Pygmalion and the Metamorphosis of Meaning in Jean Molinet's Le Roman de la Rose moralisé

Abstract

Jean Molinet's Roman de la Rose moralisé has aroused little scholarly interest. No modern edition of the work yet exists, and knowledge of it remains scant. Amounting to a moralized re-working of Guillaume de Lorris's and Jean de Meun's renowned thirteenth-century Roman de la Rose, this fifteenth-century work poses many interesting questions. What does Molinet attempt to do to the Rose, one of the most prominent texts of the Middle Ages? What are the implications of his use of the term moralisé in relation to the worldly subject matter of the Rose? The figure of Pygmalion is a pertinent example through which to examine Molinet's strategy on the Rose for two reasons. First, a direct comparison can be drawn between Molinet's techniques of moralization on Pygmalion and those put into practice on the Pygmalion account in the fourteenth-century Ovide moralisé. Second, Jean de Meun's Pygmalion account in the Rose is not a free-standing narrative, it is part of an intra-textual debate on nature and art. This factor allows us to examine how Molinet reacts to the Rose as a large and complex whole, on addition to its individual episodes. An analysis of the practices of both exegesis and allegoresis sheds further light on Molinet's undertaking by providing a literary context in which to consider the Roman de la Rose moralisé. This article seeks to demonstrate the complexity of Molinet's undertaking in providing the Rose with moralized interpretations. His reactions to the subtleties, enigmas, and challenges inherent within the Rose provide a striking example of one reader's response to this most widely debated of medieval texts. C'est le Romant de la Rose, moralisé cler et net, translaté de rime en prose par vostre humble Molinet.1