“Todos los servidores de la casa lo calumnian con murmuraciones”: el rumor como leitmotiv en el Roman de Thèbes

The mise en roman of Greco-Latin classical texts —carried out as part of the political and cultural plan of the Plantagenets (12th-13th Centuries)— has been studied by critics in its different aspects of content and form, among which stands out the medievalization of the classical tradition. The particularities of this involve a series of narrative mechanisms and strategies that sought to bring the stories of Homer, Virgil and Statius to the audience of medieval courts. This is noticeable with the medievalization of the goddes Fame, who is materialized in the social phenomenon of rumor. So I observe it in the Roman de Thèbes, whose anonymous author uses rumor as a leitmotiv that, in addition to allowing logical changes in the plot, offers an imporant lesson to its audience, especially to those holding the power: the principle is not allow that the rumor may transgress the order destabilizing the political hierarchy. In order to demostrate the latter I offer three model examples of the text where I underline the narratological significance of the rumor like leitmotiv and its socio-political implications.

Lik Antigone v predmoderni literaturi

Razprava tematizira lik Antigone v evropski literaturi, in sicer od antike do konca srednjega veka. Po obdobju klasične grške tragedije (Ajshil, Sofokles, Evripid) je Antigona kot literarna figura doživela najizrazitejšo predelavo v rimski dobi, v Senekovi tragediji Feničanke in Stacijevem epu Tebaida. V obeh delih je Antigona kljub dokaj aktivni vlogi zaznamovana s stoiškim determinizmom. V srednjem veku je Antigona precej marginalen literarni lik. Nanjo naletimo predvsem v bolj ali manj svobodnih adaptacijah Stacijeve Tebaide, kot sta srednjeveško irsko prozno delo Togail na Tebe (Uničenje Teb) in francoska epska pesnitev Roman de Thèbes (Roman o Tebah). Na sporadične omembe Antigone pa naletimo tudi pri Danteju, Boccacciu in Christine de Pizan. Razprava ugotavlja, da gre v srednjeveški literaturi pri tematizaciji Antigone pogosto za preplet dveh mitoloških likov (in izročil), tebanske in (veliko manj znane) trojanske Antigone. Takšna literarna contaminatio (kontaminacija) obeh Antigon je najvidnejša v Chaucerjevi epski pesnitvi Troilus and Criseyde (Troil in Kresida). Razprava se na koncu dotakne tudi humanistične recepcije Antigone in opozori na hermenevtični problem literarne recepcije Antigone na splošno.

The Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte- Maure: A Translation. Translated by Glyn S. Burgess, Douglas Kelly. Woodbridge, UK, and Rochester, NY: D. S. Brewer, 2017. Gallica, 41. 486 pp.

In his Roman de Brut (1155), the Norman Robert Wace of Caen recounts the founding of Britain by Brutus of Troy to the end of legendary British history, while adapting freely the History of the Kings of Britain (1136) by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Wace’s Brut inaugurated a new genre, at least in part, commonly known as the “romances of antiquity” (romans d'antiquité). The Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, dating to around 1165, is, along with the Roman de Thèbes and the Roman d’Énéas, one of the three such romances dealing with themes from antiquity. These creations initiated the subjects, plots and structures of the genre, which subsequently flowered under authors such as Chrétien de Troyes. As an account of the Trojan War, Benoît’s version of necessity deals with war and its causes, how it was fought and what its ultimate consequences were for the combatants. How to explain its success? The author chose the standard and successful poetic form of the era—octosyllabic rhyming couplets; he was fond of extended descriptions; he could easily recount the intensity of personal struggles; and, above all he was fascinated by the trials and tribulations of love, a passion that affects several prominent warriors (among them Paris and his love for Helen, and Troilus and his affection for Briseida). All these elements combined to contour this romance in which events from the High Middle Ages were presented as a likeness of the poet’s own feudal and courtly spheres. This long-awaited new translation, the first into English, is accompanied by an extensive introduction and six-page outline of the work; two appendices (on common words, and a list of known Troie manuscripts); nearly twenty pages of bibliography; plus exhaustive indices of personal and geographical names and notes. As the two senior scholars assert (p. 3), By translating Benoît’s entire poem we seek to contribute to a greater appreciation of its composition and subject-matter, and thus to make available to a modern audience what medieval readers and audiences knew and appreciated.

The Romance of Thebes (Roman de Thèbes), trans. by Joan M. Ferrante and Robert W. Hanning. The French of England Translation Series (FRETS), 11. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2018, ix, 365.

Much of high medieval culture was deeply influenced by the reception of classical literature, as best represented by the genre of the romans antiques, the Roman de Thèbes, the Roman d’Enéas, and the Roman de Troie. These were based, in turn, on the Thebaid of Statius (92 C.E.), Vergil’s Aeneid (after 19 B.C.E.), and the story of Troy as retold by Dares Phrygias and Dictys Cretensis (in Greek, first century C.E., lost today; in Latin, fourth century C.E. [Dictys] and sixth century C.E. respectively [Dares]). Two of the most respected medieval French scholars, Joan M. Ferrante and Robert W. Hanning, now provide new access to the Roman de Thèbe through their English translation, which they have based on the personal copy owned by Henry Despenser (1370–1406), Bishop of Norwich, well known especially for his ruthless suppression of the Peasant Revolt in 1381. This manuscript is today housed in the British Library, London, under Add. 34114, fol. 164a-226d, and it was critically edited by Francine Mora-Lebrun with a facing page modern French translation in 1995. Ms. A (Paris, BnF, fr. 375) was recently edited by Luca di Sabatino (2016), which could not be consulted here for obvious reasons. Ms. C (Paris, BnF, fr. 784) was edited by Guy Reynaud de Lage in 1966, 1968, then re-edited along with a facing-page modern French translation by Aimé Petit in 2008).

La écfrasis de la tienda del rey Adrastro, en el Roman de Thèbes: estructura, estrategias retóricas e intertextualidad

Uno de los motivos ecfrásticos más frecuentes en la literatura medieval es el de la tienda historiada. Es decir, la descripción de elementos figurativos, dibujados o bordados que se hallan en los paños de una tienda militar, generalmente de carácter regio. En este escrito se analiza la descripción o écfrasis de la tienda de Adrastro que aparece en el Roman de Thèbes y que, presumiblemente, es el arquetipo de otras descripciones medievales, como la tienda de Alejandro, que se describe en el Libro de Alexandre, y la tienda de Don Amor, descrita en el Libro de Buen Amor. A lo largo del ensayo se evidencia la manera en la que el autor estructura el pasaje, algunas estrategias retóricas (como la enumeratio, la aposiopesis y la hipérbole) y, asimismo, se realiza un diálogo hipertextual, tanto con otras obras medievales como con las fuentes clásicas.