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COR TO IS and VILA IN 
 
 A Study of the Distinctions Made Between 
 
 Them by the French and Provencal 
 
 Poets of the 12th, 13th and 
 
 14th Centuries 
 
 BY 
 
 STANLEY LEMAN GALPIN 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF 
 YALE UNIVERSITY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE 
 OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 1904 
 
 RYDER S PRINTING HOUSE 
 
 NEW HAVEN, CONN. 
 
 I905 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cortoisvilainstuOOgalprich 
 
COR TO IS and VILA IN 
 
 A Study of the Distinctions Made Between 
 
 Them by the French and Provencal 
 
 Poets of the 12th, 13 th and 
 
 14th Centuries 
 
 BY 
 STANLEY LEMAN GALPIN 
 
 A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF 
 YALE UNIVERSITY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE 
 OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 1904 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NlVERStTY 
 
 ryder's printing house 
 new haven, conn. 
 
 1905 
 
7^ 
 
 It gives me pleasure to express here my 
 gratitude to Professors Henry R. Lang and 
 Frederick M. Warren of Yale University, whose 
 instruction it was my privilege to enjoy, and to 
 whose kindly criticisms and helpful suggestions 
 this thesis owes much. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Introduction, .... 
 
 II. Historical, .... 
 
 III. The cortois has polished manners ; the zrilain, rude 
 
 manners, .... 
 
 IV. The cortois is gentle in speech ; the vilain, rough 
 V. The cortois has mesure; the vilain lacks mesure, 
 
 VI. The cortois is humble ; the vilain, proud, 
 
 VII. The cortois is considerate ; the vilain, not considerate 
 
 VIII. The cortois is helpful ; the vilain, not helpful, 
 
 IX. The cortois is good ; the vilain, bad, 
 
 X. The cortois is generous ; the vilain, stingy, 
 
 XL The cortois is richly dressed; the vilain, poorly 
 
 dressed, .... 
 
 XII. The cortois is courageous ; the vilain, cowardly, 
 
 XIII. The cortois is versed in the art of courtly love ; the 
 
 vilain, ignorant of the art of courtly love, 
 
 XIV. The cortois may or may not indulge in guilty love 
 
 the vilain indulges in guilty love, 
 XV. The cortois is merry ; the vilain, gloomy, 
 XVI. The cortois is beautiful ; the vilain, ugly, 
 XVII. The cortois is intelligent; the vilain, stupid, 
 XVIII. The cortois is religious ; the vilain, not religious, 
 XIX. (a) Miscellaneous attributes of the cortois, 
 XIX. (b) Miscellaneous attributes of the vilain, 
 XX. The cortois is loved ; the vilain, not loved, . 
 XXI. Conclusions, .... 
 
 Bibliography, .... 
 
 Index, ..... 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 5 
 13 
 
 16 
 22 
 28 
 3i 
 33 
 40 
 
 4i 
 48 
 
 52 
 54 
 
 58 
 
 67 
 73 
 74 
 78 
 82 
 
 85 
 87 
 88 
 
 95 
 
 97 
 
 101 
 
or tmc 
 UHWERS1TY 
 
 OF 
 
 ■gALlFOJ 
 
 )IS ana 
 
 I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 1 
 
 In southern France, as is well known, there developed in the 
 Middle Ages a refined aristocratic society such as for a time was 
 not to be found elsewhere, and which has had a permanent influence 
 upon the manners and modes of thought of all Europe. Long 
 immunity from wars had brought to this region a season of pros- 
 perity during which the arts of peace were cultivated. Brilliant 
 festivals had taken the place of warlike preparations, and songs of 
 sentiment were heard instead of songs of battle. 2 An important 
 result of this radical change of activity and interest from the things 
 of war to those of peace was the social emancipation of woman, 
 due also in large measure to the influence of the cult of the Virgin 
 Mary. Leaving the inferior position which she had long occupied, 
 and accorded a degree of personal freedom hitherto unknown to 
 
 *A portion of the expense of printing this thesis has been borne by the 
 Modern Language Club of Yale University from funds placed at its disposal 
 by the generosity of Mr. George E. Dimock of Elizabeth, New Jersey, a 
 graduate of Yale in the Class of 1874. 
 
 2 Ferdinand Wolf in Stengel's Ausgaben und Abhandlungen LXXXVII, 
 Marburg 1890, pp. 35-6. 
 
bkar 
 
 or the 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 or 
 
 CAUFOj 
 
 US ana 
 
 I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 1 
 
 In southern France, as is well known, there developed in the 
 Middle Ages a refined aristocratic society such as for a time was 
 not to be found elsewhere, and which has had a permanent influence 
 upon the manners and modes of thought of all Europe. Long 
 immunity from wars had brought to this region a season of pros- 
 perity during which the arts of peace were cultivated. Brilliant 
 festivals had taken the place of warlike preparations, and songs of 
 sentiment were heard instead of songs of battle. 2 An important 
 result of this radical change of activity and interest from the things 
 of war to those of peace was the social emancipation of woman, 
 due also in large measure to the influence of the cult of the Virgin 
 Mary. Leaving the inferior position which she had long occupied, 
 and accorded a degree of personal freedom hitherto unknown to 
 
 1 A portion of the expense of printing this thesis has been borne by the 
 Modern Language Club of Yale University from funds placed at its disposal 
 by the generosity of Mr. George E. Dimock of Elizabeth, New Jersey, a 
 graduate of Yale in the Class of 1874. 
 
 2 Ferdinand Wolf in Stengel's Ausgaben und Abhandlungen LXXXVII, 
 Marburg 1890, pp. 35-6. 
 
" 6 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 her, and which has remained hers to the present time, owing to the 
 lasting influence of mediaeval Provengal culture, she stepped at once 
 into the chief place in the new society. For a long period she was 
 the centre of literary interest as the object of chivalric love, with 
 which the poets of the twelfth century were mainly occupied, and 
 which offered a welcome means of escape from a domestic life 
 which must have been anything but ideal, in view of the fact that 
 marriages under the feudal system were contracted for political 
 purposes exclusively. Under the influence of the new social con- 
 ditions a commerce de courtoisie, as Langlois has expressed it, 1 
 sprang up between the sexes. 
 
 A similar transformation took place in the aristocratic society 
 of northern France after Louis VI had succeeded in overcoming 
 the turbulent nobles and bringing his domain into a state of tran- 
 quility. This transformation was fostered by contact with the much 
 more advanced civilization of Provence, a contact which was brought 
 about by the Crusades, by the trouveres, who imitated the love- 
 songs of the troubadours, and by the marriage of Louis VII with 
 Eleanor of Poitou in 1137. 2 
 
 The institution of the system of courtly love in the aristocratic 
 society of France is of interest to us here chiefly because it empha- 
 sized the differences already existing under the feudal system be- 
 tween the condition of the noble and that of the peasant, and 
 suggested to the poets comparisons between the two not already 
 suggested by the feudal system. As was natural, these comparisons 
 centered about the question of courtly love, and so the noble is 
 represented to us as endowed with all the graces which should be 
 found in a successful lover, while the vilain, or peasant, is pictured 
 as lacking these graces and endowed with their opposites. The 
 image of the vilain thus drawn is, of course, a greatly exaggerated 
 one. 3 
 
 Derived respectively from the Latin *cortensis and *vHlamus, the 
 two terms cortois and vilain denoted originally in the vernacular 
 two classes socially distinct. The cortois was the noble, inhabiting 
 his chateau and there holding his court, or constituting one of the 
 members of the court of a noble more powerful than himself. The 
 , term is thus used by GefTrei Gaimar in vv. 3617-20 of Lest or ie des 
 
 1 Origines et Sources du Roman de la Rose, p. 3. 
 
 *Ibid„ p. 4. 
 
 3 See Gaston Paris in Romania xxiv, page 143. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 7 
 
 Engles, where the expression li curtais is evidently equivalent to 
 cil de la curt: 
 
 Et quant iloc tant en parlouent 
 
 Cil de la curt i repairouent: 
 
 Et li curtais ke la veaient 
 
 De sa belte mult bien disaient. 
 The term is also thus used by Wace, Brut, vv. 10008-19, with refer- 
 ence to those who frequented King Arthur's court: 
 
 N'estoit pas tenus por cortois 
 
 Escos, ne Bertons, ne Frangois, 
 
 Normant, Angevin, ne Flamenc, 
 
 Ne Borgignon, ne Loherenc, 
 
 De qui que il tenist son feu 
 
 Des ocidant dusqu 'a Mont Geu, 
 
 Qui a la cort le roi n'alast, 
 
 Et qui od lui n'i sojornast, 
 
 Et qui n'avoient vesteure 
 
 Et contenance et armeure, 
 
 A la guise que cil estoient 
 
 Qui en la cort Artur servoient. 
 In Jaufre, Appel, Prov. Chrest., St. 3, vv. 56-58, we read that 
 Brunissens' castle is inhabited by cortois young men. In vv. 195 1-3 
 of the Roman de Thebes, the word cortois is used of courtiers, 
 members of a court : 
 
 Li chevalier et li borgeis 
 
 Et li vilain et li corteis 
 
 De traison le rei blastengent. 1 
 In vv. 263-6 of the lai of Guingamor the word cortois is used in 
 the same sense : 
 
 Cil de la vile, li borjois, 
 
 Et li vilain et li cortois 
 
 Le convoierent austresi 
 
 O grant dolor et o grant cri. 
 The vilain, on the other hand, was the peasant who cultivated the 
 villae (agricultural districts) and inhabited the villages which grew 
 up among them. Cf. Du Cange, Glossarium: Villani dicti sunt a 
 
 *Ct the passage from the Roman de Robert le Diable quoted by Du 
 Cange in his Glossarium under *corthesanus. 
 
8 C0RT01S AND VILAIN. 
 
 villa, eo quod in villis commorentur. Also Jean de Conde, Des 
 Vilains et des C our tots, vv. 14-15: 
 
 II sont gent qui vilain ont non 
 
 Pour ce qu'en la ville demeurent. 
 This use is found in Marie de France, Fables, ix, v. 1 : Ci dit d'une 
 suriz vilaine, with which compare the title, De mure urbano et mure 
 silvestri, and v. 9 : La suriz de ville demande. The use of the 
 term vilain to denote a distinct class in feudal society was retained 
 throughout the middle ages and is so frequent in mediaeval texts 
 as to require no special illustration here. 
 
 The mediaeval artistic poetry of northern France, and Provence, 
 both epic and lyric, composed primarily to be sung or recited at 
 the courts of the nobles, was naturally biased in favor of the courtly 
 class, and we are not surprised when we come to examine the 
 characteristics assigned to this class by the mediaeval poets to find 
 that they are almost without exception favorable, and that the vilain, 
 always an object of scorn to the nobles, is pictured as lacking all 
 the qualities which the cortois is represented as possessing, and 
 endowed with the opposites of these qualities. Jean de Conde sums 
 up the attitude of the literature of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries 
 toward the cortois and the vilain in Des Vilains et des Courtois, 
 vv. 1-3: 
 
 Vilain et courtois sont contraire ; 
 
 De Tun ne puet on bien retraire, 
 
 Et en l'autre n'a fors que bien. 
 The poets, in pursuance of their policy of flattering the courtly 
 class, refer the origin and inspiration of cortoisie to God. Ille et 
 Galeron, vv. 1618-20: 
 
 Et courtoisie vient de Dieu, 
 
 Et qui de par Dieu preuz devient 
 
 Courtoisie aime et si s'i tient. 
 Le Roman de la Rose, i p. 235 : 
 
 Diex li cortois sans vilonie, 
 
 De qui muet toute cortoisie. 
 Having given a divine origin to cortoisie, the poets do not hesitate 
 to represent the acts of the vilain as prompted by the devil. Ille et 
 Galeron, vv. 161 5-7: 
 
 Bien sai que del diable est plains 
 
 Qui pour se prouece est vilains; 
 
 Vilonie vient de vil lieu. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 9< 
 
 The Bit sur les vilains, vv. 83-88, assigns to the vilain a still less 
 savory origin. 
 
 Many mediaeval texts refer to the fact, undoubtedly true, that 
 those who frequented the courts of the nobles acquired a degree of 
 culture only there to be attained. Dante alludes to this fact in his 
 definition of cortesia in the Convito, tr. ii, c. 1 1 : Cortesia e onestade 
 e tuttf uno : e perocche nelle corti anticamente le virtudi e li belli 
 costumi s'nsavano (siccome oggi s'usa il contrario) , si tolse questo 
 vocabolo dalle corti; e fu tanto a dire cortesia, quanto uso di corte. 1 
 Thus Wace, Brut, vv. 10016-9 (quoted above), and vv. 10020-5: 
 
 De pluisors terres i venoient 
 
 Cil qui pris et honor querroient. 
 
 Tant por oi'r ses cortesies, 
 
 Tant por veir ses mananties, 
 
 Tant por conoistre ses barons, 
 
 Tant por aveir ses rices dons. 
 
 Wace, Rou, vv. 2166-7: 
 
 Richart, lur auoe, ensemble od sei merra, 
 
 En la curt od sun filz curteisie aprendra. 2 
 In a similar manner, the word vilenie was used to denote any action 
 or personal characteristic considered by courtly poets as worthy of a 
 vilain, 3 from whose appellation they derived it. The poets occa- 
 sionally declare the reverse of the real process to be true, thus 
 casting a still greater slur upon the objects of their scorn. Le 
 Flabel d'Aloul, Fabliaux i 24, vv. 406-7: 
 
 Par droit avez vilain a non, 
 
 Quar vilain vient de vilonie. 
 Des Vilains et des Courtois, vv. 20-21 : 
 
 Bien nous monstre raisons et drois 
 
 Que vilains vient de vilenie. 
 From the enjoyment of the privileges of courtly life the vilah: 
 was excluded. Thebes, vv. 4563-70 : 
 
 J Cf. Alwin Schultz, Das Hotische Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger., voL 
 1, PP- 155-6. 
 
 2 See also Tyolet, vv. 209-310; Sept Sages, vv. 441-6. 
 3 Cf. Alwin Schultz, loc. cit. 
 
io CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Onques en cort a nesun rei 
 
 Ne veistes tant gent conrei : 
 
 Tuit sont de maisniee escherie, 
 
 Que li dus ot tote norrie, 
 
 Treis mile fiz de vavasors 
 
 Et de barons et de contors ; 
 
 N'en i ot un fil de vilain, 
 
 Ne qui fust nez de basse main. 
 The mere suggestion of the vilain was unwelcome at court. Le Lai 
 d'Aristote, Fabliaux v 137, vv. 45-6: 
 
 Quar cevre ou vilonie cort 
 
 Ne doit estre noncie a cort. 
 The vilain' s fashion of speech was also out of place at court. Le 
 Conte de Peitieu, Rayn. Choix v, p. 118: 
 
 E que s guart en cort de parlar 
 
 Vilanamens. 
 Even if permitted to associate with the cortois, it was impossible for 
 the vilain to change his condition. Blondel de Neele, p. 40 : 
 
 Mais ce m'en a doucement conforte 
 
 Qu'onques je ne vi courtoise vilaine. 
 Guillaume de Dole, vv. 584-5 : 
 
 Que ja por nule segnorie 
 
 Nuls vilains n'iert se vilains non. 
 Le Roman de la Rose, i p. 122: 
 
 Vilains qui est cortois, c'est rage. 1 
 The distinction between cortois and vilain having early become 
 firmly established and developed, it was no longer necessary that 
 a man should be a member of the courtly class in order to deserve 
 the appellation cortois, it was enough that he should possess the 
 qualities which the noble was supposed to possess. In the same 
 manner any man, of whatsoever social rank, came to be termed 
 vilain by the mediaeval poets if his characteristics were those which 
 courtly poetry had attributed to the vilain. The following passages 
 will serve to show the confusion as to social status which arose 
 
 1 See also Dit sur les ziiains, vv. 8-18. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. u 
 
 with the application of the two terms to all classes of society. 
 Geffrei Gaimar, Lestorie des Engles, vv. 5504-6: 
 
 Uns hom qui amenout peissons 
 
 As gardeins long le mareis, 
 
 Fist ke prodom e ke curteis. 
 Wace, Brut, vv. 10779-81 : 
 
 Plus erent cortois et vaillant, 
 
 Neis li povre pa'isant 
 
 Que chevalier en autres regnes. 1 
 Perceval, v. 21653 : 
 
 Moult estes vilains chevalier. 2 
 The fact that the terms cortois 5 and vilain both substantive and 
 adjective, and the abstract nouns cortoisie and vilenie, had come into 
 general use to distinguish in regard to personal qualities rather 
 than social rank is discussed at length by Jean de Conde in Des 
 Vilains et des Court vis. He sums up his views on the subject in 
 vv. 137-144: 
 
 Par tant qui bien dist et bien cevre 
 
 Et qui s'assent a la bonne cevre 
 
 Gentius et courtois est par droit, 
 
 Je le vous 4 affi ci endroit ; 
 
 Et celui non de vilain done 
 
 Qui a vilounie abandone 
 
 Son cuer et le vuelt maintenir; 
 
 Devant tous Pi veul soustenir. 
 In the Dit de Gcntillece, Jubinal, Nouv. Rec. ii, pp. 55-6, the poet 
 enlarges upon the same conception of the vilain as 
 
 Li hom qui fet la vilonie, 
 
 Puisque li cuers s'i abandone. 
 This sentiment had already been voiced in Li respit del curteis et del 
 znlain, strophe 43 : 
 
 ^ee also Sept Sages, vv. 2484-8; Perceval, vv. 24779-85; De Florance et 
 de Blanche Flor, v. 95 and vv. 329-333. 
 
 2 See also the following passages in which a knight is termed vilain: 
 L'Atre Perillous, v. 3878; Perceval, vv. 16534-7; Erec, v. 198. 
 
 3 It may be noted in passing that the word gentile seems to have assumed 
 to a certain extent in Italian the role played by the word cortois in French. 
 
 4 The text reads vons. 
 
12 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Nature mult ferm lie 
 
 Et moustre sa mestrie 
 
 La ou soun regne tient. 
 
 Ne blametz vilein mie, 
 
 S'il dit sa vileinie ! 
 
 De nature li vient. 
 
 Frut preoue bien, de quel arbre il est. 
 It also appears in the Roman de la Rose, i p. 68 : 
 
 Vilonnie fait li vilains. 
 The purpose of our study is to discover at what period the 
 contrast between cortois and vilain begins to be made, to follow it 
 down into the fourteenth century, and to ascertain in regard to 
 what personal qualities or characteristics this contrast was made by 
 the poets of northern France and Provence. Our surest evidence 
 has been found in passages which declare that one who follows a 
 certain line of conduct is cortois, or is vilain (substantive or ad- 
 jective), as the case may be. Other passages of equal value state 
 that cortoisie, or vilenie, consists in following a certain course of 
 action. This direct evidence has been supplemented by indirect 
 evidence from passages in which the quality or characteristic under 
 consideration is closely associated with cortoisie or vilenie; e.g. 
 L'Atre Perillous, vv. 6164-5, Et si sai moult bien et si croi, Que 
 estes cortois et vaillans, in which cortoisie and valor are mentioned 
 together, and the idea of the latter term is already connoted by the 
 first, and more general, term. 
 
 I have divided the subject into sections, each one being devoted 
 to the consideration of a quality or characteristic attributed to the 
 cortois and of the opposite of this quality attributed to the vilain, 
 and the sections have been arranged genetically so as to fall into 
 two groups, sections III to XII inclusive dealing with those qualities 
 which concern a man in his feudal relations, and sections XIII to 
 XVIII inclusive with those which concern him as a lover. The 
 inductions, viz., the statements of the qualities or characteristics of 
 the cortois and vilain respectively, have been used as headings for 
 the sections, and the material from which they have been drawn 
 appears under each one, arranged logically rather than chronologi- 
 cally. The divisions will be found not to be always mutually ex- 
 clusive, but they are as nearly as possible those suggested by the 
 material upon which they are based. 
 
CORTOIS AND V1LAIN. 13 
 
 II. 
 
 THE CORTOIS AND THE VILAIN ARE REPRESENTED AS POSSESSING 
 OPPOSITE CHARACTERISTICS AS EARLY AS THE BEGINNING OF 
 THE 12TH CENTURY AND AS LATE AS THE 14TH CENTURY. 
 
 Passages in which the cortois is set off against the vilain as 
 his direct opposite begin to appear at a very early period in French 
 and Provengal literature. The first instance I have been able to 
 find appears in the canso, Mout iauzens me prenc en amor, written 
 by Guilhem, comte de Peitieu, the first Provengal troubadour whose 
 works have come down to us, and who reigned from 1087 to 1127. 
 Appel, Prov. Chrest., St. II, vv. 25-30: 
 
 Per son ioy pot malautz sanar 
 
 E per sa ira sas morir 
 
 E savis horn enfolezir 
 
 E belhs horn sa beutat mudar 
 
 E'l plus cortes vilaneiar 
 
 E'l totz vilas encortezir. 
 The first example I am able to quote in French dates from approxi 
 mately the same period, and appears in the rhymed sermon Grant 
 mal fist Adam, written in the first third of the 12th century. In 
 the last two verses of strophe 30 contrast is made between wise and 
 foolish, and between corteis and vilain : 
 
 Dune puis jeo p rover, 
 
 e raisun mostrer, 
 
 qu'il sunt mi proceain, 
 
 quant d'un sol lignage 
 
 sunt e fol e sage, 
 
 corteis e vilain. 
 Continuing in chronological order, an instance is found in Quant 
 Vaura donssa s'amarzis, a canso written by the troubadour Cercamon, 
 who flourished between the years 1120 and 1135. Appel, Prov. 
 Chrest, St. 13, vv. 49-51 : 
 
 Per lieys serai totz fals o fis, 
 
 o vertadiers o pies d'enian, 
 
 o totz vilas o totz cortes. 
 Jaufre Rudel, a troubadour who wrote in the period between the 
 years 1130 and 1147, offers an example. Rayn. Choix iii, p. 95: 
 
 Quar ieu dels plus envilanitz 
 
 Cug que sion cortes leyau. 
 
14 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 The Roman de Troie, written c. 1160-70, contains the next examples 
 I have found in French. Vv. 5335-8: 
 
 Sa corteisie par fu tex, 
 
 Que cil de Troie et cil des Grex 
 
 Envers lui furent dreit vilain : 
 
 Ainz plus cortois ne menja pain. 
 Ibid., v. 10232 : 
 
 Qu'el n'ert vilaine mes corteise. 
 Wace, in Rou, written 1160-1174, v. 2888, offers another example: 
 
 Cheualier(s) riche e poure, e vilain (s) e curteis. 
 Chretien de Troies contrasts vilain and cortois, and vilenie and 
 cortoisie, in two passages in his Yvain, written c. 1173. Vv. 31-32: 
 
 Qu'ancor vaut miauz, ce m'est a vis, 
 
 Uns cortois morz qu'uns vilains vis. 
 Ibid., vv. 2212-4: 
 
 Onques voir tant ne s'avilla 
 
 Qu'il deist de vos vilenie 
 
 Tant com il a fet corteisie. 
 In vv. 5836-7 of his Perceval, written c. n 77, appears the same 
 antithesis. Vv. 8377-84 of Partonopens de Blois, written before 
 1 188, imply that there is a greater distance between vilenie and 
 cortoisie than there is from hell to heaven above. Returning to 
 Provence, we find the antithesis between cortois and vilain in the 
 writings of Pons de Capdueil (fl. 1180-1190), Bertran de Born 
 (fl. 1156-1196), Rambaud de Vaqueiras (fl. 1180-1207), and N'Uc 
 Brunet de Rodes (fl. c. 1 190-1200). Pons de Capdueil, Rayn. 
 Choix iii, p. 183 : 
 
 Qu'el plus vilains es, quan vos ve, 
 
 Cortes, e us porta bona fe. 
 Bertran de Born, Rayn. Choix iv, p. 264 : 
 
 Guerra fai de vilan cortes. 
 Rambaud de Vaqueiras, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 256; 
 
 E sai esser plazens et enoios, 
 E vils e cars e vilas e cortes, 
 Avols e pros, e conosc mals e bes. 
 N'Uc Brunet de Rodes, quoted in the Breviari d'Amor, vv. 32533-5 : 
 Atretan leu pot horn ab cortezia 
 Renhar qui sap et ab fahs avinens 
 Cum ab foldat ni ab far vilania. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 15 
 
 A similar contrast between cortois and vilain appears in the writ- 
 ings of later poets as follows: Blondel de Neele (fl. end of 12th 
 cent.), ed. Tarbe p. 40. Perceval ( Pseudo-Gautier ; after 1200), 
 v. 12788. Guiraut de Bornelh (fl. 1 175-1220), Kolsen p. 92. 
 L'Atre Perillous (c. 1215-20), vv. 5100-5102. Guerin's fablel Du 
 chevalier qui fist les c. parler (first third of 13th cent.), Fabliaux 
 vi 147, vv. 186-8. Guerin's fablel De la Grue, Fabliaux v 126, vv. 
 11-13. Hugues de Saint-Cyr (troubadour, fl. 1200-56), Rayn. 
 Choix v, p. 226. Li respit del curteis et del vilain (first half of 
 13th cent.), strophe 44. Flamenca (1234 or 1235), vv. 6771-5. 
 Guillaume de Lorris, in the first part of the Roman de la Rose' (c. 
 1237), ed. Michel i p. 122. The fablel Du prestre et du chevalier, 
 by Milon d' Amiens (c. middle of 13th cent.), Fabliaux ii 34, vv. 
 188-9. La Clef d' Amors (1280), vv. 2654-6; vv. 691-2. Matfre 
 Ermengaud, in his Breviari d'Amor (begun in 1288), vv. 31419-20; 
 vv. 3097 I "5- 
 
 The latest dated example of the antithesis of cortois and vilain 
 which I have found within the limits of the material examined 
 appears in Des Vilains et des Courtois, by Jean de Conde, who 
 flourished between the years 13 13 and 1340, and thus had more 
 than two centuries of courtly poetry and tradition from which to< 
 draw the conclusions he sets forth in vv. 1-3 : 
 
 Vilain et courtois sont contraire; 
 
 De Tun ne puet on bien retraire, 
 
 Et en l'autre n'a fors que bien. 
 The didactic poem De Courtoisie, for which I have na| date, places 
 les curtaisies in antithesis to les villainies, strengthening the contrast 
 by paralleling it with one between cleanliness and filth (vv. 116-9) : 
 
 Plus ameretz les curtaisies 
 
 Et lerretz les villainies. 
 
