Christine de Pizan's Advice for Princes in Middle English Translation: Stephen Scrope's The Epistle of Othea and the Anonymous Litel Bibell of Knyghthod

507 Pages·2020·4.047 MB·English

by  Misty Schieberle (ed.)

Christine de Pizan
A P M
DVICE FOR RINCES IN IDDLE
E T :
NGLISH RANSLATION
S S ’ T E
TEPHEN CROPE S HE PISTLE OF
O A
THEA AND THE NONYMOUS
L B K
YTLE IBELL OF NYGHTHOD
MIDDLE ENGLISH TEXTS SERIES
GENERAL EDITOR
Russell A. Peck
University of Rochester
ASSOCIATE EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Susanna Fein Alan Lupack
Kent State University University of Rochester
ASSOCIATE EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR
Anna Siebach-Larsen Pamela M. Yee
University of Rochester University of Rochester
CONSULTING EDITOR CONSULTING EDITOR
Thomas Hahn Victoria Szabo
University of Rochester Duke University
ADVISORY BOARD
Theresa Coletti Michael Livingston
University of Maryland The Citadel
Rita Copeland David Raybin
University of Pennsylvania Eastern Illinois University
Lisa Fagin Davis Lynn Staley
Medieval Academy of America Colgate University
Alexandra Gillespie David Wallace
University of Toronto University of Pennsylvania
Thomas Goodmann Bonnie Wheeler
University of Miami Southern Methodist University
The Middle English Texts Series are scholarly texts designed for research and classroom use.
Its goal is to make available to teachers, scholars, and students texts that occupy an important
place in the literary and cultural canon but have not been readily available in print and online
editions. The series does not include those authors, such as Chaucer, Langland, or Malory,
whose English works are normally in print. The focus is, instead, upon Middle English
literature adjacent to those authors that are needed for doing research or teaching. The
editions maintain the linguistic integrity of the original work but within the parameters of
modern reading conventions. The texts are printed in the modern alphabet and follow the
practices of modern capitalization, word formation, and punctuation. Manuscript abbre-
viations are silently expanded, and u/v and j/i spellings are regularized according to modern
orthography. Yogh (õ) is transcribed as g, gh, y, or s, according to the sound in Modern English
spelling to which the medieval pronunciation corresponds; thorn (þ) and eth (ð) are
transcribed as th. Hard words, difficult phrases, and unusual idioms are glossed either in the
right margin or at the foot of the page. Explanatory and textual notes appear at the end of the
text, often along with a glossary. The editions include short introductions on the history of the
work, its merits, and points of topical interest.
Christine de Pizan
ADVICE FOR PRINCES
IN MIDDLE ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
STEPHEN SCROPE’S THE EPISTLE OF OTHEA AND
THE ANONYMOUS LYTLE BIBELL OF KNYGHTHOD
Edited by
Misty Schieberle
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A publication of the
ROSSELL HOPE ROBBINS RESEARCH LIBRARY
in collaboration with
the University of Rochester Department of English
and the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies
by
MEDIEVAL INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS
Kalamazoo, Michigan
2020
Copyright © 2020 by the Board of Trustees of
Western Michigan University
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Christine, de Pisan, approximately 1364-approximately 1431, author.
| Schieberle, Misty, editor. | Scrope, Stephen, -1472, translator. |
Christine, de Pisan, approximately 1364-approximately 1431. Epître
[ i nds’Oertth éCaI Pà Hdeactato hr. eErneg—lislhe a(vMei d1d" lbe eEtnwgeleisnh )C (SIPcr odpaet)a |a Cnhdr IisStiBnNe, dlien e below]
Pisan, approximately 1364-approximately 1431. Epître d’Othéa à
Hector. English (Middle English) (Anonymous)
Title: Christine de Pizan : Advice for princes in Middle English
translation : Stephen Scrope’s The epistle of Othea and the anonymous
Lytle bibell of knyghthod / edited by Misty Schieberle.
ISBN xxxxxxxxxx
Other titles: Epître d’Othéa à Hector. English (Middle English) |
Epistle of Othea | Middle English texts (Kalamazoo, Mich.)
