Then will thine eyes become so clear

That thou mayst so widely

Over all the world

See afterwards,

And the throne of himself,

Thy Lord, and have
His grace henceforward.
Thou mightest Adam
Afterwards rule,

If thou his affection have,
And he trust in thy words.
If thou soothly say to him
What monitions thou thyself
Hast in thy breast,

Wherefore thou God's mandate

By persuasion hast performed;
He the hateful strife,

The evil answer,
Will abandon

In his breast's recess;

So we both to him

One purpose speak:

Urge thou him zealously,

That he may follow thy instruction,
Lest ye hateful to God,
Your Lord,

Accuseth me of untruths,

Sayeth that I am anxious for mischiefs,

A servant of the malignant,

Not God's angel.

But I so readily know all

The angels' origins,

The roofs of the high heavens,-
So long was the while
That I diligently
Served God,
Through faithful mind,
My Master,

The Lord himself,-
I am not like a devil."
He led her thus with lies,
And with wiles instigated
The woman to that evil,
Until began within her
The serpent's counsel boil
(To her a weaker mind had

The Creator assigned),

So that she her mood

Began relax, after these allurements;

Therefore she of the enemy received,

Against the Lord's word,

Of death's tree

The noxious fruit.

Then to her spouse she spake :

"Adam, my lord,

This fruit is so sweet,

Mild in the breast;

And this bright messenger,

God's angel good.

I by his habit see

That he is the envoy
Of our Lord,
Heaven's King;

His favour it is for us
Better to gain

Than his aversion.

If thou to him this day
Spake aught of harm,
Yet will he it forgive,
If we to him obedience
Will show.

What shall profit thee such hateful strife

With thy Lord's messenger?

To us is his favor needful;

He may bear our errands

To the All-powerful,

Heavenly King.

I can see from thence

Where He himself sitteth,
That is south-east,
With bliss encircled,

Him who formed this world;

I see his angels
Encompass him

With feathery wings,
Of all folks greatest,
Of bands most joyous.
Who could to me

Such perception give
If now it

God did not send,
Heaven's Ruler?
I can hear from far,
And so widely see,

Through the whole world,
Over the broad Creation;

I can the joy of the firmament
Hear in heaven;

It became light to me in mind,
From without and from within,
After the fruit I tasted.

I now have of it,

Here in my hand,

My good lord,

I will fain give it thee;

I believe that it

Came from God,

Brought by his command,

From what this messenger told me
With cautious words;

It is not like to aught
Else on earth:

But, so this messenger sayeth,—

That it directly came from God."
She spake to him oft,

Full freedom,

That he may arrive

At the felicities

For the good of souls;

For that is the only rest

Of all labours;

The desirable haven

To the lofty ships

Of our mind,

A great tranquil station;
That is the only haven
Which ever is,

After the waves
Of our labours,
And every storm,
Always calm.

That is the refuge,
And the only comfort,
Of all the wretched,

After these

Worldly labours.

That is a pleasant place,

After these miseries,

To possess.

But I well know,

That neither golden vessels,

Nor heaps of silver,

Nor precious stones,

Nor the wealth of the middle earth,

The eyes of the mind

Ever enlighten;

Nor aught improve
Their sharpness
To the contemplation
Of true felicities;

But they rather

The mind's eyes

Of every man

Make blind in their breasts,

Than make them clearer.

For everything

That in this present

Life delights

Are poor
Earthly things,

Ever fleeting!

But wonderful is that
Splendor and brightness
Which every one of things
With splendour enlightens,
And afterwards
Entirely rules.

The Ruler wills not
That our souls
Shall perish;

But he himself will them
With a ray illumine,-
The Ruler of life!
If, then, any man,
With the clear eyes
Of his mind, may
Ever behold

The clear brightness
Of heaven's light,
Then will he say

That the brightness of the sun

Is darkness;

So every man,
Compared with
That great light
Of God Almighty,
That is to every soul
Eternal without end,
To blessed souls.

Discover to the skies The right path

To the eternal region

Of our souls.

King Alfred's Metres of Boethius.-About 880.

