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LX. The Date of the Eneas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
No definite agreement concerning the probable date of the Eneas exists in the studies devoted to this mediæval romance. Its editor, M. Salverda de Grave, originally placed the Eneas at about 1150, M. Faral believes it was composed about 1160, and one of its most recent critics, Mr. F. Guyer, considers it somewhat anterior to the year 1174. The last date can hardly be accepted, however, since the major part of Heinrich von Veldeke's translation of the Eneas into German was completed by 1175, and it seems reasonable to assume that the poem's dissemination and translation would require more than one year.
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References
1 Eneas, Bibliotheca normannica, iv (1891), Intr., p. xxiv.
2 Recherches sur les sources latines des contes et romans courtois du moyen âge (Paris, 1913), p. 410.
3 “Chronology of Earliest French Romances,” Mod. Phil. xxvi (1929), p. 277.
4 Van Dam, J., Zur Vorgeschichte des höfischen Epos (Bonn and Leipzig, 1923), p. 124.
5 This is the date given in line 15299 of the poem. See le Roman de Brut, ed. Leroux de Lincy (Rouen, 1836–38).
6 “L' ‘Eneas’ et Wace,” Archivum romanicum, xv, 2 (1931), p. 248–269; xvi, 1 (1932), 162–166.
7 Op. cit., xv, 249.
8 The passages cited in this paper are taken from the Brut edited by Leroux de Lincy and the Eneas edited by Salverda de Grave for “Les Classiques français du moyen âge” (44, 62), i (1925), ii (1929).
9 Ibid., pp. 249–250.
10 Ibid., pp. 250–251.
11 Ibid., p. 251, note 1.
12 Ibid., p. 252.
13 Æneid, vii, 228; i, 1–3, 5.
14 Op. cit., xv, 252, note 4.
15 Æneid, vii, 241–242: huc repetit iussisque ingentibus urget Apollo Tyrrhenum ad Thybrim et fontis vada sacra Numici.
16 Op. cit., xv, 260.
17 Ibid., pp. 261–262.
18 Hoepffner believes that the phrase, “lever la teste,” may have suggested to the author of the Eneas line 270: Dont leva Eneas la teste. Although Hoepffner does not refer to it, in each case “tempeste” rhymes with “teste.” Since the context differs in these passages, the phrase may equally well have been suggested to the author of the Eneas by Vergil who thus describes Neptune's action during the tempest: … et alto prospiciens summa placidum caput extulit unda. Æneid i, 126–127
19 Biller, G., Etude sur le style des premiers romans français en vers (Göteborg, 1916), p. 91.
20 Mut fu la mer tote esméue. Li venz vint à la nef devant Rompent cordes, li très lor faut Li plus sage po i saveient Li tens cessa, li vens chai, (Wace, la Vie de la Vierge, Tours, 1859, pp. 4–5, 8). comeüe est la mers formant; (194) Li vanz aquialt les autres nes; (257) ronpent lor cordes, chieent voilles, (202) il ne sevent quel part il tornent, (207) li vanz failli, del tot cessa, (266) (Eneas, 194 f).
21 Compare the lines already quoted from the Aeneid (i, 87–89, 91) in connection with point (b). Additional details were available for our author in the lines with which Vergil continues his description: (Æneid i, 84 f.) incubuere mari totumque a sedibus imis (84) … Aquilone procella (102) velum adversa ferit … (103) tris Notus abreptas in saxa latentia torquet (108) … tris Eurus ab alto (110) in brevia et syrtis urget (111)
22 Op. cit., xv, 262.
23 Ibid., pp. 263–264. Charlion dejoste Usques siet, Sa cité avoit non Cartage, Un flum qui en Saverne ciet. en Libe sist sor le rivage. Cil qui d'autre terre venoient Par cel eve venir pooient: De l'une part ert li rivière, De l'autre li forès plénière. Plenté i avoit de pisson, Et grant piente de venisson. La mer l'i bat d'une partie, ja par de la n'iert asailie; de l'autre part sunt li viver et li marais grant et plener (Eneas 407–412) (Brut 10467–10474) Corripuere viam interea, qua semita monstrat. iamque ascendebant collem, qui plurimus urbi imminet adversasque aspectat desuper arces. (Æneid, i, 418–420)
24 Op. cit., xv, pp. 266–267.
25 Ibid.-Historia, ch. 155; Tristan of Thomas (ed. Bédier), ii, 199–207.
26 Op. cit., xvi, 163–165. Eneas 6573 f., Brut 3357 f. The rhyme riviere: pleniere in the Eneas has no counterpart in this particular passage of the Brut posited as the source of the Eneas. Hoepffner suggests (ibid., p. 165, note 1) that its presence here recalls Wace's use of the same rhyme in his description of Carlion (ll. 10471–72) and in his account of the establishment of the Bretons in Armorica (ll. 6052–53). It is difficult to accept one passage as the general source for the Eneas when recourse must be had to other passages in the Brut for specific detail.
27 Op. cit., xvi, 162 and xv, 258.—In the second case (Brut 4411–4412, Eneas 4645–4646) the rhyme gloire: victoire occurs in lines where the context is not similar.
28 Eneas (edition for “Les Classiques français du moyen âge”), ii, 162.
29 Ibid., i, vii, xiii.
30 Æneid, vii, 6–9, 144–145.
31 Op. cit., xv, 266.
32 Ibid., pp. 253–254.
33 Cf. Faral, la Légende arthurienne (Paris, 1929), iii, 7, 74.
34 Hoepffner, op. cit., xv, 255.
35 Æneid, vi, 763 f., viii, 48.
36 Op. cit., xv, 255–256.
37 Haskins, C. H., Norman Institutions (Cambridge, 1918), pp. 131, 143.
38 I accept Faral's demonstration of the relative chronology of Thèbes, Eneas, and Troie. (Recherches sur les sources latines des contes et romans courtois du moyen âge, pp. 169–187.)
39 Eneas, 1593–1604.
40 Ibid., 2139–2144.
41 Ibid., 9051–9056, 9061–9064.
42 Ibid., 9039–9047.
43 Ibid., 8767–8774, 8807–8811, 8863–8870.
44 Ibid., 8876–8879.
45 Ibid., 8158–8170. For a detailed account of the influence of Ovid on the Lavinia episode, cf. Faral, Recherches sur les sources latines des contes et romans courtois du moyen âge, pp. 125 f.
46 Roman de Troie, ed. L. Constans (1904), i, 434, ll. 8023 f.
47 Meyer, P., Alexandre le Grand dans la littérature française du moyen âge (Paris, 1886), i, 41, ll. 368–369.
48 Eneas (Bibliotheca normannica), Intr., xxxiii.
49 Ibid., pp. xxxiv, xxxix.