perhaps none which opens a wider field for guesswork. In its entirety
the _Roman de Lusignan_ was, if appearances are to be trusted, a
leisured and ambitious handling of the Melusina legend; but in the
preserved portion Melusina figures hardly at all. We have merely the
final chapters of what would seem to have been the first half, or
perhaps the first third, of the complete narrative; so that this
manuscript account of Melusina's beguilements breaks off,
fantastically, at a period by many years anterior to a date which those
better known versions of Jean d'Arras and Thuring von Ringoltingen
select as the only appropriate starting-point.
By means of a few elisions, however, the episodic story of Melicent
and of the men who loved Melicent has been disembedded from what
survives of the main narrative. This episode may reasonably be
considered as complete in itself, in spite of its precipitous
commencement; we are not told anything very definite concerning
Perion's earlier relations with Melusina, it is true, but then they are
hardly of any especial importance. And speculations as to the tale's
perplexing chronology, or as to the curious treatment of the Ahasuerus
legend, wherein Nicolas so strikingly differs from his precursors,
Matthew Paris and Philippe Mouskes, or as to the probable course of
latter incidents in the romance (which must almost inevitably have
reached its climax in the foundation of the house of Lusignan by
Perion's son Raymondin and Melusina) are more profitably left to M.
Verville's ingenuity.
3
One feature, though, of this romance demands particular comment. The
happenings of the Melicent-episode pivot remarkably upon _domnei_--upon
chivalric love, upon the _Frowendienst_ of the minnesingers, or upon
"woman-worship," as we might bunglingly translate a word for which in
English there is no precisely equivalent synonym. Therefore this
English version of the Melicent-episode has been called _Domnei_, at
whatever price of unintelligibility.
For there is really no other word or combination of words which seems
quite to sum up, or even indicate this precise attitude toward life.
_Domnei_ was less a preference for one especial woman than a code of
philosophy. "The complication of opinions and ideas, of affections and
habits," writes Charles Claude Fauriel,[1: _Histoire de la littérature
provençale_, p. 330 (Adler's translation, New York, 1860)] "which
prompted the chevalier to devote himself to the service of a lady, and
by which he strove to prove to her his love and to merit hers in
return, was expressed by the single word _domnei_."
And this, of course, is true enough. Yet _domnei_ was even more than a
complication of opinions and affections and habits: it was also a
malady and a religion quite incommunicably blended.
Thus you will find that Dante--to cite only the most readily accessible
of mediaeval amorists--enlarges as to _domnei_ in both these last-named
aspects impartially. _Domnei_ suspends all his senses save that of
sight, makes him turn pale, causes tremors in his left side, and sends
him to bed "like a little beaten child, in tears"; throughout you have
the manifestations of _domnei_ described in terms befitting the
symptoms of a physical disease: but as concerns the other aspect, Dante
never wearies of reiterating that it is domnei which has turned his
thoughts toward God; and with terrible sincerity he beholds in Beatrice
de'Bardi the highest illumination which Divine Grace may permit to
humankind. "This is no woman; rather it is one of heaven's most radiant
angels," he says with terrible sincerity.
With terrible sincerity, let it be repeated: for the service of domnei
was never, as some would affect to interpret it, a modish and ordered
affectation; the histories of Peire de Maënzac, of Guillaume de
Caibestaing, of Geoffrey Rudel, of Ulrich von Liechtenstein, of the
Monk of Pucibot, of Pons de Capdueilh, and even of Peire Vidal and
Guillaume de Balaun, survive to prove it was a serious thing, a stark
and life-disposing reality. En cor gentil domnei per mort no passa, as
Nicolas himself declares. The service of domnei involved, it in fact
invited, anguish; it was a martyrdom whereby the lover was uplifted to
saintship and the lady to little less than, if anything less than,
godhead. For it was a canon of domnei, it was the very essence of
domnei, that the woman one loves is providentially set between her
lover's apprehension, and God, as the mobile and vital image and
corporeal reminder of heaven, as a quick symbol of beauty and holiness,
of purity and perfection. In her the lover views--embodied, apparent to
human sense, and even accessible to human enterprise--all qualities of
God which can be comprehended by merely human faculties. It is
precisely as such an intermediary that Melicent figures toward Perion,
and, in a somewhat different degree, toward Ahasuerus--since Ahasuerus
is of necessity apart in all things from the run of humanity.
Yet instances were not lacking in the service of _domnei_ where worship
of the symbol developed into a religion sufficing in itself, and became
competitor with worship of what the symbol primarily represented--such
instances as have their analogues in the legend of Ritter Tannhäuser,
or in Aucassin's resolve in the romance to go down into hell with "his
sweet mistress whom he so much loves," or (here perhaps most perfectly
exampled) in Arnaud de Merveil's naïve declaration that whatever
portion of his heart belongs to God heaven holds in vassalage to
Adelaide de Beziers. It is upon this darker and rebellious side of
_domnei_, of a religion pathetically dragged dustward by the luxuriance
and efflorescence of over-passionate service, that Nicolas has touched
in depicting Demetrios.
4
Nicolas de Caen, himself the servitor _par amours_ of Isabella of
Burgundy, has elsewhere written of _domne_i (in his _Le Roi Amaury_) in
terms such as it may not be entirely out of place to transcribe here.
Baalzebub, as you may remember, has been discomfited in his endeavours
to ensnare King Amaury and is withdrawing in disgust.
