Late advances in neuroscience are piling up evidence supporting the idea that the understanding of emotion-related language is based on an embodied knowledge which makes it possible to recognize described events. Accordingly, investigations on emotion-related words in medieval arthurian novels should provide meaningful clues on the role of corresponding affective states in narrative descriptions and their expected appreciation among readers and audiences. The present study, which focuses on words ire and peor in Chevalier de la Charrette, is based on evidence supporting the idea that Chrétien de Troyes tends to cluster emotion words and locutions in consistent textual segments which describe emotionally-relevant circumstances and events. Evident co-occurrence makes it possible to identify and describe an emergent emotional system which underlies the thematic plan of the novel. In details, it will be shown that affective states defining the emotional system of medieval arthurian verse novels: 1) affect specific characters; 2) entail frequent reference to somatic correlates; 3) typically relate to descriptions of perceptual events; 4) underlay decision-making processes leading to purposeful intentional actions. Provided evidence supports the idea that the perspectivism of the medieval novel, which certainly affects character-specific perceptual point of view on narrated events, also applies to emotionally-relevant descriptions. Indeed, descriptions of emotional states differ on the basis of gender, age, rank and are consistent with the role the affected characters play in social context.

1. Anatole Pierre Fuksas
Università di Cassino
Ire and Peor in Chrétien’s Charrette
Lexical Network and Emotional System
La Sapienza, Università di Roma, 20. 11. 2013

2. Emotions, Decisions and Actions
Human actions are understood as
purposeful and intentional
because they rely on an emotional
appraisal of the environmental
circumstances they respond to
[1]. Indeed, actions can not be
addressed as purposeful and
intentional if their emotional
fueling is lacking or unclear.
Consequently, the intelligence of
a text requires readers to
recognize and properly process
emotional correlates of a
described sensory experience
and/or the interceptive
modulations [2] which
necessarily underlay the planning
of purposeful actions [3, 4, 5, 6].
1) A. Damasio, Looking for Spinoza. Joy, Sorrow, and the
Feeling Brain, Orlando (FL), Harcourt, 2003.
2) A. D. Craig, “How do you feel? Interoception: the sense
of the physiological condition of the body”, Nature Review
Neuroscience 3 (2002), 655-666.
3) A. M. Glenberg, D. A. Havas, R. Becker and M. Rinck,
“Grounding language in bodily states: The case for
emotion”, The grounding of cognition: The role of
perception and action in memory, language, and thinking,
eds. R. Zwaan and D. Pecher (Cambridge 2005), 115-128.
4) A. M. Glenberg, B J. Webster, E. Mouilso, D. Havas and
L. M. Lindeman, “Gender, Emotion, and the Embodiment
of Language Comprehension”, Emotion Review 1 (2009),
151-161, 151.
5) A. Havas, A. M. Glenberg and M. Rinck, “Emotion
simulation during language comprehension”, Psychonomic
Bulletin & Review 14 (2007), 436-441, 436.
6) A. P. Fuksas, “Embodied Abstraction and Emotional
Resonance in Chrétien's Chevalier de la Charrette”,
Cognitive Philology, 4 (2011), 1-14
(http://ojs.uniroma1.it/index.php/cogphil/article/view/96
00).

3. The Emergent Network
The research plan aims at identifying the lexical network which describes the
emotional system of a novel. The emotion-word peor/poor, mostly referring
to proper “fear”, will be assumed as the cornerstone of a semantic network
emerging from co-occurrence. Various degrees of syntactic proximity, such as
connections based on boolean operators or concurrence in same
sentence/phrase, will be considered as an index of semantic proximity, being
possible to use two or more words in the very same context. Relevance of cooccurrence will be ranked on the basis of encyclopedic competence
(essentially dictionary). The system will progressively include all relavant
words co-occurring with those that have been previously acquired.
J. E. Ledoux, “ The Emotional Brain, Fear and the Amigdala”, Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology 23, 4-5 (2003),
727-738.
J. E. Ledoux, The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life (New York 1998).

