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Full Description
The modern concept of passing leisure hours pleasantly would, in the Middle Ages, have fallen under the rubric of Sloth, a deadly sin. Yet aristocrats of past centuries were not always absorbed in affairs of state or warfare. What did they do in moments of peace, "downtime" as we might call it today? In this collection of essays, scholars from various disciplines investigate courtly modes of entertainment ranging from the vigorous to the intellectual: hunting, jousting, horse racing; physical and verbal games; reading, writing, and book ownership. Favorite pastimes spanned differences of gender and age, and crossed geographical and cultural boundaries. Literary and historical examples come from England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
Courtly Pastimes analyzes the underlying rationales for such activities: to display power and prestige, to acquire cultural capital, to instill a sense of community, or to build diplomatic alliances. Performativity - so crucial in social rituals - could become transgressive if taken to extremes. Certain chapters explore the spaces of courtliness: literal or imaginary; man-made, natural, or a hybrid of both. Other chapters concern materiality and visual elements associated with courtly pastimes: from humble children's toys and playthings to elite tournament attire, castle murals, and manuscript illuminations.
Contents
Introduction / 1. The Emergence of Courtliness in Wace᾿s Roman de Brut and Roman de Rou: Pastimes of the Rulers of Brittany and the Dukes of Normandy / 2. Performing the Embrace: Intertextuality in Bernard de Clairvaux's Sermons on the Song of Songs and Chrétien de Troyes' Erec et Enide / 3. Tower, Bower, Garden, and Forest: Hide-and-Seek for Courtly Lovers / 4. Marie de France at Play: Equitan as Courtly Diversion or Carnivalesque Subversion? / 5. Courtly Pastimes and Nature in Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan: Reading Ecology and Hybridity / 6. Sî jehent er lebe noch hiute: Courtly Play and Places of Imagination in Thirteenth-Century German Mural Cycles / 7. Fishing for Meaning: Immersive Reading and the Codex Manesse Frontispieces / 8. The Apotheosis of Provençal Fin'amors in Alfonso X's Marian Poetry / 9. The Performance of Courtliness in the Dits of Guillaume de Machaut / 10. Blind Man's Buff: From Children᾿s Games to Pleasure Gardens in the Late Middle Ages / 11. Amorous and Poetic Games in Christine de Pizan's Queen's Manuscript (London, British Library, MS Harley 4431) / 12. Medieval(ist) Pastimes, or What's a Belle dame Doing in a Place like Hatfield House? / 13. Performative Courtliness in Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur / 14. Ritual, Public Pageantry, and Urban Justice: The Seizaine de mai of Bourges / 15. Ritterspiele: The Spectacle of the Courtly Tournament in Late Medieval Germany / 16. Bayard / Baiardo: The Equine Protagonist from French Chansons de geste to Italian Chivalric Poems
