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‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 10

‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 10. Thomas Honegger t.m.honegger@swissonline.ch. http:// www. db-thueringen.de/ content/top/ index.xml. Jean Renart’s Le Lai de l’ombre. Next time: medieval ‘arts of love’ Last time: transformation of the courtly love tradition. Lai de l’ombre.

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‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 10

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  1. ‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 10 Thomas Honegger t.m.honegger@swissonline.ch

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

  3. Jean Renart’s Le Lai de l’ombre Next time: medieval ‘arts of love’ Last time: transformation of the courtly love tradition

  4. Lai de l’ombre • narrativisation of a thematic nucleus found in the troubadours • Mais aucun dialogue n’a autant d’ampleur, de vivacité et de brio que celui du lai de l’Ombre. Avant Jean Renart nul écrivain courtois au XIIe et au XIIIe siècle n’avait donné à la déclaration amoureuse le caractère d’une affrontement, d’un véritable duel. Ménard (1969:218)

  5. Lai de l’ombre 2 • 509 lines of dialogue vs. 962 lines total length of the poem • Les répliques de Jean Renart apparaissent incisives, rapides, appropriées à chaque état du personnage; elles sont si naturelles que nombre de scènes du Lai de l’Ombre, de l’Escoufle et de Guillaume de Dole pourraient à bon droit passer pour des scènes de théâtre. Rita Lejeune-Dehousse (1935:348-349)

  6. Lai de l’ombre 3 • written between 1221 and 1222 • extant in 7 manuscripts (c. 1250-1310) • N’i convient mes baer de rien Jean Renart a lor afere. (l. 953) It isn’t suitable for that Jean Renart to concern himself further with their relationship.

  7. Lai de l’ombre 4 • Guillaume de Dole: “Qu’il entra en religion” anagram of ‘ren(e)art’ • Le roman de la rose ou deGuillaume de Dole (c. 1212-13/1228) • Escoufle (c. 1202) • Plait Renart de Dammartin contre Vairon son roncin

  8. Lai de l’ombre 5 • De Renart et de Piaudoue • Auberée • Galeran de Bretagne • Editions of Lai de l’ombre by Joseph Bédier in 1890 (‘normalised’ version based on MS A), 1913 (MS A), and 1929 (MS E)

  9. Lai de l’ombre 6 • mes nus n’oï onques son non (line 62) • but we do not know his name • Guingamor: “ne sai, por voir, nomer son non”

  10. Lai de l’ombre 7 • Illustrates the knight’s ability to use his ‘reson’ and to influence his interlocutors. • He is shown as exercising the utmost discretion concerning his true intentions and as being able to keep his feelings and motives secret, even from his own companions.

  11. Lai de l’ombre 8 • Chevaliers ne doit onques / trespasser ne chemin ne voie / ou bele dame ait qu’il nel voie. (Lecoy 1983:9, ll. 262-264) • Knights ought never / to pass by a road or a highway / where a lady dwells without stopping to see her.

  12. Lai de l’ombre 9 • Frame of ‘neighbouring knight pays his respects to the lady of the castle who receives him and his companions graciously’

  13. Lai de l’ombre 10 • flattering and polite, form of address => gives positive face • autonomous heart that interferes and dominates his “pensser” • purpose of offering her his service • ‘troubadouresque’ “joie” as a potential reward

  14. Lai de l’ombre 11 • appeal to God and His mercy • A) increase the credibility of his protestations of love by linking them with undisputed religious values • B) model of repenting sinner and graceful God may (hopefully) inspire the lady to similarly ‘merciful’ behaviour towards the knight

  15. Lai de l’ombre 12 • “Diex” • “Amors” • Thus I can attain joy: / since there is no other being that I love so much / as you, if Amors / lets me, repenting, come to his mercy.

  16. Lai de l’ombre 13 • gentelise et pitiez • Car ce serait une bonne action si l’on priait à l’église pour ceux qui n’ont d’autre intention que d’aimer loyalement. • For a man who would say prayers in a minster would do well to pray for those who understand nothing of love or who know not how to be a loyal love.

  17. Lai de l’ombre 14 • a) the proposed interactional framework is the traditional courtly one of knightly servant and lady • b) explicit amatory aspects of the hoped-for relationship are subordinated to the service aspects

  18. Lai de l’ombre 15 • c) the sincerity of the feelings are pointed out yet not unduly stressed • d) possible doubts as to the moral acceptability of such a liaison are diverted.

  19. Lai de l’ombre 16 • Ha! sire, por l’ame de mi, / fet ele, qu’avez vous or dit?” (Lecoy 1983:12, ll. 368-369) • Ha! Sir, by my soul, / said she, what have you said?

