Vrouwen Schouwen

Vrouwen SchouwenAuthor(s): A. T. HattoSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Jan., 1939), pp. 40-49Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3717128 .

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VROUWEN SCHOUWEN

MEDIAEVAL literature has some remarkable cases of love at no sight at all. But even savages are agreed that love enters through the eyes as a rule. This commonplace was duly received into the code of Andreas the Chaplain: 'Amor est passio quaedam innata procedens ex visione et immoderata cogitatione formae alterius sexus' (Trojel, p. 3). The devoted chaplain took it for granted that his friend William was familiar with the normal occasions when conversation with a lady was possible and after a few brief definitions proceeds to unfold how such occasions

might be turned to account. It would be no court which did not establish conventional times and places for conversation between the sexes.

English gentlemen of the Restoration reserved their most potent curses for something they called Love, but at fashionable hours were to be seen

making their way to the Ring, to St James' or superciliously to the

Exchange, and if the ladies were there to charm, the beaux were assuredly there to ogle. In a less sophisticated manner German knights courted Frou Minne herself before persons were thought of, despite their frequent maledictions of her name. Andreas' omission to say where and when

they went to court her is made good by passages in Middle High German literature containing some such phrase as vrouwen schouwen or sehen, 'to note the ladies'. In general it can have been no lewd or prying custom which gained the mark of acceptance in language. At least the mediaeval

knight was not indulging any forbidden or one-sided predilection in

going to take note of the ladies. It will be seen that the latter were no less prepared to sustain critical approbation than the dazzlers of St James'. Given greater prominence in M.H.G. than in mediaeval French

by a convenient rime, vrouwen schouwen was nevertheless an accepted phrase expressing an institution of an undoubted reciprocal nature.

The qualification must be made that the reciprocity held between the sexes as a whole. The word huote and all the invective heaped on the restricted freedom of gentlewomen which it implied, remind us that hus-

bands, brothers, fathers and uncles did not habitually associate the

feelings they may have entertained towards the women-folk of other

families, with those awakened in other men by their own. The logical connexion between huote and vrouwen schouwen is shown by the



A. T. HATTO 41

phrase schouwen, sehen ldn. Galagandreiz says to his three guests in Lanzelet:

795 Swem ir die ere geruochet lan, der sol an mine hant gan: ich wil iuch lazen schouwen min tohter und ir vrouwen.

In his first biiechlin to his lady Ulrich von Liechtenstein envies his mis- sive's opportunities at court (line 11 of 1st biiechlin):

wol dinen spehenden ougen, der heimlich und der tougen die man dich lat ze hove sehen und kanstu vrowen rehte spehen, so ist si, der ich dich han gesant, der immer dienen muoz min hant.

The biiechlin is a substitute for Ulrich himself until such time as the

lady's guardians accord him the privilege of seeing her, or she flout convention to that end, and accordingly takes over his role as a critic of beauty. Guardians were very mean in the exercise of their privilege and apt to provoke a poet's wrath. Ever in the vanguard of those who clamoured for fair play, whether from the lady or her guardians, Hein- rich von Morungen likens his lady to the sun and her close keeping to a

gloomy cloud offending his eye. He continues: MF 136, 37 Swer der frouwen hiietet, dem ktind ich den ban:

wan durch schouwen so geschuof si got dem man, daz si were ein spiegel, al der werlde ein wunne gar. waz sol golt begraben, des nieman wirt gewar?

Heinrich was not a friend of the family either, and his indignation at his lack of privilege has caused him to make an inadvertent concession in the word wan which was not likely to be overlooked.

The wandering damsel whose distress is so dire as to override all

etiquette, the amorous fay at the source or in the castle, were more exotic in their behaviour by far than in any strangeness of dress or

supernatural affinity, which will explain something of their excessive attraction for knights-and shy poets. The lonely damsel was a pleasant myth. Having introduced such a one a M.H.G. author will sometimes find it necessary to offer an explanation. So Ulrich von Zatzikoven:

Lanzelet 2322 eines tages siu uf ir pfert saz, daz nieman mere mit ir reit wan der ritter gemeit, des si ungern ane rite. hie vor was ein ellich site, daz ez deme manne niht was leit, swa ein vrowe hin reit, selb ander oder aleine. nu pfliget es wibe enkeine: si lant ez durch der manne zorn.



