K O D I K A S / C O D E Volume 43 (2020) · No. 3 - 4 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen From Renaissance Nominalism to Modern Melodramatics: Jörg Wickram ’ s Novel Der Goldtfaden (1557) Mathias Spohr Abstract: Based on the reception of a Renaissance novel, the following text attempts to explain how, in the course of modern history, common desire has been transformed from something asocial into something unifying. Keywords: history of the novel, media history, nominalism, metallism, equality, melodrama, allegory, vanitas, identity. Zusammenfassung: Ausgehend von der Rezeption eines Renaissance-Romans versucht der folgende Text, der Frage nachzugehen, wie sich im Lauf der neuzeitlichen Geschichte das gemeinsame Begehren von etwas Asozialem zu etwas Verbindendem gewandelt hat. Schlüsselbegriffe: Geschichte des Romans, Mediengeschichte, Nominalismus, Metallismus, Gleichheit, Melodramatik, Allegorie, Vanitas, Identität. 1 Introduction Over time, we see in many media a demand for equality replacing authoritarian grace. Let us look at an early and, in this respect, revealing example. It is about love as equal recognition of a desire. Western romance novels celebrate this as social progress. How did this progress come about? In 1809, Clemens Brentano reinterpreted the late medieval or early modern novel Der Goldtfaden (The Gold Thread) by Jörg Wickram (1557) as a modern fairy tale. Since then, a romantic understanding of the story has prevailed, but from a semiotic, sociological and media-historic point of view, the original version is more interesting. It shows the relationship between love and money as media for communicating values. It is likely that the German novel is not original, but had a Romance model, although the novel has been used as an identity mark for German literature since Brentano ’ s version. If there was a model, the German version had to forget it in order to appear old and original, thus providing identity. Brentano did not seem to have edited the story, but rather worked out its originality, as is done today with more positivist methods of editing. As a very first model, it could serve as a totem. But if you admit the existence of the model ’ s model and have to admit its existence, individuality seems to be in danger, not only for the literary product, but also for the linguistic community behind it. A French model, as is most likely, would not have been welcome anyway. At least, that ’ s how it was seen in Germany in the 19th century. - The semiotic issue of inherent individuality as opposed to the individualization of a model is also what the novel is about. 2 Plot The shepherd ’ s son Lewfried arrives at a count ’ s court as a kitchen boy and is made a valet because of his beautiful singing. His secret love for the count ’ s daughter Angliana has its drawbacks. Angliana omits him in her New Year ’ s gifts for the servants, even when he sings a song about his poverty to her, with his own lyrics to a well-known tune to her. And things turn even worse for him after he sings a love song to her, to another popular melody with new lyrics intended for her. When he points this out to Angliana, she gives him a worthless gold thread from her embroidery frame. He cuts his chest, puts the gold thread in the wound and sews it up. When Angliana asks for the thread back, he cuts his chest again in front of her and pulls out the thread. She sends him to the doctor and treats the bloody gold thread as a token of love. The lovers write letters to each other (they can both read and write! ), and in the end, because the count recognizes Lewfried ’ s merits, they are allowed to marry. In the meantime, Lewfried has been knighted so that the difference in status no longer exists. Although Wickram also wrote cautionary tales (cf. Schultz 2007), in this novel he describes a ‘ bourgeois ’ happy ending. Love across social boundaries was a daring and popular theme, much more so then than now. Readers, though aware of the indecency of this desire, were aroused and business was brisk. By 1687, the novel had appeared in ten editions. Sales and money turned the shameful need and greed into a countable dimension. Money users, lovers or novel readers became a new kind of community through a common desire and could justifiably claim that this desire was subject to the rules of a market economy and therefore not uncontrollable. I propose to call this phenomenon identity. Even the shameful has rules to discover, as Francis Bacon pointed out (Bacon 1620). Legitimizing a relationship between a shepherd ’ s son and a count ’ s daughter as the fairytale ending of this story was highly unrealistic at the time. But desire is an interesting game. It can be cultivated and tamed through comparative situations such as reading novels, playing games, singing, listening to music or watching plays, without any expectation of fulfilment. Scientific observation was not yet usual. Its preliminary forms took place in theatres. The observer ’ s drive persists precisely when it is not fulfilled, and is sustained by further nonfulfilments. Actual fulfilment of desire would have been unseemly. Self-control as a new civic virtue gave new meaning to the old vanitas, which said: “ beware of temptation, you will never reach it. ” The more recent conviction was, on the other hand: “ It constantly tempts me, but I can control myself ” , and even more: “ I will get there, but I still have good manners. ” 3 Model within the model The whole story is about models or standards. A monetary value can be a standard for real values. A melody can be a standard for lyrics sung with that melody. Letters in a book are a standard for reading voices. Love in a novel can be a standard for real love. At the time, the idea of individualized standards was as appealing as it was daring. Novels were an example. 