Tag Archives: courtly love

The Hundred Years’ War: its Literary Legacy

24 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by in History, Literature, War

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A painting of Geoffrey Chaucer as pilgrim in the Canterbury Tales’ Ellesmere Manuscript (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are leaving our Anglo-Norman authors to investigate the literature dating back to the Hundred Years’ War.

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), the “Father” of English literature, is our main figure and a transitional figure. He took to England the French Roman de la Rose, written by Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1230-1235) and Jean de Meun(g) (1275-1280) and he translated part of it as the Romaunt of the Rose. Pre-Raphaelite Frederick Startridge Ellis (1830–1901) translated the Roman de la Rose in its entirety.

Chaucer’s name is derived from the French le chausseur (the shoemaker), which suggests French ancestry. Moreover, Chaucer knew French. This would explain his ability to translate literary works written in French as well as his being assigned diplomatic missions that required a knowledge of French. For instance, as a courtier, he was asked to make an attempt to end the Hundred Years’ War. Chaucer was a man of many talents.  

The Hundred Years’ War

In 1359, during the Hundred Years’ War, Chaucer travelled to France with Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence[.] In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Reims.  Edward III paid £16 to ransom him, a large sum of money that did not cover in full the amount demanded by France. Ransoms helped finance wars, hence the idiomatic ‘king’s ransom.’

The Romaunt of the Rose & Courtly Love

In all likelihood, it would at that time that Chaucer took to England the above-mentioned Roman de la Rose, which epitomizes courtly love. The number of the 22,000-line Roman de la Rose Chaucer translated seems of lesser importance than the role he played in introducing the conventions of courtly love to an English public. Chaucer’s the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde reflect his familiarity with courtly love.

Valentine’s Day

In 1340, when Charles, Duke of Orleans was released, after 25 years of captivity in England, he took to the court of France much of the legend of Valentine’s Day, which may or may not have included the myth about birds mating on 14 February, Valentine’s Day. In 1340, Chaucer had yet to write his 700-line Parlement of Foules (1343 – 1400) in which he speaks of birds mating of 14 February. Nor had Chaucer come into contact with Petrarch (20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374), and Boccaccio (1313 – 21 December 1375) authors whose works can be associated with Chaucer’s.

In all likelihood, the most important work our ransomed Chaucer took to England is the above-mentioned allegorical Roman de la Rose, which epitomizes courtly love. As noted, Chaucer translated at least part of the Roman de la Rose into The Romaunt of the Rose. However, the number of verses he translated seems less important than his introducing the conventions of courtly love to an English and probably courtly public. Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde reflect his familiarity with courtly love.

Reynard the Fox

Chaucer also used ‘Reynard material’ in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale. He wrote a “Chanticleer and the Fox.” The Roman de la Rose and the Roman de Renart (Reynard the Fox) are the French Middle Ages’ foremost literary achievements.

Renart_illumination

Chanticleer and the Fox, in a medieval manuscript miniature (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The “Father” of English Literature

Yet, Chaucer was very much an English writer. He is considered the “Father” of English literature and is credited with validating the use of the English language, as a literary language, in a country where French and Latin were “the dominant literary languages.”[1] (See Geoffrey Chaucer, Wikipedia.)

Shakespeare and other Authors

The Hundred Years’ War also exerted an influence on Shakespeare, the co-author of Edward III. Moreover, Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) evokes the presence of the French in England in his Tess of the d’Huberville (1891). However, characters inhabiting Hardy’s ‘fictional’ Wessex would be the descendants of Normans who settled in England when it was conquered by William, Duke of Normandy.

Conclusion

The Hundred Years’ War was not a continuous struggle, but it was a very long and complex conflict that ended the most vigorous attempt on the part of England to claim the French throne. Marriages had made French the language of the English court and the English had relatives in France as did the French in England.

But this is where we end this post.

With kindest regards to everyone. ♥

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[1] Pietro Bembo, would validate the use of the vernacular in Italian literature. In France, this role was played by poet Joachim du Bellay (c. 1522 – 1 January 1560).

arts-graphics-2008_1184459a© Micheline Walker
24 January 2016
WordPress

The Battle of Hastings’ Literary Aftermath

22 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Courtly Love, England, Middle Ages, War

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lossy-page1-800px-Marie_de_France_1_tifMarie de France, from an illuminated manuscript now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France: BnF, Arsenal Library, Ms. 3142 fol. 256.

It would be difficult to understand some of the plays of William Shakespeare and other works of English or French literature without taking into account such major events as the Conquest of England, by William, Duke of Normandy, at the Battle of Hastings (1066), and the Hundred Years’ War. In the 12th century, at least two authors, Marie de France and Walter of England, wrote in Anglo-Norman, and French would be used at court, and perhaps elsewhere, until the conclusion of the Hundred Years’ War.

Let us go back to the literature that followed the Battle of Hastings, fought on 4 October 1066. On that day William, Duke of Normandy, defeated England’s King Harold (Harold Godwinson) who was killed in battle. The throne of England had been promised to William, Duke of Normandy, hence the battle. Following the Battle of Hastings, many Normans settled in England, two of whom, discussed later in this post, are important writers who penned their work in Anglo-Norman, a transitional language.

