John Lydgate's "Ugly" Orpheus: Translation and Transformation in the Fall of Princes

• Published in: Translating the Middle Ages pp. 119 - 134
• Main Author: Stone, Russell
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2012
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: John Lydgate; Young Man; Hilandar; Pope Alexander III; Gianfranco Folena; Troy Book; Translatio Imperii; Edward III; English Middle Ages; Pluto; Laurent De Premierfait; Ember Days; John III; Hilandar Monastery; Ne Il; Corpus Christi Play; Farinata Degli Uberti; Teodolinda Barolini; National Library; MS Plut; San Leo; Denser
• ISBN: 1409446972; 9781138108134; 9781409446972; 1138108138
• DOI: 10.4324/9781315549965-14

Among translators and redactors of the English Middle Ages, few can compete with John Lydgate in terms of production. When Lydgate set about translating his version of the Trojan War in his Troy Book of 1412, he began to formulate his theories on this very process of translating the narratives of the ancient world into something enticing for a modern audience. Lydgate, too, looked for didactic opportunities in his sources, and such an attitude led him to insist upon translation as a search for textual as well as historical accuracy. By the time Lydgate composed the Fall of Princes, the story of Orpheus had entered the ranks of Troy and Alexander as a subject that had inspired scores of medieval representations. In London, British Library, MS Harley 1766, a copy of The Fall of Princes dating to just after Lydgate's day, the harp is portrayed as an instrument of courtship as well.