Wace's Use of Proverbs

Abstract

THE primary intention of this study is simply to add Wace to the relatively short list of individual mediaeval authors whose uses of proverbial materials have been closely examined.1 For the student of mediaeval proverbs the collection contains a thorough culling and classification of the various types of proverbial expressions found in Wace's five known works.2 In addition, the collection offers clear indication of the frequency of occurrence of individual expressions, information necessarily lacking in formal, single-entry lists of proverbs and in frame poems of the Solomon-Marcoul or vilain dit type. The literary historian and student of mediaeval rhetoric may also find here additional detailed material useful for comparative studies of the use of proverbial expressions as a literary device. Among the mediaeval writers whose uses of proverbial materials have been closely studied, Wace is, not surprisingly, neither the first nor the last, in either quantity or quality, in his use of these materials. Though the following collection may appear quite bulky, it represents a combing of the nearly 36,000 lines of Wace's work, and indicates clearly that Wace was, for example, far more sparing than Chaucer3 but more prodigal than Froissart4 in proverbial expressions. On the other hand, while Wace makes virtually no approach to Chaucer in the variety and ingenuity of his use of proverbs, his skill compares rather favorably with Froissart's. If Froissart's proverbs frequently lack spontaneity and point,' Wace's uniformly meet these rather minimal requirements, though very rarely is anything more demanding attempted.6 Among Wace's few apparent attempts to go beyond a simple, straightforward use of proverbial material is the very rare use of a pun, probably with humorous intent (cf. entry 297), or a proverbial joke based on folk etymology (183), though these may be the normal forms of the proverbs. There are also equally rare clusters of sententious material apparently