'Biaudouz' de Robert de Blois: Édition critique et traduction (review)

The short Arthurian roman d'aventures of Biaudouz (4564 lines) is a puzzling work. It only subsists as a frame tale for the collected works of Robert de Blois (fl.c. 1250–75), but this function seems to be irrelevant to its narrative structure, as the whole compilation is inserted into a speech of advice made by the hero's mother. Lemaire is the third editor to have decided to treat it as a romance in its own right. He runs into the problem of deciding which parts of the text serve only the compilation, and which are intrinsic to it (pp. 8–9). His solution is to jettison Robert's general preamble, but to keep some didactic passages spoken by Biaudouz' mother. However, the printed text moves seamlessly over pp. 52–54 from f.484b to f.565b without any indication of the significant break (or indeed the minor cuts) that it entails. What remains is a brisk romance that draws heavily on Le Bel Inconnu and Meriadeuc, as well as the works of Chrétien de Troyes. Robert de Blois' interest in women's clothing features (e.g. ll. 533–628), but his narrative also seems to relish the grislier aspects of combat: limbs are hacked off, helmets swill with blood, the road is scattered with arms and legs. His gory treatment of chivalry is intriguing, set against what the text was designed to contain: courtesy texts for both men and women, and the cross-dressing hero of Floris et Lyriopé. Lemaire presents his editorial policy with detail, and provides a list of the variants in the manuscript and the two existing editions (pp. 19–25; 285–90). His codicological discussion is detailed (pp. 11–18), as are his grammatical and lexicographical notes. A few editorial decisions require explaining: it is not made clear in this edition if Beaudouz has been acknowledged as Gauvain's son prior to his triumphant arrival at Arthur's court. Lemaire dismisses as an error the mention at the start that Gauvain will marry the Princess of Wales —who we later learn is Beaudouz' mother —at his coronation (see notes for ll. 144–49 and 3669). Similarly, he explains the Amie who makes a sudden appearance at the end as a serving woman of the queen's, when she is usually understood to be one and the same with Beaudouz' mother (ll. 4464–513, see p. 345). The translation is clear, with a few minor slips, such as 'la jeune ville' for 'fille' (p. 59); 'cent mars' for 'marcs' (p. 257). Eschieles is rendered once as échelles (p. 178; l.2548), before it becomes escadrons (pp. 181, 183). I had a few issues with terminology: the term 'jeune homme noble' describes both vassaux (l. 924, 2887) and valés (l. 2186) (while vassaux translates OF barons in line 3532); pucele and demoisele are treated with more caution as near synonyms. Beaudous and Biautez' love is explained in terms of shared dousors, but this is translated as tendresse and the link to the hero's name is lost (pp. 159–60; ll. 2348–68). These are minor quibbles. This is a good, serviceable and clear edition and translation of an interesting work.