  20. Lai de l’ombre 17 • Vous me savriiez ja mout bien / par parole et par l’ueil a trere / la pene, et ce que ne vueil fere / a entendre, par verité! • You know very well, / by means of your words and looks, how to pull / the wool over my eyes / and to make me want to do what I do not want to, truly!

  21. Lai de l’ombre 18 • discourse on a metalevel • takes away the knight’s most powerful weapon: his speech • Challenges the propositional content condition (the speaker feels love for the hearer) and the sincerity condition (the speaker believes that he feels love for the hearer).

  22. Lai de l’ombre 19 • Le Roman de la Rose: Bel Accueil (warm welcome) • Argues that her verbal resistance does not express her true feelings

  23. Lai de l’ombre 20 • retenez moi a chevalier / et, quant vous plera, a ami (Lecoy 1983:13, ll. 414-415) • retain me as your knight / and, when it pleases you, as your love

  24. Lai de l’ombre 21 • how to interpret correctly the non-verbal element(s) of an interaction • framework has been that of ‘courteously welcoming and entertaining a guest’ • vs. framework of ‘opening moves between lovers’

  25. Lai de l’ombre 22 • simultaneous use of (at least) two communicative frameworks (one remains implicit)

  26. Lai de l’ombre 23 • Pitié et debonereté • n’onques ne failli a amie / nus en la fin, qui bien amast (Lecoy 1983:14, ll. 454-455) • Never has a beloved lady forsaken, / in the end, one who loved well.

  27. Tristan wounded during his fight with Morholt Tristan’s wounds cannot be healed by the surgeons at King Mark’s court only Iseut can heal him the knight wounded by Amor the knight suffers from ‘amor hereos’ only the lady can heal him Lai de l’ombre 24

  28. Lai de l’ombre 25 • Lady gives an ‘objective’ reason why it is not possible for her to love him or anyone else: she is married to a husband who cherishes and honours her. • => departure from arguing on a metalevel • => the knight’s sincerity as an interactional partner is doubted no more, and the lady no longer refuses to discuss with him matters on a content level.

  29. Lai de l’ombre 26 • qui d’amors chant [et] lise • les poètes [et] les doctes • les poètes [et] les théoriciens de l’amour • “Ha! dame, fet il, mort m’avez!” (Lecoy 1983:16, l. 512) • Ah, lady, he said, you have slain me!

  30. Lai de l’ombre 27 • cortoisie et bien (Lecoy 1983:16, l. 514) • ‘Faire cortoisie’ • Exchanging tokens of love: ‘joiel’ – jewel, ‘çainture’ – girdel or belt, or ‘anel’ – ring • Cf. Guillaume IX, SGGK, Merchant of Venice

  31. Lai de l’ombre 28 • une grant cortoisie (Lecoy 1983:18, l. 565) • plus que mestre / de cest art (Lecoy 1983:19-20, ll. 620-621) • he is a past master / in this art

  32. Lai de l’ombre 29 • Jean-Paul Sartre: L’être et le néant (1948) • ‘sprezzatura’ = ‘nonchalance’ • Sir Thomas Hoby (1561 translation of Castiglione’s Il cortegiano) gives the advice to avoid affectation of manners “and (to speak a new word) to use in every thyng a certain Reckelesness, to cover art withall, and seeme whatsoever he doth and sayeth to do it wythout pain, and (as it were) not myndyng it”

  33. Lai de l’ombre 30 • “Si latet ars, prodest; adfert deprensa pudorem / Atque adimit merito tempus in omne fidem” (Ovid, Ars amatoria, Book II, ll. 313-314; Bornecque 1983:43). Artfulness is useful if it remains unobtrusive/hidden; if it is uncovered, it causes embarrassment and destroys with good cause the trust forever.

  34. Lai de l’ombre 31 • “un exemple et un modèle de conversation courtoise, tel fut son dessein, et par là son poème appartient surtout, peut-on dire, au genre didactique.”Bédier (1913:iii)

  35. Lai de l’ombre 32 • intra-textual level: the lady repeatedly voices her doubts as to the trustworthiness of the courteous verbal surface • textual level: the dialogues always lead up to an impasse casts serious doubts on their suitability as ‘model dialogues’

  36. Lai de l’ombre 33 • De amore and Lai de l’ombre: • a) the protagonists in both works remain nameless; b) there are similarities in genre and treatment

  37. Lai de l’ombre 34 • Jean Renart’s poetic skill transforms the commonplaces of troubadour poetry and conventional amorous dialogues “into one of the most elegant and vivacious small masterpieces of medieval fiction” (Sargent 1965:79).

  38. Next time: medieval ‘arts of love’

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