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A Matter of Life or Death: Fecundity and Sterility in Marie de France’s Guigemar

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Shaping Courtliness in Medieval France
This chapter is in the book Shaping Courtliness in Medieval France
A Matter of Life or Death: Fecundity and Sterilityin Marie de France’s GuigemarlOGan e. WhalenI have argued extensively elsewhere that memory represents the most preva-lent theme in all the works attributed to the late-twelfth-century poet, Marie de France.1 However, other themes appear with notable frequency in the twelve tales that she assembles in her first work, the Lais. Adventure, the marvelous, love, and the juxtaposition of fecundity and sterility all enjoy special status in this collection, and in one way or another structure the narra-tives contained in it. For example, from the first lai, Guigemar, to Eliduc, the final lai, all of these brief, courtly stories are shaped around the subject of love, often around adulterous love,2 but occasionally around love that would appear impossible to obtain, as in Fresne and Les Deus Amanz.Marie also frequently organizes her narratives around the interplay of fecundity and sterility. Vocabulary, places, events, objects, and animals in her stories may highlight life, or they may reinforce death. She may engage discourse that is productive, or that which is destructive, depending on the lesson she seeks to portray through her characters. Desire may be honest and lead to love that flourishes, or it may be inappropriate and carry negative consequences for the human relationships she presents.One of the most well-known examples of Marie’s technique of juxta-posing productive and destructive imagery is found in Chevrefoil. In this laithe botanical metaphor of the hazel branch and the honeysuckle vine stands as a symbol of the love of Tristan and Iseut:D’euls deus fu il [tut] autresicume del chevrefoil esteitKi a la codre se perneit:Quant il s’i est laciez e prisE tut entur le fust s’est mis,1 Logan Whalen, Marie de France and the Poetics of Memory (Washington, Dc: catholic University of America Press, 2008).2 At times Marie clearly condemns these adulterous affairs, as she does in Equitanand Bisclavret, while in other texts, such as Yonec and Guigemar, she approves of the extramarital unions, and in fact rewards them.
© 2013, Boydell and Brewer

A Matter of Life or Death: Fecundity and Sterilityin Marie de France’s GuigemarlOGan e. WhalenI have argued extensively elsewhere that memory represents the most preva-lent theme in all the works attributed to the late-twelfth-century poet, Marie de France.1 However, other themes appear with notable frequency in the twelve tales that she assembles in her first work, the Lais. Adventure, the marvelous, love, and the juxtaposition of fecundity and sterility all enjoy special status in this collection, and in one way or another structure the narra-tives contained in it. For example, from the first lai, Guigemar, to Eliduc, the final lai, all of these brief, courtly stories are shaped around the subject of love, often around adulterous love,2 but occasionally around love that would appear impossible to obtain, as in Fresne and Les Deus Amanz.Marie also frequently organizes her narratives around the interplay of fecundity and sterility. Vocabulary, places, events, objects, and animals in her stories may highlight life, or they may reinforce death. She may engage discourse that is productive, or that which is destructive, depending on the lesson she seeks to portray through her characters. Desire may be honest and lead to love that flourishes, or it may be inappropriate and carry negative consequences for the human relationships she presents.One of the most well-known examples of Marie’s technique of juxta-posing productive and destructive imagery is found in Chevrefoil. In this laithe botanical metaphor of the hazel branch and the honeysuckle vine stands as a symbol of the love of Tristan and Iseut:D’euls deus fu il [tut] autresicume del chevrefoil esteitKi a la codre se perneit:Quant il s’i est laciez e prisE tut entur le fust s’est mis,1 Logan Whalen, Marie de France and the Poetics of Memory (Washington, Dc: catholic University of America Press, 2008).2 At times Marie clearly condemns these adulterous affairs, as she does in Equitanand Bisclavret, while in other texts, such as Yonec and Guigemar, she approves of the extramarital unions, and in fact rewards them.
© 2013, Boydell and Brewer

