BOOK IV. 866. by her family, with a manuscript of Saxon poetry in her hands. As Aldhelm and Cedmon had written poems of great popularity, it may have contained some of theirs. That she was able to read is not surprising, because she was a Franc, and the Francs had received from the Anglo-Saxons a taste for literary pursuits, and were cultivating them with superior ardour. With a happy judgment she proposed it as a gift to him who would the soonest learn to read it. The whole incident may have been chance play, but it was fruitful of consequences. The elder princes, one then a king, the others in mature youth or manhood, thought the reward inadequate to the task, and were silent. But the mind of Alfred, captivated by the prospect of information, and pleased with the beautiful decoration of the first letter of the writing, inquired if she actually intended to give it to that one of her step-children as would the soonest learn to understand and repeat it. The queen repeating the promise with a smile of joy at the question, he took the book, found out an instructor, and learnt to read it. When his industry had crowned his wishes with success, he recited it to her. 18 To this important, though seemingly trivial, incident we owe all the intellectual cultivation, and all the literary works, of Alfred; and all the benefit which by these he imparted to his countrymen. If this family conversation had not occurred, Alfred would probably have lived and died as ignorant, as unimportant, and as little known as his three brothers. For the momentous benefit thus begun to Alfred, the memory of Judith deserves our gratitude. His brothers had reached manhood without having been taught letters by their father, who, though he had received an ecclesiastical education, had left both them and Alfred 18 Asser, p. 16. V. 866. illiterate. Nine years old at his father's death, and CHAP. yet wholly uninstructed; with one brother on the throne, and two more so near it as ultimately to succeed to it equally uneducated; and surrounded by nobles as ignorant, and with no lettered clergy about the throne, whence could Alfred have received this necessary introduction to all his improvement, if the more intelligent Judith, the granddaughter of Charlemagne, had not been transplanted by Ethelwulph, from Paris to England, and even detained there by Ethelbald? This French princess was the kind Minerva from whom arose the first shoots of that intellectual character which we admire in Alfred. To such remote and apparently unconnected causes do we often owe our greatest blessings. But in learning to read Saxon, Alfred had only entered a dark and scanty anteroom of knowledge. The Saxon language was not at that day the repository of literature. The learned of the Anglo-Saxons, Bede, Alcuin, and others, had written their useful works in Latin, and translations of the classics had not then been thought of. Alfred's first acquisition was therefore of a nature which rather augmented his own conviction of his ignorance, than supplied him with the treasures which he coveted. He had yet to master the language of ancient Rome, before he could become acquainted with the compositions which contained the main facts of history, the elegance of poetry, and the disquisitions of philosophy. He knew where these invaluable riches lay, but he was unable to appropriate them to his improvement. We are told that it was one of his greatest lamentations, and, as he conceived, among his severest misfortunes, and which he often mentioned with deep sighs, that when he had youth and leisure, and permission to learn, he could not find teachers. No good masters, capable of initiating him in that lan IV. BOOK guage in which the minds he afterwards studied had conversed and written, were at that time to be found in all the kingdom of Wessex. 19 866. His love for knowledge made him neither effeminate nor slothful. The robust labours of the chase engrossed a large portion of his leisure; and he is panegyrised for his incomparable skill and felicity in this rural art. 20 To Alfred, whose life was indispensably a life of great warlike exertion, the exercise of hunting may have been salutary and even needful. Perhaps his commercial and polished posterity may wisely permit amusements more philanthropic to diminish their attachment to this dubious pursuit. He followed the labours of the chase as far as Cornwall. His fondness for this practice is a striking proof of his activity of disposition, because he appears to have been afflicted with a disease which would have sanctioned indolence in a person less alert. This malady assumed the appearance of a slow fever, of an unusual kind, with symptoms that made some call it the piles. It pursued him from his infancy. But his life and actions show, that, though this debilitating disease was succeeded by another that haunted him incessantly with tormenting agony, nothing could suppress his unwearied and inextinguishable genius. Though environed with difficulties which would have shipwrecked any other man, his energetic spirit converted them into active instruments to advance him to virtue and to fame. His religious impressions led him from his childhood to be a frequent visitor at sacred places, for the 19 Asser, p. 17. 20 Asser, p. 16. Though men fond of literature have not often excelled in the robust exercises, yet some remarkable characters have been distinguished for corporal agility. Thus the great Pythagoras was a successful boxer in the Olympic games; the first who boxed according to art. Cleanthes, the Stoic, was a similar adept. His scholar, Chrysippus, the acutest of the Stoics, was at first a racer; and even Plato himself was a wrestler at the Isthmian and Pythian games. Bentley on Phalaris, 51-54. purposes of giving alms, and offering prayer. It was change of the divine visitations that would not make For a while we must leave Alfred aspiring to become the student, to describe that storm of desolation and ferocious war which was proceeding from the North to intercept the progress, and disturb the happiness of the future king; and to lay waste the whole island, with havoc the most sanguinary, and ruin the most permanent. Guerir, in Cornish, signifies to heal or cure. 21 Asser, 40. Flor. Wig. 309. Camden places the church near Liskeard. acquired the name from him of Neotstoke. CHAP. V. 866. BOOK IV. CHAP. VI. The Accession of ETHELRED, the third Son of ETHELWULPH. As the life of Ragnar Lodbrog had disturbed the peace of many regions of Europe, his death became 866-871. the source of peculiar evil to England. When his sons heard of his fate in the prison in Northumbria, they determined on revenge. Their transient hostilities as sea-kings were laid aside for the gratification of this passion; and as their father's fame was the conversation and pride of the North, they found that wherever they spread news of his catastrophe, and their own resolutions to avenge it, their feelings were applauded, and auxiliaries procured to join them, from every part. Bands of warriors confederated from every region for this vindictive object. Jutes, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Russians, and others; all the fury and all the valour of the North assembled for the expedition', while none of the Anglo-Saxon kings even suspected the preparations. Eight kings and twenty earls, the children, relatives, and associates of Ragnar, were its leaders.2 Their armament assembled without molestation, and when it had become numerous enough to promise success to their adventure, Halfden, Ingwar, and Ubbo, three of Ragnar's sons, assumed the com Langb. ii. 278. Saxo, 176. Al Beverl. 92. Hunt. 347. M. West. 316. Bromton, 803. Sim. Dun. 13. Al. Riev. 353. 2 The kings were Bacseg, Halfden, Ingwar, Ubbo, Guthrums, Oskitel, Amund, and Eowls. Al. Bev. 93. Simeon adds to the kings, Sidroc, with a jarl of that name, Frena and Harald, p. 14. |