2175
Cy après s'ensievent les épythaphes de Hector et Achilles, ensemble le procès de eulx deux, dont Alexandre le Grant est le seul jugeLes Épitaphes de Hector, fils de Priam, roy de Troye, et de Achilles, fils de Péleus, roy des Myrmydoines, et est contenu au procès de cestuy traité les complaintes d'iceulx chevaliers, présent Alexandre le Grant
La complainte d'Hector
Century: 15
Poems
French
Bourgondische Nederlanden
INCIPIT
Pour cause que en plusieurs hautes histoires et au tableau des humaines mémoires, maintes choses du temps jadis passées sont plusieurs fois prises et réoitées ...
EXPLICIT
... Vous en avez exemple de mémoire pour à jamais, en la présente hystoire. Sy prye à Dieu que'elle soit bien voulue; preneé-en gré: George vous en salue.
Sex: M- Bio: Born in Lede (?) from the mariage of Jan Chastelain, a Ghent shipmaster, and Marie van Massemen, a lady of the lower Flemish nobility (because of financial misfortune his parents were forced to move between 1410 and 1415 from the Ghent city life to a short life in the country in the area of Alost); 1430-1432: studied in Louvain; 1433: shortly in military service for Philip the Good (overdue payment in 1434); 1439 (and presumably also the years before that): active in the Ghent trade life, but without much success; 1441: at the court of the French king Charles VII; from 1446 on finally in the service of the Burgundian dukes Philip the Good and Charles the Bold: in 1455 official historiographer, in 1457 ducal counsellor, in 1473 knight; (?ca.1414/+20th March 1475) (Small).-Status author (order, function):
EDITING
Location: / - Date:1454 - Commission:On commission of duke Philip the Good
SIZE
/
CONTEXT
The poem was written as a play to be performed at the festivities during the visit of the duke and duchess of Orléans to Philip the Good in late September 1454. It was an allegory on the murder of Philip’s father John the Fearless, who is represented by Hector in the poem, ordered by, at that time the dauphin, Charles VII in 1419, who is represented as Achilles in the poem. This murder had profound effects on the Burgundian-French relations. This poem was intended to blame and humiliate the French ‘Orleanists’ for it and to remind them of the sins they committed.
ABSTRACT
The prologue begins with a praise of Hector and condemns Achilles for murdering him. The actual play narrates how Alexander stops at the tombs of Hector and Achilles, where he addresses the two heroes in admiration. Hector responds by advising not to eagerly praise Achilles, for he won not by skill, but through treachery. At the instigation of Alexander, Achilles reckons his misdeeds and begs Hector to pardon him, upon which Hector graciously forgives his murderer. The play concludes by commending the audience to learn from what they have witnessed.
SOURCES
INFLUENCE
MANUSCRIPTS
Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France
TRANSLATIONS
EDITIONS
DE LETTENHOVE (K.) (ed.), Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain, 6 (Bruxelles, 1863-1866) 167-202
LITERATURE
MOODEY (E.), 'Historical identity in the Burgundian Netherlands: the role of manuscripts', in: J.F. Hamburger, A.S. Korteweg (eds.), Tributes in Honor of James H. Marrow: Studies in painting and manuscript illumination of the Late Middle Ages and Norhtern Renaissance (London, 2006) 343-351 (344)
SELÁF (L.), 'Nagy Sándor és a trójaiak a burgundi irodalomban.', Aetas: Történettudományi folyóirat, 3 (1999) 35-121
SELÁF (L.), 'Nagy Sándor és a trójaiak a burgundi irodalomban.', Aetas: Történettudományi folyóirat, 3 (1999) 35-121
LINKS
Desiderata:
Contributor:
Xavier Baecke
Update:
2012-09-13 11:57:09
© The Narrative Sources from the Medieval Low Countries (Brussels: Royal Historical Commission, since 2009). URL: www.narrative-sources.be (accessed August 28th 2026).
Contributor:
Xavier Baecke
Update:
2012-09-13 11:57:09
© The Narrative Sources from the Medieval Low Countries (Brussels: Royal Historical Commission, since 2009). URL: www.narrative-sources.be (accessed August 28th 2026).
