He was very young: he was everywhere admired and honored
for skill in war, for learning, and for piety: he was everywhere loved
for his heritage of a great name and his kindly and gracious manners.
for skill in war, for learning, and for piety: he was everywhere loved
for his heritage of a great name and his kindly and gracious manners.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v01 - A to Apu
.
.
forever!
Cly. - Stay, stay. . Thou shalt not die.
Ægis. — By no man's hand
Assuredly, except my own:- or thine,
If so thou wilt. Ah, perpetrate the deed;
Kill me; and drag me, palpitating yet,
Before thy judge austere: my blood will be
A proud acquittance for thee.
## p. 380 (#414) ############################################
380
VITTORIO ALFIERI
Cly. - Maddning thought! .
Wretch that I am! . . . Shall I be thy assassin ? . . .
Ægis. - Shame on thy hand, that cannot either kill
Who most adores thee, or who most detests thee!
Mine then must serve.
Cly. — Ah! . . . no.
Egis. — Dost thou desire
Me, or Atrides, dead ?
Cly. — Ah! what a choice! . . .
Ægis. - Thou art compelled to choose.
Cly. - I death inflict . .
Ægis. - Or death receive; when thou hast witnessed mine.
Cly. — Ah, then the crime is too inevitable!
Ægis. — The time now presses.
Cly. — But . . . the courage . . . strength ? . .
Ægis. — Strength, courage, all, will love impart to thee.
Cly. — Must I then with this trembling hand of mine
Plunge . . . in my husband's heart . . . the sword? . . .
Ægis. - The blows
Thou wilt redouble with a steady hand
In the hard heart of him who slew thy daughter.
Cly. - Far from my hand I hurled the sword in anguish.
Ægis. - Behold a steel, and of another temper:
The clotted blood-drops of Thyestes's sons
Still stiffen on its frame: do not delay
To furbish it once more in the vile blood
Of Atreus; go, be quick: there now remain
But a few moments; go. If awkwardly
The blow thou aimest, or if thou shouldst be
Again repentant, lady, ere 'tis struck,
Do not thou any more tow'rd these apartments
Thy footsteps turn: by my own hands destroyed,
Here wouldst thou find me in a sea of blood
Immersed. Now go, and tremble not; be bold.
Enter and save us by his death. —
SCENE III
ÆGISTHUS
Ægis. -Come forth,
Thyestes, from profound Avernus; come,
Now is the time; within this palace now
Display thy dreadful shade. A copious banquet
Of blood is now prepared for thee, enjoy it;
## p. 381 (#415) ############################################
VITTORIO ALFIERI
381
Already o'er the heart of thy foe's son
Hangs the suspended sword; now, now, he feels it:
An impious consort grasps it; it was fitting
That she, not I, did this: so much more sweet
To thee will be the vengeance, as the crime
Is more atrocious. . . . An attentive ear
Lend to the dire catastrophe with me;
Doubt not she will accomplish it: disdain,
Love, terror, to the necessary crime
Compel the impious woman. -
AGAMEMNON (within)
Aga. —Treason! Ah! . . .
My wife? . . 0 Heavens! . . I die. . 0 traitorous deed!
Ægis. Die, thou — yes, die! And thou redouble,
The blows redouble; all the weapon hide
woman,
Within his heart; shed, to the latest drop,
The blood of that fell miscreant: in our blood
He would have bathed his hands.
SCENE IV
CLYTEMNESTRA — ÆSGISTHUS
Cly. —What have I done?
Where am I? . . .
Egis. - Thou hast slain the tyrant: now
At length thou'rt worthy of me.
Cly. - See, with blood
The dagger drips; . . . my hands, my face, my garments,
All, all are blood . . . Oh, for a deed like this,
What vengeance will be wreaked! . . . I see already
Already to my breast that very steel
I see hurled back, and by what hand! I freeze,
I faint, I shudder, I dissolve with horror.
My strength, my utterance, fail me. Where am I?
What have I done? . . . Alas! . . .
Egis. -Tremendous cries
Resound on every side throughout the palace:
'Tis time to show the Argives what I am,
And reap the harvest of my long endurance.
## p. 382 (#416) ############################################
382
VITTORIO ALFIERI
SCENE V
ELECTRA — - ÆGISTHUS
Elec. - It still remains for thee to murder me,
Thou impious, vile assassin of my father . . .
But what do I behold ? O Heavens! . . . my mother? . . .
Flagitious woman, dost thou grasp the sword ?
Didst thou commit the murder ?
Ægis. - Hold thy peace.
Stop not my path thus; quickly I return;
Tremble: for now that I am king of Argos,
Far more important is it that I kill
Orestes than Electra.
SCENE VI
CLYTEMNESTRA-ELECTRA
Cly. - Heavens! . . . Orestes ? . . .
Ægisthus, now I know thee.
Elec. - Give it me:
Give me that steel.
Cly. - Ægisthus! . . . Stop! . . Wilt thou
Murder my son ? Thou first shalt murder me.
SCENE VII
ELECTRA
Elec. -0 night! . . O father! . . Ah, it was your deed,
Ye gods, this thought of mine to place Orestes
In safety first. — Thou wilt not find him, traitor. -
Ah live, Orestes, live: and I will keep
This impious steel for thy adult right hand.
The day, I hope, will come, when I in Argos
Shall see thee the avenger of thy father.
Translation of Edgar Alfred Bowring, Bohn's Library.
-
## p. 383 (#417) ############################################
383
ALFONSO THE WISE
(1221-1284)
(
was a
K
ING ALFONSO,” records the Jesuit historian, Mariana,
man of great sense, but more fit to be a scholar than a
king; for whilst he studied the heavens and the stars, he
lost the earth and his kingdom. Certainly it is for his services to
letters, and not for political or military successes, that the meditative
son of the valorous Ferdinand the Saint and the beautiful Beatrice
of Swabia will be remembered. The father conquered Seville, and
displaced the enterprising and infidel Moors with orthodox and indo-
lent Christians. The son could not keep what his sire had grasped.
Born in 1226, the fortunate young prince, at the age of twenty-five,
was proclaimed king of the newly conquered and united Castile and
Leon.
He was very young: he was everywhere admired and honored
for skill in war, for learning, and for piety: he was everywhere loved
for his heritage of a great name and his kindly and gracious manners.
In the first year of his reign, however, he began debasing the
coinage,-a favorite device of needy monarchs in his day,-- and his
people never forgave the injury. He coveted, naturally enough, the
throne of the Empire, for which he was long a favorite candidate;
and for twenty years he wasted time, money, and purpose, heart and
hope, in pursuit of the vain bauble. His kingdom fell into confus-
ion, his eldest son died, his second son Sancho rebelled against him
and finally deposed him. Courageous and determined to the last,
defying the league of Church and State against him, he appealed to
the king of Morocco for men and money to reinstate his fortunes.
In Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature may be found his
touching letter to De Guzman at the Moorish court. He is, like
Lear, poor and discrowned, but not like him, weak. His prelates have
stirred up strife, his nobles have betrayed him. If Heaven wills, he
is ready to pay generously for help. If not, says the royal philoso-
pher, still, generosity and loyalty exalt the soul that cherishes them.
« Therefore, my cousin, Alonzo Perez de Guzman, so treat with your
master and my friend (the king of Morocco) that he may lend me, on my
richest crown and on the jewels in it, as much as shall seem good to him:
and if you should be able to obtain his help for me, do not deprive me of it,
which I think you will not do; rather I hold that all the good offices which
my master may do me, by your hand they will come, and may the hand of
God be with you.
«Given in my only loyal city of Seville, the thirtieth year of my reign
and the first of my misfortunes.
“The King. "
## p. 384 (#418) ############################################
384
ALFONSO THE WISE
In his "only loyal city” the broken man remained, until the Pope
excommunicated Sancho, and till neighboring towns began to capit-
ulate. But he had been wounded past healing. There was no med-
icine for a mind diseased, no charm to raze out the written troubles
of the brain. He fell ill in Seville, so that he drew nigh unto
death.
And when the sickness had run its course, he said
before them all: that he pardoned the Infante Don Sancho, his heir,
all that out of malice he had done against him, and to his subjects
the wrong they had wrought towards him, ordering that letters con-
firming the same should be written — sealed with his golden seal, so
that all his subjects should be certain that he had put away his
quarrel with them, and desired that no blame whatever should rest
upon them.
And when he had said this, he received the body of
God with great devotion, and in a little while gave up his soul to
God. ”
This was in 1284, when he was fifty-eight years old.
At this age,
had a private lot been his, — that of a statesman, jurist, man of sci-
ence, annalist, philosopher, troubadour, mathematician, historian,
poet, — he would but have entered his golden prime, rich in promise,
fruitful in performance. Yet Alfonso, uniting in himself all these
vocations, seemed at his death to have left behind him a wide waste
of opportunities, a dreary dearth of accomplishment. Looking back,
however, it is seen that the balance swings even. While his kingdom
was slipping away, he was conquering a wider domain.
