Fables by Marie de France (review)

HUMANITIES 125 the political sensibility. The later Stoppard, we are told, is more obviously political but consistently he has shown himself in his career as the friend of the little man, more comfortably conservative than progressive and no lover of slogans and systems. Jenkins goes on to sugg~st that Stoppard's sensibility is essentially Central European (the playwright has recently adapted Vaclav Havel's Largo Desolato) but this is judged a matter of temperament only and the question of tradition is not seriously attempted . The book has, in any event, done enough. (ALAN THOMAS) Marie de France. Fables. Edited and translated by Harriet Spiegel University of Toronto Press. 282. $35.00; $14.95 paper The Fables of Marie de France have been strangely neglected. To this day there is no modern French translation of the full text, and the most scholarly edition dates back to the nineteenth century and is in German: it is that of Karl Warnke (Die Fabeln der Marie de France, Halle 1898). Subsequent editors and translators, with the exception of Harriet Spiegel, have followed the text of Die Fabeln. Warnke's aim was to re-establish a text as close as possible to that of the original manuscript, on the assumption that Marie's language was Francien with some Norman influence. BL Harley 978, ff 4oa-67b, ms A, provided the basis for his text, but he did away with characteristic Anglo-Norman features and replaced them by Francien features from other manuscripts: e.g. Francien ie was substituted for Anglo-Norman e (XXXIII, 4; chievre, XXXVI, 1: travailliez). Harriet Spiegel, on the other hand, provides the first complete edition based exclusively on ms A. The Fables are presented with an introduction covering such topics as 'the Fable Tradition,' 'Marie's contribution,' and 'Earlier Editions of the Fables,' a short-title list, textual notes, and a table of manuscript concordances, which give a clear and comprehensive account ofthe present state of scholarship on the Fables. Great care has been taken to ensur~ complete accuracy: 'Only those scribal errors which obscure the meaning have been corrected; emendations have been made only on the few occasions when the manuscript reading was incoherent' (14). One must, however, regret the absence of a glossary and of discussion of the linguistic features of ms A. This latter shortcoming is felt all the more because of the inclusion in the text of facsimiles from BN fr 2173, which differ widely from the BL Harley 678 readings. Footnotes would have spared confusion for the non-specialists who will no doubt be attracted to this book, which with its facsimiles of manuscripts and miniatures has a lot of visual appeal. The translation itself in iambic tetrameter rhymed couplets conveys the charm and wit of Marie's verse and makes it accessible and enjoyable for the modern reader. Because of the difficulty of the task there are a few inaccuracies: 126 LETTERS IN CANADA 1987 D'un vilein nus cunte ici, Que aveit un cheval nurri Here'5 one more story from my source: A peasant once had raised a horse (47.1-2) Al finement de cest escrit Que en romanz ai treite e dit To end these tales I've here narrated And into Romance tongue translated (Epilogue 1-2) or redundancies: Un humme borne unt encuntre Qui Ie destre oil aveit perdu And met a man who was one-eyed He'd no right eye for he had lost it (47.16-17) butthere are many more successful lines which provide excellentreading: Bien 5'aparceit Ii vez'iez Les queils il peot aver suz piez The sly are never at a loss To know whom they can walk across (40.21-2) Pour ceo nus dit en cest sermun Que a tricheur ne a felun Ne deit l'um comander sun or, Ne sa vie, ne sun tresor. You have heard this story for this reason: To men of wickedness or treason Do not your precious gold consign, And not your life or treasure fine. (52.29-32) S[i]et la u siet, dit ceo que dit Fet ceo que fet - sanz cuntredit! Sits where he wants, says what he...