We began, some pages ago, with James Wimsatt’s three hypotheses: (a) that Oton de Granson may have been the compiler of the Pennsylvania manuscript; (b) that this volume may be the “livre de messire Othes de Grantson” mentioned in Isabeau of Bavaria’s accounts; and (c) that the fifteen lyrics marked “Ch” may be representing Granson’s inclusion of French lyric by his English contemporary and friend Geoffrey Chaucer into the collection. In the course of revisiting these claims, we have considered the Pennsylvania manuscript within its broader context, looking at once at other
109 French courts, as well as at other collections of formes fixes lyric—those of Machaut, those of other lyric anthologies, and those of musical repertory manuscripts—
contemporary to or produced slightly later within the period. Placing the manuscript within this context, it has become apparent that our very approach of thinking about a lyric anthology in terms of its inclusion of major poets is in need of some revision. Even complete collected-works codices centered on a specific author, like Machaut, evince a profound interest in organizing formes fixes lyric by their individual forms, sometimes going so far as to separate specific forms out into discrete sections, like we saw in Paris, BnF, MS fr. 9221. The royal library inventory of Charles V and Charles VI, meanwhile, has demonstrated for us that lyric anthologies and musical repertory manuscripts were itemized by the individual lyric forms contained within them, rather than by their authors.
This focus on form is brought to its apotheosis in the retrospective project of the Pennsylvania anthology, which brings together lyrics from all over Francophone Europe in the service of the literary history that it seeks to construct. In looking more closely at the formal features of the lyrics marked “Ch” and their specific placement and
organization within the manuscript, moreover, we discern that the collection as a whole is fundamentally concerned with telling the story, through its organization of individual lyric, of the historical formal development of formes fixes lyric from a more musical to a more literary form in the latter decades of the fourteenth century. If the manuscripts of Machaut’s formes fixes lyric, other lyric anthologies, and the library entries used to describe such collections demonstrate the significance of form over authorship as the dominant principle behind categorizing this kind of lyric, then the Pennsylvania
110 manuscript reveal a new project of theorizing the role of form in the formes fixes as a genre. As I will show in the rest of this project, the Pennsylvania anthology’s compiler were hardly alone in this desire to theorize the formes fixes.
The geographical scope of the Pennsylvania manuscript aptly illustrates the enormous spread of formes fixes lyric all over Francophone Europe. The manuscript’s close textual ties, in its selection of materials evidently anthologized early on with the lyric of Machaut, to a network of manuscripts extending across the Low Countries and Northern Italy further showcases the expansive diffusion of formes fixes lyric all across late medieval Europe, a Europe that was, at this point in time, heavily at war. Our earlier discussion of the single gathering-sized set of lyrics by Granson, that contains a version of the Cinq balades ensievans close to the one used by Chaucer, which resurfaces in interesting ways in the 1430s compilation of John Shirley, also reminds us of the extreme portability of this lyric across regional—and generational—divides. The fifteenth-century Barcelona manuscript of Granson’s work, evidently produced from an exemplar going back to the days of Granson’s Spanish captivity in 1372-74, cogently illustrates the ways in which the Hundred Years War, in its displacement of troops all around its multiple theaters, paradoxically fostered close cultural contact between peoples who, despite their political and linguistic differences, had, nevertheless, strong shared cultural interests and investments.
In this chapter, we have been teasing out the indelible centrality of concerns surrounding form to the formes fixes genre on the grand scale of the codex. In the next chapter, we are going to narrow initially our focus on the opening set of lyrics in the
111 Pennsylvania manuscript in order to consider another way in which the sophisticated anthologistic sequencing of individual formes fixes lyrics can be used not, this time, to reflect on the formes fixes as a genre but in order to produce political meaning. As we may recall from earlier in this chapter, the opening set of lyrics in the Pennsylvania manuscript are mostly pastourelles, and, as we will further see, they function as a stand- alone, self-contained cycle that levies, through its careful internal organization, a
powerful critique of the ongoing Hundred Years War from the perspective of inhabitants of Hainault. As I will go on to show, the Pennsylvania manuscript is not unique in its inclusion of politicized pastourelles of this kind, for we have similar types of lyric written by the Champenois Deschamps and the Hainuyer Froissart, which also levy their own individuated critiques of the war, though each author offers a strikingly different position on the conflict that speaks to his own particular geopolitics. By opening his literary history of the formes fixes with a sharp vilification of the Hundred Years War, the Pennsylvania manuscript’s compiler is responding to the emergence of formes fixes lyric in the late fourteenth century as a powerful vehicle for critiquing, commenting on, and theorizing the disastrous effects of the Hundred Years War on Francophone Europe. At the same time, as the close literary ties between Pennsylvania’s pastourelles and those of Froissart and Deschamps will show, the widespread borrowing of formes fixes lyric across those same regions helped advance cross-regional cultural contact and community, despite war’s ravages.
