Oxford University Press American Historical Association

The Refashioning of Martin Guerre Author(s): Robert Finlay Source: The American Historical Review, Vol. 93, No. 3 (Jun., 1988), pp. 553-571 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1868102 Accessed: 23-10-2015 19:15 UTC

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This content downloaded from 142.103.183.129 on Fri, 23 Oct 2015 19:15:23 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AHR Forum:The Returnof Martin Guerre The Refashioningof MartinGuerre

ROBERT FINLAY

WHILE MOST RENAISSANCE POPES AND PRINCES HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN by everyone but the historicalspecialist, one peasant of the sixteenthcentury, from a village near Toulouse in the foothillsof the Pyrenees, remains well known. Martin Guerre-or rather the impostorwho took his wife and birthright-has entered history.This is a remarkablefact, for generally the world of peasants lay outside what the elite of Europe in the past considered significant.Peasants were viewed withinthe comfortingcontexts of proverbialwisdom and pastoral buffoonery.' The personalitiesand perspectivesof rural people usually were recorded only when peasants ran into trouble with the law. Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's reconstructionof rurallife in southernFrance in thefourteenth century and Carlo Ginzburg'sexamination of peasant religiousbeliefs in sixteenth-centuryFriuli rely on legal records.2These workshave been acclaimed forrevealing the motivations and values of ordinarypeople of the past, hithertorendered mute by both their illiteracyand ignoble status. Even withinthis select company, however, Natalie Zemon Davis's Returnof MartinGuerre is exceptional.The eventsshe examineswere never lost to sightbut instead became famous immediatelyand eventuallyinspired a play, two novels, and an operetta.The storywas irresistible:the impostor,Arnaud du Tilh, posed as MartinGuerre, the husband of Bertrandede Rols, forover threeyears, thereby gaininga wifeand propertyand fatheringa child,only to be exposed by the true husband when he was on the verge of refutingthose accusing him of deception. While Davis's book carried thisdramatic story to an English-speakingaudience, a film,Le Retourde MartinGuerre, the product of collaborationbetween Davis and the moviemakers,presented it to an internationalone. No doubt because of the excellenceand wide distributionof thefilm, Davis's book reached a more extensive

I wouldlike to thankElizabeth Anne Payneand Donald E. Quellerfor their encouragement and criticismin thewriting of thisessay. ' NatalieZemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), 1-2. 2 EmmanuelLe RoyLadurie, Montaillou:ThePromisedLand of Error, trans. Barbara Bray (New York, 1978); Carlo Ginzburg,The Cheeseand theWorms: The Cosmosof a Sixteenth-CentutyMiller, trans. John Tedeschiand Anne Tedeschi(Baltimore, Md., 1980); see also his TheNight Battles: Witchcraft and AgrarianCults in theSixteenth and SeventeenthCenturies, trans. John Tedeschi and Anne Tedeschi (Baltimore,Md., 1983). 553

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audience than does the usual historicalstudy. It has been hailed in the popular press as a vividsupplement to the filmand in academicjournals as a "realisticand brilliantlyscholarly monograph," an "imaginativehistory which is nevertheless solidlybased and intelligentlyargued," a "major workof historicalreconstruction ... performedwithout any kindof ideologicalbias."3 It is the consensus,then, that TheReturn of Martin Guerre is a genuine rarity,a workof sophisticatedscholarship with general appeal, a study that remains faithfulto academic standards while conveyingall the color and drama of a famous tale.

DAVIS WAS DRIVEN TO GIVE THE STORY OF MARTIN GUERRE itS "firstfull-scale historicaltreatment" because she came to feel that the filmdid not adequately address "themotivations of people in thesixteenth century." She was troubledthat "thefilm was departingfrom the historicalrecord," especially because "the double game of the wifeand thejudge's innercontradictions were softened."She wanted to make room for the "perhapses" and "may-have-beens"that the historianuses to explain inadequate and perplexingevidence. She tellsher readers that "what I offeryou here is in part myinvention, but held tightlyin check by the voices of the past."4The inventiveaspects of Davis's book stem largelyfrom her employ- ment of concepts and methodsdrawn fromrecent innovations in anthropology, ethnography,and literarycriticism, all fieldsthat have had a significantinfluence on what is widelyregarded as the best contemporaryhistorical scholarship.5 The result of Davis's labors is a reinterpretationof the Martin Guerre storythat is imaginativelyconceived, eloquently argued, and intrinsicallyappealing. It is also strikinglydifferent from the versionof the storythat has been accepted since the sixteenthcentury. The traditionalversion of the storyof MartinGuerre derivesfrom accounts of the sixteenthcentury, especially from Jean de Coras's ArrestMemorable, written by the rapporteurat the trial and a judge of the Parlement of Toulouse after the pseudo-husband was executed in 1560.6 In Coras's commentary,the main characterwas Arnaud du Tilh, also known as Pansette,"the belly,"a charlatan broughtto disasterby his own cunningand ambition."It was trulya tragedyfor this fine peasant," the judge wrote, "all the more because the outcome was wretched,indeed fatalfor him."7 In his narrativeas wellas in his courtroom,Coras

3The quotationsare, respectively, from reviews by A. LloydMoote, AHR, 90 (October1985): 943; Donald R. Kelley,Renaissance Quarterly, 37 (1984): 252; and EmmanuelLe RoyLadurie, New York Reviewof Books, 30 (22 December1983): 12-14.See also reviewsby William Monter, Sixteenth Century Journal,14 (1983): 516; Edward Benson,French Review, 57 (1984): 753-54; MichelSimonin, Bibliotheque d'HumanismeetRenaissance, 47 (1985): 286-87; R. J. Knecht,History, 70 (1985): 121. 4Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, viii-ix, 5. 5 For example,see theworks cited in note2, above. 6 Anothercontemporary work was GuillaumeLe Sueur'sAdmiranda historia de PseudoMartino Tholosae,a pamphletfollowing the genre of a newsaccount. Davis's reinterpretation of the Martin Guerrestory depends on herreading of Coras's Arrest Memorable, and shegives the latter far greater weightthan Le Sueur'sshorter, simpler account (see Davis,Return of Martin Guerre, 4-5, 104,114-15, 153 n. 17). 7 Davis,Return of Martin Guerre, 111.

