Jeo suis Englois; si quier par tiele voieEstre excusé."[9]
Indeed down to nearly 1385, boys in the English grammar-schools were taught to construe their Latin lessons into French.[10] St. Francis of Assisi is said by some of his biographers to have had his original name changed to Francesco because of his early mastery of that language as a qualification for commerce. French had been the prevalent tongue of the Crusaders, and was that of the numerous Frank Courts which they established in the East, including Jerusalem and the states of the Syrian coast, Cyprus, Constantinople during the reign of the Courtenays, and the principalities of the Morea. The Catalan soldier and chronicler Ramon de Muntaner tells us that it was commonly said of the Morean chivalry that they spoke as good French as at Paris.[11] Quasi-French at least was still spoken half a century later by the numerous Christians settled at Aleppo, as John Marignolli testifies;[12] and if we may trust Sir John Maundevile the Soldan of Egypt himself and four of his chief Lords "spak Frensche righte wel!"[13] Gházán Kaan, the accomplished Mongol Sovereign of Persia, to whom our Traveller conveyed a bride from Cambaluc, is said by the historian Rashiduddin to have known something of the Frank tongue, probably French.[14] Nay, if we may trust the author of the Romance of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, French was in his day the language of still higher spheres![15]
Nor was Polo's case an exceptional one even among writers on the East who were not Frenchmen. Maundevile himself tells us that he put his book first "out of Latyn into Frensche," and then out of French into English.[16] The History of the East which the Armenian Prince and Monk Hayton dictated to Nicolas Faulcon at Poictiers in 1307 was taken down in French. There are many other instances of the employment of French by foreign, and especially by Italian authors of that age. The Latin chronicle of the Benedictine Amato of Monte Cassino was translated into French early in the 13th century by another monk of the same abbey, at the particular desire of the Count of Militrée (or Malta), "Pour ce qu'il set lire et entendre fransoize et s'en delitte."[17] Martino da Canale, a countryman and contemporary of Polo's, during the absence of the latter in the East wrote a Chronicle of Venice in the same language, as a reason for which he alleges its general popularity.[18] The like does the most notable example of all, Brunetto Latini, Dante's master, who wrote in French his encyclopaedic and once highly popular work Li Tresor.[19] Other examples might be given, but in fact such illustration is superfluous when we consider that Rusticiano himself was a compiler of French Romances.
But why the language of the Book as we see it in the Geographic Text should be so much more rude, inaccurate, and Italianized than that of Rusticiano's other writings, is a question to which I can suggest no reply quite satisfactory to myself. Is it possible that we have in it a literal representation of Polo's own language in dictating the story—a rough draft which it was intended afterwards to reduce to better form, and which was so reduced (after a fashion) in French copies of another type, regarding which we shall have to speak presently?[20] And, if this be the true answer, why should Polo have used a French jargon in which to tell his story? Is it possible that his own mother Venetian, such as he had carried to the East with him and brought back again, was so little intelligible to Rusticiano that French of some kind was the handiest medium of communication between the two? I have known an Englishman and a Hollander driven to converse in Malay; Chinese Christians of different provinces are said sometimes to take to English as the readiest means of intercommunication; and the same is said even of Irish-speaking Irishmen from remote parts of the Island.
It is worthy of remark how many notable narratives of the Middle Ages have been dictated instead of being written by their authors, and that in cases where it is impossible to ascribe this to ignorance of writing. The Armenian Hayton, though evidently a well-read man, possibly could not write in Roman characters. But Joinville is an illustrious example. And the narratives of four of the most famous Mediaeval Travellers[21] seem to have been drawn from them by a kind of pressure, and committed to paper by other hands. I have elsewhere remarked this as indicating how little diffused was literary ambition or vanity; but it would perhaps be more correct to ascribe it to that intense dislike which is still seen on the shores of the Mediterranean to the use of pen and ink. On certain of those shores at least there is scarcely any inconvenience that the majority of respectable and good-natured people will not tolerate—inconvenience to their neighbours be it understood—rather than put pen to paper for the purpose of preventing it.
[1] 232 chapters in the oldest French which we quote as the Geographic Text (or G. T.), 200 in Pauthier's Text, 183 in the Crusca Italian.
[2] The MS. has been printed by Baldelli as above, and again by Bartoli in 1863.
[3] This is somewhat peculiar. I traced a few lines of it, which with Del Riccio's note were given in facsimile in the First Edition.
[4] The Crusca is cited from Bartoli's edition.
French idioms are frequent, as l'uomo for the French on; quattro-vinti instead of ottanta; etc.
We have at p. 35, "Questo piano è molto cavo," which is nonsense, but is explained by reference to the French (G. T.) "Voz di qu'il est celle plaingne mout chaue" (chaude).
The bread in Kerman is bitter, says the G. T. "por ce que l'eive hi est amer," because the water there is bitter. The Crusca mistakes the last word and renders (p. 40) "e questi è per lo mare che vi viene."
"Sachiés de voir qe endementiers," know for a truth that whilst——, by some misunderstanding of the last word becomes (p. 129) "Sappiate di vero sanza mentire."
"Mès de sel font-il monoie"—"They make money of salt," becomes (p. 168) "ma fannole da loro," sel being taken for a pronoun, whilst in another place sel is transferred bodily without translation.
"Chevoil," "hair" of the old French, appears in the Tuscan (p. 20) as cavagli, "horses."—"La Grant Provence Jereraus," the great general province, appears (p. 68) as a province whose proper name is Ienaraus. In describing Kúblái's expedition against Mien or Burma, Polo has a story of his calling on the Jugglers at his court to undertake the job, promising them a Captain and other help, "Cheveitain et aide." This has fairly puzzled the Tuscan, who converts these (p. 186) into two Tartar tribes, "quegli d' Aide e quegli di Caveità."
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 (hostrige 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!
[5] As examples of these Italianisms: "Et ont del olio de la lanpe dou sepolchro de Crist"; "L'Angel ven en vision pour mesajes de Deu à un Veschevo qe mout estoient home de sante vite"; "E certes il estoit bien beizongno"; "ne trop caut ne trop fredo"; "la crense" (credenza); "remort" for noise (rumore) "inverno"; "jorno"; "dementiqué" (dimenticato); "enferme" for sickly; "leign" (legno); "devisce" (dovizia); "ammalaide" (ammalato), etc. etc.
Professor Bianconi points out that there are also traces of Venetian dialect, as Pare for père; Mojer for wife; Zabater, cobbler; cazaor, huntsman, etc.
I have not been able to learn to
