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Gower's Use of the Enlarged Roman de Troie
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Joly's edition of the Roman de Troie represents substantially the text of the poem as it was written by the author and followed by Guido delle Colonne in his Historia Trojana. But a number of other translations were not made from the original text, inasmuch as the work offered great opportunities for interpolations, added by scribes who did not confine their activities to the duties of a mere copier. In 1888, E. T. Granz, in a Leipzig dissertation, Über die Quellengemeinschaft des mittelenglischen Gedichtes Seege oder Batayle of Troye und des mittelhochdeutschen Gedichtes vom trojanischen Kriege des Konrad von Würzburg, from a careful comparison of Konrad von Würzburg's Trojanerkrieg and the Middle English Seege of Troye, postulated, as the common source of the English and German poems, a redaction of the French work, containing episodes common to them, but differing in details from the text of the published work of Benoit. This thesis was further developed by C. H. Wager, who in the introduction to his edition of the Seege of Troye, contributed further to the problem by an examination of the relations of the three manuscripts to each other, and to their original.
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References
page 179 note 1 For a bibliography of the Benoit-Guido controversy, cf. G. L. Hamilton, The Indebtedness of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde to Guido delle Colonne's Historia Trojana, 1903, pp. 41-42, n. Upon the possibility that Guido's copy of the Roman de Troye was different from the text as published, cf. E. Gorra, Testi inediti di storia trojana, 1887, p. 145; H. Morf, Romania, xxi, 91, n. 2; W. Greif, Zeitschr. f. vergleich. Literatur, N. F., ii, 125.
page 179 note 2 N. Y., 1899. In a review of this book in the Modern Language Notes, xv, col. 189 ff., I expressed a view directly adverse to my present standing on the matter.
page 179 note 1 Wager, p. lxii; cf. Granz, pp. 86-7.
page 179 note 2 Cf. A. Joly, Benoît de Ste. More et le Roman de Troie, vol. i, pp. 157, 165, 819; Greif, Die mittelalterlichen Bearbeitungen der Trojanersage, pp. 70, 94; Granz, pp. 4, 73-6, 86; Wager, pp. lv, 67. On a further detail found in Malkaraume's version and not in the published text, cf. Greif, pp. 120-1, Zeitschr. f. Vergleich. Lit., ii, p. 126.
page 179 note 3 Cf. vol. iii, p. 651, s. v. Benoît. To the references given there should be added: C. A. vii, 1558, viii, 2515 ff., 2545, 2592 ff.; Mirour de l'omme, 16700, 16672; Balades, xx, 17 ff., xxx, 8 ff., xl, 5-6, xlii, 8; Traitié, vi, 15, viii, 1, ix, 8, x, 1; Vox Clamantis, l, 441, 879 ff., vi, 1291 ff.
page 179 note 4 Other accounts of Achilles's life with Chiron are to be found in the Seege of Troye (cf. p. 183, n. 2), the Liet von Troye of Herbort von Fritslar (6289 ff., cf. Fromman, Germania, ii, p. 196; ii. Dunger, Die Sage vom trojanischen Kriege, p. 43), Enikel's Chronik (ed. P. Strauch, 14543-61), Maerlant's Istory van Troyen (ed. de Pauw & Gaillard, 4783 ff.), the Fiorita of Armannino da Bologna (Gorra, pp. 316, 544) and Il Trojano a stampa (ib., p. 296). The first three of these unquestionably had the same common source as Konrad's and Gower's narratives, but their accounts are so abridged that parallel passages illustrating Gower's account can not be cited. Of this same source there are suggestions in Maerlant's version, which, however, shows that the main source at this point is the Achilleis, which the author cites as his authority (107, 198, 4779-82, 6506). Gorra has not published the text of this episode in the Fiorita, upon which to base a judgment of its source; but it is in all probability based on the work of Statius, as is the account of Ulysses's mission to the court of Lycomedes. Il Trojano, concerning the age of which nothing is known further than the date of its publication in 1491, is said to be dependent on the Latin poem at this point (cf. Romania, xxi, 104). On German imitations of the episode in Konrad, cf. Greif, pp. 124, 127-8; Dunger, p. 43.
