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Contributions to the History of the Legend of Saint George, With Special Reference to the Sources of the French, German and Anglo-Saxon Metrical Versions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

John E. Matzke
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Extract

One of the earliest evidences of the existence of a legend of Saint George is found in a pronunciamento of Pope Gelasius, made in connection with the first Roman council of the year 494. In the presence of seventy bishops he endeavored to separate the canonical and authentic books of the Church from those which are to be looked upon as apocryphal. After mentioning the books of the Bible, the decisions of the councils, the church fathers, and the decrees of the Popes, he cites the Lives of Saints and Martyrs, and adds that some of these latter writings are justly viewed with suspicion, both because the names of their authors are unknown, and because their contents stamp them as being the compositions of heretics or sectarians; he then cites as examples “cujusdam Quirici et Julittae, sicut Georgii aliorumque hujusmodi passiones, quae ab hereticis perhibentur compositae.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , 1902 , pp. 464 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1902

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References

Note 1 in page 464 AA. SS. Aprilis, vol. iii, p. 101.

Note 2 in page 464 Rome, 1630, p. 199.

Note 1 in page 466 Two later derivatives of this version have come to my notice in the Bibl. Nat. in Paris. The one marked F. L. 5593, f. 40 r-55 r of the xi cent. is very poor, while the other, F. L. 5265, f. 126 v-149 r of the xiv cent. is very well preserved. An abridgment of the same version is found in Paris, Bibl. Maz. 399, f. 55 v-59 r, of the xii century.

Note 2 in page 466 Another fragmentary account of the same version is contained in the same library of Saint Gall, No. 435, f. 133, also of the ix cent.; cp. Zarncke, l. c., 1874, p. 42, and 1875, p. 256.

Note 1 in page 467 Der heilige Georg des Reinbot von Durne, hrsg. von F. Vetter, Halle, Niemeyer, 1896,

Note 1 in page 468 For the detailed discussion of the contents of this poem, see part ii of the present study.

Note 1 in page 477 This conclusion is strengthened by the fact that the story seems to have agreed with Sg and Ar also in the Greek version, of which some fragments only are preserved in the palimpsest of the v cent., of whose importance we shall speak presently.

Note 2 in page 477 See below, p. 483.

Note 1 in page 478 Vetter is also undoubtedly correct in inverting the order of the leaves of the palimpsest numbered by Detlefsen 2 v and 3 r respectively.

Note 1 in page 479 Les Actes des Martyrs de l'église Copte, Paris, 1890, pp. 291 ff.

Note 1 in page 480 Cp. below, p. 488.

Note 2 in page 480 Cp. below, p. 496.

Note 1 in page 481 Cp. Kirpićnikov, Saint George and Egorij Chrabry, Saint Petersburg, 1879. Veselófskij, Studies in Russian Sacred Poetry, Pubs. of the Russian Academy of Science, xxi, No. 2. The former of these two volumes has, in spite of many efforts, remained inaccessible to me. For a knowledge of the contents of the second I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. George R. Noyes of the University of California. A detailed account of the conclusions of both studies can be found also by Heinzel in the Zs. f. deutsches Allerthum, neue Folge, xv, pp. 256–262.

Note 2 in page 481 Publ. AA. SS. April, vol. iii, Acta Graeca, pp. xx ff.

Note 3 in page 481 Ut extant apud Lipomanum et Surium, interprete Francisco Zino ex ms. Graeco Veneto. Collata cum mss. Vaticano et Florentino.

Note 1 in page 484 Publ. Migne, Patrol. Ours. 2, 4, and AA. SS. l. c. Acta Graeca, pp. xii ff.

Note 2 in page 484 Publ. AA. SS. l. c. Acta Graeca, pp. xxi ff.

Note 1 in page 485 As in L-S; see below, p. 486.

Note 2 in page 485 Publ. Surius, Vitae Sanctorum ab Aloysio Lipomano olim conscriptae, Cologne, 1570, vol. ii, pp. 251 ff.

Note 1 in page 486 After the rescue of George from the lime-kiln (here “jussit S. Georgium in lacum conjici, ardentem ex materia illa, quae dicitur asbestos, quaeque non nisi post tres dies extingui solet”) Alexandra confesses her faith again, which she had already done once after his rescue from the wheel. L-S agrees here with the encomium of Andreas and also with Me, while b-1 omits the second confession of the empress.

Note 1 in page 490 .

Note 1 in page 492 The material for this portion of my study was gathered as the result of careful research in the Libraries of Paris, London and Oxford. I can lay no claim to completeness. Indeed all those who have ever busied themselves with a similar question will agree that completeness in hagiographical investigations is impossible. I trust, however, that my material is sufficiently large to give value to the facts which I shall try to establish.

Note 1 in page 493 In Notices et Extraits, xxxvi, p. 677 ss., Paul Meyer publishes a description of a French legendary in Saint Petersburg (ms. Fr. 35) which contains another copy of the same version, fo. 156–159. I have no means of deciding whether this ms. is identical with Veselófskij's, numbered Fr. Theol. F. v. 4 D.

Note 1 in page 495 In the ms. 587 of the Bibl. Ste. Geneviève the account is distorted so that George is made to pray that the child may be given power to walk.

