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 ( grc-gre, Θηβαΐς, ''Thēbaïs'') was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan. Pharaonic history The Thebaid acquired its name from its proximity to ...

'' of

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

. 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 The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

adopt the French methods of warfare and the French code of

chivalric Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is an informal and varying code of conduct developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It was associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood; knights' and gentlemen's behaviours were governed b ...

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

chansons de geste The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin '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 cen ...

'', but in octosyllabic rhymed

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

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 (c. 1370 – c. 1451) was an English monk and poet, born in Lidgate, near Haverhill, Suffolk, England. Lydgate's poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines. He explored and est ...

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 1534) 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 immigr ...

about 1500. From the ''Roman de Thebes'' also were possibly derived the '' Ipomedon'' and its sequel '' Protheselaus'', two ''romans d'aventures'' written about the end of the 12th century by

Hue de Rotelande Hue de Rotelande was an important Cambro-Norman poet writing in Old French at the end of the 12th century. Life He was a cleric and a native of Rhuddlan. He wrote in Credenhill, Herefordshire. Gilbert de Monmouth Fitz Baderon, a grandson of Gilb ...

, an

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

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. Near Credenhill is the site of the former Royal Air Force station, RAF Credenhill. It was redeveloped b ...

, near

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

. The author asserts that he translated from a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

book lent him by

Gilbert Fitz-Baderon, 4th lord of Monmouth Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters *Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South A ...

, but in reality he has written romances of chivalry on the usual lines, the names of the characters alone being derived from antiquity.

References

{{Reflist

Influence

References

Further reading