William, Duke of Normandy, defeated Harold, King of England, and became William I, King of England. But England, as a territory, remained as it was. The Normans who settled in England would soon speak a form of English.

Yet Latin and French words had been introduced into English. The word ‘curfew’ is an anglicised form of couvre-feu and jeopardy, an anglicised form of jeu parti a term used in a game resembling chess. It probably meant ‘checkmate’ or ‘échec et mat,’ from the Arabic « al cheikh mat » (see D’où vient…).

800px-Bayeux_Tapestry_scene23_Harold_sacramentum_fecit_Willelmo_duci800px-Harold_dead_bayeux_tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anglo-Norman  Literature 

  • Marie de France
  • Walter of England

The best-known Anglo-Norman author is Marie de France, a 12th-century writer, whose portrait, an illumination, is featured above. The second is Walter of England (Gualterus Anglicus). His French name would have been Gaut(h)ier d’Angleterre.

Marie de France, who lived in England but was born in France, is famous for her colection of lais: the lais of Guigemar, Chevrefoil (honeysuckle), Lanval, Yonec, Laustic, and other lais. Marie also wrote a book of Æsopic fables. Her fables were ‘Æsopic,’ but as we have seen in earlier posts, Æsop’s fables originate in the Sanskrit Panchatantra (3rd century BCE), its Arabic retelling, Kalīlah wa Dimnah, by Ibn al-Muqaffa (750 CE), and other sources.

The Lais of Marie de France

  • Arthurian Romances
  • Britanny
  • Courtly Love

The Lais of Marie de France are rooted in the Breton lai and their themes are love (early courtly love), and chivalry. Breton lais reflect the literature of Ireland and countries where Gaelic is or was spoken. The origin of the word lai has not been ascertained but whatever the meaning of lai, Marie’s works are examples of courtly love and chivalric literature. Marie de France could well be France’s first major author. 

Inhabiting Marie’s lais are Guinevere, Tristan et Yseult, Lancelot, the Knights of the Round Table and King Arthur. They are products of Arthurian Romances, called “la matière de Bretagne” in French.

The Troubadours

  • Chivalry
  • Courtly Love

Marie’s lais can be associated to the songs of the troubadours whose native land was  Provence and subject matter, chivalry and courtly love. Troubadours (langue d’oc) flourished until the Black Death (1346 – 1353), the plague. In northern France, they were called trouvères and spoke langue d’oil.

Guingamor, Guigemar
Lanval

Project Gutenberg [EBook #46234]

Walter of England (Gualterus Anglicus)

Walter of England also lived in England in the 12th century, following the Battle of Hastings. He wrote Æsopic fables in Anglo-Norman. The history of fables is shrouded in mystery, so Walter has been considered the ‘anonymous Neveleti,’ the 17th-century fabulist whose collection of fables, the Mythologia Æsopica, in Latin, was used by French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine. However, the attribution to an anonymous ‘Neveleti’ has been ruled false. La Fontaine used Isaac Nicholas Nevelet’s Mythologia Æsopica.

The “Romulus”

Nevertheless, Walter of England would be the author of a collection of 62 fables in verse. The “62 fables is more accurately called the verse Romulus.” (See Walter of England [Gualterus Anglicus], Wikipedia). However, this seems another false attribution. There was no Romulus. It seems the medieval Æsop found its origin in Walter of England’s fables and elsewhere. Could it be that ‘Romulus’ meant Latin, from Rome?

John Lydgate and Robert Henryson

When English fabulist John Lydgate produced his Isopes Fabules, the first fable collection written in English, his source was long believed to be the verse Romulus, which it isn’t. As mentioned above, there was no Romulus. Lydgate’s source would probably be Walter of England’s collection of Æsop’s fables. In other words, John Lydgate’s English-language fables were an adaptation of Walter of England’s verse fables. Walter’s “The Cock and the Jewel,” was used by Robert Henryson in his 15th-century Morall Fabillis, written in Scots. (See Walter of England [Gualterus Anglicus], Wikipedia).

Conclusion

In short, after the Battle of Hastings, Normandy or France was briefly remembered by Marie de France and Walter of England. In the 12th century, ‘Æsopic’ fables were told in Anglo-Norman, a transitional language, but one that has survived in literature.

From literature written in the Anglo-Norman period, we will glimpse the literary legacy of the Hundred Years’ War, Geoffrey Chaucer in particular. Gone are knights in shining armour and short fables. An amused public is reading the lenghty anthropomorphic Roman de Renart, while Chaucer translates at least part of the 22,000-line Roman de la Rose, an allegorical poem that epitomizes courtly love.

Sources and Resources

With kindest regards to all of you. ♥

KingHaroldEnthroned_Detail_BayeuxTapestry

© Micheline Walker
22 January 2016
(updated: 23 January 2016)
WordPress

 

Harold enthroned as King of England,
detail from the Bayeux Tapestry
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

Animal Lore, or “Beasts override Genre”

30 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Art, Beast Literature, Fables

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Physiologus Cambrai, vers 1270-1275 Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 711, fol. 17

Physiologus, Adam nomme les animaux (Adam names the animals)
Cambrai, vers 1270-1275
Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 711, fol. 17 (Photo credit: BnF) (click)

The Fable

One particular collection of fables, the Ysopet-Avionnet, was used in the schools of medieval France and continued to be published for centuries (see “The Cock and the Pearl,” La Fontaine cont’d). The word “Ysopet,”[1] was a diminutive for “a collection of fables by Ésope,” or Æsop. The term Ysopet, or Isopet, was first used to describe a collection of 102 fables by Marie de France (late 12th century), written in Anglo-Norman in octosyllabic couplets. As for the word Avionnet, it was derived from Avianus (c. 400 CE), the name of a Latin writer of fables whose fables belong to the Babrius (Greek) tradition and “identified as a pagan.” (See Avianus, Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia). The goal of fabulists was the Horatian “to inform or delight.” Horace advocated a mixture of both: information and pleasure.

Beast Literature and Christianity

Medieval Bestiaries
the Moral
legendary or mythical animals
St. Augustine
 

Bestiaries differ from fables in that they contain a Christian moral/ allegory, but like fables, they are a form of instruction. The fox is the devil, and the lamb, Christ, etc. However, Bestiaries closely resemble fables because both genres feature animals and are more or less a form of teaching. The presence of animals sets a distance between the reader and the teaching provided by a fable or a bestiary. The moral is instructive in both genres, but not directly. The animal functions as a buffer.

Moreover, as we have seen, the attributes of animals were defined by “universal popular consent.” Such was particularly the case with Medieval Bestiaries. Animals dwelling in fables and Bestiaires are neither zoological animals, nor humans in disguise. They are allegorical and most are zoomorphic, especially Christian Medieval Bestiaires. (See The Medieval Bestiary, David Badke, ed.)

Interestingly, Medieval Bestiaries feature a large number of legendary or mythical animals. The better-known are the Unicorn, the Dragon, the Griffin and the Phoenix, but Christian Medieval Bestiaries featured several other fantastical beasts, now mostly forgotten. It would be my opinion that Christianity had its prerogatives and that the relatively new Church needed several animals to exemplify human and sinful conduct.

Moreover, many Natural Historians were Christians. At any rate, the Bonnacon shown below was not exactly real and its manners were questionable.

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Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4º, Folio 10r

“A beast like a bull, that uses its dung as a weapon.” (F 10r) (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)

St. Augustine and Truth

Allow me to quote Book 21, Chapter 5 of  Augustine of Hippo‘s City of God. Augustine of Hippo was St. Augustine and he writes “[t]hat There are Many Things Which Reason Cannot Account For, and Which are Nevertheless True.” Augustine of Hippo published his City of God in 426 CE. (See City of God, Wikipedia.)

This kind of truth is what I have grown to describe as “poetical” truth (my term).

Bestiaires d’amour

However, some Medieval Bestiaries were love Bestiaries and were therefore associated with courtly love and the very popular  Roman de la Rose. The Roman de la Rose, authored by Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1200 – c. 1240) and Jean the Meun(g) (c. 1240 – c. 1305), was allegorical:

“At various times in the poem, the “Rose” of the title is seen as the name of the lady, and as a symbol of female sexuality in general. Likewise, the other characters’ names function both as regular names and as abstractions illustrating the various factors that are involved in a love affair.” (See Roman de la Rose, Wikipedia.)

In my last post, I featured a lion belonging to a Bestiaire d’amour. It was breathing life into dead offspring. This is what a lady was to do to revive a man after lovemaking, or “petite mort.” Petite mort is an orgasm. The symbolism attached to Beasts dwelling in Love Bestiaries (Bestiaires d’amour) was, therefore, less Christian than the symbolism of animals inhabiting other Bestiaries. The most famous Love Bestiary is Richard de Fournival‘s (1201 – ?1260).

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 1951, Folio 18r

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 1951, Folio 18r (Richard de Fournival)

“‘le lyon [above] qui fait revivre ses lyonciaus’ – The lion revives its dead cubs. In the Bestiaire d’amour the man says that in the same way the woman can revive him from his love-death.” (fol. 18r) (Photo credit: BnF)

The courtly love traditional therefore incorporated animal lore, just as it included the lyrical poems of troubadours, trouvères, the Minnesingers, and lyric poets associated with movements such as trobadorismo or trovarismo. By the way, there were women troubadours: the Trobairitz.

Troubadours (Berlin) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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William IX of Aquitaine portrayed as a knight, who first composed poetry on returning from the Crusade of 1101. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Animal Lore

Jan M. Ziolkowski writes that “beasts override genre.”[2] He does so on page 1 of his Introduction to Talking Animals). Professor Ziolkowski is perfectly right. In Medieval Bestiaries, beasts were mostly the same from genre to genre: fables, Medieval Bestiaries and the satirical Roman de Renart. Beasts even override paganism and Christianity as well as the Old and the New Testaments. After all, Christmas replaced the pagan Roman Saturnalia. There had to be a feast on the day of the longest night.

