As It Were in Ye Olden Dayes

The author once said, "The King James Version is a wonderful monument of Elizabethan English that should respectfully be permitted to rest in peace." But since then he has changed his mind: as far as Bible versions go, the King James Version was translated by scholars who were also wordsmiths, and for that matter generalists, whilst the modern versions are specialist-only endeavors that do not involve wordsmiths, even by involving wordsmiths alongside the Greek or Hebrew specialists. And he has come closer to the position; "The problem with the King James Version is the translators' shaky grasp of Hebrew. The problem with modern versions is the translators' increasingly shaky grasp of English."

And this is to set aside the beauty of Elizabethan English, which is an objet d'art in its own right. The reason the author has read from an original spelling 1611 King James Version is much less the respect he gained while studying Greek, much more the beauty of the language itself.

Some of his works are written in Elizabethan English, and they bear the language's particular beauty. The canon of beautiful works in such English is not a closed canon; it provides the language of choice for many ecclesiastical works, and it adds something to poetry. Current fashions may lean in the opposite direction, but something is genuinely lost from poetry if we lose Elizabethan English.

You are invited to enjoy the enclosed works.

Table of Contents

Preface

Akathist Hymn to St. Philaret the Merciful

Death

Doxology

Glory

Hymn to the Creator of Heaven and Earth

The Labyrinth

Pilgrim

Why this Waste?

A Yoke that Is Easy and a Burden that Is Light

The Sign of the Grail