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English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (XIVth Century)

Chapter 52: XVII (p. 141, 362) THE PILGRIMAGE OF REYNARD
By J. J. Jusserand
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About This Book

A scholarly survey reconstructs the nomadic and itinerant aspects of fourteenth-century English life by foregrounding petitions, year-books, statutes, and other archival records rather than relying solely on literary accounts. It traces routes of travelers, the institutions and informal customs that regulated movement, and the economic, legal, and social encounters that punctuated journeys, from markets and fairs to inns and courts. Close readings of documentary evidence illuminate dangers, hospitality practices, and administrative responses, while pen-and-ink sketches and examples illustrate daily patterns and the methodological case for archival reconstruction.

XVII (p. 141, 362) THE PILGRIMAGE OF REYNARD

Tired of his sins, duly shriven, ordered by the hermit to go to Rome, and there receive absolution, Reynard,

“Escrepe et bordon prent, si muet,
Si est entres en son chemin,
Molt resemble bien pélerin,
Et bien li sist l’escrepe au col.”

He does not care to travel alone and, like most pilgrims, prefers company:

“Mes de ce se tint il por fol
Qu’il est meüz sans compaignie,
Le grant chemin n’ira il mie,
Ançois l’avoit laissié à destre,
Une sente torne à senestre,”

and leads him to a place where he finds

“dan Belin
Le moton qui se reposoit,”

and whom he persuades to go with him, thus avoiding, he suggests, being eaten by his owners. A third member, the donkey, is soon added to their party:

“En lor chemin en sont entrè,
Mes il n’orent guères erré,
Qant trovent Bernart l’archeprestre
En un fossé les cardons pestre,”

and he is easily persuaded to follow. They enter the forest. Night comes. Where shall they find shelter? Why should we, Reynard remarks, look for any other “ostel” than the fine grass under this tree?

“Et nos queil ostel querrion
Fors la bele erbe soz cest arbre?
Meus l’eim que un paleis de marbre.”

Appealing as must have been the fine grass to him, Belin objects, the wood being so dangerous. So they continue their journey until they reach the “ostel Primaut,” that is the house of Primaut the Wolf, who was away. There they find

“Char salée, formache et oes . . .
Si i trovent bone cervoise.
Tant boit Belins que il s’envoise;
Si a commencié à chanter
Et l’archeprestre à orguaner,
Et dan Renart chante en fauset.”

Concluding speech of Reynard, after the siege of the house by the wolves, and the miscarriage of the pilgrimage:

“Segnor, dist Renart, par mon chef,
Cest eires est pesant et gref;
Il a el siécle meint prodome
Qu’ onques encor ne fu à Rome:
Tiex est revenuz de sept seinz
Qui est pires qu’il ne fu einz.
Je me voil metre en mon retor,
Et si vivrai de mon labor
Et gaaignerai léelment,
Si ferai bien à povre gent.
Lors ont crié: outrée, outrée!
Si ont fete la retornée.”

“Le roman de Renart,” ed. Ernest Martin, Strasbourg and Paris, 1882 ff, 7 vols.; i. pp. 269 ff.