CONFLICTING CODES OF CONDUCT : EQUITY IN MARIE DE FRANCE'S EQUITAN *

 

 

Gloria Gilmore

 

 

 

The "Lai" "Equitan" proposes a many faceted view of justice or equity that often seems confusing. I believe Marie de France exposes the complexity of this concept so that we must consider the merit or weakness of various points of view ; that we appreciate the difficulty of meeting the often contradicting demands of justice at this period in time ; and that we draw our own conclusions, if we can feel so "justified". She, as other "troubadours extended to their audience an intuiton of equality and freedom that was unheard of in the Middle Ages"(1). The influences she brings to our attention, with which we must deal, are 1) "le Code Féodal", 2) "le Code Courtois,"(2)  3) "l'Ancienne Loi" or Old Testament teachings, and 4) "la Nouvelle Loi", the Gospel of the New Testament. It would seem to be a period of transition, of blending, of shifting of emphasis, that she shows us. As J. Huizinga agrees, "for a complicated civilization like that of the closing Middle Ages could not but be heir to a crowd of conceptions, motives, erotic forms, which now collided and now blended"(3). I will examine how the text brings forth each of these codes for behavior and thought, and we will see how they are intertwined and overlapped. The point of reference is justice or equity, as announced by the title.

 

Michelle A. Freeman suggests the use of the title for interpreting themes in the Lais of Marie de France in her article, "Marie de France's Poetics of Science" : "The titles stand for that kernel or essence of what first was silent, is then explained and named, and remains as a constant throughout the various stages. That word-title names the symbolic object"(4). Equitan names the king, the man who should have all power, and begins as symbolizing equity or justice, which, by extension, should also have att power. We will see that neither the man nor the ideal enjoys this privilege in our story. The title, Equitan, derives its meaning of equalling injustice from an infinitive, equiter, no longer existing in modern French, but whose past participle, equité, is defined as : "la disposition à respecter les droits de chacun ; caractère dec e qui est conforme a la justice"(5). " Juger en equité" means "trancher un différend en s'appuyant plus sur la conviction intime de la justice naturelle que sur la lettre de la loi"(6).  Translating equité to English, equity, gives us "justice according to natural law or right ; a body of legal doctrines and rules developed to enlarge, supplement, or override a narrow, rigid system of laws"(7). We explore the "lai" "Equitan" with the possibility of enlarging, supplementing, or overriding narrow, rigid systems of laws. To return to our title : Equitan(t)(8) would be the present participle of equiter, meaning equalling injustice. Another view of the title word shows Equit, a representation of the present tense, or simply a prefix meaning equal, coupled with tant = so much, giving us equals so much. Hence, the stated subject of our discussion : natural justice equaUing or equals so much ? "Marie's poem is therefore a gloss of the title (une glose de la lettre)." As we outline the polysemy of the title : "it explicates the multiple layers of meaning the word holds as it evokes the transformations of the story(9), which we also see as follows.

 

Equitan, where found in the text, further links the character Equitan, the king, with the idea of justice and value.

 

"Un ent firent, k'o'i cunter,

Ki ne fet mie a ublier."

"They made one of them (a lai) that

I heard told, that we should not forget." (line 9) (10)

 

"D'Equitan, ki mut fu curteis,

Sire des Nauns, jostise e reis."

"of Equitan, who was very courtly, Sire of Nauns,

judge (or sovereign) and king." (line 13)

 

The text here cites the worth of Equitan : very courtly. Jostise can mean judge, introducing the idea of balance of values, or sovereign, which would reinforce the title king, having all power in his domain.

 

"Equitan fu mut de grant pris

Et mut amez en sun pais."

"Equitan was of very great price (value)

and very loved in his country." (line 13)

 

So close to "pris" is "prise" which means "action d'estimer, réputation"(11). We see Equitan again linked to value and here, esteemed by his countrymen for that value.

 

"Equitan ot un seneschal

Bon chevaker, pruz e lea". 

"Equitan had an officer of justice,

a good knight, valuable and loyal." (line 21 )

 

Here we link Equitan with his officer of justice, whose merit is also noted. In all the rest of the text, Equitan is not named but called "reis", king, underlining his position of power or authority, and diminishing his role as symbol of justice. The first exception is in line 149 where the king contrasts, does not equate "le code courteois" with "le Code Féodal", which we wfil look at more closely later. The only other exception is at the end, where Equitan, the seneschal's wife, their love and their deserved demise are all tied up in a just equation :

 

"Li bretun en firent un lai,

D'Equitan cument il fina,

E de la dame ki tant l'ama."

"The Bretons made a lai of it,

of Equitan, how he ended u p and

of the woman who loved him so."(line 312)(12)

 

We now move on to the seneschal, the character to embody justice.

 

Tute sa tere li gardout (kept, cared for, protected, looked after)

Et meinteneit (maintained, conserved, sustained]

et justi sout (governed, brought justice to, justified) (line 23). 

 

These three words all suggest a strong sense of responsibility for the well-being and equity in "all his land". Justice must be stretched to care for and meet all demands. While his wife and king (line 185) "lung tens" enjoyed "lur druërie" : 

 

"Li seneschals la curt teneit

Les plaiz e les clamurs oieit."

"The justice held court, heard

plaints and claims." (line 195)

 

Plaiz is a word rich in additional meanings suggested by the sound : pleit = knot - obviously most court cases involve complicated entanglements ; as the noun that comes from plaidier, plait is a convention ; plaid is a prayer or supplication ; and plaie is a wound. How do these meanings contribute to our investigation of justice in this story ? To return to the text : 

 

Lung tens durat lur druerie [...]

Li senechals la curt teneit,

Les plaiz e les clamurs oieit.

