Beatrice. A Legend of Our Lady

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Preface

THE narrative that follows is a translation of what is perhaps the gem of mediaeval legends. Originating in France in the twelfth century, the story of Beatrice spread over a great part of western Europe, and survives to-day in versions almost too numerous to count. In the course of its journeying it came to the Netherlands and fell into the hands of a now forgotten monk living somewhere in Brabant. This was fortunate, for he proved to be a great poet, quite worthy of the possibilities which the story abundantly offered. By him this conte dévot, characterized at best by prettiness and naïveté, was at once transformed into a thing of great beauty and subtlety. Possessed of

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no little metrical technique, and of an artistic restraint which at times seems almost classical, the writer brought above all to the legend a large, unerring humanity; and effected by this means a decided shift of dramatic emphasis. Heretofore the conflict between good and evil had been quite controlled by the Virgin and the devil. The author of the Netherlands retained these superhuman agencies, to be sure, but only as symbols, and brought into the foreground conflicting human emotions. His chief interest lay in the bitter struggle, in the life of his heroine, between overwhelming passion and ascetic religious devotion; and these he has so handled as almost to reconcile the two impulses. For in the midst of all this nun's worldly vicissitudes - at first frankly delirious, later wretched - the reader constantly feels her pervasive love of the Virgin and her thrill at the remembrance of her cloister life. To such an extent

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do these assert themselves, that when at length she resumes her old position as sacristan, she seems scarcely less pure or less capable of performing her duties than at the beginning of the story. Meanwhile the reader has seen deep down into the soul's history of a profound woman. In short, the writer, for his time, is altogether remarkable for his sympathetic reading of the human heart, his calm painting of cause and effect, and for his optimistic belief in the final reassertion of the good.

In conclusion, just a word about the English translation. My chief object throughout has been fidelity to the Netherlandish. This, however, proved easier to propose than to attain, owing to the extreme felicity of the original; literal accuracy has at least been secured, though often at the expense of atmosphere and the music of the line. The metre, which I have attempted to reproduce

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in English, is in general the octosyllabic couplet, the length of the line occasionally varying all the way from nine syllables to five, and the accents from four to three. The translation corresponds line for line with the original.

Verses 475-482, which in the present text ought to come between the lines

‘And she withheld from further dole’

and

‘Whenas the fourteen years were past,’

on p. 25, it has seemed best to omit entirely, since according to competent authority they appear to be a later insertion by some scribe or other. They contribute a sort of double summary at one point of the story, which is not at all in the spirit of the author. To avoid the charge of negligence, however, I insert them here:

‘For the space of fourteen years, that I tell

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you truly. She was seven years with a man, who won two children of her and left her in want, whereby she suffered great mishap. The first seven years have ye heard recounted: list how she lived henceforth.’

H. de W.F.

Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.