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unequivocallycondemned Arnaud, yet,as Davis shows, he had a certain admi- ration for the impostor'sabilities. Coras's focus was on the marvelousdeception perpetratedby Arnaud, and in the many subsequent retellingsof the tale, the emphasis was similarlyon the arch-trickster,the sly thiefof sexual favors and property. Davis presents a radically differentinterpretation in which the focus is on Bertrandede Rols or, rather,on her relationshipwith the impostor.According to Davis, Bertrande was in fact Arnaud's accomplice, for she knew that the man claimingto be her husband was a fraud. She accepted Arnaud, theyfell in love, and theyregarded themselvesas having an "invented"marriage. They willfully fabricateda lie, and, when challengedin court,they concocted a strategyof deceit and manipulation: "Bertrande searched her memory for a sexual episode [involvingher true husband]-perhaps even embroidered it-with which they could surprise the court."8 With the return of Martin Guerre, however, Bertrande's"double role" collapsed,and she broughtforth "prepared excuses" for her conduct. For his part,Arnaud remained faithfulto his lover and accomplice, assertingthat she had been duped as thoroughlyas her fellowvillagers of Artigat. Even in his confessionon the wayto the gibbet,the impostor"concealed fromstart to finish"Bertrande's role in theirelaborate collusion.9 These twoversions of thestory of MartinGuerre could hardlybe more different. The traditionalaccount is a narrativeof greed and deception,of pervertedtalents and a duped woman,of greatability in the serviceof fraudand theft.Davis's book tellsa tale of devotionand collaboration,of love and identity,of how an invented marriage was destroyedby a hard-heartedman with a wooden leg. To Coras, Arnaud's abilities-his quick tongue and retentivememory-led a fine peasant into a tragicomedyof imposture.To Davis, the tragedylies in the unmaskingof Arnaud, "a kind of hero, a more real Martin Guerre" than the unsympathetic husband of Bertrande de Rols.10 The sharpest contrastbetween the two versionsis in the characterizationof Bertrande. In Coras's eyes,she was a dupe, who, "giventhe weaknessof her sex, [was] easilydeceived by the cunningand craftinessof men.""I He considered her ignorantof Arnaud's true identity,hence innocentof wrongdoing.The Criminal Chamber of the Parlement of Toulouse agreed and declared that her child fatheredby Arnaud must be regarded as legitimate.In his confession,Arnaud begged Bertrande's pardon for cruellydeceiving her. Amid all the squabbles in Artigatand in all the testimonytaken from180 witnessesby the court,apparently no one ever suggested that Bertrande was Arnaud's accomplice. No one, thatis, until Davis and TheReturn of Martin Guerre. 2 Accordingto Davis,

8 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 57; 44, 50, 68-69. 9 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 69, 86, 92. 0 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 113. 1l Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 1 10. 12 Davissuggests that a hintof Bertrande as an accomplice-orwhat she styles "the self-fashioning Bertrande"(Return of Martin Guerre, 118)-is foundin two"male responses" to thestory of Martin Guerre.The writersthat she cites, however, did not regard Bertrande as an accomplice.A Frenchpoet ofthe later sixteenth century merely expressed sympathy "with the tricked wife," while Montaigne, in

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Bertrandeplayed a double role,deceiving her son by MartinGuerre, her relatives, friends,and neighbors.At the same time,Davis also turnsupside down the moral judgment informingthe traditionalversion of the story.No doubt if Bertrande's contemporariesbelieved she was guilty,they would have thoughther as despicable as the impostor.From Davis's perspective,however, Bertrande is a heroic figure, independent,clear-sighted, passionate, and invariably"honorable." While Coras saw the wifeas an innocentvictim, Davis viewsher as a knowingactor and, though guiltyof adulteryand deception, all the more admirable because of the values embodied in her heroic trans'gression. There is a complexrelationship between these two versions of the MartinGuerre story.Davis does not simplycounter Coras's sixteenth-centuryinterpretation with her own twentieth-centuryone. Rather,in theabsence of trialrecords, her analysis must depend on Coras's own account. In short, the twentieth-century reinterpretationpresumably is based on a reevaluationof evidence contained in Coras's verydifferent interpretation. With all its flaws,"combining features of a legal textand a literarytale,"'3 the Arrest Memorable remains the best source forthe storyof MartinGuerre, and Davis necessarilymust reinterpret it to sustainher own version.Of course, Coras's textdoes not give privilegedaccess to past reality;the judge's assumption of Bertrande's innocence is not proof that she was in fact innocent. Indeed, to the extentthat Coras's assertionof Bertrande's innocence may have been a consequence of a low estimationof female intelligenceand judgment,one mightbe temptedto equate a declarationof Bertrande'scomplicity witha rejectionof thejudge's benightedview of the femalesex. Davis eschewsthat temptation,however, and one of the strengthsof her book is its portraitof Jean de Coras as a thoughtful,humane scholar, fullycapable of recognizingfemale intelligenceand of lookingbeyond elitistand patriarchalprejudices in his pursuit of truth. Davis situates Bertrande's supposed complicitywithin her view of sixteenth- centurypeasant society.From thisperspective, Bertrande's conduct is seen as an instanceof the ingenuityand calculationcommonly shown by peasant womenwho must maneuver withina patriarchalsystem. The male-dominatedsociety put a premiumon "thewoman's ability to get her waywith the men and to calculate her advantages,"an abilitythat women passed along "throughthe deep tieand hidden complicityof mother and daughter." The four sistersof Martin Guerre were apparentlydisplaying typically feminine calculation in siding with the pseudo- husband against his accuser: "[T]hey may have preferredhim to theiruncle as head of the familyand its property."In Artigat,Bertrande "triedto fashionher

his"Of the Lame," referred briefly to the trial for imposture but without mentioning either Bertrande or a wife(see Davis,118-19). In a 1941novel, Janet Lewis presents a Bertrandewho tacitly accepts theimpostor for years and onlyslowly comes to realizethe implications of heraction. After reading Coras muchlater, Lewis wrote that she wouldhave approachedthe storydifferently, apparently becauseof the indications in Corasthat Bertrande had beensuborned by Pierre Guerre (Janet Lewis, "Sourcesof The Wife of Martin Guerre," Triquarterly, 55 [Fall 1982]: 104); for more on Lewis'snovel, see note73 below.The samevolume of Triquarterly(86-103) containsa translationof themain text of ArrestMemorable. 13 Davis.Return of Martin Guerre. 4.

This content downloaded from 142.103.183.129 on Fri, 23 Oct 2015 19:15:23 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Refashioningof Martin Guerre 557 lifeas best she could, using all the leewayand imaginationshe had as a woman." During the trial of the impostor, "she had to manipulate the image of the woman-easily-deceived,a skill that women often displayed before officers ofjustice any timeit was to theiradvantage."'4 As one reviewerof Davis's book summed it up, Bertrande almost succeeded in her "clever,dogged, double game of having her cake and eating it withinthe confinesof a particularist,male-dominated society."'5This interpretationhas hithertobeen missingfrom retellingsof the storyof Martin Guerre inasmuch as Bertrande has been reduced to playing a mutedsecond fiddleto Arnaud, "theinventive figure in thetale." Bertrande'strue role has been overlooked or suppressed,Davis suggests,because of the unfortu- nate circumstance"that we have no female commentaryon the storyuntil the twentiethcentury."'6 However that may be, Davis fails to show that her view of women in peasant societyis relevantto the case she is examining.Instead, she imposes her notionof peasant women on Bertrande,whose conduct and characterthereby are seen as if Bertrande had regarded the pseudo-Martinwith the same calculating,self- interestedeye thatwas supposedlycharacteristic of peasant women in general. In other words, since Davis assumes that rustic women consistentlyand covertly maneuvered fortheir own advantage,she does not considerit necessaryto justify her assertionsabout Bertrande'scalculating behavior. But, whateverthe accuracy of Davis's view of peasant society,her applicationof thatperspective to the story of MartinGuerre does not yielda portraitof Bertrandethat is eitherplausible or persuasive.

