A Medieval French Miscellany

UNIVERSITY, OF KANSAS,PUBLICATIONS Humanistic Studies, 42 A Medieval French Miscellany Papers of the 1970 Kansas Conference on Medieval French Literature Edited by Norris J. Lacy Lawrence : University of Kansas Publications, 1972 Copyright 1972 by the University of Kansas Printed in Lawrence, Kansas, XLS .A. by the University of Kansas Printing Service L.C.C.C. no. 72-75184 Contents Foreword Satan and Notre Dame : Characters in a Popular Scenario 1 MOSHÉ LAZAR The Farce Wife : Myth, Parody, and Caricature 15 ALAN E. KNIGHT Classes and Genres in Medieval Literature 27 PAUL ZUMTHOR South Welsh Geography and British History in the Perlesvaus 37 J. NEALE CARMAN "Li chastiaus ... Qu'Amors prist puis par ses esforz" : The Conclusion of Guillaume de Lorris' Rose 61 DOUGLAS KELLY Movement and Montage in Villon's Testament .. 79 NORRIS J. LACY Appendix : A Note on the Universality of the Testament 87 NORRIS J. LACY Foreword This volume of essays had its origin in a symposium on Medieval French Literature held October 8-10, 1970, at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. The symposium included the presentation and discussion of six papers, as well as a production of Lo Jutgamen general, a fifteenth-century Provencal Last Judgment play, directed by Professor Moshé Lazar. Contributors have had the opportunity to revise their papers as they wish for publication ; in substance, however, all the essays except that of Professor J. Neale Carman are printed as they were read at Lawrence. The article which Professor Carman offers here is a substitution for his paper "The Patrons and Planners of the Pseudo-Map Cycle," which is included in a longer work, not yet published, "On the Historico-Geographic Background of the Pseudo-Map Cycle of Arthurian Romance." The lack of a specific, unifying theme for the conference and for this collection did not seem to us to constitute a serious problem ; on the contrary, we welcomed the diversity of subjects and critical approaches. This volume is then a kind of recueil factice, in which the contributors have been left free to develop the subjects which interested them according to methods which were theirs. It is to be hoped that variety is also the spice of scholarship. I am happy to acknowledge my debt to the following persons for their aid and advice in the planning of the symposium or the production of this volume : Professor J. Theodore Johnson, Jr., who at the time of the sym• posium was Chairman of the Department of French and Italian ; Mr. James Nabors, of the University's Division of Continuing Education ; Miss Alexandra Mason, Special Collections Librarian ; my colleagues on the conference committee : Professors Barbara Craig and David Dinneen, Mrs. Caroline Pensée, Mr. Gregg Lacy, and Mr. Walter Robson ; Professor Edward Ruhe, Mr. James Helyar and the members of the Humanistic Series editorial committee. NJL Satan and Notre Dame : Characters in a Popular Scenario MOSHÉ LAZAR The following study treats two stereotyped characters, Satan and Notre Dame, who give to the poetry and the drama in which they evolve a par• ticular orientation, immediately recognizable to its readers and spectators.1 These antagonists possess, independent of the text which gives them being and animates them as conflicting characters, a sharply defined identity and permanent attributes. In many ways, they resemble the masks of early comedy or of the "commedia dell'arte": if they are transformed and enriched in the course of generations, it is within the framework of certain fixed structures. Their authors scarcely need to invent original stories and biographies in order to make them appealing and interesting to the public. The audience's awareness of their attributes and their possibilities make it unnecessary for the poets and dramatists to overturn the traditional structures of the basic scenario and of the customary outcome; the spec• tators require a simple variation, which still permits them to enjoy at each new spectacle the same elementary pleasure of seeing one of the characters win the game and the other lose it; the fact that there is never any question about who will win or lose detracts not at all from the quality of the presentation and the intensity of the audience's participation. What is important is not the scenario itself but the way it is worked out and played ; attention and admiration depend less on the what than on the how. Nor is it necessary to explain the characters' antecedents or to present in detail the situation in which the antagonists confront each other ; by the very fact of meeting in the same story or on the same stage, Satan and Notre Dame create a situation which is immediately comprehensible : the opposition of good and evil forces, with the victory of one and the defeat of the other predictable even before the conflict between them