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Chaucer and the Ovide Moralisé

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

John Livingston Lowes
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Extract

The Ovide moralisé is a portentous performance of about seventy-two thousand lines, extant in some seventeen manuscripts. Fragments of it were printed by Tarbé under the title of Œuvres de Philippe de Vitry, and the first volume of a critical text of the entire poem, edited by Professor de Boer of Amsterdam, is now in print. The work, with its mixture of fairly close translation and amazing allegorization of the Metamorphoses is discussed at length by Gaston Paris in its relation to other mediaeval translations or imitations of Ovid. And in de Boer's Introductions and articles will be found all necessary bibliographical apparatus.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , 1918 , pp. 302 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1918

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References

1 See C. de Boer, Philomena, conte raconté d'après Ovide par Chrétien de Troyes, Paris, 1909, pp. 5 ff.; ibid., Pyrame et Thisbé, in Verhandelingen de Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks, Deel xii, No. 3, pp. 30 ff.

2 Collection des Poètes de Champagne, Vol. viii, Reims, 1850.

3 Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks, Deel xv (April, 1915). This volume contains Books I-III of the O. m. Professor de Boer has also published critical texts of the stories (from the O. m.) of Philomena and of Pyramus and Thisbe (see above, n. 1). The latter tale is included in Barbazon and Méon, Fabliaux et Contes, iv, pp. 326 ff. There is also a very poor edition of the Phaeton fable from the O. m. by Dr. Heinrich Kehrli (Bern, 1877).

4 Hist. litt. de la France, xxix, pp. 455–525. See also Léopold Sudre, Publii Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon libros quomodo nostrates medii aevi poetae imitati interpretatique sint, Paris, 1893, pp. 93 ff.

5 See above, notes 1 and 3.

6 Romania, xli, pp. 94 ff.; xlii, pp. 76 ff.; xliii, pp. 238 ff., 325 ff.

7 See Romania, xiii, p. 399.

8 For a full discussion of the problem see de Boer's introduction to Philomena, pp. v-cxx.

9 Leg. 2244–48.

10 Met., vi, 424–28. I follow the critical text of Magnus.

11 Leg., 2246.

12 Phil., 6–10. I shall use the abbreviation Phil. for the Philomena excerpt, as printed by de Boer.

13 Leg., 2249–50.

14 Met., vi, 428–29.

15 Phil., 15–17.

16 Leg., 2251–52.

17 Met., vi, 430–31.

18 Phil., 28–31.

19 Leg., 2253.

20 Met., vi, 431–32.

20a See 1. 29 above.

21 Phil., 20–23.

22 Leg., 2254.

23 Phil., 24–26.

24 Leg., 2255–58.

25 Leg., 2259.

26 Met., vi, 438–39.

27 Phil., 49–51.

28 Leg., 2260–62.

29 Phil., 52–55.

30 Leg., 2263–67.

31 Met., vi, 440–44.

32 Phil., 55–64.

33 Leg., 2268–69.

34 Leg., 2270.

35 Met., vi, 444–45.

36 Phil., 69–72.

37 Leg., 2271–72.

39 Leg., 2272–78.

38 Met., vi, 445–48.

40 Met., vi, 449–50.

40a Tereus elsewhere limits the time to “tant solemant trois jourz ou quatre” (1. 515), or “quinzàinne” (1. 535). Chaucer more carefully observes the demands of verisimilitude.

41 Phil., 106–121.

41a Chaucer, like the O. m., consistently uses the form with n instead of l (Incipit Legenda Philomene; Explicit Legenda Philomene; ll. 2274, 2289, 2339). That, however, was the common spelling in medieval Latin manuscripts of Ovid, especially in the case of those copied in France. For references see de Boer, Phil., p. 97, note on l. 4, and cf. pp. 123 ff. Boccaccio follows the same spelling in De Geneal. Deorum, ix, 8. No valid conclusion, accordingly, can be drawn from the form of the name.

