knew nothing of English, of course, so Simple Creature is probably saying merely that ex often signifies agency, which he assumes would be rendered by by. In so saying, however, he shows how out of touch he is with the realities of EV and LV. It is obvious that ex is usually translated as of, but it is also translated in several other ways, among which by is very infrequent. LV never changes an alternative translation of ex in EV to by, except as part of a policy of changing every after to by.63
The fact that by is hardly used for ex in LV is all the more striking when we consider the explosion of uses of by elsewhere in LV. For instance, there are three times as many bys in LV Genesis as there are in EV Genesis.64
Secundum to Be Translated as After, or By, or Up (So Says SC)
The final note that Simple Creature makes at the end of his treatise concerns the Latin preposition secundum, which commonly means “after,” but it may also mean “by” or “up,” so either “by your word” or “up your word.”65 Actually, even though Simple Creature allows the use of up as a preposition, he himself does not use it in this way when the sense calls for it (which occurs only in chapter 15); for instance, he says: “aftir the sentence, and not onely aftir the wordis.”66 His translation note would seem to indicate that “after” is the usual meaning of secundum, but that on occasion by or up would better give the sense.
This opens up a very interesting set of questions. It turns out that after is by far the favored translation of secundum in EV, in both Old Testament and New Testament, but in the Old Testament LV it is replaced almost always with by.
But let us first deal with the unusual preposition up. First of all, we note that there is no use of up as a preposition in three of our four sample books of the Old Testament in EV, but EV 1 Maccabees has added some (Table 2.2).
Table 2.2. UP as Preposition in EV Old Testament
This calls for a closer look, since Forshall and Madden list what they consider the “very frequent” use of up for “after” as one of the characteristics of the translator who takes over EV after the middle of Baruch, continuing through the end of the Old Testament all the way to the end of the New Testament;67 and Fristedt considers use of the preposition up to be a characteristic of Purvey (as author of GP and translator of LV), taking it as an innovation introduced into post-Baruch EV by later correctors.68 Let me state right away that I find a few signs of a stylistic break in Baruch itself.69
I have surveyed the use of the preposition secundum from the Prophets to the end of the Old Testament, and also the preposition juxta when it means the same thing.70 What we see is no change immediately after Baruch in the large book of Ezekiel, but then a sudden intrusion of ups into Daniel, complete dominance in the Minor Prophets, a half victory in First Maccabees, and complete retreat in Second Maccabees. It is clear that an up user came on the scene at this point in the translation, exerted his influence, and then departed.
The fortunes of up in the EV New Testament are very intriguing. In the Gospels of the EEV (Oxford, Christ Church College 145) there is no use of up, but in EV (Douce 369.2) there is an intrusion of ups into Luke and a few into John.71 This may remind us of the intrusion of eithers into EV Luke. The either user could have been Simple Creature, but not the up user (since he shows no use of up in GP). However, there is a marked use of prepositional up in the rest of the New Testament in EEV, which is entirely followed by EV.72 It indicates a change of personnel in the translation of EEV after the Gospels.73
In the LV, there seems to be a complete lack of up as a preposition in the Old Testament, except for a flurry of uses in a single book, 2 Samuel.74 It is also completely missing from the four Gospels and the rest of the LV New Testament.75 This is a sobering thought for those who believe that Simple Creature is speaking for the LV translators.
The statement made by Simple Creature about the alternative translations of secundum reveals an unawareness on his part of what actually happened in the transition from the EV Old Testament to the LV: there was a massive rejection of after in favor of by in the translation not only of secundum but also of juxta, when it means the same thing. However, after remained in favor in the LV New Testament.76
Summary Judgment on Simple Creature
Let us make some interlocutory conclusions here on the basis of Simple Creature’s translational practices and personal style in GP, which has been taken as written after the whole of LV was finished (except for Forshall and Madden, who believe that it may have been written before the LV New Testament was done):77
1. He says that the Latin preposition ex can be translated not only by of but also by by; but it is almost never translated by by in either EV or LV, even though LV greatly expands the use of by for other Latin prepositions.
2. He specifies that the Latin preposition secundum can be translated not only by after, but also by by and up. He does not realize that the LV Old Testament actively boycotted after and replaced it with by, while the LV New Testament kept after. Further, he does not know that, while the preposition up had found some favor in some parts of EV, especially in the New Testament Epistles, it had been entirely purged from LV.
3. It might seem that his recommendation to translate Latin autem otherwise than by forsooth was put into practice in the LV New Testament, but he seems oblivious of the continued use of forsooth throughout the LV Old Testament.
4. Furthermore, he shows no awareness that his recommendation of translating Latin enim by either forsooth or forwhy, which was the practice of the EV New Testament, was not followed in the LV New Testament (except minimally for forwhy).
5. Finally, while Simple Creature’s personal style of favoring either over or was adopted for the LV Old Testament, it found favor only in LV Acts and Revelation and two minor Epistles (James and 1 Peter), and abortively in Luke (seen in EV’s changes from EEV).
Thus, while one might be persuaded to see Simple Creature’s hand in one or another section of EV or LV by resorting to one of these criteria, by taking all of them together we must conclude that his profile is not matched in the Middle English Bible and that his claim to be the sole or main translator is overstated, to say the least. If he did participate at any stage, he was not able to impose all of his preferences, except perhaps in a few later books of the New Testament.
Other Wycliffite Connections Disallowed
Forshall and Madden believe that in the EV phase the New Testament was translated first, assuming that the renderings of the Gospels found in the Wycliffite Glossed Gospels, which they take to be by Wyclif himself, were extracted and used in EV.78 The assumption nowadays is the reverse: that the Wycliffites responsible for the glosses use the already-finished EV text.79 However, the Swedish scholars Sven Fristedt and Conrad Lindberg continue to favor Wyclif ’s participation. Lindberg believes that Simple Creature is reporting Wyclif ’s translational principles in GP chapter 15.80
Forshall and Madden then identify