318 Mathias Spohr Standards are usually nested within each other, as is still common in narrative media today (cf. Livingston 2003): In the standard of the book text, which can be read individually, are the standards of love, of monetary value or melody. Just as a reader could read the letters in her own voice, she could also sing Lewfried ’ s song in her own voice, provided she knew the melody, which was known with different lyrics to those in the novel. Since the melody could be individualized with the new lyrics, the reader could take on the role of the lover while reading, and a listener could take on the role of the beloved. This role-playing game was a bold affair. It was shamefully anonymous, but delightful. Many people could not yet read, so it was common to read or sing aloud. It is no coincidence that in his first song Lewfried asks not for love but for money. The model of the reinterpreted song thus contains the model of redeemed monetary value. The rewriting of lyrics for popular songs (so-called vaudevilles) was very popular in the 16th century, especially in French-speaking countries (Schneider 1996). This fashion spread through markets and was therefore closely linked to the principle of exchange value. Vaudeville hits were an early mass phenomenon, even before currencies were standardized. Each city still had its own currency, and it was easy for the authorities to inflate the money supply thereby devaluing it. Monetary value was not yet experienced as a universally accepted rule, but the desire for it already existed (Taylor 1955). The modern revaluation of lyric-less melodies and speechless musical instruments, called instrumental music is related to this development. The fact that wordless melodies were spontaneously recognized like coins and retained an expression like a monetary value, even when played only by instruments, was something quite new. By the 18th century, this idea had slowly but steadily gained acceptance. Music without words became the language of feelings, just as the silent letters in a sentimental novel became the language of love. Thanks to their readers, they did not remain speechless and voiceless. A musical repertoire was created and an enormous number of novels were printed. 4 Individuality or individualization? The female protagonist refuses to conform to such standards. This did not come as a surprise to the readers of these days. As a prince ’ s daughter, Angliana is not a market participant, so there are no market values for her. With the gift of the worthless gold thread, she tells her servant: “ Your gold is not my gold. ” Bearing the same name does not mean being the same for everyone. The signified depends on who uses the signifier. This was a common rebuke at the time, when subjects dared to treat their rulers as their equals. ‘ Gold ’ remains a name and an allegory, like the names of the protagonists Lewfried ( ‘ like someone who tames lions ’ ) and Angliana ( ‘ like an angel ’ ). They are not what they are called. With names, someone, perhaps a parent, has made a wish. Later in the novel, however, Lewfried will actually tame a lion. His name seems to be his destiny; the name materializes in the named. But despite his efforts with the personally rewritten and beautifully performed songs, Angliana punishes her servant for his wishes and ignores him. A peer might have been pleased if Lewfried had glorified him or her with an individualized pop standard, as would probably be the case today. But Angliana is no peer. That a performer, and even more so a listener, can make something personal and From Renaissance Nominalism to Modern Melodramatics: 319 distinctive out of a standard was not yet a common perception. Angliana wonders if she is really meant. The love melody is a general expression of love, and the song is public. For her, it ’ s as if her name has just been added to an existing vulgar love letter. In her eyes, love, like money, is for ordinary people who are interchangeable and replaceable. This is an older perception I call vanitas (Spohr 2012). The difference being discussed here is whether someone or something is inherently individual or rather individualized. Individualization must be based on a model, a rule that applies to a social framework; inherent individuality, on the other hand, does not need any pre-existing rules. Lewfried demands equality from his mistress Angliana because he has been passed over for gifts for her servants. She responds in the usual manner of the time by giving him a worthless gift, as an explicit individual punishment: he is not equal, and this reminds him that the grace of the count ’ s daughter is the moral guide. Today we see equality as just and grace as unjust. In those days it was the other way round. In a novel or in the performance of a song, this theme was central because the readers of a widely circulated print publication, the spectators at a popular theater performance or the listeners at a concert were made aware of their interchangeability and replaceability by being treated equally, and they were admonished to prefer individual grace to such shameful comparative situations. They did not understand a published model as a right to master and individualize it themselves. Reading novels was still a bad habit like gambling, and personal obedience to the word of gracious authorities was more highly valued. This is what Angliana demands for herself. 