Just having fun modernizing bits of Middle English, after seeing
Otto's thread. In the Spanish world, it's very normal to publish Old Spanish texts with a fairly modernized look, but this seems to be rarely done in the English world for Middle English. Well, punctuation may be added, and yogh may be turned to -gh-, but modernization of medieval text in the Spanish world seems heavier.
Say, this random passage of the Cid:
Hẏo uos digo çid por toda caridad
Q̃ oy los yfantes ami por amo non abran
Curielos q
i q
ier ca dellos poco mincal
Hyo cõ los myos ferir q
iero delant
Vos cõ los u͠ros firme mientre ala çaga tengades
Si cueta fuere biẽ me podredes huuiar
(Poem of the Cid, circa 1200, in a copy from the 1300s,
lines 2355-2360)
...could be modernized, as it is often done, as:
Yo vos digo, Cid, por toda caridad,
Que hoy los infantes a mí por amo non habrán.
Cúrielos quiquiera ca d'ellos poco m'incal.
Yo con los míos herir quiero delant;
vos con los vuestros firmemente a la zaga tengades.
Si cuita fuere, bien me podréis uviar.
I tell you, Cid, with all charity, that today the princelings won't have me as an underlord. Anyone else may look after them, as I'm hardly concerned about them. I want to go with my men to the front; you, with your men, firmly hold at the rear. If there is a need, you can very well reach me [as reinforcements].
And some editions, I'm sure, would also repair the -e incal > incale, delant > delante, and separate the function words in d'ellos > "de ellos", m'incal > "me incale"...
Now let's do that with the opening of a contemporary Middle English text, from the same era:
An preoſt wes on leoden : laȝamon wes ihoten.
he wes leouenaðes ſone : liðe him beo drihtẽ.
he wonede at ernleȝe : at æðelen are chirechen.
vppen seuarne ſtaþe : sel þar him þuhte.
on fest radeſtone : þer he bock radde.
(Layamon's Brut, also circa 1200, Caligula manuscript lines 1-6, from a 1847 edition
on Google Books)
If you've looked at Middle English texts before, this probably strikes you as very normal. What if we modernized it to the following?
A priest was on lede, Layamon was hoten;
he was Levenath's son, lithe him be Dright!
He woned at Ernley, at ethel here church.
Upon Severn stathe — seel there him thought —
on fest Radestone, there he books read.
There was once a priest in the nation; he was called Layamon. He was Levenath's son, may the Lord be gracious on him! He lived at Ernley, at a noble church here, upon the Severn bank — it seemed good to him there — near Radestone, where he'd read books.
A bit more understandable, although it's still largely unreadable. And my adaptation of þer as "there" seems questionable (is this the article "the" in some case form?). Then again, that's true of the modernized Old Spanish above, too...
