Proverbs in Medieval Occitan Literature (review)

Reviews 299 Pfeffer, Wendy, Proverbs in Medieval Occitan Literature, Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 1997; cloth; pp. x, 155; 11 b / w illustrations; R.R.P. US$49.95. Pfeffer's study of medieval Occitan proverbs is a most readable and attractively presented monograph which will give service not only to the specialist in medieval Provencal, but,also to those medievalists with more general interests in paroemiac literature and in medieval education. The importance of proverbs as a medium for teaching in the Middle Ages is a constant theme in this book, and specifically addressed on pages 25-26. Although it does offer in an appendix a list of 'Frequently cited proverbs in Occitan literature', Pfeffer's book does not claim to replace Eugen Cnyrim's classic Sprichworter, sprichworterliche Redensarten und Sentenzen bei den provenzalschen Lyrikern published at Marburg in 1888. The latter reference work, however, is frequently criticised by Pfeffer, although she continues to use the numbers the G e r m a n scholar attributed to each identified proverb. Important amendments and additions to Cnyrim's listed proverbs are suggested both in the notes and in the body of Pfeffer's text. Furthermore, Pfeffer has not limited herself to proverbs used by lyric poets. In her study she includes romances, such as the famous Flamenca (pp. 30-31), and also dedicates several excellent pages to the Canso de la crosada, the Song of the Albigensian Crusade, which had two separate authors, Guilhem de Tudela and his anonymous continuator (pp.92-100). In her exposition, Pfeffer has adopted a logical, chronological approach. In thefirstchapter, the author grapples with the problem of defining a proverb, and in so doing introduces concepts such as 'apothegm', 'commonplace'; 'proverbial allusion'; and 'proverbial remarks'. Then follows a most interesting and useful 300 Reviews chapter describing the literary and cultural milieu in which Old Provencal texts were produced. Brian Stock's influential The Implications ofLiteracy: Written Language and Models of Interpreta in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, Princeton, 1983, is heavily relied on here. The contribution of previous authors in the field of medieval proverb studies is also rehearsed in this section,with the work of Elisabeth Schulze-Busacker (Proverbes et expressions proverbiales dans la litterature narrative du moyen agefrancais: R et analyse, Paris, 1985) receiving special mention. Pfeffer argues for a literate audience which would not only have identified readily any proverb or allusion to a proverb in a literary text, but also would have expected the presence of such material. The author underlines the fact that Occitan authors insert proverbial material into their texts quite differently from their northern French counterparts. Chapters entitled 'The Early Poets', 'At the Midpoint in Troubadour Time' and 'Following the Crusade: the Later Poets' are the moulds into which Pfeffer pours her material on the use of proverbs in Old Provencal texts. In the course of these chapters, apposite and astute c o m m e n t s are m a d e on the poetry of troubadours from Guilhem de Peitieus and Marcabru, through Folquet de Marselha, Bertran de Born and Aimeric de Peguilhan to Amanieu de Sescars and Guiraut Riquier, the last mentioned being generally considered as 'the last of the troubadours'. When illustrative texts from these poets are cited, the most recent editions are used for the Occitan text, which the author then englishes for the benefit of her readers without a knowledge of Old Provenqal. Pfeffer writes clearly and often with a felicitous turn of phrase, to inform her reader of the various techniques troubadours used to instruct the medieval listener of the poetry by use of the 'concision and mnemonic ease of the proverb'. Reviews 301 There are two useful appendixes to Pfeffer's book. I have already mentioned one of these which lists frequently used proverbs in Occitan literature, using Cnyrim's numbers and giving useful cross-references (where appropriate) to Joseph Morawski's l i s t of northern French proverbs (Proverbesfrancais anterieurs au X siecle, 1925). The other appendix is m u c h shorter, but provides a comparison of the frequency of use of proverbs by the troubadours mentioned. The notes to the chapters are gathered together after...