A tale of jailed remunerated weavers in Yvain ou le chevalier au Lion of Chrétien de Troyes (1178/80) | DKAN

Yvain ou le chevalier au Lion is an Arthurian romance written in verse by Chrétien de Troyes between 1176 and 1181 in French based on Gaelic legends. In the romance, Yvain not only has personal problems with his wife (a woman he conquers by killing her husband and protecting her castle), he also saves various characters just for fun – or for justice, at least without self-interest. He saves a lion from a snake; he frees the daughter and the sons of a lord from a cruel giant, just before saving a maid from a death sentence by defeating the champion of the grieving party. On his way to another duel as champion of another damsel in distress, he arrives to the Castle of Ill Adventure. There he finds three hundred damsels jailed in the castle weaving silk clothes and eventually rescues them by defeating two demons. The episode of the silk weavers is a challenging source for the historians of medieval textile production because the maidens are forced to work but receive a remuneration. Even if the text has a fictional and even fantastical character, we need to understand how the labour condition is conceived in order to seize the conceptual frame of the episode. For that purpose, tagging action phrases and analysing the different phases of labour compulsion (entry, extraction, exit) are useful.

Actors

P1: the king of the Isle of Maidens
P2: the demons
P3: the weaving maidens
P4: Yvain
P5: the person for whom the damsels work (the lord of the castle)
P6: the porter

Extract 1: Yvain enters the castle and discovers the damsels (extraction phase)

5175	si li dit: «Venez tost, venez qu'an tel leu estes arivez ou vos seroiz bien retenuz, et mal i soiez vos venuz.»	He says: "Come quickly, come. You are on your way to a place where you will be securely detained, and may your visit be accursed."
5180	Einsi li portiers le semont Et haste de venir a mont, mes molt li fist leide semonse. Et mes sire Yvains, sanz response, par devant lui s'an passe, et trueve	The porter, after addressing him with this very ungracious welcome, hurries upstairs But my lord Yvain, without making reply, passes straight on
5184	une grant sale haute et nueve; s'avoit devant un prael clos de pex aguz reonz et gros; et par entre les pex leanz	and finds a new and high hall in front of it there was a yard enclosed with large, round, pointed stakes, and seated inside the stakes
5188	vit puceles jusqu'a trois cenz qui diverses oevres feisoient: de fil d'or et de soie ovroient chascune au mialz qu'ele savoit;	He saw as many as three hundred maiden working at different kinds of embroidery: each one was working with golden thread and silk , as best she could.
5192	mes tel povreté i avoit que deslïees et desceintes en i ot de povreté meintes et as memeles et as cotes	But such was their poverty, that many of them wore no girdle, and looked slovenly, because so poor and about their breasts and at theelbows
5196	estoient lor cotes derotes, et les chemises as dos sales; les cos gresles et les vis pales de fain et de meseise avoient.	their garments were torn and the back of their shirts were soiled, their necks were thin, and their faces pale with hunger and privation
5200	Il les voit, et eles le voient, si s'anbrunchent totes et plorent ;et une grant piece demorent qu'eles n'antendent a rien feire,	They see him, as he looks at them, so that they hide themselves and weep; and for a long moment they are unable to do anything
5204	ne lor ialz n'en pueent retreire de terre, tant sont acorees. Qant un po les ot regardees mes sire Yvains, si se trestorne,	but to raise their eyes from the ground, so deeply they are moved. When he had contemplated them for a while my lord Yvain turned about
5208	droit vers la porte s'an retorne; et li portiers contre lui saut, se li escrie: «Ne vos vaut que vos n'en iroiz or, biax mestre;	and moved toward the door but the porter barred the way, and cried: “It is no use; you shall not get out now, fair master
5212	vos voldriez or la fors estre, mes, par mon chief, ne vos i monte, einz avroiz eü tant de honte que plus n'en porrïez avoir;	You would like to be outside: but, by my head, it is of no use. Before you escape you will have suffered such great shame that you could not suffer more
5216	si n'avez mie fet savoir quant vos estes venuz ceanz que del rissir est il neanz. — Ne je ne quier, fet il, biax frere,	so you were not wise to enter here, for there is no question of escaping now. — Nor do I wish to do so, fair brother,
5220	mes di moi, par l'ame ton pere, dameiseles que j'ai veües an cest chastel, don sont venues, qui dras de soie et orfrois tissent,	but tell me, by thy father's soul, whence came the damsels whom I saw in this castel, weaving cloths of silk and gold
5224	et oevres font qui m'abelissent? Mes ce me desabelist mout qu'eles sont de cors et de vout meigres, et pales, et dolantes;	and make embroideries that please me? but it does not please me at all that their bodies and faces are so thin and pale and dolorous
5228	si m'est vis que beles et gentes fussent molt, se eles eüssent itex choses qui lor pleüssent. — Je, fet il, nel vos dirai mie,	I imagine they would be fair and charming, if they had what would suit them. —I will tell you nothing,
5232	querez autrui qui le vos die. — Si ferai ge, quant mialz ne puis.» Lors quiert tant que il trueve l'uis del prael ou les dameiseles	seek someone else to tell you — That will I do, since I cannot do better” Then he searches until he finds the entrance of the yard where the damsels
5236	ovroient; et vint devant eles, si les salüe ansanble totes; et si lor voit cheoir les gotes des lermes qui lor decoroient	were at work; and coming before them, he greets them all together, and sees the drops appear from the tears flowing
5240	des ialz, si con eles ploroient. Et il lor dit: «Dex, s'il li plest, cest duel que ne sai don vos nest, vos ost del cuer et tort a joie.»	from their eyes, as they weep Then he says to them: “May it please God to remove this grief, the cause of which I do not know from your hearts, and turn to joy.”

This extract has not been tagged, but the action phrases already show the condition of impotence of the damsels: they hide and weep (v.5201, v. 5240), they are unable (n’en pueent) to do anything else than look at the ground (5204). Several action phrases describe the work of the damsels, almost all in imperfect form that signals the indefinite duration of the work (extraction phase): they “work” (ovroient, v. 5190, v. 5236) and “make” (feisoient) different kinds of embroidery with golden thread and silk (v. 5189-90), they weave (tissent) cloths of silk and gold (v. 5223-4). Instead of focussing on the tiring aspect of labour, the choice of words (feisoient = make, ovroient = work) underline the productive process aimed at a clear result. They produce as best as they can (chascune au mialz qu'ele savoit, v.5191).