A Literary History of the English People Part 14

Dont estes vos? de quel pas?

Vos n'estes mie nes de France ...

--Nai, mi seignor, mais de Bretaing ...

--Et savez vos neisun mestier?

--Ya, ge fot molt bon jogler ...

Ge fot savoir bon lai Breton.

"Roman de Renart," ed. Martin, vol. i. pp. 66, 67.

[180] Gildas, "De Excidio Britanniae," ed. J. Stevenson, English Historical Society, 1838, 8vo; Nennius, "Historia Britonum," same editor, place, and date.

[181] His "Historia" was edited by Giles, London, 1844, 8vo, and by San Marte, "Gottfried von Monmouth Historia regum Britanniae," Halle, 1854, 8vo. Geoffrey of Monmouth, or rather Geoffrey Arthur, a name which had been borne by his father before him (Galffrai or Gruffyd in Welsh), first translated from Welsh into Latin the prophecies of Merlin, included afterwards in his "Historia"; bishop of St. Asaph, 1152; died at Llandaff, 1154. See Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," vol. i. pp. 203 ff.

[182] Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," vol. i. p. 210.

[183] "Quidam nostris temporibus, pro expiandis his Britonum maculis, scriptor emersit, ridicula de eisdem figmenta contexens, ... Gaufridus hic dictus est.... Profecto minimum digitum sui Arturi grossiorem facit dorso Alexandri magni." "Guilielmi Neubrigensis Historia," ed. Hearne, Oxford, 1719, 3 vols. 8vo, "Proemium"; end of the twelfth century.

[184] "Le Roman de Brut," ed. Le Roux de Lincy, Rouen, 1836-38, 2 vols.

8vo. _Cf._ P. Meyer, "De quelques chroniques anglo-normandes qui ont porte le nom de Brut," Paris, 1878, "Bulletin de la Societe des Anciens Textes francais."

[185] The oldest poem we have in which the early songs on Tristan were gathered into one whole was written in French, on English soil, by Berou about 1150. Another version, also in French verse, was written about 1170 by another Anglo-Norman, called Thomas. A third was the work of the famous Chrestien de Troyes, same century. We have only fragments of the two first; the last is entirely lost. It has been, however, possible to reconst.i.tute the poem of Thomas "by means of three versions: a German one (by Gotfrid of Strasbourg, unfinished), a Norwegian one (in prose, ab. 1225, faithful but compressed), and an English one (XIVth century, a greatly impaired text)." G. Paris, "La Litterature francaise au moyen age," 2nd ed., 1890, p. 94. See also "Tristan et Iseut," by the same, _Revue de Paris_, April 15, 1894.

Texts: "The poetical Romances of Tristan in French, in Anglo-Norman, and in Greek," ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1835-9, 3 vols. 8vo.--"Die Nordische und die Englische Version der Tristan-Sage," ed. Kolbing, Heilbronn, 1878-83, 2 vols. 8vo; vol. i., "Tristrams Saga ok Isoudar"

(Norwegian prose); vol. ii., "Sir Tristram" (English verse).--"Gottfried von Stra.s.sburg Tristan," ed. Reinhold Bachstein, Leipzig, 1869, 2 vols.

8vo (German verse).

[186] "Inferno," canto v.

[187] The following a.n.a.lysis is mainly made after "Tristan et Iseult, poeme de Gotfrit de Strasbourg, compare a d'autres poemes sur le meme sujet," by A. Bossert, Paris, 1865, 8vo. Gotfrit wrote before 1203 (G.

Paris, "Histoire Litterarie de la France," vol. x.x.x. p. 21).

[188]

En sa chambre se set un jor, E fait un lai pitus d'am[o]r: Coment dan Guirun fu surpris, Pur l'amur de sa dame ocis....

La reine chante dulcement, La voiz acorde el estrument; Les mainz sunt bels, li lais b[o]ns Dulce la voiz [et] bas li tons.

Francisque Michel, _ut supra_, vol. iii. p. 39.

[189] On this incident, the earliest version of which is as old as the fourteenth century B.C., having been found in an Egyptian papyrus of that date, see the article by Gaston Paris's, Part I.

[190] Swinburne, "Tristram of Lyonesse and other poems."

[191] Bosert, pp. 62, 68, 72, 82.

[192] "Et vous deistes, ales a Dieu, beau doulx amis. Ne oncques puis du cueur ne me pot issir; ce fut li moz qui preudomme me fera si je jamais le suis; car oncques puis ne fus a si grant meschief qui de ce mot ne me souvenist; cilz moz me conforte en tous mes anuys; cilz moz m'a tousjours garanti et garde de tous perilz; cilz moz m'a saoule en toutes mes faims; cilz moz me fait riche en toutes mes pouretes. Par foi fait la royne cilz moz fut de bonne heure dit, et benois soit dieux qui dire le me fist. Mais je ne le pris pas si acertes comme vous feistes. A maint chevalier l'ay je dit la ou oncques je n'y pensay fors du dire seulement." MS. fr. 118 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 219; fourteenth century. The history of Lancelot was told in verse and prose in almost all the languages of Europe, from the twelfth century. One of the oldest versions (twelfth century) was the work of an Anglo-Norman.

The most famous of the Lancelot poems is the "Conte de la Charrette," by Chrestien de Troyes, written between 1164 and 1172 (G. Paris, "Romania,"

vol. xii. p. 463).

[193] "Omnis consuevit amans in coamantis aspectu pallescere," &c. Rules supposed to have been discovered by a knight at the court of Arthur, and transcribed in the "Flos Amoris," or "De Arte honeste amandi," of Andre le Chapelain, thirteenth century; "Romania," vol. xii. p. 532.

