IT is said by Mr. James Miller Dodds that Coverdale “introduced into the English Bible that sweetness and melody never afterwards lost—‘the true concord of well-tuned sounds’—to which it owes so much of its subtle and evanescent charm of style.” It is hard to conceive a higher compliment of its kind than this, as the translator who is responsible for such psalms as “The Lord Is My Shepherd” in the King James Bible, had an almost Homeric ear for the melody of language. He is as truly a musical composer as he is a translator. Coverdale was born in Yorkshire. After leaving the college of the Augustine friars at Cambridge, he became a member of their order by ordination at Norwich in 1514. Adopting the opinions of the Reformers, he went abroad and assisted Tyndale in translating the Bible. His own version appeared first in 1535, when Henry VIII. had broken with the Pope. This was the first complete version from the Greek published in English. In 1540 the “Great [Cranmer’s] Bible” was published under Coverdale’s supervision. In 1551 he was appointed Bishop of Exeter, and on Mary’s accession was imprisoned and exiled. Under Elizabeth he returned to England. His writings have been edited for the Parker Society.