42 Vrouwen schouwen

Wirnt gives another explanation which at first sight seems to have

nothing to do with Ulrich's: Wigalois 2356 eine juncfrouwen al eine

sahen si viir sich riten. bi den selben ziten was daz gewonlich, si waere arm ode rich, daz si wol mohte durch ir muot riten swar si duhte guot, unbesprochen und ane leit. daz was do gewonheit, swa man deheine riten sach, daz ir nieman ensprach. nu ist diu werlt valschaft und ist ane meisterschaft beidiu liut unde lant.

But Ulrich and Wirnt refer to the same thing from their different points of view, to the clandestine warfare between gallants and guardians which

might blaze up into family feuds no doubt as in Boccaccio,' or find apt expression in a poet's open declaration: 'swer der frouwen hiietet, dem kiind ich den ban.'

When did the ladies emerge from their retirement for the unprivileged to see? They were to be seen at church, a locality well known to the beaux of a later age,2 at tournaments, at and on the way to court festivities. Even Kriemhild, who as a royal maiden had not been glimpsed by Siegfried once within a year, made a notorious appearance at church after her marriage, and it was at church that Ulrich von Liechtenstein

disgracefully abused his role as Lady Venus to bestow on several charming women the kiss of peace (e.g. Frauendienst, str. 538-9). The appearance of ladies at tournaments and festivities needs no documentation-the peculiar quality of tournaments and mediaeval court functions lay in their not being Spartan activities. The new mode of escorting ladies in cavalcade is made much of by M.H.G. writers. The arrangement of one

knight to each lady is so clear that the only remaining subject of interest is their conversation. Eilhart says:

Tristan 6437 die erstin zwei retin da und ein ander zwei dar na also verre, daz ir wort niht me wordin da gehort: sie sprachin swaz sie woldin.

1 Cf. Andreas Capellanus: Nam exinde unus ab altero divertitur amicus, et inimicitiae inter homines capitales insurgunt, nec non et homicidia malave multa sequuntur. Trojel (1892), p. 316.

2 'I pull out my snuff-box, turn myself round, bow to the bishop, or the dean, if he be the commanding-officer; single out a beauty, rivet both my eyes to hers, set my nose a- bleeding by the strength of imagination, and show the whole church my concern, by my endeavouring to hide it; after the sermon, the whole town gives me to her for a lover, and by persuading the lady that I am a-dying for her, the tables are turned, and she in good earnest falls in love with me' (The Beaux Stratagem, it, ii).



A. T. HATTO 43

Ulrich von Zatzikoven is equally non-committal: Lanzlet 8989 dazs alden tac samen riten

mit ziihten und mit solhen siten, der guote liute sich niht schament.

Wirnt varies the custom out of the respect for huote which has already been remarked on:

Wigalois 8872 mit schimpfe und mit lachen die riter kurzten in die vart. ir zwein ein vrouwe bevolhen wart der si mit vlize pflagen. sine dorfte niht betragen der schimpflichen maere.

Wolfram gave currency to the idea of wariu minne which Wirnt adopts, but this does not embolden him to interfere with the only possible arrangement which could satisfy Gawan, one and one as in the first two examples, nor does he demand of the average the high tone he reserves for his chosen couple:

Parzival 669, 19 daz waren kranke sinne op sie sprachen niht von minne.

It need not be feared that this pleasant custom was another myth like that of the wandering damsel in which we must fain believe from sheer repetition. If this were so there would be no point in Ulrich von Liech- tenstein's account of his third meeting with his lady. On the day before this they had met by arrangement in cavalcade, and he had not been able to utter a word for very shyness. Overnight he had plucked up courage, and on the way to the next resting place he seized his opportunity to ask for permission to serve, in a speech that is like nothing so much as a scattered bundle of conventional phrases which would have made a lyric if they had been tied up neatly. Exasperated by his insistence, the lady says:

Frauendient 153, 3 'lat mir iwer runen sin: ir wizet wol, man hiietet min'.... Die guote sa hin umbe sach, zuo einem ritter si do sprach:

'ir sult zuo mir ouch riten her. sol bi mir niemen riten mer niwan ein riter, daz ist niht guot.'

