Mysteres et Moralites du Manuscrit 617 de Chantilly. Publies pour la premiere fois et precedes d'une etude linguistique et litteraire

Abstract

None of the five poems published by Dr Cohen in this volume has hitherto seen the light in its present form, though the last of them (Le Pelerinage de la Vie Humaine) is known to students of Old French literature in a French version by Guillaume de Digulleville, edited for the Roxburghe Club by M. Stiirzinger in 1893. They are listed in the library catalogue simply as 'Cinq Jeux.' The first two are 'Jeux de la Nativite' (the second unfortunately fragmentary), the remaining three deal with more abstract subjects and are thus described: 'Li Jeux des vnI pechie morteil et des vni vertus'; 'Unc Jeux a vi personage (L'Alliance de Foy et Loyalte) 'Le Jeux de Pelerinage humaine.' All five are written in Walloon, or, more precisely, in Liegeois, of the fourteenth century, and it is chiefly to a study of their forms and vocabulary that Dr Cohen has devoted the 149 pages of his Introduction, thus making a further contribution to the growing body of literature dealing with the Walloon language. The literary value of these Mysteries and Moralities cannot be said to be very great, though they possess a certain distinction in having apparently been copied by a woman and written for 'un couvent de femmes.' But their linguistic interest is considerable, especially in the case of the last one, where the existence of the French source enables a detailed comparison of French and Walloon forms to be made. This comparison Dr Cohen has carried out at great length in his Introduction, but his work is rendered very diffuse and a little confusing at times by the fact that, in spite of the archaic form of the poems, he takes modern French and modern Liegeois as his point de depart. Hence many forms and developments are tabulated (sometimes several times over, as each poem receives individual attention), which are absolutely normal in Old French and do not seem to call for remark in a work of this kind. Such