10 - Hovedans: fourteenth-century dancing songs in the Rhine and Meuse area

Summary

From 30 September to 5 October 1285, a magnificent tournament was held at Chauvency (now in the département de la Meuse, near the French–Belgian border), in which, besides the Lotharingian nobility, many knights from Hainault, Brabant, Flanders, Picardy and the duchy of Limburg took part. Thanks to the Arras(?) author Jacques Bretel, we possess a detailed and reliable day-by-day account of this event. In his poem, Bretel not only describes the fighting, but also pays much attention to the more peaceful interludes of the festival, especially to the entertainment after supper with music, singing and dancing. Among other things he tells us how, during the last evening, this elegant company of noble ladies and gentlemen performs a series of dance-acts – le beguignaige, Uermite, le pelerignaige, le provencel, le robardel, Berengier ou le chapelet (lines 1483–6) – in order to comfort the wounded knights. The majority of these baleries – as Joseph Bédier called these mimic dances – are just names for us, except the last one, which is described by Bretel at some length. In this act, a noble lady (a role performed by the countess of Luxemburg) pretends to be more interested in toying with her chaplet than in obtaining a husband; but when her partner in the game, a minstrel, claims to have found the very man for her, she is delighted.