112
Keeping the Wolves at Bay:
Borrowing the Pastourelle for Political Critique
In investigating the question of whether “Ch” may be interpreted as Chaucer in the previous chapter we arrived at the conclusion that to read “Ch” as necessarily standing in for any kind of author figure was counter-productive to the evident organizational interests of the Pennsylvania manuscript itself. Looking instead at the lyrics’ formal structure and their placement within the manuscript has revealed the Pennsylvania anthology to be invested in the project of constructing a literary history for the formes fixes genre, a literary history concerned, moreover, less with authors and far more with the major developmental changes to individual forms of formes fixes lyric that result in its “literary turn.” The previous chapter’s discussion has therefore raised two significant points. Firstly, the organizational project of the Pennsylvania manuscript, together with Deschamps’ writing of a nearly contemporary ars poetica for the formes fixes, L’Art de dictier, which was to spawn a series of derivative treatises over the course of the whole fifteenth century, points to a profound late medieval interest in
taxonomizing this particular lyric genre, specifically in terms of its individual forms. Secondly, the starting point of our discussion—do the “Ch” lyrics constitute examples of the “balades, roundels, virelayes” (F. 423) that Alceste claims the Chaucer-I figure of the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women has written over the course of his lifetime?— reminds us that this lyric genre readily crossed the boundaries of regions locked, within this period, in bitter struggle over succession to the French throne.
113 In this chapter we are going to examine the ways in which late medieval
engagement with form in formes fixes lyric was able to facilitate cross-regional borrowing, thus building literary community, while simultaneously articulating
geopolitical divisions during the Hundred Years War. To this end, I consider three late- fourteenth century corpora of formes fixes lyric, belonging to the genre of the pastourelle: the first by an anonymous poet from Hainault, extant only in the Pennsylvania
manuscript,145 the second by Eustache Deschamps, and the third by Jean Froissart.146 The unknown Hainuyer poet, along with Deschamps and Froissart, all use a particular
variation on the pastourelle, which was a lyric genre depicting pastoral themes that was integrated within the formes fixes in the early fourteenth century. In the three poets’ unusual variation on this formes fixes sub-type, the implicit social criticism, that is, as some scholars have argued, a perennial feature of the pastourelle, becomes transformed into historically specific political discussions of the Hundred Years War. The close ties of these politicized pastourelles with traditional pastourelle motifs, as well as their intimate literary relationship to one another, are signalled by the lyrics’ opening lines. The anonymous Hainyuer poet has three pastourelles that open in the following way:
145 Conceivably, the pastourelle section of the Pennsylvania manuscript may have been authored by more than one person, but its sophisticated organization, which highlights and enhances over-arching themes threading through the entire cycle, as well as the evidence pointing to its independent circulation outside the manuscript (all discussed below), strongly suggest the existence of a single author, or compiler, behind the cycle. For simplicity’s sake, I will refer to this figure as “the anonymous Hainuyer poet” and use the pronoun “he,” though, of course, female authorship is not outside the realm of possibility. In their edition of this corpus, Kibler and Wimsatt (“Development,” 25) see the works as a unified corpus, but not as a narrtive cycle.
146 Edited, respectively, in Kibler and Wimsatt, “Development”; Deschamps, Œuvres, II, 1-2 (no. 315), III, 45-49 (nos. 336, 337), 51-53 (no. 339), 62-64 (no. 344), and 93-95 (no. 359); and Jean Froissart, Œuvres, ed. Auguste Scheler (Bruxelles: Victor Devau, 1871), II, 307-52, and The Lyric Poems of Jehan Froissart: A Critical Edition, ed. Rob Roy McGregor, Jr. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1975), 151-93; citations of Froissart from this latter edition. (NB: the two editions number the pastourelles differently, I am following McGregor’s system.) All translations are my own.
