Lecture 2. Medieval courtly literature. Romance.

1. The historical context. Changes in society. Chivalric ideal.

2. Courtly literature. Poetry. Romance. The main groups of romances and their sources. The Arthurian cycle.

• Breton lays. Marie de France

• Sir Gawain and the Green knight

• Sir Thomas Malory. Morte d’Arthur.

1. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 provides a very convenient landmark for a historian, because it divides England’s political, social, cultural history almost too neatly. The conquest imposed a French-speaking ruling caste on England with the result that Anglo-French developed as a literary language of the highest social classes, and Anglo-Saxon was for a period relegated to lower classes.

For over two centuries the literature produced under aristocratic patronage was French both in language and in tone, while literature in English was either rough and popular (most of it oral, and so lost), or simply didactic, written by the lower clergy with the object of instructing the common people in biblical story and duties required by their religion.

But in fact the twelfth century was a turning point in the social and cultural history of the whole continent of West Europe. The heroic age was gone, and new Europe had established itself as a Christian civilization and a feudal socity. The Norman conquest of England had only stimulated and accelerated the process of social division, and made it worse by introducing language barriers.

Like France, English society adopted the feudal system and there was strict distinction between classes. Medieval ideology recognized the existence of three classes: those who fight; those who preach (the clergy), and those who work (peasants). In fact the compositional structure of society was, of course, more complex, but clearly the majority of people were serfs who worked the land that belonged to a powerful aristocratic class. Monarchs sought support of nobles and gathered the nobility around them displaying the wealth and power of their courts.

The ruling caste was getting more aristocratic, and developed a new taste for luxury. Royal courts all over Europe developed into displays of grandeur and sophisticated tastes, where poets ( integral members of the court) might write of the virtues of the sovereign and celebrate the beauties and loves of the noble courtly ladies. There appeared a new code of conduct that emphasized the sharp distinction between them and the lower classes, whose life changed in a far lesser degree.

The new idea, which like cement held together the whole structure of the feudal society, was that of chivalry.

A knight was simply a mounted warrior, but the attitude to war changed dramatically. Now he had to disguise his aggressiveness by Christian love and ideals: he could only fight for some fair course – for justice, honour, his lady, or his Christian Church. The typical chivalric virtues were valour, honour, piety, and generosity.

The chivalric ideal was the power that shaped the literature of the period, especially that of the ruling caste.

The leading poetic form that replaced the heroic epic was the romance of chivalry, so that the whole age is sometimes referred to as The Age of Romance.

Much Romance poetry was composed in French (Anglo-Norman) for Anglo-Norman patrons, and much of this Francophone literary activity was centered at the court of Henry II (himself a French-speaker). An important influence was his wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (mid- to late 12^th century), who spread the culture of troubadours of Provence to Britain. She exercised her patronage in favor of the new kind of poetry, which linked the elevated view of sexual love with stories of legendary king Arthur and his knights. Literature was gradually becoming more interested in the problems of personality, the person’s psychology, intimate life.

The new concern with love recognized a parallel between the feudal service of a knight to his liege lord and the service of a lover to an adored and honored lady. Whether or not this cultivated literary pattern was based on courtly reality is much disputed. But the fact is that the twelfth century began to place a new emphasis on the dignity of women in what remained a male-dominated society.

Romance

The word ‘romance’ is derived from Latin (romanice) and means ‘in the Romanic (romance) language”. Originally it was a fictitious tale in verse, based on legend, chivalric love, adventure and the supernatural. Later there appeared prose romances.

Thus, the term ‘romance’ is used to describe a literary work of an epic character, a narrative of adventure, following a hero through the successive episodes of a quest toward his chosen goal. They usually had a complicated plot, very often several parallel or intertwining plots, an abundance of characters, and a strong fantastic or supernatural element. Medieval romances were usually centered on the idea of young selfless love in a more or less elevated sense, told of incredible adventures and military exploits. They were also quite long – some over 30 or even 40 thousand lines; their authors seldom possessed the sense of proportion or artistic intuition, but were definitely verbose.

The medieval romance was extremely far from reality in any sense. The characters were flat and principally served to illustrate a moral point or personify a quality. Their aim was to propagate high chivalric ideals, to teach a moral lesson, but also to entertain the reader; they had an interesting story to tell.

Most romances were written in France. English romances are heavily dependent on their French models. The English look to French for instructions in good manners and the kind of literature that belong properly to a court.

The Sources :

1. The Latin Christian tradition constituted the moral basis of the genre. Also a rich source of motifs, both biblical and purely literary.

2. Folk legends, especially Celtic.

3. Byzantine culture.

4. Antique Greco-Roman heritage

The Breton cycle. Romances of the Breton cycle derived their subject matter from Celtic folk legends, many of which were connected with the figure of the legendary king Arthur. The Arthurian cycle comes from the Celtic oral tradition. King Arthur emerged as the type and mirror of all Christian kings. His fabled court became the centre of chivalric enterprise.

Those legends could have reached France by two major ways: oral – through Celtic singers and minstrels; and written – by way of legendary chronicles (Geoffrey of Monmouth Historia Regum Britanniae). The romances of this cycle were very numerous, different in their style and subject matter, and can be classified as:

1. Breton Lays (lais)

2. The group of stories about Tristram and Isoud

3. Arthurian romances proper

4. The group of stories about the Holy Grail.

Breton Lays (lais) an important genre of English medieval literature, short stories in rhyme. English examples include Sir Orfeo, Emare. Chaucer used a popular lay for Franklin’s tale.

Marie De France (1160-90) was an influential French poet who made a particularly impressive literary capital out of courtly love. She wrote 12 lays, most dealing with encounters of knights and ladies in a world formed by both chivalrous action and supernatural influence. She borrowed her plots from folk songs and legends and adapted them to the ideas of contemporary reality – chivalric in the first place. Marie is not interested in the courtly life, heroic exploits, but in genuine human emotion. Her poetry is rather melancholy.