What should a knight be like? What positive qualities of medieval knights, in your opinion, have been lost in our time? What qualities of knights have already been lost

A). RULES OF GALLANT LOVE

Marriage is not an exemption from love affairs.
- He who is jealous cannot love.
- No one can be bound by double love.
- It is known that love always comes and goes.
- What a lover takes against the will of his beloved does not give pleasure.
- Boys cannot experience the feeling of love until they reach maturity.
- When one lover dies, the survivor must mourn for two years.
- No one should be deprived of love without the most compelling reason.
- No one can love if they are not driven by love.
- Love is always a stranger in the house of greed.
- You should not love a woman whom you are ashamed to marry.
- A true lover does not want to embrace anyone with love except his beloved.
- Love declared publicly rarely lasts.
- The easy achievement of love reduces its value: the difficulties of achieving it make it precious.
- Every lover constantly turns pale in the presence of his beloved.
- When a lover suddenly catches the eye of his beloved, his heart flutters.
- New love inspires the former.
- Even one good trait makes any man worthy of love.
- If love weakens, it quickly cools down and is rarely reborn.
- A person in love is always full of anxiety.
- True jealousy always increases the feeling of love.
- Jealousy increases when one lover suspects the other.
- Anyone who is tormented by the thought of love eats and sleeps very little.
- No matter what a lover does, he always thinks about his beloved.
- For a true lover, only what is good for his beloved is good.
- In love, all means are good.
- Lovers are insatiable with each other.
- A person who experiences too much passion is usually not in love.
- A true lover constantly and without interruption thinks about his beloved.
- Nothing prohibits one woman from being loved by two men, or one man from two women.
- The slightest reason is enough for a lover to suspect his beloved.

From the work: Andre Capellan “De Amore” (“Treatise on Gallant Love”, 1184-1186).

b). KNIGHT'S ETHOS

“What were the main features associated with the ideal of a knight?”

In principle, the knight had to come from good kind. “In principle,” because sometimes they were knighted for exceptional military exploits. In addition, it was possible - and this happened more and more often as cities developed and their importance increased - to buy this privilege.

The knight had to be distinguished by beauty and attractiveness. His beauty was usually emphasized by clothing that testified to his love of gold and precious stones. The armor and harness matched the clothes. The word “noblement” (“noble”) meant the same thing to the chronicler of the IV Crusade as “rikement” (“richly”, “luxuriously”, “magnificent”). Male beauty ceases to play a special role only in the bourgeois ethos; here she is replaced by dignified appearance, respectability, and beauty is required only from a woman, and only she is given the right to jewelry, which even in the 18th century men were not forbidden to wear.

Strength was required from the knight. He usually showed this power, like Hercules, in infancy. However, the meaning physical strength With the development of technology, it gradually decreases.

A knight was expected to be constantly concerned about his glory. Glory demanded tireless confirmation, more and more new tests. “Since there is war here, I will stay here,” says the knight in one of Mary of France’s ballads. If there is no war, he moves on, calling the first horseman he meets to establish a hierarchy, the place in which depends on the number and quality of the defeated knights. A knight cannot calmly listen to other people's successes.

With such constant concern for his military prestige, it is clear that courage is required from a knight. Lack of courage is the heaviest charge. The fear of being suspected of cowardice led to a violation of the elementary rules of strategy, which in turn very often ended in the death of the knight and the extermination of his squad.

The relentless rivalry did not violate the solidarity of the elite as such, a solidarity that extended to enemies belonging to the elite. You can read about how the English received the enemies they defeated in the battles of Crecy and Poitiers, about joint feasts and competitions. When the English are plagued by hunger and dysentery in the battle of 1389, they go to the French for treatment, after which they return and the battle resumes. For, as the chronicler says, although both peoples, the French and the English, are fiercely at odds with each other in their own countries, when they find themselves in other countries, they often help each other in a brotherly way and count on each other. During the wars between the Franks and Saracens, one of the best knights of Charlemagne, Ogier, called the Dane, is challenged to a duel with a Saracen knight. When the Saracens take Ogier prisoner by cunning, his enemy, not approving of such methods, surrenders to the Franks so that they can exchange Ogier for him. In one legend, a simple warrior boasts that he killed a noble knight from the enemy camp; his noble commander orders the proud man to be hanged. The way of thinking of those who lived at court or in the castle was imbued with the belief that chivalry rules the world...

