The Romance of the Rose or Guillaume de Dole PDF
Preview The Romance of the Rose or Guillaume de Dole
The Romance ofthe Rose or Guillaume de Dole UniversityofPennsylvania Press MIDDLE AGES SERIES Edited by EdwardPeters HenryCharles LeaProfessor ofMedievalHistory UniversityofPennsylvania Alistingofthe available books inthe series appears atthe backofthis volume The of Romance the Rose or Guillaume de Dole by Jean Renart Translated, with an Introduction by Patricia Terry and Nancy Vine Durling UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress Philadelphia Copyright©1993bytheUniversityofPennsylvaniaPress Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDatatocome JeanRenart,12!I3thcent. [RomandelaRose. English] Theromanceoftherose,or,Guillaun1edeDole/byJean Renart;translated,withan introductionbyPatriciaTerryandNancyVineDurling. p. cm.- (MiddleAgesseries) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-8122-3111-2. - ISBN0-8122-1388-2(pbk.) I. Romances-TranslationsintoEnglish. I.Title: Romanceoftherose. II.Title: GuillaumedeDole. III.Series. PQI4-86.J7G8513 1993 84-1'.1-dc20 92-164-14- eIP Contents Acknowledgments Vll Introduction GuillaumedeDole 17 Notes 95 Appendix I 105 Appendix2 109 SelectedBibliography lIS IndexofHistorical Personages 117 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments We are particularlyhappytohavethisopportunitytothankJeanetteBeer, who introduced us to each other at the first Purdue Conference on Lan guages, Literatures, and Film in1989. She has provided agreatly appreci ated forum for stUdentsofmedieval translation, and for the translationof medievaltexts. Ourtranslation has greatly benefitedfrom the workofFrenchschol ars, chiefamongthemJean Dufournet. WewishtothankPatriciaStirnemannofthe BibliothequeNationale, Paris for hervaluable suggestions. Wewouldliketoexpressourappreciationto FloridaAtlanticUniver sity, which providedcourse relieffor ProfessorDurling. WewanttoexpressourappreciationtoRobertM. Durlingforhishelp withdiscordantcomputers. The translators are grateful to each otherfor long patience and for bearance, andto theirhusbands for the same. This page intentionally left blank Introduction A Preliminary Note Little is known ofthe early thirteenth-century writer Jean Renart. Only three works have been attributed to him with any degree ofcertainty: a romancecalledLJEscoufle(The[(ite),ashortnarrativepoemcalledLeLaide POmbre (TheReflection), andLeRomandelaRose (TheRomanceoftheRose, or,GuillaumedeDole).1DatesgivenforTheRomanceoftheRoserangefrom 1204-to 1228, although recent research hasofferedcompellingevidencefor the earlier date.2 Guillaume de Dole is a subtitle added by a seventeenth centurycriticinordertoavoidconfusionwiththebetterknownRomanceof theRosewritten byGuillaume de Lorris ca. 1225 andcompletedbyJeande Meun ca. 1270.3 The term "romance" refers to a type ofnarrative made popular in France in the early twelfth century with the development ofvernacular literature. The first writers ofromance borrowed themes and characters from classical antiquity; to these they added vivid descriptions of love relationships, reflecting contemporary enthusiasm for the work ofOvid, and drawing on the nascent literature of the southern love poets, the troubadours.4Twelfth-centuryromanceswerewritteninoctosyllabiccou plets, which remained the normal medium for fictional narratives until literary prose developed in the thirteenth century. The most celebrated writer ofmedieval romance, Chretien de Troyes (flourished 1165-1190), replaced Greece and Rome with the courtofKingArthur. His successor, JeanRenart,preferredvividlydepictedrealisticsettings,anorientationthat came to dominate later romances. These later, "realistic" romances richly convey the details of everyday life in the early thirteenth century. Jean Renart is arguably the most accomplished practitioner of this type of romance. Jean Renart himself does not hesitate to make large claims for his works.GuillaumedeDoleinparticularshowsanoteworthyprideofauthor ship. Inhisprefacehelaysclaimtoastrikinginnovation: hewillincludein thestoryaconsiderablenumberoflyricpoems,someoftheminformaland 2 Introduction anonymous, others bywell-known troubadours and trouveres, poets from northernFrance. Hiswork,heclaims,willbesoskillfullyexecutedthatthe readerwillthinkthattheauthorhimselfhascomposedthepoemstofitthe fictional occasion. Jean Renart's workis indeedthefirst extantexampleof the combined use ofnarrative and lyric in French; as such, it has beenof particularinteresttohistoriansofmusic.5Awidevarietyofmusicalgenres are represented, ranging from the chansons de toile, or spinning songs, to courtlylyrics. Musical notation for the songs is not, however, included in the singleextantmanuscript ofthe work, which usuallygives onlyone or twostanzasofapoem.6FelixLecoy,themostrecenteditoroftheromance, hasconsultedcontemporarychansonniers(songbooks) inordertoprovide, when possible, missinglines. We have followed Lecoy's edition through out; any departures have been indicated in the notes. Our translation aspires to suggest, rather than to duplicate, the rigorously defined fixed forms ofthe courtly lyric.7 Other aspects ofthe translation are discussed below. WhenGuillaumede Dole'ssisterLienorarrives attheEmperorCon rad's court, people say she looks like the maidens who used to visit the fabled court ofKing Arthur. That imaginary kingdom has never lost its glamour. In the reference to it we "recognize" Lienor's extraordinary beauty and the fictive landscape to which it seems to belong. But the reference also distinguishes Lienorfrom the ladies ofCamelot, and in the momentarygleamofChretiendeTroyes'Celticmagicwemayseehermore clearlythaninJeanRenart'smoreshifting,naturallight. Similarly,tourna mentsinChretien'sromancesmaystrikeusaslessfantasticthantherealistic eventsinGuillaumedeDolewherealiteraryprotagonistfightsamongactual people. Although irony pervades the work ofboth authors, Chretien's is neveraggressive;itcreatesasenseofcomplicitywiththereader.Theobject ofJeanRenart'sironymaybeourselves,takenin,likethevictimsofRenard theFox,byapersuasivestory.But,unlikethosevictims,weneverquitefind out. IntheprologuetoGuillaumedeDoleJeanRenarttellsusthatthebook willwinhimrenownbecauseitnotonlyincorporateslyricpoemsbutdoes soinsuchaskillfulwaythatwebelievethenarratoroftheromancetobethe poet. This striking remark can be understood as anything from a mild pleasantrytoaclueabouthowweshouldorientourreading;ithints,inany case, at artistic deception, amajor theme in the work. The importance of fiction-makinginthestoryisintroducedbytheminstrel,Jouglet,whenhe
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