Notes
© 2022 Jan M. Ziolkowski, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0284.28
Notes to Overview
reception theory: See Hans Robert Jauss, Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, trans. Timothy Bahti, Theory and History of Literature 2 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982), and Robert C. Holub, Reception Theory: A Critical Introduction (London: Methuen, 1984).
the medium: See Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 7–21.
The Juggler of Notre Dame and the Medievalizing of Modernity (published by this same press), comprises six volumes, which are freely available to read and download, and to purchase, on the publisher’s website: Vol. 1: The Middle Ages, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0132; Vol. 2: Medieval Meets Medievalism, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0143; Vol. 3: The American Middle Ages, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0146; Vol. 4: Picture That: Making a Show of the Jongleur, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0147; Vol. 5: Tumbling into the Twentieth Century, 10.11647/OBP.0148; Vol. 6: War and Peace, Sex and Violence, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0149.
The exhibition Juggling the Middle Ages (Dumbarton Oaks, 2019): https://www.doaks.org/visit/museum/exhibitions/past/juggling-the-middle-ages
Part 1
Introduction
folklore and folktales: See Stith Thompson, The Folktale (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974).
Mary of Egypt: For texts in translation, see Benedicta Ward, Harlots of the Desert: A Study of Repentance in Early Monastic Sources, Cistercian Studies Series 106 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987), 26–56, and Hugh Feiss and Ronald Pepin, trans. Saint Mary of Egypt: Three Medieval Lives in Verse, Cistercian Studies Series 209 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2005). For further scholarship, see Erich Poppe and Bianca Ross, The Legend of Mary of Egypt in Medieval Insular Hagiography (Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts Press, 1996). For a theoretical context, see Virginia Burrus, The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 128–59.
Cistercians: These monks will be discussed at length in Part 1, Chapter 1.
tonsure: For context on both beards and tonsures, see Giles Constable, “Introduction,” in Burchard of Bellevaux, Apologia de barbis, ed. R. B. C. Huygens, Apologiae duae, Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Mediaevalis, vol. 62 (Turnhout, 1985), 47–130.
gesunkenes and gehobenes Kulturgut: The first term was coined by the German Hans Naumann.
diffusionism: See Maria Leach and Jerome Fried, ed. Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1972), 313 (“diffusion theory”). Diffusionism is sometimes also called migrationism.
historic-geographic method: See Kenneth A. Thigpen, “Historic-Geographic Method,” in Mary Ellen Brown and Bruce A. Rosenberg, ed. Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature (Denver: ABC-CLIO, 1998), 307–10.
polygenesis: See Leach and Fried, ed. Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, 876 (“polygenesis”).
1. The Medieval Story
five manuscripts: They are Chantilly, Musée Condé (formerly Bibliothèque et archives du Château), MS 475 (previously 1578), fols. 190–96; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arsenal MS 3516, fols. 127ra–128vb; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arsenal MS 3518, fols. 89r–93r; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS français 1807, fols. 142–46; and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nouvelles acquisitions françaises 4276, fols. 78v–.
called Old French: In the late nineteenth century, the term Francien was coined to denote the dialect spoken in the Île-de-France, long before what is now called French became standard. On the retrospective creation of this antecedent to a language that developed only later, see Bernard Cerquiglini, Une langue orpheline (Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 2007).
Gautier de Coinci: The mistake is understandable, among other reasons because in MS nouvelles acquisitions françaises 4276 the poem is copied along with Marian poetry of Gautier’s (fols. 1r–92v).
Del Tumbeor Nostre Dame: The wording is a contrivance. One manuscript (Arsenal 3518) has the title “C’est du tumeeur nostre dame,” another (nouvelles acquisitions françaises 4276) “D’un menestrer qui se rendi moynes a qui nostre dame fit grace,” and a third (Chantilly) “D’un menestrel qui servoit nostre dame de son propre mestier.”
evolving: For the views being displaced, see J. D. A. Ogilvy, “‘Mimi, scurrae, histriones’: Entertainers of the Early Middle Ages,” Speculum 38 (1963): 603–19; for those being instated, see John W. Baldwin, “The Image of the Jongleur in Northern France around 1200,” Speculum 72 (1997): 635–63. The classic overview remains Edmond Faral, Les jongleurs en France au Moyen Âge, Bibliothèque de l’École des hautes études, 4e section, Sciences historiques et philologiques 187 (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1910). For a fine recent appraisal, see Kathryn Emily Dickason, “From Satanic Minister to Holy Model: The Sacralization of the Medieval Jongleur,” forthcoming in Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR).
Cistercians: From the extensive bibliography on the order, three books must suffice: Louis J. Lekai, The Cistercians: Ideals and Reality ([Kent, OH]: The Kent State University Press, 1977), for a standard synthesis; Emilia Jamroziak, The Cistercian Order in Medieval Europe 1090–1500 (London: Routledge, 2013), on contact between the Cistercians and lay people; and Janet Burton and Julie Kerr, The Cistercians in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Boydell Press, 2011), on lay brothers (conversi).
collecting and communicating: See Emilia Jamroziak, “Miracles in Monastic Culture,” in Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, Jenni Kuuliala, and Iona McCleery, eds, A Companion to Medieval Miracle Collections, Reading Medieval Sources 5 (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 36–53.
fixity of place: In Latin, stabilitas loci.
the cult of the Virgin: The literature on Mary in the Middle Ages is vast. Two titles not to be overlooked are Marina Warner, Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976; 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), and Miri Rubin, Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).
Marian apparitions: For a book on these phenomena that is beautiful in more than one sense, see Sylvie Barnay, Le ciel sur la terre: Les apparitions de la Vierge au Moyen Âge (Paris: Cerf, 1999). For an alphabetical listing, see René Laurentin and Patrick Sbalchiero, Dizionario delle “apparizioni” della vergine Maria (Rome: ART, 2010).
saintly simplicity: See Agata Sobczyk, Les jongleurs de Dieu: Sainte simplicité dans la littérature religieuse de la France médiévale (Łask, Poland: Oficyna Wydawnicza Leksem, 2012).
five roses: Gautier de Coinci, Miracles Book 1, no. 23 (“D’un moigne en cui bouche on trouva cinc roses nouveles”), ed. V. Frederic Koenig, 4 vols., Textes littéraires français 64, 95, 131, 176 (Geneva: Droz, 1955–1970), 2:224–26.
Lives of the Ancient Fathers: The French vies des anciens pères calls to mind the Vitas (or Vitae) patrum or Lives of the Fathers: see Part 1, Chapter 3, below. Originally this work from Late Antiquity comprised a few lives of the Desert Fathers. Later the Latin snowballed by gaining other materials about hermits and ascetics of first the eastern and later the western Mediterranean. In the thirteenth century seventy-four stories were incorporated into three Old French cycles entitled the Vie des Pères or Life of the Ancient Fathers. These 30,000 verses comprise narratives about the Desert Fathers, monks, and the Virgin Mary, but nothing like “Our Lady’s Tumbler.” Though our narrative could be indebted to a now-lost form of the poem, the reference could merely signal a loose resemblance to a prestigious text. “Our Lady’s Tumbler” far more closely resembles miracle stories, which circulated both orally and in writing, about the early days of the Cistercian monastic order.
exemplum: The Old French diminutive examplel derives from the Latin exemplum, which can mean not only “example” in a general sense but also “exemplum” as a rhetorical form. This genre may be defined as short narratives, presented as having happened in reality, that are used in sermons to entertain while at the same time edifying audiences with a kind of moral. Today preachers often call such exempla illustrations.
minstrel: Here and again in 205, 417, 427, 676, and 681 the main character is called a menestrel. The word is used particularly to signify his relationship to the Virgin Mary and her angels. Only outside the poem proper, in the explicit, is he designated by the more specific term tumeor/tumbeor or tumbler. The noun jongleur appears nowhere in the poem.
holy order: This phrase signifies a consecrated life in the Catholic Church. Members of these organizations take solemn vows and cohabit, under a religious superior, in accordance with a rule. Monastic orders live and work in a monastery and recite the divine office.
everything he had, he gave: Upon entering the monastery, a prospective monk was supposed to give away his possessions or to surrender them to the community: see The Rule of Saint Benedict 58.24, ed. and trans. Bruce L. Venarde, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 6 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), 188–91.
Clairvaux: The toponym, Clara Vallis in Latin, signifies an abbey in Burgundy, in what is today France. It was founded originally in 1115 by Bernard of Clairvaux. Like him, the monastery was Cistercian.
tumbling: Though the “minstrel” is called a tumbler only once and, at that, in the explicit, the verb “to tumble” is often used to describe his activity in performance (25, 136, 171, 198, and so forth).
wording of any other prayer: The English phrase translates leçon, French for “lection” or “lesson” (both cognates), meaning “reading.”
Our Father: The French has pater noster, the first two words of the prayer in Latin. It is commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer because it was taught by Jesus to the disciples. The wording amalgamates elements of what is recorded in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4.
canticle: In the original, chançon presumably alludes to the canticle of Mary, also known as the Magnificat after its first word in Latin. This Gospel canticle (Luke 1:46–55) is sung or recited not long before the Our Father at vespers (evening prayer).
creed: The credo mentioned here is the Apostles’ Creed, often called in Latin the Symbolum apostolicum. Its text reads “I believe (Latin credo) in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.”
Hail Mary: The angelic salutation in Luke 1:28, delivered by the Archangel Gabriel, announced to Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus. In Latin, this announcement, known formally as the Annunciation, begins Ave gratia plena (Hail, full of grace). The utterance was fused with the greeting given to the Mother of God in Luke 1:42 by her cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. From the fusion, with the insertion of the name Maria as the second word, derives the prayer to the Virgin known in Latin as the Ave Maria and in English as the Hail Mary. In Catholicism, the text is the most famous praise of the Virgin and petition for her intercession.
high tonsure: “Tonsure” refers to a circle or crown shorn from the hair on the scalp at the top of head. Along with the shaving of the beard, this haircut became mandatory as a token of religious status and authority for monks, canons, and clerks. The adjective “high” could qualify the placement of the trim, high on the head, but more often it implied by metonymy that the individual bearing it was a high clergyman, had a high reputation, or cultivated it as an expression of great penitence. The men so tonsured here are the choir brothers of Clairvaux. Cistercian lay brothers were not permitted to have this kind of cut. In addition to full heads of hair, they wore full beards and moustaches.
signs: To cope with the injunction of silence, monks developed systems of manual signs that enabled them to conduct many types of basic business without speaking. For records of the system employed among the White Monks, see Scott G. Bruce, “The Origins of Cistercian Sign Language,” Cîteaux commentarii cistercienses 52.3–4 (2001): 193–209, and Mario Penna, “I ‘Signa Loquendi’ Cistercensi,” in Jean Umiker-Sebeok and Thomas A. Sebeok, eds, Monastic Sign Languages, Approaches to Semiotics 76 (Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2011), 495–532.
not utter a word: The Rule of Saint Benedict, most obviously in Chapter 6 “Silence,” ed. and trans. Venarde, 42–43, prohibited speaking in many places and times within the monastery. The Cistercians adhered even more rigorously to silence. Lay brothers in their order were held to the same stricture, with modifications to reflect the realities of their different working conditions.
laughter: The theme of the monks’ laughter at the expense of the tumbler, here caused by his unfamiliarity with the schedule and etiquette of silence, returns in 349 and 363, when his balletic routines prompt similar ridicule.
lay brothers: The substantive convers, roughly equivalent to the English “convert,” appears in this line (where the two classes of people within Clairvaux are monks and convers), 65 (where convers occupy the bottom in a hierarchy that works down from priests), and 391 (where the tumbler is called a convers and his dance routine is identified as the office he performs). The French past participle corresponds to a Latin verb meaning “to enter into religion.” Originally employed adjectivally, convers could denote two types of monk. One took vows as an adult rather than being offered as a child, while the other joined the community to perform manual labor while being expected to fulfill a reduced and simplified liturgy. On the complexities of differentiating between convert monks and lay monks, see Constance H. Berman, “Distinguishing between the Humble Peasant Lay Brother and Sister, and the Converted Knight in Medieval Southern France,” in Religious and Laity in Western Europe, 1000–1400: Interaction, Negotiation, and Power, ed. Emilia Jamroziak and Janet Burton, Europa Sacra, vol. 2 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2006), 263–83. On the reputations of convers, see Jean Batany, “Les convers chez quelques moralistes des XIIe et XIIIe siècles,” Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses 20 (1969): 241–59.
priests at the altars: The poet lists first all three major orders, as the ranks of the ministry are called. The priest plays the central role in the Mass, which begins when he reverences the altar with a kiss.
deacons at the Gospels: In the rite, the deacon assists the priest by proclaiming the Gospel reading.
subdeacons at vigils: The night office is one of the canonical hours of Christian liturgy. It is sometimes styled matins, sometimes vigils. The subdeacon rates the lowest in the minor orders. In addition to assisting in the Mass, he helps in the night office.
acolytes stand ready for the epistles: Often the subdeacon is tasked with reading the Epistle, but here the acolyte is described as taking that charge. The latter stands highest in the minor orders, which also comprise the exorcist, lector, and porter.
versicle: This term, in the French simply vers, denotes a short sentence chanted by the officiant, to which the congregation responds.
lesson: This designates a reading, often from the Bible but sometimes from Acts of Martyrs or writings of Church Fathers.
young clerics: The French clerçon is the diminutive of cleric. Like its English derivative clergeon, it denotes a person too junior to have yet entered minor orders.
psalters: The medieval psalter was a manuscript with the biblical psalms, generally with a format that facilitates liturgical use.
Miserere: This is the first word and conventional title of Psalms 50 (51) as translated into Latin from the Hebrew. The full incipit, Miserere mei, Deus, means “Have mercy on me, God.” Though the whole psalter belonged to the bedrock of monastic life, the seven Penitential Psalms, 6, 31 (32) 37 (38), 50 (51), 101 (102), 129 (130), and 142 (143), of which this was one, carried an extra cachet. The Usus conversorum, a set of directives concerned with the conduct of lay brothers, stipulated that these members of the community should know, beyond the Our Father (Latin Pater noster) and Apostles’ Creed (incipit Credo in Deum) already mentioned in lines 30–31, the Miserere: see Usus conversorum, Chapter 9, in Jean A. Lefèvre, “L’évolution des Usus conversorum de Cîteaux,” Collectanea ordinis Cisterciensium reformatorum 17.2 (1955): 66–96, at 92.
one groan, another weep, yet another moan and sigh: The physical manifestations of sorrow here express penance as a form of worship.
Blessed Mary: The tumbler likewise begins utterances with the exclamation sainte Marie in 81 and 103.
I go about aimlessly: Literally, “I go forward here and backward there.”
out in the fields: Cistercian abbeys tended to have associated farms, now customarily called granges. The protagonist fears that he will be ejected from the monastery proper and expected to work, as a peasant would do, in one of these agricultural facilities.
crypt: The French word crote derives from the Latin crypta, which can denote both loosely a grotto and more strictly a crypt. The main church of Clairvaux contained no such space, but a nearby chapel for the counts of Flanders did.
altar: Insufficient specifics are provided to permit forming any precise picture of the architecture. The crypt is vaulted, with a Madonna, an altar, and a space where onlookers may watch without being seen. The sounds from the choir somewhere above are audible.
the likeness: This translates the French la forme. The word used in 146, 173, 242, and 257 is image. Context makes apparent that the object meant is a statue in the round.
Mass sound: What signal would have been sounded to indicate the Mass? Modern practices would encourage speculation that a bell was struck.
ox on a tether: This is the first of a few striking comparisons between the tumbler and animals. See lines 158–59.
so that his flesh would not be naked: The tumbler’s dishabille, reminiscent of King David’s lack of attire when he dances beside the ark (see Part 1, Chapter 2, below), compounds the shock of his dancing. This kind of outfit and conduct were strongly censured by the Church. See Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography. Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, FF Communications vols. 133–35, nos. 284–86, 3 vols. (Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004), 1:436–37 (779E* “The Dancers of Kolbeck”), and Stith Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folk-Tales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends, 2nd ed., 6 vols. (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1955–1958), 5:204 (Q222.5.3 “Bold woman who danced naked in church is stricken with leprosy”).
tunic: The lay brothers were issued different vestments from the choir monks. Underneath their principal item of outer clothing, they wore a sort of tunic called a cotele that they cinched at the waist.
undershirt: To describe what the French calls the cotele, the poet employs the word chemise, a shirt-like garment worn next to the skin.
queen: The conception of Mary as sovereign of heaven (in Latin, regina caeli) took as its basis biblical passages such as Revelation 12:1–3.
the Metz move: None of the maneuvers mentioned in this passage are attested in other medieval texts. For this one (le tor de Mes) information is provided to indicate what sort of action it entailed but for all others but the last, no such guidance is forthcoming. The tumbler encores the Metz move in 223.
in a circle on his head: Though left uncertain exactly what sort of movement is meant, we can almost visualize a sort of breakdancing.
his hand in front of his forehead: Once again, the brevity about the stance being described defies certainty.
Lady, do not spurn your servant: The nouns carry strong overtones of medieval social structures that bound serfs to overlords (or overladies).
beats his breast: This gesture, now more familiar as a metaphor than a reality, was an ancient expression of intense emotion among Jews. It was later adopted by Christians, especially to convey sorrow and repentance (Luke 18:13, 23:48). In the Christian liturgy it is performed in the prayer called the Confiteor (I confess), which is said during the penitential act with which the Mass begins, and before receiving communion.
he does not know another way to pray: The passage leaves ambiguous whether the tumbler sheds tears because he has no other means of prayer than weeping, or because he can pray only by dancing.
turns backward and makes a leap: This line could indicate that the tumbler performs a backflip. Alternatively, he could bend in a backward bridge, from which he springs up afterward.
canonical hour: The set times of prayer, building upon Psalms 118 (119):62 and 164, comprise one of praise during the night, called matins (about 2 a.m.), and seven more during the day, lauds (at dawn), prime (about 6 a.m.), terce (about 9 a.m.), sext (about noon), nones (about 3 p.m.), vespers (about 6 p.m.), and compline (about 7 p.m.).
know all the psalms: Knowing all the psalms in Latin by heart was generally the first stage in medieval education, literacy, and religion: the psalter was the standard primer from which children learned to read.
wins his bread: The same concern returns in 538.
heavenly king: In the Bible God is accorded the status of being the king of heaven: see Daniel 4:37, 1 Esdras 4:46 and 58, and Tobit 13:7 and 11.
lay brother: In this instance alone, the tumbler is specified to be a convers.
sees come down from the vault: Here it is made clear that the scene involves an apparition rather than a statue coming to life.
gold and precious stones: In art the Virgin is often depicted wearing sumptuous clothing appropriate to royalty.
costly gem: The poet leaves the reader guessing as to the gem he has in mind. One fact worth recalling is that in the Middle Ages the pearl was regarded as a jewel—as a stone that originated within an animal. Mary, as the star of the sea (Latin stella maris), was associated closely with this maritime gemstone, notably in the bestiary.
white cloth: The motif has parallels. In Dou riche et de la veve fame or “Of the rich woman and the widow” (verses 252–57, ed. 2:167), Gautier de Coinci describes how the Virgin comes to the bedside of an old woman in her death throes. Mary wipes her face with a toaille or cloth (cognate with the English “towel”) that is whiter than a lily. At this point a kindly deacon who has arrived to minister to the dying woman notices the mother of Jesus, who asks him to administer the last sacraments. In the Magnum speculum exemplorum or Great mirror of exempla (Douai, 1611) by Jean Major, Mary appears at a deathbed to dry the sufferer with a towel-like cloth (Dives 1, pp. 285–86) or to fan him with it (Bona injuste acquisita 8, pp. 84–85). Jean Major’s book expands the anonymous Speculum exemplorum or Mirror of exempla, first printed in 1481.
her: Here the personal pronoun le is the feminine accusative singular.
he said: Lines 539–42 are interior monologue.
kisses his feet: The hands are the lay brother’s, while the feet are the abbot’s. The act described here is known technically by the Greek term proskynesis, corresponding to the Latin adoratio, which denotes prostration that often involved kissing the ground or a body part of a person being honored or propitiated.
kissed both his eyes: The kisses, surely planted on the eyelids rather than directly on the eyeballs, seem to signify that the abbot cares for the lay brother and holds him in esteem. The gesture is not a common one.
Ponthieu: This was a feudal county in northern France, with a coast on the English Channel. Eventually it became part of Picardy. The poet’s naming of it has encouraged speculation that he may have come from this French region. But an equally strong or perhaps an even stronger case could be made for Metz, mentioned twice as the place of origin for one of the tumbler’s favorite dance moves. This other municipality is located a little more than two hundred miles, as the crow flies, from Abbeville, the principal town of Ponthieu.
canons: The term refers to clergy who lived communally in orders that were governed by a rule. The suggestion that Clairvaux had both monks and canons is puzzling.
a most marvelous miracle: The original reads Un miracle tres merveilleus.
enraged: Anger is closely associated with the devil: see Ephesians 4:26–27.
adversaries: The French is li anemi, cognate with the English “enemy.” In Hebrew Satan in fact means “adversary,” and the Latin adversarius is used in 1 Peter 5:8. The devil is often called the Enemy, with the word hostis being so employed in Latin.
The holy fathers: This phrase recalls the opening line of the poem, with its mention of the Lives of the Ancient Fathers.
the same tale: This exemplum has been included in the standard catalogue of such narratives: see Frederic C. Tubach, Index Exemplorum: A Handbook of Medieval Religious Tales, FF Communications 204 (Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia/Academia scientiarum Fennica, 1981), 219, no. 2780: “Jester, dancing during chants. A jester who became a monk, danced while the others chanted psalms. He said that he was praising God in the only way he knew how.”
exempla: For an introduction to the genre, see Claude Bremond, Jacques Le Goff, and Jean Claude Schmitt, L’“Exemplum,” Typologie des sources du Moyen Age occidental 40, 2nd ed. (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996). In English, a dated but still helpful resource is G. R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England: A Neglected Chapter in the History of English Letters and of the English People, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1961), 149–209.
simple forms: For a concise presentation of Jolles’s book, see “Einfache Formen,” in Brown and Rosenberg, eds, Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature, 178–82, at 180 (on no. 6). The book has been translated, unfortunately with Exempel rendered as “example”: see André Jolles, Simple Forms, trans. Peter J. Schwartz (London: Verso, 2017), 144–46.
The Table of Exempla, in Alphabetical Order: Tabula exemplorum secundum ordinem alphabeti, no. 87, in Jean-Thiébaut Welter, ed., La Tabula exemplorum secundum ordinem alphabeti: Recueil d’exempla compilé en France à la fin du XIIIe siècle (Paris: Occitania, 1926), 27–28. The same text is sometimes entitled Liber exemplorum secundum ordinem alphabeti (Book of exempla in alphabetical order).
American folklorist wondered: Thomas Frederick Crane, “Mediaeval Story-Books,” Modern Philology 9 (1911): 225–37, at 231.
C. G. Jung: The concept recurs throughout Jung’s writings, but for a start see Four Archetypes: Mother, Rebirth, Spirit, Trickster (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969), 17–23.
Robert Graves: See especially his The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth (New York: Creative Age Press, 1948).
Joseph Campbell: See for example his The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Bollingen Series 17 (New York: Pantheon Press, 1949) and The Mythic Image, Bollingen Series 100 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974).
Northrop Frye: See his The Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957).
he did not know his letters: In medieval western Europe, the psalms were generally read and recited in Latin. The jongleur, by not knowing his letters, was both illiterate and ignorant of the learned language.
2. The Bible and Apocrypha
comforting King Saul: See especially 1 Kings (= 1 Samuel) 16:23.
twenty years: 1 Kings (= 1 Samuel) 7: 1–2.
driver of the ox-cart: His name is Uzza. See 2 Kings (= 2 Samuel) 6: 6–7.
for three months: 2 Kings (= 2 Samuel) 6: 11; 1 Paralipomenon (= 1 Chronicles) 13: 14.
the transfer is finally completed: 2 Kings (= 2 Samuel) 6: 12–15.
the contempt of his wife: Her name is Michal. See 2 Kings (= 2 Samuel) 6: 12–16 and 1 Paralipomenon (= 1 Chronicles) 15: 29.
depicted in art: On the early Middle Ages, see Herbert Schade, “Zum Bild des tanzenden David im frühen Mittelalter,” Stimmen der Zeit 172, no. 7 (1963): 1–16.
2 Kings (= 2 Samuel) 6.13–23: For the Latin and English, see The Vulgate Bible, vol. 2, part A “The Historical Books: Douay-Rheims Translation,” ed. Swift Edgar, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 4 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), 514–17.
for three months: See The Vulgate Bible, vol. 2, part B “The Historical Books: Douay-Rheims Translation,” ed. Swift Edgar, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 5 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), 1208–09.
Protevangelium of James 7: This translation was made with reference to Wilhelm Schneemilcher, ed. New Testament Apocrypha, trans. R. McL. Wilson, 2 vols. (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991), 1:429, with notes 437–38), and J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 60.
take her up to the temple of the Lord: 1 Kings (= 1 Samuel) 1:21.
wait until the third year: 1 Kings (= 1 Samuel) 1:22.
at the end of the days: 1 Peter 1:20.
the whole house of Israel loved her: 1 Kings (= 1 Samuel) 18:16.
Gospel of Mark, 12: See The Vulgate Bible, vol. 6 “The New Testament: Douay-Rheims Translation,” ed. Angela M. Kinney, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 21 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), 258–59.
Gospel of Luke, 21: See The Vulgate Bible, vol. 6, 438–39.
3. The Life of the Fathers
Vitae Patrum: To add a further complication, the Latin is often called the Vitas Patrum.
desert fathers: Popular awareness of these figures was propelled by (citing in all cases first editions) two books of oft-reprinted translations, first Helen Waddell, The Desert Fathers (London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1936) and then Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert (New York: New Directions, 1960). This cottage (or desert) industry continued thanks to the work of another woman: see Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (London: A. R. Mowbray, 1975), and The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers (Oxford: SLG Press, 1975). See also Norman Russell, The Lives of the Desert Fathers: The Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, introduction by Benedicta Ward (London: Mowbray , 1981), and Columba Stewart, The World of the Desert Fathers: Stories and Sayings from the Anonymous Series of the Apophthegmata Patrum, foreword by Benedicta Ward (Oxford: SLG, 1986).
The Rule of Saint Benedict: Chapter 42.3, ed. and trans. Venarde, 144–45.
an anonymous Anglo-Norman poet: See Keith V. Sinclair, “The Translations of the Vitas patrum, Thaïs, Antichrist, and Vision de saint Paul Made for Anglo-Norman Templars: Some Neglected Literary Considerations,” Speculum 72 (1997): 741–62.
Wauchier de Denain: See Marie-Geneviève Grossel, “Quand dans les cours on rêvait d’ascèse et de vie solitaire: La traduction romane des Vies des Pères de Wauchier de Denain,” in Jean-Charles Herbin, ed. Richesses médiévales du Nord et du Hainaut: Actes du colloque tenu à la Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut Cambrésis les 1er et 2 décembre 2000, Recherches valenciennoises 8 (Valenciennes: Camelia/Presses Universitaires de Valenciennes, 2002), 49–64.
short labels: For these titles, see Édouard Schwan, “La Vie des anciens Pères,” Romania 13 (1884): 233–63, at 240n5.
