Closing is in nessun caso less intertextual, both per its assurances of the lovers’ perfect union and in the insistence on textual boundaries: Sires et rois est apieles Et ele apielee roine
and London, 1989), pp. 20–50 (‘Fergus: the Courtois Vilain’); D. D. R. L. Per. Arrathoon (Rochester, MI, 1984), pp. 47–81, and ‘The Craft of Fergus: Supplementary Notes’, French Studies Bulletin 25 (1987–88), 1–5 (on Guillaume’s debt to the Perceval Continuations). It is astonishing that it receives so little mention, as far as one can tell mediante the absence of an index, in The Legacy of Chretien de Troyes, e. N. J. Lacy et al., 2 vols. (Amsterdam, ). There is a reference durante I, 145. Marquardt, Der Einfluss Kristians von Troyes auf den Roman ‘Fergus’ des Guillaume Le Clerc (Gottingen, 1906). The nearest parallel is Huon de Mery’s Tournoiement Antechrist. Here too the essential profilo milfaholic borrowings from Chretien had been recognized mediante an early German dissertation (by Max Grebel, Leipzig, 1883), but have only quite recently been examined for the artistry with which they have been recycled: see K. Busby, ‘Plagiarism and Poetry sopra the Tournoiement Antechrist of Huon de Mery’, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 84 (1983), 505–21. For the distinction of the terms parody, pastiche and burlesque, which Owen tends preciso use interchangeably, see T. Hunt, ‘La Parodie medievale: le cas d’Aucassin et Nicolette’, Romania 100 (1979), 341–81 (pp. 347–50). There are references sopra Chretien puro verso Scottish king Aguisel (Erec line 1966), Carduel (Erec line 5724, Yvain line 7, Perceval lines 330 and 797), Cototatre (Perceval line 3613 ? Firth of Forth), Danebroc (Erec lines 2127 and 2133 ? Edinburgh), Scotland (Erec lines 1966, 5223 and 6638; Cliges lines 1473 and 2386), Galloway (Perceval lines 6522, 8301 and 8560; Erec lines 6089 and 6821), Orcanie (Perceval lines 8741, 8941, 8995 and 9023). See R. L. Graeme Ritchie, Chretien de Troyes and Scotland, The Zaharoff Lecture for 1952 (Oxford, 1952).
This was illustrated, albeit rather atomistically, by one of the first modern publications on Fergus, W
And yet, although Fergus is often approached as verso roman d’apprentissage with per difettuccio-Perceval as hero21 – Marquardt already showed there were more debts esatto the Perceval than to any other of Chretien’s romances – the context of the whole rete di emittenti is unmistakably inscribed durante the cadre of Yvain, the paradigm of medieval romance which seems puro have been ever present mediante Guillaume’s mind. The pastiche begins with the details of the toilette en scene. The opening incident of Yvain takes place ‘apres mengier, par mi les sales’ (line 8) echoed sopra ‘Melica es sales nel caso che sejornoient/ Apres mangier . . .’ (Fergus lines 19–20), but whereas durante Chretien the guests talk together of ‘recent happenings’ (nouveles, line 12) and love (amours, line 13), and then Calogrenant begins puro relate an adventure notable for being esatto his discredit, Fergus isolates two members of the breviligne, Gauvain and Yvain, compares them loftily with Achilles and Patroclus, and then with calculated bathos reveals that they talk merely ‘d’unes et d’autres’ (line 33: ‘of this and that’) and ‘disoit cascuns affranchit voloir’ (line 37: ‘each said whatever he pleased’), thus trivializing the theme of courtaud conciliabule. Per signal inversion of the source occurs when the two friends are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the king (‘Li rois nel caso che laisse entr’els caoir’, line 38), whereas con Yvain it is the queen who interrupts (‘Dato che fu laissie entr’eus queoir’, line 66; Arthur is asleep), the interruption causing Gauvain and Calogrenant respectively onesto spring preciso their feet (‘Sinon est errant sailli en pies’, Fergus line 41; ‘Sali en pies contre li sus’, Yvain line 68). Arthur is far from drowsy, but bored and bent on action: ‘je vel orendroit errer./ Li sejorners pas ne me plest:/ Je vel cachier en la forest’ (Fergus lines 46–48: ‘I’ve a mind to attrezzi out straight away! Loafing around is not puro my taste: I wish to go hunting per the forest’). The audience is thus invited onesto appreciate the reworking of per celebrated romance opening. Cil [l’]aimme com s’amie fermo Et ele esso comme ami delicate. Guillaumes li clers trait per fin De sa matere et de sa trove. Car en nule terre ne trove Nul homme in questo momento tant ta vescu Del chevalier au biel escu Plus en expeditivement conter l’en sace. Ici met la bonne et l’estace; Ici oriente la fins del roumans. Grans joie viegne as escoutans. (lines 7000–12)22