Early Theories of Translation | Page 9

with a certain cloth of linen
which St. Gilbert wore. I suppose verily," continues the translator, "it
was his alb, for mine author here setteth a word 'subucula,' which is
both an alb and a shirt, and in the first part of this life the same author
saith that this holy man wore next his skin no hair as for the hardest,
nor linen as for the softest, but he went with wool, as with the
mean."[51] Such care for detail suggests the comparative methods later
employed by the translators of the Bible, but whether or not it was
common, it seldom found its way into words. The majority of writers
acquitted themselves of the translator's duty by introducing at intervals
somewhat conventional references to source, "in story as we read," "in
tale as it is told," "as saith the geste," "in rhyme I read," "the prose
says," "as mine author doth write," "as it tells in the book," "so saith the
French tale," "as saith the Latin." Tags like these are everywhere
present, especially in verse, where they must often have proved
convenient in eking out the metre. Whether they are to be interpreted
literally is hard to determine. The reader of English versions can
seldom be certain whether variants on the more ordinary forms are
merely stylistic or result from actual differences in situation; whether,
for example, phrases like "as I have heard tell," "as the book says," "as
I find in parchment spell" are rewordings of the same fact or represent

real distinctions.
One group of doubtful references apparently question the reliability of
the written source. In most cases the seeming doubt is probably the
result of awkward phrasing. Statements like "as the story doth us both
write and mean,"[52] "as the book says and true men tell us,"[53] "but
the book us lie,"[54] need have little more significance than the slightly
absurd declaration,
The gospel nul I forsake nought Thaugh it be written in parchemyn.[55]
Occasional more direct questionings incline one, however, to take the
matter a little more seriously. The translator of a Canticum de
Creatione, strangely fabulous in content, presents his material with the
words,
--as we finden in lectrure, I not whether it be in holy scripture.[56]
The author of one of the legends of the Holy Cross says,
This tale, quether hit be il or gode, I fande hit writen of the rode. Mani
tellis diverseli, For thai finde diverse stori.[57]
Capgrave, in his legend of St. Katherine, takes issue unmistakably with
his source.
In this reknyng myne auctour & I are too: ffor he accordeth not wytz
cronicles that ben olde, But diversyth from hem, & that in many
thyngis. There he accordeth, ther I him hold; And where he diversyth in
ordre of theis kyngis, I leve hym, & to oder mennys rekenyngis I geve
more credens whech be-fore hym and me Sette alle these men in ordre
& degre.[58]
Except when this mistrust is made a justification for divergence from
the original, these comments contribute little to our knowledge of the
medieval translator's methods and need concern us little. More needful
of explanation is the reference which implies that the English writer is
not working from a manuscript, but is reproducing something which he

has heard read or recounted, or which he has read for himself at some
time in the past. How is one to interpret phrases like that which
introduces the story of Golagros and Gawain, "as true men me told," or
that which appears at the beginning of Rauf Coilyear, "heard I tell"?
One explanation, obviously true in some cases, is that such references
are only conventional. The concluding lines of Ywain and Gawin,
Of them no more have I heard tell Neither in romance nor in spell,[59]
are simply a rough rendering of the French
Ne ja plus n'en orroiz conter, S'an n'i vialt manconge ajoster.[60]
On the other hand, the author of the long romance of Ipomadon, which
follows its source with a closeness which precludes all possibility of
reproduction from memory, has tacked on two references to hearing,[61]
not only without a basis in the French but in direct contradiction to Hue
de Rotelande's account of the source of his material. In Emare, "as I
have heard minstrels sing in sawe" is apparently introduced as the
equivalent of the more ordinary phrases "in tale as it is told" and "in
romance as we read,"[62] the second of which is scarcely compatible
with the theory of an oral source.
One cannot always, however, dispose of the reference to hearing so
easily. Contemporary testimony shows that literature was often
transmitted by word of mouth. Thomas de Cabham mentions the
"ioculatores, qui cantant gesta principum et vitam sanctorum";[63]
Robert of Brunne complains that those who sing or say