Miserere: La Vie des peres, no. 7, lines 2743–3116, ed. Félix Lecoy (Paris: Société des anciens textes français/A. et J. Picard et Cie, 1987–1999), 1:91–103; trans. Paul Bretel, La Vie des Pères: Premier recueil, Moyen Âge en Traduction 8 (Paris: Classiques Garniers, 2020), 99–104. For a glossed edition of this episode, see Claudio Galderisi, Diegesis. Études sur la poétique des motifs narratifs au Moyen Âge, de la ‘Vie des Pères’ aux lettres modernes (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2005), 181–94. For summary and discussion, see Adrian P. Tudor, Tales of Vice and Virtue: The First Old French Vie des Pères, Faux Titre 253 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005), 124–25 and 128–39.
Adgar: Le Gracial, no. 9, ed. Pierre Kunstmann, Publications médiévales de l’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa Mediaeval Texts and Studies, 8 (Ottawa: Éditions de l’Université d’Ottawa, 1982), 87–89. Adgar’s poem has now been translated in its entirety into French: see Le Gracial. Miracles de la Vierge, trans. Jean-Louis Benoit, Textes Vernaculaires du Moyen Âge (TVMA) 27 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2021).
Gautier de Coinci: Miracles, Book 1, no. 14 (“De un provoire qui toz jors chantoit Salve, la messe de Nostre Dame,” ed. Koenig, 2:105–08.
Goliard: La Vie des peres, no. 26, lines 11884–12231, ed. Lecoy, 2:60–72; trans. Bretel, 255–60. For summary and discussion, see Tudor, Tales of Vice and Virtue, 226–27 and 229–36.
Fou: La Vie des peres, no. 10, lines 4311–5361, ed. Lecoy, 1:141–75; trans. Bretel, 125–41. For summary and discussion, see Tudor, Tales of Vice and Virtue, 413–14 and 447–65. The most thorough examination is Jacques Chaurand, Fou, dixième conte de la Vie des pères: Contes pieux du XIIIe siècle, Publications romanes et françaises 117 (Geneva: Droz, 1971).
Miserere tui, Deus: The plea Miserere mei, Deus “Have mercy on me, O God” opens Psalms 50 (51). The first word by itself sufficed to evoke the piece, probably the most important of the entire psalter in the Middle Ages. In the Vulgate Bible its superscription ties it to King David’s repentance for his sins with Bathsheba (Bethsabee) in 2 Kings (2 Samuel) 11–12. The humble ascetic in this tale errs by praying Miserere tui, Deus “Have mercy on your [servant], O God.” His error is understandable since the construction is not easily grasped by anyone who has not mastered the fine points of Latin grammar.
wheel: The device meant here, often called the breaking wheel or Catherine’s wheel, was employed for torture and execution.
than any tongue could say: The key source for the “many mouths” commonplace that lies behind this passage is Virgil, Aeneid 6.625–7. Whereas in the Latin epic the Sibyl refrains from cataloguing the crimes and punishments in the infernal regions, here the poet refers to the gentleness of God. The larger context is the so-called inexpressibility topos in the medieval rhetorical tradition: see Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. Willard R. Trask, Bollingen Series 36 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), 159–62.
loves my dog: In the Middle Ages rhetoricians routinely recommended the use of proverbs in opening and closing sermons and other compositions. This specific turn of phrase is not listed in the Thesaurus Proverbiorum Medii Aevi or in Middle French Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases, but in later French it is ascribed to King Henri IV (1553–1610). The sense would appear to correspond to the English that to truly love means loving warts and all.
large, broad crowns: The phrase refers to tonsures. See note to Part 1, Chapter 1, line 34.
Solomon: In the Middle Ages the king epitomized wisdom. He was credited with the authorship of several whole books (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, and the Book of Wisdom) and parts of others (eighteen Psalms) in the canonical Bible, to say nothing of non-canonical books, proverb collections, and thousands of individual proverbs.
mud: Compare Genesis 2:7.
chamber full of filth: Compare Matthew 23:27.
eaten by worms: The image of being consumed by vermin after death was widespread in medieval literature and art.
Goliard: In Medieval Latin and related languages, the word goliard has served to designate so-called wandering scholars of the twelfth and thirteenth century. Though no organized class of such individuals ever existed, the idea took hold in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that an ordo vagorum or “order of wanderers,” comprising students and clerics without stable sources of income, existed in the Middle Ages in western Europe.
The etymology of the noun has occasioned much speculation. Conjectures have been made to derive it variously from the Latin gula “gluttony,” the giant Goliath in the Bible, and a legendary poet called Golias. The name of the main character in this story suggests that the author of The Life of the Fathers had the first association particularly in mind.
The adjective goliardic has been applied generally to rhythmic and rhymed Latin poetry of the period, but specifically to stanzas of four thirteen-syllable lines with monorhyme. In content such stanzaic verse is marked by satire against the Church and allusions to heavy drinking, games of chance, and promiscuous sex. The tone is often correspondingly profane and ribald. A book of translations, first published by John Addington Symonds in 1884, connected the goliards forevermore with the themes singled out in its title, Wine, Women and Song.
Lechefrite: This name, really an epithet, is a compound. The first element is from the verb “to lick” but also related to the “lechery,” while the second is the feminine past participle “fried.” “Fry-Licker” would be the English approximate.
dice games: For an exhaustive study of dicing in medieval culture, see Walter Tauber, Das Würfelspiel im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit: Eine kultur- und sprachgeschichtliche Darstellung, Europäische Hochschulschriften Reihe I, Deutsche Sprache und Literatur Band 959 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1987). In English, see Andrew Brown, “Passing the Time: The Role of the Dice in Late Medieval Pardon Letters,” Speculum 96.3 (2021): 699–725
king of majesty: The Latin rex maiestatis, from which the French derives, is attested, sometimes with an adjective to modify maiestatis, in more than a half dozen hymns: see Analecta hymnica medii aevi 28:47 (16.2.1), 30:68 (27.1), 35:202 (30.6), 41:263 (8.1), 45:2018 (5.1), 54:269 (8.1) [the famous Dies irae), and 64:86 (1120.3).
Judas: The Gospel of Matthew 26:15 describes how the disciple Judas Iscariot, one of the original twelve disciples, agreed to betray Jesus to the authorities for thirty silver coins by telling them where they could arrest him and by identifying him with a kiss when the moment arrived.
met a bad end: Judas’s suicide by hanging is related in Matthew 27:1–10, while his bursting asunder and spilling his bowels is reported in Book of Acts 1:18.
marks: These coins were a currency in many regions of western Europe. The mark was often equivalent to eight ounces of silver.
the Mass sound: Bells were rung, as they are still, to signify the time for worshippers, in this case the monks, to gather for the celebration of the eucharist.
nourishes the birds: The poet here paraphrases Matthew 6:26.
“Penitent”: This derivation differs from Isidore of Seville, The Etymologies, 6.19.71, trans. Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, and Oliver Berghof (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 150–51, who relates penitence to punishment. The This etymology aligns closely with that of Hugutio of Pisa, who widens the aperture to correlate pena (= Classical Latin poena) or “pain” with punishment: see Uguccione da Pisa, Derivationes P 61 [8–11], ed. Enzo Cecchini et al., Edizione nazionale dei test mediolatini 2: Series 1, no. 6, 2 vols. (Florence: Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2004), 2:928.
into his own right hand: The translation accepts the rearrangement of 12074–77 and omission of 12078–79 (“forward and took it from him, at which the monk was much grieved”) that the editor Félix Lecoy suggested.
accused you: For Satan in the guise of accuser or prosecuting attorney, see Job 1:8–11, Zechariah 3:1–2, Apocalypse (Revelation) 12:10.
like the wind: The image is common. In the Bible, compare Psalms 77 (78): 39: “they are flesh, a wind that goeth and returneth not.” For the particular of honor likened to the wind, see TPMA 2:361, Ehre 59–60.
4. The Pious Sweat of Monks
collected exempla: On the zeal of the white monks for exempla, see Stefano Mula, “Twelfth‐ and Thirteenth‐Century Cistercian Exempla Collections: Role, Diffusion, and Evolution,” History Compass 8.8 (2010): 903–12. On the closely related issue of their miracle collections, see Lorenzo Braca, I “Libri miraculorum” cistercensi: visioni dell’aldilà e crisi istituzionale tra XII e XIII secolo, Medievalia 2 (Saonara [PD]: Il prato, 2016), 85–128, and Jussi Hanska, “Miracula and Exempla—A Complicated Relationship,” in Katajala-Peltomaa, Kuuliala, and McCleery, eds, A Companion to Medieval Miracle Collections, 125–43.
repeated apparitions: Eight, possibly an undercount, are listed by Patrick Sbalchiero, “Clairvaux I–VIII,” in René Laurentin and Patrick Sbalchiero, Dizionario delle “apparizioni” della vergine Maria, trans. Silvia Franceschetti (Rome: ART, 2010), 170–72.
The exemplum: For analysis, see Stefano Mula, “Les exempla cisterciens du Moyen Âge, entre philologie et historie,” in Ludmilla Evdokimova et Victoria Smirnova, ed. L’oeuvre littéraire du Moyen Âge: aux yeux de l’historien et du philologue, Rencontres 77, Série Civilisation médiévale 9 (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2014), 377–92, at 381–88.
accompanied by Elizabeth and Mary Magdalene: The grouping of the Virgin Mary, Elizabeth, and Mary Magdalene looks a little like a fusion of the Three Marys (women reputed to have been at Jesus’s crucifixion and tomb) with the encounter of Mary, Mother of God, and Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist—and conventionally Mary’s cousin. The first scene, also referred to as the Marys at the Sepulcher, is presented inconsistently in the four Gospels regarding the number and identity of the women (Matthew 18:1–10, Mark 16:1–13, Luke 24:1–12, 33–35, and John 20:1–18). One unchanging element in the Gospels is the presence of Mary Magdalene. Apart from the Virgin Mary, the women who are identified in the exempla vary considerably. Mary Magdalene is mentioned in most, while others such as Elizabeth, Ann, Agnes, and Mary of Egypt play a less frequent role. For a table, see Mula, “Les exempla cisterciens,” 384.
Collectaneum Clarevallense: Before this recent edition the collection was known by the title Liber visionum et miraculorum. The miracle that follows is contained in the fourth and final part of the miscellany: see Collectaneum Clarevallense 4.16 [90], ed. Olivier Legendre, Collectaneum exemplorum et visionum Clarevallense e codice Trecensi 946, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 208 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005), 289 (text), 409–10 (sources).
Prior John of Clairvaux: The codex was identified as John’s work by Brian Patrick McGuire, “A Lost Clairvaux Exemplum Found: The Liber visionum et miraculorum Compiled under Prior John of Clairvaux (1171–1179),” Analecta Cisterciensia 39.1 (1983): 27–62, with analysis of our exemplum at 39–41. The preceding has been reprinted as the centerpiece in a volume with other invaluable studies by the same author as Brian Patrick McGuire, Friendship and Faith: Cistercian Men, Women, and their Stories, 1100–1250, Variorum Collected Studies Series CS742 (Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2002). For a close examination of various exempla in the compilation, see Brian Patrick McGuire, “Les mentalités des cisterciens dans les recueils d’exempla du XIIe siècle: une nouvelle lecture du Liber visionum et miraculorum de Clairvaux,” in Jacques Berlioz and Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu, ed. Les exempla médiévaux: nouvelles perspectives (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1998), 107–45.
the miracle genre: On the development of distinctively Cistercian collections in this genre, see Lorenzo Braca, Libri miraculorum cistercensi: visioni dell’aldilà e crisi istituzionale tra XII e XIII secolo, Medievalia 2 (Saonara [PD: Il prato, 2016), pp. 85–128.
the tradition of blessed Benedict: The Rule of Saint Benedict 48.7, ed. and trans. Venarde, 160–61.
her name as title of honor: All Cistercian foundations were dedicated in memory of the Virgin as Queen of Heaven and Earth, under the title of the Assumption, and the white monks were seen as being closely identified with reverence for her cult.
Herbert of Clairvaux: Known sometimes as Herbert of Torres or in Latin as Herbertus Turritanus.
Book of Visions and Miracles at Clairvaux: Liber visionum et miraculorum Clarevallensium, ed. Giancarlo Zichi, Graziano Fois, and Stefano Mula, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 277, Exempla Medii Aevi 8 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), 3–7.
at the very opening of his text: Liber visionum et miraculorum Clarevallensium, 1.1, ed. Zichi, Fois, and Mula, 3–7. The same exemplum can be found, with no substantial departures, in an abridged form: see Gabriela Kompatscher Gufler, ed. Herbert von Clairvaux und sein Liber miraculorum: die Kurzversion eines anonymen bayerischen Redaktors; Untersuchung, Edition und Kommentar, Lateinische Sprache und Literatur des Mittelalters 39 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2005), 149–50. It has been classified as Albert Poncelet, “Miraculorum B. V. Mariae quae saec. VI–XV latine conscripta sunt Index postea perficiendus,” Analecta Bollandiana 21 (1902): 241–360, at 282, no. 576.
Reinaldus: The name is also attested as Renaldus or Rainaldus. For information on this monk, see Seraphin Lenssen, Hagiologium Cisterciense, 2 vols. (Tilburg, Holland: B.M. de Villa Regia, 1948–49), 1:283–84.
profession: The term here indicates the ceremony and vows that confirmed his entrance into the order as a Cistercian monk.
glorify and bear God in his body: 1 Corinthians 6:20.
the foulnesses of the flesh on an undefiled path: The Latin echoes the fourth response to the vigils for Saint Agnes, celebrated on January 21.
Saint Amand: This was a Benedictine abbey in northern France.
warfare: The metaphor of spiritual combat owes especially to 2 Corinthians 10:4.
in toils, keeping vigils, fasts: The Latin draws on 2 Corinthians 6:5.
tears in prayer: The salience of weeping in medieval prayer has been examined repeatedly. For example, see Jessie Gutgsell, “The Gift of Tears: Weeping in the Religious Imagination of Western Medieval Christianity,” Anglican Theological Review 97, no. 2 (2015): 239–53.
taint: The text reads scenum, probably corresponding to the noun that would be written as caenum in conventional orthography of Classical Latin. In contrast, Conrad uses the word vitium.
fear and trembling: Philemon 2:12.
Geoffrey of Auxerre: This version is extant in a collection of exempla, as yet unedited, in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 14657, 118, fol. 69rb: see Stefano Mula, “Herbert de Torrès et l’autoreprésentation de l’ordre cistercien dans les recueils d’exempla,” in La Tonnerre des exemples. “Exempla” et médiation culturelle dans l’Occident médiéval, ed. Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu, Pascal Collomb, and Jacques Berlioz (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2010), 187–99, at 189 n14.
Engelhard of Langheim: See Bruno Griesser, “Engelhard von Langheim und sein Exempelbuch für die Nonnen von Wechtserwinkel,” Cistercienser Chronik 70 (1963): 55–73, at 64–65. The text was apparently edited in a dissertation, but the edition was deliberately omitted from the printed form that is held by libraries. See Hans D. Oppel, Die exemplarischen Mirakel des Engelhard von Langheim: Untersuchungen und kommentierte Textausgabe (Teildruck) (Würzburg: Universitätsverlag, 1976), 148–208. Additional context has become available recently thanks to Martha G. Newman, Cistercian Stories for Nuns and Monks: The Sacramental Imagination of Engelhard of Langheim (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020).
Exordium magnum Cisterciense: Poncelet, “Miraculorum … Index,” 294, no. 769. For the Latin, see Conrad of Eberbach, Exordium magnum Cisterciense siue Narratio de initio Cisterciensis Ordinis, Distinctio 3, Cap. 13, ed. Bruno Griesser, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, vol. 138, 2nd ed. (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1994). The text has been put into French by Anthelmette Piébourg, trans., Le grand exorde de Cîteaux, ou Récit des débuts de l’Ordre cistercien, Cîteaux: Studia et documenta, vol. 7 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1997), 161–64, and into English by E. Rozanne Elder, ed., and Paul Savage and Benedicta Ward, trans., The Great Beginning of Cîteaux: A Narrative of the Beginning of the Cistercian Order; The Exordium Magnum of Conrad of Eberbach, Cistercian Fathers Series, vol. 72 (Trappist, KY: Cistercian Publications, 2012), 252–57. In the oldest codices, from the thirteenth century, the work bears the title Narratio de initio Cisterciensis Ordinis, while in those of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it is sometimes entitled Liber de viris illustribus Cisterciensis Ordinis.
Chronicon: See Helinand of Froidmont, Chronicon, ed. PL 212:771C–1082C, with our exemplum at 1077C-D.
his pre-monastic life: For a sifting of fact and fiction in the rumors about Helinand’s poetic career before his monastic profession, see Marie-Geneviève Grossel, “Hélinand avant Froidmont: à la recherche d’un ‘trouvère’ perdu,” Sacris Erudiri 52 (2013): 319–52.
Helinand’s source: Mula, “Les exempla cisterciens,” 382 and 386n2 (where he specifies Troyes, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 1133, fol. 36r).
persisted for centuries: Mula, “Les exempla cisterciens,” 387 cites the seventeenth-century hagiography of Peter in Chrysostomus Henriquez (Crisóstomo Enriquez), Fasciculus sanctorum ordinis Cisterciensis, Book 2, Distinctio 22, Caput 8 (Brussels: Pepermanus, 1623), 196.
two women: Interestingly, both the Maries soon named were believed in the Middle Ages to have repented from sexually dissolute living.
Mary Magdalene: Mentioned in all four canonical Gospels, this woman traveled with Jesus and witnessed the crucifixion and what followed. The epithet may suggest that she came from the town of Magdala, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. She was conflated with the unidentified sinful woman, taken to be a reformed prostitute, who anointed Jesus’s feet (Luke 7:36–50). On her, see Ingrid Maisch, Mary Magdalene: The Image of a Woman through the Centuries, trans. Linda M. Maloney (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998).
Mary of Egypt: Also called Mary the Egyptian, this woman, probably of the late fourth and early fifth century, was a popular Christian saint in the Middle Ages. In The Golden Legend, she is a former child runaway who served long term as a prostitute in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. On the threshold of turning thirty, she is inspired to do penance in the desert. She lives there in near solitude and eventually has nothing to cover her nakedness except her long hair. For the English of texts, see Hugh Feiss and Ronald Pepin, trans. Saint Mary of Egypt: Three Medieval Lives in Verse, Cistercian Studies Series 209 ([Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2005). For studies, see Erich Poppe and Bianca Ross, The Legend of Mary of Egypt in Medieval Insular Hagiography (Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts Press, 1996). For more recent theoretical context, see Virginia Burrus, The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 128–59.
replete with exempla: For a survey, see Victoria Smirnova, Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu, and Jacques Berlioz, ed. The Art of Cistercian Persuasion in the Middle Ages and Beyond: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s “Dialogue on Miracles” and its Reception, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions 196 (Leiden: Brill, 2015).
On the Entrance into Religious Life of This Little Work’s Author: Dialogus miraculorum 1.17, ed. Josephus Strange, 2 vols. (Cologne: J. B. Heberle, 1851), 1:24–25; previously translated as The Dialogue on Miracles, trans. H. Von Essen Scott and C. C. Swinton Bland (London: G. Routledge, 1929), 1:25–26. The exemplum is indexed as Poncelet, “Miraculorum … Index,” 282, no. 576, and Tubach, Index Exemplorum, 265, no. 3404 “Monks of Clairvaux Harvesting.”
second abbot: 1195/6–1208.
King Philip II of France: Lived 1165–1223, reigned 1180–1223.
King Philip II of France: Miracula 7.18, ed. Strange, 2:24.
The Virgin Mary’s Vessel of Sweat: Indexed as Poncelet, “Miraculorum … Index,” 300, no. 853, and Tubach, Index Exemplorum, 386, no. 5114 “Virgin, Blessed, collects drops of sweat.” Edited first as Caesarius of Heisterbach, Miracula 3.36, ed. Aloys Meister, Die Fragmente der Libri VIII Miraculorum des Caesarius von Heisterbach, Römische Quartalschrift Supplementband 14 (Rome: Herder, 1901), 164, but better by Alfons Hilka (who correctly deemed it Pseudo-Caesarian), Die Wundergeschichten des Caesarius von Heisterbach, Publikationen der Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde 43, 3 vols. (Bonn: Hanstein, 1933–1937), 3:129–218, Anhang 1 “Die Caesarius in der Ausgabe von Meister fälschlich zugeschriebenen Erzählungen der Zantener und Bonner Handschrift,” at 175–76. The same miracle is found in Engelhard of Langheim, in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 13097, fols. 145v–146r.
sweetest of odors: Here an effusion often connected with unpleasant body odor is related instead to the odor of sanctity. On the development of the last-mentioned concept, see Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination, Transformation of the Classical Heritage, vol. 42 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), especially 8, 103, 227–29.
Have you not read: Mary paraphrases a sentence from the final homily in a Lenten cycle on Psalms 90 by an author well known to Cistercian monks: see Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermo 17 “De versu decimo sexto ‘Longitudine dierum replebo eum et ostendam illi salutare meum,” in Sermones in Psalmum 90 “Qui habitat,” in Sancti Bernardi Opera, vols. 1–9, ed. Jean Leclercq, Henri Rochais, C. H. Talbot, and G. Hendrix, Bibliotheca auctorum traductorum et scriptorum ordinis cisterciensis 6 (Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1957–98), 4 (1957): 485–92, at 487, lines 17–19: “Bonum magis necessitas quam voluptas, quod, cum utraque res citius transeat, altera poenam habeat, altera sit paritura coronam.”
Goswin of Bossut: Vita Abundi, Chapter 14, ed. Adrianus Maria Frenken, “De Vita van Abundus van Hoei,” Cîteaux: Commentarii Cistercienses 10 (1959): 5–33, at 25–26. For a complete translation into English, see Goswin of Bossut, “Life of Abundus,” in Martinus Cawley, Send Me God: The Lives of Ida the Compassionate of Nivelles, Nun of la Ramée, Arnulf, Lay Brother of Villers, and Abundus, Monk of Villers, by Goswin of Bossut (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2003), 207–46, at 234.
gathering in the crops: Rule of Saint Benedict 48.7, ed. and trans. Venarde, 160–61.
the man of the Lord: This means Abundus.
pour out his heart like water before the face of his Lord: Lamentations 2:19.
received a reply: To smooth the syntax and make the statements about the two Maries parallel, the punctuation in the edition has been modified here.
Mary who is called Magdalene: Luke 8:2.
the man of God: Once again, Abundus is intended.
Cistercian codex: London, British Library, MS Harley 2851, fols. 71–89, at 84v, dated second half of thirteenth century by the British Library. On its Cistercian provenance, see C. H. Talbot, “A List of Cistercian Manuscripts in Great Britain,” Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought and Religion 8 (1952): 402–18, at 406.
another version of the story: Poncelet, “Miraculorum … Index,” 341, no. 1527.
cataloguer of the manuscript: H. L. D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts of the British Museum (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1893), 2:670, no. 6 “Monks at their Field-work” (dated ca. 1300 by Ward).
Mariale magnum: On this collection, see Henri Barré, “L’énigme du Mariale magnum,” Ephemerides Mariologicae 16 (1966), 265–88; on our miracle, 285 (on part 2, no. 34), with reference to Vincent of Beauvais and three manuscripts, identified on 279; and on its reliance on Cistercian sources for this miracle, 287.
His iteration of the exemplum: Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale 7.107; in the Strassburg printing of 1473, chapter 29, 32, p. 1196, according Mula, “Les exempla cisterciens,” 386n3. On this exemplum in Vincent, see Poncelet, “Miraculorum … Index,” 336, no. 1438, Mussafia, Studien zu den mittelalterlichen Marienlegenden (Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1888), 2:52 [54], no. 107, and Ward, Romances, 2:629–30, no. 21 (London, British Library, MS Additional 15,723, late thirteenth century).
Caesarius of Heisterbach: See Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu, “Dialogus miraculorum: The Initial Source of Inspiration for Johannes Gobi the Younger’s Scala coeli,” in Smirnova, Polo de Beaulieu, and Berlioz, ed. The Art of Cistercian Persuasion, 183–210.
Mary and the harvesting monks: See Poncelet, “Miraculorum … Index,” 308, no. 986, which inventories Gobi, fol. clxvi b, s.v. Maria, Book 8, 4.
writer on preaching: The fullest introduction to Herolt’s writings in this genre is Ian D. Kingston Siggins, A Harvest of Medieval Preaching: The Sermon Books of Johann Herolt, OP (Discipulus) (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation, 2009).
plain words that a learner would use: Johannes Herolt, Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, trans. C. C. Swinton Bland (London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd., 1928), unnumbered introductory pages.
Our miracle: It is Poncelet, “Miraculorum … Index,” 312, no. 1057. The translation (modified) follows Herolt, Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, trans. Bland, 23–24. Bland, in contrast to most scholars, numbers the miracle 6. For context, see two articles by Guy Philippart: “Les miracles mariaux de Jean Herolt (1434) et la Legenda aurea,” Le moyen français 32, no. 1 (1993): 53–67, and “Le récit miraculaire marial dans l’Occident médiéval,” in Dominique Iogna-Prat, Eric Palazzo, and Daniel Russo Marie, ed. Le culte de la vierge dans la société médiévale (Paris: Beauchesne, 1996), 563–90, at 578.
many sources: Among those he cites outright, Vincent of Beauvais’s Speculum historiale occupies first position and Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus miraculorum second in order of frequency.
knightly belt: The implication is that he sets aside his sword.
work with his hands: In a traditional tripartite schema, the oratores or prayers saw to the spiritual wellbeing of medieval society, the bellatores or warriors provided defense, and the laboratores or peasants worked the land to produce food.
a coda: The problem was pointed out by Pol Jonas, ed. “C’est d’un moine qui vout retolir a une nonne une ymage de Nostre Dame que il li avoit aportee de Jherusalem”: Miracle versifié par Gautier de Coinci, Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian Toimituksia, Sarja B = Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae. Ser. B 113, no. 2 (1959), at 41–42. The two miracles are designated Book 2, Miracle 30 (“De l’ymage Nostre Dame de Sardanei”), ed. Koenig, 4:378–411, and Book 2, Miracle 31 (“De un moigne de Chartrose”), 4:412–17, respectively.
fin for “end.”: See Hunt, Miraculous Rhymes: The Writing of Gautier de Coinci, 47.
The resemblances: First, Wendelin Foerster, “Nachträge und Berichtigungen,” Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 4 (1880): 190 n1; later, Wilhelm Hertz, Spielmannsbuch: Novellen in Versen aus dem zwölften und dreizehnten Jahrhundert, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta, 1900), 419, and Erhard Lommatzsch, Gautier de Coincy als Satiriker (Halle a. S.: Max Niemeyer, 1913), 15; and more recently, Bretel, Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame, 13–14 and 18–19, and Jean-Louis Gabriel Benoit, in Gautier de Coinci, Cinq miracles de Notre-Dame, trans. Benoit, Traductions des classiques du Moyen Age 78 (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2007), 139.
De un moigne de Chartrose: Ed. Koenig, 4:412–17. For the modern French, see Gautier de Coinci, Cinq miracles de Notre-Dame, trans. Jean-Louis Gabriel Benoit, Traductions des classiques du Moyen Age 78 (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2007), 147–51. The longer miracle to which it may serve as capstone is Miracles, Book 2, no. 30 (“De l’ymage Nostre Dame de Sardanei”).
galantines: To this day this term denotes a dish, especially of poultry or fish that is stuffed, served cold in its own jelly or aspic.
Saint Peter: One of the twelve apostles. His three denials of Jesus, recounted in all four Gospels (Matthew 26:34, 69–75; Mark 14:30, 66–72; Luke 22:34, 54–62; John 13:38, 18:15–18, 25–27), make him especially apt for invocation here.
blind: The metaphor of spiritual blindness appears commonly in the Hebrew Bible but even more in the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John and in the letters to the Corinthians.
star of the sea: This title for the Virgin is traditional in Latin as stella maris. The phrase in the learned language was often believed wrongly to correspond to the etymological meaning of Mary’s name in Hebrew.
5. The Jongleur and the Black Virgin of Rocamadour
Gospel of Luke: 19:1–10.
Throne of Wisdom: In Latin, sedes sapientiae. For the definitive study, see Ilene H. Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972).
Black Virgin: See Ean C. M. Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin, 2nd ed. (London: Arkana, 1996), and Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet, Vierges noires (Rodez, France: Rouergue, 2000).
The Miracles of Our Lady of Rocamadour: For text, see Book 1, Miracle 34, ed. Edmond Albe, Les miracles de Notre-Dame de Rocamadour au XIIe siècle (Toulouse : Le Pérégrinateur, 1996), 142–45. For complete translation and detailed examination, see Marcus Graham Bull, The Miracles of Our Lady of Rocamadour: Analysis and translation (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1999), 122–23.
Peter was son of Ivern: Karl Corsten, “Rheinische Pilger in Rocamadour,” Annalen des historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein 125 (1934): 1–11, at 6.
impacts on both locales: See Mauritius Mittler, “Abt Gerhard I. von Siegburg (1173–1185?),” Heimatblätter des Siegkreises (Special Issue) 32, no. 86 (1964): 21–30; Mauritius Mittler, “Annos Heiligsprechung und Verehrung,” in Mauritius Mittler, ed. Siegburger Vorträge zum Annojahr 1983, Siegburger Studien 16 (Siegburg: Respublica-Verlag, 1984), 41–74; and Mauritius Mittler, Libellus de translatione Sancti Annonis Archiepiscopi et Miracula Sancti Annonis: Bericht über die Translation des heiligen Erzbischofs Anno und Annonische Mirakelberichte (Siegburger Mirakelbuch) Lateinisch-deutsch, 3: Einleitung und Register, ed. Hans-Rudolf Fehlmann and Wolfgang Löhr, in 3 vols., Siegburger Studien 3–5, Geschichts- und Altertumsverein für Siegburg und den Siegkreis (Siegburg: Respublica-Verlag, 1966–1968).
Three times the taper: The opposite phenomenon involving a candle takes place in an exemplum: see Tubach, Index Exemplorum, 69, no. 850: “Candle rejected three times. A candle placed on the altar of St. Paul by a sinful woman is three times rejected.”
medieval viol: For orientation, see Ian Woodfield, The Early History of the Viol (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 1–14.
trecensus: Jan Frederik Niermeyer and C. van de Kieft, with J. W. J. Burgers, Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus = Lexique latin médiéval = Medieval Latin Dictionary = Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, 2 vols. (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2002), 2:1354–55.
individual devotion to the Virgin: Corsten, “Rheinische Pilger in Rocamadour,” 5n23.
wonder at that which happened to him: Acts 3:10.
with timbrel and choir, with strings and organs: Psalms 150:4.
Of the Candle that Came Down to the Jongleur: Miracles Book 2, no. 21 (“Dou cierge qui descendi au jougleour”), ed. Koenig, 4:175–89. The fullest edition of this miracle is that of Reino Hakamies, ed. Deux miracles de Gautier de Coinci, d’un vilain qui fut sauvé pour ce qu’il ne faisoit uevre le samedi et du cierge que Nostre Dame de Rochemadour envoia seur la vïele au jougleour qui vïeloit et chantoit devant s’ymage, Suomalaisen tiedeakatemian toimituksia, Series B 113, part 1 (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Kirjapaino, 1958). Also well worth consulting is the Italian translation in Gautier de Coinci, Gonzalo de Berceo, and Alfonso X el Sabio, Miracoli della Vergine: Testi volgari medievali, ed. and trans. Carlo Beretta (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1999), 362–79 (text and translation), 1186–89 (notes). The miracle was translated long ago by Alice Kemp-Welch, Of the Tumbler of Our Lady and Other Miracles (London: Chatto and Windus, 1909), 129–37.
narrative and lyric skill: On the language, rhetoric, and versification, see Tony Hunt, Miraculous Rhymes: The Writing of Gautier de Coinci, Gallica 8 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2007).
credits as his source: On this and other sources, see Adolfo Mussafia, “Über die von Gautier de Coincy benützten Quellen,” Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Philosophisch-historische Classe 44, no. 1 (Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1894), 1–58.
Rocamadour: The toponym, a roche by any other name, is spelled variously as Rochemadour, Roche Amador, Roche Amator, and Roche Amadeur.
a very large book: Compare 175.
read: Compare 152.
fine: The Old French term cortois (equivalent to the modern courtois), exceedingly difficult to put into English, is translated here as “fine.” Compare line 10. For context, see Tony Hunt, “Monachus curialis: Gautier de Coinci and courtoisie,“ in Courtly Literature and Clerical Culture: Selected Papers from the Tenth Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, Universität Tübingen, Deutschland, 28. Juli-3. August 2001 = Höfische Literatur und Klerikerkultur = Littérature courtoise et culture cléricale, ed. Christoph Huber, Henrike Lähnemann, and Sandra Linden (Tübingen: Attempto, 2002), 121–35.
refinement: The word courtoisie is here translated as “refinement.” See note to line 6.
lay: By this term Gautier signals a poetic genre, truly lyric in being composed for instrumental accompaniment, with no set number of stanzas or of lines within them, and with melodic variation from one stanza to the next.
Peter of Sieglar: The leading character is named only this once in the miracle. Gautier presents this Pierres de Sygelar as being famous and by implication successful, whereas Alfonso later calls his equivalent of the same personage a poor jongleur.
greeted sweetly and praised: The implication is that he pronounces the Latin Ave Maria or Hail Mary. See the note to Part 1, Chapter 1.A “Our Lady’s Tumbler,” line 31.
her image: An illustration in the so-called Soissons manuscript of Gautier’s Miracles depicts a three-dimensional statue of a seated Mary with Child: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, nouvelles acquisitions françaises MS 24541, fol. 175r. The manuscript, dated 1328–32, was produced for Joan the Lame of Burgundy (1293–1349), Queen of France (1328–49). The decoration is credited to Jean Pucelle (died 1332).
king who created all: This half line fuses the conceptions of Christ the king (implied by Matthew 2:2 and elsewhere) and God the creator of all (Apocalypse [Revelation] 4:11).
Lady of all refinement: In this line and the following two, the jongleur employs tropes of courtly love.
you up there: He addresses not only Mary but also the image of her, in this case the black Madonna of Rocamadour, where it hangs above the altar. Candles given in her honor may have been attached to large, wheel-shaped chandeliers.
source and channel of sweetness: The epithets here bring to mind later Marian litanies that amassed phrases such as fons pietatis or “font of piety” to describe the Virgin.
Gerard: In French, Girars. Apart from Pierre himself, this antagonist is the only character identified by name.
black bile: According to a doctrine of physiology that the Middle Ages owed to ancient medicine (with credit given customarily to Hippocrates), the human body has four vital fluids, namely, black bile (or melancholy, to use the Greek derivative), yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Imbalance of these four humors will result in flaws that affect a person’s disposition—good humor.
sequence: The musical form known as the sequence is a common type of Latin song, found both in the liturgy and outside it. In its early phases it is associated with texts that accompanied long melismas (or melodies) which were sung after the Alleluia (hence the term sequence, from the Latin for “following”), directly before the Gospel reading. The texts, initially in prose, were later in syllabic and strophic verse. The term recurs in line 316.
kyrie eleison: These words, which reappear in 315, are Greek for “Lord, have mercy.” The phrase is biblical, appearing with slight variations in the Septuagint repeatedly in the Psalms and a few times in the Gospels, especially Matthew and Luke. From the Bible the expression became the name of a prayer, so entrenched in the liturgy from the transition from Greek to Latin in western Christianity that it was left in its original form but transliterated.
Five hundred: This number, beyond merely being conveniently round and impressively high, may resonate deliberately with 1 Corinthians 15:6 (the more than five hundred by whom Christ was seen after his resurrection).
head full of relics: Literally, his mind is filled solely with concerns about the relics, presumably along with others about the votive offerings and other valuables, that he is supposed to protect (Hakamies 80). Alternatively, the expression could refer figuratively to the cobwebs in his thinking (Beretta 1187).
Simon Magus: As the second element signals, this figure was a magician. Mentioned briefly in the Acts of the Apostles 8:9–24, he earned a niche in many later legends. The most relevant told that Simon tried to fly and succeeded initially, until the prayers of Saint Peter caused the demons supporting him to let him fall from on high to his death.
a very lovely candle: This custom, mentioned again in 188–9, may signal that Pierre became a member of the confraternity of Rocamadour and that he discharged his annual dues by depositing a candle each year.
donor of a candle: See note to lines 175–77.
cantors: Among various other duties, these church officials sing the solos to which the choir responds: see Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis, A. B. Kraebel, and Margot Elsbeth Fassler, ed. Medieval Cantors and Their Craft: Music, Liturgy and the Shaping of History, 800-1500 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press/The Boydell Press, 2017).
friars: The term refers especially to the four mendicant orders of Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Franciscans, all of which originated in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century.
hot or cold to God: God is ill disposed to them because they are not heartfelt in their utterances. The proverbial turn of phrase owes in the end to the wording of the Apocalypse (Revelation) 3:15–16.
concord of the two: The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 19.7, ed. and trans. Venarde, 90–91, enjoins monks to “sing psalms in such a way that our spirits and voices are in harmony.”
donkey if it brays: The poet here hints at stock characterizations of asses as not understanding music: see TPMA 3:64–66, Esel 6.1–6.2. The commonplace was represented often in art: see Walter S. Gibson, “Asinus ad lyram: From Boethius to Bruegel and Beyond.” Simiolus 33, nos. 1/2 (2007–2008): 33–42, and Martin van Schaik, The Harp in the Middle Ages: The Symbolism of a Musical Instrument 2nd ed. (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005), 116–35.
singing descant or in five parts: The musical terminology in this and the preceding line is complex. The first verb, orguener, means not merely singing, but specifically singing at the interval of a fourth or fifth below or above the plainsong. The second, werbloier, is related to the English warble. The final expression probably refers to singing in consecutive fifths: compare 262. Far less likely is that reference is intended to the five parts possible in a choir (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass).
tuned with strong wine: On the truism that consumption of wine promotes better poetry and song, see TPMA 12:439, Wein 1.8.3.
son of the crooked: The underlying conceit is apparently that the grapevine (grammatically a feminine noun) is a cripple, for being crooked and twisted, and that wine is “her” son.
wine but not beer: Each of these alcoholic drinks had its respective partisans, as is evident from debate poems in which the two dispute their relative worth. For the classical presentation of the genre, see James Holly Hanford, “The Mediaeval Debate Between Wine and Water,” PMLA 28, no. 3 (1913): 315–67.
the mouth if there is not devotion in the heart: A marginal gloss reads “Gregorius dicit: Oratio cordis est, non labiorum” (Gregory [the Great] says: Prayer is of the heart, not of the lips). In fact, the sententia derives from Isidore of Seville, Sententiarum libri tres Book 3, Chapter 7, no. 4, ed. PL 83:672A–B. The correct citation was supplied by Arthur Långfors, Miracles de Gautier de Coinci: extraits du manuscrit de l’Ermitage, Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian toimituksia (Annales Academiæ Scientiarum Fennicæ), Series B, no. 34 (Helsinki: Imprimerie de la Société de littérature finnoise, 1937), 335.
psaltery: A medieval instrument like the zither.
organ: Meant here is the portative organ or organetto, a small pipe organ that a performer could carry and operate with the help of bellows and a simple keyboard.
fiddle: The word translated is giga, from which derives the modern German Geige for violin.
David: The second king of Israel, famed as a warrior, politician, poet, and musician, he is the only character from the Hebrew Bible identified apart from Saul in 284. David is mentioned again in 283.
harp: In the Latin of the Vulgate Bible, David is described as playing the cithara. That word is translated here as “harp.” On David and this musical instrument in medieval iconography, see van Schaik, The Harp in the Middle Ages, 38–61.
harp for King Saul: Saul was the first king of Israel. On David’s harping to dispel the evil spirit from him, see 1 Kings (1 Samuel) 16:23.
not worth an old nothing: A roundabout way of saying that they are not worth anything.
the opposite: In this translation lanbers ruece is construed as l’anvers rudece, but the line remains a crux. Hakamies 74 takes the first seven letters as a proper name, Lanbers, and speculates “probably Saint Lambert, Bishop of Maastricht, assassinated in Liège about 706?”
in all good works: The mention of good works in lines 300–302 may reflect the jargon of the chancery, since to obtain a benefice required satisfying the requirement “Bene legit, bene cantat et bene construit” (“He reads well, he chants well, and he construes well”) which could be summed up simply as “Bene per omnia” (literally, “well in all things”; more colloquially, “all things in good order”).
reads: The verb refers to the action in a liturgical sense.
up your hearts: The Latin sursum corda, literally “up hearts,” appears in the preface of the eucharistic prayer, which in the liturgy of communion forms the heart. The celebrant, in the person of Christ, acts as head of his body, the Church. The opening dialogue between the priest (1) and the congregation (2) reads in full: “(1) Dominus vobiscum. (2) Et cum spiritu tuo. (1) Sursum corda. (2) Habemus ad Dominum. (1) Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro. (2) Dignum et iustum est.”
discord: The fourteen lines 345–58 play upon derivatives of the French word corde, which suits the metaphors of the preceding narrative with the chords of the viol and the accord of heart and voice: see Hunt, Miraculous Rhymes, 46.
accord of humanity with God: The one who achieved such harmony between man and God is the Virgin, by virtue of being the mother of the Son of God.
the Enemy: The devil was often designated as being “the Enemy” or “the old Enemy,” opposition that is implied in Hebrew by the very term Satan. See especially 1 Peter 5:8.
in his cords: The image calls to mind that of the devil as a fowler who catches sinners in his snares: see Benjamin G. Koonce, “Satan the Fowler,” Mediaeval Studies 21 (1959): 176–84.
Songs of Holy Mary: The text followed is Cantigas de Santa María, no. 8, ed. Walter Mettmann, 3 vols., Clásicos Castalia 134, 172, 178 (Madrid: Castalia, 1986–89), 1:77–79. The miracle has been put into English previously in Songs of Holy Mary of Alfonso X, The Wise: A Translation of the “Cantigas de Santa Maria,” no. 8, trans. Kathleen Kulp-Hill, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 173 (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2000), pp. 13–14. In addition, the Códice rico contains in its margins a version in Old Spanish prose of the original Galician-Portuguese for Cantigas 2–25. Our story in this prosaic form has been translated in Cash and Murray, Cantigas de Santa María: 2–25, 62–65; on 16 they posit, on the basis of paleography and language, a dating of 1325–30.
miniatures: The two with miniatures are, respectively, one split between San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Real Biblioteca de El Escorial, MS T.I.1, and Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS B.R.2 (together, the so-called Códice rico), and Escorial, MS B.I.2 (the Códice princeps or Códice de los músicos). The other two are Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS 10069, and San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Real Biblioteca de El Escorial, MS b.I.2.
“Second Testament” of January 21, 1284: For the original and English of this part, see Annette Grant Cash and James C. Murray, Cantigas de Santa María: 2–25 of the Escorial Manuscript T.I.I. “Códice rico”: Miniatures, Translations of the Old Spanish Prose Marginalia, and Commentary, Juan de la Cuestas Hispanica Monographs: Estudios de literatura medieval “John E. Keller” 12 (Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 2017), 12–14. The standard edition is M. González Jiménez, Diplomatario andaluz de Alfonso X (Seville: El Monte, Caja de Huelva y Sevilla, 1991), 560.
black: The adjective could mean the color literally, since the Benedictine monks in charge of Rocamadour wore black habits. Figuratively, the brother is benighted in his bearing toward the jongleur: Kulp-Hill (p. 14) translates negral as “unenlightened.”
man-sized taper: The candle called an estadal measured a fathom, the length from fingertip to fingertip of a person’s outstretched arms. Such a taper was made from a rope of beeswax.
6. The Jongleurs and the Holy Candle of Arras
earliest surviving examples: See Carol Symes, A Common Stage: Theater and Public Life in Medieval Arras (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007), especially 69–126.
affliction ran rampant: The year 1105 is often accepted as the date of the outbreak, but the evidence is too thin to be conclusive. See Alessandra Foscati, “La Vergine degli ‘ardenti’: aspetti di un culto taumaturgico nelle fonti mariane tra XII e XIII secolo,” Hagiographica 18 (2011): 263–95, at 292 n90.
ergotism: On the history of the illness in the Middle Ages, see Alessandra Foscati, Saint Anthony’s Fire from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century, trans. Francis Gordon (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020).
hellfire: feuz d’enfer in French.
sacred fire: ignis sacer in Latin.
miraculous candle: Compare the slightly different remedy for the plague in Tubach, Index Exemplorum, 69, no. 845: “Candle cures sickness. A woman who has the illness called ‘holy fire’ is cured by offering a candle.”
Peter: Pierre, in French.
Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise: A county that belonged successively to the Counts of Flanders (until 1180), to France (until 1237), and to Artois (until 1329), before passing back to France.
Itier: Sometimes spelled Ithier.
Itier: At the time when the miracle took place, Brabant was a landgraviate (1085–1183). This lordship encompassed a large territory, including Brussels, in what is now Belgium and the Netherlands.
Lambert: Bishop from 1093 until his death in 1115, Lambert of Guînes was Flemish-born ca. 1050, educated as a youth in the cathedral school of Beauvais, and later archdeacon and cantor at Saint-Pierre in Lille.
different ecclesiastic organization: See Symes, A Common Stage, 92, on first the abbot and convent of Saint-Vaast and then representatives of the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Trinitarians.
two apostolic notaries at the request of a magistrate: The officials were Jean Lostelier and Jean de Houdain; the magistrate, Jean de Beaumont. To all appearances, holding office in Arras at this time required having the personal name Jean: see Berger 2:139 [347]. On the vidimus, see Louis Cavrois, Cartulaire de Notre-Dame-des-Ardents à Arras (Arras: Eugène Bradier, 1876), 186–89.
a seventeenth-century transcription: The surviving document forms part of a bound paper register, the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Registre Thieulaine, also known as D. Theiulaine Florilegium. It follows a manuscript copied in the late fifteenth century. The Registre was, as the second element in its name memorializes, the product of Philippe Thieulaine, who began work on it in 1607 but wrote this part in 1625. It is now Arras, Bibliothèque municipale, Archives de la Confrérie de Notre-Dame des Ardents, inv. 2. See Berger, Nécrologe 2:138.
in Latin: Printed in the left-hand columns in Berger, Nécrologe 2:139–56 [347–64], with extensive annotation. The text in this language was earlier published by Cavrois, Cartulaire, pp. 91–103.
under the sun: In the Latin of the Vulgate Bible, the phrase sub sole appears solely in Ecclesiastes 1:3, 1:10, 1:13, 1:14, etc.
the system of the universe: The words machina mundi are common in hymns.
upon the cherubim and beholds the depths: Compare Daniel 3:55.
confines the thrones of the heavens and encloses the earth in his fist: This wording owes to liturgical formulas.
has measured the height of heaven and the depth of the abyss: Ecclesiasticus 1:2.
holds dominion from sea to sea: Psalms 71 (72): 8.
cannot be numbered: Compare Virgil, Georgics 2.104.
work through one of them in a brief discourse: See Gregory the Great, Homiliae in evangelia (Homilies on the Gospels), 13, n. 1–3, and 30, n. 1–2.
episcopal see of Arras: The bishopric was established only in 1093. As the first incumbent, Lambert had responsibility for achieving autonomy for the diocese.
burning: As mentioned earlier, the inflammation and burning sensation caused by the disease led to its designation in French as the mal des ardents or “illness of the burning ones.”
hellfire: The corresponding French is feu d’enfer.
holy Zion: In the Hebrew Bible Zion denotes Jerusalem in general, the Temple and its innermost sanctum in particular. The term is often used in Medieval Latin as a synonym for “church.”
church of blessed Mary: The cathedral of Notre Dame of Arras, one of the largest and most famous in northern France, was destroyed during the French Revolution.
How long, O Lord, will you forget me to the end?: Psalms 12 (13): 1.
How long do you turn your face away from me?: Psalms 12 (13): 1.
O Lord, rebuke me not in your indignation: Psalms 6:2 (first Penitential Psalm).
144: In Apocalypse (Revelation) 21:17, the wall of the heavenly city is “an hundred forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, which is of an angel.” As the square of twelve, 144 embodies perfection and stability.
As all things maintained deepest silence and night completed the middle of its course: Wisdom 18:14, lightly modified as used in the Introit of the Mass (a piece of music sung at the beginning of the service) for Sunday within the octave of Christmas.
began to dawn on the fifth day of the week: Compare Matthew 28:1 “And in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week.”
clothed in white: For reasons needing no explanation, the color white, symbolizing virginity, is often associated with Mary.
an exceedingly comely virgin: Genesis 24:16.
surrounded with a variety of virtues, in gilded clothing: Compare Psalms 44 (45): 10.
third hour: The expression could be translated as “terce,” denoting the service in the divine office that is chanted at the third hour of the day, around 9 a.m.
Oh such and so great: An allusion to Virgil, Aeneid 2.591–92, which describes a vision that Aeneas has of his mother Venus.
the sign of the Lord’s death: The phrase refers to the crucifix that hung prominently in the cathedral.
the sign of the cross: Upon entering, Norman acknowledges the representation of the crucifixion by crossing himself. He would have made the sign by pressing together the tips of the thumb, index, and middle finger of his right hand and using them to trace a cross on his own body from forehead to stomach and from left to right shoulder.
God, have mercy on me, sinner that I am: Luke 18:13.
May God have mercy on us: Psalms 66 (67): 2.
chapel of Saint Séverin: This mention, along with the one in the French adaptation of this text, is apparently the only record we have of a private episcopal chapel named after this saint in Arras.
Your Paternity: Today a bishop would be addressed formally as “Your Excellency,” but all clergy can be addressed as “father,” whence “Your Paternity.” See Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis, ed. Jacques Monfrin, 673.27–36, under paternitas D.2.b.
fifth day of the week: Thursday. The French has Friday.
the mother of all mercies: In hymns and litanies Mary is commonly “the mother of mercy.” The plural, less usual, appears a second time in this selection.
temporal death: Temporal death is the termination of temporal life, when the immortal soul of a human being separates from the mortal body.
sponsors for my faith at baptism: In other words, his godparents.
additional name: It is hard to gauge whether the more precise translation would be surname, nickname, or stage name.
pleasant circumlocutions: The bishop’s reply alludes to the association of jongleurs with fiction, which often combines pleasantry with falsehood. The Latin adjective for pleasant is iocundus, a member of the same etymological family as the noun ioculator, from which the French derives.
terce: From the Latin tertia for the third hour, terce was a service chanted in the morning at around 9 a.m.
daughters of men: The expression is biblical. In the ages before the flood, there were two families, the sons of God and the daughters of man (Genesis 6:1–4). The latter were descendants of Cain.
pillory of death: The metaphor has a basis in the reality of medieval punishment. Both the pillory and the stocks were devices in which body parts (head, hands, ankles, wrists, or some subset of them) were secured. Confinement in the pillory always entailed humiliation and usually torture. In drastic cases death could result. For context, see C. David Benson, “Piers Plowman as Poetic Pillory: The Pillory and the Cross,” in Medieval Literature and Historical Inquiry: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall, ed. David Aers (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000), 31–54.
miming: As used in this passage, mima appears to be a hapax legomenon. It could refer to physical as opposed to musical or verbal entertainment, but whether it means acting, wordless or not, or acrobatic action is impossible to determine with certainty.
do you mean ‘spoken to each other’: The Latin as printed, Quomodo … interdicis invicem, would suggest the nonsensical “How do you prohibit to each other?”
that Gospel text: Matthew 5:23–24.
Jesus says: Compare Zachariah 8:19.
God himself is peace: The Apostle Paul in particular connects the supreme being with such tranquility, especially in the famous verse “And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).
he says: John 14:6, Matthew 5:44, and 1 John 4:16. The emphasis on charity that begins with the last quotation helps set the stage for the Charité, the charity run by the confraternity.
It has been written: The wording of the first tag here, owing ultimately to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:43–48 and Luke 6:27–38, achieved broad currency through Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Evangelia 1, n. 9, ed. PL 76:1108D, and Homiliae in Evangelia 2, n. 27, ed. PL 76:1205B. The second phrase owes to Proverbs 10:12 and 1 Peter 4:8.
No virtue is perfect without charity: Intriguingly, nearly the same observation is found in Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II–II q. 23 1. 7.
Paul says: 1 Corinthians 13:3, quoted loosely.
the Lord says in the Gospel: Matthew 18:35, again paraphrased roughly.
in his image and likeness: Genesis 1:26.
kisses the feet: The acts described here were common in medieval ritual, especially in proskynesis. The kissing of feet had authorization in Luke 7:38.
is introduced: Reading introducitur instead of intronizatur.
charity was blazing: A major point of departure for discussing the true fire of charity is 1 Corinthians 13:3.
opposed as whiteness and blackness: The pairing of these two qualities has been stock in logical argumentation, going back to Aristotle’s Categories, 10 b 13.
inducement: The Latin substantive irritativa, used here twice in rapid succession, may be a hapax legomenon. The corresponding adjective irritativus, -a, -um is attested only in Antonius Bartal, Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis regni Hungariae (Budapest: Budapestini, Sumptibus Societatis Frankliniae, 1901; rept. Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1970), and Ladislav Varcl, Karl Ernst Georges, Eva Kamínková, et al., Latinitatis medii aevi Lexicon Bohemorum Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (Prague: Academia, 1977–).
Lord’s greatest commandment: Luke 10:27: compare Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31.
commandment kept most: Compare Psalms 118 (119): 4 “Tu mandasti mandata tua custodiri nimis.” This verse is sung on Holy Thursday after the anthem “Mandatum novum do vobis, ut diligatis invicem …”
he took pity on Mary Magdalene: By casting out the seven devils: see Mark 16:9 and Luke 8:2. At the same time, the choice of Magdalene, widely believed in the Middle Ages to have been a repentant prostitute, holds special interest in view of the strong links seen between female sex workers and jongleurs.
took pity on the robber on the cross: See Luke 23:43.
leaving to you an example: Compare another anthem for Holy Thursday, based on John 13:15, for Holy Thursday: “Postquam surrexit Dominus a coena, misit aquam in pelvim et coepit lavare pedes discipulorum suorum.”
that you should follow his footsteps: 1 Peter 2:21.
