PROFESSOR ALBRECHT CLASSEN
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PROFESSOR ALBRECHT CLASSEN
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Anne Berthelot, Dans la plupart des textes qui lui sont consacrés, Merlin apparaît comme un enfant (puer, voire infans) doté d’une sagesse de vieillard : ce qui attire l’attention dans son cas, c’est précisément l’écart entre son apparence physique et le savoir qu’il détient, un savoir que seule la vieillesse permet normalement d’acquérir. Cependant, il arrive que cet aspect juvénile nuise à Merlin, en portant atteinte à sa crédibilité : ainsi, dans l’un des premiers épisodes de la Suite Post-Vulgate, le jeune roi Arthur refuse tout net de croire les révélations que lui fait un “enfant” de moins de sept ans, qui ne saurait connaître les événements dont il parle. Il faut donc que Merlin se retire, avant de revenir auprès du roi en semblance, cette fois, de vieillard chenu et respectable. Ce n’est d’ailleurs pas une occurrence unique : il arrive fréquemment au “prophete des Englois” de se présenter sous les traits d’un “homme d’âge”, figure vénérable qui d’emblée suscite le respect et dispose en quelque sorte d’un préjugé favorable dans le public. Cette intervention se proposerait d’étudier de près la dialectique entre infantia et vieillesse au fil des muances de Merlin, et d’en tirer quelques conséquences plus générales sur la symbolique de l’âge dans les textes romanesque médiévaux. Sophie Bostock,
Between
1430 and 1594 the Venetian Republic nurtured a succession of three great
artists, all of whom lived remarkably long lives; and worked for the duration of
their adult lives. These artists were Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516), Tiziano
Vecellio (Titian) (1487-1576) and Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) (1518-1594). The
three men all lived and worked in a time and environment where the hegemony of
older men, as embodied in the patriarchal figure of the Doge, flourished. This
paper will pay particular attention to the late works of Bellini, Titian and
Tintoretto and ask whether there is any distinguishing stylistic, thematic,
technical or spiritual unity in their late artistic output. Particular attention
will be paid to what is thought to be, in the case of Bellini, and what is known
to be in the case of the other two artists, their late self portraits. Danielle Buschinger, Dans mon exposé, j'étudierai le problème de la vieillesse dans un certain nombre de romans arthuriens français et allemands du Moyen Age et tenterai de trouver une ligne directrice dans la présentation des personnes âgées dans ces textes. Albrecht Classen, Old age was not always a venerable age in the Middle Ages. Many literary documents reflect a wide spectrum of contrasting attitudes, ranging from respect to contempt, from interest to neglect. Poets such as Der Stricker included numerous examples of old people in their narratives, and, depending on the context, there is a sense of admiration of old people or an outright sense of anger and aggression against them. Although the evidence that I will present and examine will not allow us to gain a clear and straightforward assessement of how old age was viewed, I will illustrate that 'old age' was a topic of public discourse and involved numerous different perspectives. The Stricker proves to be a most intriguing example because he was a most successful didactic poet and offered both entertaining and instructive texts, and discusses numerous examples of proper and inappropriate behavior among people, such as old people. Allison Coudert, There was tremendous ambivalence to old age in the early modern period. On the one hand, old age was revered because it was associated with tradition, authority, and stability. But it is equally true that old people were the brunt of considerable hostility, not only as bores and nuisances, but as impediments to everything young, new, and innovative. Old age elicited great derision as well as shudders of horror. One has only to think of the rowdy charivaris that greeted widows and widowers attempting to remarry, the cautionary figure of the old, sexually perverse witch, and the horrifying descriptions of old age given, for example, by Ben Jonson in Volpone and by Francis Bacon in his Historie of Life and Death. As Bacon says, old people are “dry skinn’d, and imprudent, hard bowell’d, and unmercifull: bleare-ey’d, and envious; down-looking, and stooping, . . . unconstant; crooked finger’d, greedy and covetous. . . fearfull, wrinkled, and crafty.” Given such a vivid description of the horrors of old age, it is understandable that Bacon was one among many in the early modern period to direct their attention to the possibility of prolonging life and rejuvenating the old. While interest in rejuvenation was nothing new, the sheer number and variety of schemes to do this certainly was, as was the justification for making the effort. A careful look at ideas about rejuvenation in the early modern period reflect an increasingly optimistic view about this world and the capacity of science and medicine to improve earthly existence. Suffering was no longer seen as a necessary condition of life on earth but as something to be overcome. We can see the emergence of an idea taken for granted in the industrial world, namely that old age can be a productive, even blissful, period of life.
