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Contributions to the History of the Legend of Saint George, With Special Reference to the Sources of the French, German And Anglo-Saxon Metrical Versions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

John E. Matzke
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Extract

It has become evident so far that the basis for the different Latin forms of the story of the martyrdom of Saint George known in Western Europe during the Middle Ages was the apocryphal version. There is no evidence whatever of any direct influence of the Greek form of the legend upon the Latin variations. Zarneke in the Ber. ü. d. Verh. d. k. sächs. Ges. d. Wiss. zu Leipzig, 1874, p. 5, had laid down as a criterion for such influence the introduction of Diocletian and Maximian by the side of Datian; and Weber, in Z. f. r. Ph., V, p. 505, accepted this principle, and on the basis of it he made a rough classification of the different forms of the legend known to him. Our investigation, I think, has shown clearly that no historical study of the growth of the legend can be based upon this entirely external feature. The introduction of the name of Diocletian into Zc and the versions deriving from it may be due to some remote influence of the canonical version, but beyond the presence of this name, the texts of this group do not show the slightest influence of the Greek form of the legend. The further addition of Maximian was a simple and natural step, after the story of the martyrdom had been placed in the tenth persecution of the Christians, and can prove nothing. As a matter of fact, the name is found in versions that do not have the remotest connection with each other, such as Me, V, and Zc, d, e, g.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , 1903 , pp. 99 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1903

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References

Note 1 in page 99 Cp. Publications of the Modern Language Association, vol. xvii, pp. 464–535.

Note 1 in page 102 The facts concerning this date are not entirely clear. The ms. in the Bibl. Nat. F. L. 5312 reads plainly “anno igitur ab incarnatione domini ducentesimo nonagesimo residente in urbe Roma Marcellino summo pontifice et universali papa.”—Papebroch, l. c., in characterizing this version, makes the following remark: “Omitto errorem Chronologicum, quo persecutionem coeptam ponit anno Christi ccxc et quidem sub Pontificatu Marcelli, cum dicto anno sederit Cajus, decreta autem promulgata sint ultimo anno Marcellini, a nonnullis perperam cum successore Marcello confusi.” This passage was evidently misunderstood by Vetter, l. c., p. lxiv, who had seen no manuscript of this version, and he gathers here the authority for the statement that PP places the martyrdom “i. J. 290 sub pontificatu Marcelli (was nicht zusammenstimmt).” I am unable to say whether some other manuscript of PP gives the name of the pope as Marcellus, or whether Papebroch has simply committed an oversight. The Paris ms. and the text published in the Bibl. Casin are not guilty of the error, which he criticises. As far as the date is concerned, it will be noticed, that the sentence quoted above from the Paris ms. agrees verbatim with the incipit of Yκ (cp. Publications of the Modern Language Association, xvii, p. 501) with this single variation, that there the number is given as 291. This same date stands in the text printed in the Bibl. Casin., and in the Italian translation of this version, published by Isola. Inasmuch as the number 290 occurs again in Reinbot von Durne's poem, it becomes evident that both dates have a certain amount of manuscript tradition to support them.

Note 1 in page 105 Cp. Publications of the Modern Language Association, vol. xvii, p. 535.

Note 2 in page 105 La Vie de la Vierge Marie .... suivie de la vie de Saint Georges, Tours, 1859.

Note 1 in page 106 omitted.

Note 2 in page 106 seriez.

Note 3 in page 106 quil.

Note 4 in page 106 un.

Note 5 in page 106 omitted.

Note 1 in page 107 lui.

Note 2 in page 107 voy.

Note 3 in page 107 mestre.

Note 4 in page 107 omitted.

Note 5 in page 107 omitted.

Note 6 in page 107 lendemin.

Note 7 in page 107 po.

Note 8 in page 107 omitted.

Note 9 in page 107 don.

Note 10 in page 107 creiret.

Note 11 in page 107 echanteries.

Note 12 in page 107 me.

Note 1 in page 108 achenteur.

Note 2 in page 108 omitted.

Note 3 in page 108 achenteur.

Note 4 in page 108 saue.

Note 5 in page 108 autre.

Note 6 in page 108 menz.

