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JAUFRY THE KNIGHT
AND THE FAIR BRUNISSENDE
A TALE OF THE TIMES OF KING ARTHUR
By Mary Lafon
Translated From The French Version by Alfred Elwes.
Illustrated With Twenty Engravings By GUSTAVE DORE
Addey And Co.
MDCCCLVI
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
The description given by one of the authors of
Jauvfry
about the origin of the romance, and the evidence afforded by the French adapter concerning the Mss. wherein it is contained, make it unnecessary for me to dwell upon these particulars.
The veneration in which King Arthur's name is held by all lovers of the early romantic history of Britain will give the tale a strong recommendation in such eyes; while the personages with which it deals render the appearance of its characters in an English dress the more pleasing and appropriate.
As answerable for the fashion and material of the costume, I may be permitted to say a few words concerning the rule which has guided me in producing it. Keeping in view that the original romance is a poem in form and composition, I have endeavoured, in my translation, still to preserve the poetic character; and though compelled to base my work upon a prose version, I have tried, within certain limits, rather to restore its original shape, than allow it, by the second ordeal to which it is thus subjected, to lose it altogether. Whether such attempt, however honestly conceived, has been properly carried out, must be determined by my readers.
A.E.
King's Arms,
Moorgate Street, London.
PREFACE TO THE FRENCH VERSION.
The literary world of France scarce knows the extent of its own riches. In the catacombs of its libraries and archives there is a heap of unknown jewels which would give a new and brighter lustre to its poetic wreath. The “great age” did not even suspect their existence; the eighteenth century passed over without bestowing on them, a glance; and if, in our days, a few of our learned brethren have conceived the idea of drawing them to light, the rumour of their labours, which moreover were both superficial and incomplete, never got beyond the doors of the Institute.
There still remains, then, more especially as regards the south, to open up the lode of this mine of gold,—a virgin mine as yet, inasmuch as Sainte-Palaye, Rochegude, Raynouard, and Fauriel, have but scraped Upon its surface,—and reanimate, in a poetic point of view, the middle ages, too easily sacrificed at the period of the
renaissance
, too severely proscribed by the University. Fed, in truth, from our entry into college with the literature of Greece and Rome, which, however admirable in form, is but sober in invention, we can have no conception of those works wherein the imagination of France, youthful, vigorous, and gay, blossomed in full freshness like a rose in spring. Some judgment may be formed of the value of the poems rhymed by the troubadours in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the romance which is now presented to the public. Dragged from the dust beneath which it has lain buried for six hundred years, the romance of
Jaufry
is translated for the first time; and when we consider the merit of the story, we may add, without fear of contradiction, that it deserved such honour long ago.
Let the reader call up in his mind a pavilion of Smyrna or Granada, with columns of white marble light and graceful as those of the Alhambra, with elegant trellis-work, glass of varied hues, and filled with a pervading tone of warmth,—the warmth of a May sun,—and he will have some notion of the romance of
Jaufry and the fair Brunissende
:—few things being more piquant, more fresh, more fanciful, or which better reflect the charming caprices of a southern imagination in the middle ages. Feudal society revives therein entire, with all its fairy doings, its knightly fictions, its manners, and its grand lance-thrusts; and such is the interest of the tale, that we allow ourselves to be carried away by it with as much pleasure as our ancestors must have felt, when it was told to the sounds of the minstrers viol in the great castle-hall, or beneath the shadow of the tent.
Two peculiarities, which are not matter of indifference to history, enhance the value of this poetic gem: one is, the influence of Arabic ideas, of which it has a distant savour like the balmy oases of the East; and the other, the inspiration which it evidently lent to Cervantes. If, for instance, we discover therein the roc, the wishes, and the tent of the Fairy Paribanou, as traces of the
Arabian Nights
, we behold, on the other hand, that this romance of
Jaufry
has furnished the one-handed genius of Alcala with the first idea of the adventure of the galley-slaves (
desdichados galeotes
), the cavalier in green (
cavallero del verde gavan
), the braying of the regidors (
rebuzno de los dos regidores
), the Princess Micomicona, and the enchanted head. And in this respect we may be permitted to remark, that the romance of
Jaufry
offers matter of a piquant comparison with the work of Miguel Cervantes. Is it not strange, after the ingenious
Don Quixote
, to find ourselves reading with pleasure the adventures of a knight-errant?
We should still have much to say concerning this poem and our system of translating it; but as we are averse to useless dissertations, we will confine our further remarks within short space. This romance, which is written in the
Provençal
tongue of the twelfth century, is composed of eleven thousand one hundred and sixty verses of eight syllables. * It was begun by a troubadour, who heard the tale related at the court of the king of Aragon, and finished by a poet whose modesty caused him to conceal his own name and that of his colleague. In order to render the reading of their work more pleasant, while using our efforts to retain the southern character and genuine tone of colour, we have pared away some of the verbosity and tautologies which at times encumber while they retard the progress of the action. May this flower of the genius of our fathers retain in our modern tongue a part of that freshness and perfume which were its attributes in former days!
* The Imperial Library possesses two manuscript cop
ies: one
in small folio, written in a minute round Italian hand, with
double columns of forty-five verses,—124 pages, classed
under No. 291, 2d French supplement; the other, a small
quarto, which will be found under No. 7988.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
Now of a tale of chivalry, of proper fashion, great allurement, full of-wise and courteous instances, and wherein abound acts of great prowess, strange adventures, assaults, encounters, and dread battles, you may list the telling. An it amuse you, I will relate thereof all that I do know, or that it please you to give ear unto. Let me know only that which ye desire, and if ye be inclined to listen in good sooth. When the minstrel doth indeed recite, neither should hearers buy nor sell, nor in low voice hold council; for thus the recital is lost to him who speaketh, and they methinks who listen cannot find therein great pleasure.
I come, then, to recount to you tidings of the court of good King Arthur; he who was so worthy, so valiant, and so wise, that his name shall never die, but whereof shall eternally be spoken the mighty things he did; and the good knights, all for their prowess known, whom he did gather at his famed Round Table. In that court, the fairest and most loyal that ever shone beneath the stars, all men did find that counsel and that aid of which they stood in need. There triumphed right, and there were wrongs redressed.
There dames and damsels, widows and orphans attacked unjustly, or disinherited by force, ne'er failed to meet with champions. The oppressed of all conditions there did find a refuge, and none e'er sought protection there in vain. Give, then, sweet welcome to a poem the fruit of such good place, and deign to listen unto it in peace.
The troubadour who rhymed it never knew King Arthur; but he heard the entire story told at the court of the king of Aragon, the best of monarchs in this world. *
* Don Pedro III
., killed in 1213 at the battle of Muret.
A worthy father and a famous son, lord of goodly fortunes, humble in heart, and frank in nature as in mind, the king of Aragon loveth God and feareth Him; he maintaineth faith and loyalty, peace and justice: thus God protecteth him, giveth him the victory when he raiseth his banner against the infidel, and placeth him above all those who are alike worthy and bold. Where shall we seek youthful brows wearing a crown which emitteth rays of greater splendour?
He giveth good gifts to minstrels and to knights, and his court is the resort of all those who are esteemed brave and courteous. It was before him the troubadour heard related, by a stranger-knight of kin to Arthur and Sir Gawain, the song he here hath rhymed; and whereof the first adventure occurred while the king of the Round Table held his court at Carlisle on the day of Pentecost.
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