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A torrid affair, resulting in an illegitimate child and a clandestine wedding, followed by banishment and the occasional book-burning: no, it's not an episode of The Days of Our Lives, but the story of the 12th-century monastics Heloise and Abelard.
Heloise and Abelard A Twelfth-Century Love Story by James Burge HarperSanFrancisco, 2004 288 pp., $24.95 |
The pair met in Paris, where Abelard, one of the greatest medieval logicians, was teaching. Heloise, a prize pupil, was living with her uncle Fulbert, a canon at Notre-Dame. Heloise and Abelard quickly began a passionate love affair, which, despite their moony ardor, they managed to keep secret from the uncle. When Heloise got pregnant, Abelard whisked her away (disguised as a nun) to his relatives in Brittany. Upon return to Paris, Abelard knew he had to pay the piper. He approached Heloise's uncle, and they determined that the young couple should marry. Initially, Heloise was opposed to matrimony, which she feared would ruin Abelard's career. But Abelard and Fulbert were adamant, and the couple was wed, albeit in secret, shortly after the birth of their son.
Still, scandal continued to rumble, and eventually, at Abelard's insistence, Heloise entered a convent at Argenteuil. Whether her initial intention was simply to rest and find a bit of solitude or actually take orders is unclear. What is known is that Heloise did not herself desire to become a nun; she did so simply out of deference to Abelard's wishes. She wept while taking her vows, and, in the middle of the solemn ceremony, she recited a snippet from the poet Lucan: "O noble husband, too great for me to wed, was it my fate to bed that lofty head? Why did I marry you and bring about your fall? Now accept the penalty and see me gladly pay."
Until 20 years ago, the story of Heloise and Abelard rested almost entirely on a lengthy autobiographical letter by Abelard and the brief ensuing correspondence between the two, all written more than a decade after Heloise entered the convent. In 1980, scholar Constant Mews made a path-breaking discovery while studying a 15th-century Latin treatise on the art of letter writing. The treatise, which was full of examples of great epistolary style, featured a correspondence between two unnamed lovers. As Mews read on, he saw more and more similarities, both stylistic and substantive, between Heloise and Abelard's extant correspondence and that of these two anonymous epistlers. Mews studied the letters for almost 20 years before publishing a bilingual edition of them in 1999. By then he was confident that he had found, as his title indicated, The Lost Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Though discovered much later, these are actually among the lovers' early letters (and I use the term lovers advisedly, as the letters make an erotic, amorous read), from the period during whichby their own accountthey wrote to each other every day. They tell of the young Abelard and Heloise's great passion, their secret assignations, their yearning for one another. ("Have mercy on your beloved," wrote Abelard, "wasting away and almost fading away unless you come quickly to help me… . Ask the messenger what I did after I wrote this letter: there and then I threw myself on the bed out of impatience.")
This winter, two new books, drawing on the recently discovered letters, retell the story. Abelard and Heloise is by Mews himself. Heloise and Abelard was written by documentary producer James Burge. For those weary of the usual seasonal effusions, this pair of books offers alternative Valentine's Day reading.
Burge's account will have the greater appeal to popular audiences. He tells the story of the love affair with the flair of a novelist. His account is detailed and exciting but never tawdry, and he sprinkles the book with lots of luminous quotations from the letter-writers themselves. Mews, by contrast, offers a detailed reading of the letters he discovered in the 15th-century style-guide, arguing forcefully, if also with a light touch, that these are, indeed, letters between the young Heloise and Abelard. He then skims over the ending of their affair, to which Burge devotes four full chapters, in a few paragraphsHeloise's flight to Brittany, childbirth, the secret marriage; Heloise's entry, at the wishes of Abelard, into a convent; the vengeful middle-of-the-night castration of Abelard, ordered by Fulbert.
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