WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

speche vor to lurne. So men of ser contrayes and londes þat habbeþ dyuers speeches зef noþer of
ham haþ lurned oþeres speches, neyþer of ham wot what oþer meneþ þey hy meete and haue greet
neode of informacion and of lore, of talking and of speche. Be þeo neode neuer so gret neyþer of
ham vnderstondeþ oþeres speche no moore þan gaglyng of geese. For iangle þe on neuere so vaste
þe oþer ys neuere þe wiser þey a schrewe hym in stude of good morowe. Þis ys a gret meschef þat
volweþ now mankuynde; bote God of hys mercy and grace haþ ordeynd double remedy. On ys þat
som man lurneþ and knoweþ meny dyuers speeches. And so, bytwene strange men of þe whoche
noþer vnderstondeþ oþeres speeches, such a man may be mene and and telle eyþer what þoþer wol
mene. Þe oþere remedy is þat on langage ys ylurned, yvsed and yknowe in meny nacyons and
londes. Þarfore Latyn ys ylurned yknowe and yvsed specialych a þys half Grees in al þe nacions
and londes of Europa. 425
A closer look at this monologue, however, shows how the Dominus, the secular advocate for
vernacular English literacy, mounts the strongest defense for the universality of Latinate culture
as a way not simply to guarantee equality of knowledge by all people but also their political and
ethnic cogency. In Dominus’s words, there are two remedies for the inability for communication
occasioned by this plurality of languages: the learning of multiple tongues by some men or the
learning of one tongue by all men. Although Dominus cannot provide an example of men who
would be “mene” between others and “telle eyþer what þoþer wol mene,” he does come up with
an example of the second remedy of a universal tongue in turning to Latin. As a language of
learning, Latin serves as God’s second remedy for mankind’s sin in creating the tower of “babyl”
and so forsaking not just universal speech (by the dispersal of tongues) but universal brotherhood
(through the creation of nation).
Still, this monologue seems to defend a type of pure linguistic space, which Walter
Benjamin calls the ground of all translation, and not necessarily Latinate learning until the
concluding lines of Dominus’s opening monologue: “Þarvore Ich woulde haue þeus bokes of
cronyks translated out of Latyn ynto Englysch, for þe mo men scholde hem vnderstonde and
haue þereof konnyng, informacion and lore.” 426 Despite having said that the two remedies for
plurality are reductionary (either to have a few men who know all languages or one language
425 Qtd. in Waldron “Trevisa’s Original” 289-290.
426 Ibid. 290.
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