THE PROLOGUE TO THE LAIS OF MARIE DE FRANCE

AND MEDIEVAL POETICS

IN
LEO SPITZER

AN earlierarticle,"Zur AuffassungPrologueto the Lais of Marie de France,

der Kunst des Arciprestede Hita" who likewisespeaks of the "gloss" added
(ZRPh, LIV, 237), I had occasion to by thereaderto thetext. I soughtto show
cite strophe 1631 of the Libro de buen that the idea of an interpretation super-
amor: added to theworkofartby thereaderwas
.... pequefio librode testo;masla glosa connected with the gloss technique of
Non creoque es pequefia;antees muygran
biblicalexegesiswhich,overthe courseof
prosa,
Que sobrecada fablase entiende otracosa, centuries,develops the whole meaning
Sinla quese alegaenla raz6nfermosa, impliedorlatentin thetext-the progress
and to questionthe "modernistic"inter- achievedby the latestreadersbeingfore-
pretationofferedby Castro,' who would seen, as it were, by divine inspiration:
see thereinthe relativisticidea that the even such "this-worldly"poets as Marie
workof art dependsupon the interpreta- de France and Juan Ruiz could not help
tionsofits readers;as proofof themedie- but see theirsecular worksin the same
val cast of mind of the debonair Arch- light as that of the sacred book, the
priest,I compared these lines with the Bible;2these"clercsmalgr6eux" saw their
I For a more recent discussion of Juan Ruiz, the
reader may consult the excellent remarks of Maria glossing of a purely moral character, such as that to
Rosa Lida in RFH, II, 106, and in her edition (Colecci- which the Rabbi Sem Tob refers,
d6 de textosliterarios [Buenos Aires: Losada, 1941]). [the reader]
2 From the necessity of glossing the Scriptures "Fallard nueva cosa
de buen saber onest
(which are written in languages inaccessible to the
common believer) arose the feeling that the word of y mucha sotil glosa
que fisierorn
al testo[sc. los filosdfosJ,"
God in its objectivity ranks high above any particular
interpretation imagined by human beings (commenta- we come to the point where any work of imagination
tors, etc.). Hence the opinion developed that any may become a gloss: according to an apocryphal
teaching is subject to more or less "subjective" version of a strophe of the Coplas a la muertede su
glosses: in the Image du monde (13th cent., ed. Hilka, padre of Jorge Manrique (which W. Krauss, ZRPh,
LX, 19, considers to be in the spirit of the sixteenth
Sammlung rom. Ubungstexte, Vol. XIII) the phi-
losopher Secundus has heard the "sentence": "every century), the Spanish poet applies the word "gloss" to
woman is a fornicatrix": "De la parole tex sens naist his own poetry-which he opposes to the "fantastic
fabulations" of others:
Ou ii pluisours metent tel glose [follows one para-
phrase]. Autrementdire le poez I Par autres moz, se "No quiero seguir la via
vous voules [follows another one]. De la glose et de la del poetico fingir
en mis glosas
sentenceI Fu cil philosofe en tence ('in doubt')." The
next step is: our whole visible world is to truth in dexo todas phantasias
de novelas enxerir
the relationship of the gloss to the text: in the same fabulosas."
Image du monde St. Brandan has seen wondrous
birds, and he prays to God: "Diex qui connois les And already in the Middle Ages the treating of his-
choses, I Dont nus fors toi ne set les gloses, I ... Je te pri torical subject matter in the manner of a romance had
been considered as a variety of glossing; cf. vss. 4916-
que cest pecheur, sire, I Par ta pit6 reveler daignes I
Ce qu'aux iex voi." What he has seen is only one 19 of Gille de Chyn (ed. Place):
possible version of God's truth. Thus a thought pat- "... la glose dist, et la some:
tern very similar to the Platonic ideology comes into Gilles de Cyn fu si parfais
existence: in any phenomenon of the visible world C'ainc par parole ne par fais
Ne fu onquez en lui repris."
(also in a book) we find only approximations to the
Idea, however "subtle" our "gloss" may be. From [Footnote 2 continued on facing page ]
[MODERN PHILOLOGY, November, 1943] 96

