‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 6

1. ‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 6 Thomas Honegger t.m.honegger@swissonline.ch

2. Narratives 2

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

4. Next time • Triviale Liebeserklärungen? Bemerkungen zu einem problematischen Sprechakt in der mittelenglischen Literatur.

5. Guigemar & Lanval

6. 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

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

8. 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]

9. 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.

10. 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:

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

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

15. ‘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

16. traditions • lyrical tradition • rational-argumentative tradition

17. 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

18. 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

19. Lanval by Marie de France

20. Basic Elements • the hero leaves the romance world and enters into the Otherworld • he encounters a fairy and receives gifts and a taboo • he returns, breaks the taboo, and runs into difficulties • finally, the Otherworld protagonists intervene on his behalf and take him into the Otherworld

21. Similar tales • anonymous French lay Graelent (composed after 1178 and before 1230) • anonymous French lay Guingamor (composed c. 1189-1200) • the English Sir Landeval (composed between 1300 and 1350) • Thomas Chestre’s Sir Launfal (c. 1350) • Sir Lambewell (composed in the 16th c.)

22. Plot elements • L. a knight at Arthur’s court who runs into financial difficulties, has to leave • Encounter with the fairy who offers her love and financial support on condition of absolute secrecy • L. back at court, advances by the queen • Fall from grace, accusation, breaking of promise of secrecy • Rescue by the fairy

23. English adaptations • Sir Landeval (composed between 1300 and 1350) • Thomas Chestre’s Sir Launfal (c. 1350) • Sir Lambewell (composed in the 16th c.)

24. Encounter with the fairy 1 • Sire Lanval, ma dameisele, Ki tant est pruz e sage e bele, Ele nus enveie pur vus; Kar i venez ensemble od nus! Sauvement vus i cundurums: Veez, pres est li paveilluns. • Sir Lanval, my mistress, / who is very worthy, wise and fair, / has sent us for you. / Therefore come with us! / We will conduct you safely there. / Look, her tent is near.

25. Encounter with the fairy 2 • Il s’est devant le lit asis. ‘Lanval,’ fet ele, ‘beus amis, Pur vus vienc jeo fors de ma tere; De luinz vus sui venu[e] quere. Se vus estes pruz e curteis, Emperere ne quens ne reis N’ot unkes tant joie ne bien; Kar jo vus aim sur tute rien.’

26. Encounter with the fairy 3 • He sat before the bed. / ‘Lanval,’ she said, ‘fair friend, / for you I’ve come from my country. / I have come far in search of you / and if you are worthy and courtly, / no emperor, count or king / will have felt as much joy or good fortune as you, / for I love you above all else.’

27. Encounter with the queen 1 • Quant la reïne sul le veit, Al chevaler en va tut dreit; Lunc lui s’asist, si l’apela, Tut sun curage li mustra: ‘Lanval, mut vus ai honuré E mut cheri e mut amé; Tute m’amur poëz aveir. Kar me dites vostre voleir! Ma drüerie vus otrei; Mut devez estre liez de mei.’

28. Encounter with the queen 2 • When the queen saw him alone, / she approached the knight straightaway. / Sitting down beside him, she spoke to him / and opened her heart: / ‘Lanval, I have honoured you much, / and cherished and loved you much. / You may have all my love. / Therefore tell me what you desire! / I grant you my love / you should be glad to have me.’

29. Pre-sequence Forms of address: positive politeness Maximises cost to herself: positive politeness, ‘service’ => imposition not severe ------------- Forms of address: neutral Maximises cost to herself: positive politeness, ‘emotions’ => imposition severe (neg. FTA) Fairy vs. Queen 1

30. Form of address • Fairy to Lanval: name + ‘beus amis’ + courtly V => social deictic expressions that express both her coutliness (‘vous’) and her graceful disposition towards or even affection for the knight (‘beus amis’)

31. conditional Declaration of love given as reason for benefits -------------- -------------- ------------- On-record offer of love (neg. FTA) Order/offer (neg. FTA) Expected reaction made explicit Fairy vs. Queen 2

32. Encounter with the fairy • He sat before the bed. / ‘Lanval,’ she said, ‘fair friend, / for you I’ve come from my country. / I have come far in search of you /and if you are worthy and courtly, / no emperor, count or king / will have felt as much joy or good fortune as you, / for I love you above all else.’