5 Vanitas Angliana appreciates Lewfried ’ s beautiful voice, but not the messages of his songs, in which he seems to be addressing her. The tune ’ s anonymous passion is only embodied by its performer. The reader can sing the songs and read the novel, but in this case the message is even less personal. They are all lying when they sing ‘ I ’ because they are not Lewfried (cf. Benthien 2010). Novel and song produce only appearance instead of being, only possibility instead of reality, only effect instead of relationship. With the gold thread we have the traditional mise-en-abyme of an absence in the absence (Dällenbach 1977), a main characteristic of vanitas perception: the reader lacks the characters of the plot, which he or she can only imagine, and the gold thread within the narrative lacks value, for its color is only appearance. Its gold remains a name. The title of the novel contains no thread, and the thread contains no gold. On the other hand, the vaudeville tunes of the time already seemed to convey passions even without their original lyrics. This was new in the history of music. Until the early modern period, melodies were neutral in terms of expression. They could represent meanings, such as the triad for the divine Trinity, but they could not inspire emotions in the modern melodramatic sense. From the perspective of the 19th century, they still contained old, boring allegories, but not yet expression (cf. Torra-Mattenklott 2017). Lewfried ’ s first song laments his missing New Year ’ s gift, his second song laments his missing lover, for whom he has the gold thread as a hopeful substitute. The first song is to be 320 Mathias Spohr sung to the tune of the defiant ‘ Bohnenlied ’ (bean song), the second to the tune of the lament ‘ Ach Lieb mit Leid ’ (Oh love with sorrow), both well-known songs, to which he added new lyrics in the vaudeville style. Tunes and money captured the imagination. They were popular, but indecent. The modern view is that money seems to embody value rather than showing the absence of something valuable (as in the older vanitas perception), and a tune seems to embody passion rather than showing the absence of passion. Why? Money and music make a signified countable. They can be separated from bodies and reduced to dimensions. Melodies are dimensions for voices, like sandbox shapes for sand. As is the case with a text, melody needs the body of a performer to become passionate. The listener can understand melodies as an anonymous replica of a missing individual voice (vanitas) or as a model for one ’ s own individual voice (identity). In the case of money, this contrast becomes even clearer: users can understand it as an anonymous substitute for an irreplaceable value or as a model for a self-realized value. The cash value of a beloved pet can stand as an anonymous substitute, when it is the insurance benefit for the dead pet, but it can stand as an individualization, when it is money paid for the purchased pet: imagination has become reality. Today ’ s pedagogical promotion of creativity in early childhood, with the perspective that it will one day enable social mobility, would have been alien to a medieval audience. Imagination was still something to be reviled because it threatened the sense of reality and challenged authority. Reading novels was a condemned addiction. It was not until the 18th century that the novel as a genre was revalued (cf. Watt 2001). 6 Presence instead of absence Lewfried is not frustrated because Angliana does not treat him equally, on the contrary, he is deeply motivated. Grace of authority figures could be meant either positively or negatively: as an explicitly personal reward or as an explicitly personal punishment. Lewfried reinterprets the latter as the former. He interprets the mercy of his punishment with the worthless gold thread as the highest grace he could receive from Angliana, her favor as a lover, and thus transforms the thread into a token of love. But for the time being, Lewfried is alone with his imagination, a fool. Angliana ’ s grace, however, is a value to him that has nothing to do with the market value of the item. It has a nominal value that differs from the metallism of the gold value. Angliana ’ s grace has given the gold thread a value that is expressed in the thread like a value in a coin. Lewfried spontaneously agrees to return this value to her at the cost of further injury. This confirms for her the value of the object, and so its value becomes a shared value for the couple. It is minted by authority (Angliana) and recognized by the common people (Lewfried). For the reader of the novel, however, even the name can have this effect, like a melody, and the novel with this title takes on a market value, as an identity of market participants. The