9.-THE SAILING OF BEOWULF.

Famous was Beowulf;

Wide sprang the blood

Which the heir of the Shylds

Shed on the lands.

So shall the bracelets
Purchase endeavor,
Freely presented
As by thy fathers;
And all the young men,
As is their custom,
Cling round their leader
Soon as the war comes.
Lastly, thy people

The deeds shall bepraise

Which their men have performed.
When the Shyld had awaited
The time he should stay,

Came many to face

On the billows so free.
His ship they bore out
To the brim of the ocean,
And his comrades sat down
At their oars as he bade:

A word could control

His good fellows, the Shylds.
There, at the Hythe,

Stood his old father,

Long to look after him.

The band of his comrades,

Eager for outfit,
Forward the Atheling.
Then all the people
Cheered their loved lord,
The giver of bracelets.
On the deck of the ship
He stood by the mast.
There was a treasure,
Won from afar,
Laden on board.

Ne'er did I hear

Of a vessel appointed
Better for battle,
With weapons of war,
And waistcoats of wool,

And axes and swords.

Modernized by W. Taylor.-About 900.

10. AN OLD MAN'S SORROW.

Careful, sorrowing,

He seeth in his son's bower

The wine-hall deserted,

The resort of the wind noiseless.

The knight sleepeth;

The warrior, in darkness.

There is not there

Noise of the harp,

Joy in the dwellings,

As there was before.

Then departeth he into songs,

Singeth a lay of sorrow,

One after one ;—

All seemed to him too wide,

The plains and the dwelling-place.

Modernized by John M. Kemble.-About 900.

II. GOOD NIGHT.

The night-helm grew dusky,
Dark over the vassals;

The court all rose,

The mingled-haired
Old Scylding

Would visit his bed;
The Geat wished the
Renowned warrior to rest
Immeasurably well.
Soon him the foreigner,
Weary of his journey,

The hall-thane guided forth,
Who, after a fitting manner,
Provided all that

The thane needed,
Whatsoever that day

The sailors over the deep
Should have.

The magnanimous warrior restel.
The house rose aloft,

Carved and variegated with gold;
The stranger slept therein
Until the pale raven,
Blithe of heart,

Announced the joy of heaven,
The bright sun, to be come.

Modernized by John M. Kemble.—About 900.

THE SONG OF SUMMER.

Summer is a coming in,

Loud sing, cuckow;

Groweth seed, and bloweth mead, And springeth the wood now,

Sing, cuckow, cuckow.

Ewe bleateth after lamb,
Loweth calf after cow,

Bullock starteth, buck departeth,

Merry sing, cuckow,
Cuckow, cuckow.

Well singeth the cuckow,
Nor cease to sing now;

Sing cuckow, now,

Sing cuckow.

Modernized by Warton.-About 1785.

13. THE MUSTER FOR THE FIRST CRUSADE.

A good pope was thilk time at Rome, that hecht Urban,

That preached of the creyserie, and creysed mony man.

Therefore he send preachers through all Christendom,

And himself a-this-side the mounts and to France come;

And preached so fast, and with so great wisdom,

That about in each lond the cross fast me

nome.

In the year of grace a thousand and sixteen, This great creyserie began, that long was i-seen.

Of so much folk nymo the cross, ne to the holy land go,

Me ne see no time before, ne suth nathemo. For self women ne beleved, that they no wend thither fast,

Ne young folk [that] feeble were, the while the voyage y-last.

So that Robert Curthose thitherward his heart cast,

And, among other good knights, ne thought not be the last.

He wonds here to Englond for the creysorie, And laid William his brother to wed Nor

mandy,

And borrowed of him thereon an hundred thousand mark,

To wend with to the holy lond, and that was somedcal stark.

The Earl Robert of Flanders mid him wend

also,

And Eustace Earl of Boulogne, and mony good knight thereto.

There wend the Duke Geoffrey, and the Earl Baldwin there,

And the other Baldwin also, that noble men

were,

And kings syth all three of the holy lond. The Earl Stephen de Blois wend eke, that great power had on hond,