Editions and Continuations
The chanson de geste that has come down to us (in 3 more or less complete manuscripts and 2 short fragments) comprises 10,553 decasyllable verses grouped in 91 assonanced laisses. Presumed dates for its composition vary, but 1216-1268 are generally give as terminus post quem and terminus ante quem.
The chanson was very successful and incited 6 continuations and 1 prologue which triple its length:
- Roman d'Aubéron - the Turin manuscript of the romance (the only manuscript to contain all of the continuations) contains the only version of this 14th-century prologue in the shape of a separate romance of Auberon. No prose version exists.
- Huon Roi de Féérie
- Chanson d'Esclarmonde
- Chanson de Clarisse et Florent
- Chanson d'Yde et d'Olive
- Chanson de Godin - the Turin manuscript of the romance contains the only version of this 13th-14th century continuation. No prose version exists.
- Roman de Croissant.
The Turin manuscript also contains the romance of Les Lorrains a summary in seventeen lines of another version of the story, according to which Huon's exile is due to his having slain a count in the emperor's palace.
The poem and several of its continuations were converted to a rhymed version in alexandrines in the 15th century (only one manuscript exists).
The poem and most of its continuations were put into a prose version in 1454. While no manuscripts exists from the 15th century prose version, this version served as the base text for 16th century printed editions (eleven exist), the earliest extant being the edition printed by Michel le Noir in 1513. The work was reprinted 10 times in the 17th century, 8 times in the 18th and 4 times in the 19th (notably in a beautifully printed and illustrated adaptation (1898) in modern French by Gaston Paris).
The romance had a great vogue in England through the translation (c. 1540) of John Bourchier, Lord Berners, as Huon of Burdeuxe, through which Shakespeare heard of the French epic. In Philip Henslowe's diary there is a note of a performance of a play, Hewen of Burdocize, on December 28, 1593.
The tale was dramatized and produced in Paris by the Confrérie de la Passion in 1557.
Andre Norton retold the tale in quasi-modern English prose as Huon of the Horn in 1951.
Read more about this topic: Huon Of Bordeaux
Famous quotes containing the word editions:
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)