
This I have attempted with the loss of two novels, which I judged incapable of such treatment and am apprehensive, it may still be thought by some people, that I have rather omitted too little, than too much.” Explicitly omits tales III.x and IX.x, and removed the homosexual innuendo in tale V.x: “Boccace is so licentious in many places, that it requires some management to preserve his wit and humour, and render him tolerably decent. Omits Proemio and Conclusione dell’autore. Tale IX.x is bowdlerised, but possibly because the translator was working from faulty sources, rather than deliberately.Īnonymous, posthumously identified as Dr. Replaces tale III.x with the tale contained within the Introduction to the Fourth Day. The 1940 Heritage Press edition of this 1620 translation restores the two omitted tales by inserting anonymously translated modern English versions. Based not on Boccaccio's Italian original, but on Antoine Le Maçon’s 1545 French translation and Lionardo Salviati's 1582 Italian edition which replaced ‘offensive’ words, sentences or sections with asterisks or altered text (in a different font). McWilliam, translator of the 1971 Penguin edition (see below). “Magnificent specimen of Jacobean prose, its high-handed treatment of the original text produces a number of shortcomings” says G.H. because it was free from all folly and obscoeneness.” Tale IX.x is also modified, while tale V.x loses its homosexual innuendo. Replaces tale III.x with an innocuous tale taken from François de Belleforest’s “Histoires tragiques”, concluding that it “was commended by all the company. Omits the Proemio and Conclusione dell’autore.


McWilliam's introduction to his own 1971 translation. The information on pre-1971 translations is compiled from the G. The table below lists all attempts at a complete English translation of the book. The Decameron's individual tales were translated into English early on (such as poet William Walter's 1525 Here begynneth y hystory of Tytus & Gesyppus translated out of Latyn into Englysshe by Wyllyam Walter, somtyme seruaunte to Syr Henry Marney, a translation of tale X.viii), or served as source material for English authors such as Chaucer to rework. Giovanni Boccaccio Translations into English Home The Decameron Wikipedia: Translations into English