He was
creating Spanish Law, protecting the followers of learning, cherish-
ing the universities, restricting privilege, breaking up time-honored
abuses. He prohibited the use of Latin in public acts. He adopted
the native tongue in all his own works, and thus gave to Spanish an
honorable eminence, while French and German struggled long for a
learning from scholars, and English was to wait a hundred years for
the advent of Dan Chaucer.
Greatest achievement of all, he codified the common law of Spain
in 'Las Siete Partidas' (The Seven Parts). Still accepted as a legal
authority in the kingdom, the work is much more valuable as a com-
pendium of general knowledge than as an exposition of law. The
studious king with astonishing catholicity examined alike both Christ-
ian and Arabic traditions, customs, and codes, paying a scholarly
respect to the greatness of a hostile language and literature. This
meditative monarch recognized that public office is a public trust,
and wrote:
«Vicars of God are the kings, each one in his kingdom, placed over the
people to maintain them in justice and in truth. They have been called the
heart and soul of the people. For as the soul lies in the heart of men, and
by it the body lives and is maintained, so in the king lies justice, which is
the life and maintenance of the people of his lordship.
## p. 385 (#419) ############################################
ALFONSO THE WISE
385
«And let the king guard the thoughts of his heart in three manners:
firstly let him not desire nor greatly care to have superfluous and worthless
honors. Superfluous and worthless honors the king ought not to desire. For
that which is beyond necessity cannot last, and being lost. and come short
of, turns to dishonor. Moreover, the wise men have said that it is no less a
virtue for a man to keep that which he has than to gain that which he has
not; because keeping comes of judgment, but gain of good fortune. And the
king who keeps his honor in such a manner that every day and by all means
it is increased, lacking nothing, and does not lose that which he has for that
which he desires to have, – he is held for a man of right judgment, who
loves his own people, and desires to lead them to all good. And God will
keep him in this world from the dishonoring of men, and in the next from
the dishonor of the wicked in hell. ”
Besides the Siete Partidas,' the royal philosopher was the author,
or compiler, of a Book of Hunting'; a treatise on Chess; a sys-
tem of law, the Fuero Castellano' (Spanish Code), - an attempt to
check the monstrous irregularities of municipal privilege; 'La Gran
Conquista d'Ultramar (The Great Conquest Beyond the Sea), an
account of the wars of the Crusades, which is the earliest known
specimen of Castilian prose; and several smaller works, now col-
lected under the general title of Opuscules Legales(Minor Legal
Writings). It was long supposed that he wrote the "Tesoro (The-
saurus), a curious medley of ignorance and superstition, much of it
silly, and all of it curiously inconsistent with the acknowledged char-
acter of the enlightened King. Modern scholarship, however, dis-
cards this petty treatise from the list of his productions.
His "Tablas Alfonsinas) (Alfonsine Tables), to which Chaucer
refers in the Frankeleine's Tale, though curiously mystical, yet were
really scientific, and rank among the most famous of mediæval books.
Alfonso had the courage and the wisdom to recall to Toledo the
heirs and successors of the great Arabian philosophers and the
learned Rabbis, who had been banished by religious fanaticism, and
there to establish a permanent council --- a medieval Academy of
Sciences - which devoted itself to the study of the heavens and the
making of astronomical calculations. “This was the first time,” says
the Spanish historian, “that in barbarous times the Republic of
Letters was invited to contemplate a great school of learning, - men
occupied through many years in rectifying the old planetary observa-
tions, in disputing about the most abstruse details of this science, in
constructing new instruments, and observing, by means of them, the
courses of the stars, their declensions, their ascensions, eclipses, longi-
tudes, and latitudes. ” It was the vision of Roger Bacon fulfilled.
At his own expense, for years together, the King entertained in
his palace at Burgos, that their knowledge might enrich the nation,
not only certain free-thinking followers of Averroës and Avicebron,
1-25
## p. 386 (#420) ############################################
386
ALFONSO THE WISE
but infidel disciples of the Koran, and learned Rabbis who denied the
true faith. That creed must not interfere with deed, was an aston-
ishing mental attitude for the thirteenth century, and invited a gen-
eral suspicion of the King's orthodoxy. His religious sense was
really strong, however, and appears most impressively in the Can-
tigas à la Vergen Maria' (Songs to the Virgin), which were sung
over his grave by priests and acolytes for hundreds of years. They
are sometimes melancholy and sometimes joyous, always simple and
genuine, and, written in Galician, reflect the trustful piety and hap-
piness of his youth in remote hill provinces where the thought of
empire had not penetrated. It was his keen intelligence that ex-
pressed itself in the saying popularly attributed to him, “Had I been
present at the creation, I might have offered some useful sugges-
tions. It was his reverent spirit that made mention in his will of
the sacred songs as the testimony to his faith. So lived and died
Alfonso the Tenth, the father of Spanish literature, and the reviver
of Spanish learning.
«WHAT MEANETH A TYRANT, AND HOW HE USETH HIS POWER
IN A KINGDOM WHEN HE HATH OBTAINED IT »
"A
TYRANT,” says this law, doth signify a cruel lord, who,
by force or by craft, or by treachery, hath obtained
power over any realm or country; and such men be of
such nature, that when once they have grown strong in the
land, they love rather to work their own profit, though it be in
harm of the land, than the common profit of all, for they always
live in an ill fear of losing it. And that they may be able to
fulfill this their purpose unincumbered, the wise of old have said
that they use their power against the people in three manners.
The first is, that they strive that those under their mastery be
ever ignorant and timorous, because, when they be such, they
may not be bold to rise against them, nor to resist their wills;
and the second is, that they be not kindly and united among
themselves, in such wise that they trust not one another, for
while they live in disagreement, they shall not dare to make any
discourse against their lord, for fear faith and secrecy should not
be kept among themselves; and the third way is, that they strive
to make them poor, and to put them upon great undertakings,
which they never can finish, whereby they may have so much
harm that it may never come into their hearts to devise any-
thing against their ruler. And above all this, have tyrants ever
## p. 387 (#421) ############################################
ALFONSO THE WISE
387
striven to make spoil of the strong and to destroy the wise; and
have forbidden fellowship and assemblies of men in their land,
and striven always to know what men said or did; and do trust
their counsel and the guard of their person rather to foreigners,
who will serve at their will, than to them of the land, who
serve from oppression. And moreover, we say that though any
man may have gained mastery of a kingdom by any of the law-
ful means whereof we have spoken in the laws going before this,
yet, if he use his power ill, in the ways whereof we speak in
this law, him may the people still call tyrant; for he turneth his
mastery which was rightful into wrongful, as Aristotle hath said
in the book which treateth of the rule and government of king-
doms. »
From Las Siete Partidas, quoted in Ticknor's (Spanish Literature. )
ON THE TURKS, AND WHY THEY ARE SO CALLED
TH
HE ancient histories which describe the early inhabitants of
the East and their various languages show the origin of
each tribe or nation, or whence they came, and for what
reason they waged war, and how they were enabled to conquer
the former lords of the land. Now in these histories it is told
that the Turks, and also the allied race called Turcomans, were
all of one land originally, and that these names were taken from
two rivers which flow through the territory whence these people
came, which lies in the direction of the rising of the sun, a lit-
tle toward the north; and that one of these rivers bore the name
of Turco, and the other Mani: and finally that for this reason
the two tribes which dwelt on the banks of these two rivers came
to be commonly known as Turcomanos or Turcomans, On the
other hand, there are those who assert that because a portion of
the Turks lived among the Comanos (Comans) they accordingly,
in course of time, received the name of Turcomanos; but the
majority adhere to the reason already given. However this may
be, the Turks and the Turcomans belong both to the same fam-
ily, and follow no other life than that of wandering over the
country, driving their herds from one good pasture to another,
and taking with them their wives and their children and all
their property, including money as well as flocks.
The Turks did not dwell then in houses, but in tents made of
skins, as do in these days the Comanos and Tartars; and when
## p. 388 (#422) ############################################
388
ALFONSO THE WISE
they had to move from one place to another, they divided them.
selves into companies according to their different dialects, and
chose a cabdillo (judge), who settled their disputes, and rendered
justice to those who deserved it. And this nomadic race culti-
vated no fields, nor vineyards, nor orchards, nor arable lands of
any kind; neither did they buy or sell for money: but traded
their flocks among one another, and also their milk and cheese,
and pitched their tents in the places where they found the best
pasturage; and when the grass was exhausted, they sought fresh
herbage elsewhere. And whenever they reached the border of a
strange land, they sent before them special envoys, the most
worthy and honorable of their men, to the kings or lords of
such countries, to ask of them the privilege of pasturage on their
lands for a space; for which they were willing to pay such rent
or tax as might be agreed upon. After this manner they lived
among each nation in whose territory they happened to be.
