Disciplina Clericalis/Introduction

by William Henry Hulme

INTRODUCTION

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I

Peter Alphonse,^[1] the author of the popular mediaeval collection of oriental folk tales or exempla, known as Disciplina Clericalis, was, according to his own testimony, born at Huesca in the kingdom of Aragon in the year 1062.^[2] He was a Jew by birth and was known before his conversion by the name of Rabbi Moses Sephardi, or Moses the Spaniard. He was baptized under the name 'Petrus Alphonsus,'—the first part of the name due to the apostle on whose birthday the event occurred, the second part deriving from Alphonsus I^[3] , "the glorious emperor of Spain who was my spiritual father and who received me at the baptismal font."^[4] He was according to Söderhjelm^[5] one of the many Jewish intellectuals of the Middle Ages who served as intermediaries between oriental and occidental culture.

A few years after his conversion he published his Dialogi—or Dialogus contra Judaeos^[6] —in which the Christian Peter defends the doctrines of Christianity against the attacks of Moses the Jew (representing the attitude of the author before his conversion as well as that of the orthodox Jews of his time).

It was probably not far from the same time that the Disciplina Clericalis was written. The author had at least already become a Christian,—a fact fully established by the Prolog of the Disciplina, which begins: "Petir Alfons, seruaunt of Jesus Christ maker of this book," and, "I return thanks to God who is the first without beginning;" and the author closes the Prolog with, "May the omnipotent God be my helper in this work." That is to say, the Disciplina Clericalis was written (or compiled) not long after the beginning of the 12th century. It is accordingly the earliest complete collection of oriental tales made known to the western world, and one which enjoyed great popularity and very wide distribution in the literatures of western nations during the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteen, and fifteen centuries. One might even say without exaggeration, that the Disciplina Clericalis of Peter Alphonse not only made known for the first time a considerable number of those tales which were soon to become the most popular of western literatures, but that it inaugurated in all probability that later universally popular kind of prose fiction called the Novella. And though the exemplum had for several centuries been employed by the church fathers for illustrating and pointing their sermons, there was probably no collection of exampla, whether culled from sermons of the fathers or derived from other sources, in existence at the time the Disciplina was composed^[7]. In Peter Alphonse's work, indeed, the exemplum has taken on much more the character of an independent tale, unconnected with any moralizing plan or distinctly religious purpose, than had hitherto been the case.

Nevertheless, there is a decided thread of moral purpose running through the Disciplina Clericalis, which shows itself clearly, if not in the individual tales themselves, at least in the dialogues of varying length which, in the original Latin, always serve as connecting links between the successive exempla. But the moral, didactic features of the collection seem to be, either with or without the consciousness of the author, already of less consequence—certainly of less interest—to the reader than the tales themselves in their purely literary and artistic aspects. As compared with the early sermons, therefore, illustrated by isolated exempla, in which the moral and religious purpose is the all important thing, the Disciplina Clericalis has inverted the order of human interests and taken a remarkable step in the direction of the inauguration of a wholly new species of prose literature.

 

II.

Recent studies of the Disciplina, in its original Latin form, have demonstrated one fact very clearly which earlier efforts had already made probable: that this work was one of the most popular and widely distributed treatises in the literatures of the Middle Ages^[8] Hilka and Söderhjelm have described and classified sixty-three different manuscripts of the Latin versions of Peter Alphonse's collection, dating from the 12th century to the 16th, which they found in various libraries of England and the continent. Moreover it has long been known that French translations and adaptations of the Disciplina began to be made very early,—one version even in the last years of the 12th and another in the 13th century. These are poetical versions, one of which was published for the first time in the year 1760 by the French scholar Barbazan under the title Le Castoiement d'un Père á son Fils. A new edition of this version was published by Meon in vol. ii of his Fabliaux et C antes des Poètes François des xi, xii, xiii, xiv, et xv Siècles nouvelle edition. Paris 1808. A French prose translation was also made as early as the end of the 13th century, for one of the Mss. of this translation belongs to the beginning of the 14th century, and another to the middle of the 15th^[9]. In addition to these French versions there are known to be Icelandic, Italian, German, Spanish, and English translations or adaptations of the whole, or a part, of the Disciplina Clericalis, all belonging, it seems, to the period of the Middle Ages^[10]. But we only have space here for a brief account of English versions other than that of the Worc. Cath. Libr. Ms. F. 172. The results of the Study of the influence which Peter Alphonse's work exerted on mediaeval literature, as shown by quotations of individual tales or by other references to it, can not yet be presented. This point has been treated briefly by Söderhjelm, as quoted above. It is, however, worth noting that numerous collections of exempla and sermons, such as those of Jacques de Vitry^[11], Albertano da Brescia, Odo of Cheriton, Étienne de Bourbon, Nicholas Bozon, Robert Holcot, Alphabetum Narrationum, Gesta Romanorum, etc., etc., from the 13-15 centuries, contain adaptations and quotations from Peter Alphonse in profusion.

