Deasr Susan,
I tried twicwe to send you the following message. I hope it will be OK,
this time:
Susan,
To Denis'palinodies and theatre Jews, I should add one, which sounds rather
as an exception in french medieval plays: a sympathetic Jew!
You can find him in a "Miracle de saint Nicolas et d'ung JUif qui presta
cent escus a ung Chrestien". It has been edited first by Trepperel in the
XVIth century, and by Jodogne (Geneve, Droz, 1982).
This anonymous play was written in the late XVth Century. The Jew (an
usurer, but a kind one) has lent money to a (wicked) christian, saint
Nicolas beeing the christian's pledge. But the christian's aim is only to
keep this borrowed sum, and never to repay it. He is even laughing with
his wife at the Jew's stupid trust in st Nicolas. Eventually the Jew was
right, and, after having saved the christian's soul (that wicked man died
in an accident but recovered life due to the Jew's prayers, thanks to saint
Nicolas'intervention) he asked for being baptized.
The story comes from the *Legenda aurea*, but with a lot of peculiarities
that link it to Rene II de Lorraine, the grandson of Roi Rene d'Anjou (I
think it has been written by Jehan du Prier).
Cheers,
Marie-Claude
As for the absence of Jews in Frnace, I wonder what's your definition of
France in the late M-A.
In the 15th century, in Provence county (which depended of the kingdom of
Naples), there WERE Jews. And they often "offered" money to king Rene
d'Anjou, one could presume it was to buy the right of living there.... In
Lorraine, too, in the early 16th. there were some jew, not a large number,
because that duchy was not very important. And it not belong to France
either.
Marie-Claude
Universite de Montreal
e-mail [log in to unmask]
Marie-Claude Deprez-Masson
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