''Crescentia'' is an Early Middle High German language

chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric k ...

, included in the ''

Kaiserchronik The ''Kaiserchronik'' (''Imperial Chronicle'') is a 12th-century chronicle written in 17,283 lines of Middle High German verse. It runs from Julius Caesar to Conrad III, and seeks to give a complete account of the history of Roman and German emp ...

'' about 1150. Other versions appeared in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in prose and verse. Numerous romances, such as ''

Le Bone Florence of Rome ''Le Bone Florence of Rome'' is a medieval English chivalric romance.Carol Falvo Heffernan, ''Le Bone Florence of Rome'', p vii , Featuring the innocent persecuted heroine, it is subcategorized into the Crescentia cycle of romances because of two ...

'', are classified as belonging to the "Crescentia cycle" because of the common plot; it is the oldest known variant of it.Laura A. Hibbard, ''Medieval Romance in England'' p. 12 New York Burt Franklin,1963

Romance

Crescentia is approached by her brother-in-law, in her husband's absence, with offers of love. She tricks him into a tower imprisonment, but frees him out of joy at her husband's imminent return. He accuses her of adultery to his brother, and she is thrown in the Tiber by her husband and saved by St. Peter. She finds refuge in a court, where she rebuffs another lover, who frames for murder of her fosterling by a bloody dagger, and she is thrown in the water again. St. Peter grants her healing powers. Her persecutors, stricken by maladies, come to her; she cures them after a complete confession and retires to a convent.

Cycle

The Crescentia cycle features women who suffer trials and misfortunes, similar to those of

Emaré ''Emaré'' is a Middle English Breton lai, a form of mediaeval romance poem, told in 1035 lines. The author of ''Emaré'' is unknown and it exists in only one manuscript, Cotton Caligula A. ii, which contains ten metrical narratives. ''Emaré'' see ...

Constance Constance may refer to: Places *Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English *Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada * Constance, Kentucky * Constance, Minnesota * Constance (Portugal) * Mount Constance, Washington State People * Consta ...

, and Griselda,

stock character A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a fictional character in a work of art such as a novel, play, or a film whom audiences recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition. There is a wide range of st ...

s in

.Carol Falvo Heffernan, ''Le Bone Florence of Rome'', p 3 , It is distinguished among them by the story's opening with her brother-in-law approaching her with offers of love and ending with her fame as a healer bringing all her persecutors together; there are more than a hundred versions from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. One such features in the ''

Gesta Romanorum ''Gesta Romanorum'', meaning ''Deeds of the Romans'' (a very misleading title), is a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales that was probably compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th. It still possesses a two-fold l ...

''. Many of these are strongly miraculous, which led to their becoming Miracles of the Virgin. The brother-in-law, and his motive of thwarted love, classifies this among those romances not using the typical

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

motifs for their persecutor, a wicked mother-in-law, but a motif found among the heroines only in romances. The story itself has been traced to the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

The Wife's Lament "The Wife's Lament" or "The Wife's Complaint" is an Old English poem of 53 lines found on folio 115 of the Exeter Book and generally treated as an elegy in the manner of the German '' frauenlied'', or "women's song". The poem has been relatively ...

''; however, because the woman herself complains only of malevolent relatives, not the specific brother-in-law, it is impossible to confirm that it is the source. Similar attempts, for instance, have been made to link it to the Constance cycle, and it does fit such tales as ''Emare'' and ''

Vitae Duorum Offarum The '' Vitae duorum Offarum'' "The lives of the two Offas" is a literary history written in the mid-thirteenth century, apparently by the St Albans monk Matthew Paris; however, the most recent editor and translator of the work rejects this attrib ...

'' as well as it does the Crescentia cycle.

Influences

''Crescentia'' appears to be one of the sources of the romance ''

Octavian Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

''. This includes both the motifs of the supposed lover, similar to the ''

Erl of Toulouse The ''Erl of Toulouse'' (also known as ''The Romance of Dyoclicyane'') is a Middle English chivalric romance centered on an innocent persecuted wife. It claims to be a translation of a French lai, but the original lai is lost. It is thought to d ...

'' and the conclusion in the gathering of the family. In ''

The Man of Law's Tale "The Man of Law's Tale" is the fifth of the ''Canterbury Tales'' by Geoffrey Chaucer, written around 1387. John Gower's "Tale of Constance" in ''Confessio Amantis'' tells the same story and may have been a source for Chaucer. Nicholas Trivet's ...

'', Constance is framed for murder by a bloody dagger; this appears to be a direct borrowing.Margaret Schlauch, ''Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens'', New York: Gordian Press 1969 p. 75

Classification

folkloristics Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

, the tale of ''Crescentia'' is related to a cycle of stories wherein a wife is slandered and accused of adultery with an in-law and/or murder of her children. Such tales are classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU type 712, "Crescentia".

References

{{reflist, 2 Romance (genre) Middle High German literature 12th-century poems ATU 700-749

Romance

Cycle

Influences

Classification

See also

References