 

"Their love affair lasted for a long time" (line 185)

 

Meanwhile the seneschal is struggling to untangle (the pleits = knots) and determine just what justice is, according to the many applicable conventions (plaits), not just for himself but for all his land. While he is striving to establish justice (plaidier), he receives the wounds (plates) of being wronged by the two who have most explicitly sworn him their loyalty. When we read clamurs (line 196) and hear loud cries, demands for attention, and add to these the prayers and supplications of plaid (plaiz, line 196) we begin to suspect how extensive, diversified, various and far-reaching are the demands made of this single concept. This discussion serves as introduction for the four different systems of codifying justice listed above, which we will deal with now.

 

I. Le Code féodal 

 

According to feudal law, rights derived from might. "Justice" was granted in descending order through oaths of loyalty and protection from king to knight, from knight to vassal and soon. A woman was always inferior to her sire (her husband or father), but could be considered superior through this connection, to a man inferior to her she. Justice demanded loyalty from below and promised protection from above. The inequality of the feudal code appears to present a problem only when combined with courtly love. The opposing strains of loyalty are accentuated in this text by the reversal of the usual order of the courtly love triangle : it is the king here, who seeks to love beneath his social status, rather than the queen being seduced by an inferior, a knight, as is usually the case.

 

It is the woman who, for good reason, speaks against the introduction of conflicting loyalties into their relationship :

 

"Ne sereit pas uel partie

Entre nus deus la druerie."

"It would not be equally shared

love between us two." (line 131)

 

"Pur ceo que estes reis puissaunz

E mis sire est de vus tenaunz."

"Since you are a powerful king

and my lord is in your tenure:" (line 133)

 

I am already inferior to your inferior.

 

"Quidereiez a mun espeir

Le dangier de l'amur aveir."

"Believe in my opinion that

to have such a love is danger." (line 135)

 

Meg Bogin outlines the danger :  "For women, adultery was more than  sinful : it held the added risk of pregnancy. Besides the danger of childbirth, the woman pregnant through adultery faced possible repudiation, banishement (generally to a convent), or even death"(13). The seneschal's wife explains the consequences to the king :

 

"Tost m'aviez entrelaissiee,

J'en sereie mut empeiriee.

Se issi fust que vus amasse,

E vostre requeste otreiasse". 

"Soon you would abandon me ;

I would be badly worse off

if it should be known that

I love you and agree to your request." (line 127)

 

She is in the awkward situation of defending a position where she has no power.

 

Our view of her as the relatively innocent party can perhaps be read between the lines in interpreting the word "chastel" as "chaste-elle ; elle, la chaste" : 

 

"El chastel u la dame esteit

Se herberjat li reis la nuit".

"To the castle where the lady was,

came the king to spend the night." (line 46)

 

The king is coming to invade the state of chastity of the woman.

 

"Venez chacier en la foret

En la cuntree u jeo sujur.

Dedanz la chastel mun seignur

Sujurnez". 

"Come to hunt in the forest

in the country where I live.

Within the castle

of my lord stay with us." (line 242)

 

Her chastity is finked to, belongs to her lord, justice. As she invites him into the castle of her master we still see an association of the woman with the idea of chastity or purity. Her invitation is even part of the plot to kill her husband, justice. How can this association be sustained ? Can powerlessness in a society excuse willful destruction of justice ? The text hints at only the questions, not answers.

 

"We return to the reasonings of the woman :

Amur n'est pruz se n'est egal."

"Love is not valuable, useful(14)

if it is not equal." (line 137)

 

Since you already have "le droit du seigneur'' over me, there is nothing to be gained for me to give myself to you. The last line of this quotation puts into question even the "acceptable" unequal love of knight for queen, the basis for all courtly love. An unequal balance of power, even in love triangles, is precarious and not a reasonable pursuit, it would seem. Can there be an equal balance of power, justice, in a love relationship at that time ? It would seem unlikely.

 

The woman continues to argue against the entanglement :

 

"Li riches hum requide bien

Que nuls ne li toille s'amie

Qu'il voelt amer par seignurie !"

"The rich man believes well that

no one will take his lover,

whom he wants by right of seignurie." (line 146)

 

He has no need to exercise his "talent", to charm or woe or win her to the exclusion of all others, if he already has the right to her. "Seignurie" included the practice of ius primae noctis, the lord's right to his serfs bride on her wedding night. Although the seneschal is part of the nobility, "even after later generations introduced more "courtly" conduct restricting men, at least in theory, to raping women of the lower classes - women of the Middle ages had no gauarantee that they would not be raped in their own houses" (15). This reference to "seignurie" definitely degrades the relationship and both parties involved. But, as we have seen, it is she, the unranked nonperson, who has the most to lose. Our king responds at last(16) with exclamations of power, and assaults the woman's only value, her "courtoisie":

 

Equitan li respunt apres :

 

"Dame, merci ! Nel dites mes !"

"Woman, have mercy!

Don't say any more about it !" (line 149)

 

"Cil  ne sunt mie fin curteis,

Ainz est bargaine de burgeis".

"This is not at all courtly fine,

such is bourgeois bargaining." (line 151)

 

He criticizes here the unseemliness or indelicacy of discussing the inequality of their social status. To speak so "laiment" (vulgarly) is bourgeois, middle class, beneath him, and destroys the noble nature oftheir interaction as well  as the courtly value of the woman. He answers nevertheless with a solution :

 

"Ne me tenez mie pur rei

Mes pur vostre humme e vostre ami."

"Don't have me as your king,

but as your man (possession, vassal) and friend."(line 170)

 

"Ami" originally suggested the intimacy of a familial relationship (17), and was later to extend to mean  lover : 

 

"Vus seiez dame e jeo servanz

Vus orguiUuse e jeo preianz."

