King Alfred’s Old English prose translation of the first fifty Psalms

369 Pages·2001·16.24 MB·English

by  Alred

King Alfred's
Old English Prose Translation
of the First Fifty Psalms
Medieval Academy Books, No. 104
King Alfred's
Old English Prose Translation
of the First Fifty Psalms
edited by
Patrick P. O'Neill
The Medieval Academy of America
Cambridge, Massachusetts
2001
Copyright © 2001
By The Medieval Academy of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2001132139
ISBN 0-915651-13-0
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii
INTRODUCTION
1. THE MANUSCRIPT 1
I. Description 1
II. Contents 9
III. Purpose and Audience 19
IV. Date and Place of Origin 20
2. THE OLD ENGLISH INTRODUCTIONS 23
I. Structure, Sources, Method of Composition.. 23
II. Relationship to the Paraphrase 27
III. The Vitellius Psalter Fragments 28
3. THE SOURCES 31
I. Latin Psalters 31
II. Psalter Commentaries 34
HI. Other Sources 40
IV. Conclusions 40
4. METHOD OF TRANSLATION AND STYLE 45
5. LANGUAGE 55
I. Spelling and Phonology 55
II. Accidence 60
III. Vocabulary 64
6. AUTHORSHIP 73
THE TEXT 97
COMMENTARY 165
GLOSSARY 273
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY, SHORT TITLES,
AND ABBREVIATIONS 349

