Song and Legend From the Middle Ages
W >>
William D. McClintock and Porter Lander McClintock >> Song and Legend From the Middle Ages
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 Etext scanned by Dianne Bean of Phoenix, Arizona
SONG AND LEGEND FROM THE MIDDLE AGES
SELECTED AND ARRANGED
By WILLIAM D. MCCLINTOCK
Assistant Professor of English Literature, University Of Chicago
AND
PORTER LANDER McCLINTOCK
Chautauqua Reading Circle Literature
1893
CONTENTS.
I. FRENCH LITERATURE
II. SPANISH LITERATURE
III. SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE
IV. GERMAN LITERATURE
V. ITALIAN LITERATURE
READING LIST.
Owing to the necessarily fragmentary character of the readings of
this volume, it has seemed well to the editors to indicate a list
of books for those who wish a wider reading In Mediaeval
Literature. These books are all available and cheap.
1. French Literature.
(1) Longfellow's "Poets and Poetry of Europe".
(2) O'Hagan's "The Song of Roland".
(3) Rourdillon's "Aucassin and Nicolette".
(4) Malory's "Morte Darthur".
(5) Chaucer's "Romance of the Rose".
(6) Caxton's "Reynard the Fox".
(7) Saintsbury's "Short History of French Literature".
2. Spanish Literature.
(1) Longfellow, as above.
(2) Ormsby's "The Cid".
(3) Lockhart's "Ancient Spanish Ballads".
3. Scandinavian Literature.
(1) Longfellow, as above.
(2) Anderson's "Norse Mythology".
4. German Literature.
(1) Longfellow, as above.
(2) Lettsom's "Niebelungenlied".
(3) Scherer's "History of German Literature".
5. Italian Literature.
(1) Longfellow, as above.
(2) Rossetti's "Dante and his Circle".
(3) Cary's "The Divine Comedy".
(4) Norton's "The Divine Comedy".
(5) Campbell's "The Sonnets and Poems of Petrarch".
PREFACE.
The aim of this little book is to give general readers some idea
of the subject and spirit of European Continental literature in
the later and culminating period of the Middle Ages--the
eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries.
It goes without saying that translations and selections are, in
general, inadequate to the satisfactory representation of any
literature. No piece of writing, of course, especially no piece
of poetry, can be perfectly rendered into another tongue; no
piece of writing can be fairly represented by detached portions.
But to the general English reader Continental Mediaeval
literature, so long as it remains in the original tongues, is
inaccessible; and translations of many entire works are not
within easy reach.
What translation and selection can do in this case, is to put
into the hands of the ordinary student of the Middle Ages
sufficient material for forming an estimate of the subjects that
interested the mediaeval mind and the spirit in which they were
treated. And this is what the general reader desires. Matters of
form and expression--the points that translation cannot
reproduce--belong, of course, to the specialist.
The claim that so slender a volume of selections can represent
even the subject and spirit of so vast a body of literature, is
saved from being unreasonable or presumptuous by a consideration
of the fact that, from causes easy to trace, the national
literatures of Continental Europe had many common
characteristics: the range of subjects was not unlimited; the
spirit is the same in all.
No English is included for two reasons: Mediaeval English
literature is easily accessible to those readers for whom this
book is prepared; during the special period in which the best
mediaeval literature was developed, England was comparatively
unproductive.
The constant aim has been to put before the reader the literature
itself, with comment barely sufficient to make an intelligible
setting for the selections. Criticism of all kinds has been
avoided, so that the reader may come to his material with
judgment entirely unbiased.
The translations used have been selected largely with a view to
their accessibility, so that readers who desire to enlarge the
scope of their reading may easily find the books they need.
Caxton's "Reynard the Fox", and "The Romance of the Rose",
attributed to Chaucer, were chosen because they convey an
impression of the quaint flavor of the original, which is lost in
a modern version. The slight adaptations and transliterations
made in these two selections are entirely defensible on the score
of intelligibility.
Our acknowledgments are due to Prof. William I. Knapp, of the
University of Chicago, for the use of books from his valuable
library, and for the permission, most highly prized, to print for
the first time some of his translations of the Cid ballads.
THE EDITORS. Chicago, April, 1893.
INTRODUCTION.
The Middle Ages extend from the fifth to the fifteenth century,
from the fall of the Roman Empire to the establishment of the
great modern states. The general outline of the history of the
Middle Ages can be seen in the following excellent table:[1]
[1] Drury's "History of the Middle Ages", page XIV.
