Description
Book SynopsisA close examination of an important theme in Machaut's works. A milestone in Machaut studies and in late-medieval French literature in general. Machaut, already considered the seminal figure in late-medieval poetics and music, here comes across in these respects more clearly than ever. Kelly also further contextualises him within what we might call the authorial `apprenticeship tradition' of Boethius, the Roman de la Rose, Dante, and later Gower, Chaucer, and Christine de Pizan. The fruit of one of the field's most distinguished scholars today. Nadia Margolis, Mount Holyoke College. Guillaume de Machaut was celebrated in the later Middle Ages as a supreme poet and composer, and accordingly, his poetry was recommended as amodel for aspiring poets. In his Voir Dit, Toute Belle, a young, aspiring poet, convinces the Machaut figure to mentor her. This volume examines Toute Belle as she masters Machaut's dual arts of poetry and love, focusing onher successful apprenticeship in these arts; it also provides a thorough review of Machaut's art of love and art of poetry in his dits and lyricsm, and the previous scholarship on these topics. It goes on to treat Machaut's legacy among poets who, like Toute Belle, adapted his poetic craft in new and original ways. A concluding analysis of melodie identifies the synaesthetic pleasure that late medieval poets, including Machaut, offer their readers. Douglas Kelly is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Trade ReviewKelly's book is a considerable contribution to Machaut scholarship, and it offers a rich resource - and a challenge - for future generations seeking to experience the manuscripts as the master himself intended. * H-FRANCE *
[A] wide-ranging and fascinating tripartite work. * MEDIAEVISTIK *
This is a significant and insightful book of impressive scope, given the range of Machaut's corpus that it embraces through dexterously detailed intertextual reading. * SPECULUM *
Essential reading for any Machaut scholar. [It] will be of incalculable value to future scholars seeking to navigate the works of this formidable medieval magister. * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *
[A]n important new contribution to late medieval literary studies and a very worthy continuation of Douglas Kelly's long and influential bibliography on Guillaume de Machaut and his successors. Kelly, like the great poet to whom he has devoted much of his career, distinguishes himself as both a master of traditional forms and an exciting innovator. * MODERN PHILOLOGY *
The author does a good job of surveying previous scholarship . . . and in analyzing Machaut's variegated poetry he touches on allegory, poetic art, assimilation, bestiary, commonplaces, debate, exemplary figures, gender, life and love, music, personification, reader and audience, subtlety, truth, and virtue. Summing up: Highly recommended. * CHOICE *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Machaut's Evolving Conception of Good Love The Vicissitudes of Good Love: A Quandary? The Scope of Toute Belle's Art of Poetry Examples and Their Reconfiguration The Debate Mode Machaut as Pre-Text: Imitation and Emulation Melodie Bibliography of Primary Sources Bibliography of Secondary Studies