Sarah Gordon, Late medieval French fabliaux and farce offer social
satire, in the form of narrative or performance, focused on everyday life and
marked by a tone of derision and mockery. Sight and hearing impairments,
limited mobility, impotence, birth defects, physical deformities or
disfigurement are often at the center of fabliaux and farce interactions. The
significance of disabled, disfigured, and marginalized bodies in late medieval
French literature and drama is explored in terms of plot and performance in this
study within a socio-cultural context and through the theoretical lens of
current twenty-first century Disability Studies. Perceptions of and treatment
of persons with disabilities by the narrator, the cast of characters, family,
friends, caretakers are considered in a close reading of description, dialogue,
and stage directions. Aging and disability in fabliaux narrative is contrasted
to representations of disability in farces, using as primary examples the
fabliau Les Trois bossus and the farces Mimin le goutteux et les deux
sourds, Goguelu (L’Aveugle), Le Ramoneur de cheminées, with reference to
other texts. These texts create a literary space inhabited by many bodies with
disabilities portrayed as monstrous. Several titles focus on a character with a
physical disability (e.g., Mimin le goutteux or others like Lucas,
Sergent boiteux et borgne). Aging and disability in
the fabliaux and farce paradoxically at the same time are a source of ridicule
and respect, disadvantage and advantage, as characters either become wiser
because of their disabilities and age or are taken advantage of because of their
differences. Over a decade later, the farces simultaneously represent, challenge, and reinforce societal norms surrounding the middle class household and perceptions of aging and disability. In Mimin le goutteux et les deux sourds, Mimin is the master who is confined to a chair because of his gout. He is served by his valet, Richard Le Pelé, who is deaf. Confusion ensues as their disabilities clash and the hearing impaired valet is unable to understand Mimin’s request to send for a doctor. In the slapstick Farce de Goguelu (L’Aveugle), in which household hierarchies are questioned through exaggerated verbal and physical humor in the form of practical jokes and argument, tensions exist in this household, in which the sight-impaired master is unable to exert his authority or control the behavior of his maid in part due to a physical disability. The servants test his authority, try his patience, and finally question the very social structure of the household. The central themes of the farce of Le Ramoneur de cheminées are discrimination against male aging, disability, and impotence, discussed with humor arising from sexual innuendos and double entendres of sexual activity as likened to chimney sweeping. Though he is fond of his aging master and grateful for his position and all he has learned, the young apprentice also insults the elderly man and engages in mockery and witty repartees on the subjects of aging, work, and sexuality. At first the trusted servant is prepared to lie to console his master but later feels compelled to tell the truth about his master’s feeble state, inability to find work in his profession, adultery, and impotence. Comic discord surrounding discrimination appears when real-life household hierarchies, affective relationships, and labor roles are questioned and redefined through exaggerated discourse. Like the fabliaux, a genre based on debate, conflict, and trickery, the farce portrays household life as a comical battle for power, both visually and verbally; physical disability and aging become a common locus for these power plays. Laura Hollengreen:
The aged appear prominently among the images on the north facade, north porch,
and in the north nave aisle stained glass of Chartres Cathedral. Although these
biblical figures are not wholly to be explained in terms of generational
succession, hereditary or titular (e.g., the Virgin Mary to St. Anne, Isaac to
Abraham, Joseph to Jacob, David to Jesse, Solomon to David, Tobias to Tobit, and
Samuel to Eli), the differentiated physical language of gesture and posture does
suggest a meditation on such succession: the vigor of the "root," the value of
experience and wisdom, degrees of physiological and moral infirmity, etc. Among
the more iconic figures on the column statues, there is often a presentational
logic, as an aged parent presents a young child to the viewer; among the
smaller-scale narrative imagery on the portals and in the glass, the images are
more varied but often include a suggestion of prostration for the aged parent.
This paper will systematically examine these images in light of biblical
exegesis touching on issues of old age, related symbolic thinking about the
parts of the Gothic cathedral, and the notion of a consistent if not wholly
regular visual and thematic "field" of imagery that stages the viewer's physical
and interpretive progress to, into, and through the cathedral. Anouk Janssen, Wise,
experienced, advisory, pious, modest on the one hand, and decrepit, despised,
avaricious or lustful on the other, are the stereotypical, polar opposites of
old age that are reflected in Dutch sixteenth and seventeenth-century prints and
paintings with allegories or ‘genre’-scenes (scenes of every day life).
Historians who are studying the appreciation of the elderly in the past have
increasingly come to understand that these kinds of images are part of pictorial
traditions, which these historians are however unable to unravel. The duality of
the imagery of old age in Dutch sixteenth and seventeenth-century art has
hitherto been neglected. For the few art historians who did, the positive and
negative images of old age have been an inexplicable paradox. In my research I
have focused on prints from The Netherlands in the period 1550-1650, and I have
been able to trace various rich pictorial traditions about old age. Most of
these traditions run parallel to literary traditions that go back to ideas and
topoi which were developed in Antiquity. Crucial are the so-called ‘ages of man
traditions’, in which old age is presented as one of the distinct stages in
life. This part of my research has provided me with the first clues as to how to
explain the paradox. In my paper I will show examples of prints which are
representative of some of the major themes that I have been able to distinguish
and I will pay attention to the traditions that they are part of. Furthermore, I
will show that the positive and negative images of old age are not merely
paradoxical. An awareness of three, sometimes overlapping ways of interpreting
these images, which I will distinguish, will show that our view of the
representation of old age in the early modern period must be radically
restructured. Jean E. Jost, "My mother
asked me to seek advice of a man whose locks were grey" (Parzival 92) Gretchen Mieszkowski, As is well known, Western medieval official culture considered women medically, theologically, and morally weak, unstable, an occasion for sin, and the cause of man’s corruption. What is less widely recognized is how often old age figured into this equation. Again and again virtually demonized old women appear in medieval literature: ancient crones so old they totter about, bewailing their lost teeth and vitality and pronouncing themselves on the verge of death, but driven by greed and catering to lust. Typically they present themselves as experts on sexual matters and lecture young women on the importance of satisfying their desires while they’re young. Story after story stresses the old woman’s physical repulsiveness. Nevertheless, pitiful as they look and seem, these old women are dangerous: clever, effective, frightening, and skilled in corrupting young women. Why should this figure have engaged the medieval imagination so profoundly? Why was this evil old woman such a dominant conception of old age for women? This paper will explore this question by discussing a group of these figures including both relatively unknown characters from the Latin comic tales and famous figures such as La vieille from the Roman de la rose, and famous figures such as the old woman who goes between in the fabliau Auberee. Laila Padgett, In the first
part of Roman de la Rose, Guillaume de Lorris introduces la Vieillesse
and la Vieille, two elderly female characters unfavorably portrayed by the
narrator. La Vieillesse is a repulsive statue located on the wall that encloses
the exclusive Garden of Delight, a literary allegory representing courtly
society. La Vieillesse is unique among the statues since she, unlike the
others, is neither sin nor vice, but the inevitable state of aged human
condition. The character of La Vieille, presented later in Guillaume’s work, is
the guardian of Bel Acceuil, and therefore has attained a respected role within
the society which excludes la Vieillesse by the physical wall boundary. La
Vieille is described by Guillaume, but remains a silent character throughout the
first part of the romance. She does not speak at all until the second author,
Jean de Meung, writes an extended summary of Guillaume’s work. In this sequel
Jean gives voice and personality to la Vieille, who subsequently becomes one of
the work’s most outspoken and controversial characters. Roman de la Rose
offers characters which exemplify extremes in the representation of older women. The present paper explores the radical inconsistencies found in the discourse and characterization of elderly female characters in medieval French literary works. The women characters studied fit into three distinct registers. These categories range from (1) decrepit woman expelled from society to (2) entrusted chaperon figure guarding a prized treasure to (3) honored woman respected for her wisdom and experience. After using the Roman de la Rose as a departure point, I explore the importance of elderly female characters who have limited roles as secondary or supporting characters in other medieval French works including Erec et Enide, Yonec, and Aucassin et Nicolette. Taking into consideration various socio-historic insights offered by historians such as George Minois and Shulamith Shahar, I explore how social values of twelfth and thirteenth-century France are echoed within the fictions studied. In some works elderly women are ostracized for their declining physical features and in other works they are admired for their wit or for their noble and generous characters. Hence, there exist intriguingly ambiguous characterizations of elderly women in French fiction of the twelfth and thirteenth-centuries. Martha Peacock, The theme of adulterous young women married to old impotent cuckolds was popular in both Netherlandish art and farce from the mid-sixteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Such men were disdained as hoorndragers (those who sported the cuckold’s horns) and hennetasters (those who groped the hen as substitute sexual gratification due to impotency). In images, these men are characterized by their ancient and wrinkled appearance, contrasting sharply with their voluptuous wives and young male rivals. In fact, a late sixteenth-century print by Crispijn de Passe I employs an old bearded and bespectacled hoorndrager in a series on the ages of man to represent the age of 70—a very old age indeed in the sixteenth century. Thus, the old man becomes the disdained and comic “other” to the amused, and most likely younger, spectators of such images and farces. This, almost certain, age separation from the viewer guaranteed that the satire would likely evoke the intended amusement because the derision would not be in any way directed at the spectator. Viewers of these images and farces would have been encouraged to find humour in and jeer at these old men through a variety of devices. Farces frequently include a whole neighbourhood of spectators complicit in and aware of the wife’s adultery. These characters ridicule the unwitting husband with a variety of sexual jokes and insulting epithets. Thus actors and audience alike are encouraged to participate in the conspiracy and similarly mock and revile the uninitiated, and now isolated, old cuckold. Similarly, images frequently depict co-conspirators in the deceit who are often responsible for revealing the adultery to the viewer through a horn gesture held over the cuckold’s head. These figures’ amused and knowing outward glances ensure that collusion with the spectator will take place. Allegorical or symbolic motifs referring to the old man’s blindness also clearly illuminate and involve the viewer in the scornful joke. Finally, disparaging inscriptions are often clear indicators that one should both revile and shun the folly of the old cuckold. In contrast, therefore, to the European tradition of reverencing the wisdom of the elderly, there was an alternate discourse that ridiculed and satirized the aged as individuals prone to foolishness and blindness. Old men, in particular, were mocked for their lust in marrying younger women and were scorned for their senility and their ability to be duped. By staging scenarios where these vices were associated only with old men, most spectators could separate themselves from these undesirable characteristics, assign them to a group outside of themselves, and therefore enjoy and cooperate in the intended satire and ridicule. Britt C. Rothauser, In “Men and Beowulf,” Clare A. Lees argues that the feminist trend in the criticism of Beowulf has been to view the poem in the binary of male/female relationships (129). In this view Hrothgar does not conform to the standard ideal of his gender and is sometimes seen by modern critics as a failure because of his “feminine” passivity. By looking outside of the male/female binary, however, we can develop a deeper understanding of the power relationships within the text. Although the heroic ideal for kingship may be that of the glorious warrior, the Anglo-Saxon perception of age mitigates the duties of the elderly king – a view that distances the king from the masculine realm of the hall, the center for bravado and bravery, flytings and fights. This distance removes Hrothgar from the realm of the masculine, yet it does not indicate his failure as a leader. Hrothgar is marginalized by his age but far from being a failure in his duties because of his “not-masculine” status, fulfills his role as the aged king admirably. Delbert Russell:
The manuscript BL Addit 70513 is the only known
medieval collection exclusively of rhymed saints' lives in French. Dated to the end of the 13th
century and beginning of the 14th century, it contains 13 saints' lives written
in England in Anglo-Norman French. A 14th-century note indicates it belonged to
the female convent at Campsey, in Suffolk, where it was used for mealtime
reading. The Campsey collection gives us, then, a unique hagiographic corpus
and a cultural context. The texts offer a variety of types of saints' life, and
were composed from the late 12th to the early 14th century. They include lives
ranging from early Christian martyrs to contemporary male ecclesiastics, with a
strong emphasis on women both as saints and as writers. Juanita Ruys, This paper considers a number of Latin meditations on old age written in the medieval and early modern periods, including Marbod of Rennes’s ‘De Senectute’ in his Liber decem capitulorum, Boncompagno da Signa’s De malo senectutis et senii, and Desiderius Erasmus’s Carmen de senectutis incommodis. It particularly considers the tension evident in these periods between personal expression and literary auctoritas in the description and discussion of old age, investigating how far these texts can be considered as individual and personal reflections of the author, and how far they are instead moral works of didactic intent, indebted to such classical sources as Cicero’s De senectute. This in turn raises the question of whether the concept of ‘late style’, in which the writer contemplates approaching mortality and the issue of legacy, which has often been thought to be the development of a much later period, can be applied to medieval and early modern texts. Connie Scarborough:
Celestina: The Power of Old Age - Connie Scarborough, University of
Cinccinnati
Scott L. Taylor: L’age plus fort ennaye: Scientia mortis,
Ars moriendi and Jean Gerson’s Advice to an Old Man.
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