The Remede de Fortune, written by Guillaume de Machaut[1] in the 1340s[2], is a rhymed narrative poem with lyric insertions that consists of nine lyric poems (each of which is written in different form) inserted with musical settings. The poem depicts a young man's maturation in the sphere of courtly love. The Narrator seems to delineate his own account of a love affair. The story begins with a lai that the Lover composes to express his happiness for loving his Lady, which, unfortunately, falls into her hands. As a result of her finding she compels him to read the lai and questions whether he is the author. Shame-faced and confused, the Lover runs away to a beautiful garden, called the Park of Hesdin. There he finds solace in an allegorical figure, Dame Esperance. Lady Hope helps him by teaching him how to conquer his Lady’s heart and love. With Hope in his heart, he returns to the Lady and confesses that he wrote the lai, hence his love for her. Although at that time he is accepted as her ami, when they meet again in the courtly milieu, her attitude towards him is really odd: “[f]air sweet friend, don’t be worried by anything I say and do; I do it for the best and in order to conceal our love better, because a lover who does not know how to feign cannot attain great joy, if he doesn’t want to reveal; for society is so inconstant, so slanderous, and so perverse and full of such false deceit that today people say and imagine things that were never before conceived. My friend, for this reason I’ve decided to treat everyone the same, with no special marks of favor, except, at the proper time, for you alone. Your heart will never find anything in me to cause it to fear that my love is not entirely yours, in honor and loyalty, without a trace of disloyalty”.
This unusual happy ending, as well as other instances in the Remede (such as the human virtues (Douce Pensee, Souvenirs, Bonne Epserance (Sweet Thought, Memory, Food Hope, Loyalty)), the personified virtues (Dame Esperance), the alliance[3] that Sweet Hope completed between the Lover and the Lady (Remede de Fortune, 4080), pose questions about the nature, the role and the meaning of this work. The cult of fin’ amor seems to be not only a medieval man’s desire of a medieval woman of the privileged class but, a love, a pure love, impregnated by the ontological trends that co-existed in the Middle Ages: Ancient Greek philosophies, Roman paganism, Christianity, Mysticism. They all have contributed to the formation of the medieval man as an entity. Every terrestrial action and condition “mirrors in microcosm the harmony of the spheres in its macrocosmic perfection”[4]. So, in order to understand the nature, role and meaning of Machaut’s Remede de Fortune I shall look at the piece from a cultural perspective and interpret the lyrics as well as the music in the context of Mystical theology considering the allegorical thought that prevailed in the fourteenth-century France. Further analysis of the music itself and its connection with the limits of human knowledge of that time, will reveal a spectrum of interpretations for Remede de Fortune and its lai. Before, however, I can study Remede de Fortune it is essential to briefly explain the cultural beliefs of thirteenth and fourteenth century, as naturally the beliefs of the time influence the poem.
Machaut disclosed the cult of fin’ amor, an artistic practice of elevated sexual impulse and union where women are men’s guide – a personified Christ – towards a journey of devotion to Virgin Mary. Machaut’s poetry in Remede reveals ambivalent attitudes of a courtly convention intertwined also with intemperance and hypocrisy, nevertheless, the Virgin Mary asserts that devotion will lead lovers to find supreme happiness/utter joy in Holy Trinity (Christian ideal). Machaut’s Remede and the Lai that begins with, is an exemplification of the ambivalence that dominates in the poetry of the fourteenth-century. Although the verse of the Remede’s Lai focuses on the lover’s heartfelt devotion to the Lady which is evident throughout the twelve stanzas of the lai, the Christian atmosphere is certified by the use of language. Through the mystical theology, artists found their way to express the humanity that in every-day life have to confront in variable ways. What we revealed is that the Christian allegory overrides the tale of the two lovers. Machaut, through his music and poetry tried to unify the earthly human spirit with the divine intellectual mind having as his material his knowledge and understanding of the world. Myth, Platonic theories on the “music of the spheres,” numbers, mysticism and Christian thought constitute a musical result – Machaut oevre.
[1] Guillaume de Machaut working as a poet-composer under royal patronage was artistically inspired. In the service of John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, Machaut became acquainted with John's daughter, Bonne of Luxembourg and as many historians claim the Remede de Fortune was written for her.
[2] For a more detailed analysis in the matters of the date see Wimsatt, James I. And William W. Kibler (ed.), Guillaume de Machaut: Le Jugement dy Roy de Behaigne and Remede de Fortune, “Introduction”.
[3] It is important that Machaut uses the term alliance to give utterance to his thought of unification between the Lover and the Lady through Lady Hope. The term has a religious-historical significance. “Abraham formed an alliance with some of the Canaanitish princes (Gen. 14:13), also with Abimelech (21:22-32). Joshua and the elders of Israel entered into an alliance with the Gibeonites (Josh. 9:3-27). When the Israelites entered Palestine they were forbidden to enter into alliances with the inhabitants of the country (Lev. 18:3, 4; 20:22, 23). Solomon formed a league with Hiram (1 Kings 5:12). This “brotherly covenant” is referred to 250 years afterwards (Amos 1:9). He also appears to have entered into an alliance with Pharaoh (1 Kings 10:28, 29). In the subsequent history of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel various alliances were formed between them and also with neighbouring nations at different times. From patriarchal times a covenant of alliance was sealed by the blood of some sacrificial victim. The animal sacrificed was cut in two (except birds), and between these two parts the persons contracting the alliance passed (Gen. 15:10). There are frequent allusions to this practice (Jer. 34:18). Such alliances were called "covenants of salt" (Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 13:5), salt being the symbol of perpetuity. A pillar was set up as a memorial of the alliance between Laban and Jacob (Gen. 31:52). The Jews throughout their whole history attached great importance to fidelity to their engagements. Divine wrath fell upon the violators of them (Josh. 9:18; 2 Sam. 21:1, 2; Ezek. 17:16)”, [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alliance].
[4] Calin, William, “Medieval Intertextuality: Lyrical Inserts and Narrative in Guillaume de Machaut”, The French Review, 62:1(1988), 2.