• 
• Faculty & Scholars
• Courses
• Grad Student Work
• Conferences
• Publications
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Links
• Translations

Publications

The French of England Translation Series (FRETS)

Series Editors: Thelma S. Fenster and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne

A group of seven translations from the French of medieval England will appear in the Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies series, published by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe. Our title, the French of England, reflects a decision¹ to include the whole range of the French of England. This means that works of continental French origin with circulation and influence in medieval England will also be included.² We welcome proposals for this Translation Series, published with full scholarly annotation and introduction but in student-affordable paperbacks. All volumes include an Appendix of samples of original text for teaching purposes.

Protocols for FRETS

The titles of the seven volumes are below; click on each title to see a full description of that volume.

1. Matthew Paris: The History of St Edward the King and The Life of St Alban, tr. Thelma Fenster and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, with an essay on the manuscripts by Christopher Baswell.
2. French Lessons: Conduct Literature in the French of England, tr. William Askins
3. Boeve de Haumtone and Gui de Warewic: Two Anglo-Norman Romances, tr. Judith Weiss.
4. Saints' Lives in the French of England: St George, St Faith and St Mary Magdalen, and the Legendary of Nicholas Bozon, trs. Laurie Postlewate and Delbert Russell.
5. Henry, Duke of Lancaster: The Book of Holy Medicines (Le Livre de Seyntz Medicines), tr. Catherine Batt.
6. Vengeance and Piety in the French Texts of England, tr. Maureen B. M. Boulton.
7. A major roman antique from the court of Henry II of England, trs. Joan Ferrante and Robert Hanning.

Each volume will include:

• An introduction that situates work(s) historically, socially, and in their literary milieu, and addresses questions of sources, influences, provenance, author, date, manuscripts, language and versification, and offers a literary appreciation.
• A list of further reading
• A translation into modern English prose
• Textual and literary/historical notes to the translation(s).
• An appendix of extracts from the original text (a feature designed to increase the attractiveness of the volumes for use in original language teaching or demonstration in class).
• An index of proper nouns

Future texts may include:

• Foundresses of Britain, including About the Great Giants (the founding of Albion/Britain by Albina and her sisters); Scota of Scotland; Constance of East Anglia; The Life of St Osith; French accounts of Virgil's Dido in circulation in medieval Britain.
• Thomas of Kent, The Anglo-Norman Alexander (Roman de toute chevalerie)
• The Nun of Barking's Life of Edward the Confessor
• The Romance of Waldef
• Charlemagne in the French of England: Otinel, and the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle; La Destructioun de Rome and Fierabras; (a volume illustrating the treatment of Charlemagne matter in the French of England).
• The Life of St Francis of Assisi

---

¹Also made in the recent Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, ed. Ruth J. Dean and Maureen B.M. Boulton. London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999.

²For the sake of clarity, we generally avoid using the term "Anglo-Norman," which was formerly reserved for the literature of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in England, whereas the works of fourteenth and fifteenth century England were called 'Anglo-French.'