Although Ab wrote these works for the nuns of the
Paraclete, Marenbon and/or Ab does not seem to make
the connection Ms. Cook asks about.
What strikes me in books on Ab that I have read is how
tentative and careful the author is in drawing
conclusions or making statements of fact about a man
writing in a period during which absolutely everyone
who put pen to parchment/paper had an agenda.
I am now interested in reading an article by Constant
Mews in _Studia Monastica_ entitled "La bibliothèque
du Paraclet du XIIIe siècle à la Révolution," 27
(1985), specifically with regard to Ab's and Hel's
epitaphs. Dare I hope it's on line somewhere? Thanks
for any hints.
MG
--- "B.M.COOK" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Any comment by the author (Marenbon) or any
> awareness by P.A. of any
> parallel between the fate of Jephthah's daughter and
> the fate of Heloise
> condemned to be a nun because of a vow Abelard made
> / was wanting to make ?
> Or any similarities between Heloise's reported
> demeanour and that attributed
> to J's D ? Given that there are deliberate parallels
> between a marriage and
> the taking of the veil.
>
> Brenda M.C.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Marjorie Greene" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, January 12, 2001 8:45 PM
> Subject: Re: Abelard/Jephthah's daughter
>
>
> > John Marenbon. _The Philosophy of Peter Abelard_.
> > Cambridge UP, 1999.
> >
> > p. 80 [re Ab's little book of hymns and
> sequences done at Hel's request]
> "Sometimes Ab uses and reshapes an extra-biblical
> tradition - for instance,
> in his presentation of Jephtha's [sic] daughter's
> sacrifice." p. 275 "The
> story of Jephtha, who must sacrifice his daughter if
> he is to keep an oath
> made to God, is a case in point; but here Ab just
> blames Jephtha for making
> the original promise." p. 319-20. "At least in the
> _Planctus_ for Samson
> and J's d [please forgive the abbreviation], the
> events they commemorate
> are at once lamentable disasters and, in some sense,
> victories...for J's
> d...when by accepting execution she at once enables
> her father to fulfil his
> hasty vow...and shows an exemplary calm and
> constancy in the face of death.
> Ab talks of J's d elsewhere, in the _Hymnarius
> Paraclitensis_ and in his
> Letter 7. In both places J'd d is presented as an
> heroic
> woman....She...accepted death...encouraging rather
> than fearing it....[Ab
> asks one to consider how she would have borne up had
> she been a Christian
> asked to deny Christ or die. This argument is also
> applied to the pagan
> Diogenes.] Ab presents the girl's death in terms of
> a marriage ceremony - an
> idea he took from a first-century work called the
> _Liber antiquitatum
> biblicarum_." Marenbon then discusses the ambiguous
> tone of Ab's poem. "It
> is hard to be sure of the tone of the remark, but
> the girl's words and
> manner until now would suggest one of haughty
> sarcasm. If so, the comment
> would bring to its climax a contrast which Ab has
> developed throughout the
> poem, between the calm resolution of the
> victim...and...the horror of her
> situation, underlined by the mock wedding ceremony,
> and the folly which lies
> behind this unnecessary execution of an innocent,
> openly berated in the
> final verse."
> >
> > Hope this helps.
> > MG
> >
> >
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