Amadis de Gaule and Gender-Confusion Romance

Amadis de Gaule is the French name for a massive romance cycle popular across Europe in various languages. The original story in four volumes composed in the 14th century in Spain was expanded and extended by at least seven different authors into 21 volumes in the French version (the best known). The core story is a chivalric adventures of a young man – the child of a star crossed royal love affair – and the obstacles to his romance with Oriana. The additional volumes follow various secondary characters from the original tale.

Despite many earlier references to the work and some fragmentary texts, the earliest surviving complete text is from 1508, compiled by the Spanish writer Montalvo who edited and revised earlier material, as well as writing one of the sequels. Volume 5 to 12 of the Spanish version were written in the first half of the 16th century. The surviving version of the French translation was written in the 16th century: volumes 1 to 12 in the middle of the century, 13 to 21 later in the century and 22 to 24 sometime after 1594.

Amadis continued in popularity through the 17th century. It was beloved of the fictional character Don Quixote and lent characters and motifs to authors such as Sidney and Spencer . (It is reasonable to assume that any well-read person in the 15th to 17th centuries could have been familiar with the work.)

The stories involving Oronce and La Belle Sauvage are found in volumes 19 to 21 of the French version, so these stories of cross dressing and homoerotic encounters would be available to readers toward the end of the 16th century and later and would reflect literary tastes of that era (though with connections to earlier stories).

The two women discussed here have different backgrounds. Oronce is an Amazon who dresses as a knight for “glory and reputation,” considering that this approach is more prudent than doing so while presenting as a woman. In her male disguise, she takes on the social expectations of chivalric romance, finding a lady(Licinie) to serve and protect (and also to serve as a chaperone for herself). La Belle Sauvage disguises herself to avenge her father’s death. She, too, picks up a damsel (Lucence) to travel with and protect, who immediately falls in love with her.

Both women prevail in their various conflicts through strength, cunning, or magic, while the audience is still constantly reminded of their “beauty and delicacy.” This is not necessarily a gendered beauty as the story regularly emphasizes the equivalence of male and female beauty standards. Women, seeing Oronce’s face, and believing her to be male are attracted to her in the same way they would be to a man. She is not identifiable as female solely by her appearance. The text considers this an unremarkable experience. Of La Belle Sauvage, the narrator says, “she attracted the hearts of knights when she was dressed as a woman, and those of the ladies and damsels when she was in male clothes.”

This dynamic leads to a whole array of women falling in love with the cross-dressed knights, only to be disconcerted when the “error” is discovered. But here we come to the heart of Shleiner’s analysis because there is a clear distinction made between the condemnation of male-male relations and the mild distress felt at inadvertent female-female love, which is easily shifted to friendship and positive admiration.

The two women interact with each other in the tale (along with another cross-dressed Amazon, Atlete, who evidently doesn’t attract the same amorous attention). La Belle Sauvage falls in love with Oronce before learning her underlying sex, and thus has some sympathy for the women who have mistakenly fallen for herself, though she was discreet enough not to show her “misdirected” love before learning the truth. The Amazons are aware of La Belle Sauvage’s sex all along but have been reluctant to put off their disguise specifically knowing it will embarrass her. It is the arrival of the Amazon queen and her entourage that forces Oronce and Atlete to come clean, knowing that their fellow Amazons will recognize them.

The social consequences of these gender-blind beauty standards are pointed up when Licinie – after discovering that her beloved Oronce is a woman – becomes so anxious about her inability to detect gender that when she is attracted to a young man, she worries that he, too, is a woman in disguise. (Perhaps not an irrational concern given that his mother, Penthesilea, also cross-dressed. This is presumably the Amazon Penthesilea.)

A contrast is made between women who mistakenly fell in love with women but were discreet enough not to display their love before learning better, and those who were openly amorous and then found themselves publicly embarrassed when the truth came out. But again, this is not a gendered issue. The indiscreet expression of love is generally frowned on; it’s only when the object turns out to be inappropriate that it becomes an embarrassment.

These same-gender attractions are not all one-sided. The cross-dressed knights express a devotion and admiration for their damsels that go beyond playing a conventional role. Oronce thinks to herself of Licinie, “If I were a knight and my heart were free, I would not want to have any lady but her.” She speaks amorous words to Licinie and falls in love with her beauty. La Belle Sauvage not only jousts in Lucence’s name but shows her favor “for her beauty and good grace.” On another occasion, happening across a group of young women sleeping in a garden, La Belle Sauvage pauses to admire them as a (male) knight would.

While the story contains no actual sexual encounters between women, and any interactions between women who both know each other’s sex are carefully platonic, the unease and anxiety generated by gender errors are muted and don’t include the “no homo” response expressed elsewhere in the story when a man is thought to be in love with another man (actually the disguised Oronce).

When all is revealed, the female characters work to reassure each other that they enjoyed the same-sex admiration and that “if it is true that ladies like to see a fine and virtuous knight, they derive even a greater pleasure from seeing a beautiful and gracious lady or damsel.” The queen who says this was greatly distressed to discover that her beloved Oronce was a woman. And La Belle Sauvage tells Lucence that she did return her love, at which Lucence responds, “although you are a young woman, I will not stop loving you, for I will remain content only to contemplate your beauty.” Love between women is not rejected or despised, but only redirected into socially acceptable paths. And in the end, when La Belle Sauvage falls in love with a male knight, she explains it was because of his resemblance to Oronce.