From (La Gran Conquista de Ultramar, Chapter xiii.
TO THE MONTH OF MARY
From the "Cantigas)
W
ELCOME, O May, yet once again we greet thee!
So alway praise we her, the Holy Mother,
Who prays to God that he shall aid us ever
Against our foes, and to us ever listen.
Welcome, O May! loyally art thou welcome!
So alway praise we her, the Mother of kindness,
Mother who alway on us taketh pity,
Mother who guardeth us from woes unnumbered.
Welcome, O May! welcome, O month well favored!
So let us ever pray and offer praises
To her who ceases not for us, for sinners,
To pray to God that we from woes be guarded.
Welcome, O May! O joyous month and stainless!
So will we ever pray to her who gaineth
Grace from her Son for us, and gives each morning
Force that by us the Moors from Spain are driven.
Welcome, O May, of bread and wine the giver!
Pray then to her, for in her arms, an infant
She bore the Lord! she points us on our journey,
The journey that to her will bear us quickly!
## p. 389 (#423) ############################################
389
ALFRED THE GREAT
(849-901)
N THE Ashmolean Museum at Oxford may be seen an antique
jewel, consisting of an enameled figure in red, blue, and
green, enshrined in a golden frame, and bearing the legend
"Ælfred mec heht gewyrcean” (Alfred ordered me made). This
was discovered in 1693 in Newton Park, near Athelney, and through
it one is enabled to touch the far-away life of a thousand years ago.
But greater and more imperishable than this archaic gem is the gift
that the noble King left to the English nation—a gift that affects
the entire race of English-speaking people. For it was Alfred who
laid the foundations for a national literature.
Alfred, the younger son of Ethelwulf, king of the West Saxons,
and Osberga, daughter of his cup-bearer, was born in the palace at
Wantage in the year 849. He grew up at his father's court, a migra-
tory one, that moved from Kent to Devonshire and from Wales to
the Isle of Wight whenever events, raids, or the Witan (Parliament)
demanded. At an early age Alfred was sent to pay homage to the
Pope in Rome, taking such gifts as rich vessels of gold and silver,
silks, and hangings, which show that Saxons lacked nothing in
treasure. In 855 Ethelwulf visited Rome with his young son, bearing
more costly presents, as well as munificent sums for the shrine of
St. Peter's; and returning by way of France, they stopped at the
court of Charles the Bold. Once again in his home, young Alfred
applied himself to his education. He became a marvel of courage at
the chase, proficient in the use of arms, excelled in athletic sports,
was zealous in his religious duties, and athirst for knowledge. His
accomplishments were many; and when the guests assembled in the
great hall to make the walls ring with their laughter over cups of
mead and ale, he could take his turn with the harpers and minstrels
to improvise one of those sturdy bold ballads that stir the blood
to-day with their stately rhythms and noble themes.
Ethelwulf died in 858, and eight years later only two sons, Ethel-
red and Alfred, were left to cope with the Danish invaders. They
won victory after victory, upon which the old chroniclers love to
dwell, pausing to describe wild frays among the chalk-hills and
dense forests, which afforded convenient places to hide men and to
bury spoils.
Ethelred died in 871, and the throne descended to Alfred. His
kingdom was in a terrible condition, for Wessex, Kent, Mercia, Sus-
sex, and Surrey lay at the mercy of the marauding enemy. «The
## p. 390 (#424) ############################################
390
ALFRED THE GREAT
land,” says an old writer, “was as the Garden of Eden before them,
and behind them a desolate wilderness. ” London was in ruins; the
Danish standard, with its black Raven, fluttered everywhere; and the
forests were filled with outposts and spies of the “pagan army. ”
There was nothing for the King to do but gather his men and dash
into the fray to “let the hard steel ring upon the high helmet. ”
Time after time the Danes are overthrown, but, like the heads of the
fabled Hydra, they grow and flourish after each attack. They have
one advantage: they know how to command the sea, and numerous
as the waves that their vessels ride so proudly and well, the invaders
arrive and quickly land to plunder and slay.
Alfred, although but twenty-five, sees the need for a navy, and in
875 gathers a small fleet to meet the ships of the enemy, wins one
prize, and puts the rest to flight. The chroniclers now relate that he
fell into disaster and became a fugitive in Selwood Forest, while
Guthrum and his host were left free to ravage. From this period
date the legends of the King's visit in disguise to the hut of the
neat-herd, and his burning the bread he was set to watch: his pene-
trating into the camp of the Danes and entertaining Guthrum by his
minstrelsy while discovering his plans and force; the vision of St.
Cuthbert; and the fable of his calling five hundred men by the
winding of his horn.
Not long after he was enabled to emerge from the trials of exile
in Athelney; and according to Asser, “In the seventh week after
Easter, he rode to Egbert's Stone in the eastern part of Selwood or
the Great Wood, called in the old British language Coit-mawr.
Here he was met by all the neighboring folk of Somersetshire, Wilt-
shire, and Hampshire, who had not for fear of the Pagans fed
beyond the sea; and when they saw the king alive after such great
tribulation, they received him, as he deserved, with joy and ac-
clamations and all encamped there for the night. ” Soon afterward
he made a treaty with the Danes, and became king of the whole of
England south of the Thames.
It was now Alfred's work to reorganize his kingdom, to strengthen
the coast defenses, to rebuild London, to arrange for a standing
army, and to make wise laws for the preservation of order and
peace; and when all this was accomplished, he turned his attention
to the establishment of monasteries and colleges. "In the mean-
time,” says old Asser, “the King, during the frequent wars and
other trammels of this present life, the invasions of the Pagans, and
his own daily infirmities of body, continued to carry on the govern-
ment, and to exercise hunting in all its branches; to teach his
workers in gold and artificers of all kinds, his falconers, hawkers,
and dog-keepers, to build houses majestic and good, beyond all the
## p. 391 (#425) ############################################
ALFRED THE GREAT
391
precedents of his ancestors, by his new mechanical inventions, to
recite the Saxon books, and more especially to learn by heart the
Saxon poems, and to make others learn them also; for he alone
never desisted from studying, most diligently, to the best of his
ability; he attended the mass and other daily services of religion :
he was frequent in psalm-singing and prayer, at the proper hours,
both of the night and of the day. He also went to the churches, as
we have already said, in the night-time, to pray, secretly and un-
known to his courtiers; he bestowed alms and largesses both on his
own people and on foreigners of all countries; he was affable and
pleasant to all, and curious to investigate things unknown. ”
As regards Alfred's personal contribution to literature, it may be
said that over and above all disputed matters and certain lost works,
they represent a most valuable and voluminous assortment due
directly to his own royal and scholarly pen. History, secular and
churchly, laws and didactic literature, were his field; and though it
would seem that his actual period of composition did not much exceed
ten years, yet he accomplished a vast deal for any man, especially any
busy sovereign and soldier.
An ancient writer, Ethelwerd, says that he translated many books
from Latin into Saxon, and William of Malmesbury goes so far as to
say that he translated into Anglo-Saxon almost all the literature of
Rome. Undoubtedly the general condition of education was deplor-
able, and Alfred felt this deeply. “Formerly,” he writes, «men
came hither from foreign lands to seek instruction, and now when
we desire it, we can only obtain it from abroad. ” Like Charlemagne
he drew to his court famous scholars, and set many of them to work
writing chronicles and translating important Latin books into Anglo-
Saxon. Among these was the Pastoral Care of Pope Gregory,' to
which he wrote the Preface; but with his own hand he translated
the Consolations of Philosophy,' by Boethius, two manuscripts of
which still exist. In this he frequently stops to introduce observations
and comments of his own. Of greater value was his translation of
the History of the World,' by Orosius, which he abridged, and to
which he added new chapters giving the record of coasting voyages
in the north of Europe. This is preserved in the Cotton MSS. in the
British Museum. His fourth translation was the 'Ecclesiastical His-
tory of the English Nation,' by Bede. To this last may be added
the Blossom Gatherings from St. Augustine,' and many minor com-
positions in prose and verse, translations from the Latin fables and
poems, and his own note-book, in which he jots, with what may be
termed a journalistic instinct, scenes that he had witnessed, such as
Aldhelm standing on the bridge instructing the people on Sunday
afternoons; bits of philosophy; and such reflections as the following,
## p. 392 (#426) ############################################
392
ALFRED THE GREAT
which remind one of Marcus Aurelius:—“Desirest thou' power ? But
thou shalt never obtain it without sorrows— sorrows from strange
folk, and yet keener sorrows from thine own kindred;” and “Hard-
ship and sorrow! Not a king but would wish to be without these if
he could. But I know that he cannot. ' Alfred's value to literature
is this: he placed by the side of Anglo-Saxon poetry, - consisting of
two great poems, Cædmon's great song of the Creation and Cyne-
wulf's Nativity and Life of Christ, and the unwritten ballads passed
from lip to lip, — four immense translations from Latin into Anglo-
Saxon prose, which raised English from a mere spoken dialect to a
true language. From his reign date also the famous Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle and the Anglo-Saxon Gospels; and a few scholars are
tempted to class the magnificent Beowulf' among the works of this
period. At any rate, the great literary movement that he inaugurated
lasted until the Norman Conquest.
