‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 5

1. ‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 5 Thomas Honegger t.m.honegger@swissonline.ch

2. Troubadours, Trouvères and Courtly Love 3

3. http://www.db-thueringen.de/content/top/index.xml

4. The Pastourelle ‘L’autrier jost’una sebissa’ by Marcabru (fl. 1130-1149)

5. Defining elements • pastoral mode: country setting, heroine is a shepherdess • cast includes a man and a young woman • plot comprises a discovery and an attempted seduction • narrative and dialogue • point of view is that of the man

6. Pastourelle vs. canso • The Troubadour pastourelle is a ‘counter genre’ to the Troubadour canso and stands in a dialectic relationship with the canso.

7. Importance of the troubadour tradition • Focus is on love • it provides metaphors and images, in short, a language, to speak about love, • it provides the background of ideas (veneration of women, love as a refining and ennobling influence, etc.).

8. Middle English Lyrics

9. Blow, northerne wind • For hire love I carke and care, For hire love I droupne and dare, For hire love my blisse is bare, And all ich waxe won; For hire love in slep I slake, For hire love all night ich wake, For hire love mourning I make More then eny mon.

10. Care away, away, away • I am sory for her sake, Ic may well ete and drinke; Whanne ic slepe ic may not wake, So muche on her ic thenke. I am brout in suche a bale, And brout in suche a pine, Whanne ich rise up of my bed Me liste well to dine.

11. Topoi • Heo me wol to dethe bringLonge er my day • Hire eye haveth wounded me, iwisse • Thow I be far out of her sight, I am her man both day and night

12. Honour, joy, helthe & plesaunce • And so you not displese with my desire,This wolde I you biseche, that of youre graceIt like you, lo, to graunt me all this yereAs in your hert to have a dwelling place,All be it never of so lite a space; For which as this the rente receive ye shall My love and service as in every case, With hert, body, my litel good and all.

13. Narrative Tradition 1 Marie de France

14. Narrative Continuation • Le roman de Flamenca • Guillem and Flamenca • troubadour Peire Rogier

15. Lady remains a distant and vague figure Lady remains silent and passive Wooing phase depicted Lady becomes more ‘tangible’ and realistic Lady acquires a voice of her own and becomes more active Additional phases depicted Lyric vs. narrative tradition

16. Narrative tradition • Chanson de geste (e.g. Chanson de Roland ca. 1130-1170) • Romances of antiquity (e.g. Roman d’Eneas, Roman de Troie) (ca. 1150-70) • Courtly romances (e.g. Chrétien de Troyes Erec et Enide, Ivain, Perceval, Lancelot, Cliges, ca. 1170ff) • Lays (e.g. by Marie de France ca. 1160)

17. Lay • modest length • simplicity • density and condensation • details converging towards one main scene • love depicted as an intense emotion • ‘transitional’ genre

18. Marie de France (c.1130- c.1200) • Al finement de cest escrit, / Que en romanz ai treité e dit, / Me numerai pur remembrance. / Marie ai nun, si sui de FranceAt the end of this work / which I have translated and written in the vernacular, / I will name myself to be remembered. / Marie is my name, I am from France. Fables (B.M. Harley 978)

19. MdFr Works • Lais (c. 1160-1170) => Lanval, Guigemar • Fables (c. 1170-1180) • Espurgatoire saint Patrice (c. 1180)

20. Underlying concept of love? 1 • adulterous love-relationships (Guigemar, Equitan, Bisclavret, Yonec, Laüstic, Chievrefoil, Eliduc) • unmarried love-relationships (Fresne, Lanval, Deus Amanz, Chaitivel)

21. Underlying concept of love? 2 • relationships that start out as liaisons between two unmarried lovers but which develop into potentially adulterous ones (Milun and, to some extent, Eliduc), • an estimation of marriage as the socially appropriate form of uniting the lovers (Deus Amanz, Equitan, Fresne, Milun, Eliduc)

22. Narrative structure • inception of love • crisis/separation • dénouement

23. Guigemar & Lanval

24. Guigemar • young knight, no lady-love • goes hunting, white hind • wounded in the thigh, prophecy • passage to the Otherworld • is discovered by a lady (‘mal mariée’) • hostess-guest relationship • fall in love & enjoy their love • separation • reunion & marriage

25. Lady & knight • hostess - guest relationship • love-sickness of the knight described by the narrator (vs. first-person point of view in lyrics) • love-sickness of the lady described by her maiden • no prolonged period of waiting

26. The lady’s maiden on love • Ceste amur sereit covenable,Si vus amdui feussez estable:Vus estes bels e ele est bele!This love is right and properif you remain faithful to each other.You are handsome and she is beautiful. (Rychner 1983:19, l. 451-453)

27. Guigemar’s fears • Pur ceo qu’il ert d’estrange tere Aveit poür, s’il li mustrast, Qu’el l’enhaïst e esloinast. (Guigemar, Rychner 1983:20, ll. 478-480)Because he was from a strange countryhe was afraid that if he showed it [his love] to her,that she would hate him and send him away.

