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The Vows of Baldwin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Edwin A. Greenlaw
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Extract

Although one of the most interesting of Middle English romances, the Avowing of Arthur has been singularly neglected. The story is told with the gratifying freshness which marks Gawain and the Green Knight and the other poems of the Northern school. The incidents of which the story is composed are fitted into the general framework with rare skill. Even more striking is the vividness of the characterization. The ordinary romance character is a dummy upon which are hung splendid clothes tagged with catalogues of all the virtues. Dealing with these personages is often like handling the bits of cardboard stamped “sugar,” “tea,” “potatoes,” with which students in commercial colleges play. But in this romance there is sharp distinction between Arthur, genial, brave, a practical joker, and Baldwin, a man of few words, cynical without being bitter, nonchalant, a man of deeds; between Kay, impulsive, always getting into scrapes, inclined to jeer at others, a great boy with a boy's love of adventure, and Gawain, the courteous knight, equally ready to aid beauty in distress and to assist a comrade in time of need. The story is crowded with incidents, and the verse is vigorous and effective.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , 1906 , pp. 575 - 636
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1906

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References

page 576 note 1 i, 665.

page 576 note 2 Hist. Litt. de France, xxx, 111 ff.

page 576 note 3 M. L. N., viii, 251.

page 577 note 1 For an excellent example of the custom of vowing upon an animal, cf. The Vows of the Heron, Wright, Polit. Poems and Songs, pp. 1 ff. That a considerable formality was observed in Arthurian romance finds abundant evidence, notably in La Queste del Saint Graal (ed. Furnivall, pp. 14 ff.) In general, it may be said that when some unusual event took place, or when some especially dainty dish was served at meat, it was the custom of Arthur to make a vow, and it became at once obligatory upon the chief knights to follow with their vows. As for vowing upon the boar, in particular, we may also cf. the Hervar Saga, in which we are told that men used to lead the Soma-boar before the king and men laid their hands on his bristles to make their vows. (Corp. Poeticum Boreale i, 405–406.)

page 578 note 1 Celtic literature is full of references to geasa, or tabus, which were laid upon various heroes and became matters of life or death to them. Sometimes the heroes knew of these geasa; sometimes not. It was geasa for Diarmaid to hunt wild boars; his enemy knew this and craftily laid a trap by which Diarmaid was induced to hunt a monstrous boar. After a desperate fight the hero was slain. Professor Kittredge cites an Irish tale in which a young champion defeats Morraha in a game of cards and says: “I lay on you the bonds of the art of the druid, not to sleep two nights in one house, nor finish a second meal at the one table, till you bring me the sword of light and news of the death of Anshgayliacht.” (Harv. Stud. and Notes, viii, 163.) Every man who entered Fenian ranks had four geasa laid upon him. “The first, never to receive a portion with a wife, but to choose her for good manners and virtues; the second, never to offer violence to any woman; the third, never to refuse any one for anything he might possess (i. e., refuse to any one); the fourth, that no single warrior should ever flee before nine (i. e., less than nine) champions.” (Hyde, Lit. Hist. Ireland, p. 373.) This account of the conditions on which a hero was admitted to Fenianship is interesting because two of the geasa coincide with Baldwin's vows against cowardice and inhospitable action, and also because the four geasa form practically a code of morals, a statement of the qualities of the ideal knight.

page 580 note 1 Silva Gadelica, ii, 111. A similar song is given on p. 124 of the same volume.

page 580 note 2 Ch. 30.

page 580 note 3 Keith-Falconer ed., p. 161.

page 580 note 4 Ibid., p. 8.

page 583 note 1 P. 164 (Keith-Falconer ed.).

page 583 note 2 P. 21 (Keith-Falconer ed.).

page 583 note 3 The Fables of Pilpay, London, 1818. The editor's name is not given.

page 583 note 4 The Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, ed. for F. L. S. by Thomas F. Crane, No. 28.

page 584 note 1 Here, as elsewhere, I am non speaking of the chronology of these stories as a matter of centuries or years. I am dealing with types, with reference to their primitive or developed forms. Of course a primitive type may be preserved long after the cycle has taken a more complicated form.