114 Table 9. Opening Formulae of the Anonymous Hainuyer Poet’s Pastourelles
no. original text translation modern location
4 De sa Amiens plusieurs bergiers trouvay...
By Amiens I came across several shepherds ... halfway between Paris and Calais
5 Plusieurs bergiers et bergerelles
Choisi l’autrier seans en un larris
I spotted the other day several Shepherds and shepherdesses, sitting in a fallow field
not applicable
6 Trois bergiers d’ancien aez Pour le chault dessoubz un buisson ...
Trouvay
I came across three shepherds of advanced age Beneath a bush because of the heat
not applicable
As we can see, these opening lines follow a largely stable template. Deschamps’ pastourelles open in a remarkably similar manner:
Table 10. Opening Formulae of Eustache Deschamps’ Pastourelles
no. original text translation modern location
336 L’autrier si com je m’en venoie De Busancy, de Setenay Oy plusiers gens en ma voie
The other day when I was coming From Buzancy and Stenay I heard several people on my way
approx. halfway between Rheims and the Franco- Belgian border 337 N’a pas long temps que m’en
aloye
En pelerinaige a Boulogne Femmes trouvay enmi ma voye
Not long ago when I was headed To Boulogne-Sur-Mer on pilgrimage I came across some women on my way
Calais coastal region
339 L’autre jour vi un charruier Bien pres du pont de Charenton
The other day I saw a ploughman Quite close to Charenton-Le-Pont
outside of Paris
344 Antre Beau Raym et le parc de Hedin
Ou moys d’aoust qu’om soye les fromens,
M’en aloye jouer par un matin. Si vi bergiers et bergieres aux champs
Between Beaurain and the park of Hesdin In the month of August when one reaps the wheat,
I was headed out for pleasure one morning. And I saw shepherds and shepherdesses in the fields ...
Artois region outside of Arras, of which Beaurain is now a suburb
359 Entre Guynes, Sangates et Callays,
Soubz une saulz assez pres du marcage
De pastoureaulx estoit la un grand plays
Between Guines, Sangatte and Calais Under a willow quite near a fen There was a big discussion between shepherds
Calais coastal region
1009 Entre Espargnay et Damery Vi pastoures et pastoureaulx En la praerie pres d’Ay
Between Épernay and Damery I saw old and young shepherds In the meadow near Ay
near Rheims, in Champagne
1058 En un pais plein du soulas Vy chevauchier [au] petit pas Esperance, Leesce et Joye ... La avoit pastours et tropeaulx De jeusnes brebis et
d’aingneaulx
In a pleasant region ... I saw riding at a small step Hope, Delight and Joy ... There were shepherds and herds Of young sheep and lambs ...
115 Deschamps too sets up his pastourelle in the exact same manner as the anonymous
Hainuyer poet above, though he is, we notice, often much more specific about his
geography, locating his traveler on a midpoint between two particular cities or towns. He also has his narrator encounter other types of laborers beyond shepherds, such as a ploughman in one case and peasant women in another; in the case of no. 359, furthermore, the traveler-narrator is missing. Deschamps also deploys traces of this model in a different kind of lyric, represented by the final example, which transports us into a purely allegorical landscape, without geographic markers, but is still identifiably related to this pastourelle corpus by its opening lines.
