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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE OLD FRENCH TEXT
83
52. The French Text that we have been quoting, published
by the Geographical Society of Paris in 1824, affords on the
other hand the strongest corresponding proof that it is Old French
an original and not a Translation. Rude as is the 1Text hed by
language of the manuscript (Fr. 1116, formerly No. de G ociété
7367, of Paris Library), it is, in the correctness of the graphie.
proper names, and the intelligible exhibition of the itineraries,
much superior to any form of the Work previously published.
The language is very peculiar. We are obliged to call it
French, but it is not " Frenche of Paris." " Its style," says
Paulin Paris, " is about as like that of good French
authors of the age, as in our day the natural accent of
a German, an Englishman, or an Italian, is like that of a
citizen of Paris or Blois." The author is at war with all the
practices of French grammar ; subject and object, numbers,
moods, and tenses, are in consummate confusion. Even
readers of his own day must at times have been fain to
guess his meaning. Italian words are constantly introduced,
either quite in the crude or rudely Gallicized.* And words
■
et aide." This has fairly puzzled the Tuscan, who converts these (p. 186) into two Tartar tribes, "quegli d' Aide e quegli di Caveitá."
So also we have lievre for hare transferred without change ; lait, milk, appearing as laido instead of latte; très, rendered as " three " ; bue, " mud," Italianised as buoi, " oxen," and so forth. Finally, in various places when Polo is explaining Oriental terms we find in the Tuscan MS. " cioè a dire in Francesco."
The blunders mentioned are intelligible enough as in a version from the French ; but in the description of the Indian pearl-fishery we have a startling one not so easy to account for. The French says, " the divers gather the sea-oysters (hostrz°e de Mer), and in these the pearls are found." This appears in the Tuscan in the extraordinary form that the divers catch those fishes called Herrings (Aringhe), and in those Herrings are found the Pearls !
* As examples of these Italianisms : " Et ont del olio de la lange dou sepolchro de Crist " ; "L'Angel yen en vision pour nzesajes de Deu h un Veschevo qe nzozrt estoient home de sante vite " ; "E certes Zl estoit bien beizongno " ; "ne trop caut ne trop fredo " ; "la creuse " (credel'z_z) ; " remort " for noise (rumore) ; " inverno " ; " jorno " ; " dementiqué " (dimenticato) ; "enferme" for sickly ; " leign " (legno) ; " devisee " (dovizia) ; " ammalaide " (ammalato), etc. etc.
Professor Bianconi points out that there are also traces of Venetian dialect, as Pare for père ; 'jre for wife ; Zabater, cobbler ; cazaor, huntsman, etc.
I have not been able to learn to what extent books in this kind of mixed language are extant. I have observed one, a romance in verse called Macaire (Altfranzösische Gedichte aus Venez. Handschriften, von Adolf Mussafia, Wien, 1864), the language of which is not unlike this jargon of Rustician's, e.g.:-
" ` Dama,' fait-il, ` molto me poso merviler De ves enfant quant le fi batecer
De un signo qe le vi sor la spal'a droiturer Qe non ait nul se no filz d'inperer."'—(p. 41)
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