Romance Texts

I am not referring here to romance novels but the tales (and epic poems) of chivalry.  These are on my mind lately, primarily because I am slowly working my way through Don Quixote, and the Don's brain has been turned to mush by reading too many romances, most of which (according to Cervantes) are very silly, aside from Amadis of Gaul by Vasco Lobeira, which I've never read and am not that likely to, though I suppose never say never.  It's not entirely clear to me if Cervantes would have been aware of Malory's Morte D'Arthur, but probably not.  Though he was aware of the Arthurian legends in a general way.

As it happens, after a delay of many, many months, I finally fired up the DVD player last night and watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail and their extremely silly take on Malory.  (It looks like I should be able to get to Life of Brian and Meaning of Life next weekend, of course I said that already back in January!)

While I have detoured very much from my original path, I've actually done moderately well in reading the missing Greek and Roman texts (at least until we get to the various histories) from my undergraduate education.  Based on this list, I should aim to get to On the Nature of Things, Juvenal's Satires, Horace's Odes and then Ovid's Poems of Exile (if I can ever get back over to Robarts!) and then I will feel I've done a decent job in hitting the highlights at least.

For whatever reason, I actually did read an awful lot of middle English and romance texts, starting in high school and ending in graduate school.  In fact, leaving aside Amadis of Gaul, I think I've read everything on this list except for La Chason de Roland, The Heptameron and the poems by Chrétien de Troyes.  But I also have to admit that I don't remember a lot of them in any great detail, so I am at least considering rereading (or re-skimming) some of them.  I am going to cheat a bit by adding some of the bawdier precursors to this list (where there are gallant knights in some tales but also more nefarious goings on, and a peculiar obsession with cuckoldry!), and those would be the ones I would likely start with.  The dates in the list will refer to date of composition or first publication where known.

La Chanson de Roland (c. 1115)  Lots of uncertainty around this text.  I'll probably tackle it in an Oxford edition with the old French and a modern English translation.  

El Cantar de mio Cid (The Song of the Cid) (c. 1140) Not familiar with this work either.

Chrétien de Troyes: Yvain, the Knight of the Lion (c. 1180) Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (c. 1180) and Perceval, the Story of the Grail (c. 1190)  Not too familiar with his work.  If I do read any, I am not sure if I will stick to only what de Troyes wrote or dip into the the Four Continuations.

R Boccaccio The Decameron (1353)  I'm actually not entirely sure where my copy has gotten to (and whether I had the Penguin or Oxford edition).  

R Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c 1380)

R Chaucer The Canterbury Tales (c. 1400) I actually read it (in middle English) in Honors English. Nevill Coghill's modern English adaptation often gets high marks.

R Malory Le Morte d'Arthur (1485) I think I'd stick with the Oxford version called Works.

Lobeira Amadis of Gaul (1508) The Robert Southey translation is out of copyright and seems to be the primary one on the various free download sites, so if I ever do read it, it will likely be that way.

R Ariosto Orlando Furioso (1516) This is definitely epic in scale.  I feel the Barbara Reynolds translation (Penguin) is really the best way to read it, though there is a much more modern, freer translation floating around.  I actually lost one volume from the set, though I was able to eventually replace it.  While this does deserve to be reread, I am just not sure I will ever find the time.

Marguerite de Navarre The Heptameron (1558) I think I do have a copy of the Penguin edition, but am not sure where this is either.  When I stumble across it, I'll see if I can set aside the time to read it then.

R Spenser The Faerie Queene (1596) I read this in graduate school.  It had its moments but definitely felt too long.  I can't remember much of it, and am fairly unlikely to reread at this point.  I did see that there is an illustrated version that just focuses on the story lines of the various sections. I might check that out instead.

After taking another look at this list, I will surely sound out La Chanson de Roland and will likely reread Chaucer and Boccaccio. I'm also likely to read The Heptameron sooner rather than later. I'm less sure about Malory or Ariosto or tackling de Troyes, and frankly I'm fairly unlikely to read Amadis of Gaul or reread The Faerie Queene.

Edit (11/10) I will take it as a sign that a copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ended up in my Little Free Library.  This translation (Marie Borroff) may well be the one I read in Honors English, but I can't recall.  It is quite a short text (60 pages including all the notes), so I will be able to read it and put it back in the library right away.