The problematic nature of courtesy in Middle English literature

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

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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 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.

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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” 4 Nicholls 138.

5 Cf. Bornstein 661.

6 Cf. Nicholls 2-3.

7 Cf. Bornstein 666.

8 Cf. Nicholls 7.

9 Cf. Ibid. 50.

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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 The great advantage of chivalric romances over more impersonalised courtesy books was obviously the fact that it was much easier for a medieval reader to identify himself with the hero of a romance, more especially when this hero showed traces of human weakness and had to master situations well known for an aristocratic audience. The hero’s conduct was always meant to be worthy of imitation as each of the virtuous qualities that he displayed were typical of the courtesy books’ ideals of gentility. Because romances invariably dealt with the deeds of noble men and women, they could readily function as patterns of desirable behaviour, although not all of them were entirely didactic by intention. 11 Though courtesy books were not the primary source material for SGGK, 12 they are nevertheless indicative of what a reasonably well-educated readership may have understood as the normal standards of social politeness and etiquette. In this poem, we are made aware of the restrictions of courtesy and its ambiguity of interpretation. Yet, although tempered by the knowledge of the impossibility of perfection in any man, Gawain’s story celebrates the positive side of courtesy and can be seen as an optimistic poem about the possibilities for the ideal values of court life in the Middle Ages.

10 Cf. Ibid.

11 Cf. Ibid. 54.

12 Cf. Ibid. 77.

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2 Literary History, Form and Content of Sir Gawain

and the Green Knight

SGGK is one of the few Middle English poems that has not slopped into the obscurity to which the passing of centuries and changes in taste and language have condemned most medieval literature. Many critics still regard it as the most sophisticated English romance that still survives, 13 and yet, we know neither the author’s name nor the dates. Owing to its language and content, SGGK is usually assigned to the period between 1360 and 1400, while the single handwritten manuscript that still survives must have been written around 1400. Besides SGGK, the manuscript contains three other poems, Purity, Pearl and Patience, displaying the same handwriting, the same dialect, and many stylistic, metrical and thematic similarities. 14 Therefore, many critics believe the four poems to be written by one author, the so-called Gawain-poet.

SGGK is both a chivalric romance and an alliterative poem. Developed in twelfth-century France, chivalric romances soon spread to the literatures of other countries, usually representing a courtly and chivalric age of highly developed manners and civility. 15 Stressing the chivalric ideals of courage, loyalty, honour, mercifulness and elaborate manners, its standard plot evolves around a quest undertaken by a single knight, often in order to gain a lady’s favour, and the ideal of courtly love. The Gawain-poet writes elaborated on the connection between his narrative and the romance tradition in his ‘prologue’ (SGGK 1-36), where he tells his audience that his tale is part of the history of Britain, and one of the marvels of Arthur and his court. Due to the ‘prologue’, SGGK is given a sober authority of a historical fact. The developing Arthurian romances can be divided into three classes of subjects. The first class contains stories especially centring on King Arthur and his court, i.e. his accession to the throne, his marriage to Guinevere and his final battle 13 Cf. Larry D. Benson. Art and Tradition in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New Brunswick, N.J., 1965, viii.

14 Cf. Denton Fox. “Introduction”, in: Twentieth Century Interpretations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Ed. By Denton Fox. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 5-6.

15 Cf. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Ed. by M.H. Abrams. 7 th ed. by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. New York (et al.), 1999, 35.

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and death. The second class, popular from around 1350 onwards, deals with romances evolving around the story of Joseph of Arimathea and the early Grail history, while finally several English works emerged that c ould be labelled biographical romances, the main concern of which were the knights of the round table, more especially Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain. 16 Some of these romances that developed around the pseudohistorical British King Arthur had a religious instead of a purely secular content, a phenomenon that can also be observed in SGGK, as Sir Gawain’s behaviour is often motivated by Christian moral values and motifs. Apart from being a chivalric romance, SGGK also belongs to the genre of metrical romances, as it is written in verse. The poem consists of four chapters in 2,530 lines of verse with a varying number of an alliterative tetrameter in long lines and a short end rhyming final section. This final section is composed of a monometer short line, called “bob”, and four trimeter lines, called “wheel”, which are connected to the “bob” through their end rhyme. The “wheels” are used by the author to narrate in an abridged version and from a greater distance than in the long lines what has just happened or is go ing to happen. The Gawain-poet thus belongs to the native alliterative tradition or “Alliterative Revival”, a movement that arose approximately around 1350, mostly in western or northern England, or in Scotland. An essential feature of the “Alliterative Re vival” was a strengthened awareness for tradition and nationality that turned against the political and cultural foreign infiltration of England by the Normans. In trying to establish English as a respectable language, the “Alliterative Revival” contained, for instance, numerous archaisms and a predilection for Anglo-Saxon vocabulary. 17 The Gawain-poet, moreover, resorted to elevated poetic diction which goes back to Old English verse. This style, by some critics called “aristocratic”, 18 was obviously intended for a sophisticated audience, the aristocracy, as its complexity was far removed from the language of common speech. The movement was mainly supported by culturally interested princes who sought to extend their courts to cultural centres of the society. 19 It has been suggested that the Gawain-poet may have lived at one of these courts, a thesis corroborated by his

16 Cf. Robert W. Ackermann. „Arthurian Literature“, in: Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Vol. 3. New York, 1989, 574.

17 Cf. Fox 2.

18 Cf. Ibid. 4.

19 Cf. Ibid. 5.