and battle-songs. Prose she had none. The mighty roll of the prose books that fill her libraries begins with the translations of Alfred, and, above all, with the chronicles of his reign. It seems likely the king's rendering of Bede's history gave the first impulse towards the compilation of what is known as the English or Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was certainly thrown into its present form during his reign."

It is not known when the work commonly called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was commenced; but its earliest entries are exceedingly simple and crude, and, as above quoted, it did not assume its more complete and comprehensive form until in the reign of Alfred. At first it was little more than a record of the births and the deaths of kings and bishops, and it was confined mainly to the affairs of West Saxony. At its best, it is but a meagre recital of passing events, some of them of real historical importance, others of an exceedingly trivial character. And yet it is, in many instances, our only authority for the history of the occurrences which transpired in Anglo-Saxon England; without it, English history must have forever remained incomplete. The Chronicle opens with a brief description of the island of Britain, and an account of the Roman invasion and occupation, compiled, doubtless, from Bede's Ecclesiastical History. Up to the year 853 the entries are very brief, sometimes but a single line being required to relate the events of an entire year. In Alfred's reign fuller and more numerous details begin to be made, and the Chronicle finally becomes not only an historical record of no small importance, but also the occasional repository of songs and other poetical effusions. The last entry was made in 1154, nearly a century after the Conquest, and describes the occasion of the death of Stephen and the accession of Henry II.

On this yaer waerd the King Stephen ded, and bebyried there his wif and his sune waeron bebyried aet Tauresfeld. That minstre he makiden. Tha the king was ded, tha was the eorl beionde sae.

And ne durste nan man done other bute god for the micel eie of him. Tha he to Engleland come, tha was he underfangen mid micel wortscipe; and to king bletcaed in Lundine, on the Sunnendaei beforen mid-winter daei.

Speaking of the writers of this Chronicle, M. Taine remarks: "They lisped, awkwardly and heavily, dry chronicles, a sort of historical almanacs. You might think them peasants, who, returning from their toil, came and scribbled with chalk on a smoky table the date of a year of scarcity, the price of corn, the changes in the weather, a death. Even so, side by side with the meagre Bible chronicles, which set down the successions of kings and of Jewish massacres, are exhibited the exaltation of the psalms and the transports of prophecy. Thus the poor monks speak with monotonous dryness, who, after Alfred's time, gather up and take note of great visible events; sparsely scattered we find a few moral reflections, a passionate emotion, nothing more."

Yet the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, to quote the words of a noted English writer, "varying as it does from age to age in historic value, remains the first vernacular history of any Teutonic people, and save for the Gothic translations of Ulfilas, the earliest and most memorable monument of Teutonic prose."

After the time of King Alfred, notwithstanding the efforts which that monarch had made in favor of a revival of learning, and the partial success of those efforts, but few additions were made to the scanty prose literature of the Anglo-Saxons. "Alfred himself was almost the last man of culture; he, like Charlemagne, became so only by dint of determination and patience. In vain the great spirits of this age endeavor to link themselves to the relics of the fine, ancient civilization, and to raise themselves above the chaotic and muddy ignorance in which the others flounder. They rise almost alone, and on their death the rest sink again into the mire."

The Latin histories of Nennius and of Gildas probably belong to an earlier period than the time of Alfred, but the real date of their composition is unknown. From internal evidence, we are led to believe that Nennius was a Welshman, and that his book was written as early as the first years of the ninth century. It is interesting as being a History of the Britons by a Briton, and in it we find the earliest mention of that half-mythical King Arthur who afterwards becomes so prominent in the romantic literature of England and of France:

Then it was that the magnanimous Arthur, with all the king and military forces of Britain, fought against the Saxons. And though there were many more noble than himself, yet he was twelve times chosen their commander, and was as often conqueror. The first battle in which he was engaged was at the mouth of the river Gleni. The second, third, fourth, and fifth were on another river, by the Britons called Duglas, in the region of Linuis. The sixth, on the river Bassas. The seventh, in the wood Celidon, which the Britons call Cat Coit Celidon. The eighth was near Gurnion Castle, where Arthur bore the image of the Holy Virgin, mother of God, upon his shoulders, and through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Mary, put the Saxons to flight, and pursued them the whole day with great slaughter. The ninth was at the city of Legion, which is called Cair Lion. The tenth was on the banks of the river Trat Treuroit. The eleventh was on the mountain Breguoin, which we call Cat Bregion. The twelfth was a most severe contest, when Arthur penetrated to the hill of Badon. In this engagement nine hundred and forty fell by his hand alone, no one but the Lord affording him assistance. In all these engagements the Britons were successful. For no strength can avail against the will of the Almighty.

