Who makes a basket, a hundred , as the Saying goes. I Promise Not to Reach That Number, But Apparently I Have Produced more, tentative Rather, research on the short novel of Rodríguez del Padrón. A more or less decent version of it (in English) will soon Appear in a new electronic journal under the direction of my dear colleague and yet friend Carlos Heusch (ENS-LSH, Lyon), and I made a raw draft of it in the 2007 conference of the Association of Hispanic Great Britain and Ireland , Which Took Place in an unusually sunny afternoon in Aberdeen early April. This is the text That I offer you here, with the expression of my gratitude to Barry Taylor, who chaired the session in which the paper was read, and to Dorothy S. Severin, David Mackenzie and Jeremy Lawrance, who helped me to see clearly with their questions.
(Incidentally, I would like to say here that during the years 2001-2006 I have shared professional affiliation -and even hallway- with who supposedly is one of the most important scholars on Siervo libre de amor and Juan Rodríguez del Padrón. We never had the slightest chat about these; I did not learn the faintest thing about both the text and the author -regrettably, though, I learned a lot about that scholar.) ]
The purpose of this paper is to share with you some findings, that I must hasten to qualify as rather minor findings, which are the result of a work in progress on the sources and literary models of Juan Rodríguez del Padrón’s Siervo libre de amor . As you know, very little is known about this issue. After a period —roughly the seventies and eighties— during which the Siervo was thought to be based on Italian Models (different critical contributions made by Andrachuck [1977, 1981], Weissberger [1980] and Brownlee [1984] are good proof of that), more recent contributions have highlighted the debt that this mysterious work has with certain Old French texts. It must be said that María Rosa Lida [1977:105] and Olga Impey [1987-88] already pointed toward Old French literature and language in order to explain and understand some aspects of Siervo , and that Alan Deyermond did suggest that the cultural climate in which the Siervo is rooted is more French than Italian, but the most explicit connection so far proposed between Siervo and a French model was that suggested by Michael Gerli in an article published in 1997 [Gerli 1997].
In that article, Gerli shows the connections that it is possible to establish between Rodríguez del Padrón’s novel and a text written in the fourteenth-century by the French writer Guillaume Deguileville, entitled Le rommant des trois pèlerinages . Gerli sees coincidences between the two first parts of this work, the Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine , and the Pèlerinage de l’Âme , coincidences that are focused on three aspects shared by the French and the English texts. According to Gerli,
It is clear that Rodríguez del Padrón capitalized upon three of the Vie ’s best known iconographic motifs […]. These are: (1) the Pilgrim-Narrator’s nightmare vision, (2) his allegorical descent into the Deep Valley of Despair, and (3) the rescue by the Ship of Religion at the edge of the Sea of the World [1997: 10].
I am not going to discuss here Gerli’s theory, or the other ideas he puts forward in his article. I find some of these unacceptable (like his idea, reviving an old one, of the existence of a missing third part of Siervo, which, in my view, has been successfully refuted by Cátedra [1989:145]), but this is not the right place to analyze the reasons for my disagreement. What interests me more is the fact that, by pointing towards Deguileville’s work, he is pointing towards the realm of French penitential and confessional literature, and in that realm it is possible to find other coincidences, parallels or textual debts between the Siervo and other old French texts. I find this particularly appealing, since, as Gerli [1988-89] and Cátedra [1989] have successfully shown, and as Andrachuck [1977] suggested long time ago, Siervo libre de amor is a text that presents a number of connections with, and traces of, confessional and penitential literature.
This confessional and penitential connection, showed in one way or another by Cátedra and Gerli, with the specific and explicit French link suggested by the latter, lead me to further explore some literary modalities of Old French literature linked in one way or another to Confession and / or Penance. I specifically explored the solid tradition of confessional and penitential literature that originated in the de re predicandi needs of certain clerics and that afterwards evolved into a certain type of literature of wide consumption among a lay public interested in meditational and contemplative matters, and with a clear gusto for allegoric devices. Among this type of literature, I focused primarily on the rich literary tradition of visions or dreams of the journey to paradise: in many cases, these allegorical journeys to Paradise are linked to Confession and Penance, since these are presented as necessary stages of that journey. After a preliminary exploration, I have to say that it is possible to find in this literary tradition a series of coincidences with topics and motives that seem to parallel others that we can find in Siervo libre de amor .
Perhaps one of the older, if not the oldest, text of this genre is Raoul de Houdenc’s La voie de Paradis , which is a continuation of another work by the same author, Le songe d’enfer . It was written perhaps around 1225, and seemingly Houdenc died around 1230. In a way, these two itineraries can be seen as complementary parts of a twofold journey, something that obviously brings to mind the tripartite itinerary that the main character of Siervo faces in the beginning of the text, and with the fact that the Siervo is, after all, to Pèlerinage , an allegoric journey, and this is, in my view, the first thing That Needs to Be Highlighted. Some Analogies Can Be Extended Further events: for instance, in Servant, the second Easiest road to follow is That of "the space via well they call love, followed by the HEART do in the time it Amavida" [Rodriguez del Census 1985: 65], Which Is Easier to follow than "the very grateful not to love or be loved, for the qual syguen very few, being the lightest and most serious fallyr follow" [66]. In Le songe d'enfer , the infernal road is "Pleasant chemin voie et bele [Houdenc 1974: v. 14] Opposed to the road to Paradise, through Penance, as presented in The Road to Paradise , Which Is depicted AS FOLLOWS: "Long is the way and i estroite" [v. 501], "the way i is estroite and safe; / Cil metent is an adventure, / Who will, if they have good leads, / Or not the way his product" [vv. 620-623]. As We Can See, the road grants salvation That (That of Paradise, Gold, in Siervo , That of "amar ser amado no") Is the long, difficult, narrow, and "safe", That Is' secret dark gold ', yet' agra [...] of fallyr ligera y más grave seguir ". Goal This Is Not The Only analogy between Siervo and Houdenc’s La voie de Paradis : there is another one that brings to mind one of the common features between Siervo and Deguileville’s Pèlerinage de la vie humaine pointed out by Gerli in his article [1997]: the allegorical descent into a valley full of negative connotations. In the case of Siervo , what we have is the scene in which the main character of the story is descending down the mountain and into the valley while trying to find “entendimiento”:
«Buelta, buelta, mi esqyvo pensar, de la deçiente vía de perdiçión quel árbol Populo, dedicated to Hercules, he demostrava to follow the three paths in the jardýn of fortune, and turns on the very steep path where the green was Olyva, devoted to Minerua, we enseñava Quando quel party understanding Ayrad me. "in whose seeks, through the great Alps my thoughts , decended to the shady valleys of my first motus , arriving at the foot of my elusive contemplation, the fallyr of footfalls preguntava the mountaineers, and burlavan me ; to saluajes Fyer, and I responded, to that sweet auseles Cantave, and then quietly entrave e quanto plus aquexava more se esquivavan de mí… [107]
This could be paralleled with the episode in Houdenc’s Voie de Paradis in which the pilgrim to Paradise via Penance, abandoned by his guide “Persévérance”, misses the road, and gets lost in “une grant valée, / qui mult estoiz parfonde et lée” [468-469], valley which is nothing but “cis mondes”, where he is attacked by the capital sins. The disappearance of the guide, the descent to the valley, and the hostile, if not dangerous, atmosphere that it presents can be seen as points in common in both texts.
What is relevant here is not this particular set of similarities between Siervo and De Houdenc’s text, but the fact that the features of this last text that I have discussed happen to appear in other texts that are also representatives of this particular sub-genre of the voies de paradis . A good example of that is Rutebeuf’s La voie d’humilité , another, more allegorically-laden, treatment of the same topic. It was written in 1262, and presents a large number of coincidences with the text that I have already discussed. Like Houdenc’s Voie , this one is also presented as a dream, in which the poet tells his pilgrimage to Paradise. Obviously, the choice Of The Road Is Crucial right, and Again We Need to Choose the right road-and accept the potential polysemy, please, for It Will Be Useful Almost Immediately From The Very Beginning-:
J for assist in a way estroite. Moult
i found from gent strait
Who aleir c'i autournoit. Too vi
in which it retornoit
To track who was male. [2001: vv. 35-39]
Again, The Topic Of The Difficulty of Choosing The Correct Way and followings, Which in this case IS Many deserted by Because It Is Too Tough to follow, Appear in the forefront of The text. Goal this topic (Which after all derived from the Bible, and have Faral Bastin Explained In His note to this passage [Rutebeuf 1977: 342]) IS soon combined With Another One, That Of The Two Ways, one at left, one at right , Among Which It Is mandatory to choose:
As Gaire Alei hadst,
found. I. has half way.
I deiss of his being
This I had so much to do,
But the race which doubled my lair so great that
Va lue
Com palfreys will the pacer. Li is Biaus
paths and wits, Crime and
aaisans: iaa
every one motto
Quanqu'il sohaide no currency. Tan plainsans
test everyone going, hard hore
But
Who got going, it will not haunt. Li
paths will have a den or too
pain and distress. Large
is, but toz Jors estresse. Li
pilgrim is not wise
Passeir estuet lor. I. Dont pass
ja nuns do Retorn (vv. 42-61).
If We Leave aside The joking tone of voice Rutebeuf's, We Have here again The topic of the easy to follow road That leads to Perdition. After Deciding Wisely "this path does not take Vox" (67), Rutebeuf Decides to follow The Other One, The Right at the road (hence, The Right Road), "The path ting a destre main” [69]. This leads him to the City of Penance, from which he is sent to the House of Confession: this road is presented as follows:
Or escouteiz comment iroiz
Jusqu’a la maison de Confesse,
Car la voie est .I. pou engresse
Et c’est asseiz male a tenir
Ansois c’on i puisse venir (vv. 142-146).
