63 Colloquial and Li.. - Ganino.com

The tale of Frodebert’s tail 393
third party’s version of an insult exchange, easy-to-remember rhymed cola
make sense.
If the correspondence is genuine, however, Importunus must be seen
as a willing participant knowing exactly how to engage in stylised ritual
competitive abuse, not different from the ‘dirty dozens’ that are played
on some American streets – though he may do so less skilfully than
Frodebert (Boucherie 1867: 9). The correspondence becomes a consensual
co-performance. In either case, however, the rhyme is a popular feature
used with a sense of condescension (and disrespect), not a learned one.
Banniard (1992: 294) suggested that it was used for vertical communication
to an illiterate local audience, a point that cannot be proven, for there
is no evidence that bishops would have taken any dispute of this sort, had
it been real, to the streets. The use of exegetic sources militates against
anything genuinely vernacular. 63 Banniard analysed the language of ‘cette
satire’ as a Latinity reduced to its absolute simplicity, a point of no return,
beyond which the word that it transcribes would be outside the purview of
Latin. He maintains that it is built around a series of morphemes that all
passed into Romance (Banniard 1992: 294). One would need to trace all the
vocabulary to test this point fully, but it seems clearly untrue of words such
as stercus and anonna, if true of the five lines cited by Banniard from Frod.
4.23–6. Meyer saw instead ‘pas purement le parler vulgaire, mais un jargon
mixte où...ceparlersefaitjourà tout instant à travers l’idiome littéraire’
(P. Meyer 1867: 346). This seems closer to the mark. The authors know not
just templates of epistolographic idiom, but also serious exegetical sources.
Realia in the correspondence are quite circumstantial, and in contrast to
other episcopal correspondence about scandals name some names. 64 There
are obscure (possibly) historical details such as Frodebert’s tutor, possibly
the fearless baro (if the tutor is not God). These could be evidence that the
texts are genuine. It is curious that Fr/Chrodebert had gone on record to
Boba about penitence for nuns who committed adultery and had thanked
her for clothes made to his manly measure. 65 These external links could
likewise help anchor the man and his interests (a canonical and pastoral
expert on errant nuns) and the accusations levelled at him. Jerome (who
is liberally used by the correspondence) was an historical parallel for a
proponent of chastity tarred with scandal involving religious women.
63 There is however the question of flyting and Germanic practice, but that can be no more than
speculation.
64 Similarly Krusch 1910: 434, noting that the accusations make no sense if completely fictional.
65 Gundlach 1892: 464 gratias multas ago de linea inconsutili, bene texta, longa et larga et mihi multum
amabiliter acceptam et corpori meo tamquam sciendo congrue preparata. The cadences are suggestive.
Julia Barrow has suggested to me that the item in question was a shroud. This imparts a special grim
sense to corpori meo.