Courtly Love) is often taken as a rulebook for the favorable treatment of women, devotes
the final third of his effort to arguments against marriage and womankind.
French literary works of the 12th and especially 13th centuries give the theme free
rein. Criticism of women cites their lecherousness, garrulity, and insatiability. Woman is
instability personified, contradictory at every turn. Even courtly romances, though
claiming to elevate the status of women, can use the themes of antifeminism. An example
is the romance of Amadas et Ydoine. The anonymous author, attempting to praise his
heroine, Ydoine, does so by describing all the things she is not, and the reader is provided
with a long litany of woman’s failings. Irony is a favorite authorial tool used to attack
women; one example among many is the title of the late 14th-century Quinze joies de
mariage.
Antifeminism is pervasive in the fabliaux, where woman is a favorite object of satire,
portrayed with all her “failings,” particularly lechery, gluttony, and garrulity. Popular
texts, dits like the Dit des cometes, the Contenance des fames, or the Évangile aux
femmes, use arguments initiated by Jerome, found repeated in medieval Latin literature
and in the fabliaux to criticize women; rare is the popular text that praises the female sex.
Proverbs of the period enshrine the theme of antifeminism in popular wisdom. The
emphasis in proverbial literature is on the mutability of women; “Cueur de femme est tost
mué” is a typical example. These proverbs are often cited in French literary works.
The Roman de la Rose also includes the theme. Although Guillaume de Lorris implied
that women have bad features, Jean de Meun exploited antifeminism with a vengeance.
Most notable in this vein is the long tirade by the Jealous Husband on female vices (ll.
8,437–9,330), repeating all the characterizations seen in other French and Latin literary
works. Jean’s antifeminism later raised the ire of Christine de Pizan, leading to the
celebrated “Quarrel of the Rose.”
The popularity of antifeminist arguments in the Middle Ages is not necessarily proof
of rampant misogyny. One must be wary of attributing to authors the opinions expressed
by characters in their works. Antifeminism, however, was a literary theme appreciated by
medieval audiences and much exploited by medieval authors.
Wendy E.Pfeffer
[See also: ANDREAS CAPELLANUS; CHRISTINE DE PIZAN; JEAN DE MEUN;
LE FÈVRE (DE RESSONS), JEAN; PROVERB; QUARREL OF THE ROMAN DE LA
ROSE; QUINZE JOIES DE MARIAGE; ROSE, ROMAN DE LA]
Jodogne, Omer, ed. “L‘édition de l‘Évangile aux femmes.” In Studi in onore di Angelo Monteverdi.
Modena: Società Tipografica Editrice Modenese, 1959, Vol. 1, pp. 353–75.
Matheolus. Les Lamentations de Matheolus et le Livre de leesce de Jehan le Fèvre, de Resson
(poèmes français du XIVe siècle), ed. A.-G.von Hamel. 2 vols. Paris: Bouillon, 1892–1905.
Rigg, A.G., ed. Gawain on Marriage: The Textual Tradition of the “De coniuge non ducenda” with
Critical Edition and Translation. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1986.
Bloch, R.Howard. Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Ferrante, Joan M. Woman as Image in Medieval Literature from the Twelfth Century to Dante. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1975.
Friedman, Lionel J. “Jean de Meun, Antifeminism and ‘Bourgeois Realism.’” Modern Philology
57(1959):13–23.
Hicks, Eric, ed. Le débat sur le Roman de la Rose. Paris: Champion, 1977.
Rogers, Katherine M. The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature. Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 1966.
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