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Nathan Straub
LSH 298 Capstone Proposal
Prof. Beverly Wall
2/20/2010

Prior Ages: Boethius in the Words of Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth

Proposal for the Capstone Project in Literature and Linguistics

Subject: I will study Boethius in translation over the history of English, between 1380
and 1593. My primary sources are the translations of The Consolation of Philosophy by
Geoffrey Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth I.

Question: How did the vocabulary of court English change between the time of Chaucer
and the time of Elizabeth? What words in Elizabeth were derived from words in Chaucer, and
what forms did they take? Is a large portion of Chaucer’s vocabulary really closer to our own
than Elizabeth’s, as her editor Caroline Pemberton suggests? (xiv)

Outcome: The completed project will be an exercise in literary analysis, demonstrating

in a controlled example how the vocabulary of court English changed in 200 years between
1380 and 1593.

Format: The format will be a scholarly research paper, using MLA citation style. It may
contain tables and appendices to present data from the primary sources.

Method: I will use computational analysis and comparison of words, both in list and in
context, to gather data from the primary sources. My research paper will present interesting
patterns drawn from the data and draw conclusions to answer the research question based on
historical and linguistic research.
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Steps for completion:

Before the course begins, order critical editions of the primary sources via interlibrary
loan. Email the editors and request a digital copy of the texts, for research purposes. If this is
unavailable, use eChaucer for Chaucer’s Boece, and edit the plain-text of the Pemberton edition
on Google Books for Elizabeth’s translation of Boethius.

Week 1. Read the introductions to the primary sources. Browse through the texts and
take notes. Describe in essay form how the sources of Chaucer’s and Elizabeth’s translations
differ. Compile a usable digital text of Elizabeth.

Week 2. Write and post a project value statement. Continue compiling a digital text of
Elizabeth.

Week 3. Analyze the lexicon of each text using the program KWIC, creating wordlists,
collating derivatives, and sorting for morphological structures. Note the most common prefixes
and suffixes. Ex: en-, re-, -cion, -esse. Compile and label lists of grammatical particles.

Week 4. Compare the wordlists from Chaucer and Elizabeth for shared words. Perform
concordance searches for shared words in context, to compare statistically common phrases.
Begin writing up statistics and samples of the results in essay form.

Week 5. Compare shared words and derivatives for patterns of change. Ex: gerund
formation, contractions. Write up results.

Week 6. Submit Project Draft 1 to the professor. Continue data-mining and synthesizing
results. Design research questions to explain findings using social, historical, and rhetorical
factors.

Week 7. Continue synthesizing results. Write up possible answers to the research

questions.

Week 8. Submit Project Draft 2 to the discussion board. Continue work and refine the
essay.

Week 9. Submit Project Draft 3 to the professor. Continue work and refine the essay.

Week 10. Submit final project to the professor for grading.

Significance: Chaucer and Elizabeth are ideal informants for the state of English
vocabulary during their lifetimes. Chaucer probably wrote his translation of Boethius to help in
the education of young King Richard. (Fisher 814) Elizabeth, as queen, helped set the standard
for written English during the sixteenth century. While both translators were influential, their
translations of Boethius were not widely circulated, thus isolating them from influence on each
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other and on our present day English vocabulary, so any recurring patterns are due to either
the common Latin text of Boethius they were working from, or the general usage of English at
the court.

Chaucer’s work appears to be a rough draft, which accounts for its unpopularity, but
also makes it more interesting as the raw product of his mind. In fact, he invented about one-
eighth of the words in his translation. (Donner 187) Elizabeth completed her translation in 30
days, supposedly working on it only 27 hours, so hers is also rough. (Pemberton, viii) Both
Chaucer and Elizabeth are faithful and literal in their translations, so it is easy to find
correspondences between word choices in the two.

C.S. Lewis describes how The Consolation of Philosophy “was for centuries one of the
most influential books ever written in Latin… Until about two hundred years ago it would, I
think, have been hard to find an educated man in any European country who did not love it. To
acquire a taste for it is almost to become naturalized in the Middle Ages.” (75) Such an
influential text deserves more study.

Though Chaucer’s and Elizabeth’s personal translations have long been neglected, they are rich
mines of words that we can enter to view how English developed in the royal court between
the 1300s and 1500s.

The Project and the Concentration

This project is a demonstration of mastery for the outcomes appropriate to a bachelor’s

degree in liberal studies focused on literature and linguistics. I will now show what those
outcomes are, how my concentration courses have helped me learn them, and how I will use
them in the project.

