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V.

TELLING OF THE VENERABLE BEDA AND OF KING ALFRED THE GOOD, AND OF THE WORK THEY DID IN LITERATURE.

EDA, a good and pious priest, whose epitaph gave him

BEDA,

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673-735

next to Cadmon as one of the great writers of this early time. Like the rest of his learned brethren, he wrote almost wholly in Latin. His best-known work is a church history of England. He wrote also text-books on natural philosophy, grammar, astronomy, music, and many other branches, which would be very amusing in this age of new. fashioned school-books and modern discoveries. All these were in Latin; but in his last days he began the translation of the Gospels into English, and died just as he finished dictating the translation of Saint John's Gospel. There is a beautiful account of his death by his favorite scholar, Cuthbert, who wrote down from his master's dictation this English version of a portion of the New Testament. As they drew near the last chapters of John, Beda ordered Cuthbert to write with all speed; but his breath came so painfully that the good old priest had to pause frequently in his dictation. As the day drew near its close, the writer said, "Most dear master, there is yet one chapter wanting: do you think it troublesome to be asked any more questions?" He answered: "It is no trouble; take the pen, make ready, and write fast." In the evening Cuthbert said: "Dear master, there is yet one sentence unwritten." Beda said: "Write it quickly." Soon after the boy said: "It is written." "It is well," answered Beda; and sitting upright on the floor of his cell, he breathed his last in a song of rejoicing.

A little more than a century after the death of Beda, Alfred the Great was born, one of the best and noblest of English kings, who for the work he did.

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849-901

in literature alone, deserves a high place in our remem

brance. He did all he could to make the spoken language of England also its written language, when no one but a king could so easily have set the fashion of putting literature into an unfashionable garb, and so have drawn others into following it.

It is said that Alfred, at the age of twelve, could not read, but that his stepmother one day showed him and his brother a book of poetry, saying, "Whichever of you shall soonest learn this volume shall have it for his own." Attracted by the beautiful colored letters, Alfred mastered the book, and so his love for literature began. When he became king, although his hands were always full of affairs of government, to say nothing of wars constantly carried on against him by the Danes, he still made book-making one of his pursuits, and kept several literary men in his court, carrying out his plans and aiding him in his writing. An account of a voyage along the coast of Norway, and another from Denmark through the Baltic Sea, which Alfred wrote down from the lips of the narrators, are the earliest voyages written in English. One of the most famous works of Alfred was the translation of The Consolation of Philosophy, a book written by the Latin writer Boethius when he was shut up in prison. It is a series of conversations between the Mind, cast down by imprisonment, and Wisdom, who plays the consoler, and in doing so, utters many wise maxims that are as good to read to-day as ever they were. In this translation are many fables, which Alfred has told in the simplest words, as we should tell a story to a little child, — which proves that Alfred hit on the true way of interesting the childlike and uncultured people. This is the way he tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice :

"Happy is the man who can behold the clear fount of the highest good, and can put away from himself the darkness of his mind. We will now from old fables relate to thee a story. It happened formerly that there was a harper in a country called Thrace, which was in Greece. This harper was inconceivably good. His name was Orpheus. He had a very excellent wife, who

