Noting the homonymie play between ‘plaie’ and ‘plait’. Sun Mee
Gertz sees Guigemar’s wound, his knot, and the belt he gives his lady as
tokens ‘of recognition that should remind [Guigemar] (and Marie’s readers)
of the wounded hind and its prophecy, of how they met, and of how they
are “bound” to one another in love’.”"^ Here Marie engages not only gift-giving
as the recognition motif that Ciertz highlights, but also the popular medieval
belief that associates belts and knots with the supernatural.^ Marie’s strategy
(jf knotting draws upon a tradition of folklore and magic that is at least as old
as Virgil’s Eclogms and evident in later medieval texts, like Albert the Great’s
thirteenth-century De animc tbus (f. 1250) and the Pi’i/rZ-poet’s fourteenth-century
Sir Cawain and the Green Knight!”* Just as Virgil and Albert the Great write of
io6 MEDIUM ^vuM i.xxvii.i
magical knots that can promote either success or impotence in love, so does
Marie’s Guigemar demonstrate that those who exchange knots and belts remain
loyal and continent.^” Moreover, Guigemar’s knots – the tourniquet and the shirt
- affect his bodily powers, much as Sir Cuwain and the Green Kitighfi pentangle and
girdle – the former called an ‘endeles knot’ (line 650) and the latter ‘loken vnder
[Gawain's] lyfte arme … with a knot’ (line 2487) – impact on Gawain’s chivalric
exploits.”’ Marie, however, ultimately modifies conventional understanding of
knots in significant ways.
Gertz sees Guigemar’s wound, his knot, and the belt he gives his lady as
tokens ‘of recognition that should remind [Guigemar] (and Marie’s readers)
of the wounded hind and its prophecy, of how they met, and of how they
are “bound” to one another in love’.”"^ Here Marie engages not only gift-giving
as the recognition motif that Ciertz highlights, but also the popular medieval
belief that associates belts and knots with the supernatural.^ Marie’s strategy
(jf knotting draws upon a tradition of folklore and magic that is at least as old
as Virgil’s Eclogms and evident in later medieval texts, like Albert the Great’s
thirteenth-century De animc tbus (f. 1250) and the Pi’i/rZ-poet’s fourteenth-century
Sir Cawain and the Green Knight!”* Just as Virgil and Albert the Great write of
io6 MEDIUM ^vuM i.xxvii.i
magical knots that can promote either success or impotence in love, so does
Marie’s Guigemar demonstrate that those who exchange knots and belts remain
loyal and continent.^” Moreover, Guigemar’s knots – the tourniquet and the shirt
- affect his bodily powers, much as Sir Cuwain and the Green Kitighfi pentangle and
girdle – the former called an ‘endeles knot’ (line 650) and the latter ‘loken vnder
[Gawain's] lyfte arme … with a knot’ (line 2487) – impact on Gawain’s chivalric
exploits.”’ Marie, however, ultimately modifies conventional understanding of
knots in significant ways.
Although these late medieval examples rely on the supernatural elements
of knots in order to ensure continence, the instances in Guigemar do not.
As Helen Cooper has recently argued, romances characteristically lean on
magic, but magic often docs not determine events in the narrative. Rather, the
protagonists’ own initiatives or emotions do.^- Such is the case in Guigemar.
Marie presents an interesting revision to the conventional use of supernatural
knots in romance by using magic ‘non-magically’, so that the hero ‘bring[s] out
something In himself’.” Guigemar and his lady use their respective knots to
demonstrate the courtJy ideal of self-control. Their discipline is morally sound,
despite their appearance as tightly clad individuals who, according to the clerics,
would probably behave sinfully. Their dress acts as a metonym for fidelity, not
a magical talisman that either ensures or wards off love.^?’ That Guigemar’s tied
shirt serves as a materialization of the courtier’s everlasting presence when he
can no longer be by his lover’s side might be understood as Marie’s sartorial
rendition of depicting lovers who are bound in dieir devotion. In this way, Marie
anticipates what Andreas Capcllanus’ courtier proposes to his beloved in De
amorr. ‘et ego, quamvis corpore videar discedere, corde tamen vobis coUigatus
exsisto’ (p. 96; ‘I ma\’ seem to depart from you in the body, but in my heart I
shall always be bound to you’). Guigemar may leave his lady after their affair
is discovered, but their knots emphasize a faithful connection – much like
the one Andreas’s lover experiences when he figuratively ties himself to his
beloved – which endures through mutual agreement rather than magic. In this
way, Marie understands tight dress as a new art of courdy love – one that not
only influences the behaviours of Guigemar and his lady, but also bears upon
amorous adventures in later romances.’^
By associating the manipulation of garments witb virtuous behaviour, Marie
once again engages witb clerical understanding of dress.
Clerics would recognize
the handling or knotting of fabric in one of two apparentiy incompatible ways:
either as a metaphor to illustrate chaste behaviour or as a sign of diabiilical sexual
excess. For instance. Henry ll’s clerk, Gerald of Wales (i.i 145-1223).
the handling or knotting of fabric in one of two apparentiy incompatible ways:
either as a metaphor to illustrate chaste behaviour or as a sign of diabiilical sexual
excess. For instance. Henry ll’s clerk, Gerald of Wales (i.i 145-1223).
