Anglo-Saxon Literature Part 17

Our next example will serve to ill.u.s.trate the free writing of an original continuation. It is taken from the Winchester Chronicle (A).

This Chronicle exhibits, in the annals of 893-897, the first considerable piece of original historical composition that we have in the vernacular. Indeed, we may say that these pages, on the whole, contain the finest effort of early prose writing that we possess. The quotation relates how Alfred set to work to construct a navy:--

Thy ilcan geare drehton tha hergas on East Englum and on Northhymbrum West Seaxna lond swithe be thaem suth staethe .

mid stael hergum . ealra swithust mid thaem aesc.u.m the hie fela geara aer timbredon. Tha het Alfred cyng timbran lang scipu ongen tha aescas[104] . tha waeron fulneah tu swa lange swa tha othru . sume haefdon lx ara . sume ma. Tha waeron aegther ge swiftran ge unwealtran . ge eac hieran thonne tha othru. Naeron nawther ne on Fresisc gescaepene . ne on Denisc . bute swa him selfum thuhte thaet hie nytwyrthoste beon meahten.

That same year the armies in East Anglia and in Northhymbria distressed the land of the West Saxons very much about the south coast with marauding invasions; most of all with the "aescas" that they had built many years before. Then king Alfred gave orders to build long ships against the "aescas;" those were well-nigh twice as long as the others; some had 60 oars, some more. Those were both swifter and steadier, and also higher than the others. They were not shaped either on the Frisic or on the Danish model, but as he himself considered that they might be most serviceable.

The most extensive original continuations are in the Peterborough Chronicle (E). From one of these I quote the character of the Conqueror, which accompanies the record of his death in 1086. The pa.s.sage is remarkable as containing the nearest approach to a discovery of authorship that anywhere occurs in these Chronicles:--

Gif hwa gewilnigeth to gewitane hu gedon mann he waes .

oththe hwilcne wurthscipe he haefde . oththe hu fela lande he waere hlaford . Thonne wille we be him awritan swa swa we hine ageaton . the him onlocodan . and othre hwile on his hirede wunedon. Se cyng Willelm the we embe specath waes swithe wis man . and swithe rice . and wurthfulre and strengere thonne aenig his foregengra waere . He waes milde tham G.o.dum mannum the G.o.d lufedon . and ofer eall gemett stearc tham mannum the withcwaedon his willan . On tham ilcan steode the G.o.d him geuthe thaet he moste Engleland gegan . he arerde maere mynster . and munecas thaer gesaette .

and hit waell geG.o.dade . On his dagan waes thaet maere mynster on Cantwarbyrig getymbrad . and eac swithe manig other ofer eall Englaland . Eac this land waes swithe afylled mid munecan . and tha leofodan heora lif aefter sc~s Benedictus regule . and se Cristendom waes swilc on his daege thaet aelc man hwaet his hade to belumpe . folgade se the wolde. Eac he waes swythe wurthful . thriwa he baer his cyne helm aelce geare . swa oft swa he waes on Englelande . on Eastron he hine baer on Winceastre . on Pentecosten on Westmynstre . on mide wintre on Gleaweceastre . And thaenne waeron mid him ealle tha rice men ofer call Englaland . arcebiscopas . and leodbiscopas . abbodas and eorlas . thegnas and cnihtas .

Swilce he waes eac swythe stearc man and raethe . swa thaet man ne dorste nan thing ongean his willan don . He haefde eorlas on his bendum the dydan ongean his willan. Biscopas he saette of heora biscoprice . and abbodas of heora abbodrice . and thaegnas on cweartern . and aet nextan he ne sparode his agenne brothor Odo het . he waes swithe rice biscop on Normandige . on Baius waes his biscopstol . and waes manna fyrmest to eacan tham cynge.

If any one wishes to know what manner of man he was, or what dignity he had, or how many lands he was lord of; then will we write of him as we apprehended him, who were wont to behold him, and at one time were resident at his court.