gold thread, a worthless name for a worthless thing, became a brand. To put it in concepts discussed at the time: Philosophical nominalism ( ‘ there are only individual things even if they have the same name ’ ) and monetary nominalism ( ‘ the name indicates a value ’ ) From Renaissance Nominalism to Modern Melodramatics: 321 are reconciled: the name is just a convention, that ’ s true, but its value is real. Reality then consists of common standards for desire, be it money, love or the novel. The vanitas motif is thus reversed: love or value are present, not absent because they are just imagined. What Lewfried failed to achieve with music, he succeeds in doing with his violent performance: he awakens Angliana ’ s desire, as the author makes it clear with a reference to Cupid. His passion also becomes her passion, and this passion, seen as a motivation, is no different from the need or greed for money that exists only on Lewfried ’ s side. The ‘ romantic ’ understanding of love only emerged with the respectability of the sentimental novel. Lewfried ’ s self-mutilation in front of Angliana in order to reveal the gold thread sewn into his chest is an act in the heat of the moment that produces an ‘ affect ’ , to use a Baroque term, or in modern terms: an erotic thrill. Affects in the understanding of the time were not yet emotions that came from within, but influences from without that had something violent about them. The erotic component is in the foreground. From the point of view of the time, it creates a guilty attraction because it bridges differences. The scar on his chest as a trace of self-harm does not show an absence for her, as would be the usual interpretation of the trace as a vanitas motif, remembering a cause that has disappeared. It shows a presence like a letter that can be read spontaneously. The evidence of the trace and the legibility of the letter seem to be combined, and the effect is motivating. 7 Melodrama Considering and presenting an effect as evidence is part of a strategy that attempts to free affects from their harmful, dubious and illusory nature: witches were still persecuted for their spells. The struggle for control and self-control was in full swing (cf. Foucault 1975). It seemed to be decided when ‘ objective ’ values were accepted, reliable rules instead of spells, the observance of which was no longer magic. The unfree, suffered affect was transformed into the controlled and reliable effect: determinism ( “ I am a wheel in a machine. ” ) became causality ( “ I am a user of a machine. ” ), to differentiate the concepts in this way. The depicted has apparently exercised a deterministic power over the image, as with the engraved portrait of a prince on a coin, but the user exercises a causal power over this object by exchanging a guaranteed value for it. Copper coins could have the value of gold coins if their denominations matched. This was no uncanny gold-making. But the coin ’ s legitimacy had to be accepted. Once the frame in which the numbers appeared was trustworthy, only the numbers could be read. One accepts the framework, or the medium of a form, along with a community to which one belongs, just as one trusts a passport from one ’ s own country rather than an unfamiliar one. This communication strategy based on a shared, but imagined reality would be called melodrama much later. It led to certainty in a world of uncertainty. The modern “ absence of a true Sacred ” (Brooks 1976: 21) led to a reality of true love in the sentimental novel, but its reliable perception was controlled by a shared framework that was more economic and technological than anyone wanted to admit. Viewers or readers may discover the feelings of heroes or narrators as their own feelings, because the melodramatic music seems to “ sing ” with their own voices. Moral standards are imposed on them like the authoritative minting 322 Mathias Spohr of coins. But if they are convinced that they belong to the authoritative community and that this imagined reality is their own will, they will not feel it as coercion. The Renaissance models seem clearer and more logical here. In the example of the coin, the user sees his own acceptance in the mirror as the cause of its hopefully lasting value. The value of the coin is an illusion like the mirror image, but it is a common illusion and therefore true. Lewfried ’ s scar as a trace of Angliana ’ s thread becomes a letter that is not only read, but opened like a suitcase. The melodramatic trace, as can already be seen here, seems to lead back to the reader ’ s action, i. e. she recognizes her own voice as the cause of the writing, as if she were rereading her own letters. The reader ’ s voice thus appears not as an arbitrary interpretation of the letter, but as its unmistakable model, as in a mirror image. The letter seems to have the evidential power of the trace, and the trace can be realized as the letter can. This leads to a certain standardization: the past signature on a contract, for example, applies to current behavior, and a personality remains consistent. The gold thread is a kind of relic, with the difference that the honored person is still alive and sees her value reflected in this object: it is Angliana ’ s gift that is presented behind Lewfried ’ s scar, and Lewfried becomes a faithful mirror of her actions. She has given