FOOTNOTES:

Non tham says as thai tham wrought,& in ther sayng it semes noght.[116]

A confusion of pronouns makes it difficult to understand what he considers the fault of contemporary renderings. Possibly it is that affectation of an obsolete style to which Caxton refers in the preface to theEneydos. In any case, he himself rejects "straunge Inglis" for "simple speche."

Unlike Robert of Brunne, Andrew of Wyntoun, writingat the beginning of the next century, delights in the ornamental style which has added a charm to ancient story.

Quharfore of sic antiquiteisThei that set haly thare deliteGestis or storyis for to write,Flurist fairly thare purposeWith quaynt and curiouse circumstance,For to raise hertis in plesance,And the heraris till exciteBe wit or will to do thare delite.[117]

The "antiquiteis" which he has in mind are obviously the tales of Troy. Guido delle Colonne, Homer, and Virgil, he continues, all

Fairly formyt there tretyss,And curiously dytit there storyis.[118]

Some writers, however, did not adopt the elevated style which such subject matter deserves.

Sum usit bot in plane manerOf air done dedis thar materTo writ, as did Dares of Frigy,That wrait of Troy all the story,Bot in till plane and opin style,But curiouse wordis or subtile.[119]

Andrew does not attempt to discuss the application of his theory to English style, but he has perhaps suggested the reason why the question of style counted for so much in connection with this pseudo-historical material. In the introduction to Barbour'sBruce, though the point at issue is not translation, there is a similar idea. According to Barbour, a true story has a special claim to an attractive rendering.

Storyss to rede ar delitabill,Supposs that thai be nocht bot fabill;Than suld storyss that suthfast wer,And thai war said in gud maner,Have doubill plesance in heryng.The fyrst plesance is the carpyng,And the tothir the suthfastness,That schawys the thing rycht as it wes.[120]

Lydgate, Wyntoun's contemporary, apparently shared his views. In translating Boccaccio'sFalls of Princeshe dispenses with stylistic ornament.

Of freshe colours I toke no maner hede.But my processe playnly for to lede:As me semed it was to me most meteTo set apart Rethorykes swete.[121]

But when it came to the Troy story, his matter demanded a different treatment. He calls upon Mars

To do socour my stile to directe,And of my penne the tracys to correcte,Whyche bareyn is of aureate licour,But in thi grace I fynde som favourFor to conveye it wyth thyn influence.[122]

He also asks aid of Calliope.

Now of thy grace be helpyng unto me,And of thy golde dewe lat the lycour weteMy dulled breast, that with thyn hony sweteSugrest tongis of rethoricyens,And maistresse art to musicyens.[123]

Like Wyntoun, Lydgate pays tribute to his predecessors, the clerks who have kept in memory the great deeds of the past

... thorough diligent labour,And enlumyned with many corious flourOf rethorik, to make us comprehendThe trouthe of al.[124]

Of Guido in particular he writes that he

... had in writyng passynge excellence.For he enlumyneth by craft & cadenceThis noble story with many fresch colourOf rethorik, & many riche flourOf eloquence to make it sownde betHe in the story hath ymped in and set,That in good feyth I trowe he hath no pere.[125]

None of these men point out the relationship between the style of the original and the style to be employed in the English rendering. Caxton, the last writer to be considered in this connection, remarks in his preface toThe Recuyell of the Histories of Troyon the "fair language of the French, which was in prose so well and compendiously set and written," and in the prologue to theEneydostells how he was attracted by the "fair and honest terms and words in French," and how, after writing a leaf or two, he noted that his English was characterized by "fair and strange terms." While it may be that both Caxton and Lydgate were trying to reproduce in English the peculiar quality of their originals, it is more probable that they beautified their own versions as best they could, without feeling it incumbent upon them to make their rhetorical devices correspond with those of their predecessors. Elsewhere Caxton expresses concern only for his own language, as it is to be judged by English readers without regard for the qualities of the French. In most cases he characterizes his renderings of romance as "simple and rude"; in the preface toCharles the Greathe says that he uses "no gay terms, nor subtle, nor new eloquence"; and in the preface toBlanchardyn and Eglantinehe declares that he does not know "the art of rhetoric nor of such gay terms as now be said in these days and used," and that his only desire is to be understood by his readers.The prologue to theEneydos, however, tells a different story. According to this he has been blamed for expressing himself in "over curious terms which could not be understood of the common people" and requested to use "old and homely terms." But Caxton objects to the latter as being also unintelligible. "In my judgment," he says, "the common terms that be daily used, are lighter to be understood than the old and ancient English." He is writing, not for the ignorant man, but "only for a clerk and a noble gentleman that feeleth and understandeth in feats of arms, in love, and in noble chivalry." For this reason, he concludes, "in a mean have I reduced and translated this said book into our English, not over rude nor curious, but in such terms as shall be understood, by God's grace, according to the copy." Though Caxton does not avail himself of Wyntoun's theory that the Troy story must be told in "curious and subtle" words, it is probable that, like other translators of his century, he felt the attraction of the new aureate diction while he professed the simplicity of language which existing standards demanded of the translator.