 Plus ameretz les nectetetz, 
 
 Les ordures enchiueretz. 
 Paul Meyer in Romania xii, p. 15, note 3, prints a North Italian 
 Alfabeto del villano, whose ideas he considers to be of the middle 
 ages, although its redaction is modern. It contains a series of 
 insults addressed to the vilain, and (vv. 3-4) contrasts cortesia and 
 villania : 
 
 Bonta non regna in lui, ne cortesia, 
 
 Ma sol malizia, inganni e villania.i 
 
16 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 This Alfabeto is especially interesting to us. in that it brings the 
 conventional expression of hatred for the vilain, which prevailed in 
 mediaeval courtly circles, down to modern times. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE CORTOIS HAS POLISHED MANNERS; THE VILAIN HAS RUDE 
 MANNERS. 
 
 The distinction drawn between the cortois and the vilain, the 
 one possessed of an agreeable and polished manner, the other rough 
 and rude, is a fundamental one, for its cause goes back to the orig- 
 inal social distinction between the two. The cortois, reared at 
 court in the midst of the highest culture of his time, naturally 
 acquired from his training and traditions a courtliness of bearing 
 that was entirely foreign to the peasant, reared outside the castle 
 walls and deprived of social intercourse on equal terms with its 
 inmates. 1 This distinction is made the most of by the courtly poets, 
 though its original significance with respect to social caste is often 
 overlooked: e.g. Du Prestre et d' Alison, Fabliaux ii 31, vv. 23-25: 
 
 Fille estoit a une Borgoise, 
 
 Ainz nule n'en vi plus cortoise, 
 
 Certes, ne de meillor maniere. 
 
 (a) THE CORTOIS HAS POLISHED MANNERS. 
 
 Courteous treatment of ladies was. an essential part of the code 
 of manners of the cortois. Chretien de Troies in Cliges, vv. 1349- 
 51, says that Alixandres, as an act of cortoisie, gave into the queen's 
 charge the first prisoner he took as a knight : 
 
 Alixandres par corteisie 
 
 Sa premiere chevalerie 
 
 Done et presante la re'ine. 
 In vv. 8429-32 of Perceval, Chretien commends Gawain as debonair e 
 et cortois for assisting a maiden to mount her palfrey. In vv. 
 3169-73 of Perceval, he terms Perceval's gentle reception of his 
 hostess, who came to him in the night to implore his aid, cortoisie. 
 In vv. 11687-99 of Perceval we are told how "the king, who was 
 very cortois toward everyone," sent an abundance of provisions to 
 the besieged maidens in whose behalf his aid had been solicited. In 
 
 1 See Schultz, Das Hotische Leben, vol. i, pp. 155-6. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 17 
 
 vv. 11784-98 of Perceval a. similar act is ascribed to Kay and termed 
 grant cortoisie. La Clef d' Amors, vv. 1037-43, says that one should 
 praise his lady cortoisement, i.e. as the cortois does, for even if she 
 is not beautiful she will believe the praise and rejoice at it. The 
 attitude of the cortois toward his lady is summed up in the words 
 of the lady Ydoine in her regret for her absent lover, the cortois 
 Count Garsiles; Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 57, vv. 36-7: 
 
 tant estes dous et frans, cortois et debonaire, 
 
 c'onques riens envers moi ne vousistes mesfaire. 
 The cortois showed his breeding in his salutation. The Roman 
 de Thebes, vv. 3897-8, refers to a salutation made in the manner 
 »of the cortois: 
 
 Vers lei en vait isnelement, 
 
 Salua la corteisement. 
 So also Flamenca, vv. 6451-3: 
 
 Flamenca fon mout plasentiera 
 
 Et aculli los volontiera 
 
 E cortesamenz los saluda. 1 
 The cortois, when in the presence of a royal person, saluted him 
 or her first, and then the rest of the assembly. Thebes, vv. 1267-70: 
 
 Tydeiis fu proz et corteis: 
 
 A cheval vint devant le deis, 
 
 Le rei salue et son barnage, 
 
 Et en apres dist son message. 2 
 When no royal person was present the code of cortois behaviour 
 required that the person of highest rank should be first saluted, 
 then the others present. Du prestre et du chevalier, Fabliaux ii 34, 
 vv. 264-5 : 
 
 Si saluent courtoisement 
 
 Le chevalier et se maisnie. 
 
 Vv. 3698-3700 of L'Atre PeriUous mention the obligation resting 
 upon the cortois to make a salutation first before otherwise address- 
 ing the person whom he encounters : 
 
 Mesire Gavains li demande, 
 
 Mais qu'il l'ot salue ancois 
 
 Come debonnaire et cortois. 
 
 *See also Le Chevalier a I'Epee, vv. 274-5; Blancandin, vv. 885-6; Bartsch, 
 A. R. u. P., i 70, v. 21, and ii 50, vv. 9-10. 
 
 2 See also Perceval, vv. 30936-8; Flamenca, vv. 818-21. 
 
1 8 CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 
 
 Ci. also Thebes^ vv. 1267- 1270, quoted above. It was the duty of 
 a cortois person, when saluted, to make a salutation in return. 
 Perceval, vv. 33065-71 : 
 
 Quant Gauwains l'a bien esgardee, 
 
 Moult hautement l'a saluee 
 
 De Dieu le pere omnipotent ; 
 
 Le damoisele n'i atent 
 
 Ne tant ne quant, ains se leva 
 
 Et moult biel le resalua 
 
 Com cele qui moult ert cortoise. 1 
 As the cortois saluted when meeting another person, so he took 
 formal leave when quitting another's presence. Chretien de Troies 
 mentions a cortois leave-taking in Lancelot, vv. 595-9: 
 
 Li chevalier congie ont pris 
 
 Come cortois et bien apris 
 
 A la dameisele, et si l'ont 
 
 Saluee, puis si s'an vont 
 
 Si con la rote aler an virent. 2 
 Andre le Chapelain, De Amore, p. 309, refers to this custom in the 
 words, et abeundi curialiter accepta licentia. 
 
 When approached by a stranger, or when so concealed by armour 
 that his identity was in doubt, the cortois was bound by courtly 
 etiquette to give his name when asked for it. In vv. 1932-9 of 
 Lancelot Chretien defines the giving of one's name when it is re- 
 quired as cortoisie: 
 
 Et dist : "Sire, or ai grant anvie 
 
 Que je seiisse vostre non ; 
 
 Diriiez le me vos?" — "Je non," 
 
 Fet li chevaliers, "par ma foi." 
 
 "Certes," fet il, "ce poise moi ; 
 
 Mes se vos le me disiiez, 
 
 Grant corteisie feriiez, 
 
 S'i porriiez avoir grant preu." 
 The remaining passages which illustrate this point appear in those 
 portions of Perceval which were written by Chretien's successors: 
 
 *See also Perceval, vv. 40799-40801 ; Tydorel, vv. 55-7. 
 2 See also Perceval, vv. 44841-2; Du prestre teint, Fabliaux vi 139, vv. 
 278-9; Du prestre et du chevalier, Fabliaux ii 34, vv. 978-9. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 19 
 
 vv. 12075-7, 23526-8, 23769-71, 24899-24904, 28248-53, 33012-15, 
 34322-5. The reason why it was considered cortoisie for a man to 
 make known his identity is explained in vv. 6174-7 of L'Atre Peri- 
 lous, where it is shown that unwillingness to fight with one who 
 was unworthy prompted a man to find out the name of his opponent 
 before beginning a combat : 
 
 Car ice m'ensegna mon mestre 
 
 C'a home ne me conbatisse, 
 
 Que son non ne li enqueisse, 
 
 Si n'iere pas faus ne vilain. 
 
 The same reasons naturally applied to ordinary intercourse also; 
 ibid., vv. 5038-47. 
 
 The cortois displayed his courtesy in all his actions. When 
 walking with a lady he went upon her right hand. Le Chevalier 
 a I'Epee, vv. 263-5 : 
 
 Li ostes, qui n'ert pas vilain, 
 
 L'a prise par la destre main, 
 
 Si l'a en la sale amenee. 
 Du prestre et du chevalier, Fabliaux ii 34, v. 678 : 
 
 Biel et courtoisement l'adestre. 
 The manner in which he seated himself beside his lady showed his 
 breeding. Fabliaux iv 108, vv. 58-59: 
 
 Lez li s'asist cortoisement, 
 
 Et la damoisele lez lui. 
 He accepted a favor graciously. Perceval, vv. 41614-6: 
 
 De la reube li font present, 
 
 Et cil moult gentement le prist 
 
 Cui sens et cortoisie aprist. 
 It was an act of cortoisie for a maiden to give her champion a gage 
 to wear in the combat. Perceval, vv. 6794-7 : 
 
 Je vos comanc et abandon, 
 
 Por qou que sera courtoisie, 
 
 Que vous aucune druerie 
 
 Li envoies, u mance, u gimple. 
 Cortoisie required the recipient of the gage to treat it with respect. 
 Flamenca, vv. 7792-4: 
 
 Guillems pren la marga corren, 
 
 Desplega la cortesamen, 
 
 Dedins l'escut la fes pausar. 
 
20 C0RT0IS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Even the most commonplace action might be performed in a way 
 to indicate breeding. Vv. 222^-y of Flamenca say that Guillem 
 washed, then laced his sleeves mout cortesamen, an expression which 
 Paul Meyer translates elegamment. 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN HAS RUDE MANNERS. 
 
 An unpolished and rude manner is attributed to the zrilain, espe- 
 cially in his relations with women. In Perceval, vv. 6737-9, Gawain 
 says that he would be vilain if he refused his aid to the petite title 
 (v. 671 1 ) : 
 
 "Certes, fait mesire Gauwains, 
 
 Dont seroie-jou trop vilains 
 
 Se sa volente ne faisoie. 
 Crossing a woman's will is also the theme of vv. 38636-42 of Perce- 
 val, in which Gorgaris is represented as laying his hand upon the 
 reins of Lady Damelehaut's palfrey to detain her against her wish. 
 She says to him in remonstrance, vv. 38639-42 : 
 
 . . . "Biaus sire, avoi ! avoi ! 
 
 N'a mon frain n'a mon palefroi 
 
 Ne metes a mon pois la main ; 
 
 Car moult feries que vilain." 
 In vv. 2150-4 of Perceval, King Arthur tells Perceval of the gross 
 discourtesy of the Red Knight to the queen, and terms is oevre . . 
 vilaine. In vv. 52 10- 11 of Lancelot, news which causes the queen 
 to grieve is said not to be cortoise, i.e. vilaine. Gawain's bride, 
 deserted by him, refers to his unceremonious departure as grant 
 vilenie in vv. 1 154-7 of Le Chevalier a I'Bpee. Personal violence 
 to women, or permitting such violence in one's presence, was con- 
 sidered vilenie. Erec, vv. 4827-31 : 
 
 "Ostez, sire!" font il au conte. 
 
 "Mout devriiez avoir grant honte. 
 
 Qui ceste dame avez ferue 
 
 Por ce que ele ne manjue. 
 
 Trop grant vilenie avez feite." 
 Ibid., vv. 198-200 : 
 
 Mout est li chevaliers vilains, 
 
 Quant il sofri que teus feiture 
 
 Feri si bele creature. 1 
 
 J See also Chevalier a VfLpee, vv. 923-5 ; Du chevalier qui fist les c. parler, 
 Fabliaux vi 147, vv. 152-5. 
 
C0RT01S AND VILA1N. 21 
 
 We have seen above that the cortois gave his name when asked 
 for it. Refusal to name himself rendered a man liable to the charge 
 of vilenie. Perceval, vv. 32968-93 
 
 Je ne vos quier mon nom celer, 
 
 Que jou feroie vilounie. 
 L'Atre Perillous, vv. 5738-40: 
 
 Aniex seroie et vilains 
 
 Se jou a vous ni a autrui 
 
 Celoie jamais, qui je sui. 
 Vv. 32936-45 of Perceval relate how Gawain came up to Perce- 
 val, who was meditating upon the drops of blood on the snow and 
 mentally comparing the contrasted colors with those of his lady's 
 face, and shook him. Perceval, rudely startled from his reverie, 
 terms Gawain's discourtesy znlonie (vv. 32938-41) : 
 
 "Vassal, fait-il, trop grant posnee 
 
 Faites issi quant me boutes 
 
 Et desacies et dehurtes; 
 
 Sachies que c'est grant vilonie." 
 The Roman de la Rose, i p. 123, gives the details of the uncouth 
 actions of an angry vilain : 
 
 Lors leva li vilains la hure, 
 
 Frote ses iex et ses behure, 
 
 Fronce le nes, les iex rooille, 
 
 Et fu plains d'ire et de rooille, 
 
 Quant il s'oi si mal mener. 
 Vv. 49-54 of Du vilain an buffet, Fabliaux iii 80, describe the glut- 
 tony of a vilain : 
 
 Et li vilains, comme porciaus, 
 
 S'encressoit, et plains ses bouciaus 
 
 Bevoit de vin en larrecin, 
 
 Maint eras chapon et maint pucin 
 
 Menja toz seus en sa despensse ; 
 
 A autre honor fere ne pensse. 
 La Clef d' Amors, vv. 3241-4, warns against the eating of garlic 
 alone, remarking that it is a vilaine thing for one to corrupt his 
 breath. 
 
22 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS GENTLE AND COURTEOUS IN SPEECH; THE VILAIN IS 
 ROUGH IN SPEECH.i 
 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS GENTLE AND COURTEOUS IN SPEECH. 
 
 Mediaeval poetry, both French and Provencal, is full of evidence 
 that there was a manner of speech distinctly cortois. As early as 
 the Chanson de Roland we find references to this fact. Vv. 1164 
 and 3823 : 
 
 Si lur ad dit un mot curteisement : 
 
 Curteisement a l'empereor dit. 
 In the 1 2th century similar expressions appear in Thebes, v. 989; 
 Alexandre (10-syll., Arsenal Ms.), Meyer i p. 45, vv. 456-7; Erec, 
 v. 1207; Lancelot, v. 242; Guillaume D'Angleterre, v. 2242; Perce- 
 val, vv. 2792, and 9343-4; Bertrand de Born, Rayn. Choix iv, p. 171 : 
 
 Lo sors Enrics dis paraula corteza. 
 In the 13th century references to a cortois fashion of speech are 
 found in the Chevalier a I'lipee, vv. 300-303 ; L'Atre Perillous, vv. 
 1273, 3073, 5505, and 6426-7; Perceval, vv. 15746, 10746, and 
 43082; Flamenca, vv. 6885-6, 7341-3, and 3602; Le Roman de la 
 Rose, i p. 109; Le Jugement des c, Fabliaux v 122, v. 32; the 
 Romans de un ckivaler, etc., Fabliaux ii 50, vv. 275, 325-6, and 484; 
 Du prestre et du chevalier, Fabliaux ii 34, vv. 797 and 1285; La 
 Clef d' Amors, v. 509; Le Breviari d'Amor, vv. 29159-60, 30017, 
 and 30967; Blancandin, vv. 587-8, 2716, and 3505-7. 
 
 Indirect evidence of the existence of a form of speech peculiar 
 to cortoisie, and of its superiority, is found in the following pas- 
 sages. Lancelot, vv. 40-2: 
 
 Si ot avuec li, ce me sanble, 
 
 Mainte bele dame cortoise, 1 
 
 Bien parlant an langue frangoise. 
 Bernard de Ventadour, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 87 : 
 
 Cum es ben faitz, e ben chauzitz 
 
 De cortezia e de bels ditz. 
 Tydorel, vv. 397-8; Le sentier batu, Fabliaux iii 85, vv. 33-4. 
 Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii y2, v. 4. 
 
 a This section is logically a subdivision of the preceding one. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 23 
 
 That gentleness was a characteristic of cortois speech is indicated 
 by the following passages. Pel. de Charlemagne, v. 710: 
 
 Purquant si fut curteise, gente parole at dite. 
 Erec, vv. 4077-81 : 
 
 Biaus nies Gauvains, ce dist li rois, 
 
 S'onques fustes frans ne cortois, 
 
 Alez apres isnelemant, 
 
 Demandez amiablemant 
 
 De son estre et de son afeire. 
 Breviari d' Amor, quoting from Garis lo Brus, vv. 32240-1 : 
 
 Cortezia es d'amar 
 
 Et es de gent parlar. 1 
 An illustration of this gentleness of speech is found in passages 
 which represent the cortois man as first calling down God's blessing 
 upon the one whom he addresses, and sometimes also upon the 
 others present. Perceval, vv. 12044-6: 
 
 Cortoisement et biau li dist : 
 
 "Cil Diex vos saut et gart, pucele, 
 
 Qui vos fist issi gente et biele !" 2 
 Du mantel maiitaillic, Fabliaux iii 55, vv. 138- 141 : 
 
 Quant en la sale fu entre, 
 
 Cortoisement et biau parla : 
 
 "Cel Diex," fet il, "qui tout forma, 
 
 Saut et gart ceste compaignie." 
 In his ordinary conversation, also, the cortois man was polite and 
 courteous. Pel. de Charlemagne, vv. 716-717: 
 
 La fille fu bien cointe, e il dist que curteis : 
 
 "Dame, mult estes bele, estes fille de rei . . " 
 Perceval, vv. 594-8: 
 
 Li sire est contre lui venus, 
 
 Si li a dit courtoisement : 
 
 "Biaus amis, se Dex vous ament, 
 
 De vos noveles nos contes, 
 
 Des plus voires que vous saves." 3 
 
 ^ee also Perceval, vv. 3085-90; Roman de la Rose, i p. 41. 
 2 See also Perceval, vv. 12037-9; ibid., vv. 41373-7. 
 *See also Perceval, vv. 2109-13; ibid., vv. 12624-7. 
 
24 CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 
 
 Jaufre, Appel, Prov. direst, St. 3, vv. 212-5 : 
 
 e respondet cortesamens : 
 
 "Franc cavallier, per Dieu non sia ; 
 
 vailla mi ta cavallaria, 
 
 ton pretz e ton enseinament. 
 Blancandin, vv. 1707-17 10: 
 
 L'enfes respont par cortoisie: 
 
 "Dame, gou ne refus jou mie. 
 
 Por vostre amiste a conquer re 
 
 Vous aiderai de ceste guerre." 
 There is a considerable number of didactic passages which have 
 reference to the manner of speech of the cortois. The Roman de la- 
 Rose, i p. 70, directs, the man who would be cortois to be clean in 
 his speech: 
 
 Apres, garde que tu ne dies 
 
 Ces ors moz ne ces ribaudies ; 
 
 Ja por nomer vilaine chose 
 
 Ne doit ta bouche estre desclose : 
 
 Je ne tiens pas a cortois homme 
 
 Qui orde chose et lede nomme. 
 Vv. 65-70, 79-80, of De Courtoisie advise him not to talk overmuch, 
 and when he does open his mouth not to speak slander or in* 
 controversy. Vv. 30180-4 of the Breviari d'Amor warn the cortois 
 lover against garrulity: 
 
 E si per lor parlairias 
 
 Perdol gaug de lor amias, 
 
 Mot grans dretz e grans rasos es, 
 
 Pueis qu'elhs so ta mal cortes 
 
 Que lor dona lor mostra orguelh. 
 Andre le Chapelain, De Amore, p. 65, states that slander is foreign 
 to cortoisie : Hominnm nulli debet suis dictis detrahere, quia male- 
 dici intra curialitatis non possunt limina permanere. The same idea 
 is implied in Li Fablel dou Dieu d' Amours, p. 18: 
 
 Trestout se teurent, li loussignos parla : 
 
 "Signour, dist-il, cius ki bien amera, 
 
 Ja de nului, s'il puet, mesdira ; 
 
 Mais preus, et sages, et cortois estera." 
 De Courtoisie, vv. 234-6, 240-1, instructs the cortois not to swear 
 at all. Vv. 223-233 of De Courtoisie give him minute directions as- 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 25 
 
 to his bearing when addressing another, and add that his speech 
 should be without laughter and without oaths. 
 
 The advantages of speaking cortoisement, i.e. as the cortois 
 does, are referred to by Blondel de Neele, ed. Tarbe p. 43, and in 
 Blancandin, vv. 2403-6: 
 
 Penses de vos barons amer, 
 
 Et de cortoisement parler. 
 
 Si ne vous laisseront jamais, 
 
 Ains vous tenront la terre en pais. 
 The cortois answered when spoken to. Not to do so is charac- 
 terized in Flamenco., vv. 6834-5, as a lack of cortoisie: 
 
 Es cortezia ques estez 
 
 Que vos ab mi ar nom paries? 
 Ci . Perceval, vv. 23040-3 : 
 
 Se fuscies plains de cortoisie, 
 
 Quant devant moi ci trespastes 
 
 Et onques . i . mot ne parlastes, 
 
 Ce fu outrages et orgious. 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS ROUGH IN SPEECH. 
 
 The vilain, according to the ideals of the mediaeval poets, had 
 a manner of speech as peculiarly his own as that of the man versed 
 in the arts of cortoisie. Le Comte de Poitiers, Rayn. Choix v, p. 
 118: 
 
 E que s guart en cort de parlar 
 
 Vilanamens. 
 Perceval, v. 2455 : 
 
 Et sa langue fole et vilaine. 1 
 The vilain' s speech was rough and abusive. Guillaume d'Angleterre,, 
 vv. 1519-22: 
 
 Li vilains tot li reprocha 
 
 Come cil qui male boche a 
 
 Et dit et fet au pis qu'il puet 
 
 Si con de nature li muet. 
 Perceval, vv. 17961-3: 
 
 Lors dist mesire Brandelis 
 
 Que vilains, mais il ert maris; 
 
 L'enfant fil a putain clama. 
 
 'See also Blancandin, v. 1471 ; Doctrinal le Sauvage, stanza 19. 
 
.26 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Fergus,, vv. 478-483: 
 
 Lors commenche ses felons dis 
 
 Itels con a vilain convient. 
 
 "Fius a putain, dont vos cou vient 
 
 D'armes requerre et demander? 
 
 Bues et vaches deves garder 
 
 Comme vostre autre frere font." 1 
 When the object of the vilain' s displeasure was not present to be 
 abused, he was slandered to others. Marie de France, Lais, Le 
 Fraisne, vv. 477-479: 
 
 Jadis par ma grant vileinie 
 
 de ma veisine dis folie. 
 
 De ses dous enfanz mesparlai. 
 Raimond de Miravals, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 358 : 
 
 Q'uns malapres, vilas, cobes, avars, 
 
 Outracuiatz parliers de mals parlars, 
 
 Es aculhitz enans que nos. 
 Perceval, vv. 1974 1-2: 
 
 Ne dites pas de lui folie, 
 
 Car gou seroit grans vilonie. 
 Le Roman de la Rose, i p. 92-93 : 
 
 Mes uns vilains qui grant honte ait, 
 
 Pres d'ilecques repost s'estoit. 
 
 Ne fu mie seus li gaignons, 
 
 Aingois avoit a compaignons 
 
 Male-Bouche le gengleor, 
 
 Et avec lui Honte et Paor. 2 
 The Dauphin d'Auvergne, Rayn. Choix iv, p. 259, extends vilenie 
 to include also the truth spoken of another, providing it be of an 
 unpleasant nature : 
 
 L'evesques me dis mal segon sa fellonia, 
 
 Et ieu li port ades honor e cortesia ; 
 
 Mas s'ieu dir en volgues so qu'ieu dir en sabria, 
 
 El perdria l'evescat et ieu ma cortesia. 
 
 1 See also Roman de la Rose, i pp. 95-6; De Florance et de Blanche Flor, 
 vv. 1 1 3-9; Claris, vv. 26570-3; La Clef d' Amors, vv. 2649-2656. 
 
 2 See also Lai d'Ignaures, vv. 421, 424-6; Doctrinal le Sauvage, stanza 15: 
 -Claris, vv. 24362-3; Le Breviari d'Amor, vv. 33656-8; Lai dAristote, Fabliaux 
 v 137, vv. 20-22. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 27 
 
 Slander seemed to the poets to be so characteristic of the vilain 
 that they termed it vilenie. I lie et Galeron, vv. 1606- 1610: 
 
 Illes n'ot onques jour loisir 
 
 De dire a nului vilonie 
 
 Ne ramprosne ne felonie ; 
 
 N'ert mie vilains chevaliers, 
 
 N'apres les armes malparliers. 
 Marie de France, Lais, Guigemar, vv. 7-1 1: 
 
 Mais quant il a en un pais 
 
 hume ne femme de grant pris, 
 
 cil ki de sun bien unt envie 
 
 sovent en dient vileinie, 
 
 sun pris li vuelent abaissier. 
 Lancelot, vv. 412-413 : 
 
 S'ot li chevaliers mout de lui 
 
 Vilenies et despiz dire. 1 
 A man was looked upon as vilain, not only when he slandered others, 
 but also when he allowed another to be slandered in his presence 
 without remonstrance. Perceval, vv. 14965-7: 
 
 Car n'est pas courtois qui il plaist 
 
 O'ir celui ki conte et dit 
 
 Qui de france dame mesdit. 
 L'Atre Perillons, vv. 3731-6: 
 
 J'amai tant mon segnor Gavain, 
 
 Ke je feroie que vilain, 
 
 Se je soufroie qu-'il eust 
 
 Reproce la u mes cors fust. 
 
 Ne se il a mort u a vie 
 
 Estoit jetes de vilenie. - 
 To threaten too much was looked upon as characteristic of the 
 vilain. Li Fablel dou Dieu d' Amours, p. 33 : 
 
 Sire, fist-il, trop poes manechier. 
 
 Vilonie est d'omme qui tant manache. 
 
 ^ee also Yvain, pp. 2212-3; Gaucelm Faidit, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 294; 
 Dolopathos, vv. 10167-9; Le Breviari d'Amor, vv. 30102-5. 
 2 See also Gorra, Le Court d'Amor, p. 295. 
 
2 8 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 The vilain was apt to talk too much. Perceval, vv. 4384-9: 
 
 Que del casti li souvenoit 
 
 Celui ki chevalier le fist, 
 
 Ki li ensegna et aprist 
 
 Que de trop parler se gardast ; 
 
 Et crient, se il le demandast, 
 
 Con le tenist a vilounie. 
 
 Gaberie (raillery, mockery) is implied to be characteristic of 
 
 the vilain in the fabliaux. Du Prestre et d' Alison, FabL ii 31, vv. 
 
 153-5: 
 
 Fait Alizon ; "C'est vilenie 
 
 De povre meschine de vie 
 
 Gaber, qui a petit avoir." 1 
 
 V. 
 
 THE CORTOIS HAS MESURE; THE VILAIN LACKS MESURE. 
 (a) THE CORTOIS HAS MESURE. 
 
 The troubadour Marcabrus defines cortezia as the observance 
 of mesura, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 373 : 
 
 De cortezia s pot vanar 
 
 Qui ben sap mezura gardar; 
 
 E qui tot vol auzir quant es, 
 
 Ni tot quant es cuida amassar, 
 
 Del tot Tes ops a mezurar, 
 
 O ja non sera trop cortes. 
 The obligation resting upon the cortois to conduct himself with 
 moderation is thus expressed in De Courtoisie, vv. 85-88: 
 
 Seietz de beau contienement, 
 
 Si vous portetz meienement, 
 
 Ne trop haut ne trop bas, 
 
 Ke nul ne pusse fere ses gas ! 
 
