Lybeaus Desconus

Auteur:	Attribué par certains à Thomas Chestre
Titre:	Lybeaus Desconus; Libeaus Desconus
Date:	Deuxième quart du XIV^e siècle
Langue:	Anglais
Genre:	Roman
Forme:	2130 vers
Contenu:	Roman possiblement adapté d'une version perdue du Bel inconnu de Renaut de Beaujeu.
Incipit:	Ihesu Crist, our saviour, And his modir, þat swete flour, Helpe hem at her nede, þat harkeneþ of a conquerour…
Explicit:	… He and þat swete þing. Jhesu Crist, our saviour, And his moder, þat swete flour, Graunte us good endinge! Amen. Explicit Libeaus Desconus.

Manuscrits

London, British Library, Additional, 27879, p. 317-346 (P) [⇛ Description]
London, British Library, Cotton, Caligula A. II, f. 42v-57r (C) [⇛ Description]
London, Lambeth Palace Library, 306 (L)
London, Lincoln's Inn Library, 150, f. 1r et 4r-12v (H) [⇛ Description]
Napoli, Biblioteca nazionale "Vittorio Emanuele III", XII.B.29 (N)
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole, 61, f. 38v-59v (A) [⇛ Description]

Éditions anciennes

Éditions modernes

Le bel inconnu ou Giglain fils de messire Gauvain et de la Fée aux Blanches Mains, poème de la Table Ronde par Renauld de Beaujeu, poète du XIII^e siècle, publié d'après le manuscrit unique de Londres avec une introduction et un glossaire par C. Hippeau, Paris, Aubry (Collection des poètes français du Moyen Âge), 1860, [v] + xxxix + 331 p. (ici p. 241-330) [GB] [IA]
Compte rendu:
Adolf Mussafia, dans Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur, 4, 1862, p. 411-421. [GB] [HT] [IA]
Réimpression:
- Genève, Slatkine Reprints, 1969
Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript. Ballades and Romances. Edited by John W. Hales and Frederick J. Furnivall, London, Trübner and Co., 1867-1868, 3 t. (ici t. 2, p. 404-499) [GB: t. 1, t. 2, t. 2:2, t. 3] [IA: t. 1, t. 2, t. 3]
Ancient English Metrical Romances. Selected and published by Joseph Ritson, and revised by Edmund Goldsmid, Edinburgh, Goldsmid, 1884-1885, 3 t. (ici t. 2, p. 35-98) [GB: t. 1, t. 2, t. 3] [IA: t. 1, t. 2, t. 3]
Édition antérieure:
- Ancient Engleish Metrical Romanceës, selected and publish'd by Joseph Ritson, London, Bulmer for Nicol, 1802, 3 t., ccxxiv + 215, [iii] + 313, [iii] + 444 p. [GB: t. 1, t. 2, t. 3] [IA: t. 1, t. 2, t. 3]
Libeaus Desconus, die mittelenglische Romanze vom schönen Unbekannten nach sechs Handschriften kritisch herausgegeben von Dr. Max Kaluza, Leipzig, Reisland (Altenglische Bibliothek, 5), 1890, clxvi + 227 p. [IA]
Compte rendu:
Gaston Paris, dans Romania, 21, 1892, p. 137-138. [Gallica] [GB] [HT] [IA: ex. 1, ex. 2]
Launfal, an ancient metrical romance, by Thomas Chestre; to which is appended the still older romance of Lybaeus Disconus, edited by Joseph Ritson, Edinburgh, Goldsmid, 1891, 98 p. [GB] [IA: ex. 1, ex. 2]
Cooper, Nancy Margaret Mays, Libeaus Desconus: A Multi-Text Edition, Ph. D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1961, lx + 422 p. [PQ]
Lybeaus Desconus, éd. M. Mills, London, Oxford University Press (Early English Text Society. Original Series, 261), 1969.
Codex Ashmole 61: A Compilation of Popular Middle English Verse, edited by George Shuffelton, Kalamazoo, Medieval Institute Publications (Middle English Texts), 2008, vii + 655 p. [lib.rochester.edu]
Lybeaus Desconus, edited by Eve Salisbury and James Weldon, Kalamazoo, Medieval Instite Publications, 2013, viii + 216 p.

