Transcript luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature - db

‘luf-talkyng’ in
Medieval Literature 9
Thomas Honegger
t.m.honegger@swissonline.
ch
http://www.
db-thueringen.de/
content/top/
index.xml
Wooing Women 2
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
SGGK

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
Gawain’s ‘continental reputation’
1) for courtesy and chivalry
2) for being a lady’s (or maiden’s) man
Lady Bertilak: “3e ar welcum to my
cors.”
Pronouns of address

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
Normal ‘courtly’ pronoun of address: Ze
But from line 1252 onward, the lady
repeatedly switches to the more
informal ‘πu’.
Gawain: abandons rather informal gay
and lady louely and returns to madame
Kisses
Robert de Blois (fl. 1233-1266):
“Li baisiers autre chose atrait”
(Chastoiement
des
dames,
1950:136, ll. 127),

Fox
Characteristics

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
indirectness
conversational implicature
metaphorical language
the exploitation of linguistic subtleties
(pronominal and nominal forms of
address)
playful ambiguity
Ideal wooing by women
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Richard
de
Fournival,
Consaus
d’Amours, (Speroni 1974:266):
en maniere de juer, et lui moustrer
sambland d’amours [...], u par biau
parler amiabliement, sans faire nule
priiere
by feigning love to him in obvious jest,
[...], or by pleasant, courteous speech,
but without making a [frank and open]
entreaty.
From
Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight
to
The Grene Knight –
Ideal and Decline?
The Grene Knight
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South Midlands, ca. 1500
Sir & Lady Bredbeddle (< Bertilak)
Grene Knight vs. SGGK
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
ca. 500 lines of tailrhyme stanzas
bedroom trial: one
single temptation scene
of 42 lines; simplistic
exchange with only
three turns

explicit offer


2531 lines of
alliterative verses
bedroom trial: takes
place on three
consecutive
mornings, interlaced
with description of
the hunt; 351 lines
of complex dialogue
indirectness
Evolutionary approach?
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‘primitive beginning’ (e.g. Guy of
Warwick)
‘culmination’ (e.g. SGGK)
‘decline’ (e.g. Grene Knight)
Luf-talkyng

look at Elizabethan court-comedy
(Love’s Labour’s Lost, for instance) or
the social comedy of the Restoration
‘wits’; and after the demise of the long
courtly tradition, in (say) Jane Austen’s
Emma (the heroine’s exchanges with
Frank Churchill), in Oscar Wilde’s
drawing-room comedy, and so on.
Stevens (1973:109)
Luf-talkyng: definition
Sophisticated dialogues between
courtly men and women that have a
certain length and deal with amatory
matters.
French works
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Chrétien de Troyes’s Cligés (c. 1174)
Jean Renart’s Le lai de l’ombre (c. 1220)
Jakemes’ Le châtelain de Coucy (c.
1300)
Central themes
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French ‘courtly romances’:
emotional relationship between the
sexes and their obligation towards
society
Middle English romances:
chivalric (now predominantly martial
and only occasionally amatory) exploits
of the hero
French ‘luf-talkyng’
transformed:
Yvain vs.
Ywain and Gawain
Yvain vs. Ywain & Gawain
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Chrétien de Troyes
Yvain/Le chevalier
au lion
1177-1181
6800 lines
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anonymous poet
Ywain & Gawain
Northern England
ca. 1300-1350
ca. 4000 lines
Ywain & Gawain
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‘His hert sho has πat es his fa’
‘He sayd he sold have hir to wive, / Or
els he sold lose his lyve.’
Dialogue in Yvain
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The lady determines the topic(s) of the
conversation.
The lady asks the questions.
Yvain does nothing but truthfully
answer her questions => the revelation
of his feelings are a consequence of his
compliance with her wishes.
The revelation of his feelings is
gradual.
Characteristics



off record / indirectness
small steps
man casts himself in the passive role
Yvain vs. Ywain
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high-spirited, lively
dialogue
small, rapid steps
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‘literary’ dialogue
longer and fewer
turns
Model Lovers vs. ‘Luftalkers’
ME romances and SGGK

‘roman courtois’ tradition (SGGK) vs.
the bulk of the Middle English
romances
Summary of dialogues in SGGK
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351 lines
200 lines/1681 words dialogue
total of 31 turns
ø 6.45 lines per turn
ø 54.23 words per turn
Summary of dialogues in GrK
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42 lines
21 lines/133 words dialogue
total of 3 turns
ø 7 lines per turn
ø 44.33 words per turn
Summary of dialogues in Yvain
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87 lines
62 lines/379 words dialogue
total of 24 turns
ø 2.58 lines per turn
ø 15.79 words per turn
Summary of dialogues in Ywain
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48 lines
27 lines/167 words dialogue
total of 6 turns
ø 4.5 lines per turn
ø 27.83 words per turn
Summary of dialogues in Guy
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296 lines
210 lines/1383 words dialogue
total of 14 turns
ø 15 lines per turn
ø 98.79 words per turn
SGGK (& Cligés & Yvain)
Guy of Warwick
(and most other ME romances that feature
amatory dialogues)
OFF RECORD
indirect, ambiguous,
metaphors, save face,
conversational implicature,
joint project
ON RECORD
direct, explicit, no metaphors,
do FTA (with some redressive action)
MULTI-TURN
(more than 3 turns)
2 T O 3 TURNS
‘CHARACTERISATION’
‘MOTIVATION’
‘T YPIFICATION’
Function of dialogue 1

The realisation of the temptation
scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight as off-record, multi-turn
dialogue sequences does not add
directly to the surface motivation of the
plot, it effects a foregrounding of the
conversation and provides some
‘characterisation’ of the protagonists
=> cf. Chrétien
Function of dialogue 2

In Middle English romances, on-record
opening moves that take place within a
small number of turns are used mainly
to motivate the ensuing action.