At 16:35 11/06/98 +0800, you wrote:
>Re Madeleine Gray's question about courtly literature inviting nuns to
>break vows. There is a medieval French lyric complaint in which the persona
>is a young nun lamenting that she's been put into the convent at an when
>she should be experiencing love. I'm pretty sure it's in Volume I of the
>Penguin Book of French Verse, edited by Brian Woledge. The language, as I
>remember, is like one form of courtly lyric: 'joliete', 'plaisante', etc,
>but I don't know the provenance. Perhaps there were others of these?
>
>It isn't exactly what Maddy is looking for, but a not entirely dissimilar
situation is that of Heloise, who became a nun against her will, when she
would have preferred to enjoy the love of Abelard. Abelard's hymns and
especially his planctus in no way encourage Heloise to leave the cloister,
but are fascinating as (among many other things) exploring an acceptable
way of expressing his love to Heloise. Maddy, even if they're not what
you need, do have a read of them - they are some to the finest poems of the
Middle Ages.
Bill.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|