An eleventh-century Latin beast epic. Introduction, text, translation, commentary, and an appendix by Edwin H. Zeydel.

Jacob Grimm called the Ecbasis cuiusdam Captivi the oldest beast epic of the Middle Ages, and others have followed him on this. Whether or not this judgement is correct, the work deserves more attention than it has been accorded and, in my opinion, a higher evaluation than that given it by any writer from the time of Grimm, its discoverer and first editor, down to the present. ... No satisfactory translation in any language exists. The two German renderings are old, depend on a poor text and are inaccurate as well as inaccessible. ... My translation, in prose, is as literal a line-for-line rendering as I could make it, even with respect to the author's illogical use of tenses. The Latin appears face to face with the English translation. ... The Latin text as I print it is a composite in that it offers what I consider the best reading or conjecture in every case. But where the text deviates from the manuscripts, the manuscript readings are expressly noted in the Commentary. - [Author] l

The introduction includes a discussion of the contents of the Ecbasis; notes on the manuscripts, date and authorship; a summary of the plot; and a critique.

110 p., bibliography.

Language: English

LC: PA8310E3Z3; DOI: 10.17615/10ed-eb93