The First Printed Translations into English 7

The First Printed Translations into English 7

A DISCOURSE by M. T. DE BEZA, CONTAINING THE LIFE AND DEATH OF M.

JOHN CALVIN, ... _Tr._ by I. S., [1570].

 

AN ORATION MADE BY MASTER T. DE BEZE.... ACCOMPANIED WITH XI OTHER

MINISTERS AND XX DEPUTIES OF THE REFOURMED CHURCHES OF THE REALM OF

FRAUNCE.... 1562.

 

PROPOSITIONS AND PRINCIPLES OF DEVINITIE.... _Tr._ by John Penry,

1591.

 

THE TREASURE OF TRUETH.... _Tr._ by J. Stockwood. Whereunto are

added, These Godly Treatyses, etc.... 1576.

 

[_Note._ Herbert in his edition of Ames's 'Typographical

Antiquities' notices a former edition entitled 'Treatise of

Truth'. _Tr._ by Whittingham, Geneva, about 1556.]

 

B. was profoundly versed in ancient literature, and contributed

most to the great movement of the renaissance.

 

 

=BIBLE, THE.=

 

The first English translation was made by John Wycliffe in 1383.

 

The first Protestant translation of the whole Bible is considered as

the joint production of Tyndale and Coverdale.

 

E.g. BIBLIA. The Bible, that is, the holy Testament of the Olde and

Newe Testament, faithfully and truly translated out of the Douche and

Latyn into English, 1535.

 

[Ordered by Henry VIII to be laid in the choir of every church

'for every man that will to look and read therein'.]

 

BIBLE. [MATTHEW]. The Byble, which is all the holy scripture: in

which are contayned the Olde and Newe Testament truely and purely

translated into Englyssh by Thomas Matthew, 1537.

 

BIBLE. [THE BISHOP'S]. The Holie Bible conteyning the Olde Testament

and the newe. 1568.

 

BIBLE. [AUTHORISED VERSION]. The holy Bible, conteyning the old

Testament and the new: newly translated out of the originall Tongues,

and with the former translations diligently compared and revised by

his maiesties speciall commandment. 1611.

 

'If we were to take our greatest authors and read them through,

pencil in hand; if we were to mark those words and images and

turns of __EXPRESSION__ which we feel to be derived consciously or

unconsciously from the English version of the Hebrew Bible, we

should be amazed to find how much of purely literary strength

and dignity that one book has added to our tongue'.--T. G.

Tucker.

 

A TABULAR VIEW OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

 

_The Bible before the invention of Printing._

 

I. A.D. 597-1382--The Middle Ages: Metrical Paraphrases, Glosses,

and Translations from the Latin Vulgate and from the so-called 'Old

Latin'.

 

II. A.D. 1382--The Wycliffe-Hereford Bible.

 

A.D. 1388--A Revision of the above Bible, by Purvey and Others.

 

_The Printed Bible of the Sixteenth Century._

 

III. A.D. 1525--Tyndale New Testament.

 

A.D. 1530--Tyndales (part of the) Old Testament.

 

The last two are from the Original Greek and Hebrew.

 

A.D. 1535 and 1537 Coverdale's Bible (the first complete Bible in

English) [_Not_ from the Greek and Hebrew.]

 

A.D. 1537--Matthew's Bible [mainly from a compilation from Tyndale

and Coverdale.]

 

A.D. 1539--Taverner's Bible [A private revision of Matthew's, and

comparatively unimportant.]

 

A.D. 1539 [The first edition of the Great Bible; the second edition

of which (with Cranmer's Preface) is dated 1540.]

 

A.D. 1560--The Genevan Bible.

 

A.D. 1568--The Bishop's Bible.

 

A.D. 1582--The Rheims New Testament (from the Vulgate).

 

_The Seventeenth Century._

 

IV. A.D. 1610--The Douai Old Testament (from the Vulgate).

 

A.D. 1611--The Authorised Version.

 

_The Nineteenth Century._

 

V. A.D. 1881--The Revised New Testament.

 

A.D. 1885--The Revised Old Testament.

 

A.D. 1895--The Apocrypha.

 

From 'The Evolution of the English Bible', by H. W. Hoare.

 

 

=BIDPAI.= _See_ =PILPAY.=

 

 

=BION.= B.C. =Greek poet.= _See_ =Anacreon.=

 

 

=BJÖRNSON, B.= _b._ 1832. =Norwegian author.=

 

ARNE. _Tr._ A. Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. 1866.

 

BRIDAL MARCH, etc. _Tr._ R. B. Anderson, 1882.

 

CAPTAIN MANSANA. _Tr._ R. B. Anderson, 1882.

 

FISHER-MAIDEN. _Tr._ M. E. Niles, 1869.

 

HAPPY BOY. _Tr._ H. R. G., 1870.

 

HERITAGE OF THE KURTS. _Tr._ C. Fairfax, 1892.

 

LIFE BY THE FELLS AND FIORDS. _Tr._ 1879.

 

LOVE AND LIFE IN NORWAY. _Tr._ Hon. A. Bethell and A. Plesner. [1870].

 

MAGNHILD. _Tr._ R. B. Anderson, 1883.

 

NEWLY MARRIED COUPLE. _Tr._ S. and E. Hjerleid, 1870.

 

NORSE TALES. _Tr._ R. B. Anderson, 1883.

 

OVIND. _Tr._ E. Hjerleid, 1869.

 

THE RAILROAD AND THE CHURCHYARD, etc. _Tr._ C. Larsen, 1870.

 

SIGURD SLEMBE. _Tr._ W. M. Payne, 1888.

 

 

=BLANCHARDIN AND EGLANTINE.=

 

THE HISTORYE OF KYNGE BLANCHARDYN AND QUEEN EGLANTYNE. Impr. by Wm.

Caxton, 1485. _Ed._ by Dr. Leon Kellner, E.E.T.S., 1889.

 

 

=BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI.= _b._ 1313, _d._ 1375. =The most famous of the

Italian novelists.=

 

DECAMERON [1358]. The modell of Wit, Mirth, Eloquence, and

Conversation. Framed in ten dayes, of an hundred curious pieces by

seven Honourable Ladies and three Noble Gentlemen. Preserved to

posterity by the renowned J. B.... and now _Tr._ in English, 1625.

[Written in 1348-58. First printed in 1470. Vol. 1 only. The Edition

of this translation, published in 1620, was anonymous].

 

THE BOKE CALLED DE JOHN BOCHAS DESCRIUINGE THE FALLE OF PRINCIS,

PRINCESSIS AND OTHER NOBLES, translated into Englissh, by John

Lydgate, etc., 1494.

 

NOVELS AND TALES. _Tr._ 1684.

 

Boccaccio directly borrowed his 'Teseide' from Statius'

'Thebaid', A.D. 70. Introduced the octave stanza. The

'Knight's Tale' and 'Troilus and Cressida' of Chaucer are from

the 'Teseide' of B., as also is Shakespeare's 'Troilus and

Cressida' from the 'Filostrato.' 'All's Well that Ends Well' is

also from B. Chaucer borrowed very freely from him.

 

The 'Decameron' suggested to Chaucer his plan for the

'Canterbury Tales', and also some of the 'Tales' themselves,

and its influence on the development of the English novel was enormous.