4 - Rereading the Evolution of Arthurian Verse Romance

Summary

The narrator of the thirteenth-century Arthurian verse romance Hunbaut presents himself as having been engaged in friendly rivalry with Chrétien de Troyes:

Ne dira nus hon que je robe

Les bons dis Crestïen de Troies

Qui jeta anbesas et troies

Por le maistr[i]e avoir deu jeu,

Et juames por ce maint jeu.

(Hunbaut, vv. 186–90)

[No man will say that I am stealing the good words of Chrétien de Troyes, who threw twos and threes to gain mastery of the game; we played many games in this way.]

By juxtaposing a reference to Chrétien's textual production with the description of a gambling contest, this passage invites the audience to consider the composition of Arthurian verse narrative as a game played out between its different authors. The use of the concept of ‘maistrie’ to characterise this relationship speaks of an ambivalence between companionship and challenge, fidelity and domination, which we have seen at work throughout the Conte du Graal Continuations. This conflict is doubtless less acute in Hunbaut and other thirteenth-century romances, since these are not attempting to pursue an interrupted, inherited narrative, but are free to build their plots from scratch. Thus the Hunbaut narrator is able to state more explicitly than those of the Continuations both his admiration for the ‘bon dis’ of his predecessor, and his determination to avoid following too closely in his footsteps.