He prayed for those persecuting him that they not perish: Compare Luke 23:34.
Pray then one for another, that you may be saved: James 5:16.
you have been called by God that you may inherit a blessing: 1 Peter 3:9.
the Holy Spirit does not rest upon: Compare Isaiah 11:2.
kiss of peace: This ancient greeting among Christians became a powerful gesture in rites of reconciliation from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries: see Kiril Petkov, The Kiss of Peace: Ritual, Self, and Society in the High and Late Medieval West, Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples, vol. 17 (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
one in Godhead and threefold in persons: This is a standard expression of the Trinity, as the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one godhead.
hour of none: This would mean around 3 p.m., roughly the ninth hour after dawn. The English “noon” shows that the time eventually shifted earlier, to the middle of the daylight hours.
mother of mercies: Berger hypothesized that this epithet and the ones immediately following it owed to litanies of the Virgin, which became widespread in the twelfth century, though they are often preserved only in sources from centuries later.
star of the sea: This common title for the Virgin corresponds to the Latin stella maris: see note to 4.B, line 123, above.
she vanishes into thin air: Compare Ovid, Heroides 1.79 and 12.85.
wine is accustomed to cheer my soul: Compare Psalms 103 (104): 15 and Ecclesiasticus 40:20.
goes the way of all flesh: Joshua 23:14 and 3 Kings (1 Kings) 2:2.
Some sang with David: Psalms 97 (98): 1.
The Lord has made known his salvation: Psalms 97 (98): 2.
Shout with joy to God, all the earth, sing you a psalm to his name: Psalms 65 (66): 1–2.
Others sang with Zachary: Luke 1:68.
third hour of the day: Meaning “terce.”
We praise you, God: This is the Te Deum, a Latin hymn written in 387 CE that was in regular use throughout most of the Middle Ages. Although often ascribed to Saint Ambrose, its authorship remains uncertain.
sang the Introit: The translation assumes a special and apparently otherwise unattested meaning for introivit. The Introit here refers to a piece of music sung at the beginning of the Mass.
united with them: The confraternity, which initially comprised only the socially marginal jongleurs, was altered to accommodate the bourgeoisie, clergy, and knighthood.
the Pentecost octave: The word octave derives from the Latin octava dies “eighth day. In the medieval liturgy, the feast was extended over the eight days following Pentecost (inclusive of the holiday itself).
in French: Printed in the right-hand columns in Berger, Nécrologe 2:139–56 [347–64].
the miracle in vernacular prose: The narrative, entitled De la chandelle d’Arras, is preserved in a collection of saints’ lives, dated to the mid thirteenth century, in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 17229, fols. 352vb–357va. It was first published by Adolphe Guesnon, La chandelle d’Arras: texte inédit du XIIIe siècle (Arras: F. Guyot, 1899).
a silver reliquary: Jean Lestocquoy, “Deux reliquaires du XIIIème siècle: la custode du Saint-Cierge et le reliquaire de la Sainte-Épine d’Arras,” Mémoires de la Commission départementale des monuments historiques du Pas-de-Calais 3, fasc. 4 (1935), 397–407. For a photograph, see Berger, Le nécrologe, plate facing 2:49 [257].
O Lord, rebuke me not in your indignation: Psalms 6:2. The quotation is given in Latin.
the seven psalms: This gloss signals that the text quoted is the first of the seven Penitential Psalms, which were often copied and illustrated in prayer books such as Books of Hours. The other six are Psalms 31 (32), 37 (38), 50 (51), 101 (102), 129 (130), and 142 (143).
the choir that people call the chancel: The two terms, choir and chancel, have been used sometimes as though they were interchangeable. Taken narrowly, the chancel is a screen. More broadly, it refers to the space where the clergy officiate, separated from the nave by the screen. The choir is the part of the chancel where the service is sung.
fair speech of God: This phrase may point equally to the theology of Christ as the Word of God and to the conception of Scripture as the speech of God.
third hour of the night: The canonical hours comprised seven daytime hours and only one at night. The nighttime hour of matins was celebrated by monks beginning roughly two hours after midnight. The author of the French, pitching his composition at a lay audience, uses hours in a non-canonical sense.
kneels: This posture was commonly assumed in medieval prayer, see Przemyslaw Mrozowski, “Genuflection in Medieval Western Culture: The Gesture of Expiation—The Praying Posture,” Acta Poloniae Historica 68 (1993): 5–26.
May God have mercy on us: Psalms 66 (67): 2. Once again, the writer quotes the Latin rather than translating into the vernacular.
Perron: This is an equivalent to Pierron, a pet form of the personal name Pierre, French for Peter. A comparable form in English would be the nickname Petey.
in the Gospel: Matthew 5:23–24.
God says: The first clause should be compared with Zachariah 8:19, while the second quotes John 14:6.
Holy Writ says: The wording of the first quotation, owing ultimately to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:43–48 and Luke 6:27–38, achieved broad currency through Gregory the Great, Homiliae in evangelia (Homilies on the Gospels), 1, n. 9, ed. PL 76:1108D, and 2, n. 27, ed. PL 76:1205B. The second and third quotations are both from 1 John 4:16.
Saint Paul says to us: 1 Corinthians 13:3, quoted loosely.
God says in the Gospel: Matthew 18:35, also approximately.
made you in his image and likeness: Genesis 1:26.
moved: Reading con meuz as conmeuz.
different as are white and black: For other examples of this saying, see Hassell, Middle French Proverbs, 54, B104 “Contraires comme le blanc et le noire.”
charity is the first and sovereign commandment: 1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.”
very great commandment of Lord God: This sets the stage for the quotation of Luke 10:27: compare Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31.
love his enemy: Matthew 5:44.
pardoned Mary Magdalene: By casting out the seven devils: see Mark 16:9 and Luke 8:2.
took pity on the robber hanging on the cross: See Luke 23:43.
prayed for those who crucified him: Compare Luke 23:34.
pray one for another, that you may be saved: James 5:16.
the Holy Spirit does not rest upon: Compare Isaiah 11:2.
lady of paradise: This common title of the Virgin has no one specific source.
in wine than in water: This statement is related to a large body of proverbial sayings about wine and water: see TPMA 12:439–41, 4 “Wein und Wasser (Bier).”
wine is accustomed to cheer my body and soul: Compare Psalms 103 (104): 15 and Ecclesiasticus 40:20.
to recover but to depart: The French contains word play that defies translation: “il but par mauvese creance, neant por respasser mes pour trespasser, car lors trespassa de cest siecle.”
We praise you, God: The French writer uses the Latin name for the hymn Te Deum.
two lords: The mention of these two lords would date the events to a span between at the earliest a little before 1184 and the latest 1203, according to Berger, Nécrologe 2:46 [254].
Imercourt: This place, two miles northeast from the center of present-day Arras, was later renamed Saint-Laurent-Blangy.
Bailleul: Probably Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, a farming village five miles northeast of Arras.
Waencort: The settlement of Wancort, five miles southeast of Arras.
cinquiesme: Pentecost, from the Greek meaning “fiftieth,” derives ultimately from a Jewish festival celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover. The medieval French form indicated here derives from quinquagesima, the Latin for “fiftieth” that designates the Christian holiday.
pennies: Expanding den to deniers.
from the seventeenth-century Registre Thieulaine: By Cavrois, Cartulaire, 127–54, starting at folio XXXIXv of the register.
in the thirteenth century: Cavrois, Cartulaire, 127.
by oral tradition: Cavrois, Cartulaire, 127n.
as Holy Writ says: The French reads l’an Jhu Crist, perhaps referring to Luke 4:19 annum Domini.
Brabanter: Meaning, “an inhabitant of Brabant,” the region that once stretched from the south of what is now the Netherlands deep into the center of present-day Belgium.
little sin: Because Norman slew Itier’s brother, Itier is less sinful.
fleur-de-lis: The comparison is particularly apt, thanks to the strong associations of this stylized lily with the Virgin Mary.
Queen of Glory: Another title of the Virgin.
May God have mercy on us: The poet quotes in the original Latin the opening of Psalms 66 (67): 2 “Deus misereatur nostri.”
mother of concord: This French title for the Virgin corresponds to the Latin mater concordiae, commonplace in hymns and litanies.
the Gospel recalls to us: Though Luke’s is sometimes styled the Gospel of Mercy, the reference may well be to Matthew 5:7, 5:23–24.
the Jews made him suffer: The basis for this anti-Judaic trope was Acts 4:24–30.
the Gospel: Compare 1 John 2:9–11.
charity is the principal: 1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
We praise you, God: Once again, a mention of the Latin hymn Te Deum laudamus.
servant: Luke 1:38 is the source of the biblical expression ancilla Domini.
Saint Martial’s fire: This is yet another name for the illness conventionally equated with ergotism. See Foscati, Saint Anthony’s Fire, 99, 118.
7. The Fiddler and the Holy Face of Lucca
statue on a cross: Hilary Maddocks, “Légende du Saint-Voult,” in Godfried Croenen and Peter F. Ainsworth, ed. Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400, Synthema 4 (Louvain: Peeters, 2006), 91–122. The most comprehensive investigations of the cult are Graziano Concioni, Contributi alla storia del Volto Santo, Accademia Lucchese di Scienze, Lettere e Arti: Saggi e Ricerche 11 (Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2005), and Michele Camillo Ferrari and Andreas Meyer, ed. Il Volto Santo in Europa: culto e immagini del crocifisso nel Medioevo: atti del convegno internazionale di Engelberg, 13–16 settembre 2000, Collana La balestra 47 (Lucca: Istituto storico lucchese, 2005).
bigger-than-life Christ: To be precise, the Christ is 2.78 meters in height by 2.45 in width, the cross 4.34 by 2.65.
long-sleeved tunic: Sometimes called a colobium or a tunica manicata “sleeved tunic.” See Ernst Hagemann, “Zur Ikonographie des gekreuzigten Christus in der gegürteten Tunika,” Niederdeutsche Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte 13 (1974): 97–122.
cult of Holy Blood: Jean-Guy Gouttebroze, “A l’origine du culte du Précieux Sang de Fécamp, le Saint Voult de Lucques,” Tabularia: Sources écrites de la Normandie médiévale 2 (2002): 1–8, and Jean-Guy Gouttebroze, Le Précieux Sang de Fécamp: origine et développement d’un mythe chrétien, Essais sur le Moyen Age 23 (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2000), 51–64.
textile imprinted with the image of Christ: Andrea Nicolotti, From the Mandylion of Edessa to the Shroud of Turin, Art and Material Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 120–87 (Chapter 6, “An Overview of Iconography”), at 120–26.
Dante Alighieri: Inferno 21.48.
Gospel of John: 3:1–21, 7:50–51, and 19:39–42.
Boncompagno da Signa: The text at issue is his Boncompagnus (also known as Rethorica antiqua) 5.22.3 De hereticis, ed. Anton Emanuel Schönbach, “Beiträge zur Erklärung altdeutscher Dichtwerke II,” Sitzungsberiche der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, philosophisch-hististorische Classe 145, no. 9 (1902), at 88–89. Reprinted in Gustav Schnürer, Sankt Kümmernis und Volto Santo (Düsseldorf 1934), 163–64.
Placentinus: This Italian legist, who died in Piacenza in 1192, wrote prolifically.
medieval French epic: Aliscans, lines 4759–69, ed. Claude Régnier, 2 vols., Les classiques français du Moyen Âge 110–11 (Paris: Champion, 1990), 1: 179; lines 4759–69, trans. Bernard Guidot and Jean Subrenat, Traductions des classiques français du Moyen Âge (Paris: Champion, 1993), 132; lines 4821–31, ed. Claude Régnier, trans. Andrée et Jean Subrenat, Champion Classiques: Moyen Âge 21 (Paris: Champion 2007), 328–31.
A thirteenth-century poem: Dit des taboureurs or “The Song of the Drummers,” strophes 20–22, ed. Achille Jubinal, Jongleurs et trouvères, ou choix de saluts, épitres, rêveries et autres pièces légères des XIIIe et XIVe siècles (París : J. Albert Merklein, 1835), 164–69, at 167–68, and Des taboureurs or “On the Drummers” and Les joueurs de tambour or “The Drum Players,” ed. Willem Noomen, Le jongleur par lui-même: choix de dits et de fabliaux, Ktēmata 17 (Louvain: Peeters, 2003), 142–50 (even-numbered), at 148, and 143–51 (odd-numbered), at 149.
mysterious dossier: For the Latin of the Relatio Leobini diaconi de revelatione sive inventione ac translatione et miraculis reverendi vultus Domini nostri Jesu Christi, see Gustav Schnürer and Josef Maria Ritz, Sankt Kümmernis und Volto Santo: Studien und Bilder, Forschungen zur Volkskunde 13–15 (Düsseldorf: L. Schwann, 1934), 127–34. Their text, not a critical edition, remains a stopgap. For an Italian translation, see Almerico Guerra, Storia del Volto Santo di Lucca, ed. Pietro Guidi (Sora: P. C. Camastro, 1926), 1: 1–9; the contents are summarized by Francesco Paolo Luiso, La leggenda del Volto Santo—Storia di un cimelio (Pescia: Benedetti e Niccolai, 1928), 9–12. Major elements in the account by Leobinus are included in Gervase of Tilbury, Otia imperialia, 3.24, ed. and trans. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002), 598–605. Gervase claimed to have read the Gesta de vultu Lucano or “The History of the Image of Lucca,” which may have been identical with “The Report of the Deacon Leobinus” or may have included it in whole or in part.
Leobinus: The key name is sometimes Latinized as Leboinus. This form would correlate to Lebuin or Lebwin on the local vernacular, as opposed to Leobin in Frankish. In form the name looks to be not Luccan and local but of Frankish origin.
nineteen manuscripts: The extant manuscripts fall into two groups. In the first, all the earliest witnesses are French in origin, with six from the twelfth century and three from the thirteenth. The second is distinct from the first for including not only the Relatio but also a collection of miracles. In the second, the earliest manuscript dates from the early fourteenth century. All these codices are Italian, associated specifically with Lucca and Rome.
revelation or discovery, transference, and miracles: The terms inventio, translatio, and miracula have special valences in hagiography.
the talent entrusted: Talents were units of ancient Greco-Roman coinage. The reference is to the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14–30 and Luke 19:11–27. Before leaving on a trip, a master entrusted his property to his three servants, giving five talents to the first, two to the second, and only one to the third.
the Lord’s Supper: Meaning “those who take communion.”
Seleucius: The appellation Seleucus, normally spelled without an i, was held by four Syrian kings, who rules from the fourth century through the second century BCE. They are often termed the Seleucids. From their dynastic name derived the named of nine ancient towns, four of which hold importance for the Bible, in Syria, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, and Palestine. The character identified here may be named after one of the cities.
This Nicodemus: John 19:38.
Issachar: The name has deep roots in the Hebrew Bible, where Issachar was the ninth son of Jacob and the first of them born later to Leah (Genesis 30:18). He founded a tribe named after him.
Joppa: Situated on a rock hill thirty-five miles from Jerusalem, this city possessed a small harbor that appears in the Bible as the destination for cedar logs used in building and rebuilding the temple. It was also the port from which Jonah departed.
candles and lamps: These items are not part of the biblical account.
pitch: Mentioned explicitly in Genesis 6:14.
Luni: The ancient harbor of Luna was located on the northwestern coast of Italy, more or less midway between Genoa to the north and Livorno to the south. Its modern-day successor, with its final vowel changed to Luni, lies at the easternmost end of the Liguria region.
the boys of the Jews sang: This presents, in abridged form, the antiphon sung at the distribution of palms on Palm Sunday, which reads “Pueri Hebraeorum, portantes ramos olivarum, obviaverunt Domino, clamantes et dicentes: Hosanna in excelsis” (The children of the Hebrews, carrying olive branches, went forth to meet the Lord, crying out and saying: Hosanna in the highest!).
lamb of God: Agnus Dei identifies the prayer, based on John 1:29, that is said or (with a multitude of musical settings) sung in the Mass. This is the first verse, which is repeated once immediately and twice later.
742: On the debate among scholars between 742 and 782, see Pietro Guidi, “La data nella leggenda di Leobino,” Archivio storico italiano 18.2 (1933), 133–64.
the most serene kings: Carloman (d. 754) and his younger brother Pepin the Short (d. 768). After the death of their father Charles Martel in 741, they succeeded to their father’s position as mayor of the palace and duke of the Franks.
church of Saint Martin: The cathedral of Lucca is indeed dedicated to the fourth-century Saint Martin, third bishop of Tours.
Syrian men who guarded the Lord’s sepulcher: The church of the Holy Sepulcher, which stands in the Old City of Jerusalem, marks the place where Jesus was buried and resurrected. Before the Crusaders, the site was indeed reportedly held by eastern Christians.
crown of thorns: This object is mentioned in three Gospels, Matthew 27:29, Mark 15:17, and John 19:2 and 5. Individual prickles and larger pieces alleged to have come from it are found all over Europe (and in the United States).
grove: The account in the Gospel of John specifies a garden tomb, not a grove.
Ramoth-Gilead: Located east of the river Jordan, this was one of forty-eight cities in ancient Israel set aside for the tribe of Levi. Matthew 27:57 indicates that the body of Jesus was granted by Pilate to Joseph of Arimathea. Arimathea was sometimes identified with Ramoth-Gilead, and one notion was that Jesus was buried there.
for fear of the Jews: John 19:38.
edited from two thirteenth-century manuscripts: Gustav Schnürer, “Anhang: Die lateinische Spielmannslegende im Leboinus-Angang,” in appendix to Wendelin Foerster, “Le Saint Vou de Luques, altfranzösisches Gedicht des XIII. Jahrhunderts,” in Mélanges Chabaneau: Festschrift Camille Chabaneau zur Vollendung seines 75. Lebensjahres, 4. März 1906, dargebracht von seinen Schülern, Freunden und Verehrern (Erlangen: F. Junge, 1907), 1–56, at 52–54. The same Latin text was reprinted, with a German translation, in Peter Spranger, Der Geiger von Gmünd: Justinus Kerner und die Geschichte einer Legende, 2nd ed. (Schwäbisch Gmünd: Stadtarchiv, 1991), 36–39. A large chunk of the French poem, at the latest from the beginning of the thirteenth century, that Foerster edits is concerned with the episode of the jongleur (named Genois or in Latin Genesius) at Lucca.
Cinderella motif: Jean-Claude Schmitt, “Cendrillon crucifiée. A propos du ‘Volto santo’ de Lucques,” Actes des congrès de la Société des historiens médiévistes de l’enseignement supérieur public 25.1 (1994): 241–70. The same author also wrote on the early knowledge and broad diffusion of the cult of the Holy Face in an oft-reprinted article: see Jean-Claude Schmitt, “La cité et son image: Lucques et le Volto Santo,” Annali di storia moderna e contemporanea 16 (2010): 229–48.
longed to set out for the Lord’s tomb in Jerusalem: More bluntly, “going on pilgrimage.”
sign of the cross: Medieval pilgrims often had crosses emblazoned on their tunics, imprinted on badges, or worn around their necks.
hospice: matricula can refer to a church with a hospice (Blaise) or to a hospice unattached to another institution (DMLBS).
the most holy foot of the Face: Thus the printed text. It is tempting but not necessary to emend to “the foot of the most Holy Face.”
true searcher of the secrets of the hearts: The phrasing fuses Wisdom 1:6 and Psalms 44:21.
8. The Fiddler and the Bearded Lady
Kümmernis: The foundational work on her and related figures remains Gustav Schnürer and Joseph M. Ritz, Sankt Kümmernis und Volto Santo: Studien und Bilder, Forschungen zur Volkskunde, vols. 13–15 (Düsseldorf, Germany: L. Schwann, 1934). A more recent overview of the research relating to her is Martin Kraatz, “Die heilige Kümmernis und ihre Erforschung zwischen Legende und Wirklichkeit,” in Sigrid Glockzin-Bever and Martin Kraatz, ed. Am Kreuz – Eine Frau: Anfänge – Abhängigkeiten – Aktualisierungen, Ästhetik – Theologie – Liturgik 26 (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2003), 10–20.
type of folktale: Uther, The Types of International Folktales, 1: 381 (ATU 706D).
twentieth-century compendium on saints: Herbert J. Thurston and Donald Attwater, ed. Butler’s Lives of the Saints, 2nd rev. ed., 4 vols. (London: Burns & Oates, 1956), 3:151–52 (July 20).
These traditions are traceable: On the iconography and history, see Friedrich Gorissen, “Das Kreuz von Lucca und die H. Wilgifortis/Ontcommer am unteren Rhein: Ein Beitrag zur Hagiographie und Ikonographie,” Numaga 15 (1968): 122–48, and Georg R. Schroubek, “Sankt Kümmernis und ihre Legende,” Amperland 24 (1988): 105–9, 125–30.
replicas: Reiner Hausherr, “Das Imervardkreuz und der Volto-Santo-Typ,” Zeitschrift für Kunstwissenschaft 16 (1962): 129–67.
a woman: Ilse E. Friesen, “Virgo Fortis: Images of the Crucified Virgin Saint in Medieval Art,” in Virginity Revisited: Configurations of the Unpossessed Body, ed. Bonnie MacLachlan, Judith Fletcher (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), 116–27, at 117 and 120.
Wilgefortis: Ilse E. Friesen, The Female Crucifix: Images of St. Wilgefortis since the Middle Ages (Waterloo: Wilfried Laurier University Press, 2001); David A. King, “The Cult of St. Wilgefortis in Flanders, Holland, England and France,” in Glockzin-Bever and Kraatz, ed. Am Kreuz – Eine Frau, 55–97; Luc Devriese, “De vrouwelijke baardheilige Sint-Wilgefortis, Alias Ontcommer of Oncomena, een internationaal verspreide heiligenverering van Vlaamse makelij,” Van Mensen en Dingen: tijdschrift voor volkscultuur in Vlaanderen 11, no. 3 (2013): 5–19; and Lewis Wallace, “Bearded Woman, Female Christ: Gendered Transformations in the Legends and Cult of Saint Wilgefortis.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 30, no. 1 (2014): 43–63.
The print: Friesen, “Virgo Fortis,” 116–20.
saints and sites in Netherlandish regions: For this hypothesis, see Friesen, “Virgo Fortis,” 126n8.
churches and homes: Friesen, Female Crucifix, 48.
God is wonderful in his saints: The quotation in the heading is Psalms 67:36, as it reads in the Vulgate Latin Bible that was the norm in the Middle Ages. It is followed by a German paraphrase.
except him alone: At first glance this phrase may look as if it reads sonder vm alt in, but it is assuredly sonder ym allein, as translated here.
makes her like him: This assumes that God made her in his image, and hence male, in accord with Genesis 1:26.
legend: Kinder- und Hausmärchen, first edition, 1812–1815 (reprinted Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986), 2: 293–94 (“Die heilige Frau Kummernis”). The tale was no. 66 in this first edition, but it is numbered no. 152a in the complete edition.
fairy tales: The English “fairy tale” carries very different associations from the German Märchen.
seventeenth-century collection of exempla: Johannes Praetorius, Gazophylaci Gaudium: Das ist, Ein Ausbund von Wündschel-Ruthen, oder sehr lustreiche und ergetzliche Historien von wunderseltzamen Erfindungen der Schätze Wünschelruthe (Leipzig, Germany: Ritzsch, 1667), 152–53. See Johannes Bolte and George Polívka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm, 5 vols. (Leipzig, Germany: Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1913–1932), 3: 241.
German Legends: Deutsche Sagen, no. 330: “Die Jungfrau mit dem Bart,” ed. Hans-Jörg Uther, 3 vols. (Munich, Germany: Diederichs, 1993), 1: 269–70.
The Fiddler at Gmünd: In German, “Der Geiger zu Gmünd.” For the text, see Justinus Kerner, Werke, ed. Raimund Pissin, 6 vols. (Berlin: Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong & Co., 1914), 2: 156–58. For exhaustive analysis, see Spranger, Der Geiger von Gmünd.
Protestant: Kerner, Werke, ed. Pissin, 2: 14.
poor son of songs: Kerner uses this distinctive tag twice more in the ballad. See Hermann Collitz, “Sunufatarungo,” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 21, no. 4 (1922): 557–71, at 567–68.
black procession: The monks and nuns, if Benedictine, would wear black habits. Others in the procession may have worn similarly dark clothing because of the somber occasion.
9. The Dancer Musa
Seven Legends: The text took shape intermittently over the better part of two decades. On its genesis and constitution, see Dominik Müller, “Apparat,” in Gottfried Keller, Sieben Legenden, Das Sinngedicht, Martin Salander, ed. Dominik Müller, Sämtliche Werke, 7 vols. (Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1991), 6: 790–98; Karl Reichert, “Die Entstehung der Sieben Legenden von Gottfried Keller,” Euphorion: Zeitschrift für Literaturgeschichte 57 (1963): 97–131; and Marianne Schuller, “Sieben Legenden (1872),” in Ursula Amrein, ed. Gottfried Keller-Handbuch. Leben – Werk – Wirkung, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2018), 92–109, at 92–94.
the pearl: Albert Leitzmann, Die Quellen zu Gottfried Kellers Legenden: nebst einem kritischen Text der “Sieben Legenden” und einem Anhang, Quellenschriften zur neueren deutschen Literatur 8 (Halle an der Saale: M. Niemeyer, 1919), 163 “die Perle des Ganzen.”
keystone to the little book: Reichert, “Die Entstehung,” 115. For different conceptions of the cyclicity, see Karl Polheim, “Die zyklische Komposition der Sieben Legenden Gottfried Kellers,” Euphorion 15 (1908): 753–65, and Walter Morgenthaler, “Sieben Legenden. Der Zyklus als Werk,” in Walter Morgenthaler, ed. Gottfried Keller. Romane und Erzählungen (Stuttgart: Reclam 2007), 119–33.
realist rather than a late romantic: Gabriele Brandstetter, “De figura. Überlegungen zu einem Darstellungsprinzip des Realismus – Gottfried Kellers ‘Tanzlegendchen,’” in Gabriele von Brandstetter und Sibylle Peters, ed. De figura. Rhetorik – Bewegung –Gestalt (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2002), 223–45.
treatment of Christianity: Anya Banasik, “Gottfried Keller’s Adaptation of Medieval Legends for the XIXth C. Audience,” in Brenda Dunn-Lardeau, ed. “Legenda Aurea”: Sept siècles de diffusion: Actes du colloque international sur la “Legenda aurea”: texte latin et branches vernaculaires à l’Université du Québec à Montréal, 11–12 mai 1983 (Montreal: Editions Bellarmin, 1986), 283–88, at 288.
between sacralization and secularization: On the context for this equilibrium in the influences to which Keller was exposed during his sojourn in Berlin, see Ursula Amrein, “‘Als ich Gott und der Unsterblichkeit entsagte’. Zur Dialektik von Säkularisierung und Sakralisierung in Gottfried Kellers literarischen Projekten aus der Berliner Zeit 1850 bis 1855,” in Hanna Delf von Wolzogen und Hubertus Fischer, ed. Religion als Relikt? Christliche Traditionen im Werk Fontanes; internationales Symposium veranstaltet vom Theodor-Fontane-Archiv und der Theodor Fontane Gesellschaft e.V. zum 70-jährigen Bestehen des Theodor-Fontane-Archivs; Potsdam, 21. bis 25. September 2005, Fontaneana 5 (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2006), 219–36.
familiar with this detail: Gabriella Cattaneo, “König David in Gottfried Kellers ‘Tanzlegendchen,’” Sprachkunst: Beiträge zur Literaturwissenschaft 22, no. 1 (1991): 71–79.
eroticism: Though without references to our story, see Herbert Anton, Mythologische Erotik in Kellers “Sieben Legenden” und im “Sinngedicht,” Germanistische Abhandlungen 31 (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1970).
days of creation: Antonius Weixler, “‘Um modern zu reden’: Gottfried Kellers Sieben Legenden zwischen Reproduktion und Restauration erzählerischer Archetypik,” Internationales Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur 44, no. 2 (2019): 512–48, at 518–19.
standard edition: Ed. Müller (Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1991), 6: 790–98.
tabrets: The principal percussion instrument of the ancient Israelites.
struck herself with a scourge: The medieval ascetic practice of flagellation has attracted much attention in modern times. For a broad and provocative consideration, see Niklaus Largier, In Praise of the Whip: A Cultural History of Arousal (New York: Zone, 2007).