Turning from the romance and the history and considering religious writings, the second large group of medieval productions, one finds the most significant translator's comment associated with the saint's legend, though occasionally the short pious tale or the more abstract theological treatise makes some contribution. These religious works differ from the romances in that they are more frequently based on Latin than on French originals, and in that they contain more deliberate and more repeated references to the audiences to which they have been adapted. The translator does not, like Caxton, write for "a clerk and a noble gentleman"; instead he explains repeatedly that he has striven to make his work understandable to the unlearned, for, as the author ofThe Child of Bristowpertinently remarks,

The beste song that ever was madeIs not worth a lekys bladeBut men wol tende ther-tille.[126]

Since Latin enditing is "cumbrous," the translator ofThe Blood at Haylespresents a version in English, "for plainly this the truth will tell";[127]Osbern Bokenam will speak and write "plainly, after the language of Southfolk speech";[128]John Capgrave, finding that the earlier translator of the life of St. Katherine has made the work "full hard ... right for the strangeness of his dark language," undertakes to translate it "more openly" and "set it more plain."[129]This conception of the audience, together with the writer's consciousness that even in presenting narrative he is conveying spiritual truths of supreme importance to his readers, probably increases the tendency of the translator to incorporate into his English version such running commentary as at intervals suggests itself to him. He may add a line or two of explanation, of exhortation, or, if he recognizes a quotation from the Scriptures or from the Fathers, he may supply the authority for it. John Capgrave undertakes to translate the life of St. Gilbert "right as I find before me, save some additions will I put thereto which men of that order have told me, and eke other things that shall fall to my mind in the writing which be pertinent to the matter."[130]Nicholas Love puts into EnglishThe Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, "with more put to in certain parts, and also with drawing out of divers authorities and matters as it seemeth to the writer hereof most speedful and edifying to them that be of simple understanding."[131]Such incidentalcitation of authority is evident inSt. Paula, published by Dr. Horstmann side by side with its Latin original.[132]With more simplicity and less display of learning, the translator of religious works sometimes vaguely adduces authority, as did the translator of romances, in connection with an unfamiliar name. One finds such statements as: "Manna, so it is written";[133]"Such a fiend, as the book tells us, is called Incubus";[134]"In the country of Champagne, as the book tells";[135]"Cursates, saith the book, he hight";[136]

Her body lyeth in strong castylleAnd Bulstene, seith the boke, it hight;[137]In the yer of ur lord of heveneFour hundred and eke elleveneWandaly the province tokOf Aufrike—so seith the bok.[138]

Her body lyeth in strong castylleAnd Bulstene, seith the boke, it hight;[137]

In the yer of ur lord of heveneFour hundred and eke elleveneWandaly the province tokOf Aufrike—so seith the bok.[138]

Often, however, the reference to source is introduced apparently at random. On the whole, indeed, the comment which accompanies religious writings does not differ essentially in intelligibility or significance from that associated with romances; its interest lies mainly in the fact that it brings into greater relief tendencies more or less apparent in the other form.

One of these is the large proportion of borrowed comment. The constant citation of authority in a work such as, for example,The Golden Legendwas likely to be reproduced in the English with varying degrees of faithfulness. ALife of St. Augustine, to choose a few illustrations from many, reproduces the Latin as in the following examples: "as thebook telleth us" replaces "dicitur enim"; "of him it is said in Glosarie," "ut dicitur in Glossario"; "in the book of his confessions the sooth is written for the nonce," "ut legitur in libro iii. confessionum."[139]Robert of Brunne'sHandlyng Synne, as printed by the Early English Text Society with its French original, affords numerous examples of translated references to authority.

The tale ys wrytyn, al and sum,In a boke of Vitas Patrum

corresponds with

Car en vn liure ai trouéQe Vitas Patrum est apelé;

Thus seyth seynt Anselme, that hit wroteTo thys clerkys that weyl hit wote

with

Ceo nus ad Seint Ancelme ditQe en la fey fut clerk parfit.

Yet there are variations in the English much more marked than in the last example. "Cum l'estorie nus ad cunté" has become "Yn the byble men mow hyt se"; while for

En ve liure qe est apelezLa sume des vertuz & des pechiez

the translator has substituted

Thys same tale tellyth seynt BedeYn hys gestys that men rede.[140]

This attempt to give the origin of a tale or of a precept more accurately than it is given in the French or the Latin leads sometimes to strange confusion, more especially when a reference to the Scriptures is involved. It was admitted that the Bible was unusually difficult of comprehension andthat, if the simple were to understand it, it must be annotated in various ways. Nicholas Love says that there have been written "for lewd men and women ... devout meditations of Christ's life more plain in certain parts than is expressed in the gospels of the four evangelists."[141]With so much addition of commentary and legend, it was often hard to tell what was and what was not in Holy Scripture, and consequently while a narrative likeThe Birth of Jesuscites correctly enough the gospels for certain days, of which it gives a free rendering,[142]there are cases of amazing attributions, like that at the end of the legend ofYpotis:

Seynt Jon the EvangelistEde on eorthe with Jhesu Crist,This tale he wrot in latinIn holi bok in parchemin.[143]

After the fifteenth century is reached, the translator of religious works, like the translator of romances, becomes more garrulous in his comment and develops a good deal of interest in English style. As a fair representative of the period we may take Osbern Bokenam, the translator of various saint's legends, a man very much interested in the contemporary development of literary expression. Two qualities, according to Bokenam, characterize his own style; he writes "compendiously" and he avoids "gay speech." He repeatedly disclaims both prolixity and rhetorical ornament. His

... form of procedyng artificyalIs in no wyse ner poetical.[144]

He cannot emulate the "first rhetoricians," Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate; he comes too late; they have already gathered"the most fresh flowers." Moreover the ornamental style would not become him; he does not desire

... to have swych eloquenceAs sum curials han, ner swych asperenceIn utteryng of here subtyl conceytysIn wych oft-tyme ful greth dysceyt is.[145]

To covet the craft of such language would be "great dotage" for an old man like him. Yet like those of Lydgate and Caxton, Bokenam's protestations are not entirely convincing, and in them one catches glimpses of a lurking fondness for the wordiness of fine writing. Though Pallas has always refused to lead him

Of Thully Rethoryk in-to the motlyd mede,Flourys to gadryn of crafty eloquens,[146]

yet he has often prayed her to show him some favor. Elsewhere he finds it necessary to apologize for the brevity of part of his work.

Now have I shewed more compendiouslyThan it owt have ben this noble pedigree;But in that myn auctour I follow sothly,And also to eschew prolixite,And for my wyt is schort, as ye may se,To the second part I wyl me hye.[147]

The conventionality, indeed, of Bokenam's phraseology and of his literary standards and the self-contradictory elements in his statements leave one with the impression that he has brought little, if anything, that is fresh and individual to add to the theory of translation.

Whether or not the medieval period made progress towards the development of a more satisfactory theory is a doubtful question. While men like Lydgate, Bokenam, and Caxton generally profess to have reproduced the content of theirsources and make some mention of the original writers, their comment is confused and indefinite; they do not recognize any compelling necessity for faithfulness; and one sometimes suspects that they excelled their predecessors only in articulateness. As compared with Layamon and Orm they show a development scarcely worthy of a lapse of more than two centuries. There is perhaps, as time goes on, some little advance towards the attainment of modern standards of scholarship as regards confession of divergence from sources. In the early part of the period variations from the original are only vaguely implied and become evident only when the reader can place the English beside the French or Latin. InFloris and Blancheflor, for example, a much condensed version of a descriptive passage in the French is introduced by the words, "I ne can tell you how richly the saddle was wrought."[148]The romance ofArthurends with the statement,

He that will more look,Read in the French book,And he shall find thereThings that I leete here.[149]

The Northern Passionturns from the legendary history of the Cross to something more nearly resembling the gospel narrative with the exhortation, "Forget not Jesus for this tale."[150]As compared with this, writers like Nicholas Love or John Capgrave are noticeably explicit. Love pauses at various points to explain that he is omitting large sections of the original;[151]Capgrave calls attention to his interpolations and refers them to their sources.[152]On the other hand, there are constant implications that variation from source may be a desirable thing and that explanation and apologyare unnecessary. Bokenam, for example, apologizes rather becauseThe Golden Legenddoes not supply enough material and he must leave out certain things "for ignorance."[153]Caxton says of hisCharles the Great, "If I had been more largely informed ... I had better made it."[154]

On the whole, the greatest merit of the later medieval translators consists in the quantity of their comment. In spite of the vagueness and the absence of originality in their utterances, there is an advantage in their very garrulity. Translators needed to become more conscious and more deliberate in their work; different methods needed to be defined; and the habit of technical discussion had its value, even though the quality of the commentary was not particularly good. Apart from a few conventional formulas, this habit of comment constituted the bequest of medieval translators to their sixteenth-century successors.