Thirteen tales of the collection are included in the 15th century English version of the 'Alphabet of Tales'^[12] and fourteen were printed by William Caxton in his Book of the Subtyl Historyes and Fables of Esope, which he himself tells us "were translated out of Frensshe into Englysshe . . . . . at Westmynstre in the yere of oure Lorde MCCCCLXXXIII.^[13]" This book of Caxton is almost a literal translation of Jules de Machault's Livre des subtilles Hystoires et Fables de Esope, translatees de Latin en François, etc., in the year 1483^[14]. Machault in turn made a comparatively free translation of Steinhöwels Aesop, and apparently from the Latin compilation arranged by Steinhowel himself^[15], rather than from his German version. Caxton follows Machault in omitting the last two of Steinhöwel's fifteen^[16] tales of 'Adelfonso' from his translation. They all three also include one tale—No. xii—which is not in any of the known manuscript versions of the original Disciplina Clericalis. Caxton designates this tale as follows: 'The xii fable is of a blynd man and of his wyf.' In Steinhöwel's compilation^[17] the Latin title is, 'De ceco et eius uxore ac rivali;' the German, 'Von dem blinden und synem wyb.' Machault has, according to the Black Letter edition (without date) which belongs in the British Museum, 'La xii fable dun aueugle et de sa femme.' Now since Hilka and Söderhjelm do not mention this tale as being in any one of the 63 Mss. of the Latin versions of the Disciplina Clericalis which they have so carefully described and collated, it is not improbable that Steinhöwel incorrectly attributed this tale to Peter Alphonse (or one of his sources had done it) in gathering the materials for his compilation. The tale falls immediately after that of 'The Old Procuress with the Weeping Bitch'—one of the most popular of Peter Alphonse's collection — which is No. xiii of the original as arranged by Hilka and Söderhjelm,^[18] and immediately before the story of 'The King's Tailor and his Servants'—No. xx of the Hilka-Söderhjelm edition and xviii of the earlier edition as reprinted by Migne (op cit. cols. 693-694.) On account the interest of the tale and for the sake of giving the reader an opportunity to compare the English of the Worc. version with that of Caxton (both being probably of about the same date) I reprint it herewith complete according to the original edition.

 

III.
The Blind Man Deceived by His Wife.

There was sometyme a blynd man whiche had a fayre wyf, of the whiche he was much Jalous. He kepte her so that she myght not goo nowher, for euer (Jacobs 'ewer') he had her by the hand. And after that she was enamoured of a gentil felawe, they coude not fynde the maner ne no place for to fulfylle theyr wyll. But notwithstandyng the woman whiche was subtyle and Ingenyous counceylled to her frende that he shold come in to her hows and that he shold entre in to (Jacobs omits 'to') the gardyn, and that there he shold clymme vpon a pere tree. And he did as she told hym. And when they had made theyr enterpryse, the woman came ageyne in to the hows and sayd to her husbond: "My frend, I praye yow that ye wylle go in to our gardyn for to disporte (Jacobs 'despose') vs a lytel whyle there." Of the whiche prayer the blynd man was wel content and sayd to his wyf: "Wel my good frend, I will wel; lete vs go thyder." And as they were vnder the pere tree she sayd to her husband : "My frende, I praye the to lete me goo vpon the pere tre, and I shalle gader for vs bothe some fayre peres." "Wel my frend," sayd the blynd man, "I wylle wel and graunt therto." And when (f. 132^b) she was vpon the tree, the yong man begannn (sic) to shake the pere tree at one syde and the yonge woman at the other syde. And (Jacobs repeats 'and') as the blynd man herd thus hard shake the pere tree and the noyse whiche they made, he sayd to them : "Ha! a euylle woman, how be it that I see hit not, neuertheles I fele and vnderstande hit well. But I praye to the goddes that they vouchesauf to sende me my syght ageyne." And as soone as he had made his prayer, Iupiter rendryd to hym his syght ageyn. And whanne he sawe that pagent vpon the pere tree he sayd to his wyf: "Ha ! vnhappy woman, I shalle neuer haue no Ioye with the." And bycause that the yonge woman was redy in speche and malycious she ansuerd forthwith to her husbond: "My frend, thow arte wel beholden and bounden to me, for bycause and for the loue the gooddes haue restored to the thy syght; wherof I thanke alle the goddes and goddesses whiche haue enhaunced and herd my prayer. For I desyryng moche that thow myght see me cessed neuer day ne nyght to pray them that they (Jacobs 'theye') wold rendre to the thy syghte. Wherfore the goddesse Venus vysybly shewed herself to me and sayd that yf I wold doo (Jacobs omits) somme playsyr (Jacobs 'playsyre') to the sayd yonge man, she shold restore to the thy syght. And thus I am cause of it." And thenne the good man sayd to her: "My ryght dere wyf and good frende, I remercye and thanke yow gretely; for ryght ye haue and I grete wronge."

