Page:King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius.djvu/310

246 24^ Notes

p. 149. For It is nli^ vnto tho timA, &c. Alfred may here be allnding to himidf and Ills literary plans.

P. 151. Thii long and tedious simQe of the wheel was suggested by a co mm entary.

P. 155. Tbe wise man of old said, &c This is appa- rently a wild shot by Alfred at the meaning of the Greek quotation, iofbpbt ^ 2^o8 8^/iar ai$4p€f oiUcM/ufiray, A quotation from Lucan is omitted, and further on a line from thtlHad.

P. 162. Ahl ye wise men, &c. The Latin carmen contains an account of the labours of Hercules, and numerous other mythological allusions, none of which are noticed by Alfred, who merely expands and reiterates the central idea.

P. 164. Bk. V. metr. i is omitted.

P. 165. Though Homer, Sec Alfred means that Homer was Virgil's master and model in poetry. In metr. zxx, how- ever, he U caUed Virgil's * friend.'

P. 166. I can answer this point very easily, &c. Hence- forward to the end of the book Alfred entirely recasts his originaL Boethius' language becomes abstract and difficult, and could hardly have been rendered even freely into the English of Alfred's day.

P. 167. Bk. V. metr. 3 is omitted, and also metr. 4.

P. 175. At the end of the book comes a prayer in the later MS., but it is probably a late addition.