The first piece I selected for my performance will be a reading from the Lais of Marie of France. As a literate woman, who has contacts at the queen’s court I would be very aware of the new literary trend of secular literature written in the vernacular.
Very little is known about Marie de France except that she was a contemporary of Chrétien de Troyes. It’s thought that she was a member of the Anglo-Norman nobility (the Lais were written in Anglo-Norman, the language of the aristocracy of England and Northern France), possibly a nun, it has also been proposed that she was a half sister to Henry II of England (probably the “noble King” to whom she dedicated the Lais.
The Lais were written around 1160-1170 in a poetic form known as octosyllabic couplet with the rhyming form aabbccdd. The translator of the version (de France) I will be reading abandoned this form in favor of prose because translating it into modern English reduced the word play to mere sing-song doggerel.
There is little question about the popularity of the Lais as a Norse translation has been found in Iceland. (Shoaf)
For my other performance I will be telling the story of Empress Matilda’s escape from Oxford Castle in 1142. William of Malmesbury (Malmesbury) gives us this narrative:
"I would very willingly subjoin the manner of the empress's liberation, did I know it to a certainty, for it is undoubtedly one of God's manifest miracles. This, however, is sufficiently notorious, that, through fear of the earl's approach, many of the besiegers at Oxford stole away wherever they were able, and the rest remitted their vigilance, and kept not so good a look out as before; more anxious for their own safety, in case it came to a battle, than bent on the destruction of others.* This circumstance being remarked by the townsmen, the empress, with only four soldiers, made her escape through a small postern, and passed the river. Afterwards, as necessity sometimes, and indeed, almost always, discovers means and ministers courage, she went to Abingdon on foot, and thence reached Wallingford on horse-back. But this I purpose describing more fully, if, by God's permission, I shall ever learn the truth of it from those who were present.* One of the MSS. omits from, " This circumstance," to the end, and substitutes, . . . . " but these matters, with God's permission, shall be more largely treated in the following volume." (Malmesbury 535)
My version, however, will be told as entertainment from the perspective of the child of one of her supporters. Expect a little bit of verbal embroidery.
Bibliography:
Creighton University English Department. Marie de France. 15 08 2012 <http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/english/fajardo/teaching/eng340/marie_de_france.htm>.
de France, Marie. The Lais of Marie de France. Trans. Robert and Ferrante, Joan Hanning. Durham: The Labyrinth Press, 1978.
Di Estera, Leah. "The Troubadours." Complete Anachronist #44 (n.d.).
Malmesbury, William of. Chronicle of the Kings of England, from the earliest period to the reign of King Stephen. Trans. J.A. D.C.L. Giles. London: Henry G Bohn, 1947.
Shoaf, Judith P. The Lais of Marie de France. 1996. 15 08 2012 http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jshoaf/Marie/.
Very little is known about Marie de France except that she was a contemporary of Chrétien de Troyes. It’s thought that she was a member of the Anglo-Norman nobility (the Lais were written in Anglo-Norman, the language of the aristocracy of England and Northern France), possibly a nun, it has also been proposed that she was a half sister to Henry II of England (probably the “noble King” to whom she dedicated the Lais.
The Lais were written around 1160-1170 in a poetic form known as octosyllabic couplet with the rhyming form aabbccdd. The translator of the version (de France) I will be reading abandoned this form in favor of prose because translating it into modern English reduced the word play to mere sing-song doggerel.
There is little question about the popularity of the Lais as a Norse translation has been found in Iceland. (Shoaf)
For my other performance I will be telling the story of Empress Matilda’s escape from Oxford Castle in 1142. William of Malmesbury (Malmesbury) gives us this narrative:
"I would very willingly subjoin the manner of the empress's liberation, did I know it to a certainty, for it is undoubtedly one of God's manifest miracles. This, however, is sufficiently notorious, that, through fear of the earl's approach, many of the besiegers at Oxford stole away wherever they were able, and the rest remitted their vigilance, and kept not so good a look out as before; more anxious for their own safety, in case it came to a battle, than bent on the destruction of others.* This circumstance being remarked by the townsmen, the empress, with only four soldiers, made her escape through a small postern, and passed the river. Afterwards, as necessity sometimes, and indeed, almost always, discovers means and ministers courage, she went to Abingdon on foot, and thence reached Wallingford on horse-back. But this I purpose describing more fully, if, by God's permission, I shall ever learn the truth of it from those who were present.* One of the MSS. omits from, " This circumstance," to the end, and substitutes, . . . . " but these matters, with God's permission, shall be more largely treated in the following volume." (Malmesbury 535)
My version, however, will be told as entertainment from the perspective of the child of one of her supporters. Expect a little bit of verbal embroidery.
Bibliography:
Creighton University English Department. Marie de France. 15 08 2012 <http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/english/fajardo/teaching/eng340/marie_de_france.htm>.
de France, Marie. The Lais of Marie de France. Trans. Robert and Ferrante, Joan Hanning. Durham: The Labyrinth Press, 1978.
Di Estera, Leah. "The Troubadours." Complete Anachronist #44 (n.d.).
Malmesbury, William of. Chronicle of the Kings of England, from the earliest period to the reign of King Stephen. Trans. J.A. D.C.L. Giles. London: Henry G Bohn, 1947.
Shoaf, Judith P. The Lais of Marie de France. 1996. 15 08 2012 http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jshoaf/Marie/.