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I.—The Beginning of Italian Influence in English Prose Fiction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Howard J. Savage
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Extract

“The probationary period of translation … marks the first stage in the development of prose fiction,” writes Professor J. W. H. Atkins, and inspection of even a few Elizabethan novels will convince one that the type is not indigenous to English soil. The use of the love affair, of realism in the telling, of ordinary people in ordinary surroundings, of the rival and the confidante, of even the minor love affair, and of a plot with well marked stages and characters influenced by events would have been impossible to English novelists without the example of their Italian predecessors. Before Euphues or The Adventures passed by Master F. I. or The Golden Aphroditis can be adequately accounted for, the contribution of Italy must be studied, not alone through such collections as Painter's Pallace of Pleasure (1566-67) and Fenton's Tragicall Discourses (1567), but—and this is of more importance—through single works outside collections, which were of sufficient length and interest to bear the test of printing as separate volumes.

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Research Article
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PMLA , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , 1917, pp. 1 - 21
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Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1917

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References

1 Cambridge History of English Literature, Vol. iii, Ch. xvi, “Elizabethan Prose Fiction,” p. 390. Putnam's, N. Y., 1911.

2 Dr. Percy Waldron Long, “From Troilus to Euphues,” Kittredge Anniversary Papers, Boston, 1913, p. 367.

3 In The Historie of Plasidas, and other rare pieces, The Roxburghe Club, 1873, with introduction by H. H. Gibbs. Lucres is one of the “rare pieces.” To it Professor Carleton Brown first called my attention.

4 Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Museum, s. v. Pius II, C. 21. c. Esdaile, List of English Tales and Prose Romances printed before 1740, Bibliographical Society, 1912, lists this edition as undated. Hazlitt, according to H. H. Gibbs (Preface to the Roxburghe Club's reprint, p. vi) would date it “c. 1549,” while “Lowndes mentions one by W. Copland, of 1547.” As Gibbs suggests, this last date is probably an error for 1567. Esdaile lists the edition of 1560 in the British Museum (Huth. 51), which Gibbs also mentions on p. vi as the property of Henry Huth. Jusserand, The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare, trans. Elizabeth Lee, 1890, mentions (p. 82) “one before 1550,” evidently without verification. Laneham's Captain Cox possessed a copy of “Lucres and Eurialus” (Robert Laneham's Letter, Ed. Furnivall, N. Y., Duffield, 1907, p. 30), which Furnivall discusses at length as a “somewhat warm” story “for an embryo Pope to have written” (Intro., pp. xxxix ff.).

5 Sir Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour, Book ii, Ch. xii (Ed. Crofts, Vol. ii, pp. 132 ff.) rehearses the story of Titus and Gisippus (Boccaccio, Decameron, Day 10, Novella viii) “to recreate the redars which … desire varietie of mater” with “a right goodly example of frendship.“ Of this Wynkyn de Worde had printed a rhymed version by William Walter. Elyot rendered through the Latin of Beroaldo. Elyot's purpose is therefore half didactic. In 1556 two editions appeared of the Histoire de Aurelio et Isabelle … Historia di Aurelio e Issabella … Historia de Aurelio, y de Ysabela … The Historie of Aurelio and of Isabell … In foure langagies, Frenche, Italien, Spanish, and Inglishe. Of this Miss Mary Augusta Scott in her Elizabethan Translations from the Italian (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. x) Part I: Romances, p. 250, writes, ”The polyglot editions show that Aurelia and Isabell was a favorite romance. It is attributed to Jean de Flores, and was translated from the Spanish into Italian by Lelio Aletifilo and into French by G. Corrozet.“ This was undoubtedly a text-book to be used in acquiring foreign languages, and its purpose was pedagogic.

6 A. J. Tieje, The Critical Heritage of Fiction in 1579, Englische Studien, xlvii (1913), p. 415. Search in Miss Henrietta R. Palmer's List of English Editions and Translations of Greek and Latin Classics printed before 1641, Bibliographical Society, 1911, and in the Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Museum shows that Heliodorus was first englished in The Histoire of Chariclea and Theogenes, which appeared in The Amorous and Tragical Tales of Plutarch, whereunto is annexed the History of Caricles and Theoginis … translated by Ja. Sanferd, 1567; Longus, in Angeli Day's Daphnis and Chloe, 1587. Cetera desunt. Ovid's Narcissus was rendered as verse in 1560.

