Saint Patrick's Purgatory: a poem by Marie de France (review)

Reviews 165 which enabled Bronzino to create art which was both quintessential of his period and beyond it, an achievement which is hinted at in Vasari's estimation of him as a 'pittorefiorentinoveramente rarissimo'. Christopher Marshall Department of Fine Arts University of Melbourne Curley, Michael J., trans., Saint Patrick's Purgatory: a poem by Marie de France (Medieval and Renaissance texts and studies, Vol. 94) Binghamton, Medieval and Renaissancetextsand studies, 1993; cloth; pp. 178, R.R.P. US$20.00. This most useful book makes available again a text traditionally attributed to Marie de France, L'Espurgatoire Saint Patrice, competendy edited from the single manuscript (Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds francais 25407) by K. Warnke in 1938. It places it face to face with a literal but smooth translation into m o d e m English. Thus the volume fits in well with the avowed aim of the series, namely, to provide neededtexts,translations, and other major research tools. Throughout the world, and more particularly in Australia, university language departments are neglecting then traditional phUological and academic pursuits in favour of practical m o d e m language studies. Medieval scholars not conversant with medieval French will inevitably become more and more dependent upon such series as the M R T S to have access to the material intextssuch as St Patrick's Purgatory. Michael Curley is a professor of English and does not neglect to thank in his acknowledgements the 'anonymous referee' for his 'painstaking comments on the translation'. It is both accurate and, generally, quite readable. Although it is, by his own admission, not entirely from the pen of Curley, it is he who uses the introduction to canvass some important aspects of thetextand context of this fascinating medieval legend. One could take issue with Curley for accepting without question that a single author, Marie de France, did exist in the twelfth century and did write the Lais, the Fables, and the Espurgatoire. Several recent scholars of some note, at least since the publication in 1968 of Richard Baum's Recherches sur les oeuvres attribuies d Marie de France, have questioned that this should be accepted blindly as atenet,preferring, for example, to speak of the Lais of Harley M S 978, rather than the Lais of Marie de France. Curley has 166 Reviews chosen to ignore this controversy and simply accepts Marie de Jjranee as the author. In the course of the introduction (pp. 33-36), w e are shown how elements of style and attitude evident in the Espurgatoire can be paralleled in the Lais. Curley makes the pertinent point that Marie seems to have seen the protagonist's (Owen's) story as essentially a chivalric adventure, connecting it thus to stories found in lais such as Yonec and Guigemar. He is not, however, above the odd petitio principis, referring to the 'graceful octosyllabic couplets of the Espurgatoire' (p. 36), without having attempted to adduce and discuss beforehand samples of the Old French poet's versification. A most attractive feature of the introduction is the review Curley gives of the place of the Espurgatoire Saint Patrice in the context of other literature involving the otherwordly journey, stretching from Gilgamesh, through the works of Homer and Vergil,rightdown to Dante's Purgatorio. The history of the actual Irish site of Saint Patrick's purgatory, Lough Derg, is delineated, with many and detailed references, its vicissitudes being traced from Saint Patrick's time to the twentieth century. It is well-known that the Espurgatoire Saint Patrice is a translation of the Tractatus de purgatorio Sancti Patricii by the English Cistercian, Henry of Saltrey. The most interesting contribution Curley has made to our knowledge of the French text is expounded in his section 'The originality of Marie's Espurgatoire Seint Patriz''. He points out that a new audience ('la laie gent') is identified by the translator (Marie), who systematically modifies the detaUs of the tale and its telling to downplay the monastic slant to Owen's story as it is registered in the Tractatus. From this demonstration, and contrary to conclusions drawn by scholars who have previously studied the Espurgatoire in some depth (Warnke, Jenkins, Foulet, and Owen), Curley is led...