Histoire de la poésie française: la poésie du moyen âge by Robert SabatierReview by: D. D. R. OwenThe Modern Language Review, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Jul., 1977), p. 674Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3725426 .

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674 Reviews

might give heed. Dr Kranz says on the authority of Walter Hooper that Lewis's library was dispersed (p. I3I); but Kilby and Douglas (see p. I75) have a photo- graph showing the greater part of it installed in Wroxton College, Oxfordshire.

MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE J. A. W. BENNETT

Histoire de la poesie franfaise: la poesie du moyen dge. By ROBERT SABATIER. Paris: Albin Michel. I975. 396 pp. 42 Fr.

M. Sabatier, novelist, poet and critic, guides us on this breathless tour of medieval French verse with far more enthusiasm than accuracy. Wisely, he does not address his work to scholars: it is simply 'une invitation a la lecture car les textes seuls comp- tent' (p. 9). But why, then, are we offered no bibliographical details, indeed no references at all, even for passages quoted, translated, or sometimes adapted? Similarly, when we are given the opinions of critics (who range from Claude Fouchet to Apollinaire by way of Gaston Paris), we are denied their source. Yet in other matters, M. Sabatier can be almost over-punctilious, as in telling us the length of virtually every narrative poem he mentions, however briefly. There are times when his book reads like a kind of 'bluffer's guide' to medieval French literature, with narrative and commentary almost submerged by a profusion of authors, works and critics, major and minor.

The would-be bluffer should, however, be put on his guard against all the errors and confusions that could prove his downfall. He reads, for instance, that the Roland is 2,500 lines long and that Vivien was Charlemagne's nephew. Names and titles are apt to deviate from the norm, as with Adenes le Roi, the epic variously called Aliscans, Bataille des Aliscans and la Bataille d'Aleschans, or Rutebeuf's poems 'la Griesche, 1'(Eil, I'Erberee' (p. 220). Chronology can be strangely misleading, as for the Chanson de Guillaume: 'Pour les specialistes, cette chanson serait contemporaine de celle de Roland et daterait d'avant le dernier tiers du XIIe siecle' (p. 64); or for 'Jehan Bodel, qui suivit Saint Louis a la croisade' (p. 278). Attributions and localizations can be equally dubious: 'On attribue la composition du Roman de Troie, et aussi celles des romans d'L9neas et de Thebes, a un trouvere anglo-normand, Benoist de Sainte-More...' (p. 96); and Beroul's Tristan is 'une des oeuvres les plus anciennes en langue d'oil en dialecte anglo-normand qui nous soit parvenue' (p. io8). On p. 102 we read that Chretien's Philomena is known only in a fourteenth- century prose adaptation, to be told on page I I that it forms a digression in the Ovide moralise, later correctly described as a poem but attributed to 'Chretien Legouais, Champenois' (p. 3I6). Chretien de Troyes is also credited with 'un Chevalier a l'Espee qui ne nous est pas parvenu . . .' (p. I I - is there a germ of truth here?). Plots are garbled too. trec (composed, we learn, like the Conte du Graal in rimes embrassees) shows Enide disguised as a page and, with Erec, held captive by Maboagrain 'dans un etat de servitude' (p. I I 2). In Lancelot's honour, all his fellow-knights climb into carts, 'ce qui brave les conventions et devient le fin du fin' (p. I 14). In Tvain the castle spins, the fountain flows hot from a tree, and a lion is 'porte sur l'eau' (p. I I6, instead of'sur l'ecu', one misprint among many).

As the book proceeds, M. Sabatier does appear more at ease. His survey of the lyric poets is less scrappy than earlier chapters, and leads to some good concluding pages on Villon. And there are positive qualities: the enthusiasm is infectious, and we may appreciate the attempt to present the literature as a product and reflection of society, as well as the sometimes illuminating analogies drawn with modern productions from nouveau roman to rock opera. A number of hares are started which might be pursued with profit. D. D. R. OWEN

UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

674 Reviews

might give heed. Dr Kranz says on the authority of Walter Hooper that Lewis's library was dispersed (p. I3I); but Kilby and Douglas (see p. I75) have a photo- graph showing the greater part of it installed in Wroxton College, Oxfordshire.

MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE J. A. W. BENNETT

Histoire de la poesie franfaise: la poesie du moyen dge. By ROBERT SABATIER. Paris: Albin Michel. I975. 396 pp. 42 Fr.

M. Sabatier, novelist, poet and critic, guides us on this breathless tour of medieval French verse with far more enthusiasm than accuracy. Wisely, he does not address his work to scholars: it is simply 'une invitation a la lecture car les textes seuls comp- tent' (p. 9). But why, then, are we offered no bibliographical details, indeed no references at all, even for passages quoted, translated, or sometimes adapted? Similarly, when we are given the opinions of critics (who range from Claude Fouchet to Apollinaire by way of Gaston Paris), we are denied their source. Yet in other matters, M. Sabatier can be almost over-punctilious, as in telling us the length of virtually every narrative poem he mentions, however briefly. There are times when his book reads like a kind of 'bluffer's guide' to medieval French literature, with narrative and commentary almost submerged by a profusion of authors, works and critics, major and minor.

The would-be bluffer should, however, be put on his guard against all the errors and confusions that could prove his downfall. He reads, for instance, that the Roland is 2,500 lines long and that Vivien was Charlemagne's nephew. Names and titles are apt to deviate from the norm, as with Adenes le Roi, the epic variously called Aliscans, Bataille des Aliscans and la Bataille d'Aleschans, or Rutebeuf's poems 'la Griesche, 1'(Eil, I'Erberee' (p. 220). Chronology can be strangely misleading, as for the Chanson de Guillaume: 'Pour les specialistes, cette chanson serait contemporaine de celle de Roland et daterait d'avant le dernier tiers du XIIe siecle' (p. 64); or for 'Jehan Bodel, qui suivit Saint Louis a la croisade' (p. 278). Attributions and localizations can be equally dubious: 'On attribue la composition du Roman de Troie, et aussi celles des romans d'L9neas et de Thebes, a un trouvere anglo-normand, Benoist de Sainte-More...' (p. 96); and Beroul's Tristan is 'une des oeuvres les plus anciennes en langue d'oil en dialecte anglo-normand qui nous soit parvenue' (p. io8). On p. 102 we read that Chretien's Philomena is known only in a fourteenth- century prose adaptation, to be told on page I I that it forms a digression in the Ovide moralise, later correctly described as a poem but attributed to 'Chretien Legouais, Champenois' (p. 3I6). Chretien de Troyes is also credited with 'un Chevalier a l'Espee qui ne nous est pas parvenu . . .' (p. I I - is there a germ of truth here?). Plots are garbled too. trec (composed, we learn, like the Conte du Graal in rimes embrassees) shows Enide disguised as a page and, with Erec, held captive by Maboagrain 'dans un etat de servitude' (p. I I 2). In Lancelot's honour, all his fellow-knights climb into carts, 'ce qui brave les conventions et devient le fin du fin' (p. I 14). In Tvain the castle spins, the fountain flows hot from a tree, and a lion is 'porte sur l'eau' (p. I I6, instead of'sur l'ecu', one misprint among many).

As the book proceeds, M. Sabatier does appear more at ease. His survey of the lyric poets is less scrappy than earlier chapters, and leads to some good concluding pages on Villon. And there are positive qualities: the enthusiasm is infectious, and we may appreciate the attempt to present the literature as a product and reflection of society, as well as the sometimes illuminating analogies drawn with modern productions from nouveau roman to rock opera. A number of hares are started which might be pursued with profit. D. D. R. OWEN

UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.45 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 16:23:04 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions