Read Ebook: Early Theories of Translation by Amos Flora Ross

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Ebook has 473 lines and 58836 words, and 10 pages

He intends, however, to be a careful translator:

As nighe as metre will conclude sentence, Folew I wil my president, Ryght as the frenshe wil yiff me evidence, Cereatly after myn entent,

and he ends by declaring that in spite of the impossibility of giving an exact rendering of the French in English metre, he has kept very closely to the original. Sometimes, owing to the shortness of the French "staffes," he has reproduced in one line two lines of the French, but, except for this, comparison will show that the two versions are exactly alike.

The olde booke full well I-wryted, In ffrensh also, and fayre endyted,

and declares himself bound to follow it closely:

Thus seith myn auctour after whome I write. Blame not me: I moste endite As nye after hym as ever I may, Be it sothe or less I can not say.

However, in the midst of his protestations of faithfulness, he confesses to divergence:

There-fore y do alle my myghthhe To saue my autor ynne sucche wyse As he that mater luste devyse, Where he makyth grete compleynte In french so fayre thatt yt to paynte In Englysche tunngge y saye for me My wyttys alle to dullet bee. He telleth hys tale of sentament I vnderstonde noghth hys entent, Ne wolle ne besy me to lere.

He owns to the abbreviation of descriptive passages, which so many English translators had perpetrated in silence:

Her bewte dyscry fayne wolde I Affter the sentence off myne auctowre, Butte I pray yowe of thys grette labowre I mote at thys tyme excused be;

Butte who so luste to here of hur a-raye, Lette him go to the ffrensshe bocke, That Idell mater I forsoke To telle hyt in prose or els in ryme, For me thoghte hyt taryed grette tyme. And ys a mater full nedless.

One cannot but suspect that this odd mingling of respect and freedom as regards the original describes the attitude of many other translators of romances, less articulate in the expression of their theory.

This passage destuted is In the French, well y-wis, Therefore I have, it to colour Borrowed of the Latin author;

Of what kin he came can I nought find In no book that I bed when I began here The Latin to this language lelliche to turn.

All that the Latyn spelles, ffro Eneas till Cadwaladre; this Mayster Wace ther leves he. And ryght as Mayster Wace says, I telle myn Inglis the same ways.

Pers of Langtoft continues the history;

& as he says, than say I,

writes the translator. Robert admires his predecessors, Dares, whose "Latyn is feyre to lere," Wace, who "rymed it in Frankis fyne," and Pers, of whose style he says, "feyrer language non ne redis"; but he is especially concerned with his own manner of expression. He does not aspire to an elaborate literary style; rather, he says,

I made it not forto be praysed, Bot at the lewed men were aysed.

Consequently he eschews the difficult verse forms then coming into fashion, "ryme cowee," "straungere," or "enterlace." He does not write for the "disours," "seggers," and "harpours" of his own day, who tell the old stories badly.

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

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

Quharfore of sic antiquiteis Thei that set haly thare delite Gestis or storyis for to write, Flurist fairly thare purpose With quaynt and curiouse circumstance, For to raise hertis in plesance, And the heraris till excite Be wit or will to do thare delite.

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.

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

Sum usit bot in plane maner Of air done dedis thar mater To 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.

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.

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

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 favour For to conveye it wyth thyn influence.

He also asks aid of Calliope.

Now of thy grace be helpyng unto me, And of thy golde dewe lat the lycour wete My dulled breast, that with thyn hony swete Sugrest tongis of rethoricyens, And maistresse art to musicyens.

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 flour Of rethorik, to make us comprehend The trouthe of al.

Of Guido in particular he writes that he

... had in writyng passynge excellence. For he enlumyneth by craft & cadence This noble story with many fresch colour Of rethorik, & many riche flour Of eloquence to make it sownde bet He in the story hath ymped in and set, That in good feyth I trowe he hath no pere.

The beste song that ever was made Is not worth a lekys blade But men wol tende ther-tille.

Her body lyeth in strong castylle And Bulstene, seith the boke, it hight;

In the yer of ur lord of hevene Four hundred and eke ellevene Wandaly the province tok Of Aufrike--so seith the bok.

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.

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

corresponds with

Car en vn liure ai trou? Qe Vitas Patrum est apel?;

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 cunt?" 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.

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