Lion De Bourges the Chanson De Lion De Bourges Is Known by Two Manuscripts, Both in the Bibliothèque Nationale and Both Unedited

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William W. Kibler Jean-Louis Picherit Lion de Bourges The Chanson de Lion de Bourges is known by two manuscripts, both in the Bibliothèque nationale and both unedited. The later, a deluxe manuscript of the sixteenth century on vellum, B.N. f. fr. 351, contains an octosyllabic version of the poem. The earlier, B.N. f. fr. 22555 (formerly Sorbonne 450), is a very unattractive manuscript of the fifteenth century on paper, containing 34,298 Alexandrines divided into 692 laisses. The Alexandrine text, copied by an eastern Picard or Lothar- angian scribe, clearly represents a more archaic version of the poem and has therefore been chosen as the basis for our forthcoming edition and for the present résumé. B.N. f. fr. 22555 has 253 folios measuring 28.5 by 39.5 centi- meters. The paper's watermark shows a bunch of grapes and a scale.1 The last folio is fragmentary, a fact which is noted on the first page: "Il ne reste qu'un fragment du folio 253 et dernier de ce manuscrit. 9 juillet 1867." The Chanson de Lion de Bourges is found on folios 1 recto to 183 verso; however, three-quarters of folio 176 verso is blank, and folio 81 recto and verso repeats folio 80 recto and verso. The folios are numbered by the scribe in Roman numerals in the upper right-center of each recto. Lion de Bourges is followed in ms. 22555 by the Livre de huelin de bourdialx Et du roi abron (folios 184 to 247 verso) and by a three-part suite to Huon de Bordeaux (folios 248 recto to 253). The text of Lion is copied in two columns of from 40 to 55 lines. The first 138 folios generally have 48-52 lines per column, while the last half of the poem regularly contains less than 45 lines per column. All of the epic, except lines 32,942-33,138 (folios 175b-176c), is in a single hand-which Léon Gautier has described as "une méchante écriture cursive,"2 and which Ruelle terms "fort négligé."3 The hand which copied 175b-176c is, if possible, worse. The principal scribe

1Pierre Ruelle in his edition of Huon de Bordeaux (Brussels and Paris: Presses universitaires, 1960), pp. 11-12, describes our manuscript and notes that this double watermark is not to be found in C. M. Briquet, Les filigranes, Dictionnaire historique des marques de papier, (Paris: Picard, 1907).

2Les Epopées françaises, 2nd ed., vol. II (Paris: H. Welter, 1892), p. 461 n. 1. 3Ruelle, HB, p. 12. 5 6 Olifant/Vol. 2, No. 1/October 1974 often fails to distinguish s and f or b and v, and it is frequently difficult for the modern transcriber to distinguish n, u, i from r and, occasionally, a, r from e. There are numerous instances in which the scribe either omitted or repeated lines; he was particularly given to transcribing the first line of a following laisse at the end of the preceding one. Many blatant mistranscriptions or impossible readings suggest that the scribe was copying a text containing archaisms which he could not understand. The text contains no miniatures and little decoration. The initial letter of the first laisse only, an S, extends for 12 lines and contains numerous tiny circles and the legend "Jhesus Maria Johannes orate pro me." The entire first word of each of the initial 69 laisses is written in letters two lines high; beginning with laisse 70, however, and continuing to the end, only the initial letter of each laisse is enlarged. Initial letters of words in the top lines of columns are frequently extended high into the upper margin, and on two occasions (folios 77a and 103a) the scribe has whimsically developed his initial letter into male profiles. The archaizing tendancies of composers of chansons de geste, especially in the later period, make the dating of a poem such as Lion rather risky. There are analogies with and allusions to a great number of chansons de geste, but those to which it appears most closely related are Anseïs de Cartage, Parise la Duchesse, and Tristan de Nanteuil. This final epic, remarkably similar in style to Lion, contains the only known allusion to it in French epic literature: "Ha! sire, dist ly enffes, pour Dieu nous vous prïon C'on lest le roy [Guintelin] aller a sa salvacïon." Adonc lui ottroierent ly loyal compaignon. Las! pour quoy ne l'occïent ly nobille baron? Car puis fist tant de mal l'empereeur Charlon Entre lui et Gombault le traïstre larron, Que Charles en souffry mainte perdicïon; Mais puis en fut vengés par le bon duc Lÿon Qui fut sires de Bourges, la cité de renon. (23298-23306)4 This passage, coming in the penultimate laisse of Tristan de Nanteuil, clearly alludes to one of the episodes of our epic. Whether the author of TN knew our epic and was thus placing his work within its sphere, or whether he was here announcing a continuation of TN that he was preparing to compose, we can be certain the Lion is not far removed in date from its sister epic, with which it shares so much both in style and

