Courage Rewarded , TIIERE is, it seems to me, only one
way to appfoach an
attempt of this sort, and that is as a translation. If the language of the original is not foreign, in the sense of being incomprehensible or very difficult, then there is isa excuse for the attempt. I have always been. angered by." modern versions " of Chaucer, not only because they compare so ill with the original, but because they are unnecessary. (I read Chaucer regularly for years with preparatory schoolboys, and, after the first few minutes, they never found the differ- ence of language come between them and their enjoyment.) In the case of Langland, there is more excuse. Though the period is roughly the same, the language is more difficult, and allegory is harder to follow than straight narrative.
It must be said at once that Mr. Wells' version, is both dignified and attractive. He has baldly solved the textual difficulties, taking the satisfactory view that the poem is the work of a single writer, and helping himself to all three drafts, so as to secure at 'optimum version. The most • conspicuous merit of the new version is 'that it has something of the simplicity and space of the original.
" Shoemakers and shepherds and such simple peasants
Pierce with a pater nester the palace of heaven, And pass purgatory penniless at their earthly parting, Co into the bliss of paradise for their pure faith, Who were imperfect here in knowing and living. There have been countless clerks who haye cursed the hour
That thdy could construe further than credo in deum patrem."
For his effect Mr. Wells relies largely upon alliteration :
" I called. Kit my wife and Calote my daughter
Arise and reverence God's resurrection, And creep to the cross kneeling, and kiss it for a jewel '. God's blessed body it bore to our salvation. It has force to frighten the fiend always. No grisly ghost may .glide where it shadoweth."
He does not shirk or boWdlerise : his rendering stands up well, fey instance, to the scene where Gula (Gluttony) is in the tavern, although, metre or no metre, " gleeman's mongrel " is a weak substitute for " gleeman's bitch." The whole question Of modernising is full of difficulty.
What is " modern " English ? Is it a question of dictionary, date, or usage ? Is " housel" a modern word ? And unknit " ? But, whatever may be said, it would be absurd not to salute this attempt to „honour a great English poet. Mr. Wells' translation gives more than a hint of Langland's genius, and more than an echo of his music. Whether it will gain him any more readers is another matter.
L. A. G. STRONG.
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