Royal Authority in the Biblical Quotations of the Old English Pastoral Care

Abstract

The Old English Pastoral Care, a late-ninth-century translation of Gregory the Great’s Regula pastoralis attributed to Alfred the Great, is a text without a clear authorial voice. Gregory’s authorial presence is hinted at in the metrical preface and epilogue to the translation, but is curiously absent from the prose preface. Here, at the very beginning of the text, the authorial voice is that of King Alfred. Whether or not Alfred was actually responsible for translating the Regula pastoralis, as the prose preface claims, his voice and presence resonate throughout the translation. The king’s persona re-voices not only Gregory’s words, but the many biblical quotations that Gregory relies upon to support his argument. The royal authority natural to a king is compounded with the textual authority that comes through translating and therefore re-voicing a canonical text such as the Regula pastoralis, and this is nowhere more significant than in the translations of biblical quotations. Here, the Alfred-persona re-voices biblical figures such as King David, King Solomon, the evangelists and Christ Himself. In the translations of these quotations, Alfred’s royal authority is shored up by the echoes of these voices from Scripture. This article finds examples of where the wording of these translated quotations represents ideology, and even phraseology, found elsewhere in Alfredian documents. Through appropriation of scriptural voice, Alfredian ideals such as wisdom, moderate use of resources and a ruler’s humility are given unquestionable authoritative backing.