acafan strikes again!

[bedlamsbard]

*doe eyes* Reading Keynes' Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources for my Medieval England class (<3<3<3), and while I'm not actually reading the Asser, I am reading the stuff Alfred translated, and as I do, I feel the urge to post QUOTES. (Sadly, I cannot find the entry where I posted bits of Machiavelli's The Prince.)

XVII. [...]You know of course that no one can make known any skill, nor direct and guide any authority, without tools and resources; a man cannot work on any enterprise without resources. In the case of the king, the resources and toold with which to rule are that he have is land full manned: he must have praying men, fighting men and working men. You know also that without these tools no king may make his ability known. Another aspect of his resources is that he must have the means of support for his tools, the three classes of men. These, then, are their means of support: land to live on, gifts, weapons, food, ale, clothing, and whatever else is necessary for each of the three classes of men. Without these things he cannot maintain the tools, nor without the tools can he accomplish any of the things he was commanded to do. Accordingly, I sought the resources with which to exercise the authority, in order that my skills and power would not be forgotten and concealed: because every skill and every authority is soon obsolete and passed over, if it is without wisdom; because no man may bring to bear any skill without wisdom. For whatever is done unthinkingly, cannot be reckoned a skill.

XXVII.₃ [Wisdom speaking]: 'The empty hopes and fancies of foolish men suppose that power and prosperity are the highest good; but it is quite otherwise. When rich men are either in a foreign land or in the company of wise men in their native land, both the wise men and the foreigners count their riches for naught, since they realize that they owe their position not to any ability but to the praise of foolish people. But if they derived any trace of particular or natural good from their power, they would retain this even if they forfeited the power: they would not forfeit this natural good, but it would always adhere to them and they would always behave honourably, no matter what land they found themselves in.'

- Translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy
Keynes, Simon. Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. New York: Penguin Books, 1983.

*dreamily* I like the idea of Peter reading this post-LWW or post-PC in England. Okay, well, not this exact translation, but you know what I mean.

Comments

[juliekarasik]

Oh *yes*. And cribbing notes in the margins that would really puzzle and possibly horrify his professors.

[bedlamsbard]

I feel that most of his life is spent puzzling and horrifying people for one reason or another. *happy*

[harpers_child]

i will bribe you with home cooked food to write down peter's notes.

[bedlamsbard]

*perks up* This would probably count as studying for my midterm next week, which is on Alfred the Great... (Yes. I have a midterm the third week of class.)