ALFRED THE GREAT
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ew men have crowded so much into fifty-two years of life as Kin^^Alfred and Shakespeare. Alfred was remarkable as a man of actionon the heroic scale. When he received the sceptre at twenty-threeyears of age, he found his kingdom broken and disheartened under theassaults of the Danes, and had to give up his throne for a time. Hetackled his troubles bravely and with rare clear-sightedness. Therewas no navy, so he learned how to build ships and make war with them.He led his army in person, and after playing the spy in the guise of awandering minstrel in the enemy's camp, he thrashed them soundlyand unified his enlarged kingdom. The fighting over, Alfred indulged his noble hobby of spreading ataste for letters and learning among all ranks of his people. Scholarswere few in those turbulent days. He engaged Alcuin, the learnedFrenchman, to live at his court, where he held the place of honor. TheKing himself established schools for the sons of the nobility and taughtin them. To instil patriotic pride in the hearts of the common people,Alfred used to go familiarly among them in their homes in the even-ings, and sing to them the ballads that told of struggles and victories,and the romance of heroism. He believed rightly that the short cutto the national heart is through music and rhymed story. For the learned class, and a loving posterity, Alfred rendered thework of Boethius into English, of which an example is here given. Itis a free paraphrase, embodying much of his own experience andviews. Part of it he put into verse. Alfred knew the seamy side oflife, its troubles, difficulties, and sorrows. In his Preface, he patheti-cally pleads for lenient judgment if his translated passages are lessfaithful as to meaning than they might be. *' For every man must ac-cording to the measure of his understanding, and his leisure, speak thatwhich he speaketh and do that which he doeth." Alfred was bom in849, and died in 901, revered by his people as ''England's darling."
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