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"E Cil De France Le Cleiment a Guarant": Roland, Vivien Et Le Thème

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Wolfgang G. van Emden "E cil de France le cleiment a guarant": Roland, Vivien et le thème du guarant The following paper, which was read at the Sixth International Congress of the Société Rencesvals at Aix-en-Provence in August 1973, will appear also in the Acts of that Conference, which are being edited by the Université de Provence, and are expected to appear at the end of 1974. I should add that when writing this paper I did not have avail- able to me the article of Professor William W. Kibler, "Roland's Pride," (Symposium, 26 [1972], pp. 147-160). Professor Kibler has since had the kindness to send me a copy of his article which I would certainly have quoted in reference to the "third school" discussed in my own paper. A preliminary note of this kind is not, of course, the place in which to reply to another scholar's study; I must limit myself to stating that, in spite of the balanced and moderate arguments put forward by Prof. Kibler, I do not find myself in agreement with him on his basic con- clusions, and that I think many of the points he raises are in fact envisaged and covered in the paper which follows. A lire et à relire les études qui s'échelonnent depuis des décennies au sujet de la conception morale de la Chanson de Roland, l'on est en droit, ce me semble, d'avouer que la tête vous tourne, ou qu'on ne sait plus où en donner. En s'en tenant aux études parues depuis une quinzaine d'années, on constate néanmoins que des écoles semblent se con- stituer, surtout outre-Atlantique, dont les conclusions sur les mêmes 4000 vers sont plus ou moins contradictoires. Je me permets de résumer les tendances les plus marquantes, pour en dégager quelques points essentiels, et je m'excuse d'avance de la simplification qu'entraîne un tel procédé. Il y a d'abord toujours un certain nombre de traditionalistes, si j'ose dire, qui défendent encore l'opinion des Gaston Paris et des Joseph Bédier. Pour eux, Roland, entraîné par la démesure, soit par l'orgueil poussé à l'extrême, par le souci exagéré de sa réputation per- sonnelle et de celle de sa famille et de la France, est responsable du désastre qu'est l'anéantissement de l'arrière-garde. Il se rend enfin compte des conséquences de sa décision égoïste, et par un acte d'humi- lité et de pénitence qui doit lui coûter la vie il rachète sa faute en sonnant du cor, ce qui permet à Charlemagne de venger la trahison sur les païens. Je n'insiste pas. Les partisans récents de cette vue des choses 21 22 Olifant/Vol. 1, No. 4/April 1974 sont notamment André Burger,1 R. N. Walpole,2 A. Renoir,3 J. H. White,4 Janet W. Boatner,5 Joseph I. Donohoe, Jr.6 Aux pp. 332-67 de son beau livre sur Les chansons de geste et l'épopée, paru en 1968, M. Siciliano maintient toujours, dans le chatoiement de ses formules antithétiques, une interprétation basée sur la démesure du héros. La pensée de M. Le Gentil a sensiblement évolué: il appartient, je crois, encore à cette "école," mais son article de 1968,7 par rapport à la seconde édition de son livre bien connu, a tendance à atténuer la faute de Roland; non seulement il n'est pas démesuré dans le sens le plus péjoratif de ce mot, 1"Les Deux Scènes du cor dans la Chanson de Roland," Technique littéraire des Chansons de geste (Paris, 1959), pp. 105-26; "Le Rire de Roland," CCM, 3 (1960), pp. 2-11; c.r. de G. Fenwick Jones, The Ethos of the Song of Roland dans Medium Aevum, 34 (1965), pp. 52-55. 2"The Nota Emilianense. New Light (But How Much?) on the Origins of the Old French Epic," RPh, 10 (1957), pp. 1-18, surtout p. 16; "Le sens moral de la Chanson de Roland," Trav. linguist, et littér. Centre philol. et littér, romanes Strasbourg, 4 (1966), pp. 7-21. 3"Roland's Lament: Its Meaning and Function in the Chanson de Roland," Speculum, 35 (1960), pp. 572-83; une autre étude de M. Renoir, "The Heroic Oath in Beowulf, the Chanson de Roland and the Nibelungen- lied," Studies ... in Honor of Arthur C. Brodeur (1963), ne m'a pas été accessible. 4"La Chanson de Roland: Secular or Religious Inspiration?" Rom, 84 (1963), pp. 398-408. 5"The Misunderstood Ordeal: A Re-examination of the Chanson de Roland," Studies in Philology, 66 (1969), pp. 571-83. 