Bevis of Hampton - Texts

Texts

The oldest extant version, Boeve de Haumtone, an Anglo-Norman text, dates from the first half of the 13th century. It comprises 3,850 verses written in alexandrines.

Three continental French chansons de geste of Beuve d'Hanstone, all in decasyllables, were written in the 13th century. They comprise from 10,000 to 20,000 verses. A French prose version was made before 1469.

The English metrical romance, Sir Beues of Hamtoun (see Matter of England), is founded on some French originals, varying slightly from those that have been preserved. The oldest manuscript dates from the beginning of the 14th century.

A translation into Irish survives in a 15th century manuscript.

The printed editions of the story were most numerous in Italy, where Bovo or Buovo d'Antona was the subject of more than one poem, and the tale was interpolated in the Reali di Francia, the Italian compilation of Carolingian legend.

From Italian, it passed into Yiddish, where the Bovo-Bukh became the first non-religious book to be printed in Yiddish, and the most popular and most critically honored Yiddish-language chivalric romance.

In Russia, the romance attained an unparalleled popularity and became a part of Russian folklore. The Russian rendition of the romance appeared in mid-16th century, translated from a Polish or Old Byelorussian version, which were, in turn, translated from a Serbocroatian rendition of the Italian romance, made in Ragusa. The resulting narrative, called Повесть о Бове-королевиче (Povest' o Bove-koroleviche, lit. The Story of Prince Bova), gradually merged with Russian folktales, and the principal character attained many features of a Russian folk hero (bogatyr). Since the 18th century until 1918, various versions of the Povest' had been widely circulated (particularly among the lower classes) as a lubok. Such writers as Derzhavin and Pushkin praised Bova's literary value; the latter used some elements of the Povest' in his fairy tales and attempted to write a fantasy poem based on the romance. Pushkin also praised a version of Bova by Alexander Radishchev, written in 1799.