Before accepting the offer to write this review, I notified the journal that I was not a philologist, but a medieval historian, and suggested that they might prefer a language expert as reviewer for this work. They decided that I should go ahead and write the review as a historian. I have been teaching the history of Thomas Becket for twenty years and studying him for many more decades. He is still the favorite subject of many of my students when writing term papers
This life of Becket is according to Janet Shirley, the English translator, "the oldest known life of Becket written in any vernacular language" (ix). She considers that this life is not only important for the light it sheds on Becket himself but for the way in which it illustrates the twelfth century and its society. She describes it not only as useful but also as entertaining. (Garnier's Becket,, trans. Janet Shirley, London: Phillimore, 1975.) As Thomas ("Thomas," when used alone here, refers to the editor and translator of the present edition, not the archbishop who will be referred to as "Becket") noted himself, the text is fairly well known, at least to those who read twelfth-century French. The best known edition is that of Emmanuel Walberg, La vie de saint Thomas le martyr par Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, poeme historique du XIIe siecle (1172-1174) (Lund, 1922). This critical edition was published in a reduced form, minus most notes, and the glossary, in 1964, entitled La vie de saint Thomas Becket, in the collection: Les classiques francais du moyen age. Unfortunately, the major university here has lost or mislaid the 1922 edition. The other two university libraries do not hold it. I have consulted, in consequence, the 1964 Walberg edition, the Shirley translation, other Latin lives of Becket, the 2-volume work under review, and Michael Stanton, The Lives of Thomas Becket, (Manchester, 2001). Most English speaking students will also be using the relatively widely available English Historical Documents, vol. II, 1042-1189 (London, 1953), section "The Church in England, 1154-1189," 702-771 and James C. Robertson, Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, (London, 1875). An excellent bibliography appears in Stanton, 246-48. Many lives of Becket in translation are also available on the WWW, although frequently minus the notes.
There are a number of excellent features in the present work. First, it presents not only a modern French translation, but the twelfth-century French edition as well. Thomas did not merely reproduce the Walberg version but changed or corrected it wherever he deemed it necessary, returning to microfilms of the various manuscripts. While Thomas does diverge from Walberg in many areas, he states that he approves the stemma produced by Walberg some eighty years ago from the six manuscripts then available (27).
The author of this work calls himself Guernes (or Garnier) a cleric, and tells us that he was born at Pont-Sainte-Maxence, describing himself as writing "good French" because he was born in France (Introduction, 11, and I. 5877, verses 1232-3). All references here are to the Thomas edition, and English translations are mine, unless otherwise specified. The volumes identified as I, and II refer to the Thomas edition. Walberg's two editions will be referred to as Walberg, 1 and 2.
Guernes dated the work in the text as having begun in 1172: "I undertook this work in the second year following the murder of the saint in his church . . ." (v.1234). He explained that he spent four years writing the life, and that the first version he wrote had been stolen (ll. 150-54). Walberg, for reasons unacceptable to Thomas, dated the work from 1171-74 for the beginning and 1173-77 for its conclusion (I, 13, from Walberg, 1, xx.). Thomas believes it was completed in 1174. Certain older scholars used the date of 1190 but not with satisfactory evidence. For a thorough discussion of the dating issue, (see pages I, 13-15)
Guernes' purpose in writing the saint's life was to emphasise his martyrdom, to illustrate what a great martyr he had been, not only through his death, but even more, through, for example, his insistence on wearing vermin infested underclothing during his lifetime. Guernes explains in verse 1166 that Becket was martyred twice, firstly during his life-time, suffering as reparation for the sins he had committed, and secondly, at the time of his death, for his sanctification vv.1178-1181. God confirmed his sanctification by the miracles which occurred before, and especially after, his death (vv.14-16).
Thomas states that the text is of considerable philological or lexicographical interest, as has been known for some time (19). Guernes insisted on the merits of his text, acquired through what he referred to as his effort to avoid any errors, his travelling to Canterbury to interview eye-witnesses, and his conversations with persons who had known Becket from his infancy (ll.146-50). Stanton, who uses what he considers the best contemporary sources for his recent edition of translated sources, used Guernes only twice, once on the chancellor's "hidden piety" and the second time on the bishops' complaint to the king shortly before Christmas (54-55; 188-90). He noted that Guernes' work owes a lot to that of Edward Grim but that his on-site research and interview with Becket's sister do add precious details not found elsewhere (9).
The sheer length of this heroic poem, 6180 lines, indicates that the author wanted not only to narrate Becket's life and death but also to allow himself ample space to discuss his views of the English king, Henry II, Becket, the world, nobility, and the church. He is resolutely on the side of the church and the archbishop and against that of the king and many of the nobility. "Formerly, the holy church was, on the king's instigation, trampled upon and treated with extreme injustice" (ll.31-2). He is described as a staunch supporter of the church, especially its saints, and against those who attempt to interfere with its role. There is no doubt that Guernes believed that the church held both swords: "For kings receive their power from holy church which did not receive hers from any king: it is God her spouse who gave it to her" (ll. 3125-26). He refused to accept the notion, nevertheless, that a prelate could revoke the sacrament received by a priest at his ordination: "I do not see how a bishop could remove from a priest the sacrament which he holds from the heavenly king" (ll.48-50). Guernes emphasises the fact that Becket did not receive the office of archbishop through gifts or simony (ll.639-40). Guernes' view of Rome in his day was severe: "Rome, which used to be the house of God is now a den of brigands (l. 1233).
There are at least three reasons for any scholar researching England and the church in the twelfth century to consult this new two-volume edition of Guernes' life of Becket. First, this edition corrects with copious notes to back up each correction what may well have been errors in the Walberg first edition, reprinted in the second. Volume two contains a table of abbreviations, an index of rhyming words, a list of biblical references, a list of proverbs and sayings, a list of "original" passages, including those which occur in later biographies, which in one page attempts to summarise what Walberg placed in 35 pages, notes, index of proper names, word index, and a chronology for Thomas Becket. The first fourteen pages of this volume, under the heading Apparat Critique, acts as a summary to volume I, listing the page numbers for each of the headings from the "Prologue" to "Explicit." It is most helpful that changes made by Thomas from the base manuscript are shown in grey, enabling the reader to grasp rapidly places where his reading differs from that of Walberg.
The notes are phenomenal in their completeness. As stated above, we know that Guernes frequently used Edward Grim as his source, see for example, note to line 478 which mentions the bishop of London. Thomas informs us that Walberg had stated that Gilbert Foliot occupied that post at the time. He then mentions that Walberg and James Robertson (mistakenly appearing here in the bibliography as "Jaimes" Robertson,) had indicated that Guernes here paraphrased Grim. Thomas then embarks on more than 40 lines of note discussing the various linguistic possibilities occurring in this single line of text. Here and everywhere the notes relating to word use and transcription problems cite the usages found in Old French dictionaries edited by Tobler-Lommatzsch, Godefroy, Rothwell and Greimas. He also refers to two works on etymology by von Wartburg and Rey as well as two pages of works on modern French and other languages.
I found the edition a joy to read. The modern French version flows very well. It should be accessible to any student with a reading knowledge of the language. The Old French version presents all the beauty of the original, of course, but does include many pitfalls for readers only of modern French making it enormously useful to have the up-to-date version on the facing page. This two-volume edition would also be immensely useful to any student of old versus modern French. The volume of notes is a mine of information to any student of the French language.