and he ends by declaring that in spite of the impossibility of giving an exact rendering of the French in English metre, he has kept very closely to the original. Sometimes, owing to the shortness of the French "staffes," he has reproduced in one line two lines of the French, but, except for this, comparison will show that the two versions are exactly alike.[103] The translator of _Partonope of Blois_ does not profess such slavish faithfulness, though he does profess great admiration for his source, The olde booke full well I-wryted, In ffrensh also, and fayre endyted,[104] and declares himself bound to follow it closely: Thus seith myn auctour after whome I write. Blame not me: I moste endite As nye after hym as ever I may, Be it sothe or less I can not say.[105] However, in the midst of his protestations of faithfulness, he confesses to divergence: There-fore y do alle my myghthhe To saue my autor ynne sucche wyse As he that mater luste devyse, Where he makyth grete compleynte In french so fayre thatt yt to paynte In Englysche tunngge y saye for me My wyttys alle to dullet bee. He telleth hys tale of sentament I vnderstonde noghth hys entent, Ne wolle ne besy me to lere.[106] He owns to the abbreviation of descriptive passages, which so many English translators had perpetrated in silence: Her bewte dyscry fayne wolde I Affter the sentence off myne auctowre, Butte I pray yowe of thys grette labowre I mote at thys tyme excused be;[107] Butte who so luste to here of hur a-raye, Lette him go to the ffrensshe bocke, That Idell mater I forsoke To telle hyt in prose or els in ryme, For me thoghte hyt taryed grette tyme. And ys a mater full nedless.[108] One cannot but suspect that this odd mingling of respect and freedom as regards the original describes the attitude of many other translators of romances, less articulate in the expression of their theory.