DAVIS ADDS SUBSTANTIALLY TO ESTABLISHING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT within whichthe story should be understoodwhen she uses archivalmaterial to illuminate questions of kinship relations, inheritance law, peasant migration,marriage contracts,military service, village custom, and judicial procedure. But, when she considers the relationshipbetween Bertrande and Arnaud, the linchpinof her book, she is faced with a central difficulty:the historicalrecord indicates that Bertrandewas universallyregarded as the impostor'svictim, not his accomplice. In fact,the question of Bertrande'scomplicity never arose at the time,and Davis presents no evidence for her contention that "after much discussion" about Bertrande, the judges of Toulouse "agreed to accept her good faith"and not prosecute her for "fraud, bigamy,or adultery."'7 Bertrande's good faith was always assumed, never a matterof debate, and, preciselybecause she was never considered liable for those charges,she was not prosecuted. Davis's claim to the contraryis not based on newlydiscovered material or on examinationof surviving

14 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 31, 55, 60, 68. 15 A. LloydMoote, AHR, 90 (October1985): 943. 16 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 118. 17 Davis,Return of Martin Guerre, 90. On thesame page, Davis states that the judges had to decide "whatto do aboutthe woman prisoner in theConciergerie," that is, Bertrande. It is easyto forgetat thispoint in Davis'snarrative that Bertrande was imprisonednot on chargesof fraud,bigamy, or adulterybut because the judges suspectedher of falselyaccusing her husband of imposture.

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records.Instead, it depends on her mere assertionthat she has recognizeda truth thatapparently remained hidden fromboth the villagersof Artigatand thejudges of Toulouse. Whatof Bertrandede Rols?Did she knowthat the new Martin was not the man who had abandonedher eight years before? Perhaps not at thevery first, when he arrivedwith all his"signs" and proofs.But the obstinate and honorableBertrande does notseem a woman so easilyfooled, not even by a charmerlike Pansette. By thetime she had receivedhim in herbed, she musthave realized the difference; as anywife of Artigatwould have agreed, thereis no mistaking"the touch of the man on thewoman." Either by explicit or tacit agreement,she helpedhim become her husband.'8

This is Davis's entire basis for claiming that the wife was in league with the impostor:that is, in sexual relations,Bertrande could not have failedto realize that her partner was not her true husband. Not only is there no hint of this in the sources, but the claim runs counter to the account Davis herself gives of Bertrande's dismal sexual experience: she was married for some nine years withoutintercourse, which was finallyachieved after a magic spell was lifted; pregnancytook place immediately,and, when theirson was several monthsold, Martinabandoned her foreight years. 19 After seventeen years of marriage,then, Martinand Bertrandecould only have had sexual intercoursefor a few months at most,hardly the sortof connubial experience makingfor a "touch of the man" thatwas indelible or unmistakable. If Bertrandehad perceivedany difference in sexual mannerbetween her spouse and the man claimingto be her husband, she could reasonablyhave explained it to herselfas a consequence of her years of sexual abstinence,during which the precarious sexualityof her husband evidentlygave way to virile confidence, perhaps assistedby the fleshpots of Spain and Picardy,where he soldiered.Equally important,Bertrande would have had to weighany doubtsarising from his sexual performanceagainst the universal welcome accorded her presumed husband. Like all her in-lawsand neighbors,Bertrande was fooled by Arnaud from the beginning.20He had gatheredinformation about theGuerres' marriage before his appearance, and he had dayswith Bertrande before going to bed withher in which to become familiarand garnereven moreintimate knowledge.2' He was welcomed home firstby the sisters of MartinGuerre, whom Bertrande later especially blamed for misleadingher. Coras gave substantialweight to the response of the sisters, which,along with the proofs of Arnaud and the wife's eagerness to have her husband back again, seemed to thejudge whollysufficient to explain Bertrande's fallingfor the impostor'slies.22

18 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 43-44. '" Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 19-21, 24. 20 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 44, 61. 21 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 42-43. 22 Jeande Coras, ArrestMemorable, du Parlementde Tolose,Contenant une histoireprodigieuse, de nostre temps,avec centbelles, & doctesAnnotations, de monsieurmaistre Jean de Coras,Conseiller en laditeCour, & rapporteurdu proces;Prononce es Arrestz Generaulx le xii SeptembreMDLX (Lyon, 1561), 47, 52, 60-61, 67, 112. Davis states that Bertrande, when presented with her true husband at the trial,retailed her "prepared excuses: yoursisters believed him too readily;your uncle accepted him";86. Coras's account,

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Davis offersnothing to counterjean de Coras's understandingof Bertrande's innocence other than her own assertionabout an inevitablesexual recognition, backed by a proverb about "the touch of the man." Even that proverb is not uniquely pertinent, for, in the conditions of sexual intercourse in peasant households of preindustrialEurope-the couple clothed, in a darkened house, amid the cold and dirt,surrounded by livestockand relatives-any wifeof Artigat might equally well have regarded her bedmate with the jaded perspective expressed in the notoriousmasculine slur, "De nuit tous chats son gris."23 In anyevent, even Davis agrees thatBertrande accepted Arnaud in her marriage bed because she was certainhe was her spouse. Surely,the impostor'ssubsequent sexual habitswould have had to be extraordinaryfor the happy, trustingwife to conclude thatshe was in error.As faras one can tell,neither she nor anyone else at the time came to thatconclusion. The assumption,then, that sexual relations musthave revealed the impostureto Bertrandeis not an interpretationbased on the sources; itis, rather,an opinionby a modernhistorian who apparentlybelieves that unsubstantiatedinsight can itselfbe taken as evidence. This is a flimsy foundationon which to build an interpretationof the Martin Guerre storythat contradictsthe survivingevidence. Behind Davis's assertion about Bertrande's response to the impostor is an equally unfounded assessment of the wife's character. After quoting a late fifteenth-centurywork, the Malleus Maleficarum,to the effectthat the devil can make a wifeconsider "her husband so loathsomethat not forall the world would she allow him to lie withher," Davis statesthat "Bertrande might not have put it in these words,but it seems clear thatfor a while [aftermarrying Martin] she was relievedthat they could not have intercourse."In fact,Davis presentsno evidence thatBertrande had any such view.The assertionabout intercourse,however, is of a piece with Davis's portrayalof Bertrande as a woman of "stubbornindepen- dence," one who considered the bewitchmentafflicting her marriage liftedonly whenshe "was readyfor it." When urged to divorceher impotentmate, she refused because of her "shrewd realism about how she could maneuver within the constraintsplaced upon one of her sex."24While Coras viewed this refusal as a touchstoneof Bertrande's integrity,Davis sees it as a manifestationof the same

however, is considerablymore pointed about whom Bertrande blamed: "Accusant les seurs dudit Martinsur tous les autres,qui avoienttrop facilementcreu, et asseure, que le prisonnierestoit Martin Guerre leur fre,re";81. 23 In his commentaryin the Adageson Plutarch's"All women are the same when the lightsare out," Erasmus wrote,"Ego certeantequam Plutarchilocum adiissem,hujusce Graeci adagii sensum a Gallico edoctugeram adagio. De nuicttous chats son gris" (Opera Omnia [Leiden, 1703], 2: 821). On cats,sex, and "all cats are gray at night,"see Robert Darnton, The GreatCat Massacreand OtherEpisodes in French CulturalHistory (New York, 1985), 95-96. On peasant sexuality,see Jean-Louis Flandrin,Families in FormerTimes: Kinship, Household and Sexuality,trans. Richard Southern (Cambridge, 1979); Les Amours paysannes:Amour et sexualite dans lescampagnes de l'ancienneFrance (XVIe-XIxe sitcle)(Paris, 1975). Some commentsby Montaigne suggest that pre-modernnotions of sexual passion in marriage were very differentfrom contemporary ones: see Michelde Montaigne,"On Some Verses of Virgil,"The Complete Essaysof Montaigne, trans. Donald M. Frame (Stanford,Calif., 1965), 646-47, 649. See also Philippe Arie!s,"Love in Married Life," WesternSexuality: Practice and Preceptin Past and PresentTimes, Philippe Aries and Andre Bejin, eds., AnthonyFoster, trans. (Oxford, 1985), 131, 136-38. 24 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 28.

