THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE

ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE : CONTENT & TITLE

•Chaucer’s, The Romaunt of The Rose is a partial translation of the French allegory the Roman de la rose which was written by a young poet, Guillaume de Lorris.

•There are three fragments of the translation but is believed to be the work of three different authors. Fragment A is what most scholars argue to be the most Chaucerian in style.

•Chaucer’s other works are also heavily influenced by this poem such as The Book of the Duchess, The Parliament of the Fowls, The prologue to The Legend of Good Women, and even the famous opening sentence of the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales.

•This allegory provides a psychological analysis of the experience of love from the lover’s and from the lady’s points of view.

•The rose is commonly know to be the perfect symbol of love and beauty. It has also been known to represent a woman’s virginity and or a female’s genitalia.

•The story begins with the narrator describing his dream. His dream takes place in the month of May which is in Spring.

CONTENT CONTINUED…•He dreams that he is walking along a river and comes to a garden that is enclosed by high walls. There are ten different portraits of women that he describes in full to be unfavorable in sight. He then comes to a door that is answered by a beautiful woman. This beautiful woman allows him to enter this garden in which he refers to as the paradys erthly. He describes it to be beautiful and seems to be most dazzled or roused by the singing birds (ll. 720). While inside he meets Sir Mirth, beautiful damsels, bachelors, and the God of love. One of the bachelors named swete lokyng carried ten different arrows. During his exploit he is shot by one the arrows. He runs through the garden by many different trees followed by the God of love and then finally comes to a stop by a well in which there was a stone nearby that read “ Here starf the fayre Narcissus.” Although the dreamer is aware of the story of Narcissus he still looks into the well which is like a mirror and shows him his reflection. This well was knows as the Well of Love. Not realizing the strength of the mirror/well, it trapped him as it did Narcissus. In the well he saw an enclosed rosebush. The roses smelled so sweet that it lured him to want to pull one. ( To be continued…)

ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE: FORM

•The original was written in octosyllabic couplets but when Chaucer translated it, he changed the form.

•Chaucer decided to use a couplet of 8 syllables with four beats, which was the most common in Middle English.

•It is not written in prose because the poem has meter and a rhyme scheme.

DATES & RELEVANCE

This version of The Romaunt of the Rose first printed in William Thynne’s 1532 edition and credited to Chaucer.

There’s no proof that this work is Chaucer’s. Scholar’s accept Fragment A as Chaucer’s because it is written in Chaucerian style and language. Fragment B is definately not Chaucer’s. Fragment C is written in Chaucerian language and manner but is rejected by most scholar’s.

It is likely that Chaucer would have translated this work because in 1237 Guillame de Lorris began The Roman. He was a great poet and lover which highly influenced Chaucer.

This translation was produced in a time where “the love vision” became the dominant genre of courtly verse narrative.

In Chaucer’s time there was also a great critical debate over meaning and value of the work raged in Parisian literary circles.

WHAT WORK DOES IT TRANSLATE Two men responsible for existing translation into Middle English 200 MSS of the original French Poem composed by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de

Meun in the 13th century and is later cataloged by Ernest Langlios. Langlios groups them into 3 groups I, II, and III and the into sub groups by capital letters

and other individual MSS are grouped with the family letter plus a lower case letter. Ex. Ab, He, Ha,

Argues that Brusendorff’s Hypothesis that the Middle English Romaunt is composed by one man and is translated by a particular single MS of a French original, and that the this translation of the French version to the Middle English was ruined.

He goes on to say that translations were mixed up and were translated from entirely different families and from different groups (below are a list of examples)

  A ME 115 f. corresponds to Langlois 109 f. (H and other MSS of I); ME 149

corresponds to Langlois 141 (Ha of I, Ri of II); ME 366 corre- sponds to Langlois 356 (L MSS of ii); ME 1262- 64 corresponds to Langlois 1240-42 (H MSS of I).

B ME 1753 f. corresponds to Langlois 1719 f. (L MSS of n); ME 3023-32 corresponds to Langlois 2833-37 (K, L, M, N of II); ME 3060 ff. corresponds to Langlois 2857-63 (K, L, M, N of II); ME 4546 corresponds to Langlois 4154 (K, L, M, N of II); ME 4561-64 corresponds to Langlois 4169-72 (K MSS of ii); ME 4627 f. gives lines added after Langlois 4228 (B MSS of I)-S; ME 4713-20 gives lines added after Langlois 4304 (C & B MSS of I)-S; ME 4849 f. gives lines added after Langlois 4406 (Ba & Ba of I)-S.

