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Théodore Agrippa d’Aubigné. "The Spring – The Hecatomb for Diane, VI." Global Medieval Sourcebook.

Transcription by Henri Weber .

Le Printemps – L’hécatombe à Diane, VI | The Spring – The Hecatomb for Diane, VI

Source Information

Le Printemps – L’hécatombe à Diane, VI | The Spring – The Hecatomb for Diane, VI

by Théodore Agrippa d’Aubigné

Text Source:

Responsibility Statement:

Transcription by Henri Weber
Translation by Nora Baker
Introduction by Nora Baker
Encoded in TEI P5 XML by Dante Zhu

Editorial Principles:

Transcriptions and translations are encoded in XML conforming to TEI (P5) guidelines. The original-language text is contained within <lem> tags and translations within <rdg> tags.

Texts are translated into modern American English with maximum fidelity to the original text, except where it would impair comprehension or good style. Archaisms are preserved where they do not conflict with the aesthetic of the original text. Scribal errors and creative translation choices are marked and discussed in the critical notes.

I have reproduced and rendered in English two sonnets from the Hécatombe for which no other translation appears to be available, with notes indicating places in the text where the author has crossed out initial words and added new ones (I follow Henri Weber’s 1960 critical edition of the Printemps in this regard). The present transcription is based on the manuscript holding entitled ‘Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné. Le Printemps et divers textes’ in the Archives Tronchin 157 at the Geneva Public Library (Bibliothèque de Genève). This manuscript can be consulted here : https://archives.bge-geneve.ch/ark:/17786/vtaac0b3ff1aa240f22/dao/0#id:1767626689?gallery=true&brightness=100.00&contrast=100.00&center=689.570,-1832.348&zoom=6&rotation=0.000. The folio numbers for the translated sonnets are f.77v-78. Other manuscript exemplars of this work can be found in the Bibliothèque de la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français (ms.816/12), and in the aforementioned Archives Tronchin 159.

Publication Details:

Published by The Global Medieval Sourcebook.

The Global Medieval Sourcebook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Transcription

Le Printemps – L’hécatombe à Diane, VI The Spring – The Hecatomb for Diane, VI

Hardy, j’entreprendray ~~bravement~~ de te rendre eternelle Boldly I will undertake to render you eternal,

Targuant de mes escrips ton nom contre la mort Shielding

Critical note:

From the Middle French ‘targe’ meaning ‘shield’.

with my writing your name against death;

Mais en t’eternisant, je ne travaille fort But in eternalizing you, I need barely work

Critical note:

Literally “I do not work hard”

Ta perfection n’est en aucun poinct mortelle Your perfection is in no way mortal.

Rien n’est mortel en toy ta chasteté est telle Nothing in you is mortal, and your chastity is such

Que le temps envieux ne luy peut faire tort That jealous time cannot do it wrong.

Tes dons thresors du Ciel, ton Nom exemptz du port Your gifts, treasures from Heaven, your name, exempt from the port

Et du fleuve d’oubly ont la vue immortelle. And from the river of forgetfulness, have immortal life.

Mesmes ce livre heureux vivra infiniment Even this happy book will live infinitely

Pource que l’infiny sera son argument For the infinite will be its subject.

Or ie ren graces aux Dieux de ce que i’ay servie However, I thank the Gods for that which I have served:

MToute perfection de grace & de beauté All perfection of grace and of beauty;

Mais ie me plein à eux que ta severité But I bemoan to them that your severity,

Comme sont les vertus, aussi est infinie Like your

Critical note:

Literally ‘the virtues’, but I have changed this to a personal pronoun in English.

virtues, is also infinite.

Translation