'You shall be the Lady and I your servant;

you the proud and I the begger." (18) (line 175)

 

The king tries to solve the problem by reversing the inequality, but thisdoes not eliminate it. He makes  himself the servant who must be willing to do all she asks of him, even to participate in the murder of her husband. In rejecting the feudal relationship in favor of the love relationship, the woman shifts from a system where she really has no position, the feudal hierarchy, to one where she has not only position but power : 

 

"Ja cele rien ne li dirrat

Que il ne face a sun poeir."

"Never did that one (she) ask anything of him

that he did not do it with aU his power." (line 238)

 

This is the inversion of the proper order of things, a woman in charge,"le monde à l'envers", which is acted out physically in the final scene where the seneschal throws his wife into the caldron head first : justice trying to right itself ?

 

The woman is not contented, even with the inversion :

 

"Sire, jo plur pur nostre amur,

Ki mei revert a grant dolur."

"Sire, I cry over our love,

which brings back upon me great pain." (line 213)

 

The verb "revert" here is a clue to bring to our attention the foreshadowing nature of this couplet : this is precisely what literally happens inthe end (great pain, boiling water, and evils, their unrepented sins, come back upon her and her lover, the king) as the seneschal acts to "revert" the "monde à l'envers". This act of justice is echoed in the lines suggesting a "moral" to the tale : 

 

"Sur lui (le roi) est li mais revertiz (line 299). 

 

"Tels purcace le mal d'autri

Dunt tuz li mals revert sur lui." (line 309)

 

 

This word serves to focus the dynamic at work in Equitan, where each code of morality seems to "revertir" upon the other. Returning to her fears that bring her present pain :

 

"Femme prendrez, fille a un rei,

E si vus partirez de mei".

"You will take for wife the daughter of a king (an equal),

and thereby take your leave of me." (line 215 )

 

She cannot share his power or position (or protection ?) since she cannot be his wife. This inequality continues to bring her great pain (and fear). For this the king has a solution as well: 

 

"Si vostre sire fust finez,

Reine e dame vus fereie."

"If your husband-owner, were dead,

I would make you Queen and Lady" (my equal). (line 226)

 

To undertake, himself, the murder of his vassal would be treacherous villainy to the feudal code. Stating a simple hypothesis : "If he were dead..." serves his purpose without overt compromise. The king also would like to equalize this relationship, to whatever extent traditionally possible, in order to enjoy its benefits more fully. As king, however, he must respect and represent the strength of the feudal system.

 

"Le Code Féodal" provided vassalage, the stongest and most intimate (as I will discuss later) social relationship of the Middle Ages : the vassal, sworn to service and loyalty through "homage" and "foi" to his lord leige who, in return, granted him protection and an "investiture" of goods or property. I will examine more closely the rituals and symbolism of vassalage as I now consider "le Code Courtois" which must go hand in hand with the feudal code, but seems to defy it at the veryheart.

 

II. Le Code courtois

 

We must establish an understanding of "le Code Courtois" before exploring its implications in our story. It was, at the same time, simple in principle (adoration in humble service to the Lady, love as a means of spiritual improvement through endless suffering, chastity as the highest expression of true love, the exclusive focus on married women of superior rank(19) and nebulous in specific practice. It contradicted the major structures of medieval life (Church, kinship and marriage, the loyalties of the feudal code), and then contradicted itself (the chaste "amour de loin" gave place whenever convenient to carnal indulgence). It was evasive in terms of origin (a purely literary concoction(20), an outgrowth of Arab contact through the Crusades and the "Reconquista" of Spain, a natural outcome of the Crusades which left, at least temporarily, women in new positions of power(21), and yet pervasive in its influence on all of feudal Europe.

 

Why should such a code for regulating personal love relationships develop, either in literature or real life ?(22) The brutality of life in the Middle Ages required it : 

 

"To formalize love is, moreover, a social necessity, a need that is the more imperious as life is more ferocious. Love has to be elevated to the height of a rite. The overflowing violence of passion demands it. Only by constructing a system of forms and rules for the vehement emotions can barbarity be escaped"(23). 

 

"In courtiy society where large numbers of unmarried men lived under one roof with a small number of mostly married women,and where marriage was an economic and political arrangement, there must have been enourmous sexual tension"(24).

 

The image created by Denys Hay, of the baron living "in promiscuousintimacy with his household and retainers, rather like the captain of a small and overloaded ship on an uneasy sea", shows us well the mounting pressures swelling in Medieval society(25).

 

What was this courtly love, established by such formality ? Let me first eliminate what it was not.

 

"It had nothing to do with marriage (a business transaction surrounded by bastards), or rather it was directly opposed to the legal state of marriage, since the beloved was as a rule a married woman and the lover was never her husband [...] Still less was thiscode dependent on religious ideas [...] even when it renounced physical satisfaction, it sublimated - to the point of making it the be-all and end-all of existence - an emotional impulse derived essentially from those carnal appetites whose legitimacy Christianity only admits in order to curb them by marriage, in order to justify them by the propagation of the species. [...](moreover) i towed little to the ancient arts of love"(26). 

 

By opposing so many institutions in a traditional society (one that looks almost exclusively to precedent for resolution of present conflct which the Middle Ages certainly was, "l'amour courtois a été, au douzième siecle, un phénomène contestataire, scandaleux, une manifestation de monde à l'envers"(27). The ambiguity and power of courtly love seemed single-handedly to bring all the conflicting demands of society together into a boiling cauldron of passion.

 

Courtly love was, in fact, a reincarntion of vassalage. C.S. Lewis explains: 

 

"Before the coming of courtly love the relation of vassal and lord, in all its intensity and warmth, already existed ; it was a mold into which romantic passion would almost certainly be poured. And if the beloved were also the feudal superior, the thing becomes entirely natural and inevitable"(28).