If courage was necessary for a knight as a military man, then the generosity that was expected from him and which was considered an indispensable property of a noble-born served the people dependent on him, and above all those who glorified the exploits of knights at the courts in the hope of a good treat and decent occasion gifts before setting off on a further journey. It was necessary, without bargaining, to give anyone what he asked for. It's better to go broke than to be known as a miser.

The knight, as is known, had to remain unconditionally faithful to his obligations towards his equals. When the son of John the Good, says J. Huizinga, escaped from England, where he was being held as a hostage, John himself surrendered into the hands of the English instead of the fugitive. The custom of making strange knightly vows, which had to be fulfilled contrary to all the rules of common sense, is well known.

Class brotherhood did not prevent the knights from fulfilling the duty of revenge for any - real or imaginary - insult inflicted on themselves or their loved ones. When Roland's father, Ganelon, lost a case that was decided by ordeal, not only he himself, but all his relatives were hanged.

In addition to obligations to their overlord, the knights were owed special gratitude to the one who ordained them to the rank of knight, as well as caring for orphans and widows, which had already become a byword.

The unusually prolific author E. Deschamps, who was born in 1346 into a burgher family, but subsequently received the nobility, lists the conditions that must be met by those who want to become a knight. Anyone who wishes to become a knight must begin new life, pray, avoid sin, arrogance and base acts. He must protect the church, widows and orphans, and also take care of his subjects. He must be brave, loyal and not deprive anyone of his property. He is obliged to fight only for a just cause. He must be an avid traveler, fighting in tournaments in honor of his lady love; look for differences everywhere, avoiding everything unworthy; love your overlord and protect his property; be generous and fair; seek the company of the brave and learn from them how to perform great deeds, following the example of Alexander.

When we talk about chivalrous behavior, we usually first of all mean the attitude towards the enemy and the attitude towards women. Let's look at both in more detail.

It was not so much the victory that brought glory to the knight, but his behavior in battle. The battle could, without damaging his honor, end in his defeat and death, as happened with Roland. Death in battle was even a good ending to the biography, because it was difficult for the knight to come to terms with the role of a frail old man. The “rules of the game”, mandatory in battle, were dictated by respect for the enemy, pride, a “game” life attitude, fear that the enemy would respond in kind, and, finally, humanity. If the enemy fell from his horse (and in armor he could not climb into the saddle without outside help), the one who knocked him out of the saddle also got off his horse to even the odds.

Taking advantage of an opponent's weakness did not bring glory to the knight. When, in a fight between two unfamiliar knights, one throws the other to the ground and, raising his visor, sees an older man in front of him, he does not finish off the lying one, but says to him: “Senior, get up, I’ll hold the stirrup for you, // I don’t need such glory . // There is a little honor in throwing down // One whose head is already gray.”

Killing an unarmed enemy covered a knight with shame. Lancelot, a knight without fear or reproach, could not forgive himself for having somehow killed two unarmed knights in the heat of battle and noticed it when it was too late. He feels that he will not forgive himself for this until his death, and promises to make a walking pilgrimage in only a bone-length shirt to atone for his sin.

It was impossible to kill the enemy from behind.

The knight in armor had no right to retreat. Therefore, he went on reconnaissance unarmed. Anything that could be considered cowardice was unacceptable. Roland refused to blow the horn so that they would not think that he was asking for help because he was chickening out. It doesn’t matter that this resulted in the death of his friend along with his squad.