To return to “beast literature” (Ziolkowski, p. 1), “The Dog and its Reflection” is included in the Æsopic corpus (Perry Index 133)[3] and is also a fable told in Kalīlah wa Dimnah, and, according to one source, it is included in Le Livre des Lumières or Les Fables de Pilpay, philosophe indien, ou la conduite des rois (a 1698 edition [1644]), Æsop was a Levantin, i.e. from the Levant. With respect to fables, West meets East.

Kalīlah wa Dimnah is an Arabic rendition, by Persian scholar Ibn al-Muqaffa’, of the Sanskrit Panchatantra and Jean de La Fontaine, the author of Le Chien qui lâche sa proie pour l’ombre  (1.VI.17), read fables by Pilpay. Yet, the Christian Medieval Bestiary tells that dogs leave the prey they have caught for a prey they may not catch. It may be a mere shadow.

When I was assigned a course on best literature, I divided my material in the following the following genres, roughly speaking:

  • fables (Æsop and retellers),
  • beast epics (Reynard the Fox and fabliaux),
  • the Medieval Bestiaries (The Ashmole Bestiary, etc.),
  • and Natural Histories (The Physiologus, etc.), yet to be listed.

However, I had to mention mythological beasts, lycanthropes, and also discussed children’s literature.  Kenneth Grahame created a “reluctant dragon,” and the use of a toad as the protagonist of The Wind in the Willows made for an upside-down-world, a mundus inversus.

Moreover Æsop, who lived in Greece, was a “Levantin.” There is an Eastern tradition to Æsop’s fables even though, according to some sources, there never lived an Æsop. I was on sabbatical writing a book on Molière when I was assigned a course on Beast literature. I could not refuse to teach it. I therefore joined the International Reynard Society and gave a paper at the forthcoming meeting of the Society, in Hull, England.

A Dutch colleague steered me in the right direction, but the course nevertheless ended my career as a teacher. Would that I could have changed the course into animals in Charles Perrault’s Contes de ma mère l’Oye and Madame de Villeneuve’s La Belle et la Bête, but someone else was teaching a course on fairy tales. Beast literature includes fairy tales.

My  kindest regards to all of you. ♥

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Sources and Resources

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[1] “Ysopet”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 29 sept. 2014
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/654299/Ysopet>.

[2] Jan M. Ziolkowski, Talking Animals: Medieval Latin Beast Poetry, 750 – 1150 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 1.

[3] Ben Edwin Perry (1892–1968) catalogued Æsop’s fables.

E, Dame Jolie & Douce Dame Jolie
Love song 13th-14th century
Chanson d’amour du Moyen-Âge.

Vilém9
 
© Micheline Walker
30 September 2014
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The Salons: La Guirlande de Julie, revisited

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in Art, French Literature, History, Italy, Love

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La Guirlande de Julie

La Guirlande de Julie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Salons are often looked upon as a French institution when in fact Italians brought salons to France.  However, although the salon was imported, it became a French institution and it never fully disappeared.  Gertrude Stein’s home: 28, rue de Fleurus, was a salon.

Madame de Rambouillet

“l’incomparable Arthénice” (Arthénice is an anagram of Catherine)
l’honnête homme
 

Born in Rome to Jean de Vivonne (marquis of Pisani [1530-1599]) and Giulia Savelli, Madame de Rambouillet (1588-1665), the wife of Charles d’Angennes, marquis de Rambouillet (1577–1652), opened the first famous seventeenth-century French salon.  Salons were a gathering place for various distinguished persons: aristocrats of all ranks, cardinals (Richelieu), Louis XIII (at least once), and l’honnête homme, who could be a bourgeois.  For the most part, habituées (regulars) were well-educated men and women who shared an interest in literature, philosophy and music.  Moreover, they were witty.  L’incomparable Arthénice, an anagram of Catherine, established the first and the best of salons and received her guests every Saturday.  On fine summer days, they had a cadeau (literally a gift) which was an outing in the countryside: une fête champêtre.

L’Hôtel de Rambouillet

rue Saint-Honoré
rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre
la ruelle (the side of a bed)
 

Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, lived in a private house, then called un hôtel particulier, l’Hôtel de Rambouillet, rue Saint-Honoré.  But l’Hôtel relocated in 1618. Its new address was rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre.  Arthénice received her guests in her blue room, la chambre bleue d’Arthénice.  She usually sat in bed and her guests, la crème de la crème of French society, gathered in a ruelle (literally a narrow back street), one side of the bed.  Bedrooms were very large in the best homes of the seventeenth century and beds were canopied beds featuring somptuous drapes that were drawn closed at night, especially on wintry days.

Salons are remembered as places where anything crude was quickly rejected.  Only the purest French could be spoken in a salon and one’s manners had to be refined.  A male guest was, at the very least, an honnête homme.  French galanterie is a sturdy institution dating back to medieval courtly love.  It reached a summit in seventeenth-century French salons.