The king William about whom we speak was a very wise man, and very powerful; and more dignified and more authoritative than any one of his predecessors was. He was gentle to those good men who loved G.o.d; and beyond all description stern to those men who contradicted his will.

On that selfsame spot where G.o.d granted him that he might conquer England, he reared a n.o.ble monastery, and monks he there enstalled, and well endowed the place. In his days was the splendid minster in Canterbury built, and also a great many others over all England. Also this land was abundantly supplied with monks; and they lived their life after St. Benedict's rule; and the state of Christianity was such in his time, that each man who was so disposed might follow that which appertained to his order. Likewise he was very ceremonious:--three times he wore his crown every year (as often as he was in England); at Easter he wore it in Winchester, at Pentecost in Westminster, at Christmas in Gloucester. And then there were with him all the mighty men over all England; archbishops and suffragan bishops, abbots and earls, thanes and knights. Withal he was moreover a very severe man and a violent; so that any one dared not to do anything against his will. He had earls in his chains who acted against his will. Bishops he put out of their bishop.r.i.c.k, and abbots from their abbacy, and thanes into prison; and at last he spared not his own brother, who was named Odo; who was a very mighty bishop in Normandy; at Baieux was his see, and he was the first of men next to the king.

These annals being all anonymous, every indication of the date of writing excites interest. Under 643 the chronicler of B added a single word to what he had before him (as we may presume) in his copy. That copy said that the church at Winchester was built by order of King Cenwalh. The chronicler of B says that the "old" church was built by Cenwalh. This harmonises excellently with other indications of this Chronicle, by which it is made probable that it was compiled in or about 977, when Bishop aethelwold had built a new church at Winchester.

In the Peterborough Chronicle, under 1041, the accession of Eadward is accompanied by a benediction which indicates that the writer wrote near the time, or at least before 1065. He says:--Healde tha hwile the him G.o.d unne = May he continue so long as G.o.d may be pleased to grant to him! And the half legible closing sentence of this Chronicle, in 1154, is a prayer of the same kind for a new abbot of Peterborough, of whom it is said that "he hath made a fair beginning."

The Saxon Chronicles offer one of the best examples of history which has grown proximately near to the events, of history written while the impression made by the events was still fresh. It would be difficult to point to any texts through which the taste for living history--history in immediate contact with the events--can better be cultivated.

The Chronicles stretch over a long period of time. As to their contents, they extend as a body of history from A.D. 449 to 1154--that is, exclusive of the book-made annals that form a long avenue at the beginning, and start from Julius Caesar. The period covered by the age of the extant ma.n.u.scripts is hardly less than 300 years, from about A.D.

900 to about A.D. 1200. A large number of hands must have wrought from time to time at their production, and, as the work is wholly anonymous and void of all external marks of authorship, the various and several contributions can only be determined by internal evidence, and this offers a fine arena for the exercise and culture of the critical faculty.

It is no small addition to the charm and value of these Chronicles that they are in the mother tongue at several stages of its growth, and for the most part in the best Anglo-Saxon diction. We have, moreover, the very soil of the history under our feet, and this study would tend to invest our native land with all the charm of cla.s.sic ground.

The Chronicle form is the foundation of the structure of historical literature. We are no longer content to study history now in one or two admirable specimens of mature perfection, but rather we seek to know history as a subject. All who have this aim must study Chronicles, and nowhere can this kind of doc.u.mentary record be found in a form preferable to that of the Saxon Chronicles.

The Saxon Chronicles are sometimes said to be meagre; indeed, it has almost become usual to speak of them as meagre. When such a term is used, it makes all the difference whether it is made vaguely and at random, or with meaning and discrimination. The Saxon Chronicles stretch over seven centuries, from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the twelfth; and it would indeed be wonderful if in such a series of annals there were not some arid tracts. Certainly, there are meagre places, and it makes all the difference whether a writer uses this epithet wisely or as a mere echo. In the following quotation it is justly used:--"For the history of England in the latter half of the tenth century we have, except the very meagre notices of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, no contemporary materials, unless we admit the Lives of the Saints of the Benedictine revival."[105] In the latter half of the tenth century the Chronicles really are meagre, and it is a remarkable fact, seeing that the period was one of revived literary activity.

