PRAYER-BOOK PSALTER

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 152, 24 December 1932, Page 7

PRAYER-BOOK PSALTER

THE WORK OF COVERDALE

HIS CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

(By "Ajax.")

'. My 'appetite for Coverdale and the Psalter was sharpened on tho Sunday before last by tho fact that I -was tied throughout' the day to an exhausting job which it was impossible to put off. But I kept my nose to the secular grindstone till the day was over/ and then permitted myself the dissipation of taking Prothero on "The Psalms in Human Life" to bed with me to see whether he had anything to say about Coverdale. This is what I found:— Our Prayer-book version of the Psalter in prose, originally made by Tyndale and Coverdale, subsequently corrected by Crantmer and his colleagues, was put forth in the Bishops' Bible of 11341. * *..■■.-•• It would probably take a long time to find any equally short sentence by a scholar of repute which" combines so many mistakes with so small a residue of truth. Tyndale had no hand in the Prayer-book version of the Psalter or in any other. Neither Cranmer nor any of "his colleagues is known to have ta"ken any part in the revision of the Psalter. The Prayer-book Psalter was not originally put forth in the Bishops' Bible, but in the Great Bible, and the Bishops' Bible was not published in 1541, but in 1568! Two of the three translators mentioned are wrong, the only Bible mentioned is wrong, and the date assigned to it is wrong. Even the statement about Coverdale is wrong, since.it represents his work as ..based upon Tyndale 'st—a position which it actually did occupy in the translation both of, the New Testament, and'of all ttie Old Testament books translated by Tyndale, but, as I. have said, the Psalms was not one of them. To fit the facts the sentence of Mr. Prothero— or Lord Earle, as I should -now call Mm—must be aniended as follows: — Our Prayer-book version of the Psalter in prose was-made by Coverdale for the Great Bible of 1539, and was given by him substantially its present form in the revised edition of 1540. -".-•■ Asthe'Great Bible was'still both the. authorised and; the popular version in the reign of Edward VI it supplied the text of the Psalter and off'the ' other Scriptural passage's,in both'tiio Prayer Books of his reign-r-1549 and 1552. Nor did' the' appearance of the Authorised Version in; 1611; prevent Coverdale's Psalter from retaining its place in the Prayer Book when it was given practically,.^ present form by the Act of Uniformity of 1662. A note appended to "The Order How the Psalter is Appointed to be Read" points out that the Psalter followeth the division of the Hebrews, and the Translation of the great Bible; set. forth and vsed in. the time of K.H. VIII and Edw. VI. Religious sentiment had become so deeply attached to Coverdale's Psalter that to displace it was (felt to be impossible^: vy;':^a:'- rir- •..■■- ... • .:."•• ♦ ■- * . When the/ last changes in . the -Prayer Book were made,'says Westcott, "History of the English Bible" (1872), p. 294, it was founlj^t :i?-said," strtbofher- tolling f but this is not a full account of the matter, and it cannot be mere familiarity which, gives to the Prayer Book Psalter, with, .all its errors and imperfections, an' incomparable' tenderness and • sweetness. Rather, we, may believe that in it we can yet find the'spirit of him whose work it mainly.is, full of humility and love, not heroic or creative, but patient to accomplish,"by God's help the task which had been set him to do, and therefore best in harmony with'the tenor of our own .daily lives. ' , ♦ » - ♦ ..'.'•"'■■. The mind and spirit of Coverdale have left their' mark on. ■. English re-* ligion and literature for ail time in the translation i of;.-,the •Psalter. By his translation'Vbf'.i the vNew ■ Testament;,; about 80 .per cent; of which still stands in bur Bibles to-day as he left it, Tyndale ifas; ■ rendered.a similar service. Yet the acknowledgment which is made to thehumblest contributor to-"Hymns Ancient and Modern" is not made to either.of them, and in the churches tomorrow their words will be sung or read or listened to by thousands who have not the faintest idea of our immeasurable obligations '.to those wonderful men. Is that a fair deal? * * * Neither in scholarship nor in strength of character was Coverdale the equal of Tyndale. Both in his translations and in the practical affairs of life he was apt to lean upon others, but the modesty and tenderness of the man seem to havo been more conspicuous than the weakness. Coverdale's complete dependence upon previous translators was proclaimed N ' in the words "faithfully and truly translated out of Douche and Latyn in to Englishe" on the title page of the Bible which he brought out in 1535—the first printed English Bible;,and though tho words were afterwards dropped the description of the book as "faythfully translated outof fyiie sundry interpreters" still stood in the Dedication. * * * Nor could anything be prettier than the gratitude with which in tho same Prologue Coyerdale acknowledges his obligations to his predecessors and the modesty with which he invites the correction of his own errors. For the whicli .cause (tfeordyng as I was desyred) I toke the more vpon me to set forth this speeiall translaeyon, not as a checker, not as a reprover, or despyser' of other mens translacyons (for ainonge many as yet I have founde none without occasyon of greate thankesgeuynge vnto god) but lowly and faythfully have I folowed myne interpreters, and that vnder correccyqn. And though I have fayled eny where (as-there is noman but hemysseth in some thynge) love shall constyrre [construe] all to the best without eny periierse iudgment. •* * - * . ■ . But, addressed' as it is "vnto the Christen reader," Coverdale's prologue goes far beyond the normal limits of a translator's introduction. After passing those limits he mounts the pulpit and reminds his flock of all that they have received, from God and of their obligations to help their neighbours. Call to thy remembraunce how louync and mercifull God is unto the, how kyndly and fatherly he helpeth the in all trouble, teacheth thine ignoraunce, healeth the in all thy syeknesse, forgeueth the all thy synnes, fedeth ye, geueth the drynke, helpeth ye out of preson, norysheth the in straunge countrees, careth for the, and seyeth yt thou wante nothynge. Call this to mynde (I saye), and that earnestly, and consydro how thou ? hast receaued of God'all these benefites(yee and many mo then thou canst desyre) how thou art bounde lykewise to shewe thy selfevnto thy rieghboure as farre as thou canst, to teach.him".-yf he be ignoraunt, to help him in. all his trouble, to heale his sycknes to forgeue him his offences, and that hartely, to fede" him, to cherish him, to carfe for him and to se yt he wante nothyrig. ■-'■ . • '"• ■'""• •. ! The'touching appeal which follows for the poor, for the unemployed, and

for the duty of wise counsel to those in authority is astonishingly timely. ! And on this behalfe I beseke the (thou yt hast ye riches of this worlde, and louest God with thy harte) to lyfte vp thyne eyes, and se how greate a multitude of poore people renne thorow every towne: have pitie on thyne awne flesh, helpe them with a good harte, and do' with . thy councejl all that euerthou canst, that this vnshamefast beggynge maye be put downe, that these ydle folkes maye be set to laboure, and that soch as are not able to get theyr lyuynge, maye be prouyded for. At the leest thou yt art of councell with soch as are in auctoryte, geue them some occasyon to cast theyr heades together, and to make prouysyon for the poore. . . Wolde God yt those men (whose office is to maynteyne ye comon welth) were as diligent in this cause as they are in other. Let vs bewarre by tymes, for after vnthankfulnes there followeth ever a plager the mercyful hande of God be with vs, and defende vs that we be not partakers thereof. .Who would have supposed that a writer in 1535 could i have sent us so apt a message for the Christmas of 1932? It is worthy of the man who between the editions of 1533 and 1540 changed the words "the complaint of the poor" in Psalm xii 5 to "the deep sighing of the poor" as it stands in the Prayer Book version to-day. '.'..'