Here was an opportunity for Ulrich to show his powers of concealment: 155, 1 ich sprach: 'si hat iu reht geseit:

ez ist zewar ein unhiibscheit.'

Since conversation in Wolfram's vein has proved irksome, the lady adopts an arrangement more like Wirnt's.

Without broaching the question of the exact nature of huote, it can



Vrouwen schouwen

be seen how easy it was for a phrase like vrouwen schouwen to gain currency. The appearance of gentlewomen in public was an event awaited with considerable interest. Their movements were more restricted than is commonly supposed, those of Andalusian ladies somewhat less so. But interesting as it would be to adduce common motives in the poetry of the two cultures-here particularly the vituperation of guardians, watchers and spying sycophantsl-all that can be undertaken now is to refer to the part which 'noting the ladies' may play among other

legitimate diversions at a mediaeval German court. At Mark's court, in Tristan, in a lush meadow painted with flowers

there was other, richer pasture for the eye: 614 man sach da swaz man wolte sehen:

dise fuoren sehen frouwen, jene ander tanzen schouwen; dise sahen buhurdieren, jene ander justieren.

In Willehalm the usage is an alternative to after-supper chat. Princes and other king's men had foregathered at the court:

208, 24 unz si den abent hin vertriben: etsliche waren durch schouwen dar komen viir die vrouwen, etsliche ouch sus durch maere.

Whenever a select company of princes and their peers wished to enliven the march, in Wigalois, by the sight of lovely women they went up to Queen Larie's compartment which was carried on an elephant's back in the manner of the great Khan's:

10594 da vunden si der saelden schin und schoener kurzewile vil von zabel und von seitspil und siiezer ougen weide.

How closely vrouwen schouwen and other court accomplishments were linked is shown by the ivory carvings of court scenes in the Stricker's Daniel:

626 ez enwart nie werk so spaehe von vogelen und von tieren; striten und turnieren, tanzen und schouwen, hoveschen zuo den frouwen.

But the most important fact which emerges here is the absolute use of schouwen. There is no more certain indication of a technical term, and therefore of a settled custom, than the ellipsis of a stereotyped object2.

1 See L. Ecker, Arabischer, provenzalischer und deutscher Minnesang. Eine motigeschicht- liche Untersuchung, 1934.

2 Cf. verliesen for stnen dienest verliesen, Mod. Lang. Rev. xxxm (1938), pp. 416ff.

44



This inelegant abbreviation, together with the term h6veschen, is used by a man of another class, as if his detachment from the amusements of the court were bought at the cost of his sensibility.1

Did these extracts leave any doubt as to the reality of the institution of vrouwen schouwen, Ulrich von Liechtenstein would remove them once again. His cousin has engaged to deliver his first message to his lady, and the one distraction which seemed at all tolerable to him is conveyed by the following:

Frauendienst 69, 3 fiinf wochen reit ich vrouwen sehen.

Again, when awaiting the famous operation to his lip: 88, 9 do reit ich aber frowen sehen.

On analysis the frequent beauty competitions of romance prove to be competitions of manly prowess. But so to analyse them is to ignore their rich symbolic content. Beauty and courage were aspects of the same thing, of high birth. Beauty also engendered high courage in him who beheld it. But the most remarkable thing about the beauty competition militant, this synthesis of the outstanding qualities of the male and female, is that it mirrors the social attitudes of a very competitive age. People not only knew, but expressed more openly than we do, who was the best man present at any gathering. If there was any doubt the issue was likely to be brought to a head in no less childish terms than in Restoration England: 'I am a better man than you, sir', with its childish consequences. The attitude to birth held good for the qualities of beauty and prowess. Every sporting or serious military occasion had a decided tendency to become a competition.2 And the fact that many phrases containing the word pris, such as den pris nemen, behalten, jehen, bekennen are applied indiscriminately to the hero of a tournament or the fairest of a bevy of ladies, makes it highly probable that when the ladies

appeared their charms were the subject of more open and thorough-going discussion than would be considered tolerable to-day. In the following quotation from the Crane of Berthold von Holle there is even question of

pointing, much as one would expect from contemporary standards of

etiquette: 2262 an minninclicher schouwe

ein ritter ind ein vrouwe sat ummer bi ein ander dar ind manich juncvrowe clar.

