ABSTRACT Refining the Soul: the Pilgrimage of Caritas in The
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ABSTRACT Refining the Soul: The Pilgrimage of Caritas in the Romances of Chrétien de Troyes Hannah Zdansky Director: K. Sarah-Jane Murray, Ph.D. My thesis explores the relationship between twelfth-century theology and courtly romance. I specifically look at the connections between St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s treatise De diligendo Deo (On Loving God) (c. 1126) and the corpus of Chrétien de Troyes’s Arthurian romances (c. 1165-1190). In each tale, I analyze the progression of love made by the characters towards a complete attainment of caritas (charity). Chapter One investigates love from a medieval religious standpoint in order to establish Chrétien’s cultural milieu. I consider works by St. Augustine, the Canticum Canticorum (Songs of Songs), Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae (Consolation of Philosophy), as well as a mid-twelfth-century narrative poem composed in Old French, the lai of Narcisus. Chapter Two turns to two of Chrétien’s early romances, Érec et Énide and Yvain. Here, I show how the protagonists—Erec and Enide, and Yvain and Laudine—grow as a couple. In Chapter Three, I discuss Chrétien’s fourth romance, Le Chevalier de la Charrette (The Knight of the Cart), in light of the eleventh-century Vie de saint Alexis. The Concluding Remarks, then, end upon an investigation of Chrétien’s fifth and final work, Perceval. Throughout the thesis, I draw upon medieval artwork (manuscript illuminations, stained-glass windows, sculpture) to enrich my analyses. In this way, I come to grips with the medieval worldview and, more particularly, the twelfth-century understanding of love and marriage. Working within a fictional framework, Chrétien echoes Bernard and suggests that the love between man and woman is a response to God’s love; it is the first step towards spiritual perfection and happiness. APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF SENIOR ESSAY: ________________________________________________ Dr. K. Sarah-Jane Murray, Department of Great Texts APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM: ________________________________________________ Dr. Alden Smith, Director and Associate Dean DATE: ________________________ REFINING THE SOUL: THE PILGRIMAGE OF CARITAS IN THE ROMANCES OF CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Program By Hannah Zdansky Waco, Texas May 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Acknowledgments iii II. Dedication iv III. Introduction v IV. Chapter One: Love as a Pathway to God: A Medieval Concept of Marriage 1 V. Chapter Two: Hindrances of a Human World: From Erec and Enide to Yvain and Laudine 29 VI. Chapter Three: Transcendence and Limitations in The Knight of the Cart 67 VII. Concluding Remarks: Perceval, Love and Chivalry 97 VIII. Appendices 116 IX. Works Cited 124 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank, above all, Dr. K. Sarah-Jane Murray for her undying support and endless enthusiasm for this project. This thesis is a testament to her incomparable guidance as a scholar and mentor. I would also like to express my gratitude to my readers, Dr. David L. Jeffrey and Dr. Sinda Vanderpool, for their time and effort in critiquing my work. I appreciate the Honors Program and the Great Texts Department for allowing me to pursue special independent readings courses; the Institute for Faith and Learning for providing me the funds to attend the 41st International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan in order to present my research; and also the staff of the Baylor Library for all their help. iii DEDICATION This thesis is for my parents, who have never failed to be there for me, and for my beloved, Brad, whose enduring care and patience I could not live without. iv INTRODUCTION This thesis focuses on the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes. More specifically, it focuses upon the relationship between Chrétien’s late twelfth-century works and the spiritual writings of the early twelfth-century Christian mystic, St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Throughout his texts, Chrétien de Troyes raises a number of interesting questions: what purpose does love serve? How are men and women meant to interact with one another? What should be a person’s relationship to himself, his surroundings— and most importantly—to God? By reading Chrétien’s courtly romances as a corpus, I show that his protagonists are engaged in a veritable pilgrimage of love, which closely parallels the spirit that animates St. Bernard’s De diligendo Deo (On Loving God) (c. 1126) with its “four degrees.” We know very little about Chrétien de Troyes. He dedicates his third romance, Le Chevalier de la Charrette (The Knight of the Cart), to Marie de Champagne around 1180, and we assume