 

IV.

The Middle English version now first published as a whole^[19] is preserved in the Worc. Cath. Libr. Ms. F. 172,^[20] which probably originated in the latter half of the 15th century. The Disciplina Clericalis is number 15 in the order of the contents of the Ms. and is contained in ff. 118^b—138. The piece begins at the top of the page without any title or rubric, and there is nothing to indicate the end but the spacing and the beginning of the immedately following piece near the middle of the page (f. 138): 'Incipit Epistola Alexandri Magni Regis Macedonum ad Magistrum suum Aristotilem'. There are forty lines to a page and the writing tho' rather small is easy to read.

The Worcester version omits eight of the tales found in the complete Mss. of the original Latin Disciplina (cf. Hilka & Söderhjelm op. cit.), but as noted above, there are three tales added at the end.^[21]

The Middle English translation was carelessly made; there are numerous instances in which the translator seems to have been in a hurry, or ignorant of the Latin text he was following. Many of these crudities are pointed out in the footnotes of this edition. The stories, moreover, do not always follow the order they occupied in the original, and occasionally a passage has been taken out of its natural setting and connection in the Latin version by the translator (or perhaps by the copyist of the Worc. Cath. Ms.) and shifted to a different part of the collection. Indeed, the confusion about the meaning of the Latin and the arrangement of the materials often suggest the probability that we have to do with a careless copy of an earlier original. One might, to be sure, discover that many of these peculiarities have their basis in the Cambr. Univ. Libr. Ms. (li, vi, ii, ff. 95-116) of the Latin version, which, as we have already seen, is the source of the final three tales of our collection. Hilka and Söderhjelm, however, have not recorded many notable textual differences between this and the other complete manuscript versions—except the three spurious tales—either in their introductory discussions^[22] or their foot notes.