Gregory of Nyssa: Younger brother of Basil of Caesarea and also born in the same city of Cappadocia, Gregory (ca. 330–ca. 395) was a rhetorician who became a churchman.
Nazianzus: Like Gregory of Nyssa, his namesake of Nazianzus (329–89) took part in the Council of Constantinople in 381.
busy Martha: This refers to the Martha who is described in Luke 10:38–42 and John 11:1–46. One of her siblings was Lazarus, whose resurrection by Jesus she witnessed. The other was Mary of Bethany. The differing behavior of the two sisters led to commonplace figurative interpretations. For the larger context, see Giles Constable, “The Interpretation of Mary and Martha,” in Constable, Three Studies in Medieval Religious and Social Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 1–141.
Cecilia: Supposedly a Roman virgin martyr of the third century. Having pledged her virginity to God, she refused to consummate her marriage. Her husband and his brother were martyred after she converted them. In rapid succession, she too was killed. She became associated with organ-playing and song.
Pierian goddesses: Pieria, just north of Olympus, was a region in ancient Macedonia. The Pierian spring, source of knowledge, was sacred to the Muses, who are therefore styled (as here) the Pierian goddesses. These nine sisters were born of the god Zeus and the goddess Mnemosyne.
Terpsichore: Muse of lyric poetry and dancing. Keller touches on five of the nine, omitting Calliope, muse of epic poetry; Clio, of history; Melpomone, of tragedy; and Thalia, of comedy.
Polyhymnia: Muse of hymns and pantomime.
Euterpe: Muse of flute-playing.
Erato: Muse of lyric poetry.
Urania: Muse of astronomy.
Legenden or “Legends” of Ludwig Theoboul Kosegarten: Leitzmann, Die Quellen, xxvii–xxviii.
Kosegarten’s North German Protestantism: Letter to Ferdinand Freiligrath, April 22, 1860, in Gottfried Keller, Gesammelte Briefe, 4 vols. ed. Carl Helbling (Bern: Benteli, 1950–1954), 1:264–69, at 268: “Ich fand nämlich eine Legendensammlung von Kosegarten in einem läppisch frömmelnden und einfältiglichen Stile erzählt (von einem norddeutschen Protestanten doppelt lächerlich) in Prose und Verse. Ich nahm 7 oder 8 Stück aus dem vergessenen Schmöker, fing sie mit den süßlichen und heiligen Worten Kosegärtchens an und machte dann eine erotisch-weltliche Historie daraus, in welcher die Jungfrau Maria die Schutzpatronin der Heiratslustigen ist.”
Kosegarten’s Legends: 2 vols. (Berlin: Vossische Buchhandlung, 1804), 1:118–20 and 126–27. The legendary is divided into four books, the first of which is in verse. Kosegarten also versified the story in a poem entitled “Die Tänzerin,” in Dichtungen 3:61 (cited by Leitzmann, Die Quellen, xlvi).
Jeremiah: Most of the two relevant verses (31:4 and 13) is quoted as the epigraph to Keller’s tale.
blessed in heaven: This sentence refers especially to Matthew 5:3–10 and Luke 6:21–23.
The Lives of the Saints: For detailed bibliography on the genesis and dating of the 1502 text, see Werner Williams-Krapp, “Studien zu ‘Der Heiligen Leben,’” Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 105, no. 4 (1976): 274–303, especially at 298–99. On the indebtedness of the early nineteenth-century author to the early sixteenth-century work, see Margaret D. Howie, “Kosegarten’s Legenden and Sebastian Brant,” Modern Language Review 18 (1923): 89–90, cites the book that can be identified as Der heilge[n] leben nüv mit vil me Heilge vn[d] dar zu d’ Passio[n] vnd die grossen fest dz lesen mit figure[n] zierlich vn[d] nutzlich de[n] mesche[n] (Straßurg: Johannes Grüninger, 1502), vol. 1, fol. cxxiiia. According to Howie, the German closely matches a Latin version of the late thirteenth century in London, British Library, MS Add. 18, 929 (in Ward, Catalogue, 2:656). Kosegarten, Legenden, 1:XI, made no secret of his indebtedness to this source, along with many others.
The chapter from Gregory the Great: Book 4, Chapter 18, De transitu Musae puellae (On the passing away of the girl Musa), ed. Adalbert de Vogüé, trans. Paul Antin, 3 vols. Sources Chrétiennes 251, 255, 265 (Paris: Cerf, 1978–80), 3:10–11 (title) and 70–73 (text and translation). The Latin text, quoted from the earlier but more readily accessible edition in PL 77:149–430, at 348 (where the episode is numbered as Book 4, Chapter 17), is reprinted in Leitzmann, Die Quellen, xlv–xlvi.
Sermons to the People: A twenty-first-century edition of this cycle is in progress, but the volume that has appeared to date does not contain the sermon of interest here: Iacobus de Vitriaco, Sermones vulgares vel ad status, ed. Jean Longère, vol. 1, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 255 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013). For the time being, we remain dependent on The Exempla or Illustrative Stories from the Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry, no. 275, ed. Thomas Frederick Crane, Publications of the Folk-Lore Society 26 (London: Nutt, 1890), 115.
sixteen medieval assemblages of Marian miracles: See Albert Poncelet, “Miraculorum BV Mariae quae saec. VI-XV latine conscripta sunt Index postea perficiendus,” Analecta bollandiana 21 (1902): 241–360, at 254, no. 137; 266, no. 320; 288, no. 665; 294, no. 773; 311, no. 1031; 318, no. 1145; 319, no. 1161; 319, no. 1168; 324, no. 1240; 324, no. 1245; 324, no. 1247; 325, no. 1255; 345, no. 1592; 347, no. 1632; 348, no. 1640; and 348, no. 1652. For another battery of citations, see Tubach, Index Exemplorum, 114, no. 1424 “Dancing before Virgin.” The roll call of authors who wrote of Musa as a Marian miracle includes William of Malmesbury, Adgar, and Alfonso X. The definitive treatment of this material will be Kathryn Emily Dickason, “The Dance of Musa: The Life and Afterlife of a Forgotten Medieval Saint,” forthcoming in Arts.
10. The Roman Report of “The Old Mime-Player”
The City of God: De civitate Dei 6.10, ed. Bernhard Dombart and Alfons Kalb, 2 vols., Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana (Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner, 1981), 1:269, lines 2–4.
On Superstition: In Latin, De superstitione. The parallel between “Our Lady’s Tumbler” and the Senecan passage was first pointed out a century and a quarter ago by Francesco Novati, “L’archimimus di Seneca ed il tombeor Nostre Dame,” Romania 25 (1896): 591, and later reexamined by Gustav Šamšalović, “Del tumbeor Nostre Dame,” Živa antika/Antiquité vivante 10 (1960): 320.
Seneca the Younger: Lucius Annaeus Seneca (ca. 4 BCE–65 CE). The qualification “the Younger” differentiates him from his father, the author Seneca the Elder.
11. The Persian Tale of “The Old Harper”
attention of Persianists: For instance, consider Fritz Meier, Abū Sa‘īd-i Abū l-Hayr (357–440/967–1049): Wirklichkeit und Legende, Acta Iranica 11, Acta Iranica: Troisième série, Textes et mémoires 4 (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1976), 256–59, and Safoura Tork Ladani and Maryam Haghi, “The Self-Actualized Individual: A Comparative Study of the Characters in Rumi’s ‘Pir-e Changi’ and Anatole France’s ‘The Juggler of Notre-Dame’, Based on Jungian Archetypes and Maslow’s Psychological Theory,” Literary Theory and Criticism 5, no. 1 (2020): 31–48 (in Persian, with abstracts).
Ebn Monawwar: His name has been transmitted as both Nūr-al-dīn Moḥammad b. Monawwar b. Sheikh-al-Eslām Abī Saʿd b. Abī Ṭāher Saʿīd b. Abī Saʿīd and Moḥammad b. Nūr-al-dīn Monawwar b. Abī Saʿd Asʿad b. Abī Ṭāher b. Abī Saʿīd.
Abu Sa‘id: In later poetry often shortened to “Bu Sa‘id”
The Mysteries of Unification: Asrār al-tawḥid fi maqāmāt al-Sheikh Abi Sa‘id, ed. Moḥammad-Reżā Shafi‘i-Kadkani, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1987), 1: 107–8 (Ḥekāyat). The entire work has been put into English: trans. John O’Kane, The Secrets of God’s Mystical Oneness, or, The Spiritual Stations of Shaikh Abu Sa′id (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers in association with Bibliotheca Persica, 1992). The key noun in the title has also been rendered as “unicity.”
khānaqāh: A hostel for Sufi dervishes, usually with a spiritual master presiding over their meditations and mystical sessions.
Ḥayra: An affluent quarter in Nishapur, with a graveyard mentioned in other sources as well.
Farid al-Din ‘Aṭṭār: For a monumental study on him, see Hellmut Ritter’s The Ocean of the Soul: Man, the World, and God in the Stories of Farīd al-Dīn ′Aṭṭār, trans. John O’Kane, Handbuch der Orientalistik. Erste Abteilung, Nahe und der Mittlere Osten 69 (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
Saints’ Lives: Farid al-Din ‘Aṭṭār, Tadhkerat al-auliyā’, ed. Moḥammad-Reżā Shafi‘i-Kadkani, 2 vols. (Tehran, 2019), 1:884. The whole section is part 2, no. 95, ed. Shafi‘i-Kadkani, 1:865–923. The manuscript used is Istanbul, Süleymaniye Library, MS Aya Sofiya 313b (dated 716/1316). The work has been translated only partially into English, much abbreviated in A. J. Arberry, trans. Muslim Saints and Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya’ (“Memorial of the Saints”) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966) and more extensively in Paul Losensky, trans. Farid ad Din ‘Attār’s Memorial of God’s Friends. Lives and Sayings of Sufis (Mahwah, NJ: Pauline Press, 2009). Neither contains the passage translated here.
seventy-two biographies: A further twenty-five lives are added in ‘Aṭṭār, Tadhkerat al-auliyā’, ed. Shafi‘i-Kadkani.
samā‘: A Sufi gathering where mystical and meditative verses are chanted, often accompanied by music and dancing, inducing a sense of communal ecstasy.
Moṣibat-nāme: Farid al-din ‘Aṭṭār, Moṣibat-nāme, ed. Moḥammad-Reżā Shafi‘i-Kadkani (Tehran, 2007), 424–26
Facing Mecca: As he would be if performing one of the five daily worships that are obligatory for Muslims.
Mathnawi: See The Mathnawí of Jalállu’ddín Rúmí, ed. and trans. with commentary Reynold A. Nicholson, 8 vols. (London: E. J. Brill, 1925–40), 1 (1925): 116–35 (Book 1).
five separate sections: In the edition by Nicholson the first appears on 1: 116, lines 1913–16; the second on 1: 126, lines 2072–79; the third on 1: 127, lines 2082–89, the fourth on 1: 128, lines 2104–2106, and the fifth on 1: 132–35, lines 2161–2317.
Caliph ‘Umar: ‘Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb ruled from 633 to 644 as the second of the first four caliphs in Islamic history. He was noted for his austere asceticism and rigorous enforcement of religious laws.
Esrāfil: The archangel associated with the Day of Resurrection, which he heralds by blowing his trumpet.
Venus: The planet, known as Zohreh in Arabic and Persian, was depicted in astrological iconography (in the medieval West too) as a woman playing a lute, or holding a mirror.
Yathrib: The ancient name for Medina.
Moḥtaseb: Among other things, this important official functioned as a morality enforcer.
musical mode of Iraq: This is a musical mode in classical Persian poetry.
the reed is not fit for secrets: The phrase refers to the well-known beginning of Rumi’s Masnavi, “Listen to the reed ...”
Fāruq: This epithet, meaning “distinguisher between right and wrong,” designates ‘Umar.
The Garden of Lights: Khvāju-ye Kermāni, Rowżat al-anwār, ed. Maḥmud ‘Ābedi (Tehran, 2008), 65–67.
bird-ewer: Wine vessels, like the theriomorphic vessels called aquamanilia in medieval western Europe, were often fashioned in the shape of birds such as ducks or roosters with the beak acting as the spout.
You who know our hidden thoughts: On God’s constant awareness of innermost thoughts and desires, see especially Qur’an 20.7.
Oxus: This is the Latin name often used for the major river in Central Asia commonly known as the Amu Darya.
like an alif in a Kufic script: alif is the first letter of the Arabic alphabet and usually has a vertical shape except in the early calligraphic script called Kufic, in which it is drawn slanted.
The Sea of Chronicles: Muḥammad Amīn b. Mīrzā Muḥammad Zamān Bukhārī (Ṣūfīyānī), Muḥīṭ al-tavārīkh (The Sea of Chronicles), ed. Mehrdad Fallahzadeh and Forogh Hashabeiky, Studies in Persian Cultural History 4 (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 161–63; English translation and commentary by the same authors (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 125–27. Ṣufiyāni denotes a former district within Bukhara.
Anushirvān the Just: The epithet Anushirvān, meaning “immortal soul,” followed by ‘ādel, “the just,” is a common way of referring to the Sasanian king Khosrow I, often idealized in later literature as a firm but just ruler.
Mowlānā Jalāl al-Din Rumi: As noted earlier, this is the full name for Rumi.
In his Mathnavi: The first four lines are quoted from The Mathnawi, ed. and trans. Nicholson, 1:116, lines 1913–14; the second, from 1:126, lines 2072–73.
Jalāl Āl-Aḥmad, “The Setār”: Setār (Tehran, 1948).
The Old Harper: The two stories by Āl-Aḥmad and Rumi are discussed by Qodrat-Allāh Ṭāher, “Moqāyesa-ye Pir-e changi-ye Mowlānā va Setār-e Āl-Aḥmad” (Mowlānā’s Pir-e Changi and Āl-Aḥmad’s Setār compared), Farhang 55 (Fall 1384/2005): 201–18.
12. The Hasidic Tale of “The Little Whistle”
anecdote: Confessions, pt. 2, bk. 12, ed. Jacques Voisine, Bibliothèque du XVIIIe siècle 18 (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2011), 764.
early nineteenth century: For the English of the earliest form, see Dan Ben-Amos and Jerome R. Mintz, trans. and ed. In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov [Shivhei ha-Bestht]: The Earliest Collection of Legends about the Founder of Hasidism (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1970), 221, no. 219 “The Hasid Who Prayed in the Field.” For guidance on the pages in the first edition and in the edition from 1922 prepared by Samuel Aba Horodezky, see the concordance on 219.
Retellings of the legend: Yitzhak Buxbaum, The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov (New York: Continuum, 2005), 207–8 (“The Boy with the Flute”), and Gedalyah Nigal, The Hasidic Tale, trans. Edward Levin (Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008), 259–60. The story has been adapted recently as a freestanding work of children’s literature by Richard Walters, The Simple Shepherd: A Baal Shem Tov Picture Story (privately published, 2008).
Jewish folktales: See Dan Ben-Amos, ed., Folktales of the Jews, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 2006), 1:207–8 (“The Ignorant’s Prayer”), 211, nn. 22–27. The tale in question has been put into English in Micha Joseph bin Gorion, Mimekor Yisrael: Selected Classical Jewish Folktales, ed. Emanuel bin Gorion, trans. I. M. Lask (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), 336 (no. 186 “The Pipe”); Sheldon Oberman and Peninnah Schram, Solomon and the Ant, and Other Jewish Folktales (Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills, 2006), 96–99, at 99; Lesli Koppelman Ross, Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holidays Handbook (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1994), 207; Pinhas Sadeh, Jewish Folktales (London: Collins, 1990), 396 (“The Shepherd’s Pipe”); Ellen Frankel, The Classic Tales: 4,000 Years of Jewish Lore (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1993), 475 (“The Yom Kippur Flute”).
Sefer Hasidim: Ben-Amos, Folktales of the Jews, 1:207n22, citing Sefer Ḥasidim: ‘al pi nosaḥ ktav yad asher be-Parma = Das Buch der Frommen: nach der Rezension in Cod. de Rossi No. 1133, 6, no. 6, ed. Jehuda Wistinetzki (Frankfurt am Main: Wahrmann, 1924). The only English available is based not on the Parma manuscript followed by Wistinetzki but on the very different text transmitted in the Bologna one: see Sholom Alchanan Singer, Medieval Jewish Mysticism: Book of the Pious (Northbrook, IL: Whitehall Company, 1971), xx–xxi.
the ignorant’s prayer: For the fullest analysis of such stories, those with knowledge of Hebrew should consult Yoav Elstein (Yoʾav Elshṭain), Maʿaśeh ḥoshev: ʿiyunim ba-sipur ha-Ḥasidi [Studies in Hasidic tales] (Tel Aviv: ʿEķed, 1983), 7–40.
classification number: Uther, The Types of International Folktales, 1:465 (ATU 827). The key motifs in this type are unrelated to the legend of interest to us: see Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, 2:376 (D2125.1 “Magic power to walk on water”) and 5:438 (V51.1 “Man who does not know how to pray so holy that he walks on water”).
tale-type: For a definition of this technical term and an exposition of its application in practice, see Ilana Harlow, “Tale-Type,” in Brown and Rosenberg, ed. Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature, 641–42.
two traditions: Not too long ago, the Jewish story was adapted for Christian purposes in a children’s book: Melanie Anna Mitchell, The Boy and the Flute: The Tale about a Pure Prayer (n.p.: Palm Tree, 2016).
“The Little Whistle”: Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, trans. Olga Marx, 2 vols. (New York: Schocken, 1947–1948), 1:69–70, and one vol. (1991), 69–70.
13. The Western Reality of Religious Performers
Paschal Baylon: In Spanish, Pascual Bailón.
one fond of dancing: The onomastics assume that first syllable is a stem that derives from the Spanish verb bailar “to dance,” the second the augmentative –ón with an affective meaning that expresses a liking: see Eric O’Brien, “Omer Englebert’s The Last of the Conquistadors, Junípero Serra: A Critical Appraisal,” The Americas 13 (1956): 175–85, at 179.
gypsy dance, before the statue: On this episode, see Antonio María Marcet, “El pastor de Torrehermosa,” section 68 (“La danza de los gitanos”), San Pascual: Boletín informativo de las obras del templo 17, no. 168 (July-August 1965), unpaginated. The episode is recounted in Ximenez, Chronica.
dance in the Philippines: On his ties to dance in general, see Ivan Innerst, Saints for Today: Reflections on Lesser Saints (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2000), 18.
John Bosco: In Italian, Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco.
spiritual expression: Ruth St. Denis, An Unfinished Life: An Autobiography (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939), 57. See also Suzanne Shelton, Divine Dancer: A Biography of Ruth St. Denis (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981), and Janet Lynn Roseman, Dance Was Her Religion: The Sacred Choreography of Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham (Prescott, AZ: Hohm Press, 2004).
Society of Spiritual Arts: Jane Sherman and Christena Schlundt, “Who’s St. Denis? What Is She?,” Dance Chronicle 10, no. 3 (1987): 305–29, at 318.
dancing on Christian themes: Suzanne Shelton, “St. Denis, Ruth,” in Cohen et al., International Encyclopedia of Dance, 5: 490–98, at 497; Shelton, Divine Dancer, 241–43 (on a possible connection through Norman Bel Geddes with Max Reinhardt’s The Miracle); Sandra Meinzenbach, “Tanz ist eine Sprache und eine Schrift des Göttlichen”: Kunst und Leben der Ruth St. Denis, Beiträge zur Tanzkultur, vol. 8 (Wilhelmshaven, Germany: Florian Noetzel, 2013), 200–5.
denunciations of dancing: Rachel K. McDowell, “Dance by Ruth St. Denis in Church Stirs Up a Presbyterian Row: Denominational Leader Presses for Disciplinary Action against Those Responsible for Her Appearance at Service in Park Avenue Chancel,” The New York Times, February 28, 1935, 21. On the puritanical reaction to the dance, see Shelton, Divine Dancer, 244.
Mireille Nègre: See her autobiography, written with Mireille Taub, Une vie entre ciel et terre (Paris: Balland, 1990). Accounts can be found also in Jean-Roger Bourrec, Mireille Nègre, “alliance” (Paris: Desclée De Brouwer, 1984); Mireille Nègre and Michel Cool, Je danserai pour toi (Paris: Desclée De Brouwer, 1984); Mireille Nègre, Danser sur les étoiles (Paris: Balland, 1993).
Nick Weber: See his book, The Circus That Ran Away with a Jesuit Priest: Memoir of a Delible Character (Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing, 2012).
I Dance with God: This translates the title of the Italian: Anna Nobili, with the assistance of Carolina Mercurio, Io ballo con Dio: La suora che prega danzando (Milan, Italy: Mondadori, 2013).
14. The Hungarian Tale of “The Fool”
Dezsö Malonyay: In French his personal name was sometimes assimilated to Désiré, since in fact Dezsö is the Hungarian form of Desiderius. His family name occasionally was spelled Malonyai, an obviously trivial variation.
The Fool: Dezsö Malonyay, “A bolond,” Budapesti Hírlap, ser. 17, no. 342, December 10, 1897, 1–3. Later in the same year the text was reprinted in an anthology of short stories from the same newspaper: idem, A Budapesti Hírlap tárcái (Budapest, Hungary: Budapesti Hírlap, 1897), 6: 196–203.
a French translation of his text: Dezsö Malonyay, “Le fou, légende hongroise,” trans. Adrien Remacle, in Figaro illustré: Numéro de Noël, December 1897, 221–26 (for the song, 224–25).
Károly Agghàzy: The name is attested with minor variations, notably Carolus for Károly.
exoticism or otherness and freedom: See Wening Udasmoro, “Gypsies in Nineteenth-Century French Literature: The Paradox in Centering the Periphery,” k@ta [sic] 17, no. 1 (2015): 26–32.
dismounts from her pedestal: The authors of the medieval miracles took pains to emphasize either that the Virgin appeared from the vault or that at most an appurtenance (such as a candle or shoe) levitated miraculously from an image of her, Jesus, or a saint to a jongleur. Here Malonyay introduces a new motif: see Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, 2:41 (D435.1.1 “Transformation: statue comes to life”).
The libretto was by Jenő Rákosi: It was printed as A bolond: Mese három felvonásban (Budapest, Hungary, 1898). This first edition, 56 pages long, circulated much less widely than the reprint, 130 pages long, issued five years later (Budapest, Hungary: Budapesti Hírlap, 1903). A credit page following the title page acknowledges Dezsö Malonyay for the story, the composer Béla Szábados for the music.
holy fools: Also called fools of God or fools for Christ (1 Corinthians 4:10). For a standard introduction to these figures in both western and eastern Christianity, see John Saward, Perfect Fools: Folly for Christ’s Sake in Catholic and Orthodox Spirituality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980).
camphor: A solid, it evaporates without melting.
big beads of the monk’s rosary: The scene may contain comic obscenity. The rosary may have had large beads of the sort implied, but at the same time those big balls under the monk’s cloak could call to mind features of the male anatomy.
pulling lengths of blue and red ribbons: The author describes an improvised magic trick, based on the same illusion as the hat-trick.
one could see: With a quick swing of the lens, Malonyay captures the multiethnic complexity of trade in the Mediterranean.
Ionian Sea: A bay of the Mediterranean, with the Adriatic Sea to the north, southern Italy to the west, and Greece to the east.
Trebizond: Modern-day Trabzon in northeastern Turkey, a city on the Black Sea coast.
Bay of Cádiz: In the southwest of the Iberian peninsula.
Caucasus Mountains: The range where Europe and Asia meet, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Jews: Malonyay connects members of this group with mercantile activity, but was he anti-Semitic? His description of the beatings they receive censures rather than champions the attackers.
banging his head on the altar steps: By a curious chance, this same motif of head-banging appears in a report given of a skit that Charlie Chaplin was once inspired to consider doing, after he had learned of the tumbler story.
15. Henri Pourrat, “Péquelé”
the official writer of Pétainism: Gisèle Sapiro, La guerre des écrivains, 1940–1953 (Paris: Fayard, 1999), trans. by Vanessa Doriott Anderson and Dorrit Cohn, as The French Writers’ War, 1940–1953 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014), 275 (for the quotation), 495.
The Treasury of Tales: Le trésor des contes, 13 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 1948–1962).
not much known: Jack Zipes, The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World, 2nd ed. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 135–51, at 139.
recording on paper: Anne Collinot, “Pourrat, Henri,” in Dictionnaire du livre de jeunesse: La littérature d’enfance et de jeunesse en France, ed. Isabelle Nières-Chevrel and Jean Perrot (Paris: Éditions du Cercle de la Librairie, 2013), 764.
juggler: Pourrat uses the noun bateleur rather than jongleur. His protagonist is a general physical performer whose routines include acrobatics and gymnastics at least as much straightforward juggling.
assessment in English: Henri Pourrat and Le Trésor des Contes (Charley’s Forest NSW, Australia: Blue-Tongue Books, 2020). In French two major resources remain Bricout Bernadette, Le Savoir et la Saveur (Paris: Gallimard, 1992), and Dany Hadjadj, ed. Henri Pourrat et le Trésor des Contes: actes du colloque organisé par la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de l’Université Blaise Pascal, Maison des Congrès de Clermont-Ferrand 1er, 2 et 3 juin 1987, Cahiers Henri Pourrat 6 (Clermont-Ferrand: Bibliothèque Municipale et Interuniversitaire de Clermont-Ferrand, Centre Henri Pourrat, 1988).
children’s literature: For example, it was the acknowledged source of inspiration for Mark Shannon, The Acrobat & the Angel, illus. David Shannon (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1999), note on the copyright page, and Sue Stauffacher, The Angel and Other Stories, illus. Leonid Gore (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 7–13, 74.
Le Péquelé: See Henri Pourrat, Le trésor des contes, 4 (1953): no. 16, and Les fées, ed. Claire Pourrat (Paris: Gallimard, 1983), 233–39. Pourrat also published the story as “Le Conte du Péquelé,” Marie vol. 9, no. 6 (Nicolet, Québec, mars-avril 1956), 54–55 (502–03).
péquenaud: Also spelled péquenot or pecnot.
begging friars: Péquelé is so destitute that even mendicants are better off.
