Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 57.djvu/435

 ‘Facsimile Texts.’ The prologue, with some alterations, was separately reprinted in London by Thomas Godfrey before 1532 under the title ‘A Pathway into the Holy Scripture’ (reprinted for Parker Soc. 1848).

The demand for copies of Tyndale's translation, for reading or burning, induced the printers at Antwerp to issue surreptitious reprints of the Worms edition, and, according to George Joye [q. v.] in his ‘Apology,’ three had been issued by 1534. As the Flemings had no English assistance, the text became corrupt, and in 1534 Joye undertook to correct a fourth edition for Christopher of Endhoven's widow; it was published at Antwerp in August 1534 in 16mo. A unique copy is in the Grenville Library. Much to Tyndale's annoyance, Joye altered the text to favour his view of the condition of the dead before the judgment. In November 1534 Tyndale published his own revised version, which contained numerous changes, bringing the text into closer approximation to the Greek and expressing the meaning of the original more forcibly. It was printed in small octavo by Martin Emperowr at Antwerp, contains prologues to all the books except the Acts and the Apocalypse, is furnished with new marginal glosses, and is preceded by a preface in which he comments severely on the action of Joye. Joye defended himself in his ‘Apology,’ published in the same year. The prologues to Hebrews and St. James defended these epistles against Luther's assertion that they were not of apostolic authority. ‘The Epistles taken out of the Old Testament … after the usage of Salisbury’ are appended. The British Museum contains three copies, one of which has on the edges the inscription ‘Anna Angliæ Regina,’ and is believed to have been presented by Tyndale to Anne Boleyn. The edition was reprinted in Bagster's ‘Hexapla’ in 1841. A third edition (in small 8vo), further revised by Tyndale, was printed at Antwerp by Godfried Van der Haghen in 1535–4 (Bibliographer, 1881–2, i. 3–11, article by Henry Bradshaw, reprinted separately in 1886). The peculiar orthography of a fourth edition, published in 1535 without place or printer's name, has given rise to the extravagant surmise that Tyndale was a philological reformer, or that he designedly wrote it in the dialect of the Gloucestershire ploughboys. Its eccentricities are probably due to the Flemish printers; the most perfect copy is in the Cambridge University Library. Numerous later editions appeared, chiefly at Antwerp and at London, between 1536 and 1550. Twenty-one of them are described in Fry's ‘Bibliographical Description of the New Testament.’ The first printed in England was probably the folio of 1536, without place or printer's name; a perfect copy is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It has been conjectured from contemporary references that Tyndale issued a separate translation of St. Matthew and St. Mark before 1525, during his residence at Wittenberg, but the balance of probability is against the supposition. In criticising Tyndale's translation in his ‘Dyaloge,’ More with considerable reason objected that Tyndale, to favour his own doctrinal views, had substituted other words for customary ecclesiastical terms, such as ‘priest’ and ‘church.’ In reply Tyndale urged that he aimed at a literal rendering of the Greek, and that such terms had been perverted from their primitive meaning. Such a plea involved of course the whole question at issue between the catholics and reformers, and proved that the point was one which could hardly be settled by any philological discussion. The translators of the authorised version in many cases failed to endorse Tyndale's action, but in one important instance, the substitution of ‘love’ for ‘charity,’ the translators of the revised version reverted to his rendering. In 1846 William Maskell published ‘A Collation of Tyndale's Version with the Authorised Version.’

Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch was issued in octavo at Marburg from the printing-house of Hans Luft. The work is preceded by a general preface, and a separate preface is prefixed to each book; lists are appended to Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy, explaining unusual words; and marginal glosses are added, strongly controversial in tone. Genesis and Numbers are in black letter, while Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy are in Roman letter, a peculiarity which has occasioned the surmise that the last three books were not printed at Marburg. An examination of the work, however, furnishes incontrovertible proofs that they all proceeded from the same press, though perhaps not all printed in the same year. Genesis bears the date 17 Jan. 1529–30, while the others are undated. A study of the text shows that the translation was made direct from the Hebrew, with the assistance of the Vulgate and Luther's German translation. The glosses, unlike those of his New Testament, though tinged with Luther's spirit, are in no case translations of those of the German reformer; they are more pungent and satirical than those accompanying the New Testament. The only perfect copy of the first edition is in the Grenville Library at the British Museum. A second edition,