Fights between knights and covered faces serve in courtly novels as the theme of tragic stories in which a knight, having raised the visor of the vanquished, is convinced that he has killed close relative or a beloved friend. The custom of covering the face with a visor is explained, according to Montesquieu, by the fact that getting hit in the face was considered especially shameful: only a person of low rank could be hit in the face. For the same reasons, Montesquieu believes, it is considered shameful to receive a blow with a club: peasant foot soldiers fought with a club, and not the powers that be (“On the Spirit of the Laws”).

Since we are talking about a fighting knight, we must not forget about the role of the horse in the battle. It’s not for nothing that the horse is called by name. He takes part in the battle quite consciously and remains boundlessly faithful to his owner. In medieval legends one can read about horses endowed with the gift of human speech, about horses overcoming decrepitude in order to faithfully serve for the last time the one they were accustomed to carry on their backs. In return, the knight contributed greatly to the glorification of this animal, and horse riding remains a noble occupation of the aristocracy to this day.

The knight treated not only his horse in a special way, but also his weapons and, above all, his sword. The personal nature of this relationship was expressed in the use of the pronoun “she” instead of “it”.

Being in love was one of the duties of a knight. The songs of Mary of France speak of a glorious knight who did not look at women. This is a great evil and an offense against nature, the author notes. A knight's attitude towards a woman depended, of course, on who she was: a lady or a commoner. In conquered cities, men were slaughtered from the common people, but it was not proper for a knight to stain his hands with the blood of a woman. Care and adoration could only be attributed to a lady from her own class, who often occupied a higher position within this class.

Love must be mutually faithful, overcome serious difficulties and long separation. A common theme in courtly romance is the test of fidelity. Knights who have taken a vow of fidelity to the lady of their heart steadfastly resist the love confessions of other ladies.

Love for the lady of the heart should ennoble a knight. In heroic poems, women do not yet play a prominent role. Only with the courtly romance of the 12th century did the adoration of women come to France.

This phenomenon is all the more curious because in cultures where man makes his way with the sword, women are usually not valued very highly. There is not the slightest trace of the worship of women among the ancient Germans, if you believe the description of their morals by Tacitus. In the samurai code, which has often been compared to the code of European chivalry, women are not taken into account at all. The concept of gallantry is usually traced back to the code of chivalry. Montesquieu defines gallantry as love associated with the concepts of guardianship and strength, or rather, not so much love as “a tender, refined and constant appearance of love.” This worship, or gallantry, is sometimes explained by the improvement in the position of women in the 12th century: it was then that the lord's wife received the right to manage her husband's estates in his absence, as well as the right to bring fief.

Most of the hypotheses regarding the cult of women in question took it seriously. Some saw here the extension of the vassal's duty of loyalty to his overlord to the overlord's wife. Others argued that this cult was invented and supported by women themselves: taking advantage of the frequent absences of their husbands, they usurped the faithful service due to them from their vassals. Finally, the third origin of this cult was attributed to traveling minstrels: traveling from castle to castle, they praised the mistress (whose husband was usually absent) in the hope of service at court or at least a good reception and gifts before setting off on their further journey. This “bottom-up” attitude was also facilitated by the fact that the traveling minstrels came mostly from landless or land-poor knights dreaming of some kind of permanent position at court. However, the position of a traveling singer was an honorable one.

Other explanations can be added to these: the influence of correspondence between monasteries and monasteries, where love was expressed in an exalted form at a distance; the influence of Arab poets coming from Spain; finally, acquaintance with the recently “discovered” Roman culture, especially with Ovid’s “The Art of Love.”

An analogue of Ovid's work was a treatise on gallant love by Andreas Capellanus (see excerpts from this treatise - editor's note). This author of a one-of-a-kind work is not enough... It all begins with a gallant courtship using sophisticated rhetoric on both sides; its shades vary depending on the social status of the partners. Dialogues sound different between:

1) a man of the middle class and a woman of the same class;
2) a middle-class man and a noblewoman;
3) a middle-class man and an aristocratic woman;
4) an aristocrat and a woman of the middle class;
5) a nobleman and a noblewoman;
6) a nobleman and a woman of the middle class;
7) an aristocrat and an ordinary noblewoman;
8) an aristocrat and a woman of the same class.

From the eight dialogues mentioned above, a certain moral and everyday code emerges. Love is a form of struggle. Women have some power over men, but this power has been condescendingly given to them by men themselves. You cannot openly deny them the fulfillment of any desires, but you can deceive them. Love requires money and a generous nature. Poverty is humiliating for a self-respecting person. There is no talk here about the sanctity of the family, and love between spouses does not serve as an excuse for avoiding love outside of marriage. Furthermore: as the aristocrat convinces an ordinary noblewoman, from the definition of love it follows that there cannot be love between spouses. It can’t, because love requires secrets and furtive kisses. Love, moreover, is impossible without jealousy, that is, without constant anxiety about how not to lose your beloved, and in marriage there is nothing like that.

The Church, as you know, tried to use knighthood to its advantage. But the Christian shell of chivalry was extremely thin. Instead of humility - pride, instead of forgiveness - revenge, complete disrespect for other people's lives, softened only by the fact that in the ease with which the errant knight chopped off the heads of the opponents he encountered along the way, something not entirely serious is felt. Sinful actions from the point of view of the church could easily be forgiven by entering a monastery in one’s declining years. Since this seemed too burdensome, it was possible to escape in an easier way; It was enough to dress the deceased knight in a monastic robe.

At God's court (ordeals), God allowed himself to be easily deceived when it came to testing the innocence of a treacherous wife. As you know, Isolde, who had to hold a red-hot bar of iron during the ordeal, came out of this ordeal with honor, swearing that no one held her in the arms except her legal husband, King Mark, and the beggar pilgrim who had just carried her through the quagmire and which was Tristan in disguise.

“A lot of pretense was required in order to maintain Everyday life a fiction of the knightly ideal,” wrote J. Huizinga. Chivalry was criticized by the clergy of that time, minstrels, townspeople, peasants and the knights themselves. The knights were accused of greed, of attacks on travelers, of robbing churches, of breaking oaths, of debauchery, of beating wives, of not following the rules required during fights, of disrespect for the lives of hostages, of ruining opponents with excessive ransom amounts, of turning tournaments into a profitable trade - hunting for the armor, weapons and horse of a defeated knight. They regretted the ignorance of the knights, who were mostly illiterate and had to send for a cleric when they received a letter. There is no doubt that the knightly ideal was not intellectual. But he expected a rich emotional life. Men dried up with melancholy and lost their minds if they did not keep their word; easily burst into tears. And for women, losing consciousness was a couple of trifles, dying of love was a trifle. It is interesting to compare this exhibitionism with the restraint in the manifestation of feelings characteristic of the Icelandic sagas. However, the heyday of the courtly romance was the 12th century; starting from the 14th century, knightly ideology was taken less and less seriously.”

M. Ossovskaya " Knightly ethos and its varieties." Chapter “The Knight in the Middle Ages” (excerpts).

TICKET No. 5

TICKET No. 8

Historical novel is a genre

Historical novel is a genre

narrative literature, showing human destinies and

characters that convey the appearance of a particular historical era

Historical novel is a genre

narrative literature, showing human destinies and

characters that convey the appearance of a particular historical era

Historical novel is a genre

narrative literature, showing human destinies and

characters that convey the appearance of a particular historical era

Features of a historical novel.