Part 2
1. The Romance Philologists
Finn: Arthur Långfors, “Der Springer unserer lieben Frau,” Romania 29 (1900): 159.
German: Gustav Gröber, “Del Tumbeor Nostre Dame,” Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 4 (1880): 88–97; Hermann Wächter, “Der Springer unserer lieben Frau,” Romanische Forschungen 11, no. 1 (1901): 223–88, which brought into general circulation his doctoral thesis, “Der Springer unserer lieben Frau,” Inaugural-Dissertation, Bonn (Erlangen, Germany: F. Junge, 1899).
Wendelin Foerster: The original article appeared under the name of Wilhelm Foerster, “Del tumbeor Nostre-Dame,” Romania 2 (1873): 315–25.
In 1907 he reminisced: Wendelin Foerster, “Le saint vou de Luques,” Romanische Forschungen 23, no. 1 (1907): 1–55, at 1.
Arsenal Library: The Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal (Library of the Arsenal) was founded in 1757 and made a department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 1934.
Wildschütz: In Czech, his birthplace is known as Vlčice; the nearby town, Trutnov; and the district, Krkonoše.
Gaston Paris: For a concise introduction, see Gerard J. Brault, “Gaston Paris (1839–1903),” in Medieval Scholarship: Biographical Studies on the Formation of a Discipline, ed. Helen Damico, 3 vols., Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1350, 2071, 2110 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995–2000), 2: 151–65. For far more comprehensive studies, see Ursula Bähler, Gaston Paris et la philologie romane, Publications romanes et française 234 (Geneva: Droz, 2004), and Michel Zink, ed., Le Moyen Âge de Gaston Paris: la poésie à l’épreuve de la philologie (Paris: Odile Jacob, 2004). For a helpful review of both books, see Peter Dembowski, “Gaston Paris Revisited,” Romance Philology 62 (2008): 59–74.
was scant: Gaston Paris, Romania 9 (1880): 479.
the thumbnail of the poem: Gaston Paris, La littérature française au moyen âge (XIe–XIVe sìècle), 2nd ed. (Paris: Hachette, 1890), 208. Medieval French Literature, trans. Hannah Lynch (London: JM Dent & Co., 1903), 84–85. The author repeated this passage nearly verbatim in Gaston Paris, Esquisse historique de la littérature française au Moyen Age (depuis les origines jusqu’à la fin du XVe siècle), 2nd ed. (Paris: A. Colin, 1913), 146–47.
crypt: Foerster here puts the original word croute in quotation marks and leaves it untranslated into modern French, but a few lines later overcomes his hesitation about its meaning and calls it a crypt.
who did not notice it: This is the subject of the miniature that is found in the manuscript at the bottom of the first column on fol. 127r where our poem begins. [The folio numbering has been adjusted to today’s standard.]
MS Arsenal 3516, fols. 127ra–139rc: [Foerster’s citation has been altered to bring it into accord with the shelfmark used currently.]
edition by Abbé Poquet [This is the same edition with an illustration that would later inspire Anatole France in his handling of the story.]
another in the libraries of Paris: [In fact, Paris has a total of four manuscripts, since the Arsenal Library contains one other and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France two more. The fifth is in Chantilly.]
Carpentier: [The individual in question is Pierre Carpentier (1697–1767), a Benedictine of Saint-Maur (and therefore a Maurist), who left his monastery in 1741 for reasons of health and retired to the collège de Bourgogne. He could have had access to manuscripts in Paris from both locations.]
Du Cange’s glossary: [Foerster used Charles Du Fresne Du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, ed. Léopold Favre, 10 vols. (Niort: L. Favre, 1883–87), 8 (1887): 120, under tombare, where lines 133–38, 163, and 165–72 are quoted from an unidentified manuscript of the medieval poem.]
Le Roux de Lincy: [Foerster refers to the description of the codex by Antoine Le Roux de Lincy (1806–69) in Auguste Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, Essai sur les fables indiennes et sur leur introduction en Europe, suivi du Roman des sept sages/publié pour la première fois, d’après un manuscrit de la Bibliothèque royale avec une analyse et des extraits du Dolopathos, par Le Roux de Lincy, pour servir d’introduction aux Fables des XIIe, XIIIe et XIVe siècles (Paris: Techener, 1838), pp. XXXIX–XLIII (item 20, no. 283 [B.L.F.]). Today the closest examination of this codex is now Claudia Guggenbühl, Recherches sur la composition et la structure du ms. Arsenal 3516 (Basel, Switzerland: A. Francke, 1998).]
2. The Medievalizer Félix Brun
illustrated weekly: La France illustrée 10, no. 443, May 26, 1883, 308.
The Juggler of Notre Dame: Seven Legends for as Many Friends: In the original French, Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame: Sept Légendes pour autant d’amis.
a book on the Song of Roland: Félix Brun, Étude sur la Chanson de Roland (Paris: E. Plon, 1876).
town of Soissons: See for instance the book that appeared soon after the World War I, Félix Brun, Jeanne d’Arc à Soissons. Recherche sur Soissons et le Soissonnais au temps de la Pucelle (1429–1430) (Meulan, France: A. Réty, 1920). See also the same author’s Notes biographiques sur Renaud de Fontaines, évêque de Soissons au temps de Jeanne d’Arc (1423–1442) (Soissons, France: Imprimerie de G. Nougarède, 1912). In 1924 he published a monograph on an eighteenth-century Benedictine of Soissons.
Bucy-le-Long: Félix Brun, Bucy-le-Long: notes pour servir à l’histoire, 1634–1815 ; Notes sur les Simon de Bucy et le vieux château de Bucy-le-Long (Meulan, France: Impr. de A. Refy, 1909). Offprint from Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Soissons. Other publications relating to local history include Dom Muley, Bénédictin de Saint-Crépin-le-Grand, de Soissons, et sa correspondance avec divers érudits (1774–1786) (Compiègne, France: Imprimerie de Compiègne, 1924).
Gautier de Coinci: Félix Brun, Gautier de Coincy et ses Miracles de Notre Dame (Meulan, France: Imprimerie de A. Masson, 1888), 38–41.
École des Chartes: Literally, the School of Charters.
medievalists: I am only a medievalizer: The French nouns are, respectively, médiévistes and moyenâgeux.
Abbé Auguste Riche: The title abbé, corresponding to “Father” in English, was customary for low-ranking Catholic clergy in France. Auguste Riche published extensively, not the least on the Virgin Mary. He was a close friend of the French mining engineer turned sociologist, Frédéric le Play.
Once upon a time: The opening words of both the 1887 and 1890 versions signal the fairy-tale atmosphere of the tale.
Miserere: This Latin imperative appears in the phrase Miserere mei, Deus (Have mercy on me, God) that opens Psalms 51.
3. The Poetaster Raymond de Borrelli
prize for poetry: In 1885, 1891, and 1895.
experience in combat abroad: His Arma assembles the martial poetry by campaign, from Italy in 1859 through the Far East in 1884–85.
printed three times: Les annales politiques et littéraires: Revue populaire paraissant le dimanche 9, 2e semester, no. 440, November 29, 1891, 344–45; Raymond de Borrelli, Le Jongleur (Paris: A. Lemerre, 1892); and Raymond de Borrelli, Rimes d’argent (Paris: A. Lemerre, 1893), 7–17.
tumbler, minstrel, and jongleur: Bretel, Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame, 104, on tumeor and tumbeor, jugleur, and menestrel.
identified with the medieval period: Marc Cels’s 2004 Arts and Literature in the Middle Ages assumes that “During the Middle Ages in Western Europe, many people made their living by creating art for the Catholic Church and entertaining nobles and townspeople with music, acrobatics, juggling, and plays.” Kris Bordessa’s 2008 Great Medieval Projects You Can Build Yourself includes juggling sticks as one of the activities. Fun with Medieval Stencils (Dover) features juggling.
Have you read Baruch?: This epigraph alludes to an anecdote about Jean de La Fontaine, in which the opening question is followed by the comment “He was quite a fine genius.” After being handed a Bible by his fellow poet Jean Racine, the French man of letters became taken with the prayer of the Jews in Baruch; this book, purportedly by a friend and secretary of the prophet Jeremiah, is not in the Hebrew Bible but appears in the Greek of the Septuagint and Latin of the Vulgate, as well as in other Bibles used in the Catholic Church. One implication of the little story is that the Holy Scriptures can hold their own as literature.
Jacobus de Voragine: This thirteenth-century Dominican friar wrote, among other things, a legendary or collection of saints’ legends.
The Golden Legend: Jacobus de Voragine’s Latin work enjoyed such admiration in the late Middle Ages that it became known simply as the Legenda aurea or The Golden Legendary, in acknowledgment of its popularity. After falling into disrepute in the sixteenth century, it regained favor again in the late nineteenth century, especially in France, figuring saliently in Anatole France’s first novel The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, Émile Zola’s 1888 novel The Dream, and Émile Mâle’s art-historical writings.
I transcribe, at random, one of these stories: Borrelli received or at least sensed criticism for this red herring, because when he reprinted “The Juggler” as the headlining piece in the 1893 collection of his poems, he appended a note to clarify that the story he tells is not in The Golden Legend and that this indication of supposed source is poetic license: see Rimes d’argent, 171n1.
poor profession: The poet makes his protagonist a struggling artist, a romantic commonplace that held sway throughout the nineteenth century.
golden: Here the adjective implies “happy and prosperous.”
fever: Borrelli is the first to make illness the reason for which the juggler ends up in an abbey.
called convents: Hospitals in the European Middle Ages were run by the Church, most of them by monasteries.
nave: Running from the main entrance (often at the west end) to the choir, the nave offers the largest space for the congregation to occupy.
transept: The part of a church, typically extending from north to south, that transects the nave at a right angle. From a bird’s-eye view, the union of the two structures resembles a cross.
altar: The altar in question may not be the high altar, but a subsidiary “Lady Altar” dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
choir: As the name implies, this is where the singers perform their portion of the service. The choir is located in the continuation of the space occupied by the nave, past the transept.
loose-fitting garment: The generic hospital gown, still long and loose, is nowadays called a johnny, in informal American English.
worn handkerchief: The poet describes the equivalent of what used to be a stock piece of equipment in images of so-called hobos, namely, a stick carried over a shoulder with a bandana tied up at the top to carry small belongings.
Morning Star: In medieval Christian and modern Catholic tradition, this title is given to the Virgin Mary. Just as the celestial object announces the coming of day, so Mary was the precursor for the salvation that Jesus Christ brought.
I begin: The performance starts with a display of manual dexterity.
under this cup: Borrelli describes a classic shell game.
sacramental word: Think of a conjuror’s exclamation, such as “abracadabra!” Such pseudo-liturgical (and pseudo-Latin) language and the sleight of hand with which it sometimes comes in tandem are both called hocus-pocus.
roses: Among the many flowers with which the Virgin Mary is associated, this is her signature one. She is called by the titles “mystical rose” and “rose without thorns.” The rosary, prayers said in her honor, recreates on earth garlands of roses in heaven.
nine stars of gold: Mary is often depicted with a crown of stars. In compliance with the portrayal of the woman in the vision of John (Apocalypse [Revelation] 12:1–5], the stars often number twelve.
odd figures: The iconography of both Romanesque and Gothic churches, in their porches and capitals, abounds in sculptures of monstrous races, fallen angels, jongleurs, and other such suspect creatures.
tabernacle: A container that holds the consecrated Eucharist. It is frequently located in the center of the high altar or in a special chapel. The Virgin Mary has a special metaphoric association with the tabernacle, since as the Mother of God she was the vessel of the body of Christ.
4. The Writer Anatole France
columns published in the popular press: Anatole France, “M. Gaston Paris et la littérature française au Moyen Âge,” in Anatole France, La vie littéraire, 4 vols., 2 (Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1890), 264–74, at 266–67. The piece appeared first in the Saturday column France wrote for the Parisian newspaper Le Temps.
Gaston Paris himself doubted: Ursula Bähler, Gaston Paris et la philologie romane, Publications romanes et française, vol. 234 (Geneva: Droz, 2004), 27–28.
indirect reliance on scholarship: Alvida Ahlstrom, Le Moyen Âge dans l’œuvre d’Anatole France (Paris: Société d’Édition Les Belles Lettres, 1930), 53.
The Juggler of Notre Dame: In French, “Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame: Conte pour le mois de mai,” Le Gaulois, 3rd series, no. 2811, May 10, 1890, first page.
it reads: The French is quoted in Anatole France, Œuvres, ed. Marie-Claire Bancquart, 4 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 1984), 1:1421–22.
The Literary Life: In the original, La Vie littéraire, 2nd series.
Arthur Meyer: A French press baron of the Third Republic whose empire included the newspaper Le Gaulois.
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard: Anatole France, Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard, membre de l’Institut (Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1881).
review of the literary history: “M. Gaston Paris,” 2:269.
simplicity lost: For context, see Mariane Bury, La nostalgie du simple: Essai sur les représentations de la simplicité dans le discours critique au XIXe siècle (Paris: Champion, 2004).
noble savages: See Hoxie Neale Fairchild, The Noble Savage: A Study in Romantic Naturalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928), and Lars Lönnroth, “The Noble Heathen: A Theme in the Sagas,” Scandinavian Studies 41, no. 1 (1969): 1–29. It goes without saying that none of the characters in “Our Lady’s Tumbler” is either truly savage or heathen.
cultural and chronological primitivism: For a classic study, see Arthur O. Lovejoy and George Boas, Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1935). For more recent perspectives, see Marianna Torgovnick, Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
Blessed are the simple, for they will see God: Matthew 5:3 and 8.
short story, a genre: The history and the bibliography of the genre have grown as long as the stories are supposed to be short. For basic orientation, see Ian Reid, The Short Story (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1977).
Juggler: The French is jongleur. In both English and French, jongleur also signifies an all-round medieval entertainer or minstrel.
Notre Dame: Our Lady would be another option in English for the French phrase, which serves to designate Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, in liturgical contexts. In addition, the French phrase, when hyphenated, is the usual name for a building dedicated to her, such as the Parisian cathedral made famous in the 1831 novel known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, by the French writer Victor Hugo.
King Louis: At least a dozen French monarchs from the Middle Ages bore this name. The sanctity of the miracle related would be compounded if it took place during the realm of Louis IX, who after having ruled as a king was in due course canonized as a saint. The identification of a ruler is Anatole France’s innovation, not an element retained from the thirteenth-century poem.
Compiègne: Setting the story in a town sixty miles north of Paris, in Picardy, is another invention of the nineteenth-century storywriter. Joan of Arc, patron saint of France, was captured beneath the city walls there in May 1430, shortly before being burnt at the stake as a heretic.
Barnaby: Barnabé in French, related also to the English Barney. This element, not in either the medieval poem or exemplum, is a particular that Anatole France supplied. The name, transmitted to the West from Aramaic by way of Greek, belonged to a Jewish disciple of Jesus, mentioned repeatedly in the New Testament, especially in the Acts of the Apostles. He appears occasionally in subsequent texts, including apocrypha, and art. A later holy man called Barnabas, not much known later, was a cave dweller in Jordan. Since Anatole France, Barnaby has been taken often as a nom de théâtre by jugglers.
sin of Adam: This refers to the aftermath of the Fall, as recounted in Genesis 3:17–19.
cicada: This, or locust, is a literal translation of Anatole France’s word. In the canonical French of Jean de La Fontaine’s “The Cicada and the Ant,” the first insect fulfills the role conventionally taken by the cricket or grasshopper in English adaptations of the Aesopic fable. Such springing creatures, with traits of athleticism and high-pitched sound, make a good likeness for the performer in the short story. Anatole France may have been drawn to the fable partly through two anticlerical artworks from 1875 by the painter Jean-Georges Vibert, which represented under the title The Grasshopper and the Ant a medieval minstrel (representing the first insect) and monk (standing for the second): see Fig. 53.
Marie de France: A poet active in England from around 1160 to 1215, she wrote in Anglo-Norman French. Her reputation rests on fables, lays, and a work entitled The Purgatory of Saint Patrick. The fable referenced here is entitled “Of a Cricket and an Ant.”
cold and hunger in the winter months: This passage may allude to Borelli, lines 16–20, in Part 1, Chapter 3, above.
a simple heart: In the late nineteenth century, medieval people in general were regarded as having been simple, naïve, ingenuous, and childlike, perhaps especially in their faith and goodness.
took the name of God in vain: This alludes to the prohibition of blasphemy in the Ten Commandments: see Exodus 20:7.
covet his neighbor’s: This trait also points to the decalogue, in this instance the injunction against adultery: see Exodus 20:17.
Samson: The last of the judges mentioned in the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible, Samson had immense strength that he would lose if he violated a vow by allowing his hair to be shorn. His lover Delilah, by having a servant cut his locks, enables his enemies, the Philistines, to capture him.
Madam: This formulation corresponds to the Italian Madonna, meaning “My Lady.” As in Notre Dame, the noun derives from the Latin domina. Whereas the plural possessive of the phrase is used in the liturgy and other Church contexts, the singular of Madam is appropriate when a supplicant addresses Mary.
mystery play: In the literature of medieval western Europe, this is the term used for long cycles of dramas in the spoken languages. The genre depicts the spiritual history of humanity, mainly from the creation of the world through the resurrection of Christ.
confess: The French verb confesser, implying a religious act, is appropriate in view of Barnaby’s interlocutor, as opposed to avouer, which would befit a legal confession.
singing the office: The divine office is a service chanted by monks, priests, and other clergy at appointed hours during the day. It comprises prayers and psalms.
the Office of the Very Holy Virgin: Better known as the Hours of the Virgin or the Little Office of Our Lady, this is a changing cycle of psalms, hymns, and readings from the Scriptures and other texts, to honor the Virgin Mary.
Soissons: This municipality, site of a beautiful Gothic cathedral, is located in northern France, in Picardy. It was the deathplace of the poet Gautier de Coinci, who will appear soon in the story.
Beauvais: Another city in northern France, in Picardy.
men of good will: The expression is drawn from the Gospel verse that is partly paraphrased at the end of this sentence. The utterance is addressed by an angelic host, to the shepherds who have just been told of Christ’s birth.
our Lord said: The phrase refers to Luke 2:14 (here in the Douay-Rheims translation of the Vulgate): “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” There the words are not spoken by Jesus.
prior: This term commonly designates the head of a religious house, such as a monastery.
scholasticism: This noun refers to the philosophy taught in medieval European schools, especially its universities, that sought to fuse Aristotelian logic with the doctrines of the early Church Fathers, so as to bring into accord reason and faith.
vellum: Strictly speaking, this is a writing surface made from the skin of a calf. Often vellum serves more broadly as a synonym for parchment, which designates the hide of any animal prepared for such use.
miniatures: From the Latin minium for “red lead,” this term has often been applied to the paintings that sometimes embellished medieval European manuscripts. In the late Middle Ages those books and consequently the art in them could be very small.
In them, you could see: Anatole France describes meticulously the frontispiece in a manuscript of Gautier de Coinci that he had seen reproduced from the so-called Soissons manuscript, today Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, nouvelles acquisitions françaises MS 24541, fol. 175r, in the edition by Abbé Alexandre-Eusèbe Poquet, Les miracles de la Sainte Vierge, traduits et mis en vers par Gautier de Coincy (Paris: Parmentier; Didron, 1857).
the throne of Solomon: The ceremonial chair of the biblical king is described in 1 Kings 18–20.
the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: They are enumerated in Isaiah 11:2.
the Well of Living Waters: This and the other items in the first list refer to the biblical Song of Solomon, especially 2:2 (lily), 4:12 (garden enclosed), 4:15 (well of living waters and fountain), 6:10 (moon and sun).
the Canticle: This signifies the Canticle of Canticles, the book of the Bible also known as the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon.
the Gate of Heaven: This barrier is mentioned in Genesis 28:17 and Revelation 21:21.
the City of God: This expression appears often in the Bible in reference to Jerusalem and Zion. In particular, see Psalms 46:4–5 and 48:1–3.
the Virgin: By allegorical interpretation, she is meant to be understood as present in all these images.
prophet said: The speaker is Solomon; the verse, Song of Solomon 4:12.
Psalms 21:11: In this instance Anatole France himself provides the citation of the biblical verse.
a Picard: This designates a person from Picardy, in the northern part of what is now France. The reference is to Gautier de Coinci, a Benedictine monk from this region who lived from 1177 to 1236. As a poet, he wrote a much-admired collection of miracles of the Virgin.
vulgar tongue: This means the spoken language. In this case the vernacular in question is now called Old French.
artless: The adjective gets at his ignorance of the liberal arts and fine arts.
madam Virgin: The turn of phrase indicates the simplicity of Barnaby. It is hard to translate, since Mrs. or Ms. would not have the right ring.
counted off by feet: The wording refers to the scansion and rhythm of verse, especially in Latin.
story of a monk: Anatole France knew the story that he now recounts from Gautier de Coinci’s Les Miracles de Nostre Dame 1.23, but only indirectly: his immediate source was Gaston Paris: Anatole France, “M. Gaston Paris,” in La Vie littéraire, 2:268–69.
Hail Mary: On this prayer, see the note to Part 1, Chapter 1.A “Our Lady’s Tumbler,” line 31.
five roses: This motif refers to a miracle that Mary caused, to celebrate a monk who said daily five psalms to honor the five letters—M-A-R-I-A—of her name in Latin.
liberal arts: In the European Middle Ages, these disciplines were customarily seven, divided into a first group of three (the trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and a second of four (the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music).
mechanical arts: These were applied sciences.
Dom: This title derives from the Latin dominus, for lord. It remains a well-established honorific among Benedictine monks.
they saw the Holy Virgin descend: France does not state that the image comes to life but rather that Mary herself appears.
blue: This color has been favored in western art across the ages for the clothing of the Virgin. To be specific, blue has long been standard for the mantle worn by statues and paintings of the Madonna in French churches.
mantle: The garment has been common in many visual representations of the Virgin, from the Byzantine era until today, as the key attribute of Mary in her guise as the Mother of Mercy. Within this long cloak she shelters the faithful who pray for her aid.
Blessed are the simple, for they will see God: Anatole France restates and merges elements from two (the first and sixth) of the eight blessings, known as the beatitudes, pronounced by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. The first and the sixth read, respectively, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” and “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:3 and 8).
Amen: The exclamation entered Western European languages through the Church. Latin took it from Greek, which in turn derived it from Hebrew. In Hebrew it is a noun meaning “certainty” or “verity,” related to a verb meaning “to confirm.” The ecclesiastic usage in the liturgy draws upon the Bible, where the word is found in Hebrew to mark the end of prayers or professions of faith.
kissing the ground: The gesture expresses homage, because the Holy Virgin set foot there.
5. The Composer Jules Massenet
Grisélidis: This story is most familiar to audiences of English-speakers through the “patient Griselda” of “The Clerk’s Tale” in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
signs of Wagnerism: Steven Huebner, “Massenet and Wagner: Bridling the Influence,” Cambridge Opera Journal 5.3 (1993): 223–38.
a fanciful anecdote: Jules Massenet, My Recollections, trans. H. Villiers Barnett (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1919), 231–35. For analysis, see Demar Irvine, Massenet: A Chronicle of His Life and Times (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1994), 229–30.
deeply learned Léna: Maurice Léna, “Massenet (1842–1912),” Le Ménestrel, issue 4422, vol. 83, no. 4, January 28, 1921, 33–34, at 33.
riven cultural politics of France: See John McManners, Church and State in France, 1870–1914 (New York: Harper & Row, 1972).
Mary Garden: Her autobiography, cowritten late in life, is rollickingly unreliable: see Mary Garden and Louis Biancolli, Mary Garden’s Story (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951). For a commensurately solid biography, see Michael T. R. B. Turnbull, Mary Garden (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1997).
vehement wishes of the composer: Massenet, My Recollections, 238.
The following translation: By way of comparison, see Le Jongleur de Notre Dame: Miracle Play in Three Acts, trans. Charles Alfred Byrne (New York: C. E. Burden, 1907), and Our Lady’s Juggler: Miracle in Three Acts, trans. Louise Baum (Paris: Au Ménestrel, Heugel et Cie, 1911).
traditional elm: These trees, rendered all but extinct by disease in the second half of the twentieth century, were once prized for their shade and often planted in public spaces.
statue of the Virgin: Sculptures of Mary are commonly placed on or above the portals of medieval abbey churches.
month of Mary: Since the Middle Ages, special devotions, such as a May crowning, have been enacted in Catholic churches to honor the Virgin Mary as the queen of this month.
market day: Market towns had the right to host, on one or two days a week, a regular gathering for the purchase and sale of commodities. The place, usually open-air, was in many cases (as here) a town square.
shepherd step: The bergerette, translated here as “shepherd step,” is a form of pastoral song and dance associated with (as the French element berger presupposes) shepherds and shepherdesses.
Lady of Heaven: This phrase, which Jean himself employs later, rings a slight change upon Queen of Heaven, a long-established title given frequently to the Virgin Mary.
Pierrot: This name, a diminutive of Pierre, was laden with humble associations in French culture. In pantomime, Pierrot was a male character easily recognizable by his white face, baggy white costume, and peaked hat.
Pierrette: This feminine diminutive was Pierrot’s female counterpart. The two often came as a couple.
young prince: The French here has dauphin, a term that designated the eldest son of the king of France.
green sauce: A preparation of chopped herbs, without set ingredients but often made with parsley and sage.
Indulgences: In the medieval Roman Catholic Church, grants known by this name were sold to remit punishments that remained due for sins after absolution.
vielle: This term, pronounced ′vyel in English, denoted stringed instruments that ranged from a protoviolin or -viola to a hurdy-gurdy with keys, strummed by a hand-cranked wheel.
grasshopper: As observed in relation to the cicada in Anatole France’s story, a close relationship was seen between this insect and the jongleur. An affinity between the two is hinted at in the American tradition too, in Edwin Markham’s poem (see Part 2, Chapter 8).
Praise be: Noël, associated mainly with Christmas, developed from being a cry of joy for the birth of Jesus to being one for the arrival of a king and other such major events.
King Starvation: This figure, not grounded in any given source, surfaces across time and space in European culture. In English, see for example William Gaspey, “Poor Law Melodies,” in Poor Law Melodies, and Other Poems (London: Longman, Brown, & Co., 1842), 5–13, at 7: “Where King Starvation reigns supreme, / And plenty is—a pauper’s dream!”
Wise clerics who can read: This line is drawn verbatim from Léon Gautier, Les épopées françaises, 2nd ed. (Paris: H. Welter, 1892), 2:114, which describes a medieval jongleur as he musters an audience.
round: The term refers to a dance done in a circle to the accompaniment of music.
Lanturli: This nonsense word, along with its close relative lanturlu, has a long history, reaching back at least to the seventeenth century: see Gustav Thurau, Der Refrain in der französischen Chanson: Beiträge zur Geschichte und Characteristik des französischen Kehrreims, Litterarhistorische Forschungen 23 (Berlin: Emil Felber, 1901), especially 119–22.
virelonlaine: These syllables call to mind the virelai, a late medieval French genre. Along with the ballade and rondeau, it was one of three “fixed forms” of lyric set to music.
begging bowl: Beggars held out such dishes in which they received food and other gifts, called alms.
out of a hat: The so-called hat-trick is a classic, in which a magician produces objects from an apparently empty hat.
hoop dance: Today this designation is associated mainly with Native Americans, but since ancient times dancers worldwide have employed hoops, especially of wood, in many ways.
salut d’amour: The term refers to a type of medieval Occitan lyric as cultivated by troubadours. The genre of “love greeting” purported to be a letter, following the conventions of so-called courtly love, written from one lover to another.
olifant: In the Middle Ages this musical instrument was a horn made from an elephant’s tusk. The most famous was the one carried by the title character in the medieval French epic Song of Roland, which the juggler soon identifies for short by its hero’s name.