7 Among these romances and medieval stories Esdaile or Miss Palmer lists the following pieces: De Worde, without date, Gesta Romanorum; Joseph of Arimathea; Valentine and Orson (two other editions by Copland); The Dystruccyon of Iherusalem by Vespazian and Tytus (another edition by Pynson, and one by De Worde, 1528); Robert the Devil; 1499, Mandeville's Travels (other editions by Pynson, N. D., De Worde, 1503, and East, 1568); c. 1499, The Thre Kynges of Coleyne (1511, 1526, 1530); 1510, Kynge Appolyn of Thyre; 1511, Ponthus (1548); 1512, The Knyght of the Swanne … Helyas (second edition by Copland); 1518, Olyuer of Castylle, and … fayre Helayne daughter unto the Kynge of England. Pynson, 1513, The Hystorye [of the] Sege and Destruccyon of Troye (Marshe, 1555; Paynell, 1553). Other printers, without date, Kyng Wyllyam of Palerne; Surdyt King of Ireland; Ye. vii Wyse Maysters of Rome; 1518, Virgilius (Copland, 1561); J. Duisbrowgh: Anwarpe (sic), 1518?, Mary of Nemmegen; The Parson of Kalenborowe, 1520?; N. D., Arthur of Lytle Britain; The Boke of the Cyte of Ladyes, 1521; Berners, 1548?, The Castell of Love … whiche boke treateth of the love betwene Leriano and Laureola (two other editions, N. D.); 1551, More, Utopia; 1553, The Historie of Quintus Curtius, Conteyning the Actes of the greate Alexander.

8 The title curiously anticipates Fullwood's Inimie of Idleness (1568), the first English letter-writer.

9 In listing and checking editions I have used R. A. Peddie, Conspectus Incunabulorum, Part I, London, 1910, who enters a total of sixty-two editions before 1500; Hain, Reportorium Bibliographicum, 1826; Coppinger, Supplement to Hain's Reportorium, 1898; Esdaile, English Tales and Romances; Gibbs's Preface to the Roxburghe Club's reprint; Miss Scott's Elizabethan Translations from the Italian, i; and the Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Museum, s. v. Pius II. Mr. Peddie's total is by far the largest. Hain cites thirty-six editions. M. Jusserand, The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare, p. 81, writes, “It went through twenty-three editions in the fifteenth century, and was eight times translated.” All these counts are considerably under the actual number of editions.

10 Cecilia M. Ady, Pius II., London, 1913, pp. 3, 8.

11 Ady, p. 13. Compare Æneas Sylvius, De Viris Illustribus, Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, 1842, Vol. i, p. 27, “De Mariano Socino Senensis,” in which Æneas draws a most flattering character of his old teacher.

12 Creighton, History of the Papacy, Vol. ii, p. 242: “At first Æneas wished to play the part of Horace to a second Mæcenas; but he soon learned to change his strain, and adapt himself to the requirements of his patron's practical nature.” Schlick even gave his dependent a place at his table.

13 Ady, p. 13.

14 Roxburghe Club's reprint of Lucres, Appendix, p. xxxiv: “Ideo historiam hanc vt legas precor, et an vera scripserim videas. Nec reminisci te pudeat si quid huiusmodi non numquam euenerut tibi; homo enim fueras, qui numquam sensit amoris ignes aut lapis aut bestia est.” Compare Voigt, Enea Silvio, pp. 299, 300.

15 Zannoni, Per la storia di due amanti (Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei, serie iv, vol. vi, pp. 116-127, Rome, 1890) cited by Mrs. Ady, Pius II, p. 16, n. 2.

16 Compare Creighton, vol. ii, p. 247, and also Rossi, Storia Letteraria, “Il Quattrocento,” pp. 126-27.

17 Condensed from the novella as reprinted in the Roxburghe Club's Historie of Sir Plasidas, pp. xxxvi, ff.

18 Creighton, vol. ii, p. 76. Pastor, History of the Popes, Ed. F. I. Antrobus, London, 1902, vol. i, gives an account of these events so unpolitical as to be almost useless in the present investigation.