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 MARIE DE FRANCE AND MEDIEVAL
books glossed,scanned by eyes eager to In my interpretation of lines 9-22 of
penetrateto the "substantifique
moelle."3 the Prologue--
: See my article forthe models of this expression of
Rabelais (and of Berceo: tolgamosla corteza,al moello
entremos). I may add the following three passages:
Tertullian: "Quis nunc medullam scripturarum
magis nosset quam ipsa Christi schola?"
Renclus de Moiliens, Miserere,str. IX:
"Merveille est coment hom repose,
Se il entent com j'ai enclose
Grande matere en ches brids mos....
Hom, entent a che ke tu os!
Dusqu'a la des os
T'en toukera moele
ancui le glose,
Quant le sens t'en avrai desclos.
Se bien l'as en ten cuer enclos,
Ja mais te vie n'iert desclose"
(the pair "gloss"-"text" is parallel to that of "mar-
row"-"bark").
Placides et Timeo (cf. Langlois, La Connaissance
de la nature et du monde,p. 311): "D'aucuns pr6ten-
dent que 'la vieille loi et la nouvelle est toute une
meisme chose,' comme une noix, dont l'6corce et
I'amande n'ont pas la m6me saveur. Les H breux
sont dans 1'6corce et les Chr6tiens dans I'amande."
For a similar contrast of letter and spirit, one may
also consult H. Pflaum, Arch. rom., XVII, 301. The
figureof the marrow as opposed to the bark (which I
have attested in Aulus Gellius) is quite in the Latin
tradition; note also materies,which originally referred
to "la partie dure de l'arbre, opposde l' corce, aux
feuilles, le tronc de l'arbre, en tant que produisant
des rejetons" (Ernout-Meillet)--that is, the life-
principle (etymological connection with mater,
'mother').
[Footnote 2-continued]
Here la some would seem to be the gist of the legend
surrounding the hero; la glose, the totality of written
versions (for this meaning of some cf. Schultz-Gora,
Arch.f. n. Spr., CXXXV, 415). If we consider a gloss
as being based upon an original text, then, in such a
case, this "text" must be the life actually lived by the
hero: the hero becoming thereby a "source" of mani-
fold legends (glosses). From every hero, as fromevery
saint, there emanates a legendary tradition, a "gloss"
superadded to the original text of his life. Every ex-
emplary life is a Bible--and who says Bible says exe-
gesis; cf. the epithet dedicated by the Marquis de
Santillana to the Virgin of Guadalupe: texto e admira-
bil glosa (cited by Mme Lida).
A last vestige of this medieval or Platonic idea of
the gloss may be found in Mallarm6's Aprks-midi
d'un faune; the Faun, wondering if the nymphs have
been dreamed by him or were a reality, says:
"RUfl1chissons
ou si les femmesdont tu gloses
Figurent un souhait de tes sens fabuleux!!"
We may, perhaps, assume the following proportion:
the figureof speech which paraphrases an idea is to
this idea as a gloss to an original text; the different
women imagined by the Faun are "fabulous" figures,
glosses of the Platonic idea of Woman.
I pointed out in Travaux du semin. de phil. rom.
(Istanbul), I, 172, that Dante considers himself as a
chiosatoreof his libro de la memoria;he glosses, that is,
Modern Philology 1943.41:96-102.
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POETICS 97
Costumefu as anciens,
ceo testimoinePreciens,
es livresque jadis faiseient
assez oscurementdiseient
pur cels ki a veniresteient
e ki aprendreles deveient,
que peiissentgloserla letre
e de lur sen le surplusmetre.
Li philesophele saveient,
par els meismel'entendeient,
cum plus trespassereit li tens,
plus serreientsutilde sens
e plus se savreientguarder
de ceo qu'i erta trespasser-
I adopted in large part the explanation
of R. Meissner (Die Strengleikar, pp.
280 ff.):
[In demSatz iiberPriscian]werdendeutlich
den schriftstellern die spiter lebendengegen-
cels
fibergestellt(pur ki a veniresteient).Und
dieser satz soll .... offenbardurch v. 17-22
erliutertwerden. Ein klarer fortgangwird
nur festgestellt, wenn man diese verse nicht
auf das eigeneleben der philosophen,sondern
in his Vita nuova,the ideal pattern of the events which
must necessarily transcend his narrative (cf. ibid. for
other Dante texts). On the gloss in medieval music cf.
Bukofzer, Speculum, XVII, 165 ff.
We should not forgetthe fact that even as late as
in Calder6n (in the Mdgico prodigioso,El Joseph de las
mujeres, etc.) and in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (and
Goethe's Faust) we find the medieval type of the
scholar who, in order to find the real truth, "glosses"
a text. J. M. de Cossio in "Siglo XVII" (Madrid,
1939), in an article entitled "Racionalismo del arte
dramitico de Calder6n," points out a typical se-
quence of dramatic situations in the latter: "(a) Un
personaje de vocaci6n intelectual que lee un lbro
y atl tropezar con un pasaje de problemdticainter-
pretaci6n interrumpe su lectura. (b) Una digresi6n
de rigurosa dialtcta obre tal pasaje. (c) Una lucha
intima en su mente. ... (d) Un var6n justo que
interviene para aclarar las dudas que ocurren al per-
sonaje intelectualmente preocupado. (e) Finalmente,
su conversi6n debida a las luces racionales que tal
var6n le proporciona." The struggle between knowl-
edge and faith starts, then, froma text for which dif-
ferentexplanations can be given. The presence of the
same type of situations in differentcountries points
to medieval dramatic patterns. In Spain the word
apurar ('to bring out the pure truth,the real explana-
tion') is characteristic: a Legismundo, too ('apurar,
cielos, pretendo'), starts from a text of Augustine, as
is well known.
98 LEO SPITZER