Giovanni Battista Guarini & Honoré d’Urfée

Il Pastor fido
L’Astrée
 

However, seventeenth-century salons were not always as they had been at l’Hôtel de Rambouillet.  Some salon habitué(e)s were people who made believe they were not what they seemed.  The salonniers and salonnières, gave themselves new names and, at one point, the aficionados of salons were so influenced by Guarini’s Il Pastor fido, a pastoral set in Arcadia and published in Venice in 1590 and, later, by Honoré d’Urfée’s L’Astrée (1607-1627), that they played shepherds and shepherdesses (see Pastoral, Wikipedia).  Fantasy took over.

As well, salons are one of the birthplaces of feminism.  Medieval courtly love was revived and revised, and women started looking upon themselves as “précieuses.”  They were précieuses, of course, everyone is, but not so précieuses that they could not call a chair a chair.  Chairs became “commodités de la conversation.”  A comfortable armchair does facilitate conversation, but… Préciosité, was not one of the better moments of la querelle des femmes, the woman question (the term “querelle des femmes” was first used in 1450). 

In some cases, women kept suitors waiting for several years, before marrying.  The Duc de Montausier (1610–1690), courted Julie d’Angennes (1607-1671), Madame de Rambouillet’s daughter, from 1631 until 1645, before she consented to marry him. She was 38 when she married Montausier.  The couple had one daughter.

La Guirlande de Julie: a gift

62 madrigals (poems)
flowers representing facets of love (allegory)
 

Out of this courtship, a book emerged, entitled La Guirlande de Julie.  It was given as a present to Julie in 1641 and contained sixty-two madrigals (poems not songs), each featuring a flower.  The collection of poems is therefore allegorical, or symbolic.  Montausier wrote sixteen of the madrigals (the poetic rather than musical form), but the preparation of the book was a bit of a contest disguised as a game.  Among the authors are Racan, Tallemant des Réaux and others.  The challenge consisted in finding the “pointe” or conceit, a clever and witty way of saving “little nothings.”

Only the finest authors contributed madrigaux to the collection.  The Guirlande‘s calligraphist was famed Nicolas Jarry and each flower was painted by Nicolas Robert on vellum. It is an illuminated manuscript.  The book is now housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and can be read and looked at online at Gallica BnF.  Many can also be seen at Bridgeman Images.

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Source and Resources

(Photo credit: Bridgeman and BnF, Paris)

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My kindest regards to all of you.

—ooo—

Marie-Nicole Lemieux (b. 1975): “À Chloris”
Reynaldo Hahn (August 9, 1874 – January 28, 1947)
on a poem by Théophile de Viau (1590 – 25 Septembre, 1626)
 
Frain-Irene-La-Guirlande-De-Julie-Livre-836443603_ML© Micheline Walker
October 2, 2011
WordPress
revised on 30 July 2014
(Photo credit: Google images) 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Le Roman de la Rose

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in Art, Literature, Love

≈ 15 Comments

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E086007

The Beginning of the Dream

Photo credit: The British Library Harley MS 4425
 
(Please click on the small images to enlarge them.)
 

With Richard de Fournival ‘s  (1201- ?1260), we are entering a new tradition in illuminated manuscripts, an allegorical depiction of courtly love, a term popularized by Gaston Paris in 1883.  As a result, before examining Fournival’s Bestiary of Love, courtly love should be defined and exemplified.  Its pinnable is Le Roman de la Rose, an allegorial poem in octosyllabic (eight syllables) verses.  Moreover, both Richard de Fournival’s Bestiaire d’amour are “allegorical.”

In 1816, in an article published in the Journal des Savants, a critic [M. Renouard] wrote that:

“The Romance of the Rose is one of the most remarkable monuments to our old poetry. Because of its success and its rekown, it once exerted a great deal of influence on the art of writing and on manners.  it has long been admired excessively and criticised severely.  However, it earned a fair share of the praise it attracted as well as the criticism it generated.” (Quoted in the Gutenberg edition of the Roman de la Rose)

« Le Roman de la Rose est l’un des monuments les plus remarquables de notre ancienne poésie.  Par son succès et sa célébrité, ayant jadis influé sur l’art d’écrire et sur les mœurs, il fut longtemps l’objet d’une admiration outrée et d’une critique sévère, et toutefois mérita une juste part des éloges et des reproches qui lui furent prodigués [sic]. »

The Romance of the Rose

Le Roman de la Rose is indeed a summit.  It was written in the 13th century (the 1200’s) by Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1200 – c. 1240), who authored 4058 lines in c. 1230, and by Jean de Meun (Jehan de Meung), who composed an additional 17,724 lines, c. 1275, thus completing the Roman de la Rose.   As indicated in Wikipedia’s entry on Le Roman de la Rose , “the story is set in a walled garden or locus amoenus, one of the traditional topoi (FR* [plural of topos]), or theme, of epic and chivalric literature.” (Le Roman de la Rose, Wikipedia.)

*In France and French-language countries, the Greek words are used.

