God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James BibleHarper Collins, 2009 M10 13 - 336 pages NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK “This scrupulously elegant account of the creation of what four centuries of history has confirmed is the finest English-language work of all time, is entirely true to its subject: Adam Nicolson’s lapidary prose is masterly, his measured account both as readable as the curious demand and as dignified as the story deserves.” — Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa In God's Secretaries, Adam Nicolson gives a fascinating and dramatic account of the era of the King James Bible and its translation, immersing us in an age whose greatest monument is not a painting or a building but a book. A network of complex currents flowed across Jacobean England. This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon; the era of the Gunpowder Plot and the worst outbreak of the plague. Jacobean England was both more godly and less godly than the country had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between these polarities. This was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment "Englishness," specifically the English language itself, had come into its first passionate maturity. The English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own scope than any form of the language before or since. It drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more. |
From inside the book
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... wanted the status of originators or ' authors ' - a word at which one of their Directors , Lancelot Andrewes , would visibly shudder . They took from Tyndale because Tyndale had done well , not perfectly and not always with an ear for ...
... wanted only one outcome : an end to war , so that trade could be resumed . Religious differences had been buried by the Eliza- bethan regime : both Roman Catholics , who wanted England to return to the fold of the Roman Church , and the ...
... wanted and believed in the possibilities of an encompassing peace . He adopted as his motto the words from the Sermon on the Mount , Beati Pacifici , Blessed are the Peacemakers , a phrase which , in the aftermath of a European century ...
... wanted to know what letters Carey brought with him from the English Council , but Carey had to confess he had none . This was private enterprise , against the wishes of the English Secretary of State , Robert Cecil , and the only sign ...
... wanted was to turn the English Church into anything resembling the church of John Knox and George Buchanan ? Again , no answer . Others clustered in their sycophancy . Sir Oliver Cromwell , uncle of the regicide , came to pay his ...
Contents
1 | |
2 | |
20 | |
He sate among graue learned and reuerend | 42 |
Faire and softly goeth | 62 |
am for the medium in all things xi I | 84 |
20 | 85 |
The danger never dreamt of that is the danger | 105 |
The grace of the fashion of | 198 |
Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut vp his tender mercies? | 216 |
APPENDICES | 228 |
A The Sixteenthcentury Bible | 247 |
Chronology | 261 |
62 | 274 |
105 | 276 |
ལུ༠ཚŞརྗེནི ཝིཛྫིཥྞཾ 117 137 147 | 277 |
O lett me bosome thee lett me preserve thee next to my heart | 117 |
We have twice and thrice so much scope for oure earthlie peregrination | 137 |
When we do luxuriate and grow riotous in the gallantnesse of this world | 147 |
True Religion is in no way a gargalisme only | 173 |
173 | 278 |
216 | 280 |