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shrewd realism that led Bertrande knowinglyto accept the pseudo-husband, connivewith him in deceivingher kinfolk,and finallyabandon him when Martin Guerre reappeared.25 Accordingto Davis, Bertrande'srealism and independence explain whythe wife took her presumed husband to court,cooperating with Pierre Guerre, Martin's uncle, after he illegallyacted as her agent in having Arnaud imprisoned for imposture.Explaining why Bertrande acted as a plaintiffon a charge of imposture againstArnaud is a crucial matterfor Davis, since common sense dictatesthat an accomplice is unlikelyto press a criminalcharge against a collaborator. In the serviceof resolvingthis difficulty, Davis providessome questionsthat she supposes must have troubledBertrande: "Would God punish thembecause of the lie? ... She loved the new Martin,but he had trickedher once; mighthe afterall not trick her again? And whatif the other Martin Guerre came back?"Under pressurefrom her motherand PierreGuerre (who was also her stepfather),"the stubborn woman calculated and made her plans. She would go along withthe courtcase and hope to lose it. She would followthe strategyshe had worked out withthe new Martin about testimonyand hope thatthejudge would declare himher husband ... [S]he would also be prepared to win the case, howeverterrible the consequences forthe new Martin."26 Evidentlya creature of utter calculation,Bertrande thus pursued a shrewd strategyin court thatshe kept secretfrom both her accomplice and his accusers. In the odd positionof being a plaintiffin collusion withthe defendant,she had to be careful not to trip up her pseudo-husband, while also pretending to be completelyhonest withthe judges. She had to appear to be easily deceived but withoutconvincing the court thatshe was in facta victimof deception.27She had to make an accusation that she knew to be true, while also plottingwith her accomplice to expose herselfas a false accuser. In Davis's view,then, the peasant woman from Artigat committed herself to a plan of dizzying subtletyand complexity,one involvingextraordinary manipulation of her relatives,thejudges, and even her lover. Coras recorded thatin court Bertrandewas nervous and uncertain,trembling in speech and witheyes fixed on thefloor. The deludedjudge did not realize,Davis asserts,that thiswas all a clever act, thatBertrande was adhering to a "text"she and her accomplice"had agreed upon monthsbefore."28 Nor did Coras recognize that Bertrande was acting when she startedweeping and tremblingupon being confrontedwith Martin Guerre: "She was sufficientlysteeled to the different possible outcomes of her situation so that when she arrived at the Criminal Chamber she was able to play her role quite well."29 In Davis's interpretation,Pansette the impostor's role was also dauntingly intricate:to defend himselfagainst the charge broughtby Bertrande,he had to

25 Coras, ArrestMemorable, 33; Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 28. 26 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 60-61. 27 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 68-69. 28 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 75-76, 80. 29 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 85.

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show thathis accomplicehad been subornedand was thusguilty of makinga false accusation. He was successfulat thisploy, and the courtordered Bertrande (and Pierre Guerre) imprisoned during the trial;30hence, success for the impostor meant a serious criminalcharge levied against his accomplice. Of course, given Davis's scenarioof complicity,all thatBertrande had to do to avoid such a fatewas to refuseto render herselfas plaintiffagainst her pseudo-husband,an action that would have had the incidental benefitof removing her lover from threat of execution.Davis neverexplains why this obvious and safe course was not takenby the duplicitouscouple. Davis's scenario becomes bewilderinglycomplex with the return of Martin Guerre. Abandoning the accompliceshe had charged withimposture, Bertrande perforcewins her case and pours forth"prepared excuses." Arnaud stillinsists that he is the true husband, but the judges do not put the obdurate liar to torture because "they certainlydid not want him to name Bertrande de Rols as his accomplice at the last minute."3' Davis fails to explain why the judges either suspectedor covered up the peasant woman'ssupposed crimes.Moreover, Davis's argumentrequires us to believe thatthe judges who had imprisonedthe plaintiff on suspicion of bringing a false accusation against her husband were also suspiciousthat the plaintiffwas an accomplicein theimposture of the man she had charged withthat crime. In otherwords, the courtsomehow suspected Bertrande of both falseaccusation and complicitywith the accused. Accordingto Davis, only one person suggested that Bertrande was not deceived by Arnaud: "Was the weaknessof the [female]sex reallyso greatthat wives could not tellthe difference betweenmarried love and adultery?The cuckolded MartinGuerre clearly thought not, as we know fromthe words attributedto him in courtby both Coras and Le Sueur."32 Yet it is clear from those words that Martin Guerre simply (albeit severely)rebuked his wifefor imprudence, not forchoosing adultery over marital fealty.33A cuckold is a man whose wifehas committedadultery, and apparently no one at the trialregarded the returnedhusband in thatlight. Thejudges would hardlyhave urged him to compassion for Bertrandeif theyhad thoughthe was accusinghis wifeof the verycrime of whichthey allegedly suspected her.34 In sum, Davis presentsa scenarioin whichthe principalparticipants in a trial-the plaintiff, the defendant,and thejudges-harbored secretdesigns and motivationsthat, by theirvery nature, cannot be substantiatedby the sources.

30 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 68-69, 76. 31 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 86, 90. 32 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 110. Davis followsthis with the statementthat "it is hard to imagine thatthe Coras we have seen dealing withJacquette de Bussi [his wife]could consistentlybelieve that women were so easy to trick";110. The implicationis that,since Coras had high regard for his wife's intelligence,he mustsomehow have seen Bertrandeas undeceived by the impostor.Davis once more adduces Coras's wifeto make the same point: "[W]e have no femalecommentary on the storyuntil the twentiethcentury. Jacquette de Bussi's reactionto her husband'sgift book [thatis, the Arrest Memorable] is unrecorded. I doubt thatshe believed thatBertrande de Rols could have been deceived forso long"; 118. Davis's suggestion,then, is apparentlythat Jacquette de Bussi would have seen through her husband's putativeconclusions regarding Bertrande in the ArrestMemorable because the wifewas, of course, female. 33 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 86. 34 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 86, 91.

