Laüstic

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"Laüstic", also known as "Le Rossignol", "Le Laustic", "Laostic", and "Aüstic", is a Breton lai by the medieval poet Marie de France. The title comes from the Breton word for "nightingale", a symbolic figure in the poem.[1] It is the eighth poem in the collection known as the Lais of Marie de France, and the poem is only found in the manuscript known as Harley 978 (also called manuscript H).[1] Like the other poems in the collection, Laüstic is written in the Anglo-Norman dialect of Old French, in couplets eight syllables long. Through the use of poetics and bird-related imagery, Marie brings attention to the repressed female voice and body as Other by creating a textual space for the feminine experience to be heard. This lai is a poignant tale about a secret affair, and the painful position woman occupies as Other in a patriarchal society.[citation needed]

Plot summary

Two knights live in adjoining houses, in the vicinity of Saint-Malo in Brittany, one is married and one lives as a bachelor. The wife of the married knight enters into a secret relationship with the other knight, where they can only enjoy hearing one another speak and exchanging possessions over a high stone wall which separate the two households. The lady rises at night once her husband is asleep and goes to the window to think of her lover, as he leads the same secret unfulfilled life. But her husband grows suspicious and asks her why she repeatedly gets up in the middle of the night to stand by the window. She answers him by telling him that she does so to listen to the nightingale, as it gives her great pleasure to hear it sing. The husband laughs at her in response and orders his servants to capture the nightingale. When the nightingale is captured, he brings it to the lady's chambers and denies her requests to release the bird. He breaks its neck and throws it at her, bloodying her dress and leaving a little on her breast. After her husband leaves, the lady mourns the death of the nightingale and the suffering she must accept. She knows she can no longer meet and exchange gifts with the knight, but she doesn't want him to misinterpret his absence or be found out by her husband. She then wraps the nightingale's body in cloth embroidered in gold and writing, and charges her servant with a message to deliver with the bird to her secret lover. The knight hears the message and receives the nightingale. This deeply saddens the knight, but he understands that the relationship must end. He preserves the nightingale in a small vessel, which he has encased with small jewels and precious stones, and carries it with him always to remember the beauty of her voice.

Analysis and significance

  • The nightingale serves as a metaphor which constitutes a means for the lovers to communicate one last time.[2]
  • The nightingale, which initially serves as a metaphor, becomes a narrative commentary of the events which have transpired.[2]
  • Marie as the artist serves to preserve the story of the two lovers through the act of writing, just as the servant is entrusted with the lady's message and enwrapped nightingale.[2]* The reference to a nightingale alludes to the tale of Philomela in Ovid's Metamorphoses on several levels. Philomela embroiders her story in a tapestry much like the lady of Laustic; Philomela herself is transformed into a nightingale at the end of Ovid's story; and as Michelle Freeman suggests, the broken body of the nightingale, which signifies the end of the lovers' communication, is symbolic of the cutting out of Philomela's tongue, which effectively silences her.[2]
  • The servants hide traps for the nightingale in hazel trees, a plant that is also found in Chevrefoil and Le Fresne, two of Marie's other Lais.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Marie de France, "Les Lais de Marie de France", p. 211, traduits et annotés par Harf-Lancner, L., Livre de Poche 1990.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Freeman, Michelle (1984), "Marie de France's Poetics of Silence: The Implications for a Feminine Translatio", PMLA (Modern Language Association) 99 (5): 860–883, doi:10.2307/462141, JSTOR 462141 

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