Note 7 in page 108 menz.

Note 8 in page 108 feste.

Note 9 in page 108 Evidently a deterioration of the name Apollo.

Note 10 in page 108 ms. indistinct.

Note 11 in page 108 ms. very indistinct.

Note 1 in page 109 ut qui.

Note 2 in page 109 consequamur.

Note 1 in page 112 La vie de la vierge Marie .... suivie de la vie de Saint George, Tours, 1859.

Note 2 in page 112 Weber compares this poem with that of Simund de Freine, with the O. H. G. poem, and with G, the only one of the apocryphal versions known to him, which he calls L. The following is a tabulation of his conclusions:

Note 1 in page 113 Cp. Publications of the Modem Language Association, vol. xvii, pp. 605 and 527.

Note 1 in page 114 In γ the names of the idols are given once as here, another time as indicated, Publications of the Modern Language Association, vol. xvii, p. 495.

Note 2 in page 114 A similar alteration exists in the Anglo-Saxon Passion of St. George by Aelfric; cp. below, p. 146.

Note 3 in page 114 Cp. above, p. 105.

Note 1 in page 115 For the full text of the poem cp. below, p. 158.

Note 1 in page 117 The Legenda Aurea contains the fight with the dragon followed by Ze.

Note 1 in page 120 An edition of this poem as well as of the Roman de la Philosophie by the same author, prepared by the writer, has been accepted for publication by the Société des Anciens Textes Français.

Note 1 in page 124 Cp. Pubs. Mod. Lang. Ass., xvii, pp. 469 and 476–477.

Note 1 in page 125 Cf. Willelmi Malmesbiriensis Monachi De Gestis Regum Anglorum libri quinque, publ. by M. W. Stubbs, London, 1889, vol. ii, p. 420.

Note 2 in page 125 Cp. La Conquête de Jérusalem, publ. by Hippean, 1868, ll. 5388–5421.

Note 3 in page 125 Cp. L'Estoire de la Guerre Sainte par Ambroise, publ. by G. Paris, 1897, s. v. Saint Jorge in the Table.

Note 1 in page 126 For further particulars in this connection cf. below, pp. 150 ff.

Note 2 in page 126 Cp. below, p. 137.

Note 1 in page 127 Kögel, Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur, 1–2, p. 95, accepts as an alternative the possibility that the copy was made from dictation. In that case the person dictating recited from memory. On no other supposition can the errors in the order of the lines be explained.

Note 2 in page 127 Köpke's Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter der Herrschaft Otto's, i, p. 97.

Note 3 in page 127 Haupt, Berichte der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1854, pp. 501 ff.

Note 1 in page 131 Cp. above, p. 122.

Note 1 in page 138 The version referred to is our Yβ; cp. Fubs. Mod. Lang. Ass., xvii, p. 493.

Note 1 in page 140 Cp. Budge, l. c., pp. 281 ff. His father was governor of Palestine, but the name is not given; elsewhere he is called Anastasius; cp. ibid., p. xviii. In the Greek apocryphal version cited Pubs. Mod. Lang. Ass'n, xvii, p. 490 (V2), the name of his father is Gerontios. His mother's name in the Coptic versions is Kîra Theognosta, and two sisters are mentioned, ibid., by the names of Kasia and Mathrôna.

Note 2 in page 140 Cp. Pubs. Mod. Lang. Ass'n, xvii, p. 481.

Note 3 in page 140 Cp. Vetter, l. c., p. lxvi, note.

Note 1 in page 141 Cp. below, p. 153.

Note 2 in page 141 Cp. Alixandrina in Yγ and Alisandrine in SFr, but Alexandria in A, Alixandre in Y α, β, Alexandra in Y $sN, $eP, κ, Alexandria in Y δ and .

Note 1 in page 142 Both names are mentioned in V1 of the Greek apocryphal group.

Note 1 in page 143 It is unnecessary to dwell on the inaccuracies of Vetter's assertions. The name Johel points to S and not to Sg, while the conversion of Magnentius, which, he says, does not occur in the apocryphal versions, is a feature of family Y.

