Form and Figure: An Inquiry into the Early History of the Ballad in Old Provencal, Old French, and Middle English

The term "form" in this study refers to the blend of narrative, dialogue and description which occurs in a group of medieval poems and which coincides, as well, with the Romantic concept of the ballad. By "figure" is meant the formal principle which ties together those three modes in the earliest known ballad-like poems. It specifically refers to the arrangement of words, images, ideas, and to some extent rhythm, in a pattern of axial symmetry within a fairly short poem. Most of the poems discussed have previously been assigned to one or more of the following genres: chanson d'histoire, chanson de la mal-mariée, carole, pastourelle, rondeau or rotrouenge, to name only the more generally used terms. Reading them as ballads helps to avoid either a narrowly thematic or a narrowly formal interpretation. One of the primary purposes of this inquiry is thus to examine closely the poems in their own right. A second purpose is to situate this group in the history of literary forms. The figure of the circle is essential in this regard in that, on the one hand, it distinguishes the poems generically from the narrative fragment and, on the other hand, it relates, them to the love chanson. In the earliest of the poems, the Provencal "A l'entrade del tens clar," the figure of the circle coincides with the background and action of a round dance. This poem is important as the only text that would support the Provencal etymology of the English word "ballad" and its connection to the idea of dancing. The study concludes with an exploration of the possibility that not only the English word "ballad," but also the form of the English ballad may have Provençal and French origins. A thirteenth-century English poem is examined for its formal and thematic connections to the French poems.