The Libro de Alexandre : medieval epic and Silver Latin PDF
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UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES NORTH CAROLINA STUDIES IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES Founder: URBAN TIGNER HOLMES Editor: MARIA A. SALGADO Distributed by: UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS CHAPEL HILL North Carolina 27515-2288 U.S.A. NORTH CAROLINA STUDIES IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES Number 245 THE LIBRO DE ALEXANDRE THE LIBRO DE ALEXANDRE MEDIEVAL EPIC AND SILVER LATIN BY CHARLES F. FRAKER CHAPEL HILL NORTH CAROLINA STUDIES IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES U.N.C. DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES 1 9 9 3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fraker, Charles F. The Libra de Alexandre: medieval epic and silver Latin I by Charles F. Fraker 187 p. em. -(North Carolina studies in the Romance languages and literatures; no. 245) Includes bibliographical references (p.). ISBN 0-8078-9249-1 1. Libra de Alexandre. 2. Epic poetry, Latin-History and criticism. 3. Lucan, 39-65. Pharsalia. 4. Rhetoric, Medieval. 5. Narration (Rhetoric) I. Title. II. Series. PQ641l.L32F73 1993 861'.1-dc20 92-56387 CIP © 1993. Department of Romance Languages. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ISBN 0-8078-9249-1 DEP6SITO LEGAL: V. 1.996-1993 I.S.B.N. 84-599-3308-3 ARTES GRAFICAS SoLER, S. A.-LA OLIVERETA, 28-46018 VALENCIA- 1993 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page FOREWORD········································································································· 9 I. THE LIBRO DE ALEXANDRE ITSELF ........................................................... 15 II. OVID, LUCAN AND OTHERS ....... ..... .. .. . . . . ....... ... . . . ......... ... .. . .. .. .. . . . . ... . . . . . ... . 71 Ill. }OSEPH OF EXETER AND GAUTIER OF CHATILLON .................................. 125 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................... 184 FOREWORD The study which follows is about the influence of Silver Latin poetry on the Libra de Alexandre. It grows out of three great inter ests of mine. The first, obviously enough, is the Libra itself. Genera tions of students at the University of Michigan have had to endure my manifestos in favor of that work. I have taught it and, more than once, have read it for pleasure, as one would a novel; I hope I am not alone on the latter score. The second interest is Lucan. Years ago, a colleague at Wesleyan, the late Tom Tashiro, expressed to me his own enthusiasm for the Pharsalia, but alas, it was not until I started to read and study the Primera cr6nica that I came to know that great poem first hand. The present book is certainly not an apology for Lucan, but were my powers equal to the project, I would gladly compose one. This most Shakespearean of ancient poems does not deserve the second-class status accorded it by neo classic critics and their heirs. We have all heard the tiresome recital: the Pharsalia is brilliant in parts, but uneven, the work of a poet of uncertain taste, too much given to bombast and rhetoric (we must remember that for some critics and readers rhetoric is a vice). My third enthusiasm is one which in some ways might better be kept secret. It is for narrative theory. I am reluctant to make a dis play of this interest for two reasons. First, quite simply, my reading of the literature is spotty. Long years since I did come to know something about Russian formalism, and I must insist that at vari ous times I have read Barthes, Genette and other theorists with at tention and respect. But for all of that, I remain a Sunday-supple ment student of narratology. In the remarks that follow I think I have saved myself from foolish utterance by keeping my analysis of narrative simple. My second reason for not wishing to highlight my interest in narrative theory is more complicated. My revered teacher 10 THE LIBRO DE ALEXANDRE Raimundo Lida used to say that a critical theory should be like a piece of scaffolding, expendible once the building is finished: the actual critical performance should stand by itself, and the theories and principles that made it possible should be kept hidden. Nowa days this all-wise rule is observed hardly at all, but I would like to be a partial holdout. I so wish especially because I mean the follow ing lines to be read as a learned essay, a study in philology. To put the matter less generally, I am designing my comments on the Alexandre and other texts in terms I imagine might be intelligible to their authors, as though the categories I drew upon to study their works might be something like the ones they used to compose them. If this is really what I am about, the fact that the whole pro ject might have been inspired by Tomachevsky, for example, should be of little interest to anyone. At the heart of this study is the belief that formal patterns in lit erature, devices of style, strategies of discourse, have a history, just as do themes, for example, or genres. To many this conviction may seem unremarkable. What is certain is that it is going to force large parts of this essay into a very special mold. Much of what follows is unquestionably going to be close reading, or practical criticism. But if indeed a large part of this study is given over to micro-analysis, that does not mean that my first aim is literary interpretation; my procedures are certainly not Spitzerian, passing from things local to things global, from the traits of style of the work to its total signif icance. This separates my work from that of other students of the Libra. Close readings of the Alexandre or of cuaderna via poetry generally are not numerous, and as I say, many in this vein are quite unlike mine in that they do aim at what could broadly be called in terpretation. Thus, Ian Michael's now classic work, The Treatment of Classical Material in the 'Libra de Alexandre', 1 and the admirable study by P. A. Bly and A. J. Deyermond on "The Use of Figura in the Libra de Alexandre" 2 are both essays in practical criticism which marshal details of their text in order to establish certain broad propositions about the nature and intention of the work as a whole. 1 Michael, Ian, The Treatment of Classical Material in the 'Libra de Alexandre' (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1970). 2 Bly, P. A., and Deyermond, A. D., "The Use of Figura in the Libro de Alexan dre," The Journal a/Medieval and Renaissance Studies 2 (1972), pp. 151-181.
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