In 893 the Danes once more disturbed King Alfred, but he foiled
them at all points, and they left in 897 to harry England no more
for several generations. In 901 he died, having reigned for thirty
years in the honor and affection of his subjects. Freeman in his
(Norman Conquest' says that “no other man on record has ever so
thoroughly united all the virtues both of the ruler and of the private
Bishop Asser, his contemporary, has left a half-mythical
eulogy, and William of Malmesbury, Roger of Wendover, Matthew
of Westminster, and John Brompton talk of him fully and freely.
Sir John Spellman published a quaint biography in Oxford in 1678,
followed by Powell's in 1634, and Bicknell's in 1777. The modern
lives are by Giles, Pauli, and Hughes.
man. ”
KING ALFRED ON KING-CRAFT
T"
Comment in his Translation of Boethius's Consolations of Philosophy)
HE Mind then answered and thus said: O Reason, indeed
thou knowest that covetousness and the greatness of this
earthly power never well pleased me, nor did I altogether
very much yearn after this earthly authority. But nevertheless I
was desirous of materials for the work which I was commanded
to perform; that was, that I might honorably and fitly guide and
exercise the power which was committed to me. Moreover, thou
knowest that no man can show any skill nor exercise or control
any power, without tools and materials.
There are of every
craft the materials without which man cannot exercise the craft.
These, then, are a king's materials and his tools to reign with:
## p. 393 (#427) ############################################
ALFRED THE GREAT
393
that he have his land well peopled; he must have prayer-men,
and soldiers, and workmen. Thou knowest that without these
tools no king can show his craft. This is also his materials
which he must have besides the tools: provisions for the three
classes. This is, then, their provision: land to inhabit, and gifts
and weapons, and meat, and ale, and clothes, and whatsoever is
necessary for the three classes. He cannot without these pre-
serve the tools, nor without the tools accomplish any of those
things which he is commanded to perform. Therefore, I was
desirous of materials wherewith to exercise the power, that my
talents and power should not be forgotten and concealed. For
every craft and every power soon becomes old, and is passed
over in silence, if it be without wisdom: for no man can accom-
plish any craft without wisdom. Because whatsoever is done
through folly, no one can ever reckon for craft. This is now
especially to be said: that I wished to live honorably whilst I
lived, and after my life, to leave to the men who were after me,
my memory in good works.
ALFRED'S PREFACE TO THE VERSION OF POPE GREGORY'S
(PASTORAL CARE)
K
ING ALFRED bids greet Bishop Wærferth with his words lov-
ingly and with friendship; and I let it be known to thee
that it has very often come into my mind, what wise men
there formerly were throughout England, both of sacred and sec-
ular orders; and what happy times there were then throughout
England; and how the kings who had power of the nation in
those days obeyed God and his ministers; and they preserved
peace, morality, and order at home, and at the same time en-
larged their territory abroad; and how they prospered both with
war and with wisdom; and also the sacred orders, how zealous
they were, both in teaching and learning, and in all the services
they owed to God; and how foreigners came to this land in
search of wisdom and instruction, and how we should now have
to get them from abroad if we would have them. So general
was its decay in England that there were very few on this side
of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English,
or translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe
there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few
that I cannot remember a single one south of the Thames when
## p. 394 (#428) ############################################
394
ALFRED THE GREAT
I came to the throne. Thanks be to God Almighty that we
have any teachers among us now.
And therefore I command
thee to do as I believe thou art willing, to disengage thyself
from worldly matters as often as thou canst, that thou mayst
apply the wisdom which God has given thee wherever thou
canst. Consider what punishments would come upon us on
account of this world if we neither loved it (wisdom) ourselves
nor suffered other men to obtain it: we should love the name
only of Christian, and very few of the virtues.
When I considered all this I remembered also how I saw,
before it had been all ravaged and burnt, how the churches
throughout the whole of England stood filled with treasures and
books, and there was also a great multitude of God's servants;
but they had very little knowledge of the books, for they could
not understand anything of them, because they were not written
in their own language. As if they had said, “Our forefathers,
who formerly held these places, loved wisdom, and through it
they obtained wealth and bequeathed it to us.
In this we can
still see their tracks, but we cannot follow them, and therefore
we have lost both the wealth and the wisdom, because we would
not incline our hearts after their example. ”
When I remembered all this, I wondered extremely that the
good and wise men, who were formerly all over England, and
had perfectly learnt all the books, did not wish to translate
them into their own language. But again, I soon answered
myself and said, “They did not think that men would ever be
so careless, and that learning would so decay; therefore they
abstained from translating, and they trusted that the wisdom in
this land might increase with our knowledge of languages. ”
Then I remember how the law was first known in Hebrew,
and again, when the Greeks had learnt it, they translated the
whole of it into their own language, and all other books besides,
And again, the Romans, when they had learnt it, they translated
the whole of it through learned interpreters into their own
language. And also all other Christian nations translated a part
of them into their own language. Therefore it seems better to
me, if ye think so, for us also to translate some books which are
most needful for all men to know, into the language which we
can all understand, and for you to do as we very easily can if we
have tranquillity enough; that is, that all the youth now in
England of free men, who are rich enough to be able to devote
## p. 395 (#429) ############################################
ALFRED THE GREAT
395
>
(
themselves to it, be set to learn as long as they are not fit for
any other occupation, until that they are well able to read English
writing: and let those be afterward taught more in the Latin
language who are to continue learning and be promoted to a
higher rank. When I remember how the knowledge of Latin had
formerly decayed throughout England, and yet many could read
English writing, I began among other various and manifold
troubles of this kingdom, to translate into English the book which
is called in Latin Pastoralis, and in English Shepherd's Book,
sometimes word by word and sometimes according to the sense,
as I had learnt it from Plegmund, my archbishop, and Asser, my
bishop, and Grimbold, my mass-priest, and John, my mass-priest.
And when I had learnt as I could best understand it, and as I
could most clearly interpret it, I translated it into English; and
I will send a copy to every bishopric in my kingdom; and on
each there is a clasp worth fifty mancus. And I command, in
God's name, that no man take the clasp from the book or the
book from the minister: it is uncertain how long there may be
such learned bishops as now, thanks be to God, there are nearly
everywhere; therefore, I wish them always to remain in their
place, unless the bishop wish to take them with him, or they be
lent out anywhere, or any one make a copy from them.
BLOSSOM GATHERINGS FROM ST. AUGUSTINE
IN
N every tree I saw something there which I needed at home,
therefore I advise every one
who is able and has many
wains, that he trade to the same wood where I cut the stud
shafts, and there fetch more for himself and load his wain with
fair rods, that he may wind many a neat wall and set many a
comely house and build many a fair town of them; and thereby
may dwell merrily and softly, so as I now yet have not done.
But He who taught me, to whom the wood was agreeable, He may
make me to dwell more softly in this temporary cottage, the while
that I am in this world, and also in the everlasting home which
He has promised us through St. Augustine, and St. Gregory, and
St. Jerome, and through other holy fathers; as I believe also
that for the merits of all these He will make the way more con-
venient than it was before, and especially the carrying and the
building: but every man wishes after he has built a cottage on
his lord's lease by his help, that he may sometimes rest him
## p. 396 (#430) ############################################
396
ALFRED THE GREAT
therein and hunt, and fowl, and fish, and use it every way under
the lease both on water and on land, until the time that he earn
book-land and everlasting heritage through his lord's mercy. So
do enlighten the eyes of my mind so that I may search out the
right way to the everlasting home and the everlasting glory, and
the everlasting rest which is promised us through those holy
fathers. May it be so!
It is no wonder though men swink in timber working, and in
the wealthy Giver who wields both these temporary cottages and
eternal homes. May He who shaped both and wields both, grant
me that I may be meet for each, both here to be profitable and
thither to come.
WHERE TO FIND TRUE JOY
From Boethius)
O"
h! it is a fault of weight,
Let him think it out who will,
And a danger passing great
Which can thus allure to ill
Careworn men from the rightway,
Swiftly ever led astray.
Will ye seek within the wood
Red gold on the green trees tall ?
None, I wot, is wise that could,
For it grows not there at all:
Neither in wine-gardens green
Seek they gems of glittering sheen.
Would ye on some hill-top set,
When ye list to catch a trout,
Or a carp, your fishing-net ?