 *See also Du mantel mautaillie, Fabl. iii 55, vv. 664-5 ; Du vallet qui d'aise 
 a malaise se met, Fabl. ii 44, vv. 39-40. 
 
 3 See Professor H. R. Lang's note on page 165 of the Cancioneiro Gallego- 
 Castelhano, in which he quotes from Las Siete Partidas of Alphonse X of 
 Castile a passage in which mesure is mentioned as one of four cardinal virtues. 
 He also quotes, p. 166, from a French Doctrinal of 1287 the words: Mesure 
 est precioux tesmoing de san et de courtoisie. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 29 
 
 The ideas of cortoisie and mesure are associated in the Breviari 
 ■d'Amor, v. 30588: 
 
 E cortes et amezuratz, 
 and in L'Atre Perillous, vv. 4997-9 : 
 
 K'il avoit fait cortois et sage, 
 
 Sans vilonnie et sans outrage, 
 
 Sans orguel et sans desmesure. 
 The earliest example I have found of the application of the term 
 cortois to those who practice moderation appears in the Chanson dc 
 Roland, v. 3796 ff. The statement is made, v. 3796, that Icil 
 d'Alverne i sunt li plus cartels; the reason, given in the lines which 
 follow, is that they counselled moderation in the treatment of Gane- 
 lon, because Roland was dead and the traitor's punishment, however 
 severe, could not bring him to life. In Chretien's Perceval, vv. 
 9497-9504, Gawain's moderate statement of his own worth is char- 
 acterized by his interlocutor as grant courtoisie: 
 
 "Dame, dit-il, jou n'oseroie 
 
 Dire que des plus prisies soie; 
 
 Ne me fac mie des mellors*,£.- 
 
 Ne ne quic est re des pfpuVs." 
 
 Et ele li respont: r '"E>iaus sire, 
 
 Grant courtoisiS* vos oc dire 
 
 Que en vous ne metes le pris 
 
 Del mius ne del blasme le pis. 
 In vv. 1002-8 of Le Chevalier a I'Epee, Gawain is termed cortois 
 and resnable because he exercises self-control under the influence 
 of strong emotion : 
 
 Quant mes sire Gauvains ce voit, 
 
 Sachiez qu'il en fu mout marri 
 
 Qu'ele Tot de son gre guerpi ; 
 
 Mes tant estoit et preu et sage, 
 
 Et si cortois et si resnable, 
 
 Que onques mot ne li sona, 
 
 Ja soit ce que mout li pesa. 
 The Breviari d'Amor, vv. 33836-7, ascribes cortezia to all who are 
 patient. Excess in drink is warned against in De Courtoisie, vv. 
 254-9. Contentment with one's lot is recommended in vv. 242-250 
 of the same work. Vv. 93-95 of De Courtoisie advise one to be 
 
3 o C0RT0IS AND VILAIN. 
 
 slow to anger when evil is spoken of him. The cortois gained his 
 end by peaceful means when possible; Erec, vv. 4414-6. 
 
 The cortois is ready to pardon his enemies when they ask for 
 mercy. Yvain, vv. 5784-5794: 
 
 Merci et pes li vont requerre 
 
 Totes les janz qui dit li orent 
 
 Tant de honte com il plus porent, 
 
 Si le vont einsi convoiant ; 
 
 Et il dit qu'il n'an set neant. 
 
 "Je ne sai," fet il, "que vos dites, 
 
 Et si vos an claim trestoz quites ; 
 
 Qu'onques chose que j'a mal taingne 
 
 Ne deiistes, don moi sovaingne." 
 
 Cil sont mout lie de ce qu'il oent 
 
 Et sa corteisie mout loent. 
 Doctrinal Le Sauvage, strophe 48 : 
 
 Et si soit si cortois s'il en vient au deseure, 
 
 S'on li crie merci, qu'il pardoinst en pou d'eure. 1 
 In vv. 1357-62 of Cliges, Alixandres is termed cortois because of 
 his merciful treatment of his prisoners. The quality of mercy was 
 a commonplace in the love poetry of the troubadours, and in the 
 following passages is mentioned together with cortezia. Arnaud de 
 Marueil, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 212: 
 
 E doncs, domna, valha m vostre secors, 
 
 E vensa vos merces e cortezia. 
 La Comtesse de Die, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 22 : 
 
 Quar ieu l'am mais que nulha res que sia: 
 
 Vas lui no m val merces ni cortezia. 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN LACKS MESURE. 
 
 In two passages the vilain's lack of moderation is referred to 
 as demesure. Erec, vv. 1793-5, places vilenie and desmesure in the 
 same category : 
 
 Je suis rois, ne doi pas mantir, 
 
 Ne vilenie consantir, 
 
 Ne faussete ne desmesure. 
 
 ^ee also Perceval, vv. 41057-60; Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 35, vv. 19-20. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 31 
 
 A similar association of ideas is found in the Breviari d'Amor, vv. 
 32162-6 : 
 
 E devon esser llramador 
 
 Ardit en gardar lor onor 
 
 Ab razo e ab drechura 
 
 Contra eels c'ap demezura 
 
 Lor fan mal o vilania. 
 A more usual adjective descriptive of one who lacks me sure is the 
 French outrageus. Chretien de Troies in Erec, vv. 240-1, employs 
 this adjective with vilains-. 
 
 Le Chevalier arme dotoie, 
 
 Qui vilains est et outrageus. 
 L'Atre Perillous, vv. 5397-8, places the terms outrage and vilenie 
 in the same category as synonyms. V. 9685 of Perceval asso- 
 ciates the ideas of violence and vilenie. 
 
 Mention of the vilain' s lack of mesure in specific ways is occa- 
 sionally met with. V. 12706 of Claris et Laris attributes envy to 
 the vilain. The vilain figures extensively as the jealous husband in 
 the chansons de toile. Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 48, v. 29: 
 
 vilain plain de jalosie. 
 Ibid., i 25, vv. 3-6: 
 
 Kant li vilains vaint a marchiet, 
 
 il n'i vait pas por berguignier, 
 
 mais por sa feme a esgaitier, 
 
 que nuns ne li forvoie. 1 
 There is, of course, another type of desmesure, that which ap- 
 pears in the Chanson de Roland and recalls the Homeric <T/?pis. 
 It is clear that the kind of desmesure with which we are here con- 
 cerned is quite different from that which prompted Roland to refuse 
 to sound his horn and thus brought him to his tragic end. 2 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS HUMBLE; THE VILAIN IS UNDULY PROUD. 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS HUMBLE. 
 
 De Conrtoisie, vv. 19-22, 35-6, directs those who would be 
 cortois to forsake pride and learn to be humble: 
 
 *See also ibid., i 48, vv. 17-19; i 67, vv. 3-6 and 17. 
 
 2 Cf. Gaston Paris, Extraits de la Chanson de Roland, note 26 on p. 75. 
 
3 2 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Mes james a vostre voil 
 
 Ne vous lessetz veintre orgoil ! 
 
 Cil q'est orgoillous, 
 
 II quide tantost crestre tous, 
 
 Lessetz cele vice ester, 
 
 Si apernetz de vous humilier! 
 Vv. 172-7 of De Court oisie advise against self-praise. Vv. 955-9 
 of L'Atre Perillous refer to a cor tots knight who in spite of his 
 excellence was not over-proud : 
 
 Bien doit tout le monde plorer, 
 
 Car el monde n'avoit son per 
 
 De largesce et de cortoisie, 
 
 Et por sa grant cevalerie 
 
 N'astoit il nient plus orgellox. 
 The Breviari d'Amor, vv. 30971-6, implies the humility of the 
 cortois when it says that it is greater cortezia for one's praise to 
 be spread abroad by another than by oneself. Vv. 32312-3 of the 
 Breviari d'Amor state that humility exalts the humble and the 
 cortois, i.e. makes them more cortois. V. 19 of the fablel De la 
 Bourgeoise d'Orliens, Fabliaux i 8, states that a certain clerc had 
 the reputation of being a very cortois fellow, and the first words 
 of v. 20 give as one reason that he N'ert plains d'orguel. N'Uc 
 Brunet de Rodes, quoted in the Breviari d'Amor, v. 31681, asso- 
 ciates humility with cortoisie in the injunction, Sias humils e cortes. 
 The Roman de la Rose ii p. 254 furnishes another example of 
 such association : 
 
 Quiconques tent a gentillece. 
 
 Humble cuer ait, cortois et gent. 
 On the other hand, vv. 11 126-32 of Perceval, referring to Gawain, 
 are evidence that cortoisie did not preclude a proper pride when 
 dealing with the haughty : 
 
 Et pour chou si croissoit ses pris, 
 
 Moult cremoit toustans vilonie, 
 
 Vers home plain de felonie 
 
 Et renconier et orguellous 
 
 Estoit moult fiers et coragous ; 
 
 Envers frans homes, pius et dous ; 
 
 Contre orguelleus, fiers et estous. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 33 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS UNDULY PROUD. 
 
 In v. 30974 of the Breziari d'Amor, referred to above, the word 
 vilania is used in the sense of vanity, vain pride. Of indirect evi- 
 dence I can quote two examples. V. 3130 of the following passage 
 from L'Atre Perillous (vv. 3126-31) associates haughtiness with 
 vilenie : 
 
 Et la damoisele me dist 
 
 Moult doucement au departir, 
 
 Ke se je voloie joir 
 
 De li, ne de sa druerie, 
 
 Que d'orguel et de vilonnie 
 
 Me gardaisce et de sorfait. 
 V. 4847 of L'Atre Perillous presents the same association : 
 
 N'a orguel ni a vilonie. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS CONSIDERATE OF OTHERS, IS KIND AND HOSPITABLE; 
 THE VILAIN IS NOT CONSIDERATE OF OTHERS, IS CRUEL AND 
 INHOSPITABLE. 
 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS CONSIDERATE OF OTHERS, IS KIND AND 
 
 HOSPITABLE. 
 
 Vv. 1847-8 of Erec tell how the cor tots knight considerately 
 thought of his host: 
 
 Erec come cortois et frans 
 
 Fu de son povre oste an espans. 
 Vv. 6198-6206 of the same poem narrate a considerate act on the 
 part of Enide: 
 
 Mout fist Enide que cortoise : 
 
 Por ce que pansive la vit 
 
 Et sole seoir sor le lit, 
 
 Li prist talanz que ele iroit 
 
 A li parler, si li diroit 
 
 De son afeire et de son estre, 
 
 Et anquerroit, s'il pooit estre, 
 
 Qu'ele del suen li redeist, 
 
 Mes que trop ne li desseist. 
 Vv. 3060-3 of Yvain tell how the maiden who has anointed Yvain 
 and thus restored him to his senses was careful not to startle him 
 in his bewildered condition by revealing her identity. This con- 
 
34 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 sideration is termed by Chretien san et corteisie. Vv. 9325-33 of 
 Perceval speak of an act of consideration on the part of Gawain's 
 hostess, whose thoughtfulness is that of one qui riest pas wyde de 
 courtoisie ne de sens: 
 
 Et dist : "Ma dame vos envoie 
 
 A viestir, ains qu' ele vos voie, 
 
 Ceste reube, car ele quide 
 
 Come cele qui n'est pas wyde 
 
 De courtoisie ne de sens, 
 
 Que grans travaus et grans aliens 
 
 Et grans anuis eus aves ; 
 
 Assayes-le, si le vestes, 
 
 S'ele est boine a vostre mesure. . . " 
 Vv. 7560-8 of Flamenca describe the quiet manner in which 
 En Archimbautz entered the room where his guests were assembled. 
 "And this," the author states, "he did through cortesia, being un- 
 willing that the whole court should rise every time he came in or 
 went out." Le Roman de la Rose, i p. 26, tells how Cortoisie sees 
 the Lover standing near and invites him to join the dance: 
 
 "Biaus amis, que faites-vous la? 
 
 Fait Cortoisie, ca venez, 
 
 Et avecques nous vous prenez 
 
 A la karole, s'il vous plest." 
 The Lover's gratitude to Cortoisie for her act of consideration is 
 thus expressed (loc. cit.) : 
 
 Et sachies que moult m'agrea 
 
 Quant Cortoisie m'en pria, 
 
 Et me dist que je karolasse ; 
 
 Car de karoler, se j'osasse, 
 
 Estoie envieus et sorpris. 
 The fablel Le Frere Denis e relates how a maiden has been duped 
 by a Franciscan and taken into his order (hence the title), but is 
 rescued by a lady, who gives her some of her own fine clothes and 
 arranges a match between her and a knight. Vv. 308-313 {Fab- 
 liaux iii 87) tell how unobtrusively, and therefore cortoisement, 
 she accomplishes her act of kindness : 
 
 Ele meismes de sa main 
 
 La vest, ansois qu'ele couchast, 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 35 
 
 Ne sofTrist qu'autres i touchast, 
 Car priveement voloit faire 
 Et cortoisement son afaire; 
 Car sage dame et cortoize ere. 
 The maiden who took her mantle and groomed Perceval's horse 
 is termed f ranee et cortoise for her kindness ; Perceval, w. 33998- 
 
 34005 : 
 
 La damoisele plus ne dist, 
 
 Ains est alee, sans targier, 
 
 Jusques devant le bon diestrier 
 
 Qui atacies- ert a l'aniel ; 
 
 Si le commence, a son mantiel, 
 
 A planiier et col et tieste, 
 
 Si li fait mervellouse fieste, 
 
 Que elle estoit france et cortoise. 
 A special kind of consideration is cortois hospitality, mentioned 
 often in mediaeval texts. In vv. 985-8 of Thebes we read that King 
 Adrastus, "who was not vilains in the least," showed his hospitality 
 to his guests, Polynices and Tydeiis, by allowing them to converse 
 with his beautiful daughters : 
 
 Ne f u mie vilains li reis : 
 
 De ses filles ne fist defeis 
 
 Que n'i parolent li danzel ; 
 
 Pas ne Ten peise, ainz Ten est bel. 
 In vv. 561-9 of Yvain, Calogrenant tells how he returned to his 
 hostel, the fortress in which he had been received as a guest the 
 night before, and in spite of the fact that he had been vanquished 
 in a fight and was coming back without horse and without armor 
 .his cortois host received him as hospitably as before : 
 
 Quant je ving la nuit a l'ostel, 
 
 Trovai mon oste tot autel, 
 
 Aussi lie et aussi cortois, 
 
 Come j'avoie fet einqois. 
 
 Onques de rien ne m'aparcui 
 
 Ne de sa fille ne de lui 
 
 Que mains volantiers me veissent 
 
 Ne que mains d'enor me fe'issent 
 
 Qu'il avoient fet Fautre nuit. 
 
36 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 In vv. 4593-8 of Yvain the speaker tells Yvain that no cortoise lady- 
 would refuse hospitality to a man of his worth unless he had done 
 her great wrong: 
 
 "Certes," fet ele, "ce me poise. 
 
 Ne taing mie por tres cortoise 
 
 La dame qui mal cuer vos porte. 
 
 Ne delist pas veer sa porte 
 
 A chevalier de vostre pris 
 
 Se trop n'eust vers li mespris." 
 In vv. 2762-7 of Perceval we read that Perceval's cortois hosts 
 urge upon him their hospitality for a month or a year : 
 
 Quant leve furent de la table, 
 
 Li preudom, ki moult fu cortois, 
 
 Pria de remanoir . i . mois 
 
 Le varlet ki deles lui sist ; 
 
 . i . an tout plain, se il vosist, 
 
 Le retenist-il volentiers. 
 From vv. 3279-87 of Perceval we may infer that it was looked upon 
 as an act of cortoisie to speed the departing guest : 
 
 Vous en ires, pas ne m'en poise, 
 
 Que ne seroie pas cortoise 
 
 S'il me pesoit de nule rien ; 
 
 Que poi d'onor et poi de bien 
 
 Nos vos avommes caiens fait; 
 
 Et je pri Dieu que il vous ait 
 
 Aparellie mellor ostel, 
 
 U plus ait pain et vin et sel 
 
 Et autre bien que en cestui. 1 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS NOT CONSIDERATE OF OTHERS, IS CRUEL AND 
 
 INHOSPITABLE. 
 
 A lack of consideration for others on the part of the vilain is 
 implied in vv. 442-7 of Du mantel mautaillie, Fabliaux iii 55 : 
 
 Additional passages illustrating the hospitality of the cortois are as 
 follows: Le Bel Inconnu, vv. 4032-8; Le Chevalier a 'IRpee, vv. 134-142; 
 Perceval, vv. 2727-30, 2743-52, 7102-5, 28955-9, 28970-5, 36527-31, 36649-54; 
 Blancandin, vv. 1227-30. 
 
C0RT01S AND VILAIN. 37 
 
 "Sire," fet il, "il m'est avis 
 
 Que nous sommes tuit molt vilain ; 
 
 L'amie mon seignor Gavain, 
 
 Venelaus la preus, la cortoise, 
 
 A mon seignor Gavain en poise 
 
 De ce que trop est oubliee." 
 In vv. 492-6 of Tristan, ii p. 24, the Celtic hero is represented as 
 thinking that he is acting vileinement, i.e. as a vilain would, in 
 departing without finding out what has become of Queen Ysolt 
 and Brengien : 
 
 Tristan se prent a purpenser 
 
 Que il s'en vait vileinement 
 
 Quant ne set ne quar ne coment 
 
 A la reine Ysolt estoit 
 
 Ne que Brengien la fraunche fait. 
 Vv. 1523-32 of Guillaume d'Angleterre relate how li vilains (cf. 
 v. 1 5 19) unconsciously does an act of kindness, but the poet denies 
 him credit for it, saying that his intentions were bad : 
 
 Et neporquant de tant bien fist, 
 
 Sanz ce que garde ne s'an prist 
 
 N'a bien feire n'i antandi, 
 
 Que a l'anfant le pan randi, 
 
 Ou anvelope le trova. 
 
 Einsi bien et mal se prova : 
 
 Mai fist selonc s'antancjon, 
 
 Qu'il n'i antandi se mal non, 
 
 Et bien por ce qu'a l'anfant plot; 
 
 Einsi fist bien et si nel sot. 
 The cruelty of the vilain is often insisted upon by the mediaeval 
 poets. Thebes dwells upon this characteristic in vv. 5563-9 : 
 
 Mais li sergent sor lui s'airent, 
 
 De totes parz fort le detirent : 
 
 Entre vilains fait mal chaeir; 
 
 De rien qu'il puissent sorpoeir 
 
 N'avront ja merci li vilain. 
 
 Le chevalier ne pristrent sain : 
 
 Piece a piece le detrenchierent. 
 
 Guillaume d'Angleterre in two passages gives instances of the 
 vilain' s lack of humanity. Vv. 1466-77 : 
 
38 C0RT01S AND VILAIN. 
 
 Einsi li anfant anbedui 
 
 Se deffandent, et li vilain, 
 
 Qui mout se travaillent an vain, 
 
 A terre anbedeus les abatent 
 
 Et des poinz et des piez les batent 
 
 Chascuns le suen a son ostel. 
 
 Ains li anfant ne furent tel 
 
 Que breire osassent ne crier. 
 
 L'an ne se doit mie fier 
 
 An vilain, puis que il s'aorse. 
 
 Ne plus que an ors ou an orse : 
 
 Vilains iriez est vis maufez. 
 Ibid., vv. 1494-7: 
 
 Quant Marins 6i le reproche, 
 
 Grant honte an ot et grant angoisse. 
 
 Et li vilains le bat et roisse 
 
 Come fel et de put afreire. 
 In vv. 17985-9 of Perceval the speaker refers to the killing of inno- 
 cent children as vilonie: 
 
 Lors a dist : "Sire Brandelis, 
 
 Moult est biaus cis enfes petis, 
 
 Onques mais si grant vilonie 
 
 Ne fesistes en vostre vie 
 
 De si tres biel enfant tuer. 1 
 Parallels of this usage of the old French poets are found in the 
 works of Dante, who in three passages in the Vita Nuova refers 
 to death as villana because of its cruelty. Cap. viii 21-22: 
 
 perche villana morte in gentil core 
 
 ha messo il suo crudele adoperare. 
 Cap. viii 39-42: 
 
 Morte villana, di pieta nemica, 
 
 di dolor madre antica, 
 
 giudicio incontrastabile, gravoso, 
 
 poi che hai data matera al cor doglioso. 
 Cap. xxiii 52-53: Dolcissima morte, vieni a me, e non m'essere 
 villana; in this case the grounds for calling death cruel are the 
 
 a See also Marie de France, Lais, Laustic, vv. 114-6; Perceval, vv. 6820-4; 
 Tristan, i p. 45 ; Claris, vv. 14023-7 ; Bartsch, A. R. u. P., iii 34, vv. 19-25. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 39 
 
 opposite of those in the two preceding examples. Giacomino Pul- 
 gliese addresses death in a similar manner. D'Ancona e Comparetti, 
 Antic he Rime, i p. 379: 
 
 Villana Morte, che non a' pietanza, 
 
 Disparti Amore e tolgli l'alegranza, 
 
 E dai cordolglio. 
 
 The inhospitality of the vilain is implied in the use of the ad- 
 jective vilains in a passage in Perceval, vv. 1653 1-7: 
 
 "Par trestous sains, qou a dit Kex, 
 
 Voire, mais ausi m'a'it Dex, 
 
 II ne tient pas . iii . nois de nous ; 
 
 C'est .1. chevaliers orguellous 
 
 Qui ne nous herbergera mie 
 
 Pour nule rien que on li die." 
 
 Li rois dist : "Dont est moult vilains ; . . . " 
 A similar inference may be drawn from vv. 5632-5 of UEscouile, 
 in which the chatelaine of Montpellier regrets her lack of hospitality 
 to Aelis and Ysabiaus : 
 
 Fait la dame : "Mout ai este 
 
 Vers vos vilaine et desseiie, 
 
 Ki pres de moi vos ai seiie, 
 
 Et si ne vos ai acointie ..." 
 The lack of proper care for and protection of a guest is termed 
 vilenie in L'Atre Perillous, vv. 3982-4: 
 
 Et ce sera grans vilenie, 
 
 Quant je sui ci en vostre garde, 
 
 Se g'i muir par vostre mesgarde. 
 The vilain's lack of regard for the laws of hospitality is shown in 
 vv. 17076-81 of Perceval, where ungracious refusal of proffered 
 entertainment is implied on his part: 
 
 Mais n'est pas si vilains, je croi, 
 
 Qu'il s'en alast tant que mi frere 
 
 Fuscent venu et li miens pere ; 
 
 Car, s'il estoient repairie, 
 
 II l'aroient tost herbergie; 
 
 Car plains sont de toutes bontes. 
 
4 o C0RT0IS AND VI LAIN. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE C0RT0IS IS ALWAYS READY TO HELP OTHERS; THE VILAIN 
 REFUSES TO HELP OTHERS. 
 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS ALWAYS READY TO HELP OTHERS. 
 
 The quality of helpfulness in the cortois is defined in the Roman 
 de la Rose, i p. 107, as giving assistance to one who is in less fortu- 
 nate circumstances than oneself: 
 
 Cortoisie est que Ten sequeure 
 Celi dont Ten est au desseure. 
 
 An illustration of this definition is found in the same poem, i p. 91, 
 where the speaker tells how Bel-Acueil, the son of Cortoisie, allows 
 him to pass the hedge into the garden where grows the coveted rose : 
 
 Bel-Acueil se faisoit clamer, 
 
 Filz fu Cortoisie la sage, 
 
 Cis m'abandonna le passage 
 
 De la haie moult doucement, 
 
 Et me dist amiablement: 
 
 "Baius amis chiers, se il vous plest, 
 
 Passes la haie sans arrest." 
 
 Ibid., i p. 137, the act just mentioned is referred to as grant cor- 
 toisie. Esperance is termed cortoise, ibid., i p. 86, because she 
 sustains even a thief until the end. In vv. 2279-2281 of Thebes 
 we are told that Tydeus brought certain persons to her que pas n'ert 
 vilaine {i.e., ert cortoise), and the reason she is thus characterized 
 is given in the words (v. 2281), Que por eus s'ert tant traveilliee. 
 In vv. 6504-9 of Lancelot the hero complains that the absent Gawain 
 lacks cortoisie because he is not there to help him. Vv. 5430-4 of 
 Yvain speak of the readiness to serve shown by a cortoise maiden : 
 
 De lui servir tant s'antremet 
 Qu'il an a honte et si Tan poise. 
 Mes la pucele est tant cortoise 
 Et tant franche et tant deboneire 
 Qu' ancor an cuide ele po feire. 1 
 
 x See also Marie de France, Lais, Guigemar, vv. 460-4; L'Atre Perillous, 
 w. 5363-71; ibid., vv. 6320-31; Flamenca, vv. 2025-6; Hugues Capet, vv. 
 334^-3. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 41 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN REFUSES TO HELP OTHERS. 
 
 The cortois man was ever ready to offer his services when they 
 were needed by another, but the vilain is represented by the mediaeval 
 poets as refusing his aid to others. Thus the Roman de la Rose, i 
 p. 68, characterizes the vilain as without pity and unwilling to be 
 of service to his friends : 
 
 Vilains est fel et sans pitie, 
 
 Sans servise et sans amitie. 
 Another passage in the Roman de la Rose (i p. 40) states that 
 Franchise was so gentle-hearted that she would think she was com- 
 mitting an act of great vilonie {i.e. the act of a vilaine) is she were 
 not to aid one who came to grief on her account. Vv. 3878-81 of 
 L'Atre Perillous term a knight vilain who would not aid another 
 in his time of need: 
 
 Moult est le chevalier vilain 
 
 Et outragex, qui autre voit 
 
 D'amor de si tres grant destroit, 
 
 Si nel secort a grant besoing. 
 Vv. 44-48 of the fablel De Guillaume au faucon, Fabl. ii 35, charac- 
 terize as vileine a woman who would not grant her distressed lover 
 solace. Flamenca, vv. 5347-9, states that no cortois man would 
 leave a girl to her fate without assisting her : 
 
 Tort n'auran, si cortes s'en feinon, 
 
 C'aital dompna paura estraina 
 
 Laisson murir. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS GOOD, JUST, LOYAL; THE VILAIN IS BAD, UNJUST, 
 UNTRUSTWORTHY. 
 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS GOOD, JUST, LOYAL. 
 