Other versions of the embassy of Ulysses and Diomedes are to be found in the Seege of Troye (991-1132), Enikel's Chronik (14499-14542, 15069-15430), Trójumanna Saga (p. 13, n.; cf. p. 42, n. 3), the Crónica Trojana of Delgado (ed. 1579, Libr. iii, chs. xv-xvii), a Galician version of the same work (printed in an appendix to the Crónica Trojana, ed. Rodriquez & Salazar, Coruña, 1901, vol. ii, pp. 285 ff.; cf. vol. i, pp. x-xi), the Trojan passage in the Libro de Alexandre (385-392, 583; cf. Morel-Fatio, Romania, iv, 89), the version in Cod. riccard. 881 (Gorra, pp. 242-3), Maerlant's Istory (5363-6506; cf. 26430-67), the Fiorita of Armannino (Gorra, p. 545), and Il Trojano. Of these the first six had a common source; a judgment cannot be formed from the incomplete analysis of the seventh. The account in the Fiorita follows the Achulleis closely, as does that in Il Trojano. The story is also found in the Alexandreis of Ulrich von Eschenbach (ed. Toischer, 18464-70, 18485-18502), although not in the Trojan passage, which, as the rest of the poem shows, had a common source with the Libro de Alexandre (cf. L. de Al., 312-364; Al., 4877-4917; Romania, iv, 89-90). The source is not Hyginus (Fabulae, 96), as suggested by Toischer, Sitz.-Ber. der Wiener Ak., Phil. Hist. Classe, vol. xcvii, p. 343. It is told in close connection with the story of the feigned madness of Ulysses-Diomedes (!) in Ulrich (18465-87), which is based upon the same source as the story in Gower (C. A., iv, 1815-1891), which is much fuller than the version given in Hyginus, Fab. 95. On further allusions cf. Gorra, p. 330, note.
For the motiv of the Achilles-Deidamia episode in Mediæval litterature cf. F. H. von der Hagen, Gesammtabendteuer, v. ii, p. ix, v. iii, p. cxxviii; K. Bartsch, Albrecht von Halberstadt, pp. xii, xli, ccxlvii; Heinzel, Anz. f. deutsche Alterth. ix, 253, 255; K. Voretsch, Epische Studien, i, 195; Cloetta, Beiträge, i, 75.
page 179 note 1 Konrad von Würzburg, Der trojanische Krieg, ed. A. von Keller, Bibl. des lit. Vereins z. Stuttg., 1858, vol. xliv; Anmerkungen, by K. Bartsch, Id., 1877, vol. cxxxiii.
page 179 note 2 Statius (Achil., i, 106) only mentions “longaevum Chirona,” and refers (111) to “Centauri stabula alta.” With Gower's use of “Centaurus” as a proper name, compare Chaucer's use of “Sibille” as a name of Cassandra (T. & C., 1450-1; cf. Hamilton, Indebtedness, etc., pp. 109, n., 158). Elsewhere (C. A., vi, 522), in a story taken from Ovid, Gower refers to the “Centauri,” “quosdam qui Centauri vocabantur,” as his rubric explains.
page 179 note 3 Achill, i, 106-7:
“domus ardua montem “perforat et longo suspendit Pelion arcu.”
page 179 note 1 Achill., ii, 94 ff.
page 179 note 2 Cf. the line “When Achilles was seove zeir old” in the Lincoln Inn ms. of the Seege of Troye (A. Zietsch, Arch. f. d. Stud. der neu. Sprachen, lxxii, 37, line 1171) in the account of the training of Achilles, which Wager (p. lxxxii), against the opinion of Granz (p. 82), rightly assumes to have been in the original English version. The error may be due to an untimely reminiscence of the line “And whan the child was seven zer old” in the account of the early life of Paris (Arch., lxxii, 17, l. 249). The same mistake is perhaps to be found in the Southerland ms. of the S. of T. (W. Fick, Zur mittelengl. Romanze Seege of Troye, 1895, p. 16). The ultimate source is Achill., ii, 110-111:
“vix mihi bissenos annorum torserat orbes vita sequi.”
