Translators and their prologues in medieval England / Elizabeth Dearnley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dearnley, Elizabeth, author.

Series:

Bristol studies in medieval cultures 1757-2150

Bristol studies in medieval cultures, 1757-2150

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature, Medieval--Translations into English--History and criticism.

Literature, Medieval.

Literature, Medieval--Translations into English.

French literature--Translations into English--History and criticism.

French literature.

French language--To 1300.

French language.

Prologues and epilogues--History and criticism.

Prologues and epilogues.

Translators--History--To 1500.

Translators.

History.

French literature--Translations into English.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Translations.

Physical Description:

xii, 300 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : D.S. Brewer, 2016.

Summary:

The prologue to Layamon's Brut recounts its author's extensive travels 'wide yond thas leode' (far and wide across the land) to gather the French, Latin and English books he used as source material. The first Middle English writer to discuss his methods of translating French into English, Layamon voices ideas about the creation of a new English tradition by translation that proved very durable. This book considers the practice of translation from French into English in medieval England, and how the translators themselves viewed their task. Publisher.

Contents:

1 The Translator's Prologue: Latin and French Antecedents 19

The Latin Prologue Tradition and the Growth of Translation-Consciousness 19

The Beginnings of the French Translators Prologue 25

The 'Precocity' of Anglo-Norman and English > French Translation 30

From Vulgar Tongue to Prestige Vernacular 34

2 The Translator's Prologue: The Germanic and Anglo-Saxon Background 39

Early Latin > German Translation: Otfrid and Notker Labeo 41

Translators' Prologues in Anglo-Saxon England: Ælfred and Ælfic 43

The Conquest and Afterwards: Questions of Continuity in English-Language Writing 50

The Addition of French 55

3 The Development of the French > English Translator's Prologue 63

La3amon's Brut and the Beginnings of the French > English Translator's Prologue 66

A Growing Translation-Consciousness: Developments to c. 1300 72

From Compilation to Translation: Developments in the Fourteenth Century 77

'Oral' Romance Prologues: A Separate Type of Translator's Prologue? 83

From La3anion to Caxton: The Fifteenth Century 90

4 The Figure of the Translator 97

'Feberen he nom mid fingren': The Figure of the Translator in Literary Sources 100

The Figure of the Translator in Pictorial Sources 108

An Iconography of Translation? 120

'I was at Ertheldoun | With Tomas spak Y thare': 'Clerk' and 'Minstrel' Translators 128

5 The Acquisition of French 140

Literary Evidence: Prologues, Epilogues and Letters 144

'Du fraunceis ki chescun seit dire': Teaching Material 150

'ne illa lingua Gallica penitus sit omissa': Later Teaching of French 157

The Acquisition of French in the Cloister 158

6 The Case for Women Translators 162

Women's Education and the Use of French 165

'Se femme l'ad si transaté': The Evidence of the Twelfth-Century Women Translators 171

Continuity and Tradition? 180

'Crane' and Chaucer's Nun: Two Further Possibilities 182

7 The Presentation of Audience and the Later life of the Prologue 189

'To laud and Inglis man I spell': Larger Audience Groups Named in Translations 192

'Gode men of Brunne': Specific Audiences and the Question of Patronage 195

The Prologue in Context: Manuscript Evidence 197

The Knowing of Woman's Kind and Women Audiences 201

Mouvance, Prologues and Mouvance within Prologues 210

8 Middle Dutch Translators' Prologues as a Sidelight on English Practice 218

'Ick de historie vele valsch | Gevonden hebbe in dat walsch': Attitudes towards French in the Prologues of Jacob van Maerlant 226

'Sonder rime also ic sach': Translating Le Livre de Sidrac 233

'Menighe avonture | Die nemmer mee ne wert bescreven': Walewein's Anti-Translator's Prologue 238.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1843844427

9781843844426

OCLC:

936411160