19 Creighton, History of the Papacy, vol. ii, p. 76.

20 Ibid., p. 81.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid., p. 83.

23 Ibid., p. 86.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., p. 76.

26 Roxburghe Club, Appendix, p. lxvi. If Eurialus reached Basel after he had married, the order of the events in the novel is slightly confused.

27 Creighton, vol. ii, p. 161.

28 Ady, Pius II, p. 111.

29 Æneas Sylvius, De Viris Illustribus, p. 65: “Fuit autem Sigismund … vasto animo … vini cupidus … in Venerem ardens, mille adulteriis criminosus … facilis ad veniam,” etc. For illustration of some of these traits, cf. “De Barbara Imperatrice,” p. 46. Such a monarch would have chaffed Eurialus unmercifully.

30 Elyot had, it will be recalled, rendered the tale of Titus and Gisippus from one version of the Decameron for his Governour.

31 Cf. Rossi, “Il Quattrocento,” Storia Letteraria d'Italia, Ed. Vallardi, Milano, 1897-98, vol. v, pp. 126-27.

32 Ady, p. 41. Creighton, vol. ii, pp. 236-239. Pastor, vol. i, p. 342, gives the date s 1438. But in 1438 Æneas accompanied the Bishop of Novara to Vienna and suffered at Basel with the plague (Creighton, vol. ii, p. 240). By 1438 he had passed from the Cardinal's service.

33 Creighton, vol. ii, pp. 237 ff., citing Æneas Sylvius, Epistolae, cxxvi; Ady, pp. 41, ff., relying on Commentarii, Lib. i, p. 4, and the Epistolae, loc. cit. For Æneas's impressions of James I, cf. De Viris Illustribus, pp. 46-47; of Henry V, ibid., pp. 40 ff.

34 The Latin versions of the story involved are (1) the Argentine print (1476) of the Vienna ms. (1446), and (2) the edition of 1490. (1) is reprinted in the Roxburghe Club's Appendix, pp. xxxiii, ff., with collations from (2). I have in part collated this version with the English of 1567, which may have been a reprint of the edition of 1560; there is no reason to think that it was a separate redaction. A very few of the results of this collation may be tabulated as follows :

1476 1490 English
p. xxxvi: Vrbem Senas unde tibi et mihi origo est, intranti, etc. Like 1446. p. 113: Lacking.
Ibid. : cophorum tophorum Ibid.: Tophore
Ibid.: (sicut nos dicimus) Like 1446. Ibid.: Lacking.
p. xxxvii: Lacking. Et sic orpheus sono cithare siluas ac saxa fert traxisse, etc. p. 115: Lacking.
Ibid.: Lacking. Nunc auro illitis nunc muricis, etc. Ibid.: Lacking
p. xl: postes pisces p. 119: poostes.
Ibid. : Procia Cathonis porcia Cathonis p. 120: Perria.
p. xli: Omits name or pronoun. Inserts Eurialus p. 122: Uses pronoun.
p. xliv: Jason Medeam (cuius auxilio uigilem interemit draconem, et uellus auream asportuit) reliquit, etc. Jason Medeam dece-pit, etc. p. 128: Jason that wanne the golden flece by Medeas counsell, forsoke her.
Ibid.: Adriane p. liv: Pacorus interea Pannonius eques, do-mo nobilis, qui cesarem sequebatur, ardere Luscresiam cepit. Ariadne Like 1476. Ibid.: Adriana, p. 142: In the mean tyme a knight, called Pacorus, of a noble House followinge the Emperour, began to loue Lucres, etc.
Ibid. : Tum anus, “Recipe,” inquit. Tum Anus, ‘Respice,‘ inquit. p. 143: Take the floure madame quod ye olde wyfe, etc.
pp. liv-lv: Ille mestus domum pergit, vxorem increpat, domum que clamoribus implet, negat se ream vxor, remque gestam exponit, etc. Omits domum pergit to vxor. Ibid. : goeth home, blameth hys wyfe, and fylleth all the house wythe noyse. And shee to the contrarye denyeth that there is one faute in her, and tellynge the hole tale, bryngethe the olde wyfe for wytnesse. (Last six words in neither Latin text.)
p. lvi: Nec enim sine te nox est mihi vlla iocunda. Like 1476. p. 146: For I can slepe no nyghts wtoute thee, etc.
p. lvii: sicut Menelaus suasit, in gratus expulit. sicut Menelaus suasit, magistratus expulit. p. 147: At Menelaus persuasion was putte out by the Aldermen.

