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as we have sometimes translated. The other
that you would have, idol, idolater, and idol-
atry, be rather Greekish than English words;
176 Early Theories of Translation
which though they be used by many English-
men, yet are they not understood of all as the
other be. [234] You ... avoid the names of el-
ders, calling them ancients, and the wise men
sages, as though you had rather speak French
than English, as we do; like as you translate
-confide-, have a good heart, after the French
phrase, rather than you would say as we do,
be of good comfort. [235] Though he admits
that English as compared with older languages
is defective in vocabulary, he insists that this
cannot be remedied by unwarranted coinage of
words. That we have no greater change of words
to answer so many of the Hebrew tongue, it is of
the riches of that tongue, and the poverty of our
mother language, which hath but two words,
image and idol, and both of them borrowed of
the Latin and Greek: as for other words equiva-
lent, we know not any, and we are loth to make
http://booksiread.org 177
any new words of that signification, except the
multitude of Hebrew words of the same sense
coming together do sometimes perhaps seem to
require it. Therefore as the Greek hath fewer
words to express this thing than the Hebrew,
so hath the Latin fewer than the Greek, and
the English fewest of all, as will appear if you
would undertake to give us English words for
the thirteen Hebrew words: except you would
coin such ridiculous inkhorn terms, as you do
in the New Testament, Azymes, prepuce, neo-
phyte, sandale, parasceve, and such like. [236]
When you say evangelized, you do not trans-
late, but feign a new word, which is not under-
stood of mere English ears. [237]
Fulke describes himself as never having been
of counsel with any that translated the scrip-
tures into English, [238] but his works were re-
garded with respect, and probably had consid-
178 Early Theories of Translation
erable influence on the version of 1611.[239]
Ironically enough, they did much to familiar-
ize the revisers with the Rhemish version and
its merits. On the other hand, Fulke s own
views had a distinct value. Though on some
points he is narrowly conservative, and though
some of the words which he condemns have es-
tablished themselves in the language neverthe-
less most of his ideas regarding linguistic usage
are remarkably sound, and, like those of More,
commend themselves to modern opinion.
Between the translators of the Bible and the
translators of other works there were few points
of contact. Though similar problems confronted
both groups, they presented themselves in dif-
ferent guises. The question of increasing the
vocabulary, for example, is in the case of bibli-
cal translation so complicated by the theologi-
cal connotation of words as to require a treat-
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ment peculiar to itself. Translators of the Bible
were scarcely ever translators of secular works
and vice versa. The chief link between the two
kinds of translation is supplied by the metrical
versions of the Psalms. Such verse translations
were counted of sufficient importance to engage
the efforts of men like Parker and Coverdale,
influential in the main course of Bible transla-
tion. Men like Thomas Norton, the translator of
Calvin s -Institutes-, Richard Stanyhurst, the
translator of -Virgil-, and others of greater lit-
erary fame, Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Milton, Ba-
con, experimented, as time went on, with these
metrical renderings. The list even includes the
name of King James.[240]
At first there was some idea of creating for
such songs a vogue in England like that which
the similar productions of Marot had enjoyed at
the French court. Translators felt free to choose
180 Early Theories of Translation
what George Wither calls easy and passionate
Psalms, and, if they desired, create elegant-
seeming paraphrases ... trimmed ... up with
rhetorical illustrations (suitable to their fancies,
and the changeable garb of affected language). [241]
The expectations of courtly approbation were,
however, largely disappointed, but the metrical
Psalms came, in time, to have a wider and more
democratic employment. Complete versions of
the Psalms in verse came to be regarded as
a suitable accompaniment to the Bible, until
in the Scottish General Assembly of 1601 the
proposition for a new translation of the Bible
was accompanied by a parallel proposition for
a correction of the Psalms in metre.[242]
Besides this general realization of the prac-
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