Womanly Noblesse and To Rosemounde: Point and Counterpoint of Chaucerian Love Lyrics

Womanly Noblesse and To Rosemounde: Point and Counterpoint of Chaucerian Love Lyrics Joerg 0. Fichte University ofTubingen Chauw's ly,ical poetry has often been ,eg,rded as conventional and traditional, being written in the French mode. 1 This definitely holds true for some shorter pieces, among them the balade Womanly Noblesse, a perfect example ofthe Continental love complaint transposed into English and designed to appeal to an audience steeped in the tradition of French courtly poetry. Beyond its appeal to a contemporary audience, poetry of this kind has anadditionalfunction: itfamiliarizesthe modern reader with the background against which Chaucer's own playful handling of tradi­ tional forms found in some of his poems is to be seen. Thus the balade Womanly Noblesse could be termed the point to which the balade To Rosemounde comprises the counterpoint. And an understanding of the interplay of the various levels in the presentation of the theme and its treatment, i.e., the relationship ofsyntax and vocabulary, ofimagery and rhetoric, and ofinternal and external form, in one poem enables the reader to appreciate Chaucer's manipulation of these elements in the other. Womanly Noblesse is bracketed by two lines expressing a recurrent idea in Continental courtly love poetry: the heart taking possession of the lady's beauty. Her beauty comes alive in the speaker's memory, where it is seen 1 F. N. Robinson, ed., The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2d ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957), p. 519. All citations of Chaucer are to this edition. Cf. also Arthur K. Moore, The SecularLyric in Middle English (Lexington: University ofKentucky Press, 1951), p. 125: "Within this tradition, first given prominence by Machaut and confirmed by Deschamps, the lyric spirit could not thrive; in his short poems Chaucer's genius shines feebly." James I. Wimsatt, "Guillaume de Machaut and Chaucer's Love Lyrics," M/E 47 (1978):66, 84-85. 181 RECONSTRUCTING CHAUCER with the inner eye, which conjures up an image as vivid as the live presence of the lady itself.2 Both "herte" and "remembraunce" point to the internal sphere of man, the heart being the true self, "the center of psychic and sensitive function" as opposed to the outward persona. 3 Love,fine amore,4 as conceived of in the courtly tradition comes into existence and flourishes in this internal sphere, an idea also expressed in Womanly Noblesse by the twice-repeated phrase "caught inremembraunce."5 Moreover, while at the beginning of the poem the heart as center of the speaker's being is cited especially, the pronoun Iused in line 31 suggests that at the end his whole personality has become subject to love. On the syntactical level we find a parallel development. In lines 1 and 2 the speaker is the subject, while the lady's beauty is the object. In line 5, however, there is a shift to an object­ subject structure "So wel me liketh your womanly contenaunce." By inverting the syntactical pattern, the poet indicates to what extent the lady's beauty has taken possession of him. He wants to and must serve her, an idea expressed by the twice-repeated adverbial clause of purpose in lines 4 and 7. In the end the structure appears to suggest that the poet has reassumed his original role as subject, but the participle construction starting with Thynkyng in line 31 indicates clearly that his personality is to be seen in reference to his lady. His independence is not real; rather, he exists solely in relation to her. 2 See Herbert Kolb, Der Begriff der Minne und das Entstehen der hofischen Lynk (Tiibingen: M. Niemeyer, 1958), p. 80. This apprehension of the beloved by the backward­ looking remembransa takes place beside the visio, the joyful visual beholding of the lady occurring in the presence and hercontemplation, the projection of her image into the future. Modes 1 and 3 are used in this poem, while mode 2, the visio motif, is taken up and parodied in the balade To Rosemounde. 3 MED, p. 705. See also Kolb, Der BegnffderMinne, p. 35, on the psychological process of inner recognition. 4 Fine amor in this context is meant to signify excellence of love, its essence...