Dialogue on Translation Between a Lord and a Clerk

This work was most probably influenced by a dialogue that Trevisa had translated while studying at Oxford, The Dialogue between the Knight and the Clerk, a conversation between Sir Thomas and his chaplain. It is commonly attributed to William of Ockham and was written in support of the French monarch.{{Cite book|author=John of Paris|author-link=John of Paris|contributor-last=Watt|contributor-first=John A.|contribution=Translator|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=USUtsAlLTLoC|title=On Royal and Papal Power|date=1971|publisher=PIMS|isbn=978-0-88844-258-1|language=en}}

The dialogue is not a historical record; rather, it uses dramatization as literary criticism in the form of commentary on the translation process.{{cite journal |title=John Trevisa and the Use of English |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2371/74p171.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |last=Waldron |first=Ronald |author-link=R. A. Waldron |year=1989 |volume=74 |pages=177–202}}{{Cite book|last=Merrill|first=Elizabeth|url=https://archive.org/details/dialogueinenglis00merruoft|title=The Dialogue in English Literature|date=1911|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|language=en}} As the preface for the Polychronicon, it is a defense of the translation of a seminal text on world history.{{Cite journal|last=Ng|first=Su Fang|date=2001|title=Translation, Interpretation, and Heresy: The Wycliffite Bible, Tyndale's Bible, and the Contested Origin|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4174704|journal=Studies in Philology|volume=98|issue=3|pages=315–338|jstor=4174704|issn=0039-3738}}

There are a few readings of the figures of the dialogue. One interpretation, based on the victor of the dialogue and its context in prefacing a Latin translation, is that Trevisa speaks through the lord figure.{{Cite book|last1=Summerfield|first1=Thea|last2=Allen|first2=Rosamund|chapter=Chronicles and Historical Narratives|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistorylit1550elli/page/n355|pages=345–347|title=The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English: To 1550|volume=1|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|editor-last=Ellis|editor-first=Roger|isbn=978-1-4416-0717-1|location=Oxford, UK|oclc=320841983}}{{Cite book|last=Somerset|first=Fiona|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQ7lWdWooCEC|title=Clerical Discourse and Lay Audience in Late Medieval England|date=2005-11-24|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-02327-6|language=en|page=65}} Another is that Trevisa is the clerk and Lord Berkeley is the lord.{{Cite book|last=Morley|first=Henry|author-link=Henry Morley|title=A First Sketch of English Literature|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013354026/page/n163|publisher=Cassell|year=1912|location=London|page=150}}{{cite thesis |last=Liira |first=Aino |date=2020 |title=Paratextuality in Manuscript and Print: Verbal and Visual. Presentation of the Middle English Polychronicon |type=PhD |publisher=University of Turku |isbn=978-951-29-8058-1 |url=https://www.utupub.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/149454/AnnalesB512Liira.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=2020-10-17}} Yet a third reaction is that the one-sided nature of the dialogue renders it unable to represent a conversation between two people.

In the Dialogue, the lord commissions a prose translation of Higden's Polychronicon, which the clerk initially refuses and eventually accepts. Trevisa uses the dialogue in order to criticize the "grete mischief" of knowledge remaining inaccessible due to language.

The lord, or Dominus, begins the dialogue with a speech on language and the utility of Latin as a lingua franca.{{Cite journal|last=Moll|first=Richard J.|date=2012-06-01|title=12.06.38, Breen, Imagining an English Reading Public|url=https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/17608|journal=The Medieval Review|language=en|issn=1096-746X}} He then requests that the clerk translate Higden's Polychronicon from Latin into English.

The arguments of the lord are characterized by Watson as based in "capacious intellect and improbably egalitarian ethics." The lord notes that not everyone has the ability to learn Latin. When the clerk acquiesces and asks the lord to choose between a poetry or prose translation, the lord selects prose, which he argues will benefit the vernacular audience of the Polychronicon because it is "cleer and pleyn" and more succinct.

The lord notably uses the translation of the Bible as precedent in his responses. The Bible, according to the lord, is itself a translation from Hebrew to Greek to Latin, and it must also be translated into English in order to be understood by common people.{{cite journal |title="Regionalism in Late Medieval Manuscripts and Texts: Essays Celebrating the Publication of 'A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English'", ed. by Felicity Riddy (Book Review) |journal=Modern Language Review |author-last=Turville-Petre |author-first=Thorlac |author-link=Thorlac Turville-Petre |date=1 October 1994 |volume=89 |location=Cambridge, UK |number=4 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/9957fdd80fe28a658623aac0edda1c26/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819145 }} He further advocates for the use of English because it is utilized in sermons. Other precedents discussed by the lord includes the translations of Aristotle's works from Greek to Latin and of the works of Caedmon, the earliest known English poet.{{Cite journal|last=Beal|first=Jane|date=2019-03-05|title=The Idea of the Music in the Latin Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden and the English Translation of John Trevisa|url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004392076/BP000003.xml|journal=The Medieval Chronicle 12|language=en|pages=38–58|doi=10.1163/9789004392076_004|isbn=9789004392076|s2cid=197968637 |url-access=subscription}}