the thread a value she wasn ’ t even aware of, and Lewfried has made it a shared value. The gold thread as a name, on the other hand, has lost this uniqueness and, like a melody, is at the mercy of the reader ’ s imagination. This constellation is an early form of the melodramatic principle. The value of a coin is immediately apparent; it is a convention, but a reality nonetheless. Whether a coin is valid depends on its authorization and acceptance, and it can be traced it to verify its authenticity. The user of the coin belongs to the authorizing authority as a citizen or market participant and recognizes and realizes the value he has authorized together with his community, as in a contract. Angliana did not authorize the value of Lewfried ’ s songs, but she did authorize the value of the gold thread. Thus, the two have constructed a value from their mutual erotic attraction that can be accepted by both sides. Romantic sentiment is as out of place here as modern abhorrence of violence. What is described is reprehensible, it is vanitas. It is about desire and the question of whether it creates relationships or rather destroys them. It is not the use of violence per se that is most objectionable to Lewfried ’ s contemporaries, but the disfigurement of his body through his surgical operations. Blood and body give the scene a quasi-religious character: it is a ‘ passion ’ . The arbitrary re-functioning of divine or lordly grace is the theme at all levels. Lewfried transforms the gold thread into a sensual object of worship, which was reprehensible not only from a religious point of view. The Count ’ s daughter falls victim to the same. For Angliana, too, her erotic excitement is something shameful. This connects the protagonists: they are both victims of their passions, but they make a deal out of it that is increasingly recognized by the public. 8 Embodiment or substitution? The embodiment of the signified as a modern counter-principle to its substitution is already established here. The gold thread does not need to be made special by acts of exchange like a melody or a monetary value, it is already special. The thread cannot realize a connection From Renaissance Nominalism to Modern Melodramatics: 323 with a longed-for lover, whereas the monetary value can realize an exchange. The thread is a token of a special love, while the money coin is a token of a publicly held value. The gold thread remains a kind of compromise between allegory and symbol, to use the distinction commonly used in the 19th century and criticized by Walter Benjamin (cf. Cowan 1981). The allegory does not have the market value of the symbol. Lewfried can embody the melodies of his songs with his voice. They are models of behavior that are individualized in his interpretation, but their expression is no proof of love for Angliana, because she does not need to be individualized, and certainly not by a servant. A gold coin as a means of payment, which would have pleased Lewfried as an effect of his first song, would be transferable like the vaudeville melodies. Once sold, its value would exist in another medium. The gold coin is a symbol of value, because it embodies value that can be exchanged for another embodiment, and the song is a symbol of passion, because it embodies passion that can be exchanged for another embodiment, but the thread as an unused fastener for textiles is an allegory of love that can only be embodied as a single object by a single person. It does not reconcile the general and the particular, but marks their difference. Lewfried ’ s body remains a reliquary for it. However, this allegory does not remain bloodless in the literal sense; it has an ‘ expression ’ that can hardly be denied. Lewfried shows Angliana the affect she has exerted on him and successfully trades the gold thread for her favor. This deal is a win-win situation, and the act of exchange justifies their shared desire. The gold thread is something like a coin whose value is recognized by both sides after some struggle. From the moment of the successful exchange, the allegory became a symbol. The name ‘ Gold Thread ’ has become a totem for the novel ’ s readers, a shared reflection, an archetype of an imagined relationship, like a product label, a national flag, or a jazz standard. The impersonal nature of this sign does not bother its observers because they personalize it themselves. The fact that the name once denoted the unique gift of a gracious authority, which is no longer necessary for its public value, plays a role here: the ruler has given way to a shared rule: the gold is present. There seems to be evidence and immediacy. The brand name still seems to be a ruler, but it has become a reflection of its users who use it as a symbol of self-controlled greed masquerading as obedience (cf. Anderson 1983). Desired measurements on Internet dating sites today can be models of possible partners. The partner seems to be hidden behind them, animated like a cartoon, ready to be presented if he or she meets the expectations (cf. Yurchisin 2005). Behind the trace is not an absent partner (it does not substitute the partner) but the realization of an idea (embodied by the partner). Thus, the user ’ s imagination seems to be the cause of reality, and the name materializes in the named. 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