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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Minstrel Disguise in Medieval French Narrative: Identity. Performance, Authorship by Marilyn Lawrence A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of French New York University May 2001 Professor Evelyn Birge Vitz Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number 3009333 Copyright 2001 by Lawrence, Marilyn All rights reserved. U__M_ I® UMI Microform 3009333 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © Marilyn Lawrence All Rights Reserved, 2001 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TO BRYAN “Then Beren and Luthien went through the Gate, and down the labyrinthine stairs; and together wrought the greatest deed that has been dared by Elves or Men. For they came to the seat of Morgoth in his nethermost hall, that was upheld by horror, lit by fire, and filled with weapons of death and torment. There Beren slunk in wolf s form beneath his throne; but Luthien was stripped of her disguise by the will of Morgoth, and he bent his gaze upon her. She was not daunted by his eyes; and she named her own name, and offered her service to sing before him, after the manner of a minstrel. Then Morgoth looking upon her beauty conceived in his thought an evil lust, and a design more dark than any that had yet come into his heart since he fled from Valinor. Thus he was beguiled by his own malice, for he watched her, leaving her free for a while, and taking secret pleasure in his thought. Then suddenly she eluded his sight, and out of the shadows began a song of such surpassing loveliness, and of such blinding power, that he listened perforce; and a blindness came upon him, as his eyes roamed to and fro, seeking her. “All his court were cast down in slumber, and all the fires faded and were quenched; but the Silmarils in the crown on Morgoth's head blazed forth suddenly with a radiance of white flame; and the burden of that crown and of the jewels bowed down his head, as though the world were set upon it, laden with a weight of care, of fear, and of desire, that even the will of Morgoth could not support. Then Luthien catching up her winged robe sprang into the air, and her voice came dropping down like rain into pools, profound and dark. She cast her cloak before his eyes, and set upon him a dream, dark as the Outer Void where once he walked alone. Suddenly he fell, as a hill sliding in avalanche, and hurled like thunder from his throne lay prone upon the floors of hell. The iron crown rolled echoing from his head. All things were still.” - J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion (180-81) iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS At times this dissertation has itself seemed to don an impenetrable disguise, cunningly masking its true self from its own author. I would like to thank the committed team of scholars who have guided progression towards revelation and recognition of my own subject: my Director, Evelyn Birge Vitz; my primary readers, Nancy Freeman Regalado and Kimberlee Campbell; and the other members of my committee, Kathryn Talarico and Philip Kennedy. Wearing as many hats as the protean minstrel figures this thesis examines, these professors have served as invaluable advisers, teachers, mentors, role models, and friends. I deeply appreciate their aid in my own anagnorisis, the movement from ignorance to knowledge, that is, and always should be. a continual process in life as well as in academia. I also would like to thank my husband, Bryan, for all his support, and my son, Max, whose eagerly awaited birth — which occurred four days after I submitted this dissertation — motivated the final push to complete this project. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This study examines questions of identity, performance, and authorship that medieval French narratives raise when characters disguise themselves as minstrels. In minstrel disguise, issues of identity are magnified because a character assumes the mask of the protean minstrel, a shape shifter and boundary crosser who himself epitomizes ambiguity and plurality of identity. The episode of minstrel disguise is the key moment in a narrative when we, as readers or auditors, witness the process by which an author constructs the character of the proteiform performer. Unlike other kinds of disguise found in medieval literature, minstrel disguise enables the author to create and define the identity of an artist whose craft includes the composition and transmission of narrative, an art that overlaps or is intertwined with that of both the author and the performer. Since they highlight performance and the narrative art, representations of minstrel disguise invite analysis of authorial attitudes towards and perceptions of the professional performer, performance, and authorship. Such episodes enable us to examine how the construction and deconstruction of minstrel identity — which occur in scenes of masking, unmasking, and recognition — affect plot, structure narrative, and generate meaning. In addition, our study explores how authors perceive and present the protagonists who don minstrel disguise — vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. including such principal medieval characters as Tristan, King Arthur, and Renart the Fox. Our subject also leads us to analyze how characters within our narratives interpret signs of identity and what those modes of interpretation reveal about characters and their relations to each other. Although we refer to a corpus of fifteen narratives, our analysis concentrates on a few select texts: the Folie Tristan of Oxford, Gerbert de MontreuiTs Continuation de Perceval, branch lb of the Roman de Renart. Ysave le Triste. and Le Chevalier du Papegau. Our study adds a literary dimension to the body of scholarship on minstrels and minstrelsy which to date has focused primarily on historical and social realities. We focus on the minstrel and his art as authorial constructs that invite exploration of literary questions, including issues of disguise, performance, and literary composition, as raised by authors of narrative fiction. vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.