Men, methinks, have long found out
That it would be foolish fare,
For they know they are not there. .
In the salt sea can ye find,
When ye list to start an hunt,
With your hounds, the hart or hind ?
Cly. - Stay, stay. . Thou shalt not die.
Ægis. — By no man's hand
Assuredly, except my own:- or thine,
If so thou wilt. Ah, perpetrate the deed;
Kill me; and drag me, palpitating yet,
Before thy judge austere: my blood will be
A proud acquittance for thee.
## p. 380 (#414) ############################################
380
VITTORIO ALFIERI
Cly. - Maddning thought! .
Wretch that I am! . . . Shall I be thy assassin ? . . .
Ægis. - Shame on thy hand, that cannot either kill
Who most adores thee, or who most detests thee!
Mine then must serve.
Cly. — Ah! . . . no.
Egis. — Dost thou desire
Me, or Atrides, dead ?
Cly. — Ah! what a choice! . . .
Ægis. - Thou art compelled to choose.
Cly. - I death inflict . .
Ægis. - Or death receive; when thou hast witnessed mine.
Cly. — Ah, then the crime is too inevitable!
Ægis. — The time now presses.
Cly. — But . . . the courage . . . strength ? . .
Ægis. — Strength, courage, all, will love impart to thee.
Cly. — Must I then with this trembling hand of mine
Plunge . . . in my husband's heart . . . the sword? . . .
Ægis. - The blows
Thou wilt redouble with a steady hand
In the hard heart of him who slew thy daughter.
Cly. - Far from my hand I hurled the sword in anguish.
Ægis. - Behold a steel, and of another temper:
The clotted blood-drops of Thyestes's sons
Still stiffen on its frame: do not delay
To furbish it once more in the vile blood
Of Atreus; go, be quick: there now remain
But a few moments; go. If awkwardly
The blow thou aimest, or if thou shouldst be
Again repentant, lady, ere 'tis struck,
Do not thou any more tow'rd these apartments
Thy footsteps turn: by my own hands destroyed,
Here wouldst thou find me in a sea of blood
Immersed. Now go, and tremble not; be bold.
Enter and save us by his death. —
SCENE III
ÆGISTHUS
Ægis. -Come forth,
Thyestes, from profound Avernus; come,
Now is the time; within this palace now
Display thy dreadful shade. A copious banquet
Of blood is now prepared for thee, enjoy it;
## p. 381 (#415) ############################################
VITTORIO ALFIERI
381
Already o'er the heart of thy foe's son
Hangs the suspended sword; now, now, he feels it:
An impious consort grasps it; it was fitting
That she, not I, did this: so much more sweet
To thee will be the vengeance, as the crime
Is more atrocious. . . . An attentive ear
Lend to the dire catastrophe with me;
Doubt not she will accomplish it: disdain,
Love, terror, to the necessary crime
Compel the impious woman. -
AGAMEMNON (within)
Aga. —Treason! Ah! . . .
My wife? . . 0 Heavens! . . I die. . 0 traitorous deed!
Ægis. Die, thou — yes, die! And thou redouble,
The blows redouble; all the weapon hide
woman,
Within his heart; shed, to the latest drop,
The blood of that fell miscreant: in our blood
He would have bathed his hands.
SCENE IV
CLYTEMNESTRA — ÆSGISTHUS
Cly. —What have I done?
Where am I? . . .
Egis. - Thou hast slain the tyrant: now
At length thou'rt worthy of me.
Cly. - See, with blood
The dagger drips; . . . my hands, my face, my garments,
All, all are blood . . . Oh, for a deed like this,
What vengeance will be wreaked! . . . I see already
Already to my breast that very steel
I see hurled back, and by what hand! I freeze,
I faint, I shudder, I dissolve with horror.
My strength, my utterance, fail me. Where am I?
What have I done? . . . Alas! . . .
Egis. -Tremendous cries
Resound on every side throughout the palace:
'Tis time to show the Argives what I am,
And reap the harvest of my long endurance.
## p. 382 (#416) ############################################
382
VITTORIO ALFIERI
SCENE V
ELECTRA — - ÆGISTHUS
Elec. - It still remains for thee to murder me,
Thou impious, vile assassin of my father . . .
But what do I behold ? O Heavens! . . . my mother? . . .
Flagitious woman, dost thou grasp the sword ?
Didst thou commit the murder ?
Ægis. - Hold thy peace.
Stop not my path thus; quickly I return;
Tremble: for now that I am king of Argos,
Far more important is it that I kill
Orestes than Electra.
SCENE VI
CLYTEMNESTRA-ELECTRA
Cly. - Heavens! . . . Orestes ? . . .
Ægisthus, now I know thee.
Elec. - Give it me:
Give me that steel.
Cly. - Ægisthus! . . . Stop! . . Wilt thou
Murder my son ? Thou first shalt murder me.
SCENE VII
ELECTRA
Elec. -0 night! . . O father! . . Ah, it was your deed,
Ye gods, this thought of mine to place Orestes
In safety first. — Thou wilt not find him, traitor. -
Ah live, Orestes, live: and I will keep
This impious steel for thy adult right hand.
The day, I hope, will come, when I in Argos
Shall see thee the avenger of thy father.
Translation of Edgar Alfred Bowring, Bohn's Library.
-
## p. 383 (#417) ############################################
383
ALFONSO THE WISE
(1221-1284)
(
was a
K
ING ALFONSO,” records the Jesuit historian, Mariana,
man of great sense, but more fit to be a scholar than a
king; for whilst he studied the heavens and the stars, he
lost the earth and his kingdom. Certainly it is for his services to
letters, and not for political or military successes, that the meditative
son of the valorous Ferdinand the Saint and the beautiful Beatrice
of Swabia will be remembered. The father conquered Seville, and
displaced the enterprising and infidel Moors with orthodox and indo-
lent Christians. The son could not keep what his sire had grasped.
Born in 1226, the fortunate young prince, at the age of twenty-five,
was proclaimed king of the newly conquered and united Castile and
Leon.
He was very young: he was everywhere admired and honored
for skill in war, for learning, and for piety: he was everywhere loved
for his heritage of a great name and his kindly and gracious manners.
In the first year of his reign, however, he began debasing the
coinage,-a favorite device of needy monarchs in his day,-- and his
people never forgave the injury. He coveted, naturally enough, the
throne of the Empire, for which he was long a favorite candidate;
and for twenty years he wasted time, money, and purpose, heart and
hope, in pursuit of the vain bauble. His kingdom fell into confus-
ion, his eldest son died, his second son Sancho rebelled against him
and finally deposed him. Courageous and determined to the last,
defying the league of Church and State against him, he appealed to
the king of Morocco for men and money to reinstate his fortunes.
In Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature may be found his
touching letter to De Guzman at the Moorish court. He is, like
Lear, poor and discrowned, but not like him, weak. His prelates have
stirred up strife, his nobles have betrayed him. If Heaven wills, he
is ready to pay generously for help. If not, says the royal philoso-
pher, still, generosity and loyalty exalt the soul that cherishes them.
« Therefore, my cousin, Alonzo Perez de Guzman, so treat with your
master and my friend (the king of Morocco) that he may lend me, on my
richest crown and on the jewels in it, as much as shall seem good to him:
and if you should be able to obtain his help for me, do not deprive me of it,
which I think you will not do; rather I hold that all the good offices which
my master may do me, by your hand they will come, and may the hand of
God be with you.
«Given in my only loyal city of Seville, the thirtieth year of my reign
and the first of my misfortunes.
“The King. "
## p. 384 (#418) ############################################
384
ALFONSO THE WISE
In his "only loyal city” the broken man remained, until the Pope
excommunicated Sancho, and till neighboring towns began to capit-
ulate. But he had been wounded past healing. There was no med-
icine for a mind diseased, no charm to raze out the written troubles
of the brain. He fell ill in Seville, so that he drew nigh unto
death.
And when the sickness had run its course, he said
before them all: that he pardoned the Infante Don Sancho, his heir,
all that out of malice he had done against him, and to his subjects
the wrong they had wrought towards him, ordering that letters con-
firming the same should be written — sealed with his golden seal, so
that all his subjects should be certain that he had put away his
quarrel with them, and desired that no blame whatever should rest
upon them.
And when he had said this, he received the body of
God with great devotion, and in a little while gave up his soul to
God. ”
This was in 1284, when he was fifty-eight years old.
At this age,
had a private lot been his, — that of a statesman, jurist, man of sci-
ence, annalist, philosopher, troubadour, mathematician, historian,
poet, — he would but have entered his golden prime, rich in promise,
fruitful in performance. Yet Alfonso, uniting in himself all these
vocations, seemed at his death to have left behind him a wide waste
of opportunities, a dreary dearth of accomplishment. Looking back,
however, it is seen that the balance swings even. While his kingdom
was slipping away, he was conquering a wider domain.
