The testament of Cresseid ;
and, Seven fables /
Robert Henryson ; translated by Seamus Heaney.
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| Summary: | The greatest of the late medieval Scots makars, Robert Henryson was influenced by their vision of the frailty and pathos of human life, and by the inherited poetic example of Geoffrey Chaucer. Henrysons finest poem, and one of the rhetorical masterpieces of Scots literature, is the narrative Testament of Cresseid. Set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, the Testament completes the story of Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde, offering a tragic account of its faithless heroines rejection by her lover, Diomede, and of her subsequent decline into prostitution and leprosy. Written in Middle Scots, a distinctive northern version of English, the Testament has been translated by Seamus Heaney into a confident but faithful idiom that matches the original verse form and honors the poems unique blend of detachment and compassion. A master of high narrative, Henryson was also a comic master of the verse fable, and his burlesques of human weakness in the guise of animal wisdom are delicately pointed with irony. Seven of the Fables are here sparklingly translated by Heaney, their freshness rendered to the last claw and feather. Together, The Testament of Cresseid and Seven Fables provide a rich and wide-ranging encounter between two poets across six centuries. |
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English Scots English and Scots on facing pages. |
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New York :
Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2009.
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| Notes: | Includes bibliographical references. Physical description: xix, 183 pages ; 22 cm more |
| ISBN: | 9780374273484 0374273480 9780374532451 0374532451 |
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LO 15052 |
Manuscripts Reading Room |
Librarian's Office |