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GIVEN THE EVIDENCE REGARDING THE STORY OF MARTIN GUERRE, theassumption that Bertrandewas Arnaud's accomplicenecessarily involves convoluted reasoning and unsubstantiatedassertions. As Coras perceived,Bertrande's accommodation to the charge of impostureand her timorousconduct in courtargued thatshe was acting under duress,just as her refusal to swear that the defendant was not her true husband confirmedthe court's suspicion that she had been subornedby her family. As faras one can tell,Bertrande's most fervent belief seems to have been in marital fidelity.At any rate, her sense of loyalty(rather than "shrewd realism") nicely explains her behaviorthroughout: her refusalto divorce,her "incrediblelonging I... to have her husband back," her willingnessto accept the proofsthat Arnaud was -her husband, her stand with him against familypressure, and her tearful submissionto her true husband when she realized her error.35In the storyof Martin Guerre, there is no need for unfounded hypothesesregarding maneu- veringwithin sexual constraints,the perpetualuniqueness of sexual behavior,and secret pacts between a predator and his prey. Having begun withsuch hypotheses,however, Davis is faced withthe challenge of answering two resultingquestions. First,how can one regard Bertrande as Arnaud's accompliceand yetstill consider her as "honorable"?Second, whatpoint of viewwas expressed in Coras's ArrestMemorable, Davis's principalsource forher own interpretation,toward Bertrandeand Arnaud? Davis's determinationto salvage "the honor of Bertrandede Rols"36is evident in the three contextsshe establishesfor regardingthe relationshipbetween the wifeand the impostor.First, Bertrande and the pseudo-Martinfall in love, so their fraud'fades in the glow of mutual affection.According to Davis, Bertrande had not merelyprayed forMartin's return but had "dreamed of a husband and lover who would come back,and be different."She accepted the impostorbecause what she had "withthe new Martinwas her dream come true,"a man she could live with "in passion."37Of course, the man she was livingwith continued to ferretout informationfrom Bertrande about his presumedbackground. To Davis, thatis not evidenceof treacheryand manipulationbut rather a manifestationof the "intimate exchanges between husband and wife," which were "an ideal of Christian humanistsand Protestantmoralists," as well as an expression of "the Occitan delight in conversation"typically found in "the words of peasant lovers."38In describingArnaud's challenge to the subornedBertrande to swear he was not her husband,Davis places the impostor'smaneuver in romanticguise: "He thenmade a testof her love and expressed his own."39 To be sure, Arnaud may have come to have affectionfor the trustingpeasant woman, but, not surprisingly,the sources are silenton the matter.It is perhaps noteworthythat, while the impostorasked for Bertrande'spardon on the ladder

35 The quotation is fromCoras's descriptionof Bertrande'sreasons for acceptingArnaud as her husband: "loint l'incroyableenvie, qu'icelle de Rolz avoit,de recouvrerson mary";Arrest Memorable, 82. 36 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 27. 37 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 34, 44. 38 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 46. 39 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 69.

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up to the gibbet,he nevertried tojustify his duplicityby claiming that he had acted out of love for her. None of the evidence adduced by Davis, such as Bertrande protectingArnaud froma beatingor his trustingher to support him in court,40 testifiesto more than Bertrande'sfidelity or to the impostor'sexigencies. There is no basis forasserting that the historicalrecord "everywhereattests to his having fallen in love withthe wife for whom he had rehearsed and her having become deeply attached to the husband who had taken her by surprise."14' Second, Davis suggeststhat the loving couple probablydiscovered a religious justificationfor their deception in the Protestantismthat was reaching into the Toulouse region, especiallyin a non-sacramentalview of marriage that allowed these adulterersto conceive of "marriageas somethingthat was in theirhands to make,indeed, as in theirhands alone." Davis is aware thatthis speculation has the disadvantageof rescuingBertrande from the fryingpan of adulteryonly to throw her into the fireof bigamy.Nevertheless, she presentsthe romanticspectacle of the pseudo-Martinand Bertrande findingsolace and "anotherjustification for theirlives" in the Reformedreligion: "That theycould telltheir story to God alone and need not communicateit to any human intermediary.That the life theyhad willfullyfabricated was part of God's providence."42 The only evidence that Davis puts forthfor these sentimentsis that some Reformed soldiers and local convertsto Protestantismsmashed the altar of the Artigatchurch, although thatwas eightyears afterArnaud's execution; that the de Rols familybecame Protestant,although Davis onlycites documents regarding thatfamily in the mid-seventeenthcentury; and thatno priestplayed a major role in Arnaud's trial.43Davis suggeststhat it is also significantthat Arnaud showed "respect" for his principal inquisitors,"men who were already attracted to Protestantism"-asif the charmingimpostor would dream of showingdisrespect forjudges who held his lifein theirhands, no matterwhat theirreligious views; or as ifthejudges would have been so givento fellowshipwith the accused peasant as to make him aware of theirdangerous confessionalleanings. Davis also finds it significantthat Arnaud's final statementof contritionincluded no Catholic formulasor referencesto the saints.44Yet this negativeconsideration does not advance the argumentthat the putativeaccomplices sought justification for their illicit liaison in the new faith. All the sources say about Arnaud's spiritual sympathiesis that,as a youth,Arnaud was notoriousas "a constantdenier and blasphemerof God's name," habituallyswearing "on the head, body, blood, and wounds of our Lord."45 This evidence much predates Arnaud's appearance in

40 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 44-46. 41 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 44. 42 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 47, 48, 50. 43 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 48-49; 142n.10. 44 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 50. 45 Arnaud was "consumme, en tous vices, adonne a toute espece de larrecins,et affrontemens, ordinaire renieur,et blasphemateurdu nom de Dieu ... Les tesmoingsrapportoient, qu' iceluydu Tilh, estoitcoustumier, iurer teste,corps, sang, et playes de nostreSeigneur, ce que vulgairementon appelle Blasphemer"(Coras, ArrestMemorable,45; compare Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 37). Although Davis argues that the publicationsof Coras and Le Sueur on the Martin Guerre case had a certain Protestantsetting (107), she does not consider thatthe absence of Catholic formulasor referencesto

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Artigat,but at the very least it does not bespeak receptivityto the Reformed religion. In all, there is no warrantin the sources for introducinga religious dimensionto the MartinGuerre story,not to mentionthe speculationthat "local Protestantsympathizers [in Artigat]tended to believe the new Martin and the Catholics tended to believe Pierre Guerre."46

HAVING SUMMONED UP ROMANCE AND RELIGION TO ILLUMINATE the complicityof Bertrandeand Arnaud, Davis also calls on notionsof psychologicalreconstruction and reflectivitythat likewise shift the focusof the storyfrom deplorable deception to heroiccommitment. From thisperspective, the wifeand the impostorwere not being fraudulentand adulterous; rather,they were engaged in "self-fashioning," in "inventing"a marriage,in creatingnew "identities."Davis borrows the term "self-fashioning"from a recentwork on Renaissanceliterature, and she takesit to referto "the moldingof speech, manners,gesture, and conversation"that aided advancementin elite circles.47Davis is concerned,however, to show thatthe fate of theelite and thatof peasantswas sometimessimilar, that common folktoo could fashiontheir lives in novel, self-consciousways, and, further,"that an impostor's fabricationhas links with more ordinary ways of creating personal identity." Unfortunately,Davis proves none of these things.Instead, after assertingthat some sortof constructionof identitymay be seen in a person posing as another, she goes on to claimthat, with Arnaud's preparationsfor his appearance in Artigat, "it is clear that ... [the impostor]was movingbeyond the mask of the carnival playerand the stratagemsof the mere inheritanceseeker to forgea new identity and a new life for himself."48 There is nothing to justifysuch an elevated and exculpatoryperspective of Arnaud du Tilh's imposture.Davis pointsto nothingin the historicalrecord-no hint of self-reflectionby the trickster,no provocativeuse of language in the sources, no revealing pattern of behavior, no suggestive inconsistenciesor contradictions,no illuminatingcontrasts with other impostors-to substantiateher employmentof "self-fashioning."Pervasive and tendentious,the concept is merely imposed on thehistorical record as an ingeniousassertion, a modishway of viewing sixteenth-centurypeasants. Viewed throughthe lens of self-fashioning,Arnaud is an audacious forgerof self,not simplya clever fraud, while Bertrande is an assertive molder of identityrather than an unfortunatedupe; together,the inventiverustics fabricated a marriage. the saints may have been the result of the biases of the chroniclersrather than the supposed Protestantismof the impostor. 46 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 56. 47 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 103. In the workfrom which Davis borrows"self-fashioning," the term refers to considerablymore than the personal prerequisitesfor courtlysuccess: see Stephen Greenblatt,Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare(Chicago, 1980), 1-9. For some reflectionson the storyof MartinGuerre, see Stephen Greenblatt,"Psychoanalysis and Renaissance Culture,"Literary TheoryiRenaissance.Texts, Patricia Parker and David Quint,eds. (Baltimore,Md., 1986), 210-24. 48 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 4, 40-41.