35 Pellechet, 170; Peddie, p. 8, N. D.: Proctor, Index, 5946; Peddie, p. 8, N. D.: Historia di due amanti composto da Silvio Enea Pontifice Pio II, etc. (Florentiae), N. D., Hain, 246: Proemio … sopra la historia di due amanti: composta di papa Pio secundo (Rome? 1495?) Brit. Mus. Cat.: Æneae Silvii Historia de due Amanti, Firenz per Francesco de Dino di Iacopo, 1489; Hain, 247: Reichling, Appendices ad Hainii-Coppingeri Reportorium; Peddie, p. 145, 1491, Brescia: Historia de due Amanti … Bologna per Hercules Nani, 1492, Hain, 248; Peddie, p. 8: Epistole de dui amanti … Venetia, 1521, other editions, 1531, 1554, Brit. Mus. Cat.

36 Der durchlüchtigen hochgebornen fürstin vund frowen, frow Ketherinē hertzogin von Österrich, etc. c. 1477, Coppinger, 73: Strassburg, 1500? Coppinger, 75; Peddie, p. 145: Enee Silvii von der Lieb Euryali und Lucrezia, zu Augsburg, 1473, Hain, 241: Der durchleuchtigen hoch gebornen Fürstin und frawen, frau katherinen Hertzogin von Österreich, etc. 1477 [Esslingen], Hain, * 242, Brit. Mus. Cat.: [Der durchlüchtigen hochgebornen fürstin vnd frowen, frow Ketherinē hertzogin von Österreich, etc.] … Mentz … 1478, Coppinger, ii, 74; Peddie, p. 145: Ein hūbsche histori von Lucrecia vō den zwey liebhabendē menschen … Augsburg … 1491, Coppinger, ii, 3550; Peddie, p. 8: Von den liebhabendē Euriolo vn Lucretia … 1586, Brit. Mus. Cat.: Ein … Histori, von zweyen Liebhabenden Menschen … N. von Weil … Wormbs [1550?], Brit. Mus. Cat.

37 Eurialus y Lucrecia, Salamanca, Oct. 18, 1496, Coppinger, iii, 72a; Peddie, p. 8: Historia muy veradera de dos amantes Eurialo Franco y Lucrecio Senesa … Seville, 1512, Brit. Mus. Cat.

38 Ensuyt listoire des deux vrays amans … a paris par michel le noir, N. D., Hain, 245;… Cy fine le liure des deux vrays amais … lyon par Oliuier Arnoullet, N. D., Coppinger, 76: Histoire de Eurialus et Lucresse. Selon Pape pie 1492, Hain, 243; Peddie, p. 8, N. D.; Coppinger, [1493]: Lystoire de Eurialus et Lucresse … (verse), [1493?] Hain, 244; Peddie, p. 8, N. D.; Brit. Mus. Cat.

39 Roxburghe Club reprint, p. 161. Compare Jusserand, English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare, pp. 82, 83. The Latin text for this pasage runs as follows (p. lxvi): “Quam vt obiisse verus amator cognouit, magno dolore permotus lugubrem vestem recepit; nec consolationem admisit, nisi postquam Cesar ex ducali sanguine virginem sibi cum formosam tum castissimam atque prudentem matrimonio iunxit.” Savj-Lopez recognizes types of character in De Duobus Amantibus, and also a relation to Boccaccio in the name Pandaro. (“Il Filostrato di G. Boccaccio,” Romania, Vol. xxvii, p. 469). Voigt had previously noted the resemblance to Boccaccio (Enea Silvio, p. 287.) So, too, had Rossi (“Il Quattrocento,” pp. 126-27).

40 Roxburghe Club, Appendix, p. lvi.

41 Roxburghe Club reprint, p. 145.

42 For example, Appendix, p. xxxvi.

43 For instance, the long disquisition on nobility and the frequent scandal of its origin, Reprint, p. 152; Appendix, pp. lx, f.

44 Like that to Orpheus, p. xxxvi, which should appear on p. 115; part of the allusion to Jason, p. xliv, which should occur on p. 128.

