“Jehan de Saintré”: The Liberation of Knighthood

Abstract

When a lady of the highest nobility, called “des Belles Cousines” by the royal entourage of John II of France, inspires a promising page, Jehan de Saintre, to become the greatest knight of his time, through the powerful stimulant of Love, you have the standard framework for a romance of chivalry. But when this tender association is suddenly dissolved after sixteen years, for an apparently trivial reason, and the lady forsakes her hero to wallow in a lecherous affair with a ribald abbot, you have a serious problem of interpretation. The first modern critics to wrestle with it, for instance Sainte-Beuve,1 Gaston Paris,2 and Aubertin,3 were very much disconcerted by the apparent disunity of Antoine de La Sale’s famous work, and mystified by the glaring contrast between the idealistic portion and the cynical denouement. Even after a century of exegetical efforts, serious doubts linger concerning the author’s intent. “L’âme de l’ceuvre reste toujours enigmatique,” remarked Bronarski.4