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‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 9

‘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. Gawain’s ‘continental reputation’ 1) for courtesy and chivalry

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‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 9

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  1. ‘luf-talkyng’ in Medieval Literature 9 Thomas Honegger t.m.honegger@swissonline.ch

  2. http://www.db-thueringen.de/content/top/index.xml

  3. Wooing Women 2 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

  4. SGGK • 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.”

  5. Pronouns of address • 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

  6. Kisses • Robert de Blois (fl. 1233-1266): “Li baisiers autre chose atrait” (Chastoiement des dames, Fox 1950:136, ll. 127),

  7. Characteristics • indirectness • conversational implicature • metaphorical language • the exploitation of linguistic subtleties (pronominal and nominal forms of address) • playful ambiguity

  8. Ideal wooing by women • 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.

  9. From Sir Gawain and the Green Knightto The Grene Knight – Ideal and Decline?

  10. The Grene Knight • South Midlands, ca. 1500 • Sir & Lady Bredbeddle (< Bertilak)

  11. ca. 500 lines of tail-rhyme 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 Grene Knight vs. SGGK

  12. Evolutionary approach? • ‘primitive beginning’ (e.g. Guy of Warwick) • ‘culmination’ (e.g. SGGK) • ‘decline’ (e.g. Grene Knight)

  13. 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)

  14. Luf-talkyng: definition Sophisticated dialogues between courtly men and women that have a certain length and deal with amatory matters.

  15. French works • Chrétien de Troyes’s Cligés (c. 1174) • Jean Renart’s Le lai de l’ombre (c. 1220) • Jakemes’ Le châtelain de Coucy (c. 1300)

  16. Central themes • 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

  17. French ‘luf-talkyng’ transformed: Yvain vs. Ywain and Gawain

  18. Chrétien de Troyes Yvain/Le chevalier au lion 1177-1181 6800 lines anonymous poet Ywain & Gawain Northern England ca. 1300-1350 ca. 4000 lines Yvain vs. Ywain & Gawain

  19. Ywain & Gawain • ‘His hert sho has πat es his fa’ • ‘He sayd he sold have hir to wive, / Or els he sold lose his lyve.’

  20. Dialogue in Yvain • 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.

  21. Characteristics • off record / indirectness • small steps • man casts himself in the passive role

  22. high-spirited, lively dialogue small, rapid steps ‘literary’ dialogue longer and fewer turns Yvain vs. Ywain

  23. Model Lovers vs. ‘Luf-talkers’

  24. ME romances and SGGK • ‘roman courtois’ tradition (SGGK) vs. the bulk of the Middle English romances

  25. Summary of dialogues in SGGK • 351 lines • 200 lines/1681 words dialogue • total of 31 turns • ø 6.45 lines per turn • ø 54.23 words per turn

  26. Summary of dialogues in GrK • 42 lines • 21 lines/133 words dialogue • total of 3 turns • ø 7 lines per turn • ø 44.33 words per turn

  27. Summary of dialogues in Yvain • 87 lines • 62 lines/379 words dialogue • total of 24 turns • ø 2.58 lines per turn • ø 15.79 words per turn

  28. Summary of dialogues in Ywain • 48 lines • 27 lines/167 words dialogue • total of 6 turns • ø 4.5 lines per turn • ø 27.83 words per turn

  29. Summary of dialogues in Guy • 296 lines • 210 lines/1383 words dialogue • total of 14 turns • ø 15 lines per turn • ø 98.79 words per turn

  30. 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

  31. 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.

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