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1. This seems to be the natural modern form of the second part of the name; though such forms as Aldefunsi, Adelfonsi, Amphulsi, Alfunsi, Alfonsi, Alphunsus, Alfonsus, Anfonsus, Anfulsus, etc., occur, and out text has Alfons. Cf. Hilka and Söderhjelm Die Disciplina Clericalis des Petrus Alfunsi. Heidelberg, 1911. Sammlung mitttellateinischer Texte, hrsg von Alfons Hilka, No. I, Introd. p. vii.
2. See Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 157, col. 537-38. In the preface to the Dialogi, when speaking of his conversion to Christianity and his baptism, he says: "This (i. e. his baptism) happened in the year 1106 after the nativity of our Lord and in the 44th year of ray life, in the month of July on the birthday of the apostles Peter and Paul. Hoc autem factum est anno a nativitate Domini millesimo centesimo sexto, aetatis meae anno quadragesimo quarto, mense Julio, die natalis apostolorum Petri et Pauli.
3. See Söderhjelm, op. cit.; but Labouderie speaks of him (Migne, op. cit. col. 531) as "Alphonse VI, king of Castille and Leon."
4. Cf. Migne, op, cit. col. 538: Fuit autem pater meus spiritualis Alfunsus, gloriosus Hispaniae imperator, qui me de sacro fonte suscepit, quare nomen ejus praefato nomini meo apponens, Petrus Alfunsi mihi nomen imposui.
5. Op. cit. p. vii.
6. Though the work is so designated by Söderhjelm, Migne op, cit. col. 531, also cols. 535-6 and 537-8, always refers to it as Dialogi. Labouderie speaks of an edition printed in Cologne in 1536 under the title, Dialogi lectu dignissimi, in quibus impiae Judaeorum opiniones, et. cet.; the preface begins: Petri Alphonsi ex Judaeo Christiani Dialogi; and the discussion itself has the following title (Migne, cols. 537-38): Incipit Dialogus Petri cognomento Alphonsi, ex Judaeo Christiani et Moysi Judaei.
7. On the origin and development of the 'exemplum' see J. A. Mosher, The Exemplum in the Early Religious and Didactic Literature of England. Columbia Univ. Studies in English. New York, 1911, chap. I. In the thorough study of the Disciplina Clericalis which the present writer hopes to make in the near future in connection with the EETS edition, the questions concerning the origins and analogues of the collection as a whole, as well as of each individual exemplum, will receive detailed consideration. Suggestions regarding the similarity between the Disciplina Clericalis and earlier Hebrew treatises will be found in 'The Path of Good Men; a collection of parental instructions to children by authors distinguished in Israel for wisdom and learning, viz. : Rabbi Judah ben Saul Aben Tibbon, for his son, Rabbi Samuel Aben Tibben. The illustrious Rabbi Moses Maimonides, for his son, Rabbi Abraham; being their Last Will for the Instruction of Mankind, etc. Edited from Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, accompanied by en English Translation.' By Hirsch Edelmau. London 1852. Moreover, Victor Chauvin's Bibliographie des Ouvrages Arabes ou Relatifs aux Arabes publies dans l' Europe chretienne de 1810 a 1885, vol. (or Part) ix. Liege et Leipzig 1905, is a wonderful storehouse of information of every sort pertaining to the originals, analogues, and the history of the Disciplina. Much valuable information and numerous references to the literature on the subject will also be found in The Seven Sages of Rome. Edited by Killis Campbell, Boston, Ginn & Co., 1907. 'Introduction;' also in Middle English Humorous Tales in Verse. Edited by George H. McKnight, Boston, D. C. Heath &Co. 1913. 'Introduction' and Bibliography' (pp. 81-91).
8. See the exhaustive comparative study of the Latin Manuscript versions by Alfons Hilka and Werner Söderhjelm in the Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae, Tom. xxxviii, No. 4; Petri Alfonsi Disciplina Clericalis. I. Lateinischer Text Helsingfors, 1911. Introduction, pp. i-xxix. Part II, which appeared in 1912, contains the Franzosischer Prosatext; and as planned, Part III contains two French poetical versions, and Part IV a discussion of the distribution and influence of the Disciplina Clericalis, in the literatures of the western world. Parts III-IV have not been accessible to me. Söderhjelm's 'Introduction' to the smaller edition of the Disciplina—No, 1 in the Sammlung mittellateinischer Texte (referred to in this edition by the designation 'Söderhjelm,' while the larger Latin edition is referred to as 'I, 1. 2, etc' or as 'Hilka and Söderhjelm') is important in this connection. For there he gives a list of the important translations of the Disciplina in the different languages of the world, as well as of the books about it.