 The code of ethics of the cortois as portrayed in mediaeval French 
 and Provengal poetry is a much higher one than that of the vilain, 
 although it is not an altogether rigid one. The didactic poem De 
 Conrtoisic instructs those who would be cortois to do good ; v. 90 : 
 
 Lessetz las mauls, fetes le bien. 
 The association of doing good with cortoisie is met in vv. 1 1394-5 
 of Perceval, where it is said that King Arthur loved cortoisie as 
 
4 2 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 no one else did, and also applied his heart to good. Giraud le Roux, 
 Rayn. Choix iii, p. 10, associates cortezia with fear of evil : 
 
 Ara sabrai s'a ges de cortezia 
 
 En vos, dona, ni si temetz peccat. 
 Jacques de Cambrai, Wackernagel p. 68, associates all good qualities 
 with cortoisie: 
 
 Dame, tous biens et toute cortoisie 
 
 est dedens vos 1 
 
 The justice and upright dealing of the cortois are the theme of 
 certain other passages. In vv. 5954-8 of Yvain a maiden says that 
 her sister would be doing cortoisie if she were to restore the property 
 out of which she had defrauded her : 
 
 Or feroit corteisie et bien 
 
 Ma dame, ma tres chiere suer, 
 
 Que j'aim autant come mon cuer, 
 
 S'ele de mon droit me leissoit 
 
 Tant qu'antre moi et li pes soit. 
 In vv. 25488-91 of Perceval, Perceval's opponent calls him cortois 
 for having thrown his own sword to the ground as soon as he saw 
 that his adversary was disarmed and suggesting that they finish the 
 combat with their fists : 
 
 Li chevaliers dist: "Je ne sa -i 
 
 Se cou est savoirs u folie, 
 
 Que vostre espee aves guerpie ; 
 
 Mais moult estes preus et cortois. 
 Observance of that law of fair combat which prescribed that the 
 arms of both contestants should be equal is termed cortoisie in Le 
 Chevalier a VEpee, w. 928-933. Gawain, addressing a knight who 
 has attacked him, says : 
 
 Vos veez mout bien que je n'ai 
 
 Fors sol ma lance et mon escu 
 
 Et lou branc au coste pendu. 
 
 Je vos conment a desarmer 
 
 Tant que nos soions per a per, 
 
 Si ferez mout grant cortoisie. 
 
 *A similar association of ideas is found in the following passages: Le 
 Breviari d'Amor, vv. 29559-60; Bertrand d'Allamanon Ier, Rayn. Choix v, 
 p. 71 ; Flamenca, v. 6483 ; CUges, vv. 5855-7. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 43 
 
 From vv. 3356-7 of L'Atre Perillous we infer that the cortois keeps 
 his plighted word: 
 
 Ains li tenes son convenant ; 
 
 Si feres bien et que cortois. 
 To render another what belongs to him by the laws of chivalry is 
 cortoisie. Blancandin, vv. 304-5, 309-10: 
 
 Ele est au chevalier amie 
 
 Que j'ai ga derriere laissie. 
 
 Frans chevaliers, par cortoisie 
 Rendes au chevalier s'amie. 
 
 Less direct evidence to the same effect is found in passages in 
 which the ideas of cortoisie and justice, fairness, are associated. In 
 vv. 41 135-6 of Perceval the adjective vrad is used with cortois: 
 A li respont : "Sire, ami ai, 
 Preu et cortois et sage et vrai, . . . " 
 V. 3 181 of L'Atre Perillous associates the adjective hotter able with 
 cortois : 
 
 D'estre cortois et honerable. 1 
 
 The loyalty of the cortois is implied in vv. 4084-5 of UAtre 
 Perillous, where cortoisie and loiaute are associated : 
 
 On aime le cors quant u cuer 
 
 A cortoisie et loiaute. 
 A similar association of ideas is met in Lancelot, vv. 3354-5 • 
 
 Mout me troveroiz deboneire 
 
 Vers vos et leal et cortois. 
 A practical instance of loyalty on the part of a cortois person is 
 found in the Romans de un ckivaler, etc., Fabliaux ii 50, vv. 262-9, 
 where a maid is represented as conveying a message of love from 
 a clerc to her mistress, although in doing so she is performing a 
 service for her successful, if unwitting, rival in his affections : 
 
 Or saveit ele bien de veir 
 
 Ke failli avoit de sun espeir, 
 
 *Honor and cortoisie are associated also in the following passages: L'Atre 
 Perillous, v. 5964; Perceval, vv. 41131-3; Blancandin, vv. 2644-6; Du Bouchier 
 d'Abezille, Fabliaux iii 84, vv. 142-3; Lamberti de Bonanel, ou de Bttvarel, 
 Rayn. Choix v, p. 243 ; Marie de France, Lais, Milun, v. 332. 
 
44 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Mes tant fist ele de corteisie 
 
 Ke son message ne cela mie. , 
 
 Dist a la dame le grant dolur 
 
 Ke li clerk suffri pur s'amur ; 
 
 Requist k'ele eust de li pite, 
 
 Alast le ver, pur l'amur De. 
 
 Three passages form exceptions to the general rule for the up- 
 rightness of the cortois. Chretien de Troies in Erec, vv. 3642-3, 
 implies that a lady may be cortoise and at the same time deceitful: 
 
 Mout est preuz et sage et cortoise 
 
 La dame qui deceu m'a. 
 An implication of similar nature is found in two verses by Guillaume 
 de Saint-Didier, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 300: 
 
 Ab son cuiar, o ab mentir cortes 
 
 Me tengra quay tos temps, s'a lieys plagues. 
 Vv. yij-22, 737-8 of La Clef d' Amors indicate that its author did 
 not consider the fulfilment of a cortois promise necessary: 
 
 Pramet li assez de pramesses, 
 
 grosses et grandes et espesses : 
 
 de bone hore fu mis a letre 
 
 qui cortoisement soit prametre. 
 
 Assez prametre petit grieve, 
 
 et si sort le courage et lieve. 
 
 Mes, quelz pramesses que tu faches, 
 garde bien que ne les perfaches. 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS BAD, UNJUST, UNTRUSTWORTHY. 
 
 Although the blemish of untruthfulness was permitted in the 
 cortois, his general' character was infinitely above that of the zilain 
 as portrayed by the mediceval poets. The vilain's thoroughly evil 
 reputation in courtly circles is attested by v. 165 of Le Lai de 
 I'Oiselet : 
 
 Et li vilain sont li mauvais, 
 and by Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i. 48, vv. 15-16: 
 
 james n'amera vilain, 
 
 car trop sont mauves. 
 In vv. 6771-5 of Flamenca, mals aips (evil character) is put in the 
 same category with inlania, and is opposed to cortesia : 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 45 
 
 De sempre li a tot comdat 
 
 Flamenca con es avengut 
 
 D'En Archimbaut ques a perdut 
 
 Sos mals aips e sa vilania 
 
 Et a cobrada cortesia. 1 
 A tendency on the part of the vilain to break his word is implied 
 in three passages in which failure to keep a promise is termed 
 vilenie; vv. 2209-10 of Perceval, giving King Arthur's words : 
 
 Vilonie est d'autrui gaber 
 
 Et de prometre sans doner ; 
 De Courtoisie, vv. 150-5: 
 
 E pur deu gardetz vous ent bien, 
 
 Ke vous ne promettez rien, 
 
 Si vous ne voilletz doner; 
 
 Kar ceo fet le fol conforter ! 
 
 Et ore ne lerra, ke nel vous die, 
 
 Certes ceo est grant vileinie; 
 Le Chevalier a I'Epee, vv. 1074-5, quoting Gawain's words to a 
 knight who has broken his word : 
 
 Et Gauvains dist : "C'est vilenie 
 
 Se vos en desdites ensi. 
 Vv. 6768-9 of Yvain refer to parjurer as vilainne chose. The ideas 
 of deception and vilenie are associated in v. 2&JJJ of Le Breviari 
 d'Amor : 
 
 O enguan o vilania. 
 A similar association of ideas is found in Erec, vv. 1793-5 : 
 
 Je sui rois, ne doi pas mantir, 
 
 Ne vilenie consantir, 
 
 Ne faussete ne desmesure. 
 Bernard de Ventadour, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 75, declares that cortezia 
 is vilana in that it may give a false appearance of friendship: 
 
 Cortezia es mout vilana, 
 
 Quar aquesta falsa gens vana 
 
 Fai conoisser semblansa d'amistatz. 
 The injustice of the vilain is implied in the following cases. 
 Vv. 2617-20 of Blancandin represent the hero of the poem as re- 
 
 1 See also Erec, v. 2422; Fabliaux v 137, vv. 194-7; Doctrinal le Sauvage, 
 strophe 57. 
 
4 6 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 gretting his lost love, Orgilleuse, and inveighing against the injustice 
 of the God of Love, whom he term vilains : 
 
 Trop est li diex d'amors vilains, 
 
 Quant si a fait foellir ces rains. 
 
 A tort sunt cil arbre flouri, 
 
 Puisque nos somes departi. 
 Vv. 592-4 of L'Atre Perillous criticise the injustice of vilaine death 
 in taking the good and leaving the evil : 
 
 Ahi mors ! tant par es vilaine, 
 
 Qui les bons prens tout a eslais, 
 
 Et laisces vivre les mauvais ! 
 A passage of similar sentiment is found in L'Escouile, vv. 2414-9: 
 
 N'est pas encor la mors trop ivre 
 
 Ki velt prenre si fait baron, 
 
 Ains velt faire grant mesprison ; 
 
 Si fait ele, et grant vilenie, 
 
 Quant ele ensi prent et lanie 
 
 . I . preudome conme . j . mauvais. 
 The dishonesty of the vilain is mentioned in several passages. 
 Vv. 23-6 of the Dit sur les Vilains declare that the vilain steals as 
 much from his lord as the latter gives him : 
 
 Se tu che fa lo vilan 
 
 Al so signor chi e plan ? 
 
 El no gie daria mai tanto 
 
 Ch'el no toge altretanto. 
 In vv. 1983-7 of Perceval the 1 maiden whom Perceval found in the 
 tent complains of his thefts, calling him vilain : 
 
 Mais . i . vallet galois i ot, 
 
 Anieus et vilain et sot, 
 
 Qui a de vostre vin beu, 
 
 Tant com lui plot et bon li fu, 
 
 Et manga de vos .iii. pastes. 
 Vv. 25-6 of Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 35, refer to the vilain as full of 
 graipaille (thievishness). V. 6467 of Perceval characterizes theft 
 as vilain et fol. 
 
 Testimony as to the treacherous nature of the vilain is found in 
 vv. 204-8 of Le Couronnement dc Louis, which advise against 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 47 
 
 accepting his advice on the ground that he would deceive for very 
 little : 
 
 Et altre chose et vueil filz acointier, 
 
 Que se tu vis, il t'avra grant mestier: 
 
 Que de vilain ne faces conseillier, 
 
 Fill a prevost ne de fil a veier 
 
 II boisereient a petit por loier. 
 Compare with the above v. 7774 of the Enfances Ogier: 
 
 Car de vilain vilain conseil a on. 
 In vv. 1081-4 of Eliduc, M. de France, Lais, Guilliadun complains 
 of Eliduc, saying that he deceived her vileinement, i. e. as a vilain 
 would have done : 
 
 Vileinement descunseilliee 
 
 m'a en altre terre laissiee. 
 
 Trahie m'a, ne sai que deit. 
 
 Mult est fole, qui hume creit ! 
 Vv. 2661-4 of Partonopeus de Blois declare that the znlain only 
 waits for a good opportunity to harm one of whom he is afraid. 
 Vv. 67-74 of Le Donnei des Amants compare the vilain to a dog 
 who wags his tail in a friendly manner and then bites : 
 
 Mastins e li vilein de but 
 
 De nature resemblent mut: 
 
 Chen de cue fet bel semblant, 
 
 Et pus si mort tut en emblant ; 
 
 Moet la cue, mort de la dent, 
 
 Et li vilain fet ensement: 
 
 Quant li vileins plus vus losenge, 
 
 Gardez devers vus ne mesprenge. 
 Vv. 6166-7 of Perceval characterize traison (treachery) as laide et 
 vilaine. Vv. 3165-6 of Lancelot place vilenie in the same category 
 as trdison et felenie. Vv. 325-7 of Du chevalier qui fist les c. parler, 
 Fabliaux vi 147, employ vilenie as a synonym for treachery. 
 
 The implication that the vilain does not fight fairly is also found. 
 To take unfair advantage of one who has been overcome in combat 
 is termed vilenie in vv. 993-9 of Erec : 
 
 "Ha ! vassaus," fet il, "conquis m'as. 
 
 Merci ! Ne rnocirre tu pas, 
 
 Des que tu m'as outre et pris : 
 
 Ja n'an avroies los ne pris. 
 
4 8 CORTOIS AND V I LAIN. 
 
 Se tu des or mes me tochoies, 
 
 Trop grant vilenie feroies. 
 
 Tien m'espee, je la te rant." 
 Folquet de Marseille, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 154, says that it is folly for 
 a man to fight one stronger than himself, and that he takes a risk 
 when he contends with one equal in strength, while to fight with 
 one weaker than himself is vilania. 
 
 X. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS GENEROUS; THE VJLAIN IS STINGY, 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS GENEROUS. 
 
 Generosity is that quality of the cortois which has been more 
 generally noticed than any other by writers who have touched upon 
 the subject of cortoisie. The ideas of cor testa and larghezza were 
 so closely associated in the minds of those for whom Dante wrote 
 that he thought it necessary to caution them against considering 
 cortesia to consist in larghezza and»nothing more. In the Convito, 
 tr. ii, c. 11, says: E now siano li miseri volgari anche di questo 
 vocabolo ingannati, che credona che cortesia non sia altro che 
 larghezza: che larghezza e una speziale e non gcnerale cortesia. 
 Andre le Chapelain in his De Amore (ed. Trojel, p. 65) recom- 
 mends generosity to those who would be cortois in the words : 
 Sed et, si viderit pauperes esurire et eis alimenta praestiterit, magna 
 curialitas atque largitas reputatur. Prof. H. R. Lang, in a note on 
 Courtesy in the Cancioneiro Gallego-Castelhano, vol. i p. 167, after 
 quoting Jeanroy's definition of the term, says: "One of the most 
 essential elements of courtesy thus conceived was liberality, benefi- 
 cence. Hence Dante (Vita Nuova, c. xliii; cf. Convito iv, 20) 
 speaks of God, the giver of all good and perfect gifts, as the sire 
 della cortesia, and Petrarch, in the celebrated canzone Italia mia, 
 addresses him as Signor cortese." 
 
 The direct testimony in mediaeval texts to the part played by 
 generosity in cortoisie is considerable. Wace, Brut, vv. 6763-8, 
 states that Vortiger was called cortois because of his generous gifts : 
 
 Tant lor a Vortiger done 
 
 Et tant a cascuns honore 
 
 N'i ot un sol qui ne deist, 
 
 Oiant qui oir le volsist, 
 
CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 49 
 
 Que Vortiger ert plus cortois 
 
 Et mius vaillans que n'ert li rois. 
 In another passage in the same poem (vv. 1605-6) Wace says: 
 
 Et Anor fut li plus cortoise 
 
 Et mius sot demener ricoise. 
 The author's view of a cortois use of wealth has been shown in 
 the lines previously quoted, and we have no difficulty in recognizing 
 the implication of liberality here. Chretien de Troies, in Erec, vv. 
 3 181 -5, gives an instance of Erec's generosity, for which he calls 
 him cortois: 
 
 Quant mangie orent et beii, 
 
 Erec cortois et larges fu. 
 
 Amis, fet il, an guerredon 
 
 Vos faz d'un de mes chevaus don. 
 
 Prenez celui qui miauz vos siet ! 
 Marie de France in the lay of Milun, vv. 322-332, describing Milun, 
 says that he became acquainted with wealthy knights, and jousted 
 with them, invariably coming oft" conqueror; and that all he gained 
 in ransoms he gave to his poor friends, and maintained them, 
 spending liberally. Then in v. 332 she sums up all his excellences 
 in the words, mult fu curteis, mult sot honur. The author of De 
 Court oisie, in vv. 128-9, admonishes those who would be cortois 
 to learn to give well. In Gaydon, vv. 10822-4, we are told in the 
 words of the King of France that he gives the great seneschalship 
 of "sweet France" to Gaydon. Thereupon Duke Naynmes ex- 
 claims: C'est assez cortoisie. In vv. 2510-5 of UAtre Perillous 
 we are told of a knight who n'ert pas vilain, and the explanation of 
 his implied cortoisie follows : 
 
 Ki fist au matin atorner, 
 
 Quant il vit qu'il durent monter, 
 
 Un palefroi moult ricement, 
 
 Tout en ert fres l'acesmement, 
 
 Li lorains, li frains et la sele. 
 The author of Flamenco, in a passage too long to be quoted here 
 (vv. 1745-1768), tells of the extreme generosity of Guillem de 
 Nivers lo cortes (v. 1761). He not only gave rich gifts to his 
 friends, but they felt perfectly free to lodge where they liked and 
 live high at his expense, and their host never spoke of payment, 
 
5 o C0RT0IS AND VILAIN. 
 
 so sure was he of being amply recompensed as soon as a tourney 
 or a war brought Guillem de Nivers that way. 1 
 
 There is a large amount of less direct, but still important testi- 
 mony to be found in the frequent and close association of the ideas 
 of cortoisie and generosity in the lines of the mediaeval poets. An 
 early example of this is to be found in Philippe de Thaiin's Bestiaire, 
 vv. 5-8: 
 
 Pur l'onur d'une geme 
 
 Ki mult est bele feme 
 
 E est curteise e sage, 
 
 De bones murs e large : 
 In this, as in many other cases, the quality of generosity is men- 
 tioned among other favorable attributes of the cortois. Wace, 
 Brut, vv. 2727-8, speaks of one who knew how to make himself 
 popular Par cortoisie, et par doner. In Chretien de Troies' Yvain 
 we find the lines (1293-7) : 
 
 De vostre enor, biaus sire chiers, 
 
 Ne fu onques nus chevaliers 
 
 Ne de la vostre cortoisie. 
 
 Largesce estoit la vostre amie 
 
 Et hardemanz vostre compainz ; 
 and in Cligcs, vv. 184-5 : 
 
 Meis gardez que mout soiiez larges 
 
 Et cortois et bien afeitiez. 
 Two lines in Chretien's Erec (1561-2), 
 
 Ses peres est frans et cortois, 
 
 Mes que d'avoir a petit pois, 
 are evidence that he considered that true cortoisie was not, however, 
 limited to the wealthy class. Marie de France in the lay of 
 Chaitwel, vv. 35-8, says of four Breton knights, 
 
 II n'aveient guaires d'ee 
 
 mes mult erent de grant bealte 
 
 Additional passages illustrating the generosity of the cortois are as fol- 
 lows : Flamenca, vv. 5284-8; Bertrand de Pujet, Rayn. Choix iv, p. 375 and 
 p. 376; Fabliaux i 12, vv. 43-9; ibid., iii 71, vv. 322-7 (cf. vv. 317-9) ; ibid., 
 iii 84, vv. 7-14; ibid., v 136, vv. 11, 14-18; Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 62, vv. 19-24; 
 ibid., iii 2, vv. 10-15; ibid., iii 54, v. 26. 
 
CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 51 
 
 e chevalier pruz e vaillant, 
 large, curteis e despendant. 1 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS STINGY. 
 
 The stinginess of the vilain is implied in vv. 902-4 of Guillaume 
 d'Angleterre, where covetousness is termed vilainne. In Li respit 
 del curteis et del vilain, strophe 41, we have the following direct 
 statement : 
 
 Moult porte queor vilein 
 
 Et trop a estreit mein 
 
 Ke rien ne seet fors prendre. 
 In the fablel Du chevalier qui fist les c. parler, Fabliaux vi 147, vv. 
 188-170, a lack of liberality is termed vilenie: 
 
 Et nos avon fait vilenie, 
 
 Qui riens ne li avons done 
 
 Dont il nos doie savoir gre. 
 The stinginess of the vilain is referred to in the Roman de la Rose, 
 i p. 74: 
 
 Xe te fai tenir por aver, 
 
 Car ce te porroit moult grever; 
 
 II est raison que li amant 
 
 Doignent du lor plus largement 
 
 Que cil vilains entule et sot. 
 The complaints of a woman married to a vilain (Bartsch, A. R. 
 u. P., i 64, vv. 15-16) are due to his miserliness: 
 
 A un vilain m'ont donee mi parent, 
 
 qui ne fet fors auner or et argent. 
 The fablel Du Vilain Mire {Fabliaux iii 74), vv. 1-2, and the 
 Fablel d'Aloid {ibid., i 24), vv. 5-6, mention a vilain who was 
 avers et c(h)iches. 
 
 Chretien de Troies in Cliges, vv. 4547-8, associates stinginess 
 with vilenie in a list of undesirable qualities : 
 
 Chiches et fos et contrefeiz 
 
 Et vilains an diz et an feiz. 
 In Yvain, vv. 4381-4, we are told that no one is any longer noble 
 or cortois, but that every one asks for himself that which he does 
 
 x See also Tydorel, vv. 221-4; ibid., v. 454; Perceval, vv. 29076-9; Fab- 
 liaux iv 106, vv. 456-7; Breviari d'Amor, vv. 33794. 
 
52 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 not for another, even though he himself has no need of it. It is 
 against this "dog in the manger" attitude that Andre le Chapelain 
 (De Amore, p. 122) makes the plebeian woman remonstrate with 
 the words : Inurbanum satis esse videtur et a bonis moribus mani- 
 feste deviate cognoscitur, si bonum, quod quisque sibi habere non 
 potest, alteri prorsus velit denegare petenti. Inurbanum in this 
 connection without doubt has the same force as the French adjective 
 vilain. Vv. 188-190 of the Lai de VOiselet declare that the vilain 
 prefers getting money to courting ladies : 
 
 Or m'ot cil vilains pleins d'envie, 
 Qui aime asses mieus le denier 
 Qu'il ne face le donoier. 
 
 XL 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS RICHLY DRESSED; THE VILAIN IS POORLY DRESSED. 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS RICHLY DRESSED. 
 
 As the personal characteristics of the cortois were of an order 
 superior to those of other men, so his dress was more elaborate 
 and of finer quality. The troubadour Garis lo Brus, quoted in the 
 Breviari d'Amor, vv. 32238-9, thus defines cortoisie: 
 
 Cortezi' es en gent garnir 
 Et en gent aculhir. 
 
 N'Arnaut Guilhem de Marsan in his Enscnhamen, Appel, Prov. 
 Chrest., St. 112, vv. 9-16, says that the wearing of fine white shirts 
 gives to an excellent knight the appearance of cortoisie: 
 
 Car totz pros cavayers 
 deu vestir a sobriers 
 camizas de ransan 
 primas, car ben estan, 
 e blancas totas vetz, 
 que mielhs en semblaretz 
 cortes et ensenhatz 
 en totz locx on venhatz. 
 
 Vv. 26749-53 of Perceval speak of one hundred cortoises maidens 
 who were richly clad: 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 53 
 
 Bien i avoit .c. damoisieles, 
 
 Avenans, cortoises et bieles, 
 
 Acesmees de riche atour 
 
 Et viestues d'une coulour 
 
 De samis a bendes d'orfrois. 
 Le Chevalier a l'£pee, vv. 37-46, describes the attitre of a knight 
 who "clothed himself in the manner of the cortois" : 
 
 Cortoisement s'aparella : 
 
 Uns esperons a or chauca 
 
 Sor unes chauces decopees 
 
 De drap de soie bien ovrees ; 
 
 Si ot unes braies chauciees, 
 
 Mout tres blanches et mout dougiees, 
 
 Et chemise gascorte et lee 
 
 De lin menuement ridee, 
 
 Et un mantel afuble: 
 
 Mout richement fu atorne. 
 The Lai du Trot, vv. 77-86, mentions a group of maidens Ki 
 cortoises furent et beles, S'estoient molt bien acesmees; upon their 
 heads they wore chaplets of roses and of eglantine. L'Atre Peril- 
 lous, vv. 3752-4, refers to a maiden who was Et cortoise et bien 
 acesmee. 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS POORLY DRESSED. 
 
 Evidence upon this point is chiefly negative, although inferences 
 may be drawn from those passages in which the generally uncouth 
 appearance of the vilain is described (see pp. 76-7). Negative evi- 
 dence is found in those passages in which one who is richly dressed, 
 or finely equipped, is said not to be vilain, or not to resemble a 
 vilain. Eneas, vv. 1495-9: 
 
 conreez fu le Troien, 
 
 com por aler en bois, molt bien : 
 
 le cuivre al col, Tare en la main, 
 
 ne resemblot de rien vilain; 
 
 ce vos semblast que fust Febus. 
 Marie de France, Lais, Lanval, vv. 175-7: 
 
 Quant il fu vestuz de nuvel, 
 
 suz ciel nen ot plus bel dancel ; 
 
 n'esteit mie fols ne vileins. 
 
54 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Amadas et Ydoine, vv. 1698-9: 
 
 Com cil qui n'est mie vilains, 
 Ot un blans gans de Castiaudun. 
 
 Perceval, vv. 28635-41 : 
 
 Atant est d'tine cambre issue 
 Une dame ki fu viestue 
 D'une escarlate teinte en graine; 
 Trop me seroit anuis et paine 
 De la biaute de li escrire ; 
 Mais tant vos puis conter et dire 
 Que n'estoit vilaine ne fole. 
 
 Durmart le Galois, vv. 3859-3865 : 
 
 Mais ses(t) ostes qui molt fu ber 
 Li fist un mantel aporter 
 D'une escarlate clere et fine, 
 La penne estoit tote d'ermine. 
 Li Galois s'en est affiebles, 
 Asses fu la nuit regardes, 
 Ne sembla pas filz de vilain. 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS COURAGEOUS; THE VILAIN IS A COWARD, 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS COURAGEOUS. 
 
 Direct characterizations of the cortois as courageous are found 
 as follows. In Wace, Brut, vv. 11 517-21, the first mariner is thus 
 commended for venturing upon an unknown sea : * 
 
 Mult fu hardis, mult fu cortois 
 
 Cil qui nes fist premierement 
 
 Et en mer se mist od le vent, 
 
 Terre querre qu'il ne veoit, 
 
 Et rivage qu'il ne savoit. 
 Vv. 56-60 of the Lai d'Ignaures tell how the hero of the lay spent 
 a part of his cortoise vie at tournaments, showing his courage by 
 jousting with many knights : 
 
CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 55 
 
 Molt demainne cortoise vie, 
 
 Et quant tornoi estoient pris, 
 
 II i aloit querre son pris 
 
 A . xx . chevaliers u a trente, 
 
 Et si n'avoit c'un poi de rente. 
 The Doctrinal le Sauvage, stanza 28, implies the courage of the 
 cortois by criticising as lacking in cortoisie those who are very- 
 quarrelsome, but yet are of no account in wars and in tournaments : 
 
 D'une autre gent me sui merveilliez mainte foiz 
 
 Qui font granz aatines, outrages et desroiz 
 
 Et si ne valent riens aus guerres n'aus tornoiz : 
 
 Certes, ce poise-moi qu'il ne sont plus cortois. 
 Hugues Capet, vv. 4792-5, characterizes death for one's lord as 
 cortoisie : 
 
 Qui muert pour son signeur, il meurt en courtoissie. 
 