1 h6veschen is avoided by court authors, except for that carefree tyro, Ulrich von Zatzi- koven. Cf. Rosenhagen's note in his edition of Daniel.

2 Even when life depended on self-restraint, as when the Count of Artois usurped the functions of the Templars before Mansourah. Joinville, n, xlv.

45 A. T. HATTO



Vrouwen schouwen

do men se alle priste ind uf de schonsten wiste de dar juncvrowen wern genant, do dete men ir den pris bekant der vromeden ind der cleinen ind der minninclichen reinen Achuten, als ich hore sagen: den pris se beide mosen tragen.

Berthold's exclusion of the married ladies from this public appraisal would seem to be inspired by a somewhat fastidious caution. A quotation from Wigalois combines a phrase with pris and an expression meaning 'to know a fine woman when you see one':

8118 miniu ougen kunden rehte spehen, so si dir prises jahen.

kunde rehte spehen has a variant: Parzival 630, 6 swer rehte kunde schouwen,

von Logroys diu herzogin truoc vor uz den besten schin.

The phrase vrouwen schouwen, absolute schouwen, now clearly receives a further critical connotation from the use of schouwen in the last passage.

The ladies did not disapprove of this quizzing, but returned the com- pliment by appearing in their best array. Display was more openly, perhaps even more keenly appreciated then than now. Its detailed description was not felt to infringe the canons of narration. M.H.G. descriptions have much of the sense of hierarchy which enlivens the social columns of our newspapers on the morrow of a court ceremony or royal race meeting, but none of their professional sense of individuality. The heroine's dress, and perhaps the dress of a close friend whose affairs belong to a secondary plot, may be described individually, but those of the others will be dealt with in the mass. Indeed when hero and heroine take part in that most desirable of all mediaeval ceremonies, the marriage coronation, the occasion is conceived as between two corps de ballet, male and female, each represented and led by a principal dancer. Wigalois has not yet reached this consummation, but his first reception at Larie's court will illustrate the hierarchical pyramid of display and appreciation, with the qualification that the knight's supporters are reserved for a future occasion-he collects some of them on the way. On Wigalois' presentation religious Wirnt exclaims: 'owi, herre got, waz er da schoener vrouwen vant! ' (4101f.), and enlarges on the rich and varied dressesthefifty maidens had donned 'iegeliche nach ir ahte' (4105). He then passes over thirty of them as inferior in birth, demeanour, beauty and riches to the other twenty.

4119 do begunder umbe schouwen und nam ir aller rehte war.

46



Wigalois judged they were 'ze lobe' and 'ze wunsche wol gestalt', but of course Larie had received God's special attention in her making and outshone them all. The beauty competition has been carefully seeded in the interest of romantic theory.

Meleranz is entertaining King Arthur with the resources of his newly won kingdom:

12144 '...welt ir schouwen den wunsch von schoenen frouwen, die mugt ir uf der biirge sehen.' Artus sprach 'daz sol geschehen'.

They go to the palace and find many fair ladies 'die man gem moht schouwen' and two queens

12158 die heten sich vil herliche gen der ritter kunft bereit und heten sich in ir kleit gekleidet wunnecliche.

But the most touching episode of woman's legitimate pride in her

appearance, where the description comes nearest to the realistic novel of a later age both in style and conception, is found in Wolfram's Willehalm.

Gyburc and her maidens have defended the walls of Orange with a handful of retainers against a host of assailants. When her husband and his new followers at last relieve the castle, she finds that she and her ladies are quite unpresentable. She urges them to remove the signs of

past toil from their persons and present grief from their faces:

248, 9 vil schiere daz geschehen was, daz die vrouwen und der palas wunneclich waren an ze sehen. man muoste den vrouwen allen jehen, daz si truogen guot gewant.

The men come in, ir aller kleider waren guot, die ze sehene heten muot die kinegin, des wirtes wip.

They found her as well dressed as Secundille arrayed in the gifts of Feirefiz.

si truoc geschickede und gelaz, ich waene, des iemen kunde baz erdenken ane die gotes kunst. si bejagete et al der herzen gunst, der libes ougen an si sach. ir giirtel man hoher koste jach, edel steine druf verwieret, daz er noch beidiu zieret ir huiffel und ir siten. zetlichen ziten des mantels si ein tell uf swanc: swes ouge denne drunder dranc, der sach den blic von pardis.

