Rural Landscapes and the Pastourelle

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the landscape described in medieval pastourelle songs and compares this landscape to the agricultural practices in use at the time and place of their composition. Determining, through this comparison, that the landscape described in most songs is realistic but out of date, this chapter explores the symbolic resonances of the nature imagery found in these songs and how the imagery relates to the identities of the characters within the songs as well as the audiences and patrons who consumed them. An examination of a subset of the pastourelle repertoire in which the shepherdess character is raped reveals that the songs tend to locate her in a woodland environment strongly evocative of knightly identity, forecasting the knight’s coming transgression through the landscape. The chapter then addresses the urban context of many of the songs authors and patrons, examining how townspeople and wealthy, nonnoble patrons may have identified themselves against the identity of the medieval peasant.