DERECHO COMPARADO

That wormes foode is fine of our living (p. 1043: 633-640). However, the impression of this picture upon the memory of the death image would not necessarily evoke a morally positive response on the part of the audience. As it stands, the picture of the worm-eaten king certainly would "contain" the emotion or intentio of fear, but there could be little guarantee that this emotion would lead to virtuous action. Using roughly the same technique as Gower, Lydgate provides— at the conclusion of the initial hearing of the exempla— an explicit moralisation which supplements the bodily or sensory "imprint" of the the various images with a morally appropriate intentio. Lydgate guides his audience's response to the "mirrour" of the dead king by supplying them with an assessment of the sensory memory image, a response or

"point of view" (intentio) which they are to incorporate within their memory of the sensory imprint of the "daunce":

174 But as a winde which is transitory.

Al Passing ay forth, whether he wake or winke.

Toward this daimce, haueth this in memorye, Remember^mg aye there is no better victory

In this life here than fie syn at the least (p. 1043: 641- 646).

Lydgate"s phrasing of his concluding moralisation strongly suggests an awareness, on his part, of the necessity for ensuring that the "memory" of the "dance" is supplemented by "rememberyng" that the best way to live is to "fie syn." The emotion of fear which the image of the dead king evokes and "contains" might "move" the listener to "wanhope" or

spiritual despair. In view of this possibility the moralisation is provided by Lydgate as the essential "response" or intentio which the audience roust have "toward this daunce."

It is interesting to note that both Gower and Lydgate place their audience in the position of experiencing a strong emotion just prior to their successfuly recollecting and establishing a postive moral habitus. In the case of Âmans the emotion is "sorwe", in Lydgate's text the

picture of the dead king evokes a strong sense of fear or foreboding. In both oases these emotions appear to function in terms of a necessary stage preparatory to the reception of the prudential moralisation or "considered judgement." Lydgate and Gower initially portray their "audiences" as "blind" or "hard-hearted" in disposition, yet after

hearing the exempla they are "moved" towards a more positive disposition which marks a vital step to the completion of a morally correct response

{intentio). The emotions of "gmmme" or "fear" are themselves part of

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the overall intentdo contained by the memory "likenesses" of the

exempla, but the intentio cannot be described as morally complete until the audience has also responded affirmatively to the moralisation of the

exempla. With a morally complete response (intentio)— embodied, as it were, by the memory "likenesses" imprinted on the brain— the individual would then be able to exercise his memory (habitus) as the necessary pre-condition to the exercise of prudence.

If we compare the exempliua with the structuring schematic image or metaphor, it becomes apparent that in the case of the exemplim the reader's response to the narrative does not necessarily include a "considered judgement" of the narrative's ethical or doctrinal message.

As we have seen in the case of Amans, a reader may respond emotionally to exempla, but in order for him to appropriate the narratives or narrative as a morally correct habitus he may require "hands-on"

guidance in the form of an explicit "moralisation" from the preacher or compiler. With the schematic image, the anatomization and doctrinal tagging of the various parts of the image ensures that a close union is maintained between "picture and precept". Even the potentially

narrative progression within such a tree-image from, say, root-trunk- branch-leaves and finally to fruit or, as in the case of Langland's allegorical "way to Truth", from outside the castle to within its walls, consistently merge the media with the message.

In the use of the exemplum the greater "distance" between the

'Aj

narrative and its didactic moralisation allows for an initial emotive i and subjective response on the part of the audience towards the -j narrative, a response which, as we have seen, the skillful narrator is ]

176

quick to channel towards a more "objective" and didactically ethical judgement of the tale's meaning. In the Confessio Asiautis Gower incorporates Amaiis' initial subjective response as part of the larger narrative frame of the work itself, a teclmique which allows him— as compiler— then to guide Anians towards an morally sound response to the

exempla. A similar technique occurs in Langland's allegory of the

figurai journey to Truth in Passus V, where after having presented the ./j alternative entrances to the castle— the "posternes" guarded by the j seven remedial virtues— Langland portrays the full emotional response A

. 4

of the "kut-mirs", the "apeward", and the "wafprestere", and then uses #

I

their rather despairing emotions as an opportunity for Piers to explain ^

1

the role of both the Virgin Mary and Christ as intercessors for those | who lack virtue (see above pp. 153-154).

In both of these instances response to the exempla or allegory is j

itself represented as part of the over all structure of the work. The

various exempla in the Confessio Amantis are effectively stories within j the "larger story" of Amans' progression from sinful love to love for j

I

God. Likewise the depiction of the figurai journey in Passus V stands | within the larger narrative framework involving a confused fictional

audience anxious to find their way to Truth. This technique easily shrinks the "distance" between the narrative and the didactic message which follows it, since (in both examples) once the exempla have been related or the "way to Truth" described, there is still the expectation- - on our part— that we will be shown how the stories or figurai images "answer" to the needs of fictional audience. We see Gower using this audience expectation in the Confessio Amæitis in order to ensure that with the end of the "story-telling" phase of his work (the exempla) he

177 '4

is still able to hold his audience's attention by shifting back to the

larger narrative context of ■' confession. From the didactic point '4 of view, this shift allows Gower to place the moralisation or didactic J message within the larger narrative as an event rather than having to É

I