 Je moray liement se vous cuers s'i alye ; 
 
 Car sachiez j'aime mieux, douce dame prisie, 
 
 Morir a grant honour que vivre en vilonnie. 
 Further testimony as to the part played by courage in cortoisie 
 is given by passages in which the two ideas are associated. Wace, 
 Brut, vv. 2261-4: 
 
 Hardis fu et biax et cortois, 
 
 Cil trespassa trestos les rois 
 
 Qui en Bretaigne orent este 
 
 De hardiment et de biaute. 1 
 The courage of the cortois was, however, not without its reason- 
 able limits, according to Chretien de Troies. In vv. 4326-30 of 
 Yvain he represents the hero as. hesitating for a moment to attack 
 la presse (v. 4337), as any man who was cortois and intelligent 
 might do: 
 
 Mes sire Yvains vient, si la voit 
 
 Au feu ou an la viaut ruiier, 
 
 Et ce li dut mout enuiier. 
 
 Cortois ne sages ne seroit, 
 
 Qui de rien nule an doteroit. 
 His hesitation was only momentary, however; cf. vv. 4337-8. The 
 same poet, in Yvain, vv. 3192-5, represents li cortois as being over- 
 see also Erec, vv. 2499-2502 ; Marie de France, Lais, Milun, vv. 13-14 ; 
 Le Breviari d'Amor, vv. 30922-3; Gaufrey, vv. 3756-7. 
 
56 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 come by Yvain, showing that though he considered the cortois 
 courageous he did not consider them as necessarily invincible : 
 
 Car li cortois, li preuz, li buens, 
 
 Mes sire Yvains tot autresi 
 
 Les feisoit venir a merci 
 
 Con li faucons fet les cerceles. 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS A COWARD. 
 
 Wace mentions the faint-heartedness of the vilain in Brut, vv. 
 6240-1 : 
 
 N'i avoit fors la vilenaille 
 
 Qui n'avoit qure de bataille, 
 and in the Roman de Rou, vv. 11 195-8: 
 
 N'osoent uilain laborer, 
 
 Ne boes ioindre, ne champs arer, 
 
 Ne marcheant par uile aler, 
 
 Ne marcheandise porter. 
 In Thebes, vv. 2779-2780, Meleages is termed vilains because of his 
 lack of courage : 
 
 Meleages, mout ies vilains, 
 
 N'ies pas de hardement certains. 
 
 Benoit de Sainte-More speaks of the cowardice of the vilain in 
 Troie, vv. 6040-2 : 
 
 N'i a vilain ne vavassor 
 
 Qui ne guerpisse son maneir, 
 
 N'en i ose uns sols remaneir. 
 £neas, vv. 6888-90, uses the cowardice of the vilain in a comparison 
 as if it were a well-known fact: 
 
 vos avez la teche al vilain, 
 
 ki la endreit hue son chien 
 
 o il n'ose aler por rien. 
 Erec, vv. 801-4, relates how the vilainne jant (v. 798) drew back 
 before a knight who was armed merely with a rod : 
 
 Li cuens est venuz an la place, 
 
 As vilains vient, si les menace, 
 
 Une verge tient an sa main : 
 
 Arriers se traient li vilain. 
 Elie de Saint Gille, vv. 582-5, thus describes the fright of a vilain 
 at the sight of carnage: 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 57 
 
 A iceste parolle .i. vilain lor est sors 
 
 Et portoit se cuingnie dont ot ovre le jor. 
 
 Quant il voit les paiens detranchies en Perbous, 
 
 En fuie vaut torner, car mout ot grant paour. 
 Cleomades, vv. 143-8, declares that not even shame will keep the 
 vilain from running away from danger : 
 
 Tel gent pour leur seignour morroient, 
 
 La ou li vilain s'en fuiroient ; 
 
 Car li vilains par droit ne crient 
 
 Honte quant de vilain lieu vient; 
 
 Ne vilain ne sevent cremir 
 
 Honte, quant il cuident morir. 
 The fablel De V oustillement au vilain, Fab. ii 43, states (vv. 87-92) 
 in what manner the vilain shall arm himself to defend his land, but 
 (vv. 111-114) advises him not to be in the front rank of the fight: 
 
 Mes gart qu'il ne soit mie 
 
 Devant a Tescremie, 
 
 Quar il feroit que fols, 
 
 S'il ert aus premiers cops. 
 In other passages the cowardice of the vilain, though not directly 
 alleged, is implied. Guiraut de Quentinhac, quoted in the Breviari 
 d'Amor, vv. 33596-7, declares that the tendency to be easily fright- 
 ened is gran vilanatge, i.e. very characteristic of the vilain. In 
 vv. 7981-7 of Perceval, Gawain says that for him to weakly turn 
 back from his undertaking would be trop vilains. Vv. 61 1-4 of 
 Tyolet imply that the vilain would not dare to enter a tournament: 
 
 "Par foi," fet il, "sire Gauvain, 
 
 Or me tenez vos por vilain, 
 
 Qui me dites que n'os porter 
 
 Ma lance en estor por joster." 
 Perceval, vv. 17995-8 and 18001-2, characterizes one who shows his 
 faint-heartedness by weeping as lacking in cortoisie, i.e. vilain'. 
 
 "Dites-moi, fait-il, sire rois, 
 
 Vous n'estes mie si cortois 
 
 Que j'ai 01 toustans conter; 
 
 Que rois ne doit mie plorer. 
 
 Ploret aves et duel mene, 
 Foible cuer aves. . . " 
 
58 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS VERSED IN THE ART OF COURTLY LOVE; THE VILAIN 
 IS IGNORANT OF COURTLY LOVE. 
 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS VERSED IN THE ART OF COURTLY LOVE. 
 
 The God of Love is represented as being cortois. Hugues 
 Brunet, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 315: 
 
 Amors, que es us esperitz cortes. 
 Love bears the banner of cortoisie, and whoever will serve him will 
 be free from vilenie. Le Roman de la Rose, i p. 63 : 
 
 Qu' Amors porte le gonfanon 
 
 De Cortoisie et la baniere, 
 
 Et si est de tele maniere, 
 
 Si dous, si frans et si gentis, 
 
 Que quiconques est ententis 
 
 A li servir et honorer, 
 
 Dedans lui ne puet demorer 
 
 Vilonnie ne mesprison, 
 
 Ne nule mauvese aprison. 
 Love is accompanied by Cortoisie. Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 2, vv. 3-6 : 
 
 . . . selonc un pandant 
 
 trovai Bone-Amor floretes coillant, 
 
 en sa compaignie 
 
 Sen et Cortoisie. 
 To love is cortoisie. Marcabrus, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 373 : 
 
 E cortezia es d'amar. 
 The same idea is expressed in similar terms by Garis lo Brus, quoted 
 in Le Breinari d'Antor, v. 32240, and by N'Uc de la Bachalairia, 
 quoted in Le Breviari d'Amor, v. 32252. Blacas, Rayn. Choix 
 m > P- 337> represents a lover as saying that if his lady loved him 
 as well as he loved her she would be doing gran cortezia. Peire 
 Raimon de Toulouse, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 129, associates cortezia 
 with courtly love: 
 
 Lo jorn que sa cortezia 
 
 Me mostret, e m fetz parer 
 
 Un pauc d'amor ab plazer. 
 Chretien de Troies in Lancelot, vv. 4377-8, defines cortoisie as 
 service for one's lady: 
 
 Ainz est amors et corteisie 
 
 Ouanqu'an puet feire por s'amie. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 59 
 
 Perceval's musing over the drops of blood upon the snow and 
 recalling his lady's face is termed by Gawain a cortois thought; 
 Perceval, vv. 5824-5, 5828-37: 
 
 "Et jou estoie si pensis 
 
 D'un penser ki moult me plaisoit, 
 
 Que devant moi, en icest leu, 
 
 avoit .iii. gotes de fresc sane 
 
 Qui enluminoient le blanc; 
 
 En l'esgarder m'estoit avis 
 
 Que la fresce color del vis 
 
 M'amie la biele veisse, 
 
 Ne ja partir ne m'en quesisce." 
 
 "Certes, fait mesire Gauvains, 
 
 Cis pensers n'estoit pas vilains, 
 
 Aingois ert moult cortois et dos." 
 Guillaume Magret, Rayn. Choir iii, p. 419, speaks of love as a 
 cortois disease: 
 
 Mas s'ieu muer de tan cortes mal 
 
 Cum amors es, ja no m'er grieu. 
 Since love was looked upon by the poets as inseparable from 
 cortoisie, it was but natural that they should limit its enjoyment 
 to the cortois. This notion was often expressed. Le Breviari 
 d'Amor, vv. 32215-6: 
 
 Qui vol done d'amor far son pro 
 
 Cove qu'el sia cortes. 
 Pierre Rogiers, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 35 : 
 
 Et amors ten se ab los cortes. 
 The same thought is expressed figuratively by Marcabrus, Rayn. 
 Choix v, p. 251 : 
 
 Qui ses bauzia 
 
 Vol amor alberguar, 
 
 De cortezia 
 
 Deu sa maison joncar. 
 Chretien de Troies, Yvain, vv. 21-23, lamenting the "good old 
 times," wrote: 
 
 Car cil qui soloient amer 
 
 Se feisoient cortois clamer 
 
 Et preu et large et enorable. 
 
•60 C0RT0IS AND VILAIN. 
 
 The same poet, Wackernagle p. 15, says: 
 
 Nuls, sil nest cortois et saiges, 
 
 Ne puet riens damors aprendre. 
 The Breviari d'Amor insists upon this quality of cortoisie in a lover 
 in three passages. Vv. 30176-9: 
 
 Quar qui es be enamorat 
 
 Deu esser cortes e celat, 
 
 Gardan se de dire folor 
 
 Si be vol aver d'est' amor. 
 Ibid., vv. 287-9, 297-300: 
 
 Or voil a ton estat venir, 
 
 comment tu te doiz contenir, 
 
 se vers amours veuz assener. 
 
 O tout cen doiz estre cortois 
 
 des chevelz siques es ortois : 
 
 par courtoisie et par largesce 
 
 puet Ten monter en grant hautesce. 
 Ibid., vol. i, p. 21, cortezia is mentioned as one of the virtues of 
 the tree of knowledge of good and evil which everyone must pluck 
 who wishes to have the fruit of ladies' love. In Le Roman de la 
 Rose, i p. 74, we are again told that a lover must be cortois: 
 
 Qui d'Amors vuet faire son mestre, 
 
 Cortois et sans orguel doit estre. 
 In another passage from the same work the God of Love tells the 
 Lover that one who would kiss his lips must be cortois; ibid., i p. 63. 
 Vv. 689-694 of La Clef d'Amors declare that a letter to one's lady 
 must be couched in cortois language, without any word of vilanie, 
 if it is to touch her heart. Las Leys d'Amors, Appel, Prov. Chrest., 
 St. 124, lines 40-42, declare that one who is in love must show 
 himself cortes in his actions and in his words. Andre le Chapelain 
 in De Amore, p. 106, among his "twelve chief precepts of love" gives 
 the following: In omnibus urbanum te constituas et curialem. 
 
 Certain passages mention cortois who are lovers. Lanfranc 
 Cigala, Appel, Prov. Chrest., St. 32, vv. 45-47, says of his lady: 
 
 que li cal tan cortezia 
 
 que d'un plazen ris me socor 
 
 ades quan me ve, per amor. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 61 
 
 In vv. 2602-5 of h'Atre Perillous a lady speaks of a cortois knight 
 who was her lover: 
 
 Sire, fait ele, uns chevaliers 
 
 Biax et prox et cortois et sage, 
 
 Ki m'amena en cest boscage, 
 
 M'amoit par amors et je.lui. 
 In vv. 12-14 of a past our elle, Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 2, the speaker 
 is represented as asking Bone-Amor, Sen and Cortoisie what true 
 lovers are doing. They reply, hi cortois, It lairge vont maix a 
 noient, thus defining lovers as the cortois and the generous. However, 
 the lay of Guigemar, M. de France, vv. 487-492, takes exception to 
 the steadfastness in love of certain curteis, whom she accordingly 
 terms vilain : 
 
 Plusur le tienent a gabeis, 
 
 si cume cil vilain curteis, 
 
 ki jolivent par tut le mund, 
 
 puis se vantent de ceo que funt. 
 
 N'est pas amurs, einz est folie 
 
 e malvaistiez e lecherie. 
 Not only did the cortois possess those qualities which made him 
 the lover par excellence, but it was his duty to love. Thus De 
 Courtoisie, which contains the code of cortoisie, directs those who 
 would be cortois to love ; vv. 1 14-5 : 
 
 Si voil, qe vous ametz par amurs ; 
 
 Ke vous en serrez le plus prus. 
 he Breviari oVAmor, vv. 27916-8, referring to the troubadour Mira- 
 val's discussion of love in his poems, says : 
 
 Amar vole done le cavaliers 
 
 Et estar ves amors entiers 
 
 Cum savis e pros e cortes. 
 Marie de France, hats, Equitan, vv. 83-86, speaks of the uselessness 
 of cortoisie without love : 
 
 Si bele dame tant mar fust 
 
 s'ele n'amast u dru n'eiist! 
 
 Que devendreit sa curteisie, 
 
 s'ele n'amast de druerie? 
 The cortois should accept proffered love, as well. Marie de 
 France, hais, Eliduc, vv. 393-6, represents Guilliadun as meditating 
 
62 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 after having sent the message of love to Eliduc with her ring. She 
 says: 
 
 Unkes mes ne parlai fors ier 
 
 e or le faz d'amer preier, 
 
 ieo quid que il me blasmera ; 
 
 s'il est curteis, gre me savra. 
 Less direct evidence of the part played by love in cortoisie is 
 found in certain passages where the two ideas are closely associated. 
 Le Breviari d'Amor, vv. 29898 and 29931 : 
 
 Don dis l'amoros el cortes. 
 Cf. Flamenca, vv. 7649-53. 
 
 Love is represented as having the power to make a man cortois. 
 L'Atre Perillous, vv. 3058-60 : 
 
 Hardi me fist comme lion 
 
 Amors que en ses las me mist; 
 
 Cortois et enprenant me fist. 1 
 Andre le Chapelain grants the truth of this doctrine in De Amore, 
 p. 160, where he says : Quamvis igitur amor cogat omnes curiales 
 exsistere. . . . 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS IGNORANT OF COURTLY LOVE. 
 
 We have noticed above the passage in which the God of Love 
 is spoken of as cortois. In a similar passage we find Bone Amor 
 referred to in synonymous terms as ne pas vilaine; La Chastclaine de 
 Saint Gille, Fabliaux i 11, vv. 284-6. In the Roman de la Rose, 
 i p. 68, the God of Love directs that vilenie be forsaken, on pain 
 of his displeasure, and all those who love vilenie, for 
 Vilonnie fait li vilains, 
 Por ce n'est pas drois que ge Tains. 
 
 The vilain, being outside the pale of courtly love, could not be 
 expected to comprehend the art of love. So Guilhem, comte de 
 Peitieu, Appel, Prov. Chrest., St. 59, vv. 1-5, says that he who does 
 not understand his love song, and learn it by heart, should be 
 considered a vilain : 
 
 ^ee, for additional statements to the same effect: Blancandin, vv. 
 1380-91; Pons de Capdueil, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 175; Guillaume de Cabestaing, 
 ibid., iii, p. Ill, 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 63 
 
 Companho, faray un vers covinen, 
 
 et aura i mais de foudatz, no y a de sen, 
 
 et er totz mesclatz d'amor e de ioy e de ioven. 
 
 E tenguatz lo per vilan, qui no l'enten 
 
 o dins son cor voluntiers non l'apren. 
 The author of La Clef d' Amors, defining the purpose of his book 
 to be that of exposing the science of love, tells the vilains, vv. 173- 
 180, not to touch it, for they would but waste their time in consulting 
 it: 
 
 Or ne le vienge nul aprendre 
 
 s'il n'a cuer amoureus et tend re : 
 
 traient soy en sus les gelous 
 
 as cuers felons et cavelous 
 
 et les vilains et les vilaines. 
 
 Telz gens i perdroient lor paines ; 
 
 quer a eulz n'apartient il mie 
 
 a savoir d'amer la mestrie. 
 And since the vilain was ignorant of the science of love, it would 
 be useless to talk to him of it. De Florance et de Blanche Flor, 
 vv. 9-1 1 : 
 
 A vileins ne a venteors 
 
 Ne doit-on pas parler d'amors : 
 
 Mais a clers ou a chevaliers. 
 This ignorance in matters of love is alluded to in two passages in 
 pastourelles. Bartsch, A. R. u. P., iii 46, vv. 70-71 : 
 
 ostez, savroit done vilains amer? 
 
 nenil voir. 
 Ibid., ii 23, vv. 20-22 : 
 
 si laissiez eel vilain sot, 
 
 dorenlot, c'ainz ne vos sot 
 
 bien amer ne faire joie. 1 
 The vilain, being ignorant in matters of love, failed to recognize 
 the evidences of it in another. Thus fineas, in Eneas, vv. 9031-7, 
 regrets that he did not recognize the fact that Lavinia loved him, 
 and calls himself "vilain in love" : 
 
 hoarse variations of the same theme are found as follows: Bartsch, 
 A. R. ft, P., i 69; Fabliaux iv 105, vv. 1-5; Bartsch, A. R. u. P., iii 35, vv. 
 19-20. 
 
64 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Bien puis saveir des l'altre jor, 
 
 que primes fui desoz la tor, 
 
 a ce que tant me reguardot, 
 
 de si buen oil, qu'ele m'amot ; 
 
 des i done m'en aperceiisse, 
 
 se ge d'amer vilains ne fusse ; 
 
 ne saveie que ce esteit. 
 The vilain was also denied the enjoyment of love. Flamenca, vv. 
 6014-6016 : 
 
 Mais amoretas son corals 
 
 Don non gostan vilan ne fals 
 
 Domnejador outracujat. 
 Beauty was not for the vilain 3 s touch. Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 60, 
 vv. 25-28: 
 
 Damage seroit, pastourele, 
 
 se vilains touce a ton menton. 
 
 quels ieus, quel bouce et qel mascele ! 
 
 bien aferroit a un baron. 
 However, far from seeking love, the vilain is constantly repre- 
 sented as rejecting it. I lie et Galeron, vv. 3923-4 : 
 
 Mais or est si que gent vilaine 
 
 Ont amours toute refusee. 
 Bartsch, A. R. u. P., iii 9, vv. 33-35 : 
 
 Quant l'oi si escondire de s'amor 
 
 erranment li pris a dire par iror 
 
 'touse n'iere mais cortois. . . . ' 
 Ibid., ii 46, vv. 33-35 : 
 
 Sire, a vous m'otroie: 
 
 trop vilainne seroie 
 
 se vos aloie refuzant. 
 In Amadas et Ydoine, vv. 11 30-7, a girl laments her lover, who has 
 died on account of her refusal of him, in the words : 
 
 Fille de roi, ne de roine, 
 S'il la daignast amer d'amour, 
 N'eiist de lui mult grant honnour. 
 Trop li ai este fie re et dure, 
 Et orgilleuse a desmesure ; 
 S'ai fait que folle et que dervee 
 Et que vilaine sourquidee, 
 Que non sachans et ke caitive ! 
 
CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 65 
 
 Cadenet, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 253, says that it would be vilania, i.e. 
 the act of a vilaine, for a girl to send her lover away before the 
 dawn: 
 
 Quar seria 
 
 Desconoissens vilania 
 
 Qui s partria malamen 
 
 Son amic valen 
 
 De si, tro en l'alba. 
 Chretien de Troies, in Erec, vv. 1832-4, declares it to be the act of 
 a vilaine to object to being kissed: 
 
 La pucele ne fu pas fole, 
 
 Bien vost que li rois la beisast; 
 
 Vilainne fust s'il Tan pesast. 
 To refuse to bestow a kiss is characterized in the Roman de la Rose, 
 i p. 113, as the act of a vilaine: 
 
 II n'est dame ne chastelaine 
 
 Que ge ne tenisse a vilaine, 
 
 S'ele n'el daignoit aesier 
 
 D'avoir un savoreux besier. 
 To scorn one's lover is defined by Bernard de Ventadour, Rayn. 
 Choix iii, pp. 76-77, as the act of a vilaine : 
 
 Mas d'aisso fai trop que vilana 
 
 Ma domna, quar aissi m soana; 
 
 Quar de l'affan no mi val amistatz, 
 
 Per qu'ieu disses que mielhs sui sos privatz. 
 Li Fablel don Dieu d' Amours, p. 17, mentions the vilain's rejection 
 of love : 
 
 Loussignos sire, bien fust drois et mesure, 
 
 Que ja vilains d'amiste n'eust cure. 
 
 Car se il aimme en aucune mesure, 
 
 N'est pas por li, ains est par aventure. 
 La Clef d' Amors, vv. 261-8, upbraids as vilaines all women who do 
 not yield their love in response to the prayers of their lovers : 
 
 Toutes fames tien a vilaines 
 
 qui font perdre as amans lors paines 
 
 et qui refusent et desdient 
 
 ceulz qui sanz faintise les prient. 
 
 Vilaines sont il voirement ; 
 
 je le te preuve clerement: 
 
66 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 cele est vilaine a qui Ten donne 
 s'amour, s'el ne le guerredonne. 
 
 Le Chevalier a I'Epee, vv. 321-3, characterizes as vilaine a woman 
 who would awaken a man's love and leave it unsatisfied : 
 
 Bien set qu'el fe'ist que vilainne 
 S'el lou meist d'amors en painne 
 Don il ne traissist ja a chief. 
 
 Vv. 855-861 of Cliges represent the speaker as referring to his lady 
 as an arrow which has pierced him. He continues: 
 
 Par foi, c'est li maus qui me tue, 
 Ce est li darz, ce est li reis, 
 Don trop vilainemant m'ireis. 
 Mout sui vilains, qui m'an corroz. 
 
 The vilain speaks ill of love. Li Fablel dou Dieu d } amours, p. 17: 
 
 Sire, fait-il, che font villaine gent, 
 Cil qui mesdient d'amors a escient; 
 Se cortois fussent nel fesissent noient. 
 
 In Perceval, vv. 10316-22, a lady laments for her lover whose death 
 has rendered her vilaine, i. e. deprived of love. 
 
 It is a significant fact that none of the French passages quoted 
 above as bearing upon the relation of the system of courtly love to 
 cortoisie occurs in a text written before about the year 1165, the 
 earliest ones that we can date being those taken from £neas and 
 Ille et Galeron, while the Provengal examples begin with Guilhem, 
 Comte de Peitieu (d. n 27). This we would expect from the fact 
 that the ideas of the more artificial Provengal society first penetrated 
 generally into the North with Eleanor of Poitou. They seem, how- 
 ever, not to have had a far-reaching effect in French literature until 
 the time of her daughter, Mary of Champagne, whose influence 
 Chretien de Troies acknowledges in the first verses of Lancelot. 
 We are obliged, therefore, to exclude gallantry from our definition 
 of cortoisie as used by French poets writing much before Chretien. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 67 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE CORTOIS MAY OR MAY NOT INDULGE IN GUILTY PHYSICAL LOVE; 
 THE VILAIN INDULGES IN GUILTY PHYSICAL LOVE. 
 
 While considering the same general subject of love we must 
 notice an extensive class of exceptions to the general rule for the 
 utter separation of vilain and cortois in character and actions as 
 they appear in the works of the poets of mediaeval France, for we 
 find upon examination of those passages which deal with physical 
 love unsanctioned by the marriage rite that the cortois is culpable 
 as well as the zrilain, However, there are passages in which the 
 cortois is represented as abstaining from indulgence in this vice, 
 and in this confusion we have but another manifestation of the 
 conflict between the chivalric ideals set forth by the poets of the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries and actual social conditions at 
 that period. That these ideals forbade criminal intimacy between 
 the sexes is shown by Andre le Chapelain, De Amore, p. 182: Et 
 purus quidem amor est, qui omnimoda dilectionis affectionc duorum 
 amantium corda coniungit. Hie autem in mentis contemplatione 
 cordisque consistit affectu; procedit autem usque ad oris osculum 
 lacertique amplexum et verecundum amantis nudae contactum, ex- 
 tremo praetermisso solatio; nam Mud pure amare volentibus exer- 
 cere non licet. 
 
 (a) THE CORTOIS MAY OR MAY NOT INDULGE IN GUILTY PHYSICAL 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 The passages in which the cortois is represented as rejecting 
 guilty physical love are not many, and, strange to say, most of 
 them are found in the fabliaux. In vv. 10-11, 15, 18-20, of De 
 Constant du Hamel, Fabliaux iv 106, we are told how Lady 
 Ysabiau, Qui niout estoit cortoisc dame, indignantly repulses the 
 amorous advances of a priest : 
 
 Li prestres i mist son pooir 
 
 A li requerre de s'amor; 
 
 II li donroit assez joiaus, 
 
 Mes la dame n'en vout nus prendre, 
 Ainz dist que ja par covoitise 
 Ne fera au prestre servise. 
 
68 CORTOIS AND VI LAIN, 
 
 In vv. 98-100, 106-119, of the same fablel, Lady Ysabiau is repre- 
 sented as being addressed by the forester upon her return from 
 mass. He offers her a ring which bien valoit J. marc for permis- 
 sion to kiss her pretty mouth, and all that this concession would 
 involve, but she repulses him comme cortoise, with the words (vv. 
 114-119): 
 
 "Certes, sire, pas ne me poise 
 
 Se l'arc et l'anel vous remaint, 
 
 Quar nul besoing ne me soufraint 
 
 Par qoi vous m'aiez si sorprise; 
 
 Je ne vous ferai ja servise 
 
 Par vilonie que je sache. ..." 
 In vv. 39-55 of Du prestre teint, Fabliaux vi 139, we read how a 
 cortoise dame repulses the advances of a priest and drives him from, 
 the house with a cudgel : 
 
 Mes li prestre mout poi prisoit 
 
 Quantque le borjois li fesoit; 
 
 Mieus vosist gesir o sa fame, 
 
 Qui mout estoit cortoise dame, 
 
 Et fresche et avenant et bele. 
 
