Mester of Clergy and Juggler - Differences

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Start a lesson in a TEACHER aimed at discovering which are the main Differences between the Mester de Clerecía and Juglaría. Throughout the Middle Ages, both were the poetic genres that dominated the scene from the 11th century, hence its great importance to know the literature that lasted for about 400 to 500 years.

Although both have clear similarities, they also have important differences. That is why it is essential to distinguish one from the other. Thus, when you observe a medieval work, mainly poetry, You will be able to differentiate without problem if it belongs to the genre of Mester de Juglaría or Mester de Clercía. So, now without further ado, we discover the divergences between the two.

Index

1. Mester de Juglaría: definition and characteristics
2. Mester de Clerecía: brief definition
3. Differences between Mester de Clerecía and Juglaría
4. Other differences between the Mester de Clerecía and the Mester de Juglaría

The Mester de Juglaría, also known as Minstrel, is a medieval character that gained great relevance during the 12th century. His role was entertain the public reporting on popular facts of interest. These characters mainly recited songs of deed, although they also interpreted songs, juggled, dances, jokes or stories, among many other activities.

Usually the minstrel himself created the plays, using his own style and creativity to present everyday affairs in a fantastic way. For this reason, the most common themes in his creations were epic songs, love poems and heroic deeds.

The literary language used by the minstrel was characterized by irregular meter and use of assonance rhyme. The literary devices were simple, but they sought the narrative force with simplicity, loading the compositions with epic epithets and exclamations. Its sources were anonymous, oral in nature and modified as appropriate, focused on an illiterate public.

Among the most famous poems, we find the Song of Mio Cid, the Song of Fernán González, the Song of the seven Infants of Lara or the Song of Sancho II.

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For his part, the Mester de Clerecía begins to gain presence in the thirteenth century. In this case, the function was indoctrination through teachings told in stories with a known source, generally taken from monastery libraries.

The Mester's function was to educate the people in the faith through religious and moral teachings. To do this, they read stories collectively, but also individually, using a literary language full of complex resources such as metaphors, allegories or symbols.

In this case, the Alexandrian verses with consonant rhyme and characters such as the Virgin, God, the saints and even national history, who were the usual protagonists of the story.

Those in charge of transmitting the stories were known as clergymen, who used cultured and artistic style using high lexical and syntactic resources mixed with popular language to approach the people with a colloquial tone. A good example of this are works such as The lives of San Millán or The Miracles of Our Lady, from Gonzalo de Berceo.

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Known what they consist of, let's now discover the differences between Mester de Clerecía and JuglaríaThey are similar in certain aspects, but they have very obvious differences, many of which you will have already discovered in the description of each genre.

The author

While in the Mester de Juglaría the author is anonymous, in the Mester de Clerecía he is not only known, but the poet is a vital part of the story. Without a doubt, the best known of the latter is Gonzalo de Berceo, as we have seen. on the contrary, among the minstrels one could know the name of the copyist, as happens with Pere Abad in the Song of Mio Cid, but not the author.

The broadcast

While the Mester de Juglaría is of oral tradition, that is, it is not written, it is only memorized and recited, in the Mester de Clergy, written copies are made, generally of poor quality, which are read by the author or transmitter of the story.

However, copies of minstrels are known to help the minstrel memorize the story. This became general from the fourteenth century. Meanwhile, among the clergymen of the clergy the book was written with the intention of public reading for the people or for the entertainment of the monks.

The metric

One of the big differences between the two. The Mester de Juglaría focuses on unlimited series of verses grouped in stanzas that vary between 14 and 18 syllables, although 16 are the most common, and with verses divided into two hemistichs or parts with a pattern or caesura central. They use assonance rhyme and monorrhyme.

The Mester de Clerecía uses verses in Alexandrian or cuaderna via, with stanzas of four lines of fourteen syllables as monorrimos and consonant rhyme, generally. The caesura was used between the seventh and eighth syllable.

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Finally, we find other important differences that should be highlighted:

• Language: While the minstrel uses simple language without great use of resources, the clergyman prints cultured language, more careful and select.
• Theme: The theme of the minstrel narrates the exploits of famous exemplary heroes among the people, with a touch epic, but always realistic, something that differentiated Spain from the rest of Europe, where the fantasy. But the clergyman adapts religious themes, mixed with old books and epic adventures, lives of saints or miracles.
• objective: The purpose of the minstrel is to entertain the people through the hero's deeds. On his part, the clergyman seeks a didactic function, touching on more erudite subjects to train the most ignorant people.
• Chronology: The chronology also varies. While the minstrel became popular from the eleventh century and mainly in the twelfth, surviving until the century XV, the clergyman did it in the XIII century, achieving greater thematic and compositional freedom throughout the century. XIV.

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