The Problematic Nature of Courtesy in Middle English Literature:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

by

 Yvonne Hewer

Table of Contents

1 Introductory Remarks  4

1.1 Courtesy books  4
1.2 Amour Courtois  5

2 Literary History, Form and Content of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  7

3 The Temptation Scenes and the Problematic Nature of Courtesy  10

3.1 The Epitome of Courtesy  10
3.2 Arthur’s Court  11

3.2.1 Feasting at Came lot  11
3.2.2 The Green Knight’s Appearance  12

3.3 Bercilak’s Court  15

3.3.1 Gawain’s Arrival at Hautdesert  15
3.3.2 The Temptation Scenes  18
3.3.3 The Green Chapel  24

4 Conclusion  26

5 Works Cited  28

1 Introductory Remarks

Ever since people felt the necessity to practice some forms of self-control and mutual help among the members of its society, ever since forms of decorum and comeliness became important for their daily social contact, forms of courtesy arose and greatly influenced its feudal society. ¹ The following assignment will examine the much-celebrated Middle English epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (SGGK) in view of its problematic nature of courtesy. But, before showing how the same courtesy Gawain was renown for finally turned against him, I will shortly expound the tradition of courtesy books and courtesy poems, in which SGGK is deeply rooted.

1.1 Courtesy books

Courtesy books first blossomed in Latin in the twelfth century - English examples might not have emerged much before the fifteenth century - and were considered as an essential part of a continuing education in the skills and disciplines of life.² For one thing, courtesy books contained a medley of precepts regulating the outward appearance and the outward behaviour, and thus centred on personal cleanliness, clothing, demeanour, speech, conduct in church, greetings, travelling, the treatment of guests and the behaviour at court. It seems noteworthy, however, that special emphasis was laid on rules on table etiquette, owing to the fact that meals were generally considered to be the most important element in social life. On the other hand, courtesy books described the physical, mental and moral qualities of the ideal gentleman or lady and showed how these qualities could be acquired. They, thus, set forth a code of conduct or etiquette that was cons idered suitable for a particular group of persons, identified by age, sex, occupation and social class,³ and were popular with anyone who wished to adapt to the standards of contemporary public life. This was especially important because, as Nicholls points out, public display was often of much more worth than private excellence.⁴ After all, the addressees of courtesy books were not only gentlemen and ladies of the aristocracy, but on an even larger scale children, pages and other household officials, for this group was thought to need the most instruction. ⁵ The number and variety of manuscripts still surviving and the knowledge that courtesy was taught and practised in the courts, monasteries, and schools alike indicate that the ideals of social behaviour were held in high esteem. ⁶ Rules of etiquette were, furthermore, a sure means of marking the aristocracy as a separate class that has rightly earned its powerful position, and as such became more and more elaborated and artificial in the later Middle Ages.⁷

1.2 Amour Courtois

Courtesy soon also came to be a feature of much popular literature, an essential characteristic of which was the armour courtois. Defined by the MED as ‘the complex of courtly ideals; chivalry, […] courtly love, benevolence, kindness, cheerfulness’,⁸ the idea of armour courtois presented the medieval society with a completely new concept of love, which was the central motive for chivalric actions. Ideas and feelings of this new discovery of romantic love were expressed in imaginative literature in a way that courtly romance became the characteristic mode of popular literature.⁹ “Courtly love” followed certain idealized rules, at the heart of which there was a knight who felt obliged to heroic deeds for his usually unreachable loved one, while being in her service became his uppermost ethic norm. Basing on the disastrous coexistence of erotic desire and spiritual aspiration, “courtly love”

bore a certain paradox, more especially as the social and literary conventions demanded ideals of courtesy from men who were educated as warriors. A consequence of the interest in the ideals of courtliness was a concern on the part of many people to act in accordance with these new patterns of behaviour. This anxiety led to the desire of having exemplary models to follow, and many romances supplied part of this want in their descriptions of the hero.¹⁰

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1 Cf. D.S. Brewer. “Courtesy and the Gawain -poet”, in: Patterns of Love and Courtesy. Essays in Memory of C.S. Lewis. Ed. by John Lawler. London, 1966, 54.

2 Cf. Jonathan Nicholls. The Matter of Courtesy. Medieval Courtesy Books and the Gawain-Poet. Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1985, 2.

3 Cf. Diane Bornstein. „Courtesy Books“, in: Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Vol. 3. New York, 1989, 660, 665.

4 Nicholls 138.

5 Cf. Bornstein 661.

6 Cf. Nicholls 2-3.

7 Cf. Bornstein 666.

8 Cf. Nicholls 7.

9 Cf. Ibid. 50.

10 Cf. Ibid.