4. Fear, Rage and Trembling
Chevalier de la Charrette
vv. 2732-2739
Li chevaliers de la charrete
De malvestié se blasme et rete
Quant son oste voit qui l'esgarde;
Et des autres se reprant garde
Qui l'esgardoient tuit ansanble.
D'ire trestoz li cors li tranble,
Qu'il deüst, ce li est avis,
Avoir molt grant pieç'a conquis
Celui qui a lui se conbat.
.
vv. 3046-3054
Ce fesoit molt desconforter
Les deus chevaliers qui estoient
Avoec le tierz, que il cuidoient
Que dui lÿon ou dui liepart
Au chief del pont de l'autre part
Fussent lïé a un perron.
L'eve e li ponz et li lÿon
Les metent an itel freor
Qu'il tranblent andui de peor.
Chrétien de Troyes, Le chevalier de la Charrette (Lancelot), eds. A. Foulet and K. Uitti (Paris 1989), p. 154 and 172.

5. The Protagonist,
Mirror Characters
and Somatic Markers
Verb trambler doesn’t occur elsewhere
throughout the novel. Hence, it just
describes the mentioned pair of somatic
responses to ire and peor. Ire causing
Lancelot to tremble indicates an
emotional state which directly targets
the body of the protagonist prompting
him to action. Peor freezing the young
companions of the hero targets a pair of
«mirror characters» whose emotional
response to specific circumstances likely
aims at enticing the audience to react
accordingly.
C. Larrington, “The psychology of emotion and
study of the medieval period”, Early Medieval
Europe 10 (2001), 251–256, 254.
F. Brandsma, “Mirror characters”, in Courtly Arts
and the Art of Courtliness, ed. K. Busby and C.
Kleinhenz (Woodbridge 2006) 275-284.
F. Brandsma, “Arthurian Emotions”, Actes du 22e
Congrès de la Société Internationale Arthurienne
(Rennes 2008),
http://www.uhb.fr/alc/ias/actes/index.htm, 15
juillet, session 2 L2: Conte di Graal et émotions.

6. The Database
Since verb trambler makes it possible to bridge peor and ire, we start
describing all occurrences of these nouns. We will keep doing the same with
all co-occurring emotion-words we find, until all relevant lexical entries will
be collected indexed.

7. Tabling Emotions
Co-occurring
words are
ranged in
strings, eachline
indicating the
specific contexts
in which they
appear.

8. Graphing Emotions
Graphic processing of the
table visualizes the
discussed part of the lexical
network. Red lines indicate
descriptions of emotional
states which include
somatic markers.

9. Tagging Emotions
Chevalier de la Charrette vv. 3920-3941
@Lancelot tuit beneïssoient:
Et ce pöez vos bien savoir
Que lors i dut grant #joie avoir,
Et si ot il sanz nule dote.
@La_genz_estrange asanble tote,
Que de @Lancelot font grant #joie,
Et dïent tuit por ce qu'il l'oie:
«Sire, voir, molt nos #esjoïsmes
Tantost con nomer vos oïsmes,
Que seür fumes a delivre
C'or serions nos tuit delivre.»
A cele #joie ot molt grant presse
Que chascuns se painne et angresse
Comant il puisse a lui tochier.
Cil qui plus s'an puet aprochier
An fu plus #liez que ne pot dire.
Assez ot la et #joie et #ire,
Que cil qui sont desprisoné
Sont tuit a #joie abandoné;
Mes @Meliaganz et @li_suen
N'ont nule chose de lor buen,
Einz sont #pansif et #mat et #morne.
A twitter-like hashtag/mention tagging system
(# and @) makes it possible to process the
specific sub-system which emerge from the
description of individual emotional responses
to environmental circumstances.
P. Bogdanov, M. Busch, J. Moehlis, A. K. Singh and B.K. Szymanski, “The Social Media Genome: Modeling Individual
Topic-Specific Behavior in Social Media”, arXiv: 1307.0309 v1(2013) (http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.0309).

10. Undefined Emotions
--Trop a certes m’an apelez,
Fet ele, si le vos dirai,
De rien nule n’an mantirai :
Cist peignes, se j’onques soi rien,
Fu la reïne, jel sai bien ;
Et d’une chose me creez,
Que li chevol que vos veez
Si biax, si clers et si luisanz,
Qui sont remés antre les danz,
Que del chief la reïne furent :
Onques en autre pré ne crurent.»
Et li chevaliers dit : «Par foi,
Assez sont reïnes et roi ;
Mes de la quel volez vos dire?»
Et cele dit : «Par ma foi, sire,
De la fame le roi Artu.»
Quant cil l’ot, n’a tant de vertu
Que tot nel coveigne ploier ;
Par force l’estut apoier
Devant a l’arçon de la sele
Et quant ce vit la dameisele,
Si s’an mervoille et esbaïst
Qu’ele cuida que il cheïst ;
S’ele ot peor, ne l’en blasmez,
Qu’ele cuida qu’il fust pasmez
Descriptions of emotions do not
necessarily imply that emotion words
must always be used. Indeed, in some
cases characters experience
undefined affective states.
The revelation of the damsel, who
informs Lancelot that both the comb
and the hair belong to queen
Guenièvre, causes the knight to
experience a state of overwhelming
upheaval. The description only
focuses on somatic correlates and
ensuing actions: after bending on the
saddle, Lancelot grabs the pommel
so as to avoid falling off the horse.
(vv. 1420-1444)
Chrétien de Troyes, Le chevalier de la Charrette (Lancelot), cit., pp. 82-84

