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XL. Malory's Beaumains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Roger Sherman Loomis
Roger Sherman Loomis*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Extract

In his book entitled Malory Professor Vinaver propounds a plausible hypothesis that certain features of the romance of Gareth in the seventh book of the Morte d'Arthur were inventions of the author.

The hero—Beaumains—is Malory's own hero, and his name, impossible in any French romance, strangely resembles that of Malory's patron [Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick]. His successive battles with the Black, Green, and Red Knights, and particularly his behaviour at the tournament at the castle of Lady Lioness, at once call to mind the romantic adventure of Richard Beauchamp. At that tournament the King of Ireland wondered who Beaumains might be, “that one tyme semed grene, and another tyme at his ageyne comyng he semed blewe. And thus at every cours that he rode to and fro he chaunged his colour so that ther myght neyther kynge nor knyghte have redy congnyssaunce of hym.” The parallel is so close as to lead me to believe that some parts of the book of Beaumains were written in remembrance of Beauchamp's gallant deeds.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , September 1939 , pp. 656 - 668
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1939

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References

1 E. Vinaver, Malory (Oxford, 1929), p. 3.

2 Ibid., p. 12.

3 On Beauchamp as “the Father of Courtesy” cf. Viscount Dillon and W. H. St. J. Hope, Pageant of the Birth, Life, and Death of Richard Beauchamp (London, 1914), p. 69.

4 If Malory witnessed Beauchamp's exploits near Calais, it must have been between Beauchamp's appointment as Captain of Calais in 1414 and his embassy to the Emperor later in the same year. Dictionary of National Biography, ii, 29.

5 Dillon and Hope, op. cit., pp. 56–61.

6 Bk. vii, ch. 7–17.

7 Ed. Sommer, Bk. vii, ch. 30, 31. Other editions, ch. 29, 30.

8 J. L.Weston, Three Days' Tournament (London, 1902); C.H. Carter, “Ipomedon, an Illustration of Romance Origin,” in Haverford Essays (Haverford, 1909).

9 Mediæval Studies in Memory of A. Kingsley Porter (Cambridge, Mass., 1939), p. 87. Cf. also G. F. Beltz, Memorials of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (London, 1841), pp, liii, 401–407.

10 Bk, vii, ch. 1.

11 R. S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance (New York, 1927), pp. 84–89.

12 W. J. Gruffydd, Math Vab Mathonwy (Cardiff, 1928), pp. 326–329. Pryderi, it will be remembered, was first named Gwri.

13 Professor Ifor Williams places the composition about 1060. Cf. I. Williams, Pedeir Keine y Mabinogi (Cardiff, 1930), p. xli.

14 J. Loth, Mabinogion (Paris, 1913), i, 278, n. 4.

15 Ibid., p. 277. PMLA, xliii (1928), 384, n. 2.

16 R. S. Loomis, L. H. Loomis, Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art (New York, 1938), p. 32 f. The name Gwelchmai is, as Bruce recognized, a Welsh substitution for French Galvain. Cf. J. D. Bruce, Evolution of Arthurian Romance (1923), i, 192; also MP, xxxiii (1936), 234.

17 F. Lot, Etude sur le Lancelot en prose (Paris, 1918), p. 148 n.

18 M. P., xvi (1918), 348.

19 C. Potvin, Perceval le Gallois (Mons, 1870), v, 158—Note that the Norse Parcevals saga, E. Kölbing, Riddarasögur, (Strassburg, 1872), p. 30, says that the French word for the object borne by the maiden in the Grail King's hall was braull.

20 Chrétien de Troyes, Conte del Graal, ed. A. Hilka (Halle, 1932), vv. 347, 373 ff., etc. Renaut de Beaujeu, Le Bel Inconnu, ed. G. P. Williams (Paris, 1929), v. 117.

21 Renaut de Beaujeu, op. cit., 131. I discard my original suggestion that the epithet Beaumains was related to the Irish epithet Finn.

22 Vinaver, Malory, p. 3.

23 L. E. Menger, Anglo-Norman Dialect (New York, 1904), p. 112. F. J. Tanquerey, Recueil de lettres anglo-françaises (Paris, 1916), p. lv, notes “le nombre considérable de cas pour lesquels l'accord ne se fait pas entre l'adjectif et le nom.... Une irregularité du même genre accouple un singulier et un pluriel.”

24 Havelok, ed. W. W. Skeat (Oxford, 1902), pp. ix, xv, xvi.

25 Ibid., v. 1025.

26 A. G. Bradley, In the March and Borderland of Wales (London, 1905), p. 55.

27 Medium Aevum, i (1932), 157 ff.

28 La Damoisels à la Mule, ed. B. Orlowski (Paris, 1911), vv. 304–633.

29 PMLA, xlviii (1933), 1004, 1022 ff.

30 Chrétien de Troyes, Conte del Graal, ed. Hilka, vv. 5703–6215.

31 Bk. vii, ch. 21, 22.

32 PMLA, xlviii, 1004–07, 1021–23.

33 On derivation of Avalon, of which this is a corruption, cf. Romanic Renew, xxix (1938), 176 f.

34 Chevalier à l'Epée, ed. E. C. Armstrong (Baltimore, 1897). Cf. PLMA xlviii, 1011 ff.

35 Bk. vii, ch. 8, 9.

36 Chrétien de Troyes, Conte del Graal, ed. Hilka, vv. 6828–7370, 8371–8973.

37 Romania, lix (1933), 558 f. R. S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance (New York, 1927), pp. 165–170. PMLA, xlviii (1933), 1004 f., 1013 ff.

