ABSTRACT

In the late fourteenth-century romance, Le Bone Florence of Rome, the titular heroine finds herself at the center of a crisis. Her reputation has been the subject of so many lies and so much deceit that it is hard to imagine she will ever be vindicated, or indeed, that anyone’s words about anything could be trusted again. To remediate this hopeless situation, Florence takes an unusual step, forcing her many assailants to publicly confess their sins. What is more, she presides over this unusual confession as their confessor. This essay considers Le Bone Florence in light of the literary tradition of false confessors and untrustworthy penitents, examining how concealment operates within the sacrament more broadly. I argue that, within this text, the space of confession is one in which the truth can be heard and believed. Nevertheless, the resolution it offers proves all too precarious, because for a woman in Florence’s position, crisis is only ever one well-told lie away.

摘要

在 14 世纪晚期的浪漫故事《罗马的勒骨佛罗伦萨》中，名义上的女主角发现自己处于危机的中心。她的名声受到了如此多的谎言和欺骗，很难想象她会被证明是正确的，或者事实上，任何人关于任何事情的言论都可以再次被信任。为了补救这种绝望的局面，弗洛伦斯采取了不同寻常的步骤，迫使她的许多袭击者公开承认他们的罪行。更何况，她作为他们的忏悔神父主持了这次不寻常的忏悔。这篇文章考虑了 Le Bone Florence鉴于虚假忏悔者和不值得信赖的忏悔者的文学传统，更广泛地研究隐藏如何在圣礼中运作。我认为，在本文中，忏悔空间是可以听到和相信真理的空间。然而，事实证明，它提供的解决方案太不稳定了，因为对于一个像佛罗伦萨这样的女人来说，危机只是一个很好的谎言。