FOOTNOTES:[1]Trans. inGregory's Pastoral Care, ed. Sweet, E.E.T.S., p. 7.[2]Trans. inKing Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius, trans. Sedgefield, 1900.[3]Trans. in Hargrove,King Alfred's Old English Version of St. Augustine's Soliloquies, 1902, pp. xliii-xliv.[4]Latin Preface of theCatholic Homilies I, Latin Preface of theLives of the Saints, Preface ofPastoral Letter for Archbishop Wulfstan. All of these are conveniently accessible in White,Aelfric, Chap. XIII.[5]Latin Preface toHomilies II.[6]Ibid.[7]Preface to Genesis.[8]Latin Preface of theGrammar.[9]Latin Preface toHomilies I.[10]In the selections from the Bible various passages, e.g., genealogies, are omitted without comment.[11]Latin Preface toHomilies I.[12]Latin Preface.[13]For further comment, see Chapter II.[14]Trans. in Thorpe,Caedmon's Metrical Pharaphrase, London, 1832, p. xxv.[15]Ll. 1238 ff. For trans. seeThe Christ of Cynewulf, ed. Cook, pp. xlvi-xlviii.[16]Cf. comment on l. 1, in Introduction toAndreas, ed. Krapp, 1906, p. lii: "The Poem opens with the conventional formula of the epic, citing tradition as the source of the story, though it is all plainly of literary origin."[17]I.e. Laurent de Premierfait.[18]Bochas' Falls of Princes, 1558.[19]Ed. Ritson, ll. 1138-9.[20]A version, ll. 341-4. Cf. Puttenham, "... many of his books be but bare translations out of the Latin and French ... as his books ofTroilus and Cresseid, and theRomant of the Rose," Gregory Smith,Elizabethan Critical Essays, ii, 64.[21]Osbern Bokenam's Legenden, ed. Horstmann, 1883, ll. 108-9, 124.[22]The Life of St. Werburge, E.E.T.S., ll. 94. 127-130.[23]Minor Poems of Lydgate, E.E.T.S.,Legend of St. Gyle, ll. 9-10, 27-32.[24]Ibid.,Legend of St. Margaret, l. 74.[25]St. Christiana, l. 1028.[26]Legend of Good Women, ll. 425-6.[27]See the ballade by Eustache Deschamps, quoted in Chaucer,Works, ed. Morris, vol. 1, p. 82.[28]Minor Poems of the Vernon MS, Pt. 1, E.E.T.S.,The Castle of Love, l. 72.[29]E.E.T.S.,Cotton Vesp. MS.ll. 233-5.[30]E.E.T.S., l. 457.[31]SeeCambridge History of English Literature, v. 2, p. 313.[32]Preface toThe Image of Governance, 1549.[33]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden, ed. Horstmann,Christine, ll. 517-20.[34]Preface, E.E.T.S.[35]Capgrave,St. Katherine of Alexandria, E.E.T.S., Bk. 3, l. 21.[36]InAltenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, l. 45.[37]Minor Poems of the Vernon MS.Pt. 1, Appendix, p. 407.[38]Introduction to Capgrave,Lives of St. Augustine and St. Gilbert of Sempringham, E.E.T.S.[39]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden, p. 138, ll. 1183-8.[40]Three Prose Versions of Secreta Secretorum, E.E.T.S., Epistle Dedicatory to second.[41]The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, E.E.T.S.[42]Osbern Bokenam's Legenden,St. Agnes, ll. 680-2.[43]Epistle of Sir John Trevisa, in Pollard,Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, p. 208.[44]In Sedgefield,King Alfred's Version of Boethius.[45]Ed. White, 1852, ll. 41-4.[46]Ll. 55-64.[47]E.E.T.S., Preface.[48]Pollard,ibid., p. 208.[49]E.E.T.S., ll. 6553-7.[50]Ll. 6565-6.[51]E.E.T.S., p. 125.[52]Altenglische Sammlung, Neue Folge,St. Etheldred Eliensis, l. 162.[53]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,Erasmus, l. 4.[54]Ibid.,Magdalena, l. 48.[55]Minor Poems of the Vernon MS., Pt. 1,St. Bernard's Lamentation, ll. 21-2.[56]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,Fragment of Canticum de Creatione, ll. 49-50.[57]Legends of the Holy Rood, E.E.T.S.,How the Holy Cross was found by St. Helena, ll. 684-7.[58]E.E.T.S., Bk. 1, ll. 684-91.[59]Ed. Ritson, ll. 4027-8.[60]Chevalier au Lyon, ed. W. L. Holland, 1886, ll. 6805-6.[61]Ed. Kölbing, 1889, ll. 144, 4514.[62]E.E.T.S., ll. 319, 405, 216.[63]See Chambers,The Medieval Stage, Appendix G.[64]Chronicle of England, ed. Furnivall, ll. 93-104.[65]Altenglische Legenden,Vita St. Etheldredae Eliensis, ll. 978-9, 1112.[66]Bk. 4, ll. 129-130.[67]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden, ll. 435-7.[68]E.E.T.S.[69]Ed. Ritson.[70]Ibid.[71]E.E.T.S.[72]Thornton Romances, l. 848. (Here the writer is probably confused by the two wordsgrypeandgriffin.)[73]E.E.T.S., l. 1284.[74]E.E.T.S., l. 318.[75]Ll. 6983-4.[76]Ll. 688-9.[77]L. 3643.[78]E.E.T.S., ll. 523-4.[79]L. 6105.[80]E.E.T.S., l. 4734.[81]L. 4133.[82]L. 5425.[83]L. 3894.[84]L. 2997.[85]L. 2170.[86]L. 2428.[87]The Earl of Toulouse, ed. Ritson, ll. 1213, 1197.[88]Le Bone Florence of Rome, ed. Ritson, ll. 2174, 643.[89]Ed. Sarrazin, 1885, note on l. 10 of the two versions in Northern dialect.[90]Thornton Romances, note on l. 718.[91]L. 1150.[92]Ll. 1275-6.[93]Ll. 2173-4.[94]See Miss Rickert's comment in E.E.T.S. edition ofEmare, p. xlviii.[95]English version, ll. 1284, 2115, 5718-9; French version,Mellusine, ed. Michel, 1854, ll. 1446, 2302, 6150-2.[96]Ll. 407, 1359.[97]Ed. Vollmöller, 1883, ll. 5-6.[98]E.E.T.S., l. 5522.[99]E.E.T.S., Chap XLVI, ll. 496-9.[100]Chap. LVI, ll. 521-5.[101]Ll. 8-12.[102]Ll. 15-18.[103]See ll. 6581 ff.[104]Ed. E.E.T.S., ll. 500-501.[105]Ll. 7742-6.[106]Ll. 2340-8.[107]Ll. 5144-8.[108]Ll. 6170-6.[109]Ed. E.E.T.S., ll. 3200, 3218.[110]King Alexander, ed. Weber, 1810, ll. 2199-2202.[111]Alliterative romance ofAlisaunder, E.E.T.S., ll. 456-9.[112]Ed. Madden, 1847.[113]Ed. Furnivall, 1887, ll. 58-62.[114]L. 70.[115]Ll. 83-4.[116]Ll. 95-6.[117]Original Chronicle, ll. 6-13.[118]Ll. 16-17.[119]Ll. 18-23.[120]Ed. E.E.T.S., ll. 1-7.[121]Prologue.[122]Ed. E.E.T.S., ll. 29-33.[123]Ll. 54-8.[124]Ll. 217-20.[125]Ll. 361-7.[126]InAltenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, ll. 7-9.[127]Ibid., ll. 33, 35.[128]Osbern Bokenam's Legenden,St. Agnes, ll. 29-30.[129]St. Katherine of Alexandria,Prologue, ll. 61-2, 232-3, 64.[130]Lives of St. Augustine and St. Gilbert,Prologue.[131]Oxford, Clarendon Press,Prohemium.[132]InSammlung Altenglischer Legenden.[133]Minor Poems of the Vernon MS.,De Festo Corporis Christi, l. 170.[134]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,St. Bernard, ll. 943-4.[135]Ibid.,Erasmus, l. 41.[136]Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge,St. Katherine, p. 243, l. 451.[137]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,Christine, ll. 489-90.[138]Ibid.,St. Augustine, ll. 1137-40.[139]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,St. Augustine, ll. 43, 57-8, 128.[140]Ll. 169-70, 785-6, 2475-6.[141]Op. cit.,Prohemium.[142]Altenglische Legenden,Geburt Jesu, ll. 493, 527, 715, etc.[143]Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge,Ypotis, ll. 613-16.[144]Osbern Bokenam's Legenden, St. Margaret, ll. 84-5.[145]Mary Magdalen, ll. 245-8.[146]St. Agnes, ll. 13-14.[147]Op. cit.,St. Anne, ll. 209-14.[148]E.E.T.S., l. 382.[149]E.E.T.S., ll. 633-6.[150]E.E.T.S., p. 146, l. 1.[151]Op. cit., pp. 100, 115, 300.[152]Life of St. Gilbert, pp. 103, 135. 141.[153]Op. cit.,St. Katherine, l. 49.[154]Preface.

