Page:Tirant lo Blanch; a study of its authorship, principal sources and historical setting (IA cu31924026512263).pdf/120



de Flor, dessen Thaten Muntaner und Moncada erzählen und schildern.

In Menéndez y Pelayo's Orígenes de la Novela we find the following passage:

El tema principal de la novela, las empresas de Tirante en Grecia y Asia dan al Tirante cierto sello de novela histórica, donde se reconoce no muy disfigurada (dentro de los límites que separan siempre la verdad de la ficción), la heróica expedición de catalanes y aragoneses á Levante y el trágico destino de Roger de Flor.

But when we compare this book of chivalry with Muntaner's Chronica and with Guy of Warwick, we see that these quotations, while true in general, are at the same time more or less misleading, for the English romance has provided more material than is generally believed, not only that which furnished the basis of the William of Warwick episode, but also elements that were utilized in different parts of the work. Therefore we shall point out all the constituents or features that seem to owe their origin to the English romance, Guy of Warwick, or to that part of Muntaner's Chronica which contains the life of Roger de Flor.

In the William of Warwick episode, with which we have begun our analysis, Martorell has given us a kind of free reproduction of an important part of Guy of Warwick. But the Catalan author is not a servile imitator; the incidents that he has taken from the English romance he has treated in such a way as to render them more interesting than the original.

The episode is based upon the following events which we find in the fourteenth-century versions of the Guy of