 Le prestre chascun jor l'apele, 
 
 De s'amour forment la requiert; 
 
 La bone dame dist ja n'iert 
 
 Qu'ele face a son mari tort, 
 
 S'el en devoit prendre la mort, 
 
 Ne vilanie ne hontage, 
 
 Et de ce a el cors grant rage 
 
 Que le prestre Ten a tant dit ; 
 
 Mout le ledenge et le maudit: 
 
 Fors l'a gete de sa meson, 
 
 Et si fort le fiert d'un tison 
 
 Que pou s'en faut qu'el ne Tesfondre. 
 In Chretien de Troies' Lancelot, vv. 4859-65, Queen Guinevere 
 defends Kay before King Bademagu, who believes that the knight 
 has dishonored her bed. She says Kay is so cortois and so loyal 
 that such a suspicion is untenable : 
 
 Je cuit que Kes li seneschaus 
 
 Est si cortois et si leaus 
 
 Que il n'an fet mie a mescroire; 
 
 Ne je ne regiet mie an foire 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 69 
 
 Mon cors, ne n'an faz livreison. 
 
 Certes, Kes n'est mie teus hon 
 
 Qu'il me requeist tel outrage. 
 In vv. 15-17 of Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 52, Putepoinne is sent about 
 his business by a shepherdess whom he has addressed, with the 
 
 words : 
 
 Vos n'estes mies cortois, sire, sachies, 
 
 qui dames et puceletes donoies. 
 
 fu de ci, ne m'aprochies ! 
 That a man should be aware of the unfaithfulness of his wife and 
 still permit it is characterized in vv. 73-77 of De Connebert, Fab- 
 liaux v 128, as unworthy of a cortois person : 
 
 Mais cil n'est pas cortois ne frans 
 
 Qui set que il est cous sofranz ; 
 
 Puisqu'il lo set et il lo sofre, 
 
 L'an lo devroit ardoir en sofre 
 
 Trestote la premiere foie. 
 
 The inference which we are justified in drawing from the 
 
 passages just quoted as to the chastity of the cortois is contradicted 
 
 by a still larger number of passages. Thus Blanceflour was so 
 
 full of cortoisie (Perceval, vv. 25040-6) that she yielded to Perceval: 
 
 Je ne vous voel mie conter 
 
 Le sourplus, se plus en i a ; 
 
 Mais, se Percevaus Ten pria, 
 
 En Blancheflour ne remest mie; 
 
 Qui si plaine ert de courtoisie, 
 
 Que cose que faire vosist 
 
 Por nule rien ne desdesist. 
 In vv. 121 18-22, 12128-31 of Perceval a girl is represented as yield- 
 ing her person to Gawain sans vilonie; but they discuss love and 
 cortoisie so long that she loses her virginity : 
 
 "Amis, fait-elle, a bandon 
 
 Vos mec mon cors, et vos present 
 
 M'amour a tous jors loiaument." 
 
 "Et jel retieng, ma doce amie, 
 
 Lies et joians, sans vilonie, ..." 
 
 D'amours, de droit, de cortoisie, 
 Ont puis ensamble tant parle 
 
70 C0RT0IS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Et boinement ris et jue 
 
 Qu'ele a pierdu nom de pucele. 
 In Du clerc qui fu repus deriere Vescrin, Fabliaux iv 91, vv. 7-10, 
 we are told that 
 
 En Haynau ot une bourgoise, 
 
 En une ville, assez courtoise, 
 
 Plaine de jeu et de soulas, 
 
 K'amours le tenoit en ses las ; 
 but from vv. 56, 71-72, we learn that she was not chaste. The 
 author may have intended to make a reservation here by the use of 
 asses, as perhaps also in the following instance. De la grue, Fab- 
 liaux v 126, vv. 19-20: 
 
 Li vaslez fu assez cortois, 
 En la tor monta demenois. 
 
 His conduct with the maiden, detailed in the lines which follow, 
 shows that he was anything but cortois in the sense implied in the 
 first list of passages examined above. In vv. 558-561 of Du mantel 
 mautaillie, Fabliaux iii 55, all the ladies who essayed the trial of 
 chastity by putting on the mantle, no matter how cortoises they 
 were, failed. In the Lai d'Ignaurcs we read that twelve married 
 ladies to whom Ignaures has been making love (physical, cf. vv. 
 322-4) confess to one of their number whom they have chosen 
 prestre, each naming Ignaures as her lover. Two of them refer 
 to him as cortois (see vv. 140-3 and 157-9) 5 an d, further, the poet 
 had already stated in v. 56 that Ignaures led a molt cortoise vie. 
 Vv. 652-6 of Le Chevalier a l'£pee relate an experience of that 
 universal lover, Gawain. He approaches his host's daughter "like 
 one who was not a vilain" and is about to violate her when inter- 
 rupted by the magic sword. Aimeric de Belenoi, Appel, Prov. 
 Chrest., St. 30, vv. 17-20, laments the cruelty of his lady in the 
 words, 
 
 qu'a penas pens e mon cor 
 
 nulh ioy, tant ai trist coratge, 
 
 quar del sieu bel cors cortes 
 
 no'm fai amistat corteza. 
 
 Vv. 1 1 17-8, 1125-30 of La Clef d' 'Amors term it an act of vilanie 
 for one to obtain a kiss from his lady and then not to "complete 
 the cortoisie" by enjoying her body. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 71 
 
 Certain passages allow the cortois man to enjoy guilty love pro- 
 viding it be not against the will of his paramour. Perceval, vv. 
 32189-99: 
 
 Si faitement com je vous di 
 
 Furent ambedui concorde; 
 
 Tant ont baisie et acole 
 
 Que Gauwains la flour i quelli ; 
 
 Mais el livre pas n'en 01 
 
 Que fust maugre la damosele 
 
 Qu'ele pierdi nom de pucele, 
 
 Ains li grea, que mot n'en dist. 
 
 Se Gauwains forche li fesist, 
 
 Dont ne fust-il mie cortois 
 
 Et si ne fust raisons ne drois. 
 Cf. ibid., vv. 131 15-6. 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN INDULGES IS GUILTY PHYSICAL LOVE. 
 
 Whatever doubt may have existed in the minds of the mediaeval 
 poets as to the morality of the cortois, they had no doubt as to the 
 vilain, but represented him consistently as immoral. In Beroul's 
 Tristan, ed. Michel i p. 6, guilty love is referred to as amor vilaine: 
 
 Et il ont fait entendre au roi 
 
 Que vos m'amez d'amor vilaine. 
 In vv. 4698-4700 of Blancandin a girl rejects a man's improper 
 proposals, saying that he talks like a vilain : 
 
 "Si me dones vo druerie, 
 
 Si vous espouserai demain. ,, 
 
 "Oies," fet ele, "d'un vilain." 
 Vv. 91-98 of La Chastelaine de Vergi give the words of a knight 
 who refuses the proffered secret love of the chastelaine as desreson 
 si vilaine et si desloial. 
 
 So thoroughly and intimately was the idea of guilty love asso- 
 ciated with the vilain in the minds of the mediaeval poets that what 
 we might call the technical expression for it was, the abstract term 
 vilenie. The word appears in this sense in numerous passages. 
 E.g. in Thomas' Tristan, ed. Michel i pp. 14-15, vv. 291-4: 
 
 Ne larai, Ysolt, n'el vus die; 
 
 Vus faites mult grant vilanie, 
 
 A vostre cors hunisement, 
 
 Quant il vus aime si durement. 
 In Le Chevalier a VEpee, vv. 550-1, are given the words of Gawain's 
 
72 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 host, explaining to the knight that it is certain death for one who 
 lies with her to try to possess her : 
 
 Garder l'estuet de vilenie, 
 
 Mout lou convient charroier droit. 1 
 The forcing of a girl against her will, condemned in the cortois 
 (see above), is referred to as a characteristic act of the vilain. 
 Roman de Troie, vv. 14987-92 : 
 
 Sovent li dit que por s'amor 
 
 Ne puet garir ne nuit ne jor: 
 
 Le mengier pert et le dormir, 
 
 Penser et lermes et sospir 
 
 Le font penser et esmaier. 
 
 Molt est vilains de li preier. 
 Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 19, vv. 49-53 : 
 
 ele n'en vuet mie, 
 
 mult me contralie 
 
 et dit 'nel feroie: 
 
 c'est granz vilenie 
 
 d'ome qui tant prie. . . . ' 
 Perceval, vv. 1 3 1 1 5-6 : 
 
 Qui par force fame covoite 
 
 II fait vilounie revoite. 
 That a woman should allow two men to possess her was con- 
 sidered by Chretien de Troies to be vilenie. Cliges, vv. 3152-3: 
 
 Amors an li trop vilena, 
 
 Car ses cors fu a deus rantiers. 
 Ibid., vv. 5250-5 : 
 
 Vostre est mes cuers, vostre est mes cors, 
 
 Ne ja nus par mon essanpleire 
 
 N'aprandra vilenie a feire; 
 
 Car quant mes cuers an vos se mist, 
 
 Le cors vos dona et promist 
 
 Si que autre part n'i avra. 
 
 x The word vilenie is used with the same signification also in the following 
 passages: Erec, v. 1838; Perceval, v. 3180; Tristan, i p. 5 ; ibid., i p. 108; ibid., 
 i p. 198, v. 4126; Marie de France, Lais, Equitan, v. 300; ibid., Eliduc, v. 576; 
 Li respit del curteis et del vilain, strophe 10; Un Dist que on clamme Respon, 
 Jubinal, Nouv. Rec., i p. 177; Fabliaux ii 50, v. 534; ibid., iii 55, vv. 678-81; 
 ibid., v no, vv. 277-9; Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 14, v. 52; ibid., ii 55, v. 8; 
 ibid., ii 115. vv. 1-7; ibid., iii 25, v. 55; ibid., iii 48, vv. 51-2 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 73 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS MERRY; THE VILAIN IS GLOOMY. 
 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS MERRY. 
 
 Benoit de Sainte-More in the Roman de Troie, vv. 14661-4, 
 described one of the ornaments of the chamber of beauty, the image 
 of a girl who is molt corteise in that she is joyous and dances: 
 
 L'altre pucele est molt corteise 
 
 Car tote jor geue et enveise, 
 
 Bale et tresche, et tunbe et salt 
 
 Desus un pilier 
 
 The Roman de la Rose, i pp. 72-73, says that love is a very cortoise 
 malady, because it brings with it laughter and joy. It also declares, 
 i p. 24, that Leesce (Joy personified) is not at all vilaine {i.e. is 
 cortoise), but knows how to dance and enjoy herself. According 
 to the Breviari d'Amor, vv. 33838-9, no man was considered to be 
 genuinely cortois who was not happy and gay: 
 
 Ni es nulhs horn cortes verais 
 
 Si non es alegres e gais. 
 Instances of the association of the ideas of cortoisie and joy are 
 numerous. Le Breviari d'Amor, vv. 31379-82, admonishes lovers 
 to spread joy and cortezia everywhere: 
 
 Pesso done li fin amador 
 
 De semenar verai' amor 
 
 E gauh e domnei e solatz 
 
 E cortezia dans totz latz. 
 See also ibid., v. 30274 and v. 31785. Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 97, 
 Wi 6-8: 
 
 bele fu et coloree, 
 
 cortoise sage et senee, 
 
 s'ot le cuer gai. 
 Passages in which the ideas of joy and cortoisie are closely asso- 
 ciated are especially plentiful in the works of the troubadours. 1 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS GLOOMY. 
 
 Le Donnei des Amants, vv. 25-32, declares that the vilain takes 
 no pleasure in joy, but hates it, and always carries a mournful 
 countenance : 
 
 1 See Rayn. Choix iii, pp. 8, 14, 236, 361, and 451 ; ibid., v, pp. 103, 125, and 
 289; Appel, Prov. Chrest., St. 16, v. 54; ibid., St. 35, vv. 4-5. 
 
74 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Si me suvint pus al derein 
 Ke mut est fel quer de vilein, 
 E la sue vie est maudite, 
 Quant en joie ne se delite, 
 Li suens deliz n'est fors grucer, 
 Pendre surcilz, batre e tencer, 
 Aver tuz jorz morne semblant, 
 Hair deduiz, joie e chant. 
 
 The same poem, vv. 57-60, mentions again the vilain's antipathy 
 to joy: 
 
 Fran quer eime mut chant e joie: 
 
 Ja Deu ne doint que vilein Foie ! 
 
 Joie que nus est letuarie 
 
 Al vilein est tuche contrarie. 
 Le Roman de la Rose, i p. 6, referring to Une ymage qui Vilonie 
 Avoit non, praises the skill of the artist who had so well depicted 
 its dolor and despit: 
 
 Moult sot bien paindre et bien portraire 
 
 Cil qui tiex ymages sot faire; 
 
 Car bien sembloit chose vilaine, 
 
 De dolor et de despit plaine. 
 Not only was the irilain out of sympathy himself with pleasure, 
 he was not even disposed to allow others to enjoy it. In vv. 15-18 
 of a chanson de toile by Mestre Richart de Semilli, Bartsch, A. R. 
 u. P., i 64, a dame qui a mal mart complains of her vilain husband 
 who does not permit her to enjoy herself: 
 
 A un vilain m'ont donee mi parent, 
 
 qui ne fet fors auner or et argent, 
 
 et me fet d'ennui morir asses sovent, 
 
 qu'il ne me let joer. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS BEAUTIFUL; THE VILAIN IS UGLY. 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 The beauty of cortois persons is thus described in detail by 
 mediaeval French poets; Le Chevalier a l'£pee } vv. 254-62: 
 Je ne vos porroie a nul jor 
 La biaute tote ne demie 
 Don ele estoit plainne et garnie, 
 Ne je ne la voil trespasser; 
 Si la voil a bries moz conter. 
 
CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 75 
 
 Quanc'onques nature sot fere 
 Qui a cors d'ome delist plere, 
 De cortoisie et de biaute, 
 Ot tot entor li asanble. 
 
 Perceztal, vv. 42148-54: 
 
 Car courtois estoit durement; 
 Et fu li plus biaus chevaliers 
 Con trouvast en . xxx . miliers ; 
 Onques si biaus, a son avis, 
 Ne vit ne de cors ne de vis ; 
 La face avoit bele et vermeille 
 Et le cors grant a grant mervelle. 
 
 Le Roman de la Rose, i p. 41, referring to Cortoisie: 
 
 El fu clere comme la lune 
 Est avers les autres estoiles, 
 Qui ne ressemblent que chandoiles. 
 Faitisse estoit et avenant, 
 Je ne sai fame plus plaisant. 
 Ele ere en toutes cors bien digne 
 D'estre empereris ou roine. 
 De Connebert, Fabliaux v 128, vv. 35-8 : 
 La fame d'un fevre ot amee 
 Qui mout ert par lui renomee 
 Por ce qu'ele ert et bele et blanche 
 Et de mout cortoise sanblance. 
 
 Tyolet, vv. 696-8 (cf. vv. 399-400) : 
 
 Fleur de lis ou rose novele, 
 Quant primes nest el tans d'este, 
 Trespassoit ele de biaute. 
 
 Less direct evidence of the mediaeval poets' conception of the 
 beauty of the cor tots is found in passages, of which there is a large 
 number, in which the ideas of cortoisie and beauty are closely 
 associated. E.g. Wace, Ron, vv. 235-7: 
 
 El pais out une pucele, 
 
 Gunnor out nun, mult par fu bele, 
 
 Bien afattie e bien curteise. 
 
76 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Erec, w. 127-8: 
 
 Lez li Eric et sa pucele, 
 
 Qui mout estoit cortoise et bele. 1 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS UGLY. 
 
 Chretien de Troies in Yvain, vv. 288-302, describes at length 
 the repulsive appearance of a vilain whom the chevalier au lion 
 met in the forest when on his way to the fountain : 
 
 Un vilain qui ressanbloit mor, 
 
 Grant et hideus a desmesure, 
 
 (Einsi tres leide creature, 
 
 Qu'an ne porroit dire de boche), 
 
 Vi je seoir sor une goche, 
 
 Une grant macue an sa main. 
 
 Je m'aprochai vers le vilain, 
 
 Si vi qu'il ot grosse la teste 
 
 Plus que roncins ne autre beste, 
 
 Chevos meslez et front pele, 
 
 S'ot plus de deus espanz de le, 
 
 Oroilles mossues et granz, 
 
 Auteus com a uns olifanz, 
 
 Les sorciz granz et le vis platy 
 
 Danz de choete et nes de chat. 
 La Mule sans Frain, v. 506, describes a vilain as being trestot 
 herupe. We have noticed above the charming picture of Cortoisie 
 given in the Roman de la Rose, i p. 41. Compare with it the fol- 
 lowing description of Vilonie, i p. 6: 
 
 Une ymage qui Vilonie 
 
 Avoit non, revi devers destre. 
 
 *A similar association of ideas is found in the following passages: 
 Erec, vv. 823, 1504-6, 3326-7; Lancelot, v. 2542; Yvain, vv. 703-4; Marie de 
 France, Lais, Equitan, vv. 55-7; ibid., Le Fraisne, vv. 243-4; ibid., Les Dous 
 Amanz, vv. 21-22; ibid., Milun, vv. 23-24; ibid., Yonec, vv. 21-22, 101-2; Marie 
 de France, Fables, lxxiv, v. 1 1 ; Bernart de Ventadour, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 73 ; 
 Blondel de Neele, p. 69; Perceval, vv. 14147-8, 14258, 14281-2, 20105, 30855-6; 
 L'Atre Perillous, vv. 885-6. 6505-7; Aimeric de Belenoi, Appel, Prov. Chrest., 
 St. 30, v. 34; Flamenca, vv 1785-7, 2215-8, 4137-9, 5848-51; Blancandin, vv. 
 2161-3, 2509-10, 3689-90; Fabliaux i II, vv. 279-280; ibid., iii 74, vv. 15-18; 
 ibid., iii 55, vv. 20-23; ibid. y v 122, vv. 89-90; Le Breviari d'Amor, v. 29772; 
 Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 16, vv. 23-4. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 77 
 
 Bien sembloit male creature, 
 
 Et despiteuse et orguilleuse, 
 
 Et mesdisant et ramponeuse. 
 
 Moult sot bien paindre et bien portraire 
 
 Cil qui tiex ymages sot faire ; 
 
 Car bien sembloit chose vilaine, 
 
 De dolor et de despit plaine. 
 
 Ibid., i p. 95, there is a description of the vilain Dangiers. He was 
 tall and black and bristling, and had eyes red as fire ; his nose was 
 wrinkled and his countenance hideous. In Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 35, 
 v. 25, a vilain is described as bossus et malestrus. Vv. 56-7 of 
 De Constant du Hamel, Fabliaux iv 106, add to the characterization 
 gros et malostrus a description of the unkempt and unwashed con- 
 dition of a vilain-. 
 
 II n'est sovent rez ne tondus, 
 Ainz est et ors et deslavez. 
 
 Vv. 84-91 of Du vilain mi buffet, Fabliaux iii 80, give a similar 
 description : 
 
 Atan tez .i. vilain Raoul, 
 
 Un bouvier qui vient de charrue; 
 
 Li seneschaus cele part rue 
 
 Ses iex, s'a choisi le vilain 
 
 Qui mout estoit de lait pelain : 
 
 Deslavez ert, s'ot chief locu ; 
 
 II ot bien .L. anz vescu, 
 
 Qu'il n'avoit eii coirle en teste. 
 Vv. 1 09-1 13 of Du prestre et du chevalier } Fabliaux ii 34, charac- 
 terize vilains as "hideous as wolves or leopards." 
 
 An indirect reference to the ugliness of the vilain is found in* 
 Yvain, vv. 796-9: 
 
 Mes plus de Qant foiz se seigna 
 De la mervoille que il ot, 
 Comant Nature feire sot 
 Oevre se leide et si vilainne. 
 
78 CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS INTELLIGENT; THE VILAIN IS STUPID, 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS INTELLIGENT. 
 
 The superior intelligence of the cortois was much insisted upon 
 by the mediaeval writers in France and Provence. De Courtoisie, 
 vv. 37-43, recommends to one who would be cortois, wise judgment: 
 
 Apres estut, qe soietz sage, 
 
 Qe ja ne facetz outrage; 
 
 Mes de tute rien qe fere deuetz 
 
 Premerement vous purpensetz, 
 
 A quel chef vous purretz trere ! 
 
 S'il est bon, bien est a fere, 
 
 S'il est mal, se le lessetz ! 
 Vv. 1357-64 of Guillaume d' Angleterre mention the superior intelli- 
 gence of two cortois children : 
 
 Quant li aufant batisie furent, 
 
 Tant amanderent et tant crurent, 
 
 Quant ce vint au chief de dis anz, 
 
 N'ot el monde plus biaus anfanz, 
 
 Plus cortois ne plus afeitiez; 
 
 Qu'apris les ot et anseigniez 
 
 Bone nature qui tant vaut 
 
 Que por norreture ne faut. 
 In Perceval, vv. 7195-7201, we read of a girl who was so cortoise 
 and so well instructed that she did not fear being tricked by Gawain. 
 Ibid., vv. 1 2093- 1 2 108 describe the artistic skill of a Saracen maiden 
 who moult fu cortoise and moult fit sage. Vv. 376-387 of Le 
 Chevalier a I'Epee give an instance of the quick- wittedness of 
 cortois Gawain : 
 
 Endementres Gauvain apele 
 
 Et li a dit et conmanda 
 
 Qu'il ne s'en aut jusqu'il venra, 
 
 Et conmanda a un serjant 
 
 Que se il fait de rien sanblant, 
 
 Que il lou preignent demanois. 
 
 Gauvains, qui preuz ert et cortois, 
 
 Voit bien que remanoir l'estuet 
 
 Et q'autrement estre ne puet; 
 
 Si li avoit dit erranment 
 
 Que il n'avoit d'errer talent, 
 
 Por qu'il lo voille herbergier. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 79 
 
 The author of De la dame qui se venja du chevalier, Fabliaux vi 
 140, v. 227, expressed the relation between intelligence and cortoisic 
 in the words, 
 
 Car grant sens gist en cortoisie. 
 The Breviari d'Amor, vv. 32564-7, says that anyone might be 
 cortois who had wit enough to apply his criticisms of Others to 
 himself. In Le Court d' Amour, Gorra, p. 296, is found the fol- 
 lowing passage in which a cortois churchman is represented as 
 being so wise that he charmed his hearers by his fine reasoning: 
 
 Apres vi jou qui se leva 
 
 Un cortois canoisne rieule, 
 
 Si sage et si bien avise 
 
 Que le baillieu et ses barons 
 
 Fist liec par ses beles raisons. 
 The Roman de la Rose, i p. 41, defines the wisdom of Cortoisie as 
 modest and not overweening: 
 
 El ne fu ne nice n'umbrage, 
 
 Mes sages auques, sans outrage. 
 Matfre Ermengaud, in vv. 28669-74 of the Breviari d'Amor, ap- 
 proves Aimeric de Pegulhan's praise of folly, saying he has read 
 that a wise and cortois man knows how to be foolish at the proper 
 time: 
 
 E nous ne meravilhes ges 
 
 Si N'Aimeric lauzet foles, 
 
 Quar autre savi o an dig, 
 
 Et en mans luocx o trop escrig 
 
 Que eel es savis e cortes 
 
 Que sab foleja quan luocx es. 1 
 In the following passages cleverness and cunning are ascribed 
 to the cortois. Cliges, vv. 3270-6: 
 
 Thessala qui servir le voit 
 
 Panse que son servise pert, 
 
 Qu'a son deseritemant sert, 
 
 Si Fan enuie mout et poise, 
 
 Puis s'apanse come cortoise 
 
 Que del boivre servir fera 
 
 Celui cui joie et preuz sera. 
 
 *Cf. the well-known line of Horace {Odes iv, 12, v. 28) : Dulce est 
 desipere in loco. 
 
80 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 De Constant du Hamel, Fabliaux iv 106, vv. 512-514: 
 
 La dame, qui n'ert pas vilaine, 
 
 Le sot tant de ses diz lober 
 
 Qu'el le fist enz el baing entrer. 
 Des braies au cordelier, Fabliaux iii 88, vv. 6-9 : 
 
 II avint, si com j'o'i dire 
 
 Cuns clers amoit une borjoise 
 
 Qui moult estoit sage et cortoise; 
 
 Mout savoit d'enging et d'aguet. 
 Arnaud de Marueil, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 199: 
 
 No sai messatge tan cortes 
 
 Ni que mielhs seles totas res. 
 The inference to be drawn from the foregoing passages as to 
 the view of the mediaeval poets upon the subject of the superior 
 intelligence of the cortois is supported by a still larger number of 
 passages in which the ideas of wisdom and cortoisie are associated. 
 E.g. Le Couronnement de Louis, v. 379 : 
 
 Dist l'apostoiles, qui fu corteis et sages. 
 Wace, Brut, vv. 8689-90: 
 
 Gornois un quens Cornvalois 
 
 Mult prous et saiges et cortois. 
 Erec, vv. 1484-5 : 
 
 Qu'amie ot bele a desmesure, 
 
 Sage et cortoise et deboneire. 1 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS STUPID. 
 
 When the mediaeval poets mention the intelligence of the vilain 
 as a rule they characterize him as stupid. Thus v. 1 of De la 
 Sorisete des Est opes, Fabliaux iv 105 : 
 
 *For other examples of this association see the following passages: 
 Erec, v. 3315; Cliges, v. 2458; Lancelot, vv. 140-1 and 3214-5; Yvain, vv. 98, 
 1006-8, 2125, 5144, 5967; Perceval, vv. 508-9, 8010-3, 19866, 30290, 33246, 34798, 
 36116-7, 38271, 43140, 45014; Guillaume d'Angleterre, v. 1925; Marie de France, 
 Lais, Eliduc, vv. 134, 423; Guingamor, v. 10; Tyolet, vv. 535-6; Doon, v. 32; 
 L'Atre Perillous, vv. 87, 1670, 3846, 4490-1, 5713; Flamenco, vv. 1362, 2819, 
 6849-50; Le Roman de la Rose, i p. 21 ; Blancandin, vv. 22, 126, 5824 (cf. v. 
 5829) ; Fabliaux i 20, v. 105; ibid., ii 34, v. 906; ibid., ii 52, vv. 21 1-2; ibid., 
 iii 70, v. 91; ibid., v no, v. 8; Le Breviari d'Amor, vv. 31334-7, 32052-3; De 
 Courtoisie, vv. 1-3; Bartsch, A. R. w. P., iii n, v. 9. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 81 
 
 Apres vos cont d'un vilain sot. 
 Bartsch, A. R. u. P., ii 23, v. 20 : 
 
 si laissiez eel vilain sot. 
 Ibid., i 41, vv. 39-40: 
 
 Mes maris n'estes vos mie, 
 
 mauvais vilains rasoutes. 
 Le Roman de la Rose, i p. 74 : 
 
 Que cil vilains entule et sot : 
 Ibid., i p. 63 : 
 
 Onques tel response n'issi 
 
 D'omme vilain mal enseignie: 
 Beroul in Tristan i p. 62 calls stupid story-tellers vilain : 
 
 Li contor dient que Yvain 
 
 Firent tuer, que sont vilain; 
 
 N'en sevent mie bien l'estoire. 
 Vv. 320-2 of Perceval refer to the stupidity of spoiling a good 
 story in the telling as grans vilonie : 
 
 Grans vilonie est et grans honte 
 
 De si bon conte desmenbrer, 
 
 Fors ensi com il doit aler. 
 N'Arnaut Guilhem de Marsan in his Ensenhamen, Appel, Prov. 
 Chrest., St. 112, vv. 55-62, directs that one should keep his eyes 
 and hands from seeming vilas; and the way to do this, he says, is 
 to keep the eyes from looking stupid and to see to it that the hands 
 have understanding. 1 
 
 An important class of exceptions is to be noticed in this con- 
 nection, however. The mediaeval poet might say what he liked con- 
 cerning the lack of intelligence of the vilain, but he could not deny 
 him the shrewdness and homely wit always present among the 
 lower classes and expressed in their proverbial sayings. When 
 these popular sayings are quoted by the poets due credit is often 
 given to their originators. E.g. Philipe de Thaun, Ciimpos, vv. 
 131-8: 
 
 ^ess direct evidence to the same effect is found in the following pas- 
 sages: Yvain, vv. 635-6; Guiraut de Calanso, Appel, Prov. Chrest., St. 34, v. 
 30. An exception is the fablel Du vilain qui conquist paradis par plait, Fab- 
 liaux iii 81 ; see especially vv. 148-153. 
 