[194] On these romances, see, in "Histoire Litteraire de la France,"

vol. x.x.x., a notice by Gaston Paris. On the MSS. of them preserved in the British Museum, see Ward, "Catalogue of MS. Romances," 1883 (on Merlin, pp. 278 ff.; on other prophecies, and especially those by Thomas of Erceldoune, p. 328; these last have been edited by Alois Brandl, "Thomas of Erceldoune," Berlin, 1880, 8vo, "Sammlung Englischer Denkmaler," and by the Early English Text Society, 1875).

[195] On legends of Hindu origin and for a long time wrongly attributed to the Arabs, see Gaston Paris, "le Lai de l'Oiselet," Paris, 1884, 8vo.

See also the important work of M. Bedier, "les Fabliaux," Paris, 1893, 8vo, in which the evidence concerning the Eastern origin of tales is carefully sifted and restricted within the narrowest limits: very few come from the East, not the bulk of them, as was generally admitted.

[196] For Amis, very popular in England, see Kolbing, "Amis and Amiloun," Heilbronn, 1884 (_cf._ below, p. 229), and "Nouvelles francoises en prose du treizieme siecle," edited by Moland and d'Hericault, Paris, 1856, 16mo; these "Nouvelles" include: "l'Empereur Constant," "les Amities de Ami et Amile," "le roi Flore et la belle Jehanne," "la Comtesse de Ponthieu," "Auca.s.sin et Nicolette."--The French text of "Floire et Blanceflor" is to be found in Edelstand du Meril, "Poemes du treizieme siecle," Paris, 1856, 16mo.--For Marie de France, see H. Suchier, "Die Lais der Marie de France," Halle, Bibliotheca, Normannica, 1885, 8vo; her fables are in vol. ii. of "Poesies de Marie de France," ed. Roquefort, Paris, 1819, 2 vols. 8vo.

See also Bedier's article in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, Oct. 15, 1891, also the chapter on Marie in Hervieux, "Fabulistes Latins," 1883-4, 2nd part, chap. i.

[197] On this subject, see Gaston Paris's criticism of the "Origines de la poesie lyrique en France" of Jeanroy, in the "Journal des Savants,"

1892.

[198] One fact among many shows how constant was the intercourse on the Continent between Frenchmen of France and Englishmen living or travelling there, namely, the knowledge of the English language shown in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the authors of several branches of the "Roman de Renart," and the caricatures they drew of English people, which would have amused n.o.body if the originals of the pictures had not been familiar to all. (See Branches Ib and XIV. in Martin's edition.)

[199] Jeanroy, "Origines de la poesie lyrique en France, au moyen age,"

Paris, 1889, 8vo, p. 68. An allusion in a crusade song of the twelfth century shows that this _motif_ was already popular then. It is found also in much older poetry and more remote countries, for Jeanroy quotes a Chinese poem, written before the seventh century of our era, where, it is true, a mere c.o.c.k and mere flies play the part of the Verona lark and nightingale: "It was not the c.o.c.k, it was the hum of flies," or in the Latin translation of Father Lacharme: "Fallor, non cantavit gallus, sed muscarum fuit strepitus," _ibid._, p. 70.

On _chansons_ written in French by Anglo-Normans, see "Melanges de poesie anglo-normande," by P. Meyer, in "Romania," vol. iv. p. 370, and "Les Ma.n.u.scrits Francais de Cambridge," by the same, _ibid._, vol. xv.

[200] Anglo-Norman song, written in England, in the thirteenth century, "Romania," vol. xv. p. 254.

[201] "La Plainte d'amour," from a MS. in the University Library, Cambridge, GG I. 1, "Romania," _ibid._

[202]

Bele Aliz matin leva, Sun cors vesti e para, Enz un verger s'entra, Cink flurettes y truva, Un chapelet fet en a De rose flurie; Pur Deu, trahez vus en la Vus ki ne amez mie.

The text of the sermon, as we have it is in Latin; it has long but wrongly been attributed to Stephen Langton; printed by T. Wright in his "Biographia Britannica, Anglo-Norman period," 1846, p. 446.

[203] "Le Pelerinage de Charlemagne," eleventh century. Only one MS. has been preserved, written in England, in the thirteenth century; it has been edited by Koschwitz, "Karls des Grossen Reise nach Jerusalem und Konstantinopel," Heilbronn, 1880, 8vo. _Cf._ G. Paris, "La poesie francaise au moyen age," 1885, p. 119, and "Romania," vol. ix.

[204] "Le Roman de Renart," ed. E. Martin, Strasbourg, 1882-7, 4 vols.

8vo; contains: vol. i., the old series of branches; vol. ii., the additional branches; vol. iii., variants; vol. iv., notes and tables.

Most of the branches were composed in Normandy, Ile-de-France, Picardy; the twelfth is the work of Richard de Lison, a Norman, end of the twelfth century; several, for example the fourteenth, evince on the part of their author a knowledge of the English tongue and manners.

Concerning the sources of the "Roman," see Sudre, "Les Sources du Roman de Renart," Paris, 1892, 8vo.

[205] Caricature of a funeral ceremony:--

Brun li ors, prenez vostre estole ...

Sire Tardis li limacons Lut par lui sol les trois lecons Et Roenel chanta les vers. (Vol. i. p. 12.)

[206]

Seigneurs, o avez maint conte Que maint conterre vous raconte, Conment Paris ravi Eleine, Le mal qu'il en ot et la paine ...

Et fabliaus, chansons de geste ...

Mais onques n'ostes la guerre, Qui tant fu dure et de grant fin Entre Renart et Ysengrin.

(Prologue of Branch II.)