Lydgate's Siege of Thebes

viTemporary Preface.palpable anachronism involved in this idea did not deter him, and itwould not, I suppose, much strike the general reader, nor does it,indeed, essentially diminish the quaint interest of his conceit. Cutit is obvious that Lydgatp, who was about thirty at the time ofCliaucer's death, could not at " ny^ fyfty ^ere of age " (1. 93) havefound still remaining at Canterbury the same company of pilgrimswith which Cliaucer had come there.§ 3. The potMii lias 4716 lines. The i)rologue (11. 1-176), see § 2.The first part (11. 177-10-46) tells the story of Edippus and locasta,the second part (11. 1047-25.'i2) the disputes of Ethiocles and Polymytesabout the supremacy in Thebes, the third part (11. 2553-4716) thesiege and destruction of Thebes.§ 4. The principal source of Lydgate's Thebes ^ is an Old Frenchprose romance, derived from the Old French poem Koman de Thebes.No known version of this prose romance agrees in all particulars withthat used by Lydgate. But the version first printed 1500 and reprinted1858 in the "Collection Silvestre," with the title *' Sensuytle Itoman de edipus fils du roy Layus " (KE), comes very near toLydgate's original. They differ, however, in some details. In mostof these details Lydgate's original corresponded with the somewhatlater version of the prose romance represented by that " ITystoire deThebes" (HT) which is found inserted into a late 15th-centLiry OldFrench translation, with numerous additions, of Orosius' well-knownHistory of the AVorld. Thus the apj^arently lost version that formedthe basis of Lydgate's Thebes must have held an intermediate positionbetween the two versions just mentioned. But it was decidedly muchmore closely allied to RE than to IIT.From his Old French source Lydgate has taken about two-thirds ofhis poem. ]\Iore than a fourth he has drawn from his own creative»/ imagination or from his general store of knowledge. The rest of thepoem, about the twentieth part of the whole, comes partly from theV Bible, but principally i'rom such authors as Seneca, ]Martianus deCapella, Boccaccio, Chaucer.§ 5. Lydgate treats his original with perfect freedom as regardsform, recasting the expressions, enlarging or shortening the tale,not infrequently omitting unimportant particulars. In a few casesLydgate ha3 left out points the poetic beauty of which would certainlyI^ See Koeppel, Lydgate's Story of Tiiebos. Eine Quellenuntersueliuno;.JMunchen, 1884. Constans, Legende d'Oedipe. Paiia, 18S1 ; aud Koiiiaa doThebes, vol. ii. Paris, 1890.