He was
creating Spanish Law, protecting the followers of learning, cherish-
ing the universities, restricting privilege, breaking up time-honored
abuses. He prohibited the use of Latin in public acts. He adopted
the native tongue in all his own works, and thus gave to Spanish an
honorable eminence, while French and German struggled long for a
learning from scholars, and English was to wait a hundred years for
the advent of Dan Chaucer.
Greatest achievement of all, he codified the common law of Spain
in 'Las Siete Partidas' (The Seven Parts). Still accepted as a legal
authority in the kingdom, the work is much more valuable as a com-
pendium of general knowledge than as an exposition of law. The
studious king with astonishing catholicity examined alike both Christ-
ian and Arabic traditions, customs, and codes, paying a scholarly
respect to the greatness of a hostile language and literature. This
meditative monarch recognized that public office is a public trust,
and wrote:
«Vicars of God are the kings, each one in his kingdom, placed over the
people to maintain them in justice and in truth. They have been called the
heart and soul of the people. For as the soul lies in the heart of men, and
by it the body lives and is maintained, so in the king lies justice, which is
the life and maintenance of the people of his lordship.
## p. 385 (#419) ############################################
ALFONSO THE WISE
385
«And let the king guard the thoughts of his heart in three manners:
firstly let him not desire nor greatly care to have superfluous and worthless
honors. Superfluous and worthless honors the king ought not to desire. For
that which is beyond necessity cannot last, and being lost. and come short
of, turns to dishonor. Moreover, the wise men have said that it is no less a
virtue for a man to keep that which he has than to gain that which he has
not; because keeping comes of judgment, but gain of good fortune. And the
king who keeps his honor in such a manner that every day and by all means
it is increased, lacking nothing, and does not lose that which he has for that
which he desires to have, – he is held for a man of right judgment, who
loves his own people, and desires to lead them to all good. And God will
keep him in this world from the dishonoring of men, and in the next from
the dishonor of the wicked in hell. ”
Besides the Siete Partidas,' the royal philosopher was the author,
or compiler, of a Book of Hunting'; a treatise on Chess; a sys-
tem of law, the Fuero Castellano' (Spanish Code), - an attempt to
check the monstrous irregularities of municipal privilege; 'La Gran
Conquista d'Ultramar (The Great Conquest Beyond the Sea), an
account of the wars of the Crusades, which is the earliest known
specimen of Castilian prose; and several smaller works, now col-
lected under the general title of Opuscules Legales(Minor Legal
Writings). It was long supposed that he wrote the "Tesoro (The-
saurus), a curious medley of ignorance and superstition, much of it
silly, and all of it curiously inconsistent with the acknowledged char-
acter of the enlightened King. Modern scholarship, however, dis-
cards this petty treatise from the list of his productions.
His "Tablas Alfonsinas) (Alfonsine Tables), to which Chaucer
refers in the Frankeleine's Tale, though curiously mystical, yet were
really scientific, and rank among the most famous of mediæval books.
Alfonso had the courage and the wisdom to recall to Toledo the
heirs and successors of the great Arabian philosophers and the
learned Rabbis, who had been banished by religious fanaticism, and
there to establish a permanent council --- a medieval Academy of
Sciences - which devoted itself to the study of the heavens and the
making of astronomical calculations. “This was the first time,” says
the Spanish historian, “that in barbarous times the Republic of
Letters was invited to contemplate a great school of learning, - men
occupied through many years in rectifying the old planetary observa-
tions, in disputing about the most abstruse details of this science, in
constructing new instruments, and observing, by means of them, the
courses of the stars, their declensions, their ascensions, eclipses, longi-
tudes, and latitudes. ” It was the vision of Roger Bacon fulfilled.
At his own expense, for years together, the King entertained in
his palace at Burgos, that their knowledge might enrich the nation,
not only certain free-thinking followers of Averroës and Avicebron,
1-25
## p. 386 (#420) ############################################
386
ALFONSO THE WISE
but infidel disciples of the Koran, and learned Rabbis who denied the
true faith. That creed must not interfere with deed, was an aston-
ishing mental attitude for the thirteenth century, and invited a gen-
eral suspicion of the King's orthodoxy. His religious sense was
really strong, however, and appears most impressively in the Can-
tigas à la Vergen Maria' (Songs to the Virgin), which were sung
over his grave by priests and acolytes for hundreds of years. They
are sometimes melancholy and sometimes joyous, always simple and
genuine, and, written in Galician, reflect the trustful piety and hap-
piness of his youth in remote hill provinces where the thought of
empire had not penetrated. It was his keen intelligence that ex-
pressed itself in the saying popularly attributed to him, “Had I been
present at the creation, I might have offered some useful sugges-
tions. It was his reverent spirit that made mention in his will of
the sacred songs as the testimony to his faith. So lived and died
Alfonso the Tenth, the father of Spanish literature, and the reviver
of Spanish learning.
«WHAT MEANETH A TYRANT, AND HOW HE USETH HIS POWER
IN A KINGDOM WHEN HE HATH OBTAINED IT »
"A
TYRANT,” says this law, doth signify a cruel lord, who,
by force or by craft, or by treachery, hath obtained
power over any realm or country; and such men be of
such nature, that when once they have grown strong in the
land, they love rather to work their own profit, though it be in
harm of the land, than the common profit of all, for they always
live in an ill fear of losing it. And that they may be able to
fulfill this their purpose unincumbered, the wise of old have said
that they use their power against the people in three manners.
The first is, that they strive that those under their mastery be
ever ignorant and timorous, because, when they be such, they
may not be bold to rise against them, nor to resist their wills;
and the second is, that they be not kindly and united among
themselves, in such wise that they trust not one another, for
while they live in disagreement, they shall not dare to make any
discourse against their lord, for fear faith and secrecy should not
be kept among themselves; and the third way is, that they strive
to make them poor, and to put them upon great undertakings,
which they never can finish, whereby they may have so much
harm that it may never come into their hearts to devise any-
thing against their ruler. And above all this, have tyrants ever
## p. 387 (#421) ############################################
ALFONSO THE WISE
387
striven to make spoil of the strong and to destroy the wise; and
have forbidden fellowship and assemblies of men in their land,
and striven always to know what men said or did; and do trust
their counsel and the guard of their person rather to foreigners,
who will serve at their will, than to them of the land, who
serve from oppression. And moreover, we say that though any
man may have gained mastery of a kingdom by any of the law-
ful means whereof we have spoken in the laws going before this,
yet, if he use his power ill, in the ways whereof we speak in
this law, him may the people still call tyrant; for he turneth his
mastery which was rightful into wrongful, as Aristotle hath said
in the book which treateth of the rule and government of king-
doms. »
From Las Siete Partidas, quoted in Ticknor's (Spanish Literature. )
ON THE TURKS, AND WHY THEY ARE SO CALLED
TH
HE ancient histories which describe the early inhabitants of
the East and their various languages show the origin of
each tribe or nation, or whence they came, and for what
reason they waged war, and how they were enabled to conquer
the former lords of the land. Now in these histories it is told
that the Turks, and also the allied race called Turcomans, were
all of one land originally, and that these names were taken from
two rivers which flow through the territory whence these people
came, which lies in the direction of the rising of the sun, a lit-
tle toward the north; and that one of these rivers bore the name
of Turco, and the other Mani: and finally that for this reason
the two tribes which dwelt on the banks of these two rivers came
to be commonly known as Turcomanos or Turcomans, On the
other hand, there are those who assert that because a portion of
the Turks lived among the Comanos (Comans) they accordingly,
in course of time, received the name of Turcomanos; but the
majority adhere to the reason already given. However this may
be, the Turks and the Turcomans belong both to the same fam-
ily, and follow no other life than that of wandering over the
country, driving their herds from one good pasture to another,
and taking with them their wives and their children and all
their property, including money as well as flocks.
The Turks did not dwell then in houses, but in tents made of
skins, as do in these days the Comanos and Tartars; and when
## p. 388 (#422) ############################################
388
ALFONSO THE WISE
they had to move from one place to another, they divided them.
selves into companies according to their different dialects, and
chose a cabdillo (judge), who settled their disputes, and rendered
justice to those who deserved it. And this nomadic race culti-
vated no fields, nor vineyards, nor orchards, nor arable lands of
any kind; neither did they buy or sell for money: but traded
their flocks among one another, and also their milk and cheese,
and pitched their tents in the places where they found the best
pasturage; and when the grass was exhausted, they sought fresh
herbage elsewhere. And whenever they reached the border of a
strange land, they sent before them special envoys, the most
worthy and honorable of their men, to the kings or lords of
such countries, to ask of them the privilege of pasturage on their
lands for a space; for which they were willing to pay such rent
or tax as might be agreed upon. After this manner they lived
among each nation in whose territory they happened to be.