Concentration Outcomes

The following list is based on the learning goals of the linguistics department at the
University of Washington and the literature department at Charter Oak State College.

1. Develop appreciation of general properties of language

2. Learn to study language in a scientific way
3. Develop competence in linguistic analysis
4. Demonstrate understanding of literary traditions and themes in English and foreign
literature
5. Explain the foundational elements of literary analysis
6. Understand the traditional literary genres
7. Demonstrate an understanding of literary criticism
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Concentration Courses

As part of my concentration in literature and linguistics, I have completed or will complete

the following courses.

 Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP

 GRE Literature in English
 History of the English Language
 History of the Old Testament
 Articulatory Phonetics
 Phonology
 Syntax and Morphology
 Intro to Sociolinguistics
 Second Language Acquisition
 Spanish first year
 Spanish second year
 Spanish Conversation in Film

Fulfilling Outcomes

1. Develop appreciation of general properties of language

Besides learning Spanish, I learned to observe and use the structures of any language in Second
Language Acquisition. I also learned how social factors contribute to language change in
Sociolinguistics, and applied this to my native language in the History of the English Language.

This project requires a grasp of the systematic nature of English and how it changed over the
200 years between Chaucer and Elizabeth.

2. Learn ways to study language in a scientific way

In Sociolinguistics, I completed an ethnographic study of customer service greetings, gathering

data first-hand in local shops. I also learned to develop and test hypotheses on word and
phrase structures using textual data in Syntax and Morphology, analyzing the plurals and noun
phrases of Salasaca Quichua.
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This project requires me to form research questions about lexicon change and word derivation,
and to organize data from the texts to try to find answers.

3. Develop competence in linguistic analysis

I became competent in describing speech sounds and analyzing their patterns in Articulatory
Phonetics and Phonology. In Phonology I wrote a research paper on the sound patterns of
Mandarin Chinese. Syntax and Morphology taught me to analyze words and phrases and
construct rules to model their behavior.

This project requires analytical skills to determine word meanings in context, isolate
morphemes, and perceive patterns in word origins and usage.

4. Demonstrate understanding of literary traditions and themes in English and foreign

literature

While studying for the GRE Literature in English, I learned about the influence of classical ideas
and myths on the English literary tradition. I was impressed by how a few famous poems are
the key to understanding allusions in countless later works. This is also where I met Chaucer for
the first time; since I already loved Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Chaucer’s Middle English became a
challenge and a delight. In the History of the Old Testament, I did an exegetical study of the
Immanuel prophecy of Isaiah, and learned how themes of covenant run through all the Hebrew
Scriptures.

This project requires research into the medieval tradition of Boethius and the way his ideas
were translated into English prose from Vulgar Latin prose and poetry.

5. Explain the foundational elements of literary analysis

Analyzing and Interpreting Literature taught me to read short stories for mood comprehension.
I learned to do close analysis of poetry on the GRE Literature in English, and in Phonology I was
able to explore rhythm. Discussions of plot and characters were routine in Spanish
Conversation in Film.

This project requires awareness of rhetorical elements such as voice and character, in order to
interpret the two translations of the Consolation of Philosophy and discuss why the translators
used similar or different words.

6. Understand the traditional literary genres

I was introduced to the genres of chronicle, prophecy, and religious poetry in the History of the
Old Testament. The GRE Literature in English and the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature
CLEP were strong in poetry, essay, and short story genres.
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This project requires awareness of genre, as the Consolation is written as a philosophical

dialogue with alternating sections of poetry and prose. This can account for certain word
choices, especially since Chaucer chose to render it all into prose and intersperse it with
commentary.

7. Demonstrate an understanding of literary criticism

Literary criticism was an important part of the GRE Literature in English, and I learned to
recognize structuralist, Marxist, feminist, reader-response, and other theories. The History of
the Old Testament focused on understanding how the original audience may have viewed a text
versus later readers, and how to recreate that sense using sympathy and background research.

This project is a special example of textual criticism. It relies on the fruits of literary criticism to
help explain the translation techniques of Chaucer and Elizabeth, and ultimately to shed light
on change in the vocabulary of court English between their own time periods.

Tentative bibliography

Chaucer’s text

Fisher, John H. (ed.) The Complete Prose and Poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, 1982.

A standard edition of Chaucer’s Boece, which I already happen to own.

Boethius, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Tim William Machan. Chaucer's Boece: A Critical Edition Based
on Cambridge University Library, MS Ii.3.21,Ff. 9r-180v. Middle English texts, 38. Heidelberg:
Winter, 2008.

