 The
Consolation of Philosophy (Oxford World's Classics) by
Boethius, Peterg. Walsh (Editor), Peter Walsh (Editor)
Boethius composed De Consolation Philosophiae in the sixth
century A.D. while awaiting death by torture, condemned on a charge of
plotting against Gothic rule, which he protested as manifestly unjust.
Though a Christian, Boethius details the true end of life as the soul's
knowledge of God, and consoles himself with the tenets of Greek
philosophy, not with Christian precepts. Written in a form called
Meippean Satire that alternates between prose and verse, Boethius' work
often consists of a story told by Ovid or Horace to illustrate the
philosophy being expounded. The Consolation of Philosophy dominated the
intellectual world of the Middle Ages; it inspired writers as diverse
Thomas Aquinas, Jean de Meun, and Dante. In England it was rendered into
Old English by Alfred the Great, into Middle English by Geoffrey
Chaucer, and later Queen Elizabeth I made her own translation. The
circumstances of composition, the heroic demeanor of the author, and the
Meippean texture of part prose, part verse have been a fascination for
students of philosophy, literature, and religion ever since.
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