William of Blois (poet)

Last updated
William of Blois
Abbot of Santa Maria della Matina
Appointedc. 1167
Term endedafter 1167
Personal details
Professionclergyman and writer

William of Blois [lower-alpha 1] was a French medieval poet and dramatist. He wrote at least one poetical work, which has not survived, as well as some dramas. Two other works that survive are credited to him, but it is not clear if he was actually the author. He also was an abbot of a monastery in Calabria in southern Italy, after being an unsuccessful candidate for the Bishopric of Catania in Italy.

Contents

Family and early life

William was from the Loire Valley, [1] [2] the brother of fellow poet Peter of Blois. While named after the city of Blois, there is no documentary evidence that either brother was born there. [2] The family's origins may have been in Brittany. [2] The family, which also included sisters, was not particularly rich. It was, however, from the nobility, and William was well educated. [2] William moved to the Kingdom of Sicily, either arriving with his brother Peter in September 1166, [3] or shortly afterwards in 1167. [4]

Writing career

William wrote in the 12th century and was the author of at least one work, the Flaura et Marcus, which has not survived. It was written in Latin. He is also credited with two other works that do survive, although his authorship is uncertain. These two works are the Alda, which survives in three manuscripts, and the Iurgia muscae et pulicis, surviving in one manuscript. Both of these other works were also written in Latin. [5] The Alda was modeled closely on the style of Matthew of Vendôme, so much so that it is difficult to distinguish the Alda from Matthew's own works. [6] One of the plotlines of the Alda is the seduction of a woman who is imprisoned by the device of pretending to be a woman. [7]

Some at least of William's works were dramas. [8] William's works are part of a group of works known as the "Latin Elegiac comedies", although other names such as "Latin comedies", "Latin fabliaux", or "Latin comic tales" have also been employed. Major themes were guile, deception, lust and sexual scheming and were produced in elegiac verse modeled on that of Ovid. [9]

Clerical career

In 1167 William was the candidate for the vacant diocese of Catania as the choice of the French party that had come to Sicily in the following of the chancellor Stephen du Perche. He also had the support of the queen, Margaret of Navarre. [4] By November he had definitively lost the election to John of Ajello, candidate of the "xenophobe party" led by Matthew of Ajello. [4]

Around this time, perhaps as compensation for the lost bishopric, William became the abbot of the monastery of Santa Maria della Matina in Calabria. There is some confusion over the name of this abbey, but in letters from his brother Peter, William is referred to as abbas Matinensis or Mathinensis, a name which became emended to Maniacensis (Maniaci) in the Histoire Littéraire de France, which nonetheless correctly identifies the abbey. [4] Although the abbey was Benedictine at the time, as was William, [10] it became Cistercian in 1179/80. While he was still abbot, William received letters from his brother saying that William had not acquired his position in the best manner [11] and urging him to leave Italy and return to France. William agreed to do so, but it is not known if he actually left. [8]

William has been confused in the past with William de Blois, who was Bishop of Lincoln in England and died in 1206. This has since been disproven. [5]

Notes

  1. ↑ French: Guillaume de Blois; Latin: Gulielmus Blesensis

Citations

  1. ↑ Elliot Seven Medieval Latin Comedies intro.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Cotts The Clerical Dilemma pp. 19–20 and footnote 7
  3. ↑ Southern "Blois, Peter of" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  4. 1 2 3 4 White "Biography of William of Blois" English Historical Review pp. 488–89
  5. 1 2 Sharpe Handlist of Latin Writers p. 754
  6. ↑ Sedgwick "Textual Criticism" Speculum p. 290
  7. ↑ Carver "Transformed in Show" English Literary Renaissance p. 327
  8. 1 2 Holmes and Weedon "Peter of Blois" Speculum p. 252
  9. ↑ Bishop "Influence of Plautus and Latin Elegiac Comedy" Chaucer Review p. 297 and footnote 17
  10. ↑ Cotts The Clerical Dilemma p. 248
  11. ↑ Cotts The Clerical Dilemma p. 28

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard of Clairvaux</span> Burgundian saint, abbot and theologian (1090–1153)

Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist., venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templar, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through the nascent Cistercian Order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Chaucer</span> English poet and author (c. 1340s – 1400)

Geoffrey Chaucer was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.

