Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter von Provence

Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter von Provence (The Romance of Magelone the Fair and Peter Count of Provence) is a German romance in prose and verse by the poet Ludwig Tieck. Written in 1796, it is based on an anonymous French romance of the 15th century, which was translated into German in 1527 by Veit Warbeck as Die schöne Magelone (Magelone the Fair). Warbeck's translation was published posthumously as a chapbook (Volksbuch) in 1535. Tieck's adaptation appeared in 1797 under the title Wundersame Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter aus der Provence in a three-volume collection of tales and dramas known as Volksmärchen herausgegeben von Peter Lebrecht (Folk-Tales Edited by Peter Lebrecht). Die schöne Magelone also appeared in 1811 as one of the tales in Tieck's Phantasus.

In 1802 and 1803 Tieck worked on a drama based on the tale, but he only completed a short prologue in verse.

The romance, which comprises eighteen poems with interlinking prose episodes, recounts the adventures of Count Peter of Provence and the beautiful Princess Magelone of Naples, who fall in love and elope. The lovers are separated by ill fortune and Peter becomes infatuated with the Muslim Sulima. Peter and Magelone are eventually reunited and live happily ever after.

Sixteen of the poems from The Fair Magelone were published separately as a lyric cycle Des Jünglings Liebe (The Young Man's Love).

Between 1861 and 1869 Johannes Brahms set fifteen of Tieck's poems to music for voice with piano accompaniment: Fünfzehn Romanzen, Magelone-Lieder für eine Singstimme und Klavier (Fifteen Romances from Magelone, Op. 33).

Publication history

1457         The anonymous French prose romance The Fair Magelone is published

1470?       An anonymous German translation of The Fair Magelone appears

1527         Veit Warbeck translates the romance into German in manuscript

1535         Warbeck's translation is published posthumously as a German chapbook (Volksbuch)

              under the title Die sehr lustige Histori vonn der schönen Magelona ... und von einem Ritter genannt Peter mit den silberin schlüsseln.

1796         Tieck adapts Warbeck's version as Die wundersame Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter aus der Provence

1797         Tieck publishes Volksmärchen herausgegeben von Peter Lebrecht, which includes The Fair Magelone

1811         Tieck publishes the first part of Phantasus, which includes a revised version of The Fair Magelone under its present title

1836-37       Gustav Schwab includes another version of the tale in his series of Deutsche Volksbücher (German Chapbooks)

1845-66       Karl Simrock includes The Fair Magelone in his series of Deutsche Volksbücher

1861-69       Johannes Brahms sets fifteen of tieck's Magelone lyrics to music

1912         Peter Jerusalem includes Warbeck's version of The Fair Magelone in a volume of Deutsche Volksbücher