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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75-15,320 KOTIN, Armine Avakian, 1943- THE NOUVELLES OF PHILIPPE DE VIGNEULLES. Yale University, Ph.D., 1974 Language and Literature, modern Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Nouvelles of Philippe de Vigneulles A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Armine Avslcian Kotin December 1974 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract The Nouvelles of Philippe de Vigneulles Armine Avakian Kotin Yale University 1974- The recently published Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles by Phi­ lippe de Vigneulles (14-71-1528), cloth merchant of Metz and author of a Chronique and a book of Memoires. is a collection of tales in the tradition of the short comic narrative in French. Some tales are absent or amputated due to the muti­ lation of the only extant manuscript. The nouvelle as a genre, lacking a contemporary formal theory, has been defined, etymologically and pragmatically, as the telling of something new; compositionally, as a short tale presenting a situation which results in an unexpected outcome; esthetically, as a realistic form. The Italian no­ vella. the facetia, exemplum, lai, and fabliau all contribu­ ted to its development. Philippe's prologues enlist the benevolent attention of the reader and provide an argument of authority, a modesty clause, a substantive introduction of the nouvelle. and a moral justification. His use of the term nouvelle is both as a pragmatic event and as a literary form; the meaning of nouvelle as new event is retained in the use of the term as a genre. Traditional elements are important and place the nouvelles in the greater genre called by Tiemann the Kurzer- Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. z ah lung;» Two sequential models based on the sequence of events in each tale are abstracted from two basic types of narra­ tive , one about foolish events and the other about clever events. Variations include repetition of all or part of the models and accentuation of any part. Narrative logic can be linear, circular, additive or alternative. Eleven thematic categories are described based on variations of the models. The outcome of the foolishness tales, a revelation, and the outcome of the cleverness tales, an uncontrolled situation, are homologous. The models theoretically describe the unity of the work. The purpose of the work is twofold: to amuse and to instruct. Modalities governing the comic outcome include knowledge, power- pretense, and desire. Attributes of the characters determine or are determined by the sequence of events. Laughter is present in the tales as a model for the reader's laughter, but also serves various social functions. Morals are important and take many forms, including implicit morals. The interrelation of both aspects is particularly evident in erotic and scatological tales, which show that immorality can be laughed at, and that laughter is the ulti­ mate purpose of the work. An explicit claim to truth and reality, evident also in compositional techniques, is supported by four factors of concreteness (historical events, social customs, occupations, and physical aspects of daily life) which provide a back­ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ground of social realism. The accumulation of detail in the description of events and psychological realism actualize the narration and serve to persuade the reader of a realism whose referent is not factual events but a literary tradi­ tion of realism. The style of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles is original; other aspects of originality are the Metz local color, the strong presence of the author, the bourgeois values of the work, and the '’running frame." Not a humanistic work, the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles reaffirms and strengthens the young genre of the French nouvelle. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Contents Page Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Definitions and Origins of the French Nouvelle 6 Definitions 6 Origins 19 Literary Sources 19 From Verse to Prose 27 Non-literary Sources 28 Social Origins 29 Chapter 2. The Nouvelle as Defined by Philippe de Vigneulles: Prologues and Tradition 32 Prologues 32 Tradition 43 Chapter 3» Sequential Models 62 Observations 69 Variations 69 Chapter 4. Amusement or Instruction? The T T lf i w o f f t Q Q V V A IIIUL W A V*-L VWV/ y u Laughter and Comedy 98 Knowledge 98 Power 102 4-^ -1 f\~I x ic v /cu o q x v j Desire 106 Attributes 109 Morals 115 Obscenity 122 ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iii Chapter 5» Realism 131 Claim to Truth and Reality 132 Compositional Factors 135 Concreteness 13Q Psychological Realism 146 Conclusion 156 Notes I73 Short Title List 194- List of Works Consulted 197 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction One of the more pleasant products of recent scholarly editing is the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles of Philippe de Vi­ gneulles (1471-1528), cloth merchant and hosier of Metz.^ Not to be confused with the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles of the fifteenth century (c. 1460), the collection is an amusing compendium of tales in the tradition of the short comic nar- p rative of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Prance. Philippe de Vigneulles is better known as the author of a Chronicue* and his other major work, a book of M&moires, and several poems and a translation into modern French of the chanson de geste Garin le Loherain complete his written 3 opus. Much is known about Philippe de Vigneulles' life, due largely to his own narration of it in the M&moires and the Chronique. Born of a peasant family in Vigneulles, a small town outside of Metz, he became a resident of Metz of some status and was a successful businessman. His youthful flight which eventually took him to Italy (1486-1489) prob­ ably introduced him to the Decameron and the Facetiae of Poggio, and it was in 1505 during a serious illness that he began to compose his own collection of facetious tale3. The year 1515 in the Chronique and the Memoires refers to the completion of the nouvelles, although some ten additional tales were composed at a later time and appended to the col­ lection. The work was never published during his lifetime, 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. perhaps never intended for publication, and may have been used for reading aloud to a Metz public. At least two manu­ scripts existed at one time. Without entering into detail, a brief description of h. the only extant manuscript is necessary. Lacking the first page of the prologue, the manuscript has been severely mu­ tilated, resulting in the absence of 6 of the original 100 tales, the near-absence of 5 others (amputated to the extent that they are incomprehensible), and the incompletion of many others: 4 are lacking only the title, 19 the beginning, 7 the beginning and the end, 13 only the end. Of the addi­ tional 10 tales, only no. 110 has survived, glued to the inside of the back cover of the manuscriptDue to the bad condition of the paper, 5 of the original 100 are missing some part of the middle. The absence of a title raises the problem of dust what that title was. Nowhere in Philippe de Vigneulles' writings £ does the title Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles appear. A different title can be found in both the Chronique and the Mlmoires: at the date of 1515 in the Chronique, IV, 198, Phi­ lippe says he composed "ung aultre livre contenant cenc novelles ou contes joieulx," and in the Mlmoires, p. 283, he mentions "ung livre contenant cent nowelles ou contes doieulx." The presence of the same title in the prologue to the 62nd tale ("et pour multiplier le nombre des centz nouvelles ou compte doieux") suggests that this was perhaps the intended title. It has the advantage of referring to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.