Cligès começa com a história de Alexandre, seu pai, filho do imperador da Grécia, que viaja para junto da corte do Rei Arthur para se tornar um cavaleiro sob os seus cuidados. Na corte, Alexandre conhece Soredamors, e ambos rapidamente se apaixonam mas ocultam seus sentimentos até que a rainha Guinevere intervenha.
“Soredamors, who was scornful of love. She had never heard tell of any man, however handsome or brave or mighty or noble, whom she would deign to love. Yet in spite of this the maiden was so comely and attractive that she should have learned Love’s lessons, had she been pleased to hear them. But she refused to pay them any mind. Now Love would cause her suffering and try to take revenge for the haughtiness and scorn she had always shown towards him. Love aimed well when he shot his arrow into her heart. Frequently she grew pale and often broke into a sweat; in spite of herself, she had to love. Only with great difficulty could she avoid looking at Alexander;”
“In this way she quarrelled with herself. One moment she loved and the next she hated. She was so confused that she did not know what was best to do. She thought she was defending herself against Love, but any defence was useless. God! If only she had known that Alexander was thinking about her too! Love gave them equal portions of what he owed them. He treated them reasonably and rightly, for each loved and desired the other.”
“Their love was constantly growing and increasing, but each was embarrassed in front of the other, and they hid and covered over so much that no flame or smoke appeared from the ember lying beneath the ashes. Yet the heat was no less for all this, because heat lasts longer beneath the ashes than on”
“love forever! Whom? Indeed, what a question! The one Love commands me to love, for no other will ever have my love. What does it matter, since he will not know it unless I tell him myself? What shall I do if I don’t beg his love? Whoever wants anything must petition and request it.”
“What? Shall I beg him then? No. Why not? Because no one has ever seen a woman behave so wrongly as to ask a man to love her, unless she were more deranged than the next person.”
Com a ajuda da rainha, ambos expressam seu amor, se casam e nasce Cligès.
“Now, Soredamors, receive what is yours; and you, Alexander, receive your lady.’ Thus she had what was hers, and he what was his; she was his entirely, and he entirely hers.”
“Before three months had passed, Soredamors found that fruit had been sown within her womb, which she carried to term. The seed remained in germ until the fruit was fully ripened into a child. There was no finer creature before nor since than the child […]”
Alexandre descobre então que seu pai havia morrido e seu irmão Alis havia assumido o trono em seu lugar após um marinheiro comunicar falsamente que Alexandre havia morrido em seu retorno para a Grécia. Com a sua família, ele retorna para a sua corte e convence seu irmão a não se casar e não ter filhos, que assim seria mantido como imperador nominalmente até que o trono fosse passado para Cligès, enquanto que as decisões de governo seriam tomadas por Alexandre.
O pai de Cligès porém morre no decorrer da história de uma doença violenta, junto com Soredamors.
“But she who is called Death spares neither the weak man nor the strong, for she slays and kills them all. Alexander, too, had to die, since he became prisoner to a disease for which there was no cure.”
“Soredamors’s grief was such that she could not survive him, so she died in sorrow with him.”
Alis no entanto é dissuadido de sua promessa por alguns de seus conselheiros, e busca a filha do Imperador Alemão, Fenice, para ser sua esposa. Fenice e Cligès, no entanto, se apaixonam a primeira vista, mas nada podiam fazer para evitar o casamento.
“He gazed upon her most tenderly, but he did not notice that she was offering him fair exchange: in true love, without deceit, she offered him her gaze and then took his.”
Assim, Fenice pede para sua amiga Thessala, experiente com poções e magias, que faça uma poção que impedisse que seu casamento fosse consumado com o imperador Alis.
“And if the emperor takes his pleasure of me, then I will have lost my own happiness and can expect no other. I’d rather be torn limb from limb than have our love remembered like that of Tristan and Isolde, which has become a source of mockery and makes me ashamed to talk of it. I could never agree to lead the life Isolde led.”
“This is how he’ll have his sport with you: while he’s asleep he’ll believe that he’s awake and making love to you.’ The girl cherished, praised, and valued this kindness and this service.”
“As was fitting? I have lied, for he neither kissed nor touched her, though they lay together in the same bed. At first the girl quaked, fearful and concerned that the potion would fail. But such is the potency of its charm that he would never again desire her or any other woman, except in his sleep.”
Antes de retornarem, Fenice é capturada por seu pretendente anterior, mas é salva por Cligès.
“He, whose every deed was emboldened by her, afraid of her alone? God! What was the source of this fear, that caused him to cower only before a maiden, a weak and fearful creature, simple and shy?”
“A servant should tremble with fear when his master calls or summons him, and whoever devotes himself to Love makes Love his lord and master. Thus it is right that whoever wishes to be numbered among the court of Love should greatly revere and honour him. Love without fear and trepidation is like a fire without flame or heat, a day without sunlight […].”
