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‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 7

‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 7. Thomas Honegger t.m.honegger@swissonline.ch. Narratives 3 Romances. Chrétien de Troyes’ Cligés. Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1140-90).

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‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 7

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  1. ‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 7 Thomas Honegger t.m.honegger@swissonline.ch

  2. Narratives 3Romances

  3. Chrétien de Troyes’ Cligés

  4. Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1140-90) • “qui fist d’Erec et d’Enide, Et les comandemanz d’Ovide Et l’art d’amors an romans mist, Et le mors de l’espaule fist, Del roi Marc et d’Ysalt la blonde, / [...]” • who composed Erec et Enide / and the commandments of Ovid / and who translated the Art of Love into the vernacular, / and who made the Shoulder Bite, / [the tales] of King Mark and Iseut the Blonde.

  5. Works 1 • Philomena • Guillaume d’Angleterre(3366 lines; before 1170) • Erec et Enide (6878 lines, c. 1170) • Cligés (6784 lines, c. 1176) • Yvain (‘Li chevaliers au lion’) (6818 lines, c. 1177-1181)

  6. Works 2 • Lancelot (‘Li chevaliers de la charrete’, 7112 lines, ca. 1177-1181, last 1000 lines written by Godefroy de Leigny; written on request by Marie de Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France) • Perceval (‘Perceval li Gallois ou Li contes del Graal’, 9234 lines, before 1190, fragmentary, for Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders)

  7. Characteristics • Keen interest in • questions of courtliness • questions of chivalric identity (cf. Yvain) • didactic quality • Example: “Et sens et courtoisie fist / She acted cleverly and courteously.” (Yvain, l. 3063).

  8. Lovers in Chrétien’s romances • Erec et Enide: legalistic tradition • Lancelot: courtly love relationship already established • Perceval: mystic quest of the Grail in the centre of attention • Cligés: anti-Tristan; struggle of lovers for happiness at the centre of the romance

  9. Cligès’ parents • Alexander and Soredamor

  10. Tristan and Iseut • Tristran ad noté chescun dit, Mes ele l’ad issi forsvëé Par ‘l’amer’ que ele ad tant changee Que ne set si cele dolur Ad de la mer ou de l’amur

  11. Tristan and Iseut • Tristan has paid attention to each of her words, / but she has succeeded so well in confusing him / by constantly punning on the word ‘l’amer’ / so that he does not know whether her distress / is caused by ‘la mer’ or ‘l’amour’.

  12. Alexander and Soredamor • Espoir bien s’an aparceüst, Se la mers ne la deceüst; Mes la mers l’angingne et deçoit Si qu’an la mer l’amor ne voit; An la mer sont, et d’amer vient, Et d’amors vient li max ques tient. (Cligés, Micha 1982:17, ll. 539-544)

  13. Alexander and Soredamor 2 • She might perhaps have realised it, / had not the sea deceived her; / but she is duped and deceived by the sea / so that on it she is blinded to the love; / for they are on the sea, and from love and its bitterness comes the pain they feel.

  14. Alexander and Soredamor 3 • ‘la mers/la mer’ • vs. ‘l’amor/aimer’ • vs. ‘amers/amer’ • ‘amor ex phiola’

  15. Dynastic marriage • Fénice  Alis (Cligés’s uncle)

  16. Leave-taking 1 • Cligés: “Mes droiz est qu’a vos congié praigne / Com a celi cui ge sui toz” (Cligés, Micha 1982:130, ll. 4282-4283). • But I ask for your permission [to leave] / as it is proper for someone who is entirely yours.

  17. Leave-taking 2 • Lancelot: “iestoie vostre cheualiers en quelconques lieu que ie fuisse . & vous me desistes que vostres cheualiers & vos amis volies vous que ie fuisse. Et puis dis a dieu dame . & vous desistes a dieu biax dols amis .[...] . & ce fu li mos qui me fera preudome se iel sui ia” (Lancelot, Sommer 1910:261, ll. 28-32).

  18. Leave-taking 3 • Lancelot: “[I said that] I wanted to be your knight wherever I would be and you told me that you wanted me to be your knight and your ‘ami’. And then I said ‘Goodbye, lady’ and you said ‘Goodbye sweet friend’. [...] And these were the words that made me the valiant knight that I am.”

