Story of the True Life of King Clovis and Queen Clotilde in the Kingdom

Cleto R. IgnacioProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
74K words
Chapters
8

Tags

Foreign Language Books Foreign Literature Portrait GalleryLegendary LivesHumanistic CareIntellectual EnlightenmentTruth Goodness BeautyMoral CultivationTraditional AestheticsEclectic ReadingExotic CultureCultural Change

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Casaysayan ng Catotohanang Buhay ng Haring Clodeveo at Reyna Clotilde sa ReynoAuthor: Ignacio, Cleto R.,Language: Tagalog, Class: PL: Language and Literatures: Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania, Release Date: Jan 1, 2006

Editor's review

Written in Tagalog, this long narrative poem tells the story of King Clodeveo and Queen Clotilde and belongs to the "corrido" verse-romance tradition common in early Philippine print culture. Such texts weave together court intrigue, tests of faith, and family ethics; they are both literary reading matter and primary material for understanding popular reading tastes and the linguistic landscape of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Philippines. Project Gutenberg's electronic edition makes this obscure text freely available, convenient for researchers to search and cite and suitable as a corpus for readers interested in Southeast Asian language and literature. Note that the work is in Tagalog and retains period spelling and religious vocabulary, so non-specialist readers will face a considerable barrier; it is best treated as a cultural-historical document and linguistic sample rather than a modern novel read for plot.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction or background material first to understand the "corrido" genre and religious context before entering the text.
  2. Prepare a Tagalog dictionary and an old-spelling reference table, read chapter by chapter slowly, and note unfamiliar words.
  3. Read alongside other Philippine popular narratives to observe similarities and differences in subject matter and conventions.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8

FAQ

What language is the book written in, and how difficult is it? The text is in Tagalog and preserves older spelling and religious vocabulary. Native speakers or advanced learners can work through it gradually, but readers who know only Chinese or English will find it very difficult; a dictionary and background material are advised.
Is it suitable as primary material for studying Philippine literature? It is suitable as a sample of the popular narrative tradition for examining conventions, language style, and print culture. However, this is a Project Gutenberg electronic text, not a scholarly critical edition; verify version information and consult relevant research before citing it.
What kind of subject matter does the story fall under? Judging from the title and generic tradition, it is a verse romance centered on royal figures, typically involving court upheaval, tests of faith, and moral instruction. Specific plot details should be based on the text itself; it should not be read with the expectations of a modern historical novel or love story.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Cleto R. Ignacio Author · Filipino

Cleto R. Ignacio was a Filipino poet and writer in Tagalog who was active in the Manila area in the early twentieth century. Public records about his life are limited, and details such as his birth and death dates and his exact background are difficult to verify. Four of his works survive, falling mainly into two categories: verse narratives and religious hagiographies. Panayam ng Tatlong Binata, published in Manila in 1921, is structured as a dialogue among three young men and is divided into Unang Hati (Part One) and Ikalawang Hati (Part Two); it represents his attempt at the Tagalog verse dialogue. Another verse narrative, Casaysayan ng Catotohanang Buhay ng Haring Clodeveo at Reyna Clotilde sa Reyno, recounts the lives of King Clodeveo and Queen Clotilde and combines legend with moral instruction. He also wrote hagiographic works such as Cahangahangang Buhay ni Santa Margarita de Cortona, intended for religious reading and edification. Written mostly in verse and in plain, accessible language suited to recitation and circulation, his works reflect the parallel presence of popular religious literature and secular narrative in early twentieth-century Tagalog writing and offer some insight into the publishing and reading culture of Manila at that time.