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23 CHAPTER 1 Melusine “The Beauty Of Things Is Fleet And Swift” Variations of the story line and theme of Jean d’Arras’s deeply moving The Romance of Mélusine (1392 or 1393) date back to ancient times. Associations have been made between the French protagonist, Mélusine, and the Vedic heroine Urvasi, a beautiful and voluptuous Apsara, or heavenly nymph; the Japanese Shinto Toyo-tama, daughter of the sea god, married to Hoori, deity of the hunt; to Psyche, Eros’s wife, as depicted in Apuleius’s Golden Ass, and others. Be it in Jean d’Arras’s version of the Mélusine legend, or others appearing during the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and even prior to that time, couples who respected the pact into which they entered prior to their wedding were awarded joy, love, fulfillment, and prosperity. Violation of the contract cast misfortune and suffering on both. ECTYPAL ANALYSIS Duke Jean de Berry, count of Poitou and brother of Charles VI of France, ostensibly to amuse his sister, Marie, duchess of Bar, had commissioned Jean d’Arras to write The Romance of Mélusine (Nodot, Histoire de Mélusine vff.). In his prologue, the author cited a similar tale written in prose two centuries earlier by the monk Gervais of Tilbury (c. 1152–1234), first, a protégé of Henry II of England, then entering into the service of Otto IV of Brunswick. Mention must also be made of the rhymed octosyllabic version SP_KNA_ch01_019-060.qxd 10/8/02 4:03 PM Page 23 of The Romance of Mélusine composed by Coudrette in c. 1401 for Jean Larchevêque, lord of Parthenay. Poitiers, the ancient capital of the province of Poitou, was the seat of much of the action in Mélusine. A stronghold of orthodoxy under its first bishop, the fourth-century St. Hilary of Poitiers, the area was also known for its monasteries , Roman amphitheaters and baths, the baptistery of St. John (fourth to twelfth centuries), the Cathedral of St. Pierre (twelfth to fourteenth centuries), and the royal residence (twelfth to fifteenth centuries). Plundered by the Normans (ninth century), and twice by the English (1152–1204, 1360–1372), Poitiers was nonetheless as previously noted, the location of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s brilliant court. Indeed, certain critics maintain that Eleanor of Aquitaine had been the inspiration for Jean d’Arras’s protagonist, Mélusine. Some scholars whose names appear in the vast literature on Mélusine theorize that the tale was strictly of Poitevin origin; others, that it was of Scythian provenance, having been brought to the West by returning Crusaders . These maintain that Mélusine (or Mélisende) is to be identified with one of the daughters of Baudoin II, king of Jerusalem (Marchant, La Légende de Mélusine. Jean d’Arras vii). Jean d’Arras is divided into two parts: the first, focusing on Présine, and the second, on her daughter, Mélusine, the ancestress of the famed Lusignan family of Poitou. The stirring lives of these two hauntingly mysterious women veer from dream scheme to actuality, their earthly trajectories taking them from deeply forested areas to cleared terrains, from shadowy caves to mountainous heights and flat lands. Nor are the psyches or physical makeups of these two extraordinarily beautiful feminine figures clear cut. Présine, endowed with prescience, is blind to the realities of human nature. Like her mother, Mélusine is intuitive and provided with inner sight which, when subjectively motivated, dims her thinking principle, blinding her to otherwise evident truths. Unlike her mother—and most surprisingly—she takes on the form of a snake from her waist down, but only on Saturdays! Due to the changing status in love relationships, as has been mentioned , women were acquiring greater equality vis-à-vis their husbands. Both Présine and Mélusine in Arras’s The Romance of Mélusine (referred to henceforth as Mélusine) imposed ethical and social adjustments on their partners. Might their comportment be labeled intransigeant? Just as knights of old had to learn to curb their ardor for fighting, hunting, and for sexual matters in general, so increasing restrictions were foisted on husbands in Mélusine, heightening tension in these changing times. On occasion, both partners gained physical and spiritual support from each other, each cognizant of the love, feeling, and respect due them as individuals and as an ideal/real couple. At other moments, mercurial changeableness prevailed, with dire results! 24...

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