French Romance of the Later Middle Ages: Gender, Morality, and Desire (review)

In this welcome study, Rosalind Brown-Grant scrutinizes fifteen prose romances written after 1390, many of them commissioned by the court of Burgundy, all of them initially produced for aristocratic audiences. She excludes Arthurian romances, Perceforest, Mélusine, and Jehan de Saintré, among other works, limiting herself to what she calls "historico-realist romances" that were produced in the "moralizing" climate of late medieval Burgundy. Brown-Grant's thoughtful analyses offer a real service for scholars seeking greater familiarity with these important but rather neglected works. I count myself among those who cannot claim to have read all the romances analyzed here, some of which have only recently been published in modern editions or are difficult to access.

In Chapter 1, " 'Recit d'armes et/ou d'amour': Love, Prowess, and Chivalric Masculinity," Brown-Grant examines seven tales of innamoramento, in which a young knight proves his valor before a high-born woman: Ponthus et Sidoine, Cleriadus et Meliadice, Rambaux de Frise, Blancandin, Jehan d'Avennes, Gilles de Chin, and Olivier de Castille. These romances, she argues, focus less on heterosexual love than did their literary predecessors, instead highlighting friendships with other knights, politically expedient marriages, and military prowess channeled for the common good, "la chose publique." Brown-Grant locates similar values in contemporary manuals of chivalry and chivalric biographies, such as Ramon Llull's Livre de l'ordre de chevalerie, Geoffroi de Charny's Livre de chevalerie, Jean de Bueil's Le Jouvencel, the biographies of Boucicaut and Lalaing, and Ghillebert de Lannoy's Instruction d'un jeune prince and Enseignement paternels. Although the manuals of chivalry express a variety of attitudes toward love, ranging from the "positively laudatory" in de Charny to the "downright hostile" in de Lannoy (29), Brown-Grant notes that they share common views on the importance of knighthood as a cornerstone of the social good and that these ideals are echoed in their romance counterparts.

In Chapter 2, "Youthful Folly in Boys and Girls: Idyllic Romance and the Perils of Adolescence in Pierre de Provence and Paris et Vienne," Brown-Grant compares the representation of adolescence in these later medieval romances with its treatment in earlier "idyllic romances" such as Floire et Blanchefleur and Galeran de Bretagne. Whereas the earlier romances idealize youthful passion, the later romances stress the dangers that young people's headstrong emotions and strong physical urges can have on their families' well-laid plans for marriage and social ascension. As in Chapter 1, Brown-Grant sets these late medieval texts in the context of contemporary didactic writings, in this case treatises such as Aldobrandino of Siena's Régime du corps, Henri de Gauchi's French translation of Giles of Rome's De Regimine principum, Philippe de Novare's Des quatre tens de d'aage d'ome, and the writings of Christine de Pizan—works that underscore the disruptive nature of youthful passions and the importance of parental authority.

Chapter 3, "Husbands and Wives in Marital Romance: The Trials of Male Adultery, Bigamy, and Repudiation," demonstrates the influence of late medieval clerical writings about marriage on selected romances. Following Duby, Brown-Grant describes the contrast between an "aristocratic" model viewing marriage principally as a means of consolidating territory and power among noble families and an ecclesiastical or "clerical" model stressing the indissolubility of bonds, the consent of both partners, and the mutual obligations of respect and solace between husband and wife. In keeping with her insistence on the influence of late medieval didactic tracts, Brown-Grant maintains that certain late medieval romances reflect clerical rather than aristocratic ideals as they examine male behavior in marriage.

One might argue that earlier medieval romances also frequently reflect clerical values and scrutinize conjugal relationships. For example, Tristan's Thomas presents a rather "clerkly" critique of passionate love, and the later volumes of the Lancelot-Grail go even further in condemning adultery. The husband's behavior could...