From (La Gran Conquista de Ultramar, Chapter xiii.
TO THE MONTH OF MARY
From the "Cantigas)
W
ELCOME, O May, yet once again we greet thee!
So alway praise we her, the Holy Mother,
Who prays to God that he shall aid us ever
Against our foes, and to us ever listen.
Welcome, O May! loyally art thou welcome!
So alway praise we her, the Mother of kindness,
Mother who alway on us taketh pity,
Mother who guardeth us from woes unnumbered.
Welcome, O May! welcome, O month well favored!
So let us ever pray and offer praises
To her who ceases not for us, for sinners,
To pray to God that we from woes be guarded.
Welcome, O May! O joyous month and stainless!
So will we ever pray to her who gaineth
Grace from her Son for us, and gives each morning
Force that by us the Moors from Spain are driven.
Welcome, O May, of bread and wine the giver!
Pray then to her, for in her arms, an infant
She bore the Lord! she points us on our journey,
The journey that to her will bear us quickly!
## p. 389 (#423) ############################################
389
ALFRED THE GREAT
(849-901)
N THE Ashmolean Museum at Oxford may be seen an antique
jewel, consisting of an enameled figure in red, blue, and
green, enshrined in a golden frame, and bearing the legend
"Ælfred mec heht gewyrcean” (Alfred ordered me made). This
was discovered in 1693 in Newton Park, near Athelney, and through
it one is enabled to touch the far-away life of a thousand years ago.
But greater and more imperishable than this archaic gem is the gift
that the noble King left to the English nation—a gift that affects
the entire race of English-speaking people. For it was Alfred who
laid the foundations for a national literature.
Alfred, the younger son of Ethelwulf, king of the West Saxons,
and Osberga, daughter of his cup-bearer, was born in the palace at
Wantage in the year 849. He grew up at his father's court, a migra-
tory one, that moved from Kent to Devonshire and from Wales to
the Isle of Wight whenever events, raids, or the Witan (Parliament)
demanded. At an early age Alfred was sent to pay homage to the
Pope in Rome, taking such gifts as rich vessels of gold and silver,
silks, and hangings, which show that Saxons lacked nothing in
treasure. In 855 Ethelwulf visited Rome with his young son, bearing
more costly presents, as well as munificent sums for the shrine of
St. Peter's; and returning by way of France, they stopped at the
court of Charles the Bold. Once again in his home, young Alfred
applied himself to his education. He became a marvel of courage at
the chase, proficient in the use of arms, excelled in athletic sports,
was zealous in his religious duties, and athirst for knowledge. His
accomplishments were many; and when the guests assembled in the
great hall to make the walls ring with their laughter over cups of
mead and ale, he could take his turn with the harpers and minstrels
to improvise one of those sturdy bold ballads that stir the blood
to-day with their stately rhythms and noble themes.
Ethelwulf died in 858, and eight years later only two sons, Ethel-
red and Alfred, were left to cope with the Danish invaders. They
won victory after victory, upon which the old chroniclers love to
dwell, pausing to describe wild frays among the chalk-hills and
dense forests, which afforded convenient places to hide men and to
bury spoils.
Ethelred died in 871, and the throne descended to Alfred. His
kingdom was in a terrible condition, for Wessex, Kent, Mercia, Sus-
sex, and Surrey lay at the mercy of the marauding enemy. «The
## p. 390 (#424) ############################################
390
ALFRED THE GREAT
land,” says an old writer, “was as the Garden of Eden before them,
and behind them a desolate wilderness. ” London was in ruins; the
Danish standard, with its black Raven, fluttered everywhere; and the
forests were filled with outposts and spies of the “pagan army. ”
There was nothing for the King to do but gather his men and dash
into the fray to “let the hard steel ring upon the high helmet. ”
Time after time the Danes are overthrown, but, like the heads of the
fabled Hydra, they grow and flourish after each attack. They have
one advantage: they know how to command the sea, and numerous
as the waves that their vessels ride so proudly and well, the invaders
arrive and quickly land to plunder and slay.
Alfred, although but twenty-five, sees the need for a navy, and in
875 gathers a small fleet to meet the ships of the enemy, wins one
prize, and puts the rest to flight. The chroniclers now relate that he
fell into disaster and became a fugitive in Selwood Forest, while
Guthrum and his host were left free to ravage. From this period
date the legends of the King's visit in disguise to the hut of the
neat-herd, and his burning the bread he was set to watch: his pene-
trating into the camp of the Danes and entertaining Guthrum by his
minstrelsy while discovering his plans and force; the vision of St.
Cuthbert; and the fable of his calling five hundred men by the
winding of his horn.
Not long after he was enabled to emerge from the trials of exile
in Athelney; and according to Asser, “In the seventh week after
Easter, he rode to Egbert's Stone in the eastern part of Selwood or
the Great Wood, called in the old British language Coit-mawr.
Here he was met by all the neighboring folk of Somersetshire, Wilt-
shire, and Hampshire, who had not for fear of the Pagans fed
beyond the sea; and when they saw the king alive after such great
tribulation, they received him, as he deserved, with joy and ac-
clamations and all encamped there for the night. ” Soon afterward
he made a treaty with the Danes, and became king of the whole of
England south of the Thames.
It was now Alfred's work to reorganize his kingdom, to strengthen
the coast defenses, to rebuild London, to arrange for a standing
army, and to make wise laws for the preservation of order and
peace; and when all this was accomplished, he turned his attention
to the establishment of monasteries and colleges. "In the mean-
time,” says old Asser, “the King, during the frequent wars and
other trammels of this present life, the invasions of the Pagans, and
his own daily infirmities of body, continued to carry on the govern-
ment, and to exercise hunting in all its branches; to teach his
workers in gold and artificers of all kinds, his falconers, hawkers,
and dog-keepers, to build houses majestic and good, beyond all the
## p. 391 (#425) ############################################
ALFRED THE GREAT
391
precedents of his ancestors, by his new mechanical inventions, to
recite the Saxon books, and more especially to learn by heart the
Saxon poems, and to make others learn them also; for he alone
never desisted from studying, most diligently, to the best of his
ability; he attended the mass and other daily services of religion :
he was frequent in psalm-singing and prayer, at the proper hours,
both of the night and of the day. He also went to the churches, as
we have already said, in the night-time, to pray, secretly and un-
known to his courtiers; he bestowed alms and largesses both on his
own people and on foreigners of all countries; he was affable and
pleasant to all, and curious to investigate things unknown. ”
As regards Alfred's personal contribution to literature, it may be
said that over and above all disputed matters and certain lost works,
they represent a most valuable and voluminous assortment due
directly to his own royal and scholarly pen. History, secular and
churchly, laws and didactic literature, were his field; and though it
would seem that his actual period of composition did not much exceed
ten years, yet he accomplished a vast deal for any man, especially any
busy sovereign and soldier.
An ancient writer, Ethelwerd, says that he translated many books
from Latin into Saxon, and William of Malmesbury goes so far as to
say that he translated into Anglo-Saxon almost all the literature of
Rome. Undoubtedly the general condition of education was deplor-
able, and Alfred felt this deeply. “Formerly,” he writes, «men
came hither from foreign lands to seek instruction, and now when
we desire it, we can only obtain it from abroad. ” Like Charlemagne
he drew to his court famous scholars, and set many of them to work
writing chronicles and translating important Latin books into Anglo-
Saxon. Among these was the Pastoral Care of Pope Gregory,' to
which he wrote the Preface; but with his own hand he translated
the Consolations of Philosophy,' by Boethius, two manuscripts of
which still exist. In this he frequently stops to introduce observations
and comments of his own. Of greater value was his translation of
the History of the World,' by Orosius, which he abridged, and to
which he added new chapters giving the record of coasting voyages
in the north of Europe. This is preserved in the Cotton MSS. in the
British Museum. His fourth translation was the 'Ecclesiastical His-
tory of the English Nation,' by Bede. To this last may be added
the Blossom Gatherings from St. Augustine,' and many minor com-
positions in prose and verse, translations from the Latin fables and
poems, and his own note-book, in which he jots, with what may be
termed a journalistic instinct, scenes that he had witnessed, such as
Aldhelm standing on the bridge instructing the people on Sunday
afternoons; bits of philosophy; and such reflections as the following,
## p. 392 (#426) ############################################
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ALFRED THE GREAT
which remind one of Marcus Aurelius:—“Desirest thou' power ? But
thou shalt never obtain it without sorrows— sorrows from strange
folk, and yet keener sorrows from thine own kindred;” and “Hard-
ship and sorrow! Not a king but would wish to be without these if
he could. But I know that he cannot. ' Alfred's value to literature
is this: he placed by the side of Anglo-Saxon poetry, - consisting of
two great poems, Cædmon's great song of the Creation and Cyne-
wulf's Nativity and Life of Christ, and the unwritten ballads passed
from lip to lip, — four immense translations from Latin into Anglo-
Saxon prose, which raised English from a mere spoken dialect to a
true language. From his reign date also the famous Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle and the Anglo-Saxon Gospels; and a few scholars are
tempted to class the magnificent Beowulf' among the works of this
period. At any rate, the great literary movement that he inaugurated
lasted until the Norman Conquest.
