=1. Alfred (848–900).= Though there were some prose writings of an official nature (such as the laws of Ine, who died about 730) before the time of Alfred, there can be little objection to the claim frequently made for him, that he is “the father of English prose.” As he tells us himself in his preface to the _Pastoral Care_, he was driven into authorship by the lamentable state of English learning, due in large measure to the depredations of the Danes. Even the knowledge of Latin was evaporating, so the King, in order to preserve some show of learning among the clergy, was compelled to translate some popular monastic handbooks into his own tongue. These works are his contribution to our literature. As he says, they were often “interpreted word for word, and meaning for meaning”; but they are made much more valuable by reason of the original passages freely introduced into them. The books, four in number, are an able selection from the popular treatises of the day: the _Universal History_ of Orosius; the _Ecclesiastical History_ of Bede; the _Pastoral Care_ of Pope Gregory; and the _Consolation of Philosophy_ of Boëthius. His claim to the translation of Bede is sometimes disputed; and there is a fifth work, a _Handbook_ or commonplace book, which has been lost. The chronological order of the translations cannot be determined, but they were all written during the last years of the reign. We add a brief extract to illustrate his prose style. It is not a highly polished style; it is rather that of an earnest but somewhat unpracticed writer. When it is simplest it is best; in its more complicated passages it is confusing and involved. The vocabulary is simple and unforced.