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. List of Illustrations ix
  4. Acknowledgements xi
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner: A Bibliography 15
  7. Part I Shaping Real and Fictive Courts
  8. A Perfume of Reality? Desublimating the Courtly 23
  9. Shaping the Case: the Olim and the Parlement de Paris under King Louis IX 47
  10. Charles d’Orléans and the Wars of the Roses: Yorkist and Tudor Implications of British Library MS Royal 16 F ii 61
  11. Part II Shaping Courtly Narrative
  12. Meraugis de Portlesguez and the Limits of Courtliness 81
  13. The Art of “Transmutation” in the Burgundian Prose Cligés (1454): Bringing the Siege of Windsor Castle to Life for the Court of Philip the Good 95
  14. Thomas’s Raisun: Désir, Vouloir, Pouvoir 107
  15. Humanimals: The Future of Courtliness in the Conte du Papegau 123
  16. A Matter of Life or Death: Fecundity and Sterility in Marie de France’s Guigemar 139
  17. “Le Roman de la Rose, Performed in Court” 151
  18. Part III Shaping Women’s Voices in Medieval France
  19. Lombarda’s Mirrors: Reflections on PC 288,1 as a Response to PC 54,1 163
  20. Na Maria: Shaping Marian Devotion in Old Occitan Song 183
  21. From Convent to Court: Ermengarde d’Anjou’s Decision to Reenter the World 201
  22. From Chrétien to Christine: Translating Twelfth-Century Literature to Reform the French Court during the Hundred Years War 213
  23. Part IV Shaping the Courtly Other
  24. The Favorable Reception of Outsiders at Court: Medieval Versions of Cultural Exchange 227
  25. Shaping Saladin: Courtly Men Dressed in Silk 241
  26. Force de parole: Shaping Courtliness in Richard de Fournival’s Bestiaire d’amours, Copied in Metz about 1312 (Oxford, Bodl. MS Douce 308) 255
  27. The Poetic Legacy of Charles d’Anjou in Italy: The Poetics of Nobility in the Comune 271
  28. Envoi 285
  29. List of Contributors 287
  30. Index 291
  31. Tabula Gratulatoria 297
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9781782040712-012

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. List of Illustrations ix
  4. Acknowledgements xi
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner: A Bibliography 15
  7. Part I Shaping Real and Fictive Courts
  8. A Perfume of Reality? Desublimating the Courtly 23
  9. Shaping the Case: the Olim and the Parlement de Paris under King Louis IX 47
  10. Charles d’Orléans and the Wars of the Roses: Yorkist and Tudor Implications of British Library MS Royal 16 F ii 61
  11. Part II Shaping Courtly Narrative
  12. Meraugis de Portlesguez and the Limits of Courtliness 81
  13. The Art of “Transmutation” in the Burgundian Prose Cligés (1454): Bringing the Siege of Windsor Castle to Life for the Court of Philip the Good 95
  14. Thomas’s Raisun: Désir, Vouloir, Pouvoir 107
  15. Humanimals: The Future of Courtliness in the Conte du Papegau 123
  16. A Matter of Life or Death: Fecundity and Sterility in Marie de France’s Guigemar 139
  17. “Le Roman de la Rose, Performed in Court” 151
  18. Part III Shaping Women’s Voices in Medieval France
  19. Lombarda’s Mirrors: Reflections on PC 288,1 as a Response to PC 54,1 163
  20. Na Maria: Shaping Marian Devotion in Old Occitan Song 183
  21. From Convent to Court: Ermengarde d’Anjou’s Decision to Reenter the World 201
  22. From Chrétien to Christine: Translating Twelfth-Century Literature to Reform the French Court during the Hundred Years War 213
  23. Part IV Shaping the Courtly Other
  24. The Favorable Reception of Outsiders at Court: Medieval Versions of Cultural Exchange 227
  25. Shaping Saladin: Courtly Men Dressed in Silk 241
  26. Force de parole: Shaping Courtliness in Richard de Fournival’s Bestiaire d’amours, Copied in Metz about 1312 (Oxford, Bodl. MS Douce 308) 255
  27. The Poetic Legacy of Charles d’Anjou in Italy: The Poetics of Nobility in the Comune 271
  28. Envoi 285
  29. List of Contributors 287
  30. Index 291
  31. Tabula Gratulatoria 297
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