registered at WESTFIELD COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ...

825,15
C25,14;
... contigisse cognoscas et indubitabiliter credas.
Nam de loco isto angelicas evecta manibus
... mlest. il avenu. E de ce soiez tu certeinz. aue
de ce leu sui jeo portee
The translator has wrongly analysed the syntax of his Latin
original: he has taken indubitabiliter credas with the
following clause, rather than with the preceding infinitive
contigisse.
Thus the French C translation is occasionally marred
by errors, some of them quite elementary. However, their
frequency and their gravity are not sufficient to, make it
necessary to alter substantially the judgement stated above
at
(i) and
(ii) that the French translation Is generally a
competent and accurate rendering of the Latin.
However, despite the above evidence for the overall
competence and accuracy of the French C trans-lation, the
translator has consistently deviated from his original in
respects which strongly suggest that, as well as
translating, he was consciously adapting his material with
a specific: public in mind. Obviously, the very act of
translation. from Latin suggests that the intended public
was not highly educated; but by suppressing or simplifying
in translation any potentially difficult notions, by
lowering noticeably the stylistic register, and by adding
clarifying material, the translator was doubtless seeking
to make his work accessible to a public with a minimal
level of instruction,
On the other hand, the Franco-Provengal translation of
MS D renders the Latin fairly faithfully,
and makes no
attempt to simplify or omit difficult material. The
contrast between this D version of the life, and the text
of the C translation makes it seem very likely that the
two texts were translated with very different
publics in
mind: the C text was probably intended for an uneducated
public, and therefore probably an audience; it is tempting
161