page 584 note 2 Printed in Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum.

page 584 note 3 Ed. Oesterley, No. 73.

page 584 note 4 Fabliaux ou Contes, v, 27 ff.

page 584 note 5 Ed. Schmidt, No. 23. Schmidt's note (p. 150) is very valuable and contains an extensive bibliography.

page 585 note 1 It is impossible to consider all the tales belonging to this and the following types. Some idea of the extent of the cycle may be gained from Oesterley's note in his edition of the Gesta (p. 727), where he cites Plutarch, de Garrulitate, 14; P. Alphonsus, 19; Dialog, creaturar, 93; Vincent Bellovac, Spec. mor. 3, 1, 10, p. 907; Bromyard 9, 14; Specul. Exem. 5, 97; Pelbartus, 21; Mart. Polon. ex. 8, N.; Arnoldus de Hollandia, 1, 8, 5, 2; Baldo, 3; Liber Apum, 2, 43, 3; Lucanor, 48; Bibl. des romans, p. 197; Fuggilozio, 158; Libro di nov. 18, p. 41; Boner, 100; H. Sachs, 1, 4, 383; Eyering, 2, 51; Forty Viziers, p. 235; Egenolf, 114; Memel, p. 360; Acerra philolog. 4, 39; Abraham a S. Cl. Lauberhütt, 1, 259; Zeitverkürzer, 498; Haupt's Zeitschr. 1, 407; Massmann, Kaiserchr. 3, 74. Other versions are found in Archivio per le Tradizioni Popolari, iii, 98; in Mélusine, iv, 166, and in Museon, 1884, pp. 552–560; Straparola, Night 1, Tale 7, is another example. I am indebted to Professor Kittredge for some additional parallels. Dunlop has a brief bibliographical note in Hist. Fic., i, 76. René Basset, in his Contes Populaire Berbères (p. 227) has an excellent bibliography.

page 585 note 2 Ed. Oesterley, pp. 431 ff.

page 586 note 1 No. 81 (ed. Lecoy, p. 77). Cf. also article by Th. de Puymaigre in Archivio per le Tradizioni Popolari for 1884; and also Clouston, Pop. Tales and Fictions, ii, 317.

page 586 note 2 Beloe, Oriental Apologues, cited by Clouston, op. cit., p. 318. Clouston calls attention to similar stories in the Turkish romance of the Forty Vazirs; in several collections of Italian Tales, and in Gonzenbaeh's Sicilianische Märchen.

page 586 note 3 Another version of this last story relates that the charm was “Do I not know why you rub your neck against the rock,” which also means, “Do I not know why you whet your razor.” This charm is given the king by the stupid attempts of a favorite but illiterate minister to write a complimentary verse in accordance with a test proposed by jealous companions who thought such a verse would arouse the king's anger. The dénouement is the same in both cases and the story is practically the same as that which illustrates the first maxim in the Gesta. (Clouston, op. cit., ii, 491.)

page 587 note 1 Jacobs, Celtic Fairy Tales, p. 195 ff.

page 587 note 2 Jacobs's note cites Archaelogia Britannia, 1707, ed. Lluyd; Blackwood's Magazine, May, 1818; and Lover's tale, The Three Advices. He also shows that the tale was popular in Cornwall and Wales.

page 587 note 3 Clouston, W. A., The Baker of Beanly, Folk Lore, iii, 183 ff. The Gaelic text is printed by Alex. McBain in the Celtic Magazine, July, 1887.

page 588 note 1 Wardrop, Georgian Folk-Tales, p. 110.

page 589 note 1 Ed. F. W. E. Seiler, Halle, 1882.

page 589 note 2 Cited by Seiler in his Ruodlieb, p. 52.

page 589 note 3 Bottvell, Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, 2nd Series, p. 77 ff.

page 590 note 1 Seiler's Ruodlieb, p. 52. The story is in Cuthbert Bede's The White Wife, London, 1868, p. 141.

page 590 note 2 Also cited by Seiler, who points out Spanish and Italian parallels.

