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Unit 1: Development of Prose Writing through the Literary Ages

marvelous stories it contained it is difficult to say. Everything is told with a most profound Notes
seriousness, equal to that of Defoe or Swift, which gives even the most absurd descriptions an air
of verisimilitude. That a fourteenth-century reader would realize to some extent the contrast
between the matter and the manner can hardly be questioned, but it is not probable that his
attitude in general would be very skeptical. In fact, mixed with the other matters, the book contains
a number of Bible stories which can scarcely have been told in any other than a spirit of simple
belief. To the modern reader the book seems much more of an artistic feat than it would have
seemed to the reader of the time of its compilation. And the same applies to the style in which the
narrative is written. The distinguishing characteristic of this style is its utter, its guileless simplicity.
The sentences are short and direct, never complex. Few connectives are used and those of the most
obvious kind. The words are all familiar and never merely ornamental. The whole tone of the
expression is naive, the language of a grown-up child :
“Also beyonde that Flome, more upward to the Desertes, is a gret Pleyn alle gravelly betwene the
Mountaynes; and in that Playn every day at the Sonne risynge begynnen to growe smale Trees,
and thei growen til mydday, berynge Frute; but no man dar taken of that Frute, for it is a thing of
Fayrye. And aftre mydday thei discrecen and entren ayen in-to the Erthe; so that at the goynge
down of the Sonne thei apperen no more; and so thei don every day : and that is a gret marvaylle.”
And so it continues, the tone never rising, never falling. The simplicity of the book is the simplicity
of nature, not of art. Much of its quaintness is imparted to it by the modern reader who feels
keenly the contrast between its childlike and effortless style and the more mature manner of
modern English expression. But no such contrast could have been intended in the last quarter of
the fourteenth century, and the style is consistent because it reflects the naive simplicity of the
medieval mind.
1.5 Trevisa

Though John de Trevisa was an industrious writer, he can scarcely be called a man of letters. A
student and fellow of Oxford, he later became chaplain and vicar to Thomas, fourth baron Berkeley,
at whose request his various translations were made. These consisted of a translation of
Bartholomew de Glanville’s De Proprietatibus Rerum, of Vegetius’ De Re Militari, of E gidius ’ De
Regimine Principum, and of various other works interesting to his master, besides the most important
of all, a version of Higden’s Polychronicon. As a preface to the Polychronicon, Trevisa composed a
Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk upon Translation, in which he discusses interestingly the principles
of the art of translation. Diversity of speech, says the lord, has brought it about that men of
different nations understand each other “no more than gagling of geese.”
Interpreters are therefore necessary, especially out of Latin, in which so many important books are
written. The clerk presents various reasons why translations should not be made, one of them
being that “ a great deal of these books standeth much by holy writ, by holy doctors, and by
philosophy,” which should not be translated into English. The lord responds with arguments
frequently used by the reformers of the sixteenth century, that St. Jerome translated from Hebrew
into Latin, that the gospel and the faith must be preached to men who know no Latin, that
“English preaching is very translation, and such English preaching is good and needful.” The
clerk finally sees the necessity of translation, as was fore-ordained, and asks the lord if he would
“liefer have a translation of these chronicles in rhyme or in prose ?“ “In prose,” answers the lord,
“ for commonly prose is more clear than rhyme, more easy and more plain to know and
understand.”
The translation was accordingly made in prose, carried through and finished on the 18th of April,
1387. “ In some place I shall set word for word,” says Trevisa,” “and active for active, and passive
for passive, a-row right as it standeth, without changing of the order of words. But in some place
I must change the order of words, and set active for passive and again-ward. And in some place

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