Een schoone ende wonderlijcke prognosticatie ( 1560) is one of many Dutch texts dealing with the trickster Till Eulenspiegel, known as "Tijl Uilenspiegel" in the Low Countries and "Owl glass" in England. The poem differs from most Eulenspiegel literature in two key respects. First, it treats the figure as a narrator rather than a character, and second, it seems designed for performance rather than simple recital. We offer here an English translation of this remarkable piece, lightly annotated throughout.
The Text and Its TraditionThe following is the first English translation of the Dutch poem Een schoone ende wonderlijcke prognosticatie (A famous and most miraculous prophecy). This bawdily comic piece was first printed in 1560 by Marie Ancxt, widow of the publisher Jacob van Liesveldt (Rosenwald and Goff 1958). It survives in one copy, now held at the Royal Library of Brussels. Like many early printed works, its author is unknown. What makes this text notable is the unusual treatment of its central theme. The poem belongs to the tradition of Eulenspiegel texts.l Like the best-known example of this literature, Hermann Bote's Till Eulenspiegel ([ 1515] 2001), it focuses on the trickster Till Eulenspiegel, known in English as "Owlglass."2 The poem is in fact one of several Eulenspiegel tales in Dutch. While the figure may be more readily associated with Saxony, he was no less popular in the Low Countries. The site of his burial is still alleged to be in Belgium, while the first English version of his adventures was print-BAS J ONGENELEN teaches Dutch literature at the Fontys University of Professional Education, Tilburg.BEN PARSONS teaches medieval and early modern literature at the University of Leicester and the University of Nottingham Trent.
The wide diffusion of the "Entrapped Suitors" story-type has often been observed: examples are found in a remarkable number of literatures, ranging from English, French and Greek in the west, to Persian, Arabic and Kashmiri in the east. However, a text of this type that is often overlooked is the Middle Dutch play Een Speel Van Drie Minners ('A Play Of Three Suitors'). This is despite the fact that it represents a highly idiosyncratic variation on the story, as it replaces the central moral with something more scabrous. We offer here a comprehensive discussion of this singular text and its narrative form, with an English verse-translation appended.
This article offers the first substantial survey of the Middle Dutch satire Dit es de Frenesie since the work of C.P. Serrure in the mid nineteenth century. It contests much of the conventional wisdom surrounding De Frenesie, such as the poem's usual classification as an early boerde or fabliau. Instead it is argued that the text is an experimental work, which blends together elements of several satiric traditions without committing itself to any one. The implications of this manoeuvre and others within the text are considered, revealing the poem's clear sympathy with the newly educated and articulate laity. De Frenesie itself is appended in both the original Middle Dutch and an English verse translation.
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