Arthur’s court. After defending his mother against the Emperor of Constantinople,
Floriant marries Florete; like Erec, Floriant takes his wife with him to prove his prowess
after he has been accused of recreantise. The end of the romance is lacking. It is evident
that the basic central structure of Floriant et Florete is that of Erec et Enide, and indeed
there are many verbal echoes from this and Chrétien’s other romances. The use of
material provided by Chrétien, in Floriant et Florete and elsewhere, ranges from the use
of motifs and entire narrative segments down to verbatim quotation.
The Merveilles de Rigomer, by an author known simply as Jehan, is an incomplete
romance of 17,271 lines and has often been regarded as a degenerate example of the last
stages of Arthurian verse romance. However, seen in the light of its relationship to
Chrétien and the prose romances, it can better be regarded as an example of the creative
reception of existing models. It has a double plot, the first involving Gawain’s quest to
free the imprisoned Lancelot, and the second, Arthur’s restoration of her inheritance to
the heiress of Quintefuele. One of the most remarkable features of the Merveilles de
Rigomer is its bestiary of fantastic creatures, such as talking birds, flame-breathing
panthers, and a man-eating falcon. Its treatment of the Arthurian material is burlesque
and often outrageous.
The most distinctive feature of both Claris et Laris and Escanor is perhaps their
complex narrative structure, based on a series of multiple quests. Although these two
lengthy romances (30,369 and 25,936 lines, respectively) have long been regarded, like
the Merveilles de Rigomer, as degenerate and rambling, their qualities can be seen in a
different light when the influence of the prose romances is taken into account. Since they
make extensive use of narrative techniques and characters from the prose tradition, they
can in many respects be regarded as prose romances in verse.
Recent study of these romances stresses their “epigonal” relationship to Chrétien’s
œuvre with particular reference to audience reaction. Authors make such frequent and
subtle use of Chrétien’s works that it must be assumed that audiences were aware of this
and listened to the romances against the background of Chrétien. There were many ways
for Arthurian authors to respond to the phenomenon of Chrétien: they could attempt,
although they rarely did, to do blatantly otherwise than he had done; they could attempt
various degrees of burlesque and parody; they could write severely didactic works using
Arthurian material as sugar for the pill. The Chrétien epigones usually deal less with the
fundamentals of human existence than did Chrétien, and their productions are frequently
lighthearted and self-consciously literary. It has recently been argued that many of these
romances were written directly, but not exclusively, for the Anglo-Angevin court and that
they had a strong political function, strengthening dynastic and territorial claims on both
national and regional levels. If this is true, then part of their audience must be sought in
England and they need to be placed at least partly in a British historical and cultural
context. Whatever the case, they are finally beginning to attract the attention they deserve
from scholars, and the yoke of the odious comparison with Chrétien is at last slowly
being cast off.
Keith Busby
[See also: CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES; GAWAIN ROMANCES; GIRART
D’AMIENS; GUILLAUME LE CLERC; JAUFRE; RAOUL DE HOUDENC; RENAUT
DE BEAUJEU; ROMANCE]
Adams, Alison, ed. Yder. Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1983.
The Encyclopedia 141