33. Effect • Perlocutionary effect = hearer’s reaction • Declaration of love perceived as a non-coercive proposal

34. Intrusion of the Otherworld • falcon-knight in Marie de France’s lay Yonec

35. Pre-sequence Forms of address: positive politeness Maximises cost to herself: positive politeness, ‘service’ => imposition not severe ------------- Forms of address: neutral Maximises cost to herself: positive politeness, ‘emotions’ => imposition severe (neg. FTA) Fairy vs. Queen

36. Encounter with the queen 2 • ‘Lanval, I have honoured you much, / and cherished and loved you much. / You may have all my love. / Therefore tell me what you desire! / I grant you my love / you should be glad to have me.’

37. conditional Declaration of love given as reason for benefits -------------- -------------- ------------- On-record offer of love (neg. FTA) Order/offer (neg. FTA) Expected reaction made explicit Fairy vs. Queen

38. Soredamor in Chrétien de Troyes’ Cligés • Comant? Proierai le je donques? Nenil! Por coi? Ce n’avint onques Que fame tel forfet feïst Que d’amors home requeïst, Se plus d’autre ne fu desvee. • What? Shall I ask him? / No! Why not? It never happened / that a woman acted so wrongly / as to propose love to a man, / unless she were strangely out of her mind.

39. La Fière in Ipomedon • Jeo nel devraie pas prier,Par droit devraie estre prié. • I must not ask him, by right I must be asked.

40. The Queen to Lanval • Mut devez estre lié de mei • You should be glad to have me[literally: ‘You should be glad about me’] • Marie does not present clear innocence and guilt, but a situation in which each person is surprised into an overhasty reaction.

41. Fairy vs. queen • both six lines • one turn per protagonist • plot motivation rather than protagonist characterisation • informational content more or less identical • declarations of love differ on pragmatic level

42. Fairy vs. queen • plausible motivation • Potiphar’s wife syndrome

43. The Middle English Versions • Sir Landeval (composed between 1300 and 1350) • Thomas Chestre’s Sir Launfal (c. 1350) • Sir Lambewell (composed in the 16th c.)

44. Sir Lambewell 1 • My Lady thats bright as blossome or flower, thee greets, Sir Lamwell, as her paramoure;

45. Sir Lambewell 2 • when of her he had had a sight, down of his knees then fell the Knight,& saluted her with mild steuen as though that shee had come fro heauen,& spake to her when he had space, “I put me, lady, into your grace.”

46. ME versions vs. Marie de France’s Lanval • The ‘ME queen’ explicitly announces her intention to address Landevale • Marie de France’s queen addresses Lanval rather abruptly and without a preceding introduction.

47. The ME queen (Sir Landevale) • ‘Yender,’ she said, ‘ys Landavall; Of all the knyghtys that ben here There is none so faire a bachyl[e]r; And he haue noder leman ne wyf, J wold he louyde me as his lif. Tide me good or tyde me ille, J wille assay the knyghtys wille.’

48. The ME queen (Sir Launval) • All πey seyde, ham betwene, πat knewe πe maners of πe Quene And πe queste toke, πe Quene bar los of swych a word πat sche louede lemmannes without her lord; Har neuir on hyt foresoke;

49. ME texts vs. Marie de France • ME texts are interested in creating moral oppositions between the main antagonists. • Marie is more concerned to evoke a psychologically and socially familiar experience in a situation that is atypical than to take up moral positions.

50. ME Landevale vs. Lanval • Lanval is alone and the prototype of the melancholy lover • Landevale leads the merrymaking and the dance together with Gawain and the queen.