Acknowledgements
In preparing this edition of the Prose Psalms I have incurred debts to a
number of people and institutions. It is a pleasure to acknowledge their help
without implicating them in my errors.
I am grateful to the University of Pennsylvania for a Penfield Research
Fellowship (1979-80), which allowed me to work on the Prose Psalms for
my dissertation, and to the late Professor James Rosier who directed that
dissertation. Also very helpful in the early stages of the edition was a
printed concordance to the Prose Psalms provided by the Dictionary of Old
English Project (University of Toronto). Subsequently, my own institution,
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provided a Junior Faculty
Development Grant (Summer 1982) to examine manuscripts of the Prose
Psalms at the Bibliotheque nationale de France (Paris) and the British
Library (London). I am grateful to both libraries for generously permitting
me full access to their collections. Over many years the Department of
English at Chapel Hill supported my work with generous computer and
secretarial help.
A number of scholars helped enormously with advice, moral support,
and professional expertise; in particular, Janet Bately, David Dumville,
Allen Frantzen, David Ganz, George Kane, Malcolm Parkes, Ellie Roach,
Fred Robinson, Eric Stanley, Patricia Stirnemann, Joseph Wittig, and
several anonymous readers of the manuscript.
For her patience and skill in typing (and retyping) the manuscript I am
indebted to Frances Coombs; for help with making last-minute changes, to
Fiona Sewell. I was also very fortunate to have a patient and meticulous
copyeditor, Deborah A. Oosterhouse.
Lastly, I thank Richard Emmerson, Executive Director of the Medieval
Academy of America, for expediting the publication of this edition.
Patrick P. O'Neill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
2 March 2001
vu
Chapter 1
THE MANUSCRIPT
I. Description1
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS Fonds latin 8824, known to
Old English scholars as the Paris Psalter, contains the only attested copy of the
Old English Prose Psalms (Pss. 1-50),2 aside from fragments preserved in
another manuscript.3 It also has, conjoined to the Prose Psalms, an Old English
metrical version of the psalms (Pss. 51-150), the two together providing a full
vernacular translation side by side with a text of the Latin Romanum psalter.
A. HISTORY AND NOTICES.
The earliest mention of the manuscript occurs in the inventory of goods
belonging to Jean, Due de Berry (1340-1416), made in August 1402, which
describes it as "un tresancien psaultier long ystorie d'ovrage romain: et au
commencement de David jouant de la harpe: et sur les fueillez peinct des
armes de France et de Boulongne; couvert de vielle soie a deux tixuz, done en
l'un n'a point de fremouer."4 This description broadly agrees with its present
condition except for the different binding and the loss of the Davidic picture.
Moreover, Jean's ownership is confirmed by his signature "Jehan" at the
bottom of fol. 186r after the words "Ce Iiure est au due de Berry," a formula
'items A-F of this section rely heavily on the preface to the facsimile edition, The
Paris Psalter (Copenhagen, 1958), general ed. Bertram Colgrave, hereafter referred to
as Facsimile preceded by the name of the relevant contributor. For other descriptions
of the manuscript, see Leroquais, Les Psautiers, 2:76-78; Ker, Catalogue, no. 367;
Vezin, "Manuscrits," pp. 291-92; Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 99-100; and
Francois Avril and Patricia D. Stimemann, Manuscrits enlumines d'origine insulaire,
VIF-XX1 siecle(Paris, 1987),pp. 18-19(no. 25).
2The numbering of psalms and verses throughout the present work, for both the
Latin text and the corresponding Old English, follows that of the Gallicanum (Vulgate)
psalter.
'London, BL, MS Cotton Vitellius E. xviii, on which see Chap. 2.III.
"Preserved in Paris, BnF, MS franc. 11496, fol. 78; printed by Jules M.-J. Guiffrey,
Inventaires de Jean due de Berry (1401-1416), 2 vols. (Pans, 1894-96), 2:131
(no. 1027).
2 The Manuscript
found in other manuscripts owned by him.5 Subsequently, it was donated to his
favorite foundation, the Sainte Chapelle de Bourges, as attested by its
appearance in a list of manuscripts received there in July 1406.6 More than a
century later, an inventory of Sainte Chapelle manuscripts, drawn up in
November 1552, lists a "Psalterium Davidicum," which should probably be
identified with the present manuscript since all of the other psalters mentioned
are described as glossed.7
It was still there in 1708 when the Benedictine scholar Dom Martene
singled it out for comment:
L'un des plus curieux manuscrits de la sainte Chapelle, est celui qu'on
appelle les heures du due Jean. C'est un pseautier latin avec une version
angloise de six ou sept cens ans. Ceux qui me la montrerent, croyoient que
e'etoit de l'allemand ou de l'hebreu. Mais sitot que l'eus vu, je connus Ie
caractere Anglo-saxon. J'en fiis encore plus convaincu, lorsqu'examinant les
litanies qui font a la fin, je trouvai que la plupart des Saints etoient
d'Angleterre. Ce livre est conserve dans le chartier.8
In 1752 the canons of Sainte Chapelle presented the manuscript to the
Bibliotheque du Roy (the precursor of the Bibliotheque nationale), where it
was rebound and numbered Supplement latin 333.9 A description of it from
that time10 matches the present contents; it mentions the pencil drawings, but
no illumination. Subsequent descriptions of the manuscript by Silvestre (1841)
and Delisle (1856) add no new information, except evidence about the
nineteenth-century pencil and ink foliations."
Notably absent from the post-medieval accounts of the manuscript is any
mention of the Davidic picture or of illumination (traces of which still survive
on two folios); presumably, they were already missing by this time.12 But when
5See Delisle, "Notes," pp. 151,155,158.
6A contemporary list drawn up for the Sainte Chapelle repeats verbatim the
description of the psalter given in Jean's inventory; see Alfred Hiver de Beauvoir, La
Librairie de Jean due de Berry au chateau de Mehun-sur-Yevre, 1416 (Paris, 1860),
p. 92
'Printed by Delisle, "Notes," at p. 145.
Voyage Litteraire de deux Religieux Benedictins de la congregation de Saint
Maur (Paris, 1717; repr. 1969), p. 29.
'Recorded on the verso of what is now the fourth flyleaf, immediately preceding
Ps. 1.
l0In Paris, BnF, MS Fonds lat. 17173, fol. 237; full text printed in Facsimile, p. 12.
"Joseph B. Silvestre, Paleographie universelle... accompagnes d"explications
historiques et descriptives par mm. Champollion-Figeac et Aime Champollion fils,
4vols. (Paris, 1841), vol. 4, plate CCXXXI and accompanying text, and Delisle,
"Notes," pp. 147-51; see also Bromwich in Facsimile, p. 12.
l2For the extent of the loss, see section I.D below.
The Manuscript 3
and in what circumstances they were removed is not known. Bruce13 and
earlier scholars attribute their loss to the sack of Bourges in 1582, but pillaging
soldiers are hardly likely to have taken the time to single out the illuminated
leaves. Equally unconvincing is Bromwich's theory14 that they were lost in the
general neglect of the library witnessed by Martene, since the latter expressly
mentions that the manuscript was kept separately in the charter room and
implies that because of its strange language and script it was an object of
curiosity and special attention. The most that can be conjectured is that the
missing illuminated leaves were removed between 1406 and 1752 by someone
who had ready access to the manuscript, possibly a member of the community
at Sainte Chapelle.
B. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION.
Fols. iv+186+iii are of parchment; the first and last pairs of flyleaves are
of the eighteenth century; the remaining leaves are medieval.15 Originally there
were twenty-five quires of eight leaves each, but fourteen leaves are now
missing (see section D below). Written leaves are of good quality, measuring
on average 526 x 188 mm.; written space 420 x 95 mm., divided into two
narrow columns of 45 lines each. These dimensions give the manuscript the
shape of a modern ledger.16
C. FOLIATION.
There is no medieval foliation or quire signatures. There are two
nineteenth-century foliations:17 the earlier, in pencil, foliates the 186 written
leaves, numbering them 1-196 by including missing leaves (discussed in the
next section); the other, in ink, foliates the written leaves and a final medieval
flyleaf, 1-187, and is the foliation still used.
D. MUTILATION.
Fourteen leaves are now missing:
13See The Anglo-Saxon Version.pp. 13-17.
14In Facsimile, p. 11.
l5The manuscript was recently repaired as indicated by a note on the lower margin
of the inside rear cover, "BN restoration 1979, sous No. 1658." Presumably at this
time were added the slips of modern parchment that have been inserted where leaves
are missing.
"As noted by Vezin, "Manuscrits," p. 291. For a possible reason for this format,
see Bernhard Bischoff, Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, trans.
Daibhi 6 Cr6inin and David Ganz (Cambridge, 1990), p. 26 and n. 50. See now M. J.
Toswell, 'The Format of the Bibliotheque Nationale MS lat. 8824: The Paris Psalter,"
Notes and Queries 241 (1996): 130-33.
l7On which see Bromwich in Facsimile, p. 12.