42 See below, p. 313.

43 Met., vi, 505–10; Phil., 710, 722–26; cf. 552–55. Philomela's tears (Leg., 2284) are Chaucer's addition.

44 Leg., 2291. All the mss. except B and F read “beaute” instead of “bountee.”

45 Met., vi, 451–52.

46 Phil., 170–72.

47 Leg., 2305–07.

48 Phil., 684–85.

50 Leg., 2307.

50 Met., vi, 510.

51 Phil., 725–27.

52 Phil., pp. xciii-xciv.

53 Leg., 2308 = Met., vi, 511–12; 2309 = 519–20 (Chaucer omits the account of Tereus's gloating over his prey, 513–18); 2310 = 521 (cf. Phil., 733); 2315–17 = 522–23 (cf. Phil., 801–03); 2318–22 = 527–30 (the simile is used by Ovid after, by Chaucer before, the account of Philomela's violation; it is omitted in O. m.) ; 2328–29 = 525–26. The account of the rape of Philomena in O. m. (730–882) occupies 152 lines, as against Ovid's 51, and Chaucer's 33.

54 The cave (2311–12), for instance, is neither Ovid's “stabula alta” (521), nor the O. m.'s “meison gaste” (731). Leg., 2327, 2339–41, are Chaucer's additions.

55 Leg., 2310, 2312–13.

56 Met., vi, 520–521.

57 Phil., 738–41, 745.

58 Leg., 2330–34.

59 Met., vi, 549–51.

60 Phil., 844–52.

61 Leg., 2350–53.

62 Phil., 188–193. See above, p. 308.

62a See Phil., pp. 14–15, 37 n.

62b On the other hand, Chrétien has skilfully motivated in quite different fashion the manner in which Philomena hit upon the device of the web. See ll. 1086 ff., and de Boer's note (p. 114) on ll. 1091–94.

62c “Radevore” (Leg., 2352) remains a mysterious word. Skeat's explanation (see Oxford Chaucer, iii, pp. 342–43; Notes Eng. Etym., pp. 239–40), following Urry, and followed, with a query, by the NED., is difficult to accept. Ras does not appear in Godefroy, and seems to be a sixteenth-century word (see NED., under rash, sb.2). Vaur is Lavaur (I have not at present access to documents that would give its fourteenth-century form). The word, whatever its origin, obviously means either a stuff, or a pattern of some sort woven in a stuff. Either sense would fit the only other known occurrence of the word, in Tanner ms. 346. If it refers to a stuff, “radevore” corresponds to “baudequin,” or “diaspre” (or “or de soye”) in the O. m.; if it means a design, it is probably suggested by Philomena's portrayal of “la mesniee Hellequin” (see Godefroy, under Hellequin). I have not yet given up the riddle of its origin. Nor am I certain that “stole” in the same line has been correctly interpreted.

63 Leg., 2354–55.

64 Phil., 1147–53.

65 Met., vi, 577.

66 Met., vi, 571. Compare Phil., 1144.

66a Ovid (Met., vi, 501) has also “vestes.” In the O. m. it is a “cortine” (ll. 1131, 1185, 1195, 1225, 1230, 1235).

66b Compare Met., vi, 578: “indicium sceleris.”

67 Leg., 2361–65.

68 Phil., 1120–33.

69 Ovid (Met., vi, 577) has “notas,” which seems to imply writing. Boccaccio (De Geneal. Deorum, ix, 8) has “omnia acu scripsit.”

69a Boccaccio (De Geneal. Deorum) : “per ancillulam sorori misit.”

70 Leg., 2361–62.

71 Met., vi, 579.

72 Phil., 1193–96. See also below.

73 Leg., 2369–70.

74 Phil., 1202–05.

75 Leg., 2371.

76 Met., vi, 579–80.

77 Phil., 1234; cf. 1196.

78 Ovid, of course, also developes with obvious relish and in considerable detail the subject of Tereus's guilty love; the writer of the O. m. was by no means without clear hints on which to speak. But Chaucer deals in cavalier fashion even with Ovid's somewhat heightened treatment of the theme, and omits the most of it.

79 Gower's version of the story, fluent, but fluent “like running lead,” is found in Conf. Amantis, v, 5551 ff. There is no indication of any use of the Philomena.

80 Romanic Review, viii, pp. 383–400.

81 Quoted in Romania, xlii, p. 336.

82 Compare the remark of Professor Lanson (Revue universitaire, xxii, p. 115), quoted by de Boer (Romania, xliii, p. 352) : “Il est difficile de départager l'influence des textes anciens et celle de leurs traductions. Mais il apparait que les traductions sont la voie la plus ordinairement employée pour parvenir aux idées du texte.”