The clerk's initial refusal is due to his belief that Latin is a language used by many people, but only the English know English. He also notes that the lord himself knows Latin, to which the lord responds that there is some Latin in the Polychronicon that is beyond his ability. The clerk then argues that it is not necessary for all to know the "cronicles," to which the lord responds with the profitability of a translation. The clerk also voices concerns regarding criticisms of the translations, and the lord concedes that translation cannot be perfect.{{Cite journal|last=REİS|first=Huriye|date=2004|title="...and othere bokes tok me ... To reede upon": Medieval Translation and Cultural Transformation|url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/619290|journal=Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi|volume=21|number=1|pages=95–105}}

According to Watson, throughout the dialogue, the clerk provides "increasingly feeble and snobbish" refutations.

The Dialogue marks the first instance of the patron as a literary trope in Middle English.{{Cite book|last=Watson|first=Nicholas|author-link=Nicholas Watson (academic)|chapter=Theories of Translation|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistorylit1550elli/page/n91|pages=83–86|title=The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English: To 1550|volume=1|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|editor-last=Ellis|editor-first=Roger|isbn=978-1-4416-0717-1|location=Oxford, UK|oclc=320841983}} It also, by presenting arguments in favor of translations for vernacular audiences, is a precursor to the fifteenth-century practice of translation of secular literature for profit. William Caxton, who published an edition of Trevisa's translation of the Polychronicon in 1482, notes these two features in his prologue.{{Cite journal|last=Matheson|first=Lister M.|date=July 1985|title=Printer and Scribe: Caxton, the Polychronicon, and the Brut|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2848177|journal=Speculum|volume=60|issue=3|pages=593–614|doi=10.2307/2848177|jstor=2848177|s2cid=162599415 |issn=0038-7134|url-access=subscription}}

Despite being a prolific translator, the Dialogue and the Epistle were Trevisa's only original works.{{Cite book|title=A Companion to Middle English Prose|date=2004|publisher=D.S. Brewer|editor-last=Edwards|editor-first=A. S. G. (Anthony Stockwell Garfield)|isbn=1-84384-018-9|location=Cambridge|oclc=56064965}}{{Cite journal|last=Hanna|first=Ralph|author-link=Ralph Hanna|date=1989-10-01|title=Sir Thomas Berkeley and His Patronage|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/2852871|journal=Speculum|volume=64|issue=4|pages=878–916|doi=10.2307/2852871|jstor=2852871|s2cid=162506517 |issn=0038-7134|url-access=subscription}}

David Lawton writes that the dialogue is the most famous writing in the "genre of fictionalized debate about Bible translation."{{Cite book|last=Lawton|first=David|chapter=The Bible|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistorylit1550elli/page/n229|page=220|title=The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English: To 1550|volume=1|publisher=Oxford University Press|editor-last=Ellis|editor-first=Roger|year=2008|isbn=978-1-4416-0717-1|location=Oxford, UK|oclc=320841983}} Stephen Morrison and Aude Mairey note that the Dialogue demonstrates awareness of the social and political implications of vernacular translation.{{Citation|title=9. John Trevisa, Dialogue entre un clerc et un chevalier|date=2010-01-01|url=https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/10.1484/M.TVMA-EB.4.00191|work=Dialogues et résistances|volume=10|pages=397–409|series=Textes vernaculaires du moyen âge|publisher=Brepols Publishers|doi=10.1484/m.tvma-eb.4.00191|isbn=978-2-503-53477-0|access-date=2020-10-18|url-access=subscription}}

The Dialogue is published, along with the Epistle and translation of the Polychronicon, in the Middle English Pseudo-Turpin, preserved at the Huntington Library.{{Cite journal|last=Shepherd|first=Stephen H. A.|date=1996|title=The Middle English "Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle"|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43629786|journal=Medium Ævum|volume=65|issue=1|pages=19–34|doi=10.2307/43629786|jstor=43629786 |issn=0025-8385|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite book|last1=Trevisa|first1=John|url=https://catalog.huntington.org/search?/tpseudo+turpin/tpseudo+turpin/1,6,9,B/frameset&FF=tpseudo+turpin+english+middle+english&2,,2|title=Translation of Higden's Polychronicon, along with other translations of works into Middle English|last2=FitzRalph|first2=Richard|last3=Pseudo-Methodius|last4=Burghley|first4=William Cecil|last5=Higden|first5=Ranulf|date=1485|others=Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery|location=England}} Due to its inclusion in textbooks and anthologies, the Dialogue is Trevisa's most well-known work in American classrooms.{{Cite journal|last=Steiner|first=Emily|date=2015-04-01|title=Beal, Jane, John Trevisa and the English "Polychronicon"|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1017/S0038713415000548|journal=Speculum|volume=90|issue=2|pages=496–498|doi=10.1017/S0038713415000548|issn=0038-7134|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite book|editor-last=Pollard|editor-first=Alfred William|editor-link=Alfred William Pollard|title=Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse|year=1903|chapter=John Trevisa. Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk upon Translation|chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30851/30851-h/30851-h.htm#Dialogue|publisher=Archibald Constable and Co|via=Project Gutenberg}}{{Cite book|last1=Burrow|first1=J. A. (John Anthony)|title=A Book of Middle English|date=2005|publisher=Blackwell Publishers|last2=Turville-Petre |first2=Thorlac|author-link2=Thorlac Turville-Petre|isbn=1-4051-1708-7|edition=3rd|location=Malden, MA|oclc=54826166}} The exchange is excerpted on the title page of Rev. John Sharpe's translation of William of Malmesbury's History of the Kings of England.{{Cite book|author=William of Malmesbury|author-link=William of Malmesbury|contributor-last=Sharpe|contributor-first=John|contribution=Translator|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wNZEAQAAMAAJ&q=trevisa&pg=PA1|title=The History of the Kings of England and the Modern History of William of Malmesbury|date=1815|publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown|language=en}}

