Courtly Pastimes ed. by Gloria Allaire and Julie Human (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Courtly Pastimes ed. by Gloria Allaire and Julie Human
• Tara Foster

gloria allaire and julie human, eds., Courtly Pastimes. Routledge Medieval Casebooks. New York: Routledge, 2023. Pp. xii, 243. isbn: 978–1–032–30790–9. $160.

Courtly Pastimes, the most recent entry in the Routledge Medieval Casebooks series, includes sixteen essays that were originally presented at the 2016 Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society hosted by the University of Kentucky in Lexington. The contributors consider a broad scope of ‘activities that furnished occasions for private amusements for the elite as well as their public displays’ (p. 2) between the twelfth and early sixteenth centuries across western Europe.

The essays are arranged chronologically, and the first four focus primarily on twelfth-century French texts. Laurence Mathey-Maille’s study of Wace’s Roman de Brut and Roman de Rou enumerates the various pastimes enjoyed by the ruling classes in Britain (dubbed Brittany in the essay; the people are termed Bretons rather than Britons) and Normandy, noting that they mirror those of Wace’s contemporary audience. In narrating interludes of courtly recreation, Wace ‘initiates many motifs that would be developed in later literary texts, especially courtly romances’ (p. 22). Jeanne A. Nightingale reads one of those romances, Chrétien de Troyes’ Erec et Enide, against Bernard de Clairvaux’s sermons on the Song of Songs in the next essay. Nightingale proposes a new reading of Chrétien’s work by drawing convincing parallels between the journey of the spiritual bride and bridegroom as presented by Bernard and the transformational aventure of the romance couple. Janina P. Traxler examines the portrayal of the adulterous lovers in Beroul’s Tristan and Chrétien’s Cligés and Charrete, in which ‘the narrative voice encourages audience sympathy for the lovers via wordplay and dramatic irony’ (p. 45), elements that are largely omitted in the thirteenth-century prose romances of Tristan and Lancelot. In ‘Equitan as Courtly Diversion or Carnivalesque Subversion?’, Monica L. Wright draws our attention to Equitan’s shift in register from lai to fabliau and posits that this shift has its roots in the carnival tradition of transgression and inversion of social order; Wright identifies traces of carnivalesque subversion in the Mardi Gras celebrations of modern rural Louisiana.

Moving to German traditions, Christopher R. Clason studies the interplay between nature and culture in Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan, arguing that ‘one can define the “ecology” of the work as both courtly space and natural space, one where humans can experience both environments and interact meaningfully with other species’ (p. 71). Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand discusses the depictions of Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein in two thirteenth-century mural cycles, characterizing them as a testament to their patrons’ desire to immerse themselves in and engage with [End Page 99] the courtly narrative and the models it proffers to its audience. D. Lyle Dechant’s essay on the frontispieces of the Codex Manesse contends that the images should not be dismissed as merely decorative nor viewed as stand-ins for absent performers or glosses of the texts. Rather, the miniatures complement the songs in a way that prompts contemplation and interpretation on the part of the reader.

Joseph T. Snow explores the transformation of the literary conventions of the Provençal troubadours in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of King Alfonso X. The royal poet recasts the amorous reward granted by the domna as spiritual salvation, and unlike the secular fin’amors which must remain secret, ‘Alfonso offers the fictional persona of the Virgin’s troubadour as an exemplar to others’ (p. 112). Courtly love returns to the earthly sphere in Guillaume de Machaut’s Dits; Sara Sturm-Maddox underscores that Machaut presents artistic talent as an alternative to knightly prowess for achieving renown within courtly society—an alternative that, incidentally, women might also pursue. In ‘Blind Man’s Buff: From Children’s Games to Pleasure Gardens in the Late Middle Ages,’ Kristen M. Figg analyzes the function and significance of various forms of play that feature in Jean Froissart’s courtly narratives, including acquiring social skills, refining verbal adroitness, and enjoying moments of relative freedom from strict boundaries. Figg notes that some...