verschiedene generationen von philosophenwhichseemedconfirmed by Marie's men-

bezieht.Dass meineauffassung die richtige tionof the grammarianPriscian. But the
ist, daffirsprechendie von Warnkeange- patient investigationsover the last ten
fiihrten wortedes Priscian,die derMariede
years of E. R. Curtiusinto medievalaes-
Franceoffenbar vorschweben: grammatica ars theticsand
poetics,in whichthis scholar
, cuiusauctores, quantosuntiuniores,tanto has shown the
....
etingeniis etdiligentia unity of thoughtin the
perspicaciores, floruisse
valuisseomniumiudicio confirmantur literaryproductions,both Latin and Ro-
....
Die verse 21-22 .. . . beziehensich nichtauf mance, of the Middle Ages, cast a new
moralische,sondernwissenschaftliche ver- light on this Prologue; in particular,his
fehlungen; die philosophen wussten, dass die excellentarticle,"TheologischePoetikim
jiingeren(und daherklfigeren) geschlechteritalienischen Trecento"(ZRPh, LX [1940],
sichbesserals sie selbstvor demwiirden in 1 ff.),forcesus to recognizea newmeaning
acht nehmenk6nnen,wobeiversehenleicht forii philesophe.
eintreten; sie wusstenes par els meisme[s], Takingas his pointofdeparturea Latin
wennsie namlichihreignesverstandnis mit
epitaphon Dante composedby his friend,
demihrervorginger verglichen. Die dichterinthe
poet and professorof Bologna, Gio-
willalso sagen:schondie altenwussten, dass del Virgilio,
die nachweltkliigersein wiirde,und dass vanni
daherein schriftsteller nichtdas urteilder Theologus Dantes,nulliusdogmatis expers
gegenwart, sonderndas feinereverstaindnis Quod foveat clarophilosophiasinu,
und die h6hernansprfiche zukiinftiger Gloriamusarum, vulgogratissimusauctor,
ge-
schlechter vor augenhabenund mitum so Hic iacet..... ,
grtsserem ernstan sein werkgehenmuisse. Curtiusestablishesthe of the
Wirmiissen also zu serreient significance
(v. 20) einallge- terms and philosophia;
meines subjekt:diegelehrten, dieschriftsteller theologus, dogma,
to what we mightnaIvelysup-
o.a. erginzen,das wird meineserachtens contrary
durch die nordischetibersetzung und die pose, these mean, respectively,"poet,"
Priscianstelle o.ber
erwiesen..... das miss- "teachings of philosophy,"and "poetry."
verstehen der Priscianstelle, mit der Marie Indeed, Giovanni del Virgiliowas antici-
ihrwerkwiirdig einleitenwill,kannmanwohl patingthetheoriesofthe "Padova group"
Iicheln,aberwas sie herausliest, ist dochein -in particular,those of Mussato (1261-
schinerund tiefergedanke:derschriftsteller 1329), who had proclaimedthe unityand
soll sich ftirstrengere und weisererichter identityof philology,theology,and po-
riusten, als ersie in dergegenwart findet. etry,and withwhomwe findthe alterna-
I was contentto modifythe opinionof tive definitions: Poesis, / Altera quae
this scholar only in a matterof detail: quondamPhilosophiafuit-Poesis, / Al-
lines20-22 I tookto mean "thoseto come teraquae quondamTheologiafuit.
Curtiusdistinguishes in the theoriesof
[whetherreadersor authorsI did not at-
Mussato and Giovanni del Virgiliofive
temptto decide] would take care not to
deviatein theirglossesfromthetruesense motifs or topoi which may be foundcon-
of the text"; withthisI comparedthefre- stantly in the Latin literatureof the
seventh to twelfth centuries:
quent exhortationsof the Archpriestto
his readers,of the type: La maneradel 1. The equationpoetry = theology,a com-
libroentiendelo sutil. monplace, known to Thomas Aquinas, which
wastobefoundwithCicero,Varro,Augustine,
It was Meissner'sopinion(which,tacit-
Isidore,Papias, and whichgoes back ulti-
ly, I accepted) that li philesophewereac- matelyto Aristotle (cf.deoXoyoaavresapplied
tuallyphilosophers,scholars-an opinion tothepoetstreating mythology; b0XhoyaL men-