82 CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 
 
 Qo dit en repruvier 
 
 Li vilains al buvier: 
 
 La pire ruelete 
 
 Criet de la charete; 
 
 Mult est la pume dure 
 
 Ki unkes ne maure; 
 
 La verge est a preisier 
 
 Ki se laisset pleier. 
 Wace, Brut, vv. 4505-10: 
 
 Mai ferai por pis remanoir, 
 
 Ce tient li vilains a savoir, 
 
 Et un mal doit Ten bien sofrir 
 
 Por son corps de pojor garir, 
 
 Et por son anemi plaissier 
 
 Se doit Ton alcuns damagier. » 
 
 Thebes, vv. 9057-8 : 
 
 Li vilains dit: "Qui glaive fait 
 
 Senz dotance a glaive revait." 1 
 
 ; XVIII. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS RELIGIOUS; THE V1LAIN IS NOT RELIGIOUS, 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS RELIGIOUS. 
 
 The didactic poem De Courtoisie, vv. 45-50, recommends Chris- 
 tian behaviour, love of one's neighbor, and love of the church: 
 Seietz tut jour bon crestien, 
 Ametz deu sur tute rien 
 E vostre preome, come vous, 
 Tut soit il busoignous, 
 Et si ametz saint' Eglise 
 Leaument e le seruise ! 
 
 Proverbs of the vilain thus incorporated into mediaeval texts are fre- 
 quently met with. The following is a list of examples: Troie, vv. 3787-8, 
 10331-2; Floire et Blamceilor , vv. 1425-6; Erec, vv. 1-3; Roman du Comte 
 de Poitiers, vv. 1616-7; Ron, vv. 131 1-2; Eracle, vv. 3579-82; Cliges, vv. 
 4571-4; Lancelot, vv. 6976-9; Marie de France, Lais, Eliduc, vv. 61-3; Tydorel, 
 vv. 165-8; La Destruction de Rome, vv. 151-4; Rambaud de Vaqueiras, Rayn. 
 Choix v 420; Aliscans, p. 47; Le Chevalier a l'£pee, vv. 416-9, 1 184-5; 
 Perceval, vv. 26559-66, 331 10-3. See also Li Proverbe au Vilain, hgg. von 
 Adolf Tobler, Leipzig 1895. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 83 
 
 Chretien de Troies in Lancelot, vv. 1852-4, declares that a knight 
 who entered a monastery to pray was not acting like a vilain, i.e. 
 was acting* the part of a cortois knight : 
 
 Ne fist que vilains ne que fos 
 
 Li chevaliers qui el mostier 
 
 Antra a pie por Deu proiier. 
 A like statement is found in vv. 1582-4 of Blancandin: 
 
 Et lendemain vont au mostier 
 
 Li chevalier et li provos 
 
 Qui ne fus pas vilain ne sos. 
 Vv. 5-13 of the Romans de un chivaler, etc., Fabliaux ii 50, tell of 
 the deeply religious life of a woman who never was blamed for 
 vilainie, but was very corteise: 
 
 Sa femme estoit mult bone dame, 
 
 De< vilainie n'out unkes blame ; 
 
 Seinte Esglise mult amoit, 
 
 A mushter chascun jor aloit; 
 
 Par matin il i voleit estre 
 
 Bien sovent ainz ke li prestre. 
 
 Mult fu de grant religion; 
 
 A nului ne vout si bien noun. 
 
 La dame fu corteise e bele. 
 Vv. 6-10 of Du Segretain ou du Moine, Fabliaux v 123, speak 
 of a woman who was cortoise, and gladly went to church: 
 
 Femme avoit tele qu'en .c. mile 
 
 Ne trouvast on si avenant, 
 
 Si courtoise ne si vaillant, 
 
 Si sage ne si bien aprise ; 
 
 Volentiers aloit a l'eglise. 
 Vv. 19-25 of Le Dit don Soucretain, Fabliaux vi 150, tell of a 
 cortoise woman who went to the church to pray each day and 
 stayed to hear the entire service : 
 
 ot fame prise 
 
 Sage, cortoise et bien aprise, 
 
 Bien ansaigniee, preuz et sage. 
 
 Chaucun jour avoit un usage 
 
 D'aler prier a sainte eglise, 
 
 Et d'escouter tot le servise 
 
 Que li couvens si biau fasoit. 
 
84 CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 
 
 (a) THE VILAIN IS NOT RELIGIOUS. 
 
 The national epic furnishes us with an assertion of the exclusion 
 of the vilain from monastic life. La Chevalerie Ogier de Dane- 
 marche, vv. 10632-4: 
 
 Chains n'a moigne, bien le puis tesmoigner, 
 
 Qui ne soit filz a gentil chevalier; 
 
 Fils de vilain n'estra ja mes cloistriers. 
 Le Donnei des Amants, vv. 37-40, says that the vilain has nothing 
 to do with God and the angels : 
 
 Vilein qui est a Deu contrarie 
 
 Mustre qu'il n'ad illuec que fere; 
 
 Od les angeles lez e joius 
 
 N'ad que fere vilain grosus. 
 In vv. 19, 24-29 of the fablel Du Vilain qui conquist Paradis par 
 Plait, Fabliaux iii 81, Saint Peter is represented as excluding a 
 vilain from paradise and making the general statement that no vilain 
 is ever admitted there: 
 
 Seinz Pierres, qui gardoit la porte, 
 
 Demanda qui la conduisoit : 
 
 "Qaienz n'a nus herbergement, 
 
 Se il ne l'a par jugement: 
 
 Ensorquetot, par seint Alain, 
 
 Nos n'avons cure de vilain, 
 
 Car vilains ne vient en cest estre." 
 An exception, however, is made in the case of this particular vilain, 
 who is allowed to enter after he has proved that he can bien confer 
 sa parole by reproaching Peter, Thomas and Paul for the sins they 
 committed on earth and proving to God that he has himself led a 
 good life. Vv. 8-22 of Le Pet an Vilain, Fabliaux iii 68, state 
 that the vilain, excluded from paradise, is also shut out from hell: 
 
 Ce di je por la gent vilaine, 
 
 C'onques n'amerent clerc ne prestre, 
 
 Si ne cuit pas que Diex lor preste 
 
 En Paradis ne leu ne place. 
 
 Onques a Jhesu Crist ne place 
 
 Que vilainz ait herbergerie 
 
 Avec le Fil Sainte Marie; 
 
 Car il n'est raison ne droiture, 
 
 Ce trovons nous en Escriture: 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 85 
 
 Paradis ne pueent avoir 
 
 Por deniers ne por autre avoir; 
 
 Et a Enfer ront il failli, 
 
 Dont li maufe sont maubailli; 
 
 Si orrez par quel mesprison 
 
 II perdirent celle prison. 
 The fablel goes on to tell how the vilain, mistaking the place of exit 
 of the soul from the body, commits a piece of coarseness which is 
 resented by the damned, who hold a council and decide that there- 
 after no soul of vilain shall be received in hell. Vilains' souls are 
 thereafter obliged to go and croak with the frogs in the kingdom 
 of Audigier's father, Turgibus. Vv. 75-6 of the fablel Du Bouchier 
 d'Abeville, Fabliaux iii 84, show that the vilain, being denied the 
 privileges of religion, was also not received hospitably at the dwelling 
 of a priest: 
 
 Ne ce n'est pas coustume a prestre 
 Que vilains horn gise en son estre. 
 
 XIX (a). 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS ATTRIBUTES OF THE CORTOIS (FAVORABLE). 
 
 In addition to those qualities in which he is specifically at vari- 
 ance with the vilain, still others are assigned to the cortois by 
 mediaeval writers, and these are also favorable. Of these the quality 
 most often assigned to the cortois is that of general excellence im- 
 plied in the adjective preux (brave, valiant, excellent). The gen- 
 eral and favorable meaning of this term caused; it to be frequently 
 used beside the still more general term cortois in personal descrip- 
 tion. It is to be noticed, also, that when used with cortois the ad- 
 jective preux almost always precedes it, as if to prepare the auditor 
 or reader for the fuller connotation of the broader term. Excep- 
 tions to this usage are comparatively few; e.g., Cliges, v 899, v. 
 2985 ; Perceval, vv. 9546-7, v. 16206. The association of the ad- 
 jectives preux and cortois occurs as early as the Chanson de Roland, 
 
 v. 575 : 
 
 E Oliviers li proz et li curteis. 
 
 Ibid., v. 3755, repeats the line with the change to the objective case. 
 
86 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 In Provengal we find this association in Giraud le Roux (fl. 1140), 
 Rayn. Choix iii, p. 13 : 
 
 , dompna corteza e pros. 1 
 
 Franchise (nobility of character) is ascribed to the cortois by 
 both French and Provengal writers. Chretien de Troies contrasts 
 the terms vilains and frans in Yvain, vv. 1816-7: 
 
 Par foi, cist n'est mie vilains, 
 Ainz est mout frans, je le sai bien. 
 
 In Lancelot, v. 3966, he associates the ideas of franchise and 
 cortoisie : 
 
 Qui mout estoit frans et cortois. 2 
 
 In the Roman de la Rose, i p. 31, one of the five gold-tipped arrows 
 carried by Dous-Regars is called Franchise, and is thus described: 
 
 ; cele iert empenee 
 
 De Valor et de Cortoisie. 
 
 The cortois is described as being debonair e (genteel, of good 
 character). The didactic poem De Courtoisie makes this quality 
 a prime requisite (vv. 5-7) : 
 
 II couent al primor 
 
 Qe vous soietz plein de docour 
 
 E de grant deboneretez. 
 
 The Roman de la Rose, i p. 26, terms Cortoisie 
 
 La vaillant et la debonnaire. 
 
 The adjectives cortois and debonair e and the corresponding abstract 
 
 Examples of the association of preux and cortois in the order given are 
 found in the following passages: Me et Galeron, v. 1622; Erec, v. 687; 
 Yvain, v. 3 and v. 6230; Marie de France, Fabeln lxii, v. 2; Marie de 
 France, Lais, Prolog, v. 44 ; Guiot de Provins, Wackernagle p. 31 ; Girart de 
 Rossillon, Appel, Prov. Chrest., St. 1, v. 174; Tristan i p. 62; Tydorel, v. 
 139; Perceval, w. 9533, 15425, 15655, 17666, 20326, 29287, 35000; Le Roman 
 de la Rose, i p. 84; Fabliaux iv 94, v. 2; ibid., iii 77. v. 23; ibid., v 155, v. 24; 
 Le Breviari d'Amor, v. 30509, v. 31732; Blancandin, v. 1443. 
 
 2 A similar association is found in the following passages: Rambaud 
 d'Orange, Rayn. Choix v, p. 413; Marie de France, Lais, Guigemar, v. 212; 
 Tristan, i p. 9; Guiraut de Bornelh, Kolsen p. 90, v. 37; Peyrols, Rayn. 
 Choix v, p. 286. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 87 
 
 terms are placed side by side in several passages: E.g. Yvain, 
 v. 1307: 
 
 Come cortoise et deboneire. 1 
 Great prowess is attributed to the cortois. E.g. Yvain, vv. 
 4020-3 s 
 
 Qu'eles l'avoient ja mout chier, 
 
 Et cine canz tanz plus chier l'eiissent 
 
 Se la corteisie seiissent 
 
 Et la grant proesce de lui. 2 
 
 XIX (b). 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS ATTRIBUTES OF THE VILAIN (UNFAVORABLE). 
 
 Slowness is attributed to the vilain. Erec, vv. 474-6 : 
 
 La pucele ne tarda plus, 
 
 Ou'ele n'estoit mie vilainne ; 
 
 Par le main contre mont Tan mainne. 
 Marie de France, Lais, Laustic, v. 148: 
 
 mes ne fu pas vileins ne lenz. 
 Lai de Doon, vv. 245-8 : 
 
 "Mostre ca tost," fet il, "tes mains." 
 
 Li vallez ne fu pas vilains, 
 
 Ses ganz oste hastivement, 
 
 Andeus ses mains li mostre et tent. 
 The vilain is fol (mad, foolish). Guillaume d'Angleterre, v. 
 3249, characterizes the vilain as mont fole beste. In Thebes, v. 
 5810, the ideas of folie and vilenie are associated : 
 
 N'en i a un fol ne vilain. 3 
 The vilain is pautoniers (vagabond, good-for-nothing). Du 
 Provost a Vaumuche, Fabliaux i 7, v. 14 : 
 
 Vilains et pautonniers estoit. 
 Du Bouchier d'Abeville, Fabliaux iii 84, v. 96: 
 
 Pautoniers estes et vilains. 
 
 *See also Perceval, vv. 25581-3, 27328; Roman de la Rose, i pp. 134 and 
 
 155. 
 
 2 See also Cliges, vv. 152-3; Perceval, vv. 12067-9; Melion, vv. 11-14. 
 
 3 See also Yvain, vv. 51 19, 6570; Perceval, vv. 14395, 19002; Claris et 
 Lark, v. 8580; Blancandin, vv. 1315, 5055. 
 
88 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 The vilain is felon (villainous, wicked). In the Roman de la 
 Rose, i p. 32, one of the five black arrows, ledes a devise, carried 
 by Dous Regars 
 
 Fu apelee Vilenie; 
 
 Icele fu de felonie 
 
 Toute tainte et envenimee. 
 V. 24 of a chanson de toile by Maistre Gilles Li Viniers, Bartsch, 
 A. R. u. P., i 67, thus characterizes the vilain : 
 
 tant felon vilain le truis. 
 V. 451 of Du prestre et du chevalier, Fabliaux ii 34, associates the 
 adjectives felon and vilain. 
 
 The vilain is low-minded. Marie de France in the Prolog to 
 her fables, ed. Warnke, pp. 4-5, asks the reader's pardon for re- 
 producing faithfully her original, since in doing so she may be 
 obliged to write words of indelicate meaning and may be con- 
 sidered vilaine by some for so doing (v. 36). Vv. 280-3 of Guil- 
 laume de Dole contain a similar implication : 
 
 Par ceste ochoison si ont mises 
 
 Lor mains a mainte blanche cuisse : 
 
 Je ne di mie que cil puisse 
 
 Estre cortois qui plus demande. 
 
 XX. 
 
 THE CORTOIS IS LOVED AND ESTEEMED; THE VILAIN IS NOT LOVED, 
 BUT IS DETESTED AND EXCLUDED. 
 
 (a) THE CORTOIS IS LOVED AND ESTEEMED. 
 
 The mediaeval French and Provencal poets represented the 
 cortois as possessing all admirable qualities and entirely free from 
 any objectionable ones. Being thus the perfect knight and polished 
 gentleman he was irresistible to the opposite sex. A number of 
 passages may be quoted which represent a person possessed of 
 the attributes of cortoisie as the object of the love of another. One 
 or more of these attributes is usually mentioned with the general 
 term cortois which includes them all. Vv^ 533-6 of Eliduc, Marie 
 de France, Lais, represent a maiden as yielding herself without 
 reserve to one who is sages e curteis: 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 89 
 
 Tant estes sages e curteis, 
 bien avrez purveii anceis 
 que vus voldrez faire de mei. 
 Sur tute rien vus aim e crei. 
 
 In w. 71-79 of the lay of Guingamor, the queen's love is offered 
 to the cortois hero in the following terms : 
 
 "Guingamor, molt estes vaillans, 
 Preuz et cortois et avenans : 
 Riche aventure vos atent; 
 Amer pouez molt hautement. 
 Amie avez cortoise et bele : 
 Je ne sai dame ne danzele 
 El roiaume de sa valor 
 Si vos aimme de grant amor : 
 Bien la tenez por vostre drue." 
 
 In vv. 1491-3 of Blancandin, L'Orgilleuse d' Amors tells the provost 
 that the knight would not take his daughter, 
 
 Car mult a plus cortoise amie 
 Arrier en son pais laissie. 
 
 In L'Atre Perillous, vv. 481 1-3, we read that the knight Cadres 
 loved a girl who was bele et cortoise: 
 
 Or a Cadres joie trop grant ; 
 
 Car s'amie qu'il aime tant, 
 
 Et qui tant est bele et cortoise, 
 
 In vv. 3053-7 of the same poem are quoted the words of a man 
 who in his youth loved a maiden, 
 
 La plus cortoise et la plus bele, 
 Qui soit de si a Carlion. 
 
 Not only do we find passages like the foregoing which depict 
 a cortois man or cortoise lady as loved, but a number of examples 
 may be cited in which is mentioned the fact that he or she is loved 
 on account of his or her cortoisie. Eliduc, Marie de France, Lais, 
 vv. 348-350, 
 
 Tant par est sages e curteis, 
 
 que, s'il ne m'aime par amur, 
 
 murir m'estuet a grant dolur. 
 
90 C0RT0IS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Les Dous Amanz, M. de France, Lais, vv. 67-70: 
 
 Pur ceo que pruz fu e curteis 
 
 E que mult le preisot li reis, 
 
 li otria sa druerie, 
 
 e cil humblement Ten mercie. 
 Le Chevalier a l'£pee, vv. 314-7: 
 
 Tant Tot cortoisement parler 
 
 Et tant lo voit de bones mors, 
 
 Que ele l'amast par amors 
 
 S'ele descovrir li osast. 1 
 
 In several didactic passages cortoisie is named as a prime re- 
 quisite for one who would be loved. Vv. 2189-2200 of La Clef 
 d' Amors direct a maiden who wishes to be loved to be very careful 
 to be 
 
 avisee, 
 
 plesante, de bele maniere, 
 
 sage, courtoise et! biau parliere, 
 
 and that in her there should be no vilame, — thus making cortoisie 
 
 and some of its most important manifestations prerequisites for 
 
 gaining man's love. The Brevtari d'Amor names similar qualities 
 
 which a lady should require in a man whom she would love. Vv. 
 
 30583-9: 
 
 Dona que enten en amar 
 
 Deu tal entendedor triar 
 
 Que sia savis a cortes 
 
 Car nul autra causa non es 
 
 On convenha 1 mielhs horns senatz 
 
 E cortes e amezuratz 
 
 Quo fai en los ditz faits d'amors : 
 
 Vv. 30749-5 2 : 
 
 Dona done qu'enten en amor 
 Deu cauzir per entendedor 
 Home savi, pros e cortes 
 Ez avinen e ben apres. 
 
 *See also Marie de France, Lais, Lanval, vv. 113-6; Blondel de Neele, p. 
 42; Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 4, vv. 21-3; Le Chevalier a l'£pee, vv. 571-4; 
 Perceval, vv. 32813-9; Flamenco, vv. 2960-4, 5872-5; Blancandin, vv. 549-53, 
 1997-9; La Clef d' Amors, vv. 617-32. 
 
CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 91 
 
 Vv. 241-4 of La Clef d' Amors, whose purpose was to guide a man 
 in the choice of his lady-love, closes the list of adjectives describing 
 the qualities she should possess with the verse, 
 
 Sage, courtoise et henorable. 
 Beside being loved, we find that the cortois was held in high 
 esteem by those with whom he was thrown into contact. An ex- 
 pression of this sentiment is found in the Roman de la Rose, i p. 41 : 
 
 Apres se tenoit Cortoisie, 
 
 Qui moult estoit de tous prisie, 
 
 Si n'ere orgueilleuse ne fole. 
 In v. 155 of Le Lai de I'Oiselet the Deity's preference for cortoisie 
 is stated : 
 
 Dieus aime onor et cortoisie. 
 Garis lo Brus, quoted in the Breviari d'Amor, vv. 32222-5, states 
 that cortoisie is knowing how to speak and act in such a manner 
 that one's friends are compelled to love him: 
 
 Cortezia es tals, 
 
 Si voletz saber cals, 
 
 Qui be sap dir e far 
 
 Per qu'om lo dei' amar. 1 
 An important indication of the favorable attitude of the courtly 
 poets toward the cortois is found in those passages in which the 
 cortois is represented as being admitted to some especially desirable 
 place, while the vilain is excluded. It appears that the poets did 
 not think it necessary always to mention the admission of the cortois, 
 but they never lose an opportunity of getting in a thrust at the 
 vilain by mentioning his exclusion. The only example of the 
 specific admission of the cortois that I am able to cite is found in 
 Li Fablel dou Dieu d } Amours, p. 16: 
 
 Et s'uns cortois vausist laiens aler, 
 
 En eel vergie por son cors deporter, 
 
 Trovast la porte ouverte por entrer, 
 
 Que ja li pons n'eust soing de lever. 
 
 (b) THE VILAIN IS NOT LOVED, BUT IS DETESTED AND EXCLUDED. 
 
 As the cortois was the one eminently worthy of love, so the 
 vilain was unworthy of it, and was loathed and excluded. In vv. 
 
 'See also* Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 2, vv. 20-1; Melton, vv. 7-8; Perceval,. 
 vv 28672-5; Le Breviari d'Amor, vv. 30546-54; Lecheor, vv. 55-60. 
 
<92 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 i-ii of Le Chevalier a I'Epee, the author invites those who love 
 pleasure to listen to an adventure which happened to Gawain 
 . qui n'ama onques nul jor 
 
 Home coart, faus ne vilain. 
 In vv. 745-7 of Blancandin, l'Orgilleuse d' Amors, who has been 
 kissed by Blancandin and does not know who he is, grieves at the 
 thought that he may not be cortois : 
 
 Que sai jou or s'il est vilains? 
 
 Trop est mes cuers de dolor plains ; 
 
 Trop est cis baisiers pris en grief. 
 In a chanson de toile, Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 48, vv. 15-16, we find 
 a lady de grant biaute saying that 
 
 james n'amera vilain, 
 
 car trop sont mauves. 1 
 Hatred toward the vilain is such a commonplace in courtly 
 poetry, and is so manifest in everything that is said concerning 
 him, that it hardly needs special emphasis here. A verse from the 
 fablel De sire Hain et de Dame Anieuse, Fabliaux i 6, is particularly 
 outspoken and direct; in v. 174 Anieuse thus addresses her husband: 
 
 Vilains, dist-ele, je te haz. 
 Vv. 29-32, Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 27, express the loathing of the 
 nightingale for the vilain who has been listening to her song: 
 
 Li rosignolez disoit: 
 
 par un pou qu'il n'enrajoit 
 
 du grant duel que il avoit, 
 
 que vilains l'avoit oi. 
 In a chanson de toile by Maistre Gilles Li Viniers, Bartsch, A. R. 
 u. P., i 67, there is a very virulent attack upon the vilain, in this 
 case the husband of the woman who speaks, vv. 37-45 : 
 
 Compaignete, or vos kerrai: 
 
 ja d'amors ne partirai. 
 
 et se li vilains en gronce, 
 
 saves vous ke je ferai? 
 
 jamais n'ere vers li douce 
 
 mais si bien le baterai, 
 
 ^See also Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 72, vv. 15-16; ibid., ii 57, vv. 72-84; 
 Fabliaux i 11, vv. 26-7. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 93 
 
 jamais ne mangera de pain : 
 
 chi le me foule, foule, foule, 
 
 chi le me foule le vilain. 
 Le Donnei des Amants, vv. 41-46, says that when the birds sing 
 most sweetly they are but trying to provoke the vilain: 
 
 Li oiselet, men essient, 
 
 Quant il chantent plus doucement, 
 
 S'esforcent plus e seir e mein 
 
 Pur tarier le fel vilein, 
 
 E les gelus ensurquetut, 
 
 Ke joie e chant heent de but. 1 
 Detested as he was, the vilain is represented as being excluded 
 from desirable places to which the cortois is admitted, such as 
 enchanted parks and palaces. In Li Fablel dou Dieu d } Amours, p. 
 15, such a park is described, the drawbridge over whose moat 
 always closed of its own accord whenever a vilain stepped upon it : 
 
 Ains ne fust eure se vilains i venist, 
 
 Et ce fust cose que ens entrer volsist, 
 
 Oustre son gre, qant sor le pont venist, 
 
 Levast li pons, et li porte closist. 
 Ibid., p. 16, we are told that entrance to this park is refused to 
 vilains because it belongs to the God of Love : 
 
 Chius vregies ert as vilains en defors, 
 
 Car c'ert celi ki d'amors estoit rois. 
 Beginning with v. 13328 of Perceval a magic tent is described, 
 which (vv. 1 336 1 -4) the vilain is prevented from entering by an 
 image at one side of the entrance: 
 
 L'autre ymage del autre part 
 
 Ens en sa main tenoit un dart, 
 
 Ja n'i veist entrer vilain 
 
 Ne le ferist trestout a plain. 
 Vv. 1 89- 191, 202-4, of De Florance et de Blanche Flor speak of 
 the palace of the God of Love, entrance to which for the vilain is 
 accompanied by an impossible condition : 
 
 1 Ste also Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 25, vv. 9-10, 15-18; ibid., i 41, vv. 21-27; 
 ibid., i 48, vv. 29-36. 
 
94 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 La tor virent et le palais 
 Qui ne fu pas de pierre fais, 
 La ou li Diex d'amors estoit. 
 
