The Tragedie of Euripides called Iphigeneia

Introduction

The Tragedie of Euripides called Iphigeneia is the first known English translation from Ancient Greek drama as well as the first extant play written by an Englishwoman (Pollard 2017, 49). The translator is Lady Jane Lumley (née Fitzalan, 1537-1578), the young wife of the first Baron Lumley. Her translation – never printed in the early modern period and now held in manuscript at the British Library (Royal MS 15 A IX) – dates back to the 1550s. Scholars have proposed more precise dates for the composition, either placing it in the early years of the decade (Purkiss 1998, xxv) or later (Wynne-Davies 2008, 119-21; Suthren 2020, 76). A persuasive case has been made by Marion Wynne-Davies for the year 1557 on the basis of the surrounding material in the manuscript, i.e., Lumley’s Latin translation of five orations of Isocrates, which the girl dedicated to her father as New Year’s gifts in 1557 (Wynne-Davies 2008, 119-21). Doubts also surround the performance of the play. Considered the first piece of English closet drama (Burroghs 2019, 16), the play may have been read or performed before a restricted household audience. If it corresponds with the unknown play staged in 1559 at Nonsuch palace, the residence of the Lumleys since 1556, Queen Elizabeth herself was present at the performance (Pollard 2017, 54-6; Wynne-Davies 2008, 125). If indeed present, the Queen must have been particularly pleased by the performance of a Euripidean play since it seems that she was herself a translator from Euripides (Pollard 2017, 40 n121; see also Suthren 2020, 75).

   Lumley used both Erasmus’s translation of Iphigenia at Aulis (1506) and the original Greek; editions of both are registered in the family’s book catalogue (Jayne and Johnson 1956, 205 no. 1736, 191 no. 1591a). Lumley’s reliance upon Erasmus’ version is not limited to lexical choices and phrasing but equally involve structural translation choices such as the omission of the choral odes and the tendency to include sententiae, which may be read as an application of Erasmus’ theoretical statements on his own Euripides translation (Suthren 202086-91). Lumley decides to omit the choruses, sometimes summarizing and incorporating their content in the cues of the chorus, who is nonetheless preserved as a stage presence. The role of the chorus is prominent in the delivery of most of the sententious statements that feature in Lumley’s translation. According to Diane Purkiss, the play alludes to the Protestant martyr Lady Jane Grey, who was executed on the charge of treason in 1554; Lumley’s father, Henry Fitzalan, twelfth Earl of Arundel, was involved in the events leading to Grey’s death (Suthren 2020, 83; Hodgson-Wright 1998, 133). At a linguistic level, Lumley’s syntax is sometimes modelled on the original Greek (Suthren 2020, 85) and the rendering of ἔλαφος (“hind”, Eur.IA.1587) with “a white hart” (line) stands out as an allusion to Christological symbolism (Purkiss 1999, xxxi). Lumley’s decision to translate in prose is quite odd considering that no other extant tragedies were written in prose at the time.

References

• Pollard, Tanya. 2017. Greek Tragic Women on Shakespearean Stages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Suthren, Carla. 2020. “Iphigenia in English: Reading Euripides with Jane Lumley”. In Acquisition Through Translation: Towards a Definition of Renaissance Translation, edited by Alessandra Petrina and Federica Masiero, 73-92. The Medieval Translator, Turnhout: Brepols.
• Wynne-Davies, Marion. 2008. “The Good Lady Lumley’s Desire: Iphigeneia and the Nonsuch Banqueting House”. In Heroines of the Golden Stage, edited by Rina Walthaus and Marguérite Corporaal, 111-28. Kassel: Reichenberger.

