POPULAR poetry was not always merely narrative; it was frequently didactic, or satiric, or without any very definite character, but tending towards what was known--for lack of any precise definition-as "Poésie légère" or "Poésie de circonstance." In the Middle Ages men liked both to learn and to teach, and then to put all that they knew and all that they desired to teach others into one volume. The poems thus writtenthey were hardly "composed" at all, but were mere compilations were called "Bibles." This title seems to have been given in order to show that they only contained facts. The "Bible" of Guyot de Provins begins with a declaration that it contains nothing false, but only what is fine, true, and honest. However honest they may have been, they were usually very satirical, very malicious, and, indeed, their only object seemed to be to speak evil of the whole world. The "Bible" of Guyot de Provins is a satire of universal application, but also specially directed against the Pope, the Cardinals, the higher clergy (the author was himself a monk), and he does not spare nuns, or monks, or princes, or lawyers, or doctors. He is the Rabelais of the thirteenth century, without Rabelais's talent, which makes all the difference. We have another "Bible" of the same style, though less satirical, by Hugues de Berzy. This little poem of 838 lines is a criticism of manners and a moral dissertation, penetrated with melancholy and delicate reflections on the vanity of false joys and the passions of the heart, and altogether is well worth study. More truly didactic is the "Image du Monde," by the scholar Gautier de Metz. The author deals with geography and cosmography in accordance with the ideas of the times. We also find in this work a eulogy on Virgil which shows a good deal of sound learning on the part of the author, and is, moreover, a proof of the immense popularity enjoyed by Virgil in the Middle Ages. There are also didactic poems which in intention, at least, are moral, such as the "Lais" (short romances in verse) and the "Fables" of Marie de France. Marie of France was thus named, not because she was a Princess of the Royal House— far from it--but because her name was Marie and she was a Frenchwoman, and she wrote in England (in the time of Henry III.) as follows :— "Au finement de cet écrit Qu'en roman ait tourné et dit, Me nommerai pour remembrance : We have fourteen "Lais" from her hand, and an "Ysopet," that is, a collection of fables imitated from Æsop (the majority only), consisting of 113 fables. These "Lais" have a great deal of freshness and charm about them; they are written in lines of eight syllables, with single rhymes. One of the sayings of Tristan to Yseult has become almost a proverb in our language. Tristan is comparing the love of himself and Yseult with the union which exists between the tree and the honeysuckle, and he says :— "Belle amie, si est de nous : Ni vous sans moi, ni moi sans vous." The fables are terse and restrained in style; they have served as the model for a whole crowd of subsequent "Ysopets," for which the Middle Ages had such a strong liking, and which no one nowadays dreams of reading since only one remains. There are the still more directly didactic MORAL MANUALS 57 works, such as the Solomon's Proverbs translated into French octosyllabics by Samson of Nanteuil in the twelfth century, and the religious poems of Hermann, Canon of Valenciennes, namely, "Vie de Tobie," "Joies de Notre-Dame," "Histoire de la Madeleine," "Mort de la Sainte Vierge." Throughout the Middle Ages there are to be found what may be called moral manuals, done in verse, which were known as "Castoiements"; it is believed that they were founded on the "Disciplina Clericalis" of Pierre Alphonse, a Portuguese Jew, who was converted to Christianity at the end of the eleventh century. The earliest were clearly intended for the use of clerics and monks; then, at a later date, their scope was enlarged, and we find in the thirteenth century the "Castoiement des Dames" by Robert of Blois, the pupil and protégé of Thibaut de Champagne. This great production, which consists of over ten thousand lines, is extremely interesting, owing to the detailed accounts it gives of contemporary manners and customs. This same Robert of Blois has written another poem which is a kind of educational romance it is called "Beaudous," and might be considered as a precursor of “Télémaque,” or at any rate of the "Petit Jehan de Saintre." We must not forgot to note that the thirteenth century saw the beginning of the compositions known as "Sermons rimés," which were at first quite serious works and so take a place among the didactic poems, but at a later date, growing less and less serious, less and less "edifying," they were transformed into the "Sermons joyeux " of the fifteenth century. We turn to the light poetry, or "poésies de circonstance," which had very various appellations in the Middle Ages, such as "Dits," "Disputes," "Disputaisons," "Batailles," "Legs," "Testaments," "Reveries," "Fatrasies," &c. Thus we read in Rutebeuf poems with such titles as: "This deals with the poverty of Rutebeuf," "This is the 'Complainte' of the King of Navarre," "Here begins the new 'Complainte' of OutreMer," "Here begins the Disputations' of don croisié et don décroisié" (and this "Disputation" is very fine). Rutebeuf, indeed, only just misses being a great poet, at least of his own times. His real name is unknown-Rutebeuf is evidently only a pseudonym. He was a native of Champagne and lived as a rule in Paris, where he existed on the jobs and alms dealt out to him by great lords. A “companion of Job," he is a kind of "first edition" of Villon: in the days of his fortune he had his friends, but, as he says "Ce sont amis que vente emporte ; Everything was a subject for rhyme with him, but he delighted above all in satiric anecdotes. Any insignificant event of Parisian life awakened his lively wit, and he expressed his thoughts in a bright, vigorous, and trenchant style. He has undoubtedly a style which is all his own, a very rare thing at this period, when style is, in a way, quite an impersonal thing. He was genuinely religious, moreover, and was capable of rising, at times, to really elevated heights, where he approaches eloquence. Moreover, he was a true patriot, and there is a note of unaccustomed gravity when he deals with national affairs. Marie-Joseph Chénier was quite right when he said, in a lecture delivered in 1806 at the Athenæum, "among the authors of the old Fabliaux [it is true he has written other kinds of poetry, but the "Dit d'Aristote" is one of the Fabliaux and is indisputably by him] Rutebeuf is undoubtedly preeminent." If one wishes to have a glimpse of his style, here are a few lines from his "Pharisian" (or the Hypocrite): they read like a first sketch of the "Faux Semblant" by Jean de Meung "Seigneur, qui Dieu devez aimer, En qui amour n'a rien d'amer, Par grand amour, Les trois jours qu'il y fit demeure; D'Ypocrisie, Cousine et sœur de Hérésie Qui bien a la terre saisie. 1 I have slightly modernised the text. POPULAR POETRY Tant est grand' dame Qu'elle en Enfer mettra maint âme, Moult on l'aime et la prise-t-on Nul peut avoir gloire ou guerdon (fortune) " 59 Most frequently these rhyming poems of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are mere humorous or jesting tales. For example, we have the "Bataille des vins," "Bataille et mariage des sept arts," "Bataille du vin et de l'eau," all full of details of contemporary manners and customs and consequently of the utmost value to the student of history. The "Testaments" or "Legs" are first found at the end of the thirteenth century, but we see a suggestion of this kind of composition in the "Congé aux habitants d'Arras," by Jean de la Halle. They are personal poems, in which the author, imagining himself dead, makes ironic bequests to a number of persons and goes on to foretell the fate of all his enemies and sometimes of friends. Briefly, it may be said that this form of literature of the Middle Ages corresponds to what we now call mémoires. Villon, by his brilliant treatment, has made this department of literature almost entirely his own. |