was called Eurydice. Then began men to say concerning the harper that he could harp so that the wood moved, the stones stirred themselves at the sound, and wild beasts would run thereto and stand as if they were tame,— so still that though men or hounds pursued them they shunned them not. Then said they that the harper's wife should die, and her soul should be led to hell. Then should the harper become so sorrowful that he could not remain among men, but frequented the wood and sat on the mountains both day and night, weeping and harping so that the woods shook and the rivers stood still, and no hart shunned any lion, and no hare any hound, nor did cattle know any hatred or fear of others for pleasure of the sound. Then it seemed to the harper that nothing in the world pleased him. Then thought he that he would seek the gods of hell and endeavor to allure them with his harp, and pray that they should give him back his wife. When he came thither, then there should come to him the dog of hell, whose name was Cerberus; he should have three heads, and began to wag his tail and play with him for his harping. .. Then he went farther, until he met the fierce godesses whom the common people call Parce, of whom they say that they know no respect for any man, but punish every man according to his deeds. Then began he to implore their mercy. Then began they to weep with him. Then went he farther, and all the inhabitants of hell ran to him, and led him to their king; and all began to speak with him, and to pray that which he prayed. . . . And all the punishments of hell were suspended while he harped before the king. When he long and long had harped, then spoke the king of the inhabitants of hell, and said: 'Let us give this man his wife, for he has earned her by his harping.' He then commanded him that he should well observe that he never looked backwards after he departed thence, and said if he looked backwards he should lose the woman. But men can with great difficulty, if at all, restrain Love! Well-a-way! What! Orpheus led his wife till he came to the boundary of light and darkness. When he came forth into the light, then looked he behind his back towards the woman. Then was she immediately lost to him. This fable teaches every man who desires to fly the darkness of hell and to come to the light of the true good, that he look not about him to his old vices."

By such stories, so simply told, and by many translations from the Bible and other great books, did Alfred seek to educate his subjects.

There were, however, many influences hostile to literary work in his reign. But no matter what disturbances went on outside, within the quiet convent walls the monks wrote and copied the books which keep the thread of history through that past time. It was the habit in both British and English monasteries to keep the record of all the events of the year in a chronicle, the form of which was modelled upon the Hebrew chronicles. Every year the monks of different religious houses would meet and compare these annals, and then form a general record. One of the oldest of these, known as the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," was edited by Alfred and his scribes, and is valuable as history.

Alfred died just on the brink of the tenth century. After him there is no very great name for many years. There are men of learning and a few unknown poets, but little has come down to us in English, or of English origin. The invasions of the Danes interrupted literary labor, and

1017

early in the eleventh century the Danes conquered England, and King Cnut, or Canute, took the throne. But the great event in English history in this eleventh century which had an effect on language and literature was the Norman Conquest, of which I shall tell you in the next Talk.

I

VI.

TELLING HOW WILLIAM THE NORMAN CAME TO THE
CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.

HAVE already spoken of the invasions of the Danes, who for so many years were attempting the conquest of England. You can guess something of their power and activity from the fact that they placed a king on the English throne in the early part of the eleventh century.

Re

member that these Danes, with Swedes and Norwegians, made the Scandinavian division of the Teutonic peoples, and that they are thus close cousins by race to the English. In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries these Scandinavians showed such a wonderful spirit of adventure, and their deeds had so great an effect on history, and hence on literature, that I cannot make my story complete without giving a brief sketch of them.

In spreading out from Denmark to Sweden and Norway, the Scandinavians (whom I will hereafter call by their shorter name of Northmen) had become, by force of their position on peninsulas girt about by Northern seas, the most daring sailors in the world. In the year 876 a band of these Northmen, coming principally from Denmark, but swelling their number as they went along with a mixture of Jutes and Angles, who joined them readily in this marauding march, went to invade France. Led by a famous Danish chieftain, Rolf, also called Rou and Rollo, they sailed up the river Seine, devastating the country all along its borders, and prepared to besiege Paris. The French made treaties with these powerful invaders, gave Rolf a princess of royal blood to wife, induced him to be baptized a Christian, and gave him a tract of land on the borders of the English Channel, since called Normandy, from these Northmen, or Normans. They spread over their new home, marrying with the natives, increasing rapidly in numbers, and adopting the language of the people among whom they lived. In a century they had almost forgotten whence they came and the language they spoke at their coming, using wholly the Romance tongue, which afterwards became the modern French.

Meanwhile the Danes, overrunning England, had put King Cnut in power. He seems to have been a good king, who made fair laws, for those days. He was something of a poet too, and a little song of his is still preserved, which he made one day as he was going down the river Ouse in a boat, and heard from the open windows of the monastery the monks singing their hymns:

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