Western Medieval European Poetry and Literature

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Western Medieval European Poetry and Literature

• CNE/ENG 120
• 11/3/04

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Medieval Period

• 1,000 year epoch in which nearly every element
  of modern European culture can be found already
  in existence, but in strange forms and used for
  alien purposes.

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Vernacular Medieval Literature

• Spans various genres epics, romances, courtly
  and other poetry.
• In particular, Medieval lyric poetry, with its
  themes of love and loss, its reliance on simple
  effects of rhythm and rhyme, and its basis in
  sung performance - make it not that far from
  modern popular music in spirit and form.

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Continuities

• For example, Maria Rosa Menocals book, Shards of
  Love (1994) traces the path of inspiration
  linking the lyrics of Medieval Spain to Eric
  Claptons album, Layla and Other Assorted Love
  Songs.
• The Troubadour lyrics are the original version,
  in some ways, of what we think of as the modern
  love song (high drama with lovely sound and
  imagery).

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Layla by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon

• What'll you do when you get lonely And nobody's
  waiting by your side? You've been running and
  hiding much too long. You know it's just your
  foolish pride. Layla, you've got me on my knees.
  Layla, I'm begging, darling please. Layla,
  darling won't you ease my worried mind. I tried
  to give you consolation When your old man had let
  you down. Like a fool, I fell in love with you,
  Turned my whole world upside down. Chorus Let's
  make the best of the situation Before I finally
  go insane. Please don't say we'll never find a
  way And tell me all my love's in vain. Chorus
  Chorus

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Troubadours Trobairitz(know these terms for
the exam)

• Their performance culture is similar to those of
  other popular music traditions, such as folk
  music, the blues, and hip-hop. They all tend to
  be composed at their peak popularity by a tightly
  knit group of writers, producers, and performers.
  Lyrics and music are intertextual, borrowing,
  stealing, and adapting from previous singers and
  competitors. The hip-hop vogue for sampling
  earlier songs, alluding to music, the music
  industry, and various performers is much like the
  characteristic culture of the troubadours.

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Courtly Love

• Sang of courtly love, centered in southwest
  France.
• Troubadours/Trobairitz composed the songs,
  jongleurs (traveling players) would perform them
  at various courts, after giving largely
  fictitious vitae of their composers.
• Themes the art of composition, sex, money

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Formal Characteristics

• Rhyme was new in the 12th c., so poets explored
  it with a passion.
• About 250 melodies have survived, representing
  about 10 of what existed at the time.
• There were 2 main melodic styles
• Syllabic (each syllable gets a single note)
• Melismatic (many notes are used for 1 syllable)

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Key Poetic Terms

• The verb trobar to find - focuses on the skills
  of invention and improvisation.
• If you were skilled at composition, it followed
  that you would be skilled at love.
• The verses had to possess the same aesthetic
  qualities as the woman/man one loved.
• A good poem required payment in good love
  Bernart threatens to stop composing and leave
  town because his lady hasnt followed this rule
  (When I see the skylark moving).

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Guillem de Peiteus

• 1071-1127 CE
• Duke of Aquitaine
• Ill write a verse about nothing
• In the sweet time of renewal
• what themes/imagery can we see here?

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Bernart de Ventadorn

• 1150-1180 CE
• Perhaps belonged to the court of Eleanor of
  Aquitaine.
• When I see the skylark moving
• Listen to the song. What images and themes can we
  see here?

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Beatriz, Comtessa de Dia

• Flourished circa 1160 CE
• We dont know much of anything about her.
• To sing of what I would not want I must
• I have been in great distress
• What themes do we see in these? What kind of love
  features in the second poem?

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Bertran de Born

• C. 1140 - c. 1215 CE
• Appears in Dantes Inferno as a sower of
  discord.
• I love the glad time of Easter satirizes
  Richard the Lion-Hearted.

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Walther von der Vogelweide

• Austrian
• c. 1170 - c. 1230 CE
• A love-singer (minnesinger, or minstrel). Also
  calls for transcendence of the world through
  spiritual cleansing. Listen to the song
  Palastinalied (Palestine Song).
• What are some themes and imagery we can see in
  his songs under the lime tree, someone tell
  me, what is love?, I sat upon a rock, and
  Alas, where have they disappeared, all my lifes
  short years?

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Carmina Burana No. 116

• Listen to Sic mea fata. By singing I ease my
  fate/as does the swan near death. A warm sorrow
  clings to my heart, the rosy color has fled from
  my face. From increasing care, lively pain,
  declining vigor, with misery, I die. So harshly
  does love punish my breast. I die, I die, I die.
  Because I must love and am not loved.
• The Carmina Burana is a manuscript that recorded
  the Goliards (wandering clerics) dancing
  drinking songs (Latin). Poets proclaim bodily
  needs, attack conventional society.

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Marie de France

• French
• mid 12th - early 13th c. CE
• Genre lais (narratives in verse, tales of
  courtly love and adventure, based on Celtic
  folktale).
• Character is revealed through action, not inner
  thoughts/reflection. The morals of her stories
  are exemplary rather than explicit - we must
  work them out from the behavior fate of the
  characters.
• Name/term to know Bisclavret, lais

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Marie de France on Love

• Love can bring the lover closer to God ( it
  ennobles, and its pleasures are the closest one
  can experience to divine inspiration), but love
  is also an earthly/physical experience.
• She isnt consistent in her moral presentation -
  she selectively condones adultery, for example.

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Her Opening Lai, Guigemar

• Love is a wound in the body, and yet nothing
  appears on the outside. Its a sickness that
  lasts a long time, because it comes from nature.
  Many people treat it lightly, like these false
  courtiers who have affairs everywhere they go,
  then boast about their conquests thats not love
  but folly, evil and lechery. If you can find a
  loyal love, you should serve love and serve it
  faithfully, be at its command.