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The Boethian Vision of Eternity in Old, Middle, and Early Modern English Translations of De Consolatione Philosophi University of Kentucky UKnowledge University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2007 THE BOETHIAN VISION OF ETERNITY IN OLD, MIDDLE, AND EARLY MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHI Kenneth Carr Hawley University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Hawley, Kenneth Carr, "THE BOETHIAN VISION OF ETERNITY IN OLD, MIDDLE, AND EARLY MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHI" (2007). University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations. 564. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/564 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Kenneth Carr Hawley The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2007 THE BOETHIAN VISION OF ETERNITY IN OLD, MIDDLE, AND EARLY MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIÆ ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Kenneth Carr Hawley Lubbock, TX Director: Dr. Walt Foreman, Professor of English Lexington, KY Copyright © Kenneth Carr Hawley 2007 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION THE BOETHIAN VISION OF ETERNITY IN OLD, MIDDLE, AND EARLY MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIÆ While this analysis of the Old, Middle, and Early Modern English translations of De Consolatione Philosophiæ provides a brief reception history and an overview of the critical tradition surrounding each version, its focus is upon how these renderings present particular moments that offer the consolation of eternity, especially since such passages typify the work as a whole. For Boethius, confused and conflicting views on fame, fortune, happiness, good and evil, fate, free will, necessity, foreknowledge, and providence are only capable of clarity and resolution to the degree that one attains to knowledge of the divine mind and especially to knowledge like that of the divine mind, which alone possesses a perfectly eternal perspective. Thus, as it draws upon such fundamentally Boethian passages on the eternal Prime Mover, this study demonstrates how the translators have negotiated linguistic, literary, cultural, religious, and political expectations and forces as they have presented their own particular versions of the Boethian vision of eternity. Even though the text has been understood, accepted, and appropriated in such divergent ways over the centuries, the Boethian vision of eternity has held his Consolation’s arguments together and undergirded all of its most pivotal positions, without disturbing or compromising the philosophical, secular, academic, or religious approaches to the work, as readers from across the ideological, theological, doctrinal, and political spectra have appreciated and endorsed the nature and the implications of divine eternity. It is the consolation of eternity that has been cast so consistently and so faithfully into Old, Middle, and Early Modern English, regardless of form and irrespective of situation or background. For whether in prose and verse, all-prose, or all- verse, and whether by a Catholic, a Protestant, a king, a queen, an author, or a scholar, each translation has presented the text’s central narrative: as Boethius the character is educated by the figure of Lady Philosophy, his eyes are turned away from the earth and into the heavens, moving him and his mind from confusion to clarity, from forgetfulness to remembrance, from reason to intelligence, and thus from time to eternity. KEYWORDS: Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, English Translations, Medieval and Renaissance, Eternity Kenneth Carr Hawley 10/15/07 THE BOETHIAN VISION OF ETERNITY IN OLD, MIDDLE, AND EARLY MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIÆ By Kenneth Carr Hawley Walter Foreman Director of Dissertation Jeffrey Clymer Director of Graduate Studies 10/15/07 RULES FOR THE USE OF DISSERTATIONS Unpublished dissertations submitted for the Doctor’s degree and deposited in the University of Kentucky Library are as a rule open for inspection, but are to be used only with due regard to the rights of the authors. Bibliographical references may be noted, but quotations or summaries of parts may be published only with the permission of the author, and with the usual scholarly acknowledgements. Extensive copying or publication of the dissertation in whole or in part also requires the consent of the Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Kentucky. A library that borrows this dissertation for use by its patrons is expected to secure the signature of each user. Name Date DISSERTATION Kenneth Carr Hawley The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2007 THE BOETHIAN VISION OF ETERNITY IN OLD, MIDDLE, AND EARLY MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIÆ DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Kenneth Carr Hawley Lubbock, TX Director: Dr. Walt Foreman, Professor of English Lexington, KY Copyright © Kenneth Carr Hawley 2007 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My initial interest in and early work on this topic were influenced and aided by the dissertation’s first director, Professor Kevin S. Kiernan, whose commitment to research and learning proved integral to the development and oversight of the formative stages of this project. Particularly during my participation in his Electronic Boethius project but also in the classroom and at conferences, his guidance as a mentor and example as a scholar have left me continually in his debt. I am also very grateful to Dr. Walt Foreman, who directed the work to completion with encouraging enthusiasm and generous dedication. Dr. Jonathan Allison’s helpful advice and kind support were always offered at just the right moments, and his energetic participation in this process has been consistent from the very beginning. This project has also benefited from the useful comments and constructive suggestions from the other members of the committee, Dr. Jennifer Lewin and Dr. David Bradshaw, as well as from Dr. Jane Phillips, the outside examiner. In addition, the library staff and interlibrary loan departments at the University of Kentucky and Lubbock Christian University provided invaluable assistance during the course of my research. I also thank Jeanette Heinrichs, whose planning, filing, arranging, and communicating kept everything in order and eliminated much anxiety. This effort could not have been made without the loving support of my parents, Dan and Byrdie Hawley, and my in-laws, Odell and LaVonne Farr, as well as other members of my immediate and extended family. My colleagues at Lubbock Christian University, especially Provost Rod Blackwood, Dean Don Williams, and my companions in the department of Humanities (Jana Anderson, Susan Bailey, Susan Blassingame, Jim Bullock, Tim Byars, Carole Carroll, Kregg Fehr, Deborah Klein, Keith Owen, Ronna Privett, Ron Reed, Michael Whitley) have shown true friendship through every challenge and blessing along the way. Finally, my wife, Deborah, and my sons, William and Bennett, deserve my deepest appreciation for filling my life with love and for being a perpetual source of strength and happiness. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iii Introduction........................................................................................................................1 Translations of Boethius ......................................................................................................1 The Afterlife of De Consolatione Philosophiæ in English..................................................4 I. Boethius on Eternity.....................................................................................................20 The Boethian Vision of Eternity........................................................................................20 The Consolation of Eternity...............................................................................................29 II. The Boethian Vision of Eternity in Old English ......................................................40 King Alfred’s Prosimetric and Prose Translations ............................................................40 King Alfred and the Consolation of Eternity.....................................................................62 Book I, Meter 5.............................................................................................................62 Book II, Meter 3............................................................................................................68 Book II, Prose 7 ............................................................................................................70 Book III, Meter 9 ..........................................................................................................73 Book IV, Prose 6...........................................................................................................89 Book IV, Meter 6 ..........................................................................................................95
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