Bevis of Hampton
Bevis of Hampton (
Legend
Sir Bevis of Hampton (c. 1324) is a Middle English romance. It contains many themes common to that genre: a hero whose exploits take him from callow youth to hard-won maturity, ending with a serene and almost sanctified death. Supporting him are a resourceful, appealing heroine and faithful servants set against dynastic intrigue, and a parade of interesting villains, both foreign and domestic. The plot has a geographical sweep that moves back and forth from England to the Near East and through most of western Europe, replete with battles against dragons, giants and other mythical creatures. Forced marriages, episodes of domestic violence, a myriad of disguises and mistaken identities, harsh imprisonments with dramatic escapes, harrowing rescues, and violent urban warfare fill out the protagonist's experiences. Last but not least, he has a horse of such valor that the horse's death at the end of the poem is at least as tragic as that of the heroine, and almost as tragic as that of Bevis himself. Not surprisingly though, this much variety makes the poem a difficult one to characterize with any degree of certainty, and several other factors make it a poem that is perhaps easier to enjoy than to evaluate accurately.
Bevis is the son of Guy, the count of Hampton (
Bevis is subsequently sold to
Texts
The oldest version known, Boeve de Haumtone, is an
Three continental French
The English metrical romance, Sir Beues of Hamtoun (see Matter of England[6]), is founded based on some French origins, varying slightly from those that have been preserved. The oldest manuscript dates from the beginning of the 14th century.[3] A translation into Irish survives in a 15th-century manuscript.[7]
The printed editions of the story were most numerous in
From Italian, it passed into Yiddish, where the Bovo-Bukh became the first non-religious book to be printed in Yiddish. The most popular and critically honored Yiddish-language chivalry romance.[9]
In Russia, the romance attained an unparalleled popularity and became a part of
Editions
- Eugen Kölbing (ed.), The Romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton, Early English Text Society, Extra Series, 46, 48, 65 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trūbner, 1885–94).
- Ronald B. Herzman, Graham Dixon, and Eve Salisbury (eds), Four Romances of England (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1999).
- Jennifer Fellows (ed.), Sir Bevis of Hampton, Edited from Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS XIII.B.29 and Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.2.38, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 349–50, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), ISBN 978-0-19-881190-9
Sources
R. Zenker (Boeve-Amlethus, Berlin and Leipzig, 1904) established a close parallel between Bevis and the
See also
Literature
- The information about the Yiddish version can be found in ISBN 0-8246-0124-6.
- (in French) Geneviève Hasenohr and Michel Zink, eds. Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Age. Collection: La Pochothèque. Paris: Fayard, 1992. ISBN 2-253-05662-6
External links
- Media related to Bevis of Hampton at Wikimedia Commons
- Bevis of Hampton in the original Middle English: University of Rochester, Middle English Text Series – Texts Online: from Four Romances of England: King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston, 1999, edited by Ronald B. Herzman, Graham Drake and Eve Salisbury, Medieval Institute Publications for TEAMS.
- Sir Bevis of Hampton translated and retold in modern English prose, the story from Naples Biblioteca Nazionale MS XIII.B.29 with fragments from Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.2.1 (the Auchinleck MS) (from the Middle English of the Early English Text Society edition: Jennifer Fellows, 2017, Sir Bevis of Hampton, 2 vols, EETS and Oxford University Press).
- Arlima: Beuve de Hantone
References
- ^ BBC Cannes showing of medieval Southampton's Sir Bevois, 27 January 2010
- ^ a b c d e f g Hasenohr, 173–4.
- ^ a b c d public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bevis of Hampton". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 836–837. which in turn, references
- The Romance of Sir Beues of Hamtoun, edited from six manuscripts and the edition (without date) of Richard Pynson, by Eugen Kölbing (Early Eng. Text Soc., 1885, 1886, 1894)
- Albert Stimming, Der anglonormannische Boeve de Haumtone, in Hermann Suchier's Bibi. Norm. vol. vii. (Halle, 1899)
- the Welsh version, with a translation, is given by Robert Williams, Selections of the Hengwrt manuscripts (vol. ii., London, 1892)
- the Old Norse version Fornsögur Sudhrlanda, edited by G. Cederschiöld, (Lund, 1884)
- A. Wesselofsky, Zum russischen Bovo d'Antona (in Archiv für slav. Phil. vol. viii., 1885)
- For the early printed editions of the romance in English, French and Italian see G. Brunet, Manuel du libraire, s.vv. Bevis, Beufues, and Buovo.
- ^ Förster, Wendelin (1876–1882). Aiol et Mirabel und Elie de Saint Gille: Zwei Altfranzösische Heldengedichte. p. i.
- ^ ISBN 0824047877.
- ISBN 1-84384-155-X, 9781843841555. pp. 29–42
- ^ "The Irish Lives of Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Hampton". www.ucc.ie. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
- ^ Claudia Rosenzweig Bovo d'Antona by Elye Bokher. A Yiddish Romance: A Critical Edition 2015 9004306854 "The Buovo d'Antona printed in 1497 is not Tuscan, as Rajna assumed, but Padan (that is, of the region of the Po Valley) ... Delcorno Branca has recently edited a critical edition of this 1480 print: Buovo d'Antona: Cantari in ottava rima (1480)."
- ^ Willem Pieter Gerritsen, Anthony G. Van Melle A Dictionary of Medieval Heroes: Characters in Medieval Narrative 0851157807 - 2000 "The Tuscan poem was translated into Yiddish in Venice in 1501 by the Jewish humanist Elia Levita. His Bow- or Baba-boek, also in also in ottava rima, first appeared in print in 1547 and was regularly reprinted throughout Central and Eastern Europe until well into the 19th century. ..."