Der Ritter vom Turn

Anne Simon
FRAMING LIVES: THE NARRATIVES OF BEHAVIOUR IN
DER RITTER VOM TURN
Der Ritter vom Turn von den Exempeln der gotsforcht und erberkeit
was first published by Michael Furter for Johann Bergmann von
Olpe in Basel in 1493.1 It is the translation of a French work, Le
Livre du chevalier de la Tour Landry pour l’enseignement de ses
filles,2 written between 1371 and 1372 by a minor French aristocrat, Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry (c.1326-c.1404), ostensibly for
the instruction of his three daughters.3 Geoffroy’s family had its
1
2
3
The text is available in a modern edition: Marquard vom Stein. Der Ritter
vom Turn. Hrsg. von Ruth Harvey. Berlin 1988 (= Texte des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit 32). Ruth Harvey’s commentary on the text was
published posthumously: Marquard vom Stein: Der Ritter vom Turn. Kommentar. Aus dem Nachlaß von Ruth Harvey herausgegeben von Peter Ganz,
Nigel Palmer, Lothar Schmitt und Christopher Wells. Berlin 1996 (= Texte
des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit 37).
The French original, Le Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry pour l’enseignement de ses filles, is available in two editions: a rather outdated one by
M. Anatole de Montaiglon (Paris 1854), based on only two of the twenty-one
extant manuscripts, Bibliothèque Nationale 1190 (formerly 7403) and British
Library Reg. 19.c.VII.; and one by Sister H.M. Eckrich, O.S.F. An Edition of
Le Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry pour l’enseignement de ses filles
(Diss. Fordham University, New York 1970). This is based on a single manuscript. In the Livre the Chevalier several times mentions a book he has written
for his sons on the precepts of knightly conduct. This work cannot be identified with any certainty, although Ponthus et la belle Sidoine has been suggested. The French text of the Livre was first published by Guillaume Eustace in
Paris in 1514. The British Library has an illuminated copy on vellum, BL
G.10562.
Information on Geoffroy de la Tour Landry and Marquard vom Stein is taken
from: Ruth Harvey: Prolegomena to an edition of ‘Der Ritter vom Turn’. In:
Probleme mittelalterlicher Überlieferung und Textkritik. Oxforder Colloquium
1966. Hrsg. von Peter F. Ganz und Werner Schröder. Berlin 1968, pp. 162-82;
Hans Joachim Kreutzer: Marquart von Stein. In: Die deutsche Literatur des
Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon. 2. Ausg. Bd. 6. Berlin, New York 1987, Sp.
129-35; and the introduction to The Book of the Knight of the Tower. Trans-
36
seat in the Maine-et-Loire. His name appears several times from
1350 onwards in connexion with campaigns in the Hundred Years
War; he died sometime between 1402 and 1406. The Livre pour
l’enseignement de ses filles was thus written in his middle years. As
far as is known Geoffroy had two sons and three daughters, although the youngest daughter was probably either an infant or not
yet born at the time the Livre was written. The German translation
was undertaken one hundred and twenty years later by Marquard
vom Stein, who was born between 1425 and 1430 and died in 1495
or 1496. A member of one of the oldest Swabian aristocratic
families, in 1457 he became Lord of Blumenberg (Florimont) in
Alsace; in 1460 he became Landvogt of Mömpelgart (Montbéliard),
which was less than forty miles away from Basel and in 1474 was
accepted into the Free Swiss Federation. Marquard vom Stein was
active as a soldier and diplomat until 1477; his later years are
thought to have been “leisured and prosperous”. 4 It is not known
when he translated the Livre but it may well have been during these
later years. Marquard vom Stein had two daughters, Elsa and
Jakobea; it is for them he claims to have translated the French text
and for others unfamiliar with that language.5
Der Ritter vom Turn is a courtesy text, a collection of exempla 6
4
5
6
lated by William Caxton. Ed. M.Y. Offord. London, New York, Toronto 1971
(= Early English Text Society. Supplementary Series 2), pp. xi-xlv.
Harvey (see fn. 3), p. 163.
“Vnd hab das jn sondern mynen doechtern/ vnnd ouch andern so die sprach nit
koenden zuÊ guÊ t vß frantzosischer zungen zuÊ tütsch gezogen [...]”. (Der Ritter
vom Turn, p. 87). All quotations will be taken from Harvey’s edition and page
references given after quotations in the text. Harvey suggests the two daughters may have been a convenient fiction (Prolegomena [see fn. 3], p. 163);
Kreutzer also emphasizes the fictionality of the work (In: Verfasserlexikon
[see fn. 3], Bd. 6, Sp. 133).
It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the form and function of the
exemplum in the Middle Ages, on which a considerable body of secondary
literature exists. See, for example, Exempel- und Exempelsammlungen. Hrsg.
von Walter Haug und Burghart Wachinger. Tübingen 1994; Timothy R.
Jackson: Die Kürze des Exemplums. Am Beispiel der ‘Elsässischen Predigten’. In: Kleinere Erzählformen im Mittelalter. Paderborner Colloquium 1987.
Hrsg. von Klaus Grübmüller, L. Peter Johnson und Hans-Hugo Steinhoff.
Paderborn, München etc. 1988 (= Schriften der Universität-Gesamthochschule
Paderborn. Reihe Sprach-und Literaturwissenschaft 10), pp. 213-223; Peter
37
of good and bad women drawn from a number of sources: the
Bible, Classical literature, chronicles, 7 saints’ lives, fabliaux,
legends, a collection of didactic tales for use in sermons 8 and even
personal experience. The exempla in Der Ritter vom Turn are
located within a double literary frame: the German translator’s
preface and the Knight’s own. The former gives reasons for translating the Livre; the latter explains the Knight’s decision to compile
the work in the first place. Together the prefaces constitute a frame
for our reading and starting point for our interpretation of the text.
The stories themselves frame a dialogue between the Knight and his
7
8
von Moos: Geschichte als Topik. Das rhetorische Exemplum von der Antike
zur Neuzeit und die historiæ im ‘Policraticus’ Johanns von Salisbury. 2. Aufl.
Hildesheim, Zürich, New York 1996 (= Ordo 2); Larry Scanlon: Narrative,
Authority and Power. The medieval exemplum and the Chaucerian tradition.
Cambridge 1994; and J.-Th. Welter: L’Exemplum dans la littérature religieuse
et didactique du moyen âge. Paris and Toulouse 1927. Haug summarizes
current thinking as follows: “Was den normativ-theoretischen Exempelbegriff
anbelangt, scheint heute in folgender Hinsicht Konsens zu bestehen: Das
Exempel ist nicht als gattungs-, sondern als Funktionsbegriff aufzufassen.
Peter von Moos nennt es ‘eine rhetorische Form oder Funktion, mit der
vergangenes Geschehen in persuasiver Absicht auf einen gegenwärtigen
Problemfall bezogen wird’” (Walter Haug: Exempelsammlungen im narrativen
Rahmen: Vom ‘Pañcatantra’ zum ‘Dekameron’. In: Exempel- und Exempelsammlungen, pp. 264-287, here pp. 264-265). Material for the exemplum can
come from any source; the exemplum is usually brief but does not have to be.
The term exemplum is used in Haug’s sense in this article. The article Haug
refers to is: Peter von Moos: Das argumentative Exemplum und die ‘wächserne Nase’ der Autorität im Mittelalter. In: Exemplum et similitudo. Alexander
the great and other heroes as points of reference in medieval literature. Ed. by
Willem Johan Aerts and Martin Gosmann. Groningen 1988 (= Mediaevalia
Groningana 8), pp. 55-84, here p. 58.