1. The decline of the Roman Empire and the successful
accomplishment of two invasions.
2. The transient brilliancy of the Arabian civilization.
3. The attempted organization of a new empire by Charlemagne, and
its dissolution.
4. The rise and prevalence of feudalism.
5. The successive crusades.
6. The contest between the pope and the emperor for the
sovereignty of the world.
The history of these ten centuries falls naturally into three
great divisions:
1. Fifth to tenth century, the destruction of the past and
transition to new forms.
2. Eleventh to thirteenth century, feudal society with its
customs, its institutions, its arts, and its literatures.
3. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a second time of
transition.
The period, then, of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
centuries was one of intense political life, of advanced national
self-consciousness, of rich, highly-organized society. It was
moreover a period of common ideas, movements, and tendencies over
all Europe. Several factors enter into this result:
1. The church was completely organized, forming a common life and
teaching everywhere. She had learned to employ the savage vigor
and conquering instincts of the northern barbarians as defenses
and aggressive missions of her spirit and ideas. The monasteries
were homes of learning, and from them issued the didactic
literature and the early drama.
2. This resulted in that romantic institution or ideal of
chivalry, whose ten commandments explain so much of mediaeval
life and art.[1]
[1] "Chivalry", by Leon Gautier, 1891, p. 26.
(1) Thou shalt believe all the church teaches, and shalt observe
all its directions.
(2) Thou shalt defend the church.
(3) Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute
thyself the defender of them.
(4) Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born.
(5) Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.
(6) Thou shalt make war against the inflael without cessation and
without mercy.
(7) Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be
not contrary to the law of God.
(8) Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy
pledged word.
(9) Thou shalt be generous and give largesse to every one.
(10) Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the
Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.
3. This combination of the Christian and the warrior found its
public activity most completely in the Crusades. They gave a
common motive and ideal to all the knights of Europe. They
brought them together for thinking and for fighting. They spread
national traditions and literatures. They made the whole face of
Europe and the borders of the Mediterranean known to the
ambitious, venturesome, daring, and heroic of every European
country. The exploits of chivalric knights were told from camp to
camp and taken back home to be told again in the castles.
4. Another institution of feudalism that helped to make this
common subject and spirit of mediaeval literature was the
minstrel, who was attached to every well-appointed castle. This
picturesque poet--gleeman, trouvere or troubadour sang heroic
stories and romances of love in the halls of castles and in the
market places of towns. He borrowed from and copied others and
helped to make the common method and traditions of mediaeval
song.
5. Other elements in this result were the extensions of commerce
and the growth of traveling as a pleasure.
6. Finally, the itinerant students and teachers of mediaeval
universities assisted in the making of this common fund of ideas
and material for literature.
(7) Behind and within all the separate national literatures lay
the common Christian-Latin literature of the early Middle Ages,
undoubtedly the cause of the rather startling perfection of form
shown by much of the work of the period we are studying.[1]
[1] See Ebert "Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des
Mittelalters". Vol. I., p. 11.
The result of all these unifying tendencies is to give a strong
family likeness to the productions of the various European
countries of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. The
subject matter often varies, but the motive and form of writing
are much alike. This likeness can be seen by a short survey of
the more important kinds of literature of the period.
I. THE NATIONAL EPIC.
In every country in which the national epic grew up it had the
same origin and line of development. First there was the
historical hero. His deeds were related by the traveling gleeman
or minstrel--in brief chapters or ballads. Gradually mythical and
supernatural elements came in; the number of achievements and the
number of ballads grew very large; in this oral state they
continued for many years, sometimes for centuries.
Finally, they were collected, edited, and written down--generally
by a single editor. In all cases the names of the poets of the
ballads are lost; in most cases the names of their redactors are
but conjectural. "The Song of Roland", and the "Poem of the Cid"
are typical, simple, national epics. The "Niebelungen Lied" is
complicated by the fact that the legends of many heroes are fused
into one poem, by the fact that it had more than one editor, and
by the survival of mythological elements which mingle confusedly
with Christian features. The national epic is the expression of
the active side of chivalry. Italy has no national epic, both
because she was too learned to develop a folk-poetry, and because
the ideas of chivalry were never very active in her history.
