WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Poetry Fix: Guigemar Part 6

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

This installment of Guigemar portrays the lady's reply to the wounded knight and illuminates aspects of her character, such as her hospitality and virtue. However, the lady is not without her discontents, as she reveals to Guigemar.

Welcome to the Poetry Fix on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Erica Kaiba, bringing you your weekly fix of poetry from across time. Today we're continuing our journey through Marie de Fros's Guizhmar. Last week, we observed how Gishmar has experienced a reversal of his typical role, having become dependent and vulnerable because of his injury. In today's excerpt, we will see how the Lady II experiences a reversal of her usual situation. She is accustomed to being a prisoner within her own home, subject to the demands of her lord. Now, however, she is the one calling all the shots,

opening her doors to Gizhmar and showing him hospitality. Hospitality is a key virtue in chivalric literature, and the quality of the hospitality that the lady shows Gizhmer says a lot about her. The poet stresses that the lady binds Gishmar's wounds with fine linen, washes them water from golden bowls, and even refrains a little from her dinner so that she can make sure Gishmar is well fed. She gives Gishmar the best that she has. In telling us this, the poet is showing us that this lady is virtuous. However, our fair lady is more than just the picture of chivalric virtue and well-bred grace.

The beginning of her speech reveals deep grievances with the life that her lord has imposed on her, and the poet gives her a lexical field that borders unfurious. She describes her lord's crazy jealousy, expresses her displeasure about not even being able to stir without his approval, and even invokes hell itself against the priest who guards her. The lady is deeply discontented with her captive life, and that too forms an important backdrop to the relationship that will develop between her and Gizhmar. With all that said, let's dive in. Guizmar by Marie de Frost Translated by Dorothy Gilbert She said

Fair sire, most willingly I'll help And do it easily My husband rules this town, this ground He's lord of all the country round He's wealthy, of high lineage But he is much advanced in age, Wild in his crazy jealousy For honor's sake

He's prison to be within these walls no liberty for me. There's just one entrance way. An old priest guards it, guards the gate. May hell's flames take him, hell's own hate. Day and night I am shut in here, never to leave. I do not dare, unless with his consent to stir, or I can serve my old seigneur. My chapel and my room, you see, and my dear maid who lives with me. Now, if it pleases you to stay until you've strength to go your way. Willingly we will shelter you and do what service we can do. The wounded man, when he had heard, thanked her with a most gracious word. Yes, he would stay with them, he said. He sat up then. He rose from bed. The women, struggling,

aided him. The lady led him to the room. They laid him on the maiden's bed. Behind a curtain he was hid. Well tucked under a canopy, meant for the young girl's privacy. In golden bowls, water was brought to wash his thigh wound, cleaned it out. Cloth of white linen, fine and good the ladies used to wash the blood. Tightly they wound the bandage there. They did it with much tender care. And when the evening meal was brought, the maiden ate less, just a bit, so that the guest could fill his plate. Oh, very well he drank a date. You've been listening to The Poetry Fix with Erica Kaiba. If you enjoyed this episode, consider following the Poetry Fix on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Join me next week and we'll be continuing our journey as Gizhmar heals from his wound, but quickly discovers he is afflicted with a deeper malady.