PERIPATETICUS PALATINUS (24)


Abelard wrote also seven Planctus, laments, on various Biblical subjects.
One is the lament of Dinah, daughter of Jacob.  We read in the book of
Genesis how one Shechem slept with the Dinah, daughter of Jacob, and defiled
her.  It does not say that Dinah was unwilling.  Shechem fell in love with
Dinah and asked to marry her.  The sons of Jacob, Dinah's brothers, went
along with the idea in order to catch Shechem off guard.  They agreed,
provided that Shechem and all his household agreed to be circumcised.  While
they were all smarting from the pain in their private parts, Simeon and Levi
killed them all.  The book of Genesis says nothing more about Dinah, but
Abelard puts into her mouth a lament for her lost lover, treacherously put
to death by her kinsmen.  Any resemblance to anyone still living was no
doubt far from coincidental.  

Another planctus is for the daughter of Jephthah, judge of Israel.  He vowed
that if God would deliver the Ammonites into his hands, he would sacrifice
whoever came out to meet him when he returned home.  This turned out to be
his only daughter.  She willingly accepted her fate, since her father had
made a vow.  Abelard's planctus laments the loss of a young girl through a
vow, an ill-advised vow, a stupid vow, but one which having been made could
not be revoked.  [I discuss this planctus at some length in my article,
"This Body of Death:  Abelard, Heloise and the Religious Life" in "Medieval
Theology and the Natural Body" edd. Peter Biller and A.J. Minnis, York
Medieval Press 1997]

Another planctus is for Samson.  As Samson slept, apparently secure, someone
had slipped in and cut off . . . his hair.  A slight parallel there, no
doubt.  Another is for Jonathan, the friend of David.  O, he says, that we
had died together and been buried in the same tomb!  What, we might ask, was
Jonathan to Abelard, that he should weep for him?

Heloise did bury Abelard, as he requested, in her convent at the Paraclete.
They were buried side by side, though not actually in the same tomb.  This
did not prevent a legend from springing up - and it is recorded as early as
the thirteenth century - that when Abelard's tomb was opened to receive
Heloise, he opened his arms to embrace her body.  The bodies were moved
several times, and now repose together in the Père Lachaise cemetery in
Paris, where people to this day place flowers on their grave.

And so ends this little presentation on Peripateticus Palatinus.  

* * * * *

"Now rests the wearied sage his blunted quill" - Oriens.




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