View of the Great

This dissertation has been 62—769 microfilmed exactly as received GABEL, John Butler, 1931- THE TUDOR TRANSLATIONS OF CICERO'S DE OFFICIIS. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1961 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE TUDOR TRANSLATIONS OP CICERO'S DE OFFICIIS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By John Butler Gabel, B. A., M. A., A. M. ****** The Ohio State University 1961 Approved by Adviser Department of Ehglis7 PREFACE The purpose of this dissertation is to throw light on the sixteenth-century English translations of De Offioiis, one of Cicero’s most popular and most influential works. The dissertation first surveys the history and reputation of the Latin treatise to I600 and sketchs the lives of the English translators. It then establishes the facts of publication of the translations and identifies the Latin texts used in them. Finally it analyzes the translations themselves— their syntax, diction, and English prose style in general— against the background of the theory and prac tice of translation in their respective periods. I have examined copies of the numerous editions of the translations in the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Library of Congress, and the libraries of the Ohio State University and the University of Illinois. I have also made use of films of copies in the British Museum and the Huntington Library. I have indicated the location of the particular copies upon which the bibliographical descrip tions in Chapter 3 are based. These descriptions are intended as an aid to bibliographers and librarians in cataloguing the translations. The particular items in the descriptions are such as will serve to identify copies lack ing title pages and colophons. (I have found a number of erroneously catalogued copies in the course of my investiga tion. ) Research for this dissertation has made me appreciate anew the immense value to literary scholarship of the University Microfilms series of Short-Title Catalogue books. Unless there is a statement to the contrary, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English works cited in this study have been read on film. I have altered the titles of early books to the extent of capitalizing the initial letters of major words; and where the titles are very long, a shortened form is given in the text or notes and the full title in the list of works consulted. The place of publication of these books is given only for those not printed in London. In the quotations cited herein, neither the long ^ nor the alterna tive r form common in black-letter type is reproduced. The raised hyphen is used for tildes, and the asterisk repre sents all signature symbols other than letters. In Latin quotations and titles, diphthongs in the source are written here as separate letters. With these exceptions, I have quoted both English and Latin texts Just as they are printed, I have resisted the temptation in quotations to insert sic after every peculiar spelling and odd grammatical form. In cases where there is no published translation for passages quoted from Latin authors, I have given the Latin in the text and my own translation in the notes. iii CONTENTS Chapter Page I. THE NATURE OP DE OFFICIIS AND ITS HISTORY AND INFLUENCE" TO 1600 1 II. THE TRANSLATORS: THEIR LIVES AND W O R K S ........ 4$ III. THE HISTORY OF PUBLICATION OF THE TRANS LATIONS .................................... 85 IV. THE LATIN TEXTS OF THE TR ANSLATIONS............ 128 V. THE METHOD AND NATURE OF WHITTINTON'S TRANSLATION ................................... I38 VI. THE METHOD AND NATURE OF GRIMALD'S TRANSLATION ................................... 172 VII. CONCLUSION...................................... 219 WORKS C I T E D .......................................... 227 AUTOBIOGRAPHY......................................... 238 Iv CHAPTER I THE NATURE OP PE OFFICIIS AND ITS HISTORY AND INFLUENCE TO I6OO I. The Nature of De Offlclls De Offlclls was the last of Cicero*s philosophical works to be written. He did not intend that this treatise should be his valediction to philosophy, but that it was is quite fitting. Inasmuch as Cicero's genius lay in the fields of ethics and politics rather than any sort of metaphysical speculation, this book on the moral duties is the great and proper conclusion to his philosophic career. Near the beginning of the work he explains to his son why he has chosen to write on this subject: But since I have decided to write you a little now (and a great deal by and by), I wish, if pos sible, to begin with a matter most suited at once to your years and to my position. Although philosophy