PD e s5cr i p4t i o n3: K 2a l a 1mazoo, Michigan : Publication of the Rossell Hope Robbins
Research Library in collaboration with the University of Rochester
Department of English and the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies
by Medieval Institute Publications, 2020. | Series: Middle English texts
series | “A publication of the Rossell Hope Robbins Research Library in
collaboration with the University of Rochester Department of English and
the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies.” | Includes
bibliographical references. | Text in Middle English; introduction and
explanatory notes in modern English. | Summary: “One of the most
popular mirrors for princes, Christine de Pizan’s Epistre Othea (Letter
of Othea) circulated widely in England. Speaking through Othea, the
goddess of wisdom and prudence, in the guise of instructing Hector of
Troy, Christine advises rulers, defends women against misogyny, and
articulates complex philosophical and theological ideals. This volume
brings together for the first time the two late medieval English
translations, Stephen Scrope’s precise translation The Epistle of Othea
and the anonymous Litel Bibell of Knyghthod, once criticized as a flawed
translation. With substantial introductions and comprehensive
explanatory notes that attend to literary and manuscript traditions,
this volume contributes to the reassessment of how each English
translator grappled with adapting a French woman’s text to English
social, political, and literary contexts. These new editions encourage a
fresh look at how Christine’s ideas fit into and influenced the English
literary tradition”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020012648 (print) | LCCN 2020012649 (ebook) | ISBN
9781580443852 (paperback) | ISBN 9781580443869 (hardback) | ISBN
9781580444743 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Princes--Conduct of life--Early works to 1800.
Classification: LCC PQ1575 .E513 2020 (print) | LCC PQ1575 (ebook) | DDC
841/.1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012648
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012649
ISBN 978-1-58044-385-2 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-58044-386-9 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-58044-474-3 (pdf)
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
INTRODUCTION 1
SCROPE’S THE EPISTLE OF OTHEA 33
EXPLANATORY NOTES 135
TEXTUAL NOTES 231
THE LYTLE BIBELL OF KNYGHTHOD 277
EXPLANATORY NOTES 391
TEXTUAL NOTES 449
BIBLIOGRAPHY 475
GLOSSARY 487

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This volume has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities and
its longstanding support of the Middle English Texts Series.
I have incurred many debts while working on this volume, and although I cannot hope
to thank everyone who has helped me along the way, I should like to acknowledge those to
whom I owe particular gratitude. First and foremost, I owe a substantial debt to Russell Peck
for inspiring and supporting this edition many years ago, and then for overseeing the entire
project, reading the edition, and suggesting new notes and content. I am grateful to Pamela
Yee, the Assistant Editor at METS for her insightful suggestions at all phases of the project,
which must have seemed, at times, never-ending. I offer my wholehearted thanks to Pam
and the production team at METS, Kyle Huskin, Katherine Briant, Ashley Conklin, and
Steffi Delcourt, who formatted the text, cross-checked manuscripts and sources (no small
feat, considering Anthony Babyngton’s handwriting), and made diligent inquiries from
which this volume has benefitted greatly. It also feels appropriate to express my
appreciation for the editors, translators, and manuscript scholars who have preceded me:
your work on Christine de Pizan, her sources, and her English contexts has inspired,
enriched, challenged, and strengthened my scholarship in innumerable ways.
I am grateful to the following entities for permission to work with their manuscripts and
to their librarians and archivists for assistance: the Marquess of Bath and Dr. Kate Harris,
Curator of Longleat Historic Collections; the British Library and Dr. Eleanor Jackson,
Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts; Cambridge, St. John’s College Library and Kathryn
McKee, Special Collections Librarian; and the Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum.
Thanks also to the British Library, Cambridge Libraries, Pierpont Morgan Library, and the
Bibliothèque nationale de France for providing the digital access to their collections that
is such an essential reference for scholars these days.
Early archival research was supported by the American Association of University Women
American Postdoctoral Fellowship. A significant portion of the editing and drafting has
been supported by the University of Kansas Hall Center for the Humanities Faculty
Research Fellowships, sabbatical funding, and College of the Liberal Arts and Sciences
General Research funding. In addition, I am grateful to my department colleagues for
allowing me to take these leaves, which have been integral to the development and
completion of this volume. Thanks are due to the Hall Center’s Shut Up and Write group
for cheering me through the final stages. I am indebted to the KU Medieval and Early
Modern Seminar participants for comments on presentations and drafts, and especially to
Jonathan Lamb and Geraldo Sousa for their insights and friendship. I am also grateful to
students in my undergraduate and graduate seminars for enthusiastically embracing these
texts and manuscripts in all their glorious difficulty.
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Over the years, I have made many presentations related to this research, and I would
like to acknowledge the spirited and enlightening conversations of the audiences at the New
Chaucer Society (Toronto, 2018, and London, 2016); the Mid-America Medieval Association
(Kansas City, MO, 2017); and the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium (Sewanee, TN, 2015). In
particular, I am thankful for conversations with Cynthia Brown, Ardis Butterfield, and
Deborah McGrady about translators’ negotiations between French and English, and I am
indebted greatly to David Watt, who first suggested that I look into Thomas Hoccleve, and
to Daniel Wakelin, Lawrence Warner, and Linne Mooney for helping me develop further
that line of research. I also wish to express my appreciation to Bethany Christiansen, Clint
Morrison, and the graduate students at the Ohio State University for the invitation to
present my research there, and to the audiences and to Ethan Knapp, Leslie Lockett, and
Chris Highley for lively conversations.