page 590 note 3 Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Marchen, ii, 133.

page 590 note 4 Cf. Mistral, Lis Isclo d'Or (Avignon, 1876); Gradi, La Vigilia di Pasqua di Ceppo; Trueba, Cuentos Populares; La Enciclopedia (May, 1879); Jecklin, Volkstümliches aus Graubünden (i, 116–118); Zingerle, Lusernisches Wörterbuch (p. 69); Hahn, Contes Papulaires Grecs (p. 222); Lutolf, Sagen, bräuche und legenden aus Luzern (p. 85).

page 590 note 5 In Mélusine, iii, 514 ff. Cf. also Revue des Etudes Juives, t. xi, pp. 50–74.

page 591 note 1 Ed. K. Meyer, from an early 14th century ms.

page 591 note 2 Clouston, W. A., in Folk Lore, iii, 556 ff.

page 592 note 1 Seklemain, The Golden Maiden, pp. 141 ff.

page 592 note 2 Clouston, Eastern Romances, pp. 11 ff.

page 592 note 3 In Hazlitt's Early Popular Poetry, i, 200 ff., is an interesting account of how a merchant, being away from home on a trading expedition, bought many rich gifts for a courtesan of whom he was enamoured, and at last, thinking of his rather plain and sober-minded wife, purchased as a present for her a “peny worth of witt.” An old man sold him this counsel, which was to the effect that if he would return from a journey dressed vilely and apparently ruined, he would learn that which would profit him. He followed this advice. The courtesan spurned him, now that his money was gone, but the faithful wife was true and said that she would go out and work for him. Naturally, he reformed his method of living.

page 593 note 1 Gibbs, J. W. (tr.), Hist, of the Forty Vazirs, No. 18.

page 593 note 2 Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, p. 33. A similar tale is in North Indian Notes and Queries, iii, 327.

page 594 note 1 Steere, Swahili Tales, pp. 413–414.

page 599 note 1 Nonne Prestes Tale, ll. 93–94.

page 601 note 1 Of course the making of vows which represent one's ideals of righteous living have been known from Hebrew times down to last New Year's Day. An interesting example is found in Schiefner's Tibetan Tales (tr. by W. R. S. Ralston, Boston, 1882, p. 306). A king learns of the prosperity attending those who take the five vows and adopts the same plan. The vows are not to take the life of any living creature; not to steal the property of others; not to enter into unlawful unions; not to lie; not to drink intoxicating liquors. These five vows the king takes, and his wives, and the princes, ministers, warriors, townspeople, and country folk; all live in conformity with them. We are also informed that the tributary kings, with their people, did the same.

page 603 note 1 The Clerkes Tale, ll. 362–364.

page 604 note 1 For this suggestion that the story of Griselda is an illustration of a tendency to carry the praise of a virtue to immoral excess, and that this was a common feature of mediaeval literature, I am indebted to a paper read by Professor Kittredge before the Modern Language Conference of Harvard University, in October, 1903. Professor Kittredge did not, however, make any reference to the Baldwin story or to the fact that the story of Griselda may be considered as the story of a vow and its fulfillment.

page 604 note 2 The Clerkes Tale, l. 1177.

page 605 note 1 It may not be out of place to note that in less important respects, also, there is a suggestion of the Griselda story in this part of the Avowing. In each case, the remainder of the story relates how the steadfastness of the one who has taken the vow is tested; the tests are arranged in climactic order, the last being exaggerated to an immoral degree; there are three tests in each case; the denouement is happy.

page 606 note 1 On the importance of hospitality as a chief virtue in the mediæval period, cf. Wright, Hist. of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England, pp. 328, 329; Craigie, Scandinavian Folklore, p. 15; Guest, Mabinogion, p. 59; Silva Gadelica, ii, 154, 239; and many others.

On the disgrace involved if one's hospitality was rejected, much interesting material may be found in Kittredge, Arthur and Gorlagon (Harv. Stud, and Notes), viii, 210 ff.

