i TMe 'li aerlahon has been microfilmed exactly as received 59_49^5 SCHRADER, Richard James, 1941- A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL STUDY OF ROBERT HENRYSON’S MORALL FABILLIS. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1968 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan C opyright by Richard James Schrader 1969 A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL STUDY OF ROBERT HENRYSON’S MORALL FABILLIS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Richard James Schrader, B.A., M.A. ****** The Ohio State University 1968 Approved by A dviser / Department of English For my Father Fluelien. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is blind. And she is painted also with a wheel to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning, and inconstant, and mutability, and variation. And her foot, look you, is fixed up'"'* a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls. In good t. i, the poet makes a most excellent description of it. Fortune is an excellent moral. Henry V, III, vi, 31-40 i i PREFACE The first two chapters comprise the actual introduction to my study of Henryson, and this fact accounts for the many tentative state­ ments therein. These chapters also form a commentary on the "general Prolog" to the Fabillis and on the opening of The Preaching of the Swallow, Henryson's most significant remarks about his theory. In addition, they provide a survey of the various schools of criticism which have encrusted the poet. Although my approach is essentially to relate "tradition" and "the individual talent," I have forsaken any idea of presenting the complete context of the work. The fullest comparative study of the literary analogues is Ian Jamieson's splendid unpublished doctoral thesis, The Poetry of Robert Henryson: A Study of the Use of Source Material (Edinburgh, 1964); accordingly, I have devoted much of my study to the philosophical influences so that I might avoid duplicating his labor. Inevitably, we share many critical opinions, notably an emphasis on Henryson's themes of the transitory world and "blindness." As a result, several of my notices of these themes echoing back and forth in the Fabillis have been anticipated by Jamieson. But we differ as often as we agree. I think that he relies too much on the moralitas to inter­ pret the story, minimizing the gap between the*appended moral and that which is "in" the story. i i i Beyond the well-documented assumptions that Henryson was a Scot­ tish schoolmaster, perhaps in Orders, who wrote the Morail Fabillis in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, none of the various biograph­ ical speculations are relevant. On this matter one may consult the introduction to any of the editions of Henryson cited in the Biblio­ graphy. For the context of Scottish history one should consult with care the boohs by Stearns and MacQueen. I will not place much emphasis on this aspect of Henryson's poetry, but rather I w ill, like Jamieson, regard it in the more general context of European literature. The first chapter of MacQueen’s book ("Henryson's Milieu") does much to restore Henryson to his rightful place among the most literate of medi­ eval British poets, and I hope to add further evidence of his erudition. For the origin and transmission of fables before the twelfth century, see the Bibliography for the works authored by Hervieux (vol. I) and Perry, as well as Perry's edition of Babrius and Phaedrus. This exceedingly complex subject is beyond the scope of my dissertation. I have also ignored the Eastern analogues in Hervieux (vol. V) and have generally restricted myself to fable collections like those in Hervieux and to the beast-epics, as opposed to the many isolated fables occuring in medieval writings. On the text of the Eabillis, something about which critics have long been complacent, see MacQueen's first appendix. He argues that the Bannatyne MS provides the best version, but his criteria are often vague, as Denton Fox's review points out (N&Q,.CCXII [1967], 347-49). Both MacQueen and Jam ieson use t h i s MS f o r t h e i r t e x t , and Jamieson (p. iii) claims that its ordering is closer to the Romulean tradition i v than that of any other version. The latter question is not of much importance to my study, because I find that the sequence of fables is, in general, rarely of si'gnif icance. Even so, the Bannatyne is of little help in determining the original order of the Fabillis since it inter­ sp e rse s them w ith such o th e r " fa b le s " as The Buke o f th e Howlat. Where this MS does offer a superior reading I have adopted it and have given my reasons. But unless otherwise noted I have used the Bassandyne text