Love ad litteram: The Lollard Translations of the Song of Songs

Abstract

The tradition of exegesis of the Song of Songs in the medieval West declares that this book of the Bible requires spiritual rather than literal interpretation, but the Lollards were convinced that the whole Bible was opin to the understanding of readers with little or no knowledge of Latin or of exegetical tradition. Nevertheless, the synopsis of the Old Testament in John Purvey's prologue to the Wycliffite Bible reveals that the Lollard translators were afraid that, without guidance, simple readers of the Song of Songs would understand the book to be concerned with lecherous love. The Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible includes rubrics identifying the speakers throughout the Song, in line with the historical narrative contained in Bede's Song of Songs commentary. The Later Version omits these rubrics, because they are not consonant with the postil of Nicholas of Lyra, the translators' primary authority. In the absence of rubrics, the translators attempted to guide the simple reader by gendering every term of endearment in the text, thereby indicating whether the speaker is male (divine) or female (the Church). Their literal translation could not in itself ensure that their readers would understand the 'true literal', christological sense, but ultimately they had confidence that they and their readers were in possession of 'the truth of Holy Scripture' .