Lawton argues that translators' prologues are sources for translation theory.{{Cite journal|last=Copeland|first=Rita|date=2010-08-25|title=The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, Vol. 1: To 1550. Edited by Roger Ellis. Pp. x + 485. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Hb. £105.|url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/tal.2010.0008|journal=Translation and Literature|volume=19|issue=2|pages=221–225|doi=10.3366/tal.2010.0008|issn=0968-1361|url-access=subscription}} At the start of the dialogue, when alluding to the Tower of Babel, Trevisa presents two solutions to the challenge of "translingual" communication: translation and a universal language, Latin.{{cite book |title=A History of Modern Translation Knowledge: Sources, Concepts, Effects |chapter=Universal Languages |author-first=Karen |author-last=Bennett |editor-last1=Gambier |editor-first1=Yves |editor-last2=D’hulst|editor-first2=Lieven |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |location=Amsterdam |year=2018 |pages=195–201 |isbn=978-90-272-0099-0 }} The Dialogue and the Epistle are both regarded as forms of "direct dissemination" of information about translation.{{cite book |title=A History of Modern Translation Knowledge: Sources, Concepts, Effects |chapter=Chapter 3.6. Forms and formats of dissemination of translation knowledge |last=Assis Rosa |first=Alexandra |editor-last1=Gambier |editor-first1=Yves |editor-last2=D’hulst|editor-first2=Lieven |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |location=Amsterdam |year=2018 |pages=203–214 |isbn=978-90-272-0099-0 }}

By translating the Dialogue, Trevisa serves as an intermediary, or "mene," for not only those readers who cannot read Latin but also those who can read both Latin and Middle English (and therefore evaluate the quality of the translation).{{Cite journal|last=Pinti|first=Daniel J.|date=1994-03-01|title=Dialogism, Heteroglossia, and Late Medieval Translation|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/07374836.1994.10523619|journal=Translation Review|volume=44-45|issue=1|pages=16–23|doi=10.1080/07374836.1994.10523619|issn=0737-4836|url-access=subscription}} His theories regarding translation were in accordance with the aims of the early Christian Church, which emphasized ""serving" the source text" and preserving original meaning.{{Cite journal|last=Maggioni|first=Maria Luisa|title=Modern technologies for the studyof Middle English translation techniques:a computer-aided analysis of Trevisaístranslation of De Proprietatibus Rerum(Books I-V)|url=https://www.ledonline.it/mpw/allegati/mpw0102maggioni.pdf}}

During this time period, translation was a necessary means to developing the corpus of secular English literature.{{Cite book|editor-last=Pollard|editor-first=Alfred William|editor-link=Alfred William Pollard|chapter=Introduction|chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30851/30851-h/30851-h.htm#intro|title=Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse|date=1903|publisher=Archibald Constable and Co|language=en|via=Project Gutenberg}} It was also a time at which "translator's anxiety about the function of translation [was] pervasive," which resulted in the use of simpler language and which was recommended by the lord in the Dialogue.

Trevisa engages in interpolation when translating unfamiliar Latin terms in the Polychronicon, and he provides his reasoning for doing so in the Dialogue.{{Cite journal|last=Lawler|first=Traugott|date=1983-01-01|title=On the Properties of John Trevisa's Major Translations|url=https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.301458|journal=Viator|volume=14|pages=267–288|doi=10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.301458|issn=0083-5897|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite journal|last=Acker|first=Paul|date=1994|title=The Emergence of an Arithmetical Mentality in Middle English Literature|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25095851|journal=The Chaucer Review|volume=28|issue=3|pages=293–302|jstor=25095851 |issn=0009-2002}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30851/30851-h/30851-h.htm#Dialogue "Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk upon Translation"], 1903 translation, via Project Gutenberg
• [https://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/other/011add000024194u00004000.html Illuminated Manuscript], British Library, MS 24194, 1405

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dialogue On Translation Between A Lord And A Clerk}}

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