%་ DEOS BOL SCEAL TOPICGORA LEASTRE ทห FACSIMILE PAGE OF MANUSCRIPT OF ALFRED'S CURA PASTORALIS Skeat's "Twelve Old English Manuscripts " CHAPTER III THE ANGLO-SAXON PROSE PERIOD (871-1066) ism DURING the centuries that intervened between the coming of Augustine in 597 and the accession of King Alfred in 871, Christianity had won its battle against the old Anglo-Saxon heathenism and had established its ideals in the minds and hearts of the English people. The church had laid her foundations, had fixed her pillars, and was patiently rearing her great superstructure. Nevertheless, the conflict between Christianity and heathenism Christianity was by no means at an end. Up to this time it and Heathenhad been mainly a conflict against heathenism within, an effort to transform a pagan people into a Christian people. From this forward it was mainly the conflict of Anglo-Saxon Christianity against Danish heathenism coming in upon it like a flood from without. In a very true sense, then, the guiding impulse of literature during the present period is still the impulse of Christianity struggling to maintain its ground and to continue its progress in the face of heathen aggression. The form of the conflict has changed; the spirit of it remains essentially the same. The religious note is unmistakably dominant in literature throughout the whole period. The educational work of Alfred in the ninth century is moved by the desire for the religious and moral elevation of his people. Ælfric, in his homilies and lives of the saints and Scripture translations, carries on the same spirit into the early part of the eleventh century. Wulfstan is stirred by a passion of religious zeal and prophetic warning of God's punishment for sin. Even the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is touched by the same great impulse; for its interest is largely ecclesiastical, and its most notable passages record the warfare of English Christianity against the terrible assaults of the Danes. To save the people from ignorance and barbarism by religious effort, to repel the attacks of heathen foes these are the dominant ideas of the later Anglo-Saxon literature. erature It is to be noted that the conditions are decidedly less favorable for literary production than in the older days. Effect on Lit- To set up the Christian ideal and strive to give it the mastery in heathen hearts, to see the new faith winning its way and diffusing the light of a higher civilization that is full of inspiration - that can make poets as well as preachers and teachers. To fight an almost despairing struggle against heathen hordes, to labor almost against hope to save a Christian people from falling back into the brute and Christian civilization from sinking beneath a deluge of barbarism — that may awaken religious zeal and heroic courage, but it can hardly inspire poetic enthusiasm. The literature of the present period is therefore almost wholly in prose- the work of preachers. and teachers and chroniclers. It is religious, but it is not inspired. The earliest prose writings in England were in Latin, and there is no considerable prose literature in the English tongue until the ninth century, after the poetical period had come to a close. Bede, in addition to his voluminous Latin writings, had completed an Anglo-Saxon translation of the Gospel of John; and if this had been preserved, the history of English prose would begin with the early part Early West- of the eighth century, and in Northumbria. As Saxon Prose it is, the earliest extant prose literature is in the form of West-Saxon legal documents and entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; and the first important period of prose writing is in the reign of King Alfred, 871-901. This is known as the Early West-Saxon Period. Its literature is almost wholly in prose. It gathered up and pre served the poetry of the past, but it did not add to our poetical treasures. In addition to its important contributions to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, its chief works are those which are associated with the name of King Alfred himself. King Alfred Alfred is the true father of English prose, as Cædmon is of English poetry, and as Bede is of English learning. He is so in a double sense; for Alfred was not only a royal patron of letters, but was also himself the only important prose-writer of his time. When he began to make headway against the Danes, the strength of England gathered about him as the true preserver of the land against its foes. Poetry came from Northumbria to take on under his protection a West-Saxon form, and to be preserved and handed down to posterity. The monasteries became again the seats of learning and culture and education. A new literature, which was to be henceforward chiefly in prose, grew up around Alfred's court at Winchester. It is, of course, in the West-Saxon dialect, as the great body of Anglo-Saxon literature continued to be until its final extinction after the Norman Conquest. It is with Alfred the writer that we have here chiefly to do, and our thought of the great king must be simply the background to the picture. We must acknowledge that Alfred was not a great literary genius or even a great original writer. He possessed, however, a clear, simple, vigorous, and Alfred as a interesting style; and the literature of the thou- Writer sand years which lie between his day and ours reveals no soul more simple, earnest, reverent, and devoted than that of the royal father of our English prose. His literary work consists principally of four notable translations from the Latin. One of these is the Cura Pastoralis, or Pastoral Care of Pope Gregory the Great. It has for its object to show toral Care what the mind of a true spiritual pastor ought to be; and the translation of it was part of Alfred's effort to Alfred's Pas- improve the intellectual and spiritual condition of his bishops and lower clergy. The preface, written by Alfred himself, is by far the most interesting part of the work, and in some respects the most interesting part of Alfred's writings. It gives a graphic picture of the lamentable condition of religion and learning in England when Alfred came to the throne, and shows clearly the lofty and intelligent purpose that was in the king's mind to bring about a better state of affairs. Alfred's Bede A translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People has also been commonly attributed to Alfred. This was, in fact, the first history of England, and its translation may well have been part of Alfred's general scheme for the instruction of his people. Among other things of great interest, the translation contains Bede's famous account of Cadmon, together with a West-Saxon version of Cædmon's Northumbrian Hymn. Alfred's Boethius Still another of Alfred's works was the translation of Boethius' On the Consolation of Philosophy. Alfred adds a preface, in which he gives an account of Boethius, whom Gibbon has called "the last of the Romans whom Cato or Tully could have acknowledged for their countryman." His work was held in great esteem, not only in Anglo-Saxon times, but throughout the Middle Ages, by the church and in the monastic schools. sius The other notable translation of Alfred was a Universal History from the Creation to the Year of our Lord 416 Alfred's Oro- written by a Spanish monk named Orosius. This translation, like the others, is made with considerable freedom. Alfred introduces a geographical description of Europe north of the Rhine and the Danube, which is the only contemporary account of the Germanic |