Translation

Transnational exchange and intellectual networks in the early modern period relied upon translation—mainly into Latin—as a way to communicate across Europe. Translation was integral to humanist education where creative engagement with the source text was admired. Yet the exegetical and socio-political considerations that underpinned biblical translation meant that the rights and wrongs of translating the Bible into the vernacular in England was hotly debated. Whereas scriptural translation drew attention to the need to translate word for word to prevent heresy and to maintain accuracy in the presentation of the Word, psalm translation and translating from other vernacular languages posed different challenges for the translator; these challenges perhaps become most apparent when translating across confessional divides. This chapter considers the relationship between translation and religion in early modern English literature and the wider European perspectives that informed the ways in which narrative was recreated in English imaginative writing.