“‘Chascun qui entre est entaiez’. Contempt in Béroul’s Tristan”

Abstract

The article analyses the place of contempt in Béroul’s Romance of Tristan. Since its appearance in literature, the love of Tristan and Isolde has been the object of a double perception: on the one hand, a valued image of the “martyrdom of love”, and on the other hand, the much less positive image of a degrading, even despicable passion. It is interesting to note that contempt does not only appear in polemical works, but is, on the contrary, already present in the source text, especially in Béroul’s version. An in-depth study of the terms used to describe passion (including those used by the protagonists themselves), an analysis of the play of masks and of the episodes that stage the particularly humiliating situations in which all the characters without exception find themselves, reveals an ironic and sarcastic look by the author, and highlights the sometimes brutal, even cynical tone of the work. The analysis focuses on the major episodes of the story: the scene of the “clandestine rendezvous”, Tristan’s disguise as a leper and Isolde’s “ambiguous oath” (the crossing of the marsh).