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Part of the book: The Theme of Love in the 'Romans d'Antiquité'

Rosemarie Jones

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 5

Modern Humanities Research Association

MedievalFrenchPoetryopen

Abstract.  In the case of Narcisus, as with Piramus et Tisbé, a useful starting-point is a comparison with the French author's source, the account of the story of Narcisus given by Ovid in order to ascertain first what elements in the Latin do not figure in the French. The mythological element has been cut down considerably. There is no mention of the nymph Liriope; Narcisus's mother is simply 'une dame de la cité' (47). The nymph Echo has become the princess Dané and in consequence there is no reference to Juno's depriving Echo of the power of voluntary speech. The goddess Nemesis is replaced by Venus, the reference to Bacchus and Apollo in line 421 of the Latin is absent from the French, and the French account ends with the death of Narcisus and Dané, thus omitting any mention of Narcisus's descent into the infernal abodes, his naiad sisters, or the funeral pyre. Nor, in the French, does Narcisus become the flower which bears his name. Besides the mythological aspect, the very slight homosexual element which appears in the Latin is very carefully treated in the French.

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