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It is easy to cast the storyof MartinGuerre into self-fashioningterms, but the exercise does not result in a plausible account of the desired "motivationsand values."49According to Davis, when Arnaud asked Pierre Guerre for a financial accounting of the real husband's property-the action that eventuallyled to Arnaud's trials-"he was notjustan impostortrying to take MartinGuerre's money and run" but ratherwas giving"a sign of how comfortablehe feltin his role." MartinGuerre did not returnto Artigatmerely because he was alarmed at another takinghis wifeand land but may be regarded as having "come back to repossess his identity,his persona,before it was too late."50Nothing loath, Arnaud matched the long-losthusband persona forpersona: "It would be a mistaketo interprethis behavior [in court] ... as simplya desperate attemptto stayalive. Live or dead, he was defendingthe identityhe had fashioned for himselfagainst a stranger." When Arnaud continuedto denyhis impostureafter the returnof MartinGuerre, his obstinacydid not reflectpanic but ratherhow sincerelyhe had transformed himselfinto "thejealous husband."5' Davis takesthe idea of the impostorrefashioning himself as MartinGuerre very seriouslyindeed. In the centralchapters of her book (chaps. 5-6), she scrupulously triesto avoid referringto the impostoras "Arnaud" or "Pansette,"and she never adopts the chroniclers'appellations of the "Pseudo-Martinus"and the "soy disant Martin Guerre." For her, the refashionedrustic, "a more real Martin Guerre"52 than the original,is generally"the new Martin."In dealing withthe relationship between the supposed accomplices,Davis uses the impostor'sname only once, when statingthat "Pansette's rehearsals began once again," withthe impostorand the wifereviewing the sexual episodes of the Guerres' marriage for information with which to dupe the court. Sometimes,when Davis uses the impostor's,real names, it is to emphasize his supposed transformation,as when she refersto "the rebirthof Arnaud du Tilh as Martin Guerre." Sometimes, Arnaud is simply "Martin," the distinctionbetween refashioner and real spouse collapsing as thoroughlyfor the modernhistorian as itallegedly did forArnaud du Tilh.53This is unfortunate,for in examining the tale of the famous imposture it is surely essentialto keep straightwho was Bertrande'shusband, whatwas a marriage,and who was reallyMartin Guerre. The notion of self-fashioningfunctions as a way of elevatingan interpretation of complicitybetween Bertrande and the pseudo-Martinfrom the sordid reality of fraud and adulteryto that elusive realm where life approximates literature. Evoking imagination,intelligence, and subtlety,self-fashioning allows Davis to regard Bertrandeand Arnaud as engaged in the same sortof artfulconstruction of identitythat supposedly typifiedprincely courts and literarycircles. A tale of

4 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 4. 50 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 60, 84. 51 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 91. 52 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 113. 53 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre,57, 50. In the centralchapters, Davis uses "Pansette" six times; "Arnaud,"ten; and "the new Martin,"forty-five. "Martin" is used to identifythe impostorsix times(52, 54, 56, 57). Thus Davis refersto the impostoras "the new Martin"or "Martin"three-fourths of the time.

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mere trickery,as in the old versionof the Martin Guerre story,piques curiosity but cannot sustaininterest or analysis.A discourseon self-fashioning,on the other hand, is compellingto a modern sensibilitypreoccupied withideas of role-playing and identity,beguiled by intricatetheory and psychologizing.In effect,self- fashioning,along withromance and religion,glosses the conduct of the adulterous peasants. "The self-fashionirigBertrande" embraced "her dream come true" and inventeda new marriage; the new, improved "Martin"found a new love, a new religion,and constructeda new self:"[T]he lifehe was fashioningfor himself was operating like a conversionexperience, wiping away the blasphemer ... if not totally the trickster."54Of the trickster,there is abundant evidence, even a confession;for all the rest,there is no evidence whatsoever.

AFTER DEMONSTRATING HOW BERTRANDE THE ACCOMPLICE MAY BE REGARDED as "honorable"when seen in thelight of romance,religion, and self-fashioning,Davis is faced witha second crucialquestion: how can her viewof Bertrandeand Arnaud be reconciledwith Jean de Coras's, especiallysince the ArrestMemorable is Davis's principal source for her own very differentinterpretation? Her answer to this depends entirelyon a complicatedpsychological reading of both Coras and his text. She sees Coras as embodying a profound ambivalence toward the self- fashioning peasants, while she regards the ArrestMemorable as "an historical account thatraises doubts about itsown truth,"much as thejudges of the Criminal Chamber supposedly displayed "mixed feelings"even as they condemned the dazzling trickster.55Davis assertsthat Coras came to identifyhimself with Arnaud, probably a Protestantlike himself,poised and eloquent like himself,with a beautifulwife like his own, and a liar so inventivethat his fabricationswere akin to "self-fashioning,"a practicethat lawyers and royalofficers "knew all about."56 Thus Davis neatlyemploys her unfounded hypothesesregarding Protestantism and self-fashioningto argue for an equally unfounded identificationof the inquisitorwith the accused. Davis establishesanother point of identificationwith her assertionthat Coras was a kindof attenuatedPansette of thelegal commentaryin that"he lies a little"when shaping his account to strengthenit as "a moral tale." Yet she neitherspells out the moralshe perceivesin Coras's textnor does she indicateany egregiousshaping of evidence bythe legal theorist.57Her listof "exaggerationsand omissions"in the

54 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 118, 49. 55 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 108, 91 n. Accordingto Davis, thejudges showed ''lingeringrespect for the man who had dazzled them withhis testimony"by treatinghis interests(that is, his property and his child by Bertrande) with consideration,by not torturinghim, and by canceling his formal apologybefore the CriminalChamber (89-91). But thereis no evidenceof "respect"shown by the court towardArnaud. The judges were concernedfor the interestsof the Guerre familyin dealing withthe propertyand child; torturewas not alwaysused by the Toulouse court; and the apology was canceled when it seemed clear thatArnaud had no intentionof apologizing,not (as Davis hints)because of fear that he would name Bertrande as his accomplice. 56 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 102-03. 5 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 108-09. Davis suggeststhat Coras may have seen "the storyof MartinGuerre as conveyinga Protestantmessage," but she concludes that"if Coras and Le Sueur had