This account of the Chronicles would be incomplete without the mention of a small number of Latin histories which are naturally linked with them. The Latin book of most mark in this connexion is a.s.ser's "Life of Alfred"--a book that has long lain under a cloud of doubt, from which, however, it seems to be gradually emerging. (A foolish interpolation about Oxford which marred the second edition--that by Camden--has left a stigma on the name.) It is not easy to answer all the adverse criticism of Mr. T. Wright; but still I venture to think that the internal evidence corresponds to the author's name, that it was written at the time of, and by such a person as, Alfred's Welsh bishop. The evident acquaintance with people and with localities, the bits of Welsh, the calling of the English uniformly "Saxons," all mark the Welshman who was at home in England. In the course of this biography, which seems to have been left in an unfinished state, there is a considerable extract from the Winchester Chronicles translated into Latin.

But the earliest Latin Chronicle which was founded on the Saxon Chronicles is that of aethelweard. He is apparently the "ealdorman aethelwerd," to whom aelfric addressed certain of his works; and he may be the "aethelwerd Dux" who signs charters, 976-998. His Chronicle closes with the last year of Eadgar's reign. He took much of his material from a Saxon Chronicle, like that of Winchester, but he has also matter peculiar to himself; and this raises a question whether he took such matter from a Saxon Chronicle now lost. He is grandiloquent and turgid to an extent which often obscures his meaning. In him we perceive all the word-eloquence of Saxon poetry, striving to utter itself through the medium of a Latinity at once crude and ambitious.[106]

The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester terminates with 1117; but a continuator carried it on to 1141, making use of the Peterborough Chronicle (E). The work of Florence is often identifiable with the Saxon Chronicles, especially with that of Worcester (D). But he has good original insertions of his own, as in his description of the election and coronation of Harold, on which Mr. Freeman has dwelt, as a record intended to correct Norman misrepresentation.

Simeon of Durham made large use of Florence, and he incorporated the Northumbrian eighth-century Chronicle, of which a specimen has been given above.

Henry of Huntingdon closed his annals at the same date as the latest of the Saxon Chronicles, A.D. 1154. He is a historian of secondary rank, with antiquarian tastes, a fondness for the Saxon Chronicles, and a special fancy for the genealogies and the ballads. To him we owe the earliest known mention of Stonehenge.

All these, except a.s.ser and aethelweard, are, as regards our Chronicles, subsequent and derivative rather than collateral. They used the chronicles as translators and compilers merely. The first who attempted something more was William of Malmesbury. This remarkable writer (who in 1140 came near to being elected Abbot of Malmesbury) was the first after Beda who left the annal form, and aimed at a more comprehensive treatment of the national history. He recognised the value of traditions from the Saxon times, which in his day were still to be gathered, and it is by the incorporation of such elements that his book has in some respects the character of a supplement to the Saxon Chronicles.

We cannot but be struck with the isolation of the Saxon Chronicles.

Great literary products do not grow up alone; but they have, doubtless, a tendency to create a solitude around them. Professor Stubbs apprehends such may have been the case with these Chronicles. He has surmised that probably the Chronicles had the same effect upon the previous schemes of history that Higden's "Polychronicon" had in the fourteenth century, that is to say, it would have prevented the writing of new histories, and caused the neglect or destruction of the old.[107]

FOOTNOTES:

[103] Lappenberg, "Geschichte," Introduction, p. xlviii.; referring to Hickes' "Thesaurus," iii., 288; and the preface to Smith's edition of Bede. That lover of English history, Dr. Reinhold Pauli, in the Gottingen "Gelehrt. Anzeig." for 1866, p. 1407, suggested that the whole mediaeval inst.i.tution of annal-writing came from Northumbria, and was carried on the mission-path of the Saxons into Frankland and Germany, and there produced the fine Carlovingian series.

