Aucassin and Nicolete

Aucassin and Nicolete

Aucassin and NicoleteThere is nothing in artistic poetry quite akin to Aucassin and Nicolete. By a rare...
$9.99 AUD
$19.99 AUD
$9.99 AUD
SKU: gb-1578-ebook
Product Type: Books
Please hurry! Only 10000 left in stock
Author: Lang, Andrew,1844-1912
Format: eBook
Language: English
Subtotal: $9.99
10 customers are viewing this product
Aucassin and Nicolete

Aucassin and Nicolete

$19.99 $9.99

Aucassin and Nicolete

$19.99 $9.99
Author: Lang, Andrew,1844-1912
Format: eBook
Language: English

Aucassin and Nicolete

There is nothing in artistic poetry quite akin to Aucassin and Nicolete. By a rare piece of good fortune the one manuscript of the Song-Story has escaped those waves of time, which have wrecked the bark of Menander, and left of Sappho but a few floating fragments. The very form of the tale is peculiar; we have nothing else from the twelfth or thirteenth century in the alternate prose and verse of the cante-fable. {1} We have fabliaux in verse, and prose Arthurian romances. We have Chansons de Geste, heroic poems like Roland, unrhymed assonant laisses, but we have not the alternations of prose with laisses in seven-syllabled lines. It cannot be certainly known whether the form of Aucassin and Nicolete was a familiar formused by many jogleors, or wandering minstrels and story-tellers such as Nicolete, in the tale, feigned herself to be,or whether this is a solitary experiment by the old captive its author, a contemporary, as M. Gaston Paris thinks him, of Louis VII (1130). He was original enough to have invented, or adopted from popular tradition, a form for himself; his originality declares itself everywhere in his one surviving masterpiece. True, he uses certain traditional formulae, that have survived in his time, as they survived in Homers, from the manner of purely popular poetry, of Volkslieder. Thus he repeats snatches of conversation always in the same, or very nearly the same words. He has a stereotyped form, like Homer, for saying that one person addressed another, ains traist au visconte de la vile si lapela y . . . Like Homer, and like popular song, he deals in recurrent epithets, and changeless courtesies. To Aucassin the hideous plough-man is Biax frre, fair brother, just as the treacherous Aegisthus is in Homer; these are complimentary terms, with no moral sense in particular. The jogleor is not more curious than Homer, or than the poets of the old ballads, about giving novel descriptions of his characters. As Homers ladies are fair-tressed, so Nicolete and Aucassin have, each of them, close yellow curls, eyes of vair (whatever that may mean), and red lips. War cannot be mentioned except as war where knights do smite and are smitten, and so forth. The author is absolutely conventional in such matters, according to the convention of his age and profession. Nor is his matter more original. He tells a story of thwarted and finally fortunate love, and his hero is a Christened knightlike Tamlane,his heroine a Paynim lady. To be sure, Nicolete was baptized before the tale begins, and it is she who is a captive among Christians, not her lover, as usual, who is a captive among Saracens. The author has reversed the common arrangement, and he appears to have cared little more than his reckless hero, about creeds and differences of faith. He is not much interested in the recognition of Nicolete by her great Paynim kindred, nor indeed in any of the business of the narrative, the fighting, the storms and tempests, and the burlesque of the kingdom of Torelore. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 1578
Author: Lang, Andrew
Release Date: Dec 1, 1998
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors



Translator: Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912

Returns Policy

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

Shipping

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

Related Products

Recently Viewed Products