II. ROMANCES.
The numberless romances that sprang up in the literary period of
the Middle Ages may be thrown into three groups:
1. Those belonging to the legend of Arthur and the Round Table.
They had their starting point in the history of Geoffrey of
Monmouth, which was partly invented, but had some basis in a
tradition common to the Bretons and the Welsh. The romances based
upon this legend sprang up apparently simultaneously in England
and France. Through minstrel romances, founded upon the Breton
popular tradition, the Arthur legend probably first found its way
into European literature. With it was early fused the stories of
the Holy Grail and of Parzival. In the twelfth century these
stories were widely popular in literary form in France and
Germany, and later they passed into Italy, Spain, and
Scandinavia. Their influence upon the life and thought of
Mediaeval Europe is very important. They did much to modify the
entire institution of chivalry.[1]
[1] Leon Gautier's "Chivalry", chap. IV., Section V.
2. The Romances of Antiquity, of which there are three varieties:
(1) Those which were believed to be direct reproductions, such as
the Romances of Thebes, of Aeneas, of Troy, whose authors
acknowledged a debt to Vergil, Statius, and other classic
writers.
(2) Those based upon ancient history not previously versified,
such as the Romance of Alexander.
(3) Those which reproduced the names and nothing else from
antiquity.
These romances, too, were a common European possession. The most
important and influential of them are the Romance of Troy, and
the Romance of Alexander. They appear in different forms in the
literature of every mediaeval nation in Europe.
3. There was in each national literature a vast number of
unaffiliated romances. A romance of this group usually contained
a love story, a tale of adventure, or a religious experience in
the form of a story. They are not clearly distinct from the class
of popular tales. On the whole, the romance is more serious and
dignified than the tale. Examples of this kind of a romance are
Hartmann von Aue's "Henry the Leper", and the French "Flore et
Blanchefleur".
III. LYRICS.
Perhaps no other part of its literature shows more striking proof
of the common life and interests of Mediaeval Europe than does
the lyric poetry of the period. In Northern France, in Provence,
in all parts of Germany, in Italy, and a little later in Spain,
we see a most remarkable outburst of song. The subjects were the
same in all the countries. Love-the love of feudal
chivalry--patriotism, and religion were the themes that employed
the mediaeval lyrist in whatever country he sang. In all these
lyrics much was made of form, the verse being always skillfully
constructed, sometimes very complicated. The lyric poetry of
Italy was more learned and more finished in style than that of
the other countries.
In Northern France the poet was called a trouvere, in Provence a
troubadour, in Germany a minnesinger. The traveling minstrel was
in France a jongleur (Provencal jogleur). The distinction between
trouvere or troubadour and jongleur is not always to be sharply
drawn. Sometimes in France and Provence the same poet composed
his verses and sang them--was both trouvere or troubadour and
jongleur; while in Germany the minnesingers were generally both
poets and minstrels.
IV. TALES AND FABLES.
No distinct line can be drawn between Tales and Fables; between
Romances and Tales; nor between Fables and Allegories. These
varieties of writings merge into one another.
The number of tales in circulation in Mediaeval Europe was
exceedingly large. These tales came from many different sources:
from Oriental lands, introduced by the Moors, or brought back by
the crusaders; from ancient classical literature; from traditions
of the church and the lives of the saints; from the old
mythologies; from common life and experience. Among many
mediaeval collections of them, the most famous are the
"Decameron" of Boccaccio, and the "Geste Romanorum", a collection
made and used by the priests in instructing their people.
V. DIDACTIC AND ALLEGORICAL LITERATURE.
Under didactic literature we would include a large mass of
writing not strictly to be called pure literature--sermons,
homilies, chronicles, bestiaries, and chronologies. Nearly all
these were written in verse, as prose did not begin to be used
for literature until very late in the Middle Ages.
The mediaeval mind, under the influence of the scholastic
theology, grew very fond of allegory. The list of allegories is
exhaustless, and some of the allegories well-nigh interminable.
It is not easy to say whether the "Romance of Reynard the Fox" is
a series of fables or an allegory. The fact that a satire on
human affairs runs through it constantly, warrants us in calling
it an allegory. Some phase of the Reynard legend formed the
medium of expression of the thought of every mediaeval nation in
Europe. Perhaps the most popular and influential allegory of the
Middle Ages was "The Romance of the Rose", written in France but
translated or imitated in every other country. Dante's "Divine
Comedy" is an allegory of a very elevated kind.
