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Beowulf: A Study In Dilatation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

George J. Engelhardt*
Affiliation:
Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois

Extract

When the author of Beowulf undertook to create in English a secular narrative poem of epic amplitude, he set himself to a task for which there was no precedent in the native tradition. In the Germanic past, narrative poetry had been confined to the heroic lay. This was a short poem, not exceeding some two hundred long-lines. It held to a single action, the sequence of which it presented with abrupt economy. Preoccupied with the scenic and the climactic, it had little leisure for any element which might retard the pace or attenuate the impact. To this tradition, the digressive, the repetitious, and the dilatory were alien. Only in style was the static indulged, in variation, in the ornamental and the vicarious epithet, and here only with restraint.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 70 , Issue 4-Part-1 , September 1955 , pp. 825 - 852
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1955

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References

Note 1 in page 825 See Andreas Heusler, Die altgermanische Dichtung (Wildpark-Potsdam, 1929), sees. 123, 131–133. The augmented ed. (Babelsberg, 1943) has not been accessible.

Note 2 in page 825 The technical terms used in this paragraph are derived from the poetic theory of Neoptolemos of Parion, which Horace appears to have followed in the Ars poetica and which bears a striking resemblance to the poetic doctrine of Aristotle; see Christian Jensen, Philodemos: über die Gedichte fiinftes Buck (Berlin, 1923), pp. 93–127.

Note 3 in page 825 Thus Jensen, p. 108: “Das Postulat eines harmonischen, in sich vollendeten Aufbaus auch der grofien Gedichte hat Neoptolemos aus den Dichtungen Homers abstrahiert, den er als den grofiten Dichter bezeichnete. ‘Es ist gut, sich klarzumachen, dafi die Dichter von Ilias und Odyssée gerade nach dieser Seite unter den Griechen keine Nachfolge ge-funden haben, Verstândnis sogar nur bei ganz wenigen Kritikern, Aristoteles, Neoptolemos von Parion, falls Horaz dessen Ansicht wiedergibt’ (Wilamowitz, Die Ilias und Homer, S. 329). Daß Horaz das wirklich tut, wissen wir jetzt durch Philodem.”

Note 4 in page 826 Thus Rhetoricaad Alexandrum xxx: συντόμως δε (scil. δεΐ ποιεΐν), ΐva μνημονεύσωσí τά îƞθεντα. (cited by Jensen, p. 116); cf. Aristotle Poetics vii.10: επí των μύθων (scil. δεΐ) εχειν μεν μήκος, τοντο Si εύμνημόνευτον εíναι; Horace Ars poetica vv.335–336: “quidquid praxipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta / percipiant animi dociles teneantque fidèles.”

Note 5 in page 826 E.g., Auctorad Herennium i.ix.14: “Rem breviter narrare poterimus, si inde incipiemus narrare, unde necesse erit, et si non ab ultimo initio repetere volemus, et si summatim, non particulatim narrabimus, et si non ad extremum, sed usque eo, quo opus erit, persequemur, et se transitionibus nullis utemur, et si non deerrabimus ab eo, quod coeperimus exponere, et si exitus rerum ita ponemus, ut ante quoque quae facta sint, scire possint, tametsi nos reticuerimus … Et ne bis aut saspius idem dicamus, cavendum est.” Cf. Cicero, De in-ventione i.xx.28; Horace, Ars poetica vv.146–149.

Note 6 in page 826 Thus Cicero, loc. cit.: “Brevis erit … si nullam in rem aliam transibitur.”

Note 7 in page 826 The following analysis is derived especially from Hermogenes, Opera, ed. Hugo Rabe (Leipzig, 1913), pp. 1–10; 119, 21–125; 227, 19–228, 21; 277, 21–296, 3; Boethius, De differentiis topicis ii–iv; Cicero, De invenlione i.xxiv.34–xxviii.43, ii.ix.28–xii.42.

Note 8 in page 826 Rhetorica ad Alexandrum xxx: συντόμως δε (scil. δηλώσομεν), εάν άπα των πρατáμάτων koi των óνομάτων ττεριαιρωμεν τά μη αναγκαíα ρηθήναι, ταύτα μόνα καταλεíττοντες, ων αφαιρεθέντων ασαφής εσται à 'λayos.

Note 9 in page 827 See Rhetores Latini minores, ed. Karl Halm (Leipzig, 1863), p. 141, 14–15.