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ArrestMemorable is not persuasive. Her accusation that the commentatorin one instance neglected to report a failure of Arnaud's memory is trivial,and the contention that Coras "presents himself and the court as less convinced of Arnaud's innocence than in fact they were" is overstated.58The Criminal Chamber's view of Arnaud's probable innocence is expressed clearly in Coras's statementthat only the interventionof God, as manifestby the nearlymiraculous returnof MartinGuerre, prevented"a horribleand monstrousimposture" from going unpunished.59 According to Davis, there is exaggerationin Coras's discussion of crimes such as abduction and sacrilege,of which Arnaud was not actuallyconvicted. In her view,those annotations"gave him a chance to argue thatBertrande was coerced and thatthe death penaltywas warranted."60Coras, however,did not need to grasp at opportunitiesto present Bertrande as a victim,as if he had to repress his recognition of the wife's outrageous behavior. The judge's annotations were intended to detail the manifoldways in which the unfortunatewoman had been victimized,even if the culprithad not been charged by a court withthe particular offense.6' Davis claims that Coras also exaggerates at another point, when "Arnaud du Tilh's prodigious qualities are built up by comparison withbiblical, classical, and more recent impostors."62But Coras's concern clearlywas to discuss precedents and parallels for the case, not to enshrineArnaud in a pantheon of heroes. The lawyerno more intendedto have his readers see Arnaud as "prodigious"asJupiter and Caesar than he wanted them to regard Bertrande as illustriousas Cleopatra, Cato, Brutus, Hannibal, and Empedocles because, like them, she said she preferred death to dishonor. Indeed, Coras was aware that a reader might misconstruehis intentions,and, hence, afterdiscussing Arnaud's memoryin the contextof featsof recollectionby Cyrus, Seneca, and Caesar, he was carefulto warn that he intended no equation "of such an impudent impostorwith such noble, grand, and illustriouspersons."63 All these supposed exaggerationsand omissions,Davis claims,were "loopholes" in the ArrestMemorable, revealing Coras's uncertaintiesand allowinghis commen- taryto be recast as a tragicdrama.64 She findsthe most "curious omission"in the

such views,it must be said that theyare not imposed by theirtexts"; 107. The reader, then, is leftin some confusion as to the message or moral that Davis believes Coras intended his work to convey. 58 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 109, 108. 59 Without"le tout bon et puissant Dieu," "une si horrible,et monstrueuseimposture, demeurast celee, et incogneue"; Coras, ArrestMemorable, 70. Davis also maintainsthat Coras "never mentionsthat Bertrande and Pierre were imprisoned for months"; Davis, Returtof Martin Guerre, 108. But Coras states"car elle demeuroit par l'appel encor arrestee";Arrest Memorable, 84. 60 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 109. 61 For example, see Coras, ArrestMemorable, 98, on how Bertrande was a victimof rape, albeit by deception rather than violence. 62 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 109. 63 "Ce que i'entends avoir escript,avec la protestation,qu'ay cy devant faite,de ne vouloir entrer, en comparaison d'un si impudent affronteur,avec personnes si nobles, grandes, et illustres";Coras, ArrestMemorable, 52. On the comparisonsregarding Bertrande preferringdeath to dishonor,see ibid., 84. 64 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 110.

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firstedition (1561) of the work to be an account of Arnaud's confession and execution,a flawthat leaves Coras's readers "some room fordoubt about whether the CriminalChamber actuallydid get the rightman." On the contrary,no reader of Coras can doubt thatthe courtand everyoneelse concernedhad discoveredthe truthof the matter.65In any case, Coras made up forhis "curiousomission" in the second edition (1565) of the ArrestMemorable, where he devoted a passage to Arnaud's confessionand execution.According to Davis, however,thejudge could not help expressinghis "conflictingfeelings" about the dazzling criminal,since "ambiguityis reintroducedimmediately" by a descriptionof Arnaud's fate as a "tragedy,"a commentthat Davis chooses to see as expressingambivalence about the impostor'sguilt ratherthan dismay at his pervertedtalents.66 This miscon- structionis pivotalto Davis's argument,for she goes on to relate Coras's remark about tragedyto anotherwriter's linking of the tragicwith "prodigious" passion- "an association,"Davis handilyreminds the reader, "also suggestedby Arnaud and Bertrande"-thereby proposing that Coras actu'allysaw tragedy not in the self-destructionof a "finepeasant" but in the doomed romance of the wife and impostor.Again, self-fashioningcrowns the pyramidof assumptions:"That Coras could conceive of 'a play of tragedybetween persons of low estate' depended on his being able to identifyhimself somewhat with the rustic who had remade himself."67 Davis reconcilesher interpretationof theMartin Guerre storywith Coras's Arrest Memorableby asserting that, while thejudge explicitlyconsidered the wife innocent, an examination of his text, with its significantexaggerations, omissions, and comparisons, reveals another, unsettled view of Arnaud-and therefore of Bertrande as well. Supposedly troubled by psychological identificationwith Arnaud, Coras unconsciouslyallowed an elementof ambiguityand tension into his commentaryon the case, a "multivalentrepresentation" that exposes his uncertainties.68On the one hand, Coras saw Arnaud as a treacherousdeceiver, a virtuallydiabolical fraud and thief; on the other hand, he identifiedwith the dazzlingself-fashioner and fellowProtestant. Similarly, Coras regarded Bertrande as an innocentdupe, yetat some inarticulatelevel he also recognizedthat she had conspired withthe impostor:this guilty Bertrande "is presentin Coras's text,but is less prominentthan the duped wife."Even thoughCoras had to admitexplicitly that profound wrong had been committedby the ruthlessimpostor, he secretly could not deny to himselfthat there was something"profoundly right about the

65 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 11 1; Coras, ArrestMemorable, 86: "Ainsil'imposture dudit du Tilh, estant entierementdescouverte, et le nouveau venu de tous uniquement receu, et recogneu, pour MartinGuerre, et le proces, par ce moyen du tout instruit,pour estre iuge diffinitivement,et iceluy veu"; see also Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 85. 66 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 103, 1 11. 67 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 1 2. The phrase "a play of tragedybetween persons of low estate" is not fromCoras but is quoted fromMatteo Bandello's Histoiretragiques, the workthat linked the tragic with"prodigious" passion and that does not discuss the storyof MartinGuerre (see Davis, Returnof MartinGuerre, 153 n. 16). There is,of course,no indicationthat Coras conceivedof "a play of tragedy" between Bertrande and Arnaud. 68 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 110, 120.

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inventedmarriage of thenew Martinand Bertrandede Rols."69Davis suggeststhat a psychologicaldifficulty lay behind Coras's conflictedfeelings and uncertainties. An elite member of a patriarchalsociety, the learned judge identifiedwith the pseudo-husband, "the rusticwho had remade himself,"but could not face the psychicthreat represented by Bertrande:"The possibilityof an honorable woman disposing of her body as she pleases is much more disturbingthan the self- fashioningof Pansette."70

NOTHING IS CITED FROM CORAS'S TEXT TO SUPPORT THESE CONTENTIONS. Given the nature of the argumentthroughout, that is entirelyunderstandable. If the guilty but honorable Bertrande is "presentin Coras's text,"she cannot be there in the usual sense that makes quotation of, or referenceto, the text possible. If Coras repressed his recognitionof Bertrande's guiltbecause of alarm at her freedom fromsexual constraints,proof of that must be sought in curious omissionsand subtleexaggerations in the textregarding Arnaud du Tilh. If Coras believed that theunmasking of "thenew Martin"was a tragedy,his troublingrecognition of that cannot be encompassed by traditionalforms of scholarlyevidence. If "Bertrande does not seem a woman so easilyfooled" in bed bya rogue like Arnaud, it is to be expected that her subsequent deceits would elude documentation. Indeed, if Bertrandehad collaboratedwith the impostor,she musthave been embarked on an enterpriseso secretand subtle thatit escaped the notice of all her contempo- rariesas well as "everyscrap of paper left. . . by the past." Such arguments,it may be said, make footnotesto sources quite beside the point. If historicalrecords can be bypassed so thoroughlyin the serviceof an inventiveblend of intuitionand assertion,it is difficultto see what distinguishesthe writingof historyfrom that of fiction.As Montaigne observed about assertionsbeing imposed on reality, "What can we not reason about at thisrate?"71 Davis claims thatthe judges of Toulouse, in consideringthe "inventiveness"of Arnaud du Tilh, had to pose for themselvesthe question, "Where does self- fashioningstop and lyingbegin?"72 But the termsshe ascribesto thejudges should pose forher readers a more pertinentquestion: In historicalwriting, where does reconstructionstop and inventionbegin? The virtuesof TheReturnofMartin Guerre are clear: its eloquent portraitof peasant life,its sense of communal values and prejudices,its sympathy for those outside the elite,its emphasis on the centralrole of women,its evocative detail and supple prose. Unfortunately,none of thecentral pointsof the book-the knowingBertrande, the devious courtstrategy, the tragic