6"Ambivalence and Anger: The Human Center of the Chanson de Roland," Romanic Review, 62 (1971), pp. 251-61. L'auteur cite en der- nière page un autre travail, James C. Atkinson, "Laisses 169-170 of the Chanson de Roland," MLN, 82 (1967), pp. 271-84, d'après lequel Roland, comme le Sarrasin qu'il tue de l'Oliphant, est coupable d'un "rash act conceived out of pride." Tout en partageant le vue qu'ont ces auteurs de la conception morale du Roland, je dois dire que ni l'un ni l'autre de ces articles ne me paraît convaincant. 7"A propos de la démesure de Roland," CCM, 11 (1968), pp. 203-9; cf. La Chanson de Roland, 2e éd. revue et mise à jour (Paris, 1967), pp. 123-32. van Emden/Thème du guarant 23 mais l'article tend à minimiser la culpabilité de Roland—sans pour au- tant la nier tout à fait—et à insister sur un idéal chevaleresque qui a besoin d'être "christianisé en profondeur" par la souffrance. Les vues de M. Le Gentil, telles qu'elles sont exposées dans cette étude si équilibrée et nuancée—à laquelle je préfère cependant pour ma part l'interprétation qu'avait fournie son livre—forment un trait d'union avec le second groupe: celui qui ne voit aucune faute chez Roland, lequel serait au contraire tout au long du poème le cham- pion exemplaire de la chrétienté militante. Cette conception, défendue au dernier Congrès notamment par MM. Brault et Crist, sous le signe de D. W. Robertson, Jr.,8 rapelle le jugement d'Edmond Faral, qui écrivait dès 1932 (tout en admettant que la témérité de Roland va jusqu'à la démesure): L'héroïsme, c'est peut-être la déraison; mais c'est lui qui, déjouant les prévisions humaines, atteint, de son essor aventureux, les cimes de l'idéal. Car, au cours de cette longue épreuve qui se terminera par la mort, pas un instant la fierté de Roland ne se démentira. La démesure, que tant d'autres chansons de geste peignent comme un péché qui ne se lave que dans l'humilité finale, ne recevra en sa personne aucune pénitence. Jusqu'à son dernier souffle, Roland restera fidèle à lui-même.9 Les adhérents de la nouvelle école vont beaucoup plus loin, et dans des directions un peu divergentes. C'est pour cette raison que nos collègues américains se sont avec justice défendus du nom d'"école," que j'emploie seulement pour plus de commodité, et par rapport aux idées qui sont communes à ces érudits. Il s'agit là surtout de l'affirmation que ce qui semble démesure à Olivier, à Ganelon et aux critiques moder- nes n'est autre chose que la sagesse divine qui se manifeste chez Roland. Mme Fern Farnham,10 dans une étude originale et pour le moins très in- téressante, qu'il est difficile de classer et qui se rapproche par cer- tains côtés de celle de M. Le Gentil,11 rejette la notion d'un Roland 8A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives (Prince- ton University Press, 1962), surtout pp. 162-71. 9La Chanson de Roland: Etude et analyse (Paris, 1932), pp. 230-1. 10"Romanesque Design in the Chanson de Roland," RPh, 18 (1964), pp. 143-64. 11Farnham, art. cit., pp. 162-3: "Roland's decision to blow his 24 Olifant/Vol. 1, No. 4/April 1974 pécheur repentant, et insiste sur l'idée que le héros est un martyr plutôt qu'un saint, ce qui la rapproche aussi de Mlle Boatner, bien que son analyse soit légèrement différente.12 Pour MM. A. Foulet 13 et A. del Monte,14 le héros est une sorte d'archétype du Rédempteur, de l'innocent qui souffre pour ramener ses compagnons à leur devoir, qui est de faire la guerre contre l'Islam à l'outrance. Selon E. J. Mickel, Jr.15 et surtout J.-Ch. Payen,16 Roland a en somme raison, parce que les Sarrasins "ont tort" et que les Français horn represents an enlargement of his vision, an enlargement which re- quires the surrender of his personal honor and his life but does not imply a change of heart." 12Boatner, art. cit., pp. 581-2; Mme Farnham retient du saint surtout sa conversion, notion qui ne s'applique pas, selon elle, au Roland (p. 163). Mlle Boatner au contraire dit, avec raison, que Roland ne partage pas le renoncement aux valeurs du monde qui est caractéris- tique du saint. 13"Is Roland Guilty of Desmesure?" RPh, 10 (1957), pp. 145-8. 14"Apologia di Orlando," Filologia Romanza, 4 (1957), pp. 225-34. 15"Christian Duty and the Structure of the Roland," RomN, 9 (1967), pp. 126-33; à la p. 130, M. Mickel se rapproche aussi de la thèse de MM. Foulet et del Monte. 16Le Motif du repentir dans la littérature française médiévale dès origines à 1230 (Genève, 1967), surtout pp.
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