The Knight himself says he charged two priests and two scribes to look for
suitable tales “[...] jn der byblen/ ouch in den kronicken von Franckrich/ von
Egypten/ von Engelland/ vnd von andern enden” (p. 89).
The collection has been identified by J.L. Grigsby as the Miroir des bonnes
femmes. Grigsby demonstrates that the Livre adapts the sequence of biblical
tales about good and bad women from the Miroir. See J.L. Grigsby: Miroir
des bonnes femmes. In: Romania 82 (1961), pp. 458-481; and A New Source
of the ‘Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry’. In: Romania 84 (1963), pp.
171-208. The enlivening of sermons was, of course, one of the main functions
of mediaeval exempla.
38
wife on the ethics of courtly love which both affects and is affected
by our reading of them. The work as a whole is framed by traditional, that is, learned male theological views on women and by the
lives of its female readers 9 whilst in its turn inculcating a model of
behaviour intended to provide a framework for these lives that itself
encourages women to internalize male expectations. 10 This article
will explore, first, the way in which these different frames interact
and influence our reading of the text; second, the type of behaviour
narrated as a model for women. It will also examine whether the
variety of genres encompassed by Der Ritter vom Turn “jostle for
space” to the extent of exploding the frame established by author
and translator, defying the stated purpose of the work and moving it
closer to the popular prose fiction of the early-sixteenth century
than the didactic manual it is presented as in the prefaces.
Discussion of the text itself will be preceded by a brief examination of, first, the aim of courtesy texts and, second, the traditional
views on women that constitute the frame for contemporary
women’s and our reading of such works. Ruth Harvey describes
Der Ritter vom Turn as follows:
‘Der Ritter vom Turn’ [...] is a manual of instruction for young gentlewomen in the principles of virtue, decorum and godliness to be observed before, and especially after, marriage. The method adopted is the
standard one of a series of exempla interspersed with passages of
straight homily and exhortation [...].11
This description serves as a basic definition of a courtesy text: a
guide to correct
that is, socially acceptable
behaviour for
young ladies and gentlemen of the nobility and, in the later Middle
Ages, of the upper bourgeoisie. 12 One such is that by Vincent de
9
10
11
12
I am not excluding the possibility of male readers but wish to concentrate on
the female ones.
As used in this article the terms “frame” and “framework” have two meanings: first, that of a deliberate literary device internal to the text; second,
cultural forces external to the text which shaped women’s reading of it.
Harvey (see fn. 3), p. 162.
Some courtesy texts, like that by the Goodman of Paris for his young wife (c.
1393), also include practical instruction on gardening and household management, including recipes. See The Goodman of Paris. Translated and ed. by
Eileen Power. London 1928.
39
Beauvais, who between 1247 and 1249 wrote a treatise called De
eruditione filiorum regalium at the request of Queen Margaret of
Provence, the wife of the French king Louis IX, to whom the work
is dedicated. 13 The final chapters deal with the education of girls
and read like a blueprint for Der Ritter vom Turn: girls should be
watched at all times to preserve their virginity; they should spend
their days in work, prayer and reading the Psalms and Bible;
special emphasis should be placed in their education on modesty,
chastity, humility, silence and seemly behaviour. Thus girls should
refrain from over-indulgence in pleasures of the flesh such as
eating, drinking and having baths;14 should not wear close-fitting
clothes or make-up or dye their hair;15 should not talk much, not
laugh much and above all should refrain from letting their eyes
wander. When married women should love, obey and fear their
husbands, tolerating their weaknesses patiently and lovingly.
Women, tarred by the legacy of Eve, were felt to be inherently
more in need of such instruction than men. The prejudices about
them
and resultant desire to curb their behaviour
illustrated
by texts such as Vincent de Beauvais and Der Ritter vom Turn
belong to a long tradition of misogyny derived from the Bible:16
13
14
15
16
See Joachim Bumke: Höfische Kultur. Literatur und Gesellschaft im hohen
Mittelalter. 2 Bde. München 1986, Bd. 2, pp. 470-72; and Rosemary Barton
Tobin: Vincent of Beauvais’ ‘De Eruditione Filiorum Nobilium’. The Education of Women. New York, Berne, Frankfurt a.M. 1984 (= American University Studies. Series XIV. 5), especially pp. 103-140.
This is because maidens ought not to see themselves naked (see Bumke [see
fn. 13], p. 471).
Close-fitting clothes aroused lust in men; wearing make-up and dying one’s
hair were the work of the Devil as they falsified God’s creation (see Bumke
[see fn. 13], p. 471).
This is by no means meant to imply that the Middle Ages were monolithically
misogynistic. However, to document the variety and complexity of mediaeval
views on women is beyond the scope of this article, which will focus on those
aspects of the learned theological/scholastic tradition reflected in the text. For
a detailed account of women’s lives and views on women see, for example,
Bonnie S. Anderson and Judith P. Zinsser: A History of Their Own. Women
in Europe from Prehistory to the Present. New York 1988; reprint Harmondsworth 1990; Alcuin Blamires: The Case for Women in Medieval Culture.
Oxford 1997; Joan Cadden: Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages:
medicine, science, and culture. Cambridge 1993 (= Cambridge History of
Medicine); and Shulamith Shahar: The Fourth Estate. A History of Women in
40
There is no head above the head of a serpent; and there is no wrath
above the wrath of an enemy. I had rather dwell with a lion and a
dragon, than to keep house with a wicked woman. The wickedness of a
woman changeth her face, and darkeneth her countenance like sackcloth.
Her husband shall sit among his neighbours; and when he heareth it
shall sigh bitterly. All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a
woman: let the portion of a sinner fall upon her. As the climbing up a
sandy way is to the feet of the aged, so is a wife full of words to a
quiet man. Stumble not at the beauty of a woman and desire her not for
pleasure. A woman, if she maintain her husband, is full of anger,
impudence, and much reproach. A wicked woman abateth the courage,
maketh an heavy countenance and a wounded heart: a woman that will
not comfort her husband in distress maketh weak hands and feeble
knees. Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all
die. (Ecclesiasticus 25: 15-24)
Thus female nature is characterised by wickedness, anger, insubordination, assertiveness and a quick tongue. Analagous female
behaviour is highlighted in Der Ritter vom Turn, which repeatedly
stresses the need to control and punish women’s anger and impudence. Similarly, the work reflects the crucial restrictions on
women’s lives dictated by Saint Paul and echoed by Vincent de
Beauvais:
In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel,
with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or
pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let women learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,
but to be in silence. For Adam was the first formed, then Eve. And
Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the
transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they
continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
(Paul, Epistle to Timothy I, 9-15)
Biblical teaching had traditionally been reinforced by the writings
of Classical authors such as Ovid and Juvenal and of theologians
and Church fathers from Tertullian (c. 160-225) and St. Jerome (c.
the Middle Ages. Trans. Chaya Galai. London 1983; reprint London, New
York 1990.
