Early Theories of Translation

Theories of Translation, by Flora
Ross Amos

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Title: Early Theories of Translation
Author: Flora Ross Amos
Release Date: August 18, 2007 [EBook #22353]
Language: English
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=Columbia University=
STUDIES IN ENGLISH AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
EARLY THEORIES OF TRANSLATION

EARLY THEORIES OF TRANSLATION
BY
FLORA ROSS AMOS
OCTAGON BOOKS
A Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux New York 1973
Copyright 1920 by Columbia University Press
Reprinted 1973 by special arrangement with Columbia University
Press
OCTAGON BOOKS A DIVISION OF FARRAR, STRAUS &
GIROUX, INC. 19 Union Square West New York, N.Y. 10003
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Amos, Flora Ross, 1881- Early theories of translation.
Original ed. issued in series: Columbia University studies in English
and comparative literature.
Originally presented as the author's thesis, Columbia.
1. Translating and interpreting. I. Title. II. Series: Columbia University
studies in English and comparative literature.
[PN241.A5 1973] 418'.02 73-397

ISBN 0-374-90176-7
Printed in U.S.A. by NOBLE OFFSET PRINTERS, INC. New York,
N.Y. 10003

TO
MY FATHER AND MY MOTHER

This Monograph has been approved by the Department of English and
Comparative Literature in Columbia University as a contribution to
knowledge worthy of publication.
A. H. THORNDIKE, Executive Officer

PREFACE
In the following pages I have attempted to trace certain developments
in the theory of translation as it has been formulated by English writers.
I have confined myself, of necessity, to such opinions as have been put
into words, and avoided making use of deductions from practice other
than a few obvious and generally accepted conclusions. The procedure
involves, of course, the omission of some important elements in the
history of the theory of translation, in that it ignores the discrepancies
between precept and practice, and the influence which practice has
exerted upon theory; on the other hand, however, it confines a subject,
otherwise impossibly large, within measurable limits. The chief
emphasis has been laid upon the sixteenth century, the period of the
most enthusiastic experimentation, when, though it was still possible
for the translator to rest in the comfortable medieval conception of his
art, the New Learning was offering new problems and new ideals to
every man who shared in the intellectual awakening of his time. In the
matter of theory, however, the age was one of beginnings, of
suggestions, rather than of finished, definitive results; even by the end

of the century there were still translators who had not yet appreciated
the immense difference between medieval and modern standards of
translation. To understand their position, then, it is necessary to
consider both the preceding period, with its incidental,
half-unconscious comment, and the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, with their systematized, unified contribution. This last
material, in especial, is included chiefly because of the light which it
throws in retrospect on the views of earlier translators, and only the
main course of theory, by this time fairly easy to follow, is traced.
The aim has in no case been to give bibliographical information. A
number of translations, important in themselves, have received no
mention because they have evoked no comment on methods. The
references given are not necessarily to first editions. Generally
speaking, it has been the prefaces to translations that have yielded
material, and such prefaces, especially during the Elizabethan period,
are likely to be included or omitted in different editions for no very
clear reasons. Quotations have been modernized, except in the case of
Middle English verse, where the original form has been kept for the
sake of the metre.
The history of the theory of translation is by no means a record of
easily distinguishable, orderly progression. It shows an odd lack of
continuity. Those who give rules for translation ignore, in the great
majority of cases, the contribution of their predecessors and
contemporaries. Towards the beginning of Elizabeth's reign a small
group of critics bring to the problems of the translator both technical
scholarship and alert, original minds, but apparently the new and
significant ideas which they offer have little or no effect on the general
course of theory. Again, Tytler, whose Essay on the Principles on
Translation, published