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''Sir Launfal'' is a 1045-line Middle English romance or Breton lay written by Thomas Chestre dating from the late 14th century.〔 It is based primarily on the 538-line Middle English poem ''Sir Landevale'', which in turn was based on Marie de France's lai ''Lanval'', written in a form of French understood in the courts of both England and France in the 12th century. ''Sir Launfal'' retains the basic story told by Marie de France and retold in ''Sir Landevale'', augmented with material from an Old French lai ''Graelent'' and a lost romance that possibly featured a giant named Sir Valentyne. This is in line with Thomas Chestre's eclectic way of creating his poetry.〔Mills, M, 1969. ''Lybeaus Desconus, from the Medieval manuscripts Lambeth Palace MS 306 and British Museum MS Cotton Caligula A.ii''. Published for the Early English Text Society by Oxford University Press. p 35.〕 In the tale, Sir Launfal is propelled from wealth and status – the steward at King Arthur's court – to being a pauper and a social outcast. He is not even invited to a feast in his home town of Caerleon in South Wales when the king visits, although Arthur knows nothing of this. Out in the forest alone, he meets with two damsels who take him to their mistress, the daughter of the King of Faerie. She gives him untold wealth and a magic bag in which money can always be found, on the condition that he becomes her lover. She will visit him whenever he wants and nobody will see her or hear her. But he must tell nobody about her, or her love will vanish at that instant. The story of a powerful (fairy) woman who takes a lover on condition that he obey a particular prohibition is common in medieval poetry: the French lais of ''Desiré'', ''Graelent'', and ''Guingamor'', and Chrétien de Troyes's romance ''Yvain, the Knight of the Lion'', all share similar plot elements. The presence of a Land of Faerie, or an Otherworld, betrays the story's Celtic roots. A final court scene may be intended by Chestre as criticism of the contemporary legal and judicial framework in late-fourteenth century England.〔 The equation of money with worth in the tale may satirize a late-fourteenth century bourgeois mentality.〔 ==Manuscripts== Sir Launfal survives in a single manuscript copy: *British Museum MS Cotton Caligula A.ii., mid-15th century. The Middle English poem itself dates to the late-fourteenth century,〔Laskaya, Anne and Salisbury, Eve (Eds). 1995. Introduction to ''Sir Launfal''.〕〔Tuma, George W. and Hazell, Dinah (Eds). 2009. "Harken to Me" Middle English Romances in Translation. (Medieval Forum ) Special Edition. (''Sir Launfal'' ) Translation in Modern English with a Commentary.〕 and is based principally upon an early-fourteenth-century English romance ''Sir Landevale'', itself an adaptation of Marie de France's Old French Breton lai Lanval.〔 Unusually for a Middle English romance, the poem's author can be named. The final stanza includes the lines: :"Thomas Chestre made thys tale :Of the noble knyght Syr Launfale, :Good of chyvalrye."〔Laskaya, Anne and Salisbury, Eve (Eds). 1995. Middle English text of ''Sir Launfal'', lines 1039–41.〕 It is widely accepted that Thomas Chestre was the author of two other verse romances in MS Cotton Caligula A.ii., Lybeaus Desconus and the Southern Octavian.〔Lupack, Alan, 2005, reprinted in paperback, 2007. ''Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend''. Oxford University Press. "An English version of the Fair Unknown theme appears in the stanzaic romance ''Lybeaus Desconus'', believed to have been written by Thomas Chestre, author of ''Sir Launfal'', in the latter half of the fourteenth century." p 320.〕〔Mills, M, 1969. ''Lybeaus Desconus, from the Medieval manuscripts Lambeth Palace MS 306 and British Museum MS Cotton Caligula A.ii''. Published for the Early English Text Society by Oxford University Press. p 34.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sir Launfal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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