38 In the Serglige Conculaind Líban, daughter of Aed Abrat (i.e., the god Dagda; cf. Medieval Studies in Memory of G. Schoepperle Loomis, pp. 402, 404), comes to Cúchulainn in a vision, laughs at him, and strikes him. Later she comes to him in reality, summons him to combat with three champions in order to win possession of her sister Fann. Though refusing at first he goes at last, accompanied by Liban, to the beautiful land where her sister dwells. He slays the hostile champions and enjoys the love of Fann for a month. She then repulses him, and he wanders for a time on the mountains, half crazed. Cf. A. C. L. Brown, Iwain (Boston, 1903), 35–38, 142–144. On Liban cf. also Revue Celtique, xxvii (1930), 60 ff.

39 L'Atre Périlleux, ed. B. Woledge (Paris, 1936), vv. 1513–1627, 2070–2462.

40 Bk. vii, ch. 13–17.

41 Chrétien de Troyes, Erec, ed. W. Foerster (Halle, 1890), vv. 5878–6009.

42 Eger and Grime, ed. J. R. Caldwell (Cambridge, Mass., 1933), pp. 188 f., 266, 272. A superficial discussion of these features is found on pp. 111–117.

43 Romania, xxv (1896), 588. R. Edens, Erec-Geraint (Rostock, 1910), p. 141. Romanische Forschungen, xl, 479.

44 Romania, xxv, 258 ff. PMLA, li (1936), 13 ff.

45 Chrétien de Troyes, Ivain (Der Löwenritter), ed. W. Foerster (Halle, 1887), vv. 2415–41.

46 Alfred Tennyson, Gareth and Lynette, vv. 1392–94.

47 Ed. Sommer, Bk. vii, ch. 36. Other editions, ch. 35.

48 G.L. Kittredge, Study of Gawain and the Green Knight (Cambridge, Mass., 1916), p. 241.

49 R. S. Loomis, L. H. Loomis, Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art (New York, 1938), pp. 32 ff.

50 Ed. Sommer, Bk. vii, ch. 30. Other editions, ch. 29.

51 R. S. Loomis, L. H. Loomis, op. cit., Figs. 76, 77, 92a, 94a, 101–105, 143, 174, 177, 188, 261, 262, 273, 277, 282, 284, 292, 306, 311, 342, 346, 369. In a few exceptions, such as Figs. 354, 381, the hair is certainly not visible.

52 Ibid., Figs. 43, 44, 162, 165, 215, 219, 356, 359, 361.

53 Chrétien de Troyes, Chevalier de la Charrette (Karrenritter), ed. W. Foerster (Halle, 1899), v. 5546 ff.

54 The original Welsh Arthuriad does not, of course, include Peredur, Owain (The Lady of the Fountain), or Geraint, which are generally conceded to be based on French originals, though not necessarily on the corresponding romances of Chrétien. The only uncontaminated Welsh materials dealing with Arthur are Kilhwch and Olwen, The Dream of Rhonabwy, The Harryings of Annum, a poem in the Black Book of Carmarthen, and a few triads.

55 J. Loth, Mabinogion (Paris, 1913), i, 373, n. 2.

56 Romania, xxiv, 326. H. O. Sommer, Vulgate Version, Index of Names and Places (Washington, 1916), gives Gornains Cadrus, Gosnayns Cadrus, Gosenain, and Osenain, which represent progressive corruptions of Gorvain.

57 Loth, op. cit., i, 79 f.

58 W. J. Gruffydd, Math Vab Mathonwy (Cardiff, 1928), p. 47.

59 Ibid., p. 51 n.

60 Historia Meriadoci and De Ortu Walwanii, ed. J. D. Bruce (Baltimore, 1913), p. xli ff.—The theory of the common derivation of the Gregory and the Gawain legends from a legend of Gwri Gwallt-Avwyn influenced by the pious Coptic tale of King Armenios still seems to me a better explanation of the facts than Bruce's theory. Cf. R. S. Loomis, Celtic Myth, p. 331 ff.

61 Loth, op. cit., i, 106–116. Historia Meriadoci, pp. xxxvii–1, 55–59. Perlesmus, ed. Nitze and Jenkins (Chicago, 1932, 1937), i, 307 f., ii, 327 f. Romania, xxxix (1910), 1 ff.

62 Speculum, viii (1933), 427–429. M. L. R. xxiv (1929), 427–430. Romanische Forschungen, xxv (1931), 83.

63 M. P., xvi (1918), 347.

64 M. L. N., xlii (1928), 215 ff.

65 Ed. Lucy A. Paton (New York, 1926), i, 415f.

66 Medium Aevum, i (1932), 162–167.

67 Mod. Phil., xxxiii (1936), 235 ff.

68 Thomas, Tristan, ed. Bédier, ii (Paris, 1905), 154.