Yvain in translation: medieval myth or twentieth-century novel?

Review article Yvain in translation: medieval myth or twentiethcentury novel? The Complete Romances of Chritien de Troyes, translated with an introduction by David Staines, Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1990. xxix + 524 pp. $US 57.50. Until recently, there existed no complete set of the Arthurian romances, known under the name of Chretien de Troyes, in English translation. The 'standard' work, by William Wistar Comfort,1 published early in the century in the Everyman series, contains translations of Erec et Enide, Cliges, Yvain (Le chevalier au lion), and Lancelot (Le chevalier de la charrete), but lacks the longest of the group, Perceval (Le conte du graal). Nor does it contain Guillaume d'Angleterre, a controversial text in the sense that its attribution to Chr6tien is a matter of much dispute. Although a charming work the utility of Comfort's translation of the four romances it makes accessible has been lessened by two factors: the now unacceptably antiquated idiom in which it is phrased, and the fact that it is based on early, highly composite editions of the tales. In recent years, no fewer than three translations into English have appeared, apparently updating the tradition in both respects: the new Everyman version, prepared by D . D. R. O w e n (1987)2 the version by David Staines (1990),3 and the Penguin Classics translation, by W . W . Kibler and C. W . Carroll (1991).4 All set the romances out in an order which is claimed to follow the chronology of the first composition of these tales,^ some decades before the earliest extant manuscript versions came to be written down. If the three new translations were simply intended to provide access for a wide range of readers, including children, to the wonderful store of medieval tales locked away in the manuscripts, we could not but applaud the effort and perseverance that went into them. However, the English texts exist both as serious works of scholarship in themselves and as important instruments for use 1 Chritien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, translated with an introduction by W. W. Comfort Everyman's Library, London and N e w York, 1914. 2 Chritien de Troyes: Arthurian Romances, new translation, including Perceval, by D. D. R. Owen, Everyman Classic, London, 1987. 3 Staines's translation is unique among these publications in that it includes Guillaume d'Angleterre. 4 Chritien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, translated with an introduction and notes by William W . Kibler (Erec and Enide translated by Carleton W . Carroll), Harmondsworth, 1991. ^ Staines devotes much of his introduction to examining the chronology of all the romances except Guillaume d'Angleterre. Parergon ns 11.1, June 1993 108 B. A. Masters in teaching and research. Probably for generations to come, scholars across a broad range of disciplines will look to these texts as dependable testimonies to literary practices of the Middle Ages. Furthermore, with the present trend towards studying medieval literature in translation, versions such as these are coming to acquire the status of medieval texts in their o w n right. It is thus essential that the premises on which they are based be subjected to the severest scrutiny, and their credentials as substitutes for authentic medieval documents be established in thefirstinstance. With this end in mind, the present essay will examine how the romances are currently being transmitted to a new generation of readers, in the first instance by Staines's text. In order to establish the principles underlying this translation, three specific questions will be asked: (a) What is being translated (the quid)! 0?) What ends are being served in the translation (the intentio)? and (c) H o w does the translator approach his material (the quemadmodum)! Since it is neither possible nor desirable to review any single set of translations in isolation from the rest, the results of our scrutiny will be applied as well to a reading of the other two recent sets of translations. As attention is to be focused on the translations themselves rather than on the individuals who have put them forward under their names, Staines's text will be referred to from now on as the Indiana Publication (Ind), and Kibler's and Owen's texts...