PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The version of the following full text has not yet been defined or was untraceable and may differ from the publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/107394 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-03 and may be subject to change. IIÏ'L· A DIALOGUE BETWEEN REASON AND ADVERSITY F.N. M. DIEKSTRA A DIALOGUE BETWEEN REASON AND ADVERSITY PROMOTOR: PROFESSOR DR. G. STORMS A DIALOGUE BETWEEN REASON AND ADVERSITY A LATE MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSION OF PETRARCH'S DE REMEDIIS EDITED FROM MS. П VI.39 OF THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, CAMBRIDGE WITH AN INTRODUCTION, NOTES AND GLOSSARY AND THE ORIGINAL LATIN TEXT PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor in de letteren aan de katholieke universiteit te Nijmegen, op gezag van de rector magnificus Dr A Th L. M Mertens, hoogleraar in de faculteit der geneeskunde, volgens besluit van de senaat in het openbaar te verdedigen op 8 maart 1968, des namiddags te vier uur, door FRANCISCOS NICOLAAS MARIA DIEKSTRA geboren te Groningen Te Assen bij VAN GORCUM & COMP N V. - DR. H. J. PRAKKE Λ H. M. G. PRAKKE The publication oí this work was made possible through a grant from the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.)- To my wife To my parents CONTENTS PREFACE IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS XI INTRODUCTION [1] A. The Manuscript [3] a. Description of the MS [3] b. Use of the Volume, Provenance and Date [8] с Note on the Letter Shapes [11] d. Punctuation Marks [12] e. Editorial Practice [13] B. Sources of the Text [15] I. Petrarch's De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae [15] a. Nature of Petrarch's Work [16] b. The De Remediis a Humanistic Influence? Its Re­ ception in England and on the Continent in the 14th and 15th Centuries [19] с The Translation and its Relation to the Original . [32] II. Seneca's De Remediis Fortuitorum [35] III. Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae [37] С Literary Genre and Theme [38] a. The Dialogue Form [38] b. The Interlocutors [42] VII 1. The Four Affections [42] 2. The Figure of Ratio [43] с The 'Consolatio' [46] d. The Goods of Nature, of Fortune and of Grace ... [51] e. The Happy Humanist and his Preoccupation with Misery: Petrarch's De Remediis and the Contemptus Mundi Literature [53] THE TWO TEXTS PARALLEL 1 A. A Dialogue between Reason and Adversity 1 B. Petrarch's De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae, Book II, Dialogues I-XI and Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book II, Prose 11 1 NOTES 42 LANGUAGE 53 a. Accidence 53 b. Phonology 56 с Vocabulary 64 d. Localization of the Dialect 65 e. Style and Proverbs 70 f. Points of Syntax 80 LIST OF WORKS CITED 115 GLOSSARY 122 GLOSSARY OF PROPER NAMES 155 INDEX 156 Ш PREFACE Of the treatise edited in this work there are no earlier editions. It has passed unnoticed in a single version in MS. Ii.VI.39 in the University Library, Cambridge, which is mainly known for its version of the Cloud of Unknowing. In an article in Dominican Studies, I (1948) Dr. Doyle of Durham University had noted it in passing as a unique little piece in a collection for rehgious with contemplative interests. He suggested to me the editing of this treatise, which seemed promising from the point of view of language and style. It is full of proverbs, maxims and terse phrases, which mark it out as one of the more lively items among the common run of Middle English devotional texts, though it has no special literary distinction. After some time I found that the treatise was an adaptation of part of Petrarch's Latin treatise De Remedtis Utriusque Fortunae, which made it worth-while to study the nature of the early reception of this Petrarch text in England and the wider issue of the impact of human­ istic writing on the later Middle Ages. Apart from Chaucer's use of Petrarch in the Clerk's Tale and the Canticus Traili this is the earliest adaptation of any of Petrarch's works in England. I have attempted to pay equal attention to the literary affiliations and to the Unguistic features of the treatise. The introduction includes a discussion of the sources, the literary genres of dialogue and conso­ latio and a discussion of Petrarch's reception in England in the 14th and 15th centuries. In the language section I have paid especial attention to syntax and style. The glossary aims at completeness. My deepest debt of gratitude is that to Dr. Doyle, who suggested the subject and provided leads and information at several stages of the work. My acknowledgements