Consoled Widow best known from The Matron of Ephesus in the writings of Petronius,[1] Phaedrus,[2] etc.[3] But the views of this eminent scholar have been severely handled, not to say pulverised, by Mr. A. Nutt and Prof. A. C. L. Brown. Mr. Nutt,[4] laying just stress on the clearer arrangement and far finer style of the Welsh tale, inclines to agree with M. Gaston Paris[5] that behind Yvain and The Lady of the Fountain lies a lost Anglo-Norman romance, of which both extant works are but versions, the former in French poetry, the latter in Welsh prose,—a theory to a large extent identical with that put forward in 1869 by Dr. C. Rauch.[6] And Prof. A. C. L. Brown,[7] following in the steps of a whole series of scholars,[8] has triumphantly demonstrated the essentially Celtic character of all the main incidents in the story. The resultant theory of the relations between Yvain and The Lady of the Fountain may be indicated thus:
Celtic source or sources
Anglo-Norman romance
Chrétien de Troyes Yvain
The Lady of the Fountain
Hartmann von Aue Iwein
Ywain and Gawain
- ↑ Petr. sat. iii f.
- ↑ Phaedr. app. 13.
- ↑ Christian von Troyes ed. W. Foerster vol. i. Cligés Halle 1884 p. xvi, vol. ii. Yvain Halle 1887 p. xxi, Kristian von Troyes Yvain ed. 2 W. Foerster Halle a. S. 1902 p. xvii ff.
- ↑ Lady Charlotte Guest The Mabinogion with notes by A. Nutt London 1904 p. 347 ff.
- ↑ G. Paris in Romania 1881 x. 465 ff.
- ↑ C. Rauch Die wälische, französische und deutsche Bearbeitung der Iweinsage Berlin 1869 p. 17 f.
- ↑ A. C. L. Brown Iwain passim.
- ↑ See H. Goossens Über Sage, Quelle and Komposition des Chevalier an Lyon des Crestien de Troyes Paderborn 1883. So A. Nutt in The Celtic Magazine