We will glimpse the Roman de la Rose, an octosyllabic poem, using mainly the British Library’s MS 4425 (scroll down to see the images), a rich source of images, and the Roman de la Rose Digital Library, a project of Johns Hopkins University and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Hopkins /BnF).  There are some 300 extant manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose, some of which are an incunabula, i.e. printed between 1450 and 1502.  The Harley Manuscript (British Library) was commissioned by Engelbert II, count of Nassau and Vianden (d. 1504) and is an illuminated manuscript, copied from an incunable.

Le Roman de la Rose is:

Bel Accueil and the Lover f. 30v
Amour and the Lover f. 22
The Lover and Amour f. 93
 K106906c13324-62

c13324-77

The Romance of the Rose: illuminations

Several manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose are illuminated manuscripts.  Twenty or so manuscripts were illuminated by Richard de Montbaston and his wife Jeanne (fl. 1325-1353), professional illuminators.  One of their illuminated manuscripts is the Paris Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal,[i] MS 3338, which is a “page turner” at the Roman de la Rose Digital Library (Hopkins /BnF).

The Harley MS 4425 was illuminated by a Flemish artist known as Master of the Prayer Books.  By clicking on Narrative Sections and then on ID (Hopkins /BnF), folios will also appear.  These were selected from various extant manuscripts (some 300) of the Roman de la Rose.  In other words, our two main sources are:

Patrons

The finest Rose manuscripts were commissioned and owned by aristocrats and members of the French royal court.  The Harley Manuscript (British Library) was made for Engelbert II, count of Nassau and Vianden (d. 1504).  As for the Douce 195 manuscript, it was probably made for Louise de Savoie (1476-1531), the countess of Angoulême and regent queen of France (r. 1515-1516).

Roman de la Rose as Allegory

  • The allegorical aspect of the Roman de la Rose is revealed in the list of Character names (see Hopkins /BnF):  the Lover, Amour (the god of Love), Venus, Nature, Genius, Ami (Friend), Bel Accueil (courtesy), Faux Semblant (Hypocrisy or Dissembler), Raison (Reason), Male Bouche (Slander), Haine (Hatred), Danger, etc.
  • Other characters are Sadness (Tristesse), Old age (Vieillesse), Poverty (Pauvreté), Hatred (Haine), Ugliness (Laideur), Pity (Pitié), etc.
  • For the names of the characters, see the Roman de la Rose Digital Library under the above-mentioned Character names (Hopkins /BnF).

Haine, Vilenie & Feloniye  f. 8, f.8v, f. 8v

c13324-61VilenieFelonie

Summary of the Roman de la Rose

Guillaume de Lorris

Guillaume de Lorris knew Ovid, which gives us the main source of his art of love.   As for our narrator, the Lover, he is 25 years old and tells about a dream.  In his dream, he enters a garden and is attracted to a particular rose.  It is a walled garden and it belongs to Déduit (Pleasure) who is surrounded by Liesse, Joy, Dieu d’Amours, the God of Love, his servant Doux Regard, who looks at people sweetly, Beauté (Beauty), Richesse, who is rich, Largesse, who is generous, Franchise, who speaks the truth, Courtoisie, who behaves in a courtly manner, Oyseuse, idleness, Jeunesse, youth, and Amant (the Lover). 

According to the conventions of courtly love, “the God of Love [shoots] him with several arrows, leaving him forever enamored of one particular flower.” (See Rose Summary, Roman de la Rose Digital Library.)  The rose symbolizes female sexuality and the Lover’s attempts to reach her are either encouraged or thwarted by various allegorical characters.  Our narrator cannot take Rose.  He tries to steal a kiss from her but the guardians of Rose enclose it /her in stronger fortifications.  In this part of the Roman de la Rose, the rules of courtly love are set and given that at the end of Guillaume de Lorris’ part of the Roman, Rose is enclosed in a fortress, Rose (the beloved woman) is well nigh unattainable.

Jean de Meun(g)

Jean de Meun completes the narrative.  Obstacles are encountered in Lover‘s quest for Rose.  These are Hatred (Haine), a nasty person (Vilenie), a felon (Feloniye), a covetous person (Convoitise), greed (Avarice), envy, ugly and old persons (Envie, Laideur, Vieillesse), shame (Honte) , fear (Crainte or Peur) but above all Jealousy (Jalousie).

Lover is helped by Faux Semblant (Slander, usually disguised as a mendicant friar [a begging monk]), and by Amour who overcome Male Bouche.  However Raison (reason) discourages Lover, but is opposed by Nature.  Venus drives away Danger, Shame and Fear.

Rose is imprisoned in the castle of Jealousy (Jalousie), closely guarded by a duenna.  The duenna is won over to the lovers’ cause and Lover obtains Rose.  The siege is over.