[1]Trans. inGregory's Pastoral Care, ed. Sweet, E.E.T.S., p. 7.

[2]Trans. inKing Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius, trans. Sedgefield, 1900.

[3]Trans. in Hargrove,King Alfred's Old English Version of St. Augustine's Soliloquies, 1902, pp. xliii-xliv.

[4]Latin Preface of theCatholic Homilies I, Latin Preface of theLives of the Saints, Preface ofPastoral Letter for Archbishop Wulfstan. All of these are conveniently accessible in White,Aelfric, Chap. XIII.

[5]Latin Preface toHomilies II.

[6]Ibid.

[7]Preface to Genesis.

[8]Latin Preface of theGrammar.

[9]Latin Preface toHomilies I.

[10]In the selections from the Bible various passages, e.g., genealogies, are omitted without comment.

[11]Latin Preface toHomilies I.

[12]Latin Preface.

[13]For further comment, see Chapter II.

[14]Trans. in Thorpe,Caedmon's Metrical Pharaphrase, London, 1832, p. xxv.

[15]Ll. 1238 ff. For trans. seeThe Christ of Cynewulf, ed. Cook, pp. xlvi-xlviii.

[16]Cf. comment on l. 1, in Introduction toAndreas, ed. Krapp, 1906, p. lii: "The Poem opens with the conventional formula of the epic, citing tradition as the source of the story, though it is all plainly of literary origin."

[17]I.e. Laurent de Premierfait.

