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 of
_The Child of Bristow_ pertinently remarks,
The beste song that ever was made
Is not worth a lekys blade
But men wol tende ther-tille.[126]
Since Latin enditing is "cumbrous," the translator of _The Blood at
Hayles_ presents 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 English _The 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
incidental citation of authority is evident in _St. 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 castylle
And Bulstene, seith the boke, it hight;[137]
In the yer of ur lord of hevene
Four hundred and eke ellevene
Wandaly the province tok
Of 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
Legend_ was likely to be reproduced in the English with varying degrees
of faithfulness. A _Life of St. Augustine_, to choose a few
illustrations from many, reproduces the Latin as in the following
examples: "as the book 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's _Handlyng 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 troue
Qe Vitas Patrum est apele;
Thus seyth seynt Anselme, that hit wrote
To thys clerkys that weyl hit wote
with
Ceo nus ad Seint Ancelme dit
Qe 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 cunte" has become "Yn the byble men
mow hyt se"; while for
En ve liure qe est apelez
La sume des vertuz & des pechiez
the translator has substituted
Thys same tale tellyth seynt Bede
Yn 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 and that, 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 like _The Birth of Jesus_ cites 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 of _Ypotis_:
Seynt Jon the Evangelist
Ede on eorthe with Jhesu Crist,
This tale he wrot in latin
In 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 artificyal
Is 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 eloquence
As sum curials han, ner swych asperence
In utteryng of here subtyl conceytys
In 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 compendiously
Than 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 their sources 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. In _Floris 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 of _Arthur_ ends with the statement,
He that will more look,
Read in the French book,
And he shall find there
Things that I leete here.[149]
_The Northern Passion_ turns 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 apology are unnecessary.
Bokenam, for example, apologizes rather because _The Golden Legend_ does
not supply enough material and he must leave out certain things "for
ignorance."[153] Caxton says of his _Charles 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. in _Gregory's Pastoral Care_, ed. Sweet, E.E.T.S., p. 7.
[2] Trans. in _King 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 the _Catholic Homilies I_, Latin Preface of the _Lives
of the Saints_, Preface of _Pastoral Letter for Archbishop Wulfstan_. All
of these are conveniently accessible in White, _Aelfric_, Chap. XIII.
[5] Latin Preface to _Homilies II_.
[6] _Ibid._
[7] _Preface to Genesis._
[8] Latin Preface of the _Grammar_.
[9] Latin Preface to _Homilies I_.
[10] In the selections from the Bible various passages, e.g., genealogies,
are omitted without comment.
[11] Latin Preface to _Homilies 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. see _The Christ of Cynewulf_, ed. Cook, pp.
xlvi-xlviii.
[16] Cf. comment on l. 1, in Introduction to _Andreas_, 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 of _Troilus
and Cresseid_, and the _Romant 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] See _Cambridge History of English Literature_, v. 2, p. 313.
[32] Preface to _The 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] In _Altenglische 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. Koelbing, 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 words _grype_ and _griffin_.)
[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 of _Emare_, 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. Vollmoeller, 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 of _Alisaunder_, 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] In _Altenglische 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] In _Sammlung 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.
II. THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE
II
THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE
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
of _progress_ towards 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 understanding of 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]