ST. JEROME AND THE LION: FOOTNOTES
1 Although the unique manuscript copy in New Haven, Yale University, MS Beinecke 317, presents this text as "Chapter 20" of Winter's Life of Saint Jerome, for reasons outlined above in the Introduction to Saint Jerome's legend, we have treated the lion episode as a separate composition, with its own line numbers and separate endnotes.
2 even, evening.
3 collacyon, evening reading; haltynge, limping.
4 see, saw.
5 ayenst, against (towards).
7 bysily, carefully.
8 fonde, found; be, been.
9 do cure, done (taken care); wex hoole, grew healthy.
12 be, by; enjoyned, laid upon.
13 kepe, protect.
14 parke, private forest.
17 fette, receive.
20 come be the wey, came along; stale, stole.
23 yatys, gates; thurft, dared.
24 latter, later.
25 wende, guessed (believed).
26 yeve, give.
27 dele, part.
29 yef, [to see] if.
30-31 ryth nought fynde, find right nothing (find nothing at all).
33 hewgh, hewed (chopped).
36 wyst, known; sone, soon.
37 lade, laden (loaded).
44 bad, bade (gave order).
46 with glad and faunynge chere, with a display of joy and affection.
50 that, what.
54 benyngly lyfte, graciously lifted.
58 caryage, baggage.
59 unnethe, reluctantly.
60 behyghte, promised.
61 charge . . . after, legally impose upon their heirs in perpetuity the obligation to make the same annual gift.
64-65 entendyd of herte to hospytalyté, gave our attention to hospitality from the heart.
65 saf, save (i.e., except for).
69 take, given.
72 Caldé, Chaldee.
76 werre, war; wykkyd lyvarys, evil-doers.
79 ynsolent, extravagant.
84 good loos, fair renown.
85 myslyvarys, unbelievers (evil-doers).
86 to my repref, to accuse me.
87-88 the mede of his behest, his promised reward.
88 desiderable temptacyon, desirable trial.
ST. JEROME AND THE LION: EXPLANATORY NOTES
Abbreviations: Y = New Haven, Yale University Library MS Beinecke 317, fols. 20r-21v [base text].
1 prest and relygiows man. In many medieval calendars and liturgical books, Jerome's traditional cognomen was simply presbyter (priest), or, later, presbyter et doctor. The addition of relygiows man here specifically identifies him also as a monk. The insertion of such an introductory epithet here (lacking in LA) may be another indication that this translation of the lion story was originally self-contained and separate from Winter's work.
1-2 Beethlem . . . south syde. This detail, not in LA, is in Plerosque nimirum (Pseudo-Sebastian), PL 22.206: Bethleem . . . . quod ab Jerosolymis sex milibus separatur contra meridianam plagam.
3 collacyon. Anglicized form of Latin collatio, conference (lit.,"bringing together"). In monastic usage, it meant the gathering of monks after supper to hear and discuss a reading from the early Christian lives and maxims of the desert fathers (Vitae patrum) or from the Conferences of Cassian (early fifth century).
7 waisshe. In Y, was is awkwardly corrected above the line in a contemporary hand, perhaps the original scribe's.
12 profyghte. A late ME variant, influenced by Latin profectus, of ME profit (from OF profit).
12-13 enjoyned . . . this offyce. Hoc injunxit officium,"assigned a duty to the lion" (LA, ed. Maggioni, p. 656; trans. Ryan, 2.214).
17 fette. Literally"fetch," but here"get" or"receive." The lion was used to being fed by the monks each evening.
21 here. This is the only time the ass is referred to as female.
23 thurft. Preterite singular of the ME preterite-present verb thurven,"to need" (from OE þurfan); here, however, it means"dared," through a common ME confusion with durren,"to dare." See MED thurven 8(c).
46 faunynge chere. Translator's addition (LA merely has laetus,"glad"). Faunynge means physically showing affection and delight as dogs and other animals do (OE fægnian,"rejoice"; compare the now archaic English word fain,"glad," and see OED, fawn, vb.1).
48-49 or ellys . . . his felowe. This last clause seems to be the translator's addition, perhaps with a hint of sarcasm at the first explanation.
61 evyre after. The lion story proper thus ends with a gesture of formal lay charity, typical of the medieval era. The anonymous Syon author of the translation of the lion episode now departs from his source in LA, apparently to avoid repeating material already included in Winter's original translation of the life of Jerome. He provides the lion episode with a coda by reworking other material, omitted by Winter, from the closing section of the LA life. This material is skillfully linked to the end of the lion story through the motif of Jerome's charity. Although the lion episode proper ends with the considerable enrichment of Jerome's foundation by the oil merchants' bequest, the English translator borrows a short quotation from a later passage of the LA chapter, and thereby deftly refocuses the reader's attention on the charity the monastery gives to outsiders, implying that whatever wealth the monks have gained has been earned for them by their master and the customs he instituted.