[18]Bochas' Falls of Princes, 1558.

[19]Ed. Ritson, ll. 1138-9.

[20]A version, ll. 341-4. Cf. Puttenham, "... many of his books be but bare translations out of the Latin and French ... as his books ofTroilus and Cresseid, and theRomant of the Rose," Gregory Smith,Elizabethan Critical Essays, ii, 64.

[21]Osbern Bokenam's Legenden, ed. Horstmann, 1883, ll. 108-9, 124.

[22]The Life of St. Werburge, E.E.T.S., ll. 94. 127-130.

[23]Minor Poems of Lydgate, E.E.T.S.,Legend of St. Gyle, ll. 9-10, 27-32.

[24]Ibid.,Legend of St. Margaret, l. 74.

[25]St. Christiana, l. 1028.

[26]Legend of Good Women, ll. 425-6.

[27]See the ballade by Eustache Deschamps, quoted in Chaucer,Works, ed. Morris, vol. 1, p. 82.

[28]Minor Poems of the Vernon MS, Pt. 1, E.E.T.S.,The Castle of Love, l. 72.

[29]E.E.T.S.,Cotton Vesp. MS.ll. 233-5.

[30]E.E.T.S., l. 457.

[31]SeeCambridge History of English Literature, v. 2, p. 313.

[32]Preface toThe Image of Governance, 1549.

[33]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden, ed. Horstmann,Christine, ll. 517-20.

[34]Preface, E.E.T.S.

[35]Capgrave,St. Katherine of Alexandria, E.E.T.S., Bk. 3, l. 21.

[36]InAltenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, l. 45.

[37]Minor Poems of the Vernon MS.Pt. 1, Appendix, p. 407.

[38]Introduction to Capgrave,Lives of St. Augustine and St. Gilbert of Sempringham, E.E.T.S.

[39]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden, p. 138, ll. 1183-8.

[40]Three Prose Versions of Secreta Secretorum, E.E.T.S., Epistle Dedicatory to second.

[41]The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, E.E.T.S.

[42]Osbern Bokenam's Legenden,St. Agnes, ll. 680-2.

[43]Epistle of Sir John Trevisa, in Pollard,Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, p. 208.

[44]In Sedgefield,King Alfred's Version of Boethius.

[45]Ed. White, 1852, ll. 41-4.

[46]Ll. 55-64.

[47]E.E.T.S., Preface.

[48]Pollard,ibid., p. 208.

[49]E.E.T.S., ll. 6553-7.

[50]Ll. 6565-6.

[51]E.E.T.S., p. 125.

[52]Altenglische Sammlung, Neue Folge,St. Etheldred Eliensis, l. 162.

[53]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,Erasmus, l. 4.

[54]Ibid.,Magdalena, l. 48.

[55]Minor Poems of the Vernon MS., Pt. 1,St. Bernard's Lamentation, ll. 21-2.

[56]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,Fragment of Canticum de Creatione, ll. 49-50.

[57]Legends of the Holy Rood, E.E.T.S.,How the Holy Cross was found by St. Helena, ll. 684-7.

[58]E.E.T.S., Bk. 1, ll. 684-91.

[59]Ed. Ritson, ll. 4027-8.

[60]Chevalier au Lyon, ed. W. L. Holland, 1886, ll. 6805-6.

[61]Ed. Kölbing, 1889, ll. 144, 4514.

[62]E.E.T.S., ll. 319, 405, 216.

[63]See Chambers,The Medieval Stage, Appendix G.

[64]Chronicle of England, ed. Furnivall, ll. 93-104.

[65]Altenglische Legenden,Vita St. Etheldredae Eliensis, ll. 978-9, 1112.

[66]Bk. 4, ll. 129-130.

[67]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden, ll. 435-7.

[68]E.E.T.S.

[69]Ed. Ritson.

[70]Ibid.

[71]E.E.T.S.

[72]Thornton Romances, l. 848. (Here the writer is probably confused by the two wordsgrypeandgriffin.)

[73]E.E.T.S., l. 1284.

[74]E.E.T.S., l. 318.

[75]Ll. 6983-4.

[76]Ll. 688-9.

[77]L. 3643.

[78]E.E.T.S., ll. 523-4.

[79]L. 6105.

[80]E.E.T.S., l. 4734.

[81]L. 4133.

[82]L. 5425.

[83]L. 3894.

[84]L. 2997.

[85]L. 2170.

[86]L. 2428.

[87]The Earl of Toulouse, ed. Ritson, ll. 1213, 1197.

[88]Le Bone Florence of Rome, ed. Ritson, ll. 2174, 643.

[89]Ed. Sarrazin, 1885, note on l. 10 of the two versions in Northern dialect.

[90]Thornton Romances, note on l. 718.

[91]L. 1150.

[92]Ll. 1275-6.

[93]Ll. 2173-4.

[94]See Miss Rickert's comment in E.E.T.S. edition ofEmare, p. xlviii.

