缪萨尔和伯桑——《列那狐传奇》中学识法的两张面孔

Musart and Baucent:The Two Faces of the Learned Law in the Roman de Renart

古法语《列那狐传奇》中的两个动物形象——缪萨尔和伯桑——代表着学识法对狮王诺布勒法庭的影响。它们也是分析这种影响的渠道及其接受的关键。缪萨尔是为国王提供法律咨询的教皇特使,语言古怪、扭曲、难以理解,反映的是学识法传播过程中与本土法律观念格格不入的异国侧面。伯桑则以自然的法语坚持正当程序的重要性,意在改造以复仇意志为基础的既有的正义观念。通过转置这两种动物的象征意义,叙事者揭露了学识法付诸实践对封建政治社会结构的扭曲力。

Musart and Baucent,the two animal characters in the Old French Roman de Renart,represent the influence of the learned law in King Noble’s court.They are also the key figures in evaluating the channel and reception of such influence.Musart is the papal legate in service of the king as his legal counsellor whose peculiar language,incomprehensible and tortuous,reveals the foreign aspect of the transmission of the learned law,while Baucent’s stubborn insistence on due procedure in his native French language is meant to reform the prevalent vision of justice based on the sheer will of revenge.By a transposition of the symbolisms of the two animals,the narrator reveals the power of distortion inherent in the practice of the learned law.