Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

FRENCH MANUSCRIPTS IN THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES I SIR JOHN WILLIAMS MSS. The National Library of Wales contains an appreciable number of French manuscripts dating from the thirteenth century to the nineteenth. To the generosity of Sir John Williams Wales is indebted for four early Arthurian MSS. in French, all formerly part of the Ashburnham Library. These MSS. comprise two prose romances of Tristan, one of Yvain and one of Gallehault, all knights connected with the court of King Arthur. The oldest in date of the four Arthurian MSS. appears to be the Roman de Tristan, N.L.W. MS. 446= Williams MS. 532, formerly Ashburnham Appendix 221 (Sotheby's sale-catalogue, May I, 1899, lot 151). A vellum MS., it consists of 128 folios and appears to have been written in Italy in the fourteenth century: it is illustrated by crudely executed coloured drawings in the lower margins. The open- ing of this romance agrees with the beginning of British Museum Harley MS. 4389, described by H. L. D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, vol. i, p. 356, and denoted C by E. Loseth, Le Tristan et le PalamHe des MSS. fr. du Brit. Mus. (Christiania, 1905). The rubric heading tells us Cest liure est apelles le liure de monseignor Tristain le filz le roy Melyadus de Leono." Tristan's parentage thus differs from the usual versions of the romance in which his father is named Rivalen (Rivalin), King of Leonois (Loonois)-Malory's Lyonesse, or of Parmenie, Armenie which has been variously identified with Bernicia or with Harmony in Cornwall. The text agrees very closely with that of Harley MS. 4389 up to the point at which the latter ends imperfectly (=f. 51, col. 2, 1. 26 of the present MS.) it is much longer than that of B.M. Add. MS. 23929-a later and fuller MS. than the others-and of the printed edition of 1520. The second Tristan romance, Le Vieux Tristan, N.L.W. MS. 443 =Williams MS. 529, formerly Ashburnham Appendix 167-see Cata- logue of Ashburnham Appendix [1861]; 217 in MS. itself, (Sotheby's For much of the material contained in this article I am indebted to the notes on the Arthurian MSS. contributed by Mr. A. J. Herbert, M.A., of the British Museum, which will be found in The National Library of Wales Catalogue of Manuscripts, Volume I (Aber- ystwyth, 1921), pp. 337-40.