24   EARLY THEORIES OF TRANSLATION

THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD   25

he hight"; 1 in Partenay, in an attempt to give a vessel its proper name, the writer says, "I found in scripture that it was a barge." 2 This impression of accuracy is most common in connection with geographical proper names. In Torrent of Portyngale we have the name of a forest, "of Brasill saith the book it was"; in Partonope of Blois we find "France was named those ilke days Galles, as mine author says,"3 or "Mine author telleth this church hight the church of Albigis." 4 In this same romance the reference to source accompanies a definite bit of detail, "The French book thus doth me tell, twenty waters he passed full fell." 5 Bevis of Hamtoun kills "forty Sarracens, the French saith." 6 As in the case of the last illustration, the translator frequently needs to cite his authority because the detail he gives is somewhat difficult of belief. In The Sege of Melayne the Christian warriors recover their horses miraculously "through the prayer of St. Denys, thus will the chronicle say";' in The Romance of Partenay we read of a wondrous light appearing about a tomb, "the French maker saith he saw it with eye." a Sometimes these phrases suggest that metre and rhyme do not always flow easily for the English writer, and that in such difficulties a stock space-filler is convenient. Lines like those in Chaucer's Sir Thopas,

And so bifel upon a day, Forsothe as I you telle may Sir Thopas wolde outride,

and

The briddes synge, it is no nay, The sparhauke and the papejay

may easily be paralleled by passages containing references to source.

1 Thornton Romances, 1. 848. (Here the writer is probably confused by the two words grype and griffin.)   2 E. E. T. S., 1. 1284.

3 E. E. T. S., 1. 318.   Ll. 6983-4.   5 LI. 688-9.

5 L. 3643.   7 E. E. T. S., 11. 523-4.   8 L. 6105.

A good illustration from almost every point of view of the significance and lack of significance of the appearance of these phrases in a given context is the version of the Alexander story usually called The Wars of Alexander. The frequent references to source in this romance occur in sporadic groups. The author begins by putting them in with some regularity at the beginnings of the passus into which he divides his narrative, but, as the story progresses, he ceases to do so, perhaps forgets his first purpose. Sometimes the reference to source suggests accuracy: "And five and thirty, as I find, were in the river drowned." 1 "Rhinoceros, as I read, the book them calls." 2 The strength of some authority is necessary to support the weight of the incredible marvels which the story-teller recounts. He tells of a valley full of serpents with crowns on their heads, who fed, "as the prose tells," on pepper, cloves, and ginger; 3 of enormous crabs with backs, "as the book says," bigger and harder than any common stone or cockatrice scales; 4 of the golden image of Xerxes, which on the approach of Alexander suddenly, "as tells the text," falls to pieces.' He often has recourse to an authority for support when he takes proper names from the Latin. " Luctus it hight, the lettre and the line thus it calls."' The slayers of Darius are named Besan and Ana-bras, "as the book tells." On the other hand, the signification of the reference in its context can be shown to be very slight. As was said before, the writer soon forgets to insert it at the beginning of the new passus; there are plenty of marvels without any citation of authority to add to their credibility; and though the proper name carries its reference to the Latin, it is usually strangely distorted from its original form. So far as bearing on the immediate context is concerned, most of the references to source have little more