The ''Romance of Thebes'' (''Le Roman de Thèbes'') is a poem of some 10,000 lines that appears to be based on an abridged version of the ''

Thebaid The Thebaid or Thebais (, ''Thēbaïs'') was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nome (Egypt), nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos, Egypt, Abydos to Aswan. Pharaonic history The Thebaid acquired its name from its proximit ...

'' of

Statius Publius Papinius Statius (Greek language, Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; , ; ) was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid (Latin poem), Theb ...

. This view is supported by the omission of incidents and details which, in spite of the altered conditions under which the poem was composed, would naturally have been preserved in any imitation of the ''Thebaid'', while again certain modifications of the version of Statius can hardly be due to the author's invention but point to an ancient origin. As in other poems of the same kind, the marvellous disappears; the

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

adopt the French methods of warfare and the French code of

chivalric Chivalry, or the chivalric language, is an informal and varying code of conduct that developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It is associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood, with knights being members of various chival ...

love. The Roman dates from the 12th century (c. 1150-55), and is written, not in the tirades of the ''

chansons de geste The , from 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries, shortly before the e ...

'', but in octosyllabic rhymed

couplet In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there ...

s. It was once attributed to

Benoît de Sainte-Maure Benoît de Sainte-Maure (; died 1173) was a 12th-century French poet, most probably from Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine near Tours, France. The Plantagenets' administrative center was located in Chinon, west of Tours. ''Le Roman de Troie'' His 40,000 ...

; but all that can be said is that the ''Thebes'' is prior to the ''Roman de Troie'', of which Benoît was undoubtedly the author. The ''Thebes'' is preserved also in several French prose redactions, the first of which, printed in the 16th century under the name of ''Edipus'', belongs to the early years of the 13th century, and originally formed part of a compilation of ancient history, ''Histoire ancienne jusqu'à Caesar''. The first volume of ''Les histoires de Paul Crose traduites en français'' contains a free and amplified version of the ''Thebes''.

Influence

The '' Siege of Thebes'', translated from a French redaction of the ''Roman de Thebes'' in about 1420 by

John Lydgate John Lydgate of Bury () was an English monk and poet, born in Lidgate, near Haverhill, Suffolk, Haverhill, Suffolk, England. Lydgate's poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines. He explored and estab ...

The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6th Edition. Edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press, 2000 p.617 was a supplementary '' Canterbury Tale'', that was printed by

Wynkyn de Worde Wynkyn de Worde (; died , London) was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognised as the first to popularise the products of the printing press in England. Name Wynkyn de Worde was a German immi ...

about 1500. From the ''Roman de Thebes'' also were possibly derived the ''

Ipomedon ''Ipomedon'' is a romance composed in Anglo-Norman verse by Hugh of Rhuddlan in the late 12th century at Credenhill near Hereford. In the sequel '' Protheselaus'', which must have been composed slightly later, Hugh acknowledges as his patron Gi ...

'' and its sequel ''

Protheselaus ''Protheselaus'' is a verse romance composed in Anglo-Norman by Hugh of Rhuddlan at the end of the 12th century. Hugh lived at Credenhill near Hereford, according to his earlier poem ''Ipomedon''. ''Protheselaus'' is dedicated to Hugh's patron G ...

'', two ''romans d'aventures'' written about the end of the 12th century by

Hugh of Rhuddlan Hugh of Rhuddlan () was an important Cambro-Norman poet writing in the Anglo-Norman language at the end of the 12th century. He has been described as one of 'Angevin England's most mercurial literary figures'. Life Hugh was a cleric and a native ...

, an Anglo-Norman poet who lived in

Credenhill Credenhill is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. The population of this civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was 2,271. History Credenhill village has had military connections since 80 BC, when Iron Age Celts constructed ...

, near

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

. The author asserts that he translated from a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

book lent him by Gilbert Fitz-Baderon, 4th lord of Monmouth, but in reality he has written romances of chivalry on the usual lines, the names of the characters alone being derived from antiquity.

Influence

References

Further reading