Aucassin et Nicolette - Introduction

Aucassin et Nicolette

Thirteenth-century French poetry and prose.

INTRODUCTION

Aucassin et Nicolette, composed by an unknown author, relates the adventures of two lovers—Aucassin, the son of a French count, and Nicolette, a Saracen captive. Although the work has traditionally been regarded as an idyllic romance, many modern critics have deemed the tale a parody of courtly love. The form of Aucassin et Nicolette combines verse and prose, with the original manuscript also including musical notation. The novelty of this literary style remains an area of critical debate.

Textual History

Nothing is known about the author of Aucassin et Nicolette, and the poem can only roughly be dated to the thirteenth century. There is but a single extant manuscript.

Plot and Major Characters

The title characters of the poem are unlikely lovers: Aucassin is the son of Count Garins of Beaucaire, and Nicolette is a beautiful Saracen captive. When the Count learns of his son's love for Nicolette, he forbids their marriage and imprisons the girl in a tower. As Aucassin still pines for his love, the Count imprisons his son as well. Nicolette escapes, finds her lover imprisoned, and flees in order to avoid capture. Upon his release from prison, Aucassin pursues Nicolette. Their adventures include an episode the the bizarre land of Torelore, in which the King is about to give birth, the Queen is commanding troops to a battle, and the war is being fought with cheese and fruit. Eventually, Aucassin and Nicolette are reunited.

Major Themes

Early critics of Aucassin et Nicolette, maintain that its primary emphasis is on ideal love and courtly values. Other, more recent critics, however, have found in the story elements that parody the same idyllic love and virtues. The literary conventions of the day, particularly the vapid heroes, heroines, and plots of traditional romance, are the object of the author's satire. Aucassin, as a courtly lover, is mocked in such a way that the role of the courtly lover in thirteenth-century French society is shown to be impractical and somewhat absurd.

Critical Reception

The form of Aucassin et Nicolette is described by its author as a chantefable, or “song-story,” because it combines verse, prose, and music. That it is the only work of French literature of its time to be so named has caused many critics to examine the apparent novelty of this form. While John R. Reinhard admits that it is the only known work in French literature of the Middle Ages composed in such a manner, he points out that when the element of music is disregarded the form ceases to be unique. Reinhard maintains that although some critics attempt to identify the origins of this form in Oriental, Celtic, or Old Norse literature, it is more likely that the author made use of the literary traditions of Greece and Rome, which were readily available to him. Reinhard cites examples of Greek and Roman works in which prose and verse are similarly combined. G. W. Goetinck, on the other hand, states that it is possible that Celtic literature did in fact influence the author of Aucassin et Nicolette. Goetinck discusses a number of features in the poem reminiscent of Celtic literature. Like Reinhard, Tony Hunt also finds works in Latin literature in which both prose and verse are used. Hunt maintains that while Aucassin et Nicolette is not original in terms of form, its regularity and consistency of structure are unique.

In addition to discussion of Aucassin et Nicolette's form, another area of critical debate is the issue of the work as parody. Generally, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century critics interpreted the poem as a straightforward romance. Andrew Lang describes the poem as a “sympathetically told love story,” and Henry Adams finds in the work an emphasis on courtesy and courtly love. While many modern critics refute these claims, there are also recent scholars who deny that the work is parodic in nature. Eugene Vance argues that while the author utilizes the techniques of satire, satire is not the chief aim of the work. Rather, Vance describes Aucassin et Nicolette as a “sensitive attempt” to examine the role of literary language “in terms of the language itself.” S. L. Clark and Julian Wasserman view the poem not as parody or satire, but as an allegory designed to demonstrate the absurd nature of human error. The progression of Aucassin, they argue, through adventures focused on the development of his decision-making skills is the means by which the allegory is presented.Yet a considerable number of critics find what they believe to be striking and obvious clues that suggest that the author intended Aucassin et Nicolette as parody. Robert Harden notes that the language, form, and particularly the author's use of character inversions, mock the insipid plots and characters of the typical medieval romance. Focusing his analysis on the Torelore episode, Darnell H. Clevenger maintains that these adventures may be viewed as a burlesque of chivalric valor and courtly love. Clevenger further states that the episode underscores the relative unimportance of the plot and emphasizes that the world (both real and fictional) is the main antagonist in Aucassin et Nicolette. Just as Harden stresses the importance of character inversion, June Hall Martin contends that the parody of one character in particular, Aucassin, unifies the episodes of the tale and highlights the author's criticism of courtly love. Anne Elizabeth Cobby identifies another layer of parody in Aucassin et Nicolette. Cobby's analysis reveals that the author manipulates the readers' expectations through the parodic references to contemporary literary genres, including the romance and the chanson de geste, and through the characterization of Aucassin and Nicolette. Aucassin, explains Cobby, is portrayed to an overstated level as the stereotypical courtly lover. While he conforms completely to the external values of this type of hero, he demonstrates a complete lack of the inner ideals usually associated with the courtly lover. Cobby further shows that while Nicolette is painted as a quintessential courtly heroine, her actions reveal her to be thoroughly unconventional. Cobby states that such contrasts stress the futility of labels. Solidifying her argument that the essentially parodic nature of Aucassin et Nicolette is revealed through the author's redirecting of his reader, Cobby points out that by the time Aucassin and Nicolette are reunited in the forest, we fully anticipate the thwarting of our expectations, yet now some of them are in fact fulfilled.