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The Magic Chessboard in The Perlesvaus: An Example of Medieval Literary Borrowing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Literary endeavor in the Middle Ages, as in the Renaissance, was essentially an art of imitation. Since little emphasis was placed upon originality of subject-matter, since praise went rather to the combination and interpretation of familiar materials—or to stylistic qualities —the author felt free to appropriate whatever themes or episodes best suited his fundamental conception. Thus an Arthurian romance was usually a tissue of commonplace incidents and motifs, developed in accordance with the purpose or the taste of the individual writer. To distinguish between the narrative content of a work and the particular interpretation applied to it by the artist, the Middle Ages employed the terms matière and sens. The matière might come from any source; the sens alone was the contribution of the latest reworker.
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References
1 Gerbert de Montreuil, for example, prides himself on the originality of his sens:
Puis ce di que li sens est miens;
Ne li doit nuire ne peser,
Se je me deduis au penser.
(Roman de la Violette, ed. Buffum, SATF [Paris, 1928], vss. 26–28).—On the general problem, see Wm. A. Nitze, “Sans et matière dans les œuvres de Chrétien de Troyes,” Romania, xliv (1915), 14–36; Cross and Nitze, Lancelot and Guenevere (Chicago, 1930), pp. 63–65.
2 In E. Farai, Les Arts poétiques du xii' et du xiiie siècle (Paris, 1924), pp. 180–181.—For the date of the Ars, see p. 14.
3 Ibid., pp. 309–310.—Faral gives no definite date for this work which, he says, might either precede or follow the Poetria nova (c. 1208–1213). See p. 23.
4 An example of its extensive application in the field of education may be found in the Metalogicus of John of Salisbury, ed. Migne, PL, cic, col. 855B; quoted by Baldwin, Medieval Rhetoric and Poetic (New York, 1928), p. 163.
5 Cf. the opinion of Saintsbury, History of Criticism, (London, 1922), i, 415, that “in so far as they [the vernaculars] were deliberately practiced, the principles of composition and of taste which guided the practice cannot have been different [from those for Latin work].”
6 Cf. H. Gmelin, “Das Prinzip der Imitatio in den romanischen Literaturen der Renaissance,” Romanische Forschungen, xlvi (1932), 125, for Petrarch's definition.
7 The Old French Grail Romance Perlesvaus (Baltimore, 1902), pp. 59–61.
8 Die Quellen des Didot Perceval (Halle, 1905), p. 58.
9 Ibid., p. 54.—Hoffmann's arguments are accepted as conclusive by Lot, Etude sur le Lancelot en prose (Paris, 1918), p. 134, n. 1.
10 The Legend of Sir Perceval (London, 1906), i, 107–110.
11 Essai sur la composition du roman gallois de Peredur (Paris, 1909), pp. 60–63, 75–76.—The Chessboard Episode in Peredur is a mere summary, containing no descriptive detail, and is of slight value for comparison with our texts. The entire passage (ed. Loth, Mabinogion, [Paris, 1913], ii, 114–115) follows:
Peredur se dirigea vers le château. Le portail était ouvert. En arrivant à la salle, il trouva la porte ouverte: il entra et aperçut un jeu d‘échecs: les deux troupes de cavaliers jouaient l'une contre l'autre; celle à qui il donnait son aide perdait et l'autre jetait un cri, absolument comme l'eussent fait des hommes. Il se fâcha, prit les cavaliers dans son giron, et jeta l‘échiquier dans le lac. A ce moment entra une jeune fille noire qui lui dit: “Puisse Dieu ne pas t'accorder sa grâce. Il t'arrive plus souvent de faire du mal que du bien.”
Magic chessboards appear in other Arthurian romances; e.g., in the prose Lancelot (Sommer, v, 151–152 and 189–190; for the relationship of this to the other romances, cf. Bruce, “The Composition of the Old French Prose Lancelot,” Rom. Rev., ix [1918], 375–376); in the Dutch Lancelot (cf. Williams, op. cit., p. 75); and in the Dutch Walewein (cf. G. Paris, Histoire littéraire de la France, xxx, 82–84). These seem to be unrelated to our episode.
12 (Chicago, 1932).—In several cases (lines 2338, 2339, and 2340) the readings of MSS BrP have been adopted in preference to those of the text (MS O), in accordance with the opinion of the editors that the former constitute the best readings. Reasons for this preference will be given in the forthcoming Volume ii of the Perlesvaus. Brackets have been used to indicate departures from the text of MS O.
14 This MS has several readings which are closer to the Perlesvaus than those of the Potvin text, lines 22401–22504. The Perlesvaus (line 2340) reads: “estoient li point d'or et d'azur.” Here MS 36614 reads:
Enmi leu ot un escequier
A poins d'azur & de fin or
whereas Potvin 22442–43, has:
Enmi avoit .i. eskcékier
Porpoint d'asur et de fin or.
Similarly, where the Perlesvaus (line 2341) reads: “Missire Gavains esgardoit la biauté et la richece de la sale,” MS 36614 reads:“Puis a la sale regardee.” Potvin, however, has“Et vit la sale toute painte” (line 22429).
15 Op. cit., ii, 31–32.
16 To assume a common source for all three texts seems unnecessary, since W adequately satisfies the requirements of a source for P and M.
17 As is the stag quest which follows; cf. Hoffmann, op. cit., pp. 48–58.
18 Modena is not always unoriginal. Cf. Pauphilet, “Le Roman en prose de Perceval,” Mélanges offertes à Ferdinand Lot (Paris, 1925), pp. 610–611, for an appreciation of his method. Modena's originality, however, is generally less striking and less complete than that of the Perlesvaus.
19 P frequently changes the hero of a story in like manner; Miss Weston, in Rom., li (1925), 361–362, remarks upon the freedom with which he handles his sources. On the general practice of treating borrowed episodes in French verse works, cf. Baldwin, op. cit., pp. 260–269.
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