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 MARIE DE FRANCE AND MEDIEVAL
tionedalong withthe iraLnral4).The Church
Fathers were easily enabled to justify the
pagan poets by declaringthem to be poetae
theologi;this theologuscould then be applied
to the Christiantheologian-poets.
2. The equation poetry= philosophy;this
was an idea of late antiquity,attestedin the
MiddleAgesas late as thethirteenth century-
for example,in the epitaphwhich Baudri de
Bourgueil composed on the "scholaster"
Godefroyde Reims (t1095):
Jocundusmagnaethesaurusphilosophiae
Magnaque musa perit,cum Godefredusobit,
and in his lamenton the failureof the age to
appreciatethe value of "divine poetry":
.... doleo qui glorianulla poetis....
Sunt dii, non hominesquos lactat philosophia,
-here alma materis evidently"science,"iden-
tifiedwith "poetry."
3. Harmonizationofpagan mythology with
Christiandogmas: sincethe Jewishand Chris-
tian apologistshad taught that the poets of
antiquity,whomtheysupposedto have lived
afterthe biblicalwriters,had borrowedfrom
the latter,so it could come about that the
legendstold by ancientpoets were paralleled
with biblical accounts: for example, in the
eclogaTheoduli(ca. 1000A.D.), gigantomachy =
the Tower of Babel; accordingto Aldhelm,
Hercules = Samson. We findwithMussatus,
who mentionsthe firstof theseexamples,the
formula:
Quae Genesisplanismemoratprimordia verbis,
Nigmate [=aenigmate) maiorimysticaMusa
docet
-the "mystic"or allegoricalMuse shall seek
to discovera Christianstockin pagan mythol-
ogy. Or,in thewordsofDante (Inf.,X, 61):
O voi che avete gl'intelletti
sani,
Mirate la dottrinache s'asconde
Sotto il velame degliversistrani.5
4 This identification is even older: Demokritos
read his philosophy into Homer (with "halsbrech-
erischen Interpretationsktinsten," says E. Frank
(Plato und die sogenanntenPythagoreer[Halle, 1923],
p. 73), and it is thanks to this presocratic philosopher
that surveys of Greek philosophy even yet proclaim
him the "Father of Philosophy."
AMay not these rersi strani of Dante, with their
allusions to pagan mythology (in this particular pas-
sage, to the myths of Medusa and the Furies), be
Modern Philology 1943.41:96-102.
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POETICS 99
4. "Biblical Poetics" ("Bibelpoetik"). The
theorywhichheld that manypartsof the Old
Testament(the Song of Songs, Psalms, etc.),
as wellas the parablesof Christ,were,like the
Homeric poems, originallywrittenin verse
had gainedacceptanceas earlyas the time of
Josephusand was to win over the Church
Fathers. Accordingto these apologists, the
sacred texts of Christianityare not inferior
in poeticbeautyto thoseof antiquity.Motifs
3 and 4 are in sum onlytwo partialaspects of
the general tendencyof harmonization(the
theologicalliteratureof Christianityis poetic,
and the poeticliteratureof paganismis theo-
logical),and are subordinatedto motifs1 and 2
(poetry= theology = philosophy),which seek
to unify the spiritual activities of creative
man,
5. -since all the artes come from God
(Cassiodorus).
If now we turn back to the Prologue of
Marie de France, we will recognize in lines
9-16 her own development of motif3: she
tells us that the ancients (probably the
pagan poets)6 expressed themselves obs-
compared with the fablas y versos estrailos,which, in
strophe 1634 of his Libro del buenamor,Juan Rutz pre-
sents to the simples among his readers--and which he
opposes to his (other) stories of strategems and wiles
whose numerous heroes are creatures of flesh and
blood?
"fue conpuesto el rromance,por muchos males e dafios
que fasen muchos e muchas a otras con sus engafios,
e por mostrar a los simples fablas e versos estrailos."
Mme Lida sees in these lines evidence of a threefold
division of subject matter: moral, epic, and lyrical.
But is there not rather involved a dichotomy: on the
one hand, stories of ((human) trickery; on the other,
fables and "strange" verse, that is, myths that are
pagan and mysterious---needingallegorical interpre-
tation (cf. the words of Marot in his Preface to the
Romance of the rose, cited in my article, p. 282:
"Fables sont faictes et inventfes pour les exposer au
sens mystique")? But I would not insist on this inter-
pretation.
* Compare the Prologue to the fables of Marie de
France:
"Cil ki sevent de letreiire
devreient bien metre leur cure
es bons livres et es escriz
e es essamples e es diz,
que ii philosophe troverent
e escristrente remembrerent...
ceo firentli ancien pere."
Then follows a mention of the emperor Romulu
composing admonitory tales forhis son and of Aesop
100 LEO SPITZER