Theobald of Bec was a Norman archbishop of Canterbury from 1139 to 1161. His exact birth date is unknown. Some time in the late 11th or early 12th century Theobald became a monk at the Abbey of Bec, rising to the position of abbot in 1137. King Stephen of England chose him to be Archbishop of Canterbury in 1138. Canterbury's claim to primacy over the Welsh ecclesiastics was resolved during Theobald's term of office when Pope Eugene III decided in 1148 in Canterbury's favour. Theobald faced challenges to his authority from a subordinate bishop, Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester and King Stephen's younger brother, and his relationship with King Stephen was turbulent. On one occasion Stephen forbade him from attending a papal council, but Theobald defied the king, which resulted in the confiscation of his property and temporary exile. Theobald's relations with his cathedral clergy and the monastic houses in his archdiocese were also difficult.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Gower</span> English writer and poet (c.1330–1408)

John Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works—the Mirour de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis—three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which are united by common moral and political themes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis de Blois</span> Flemish monk

Louis de Blois, O.S.B., was a Flemish monk and mystical writer, generally known under the name of Blosius.

Peter of Blois was a French cleric, theologian, poet and diplomat. He is particularly noted for his corpus of Latin letters.

Alexander Neckam was an English magnetician, poet, theologian, and writer. He was an abbot of Cirencester Abbey from 1213 until his death.

A fabliau is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France between c. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by sexual and scatological obscenity, and by a set of contrary attitudes—contrary to the church and to the nobility. Several of them were reworked by Giovanni Boccaccio for the Decameron and by Geoffrey Chaucer for his Canterbury Tales. Some 150 French fabliaux are extant, the number depending on how narrowly fabliau is defined. According to R. Howard Bloch, fabliaux are the first expression of literary realism in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry of Blois</span> Bishop of Winchester (c. 1096 – 1171)

Henry of Blois, often known as Henry of Winchester, was Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey from 1126, and Bishop of Winchester from 1129 to his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorsch Abbey</span> UNESCO World Heritage Site in Hesse, Germany

Lorsch Abbey, otherwise the Imperial Abbey of Lorsch, is a former Imperial abbey in Lorsch, Germany, about 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Worms. It was one of the most important monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ruined state, its remains are among the most important pre-Romanesque–Carolingian style buildings in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reginald Fitz Jocelin</span> 12th-century Bishop of Bath

Reginald Fitz Jocelin was a medieval Bishop of Bath and an Archbishop of Canterbury-elect in England. A member of an Anglo-Norman noble family, he was the son of a bishop, and was educated in Italy. He was a household clerk for Thomas Becket, but by 1167 he was serving King Henry II of England. He was also a favourite of King Louis VII of France, who had him appointed abbot of the Abbey of Corbeil. After Reginald angered Becket while attempting to help negotiate a settlement between Becket and the king, Becket called him "that offspring of fornication, that enemy to the peace of the Church, that traitor." When he was elected as a bishop, the election was challenged by King Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King, and Reginald was forced to go to Rome to be confirmed by Pope Alexander III. He attended the Third Lateran Council in 1179, and spent much of his time administering his diocese. He was elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1191, but died before he could be installed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert Foliot</span> 12th-century English monk and bishop

Gilbert Foliot was a medieval English monk and prelate, successively Abbot of Gloucester, Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London. Born to an ecclesiastical family, he became a monk at Cluny Abbey in France at about the age of twenty. After holding two posts as prior in the Cluniac order he was appointed Abbot of Gloucester Abbey in 1139, a promotion influenced by his kinsman Miles of Gloucester. During his tenure as abbot he acquired additional land for the abbey, and may have helped to fabricate some charters—legal deeds attesting property ownership—to gain advantage in a dispute with the Archbishops of York. Although Foliot recognised Stephen as the King of England, he may have also sympathised with the Empress Matilda's claim to the throne. He joined Matilda's supporters after her forces captured Stephen, and continued to write letters in support of Matilda even after Stephen's release.

