sometimes very much better sense; and she brings in, with devastating effect, a consideration which Mr. Macaulay had overlooked—the question as to which reading could more easily have grown out of the other. How much weight can be attached to these fifteen instances of real or apparent mistranslation remains open to question; but that the weight, such as it is, favours an English and not a French original is, after Miss Dymes’ excellent demonstration, no longer disputable.
There are other weighty criteria favouring the English, of which Mr. Macaulay knew, but to which he attached strangely little value. For instance there is a rhymed proverb,[1] and there are two plays upon words,[2] in the English version. The French agrees with the English closely,[3] without rhyme or play upon words. Surely it would be very extraordinary if an English translator, following his original so closely, had managed to work in these decorations.
One further argument there is, which has not, I think, as yet been used. The Ancren Riwle belongs to a group of writings to which the English St. Margaret also belongs. If the original Rule was addressed to the sisters in the English language, it is probable that, amongst the books which they are admonished to read, some at least would be in English; and we find accordingly in the English version “Have ye not this also concerning Ruffin the devil, in your English book of St. Margaret?”[4] The writer of the Ancren Riwle knew all about the anchoresses and what books they had; he was, in fact, their “master.” But there is no reason to suppose that the translator, who adapted the Rule for some other community which used a language different from that of the original anchoresses, knew these private details or took interest in them; we should therefore expect such translation rather to tone down the personal details of the original. And the French speaks simply of “your book of St. Margaret.”[5] We can be fairly certain that personal details are original. Many alterations the scribes would be prone
- ↑ Morton, p. 96. The same proverb is repeated in the additions of the revised “Corpus” text (Modern Language Review, ix. 467).
- ↑ Morton, pp. 62, 332.
- ↑ Part of one passage is obliterated in the French.
- ↑ Nabbe ȝe þis also of Ruffin þe deouel, Beliales broðer, in our Englische boc of Seinte Margarete (Morton, p. 244).
Morton mistranslates as “our English book,” but he corrects the error in the glossary: “our English book” would be ure Englische boc. - ↑ Nauez vous cest ausi de Rufon le diable frere a belial en vostre liure de seinte margarete, fol 37, v.