[104] The "aescas" were the light and speedy galleys of the Danes.

[105] Professor Stubbs, "Memorials of Saint Dunstan," Rolls Series, p.

ix.

[106] Reinhold Pauli, "Life of Alfred," anno 877, note.

[107] Preface to "Chronica Rogeri de Hoveden," Rolls Series, p. xi.

CHAPTER IX.

ALFRED'S TRANSLATIONS.

Around the great name of Alfred many attributes have gathered and cl.u.s.tered, some of which are true, some exaggerated, some impossible. It is quite unhistorical that Alfred divided the country into shires and hundreds, or that he inst.i.tuted trial by jury, or that he founded the University of Oxford. Under the shadow of great names myths are apt to spring, that is to say, unconscious authorless inventions, growing up of themselves round any person or thing which happens to be the subject of much talk and little knowledge. Had the conditions been favourable in England as they were in France, the myths about Alfred might have grouped into an epic cycle, as those about Charlemagne did; and, had the eleventh century produced a great heroic poem a.n.a.logous to the "Chanson de Roland," it would have formed a graceful and much-needed coping to the now too disjointed pile of Anglo-Saxon literature.

But, when we come to Alfred's literary achievements, we find no tendency to exaggerate or embellish the sober truth. His hand is manifest in the Laws, and strongly surmised in the Chronicles. In both these vernacular products we find a new start, a fresh impulse, under Alfred. But that which stamps a peculiar character on his Translations is that here we discern a new stride in the elevation of the native language to literary rank. Latin was no longer to be the sole medium of learning and education.

The learned language had almost perished out of the island where it had once so eminently flourished. In the north the seats of learning had been demolished; and the monasteries of Wess.e.x, their first use as mission-stations having been discharged, had become secularised in their habits, and had not become seats or seminaries of learning. Alfred found no one in his ancestral kingdom who could aid him in the work of revival. Like Charles the Great, he looked everywhere for scholars, and drew them to his court. In Mercia, the land adjoining scholastic Anglia, he found a few learned men--Werferth, bishop of Worcester; Plegmund, who was elected (A.D. 890) archbishop of Canterbury, and two of obscurer name;[108] he drew Grimbald from Gaul, and John from Old Saxony; a.s.ser, from whose pen we know about these scholars, came to him from South Wales. With the help of such men Alfred gave a new impulse to literature, not as Charles had done, in Latin merely, but as much, or even more, in his own vernacular.

We must not look upon his translations as if they were only makeshifts to convey the matter of famous books to those who could not read the originals. Alfred deplored the low state of Latin,--but then he could subst.i.tute his own language for it, and that not merely because he must, but also because the very scarcity of Latin had favoured the culture of English. For it was in no dull or stagnant time that Wess.e.x had let Latin wane; it was in that vigorous stage of youth and growth when Wess.e.x was fitting herself to take an imperial place at home and raise her head among the nations. In almost all the transactions of life, public and private, where Latin was used in other countries, the West Saxons had for a long time used their own tongue, and hence it came to pa.s.s that, when Alfred sought to restore education and literature, he found a language nearer to him than the Latin, and one which was fit, if not to supersede the Latin, yet to be coupled along with it in the work of national instruction.

Of all Alfred's translations, the foremost place is due to that of Gregory's "Pastoral Care."[109] Both internally and externally it is honoured with marks of distinction. The translation is executed with a peculiar care, and a copy was to be sent to every See in the kingdom.

