do not accept such a prohibition," she answered; "if ever I do escape, no one shall reproach me with having broken or violated my faith, not having given my word to any one, whosoever it may be."
She had guts! She outright spoke her mind and even warned them against her escape
For God who counsels her gave her A greater heart than any man.
Kind of reminds me of Silence here
Contemplate your person now, You are virgin, very young,
Even though she saved France her value is still dependent upon her virtue
Toward your people gentle and kind, And fearing God, who's chosen you To be his servant (you have proof Of this), and do your duty too.
Here we see the hierarchy of the people since the people are servants to the king but the king is God’s servant
Will lie; thus runs the prophecy. The "Flying Stag" will be his name
I’m guessing there was a prophecy made about all the events that took place
When Fortune casts him on his face.
This reminds me of the depiction of the wheel of fate
To him; let "Noels!" fill the place.
I’m guessing Noels are like psalms
The glorious season they call Spring, When everything appears like new,
Here we come across the idea of spring as we do in other medieval works
and it must be clea
He gets really specific in how to do things, I wonder where he learned to cook
But there be certain old hags, which be sly and play the wise woman and feign great love by way of showing their heart's great service, and naught else; and wot you, fair sister
Here we see how being young excuses women for “not knowing things” and gives them their husbands love and attention but older women are regarded as evil hags
so long as you neither seek nor try to go to the feasts and dances of lords of too high rank, for that does not become you, nor does it sort with your estate, nor mine.
I guess he is afraid that a higher ranked lord will like her and take her from him (I mean she’s being forced to marry him so there’s really no love), his insecurity comes from the fact he’s much older and she’s not in love .
dear sister
It is somewhat awkward for him to call her dear sister
but rather each night, or from day to day, in our chamber, to remind you of the unseemly or foolish things done in the day or days past, and chastise you, if it pleased me, and then you would strive to amend yourself according to my teaching and correction, and to serve my will in all things, as you said.
It doesn’t surprise me that he would say this but it is nevertheless still unbelievable how harsh he was being to his wife who is literally a child
did pray me to be indulgent to your youth and to your small and ignorant service
The fact that he mentions indulging in her youth is disturbing given her age. Also, he has not spent time with her yet and is already assuming that she will be inexperienced and foolish. It really shows how men though really lowly of women.
But he did not dare to say anything against her. He felt himself discomfited and defeated; And she did what she pleased, She who was neither foolish nor lowborn.
This is not usual for medieval times
"Be quiet," she said, "good-for-nothing And watch out that you don't say anything more, For, if you speak wrong to me in any way, By the faith that I owe the Holy Spirit,
Wow! The woman scolded him and even used the lord's name
And held the lady as a peasant
Here we come to see how peasant women were treated badly but it was not something that was looked down on
The knight pushes her back with his foot, For he had a very high and haughty manner.
This shows how he did not have the chilvaric values in him since he did not treat noble women properly (especially his wife)
Thus good heritage is abased,
abased: degrade, belittle Wealth was not enough to make a person suitable but rather rank was too Was the problem that the knight was son of an usurer or that he was of lower rank?
Hear what Guèrin would relate
It is interesting to see how he refers to himself in third person. Was this the way of him promoting himself as a storyteller?
We command all priests on feast days and Sundays to pray for all who keep the peace
It is very clear that priests play an immense role as mediators between earth and heaven and that people believed they had higher spiritual connections.
If he desires to make satisfaction for his crime he shall first restore the thing which he stole or its value in money
It is interesting to see how religion played a spiritual yet also a more authoritative role. It ensured that people were following norms and were being fair to one another even if it (religion) was sometimes too strict.
violator of the peace shall fall sick and die before he completes his penance, no Christian shall visit him or move his body from the place where it lay
I think this goes to show how strict religious rules were and how people were forced to make extremely hard decisions as a result. I cannot image how a mother must have felt seeing her son die and not being able to visit his dead body because he sinned and did not finish his penance for it.