Women in the Medieval Spanish Epic and Lyric Traditions

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Spanish Literature European Languages and Literatures 1975 Women in the Medieval Spanish Epic and Lyric Traditions Lucy A. Sponsler Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Sponsler, Lucy A., "Women in the Medieval Spanish Epic and Lyric Traditions" (1975). Spanish Literature. 25. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_spanish_literature/25 STUDIES IN ROMANCE LANGUAGES: 13 Editor John E. Keller Associate Editor for Spanish Joseph R. Jones Editorial Board French William C. Calin Robert Champigny Lester G. Crocker J. H. Matthews Michael Riffaterre Italian Glauco Cambon William DeSua Portuguese Gerald Moser Spanish Jose J. Arrom Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce Otis H. Green Karl-Ludwig Selig This page intentionally left blank Women in the Medieval Spanish Epic & Lyric Traditions Lucy A. Sponsler THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY ISBN: 978-0-8131-5468-8 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-18939 Copyright © 1975 by The University Press of Kentucky A statewide cooperative scholarly publishing agency serving Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky State College, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506 Contents 1. The Position of Women: Feudal Europe & Spain 1 2. Women in Epic Poetry: Law versus Literature 7 3. The Continuing Epic Tradition 23 4. Popular & Traditional Lyric Poetry: The Two Spains 47 5. Women in Learned Lyric Poetry: Stereotype & Invention 74 6. Conclusion 119 Notes 123 Index 131 This page intentionally left blank Chapter One The Position of Women: Feudal Europe & Spain The culture of medieval Spain was anything but homogeneous. It varied not only through time, with the approach of the Renaissance, but also geographically, with great differences between north and south. One significant aspect of any culture is the role taken in it by women. In this study the role of women in relation to men, family, and social organiza tion will be examined in the light of the evidence of literature; the vari ous personalities and types created will be analyzed and their originality within literary convention assessed. We will try to determine what variations and major changes occur in the role of women in the epic and lyric traditions within the medieval period, and an attempt will be made to relate such changes to what is known of historical, sociological, and cultural trends of the time. First, however, let us glance briefly at the ethnic and cultural background of Spanish women in medieval Spain. Since wars were so frequent during the feudal period, one suspects that the wife of a noble vassal in any European country must have been thrown a great deal on her own resources. Her husband's obligation of military service to his lord often led him off to battle, and a year's ab sence was not unusual. During his absence the wife was regarded as her husband's representative and also continued to have charge of domestic affairs. Thus ladies of the minor nobility settled disputes among the servants or peasants, supervised bread-baking, weaving, candle-making, and meat curing! For entertainment some women played the harp and sang troubadour songs. A woman could break the castle routine by riding or hunting. Another activity would have been going out to give alms to aid the poor. Some active women even played a role in reform ing corrupt religious orders.2 Bourgeois women often had specific trades: they were teachers, 2 The Position of Women weavers, embroiderers, or even merchants who helped in their husbands' stores.3 Peasant women did not have this much independence. Marriage was the aim of most, but on the wedding night the bride and groom owed the lord not only gifts but the traditional droit du seigneur. Only sometimes could a serf purchase exemption from this rite. There were other duties the peasant woman owed to her lord. To bake her bread, for example, she was required to use the lord's oven and to give him a fiXed proportion of the loaves as a fee. The same sort of requirement was made for pressing grapes and milling flour, merely one example of the methods used by the lord to preserve his dominance over the peasants. The peasant husband, furthermore, maintained himself in a superior position to his wife, as we can perceive from the story of the peasant who beat his wife on the head every morning, ostensibly to give her something to think about all day. If she were idle, he felt, she would think of evil things, but this way she could spend the day weeping! 4 Although the noblewoman was certainly freer than the peasant woman, there is a similarity in the attitudes of their husbands toward them. Even the noblewoman was expected to devote her time to the care of her husband when he was at home. She had to make sure his guests had all the necessary conveniences, and sometimes she even un dressed and bathed the male guests. Thus to some extent the noble lady was left to her own devices when her husband was away, yet she often resembled a servant in that she was expected to keep things in constant readiness for his arrival and to serve him when that time came. The view that woman waited to serve man while he was out doing much more active things can be substantiated through a comparison of the types of education they received. Lower class women remained illiterate, of course. Among the upper classes a girl received a more bookish education than a boy from a similar family. The princess, for example, was taught to read Latin, to write in a Romance tongue, to do arithmetic, to know the various herbs used to cure wounds, and to sing and play an instrument (for the entertainment of men). For the young prince, on the other hand, the emphasis was on war and tournament skills along with falconry and other hunting methods. Furthermore, girls were taught how to eat and drink "properly," to chew anise or fennel for bad breath, to drink wine to improve skin tone, to walk calmly, to keep their eyelids low when conversing, and the like.5 This sort of education indicates that woman was thought of as a passive Feudal Europe and Spain 3 creature of comfort and pleasure for men, as someone to be admired for her habits, appearance, and talents rather than for deeds she might do. A further indication of medieval attitudes toward women is the number of medieval writers who mistrusted and despised them. Numer ous diatribes against them appear in French fabliaux as well as in the Roman de Ia Rose of Jean de Meun. In Spain the current of antifemi nism was stimulated by Arab influence, for Arab men mistrusted women and kept them apart as a separate part of their lives. This nega tive attitude toward women is evident in El Corbacho of the Arcipreste de Talavera, and El Libro de los Exenplos by Clemente Sanchez de Vercial. Even Saint Thomas Aquinas felt that woman was equivalent to sin and that her role in society should be merely to provide food and drink and preserve the species. Saint Jerome has been termed the "patron saint of misogynists," for he felt that "woman is the gate of the devil, the path of wickedness, the sting of the serpent, in a word, a per ilous object."6 The witch-hunting of the late Middle Ages is a gauge of the strength of antifeminist sentiment. The extent to which a woman could inherit and rule over property provides a further indication of the way she was regarded by a domi nant male society. Since fiefs tended to become hereditary, a lord naturally hoped for a vassal to have sons, for otherwise the heir to the fief might be a grandparent or a woman, neither of whom was capable of providing the lord with military service. It was therefore in the in terest of a lord to marry off a widow or young orphan daughter of his vassal quickly in order to have a man to rule the fief and serve him in battle.7 Needless to say this often resulted in unhappy or premature marriages. Rarely did a woman have a choice of mate, for marriages were arranged primarily with political, social, or economic considera tions in mind. How much family sentiment and cohesiveness, how much love be tween spouses could there have been as a rule during the Middle Ages? If women did not marry people but rather lands or titles, it is not sur prising that their emotional needs often led them to a secret love life such as is portrayed in courtly love lyrics. Our emphasis on the preva lence of prearranged marriages and absentee husbands obviously does not paint a rosy picture of nuptial bliss for either women or men; one can easily believe the words of Marc Bloch which indicate that "to 4 The Position of Women place marriage at the center of the family group would certainly be to distort the realities of the feudal era."8 Often visitors to Spain today comment that life for women has ap parently changed little since the Middle Ages.

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