A new, critical edition of the Boece.

“eChaucer” http://www.umm.maine.edu/faculty/necastro/chaucer/concordance/

A complete online concordance of Chaucer’s works. Useful for data-mining.

Background to Chaucer

Machan, Tim William. Chaucer as Philologist: The Boece. PhD dissertation. University of
Wisconsin-Madison, 1984.
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Machan is the world expert on Chaucer’s Boece. In his doctoral dissertation, he explores
the sources, words, syntax, and style of the book.

Machan, Tim William. Techniques of Translation: Chaucer's Boece. Norman, OK: Pilgrim Books,
1985.

The standard work on Chaucer’s translation method, arguing that the Boece was a
rough draft, closely following Latin and French texts and commentaries.

Minnis, Alastair and Tim William Machan (ed.). The Sources of Chaucer’s ‘Boece’. Athens and
London: University of Georgia Press, 2005.

Updates the information from Machan’s earlier books, explaining where Chaucer’s
variant readings came from and why he chose them.

Minnis, Alastair (ed.). The Medieval Boethius: Studies in the Vernacular Translations of 'De
Consolatione Philosophiae'. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1987.

More background on Chaucer’s and related translations.

Minnis, Alastair (ed.). Chaucer's 'Boece' and the Medieval Tradition of Boethius. Woodbridge:
Boydell and Brewer, 1993.

More background on Chaucer’s and related translations.

Elizabeth’s text

Pemberton, Caroline (ed.). Queen Elizabeth’s Englishings. London Early English Text Society,
1899.

The old critical edition, containing footnotes with comparison to Chaucer’s rendering.
Available on Google Books for easy access.

Kaylor, Noel Harold, and Philip Edward Phillips. The Consolation of Queen Elizabeth I: The
Queen's Translation of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae : Public Record Office,
Manuscript SP 12/289. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2009.

A new, critical edition of Elizabeth’s translation, taken from the manuscripts. Includes an
extensive introduction on Elizabeth’s classical education under Roger Ascham and her
translation and rhetorical style.
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Mueller, Janel M. and Joshua Scodel. Elizabeth I: Translations: 1592-1598. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2009.

Another new edition, which will be useful for comparison with the other two editions.

Background to Elizabeth

Ascham, Roger. The Scholemaster. Westminster: A. Constable, 1903.

Here Elizabeth’s tutor explains his “double translation” method for teaching Latin.
Recommended by Noel Kaylor as an explanation for Elizabeth’s speed, accuracy, and
literalism in translation.

General

Smith, Jeremy J. Essentials of Early English. London: Routledge, 1999.

A handbook for referencing the structures and features of Middle and Early Modern
English.

Phillips, Philip Edward. New Directions in Boethian Studies. Co-edited with Noel Harold Kaylor,
Jr. Studies in Medieval Culture XLV. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007.

An introduction to emerging issues in contemporary Boethian scholarship. It will help

me ask the right questions and decide which conclusions are well-founded.

Phillips, Philip Edward. “The English Consolation of Philosophy: Translation and Reception.”
Carmina Philosophiae 17 (2008): 97-126.

A wider perspective on English translation of Boethius throughout history.

Lewis, C.S. The Discarded Image. Cambridge, 1964.

Includes a useful overview of the themes and influence of the Consolation of Philosophy.

Word Studies

“Middle English Dictionary” http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/

A dictionary database for referencing words found in Chaucer.

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“Lexicons of Early Modern English” http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/

Dictionaries from the Elizabethan period for referencing words found in Elizabeth.

“KWIC Concordance for Windows”

http://www.chs.nihon-u.ac.jp/eng_dpt/tukamoto/kwic_e.html

Data-mining software for quickly analyzing wordlists and key-word-in-context

concordances from a digital text.

Works cited in this proposal:

Charter Oak State College, 2009-2010 Official Catalog

http://www.charteroak.edu/PDF/Official%20Catalog.pdf

Donner, Morton. Derived Words in Chaucer's "Boece:" The Translator as Wordsmith.

The Chaucer Review, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Winter, 1984), pp. 187-203

Fisher, John, ed. The Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, 1977.

Lewis, C.S. The Discarded Image. Cambridge, 1964.

Pemberton, Caroline (ed.). Queen Elizabeth’s Englishings. London: Early English Text
Society, 1899.

University of Washington, “Linguistics Department learning goals”

http://depts.washington.edu/lingweb/Learning_Goals.php