curement .... pur celsqui a veniresteient, Thus thephilesophes ofverse16 are not
that is to say, for futureinterpreters or savantsbut preciselythosepoetaetheologi-
readers(not onlyforthe authorsto come, philosophirevealedto us by Curtius-i.e.,
as Meissner would have it). Marie de the "clerks" of antiquity,whom Marie
France,thinking"medievally"as did the naivelyinvestswith medieval trappings.
Archpriest,sees her own book as only These philosophical poets have them-
another"text," whichwill be "glossed," selves experiencedthe changes brought
after the model of the Old Testament about by time: timehas giventhecorrect,
commentedon by Tertullian,Augustine, theChristian,interpretation oftheancient
Jerome, etc.-after the model of Virgil authors, and Homer and Hesiod (i.e., a
and Ovid "moralized." The lursen (sen> Homer and a Hesiod conceivedof as po-
Germ.sin, 'sens') is obviouslythe "Chris- tential Christians) have undergonethe
tian" attitude(the intelletto sano of Dan- salutary experience of an "improved"
te) in whichthe interpreters consultthe explanationof the gigantomachywhich
pagan authors-authors whosepurposeit they sang. Marie, like all her contempo-
was (what a teleological bent she at- raries,is freeof any taint of nineteenth-
tributesto the imaginationof the an- centuryhistoricism:the Christian fact
cients!) to veil, withthe obscurityof po- has been of all times;if thisdoes not ap-
etic form,the eternalverities;doubtless, pear at firstglance,it willbe revealed"in
Marie feelsconstrainedto excuse,in har- time" by some commentatorof a more
mony with the apologists, the fictional enlightened age. (Here we are in thepres-
matterof whichshe treatsas well as the ence ofthe unilinearconceptionofhuman
poeticformof her lais.7 historyas taughtby Augustine.)
For celsqui a veniresteient, the genera-
writing fables for his master. Thus ii philosophe, ii tions to or
ancien pere = the pagan authors. This typically come, interpreters "just read-
medieval apologetic reappears in vs. 23: ers," willguardagainstdeviating,in their
"mes n'i a fable de folie
u ii nen ait philosophie
"glosses,"fromthe truecontents(ceo qu'i
es essamples ki sunt apres" ert)of the ancientworks. All the instinc-
(cf. the loco amor justified by the author of the Libro tive orthodoxy of the Middle Ages is here
de buen amor). in this ceo qu'i ert; in any poetic work
And we find in Brunetto Latini: "Philosophie est
verais encerchement des choses naturels et des thereis only one doctripe,the Christian
divines et des humaines, tant comme 4 homme est
doctrine,the "right" ("Paiens unt tort,
pooir d'entendre." And in Placides et Timeo (cf.
Langlois, p. 298) Ovid, when dealing with the ele- Chrestiensunt dreit"). Marie knowsthat
ments, is considered a philosopher: "'Ainsi explique her poetic tales have a Christiansignifi-
le philoeophe Naso qui recut le nom d'Ovide pour
avoir assimil6 le monde ? un ceuf (d'ovum et divido)" cance and that the "subtlety" of future
-it seems as though he got his name only by philoso- commentatorswill be exercised to dis-
phizing. (Cf. also Du Cange, s.v. philosophia, No. 2,
and philosophus, No. 1). I have already cited (ZRPh,
LIV, 243) the passage, which Curtius failed to men-
Juan Ruiz, Boccaccio, and Chaucer. The persistence
tion, of the humanist Politianus, who affirmedthat of this topos in the Spanish romances may now be
the "theologians" Homer, Orpheus, Pythagoras,
studied, thanks to the article of Krauss, "Novela-
Plato, etc., had hidden their "philosophy" in fables. Novelle---Roman," ZRPh, LX, 16 ff.; we learn, for
As late as the fifteenthcentury there appeared in
example, that the author of Oliveros de Castilla
Madrid a Philosophia antigua poetica of Lopes (1499) compares his romance of chivalry to the
Pinciano. I imagine that the Spanish word sabio, works of theology and philosophy. I may add the
which means not only 'savant' but also 'theologian' words of Lope which I have found cited by Madari-
(cf. sabio, 'rabbi,' with the Spanish Jews of Africa Guia del lector del Don Quijote,
aga, p. 49: "Riense
and the Orient), is only a translation of this same
philosophua, 'medieval encyclopedist.' muches de los libros de caballerlas y tienen raz6n si
los consideran per la esterior superficie ...; pero
7 Justifications of belles-lettres, with the same penetrando los corazones de aquella corteza, si
moralizing tone, are familiar to us from the works of hallan todas partes de la filosofia.....