My thanks to the many mentors, colleagues, and friends who have lent me their
encouragement, inspiration, and expertise during various stages of this lengthy project:
Christine Bourgeois, Anne D. Hedeman, Caroline Jewers, Kathy Krause, Robert J. Meyer-Lee,
Linda Mitchell, Catherine Nall, Elizaveta Strakhov, David Wallace, Sarah Wilma Watson,
and Derek Webb. I could not have asked for better sounding boards and intellectual
exchanges on the myriad topics with which this project intersects: French, Latin, manuscript
studies, women’s writing, and late medieval English literature. Special thanks go to Crystal
Hall for supporting my studies of Italian and to Sonja Drimmer for the camaraderie we have
shared over Stephen Scrope.
Fond appreciation goes to Maureen Boulton for teaching me Old French; to Susan S.
Morrison for introducing me to Christine; and to Maura Nolan, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, and
Jill Mann for always being willing to share their wide-ranging experience, invaluable advice,
and enduring support, both personal and intellectual. I am forever indebted to these
mentors, who exemplify rigorous scholarship and scholarly generosity. If I were to follow
Christine and write a mirror for academics, they would take pride of place.
I am also grateful to the friends who have provided support and productive (and
sometimes less productive) distractions over the years: Julie Bruneau, Alesia Woszidlo, Elspeth
Healey, Mary Klayder, and, last but never least, BARC.
Finally, I offer my love and gratitude to my husband, parents, and family for tolerating
the research trips, long hours, and many juggling acts that it took to complete this project.
Mallory and Balian will not remember this time, but their hugs and giggles have helped
sustain me through it.
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INTRODUCTION
Medieval translations must be treated not merely as attempts to replicate a text in
another language but rather as responses to and readings of the original text.1 In the two
renditions of Christine de Pizan’s Epistre Othea (ca. 1400; hereafter, Othea) into Middle
English chivalric manuals, we have the opportunity for a case study in translation styles by
analyzing Stephen Scrope’s Epistle of Othea or Boke of Knyghthod (ca. 1440; hereafter, Epistle)
and the Lytle Bibell of Knyghthod (ca. 1450; hereafter, Bibell), which was copied by Anthony
Babyngton, though he was most likely not the translator.2 Except for his Preface and some
elements of his Prologue, Scrope stays as close as possible to his source (aside from errors
and misreadings), while the Bibell diverges from the Othea in major ways — in both form and
content, and in the translator’s attempts to make the text concrete and comprehensible for
his English readers. For instance, in explaining how planets give names to the days of the
week, Scrope parrots Christine: “Venus is a planete of hevin, aftir whom the Friday is
named” (7.5). He passes over the incongruity that the English “Friday” does not derive
directly from Venus’s name. By contrast, the Bibell translator explains more fully that Venus,
“geveth in the Latyn tong to the Frydey hys name, werfor that dey is cald in Latyn dies
veneris, as myche to sey in Englysch as the day of Venus” (7.8–10). Curiously, both men
neglect to mention Christine’s reference to the French “vendredi” [Friday], perhaps
indicative of their desire to privilege English, and even Latin, over French.3 The Bibell
translator’s unique Prohemye provides further evidence of how his text situates the Othea
as a work that specifically can help readers forestall Fortune, a concept that gained
popularity in English writings of the fifteenth century.
These two contemporary but independent renderings therefore bear witness to two
distinct interpretations of the Epistre Othea. One purpose of this edition is to underscore
1See Evans et al., “The Notion of Vernacular Theory,” p. 317 and Nall, Reading and War, p. 5.
2Following the previous editor James D. Gordon, I adopt the title The Lytle Bibell of Knyghthod
to distinguish this text from Scrope’s; this title is modeled on the translator’s description of the work
as a “lytle bibell” (Proh.105). Ed. Gordon, Bibell, pp. xlvii–lxiii, concludes that the language of the text
is from the middle of the fifteenth century, too early for Babyngton (ca. 1477–1536). I therefore refer
to the figure responsible as the Bibell translator. For a modern edition of Christine de Pizan’s Epistre
Othea, see ed. Parussa, Epistre Othea; for a modern translation, see ed. Blumenfeld-Kosinski and
Richards, Othea’s Letter; there is also ed. and trans. Chance, Letter, which relies on London, British
Library, MS Harley 4431 alone and has frequent infelicities.
3On the complicated and sometimes fraught relationship between English and French as
“co-vernaculars,” see Butterfield, The Familiar Enemy; see also Wogan-Browne et al., eds., The Idea of
the Vernacular; Wogan-Browne et al., eds., Language and Culture in Medieval Britain; and, on Scrope
specifically, Warren, Women of God and Arms, pp. 68–77.
1