Incest and the Medieval Imagination Incest and the Medieval Imagination ELIZABETH ARCHIBALD CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Elizabeth Archibald, 2001 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2001 All rights reserved. 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My research into medieval attitudes to incest began at Yale, where material I read for my Ph.D. dissertation on the Apollonius of Tyre tradition first made me wonder about the popu- larity and uses of the incest theme in medieval literature. I continued this work at King’s College Cambridge, and completed it at the University of Victoria; I am grateful to both these institutions for supporting my research through sabbatical leaves, and grants for conference travel, computer equipment, and research assistants. I have incurred so many other debts during my literary quest that acknowledgement of every individual contribution is impossible. I am very grateful to all who have helped me, and especially to the fol- lowing colleagues and friends for asking questions, supplying refer- ences and texts, reading drafts, checking translations, and giving encouragement: Chris Baswell, Julia Boffey,Danielle Bohler, Laurel Bowman, Keith Bradley, Patricia Clark, Victoria Cooper, David Dumville, Elizabeth Edwards, Tony Edwards, Juliet Fleming, Rob Foley, Jane Gilbert, Paloma Gracia, Patrick Grant, Dick Helmholz, Ralph Hexter, Anne Higgins, Iain Higgins, Amanda Hopkins, Keith Hopkins, David Hult, Sarah Kay, Michael Lapidge, Marilyn Lawrence, Marianne Legault, Jill Mann, Randall Martin, Judith Mitchell, Kathleen Morrison-Bell, Barbara Newman, Joan Noble, Puri Pazó Torres, Ad Putter, Michael Reeve, Nancy Regalado, Miri Rubin, the late and much missed Dadie Rylands, Jim Schultz, Leslie Shumka, John Tucker, Dick Unger, and Joanna Waley-Cohen. Every chapter wasread and improved in an earlydraft bya generousfriend who wishes to remain anonymous because of our unresolvable dif- ferences over punctuation. The anonymous reader for Oxford University Press made many helpful suggestions about a later draft, asdid Simon Gaunt, whoseadviceand support throughout this pro- ject have been invaluable. I have been fortunate in my research assistants in Victoria, Tina Hamer, Catherine May, and Dorothy Rogers, who worked viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS enthusiastically at a series of arduous tasks including proofread- ing, bibliography, and indexing, and also solved some technologic- al problems. In Bristol Demelza Curnow did sterling work on the index. The staff of various libraries, most notably the Cambridge University Library and the Macpherson Library at the University of Victoria, have been unfailingly courteous and helpful, as have the staff of the English Department at Victoria. Kim Scott Walwyn commissioned the book, and has remained enthusiastic and encouraging during its long years of gestation. Sophie Goldsworthy and Matthew Hollis have been patient and helpful editors and Heather Watson a meticulous copy editor. Part of Chapter 5 appeared in a slightly different form in ‘Arthur and Mordred: Variations on an Incest Theme’, in Arthurian Literature 8, ed. Richard Barber (1989), 1–27. I am grateful to Boydell & Brewer for permission to reuse this material. The dedication expresses my greatest debt; I might not have writ- ten this book had I not had the extraordinary good fortune to be the pupil and friend of John Boswell. My classes with him, his own work, and our wonderfully stimulating conversations over the fif- teen years of our friendship were crucial in directing my ideas and my research. Alas, he did not live to read the work that he inspired in its present form—it would have been greatly improved had he been able to do so—but nonetheless this is very much his book. E.A. Victoria June 2000 Contents Abbr eviat ions xi Convent ions xii A Not e on Ter minol ogy xiii Int r oduct ion: DANGEROUS PROPINQUITY 1 1. MEDIEVAL INCEST LAW—THEORY AND PRACTICE 9 The Graeco-Roman Tradition 12 Other Evidence of Classical Attitudes to Incest 17 The Judaic, Biblical, and Patristic Tradition 21 The Development of Medieval Incest Laws 26 Observance of the Incest Rules in the Middle Ages 41 2. THE CLASSICAL LEGACY 53 Incest in Classical Myth, Legend, and Literature 54 Christian Approaches to Classical Incest Stories 66 Medieval Adaptations of Classical Incest Stories 70 Conclusion 101 3. MOTHERS AND SONS 104 Medieval Oedipuses: Judas, Gregorius, and Their Literary Descendants 107 Romance Versions: Incest Averted 126 Mothers in Exempla: Deliberate Incest 133 4. FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS 145 Unconsummated Incest—The Flight from the Incestuous Father 147 Consummated Incest 183 x CONTENTS 5. SIBLINGS AND OTHER RELATIVES 192 Siblings 193 Other Relatives 221 Conclusion 229 Conclusion: SEX, SIN, AND SALVATION 230 The Immaculate Exeption to the Rule 238 Appendix: Synopses of Fl ight fr om Incest uous Fat her St or ies 245 Bibl iogr aphy 257 Index 283 Abbreviations AASS Acta sanctorum, ed. J. Bollandus, revised by J. Carnandus, 69 vols. (Paris, 1863–1948) CA John Gower, Confessio Amantis, ed. G. C. Macaulay as T he English Works of John Gower, 2 vols., EETS 81–2 (Oxford, 1900–1) CFMA Classiques français du moyen âge CT Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson et al., 3rd edn. (Boston, Mass., 1987) EETS os Early English Text Society (original series) EETS es Early English Text Society (extra series) EETS ss Early English Text Society (supplementary series) HA Historia Apollonii regis Tyri L-G Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post- Vulgate in Translation, ed. Norris. J. Lacy, 5 vols. (New York, 1992–6) MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Hanover, 1828– ) LL Leges nationum germanicarum OM Ovide Moralisé, ed. C. de Boer, Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschapen te Amsterdam: Afdeeling Letterkunde, 15, 21, 30, 36, 37, 43 (Amsterdam, 1915–38) PL Patrologia cursus completus, series latina, ed. J.-P. Migne, 221 vols. (Paris, 1844–64) PMLA Publications of the Modern Language Association of America SATF Société des anciens textes français TLF Textes littéraires français Conventions Text s and Tr ansl at ions In view of the large amount of primary and secondary material that I discuss in this study, I have tried to keep the bibliographic information in my chapters and footnotes to the minimum conson- ant with user-friendliness and also standard practice in the field. Short titles have been used for all primary and secondary sources; full references to all works cited are given in the bibliography. All secondary sources are cited in the usual way by author, short title, and page number. Primary sources are cited by author (if known) and short title; the editor is named in the first citation only (except in the case of different editions of the same text). References to spe- cific passages in verse texts are to line numbers only; references to prose texts are to page numbers (chapter divisions are sometimes given too where appropriate). There are some exceptions to these rules, however. All classical and patristic texts are cited from the Loeb Classical Library editions, unless otherwise stated, and refer- ences are given by chapter or division number only. These Loeb edi- tions are not listed in the bibliography. I also cite some standard legal texts, such as Justinian’s Codex and Gratian’s Decretum, by chapter or division numbers only. Malory is cited simply as Malory, since there is some dispute over the title and number of his work(s). I have used the Loeb translations, where available, for classical and patristic texts, though I have sometimes modified them where they seem too old-fashioned or inaccurate. Translations of all other texts are my own unless otherwise indicated. Names I have generally preferred to use one standard spelling for proper names which appear in several texts in slightly different forms, though I sometimes give a variant form if it differs significantly from the standard (e.g. Gower’s Thaise for the Tarsia of the Historia Apollonii). The Anglicized forms of classical names are taken from standard reference works. A Note on Terminology It is striking how often incest is discussed or alluded to by modern historians and literary critics, and yet they do not include an entry under incest in the index.