A reappraisal of Robert Henryson's Orpheus and Eurydice [microform] : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of M.A. (Hons.) in English at Massey University
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1987
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Massey University
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Abstract
Robert Henryson's Orpheus and Eurydice must be
reappraised because critical thought has not grasped the
complexity and accompanying message contained in the poem.
Much of this thought concentrates on the adequacy of the
Moralitas. Chapter One, therefore, examines critical
attitudes towards the Moralitas, and the relations of the
Moralitas with the body of the poem. The chapter finds that
the Moralitas is superficially adequate as a moral lesson
for Orpheus and Eurydice, but is at a deeper level
insufficient. The conclusion of the chapter suggests that
this insufficiency may be due to the presence of a narrative
persona in the poem.
Chapter Two examines the poem in the light of a possible
narrator, finding substantial textual evidence for such
a concept. The narrator's voice alternates with a
different, authorial tone until the Moralitas is reached,
and the narratorial tone predominates.
Music is emphasised to an unprecedented degree in
Orpheus and Eurydice, and the narrator is most obvious in
1 240-242 where he emphatically denies any musical
expertise. Chapter Three, therefore, acknowledges the
importance of music in the poem and for the Orpheus myth
itself by making a brief examination of the growth of
musical and cosmological theory in the Middle Ages. The
chapter ends by assessing the accumulation of musical detail
in the most central versions of the Orpheus story prior to
Sir Orfeo.
Chapter Four examines Sir Orfeo in detail because it
provides a significant contrast with Henryson's poem. For
the first time Orpheus' music is able to rescue his wife
permanently from her plight, and music in Sir Orfeo is found
to be inextricably intertwined with the concepts of
universal and temporal order.
Chapter Five ties these strands of thought into
a coherent whole. The role of music in Orpheus and Eurydice places much more emphasis on the divinity and excellence of
Orpheus' musical ability and on the singing of the spheres
(an indication of cosmic order) than does Sir Orfeo, thus
heightening the irony and tragedy when Orpheus' music is
unable to prevent him looking back and losing his wife. We
must conclude that Henryson is using this incompatibility
between the emphasis on divine music which orders the
universe and its ultimate impotence to point the way to
a deeper issue.
Chapter Five relates this musical conflict to the
insufficient Moralitas and its overbearing narrator, and
finds that many traditional 'Medieval' aspects of the story
are undermined by Henryson as author. Henryson is using
Orpheus and Eurydice as a vehicle, not to deny, but to
wistfully question his inherited Medieval world view.
Orpheus and Eurydice, then, reveals Henryson's disquiet
with the Medieval cosmological model through the narrative
persona (and the insufficient Moralitas) and the role of
music in the Orpheus story.