Fortune's demesne: the interrelation of text and music in Machaut's Il mest avis (B22), De fortune (B23) and two related anonymous balades*
Machaut's balades Il mest avis (hereafter B22) and De fortune (hereafter B23), adjacent in the music section of the Machaut manuscripts, form a diptych on the theme of Fortune. In relation to each other, their poetic texts offer complementary perspectives on the power of Fortune: B22 is static, detached in tone, a clerk commentating in a public sententious statement upon the political manifestations of Fortune; conversely, B23 is personal and dynamic, a spurned lady's personal testimony to the power of Fortune to change happiness into sorrow. Despite these contrasts, the two poems share a diction markedly different from that of the twenty-one balades that precede them in the music section.
Guillaume de Machaut: A Guide to Research
Provides an overview of the current state of research on Machaut (ca. 1300-1377), a major figure in 14th century French music and poetry, with fair representation of the many areas of Machaut research that are pursued outside of music. The volume begins with a biography and a section covering his li
The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature
than she allows. It made me uneasy that she cites Burton for evidence and books like Bamborough's The Little World of Man which deal with Elizabethan times. Burton deserves to be brought into the account not because he may have preserved some old ideas but because so many of the old ideas survived into his time and survive still. This book treats the real background of Don Quixote, Dr. Faustus, Macbeth, King Lear-and of many attitudes toward madness that linger in our own mad world.