A New History of Medieval French Literature

Introduction

Introduction Medieval Literature? Does it make sense to write a history of the French literature of the Middle Ages? Strictly speaking, no. Meanings of words have changed, including that of the word littérature; in Old French, literature refers to Latin literature . This is the case for the oldest attested use of the term, which is found in Philippe de Thaon’s twelfth-century Bestiary, ll. 955–956, where we read, “Judeus literature/Tant entant d’escripture” (The Jew understands the letter of literature so well). Philippe’s point is to contrast literal meaning , escripture, with allegorical meaning. In other words, the Jew reads texts literally but does not understand their allegorical meaning. But the word surprised at least one scribe: another manuscript gives for line 955, “the traitorous Jew” (Judeus, li traiture), coming back to a commonplace that does not correspond to the context. The word literature does not seem to be used with the meaning that we give it today until the end of the Middle Ages, the very end. In his Séjour d’Honneur, composed between 1489 and 1494, Octovien de Saint-Gelais speaks of René of Anjou as an “expert poet, loving literature” (poëthe expert, aymant licterature). Given the prince’s tastes, licterature cannot possibly refer solely to the Classics here. However, in 1513 when Jean Lemaire de Belges, in his conclusion to Les Illustrations de Gaule et Singularitez de Troye, addresses his male readers as “noble men and experts in literature,” he is indeed still referring to the Classics. A second caveat is tied to the role that orality plays in the production of literature and in the way in which it is transmitted; not by written text but by voice. Must we then accept the practice of putting the phrase “medieval French literature” in quotations marks? No: a literary awareness did exist in the Middle Ages, as I intend to show in the following chapters. In so doing, I 1 2 a new history of medieval french literature shall also attempt to answer, indirectly and modestly, the ambitious question : “What is literature?” What place has been given to the Middle Ages in general literary histories since the turning point in historical criticism? Their place is not insignificant in Gustave de Lanson’s Histoire de la littérature française, the first edition of which, dated 1894, marks the beginning of the genre. But, in the case of the Middle Ages, it is in fact a question of judgments, mostly negative, that convey a series of a priori about broad categories: peoples or women, for example. Thus Chrétien de Troyes is a “man from Champagne who is sensible and happy to live . . . the man the least capable of understanding what he was recounting” (champenois avisé et content de vivre . . . l’homme le moins fait pour comprendre ce qu’il contait); Christine de Pizan, the first of an “intolerable lineage of womenauthors ” (insupportable lignée de femmes-auteurs). On the other hand, the Middle Ages are discussed by specialists in Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française des origines à 1900, published in 1896 under the direction of Louis Petit de Julleville. Two out of eight volumes, one fourth of the collection, are dedicated to the Middle Ages, and of the ten collaborators , six were students of Gaston Paris, the master in this field of study. The perspective is that of a history of genres, and this well-established approach endures. This will not be my choice of presentation insofar as the genre, thus conceived—lyricism, romance, theater—or more generally speaking: epic, lyric, dramatic, is a normative category that one could apply to all literature whatever its conditions of realization. Even if this approach facilitates description, it creates false problems and responds to questions that are not even asked. Closer to us, if we examine the various tendencies that have appeared in the history of medieval literature, two sizable trends can be discerned: the one followed by those, like Curtius, who work at showing a continuity, from Antiquity to the modern era; and the trend of those who, like Hans Robert Jauss, insist on the discontinuity and, consequently, on the otherness of the Middle Ages. The historical gap that separates us from the Middle Ages is obvious. But what can we do about it? Fill it in, by looking for what connects us to those centuries: tradition, memory? Glorify it, by making the Middle Ages into an anthropological object...