One of the more important and unusual works of
Czech narrative prose from the early 15th century
is the text called Tkadleˇcek (The Weaver). Like the
DEBATE POEMS popular in western Europe, The
Weaver takes the form of a dispute between a lover
named Ludvík and the allegorical figure of Misfortune,
who has deprived the Lover of his lady,
Adliˇcka. Ludvík refers to himself as the “weaver,”
suggesting his ability to weave words of love. Essentially
the dispute concerns the value of COURTLY
LOVE, which Misfortune, speaking like a cleric
trained in scholastic argument, condemns. Like
most medieval literary debates, the winner of the
debate is predetermined, so that in this case it is
Misfortune who wins the debate and apparently
holds the view sanctioned by the author.
Scholarly consensus holds that the anonymous
author of The Weaver was himself a cleric, most
likely graduated from Prague University—his education
is demonstrated by some 90 references to
Aristotle in his text. He was also most likely a
member of the royal court. He would therefore
have been a representative of a new breed of
scholar-courtier becoming prevalent in the court
of the Bohemian king and sometime Holy Roman
Emperor Wenceslas IV (1378–1419). He may have
written The Weaver for Wenceslas’s Queen Sophia
of Bavaria, perhaps at her own regional court of
Hradec Králové.
Czech society of the early 15th century was
characterized by a growing conflict between scholars
and preachers on the one hand and the established
church and court, whom the preachers
condemned for their excesses, on the other. It was
the same spirit of reform that gave rise to Jan HUS
and the Hussite movement. The author of The
Weaver, it has been suggested, represents in his debate
the conflict between his own clerical training
and the fashions of the court, represented by the
lover. The text examines the arguments for and
against courtly love, with the clear purpose of undermining
the courtly love conventions in favor at
the royal court. It also concerns the relative merits
of courtly and scholastic writing:Where Misfortune
sees the love allegories characteristic of the
written text of courtly poetry as hindrances to
truth, the Lover sees truth as veiled alluringly by
the ALLEGORY, like a female body.
Ultimately Misfortune has the final word, a
long and rhetorically effusive rejection of courtly
traditions. The Weaver is notable for its elaborate
rhetoric, its sexual puns, and its clerical misogyny
that marks it as the product of a late medieval clerical
male.
Bibliography
Thomas, Alfred. Anne’s Bohemia: Czech Literature and
Society, 1310–1420. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1998.