On the function and privileges of the minstrels, one may consult Chambers, Mediæval Stage, i, index; Wright, op. cit., 178 ff. and 333.

page 606 note 2 For illustrations of the importance of the porter in the middle ages, see Skene, Four Anc. Bks., i, 261; Guest, Mabin., pp. 20, 220, 243, etc. There are frequent references to the “proud porter” in the ballads, e. g., King Estmere (Percy, Rel., ed. 1840, p. 18; Child, ii, 54).

page 606 note 3 The Arthur of this incident, it will be noted, is quite a different person from the Arthur of Malory. In the early part of the poem we have simply the brave king of the primitive romances. Here the treatment is more original. The king is jovial, ready to play a practical joke upon a friend, and, as Robson observes, has a shade of cunning. This view of Arthur's charactor is occasionally met elsewhere, though not in the courtly romances. In the Mule sans Frein, e. g., when Kay returns in disgrace from the quest so boldly claimed by him, Arthur goes out to meet him and, with a fine show of ceremony, seeks to lead the seneschal to claim the rewarding kiss. Others fall in with the jest, and salute Kay with great reverence; the poor blusterer is speechless for a time, then hurries from the hall in shame.

page 607 note 1 The test lasts only a few minutes, and the carl is present. Professor Kittredge thinks that in the original version the test was for the entire night and that the husband was not present.

page 607 note 2 No complete study of this cycle has yet been published. Professor Child discusses Sir Aldingar and its variants, but attempts no history of the plot and does not speak of the wager-group or the oriental versions. The late Gaston Paris (Romania, t. 32. pp. 481 ff.) discussed the wager-group, but said nothing of such very representative romances as the Erl of Tolous, Sir Aldingar, Octavian, etc., which are indubitably connected with the cycle we have now under consideration. My indebtedness to the last-named article will be apparent, and is always noted by the citation “Paris,” with the page.

page 608 note 1 Guillaume de Nevers; Guillaume de Dole; Nouvelle de Sens, Eufemia, etc. (Paris, pp. 487–491.) In the Erl of Tolous, the hero asks his captive to describe the wife of the emperor to whom the captive is subject; smitten with love for her, the earl departs forthwith to seek her favor.

page 608 note 2 Cymbeline, with the tales closely connected in plot, such as the French miracle play; Roman de Violette; Comte de Poitiers; fishwife's tale in Westward for Smelts.

page 609 note 1 Pp. 487–498.

page 610 note 1 The important element is the description of a mark on the woman's person. There is a curious story in Schiefner's Tibetan Tales (tr. Ralston, p. 230 ff), in which, it should be noted, the woman actually loves and is not falsely accused. Súsroni, the beautiful wife of King Brahmadatta, is accused of improper behavior with a young lute player, Asuga by name. The king summons Asuga and says, “If it be said that thou hast looked in sinful fashion on my dear Súsroni say then what marks her body bears.” With astonishing promptness, Asuga replies: “On her thigh is the swastika. Her breast is spiral; over her spread wreaths of Timira blossoms.” In anger the king gives the woman to her lover and both are banished.

page 610 note 2 P. 500.

page 610 note 3 P. 501.

page 610 note 4 Paris, p. 518.

page 610 note 5 ii, 1 ff; cited by Paris, p. 519.

page 611 note 1 Tawney, The Kathákoca, pp. 184–191.

page 612 note 1 The curious similarity between this situation and the story of Cordelia and Lear is suggested by Tawney, op. cit., p. 485, note.

page 612 note 2 Other stories of the love of women for a leprous or deformed person are frequently met. One is cited by Dunlop (Hist. Fiction, ii, 39; Les Trois Bossus) and tells of a wife and her humpbacked husband. It is true that she married him because he had money, but when three other humpbacks come to the castle they are royally entertained by the lady. In Schiefner's Tibetan Tales (tr. Ralston, p. 292) is the story of a woman who loves a cripple with neither hands nor feet, and who kills her husband (as she supposes), in order to enjoy her lover. She carries the cripple on her back, begging food from place to place. In the Panchatantra (iv, 5) is an account of a woman's love for a cripple who had a beautiful voice. Although her husband had recently given half his life to bring her back from the dead, she deprived him of even the small part of his existence remaining to him by pushing him into a well and setting out with her deformed lover. Other similar tales may be found in Jacobs’Hindoo Tales, p. 261, and in Ralston's tr. of Tibetan Tales, intro., p. 62. See also Kittredge, Arthur and Gorlagon, p. 188, and note.