4Tristan de Nanteuil, ed. K. V. Sinclair (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1971). Kibler & Picherit/Lion de Bourges 7 content.5 The editor of TN, Professor K. V. Sinclair, places his poem in the mid-fourteenth century, and we have no reasons at present to doubt this dating. The author of Lion de Bourges is anonymous, but a study of the language of the poem which we are currently undertaking suggests prelim- inarily that he came from Picardy. Because of its length, its unattractive manuscript, and its stylistic inadequacies, Lion de Bourges has a poor reputation among those very few critics who have even taken note of it. It was clearly a text intended for the masses, ever eager to hear more of the pretended adventures of their legendary kings and heroes. In its day it must have served a function very similar to that played in the past by the roman feuilleton, or today by the seemingly endless peripeties of radio or television serials, or the complicated intrigues of romanticizing, pseudo-historical novels. Precisely because of its popular nature, Lion contains many folk motifs as well as numerous situational analogies with other literature of its day. We are pleased that the editors of Olifant have agreed to run Lion as a sort of roman feuilleton, for this is surely the quickest and most effective method of bringing this vast poem to the attention of interested scholars. While our re-telling is accurate in all its details, the episodes and conversations have necessarily been reduced to their essentials, and we have grouped sections by subject to make the summary more fluid. At the end of each part we give the line references to the sections covered.

Part I: HOW HARPIN AND ALIS WERE BANISHED FROM THEIR LAND; THEIR WAN- DERINGS, AND THE UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR HERO'S BIRTH. Listen and I shall tell you the true story of Lion, of how his father Harpin was banished from Bourges by Charlemagne, and of how Lion returned to sound the magic horn and reclaim his inheritance. But first I must tell you of his birth. At Charlemagne's court in Paris at the feast of Pentecost, all his barons but one, Harpin of Bourges, were assembled. "The pagans will never have peace until I have conquered them all," cried Charlemagne. Clariant, Ganelon's uncle, exclaimed: "All your barons are prepared to serve you except Harpin, lord of Bourges. He bears you no honor; you have suffered him too long!" —"By St. Denis, I believe you!" answered Charles. Harpin, delayed by his beautiful wife, Alis, arrived in time to learn of this treasonous accusation. He strode swiftly into the palace where, with one mighty blow, he slew Clariant. In the ensuing melee

