THE FABLIAUX AND THE NATURALISTIC TRADITION Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Laughlin, Virginia Lillian, 1924- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 05:00:45 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/287924 INFORMATION TO USERS This dissertation was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. 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[Portions of Text in French] The University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1972 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan 0 1972 VIRGINIA LILLIAN LAUGHLIN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE FABLIAUX AND THE NATURALISTIC TRADITION ty Virginia Lillian Laughlin A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES WITH A MAJOR IN FRENCH In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 7 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Vlr^3 Lillian Lftllghl1 n entitled The Fabliaux and the Naturalistic TnwM-Mpn be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of Doctor of Ptrtlftfnphy % -h g /? 72- Dissertation DirectoryT7 ^T After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:*" - £• - /? ^t~2- f * " (V\ • ( fi. <S> Q—^ V ) \ ^ "1 T-. $ L T Z/wtL "To/!^ a, /972- This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. 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In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNEDi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT . v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION . ........ 1 2. THE CLASSIC DEFINITION OF THE FABLIAU 17 3. BEDIER AND NYKROGt A FALLACIOUS APPROACH TO THE FABLIAUX 23 Bedler's Theories 23 Nykrog's Theories 32 4. NATURALISM, THE NATURALISTIC TRADITION, AND THE FABLIAUX 43 5. LITERARY STUDY . 51 Le Fevre de Creell ................. 52 Plot Summary .... ••••••••• 52 Literary Criticism ... ••••• 53 Le Chevalier Qui Fist Sa Fame Confesse ....... 58 Plot Summary 58 Literary Criticism ............... 60 Lea Trols Dames Qui Troverent L'Ariel ........ 68 Plot Summary .................. 68 Literary Criticism •••••••••••••.. 72 Aloul ....... ••••••• 84 Plot Summary 84 Literary Criticism ••••••••• 88 6. THE TEXTS ................. 95 The Manuscript . 95 Le Fevre de Creell .»•••••• ••• 97 111 iv TABI£ OP CONTENTS—Continued. Page Le Chevalier Qui Fist Sa Fame Confesse ....... 105 Les Trols Dames Qui Troverent L'Anel 117 Aloul . 128 7. CONCLUSION ...... 167 8. TEXTUAL NOTES 173 Le Fevre de Creeil ... ••••••••• IT2* Le Chevalier Q.ul Fist Sa Fame Confesse ••••••» 177 Les Trols Dames Qui Troverent L'Anel .«•••••• 180 Aloul 184 LIST OF DEFERENCES 191 ABSTRACT The fabliaux ace a body of approximately 150 short humorous tales written in Old French octosyllabic couplets during the period from the very late twelfth century to the first third of the fourteenth century. Until the rise of interest in philological criticism in the last part of the nineteenth century, the fabliaux were largely ignored* With the new attention to Old French texts which manifested itself during the latter half of the last century, however, interest in the fabliaux increased. Anatole de Montaiglon and Gaston Raynaud, between 1872 and 1890, compiled all of the fabliaux and edited them in six volumes. This phenomenal work may have inspired Joseph Bedier to write what was to be considered the definitive work on the fabliaux: his elegant and scholarly Les Fabliaux: etudes de litterature populalre et d'histoire du Hoyen Age, published in 1893* Later scholarship was responsible for numerous articles and books on various thematic aspects of the fabliaux. There were a few editions of one or more texts. Generally, however, interest in the tales declined, and scholarly attention lagged. It was not until near the mid-twentieth century that a new curloBity appeared, partly, perhaps, because of a revival of scholarly interest in Chaucer's fabliaux. In 1957 Per Nykrog published his authoritative Les FaKHrmxi Studes d'hlstolre litt&raire et de styllstique mSdlevale, v vi Nykrog refuted Bedier*s theory of the fabliaux as a bourgeois genre And substituted his own: the fabliaux are a courtly genre. My study takes issue with both Bedier and Nykrog* maintaining that their approach is fallacious because they put the emphasis on the public and not on the texts. It shows that neither Bedier nor Nykrog could prove conclusively that the public was either predominantly courtly or bourgeois. I have investigated another approach, one which places the fabliaux in a medieval naturalistic tradition and stresses 6tyle as an expression of attitudes and an outlook on life. I have used an inductive approach to study four individual fabliaux, one at a time i and 1 reaffirm the need for this kind of inductive gathering of data in order to make valid judgments as to the nature of the fabliaux. Previous criticism had Insisted on assuming a stylistic unity without scientifically examining the evidence for such unity. As a basis for close study of the texts themselves, I have presented a new edition of the four Old French texts selected, using modern critical techniques. The fabliaux are not the artless creations of naive medieval minds they were sometimes said to be. The examination of the stylistic characteristics of each of the four fabliaux studied led me to conclude that the tales are, indeed, artful and indicative of a conscious dexterity. Finally, I have suggested the need for further work on each of the aspects exploredi editing the texts, the naturalistic tradition, and the narrative art. Such study will lead to a more accurate knowledge of the fabliaux and of the importance of their place la the life and letters of the Middle Ages* CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION "I am not the sort of fellow who can "be fed with the picture of a beefsteak, Lynn White, Jr. interprets this remark of Adelard of Bath, a very early twelfth-century scientist, as one of the first symptoms of the coming naturalism. Adelard had had enough, apparently, of symbols, hidden realities, Platonic idealism, and was ready for some realism he could sink his teeth into. White cites authorities who have concluded that, in art as well, the rediscovery of man and his world was not so much a product of the Italian Renaissance as it was of Gothic artists in the Netherlands and Prance. He mentions other theories^ which hold that, in art espe­ cially, the shift toward a modern naturalism (as opposed to the naturalism of the ancients) really began, not ih the fourteenth century, not even in the thirteenth, but rather about the middle of the twelfth.