64-65 we entendyd of herte to hospytalyté. A stiffly literal rendering of hospitalitati ex corde intendimus,"we extend hospitality from the heart" (LA, ed. Maggioni, p. 658, trans. Ryan, 2.215).
68-69 whatsoever was askyd . . . eny delay. Not from LA, but Pseudo-Sebastian, Plerosque nimirum, PL 22.207 (Mombrizio, p. 32, lines 44-45: et undecumque interrogatus fuisset paratum haberet et competens sine aliqua dillatione responsum).
69-71 yef ther were take hym a book . . . that he redde. This passage is not in LA. In Pseudo-Sebastian's Plerosque nimirum the equivalent material, which the English translator follows fairly closely, occurs shortly after the passage quoted in the previous note, long before the lion episode. See Mombrizio, p. 32, lines 54-58: Tanta namque utriusque linguae peritia fungebatur ut quoscumque libros æolicos in manibus acciperet: latine sine offensione transcurreret: iterumque latinos attico sermone legeret: ut crederetur hoc sermone conscriptum hic esse scriptum quod eius os inoffensa velocitate fundebat. Compare PL 22.207.
72 Caldé . . . Arabyke. This information is not in LA but occurs in Pseudo-Sebastian, Plerosque nimirum, somewhat earlier than the passage quoted in the previous note. Mombrizio, p. 32, lines 38-39 (also PL 22.206): Daniellem quoque prophetam Chaldæo stillo locutum [var. sermone prolocutum] et Job justum Arabico, in romanam linguam . . . mutavit. The ultimate source is Jerome's prologues to his editions of Daniel and Job in the Vulgate Bible (see Weber et al., eds., Biblia sacra, fourth ed., pp. 731, 1341); the prefaces are translated in Schaff and Wace, A Select Library, 6.491-93."Chaldee" is an old name for classical or imperial Aramaic, a Semitic language closely related to Hebrew and widely used in the Babylonian and Persian empires. The Book of Daniel, as extant, is composed partly in Aramaic, and partly in Hebrew. Pseudo-Sebastian exaggerates in implying the Book of Job was written in Arabic; Jerome in his preface describes it as a mixture of Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac. More accurately, its Hebrew vocabulary is richly idiosyncratic, with numerous loanwords from the neighboring Semitic languages, including Arabic, Akkadian, and Aramaic. See Buttrick, ed., The Interpreters' Bible, 3.892.
73-74 And therfor . . . weste. With this passage, the translator returns to the collection of"testimonies" in LA (trans. Ryan, 2.215).
75 his enemyes. In LA (trans. Ryan, 2.215) this passage, on Jerome's defense of the Church against heretics and the attacks he suffered in return, is carefully adapted from Sulpicius Severus, Dialogues 1.8, in which two characters (Postumianus and Gallus) offer somewhat different views of Jerome. See the translation by Hoare, Western Fathers, pp. 77-79.
77 Lollardys. LA merely has haeretici; the Lollards, who preached Church reform and espoused various unorthodox theological positions, were fifteenth-century England's best-known heretical sect.
81 ad Gallam. LA (ed. Maggioni, p. 1009, trans. Ryan, 2.216) has ad Asellam, to whom Jerome wrote his Letter 24, defending himself against the Roman clergy and protesting their mistreatment of him, in 385. Asella was an elderly Roman woman of great humility, who lived"enclosed," i.e., in voluntary solitude. Gallam doubtless is due to textual corruption.
84 be ynfamye . . . good loos. The second pair of opposites is the translator's addition; compare LA: scio ad regnum pervenire per infamiam et bonam famam,"I know how to get to heaven, whether others think well or ill of me" (ed. Maggioni, p. 1009, trans. Ryan, 2.216).
88 desiderable temptacyon. A near-literal rendering of LA's"desirable . . . trial" (desideranda [var. desiderata] tentatio, ed. Maggioni, p. 1009; trans. Ryan, 2.216), explaining, as a test of his capacity for patient suffering, the hostility and vituperation Jerome often incurred (in reality, he often failed the test). ME desiderable is a learned formation (now obsolete), from Latin desiderabilis, alongside ME (and OF) desirable.
94 Here endith . . . Jerom. Immediately following in Y, but omitted here, are the same Latin liturgical anthems and prayer that are found in the other copies after the end of Winter's chapter 19, printed above.