they shall go ashore and await the return of their master. In the
Greek the disciples answer: "If we leave thee, then shall we be
strangers to those good things which the Lord hath promised unto us.
Therefore will we abide with thee, wherever thou go."[1] In the Old
English :--

O whither shall we turn us, lordless men,
Mourning in heart, forsaken quite by God,
Wounded with sin, if we abandon thee?
We shall be odious in every land,
Hated of every folk, when sons of men,
Courageous warriors, in council sit,
And question which of them did best stand by
His lord in battle, when the hand and shield,
Worn out by broadswords on the battle-plain,
Suffered sore danger in the sport of war. (405-414.)

[Footnote 1: Bede, _Hist. Eccl._ IV. 2.]

There is in the Greek no trace of the Teutonic idea of loyalty to a
lord, which is the ruling motive of the Old English lines.

But did the poet read the legend in the Greek? The study of that
language had, it is true, been introduced into England in the seventh
century by Archbishop Theodore[1], but we can hardly assume that
this study was very general. Moreover, there are several important
variations between the poem and the _Acts of Andrew and Matthew_,
facts wanting in the Greek, which the poet could not possibly have
invented. For example, the poem states that Andrew was in Achaia when
he received the mission to Mermedonia. In the Greek we find no mention