Ogling Ladies: Scopophilia in Medieval German Literature

3. “The woman behind the wall”

3 “The woman behind the wall” H E I N R I C H V O N M E L K A N D D E R S T R I C K E R As we have seen in the previous chapters, some conduct writers take a critical stance toward the behavior of their contemporaries, while others condone generally accepted courtly conventions. Heinrich von Melk belongs to the former group. Like Hugo von Trimberg, Heinrich warns his readers of the dire consequences of improper and immoral conduct in his didactic morality poem Von des todes gehugde.1 Much like Hugo von Trimberg, Heinrich von Melk is chiefly concerned with the salvation of his readers’ souls. Heinrich specifically deplores the lifestyle choices of the ostentatiously immoral members of the privileged class; he practices “Ständekritik,” a biting condemnation of class-specific misbehavior. Neither Hugo nor Heinrich advocates a drastic change of the societal system as a whole, but each aims to improve the moral and ethical conduct of individuals and groups within the existing framework of authority. In light of the pious substance of their works, it is noteworthy that neither of these authors was directly employed or consecrated by the church; both were “freelance writers.” Their independence empowered them to emphatically include church leadership in their scathing critique of upper-class behavior. We do not know for certain when Heinrich was born, but it is assumed that it was in the twelfth century. His status was that of a “Laienbruder,” a lay brother, or “Nichtkleriker,” a non-cleric (Von des todes gehugde 160). 36 Ogling Ladies: Scopophilia in Medieval German Literature However, scholars are not even certain of his name; he is often referred to as “der sogenannte Heinrich von Melk” (the so-called Heinrich of Melk). Besides the fact that Heinrich’s broad thematic—heaven and hell—fit with the political and theological climate of around 1200, there are no definitive ties, connections, or evidence of reception that link his work to his supposed peers. I have chosen the example of Heinrich’s Mahnrede, or admonition speech, because Heinrich, like Hugo, addresses women and incorporates remarks on the female gaze into his argument, both as an example of inappropriate behavior and, more surprisingly, as a tool toward acquiring worldly and spiritual understanding. Just like Hugo’s text, Heinrich’s Mahnrede considers “hochvart,” also called “übermute”—pride—the worst of all sins: “der hohvertige man ist des tiuvels suon,” he proclaims (l. 302; The proud man is the son of the devil). Steeped in the ubiquitous misogyny of his time, the narrator asserts that the female sex is most susceptible to this temptation: “si reichsent almaeiste an den weiben” (l. 317; Women are most afflicted with it). A notable difference between Heinrich’s admonitions and the writings of Hugo von Trimberg (the Winsbeckin author) and Thomasin von Zerclaere is that Mahnrede appears to reject courtliness; the text does not call its readers or listeners to adhere to prevailing modes of behavior. Heinrich is, instead, nostalgic; he yearns for a return to the old ways when everything was better. In a laudatio temporis acti, he laments how people have grown more and more wicked with each generation. Heinrich’s sermon criticizes the status quo, which is further than ever removed from perfection. The text expresses sincere doubt that the contemporary social order corresponds to the Godgiven ordo: die reichen lebent mit schalle, die armen mit gesuche. daz vindet man andehaeinen buoche. (ll. 420–22) (The mighty are living high off the hog, while the poor are reduced to begging; this is not found in Scripture.) The narrator sincerely deplores the fact that the powerful are living in luxury while the poor are starving. He warns his listeners that such a system “The woman behind the wall”: Heinrich von Melk and Der Stricker 37 is not in alignment with the teaching of the church fathers. The narrator does not, however, advocate an overthrow of worldly authorities—far from it. If anything, he wants to strengthen the existent authorities and urges his listeners to obey them. Heinrich’s text is more akin to a sermon than to conduct literature, but in medieval writing the difference between the two is sometimes hard to discern. After all, genre categories were superimposed on the works in question much later, in the early nineteenth century. In the Middle Ages, texts were not inserted into...