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The great romancer
The 12th century poet who was proud of his Island origins
IN the Royal Square, near the Old Library, is a plaque commemorating one of the first Jerseymen who can be identified as a real historical personality.
That man was Maistre Wace, the 12th century poet, whose romances were written for the great and good in Caen. This was the Norman city where he was educated, took holy orders and seems to have lived for much of his life.
Appropriately, the Royal Square plaque bears a quotation which indicates that although Wace apparently left Jersey at an early age, he was proud of his origins.
In unembellished Old French, the quotation, which is taken from the 17,000-line ‘Roman de Rou’, reads: ‘Jo di e dirai ke jo sui Wace de l’isle de Gersui.’
Translating as ‘I say and will say that I am Wace of the Island of Jersey’, this uncompromising statement sounds much like the blunt assertion of a man proud of and determined to stay in touch with his cultural and ancestral roots.
Sadly, we know little of Wace beyond the fact that he came from Jersey, was born in about 1100, was trained as a cleric in Caen, received the patronage of Henry II, served as a canon at Bayeux, where he was referred to as ‘Wacius canonicus’, and is no longer mentioned in documents after 1174.
It seems that Henry, who ruled Normandy as well as England, became familiar with Wace’s first great work in verse, ‘Le Roman de Brut’, during visits to Caen.
This epic poem, which deals with the history of Britain, also runs to more than 16,000 lines and was probably calculated to appeal to the tastes of the king and his court.
However, had Henry been looking for historical accuracy, he would have been disappointed.
‘Le Roman de Brut’ is based on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ and treats such figures as King Lear and King Arthur as real people rather than mythological characters.
The ‘Roman de Rou’, on the other hand, is an account of real people and real events, the exploits of the Dukes of Normandy.
The poem was commissioned by Henry — but even after 14 years of effort it remained unfinished, leading the king to command one of Wace’s rivals, Benoit de Ste Maure, to complete the job.
Among Wace’s final words in the Rou, written after he had been told that his job was going to someone else, were: ‘The king in the past was very good to me; he gave me a great deal and promised me more, and if he had given me everything he had promised me things would have gone better for me.’
Despite remaining incomplete, the ‘Roman de Rou’ covers plenty of ground, including the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, a date which, with scant justification, is often regarded as the first important point in Jersey history.
In fact, by the time Duke William had earned the right to be called the Conqueror, six Dukes of Normandy had already ruled over the Islands.
We must also recall that Wace was far removed in time from the events he celebrated in verse. He gives a lively account of the Norman Conquest, but there is no reason to believe that it is a reliable reflection of what really happened, not least because he was writing to please one of the Conqueror’s descendants.
It is often suggested that Wace’s Christian name was Robert, but in reality we have no idea what his full name might have been.
The Robert comes from a mistranslation of the dedication of one of his works which was written ‘for the use of Robert, son of Tiout’. Elsewhere Wace refers to himself only as Maistre Wace, so it is possible that, in common with many other people of his age, Jersey’s first notable man of letters was known by only a single name.
UNTIL recently, reading Wace was for scholars of Old French. Now, thanks to Professor Glyn Burgess’s prose translation, anyone can enjoy an insight into the poet’s work and the world in which he lived.
The book weighs couple of kilos, it runs to more than 400 pages, and its only illustrations are on the dust jacket and on the leaf facing the introduction, but it is surprisingly readable. A work of great scholarship, it is also a window into the early medieval world.
After four years of work, Professor Burgess has his own views on Wace’s literary status. The poet’s greatness, he says, stems not from the merit of his verse, which is most definitely narrative rather than lyric, but from the way in which he brings history to life. ‘The Rou,’ he said, ‘is about real people.’
One of the strengths of Professor Burgess’s translation — which appears alongside a version of the original text prepared by Anthony Holden — is its sheer readability.
The professor says that his aim was to produce modern, intelligent English while remaining faithful to the precise meaning of the text.
There are two other sections of the book worth noting.
There are excellent notes by Cambridge academic Elisabeth van Houts and an introductory section, written by Professor Burgess, that locates the Rou in the literary tradition of the 12th century and examines the puzzling question of who exactly Wace was and his relationship to the king and the court.
author - Rob Shipley
This article updated: 2004/02/04 11:37:53
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| ......Daily Ditons...... |
Les louanges de se-meme et d’sa methe ne valent rein du tout.
Self-praise is no recommendation.
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