 

Vassalage had reinforced the ties of kinship, (proven to be inadequate to the task of maintaining peace and order in this quasi-barbaric time), as the social bond of import in the Middle Ages(29). The ritual that binds a vassal to his lord and vice versa has several stages, which I will eventually correlate to the binding of the courtly lover to his Lady. The first phase, 1) Hommage, consisted of three elements : a) " la déclaration, l'engagement du vassal, exprimant sa volonté de devenir l'homme du seigneur"; b) l'immixtio manuum - le vassal place les mains jointes entre celles de son seigneur qui renferme les siennes sur elles"(30) ; et c) l'osculum - "Then chief and subordinate kiss each other on the mouth, symbolizing accord and friendship"(31). The vassal has now become the "homme de bouche et mains" of the lord.

 

Before going on, let me first explain the underlying significance of these gestures, "very simple ones, eminently fitted to make a n impression on minds so sensitive to visible things" (32). la) The declaration was unilateral, a request from the inferior party to join his superior in a contract, lb) the tmmixtio manuum was "a plain symbol of submission, sometimes emphasized by a kneeling posture"(33), which, nonetheless required a response by the hands of the lord(34). It represented a statement of reciprocal binding of Inferior to superior, lc) The osculum, regardless of who initiated it, was "un baiser rituel mutuel" qui "rend égaux" "les deux actants l'un par rapport a l'autre d'égalité"(35). The vassal has been raised from his kneeling position of inferior suplication to a stature of equality to his lord a kiss, "bouche à bouche", can only impart equality, as the giver and receiver participate equally. It is not exactly equality of status (not the potestas of earlier times) that has been rendered, (the vassal owes obedience and service whereas the lord owes leadership and gifts of maintenance), but equality of the power of the bond they have created.

 

This power elicited by the rite of hommage is born out of the extremely intimate nature of the physical contact of the unequal participants. "Le corps est non seulement le révélateur de l'âme mais il est le lieu symbolique ou s'accomplit - sous toutes ses formes la condition humaine"(36). Joined hands is the picture of powerlessness, of vulnerability, itself an intimate admission(37). The enclosing of those hands into one's own is almost an incorperation of that other into on-self : the absorbing of vulnerability into protection. The sense of touch, around which hommage is centered, is the most sensitive form of personal communication. Beyond the kiss of peace St. Paul offers to all who enter the brotherhood of Christianity, the osculum, which is even more physically intimate, evoques such powerful images as "the breath of the Almighty hath given me life" (38), or the giving of life's nurture to the young by a parent who has already seized and made digestible the necessary sustenance for life. (As the lord has seized and subdued the threatening powers that surround them and gives his man protection and equal doniinion over them.) What a profound and rich symbolism this ritual imparts to a mentality conditioned to receive it, even on a subconscious or primitive level(39).

 

The second phase in the ritual, 2) fealty or "foi", was only superimposed on the first as the society "came to regard a promise as scarcely valid unless God were guarantor : a) laying his hand on the Gospels or on relics, b) the new vassal swore to be faithful to his master"(40). This was a later addition, practiced only optionally and of less import than the rest of the ritual.

 

The last phase was the 3) "Investiture": a) "To the vassal the lord handed an object which symbolized b) the (tranter of real) property"(41). The object, usually a twig, represented payment to the vassal for services, as "chaser", to house himself, as a "Lehn", from lehnen (Ger)= to loan, or as beneficium which became "fief"(42).  The ceremony always preceeded the actual transfer of the land. This was the lord's "contre-don" of the "don" of service given by the vassal, and completed the contract.

 

We cannot leave the discussion of this ritual without mentioning the means by which either party could terminate the bond, otherwise held for life : 4) l'exfestucatio. "La symbolique d'un rituel destiné à créer un lien social n'est complètement saisie que si on la considère à la fois dans la constitution et la destruction du lien"(43). L'exfestucatio is the act of breaking the personal tie but not necessarily renouncing the fief. It is done by throwing down the festuca (twig) or some other significant object(44), and stating something like : "Homme ! Je vous retire ma foi. Ne dites pas que je vous ai trahi"(45) ! Hommage, fealty, investiture and exfestucatio : these, then, are the parts of the ritual that, as a whole, became the driving, binding, and eventually unravelling or unwinding force in the society of the Middle Ages through feudalism and courtly love.

 

Each of these features of the ritual plays an important role in our interpretation of the lai, "Equitan". They do not, however, occur in the proper sequence in the story. Since we are exploring, after all, a "monde a l'envers", I will proceed to analyze each element as it occurs, in this and the following sections of the discussion. We return, at last, into the text.

 

The developing courtly tradition seemed to require that, for a woman to achieve greatness, true nobility, "courteoisie", she must be the recipient of the love attentions of a noble knight.

 

"Si bele dame tant mar fust,

S'ele n'amast e dru n'eüst !

Que devendreit sa curteisie."

"It would be such a pity if such a beautiful

woman didn't love nor had love's pleasures.

What would become of her courtliness?" (line 79)

 

This affair seemed, at least to the perception of the king, to be a necessity for her social enhancement. The statement of Chastellain would give him further encouragement : "Honour urges every nature to love all that is noble in being"(46).

 

The king obviously had a natural inebriation for such pursuits :

 

"Deduit amout e druerie.

Pur ceo main tint chevalerie."

"He loved pleasure and love pleasures ;

for this he maintained his prowess." (line 15)

 

No doubt the belief that a man could die from being denied "confort", sexual satisfaction, encouraged the man to pursue his satisfaction, and the object of his desires to yield to his needs.

