Ami and Amile: A Medieval Tale of Friendship, Translated from the Old French PDF
Preview Ami and Amile: A Medieval Tale of Friendship, Translated from the Old French
Ami and Amile STYLUS Studies in Medieval Culture Series Editors: Eugene Vance, University of Washington, Principal Editor R. Howard Bloch, Columbia University Caroline Walker Bynum, Columbia University Mary Carruthers, New York University Paul Dutton, Simon Frasier University Herbert Kessler, The Johns Hopkins University Seth Lerer, Stanford University Gabrielle Spiegel, The Johns Hopkins University Brian Stock, University of Toronto Mirabile Dictu: Representations of the Marvelous in Medieval and Renaissance Epic, by Douglas Biow Ami and Amile: A Medieval Tale of Friendship, Translated from the Old French, translated by Samuel N. Rosenberg and Samuel Danon This interdisciplinary series is devoted to that millennium of Western culture extending from the fall of Rome to the rise of Humanism that we call the Middle Ages. The series promotes scholarship based on the study of primary sources and artifacts within their social and discursive contexts. With its emphasis on cultural studies, the series favors research that considers how the psychological, ideological, and spiritual dimensions of the medieval world converge in expressions of individual experience and in perceptions of material events. Ami and Amile A Medieval Tale of Friendship Translated from the Old French by Samuel N. Rosenberg and Samuel Danon With a New Afterword by David Konstan Ann Arbor The University of Michigan Press Copyright © by the University of Michigan 1996 Originally published by French Literature Publications Company, © 1981 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America 0 Printed on acid-free paper 1999 1998 1997 1996 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A ClP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ami et Amile. English. Ami and Amile : a medieval tale of friendship / translated from the Old French by Samuel N. Rosenberg and Samuel Danon ; with a new afterword by David Konstan. p. cm. — (Stylus) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-472-09647-8 (cloth). — ISBN 0-472-06647-1 (pbk) 1. Knights and knighthood — Poetry. 2. Civilization, Medieval — Poetry. 3. Epic poetry, French. 4. Friendship — Poetry. 5. Chansons de geste. I. Danon, Samuel, 1937- II. Rosenberg, Samuel N. III. Title. IV. Series. PQ1425.A35E5 1997 841M—dc21 96-47708 CIP Nous nous cherchions avant que de nous estre veus, et par des rapports que nous oyions Vun de Vautre, qui faisoient en nostre affection plus d*effort que ne porte la raison des rapports, je croy par quelque ordonnance du ciel: nous nous embrassions par noz noms. Montaigne, Essais I, 28 Preface to the Michigan Edition Ami and Amile, whether in its original medieval French or in translation,* has attracted considerable interest since the time our English version was first published. A work of hybrid genre, both more than a chanson de geste and less, a hagiographie text devoid of saints, and a romance whose main protagonists are not lovers but friends, the poem is an object ready for scrutiny in today’s critical attempts to understand the developing forms of medieval narrative and their interconnections—to trace, in particular, the evolution of epic and its relation to tales centered more on personal than on public concerns. Though a work imbued with Christianity, it has both folkloric depths and a morality of transcendent personal allegiance that place it at odds with the orthodoxies of its time; such tensions fall within the purview of recent inquiries into the mentalités of the past. Inter est in the evolution of justice in the Middle Ages, in the ties of law to religion, like interest in the treatment of law in literature, is stimulated by a story that places at its core not only procedure and penalty but the very nature of transgression. The workings of the feudal polity, the médicosocial—and spiritual—problem of lep rosy, and the realities of crusading and pilgrimage are, likewise, aspects of Ami and Amile that coincide with contemporary scholarly interest. Two themes emerge with particular relevance to readers of our time, whether specialists in the Middle Ages or not: these are the status and behavior of women and the nature of male friendship. As the titles in our bibliography for 1977-1995 suggest, this barely dissociable pair of issues has occasioned much recent critical com ment and will no doubt remain a predominant focus of attention. The primacy of the companions’ friendship, however defined, not only displaces two strong female characters but raises the whole question of women’s roles in Old French narrative. The two issues *J. Dufournet, Ami et Amile, une chanson de geste de l'amitié (Paris: Champion, 1987), pp. 122-123, lists German, Japanese, and Spanish translations, along with our own into English and one into modern French. viii Ami and Amile obviously speak to our need in the late twentieth century for the clarification and redefinition of sociosexual identity. The legend of Ami and Amile was broadly known in the Mid dle Ages and even beyond. That it should enjoy a new wave of interest in our own period arises from its remarkable concentration of themes that, however alien in appearance, touch us deeply today. Contents Introduction ...................................................................................1 Translators’ Note .........................................................................23 Notes to Introduction...................................................................24 AMI AND AMILE .....................................................................29 Notes...........................................................................................131 Afterword ...................................................................................143 Bibliography, 1977-1995 157
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