Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Prophecy as Social Influence: Cassandra, Anne Neville, and the Corpus Christi Manuscript of Troilus and Criseyde
- 2 The Science of Female Power in John Metham's Amoryus and Cleopes
- 3 A Woman's “Crafte”: Sexual and Chivalric Patronage in Partonope of Blois
- 4 Creative Revisions: Competing Figures of the Patroness in Thomas Chestre's Sir Launfal
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Volumes already published
1 - Prophecy as Social Influence: Cassandra, Anne Neville, and the Corpus Christi Manuscript of Troilus and Criseyde
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Prophecy as Social Influence: Cassandra, Anne Neville, and the Corpus Christi Manuscript of Troilus and Criseyde
- 2 The Science of Female Power in John Metham's Amoryus and Cleopes
- 3 A Woman's “Crafte”: Sexual and Chivalric Patronage in Partonope of Blois
- 4 Creative Revisions: Competing Figures of the Patroness in Thomas Chestre's Sir Launfal
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Volumes already published
Summary
In a late twelfth-century French chanson de geste, Raoul de Cambrai, the hero engages in a vicious and, ultimately, self-destructive feud with his former closest friend and ally, Bernier. Raoul's lack of moderation – in matters of revenge and in the desire for political and chivalric advancement – has placed him in this position. To a great extent, his immoderation is worsened by his resistance to accepting his mother's sage counsel. Beginning in stanza 48 of the poem, the Lady Aalais chides her son for failing to fight for his own birthright, which was given to another knight to hold in trust until Raoul reached maturity: “Toute la terre Taillefer le hardi, / Le tien chier pere qe je pris mari, / Te rendist ore, par la soie merci, / Car trop en a Mancel esté servi. / Je me mervelg qe tant l'as consenti, / Qe grant piece a ne l'as mort ou honni.” Raoul ignores his mother's advice that he pursue his own just inheritance and, instead, informs Aalais that he has been granted the lands of the recently deceased Count Herbert by the king of France, a gift that will dispossess Herbert's four sons and cause them to seek revenge on Raoul and his men. When she hears this news, Aalais begins a lengthy emotional campaign to dissuade her son, stating “longement t'ai norri; / Qi te donna Peronne et Origni, / Et S. Quentin, Neele et Falevi, / [Et] Ham et Roie et la tor de Clari, / De mort novele, biax fix, te ravesti. / Laisse lor terre, por amor Dieu t'en pri.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Women's Power in Late Medieval Romance , pp. 17 - 52Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011