Chap. ii. Tyndale's crowned at London and at Vilvorde. His martyrdom. printer with whom her party was connected'. Tyndale, who suffered in the same year, may have been martyred before the book was finished, but at least he must have been cheered with the knowledge of its progress. He had worked for thirteen years an exile by foreign instruments, and now in his last moments he was allowed to rejoice in the thought that his labour had found its proper home in his own land. For this end he had constantly striven: for this he had been prepared to sacrifice everything else; and the end was gained only when he was called to die. It is impossible to follow in detail the circumstances of Tyndale's betrayal and martyrdom, yet the story is well worth pondering over. Some of the life-like touches in Foxe's narrative bring out the singleness of the character of the man whom he worthily called 'for his nota'ble pains and travail an apostle of England.' One work had absorbed all his energy, and intent on that he had no eye for other objects. The traitor by whose devices he was taken (May, 1535) seemed to him, in spite of warnings, 'honest, handsomely learned and very conformable.' He even furnished him with money, 'for in the wily sub'tilties of this world he was simple and inexpert.' But in defence of himself Tyndale needed no counsel; even by an adversary he was called 'a learned, pious and good 'man:' his keeper, and his keeper's daughter, and others of his keeper's household were won over by him to his belief. His last prayer when fastened to the stake (Oct. 1 This was not T. Berthelet, as is commonly supposed, but T. Godfray. This fact has been ascertained beyond all doubt by Mr Bradshaw. The engraved border, on the evidence of which the work has been assigned to Berthelet, was used by Godfray be fore it passed into Berthelet's possession; and there is no evidence that Berthelet used it as early as 1536. The edition ends with the significant words, 'God save the King, and all his well willers.' 1536) witnessed equally to his loyalty and his faith: 'Lord! open the King of England's eyes.' Chap. ii. New Testa Before his imprisonment Tyndale revised his New His last Testament once again for the press. This last edi- ment. tion contains one innovation in the addition of headings to the chapters in the Gospels and Acts, but not in the Epistles; and is without the marginal notes, which were added to the edition of 1534. But it is chiefly distinguished by the peculiarity of the orthography, which has received a romantic interpretation. Tyndale, as we have seen, had affirmed that 'he who followeth 'the plough' should in a few years have a full knowledge of the Scripture, and from the occurrence of such words as maester, faether, moether, stoone, in this edition it was concluded by a biographer that in his last years he adapted his translation to 'the pronunciation of the 'peasantry.' The conjecture seemed plausible and it is scarcely surprising that it has been transformed by repetition into an acknowledged fact. It is however not borne out by an examination of the book itself. Whatever may be the explanation of the orthography it is evident from its inconsistency that it was not the result of any fixed design. Nay more, there is not the least reason to suppose that some of the forms are provincial, or that the forms as a whole would make the language plainer to rustics. The headings too, which have been also supposed to have been designed 'to help to the understand'ing of the subjects treated of,' just fail when on that theory they would be most needed1. 區 1 Two copies of this edition are known. That which I have used is in the University Library at Cambridge. The orthography in the Table of the four Evangelists and the Prologue to the Romans which fol lows (not displaced by the binder) of- But though this pleasant fancy of the literal fulfilment of an early promise must be discarded, Tyndale achieved in every way a nobler fulfilment of it. Instead of lowering his translation to a vulgar dialect, he lifted up the common language to the grand simplicity of his own idiom. 'It pleased God,' as he wrote in his first Prologue, 'to put [the translation] in his mind,' and if we look at his life and his work, we cannot believe that he was left without the Spirit of God in the execution of it. His single honesty is beyond all suspicion. 'I call God 'to record,' so he writes to Fryth in the Tower, 1532, 'against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, 'to give a reckoning of our doings, that I never altered 'one syllable of God's word against my conscience, nor 'would this day, if all that is in the earth, whether it be 'pleasure, honour or riches, might be given me'' Not one selfish thought mixed with his magnificent devotion. No treacherous intrigues ever shook his loyalty to his king: no intensity of distress ever obscured his faith in Christ. 'I assure you,' he said to a royal envoy, 'if it her, sayd (consistently), fayth, stoede, &c. In c, sayde, angels, moether, harde, maester, master, father, &c. In D, faether, moether, mother, sayde, hearde, &c. In F on one side, faether, moether, broether, and on the other, angels, sayde, daye, brother, told, hearde, &c. In y and z we have almost consistently faeyth, saeyde, hoepe, ilmoest, praeyer, &c. Yet again in b brayer, &c. In the headings of the Epistles we have saynct and saeynct. Some spellings certainly belong to a foreign compositor, thongs (tongues, I Cor. xiii.); thaugh (taught). Some I cannot explain, caled (called), holly ́holy), which forms are consistently used. Of possible explanations none seems more likely than that the copy was read to a Flemish compositor (at Brussels? or Malines?) and that the would stand with the king's most gracious pleasure to grant only a bare text of the Scripture to be put forth among his people, like as it is put forth among the subjects of the emperor in these parts [the Netherlands], be it the translation of what person soever shall please his majesty, I shall immediately make faithful promise never to write more, nor abide two days in these parts after the same; but immediately repair into his realm, and there most humbly submit myself at the feet of his royal majesty, offering my body to suffer what pain or torture, yea what death his grace will, so that this be obtained. His life had seemed friendless, but his one learest companion (Fryth) may interpret the temper common to them both. 'Doubt not,' he writes from the Tower to his desolate congregation, 'but that GOD...shall so provide for you that ye shall have an hundred fathers for one: an hundred mothers for one: an hundred houses for one: and that in this life, as I have proved by experience'. We dilute the promise by our comments: these martyrs proved it in their lives. Chap. ii. last words trans lation. The worth of Tyndale as a scholar must be estimated Tyndale's by his translation, which will be examined afterwards. on his Of the spirit in which he undertook the great work of his life something has been said already. To the end he retained unchanged, or only deepened and chastened, his noble forgetfulness of self in the prospect of its accomplishment, with a jealous regard for the sincere rendering of the Scriptures. Before he published the revised edition of 1534 he had been sorely tried by the interference of Joye, which might, as he thought, bring discredit to the Gospel itself. 'have it in their tongues, and my brother William Tyndale and I have 'done, and will promise you to write ⚫ no more. If you will not grant this ⚫ condition, then will we be doing The passage with which 'while we have breath, and shew in Chap. ii. he closes his disclaimer of Joye's edition reflects at onc 'As concerning all I have translated or otherwise Wherefore I beseech George Joye, yea and all other 'too, for to translate the Scripture for themselves, whether 'out of Greek, Latin, or Hebrew. Or, if they will needs, '...let them take my translations and labours, and change, 'and alter, and correct and corrupt at their pleasures, 'and call it their own translations and put to their own 'names, and not to play bo-peep after George Joye's 'manner...But I neither can nor yet will suffer of any 'man that he shall go, take my translation, and correct 'it without name, and make such changing as I myself |