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Leonardo Bruni's Translation of Act I of The Plutus of Aristophanes
Leonardo Bruni's Translation of Act I of The Plutus of Aristophanes
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CLASSICAL STUDIES
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BRUNI’S TRANSLATION OF THE PLUTUS
Argumentum
CREMES7 vir bonus, ceterum inops, cum paupertate offendere-
tur, ad oraculum Appollinis quesivit utrum8 prestaret mutare
mores et aliter vivere. Respondit Apollo, qui primum obvius
fieret de templo exiens, eum sequeretur et domum suam addu-
ceret. Ille autem accepto responso c£cum sequebatur, nam is
primum obvius fuerat. Carinus9 autem servus, qui cum Cremete
venerat, ignarus huius responsi mirabatur domini factum et
insanisse ilium existimabat. Itaque pluries eum revocaverat ab
illius ceci insequdone. Cremes vero nihil penitus respondebat
sed omni studio cecum sequebatur. Cum igitur frequenter (?)10
ita faceret nec respondent, insaniam domini ac fortunam suam
conqueritur elatis(?)11 servus.
(THE TRANSLATION)
[In the text which follows, asterisks denote mistranslations; italics
indicate approximate translations or free paraphrases; square brackets
denote additions by the translator; dots mark omissions. I have not,
however, been unduly critical of Bruni’s abilities as a translator nor
have I censured his Latinity. I have drawn attention only to obvious
departures from the Greek original. At times the line of demarcation
between mistranslation and paraphrase is hard to draw. In his use of
free paraphrase Bruni rarely expands or embroiders his original; for
the most part his paraphrases are efforts to gloss over difficulties by
abbreviating the original passage and giving its substance only, e.g.,
page 167, note 27. In the case of omissions we cannot too rashly ac¬
cuse Bruni of ignorance. There is always the possibility that the copyist,
not the translator, may have made the omission. Where the Greek
text is without difficulty and the Latin shows an awkward lacuna, we
must surely ascribe the omission to the carelessness of the scribe, e.g.,
page 168, note 47, and page 170, note 79. In the case of insignificant
phrases and formulas, such as ri 4>f)c, page 168, note 44, it is impos¬
sible to assign the blame, but the more probable assumption is that the
translator himself occasionally discarded these tags. But there remain
7Bruni's Greek ms. must have contained only the abbreviations of the speakers’
names Chremylus and Carion;from Xp he deduced 'Chremes,’Trom Ka "Cari-
nus.” ’ 8 unum: see "an,” p. 167, line 7. 9 See note 7. 10 fr( ?). “Blurred
and unintelligible.
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CLASSICAL STUDIES
certain omissions which can only be taken as evidence of Bruni s in¬
ability to understand and to render the original, e.g., page 169, note 55,
where the Greek text is corrupt and difficult, and page 172, note 118.
The most interesting case of free handling of the original is the
expurgation of lines 149—159 on moral grounds—the same lines which
are omitted for the same reason in modern school editions. This is
perhaps an argument in favor of Bruni’s authorship of the translation,
for such modesty was not characteristic of other and later humanistic
circles.
The few corrections which I have made in the text of the manu¬
script are obvious emendations, easily deduced from the Greek origi¬
nal.]
12 "U” omitted; space left for rubricator. 13 terram (probably a careless mis¬
take of the scribe in expanding an abbreviation). 14 oblico (corrected to "obli-
quo”). 15 i.e. tco AoElqt, line 8 of the Greek original, Oxford text (in the
margin of the Latin ms. is "Apollo”). 16 TpinoSoc £k xPucr)A.aTOU, hne 9-
17 A translation of the vulgate reading dtnoKpivo|i£vou, line 17. 18 ista.
19 om. flv A.unfjc xl pc, line 22. 20 quid. 21 End of folio 69 recto.
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BRUNI’S TRANSLATION OF THE PLUTUS
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BRUNI’S TRANSLATION OF THE PLUTUS
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BRUNI’S TRANSLATION OF THE PLUTUS
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HAVERFORD COLLEGE
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