The work of Gildas, narrating The Subjection of the Britons, although sometimes ascribed to Nennius, belongs doubtless to an earlier period. Nothing is known of Gildas or of the time in which he lived; but from certain statements found here and there in his history it seems. probable that, like Nennius, he was a Briton, that he was

a zealous priest or monk, and that he lived not later than the seventh century. In his preface he thus briefly announces the plan of his work:

I will, therefore, if God be willing, endeavor to say a few words about the situation of Britain, her disobedience and subjection, her rebellion, second subjection, and dreadful slavery; of her religion, persecution, holy martyrs, heresies of different kinds; of her tyrants, her two hostile and ravaging nations; of her first devastation, her defense, her second devastation, and second taking vengeance; of her third devastation, of her famine, and the letters to Etius; of her victory and her crimes; of the sudden rumor of enemies; of her famous pestilence; of her counsels; of her last enemy, far more cruel than the first; of the subversion of her cities, and of the remnant that escaped; and, finally, of the peace which, by the will of God, has been granted her in these, our times.

Asser, the Welsh bishop, to whom we have already alluded, is believed to have written a Life of Alfred the Great, to which we are indebted for much interesting information concerning the character and acts of that sovereign. In its present form this work contains many interpolations and additions made by later hands, and these have led some critics to doubt the authenticity of the work. But the preponderance of internal, as well as external, evidence goes to show that, aside from the interpolations, it is the genuine production of the Welsh preacher and teacher. It was doubtless written soon after the death of Alfred, in the early part of the tenth century, and, although composed in Latin, may be considered the first biography belonging to our literature.

Near the close of the tenth century, Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, and the famous Dunstan, at that time Abbot of Glastonbury, desiring to establish greater strictness in the rule and management of the monasteries, prepared some books and treatises upon that subject. Ethelwold translated into Anglo-Saxon Benedict's Rule of a Monastic Life, and Dunstan, besides writing an adaptation

of the same work, produced a Commentary on the Benedictine Rule. Of course, neither of these books exerted any appreciable influence upon the subsequent literature of England, but they assist to illustrate the fact that, during the Middle Ages, books and learning were considered appropriate only to the clergy and the monastic profession. Dunstan, as every student of history knows, was the most remarkable man of his time-"the first in a long line of ecclesiastical statesmen, who counted among them Lanfranc and Wolsey, and ended in Laud." But, notwithstanding the extent and the variety of his attainments, his influence upon his contemporaries and upon posterity was rather of a political than a literary character.

One of the last of the Anglo-Saxon prose writers was Elfric, a pupil of Bishop Ethelwold's, and for some time. Abbot of Malmesbury. He is frequently called Ælfric the Grammarian, in order to distinguish him from two other Elfrics who lived and wrote at about the same time. His chief work is a series of eighty Homilies on the Gospels, and the lives of the saints, compiled, with additions, from the writings of the early Fathers. He was the author, also, of numerous other theological treatises now no longer extant; and he is said to have translated the book of Job and the five books of Moses into the Anglo-Saxon vernacular. As a teacher and an admirer of the Latin language, he wrote a Latin Grammar, a Latin Colloquium, or conversation book, and a Latin Glossary. The first of these was based on the work of Priscianus, a Roman grammarian of the sixth century. The second is written in the form of a dialogue, in which pupils desiring to be taught answer questions in regard to their several trades. The third is worth remembering as having been the first Latin-English dictionary ever written. Elfric also dabbled, to some degree, in science, such as it was known at that time,—and, according to some accounts, wrote the first scientific treatise ever penned by an Englishman-a little volume entitled A Manual of Astronomy.