The very copy that was destined for Worcester is preserved in the Bodleian; and there it may be seen by any pa.s.sing visitor, lying open (under gla.s.s) at the page with the Worcester address, and the bishop's name (Waerferth) inserted in the salutation. The copy that was addressed to Hehstan, bishop of London, is not extant; but a transcript of it, written (in Wanley's opinion) before the Conquest, is in the Cotton Library, or so much of it as the fire has left. The Public Library at Cambridge has a representative of the copy which was addressed to Wulfsige, bishop of Sherborne. Another Cotton ma.n.u.script, which was almost consumed (Tiberius, B. xi.), had happily been described by Wanley before the fire. In this book the place for the bishop's name was blank; and there was this marginal note on the first leaf: ? Plegmunde arcebisc'. is agifen his boc. and Swiulfe bisc'. ? Werfere bisc'., _i.e._, Plegmund, archbishop, has received his book, and Swithulf, bishop, and Werferth, bishop.[110] This book, therefore, of which only fragments now remain, was like the Hatton ma.n.u.script in the Bodleian, one of Alfred's originals.

Thus the Bodleian book (Hatton 20, formerly 88), for originality and integrity remains unique; and from it we quote the opening part of Alfred's prefatory epistle:--

DEOS BOC SCEAL TO WIOGORA CEASTRE.

aelfred Kyning hateth gretan Waerferth biscep his wordum luflice and freondlice; and the cythan hate thaet me com swithe oft on gemynd, hwelce wiotan iu waeron gyond Angelcynn, aegther ge G.o.dcundra hada ge woruldcundra; and hu gesaeliglica tida tha waeron giond Angelcynn; and hu tha kyningas gas the thone onwald haefdon thaes folces on tham dagum G.o.de and his aerendwrec.u.m hersumedon; and hie aegther ge hiora sibbe ge hiora siodo ge hiora onweald innanbordes gehioldon, and eac ut hiora ethel gerymdon; and hu him tha speow aegther ge mid wige ge mid wisdome; and eac tha G.o.dcundan hadas hu giorne hie waeron aegther ge ymb lare ge ymb liornunga, ge ymb ealle tha thiowotdomas the hie G.o.de scoldon; and hu man utanbordes wisdom and lare hieder on londe sohte, and hu we hie nu sceoldon ute begietan gif we hie habban sceoldon. Swae claene hio waes othfeallenu on Angelcynne thaet swithe feawa waeron behionan Humbre the hiora theninga cuthen understondan on Englisc, oththe furthum an aerendgewrit of Laedene on Englisc areccean; and ic wene thaet noht monige begiondan Humbre naeren. Swae feawa hiora waeron thaet ic furthum anne anlepne ne maeg gethencean besuthan Temese tha tha ic to rice feng. G.o.de aelmihtegum sie thonc thaet we nu aenigne on stal habbath lareowa.

THIS BOOK IS TO GO TO WORCESTER.

Alfred, king, commandeth to greet Waerferth, bishop, with his words in loving and friendly wise: and I would have you informed that it has often come into my remembrance, what wise men there formerly were among the Angle race, both of the sacred orders and the secular: and how happy times those were throughout the Angle race; and how the kings who had the government of the folk in those days obeyed G.o.d and his messengers; and they, on the one hand, maintained their peace, and their customs and their authority within their borders, while at the same time they spread their territory outwards; and how it then went well with them both in war and in wisdom; and likewise the sacred orders, how earnest they were, as well as teaching us about learning, and about all the services that they owed to G.o.d; and how people from abroad came to this land for wisdom and instruction; and how we now should have to get them abroad if we were going to have them. So clean was it fallen away in the Angle race, that there were very few on this side Humber who would know how to render their services into English; and I ween that not many would be on the other side Humber. So few of them were there that I cannot think of so much as a single one south of Thames when I took to the realm. G.o.d Almighty be thanked that we have now any teachers in office.

The king goes on to say that he remembered how, before the general devastation, the churches were well stocked with books, and how there were plenty, too, of clergy, but they were not able to make much use of the books, because the culture of learning had been neglected. Their predecessors of a former generation had been learned, but now the clergy had fallen into ignorance. Wherefore, it seemed that there was no remedy but to have the books translated into the language they understood. And this (the king reflected) was according to precedent; for the Old Testament was first written in Hebrew, and then the Greeks in their time translated it into their speech, and subsequently the Romans did the like for themselves. And all other Christian nations had translated some Scriptures into their own language.