After this, the pilgrim needs to chose, once again, between two roads: that to the left, where all dangers are, represented, as they were in De Houdenc’s text, by the Capital Sins. At the right side it is the road that should be taken:
the other way your motto, too
Who is bele Grant currency
And wits too, which has cure
And it's pretty much the OCUR,
the right track and Road
Ausi plain con un parchment
aleir To Confess a law (vv. 511-517).
Note That In This Particular box The Right Road Is Not The roughest, Or The Ugliest, goal in a way it est aussi difficulty to take: it's "the most OCUR" That Is, "the less known ", a parallel Houdenc With Raoul's" ... way [...] estroite and safe. " That note and again, the final destination is “confession”, the only thing that can ensure salvation and peace of mind, in the same way that the protagonist of Siervo , after telling his love process, and following in his particular pilgrimage the “agra senda” of “no amar nin ser amado”, is free again.
This presentation of a pilgrimage to Paradise as a representation of penance and confession is extremely popular in Old French literature of the XIII-XIV centuries. The list of texts in which this topic can be found is very large, and I will mention only a few more. For instance, and in a more doctrinal and dogmatic note, De tribus dietis , a Latin treatise composed by Robert de Sorbon (1201-1274), of which we have different versions, a very influential text whose influence is clearly present in other reelaborations of the topic. That is the case of the next one I will discuss here, the anonymous Voie de Paradis , translated from French into English under the title Veye of Paradys . The French text was composed circa 1280-1300, and we have an exemplar edition of both texts made by F. N. M. Diekstra [1987]. In this particular case, what we have is a text organized on the basis of a structural allegory which consists on three journeys that lead to paradise: these three journeys are those to contrition, confession and satisfaction. Obviously, and immediately, The existence of this tripartite plan Brings to Mind the tripartite structures That plan Siervo Free amor.
The starting point anagogic Is the application (And The Exegetics expansion) of a biblical passage of the Book of Exodus:
Moyses In a book which not Exodus or quint treuve the chapter in which our Lord sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, which lessoit issir from Egypt the people of Israel. And our Lord said unto them that it was Pharaoh deïssent these words, Exodus quinto: Deus vocavit our Eamus ut viam trium DIERUM [in sollitudine ut immolemus Deo nostro]. "Diex us for what we apel voisom the way of three days we sacrefiom to Our God."
The Holy Scripture teaches us [by] our doctors and our semesters as Egypt is entenduz state of sin is understood by the Pharaoh who deable lesse issir people of sin. My Diex as he wants them deprives property ausint CONM when it rained it li osta his people from Pharaoh's hand. Through three Jors is in the Holy Scripture Senefera that he has only three lanes if jornees Paradise em questions for which we track aler Nostre Sires Apele touz and all day to day. [Diekstra 1991: § § 10-11, p. 112]
This sets the foundation of the tripartite allegory of the three journeys and its transcendental signification.
The type of tripartite structure that we find in this Voie de Paradis appears in many other texts, such as the Pèlerinage de l’Ame by Guillaume de Deguileville, the text that Gerli claimed was the direct source of Siervo in his 1997 article; or Raimon de Penyafort’s Summa de Poenitentia (1223-1230); or Simon of Hinton’s Compendium Theologiae (1250-1260); or the anonymous Songe de la voie d’Enfer et de la Voie de Paradis ( c 1315); or La Voie d’Enfer et de Paradis by Jean de la Mote ( c 1340). As we can see, the literary motif of a tripartite journey, presented as the result of wisely choosing between different possible itineraries and that ultimately leads to salvation or redemption, is a literary topic that has a very strong presence in French literature of the 13 th and 14 th century, and even reaches the 15 th century with fascinating texts like René d’Anjou’s Le livre du coeur d’amour épris , which I cannot discuss here, but that in any case was written at a later date that Siervo libre de amor was. The vogue and influence of this allegorico-structural device extends beyond the limits of French literature, something which is extremely interesting for our purposes. An excellent proof of it is Chaucer’s The Parson’s Tale , which closely follows in its opening the path set by these French penitential precedents.
It is time to finish. If what I have said today can have any interest, it will consist in showing how widely disseminated were in Old French literature of the 13 th and 14 th centuries a series of motifs and topics that, stemming from religious and doctrinal texts of penitential nature which were structured on the basis provided by the idea of a peregrination to Paradise organized as a tripartite allegorical journey, culminated in some non immediately religious texts which shared a number of these features, and that presented the need to choose with good judgement the right road to take as an important aspect of its message. And this is only interesting to us if we accept that, as Cátedra and Gerli suggested, Siervo libre de amor is a text with an obvious confessional and penitential imprint that is organized on the basis of a tripartite journey toward salvation, salvation that is reached only thanks to the ability to choose the right road, thanks to “entendimiento”, and that therefore, if we accept the French connections that Siervo seems to have, perhaps Rodríguez del Padrón was picking up from that tradition some of the most important elements that shaped his enigmatic text. Of course, many other aspects of the structural allegory that organizes Siervo are not present in the texts I have discussed here, which means that many of the enigmata in this text are still left to be solved.
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