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 MARIE DE FRANCE AND MEDIEVAL POETICS 101

coverthat immutableChristiantruth;in cal genesis and developmentof this ars

this conceptionof a continuitybeyond grammatica:originally
7ypacLa7tK?7(TXV)77)
historythereis no place forthe "mes vers and litteratura (the Latin wordis a trans-
ont le sens qu'on leur prate" of such a lation of the Greek term) were identical
subtle relativistof the modernbrand as in meaning; since Quintilian the terms
Paul Valery. The subtletyof futuregen- have represented, betweenthem,rectelo-
erations will be no weapon of attack quendiscientiamet poetarumenarrationem
against the buildingerectedby theiran- -that is, exercises of grammar (and
cestors;it willonlyenablethemto discern style), and explanationsof poetry (her-
more clearlythe archetypearchitecture; meneutics),or, in modern terminology,
the grandsonswillgrowin wisdom,not in linguisticsand literaryhistory;9even un-
skepticism. der Charlemagne,enarratiowas an inte-
But why is Marie herselfguilty(if in- gralpartofars grammatica. Thus itis only
deed she is the one responsible)of a false logical that Marie shouldhave chosen a
interpretation ofthe"ceo qu'i ert"in Pris- grammarianas a type of homolitteratus;
cian; for Priscian was clearlyspeakingof and, ofthe two authorsofLatin grammar
the "later authors" of ars grammatica- currentin the Middle Ages,Donatus and
i.e., of "grammarians[not readersor in- Priscian,she has valid reasonsforprefer-
terpreters] to come"? The answerto this ringthe latteras an authorityin matters
of"explicationde texte." WhereasDona-
question may be found in Curtius once
tushas leftus nothingon poetics,Priscian
more, who, in an earlier work (ZRPh, included in his
Praeexercitamina(which
LVIII, 443 ff.),has explainedthe histori- were in essence exercises
of Latin style)
remnantsof ancientrhetoricsand poetics
s I have called attention in my earlier article to
a comparable expression, in the Mohammedan and that he had been able to garnerin the
talmudic Hagada, of confidence in the commentators
still to come. As for that Jewish "progressivism"
East; throughhim theseweretransferred
which, in attributing to the founder of their religion to thepoetsoftheMiddle Ages.'o As Cur-
all the possible ideas of future commentators, can tius says in his lapidarystyle:
lead only to a quasi-Jesuitic "possibilism," com-
pare the following passage from E. Fleg, Pourquoi je AlsMenschundBtirger istmanChrist, als
suis juif (1928), p. 58:
RhetorHeide: diesesspannungslose Neben-
"Moise l1'6cole d'Akiba: quel beau symbole einanderwurdedurchPriscianals Mbglich-
dans ce conte talmudique (Menachoth, 296)1 Dieu
montre 5 Moise, avant sa mort, son disciple Akiba,
qui vivra un siecle apris J6sus-Christ. Le proph~te 9 Schuchardt (Baskisch u. Romanisch, p. 56) has
s'assied 5 la derniire des huit rangees, dans 1'cole explained the Basque letranta, '~61gant,' as equiva-
d'Akiba et il coute la lecon du Rabbi. Akiba com- lent to litteratus+ elegans (REW, s.v. litteratus); to
mente la loi de Moise. Moise ne la reconnait pas; me this seems to reflectless a popular opinion about
c'est pourtant la loi de Moise. Ainsi, la r6v6lation the "elegant" man of letters ("der Gebildete pflegt
divine, venue par les patriarches et les prophites, elegant zu sein") than the cultural fact that in the
se continuerait dans la tradition, et, comme l'autre, Middle Ages the litteratuswas one who explained the
cette rvllation continu6e ne parlerait A chaque elegantiae of the poets. Cf. the Andalusian and
siicle que la langage qu'il peut comprendre; son popular Spanish litri, 'presumptuous, affected'
expresion se dfvelopperait,en l'hpurant, avec la con- (with -i as in cursi, which is derived from cursar
naissance humaine [italics mine]. De mtme que and harks back to the same scholastic environment).
le Nouveau Testament ne contient pas tout le catho- For the evolution of grammaticusin Italian (REW,
licisme, l'Ancien ne contient pas tout le judaisme." 3838) cf. E. G. Wahlgren, Evoluzione semasiologica
Moreover, in the Christian works of the Middle d'alcune parole dotte(Upsala, 1936).
Ages the non-Christian divinities or allegories are 10 Curtius believes, e.g., that the numerous laurel
shown as consulting their own books: not only do and olive trees of medieval French epic poetry have
we find with Juan Ruiz (str. 612): El Amor leo a their origin in the chapter "De laude" of Priscian,
Ovidio en la escuela, but also in the medieval debates where the grammarian admonishes the poets who
between Church and Synagogue, the latter allegory write in praise of trees (a current topos) to choose in
is represented as consulting its own auctoritates(the preferencethe laural tree of Apollo and the olive tree
Old Testament; cf. Pflaum, Arch. rom., XVII, 304). of Minerva.

