BOOK XII. By thee, mid flowery banks, the waters glide The gloomy night obscures the sacred day; Flumina te cingunt florentibus undique ripis, Omne genus volucrum matutinas personat odas In te personuit quondam vox alma magistri, Te mea cella modo lacrymosis plango camœnis, Nil manet æternum, nil immutabile vere est, Ah! wretched we! who love thee, fickle world! CHAP. III. One of Alcuin's fancies in versification was to close his second line with half of the first: Præsul amate precor, hac tu diverte viator 40 Sis memor Albini ut, præsul amate precor." There are several poems, some short, others longer, in this kind of composition. Many of Alcuin's poems are worthy of a perusal. Some exhibit the flowers of poetry, and some attempt tenderness and sensibility with effect. They are all distinguished by an easy and flowing versification. Several poems are addressed to his pupil Charlemagne, and mention him under the name of David, with a degree of affection which seldom approaches the throne. The adulation of a courtly poet, however, sometimes appears very gross, as in these lines, in which, alluding to Charlemagne's love of poetry, he ventures to address him by the venerable name of the Chian bard: Dulcis Homere vale, valeat tua vita per ævum, This appears in the same poem with two other childish lines: Semper ubique vale, dic, dic, dulcissime David, is very like one One of his poems consists of six stanzas, each of six lines. The two first are quoted, because this poem of the most common modes of versifying in the Anglo-Saxon Of the other Latin poetry of the Anglo-Saxons, little need be said. We have a few fragments of some authors, but they deserve a small degree of consideration. Malmsbury has preserved to us part of a poem made on Athelstan, probably by a contemporary, of which the only curiosity is, that it is a mixture of final rhimes and middle rhimes. Where the poet ceases to rhime at the end of his lines, he proceeds to rhime in the middle; and where he desists from middle rhimes, he inserts his final ones.* 43 There is some poetry on Edgar preserved by Ethelwerd;^^ and the Vedastne MS. of the life of Dunstan contains some rhiming lines." 42 Alb. Opera. ed. Du Ch. p. 780. 43 The twelve first lines may be quoted as a specimen : Regia progenies produxit nobile stemma Cum tenebris nostris illuxit splendida gemma, Ad patris edictum datus in documenta scholarum, 44 Ethelw. 1. iv. c. 9. Malms. I. ii. p. 49. 45 Acta Sanct. May. CHAP. IV. Of the other Literature of the Anglo-Saxons. IV. THE literature of the Anglo-Saxons must be dated from CHAP. their conversion to Christianity. The probability that they had runic letters and songs before this era, has been already stated. But it is certain that their knowledge of books, and of the learning which had been accumulated in happier regions of the world, was derived from their religious intercourse with Rome. The first step of their intellectual progress was the introduction into England of the Latin and Greek languages. The next was the collection of the authors who used these languages. Some men then came into the island who taught them, and others arose who were ambitious to learn and to communicate to others the knowledge they had acquired. We will give concise biographical sketches of the principal persons who advanced literature in these respects, as the best mode of elucidating the history of its progress. When St. Augustin came into England teaching Christianity, the pope sent to him many books,' some of which are now extant in our public libraries. Augustin, and the monks who accompanied him, not only succeeded in establishing Christianity, but also occasioned a desire of knowledge to spread among the Anglo-Saxons in the seventh century. Sigebert, one of the princes of the age, distinguished himself by his zeal for intellectual attainment. He had fled into France from his brother Redwald, and was there baptized. When he attained the crown of East Anglia, he established a school in his dominions for the instruction of youth, in imitation of those which he had seen in France. He was assisted 'Bede, i. 29. XII. BOOK in this happy effort of civilization by bishop Felix, who came to him out of Kent, and who supplied him with teachers from that part of the octarchy which Christianity and literature had first enlightened.* At this period Ireland was distinguished for its religious literature; and many of the Anglo-Saxons, both of the higher and lower ranks, retired into it to pursue their studies or their devotions. While some assumed the monastic life, others, seeking variety of knowledge, went from one master's cell to another. The hospitable Irish received them all, supplied them with daily food, with books, and gratuitous instruction.' Many persons in England are mentioned at this time by Bede as reading and studying the holy scriptures. To a nation whose minds were so untutored in knowledge as the Anglo-Saxons, the Jewish and Christian scriptures must have been invaluable accessions. From these they would learn the most rational chronology of the earth, the most correct history of the early states of the East, the most intelligent piety, the wisest morality, and every style of literary composition. Perhaps no other collection of human writings can be selected which would so much interest and benefit a rude and ignorant people. We shall feel all their value and importance to our ancestors, if we compare them with the Edda, in which the happiest efforts of the Northern Genius are deposited. It has been mentioned, that Alfred lamented very impressively the happy times which England had known before his reign, and the wisdom, knowledge, and books, which then abounded. The period of intellectual cultivation to which he alluded began to dawn when Christianity was first planted; but was advanced to its meridian lustre towards the end of the seventh century, by two ecclésiastics, whom the pope sent into England. About the year 668, the English archbishop, who went to |