VI. THE DRAMA.
The origin and line of development of the drama in all the
countries of Mediaeval Europe is this: Dramatic representations
in connection with the liturgy of the church were first used in
the service; then they were extended to church festivals and
ceremonies. By degrees portions of Bible history were thrown into
dramatic form; then the lives of the saints furnished material. A
distinction grew up between Mystery Plays--those founded on Bible
history--and Miracle Plays--those founded on the lives of the
saints. These plays were performed both in the churches and in
the open air. They were written usually by the clergy. Gradually
there grew up a play in which the places of religious characters
were taken by abstract virtues and vices personified, and plays
called Moralities were produced. They were played chiefly by
tradesmen's guilds. Alongside the sacred drama are to be found
occasional secular dramatic attempts, farces, carnival plays, and
profane mysteries. But their number and significance are small.
The mediaeval drama is historically interesting, but in itself
does not contain much interest. It is impossible to give an idea
of it by selection.
SONG AND LEGEND FROM THE MIDDLE AGES.
CHAPTER I. FRENCH LITERATURE.
French Literature of the Middle Ages was produced between the
eleventh and the fifteenth centuries, having its greatest
development in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It must be
divided into two sections according to the part of France where
it was produced.
I. French Literature proper, or that composed in the northern
half of France.
II. Provencal Literature, or that developed in Provence.
The most obvious difference between these is that the Provencal
literature had little of the epic and romantic, but developed the
lyric extensively, especially lyrics of love.
The following table will show the more important kinds of French
Mediaeval Literature.[1]
[1] This classification is adapted from M. Gaston Paris'
excellent sketch "La Litterature Francaise au Moyen Age", 1890,
and Saintsbury's "Short History of French Literature", 1889.
I. Narrative Literature.
1. The National Epics.
2. Romances of Antiquity.
3. Arthurian Romances.
4. Romances of Adventure.
5. Tales and Fables.
6. Chronicles.
II. Didactic Literature.
1. Allegories--"The Romance of the Rose".
2. Satires.
3. Homilies, etc.
III. Lyric Literature.
THE NATIONAL EPICS.
The French national epics (called "Chansons de Gestes", songs of
heroic deeds) are those narrative poems which are founded on
early French history, and recount the deeds of national heroes.
They are, for the most part, based on the deeds of Charlemagne
and his nobles. They are peculiar to Northern France. Their date
of production extends from the eleventh to the fourteenth
century, their best development being in the eleventh and
twelfth.
These epic poems number more than one hundred. They vary in
length from one thousand to thirty thousand lines. The whole mass
is said to contain between two and three million lines. Like all
folk epics, they are based upon earlier ballads composed by many
different poets. These ballads were never written down and are
completely lost. The epic is a compilation and adaptation,
presumably by a single poet, of the material of the ballads. In
every case the names of the poets of the French epics are lost.
They were trouveres and their poems were carried about in memory
or in manuscript by the jongleurs or minstrels, and sung from
castle to castle and in the market places. The best of them are:
"The Song of Roland"; "Amis et Amiles"; "Aliscans"; "Gerard de
Roussillon"; "Raoul de Cambrai". Of these the oldest and
confessedly the greatest is The Song of Roland, from which our
extracts are taken.
The Song of Roland is based upon the following events (the events
as narrated in the poem differ widely from those of the actual
history): Charlemagne has warred seven years in Spain, when
Marsile, king of Saragossa, the only city that has withstood the
emperor, sends a feigned submission. Roland, the king's nephew,
offers to go to Saragossa to settle the terms of the treaty. He
is rejected as too impetuous, when he suggests that Ganelon go.
This bitterly annoys Ganelon, and when he meets Marsile he makes
a treacherous plot by which Charlemagne is to be induced to go
back to France, with Roland in command of the rear guard. The
plan works, and when the advanced party of the French army is out
of reach, the Saracens fall upon the rear guard in the pass of
Roncevalles and completely destroy it. The death of Roland, the
return and grief of the king, and his vengeance on the pagans
form the central incident of the poem. Ganelon is afterwards
tried for his treachery, condemned, and executed.
THE SONG OF ROLAND.
Stanza I.--
The king, our Emperor Carlemaine,
Hath been for seven full years in Spain.
From highland to sea hath he won the land;
City was none might his arm withstand;
Keep and castle alike went down--
Save Saragossa, the mountain town.
