Honor, Debate, and Translatio imperii in Cligés

This article treats the subject of honor as it is debated in Chrétien’s romance. It deals in particular with the specific ways the topic can be evaluated, with an eye toward audience reaction and even discussion in the medieval court. The relation of honor to translatio imperii is also discussed.

(dk)

The prologue to Chrétien de Troyes’s Cligés concludes with the translatio imperii et studii commonplace that Chrétien interprets as the passage of chivalry and clergy (chevalerie and clergie) from Greece through Rome to France. Chrétien hopes that the honor (vss. 38–39)¹ will abide there forevermore and not pass away as happened with France’s two predecessors. Chivalry no doubt includes knighthood and chivalric and, indeed, courtly practice of that office.² Learning what clergy teaches fosters honor in the nation through books such as that Chrétien reports having found in Saint-Pierre de Beauvais.³ From this book he drew a tale about a Greek prince who went to Arthur’s court for the purpose of acquiring fame and renown, true signs of honor from the highest secular court in his time. In this way Chrétien upholds chivalry through clergy in France and, by doing so, he promotes honor in the nation where he wants earnestly to maintain it.

What is honor? A debatable issue in Cligés, the answer to which reveals the ethos of the romance and an important component of chevalerie and clergie. Enor, or honor in Old French, has a wider semantic range imbedded in the word than in modern French, a range that Chrétien’s audiences might readily recognize. The Glossary to our edition of Cligés contains a number of these meanings (pp. 346–47 s.v. ‘enor’): ‘honor,’ of course, in the abstract senses current today, but also ‘conduct necessary to lead an honorable life’ as well as ‘a domain transmissible as inheritance,’ a crucial issue in the relation between Alis and Cligés. For example, Fénice does not want to have a child by whom Cligés would be deprived ‘De l’enor qui soe doit estre’ (vs. 3171) [of the domain that is his by rights] and therefore be disinherited (vs. 3173).⁴ ‘Honor’ may also be conferred as a sign of respect or admiration; this act leads to fame and renown for acts deemed honorable.⁵ The word may also apply to acts that of and by themselves are dishonorable, if such acts are a response to dishonor in others. Cligés’s serf Jehan justifies his master’s abduction of Alis’s wife and her own deception of her husband because of the emperor’s own ‘desenor’: by marrying, Alis breaks his oath to his brother Alexandre not to marry so that Cligés might inherit the throne and the Greek enor after his uncle passes away (vss. 6548–59). This last example shows how Chrétien can negotiate issues of honor in order to uncover special or remarkable instances of the virtue in the midst of particular impediments that arise in narrative.

The romance Chrétien writes promotes chevalerie by recounting a Greek tale in which honor is at stake. The protagonists confront issues that they seek to resolve in honorable ways. The confrontation sparks debates between them and in their own minds and, indeed, with tradition within two prominent areas usually covered by chevalerie: the knight’s public duty to fight in just causes and the knight’s and lady’s private duty to love well. Such love—‘courtly’ love, experienced and lived at court—is both chivalric and noble; it should therefore promote honor. To achieve this goal requires that decisions be made following deliberation, with others and in one’s own mind, about honorable choices.

Recent interest in the debate mode in medieval literature naturally brings to mind Chrétien de Troyes’s contribution to the topic.⁶ Such debates are common in all Chrétien’s romances. Here I shall not treat the Alexandre-Soredamors and Cligés-Fénice parts in succession, as is customary...