Person:

Donoghue, Daniel

The Metres of Boethius offer a unique opportunity to study the complex subject of Old English verse syntax. They enjoy this distinction because of the unusual way in which they were composed. The versifier did not work directly from the original Latin metra of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy but from an Old English prose intermediary, freely translated from the Latin originals. King Alfred was the author of the prose translation and was probably also responsible for turning the parts of the prose corresponding to the Latin metra into Old English verse. Since a copy of the prose model survives, it affords us an opportunity to compare the two versions in order to judge the versifier's debt to the prose. He apparently followed it quite faithfully and without referring back to the Latin originals. In many verse passages one can find words and half-lines which are direct transcriptions from the prose. Consequently the Old English Metres are generally considered nothing more than prose expanded into verse, adding only ‘poetic’ embellishments (like repetition and variation) and obvious morals drawn from the passage. The fruit of the versifier's labours may be uninspired poetry, but the way that he rearranged the words of the prose offers a rare glimpse into the more elusive conventions of verse-making. Since the many similarities make the differences quite pronounced, the poetical shortcomings of the Metres may be a blessing. A mediocre versifier is more likely to compose mechanically and to imitate established patterns than a good poet, whose virtuosity often conceals the rudiments of his craft.

Lawman’s Brut (c. 1185–1216) stands out as an important text in early Middle English. Its immediate source, the French Roman de Brut of Wace, translates the Latin History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which introduced the legend of King Arthur to the Western world. Lawman recasts his source in the form of a verse chronicle evoking the alliterative tradition of Old English. Brut’s language seems deliberately old-fashioned, an impression supported by revisions in a thirteenth-century manuscript. This study takes a new approach to Lawman’s language, using electronic searches to sift through the Oxford English Dictionary and Middle English Dictionary to find how many of the dictionary entries turn to the Brut for the final illustrative quotation before a word or sense becomes obsolete. These final quotations become an index of the Brut’s archaisms, and their prevalence opens up interpretive questions concerning Lawman’s vision of history.