Modern Philology 1943.41:96-102.

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102 LEO SPITZER

keit dem abendlindischen MA. dargeboten.failedto understandthe role of homolit-

.... Ein Augustinus hitte die Praeexercita-teratuswhichthe grammarianwas seen to
minaals skandal6sempfunden. play by the Middle Ages.
Priscian, then, was himselfone of those We need not, then,be surprised,if,to
philologians"in whom the Middle Ages these lais vibratingwith humanity,the
had to see a philosopherleaving to his first
woman-poetof the Middle Ages has
commentators the task of discoveringthe affixeda prologuecontainingso much of
trueChristianbackground-whichhe had "literaryscience," of "literaryphiloso-
veiled. If the exact text of Priscian was phy," of medieval encyclopediclore; no
misunderstoodby Marie (or by some less than Juan Ruiz, Boccaccio, Chaucer,
predecessorunknownto us),12she has not and Villon,thisgreattellerof tales of the
twelfthcenturyis a "clerc," a poetaphi-
11Cf. in Godefroy, s.v. philosophien, the two pas-
sages taken from the Barlaam of Gui de
losophuset theologus.'3
Cambray:
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
"Oiies, signor rectorilens.
Gramariens, phyllosofien...."
"Contre Nachor ierent contraire be attracted into the orbit of this dominant medieval
Phyllosophien et li gramaire idea.
Et trestout li rectoriien."
13 Elena Eberwein, Zum Problem der mittelalter-
12This erroris not so difficultto understand in the lichen Existenz (Cologne, 1932), has shown that the
light of that idea of "progressivism" which we have conception of the "aventure" in the Lais was not so
characterized above: Priscian's cuius fundamentally secular as had been thought; the
auctores, quanto sunt iuniores, tantowords,.....
perspicaciores, atmosphere of the supernatural in love is not unlike
intended simply as a factual statement about the that of the supernatural in religion, as found in the
progress which had actually been achieved in gram- hagiographical legends. The forma mentis of Marie
mar during the last centuries of Latinity, came to is that of an anima naturaliterchristiana.

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