XXVI ALFRED BEHOLD a pupil of the monkish gown, * Might range the starry ether for a crown 5 10 * "The memory of the life and doings of the noblest of English rulers has come down to us living and distinct through the mist of exaggeration and legend that gathered round it. He lived solely for the good of his people. He is the first instance in the history of Christendom of the Christian king, of a ruler who put aside every personal aim or ambition to devote himself to the welfare of those whom he ruled. So long as he lived he strove to live worthily'; but in his mouth a life of worthiness meant a life of justice, temperance, and self-sacrifice. Ardent warrior as he was, with a disorganised England before him, he set aside at thirty-one the dream of conquest to leave behind him the memory, not of victories, but of 'good works,' of daily toils by which he secured peace, good government, education for his people. .. The spirit of adventure that made him in youth the first huntsman of his day took later and graver form in an activity that found time amidst the cares of state for the daily duties of religion, for converse with strangers, for study and translation, for learning poems by heart, for planning buildings and instructing craftsmen in gold work, for teaching even falconers and dogkeepers their business. . He himself superintended a school for the young nobles of the court.' (Green's Short History of the English People, chap. i. sec. 5.)-ED. Compare Voltaire, Essai sur les Maurs, chap. xxvi.; and Herder's Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit. Werke (1820), vol. vi. P. 153.-ED. Through the whole of his life, Alfred was subject to grievous maladies. -W. W. 1822. 'Although disease succeeded disease, and haunted him with tormenting agony, nothing could suppress his unwearied and inextinguishable genius." (Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. i. book iv. chap. v. p. 503.)-ED. He §"His mind was far from being prisoned within his own island. sent a Norwegian shipmaster to explore the White Sea. . . . Envoys bore his presents to the Christians of India and Jerusalem, and an annual mission carried Peter's-pence to Rome." (Green's Short History of the English People, i. 5.)-ED. HIS DESCENDANTS And Christian India, through her wide-spread clime, In sacred converse gifts with Alfred shares.1 * 25 XXVII HIS DESCENDANTS WHEN thy great soul was freed from mortal chains, 1 1827. 5 10 And Christian India gifts with Alfred shares 1822 2 1837. Can aught survive to linger in the veins Of kindred bodies-an essential power That may not vanish in one fatal hour, And wholly cast away terrestrial chains? 3 1832. 1822. 1822. covets 4 1827. to thrive With the fierce storm; meanwhile, 1822. * "With Alfred" is in all the editions. The late Bishop of St. Andrews, Charles Wordsworth, suggested that "of Alfred or "from Alfred" would be a better reading.-ED. † In Eadward the elder, his son; Eadmund I., his grandson; Eadward (the Martyr), grandson of Eadmund I.; and Eadward (the Confessor), nephew to the Martyr.-ED. As oft, 'mid some green plot of open ground, XXVIII INFLUENCE ABUSED URGED by Ambition, who with subtlest skill Their purposes. Behold, pre-signified, 5 The Might of spiritual sway! his thoughts, his dreams, So vaunt a throng of Followers, filled with pride 1 1837. In shows of virtue pushed to its extremes, 1822. II * As, pre-eminently, in the wood by the road, half-way from Rydal to Ambleside.-ED. Dunstan was made Abbot of Glastonbury by Eadmund, and there he introduced the Benedictine rule, being the first Benedictine Abbot in England. His aim was a remodelling of the Anglo-Saxon Church, "for which," says Southey, "he was qualified by his rank, his connections, his influence at court, his great and versatile talents, and more than all, it must be added, by his daring ambition, which scrupled at nothing for the furtherance of its purpose." (Book of the Church, i. 6.) "Dunstan stands first in the line of ecclesiastical statesmen, who counted among them Lanfranc and Wolsey, and ended in Laud.' "Raised to the See of Canterbury, he wielded for sixteen years, as the minister of Eadgar, the secular and ecclesiastical powers of the realm." (Green, i. 6.) In the effort to retain the ascendency he had won, he lent himself, however, to superstition and to fraud, to craft and mean device. He was a type of the ecclesiastical sorcerer.-ED. CANUTE 27 XXIX DANISH CONQUESTS * WOE to the Crown that doth the Cowl obey! 5 Thus, often, when thick gloom the east o'ershrouds, Around her sees, while air is hushed, a clear XXX CANUTE A PLEASANT music floats along the Mere, * The violent measures carried on under the influence of Dunstan, for strengthening the Benedictine Order, were a leading cause of the second series of Danish invasions. See Turner.-W. W. 1822. te.g. Anlaef, Haco, Svein. (See Turner's History of the AngloSaxons, book ii. chaps. iii., viii., ix.)—ED. "My Oarsmen," quoth the mighty King, "draw near, Heart-touched, and haply not without a tear. O suffering Earth! be thankful; sternest clime And rudest age are subject to the thrill 6 II XXXI THE NORMAN CONQUEST THE woman-hearted Confessor prepares * A monk of Ely, who wrote a History of the Church (circa 1166), records a fragment of song, said to have been composed by Canute when on his way to a Church festival. He told his rowers to proceed slowly, and near the shore, that he might hear the chanting of the Psalter by the monks, and he then composed a song himself. Merie sangen the Muneches binnen Ely, Roweth cnites ner the land And here ye thes Muneches sang. ED. Which is still extant.-W. W. 1822. See last note.-ED. Edward the Confessor (1042-1066)." There was something shadowlike in the thin form, the delicate complexion, the transparent womanly hands, that contrasted with the blue eyes and golden hair of his race; and it is almost as a shadow that he glides over the political stage. The work of government was done by sterner hands." (Green's Short History of the English People, chap. ii. sec. 2.)-ED. |