Myth and Symbol: The Rabbit in Medieval France

Author(s): Claude K. Abraham

Source: Studies in Philology , Oct., 1963, Vol. 60, No. 4 (Oct., 1963), pp. 589-597
Published by: University of North Carolina Press

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 Studies in Philology

Volume LX OCTOBER, 1963 Number 4

MYTH AND SYMBOL:

THE RABBIT IN MEDIEVAL FRANCE

By CLAUDE K. ABRAHAM

Since the dawn of history, men have worshipped creative power.

Even today, in our modern world, we still think of God as the
creator of man before we think of him as a mere prime mover or
power. In less " civilized " times, this basic belief was often
channeled towards more tangible figures or beings. Thus, the
earliest records of history, be they from India or Egypt, reveal a
popular cult in which the rabbit symbolized the embodiment of
generative powers. In African folklore, the hare is closely linked
with the story of creation. In Egypt, it was one of the central
figures of the Spring rites of fertility and regeneration. It is
difficult to say whether or not the Greek world got its idea from
Egypt; at any rate, the rabbit, or the hare-we shall not dis-
tinguish between the two henceforth-became symbols of fertility
in the Greco-Roman world and remained as such down to our
modern age.
In a world that lacked a unified supreme being, the god or
goddess of love became the figure at whose feet the hare was
immolated. As a perfect symbol of fertility, the hare was considered
the sacrifice that would most please Aphrodite and Venus. Phi-
lostratus, describing a small fresco, tells of some Cupids who chase
a hare to offer it to Aphrodite.' More than one thousand years
later, speaking of the Romans, a far less reliable source said:

'Imagines (New York: Putnam, 1931), p. 26.

589

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590 Myth and Symbol: The Rabbit in Medieval France

N6 vuole per4 alcuno di loro adoperare gli pungenti strali, ma tutti

vorrebbono pigliare quello animale vivo, per farne poi gratissimo saerificio
a Venere, come che'l Lepre molto bene a lei si confaccia, perche dicono,
ch'egli e frequentissimo al coito, . . .2

This capacity for reproduction was not always understood by the

ancients, and was therefore often exaggerated. Aristotle pointed
out that the rabbit was, in all probability, capable of superfoeta-
tion,3 and Herodotus had pointed out the same thing some time
before.4 Aelian, writing on the dissection of a female, mentioned
it again.5 Philostratus, among others, was further mistaken when
he claimed that this multiple process had no end.6 These miscon-
ceptions persisted throughout the Middle Ages, and small wonder,
when one considers that Pliny had also succumbed to them,7 and
that they are still in vogue as late as 1611.8
Being a symbol of fertility, the hare was bound to gain a foothold
in popular medicine, especially as an ingredient for cures of ills
connected with sex. Every work on illnesses, from the relatively
scholarly works of Pliny to the Evangiles des quenouilles, listed
various remedies for sexual ills, most of which had some part of
the hare as a basic ingredient.
As an offering to Aphrodite, the hare was thought to make the
eater beautiful for periods of time ranging from seven to ten days.
Pliny mentions it as a popular conception which he is afraid to
deny.9 Scholarly, or merely based on the play on words-lepos
(grace) and lepus (hare)-the notion gave a subject to Martial
for one of his epigrams:

Si quando leporem mittis mihi, Gellia, dicis:

"Formunsus septem, Marce, diebus eris."
Si non derides, si uerum, lux mea, narras,
Edisti numquam, Gellia, tu leporem.10

9Vincenzo Cartari Regiano, Le Imagini degli Dei degli Antichi (Padoa:

Tozzi, 1608), p. 458.
3Historia Animalium (Oxford: Clarendon, 1910), 585a5.
4Historiai (New York: Putnam, 1921), II, 134.
3De Natura Animalium (Paris: Didot, 1858), pp. 224-225.
6 Philostratus, p. 26.
7Histoire naturelle (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1952), VIII, 100.
8 Cesare Ripa, Iconologia (Padoa: Tozzi, 1611), p. 160.
9 (Gothae: Perthes, 1855), IV, 330.
l?hEpigrammaton (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1930), lib. V, ep. 29.

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 Claude K. Abraham 591

And it still drew serious comments as late as the seventeenth

century.'"
A problem that has often plagued scholars has been the search
for the point at which a symbol ceases to be the object depicted and
begins to be, first and foremost, an idea, a thought, or another thing
or being which the artist is unable or unwilling to portray. It is
fortunate that a grave misunderstanding is slowly, but surely, being
discarded. I am referring to the theory that an allegory is solely,
or at least primarily, the arrtere-pensee of the artist, that is to
say that the rose in the Roman de la rose is love, that the hare in
medieval literature is the female sex, that the castle of love is that
which the lover most wants to capture, and so on. In medieval
literature, the hare is always at least one thing: an animal with
long ears and four legs. This is not meant to be facetious; it is of
capital importance. The hare, regardless of what it may have
meant to the artist or the art viewer, was the animal as the zoologist
would describe it. It may have had another meaning, more or less
subtly presented, but this second meaning never removed the first.
In fact, while we can never doubt the presence of the first, we must
be very wary of the importance we give to the second. Gunn
states that, in an allegory, the important part is the underlying
sententia while the story-or the picture-is merely a vehicle.'2
This does not permit us to say that this vehicle was meant to be
disregarded.
The ideal situation, of course, occurs when the artist tells us
what he meant to say or show. Such is the case in the Roman de la
rose, in which Jean de Meun proposes to tell his reader of a
forest full of dangers, through which the lover will be led in
search of his love (verses 15135 ff.). The forest, its thickets, the
hounds, the hares, and the other inhabitants of this forest, all have
a dual meaning. The forest is a botanical phenomenon, but it is
also the forest of love through which the lover will have to find
his way with the help of the poet. In this case, we have little
difficulty, since the poet has given us more than a hint of what
he means by " forest," " dog," or " hare."
Our task, however, is not always that easy. There are cases in
which only the slightest suggestion of symbolism is manifested,

11 Regiano, p. 459.
12Alan M. F. Gunn, The Mirror of Love (Lubbock: Texas Tech Press,
1952), pp. 69ff.

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592 Myth and Symbol: The Rabbit in Medieval France

while there are others in which the highest degree of discretion is

necessary in order to avoid careless overloading of symbolism.
Various degrees of suggestion are especially manifest in the plastic
arts, and we shall turn to them later. Cases in which care is needed
lest unwarranted symbolism is introduced fall into two classifica-
tions: in the one, the hare is the animal that is hunted for its
flesh and pelt, without any other consideration or afterthought;
while in the other, the hare, as in classical antiquity, is used as an
ingredient for a remedy or is the basis of a zoological study. In
either of these cases, we can safely say that the only thing that
was meant to be understood was that which was literally spelled
out. Of these, one of the most interesting is the passage by Saint
Hildegard on the hare, in which she observes that the male and
female seem to have both sexes, but that this phenomenon is
explained by certain outer features of the animal. This observation
destroys a myth which had existed for a long time, although it
remained in vogue among less scholarly writers. It is interesting
to note that while Saint ilildegard was scholarly enough in her
purely zoological research, she was still quite naive in regard to
medicine, accepting the near-magical properties of the hare.13
Let us now look at the hare, not as the ancients did, that is,
as a healing agent or as a fruitful animal pleasing to the goddess
of love, but as a true symbol. The establishment of this symbol was
facilitated by the flexibility of the French language which permitted
a play on words which did not occur elsewhere. The Latin word
cunnus developed into the Old French word con which, with the
addition of an endearing diminutive, became conin. In the mean-
while, the Latin word cuniculus became conil or connil, then conin.
Thus an animal which had been known for its fertility and con-
nections of one kind or another with sex became the perfect symbol
of a specific part of the female anatomy, and thence of the woman
as a whole. As Tobler puts it, " conin ist 'Kaninchen,' doch ist
leicht zu erkennen, was gemeint ist, wenn von dem angeblich der
Paderastie fronenden Aneas gesagt wird II n'aime pas pel de
conin." 14 He refers to the passage in which Eneas accused of
sodomy is said to disdain the pel de conin.15

13J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina (Paris: various dates), CXCVII, 326.

14 Adolf Tobler, Vermischte Beitrage zur Pranz6sischen Grammatik
(Leipzig: Hirzel, 1902), II, 240.
1E EnZas (Paris: Champion, 1929), vv. leading up to 8595. See also

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 Claude K. Abraham 593

This subject was broached more or less delicately, depending

upon the literary genre in which it was found. In the Middle Ages,
the writer was not plagued by convention and modern censorship,
and we therefore find what we may call coarseness, but is merely
the formulation of the thought that nothing made by God is
unworthy of being mentioned. It is true that the chivalrous school
fought this tendency, and forbade the use of coarse language, but
this medieval preciosity found few advocates outside of the aristro-
cratic courts. That is why we find most of the plays on the word
conin in farces and in other forms of popular literature, although
we also find it in the Roman de la rose, which is not as " bourgeois "
as we are sometimes led to think, and in the works of Charles
d'Orl6ans, who was often more pedestrian than the much maligned
Jean de Meun. One of the most obvious references to this play on
words dates from the middle of the fifteenth century, according to
the Glossarium of Du Cange:
Le suppliant trouva une jeune fille de l'age de douze ans ou environ sur
le chemin, . . . laquelle lui demanda s'il chaqoit aux Connins, A quoy il lui
respondy que ouy aux connins privez et qu'il chageroit au sien."'