28. Confession of love made in private Confession of love made face-to-face with the lady Confession of love unadorned Detached narrator Confession of love made in public ‘indirect’ confession of love Confession of love in poetic form Narrator = lover lay vs. lyric

29. Narrator on love • Love is: • a wound that is not visible from outside • a long-lasting ill that has its roots in ‘Nature’ • True lovers will serve and be at the beloved lady’s command • It is not philandering • or boasting of one’s conquests

30. Guigemar’s declaration of love • Dame, fet il, jeo meorc pur vus! Mis quors en est mut anguissus: Si vus ne me volez guarir, Dunc m’estuet il en fin murir. Jo vus requeor de druërie: Bele, ne m’escundites mie! (Guigemar, Rychner 1983:20-21, ll. 501-506)

31. Guigemar’s declaration of love • Lady, said he, I die because of you!My heart is in great anguish.If you do not want to cure me,then it must all end in my death.I am asking for your love.Fair one, do not refuse me.

32. Marie de France’ technique • ‘She finds a middle path between the elementary simplicity of the folk-tales and the subtle complexities of the psychological courtly tales. This intermediary zone is not without subtlety or charme.’translated from Ménard, Philippe. 1997. Les lais de Marie de France. (Third edition. First edition 1979.) Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 101.

33. Hostess/nurse - guest/patient relationship quisse = thigh Nurse/beloved - patient/lover relationship quors = heart Guigemar’s strategy

34. The lady’s reaction • [..] Amis, Cist cunseilz sereit trop hastis D’otrïer vus ceste priere: Jeo ne sui mie acustumiere. (Guigemar, Rychner 1983:21, ll. 509-512)Friend, / such a decision would be too rash, / to grant you this request. / I am not accustomed [to such requests]

35. Don’t be so hasty … • Andreas Capellanus: tam festinanter postula[re] amorem ….to ask for love with such haste [is unseemly] • Graelent: Tu ne dois estre si hardisYou must not be so impatient.

36. Guigemar’s response 1 • Dame, fet il, pur Deu merci! Ne vus ennoit si jol vus di: My lady, he replied, in God’s name, mercy!Do not be angry if I tell you this:

37. Guigemar’s response 2 • Femme jolive de mestier Se deit lunc tens faire preier Pur sei cherir, que cil ne quit Que ele eit usé cel deduit, a woman who is fickle by habit / lets herself be courted for a long time / to make herself feel important and so that he [the suitor] does not realise / that she has practised such pleasure.

38. Guigemar’s response 3 • Mes la dame de bon purpens, Ki en sei eit valur ne sens, S’ele treve hume a sa maniere, Ne se ferat vers lui trop fiere,But the well-intentioned lady / who has in herself worth and wisdom, / if she finds the man to her liking, / should not show herself too forbidding.

39. Guigemar’s response 4 • Ainz ke nuls le sachet ne l’oie Avrunt il mut de lur pru fait. Bele dame, finum cest plait! (Guigemar, Rychner 1983:21, ll. 513-526)But she should [rather] love him and enjoy it. / Unless anyone knows or hears of it, / they will profit greatly from it. / Fair lady, let us put an end to this discussion.

40. Guigemar’s response 5 • rhetorical sleight-of-hand (Zaubertrick)

41. ‘interactional’ level:Attends to the lady’s positive face-needs. Level of narrative organisation:tongue-in-cheek depiction of the protagonists’ endeavour to keep up appearances 2 levels of Guigemar’s response

42. traditions • lyrical tradition • rational-argumentative tradition

43. Separation of the lovers • She ties a knot into the tailpiece of his shirt • He ‘girds her loins’ with a belt or girdle that is secured by a buckle • Separation = belated trial of love

44. Auctorial narrator guarantees genuineness of love Lady gains a voice Dialogue ‘interactive’ ladies Characterisation via dialogues and interaction First-person narrator predominates Silent lady Monologue Distant and passive ladies Self-defined via monologues Lay vs. lyric