Perceforest, première partie. Edition critique (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Perceforest, première partie. Edition critique Christine Ferlampin-Acher Gilles Roussineau , ed., Perceforest, première partie. Edition critique. Genève: Droz (Textes Littéraires Français 292), 2007, 2 vols. Pp. 1480. ISBN: 978–2–600–01133–4. $232.00. Perceforest is an enormous romance in prose retelling the story of the origins of the Arthurian world, from Alexander the Great to the Christianization of Great Britain. It links two major cycles of medieval literature and invents an original genealogy: Alexander is supposed to be the ancestor of King Arthur, and the whole story develops the past of the Arthurian Vulgate Cycle. After the pioneering study of Jeanne Lods (Le Roman de Perceforest. Origines. Composition. Caractères. Valeur et influence, [Genève: Droz, 1951]) and the edition of the beginning of the first book by Jane Taylor (Genève: Droz, 1979), Gilles Roussineau undertakes the edition of the whole romance, beginning with book IV (Genève: Droz, 1987, 2 vols.), and he gives then the edition of books III (Genève: Droz, 3 vols., 1988, 1991 and 1993), II (Genève: Droz, 2 vol., 1999 and 2001), and I. This new and full edition of the first book gives the beginning of the romance: the anonymous author translates the Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth, describes Bretaigne, and then, developing the background of Les Voeux du Paon of Jacques de Longuyon, tells how Alexander the Great conquers Great Britain, where the king, Pir, has died without an heir. Two of Alexander's lieutenants are made kings: Gadifer becomes King of Scotland and Betis King of England. Then Alexander has to go back to Greece after having implemented codes of chivalry and courtliness. Accurate and well-documented, these two volumes give the text of the 440 folios of manuscript A (BnF. fr. 346), numerous variants, and very precise notes. For example, this edition compares the translation of the Historia Regum Britannie at the beginning of the romance and the Latin source, explains difficulties, proposes references and focuses on vocabulary. Perceforest is a mine of information on Middle French (La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, who often quotes Perceforest in his dictionary, certainly knew that!). A very long introduction (more than 200 pages) deals with the difficult problem of the date of Perceforest, underlines the literary skill of the author, studies the translation of the Historia Regum Britannie, and presents very interesting and documented developments about language. In particular, it distinguishes the language of the pieces written in verse from the language of the rest of the text in prose: verse is more archaistic (or archaic, depending on one's interpretation). A complete bibliography is given at the end of this introduction. As an appendix, Roussineau presents variants, rubrics of manuscript A, a list of proverbs or proverbial sentences, two indexes of proper names (distinguishing the translation of the Historia Regum Britannie and the rest of the text), and a very comprehensive glossary insisting on the contextual use of words. When he published book IV, Gilles Roussineau suggested that the text had been written between 1337–1344. He agreed with Jane Taylor, Jeanne Lods and L.F. Flutre (who wrote several articles about Perceforest which were published in Romania between 1948 and 1970). But he was puzzled by the findings that all manuscripts were written later (they were transcribed between 1459 and 1477) and he suggested that at the time of Philippe the Good, a romance of Perceforest (written earlier and now lost) had been discovered and re-written. Twenty years later, in his introduction of book I, Gilles Roussineau deals again with this very interesting problem and confirms his original hypothesis: an old romance composed around 1340 would have been rewritten. Thus, the version Gilles Roussineau gives us to read would be a Burgundian renewal, which, perhaps, is slightly different from the original text. No doubt that this very rich, useful and careful edition's intent is to stimulate numerous new studies about this fascinating romance. [End Page 109] Christine Ferlampin-Acher Rennes 2, CELAM-CETM Copyright © 2009 ARTHURIANA