Amis et Amiles is an old
Frenchromance based on a widespread legend of friendship and sacrifice. In its earlier and simpler form it is the story of two friends, one of whom, Amis, was sick with
leprosy because he had committed
perjury to save his friend. A vision informed him that he could only be cured by bathing in the blood of Amiles's children. When Amiles learnt this he killed the children, who were, however, miraculously restored to life after the cure of Amis.[1]
The tale found its way into
French literature through the medium of
Latin, as the names Amicus and Amelius indicate, and was eventually attached to the
Carolingian cycle in the 12th-century
chanson de geste of Amis et Amiles. This poem is written in
decasyllabicassonanced verse, each
stanza being terminated by a short line. It belongs to the heroic period of French
epic, containing some passages of great beauty, notably the episode of the slaying of the children, and maintains a high level of poetry throughout.[1]
The oldest version is a Latin poem composed around 1090 by Radulphus Tortarius, a monk of Fleury. The opening lines suggests that the poet was retelling a popular tale: Historiam Gallus, breviter quam replico, novit... (The Gaul knows the tale, which I am briefly telling...). More distant origins are rooted in folklore.[2]
Plot
Amis has married Lubias and become count of Blaives (Blaye), while Amiles has become
seneschal at the court of
Charlemagne, and is seduced by the emperor's daughter, Bellisant. The lovers are betrayed, and Amiles is unable to find the necessary supporters to enable him to clear himself by the ordeal of single combat, and fears, moreover, to fight in a false cause. He is granted a reprieve, and goes in search of Amis, who engages to personate him in the combat. He thus saves his friend, but in so doing perjures himself. Then follows the leprosy of Amis, and, after a lapse of years, his discovery of Amiles and cure.
There are obvious reminiscences in this story of
Damon and Pythias, and of the classical instances of sacrifice at the divine command. The legend of Amis and Amiles occurs in many forms with slight variations, the names and positions of the friends being sometimes reversed. The crown of
martyrdom was not lacking, for Amis and Amiles were slain by
Ogier the Dane at Novara on their way home from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.[1]
Jourdain de Blaives, a chanson de geste which partly reproduces the story of
Apollonius of Tyre, was attached to the geste of Amis by making Jourdain his grandson.[1]
Versions
The versions of Amis and Amiles include:
Numerous Latin recensions in prose and verse, notably that given by
Vincent de Beauvais in his Speculum historiale (lib. xxiii. cap. 162-166 and 169) and the supposed earliest by
Rodulfus Tortarius
An
Anglo-Norman version in short
rhymedcouplets, which is not attached to the Charlemagne legend and agrees fairly closely with the English Amis and Amiloun (Midland dialect, 13th century); these with the
old Norse version are printed by
Eugen Kölbing, Altengl. Bibl. vol. ii. (1889), and the English romance also in
H. Weber, Metrical Romances, vol. ii. (1810); it also appears in the
Auchinleck manuscript
The 12th-century French chanson de geste analysed by
P. Paris in Hist. litt. de la France (vol. xxii.), and edited by
K. Hofmann (Erlangen, 1882) with the addition of
Jourdain de Blaives[1]
The Middle Welsh Cydymdeithas Amlyn ac Amig, composed perhaps in the early fourteenth century
The Latin Vita sanctorum Amici et Amelii (pr. by Kolbing, op. cit.) and its
Old French translation, Li amitiez de Ami et Amile,
L. Molaud and
C. d'Henault in Nouvelles du xiiie siecle (Paris, 1856)
Walter Pater's retelling of the story in the first chapter of his Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873), 'Two Early French Stories.'
^Marianne E. Kalinke and P. M. Mitchell, Bibliography of Old Norse–Icelandic Romances, Islandica, 44 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 23.
^Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Erster Band (NR. 1-60). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. pp. 42-57.
Further reading
Shapiro, Marianne. “‘AMI ET AMILE’ AND MYTHS OF DIVINE TWINSHIP.” Romanische Forschungen, vol. 102, no. 2/3, 1990, pp. 131–148. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27940080. Accessed 28 Apr. 2020.
Editions and translations
Foster, Edward E. (ed.), 'Amys and Amiloun', in Amis and Amiloun, Robert of Cisyle, and Sir Amadace, 2nd edn (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007),
[1];
[2].
Fukui, Hideka (ed.). Amys e Amillyoun. Anglo-Norman Text Society. Plain Texts Series 7. London, 1990. Based on
BL MS Royal 12 C.
The Birth of Romance: An Anthology. Four Twelfth-century Anglo-Norman Romances, trans. by Judith Weiss and Malcolm Andrew (London: Dent, 1992),
ISBN0460870483; repr. as The Birth of Romance in England: Four Twelfth-Century Romances in the French of England, trans. by Judith Weiss, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 344/The French of England Translation Series, 4 (Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2009),
ISBN9780866983921.