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ROBERT THE DEVIL

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 402 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROBERT THE See also:DEVIL , See also:hero of See also:romance. He was the son of a See also:duke and duchess of See also:Normandy, and by the See also:time he was twenty was a See also:prodigy of strength, which he used, however, only for See also:outrage and See also:crime. At last he learnt from his See also:mother, in explanation of his wicked impulses, that he was See also:born in See also:answer to prayers addressed to the devil. He was directed by the See also:pope to a See also:hermit, who imposed on him by way of See also:penance that he should maintain See also:absolute silence, feign madness, take his See also:food from the mouth of a See also:dog, and provoke See also:ill-treatment from the See also:common See also:people without retaliating. He became See also:court See also:fool to the See also:emperor at See also:Rome, and delivered the See also:city from Saracen invasions in three successive years in the See also:guise of an unknown See also:knight, having each time been bidden to fight by a See also:celestial messenger. The emperor's dumb daughter recovered speech to declare the identity of the court fool with the deliverer of the city, but Robert refused the See also:hand of the princess and the imperial See also:inheritance, and ended his days in the hermitage of his old See also:confessor. The See also:French romance of Robert le Diable is one of the See also:oldest versions of the See also:legend, and differs in detail from the popular tales printed in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was apparently founded on folk-See also:lore, not on the wickedness of Robert Guiscard or any See also:historical personage; but probably the name of Robert and the localization of the legend may be put down to the terror inspired by the See also:Normans. In the See also:English version the hero is called See also:Sir Gowther, and the See also:scene is laid in See also:Germany. This metrical romance See also:dates from the beginning of the 15th See also:century, and is based, according to its author, on a See also:Breton See also:lay. The legend had undergone much See also:change before it was used by E. See also:Scribe and C.

See also:

Delavigne in the libretto of See also:Meyerbeer's See also:opera of Robert le Diable. See Robert le Diable, ed. E. Loseth (See also:Paris, 1903, for the See also:Soc. See also:des anc. textes fr.) ; Sir Gowther, ed. K. Breul (See also:Oppeln, 1886) ; M. Tardel, See also:Die See also:Sage v. Robert d. Teufel in neueren deutschen Dichtungen (See also:Berlin, 1900). Breul's edition of the English poem contains an examination of the legend, and a bibliography of the literature dealing with the subject. The English See also:prose romance of Robert the Devyll was printed (c. 151o) by Wynkyn de Worde.

End of Article: ROBERT THE DEVIL

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