TY - JOUR
AU - Burrows, Daron
AB - This book offers an important contribution to the growing body of research on the vitality of French language and literature outside France by focusing on a hitherto largely neglected area of medieval Francophonia: the island of Ireland. Keith Busby’s study effectively combines historical and literary analysis in five chapters addressing two central questions: first, the extent to which French was spoken and written in Ireland, especially after the colonisation of 1169; and, second, the portrayal of Ireland and its inhabitants in a broad range of francophone literature into the fourteenth century. Given the paucity of positive evidence, the case for the existence of Hiberno-Norman naturally has to be conducted largely through inference and speculation on the basis of the circumstances subsequent to the colonisation: for example, ‘Irish speakers must have had to deal with speakers of varieties of French, from Wales, England, and continental France, from both monastic and secular backgrounds […] common sense dictates that in many circumstances, an alternative lingua franca would have been established. That alternative lingua franca can only have been French’ (p. 35). As historical and fictional accounts of interpreters suggest, such linguistic contact may have been mediated. Of particular interest is the survey of Irish Francophone writing in Chapter Two. La Geste des Engleis en Yrlande is shown to be the work of an author thoroughly conversant with the conventions of French narrative technique, whose apparent grasp of ‘business Latin’ may point to ‘a lay person employed in an administrative function in one of the great baronial households of immediate post-conquest Ireland’ (p. 106), and whose pro-English bias and knowledge of contemporary events, people and places may suggest an audience composed of colonists and their descendants. The Walling of New Ross is revealed to be ‘simultaneously serious and satirical’ (p. 121), an expression of the town’s prosperity and influence which, while gently ironising the community’s pretensions, also serves as a warning for any who might consider attacking it, in particular their near neighbours in Waterford. Waterford itself is also proposed as a hotbed of francophone activity, as epitomised by the literary activities of Jofroi de Waterford, with carefully marshalled evidence arguing that his collaboration with Servais Copale occurred not in Paris, but rather in Waterford, where the Dominican library would have supplied the necessary reference works and ‘French was the preferred vernacular for literature’ (p. 165). Replete with analysis of further minor francophone works, archival material relating to the Alice Kyteler witchcraft trial, French inscriptions on gravestones, and evidence for ownership of French books, this exceptionally rich chapter offers the most compelling case for the use and persistence of French in Ireland into the fourteenth century. The analysis of the portrayal of Ireland begins by tracing the emergence of the island as a place of wonders, first in the descriptions of Nennius, Bishop Patrick of Dublin and Giraldus Cambrensis, and then in the narrative events depicted in the Latin and vernacular versions of the Life of St Brendan, the Purgatory of St Patrick, the Vision of Tnugdal, and the Life of St Modwenna, which ‘play an important role in the development and establishment of the reputation of Ireland as a prime source of mirabilia for reworking into romance’ (p. 256). Attention then shifts to the portrayal of Ireland in Arthurian verse romances, including Erec et Enide, Le Bel Inconnu, Les Merveilles Rigomer, Durmart le Galois and Waldef, exploring the paradox, often driven by geopolitical concerns, that Ireland remains a marginal land of marvels even after probable demystification through the reality of contact following the colonisation. The final chapter pursues the question further by progressing from the early Tristan verse texts (supplementing Thomas and Béroul with Gottfried and Eilhart) to the consolidation of Ireland as a place of wonder, of special importance to the Arthurian court and the development of the Grail, in the later prose romances, demonstrating convincingly that ‘Arthurian romances may not revolve around or depend on Ireland, but very few failed to include what essentially becomes an obligatory, statutory, reference to a country, its wonders and inhabitants, be they real or imagined’ (p. 410). Conducted with Busby’s characteristic attention to the context of composition and manuscript transmission and reception, this study is of tremendous importance to historians of medieval Ireland and England and specialists in medieval French language and literature. © Oxford University Press 2019. All rights reserved. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - French in Medieval Ireland, Ireland in Medieval French: The Paradox of Two Worlds, by Keith Busby
JO - The English Historical Review
DO - 10.1093/ehr/cez156
DA - 2019-09-10
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/french-in-medieval-ireland-ireland-in-medieval-french-the-paradox-of-Djpp74a0sl
SP - 959
EP - 960
VL - 134
IS - 569
DP - DeepDyve
ER -