Note 10 in page 828 E.g., Auctor ad Eerennium iv.xlv.58 s.v. commoraiio. When the repetition is immediate, the device is sometimes called interpretatio; thus ibid, iv.xxviii.38. Cf. ερμηνάα, ερμψεíαν, Hermogenes, Opera, ed. Rabe, p. 7, 18; p. 120, 12, 18.

Note 11 in page 828 Rhetorica ad Alexandrum xxx.

Note 12 in page 828 Ibid. The virtue brevity subserves the virtue clarity; see Cicero De inventione i.xx.29; Auctor ad Eerennium i.ix.15.

Note 13 in page 829 Poetics ivii.10–12.

Note 14 in page 829 Cf. Aristotle's analysis of Homer, Poetics xxiii; also, in connection with a blending of principles similar to that of syntomia and peribole, Hermogenes, Opera, ed. Rabe, p. 279, 14–26.

Note 15 in page 829 Die altgermanische Dichtung, p. 187.

Note 16 in page 830 The medieval acceptation is anticipated, e.g., in Aristotle Poetics xxiv.6–7, Hermog- enes, Opera, ed. Rabe, pp. 280–281 passim. But cf. Quintilian Insliluiio oratorio viii.iv.

Note 17 in page 830 Cf. also πλατύναν; thus Priscian, Rhetores Lalini minores, ed. Halm, p. 553, 14 uses “latius eum interpretari” to render πλατύνων τήν ΐρμηνάαν, Hermogenes, Opera, ed. Rabe, p. 7, 17–18.

Note 18 in page 830 See my “Mediæval Vestiges in the Rhetoric of Erasmus,” PMLA, LXIII (June 1948), 739–744. In that study, however, the ancient provenience of medieval dilatation has been understated.

Note 19 in page 831 For the terminology of the loci employed in this analysis, see sources listed in n. 7, above.

Note 20 in page 832 For v. 169, the reading “maboum formetode” is preferred; v. 169a thus varies by epimone or interpretatio v. 169b. Lines 168–169 then mean: “Grendel could not (because he was unhuman) approach the royal gift-throne (as a heroic warrior would). Grendel had no sense of the (heroic) significance of treasure, nor did he feel (the hero's) love for it (as the outward expression of the lord's bond with his heroic retainers).” “Formetode” from for+metian.

Note 21 in page 833 For maximœ propositiones (maxims) as loci, see Boethius, De differentiis lopicis in Pairologia Latina, LXIV, 1185A–86A.

Note 22 in page 834 Opera, ed. Rabe, pp. 237, 20–238, S. For the distinction between naluralis ordo and artiûcialis ordo in the Carolingian Scholia Vindobonensiaad Horalii orient poelicam, see Edgar de Bruyne, Etudes d'esthétique médiévale (Brugge, 1946), i, 231–232.

Note 23 in page 834 I.e., “eorlum ealuscerwen” refers quite literally to the joyous drinking, dispensing of ale, with which the Danes after the combat celebrated its victorious outcome.

Note 24 in page 835 I.e., nalura as atlributum negotio, not atlributum persona; see Cicero, De invenlione i.xxviii.43.

Note 25 in page 836 The classical amplification here occurs per raiiocinaiionem (cf. Quintilian, Institulio oraloria viii.iv.15–26) from the loci effeclio (vv.773b–775a) and auctoritas (vv.778–782a).

Note 26 in page 838 The character of Wealhϸeo is, however, commonly construed as possessed of andgit.

Note 27 in page 838 For the difficult passage vv.1063–70, the following interpretation is preferred—dispensing with emendation in v. 1068a and inserting colon after v.l067b to indicate the transition from the indefinite introduction to the definite episode: “There was song … when along the meadbench Hroögar's scop must entertain: To Finn's retainers must fall the hero of the Half-Danes, Hnsef of the Scyldings, when the sudden attack surprised them.” With “feallan eaferum” cf. the Latin poetic idiom, e.g., in Silius Italicus, Punka x.28–29: “cadit ingens nominis expers / uni turba viro”; see Thesaurus lingua Lalinœ s.v. cado (iii, 23–24).