page 613 note 1 In the romance of Nuller et Amys (summarized in Dunlop, ed. Wilson, i, 317 ff.) is an incident relating how Amys, being smitten with leprosy was driven from his own castle by his wife, “who appears to have been ignorant of the value of a husband of this description.” In a note to p. 320 it is said, “Contrary to modern medical opinion, lepers were in the Middle Ages popularly credited with great sexual vigor. Women who were willing to do so were permitted to marry lepers by the Gregorian Decretals.”

page 613 note 2 No. xcv. See notes (ed. Crane) p. 174 for bib. The exemplum occurs in several collections.

page 615 note 1 Sir Triamour.

page 615 note 2 Percy mss., ii, 393 ff.

page 615 note 3 Manuscrit de Tours, 468, 33, cited by Paris, p. 487.

page 615 note 4 Ed. Servois; cited by Paris, p. 487.

page 615 note 5 Paris, p. 490.

page 615 note 6 Ibid., pp. 490–491.

page 615 note 7 Ibid., p. 492.

page 616 note 1 Raccolta di novelle del P. Atanasio da Verrocchio, Paris, p. 494.

page 616 note 2 Gonzenbach, op. cit., i, 70; Paris, p. 495.

page 616 note 3 Pp. 496–8.

page 616 note 4 The exile and return formula.

page 616 note 5 Pp. 515 ff.

page 616 note 6 In La Royalle Couronne den Roys d'Arles, the accuser proclaims himself ready to support his charge by combat.

page 616 note 7 Child, ii, 33 ff. (No. 59).

page 617 note 1 Summarized by Child, ii, 39.

page 618 note 1 The striking parallel between this romance and Cymbeline is apparent, and has not, to my knowledge, been pointed out.

page 618 note 2 Child, ii, 33 ff.

page 619 note 1 Ed. G. Paris, in Miracles de Notre Dame, ii, 121 ff.

page 619 note 2 Summarized by Child, ii, 39.

page 619 note 3 Child (p. 39) says it is tr. from an English copy brought home by a Norseman resident in Scotland in 1287.

page 619 note 4 Child, p. 40.

page 620 note 1 Ibid., p. 41.

page 620 note 2 Octavian Imperator, Weber, iii, 161 ff.

page 623 note 1 Op. cit., ii, 43.

page 624 note 1 For an example of (2) without (1) cf. Bidpai's Fables, ed. Keith-Falconer, p. 104 ff. An example of (1) without (2) was cited just above.

page 627 note 1 Professor Child considered the magic sword a distinctly Northern clement (op. cit., ii, 35).

page 627 note 2 Summarized by Child from Gruntvig.

page 628 note 1 Of course there are a few variations, in the eleven versions, such as the substitution (rare) of ordeal for battle. These are noted by Child, pp. 35–37. Ravengaard is the name of the steward in the sixteenth century Danish poem; Ravnlil in the other seven.

page 629 note 1 Child, ii, 39. The original text is in the Karlamagnus Saga, Af Fru Olif oh Landres, Unger, p. 51.

page 630 note 1 See Child, ii, 39, 40.

page 630 note 2 For references and summaries, cf. Child, 40, 41.

page 631 note 1 Child, ii, 34.

page 631 note 2 The Erl of Tolous, Berlin, 1881.

page 635 note 1 It is noticeable that in the later tales a knight was substituted for a leper; this marks the progress of taste. The Erl of Tolous is a good example. As already noted, in the Norse variants of the Sibilla group a handsome thrall, and not an ugly dwarf, is declared to be the object of the lady's affections.

page 636 note 1 It will be remembered that Gawain, when placed in a similar situation (Carle of Carelyle) is very far from being embarrassed.