83 Romania, xliii, pp. 335–52: “Guillaume de Machaut et l'Ovide moralisé.”

84 Romania, xliii, p. 352.

85 Romania, xii, pp. 382 ff.

86 Oxford Chaucer, iii, p. 334.

87 Leg., 1924–27.

88 Compare Leg., 1928–31:

This Minos hath a monstre, a wicked beste,

That was so cruel that, without areste,

Whan that a man was broght in his presence,

He wold him ete, ther helpeth no defence.

Servius, however, may come in here: “unde natus est Minotaurus, qui intra labyrinthum inclusus humanis carnibus vescebatur” (ed. Thilo and Hagen, ii, 6). It should be observed that neither Machaut nor the O. m. (see below, n. 95) name the Minotaur, referring to it simply as “un moustre.” It is worth noting that Chaucer does not name the Minotaur until l. 2104. Up to that point it is “a monstre” (l. 1928), “this monstre” (1. 1991), “a wikked beste” (l. 1928), “his beste” (l. 1939; cf. ll. 1998, 2005, 2008, 2019), “this fend” (l. 1996).

89 Leg., 1932–39.

90 Leg., 1943–47.

91 Le Jugement dou Roy de Navarre, in Hæpffner, Œuvres de Guillaume de Maohaut (Société des anc. textes français), i, pp. 230 ff. For Chaucer's use of the Jugement elsewhere, see Kittredge, Mod. Philol., vii, pp. 471–74, and esp. PMLA., xxx, pp. 3–4, 14–15.

92 Met., viii, 169–171.

92a It is of course possible that “children” may refer, not to the number sent each year, but to the number taken collectively.

93 Boccaccio, De Geneal. Deorum, x, 48: “ut . . . annis singulis septem nobiles iuuenes ad Minotaurum in cretam mitterentur”; Servius, i, 352 (Aen., iii, 74) : “et quotannis ex nobilitate Atheniensium septem pueri vel puellae ad vescendum Minotauro mitterentur”; Servius, ii, 6 (Aen., vi, 14): “ut singulis quibusque annis septem de filiis et filiabus suis edendos Minotauro mitterent”; Hyginus, Fab., 41 (= Mythogr., 2.122): “ut anno unoquoque septenos liberos suos Minotauro ad epulandum mitterent”; Hyginus, Poeticon astronomicon, cap. v: “Theseus . . . cum septem virginibus et sex pueris”; Mythogr., 3.11.7: “Filios vero Atheniensium, qui ad Minotaurum devorandi mittebantur”; Lactantius, Narrationes Fabularum; vii, 2: “nobilium liberi quotannis,” etc.; cf. Gower, Conf. Amantis, v, 5261–65: “fro yer to yeere ... Of men that were of myhti Age Persones nyne.”

94 De Geneal. Deorum, x, 48: “qui tribus annis sorte missi sunt. quarta autem sors cecidit in Theseum”; Servius, ii, 6: “sed tertio anno Aegei filius Theseus missus est”; Ovid., Met., viii, 171: “et Actaeo bis pastum sanguine monstrum tertia sors annis domuit repetita novenis.” Gower's misunderstanding of this last (not very clear) passage is evidently responsible for his “persones nyne.” For three, cf. also Lactantius, Narrationes Fabularum, viii, 2: “tertio stipendio.”

96 Romania, xliii, p. 343.

96 Campare further:

G. de M. O. m.

Or avint que li sors cheï Au tiers terme chei la sort

Seur Theseus. . . . Dessus le fil au roi d'Athaines,

. . . car il fu fils le roy. Theseus. . . .

Til that of Athenes king Egeus

Mit sende his owne sone, Theseus,

Sith that the lot is fallen him upon (Leg., 1944–46.)

Servius (see above, n. 94) has “Aegi filius Theseus,” in connection with the phrase “tertio anno.”

Chaucer, Machaut, and the O. m. agree in the assertion that Theseus was chosen by lot, as against the common account that he went voluntarily to Crete. Compare Hyginus, Fab., xli: “Theseus . . . voluntarte se ad Minotaurum pollicitus est ire.” See Hœpffner, i, lxxvi; de Boer, p. 343. But Boccaccio represents the lot as falling upon Theseus: “septem nobiles iuuenes . . . qui tribus annis sorte missi sunt, quarta autem sors cecidit in Theseum” (De Geneal. Deorum, x, 48).

96a Jugement, etc., 2741–49.

97 Jugement, 2763–69.

98 Jugement, 2755–58.

99 Ibid., 2750–51.