47 A. T. HATTO



Vrouwen schouwen

It was not only the knighthood who were expectant of finding paradise in what their eyes could show them. Certain mystics valued their

eyesight as highly as Wolfram, and were encouraged to say so by the tale of joys in the Revelation of St John, a book which only lived down the stigma of sensuality attaching to it when the really athletic Old School of mystics was no more. In an effeminate age the author of Die Warnung tries to seduce his noble audience to the good life with a list of the courtly entertainments available in heaven in a strangely spiritual- ized form. The gambler is told that he will be given riches without pawn, a curious failure to understand the gambler's passion, since no other

arrangements for his distraction are mentioned. However, the promised riches are great, but not infinite, and so there was no cause for him to abandon all hope at the portal. Social aspirants are promised golden crowns, but their clothes are of mere silk and satin. The musical will hear

stringed instruments and wondrous song. The ready naivete of the next

promise suggests that there was something mystical in the schouwen of the knights and something quizzical in devout contemplation:

1439 so sehet ir unser frouwen, die muget ir gerne schouwen.1

The author of Die Warnung passes on to Christ, Whose beauty he describes at length. But the Rhenish Franconian Marienhimmelfahrt, the peroration of which is conceived in the same spirit of stealing the Devil's thunder as Die Warnung, will supply a gloss on gerne.

1703 wiltu an minnen han gewin, so kere alien dinen sin an hohe werde minne und minne ein kuneginne die ouch diner minnen gert und die dich minnens wider wert....

Having praised the Holy Virgin's blessed qualities in terms which become

superlatives when applied to her, though ordinarily used to flatter earthly ladies in Minnesang, he continues:

1717 und ob si danne id schone si? ja quemes du ir also nahe bi daz dinen ougen worde irkant ir minestir finger von ir hant, der durch luhtige clare schin dede dir daz herze din

1 This is a stock phrase from court romance, see above, p. 45, Meleranz 12156. It is at least as old as Alexander:

3631 ahzig tusint in einer scaren sendih dir gegen frowen, di mahtu gerne scowen.

48



gahes von ein ander gan... nu sich dan obe die frouwe zu schouwen id were wunnenclich.1

The ladies must perforce give way to Our Lady beyond compare, but schouwen remains.

Vrouwen schouwen, taking note of the ladies, their persons and their array, might thus be allowed within the domestic circle as a privilege to friends or honoured guests, or constitute one among other legitimate diversions at and on the way to a festal gathering. The claim sometimes made that a lover has served his lady since childhood does not seem to be so extravagant, since vrouwen schouwen implies that the most intimate contacts with unrelated women in a man's life must go back to the time when he served as a page. The occasions in later life when he moved among larger assemblies on a freer footing have a decidedly festive tone about them, hence the recurrence of a riming couplet with vrouwen and schouwen, like the lists of musical instruments, to evoke an atmosphere congenial to the hero and heroine in the great moments of their lives. Here was fine opportunity, not for ogling, but for trials of spilnde ougen; not for losing one's fancy, but for deciding whether a lady was guot in the peculiar sense of the phrase 'si dunket mich guot'2; not for winning a mistress, but for being accepted into the service of a lady; not of risking a reputation, but of compromising ere; not only of gambling with life, but of endangering one's future life as well, should one be overtaken by death in mortal sin. Comparison of the naive beginnings and the sophisticated decline of an international tradition reveals much similarity in difference, and whets one's appreciation of the quality of either. But the main purpose here was to sketch in something more of the living reality without which the literature of Minnesang will never be savoured to the full. Words, and we have no more than words, do not yield up their meanings until their referents are known. These are part and parcel of life and by hook or by crook this life must gradually be rediscovered.

A. T. HATTO. LONDON.

1 Zeitschrift fur d. Altertum, v, pp. 560-1. Cf. F. Norman, Mod. Lang. Rev. xx:rI (1928), pp. 453ff.

2 Cf. Mod. Lang. Rev. xxxI (1938), p. 267.

M.L.R. XXXIV

A. T. HATTO 49



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