he was in her service at that time.1 His first romance, Érec et Énide, was composed some ten years earlier. Chrétien’s writings are full of references to classical and vernacular texts as well as to Celtic legends. All of this suggests that he was a learned poet, trained in the schools but also sensitive to import of the “matter of Britain.”2 1 Marie, Countess of Champagne was the daughter of the one-time queen of France and queen of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Louis VII of France. Like her mother, she was a great patron of the arts. In the late 12th Century, Andreas Capellanus dedicates his Art of Courtly Love to her. Chrétien’s fifth and final romance, Le Conte du Graal (Perceval), is dedicated to Count Philip of Flanders. It is likely Chrétien passed into Philip’s service after the death of Marie’s husband, Henri le Libéral, in 1181. 2 Concerning Chrétien’s literary background, see Laurence Harf-Lancner in A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes. See also K. Sarah-Jane Murray’s dissertation Myth and Grammatica in the Service of Narrative Truth: Vernacular Humanism in Early Old French Courtly Romance. v Although it seems unlikely that they would ever have met, Chrétien and Bernard are in accord when it comes to their conception of love: it is a gift from God and should be used to seek Him. Bernard develops in his work a step-by-step method that explains the process a person undergoes in a pilgrimage towards divine and perfect Christian love (caritas).3 His “four degrees of love” are an outline of the progress made between the human soul and God, yet they can be applied to the love between humans as well. Chrétien’s Arthurian romances reflect St. Bernard’s claim that since we are born of the flesh, so too must our love begin in the flesh.4 Each of Chrétien’s couples journey through St. Bernard’s degrees. Some get further than others, but the protagonists’ sole chance of happiness always seems to lie in spiritual refinement, accomplished through nurturing proper relationships. By learning to love another human being correctly, a person can come to better love God. Resolution within the tales only occurs when the characters achieve this love. I have divided this thesis into four sections. Chapter One provides the cultural and theological grounding for my study. I begin by exploring the Judeo-Christian account of creation and the formation of the couple. At the beginning of the world, man and woman were united spiritually; after the fall, however, the soul’s return to God depends, in part, on the restoration of the couple to what it was originally intended. St. Augustine and Hugh of St. Victor both suggest that marriage plays a very important role in this process: marriage was the first sacrament established by God. Furthermore, marriage can act as a means of sanctification if it is founded upon love. God is Love, and 3 In this way, Bernard’s mystical writings anticipate St. Bonaventure’s thirteenth-century Itinerarium mentis in Deum. Never far from the mind is Hebrews chapter eleven verse thirteen: “These all died in faith […] and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” 4 Found in the beginning of Chapter XV. vi when two human beings love, they, within the Christian tradition, ideally should come to participate more in God.5 It is not surprising, then, that the Canticum Canticorum (Song of Songs) enjoyed great popularity throughout the Middle Ages. Vernacular literature also engages these questions, as evidenced, for example, by the mid-twelfth-century Lai de Narcissus. The remainder of the first chapter considers St. Bernard’s “four degrees” with respect to their interpretation by Chrétien and the significance this has for the Christian worldview of medieval Europe. The romances of Chrétien exhibit a schema similar to Bernard’s and, though more obscure, suggest that the love between a man and a woman should be a response to God’s love. For both, the “first degree of love” entails loving the self for the sake of the self. The pilgrimage begins when we move to the “second degree” and learn to love God (or another), albeit selfishly. The “third degree”—loving God (or another) for His (or his/her) own sake—represents the stage which most people do not possess the fortitude to move beyond. Perfect happiness is the reward for someone who aspires to the “fourth degree” of loving others and oneself through God. Humankind’s greatest purpose should lie in seeking God, and this is no less true within human relationships because the love of another should help lead one to God. Thus, Chrétien shows that Bernard’s degrees can be read in two ultimately linked ways. Chapter Two closely analyzes a pair of Chrétien’s early romances, Érec et Énide (c. 1165) and Yvain or Le Chevalier au Lion (The Knight with the Lion) (c. 1180). Both of these works deal with the failing and subsequent healing of a couple.