Roland: Here reduced to just the name of its leading character, the celebrated Song of Roland (Chanson de Roland in French) is an epic of the eleventh century in the genre called chanson de geste.
Bertha of the Big Feet: Adenet le Roi, a professional poet of the late thirteenth century, wrote a chanson de geste entitled Berte aus grans piés. This long narrative poem contains some elements more typical of romance than epic. It deals with the circumstances that resulted in the conception of Charlemagne, son of Pepin the Short and Bertha, daughter of a Hungarian king. For an English translation, see Anna Moore Morton, trans. Bertha of the Big Foot (Berte as grans piés): A Thirteenth-Century Epic by Adenet le Roi, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 417 (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2013).
Renaud de Montauban: This is one title for a massive anonymous French epic of the early thirteenth century, also known as Quatre fils Aymon (The Four Sons of Aymon), the most popular in a group designated the Rebellious Vassal Cycle. Alongside Roland (or Orlando, in Italian), Renaut, under the Italian form of his name Rinaldo, played important roles in later chivalric romances by Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso. The French poem was well known at the fin de siècle and in the Belle Époque, thanks to having been illustrated in a much-esteemed edition of 1883 by Eugène Grasset, a Swiss-born artist who was styled the father of art nouveau.
Charlemagne: As suggested by the mentions of epics about Roland and Bertha, many chansons de geste center on the famed Charles the Great, King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Emperor of the Romans from 800. No single narrative can be identified as the referent here.
Pepin: Charlemagne had three ancestors of considerable importance by this name, Pepin I, Pepin II, and Pepin III the Short (d. 768). One index of the close relationship is that the family of these Frankish leaders has been called both the Pippinids and the Carolingians.
In vino veritas: This maxim, the Latin for “in wine, truth,” has roots in ancient Greek literature but became established in modern culture thanks to the cachet of Erasmus’s proverb collection Adagia.
Credo of the Drunkard: The first word, meaning “I believe” in Latin, can denote various statements of faith in the Christian Church, especially the Nicene Creed. Such mainstays of the liturgy were often parodied in medieval literature, though no record exists of a parody called Credo of the Drunkard: see Paul Lehmann, Die Parodie im Mittelalter, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1963), and Martha Bayless, Parody in the Middle Ages: The Latin Tradition (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996).
Te Deum: From a phrase meaning “We praise you, God,” these two Latin words indicate an anonymous hymn written in 387 CE.
Hippocras: a drink, often heated, concocted from sweetened and spiced wine. The noun, capitalized here, derives from the name of its purported inventor, Hippocrates, a Greek physician born ca. 460 BCE and died ca. 370 BCE.
Gloria: A famous hymn with the incipit Gloria in excelsis Deo (“Glory to God in the highest”) and the doxology or short prayer of praise that begins Gloria Patri (“Glory be to the Father”) are both called Gloria for short.
Ruddy-Face: The wording in French makes even more explicit that this epithet refers to a person red-faced from drinking.
Hallelujah: This interjection, equivalent to the Latin alleluia, derives ultimately from the Hebrew hallĕlūyāh meaning “praise ye the Lord.”
you, Jesus, sweet little child: The audience is expected to take as a given that a representation of the Virgin will naturally include not only her but also the infant Jesus.
belly pagan: This conception owes ultimately to Saint Paul, especially Philippians 3:19 and 1 Corinthians 6:13
Pater Noster: The Latin for “Our Father,” these are the initial words of the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer was often parodied.
The wine, it’s God: The sacrilege here is intense. In the Christian rite of the Eucharist, sacramental bread and wine call to mind the Last Supper and in turn Christ’s sacrifice of his body and blood on the cross.
Ave: In Latin the first two words of the prayer known in English as the Hail Mary are Ave Maria. See the note to Part 1, Chapter 1.A “Our Lady’s Tumbler,” line 31.
Beautiful Venus: This Roman goddess was associated with beauty and sexual love.
aged wine: The positive changes that fine wines may undergo through aging have been valued at the latest since ancient Rome, but such appreciation was unknown or at least very uncommon in the Middle Ages.
potion of love: Though the science has been disputed and debated, tradition has long held that moderate consumption of red wine heightens sexual arousal in both women and men.
Drink no water: In modern times the view has become widespread that medieval people made a regular practice of avoiding drinking water. In fact, they may have relied on wine, beer, mead, and other fermented drinks when fresh water was unavailable, but support is weak for the belief that they shunned H2O.
cardinal: The joke is that from all the drinking, his nose resembles the bright red vestments that this church dignitary typically wears.
balladeer: The French baladin, referring to a wandering minstrel and carrying pejorative connotations, derives from Occitan. Its root element relates to dance.
green: The devil was often depicted as being or wearing green. On this convention, see D. W. Robertson, “Why the Devil Wears Green,” Modern Language Notes 69.7 (1954): 470–72, and Joseph L. Baird, “The Devil in Green,” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 69, no. 4 (1968): 575–78.
pitchfork: This attribute of the devil in medieval iconography has been traced back to the trident of the ocean god known in Greek as Poseidon and in Latin as Neptune as well as to objects associated with gods in other ancient mythologies.
flames and iron: Feu and fer were sometimes paired figuratively in French to evoke the violence of war or even violence and cruelty in other contexts. The alliterative combination of flammes and fer here, meaning something like “hell and brimstone,” seems to be related.
saint dear to the Virgin: Jean is the French name that corresponds to John in English. By this remark the prior means John the Baptist, whose mother Elizabeth has been taken traditionally to be Mary’s cousin.
Freedom: As in most other European languages, Liberté is grammatically feminine in French. Consequently, it was customarily personified as a female. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Liberty was widely depicted, on coinage and elsewhere, as an attractive young woman.
silver of the waters: For obvious reasons, light playing upon water, especially on moonlit nights, has inspired comparison with the metal silver.
gold of the blond harvest: Mown hay and to a lesser extent wheat are often described as being gold and blond.
diamonds of the nights: Stars, because of their bright sparkle in dark skies, have long been likened to these precious stones.
in a ditch: The prior here refers to what was once a fairly common curse “And you will die in a ditch!” See B. Montgomerie Ranking, “On the Advantages of Dying in a Ditch,” in John C. Freund, ed. The Dark Blue, vol. 1 “March to August 1871” (London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, 1871), 685–87.
without anyone to give you confession: The threat of dying unshriven—not having been given confession—was also formerly a routine malediction, since the person who died without having confessed and without having been absolved would not be fully prepared for the afterlife.
vile rag: Isaiah 64:6 (King James) “filthy rags.”
Lent: The forty days preceding Easter were the longest and most important period of fasting in the European Middle Ages. For six weeks, Christians gave up all meat and dairy.
beans and salted herring: A traditional recipe for Lent in various regions of Europe was (and remains) a potato salad with white beans and pickled herring.
major feast days: The French means literally “feasts when the carillon is sounded.” These days, to commemorate saints, were celebrated with feasting and other rejoicing.
Boniface: The name derives from Latin elements meaning “good fate,” but it would connote “cheery face” in French.
flowers she loves: The Virgin has been associated with numerous blooms, many of them in the catalogue that follows.
leeks: These vegetables, along with the cabbage mentioned two lines down, recall the jingle of the vendors in Act 1, Scene 1.
Mâcon: The Mâconnais region, though it receives less attention from oenophiles than does northern Burgundy, has long produced many fine vintages.
Benedicite: This term, the plural imperative in Latin meaning “Bless!,” refers to both a canticle of praise used in the matins service and (as here) a grace said at table in monasteries and other religious communities. The canticle is found in “The Song of the Three Holy Children,” an apocryphon inserted after Daniel 3:23 in the Latin Vulgate Bible.
Nos et ea quae sumus sumpturi, benedicat dextera Christi: This traditional grace may be said before a meal. The benediction may be translated: “May Christ’s right hand bless us and the foods we are about to consume.”
In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti: This is the Latin of the Trinitarian formula, a blessing originally in Greek that figures heavily in many parts of the liturgy and that conveys the fundamental Christian concept of the Godhead as one God in three persons: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
To the table: The summons to lunch could be translated more idiomatically as “Time to eat!” or even “Come and get it!”
Assumption Day: This feast, on August 15, celebrates the bodily ascent of the Virgin Mary to Heaven at the end of her life.
Ave coeleste lilium: The Latin that begins here reads “Hail heavenly lily; hail splendid rose; hail mother of the humble, commanding to the proud. In this vale of tears, give strength and bring aid.” This text is found with nearly identical wording as a prelude to open the month of Mary in Humbert, Mois de Marie tiré des Pères de l’Eglise et des mystères (Lille: Desclée, 1884), 1.
humilium, Superbis imperiosa: These words recall a famous line in Virgil, Aeneid 6.853 “parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos” (to spare the conquered and subdue the proud). In many printings of the libretto the text often reads “Superis imperiosa,” which could be translated (awkwardly) as “commanding to those in heaven.”
valle lacrymarum: The phrase “vale of tears” owes to the Latin Bible, Psalms 83:7 [Septuagint]. It recurs later in the Marian hymn and antiphon, “Salve, regina.”
Queen of angels: This title is found in the Litany of Loreto. The list, which honors the Virgin by invoking many titles for her, was attested first in Loreto in 1531 and approved officially by the Church in 1587, but probably originated far earlier. The title alludes to the place of honor that Mary occupies in the kingdom of heaven, where she holds authority over God’s messengers. Her connection with angels begins with the annunciation.
how to sing Latin: Jean’s regret at not knowing the language is repeated in Act 2, Scene 4, and remedied miraculously in Act 3, Scene 5.
lilies and roses: Juxtaposed already in the Latin, these two flowers, beyond being apt as the equivalent to peaches and cream, are deeply rooted in Christian iconography of the saints, symbolic of virginity and martyrdom, respectively.
Brother Jean, are you sleeping: These lines play on the famous French nursery rhyme, traditionally sung in a round, entitled “Frère Jacques” and known in English as “Brother John.”
white hand: In many sculptures Mary is represented clothed heavily in garments, but with her hands white and bare, sometimes beckoning. The color of her hand is mentioned again later twice, first in an exclamation by Jean after hearing the miracle of the sage and then two times in the miracle with which the opera concludes.
earned my bread: See 2 Thessalonians 3:12.
Be: The painter directs his first words, using the formal manner of address (the second-person plural), to the sculptor. Speaking to the socially humble jongleur, he employs instead the informal (the second-person singular).
gold and azure: The two hues are often paired. Most interestingly, the poet Charles Baudelaire in his Fleurs du mal or “Flowers of Evil” has a poem entitled “To a Madonna” (first published in 1861) in which he likens his poetry to sculpture. He describes building an altar in his heart with a niche “all enameled with azure and gold” where his Madonna will stand.
Blue Bird: In French literature this creature occupies a privileged place, thanks in the first instance to a fairy tale published in 1697 by Madame d’Aulnoy. This line and the next seem to string together clichés, rather than make any specific allusion or allusions.
Eternal Shore: Rivage éternel is a euphemism for death.
White Ship: If a particular reference is meant, the Blanche Nef was a vessel that sank in the English Channel, not far from the Norman port of Barfleur, on November 25, 1120. Only one of circa 300 people aboard survived.
seraph do in heaven: In Isaiah 6:1–8 seraphim are six-winged beings who fly around the Throne of God crying “holy, holy, holy.”
Agitans discordia fratres: The tag, from Virgil, Georgics 2.496, here means “dissension stirring the brethren.”
Apollo: As the god of music, this Greek god has dominion over such arts as song, dance, and poetry. He leads the Muses, mentioned in the next line.
Muse to Muse: In Greek mythology the nine Muses were goddesses who presided over the arts and sciences.
work of merit: In Catholic theology good work earns merit, in the promise of reward to come from God.
worth a thousand poems: This phrase resembles the English adage “a picture is worth a thousand words,” close relatives of which have been identified in many languages.
Latin I do not know: Compare Act 2, Scene 1, and Act 3, Scene 5.
kitchen Latin: This English expression, corresponding to latin de cuisine in French and Küchenlatein in German, has long been used, disapprovingly or humorously, of bad or barbarous forms of the language, at their most extreme in pig Latin. The turn of phrase Latinitas culinaria, itself in Latin, became current first in the humanist period. This conception of Latinity is associated with such genres as macaronic Latin, which is related to the common foodstuff macaroni.
in a book a marvelous story: The following legend was popularized in France by Amédée de Ponthieu, upon whose version the librettist relies: Les fêtes légendaires (Paris: Maillet, 1866), 29–30.
child-killing king: This phrase refers to the episode in the Gospel of Matthew 2:16–18 known as the massacre of the innocents. In a failed attempt to forestall the coming of the Messiah (Jesus), King Herod the Great of Judea orders all male children two years old or younger in the vicinity of Bethlehem to be executed.
smile: The gesture recurs in Act 2, Scene 5, and twice in Act 3, Scene 5. The Virgin or an image of her offers a special smile to the juggler in other versions, notably, line 35 of Bates’s “Our Lady’s Tumbler” (Part 2, Chapter 6), Higgins’s “The Little Juggler” (Part 2, Chapter 9), and line 63 of Auden’s “Ballad of Barnaby” (Part 2, Chapter 11.B.). The author and illustrator Helena Olofsson highlights the motif in her children’s book, The Little Jester, trans. Kjersti Board (New York: R&S Books, 2002).
gold, incense, and myrrh of the wise kings: The gifts of the Three Magi, described in Matthew 2:1–12.
pipe-tune of the poor shepherd: Luke 2:8–20 recounts the annunciation of the nativity of Jesus to the herdsmen. Though the Gospel makes no mention of the pipe-tune, a herder with bagpipes or pipes of another sort is often represented in artistic depictions of those who visit the manger to celebrate Christ’s birth.
mother of love: Mary merited this epithet for many reasons, notably by giving birth to Jesus as well as by showing love to her petitioners.
supreme goodness: The phrase is customarily applied to God rather than to Mary.
smiled at the tune of the shepherd: The smiling of baby Jesus in the manger is sometimes shown in depictions of the nativity.
posture of divine invocation: Presumably he still directs his eyes and hands toward heaven.
pastorale: The term signifies a slow instrumental composition, with droning notes well suited to the pipe-tunes just mentioned. This kind of music fits beautifully here, since the genre originated in rudimentary operas with rustic settings. The term derives from the Latin adjective (pastoralis, -e) for shepherd or herdsman (pastor, -is).
white queen: The librettist stresses the pallor of the whole Madonna, not just her hands, as intensified by the darkness of night.
Make way: The jongleur’s first words here are reminiscent of those he uttered when he made his debut in Act 1, Scene 3.
song of war: Jean’s offer to sing a specimen of this genre recalls his earlier attempt to please the market crowd with a battle song.
It’s nice to see these men-at-arms: These words begin a passage in quotation marks which recombines and reworks lines from two stanzas of an old ditty, known by its incipit as “Il fait bon voir ces hommes d’armes.” For an edition, see La Chanson française du XVe au XXe siècle, ed. Jean Gillequin, La Renaissance du livre (Paris: Jean Gillequin & Cie, 1910), 35.
Romance of Love: This title is one among several used for an anonymous piece for guitar that became internationally known in the half decade preceding the premiere of Massenet’s opera.
Pretty Doette at her window: This line alludes to a chanson de toile, meaning “song of cloth” (or fabric). This genre was supposedly sung by women as they toiled at the loom. In this anonymous ditty of the thirteenth century, the heroine Doette, after learning that her beloved has died, founds a convent to which she retires.
Erembourg: The jongleur refers again to the same genre. The heroine of this other song was often called Erembour or Erembor. On its date, see Pierre Jonin, “Ancienneté d’une chanson de toile? La Chanson d’Erembourg ou la Chanson de Renaud?,” Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 28, no. 112 (October-December, 1985): 345–59.
pastourelle: In French this term denoted a young shepherdess and her song. Like the pastorale, the word is a derivative of the Latin pastor for “shepherd, herdsman.” The genre is attested in both Latin and vernacular languages, but associated especially strongly with Old French. In it, a knight and a shepherdess usually engage in a witty exchange. The young woman often prevails in the verbal contest before submitting (sometimes willingly and other times not) to the man’s sexual advances.
Robin and Marion: A reference to the Jeu de Robin et Marion (Play of Robin and Marion), often reputed to be the earliest French secular play with music, by the French poet Adam le Bossu (also known as Adam de la Halle), active in the second half of the thirteenth century. The English tradition of Robin Hood and Maid Marian is not attested until centuries later.
Saderaladon: This exclamation is prominent in the refrain of the chanson “En mai au dous tens novel (Que reverdissent).”
Sing little nightingale: See Wendy Pfeffer, The Change of Philomel: the Nightingale in Medieval Literature, American University Studies: Series 3, Comparative literature, vol. 14 (New York: P. Lang, 1985), and Elizabeth Eva Leach, Sung Birds: Music, Nature, and Poetry in the Later Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007).
cheese: Since peasants often kept livestock, their diets relied heavily on dairy produce.
griffins: These mythical creatures were said to have the body of a lion but the head and wings of an eagle.
flying devils: Though without support in the Bible, many early Christians accepted that the rebellion of Satan resulted in the fall of angels who sided with him. These fallen beings, often winged like their unfallen counterparts, were equated with demons.
The dog returns to his vomit: Proverbs 26:11 “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly” and 2 Peter 2:22.
King David danced before the ark: 2 Kings (= 2 Samuel) 6.13–23. See Part 1, Chapter 2.A.1 above.
country step: The librettist specifies the bourrée, a French step (sometimes called a clog dance) in double time like the gavotte.
Pig covered in mud: This line rounds out the thoughts in 2 Peter 2:22 to which the Prior’s earlier mention of the dog returning to its vomit drew attention: “For that of the true proverb hath happened to them: ‘The dog is returned to his own vomit,’ and ‘The sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mud.’”
strange light: In early productions a grand finale began at this juncture. The special effects made spectacular use of electrical lighting. Such illumination was still relatively novel and had acute relevance to the Opéra Comique, which had been destroyed by fire in 1887: see A. N. Holcombe, “The Electric Lighting System of Paris,” Political Science Quarterly 26, no. 1 (1911): 122–32.
Hosannah: This expression entered western Christendom through Latin, which acquired the Hebrew expression from Greek. In Christianity it is a shout of praise and joy that calls to mind its use to recognize the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Peace on Earth, / to men of good will: These lines echo the song of joy that the angelic host sings to the shepherds outside Bethlehem after announcing the nativity in Luke 2:14.
intense light: The stage instruction here assumes a capacity for artificial illumination that elicited comments from reviewers of early productions and that can be seen in artworks representing this scene. First the niche where the Madonna stood was illuminated blindingly, and then a halo of equal intensity was manipulated to hover above the juggler’s head.
Kyrie, eleison: The formula, meaning “Lord, have mercy” in Greek, serves as a preliminary petition to introduce prayer.
Christe, exaudi nos: The Latin supplication, in English “Christ, hearken to us,” appears as a responsory in the Litany of the Saints.
Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis: These Latin words, meaning “Saint Mary, pray for us,” appear, not directly adjacent to one another, in the hymn Ave Maria or Hail Mary. They are found in many other contexts as well, including arias.
I understand Latin: The regret Jean expressed earlier (in Act 2, Scenes 1 and 4) at not knowing the language is resolved. In the New Testament both Acts and 1 Corinthians contain references to “speaking in tongues,” known technically as glossolalia, in which speakers utter sounds thought to be languages unknown to them (and often unrecognizable to others). Here the phenomenon occurring may be xenoglossia, in which people can miraculously speak, write, or understand a language foreign to them. For example, a Cistercian roughly contemporary with the author of the medieval “Our Lady’s Tumbler” recounted a miracle in which an unschooled lay brother on his deathbed was granted knowledge of Latin, the Scriptures, and exegesis: see Conrad of Eberbach (1150–1221), Exordium magnum Cisterciense, sive, Narratio de initio Cisterciensis Ordinis, 4.17, ed. Bruno Griesser, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, vol. 138 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1994), 261–63. Alternatively, a more banal explanation would be that Jean can puzzle out three short tags in Latin, especially because they culminate in an invocation of his beloved Mary.
golden gate to heaven: Though the Bible does not refer to any such heavenly barrier as golden, the city of New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 is all of gold. Probably on that basis, the popular conception is widespread that heaven’s gate is the same color.
cornflowers: This flower has been associated with Mary because its florets, generally intensely blue, bloom in a ring that has been understood to resemble Mary’s crown as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
flowers of paradise: In medieval poetry Mary was often called by this name: see David J. Rothenberg, The Flower of Paradise: Marian Devotion and Secular Song in Medieval and Renaissance Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 23, 48.
Mater purissima: The Latin reads “Mother most pure, mother most chaste, mother inviolate, pray for us.” The three titles for Mary are found in successive versicles of the Litany of Loreto and its twelfth-century source: see Gérard Gilles Meersseman, Der Hymnos Akathistos im Abendland, Spicilegium Friburgense 2–3 (Freiburg, Switzerland: Universitätsverlag, 1958–1960), 2:222–25. In most texts each title is followed by the response “pray for us,” as in the final line here.
round: A heavenly ring dance, to replace the earthly dance that has occasioned him such difficulties.
Sunday: The underlying conception is that this is the day of rest, fulfilling the fourth of the Ten Commandments and prefiguring the eternal rest of the afterlife in heaven.
Happy are the simple, for they shall see God: Matthew 5:3 and 8, from the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. The paraphrase of the biblical verses nods to Anatole France, who brings down the curtain on his short story with similar words.
6. The Professor-Poet Katharine Lee Bates
common meter double: Common meter comprises four lines that alternate between iambic tetrameter (four metrical feet per line, for a total of eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (three metrical feet, for six syllables): 8.6.8.6. Common meter double repeats the common meter twice in each stanza: 8.6.8.6.8.6.8.6.
her words and his music: For the full story, see Lynn Sherr, America the Beautiful (New York: Public Affairs, 2001).
children’s book author: See Kathryn L. Lynch, “Katharine Lee Bates and Chaucer’s American Children,” Chaucer Review 56.2 (2021): 95–118.
these emotional entanglements: For a careful and insightful biography, see Melinda M. Ponder, Katherine Lee Bates: From Sea to Shining Sea (Chicago: Windy City Publishers, 2017).
first in 1904: “In Meter: Our Lady’s Tumbler,” The Chautauquan: A Weekly Newsmagazine 40, no. 4 (1904): 370–71, and “Our Lady’s Tumbler,” National Magazine 20 (1904): 544–46. Reprinted in Persephone and Other Poems, by members of the English Literature Department, Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA: Helen J. Sanborn, 1905), 211–13; Katharine Lee Bates, America the Beautiful and Other Poems (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1911), 113–15; and Bates, Selected Poems, ed. Marion Pelton Guild (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1930), 117–19.
“Our Lady’s Tumbler”: The title of the poem signals indebtedness to the medieval poem rather than to Anatole France’s short story.
leaf: A leaf of paper would be likelier to crumble than a folio (itself from the Latin word for a leaf) of medieval parchment.
Clairvaux: By situating the monastery here, Bates underlines her reliance on the medieval poem.
carle: An archaic word for a common man.
vesper hymn nor matin: These refer to the evening and morning offices (meaning “services”).
Pater noster nor credo: The Our Father and Nicene Creed, both indicated here by Latin words as they would customarily have been in the Middle Ages.
wood-birds: As one would think, birds that live in the woods.
wayside cross: Crucifixes were often erected alongside roads and paths in medieval Europe and remain commonplace in Catholic regions.
Our Lady of Val: The valley implied by the French val is presumably that of Clairvaux, “light” or “bright valley.”
wore cloth of satin: Madonnas were often dressed in rich clothing, and sometimes even had large wardrobes that enabled rotation of outfits.
stave: In British usage this noun corresponds to staff in American English, to denote a set of parallel lines and spaces between them, on which notes are written to indicate their pitch.
whipt: For “whipped.” A reference to the practice, penitential and ascetic, of flagellation—whipping oneself.
slipt: For “slipped.”
hied: The verb, here used reflexively, is an archaism for “go quickly.”
clergeons: An obsolete word for a chorister boy, diminutive of the French for clerk or cleric. The word would have been most familiar to Bates from “The Prioress’s Tale” (line 51) in Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: “A litel clergeon, seven yeer of age.”
disport: This archaic noun denotes entertainment or amusement.
girt: For “girded,” meaning “secured his garments.”
featly: Nimbly, gracefully.
Arragon twirl: The medieval poem refers to moves associated with Champagne, Spain, Brittany, and Lorraine, an order lightly revised by Bates.
smiled: See notes to Massenet, The Jongleur of Our Lady (Part 2, Chapter 5), Act 2, Scene 4.
joyance: Archaic for “delight, enjoyment.”
Ay: Archaic for “yes.”
High Mass: In Roman Catholicism a Mass was “high” when it included full ceremonial, including music and incense, typically involving a deacon and subdeacon.
darksome: A seldom-used adjective, meaning “dark or gloomy.”
scourged: Another reference to flagellation.
wounded knight: Since Christ’s tomb is in the Holy Land, this warrior could well be a Crusader. At the same time, the descriptor calls to mind vaguely the legend of the Grail, in which a central character is the Wounded King (also known as the Maimed King or Fisher King).
corse: A further archaism, signifying corpse.
of celestial birth: Meaning that the blooms came from heaven.
7. The Philosopher-Historian Henry Adams
Henry Brooks Adams: The standard biography, in its distilled form, is Ernest Samuels, Henry Adams (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989). More recently, see Garry Wills, Henry Adams and the Making of America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005).
The Education of Henry Adams: The principal works published in his lifetime (excepting The History) are collected conveniently in Henry Adams, Novels, Mont Saint Michel, The Education, ed. Ernest Samuels and Jayne N. Samuels (New York: Library of America, 1983).
his remarkable letters: The standard edition for most of them is The Letters of Henry Adams, ed. J. C. Levenson and others, 6 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1982–88).
Francophile: The topic warrants further exploration. For a start, see Max I. Baym, The French Education of Henry Adams (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951).
Clover: See Natalie Dykstra, Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).
Elizabeth Sherman: On this relationship, see Arline Boucher Tehan, Henry Adams in Love: The Pursuit of Elizabeth Sherman Cameron (New York: Universe, 1983).
medieval Marianism: See Joseph F. Byrnes, The Virgin of Chartres: An Intellectual and Psychological History of the Work of Henry Adams (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1981).
women in the Middle Ages: See Daniel L. Manheim, “Motives of His Own: Henry Adams and the Genealogy of the Virgin,” New England Quarterly 63, no. 4 (1990): 601–23, and Kim Moreland, “Henry Adams, the Medieval Lady, and the ‘New Woman,’” Clio 18 (1989): 291–305.
psychological or even psychoanalytic criticism: For orientation, see Meyer Howard Abrams and Geoffrey Galt Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms, 11th ed. (Andover: CENGAGE Learning, 2015), 319–25.
architecture: Michael W. Brooks, “New England Gothic: Charles Eliot Norton, Charles H. Moore, and Henry Adams,” in The Architectural Historian in America: A Symposium in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Society of Architectural Historians, ed. Elisabeth Blair MacDougall, Studies in the History of Art 35/Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts 19 (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1990), 113–25.
