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XV.—The Legend of Saint George; Its Development Into a Roman d'Aventure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

John E. Matzke
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Extract

It is a well known fact that the ground-work of the story of Saint George as told by Richard Johnson in his Seven Champions of Christendom is represented by the Old French, or better the Early English, story of Sir Beves of Hamtoun. The object of this article is to determine the history of the fusion of the two traditions.

When Saint George had become the champion of the English knights during the third crusade, the official sanction being given at Oxford in 1222, it is not difficult to understand why the story of his life should have passed into a new phase of its development. Before the crusades only the legend of his martyrdom was known in Western Europe. There, however, he had always been represented as a warrior, ‘miles egregius,’ and now during these expeditions he became the battle saint, whose timely aid brings victory to the Christian armies.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , 1904 , pp. 449 - 478
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1904

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References

page 449 note 1 London, 1592. A modern edition was published London, 1824, Davison, Whitefriars.

page 449 note 2 Cf. Publications of the Modern Language Association, vol. xviii, p. 155.

page 449 note 3 I take this opportunity to supplement the references cited there. For the presence of Saint George in the Chanson d’ Antioche (publ. by P. Paris, Paris, 1848), cp. vol. i, pp. 113, 161, 204, and particularly ii, pp. 262-3, also Romania, xix, pp. 572-575, and 581. For the Chevalier au Cygne (ed. Hippeau, Paris, 1874-77) cp. vol. i, p. 95; for Flamenca, ll. 2120-22. Saint George appears also in Robert le Diable (ed. Löseth, Paris, 1903), where he supplies the hero with the needed armor; cp. ll. 1787 ff. and 2612 ff., etc. On account of the date of these references in general, I suspect that Löseth's dating of this roman d'aventure (‘fin du xiie siècle,’ p. xlvii) is too early.

page 450 note 1 Cp. Weber, Metrical Romances, Edinburg, 1810, vol. ii, 11. 4848 ff.

page 457 note 1 Fr. = the French Beves, x = the older, y = the younger English Beves version.

page 464 note 1 Cf. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, ed. Schröer, Berlin, 1893, pp. 703 ff.

page 473 note 1 Printed by Percy, ed. Schröer, p. 706.

page 473 note 2 I may add that it will be fruitless to look for similarities in the early traditions concerning the family history of the Saint. Cf. Publications of the Modern Language Association, xvii, p. 491.

page 475 note 1 Cp. also Vetter, Der Heilige Georg des Reinbot von Durne, Halle, Niemeyer, 1896, pp. lxxxi ff.

page 477 note 1 A printed copy of the same ballad, contained in the British Museum (643 M. 10 (17) gives the lady's name as Sabrine and contains various other verbal differences, which, however, do not affect the argument.