To return to the Roman de la rose, and the passage that we have

already discussed, the hare is chased by the hounds in a language
that is neither stilted nor obscene:
En ce bois ei poez oir
Les chiens glatir, s'ous m'entendez,
Au conin prendre ou vous tendez,
E le fuiret, qui, senz faillir,
Le deit faire es reiseaus saillir. (Verses 15138-15142)

The hunt, as shown previously, is a mere vehicle for the sententia,

but this is enough to keep the passage from becoming one of coarse
humor, as the Ballade LXXXV of Charles d'Orl6ans tends to be:
Mon chier cousin, de bon cueur vous mereie
Des blans connins que vous m'avez donnez;
Et oultre plus, pour vray vous certiffie,
Quant aux connins que dittes qu'ay amez,
Ilz sont pour moy, plusieurs ans a passez,
Mis en oubly; aussi mon instrument
Qui les servoit a fait son testament
Et est retrait et devenu hermite.1'

H. W. Janson, Apes and Ape Lore (London: Warburg Inst., 1952), plate
VIIc.
18 C. D. Du Cange, Glossarium (Paris: Didot, 1842), II, 540.
17P06sies (Paris: Champion, 1923), I, 136.

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 594 Myth and Symbol: The Rabbit in Medieval France

Which reminds one of the even less subtle poem by Eustache

Deschamps:

Quant on est vieulx, li maulx du sant retarde

Et faut du tout a voisine et voisin;
Si est saiges qui longuement se garde
De ce grief mal ou trop nuit le connin; 18

an obvious play on words which can only have one meaning.

This is not the case in tale twenty-five of the Cent nouvelles
nouvelles, in which the author describes a reconciliation:

Mais ce courroux, ne sa roidde poursuite, ne dura gueres, car, A ce qu'on me

dist, tantost apres par bons moyens la paix entre eulx si fut trouv6e; et fut
abandonne& au bon compaignon garenne, connin et duyere toutesfoiz et
quantes que chasser y vouldroit."9

Here we have both elements of the allegory again with the sententia,
to use the term loosely, being the most important element, as it
is in the line, "sotz qui chassent nuyt et jour aux cognins " from
the works of G-ringore.20
As mentioned above, the crudest and least ambiguous of the
uses of the word conin occurs in the farces and fabliaux, a literature
that reached the lower elements of medieval society. Here is a
sample of it, from the Farce de Folle Bobance:

LE SECOND FOL, MARCHANT

Manger fault poussins,
LE TIERS FOL, LABOUREUX
Pigeons,
Jeunes connis entre deux cuisses.2'

One has only to imagine a short pause between the second and
third words of the last line to imagine the laughter it must have
evoked. This pause is not necessary in the next passage, from the
Farce de Frere Guillebert in the same collection:

Gentilz gallans de rond bonnet,

Aymantz le sexe feminin,
Gardez se l'atelier est net,
Devant que larder le connin. (I, 306)

180euvres complttes (Paris: Didot, 1878), IV, 281.

19 (Paris: Jannet, 1858), I, 137.
20 Oeuvres compltUes (Paris: Jannet, 1858), I, 202.
21 Viollet le Due, ed., Ancien th6dtre frangais (Paris: Jannet, 1854), II,
279-280.

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 Claude K. Abraham 595

Or in this one:

Moy qui suis tant gentil, tant dispos, tant allaigre,

Et qui sgais proprement mettre l'andouille au pot
Et larder le connin, je fais icy du sot! (VIII, 247)

Or even this one from the Fabliau du prestre et de la dame:

Lors vient au borgois, si l'adente

Tot estendu encontre terre,
Et puis va la bajasse querre,
Si l'a mise sor son Seignor;
A la Dame fist tant d'onor
Que sor lui lieve la chemise,
Apr&s si la enverse mise;
Entre les cuisses si li entre
Par le pertuis li entre el ventre,
IA a mis son fuiron prive:
Molt seroit malvais au civ6
Li connins que li fuirons chace:
Molt est fox qui tel connin trace,
Mielz li venroit trover deus lievres,
Quar cil connins est si enrievres,
Qu'il ne puet faire bele chiere,
S'il n'a fuiron en sa tesniere.22

Here again, there can be only one obvious meaning.