41
342-420) onwards.17 It was also enshrined in law: according to the
Decretum (c.1140), the authoritative code of canon law compiled by
Gratian of Bologna, “Eve’s punishment barred all women from
exercising authority, teaching, serving as legal witnesses, or ruling
estates or countries” (Williams & Echols, p. 7) and women should
be subservient to men in all things (Bumke, p. 456). For scholastic
theologians of the thirteenth century like Thomas Aquinus, who
combined traditional Patristic teachings with Aristotelean theory,
woman was a defective product: girls were conceived only when
there was something wrong with either the man’s sperm or the
blood in the womb:
For the active power in the seed of the male tends to produce something
like itself, perfect in masculinity; but the procreation of a female is the
result either of the debility of the active power, of some unsuitability of
the material, or of some change effected by external influences, like the
south wind, for example, which is damp, as we are told by Aristotle. 18
Woman’s imperfection was thought to manifest itself in physical,
moral and intellectual inferiority. It also resulted in their being
more prey to temptations of the flesh. Thus in De Amore (c.1185),
his treatise on courtly love, Andreas Capellanus could write:
Again, every woman is by nature not only miserly but also an envious
backbiter of other women, a grabber, a slave to her belly, fickle, devious
in speech, disobedient, rebellious against prohibitions, marred with the
vice of pride, eager for vain-glory, a liar, a drunkard, a tongue-wagger
who cannot keep a secret. She indulges in sexual excess, is inclined to
every evil, and loves no man from the heart.19
17
18
19
The tradition of misogyny within the Church has been amply and accessibly
documented in works such as Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook. Ed. by Emilie Amt. New York, London 1993; Woman Defamed and
Woman Defended. An Anthology of Medieval Texts. Ed. by Alcuin Blamires.
Oxford 1992; and Marty Newman Williams and Anne Echols: Between Pit
and Pedestal. Women in the Middle Ages. Princeton, New Jersey 1994.
From the Summa Theologiae (1266-1272), part I, questio 92, article 1, as
quoted in Blamires (see fn. 17), p. 92.
Andreas Capellanus on Love. Trans. P.G. Walsh. London 1982, p. 309.
Admittedly, the reading of De Amore, especially Book 3, is bedevilled by
questions of irony and authorial intent. However, whether Andreas meant this
42
Given what base and frivolous creatures women are, is it surprising
that a father should worry about the probity of his daughters and
their ability to withstand temptation, especially if they are
approaching marriageable age?
It is within this framework of negative expectation and the
desirability of restriction on female lives that Der Ritter vom Turn
was initially compiled and then translated one hundred and twenty
years later. Marquard vom Stein’s preface to his translation
the
second frame introduces the German edition. Initially the preface
seems unrelated to the text since Marquard starts by arguing that
mankind’s natural state is activity:
Dann so fer der mensch anschowet den spiegel der heiligen geschrifft
Erlernet er im für alle tugenden vfgesetzt/ sin uebung vnnd arbeit guÊ ter
dingen/ vnd muessyg gon vermyden. Do er anfangs von der geschoepft der
hochsten wysheit vßgeschlossen/ das paradiß alda z uÊ gebuwen/ zuÊ
arbeiten/ vnd nit muessig zuÊ goende [...] Wiset ouch der natürlich meister
Aristoteles/ sprechende/ kein ding mu’ ssig ze sin erschaffen. (p. 85)
Deviation from this natural state
in other words, idleness
has
devastating consequences since it renders man vulnerable to Satan’s
wiles:
Bedüt vnnß der heilig sant Augustin/ der da sprichet/ Das trackheit guÊ ter
u’ bungen/ vnnd mu’ ssig gon/ der gro’ st infal sye zuÊ kranckheit der selen
vnnd des libs/ Wann der lystig tüfel jn allen anfechtungen vnnd widerwertikeiten/ so er menschlichem geschlecht ye bewysen hat/ cluÊ ger
vrsach nie gehabt/ den menschen an zuÊ fechten/ dann jn syner still ru’ w
vnd mu’ ssigung. (p. 86)
This vulnerability leads to “liblicher vergeilung” and “vngehüren
sünnden” (p. 86), devastating not just for the individual but for
mankind as a whole. In support of his view Marquard cites both
Classical and Christian authorities (Aristotle, Augustine, Roman
history and the Bible), attributing the destruction of mankind by the
Flood, the decline of the Roman Empire and Solomon’s apostasy to
idleness and self-indulgence (pp. 86-87). Thus the wish to avoid
passage seriously or not, it must reflect commonly held views on women for
any potential irony to be effective.
43
idleness himself and to keep his daughters occupied and thereby
virtuous has prompted Marquard’s own reading and translation of
the Livre. He aims, therefore, to furnish the means by which young
ladies may be diverted from sin, both by avoidance of leisure
through the actual activity of reading and by the learning of appropriate behaviour.20 Thus his daughters’ and our reading of Der
Ritter vom Turn takes place within and is determined by a clearly
constructed framework of industry and propriety, a framework
heavily reinforced by guilt for and fear of the moral and social
decline caused by individual in this context, particularly female
deviation from man’s natural state. More than a mere literary
device, Marquard’s preface already narrates to female readers
conduct becoming in their own lives.
By contrast, the Knight’s own preface appears initially to undermine this as it begins in a less sternly moral vein. Its setting is the
classic locus amoenus which transports the readers into the realm of
courtly love poetry and romance:
Als ich mit namen/ der Ritter vom thurn/ Eyns tags zuÊ vßgoendem
Aprillen/ mit etwas schwermuetikeit beladen/ Vnd für vffenthalt kurtzwyle/ vnnd ergoetzung jn eynen gartenn/ vnder eyns boums schattenn
20
It is known that women of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie were taught to read
in the Middle Ages. See Joan M. Ferrante: The Education of Women in the
Middle Ages in Theory, Fact and Fantasy. In: Beyond Their Sex. Learned
Women of the European Past. Ed. Patricia H. Labalme. New York, London
1980, pp. 9-42; or The Workings of a Woman’s Wit. Women’s Roles in
Learning and Literacy. In Williams & Echols (see fn. 17), pp. 213-221.
Indeed, the Knight himself actively encourages a limited education for women
for the “vnderrichtung jrs heiles zuÊ selen vnd zuÊ libe” (p. 183). He justifies it
thus: “Es sprechent aber vil lütt/ das sy nit wolten das jre wyber der geschrifft
gelert weren/ weder mitt schriben noch mitt lesen/ Es ist aber eyn vnwyßheit/
Dann es ist sonders guÊ t das frowen leßen koenden/ dann sy dar durch den
glouben vnnd das heyl jrer selen dest baß erkennen/ vnnd acht nemen moegen/
Vnnd vnder hunderten ist nitt eyne die dest arger oder boeßer sy” (p. 183). The
German translation is close to one version of the French original: “[...] et pour
ce que aucuns gens dient que ilz ne voudroient pas que leurs femmes ne leurs
filles sceussent bien de clergie ne d’escripture, je dy ainsi que, quant d’escripre, n’y a force que femme en saiche riens; mais, quant à lire, toute femme en
vault mieulx de le sçavoir, et cognoist mieulx la foy et les perils de l’ame et
son saulvement, et n’en est pas de cent une qui n’en vaille mieulz; car c’est
chose esprouvée” (Montaiglon [see fn. 2], p. 178).
44
gangen/ Da selbst sytzend was/ hort ich da von dem gefügel der galander trostlen vnd nachtgallenn/ Die sich gegen der zyt des sommers
froewen warent/ soellichen lieplichen vnnd suessen gesang/ Das mir die
selben jre froelichen stymen/ vnnd loblich sueß getoenen/ all myn vnmuÊ t
vnnd beschwerd hin namen [...]. (p. 88)21
The link to the older courtly tradition is reinforced by the Knight’s
memories of his youthful enslavement to the goddess Venus and in
particular of one beautiful, virtuous lady for whom he himself
composed love songs. The Knight’s self-stylization as courtly lover
both sets his work firmly into a courtly aristocratic context and
raises false expectations of it, since it is neither courtly lyric nor
romance but narrates a model of female behaviour far more limited
and subservient than that traditionally attributed to women within
either genre.
The sight of his naïve young daughters prompts the Knight to
reflect on the amorousness of men he knew in his own youth and
the frivolity with which they ruined women’s reputations:
Das ich die zuÊ manchen malen vmb frowen vnnd junckfrowen/ hette
sehen vnnd ho’ ren werben vnnd buÊ len/ Vnnd jnen were bo’ se oder guÊ te
antwurt worden/ werent sy doch jn so’ lliche gewonheit komen gewesen/
das sy sich jr beru’ mpten/ vnnd hatten des weder forcht noch scham/ Dar
durch dann manche frow vnnd junckfrow/ jetz mit vnschulden vnd dann
mit schulden/ ward belümbdet. (pp. 88-89)
These themes find their expression in the main body of the text.
Thus personal experience rather than biblical or Classical sources
constitutes the authority for the Knight’s view of human morality
and prompts him to collect stories about exemplary women, positive and negative, to serve as lessons to his own daughters:
21
In Montaiglon’s edition the French original reads: “L’an mil trois cens
soixante et onze, en un jardin estoye sous l’ombre, comme à l’issue d’avril,
tout morne at tout pensiz: mais un pou me resjouy du son et du chant que je
ouy de ces oysillons sauvaiges qui chantoyent en leurz langaiges, le merle, la
mauvis et la mesange, qui au printemps rendoient louanges, qui estoient gaiz
et envoisiez. Ce doulz chant me fit envoisier et mon cuer sy esjoir [...]”
(Montaiglon [see fn. 2], p. 1).
45
‘Daruß [from his book] vor byld vnd lere zuÊ nemen das guÊ t zuÊ gebruchen/ vnd sich vor dem argen zuÊ verhueten/ dann vil mannen gewonheit
ist/ eyn frow oder junckfrowen vnder ougen an lachen/ vnnd hynderwertz enteren vnd verspotten’. (p. 89)
These exempla are intended to educate them in the ways of the
world, to help them avoid the traps set by men in the name of love
and preserve their reputation. For the Knight it is not so much
leisure as flirtatiousness and the appeal of erotic love that are the
threat to women’s virtue.
A key issue is whether the Knight’s preface constitutes a different frame for our reading of the text to that established by Marquard and potentially qualifies our interpretation of it. To some extent it does. Marquard’s strictures on idleness and industry encompass both men and women and point to models of behaviour desirable in both. By citing examples from the Bible and Roman history
he imbues the actions of individuals with a significance much
broader than the narrowly social and contemporary. His preoccupation with the benefits of productive activity may reflect the concerns of the potential readership, namely the patriciate and merchants of Basel, a major centre of trade in the Late Middle Ages.
By contrast the Knight’s vision is more limited and rooted in the
aristocratic courtly tradition. In fact, his preface foreshadows the
debate on courtly love between himself and his wife and relates
more closely to the themes of the work itself. However, both men
are united in their didactic intent and their desire for their daughters
to internalize patterns of appropriate social behaviour which will
prevent them from shaming their fathers.22 A common overriding
22
Marquard vom Stein comments in his preface: “Dann wo sy [the two books
compiled by the Knight] die selben minen doechtern/ jn steter guÊ ter uebung vnd
zymlichem wesen hyeltenn/ Wer mir vß vatterlicher liebe besonder froed”
(p. 87). Similarly the Knight remarks: “Sonder in sag wyße stellen/ vnd dero
[books] zwey machen lassen/ das eyn mynen doechtern/ vnnd das ander mynen
sünen geben will/ Dann als ferr sy sich zuÊ guÊ tem/ zuÊ lob vnnd zuÊ eren
wurden schicken /Wer mir sondere froed/ Als ouch das eyn yeder getrüwer
vatter/ vß natürlichem jnfluß synen kynden schuldig vnnd pflichtig ist” (p. 89).
The French text runs as follows: “Et pour ce que tout père et mère selon Dieu
et nature doit enseignier ses enfans et les destourner de male voye et leur
monstrer le vray et droit chemin, tant pour le sauvement de l’ame et l’onneur
du corps terrien, ay-je fait deux livres, l’un pour mes filz et l’autre pour mes
46
concern is for a spotless reputation, essential for daughters, whether
aristocratic or patrician, to obtain a husband.
We shall now turn to the stories themselves and their relationship
to the framework of the prefaces. The Knight links the two by
addressing his daughters directly on his reasons for compiling the
work, namely that they may profit from his experience in the ways
of the world (p. 90). Above all he urges them to turn their thoughts
to God and, as the main manifestation of their devoutness, to pray
for the souls of the dead before going to bed. The benefits of such
piety are illustrated in the first story, in which the Emperor of
Constantinople’s daughter is saved from illicit sex, pregnancy,
disgrace and death by the souls of the dead she has prayed for, who
scare away her lover as he is about to enter her bed (pp. 91-92).
Her sister, less pious and thus less fortunate, becomes pregnant by
her nocturnal visitor. The Emperor orders her secretly drowned and
her lover flayed alive.23 This tale introduces a series on piety and
correct social behaviour illustrated by stories about women from all
walks of life. The middle section of Der Ritter vom Turn comprises
tales of wicked and good women from the Bible, starting with the
mother of all evil, Eve.24 Similar stories from chronicles and
legends lead into the debate on courtly love. The work concludes
with the story of Catonet, son of the Roman censor Cato, whose
life was endangered by his wife’s indiscretion.
The biblical women are the standard ones commonplace in
didactic texts as positive and negative rôle models for women. They
include the Virgin Mary; Susanna as the exemplary pious, chaste
wife; the Queen of Sheba as the epitome of female humility in her
request to a wise man for advice; Jezebel and the daughters of Lot
as examples of women whose wicked behaviour, frequently in the
form of unnatural sexual appetite, cause widespread evil and war.
These figures may have been so well known that they functioned as
23
24
filles [...]” (Montaiglon [see fn. 2], p. 4).
This is less far-fetched than it may seem: Diane Bornstein cites the example
of Marguerite and Blanche of Burgundy, daughters-in-law of Philip the Fair,
who were suspected of adultery because they had given purses made of cloth
of gold to two knights. The women were thrown into prison; the young
knights were flayed alive. See Diane Bornstein: The Lady in the Tower.
Medieval Courtesy Literature for Women. Hamden, Connecticut 1983, p. 120.
It is this section that is based on the Miroir des bonnes femmes.
47
a sort of moral shorthand.25 Saints such as Elizabeth of Hungary
(pp. 178-179) or Catherine of Alexandria (p. 183) also provide rôle
models, as do near-contemporary women such as Queen Jeanne of
France (pp. 204-205), singled out for her charity and good housekeeping!26 In addition one finds types: eine burgerin, eine grafin,
eine magd. The social spread
from queen to maidservant
may
indicate that female virtue and vice are found at all levels of society; that women should emulate virtue no matter how humble the
source; and that all women, regardless of social station, are vulnerable to temptation and must therefore be on their guard.