TICKET No. 13

TICKET No. 18

TICKET No. 19

TICKET No. 25

TICKET No. 5

1. Define the concept of “tragedy” using the example of William Shakespeare’s work “Romeo and Juliet”.

Tragedy is one of the types of drama, which is based on a tense, irreconcilable conflict, most often ending in the death of the hero. In the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" the problems of the invincibility of fate and earthly love are raised. The basis of the tragedy is the conflict (clash) of people, interests, positions, the manifestation of the hero’s insoluble internal contradictions. This conflict cannot be resolved otherwise than through the suffering of a person; it leads to his death, but also to spiritual growth, to a sharpening of feelings, to the manifestation of human qualities. The conflict involves the other participants in the tragedy, and it is experienced by everyone. In the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”, time itself, the setting, and opposing characters are conflicting. Chance plays the role of inevitability.

In Shakespeare's tragedy, pure, natural, sinless love and the disorder of the world (blood feud, ambition) collide. This is a conflict between pure heart and prejudice. In an atmosphere of mutual hostility, suddenly great love arises, which resists evil and affirms the beauty of the world.

The play also shows the clash between fathers and sons, progressive-minded young people. According to the custom of that time, the choice of a partner for the marriage of a son or daughter was made by parents, regardless of the feelings of the children. This is how it happens in the Capulet family. The father chose Count Paris as Juliet's husband without asking her consent.

Love is opposed to misanthropy. Romeo and Juliet not only rebelled against old views and their relationship. They gave an example of a new life. They are not divided by enmity, they are united by love. the main idea work is that the long-awaited peace comes thanks to the sincerity of the feelings of the young generation, ready to accept death in the name of eternal love and reconnection beyond these cruel worldly principles.

TICKET No. 8

1. Determine the features of the historical novel genre using the example of W. Scott’s work “Ivanhoe”.

Historical novel is a genre

narrative literature, showing human destinies and

characters that convey the appearance of a particular historical era

Historical novel is a genre

narrative literature, showing human destinies and

characters that convey the appearance of a particular historical era

Historical novel is a genre

narrative literature, showing human destinies and

characters that convey the appearance of a particular historical era

Historical novel is a genre

narrative literature, showing human destinies and

characters that convey the appearance of a particular historical era

The creator of the historical novel genre is Walter Scott.

Features of a historical novel.

1) Depiction of events of a specific historical era. These events are most often turning points when the fate of the country is decided.

The novel “Ivanhoe” recreates the time of feudal strife in the 12th century in England. There is a struggle between the Saxons (native inhabitants of England) and the Normans (conquerors). At that time, the country was fighting for centralization. royal power. The work tells about the boundless tyranny of the feudal lords, the transformation of knightly castles into robber cells, the lawlessness and poverty of the peasants. The writer vividly depicts the cruelty of the servants of the Catholic Church, the robbery and violence of the crusading knights. Also in the center of the plot of the novel are episodes typical of the era (tournament of knights, siege and storming of the castle in order to free the hostages)

2) Private life people are depicted against the background of historical events and connected with them.

In “Ivanhoe,” the author describes the personal lives of the characters in the context of historical events, talks about extraordinary adventures and real historical facts. The novel revolves around the young knight Ivanhoe and the beautiful lady Rowena. The fictional character Ayyengo in the novel is a comrade of King Richard and a participant in the crusade. Real and fictional events are closely intertwined.

3) The presence of historical figures in the novel. This is Richard the Lionheart in the novel, but he is depicted here not so much as a real person, but as a good king from folk legends.

4) In the novel there are representatives of different classes (in “Ivanhoe” these are kings, knights, feudal lords and their servants, monks, robbers). Their clothing, housing, household items are described in detail, and even their manner of speaking is conveyed.

A historical novel introduces us to history, helps us understand the peculiarities of life and morals of people in a time distant from us.

TICKET No. 13

Tell us about the qualities of a real knight, based on the actions of the heroes of W. Scott’s novel “Ivanhoe.”