Note 1 in page 498 For the importance of this name in this form of the legend cp. below, p. 507.

Note 1 in page 499 For the complete text of α see p. 515. It seemed advisable to publish the text in full, since the copy of β published by Veselófskij is rather inaccessible.

Note 2 in page 499 The supposition that the paragraghs in question form an individual addition in α is scarcely tenable. The similarity with O is too close to be due to accident, and on the other hand the differences from O are exactly similar to those in the other paragraphs of this version.

Note 1 in page 502 Two additional points of difference are without importance. George is said to have been cut into 19 pieces during the torture on the wheel. The number is always written out in the text, decem on the line, and et novem added above it, seemingly by the same hand. In the account of the miracle of the thrones the senseless number 314 occurs, written out trecenti quatuordecim.

Note 1 in page 503 This localization of the passion at Diospolis may be a later addition. The name is not found in the text proper (cp. the incipit, cited above); it is supplied by a heading which reads: ‘Passio sancti Georgii martyris Christi, qui passus est Palestina in civitate Diospoli sub Decio imperatore ix Kal. Mai.‘ The language of this version is the worst imaginable, and the copyist may have supplied the omission, which is evident in the opening sentence. The reference to Diospolis, which in its last analyses derives from the Greek versions, is not necessarily here due to Greek influence. The name is found in the martyrologies of Usuardus (Migne, 123, p. 963), Notker (Migne, 131, p. 1069) and Ado (Migne, 123, p. 251). Cp. also Amélineau, l. c., pp. 308–309. Moreover the church of St. George at Lydda-Diospolis was well known in Europe during the xiv century.

Note 1 in page 506 We shall find this variation reproduced in two of the later French metrical versions. For the full text of μ cp. below, p. 525.

Note 1 in page 507 This distinction between C and the two encomiums must be borne in mind in reading the summary of the Coptic legend given by Budge, l. c., pp. xvii-xxvi, which is a composite of these three texts.

Note 2 in page 507 For further particulars in regard to the introduction of Saint George as an active figure in West-European tradition, cp. part ii of the present study.

Note 1 in page 508 For the full text of a see below, p. 530.

Note 2 in page 508 Cp. Anal. Boll., viii, pp. 139 and 171.

Note 3 in page 508 The version given by Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, ii, 13, belongs to the same group.

Note 1 in page 509 This last feature is not contained in G, Sg, and C.

Note 1 in page 512 This is the version contained in the Summa de Vitis Sanctorum, described by Paul Meyer, Notices et Extraits, xxxvi, p. 3 ff., of which he there studies a French translation contained in the following mss.: Épinal 70, Lille 451, London, Brit. Mus. Add. 15281, Paris, Bibl. Nat. F. Fr. 988 and 1782, Bibl. de l'Arsenal 3706.

Note 1 in page 513 Bibl. Nat. F. L. 5565; for the full text of the introduction cp. below, p. 534.

Note 1 in page 515 ms. estoit.

Note 2 in page 515 ms. rasoir.

Note 1 in page 516 The passage in [] is absent in version β.

Note 1 in page 518 The passage in [] is absent in version β.

Note 2 in page 518 ms. au.

Note 1 in page 519 ms. fai.

Note 2 in page 519 aler omitted in ms.

Note 3 in page 519 ms. demostree.

Note 4 in page 519 uns omitted in ms.

Note 5 in page 519 ms. pue.

Note 6 in page 519 ms. conme.

Note 1 in page 520 ms. cierge.

Note 2 in page 520 Omitted in ms.

Note 3 in page 520 Omitted in ms.

Note 1 in page 521 Omitted in ms.

Note 2 in page 521 ms. dyable.

Note 3 in page 521 ms. defroissies.

Note 4 in page 521 ms. emsemble.

Note 5 in page 521 ms. nul.

Note 6 in page 521 ms. Jorge.

Note 1 in page 522 ms. chargie.

Note 1 in page 523 ms. otrierai.

Note 2 in page 523 ms. i.

Note 1 in page 524 Evidently the ms. had xxiiii, which was misread by the copyist.

Note 2 in page 524 ms. en mer.

Note 3 in page 524 ms. desers.

Note 1 in page 525 ms. ferreas.

Note 2 in page 525 ms. decipiaris Bibl. Nat. F. L. 5575, f. 113 v, ut a lege nostra discedas.

Note 1 in page 526 Omitted in ms.

Note 1 in page 527 Omitted in ms.

Note 2 in page 527 Omitted in ms.

Note 1 in page 528 Omitted in ms.; supplied from Bibl. Nat. F. L. 5575, f. 117 v.

Note 2 in page 528 Omitted in ms.

Note 3 in page 528 Bibl. Nat. F. L. 5575, f. 118 r, ut digna inveniar in conspectu domini nostri.

Note 4 in page 528 Evidently a copyist's error for Joel.

Note 1 in page 529 ms. populo.

Note 2 in page 529 Reading of Bibl. Nat. F. L. 5575, f. 119 v, and Oxford Add. d. 106, f. 81. The present ms. reads in munere.

Note 1 in page 532 ms. per triclinia ingressus vero ex sericis velare cameris.