These figures are used to set up an implicit code of behaviour for
women; the Knight’s moralizing and exhortations to his daughters
to set up an explicit one. One overriding obsession is the desirability of chastity and marital fidelity, not surprising if one remembers
that an insatiable sexual appetite was one of women’s supposed
failings. Hence the stress on fasting, one way for women to curb
their sexual appetite and preserve their chastity: 27
DAr nach lieben doechtern/ So soellent jr gern vnd mit willen vasten/ so
vil vnnd üch müglich ist/ Sonders/ dwil vnnd jr nit vermahelt synd/ dry
tag zuÊ der wochen/ vff das jr üwer fleisch destbaß zuÊ guÊ tem ziehen
moegen/ das das nit zuÊ geil vnd vngestüm werde/ Sonder/ das reyn vnd
jn dem dienst gotz verhueten vnd regieren. (p. 95)
25
26
27
Von Moos makes a similar point when he calls biblical figures like Job and
King David “gewöhnliche biblische Tugendchiffren” (von Moos: Das argumentative Exemplum [see fn. 6], p. 59).
Probably Jeanne, daughter of the Count of Évreaux and third wife of Charles
IV of France, married in 1325, widowed in 1328, died in 1370. See Harvey:
Kommentar (see fn. 1), pp. 149-150.
Caroline Walker Bynum points out that in early Christian writing fasting was
urged as a means of purifying mind and heart and dampening sexual desire.
Although the attitude towards fasting of twelfth to fourteenth-century writers
such as Alan de Lille and Thomas Aquinus was less rigorous (they stressed
the need for moderation and personal devotion), one goal of fasting was still
the control of sexual appetite. See Caroline Walker Bynum: Holy Feast and
Holy Fast. The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley,
Los Angeles, London 1987, pp. 33-47. Walker Bynum also mentions that
“both Jerome and Cassian had taught that meat and wine excited sexual lust
and that gluttony was the source from which flowed other sins” (p. 82). This
is illustrated by the story of Lot’s daughters below.
48
The point is made repeatedly that indulgence in sensual pleasures of
one sort food and drink leads women to indulgence in sensual
pleasures of another sort
promiscuity. If women do transgress,
their sexuality is inevitably presented in a lurid light and as having
disastrous consequences. One example is the story of the married
woman who ran away with a monk: he is castrated and both are
drowned:
Ouch so wyssend von eym andern exempel eyner frowen die jren man
verließ/ vnnd mit eynem münich hyn weg lieff/ Die selbe wart durch jre
brueder so lang gesuechet byß das sy eyner nacht by dem selben münich
ligende funden wardt/ Also huewent sy dem münich synen mannlichen
gezüg ab/ vnnd wurffent den jrer schwester in jr antlitt/ Dar nach
stiessend sy sy beyd jn einen sack wol beladen mit steynen/ vnnd
ertrenckten sy jn eynem tieffen wasser/ vnnd verluren beyde also jr
leben. Darumb zuÊ mercken ist das eym boeßen leben gemeynlich eyn boeß
end vervolget/ Dann vnkuscheit eyn sünd ist die ye geoffnet/ vnd es sy
kurtz oder lang gestraffet werden muÊ ß. (p. 147)
Women’s sexuality can also be positively demonized, as in the
story of Lot’s daughters:
FVrbaß wil ich üch dann sagen von den zweyen döchternn lothen/ Wie
die mitt vnzymlicheit vnnd schnoeden gelusten/ von dem tüfel gegen jrem
vatter angefochten wurden/ dann als sy den nackent vnnd vnbedeckt
sahen syner schammen/ macheten sy in froelich vnnd truncken/ vnnd
legten sich zuÊ jm zuÊ yeder syten eyne/ der maß das er sy beyd beschlieff/ vnnd anders nit wonde/ dann das es andre frowen weren/ vnd
verfuÊ rten jn also mitt dem win/ dar vß ouch vil übels kam/ Dann
füllerey eyn sorgliche sünd ist/ Sy wurden ouch beyde schwanger
zweyer suenen. wurden geheyssen der eyn Moab vnnd der ander Amon/
Von den zweyen die heyden har komen synd/ vnd sunst vil übels. (p.
147)
In the Knight’s version the incest is quite clearly the work of the
Devil, but equally clearly Lot himself, however his behaviour may
have been judged in a different context, is excused all blame. It is
the women who lend themselves to the Devil’s work, are sexually
active and thereby actively responsible for much of the evil in the
world.
49
However, it is not enough for women to be good they have to
be seen to be good. Many tales in Der Ritter vom Turn stress the
importance of a spotless reputation. Almost inevitably the penalty
for acting inappropriately is either public humiliation or, worst of
all, the loss of a prospective husband. Inappropriate behaviour (as
seen in Vincent de Beauvais) includes talking and laughing too
much, flirting and allowing one’s gaze to roam. As illustration the
Knight relates the story of two daughters of the King of Denmark
who lose the chance of marriage to none other than the King of
England because of just such immodest behaviour:
Dann hie jm zyt nit vil bessers ist/ dann ein frow von guÊ tem wesen
wysen vnnd geberden/ Darumb so erwele ich mir die drytte dochter, die
jünger vnnd dhein ander/ vnd ließ vff das nach jr schicken/ des die zwo
andern grossen vertrieß/ vnd bemuegen hatten/ Vnd also die/ die der
besten wysen vnnd geberden was/ ward künigen zuÊ Engelland/ Das dann
die elter durch jr vnstete gesicht vnnd lychtmuetige geberd/ deßglich die
ander durch jr zuÊ vil vnd vnmuessiges reden verlueren. (p. 101)
Forwardness, or even simple self-confidence in social situations, is
an aspect of female behaviour the Knight finds hard to accept. He
is even moved to relate an anecdote from his own life, the narrow
escape from marriage with the girl chosen for him by his father.
The Knight rejected her because she “was on massen gesprech/
vnnd vil redens” and on leave-taking “so geheym/ als ob sy mich
all jr tag erkant/ wie wol sy mich vor nie mer gesehen hatt” (p.
102). He draws an explicit moral for his daughters:
Hierumb lieben doechtern/ so soellent edle vnnd wol erborne junckfrowenn/ eyns suessen demuetigen vesten wesens/ vnnd wandels syn/ mit
hofflicher vnd züchtiger antwurt/ Vnnd nit zuÊ vil offenbar noch lychtfertig/ mit jren gesichten vnd geberden/ Dann manche an jrer vermahelung/
dar durch verhyndert worden [...]. (p. 102)
“Züchtig” and “demuetig”: these attributes are emphasized time and
again. Unsurprisingly, given traditional prejudices, “courtesy” for
women consists in sweetness, subservience, moderation, good
manners, self-restraint, silence and chastity. Women must constantly
disprove the stereotypes to achieve social acceptibility:
50
DAr nach lieben doechtern/ So woellent züchtig vnd demuetig syn/ dann
dhein hüpscher tugent jn der welt ist/ gnad vnnd ere von den lüten zuÊ
überkommen/ dann demuetig vnnd züchtig ze syn [...]. Ist vil mer
gloeuplich/ das man der menschen/ wyben vnnd mannen huld/ mit
tugenden vnd demuetikeit aller bast moeg überkommen/ Tugent ist ouch
der weg vnd jngang aller weltlichen früntschafft vnd liebe/ darumb
tugentlich ze sin gar guÊ t ist. (p. 99)
Self-restraint and humility are the best ways of winning other
people’s favour, thereby ensuring one’s status and reputation within
society.
