Ælfric's 'Usitatus' Use of language in Lives of Saints

Elfric's 'Usitatus' Use of language in Lives ofSaints 1. Introduction In his Latin introduction to his last great series of homilies, the Lives of Saints } /Elfric reveds his awareness of how he has used the vernacular in turning the Latin pre-texts into Old English: Nee potuimus in ista translatione semper uerbum ex uerbo transferre, sed tamen sensum ex sensu, sicut inuenimus in sancta scriptura, diligenter curauimus uertere Simplici et aperta locutione quatinus proficiat Audientibus. Hoc sciendum etiam quod prolixiores passiones breuiarnus uerbis, non adeo sensu, ne fastidisosis ingeratur tedium si tanta prolixitas erit in propria langua quanta es in latina; et non semper breuitas sermonem deturpat sed multotiens honestiorem reddit. (4.2229 )2 Ann Eljenholm Nichols, in a cogent series of articles written some years ago,3 examined how, in this and his other Prefaces, AElfric put forward a rationde of what she cdls 'the brief style', using conventional topoi drawn from Latin rhetoric, such as the modesty formula, the credentids formula, the tedium formula, as well as technicd rhetoricd terms, such as 'prolixitas', to expldn the theory behind his vernacular 'paraphrases' of Latin hagiographies, where the tagphrase of 'sensum ex sensu' rather than 'uerbum ex uerbo' is particularly 1 The text used here is /Elfric's Lives of Saints, ed. Walter W . Skeat, Early English Text Society, O.S. 76, 82, 94, 114, London, 1881-1900. Hereafter referred to as LS, with passages cited identified by the page and line numbers of Skeat's edition. Cf. also his introduction to the second series of Catholic Homilies, ed. Malcolm Godden, E.E.T.S. S.S. 5, London, 1979, 1, especially the following passage: 'Non garrula uerbositate. Aut ignotis sermonibus. sed puris et apertis uerbis linguae huius gentis. Cupientes plus prodesse auditoribus simplici locutione. quam laudari artificiosi sermonis compositione. quam nequaquam didicit nostra simplicitas' QVot with garrulous verbosity, nor with unfamiliar language, but with clear and plain words of the language of this people, desiring more to be of benefit to listeners by plainness in speech, than to be praised for ingenious construction in discourse, which our plainness has by no means learned). [My translations throughout are as literal as possible.] 2 'Nor are w e able in. this translation always to translate word for word, but sometimes sense for sense (just as w e find it in holy scripture) we have diligently taken care to convert it by such simple and open language as may profit those hearing it. It is to be known also that we have abbreviated the longer discourses of the passions, not as regards sense, so that no tediousness be inflicted upon the fastidious if so much prolixity were used in our language as in the Latin; and brevity does not always deprave discourse but often renders it more becoming. 3 Ann Eljenholm Nichols, Awendan: A Note on /Elfric's Vocabulary, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 63, 1964, 7-13; iElfric's Prefaces: Rhetoric and Genre, English Studies 49, 1968, 215-223; /Elfric and the Brief Style, JEGP 70, 1971, 1-12. I have drawn on all three articles in what follows. 2 R. Waterhouse relevant. She goes on to argue that he distinguishes between commentary and 'translation', and between the genres of homily-proper and saint's life, suggesting that the latter is couched in 'an ornamentd brief style'. She dso notes the relationship of the 'Simplici et aperta locutione' with the type of audience for w h o m /Elfric is writing, the simple unlearned audience who, knowing no Latin, need to be addressed in a brief clear style. In a more recent work,5 she has studied in detail how /Elfric abbreviates his Latin text to produce the brief style of the vernacular homily. What she designates the 'ornamentd brief style' of LS, however, poses problems which she has not taken up, especially in terms of the seeming disparity between what /Elfric in the opening of the Preface refers to as the 'usitatem Anglicam serminocinationem' he has used for his 'translations' and its profound impact, even into the twentieth century. The adjectives he has chosen for 'serminocinatio' at the very beginning of his Preface, anticipating the later explanation of...