45 Jusserand, p. 83, seems to be of the opinion that the English translator rendered and adapted directly from the Latin.

46 Painter, Pallace of Pleasure, Ed. Jacobs, London, 1890, 4 vols., Tome I: Lucrece, in which “Lucrece sent a post to Rome to her father and another to Ardea to her husband,” but neither is given in full (Vol. i, p. 23). In the Duchesse of Savoie, in which the Duchess writes to Appian of her plight (p. 309); The Countess of Salusburie, in which King Edward writes to the Countess of his love, which previously he had declared orally (Vol. i, p. 343). Tome II: The Countess of Celant, in which the wicked Countess proffers her love to Gaizzo by letter (Vol. iii, p. 61); Two Gentlemen of Venice, in which the lovers send each other a sonnet, called in the text, “a letter” (p. 129-130); The Lord of Virile, in which Philiberto woos Zelia by letter (pp. 166-167): Don Diego and Ginevra, in which by an epistle Ginevra declares her enmity and her lover replies (pp. 244-245). Again he protests his love (pp. 255, ff.); The Lords of Nocera, in which the mistress of the castle writes to Lord Nicholas proposing that he visit her.

47 See Analytical Table of Contents, Vol. i, pp. lxiii, ff.

48 Certain Tragical Discourses of Bandello Translated into English by Geffraie Fenton, Ed. R. L. Douglas, Tudor Translations, 2 vols., 1889: Discourse ii, “Lyvyo writeth to Camilla,” Vol. i, p. 121; Discourse iii, Parthenope lays suit to the dissolute Pandora (Vol. I, pp. 138-39); when he has found her out and abandoned her, she writes to him upbraiding him (Vol. i, pp. 147-48); Discourse v, Cornelio writes to Plaudina, opening his addresses (Vol. i, pp. 198-99); she replies, arranging for further correspondence (pp. 200-201). It later appears (p. 204) that he has written “sondrye letters.” Afterwards they exchange word by messenger (p. 212). At last Cornelio goes to Milan, where it is his first care to “send for an appoticarye whose fidelitie he had erst proved in the enterchaunge and conveighe of diverse letters betwene his ladie and hym.” By this man he sent a letter (not given verbatim) to apprise Plaudina of his coming (p. 228); Discourse vi, an abbot writes to the daughter of a goldsmith, whom he is seducing (Vol. i, p. 257). Discourse vii, the Countess of Celant (cf. Painter, Vol. iii, p. 61) procures a fresh lover by a letter (Vol. ii, pp. 30-31). Discourse xi, Philiberto offers Zylia his love by letter (Vol. ii, pp. 181-82). Discourse xii, Perillo, having met Carmosyna before, presses his suit by letter. She answers favorably. (Vol. ii, pp. 220 ff.) Discourse xiii, when Diego's love for Genivera grows cold, she reproaches him by letter (Vol. ii, pp. 276, ff.). Cf. Painter, Vol. iii, pp. 224, f.

49 A Petite Palace of Pettie his Pleasure, Ed. Gollancz, 2 vols. King's Classics. Icilius and Virginia: The lovers exchange letters, he proffering, she rejecting marriage (Vol. i, pp. 151 ff.). Admetus and Alcest: Alcest writes to Admetus, warning him that her father has discovered their love (Vol. i, pp. 177, ff.). After consideration, Admetus replies, pressing marriage (pp. 180-82). Curiatius and Horatia: Curiatius (Vol. ii, pp. 41-42) will absent himself eternally from his queen, but she relents (pp. 42-43). Minos and Pasiphae : Verecundus seeks to seduce Minos's queen by letter (Vol. ii, pp. 98-99). Alexius: Alexius is used to write letters for his recreation, addressing his wife. Here (Vol. ii, pp. 153, ff.) he writes her a moral disquisition.

50 William Fullwood's Inimie of Idleness contains a series of love letters for use as models. The rise of the letter in Elizabethan fiction was undoubtedly contemporary with its rise in Elizabethan life. Whether or not Æneas Sylvius was endebted to a collection of letters for the idea of the epistles in De Duobus Amantibus, I cannot say.

51 Painter, ed. Jacobs, vol. ii, pp. 76, ff. The inculcation of moral doctrine by means of the epistle was anticipated by Painter's use of Guevara's Letters of Trajan.