"A pest upon this _domnei_!"[1: Quoted with minor alterations from
Watson's version] the fiend growls. "Nay, the match is at an end, and I
may speak in perfect candour now. I swear to you that, given a man
clear-eyed enough to see that a woman by ordinary is nourished much as
he is nourished, and is subjected to every bodily infirmity which he
endures and frets beneath, I do not often bungle matters. But when a
fool begins to flounder about the world, dead-drunk with adoration of
an immaculate woman--a monster which, as even the man's own judgment
assures him, does not exist and never will exist--why, he becomes as
unmanageable as any other maniac when a frenzy is upon him. For then
the idiot hungers after a life so high-pitched that his gross faculties
may not so much as glimpse it; he is so rapt with impossible dreams
that he becomes oblivious to the nudgings of his most petted vice; and
he abhors his own innate and perfectly natural inclination to
cowardice, and filth, and self-deception. He, in fine, affords me and
all other rational people no available handle; and, in consequence, he
very often flounders beyond the reach of my whisperings. There may be
other persons who can inform you why such blatant folly should thus be
the master-word of evil, but for my own part, I confess to ignorance."
"Nay, that folly, as you term it, and as hell will always term it, is
alike the riddle and the masterword of the universe," the old king
replies....
And Nicolas whole-heartedly believed that this was true. We do not
believe this, quite, but it may be that we are none the happier for our
dubiety.
EXPLICIT
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. LES AMANTS DE MELICENT, Traduction moderne, annotée et procedée d'un
notice historique sur Nicolas de Caen, par l'Abbé. * * * A Paris. Pour
Iaques Keruer aux deux Cochetz, Rue S. Iaques, M. D. XLVI. Avec
Privilège du Roy. The somewhat abridged reprint of 1788 was believed to
be the first version printed in French, until the discovery of this
unique volume in 1917.
II. ARMAGEDDON; or the Great Day of the Lord's Judgement: a Parcenesis
to Prince Henry--MELICENT; an heroicke poeme intended, drawne from
French bookes, the First Booke, by Sir William Allonby. London. Printed
for Nathaniel Butler, dwelling at the _Pied Bull_, at Saint Austen's
Gate. 1626.
III. PERION UNO MELICENT, zum erstenmale aus dem Franzôsischen ins
Deutsche ubersetzt, von J. H. G. Lowe. Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1823.
IV. Los NEGOCIANTES DO DON PERION, publicado por Plancher-Seignot. Rio
de Janiero, 1827. The translator's name is not given. The preface is
signed R. L.
V. LA DONNA DI DEMETRIO, Historia piacevole e morale, da Antonio
Checino. Milan, 1833.
VI. PRINDSESSES MELICENT, oversat af Le Roman de Lusignan, og udgivna
paa Dansk vid R. Knôs. Copenhagen, 1840.
VII. ANTIQUAe FABULAe ET COMEDIAe, edid. G. Rask. Göttingen, 1852. Vol.
II, p. 61 _et seq_. "DE FIDE MELICENTIS"--an abridged version of the
romance.
VIII. PERION EN MELICENT, voor de Nederlandsche Jeugduiitgegeven door
J. M. L. Wolters. Groningen, 1862.
IX. NOUVELLES FRANCOISES EN PROSE DU XIVE ET DE XVE SIÈCLE, Les textes
anciens, édités et annotés par MM. Armin et Moland. Lyons, 1880. Vol.
IV, p. 89 et seq., "LE ROMAN DE LA BELLE MELICENT"--a much condensed
form of the story.
X. THE SOUL OF MELICENT, by James Branch Cabell. Illustrated in colour
by Howard Pyle. New York, 1913. This rendering was made, of course,
before the discovery of the 1546 version, and so had not the benefit of
that volume's interesting variants from the abridgment of 1788.
XI. CINQ BALLADES DE NICOLAS DE CAEN, traduites en verse du Roman de
Lusignan, par Mme. Adolpe Galland, et mises en musique par Raoul
Bidoche. Paris, 1898.
XII. LE LIURE DE MÉLUSINE en fracoys, par Jean d'Arras. Geneva, 1478.
XIII. HISTORIA DE LA LINDA MELOSYNA. Tolosa, 1489.
XIV. EEN SAN SONDERLINGKE SCHONE ENDE WONDERLIKE HISTORIE, die men
warachtich kout te syne ende autentick sprekende van eenre vrouwen
gheheeten Mélusine. Tantwerpen, 1500.
XV. DIE HISTORI ODER GESCHICHT VON DER EDLE UND SCHÖNEN MELUSINA.
Augsburg, 1547.
XVI. L'HISTOIRE DE MÉLUSINE, fille du roy d'Albanie et de dame
Pressine, revue et mise en meilleur langage que par cy devant. Lyons,
1597.
XVII. LE ROMAN DE MÉLUSINE, princesse de Lusignan, avec l'histoire de
Geoffry, surnommé à la Grand Dent, par Nodot. Paris, 1700.
XVIII. KRONYKE KRATOCHWILNE, o ctné a slech netné Panne Meluzijne.
Prag, 1760.
XIX. WUNDERBARE GESCHICHTE VON DER EDELN UND SCHÔNEN MELUSINA, welche
eine Tochter des König Helmus und ein Meerwunder gewesen ist. Nurnberg,
without date: reprinted in Marbach's VOLKS BÜCHER, Leipzig, 1838.
BOOKS _by_ MR. CABELL
_Biography:_
BEYOND LIFE
DOMNEI (_The Soul of Melicent_)
CHIVALRY
JURGEN
THE LINE OF LOVE
GALLANTRY
THE CERTAIN HOUR
THE CORDS OF VANITY
FROM THE HIDDEN WAY
THE RIVET IN GRANDFATHER'S NECK
THE EAGLE'S SHADOW
THE CREAM OF THE JEST
_Genealogy:_
BRANCH OF ABINGDON
BRANCHIANA
THE MAJORS AND THEIR MARRIAGES