 

"Saveir li fet qu'il meort pur li.

Del tut li peot faire confort

E bien li peot doner la mart."

"He made her know that he could die for her.

(He told her) of all that she could do either to comfort him,

or that she could well give him death." (line 114)

 

This idea is paralleled in the expression of Guilhem de Poitou, the first troubadour :  "The joy of her can make the sick man well again, her wrath (and denial) can make a well man die"(47). Is it possible that knightly manhood considered itself so frail that it befieved sexual frustration could be fatal ? Or is this simply a n exageration, used to play on the compassion of womankind, to eliminate a discomfort no king ought to have to endure ?

 

"Ne me laissiez pur vus murir !"

"Don't let me die for (desire of) you!" (line 174)

 

The kings passion begins "to express itself in terms borrowed from the vocabulary of vassal homage"(48). First comes 1a) the declaration :

 

"Ma chiere dame, a vus m'ustrei : 

"My dear Lady, I give myself to you :" (line 169)

Ne me tenez mie pur rei,

Mes pur vostre humme e vostre ami.

"Don't have me as your king,

but as your man and your friend." (line 170)

 

He has here declared his will to become her "homme", and adds to that the intensifying element of "ami", a famfly bond or, hopefully, that of lover.

 

The next couplet suggests the phase of 1b) fealty in the ritual : 

 

"Seürement vus jur e di

Que jeo ferai vostre pleisir."

"Surely I swear to you and say that

I will do your pleasure, bidding." (line 172) 

 

There are no relics or Bible here upon which he swears, but seürance, meaning "assurance, alliance avec serment"(49), gives us at least an oath. I reiterate the relative insignificance of the oath of fealty ; hence its weakness here does nothing to weaken the parallel being drawn to the total ritual.

 

After another plea for pity on his mortally frustrated state : "Ne me laissiez pur vus murir !", he attempts to strengthen his oath by restating his declaration :

 

"Vus seiez dame e jeo servanz,

Vus orguiUuse e jeo preianz." (line 175)

 

These terms come directly from the vocabulary of the feudal hierarchy where the king obviously has the clearest advantage.

 

The text next skips several phases of the ritual and moves to 3) the investiture :

 

"Tant ad li reis parlé od li

E tant li ad crie merci

"So much had the king spoken with her

and had cried mercy to her, (line 177)

Que de s'amur l'aseüra".

That she assured him of her love". (line 179)

 

She accepted him. as her "homme".

 

"E el sun cors li otria.

"and accorded to him her body." (line 180)

Par lur anels s'entresaisirent,

"By their rings they took possession

of one another." (line 181)

 

3a) The transfer of the symbolic object was the exchange of the rings.

3b) The gift of real property was the according to him of her body.

 

"Lur fiaunces s'entreplevirent".

"They mutually engaged to each other their faith." (line 182)

 

This declaration can represent either a reinforcement of the act of "foi" (entreplevir = "s'engager mutuellement la foi" (50)), or merely a verbalisation of the contract they have entered into. The precise order of these events in the text is unclear but I have determined not to be overly concerned with a topsy-turvy representation of the ritual.

 

A further important aspect of the investiture for us to consider : if her body represents the "contre-don" given by the lord, in this case the Lady, in exchange for the "don" of services (to be or already) rendered by the vassal, the king, just what is the nature of the services rendered ? The full use of his "pruz" and "talent" in their "druerie" comes to mind. But the question of just what "cunfort" means to the woman is reaUy at issue here. Is it simply a matter of sexual satisfaction ? Or rather is the woman earnestly contracting the more life-and-death matter of protection ?

 

This question is raised with such ambiguity as to allow us to follow either train of thought, or even to encourage us to pursue them both. It brings up the rather ironic consideration that a woman, who at that time had almost no social or legal rights, could suffer violently from this same physical frustration. Perhaps this is to suggest that men realize the preposterousness of the claim they have been making :

 

"E si vus partirez de mei [...]

E jeo, lasse, que devendrai ? 

Pur vus m'estuet aveir la mort,

Car jeo ne sai autre cunfort."

"And if you leave me, and I, left (behind),

what will become of me ? Because of you it would

be to me to have death, since

I know no other comfort (sexual satisfaction)." (line 216)

 

Is this claim any less silly coming from a man than it is from a woman ? It would seem more likely that she is envisioning here the perils of an abandoned woman, without the protection of her lover, the king, or her husband, his officer of justice. We are left to believe that she has no "cunfort" with her husband, the seneschal, by either definition, which raises the possibility of the impotence of justice. Can justice deliver either sexual satisfaction or protection ? In terms of the character in the story, the king speaks as if he thinks the seneschal is not capable of satfefying his wife and we can continue to read in both meanings :  

 

"Li seneschals, si l'ot cunter

Ne l'en deit mie trop peser :

Suls ne la pout il pas tenir !"

"The seneschal, if he heard of it (our affair)

should not let it weigh too heavily on him :

alone he can not posses her! "

(or possibly, "he cannot have her alone, all to himself'). (line 85)

 

Teneure, from tenir, means "condition sous laquelle on tient un fief"(51). If she is his "fief and he cannot hold her, neither can he be expected to extend protection to her. The feudal contract, in terms of protection promised, seems to be a critical consideration as this form of contract is transferred to the "couche" of courtly love. 

 

Symbolically speaking, the case for the impotence of justice is even stronger. For all his efforts to "justiser [...] tute sa tare", the seneschal, justice, is incapable of righting the wrongs being done him :  "Lung tens durat lur druerie" (line 185). Can mercy rob justice ?

 

"E tant li ad crié merci

Que de s'amur l'aseuüra

E el sun cors li otria." (line 178)

 

It would certainty seem so, for "lung tens" at least. A definitive answer will be sought in the discussion of the "Nouvelle Loi".