Traductions modernes

en anglais:
- Sir Cleges. Sir Libeaus Desconus. Two old English metrical romances rendered into prose by Jessie L. Weston. With designs by Caroline M. Watts, London, Nutt (Arthurian Romances Unrepresented in Malory's "Morte d'Arthur", 5), 1902, xi + 77 p. [GB] [IA]
  Réimpression:
  - New York, AMS Press, 1970
- A Wonder Book of Old Romance, by F. J. Harvey Darton, illustrated by A. G. Walker, London, Wells Gardner Darton, [1907], xix + 424 p. (ici p. 110-143) [IA: ex. 1, ex. 2]
  Réimpression:
  - A Wonder Book of Old Romance, by F. J. Harvey Darton, illustrated by A. G. Walker, New York, Stokes, [1907], xix + 424 p. [IA]

Études

Broadus, Edmund Kemper, « The Red Cross Knight and Lybeaus Desconus », Modern Language Notes, 18:7, 1903, p. 202-204. [GB] [HT] [IA] DOI: 10.2307/2917591
Goodison, Natalie, « The serpent with a woman's face: transformation in Libeaus Desconus and the vernacular fair unknown tradition », Medieval Romances Across European Borders, éd. Miriam Edlich-Muth, Turnhout, Brepols (Medieval Narratives in Transmission, 1), 2018, p. 205-228.
Kaluza, Max, « Thomas Chestre, Verfasser des Launfal, Libeaus Desconus und Octovian », Englische Studien, 18, 1893, p. 165-190. [GB] [HT] [IA: ex. 1, ex. 2, ex. 3]
Kölbing, E., « Zur Überlieferung und Quelle des mittelenglischen Gedichtes: Lybeaus Disconus », Englische Studien, 1, 1878, p. 121-169. [GB] [HT] [IA]
Mehl, Dieter, Die mittelenglischen Romanzen des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts, Heidelberg, Winter (Anglistische Forschungen, 93), 1967, 229 p.
Traduction:
- Mehl, Dieter, The middle English Romances of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968, 300 p.
Mennung, Albert, Der "Bel inconnu" des Renaut de Beaujeu in seinem Verhältnis zum "Lybeaus Disconus", "Carduino" und "Wigalois". Eine litterar-historische Studie, Halle, Kandler, 1890, [v] + iii + 68 p. [GB] [IA]
Compte rendu:
Gaston Paris, dans Romania, 21, 1892, p. 137-138. [Gallica] [GB] [HT] [IA: ex. 1, ex. 2]
Mills, M., « The huntsman and the dwarf in Erec and Libeaus desconus », Romania, 87, 1966, p. 33-58. DOI: 10.3406/roma.1966.2550
Owen, D. D. R., « The development of the Perceval story », Romania, 80, 1959, p. 473-492. DOI: 10.3406/roma.1959.3196
Paris, Gaston, « Études sur les romans de la Table Ronde. Guinglain ou Le bel inconnu », Romania, 15, 1886, p. 1-24. [Gallica] [GB] [HT] [IA] DOI: 10.3406/roma.1886.5912
Schofield, William Henry, Studies on the Libeaus Desconus, Boston, Ginn (Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, 4), 1895, iv + 246 p. [GB] [IA]
Compte rendu:
Emmanuel Philipot, dans Romania, 26, 1897, p. 290-305. [JSTOR] [Persée] [Gallica] [GB] [HT] [IA: ex. 1, ex. 2]
Weldon, James, « "Naked as she was bore": naked disenchantment in Lybeaus Desconus », Parergon, 24:1, 2007, p. 67-99. DOI: 10.1353/pgn.2007.0062
Zaerr, Linda Marie, « Music and magic in Le Bel Inconnu and Lybeaus Desconus », Medieval Forum, 4, 2004. [www]

Bibliographie