Musique Naturelle and Cerdd Dafod: An Exploration of Sound Poetics in the Fourteenth Century The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Furchtgott, Deborah. 2019. Musique Naturelle and Cerdd Dafod: An Exploration of Sound Poetics in the Fourteenth Century. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42029510 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Musique Naturelle and Cerdd Dafod: An Exploration of Sound Poetics in the Fourteenth Century Deborah Furchtgott May 2019 © 2019 - Deborah Rachel Furchtgott All rights reserved iii Dissertation Advisor: Catherine McKenna Deborah Furchtgott “Musique Naturelle and Cerdd Dafod: An Exploration of Sound Poetics in the Fourteenth Century” Abstract This dissertation studies the development of interest in sound in poetry in a variety of texts dating from the fourteenth century in Wales and France. It examines these texts in two parts: first, the development of attitudes towards poetry in treatises about poetry from Wales and France, and, second, the development of poetics of sound in the poetry itself. I begin my dissertation looking at the Welsh grammar from the fourteenth century, and I argue that, in their attention to syllables and diphthongs, poetic faults, and rhyme, they betray an implicit interest in the building blocks of sound that go into making poetry. I compare this interest with the rhetorical tradition represented by the thirteenth-century Poetria nova of Geoffrey de Vinsauf, which considers the subject of sound in poetry from the perspective of elocutio (delivery). I next consider the Art de dictier, composed in 1392 by Eustache Deschamps, only a few decades after the probable original composition of the Welsh grammar. The Art de dictier opens with a brief account of the seven liberal arts, and focuses in on musique, which it divides into two parts: musique artificielle (instrumental music) and musique naturelle (poetry). Deschamps sets poetry above instrumental music, because only one whose heart naturally inclines to it can learn to compose it. I argue that all of these treatises show an interest in the sounds used in the composition of poetry, and, in particular, that Deschamps makes this interest in sound explicit, putting into clear words the implicit interest of the Welsh grammarians. I then turn to fourteenth-century poetry to prove that this interest in sound wasn’t merely theoretical, but was exhibited in practice, too. I first argue in my reading of Deschamps’ poetry that his use iv of sound was both extraordinary and tactical: that it could support, overwhelm, or subvert the plain meaning of the text, depending on his desired outcome. Finally, I read the poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym to demonstrate that in Welsh poetry of the same period, poets were using similarly extraordinary poetics to ornament their poetry and inform the sense of it, thus creating a Welsh equivalent to the French musique naturelle. The main argument of my dissertation is that in both France and Wales in the fourteenth century, a growing interest in the sound of poetry is discernible, both in the poetic treatises surrounding poetry and in the poetry itself. Both traditions experience a burgeoning of musique naturelle, and both manifest that in a flowering of sonorous verse. Thus, the name musique naturelle might have a very specific locus in one French poet’s treatise, but it has implications that resonate far beyond it. v This dissertation is dedicated to Nerrida Kogitz with thanks for her love and encouragement. vi Acknowledgments I wish, first, to thank Harvard University for its financial support, and, in particular, Dr. Elizabeth Gray and the Friends of Harvard Celtic Studies. Second, I owe a huge debt of thanks to my advisor and the members of my committee: Catherine McKenna, Virginie Greene, and Ann Matonis have provided countless readings, revisions, and thoughtful comments at various stages throughout the writing of this dissertation, and without their support and readings of my readings, there would be no dissertation at all. For their thoughtful and kind contributions on the subject of the rhetoricians and the artes poetriae, I thank Jan Ziolkowski and Nicholas Watson, neither of whom was in any way obligated to give me of their time, and both of whom were incredibly generous to me. For her expertise on Gramadeg Gwysanau, I thank Ann Parry Owen, who was likewise generous with her time. I also owe many thanks to my colleagues. I single out in no particular order Sarah Zeiser, who first brought me to visit Harvard; my cohort and friend Matthew Holmberg; all those who gave me support in the form of various coffees and pep talks over the years: Kassandra Conley, Natasha Sumner, Georgia Henley, Joey McMullen, among others. For his substantive and insightful discussions regarding Dafydd ap Gwilym I thank L. A. Brannelly, and for reading Chapter 1 of this dissertation and offering thoughtful suggestions, I