It was inevitable that the rabbit, once established as a figure in
literature, should find its way into the plastic arts. However, the
task of the art viewer is far more complicated than that of the
reader, not only in the identification of the animal, but also in
the discovery of any hidden meaning that the artist might have
had in mind at the time of the creation. With the exception of
illuminations, and of the works of such masters as the " Maitre aux
Banderolles" who accompanied their pictures with words, most of
the pictures or carvings of the Middle Ages leave much to be
desired as to positive identification. It is true that much of the
art work followed strict rules of style, but the individuality and
exquisite delicacy of many masters, especially of the workers in
ivory, have been underestimated. When confronted with their work,
we are amazed, enraptured, but also puzzled, for, expecting strict
adherence to certain forms, we see departure from them which
leads to confusion in identification of image and purpose. This is

22 Barbazan, Fabliaux et contes (Paris: Waree, 1808), IV, 185-186.

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596 Myth and Symbol: The Rabbit in Medieval France

the case when Margaret Longhurst claims that two rabbits are
playing at the bottom of an ivory valve which she is describing.23
Koechlin, looking at the same valve, sees a hound chasing a rabbit.24
In fact, the valve represents a young couple on horse-back, the
young man holding his companion and stroking her under the
chin while a hound is about to jump on a rabbit under the horses.
One has only to compare this valve with others of the same period-
first half of the XIVth century-to see that in one respect the artist
was far from original and followed a very definite pattern: the
relationship between hound and hare. In this case, we see an
obvious parallel between the animals and the young people. In
another valve of the same period,25 this parallel is carried even
further. In that valve, the background is taken up by armed
knights storming a castle defended by ladies armed with roses
while, in the foreground, hounds chase a deer under the gaze of a
hare who is hiding in the bushes. The knights seem armed for
true battle against a dangerous foe while, in reality, the combat is
far less noble. The same is true in the foreground: the hounds
seem to pursue a deer with mighty antlers while it is the hare
that they really seek.
In these cases, there arises doubt as to the validity of the
inferences one can make, but such is not always the case. There
were illuminations or even carvings referring to specific texts, in
which case we have only to turn to the text indicated to see
whether or not a hidden meaning is to be found. Let us look, for
example, at the set of woodcuts published in Paris, along with the
Roman de la rose, by Jean Dupre' around 1493, and reproduced in
a much more recent edition (Orleans: Herluison, 1880). I would
like to direct special emphasis to plate LXVI, which refers to verses
15138-15142 (15766-15770 of the Duprle edition), in which we see
a man about to place a ferret on the ground while two hounds are
chasing two hares, one of which is entering his warren. By reading
the verses immediately preceding the passage illustrated, we can
safely say that the poet, or Amor, is about to give to the lovers, the
means by which they will acquire that which they seek.
However, while the task is easy in some cases, it is extremely

23 Catalog of Carvings in Ivory (London: Bd. of Ed., 1927), II, 46.

24 Les ivoires gothiques frangais (Paris: Picard, 1924 ), II, No. 1034; III,
planche CLXXXVIII, No. 1034.
25 Ibid., II, 1090; III, planche CLXXV, No. 1090.

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 Claude K. Abraham 597

difficult in others. The Conversation galante dans la verdure,26 a

tapestry of the first half of the fifteenth century, depicts a lady
seated, a falcon on her wrist, a dog climbing on her lap, while a
young man is standing before her, talking with broad gestures.
Many hares surround the couple, in various attitudes, one running
away with its head still turned toward the dog, a smile hinted on its
features. Care must be taken here, lest too much is read into the
picture, yet a few remarks seem in order. The dog has its front
paws on the lady's knees, and is placing its snout on her lap. The
falcon and the lady are listening while the lord and hound are on
the offensive. The falcon, it must be remembered, was not solely
a symbol of the hunt. Giovanni de' Grassi, in one of his sketches,
shows three bands, one made up of hares, one of leaves, the third of
a falcon surrounded by the word " amor." 27
There are many appearances of hares in literature as in art where
no ulterior motive can be found. In works such as the Livre de
chasse of Gaston Phoebus, the hare plays a very prominent part,
but should in no way be connected with anything but its hunt.
The rabbit as a sexual symbol has, at times, another meaning:
it may represent chastity. In order to better understand what
may seem to be a contradiction, we must go back to the Ancients
and remember the misconceptions that reigned regarding the power
of the hare to procreate without a mate. This, as commented upon
by Vincent de Beauvais in his Speculum Naturale, Book XVIII,
Chapter 44, led to the belief that the hare could give birth to
young without loss of virginity, a belief which has been backed by
modern biologists.28 The hare thus becomes a symbol of virgin
birth and becomes a common subject of medieval engravers of
religious scenes.

University of Illinois

2a Raimond van Marle, Iconographie de l'art profane au Moyen-Age et a

la Renaissance: La vie quotidienne (La Haye: n. p., 1931), p. 462, fig. 458.
27Ibid., p. 211, fig. 198.
28 Janson, p. 142.

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