The History of Early English Literature, being the History of English
Poetry from its Beginnings to the Accession of King Ælfred. By Stopford
A. Brooke. New York and London: The Macmillan Co., 1892. 8vo, _Beowulf_,
pp. 12-92.
English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest. By
Stopford A. Brooke. New York and London: The Macmillan Co., 1898.
8vo, _Beowulf_, pp. 58-83.
Digest, Running Comment, and Translation of Copious Extracts into
Imitative Measures.
_Reasons for including this Book._
This volume is included here because of the great influence it has had
in forming popular notions regarding the _Beowulf_. The eminence of Mr.
Brooke as a critic and as a poet has given him the attention of an
audience hardly commanded by any other writer included in this paper.
Again, the number of lines actually translated by Mr. Brooke is equal to
that in many of the volumes described in this section.
_Difference between the two Editions._
The account in the second volume is much shorter than that in the first;
only twelve pages are given to the story of Beowulf, while the first
volume gives forty-three. The later book omits all discussion of the
episodes, and, although parts of the older volume are retained, the
matter is, in general, re-written.
_Method of Translation._
Translated extracts accompany the story as told by Mr. Brooke.
In his Preface (p. ix), the author speaks of the futility of prose
translations of poetry, and of the inadequacy of modern English media
for translating the spirit of the poetry. Finally he adopts a line which
he hopes will ‘fulfil the needs and follow closely the peculiarities’ of
Old English.
‘I chose after many experiments, the trochaic movement used in
this book, each half-line consisting of trochees following one
another, with a syllable at the end, chiefly a long one, to mark
the division of the line. I varied the line as much as I could,
introducing, often rashly, metrical changes; for the fault of this
movement is its monotony. I have sometimes tried an iambic
movement, but rarely; for this trochaic line with a beat at the
end of each half-verse seemed to me to get the nearest to the
sound of the Anglo-Saxon line, even though it is frequently
un-similar to that line itself. I used alliteration whenever I
could, and stressed as much as possible the alliterated words, and
I changed the length of the line with the changes of the original.
But when I could not easily alliterate my line or stress the
alliterated word, I did not try to do so.’
The author adopts an archaic diction. The word-order of the Old English
is followed whenever possible.
_Text Used._
The text appears to be that of Grein-Wülker (1883).