offers many problems, both important and useful, that have been fully and carefully discussed by philosophers, those teachings which have been handed down on the subject of moral duties seem to have the widest practical applica tion. For no phase of life, whether public or private, whether in business or in the home, whether one is working on what concerns oneself alone or dealing with another, «an be without its moral duty; on the discharge of such duties depends all that is morally right, and on their neglect all that is morally wrong in life. Moreover, the subject of this inquiry is the common property of all philosophers; for who would presume to call himself a philosopher, if he did not inculcate any lessons of duty?l At a later point he reminds young Marcus that "while the whole field of philosophy is fertile and productive and no portion of it barren and waste, still no part is richer or more fruitful than that which deals with moral duties; for from these are derived the rules for leading a consistent and moral life. In De Officiis, then, Cicero wrote on the subject dearest to his heart, that part of philosophy than which "no part is richer or more fruitful." Although there seems to be no evidence concerning this treatise that "Cicero himself looked upon it as his masterpiece,"3 as the Loeb Library translator would have it, for him to do so would have been quite natural. A glance at the De Officiis entry in the British Museum Catalogue will give an indication of the remarkable popularity of the book from the invention of printing up to at least the beginning of our own century. It was, further more, one of the relatively few works of Cicero known throughout the Middle Ages and early Renaissance and wielded a significant influence on some of the great minds of those times, as we shall presently see. James A. K. Thomson, in his Classical Influences on English Prose, says of De Officiis, "... This book, known to our forebears as Tully*s 3 Offices, had a vast popularity from the Dark Ages to the nineteenth century. Its opinions entered into the general consciousness of Europe and have helped to form modern standards of conduct."^ H. E. P. Platt calls it "the source in great measure of European notions of lAiat becomes a g e n t l e m a n . "5 Frederick the Great is reported to have pro nounced it "the best work on morals that has been or can be written."^ The most lavish praise I have come upon for Cicero's treatise is that of two French critics and philologists of the mid-nineteenth century. In his Essai Bibliographique sur M. T. Cicéron (Paris, I8 6 3), Pierre Deschamps says of it: Ce livre à Jamais célèbre, de Officiis, quelque fois aussi nommé Ethlca, était tiré des philosophes grecs Panaetius et Hécaton; mais il se développa et fut si complètement défiguré sous la plume éloquente du maître romain, que l'on peut hardiment le présen ter comme le corpus praeceptorum juris naturalis et moralis disciplinée le plus parfait et le plus sub lime qui ait été Jamais conçu par le génie de l'homme. De tous les écrits de Cicéron, c'est certaine ment celui, qui resta à toutes les époques le plus populaire et le plus cultivé.7 In the preface to Deschamps' book J. Janin speaks of "ce fameux Traité des devoirs, que l'on pourrait appeler l'Evangile de l'antiquité": Ce Traite des devoirs, à l'heure où le fils de Cic- éron^étudiait aux écoles d'Athènes, fut envoyé par le père à son fils, comme un present inestimable! En ce livre, presque divin, toute la morale est contenue, et désormais l'honnête homme y trouva son espoir, son exemple et son conseil! Rien ne suarait se comparer^ parmi les oeuvres humaines, à la vie,& l'action, a la gloire, à l'honneur du de Officiis, ce grande livre écrit au milieu des orages. à la fin du monde romain, à 1*heure où 1*empire arrive portant dans ses flancs sanglants les Tibère, les N^ron, les Domitien, toute la bande abominable de ces fous dont le délire est resté 1'épouvanté du genre humain!° Examined with considerably more detachment than these enthusiasts were capable of. De Officiis proves to be, if not presque divin, at least a thoroughly interesting book that can engage the attention even of an age that cares little for any sort of "rules for leading a consis tent and moral life." The work takes the form of a letter to Cicero's only son, Marcus, a twenty-one-year-old student of philosophy at Athens. It is by no means, however, simply a book of rules for a young man; with only minor variations it might equally well have been addressed to Cicero's old friend Atticus, as were the almost contemporaneous De Amicitia and De Senectute.

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