 
Castle of Jalousie f. 39
The Lover and the rose f. 184v
Garden of Pleasure f. 12v (bottom of post)

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The Digressions

Various stories are inserted in the main story, as this can be seen in the video.  We have at least two suicides.  We need not dwell of these digressions in this post, except to say that they act as smoke screens.  The main message Jean de Meun is conveying is that Nature is love’s most powerful ally.  The digressions, however, are a criticism of hereditary nobility, magistrates and mendicant friars.  Royal power is discussed as are property, pauperism, marriage, hallucination, sorcery and the physical sciences.  There are satires on women who glorify the poetry and songs of the troubadours (the south of France) and trouvères (the north of France), proponents of chaste love and, therefore, precursors to seventeenth-century préciosité, or love disembodied.  Chasteté (Chastety) militates against procreation and must be tamed.  (See Oxford Companion to French Literature.)

Conclusion

According to the Oxford Companion to French Literature, in the Roman de la Rose, “everything that is contrary to nature is vicious and this is the criterion by which social institutions may be judged.  By this we may determine true nobility, true wealth, and true love.”[iii] Therefore Le Roman de la Rose, the summit in courtly literature, advocates real love as opposed to an ethereal version thereof.  Through its various digressions it also attacks power and wealth that are a mere accident of birth and therefore unearned.

The dream, the allegorical nature of the poem and its digressions are ways of saying yet concealing what must be said.  It is the dire-sans-dire (literally, saying without saying) of talking animals.  Animals do not talk and a story is a mere story, particularly if it is enclosed in another story.  The Roman de la Rose was attacked by Italian-born Christine de Pizan (1364 – c. 1430), a “feminist,” and Jean Gerson (13 December 1363 – 12 July 1429), the Chancellor of the University of Paris who “warn[ed] against the irreverent Roman de la rose of Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun,” in his Tract. contra romantiam de rosa (iii. 297).  (See Jean Gerson, Wikipedia.)

The Roman de la Rose therefore constitutes the beginning of a long discourse on the social contract and therefore “irreverent” in its days, but it was a literary success that kept artists and scribes busy for a very long time.  The poem was in the library of most persons of means.

About the Harley MS 4425

Harley MS 4425, British Library
Roman de la Rose
Origin: Netherlands, S. (Bruges)
c. 1490 – c. 1500
French
Script: Gothic cursive
Artist: Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500
Dimensions: 395 x 290 (255 x 190), in 2 columns (mm)
Official Foliation: ff. 186 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment leaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 1 + 2 parchment leaves at the end)
Form: Parchment codex
Binding: Post-1600. London, c. 1900, gold-tooled green morocco; fragments of an early-18th century gold-tooled red morocco spine, armorial binding of Jean Antoine II de Mesmes …
Provenance: Made for Engelbert II, count of Nassau and Vianden (d. 1504)
The Harley Collection: The Harley Collection, was formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘25 die mensis Januarij, A.D. 1725/6’ (f. 2). 
Incunable: The text of this manuscript was copied from a printed edition published at Lyon, probably around 1487.  The illuminators did not follow the illustrations of the printed exemplar.  (See Harley MS 4425, British Library.) 
 

RELATED ARTICLES

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[i] The Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal is located in Paris and is part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the French National Library.
[ii] Another interesting site is gallica.bnf.fr.
[iii] “Le Roman de la Rose”, compiled and edited by Sir Paul Harvey and J. E. Heseltine, The Oxford Companion to French Literature (Oxford: The Clarendon Press 1969 [1959]). 
 

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© Micheline Walker
8 March 2013
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Courtly Love or Fin’Amor

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Courtly Love

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Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Trouvères and Troubadors

I was hoping to discuss Richard de Fournival’s Bestiaire d’amour FR (1201- ?1260) a medieval philosopher and trouvère (Northern French: langue d’oïl).  Trouvères (from trouveur: finder) were Northern France‘s counterparts for troubadours, who spoke in langue d’oc, from old Occitane French.  The trouvères and troubadours composed and sang songs associated with chivalry and the code of conduct of Knights, surprisingly consistent with the rules of courtly love.  They traveled from court to court but disappeared at the time the Black Death, but not necessarily because of the plague.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Although I will attempt to show a few illuminations from the Bestiaire d’amour, images are difficult to find.  Moreover, having reread the text, I believe we need a broader starting-point.  Richard de Fournival wrote a Bestiary, but it is a bestiary of love, courtly love.  Moreover, Master Richard’s Bestiary is allegorical as is the Roman de la Rose.  Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) who transformed Saint Valentine’s Day into the romantic feast it has become, translated part the Roman de la Rose as the Romaunt of the Rose and included his translation in his Legend of Good Women, a poem.

Two sources: Ovid and the “Song of Songs”

Courtly love is not a European institution.  It has deep roots, two of which are texts by Roman writer Ovid, best known for his Metamorphoses, as well as the Song of Songs, a book of the Old Testament also known in English as the Canticle of Canticles, written circa 900 BCE.