9. See Hilka and Söderhjelm op. cit. II, Einleitung p. i ff. On p. x of the 'Introduction' there is a description of catalanian version, the Ms. of which is said to belong to the century.
10. Cf. Söderhjelm, op. cit. for more details regarding these various translations.
11. Ed. Cfane; cf. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in tile British Museum, vol. iii, London, 1910, P. 1 ff.
12. Ed. by Mary. M. Banks for the EETS vols, 126-127 (1904-1905). As the third volume has not jet appeared "a definite attribution of authorship" of the original Alphabetum Narrationum, formerly ascribed to Etienne de Besançon, must continue to wait. Cf. Banks, vol. 127, introductory 'note.'
13. The book is a large folio Black Letter, profusely illustrated, and it contains some 210 pages of the Fables of Aesop, about 30 of the Fables of Auyon, and 18-20 pages of the Fables of "Poge the Florentyn," besides those of Peter Alphonse. In the epilogue to the book (ff. 142-142b) Caxton gives 1484 instead of 1483 as the date of printing: "And here with I fynysshe this book, translated and emprynted by me William Caxton at Westmynstre in thabbey; and fynysshed the xxvi daye of March, the yere of oure Lord MCCCCLXXXIIII, and the fyrst yere of the regne of Kyng Richard the Thyrdde." It is therefore evident that the translation was begun in the year 1483 and finished near the beginning of the following year, 'Old Style' of course. This book was reedited with an interesting 'Introduction' and a 'Glossary' by Joseph Jacobs for David Nutt in 1889; 'The Fables of Aesop, as first printed by William Caxton in 1484, with those of Avian, Alfonso and Poggio, 2 vols., London, 1889.'
14. According to Söderhjelm, op. cit. p. xiv, though Oesterly says (Steinhöwels Aesop, hrsg. von Hermann Oesterley, Bibl. d. litt. Vereins in Stuttgart, Bd. 117, Tübingen 1873, Einleitung, p. 3): "The French translation of Julien Macho appeared first in the year 1484 and was reprinted at least ten times in the next fifty years."
15. Oesterley op. cit. p. 2; "Steinhöwel was not only the translator of it, i. e. the Aesop of Planudes—Rimicius, etc but also the original compiler of the work which immediately on its publication became one of the most popular of the early printed books in the continent; besides the translation of Machault and indirectly, of Caxton, a Dutch translation of Steinhöwel's compilation was published in 1485, an Italian one by Tuppo in 1485 (Söderhjelm p. xiv), a Bohemian one in 1487, and later versions in both Spanish and Catalanian.
16. In reality 16, for he merges the first two tales: (1) 'The Half Friend,' (2) 'The Perfect Friend' into one, in which he is followed by both Machault and Caxton.
17. Oesterley, p. 326ff.
18. But No. xi in the earlier editions of Labouderie (Paris, 1824) and Schmitt (Berlin 1827.)
19. One of the tales. No. xxix, was printed by the present writer as a contribution to the study of 'The Wager Cycle, in Mod. Lang. Notes', vol. xxiv pp. 218-222 (Nov. 1909). This tale and two others constituting the last three tales of the Worc. Cath. Libr. collection, all of which are apparently spurious later additions to the original, were also printed, along with their Latin originals, by Hilka and Söderhjelm (op. cit., I. Anhang II. pp. '68-73).
20. This Ms. has often been described in recent years, so that it will not be necessary to repeat the description here. Cf. Hulme, 'A Valuable Middle English Manuscript.' Mod. Philol. vol. iv, p. 67 ff. (July, 1906) ; Floyer and Hamilton, A Catalogue of Manuscripts Preserved in the Chapter library of Worcester. Oxford, 1906; Hulme, The Harrowing of Hell, etc., EETS (extra Ser.) 100, London 1907, Introduction, p. xlviii ff.; Hulmc, Richard Rolle of Hampole's Mending of Life, from, etc., Western Reserve Studies, vol. I, no. 4, 'Introduction,' pp. 5-11.
21. The missing tales are Nos. VII, VIII (cf. I, 13), XII (I, 16, 1. 9), XVIII (I, 20), XXI (I, 29), XXIX (I, 41), XXXI, XXXII (I, 43-44); the additions (Nos. XXVIIIXXX) seem to have corresponding originals in only one of the Latin Mss., viz, Cambridge Univ. Libr. li, 6, 11, ff., 113a-114 (see Hilka & Söderhjelm op. cit. I, Anhang II.) The identification of this Ms. and the definite determination of its relation to the Worc. Cath. Libr. Ms. F. 172, is only one of the many merits of this excellent edition of the Latin Disciplina Clericalis.
22. Cf. op. cit. I, pp. xi, xvi, xix—where the editors remark: "C¹ has the noteworthy assertion (I, i) that Petrus was the physician of Henry I, king of England" . . . . and "the copyist was in general fond of making additions." They also observe that the interpolation of the three spurious tales just after the closing words of the piece caused the shifting of exempla xx, xxii, xxiv from their natural positions in the collection to the end of this version—also pp. 68 and 72.