Gervais de La Rue

“ It is, at the same time, the more hazardous, as there would be little difficulty in producing many of the originals which have been used by the ancient trouveurs, such as Geoffrey of Monmouth's Brute, the history of Charlemagne by the false Turpin, the siege of Troy by Dares, &c. But let us quit, as foreign to our subject, every discussion of this kind, and endeavour to prove that the fables of Mary were really translated from a collection that existed in her time in the English language, under the title of The Fables of Æsop. ”

“ By treating of love, and the various emotions which it excites; of chivalry, and the acts of valour which beauty inspires in its professors, she was certain of attuning her lyre to the feelings of the age, and consequently of insuring success. Upon this account her lays were extremely well received by the people. Denis Pyramus, an Anglo-Norman poet, and the contemporary of Mary, informs us that they were heard with pleasure in all the castles of the English barons, but that they were particularly relished by the women of her time. ”

“ They are said, in the preface, to have been translated out of Greek into Latin by the emperor Romulus. Mary likewise mentions this Romulus, and gives him the same title. After having remarked, with how much advantage learned men might occupy themselves in extracting from the works of the ancient philosophers, proverbs, fables, and the morals they contained, for the purpose of instructing men, and training them to virtuous actions, she adds that the emperor had very successfully pursued this plan in order to teach his son how to conduct himself with propriety through life [31] . ”

“ Hence we find in her works those general denominations, those vague expressions, which discourage the curious antiquary, or compel him to enter into dry and laborious discussions, the result of which often turns out to be little more than conjecture. In short, the silence or the modesty of the lady has contributed, in a great degree, to conceal from us the names names of those illustrious persons whose patronage her talents deserved. ”

“ The great number of expressions, and many of the morals to the fables, which imply a feudal government in its greatest vigour, and which, therefore, demonstrate that this English translation could not have been of the time of Alfred. 4. This prince began his reign in 871, and died in 901; now is it credible that an Anglo-Saxon version of the 9th century could have been intelligible to Mary, who had only learned the English of the 13th? Had not the lapse of time, and the descents of the Danes and Normans in the 11th century, contributed, in the first place, to alter the Anglo-Saxon ”

“ Her beauty is equally impressive, engaging, and seductive; an immense crowd follows but to admire her; the white palfrey on which she rides seems proud of his fair burthen; the greyhound which follows her, and the falcon that she carries, announce her nobility. ”

“ On the contrary, Æsop and Phædrus, writing in Latin, could not supply the French fabulist with any thing more than the subject matter and ideas, whilst Mary, at the same time that she furnished him with both, might besides have hinted expression, manner, and even rhyme. Let me add, that through the works of La Fontaine will be found scattered an infinite number of words in our ancient language, which are at this day unintelligible without a commentary. ”

“ I am entirely persuaded that the authors or compilers of them are to be sought for in the monasteries of England; the morals bear too frequent an allusion to a monastic life, and whole sentences of the vulgate and the writings of the fathers are too often introduced to suffer us to think otherwise. I have, in vain, examined these MSS. in the hopes of finding the 39 fables of which Mary has left a translation, but of which the original authors are unknown ”

“ Monsieur le Grand, in his preface to some of Mary's fables which he has published in French prose, informs us that this person was Earl William de Dampierre [15] ; but he mould have given some authority for this opinion, for want of which we must treat it as a mere conjecture. If, on the one hand, there seems to be little that he could have urged in its defence, it is by no means difficult on the other to find reasons to confute it. ”

“ Again, if we compare the fables which generally pass for Æsop's, with those written by Mary, we shall perceive that the translation of the latter could never have been regarded as a literal version of the former. She is a great deal more particular than Æsop; her moralizations are not the same. In a word, I think me comes nearer to Phædrus than to the Greek writer. ”

“ This proverbial expression very clearly shews that the writings of the Greek fabulist, or at least of those who had followed him, were known to the Normans from the 11th century. It is possible, therefore, that Henry I. might have studied and translated them into English. Again, all historians agree in giving this prince the title of Beauclerc, though no one has assigned any reason for a designation so honourable. Now, the title of clerk being, at that time, bestowed only upon men of learning, it follows that this king must have really deserved that character ”

“ The first poems of Mary are a collection of Lays in French verse, forming various histories and gallant adventures of our valiant knights, and, according to the usage of those times, they are generally remarkable for some singular, and often marvellous catastrophe. ”

“ This, however, is merely a conjecture. It is not impossible that the MSS. which monsieur le Grand consulted contained mere particular details on this subject; but he is certainly mistaken in one respect, and that is, in supposing Mary to have been the original author of this piece, whilst all the Latin MSS. that exist attest that she could have been only the translator; and if the translation in the Harleian MS. actually be her performance, she there positively declares that she had been desired to translate the work from Latin into Romance. ”

“ Mary may, with great propriety, be regarded as the Sappho of her age. Unfortunately she has scarcely mentioned any circumstance relating to herself! but she made so considerable a figure amongst the Anglo-Norman Trouveurs, that me may very fairly lay claim to the minutest investigation of whatever concerns her memory.
We are informed by this lady that she was born in France, but she has not mentioned the province that gave her birth, nor the reasons of her going to England. ”

“ It is true that she sometimes explains them in Romance, but not always; and when, upon the other hand, she makes a constant practice of translating them into English, she proves to what sort of readers she was principally addressing herself, and that the monarch to whom me inscribed her dedication was Henry III.
Mary's Lays are twelve in number.
The first is the Lay of Guiguemar, Son of Oridial, Lord of Leon in Lower Brittany. Of this monsieur le Grand gives an analysis in his Tales of the 12th and 13th Centuries [8] , It consists of 860 verses. ”

“ Amongst these compilers we find the names of Romulus, Accius, Bernardus, Salon, and many others anonymous. The first is the most celebrated; he has addressed his fables to his son Tiberinus; they are written in Latin prose, sixty in number, and many of them are founded upon those of Æsop and Phædrus. Rimicius published them at the end of the 15th century, and Frederic Nilant gave an edition in 1709 at Leyden, with some curious and interesting notes. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Latina, says, that these sixty fables are more than 500 years old [30] . ”

“ Kar mult l'ayment, si l'unt mult cher
Cunte, Barun, et Chevaler,
Et si en ayment mult l'escrit, &c. [7]
For these consolidated reasons I think that it was Henry III. to whom Mary dedicated her Lays. This opinion could only be combated by maintaining that it was rather a king of France of whom she speaks, which king must have been Louis VIII. or St. Louis his son. But this alternative will not bear the slightest examination; for how indeed could it be necessary to explain Welsh and Armoric words to a French king in the English language? ”

“ There are two translations of it into French verse. The first of these is in the Cotton library, Domit, A. IV. and the second in the Harleian, No 273; but they are not from the same pen. The former consists of near 1800 lines, and the latter of about 700. Monsieur Le Grand has given an analysis of one of these translations in his fabliaux [47] ; and it is upon the authority of this writer that I have ascribed it to Mary, as he maintains that she is the author of it, but without adducing the necessary proofs for this assertion. ”

“ These Lays are in the British Museum amongst the Harleian MSS. No. 978. They constitute the largest, and at the same time most ancient specimen of Anglo-Norman poetry of this kind that has been handed down to us.
The romances of chivalry amongst the old Welsh and Armoric Britons appear to have furnished Mary with the subjects of these various lays; not that the manuscripts of those people were continually before her when me composed them ”

“ III. If her own testimony mould be, nevertheless, thought insufficient, it might easily be corroborated by that of the MS. in the Royal library, 15 A. VII. which contains a great part of the Æsopian. fables in Latin, and in which it is expressly mentioned, that they had been translated into English. Being written in the 13th century, it is of the same time as Mary; and the transcriber, writing only in Latin, cannot be accused of quackery, when he simply mentions the English version which then existed, in an historical point of view. ”