Courtly Love: Roman Antiquity

It would be difficult to trace the origins of courtly love.  I should think it constitutes a permanent feature of love, but a feature that finds pinnacles at certain points in history.  For instance, Roman poet Ovid, Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BCE – 18 CE), known mainly for his Metamorphoses, wrote:

The very title of Remedia Amoris suggests that once the lover is wounded by Cupid‘s arrow, he is possessed by love.  Love is viewed as a disease.  Such is the case with Tristan and Yseult (or Yseut, Iseult, Isolde…).  Tristan has to take Iseult to Cornwall where she will marry his uncle Mark.  As they are sailing from Ireland to Cornwall, she and Tristan mistakenly drink the love potion Yseult was to drink with Mark on their wedding night. Tristan and Yseult are now inescapably “in love” (l’amour fatal).  Yseult marries Mark, but on their wedding night, her maid, a virgin, sleeps with Mark.  As for Yseult, she spends the night with Tristan and sneaks back to her husband’s room in the morning.

The Celtic legend of Tristan and Yseult (EN) Tristan et Iseut (FR), was written in France, in a Norman language, by 12th-century Norman poet Béroul, and in Old French, by 12th-century British poet Thomas of Britain.  The story of Tristan and Yseult has exerted considerable influence on Western art.  Among other works, it inspired:

The Matter of Britain and the Matter of France: Mythologies 

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (1136) is a pseudohistorical account of British history, called the Matter of Britain, of which there remains 250 manuscripts.  It could be defined as a mythology evoking a Golden Age.  The Matter of France, featuring Charlemagne is also a mythology.  Its main poem, an epic poem, is La Chanson de Roland (FR) or Song of Roland (EN).

However, the quest of chivalric epic poems is a quest for the Holy Grail.  As for courtly love, its Holy Grail is the heart of a woman who has not swallowed a magical love potion and whose love her suitor must earn by following rules of conduct, as in chivalry.

(Please click on image to enlarge it.)

384px-Arthur_Beardsley_-_IsoldeFin’amor

Although it has deeper roots, fin’amor is an art of love developed in Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne and ducal Burgundy.  Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204) is said to have brought the ethics of courtly love from Aquitaine to the Court of France.  She had first married Louis VII, king of France, but the marriage was annulled after the birth of their second daughter Alix de France

Aubrey Beardsley: Isolde, Jugendstil illustration in Pan, Berlin, 1899-1900

Fin’Amor’s Code

Courtly love was codified by Andreas Capellanus in his book entitled De amore, written in 1185 at the request of Marie de Champagne, Aleanor of Aquitaine’s first daughter, by Louis VII.  De amore has affinities with the Carte de Tendre, a French seventeenth-century allegorical map of love.  However, courtly love’s masterpiece is the Roman de la Rose.

My next post will therefore deal with the Roman de la Rose which we will examine using the Roman de la Rose Digital Library, a project of Johns Hopkins University, and La Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).

László Czidra, Camerata Hungarica & Ars Renata

romandelarose-1© Micheline Walker
6 March 2013
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Chaucer on Valentine’s Day & the Art of Antonio Canova

15 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Art, Love, Metamorphosis, Winged Creatures

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Antonio Canova (1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822)

More on Valentine’s Day

You will find below, among related articles, a post that tells about the origin of Saint Valentine’s Day.  It’s the final and rather amusing post in a short series of posts on St Valentine’s Day.  We’ve discussed the Lupercalia, pastorals, préciosité, pancakes, etc., and all these posts are related to Valentine’s Day.

For Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), the 14th of February was the day when birds mated.  It’s a lovely legend.  Othon III de Grandson devoted a third of his poems on stories surrounding St Valentine’s Day.

Moreover, Chaucer was familiar with the French courtly love tradition as he had translated, but not in its entirety, the Roman de la Rose, by Guillaume de Lorris, who wrote the first 4058 lines circa 1230.  The poem was completed by Jean de Meun who composed an additional 17,724 lines.  Chaucer’s Romaunt of the Rose is included in his Legend of Good Women, a poem.

The six tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn are also associated with Valentine’s day and Chaucer.  They were commissioned by Jean le Viste, described as a “powerful nobleman at the court of Charles VII” (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461).  (See The Lady and the Unicorn, Wikipedia.)  The tapestries belong, in part, to the courtly love tradition.  Only a virgin could capture a unicorn, which suggests platonic love.  However, the horn of the unicorn is a phallic symbol.

As for cards, the first was written by a saint and martyr.  According to Britannica,  “[f]ormal messages, or valentines, appeared in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed cards were being used.”[i] They became popular in the 19th century.

With respect to Charles d’Orléans, he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Agincourt, on 25 October 1415, and spent twenty-four years in England.  After he returned to France, he helped disseminate Othon III de Grandson’s Valentine stories in courtly circles.

We have several incunables (books printed between 1450 and 1501) combining the printed text and illuminations.  They cannot be shown in this blog if it is to posted on or near 14 February 2013.  Chaucer’s Tales of Canterbury is an incunable, printed by William Caxton, a fascinating gentleman.  But the Ellesmere Chaucer is a famous illuminated manuscript, housed in the Huntington Library, in San Marino, California.  (See Ellesmere Chaucer, Wikipedia.)

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[i] “Valentine’s Day”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/858512/Valentines-Day>.

Antonio Canova – Musica Mozart
Sonata en Do mayor – K 303 (293c) Adagio Molto allegro
musicyarte 
Psyche_revived_Louvre_MR1777
© Micheline Walker
14 February 2013
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