thank Michaela Jacques. For their constant support and kindness, I thank my parents, Marjorie and Andrew Gann. For his copyediting prowess I thank my brother-in-law, Godfrey Furchtgott. For his unflagging interest, for putting up with everything a dissertation entails, and for reading countless drafts of all of these chapters and trying his best to pronounce the Welsh properly, I thank my husband, vii Leon Furchtgott. For her sweetness and for cheering me up no matter how my work went that day, I thank my daughter, Alice Freda Furchtgott. I even thank my cats, for not distracting me too much while I worked. Lastly, there were times when I was tired and it was hard to hear the musique naturelle. Sometimes I needed a little musique artificielle to stimulate my brain back to work on poetry. For that, I thank Dame Joan Sutherland and Sigiswald Kuijken, who never let me down. viii Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...iii Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………………v Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………………….vi Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………..viii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1— Fourteenth-Century Welsh Poetic Thought: The Grammars and Grammarians...…14 Chapter 2— Fourteenth-Century Welsh Poetic Thought in the European Context……………...63 Chapter 3— Practical Sound-Play: Musique Naturelle in the Oeuvre of Eustache Deschamps.118 Chapter 4— Cynghanedd and Musique de Bouche: Musique Naturelle in the Oeuvre of Dafydd ap Gwilym………………………………………………………………………………………164 Envoy…..……………………………………………………………………………………….217 Appendix A….………………………………………………………………………………….223 Appendix B……………………………………………………………………………………..243 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………….244 1 Introduction De la musique avant toute chose, Et pour cela préfère l’Impair Plus vague et plus soluble dans l’air, Sans rien en lui qui pèse ou qui pose. Il faut aussi que tu n’ailles point Choisir tes mots sans quelque méprise : Rien de plus cher que la chanson grise Ou l’Indécis au Précis se joint. Verlaine, “Art poétique,” ll. 1-8. It may seem odd to begin a dissertation regarding fourteenth-century poetry in Wales and France with a citation from a nineteenth-century French poem. But Verlaine’s equation of music with poetry brings to mind two literary traditions of the fourteenth century which form the foundations of this dissertation. First, and most clearly, there is the Art de dictier of Eustache Deschamps, in which Deschamps names poetry a musique naturelle, which he considers of a higher order than musique artificielle, instrumental music.1Second, less clearly, but no less potently, there are the terms describing music and poetry in Wales. Cerdd dant (instrumental music) and cerdd dafod (poetry) are both formed on the word cerdd, which means both song and poem, and cynghanedd, the system of alliteration and internal rhyme which flourishes in the fourteenth century, literally means “harmony.” Verlaine’s poem “Art poétique” fits beautifully into the argument of my dissertation, which centres on the art of poetry. It is so relevant, in fact, that I contend it could not have been 1 The full text of this passage will be found below, or in Eustache Deschamps, L’Art de dictier, trans. Deborah Sinnreich-Levi, East Lansing, 1994, pp. 61-5. 2 written without the advent of musique naturelle in the fourteenth century which is the subject of this dissertation. Prior to the fourteenth century, lyric poetry in France and Wales was inextricably tied to music: it was performed publicly to musical accompaniment and written with music in mind. Lyric poetry read privately was simply not a concept then as it is now. Today, some critics contend for the value of reading poetry aloud in order to appreciate the ineffable auditory value of the verse2; prior to the fourteenth century, the idea of reading a poem silently, or even hearing it aloud without music in a court or public setting, was not understood. The consequence is that readers today may not necessarily appreciate the transition which occurred in the fourteenth century from public, musical performance to private, intimate reading.3 The fourteenth century sees the first appearance of Middle French lyric texts not set to music; while Guillaume de Machaut wrote lyric poetry with and without music, the next generation of poets, including Eustache Deschamps and Jean Froissart, only wrote poetry unaccompanied by music.4 Eustache Deschamps’ declaration that poetry is musique naturelle underscores that in the fourteenth century, poetry shifts from being performed musically to being a musical art in its own right. 2 Angela Leighton Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature, Cambridge: the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019, p. 48. 3 For the general historical trend towards private reading, see Paul Saenger, Space Between Words, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.