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BENOIT DE

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 744 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BENOIT DE SAINTE-MORE, or SAINTE-MAURE, 12th See also:century See also:French See also:trouvere, is supposed to have been a native of Sainte-Maure in See also:Touraine. Very little is known of his See also:personal See also:history. The maitre prefixed to his name implies that he had graduated at the university, but there is nothing to show whether he was a See also:simple trouvere by profession or belonged to the See also:clergy. He was a loyal subject of See also:Henry II. of See also:England, to whose See also:court he was attached, and when he speaks of the French, it is as " they." See also:Wace had begun a history of the See also:dukes of See also:Normandy in his See also:Roman du Ron. This he brought down to the reign of Henry I., but here Henry II. seems to have withdrawn his patronage, and at the end of his poem Wace refers to a See also:maistre Beneeit who had received a similar See also:commission. There is no other contemporary poem extant dealing with the subject except the Chronique See also:des dues de Normandie, and it would seem reasonable to assume the identity of Wace's See also:rival with Benoit de Sainte-More, whose authorship of the See also:chronicle has, nevertheless, been often disputed. But a comparison of the Roman de Troie, which is certainly Benoit's See also:work, with the Chronique, confirms the supposition that they are by the same author. The poem contains over See also:forty thousand lines, and relates the history of the See also:Norman dukes from Rollo to Henry I., with a preliminary See also:sketch of the Danish invasions and the adventures of See also:Hastings and his companions. It has no claims to be considered an See also:original authority. Benoit See also:drew his See also:information from the De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum of Dudon de See also:Saint Quentin as far as r0o2, following his See also:model very closely. From that See also:time he avails himself of the chronicle of See also:William of Jumieges, also of Ordericus Vitalis and others. The Chronique probably See also:dates from about 1172 to 1176.

In the Roman de Troie, written about 116o, Benoit expressly asserts his authorship. He mentions " Omers " with See also:

great respect as li clers merveillos, but his authority for the See also:story is naturally not See also:Homer, of whom he could have no first-See also:hand knowledge. He follows the apocryphal Historia de excidio Trojae of Dares the Phrygian and the Ephemerides See also:belli Trojani of Dictys of See also:Crete. The poem runs to about 30,000 lines. The personages of the classical story are converted into heroes of See also:romance. They have their castles and their abbeys, and See also:act in accordance with feudal See also:custom. The supernatural machinery of Homer is missing both in Benoit's original and his own narrative. The story begins with the See also:capture of the See also:Golden Fleece and comes down to the return of the See also:Greek princes after the fall of See also:Troy. Benoit diverges very widely from the classical tradition, and M. See also:Leopold See also:Constans See also:sees See also:reason to suppose that the trouvere founded his poem on an amplified version of the Dares narrative that has not come down to us. In the Roman de Troie first appeared the See also:episode of See also:Troilus and Briseida, that was to be See also:developed later in the Filostrato of See also:Boccaccio, which in its turn formed the basis of See also:Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide. The Shakespearian See also:play of Troilus and Cressida is also indirectly derived from Benoit's story.

On the strength of a certain similarity of treatment Benoit has sometimes been credited with the authorship of the See also:

anonymous Roman d'Eneas and of the Roman de See also:Thebes, a romance derived indirectly from the Thebais of See also:Statius. M. Constans is inclined to negative both these attributions. It is not even certain that the Benoit who chronicled the deeds of the Norman dukes for Henry II. between 1172 and 1176 was the Benoit de Sainte-More of the Roman de Troie. The Chronique des ducs de Normandie was edited by Francisque See also:Michel in 1836–1844; the Roman de Troie by A. Joly in 187o–1871; the Eneas, by J. J. Salverda de See also:Grave in H. Suchier's Bibliotheca Normannica in 1891; the Roman de Thebes for the Societe des anciens textes frangais, by M. L. Constans in 189o. See E.

D. See also:

Grand in La Grande Encyclopedie; L. Constans in See also:Petit de Julleville's Hist. de la langue et de la lift. francaise (vol. i. pp. 171-225). where the three romances are analysed at length. The prefaces to the See also:editions just mentioned discuss the authorship of the romances.

End of Article: BENOIT DE

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