complaint

complaint
   A complaint is a genre of lyric poem in which a speaker bemoans his own lot or the general condition of society. The late Middle Ages saw four different varieties of complaint: In one type the speaker lamented the depravity of the world or of his current political situation, as ALANUS DE INSULIS does in his De planctu naturae (The complaint of nature). A second type of complaint involves cautionary tales about the fickleness of Fortune, involving the downfall of eminent persons, as BOCCACCIO writes in his De casibus virorum illustrium (The fall of illustrious men.) Third, some complaints deal with the cruel tricks that Fortune may have played on the speaker himself, such as penury or exile. The bestknown poem in this category is certainly CHAUCER’s COMPLAINT TO HIS EMPTY PURSE, in which the poet parodies the conventions of the amatory complaint by applying them to his empty purse.
   The amatory complaint was the most common type. In this kind of lyric, the speaker decries his cruel treatment at the hands of his beloved: She may be unfaithful to him, or unreasonable with him, or most typically will not “pity” him or accept his love. In the amatory complaint, the speaker most often describes his sorry state, explains the causes of it, and appeals to the lady to remedy the situation. Such poems were especially popular in late medieval France. MACHAUT had written complaints in the mid-14th century, often using them within narrative poems or dits, in order to heighten the emotional impact of the scene. Poets after Machaut, such as CHRISTINE DE PIZAN and later François VILLON, wrote numerous complaints. Chaucer was the first to use the French term complainte in English, and wrote a number of complaints himself.
   Taking his cue from Machaut, Chaucer sometimes created narrative frames for lyric complaints as a way of contextualizing them, as he does in The Complaint ofMars and in ANELIDA AND ARCITE (the latter from a woman’s point of view). But Chaucer also wrote conventional complaints such as The Complaint unto Pity and (again with a woman speaker) The Complaint of Venus. Unlike the so-called fixed forms of the ballade, rondeau, and virelai, the complaint was characterized by its subject matter rather than its form. Thus it was a much more flexible type of lyric that might be written in a rather loose form (as Chaucer does in his Complaint to his Lady) or might even be written in one of the fixed forms (as Chaucer does in The Complaint to His Purse, which takes the form of a ballade). The complaint remained a popular lyric genre well into the Renaissance.
   Bibliography
   ■ Davenport, W. A. Chaucer: Complaint and Narrative. Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K.: Brewer, 1988.

Encyclopedia of medieval literature. 2013.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • complaint — com·plaint n 1: the initial pleading that starts a lawsuit and that sets forth the allegations made by the plaintiff against the defendant and the plaintiff s demand for relief see also prayer, process, well pleaded complaint rule compare …   Law dictionary

  • complaint — com‧plaint [kəmˈpleɪnt] noun 1. [countable, uncountable] a written or spoken statement by someone complaining about something: • Our sales assistants are trained to deal with customer complaints in a friendly manner. • a letter of complaint… …   Financial and business terms

  • Complaint — Com*plaint (k[o^]m*pl[=a]nt ), n. [F. complainte. See {Complain}.] 1. Expression of grief, regret, pain, censure, or resentment; lamentation; murmuring; accusation; fault finding. [1913 Webster] I poured out my complaint before him. Ps. cxlii. 2 …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • complaint — late 14c., lamentation, grief, from O.Fr. complainte (12c.) complaint, lament, noun use of fem. pp. of complaindre (see COMPLAIN (Cf. complain)). Meaning bodily ailment is from 1705 (often in U.S. colloquial use generalized as complaints) …   Etymology dictionary

  • complaint — [n1] statement of disagreement, discontent accusation, annoyance, beef*, cavil, CC*, charge, clamor, criticism, dissatisfaction, expostulation, fault finding, grievance, gripe, grouse, grumble, guff*, jeremiad, kick, lament, moan, objection,… …   New thesaurus

  • Complaint — expression of dissatisfaction by any person or organization to a conformity assessment body or accreditation body, relating to the activities of that body, where a response is expected (p. 6.5 ISO 17000/IEC:2004, p. 3.9 ISO/IEC 17011:2004).… …   Словарь-справочник терминов нормативно-технической документации

  • complaint — ► NOUN 1) an act of complaining. 2) a reason for dissatisfaction. 3) the expression of dissatisfaction: a letter of complaint. 4) an illness or medical condition, especially a relatively minor one …   English terms dictionary

  • complaint — the initiatory document in a lawsuit that notifies the court and the defendant of the grounds claimed by the Plaintiff for an award of money or other relief against the defendant (Glossary of Common Bankruptcy Terms) The first or initiatory… …   Glossary of Bankruptcy

  • complaint — ailment, *disease, disorder, condition, affection, malady, distemper, syndrome …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • complaint — [kəm plānt′] n. [ME complainte < OFr < complaindre] 1. the act of complaining; utterance of pain, displeasure, annoyance, etc. 2. a subject or cause for complaining; grievance 3. an illness; ailment 4. Law a pleading setting forth the… …   English World dictionary

  • complaint — noun 1 act of complaining ADJECTIVE ▪ serious ▪ common, familiar, frequent ▪ minor, small ▪ only …   Collocations dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”