THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD   35

34   EARLY THEORIES OF TRANSLATION

the English Troy stories are translations of Guido delle Colonne's Historia Trojana, and they take over from their original Guido's long discussion of authorities. The Alexander romances present the same effect of historical accuracy in passages like the following:

This passage destuted is

In the French, well y-wis,

Therefore I have, it to colour Borrowed of the Latin author;'

Of what kin he came can I nought find In no book that I bed when I began here The Latin to this language lelliche to ttirn.2

The assumption of the historian's attitude was probably the largest factor in the development of the habit of expressing responsibility for following the source or for noting divergence from it. Less easy of explanation is the fact that comment on style so frequently appears in this connection. There is perhaps a touch of it even in Layamon's account of his originals, when he approaches his French source: " Layamon began to journey wide over this land, and procured the noble books which he took for authority. He took the English book that Saint Bede made; another he took in Latin that Saint Albin made, and the fair Austin, who brought baptism hither; the third he took, (and) laid there in the midst, that a French clerk made, who was named Wace, who well could write. . . . Layamon laid before him these books, and turned the leaves . . . pen he took with fingers, and wrote on book skin, and the true words set together, and the three books compressed into one." 3 Robert of Brunne, in his Chronicle of England, dated as early as 1338, combines a lengthy discussion of style with a clear statement

1 King Alexander, ed. Weber, 1810,11.2199-2202. Alliterative romance of Alisaunder, E. E. T. S., 11.456-9. 3 Ed. Madden, 1847.

of the extent to which he has used his sources. Wace tells in French

All that the Latyn spelles,

ffro Eneas till Cadwaladre;

this Mayster Wace ther leves he. And ryght as Mayster Wace says, I telle myn Inglis the same ways.'

Pers of Langtoft continues the history; & as he says, than say 1,2

writes the translator. Robert admires his predecessors, Dares, whose "Latyn is feyre to lere," Wace, who "rymed it in Frankis fyne," and Pers, of whose style he says, "feyrer language non ne redis "; but he is especially concerned with his own manner of expression. He does not aspire to an elaborate literary style; rather, he says,

I made it not forto be praysed, Bot at the lewed men were aysed.3

Consequently he eschews the difficult verse forms then coming into fashion, "ryme cowee," "straungere," or " enterlace." He does not write for the " disours," "seggers," and " harpours " of his own day, who tell the old stories badly.

Non tham says as thai tham wrought, & in ther sayng it semes noght.'

A confusion of pronouns makes it difficult to understand what he considers the fault of contemporary renderings. Possibly it is that affectation of an obsolete style to which Caxton refers in the preface to the Eneydos. In any case, he himself rejects " straunge Inglis" for "simple speche."

Unlike Robert of Brunne, Andrew of Wyntoun, writing

Ed. Furnivall, 1887,11.58-62.   2 L. 70.

Ll. 83-4.   a Ll. 95-6.