as found in The Poems and Fables of Robert Henryson, ed. II. Harvey Wood, 2nd edn. (Edinburgh and London, 1958). This text does not always vary significantly from the Bannatyne, and it enables me to use the con­ ventions1 enumeration of lines. My Bannatyne readings are from W. Tod Ritchie, ed., The Bannatyne Manuscript, IV, STS, Ser. 2, 26 (Edinburgh and London, 1930). Several times I present meaningful Bannatyne variants without comment. It may be assumed in these cases that I have accepted the Bassandyne readings but am aware that the variants make a difference in sense without affecting my argument. The following abbreviations refer to the editions of Henryson I have consulted: "G. G. Smith," "Elliott," and "Wood" (see the Bibliography for the first two). I use Wood for all of Henryson's poetry save the Bannatyne version of the F a b i l l i s . At the end of this study I have included an appendix of "readings": passages translated from Henryson's sources and analogues and from theoretical writings important to an understanding of the Fabillis. (Almost none of this material is elsewhere available in English.) I use this form to provide a reasonably full context for the smaller passages which I extract and use in the text in the original language. Also, it will keep the text and its notes uncluttered by such trans­ lation and by the bibliographical apparatus attending it. A "q. v." re fe rs th e read er to th ese s e le c tio n s , but I recommend th a t they be read before the chapter is begun. All translations, unless otherwise indicated, are mine. I wish to thank Herbert Merrick and Hen Honeycutt for proofreading them; a grant from the Chio State Center for Medieval *iid R enaissance S tudies made p o ssib le th e ir h e lp . With these readings I provide tables of analogues not included with the translations. My chief purpose here is to tic Henryson in with that keystone of fable research, Perry’s Acsopica, and to aid the folklorist who wishes to scrutinize the theories of Bauman. In the case of Chapter VI, for which I do not provide readings, I give more lengthy tables of both sources and analogues. For other tables see Dicbler and the edition of Caxton’s Aesop by Jacobs (vol. I) where it a p p lie s . I would like to acknowledge the kind permission of the following authors and publishers to use copyrighted material: Denton Fox and The Johns Hopkins Press ("Henryson's Fables"?; lan Jamieson (his thesis); John MacQueen and The Clarendon P re ss, Oxford (The Poetry of Robert Henryson); and H. Harvey Wood and Messrs. Oliver & Boyd, Ltd. (Wood's edition of Henryson). I prefered the Roques edition for my translation of the Roman dc Renart, but Librairie Honorc Champion £diteur refused, "Cette traduction pouvant nuire a la vente dc nos volumes." I am. most indebted to my adviser, Professor Francis Lee Utley, for his guidance and for the use of "many a quaint and curious volume of v i forgotten lore." I am very grateful for the criticism of Professors Robert Estrich and Martin Stevens. VITA 24 August 1941 Born—Canton, Ohio 1963 B.A., The University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame Indiana 1963-68 Teaching Assistant, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1965 M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1966-68 Research A ssistant, The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English Literature Medieval Literature, Professors Francis L. Utley, Martin Stevens, Robert Estrich, and Richard Detlef English Language (Medieval). Professor Martin Stevens v i i i TABLE OP CONTENTS Preface iii V ita v i i i I Animal Fable and Animal Story 1 Notes for Chapter I 19 II Fable Allegory 25 Notes for Chapter IX 45 III Theory and Practice 50 1 <rhc Cock and the Jasper 50 2 The Preaching of the Swallow 61 Notes for Chapter III 71 IV Henryson's Mice 76 1 The Lion and the Mouse 76 2 The Frog and th e Mouse 84 3 The Two Mice 91 Notes for Chapter IV 98 V Renart in Scotland 103 1 The Cock and the Fox 103 2 The C onfession of th e Fox 110 3 The Trial of the Fox (The Fox, the Wolf, and the Marc) 121 Notes for Chapter V 131 VI Postscript on the ether Fables 137 Notes fo r C hapter VI 154 Appendix: Translations and Tables of Sources and Analogues 157 Key to Abbreviations 157 Readings forChapters I and II 160 Readings for Chapter III 167 Readings fo r Chapter IV 176 Readings f o r Chapter V 195 T ables f o r C hapter VI 215 B ibliography of Works C ited 218 ix I ANIMAL FABLB AND ANIMAL STORY By all accounts, the beast tale has amused and enraged numberless members of the animal kingdom’s highest order since man first considered that pride, and even intellect, were not enough to dissever him com­ pletely from the lesser species.