La folie Lancelot: A hitherto unidentified portion of the Suite du Merlin contained in MSS B.N. fr. 112 and 12599

388 Pages·1965·28.252 MB·French

by  Fanni Bogdanow (editor)

BEIHEFTE ZUR
ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR ROMANISCHE PHILOLOGIE
BEGRÜNDET VON GUSTAV GRÖBER
FORTGEFÜHRT VON WALTHER VON WARTBURG
HERAUSGEGEBEN VON KURT BALDINGEB
109. HEFT
Farmi Bogdanow
La Folie Lancelot
a hitherto unidentified portion of the
Suite du Merlin
contained in MSS B.N. fr. 112 and 12599
MAX NIEMEYER VERLAG TÜBINGEN 1965
La Folie Lancelot
a hitherto unidentified portion of the
Suite du Merlin
contained in MSS B.N. fr. 112 and 12599
Edited
by
Fanni Bogdanow
MAX NIEMEYER VERLAG TÜBINGEN 1965
©
Max Nlemeyer Verlag Tübingen 1965
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
Printed In Germany
Satz und Druck von H.Laupp ]r Tübingen
To my mother
JOHANNA BOGDANOW
in gratitude and admiration for her immense courage.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE IX-XII
INTRODUCTION:
Chapter I. The relationship of the Folie Lancelot to the other
sections of the Suite du Merlin and the Post-Vulgate Roman
duGraal XIII-XXVII
Chapter II. The method of Editing XXVIII-XLVIII
BIBLIOGRAPHY XLIX-LXIII
LA POLIE LANCELOT:
Chapter I. Comment un varlet vint a la court du roy Artus et
compta les grans merveilles d'armes qu'avoit fait Lamorat
de Galles a ung tournoy qu'il avoit vaincu, dont Gaheriet en
fut moult doulent 1-21
Chapter II. Comment la fille du roy Pelles conta l'aventure
a Boors qui estoit advenue a Lancelot, et comment Bohors
et ceulx de son parenté se mistrent en queste, et messire
Gauvain et autres chevaliers qui maint jour le quistrent . . 22—24
Chapter III. Comment Heret chevauchoit ou temps des neges
et trouva line damoiselle portant un chevalier mort, faisant
grant duel, et luy racompta son achoison et mescheance . . 25-35
Chapter IV. Comment, quant Lancelot ot perdu le sens, s'en
ala tout nu par le païs tant qu'il vint a une praerie ou il
avoit un pavillon tendu 36-46
Chapter V. Comment messire Heret abatit monseigneur Gau-
vain et le laissa au Chas tel des Dix Chevaliers 47-60
Chapter VI. Comment Lancelot du Lac, après qu'il se fut
estorz des mains Hector son frere, s'en ala par montz et par
vaulx et s'en vint a Corbenic, et moult estoit changié de sa
belle forme et nul ne le cognoissoit 61-71
Chapter VII. Comment messire Gauvain fut délivré du Cha-
steau des diz Chevaliers pour jouster a rencontre de La-
mourat qui tous les .x. chevaliers avoit abatuz 72-81
Chapter VIII. Comment messire Agloval de Galles vint au
chastel ou estoit sa mere, et Parseval qui jeune estoit
s'agenoilloit pour la resplendisseur de ses armez 82-100
VII
Page
Chapter IX. Comment Heret et Hector estoient en Tin her-
mitage. Heret trouva un chevalier en la forest et un nain
qui ne luy daigna rendre son salut et ala après 101-120
Chapter X. Comment Hector des Mares fut prins en l'isle de
la seur Parseval et le firent jurer qu'il vengeroit la mort de
Lamorat de Gallez 121-130
Chapter XI. Comment Heret, le filz Lac, délivra de mort
monseigneur Bohors de Gaunez au chastel d'Agut, qui ainsi
se nommoit pour amour de monseigneur Saint Augustin . . 131—135
Chapter XII. Comment une damoiselle demande a Parceval
la teste de Gaheriet ou qu'il luy baille a faire sa volenté,
et Gaheriet s'en va avecques elle 136-140
Chapter XIII. Comment Parseval afyantl longuement che-
vauché, arriva en un chastel moult gasté et trouva la damoy-
selle et les chevaliers moult doulens et tristes 141-147
Chapter XIV. Comment Parseval et une damoyselle regardent
la bataille qui est entre Sagremor et le Lait Hardi . . .. 148-153
VARIANTS 155-215
COMMENTARY 217-275
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 277-283
GLOSSARY 284-323
VIII
PREFACE
The Vulgate Version of Arthurian prose romances, which grew up
between 1215 and 1230, consisted in its final form of five branches.
The last three sections, which were written first, - the Lancelot proper,
the Queste del Saint Graal and the Mort Artu deal mainly with the
life and adventures of Lancelot. The first branch, the Estoire del
Saint Graal, serves as a prologue to the Queste and supplies the history
of the Grail in pre-Arthurian days. The second branch, the Estoire
de Merlin, which bridges the chronological gap between the end of
the Estoire del Saint Graal and the beginning of the Lancelot proper,
includes a prose rendering of Robert de Borron's Merlin followed by
a pseudo-chronicle of Arthur's early wars against the rebel kings and
the Saxons.1 Shortly after its composition the Vulgate Cycle was
remodelled by a writer who attempted to produce a more homogeneous
work centering upon Arthur rather than Lancelot. This "Post-
Vulgate" Arthuriad, formerly referred to as the "pseudo-Robert