C ME 6361 ff. corresponds to Langlois 11222 ff. (K MSS of II)-S; ME 6588-94 corresponds to Langlois 11320-26 (Bu & Bu of I)-S; ME 6503-06 gives lines added after Langlois 11254 (B MSS of I)-S; ME 6841-48 gives lines added after Langlois 11568 (B MSS of I)-S; ME 6965-70 gives lines added after Langlois 11678 (B MSS of I)-S; ME 7137-41

He focuses on couplets because the ME line in context correlates to the two French lines however the ME version instead of linking to group I is parallel to MS in Group II

TRANSLATION CONTINUED(French Poem)ME 115 f. and Langlois 109 f.: Cam doun the streem ful stif and bold, Cleer was the water, and as cold Descendoit l'eve grant e roide. Clere estoit l'eve e ausi froide (Be) Descendoit l'eve clere e roide. Grant estoit l'eve e ausi froide (L) Descendoit grant e roide l'eve. E venoit bruiant clere e bele (ME translation) Semed to been a mynoresse, Sembloit bien estre moveresse; (Ha, Ri) Sembloit bien estre meneresse; He makes a point that “the literal meaning of the standard French text. However, the

mains in L causes that MS family to read And both her hands were lost that she had not one, which strikes one as rather suspicious. Indeed, it would seem that mains is a scribal error and that any ancestor of L MSS available to the ME translator contained denz or dentes, reducing the above resemblance to a matter of coincidence”

He concludes that fragment A of the ME edition is the only one that Chaucer put his” rare qualities of the great poet's genuine verse.” And that fragment B and C of the existing text cannot as Chaucer’s work.

MANUSCRIPT DISTRIBUTION

-The first manuscript was begun by Guillaume de Lorris around 1230. He died before completing his work, and the rest was edited and completed by Jean de Meun 40 years after de Lorris's death. Jean de Meun finished in the incomplete work with a 18,000 line epilogue.

-Approximately 300 variations of the manuscripts exist, and many manuscripts include beautiful illustrations. The Rose manuscripts are kept mainly in European libraries, and most remain in France where they first originated from.

-Most of the manuscripts were produced during the 14th century and continued to be produced intermittenly after the 14th century. There are 7 manuscripts dated after 1500. The second part of the poem, completed by Jean de Meun, was completed 75 years before Chaucer was born.

-The Chaucerian version of the manuscript exists in the Hunterian Muesam in Thynne's printed edition of 1532. Thynne's edition includes a number of missing lines, it is considered the most superior edition of the Romaunt manuscript.

-Alfrd David's edition of the Romaunt is the first ever to take account that Thynne's changes and editions to his version of the manuscript were purely editorial, rather than suggesting the existence of another authoritarian manuscript.

RELATION TO CHAUCER’S OTHER WORKS

"Geoffrey Chaucer was more deeply influenced by the "Romaunt of the Rose" than by any other French or English work."

Idea of Allegorical Dream Vision: evoked duel interest - the character and objects symbolize abstract qualities and the events recounted convey a coherent message concerning these abstractions.

Courtly Literature - taught about the art of love - describe the attempts of a courtier to woo his beloved - stories of the chivalric adventures of knights and their ladies, often set at the court of King Arthur - Modeled on feudal relationship between knight and his liege (the knight should serve his courtly lady the way he serves his king) - she is in complete control of the relationship will he owes her obedience and submission 

The Book of the Dutches The Parliament of Fowls Prologue to the Legend of Good Women General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

His style - with humor and realism can be contributed to it. Chaucer may have been led to the Consolation of Philosophy by Jean

de Meun's continuation of the Romance of the Rose

ALL DEPENDANT ON ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE

OTHER WORKS CONT. General Prologue to Canterbury Tales:

Return of Spring

Suggestion of fertility and rebirth leads to "Than yonge folk enten…." In Chaucer's prologue he leads to another kind of love: "Thanne longer folk to goon on pilgrimages (1:12) The narrator encounters not a temple of Venus or Garden of Love but a real Tavern - containing not a serious of Allegorical portraits but what seems a lively assembly of real people

" The portraits of Chaucer's pilgrims nevertheless owe a great deal to medieval traditions of literary portraiture, including the series of allegorical descriptions in the Romaunt of the Rose”

Whan that aprill with his shoures sooteThe droghte of march hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heethTendre croppes, and the yonge sonneHath in the ram his halve cours yronne,And smale foweles maken melodye,That slepen al the nyght with open ye(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;And specially from every shires endeOf engelond to caunterbury they wende,The hooly blisful martir for to seke,That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

