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Chaucer and Graunson: The Valentine Tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Geoffrey Chaucer and Oton de Graunson, as members of the retinue of the Duke of Lancaster, were thrown into close personal association, and Chaucer's translation of some of Oton's balades affords conclusive evidence that literary connections also existed between the two poets. The full extent of Oton's influence upon Chaucer can not now be accurately determined, inasmuch as some of Oton's poems have been lost and even of those which have been preserved some are still difficult of access. We are specially fortunate, therefore, in having available a sequence of Valentine poems by Graunson, who seems to have been the first to popularize this type of verse in fourteenth-century England. Chaucer himself, notably in the Parlement of Foules and the Complaint of Mars, also took part in this cult of Saint Valentine's Day, and there thus seems reason to expect that an examination of Oton's Valentine poems may supply evidence which will be helpful in interpreting these Chaucerian pieces.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1939
References
1 See my article, “Messire Oton de Graunson, Chaucer's Savoyard Friend,” S.P., xxxv (October, 1938).
2 I have recently endeavored to establish a further instance of their literary relationship: “Chaucer's Book of the Duchess and Two of Graunson's Complaintes,” MLN, lii (1937), 487–491.
3 See my article, “Sir Oton de Graunson—‘Flour of hem that make in Fraunce’,” S.P., xxxv (1938), 10–24. Dr. Arthur Piaget, of the University of Neuchâtel, is completing an edition of Graunson's works for Mémoires et documents de la Société d'histoire de la Suisse romande, whose representative in France is Mlle Eugénie Droz, 25 rue de Toumon, Paris, VI°. Dr. Piaget informs me by letter that his edition will contain numerous pieces omitted in G. L. Schirer's Oton de Graunson und seine Dichtungen (Strasburg, 1904).
4 Cf. John Matthews Manly, “What is the Parlement of Foules? Festschrift für Lorenz Morsbach (Halle, 1913), p. 286.
5 Chaucer's authorship of the Valentine Complaint d'amours is sometimes questioned. Compare this title with Graunson's Complainte amoureuse de saint Valentin, No. xxxvi in Schirer's edition.
6 The reference to lovers who at morn “lye in any drede” (v. 5) also associates the Mars with the aule; see further C. R. Baskervill, “English Songs on the Night Visit,” PMLA, xxxvi (1921), esp. p. 594.
7 Skeat, W. W., The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, sec. ed. (Oxford, 1899), i, 516; H. Braddy, Three Chaucer Studies (Oxford, 1932), No. ii, p. 7, n. 1. Moreover, it seems significant to observe that in De Civili Domino, ed. J. Loserth, Wyclif Society (London, 1900), ii, 7, Wyclif states that in the parliament of 1371 a peer compared the human situation of the members with that of a parliament of birds; see also H. B. Workman, John Wyclif (Oxford, 1926), i, 210.Google Scholar
8 Op. cit.
9 “La Cour Amoureuse dite de Charles VI,” Romania, xx (1891), 417–454.
10 Piaget, Arthur, “Oton de Grandson, Amoureux de la Reine,” Romania, lxi (1935), 72–82.Google Scholar
11 For all biographical references to Oton, see my article cited in note 1 above.
12 In his essay “Zu den Dichtungens Otons de Granson,” Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur, liv (1930), 168, Dr. Stefan Hofer states: “Auffällig ist nämlich, dass von den angeblich zahlreichen Dichtungen Otons nur diejenigen erhalten sind, welche sich innerhalb der Valentin-stage bewegen und in ihrem Thema: Minnedienst, Huldigung, Trennung, Verabschiedung durch seine Herrin, ein zusammengehöriges Ganze bilden, dessen einzelne Unterabteilungen deutlich hervortreten.”
13 This acrostic was first observed by Dr. Piaget, Romania, lxi, 72–82.
14 Œuvres de Alain Chartier, ed. A. Du Chesne (Paris, 1617), p. 499.
15 See Amédée Pagès, La Poésie Française en Catalogne (Paris, 1936), pp. 173 ff., esp. pp. 235–238.
16 For all biographical references to Graunson, see my note 1 above.
17 Suggested by Arthur Piaget, “Oton de Grandson, Amoureux de la Reine,” Romania, lxi (1935), 72–82.—Although Isabel of Bavaria possibly owned a copy of Oton's livre, I find it difficult, aside from the fact that the chronology discussed above rules out Dr. Piaget's suggestions, to suppose that Oton presumed to love the Queen of France.
18 Suggested by M. Baudot, Mémoires de la Commission des Antiquités du Département de la Côte-d'Or (Dijon, 1834), pt. II, p. 18.
19 Daughter of Don Pedro the Cruel by his mistress Maria di Padilla; see Edward Storer, Peter the Cruel (London, 1911), p. 59.—Although Graunson may have known Edward Ill's daughter Isabella (wedded to Enguerrand de Coucy VII in 1365), there appears to be no evidence as to a close relation or a personal attachment. Moreover, the autobiographical hints in Oton's poems do not altogether match with the dates of this Isabella's life (b.l332–d.l379); see Mary A. E. Green, Lives of the Princesses of England from the Norman Conquest (London, 1851), iii, 163–228.—For this reference, I am indebted to Professor Henry L. Savage, of Princeton University.