The King Marsilius holds the place,
Who loveth not God, nor seeks His grace:
He prays to Apollin, and serves Mahound;
But he saved him not from the fate he found.
King Marsile held a council and decided to offer Charlemagne a
feigned submission. Karl summons his council to consider this.
Stanza 8.--
King Karl is jocund and gay of mood,
He hath Cordres city at last subdued;
Its shattered walls and turrets fell
By catapult and mangonel;
Not a heathen did there remain
But confessed himself Christian or else was slain.
The Emperor sits in an orchard wide,
Roland and Olivier by his side:
Samson the duke, and Anseis proud;
Geoffrey of Anjou, whose arm was vowed
The royal gonfalon to rear;
Gereln, and his fellow in arms, Gerier:
With them many a gallant lance,
Full fifteen thousand of gentle France.
The cavaliers sit upon carpets white
Playing at tables for their delight;
The older and sager sit at chess,
The bachelors fence with a light address.
Seated underneath a pine,
Close beside an eglantine,
Upon a throne of beaten gold,
The lord of ample France behold;
White his hair and beard were seen,
Fair of body, and proud of mien,
Who sought him needed not ask, I ween.
The ten alight before his feet,
And him in all observance greet.
The treacherous plot has succeeded. Charles, with the main part
of his army, has gone ahead, the Saracens have fallen on the
rear-guard, and are destroying it. Oliver begs Roland to sound
his wonderful horn and summon aid.
Stanza 87.--
"O Roland, sound on your ivory horn,
To the ear of Karl shall the blast be borne:
He will bid his legions backward bend,
And all his barons their aid will lend."
"Now God forbid it, for very shame,
That for my kindred were stained with blame,
Or that gentle France to such vileness fell:
This good sword that hath served me well,
My Durindana such strokes shall deal,
That with blood encrimsoned shall be the steel.
By their evil star are the felons led;
They shall all be numbered among the dead!"
Stanza 88.--
"Roland, Roland, yet wind one blast!
Karl will hear ere the gorge be passed,
And the Franks return on their path fall fast!
"I will not sound on mine ivory horn:
It shall never be spoken of me in scorn,
That for heathen felons one blast I blew;
I may not dishonour my lineage true.
But I will strike, ere this fight be o'er,
A thousand strokes and seven hundred more,
And my Durindana will drip with gore.
Our Franks shall bear them like vassals brave.
The Saracens shall flock but to find a grave."
Stanza 89.--
"I deem of neither reproach nor stain.
I have seen the Saracen host of Spain,
Over plain and valley and mountain spread,
And the regions hidden beneath their tread.
Countless the swarm of the foe, and we
A marvellous little company."
Roland answered him, "All the more
My spirit within me burns therefore.
God and the angels of heaven defend
That France through me from her glory bend.
Death were better than fame laid low.
Our Emperor loveth a downright blow."
At last Roland blows his horn, but it is too late. All the Moors
are slain or routed, but so are all the Franks save Roland, and
he has received his death blow.
Stanza 195--
That Death was on him he knew full well;
Down from his head to his heart it fell.
On the grass beneath a pinetree's shade,
With face to earth his form he laid,
Beneath him placed he his horn and sword,
And turned his face to the heathen horde.
Thus hath he done the sooth to show,
That Karl and his warriors all may know,
That the gentle count a conqueror died.
Mea Culpa full oft he cried;
And, for all his sins, unto God above,
In sign of penance, he raised his glove.
Stanza 197.--
Beneath a pine was his resting-place,
To the land of Spain hath he turned his face.
On his memory rose full many a thought
Of the lands he won and the fields he fought;
Of his gentle France, of his kin and line;
Of his nursing father King Karl benign;
He may not the tear and sob control,
Nor yet forgets he his parting soul.
To God's compassion he makes his cry:
"O Father true, who canst not lie,
Who didst Lazarus raise unto life again,
And Daniel shield in the lions' den;
Shield my soul from its peril, due
For the sins I sinned my lifetime through."
He did his right hand glove upliftst.
Gabriel took from his hand the gift;
Then drooped his head upon his breast,
And with clasped hands he went to rest.
God from on high sent down to him
One of his angel cherubim--
Saint Michael of Peril of the sea,
Saint Gabriel in company--
From heaven they came for that soul of price,
And they bore it with them to Paradise.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10