Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/663

Rh ROMANCE 639 drawn from the pseudo- annalists, but the influence of Benoit was considerable. Another was the Troilus of Albert of Stade (1249), a version of Dares, in verse, brought back to all its severity and affected realism. But these Latin works can only be associated indirectly with Benoit, who had closer imitators in Germany at an early period. Herbort von Fritslar reproduced the French text in his Lied von Troye (early 13th century), as did also Konrad von Wiirtzburg (d. 1 287) in his Buck von Troye of 40,000 verses. To the like source may be traced a poem of 30,000 verses on the same subject by Wolfram von Eschenbach, still unpublished. The Low Countries were not behind Germany. A dozen chansons de geste were translated into Flemish towards the middle of the 13th century ; and Jacob von Maerlant, an illustrious poet, re- produced Benoit, and did not omit to acknowledge the authorship. The fame of the romance travelled to the north, and in various forms the Norse or Icelandic Tro- jumanna Saga acquired a distinctly local colour. In Italy Guido delle Colonne, a Sicilian, commenced in 1270 and finished in 1287 a prose Historia Trojana. Although Guido knew some Greek, he did not translate Dictys and Dares, as some MSS. affirm, but reproduced the Roman de Troie of Benoit, and so closely as to copy the errors of the latter and to give the name of Peleus to Pelias, Jason's uncle. As the debt was entirely un- acknowledged, Benoit at last came to be considered the imitator of Guido. The original is generally abridged, and the vivacity and poetry of the Anglo-Norman trouvere disappear in a dry version. The immense popularity of Guide's work is shown by the large number of exist- ing MSS. The French Bibliotheque Nationale possesses eighteen codices of Guido to thirteen of Benoit, while at the British Museum the proportion is ten to two. Guide's History was translated into German about 1392 by Hans Mair of Nordlingen. Two Italian translations, by Antonio Cessi (1324) and by Bellebuoni (1333), are still preserved in MS. at Florence. The book passed the seas, and in the 14th and the commencement of the 15th century four ver- sions appeared in England and Scotland. The best known is the Troy Book of Lydgate, who had both French and Latin texts before him. An earlier and anonymous render- ing exists at Oxford. There is the Gest Historiale of the Destruction of Troy (Early Eng. Text Soc., 1869), also an earlier Scottish version by Barbour. The invention of printing gave fresh impetus to the spread of Guido's work. The first book printed in English was a translation by Caxton from the French of Raoul Lefevre, issued by the foreign press of Caxton about 1474. Lefevre's own version appeared from the same press about the same time and was the first book printed in the French language. There were also translations into Italian, Spanish, High German, Low Saxon, Dutch, and Danish ; Guido had even a Flemish and a Bohemian dress. But not one of these translators even suspected that the writer was only a feeble repre- sentative of an old trouvere. Thus far we have only considered works more or less closely imitated from the original. Boccaccio, passing by the earlier tales, took one original incident from Benoit, the love of Troilus and the treachery of Briseida, and com- posed Filostrato, a touching story. This was borrowed by Chaucer about 1360 for his Boke of Troilus and Cresside, and also by Shakespeare for his Troilus and Cressida (1609). One reason why the Round Table stories of the 12th and 13th centuries had a never-ceasing charm for readers of the two following centuries was that they were constantly being re-edited to suit the changing taste. The Roman de Troie experienced the same fate. By the 13th century it was translated into prose and worked up in those enormous compilations, such as the Mer des His- toires, <fec., in which the Middle Ages studied antiquity. It reappeared in the religious dramas called Mysteries. Jacques Millet, who produced La Destruction de Troie la Grande between 1452 and 1454, merely added vulgar real- ism to the original. Writers of chap-books borrowed the story, which is again found on the stage in Antoine de Montchrestien's tragedy of Hector (1603) a last echo of the influence of Benoit. Although the Troie reveals the greatest power of imagination, Adapta- and was the most influential and important, of these adaptations tions of of ancient classical stories, it was not the earliest of them. It other was preceded by a Roman d' Eneas, written, like the Roman de Troie, Roman by an Anglo Norman at the court