Babio in Latin is a 12th-century elegiac comedy consisting of 484 lines of elegiac distichs, probably composed in England. It imitates Roman comedy and is indebted to Ovid, Plautus and Terence. It is preserved in five manuscripts, four of them in England and one in Berlin (Babio).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Nonant</span> 12th-century Bishop of Coventry

Hugh Nonant was a medieval Bishop of Coventry in England. A great-nephew and nephew of two Bishops of Lisieux, he held the office of archdeacon in that diocese before serving successively Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury and King Henry II of England. Diplomatic successes earned him the nomination to Coventry, but diplomatic missions after his elevation led to a long delay before he was consecrated. After King Henry's death, Nonant served Henry's son, King Richard I, who rewarded him with the office of sheriff in three counties. Nonant replaced his monastic cathedral chapter with secular clergy, and attempted to persuade his fellow bishops to do the same, but was unsuccessful. When King Richard was captured and held for ransom, Nonant supported Prince John's efforts to seize power in England, but had to purchase Richard's favour when the king returned.

William de Blois was a medieval Bishop of Lincoln. He first served in the household of Hugh du Puiset, the Bishop of Durham, then later served the household of Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln. After Hugh's death and a two-year vacancy in the see, or bishopric, Blois was elected to succeed Hugh in 1203. Little is known about his episcopate, although 86 of his documents survive from that time period. He died in 1206 and was buried in his cathedral.

Elegiac comedy was a genre of medieval Latin literature—or drama—represented by about twenty texts written in the 12th and 13th centuries in the liberal arts schools of west central France. Though commonly identified in manuscripts as comoedia, modern scholars often reject their status as comedy. Unlike Classical comedy, they were written in elegiac couplets. Denying their true comedic nature, Edmond Faral called them Latin fabliaux, after the later Old French fabliaux, and Ian Thomson labelled them Latin comic tales. Other scholars have invented terms like verse tales, rhymed monologues, epic comedies, and Horatian comedies to describe them. The Latin "comedies", the dramatic nature of which varies greatly, may have been the direct ancestors of the fabliaux but more likely merely share similarities. Other interpretations have concluded that they are primitive romances, student juvenilia, didactic poems, or merely collections of elegies on related themes.

The Comoedia Lydiae is a medieval Latin elegiac comedy from the late twelfth century. The "argument" at the beginning of the play refers to it as the Lidiades, which the manuscripts gloss as comedia de Lidia facta and which its English translator gives as Adventures of Lidia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominic of Evesham</span> 12th-century monk, Prior of Evesham Abbey, and writer

Dominic of Evesham was a medieval prior of Evesham Abbey in England and writer of religious texts. Probably a native Englishman, there is some confusion about when he became a monk, but by 1104 he was at Evesham and by 1125 he held the office of prior. He is chiefly known for his religious works, including one on the miracles of the Virgin Mary that was an important source for later writings on the subject. Four of his works are still extant.

Indract or Indracht was an Irish saint who, along with his companions, was venerated at Glastonbury Abbey, a monastery in the county of Somerset in south-western England. In the High Middle Ages Glastonbury tradition held that he had been an Irish pilgrim — a king's son – on his way back from Rome who was molested and killed by a local thegn after he had stopped off to visit the shrine of St Patrick. This tradition synchronised his life with that of King Ine (688–726), though historian Michael Lapidge has argued that he is most likely to represent a 9th-century abbot of Iona named Indrechtach ua Fínnachta.

Robert of Cricklade was a medieval English writer and prior of St Frideswide's Priory in Oxford. He was a native of Cricklade and taught before becoming a cleric. He wrote several theological works as well as a lost biography of Thomas Becket, the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.