The final of our three poets, Jean Froissart, is also the most prolific in his use of this form, and his opening formulae leave no doubt as to the close literary ties between his corpus and that of Deschamps and the anonymous Hainuyer poet. I give here the opening lines from fifteen of his pastourelles, omitting the other five that, like
Deschamps’ allegorical treatment above, lack geographic specificity but do also open in the exact same way as those of the other two poets above:
Table 11. Opening Formulae of Jean Froissart’s Pastourelles
no. original text translation modern location
1 Entre Aubrecicourt et Mauni Priés dou cemin, sus le gaschiere, L’autre jour maint bregier oï
Between Auberchicourt and Masny Near the road, on the fallow field, The other day I heard many shepherds
in northeastern France, between Douai and Valenciennes (medieval Hainault)
2 Entre Eltem et Westmoustier, En une belle praerie, Cuesi pastouriaus avant ier
Between Eltham and Westminster In a beautiful meadow
The day before yesterday I spotted peasants
outside of London (between two of the royal residences of the 14th century English kings) 3 Pour aler a Melun sus Sainne
Ens ou droit chemin de Paris, Aussi dalés une fontainne Vi l’autrier bregiers jusqu’a sis
To go to Melun along the Seine Straight from Paris,
By a spring
The other day I saw shepherds having just sat down
between Paris and Fontainebleu, along the Seine
116
4 Entre le Louviere et Praiaus L’autre jour deus bregiers oï
Between La Louvière and Praiaus(?) The other day I heard two shepherds
east of Mons, Belgium (medieval Hainault) 5 Ens uns beaus prés vers et jolis,
Assés prés de Bonne Esperance, Bregieres et bregiers assis Vi l’autre ier en bonne ordenance
In a beautiful, green and pretty field, Quite close to Bonne-Espérance, I saw the other day shepherds
And shepherdesses seated in an orderly fashion
outskirts of Estinnes, Belgium, south-east of Mons (medieval Hainault)
6 Entre Binch et le bos de Hainne En l’ombre d’un vert arbrissiel Vi bregieretes en grant painne L’autre jour, pour faire un capel
Between Binche and Haine forest, In the shadow of a green sapling, I saw little shepherdesses the other day Taking great pains to make a wreath
Binche, Belgium (medieval Hainault)
7 Entre le Roes et le Louviere Vi awoen dessous un ourmel ... Mainte touse et maint pastourel
Between Le Roeulx and La Louvière I saw under an elm
Many young girls and many shepherds
north-east of Mons (medieval Hainault)
8 Entre Luniel et Montpellier Moult priés d’une grant abbeïe Vi pastourielles avant ier
Between Lunel and Montpellier Very close to a large abbey I saw shepherdesses the day before yesterday
southern coast of France
9 En un biau pré vert et plaisant, Par dessus Gave la riviere, Entre Pau et Ortais seant, Vi l’autrier ensi qu’a prangiere Maint bregier et mainte bregiere
In a beautiful and pleasant green field By the River Gave,
Located between Pau and Orthez, I saw the other day at lunchtime
Many shepherds and many shepherdesses
Franco-Spanish border (Orthez was the medieval royal seat of Gaston Phébus)
11 Entre Lagni sus Marne et Miaus, Prés d’un bos en une valee, Pastourelles et pastouriaus Vi l’autrier en une assamblee
Between Lagny-sur-Marne and Meaux Near the forest in a valley,
Shepherds and shepherdesses I saw the other day in a group
just east of Paris
12 Entre Lille et le Warneston Hors dou chemin en une pree, Vi le jour d’une Ascention... De pastoureaus grant assamblee
Between Lille and Warneton Beyond the road in a field
I saw on the Feast of the Ascension A large group of shepherds
between Lille, France and the modern Franco- Belgian border (medieval Flanders, post-1369 part of Burgundy)
14 Assés prés de Roumorentin En l’ombre de deus arbrisseaus, Vi l’autre jour en un gardin Pastourelles et pastoureaus
Quite near Romorantin-Lathenay In the shadow of two saplings, I saw the other day in a garden Shepherdesses and shepherds
approx. halfway between Blois and Bourges (medieval residence of Jean de Berry) 15 Assés prés dou castiel dou Dable,
Liquels est au conte Daufin, Vi l’autre ier ordonner leur table Breghiers et breghieres ...
Quite near the castle of Dable(?), Which is in the County of Dauphiné, I saw the other day arranging their table Shepherds and shepherdesses ...
Dauphiné is in the south- east of France, by the Franco-Italian border, medieval capital Grenoble 16 Assés prés du Bourch la Roÿne,
En l’ombre d’un vert arbrissel, Vi l’autrier a l’eure qu’on disne, Mainte touse et maint pastourel
Quite close to Bourg-la-Reine, In the shadow of a green sapling, I saw the other day at lunchtime Many young girls and many shepherds
just south of Paris
Thus Froissart follows the exact same formula as Deschamps and the anonymous Hainuyer poet, although, interestingly, his pastourelles are set over a much broader