La Châtelaine de Vergy Flashcards
the moral is reductive because it doesn’t account for what to do when you are torn between your lord and your lover; just talks about how you should keep a secret
Quar, tant com l’amor est plus grant,/sont plus mari li fin amant,/Quant li uns d’aus de l’autre croit/Qu’il ait dit ce que celer doit.
paradoxical; emphasises the importance of not telling, and then explicitly speaks of their story
si comme il avint en Borgoingne/D’un chevalier preu et hardi/Et le dame de Vergi.
the moral is hiding rather than revealing, and the prologue keeps the details of the story unrevealed.
Ainsi le firent longuement,/Et fu l’amor douce et senee,/Que fors aus ne le sot riens nee.
epilogue says the problem was that the knight didn’t keep the secret but was it really? Or more because private love doesn’t exist/the Châtelaine’s expectation is inflexible, the moral is too absolute and simplistic
A! Dieus! Trestout cest encombrier/Et cest meschief pour ce avint/Qu’au chevalier tant mesavint/Qu’il dit ce que celer devoit.
prescriptive moral
C’on ait toz jors en remembrance/Que li descouvirs riens n’avance/Et li celers en toz poins vaut.
the duke kills the duchess and then reveals everything; oxymoronic because what he is revealing is a story that says not to reveal
Et li dus trestout ausi tost/Oiant toz, qui oïr le vost,/Dist tout l’afere en mi le cort.
maiden in the room; dramatising the dangers of undoing secrets but paradoxical because the plot requires someone to violate privacy so that we should know not to violate privacy
Au duc qu’elle encontra a dit/Ce qu’ele a oï et veü,/Si qu’ele n’i a riens teü.
the knight speaking about the châtelaine but applies more to what the duchess should say; she is the one that should suffer. The knight opposes himself to the innocence of the châtelaine when really the duchess is the opposite
la plus cortoise et la meillor/Conques fust et la plus loial,/comme tricherries desloial/vous ai morte!
duke as a voyeur? does this align him with the reader; sense of someone always being over our shoulder
Iluec s’esconsse au mieus qu’il puet;/D’un arbre mout grant et mout large/S’estoit couvers com d’une targe/Et mout entent a lui celer.
the duke is behind the chevalier, shadowing him
li chevaliers et le duc lait,/Et li dus aprés lui s’en vait
hyperbolic declarations of love, makes us feel uncomfortable and like we shouldn’t be witnessing them
Ma dame, m’amie,/M’amor, mon cuer, ma druerie,/M’esperance et tout quanques j’aim
sexual nature of the duke watching, brings up question of incest
‘j’ai eü grant faim’, ‘en un lit furent/Et sanz dormir ensamble jurent’
narrator intervenes during sex scene saying no one can understand it unless they are a true lover; but the narrator is disputed by the story itself because the duke understands
Ne ne la die ne ne l’oie/S’il n’atent a avoir tel joie/Que Amors aus fins amanz done
the duke is happy; strange because this proves his wife is lying to him (greater emphasis on the homosocial)
et mout il plest
the duchess uses sex for manipulation; the opposite of what the narrator said
Si ele le suiffer jusqu’au soir,/Qu’ele ait le duc entre ses braz
puts in the duchess’ mouth what the châtelaine should say; blurs the binary of bad and good
Mout estes faus/Et tricherres et desloiaus,/Qui moi moustrez samblant d’amor,/N’oncques ne m’amastes nul jor!
the narrator rather than the chevalier voices the wish that the night will never end; foreshadows that the relationship will soon end
Si voudroit il qu’il anuistait,/Cele nuit, ainz qu’il ajournast.
the only time we get close to the châtelaine’s perspective; very limited
Més, tant comme veoir le pot,/le convola a ses biaus ieus,/Quant ele ne pot fere mieus.
parallels between the vows of the duke and chevalier and that of the châtelaine and the chevalier, use similar hyperbolic language
Je vous creant/Qut toz jors més vous amerai/Ne ja més jor ne vous harrai,/Quar vous m’avez de tout voir dit/Et ne m’avez de mot mentit.
she protests her innocence; ironic because she is also betraying her own moral by saying her woes out loud
Orques avant ne puis ne primes/En pensée n’en dit ne en fet,/Ne fis ne poi ne grant mesfet/Par qoi me deüssiez haïr/Ne si vilainement trahir
further irony; she is not entirely good- blasphemy in a strict Catholic society (says she would rather have his love than all of God’s heaven)
Quar, se tout le mont et neïs/Tout son ciel et son paradis/Me donast Dieus, pas ne preisse
Tony Hunt- ‘The Art of Concealment’: omniscient narrator controlling the story and moral
omniscient narrator by whose tyrannical authority every element of this astonishingly tight-knit text has been controlled, in such a way that the audience’s reaction seems to have been carefully predetermined
Tony Hunt, ‘The Art of Concealment’: appearances vs reality
the theme of concealment is linked to that of appearances and reality and the tragic effect of the story derives from the Châtelaine’s believing something which turns out to be mistaken.
Tony Hunt, ‘The Art of Concealment’: introduction doesn’t mention the knight’s true predicament
nothing in the introduction prepares us for the fact that the knight is caught in an insoluble jeu parti.
Tony Hunt, ‘The Art of Concealment’ : moral complexities aren’t dwelled on in introduction or epilogue
moral complexities…about which the introduction and epilogue are completely silent
Tony Hunt, ‘The Art of Concealment’ : the true cause of conflict
It is concealment which actually creates the conflict in the first place.
KP, response to Tony Hunt: the bad nature of the duke
the pure love shared by the châtelaine and her knight is to be contaminated by the spying and vicarious pleasure of the duke
KP, response to Tony Hunt: love poetry makes us all voyeurs
we are all voyeurs and écouteurs when it comes to love poetry
the duchess trying to pry the secret out of the duke; why put the moral of the story into the mouth of an evil character who is using it for bad?
Mes cuers riens ne vit ne ne sot/Que ne seüssiez ausi tost;/Et or vo que vous me celez,/Vostre merci, les voz penssez.