[95]English version, ll. 1284, 2115, 5718-9; French version,Mellusine, ed. Michel, 1854, ll. 1446, 2302, 6150-2.

[96]Ll. 407, 1359.

[97]Ed. Vollmöller, 1883, ll. 5-6.

[98]E.E.T.S., l. 5522.

[99]E.E.T.S., Chap XLVI, ll. 496-9.

[100]Chap. LVI, ll. 521-5.

[101]Ll. 8-12.

[102]Ll. 15-18.

[103]See ll. 6581 ff.

[104]Ed. E.E.T.S., ll. 500-501.

[105]Ll. 7742-6.

[106]Ll. 2340-8.

[107]Ll. 5144-8.

[108]Ll. 6170-6.

[109]Ed. E.E.T.S., ll. 3200, 3218.

[110]King Alexander, ed. Weber, 1810, ll. 2199-2202.

[111]Alliterative romance ofAlisaunder, E.E.T.S., ll. 456-9.

[112]Ed. Madden, 1847.

[113]Ed. Furnivall, 1887, ll. 58-62.

[114]L. 70.

[115]Ll. 83-4.

[116]Ll. 95-6.

[117]Original Chronicle, ll. 6-13.

[118]Ll. 16-17.

[119]Ll. 18-23.

[120]Ed. E.E.T.S., ll. 1-7.

[121]Prologue.

[122]Ed. E.E.T.S., ll. 29-33.

[123]Ll. 54-8.

[124]Ll. 217-20.

[125]Ll. 361-7.

[126]InAltenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, ll. 7-9.

[127]Ibid., ll. 33, 35.

[128]Osbern Bokenam's Legenden,St. Agnes, ll. 29-30.

[129]St. Katherine of Alexandria,Prologue, ll. 61-2, 232-3, 64.

[130]Lives of St. Augustine and St. Gilbert,Prologue.

[131]Oxford, Clarendon Press,Prohemium.

[132]InSammlung Altenglischer Legenden.

[133]Minor Poems of the Vernon MS.,De Festo Corporis Christi, l. 170.

[134]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,St. Bernard, ll. 943-4.

[135]Ibid.,Erasmus, l. 41.

[136]Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge,St. Katherine, p. 243, l. 451.

[137]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,Christine, ll. 489-90.

[138]Ibid.,St. Augustine, ll. 1137-40.

[139]Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden,St. Augustine, ll. 43, 57-8, 128.

[140]Ll. 169-70, 785-6, 2475-6.

[141]Op. cit.,Prohemium.

[142]Altenglische Legenden,Geburt Jesu, ll. 493, 527, 715, etc.

[143]Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge,Ypotis, ll. 613-16.

[144]Osbern Bokenam's Legenden, St. Margaret, ll. 84-5.

[145]Mary Magdalen, ll. 245-8.

[146]St. Agnes, ll. 13-14.

[147]Op. cit.,St. Anne, ll. 209-14.

[148]E.E.T.S., l. 382.

[149]E.E.T.S., ll. 633-6.

[150]E.E.T.S., p. 146, l. 1.

[151]Op. cit., pp. 100, 115, 300.

[152]Life of St. Gilbert, pp. 103, 135. 141.

[153]Op. cit.,St. Katherine, l. 49.

[154]Preface.

The English Bible took its shape under unusual conditions, which had their share in the excellence of the final result. Appealing, as it did, to all classes, from the scholar, alert for controversial detail, to the unlearned layman, concerned only for his soul's welfare, it had its growth in the vital atmosphere of strong intellectual and spiritual activity. It was not enough that it should bear the test of the scholar's criticism; it must also reach the understanding of Tyndale's "boy that driveth the plough," demands difficult of satisfaction, but conducive theoretically to a fine development of the art of translation. To attain scholarly accuracy combined with practical intelligibility was, then, the task of the translator.

From both angles criticism reached him. Tyndale refers to "my translation in which they affirm unto the lay people (as I have heard say) to be I wot not how many thousand heresies," and continues, "For they which in times past were wont to look on no more scripture than they found in their duns or such like devilish doctrine, have yet now so narrowly looked on my translation that there is not so much as one I therein if it lack a tittle over his head, but they have noted it, and number it unto the ignorant people for an heresy."[155]Tunstall's famous reference in his sermon at Paul's Cross to the two thousand errors in Tyndale's Testament suggests the undiscriminating criticism, addressed to the popular ear and basing its appeal largely on "numbering,"of which Tyndale complains. The prohibition of "open reasoning in your open Taverns and Alehouses"[156]concerning the meaning of Scripture, included in the draft of the proclamation for the reading of the Great Bible, also implies that there must have been enough of popular oral discussion to count for something in the shaping of the English Bible. Of the serious comment of more competent judges many records remain, enough to make it clear that, although the real technical problems involved were often obscured by controversy and by the common view that the divine quality of the original made human effort negligible, nevertheless the translator did not lack the stimulus which comes from intelligent criticism and discussion.