of Henry II., a contemporary epics, of Giraldus Cambrensis and John of Salisbury. There is, indeed, every reason to believe that the author was Benoit de Sainte-More himself. The work is a tolerably close reproduction of the ^Eneid, some passages being faithfully translated and others elaborated. But the religious character of Virgil's work is wanting, as well as the spirit of Roman greatness shadowed forth in the ancient epic. Long extracts from the Eneas have been published by M. Pey (Paris, 1856), but it has not yet been printed in full. Soon after its appearance it was translated with great fidelity into German by Heinrich von Veldeke. The Roman de Thebes is an imitation of the Thebais of Statius, with the same general characteristics as the Eneas. In each case the trouvere found a Latin model on which to superimpose an elaborate structure of his own. In each case also the original is abridged, while all polish is effaced, and the pagan marvels replaced by others more familiar to contemporary readers. The change is specially visible in matters of religion. Lydgate translated the Thebes, and Chaucer used the romance in his Canterbury Tales. It was composed after the Troie by another pen than that of Benoit. Lucan's Pharsalia was the last of the great Roman epics to be appropriated. Li Romanz de Julius Cesar by Jacques de Forez, of which only one MS. exists, dated 1280, is from this source. It adheres to Lucan's text with more fidelity than the other adaptations ; but the general intention is changed. While the classic poem ends in the middle of the 10th book, Jacques de Forez conducts Caesar back to Rome. These romances Eneas, Thebes, and J. Cesar are mere translations, and are, indeed, our first renderings of Virgil, Statius, and Lucan in modern dialects. But the trouveres rearranged and transformed their originals. Fairies, magic, and enchanters, the novel position of women, the sentiments of Christianity, and the spirit of chivalry are strangely at variance with the stories familiar to us in the language of im- perial Rome. The influence of new ideas derived from the crusades and the East is plainly visible. Some of the marvels are found in William of Malmesbury, which indicates that they were of popular acceptation. It is a remarkable fact that, while the origines of the pseudo- Second- classical romances are earlier than any of the others, the prose re- ary re- compositions are of later construction than almost all those we are produc- about to consider. The Recueil des Histoires de Troyes, Hercule, tions. Jason, (Edipus, Alexandre, Virgilius, &c., belong to the second half of the 15th century. They have little interest and intrinsic merit, but their immediate originals exercised an extraordinary in- fluence on the literature of the Middle Ages, an influence which appears even in the romances of other cycles and in those composed in prose at an earlier date than those we are now discussing. Recueil des Histoires de Troyes was "compose par venerable homme Raoul le Feure prestre chappellain de inon tres redoubte seigneur monseigneur le due Phelippe de Bourgoingne en 1'an de grace 1464," but probably printed in 1474 by Caxton or Colard Mansion at Bruges. It is in three books, of which the first deals with the story of Jupiter and Saturn, the origin of the Trojans, the feats of Perseus, and the first achievements of Hercules ; the second book is wholly taken up with the "prouesses du fort Herculez"; the third, "traictant de la generalle destruction de Troyes qui vint a 1'ocasion du rauissement de dame Helaine," is little else than a translation of that portion of Guido delle Colonne which relates to Priam and his sons. Two MSS. of the Recueil in the Bibliotheque Nationale wrongly attribute the work to Guillaume Fillastre, a voluminous author, and predecessor of Lefevre as secre- tary to the duke. Another codex in the same library, Histoire ancienne de Thebes et de Troyes, is partly taken from Orosius. The Bibliotheque Nationale possesses an unpublished Histoire des Troyens et des Thebains jusqu'a la mart de Turnus, djapres Orose, Ovide et Raoul Lefe.bre (early 16th century), and the British Museum a Latin history of Troy dated 1 403. Hercules. The end of the first and the whole of the second book of the Recueil are reproduced in Les prouesses et vaillances du preux Hercvle (Paris, 1500), with the addition of a prologue and the genealogy of the champion. The character and adventures of Hercules were of a nature to attract the fancy of a romancist. His labours are represented as having been performed in honour of a Boeotian princess ; Pluto is a king dwelling in a dismal castle ; the