are also due to Professor Mcintosh of IX Edinburgh University and to Professor Samuels of Glasgow University for their generous help with the dialectal intricacies. It is further a pleasure to thank Professor Dobson of Jesus College, Oxford and Professor Roberto Weiss of University College, London for answering some of my queries. As for financial help I wish to express my thanks to the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.) for a grant enabhng me to do part of my research in English libraries, and for a grant covering the costs of publication. Finally I wish to thank the Curators of the University of Nijmegen for leave from teaching duties during my stay in England. The promptness and accuracy of Dr. F. Aarts and Drs. P. v. d. Eeden in reading the proofs have been a great help. χ ABBREVIATIONS AF Anglo-French Angl. Anglian Bohn H G Bohn, A Hand-Book of Proverbs, London, 1855 CF Central French CHEL Cambridge History of English Literature CMS Central Midland Standard De Cons. De Consolatione Philosophiae DRF De Remedns Fortuitorum Du Dutch Ecclus. Ecclesiasticus E.E.T.S. E.S Early English Text Society, Extra Senes E E.T.S. O.S Early English Text Society, Original Series EME Early Middle English ер epistula Ер.Мог. Epistulae Morales F French Fl.Doct. Flores Doctorum by Thomas Palmeranus Il MS li VI 39 in University Library, Cambridge Jordan R Jordan, Handbuch der mitlelenglischen Grammatik, I Teil: Lautlehre, Heidelberg, 1925 Zweite verb Aufl. by H Chr Matthes, Heidelberg, 1934 L Latin LOE Late Old English Luick К Luick, Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache, Leipzig, 1914-40 (repr Oxford-Stuttgart, 1964) LV Later Version ME Middle English MED A Middle English Dictionary by F. H Stratmann, new ed. by H Bradley, Oxford, 1891 Migne J. P. Migne, ed Patrologia Latina ML Medieval Latin MMED Michigan Middle English Dictionary, ed H Kurath and S. M Kuhn, 1952- Must. T F. Mustanoja, A Middle English Syntax, Helsinki, 1960 XI ODP Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, ed W G Smith, 2nd rev ed by Sir Paul Harvey, Oxford, 1952 OE Old English OED Oxford English Dictionary OF Old French 01 Old Icelandic Oír Old Irish ON Old Norse ONF Old Northern French Ρ L Patrologia Latina RES Review of English Studies SATF Société des Anciens Textes Français t , Τ tome TPS Transactions of the Philological Society ULC University Library, Cambridge Ven The Venice edition of Petrarch's Latin Works, 1501 Visser, Я 5 F Th Visser, An Historical Syntax of the English Language, Parts I and II, Leiden, 1963 and 1966 Visser, More F Th Visser, A Syntax of the Language of St Thomas More, Parts I-III Louvain, 1946-56 WS West Saxon Yrksh Wr Yorkshire Writers, ed С Horstmann, 2 vols , London, 1895 XII INTRODUCTION A. THE MANUSCRIPT A. DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT In the Catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge the treatise edited here is described as: 'A dialogue, in English, unfinished. On the Evils of Life, between Adversité and Resoun'. As the text has no title in the MS, I have decided to refer to it as A Dialogue between Reason and Adversity. The treatise is, as far as I have been able to ascertain, unique and is extant in MS. Ii.VI.39 of the University Library, Cambridge. This MS is a duodecimo on parchment, originally in paper boards, but since 1935 bound in two volumes and is entitled Varia Theologica1. It is made up of several sections of the same small dimensions (5x3 ins.) but of varying dates ranging from the 13th to the 15th centuries and of no necessary connection. The treatises on leaves 67-188, however, belong together and contain the work of contemplative religious compilers. This portion, in which the Dialogue comprises ff. 177b- 188b, is written in a small and neat hand of the early fifteenth century2 which Dr. Doyle describes as a 'cursiva (anghcana) formata'. See p. [11]. Nothing is known of the history of the MS before it came to the University Library of Cambridge in 1715 with the Moore Collection, 1 Apart from the description in the ULC Catalogue of MSS, a draft description in the handwriting of M. R. James is available in the MS Room of Cambridge University Library. Part of the contents—ff. 67-188—have been described by Dr. A. I. Doyle, 'A Prayer attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas', Dominican Studies, Vol. I (July 1948), 229-238. • According to Dr Doyle, art. cit., p. 232 and Ph. Hodgson, The Cloud of Unknowing, E.E.T.S. 218, p. xiii, note; late fourteenth according to Horst- mann, Yrksk.Wr. I, p. 162 and Helen Gardner, RES, IX, p. 145. [3] INTRODUCTION in which it is no.