Thus Der Ritter vom Turn may have been intended to mould
women in line with traditional aristocratic male concerns. A roving
female eye may dent male pride by signifying lack of attention but,
more gravely, it may also denote inconstancy and be a sign, like the
fashionable clothes, make-up and fancy hairstyles the Knight rails
against, of a whorish character. 28 Female chastity and fidelity
within marriage were essential to ensure the legitimate inheritance
of territories through the paternal line. For similar reasons
the
preservation of property
widows are exhorted by the Knight not
to remarry according to their own wishes but only on the advice of
family and friends. One senses the Knight’s determination that his
daughters should not disgrace him by failing to be model wives to
28
Women’s fashion (an expression of pride) is singled out as one cause of the
Flood and associated with the Devil, especially the horned head-dresses
fashionable in the late-fourteenth century (See Harvey: Kommentar [see fn. 1],
pp. 58-59). The Knight includes a number of stories (pp. 138-146) about
women who wear luxurious clothes and make-up, behaviour which inevitably
ends in public humiliation, the loss of a prospective husband or the torments
of Hell after death: “Dar nach da sy soelliche pyn lang zyt hatt gelytten/ kam
erst eyn ander tüfel mit grossen langen vngestalten zenenn/ Der ergreiff sy by
jrem antlitt vnnd begund sy zerbyssen vnnd zerknütschen/ Nam ouch grosse
brennende ysen/ vnnd stieß jr die jn das antlitt” (p. 144). Here the woman is
punished for having worn make-up. For the social and symbolic importance of
women’s fashion and the association of flamboyance with prostitution see
Diane Owen Hughes: Regulating Women’s Fashion. In: A History of Women
in the West. Ed. Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot. Vol. 2: Silences in the
Middle Ages. Ed. Christiane Klapisch-Zuber. 2. Ed. Cambridge, Mass.,
London 1994, pp. 136-158.
51
their future husbands and that all women should take the ideal that
emerges from the text as a blueprint for their own lives.
Hence one thing to emerge very strongly is condemnation of
female anger, arrogance, quarrelsomeness and disobedience
in
other words, any attempt by women to assert themselves against
their husbands. Stories which deal with this type of behaviour
repeatedly show the woman being publically shamed or the victim
of casual and quite horrifying violence. Thus one woman who loses
her temper with her husband and returns to her father’s house is
gang-raped and dies of shame; the wife of a rope-maker who will
not stop her affair with a rich prior has both her legs broken by her
husband and is eventually killed by him when caught in the act (pp.
153-158); a women who does not heed her husband’s injunction to
stop creeping down to the kitchen for midnight snacks loses an eye
and as a result her husband’s affection. 29 Another woman answers
her husband back in public; he responds by kicking her in the face:
Dar durch der selb bürger zuÊ eynem mal so hart über sy ward erzürnet/
Vmb das sy jm soellichs offenlichen vor den lüten thet/ da er sich sin
groeslich schamen mueste/ über das er sy etwie dick hatt gebetten/ zuÊ
schwigen/ Das er sy mit eyner funst zuÊ der erden schluÊ g vnd hertencklichen trat mit den fuessen jn jr antlit Also das jr die nasen dar von gantz
entschickt wart/ vnnd all jr lebtag also beliben mueste/ Da jr doch vil
weger gewesen were/ das sy geschwygen vnnd jr stryten vermitten hette/
Dann gar byllich ist das der man den vorteil habe/ die sach syg recht
oder nit [...]. (pp. 108-109)
The German edition of 1493 is lavishly illustrated and at this very
spot in the text a woodcut depicts an irate man kicking his wife in
the face. Thus the verbal warning is underlined, here and throughout the text, by a very graphic reinforcement of the consequences
of disobedience and assertiveness on the woman’s part. Fear is the
ultimate weapon for ensuring men keep the upper hand.
The following question arises: how do the violent treatment of
women portrayed in the tales and the dire consequences of independent action on their part relate to the debate on courtly love and
29
We have seen above that gluttony (füllerey) was thought to lead to promiscuity. Midnight snacks are doubtless a warning sign, hence the disproportionate
punishment.
52
how does this debate affect our reading of these stories? Quite
simply, the debate reinforces their message by addressing the same
themes in a different literary form. Furthermore, our reading of the
tales leads us to view (courtly) love as a moral and physical danger
to women, much as it was presented in the Knight’s preface. In the
dialogue the Knight, contrary to what one might expect, advocates
flirtation and physical intimacy and rehearses some of the familiar
clichés about courtly love: that it lifts the spirits; that it educates
and improves not just the man but also the woman as each tries to
please the other. At first sight the Knight seems to be undermining
the very models of behaviour he has been inculcating in the stories:
WEr aber sach sprach der herr/ das er sy schlechtlich begerte zuÊ halsen
vnnd küssen/ solten sy das nitt thuÊ n/ dwil es nitt eyn groß ding ist/ vnnd
der wynd mer hyn weg weget. (p. 224)
However, this strategy cunningly puts the counter-arguments into
the mouth of his wife. Instead of a man (and father) warning,
exhorting and moralizing a woman (and mother) lends weight to his
views. She does so by drawing on her personal experience to voice
the objections to freer social interaction and greater female autonomy
above all in sexual and marital matters
that the stories
themselves illustrate. According to the Lady of the Tower men are
fickle and insincere and women, who stand to lose their reputation,
must be on their guard. Worse than loss of reputation, love for a
man makes a women neglect her devotion to God and thus endangers her soul. In a self-stylization similar to the Knight’s own, his
wife presents her youthful self as the model of public and private
female virtue:
HEr sprach die frow by mynen truwen jr glouben mir <nit> ob ich üch
wol die warheit deßhalb sagen/ Aber es ist war/ Jch hab wol etwan
funden lüt/ die mitt mir von soellichen dingen [love and its pains] geredt
haben/ Aber sy hetten ouch von mir jr antwurt vor den lüten vnnd nitt
heymlich/ Dann wann mir soellichs begegnet/ beruÊ fft ich yeman zuÊ vnnß
da mitt das ich jm syn red vnderschluÊ g. (pp. 222-223)
Thus in one sense the dialogue reprises themes
public reputation,
male lust
introduced in the Knight’s preface. In another it is
curiously disjunctive, since it presents women as the potentially
53
vulnerable victims of men’s wiles rather than the active participants
in and perpetrators of mischief they are portrayed as in many of the
stories.
Hence Der Ritter vom Turn narrates an ideal of female identity
and behaviour useful to the ruling male elite. First, it makes it clear
that women’s sphere is the private, limited one of the home, children and charity to neighbours as opposed to the public world of
chivalry, high office and trade that men inhabit.30 Second, the
model behaviour it propounds, a model devised and imposed by
men, effectively disempowers women. Any attempt at independence
or assertiveness places them firmly into the stereotype found in
Ecclesiasticus, Andreas Capellanus or Vincent de Beauvais and
opens the door to the threat of physical abuse. Third, it seeks to
enforce its model by overt blackmail: piety is rewarded by children;
lack of piety punished by the woman’s illness or the death of her
children. In other words, lack of piety deprives a woman of her
raison d’être and hence security within marriage, the main guarantor of her status and material well-being. Fourth, Der Ritter vom
Turn does more than spell out guidelines for women; it indicates to
men the type of behaviour they are entitled to expect from wives
and daughters and legitimate means of ensuring it, including violence. Fifth, it consciously sanctions double standards, since women
are admonished to suffer their husbands’ brutality and infidelity
sweetly and patiently, strengthened by the hope that forbearance on
their part might eventually prompt their husband to change his
ways. The Knight tells the story of his own cousin, whose patience
with her husband’s infidelity moves him eventually to give up his
mistresses:
Darnach vff eyn zyt sprach sy heymlich zuÊ jm da sy beducht es zyt
vnnd fuÊ glich were/ Herr ich weiß wol vmb üwere sachen/ die jr byß har
geuÊ bt haben/ jn der vnnd der gestalt/ Ist da üwer lust vnnd gefallen üch
30
Hence the stories of Sara, Rebecca and Jacob’s wife Lea, all rewarded by God
with children for their virtue and model behaviour towards their husbands (pp.