 

The two elements of the ritual remaining to be dealt with in the text are lb) the immixtio manuum and lc) the osculum. We find the word for kiss only in line 207 :

 

"Quant ele pout a lui parler

E el li duit joie mener,

Baisier, estreindre e acoler,

E ensemblë od lui juer,

Forment plura e grant deol fist."

"When she was able to speak with him and was supposed

to bring him joy, to kiss, embrace and couple with him,

loudly she cried and made a great sorrowing."

(She goes on to complain about her future status if he leaves

her.) (line 205)

 

Does the king receive any kiss, documented in the text ?  No. "C'est un fait que dans l'amour courtois l'homme est le vassal de la femme et qu'un moment essentiel du système symbolique courtois est le baiser"(52). Why is this essential moment missing ? Guillaume de Lorris writes in the first part of the Roman de la Rose :

 

"Je vueil pour ton avantage

Qu'orendroit me fasses hommages

Et qui me baises enmi la bouche

A qui nus villains home no touche

A moi touchier ne laisse mie

Nul home ou li ayt villenie

Je n'i laisse mie touchier

Chascun vilain, chascun porchier ;

Mais estre doit courtois et frans

Celui duquel homage prens".

"I want for your advaantage that from now on you make

hommage to me and that you should kiss me, whom no villains

touch, on the mouth ; I don't let any man who should have any

villainy touch me at all ;  I kon't let any viUain, any "porchier",

touch me there at all; but he must be courtly and noble, he from

whom I take hommage." (53)

 

Le Goff explains : "Comme aux femmes le baiser symbolique l'osculum, lui (au vilain) est refusé"(54). The king has debased himself to the category of "vilain" by violating his obligation of loyalty to his vassal, the seneschal. Hence the osculum is refused him. By making the wife of his underling his mistress he has failed in his previously sworn duty to protect his "homme de bouche et mains", justice. This prior committment was futty solemnized in ritual, it is safe to assume, or how could the text state : "Equitan ot un seneschal, / Bon chevalier, pruz e leal" (line 21). Moreover, the king recognizes his fallen status in line 293 : " Li reis garda, sil vit venir ; / Pur sa vileinie covrir".  He admits his "vileinie" by trying to hide it : "Dedenz la cuve saut joinz piez ; E il fu nuz e despuillez". "Despuillez" means , in adition to "deshabillé, depouillé" (55). Dépouiller translates to "to divest of "droits"(56). The king has, by his "vileinie", divested himself of the rights ordinarily due him and in the realm of courtly love, of the right to the osculum or binding kiss between two equal participants, the Lady and her lover.

 

The final missing element of the ritual, lb) l'immixtio manuum, finds its only reference the faint one in the line cited above : "Dedenz la cuve saut joinz piez'". ["He jumped into the vat feet together." (line 295)]. 

 

This is the only hint the text gives of the symbolic submission to a superior power. The substitution of feet for hands underscores the upside down nature of the situation. We will later see how the plea for protection that this ritual symbolizes comes to naught.

 

As we see the "confort" of courtly love overpower the discipline of feudal law at almost midpoint in the story :

 

"Que de s'amur l'aseura

E el sun cors li otria". 

"That of her love she assured him

and accorded to him her body," (line 178)

 

We see the beginning of a general disintegration of things as they should be. We have already mentioned the impotence of the seneschal, of justice. Next we see the attack on the king, figure of authority in feudal society : 

 

"Amurs l'ad mis en sa maisniee"

"Love had set up housekeeping with him" (line 54)

 

"Une seete ad vers lui traite,

Ki mut grant plaie li ad faite.

El quor li ad lanciee e mise !"

"Love had shot an arrow toward him, that a great wound (knot of

trouble, contradicting claims, plea for "confort") had made in

him, to his heart it had been thrust and placed (struck home)."

(line 55)

 

This rather common image of being smitten by love does not yet show loss of power or kingliness, but as we continue to read : "N'i ad mestier sens ne coin tise." ["He did not have there (in his household, kingdom) mastery of good sense or "savoir-faire". (line 58)]

 

He did not have mastery in his kingdom because the woman was in power over him. He had lost the intelligence or wisdom his whole kingdom looked to him to exercise in their behalf. He no longer knew what to do, "savoir-faire". As monarch , all action in his kingdom originated out of his authority. If he is incapable of action or decision, his whole country suffers. The significance of this situation is highlighted by the fact that it is alluded to at the very beginning of the story :

 

"Icil metent lur vie en nuncure

Ki d'amur n'unt sen ne mesure".

"Those who love without good sense or

moderation put their life in negligence." (line 17)

 

We see clearly the neglected state of affairs here :

 

"Tels est la mesure d'amer

Que nuls n'i deit reisun garder."

"Such is the measure of love,

that no one can keep reason in it." (line 19)

 

But a king should keep his wits about him. He can not.

 

To continue, his kingly countennance has changed for the worse (a loss of his "chevalerie"?) : "Tuz en est mumes e pensis." "In all he is mournful and pensive." (line 60)

 

His demeanor is gloomy and he is brooding, not acting.

 

"La nuit ne dort ne ne repose,

Mes sei meismes blasme e chose".

"At night he doesn't sleep or rest,

but blames and chatters to himsetf." (line 63)

 

Here the king shows all the traits of the courtly lover, the mindless fool befuddled by love. What becomes of the kingdom, with the head of state in such a condition ?

 

"Allas! fet il, queils destinee

M'amenat en ceste cuntree ?"

"Alas, he says, what destiny

led me to this country ?" (line 65)

 

He has now acknowledged that some power other than himself (who should be the highest power in the land), has control of his life :  destiny.