The Bible also had an advantage over other translations in that the idea ofprogresstowards an accurate version early arose. Unlike the translators of secular works, who frequently boast of the speed with which they have accomplished their tasks, the translators of the Bible constantly mention the long, careful labor which has gone to their undertaking. Tyndale feels in his own work the need for revision, and so far as opportunity serves, corrects and polishes his version. Later translators consciously based their renderings on those of their predecessors. St. Augustine's approval of diversity of translations was cited again and again. Tyndale urges "those that are better seen in the tongues than I" to "put to their hands to amend" any faults they may find in his work.[157]George Joye, his assistant, later his would-be rival, declares that we must learn "to depend not whole on any man's translation."[158]"Every one," says Coverdale, "doth his best to be nighest to the mark. And though they cannot all attain thereto yet shooteth one nigher than another";[159]and again, "Sure I am that there cometh more knowledge and understandingof the scripture by their sundry translations than by all our sophistical doctors. For that one translateth something obscurely in one place, the same translateth another, or else he himself, more manifestly by a more plain vocable."[160]Occasionally the number of experimenters awakened some doubts; Cromwell suggests that the bishops make a "perfect correction";[161]the patent granted him for the printing of the Bible advocates one translation since "the frailty of men is such that the diversity thereof may breed and bring forth manyfold inconveniences as when wilful and heady folks shall confer upon the diversity of the said translations";[162]the translators of the version of 1611 have to "answer a third cavil ... against us, for altering and amending our translations so oft";[163]but the conception of progress was generally accepted, and finds fit expression in the preface to the Authorized Version: "Yet for all that, as nothing is begun and perfected at the same time, and the later thoughts are thought to be wiser: so, if we building on their foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labors, do endeavor to make that better which they left so good; no man, we are sure, hath cause to mislike us."[164]

But the English translators had more far-reaching opportunities to profit by the experiences of others. In other countries than England men were engaged in similar labors. The sixteenth century was rich in new Latin versions of the Scriptures. The translations of Erasmus, Beza, Pagninus, Münster, Étienne, Montanus, and Tremellius had in turn their influence on the English renderings, and Castalio's translation into Ciceronian Latin had at least its share of discussion. There was constant intercourse between those interested in Bible translation in England and on the Continent. English refugees during the persecutions fled across the Channel, and towns such as Worms, Zurich, Antwerp,and Geneva saw the first printing of most of the early English versions of the Scriptures. The Great Bible was set up in Paris. Indeed foreign printers had so large a share in the English Bible that it seemed sometimes advisable to limit their influence. Richard Grafton writes ironically to Cromwell regarding the text of the Bible: "Yea and to make it yet truer than it is, therefore Dutchmen dwelling within this realm go about the printing of it, which can neither speak good English, nor yet write none, and they will be both the printers and correctors thereof";[165]and Coverdale and Grafton imply a similar fear in the case of Regnault, the Frenchman, who has been printing service books, when they ask Cromwell that "henceforth he print no more in the English tongue, unless he have an Englishman that is learned to be his corrector."[166]Moreover, versions of the Scriptures in other languages than English were not unknown in England. In 1530 Henry the Eighth was led to prohibit "the having of holy scripture, translated into the vulgar tongues of English,French, orDutch."[167]Besides this general familiarity with foreign translations and foreign printers, a more specific indebtedness must be recognized. More's attack on the book "which whoso calleth the New Testament calleth it by a wrong name, except they will call it Tyndale's testament or Luther's testament"[168]is in some degree justified in its reference to German influence. Coverdale acknowledges the aid he has received from "the Dutch interpreters: whom (because to their singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible) I have been the more glad to follow."[169]The preface to the version of 1611 says, "Neither did we think much to consult the translators or commentators, Chaldee, Hebrew, Syrian, Greek, or Latin, no, nor theSpanish,French,Italian, orDutch."[170]Doubtless a great part of the debt lay in matters of exegesis, but in his familiarity with so great anumber of translations into other languages and with the discussion centering around these translations, it is impossible that the English translator should have failed to obtain suggestions, both practical and theoretical, which applied to translation rather than to interpretation. Comments on the general aims and methods of translation, happy turns of expression in French or German which had their equivalents in English idiom, must frequently have illuminated his difficulties. The translators of the Geneva Bible show a just realization of the truth when they speak of "the great opportunity and occasions which God hath presented unto us in this Church, by reason of so many godly and learned men; and such diversities of translations in divers tongues."[171]

Of the general history of Biblical translations, already so frequently and so adequately treated, only the barest outline is here necessary. The various Anglo-Saxon translations and the Wycliffite versions are largely detached from the main line of development. From Tyndale's translations to the Authorized Version of 1611 the line is surprisingly consecutive, though in the matter of theory an early translator occasionally anticipates views which obtain general acceptance only after a long period of experiment and discussion. Roughly speaking, the theory of translation has as its two extremes, the Roman Catholic and the Puritan positions, while the 1611 version, where its preface commits itself, compromises on the points at issue.

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