Gaultier de Coincy’s: Meaning the figure designated in this book as Gautier de Coinci.
8. The Poet Edwin Markham
Edwin Markham: On his life and works, see Charles Duncan, “Edwin Markham,” in Robert L. Gale, ed. Nineteenth-Century American Western Writers, Dictionary of Literary Biography 186 (Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1997), 228–37, and Joseph W. Slade, “Edwin Markham,” in Peter Quartermain, ed. American Poets, 1890–1945: Third Series, 2 vols., Part 1: A-M, Dictionary of Literary Biography 54 (Detroit, MI: Gale Research Co., 1987), 284–93.
The Man with the Hoe: Published first on January 15, 1899, in a special edition of the San Francisco Examiner.
Isabel Butler’s prose translation: Edwin Markham, The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems: The Third Book of Verse (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1915), vii–viii.
December 1907: The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine 75, no. 2 (December 1907): 221–33. The text was reprinted in Shoes of Happiness, 30–46.
a poet of brotherhood and love: See Peter J. Frederick, Knights of the Golden Rule: The Intellectual as Christian Social Reformer in the 1890s (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1976), 185–234.
one reviewer: Anonymous, “Notes,” The Nation 88, no. 2288, May 6, 1909: 462–65, at 463.
on earth peace, good will toward men: Luke 2:14, in the King James version.
Touraine: This was once a province of France, with its capital in the city of Tours.
Louis the King: Anatole France’s tale begins by likewise mentioning an indeterminate King Louis.
Barnabas: Markham takes his protagonist’s name from Anatole France, but anglicizes it.
turkey-cocks: This is one way to indicate the Guinea-cock or Guinea-fowl, an African bird familiar in Europe since antiquity.
Bullies: Ruffians or blusterers.
dance with the hempen maid: “Marrying the hempen maid” or “dancing with the hempen maid” was a metaphor for being hanged, because the person so punished would twitch convulsively with the rope of hemp around his neck.
Gaffers: In the language of country people from the sixteenth century on, this was a designation for an elderly person. The noun reappears in Adair, “The Chapel at Mountain State Mental Hospital,” line 13: see Part 2, Chapter 11.E.
Clackering: On this infrequent alternative to the verb “clack,” see the Oxford English Dictionary “clacker” 5 “to cause (things) to make a sound between a clap and a crack.” Both “click” and “clatter” come to mind.
straddling: with legs spread wide apart.
punchinello: In the Italian commedia dell’arte, Punchinello—ancestor of the English Punch—was a clownish and foolish figure.
lilts: Light, springing steps.
quips and cranks: The turn of phrase owes to John Milton, L’Allegro, in Poems 31. A crank is “A twist or fanciful turn of speech; a humorous turn, a verbal trick or conceit” (Oxford English Dictionary s.v.).
First Epistle: The Mass usually includes three readings, of which the second comes from the New Testament (typically Pauline) epistles.
feather-head: A silly, empty-headed person.
trim-trig: In Scottish English the adjective trig can signify “sprightly, nimble, or trim” (Oxford English Dictionary): compare trigged in 117.
jack: The noun could mean generally “a man, a fellow.” Alternatively, it could refer to one of the small, six-pointed pieces employed in the children’s game of jacks.
whimsy: Whimsical.
a-shine and a-weaving: Markham shows a predilection for forming words this way. See also 257 and 304.
spangling: Sparkling or glistening.
tarradiddle: A petty lie.
Pantaloon: In the Italian commedia dell’arte, a Venetian character depicted as a foolish old man.
Harlequin: Another character in Italian commedia dell’arte, this one related to the clown.
Michaelmas: The feast of Saint Michael, on September 29.
deadly sins: Referring to the seven chief or cardinal sins.
abbès: In French abbé, correctly with accent aigu rather than grave, denotes narrowly an abbot but more broadly a priest or even a clergyman.
light-hour: An unusual turn of phrase, probably not light in contrast to dark, but with the adjective instead referring to unserious entertainment. Markham wanted the initial l for alliteration with love and loveless.
wayside shrine: In Katherine Lee Bates we witnessed already the fascination with wayside crosses in predominantly Protestant America: “Our Lady’s Tumbler,” line 10, in Part 2, Chapter 6.
tipt: That is, “tipped,” meaning “adorned at the tip.”
Queen of the skies: This phrase, attested in hymns, rings a slight change on the common Marian epithet, Queen of Heaven.
bed in the cattle stalls: This line hints at a parallel between Barnaby’s plight and that of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem at the nativity.
cloistral: The poet repeats this adjective in 128, 138, and 147.
grasshopper green: Anatole France compared the jongleur to the grasshopper in a fable by the late twelfth-century poet Marie de France, French but active in England: see Part 2, Chapter 4. Additionally, a celebrated painting of 1875 by the French artist Jean-George Vibert transmutes the insect into a medieval minstrel, with a lute on his back and clad in green clothing: see Fig. 53.
tire: The word attire is elided here, by dropping the initial unstressed vowel. The technical term for this type of elision is aphaeresis.
trigged: The chiefly Scottish and north English dialect verb trig means “to make trig or trim,” which is to say, “to dress smartly or finely” (Oxford English Dictionary).
mystery play: A medieval dramatic genre, plays of this sort usually represented biblical subjects, from the Creation through the Last Judgment. Anatole France refers to mystery plays: see Part 2, Chapter 4.
a droll: A funny fellow, buffoon.
kill-care: Shakespeare lent authority to the verbal phrase that is here made a noun: see Much Ado About Nothing (1598–99), Act 5, Scene 1, l. [135]. The noun is Markham’s improvised opposite to kill-joy.
phlegms: In the four cardinal humors that medieval physiology inherited from antiquity, one, cold and moist, was believed to cause apathy and indolence, whence the adjective “phlegmatic.”
orison: An archaic word for prayer.
Seven Throne Angels: “Throne angels” are one level of angels. The poet seems to conflate them with the seven archangels.
rat-tat-tat: Here the onomatopoeia signifies applause.
Gaston: A personal name for males that Markham uses as typically French.
friars pass with feet unshod: “Discalced,” from a Latin participle meaning “with the shoes removed,” is the technical term to denote religious people who, as an expression of penitence, wear only sandals or no footwear at all. The Franciscans were often called the Barefoot Friars.
bread is changed to the body of God: Barnabas connects the monastery reflexively with the liturgy, especially here communion, the service in which bread and wine are consecrated and shared.
great hours: Though “the great hours” exist as a specific celebration in eastern churches, the reference here is likely to the seven or eight canonical hours of prayer that monks observe.
Sanctus: The so-called angelic hymn, from Isaiah 6:3, begins with the repetition of the Latin words Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus (Holy, holy, holy).
gray monks: More than one order, such as the brothers of Savigny and Tiron, has been designated gray monks.
avail: This word, now obsolete as a noun, here means “beneficial effect.”
frater: The dining room of a monastery, also known as a refectory.
Almoner: In a monastery or other religious house, this official had responsibility for distributing alms and overseeing charity.
Lily: The lily-of-the-valley has been long associated with Mary.
Tower of Gold: This and most of the formulas that follow are common titles of the Virgin in litanies, such as the Litany of Loreto.
Gate of Ivory: “House of Ivory” is a more common title for the Virgin. Markham fuses the traditional wording with the image of the gates of horn and ivory mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey (19.560–69) and Virgil’s Aeneid (6.893–98).
Roof of the Fold: Meaning “roof of the earth.” Fold is an obsolete noun to indicate the earth.
Well that Flows: The Virgin Mary is commonly envisaged as a fountain of life.
Star of the Sea: The Latin stella Maris, corresponding to the English “star of the sea,” goes back to the early Middle Ages, if not further, as a title for Mary. See notes to Part 1, Chapter 4.B., line 123, and Part 1, Chapter 6.A., above.
Mystic Rose: In this case the equivalent Latin is Rosa Mystica, relating to Song of Songs 2:1.
Estevan: This is a Spanish name, of Greek origin.
Virgilian verse: The phrase presumably means dactylic hexameters.
Glorian: The resemblance of the name to the Latin noun gloria “glory” may have guided Markham here.
Prinking: In colloquial usage, the verb can mean to adorn.
lock: Though the import is immediately comprehensible, this usage is somewhat unusual. In the plural locks can denote something, especially foliage, that resembles locks of hair: see OED lock 3.
fleur-de-lis: This stylized lily was often an attribute of the Virgin Mary.
hollyhock: This plant is among the many flowers that have had Marian associations and have been grown in so-called Mary Gardens, to honor the Virgin florally.
Bonaccord: French meaning “good accord,” an appellation apt for a musician.
Basil: A Greek name, associated with the early Church and an early saint.
Théophile: The name is taken from the Greek “God-loving.” Markham may or may not have known that a character called Theophilus was the protagonist of a major medieval miracle.
’cello: The initial apostrophe, attested often through the 1800s but now quaint, is a reminder that our word cello is a shortening from the original violoncello.
hautboy: This denotes the high-pitched, double-reeded wooden wind instrument now usually spelled oboe.
Bladdering: The verb means to swell out like a bladder.
Julian: Like Théophile, this character bears the name of the leading man in a Marian miracle. Taking holiness on step further, Julian was a saint.
throne of the great King Solomon: This passage owes to a passage in “Le Jongleur de Notre Dame” in which Anatole France drew inspiration from the reproduction of a manuscript illustration in the mid-nineteenth-century, scholarly edition of Gautier de Coinci’s Miracles of the Virgin. France described Mary, with seven doves representing the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. She sits on the throne of Solomon, which had lions at its feet.
seven great gifts: Going back to Isaiah 11:1–2, the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Holy Breath: This wording is a less common variant for Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, designating the third person in the Christian Trinity.
balks: The verb means “to check, hinder, or thwart.”
throw of the devil’s dice: The image lives on even today in such sayings as “devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes.”
Palemone: This name might have been prompted by that of the knight in Boccaccio’s epic poem Teseida, who corresponds to Palamon in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (“The Knight’s Tale”).
Edging: The verb would seem here to be an obsolete usage, meaning “to give activity to” (OED edge1 2.a).
bearded rye: The fully formed heads of the cereal rye are conventionally described as being bearded.
credo: From the Latin “I believe,” the term refers to the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed.
Pater: Short for Paternoster, the Lord’s Prayer in Latin.
Ave: This points to the Latin Ave Maria, meaning Hail Mary, the conventional title of the famous prayer to the Virgin as the Mother of God. See the note to Part 1, Chapter 1.A “Our Lady’s Tumbler,” line 31.
told a tale: In his short story Anatole France refers to a similar miracle in which a monk who said five psalms daily to honor the Virgin was rewarded after his death when Mary caused five roses to issue from his mouth.
Four doves: This miracle appears to be Markham’s invention.
tethered ox: This metaphor points to familiarity, undoubtedly through a translation, with the medieval poem “Our Lady’s Tumbler.”
living seed: The phrase owes to 1 Peter 1:23.
shaft: The noun here designates a block of stone from which a statue could be carved.
fraters: As a synonym for a friar, this word has been obsolete for centuries.
tipping toe: Meaning “tiptoe.”
St. Plato: Markham may have meant either the martyr of the early fourth century who was put to death in Ancyra or Saint Plato the Studite, also styled the Confessor, who died in 814. Then again, he could have intended the allusion to signal the ignorance of the tumbler, in mistaking the ancient Greek philosopher Plato for a Christian holy man.
Quintilian: Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, who lived from about 35 to about 100 CE, was among the foremost Roman rhetoricians.
the Three and the One: The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that there is one God but that there are three persons, namely, the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit.
the Wine and the Bread: The Christian eucharist derives from the rite instituted by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper, in which the bread he distributed represented his body and the wine the new covenant in his blood.
Toulon: A port city in southern France, on the Mediterranean coast.
Chateauroux: Châteauroux, to give the first vowel its requisite circumflex, is a town (second-largest after Bruges) in the province of Berry in central France.
mantle blue: Mary is traditionally portrayed enveloped in such outerwear. Beyond being the color of heaven, blue embodies the prestige accorded to her.
Lady of Beauty: The epithet may well have been influenced by the postmedieval prominence of Lourdes, thanks to the visions of the young woman Bernadette Soubirous, who described the Virgin Mary as “the beautiful lady.”
lilies: In Christian iconography, these white flowers symbolize the purity of the Virgin Mary.
Seraphim: Angelic beings who belong to the highest of the nine orders in the celestial hierarchy.
9. The Children’s Book Writer Violet Moore Higgins
Violet Moore Higgins: Before marriage Violet Idelle Moore published without the middle name. Her obituary in the New York Times identified her by her married name of Violet Higgins.
child-friendly features: Two were “Drowsy Dick” and “Junior Editors.”
the same formula: Letter 139 to Elsie Moll (his fiancée), December 8–9, 1908, in Letters of Wallace Stevens, ed. Holly Stevens (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), 112–15, at 114; The Contemplated Spouse: The Letters of Wallace Stevens to Elsie, ed. J. Donald Blount (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006), 110–13, at 112. In the Stevens material of the Huntington Library, this letter is WAS 1795.
Once-upon-a-Time Saints: Faith-Tales for Children: Text by Ethel Marbach (Pochocki), illus. Victoria Brzustowicz (Cincinnati, OH: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1977), 59–61, at 60; repr. Ethel (Marbach) Pochocki, Once upon a Time Saints, illus. Tom Matt (Bathgate, ND: Bethlehem Books, 1996), 22–25.
Max Bolliger: Jakob der Gaukler: Nach einer französischen Legende aus dem 13. Jahrhundert, illus. Štěpán Zavřel (Zurich: Bohem, 1991), and later (after being put into various other languages) Jacob the Juggler, trans. Jan M. Ziolkowski (Trieste, Italy: Bohem, 2018).
Michel Zink: Le Jongleur de Notre Dame. Contes chrétiens du Moyen Âge (Paris: Le Seuil, 1999), 48–51, 199 (note).
Cecilia Pieri: Il était une fois, Contes merveilleux 1 (Paris: Flammarion, 2004), 87–101, with the story on 90–94.
French Tales Retold: Violet Moore Higgins, “The Little Juggler,” in Violet Moore Higgins, author and illustrator, The Little Juggler and Other French Tales Retold (Racine and Chicago: Whitman Publishing Co., 1917), 7–34.
French Fairy Tales: Violet Moore Higgins, “The Little Juggler,” in Violet Moore Higgins, French Fairy Tales: The Little Juggler, The Wooden Shoe, and The Noel Candle, illus. Helen Chamberlin (Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Co., 1917).
2 Books in a Box: (Racine, WI: Whitman, 1934).
anthology of folktales and fairy tales: Ernst Tegethoff, trans., Französische Volksmärchen, aus älteren Quellen (Jena, Germany: Eugen Diederichs, 1923).
collection of French folktales: Ursula Rauch, trans., Märchen aus Frankreich, den Niederlanden und der Schweiz: Märchen europäischer Völker (Gütersloh, Germany: Bertelsmann, 1976), 83.
two distinct forms: On the one hand, we have Violet Moore Higgins, Fairy Tales: The Little Juggler—The Wooden Shoe—The Noel Candle, illus. Helen Chamberlin (Racine, WI: Whitman, 1917), and French Fairy Tales: The Little Juggler—The Wooden Shoe—The Noel Candle, illus. Helen Chamberlin (Racine, WI: Whitman, 1917). Of higher quality in production and art is Violet Moore Higgins, author and illustrator, The Little Juggler and Other French Tales Retold (Racine, WI: Whitman, 1917).
grimacing like an ape: The original text contains the typo “grimmacing.”
Justinian: The name calls to mind first the Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great (482–565), though Higgins may have chosen it for having embedded within it the element just.
thistledown: Figuratively, the flower head of the thistle evokes lightness and instability. Higgins repeats the usage four paragraphs down.
Mayhap: Meaning “perhaps, possibly.” Higgins often chooses archaic vocabulary to conjure up a medieval atmosphere.
rubbing his hands and slapping the palms: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries this treatment is sometimes prescribed for arousing a person from a faint.
Ambrose: The name evokes the saint (ca. 340–97), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church.
brown garments: The color need not correspond to that of the order in which Rene has been given refuge, but if it does, Carmelite monks and many Franciscan friars wear brown habits.
Melchior: This is a somewhat odd choice for the antagonist. Though not mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, this name was traditionally assigned to one of the three Magi who visited the infant Jesus after his birth.
second in authority: For this reason Melchior is identified shortly as the prior, an official who in most abbeys stood next in command to the abbot.
serving her in other ways: Higgins has the boys in the monastery offer mostly the same types of cultured homage to the Virgin as Anatole France and Jules Massenet did in their portrayal of the adult monks in their versions.
the smile: See notes to Part 2, Chapter 5: Massenet, The Jongleur of Our Lady, Act 2, Scene 4.
10. The Radio Narrator John Booth Nesbitt
Castilian Spanish: Remigio Vilariño Ugarte, De broma y de versa 182–83 (February and March 1926) (Bilbao, Spain: El Mensajero del Corazón de Jesús, 1926), Cuento 9 “El volatinero de la Virgen,” 94–106, illus. Goiko, 95, 97, 101. Repr. Radiocuentos por Erreví Esejota, 2nd ed. (Bilbao, Spain: El Mensajero del Corazón de Jesús, 1929).
put into French: Remigio Vilariño Ugarte, Contes radiophoniques, trans. and adap. Paul Bellot (Paris: Desclée De Brouwer, 1934), 91–108.
printed libretto: Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, BBC Opera Libretto, broadcast on May 27 and 29, 1929, English version adapted from the translation by M. Louise Baum (London: BBC, 1929).
as a holiday gift: John Booth Nesbitt, The Juggler of Our Lady (San Francisco: L’Esperance, Sivertson & Beran, 1939).
German reworking: Hans Hömberg, Der Gaukler unserer lieben Frau, illus. Ernst von Dombrowski (Vienna: Eduard Wancura, 1961).
liner note: A small foldout pamphlet that accompanied Decca Album No. 357: 23 M Series.
11. The Mid to Late Twentieth-Century Poets
locus of redemption: See Adele Dalsimer, “Hell and Parnassus by the Canal Bank: Patrick Kavanagh’s Dublin,” in Alan A. Gillis and Aaron Kelly, ed. Critical Ireland: New Essays in Literature and Culture (Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts Press, 2001), 166–73.
Stephen’s Green: St. Stephen’s Green lies in the center of Dublin, halfway between St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Merrion Square. Once a common for grazing but now a public park, its landscape encloses a web of walkways that give access to a landscape of trees, shrubs, flower beds, rockeries, ponds, and statues.
deck chairs: Paid seating, formerly the norm, disappeared long ago from the Green. See Frank McNally, “An Irishman’s Diary on when sitting down meant paying up: Chair-hire in St Stephen’s Green,” The Irish Times, Saturday, April 25, 2015.
Grafton Street: One of the city’s main shopping thoroughfares, this street leads into the northwest end of the park.
Grand Canal: The southern of two canals that ultimately connect the Irish capital in the east with the River Shannon at the Shannon Harbour to the west.
Leeson Bridge: Leeson Street is a thoroughfare bisected by the Grand Canal. The lower portion runs north of the waterway to St. Stephen’s Green. See Hugh Oram, Leeson Street: Upper and Lower (n.p.: Trafford Publishing, 2018).
broadside ballad: See Vivan de Sola Pinto and Allan Edwin Rodway, ed. The Common Muse: An Anthology of Popular British Ballad Poetry, XVth-XXth Century (London: Chatto & Windus, 1957), 15–17.
popular and traditional: See David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1968). The foundational modern collection is Francis J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 5 vols. (New York: Henry Stevens & Son/Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1882–98). No traditional ballad of “Our Lady’s Tumbler” exists.
oral culture of western Europe: See Johannes C. H. R. Steenstrup, The Medieval Popular Ballad, trans. Edward Godfrey Cox (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1914), and William J. Entwistle, European Balladry (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939).
Kavanagh by Auden: See two articles, though without reference to either of their poems about the tumbler, by John Redmond: “Auden in Ireland,” in Peter Robinson, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary British and Irish Poetry (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press; 2013), 424–41, and “‘All the Answers’: The Influence of Auden on Kavanagh’s Poetic Development,” New Hibernia Review/Iris Éireannach Nua: A Quarterly Record of Irish Studies 8, no. 1 (2004): 21–34.
Mikhail Bakhtin: See Rabelais and His World (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1968) and Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics (Ann Arbor, MI: Ardis, 1973).
Drinking in taverns and throwing the dice: Since the nineteenth century, the Carmina Burana and related collections of lyric poetry in both Latin and vernacular languages have encouraged a popular image of medieval culture in which “wine, women, and song” have been writ large.
Two ravens: François Villon’s “Ballade des Pendus” (Ballad of the hanged) describes ravens pecking out the eyes of those who have been strung up in this way.
smote him sore: Found in many works of literature, the phrase appears most memorably (and more than once) in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, a fifteenth-century collection of Arthurian legends in Middle English prose.
monastery built on a hill: Like many other Cistercian foundations, Clairvaux was situated in a low place. The French of its name may be translated as “bright valley.” In contrast, Montecassino, the first monastery of the Benedictine order, was located on a mountain top. Auden has poetic reasons for siting his imagined abbey on raised land.
Angelus: The word means “angel” in Latin, which borrowed it from Greek. Here the term refers to a prayer based largely on the Gospel of Luke 1:26–38 that begins with these three syllables. The devotion was recited in medieval monasteries in celebration of the Incarnation. The divine messenger at issue is Gabriel, who at God’s behest revealed to the Virgin Mary the plan that she should conceive the Son of God. A bell was rung to signal the time for the devotion.
men of parts: This idiom denotes men talented in more than one capacity.
Sequences: As noted in Part 1, Chapter 5.B., at line 80, these were long melodies joined with Latin texts. Such compositions were often but not always connected with the liturgy, especially with melismas that followed the chanting of the Alleluia.
Picardy: A region to the north of Paris. The reference points to Gautier de Coinci (1177–1236), a Picard monk and poet. He composed an extensive collection of songs in praise of the Virgin Mary, entitled Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame (The Miracles of Our Lady). Anatole France made a similar reference to Gautier.
work and prayer: The dual obligation, summed up with the activities reversed in the Latin motto ora et labora (pray and work), has been the guiding principle and traditional motto of the Benedictine monastic order.
massing-time: This word relies on the obsolete usage of the verb mass (OED † mass, v.1 a. and c.) meaning “to celebrate Mass” or “to attend Mass.”
carved in wood: From his involvement in the staging of the medieval Play of Daniel, Auden would have been acquainted with the wooden “thrones of wisdom” that represented Mary with the infant Jesus in her lap.
asweat: A rare adverb, meaning “sweating, moist.”
swound: An archaic noun, meaning “a fainting-fit,” synonymous with swoon.
“Thank you, Barnaby,” She said: Exceptionally, the Virgin here speaks to the tumbler.
smiled: See notes to Part 2, Chapter 5: Massenet, The Jongleur of Our Lady, Act 2, Scene 4.
Office-Hours: The Divine Office, the daily service recited at each of the canonical hours.
devoirs: “To pay one’s devoirs to someone” is to give the person one’s dutiful respects.
shining swords: This motif is an innovation in this scene. Uriel, the angel of repentance, is often depicted with a fiery sword, guarding the entrance to Eden.
Gloria in excelsis Deo: This phrase, its Latin meaning “Glory to God in the highest,” refers to a Christian hymn that begins with the words in Luke 2:14 that the angels sang when announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds.
Virginia Nyhart: For biography and bibliography, see https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/nyhart-nina
two books of poetry: Nina Nyhart, Openers (Cambridge, MA: Alice James Books, 1979), and French for Soldiers: Poems (Cambridge, MA: Alice James Books, 1987).
coedited an anthology: Kinereth D. Gensler and Nina Nyhart, The Poetry Connection: An Anthology of Contemporary Poems with Ideas to Stimulate Children’s Writing (New York: Teachers & Writers, 1978).
Our Lady’s Tumbler: Nina Nyhart, “Our Lady’s Tumbler,” Virginia Quarterly Review 49, no. 4 (1973): 555–57.
concrete poetry: See Mary Ellen Solt, ed. Concrete Poetry: A World View (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968).
psalms: Medieval monks were expected to know by heart all 150 psalms and to follow a cycle in chanting at least some of them daily, so that they would sing the whole psalter every couple of weeks.
Our Lady’s arch: Many churches were dedicated to Mary or contained Mary or Lady chapels. Nyhart substitutes an architectural feature that fits with her gymnastic metaphors.
Turner Cassity: Keith Tuma, “Turner Cassity,” in R. S. Gwynn, American Poets since World War II: Second Series (Detroit: Gale Research; 1991), 19–24.
Our Lady’s Juggler: Turner Cassity, “Our Lady’s Juggler,” Poetry 127 (1976): 343, reprinted in Turner Cassity, Hurricane Lamp (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 57. Tuma (“Turner Cassity,” 23–24) termed this Cassity’s “most eclectic collection” and “best book.” This piece embodies that eclecticism.
your lifted hand, Your so late simper: The gesture and facial expression called to mind here are often shown in pictorial representations and performances of the story, such as those on television, but are seldom mentioned in prose or verse.
phase: The noun here is meant as in physics.
mass: The word is used as in its scientific and not in its religious sense.
ictus: In prosody the term denotes stress that falls on a syllable in a metrical foot. In this instance ictus is transferred metaphorically from versification to juggling.
A second collection: Beliefs and Blasphemies: A Collection of Poems (New York: Random House, 1998), 27–29.
Mountain State Mental Hospital: West Virginia is nicknamed “the Mountain State,” but the name Mountain State Mental Hospital is fanciful.
shroud of Turin: A linen cloth, kept in the cathedral of Turin in Italy, that bears the negative image of a man, reputed by long legend to be Jesus Christ.
incense: In Christianity the smoke of incense as it burns is not employed as a deodorant but instead to embody the ascent to heaven of the prayers offered by the faithful.
gaffer: Informal for “an old man.”
A dove: In the iconography of the Annunciation, the Holy Spirit is often represented as a dove traveling toward Mary amid rays of light that pass through a window.
a moth: This is Adair’s poetic license, since doves seldom eat insects, still more rarely flying ones.
purple trimmed with ermine: Velvet of this color trimmed with the fur called ermine was a luxurious combination for women’s clothing in the haute couture of medieval Europe. The trim in question was made from the white winter coat of the weasel-like creature called the stoat.
hymn: This would be the so-called hymn of preparation with which the service typically begins.
le jongleur de Nôtre Dame: Though the original French is used, the circumflex accent on the letter o is a mistake.
turned on God a dazzling smile: Adair inverts the common motif in which the Virgin or her image smiles at the jongleur by instead having the performer do so. See notes to Part 2, Chapter 5: Massenet, The Jongleur of Our Lady, Act 2, Scene 4.