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The Specular Heroine: Self-Creation Versus Silence in Le Pelerinage de Charlemagne and Erec et Enide Margaret Burrell Atfirstconsideration, it would appear unlikely that there should be a c o m m o n factor between the role of Charlemagne's queen in Le Pelerinage de Charlemagne and that of Enide, the heroine of Chretien de Troyes' romance Erec et Enide. Nevertheless, this paper wtil show that they are both 'specular' heroines, used by their husbands as a mirror to reflect the qualities which each husband needs to believe he possesses.1 The failure of each wife to play this specular role provides the catalyst for a series of adventures which have the ultimate consequence of elevating the husband's reputation at the expense of 1 The word 'speculum' and the function of mirrors is frequently used in medieval literature and in literary criticism. To give a complete bibliography of every occurrence would require more space than this article or even this journal could furnish. For the use of the mirror in different contexts, readers might consult A.M.F. Gunn, The Mirror of Love. A Reinterpretation of "The Romance of the Rose' (Lubbock,Texas: Texas Tec Press, 1952); M.L. Colish, The Mirror of Language: A Study in the Medieval Theory of Knowledge (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968); J.I. Wimsatt, Allegory and Mirror. Tradition and Structure in Midd English Literature (New York: Western Publishing Company, 1970); and L.R. Muir, Literature and Society in Medieval France: The Mirror and the Im 1100-1500, (London: Macmillan, 1985). P A R E R G O N ns 15.1 (July 1997) 84 Margaret Burrell his wife. Though this specular role is more evident in the portrayal of the Charlemagne's queen, it is really seen clearly only by comparison with the conduct of the female characters in Erec et Enide. The discussion wiU therefore start with Charlemagne's queen, compare her role with that of Enide and her cousin, and then conclude again with the queen. The 'specular' role of Charlemagne's queen has been overlooked by the critics. In an otherwise excellent analysis, the most recent editor of Le Pelerinage de Charlemagne, Anne Elizabeth Cobby, discusses the work in the context of its relationship to 'epic, romance and religious traditions',2 yet she does not fully grasp the enormity of the queen's offence. Despite constant reference to the existing body of scholarship on the work and the differing opinions about its purpose, she says tittle about the narrative function of the queen. In her fust chapter on the Pelerinage, Cobby situates the work within the expectations of the epic tradition and she explains the plot as 'a sequence of narrative ironies': The poem opens with a challenge to Charles's authority: his queen says she knows a king on w h o m the crown sits better than on Charles. She recants, but he sets offnonetheless to find this king, H u g o of Constantinople, teUing his m e n they are going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. At the conclusion of her explanation of the plot, she says: Charles's victory is formally recognised in a procession in which the authority he has travelled so far to establish is reduced to physical superiority for he is seen to be taller than Hugo; he has proved the queen wrong but at the cost of a Pyrrhic victory for his dignity. Finally the Franks return home and Charles forgives the queen. The chief irony running through the narrative is thus a constant 2 Anne Elizabeth Cobby, Ambivalent Conventions. Formula and Parody in O French ('Faux Titre, 101'; Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1995), p. 82. 3 Cobby, p. 87. The Specular Heroine 85 shifting of power in ways we do not expect. The queen denigrates Charles, he asserts his power over her by threatening her.4 When Cobby comments on the setting of the opening scene, she emphasises the disparity between setting and dialogue: The formulae of public, regal discourse are applied to a private and domestic scene. The vainglorious words he utters completely destroy the atmosphere of dignity: [ . . . . ] The ensuing quarrel appears the more petty by contrast with...

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