Siððan min on Englisc Ælfred kyning awende worda gehwelc, and me his writerum sende suð and norð; heht him swelcra má brengan bi ðære bisene, ðæt he his biscepum sendan meahte forðæm hi his sume ðorften, 15 ða ðe Lædenspræce læste cuðon. I append an alliterative translation, which runs almost line for line:— This epistle Augustine over salt sea brought from the south to us island-dwellers, just as it erst indited had been by Christ’s doughty soldier the Roman pontiff. Much right discourse 5. did Gregory of glowing wit give forth apace with skilful soul, a hoard of studious thought. He of mankind converted the most to the Ruler of heaven: he of Romans the best, of men the most learned and widest admired. 10. At length into English, Alfred the King wended[32] my every word: and me to his writers south and north sent out; more copies of such he bade them bring back, that he to his bishops might send, for some of them needed it, 15. those who with Latin speech had least acquaintance. A few notes may be useful here. In the first line the expression “This epistle” applies to the entire work, because it is addressed by Gregory to John, Bishop of Ravenna, and opens with a dedication in epistolary form. The poet has a warm feeling for the very manuscript he has been bending over, which he venerates as a sacred relic, because it was one of the books which were brought to this island by Augustine, Gregory’s chosen missionary. In lines 8-10 is there not a reminiscence of the closing lines of the _Beowulf_? At verse 11 there is an abrupt transition, and the after part is in an altered manner. The book itself becomes the speaker, and in the diction we recognise the manner of him who dictated to his goldsmith the now famous legend: ÆLFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN. In line 12 we should particularly note the assertion which is couched in the words “awende worda gehwelc,” a marked and idiomatic phrase which may be represented in Latin thus: “vertit verborum quodque,” _i.e._ translated every word. This does not point to any rule or restriction in the manner of rendering, as if the translator had tasked himself to a verbal fidelity, for in his first preface, speaking of this very work, he had plainly said that he had sometimes rendered word by word and sometimes sense for sense (hwilum word be worde, hwilum andgit of andgite). But what he meant to say was this, that whereas in his other translations he had used his originals as passive material to be wrought upon and converted as his own design and purpose guided him, he had treated Gregory’s _Pastoral Care_ as he would treat Scripture, wherein nothing could be added nor taken away.