Bibliography

• Burroghs, Catherine. 2019. ‘Introduction: “Closet Drama Studies”’. In Closet Drama: History, Theory, Form, edited by Catherine Burroghs. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Findlay, Alison, and Stephanie Hodgson-Wright. 2000. “Introduction”. In Women and Dramatic Production, 1550-1700, edited by Alison Findlay and Stephanie Hodgson-Wright, 1-14. London: Routledge.
• Hodgson-Wright, Stephanie. 2008. “Lumley [née Fitzalan], Jane, Lady Lumley”. In ODNB.
• — 1998. “Jane Lumley’s Iphigenia at Aulis: Multum in parvo, or, less is more”. In Readings in Renaissance Women’s Drama: Criticism, History, Performance 1594-1998, edited by S. P. Cerasano and Marion Wynne-Davies, 129-41. London: Routledge.
• Jayne, Sears, and Francis R. Johnson, eds. 1956. The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609. London: Trustees of the British Museum.
• Lumley, Jane. 1998. The Tragedie of Iphigeneia, in Three Tragedies by Renaissance Women, edited by Diane Purkiss. London: Penguin.
• — 1909. Iphigenia at Aulis Translated by Lady Lumley, edited by Harold H. Child. Chiswick: Charles Whittingham.
• Pollard, Tanya. 2017. Greek Tragic Women on Shakespearean Stages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Purkiss, Diane. 1999. “Blood, Sacrifice, Marriage: Why Iphigeneia and Mariam Have to Die”. Women’s Writing 6 (1): 27-45.
• — 1998. “Introduction”. In Three Tragedies by Renaissance Women, edited by Diane Purkiss. London: Penguin, xi-xliii.
• Suthren, Carla. 2020. “Iphigenia in English: Reading Euripides with Jane Lumley”. In Acquisition Through Translation: Towards a Definition of Renaissance Translation, edited by Alessandra Petrina and Federica Masiero, 73-92. The Medieval Translator, Turnhout: Brepols.
• Wynne-Davies, Marion. 2008. “The Good Lady Lumley’s Desire: Iphigeneia and the Nonsuch Banqueting House”. In Heroines of the Golden Stage, edited by Rina Walthaus and Marguérite Corporaal, 111-28. Kassel: Reichenberger.

Description of the Witness

Lumley’s translation of Iphigenia at Aulis is preserved only in one manuscript (British Library, Royal MS 15 A IX), a quarto volume of 127 leaves, of which some are blank and unnumbered and almost all the rest are numbered on the top right-hand corner of each leaf with what looks like a modern handwriting. The translation is surrounded by other works: five orations of Isocrates in Latin translation, accompanied by two dedicatory epistles addressed by Lumley to her father, Henry Fitzalan and which have been dated to 1557 (Wynne-Davies 2008, 119-21). There follows the translation from Euripides, which runs from number 63 to 93 of the leaves including its paratextual material. After a note with a Latin sentence and two extracts in a legal hand from charter rolls of Yorkshire and Northumberland (Child 1909, vi), there follows an extract from chapter 395 (“De lapide aquilae” or the eaglestone) from Mattheus Silvaticus’ Pandectae medicinae.

  The text of the translation is written in a clear, elegant, and regular hand; reading is therefore very easy and is not impaired by the few stains (ff. 63r, 64r-v, 68v, 75v, 82v-83r) that appear in the margins. The end of characters’ cues is signalled by ornamental flourishes; an ornament appears also at the end before the word “Finis”, which is also followed by an ornamental sign. The name of the speakers, listed after the argument in order of entrance, are abbreviated throughout with the first letters of the name (“Aga” standing for “Agamemnon”; “Iphi” standing for “Iphigeneia”). The word “Iphigeneya” appears as running title on both pages of the leaf through the whole translation except the first page (f. 66r); the word is misspelt on f. 69r as “Iphigeneneya”. Some words or portions of words are strikethrough (ff. 65v, 69v, 72v, 76r, 78v, 82r, 85r-v, 86v, 88v, 89v, 90r, 91r-v, 93v, 95v, 96v); some words or letters are added between the lines as a correction of a strikethrough word (f. 85r, 86v, 93v, 94v) or as an integration of a missing element (f. 77r, 79r, 83v, 88v, 91v, 96r, 97r). Catchwords appear throughout the translation but in one case the anticipated word is not repeated in the following page (ff. 73v-74r). There is a mistake in the title of the argument (“tragadie” for “tragedie”) and some in the translation (“Ephigeneya” for “Iphigenia” or “Iphigeneia”, the two spelling adopted for the character, f. 68v; “fiste” for “first”, f. 66r;“occation” for “occasion”, f. 85r).

The text has been first published in print in 1909 for the Malone Society in a semidiplomatic version. A second semidiplomatic edition has appeared in 1998, edited by Diane Purkiss.

Reference

Child, Harold H. 1909. Introduction to Iphigenia at Aulis Translated by Lady Lumley, edited by Harold H. Child, v-ix.