Note 28 in page 841 Whether the poet intended the contrast between “breat” (v.l713a, of Heremod) and “bryttaS” (v.l726b, of God) is problematic; but cf. the much more overt traductio of the term brytta in Judith vv.90°, 93a. For traductio, see Auctor ad Herennium iv.xiv.20–21; cf. the dialectical locus ex coniugatione, Cicero, Topica ix.38.

Note 29 in page 842 Cf. Emporius, Prœceptum loci communis in Halm, Rhetores Latini minores, pp. 565, 24–566, 16; Ernst Robert Curtius, Europdische Literatur und lateinisches Miltelaller (Bern, 1948), pp. 106–109. See also my “On the Sequence of Beowulf's Geogoö,” MLN, lxviii (1953), 91–95.

Note 30 in page 845 Æfric, The Assumption of St. John the Apostle in Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader, rev. C. T. Onions (Oxford, 1950), p. 62, 179.

Note 31 in page 848 Lines 2764b–66 have been taken to mean that treasure, even if hidden in the earth, will, if only by the process of natural deterioration (cf. “omig,” v.2763a), slip from the power of (“oferhigian”) any man, no matter how he may try to perpetuate his ownership.

Note 32 in page 848 In the present analysis, the last survivor (v.2239a: “weard winegeomor”) has been equated with “bam Se unrihte inne gehydde / wraete under wealle” (vv.3059–60) and with the “Seodnas maere” (v.3070a) that pronounced the curse upon the hoard. This last reference (v.307011) has been taken as an instance of the trope synecdoche, by which the plural is substituted for the singular according to the formula: “a pluribus unum in-tellegetur”; see Auclorad Herennium, iv.xxxiii.45. Accordingly, it is unnecessary to presuppose that these verses refer to three different referents, v.3070a to a supposititious earlier race that had buried the hoard with a curse, v.2239a to the last survivor of a later race which had rediscovered the hoard, and vv.3059–60a to the dragon. Neither is this supposition in any way necessarily entailed by the statements that the treasure had lain in the earth 1,000 years (vv.3049b–50) and that the dragon had guarded it 300 years (vv.2278–79). The dragon had simply arrived 700 years after the hoard had been buried by the last survivor. The statement (vv.2248b–49a) that good men had got the treasure from the earth is merely a commonplace reference to the fact that the ancestors of the “weard winegeomor” had mined or dug the precious metals from the earth, which they then fashioned into articles. The presupposition of a race anterior to the race of which the “weard winegeomor” is the last survivor has therefore been discarded.

In this analysis, furthermore, “bam Se unrihte inne gehydde / wrœte under wealle” (vv.3059–60a) has been equated with the “weard winegeomor” that “bser gehydde / deore maSmas” (vv.2235b–36°). The “weard” (v.3060b) has been equated with “goldweard bone” (v. 3081b), i.e., the dragon.

The problematic “nasshe goldhwaete” (v.3074a) has been emended to “Naes be gold-hwæte,” i.e., “not at all in reference to gold-cursing.” For the unattested (golaæ: hwætan: hwætan, cf. red: rœdan. Hwœtan “to curse” survives in OE as âhwêt; see Fernand Mossé, Manuel de l'anglais du moyen âge (Paris, 1945), i, 411, n. 406. “Agendes est” (v.30758), literally “the granting of the owner” (cf. unnan) has been construed to mean “the owner qua giver,” i.e., the owner in his function as disposer of his property. In Une 3075b, “ær” = “in time past,” cf. v. 900b; “gesceawod” = “decreed”—cf. Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader, rev. C. T. Onions (Oxford, 1950), p. 95, 65. Hence lines 3074–75 mean: “Not at all in the past in regard to the cursing of gold had an owner, when giving thought to the disposition of his property, decreed better,” i.e., never had an owner cursed better. These lines combine with 2764b–66 and 3058–60a to enforce the moral that no mortal, such as the “weard winegeomor,” can retain in perpetuity possession of his wealth by hiding or cursing and that avarice and hoarding are futile and bad.

Note 33 in page 849 Cf. Quintilian, Instituiio oraloria viii.v.11.

Note 34 in page 850 For verse 3150b the interpretation “meowle” = “anus” = “old woman” has been retained; see my “Beowulf 3150,” MLN, LXVIII (1953), 535–538.

Note 35 in page 852 Gioköo (vv.2793a, 3095“) is to be taken preferably in the sensory, not emotional acceptation, referring not to an affeclio animi, but to an afectio corporis, the physical agony of death.