“So I wish to challenge the opinion that love can be found where there is no fear. Whoever wishes to love must feel fear; if he does not, he cannot love. But he must fear only the one he loves, and be emboldened for her sake in all else.”
O plano inicial funciona bem, sem o imperador nunca descobrir sobre a poção que fora feito beber. Cligès, então, parte para a corte do Rei Arthur seguindo os passos e recomendações de seu pai, conseguindo grandes vitórias em combates. Ao retornar, expressa seus sentimentos para Fenice.
“at the moment of parting Cligés had said that he was wholly devoted to her. This expression was so sweet and comforting to her, that from her tongue it slid into her heart, and she placed it in her heart and on her tongue so that she might guard it more closely.”
“‘My lady,’ he said, ‘I loved while there, but I loved no one who was from there. My body was in Britain without my heart, like a piece of bark without its heartwood. I don’t know what became of my heart after I left Germany, except that it followed you here. My heart was here and my body there.”
“Nothing of me but the bark is left, for my heart is gone and I’m living without it. Though I have never been to Britain, my heart has had some sort of business there without me.’”
Para resolverem de uma vez por todas esta situação, ambos pedem a ajuda de Thessala e John, um arquiteto, para poderem fingir a morte de Fenice e levá-la embora. Através de uma nova poção, ela é posta para dormir como se estivesse morta, mas o plano é percebido por alguns médicos peregrinos. Após tentarem tortura-la para despertarem-na, são assassinados pelo povo, e assim Fenice consegue escapar e ser levada para a torre construída por John e curada por Thessala.
Juntos, os dois passam 14 meses na torre, mas são descobertos por Bertrand, que conta ao rei que Fenice ainda estava viva e dormir junto ao Cligès. Eles então fogem para a corte do Rei Arthur, a quem pedem ajuda, mas antes de retornarem a Grécia com o apoio do rei recebem a notícia de que seu tio havia morrido devido ao sofrimento de não conseguir captura-los.
“Greece is now yours and Constantinople, by the rights you have to them. Though you do not know it, your uncle died of the grief he suffered because he could not find you. His sorrow was so great that he lost his mind; he stopped eating and drinking and died insane. Dear sire, return with us, for all your barons have sent for you.”
“[…] given a joyful welcome befitting a new lord. Then they gave Cligés his sweetheart to be his wife, and the two of them were crowned. He had made his sweetheart his wife, but he called her sweetheart and lady; she lost nothing in marrying, since he loved her still as his sweetheart; and she, too, loved him as a lady should love her lover. Each day their love grew stronger. He never doubted her in any way or ever quarrelled with her over anything; she was never kept confined as many empresses since her have been.”
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Segundo poema de Chrétien de Troyes, de 1176; pareceu muito bem escrito, de forma muito mais elegante e até romântica comparado com Erec and Enide (1170). A narrativa foi simples e o jeito que o texto se desenrola é simplesmente bonito, tanto que é por isso que este resumo foi escrito com mais citações que o normal.
No início, as expressões utilizadas por Soredamors para se referir ao seu amor por Alexandre foram bem impactantes, assim como os comentários do próprio narrador na história:
“In this way she quarrelled with herself. One moment she loved and the next she hated. She was so confused that she did not know what was best to do. She thought she was defending herself against Love, but any defence was useless. God! If only she had known that Alexander was thinking about her too! Love gave them equal portions of what he owed them. He treated them reasonably and rightly, for each loved and desired the other.”
“He, whose every deed was emboldened by her, afraid of her alone? God! What was the source of this fear, that caused him to cower only before a maiden, a weak and fearful creature, simple and shy?”
“A servant should tremble with fear when his master calls or summons him, and whoever devotes himself to Love makes Love his lord and master. Thus it is right that whoever wishes to be numbered among the court of Love should greatly revere and honour him. Love without fear and trepidation is like a fire without flame or heat, a day without sunlight […].”
“So I wish to challenge the opinion that love can be found where there is no fear. Whoever wishes to love must feel fear; if he does not, he cannot love. But he must fear only the one he loves, and be emboldened for her sake in all else.”
As referências constantes também a Tristão e Isolda trazem também uma familiaridade com a história e a torna mais imersiva, já que é possível realmente entender os sentimentos dos personagens. E apesar de ser mais um romance medieval com adultério como background, o autor consegue escapar do problema de uma maneira criativa diferente de em Tristão e Isolda na versão de Joseph Bedier.
Em resumo, foi um poema extremamente agradável de ler, principalmente porque foram 2 histórias em 1: Alexandre na primeira parte, e seu filho Cligès na segunda. Ambos tiveram um final feliz (mais ou menos), e é isso que eu gosto.