In May, that it nil shrouded been ,55And it with newe leves wreen .[ ]These wodes eek recoveren grene,That drye in winter been to sene;And the erthe wexeth proud withalle,[ ]For swote dewes that on it falle,60And [al] the pore estat forget[ ]In which that winter hadde it set ,And than bicometh the ground so proudThat it wol have a newe shroud,And maketh so queynt his robe and fayr65That it hath hewes an hundred payrOf gras and floures, inde and pers,[ ]And many hewes ful dyvers:That is the robe I mene, y-wis,69-72. Imperfect inG.Through which the ground to preisen is.70The briddes, that han left hir song,Whyl they han suffred cold so strongIn wedres grille , and derk to sighte ,[ ]Ben in May, for the sonne brighte ,So glade, that they shewe in singing,75That in hir herte is swich lyking,That they mote singen and be light.Than doth the nightingale hir mightTo make noyse, and singen blythe.Than is blisful, many a sythe,80The chelaundre and the papingay.[ ]Than yonge folk entenden ayFor to ben gay and amorous,The tyme is than so savorous .

SCHOLARS STUDIES ON THE TRANSLATION-XX.-STUDIES IN THE INFLUENCE OF THE ROMANCE OF

THE ROSE UPON CHAUCER.-By Lisi Cipriani

 Cipriani states that the Romance of the rose has had a deep effect on Chaucer and many of his works and tries to show it by giving evidence with his work the Troylus ( giving 3 prime examples)

 1. There is an indirect influence through Boccaccio,

which introduces elements characteristic of the first part of the Romance of the Rose. This shows particularly in the coception of the character of Troylus as a model lover, and in the conception of the friendship between Pandarus and Troylus. The friend must aid by counsel and by deed; by giving the lover a chance to relieve his troubled heart in confidence.

2. The changes in the character of Pandarus all show tendencies which coincide with the satirical attitude of Jean de Meung towards love. The additions of Chaucer to the Filostrato are also primarily in the spirit and with the method and the material used by Jean de Meung. The long passages taken from Boethius expand the Troylus as the same passages expand the Romance of the Rose. The same may be said for the discussion of dreams, etc.; in fact, of all the philosophical and psychological reflections which destroy the more perfect form of the Italian original.

3. But the influence of Jean de Meung on Chaucer is most important in the ethical teaching with which Chaucer ends the love story, making the Troylus a Tendenzroman, in which the folly of love is shown in order to lead the reader to the love of Christ and eternal salvation

- The Roman de la Rose and Middle English Poetry-By Stephanie A. Viereck Gibbs Kamath

 

In Kamath’s article she cites that Chaucer’s work on the Romance of the Rose ”

response to constructions of love and gendered identities in the Rose persists as a subject of inquiry, frequently matched by a concern with the political and ethical implications of such constructions and accompanied by a growing interest in the French and English poets’ shared strategies of claiming vernacular authority.

Kamath cites many examples of different authors who discuss how R.R effect Chaucer’s authority on the text have loosened or strengthened how scholars today view the contents of the poem. One specific example she points out is how D.W Robertson’s Preface to Chaucer and how he argues” that both unequivocally espouse the patristic Christian doctrine of charity, critiquing the sinful foibles of human sexuality.”

She also shows how the literary world is spilt because Chaucer’s” French Inheritance’ and ‘Chaucer’s Italian Inheritance’ within the Cambridge Companion seems a tacit acknowledgment that retaining this division is useful at least in some fashion, while the mammoth ‘Chaucer as a European Writer’ essay of the Yale Companion ultimately argues for another form of unification by insisting upon the shared classical heritage of medieval poets

Not sure where Chaucer should be considered under the tree of all the translations of R.R and how big of an Impact it made on him and his work

 Another area of further confusion is Chaucers word study and she brings her piece to an end by introducing Christopher Canon’s 1998 “the Making of Chaucer’s English demonstrates how the Middle English text rewrites linguistic history by presenting the ‘English’ word ‘mermaydens’ as a necessary, customary alternative for the French ‘sereynes’ (682–4).19 Whereas the borrowed noun ‘siren’ had recorded use in earlier English writing, there is ‘no earlier use of “mere-maiden” ’ than this passage; the word’s components are of Old English origin, but they are ‘joined here to make a word for the first time’ (Cannon 82). Cannon’s study offers a salient reminder that Chaucer’s English cannot be fully understood unless read in relation to the English of his predecessors and contemporaries, and, accordingly, we now turn at last to the scholarship on Middle English Rose reception beyond the realm of Chaucer studies.

