sehepunkte 24 (2024), Nr. 9

K. Sarah-Jane Murray / Matthieu Boyd (eds.): The Medieval French Ovide moralisé

K. Sarah-Jane Murray and Matthieu Boyd's excellent new translation of the medieval French Ovide moralisé comes at a time of intense activity in the world of medieval Ovidian translations and editions. For the first time in modern English and French, scholars and students will be able to read the Ovide moralisé alongside the closely related Ovidius moralizatus by Pierre Bersuire (edited and translated into English by Frank T. Coulson and Justin Haynes for Dumbarton Oaks, 2023), John of Garland's Integumenta Ovidii (edited and translated into English by Kyle Gervais for TEAMS, 2022), and the Vulgate Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses (edited and translated into French by Frank T. Coulson, Piero Andrea Martina, and Clara Wille for Classiques Garnier in 2021, with a second volume imminent) - all published within three years of one another. The impact of Ovidiana on medieval literary culture was so wide-ranging that this collective feat of publishing is of great importance to scholars and students of the medieval world.

Murray and Boyd's three-volume translation of the anonymous OM (as it will henceforth be known here) is accessible, learned, and enjoyable to read, and is unlikely to be superseded for a very long time. It is moreover a triumph of both translation and collaboration, as the list of contributors to the project attests (x-xi).

The Introduction (1-110) is expansive, covering a variety of topics which form a robust introduction to the OM. This includes the OM's contexts, sources, themes, and influence, usefully situating the OM in the "intertextual ecosystem" (15) encompassing the many retellings of Ovid as well as the broader allegorical, mythographic, and classical traditions. Focusing especially on Augustine's works and influence, Murray and Boyd trace the emergence of the allegorising, Christianising tradition; the Introduction rightly spends much time explaining how classical, pagan, pre-Christian authors came to be justified for use in the Middle Ages (as Alcuin of York says, and as quoted at 2, "What does Ingeld have to do with Christ?"). What could have been emphasised more is that Ovid was a particularly fraught authority in this respect, given his authorship of those salacious, erotodidactic works like the Ars amatoria alongside the monumentally important Metamorphoses. Arguably no other classical poet posed such a threat to that project of Christianisation than Ovid. Murray and Boyd stress, quite rightly, that the moralised readings of Ovid contained in the OM accommodate a remarkably variegated set of interpretations in which the pagan and the Christian can exist quite comfortably; but there was fierce debate beyond the allegorical tradition about whether Ovid's works should be read at all.

What the Introduction does best for any level of reader is explain in clear terms what the OM is about, what it is interested in, and how it is organised. Aquinas and Boethius are important points of reference throughout for how the "completed translation and commentary weaves together [...] philosophy, theology, and literature" (49), and the section "How does the OM moralize?" (61-66) describes the basic structure of each tale within the OM's fifteen books. The tale at hand is recounted from Ovid (at times supplemented by other sources), followed by the moralisation, which covers four senses: literal or historical, moral or tropological, allegorical, and anagogical or eschatological. These four layers of interpretation are where the poem is richest. Much has been written on how these moralisations of Ovid are a kind of exegetical gymnastics, '[stretching] Ovid in moralistic directions he has no business going', as Jamie C. Fumo memorably noted of Bersuire's Ovidius moralizatus. [1] Murray and Boyd instead highlight how the OM-author makes it Ovid's business to go in these moralistic directions, thus very successfully accommodating Ovid into a Christian framework where others, as I mentioned above, struggled. These senses can all coexist, and the Introduction usefully presents the stories of Phaethon and Orpheus as examples.

The translation itself is direct, clear, and informal, reflecting the translators' aims "to reproduce the structure of the French as long as the result reads with reasonable clarify and ease" (68), and "to avoid the ridiculously literal". (68) The felicity of expression is superb: the text has a pace to it, originating in the OM-author and carried over by Murray, Boyd, et al., which ensures the reader does not get too bogged down in the tales or in issues of theology or philosophy. The Introduction's "Notes on the Translation" (67-70) and the "Introductory Lexicon" (71-79) are particularly useful in getting to grips with the translation choices, as with the important distinctions made between "god," "gods," and "God," or the rationale behind using "tale" instead of "fable" for fabula. These guidelines, and the individual notes throughout the text, mean that non-Francophone readers can approach the translation with confidence.

One case study may demonstrate the translation in action: Book 7's lengthy section relating to Medea, Jason, and the tale of the Golden Fleece (translated by Murray, with Raymond Cormier and Boyd, spanning 519-47). Book 7 opens with the OM-author providing some background information on Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, much of which is not found in Ovid's Metamorphoses but which attests to popular medieval interests and the commentary tradition, which liked to accumulate peripheral knowledge. Explanatory notes here inform us that the opening material derives from Dares' De excidio Troiae historia and the Roman de Troie (519 n. 1). We get a sense of the writer's narrative style when this background leads to an excursion on the Trojan War, conventionally reined in. ("But now is not the moment to tell more about that. When the time comes, I will certainly come back to it and pick this subject up again". (522)) Similarly Hypsipyle's appearance shortly afterwards is an addition to the Metamorphoses from Ovid's Heroides 6, reflecting the popularity of the Heroides, the intertextuality of Ovid's works, and the writer's eye for expanding from his source-text. Medea's narrative proceeds along the lines of the Metamorphoses and other Ovid. (Here we might note that while 527 n. 16 notes that Medea's dismemberment of her brother is not in Ovid, his Tristia 3.9 describes Medea tearing her brother limb from limb as a gory etymology for Tomis.) The moralisation is remarkable: the Golden Fleece in one sense is the holy virginity of Mary; the herbs which Medea gathers to aid Jason are "gathered from the garden of the Virgin Mary's womb, where God the Father had planted it" (529), where it was then enchanted. Jason defeating various monsters is Jesus, who defeats the serpent, the bulls, and so on. "'Jason took the Golden Fleece': Jesus in the Honored Virgin took on flesh and human nature". (529)

All of this is fantastic and fabulous, puns intended, in and of itself, and Medea's retelling is just one example of how this translation opens up countless avenues for exploration of medieval philosophy, theology, reception of classical antiquity, and more. The reader can now judge for themselves how Ovid arrived to readers and poets like Machaut, Gower, or Chaucer, "encrusted in an integument of allegorisation," as Bruce Harbert says. [2] Where has the Medea of Chaucer's Man of Law's Prologue come from, who is responsible for her "litel children hanging by the hals [neck]," or the Medea who shares space with Hypsipyle to lament, infanticide- and fratricide-free, in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women?

Murray and Boyd's Ovide moralisé opens up so many possibilities in this commendable translation, which will be of interest and of use to many. There is only one conspicuous absence, which is illustration: the miniatures which accompany the OM enrich the text enormously, and it is a shame they could not be reproduced. This was no doubt impossible for a variety of reasons, but should there be a second (or digital) edition, image inclusion would complete this excellent work.

Notes:

[1] Jamie C. Fumo: Commentary and Collaboration in the Medieval Allegorical Tradition, in: A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid, eds. John F. Miller / Carole E. Newlands, London 2014, 122.

[2] Bruce Harbert: Lessons from the Great Clerk: Ovid and John Gower, in: Ovid renewed: Ovidian influences on literature and art from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, ed. Charles Martindale, Cambridge 1988, 83.