5We are presently preparing studies on the dating and literary relations of Lion de Bourges. 8 Olifant/Vol. 2, No. 1/October 1974 between partisans of the two rivals the food-laden tables were upset and blood flowed so thickly over the stone floor that in places it was ankle- deep. Charlemagne, enraged, ordered Harpin to be hanged, but through the intercessions of Ogier the Dane, Naimon of Bavaria, and Alis his sentence was reduced to banishment from Bourges and France. Harpin, with tears in his eyes, bid farewell to his retainers: "We leave you saddened; but my wife is with child, and if we have a son I will send him back to you." —"Alas," said Ogier, "we shall not recognize him." —"You will," re- plied Harpin, "for there is a horn in Bourges which only the rightful heir can sound. By this horn you will know my son." Harpin and Alis began their sad and difficult journey across Berry into Lombardy. There, in a forest, Alis felt her hour at hand and sent Harpin off to seek a midwife. While he was still away she bore him a son whose regal ancestry was made manifest by a red cross imprinted upon his right shoulder. Before Harpin could return three robbers made off with Alis, abandoning the defenseless infant. The boy was clothed by four fairies, who promised him prowess, long life, fame and riches. But they did not disturb him and soon a lioness came to take the child back to her den. When Harpin returned he found neither wife nor child. A great storm came up that night and wild beasts populated the forest; Harpin greatly feared God's wrath for having abandoned Alis in her time of need. Harpin wandered off alone through the forests of Lombardy until he came to Florence, where he asked for alms at an abbey. The abbot was from Brie and knew Harpin well; he agreed to accompany the disconsolate baron into the woods around Rome to found a hermitage and pray for the soul of Alis. Alis, meanwhile, had come to Toledo. The three thieves, as if in answer to her prayers, all killed each other in their desire for her favors. Alis dressed herself in the clothes of one of the robbers and, thus disguised as a man, made her way to a port where she set sail with a merchant fleet for the Holy Land, in hope of finding Harpin. Scarcely had they set sail when the fiercest storm they'd ever seen destroyed all save one of their thirty vessels. The lady's ship by God's will was spared and found port in Spain. Alis went to Toledo where, still in disguise, she was taken on as a kitchen knave by the Saracen Emir of Castille. She quickly became proficient in the Saracen tongue and, with the name Ballian d'Aragonne, was attached to the household of the king's daughter, Florie. For eighteen years she labored in the kitchens. At this time Toledo was besieged by Marcilie, the very king who had led the attack on Roland at Roncevaux. His champion was a giant, Lucien, who challenged any ten men. No one dared oppose him until Ballian was told in a vision that her husband and son were alive and that Jesus had chosen her to slay the giant. When she asked the cook's aid in procuring arms and armor, he scoffed at her, saying: "Why d'ya Kibler & Picherit/Lion de Bourges 9 wake me up for such foolishness? Better to arm the hunchbacks and the lame! Get back and kindle your fires!" Ballian persisted, finally found arms at a cobbler's shop, and set off quietly before dawn to meet Lucien. The giant, too, scoffed at her and her rusty armor, but soon found himself disarmed and under a barrage of stones. When she had killed him she cut out his tongue and put it in a sack, then returned in secret to her place in the kitchen. In the morning a cry went up through Toledo that the giant was dead. "By Mahomet," said the Emir, "and who dared go forth to meet him? I will give him fourteen mighty castles and four thousand bezants income every year!" When this handsome reward was announced, a knight from Toledo came forth to claim it, carrying the giant's head. Upon hearing this, Ballian left the kitchens, came into the Emir's presence and presented the tongue. "My lord," said the knight, "such a lowly knave never slew that giant. He stole the tongue after I'd cut it out!" The Emir ordered that the dispute be settled by a single combat and, with God's aid, Ballian overcame the Turk. Her handsomeness and skill with arms attracted the attention of Florie, who vowed to have Ballian for her husband. Ballian, made seneschal, chamberlain, and maréchal of Toledo, led the attack on Marsilie and arranged a two-year truce. Florie, ever more eager for Ballian's attentions, could not understand how he had been able to resist her advances. Alis demured as long as possible, but was finally forced to reveal her true state. When Florie told her father of this unexpected development, the Emir himself determined to have his champion's hand. Alis, knowing by her dream that her husband Harpin was still alive somewhere, prayed that night that she might be spared the sin and sacrilege of marrying the Emir. God's angel answered: "The crucified Lord wishes you to leave this palace, for your life has been too easy here. The road to heaven is not an easy one: you must steal away and live in misery by begging in the streets. But do not leave this city, for here you will be re- united with your son and husband." When the duchess heard God's command, she praised Him and willingly did His bidding. The next morning the Emir was anxious to conclude the marriage ceremony, but Alis was nowhere to be found. He raged at Florie: "You've had her killed because you were afraid she would bear a son who would disinherit you! But, by Mahomet, I'll have you burned!" Florie threw herself at her father's feet, but he had her dragged away and imprisoned. Now at this time two magicians, Gonbaut and Mandait, were returning from Cologne to Toledo. Gonbaut, who was in communication with the devil himself, was told of Florie's innocence; he was also told that Alis was Christian and had a son named Lion who would be the cause of his own death. When he told the Emir, the Emir believed him and released his daughter. 10 Olifant/Vol. 2, No. 1/October 1974

