A fresh look at Robert Manning

by REX NEEDLE

A remarkable literary co-operation between two poets living on either side of the Atlantic has produced a translation of the work of Robert Manning, the most noteworthy of all Bourne’s citizens from past centuries who was instrumental in putting the ordinary speech of the English people into a written form that is still recognisable today.

Robert Manning, or Mannyng, (1264-1338 or 1340), poet and chronicler, is best known as Robert de Brunne from his long residence in Bourne Abbey, founded in 1138 for Arroasian canons, a branch of the Augustinians, and he became their most famous member. He was the first man to write English as we read it now, thus giving the language its present shape, by popularising religious and historical material in an early Middle English dialect of great importance in linguistic history. Nothing he wrote, however, was ever quite original for he translated the writings of other men into English rhyme from the French and whenever he found a subject on which he was more erudite than the author, he would add his own words to illustrate a point. The result is that his judicious omissions and additions made his version far more entertaining than the original.

His first and best known work was called Handlyng Synne, a translation from the French by Manuel des Pechiez, usually attributed to William of Waddington, written between 1303 and 1317 while a canon at the Gilbertine priory of Sempringham. It comprises 12,600 lines in an episodic, narrative form of rhyming couplets and containing 65 stories dealing with pride, envy, anger, idleness and other sins, and three of these tales and a prologue have been chosen for the latest translation which has just been published in a dual language edition.

The two translators have been working together for several years and have consulted many sources (I am honoured with an acknowledgment) but the unusual factor is that one lives in England and the other in the United States. John Francis Haines, who is 61, a retired local government officer, from Warrington, Cheshire, is a published author whose work has appeared in more than 150 magazines worldwide while L A Hood, who is 57, lives in McLeod, Oklahoma City, and after a spell in the United States Navy, pursued a career in publishing while also writing poetry. Their work is the first modern English translation of Manning, described by the authors as: “Porn, paganism and the Prince of Darkness in rhyming couplets as the author himself presented it during the 14th century.”

Now that these verses are more accessible to the modern reader, we are able to make a better judgment of Manning’s literary worth. Until now, his work may have been known to many but it was understood by few and thanks to Haines and Hood we know exactly what is being related and his tales turn out to be the re-telling of fables and folklore, some bawdy, others funny and many religiously admonitory because, after all, the intention was to warn against the perils of sinning.

This is, of course, what Manning intended. The language he used was his own native tongue and as he knew that rhyme was the most easily remembered form of literary output, he therefore used it to give simple, uneducated people knowledge, advice and above all, amusement and he hoped that his writings would provide "solace in their fellowship as they sat together."

The three tales included here are The Sacrilegious Husband and Wife that Stuck Together, a joke revealed in the title after the story has been read, The Tale of the Sacrilegious Carollers, telling of a time when carolling was anything but Christian and the carol a dancing song with strong pagan fertility rite association, and lastly The Tale of How the Devil Came to be Shriven, an account of Satan going to confession to receive forgiveness for his sins.

The translation will be a revelation to those with little knowledge of Manning’s work and who may expect to find his writings full of deep philosophical meanings. Instead, they are what he intended, fireside tales illustrating right and wrong in a society ruled by the church and presented in a simple style easily understood by everyone. This is a slim volume, just 60 pages, modestly printed, but the beginning of further publications to explain Manning to a wider public because the cooperation between the two poets across the Atlantic continues.

NOTE: Three Mediaeval Tales and a Prologue by Robert Mannyng of Brunne is
published by Valkyrie Press, 490 Harris Drive, McCloud, Oklahoma 74851, USA,
$6 plus $3.60 pp for the United Kingdom, $1.30 for the USA.

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