// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhy Henry Watson? He pressed for attention.
Henry Watson | |
|---|---|
| Occupations | translator, printer |
| Years active | ca. 1500-1518 |
| Known for | Translations out of French into English |
| Notable work | The Ship of Fools, The Distaff Gospels, Valentine and Orson; The Gardeners Pastance |
Henry Watson was an English translator and printer active in London during the early years of the 16th century.
Life and works
[edit]Between 1500 and 1518, Watson translated books from French to English for the London-based printer Wynkyn de Worde, for whom he worked as his first apprentice, most likely between 1501 or 1502 until 1509 or 1510. After his apprenticeship, he published a book entitled The Gardeners Pastance together with Hugo Goes, a younger apprentice of de Worde, in 1513.[1] This also establishes him as the first native English stationer who was also recognized as a printer. There are no further records of Watson after 1518.[2][3]
Watson translated works from French to English. For the most part, these were romances, such as his first translation Valentine and Orson,[4] but also satirical works such as The Distaff Gospels. A translation of a part of a sermon by Bernardino da Siena survives in The Church of Evil Men and Women. In July 1509, his English prose translation of Sebastian Brant’s satirical work Ship of Fools was published by de Worde, entitled The shyppe of fooles. This was based on the French prose translation by Jean Drouyn.[5][6] It was likely a lengthy process, since the patron named in the prologue, Princess Margaret of Burgundy, sister to Edward IV and Richard III, had died in 1505 already.[4] Just a few months later, in December 1509, another translation of the Ship by Alexander Barclay appeared.[3] A reprint of Watson's Ship was issued 1517, suggesting that this version was more popular in its time than Barclay's, which was only reprinted in 1570.[3] The translations of the Ship of Fools proved influential on English literature, giving rise to a "whole school of fool’s literature"[7] as well as playing an important part in the "rediscovery" of German literary works in England.[8]
References
[edit]- ↑ Gwara, Joseph J. (June 2012). "Three Forms of w and Four English Printers: Robert Copland, Henry Pepwell, Henry Watson, and Wynkyn de Worde". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 106 (2). University of Chicago Press: 200–207. doi:10.1086/680636.
- ↑ Brenda M. Hosington (2007), "Henry Watson, 'Apprentyse of London' and 'Translatoure' of Romance and Satire", in Jaqueline Jenkins, Oliver Bertrand (ed.), The medieval translator | traduire au moyen âge, vol. 10, Brepols, Turnhout, pp. 2–3, ISBN 978-2-503-52535-8
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - 1 2 3 Sandrock, Kirsten (December 2025). "The Affordances of Allegory: Ships, Travel, and the Atlantic in Henry Watson's 'Shyppe of Fooles' (1509) and Alexander Barclay's 'Shyp of Folys of the Worlde' (1509)". BmE (Beiträge zur mediävistischen Erzählforschung). 19 (8): 70.
- 1 2 Garay, Kathleen (2010). "Early English Translations from "the fayre language of Frenche": William Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde and the Case of the gospelles of dystaues". In Courouau, Jean-Francois; Gardy, Philippe; Koopmans, Jelle (eds.). Autour des quenouilles. La parole des femmes (1450-1600). Turnhout: Brepols. pp. 67–71. ISBN 9782503533568.
- ↑ Sebastian Brant. "The shyppe of fooles". English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC). Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL). Retrieved 2026-02-22.
- ↑ Colley, John (2020). "The Printed Glosses and Envoys to Alexander Barclay's 'Shyp of Folys' (1509)". Philological Quarterly. 99 (2): 148.
- ↑ "Sebastian Brant | Humanist, Satirist, Ship of Fools | Britannica", Encyclopedia Britannica, retrieved 2026-02-22
- ↑ Flood, John L. (1995). "Im Kreuzfeuer der Konkurrenz. Zur Narrenschiff-Rezeption in England". In Fink, Gonthier-Louis (ed.). Sébastian Brant, son époque et "La Nef des fols" | Sébastian Brant, seine Zeit und das "Narrenschiff" [Caught in the crossfire of competition. On the reception of The Ship of Fools in England] (in German). Strasbourg: Université des Sciences Humaines. p. 129. ISBN 978-2-907599-02-3.
External links
[edit]Works by Henry Watson as listed in the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC):
As a translator:
- "Valentine and Orson"
- "King Ponthus"
- "Oliver and Castille"
- "The Distaff Gospels"
- "The Ship of Fools"
- "The Church of Evil Men and Women"
As a printer: