DOCSLIB.ORG

Article Reference

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Article Reference Article Vers et prose dans la théorie littéraire médiolatine TILLIETTE, Jean-Yves Reference TILLIETTE, Jean-Yves. Vers et prose dans la théorie littéraire médiolatine. Littérales, 2007, vol. 41, p. 17-41 Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:85461 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 Vers et prose dans la théorie littéraire médiolatine Le titre qui figure en tête de cette page annonce un propos plutôt technique. Peut-être aurait-il été souhaitable d’en modifier un terme, en vue de réorienter ce propos dans une perspective plus conforme, sans doute, à l’esprit d’une réflexion collective placée à l’enseigne de « littérature et révélation ». Plutôt que de « vers et prose dans la théorie littéraire médiolatine », on a donc songé à parler de « poésie et prose » dans cette même théorie… Une telle revision de point de vue s’appuyait sur deux constatations en apparence contradictoires, en fait complémentaires. La première est la conviction, transmise par Horace au moyen âge latin, qu’il ne suffit pas de concludere versum, c’est-à-dire de distribuer de façon régulière les syllabes et les coupes, pour oser se dire poète ; et l’auteur romain d’ajouter, dans sa quatrième satire d’où est tirée l’expression que je viens de citer, que, si le discours de la comédie, si voisin par sa teneur de la conversation quotidienne, ne perd pas grand chose à être exprimé en oratio soluta, en prose, un vers épique d’Ennius, même disloqué, continue de rendre un son poétique1. Mais d’autre part – c’est la seconde constatation -, la littérature latine chrétienne de l’Antiquité tardive, que prolongent les premiers siècles du moyen âge, ne paraît pas ressentir ni marquer de distinction substantielle entre traduction versifiée et traduction prosaïque d’un seul et même contenu : c’est, héritée de l’exercice scolaire de la paraphrase rhétorique, la pratique de l’opus geminum, dont Sedulius fournit un premier exemple, très admiré, en flanquant son épopée biblique en hexamètres, le Carmen paschale, d’un Opus paschale rédigé 1 … neque enim concludere uersum / dixeris esse satis, neque, siqui scribat uti nos / sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse poetam. /(…) Idcirco quidam, comoedia necne poema /esset, quaesiuere : (…)/ (…) nisi quod pede certo / differt sermoni, sermo merus (…) / (…) Si soluas « Postquam Discordia taetra / belli ferratos postis portasque refregit », / inuenias etiam disiecti membra poetae ( HOR., serm. 1, 4, 40-42, 45-48 et 60-62), « Tu ne saurais dire qu’il suffise de remplir la mesure du vers ; et si quelqu’un écrit, comme moi, des phrases voisines du langage de la conversation, tu n’iras point le tenir pour un poète. (…) Voilà pourquoi on s’est demandé si la comédie était, oui ou non, un poème (…) : si elle ne différait d’une conversation par les régles du mètre, ce serait conversation pure (…). Si tu défaisais ce vers :’Quand la noire Discorde eut rompu les portes de la guerre et leurs montants de fer’, tu retrouverais encore les membres du poète mis en pièces » (trad. François Villeneuve). 2 dans une prose spécialement artificieuse2 ; il sera fort imité par les hagiographes des IXe, Xe et XIe siècles, et c’est ainsi par exemple que, comme le rappelle François Dolbeau, l’écolâtre de la cathédrale de Spire, peu avant l’an mil, demande à ses étudiants et à ses étudiantes de transposer en vers la vie de saint Christophe, en guise de « mémoire de fin d’études »3. De tels phénomènes ont conduit Ernst Robert Curtius à prononcer ce verdict lapidaire : « [Au moyen âge,] le discours en prose et le discours en vers étaient interchangeables »4. Ce qui, au fond, n’est pas absolument en opposition avec l’opinion d’Horace, pour qui il est loisible au sermo cotidianus de la comédie ou de la satire de s’adapter aux règles de la métrique. Dans un tel schéma, il y a évidemment une grande perdante, qui est la Poésie, telle que nous avons accoutumé de l’hypostasier depuis l’âge du romantisme, depuis Mallarmé et depuis Heidegger, je veux dire la poésie comme message inspiré, comme haut langage épuré, exact et nécessaire, comme voie privilégiée d’accès à l’Être. Non point sans doute que ces fonctions soient alors par principe déniées à toute œuvre de parole. Mais jusqu’à quel point la réflexion antique, puis médiévale, les associe-t-elle à une forme d’expression donnée, et notamment à l’usage du vers ? L’équivoque est ancienne : si, dans la Rhétorique, Aristote assimile les cadences métriques, interdites à l’orateur, à la poésie, il prend bien soin, dès le premier chapitre de la Poétique, de différencier celle-ci du vers, au moyen des exemples d’Homère et d’Empédocle qui, bien que se servant du même medium stylistique, sont le premier poète et l’autre naturaliste (physiologos)5. Et Horace, quel genre de qualité vise-t-il, lorsqu’il distingue 2 La contribution d’Étienne Wolff, ci-dessus, fournit une présentation claire et complète des exemples de cette pratique littéraire pendant l’Antquité tardive et le haut moyen âge. Pour une évaluation critique, plutôt bienveillante, de l’entreprise de Sedulius, voir Jacques FONTAINE, Naissance de la poésie dans l’Occident chrétien. Esquisse d’une histoire de la poésie latine chrétienne du IIIe au VIe siècle, Paris : Études Augustiniennes, 1981, p. 248-252. 3 « Un domaine négligé de la littérature médiolatine : les textes hagiographiques en vers », Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale 45 (2002), p. 129-139. 4 La littérature européenne et le Moyen Âge latin (trad. fr. par Jean Bréjoux), Paris, 19862, p. 249. 5 Rhétorique 1408b (3, 8, 3) : « Le langage de la prose doit nécessairement posséder un rythme, mais non pas un mètre, car ce serait alors de la poésie » (trad. Charles-Émile Ruelle) ; Poétique 1448b : « Pour peu que quelqu’un expose un sujet de médecine ou d’histoire naturelle à l’aide de mètres, les gens ont coutume de l’appeler ainsi [sc. poète] ; rien de commun pourtant entre Homère et Empédocle si ce n’est le mètre : aussi est-il juste d’appeler poète le premier, et le second naturaliste plutôt que poète » (trad. Michel Magnien). Les contextes 3 l’emploi, de convenance ou d’occasion, que Lucilius et lui-même font de l’hexamètre de celui, nécessaire, qu’en fait Ennius ? Toutes proportions gardées, le même genre d’interrogations pourrait être rapporté à la création poétique du XIXe siècle français qui voit le poème en prose, puis le vers libre, défier tour à tour l’empire de l’alexandrin. La situation particulière du moyen âge latin pourrait bien ne répercuter qu’un éclat parmi d’autres de la dispute déchirant le vieux couple que constituent la Forme et l’Idée. La question que l’on entend affronter est donc de savoir si, dans l’espace littéraire considéré, certains types de contenu, ceux que l’on définira comme « révélation » et non comme « constat », sont associés de façon privilégiée à certaines formes d’expression marquées par la régularité rythmique. Au fond, et tout bien pesé, la question n’est ni du rapport entre vers et prose, ni entre poésie et prose, mais entre vers et poésie. La définition de cette dernière apparaissant comme subjective, et susceptible de variation selon les époques, on s’établira, semble-t-il, sur un terrain plus stable en revenant au vers. C’est à voir. La pertinente question de Pascale Bourgain, « Qu’est-ce qu’un vers au moyen âge ? »6 - que l’on pourrait d’ailleurs tout aussi bien traduire : « Qu’est-ce que la prose au moyen âge ? » - n’appelle pas de réponse simple et univoque. A la différence du maître de philosophie de Monsieur Jourdain, pour qui « tout ce qui n’est point vers est prose », et réciproquement, la stylistique médiolatine ignore la rassurante logique du tiers exclu. En effet, entre le vers mesuré hérité de l’Antiquité, de Virgile ou d’Horace, et une prose qui serait absolument neutre, non marquée - mettons, celle de Darès le Phrygien -, la théorie distingue une large variété de formes que l’on dira, d’un terme assurément impropre, intermédiaires. Il est bien connu que, depuis la fin du XIe siècle, les grammairiens canonisent la distinction, respectifs – il s’agit ici de l’actio oratoire, là de l’inventio – permettent de rendre raison de cette apparente contradiction. 6 Tel est le titre lapidaire d’un article, fondamental, publié par cet auteur dans la Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes (147 [1989], p. 231-282). 4 jadis déjà esquissée par Bède, entre trois formes de dictamen (entendons ici le mot au sens d’ « écriture régie par les règles de l’art » et non selon l’acception également attestée, mais plus restrictive, de « style épistolaire »), à savoir, la métrique, la rythmique et la prosaïque7. Cette nomenclature, pieusement reproduite de traité en traité, intègre au confortable système binaire reflété par les modèles antiques l’identification d’une nouvelle forme, celle du rythme, portée d’abord par la pratique du chant liturgique et caractérisée par l’isosyllabisme, accessoirement la rime, dont on ne sait pas trop si elle est poésie ou prose : en témoigne l’hésitation des copistes, qui transcrivent les rythmes tantôt en continu, tantôt en revenant à la ligne en tête de chaque vers8. Les dictatores italiens du XIIIe siècle vont encore compliquer le système en l’enrichissant des catégories du prosimetricum et du prosirythmicum qui, comme vient de le démontrer Anne-Marie Turcan-Verkerk, ne renvoient pas à des ouvrages où alterneraient passages en prose et passages en vers métriques ou rythmiques, mais à une prose à ce point mesurée ou rythmée que les cola qui la composent ressemblent à des vers sans s’y identifier tout à fait9.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Troubadour Poetry: an Intercultural Experience
    Troubadour Poetry: An Intercultural Experience By Said I. Abdelwahed Professor of English Literature English Department Faculty of Arts, Al-Azhar University Gaza - Palestine ABSTRACT: This is a reading of the intercultural experience of the medieval poetry known as the Troubadour poetry. It’s a study of the origin, meaning, music and structure of the lyric love poetry which appeared in medieval Spain, in the period from (3rd to 7th centuries A.H / 9th to 13th centuries AD), with special reference to the Muwwashah and the Kharja. It expanded to southern France, then to northern France. The early troubadour was a wondering singer or minstrel who traveled from place to place singing for gaining his living. But the French troubadours were mostly of noble birth that wrote and sang for the upper-class audience. The troubadours wrote their songs and poems of a metrical form mainly on themes of courtly love. Their poetry was influenced by Arabic poetry and it became a literary phenomenon that historians of Western literature and culture could not ignore. This paper highlights the primary role played by the Arabs in medieval poetry issues and it alludes to some salient elements of intercultural communication between the East and the West. INTRODUCTION: Generally speaking, scholars and historians of medieval Arabic literature divided the Arabic and Islamic culture and literature of medieval Spain into three major components. Scholars made divisions of that culture but Gerard Wiegers made the clearest division as follows: I. Works on religion (fiqh, tafsir, prayer books, pious miscellanies, religious polemics magic, popular medicine, and treatises).
    [Show full text]
  • PDF Download Religious Elements in the Secular Lyrics of The
    RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS IN THE SECULAR LYRICS OF THE TROUBADOURS 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Raymond Gay-Crosier | 9780807891117 | | | | | Religious Elements in the Secular Lyrics of the Troubadours 1st edition PDF Book The development of polyphonic forms, with different voices interweaving, is often associated with the late Medieval Ars nova style which flourished in the s. Sometimes the nobleman forces his attentions on her, and other times she outwits him. Sebastian Antoine Busnois wrote a motet in honor of Ockeghem. One of the most important extant sources of Goliards chansons is the Carmina Burana. Italian music has always been known for its lyrical or melodic character, and this goes back to the 14th century in many respects. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Request a better price Seen a lower price for this product elsewhere? Of greater sophistication was the motet , which developed from the clausula genre of medieval plainchant. The clausula, thus practised, became the motet when troped with non-liturgical words, and this further developed into a form of great elaboration, sophistication and subtlety in the fourteenth century, the period of Ars nova. The earliest innovations upon monophonic plainchant were heterophonic. Its distinguishing factor is that the parts did not have to move only in parallel motion, but could also move in oblique, or contrary motion. Originally, the tenor line from the Latin tenere , "to hold" held a preexisting liturgical chant line in the original Latin, while the text of the one, two, or even three voices above, called the voces organales , provided commentary on the liturgical subject either in Latin or in the vernacular French.
    [Show full text]
  • Teacher's Book 2
    Schemes of work and teaching suggestions 1 INTRODUCTION AND TEACHING SUGGESTIONS THE MIDDLE AGES INTRODUCTION TO THE UNIT We start this book with the Middle Ages, an unstable period that lasted for almost one thousand years of history and marked the beginning of formal music and musical notation in the Western World. Music theory in this unit covers the concepts of texture, scale and rhythm, which are necessary to understand the birth of polyphony and the use of Gregorian modes and rhythmic modes. We also compare the characteristics of liturgical music and secular music, through an active listening activity with one piece of music representing each type. The students also have the opportunity to be present-day minstrels, creating a chanson de geste in the form of a rap inspired by a story in a newspaper. Finally, the recent history of the Codex Calixtinus offers a chance to reflect on our valuable artistic heritage and the importance of conserving it. CONTENTS MUSICAL CONTEXT • Historical context of the Middle Ages. • Medieval society, religion and culture. MUSIC THEORY • Review of the concepts of scale, tonic, interval, tone and semitone. • Major and minor scales. Modal scales. • Main rhythmic modes: trochee, iamb and dactyl. • Medieval textures: monophony and polyphony. • Performance of Como Poden per Sas Culpas (anonymous) and Tant M'Abelis (B. de Palou). MUSICAL CULTURE • Religious vocal music: Gregorian chant and liturgical polyphony. • Secular vocal music: minstrels and goliards. Songbooks. • Instrumental music and medieval instruments. • Music in al-Andalus. • Biographies: Guido d'Arezzo, Hildegard von Bingen and Bernart de Ventadorn. • Active listening to Can Vei la Lauzeta (B.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Booklet
    DISCOVER EARLY MUSIC Contents page Track list 4 Early Music, by Lucien Jenkins 9 I. What were the Middle Ages? 11 II. The Church and Music 13 III. Secular Music 21 IV. Notation 27 V. Instruments 29 VI. Towards the Renaissance 33 VII. What was the Renaissance? 40 VIII. The Renaissance Madrigal 46 IX. Europe Divided 49 X. Europe United 59 Sources of featured panels 64 A Timeline of Early Music (music, history, art and architecture, literature) 66 Further Listening 78 Early Music Composers 81 Map 86 Glossary 87 Credits 92 4 DISCOVER EARLY MUSIC Track List CD 1 Anonymous 1 Antiphona post Evangelium 3.21 In Dulci Jubilo / Alberto Turco 8.553502 Anonymous 2 Versus Alleluiatici: Adorabo 2.21 Nova Schola Gregoriana / Alberto Turco 8.550711 Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) 3 Ordo Virtutum: Procession 4.25 Oxford Camerata / Jeremy Summerly 8.550998 Léonin (fl. 1150s–c. 1201) 4 – 9 Viderunt omnes 9.30 Tonus Peregrinus / Anthony Pitts 8.557340 Traditional 10 Gaudete Christus est natus 1.39 Oxford Camerata / Jeremy Summerly 8.550751 5 DISCOVER EARLY MUSIC Anonymous 11 Cantiga de Santa Maria 2.20 Unicorn Ensemble / Michael Posch 8.554256 Anonymous 12 Exiit diluculo 2.47 Oni Wytars Ensemble / Unicorn Ensemble 8.554837 Guiraut Riquier (c. 1230–c. 1300) 13 Humils forfaitz 7.01 Unicorn Ensemble / Michael Posch 8.554257 Guillaume Dufay (1397–1474) 14 Adieu ces bons vins de Lannoys 5.32 Unicorn Ensemble / Michael Posch 8.553458 Francesco Landini (c. 1325–1397) 15 Non avrà ma’pietà questa mia donna 4.19 16 Non ara may pieta questa mia dona 3.35 Unicorn Ensemble / Michael Posch 8.553618 John Dunstable (c.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 the Passions of Helen Waddell
    1 The Passions of Helen Waddell: Meditations on a Forgotten Medievalist (R. Barker, 12 January 2020) Thank you so much to all of you for being here on this not-very-pleasant night—and a very sincere thanks to Fr. Ingalls for the honour of speaking in honour of Fr. Crouse. I’d like to begin, if I may, with a few thoughts about Fr. Crouse, before I turn to an introduction to, and then some meditations on, my main subject for tonight, the medievalist Helen Waddell. In the great generosity and kindness of his heart, Fr. Ingalls has described me as a student and friend of Fr. Crouse. In fact, I would not dare to claim the intimacy of friendship with this great, wise, and kind teacher and scholar. I was just one of the many, many undergraduate students who were transformed by his lectures in the Foundation Year Programme and who went on to study with him in the Dalhousie Classics Department. During my undergraduate degree in English and Classics, I took two full-year classes with him and was also inspired by him to learn Latin and Italian. In January 2011, when we learned that Father Crouse had died, I went back to my notebook from his course on Medieval Philosophy and looked at my notes on his first words in the class. He said: “The history of medieval philosophy is the story of the development of thought. Aristotle says that “all people seek to know”—if so, we must also be grateful to those who got it wrong.
    [Show full text]
  • The Medieval Era
    Part One The Medieval Era 16 MM01_BOND7226_04_SE_C01.indd01_BOND7226_04_SE_C01.indd 1616 111/19/121/19/12 11:25:25 PPMM Prelude hat we now call the medieval era spans almost an entire millennium, from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 c.e. until the begin- W nings of the Renaissance in the early 15th century. Medieval means literally “between the ages,” and the term was coined by later historians who looked back on these “middle ages” as an era of darkness between two periods of light, clas- sical antiquity and the Renaissance. Those who lived in the medieval era did not see themselves as living “between” anything, of course, and this period was scarcely one of unbroken darkness. To the contrary: the legacies of the Roman Empire were far too deep and widespread to have disappeared entirely, and the architects, painters, poets, and musicians of the medieval era created some of the most breathtaking achievements in human history. Still, the concept of a medieval era has persisted and it continues to provide a useful shorthand designation for an era that in many ways was undeniably different from what had come before. The fi ve centuries after the fall of Rome were particularly diffi cult: western Europe experienced a marked decline in political stability, populations declined, infrastructure decayed, and learning of all kinds was lost. Basic engineering skills known in antiquity would not be recovered for almost 1,000 years. Entire libraries disappeared through fi re or pillage. The collection of the great library at Alexandria, Egypt, with perhaps as many as 400,000 manuscripts during its glory years, would not be rivaled again for almost 2,000 years.
    [Show full text]
  • Music History Lecture Notes the Middle Ages 64 AD – 1400 AD
    Music History Lecture Notes The Middle Ages 64 AD – 1400 AD This presentation is intended for the use of current students in Mr. Duckworth’s Music History course as a study aid. Any other use is strictly forbidden. Copyright, Ryan Duckworth 2010 Images used for educational purposes under the TEACH Act (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002). All copyrights belong to their respective copyright holders, This Unit: we all will use Cornell Notes DNA take up a whole area. Key Notes go words here go here next to their notes •The Roman Empire was built on the principle that Caesar was a god. •Christianity, with its monotheistic world view, was a threat to the integrity of the Empire. •The persecution of Christians began in 64 AD by Caesar Nero after the burning of Rome Despite persecution, the Christian church continues to grow Rise of the Church - Timeline • 100-200 AD - Bishops organized, new testament assembled • 200s - Monasteries begin • 325 Council of Nicea 300s - Theologians deal with music – St. Augustine says music is important to the life of the church – Psalm singing Fall of Rome - Historical Timeline • 312 AD Constantine converts to Christianity and allows religious freedom • 313 - Edict of Milan - political ruler is also church leader of Rome • 380 Edict of Thessalonica – Christianity becomes state religion • 395 Roman empire splits – East in Constantinople – West in Rome • 476 Rome falls The Decline of Rome • 395 C.E. • Roads and temples fall into ruin • Invaders from the North and East • The Roman empire fragments – Essentially our modern countries – 2 central powers • Rome • Byzantium (Istanbul, Constantinople) An Age of Struggle • The splitting of the Roman empire spurred 90 years of war • By 476 C.
    [Show full text]
  • A Complete History of the Universities of the Middle Ages Would Be in Fact a History of Medieval Thought…”(Rashdall, 1936:3)
    Elke Weik, University of Leicester, [email protected] The Birth of the University – An Emergent Institutionalist Perspective FIRST DRAFT – MARCH 2009 The present paper investigates processes of institution building. In contrast to most of what presently is discussed in this field, I want to establish and apply an emergent perspective, i.e. a perspective that views institution building as a long term process that is not dependent on the activities of individual actors. As I will argue in the paper, the emergent perspective can be portrayed as the more intuitive, more modest but hopefully more realistic perspective on institution buidling. If we define institutions with Giddens (1993) as entities with a large time-space extension, it is difficult to see how particular actors, who by definition can only cover a small time-space extension, can found institutions. The present discussion concerning institutional entrepreneurship obviously takes its clues from the founding of organizations, but in theoretical terms organizations are a very different case. My suspicion is that the managerialist bias of Management and Organization Studies coupled with the strong individualist touch of UK and US national culture – where many authors originate from – leads the field to some notions that may not prove effective in the long run. As a case study, I have chosen the foundation of the University of Paris in the latter half of the 12th century. The University of Paris not only was the most prestigious university in the 1 Elke Weik, University of Leicester, [email protected] Middle Ages but also became the role model after which all later European universities were fashioned.
    [Show full text]
  • New Perspectives on the Sacred and the Secular in Old French and Old Provençal Poetry
    New Perspectives on the Sacred and the Secular in Old French and Old Provençal Poetry New Perspectives on the Sacred and the Secular in Old French and Old Provençal Poetry By Cyril Aslanov New Perspectives on the Sacred and the Secular in Old French and Old Provençal Poetry By Cyril Aslanov This book first published 2019 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2019 by Cyril Aslanov All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-1955-4 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-1955-8 This book is dedicated to my father, Serge Aslanoff, a truly medieval man, and to the memory of the great medievalist Lawrence Besserman who gave me the idea of writing this book. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ....................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments ................................................................................... xiii Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 I. Sacred vs. Secular: An Anachronistic Opposition? II. A Global Survey: From the First Texts in Vernacular to the End of the Middle Ages i) From Hagiography to Heroic and Heroicomic Epics: Ninth to Twelfth Century ii) Greek and Roman Religious Motifs in Antique and Arthurian Romances: - Roman antique - Oriented Wandering in Arthurian Romances iii) Omnipresent Sacredness: The Dialectic of Holy War and Sublimated Love in Provençal Lyric Chapter One .............................................................................................. 29 Old French and Old Provençal Narrative Poetry I.