69 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 112, 103. 70 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 1 12. Davis followsthis statement with a quotationfrom a letterfrom Coras to his wife that details a "strange dream" (112). The lettercomes from several years after Arnaud's trial(see Davis, 98), and Davis does not explain how it substantiatesanything found in the ArrestMemorable. 71 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, ix; Montaigne,"Of Cripples,"Complete Essays of Montaigne, 791. For some commentson historyand fiction,see Carlo Ginzburg,"Prove e possibilita:In marginea II ritorno di Martin Guerredi Natalie Zemon Davis," in N. Z. Davis, II Ritornodi MartinGuerre (Turin, 1984), 131-54. 72 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 103.

This content downloaded from 142.103.183.129 on Fri, 23 Oct 2015 19:15:23 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 570 RobertFinlay romance, the Protestantjustification, the self-fashioningpeasants, the conflicted judge, the "multivalent"text-depend on the documentaryrecord. As a result,a famous tale is given a reinterpretationthat finallybears more resemblanceto a historicalromance than to an account "held tightlyin check by the voices of the past."173 Jean de Coras wrotethe ArrestMemorable to relatea true,fascinating story, not to give the villain of the piece "another chance" to argue his case or charm his audience.74 The moral of Coras's account has nothing to do with a tragedyof romance and self-fashioningbut withthe deadly weaknessof perception,with the ways in which deception can reach into the most intimaterelations and shape human destinies.Thejudge's compassionwas whollyreserved for an unimportant, lucklesswoman, and perhaps one of his main purposes in writingabout the story of MartinGuerre was to enable othersto understandhow circumstancesconspired withBertrande's own desiresto make her an ideal victimfor a cunningimpostor.75 In the end, it cannot be said thatJean de Coras was successfulin thatambition. The eventsof Artigatwill probablynever again be analyzed in detail, hence the historicalimage of Bertrandewill be fixedforever in the unlikelypose established by Davis's reinterpretation.Humiliated by her husband's impotence,abandoned by him for years,duped and seduced by an impostor,harassed by kinfolk,and shamed before her community,Bertrande de Rols now suffersthe posthumous fate of being refashionedinto an assertiveand principledchampion, the shrewd and ardent companion of a man who transformedhimself for her. No longer a dupe and victim,she has become a heroine, a sort of proto-feministof peasant culture. This Bertrande de Rols seems to be far more a product of inventionthan of historicalreconstruction. The same mayalso be said of Arnaud du Tilh, the forger of identity,and ofJean de Coras, the ambivalentinquisitor. As interesting,subtle, and complex as these charactersare, it is doubtfulthat they have anythingto do

Aftercompleting this essay, I read Janet Lewis's historicalromance, The Wifeof Martin Guerre (1941; rpt edn., Chicago, 1967). Davis statesthat Lewis's novel "differsfrom my historicalaccount in mostrespects, but theyresemble each otherin presentinga Bertrandewho is not a dupe and who has some independence of spirit"(Davis, 118n.). In Lewis's novel, however,Bertrande firstsuspects that the self-proclaimedMartin is an impostorafter receiving him in bed (Lewis,50). She sometimesthinks of him as "the new Martin" (Lewis, 50, 55). She slowlycomes to realize "that she was consciously acceptingas her husband a man whom she believed to be an impostor"(57; 55-65). Impelled by guilt and anger, she finallytakes Arnaud to court,although even then she brieflyhopes thatthe judges will declare him her husband (90). Arnaud's performancein court and his tendernesstoward Bertrande make the wife ponder questions of identity(96-97). When the real husband returns,he accuses Bertrande of complicitywith the impostor.Arnaud tellsBertrande that he had transformedhimself into an honestman "foryour beauty and grace" (107). He embraceshis fateas a sacrificeto Bertrande, whilethe latterrecognizes that "the return of MartinGuerre would in no measure compensatefor the death of Arnaud" (108). Lewis draws an affectingportrait of a Bertrandetorn between love and duty, a heroine at once shrewd, passionate, and honorable (55, 57, 63-64, 95-96). Romance and self-fashioningare prominentthemes in Lewis'snovel, along withthe view that events unfold as a tragic drama for the peasant couple. Davis's version of the story mainly differsfrom Lewis's in her presentationof an explicitcollaboration between the wifeand the impostor,a religiousperspective on that collusion,and a portraitof an unsympatheticPierre Guerre. 74 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 103. 75 This is one of the dominantthemes in the ArrestMemorable; see 10, 20-21, 33, 37, 54, 69, 80, 85, 98, 106, 109-12.

This content downloaded from 142.103.183.129 on Fri, 23 Oct 2015 19:15:23 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Refashioningof Martin Guerre 571 with the actual story of Martin Guerre. The self-fashioningrustics and the conflictedscholar are nowhereto be found in theArrestMemorable, a document that Davis impliesis not to be trusted,in all itsmultivalent complexity, precisely because it fails to yield up the characterscalled for by her reinterpretation. What Davis terms"invention," the employmentof "perhapses" and "may-have- beens," is, of course, the stock in trade of historians,who are often driven to speculationby inadequate and perplexingevidence. Depth, humanity,and color in historicalreconstruction are the productsof imaginationand do not flowfrom a vulgar reasoningupon data.76But speculation,whether founded on intuitionor on concepts drawn fromanthropology and literarycriticism, is supposed to give way before the sovereigntyof the sources, the tribunalof the documents. The historianshould not make the people of the past say or do thingsthat run counter to the most scrupulous respect for the sources. In discussingpopular culture in preindustrialEurope, Davis has cogentlyobserved that historiansof that subject are stronglyinterested in people, "but I am not sure we reallyrespect theirways verymuch; and thismakes it hard forus to understandtheir lives."77 Regrettably, in The Returnof Martin Guerre,Davis has permittedan excess of invention to obscure the lives of the people who engaged her sympathyand imagination. If readers of her book feel a kinshipwith Bertrande and lament the returnof the man withthe wooden leg, if theyfeel thatthey truly understand the livesof those long-dead peasants, it is, all unbeknownst,at the expense of respecting their historicalintegrity, their very differentmotivations and values. It is one of the charmsof Natalie Zemon Davis's generous and imaginativeapproach to historical studythat she even leaves open thatpossibility in the epilogue of her book: "I think I have uncovered the true face of the past-or has Pansettedone it once again?"78

76 Compare Donald R. Kelley's reviewof Davis in RenaissanceQuarterly, 37 (1984): 254. 77 Natalie Zemon Davis, "Proverbial Wisdom and Popular Errors,"in Societyand Culturein Early ModernFrance (Stanford,Calif., 1975), 266. 78 Davis, Returnof Martin Guerre, 125.

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