CHAUCER AND HIS IMPORTANCE ON CULTURE ◊ Chaucer engaged in the translation of

Roman as a linguistic test run. He wanted to try out the capacity of English to attain higher spheres of expression.◊ Before hand, the English language had been relegated to less sophisticated means of communication. ◊ By successfully translating the Roman and doing it in such a poetic manner, Chaucer was able to add to English literature tradition◊ Another reason Chaucer wanted to embark on translating the Roman was because the idea of courtly love was something new to him and he wanted to work on a poetical work that was ahead of his time.◊ Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration.[1] Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility.[2] It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife

◊ During Chaucer’s time, most people had a background in the French language and by engaging in the translated text, the audience was recognizing the English as sophisticated and literary language.◊ Because the Romaunt of the Rose was a story about love, there are a number of modern day literary models that can be drawn to Chaucer’s The Rose. ◊ A few examples include, Twilight, The Titantic, etc

ANNOTATED BIB:

-Original French poem composed by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de MeunSanchez Marti, Jordi. “Chaucer’s ‘Makyng’ Of The Romaunt Of The Rose”. Journal of English Studies- Volume 3, (2001-2), 217-236

The article focuses a great deal on Chaucer’s translation of the Roman de la Rose. Within the first part of Sanchez’s article, he spends a great amount of detail comparing a number of different articles in relation to Chaucer’s translation of the Roman. Each scholar presents a different view on how he translated the work of art. Sanchez overall, believes that Chaucer took on the task of translating the Roman with the intention of bringing sophistication to the English language. Within the article, Sanchez also looks at the semantics of the Chaucer’s poetry in an attempt translate the poem. Due to certain language and linguistic barriers, Chaucer struggled in certain areas; however he stayed as true to the original as possible. Noting that Chaucer was well aware of the fact that his translation was likely to develop its own identity throughout the translation process, Sanchez feels that Chaucer had great expectations that his translated text would be perceived by his audience as belonging to the English literary tradition.

This article helped me a great deal in being able to link Chaucer’s translation of the Roman and its importance in today’s culture. During Chaucer’s time, English was not considered a sophisticated language and so Chaucer embarked upon the translation journey with high hopes and intentions of bringing out the capacity of the English language and attaining higher spheres of expression. With that being said, Chaucer was a success and is considered the father of modern English language. Also, the poem is about love or the world of courtly allegory and of “fin’amors”, which was something new to Chaucer yet common of the times. The idea of love is a concept that transcends time and never loses its importance or its effects on literature.

Lisa Ciprianii’s “Studies In The Influence of the Romance of the Rose Upon Chaucer”

Throughout this article Cipriani explores the influence of the Romance of the Rose upon Chaucer. Cipriani a few of Chaucer’s other works and tries to dictate if the Romance’s influence can be found. In other to show the comparison and possible influence found, she picks small sections of each works and basically puts them side by side - pointing out where the similarities are and why they inevitably come from Romance of the Rose.

This article was extremely useful for my bullet point: (It’s relation to other works by Chaucer: Did Chaucer show the influence of the work he translated in any of his works?) This article was a perfect starting point because it not only revealed some of its’ influence in Chaucer’s works, but it also pointed out the key aspects of the Romance of the Rose – that would most likely be found in other works – which gave me something to look for on my own.

ANNOTATED BIB CONT. Sanchez Marti, Jordi. “Chaucer’s ‘Makyng’ Of The Romaunt Of The Rose”. Journal of English Studies- Volume 3, (2001-2), 217-236

The article focuses a great deal on Chaucer’s translation of the Roman de la Rose. Within the first part of Sanchez’s article, he spends a great amount of detail comparing a number of different articles in relation to Chaucer’s translation of the Roman. Each scholar presents a different view on how he translated the work of art. Sanchez overall, believes that Chaucer took on the task of translating the Roman with the intention of bringing sophistication to the English language. Within the article, Sanchez also looks at the semantics of the Chaucer’s poetry in an attempt translate the poem. Due to certain language and linguistic barriers, Chaucer struggled in certain areas; however he stayed as true to the original as possible. Noting that Chaucer was well aware of the fact that his translation was likely to develop its own identity throughout the translation process, Sanchez feels that Chaucer had great expectations that his translated text would be perceived by his audience as belonging to the English literary tradition.

This article helped me a great deal in being able to link Chaucer’s translation of the Roman and its importance in today’s culture. During Chaucer’s time, English was not considered a sophisticated language and so Chaucer embarked upon the translation journey with high hopes and intentions of bringing out the capacity of the English language and attaining higher spheres of expression. With that being said, Chaucer was a success and is considered the father of modern English language. Also, the poem is about love or the world of courtly allegory and of “fin’amors”, which was something new to Chaucer yet common of the times. The idea of love is a concept that transcends time and never loses its importance or its effects on literature.

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