Brunhilde on Trial: Fama and Lydgatean Poetics

Abstract

The concept o? fama pervaded medieval life. Legal disputes, social and political standing, and reputation were all affected or determined by fama. Nevertheless, despite its ubiquity in the Middle Ages, this term possessed multifarious definitions. It could mean 'rumor' and 'idle talk'; 'the things people say'; 'reputation'; 'memory' or 'memories'; 'the things people know'; 'fame,' or perhaps 'glory,' as well as their opposites, 'infamy' and 'defamation.'1 As these various definitions indicate, fama is both the process of cultivating a particular reputation or name and the end result of that process: reputation itself. In this essay I will suggest a potential parallel between the function of fama in medieval English law and the role played by fama in medieval English literature, arguing that the influence of the medieval courts on a person's fama may be read as similar to the late medieval English poet's power over the fama of his subject matter. An episode from John Lydgate's Fall of Princes (written between 1431 and 1438-39 at the request of Humphrey duke of Gloucester) will serve as one example of the poet acting as judge in two ways: first by determining a character's fama and then by passing judgment on that character's testimony. My point is not that Lydgate is using the discourse of law to explore the discourse of poetry or poetics, but that the way his poem assesses and determines reputation is remarkably similar to the way that medieval law made use of and affected fama. In other words, both law and literature employ a shared discourse o? fama. Recognizing this parallel will not only open up new ways of thinking about Lydgatean and Boccaccian poetics (particu larly in relation to Chaucerian poetics), but will also bring us to a clearer understanding of the role of reputation in medieval society. This essay will be divided into three parts. I will begin by briefly outlin ing the role o? fama in medieval European and English law until the fifteenth century, focusing on the ways in which fama shaped and was shaped by legal procedure. I will then consider Lydgate's depiction of the confrontation between Brunhilde and Bochas in Book IX of the Fall