page 179 note 1 In this instance the statement in the Achill., ii, 121-3:
“numquam ille imbelles Ossaea per avia damas sectari, aut timidas passus me cuspide lyncas sternere,”
furnishes a closer analogue to the passage in Gower, than the German text. But this is only because for once Konrad has not followed his French original so closely as the English poet.
page 179 note 2 Achill, ii, 124-5:
“et sicubi maxima tigris aut seducta iugis fetae spelunca leanae.”
page 179 note 3 Achill., ii, 126-7:
“ipse sedens vasto facta exspectabat in antro, si sparsus nigro remearem sanguine.”
page 179 note 1 Konrad relates the appearance of Proteus at the wedding feast of Peleus and Thetis and his prophecy (4496-4616), to which he alludes elsewhere (5773 ff.). In the Galician version of the Crónica Trojana there is a chapter in which the story is told “Cωmo obispo proteo diso aadeesa tetis como avia de morrer Achilles ēna çerca de troyax” and in this it is stated that Achilles’ s fate Thetis “soubo por rresposta de sens ydols et por aquella dier a obispo proteo” (Crónica Trojana, Coruña, 1901, vol. ii, pp. 285, 286).
page 179 note 1 Cf. the Galician version, Crón. Troj., vol. ii, p. 285: “Ca nω queria achilles taes vestidos tomar. pero tomoos por fazer mandado asna madre.”
page 179 note 1 As also in the Seege of Troye, cf. Granz, pp. 76-8; Wager, p. lxxviii; Enikel, 14491-14505, 15070 ff.; Cod. riccard, 881 (Gorra, pp. 242-3).
page 179 note 2 Cf. Enikel's Chronik, 14511-15, 14519-22 (cf. 15083-94):
“dû maht mit dînen sinnen Troyen niht gewinnen, du gewinnest dan einen man den ich wol nennen kan, der ist Achilles genant.”
“er sprach: ‘er ist verborgen under juncfroun mit sorgen und treit an der frouwen kleit; ungefuog ist im leit.'”
page 179 note 1 And not from Ovid, Metam., xi, 221 ff., as suggested by Macaulay, Works of Gower, vol. iii, pp. 496-7. Gower's reference to the power of Proteus to change his shape seems to be taken from the Roman de la Rose. Cf.:
“And thanne I wisshe that I were Als wys as was Nectabanus Or elles as was Protheüs, That couthen bothe of nigromaunce In what liknesse, in what semblaunce, Riht as hem liste, hemself transforme.” (C. A., v, 6670-5).
“Car Prothéus, qui se soloit Muer en tout quanqu'il voloit.” (R. de la R., 11951-2).
page 179 note 1 Cf. Achill., i, 842-3:
“in mediae iamdudum sedibus aulae munera virgineos visus tractura locarat.”
page 179 note 1 Cf. Achill., i, 843-5:
“munera … signum hospitii pretiumque laboris: Hortaturque legant, nec rex placidissimus arcet.”
page 179 note 2 At this point the Seege of Troye does not follow its original as closely as Konrad and Gower, but cf. 1111-2:
“Achilles beheld aryght The fayre armur that was so bryght.”
page 179 note 1 Cf. the allusions in Achill., i, 671-4, 908-9; ii, 24.
page 179 note 1 Cf. Hamilton, Chaucer's Indebtedness, p. 148, n.; cf. p. 97, n.
page 179 note 2 Manitius, Philologus, lii, pp. 538-9; Rheinisches Museum, xlvii, Ergänzungsh., p. 63.
page 179 note 3 Manitius, Philol., lii, p. 5-14; W. Greif, Die mittelalterlichen Bearbeitungen der Trojanersage, p. 140. There is a probable allusion to the Achilleis in John of Salisbury's Polycraticus, i, 4, which has escaped the attention of Manitius.
page 179 note 4 Laud Troy Book, ed. E. Wüffing, 4139 ff., cf. Engl. Stud, xxix, p. 380; J. Skelton, Garlande of Laurell, 337.
page 179 note 5 C. A., i, 1980.