 Ja sera vilain si os 
 
 Qu'il past le postiz de la porte, 
 
 Se le seel d'amors n'i porte. 
 Thebes, vv. 2947-50, in a description of the king's tent, mentions 
 the golden eagle upon its summit at which no vilain dares to look : 
 
 Li aigles d'or est a neel, 
 
 Qui est assis sor le pomel ; 
 
 Onques nus hon ne vit tant cler, 
 
 Vilains ne l'ose regarder. 
 The courtly poets in the introductory verses of their poems often 
 stated that they were not going to treat of the vilain, or of vilenie. 
 For instance, the author of Thebes, vv. 17-19, says: 
 
 Ne parlerai de peletiers, 
 
 Ne de vilains, ne de berchiers ; 
 
 Mais de dous freres vos dirai, . . . 
 The author of Le Lai d'Aristote, Fabliaux v 137, vv. 42-46, says he 
 is going to tell a story 
 
 Qui bien doit estre desploie 
 
 Et dite par rime et retraite 
 
 Sanz vilonie et sanz retraite, 
 
 Quar oevre ou vilonie cort 
 
 Ne doit estre noncie a cort ; 
 Then he goes on, vv. 47 ff., to make the general statement that he 
 will never put any vilenie into his writings, and gives as his reason, 
 w. 52-53 : 
 
 Quar vilonie si defface 
 
 Tote riens et tolt sa savor. 
 The author of Guillaume de Dole states, vv. 10-15, that his work 
 will be unintelligible to the vilain : 
 
 Einsi a il chans et sons mis 
 
 En cestui romans de la Rose, 
 
 Qui est une novele chose, 
 
 Et s'est des autres si divers 
 
 Et brodez par lieus de biaus vers, 
 
 Que vilains nel porroit savoir. 
 
CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 95 
 
 One reason given by the poets why the vilain was thus detested 
 is that he was enuieus (importunate, disagreeable, vexatious). In 
 a chanson de toile, Bartsch, A. R. u. P., i 48, v. 32, the vilain is said 
 to be plain d'annui. Enid and vilenie are often associated. E.g. 
 Rambaud d'Orange, Rayn. Choix v, p. 408 : 
 
 Enuios, vilans, mals parliers 
 
 Yvain, v. 90: 
 
 Enuieus estes et vilains. 
 Eracle, vv. 2183-4: 
 
 Li mains aprise est mout courtoise, 
 
 Sanz vilonie et sanz anui. 1 
 Enuieus is contrasted with cortois in Du Prestre et d* Alison, Fab- 
 liaux ii 31, vv. 338-9: 
 
 Gardez ennuieus n'i soiez, 
 
 Mais soiez sages et cortois. 
 The cortois is warned against enui in De Courtoisie, v. 91 : 
 
 Ne seietz mie enuious. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 The results of the present investigation are, briefly, as follows. 
 The cortois and vilain are represented as possessing opposite per- 
 sonal characteristics in French and Provengal texts at least as early 
 as the first third of the twelfth century, and they continue to be thus 
 represented as late as the middle of the fourteenth century. The 
 cortois is pictured as being of polished manners, gentle and courte- 
 ous in speech, always taking the middle course, humble, considerate 
 in his relations with his fellows and helpful to others, upright in 
 character, loyal, generous, wearing fine garments, courageous, 
 a perfect lover, of a merry disposition, of fine personal 
 appearance, possessing a high order of intelligence, and of a religious 
 turn of mind ; wherefore he was an object of admiration to the 
 
 *See also Bernard de Ventadour, Rayn, Choix iii, p. 43 and p. 65; Bertrand 
 de Born, Rayn. Choix iii, p. 136; Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Appel, Prov. Chrest., 
 St. 90, vv. 28-9; Perceval, v. 16474; L'Atre Perillotis, v. 5972; Le Breviari 
 a" Amor, v. 10340. 
 
96 CORTOIS AND VI LAIN. 
 
 opposite sex and was held in high esteem by his friends. His 
 morals might be either loose or strict. The vilain, on the other 
 hand, is represented as being of rude manners, rough in speech, 
 apt to go to extremes, unduly proud and haughty, devoid of con- 
 sideration for his fellows and unwilling to help them, wicked and 
 untrustworthy, stingy, cowardly, ignorant of the art of courtly love, 
 of a gloomy temperament, ugly and uncouth in personal appearance, 
 stupid in general, though possessing a shrewd mother-wit, and 
 destitute of religious feeling; wherefore he was an object of loathing 
 to the opposite sex and was held in contempt by all. His morals 
 were universally bad. In addition to the foregoing list of traits, of 
 which those assigned to the cortois are almost without exception ad- 
 mirable and paralleled by their exact opposites attributed to the vilain, 
 other miscellaneous characteristics of each are mentioned, and these 
 are also commendable in the case of the cortois and reprehensible in 
 the case of the vilain. The evident fact that to the cortois and 
 vilain were consistently assigned opposite characteristics in mediaeval 
 French and Provencal poetry shows plainly that the writers of that 
 period were conscious of a tendency to radically distinguish between 
 them. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 97 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Alexandre le Grand dans la Litterature Frangaise du Moyen Age, 
 
 Paul Meyer, Paris 1886. 2 vols. 
 Aliscans, p. p. Guessard et Montaiglon, Paris 1870. Les Anciens 
 
 Poetes de la France. 
 Amadas et Ydoine, p. p. C. Hippeau, Paris 1863. 
 Andre ae Capellani Regii Francorum De Amore Libri Tres, recensuit 
 
 E. Trojel, Hauniae 1892. 
 La Chanson d'Antioche, p. p. Paulin Paris, Paris 1848. 2 vols. 
 Carl Appel, Provenzalische Chrestomathie, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1902. 
 L'Atre Perillous, Herrig's Archiv vol. 42, pp. 148-21 1. 
 (Bartsch, A. R. u. P) : Altfranzosische Romanzen und Pastourellen, 
 
 hgg. von Karl Bartsch, Leipzig 1870. 
 Joseph Bedier, Les Fabliaux, Paris 1893. 
 Le Bel Inconnu, par Renauld de Beaujeu, p. p. C. Hippeau, Paris 
 
 i860. 
 Le Bestiaire de Philippe de Thaun, p. p. E. Walberg, Paris 1900. 
 Blancandin et VOrgueilleuse d 'Amour, p. p. H. Michelant, Paris 
 
 1867. 
 W. Blankenburg, Der V ilain in der Schilderung der altfranzosischen 
 
 Fabliaux, Greifswald Diss., 1902. 
 Les Oeuvres de Blondel de Neele, p. p. P. Tarbe, Reims 1862. 
 Le Breviari d'Amor de Matfre Ermengaud, p. p. Azais, Beziers 1862- 
 
 188 1. 2 vols. 
 Le Roman de Brut par Wace, p. p. Le Roux de Lincy, Rouen 1836. 
 
 2 vols. 
 Cancioneiro Gallego-Castelhano, collected and edited by Henry R. 
 
 Lang, vol. i, New York 1902. 
 La Chastelaine de Vergi: The Chatelaine of Vergi, ed. by L. 
 
 Brandin, London 1903. 
 Le Chevalier a VfLpee, ed. by E. C. Armstrong, Baltimore 1900. 
 Li Romans de Claris et Laris, hgg. von J. Alton, Tubingen 1884. 
 
 Bibliothek des litt. Vereins in Stuttgart. 
 La Clef d' Amors, p. p. Auguste Doutrepont, Halle 1890. Biblio- 
 
 theca Normannica v. 
 Li Roumans de Cleomades par A denes li Rois, p. p. A. van Hasselt, 
 
 Bruxelles 1865 an d 1866. 2 vols. 
 Cliges von Christian von Troyes, hgg. von W. Foerster, Halle 1884. 
 Roman du Comte de Poitiers, p. p. F. Michel, Paris 183 1. 
 Le Couronnement de Louis, p. p. E. Langlois, Paris 1888. Societe 
 
 des anciens textes francais. 
 
98 CORTOIS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Le Court d* Amour, Mahius li Poriiers, pub. by E. Gorra in Fra 
 
 Drammi e Poemi, Milano 1900, p. 295 ff. 
 De courtoisie, pub. by E. Stengel in the Zeitschrift fur franzosische 
 
 Sprache und Litteratur, vol. xiv, i, pp. 1 51-153. 
 Li Cumpoz Philipe de Thaiin, hgg. von E. Mall, Strassburg 1873. 
 D'Ancona e Comparetti, Le Anticke Rime Volgari, Bologna 1875- 
 
 1886. 4 vols. 
 La Vita Nuova di Dante Alighieri, T. Casini, 2nd ed., Florence 1891. 
 Tutte le Opere di Dante Alighieri nuovamente rivedute nel testo da 
 
 Dr. E. Moore, Oxford 1894. 
 La Destruction de Rome, Romania ii, 1-48. 
 Le Dit de Gentillece; Jubinal, Nouveau Recueil, Paris 1839- 1842. 
 
 2 vols. vol. ii, pp. 50-57. 
 Un Dist que on clamme Respon; Jubinal, Nouveau Recueil, vol. 1, 
 
 pp. 173-180. 
 Dit sur les Vilains, par Matazone de Calignano, pub. by P. Meyer 
 
 in Romania xii, pp. 20-24. 
 Doctrinal le Sauvage, Jubinal, Nouveau Recueil, vol. ii, pp. 1 50-161. 
 Li Romans de Dolo pathos, p. p. Brunet et Montaiglon, Paris 1856. 
 Le Donnei des Amants, pub. by G. Paris in Romania xxv, pp. 500- 
 
 522. 
 Lai de Doon, p. p. G. Paris, Romania viii, pp. 61-64. 
 Du Cange, Glossarium Mediae et Iniimae Latinitatis, Editio Nova a 
 
 Leopold Favre, Niort 1883- 1887. 
 Li Romans de Durmart le Galois, hgg. von E. Stengel, Tubingen 
 
 1873. Bibliothek des litt. Vereins in Stuttgart. 
 Elie de Saint Gille, p. p. G. Raynaud, Paris 1879. Societe des 
 
 anciens textes frangais. 
 Eneas, p. p. De Grave, Halle 1891. Bibliotheca Normannica iv. 
 Eracle, see Gautier d' Arras. 
 Erec und Enide von Christian von Troyes, hgg. von W. Foerster, 
 
 Halle 1890. 
 L'Escouile, Roman d'Aventure, p. p. H. Michelant et P. Meyer, 
 
 Paris 1894. Societe des anciens textes frangais. 
 Li Fablel dou Dieu d Amours, p. p. A. Jubinal, Paris 1834. 
 (Fabliaux) : Montaiglon et Raynaud, Recueil General et Complet 
 
 des Fabliaux des xiiie et xive siecles, Paris 1872- 1890. 6 vols. 
 Josef Falk, Etude Sociale sur les Chansons de Geste, these pour le 
 
 doctorat, Nykoping 1899. 
 Fergus, Roman von Guillaume Le Clerc, hgg. von Ernst Martin, 
 
 Halle 1872. 
 Le Roman de Flamenca, p. p. Paul Meyer, Paris 1865. 
 Floire et BlanceHor, p. p. Du Meril, Paris 1856. 
 De Florance et de Blanche Flor; Barbazan et Meon, Fabliaux et 
 
 Contes, Paris 1808, 4 vols. vol. iv, p. 354 ff. 
 Gaufrey, p. p. Guessard et Chabaille, Paris 1859. Les Anciens 
 
 Poetes de la France. 
 Oeuvres de Gautier d' Arras, p. p. E. Loseth, Paris 1890. 2 vols. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 99 
 
 i Erade, ii Me et Galeron. Bibliotheque Franchise du Moyen 
 
 Age vi and vii. 
 Gay don, p. p. Guessard et Luce, Paris 1862. Les Anciens Poetes de 
 
 la France. 
 Geffrei Gaimar, Lestorie des Engles, ed. Hardy and Martin, London 
 
 1888. 
 Grant mal fist Adam, Reimpredigt, hgg. von H. Suchier, Halle 
 
 1879. Bibliotheca Normannica i. 
 Gustav Grober, Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie, Strassburg 
 
 1 888- 1 902. 2 vols. 
 Guillaume d'Angleterre, see Lancelot. 
 Le Roman de la Rose, on de Guillaume de Dole, p. p. G. Servois, 
 
 Paris 1893. Societe des anciens textes frangais. 
 Lai de Guingamor, p. p. G. Paris, Romania viii, pp 51-59. 
 Guiraut von Bornelh, der Meister der Trobadors, hgg. von Dr. Adolf 
 
 Kolsen, Berlin 1894. Berliner Beitrage zur Germanischen und 
 
 Romanischen Philologie vi. 
 Hugues Capet, p. p. La Grange, Paris 1864. Les Anciens Poetes de 
 
 la France. 
 Lai d'Ignaures, suivi des Lais de Melion et du Trot, p. p. Monmerque 
 
 et Michel, Paris 1832. 
 Me et Galeron, see Gautier d'Arras. 
 Der Karrenritter (Lancelot) und Das Wilhelmsleben (Guillaume 
 
 d'Angleterre) von Christian von Troyes, hgg. von W. Foerster, 
 
 Halle 1899. 
 E. Langlois, Origines et Sources du Roman de la Rose, Paris 1891. 
 Lai du Lecheor, p. p. G. Paris, Romania viii, pp. 65-66. 
 Die Fabeln der Marie de France, hgg. von Karl Warnke, Halle 1898. 
 
 Bibliotheca Normannica vi. 
 Die Lais der Marie de France, hgg. von Karl Warnke, Halle 1885. 
 
 Bibliotheca Normannica iii. 
 Lai de Melion, see Lai d'Ignaures. 
 La Mule sans Frain, Meon, Nouveau Recueil de Fabliaux et Contes, 
 
 Paris 1823. 2 vols. vol. i, p. 1 ff. 
 La Chevalerie Ogier de Danemarche, par Raimbert de Paris, p. p. 
 
 Barrois, Paris 1842. 
 Les Enfances Ogier par Adenes li Rois, p. p. Aug. Scheler, Bruxelles 
 
 1874. . ' ...;-'• 
 
 Le Lai de VOiselet, p. p. G. Paris, Legendes du Moyen *Age,*Faris 
 1903, pp. 274-291. 
 
 Gaston Paris, Extraits de la Chanson de Roland, 6th ed., Paris 1899. 
 
 Partonopeus de Blois, p. p. G. A. Crapel^t, Paris' 1834. 2 vols. 
 
 (Pelerinage de Charlemagne) : Karls des Grossen Reise nach Jerusa- 
 lem und Constantino pel, hgg. von E. Koschwitz, Heilbronn 1880. 
 Altfranzosische Bibliothek ii. 
 
 Perceval le Gallois, ou le Conte du Graal, p. p. Ch. Potvin, Mons 
 1866-1871. 6 vols. 
 
 Li Proverb e au Vilain, hgg. von Adolf Tobler, Leipzig 1895. 
 
ioo C0RT0IS AND VILA1N. 
 
 (Rayn. Choix) : Choix des poesies originates des Troubadours, M. 
 
 Raynouard, Paris 1816-1821. 6 vols. 
 Li respit del curteis et del vilain, pub. in Zeitschrift fur franzosische 
 
 Sprache und Litteratur, vol. xiv, i, pp. 154-158. 
 Das Altfranzbsische Rolandslied, kritische Ausgabe besorgt von E. 
 
 Stengel, vol. i, Leipzig 1900. 
 Le Roman de la Rose, par Guillaume de Lorris et Jean de Meung, 
 
 p. p. Francisque-Michel, Paris 1864. 2 vols. 
 Maistre Wace's Roman de Ron, hgg. von H. Andresen, Heilbronn 
 
 1 877- 1 879. 2 vols. 
 A. Schultz, Das HoUsche Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger , 2nd ed., 
 
 Leipzig 1889. 2 vols. 
 Li Romans des Sept Sages, hgg. von H. A. Keller, Tubingen 1836. 
 Le Roman de Thebes, p. p. L. Constans, Paris 1890. 2 vols. 
 
 Societe des anciens textes frangais. 
 Tristan, Recueil de ce qui reste des poemes relatifs a ses aventures, 
 
 p. p. Francisque Michel, Londres 1835. 2 vols. 
 Benoit de Sainte-More et Le Roman de Troie, A. Joly, Paris 1871. 
 
 2 vols. 
 Lai du Trot, see Lai d'Ignaures. 
 
 Lai de Tydorei, p. p. G. Paris, Romania viii, pp. 67-72. 
 Lai de Tyolet, p. p. G. Paris, Romania viii, pp. 41-50. 
 Des Vilains et des Courtois, in Dits et Contes de Baudouin de Conde 
 
 et de son His Jean de Conde, p. p. Aug. Scheler, Bruxelles 1866- 
 
 1867. 3 vols. vol. iii, pp. 189-195. 
 W. Wackernagel, Altfranzoesische Lieder und Leiche, Basel 1846. 
 Der Lowenritter ( Yvain) von Christian von Troyes, hgg. von W. 
 
 Foerster, Halle 1877. 
 
INDEX OF CITATIONS. 101 
 
 INDEX OF CITATIONS. 
 
 Aimeric de Belenoi ; 70, 7611. 
 
 Aimeric de Pegulhan ; 79. 
 
 Alexandre ; 22. 
 
 Alfabeto del villano; 15. 
 
 Aliscans; 8211. 
 
 Amadas et Ydoine; 54, 64. 
 
 Andre le Chapelain, De Amore; 18, 24, 48, 52, 60, 62, 67. 
 
 Appel, Froz/. Chrest. (anonymous citation) ; 73m 
 
 Arnaud de Marueil ; 30, 80. 
 
 N'Arnaut Guilhem de Marsan, Ensenhamen ; 52, 81. 
 
 L'Atre Perillous; nn, 12, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 39, 
 
 4on, 41, 43 & n, 46, 49, 53, 61, 62, 76n, 8on, 89, 95m 
 Bartsch, A. R. u*. P.; 17 & N, 22, 3on, 31 & n, 38n, 44, 46, 5on, 51, 
 
 58, 61, 63 & n, 64, 69, 72 & n, 73, 74, 76n, 77, 8on, 81, 88, ox)n, 
 
 9111, 92 & n, 93n, 95. 
 £<?/ Inconnu; 36n. 
 
 Bernart de Ventadour; 22, 45, 65, 76n, 95m 
 Bertrand d'Allamanon Ier; 42n. 
 Bertrand de Born ; 14, 22, g$n. 
 Bertrand de Pujet; 5on. 
 Blacas ; 58. 
 Blancandin; ijn, 22, 24, 25 & n, 36n, 43 & n, 45, 62n, 71, 76n, 8on, 
 
 83, 86n, 87n, 89, ox>n, 92. 
 Blondel de Neele; 10, 15, 25, 76n, 9on. 
 Breviari d'Arnor (Matfre Ermengaud) ; 15, 22, 23, 24, 26n, 27n, 
 
 29, 31, 3 2 , 33, 42n, 45, 5^, 55 n , 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 73, 76n, 
 
 79, 8on, 86n, 90, 91 & n, 95n. 
 Brut (Wace) : 7, 9, 11, 48, 49, 50, 54, 55, 56, 80, 82. 
 Cadenet ; 65. 
 
 Cancioneiro Galle go-Castelhano ; 28n, 48. 
 Cercamon 513. 
 Chastelaine de Vergi; 71. 
 Chevalerie Ogier; 84. 
 Chevalier a l'£pee; ijn, 19, 20 & n, 22, 29, 36n, 42, 45, 53, 66, 70, 
 
 71, 74, 78, 82n, 90 & n, 92. 
 Chretien de Troies (see also Cliges, Erec, Lancelot, Perceval, 
 
 Yvain) ; 59-60, 66. 
 Claris et Laris; 26n, 31, 38n, 87n. 
 
 Clef d' Amors; 15, 17, 21, 22, 26n, 44, 60, 63, 65, 70, 90 & n, 91. 
 Cleomades; 57, 
 
102 C0RT0IS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Cliges (Chretien) ; 16, 30, 4211, 50, 51, 66, 72, 79, 8on, 8211, 85, 8711. 
 
 Comte de Poitiers; 8211. 
 
 Comtesse de Die; 30. 
 
 Couronnement de Louis; 46, 80. 
 
 Court d 'Amour (Mahius li Poriiers) ; 2711, 79. 
 
 De Courtoisie; 15, 24, 28, 29, 31, 32, 41, 45, 49, 61, 78, 8on, 82, 86, 
 
 95- 
 Dante, Convito; 9, 48. 
 Dante, Vita Nuova; 38, 48. 
 Dauphin d'Auvergne; 26. 
 Destruction de Rome; 82n. 
 Dist que on clamme Respon; J2xv. 
 Dit de Gentillece; 11. 
 
 Doctrinal le Sauvage; 25n, 26n, 30, 45n, 55. 
 Dolopathos; 2yn. 
 
 Donnei des Amants; 47, 73, 74, 84, 93. 
 Doon; 8on, 87. 
 Durmart le Galois; 54. 
 Elie de Saint Gille; 56. 
 Zneas; 53, 56, 63, 66. 
 Enfances Ogier; 47. 
 Eracle; 82n, 95. 
 Erec (Chretien) ; nn, 20, 22, 23, 30, 31, 33, 44, 45 & n, 47, 49, 50, 
 
 55n, 56, 65, 72n, 76 & n, 80 & n, 82n, 86n, 87. 
 L'EscouHe; 39, 46. 
 
 Fablel dou Dieu d } Amours; 24, 27, 65, 66, 91, 93. 
 Fabliaux; 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, i8n, 19, 2on, 21, 22, 23, 26n, 28 & n, 32, 
 
 34, 36, 41, 43 & n, 45n, 47, son, 51 & n, 57, 62, 63n, 67, 68, 69, 
 
 70, 72n, 75, 76n, yy, 79, 80 & n, 8in, 83, 84, 85, 86n, 87, 88, 92 
 
 & n, 94, 95. 
 Fergus; 26. 
 Flamenca; 15, 17 & n, 19, 20, 22, 25, 34, 4on, 41, 42n, 44, 49, 5on, 
 
 62, 64, 76n, 8on, 9on. 
 Floire et BlanceHor; 82n. 
 
 De Florance et de Blanche Flor; nn, 26n, 63, 93. 
 Folquet de Marseille ; 48. 
 Garis lo Brus; 23, 52, 58, 91. 
 Gaucelm Faidit; 27n. 
 Gaufrey; 55n. 
 Gay don; 49. 
 
 GefTrei Gaimar, see Lestorie des Engles. 
 Giacomino Pulgliese; 39. 
 Girart de Rossillon; 86n. 
 Giraud le Roux ; 42, 86. 
 Grant mal fist Adam; 13. 
 Guilhem, comte de Peitieu; 10, 13, 25, 62, 66. 
 Guillaume d'Angleterre ; 22, 25, 37, 38, 51, 78, 8on, 87. 
 Guillaume de Cabestaing; 62n. 
 
INDEX OF CITATIONS. 103 
 
 Guillaume de Dole; 10, 88, 94. 
 
 Guillaume de Saint-Didier ; 44. 
 
 Guillaume Magret; 59. 
 
 Guingamor ; 7, 8on, 89. 
 
 Guiot de Provins ; 86n. 
 
 Guiraut de Bornelh; 15, 86n. 
 
 Guiraut de Calanso; 8in. 
 
 Guiraut de Quentinhac ; 57. 
 
 Horace; 7911. 
 
 Hugues Brunet; 58. 
 
 Hugues Capet; 4011, 55. 
 
 Hugues de Saint-Cyr; 15. 
 
 Ignaurcs, Lai d' ; 2611, 54, 70. 
 
 Me et Galeron; 8, 27, 64, 66, 86n. 
 
 Jacques de Cambrai ; 42. 
 
 Jaufre; 7, 24. 
 
 Jaufre Rudel; 13. 
 
 Jean de Conde, Des Vilains et des Courtois; 8, 9, 11, 15. 
 
 Lamberti de Bonanel ; 4311. 
 
 Lancelot (Chretien) ; 18, 20, 22, 27, 40, 43, 47, 58, 66, 68, 76n, 8on, 
 
 82n, 83, 86. 
 Lanfranc Cigala; 60. 
 Lecheor; 9m. 
 
 Lestorie des Engles (GefTrei Gaimar) ; 6, II. 
 Leys d' Amors, Las ; 60. 
 Marcabrus ; 28, 58, 59. 
 Marie de France, Fables ; 8, 76n, 86n, 88. 
 Marie de France, Lais; 26, 27, 38n, 4on, 43n, 47, 49, 50, 53, 55n, 61, 
 
 72n, 76n, 8on, 82n, 86n, 87, 88, 89, 90 & n. 
 Matfre Ermengaud, see Breviari d'Amor. 
 Melion; 87n, 9m. 
 Miraval; 61. 
 Mule sanz Train; 76. 
 Oiselet, Lai de V ; 44, 52, 91. 
 Partonopeus de Blots; 14, 47. 
 Peire Raimon de Toulouse; 58. 
 Pelerinage de Charlemagne; 23. 
 Perceval; 11 & n, 14, 15, 16, 17 & n, 18 & n, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 & n, 25, 
 
 26, 27, 28, 29, 3on, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36 & n, 38 & n, 39, 41, 42, 
 
 43 & n, 45, 46, 47, 5m, 52, 54, 57, 59, 66, 69, 71, 72 & n, 75, 76n, 
 
 78, 8on, 81, 82n, 85, 86n, 87n, 9on, 93, 95n. 
 Petrarch ; 48. 
 Peyrols; 86n. 
 
 Philippe de Thaiin, Bestiaire; 50, 81. 
 Pierre Rogiers; 59. 
 Pons de Capdueil ; 14, 62n. 
 Raimond de Miravals; 26. 
 Rambaud de Vaqueiras ; 14, 82n, 95n. 
 
104 C0RT0IS AND VILAIN. 
 
 Rambaud d'Orange; 86n, 95. 
 Rayn. Choix (anonymous citation) ; 73n. 
 Respit del c. et del v.; II, 15, 51, 72m 
 Robert le Diable; yn. 
 Roland, Chanson de; 22, 29, 31 & n, 85. 
 
 Rose, Roman de la; 8, 10, 12, 15, 21, 22, 23n, 24, 26 & n, 32, 34, 40, 
 41, 51, 58, 60, 62, 65, 73, 74, 75, 76, 79, 8on, 81, 86 & n, 87n, 88, 
 
 Rou (Wace) ; 9, 14, 56, 75, 82n. 
 vS>/>£ Sages; 9n, nn. 
 
 Thebes; 7, 9, 17, 18, 22, 35, 37, 40, 56, 82, 87, 94. 
 Tristan; 37, 38n, 71, 72n, 81, 86n. 
 Troie (Benoit de Sainte-More) ; 14, 56, 72, 73, 82n. 
 Trot; 53. 
 
 Tydorel; i8n, 22, 5 m, 82n, 86n. 
 Tyolet; 9n, 57, 75, 8on. 
 N'Uc Brunet de Rodes ; 14, 32. 
 N'Uc de la Bachalairia ; 58. 
 Wace, see Brut, Rou. 
 
 Yvain (Chretien) ; 14, 27n, 30, 33, 35, 36, 40, 42, 45, 50, 51, 55, 59, 
 76 & n, 77, 8on, 8in, 86 & j^&n, 95. 
 
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