175-177). The Knight also cites Aragonne, Queen of France, who visited the
poor in gaol and raised poor orphan children, eventually retiring to a convent
to serve God better. God’s response was to work miracles through her
(p. 181). Aragonne is Radegundis, wife of the Frankish king Chlothar I. See
Harvey: Kommentar (see fn. 1), p. 115.
54
deß wyter zuÊ gebruchen/ Vnnd das jr üch deß ye nit massen moegen/ So
will ich darumb nit zürnen/ noch der glichen thuÊ n/ Dann vnwyße wer
ich/ myn houpt zuÊ kestigen üch zuÊ straffen/ wann es nit anders syn
moechte/ Aber ich will üch bytten das jr mich syn nit woellen lassen
engelten/ Noch üwern guÊ ten willen vnnd lieb dar durch von mir wenden/ Will ich mich deß überigen verzyhen/ vnnd mich nach üwerm gebott
vnnd gefallen halten/ Vnnd da er sy so gedultig horte/ hatt er ein grosse
bewegung jn mitliden gegen jr/ Begund sich jr gehorsamen/ vnd zuÊ letst
der dingen gantz ab thuÊ n/ das dann sy mit jr selbs straffen/ kestigen/
noch mit andern dingen nit zuÊ wegen bracht haben moecht/ Also so ist
dyß eyn guÊ te vnderrichtung das ein frow jren mann mit tugenden vnnd
gehorsamen/ von vnzymlichen dingen/ baß dann mit ruhe oder grobheit
ziehen mag. (p. 107)
Infidelity is not sanctioned by the Bible, so, sixth, the use of biblical and other exempla is deliberately selective, designed to keep
women in their place. Admittedly, mediæval men may also have
been prisoners of their own cultural and intellectual traditions but it
was a culture created by men which ensured their social and economic dominance and very few women indeed at that time had
access to the means to fight back.
How the text fits into the framework of real women’s lives is a
question too broad to be considered here. However, the type of
behaviour repeatedly condemned in Der Ritter vom Turn allows
certain conclusions. The fact that the need was felt to compile such
a work and translate it in a different context one hundred and
twenty years later suggests women, whether aristocratic or urban,
were subverting expectations of them, transgressing the restrictive
framework imposed by husbands and fathers and assuming for
themselves some freedom of action.
Let us turn now to the question of whether the work itself transgresses a frame, namely the didactic one constructed for it by
author and translator. Reinhard Hahn observes that German scholars
differ considerably in their assessment of Der Ritter vom Turn. In
his survey of reactions to the work in histories of German literature
he notes that it has been called “eine Übersetzung”; “ein Erzählwerk”; “eine exemplarische Historie”; “ein Beispiel schwankhafter
Anekdotenprosa”; “eine Sammlung von Erzählungen”; “eine
Novellensammlung”; “eine Mischung von Novelle und Roman”;
55
“eine Exempelsammlung”; “ein Ritterroman”; “ein Roman in der
Tradition des französischen höfischen Romans des 15. Jahrhunderts”.31 Some critics have even been moved to describe Der
Ritter vom Turn as “ein unanständiges, pikantes und schlüpfriges
Buch”.32 This difficulty in situating the work generically, due the
exemplum, hagiography,
variety of literary forms it contains
biblical story, legend, history, fairytale, dialogue, autobiography,
exhortation
suggests that the German version at least cannot be
forced into the straitjacket of a morally improving text. This suggestion is supported by Kreutzer’s observation that Marquard vom
Stein prunes the moral of many of the stories in the French original, thereby reducing their didactic content and heightening their
entertainment value.33 Indeed, the text to some extent subverts
itself. Its stories about adulterous, argumentative women show
female readers how to be bad. Women are shown transgressing and,
in some cases, almost getting away with it. Thus at one level Der
Ritter vom Turn constitutes a manual on how to misbehave, not
least since the morals to some stories are forced and arbitrary rather
than organic to the action.34 In addition
and this reading only
31
32
33
34
Reinhard Hahn: Marquards von Stein ‘Ritter vom Turn’ im Urteil der Literaturgeschichte. In: Mediävistische Literaturgeschichtsschreibung. Gustav Ehrismann zum Gedächtnis (Symposion Greifswald, 18.9.1991). Hrsg. von Rolf
Bräuer und Otfried Ehrismann. Göppingen 1992 (= Göppinger Arbeiten zur
Germanistik 572), pp. 249-262, here pp. 250-251. The italicization is Hahn’s.
Hahn cites Gustav Ehrismann, Wolfgang Stammler and Johan Huizinga as
being of this opinion (Hahn [see fn. 31], p. 250). The same view is expressed
by Rosemary Barton Tobin, who comments on the work’s “quite lax morality”, which “borders often on the risqué” (Barton Tobin [see fn. 13], p. 30).
Verfasserlexikon (see fn. 3), Bd. 6, Sp. 132.
One such is the story of the rope-maker and his wife cited above (pp. 153-58),
which is based on a fabliau called les braies au cordelier. In the Ritter vom
Turn version the wife enlists the help of a procuress. The latter twice tricks
the husband into believing his suspicions about his wife are unfounded, with
the result that the wife continues to receive nocturnal visits from the prior.
The typical fabliau would end here, with the wife retaining the freedom of
action which paradoxically restores marital and social order as it enables the
marriage to be outwardly preserved. The punishment and death of the wife sit
uneasily on the story. For female complicity in the fabliau or Schwank, the
relationship of this genre to the carnival tradition and the function of literature
as a restorer of social order see Alison Jane Williams: Tricksters and Pranksters in Medieval and Renaissance French and German Literature (Unpublis-
56
partially contradicts what has been argued thus far the text could,
like the controlled and ritualized carnival celebrations at Lent, have
been intended to provide a safe outlet for any potentially disruptives
urges on the part of wives and daughters, a permissable because
(textually) contained degree of sexual titillation and mischief.35
Female readers may even have usurped that function for themselves, exploding the interpretative frame imposed on their reading
by the two prefaces. 36
By rendering Der Ritter vom Turn less didactic Marquard vom
Stein may inadvertantly have undermined his stated purpose and
moved his translation closer to the popular prose literature which
emerged as a genre in the late-fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries
and initally constituted reworkings of courtly romances such as
Tristan or translations of stories from the Decameron and similar
texts. It can be no coincidence that the second and third editions of
Der Ritter vom Turn were published in 1495 (by Hans Schauer) and
1498 (by Johann Schönsperger) in Augsburg, a centre of the early
publishing industry in Germany and especially of popular prose
35
36
hed doctoral thesis). University of Bristol 1998, pp. 27-54. For discussion of a
similar historical case which came before the Zürich Ratsgericht in 1431, see
Susanna Burghartz: Ehebruch und eheherrliche Gewalt. Literarische und
außerliterarische Bezüge im ‘Ritter vom Turn’. In: Ordnung und Lust. Bilder
von Liebe, Ehe und Sexualität in Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit. Hrsg. von
Hans-Jürgen Bachorski. Trier 1991 (= Literatur
Imagination
Realität 1),
pp. 123-140.
