Ebook: Kynde innocence: Children in Old French and Middle English romance

Medieval children were not simply miniature adults, as is sometimes asserted. The Middle Ages appreciated childhood as a special phase of life. Adults might find children amusing; but they also recognized and cherished such qualities as innocence, pitiableness, loyalty, and perseverance, which are frequently associated with children in medieval romances. These qualities, and the value placed upon them, allowed authors to use child characters both to entertain and to illustrate moral lessons. French and English romances circulating in the fourteenth century display somewhat different views of childhood. In English poems, children's positive qualities are widely accepted, whereas in French tales, admirable children are more likely to be presented as exceptions to a less pleasant norm.

I examine two romances, Amis and Amiloun and Floris and Blauncheflor, which enjoyed considerable popularity in the Middle Ages and circulated in both Old French and Middle English texts. I also consider two apparently less popular romances, which show no signs of having been translated: the Middle English Athelston and the Old French Roman de Silence. All these romances have important characters who are children. The Middle English writers generally stress the ingenuity and bravery of older children, while emphasizing the helpless innocence of babies. In the Old French texts, on the other hand, these differences are flattened; a very young child may demonstrate great courage, while an older one may be pitied by adults within the story for his beauty and helplessness. Such variations depend to some degree on the intended audience for the romances. Middle English writers appear to have been writing, or translating, for more general audiences, whereas Old French writers often seem to have composed under the direction of a patron, for a specific readership.

My approach to these romances is based in social history, influenced by feminist psychoanalytic theories, particularly the writings of Nancy Chodorow, as well as by anthropological approaches to childhood such as that of Nancy Scheper-Hughes.