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The Fabliau “Des Deux Anglois et De l'Anel”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Charles H. Livingston
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Extract

The caricature of the Englishman in the Middle Ages was never complete in the eyes of the French without some allusion to or parody upon his incorrect and unpleasant manner of speaking French, the French of Marlborough or of Stratford atte Bowe. A number of parodies of this sort have come down to us and are still of interest, popular caricatures of real though at times coarse humor. One of the best episodes of the Roman de Renard depicts Renart in the disguise of an Anglo-Norman jongleur affecting the outlandish accent and thus concealing his identity from his wife. Perhaps the best known of all these parodies is found in the fabliau Des Deux Anglois et de l'Anel, a conte entirely insignificant in itself, but nevertheless suggestive of the lack of esteem in which the French dialect spoken in England must have been held by the continentals about the epoch of St. Louis.

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Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , June 1925, pp. 217 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1925

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References

1 Walter Map says in the De Nugis Curialium: Apud Marleburgam fons est, quern si quis, ut aiunt, gustaverit, gallice barbarizat; unde cum viciose quis illa lingua loquitur, dicimus eum loqui gallicum Marleburgae.

2 The quality of the French spoken by Chaucer's Prioress is well known :

And Frensh she spak ful faire and fetisly,

After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe,

For Frensh of Paris was to hir unknowe. (Cant. Tales, A. 124-126).

3 Cf. J. Bédier, Les Fabliaux, 3rd ed., 1911, Appendice II, p. 442, and the article of C. V. Langlois upon the English in the Middle Ages, Revue Historique, 1893, p. 311. Some examples of this type of parody are, La Paix aux Anglais in A. Jubinal, Jongleurs et Trouvères, Paris, 1835, p. 170; La Citarte aux Anglais and La Nouvelle Charte de la Paix aux Anglais, Romania, XIV, 280; Roman de Renart, ed. Ernest Martin, Strasbourg, 1882, I, 62 f.; cf. also Le Mystère de Saint Louis, ed. F. Michel (Roxburghe Club), Westminster, 1871, p. iii of the preface and p. 395 f., where are found numerous references to the pronunciation and use of French by the English. Cf. H. Albert, Mittelalteslicher englisch-französischer Jargon (Halle, 1922).

We have little or no information as to how the French pronounced English because it appears that they considered it as barbaric and never paid much attention to it. Ellis (On Early English Pronunciation, London, 1869, II, 531) gives a few references to English in the mouths of Frenchmen in the Middle Ages.

4 Montaiglon et Raynaud, Recueil Général des Fabliaux, Paris, 1880, II, 46.

5 Tiois =“bas-allemand, néerlandais” (Mont. Ray., VI., p. 383).

6 Bédier, loc cit., says of this fabliau: “Je n'ai retrouvé nulle part cette historiette.”

7 The unique ms. Bib. Nal. fonds français, 19152, dates from the 13th cent.

8 Cf. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Dept. of MSS, Brit. Mus., III, 174; F. J. Furnivall, Political, Religious and Love Poems, E E. T. S., 1903, p. 249.

9 mutulini, cf. Pu Cange, Glossarium : mutunus (chart of 1307). I have not found mutulinus used outside of the present passage.

10 rataverant, cf. Du Cange, op. cit.: delere, oblittere.

11 gravabantur: felt inconvenienced.

12 usuarium, cf. Du Cange, ed. cit., under this word: usufructus, seu potius jus utendi.

13 Cf. Revue du XVI e Siècle, X, 159-203, where I have dealt at length with this little known tale-taller who furnishes us with an interesting date in French literary history.

14 Cf. Gedenkbuch des Metzer Bürgers-Philippe von Vigneulles, ed. 1852, by Henri Michelant, p. 283.

15 The unique manuscript of the tales was recently discovered and acquired by the author of this article.

16 baiselle =jeune fille, servante.

17 s'embaissoit: the passages cited by Godefroy and La Curne do not explain the meaning here which would be “be apprehensive about” or perhaps “to have a poor opinion of himself about.”

18 This is the manuscript reading. The scribe has paid no attention to participal agreement.

19 A little refrain from a proverb of the time. Cf. Ils sont ensemble à pot el à rot (ils sont très familiers), Dict. de l'Académie, ed. 1835; and:

Chacun potier loue ses pots

Et davantage les cassez et rots.

cf. Le Roux de Lincy, Livre des Proverbes Français, Paris, 1859, II, 268 f.

20 preu vous face =souhait de bonheur.

21 These peculiar compound forms occur in the text. The sense is clear.