Forthy me thincth betre, gif iow swae thincth, thaet we eac sumae bec, tha the niedbethearfostae sien eallum monnum to wiotonne, thaet we tha on thaet gethiode wenden the we ealle gecnawan maegen, and ge don swae we swithe eathe magon mid G.o.des fultume, gif we tha stilnesse habbath, thaet eal sio gioguth the nu is on Angelcynne friora monna, thara the tha speda haebben thaet hie thaem befeolan maegen, sien to liornunga othfaeste, tha hwile the hie to nanre otherre note ne maegen, oth thone first the hie wel cunnen Englisc gewrit araedan: laere mon siththan furthur on Laeden gethiode tha the mon furthor laeran wille and to hieran hade don wille. Tha ic tha gemunde hu sio lar Laeden gethiodes aer thissum afeallen waes giond Angelcynn, and theah monige cuthon Englisc gewrit araedan, tha ongan ic on gemang othrum mislic.u.m and manigfealdum bisgum thisses kynerices tha boc wendan on Englisc the is genemned on Laeden Pastoralis, and on Englisc Hierde boc, hwilum word be worde, hwilum andgit of andgite, swae swae ic hie geliornode aet Plegmunde minum aercebiscepe and aet a.s.sere minum biscepe and aet Grimbolde minum maesse prioste and aet Johanne minum maesse prioste.

Siththan ic hie tha gelornod haefde swae swae ic hie forstod, and swae ic hie andgitfullicost areccean meahte, ic hie on Englisc awende; and to aelc.u.m biscepstole on minum rice wille ane onsendan; and on aelcre bith an aestel, se bith on fiftegum mancessa. Ond ic bebiode on G.o.des naman thaet nan mon thone aestel from thaere bec ne do, ne tha boc from thaem mynstre. Uncuth hu longe thaer swae gelaerede biscepas sien, swae swae nu G.o.de thonc wel hwaer siendon; forthy ic wolde thaet hie ealneg aet thaere stowe waeren, buton se biscep hie mid him habban wille oththe hio hwaer to laene sie, oththe hwa othre biwrite.

Therefore to me it seemeth better, if it seemeth so to you, that we also some books, those that most needful are for all men to be acquainted with, that we turn those into the speech which we all can understand, and that ye do as we very easily may with G.o.d's help, if we have the requisite peace, that all the youth which now is in England of free men, of those who have the means to be able to go in for it, be set to learning, while they are fit for no other business, until such time as they can thoroughly read English writing: afterwards further instruction may be given in the Latin language to such as are intended for a more advanced education, and to be prepared for higher office. As I then reflected how the teaching of the Latin language had recently decayed throughout this people of the Angles, and yet many could read English writing, then began I among other various and manifold businesses of this kingdom to turn into English the book that is called "Pastoralis" in Latin, and "Shepherding Book" in English, sometimes word for word, sometimes sense for sense, just as I learned it of Plegmund, my archbishop, and of a.s.ser, my bishop, and of Grimbald, my priest, and of John, my priest.

After that I had learned it, so as I understood it, and as I it with fullest meaning could render, I translated it into English; and to each see in my kingdom I will send one; and in each there is an "aestel," which is of the value of 50 mancusses. And I command in the name of G.o.d that no man remove the "aestel" from the book, nor the book from the minster. No one knows how long such learned bishops may be there, as now, thank G.o.d! there are in several places; and therefore I would that they (the books) should always be at the place; unless the bishop should wish to have it with him, or it should be anywhere on loan, or any one should be writing another copy.

Here we have a direct statement that the "Pastoral" was translated by King Alfred himself, after a course of study in which he had been a.s.sisted by Plegmund, a.s.ser, Grimbald, and John. His interest in this book seems to show that his estimate of it was something like that of Ozanam, who said that Gregory's "Pastoral Care" determined the character of the Christian hierarchy, and formed the bishops who formed the nations.