A distinctly odd tale lends weight to this interpretation. A sheriff’s wife is
enjoined to treat a hermit in the same way she would her husband, absent on
judicial business (pp. 225-229). She wines and dines the hermit, then invites
him into her bed and twice arouses him sexually, only to make him plunge
into a tub of ice-cold water before the critical point is reached, thereby
cooling his ardour and preventing full intercourse. The tale purports to
represent an ideal of marital chastity (ensured by the mediaeval equivalent of
a cold shower; the sheriff and his wife have intercourse only once a week);
however, it does narrate a woman actively
and safely
initiating and
controlling adulterous sex.
Arguably Der Ritter vom Turn might have titillated male readers too through
its stories of male violence towards women and unpunished male adultery, as
well as through its woodcuts depicting half-naked women in bed (the tale of a
woman too fond of her lap dogs, pp. 111-112) or in the bath (the story of
Bathsheba, pp. 171-172).
57
literature.37 The number of genres encompassed by the work do
ensure varied and entertaining reading, especially as a few of the
stories are in themselves quite humorous. While no courtly romance, the work does contain tales of knights and queens, tournaments, jousting and perils overcome. The brevity and autonomy of
the individual stories make Der Ritter vom Turn, like the Narrenschiff38 and Til Eulenspiegel, easy to dip into. The reader easily
forgets the work is intended to teach practical social and moral
lessons until the Knight’s exhortations remind her.
After six further editions39 in 1587 Der Ritter vom Turn was
included by the leading Frankfurt publisher, Sigmund Feyerabend,
in his compendium Buch der Liebe. This collection of successful
and popular stories about love, dedicated to Hedwig, Landgravine
of Hessen, 40 also includes Kaiser Octavianus, Tristan, Melusine,
Von der schönen Magelona, Herpin, Wigoleis vom Rade and Florio
und Biancefora.41 In his preface Feyerabend betrays an unease
37
38
39
40
41
For example, Appollonius von Tyrus and Griseldis were published in Augsburg by Günther Zainer in 1471; Alexander by Johann Bämler in 1472;
Euriolus und Lucretia in 1473; Melusine by Johann Bämler in 1474; Tristan
und Isolde by Anton Sorg in 1484; and Wigalois by Hans Schönsperger in
1493. For a fuller account see Paul Heitz and Fr. Ritter: Versuch einer
Zusammenstellung der deutschen Volksbücher des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts
nebst deren späteren Ausgaben und Literatur. Straßburg 1924 and Bodo Gotzkowsky: ‘Volksbücher’. Prosaromane, Renaissancenovellen, Versdichtungen
und Schwankbücher. Bibliographie der deutschen Drucke. Tl. 1: Drucke des
15. und 16. Jahrhunderts. Baden-Baden 1991 (= Bibliotheca Bibliographica
Aureliana 125).
Also first published in Basel by Johann Bergmann von Olpe in 1494.
In 1513 (Basel: Michael Furter), 1519 (Straßburg: Johannes Knoblouch), 1538
(Straßburg: Jacob Cammerlander), 1560 (Frankfurt am Main: David Zöpfel),
1564 (Frankfurt am Main: Hans Lechler for Sigmund Feyerabend and Simon
Hütter) and 1572 (Frankfurt am Main: Martin Lechler for Sigmund Feyerabend). The revised 1538 edition is the basis of all subsequent versions of the
text.
She was née Duchess of Württemberg and Teck and “Gräfin of Mompelgart”.
Marquard vom Stein, as we have seen, was a member of an old Swabian
aristocratic family and became Landvogt of Mömpelgart in 1460. Could the
territorial connexion have prompted the dedication?
They are amongst the earliest published prose novels and novella in Germany,
some first published in Augsburg. As well as Heitz and Ritter see Xenja von
Ertzdorff: Romane und Novellen des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland.
58
concerning the contents and possible reception of the volume which
foreshadows the misgivings of later scholars:
Zu dem zweiffels frey viel Neyder und heimtückische Mißgönner sich
finden/ die solch mein wolgemeintes vorhaben zum ärgsten außlegen/
und so viel müglich/ dise Bücher/ als die fast von anders nichts denn
Lieb und Bulschafften handeln/ und also den Leser/ bevorab die zarte
Jugendt zu wollüsten und leichtfertigkeiten verführen und anbringen/
bey andern verschreyt zu machen nicht feyren werden. 42
He is obviously aware the compendium could, on one level, be read
in the same subversive way as the first German version of Der
Ritter vom Turn, namely as narrating immoral and disruptive
behaviour which in its turn provides models which women can
appropriate for their own ends. Thus the title page already attempts
to counteract such a reading: it advertises the Buch der Liebe as
“fast nuetzlich vnd vortraeglich”, as a collection of “Historien Allerley Alten
vnd newen Exempel/ darauß mennig= lich zu
vernemmen/ beyde was recht ehrliche/ dargegen auch was
vnordentliche Bulerische Lieb sey”. Similarly the preface itself
argues that the works in the collection were written with a didactic
purpose:
Als haben die hochverstendigen der Natur und Menschlicher Affecten
wol erfahrne alte Lehrer/ damit sie nicht allein die Liebsüchtigen/
sondern auch jedermenniglich/ bevorab das Junge Volck etlicher massen
von lastern und untugend abziehen/ zur Tugendt aber und Ehrbarkeit
allgemach und mit gelimpff bringen und anhalten möchten/ einen andern
weg erfunden/ und solch ire lehren Exempels weiß in schöne Historien
und gedicht verfasset [...]. (p. 252)
In other words, the Buch der Liebe is presented in the same way as
Der Ritter vom Turn: as a collection of exempla of virtue to be
emulated and vice to be shunned. It is meant to function as a latterday courtesy text and the choice of a female dedicatee, Hedwig,
42
Darmstadt 1989.
The preface is quoted from the transcription in Thomas Veitschegger: Das
‘Buch der Liebe’ (1587). Ein Beitrag zur Buch- und Verlagsgeschichte des 16.
Jahrhunderts. Mit einem bibliographischen Anhang (1991), pp. 248-258, here
pp. 248-249. Further page references will be given in the text.
59
Landgravine of Hessen, suggests the models of correct behaviour it
establishes are intended primarily for the guidance and instruction
of young women.43 However, the choice of a high-placed aristocratic female patron, whom the publisher would not wish to offend,
may also suggest that works such as Der Ritter vom Turn, Tristan,
Melusine, Wigoleis vom Rade and so forth were sanctioned as
appropriate, even harmless reading for young women. Such endorsement opens the way to a third level on which Der Ritter vom
Turn may be understood in a late sixteenth-century context. The
title page, for all its caution, also stresses the “seltzamen Abenthewren/ vnd
grosser Leibs vnd Lebens gefahr” experienced by the
protagonists of the tales: in other words, the entertainment afforded
by adventure stories with dashing heroes. Furthermore, the compendium is “Allen hohen Standts personen/ Ehrliebenden vom Adel/
zuechtigen Frauwen vnd Jungfrauwen/
Auch jederman in gemein
so wol zu lesen lieblich vnd kurtzweilig”. This suggests that one
hundred years after the German version was first published Der
Ritter vom Turn has burst the frame of didacticism and become
primarily “a good read”.
43
Though Feyerabend is much too canny a publisher to limit his readership
solely to them. He insists the stories contain “unzehlich viel schönen lehren
von aller art Tugendten” of use in “gemeiner Politischer Gesellschafft”,
“Hofleben”, “Ritterschafft”, “Kriegssachen” and “sonst in der Welt und
Frembden Landen Ehr und Preiß zuerlangen” (p. 253).