- Raoul de Houdenc
Raoul de Houdenc (or Houdan), 12th-century French "
trouvère ", takes his name from his native place, generally identified with Houdain (Artois ), though there are twelve places bearing the name in one or other of its numerous variants.It has been suggested that he was a
monk , but from the scattered hints in his writings it seems more probable that he followed the trade of "jongleur " and recited his "chansons", with small success apparently, in the houses of the great. He was well acquainted withParis , and probably spent a great part of his life there.His undoubted works are:
*"Le Songe d'enfer"
*"La Voie de paradis"
*"Le Roman des eles" (pr. by A Scheler in "Trouvres belges", New Series, 1897)
*the romance of "Meraugis de Portlesguez", edited byM. Michelant (1869) and byM. Friedwagner (Halle, 1897)Houdenc was an imitator of
Chrétien de Troyes ; andHuon de Méry , in his "Tournoi de l'antéchrist" (1226) praises him with Chrétien in words that seem to imply that both were dead. Méraugis de Portlesguez, the hero of which perhaps derives his name from Lesguez, the port ofSaint-Brieuc inBrittany , is a "roman d'aventures" loosely attached to theArthurian cycle .References
*
Gaston Paris in "Hist. litt. de la France", xxx. 220-237
*W. Zingerle , "Uber Raoul de Houdenc und seine Werke" (Erlangen, 1880)
*O. Boerner , "Raoul de Houdenc. Eine stilistische Untersuchung" (1885).*1911
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