de Boron cycle" and now called the Post-Vulgate Roman du Graal,'1
includes a version of the Estoire del Saint Graal; the prose rendering
of Robert de Boron's Merlin; a sequel to this rendering based on,
but different from, the Vulgate Estoire de Merlin and usually called
the Hvfifo-Merlin or Suite du Merlin; a remodelled version of the
Queste, and finally a remodelled Mort Artu.
Unlike the Vulgate Cycle, the Roman du Graal has not been preserv-
ed in its complete form, and has to be reconstructed from the scat-
tered fragments that have survived. The Huth-Merlin, which deals
with the early history of Arthur's kingdom,3 is known in the main
1 The whole of the Vulgate Cycle has been edited by H. O. Sommer
from a manuscript in the British Museum (Add. 10292-4) under the title
of The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances (Washington, the
Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1908-1918, 8 vols.). For the most
recent account of the Vulgate Cycle, see Arthurian Literature in the
Middle Ages, a collaborative History, ed. R.S. Loomis, Oxford, 1959,
Chapters 22 and 23.
8 See Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Chapter 24, and my
forthcoming book, The Romance of the Grail.
* It relates such incidents as Mordred's birth, the revelation of Arthur's
parentage, the obtaining of Escalibor from a hand in a lake, the wars
IX
through two incomplete fourteenth century manuscripts, the Huth
MS published in 1886 by Gaston Paris,4 and the Cambridge University
Library MS Add. 7071 first identified by Professor Eugene Vinaver
in 1945.6 A smaller portion of the Suite du Merlin, the beginning of
which overlaps with the end of the Huth and Cambridge MSS, is
contained in a fifteenth century compilation of Arthurian prose
romances, MS B.N. fr. 112 (Livre II, ff. 17b-58b); this was published
in 1913 by H.O. Sommer under the title of Die Abenteuer Qawains,
Yvxiins und, Le MorhoUs mit den drei Jungfrauen... die Fortsetzung
des Huth-Merlin nach der allein bekannten HS Nr. 112 der Pariser
National-BibliothekThe Post-Vulgate Queste del Saint Oraal can be
reconstructed from the Queste preserved in certain manuscripts of the
Second Version of the Prose Tristan, the Portuguese and Spanish Deman-
da del Santo Graal and the versions of the Queste contained in MSS B. N.
fr. 112 and 343.7 Of the Post-Vulgate Mort Artu, two small fragments
against Rion and Lot, the tragic tale of Balain, the Chevalier as Deus
Espees, who struck the Dolorous Stroke, Arthur's marriage with Leo-
dogan's daughter, the quests of Gauvain, Tor and Pellinor, Merlin's
entombment, Arthur's war with the five kings, Morgain's plots to destroy
Arthur, and the triple adventures of Gauvain, Yvain and Le Morholt.
* Merlin, roman en prose du XIIIe siècle, publié avec la mise en prose
du poème de Robert de Baron d'après le manuscrit appartenant à M.Alfred
Huth, par Gaston Paris et Jacob Ulrich (S.A.T.F.), 2 vols., Paris, 1886.
The Huth MS is now in the British Museum, where it bears the number
Add. 38117.
® For a history of the Cambridge MS, see The Works of Sir Thomas
Malory, ed. Eugène Vinaver, Oxford, 1947, 3 vols., vol. Ill, 1277-80;
and Vinaver, "La genèse de la Suite du Merlin," in Mélanges... Hoepffner,
Paris, 1949, pp. 295-300.
• Published in Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur Bomanische Philologie, vol.
47, 1913. There exist also two non-French versions of the Suite du Merlin,
Malory's Tale of King Arthur (Malory, Works, ed. Vinaver, I, 1—180), and
the Spanish Baladro del Sabio Merlin. No MSS have survived of the
Spanish version, and the work is known only from two early printed
editions, Burgos, 1498 and Sevilla, 1535. The 1535 edition was reprinted
by Bonilla y San Martin in 1907 (for full title, see note 7). The 1498
edition has been published by Pedro Bohigas (El Baladro del Sabio
Merlin, segun el texto de la edicion de Burgos de 1498, 3 vols., Barcelona,
1957-1962).
' See Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Chapter 24, p. 328,
note 2, and p. 329, note 5. The Portuguese Demanda do Santo Graal has
been preserved in a 15th century MS in the National Library of Vienna.
It was edited for the first time in its complete form by Augusto Magne
in 1944; the first volume of a second revised edition appeared in 1955.
No manuscripts have survived of the Spanish Demanda del Sancto Grial,
only some early printed editions. Of these, the 1535 edition, which is
preceded by the Spanish translation of the Suite du Merlin, was reprinted
in 1907 by Bonilla y San Martin (La Demanda del Sancto Grial. Primera
Parte: El Baladro del Sabio Merlin. Segunda Parte: La Demanda del
Sancto Grial con los maravillosos fechos de Lanzarote y de Galaz su hijo.
X