![]() It gives an atmosphere in which we breathe more naturally: we see, as it were, the ancient building in a mellower and less garish light.Įditio princeps of the Historia Ecclesiastica, Eggestyn, Strasbourg, 1475 (about).Ĭollected edition of Bede’s works, Basle, 1563.įirst critical edition, Smith, Cambridge, 1722. And, apart from the intrinsic merits of his work, it is probably better to read an author dealing with an age like Bede’s, so different from our own in its thoughts and ways, through the medium of a translation which does not belong to our own day. The structure of his clauses is nearer akin to the Latin than the more choppy sentences of modern English: he has a dignity and nobility of style and a constant happiness of phrase, which have deservedly kept his translation alive. ![]() But, notwithstanding such drawbacks, Stapleton belonged to the age of the Book of Common Prayer and the Authorised Version of the Bible. ![]() He paraphrases and amplifies and omits, and it is not too much to say that there is scarcely a sentence in which some alteration is not required, if the English version is to be a close rendering of Bede’s Latin. But apart from this it must be admitted that he treats the Latin of his author rather cavalierly. Stapleton used the Basle edition of Bede’s collected works, 1563, and this accounts for some errors in his translation. ![]() The first critical edition of the text was that of Smith, 1722. ![]()
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