The Old-French Poem St. Alexis: A Mathematical Demonstration
Of the many scholars who have dealt with the Old French poem of the Alexis, none has attempted to offer a thorough detailed study of the structure of the poem, analyzing the development from beginning to end, from a position taken within the poem itself. By the earlier generation of critics (Diez, G...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
1952
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| In: |
Traditio
Year: 1952, Volume: 8, Pages: 111-158 |
| Online Access: |
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| Summary: | Of the many scholars who have dealt with the Old French poem of the Alexis, none has attempted to offer a thorough detailed study of the structure of the poem, analyzing the development from beginning to end, from a position taken within the poem itself. By the earlier generation of critics (Diez, Gaston Paris, and Becker), we are offered only generalities, mainly favorable, rather than serious studies of our poem; with the later critics (Foerster, Winkler, Spitzer, Elise Richter, and Curtius), by whom the poem has been studied more closely, but never in a consecutive, step-by-step way, we find largely the tactics of attack and defense. The puerile objections raised by Foerster can only make us smile, today; but even Winkler, who was much more sensitive by nature to the aesthetic excellence of our poem, was prevented by his unfamiliarity with medieval traditions from appreciating fully the poet's craftsmanship, and even from interpreting justly the basic spirit of the poem: that of rigorous, harsh asceticism as it is revealed in the character of Alexis. One of those who attempted to confound Winkler, though she mentions his name only once, was Elise Richter, who sprang to Alexis' defense (as if he were an individual with whom she could identify herself) and sought to turn the tables by attacking the insensitivity of Alexis' parents, too little interested in his personal development. A year earlier, however, Spitzer had already given the real answer to Winkler's charges against Alexis the saint: having been struck by the fact that the objections of Julius Schmidt against the ‘cruel' nature of the martyr Polyeucte were of the same brand as those of Winkler against Alexis, he proceeds to explain Corneille's play in the light of the Alexis, and the Alexis in the light of the tradition which inspired it: the ascetic tradition of imitatio Christi, according to which the qualities of absolutism and of insensibility to the emotions of others, as well as of oneself, are prerequisites for those who would seek to imitate perfectly the martyrdom of Christ. |
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| ISSN: | 2166-5508 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Traditio
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0362152900011661 |