The Medieval Pastourelle (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS WilliamD.Paden. TheMedievalPastoureUe. The GarlandLibrary of Medieval Literature. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1987. Vol. 1 : 368 pages, $50. Vol. II: 384 pages, $50. In his selection, translation, and edition of 210 medieval pastourelles,William D.Padenprovidesuswithan accessibleand comprehensiveoverviewofamedievalgenrewhoseimportanceis finally being recognized. Long considered a rustic and inconsequential "genre populaire," the pastourelle has recently enjoyed new critical attention as a key literary and musical form in medieval Europe. This new edition will doubtless further such revisionist study. The medieval pastourelle is a lyric poem in which a male narrator,usuallydepictedas aknight, tellsofhisattempttoseduce a shepherdess. The genre appeared with the poetry of the troubador Marcabru, in twelfth-century France, and flourished for two centuries in France, Germany, the Low Countries, England , Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Wales. Its practitioners were amongthebest-known poets ofEurope at thetime: ColinMuset, Gautier de Coinci, Guiraut Riquier, Giraut de Bornelh, Jean Bodel, Cerveri de Girona, Joan Airas de Santiago, Walther von derVogelweide, DanteandPetrarch. ThegenreflourishedinOld French, Occitan, English, German, Italian, Latin, Galican-Portuguese , Castilian, Gascon, and Welsh. Several bilingual texts, in French and Latin and in German and Latin, are extant. This edition includes 24 Occitan poems, all ofwhich have been previously published. Paden's"Introduction"defines hisobjectofstudy,the"classical " pastourelle, in terms of five functions: (1) the mode is pastoral,(2)thecastincludesamanandyoungwoman, (3)theplot comprisesaseduction, (4) therhetoricinvolvesbothnarrative and dialogue, (5)theviewpointismale. The editionalsoincludestexts from a penumbra of actualizations surrounding this definition: Paden presents poems that satisfy four of the five functions. Several Latin texts, nottraditionallyclassifiedaspastourelles, are excerpted, such as pieces from the anonymous Carmina Burana and a passage from the DeAmore of Andreas Capellanus. An excerpt from John ofGarland's Parisianapoetria gives the reader abroadpicture ofliterarytheorywithrespectto pastoralpoetryin the twelfth century. 154Reviews A liminal chapter, "Antecedents," begins with an ancient Chinese poem which can be likened to the medieval paradigm. Two kharjas (c. 1050-1150), one Arabic and one Hebrew, also bearwitnessto theeditor's effortto shed asmuchlightas possible onthe medieval tradition. Volume Ipresents threechronological groups oftexts: "Twelfth Century," ''EarlyThirteenth Century," and 'Thirteenth century (Early or Late)." The pastourelles in Volume II are divided into the "Late Thirteenth Century," "Fourteenth Century," and "Fifteenth Century." One hundred andthirtypagesofnotesfollow,indicatingthemanuscripts,author anddate,verseform,variants,andbibliographyforeachofthe210 texts. Ausefulcross-indextoseminaleditionsbyJeanAudiauand Karl Bartsch follows. (Curiously, there is no mention of JeanClaude Riviere's 1974 edition). Five additionalindices listmanuscripts ,propernames,languages,authors,andfirstlinesandtitles. A twenty-one page bibliography on the pastourelle catalogues editions as well as critical studies. Thesenewvolumesmaketwogreatcontributionstothefield ofOccitanstudies. TheymakeavailableinEnglishOccitanpoems thathave neverbefore been translated. Equally important , they bring together a vast range of medieval texts from different languages, never before grouped together, thus affording the reader greater purchase on the intertextuality of the pastourelle genre. The translations arereliable and sober, faithfulto the tone ofthe texts, which is to sayusually archaic but occasionally colloquial and sometimes obscene or brutal. The rendering of the Occitan "forcer" as "rape", forexample, in the anonymous poem 29, "Quant escavalcai fautrier" (P-C461, 200), reveals the editor 's departure from a longstanding tendency to disguise or misrepresentthe sexualtensions attheheart ofthisgenre. Errorsare fewandminor. Inpastourelle 32, "Anmai a dous tens nouvel"by Bestourné (Raynaud-Spanke 576), "Et s'aimme aincor" is translatedas "AndIloveyet, ratherthan"Andweloveeachotheryet". On the whole, this translation is a miracle of erudition and will provevaluable to general readers and scholars alike. Paden does not offer anydiscussion ofthe basis for his edition or his choice of manuscripts, no doubt because of the series in which it is published , which is aimed at the general reader seeking modern translations of medieval texts. The Medieval Pastourelle will enrich the work not only of those who study Occitan, but also of all medievalists who raise questions about the nature oflittératurepopularisante, long slighted. Reviews155 More important still, these translations open new doorsfor scholars examining broad ideological questions about the mentalité médiévale. In the pastourelle genre we glimpse the medieval construction of gender, the creation of a discourse of sexual violence, and the medieval representation ofa new discourse on social class. Kathryn Gravdal Columbia University Works Cited Audiau, Jean, éd.LaPastourelledanslapoésieoccitanedumoyen âge. Paris, 1923. Rprt. Geneva: Droz, 1973; Marseille: Laffitte, 1980. Bartsch, Karl, éd. Romances etpastourellesfrançaisesdesXIIeet XIIIesiècles: Altfranzosische Romanzen undPastourellen. Leipzig, 1870. Rprt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1967. Rivi...