 

"Pur ceste dane qu'ai veüe

M'est une anguisse al quor ferue,

Ki tut le cors me fet trembler."

"For that woman whom I've seen is

anguish to me, to my stricken heart,

that makes aU my body tremble." (line 67)

 

His physical powers are now in decline as well. It matters not whether his heart, the organ, is literally stricken with palpitations, arrhythmias and /or tachachardias (of an anxiety attack ?) and making his whole body tremble with weakness, or his infatuation has so enervated him that his body is no longer under his control. His might is on the wane. Even the seneschal is aware of the kings weakness :

 

"II ne seit pas queils est li maus

De quei li reis sent les friçuns". 

"He does not know what is the evil

of which the king suffers to tremble." (line 108)

 

We have read why the king is "deshaitiez": "Li reis veilla tant que jur fu" (line 101,5). The seneschal, justice is more perceptive : his trembling comes from an evil, of which his wife is direct cause (line 110). The kings weakness goes further : "Que d'autre femme n'ot talent" ["He had no desire for any other woman." (line 198)] ] ] Or he has lost the ability to perform sexually with any other. He has lost all "proëce". "The king now has nothing save his title and his crown...he is not capable of defending either" his rights or his Lady(57). 

 

The final outcome of "lur druërie" is foretold at its very beginning :

 

"Bien les tiendrent, mut s'entramerent,

Puis en mururent e flnerent."

"They possessed each other well, they loved each other

much, then they died from their loving and so finished."

(line 183)

 

Why is this ending anticipated so early in the affair, if not to signal to us to begin looking for ways of untangling and understanding the divergent forces at work in the situation.

 

The general downfall, decline, extended beyond the tragic love triangle to the whole countryside : 

 

"Femme epuse ot li seneschals

Dunt puis vint el pais granz mais."

"The seneschal had taken a wife from

whom later came great evils to the country." (line 29)

 

The fact that this is announced in the same couplet that introduces the wife into the story should alert us to the many difficulties to follow, and that there may well be something suspect in this woman's, perhaps in any woman's position in the hierarchy of this society.

 

III. L'Ancienne Loi

 

Justice in "l'Ancienne Loi", the Old Testament, the law of Moses, is a simple matter of vengeance, an     eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It often took the form of the "vendetta", private vengeance for the death of a family member on the murderer or a member of his family. Which caused the often protected blood feuds that dominated the countryside (and gave excuse to the noble class for the exercise of arms), and was imposed as the most sacred of duties(58). Although the "Nouvelle Loi" had already been around for many centuries, tradition supported the "Ancienne Loi" in practice. "In short, never was theology less identified with the popular religion as it was felt and lived"(59). We find Ecclesiastes 11:1 paraphrased in line 309. Eccl. 11:1 "Cast thy bread upon the waters : for thou shalt find it after many days."(60)

 

"Tels purcace le mal d'autrui

Dunt tuz li mais revert sur lui." 

"Whoever seeks that evil should befall someone else,

all of those evils come back upon him."( line 309)

 

The other aspect of the tradition of l''Ancienne Loi" is the "ordalie". This was the practice of proving innocence or guilt through trial by fire. The guilty are burned in a fire that symbolizes Hell. The innocent escape unburned. The method chosen by the wife to kill the seneschal was a bath of boiling water. To submit the seneschal to the "ordalie" was truly an attempt to "justify" their relationship and their solution to the whole question of inequality. It shows as well that the "confort" of the courtly code believes it can overpower the hierarchies of the feudal code.

 

"L'ewe buillant feit aporter

U li seneschals dut entrer."

"Boiling water she had brought,

wherein the seneschal was supposed to enter." (line 275)

 

I find this an uncommon way to kill someone, suggesting that perhaps we are meant to read deeper interpretations beneath the story line. These we will uncover in the "Nouvelle Loi".

 

IV. La nouvelle Loi

 

The Golden Rule epitomizes the teachings of "La Nouvelle Loi." Expounded seven times in the New Testament, Gal. 5:14 phrases it :  "For all this law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." This makes the question of justice a n equaliy simple equation : justice is to internalize the feelings of the other and act so as to bring him the greatest good. The king is clearly aware of this principle as he considers seducing the wife of the seneschal :

 

"E si jo l'aim, jeo ferai mal :  

Ceo est la femme al seneschal". 

"And if I love her, I would do wrong: that is the wife

of the seneschal" my officer of justice" (line 71).

 

Garder li dei amur e fei

" I owe to keep love and (good) faith with him." (line 73)

 

(This was also a feudal duty) Si cum jeo voil k'll face a mei - As I wish that he should do to me - He knows that to pursue the matter would be wrong. However, at no other time has the professed religious befief been shown to be more lacking in the behaviors of a society(61). So he again finds an excuse to go ahead with his selfish indulgence, considering it perhaps the more fitting, in view of his feudal superiority.

 

"Mes nepurquant pis iert asez

Que pur li seie afolez."

"But nevertheless it would be that much worse

that I should be disabled, wounded or killed by him." (line 77)

 

Why should he risk dying of sexual frustration to the benefit of one of his inferiors ? "The sentiment of honor (arising out of the feudal code), says Burckhardt, this strange mixture of conscience and of egotism", is compatible with many vices and susceptible to extravagant delusions"(62). We see how poorly the feudal code meshes with the selfless considerations of the "Nouvelle Loi". We will move now to an ordinance that parallels that of the "ordalie" in the "Ancienne Loi": baptism.

 

As the plan is set forth by the wife and acted out by the king, the king comes to be bled for three days : "Surjurnez ; si serez seigner" (line 245). I must add here the alternate meaning for "se seigner" :  "se croiser", evoking a religious connotation and suggesting that perhaps the lovers were even invoking a blessing on their actions.

