Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/118

 ALFRED. DeGeft. A eg. Ar.g p. 46. fider the qualifications of this prince, and the many virtue? he poflefTed, we need not wonder that he died univerfally la- mented, which happened after a reign of above twenty-eight years, and on the 28th of Oclober, A. D. 900, as fome writers inform us ; though there is a difagreement in thfs particular, even amongftour bed hirtorians. He was buried in the cathedral of Wincherter; but the canons of that church pretending they were d'rllurbed by hisghoft, his fon and fue- ceflbr Edward caufed his body to be removed to the new mo- nailery, which was left unfinished at his death. Here it re- mained till the difldlutkm of monafteries, when Dr. Richard Fox, bilhop of Winchester, caufed the bones of all our Saxon kings to be collected and put into cherts of lead, with infcrip- tions upon each of them, fhewing whofe bones they contain- ed ; thefe cherts he took care to have placed on the top of a wall of exquifite workmanlhip, built by him to inclofe the prefbytery of the cathedral. Henry of Huntingdon honour- ed the memory of this prince with the following copy of LeiandCom. Latin verfes. : Script. Nobilitas innata tibi probitatis honorem, Armipotens jElfrede, dedit ; probitafque laborem ; Perpetuumque labor nomen ; cui rnixta dolore Gaudia femper erant, femper fpes mixta timori. Si modo vidtor eras, ad craftina bella parabas ; Si modo victus eras, ad craftina bella parabas. Cui vefles fudore jugi, cui ficca cruore Tinclajugi, quantum fit onus regnare probarunt, Non fuit immenfi quifquam per climata mundi. Cui tot in adverfis, vel refpirare liceret ; Nee tatnen aut ferro contritus ponere ferrum, Speed's Chron. p. 945- Brit. p. 1 52, 76. " Afferii Sententia?, lib. I. The f* Sayings of Atferius, in one Bock." 17. " Martianm Leges, lib. I. Th ' Laws of queen Marthia, vidow of " Guithelinus, in one Book." 18. " Malmutins Leges, lib. I. The ' LavB of Malnritins, in one Book." 19. " Geflse Anglorum Bed;v, lib. V. ' The Deeds of the Englifh, in- five ' Books, by Bede :" a copy of which is in the public library at Cambridge, with the following.diftich thereupon, (Spel- man's Life of /Elfred, p. 211.) Hiftoricus quonJam fecit me Beda La- tinum, rex Saxo trandulit tile prius. 20. " ^fopi Fabula?. " Fables:" which he is fa id to have tranfkued from the Greek both into Latin and Saxon, 2T. " PAIterium D.ivrdicum, lib. I. " D.'vid's Pl'alter, in one Book." This was the laft work the king attempted, death furprifing him before he had finifh- ed it ; it was however complett-d by ano- ther hand, and publiftied at London in 1640, in quarto, by fir John Spelnun. Belides all thefe, Malmeflniry rren- tions };is tranflatiny many Latin authonj and the old Hiflory of Ely allerts, that he tran dated the Old and New Tefra- meots. Malmfb. de Geft. Reg. Any. p-. 45. Hift, Elien. lib. ji. Aut