The main knight in W. Scott's novel is Ivanhoe himself. Throughout the entire work, he commits actions that correspond to the knightly code of honor. Under the guise of a pilgrim, he is the only one who, taking pity on the weak old man Isaac, gives him a place at the hearth. Then he saves him from robbery and death. Wins several duels of the Knights Templar, fights alongside King Richard, and takes part in the crusade. He saves the beautiful Reveka, without betraying the knightly concepts of honor throughout the novel. At the same time, Rowena remains his only lady of his heart. The duty of a true knight is to be a supporter of the weak. His main virtue is nobility. Ivanhoe is a fair and noble man. He is always ready to help honest people, protect them from the willfulness of the insidious Normans. Ivanhoe understands well that a person’s strength lies in friendship, and his happiness lies in love. Everyone who surrounds him is captivated by the generosity, kindness and simplicity of the young knight. The most terrible crime of a knight is betrayal of honor and duty (Von de Boeuf and Briand de Boisguillebert), this crime is punishable by death.

The second incarnation of a real knight in the novel is Richard the Lionheart. He is most attracted to the life of a simple wandering knight; the glory he wins alone is dearer to him than the victory won at the head of a hundred thousand army. It is he, under the mask of the Black Knight, who carries the wounded Ivanhoe out of the burning castle in his arms, and then does many more good deeds: he saves old Cedric and Lady Rowena, reconciles Ivanhoe with his father and blesses future marriage young men and Rowena.

What exactly was this so-called “knightly path to Salvation”? What should a knight do in order not only to receive worldly glory, but also to save his immortal soul? This is what Maurice Kean writes on this subject, conveying in his own words the thoughts of Raymond Lull, expressed in his treatise on chivalry:

His [i.e. knight – chevalry] the first duty is to defend the faith of Christ from the infidels, for which he will be honored not only in our world, but also after death: this is, of course, the speech of the true son of the crusader! The knight is also obliged to protect his secular lord, take care of the weak, women, widows and orphans, and constantly train his body by hunting wild animals - deer, wild boars and wolves - and participating in duels and tournaments. Under the leadership of his king, he must administer justice among the people under him and guide them in righteous labors. It is from among the knights that kings should choose their provosts, bailiffs and other senior officials. The knight, in turn, must always be ready to immediately leave his castle and go to protect roads or pursue robbers and intruders.

He also needs: to acquire certain knowledge of the virtues necessary to fulfill all the above duties; try to gain wisdom; cultivate mercy and loyalty. However, the most important thing in a knight is military valor, “for most of all knighthood is famous precisely for the nobility of courage (noblesse de courage)” (i.e. valor). And above all, honor is for him. Well, a knight must flee pride, as well as perjury, laziness, debauchery and - betrayal (it should be noted that Lull’s concept has a very archaic flavor - especially with regard to particularly serious types of betrayal: the murder of his lord, cohabitation with his wife, surrender of his castle to the enemy).

At the end of his book, Lull draws a conclusion about what kind of person the knight should become as a result. Firstly, he should have courteous and noble manners, dress well and show hospitality - of course, within the limits of his financial capabilities. Loyalty and truthfulness, courage and generosity (largesse), as well as modesty - these are the main character traits that we should expect in a knight.

This text seems a little pompous, but we should consider that for the Middle Ages this kind of sublime rhetoric, as well as symbolism and convention in the presentation of ideas, were the most common, widespread phenomenon. Moreover, in this case the knightly idea is presented briefly and dryly, one might say, theoretically. And we already see its literary refraction in the knightly and courtly novels of the Middle Ages.

According to Raymond Lull, it turns out that knightly piety is a complete and integral system of values ​​that should be characteristic of every true knight. This system includes:
- knightly virtues - valor, loyalty, courage, generosity, generosity;
- military exploits - participation in knightly duels, knightly tournaments, wars for the king (or his overlord) and, finally, the Crusades;
- protection and patronage of churches and monasteries, widows and orphans, the disadvantaged, and unjustly convicted;
- performance of Christian rites and rituals - fasting, prayer, participation in temple services;
- courtliness, or secularism - the ability to behave at the royal court and in general in an aristocratic environment, education, gallantry, courtesy.

Here is an approximate list of elements that together made any knight an exemplary knight.