Robert Henryson

A convenient assembly of the Testament along with some of the fables, with the original Middle Scots texts on the verso pages. I give the book itself only 2**, however, and perhaps I'm being a bit parsimonious, but I dislike the quality of Heaney's translations. Going from Middle Scots (a fifteenth century dialect of Middle English, not the Gaelic of the highlands) to modern English should be easier than going from Chaucer's century-older dialect into modern English; but Heaney gets too show more creative and does not adhere to the strict rhyme that he should have employed to mirror Henryson's rhyme royal.

And really, all you need to read Henryson is a decent marginal (or footnoted, but not inconveniently endnoted) glossary of unfamiliar vocabulary and occasional unfamiliar syntactic structures. Do that and Henryson is no more difficult a read than Wuthering Heights with its Yorkshire dialect of Heathcliff's servant Joseph.

Heaney's translation did the service of popularizing Henryson to a degree with modern readers. But if you want to read Henryson, find a text (not that hard to find, and Heaney makes reference to such in his introduction) of Henryson in the original with the appropriate glossing.

Note that I've known the Testament for over half-a-century, going back to my college days. In fact, I used to have a running debate (very friendly) with Villanova University's medieval English lit professor, Joe Reino, as to the greatest Troilus story after Chaucer's. We both agreed that Shakespeare's play was one of his weaker, but Professor Reino chose Boccaccio's Il Filostrato second while I went with Henryson (but, in fairness, not knowing Italian then or now, making a judgment based solely on a prose translation of Il Filostrato). I'd never gotten around to any of the fables, however, so this volume was a useful Henryson supplement for me.

Incidentally, there's also an opera by William Walton dating back to the 1950s which I got a CD of many years ago. If I can't find it, I might get hold of another copy on eBay or Abe, though I don't have all that fond a recollection of the opera and it doesn't seem to have a lot of popularity today.

2** to Heaney, though to Henryson himself (in my opinion, the greatest Scottish poet, surpassing Burns) I'd give 5*****. show less

Henryson is one of the "Scottish Chaucerians" of the fifteenth century, best known for his version of Aesop's fables (including a delightful version of the country mouse and the city mouse) and the Testament of Cressid --an alternative ending for Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, in which Cressida is stricken with leprosy for her infidelity to Troilus, and he seeing the leper is faintly reminded of Cressid and gives her alms, and she dies. Rather emotionally satisfying for those who pity show more Troilus in the original version, though perhaps anti-feminist. This book also includes a number of shorter works divided into those with stronger and weaker attributions --their presence makes this more complete than most other versions of Henryson available. show less

Reprint. Orig. publ. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1901