 

"E al tierz jur si vus baignez."

"Stay with us; and be bled and on the third day, bathe." (line 246)

 

This brings us back to the baths that were to serve as the "ordalie" under the "Ancienne Loi". But viewed from the "Nouvelle Loi" the baths represent baptism. Originally performed by submersion in water, baptism was to wash away the sins of the penitent. 1) It symbolizes the death of Jesus Christ and, through Him, 2) the death of sins. 3) Three days after His death came the resurrection, 4) Ufe after the death of sin. Each of these ideas is paralleled in our story. 3) Three days are spent losing fife's blood (though this was considered a health cure at the time), after which the king and the seneschal's wife anticipated 4) a new life unencumbered by considerations of justice and equality. 1) This was to come about by the death of a n innocent, the seneschal, justice. 2) The death of sins happens in a very different way than planned:  the lovers are not penitent, so they die with their sins. We have examined "Equitan" from the point of view of the woman and of the king. We mustnow complete the love triangle and briefly discuss the seneschal's attitude throughout all of this.

 

"The seneschal likely suspected his wife's infidelity.

Dolenz en est li senescaus ;

II ne seit pas queils est li maus

De quei li reis sent les friçuns:

Sa femme en est dreite acheisuns."

"The seneschal is sorrowful over this;

he knows not from what evfi the king feels to tremble:

his wife is directly the cause, or his wife Is In direct

accusation of It." (line 107)

 

He is nevertheless, at all times willing to serve his king. On the symbolic level, justice is always willing to serve appropriate authority.

 

"Al tierz jur dist k'il baignereit,

Li seneschals mut le voleit."

"On the third day teU him to bathe,

the seneschal wanted to very much." (line 267)

 

It's possible here to see a desire on the part of justice, as symbol, to facilitate repentance from sin, by participating in baptism. As the character in the story this is much less likely. This brings us to the climax of the story and perhaps to some conclusions. After the three days the baths are prepared and the seneschal returns from a brief walk :

 

"Le rei e sa femme ad trovez

U il gisent, entr'acolez."

"The king and his wife he found where

they he, coupled together." (line 291)

 

Justice has discovered sin in flagrant delicti. The king acknowledges his wrong doing by trying to hide :

 

"Pur sa vfieinie covrir

Dedanz la cuve saut joinz piez". 

"In order to cover his viUainy he jumped

into the vat feet together." (line 294)

 

Here, in the end, we find an inverted attempt at the lb) immixtio manuum. The king is here, with the symbolism of the "joinz piez", finally submitting to a higher authority, which must be construed as religious in nature. The water that closes over him, and accepts his inferiority, is baptismal and / or "ordalie".

 

"Unques garde ne s'en dona: 

Ileoc murut e escauda."

"However he didn't take care and

there died and was scalded." (line 297)

 

He failed the "ordalie" and was burned in his sins, satisfying the "Ancienne Loi". The potential baptism to wash away or kill sin did not occur and the sinner died with his sins : the new life offered by the "Nouvelle Loi" was rejected.

 

Now that the figure of authority has dismissed himself from the scene, is justice finally capable of action ?

 

"Li seneschals ad bien veü

Coment del rei est avenu."

"The seneschal saw clearly

what had happened to the king." (line 301)

 

He was killed by the scalding water. He hears the collective voice of Middle Age society :  "Justice should prosecute the unjust everywhere and to the end. Reparation and retribution have to be extreme, and assume the character of revenge. In this exageraated need of justice, primitive barbarism, pagan at base, blends with Christian conceptions of society"(63).

 

"Sa femme prent demeintenant,

El bain la met le chief avant."

"His wife he took immediately and

put her in the bath head first." (line 303)

 

Justice acted to right "le monde a l'inverse" and meted out the justice of the "Ancienne Loi":  trial by fire which delivers vengeance to the guilty. But this is the justice of the "Nouvelle Loi" as weUll as the death of sin is required, either by baptism of the penitent, or by the eventual death of the sinner in his \ her sins if he \ she chooses not to repent.

 

Leaving the consideration of the Old and New Law for a moment to return to the ritual of hommage, we find the 4) l'exfestucatio, or destruction by the seneschal of his bond of vassalage to the king. The significant object is the wife, whom he throws at the feet of the king in the boiling cauldron. Though mute, he seems to be echoing Meyer, "Man, (my equal, no longer my lord) ! I take back from you my oath of loyalty. Do not say that I have betrayed you". Justice has, with this symbolic act, removed himself from subjection to feudal authority and from subjugation to the king.

 

Justice is left finally to stand alone. He retains, nonetheless, his fief :  the responsibility to "justiser" in all the land : "E cil (le seneschal) en est saufs et gariz." / "And he is saved and cured." (line 300) He is saved from the wrongs he has endured and from his impotence. Justice is no longer in the position to have to submit to a superior, a king. He is no longer in a position to be vulnerable to disloyalty from an inferior, his wife. It would almost seem that for justice to be cured of being a victim, he would have to prevent any future entanglements with superior authority, "le Code Féodal" ; with social love (in any fashion ?), "le Code Courtois"; that he must be free to act on a n individual (not a word that even existed in Old French) basis to deliver the new life of the "Nouvelle Loi" to the penitent, or vengeance of the "Ancienne Loi" to the unrepentant.

 

Have I "justified" drawing these conclusions from marie de France's Equitan ? Regardless of an author's and /or participant's consciousness of symbolism in a ritualistic society, such symbolism has power to order and inform life as well as literatue(64). As Marie struggles to unknot the demands of these conflicting codes of conduct on life in her time, she gives us, in this artfully crafted tale, insightful consideration with which to re-weave a better one.