Note 2 in page 143 Giving to the incidents of A and E the numbering which the same paragraphs have in O, we should have for A the order: 1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 7, 13–14, 8, 13 (?)-15, 10, 17, 18. In E the same method would give us the following enumeration: 1, 11, 13, 14, 5, 15, 10, 7. All peculiarities of R are left out of consideration in this statement, but it is evident that A and E have nothing in common as far as the order of the story is concerned.

Note 3 in page 143 und sprâchen zuo mir: “Reinbot,

du solt ein buoch tihten

in tiusche sprâche rillten

von dem lieben herren mîn,

dem wir wellen undertaenik sîn,

Sant Geôrien, der uns selten ie

ze dheinen noeten verlie.“ ll. 20–26.

von Düringen lantgrâf Herman

in franzois geschriben vant

—daz er in tiusche tet bekant—

von Wilhelm von Naribôn,

des er hiute hât ze himel lôn;

er was des buoches urhap,

wan er die materie gap

hern Wolfram von Eschenbach;

swa er von Wilhelme sprach,

da ist von dem lantgrâven komen:

so wirt di buoch hie vernomen

von dem herzogen Otten. ll. 34–45.

Note 1 in page 144 Capadociâ

dannen Alexandrînâ

was geborn diu künigin

und anderhalb ein Franzoisin ll. 1319–1322.

For the other passage, ll. 2504–2505, cp. below.

Note 2 in page 144 Cp. ll. 3266 ff. and ll. 4118–4119.

Note 1 in page 145 Germanic scholars may be able to decide whether ‘Hie tuot uns die sehrift kunt,‘ l. 4289, has the appearance of a reference to a French poem.

Note 1 in page 149 The story is published AA. SS. Aprilis, iii, p. 144 D, and also Migne, Patrol. Lat., vol. 88, p. 811.

Note 1 in page 150 Passent le bras Saint Jorge a petite navie.

Chans. d'Antioche, ed. P. Paris, p. 22.

Note 1 in page 151 Cp. our version V1, published in part by Vesclófskij, l. c., p. 198.

Note 2 in page 151 Cp. Budge, l. c., pp. 237 and 282.

Note 3 in page 151 The power of Saint George as a protector in time of war and the fame of this church are spoken of in the French version of his Passion of the xiii century, preserved in the Arsenal Library in Paris, ms. 570.—Incipit (fo. 106 r). C'est la vie et lai passion monsignour Saint Gorge, commant il fut martyriés. Et que chescun hons d'armes lai doit porter sor lui (en) bataille et en autres leus perillous. Car saichies, que lou jour c'on l'auroit lue ou oi (ms. oir) lire, nulz mals ne puet avenir, ne ne puet estre prins (ms. prin) ne vancus (sic) de ses anemins. ... Et ii rois qui estoient Greus firent (fo. 109 v) dous esglizes en l'onour de monsignour Saint Jorge. L'une en Capadoce et l'autre en Palestine et pluxours autres esglizes qui furent faites en l'onour de monsignour Saint Jorge. . . .

Note 1 in page 153 De Gestis Regum Anglorum, ed. Stubbs, London, 1889, vol. ii, p. 420.

Note 1 in page 154 Ed. Hippean, Paris, 1868.

Note 1 in page 155 Published by G. Paris, Paris, 1897.

Note 2 in page 155 Saint George as a battle-cry is found soon after the third crusade in the Roman de l'Escoufle, composed by an unknown Norman jongleur before 1204; cp.

Puis escrient lor anemis

“Traï, traï! Feres, feres!

Felon paien, n'i garires

S'onques diex fist riens por Saint Jorge.

ll. 934–937.

Note 1 in page 156 Published by W. Stubbs, London, 1864 (Rolls Series).

Note 2 in page 156 The poem is still unpublished. The scene in question is cited by Gautier, La Chevalerie, p. 138; also Épopées Françaises, iii, pp. 88 and 91.

Note 1 in page 157 Published by P. Paris, 1833–1835, vol. ii, p. 108.

Note 2 in page 157 Published by Volmöller, Altfranzösische Bibliothek, vol. iii.

Note 1 in page 159 Two lines are here left blank in the ms.

26 filies. 27 pas.