"Translation of verse into prose was not unusual in the Middle Ages. ... The reverse process, prose to verse, was more unusual. ... A conversion of Richard de Fournival's Le Bestiaire d'amour to rhyming octosyllabic couplets has survived on folios 89-92 of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 25545 ... the fragment, now entitled Le Bestiaire d'amour en vers, states in both title and text that it is Richard's own translation... Le Bestiaire en vers courts those of Richard's contemporaries who prefer the entertainment of love literature to Aristotelian exposes. In imagery that is curiously modern Richard compares his bestiary to a consumer product whose presentation is variable. His main concern is, of course the content, which cannot fail to please when its different packaging caters to all tastes. Thus the determining factor in all formal aspects of the work is the translator's public." - [Author]

Language: English