In 893 the Danes once more disturbed King Alfred, but he foiled
them at all points, and they left in 897 to harry England no more
for several generations. In 901 he died, having reigned for thirty
years in the honor and affection of his subjects. Freeman in his
(Norman Conquest' says that “no other man on record has ever so
thoroughly united all the virtues both of the ruler and of the private
Bishop Asser, his contemporary, has left a half-mythical
eulogy, and William of Malmesbury, Roger of Wendover, Matthew
of Westminster, and John Brompton talk of him fully and freely.
Sir John Spellman published a quaint biography in Oxford in 1678,
followed by Powell's in 1634, and Bicknell's in 1777. The modern
lives are by Giles, Pauli, and Hughes.
man. ”
KING ALFRED ON KING-CRAFT
T"
Comment in his Translation of Boethius's Consolations of Philosophy)
HE Mind then answered and thus said: O Reason, indeed
thou knowest that covetousness and the greatness of this
earthly power never well pleased me, nor did I altogether
very much yearn after this earthly authority. But nevertheless I
was desirous of materials for the work which I was commanded
to perform; that was, that I might honorably and fitly guide and
exercise the power which was committed to me. Moreover, thou
knowest that no man can show any skill nor exercise or control
any power, without tools and materials.
There are of every
craft the materials without which man cannot exercise the craft.
These, then, are a king's materials and his tools to reign with:
## p. 393 (#427) ############################################
ALFRED THE GREAT
393
that he have his land well peopled; he must have prayer-men,
and soldiers, and workmen. Thou knowest that without these
tools no king can show his craft. This is also his materials
which he must have besides the tools: provisions for the three
classes. This is, then, their provision: land to inhabit, and gifts
and weapons, and meat, and ale, and clothes, and whatsoever is
necessary for the three classes. He cannot without these pre-
serve the tools, nor without the tools accomplish any of those
things which he is commanded to perform. Therefore, I was
desirous of materials wherewith to exercise the power, that my
talents and power should not be forgotten and concealed. For
every craft and every power soon becomes old, and is passed
over in silence, if it be without wisdom: for no man can accom-
plish any craft without wisdom. Because whatsoever is done
through folly, no one can ever reckon for craft. This is now
especially to be said: that I wished to live honorably whilst I
lived, and after my life, to leave to the men who were after me,
my memory in good works.
ALFRED'S PREFACE TO THE VERSION OF POPE GREGORY'S
(PASTORAL CARE)
K
ING ALFRED bids greet Bishop Wærferth with his words lov-
ingly and with friendship; and I let it be known to thee
that it has very often come into my mind, what wise men
there formerly were throughout England, both of sacred and sec-
ular orders; and what happy times there were then throughout
England; and how the kings who had power of the nation in
those days obeyed God and his ministers; and they preserved
peace, morality, and order at home, and at the same time en-
larged their territory abroad; and how they prospered both with
war and with wisdom; and also the sacred orders, how zealous
they were, both in teaching and learning, and in all the services
they owed to God; and how foreigners came to this land in
search of wisdom and instruction, and how we should now have
to get them from abroad if we would have them. So general
was its decay in England that there were very few on this side
of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English,
or translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe
there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few
that I cannot remember a single one south of the Thames when
## p. 394 (#428) ############################################
394
ALFRED THE GREAT
I came to the throne. Thanks be to God Almighty that we
have any teachers among us now.
And therefore I command
thee to do as I believe thou art willing, to disengage thyself
from worldly matters as often as thou canst, that thou mayst
apply the wisdom which God has given thee wherever thou
canst. Consider what punishments would come upon us on
account of this world if we neither loved it (wisdom) ourselves
nor suffered other men to obtain it: we should love the name
only of Christian, and very few of the virtues.
When I considered all this I remembered also how I saw,
before it had been all ravaged and burnt, how the churches
throughout the whole of England stood filled with treasures and
books, and there was also a great multitude of God's servants;
but they had very little knowledge of the books, for they could
not understand anything of them, because they were not written
in their own language. As if they had said, “Our forefathers,
who formerly held these places, loved wisdom, and through it
they obtained wealth and bequeathed it to us.
In this we can
still see their tracks, but we cannot follow them, and therefore
we have lost both the wealth and the wisdom, because we would
not incline our hearts after their example. ”
When I remembered all this, I wondered extremely that the
good and wise men, who were formerly all over England, and
had perfectly learnt all the books, did not wish to translate
them into their own language. But again, I soon answered
myself and said, “They did not think that men would ever be
so careless, and that learning would so decay; therefore they
abstained from translating, and they trusted that the wisdom in
this land might increase with our knowledge of languages. ”
Then I remember how the law was first known in Hebrew,
and again, when the Greeks had learnt it, they translated the
whole of it into their own language, and all other books besides,
And again, the Romans, when they had learnt it, they translated
the whole of it through learned interpreters into their own
language. And also all other Christian nations translated a part
of them into their own language. Therefore it seems better to
me, if ye think so, for us also to translate some books which are
most needful for all men to know, into the language which we
can all understand, and for you to do as we very easily can if we
have tranquillity enough; that is, that all the youth now in
England of free men, who are rich enough to be able to devote
## p. 395 (#429) ############################################
ALFRED THE GREAT
395
>
(
themselves to it, be set to learn as long as they are not fit for
any other occupation, until that they are well able to read English
writing: and let those be afterward taught more in the Latin
language who are to continue learning and be promoted to a
higher rank. When I remember how the knowledge of Latin had
formerly decayed throughout England, and yet many could read
English writing, I began among other various and manifold
troubles of this kingdom, to translate into English the book which
is called in Latin Pastoralis, and in English Shepherd's Book,
sometimes word by word and sometimes according to the sense,
as I had learnt it from Plegmund, my archbishop, and Asser, my
bishop, and Grimbold, my mass-priest, and John, my mass-priest.
And when I had learnt as I could best understand it, and as I
could most clearly interpret it, I translated it into English; and
I will send a copy to every bishopric in my kingdom; and on
each there is a clasp worth fifty mancus. And I command, in
God's name, that no man take the clasp from the book or the
book from the minister: it is uncertain how long there may be
such learned bishops as now, thanks be to God, there are nearly
everywhere; therefore, I wish them always to remain in their
place, unless the bishop wish to take them with him, or they be
lent out anywhere, or any one make a copy from them.
BLOSSOM GATHERINGS FROM ST. AUGUSTINE
IN
N every tree I saw something there which I needed at home,
therefore I advise every one
who is able and has many
wains, that he trade to the same wood where I cut the stud
shafts, and there fetch more for himself and load his wain with
fair rods, that he may wind many a neat wall and set many a
comely house and build many a fair town of them; and thereby
may dwell merrily and softly, so as I now yet have not done.
But He who taught me, to whom the wood was agreeable, He may
make me to dwell more softly in this temporary cottage, the while
that I am in this world, and also in the everlasting home which
He has promised us through St. Augustine, and St. Gregory, and
St. Jerome, and through other holy fathers; as I believe also
that for the merits of all these He will make the way more con-
venient than it was before, and especially the carrying and the
building: but every man wishes after he has built a cottage on
his lord's lease by his help, that he may sometimes rest him
## p. 396 (#430) ############################################
396
ALFRED THE GREAT
therein and hunt, and fowl, and fish, and use it every way under
the lease both on water and on land, until the time that he earn
book-land and everlasting heritage through his lord's mercy. So
do enlighten the eyes of my mind so that I may search out the
right way to the everlasting home and the everlasting glory, and
the everlasting rest which is promised us through those holy
fathers. May it be so!
It is no wonder though men swink in timber working, and in
the wealthy Giver who wields both these temporary cottages and
eternal homes. May He who shaped both and wields both, grant
me that I may be meet for each, both here to be profitable and
thither to come.
WHERE TO FIND TRUE JOY
From Boethius)
O"
h! it is a fault of weight,
Let him think it out who will,
And a danger passing great
Which can thus allure to ill
Careworn men from the rightway,
Swiftly ever led astray.
Will ye seek within the wood
Red gold on the green trees tall ?
None, I wot, is wise that could,
For it grows not there at all:
Neither in wine-gardens green
Seek they gems of glittering sheen.
Would ye on some hill-top set,
When ye list to catch a trout,
Or a carp, your fishing-net ?
Men, methinks, have long found out
That it would be foolish fare,
For they know they are not there. .
In the salt sea can ye find,
When ye list to start an hunt,
With your hounds, the hart or hind ?