11. Emotion Words and Textual Variation
Tranchent les fuz, ronpent les fers
Si que an plusors leus se plaient;
Par ire tex cos s'antrepaient
Con s'il fussent fet a covant
(vv. 1420-1444)
After entering the kindgom of Gorre through the Passage
des Pierres and participating in the insurrection of
Logre’s captives, Lancelot fights against an arrogant
knight who had reproached him about his ride on the
infamous cart. The word ire describes the anger that
causes Lancelot and is opponent to fight harder.
The varia lectio presents different descriptions of the very same affective state.
In manuscript E (fol. 16r, col. b) v. 2732 («De malvaiste se blame et rete») is
immediately followed by v. 2737 («Ker il de deust avoir comquis»), hence
reference to Lancelot's ire is absent. Manuscripts A (fol. 204v, col. a) describes
the emotion that shakes Lancelot’s body as mautalent («de mautalent li cuers li
tranble»), whose meanings widely overlap those of noun ire. Manuscript G (fol.
11v, col. a) agrees with such reading and also presents verbs fremir and ardre
instead of trambler («de maltalent fremist et art»). Basically, the Princeton
manuscript does not directly mention the body of the protagonist but implicitly
portrays it as shivering and burning, describing the somatic response according
to
a
widely
lexicalized
metaphor.
Chrétien de Troyes, Le chevalier de la Charrette (Lancelot), cit., pp. 82-84

12. Emotion Words and Textual Variation 2
Calogrenant is retelling the story of his failed
adventure. Before encountering the guardian
des bêtes, he meets the bêtes themselves, whose
nature changes according to different readings:
H 280 Tors salvages ors et lieparz
P 280 Tors sauvages et esparars
V 280 Torz sauvages et espaarz
F 280 Et tors savages et lupars
G 280 Trois ors sauvages et .i. liepart
A 280 Ors sauvages lions lupars
S 280 Tors sauvaiges ours et lupars
R 280 Et tors salvages et lupars
Interestingly, AG do not mention bulls which
scare the knight causing him to step back (v.
285), whereas Guiot (H) does not mention fear
as the cause of such an awkward move.
K. Meyer, Transcription synoptique des manuscrits et fragments du Chevalier au Lion par Chrétien de Troyes,
Université
d’Ottawa,
Faculté
des
Arts,
Laboratoire
de
français
ancien
(http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/lfa/activites/textes/kmeyer/kpres.html)

13. What do We find?
1) emotional states described in medieval verse novels typically target specific characters in response to
perceptual interaction with natural and/or social environment;
2) descriptions of affective states are typically supplemented by additional remarks stressing somatic
correlates of emotions;
3) emotional states affecting characters are sometimes described only on the basis of somatic correlates
they imply;
4) descriptions of affective states and ensuing actions are typically related and often connected by causal
prepositions and conjunctions;
5) emotion words are occasionally included into counterfactual and semifactual descriptions of affective
states;
6) a multilayered emotional perspectivism emerge from descriptions of affective states which reflect first
or second-level theory of the mind;
7) co-occurrence of emotion words define an integrated lexical network which underlay the emotional
layer of the novel;
8) some emotion words co-occur on a regular basis so as to define descriptive patterns referring to
twofold (or manyfold) affective states;
9) in some cases emotional perspectivism stresses ambivalence, the very same circumstances triggering
opposite affective reactions in different characters or groups;
10) subsets of emotional responses specifically pertain to specific classes of characters;
11) recurrent descriptions of specific emotions may define linear paths which underlay the main
thematic drives of the novel;
12) medieval editors interfere with the emotional layer of the novel by adopting textual solutions which
reflect their own understanding of the reason why characters act the way they do.