In the forest of Rommenie, Harpin and the abbot had spent eighteen years praying for Alis. When they were suddenly attacked by Sara- cens, the abbot massacred, Harpin forgot his monkish oaths and killed the four attackers. He then donned their armor and went to Rome, where he earned the Pope's attention by killing the Sultan of Acre and the Emir of Palerno and putting the remainder of the Saracens to rout. The Pope raised Harpin to great honors and presented him with a magic ring. Har- pin' s powerful position aroused the jealousy of Gaudiffer, the former favorite. Determined to be rid of his new rival, Gaudiffer invited Har- pin to accompany him on a pilgrimage. The first night, while Harpin slept beside him, Gaudiffer stole his magic ring. At Brindisi, he arranged to sell Harpin to pagan merchants who were in port. The pagan ships carried him to the prisons of the king of Cyprus, who sent him along with a number of other Christian captives as a gift to the Emir of Toledo. Their lives were spared at the request of Florie, who reminded her father that it was a Christian, Ballian, who had once saved his city, and that these Christians might be useful to him when his truce with Marcilie was ended. (1-500; 613-894; 1420-3577)

Part II: HOW LION WAS SAVED BY BAUDUYN DE MONCLIN, AND HOW HE GREW IN AGE AND PROWESS. THE TOURNAMENT IN SICILY AND HOW LION ENCOUNTERED THE WHITE KNIGHT AND WON HIS BRIDE. I shall leave for a while the adventures of Harpin and his wife, Alis, and tell you now of their son who had been rescued by the lioness. Four days later a valiant Lombard, Bauduyn, who held the castle of Mon- clin near Florence, was hunting in the woods when he discovered a lioness giving suck to a human child. By the red cross on his shoulder, Bauduyn knew that he was of noble lineage and determined at once to take him to his castle and raise him as his own son. He had the infant baptized and named Lion, in honor of the beast that had nourished and protected him. (It was a lioness, but we shall call him Lion since it is easier to rhyme.) The chronicle from which I have taken my story says that a lioness died of grief when the child was taken from her. Lion grew in age and prowess and became a great follower of the tournaments. In the jousts and tourneys he was always the bravest and most generous and rarely returned without the prize. By his largesse he destroyed Bauduyn's fortune and engendered ten bastards in the ladies he loved. In his fifteenth year he returned from the Pentecost jousts and announced that he had called a tournament to be held at Monclin a month and a day hence. Bauduyn, in tears, told him: "Fair son, our situation is desperate: you have acquired so many debts that I've had to sell my lands and castle. I have lost everything because of you." Lion was forced to dismiss his retinue, but he could not give up the tournaments entirely, so now he went alone to watch them. Kibler & Picherit/Lion de Bourges 11

