense ofduty s torequestofhis friendshat hey houldmaketranslationsfbooks nwhich is written be haligra manna leawum ond wundrum . .. .asafterfyligendanare,tart c purhpa mynegungend lufegehicgepaheofonlican ingbetweoh as eorblicangedrefednyssa''concerning28 Ch. 77 11. -10 (Stevenson, . 62; Keynes ndLapidge, p. 92).29 The prefaces extantntwomanuscripts,CCC 322,datedbyKer,CatalogueNo. 60, asof the econdhalf fthe11lthent., nd Bodl. MS Hatton 6, datedbyKer,No. 328,as ofthemiddleof the 11th cent. The standard dition s thatby H. Hecht,BischofWerferthsonWorcesters bersetzung er Dialogue Gregors es Grossen, n C. W. M. Grein and R. P.

Wfilker,ibliothek erangelsachsischenrosa,v (1900-7; repr.Darmstadt, 965),part , p. 1;cf.part i,pp. 18-26. It is translatedyKeynes ndLapidge,p. 123.Though nmodern unctuation full top s introducedbout two-thirdsf thewaythroughthepreface,t could be, and, I believe, houldbe, punctuated s a single entence, erhapsespeciallyntheversion ftheHattonMS, whichhas theorder nd cforbamohte, ather hanthat ftheCorpusMS whichreads ndforpanc sohte.

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KING ALFRED'S PREFACESthe virtues ndmiracles fsaints hisconsequential eaching, o thatstrengthenednmymind hroughhat dmonishmentndloveI mayattimes onder hoseheavenly hingsmidst his arthly ribulation').In the rts fwar uccess s theonlymeasure; nd Alfredwagedwaragainst heViking aiderswith onsiderable uccessbyland and sea.It occupiedmuchof his time. We can recognizenAlfred'swritingssomefavouritehemes, hemes fwisdomrather hanwarfare.Godhas endowedhim withroyal way,a glorywhichChristian eachinghas ledhimtoacceptwithhumility. is prefaces evealmuchof thatside of him. First,we are givenhis understandingf the dutiesbelongingoa king.Secondly,we havea sense of how hemight aveused peace and leisure,had he beengrantedmore;for omfort, es,worldlyomfort,utalso for he piritualdvancement fhissubjectsand of himselfn a higherhope. Thirdly,we see him, in bodilysickness,nd inearthlyribulationndanxiety,onging or hemeansnecessary o him and his subjects f he and they reto be judgedashaving sed God's gifts oachievewhatheandthey houldhavebeenable to achieve n thisworld and forthe next. Alfred'swritingsreoftendifficult;ometimeshis figures eem to lack clarity f appli-cation.Yet thespiritualndmoraldirections always lear. His is thevoiceofgood kingship.Speaking of Alfred,we cannot honestly say, with blindedGloucester,ntheplayofa king arliernBritish istoryhanAlfred:'I know that voice . . . The trick of that voice I do well remember.'The gulf ftime, levenhundredyears,has madeus deafto thetrickofany ndividualAnglo-Saxon's oice;we simplyack theauralgraspoftheOld English anguage.There are furtheronsiderations.Whena royal uthor ellsus thathe has composed bookor a document rpoetry, r thathe has made a translation, e cannotexpectthathehimselfwrote tdown.30Kingsdid notsully heir ingers ith nk;todo sobelongs o thecraft f scribe.Wemay, fwewish, magine imdictating;we mustnot thinkof him penning,probablynot evensupervisingisscribes, r,even ess,acting s their orrectors a highclericmight orhisowncompositions.ven when hemanuscripts ehave (or of whichwe haveJunius' ranscripts)re contemporaryr

30 Cf. R. W. Southern,The Churchof the DarkAges600-1000', n S. C. Neill and H.-R.Weber edd.), TheLaymanin Christian istory London, 1963),88, about theperiod600 to1000 in general, nd without pecialreferenceo King Alfred: Almostnothingwritten yalaymanhas come down to us; and even when we can be sure thatour documents ontainexpressionsf ay ntentions,ome llowancemustbemade for hefact hat monastic andhasalmostalways prescribed heirform nd givendefinitiono theirthought.'Cf. also A. J.Frantzen,KingAlfred, -10. Similarly, . 101. Frantzendoes notexcludefrom onsiderationthat hepreface o Waerferth'sranslationfGregory's ialoguescould be by Alfredor onespeakingnhisperson)'.

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364 STANLEY: KING ALFRED'S PREFACESnear-contemporaryhey contain errors, and variant readingswheneverhere s more hanone witness.When ouronlymanuscriptis late, s for lmost ll oftheSoliloquies,31 e know hat t s indetailunreliable.We maystillhope thatwe havenot ostverymuchof theprecisesenseofAlfred's tterances,hough here s little irect ontactn ourquality freadinghimthrough ur deafness o the anguage nd thefaults ftransmission.fourhope s ustified, e can still dapttoourdiscernmentnthe enseofAlfred's tterances hatKentsaidtoKingLear's countenance:You have thatin yourcountenancewhich Iwouldfaincall master.'And ifwe werequestioned, s Kentwas byLear, What, in Alfred'swritings,s that?Kent's answersuffices:'Authority.'ikeLear's,Alfred'suthoritys,nodoubt,personal;yetit transcends hepersonal, nd in Alfred, s we have learnt,32oyalauthorityccordswith heteaching f Hincmar fRheims.

31Cf. E. G. Stanley,reviewof T. A. Carnicelli's dition,King Alfred'sVersion fSt.Augustine'sSoliloquies',N & Q 215 (1970), 109-12.32 Cf. A. J.Frantzen, ingAlfred,5; andn. 8 above.