It is this.
In reviewing the various classes or types of texts of Polo's Book, which
we shall hereafter attempt to discriminate, there are certain proper names
which we find in the different texts to take very different forms, each
class adhering in the main to one particular form.
Thus the names of the Mongol ladies introduced at pp. 32 and 36 of this
volume, which are in proper Oriental form Bulughan and Kukachin,
appear in the class of MSS. which Pauthier has followed as Bolgara and
Cogatra; in the MSS. of Pipino's version, and those founded on it,
including Ramusio, the names appear in the correcter forms Bolgana or
Balgana and Cogacin. Now all the forms Bolgana, Balgana, Bolgara,
and Cogatra, Cocacin appear in the Geographic Text.
Kaikhatu Kaan appears in the Pauthier MSS. as Chiato, in the Pipinian as
Acatu, in the Ramusian as Chiacato. All three forms, Chiato, Achatu,
and Quiacatu are found in the Geographic Text.
The city of Koh-banan appears in the Pauthier MSS. as Cabanant, in the
Pipinian and Ramusian editions as Cobinam or Cobinan. Both forms are
found in the Geographic Text.
The city of the Great Kaan (Khanbalig) is called in the Pauthier MSS.
Cambaluc, in the Pipinian and Ramusian less correctly Cambalu. Both
forms appear in the Geographic Text.
The aboriginal People on the Burmese Frontier who received from the
Western officers of the Mongols the Persian name (translated from that
applied by the Chinese) of Zardandan, or Gold-Teeth, appear in the
Pauthier MSS. most accurately as Zardandan, but in the Pipinian as
Ardandan (still further corrupted in some copies into Arcladam). Now
both forms are found in the Geographic Text. Other examples might be
given, but these I think may suffice to prove that this Text was the
common source of both classes.
In considering the question of the French original too we must remember
what has been already said regarding Rusticien de Pise and his other
French writings; and we shall find hereafter an express testimony borne in
the next generation that Marco's Book was composed in vulgari Gallico.
[Sidenote: Greatly diffused employment of French in that age.]
54. But, after all, the circumstantial evidence that has been adduced from
the texts themselves is the most conclusive. We have then every reason to
believe both that the work was written in French, and that an existing
French Text is a close representation of it as originally committed to
paper. And that being so we may cite some circumstances to show that the
use of French or quasi-French for the purpose was not a fact of a very
unusual or surprising nature. The French language had at that time almost
as wide, perhaps relatively a wider, diffusion than it has now. It was
still spoken at the Court of England, and still used by many English
writers, of whom the authors or translators of the Round Table Romances at
Henry III.'s Court are examples.[7] In 1249 Alexander III. King of
Scotland, at his coronation spoke in Latin and French; and in 1291 the
English Chancellor addressing the Scotch Parliament did so in French. At
certain of the Oxford Colleges as late as 1328 it was an order that the
students should converse colloquio latino vel saltern gallico.[8] Late
in the same century Gower had not ceased to use French, composing many
poems in it, though apologizing for his want of skill therein: -
"Et si jeo nai de Francois la faconde
* * * * *
Jeo suis Englois; si quier par tiele voie
Estre excuse."[9]
Indeed down to nearly 1385, boys in the English grammar-schools were
taught to construe their Latin lessons into French.[10] St. Francis of
Assisi is said by some of his biographers to have had his original name
changed to Francesco because of his early mastery of that language as a
qualification for commerce. French had been the prevalent tongue of the
Crusaders, and was that of the numerous Frank Courts which they
established in the East, including Jerusalem and the states of the Syrian
coast, Cyprus, Constantinople during the reign of the Courtenays, and the
principalities of the Morea. The Catalan soldier and chronicler Ramon de
Muntaner tells us that it was commonly said of the Morean chivalry that
they spoke as good French as at Paris.[11] Quasi-French at least was still
spoken half a century later by the numerous Christians settled at Aleppo,
as John Marignolli testifies;[12] and if we may trust Sir John Maundevile
the Soldan of Egypt himself and four of his chief Lords "spak Frensche
righte wel!"[13] Ghazan Kaan, the accomplished Mongol Sovereign of
Persia, to whom our Traveller conveyed a bride from Cambaluc, is said by
the historian Rashiduddin to have known something of the Frank tongue,
probably French.[14] Nay, if we may trust the author of the Romance of
Richard Coeur-de-Lion, French was in his day the language of still higher
spheres![15]
Nor was Polo's case an exceptional one even among writers on the East who
were not Frenchmen. Maundevile himself tells us that he put his book first
"out of Latyn into Frensche," and then out of French into English.[16] The
History of the East which the Armenian Prince and Monk Hayton dictated to
Nicolas Faulcon at Poictiers in 1307 was taken down in French. There are
many other instances of the employment of French by foreign, and
especially by Italian authors of that age. The Latin chronicle of the
Benedictine Amato of Monte Cassino was translated into French early in the
13th century by another monk of the same abbey, at the particular desire
of the Count of Militree (or Malta), "Pour ce qu'il set lire et entendre
fransoize et s'en delitte."[17] Martino da Canale, a countryman and
contemporary of Polo's, during the absence of the latter in the East wrote
a Chronicle of Venice in the same language, as a reason for which he
alleges its general popularity.[18] The like does the most notable example
of all, Brunetto Latini, Dante's master, who wrote in French his
encyclopaedic and once highly popular work Li Tresor.[19] Other examples
might be given, but in fact such illustration is superfluous when we
consider that Rusticiano himself was a compiler of French Romances.
![The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 1 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa
-
[Sidenote: Conclusive proof that the Old French Text is the source of all
the others.]
53. Another circumstance, heretofore I - Page 77](../images/travel.jpg)