  19. Leave-taking 4 • Guinevere: “ie nel pris pas si a chertes comme vous feistes . & a maint cheualier lai ge dit ou ie ne pensai onques fors le dit” (Lancelot, Sommer 1910:261, ll. 38-39).

  20. Leave-taking 4 • [The queen says:] I took them not as seriously as you did and I spoke to many a knight [the same words], considering them but a manner of speaking.

  21. I am yours …1 • Jacques d’Amiens’s L’art d’amours: “[...] je suis vostres tous entiers, / Et quanque j’ai tout ensement / Est en vostre commandement” • I am entirely yours / and whatever I own also / is at your disposal.

  22. I am yours …2 • Jakemes’s Le roman du Castelain de Couci et de la Dame de Fayel: • “Je sui tous vos entirement”

  23. Courtly conversation • “Sophisticated people conversed by using a degree of semantic indirectness, preferring metaphor, comparison or allusion to direct statement, and allowing their interlocutor to infer part of their meaning.” Burnley, David. 1995. «Style, Meaning and Communication in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight». Poetica (Tokyo) 42:23-37, quote p. 26.

  24. ‘subtil’ lovers • “double in love and no thing pleyn, And subtil in that craft over any wyght And with his kunnyng wan this lady bryght” (Chaucer, Anelida and Arcite, Benson 1987, ll. 87-89)

  25. true lovers 1 • “[C]ar ce [i.e. li oeul] sont les fenestres dou cuer et ont lor racines u cuer, ne li oeul ne pueent pas si mentir con fait li bouce” (Richard de Fournival, ed. Speroni 1974:261) • For the eyes are the windows of the heart and have their roots in the heart. Unlike the mouth, the eyes can tell no lie.

  26. true lovers 2 • “Q’el non sembla ges traidor, / Qe qan mi demonstret l’amor, / Mudet tres colors en una ora” (Cort d’amors,ed. Jones 1977:124, ll. 455-457). • But he scarcely seems a traitor, / because, when he was declaring his love to me, / he turned three colours in an hour.)

  27. true lovers 3 • “Vous me savriiez ja mout bien / par parole et par l’ueil a trere / la pene, et ce que ne vueil fere / e entendre, par verité.” (Jean Renart, Lai de l’ombre, ll. 384-387) • You know very well how, with words, to deceive me [literally: to pass the feather through the eye] and to make me do what I do not want, truly.

  28. Linguistic strategies • joint project • on-record clarity • off-record ambiguity • step-by-step approach => • shared responsibility • overall risk minimised • course of the conversation not predetermined

  29. Linguistic strategies 2 • sequence of minimal joint actions • ‘A: question – B: answer + new question’

  30. Lyrical monologue • The lyrical monologue, the most widespread form in courtly love poetry, survives in the ‘interior’ monologues of the lovesick protagonists.

  31. Dialogues • relatively greater realism • plot motivation • protagonist characterisation

  32. Middle English Romances

  33. Anglo-Norman romances • Hue de Rotelande’s Ipomedon (end of 12th centuy) • chaste protagonists who marry in the end

  34. Preferences • Middle-english romances prefer the ‘amant hardi’ type, i.e. the lover who is driven by his ardent love to confess outright his feelings to the lady

  35. Preferences 2 • “Car a ce ne m’acorderai je ja, que femme doive priier homme d’amours” (Richard de Fournival, Speroni 1974:266) For I shall never accept that a woman should ask a man for love.

  36. Preferences 3 • nay! sertes my-selue schal him neuer telle; For πat were swiche a wogh πa neuer wolde be mended. For he might ful wel for a fol me hold,& do me loπe mi loue git haue y leuer deie! (William of Palerne, Skeat 1867:27, ll. 543-546)

  37. Common features • personal name as form of address • praise / compliments • appeal to have pity • continuous love suffering

  38. man offer of service woman offer of trothplighting or marriage Gender specific features

  39. Reasons for similarities • ‘male’ declaration of love is the norm • declaration of love as a type-episode • clearly established interactional pattern • excitement, amusement, shock

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