Lion learned of a great tournament to be held at Monlusant in Sicily. The prize was to be the hand of the daughter and only heir of the aging King Henry. Lion was determined that, in spite of his poverty, he would have her for his bride. The powerful Seneschal of Florence was as much in love with the princess as was Lion. He had heard, too, of Lion's skill in the jousts and knew of his present impoverished state. He asked Lion to be his champion. Lion consented . . . but only if he could have the hand of the princess! He refused to compromise further, even at the urging of Bauduyn, and his haughty attitude angered both his father and the Senes- chal. As the time for the tournament drew near, Lion asked Bauduyn for a horse. "With what can I buy it? You have spent all I had. If you were my son it would not matter. ..." —"Father, I'm a fool to love you when you renounce me thus; but never could poverty make me deny you are my father!" Bauduyn then told Lion of his discovery and gave him the silken cloth in which he had been swaddled. Lion promised to repay Bauduyn all he had squandered and, with only the cloth to guide him, set off to find his true parents. On his way to the tournament, Lion encountered Ganor, a squire who had once served in the household of Harpin and Alis. Ganor told of their banishment and of how he had fled for his life in the forest near Florence. When he returned to Bourges and told his story, his life was spared only on condition that he seek until he find them again, so for the past fifteen years he had wandered through many lands. Lion promised to help Ganor in his quest if Ganor would first accompany him to Sicily. When they arrived at Monlusant, they were turned away from one inn after another because Lion was so poorly equipped. One innkeeper, Thiery, told him: "I'll never again be tricked by any knight! Up there hanging in a sack is a knight who died ten years ago owing me a hundred pounds. He'll never be buried in consecrated soil until he pays me back!" Lion, shocked at the sacrilege, gave his last denier to assure the burial of the unfortunate knight. Impressed by the new knight's generosity, Thiery welcomed him to his inn. Several days after the burial, Lion invited all the barons in town to a feast at his lodgings, which he assured the skeptical Thiery he could afford. That afternoon the knights who were to vie for the hand of the princess Florantine paraded, four abreast, before her and her attendants in their reviewing stand. Florantine thought first that the Duke of Geneva or the son of the emperor of Constantinople must surely be the handsomest and bravest, but she had not yet seen Lion! When he passed before the stand, she knew at once that, despite his poor attire and sickly horse, he was the finest knight of all, and to him she awarded a chaplet of roses. Lion returned to find a crowd assembled 12 Olifant/Vol. 2, No. 1/October 1974 before his lodgings, led by the kindly Duke Raymon of Vauvenisse. To the duke's request that Lion serve him in the tourney, he gave a polite re- fusal but did promise to side with him. When the knights left that eve- ning, Lion refused to let them pay for their meals, though he did not yet know where he would find the wealth to do so himself. Thiery was ready to throw Lion out, but his wife urged restraint. That night Florantine sent Marie, her lady-in-waiting, to bring Lion to her chambers. They spoke of love until the dawn when Florantine, anxious that Lion might be too tired to fight well, urged him to sleep in her quarters. While he slept, she sent Marie to the innkeeper with instructions that he was to provide Lion with anything that he might require, without question. The next day, Lion rode boldly onto the field alone. That day, God sent him a loyal companion, dressed in armor whiter than the purest wool and riding a snow-white charger. "Sir, I have no companion but God," said the White Knight. "You are alone and a single knight is of little worth in a tournament. Therefore I will join with you and promise you half of all I win." —"And I will share half my winnings with you, on condition that I may keep Florantine if I should win her," re- plied Lion. And the White Knight answered: "I accept that condition." On the field that day were four princes, four dukes, and twelve counts, but none shown brighter than Lion and the White Knight who, you must now know, was none other than the poor knight Lion had buried. By their prowess they overcame the combined efforts of the Duke of Calla- bria, the Seneschal of Florence, and the Prince of Tarante. Florantine and her father were convinced that the prize must surely go to Lion, but the ladies-in-waiting, from whom the final decision must come, were sharply divided in their loyalties. Genoivre of Callabria, especially, was adamant that the prize not be awarded to the unworthy Lion, but to her cousin, Duke Garnier. "My lady," said she, "I would rather be killed than see you given to a poor knight with no lands—and we know nothing of his father!" Each lady had her favorite; when no agreement could be reached, Florantine suggested that the final decision be her father's (for she knew already whom he would choose!). The next day, King Henry, accompanied by his daughter and a duke, rode into the marketplace to crown the champion. Each knight hoped to be chosen, but the king stopped before Lion and said: "Bold and brave youth, by your skill in the tourney you have won my daughter and the right to govern my kingdom after me." Florantine took his hand and led him back to the palace where a great feast was held that day. Lion and Florantine slipped away and talked of love, for passion had so gripped them that they could think of nothing else. But though they were happy then, soon they would be sad, for even before they could be united in marriage they would be separated by the wicked Duke Kibler & Picherit/Lion de Bourges 13 Garnier of Callabria. Lion would suffer more grief for love of Floran- tine than ever mortal endured, and she for him, as I will tell you in our next installment. (501-612; 895-1419; 3578-7802)

[To be continued]

William W. Kibler University of Texas at Austin

Jean-Louis Picherit Virginia Commonwealth University