20 Enciclopedia Universal Illustrada (Barcelona, 1926), xxviii, 2028.
21 Nouvelle Biographique Générale (Paris, 1856), xxvi, 18.
22 DNB, xi, 552.
23 Burke, U. R., A History of Spain (London, 1900), i, 332–339.Google Scholar
24 See my article, “The Two Petros in the Monkes Tale,” PULA, l (1935), 69–80.
25 See note 1 above.
26 Among critics of John Shirley, Professor Manly (MP, xi, 226) is by far the most severe, and his rejection of Shirley's explanation has been echoed by many subsequent scholars. But recently there has developed among English scholars a more lenient yet at the same time a more puzzling attitude. For example, Professor Cowling (RES, ii, 407) holds that Isabel of York is a mistake for Elizabeth of Lancaster, but says: “I think Shirley was right in naming John Holland.” Similarly, Miss Margaret Galway (MLR, xxxiii, 184) argues that the statement about Isabel is a “rumour,” but claims that “Shirley was right in connecting the Complaint of Mars with John of Gaunt and with the name Holland.”
27 The substance of this information about the Complaint of Venus is repeated in condensed form in the later MS. Ashmole 59, f. 43b: “Here begynneþe a balade [i.e., Venus] made by þat worþy knight of Savoye in frenshe calde sir Otes Graunsoun. translated by Chauciers.” This second statement shows Shirley to be consistent in his account and makes clear that at a later date he remained convinced as to the truth of his report.
28 “Oton de Granson et ses poésies,” Romania, xix, 237–259; 403–448.
29 Ypodigma Neustrice, ed. H. T. Riley, Rolls Series (London, 1876), p. 366.
30 See A. Brusendorff, The Chaucer Tradition (Oxford, 1925), pp. 263–265.
31 Johannes Malverne in R. Higden's Polychronicon, Rolls Series (London, 1886), ix, 61f.; cf. 72.
32 All quotations are from Robinson's edition of Chaucer. Princes, a variant Robinson mentions (p. 978), is a fourteenth-century spelling for Princesse, so that one need not entertain Robinson's avowedly tentative theory that the Venus, like the Fortune, was addressed to a group of noblemen: the Dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester.
33 To Professor Cowling (RES, ii, 409) credit is due for first observing this cryptic allusion.
34 The objection sometimes urged that Chaucer was too gentlemanly to discuss illicit relationships or that Gaunt would not care to have a family scandal alluded to even in a poetic rebuttal seems hardly conclusive.
35 As noted by Schirer, op. cit., pp. 8–9.
36 Champion, Pierre, Histoire Poétique du Quinzième Siècle (Paris, 1923), ii, 23.Google Scholar
37 A copy (the present Paris MS., Fonds Anglais 39, Bibl. Nat.) of the Canterbury Tales seems to have belonged once to Orléans, who bequeathed his copy to the library of Jean, comte d'Angoulême; see P. Champion, La Librairie de Charles d'Orléans (Paris, 1910), pp. 119–121.
38 Unless otherwise noted, the substance of the foregoing paragraph is from Dr. H. N. MacCracken, “An English Friend of Charles of Orleans,” PMLA, xxvi (1911), 142–180.
39 Graunson, Since, like Chaucer, was in Gaunt's retinue and drew a pension from this household, it is possible that Oton's “La Complainte de l'an nouvel” (No. xi in Schirer's edition), like the Book of the Duchess it so strongly resembles, was composed for Gaunt after the death of his Duchess Blanche.Google Scholar
40 Chaucer's interest in and knowledge of astronomy seem sufficient assurance that his astronomical allusions refer to actual planetary phenomena.
41 See the investigations reported by S. H. Cowling, “Chaucer's Complaintes of Mars and of Venus,” RES, ii (1926), 405–410, esp. 406.
42 At this date Oton was very probably not in England, but it hardly follows that Chaucer and Graunson wrote their works at the same time. Indeed, Oton's poems seem for the most part to be of early date.
43 DNB, xi, 552. A late chronology for the Venus is also indicated by the allusion in the “Envoy” to Chaucer's advanced age.
44 In seeking to associate Chaucer's poems with real persons and with contemporary human situations, Miss Margaret Galway, although her reading of Shirley appears incorrect, thus seems at least to proceed from a thoroughly defensible point of view in her interesting article, “Chaucer's Sovereign Lady,” MLR, xxxiii (1938), 145–199.
45 Cf. R. D. French, A Chaucer Handbook (New York, 1929), p. 82.
46 My interpretation of the Parlement I have recently defended in RES, xiv, No. 53. The Instructions Charles V sent to his envoys I then mistakenly dated May, 1377. On consulting my notes, I discover that the writ concerned is placed within the period of 1376–77, so that the date may well have been before May, a chronology which better agrees with Froissart's account.
47 Thus Professor Manly (MP, xi, 226), whose statement many subsequent scholars have echoed, makes a sweeping indictment: “Is there any instance in which information given by Shirley has, when tested, proved to be correct?”