Welsh Journals

his rime-scheme, but his work ultimately suffered an indignity related to the problems of the French versions when, for the 1525 edition of his translation, the printer, Thomas Richards, substituted for many of Walton's words those used by Chaucer, presumably for their valued familiarity. This typically mediaeval casualness occasionally amounting to audacity in the use of both the phrases and the good names of notable authors is further illustrated in the MS. attribution of other late mediaeval translations of Boethius to such poets as Charles d'Orléans and Alain Chartier.14 This fact, coupled with the phenomenon of widespread cannibalization of earlier texts in the production of partially new translations, seems to require a conjecture about the significance of such projects. One cannard in the literary history of the middle ages has been that the existence of several competing translations reflected the translators' ignorance of each others' work a problem in communication. The complex interrelations of the some fourteen Old French translations of the Consolatio barely hinted at here gives this the lie. And the frequent spurious attributions are to be explained as good advertising. What remains to be accounted for is the choice of Boethius and the partial originality of these translations, and this, I hypothesize, may be done by reference to a sort of poetic apprenticeship. With the models of Jean de Meung and Chaucer behind them, potential poets may have seen in the Consolatio a prestigious vehicle for the demonstration of their virtuosity; a sort of historically sanctioned apprentice task to challenge the special talents of each translator. I say special because many of the translators obviously made partial use of whatever prior versions were available and concentrated their efforts on those 'purple' passages that particularly attracted them. Thus, the maker of 5038 worked hard on Book II, meter 5 at least, while rummaging through de Meung, Renaut de Louens and a couple of anonymous versions for material to fill out the complete text. I will not belabor this point, as it will remain an airy speculation until the complete texts of the many late mediaeval versions are available. But it does suggest some literary causes for the tangled bibliographic effects. University of Florida 1 These MSS. are noted in A Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, The Nat. Libr. of Wales Journal, Suppl. Ser. II: 8 (1951), p. 65. Prof. Mary Williams, who described the French MSS. in Sir John Williams' collection in vol. 1 of the Journal (1939-40), 2112-16, was, according to vol. 3, p. 45, to describe the Bourdillon MSS. in later numbers of the series. I have examined microfilm copies of these three MSS. kindly supplied by E. D. Jones and the N.L.W. 2 The most authoritative survey of Old French translations of Boethius is A. Thomas and M. Roques, 'Traductions francaises de la Consolatio philosophiae de Boece,' Hist. litt. de la France, XXXVII: 2 (1938), 419-488. 3 ibid., p. 452. 4 ibid., p. 453. This version, no. 5, survives in 3 MSS. 5 See, C. Jourdain, 'Des commentaires inédits de Guillaume de Conches et de Nicholas Triveth sur Boece,' Notices et extraits, XX: 2 (1862), 40-82. 6 I represent three minims by m, of which several interpretations are possible. R. A. DWYER 7 E. Mannier, Les commanderies du Grand- Prieure de France, II (Paris, 1872), p. 521. 8 M. Barbaro di San Giorgio, Storia della Costituzione del Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta (Rome, 1927), p. 240. 9 'Another Boece,' Romance Philology, XIX: 2 (Nov. 1965), 268-70. 10 Bulletin de la Soc. des anc. textes franpais (1877), 85-99. 11 Thomas, p. 454. 12 Edited by V. L. Dedeck-Hery, Med. St., XIV (1952), 165-275. 13 Edited by Mark Science, EETS OS 170 (1927). 14 L. Delisle, 'Anciennes trad. franc de Boece conservee .a la Bibl. Nat. Bibliotheque de VE-cole des Chartes, XXIV (1873), 5-32. Delisle's version 8, ca. 1372, was once attributed to Charles d'Orleans, and the text in N.L.W. 5038 contains an erroneous ascription to Chartier.