    [Show full text]
  • Trobador, Trouvere, Jongluer
    TROUBADOURS, TROUVERES, & JONGLEURS, OH MY! By Mistress Amelie d’Anjou, OL First, some definitions. We may know that these words sort of mean the same thing, but just for fun let’s break them down into parts. Troubadour: this is the English version of the Provencal/Occitan word, spelled Trobador. The Occitan verb trobar = to find. So trobador = finder? Trobairitz is a female trobador. Same verb in Medieval French = trover or trouver, and the noun trouvere is also spelled troveor & troveur. Jongleur is jongleor, jogleor or jogler in Medieval French (female is jogleresse or joerresse), in Occitan it’s joglar, Latin joculator, and English minstrel. German minnesanger; minne = love, so that’s a “love-singer.” All right, that’s enough. So what’s the difference between and trobador and joglar? The trobador writes the songs/poems, the joglar just performs them (or juggles). But really it was more of a class differentiation; the nobles wrote poems, those lower-born minstrels weren’t credited with compositional skills. ! Map from Meg Bogin’s The Women Troubadours STYLES, FORMS, or GENRES We all know the troubadours were famous for their love poetry, but they did write other kinds of poems, and the love-themes can be broken up into different categories. The sirventes is a political poem; Bertan de Born wrote mostly these. His poems are very event-specific; often he is trying to incite various of his lords to fight each other (like Henry II’s sons). The jeu-parti and tenso are debate poems; two parties take opposite sides of an issue, often love-related.
    [Show full text]
  • V 8/J No. -2 the PRAECEPTOR AMORIS in ENGLISH RENAISSANCE LYRIC POETRY: ONE ASPECT of the POET's VOICE
    37^ /V 8/J No. -2 THE PRAECEPTOR AMORIS IN ENGLISH RENAISSANCE LYRIC POETRY: ONE ASPECT OF THE POET'S VOICE DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Joseph Kelly Clarke, B.A., M.A. Denton, Texas December, 1985 Clarke, Joseph Kelly, The Praeceptor Amoris in English Renaissance Lyric Poetry: One Aspect of the Poet's Voice. Doctor of Philosophy (English), December, 1985, 183 pp., bibliography, 299 titles. This study focuses on the praeceptor amoris, or teacher of love, as that persona appears in English poetry between 1500 and 1660. Some attention is given to the background, especially Ovid and his Art of Love. A study of the medieval praeceptor indicates that ideas of love took three main courses: a bawdy strain most evi- dent in Goliardic verse and later in the libertine poetry of Donne and the Cavaliers; a short-lived strain of mutual affection important in England principally with Spenser; and the love known as courtly love, which is traced to England through Dante and Petrarch and which is the subject of most English love poetry. In England, the praeceptor is examined according to three functions he performs: defining love, propounding a philosophy about it, and giving advice. Through examin- ing the praeceptor, poets are seen to define love according to the division between body and soul, with the tendency to return to older definitions in force since the trouba- dours. The poets as a group never agree what love is.
    [Show full text]
  • Medieval Music©[
    Paul Halsall Listening to Medieval Music©[ Author: Paul Halsall Title: Listening to Medieval Music Date: 1999: last revised 01/18/2000] _______________________________________________________________ In the summer of 1999, I made a concerted effort to get a better grasp of medieval music -- better that is, than that acquired by listening to the odd recording here and there. In this document, I outline the general development of music in proto-Western and Western cultures from the time of the earliest information until the beginning of the tonal era, around 1600. Since I am not a musicologist, this outline derives from reading in secondary sources [see bibliography at the end], information supplied with the better CDs and some online sources. Appreciation of almost all serious music is improved by some effort to understand its history and development -- and indeed until very recently any educated person would have had some music education. In the case of Ancient and Medieval music, such effort is essential to enjoyment of the music, unless appreciation is to go no further that a certain "new age" mood setting. For each major period, I list suggested CDs [and occasionally other types of media] which document or attempt to represent the music. These CDs are not the only ones available to illustrate the musical history of Western civilization, but they are however, the ones I have available. [Those marked with * are additional titles that I have not been able to assess personally.] For a much greater selection of available CDs see The Early Music FAQ [http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/], which provides general overviews, and lists of the contents of the vast majority of recordings of early music.
    [Show full text]