1.Customarily, the written message was not expected to be as detailed as the message
delivered orally, as much diplomatic business was considered too sensitive to commit to such a
precarious form. A letter, particularly when affixed with a seal, served well into the 13th century
primarily as a means to validate the origin and intent of the message (Clanchy, 1979, 208-213).
In this scene, the ethos regarding writing as means of dissemination of information appears to be
balanced right on the verge of change. The letter is read first, then rephrased by the messenger. A
subtle shift is occurring, which we are privileged to witness.
page 39
2.In a forthcoming article on performance practices as portrayed in Old French
Romances (Musica Disciplina), Sylvia Huot argues for caution in interpreting
descriptions of performance too literally. The exhaustive, irresolvable debates over the use of
instruments in High Courtly Lyric, or concerning the modes of diffusion in this lyric, lose some
of their fervor when one accepts that these descriptions are in themselves conventions, which
evolved along with other literary conventions. Thus, it is not necessarily reflective of any change
in social customs that Couci's poems are not observed in a public setting or that we do not
actually witness the minstrel perform for the Lord of Faiel. The change, for these arguments do
not deny that there has been an important change in the 13th century, has been in the poetics of
writing. The practice of courtly song is taken for granted in Couci, but underplayed, as
the focus is now on the process of creation of that song.
3.The shift in focus of courtly lyric from one's Lady to the Virgin Mary had already
taken place in late 12th-and early 13th-century Troubadour song, largely as result of the
Albigensian Crusade (Rougemont, 1962). I am merely suggesting here that there was also a
certain political timeliness in Dante's quest for the spiritualization of courtly paradigms. Although
this is an analogy which I do not wish to push very far, it seems revealing to admit a certain
unspoken, if not personal, pressure, in the climate of the day, to move courtly discourse in the
direction which Dante did.
4.A 19th-century novel such as Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's
Court mocked chivalric codes which were very much alive among the Southern aristocracy
of Twain's day. These codes, which arguably are reflective of feudal society in many ways, are
most strikingly visible in the disastrous charges of Lancer Corps into the face of cannon which
characterized the early years of the American Civil War. A similar fate met the famed Light
Brigade of Tennyson's poem, in the Crimea, and even in recent times, Hitler's Panzer divisions
were met by mounted lancers as they moved into Poland.
page 39
Bibliography
EDITIONS
Alighieri, Dante. Vita Nuova. Ed. and Trans. Mark Musa. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1973.
Aucassin et Nicolette. Ed. Mario Roques. C.F.M.A. Paris: Champion, 1975.
page 40
Jakemes. Le Roman du castelain de Couci et de la Dame de Fayel. Ed. John E. Matze
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Renart, Jean. Le Roman de la rose ou de Guillaume de Dole. Ed. Felix Lecoy.
C.F.M.A. Paris: Champion, 1970.
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Bec, Pierre. La lyrique francaise au moyen-age (Xlle-XIIIe siecles). 2 vols. Paris: A. &
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