begins. Although the outcome is apparent from the beginning, the spectacle retains all its meaning and interest while developing its initial premises. The relationship which exists between these two characters and the pre-established scenario (somewhat similar to that which exists between the tragic hero and his fate) not only permits the good character to benefit from supernatural aid to overcome obstacles but moreover imparts to the acts and words of the evil one—whose defeat is always present in silhouette—a dimension which, without being necessarily tragic, is not lacking in irony. The basic scenario includes, moreover, other elementary premises : a) the good character, that is, the future winner, should be imbued with all the virtues, must never find himself lacking in physical resources or arguments, should be sympathetic ; b) the evil one, who will eventually be defeated, must be depraved and despicable, powerful and cunning, antipathetic or, failing that, capable of inspiring a disconcerting sympathy, vain and 1 A Medieval French Miscellany blustering, to the point of resembling a miles gloriosus ; c) the more the evil character is presented as strong and crafty, the greater will be his opponent's victory and the more ludicrous will be his own defeat;2 d) "might makes right": even when right is not on the side of the good character, the latter must triumph ; thus the end justifies the means ; e) "the deceiver deceived": wiles and low blows are permitted for the one destined to defeat the enemy ; if the latter succeeds in deceiving others for a time (as do Satan and the Antichrist) he is masterfully duped in his own turn ; f) "crime does not pay/' or the moral of the story: the victory of the good character over the evil one, while inevitable, contributes to the didactic infrastructure of the story or drama in two ways : it teaches that every sinner can be saved if he has faith in the representative of Good and, on the other hand, that one cannot serve two masters ; it teaches also that if the service rendered to the evil master can offer certain pleasures and advantages, they are entirely ephemeral and bring about the death of the servant's body and soul on Judgment Day. It is in the context of these general considerations that we wish to study Satan and Notre Dame, two characters in a didactic scenario which must have enraptured the medieval public in the same way that scenarios of an identical type (essentially based on the opposition between hero and traitor, virtue and vice, sheriff and gangster) have always fascinated the masses and retain their popular appeal even today. The important place which Satan and Notre Dame, as representatives of a supernatural world, hold in the theology and the minds of the Middle Ages intensifies the role they play as dramatic characters of a Miracle or Mystery play. They appear as the ar• chetypes of Good and Evil in the traditional scenario which opposes the servants of the law and the outlaws. On the model of Jesus mediator and conqueror of Hell, the theology and the mariological cult of the Middle Ages fashioned the omnipotent role of Mary as mater mediatrix and as conqueror of Satan.3 The poetic and dramatic "Miracles" in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries show Notre Dame essentially occupied in combatting the Devil in order to save from his clutches those who, by choice or by force, have abandoned her service for that of the Evil One. Sometimes she saves them in spite of themselves, but in most cases she comes to their aid when they implore her after recognizing* their sins or when they are the innocent victims of Satan. Taking up the role of Jesus in the struggle against the Prince of Darkness, Mary finds Satan, the right arm of Lucifer, on a level with her. Both Mary and Satan, being "nearer," "more familiar," and "more human" than God and Lucifer, were better suited than their Masters to represent visually and dramatically the struggle between Good and Evil. Both are intermediaries. Moreover, they both have human delegates on earth : Mary has as ministers bishops, saints, and icons : Satan's ambassadors are Jews, rebels and temptations. Theatrically speaking, Mary intervenes as a dea ex machina : she puts an end to the adversary's actions, much to the spectators' joy at seeing the reward of the good character and the punishment of the bad, the total defeat Satan and Notre Dame: Characters in a Popular Scenario 3 of the Enemy. Before her arrival the interest of the public is sustained by the spectacular aspects of the play, the highly colored portrait of the sinner, the presentation of perverse actions, temptations, crimes, games, tavern scenes ; Mary's intervention is thus less scenic and spectacular than didactic, since the "entertainment" is more or less concluded by the time she arrives.

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