Busby, Keith. “Plagiarism and Poetry in the Tournoiement Antechrist of Huon de Méry.”
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 84(1983):505–21.
Emmerson, Richard K. Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Apocalyptism in Art and
Literature. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981.
HUON D’OISY
(d. 1190). One of the earliest trouvères, Huon was castellan of Cambrai and a member of
the upper nobility. He wed the daughter of Count Thierry d’Alsace and was himself lord
of Oisy (Pas-de-Calais). He left two poems, both dated 1189. The first is a crusade song
in which Huon castigates his nephew, the trouvère Conon de Béthune, for having
returned prematurely with Philip II Augustus from the Third Crusade. The second is the
Tournoiement des dames, which as edited by Alfred Jeanroy has 216 lines (of three, four,
six, and seven syllables) divided into eight stanzas of twenty-seven lines each. This
unusual and possibly satirical poem recounts a tournament at Lagny in which the
participants are all historically identifiable noble ladies of Picardy who are relatives or
acquaintances of the poet.
William W.Kibler
[See also: CONON DE BÉTHUNE; TOURNAMENT ROMANCES]
Jeanroy, Alfred, ed. “Notes sur le Tournoiement des dames.” Romania 28(1899):232–44.
HUON LE ROI DE CAMBRAI
(fl. 13th c.). A number of texts are identified as the work of Huon le Roi, Huon de
Cambrai, or Huon le Roi de Cambrai; these are possibly names for the same 13th-century
poet. Huon is known to be the author of several religious compositions, including the Vie
de saint Quentin (4,000+ octosyllables), dedicated to Philip III, and the Regrés Nostre
Dame. If the several names designate a single person, he also composed ironic or playful
texts on religious orders and even on the alphabet, as well as two better-known works, a
fabliau entitled Le male honte (an ambiguous title that can mean either “the terrible
shame” or “Honte’s trunk”) and Le vair palefroi, a courtly lai of 1,342 octosyllables that
illustrates how a young woman can escape an unfortunate marriage and find true love
with the man of her choice.
Norris J.Lacy
Huon le Roi de Cambrai. Li regrets Nostre Dame, ed. Arthur Långfors. Helsinki, 1907.
——. La vie de saint Quentin, ed. Arthur Långfors and Werner Söderhjelm. Helsingfors:
Imprimerie de la Société de Littérature finnoise, 1909.
——. Le vair palefroi, avec deux versions de La male honte, ed. Arthur Långfors. Paris: Champion,
1912.
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